HMS Snake

[GaryM]

Nice job with the planking. It looks like the second planking was thicker than 0.5 mm. I always choose double planked kits since the planking turns out great. I do plank similar to popeye's explanation but not critically on first planking since it will be covered.

 

[Graham]

You are correct, Gary, the second planking is 1mm x 4mm walnut strip. I was quite impressed with the strips provided - straight and clean edges.

 

[GaryM]

I have only used ones that are 0.5 mm second planking and they bend very good so that you can get a very tight nice second planking. The 1 mm seem like you can not get them as close as easily, but it would make a very strong hull and might make items that attach to the side stay on better.

 

[Graham]

Good point, Gary, a thinner second planking will certainly be a consideration on my next build. It sounds a good idea if the hull is to be left unpainted as the overall finish will be better.

 

[Graham]

On to coppering the hull. The kit comes with some 900 small individual copper plates. It is a bit tedious but easy enough to fit and cut and you get faster as you go. The picture below shows the start of the process; I wrapped the keel first and worked down from there.
I watched a vid on Youtube which referenced the way in which clipper ships were coppered and this seems to have been on the diagonal. I guess I am deviating from scale, but I wanted to see how that looked so completed the bottom half and along the waterline in a horizontal manner and then filled the resultant gap on the diagonal.

 

[Graham]

I think the entire coppering process took me four quite long sessions but it was worth it. However, and not in any way to cricise anyone else’s builds, I didn’t like the bright copper look too much and so colourwashed it with a very thin blue & green acrylic mix to give a verdigris appearance.
It’s now mid November, Christmas is coming and then we will be moving house in January. Time to pack this lot away.

 

[Graham]

Well, we had a great Christmas (Santa brought some very useful shipbuilding tools), moved house, settled in and it’s now mid February. I have completed all jobs as designated by She Who Must Be Obeyed and the worktable is now set up. Yaaay! Time to get some Boston on the HiFi and crack on with HMS Snake.

 

[Graham]

The carronades are made out of white metal and are an absolute mess. When the two halves have been joined at the factory they are way out of alignment (about 1mm) and will need filler even after some gentle fettling - and this in itself is difficult because you start to lose the symmetry of the bandings around the barrel. The photo (below) I hope gives you an idea how bad it is. Plus some of the elevation screws at the rear of the guns are bent or broken off. In the end, and after about 8 hours work, I rang the kit manufacturer (JoTiKa) in the hope that they would send me some more and I could at least get one good set out of two. The guy was very helpful, said they had had a lot of problems, the tooling was worn out and they had changed supplier. The kit now is provided with turned brass cannon, but the fixing to the carriage is different (they do not have the lug underneath) and would I like some? The cannon have since arrived (great service), they are a vast improvement (see photo) and I think I have figured out how to mount them. The elevation screw at the rear is provided separately with the brass items and it is threaded so that it actually screws in to the pommel. With a bit of gunpowder I could probably get these working! Anyway, I will put these to one side now and get on with other things while I ponder the best way forward.

 

[Graham]

I have started on some deck fittings and it is quite nice to be doing a bit of painting. The deck gratings are a bit fiddly and I found it best to put a piece of masking tape across them before turning them over to put the final pieces in place, otherwise you end up with a pile of bits and start again. I stained them with some dark oak just to add a bit of contrast to the teak of the deck. The brass etchings for the ship’s wheel are a little disappointing in their lack of detail, but I’ll go with them; painted with matt enamel then a very thin black/brown colour wash to take the newness off. I changed the companionway by cutting the top to make the appearance of a sliding hatch with handle; the doors are represented by scoring the middle line, a couple of pin heads for handles and running a sharp pencil down the score line to give an impression of the door edges.

 

[Graham]

Cheers, Popeye. Shame about the cannon as it's the first disappoint with the kit - so far! Still, the suppliers were good about it and I think from the way the conversation went I was not the first to call them about the problem. I think I have figured a way to mount them on the carriages and am now sourcing rings to glue on them which will take the recoil retaining rope. The carronade rigging on the plans is not, I think, how it should be and to be honest does not look that good. I have found a good picture of how the carronade on HMS Victory is rigged and so will try and replicate that as best I can.

 

[Graham]

I have fitted the gunport lower opening trims (out of sequence, but I just knew I’d be constantly knocking these off when handling the hull) and got some paint on the gunport bulwarks and main wale. The instructions call for the main wale to be black, but I have read that Captains of this era were at some liberty to paint their ships as they chose (within reason, I guess) and since I am the Captain of this ship I choose it to be red!

On the gunport bulwarks you can see the recommended ocre colour and they have since similarly repainted HMS Victory to represent what she looked like in 1805. It seems the colour has been determined by chemical analysis of samples they dug out of various nooks and crannies. Regarding the Victory: Quote – ‘In 1816, it lost its ochre and black bands and these were replaced by black and white bands that were carried all the way through to 1922, when the ship was permanently dry docked. At that stage, it was painted in a very bright yellow and black scheme, which was believed to be correct for the period of Trafalgar. The yellow used has changed across the last 90 years as the recipe had to change when use of pigments such as chrome yellow was made illegal. Now, of course, having identified the correct colours, we simply mix the correct shade using modern pigments that are much kinder to the environment.’
Source - http://www.historyanswers.co.uk/history-of-war/hms-victory-returns-to-her-1805-colours-and-nelson-hated-them/

Fair enough I suppose, but if I had already finished a model of the Victory and painted it yellow & black I wouldn’t be thinking of re-doing it. I am sure the debate has already been had on this site and have no wish to re-open it.

 

[Graham]

Some of the deck fittings are now in place, as are the fore and aft platforms and the bulwark capping rail is on.
Bowhead rails and catheads are fitted.





To tidy the hawser holes up I used some brass rivets/eyelets (the kind you use for fixing bags etc) and it makes quite a neat job, I think. The instructions say that the middle of the three rails must clear the bowsprit gammoning hole which you can see in the picture. I ensured that it does, but I have no idea what a gammoning hole is – yet. You certainly do learn a lot of new terminology in this game!

 

[GaryM]

Gammoning is rope that passes around the bowsprit to hold it down and the rope goes through the hole you see in the last picture. It is eight to ten turns of rope that makes like a figure eight around the bowsprit and through that hole and will securely trap it in place.

 

[Graham]

s. The white metal castings were OK and required minimal clean up. To make the anchor rings the instructions say to wind 1mm wire around an 8mm dowel and then wrap the resultant ring with black thread a.k.a ‘puddening’ which was used to stop the anchor rope chafing. This would have been an almost impossible task so what I did was wind the cord on the wire, coat with thin CA to fix it and when dry form the rings –



It worked well. The instructions also call for the metal bindings on the anchor stocks to be represented by cutting strips from the black cartridge paper provided. I couldn’t see how this would possibly look any good at all and so just whipped cord around them – first use of the whipping tool from my fly tying kit (shown in photo) and this is going to prove invaluable on some of the jobs on this build.


s were colour washed with some ground down artist’s pastel chalk (shown in photo) to give an appearance of rust – a technique I use when building tanks and armour.

 

[Graham]

The deck area is now complete except for the carronades and ladders which I will fit at the latest point in order to avoid knocking them off – I am already finding that as the deck fittings increase you have to be very careful where you put your fingers. The wheel is rigged as shown and the ropes cross the deck, so I suppose the sailors had to be light on their feet – and have eyes in the back of their heads. Since this was the first use of rigging blocks I checked them all and am pleased to say that all holes are clean with no additional drill-out required. Also, all cordage is provided wound on sturdy tubes so should remain taffle-free. The chain plate channels are now fitted so time to move on to fitting the chain plates.

 

[Graham]

Sorting out all the bits & pieces and blocks drove me nuts, so I made something to sort them out – I cut the side off the kit box and glued on some spare planks as dividers. It helped a lot.

 

[Graham]

Chainplates and working with the small deadeyes first.

These are placed in a wire fitting (deadeye strop) as provided in the kit. This attaches to a chain plate loop and a bracket then clips into this which is pinned to the hull.
The problem comes in offering this up to the hull and when trying to mark the place on the hull to pin the bracket the deadeye strop pulls out of the chain plate loop. I could not find a way to close the bottom loop on the deadeye strop sufficiently well to prevent this without seriously crimping it and almost distorting it. It became increasingly frustrating, so I find that is the time to go and make a cup of tea and have a re-think.
My concern is that if I leave the fitting as it is (and even if I use lots of CA) there will come a time when I apply tension to the rigging and a deadeye will ping out of the chain plate loop; a major problem which will be difficult to fix at that point in the build.
My solution was to use cord instead -




I think I trust this fix and it will be dependable. I will treat the larger deadeyes in the same way and when all are complete the edges of the chain plate channels are covered with a 1.5mm x 1.5mm walnut strip.

 

[GeeJay]

From one Graham to another Graham a big hello, I've been catching up on your build Graham and you are doing an amazing job, it looks a very nice kit with plenty of detail and I'm impressed with your build log, I am also gaining quite a few hints n tips to maybe make mine a little easier. am looking forward to seeing the masts and rigging take shape. keep up the good work and posting the pictures.
best regards Graham.

 

[Graham]

Thanks for your kind words, Graham. Like you this is my first plank on frame build, so I am sort of feeling my way along. Overall I am quite pleased with the quality of the kit, although to finish the hull exterior I need to fit a couple of parts which do not appear on the plans anywhere. My son and I scanned every plan in detail this afternoon and are still none the wiser, so I guess the need for these parts might make itself known somewhere later along the line. Just one of those things, I suppose. I see you are building the Victory and I will follow with interest - the same company who make the Snake make a version, so I will be interested to know your views on how your kit comes together. Ever onward and keep posting!

 

[GaryM]

If you show what the pieces look like, one of us might be able to tell you what the part is and what it is used for on the ship.