HMS Unicorn Build Log 5 - Colour Theme Design

Colour Theme Selection

I've been selecting colours for my ship since the ordering is placed, and till now, I've successfully narrowed them down to two final choices. 

Picture below shows how the original kit colour of the ship looks like (which I copied from a forum-er). 

Original Natual Finished Colour

Original kit instruction suggests a natural finished by using 3 different colours of woods: walnut, maple, and ebony. I can't deny that the colour for the ship is actually nice already, but I really would like to put on the colours I want to my ship. :)

Anyway, the 2 pictures below show how I hope my ship looks like: 

Blue Strips 

1st Version: Blue Strips + Yellow Gun port + Black Wale + White Waterline
The gun port 'frame' will be coloured to red. :) And, compared to original colour, the yellow gun port area is actually widen. 

And second version with red stripe on it. :)

Blue & Red Strips

I thought it'd be an easy modification until I measured the width of the wood strips.. because the walnut strips are 5mm in width; while the maple and ebony strips are just 4mm in width! And even the thickness are different! Walnut strips are 1mm in thickness; while the other 0.6mm!

My plan is to make a smooth hull, and put colours on them.. that's all! However, if I use all walnut strips for the hull planking, I might run out of wood strips. This is now what troubling me... :(

Anyway, I'll start the first layer planking first.

Thanks for viewing! ^^

HMS Unicorn Build Log 4 - Ladder Making

Ladder Making

Ladder is the first fitting made in this build. It has to be done before the hull planking, so that it's easier for me to check whether the feet of the ladder 'landing' correctly from outboard.

The kit provides the materials of the ladder, with pre-cut ladder slot for the steps. Anyway, they are not as good as expected.

Un-aligned Slots

As you can see from the picture above, the slots of the ladders are not aligned. I've tried switching them, but still only a pair matches. 

For the 'surroundings' and steps, I used these:

Strips to Make Ladder

I made the wider strips inside the narrow ones, so that it acts like plug to the deck. After some measuring and checking, here's the result:

The 'Surrounding'

It's a bit terrible, isn't it? lol Especially at lower right corner..
I remade one anyway. :)
And then insert the steps into the slots.. steps are in 20mm length.

Ladder

Just glue them together and they're completed. :D

Ladder Done

View from this angle, the extended part can be seen clearer. It also helps covering the ugly plywood cross section.

As seen from deck..

Ladder In Place

Picture below shows how I check the angle of the ladder from outboard.

Ladder As Seen From Outboard

I haven't made the handrails of it, because the stanchions provided by the kit is way out of scale in their height. I might adjust the upper deck higher, or remake the stanchions.

Thanks for viewing! :)

HMS Unicorn Build Log 3 - Stern Modification

Stern Modification

Like what I've done on my previous ship, I'm again taking the challenge. :) I'm going to make a Captain's Cabin with furniture in it, and they can be seeing through the windows of the gallery and the skylight on upper gun deck.

Skylight As Provided by Corel

Picture above shows how the kit provided skylight looks like. I'm gonna extend it to the shots garland, making the skylight in long rectangular shape, so that there will be more angle to view the cabin from the deck. :)

So, it will be around in such length:

New Skylight Location

Hope you can see the marking... :P 

Another few modification to make are the bulkheads and keel that blocking the view to the cabin. Picture below shows how the overall modification roughly looks like:

Stern Modification Draft

So, as you can see.. The blue box indicates where the cabin should take place; and the yellow line shows where the skylight roughly is; while the shaded red area will be the keel part and bulkhead (middle) to be cutoff. The 'stern block' that I'm holding is provided by the kit, and that will use to hold the last 2 bulkheads together. :)

I started it with the keel...

Modified Keel

And then the bulkheads... 

Bulkhead 16

With the whole upper piece cut off, the hull planks will no have guide from this bulkhead.. so, they will be on 'their own way' to the next (last) bulkhead. :) The little piece of board glued on will be the support of themselves.

Stern Block Glued

'Stern block' glued in place...

New Stern Piece

Bulkhead 17 glued on...

There should be actually 'holes' for the windows on BH17, but I haven't cut them off because I still need to border of it to guide the hull planks. 

Modified Stern

Finally, the whole piece is now in place... it's not accurately fit according to the kit's plan, slightly lower I think. Anyway, it shouldn't affect that much.. will just need to check from the stern whether the hull curve coming correctly.

Fillers

I've then sanded the keel a bit lower and added all these UGLY looking filler to it.. :D And then, a big checker carpet to cover them :P

Checker Carpet

Hate the wrinkles... haha

Might change a new 'carpet' in the future. As long as the upper deck is not fitted on, it'll be still good to change. 

I really love the big space of the cabin. It really gives me a lot of space to design my furniture. Anyway, it's still a long time to go... I'll start all the fittings only when the hull planking is done.

Thanks for viewing!! :)

HMS Unicorn Build Log 2 - Lower Deck Modification

Lower Deck Modification

The kit's original plan on the lower deck is without hatch, but only gratings. Feeling that it's too 'plain', I've decided to add a stair to a level lower... the orlop. :)

I planned to locate the stair at the very front of the gratings in the original plan, something like this:

Modified Plan

To make it possible, I'll need to add a false deck beneath it, and that again need to modify the false keel and some affected bulkheads. 

Area to be Removed

The yellow line shows the location of the stair and gratings on the deck which will be cut off; while the red shaded area shows the area to be removed to fit the orlop deck. That will be total of 4 bulkheads (5, 6, 7, and 8) affected.

Some procedures... :)

First, I cut off a 'hole' on the false deck. Here is where the stair and gratings will lay.

Modifying Deck

Then the bulkheads..

I made the height of the lower deck to orlop 25mm, which is the same as the height from upper deck to lower.

25mm Deeper

And the keel's part...

Cut Off Keel

Finally, after all the cutting and sanding jobs, the orlop can now fit between the bulkheads. 

The Orlop

I started planking on the same night, and chalked edge of planks for better detail.

Chalking The Orlop

Actually, it doesn't need to be fully planked.. I mean, I could just planking the center part of the board.. I planked them full to treat it as a good warm up for the higher deck planking. :D

Then, I added treenails to the planks. 

Treenails Added

On the rest of the weekends, I started the lower deck planking. Anyway, before I begun I've changed my mind to add a space between the stair and gratings (which design I referred from the HMS Pandora). So, it's how it turns out now. :)

Lower Deck Planking

Just a quick sharing on how I made my planks. :)

I'm planning to stagger my planks by 1/3, so I made their lengths 105mm so that they can be easily divided by 3. 

Plank Trimming Method

After a whole long night of planking... :) the sides will be planked after the hull planking is done, because I still need those frames to guide the hull planks.

Lower Deck Planking

Next, I'll work on the stern modification. :)

Thanks for viewing!! ^^

HMS Unicorn Build Log 1 - Intro & Fitting Bulkheads

Brief Introduction

Scale: 1:75

Length: 840mm

Height: 730mm

"Historically, the frigate Unicorn has left as no tales of outstanding war feats or important enterprises, those which often mark the career of a man of-war so that be remembered even after his disappearance. All we know is that this ship has been designed by F.H. af Chapman for H.M.S Fleet in 1700s. On the other hand we have many accurate data regarding its construction. In fact, Chapman, member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences in his admirable volume "Architectura Navalis Mercatoria" printed in Stockholm in 1768, gives an extremely detailed account of the calculation relating to the design of the ship and not only the constructional ones, but also those relating to the study hydrodynamic-resistances. All this together with a most beautiful drawing of the frigate, which have used to develop this model. The results of Chapman hydrodynamic investigation are clearly visible in the lines of the hull which are quite advanced for the epoch in which the ship has been built."

- Corel

In conclusion, even Corel itself has no idea whether their kit is historical accurate! :D I've tried searched through the net and found that there were actually more than 6 Unicorns between 17th to 18th Century according to Wikipedia. And among those, the Unicorn which serviced from 1747 to 1771 has the closest description to the Corel kit. (which found out by another forumer who is building the same kit ;))

Anyway, historical accurate or not, I'm gonna modify it :D So... Let's start it!! 

Laying Keel and Fitting Bulkheads

So, 29th of September 2013 marks the day I started my Unicorn. It was a good day and I am in a good mood for modelling. :P 

Just one week before this, I've already made my DIY keel clamp for this build. The previous one which I used for my Race Horse is no longer strong enough to hold a ship size like this. So, this is how it looks like:

DIY Keel Clamp

I was planning to share my making of the Keel Clamp, but since it's kinda easy.. I will skip it. :)

START!!!

First problem... the bulkheads don't fit to the keel. :(

That really change my impression to Corel kit!!

Almost Fit

Besides the Keel Clamp, I've also made myself a DIY drill press. It's not completed yet, I'll still need to add compound table to it. Anyway, it helps a lot on sanding the bulkheads' slots wider.

Here it is:

DIY Drill Press

There's actually a screw at the right which it to stop the drill at desirable position. To fix the slots, I used a HSS square router bit. It works well so far :)

Widening Slot

So, after like 45 minutes I've done them all, and I thought they can now all fit... And then I found that I was wrong... EVEN some slots on the keel are not wide enough too to fit the bulkheads!!! OMG!! COREL!!

Again...

And then some issues usually seen...

Deck Slot Doesn't Fit Bulkhead

So, a whole long night of fixing and sanding.. I can finally put my decks and bulkheads on. This is how she looks like now. :)

Decks and Bulkheads In Position

Anyway, they are not glued yet. Just sitting in place so that I can plan on my modification to be made. Hope it won't take too long. :)

- Day 1 Ends -