Don's Battle Station

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Sep 7, 2017
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Location
Prince Albert,Saskatchewan, Canada
Hello All, I am finally getting around to starting this project and realise I have a long way to go to catch up to Mike and Dave. I thought to be a little different I would start with the carriages and give you a little different look at this model.

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The billet containing the the parts for the carriages. The billet is a beautiful boxwood picked out by Dave and laser cut by Mike.

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Here are the pieces separated and mostly cleaned of char. I do not spend too much time on cleaning char as I think a little left does add to the model at times. There two different sizes of quoins as the plans showed two quoins for each of the long guns so we decided to go with one thicker one for those. as you will see later one small quoin will be sufficient for both sizes of cannon.

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Drilling out the quoin for the handle

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Drilling the axle

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Assembly has started

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Making the handles for the quoins. I made extra ones in order to pick the best of the bunch. These are made by rolling the wire in thick ca then sprinkling them with baking soda to harden them. Then sanded and filed to shape, these are still in need of shaping but I will be able to get three out of these with no problem.
Caution should be taken here not to touch your nose when doing this. If someone was to walk in your shop seeing you enjoying yourself with white powder all over your bench and nose they may be very suspicious of what you are doing!!!;):)

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Ready for next step

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Drilling the bed, this hole needs to be drilled completely though the piece and approximately 3 mm from the front

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Drilling the front support piece, again this needs to be completely drilled through.

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Both the bed and the front support piece are attached by using two nails, one from either side. The bed is relatively easy to install, however, the front support is a little harder to line up the holes with the nails. A coffee helps calm your nerves while doing this, then a few stiff drinks to celebrate when finished are definitely in order.

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And here is how they look now. The 3 mm bar used for the trunnions are easily cut with a razor saw then filed smooth. It looks to me there may not be enough elevation to allow for a quoin on the long guns. Dave and Mike you may want to take off a couple of mm on the back support piece (9) to allow for this.
The boxwood looks so nice it hardly needs a finish, but my next step is a coat of wipe on poly.
One last thought and that is to thank Mike and Dave for including me in the wonderful project!!
Thanks for looking in, and I'l' be back with more updates. See You soon
 
G'day Don
Great start to your build. It's good to see a different approach to the commencement of the Battle Station(s).
Looking forward to see what you're going to do with the canons. Aren't you going to do a red wash on the carriages, and the wheels? Boxwood is a beautiful piece of wood, it would be a pity to paint over it, but a wash would still show the natural beauty of the wood. Just my opinion and my penny's worth.
Happymodeling
Greg
 
Hello Greg, thanks for stopping in. I never thought of doing that, and might have had it been anything else but boxwood. I'm not sure if I could bring myself to covering this beautiful wood and it is the first time I have ever had the chance to use it. If I remember right Dave had once thought of using blood-wood for the carriages which has a nice reddish colour to it, but changed his mind to boxwood and I am so happy he did.
I thank you for your thought and may well use it in another build, but for now I will leave them natural for fear of being banished, keel hauled or losing grog rationing. :p:D
 
......but changed his mind to boxwood and I am so happy he did.

G'day Don
I know what you mean. Boxwood is so beautiful and changing it, it would be a sin.
Before I got my Royal Caroline kit, was was going to paint the beautifully carved boxwood carvings gold. But looking at them, I simply couldn't do it. So I'm going to put a clear gloss finish over them. The finished carvings would almost be like they will have a golden glow.
Happymodeling
Greg
 
I really like the design of the carriages - a welcome change from the saw-tooth brackets we usually see. I'm just not sure where Jeff saw the design! I haven't reviewed the National Maritime Museum's archives, but I've spent hours looking at carriages on the internet and have yet to see this particular design. We did consider bloodwood, but it's no fun to work with, is brittle and splinters easily. The inboard bulwark spirkiting is swiss pear but we decided that making the carriages of pear was too much. That left boxwood. I like the look!
 
Don: I'm ready to start the cannons. You mentioned that there isn't enough elevation to use a quoin with the two longer guns. Reducing the stool bed height would do that. How much, do you think is necessary. All we need to do I is shorten the support that holds up the aft end of the bed. You mention 2 mm. Is that enough?
Also: What size drills did you use to drill the axles for the retaining pins and the stool bed?

To simplify construction I'm going to remake the transom so it just sits on the bottom of the carriage rather than "floating" between the two brackets.
 
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Hey Dave, I do not have an exact measurement as I have nothing to measure to yet. I would guess 3-5 mm, you really cannot make it too short(within reason) as the quoin will make up for it. You are correct just the support, I believe it is piece 9
 
Hello Don

Great job you have done on your cannons and also the charges, they sure do look great. Reminds me of the ones that I will have to build for my Oliver Cromwell, that is if I ever get that far, still cutting out and building rib frames, ENJOY.

Regards Lawrence

PS What scale are you working with?
 
This weekend proved to be a little productive, for a change. I can officially say that the Battle Station has begun.

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Gluing the sills to the frames

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Sills are made over sized and need to be trimmed

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Frames are installed

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Flooring has begun using pre-cut maple planks

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Here is a shot of the plank billets

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Lower deck completed with one coat of wipe on poly applied

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Installing the (for lack of better words) moulding. I changed mine a little, I added a strip of maple into the groove

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This is how it sits now. I am going to leave it for a few days now. I am contemplating leaving it as is on the outside, to show off the cherry frames. Until I decide on this I'll see you all later
 
G'day Don
Like Uwe, I'm also pleased to see the official start of this battle Station.
I was thinking to my self a few weeks ago, that Don (you) have to do some fancy work, to keep up to the high standards of the other two Modelteers.
I can now see that there's another entry for the best battle station.​
Keep it up mate, you ate going great guns.
Happymodeling
Greg
 
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