HMS Agamemnon

[Angarfather]

To begin with,.........
oh no, this not Christmass Carrol, but the begining of my report of modelling HMS Agamemnon.

Last year, in April I was finishing Duke William, a navycutter from 1776. And there was the question, which the next project will be. It must be a british ship. You know I am living in Hannover, and there are old and good relations between my city and GB in the "age off sail". And therefore, it was shure: it should be a ship from the end of the 18. century, from Nelson's time!

But which ship? Victory? No, too big. A frigate, but which? As a fan of O'Brian's Jack Aubrey my first idea was to modell the Surprise. An than one day Mrs.Starke says: you have told me, that Agamemnon was Nelson's favorite. Think about this! A very good idea! I started searching informations over modelling HMS Agamemnon.
However, while I was searching in the web, I suddenly saw some pictures of HMS Pegasus. A Sloop, a sixth rate ship, and what beauty! And so she became my favorite in 2010. Modelling Pegasus was wonderfull, absolutly wonderfull. From the beginning in August 10 till today. But in this summer I saw, that Pegasus will be ready in December. And than?

Naturaly a new Project, and of course it must be HMS Agamemnon.

Oktober 28. I ordered the kit at Cornwall Modells, and 1.of November UPS delivered it.



A realy big box, a heavy and full box, in fact. All materials, the plans and the instruction are in good stand.Only the thread from the kit is not so nice. As in modelling Pegasus I will use thread from Morope.




On the right site you can see a plan of Pegasus in the same scale. Well, I think Agamemnon is a realy big ship.

There is a lot of work on "Angarfathers Dockyard" at present. Pegasus shall be finished in several days, and simultaneous is Agamemnons slipway under construction.

Regards Angarvater

[Pete Coleman]

Oh boy! I know that I am going to enjoy this....
Cheers,
Pete.

[chrism]

I too am climbing aboard ready to watch this one. From your past work you are I am sure about to show us something special with this one. It is a nice and also a very large model when it is made up.

There is a model built from this kit, at Bucklers Hard in Hampshire, where the original was built.

[Rob]

I'm pulling up a chair to watch this one as well.
Looking forward to it.
Rob.

[dafi]

Rob, I am coming to help you, shall I bring some pop corn?

Looking foreward too!

All the best, Daniel

[Angarfather]

Thanks to all!

And I will do my very best.

Tomorrow I will travel to Frankurt by train. And there will be some hours for reading the Instruction and chapter 9 in the P. Julier`s Period Ship Handbook.

kindly Hartmut

[CODY614]

Me too.....



Jeff

[Rob]

Daniel bring some beer as well.
Rob.

[dafi]

Yes but german one, ice cold

XXXDAn

[Angarfather]

Hello everyone,
The slipway. I have made it in the dimensions which are given by the instruction. There are two special parts by my one. First I use three swiwelling clamps , and two stands on bow and stern. Thats gives a good and certain situation during assembeling the framework, and loading and release of keel and finished framework is easy.



Before first dry run of the frame there was some work to do with a file at the bullwerksslots and the false keel. But its a pleasure to see how the parts build Agamemnons framework.



Before glueing the walnut keel to the false keel I have milled a rabbet into the walnutkeel. That´s a good supposition for easy connecting the planking to the keel.



The areas of the 5mm plydeck, especially under the dummy gun positions, seems to be a little to malleable. Therefore I reinforced this areas by glueing ledges.


I think its a nice, sound and rigid and a big framework. I like it!



Kindly Hartmut

[Maurice Wilcox]

What a beast Hartmut, you're making me envious already

Happy Christmas to you.

Regards,

Maurice

[chrism]

I can also only repeat what Maurice said. Looks nice.

[CODY614]

Ditto....


Jeff

[Angarfather]

Hello everyone,

before mounting the batteriedeck I had to make some beams in nearly the same shape as the maindeck beams. I think that all decks of a ship are arched. The batteriedeck couldn't be plain. Otherwise there would be big problems to remove water from the deck. In connexion with this I am searching for informations of the scuppers position on batteriedeck.



Before I started planking, I parted the false deck longitudinally into two parts for easier assembling it into the frame.
I glued the planks with PVA adhesive on the false deck after couloring the flanks with a black PITT artist pen. It is soluble by water, and together with the glue it builds a acceptable cautering.



To show the nails I use this little device: two cutted hypodermic needles in the top of a soldering iron to burn in the covering of the nails.




The assembly of the first part was no problem.









By the way, during deckplanking I learned how big Agamemnon is.

regards Hartmut

[Maurice Wilcox]

Neat method of representing treenails in the deck Hartmut

As far as scupper are concerned, you will no doubt be aware of the lengthy investigations undertaken by Daniel.

Contemporary information would suggest that a 64 gun ship would have (6) scuppers on the Lower deck at 4" diameter, and (7) scuppers on the Upper deck at 3" diameter.

The actual positioning is probably open to some interpretation but Daniel's research should be of help and a general arrangement of one every two gunports would probably be not too far out.

I don't know if you are already aware of it but there is a book called Nelson's Favourite HMS Agamemnon at War 1781 - 1809 by Anthony Deane, I think you would find it interesting.

Regards,

Maurice