Saturday, July 29, 2017

HMS Agamemnon; Nelson's favorite...

. . . but maybe not mine, so much.  I found the "Eggs-and-Bacon" in a Langton boxed set for sale on eBay.  Since I need it, and all the other ships in the box for Trafalgar, I went ahead and picked it up. The Agamemnon was already painted and assembled (but not rigged); however, I wasn't happy with how the masts had been done.  So, I disassembled, stripped, repainted and reassembled the ship.

Rigging was where my problems really started.First I tried a different type of thread from what I normally use. Other people get good results with it, but I didn't, as it frayed and unraveled at the slightest provocation.  So, I cut all that out and went back to my normal thread.  Then, I discovered that I had rigged part of the stays incorrectly when using my normal thread , so had to cut all those out again.  No excuses here, this was completely my fault.  After all, "I've built almost a hundred of these things, so I don't need to look at the instructions."  WRONG!  I got that part redone, and all the ratlines on her.  That's when I dropped the ship.

Rather than let it fall, I tried to catch it.  That meant it bounced down my legs and THEN hit the floor.  Fortunately, the standing rigging worked like it is supposed to, and I was able to pull all the masts back into line without anything breaking.  There are no pictures of this, as I suspect my obscene language at the time would have turned any photographs a fine shade of blue.  There were some minor mistakes in the running rigging, but I was able to catch them before they were baked into the ship.  I guess the moral of this story is either:
  1. No matter how many times you've done this, read the stinking instructions, or
  2. if you're a beginner, don't be afraid of making mistakes.  We all still do, no matter how much experience we might have.
Now, with all that out of the way, let's get to some photos.  In my attempt to get at least one blog post up this month, I didn't set up my usual system of lights for taking photographs.  However, I still think they came out OK.
Looks like there might be some debris on the Captain's sternwalk.
Even with all the issues and my clumsiness, she's still a pretty good looking little ship.  Credit for that goes to the original design and the sculpting skill of the Langtons.

While it sounds like this Agamemnon might be a hard-luck ship, I'm hoping that isn't the case.  In fact, unlike many of my ships, she will make her first appearance on the game table next month in a "what-if" scenario that, had it occurred, she would have been a participant in.  I'm hoping she can extinguish some of the bad luck from her building on the game table.

8 comments:

  1. Looks good, despite the interesting journey.

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    1. Thanks, and "interesting journey" is a good way to put it. It looked good in the eBay listing, but when she arrived I realized the masts were all wrong. So, if you're going to redo those, you may as well repaint the hull as well so it matches your own painting style.

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  2. I hate when I drop models!!!

    Nicely done, ship looks great. Keep it up.

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    1. Thank you. I need to get the British fleet out and start photographing them for their fleet appearance. I've teased by showing (almost) all the other fleets, so now it's time to bring the Brits into the spotlight. After that will come the small, unrated stuff and then land items.

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  3. Wow Brian, I have never experienced fly tying thread fraying or unraveling like you describe. I wonder what brand you bought. Maybe it's different from what I have used? Sorry if I steered you wrong my friend. The ship looks great!
    Vol

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    1. Vol,
      I don't in any way consider that you "steered me wrong," or anything like that. You made a suggestion that worked for you, but it didn't work for me. It happens, and I'll readily admit that it could well be my ham-handed methods where rigging is concerned. No apology needed.

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  4. She's a Beauty, Brian.

    When RN Warship Minis get dropped, you could say "For what we are about to receive, may God make us truly thankful!"

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    1. Anna,
      That would be the historically accurate response, I know. I also suspect that the other navies had their own version of the saying, so it would probably be correct for all of them.

      What I can say is, God's name was used several times but not in a respectful way!

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