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Chris Lemke’s HMS Bounty Community Build Project

When the S.i.B.B.A. Facebook and YahooGroup(s) decided on a community build of the HMS Bounty as a memorial to her sinking. I was very excited, she’s a lovely ship, and I decided to take this opportunity to build my first ‘large’ SiB.

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My project would be scaled to fit into a 2 gallon jug, measuring twelve inches long, six inches around, with a one inch opening at the neck.  This makes my waterline model of the HMS Bounty 7.5” long from stern to the tip of the Bowsprit, 1.25” wide, and 5.25” from the waterline to the tip of the Main mast.  In this picture I’ve glued the blueprint to the sides of the hull block halves.

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The hull blocks were drilled and had pins added to hold the halves together, then using a thin razor saw I cut across the hull down to the deck level.

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With the lines cut you can then carefully break away the scrap wood leaving you with the blocks carved roughly down to deck level.

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Then it’s just a matter of sanding the deck surface nice and smooth.

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Next I cut even ½ inch sections from some very thin bass wood stock for the deck planks.

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With a lot of planks cut I began laying and gluing the deck planks to the hull blocks, making sure to lay the planking in a staggered pattern.

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One side of the hull planked. Also here you can see the pins that hold the hull halves together.

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The deck is laid, I now let the glue dry for a full 24 hours before sanding the deck smooth.

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Using a fine razor saw I then cut out the shape if the hull as viewed from the top, you must be very patient with this step to make sure you don’t splinter your deck planks. The Deck is the sanded smooth.

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Using the schematics of the hull I then carved and sanded the lower hull into to proper contours.

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Next the Forefoot, gunwales and the area the stern castle windows will go are added.For this I used sheet styrene. Close attention was paid to how the hull halves will fit together.To accomplish this the stern gunwale and window ‘plate’ is attached only to the starboard hull side and cut to fit snugly onto the port side when the hulls are together.
 
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Well the project is moving right along...
 
The next step was to build and paint all the deck details, these were built from a combination styrene, brass rod, and basswood… the helm is made from the fly-cog of a wrist watch. Again special attention is made to make sure that the hulls can easily be separated and put back together without damaging any of the details. Now onto the cannons.
 
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New progress pics on the HMS Bounty...
 
I used 1mm brass tubing and filed it into a proper cannon shape thinning the tubing as close to a proper diameter as I could.
 
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The gun carriages were carved from small blocks of bass wood.
 
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Painting the barrels.
 
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Mounting the cannon onto their carriages and finishing paint.
 
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 Stowing the cannons in place on the deck.

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View thorough the gun ports.
 
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