HMS Enterprise 1774 midship cross-section in 1/160

[Dubz]

I'm taking a break from Axel Thorsen and start on a new little project :-)

1:160 midship cross-section of the HMS Enterprise 1774 by Unicorn Model in pear.

I like these small cross sections and Unicorn Model seems to produce a very nice one with lots of helpful jigs and details.

Double and single frames were quickly done and fits perfectly in the building berth.

This is probably the only criticism regarding the production of the kit, and there is a related point to note. The frames have extreme laser burn marks that are extremely difficult to remove and result in some material loss; the laser process could certainly be optimised! It therefore makes sense to remove the laser burn marks from the frames beforehand; I actually only did this on the inside and later regretted not having done it on the outside as well, as that would have minimised the material loss.









cheers

Dirk

[Dubz]

Next up were the spacers. Here too, some excellent jigs were a great help. I spent a long time pondering the best way to glue them in place. In the end, I used a low-viscosity superglue so that it would seep into the gaps. I wasn’t entirely happy with this, as it meant I couldn’t oil the wood properly in those areas, but I then realised that it wasn’t really noticeable at all.














All spacer done.











cheers

Dirk

[tkay11]

Interesting model at a nice scale. Looks good.

Tony

[Dubz]

Next are the whales. There’s a jig here too for marking out the exact position. Brilliant. Next time, though, I’d do it differently: instead of working with the marked line (when gluing one side ended up 0.3 mm higher, unfortunately), I’d position the first plank of the whale directly against the jig and glue it in place. I think that’s the best way to get it more accurate, and 0.3 mm is unfortunately quite a lot at that scale.



















cheers

Dirk

[Dubz]

Some planks were added and the frames got some danish oil. That darkens the woos a lot, but I always like the surprise how it will look afterward :-)











cheers

Dirk

[Dubz]

Next were the gunport sills. Kinda work that is not my favourite. I have this bit of an obsession with removing laser marks, and I always try to get rid of them really thoroughly. You shouldn’t always do that. It’s not a big deal, but I’d advise following the instructions exactly and only removing the laser marks from the surface – unfortunately, you can’t get them off the bulb completely anyway with the pear wood. That made it a bit tricky for me to get the positions of the sills exactly right, and I actually would have liked a template for this part :-)

I need to have a look now; I actually wanted to leave one side partly open, but unfortunately I didn't manage it very well ...






Another template to mark were exactly planking is needed :-) I like all these jigs and templates very much!





cheers

Dirk

[Dubz]

I finished the gunports. I decided not to let one side open, I didn't like the quality of my work with the sills. I should have been more careful with the gunports; they ended up looking different on one side because I was in too much of a rush. Anyway, can’t change it.

Just a tip: I prefer doing the planks in one piece, even across the gunports, to ensure that the overall curve is clean and smooth. You can split them in sections if you like, but it might be visually noticeable.








More images

















cheers

Dirk

[tkay11]

Good idea about the ports and planking.

Tony

[Dubz]

Thank you Tony :-)

Once the gunports were finished, all the spacers were removed.




The inner hull was then sanded down cleanly. It proved to be absolutely the right decision to remove all the laser char from the inner frames right at the start. I can only strongly recommend this, especially to anyone building the pear wood version – otherwise, it seems to me impossible to get it done properly later on, even so, I had to remove a little too much material in some places.

The following pictures also clearly show another nice and helpful jig for aligning the keelson neatly.






I didn’t glue the three-part keelson in place straight away, but fitted it into the hull bit by bit; this makes it easier to adjust the parts, although this was only marginally necessary.








Next came the mainmast step, which was assembled from three laminated parts and finally adjusted. Unfortunately, this also reveals a disadvantage compared to the boxwood versions: the colour of the pear wood varies, and you can immediately see that this part, which should be a solid single piece, consists of three parts. Boxwood is simply more consistent in colour. As a minor criticism, I would like to point out that the manufacturer could be more selective in their choice of wood, or alternatively offer the step as a single piece ;-)






More images

















cheers

Dirk

[Dubz]

Next, a jig/stand were constructed to determine the exact position of the beams of the hold deck and to position them. Another jig was then used to centre the beams on the double frame and glue them in place (I used some masking tape here for the beams so that they are clamped more securely into the jig, as the dimensions were smaller after the laser char had been removed). But before that happened, the entire inner hull was oiled, as it would not have been possible to do so properly afterwards.








More images





















cheers

Dirk