Albatros by Dr PR - Mantua - Scale 1:48 - Revenue Cutter kitbash about 1815

[georgeband]

I have used teabag paper to make a sail for a 1/64 boat. The paper was reclaimed from a used teabag and therefore has sound environmental credentials, but the size is limited. The photo shows a tea-stained sail glued to a wire mast; the seams are drawn on with pencil. 

A quick search on the web for 'tea bag paper' shows several suppliers who offer sheets or rolls at low cost. My intention with Whiting is to use this paper for the sails, and even to try printing the seams on it. At my rate of building this is probably a year away...

 

George

[Dr PR]

I have finally caught up on taxes, financial dealings for the nonprofit I am Treasurer for, my own savings accounts, and preparing a lecture - it has been a hectic couple of weeks - and can now get back to important things! I have a little bit of progress to report on the ship model.

 

I left off with the preparation of a sail, the main spar gaff topsail. The next step was adding the boltropes. These are on the port side of fore-and-aft sails where the linings were placed (on square sails the bolt ropes are on the aft side of the sail).

 

I made a few changes to my work area.

 

 

I stapled a sheet of parchment paper to the cardboard work surface (the other side serves as a cutting board). I also have a piece of parchment paper to place over the glued areas for heating them with an iron. The parchment paper seems to work better than the waxed paper.

 

The little Mini Iron II (Clover No. 9100) is a quilting iron for seams. I saw it mentioned in another post on the Forum as a plank bending tool. But it is also perfect for ironing the tablings, linings and bolt ropes after they have been glued. It is less cumbersome than a large iron and the  small tip gets into tight spaces. But I also used it to iron the entire sail after everything was finished. And now I have a plank bender too!

 

It is basically a 40 Watt/120 Volt soldering iron with specialized ironing tips. It has three heat levels, low (200F/105C), medium (390F/200C) and high(580F/295C). They recommend the low setting for silk.

 

I also mixed up some diluted white glue 50:50 with water. I like the white glue because it dries without a trace and you can loosen it if you need to with water or the diluted glue. The small clamps are essential to prevent the sail from moving while you are attaching the ropes!

 

This sail has a larger boltrope across the head (1/2 diameter of the main topmast stay) and smaller ropes on the leech, foot and luff (1/4 the diameter of the topmast stay). I used 0.012" (0.30 mm) rope on the head and 0.008" (0.20 mm) on the other sides.

 

Note that the rope is glued to the port side of the sail (opposite the tablings) and not to the edge of the sail. This is the way the books say to do it and it gives a larger surface area for the glue to attach to. I do not plan to lace the bolt ropes to the sail edges as is done with real sails, because the lacing material would be microscopic.

 

At the corners I created a small loop "cringle."

 

This method requires a bit of patience. Of course the rope has a mind of its own and wants to be anywhere but exactly along the sail edge. So you have to do a little bit at a time and wait for the glue to dry before continuing. The little iron does speed things up a bit. There were a few places where I had to go back and reposition the rope so it was nice that the white glue can be softened after it dried.

 

 

After the glue set up I seized the cringles with small stuff and white glue. This should place all the strain on the bolt ropes. As you can see in the photos there are a few small spots that can be reworked to get the rope exactly along the sail edge.

 

After the glue dried the small stuff was trimmed.

 

 

 

The ends of the larger rope across head of the sail were turned into a loop for a cringle and a short bit of rope was glued down along the top of the leech and luff. Small stuff was tied around the cringle for seizing. Here I did sew some small stuff through the sail material and around both ropes.

 

The head of the sail will be laced to the spar. For this I will sew the lacing through the sail material just inside the bolt rope.

 

Here is the finished (I hope) sail. Eight more to go (if I install the fore course).

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 28 by Dr PR