Scratchbuilding Experiment - Halifax Schooners

My last post I talked about getting the itch to scratch build something. I wanted to see how small I could go and make it still look like a ship. The smallest plan I printed was the 58 foot Halifax schooner. At 1/1200 scale that is 9/16" for the deck.

Halifax Schooner Plans at 1/1200 scale

The next step was to cut out the deck and both left and right profiles, Since there were two sets, I decided to make two with variations. I glued the decks to 1/16" balsa then cut them out with a sharp blade. I used a small file to clean them up. I also cut out and glued a small poop deck to one of the boats. Next step was to glue the profiles to the deck sides.

After they dried I had to cut two stern plates out of some thin card stock. I made them each slightly different. I glued them to the stern of each model. After they dried I colored the hull sides with a sepia marker and painted the bulwarks, rails and decks. As an after thought I cut a coupld of cabins to add to the decks and painted them as well.

Next I built masts for one of the boats then cut sails out to fit. I built the second mast set taller than the first, mainly because I think the sails to fit the first mast set are too small, but maybe not, I'm not sure at this scale. The masts for the second boat are also one gauge size smaller.

First boat before afterthought cabin.

Once the sails were formed I attached just the after sails to see how it would look.

The sails on the left boat will be larger

Bases are 30MM x 40MM

This is as far as I've gotten and I am not sure I am going to like the results as well as with the larger vessels.  I will either add to this post as I progress or start a new post. Suggestions? Which way would be better?

Plans for My American Fleet

I haven't done much in the shipyard for the last few months, it was a busy summer. But now the air is changing and we can feel winter approaching. That means more time indoors. Over the several rainy days we had this past week I started thinking about an American fleet. I have four built American ships and four unbuilt.

Built:
1) Essex 32 gun (Langton)
2) Anaconda 18 gun brigantine (Navwar)
3) Baltimore Clipper 10 gun (GHQ)
4) Cutter 14 gun (Navwar)

Unbuilt:
1) Constitution 44 gun (Langton)
2) Constellation 38 gun (GHQ)
3) Congress 36 gun (Langton)
4) Adams 28 gun (Langton)

I know I should just concentrate on building the last four, but I'm just not feeling it. What I have been itching to do is another scratch built ship, one that no one manufactures so you can't purchase anywhere. I have put together two 1/1200 scaled sheets with plans for seven different ships (two are the same sister ships, but one of them is in the original six Humphreys frigates.) They are:

1) United States 44 gun
2) Chesapeake 38 gun
3) Philadelphia 36-38 gun
4) Boston 32 gun
5) Raleigh 32 gun (1776)
6) Rattlesnake Massachusetts Privateer 20 gun
7) a typical Halifax schooner

Raleigh was a 32 gun ship! Don't know where I got 24 from??

Raleigh was a 32 gun ship! Don't know where I got 24 from??

I am not sure when I will start on one of these but at least now, when I get the itch, I will have the plan ready to go. My apologies for not being more prolific with this blog.