Hello everyone,

I've been debating for some time whether to re-build this log or not from the MSW crash 2.0. For several reasons:- Firstly I started building this model way back in February 2010 - and I've still not finished it! 😲 Having lost interest in it and back again a few times over the last sixteen years... embarrassing given how quickly the original "Bethia" took to build! 😆 Secondly my abilities in kit wrangling over this time have evolved and I look at this kit and mostly just see the mistakes now, so its hard to fall back into wanting to take it up and see it through to finishing. Then finally, well it's "Bounty"! - a subject done to death with many kits and builds over the decades.

So what to do? Bin it? - but I've got so close to finishing it 😬, just the rigging remains as of now, so seems a shame to fall at the last hurdle maybe? Then there is the issue of the subject matter, yes many builds have been done, but just now, on DDM there are not many Bounty builds - yet! So maybe a log of the less often built old Caldercraft version might be of passing interest to some. Then finally there was the clincher, I have Vanguard Model's HMS Surprise on order, and I need the space and also the practice of doing some rigging- "ship rig" style me thinks!

Having decided to press on I decided to dust off the old photos and rebuild the log, all the comments afraid are gone and the advice I got over the years sadly, but the build sequence is preserved in the photos so I'll break those down into little chapters of the main steps of this kit.

So if you are sitting comfortably, then I'll begin... "A long LONG, time ago a (younger) modeller fresh from building Caldercraft's "HM Cutter Sherbourne" was looking for the next challenge and rather ambitiously (as it turned out!) settled on bidding for a Caldercraft HMAV Bounty on eBay and won it for a bargain price, as it had been started but abandoned. Now you would have thought alarm bells might of rang at that point, no? 🔔 - well no, not for a few years anyway! 🤣

So here is what arrived in the post, to be continued...

The strip back -

I remember looking at this box of wood and bits and thinking "oh, this is a bit of a leap", but did fortunately spend a while studying what had been done by the person I'd bought it off and realised the keel was warped. So I removed the deck and started to fair the false keel and add a rabbet for the first planking. I also filled out the spaces between the bulkheads with hard balsa that was used to straighten out the keel. Much sanding, filling and fairing ensued.

First Planking -

A few pictures showing my attempts at laying out a pattern for the fist planking and trying to set plank width correctly. I'd use thin tape now for the process of eyeing up how the planks would lie, but at least an effort to plan the work was attempted.

The kit in the background of the last picture is a 1/48 Tamiya Lancaster (long gone), we've also moved house since these picture were taken.

Second Planking -

With reference to the "Anatomy of the Ship" book I have, some planking lengths were marked out for the second planking, then a temporary batten was pinned to the hull so I could place the shortened second planking in the right place working up to the deck level. Less care was taken below the waterline as this model was coppered; you can see random lengths and infill pieces below the marked waterline. I try to do better now and lay the second planking as best I can down to the keel, out of pride as much as anything, but also there is less chance of imperfections showing through paint of even copper tape/plates.

Need to sort some more pictures for the next updates.

that planking looks good

Coppering & first hiatus! -

Coppering, the cause of the first time I set Bounty aside; moved house, did loads of other kits and generally ignored the model for a good two-three years!

All started well enough, went to the trouble of cutting some fine battens for the water-line layer of the copper plates and then commenced the coppering as shown in the fourth picture. Where things went wrong was that I didn't pay enough attention to the "creep" of the pattern and the "brick" pattern got out of alignment - the ends of the plates on alternate rows started to drift out of a plumb, unfortunately I didn't notice until I'd done about two thirds of one side of the hull! 🥴 at that point Bounty got her first taste of life on the "Shelf of Shame" and learned to love dust and neglect...

The pictures are a little out of sequence at this point, as you can see there was other areas I had worked on once I got the Bounty back down and restarted work on it. But this post is about the Coppering from start to finish, warts and all, so please forgive I've not stuck to the chronological order, but rebuilding this log by stage or subject of the kit.

Looking at it now, I'd say I would never use Caldercraft's copper plates again, the "dimples" representing the copper nailing are way out of scale and they are quite thick and inflexible to work with. Think the Amati plates, or copper tape are the better options now, but I didn't know any better then, and I'm definitely not taking them off now! 😬

The other issues that I've had ample time to regret, is not cleaning the copper plates from excess C-A glue, I did belated try at one stage, but once left for a long time its hard to remove. This was made all the more painfully obvious once I made the fateful decision to age or weather the copper plates with salt/vinegar to remove the shine as I had seen other people do on their builds. Initially I could not see any problems, but as the years have gone on and the plates have darkened, just look at all those lovely bright C-A smeared patches! Oh brother! 😅

Looking into the next chapter from the archives to amuse you all...

Historical interlude -

Some years ago I was visiting the Imperial War Museum in London and by accident walked past a former residence of William Bligh; it is directly opposite the museum if you are in that neck of the woods, I didn't realise it was there, just a happy coincidence. It is now a Bed & Breakfast Guest House, so you can stay there I think!

Hi I feel your pain coppering my caldercraft Victory was an immense pain in the backside but managed it over a few weeks. Has your weathered naturally over the shelf time or did you do it?

Brian

Hi Brian, I accelerated the process with vinegar/salt. But the main issue was not being careful enough with C-A glue, or doing a proper clean-up of any seepages onto the visible surface. Hence the lovely shiny patches amongst the darker plates. 🥹

On 7/2/2026 at 5:16 AM, AJohnson said:

Firstly I started building this model way back in February 2010 - and I've still not finished it! 

Hi, sorry I have not been able to determine your christian name. I wouldn't be concerned with the time its taken to get this far - it took me 15 years for my Endeavour build (logs lost in MSW 1 crash and again with MSW 2) - I will eventually get ariound to reposting it.

Your build is coming along very nicely; the hull planking looks good and very symetrical. CA is a real issue when putting on the plates. Had the same issue with the plates on my Victoria initially, but took them off and used 'contact glue' . I wouldn't worry about the shiny patches too much as I think some parts of the actual plates would have been polished wiith water motion (well it sounds like a story to use at least) :)

cheers

Pat

16 hours ago, Banyan said:

Your build is coming along very nicely; the hull planking looks good and very symetrical. CA is a real issue when putting on the plates. Had the same issue with the plates on my Victoria initially, but took them off and used 'contact glue' . I wouldn't worry about the shiny patches too much as I think some parts of the actual plates would have been polished wiith water motion (well it sounds like a story to use at least) :)

cheers

Thanks Pat, from a distance the "shiny" bits of coppering are not too bad, but it is annoying when I foul-up on stuff like that.

The next update from re-building this log is the deck, at the time I was reasonably happy with the results, but looking back the tree nails; drilled into the deck and filled with dark wood filler, are too prominent. But we live and learn, and the Bounty has a "busy" deck, so many of this "black heads" get hidden. 😆

Some enhancements -

During the build it became increasingly obvious there were some relatively easy enhancements to be made to the basic kit and so I purchased a few bit and pieces to pimp up my Bounty: - A new ships wheel and galley flu from Caldercraft, Crew figures from Amati and new Binnacle, Capstan and Cannons from Vanguard.

Below a re a few pictures of the alternative parts with the kit supplied for comparison, overall. I think worth the investment.

1. The Binnacle, Vanguard part on the left, kit part on the right.

2. Capstan, kit part on the left, Vanguard part on the right

3. Galley flue/Chimney, reference plan detail from the RMG archives and the replacement Caldercraft flue on scratch base on the left, weird "skinny" kit chimney on the right.

4. Anchors, are actually the kit parts, but I did add stock bolts using wire and added puddening to the anchor ring.

5. Swivel guns, the kit supplies flat P.E. parts for the handle, but they are positioned in the wrong place, so I fashioned some hire handles attached to the cascabel as per. references I found.

6. Replacement Canons, these really were a big improvement, the gun carriages in the kit were really clunky.

Thanks everyone who has looked in and commented or liked the posts so far. As mentioned in my Sparkler log the arrival of DDM has revived my enthusiasm to get this kit over the line! 🙂

'Bashing' a kit by improveing or replacing parts makes for a much improved model; it is certainly obvious in your before and after shots.

cheers

Pat

Well one area I didn't bash, but tried my best with was the kit supplied ships boats. I built these a while ago, had Vanguard Models boat kits or later 3D printed boats been available back then I would definitely have swapped them out, but they weren't, so I went with what was available and the results are attached. They are nothing remotely like the boats as detailed in the Anatomy of the Ship book I have, but from a distance they look okay...

They look more then okay Andrew! Great looking boats❤️

3 hours ago, Ronald-V said:

They look more then okay Andrew! Great looking boats❤️

You are too kind. Compared to the kits available now for Ships boats they are very crude, but I'm not re-doing them! 😆

One little area I did try and improve on was the white metal casting for the little quarter galleries. These were very basic parts and lacked some of the details shown on the RMG plans that are easily available. So a added some scratch details to improve on the basic metal parts.

Another little addition - Air scuttles, visible on contemporary plans for the great cabin, converted to transport the breadfruits.

Easy little additions, just for an attempt at more accuracy where I can.

Lovely build it all looks great 👌

2 hours ago, Brian62 said:

Lovely build it all looks great 👌

Thank you for the kind comments and likes.

Next instalment, the rigging installing of the guns. I made some breeching rope rings out of wire and also a little jig to produce flat rope coils; just two plastic discs held in place by a central drawing pin. The tackle thread was then soaked in dilute PVA glue and wrapped around the pin between the two discs and left to dry. Once all was dry the pin was pulled out and the dry discs of thread were trimmed to size for placing on the deck to hide the free end of the rigged tackles.

Thanks for looking in. 👍

This post is a bit a catch up for all the various deck fitting I completed, I can't remember now what order they were completed in but here is the first batch according to my saved photos:

Hatches, gratings, Pumps, Windlass; with the Ship's bell. The Vanguard Capstan, figurehead (since repainted!) Also rigged the replacement Caldercraft steering wheel, and Anchor buoy ropes - still to make the buoys though.