Another... Halcon - 1/100

[jackofalltrades]

Hi all,
I got this Aliexpress 'Halcon' 1/100 kit for christmas, so I did not choose it but it chose me.
It is my first wooden model kit after something like 25 years or so. Since I quite like Clippers, both the hull and rigging, I thought, I might as well give it a go.
Also it is my smallest wooden ship model so far.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day one

Building a keel jig and starting to assemble the frames and attaching the deck plate.
So far so good.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day two

Attaching the lower railing frame parts.
Attaching the railing planking. I soaked the parts and heat bent them over an soldering iron shaft.
Planking the stern overhang and building four support frames for the overhang section (not included in kit), two on the sides and two center ones.
Painting the railing inside in a off white (Acrylic paint) and the deck (nitrocellulose lacquer with some leather oil dye)

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day three and four

Separating the rudder and stern. Attaching stern to keel part.
Filling bow sections for easier attachment of the planks (not included in kit)
Planking star-board side (a bit chaotic. Did not mind so much since I intend to paint the hull). Planks were watered, heatbent and tapered.
The portside planking went a lot better - after- checking some literature for how the plank directions should go.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day five

watering the planks really helped to be able to bend them without breaking. The downside was that they had expanded and after drying there were gaps everywhere.
So, filling time. I used a wood based filler for wooden floors that turned out to be really hard and a bitch to sand by hand.
Since the stern part of the planking formed a crinkle ( I saw this in many Halcon builds) I also filled this up a little to give the hull a nicer stream line.
Added a rail just below the gun-ports.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day six​

After more research about possible paint schemes, I used the Schooner Lynx as pattern.
I used mat Vallejo Model Paint (Acrylic) and fine masking tape.

The Halcon kit starts to look like it could actually become something nice.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day seven​

Finished the railing (same nitrocellulose lacquer as deck) and built the transom. This was pretty much the biggest let-down in the build instruction one pager that came with the kit so far.
Again I took a look at some reference material. Also I had found this old looking Halcon plan in someone elses build blog. Both helped a lot in constructing something plausible. So the transom plate got a frame of really thin wooden strips as well as the lower edge of the curved overhang. I messed up a few times - the transom itsef, the curved frames, the stern cover section of the railing was redone. While painting it and trying to blend it in with the reailing covers on the sides I meesed one up. So I detached it, paint stripped it and painted it again.
Finally I made some tiny fake hinges (as in not working) out of brass sheet, chemically blackend and attached the rudder.
Next will be the deck details.

By now I have developped quite an ambition and fell a bit in love with this cheap a** kit.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day eight and nine​

Before I could carry on with the deck equipment I had to drill the hole for the bowsprit.
That was when I noticed that I had to fix a mistake I had made first: my railing was too low not allowing enough space below the reiling cover and the top of the stem. This was caused be the fact that I had placed the upper edge of the reiling side planking to end at the hight of the frames uper edge. This was not clear from the one pager instruction. For me it seemed logical that both ended at the same hight. I felt a bit stupid at that point because the images showed the stem in relative position to the top of the railing. Well...
Now I had the choice to raise the railing or lower the stem. I opted for the later for obvious reasons.

Stem shape and position before modification



The new (green) and old (magenta) stem positions. This was achieved by adding wood at the bottom and removing wood on top. Of course I snapped the remaining very thing section while doing so.



New stem position and shape and fixed paint.



Test fitted bowsprit



I then went on to work on the gun barrels and chemically blacken them. This seemed like a quick job and I needed a quick win after the stem desater.



Finally I started working on the deck equipment. After glueing the various bits together, they were coloured by dipping them into paint/ dye.
The parts are not glued into position yet.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day ten​

Working on more equipment.
Built the anchors, which was accompanied by occasional swearing due to the bad quality of the ply wood. The layers do not stick together so well so when working on thin sections, chips of the outer layer tended to come off. Also the the 'iron' and 'wooden' main part were a one piece cut in one plane which obviously does not make much sense. The cross bar parts had to be trimmed off in order to assemble the hole thing correctly. Again no hint in the plan about this.



The final result



Next item was the bilge pump. You can see the kit pump on the plan in the background. Erm, no thanks. So a quick search brought me to a pump type used around that time. Here I reached the limit of my machining possibilities. I had no drill bit small enough for hinging the parts. So they are only glued.



Finished pump



More deck equipment - not painted yet



Then I moved on to build the first gun carriage.
I am quite sure that the barrels included in the kit are too large/ off scale.
Would you agree?



Here you can see the brass barrels from the kit and the laser cut 'barrels' that came with it also.
Another quick online search revealed that likely this kind of vessel at that time (1840) would have carried 12 pond long guns.
From the images I saw the wood cut much more resembles the shape of that type of gun.
Would you still go with the metal barrels? Or would that mess up the look?



I am honestly considering CAD modelling and 3D printing new barrels and also possibly to replace the gun carriages.
I already have a CAD model of a carriage from around 1800 from an earlier project (see my profile pic).
So I am inclined to reuse that, scale it down and print thinner long gun barrels for it.
Is this worth the effort for this cheap Aliexpress kit? What are your thoughts?

And finally, I need some ideas/ input for colouring some of the deck equipment and gun carriages.
With the outer hull I went for the checkered Navy look. I am not sure if I should follow that scheme for the rest of the equipment as well (red), or not.
That would mean, to also repaint the inside of the railing in red.
And if I opt for not following that scheme and use brown and black tones for the equipment, would the hull paining still make sense?
Any comment welcome, and yes, these are things I should have propably thought about earlier, but here we are now.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day eleven​

Said and done...
Yesterday was modelling and test printing time. I printed the parts on my rather new Bambulab A1 printer with a 0.2mm nozzle.
This is the modified and scaled carriage.


...and the newly modelled barrel (in the free browser CAD Tool 'Onshape' if anyone is interested)


The printed parts before cleaning up. The barrels were printed vertical and muzzle down with a tree support.
This gave a much nicer 'turned' finish compared to being printed lying down.
I also have CAD models for the barrel hingle locks, but I am not sure how they will turn out at 3mm length.
I might go with super thin copper sheet strips instead.


One carriage painted for testing


Put on the deck for a visual test. The proportions look way better then the model kit guns I think.
The barrels will be painted in a gunmetal grey or black.
Still not sure about the other deck equipment, if I should also go with red, also for the carriages.

​

I am happy to share the 3D models of the gun (stl). Drop me a message if you are interested.​

​

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day twelve: descision made and more detailing​

I made up my mind about the coloring. My Halcon build is goint to be a Navy vessel.

As a consequence I painted the grating frames and the compass housing red, added a red footrail at the base of the railing.

Also, not being happy with the degree of detailing of the provided equipment from the kit, I modelled (Onshape) and 3D printed the capstan.
Again, I am happy to share the model.



All red deck equipment now



I also added some details to the compass binnacle - following the detaild Halcon plan that I found in another therad here.



Foredeck details.



I also recieved an order with some tiny blocks and deadeyes as well as some finer rigging twine. Another order is on its way with some brass balls, 1 and 1.5mm. These were the smallest sizes I could get. According to my research, 12# cannon balls were slightly above 100mm in Diameter (105, 107mm e.g.) which would make 1mm balls perfect for 1:100 scale.






Next step is to finish the guns (painting, assembling), then model, print and finish the larger front facing gun (likely 18#?).
Then the pinrails will follow as well as the shroud boards (did not find the english word) at the sides of the hull.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day thirteen​

Making more parts that are not included in the kit.



Finished and assembled the catheads (remade thicker and different shape compared to the kit ones), made the shroud boards (?), also not part of the kit





Then went on to work on the guns.
I made some tiny locks for the gun barrel trannions. First I attempted to cut thin sheet brass strips on my Proxxon table saw. The edges always came out rough and would have required a lot of work to finish. Instead I hammerd copper wire flat which turned out to work really well.
The length of those parts is 3mm. Probably the smallest items I made so far.



Using a simple jig and a pair of flat nose pliers I presses the copper into shape before clipping the part off the strip.



I made some extras... just in case... these small things seem to have their own life.



I blackend them with Ballistol Copper-Alloy dye



I also made some rings for the rigging on the larger 18# gun (below), on the 12# guns I will try U shaped cramps.
This kind of detail is bringing my to the limits of my dexterity, I must admit.



The 18# in the back and the 12# (finished except the attachement hoops)



Started the belaying pin boards.
The kit ones are too thick, not wide enough and have too many holes that are also too close to each other.
Belaying pins will be tricky. I found 5mm brass pins for purchase. Would rather go with wooden ones. I might end up making them as well.
Sometimes I get the feeling this is getting out of hand. Especially considering that this is a 10€ kit.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day fourteen

Small progress only this time.

So far I did not resolve my belaying pin sourcing problem. I attempted a print (FDM printer) that failed miserably at a 4mm and .2mm thick piece.

I redid some of the pump parts after buying some thinner drill bits


Before I started the chain plates I took the shroud boards off again, made them thinner, painted and reattached them again.

I made the chain plates out of .75mm copper wire. The holes were drilled with the tip of an exactor knife


I made some studs my putting a drop of solder on the wire end, clipping it off at the thickest point and filing it flat. (Foto shows unfinished piece)



The larger port side deadeys done.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day fifteen (the number of day does not correspond to actual workdays anymore)

After a lot of distractions lately that kept me from progressing, and I also spent far too much time with the belaying pins, here is an update from my Halcon build.

Finishing the port and starboard chainplates



All chainplates assembled





Making the belay pins.
In the end I opted for using ordinary pins (softened by heating) with a drof of 2K Epoxy.
It worked rather well and good enough for my liking.


Painted pins before pinching off and filing at the bottom



Finished belaying pin boards.
Unfortunately the acrylic paint added a lot more thickness then I expected.



Using a simple jig to drill holes for fixing pins at contsant heights



Attached pins for the boards to rest on.



All pin boards in place



Replacing more kit parts (wrong proportions and thicknesses)



Discovered this detail rather late on the plan. After a bit of contemplation it was clear that it is a chimney (galley? forge?)



Finished chimney



Chimney and new mast pin boards in place (not glued yet)
Also made the openings for the anchor chain/ rope in the bow bulwark which I totally forgot about.



Current state

What is missing from the deck equipment?
Pins for the mast boards are made but need to be put in boards.
Levers for the capstan need to be made and stored away on the port bulwark.
Cannon rigging and rudder tiller missing. Pump and anchors are made but not assembled.
Brass cannon balls (1 and 1,5mm) are blackend and need to be glued in place.
That is about as detailed as the plan goes, except for one mysterious piece, that I will post seperately.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Day sixteen

Today with only little time I dug out my ropery to experiment with different diameter ropes.
The result are 1,2 and 0,8mm ropes. The thicker one seems to be right for the anchor.

 

[AllanKP69]

Today with only little time I dug out my ropery to experiment with different diameter ropes.

Just goes to show, fancy and expensive is not necessary for some things. Your rope quality from a relatively simple set up looks great!
Allan

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

I don't believe that large cannon in the center of the deck should be there at all. If anything, a mortar (bombard) on a rotating mount would be there. I simply left that cannon off on my model. I love your innovative detailing with scratch built parts.

 

[AllanKP69]

I don't believe that large cannon in the center of the deck should be there at all.

Hi Kurt. What you wrote makes sense. I am wondering if this was a Baltimore Clipper. There were five British ships name Halcyon, but none named Halcon so it is not a real British mortar or bomb vessel. If this is a representation of a Baltimore Clipper, didn't some of them have a swivel ring and long gun somewhere on the centerline of the deck?
Interesting stuff.
Allan

 

[jackofalltrades]

Just goes to show, fancy and expensive is not necessary for some things. Your rope quality from a relatively simple set up looks great!
Allan

Thanks, Allan!

 

[jackofalltrades]

@AllanKP69 @DARIVS ARCHITECTVS
Thank you for starting this interesting discussion!

A thought on the origin of this vessel. Searching online for the name only returns models. My build is the 1:100 cheap chinese kit. There seems to have been a 1:60 kit which some of the detailed plans originate.
I think the Halcon is supposed to be a generic American Navy Baltimore Clipper (Eagle on the transom) but not representing an actual vessel.



Also, I am almost 100% sure that the chinese kit is based on the older plans, since it matches almost exactly.

About the mysterious center gun.
I had also wondered about it. In the original (1:60) plans, some ropes are shown, to move the cannon, but there is nothing to hold the recoil. It would not have been able to be be fired like this.



Might be just missing details, but the side cannons have all details displayed.
I have also seen similar vessels with a center swivel gun/mortar.

I am now very inclined to scrap that center long gun as it is and either

• exchange it for a proper swivel gun/ mortar similar to this:
  
  
  or
  
  
• equipping the Halcon with 4 more of the smaller side cannons.

Convince me of one or the other!

Have great sunday!