HMS Halcyon 1894 (Dryad class) 1/350 Torpedo Gun-Boat

[Pieter]

This may well have been differences in boilers and engines between ships and at different dates. I had to 'freeze' my Barham to one picture and one drawing for that reason. Maybe ask someone with access to the Perkins albums to look it up. They are to be found in volume six on submarines, gunboats and sloops.

[maxim]

According to Perkins, the funnels were different AND the distance between the funnels were different.

Which ship is on the photo and which is on the plan?

Halycon had thicker funnels and less distance between them compared to e.g. HMS Hazard.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you Maxim-- yes I will do that--make the shop as per the photo

that way everything is verifieable !

Thank you Pieter--

I think you maybe onto something...

Here are 3 images ( all of HMS Halcyon - my wee ship! )

the ship as designed & built--
with thin funnels small gap fwd funnel to bridge

and after a ( yet to be confirmed) re-boilering
with fat funnels and big gap from funnel to Bridge

[maxim]

According to Perkins, Halycon was re-boilered in 1904 by Laird.

Then the distance between the funnels was reduced the funnels were thicker.

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you Maxim--....clarity!

some new progress has been made

The cantilevered bridge could not stay up with willpower alone...
in the real ship-- it was supported fwd and at the sides

All ships of the class had detail differences in their bridge supports
some were cross-braced as is ' usual '

On Halcyon they were rather different

the uprights had triangular gussets top and bottom
these were orientated
lower; fore and aft
upper; athwart-ships

here they are on the model--the braces were cu of white paper
and installed with matt tacky varnish

I was at the same time checking mast angles and clearances--I used a cocktail stick
( oversize to the masts but to ensure even gaps

The masts on the ship were parallel tube type with a sweeping taper at the top only rather then being conical

I made some masts out of stainless steel welding rod ...
but failed to get the positive curve taper....- numerous times!!

I searched for something I could use....
all knitting needles to large

and then .... found it --though this may appear sacrilegious.., !!!

but.... when on a mission...

I eyed up my spare Iwata airbrush needle hanging on the wall on its nice new packet...

and then-- after ordering an ( expensive) replacement... removed also the needle out of my airbrush !!

They needle diameter scaled up and measured beautifully...

Once I had nipped off the top of the pointy bit and made the cuts ...

there was no going back....

On any model-ship build -
some of the biggest time consumers are the ships boats...( still to come)

and the human aspect--the crew...

I actually actively dislike doing them both--

and nevertheless I go a little overboard on both

but with organic shapes in place its coming to life

based on these fellows

more news soon

JB

[JIM BAUMANN]

just a quick update

after my mis-use of airbrush needles as masts...

I followed up with making consistently tapered Davits
using brass tapered spars from Master models

and added the chains on deck ( the spans to the anchor will be hung later in the build)

and discovered a useful davit photo

and amazingly....( hard to find in my time period )
another overall view from port=-- with ship at mooring

whilst not ever so sharp or clear--it does illustrate well the considerable height of the Aft ensign staff
-with my model ship being ship underway...

==> contrary to usual familiar RN practice ( flown from the gaff of mainmast ...)

My Ensign staff will be adorned with a White ensign!

later period

and again ---with a different member of the class

Can anyone shed any light on this flag practice--other than the obvious absence of a gaff spar...?

more soon
JIM B

[Pieter]

Looks like the main topmast has a semaphore attached . Maybe this interfered with normal flag practice.

[marijn van gils]

Great project Jim!!!

And also good to have the variation of scale; 1/350 this time...

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello all!
protracted absence

--alas supreme weather for 3 weeks (!!??) ( for UK...)
means I have been somewhat distracted by driving classic cars....

But in between I have made...some progress.

The boats that were supplied with the kit ..... had ( commendably ) a representation of ( crudely rendered) internal Ribs (overscale)
into / onto which almost none of the PE wanted to fit

This ship carried 5 boats --
Thankfully.... 3 of which -- even underway -were covered with canvas covers--Phew...!!

The Timber coamings were created using ) 0.2 mm black tapes.... sealed with CA and varnish, then snipped to size

I made the boat-covers by forming a ridge over the boat
in wire and infilled with a span of white glue

I wanted to blacken the kit supplied handrails--that were commendably thin
I used AK metal burnishing blue liquid ....

It looked good !

.... for a while.....

somewhat tacken aback..........!!



I concentrated on other small stuff that was less soluble....

and other details

more tangible progress soon
JIM B

[Pieter]

With pictures like that I keep thinking next time you're going to be flying a Bleriot or Sopwith to go with your cars....

Excellent work on the boats as always.

Hello all!
protracted absence

--alas supreme weather for 3 weeks (!!??) ( for UK...)
means I have been somewhat distracted by driving classic cars....

20250406_103816.jpg

B



1:

[SG1]

Excellent progress! Canvas covers are one of your specialities i like most. Thanks for sharing the misadventure with the AK burnishing product (splendid flamethrower effect, bravo AK )

[pascalemod]

I always wondered how the boats are supported on davits with canvas toppers on them - are they just roped through the canvas? Like there is a hole cut in canvas for wires to drop through them and attach to the bottom of the boats?

[JIM BAUMANN]

@ pascal mod....

Boat covers in boats of old had various means of the hoist passing through them

the covers main purpose was keeping the contents ( sails, spars, supplies etc )dry

ultimate 'waterproofness ' was not primarily vital-
-as all water running down the hoists would have dropped through the floorboards and escaped through the drain-holes

( which are stoppered at launch! )



thus the covers --in the instance pictured below--- have a slot ( that can be laced closed ) to allow fitting of covers
with boat on the hoists

where the hoists are further 'twards midships--there is often a laced up joining slot
'twards the inboard side from each hoist position


such as here on a Dryad class ship

You can clearly see the laced up join fwd

with stacked / nested boats like on Normandie--its trickier

the ' main boat is on the hoists--- the nested boats hoists are slack ( as the boat is not hanging ) and the the slack hoist
are led through to the davit

[wefalck]

It's rather strange and embarrassing, but I totally missed out on Jim's new project so far ... and it has progressed a lot since the beginning of the year, despite outdoor diversions.

What always amazes me is, how you find suitable pieces on odd photoetch frets. You must have stacks of them, but how do you keep track of what's on them?

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello all

I have been making solid progress towards completion.
alas...
at the moment ....
I find myself having some difficulties uploading the images to support my recent doings.

Will repost as soon as I can get the images ' up

Kind regards
Jim Baumann

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello all-

-Herewith some images to back up recent works;
( excuse the low quality images--the lens had an ( un-noticed!) smear on it...


The ships boats had the rope fall blocks installed
and in the case of the outboard slung sea-boat whaler ,external tan straps hold it rigidly to the griping spar

along with deck edge railings

( which were stanchion-and -cable , these had varying degrees of gentle sag in various places !)
and many more sailors

Some of the boats -according to photos... were fitted with covers
the larger gig on STB side was open

The ship was fitted with awning stanchion to enable fore and aft decks to carry awnings along with the bridge.
a repeatable source of awning stanchions was gleaned from PE Oars ( old WEM )

these were pre-painted and cut to size

Before the stanchions were to be installed I needed to install 3 x anchors
the Kit had some quite well proportioned anchors-.....
-if a trifle too large for the anchor beds--

and anyhow almost inseparable without damage and breakage from the resin base

so I made my own-using redundant elderly PE semaphores as a repeatable starting point

whilst making fiddly stuff I made the prominently visible Navigation light boxes of brass strip

Awning stanchions were installed and rigged--the below image show the port side nav light ( red) below the bridge

Anchor have been installed to the beds and the external chain draped along by its securing points to the anchor

Rigging is now well underway

the stern lantern has been affixed to the aft flagstaff along with Ensign

Unusually for a Royal Navy ship the Ensign is NOT flown from the gaff

( as there is no gaff! ) and images of the time show these ships underway with the ( decent size! )
approx 8 ft on the hoist Ensign flown from the stern !

[wefalck]

As usual

[pascalemod]

Jim, the ensign size - do you use some approximate decals to get it to fit (how shocking of me to assume) or you print them as decals to exact size? I ask because recently I discovered my Hood model did not have an approriate battle ensign size (24ft long) but whatever Trumpeter had in the box (... smaller). And It got me wondering how best to nail the flag size. If you have tips - please share!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hi Pascal Mod....

I wish I could tell you I designed it first and then and printed it...

alas this time .....
I went through my extensive stash of flag decals, including White Ensign RN flag decals of various
manufacturers
and ended up using a sheet ( numerous various sizes of flagdecal)
by Duane Fowler from back around 2003 -

-these were ' alps ribbon printer ' printed;
and had a pleasing lack of density and not quite fully opaque white

( which I scaled @ 7 ft hoist -- from a side-elevation photo of the ship and offered up to a sailor onboard near the stern

the assumption-- he is 5ft 10 inches tall !

near enough!

regards
JIM B

[SG1]

Delightful. Solid progress.