Royal William Euromodel 1:72 by Vince P. -- FINISHED

[Vpirozzi]

I will also follow your building log with high interest - btw a good start to show the content and explain the quality of the kit.
I am sure it will be very interesting.....

Nice avatar: are these Boston terrier or french Bulls? - so it seems that you have a lot of help in your workshop

Those are all Boston Terriers. We rescued them one at a time from Dallas Texas. Only the one on the left (Gracie) is still alive.

 

[Vpirozzi]

Starting on constructing the bulkheads and keel. Euro has a different way of identifying the 15 various bulkheads. They start at midship with the number "0" and go towards the stern with increasing numbers to bulkhead "8". They start from midship and go to the bow with letters "A" through "F". It would have been simpler to just start at the bow with all numbers or letters. I did find that on the plan sheet #4 where they illustrate placing the bulkheads, they mis-labled bulkheads "E" and "F". Following the plans, Bulkhead "E" would be first at the bow and then "F" behind it. If you dry fitted them first, which I strongly recommend, you would see something is wrong following the plans and notice that they are reversed. Also another thing, some of the bulkheads, especially around midship are very similar. Even placing them on the plan sheet, it would be easy for someone in a hurry to switch them up. If you are careful and observant, which you should be anyway, there would be no problem getting them in the correct places. A simple addition for the plans would be to have diagrams of the plywood boards with the bulkheads still attached and labeled. As poor as the plans were for Mantua, they did have this feature. Some of the bulkheads fit sloppily into the keel slots and need a shim to make a snug fit. A piece of 5mm x 1mm wood works perfectly here.

 

[Vpirozzi]

The bulkheads on this ship are so wide and tall and they initially are only held in place where they join the false keel. It is impossible to keep them perfectly square in the 3 dimensional planes because they warp under there own weight. The Euro interpretive notes suggest placing pieces of wood in between each bulkhead on both sides. This is a great idea, and using a square and digital caliper you can micro cut the wood pieces to make the bulkheads square in all directions. It also make the whole structure very rigid and strong. This all is extremely important when it comes time to lay the decks and plank the hull.
Also, there are 2 slots cut in the false keel between the bulkheads which serve as a platform to step the fore and main masts. By adding a piece of wood on each side of the slot, it makes a perfectly square and upright space to set the masts. They will sit perfectly vertical from port to starboard and still allow canting them front to back if needed. This also came from the Euro notes. All of the extra wood pieces were made from scrap from the plywood bulkhead sheets.

​

 

[Maarten]

Hi Maartin,
I see you have built the Prince. You probably know this, but the Royal William started out as the Prince and was remodelled and renamed the Royal William. Since I am building the Royal William, I thought it would be cool to also build the Prince. I could display them together as "before and after" I looked high and low for years for a Prince kit near the same scale. Amati had a kit 25-30 years ago that was perfect. Of course it is no longer available. I posted on one of the forums of my search for this obsolete kit. Someone actually answered and said he had the original kit still unopened after 25 years and he sold it to me for what he paid for it back then. I have it and it will be my next project.
Vince P.

That is also a great kit, would be very interesting to see if the lines af both models are equal as they should be.

 

[Vpirozzi]

All of the bulkheads are fixed in place and squared to each other and the false keel. Placing the lower deck comes next. The deck is precut into two halves cut along the length. Each half has to be cut again into two pieces across the slots for bulkhead "1" There is no way to get the deck threaded into the bulkheads and down to the lower most supports without cutting it. Each quarter is then treaded through the upper bulkhead slot in the bow and slanted down until it gets to the bottom support at the stern. It is necessary to adjust the little slots to fit the bulkheads, but not much. Squaring the bulkheads made the difference here. Once both rear halves are threaded into place, each half is secured to the forward bulkhead using wedges to hold them down to the curved deck supports while the glue dries. Both halves are done together, one bulkhead at a time towards the stern, in order to keep the halves butted together.

 

[Vpirozzi]

I am dry fitting the lower decks and placing the hull stringers. When I first placed the bulkheads, I marked a center line on the top of each in order to help keep them all in line when fixing them permanently. When dry fitting the decks that are cut in half lengthwise, it is necessary to adjust the depth of the slots that fit around each bulkhead. You need a reference point to know how much to adjust them. A center line on every deck platform on all bulkheads is just the thing. You then simply line up the center edge of the deck half with the center line mark and adjust the slots until the deck seats down. Both halves then line up correctly and are also in line with the deck below.
When placing the stringers, the slots in the bulkheads need some adjusting and the first 3 at the bow and the last 3 at the stern need beveling to allow the stringers to wrap around the curve of the hull.

Also, I was doing a little planning ahead and noticed that the deck planking strips supplied are walnut and a little too dark for authentic planking. Ships had decking that was pale and weathered looking. A friend suggested wood like tanganyka is more like that. I agree and ordered some from my supplier. It seems that there is a limited supply here in the states and they are not certain of getting any more from overseas. There is a supplier in Australia however that has a good supply of tanganyka and other woods as well. You may want to keep them in mind if you run into wood supply problems. www.modelshipyard.com.au/
I did some experimenting with the walnut and by soaking the strips in Clorox household bleach for exactly 20 minutes, the color changes to a pale weathered look. It is perfect for the realistic deck planking and will save me about $150, since I won't have to buy extra wood.

 

[Vpirozzi]

The solid bow contour block has to be cut into 2 pieces, one for each side of the hull. You would think to just cut it in half and then apply the contour to each piece. If you do that, there will not be enough lumber to make both pieces. You have to carefully place the whole block on the hull and trace the contour lines. I guess they were really trying to save lumber here. Even another 1/4" added to the length would have made it much easier. Once the contour lines are marked for both sides of the hull, you cut the block on the dotted line. (See attached photos) You have at best only about 1/16" to make the cut. I don't have a saw that will cut that sized piece very accurately. I will have to bug one of my carpenter friends.
Once the blocks are marked and cut, they have to be whittled down and contoured using the plans drawings and the ship itself. I left about 1/8" extra and will finish the job after placing them on the ship. This can't be done until the bow sprit is addressed later on.

This is a good example of why this build is like a scratch build. There are no instructions in chronological order for doing things. You have to carefully plan out your steps in advance so as to not cover something up that will interfere with another step later on. I plan out about 6 steps in order before proceeding with anything. I am sure however that I will make a mistake sooner or later that will require me to undo something because I goofed and missed something.

Vince P.

 

[Pat71]

Nice log. Tnx for the good explanation.

 

[Vpirozzi]

There are contoured blocks of plywood that are fastened to the rearmost bulkhead. Part #18 attaches to the front of bulkhead #8, one on each side of the hull, and parts #28 and 29 are first glued together and then attached to the rear of bulkhead #8.The purpose of these blocks is to increase the cross section of the bulkhead to support the planking as it takes the sharp turn upward to end at the transom. The positioning of these blocks is not very clear in the plans, but is very important because of the planking and the transom construction.

Part #18 and its location are shown on plan sheet #4 and can be placed by taking a measurement right from the plans. Parts 28 and 29 which are now glued together should be parallel and butted up against the sternpost and even with the lower contour of bulkhead #8.

Obviously these parts and the last 3 bulkheads will have to be beveled considerably to allow the flow of the planking. Once they are shaped properly, I will post more photos.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

As I said, this kit is closer to a scratch build than a kit build. Most kits come with provisions in the precut parts of the false keel and bulkheads for installing the bowsprit later on. This one does not. There is a certain point while constructing the hull that this must be addressed before things get covered up. Now is the time, even before placing the solid bow section, any planking at all, and before working on any of the decks above the lowest gun deck. With the bottom gun deck secured in place and the hull stringers secured, it is time to deal with the bowsprit.

There is an easier shortcut and that is to just drill a hole in the front of hull and glue the bowsprit in the hole later on. Then you don't have to worry about all of the above. I chose to do the bowsprit as it would be done on a real ship. Much more work, but also much more realistic.

The plans show about a 40 degree angle running on top of the stem and down to a quasi bulkhead just behind bulkhead "E". This bulkhead must be fabricated and secured to the lower gun deck just behind bulkhead "E". A line is drawn on the stem where the bowsprit will rest and then a big piece of the stem has to be removed above this line. In addition, parts of bulkheads "F" and "E" have to be cut away to allow the bowsprit to pass through. Some supports have to be added to shore up the bulkheads that were cut. The bowsprit can now be dry fitted and beveled at the end to butt up against the added bulkhead and then removed and put away.
Next up is to fit and secure the real stem, keel, and sternpost. This could be done later on, but they must be in place before the first planking, as the planks have to terminate on them at the bow, stern, and bottom of the hull.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

Placing the stem and the real keel. I decided to do this now instead of later after the first planking. There are pros and cons to now or later. Either way is OK, but I preferred to do it now before the first planking.
The stem is solid walnut and 7mm thick. It is heavy and I didn't trust just a glue joint to hold it on, since much will be hanging off this piece including very large metal figures. I drilled 1.6mm holes from the outside into this and the false keel about 30mm deep. I inserted 1.5mm brass rods at the top, middle and bottom and drove them in below the surface with thick CA glue. If you look at the last photo, you can see one of these pins just below the surface. I did not worry about glue stains or the holes for the pins because the whole thing will be planked with walnut strips later on. A very small amount of adjusting using a sanding wheel was necessary to match the curves of the false keel and the stem.
I also placed the 1.5mm pins in the keel piece as well. Since there was nothing to hold clamps to. I used some planking clamps I had bought which I could never get to work correctly. They did work for this however, so I got my money's worth afterall. It is important to note that the plans call for making the keel from 3 pieces of lumber, but the kit comes with a single 6x7mm walnut board instead, that must be shaped into the keel. The last thing to do here is to attach the sternpost, but some shaping of the keel is necessary first.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

The sternpost in place and the stern blocks contoured. I shaved at least half of the mass of the blocks and more has to be sanded off. I will wait until the planking is started and shave more to best suit the plank sweep.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

OK, so I made a boo-boo. (I knew I would sooner or later) The sternpost is 2mm narrower than the thickness of the false keel. I made a note to taper the stern end of the false keel so it would be 2mm narrower than the sternpost. This way the first planking would terminate slightly below the surface of the sternpost with a little shaving of the plank ends.
I got side tracked thinking of so many other things to do that I forgot to do it before securing the sternpost.
I fixed it by tapering the false keel to the thickness of the sternpost and then cutting a rabbett 1mm deep along the edge of the false keel. The first planking will now terminate just below the surface of the sternpost as it is supposed to. The second layer of planking will form a smooth joint with the sternpost with a little tapering.
Thanks to Peter from Euromodel for pointing out the issue before I got too far along. Having these forums is so great because you have other skilled eyes watching you. In this case it helped me get out of a jam before it was too late. (Thanks Pete)
That makes 2 mistakes so far that I had to dig my way out of.

I hope there will be no more.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

Two more steps in the hull construction.

1. The mizzen mast bottom rests on the lower gun deck. A stepping block needs to be fabricated and secured to the lower gun deck before things get covered up. With all 3 lower decks either secured or dry fitted in place, the mizzen mast is inserted through the decks and placed vertically and at the correct cant. A wood block with an 8mm hole is then located on the lower gun deck and glued in place. It is also painted black to keep it hidden.

2. The solid bow blocks are carved down to the contoured shape. The photo shows before and after. Make sure to do this in a ventilated area. The amount of saw dust created was enormous. I am still coughing.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

Starting the first layer of planking. I will plank from the main deck down to the lower gun deck. All of these planks do not need tapering, and only bending with an iron for the sharp contour of the bow. The planks are in limewood at 6mm x 1.5mm. Once these areas are done, the gunport locations and the placing of the other full decks can be addressed.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

Still working on the first layer of planking from the main deck down to the lower gun deck. Very slow process. Even with careful alignment of the bulkheads, a considerable amount of adjusting is necessary to keep the planks running smoothly and the surface as straight as possible. Several bulkheads on both sides had to be either shaved down or shimmed up. The solid blocks at the bow requires the most effort. They have to be finely adjusted as each plank is laid. If I had to do it all over again, I would eliminate the blocks and just place 2 contoured plywood boards on the stem and butt the planks against them, allowing the planks to form a natural curve of their own. I did it this way on the SOS and it came out nicely without much effort.

Photos to come as soon as I complete this section of the hull planking.

Vince P.

 

[Jimsky]

@Vpirozzi I like your approach and admire your skills. Thank you for sharing with us!

 

[Vpirozzi]

I have finished the first planking from the main deck down to the lower gun deck. It was a long process and required very many adjustments to the bulkheads and blow block. Next up is to locate the gunports for the 2 lower gun decks. You can see I have marked the planks with vertical lines for the centers of the bulkheads, and dotted lines for the top line of each deck. Using these marks and plan sheet #8, I can plot the exact location of each gun port. Then comes the fun part of drawing them on the hull and cutting them out. I got spoiled by other kits such as the SOS which came with templates that already located all of the gun ports. This will definitely be much more of a challenge.

Vince P.

 

[Vpirozzi]

Working on locating and cutting out the gunports for the lower gun deck.

First I marked the center of each port on the hull using plan sheet #8 measurements. Then I placed a small nail at each center so I could look down the side of the hull to see if they all were in alignment. A couple had to be adjusted slightly.

Second I created a small jig that measures 14mm square, which is the gunport dimensions, with a belaying pin for a handle and a 2mm wood dowel for a pilot. I drilled a 2mm hole in the center of each port location.

Third I placed the jig in each center hole and traced the sides on the hull to mark the square cutout.

Fourth I drilled more holes in the marked squares to aid in making the cutouts.

as each cutout was cut and squared off, I placed the jig into the hole until it fit snuggly. The result is a nice square hole of the correct dimension.

Vince P.

 

[BigMike]

Great looking work Vince. Very informative log.