HMS Alert [1777] 1:48 POF by serikoff. (Two hulls: skeleton and fully rigged)

[serikoff]

Since the lower deck will be practically invisible, the main parameter in its implementation is speed. Therefore, I made all the filling, as we say: “dendrophycal” method (excuse the expression) “from shit and sticks.”

That is, I used all the leftover materials, scraps and uncalibrated blanks. I did this so that there was more space for experiments with coating with oil and bitumen. I'm thinking of covering the hull with Rustins Tung oil, but with the deck either the same or Danish Rustins oil. I'll see how it all turns out under the bitumen.

So, I installed walls and imitation doors on fragments of the deck. I repeat! The location of the walls, the height of the deck itself and other elements may have errors (they will still not be visible). And there were no central walls near the mast at all (I installed them as a visor from the lighting that I am planning).



I made primitive stencils to create the outline of the doors, and scratched them with a needle.



























Oil coating is next... uh...

 

[serikoff]

So now comes the most interesting part – the oil coating.

It's not for nothing that I did all the things that won't be visible... I'll be experimenting with exactly all of this.



First, I polished everything with Borma Wachs 000 steel wool (a fantastic wool, all the varieties from 0000+, 000, and 00, highly recommended!!)

Then I made a special jig for applying oil. This was used by masters of the day who applied shellac paint and varnish to musical instruments, but the principle can be used here too.

The idea is not to coat the oil with a thick film with a brush, but to polish with at least a 1:1 ratio of oil and solvent (I use thinner for artists' oil paints, it's odorless).



I experimented with two oils at once (Tung and Danish oils from Rustins).

First, I dilute the oil in a separate container, then pour it onto wool threads or pieces of fabric and wrap them in cotton cloth, making a sort of teddy bear. This creates a marker effect. The excess oil is always inside the wool, preventing it from dripping, and the oil evenly saturates the wood through the cloth. If you notice less oil, simply press harder on the wool, and the cloth will become damp again, but not dripping wet.

This method isn't very convenient in corners (there, it's better to use a damp, but not wet, brush with oil diluted more than 1:1)... and it's better to use it on larger surfaces... but since I was simulating the effect by applying it to the upper deck, I did it this way. Apply along the grain with a buffing motion, then wipe off any excess with a paper towel.

And here are the results:









It's hard to tell the difference in the photos, but Tung's color is more brown and rich, and therefore darker. Danish's is lighter (like a faded color), but it's a cool beige. My wife, like me, liked the result of Tung's, even though it's darker, which isn't ideal for a deck. But the issue with the pear wood... it'll be dark anyway, and how dark it is isn't that critical.

Now we'll wait a month and see what happens, and then in a month I'll coat it with bitumen. Speaking of which, I used Idea Patina 710 before, but it's difficult to work with. It's thick like resin and needs to be thinned with solvent, but the problem is that it's impossible to calculate the proportions, and that's definitely not the case with it.



The one I want to try (Antique Bitumen) is already liquid, and you can calculate exactly how much you need and how much solvent, which is convenient. Incidentally, it's from the same company as the steel wool. There's also Antique Patina from the same company, but from the video review, I realized it's not brown, but more of a gray tone. That's not quite right, since I want a dark, dark brown, not a dark gray. Anyway, I'll show you the results in a month.

 

[serikoff]

When I don't like something... I just can't leave it as is.

Three days of construction - in the trash... I removed every bolt I had installed from the hull...



I pulled some out with wire cutters, and hammered or knocked some out of the case with a sharpened file.

And here's why I removed the brass bolts:

1. The color bothered me... brass is yellow (I don't understand why I chose that). The bolts were bronze, and what looked like bronze... copper. I thought about blackening the brass, but it's better to patinated the copper, which will look more authentic.

2. Because the boards were glued to plastic, the fixation was weak, and the bolts started falling out of the holes. Not all of them, just a few, but that's a bad sign... it can happen at any moment. This method is only good for solid wood, not plastic.

3. The bolt head repeatability also left much to be desired... It looked good on the test pieces, but on the case, I didn't like the result.

4. Not a major factor, but a significant one: it was very inconvenient to cut the brass wire on the body, and drilling with a drill bit on the body is also very dangerous, as it can damage the boards. Overall, this method is good, but time-consuming.

And now I'm back where I started...



... I polished the case with steel wool and started again.



Tip: To make a smooth piece of wire, place it on a flat plate and slide it over it so that it rotates between the plate and the table.



This principle is used for cutting and shaping bolts. Place the plate and knife on a SOFT copper wire and slide it back and forth so the wire rotates. With several passes, the knife (not sharp) cuts off a piece of the wire, creating an expansion zone at the edges.



A zone similar to the bolt axis forms on the end face. If you cut this blank with nippers, you'll get two bolts.

In just a few minutes, you can make five blanks, or 10 bolts, which is very fast.



Then I simply insert the bolt into the hole, and it wedges due to the flare at the end, which is a huge plus! After that, I use a burr (by hand) to adjust the shape of the bolt head. Since copper is soft, this is easy to do, very quickly, and without a machine, without the risk of damaging the hull.



Well, here is the result.



As I mentioned, I plan to patinated the bolts to give them an aged effect.





The shape still isn't quite what I'd like, but it's very close, and that's the main thing!

1. There's a fair amount of repeatability.

2. The bolts don't fall out and hold well.

3. I really like the color; it's just... brass just doesn't cut it.

So ahead lies the production and fixing of 100,500 bolts... again.

UPD: By the way! To increase friction and improve the bolt's grip in the hole, you can make notches on the bolt's surface with pliers.


UPD 2: To speed up the process, I made similar movements while cutting the blanks, but without cutting the wire, just creating a groove around the circle. This deformation is what holds the wire tightly in the hole.

 

[dockattner]

Respect.

 

[Peter Voogt]

Indeed, respect for your choice to replace them, Sergey.
Regards, Peter

 

[serikoff]

Respect.

Indeed, respect for your choice to replace them, Sergey.
Regards, Peter

Thank you friends for supporting me in my choice.

---

By the way, I added a life hack to the previous post about how to strengthen the bolt's hold in the hole... you need to make notches on the bolt's surface. It's a good thing this idea came to me at the beginning of the project, rather than at the end..

 

[serikoff]

Lower Deck Gratings and Hatches.

To be able to test how the gratings would look under oil, I decided to make test gratings for the lower deck. They won't be visible, but I'll be able to test different oils and bitumen on them.

This time, I'll be making them regular.

---

There are 4 more small hatches on the lower deck: two in front for the spirit room and the coal room.



(There are also fore and main hatches with gratings, which I already showed earlier)...

...and also two small ones at the back: to the powder room and for lighting the powder room.



I decided to make them too:





I had some gun hinges left over from the Victory project (modeled and 3D printed, then spray-painted with matte paint), so I glued them on for clarity. They're unlikely to be visible, but I don't mind.





On a small fragment that I made specifically for this purpose, I made an imitation of nails and I liked the result, I did the same on the main gratings.



I made the imitation with a needle and then treated everything with 000 steel wool.

---

Now it's time to apply the oil...

A week has passed, and here's the wood tone under the oils:



Visually, it's clear that the Tung oil darkened the wood more, while the Danish oil is lighter.

I like the Tung oil better in terms of color, but it shows more of the difference between the light and dark areas, making the grain clearer. While I don't like the Danish oil as much in terms of shade, it's lighter and doesn't show as much of the difference in the wood. Basically, I'll wait another 2-3 weeks and then seal it with bitumen, and then I'll know which is better. One question is whether I should reapply the oil (and how that will affect the gloss and texture)... and I'm also concerned that after the Tung oil has cured, at a certain angle, an uneven texture is visible (alternating matte and semi-matte patches)... it's difficult to explain.

Now, just a comparison:







The Danish finish (left) has a more rippled frame, while the Tung finish (right) has a more uniform frame.

Below, you'll see dark details on a light deck and vice versa, and dark details on a dark deck and vice versa.







Well, below I changed the gratings for comparison and this option:



And in the end, I still have no idea what I'm going to do on the main deck, and everything will be determined only by the appearance after applying the bitumen... and maybe a second layer and then bitumen... it's complicaaaaaaaated with that...

 

[serikoff]

Calculations... calculations... and more calculations.

Some people simply build models, others review their builds... but I also really love to study everything related to what I'm building. I spend a lot of time reading literature, anatomy, and drawings. And since Alert's anatomy is written with significant errors, inaccuracies, and omissions, I regularly question all the information in this book.

In order to continue working on the deck, I need to know exactly what needs to be where, so I can get all the nail placements right.

The gratings and ladders are partially positioned, and now I need to determine the exact location of everything else. I understand that there are drawings for this... but that's the problem... there are no drawings, only anatomy, which is full of contradictions, so everything needs to be done on site.

To start, I made dummies of several elements.



The Windlass is a dummy, just to illustrate its dimensions and position. I'll say right away that I intentionally made it wider, as it needs to rest on the load-bearing boards (which is more logical), and there needs to be enough room for the anchor lines, ribs, and rigging blocks. This is the only thing I intentionally changed slightly; the rest were modified solely based on the original archival drawings and when there was a clear error in the anatomy.



I also made dummy pumps with the ability to adjust the correct angle. They're also positioned a bit wider, but you'll see later why this is a logical step.

By the way, I'm going to redesign the bilge grating! Based on the grate's ridge count, I made it the specified width, and after comparing the dimensions with the archival drawings, I realized I needed to add another ridge to make it wider. But I was already planning to make a duplicate grate (you'll see why later, but then I changed my mind, and now it's possible).

And all this work for one...



...for what the ship lacks! That's space for a lifeboat!

Not to mention that, anatomy-wise, a small boat doesn't correspond to common sense or reality (but more on that later), and there's simply no room on the hull for a cutter that's the right size for this ship.

To help me understand all this, I made a dummy of the boat as well.





I glued pins to the rectangular bases and pinned the boat to them, adjusting its height.



Once I had determined the height, I made temporary stands for the boat.



I didn't just pluck their design from scratch; it's common practice on such vessels. These supports were bolted to the beams on the sides and also to the grating frame for reinforcement.



The boat was then secured with ropes to ribs in the deck.

Even with the boat so low, the pump was in its highest position and could operate without any problems.



And the boat in front doesn't interfere with the windlass.

The boat should be as low as possible for stability and to keep the boom low. An inverted second boat (most likely a yawl) was also placed on it. But it couldn't be any lower, as it would interfere with the pumps or bump into the front.

And finally... in the original archival drawings, the ladder (with a sliding door) led from one side to the other. But the author of the anatomy designed the ladder so that it led from front to back, which simply didn't allow for room for a boat, and which simply wasn't a reality.



And since this defied common sense, I did as in the photo below. I simply rotated the entrance 180 degrees. And since the stairs from the upper to the lower deck weren't permanent (meaning they could always be removed to increase space and reinstalled in case of an emergency or need), this design is not only logical but also completely legitimate.



This is just a small part of the work I've done on the drawings. I'll simply post the material as I structure it into coherent threads (because I'm working on so many aspects at once, it's easy to get confused).

 

[-Waldemar-]

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I must admit that I read your last post with mixed feelings . On the one hand, I enjoyed it immensely because of your rational, thoughtful approach. On the other hand, it reminded me of the nightmares I experienced while designing the entire ship. The only difference between our cases is that I used 3D modeling, and I can't even count how many hundreds of times I had to make various extremely time-consuming modifications to finally get everything to fit together. That is, to achieve a logically correct result, similarly to the way you present above.

.​

 

[Dubz Modelling World]

You know about the Rattlesnakes drawings (sister of Alert)? Pretty sure you do ....