Duchess of Kingston - Beauty of the Seas - Wooden Sailing Ship 1/64

[DocRob]

15 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Beautiful work Rob, truly humbling experience. I recently bumped into this interesting thread. 

Thank you Martin, this article is interesting and frightening at the same time. I will study it more closely later. There are so many aspects in rigging, like timeframe, nationality, ..., to consider. I'm new to the subject, the DoK is 1/64 scale and these four pounders are tiny, so I took the liberty to make things a bit easier for me with a faux rigging .

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Speaking of full broadsides, it's mighty 12 pounds per side, I finished rigging the guns with simplified version. All guns got their breeching ropes.

Then the gun carriages where glued to the deck. As I already prepared the on deck eyebolts for more rigging, I decided for the sake of a busy looking deck, to add some more yarn. I made some tackle ropes from black thread and glued the knots with CA. I decided against a more realistic approach with using blocks, as I don't know if I have enough spares. I like the result, the deck starts to look busy and I'm only beginning to add equipment. I'm very grateful, that I started with the guns. The rigging proved to be fiddly and I needed as much space as possible.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Looking so good. The ladder treads do look so much more in scale after you went to work on them.

Rigging for canons - I'm uneasy about the rigging being up in the air - shouldn't it lay flat on the deck or am I missing something? 

Keep 'em comin

Peter

 

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Looking so good. The ladder treads do look so much more in scale after you went to work on them.

Rigging for canons - I'm uneasy about the rigging being up in the air - shouldn't it lay flat on the deck or am I missing something? 

Thanks Peter, the ladder looks definitely better than before. I considered doing this for the main ladder as well, but you cannot see it, descending into the hull. 
I'm no expert for cannon rigging, but reading the thread above, Martin provided and other sources, these ropes should be taut. The cannons must always be fixed on a rolling ship, Fire is the worst enemy of a wooden ship, but the second worst is a loose cannon running free on the deck, so I think taut is correct.

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

Well Rob, what can I say.  Those cannon look quite awesome.  But there are a lot of tripping hazards there,  I'm thinking she won't pass and OSHA inspection.

Keep it rollin'!

[HubertB]

The link Martin provided explains it all in detail.

To simplify it in layman’s terms you have three types of ropes on each gun carriage, two which are taut when the gun is stowed, and one loose, the breech rope, which retains the cannon recoiling from being fired, hence its large diameter.

The taut line at the rear of the carriage, which you have shown, is to haul the gun back to load it with powder and  cannonball.

Then you have two side lines, taut as well, to haul back the carriage against the gunwale. The tension is balanced with the rear line, thus holding the cannon in place when the ship is rolling.

In short, you can simplify the appearance, but cannot make the economy of the side rigging hauling the carriage towards the gunwale

Hubert

[Peterpools]

1 hour ago, DocRob said:

Thanks Peter, the ladder looks definitely better than before. I considered doing this for the main ladder as well, but you cannot see it, descending into the hull. 
I'm no expert for cannon rigging, but reading the thread above, Martin provided and other sources, these ropes should be taut. The cannons must always be fixed on a rolling ship, Fire is the worst enemy of a wooden ship, but the second worst is a loose cannon running free on the deck, so I think taut is correct.

Cheers Rob

Thanks Rob

I should have read Martin's link and waited for the latest set of photographs, which have the finished rope positions. They look perfect and natural.  .

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[Peterpools]

37 minutes ago, HubertB said:

The link Martin provided explains it all in detail.

To simplify it in layman’s terms you have three types of ropes on each gun carriage, two which are taut when the gun is stowed, and one loose, the breech rope, which retains the cannon recoiling from being fired, hence its large diameter.

The taut line at the rear of the carriage, which you have shown, is to haul the gun back to load it with powder and  cannonball.

Then you have two side lines, taut as well, to haul back the carriage against the gunwale. The tension is balanced with the rear line, thus holding the cannon in place when the ship is rolling.

In short, you can simplify the appearance, but cannot make the economy of the side rigging hauling the carriage towards the gunwale

Hubert

Thanks Hubert for the explanation - much appreciated.

I jumped the gun and was looking at the photographs when the canon rigging was not complete. In Robs latest photographs, everything falls into place and looks so natural.gun

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[DocRob]

16 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Well Rob, what can I say.  Those cannon look quite awesome.  But there are a lot of tripping hazards there,  I'm thinking she won't pass and OSHA inspection.

Whatever OSHA is, the deck of a sailing boat is no dancehall . I wonder which curses the seamen had in mind for their decadent passengers.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

16 hours ago, HubertB said:

The link Martin provided explains it all in detail.

To simplify it in layman’s terms you have three types of ropes on each gun carriage, two which are taut when the gun is stowed, and one loose, the breech rope, which retains the cannon recoiling from being fired, hence its large diameter.

The taut line at the rear of the carriage, which you have shown, is to haul the gun back to load it with powder and  cannonball.

Then you have two side lines, taut as well, to haul back the carriage against the gunwale. The tension is balanced with the rear line, thus holding the cannon in place when the ship is rolling.

In short, you can simplify the appearance, but cannot make the economy of the side rigging hauling the carriage towards the gunwale

That sums it up pretty good Hubert. I think, there was a big relief with the introduction of breech loading. The process of fixing, loading, hauling in firing position, aiming, waiting for a good roll of the ship, firing, cleaning, ..., must be laborious and dangerous as well, only added by noise and fume. Not nice, having a leg entangled when a 32 pounder is firing.
I left the ropes for pulling the gun to the gun port out, by the way of simplification. In 64 scale, I think this is ok, not even knowing if these cannons ever were fired on the real one.

Cheers Rob 

[GazzaS]

5 hours ago, DocRob said:

Whatever OSHA is, the deck of a sailing boat is no dancehall . I wonder which curses the seamen had in mind for their decadent passengers.

Cheers Rob

OSHA: 

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

 

[DocRob]

Another milestone is accomplished, the deck assemblies were installed completely over the last days. The guns were added, like seen above, now with their cannon ball triangles added and all the belaying pins went into the holes of their banks. I decided against gluing in every single pin, but used some wood varnish instead, brushed on.

On to the pics:

And some detail shots:

Cheers Rob

 

[HubertB]

Lovely work, Rob 

Hubert

[GusMac]

Looks great Rob.

I'd have been too tempted to paint the cannon balls in one triangle all red or with spots and stripes!

[GazzaS]

All of the work looks magnificent, Rob!  Will you put some crew and passengers on?  Filled sails, slack, or furled?  It's good to see the deck in this state...  before all of that other stuff occludes it.

[DocRob]

12 hours ago, HubertB said:

Lovely work, Rob 

 

12 hours ago, GusMac said:

Looks great Rob.

I'd have been too tempted to paint the cannon balls in one triangle all red or with spots and stripes!

Thank you Hubert and Gus, I also had the urge to play a game of snooker, while adding the cannon balls. Not possible on my island though, there are only some lousy pool tables.
I thought a lot about how to apply the cannon ball filled triangles and decided to use double sided adhesive tape.

35 minutes ago, GazzaS said:

All of the work looks magnificent, Rob!  Will you put some crew and passengers on?  Filled sails, slack, or furled?  It's good to see the deck in this state...  before all of that other stuff occludes it.

Thank you Gary, I thought about some crew members, but haven't found fitting ones. The DoK will be fully masted and rigged, but without sails. There are no sails provided in the kit and I have to admit, mostly cloth sails do not look good and scale wise realistic to my eye.

Cheers Rob 

[Peterpools]

Rob

Brilliant, simply awesome work. All the time spent on the details and canons, have easily paid huge dividends.

Every update is a gem.

Keep 'em comin

Peter 

[Bomber_County]

Stunning Rob…….congrats 

[DocRob]

19 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Brilliant, simply awesome work. All the time spent on the details and canons, have easily paid huge dividends.

Every update is a gem

Thank you Peter, I made some little improvements to the kit. like the rigging and other stuff, but what you get is a brilliant kit like it is. The deck details were time consuming, but fun mostly. You can start to imagine walking on the decks of the Duchess of Kingston.

46 minutes ago, Bomber_County said:

Stunning Rob…….congrats

Thank you Phil, it's great to have you on board on this fun yachting experience.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

When the manual shows some totals from different angles and claims 'your ship now should look like this', you know you've achieved something. I have to admit, I'm a bit proud of what I built over the last three month. The kit design and good materials help a lot to lead a relative beginner through the build, as does the fantastic manual and the detailed plans.

I added the railings for the aft deck, the ladders between the decks and bulwark pollards. With the exception of the ladders, all were airbrushed matte black before assembly. The side railings were difficult to slot in, as the contour of the railing is curved and the material of the pillars is very thin and brittle. I broke two or three while cleaning up the sandwiched railing parts. Somehow I got them slotted and glued with CA, three pillars at a time and broke only one. After dabbing the sweat from my eyebrows, I made more or less the same pics like in the manual.

Now it's time for rigging  and giving the masts and yards the correct contours, but maybe I'm distracting myself from this and build a small boat to mount on the main deck. This is not part of the kit, but Chris from Vanguard sells these boats which are build planks on spar-frames, as separate kits. I chose the 18ft cutter for DoK.

Cheers Rob

 

[Peterpools]

Rob

What a modeling achievement; she is quickly becoming a show stopper and all the hard work, effort and sweat have paid off handsomely. 
The small 18ft cutter certainly will add even more eye catching details to the deck (which is brilliantly detailed already) and will quickly catch the views eye, as in a well composed photograph.

Looking forward to the start of the cutter.

Keep ‘em comin

Peter

[DocRob]

51 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

What a modeling achievement; she is quickly becoming a show stopper and all the hard work, effort and sweat have paid off handsomely. 
The small 18ft cutter certainly will add even more eye catching details to the deck (which is brilliantly detailed already) and will quickly catch the views eye, as in a well composed photograph.

Looking forward to the start of the cutter.

Than you Peter, I really feel relieved, that I made it to this point of the build, without running into serious trouble. The rigging frightens me a bit, but having mastered the build until here, gives me some well needed confidence.

Yesterday I cut the spars from their panels and added the keel of the cutter. The small jig is part of the kit and should help to plank the boat with tiny planks. Let's see, how this will work out.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Seeing how quickly you have gotten your sealegs with wood ship modeling, I have no doubts the rigging will be perfect.

Looking forward to following the 18ft cutter build. I’m guessing the planks are going to be a lot smaller then those used on the DoK.

Keep ‘em comin

Peter

[DocRob]

On 5/25/2022 at 3:25 PM, Peterpools said:

Seeing how quickly you have gotten your sealegs with wood ship modeling, I have no doubts the rigging will be perfect.

Looking forward to following the 18ft cutter build. I’m guessing the planks are going to be a lot smaller then those used on the DoK.

Thank you Peter, even the steadies sealegs get shaky sometimes, but all seems manageable. The planks are made of 0,6 mm pearwood, laser cut and maybe 3 mm wide.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Nice start on the Cutter ... surely is going to be a wonderful addition to the DoK

Keep 'em comin

Peter