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usedtosail

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Everything posted by usedtosail

  1. usedtosail
    The main sail is compete and I added it to the model this afternoon. Pictures to follow. I did get an early Christmas present, though, so I used it to take the following pictures. It is a macro lens for my camera, so now I can get all those too close shots that show off all the flaws Merry Christmas everyone.
  2. usedtosail
    Thanks Mike. One of the plan sheets showed the sails on the spar on the boat, but they were shown in profile, so I traced the outline from that. It also showed the seams and the reef points (the ropes that hold the furled sails), so everything was there that I needed to make them. It did not show any holes along the top of the sail, so I just used a needle and sewed it to the spar.
  3. usedtosail
    Thank you Steve. I wasn't sure when I started this that it was going to be as interesting as the larger builds, but I have learned a lot and really enjoyed it. Plus my wife will be happy that we can put this on our mantle instead of taking a large space somewhere else.
  4. usedtosail
    And here is what I have been working on all weekend, the fore sail. I used Tacky Glue to glue the seams all the way around the sail, cutting the corners so the material from two sides did not overlap. I then sewed a bolt rope all the way around the sail, seizing the corners into loops as I got to them. I started at the middle of the head of the sail and worked my way around. I used a very thin needle so the holes in the sail were small, and just went through the sail and the bolt rope at the same time, looping around each time. I finished where I started and trimmed the bolt rope so the ends were flush. Here is a close up of one of the loops and the bolt rope on either side. I drew the other seam lines onto both sides of the sail using a regular pencil with a light pressure. I added the reef points by knotting a piece of line and threading it through the sail with a needle, then tying another knot on the other side close to the sail. I left these all long until they were all on, then trimmed them all to the same length on both sides. I then used a tiny bit of the Tacky glue to hold the ends of the reef points to the sail, so they look like they are hanging straight down. I then sewed the sail to the spar, just wrapping the line around the spar and through the sail. The two loops at the head of the sail are wrapped with this line at the ends of the spar. I straightened some of the supplied line for the halyard, sheet and tack. I first ran it through bees wax then over a hot light bulb and through my fingers. This does a nice job for lines that are supplied on cards, which tend to be very kinked. I tied the halyard to the spar with a clove hitch, then ran the other end through the block on the fore mast. I have the spar between the two shrouds. I tied the halyard off to the belaying pin next to the fore mast. I tied the sheet and tack lines to the two loops at the foot of the sail using bowlines, then tied off the other ends to belaying pins. Here is the result: Now I just have to repeat all that for the main sail, plus I need to add rope coils for the halyards, sheets and tacks.
  5. usedtosail
    Other than the Pats getting beat by the Dolphins, its been a good weekend. Here are some pictures from last week when I extended the serving on the shrouds. The first one is the served line in the serving machine. I marked the ends of the serving with some thread pulled through the shroud with a needle. I have to remind myself which way the line should go into the machine so I made myself a big note right on it. I also made it so the line to be served is at the bottom of the machine. One advantage I found is then when I put an alligator clip on like in this picture, the clip hits the bottom of the machine so the serving doesn't unwind. I find it also easier to control the serving line since my hand can rest on the table. The next picture shows my home made serving machine. I didn't have any gears lying around, so I tried rubber bands. While not the prettiest machine on this site, I does work OK. Eventually, I will make a better one with gears, probably before I need it for the Connie build, which will be next. And here is how I finish the servings. I coat them with Dullcote Lacquer and put a tiny drop of CA glue on the end knots. Here are the results of the new shrouds. I ma much happier with these than the old ones.
  6. usedtosail
    Great questions, esion. I did not glue the belaying pins into the holes, but that may change. When I was belaying the shrouds, I did notice the pins pulling up a little and the line wanting to go underneath the head, but I was able to push them back down as I belayed the line. If this becomes too much of a problem, I may glue some of them in that I am tying to. The rest I plan to leave loose. If you read some of the other build logs for the launch, you will see that the belaying pins are probably not authentic for this boat, but since I like the look of them I am using them. They used straight metal rods through the thwarts instead of the pins. As for the sails, I am not putting holes in the corners, but instead seizing loops in the bolt rope at each of the corners. You can see a prototype in the first sail picture above. At least that is my plan. For the reefing lines, I am going to use a needle and thread line through the sail, so no hole there either.
  7. usedtosail
    Quiz for today - what's wrong with the picture of the top of the shrouds? The serving is too short. I figure it should end below where the spars will end up when installed, so I removed the shrouds and I am in the process of re-doing the serving. I am also making the fore shrouds with longer servers.
  8. usedtosail
    Making sails - This is the first model I will be adding sails to that I have had to make myself. I don't have a working sewing machine and I don't think I would like that look anyway, so I experimented with non-machine sewing techniques. ME supplied enough material so I could make an extra sail, which I did for the experimentation. I bought some Fray Check to seal the edges, so my first thought was to just use it on the edges, cut the sails out on those edges, then add the bolt rope to the raw edges. Actually, my original thought was to make a hem and put the bolt rope in the hem, but it looks like that is not how it was done, the bolt rope should be outside the sail all the way around. So, I cut out the first sail and started sewing a bolt rope to the unhemmed edge. This looked OK in some places but too ragged in others. I then used this same sail to glue a hem over, which looked pretty good, so my approach now is to cut a new sail, glue the hem over, and sew a bolt rope all the way around. I did experiment with seizing the loops in the same piece of line as the rest of the boltrope, which worked great. Here is the experimentation sail: Here is the second sail cut and starting to be glued. I used a Tacky Glue that sticks pretty fast and doesn't run, with a small applicator to apply it. I found on the first sail that if I used my hands to close the hem, the sail could pick up dirt from them, so I used a Q-tip to force the seam together. At the corners, I cut the two hems to meet in the middle of the corner. Here is the front and back of the sail after gluing. Besides the bolt rope and the loops, I will pencil in the other seam lines and add reefing lines. The pencil lines on the first sail are too dark, so the new ones will be lighter. More pictures as the sail comes together. I am going to make one complete sail before starting the other.
  9. usedtosail
    I was travelling all last week, so I didn't get back to building until Sunday. Here are the results of the new served block strops I made. This time, I left the serving a little short so the overlap section was unserved, I used two methods to fix the loop, which both worked well. For one, I used a fake splice, where I just threaded the unserved part on one end through the unserved part on the other end twice, then used some CA to hold the two sides together. On the other, I just tied an overhand knot and fixed it with CA. I then wrapped the loop around the block with the join above the block, which I then covered with a seizing. I used an alligator clip above the join to mark the start of the seizing, then worked my way down to the block. The line is much better centered above the block now. I also served the middle of the main shroud/stay and seized it around the mast. I attached the other ends to two belaying pins in the stern sheets. These are not glued in at all, just fixed by reversing the last loop around the top of the pin. Another view of the shrouds/stays. You can see the difference with how they are placed from the kit instructions, as shown on the box top. I attached these above the spars instead of below, which matches the contemporary plans. The next post will talk about the start of the sail making.
  10. usedtosail
    I think you'll like this build, Keith. Your Bounty build looks really nice. I think you will have no problem with the Launch. I look forward to following your log. be sure to look at the other logs on MSW for this kit. They were a big inspiration for me.
  11. usedtosail
    Michael, I just got through reading your whole build log. All I say is Wow! That is some beautiful wood and metal work. You say you were a professional model builder. What a dream job, but I am sure it had its days. I am just glad you still enjoy model building, since myself and probably many others are learning a great deal from your work. Thank you.
  12. usedtosail
    I like the colors too. Go for it
  13. usedtosail
    Amfibius - the wood supplied in the kit is mostly all very light basswood sheet and strips. I don't think you would like it if you left it unstained. I have used a Pre-Stain for most of the stained pieces I have done on this build, which I think helps a great deal with consistency of the finish. There were a couple of pieces that just would not take stain well, like the dowels for the masts and spars, so for these I used a very diluted acrylic paint, which matches the other stained pieces pretty well.
  14. usedtosail
    Thanks Pete. esion - I got the idea for the thwart knees from another build on this site, Cap'n Rat Fink, who was using contemporary plans of the launch. There are a number of differences from the kit plans, most of which I incorporated.
  15. usedtosail
    Here is an update on the barrels and served block strop. To complete the small barrels, I made a simple jig to hold the barrel, which is just a hole in a piece of basswood. The bottom of the barrel is flush with the under side of the hole, so that there is a constant distance from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the sheet. I just glued the black strips on keeping them flush to the sheet as I rotated the barrel, and of course just flipped the barrel around to do the top strip. Here is how they came out, which is much better than when I tried to do this freehand. Here is my first attempt at stropping the blocks with a served line. It is OK, but I think I can do better.
  16. usedtosail
    Thanks Mick. My lathe has almost no power so only small stuff. Someday I'd like to try larger turnings. I have a friend who has a larger lathe that he uses to make pepper mills, which come out amazing. For this model, I only plan to serve the strops around the two blocks and the top areas of the shrouds where they go around the mast. If this is successful, I will do more on my next build, as this one does not have much rigging.
  17. usedtosail
    Other stuff I am working on. I transferred the shape and details of the fore sail from the plans to a sheet of paper, which I traced onto the supplied sail material. I applied Fray Check along the outside lines, then carefully cut the sail out. I want to add a bolt rope along the outside edges. I am still experimenting with gluing or sewing the bolt rope to the edge. I am leaning toward sewing if I can get it to look good. Gluing was not working out too well on some scrape material. I ran some line for the mast shrouds through bees wax, ran them over a light bulb and through my fingers to get the wax into the line. I then hung them with weights to straighten out: I served some line for the first time in my home made serving machine, to use to strop the two blocks for the spar halyards. I coated the serving in varnish to hold it together. I am hoping they will stay together when I strop the blocks. I sanded the two blocks to get them to look more realistic, too. Finally, I finished finishing the masts. The dowel was not taking the stain well, so I ended up painting them with a very diluted mixture of burnt sienna and raw umber acrylic paint. I am really happy how they came out. I masked off the "natural" part of the masts and used a brush to get a good edge at the white tops. I am not sure which of these projects I will do next, maybe all at once still.
  18. usedtosail
    For some reason, I have been working on a bunch of different things for this build. I usually like to finish one part before moving to the next, but there is a lot of experimentation going on that has got me excited to see what will work best. First, here is how I am working the barrels supplied with the kit. I first scraped and sanded the raised hoops off in the lathe: Here is how they came out: I then made a tick strip to divide the small barrels into 24 equal parts, then transferred the marks to a barrel. I used a similar tick strip for the larger barrels. I then put each barrel in a vise and used a razor saw to score a line at each mark, turning the barrel in the vise after each line (sorry for the blurred picture. Next time I'll use a tripod) I then painted the barrels with a very diluted raw umber acrylic paint, and added black paper strips for the rings. I ended up removing the strips on the small barrels because they were all crooked, so I repainted the barrels and will try again, going more slowly next time. The large barrels came out OK. I really like how the individual staves can be seen now. More stuff in the next post...
  19. usedtosail
    OK, as promised, here is the reworked thwart. It looks much better now. You can also see the stained thole pins and belaying pins. Here are the masts being tapered in the lathe. I mostly used rough sand paper to get them to shape, then a fine sandpaper to finish them. I roughly shaped the cleats off the mast using a straight razor to cut them at an angle, then I did the final sanding using an Emory board while they were on the mast. Here are the two spars with their cleats, which were made the same way. Finally here are the masts getting a coat of primer on the top sections before I paint them the same off white I used for the hull.
  20. usedtosail
    Thanks Bob, Pete and Mick.I really appreciate your support of this build. After posting the last set of picture, that one thwart with the obvious saw marks on the edge jumped out at me, so I removed it and sanded that edge down to remove them. I am in the process of restaining that edge, then I will glue it back in. I have also stained the thole pins and added the belaying pins, which I know are probably not realistic, but I like the look of them. I had to drill out the pre-drilled holes in the various parts to get them to seat all the way down, and also because a few of the nails holding the mast partners in place went through the holes in the middle of the mast thwarts. Once I finish staining the thwart and glue it back in, I'll take some updated pictures. In the mean time, I have tapered the two masts and added the cleats. I am going with the cleats for the shrouds near the top of the masts based on what I saw in other build logs. I have masked off the bottom portions of the masts and primed the tops, which will be painted off white like the hull.
  21. usedtosail
    To make the quarter knees, I drew the shape onto some strip wood, which was actually left over laser cut sheet that came in the kit. I cut each one out in the jig saw, then got them to the final shape with a round file and some sand paper. I trimmed the thin ends so they were all the same length. Here is the strip before cutting: And here are the quarter knees before staining. After I stained them, I glued each one in place and here is the result, along with the glued in thole pins, which have not been stained yet:
  22. usedtosail
    I have been working on the thwart knees and thole pins this week. As you can see in this picture, the supplied dowel in the kit (on the right) is way too small for the size of the pre-drilled holes in the thwarts and other pieces. So, I put some of the left over cherry frames (actually the ones that broke during bending) in the lathe and turned them round with some sand paper, and used these for the thole pins (on the left) in the above picture. I out them all in the holes in the bulwarks, then used a strip of wood that was the correct height to mark them. I took each one out and cut it to the mark, then sanded the top and glued them back into the holes.
  23. usedtosail
    Here are the thwarts in place: I don't know why the edge of the back rest looks so light in these pictures. Here is better picture of the stern which is closer to how it looks for real:
  24. usedtosail
    I attached the pintle an gudgeon to the rudder by gluing them in place, then drilling holes into the rudder through their holes and gluing in nails that were mostly just heads. I then stained the tiller and did some touch up paint on the rudder. To attach the rudder to the hull, I put the pintle and gudgeon that are attached to hull on the corresponding rudder parts, then clamped the rudder to the hull as shown here. This let me drill the holes into the hull through those parts and add the nail heads, after gluing them in place. I then attached the tiller by pushing a brass rod through the two tiller brackets and the rudder head. I touched up the paint on the brackets and the hull parts, and here is how it came out:
  25. usedtosail
    I hope you don't get too much saw dust in your dinner. I love that last picture though.

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