H . M. S. Swift in 1:70 scale FINISHED

[lone modeller]

Evening All,

In my build log for the Dornier Rs II I showed some pictures of the boom which my brother had soldered for me. I mentioned that he is building a model of H.M.S. Swift - a brig built in the U.S.A. in 1776 and used by the Royal Navy in the last decades of the 18th century. This is being made from a set of plans published by Mamoli and information that he can find on the internet. It is 1:70 scale (not 1:76 as I wrote in the blog), and is completely scratch built except for the cannon barrels which he could not make himself because he no longer has a lathe. This model is made from wood, brass, cotton thread, string and any other suitable materials that he considers suitable (like any good scratch builder!) and is about 12 inches (30cm) long. 

Without giving away any family secrets my brother is at the start of his 7th decade of life and has been afflicted with Parkinson's syndrome for about 11 years. This model shows what can be done by someone with a disability, but also reflects the skills of a very talented modeller. It also shows how modern medicines can help slow down the onset of symptoms of a terrible disease, one which would have prevented him from doing this work even 20 years ago. Thank heaven for the NHS and the wonderful people who work for it, and the pharmacologists who work so hard to develop drugs which can alleviate or in some cases cure what in the past were incurable afflictions.

When he was in his very late teenage years he built a model of a 17th century merchant vessel, also in wood, to a slightly larger scale and also from plans. In that model he left part of the planking of the upper deck off so that the middle deck and fittings were visible. He also made two cannon, (he had a lathe then), and all of the rigging blocks and pulleys were made so that they would work. He varnished everything to stop the thread from slackening due to moisture uptake. The only parts that he did not make were the anchors!

These are pictures which he sent me earlier today, together with one he sent to me about two months ago. Meanwhile I intend to take up painting by numbers as a hobby.......







The above picture shows the use of needle files to hold things in place while the varnish dries. He has the same attitude to jigs as me!!



The above shows the upper parts of the masts and materials in preparation for the making the rigging for the masts.

I will now go and take up painting by numbers as a hobby.......

Stephen.

[lcarroll]

    That's just exceptional work. It's inspiring to see how well he works despite the serious affliction he's dealing with. Given your quality of work, Stephen, and this from your brother you must have been raised in a home with lots of opportunity and encouragement for technical and crafts work, you both do exceptional work and it's apparent that it provides you both with plenty of rewards. I don't believe Painting by Numbers is in either of your futures!
    Please pass on my sincere compliments to your brother, HMS Swift is a real beauty!
Cheers,
Lance

   

[Des]

    That's just exceptional work. It's inspiring to see how well he works despite the serious affliction he's dealing with. Given your quality of work, Stephen, and this from your brother you must have been raised in a home with lots of opportunity and encouragement for technical and crafts work, you both do exceptional work and it's apparent that it provides you both with plenty of rewards. I don't believe Painting by Numbers is in either of your futures!
    Please pass on my sincere compliments to your brother, HMS Swift is a real beauty!
Cheers,
Lance

My thoughts exactly, extremely well done.

Des.

[boggie]

Fantastic model Stephen!   

The detail is outstanding!

I do hope your brother favours us with updates as this beauty progresses.

Please add my congratulations. 

[RAGIII]

Your Brothers work is not only Brilliant but a real inspiration!  He is Obviously someone who sees his circumstances as an opportunity to overcome challenges!!
RAGIII
PS: I also hope to see further in progress photos!!!!!!!
RAGIII

[lone modeller]

On behalf of my brother I would like to thank you for the very kind remarks, which I have passed on to him. Like me he tends to work alone and takes very much for granted what he does. He was a little surprised at the reaction of some people to his soldering skills, and equally so for this ship model. I think that you may have opened his eyes a little to his exceptional skills!

[lone modeller]

Evening All

My brother recently sent me some more photographs of the ship that he is making. Sadly he is unable to work on this a frequently as he would like to: life gets in the way for him as it does for the rest of us!

He has been making spars and rigging the foremast, but to start with here is one of the wood blocks that he has had to make - I do not know the total number but there are a fair few!



You can see that he has to thread the block before he can start to mount it and the rigging on to the model.

These are the parts of the mast on the left and the spars with lifting pulleys and extensions on the right. These were made by hand by rubbing down dowels with glasspaper....!



Finally these pictures were taken a few days ago and show the foremast: it is not finished but it does give some idea to us landlubbers just how complex the rigging of these ships was, and what skill those sailors had to control these vessels. In addition I would point out that my brother has to make sure that the tension in the various ropes is such that he does not distort work already done, and many of the ropes have to be tied off on the belaying pins on the sides of the ship opposite the bottom of the mast.







Please note that the only parts of this model which he has not made are the cannon!

Thanks for looking.

Stephen.

[gbrivio]

Clean building , and very nice ship model. Scratchbuilding of components puts the whole work into the best artisanship tradition.
Sincere compliments to your brotherr.
Ciao
Giuseppe

[lcarroll]

Oh my, what a stunning and impressive model! The detailing has progressed remarkably since the last post, this is the epitome of what we call "Museum Quality Modeling"! Please pass on my compliments to your Brother Stephen, as I said some time back you both show remarkable talent in your respective genres of the hobby.
Cheers,
Lance

[Rob Hart]

Just as I suspected, real modelers use wood.

[lone modeller]

Thanks gentlemen for your comments - be assured that I have passed them over to my brother who has also asked me to convey his thanks for the generous compliments.

Stephen.

[Dave W]

Stephen

Please pass our admiration on to your brother for his outstanding model. That is a pure work of modelmaking genius!

Many thanks for sharing this with us.

cheers

Dave Wilson
Gold Coast
Australia

[lone modeller]

Evening All,

Many thanks Dave for your very kind comments which I have forwarded to my brother.

He has now finished the model and sent the following photographs which I am sure some of you would like to see. He also sent the following comments, the first paragraph being from the American Museum of American History:

"The Swift was originally built as a two-masted schooner in North America in 1778, during the American Revolution. Lightly built and with very little cargo capacity, the fast little 75½ foot vessel may have been a coastal packet ship, carrying mail and government dispatches.
Captured in 1779, the Swift was taken into the British Royal Navy until 1783. Shortly before sale out of the Navy in 1783, the shipmaster exercised his prerogative and had the vessel re-rigged as an armed brigantine, with square sails on the foremast, fore and aft sails on the mainmast, and ten 3-pounder deck guns. Around the same time, the hull shape was recorded at the Deptford Royal Dockyard, London"

The drawings of HMS Swift by Mamoli on which my model is based are not that accurate and do not completely capture the very elegant lines of the original, but its still a very attractive looking ship. I have deliberately not painted anything as I like the look of the natural materials and chosen different types of wood to give a bit of contrast, the anchors for example are made from black Tanganyka. There are also some elements that I have not fitted such as the anchor lashings and the culverins (small swivel mounted cannon) which are either too difficult to fit without risking damage to the rigging or simply don’t look right. Aso I have not fitted a figure head or any stern decoration as none are shown on the American Museum model.













This model has taken three years to build - but he did have periods when life was busy had he was unable to work on it.

Stephen.

[ermeio]

Exceptional craftmanship!
The model is really outstanding

[Manni]

Outstanding work. I love these boats. As a child I always behold one of them in my local hobby store and swear to myself to buy one if I will get grown up.
Bye,
Manni