HMS DIANA by Caldercraft 1:64 kit by Kimosubby [Kim Holland]

[Kimosubby]

Well, having purchased the kit over 20 years ago I now think I've practiced with enough other builds to attempt this large model. My workshop is in the attic, access is via a normal fold down ladder and hatch. I just about manage to get either Snake, Racehorse of Bounty down the hatch by carrying stern first down the ladder, but I think I may have problems with Diana, we'll see.

The usual start for this log, the box with stuff in, and being Caldercraft the timber should be sound and fit for purpose. If not, I have plenty of material to help out, I buy stock timber in and cut my own planks as required. I also make my own scale ropes on a rope walk made some thirty years ago and it's still in fine fettle.

I've also waited long enough to allow lots of other builds to go through on this site for this kit, so will be able to avoid some of the already discovered errors between plans with the kit and the AOSDiana, and have taken the opportunity to also print myself those plans from the Wikipedia site as well.

So I've started the physical build by releasing the frames from the various sheets of ply and set up the centre frame square on my build board and will mount each frame in turn, I plan to shape the frame edges as I progress knowing from experience how difficult that can be with them glued in place. I learnt early on in my boat building to complete the framing right side up and then invert the whole to start the planking.

So let the build commence. I'll try and keep this build up to date, best intentions and all that. I hope to complete ready for rigging by Easter next year...

 

[AllanKP69]

In addition to using the book as a reference, which is an excellent idea, there are also contemporary plans in high resolution for free on the Wiki Commons site as well as the 14 page contract with the dimensions of all the parts of the Artois class which includes Diana 1794 on the RMG Collections website.
Allan
One page of the contract as an example:

 

[Kimosubby]

Thank you Allan, I must look into that information, looks very interesting and lots of data.
I'll enjoy working through that english, what with all those f's for s's etc. A bit like my early copy of STEELE.

Kim

 

[AllanKP69]

If you cannot find the entire contract or the full set of 9 drawings, please feel free to PM me and we can figure how to send them to you or where to get them on the internet, whichever is easier for you. As most of the plans are high resolution, they are very large files.

You mentioned working through the English. For some "fun" try transcribing the older hand written contracts. No punctuation, capitalizing every noun, contractions all over the place, different spellings from scribe to scribe......

Maybe you can transcribe these into Manx - I know the Irish are doing more and more to have their kids learn Gaelic to keep the language alive and well which is terrific and I was wondering if Manx form of Gaelic is commonly spoken by the people there on the Isle of Man.

Gow-jee tastey jeh'n phrojekt

Allan

,

 

[Kimosubby]

Agh red erbee son co-modeller!

The true language died out in the 70's but it got fully revived soon after. We now have a primary school that is bi lingual Manx/English and there are also examinations written in Manx. Lots of people speak Manx now, though it's still very much in the background. We are part of the Celtic league of nations.
A crown dependency and almost entirely self governing, the King is now the Lord of Mann, as was the Queen before him.
Manx gaelic, as you are probably aware, is a spoken language, so it's awkward in it's written form.

I'm what is termed a "come over", arrived in Nov 1971 and never looked back.

I've obtained the full contract document and all the images of Diana/Artois frigates class images too.
I've also joined the Greenwich Museum in way of thanking them for having such a tremendous on-line archive of material, the search engine is very intuitive.

Now back to shaping the forward frames. Although the kit is over 20 years old the ply used is excellent, tight fits on all joints with no warping with storage.

Aye, Kim

 

[Kimosubby]

After a week I have assembled all the frames and the lower deck piece to check fitting. I have shaped the front four frames and the aft 5 frames to the curve of the hull using a full length plank as a guide.
Double checking it is all labelled the whole was carefully taken apart and all contact areas glued and re-assembled. Used Titebond III glue which is not a very quick setting adhesive, to permit time to check it all over. Noted that frame 12 was about 2mm high, so resorted to two large clamps to pull the whole back into full alignment, I suspect a sawdust fragment in the frame slot as the clamps pulled the deck piece down easily enough. The steel rule confirmed the run of the upper deck supports. Luckily I had used a narrow building board which gave room for these clamps.
Assemblage left to dry overnight and then the stern gallery pieces were added, having shaped them prior to positioning.
It is a big boat, and is very sturdy at this stage.
Next job is the gun deck fitting, the plans give two options; plank then fit (which involves cutting the deck in two along it's length) or bending and folding to fit as one piece, then plank in situ. I'll let you know which way I progressed next post.