Shipyard's 1:96 HMS ALERT

Bluenoser, Oh, praise indeed.

Back to cannon.

Rigging the guns will be good practice for the future rigging and now you can see what the CASCABLE is for. It alleviates the need to fish the cannon out of the sea on on opposite side of the boat every time it is fired.

On slightly later guns there is a loop cast on the top of the "nob".

HMS _ALERT - 19.jpg

LECTURE ALERT - You can skip this bit!

From a professional point of view, as an archaeologist, this exercise illustrates the huge amount of iron required to fit out even a small ship like Alert. It's a stunning quantity and just for the guns! A large navy's appetite for iron must have materially contributed to the forces driving the "Industrial Revolution". Indeed the technique of puddling iron (making wrought iron cheaply using low grade coal fuel) was developed by Court in Gosport on the west side of Portsmouth Harbour... He had a ready market just across the water.

My eyes have adjusted again so I had better get a bit more done before I have to go back to work.

D
 
Well I have let Alert sit for 10 months in an un-rigged condition so I don't deserve any praise!

My problem is the blocks. Do I make them from card in the required numbers and sizes(about 250 I think in three sizes)? Using card means finding the right sort of card and glue and then make a tool / jig to drill out the channels. Experiments with laminated card so far are not encouraging. I also had difficulty seeing what I was doing!

Do I try different materials e.g. wood? Need to make a tool and jigs.

Do I buy blocks from a one of the suppliers out there... ? I will have sold out and will have to spend $40+

What's do you guys think convenience and expense or a lot of very hard work?

D
 
you have a great model, it would be a shame to let it sit there unfinished 'cos your blocks ain't paper. I'll bet you didn't rig the cannons with paper! (though I'll bet it COULD be done, just nobody's going to. except maybe to prove a point...)

Buy the blocks, finish the model.announce1

:mrgreen:
 
Hi Muffins1

I will be quick to differ! Those are card and paper blocks you see on the gun. Kit supplied patterns were PVAed to 1mm or 1.5mm chipboard in strips of 10 or so and soaked in cyano glue then drilled out with a micro drill (the little finger powered twist type) then "ropes" passed through or attached.

Problem, quite a few failed due to the card de-laminating or poor drilling. Thus if I make them from card I have to go down the tool / jig route or get very frustrated! I guess it is reinventing the Block Mill as done by Brunnel senior at Portsmouth in the late 1800s...

Seeing the work was a big issue and I guess I just shrunk away from admitting the eyes are going and need some additional optical assistance. I also need to experiment with different types of card.

D
 
David, I'd suggest buying/making wooden blocks. To point out the obvious wood is merely paper in a previous life. :mrgreen: Have you considered making wooden blocks? Might be less frustrating (and less expensive) in the end. If not Lloyd Warner makes some mighty fine wooden blocks. Save your eyes, you ain't got spares. :cool:
 
As I had to be reminded recently "this ain't a race, Glen." Dave I've been at the fabric stores trying to find scale lines, black and natural colors in many thicknesses, although scale size for cleo is 1.2 mm for the largest line, the mainstay(the other lines go down to .1mm!). I'm buying all the blocks. No way do I have time to carve those. I made my deadeyes but woudn't again is a pain. (however my lathe never gets enough use, and is fun to play with) Planning to make the masts and spars with it, but these can also be purchased.
 
Well I would or should shuffle forward and defend the rolled paper mast and spar. But mine have a wire core (hypocrisy!) to prevent an implosion of rigging should I get that far, wood is good but I doubt I could carve straight.

My view on paper modelling is that it is all smoke and mirrors, camouflage and subterfuge; buts it's nice to say to the guys "nope that's paper too!".

D
 
Well at least the hull is paper, the wood shipbuilder's do wonderful work but they can't say that. Also any excuse to use my lathe, cannon, ect. I am happy enough to say "yeah, I made those" however I'm drawing the line on a three masted vessel regarding blocks in 1/96!:mrgreen:
 
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