Welcome to a fantastic ( Broad based group )Hello readers, welcome to my thread.
I started this, my second wooden boat kit on June 20 2022 and logged my progress on another model forum. Unfortunately that excellent forum is predominantly focussed on plastic kits of aircraft with only a small maritime contingent and an even smaller group of builders in wood. Consequently, I was getting much encouragement but not a lot of informed comments and little advice. I have decided to jump ship and complete the log here and in order to make it a coherent read, I'll summarise my progress so far in a short series of posts over the next few days.
As a teenager, I was given a book called The Voyage of the Beagle by her most famous passenger, Charles Darwin. It was a book in a series called Books which have changed man's thinking. During his five year cruise, starting on 27 December 1831, Darwin discovered the mechanism by which evolution operates, which he called natural selection. Evolution had been known about for generations, Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin had written about it decades before, and people had been evolving new strains of working animals for thousands of years, but no-one understood how species evolved in nature. Young Darwin was a scientist, a naturalist and something of a genius and found this missing link in man's knowledge.
I've recently bought another copy of that book and of about a dozen more on Darwin, the ship and the trip. Surprisingly little is known for certain about the Beagle herself and there will be a lot of guesswork required in making the model. Accuracy is low on my list of priorities. My primary concern is to learn how to build and rig a (partially) square rigged vessel. I regard this project as a training exercise and hope to make as many mistakes as possible here, so that I won't make them again on subsequent kits
Beagle by OcCre 1/60 ~ Bertie's Second Build
- Thread starter Willy from Wigan
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Good morning Bertie. Wow that copper plating looks awesome. Cheers Grant
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Thanks Bill I'm not sure about realistic because, who knows? But it's interesting and that's the main thing.
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I'm broad based from too much sitting at the bench eating biscuits
Hi Grant, I thought you had copyright on 'awesome' but I'm happy to accept the award.
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There's a curious little coda to this story of eggs and chemistry.
I ate the eggs for breakfast. That's four large boiled eggs whipped into some mayonnaise and eaten with a spoon. I'm a single guy so I don't have anyone to complain about the odours I emit, apart from the dog, and I think that she enjoys them as much as I do.
Anyway ... nothing! Not only were there no noxious aromas but there was virtually no gas at all for the rest of the day. I'm no chemist but I believe that the sulphurous stinks from those eggs had all been absorbed by the Beagle's bottom that's why they weren't emerging from mine.
I ate the eggs for breakfast. That's four large boiled eggs whipped into some mayonnaise and eaten with a spoon. I'm a single guy so I don't have anyone to complain about the odours I emit, apart from the dog, and I think that she enjoys them as much as I do.
Anyway ... nothing! Not only were there no noxious aromas but there was virtually no gas at all for the rest of the day. I'm no chemist but I believe that the sulphurous stinks from those eggs had all been absorbed by the Beagle's bottom that's why they weren't emerging from mine.
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Do you really want photographs this big? They show up every error!
I drilled out the hawse holes. They slope up and are tapered to lead the hawser gently around the curve. The lip below the holes is called a bolster and has the same purpose as well as keeping the hawser off the ship's side when it's 'up and down'.
I started to fit the ships rails. It's all a bit improvised here. I've discarded OcCre's plywood hammocks and not bothered with the 'gangway' (?) cut-outs either. There's going to be a lot missing from this boat. I think I'll rename her HMS Bagel (Hole in the middle? Geddit?). The photo shows my custom 'gravity clamps' in action.
I had to make my own curved rail to go atop the transom.
I had ambitiously cut the top of the transom horizontal, which I think looks sweeter then the OcCre version, perpendicular to the face of the transom. That's just silly, there would be nowhere for Captain Fitz Roy's cup of coffee in the mornings.
Fun historical fact: Fitz was a bit of a martinet and often woke up with the moodies. He was best avoided on those days and the crew had a secret code to warn each other that he would be looking for trouble. "Lot's of hot coffee today" meant keep your heads down lads!
It's precariously clamped with those sandpaper pads. I daren't go near it until the morning.
The forecastle railing was easy enough to fit as were the catheads. If you are doing this kit, drill out the holes on the pinrail (?) or your belaying pins won't fit.
I fitted the pieces of scrap from the bulwarks back into the gun portholes I don't think it was called for but they look better than the deep, uneven holes that I'd left for myself. I decided early to leave the guns stowed fore and aft and the ports shut. This was because Fitz Roy was very reluctant to fire them, despite insisting on carrying a more than full complement of weapons. He was afraid that the recoil of shotted guns would damage the delicate chronometers he needed for his surveying. Firing blanks for salutes was all he was comfortable with.
147:45
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Thank you.
There was nearly blood yesterday. I thought the smooth plastic rear portion of the sanding disc in my proxon was touching my fingernail. It often does when I'm working on a small piece, I use the 'harmless' contact as a guide. I was mistaken. The smell of burning keratin alerted me an instant before the abrasive side cut through into the nail bed. Sixty years of modeling and I can still find new ways to damage myself.
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She's starting to look barkshape.
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It's often a surprise to me how much difference a coat of paint makes. I've turned the white 'cheat line' to ivory for a more period look and to allow me to use a colder white for highlighting later.
I painted the inner bulwarks in colours that I think Capt Fitz Roy might have chosen for his personal fiefdom.77
And I painted a lot of the woodwork black as pitch. I've avoided using pure black on a model for decades as I believe black is too black when viewed from the scale 120 feet away (2 feet viewing distance from my head to the model). However, I've abandoned the search for the chimera 'accuracy' now and come to appreciate the blackness of the blackest black that I had to hand just for its drama. A lot of detail is lost with this black a black (it's Indian ink) but that's ok because like the white, I'll be highlighting it later.
Good morning Bertie. I do like the Ivory over the white. Looking great. Cheers Grant
The new look is looking very good - I have to remember this to use not pure white
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Apart from considerations of 'scale effect', our pure brilliant white paint wasn't invented until the 20th century, I believe. I can't find a date right now but I think it was the late 1950s?
I would be very cautious of taking Mr Aliprantis as a serious source for any advanced model ship build.
I would use caution and highly recommend using other sources than those videos by that builder. To many mistakes are being made by that particular model builder. He will block you when you bring out points of contentions or when you correct him.Thanks Henry. I'm actually enjoying reading the originals which were very digressive, and reducing them to this concise form. I'd completely forgotten quite a lot of this so it's a precis for you and revision for me.
I have seen those Aliprantis videos, I think, but it's an incurable foible of mine to enjoy doing it my way if at all possible. It's risky but often leads to more learning and more satisfaction. I'm still on the hull construction in real time though and I'll certainly be consulting Mr Aliprantis and everyone else when I reach the raising of the masts - truly unknown territory for me as the pole masts on my Zulu aren't to be compared to a square rigger.