popeye2sea

I love this little lantern ...
 

 
... it enlightens me ...
 

 
... makes me dream ...
 

 
... makes me feel good ...
 

 
... at least midshipman Mr. Westphal seems to be happy and content ...
 
XXXDAn

Wow.  Simply amazing.  Great build and great photos.

Lest anyone think that the shipyard has closed, let me assure you that after a brief time off for the holidays the laborers have been put back to work diligently forging iron and stropping blocks for the cannons.  Unfortunately, I only get a couple of hours of work a week on the ship.  Progress has been slow!   ( I do hope that his royal highness King Louis does not object!   Thirty plus years is a long time to wait for completion of a ship  )
 
Progress thus far:
 
All cannons mounted on the full gun deck.  These are pinned in place through the bottom of the carriage and the deck so that I did not have to scrape the paint under each wheel and glue.  The breeching ropes are seized to the ring bolts prior to gluing the ring bolts to the hull through holes I drilled near the base of each gun port. Additional holes were drilled and eye bolts installed at the sides of each port for the gun tackles.  Ring bolts were also installed in the deck for the train tackles.
 

 
One cannon has been fully rigged so far.  I still have to coil the ropes.  The cannons on this side are run in and the coiled ropes will be layed over the top of the gun.  On the other side, where the cannons are run out for firing, the tackle falls will be faked down on the deck.
 

 
One thing I noticed with the way that the kevels are placed is that it would be extremely difficult to work the lines belayed here.  The lines that go to these kevels are the sheets and tacks for the courses and the sprit sail.  Another problem... the main sheets come inboard well aft near the quarter galleries and then belay amidships on one of the kevels.  Do I run the sheet over the tops of the cannon barrels or down on the deck beneath the barrels.  Either way it looks like they would foul on the cannons when worked.
 
Perhaps this is the reason why the sails set for battle did not include the lower courses?
 
Still to come...16 more cannons on the fo'c'sle, quarter deck and cabin deck( not sure what the deck between the quarter deck and poop deck was called).
 
Enjoy

Thank you all for the birthday wishes.
 
The build was a big hit at the Shipwright Guild meeting.  I got some good tips on soldering techniques for the upcoming deadeyes and chainplates project. The cannon rigging continues....a long and tedious project.  But, it is progress none the less.  Of course it is taking longer because I keep refining my methods as I go along.  The first cannon in place is a test piece.  Here are some pics of it as it is today.  I may still change some things.  I think I will make the breeching thicker.
 

 

 
Thanks for looking in.
 
Regards,

The quarter galleries have been fitted to the hull with their inset decorative motifs affixed to the inside.
 

 

Gun Carriages.   Before.....and after.   Ready to be rigged.  Not sure if I want to make trunnion covers.
 

 

Finally have some new progress to report. Seems like there is never enough time to work on the build.
 
I am working on correcting the deficiencies in the head of the ship. Since no one really knows what this area of the ship looked like I took some artistic license. I was also pointed in the direction of a build log on another site which gave me some good ideas.
 
Here's what I came up with:
 
I filled the space between the cheeks with a billet carved from styrene stock. Then I cast some silicone molds using the decoration on one of the quarter galleries and cast some pieces in resin.
 




 
Here are the resin pieces mounted and painted

 
Next I carved some head rail timbers from strip styrene

 
And mounted them




 
Then I cast another decoration to ornament the head timbers and mounted them to finish out this project

 
And here is a couple of pics with the head rails and grating temporarily fitted


 
That's all for now.
Thanks for looking in on the build.
 
P.S. I'm hoping this is not too horrible a build. No one has commented yet

First parts of the rigging.
I decided to rig the ship using as a reference The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast by R.C. Anderson. I chose sizes of rigging thread accordingly. Here you see the wooldings, the gammoning and the Main Stay. The thread is poly/cotton dyed black using Minwax Ebony stain. It took a few attempts to get an eye splice turned in; not so bad on the 0.08 inch diameter Main stay but a real bear on the 0.03 inch Gammoning. I don't think I will be making real eye splices on anything smaller than that. I'm sure simulated ones will look just fine for the smaller rope. The wooldings are 0.02 inch and seized around the masts using the method of taking the required number of turns round the mast and over a bight in the line and heaving the ends taught underneath by pulling the bight down beneath the turns. Not all the wooldings have been put on the Fore Mast yet. You can also see the mast coat I added to the main mast. I will put one on the Fore and Mizzen once the deck level can be determined.

I still need to raise a mouse on the Main Stay and seize a treble block in on the lower end.
 




 
Enjoy,
 
Henry
 

Here is the start on some of the brightwork. The unpainted area of the after bulwarks is where the quarter gallery will go.

I opened the quarter galleries. Still working on fitting floors for the quarter galleries out of sheet styrene. The ornamentation that was cut out of the openings will be mounted on the bulwarks.
 






 
 
 
 

Received this video I'd like to share.
 
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4zkp7hvrgbcd7gd/D-qPNsG9ym#lh:null-Laffey%20Enhanced%20vo%203.wmv
 
S.os

I thought I would just post the final result of everyone's advice here.
Thinner line for the flag halyard.
Small cleat installed on the mainmast.
Toggle above the flag, eye splice below.
Eye splice in the halyard for the toggle, sheet bend to attach the halyard to the eyesplice below the flag.
A little extra length in the halyard to join the two ends when a flag is not being flown.
 
And I added a few small drops of cyano to keep the flag in the direction I wanted.
 
And my first wood model is done! Thanks a bunch, mates.
 

Lest anyone think that the shipyard has closed, let me assure you that after a brief time off for the holidays the laborers have been put back to work diligently forging iron and stropping blocks for the cannons.  Unfortunately, I only get a couple of hours of work a week on the ship.  Progress has been slow!   ( I do hope that his royal highness King Louis does not object!   Thirty plus years is a long time to wait for completion of a ship  )
 
Progress thus far:
 
All cannons mounted on the full gun deck.  These are pinned in place through the bottom of the carriage and the deck so that I did not have to scrape the paint under each wheel and glue.  The breeching ropes are seized to the ring bolts prior to gluing the ring bolts to the hull through holes I drilled near the base of each gun port. Additional holes were drilled and eye bolts installed at the sides of each port for the gun tackles.  Ring bolts were also installed in the deck for the train tackles.
 

 
One cannon has been fully rigged so far.  I still have to coil the ropes.  The cannons on this side are run in and the coiled ropes will be layed over the top of the gun.  On the other side, where the cannons are run out for firing, the tackle falls will be faked down on the deck.
 

 
One thing I noticed with the way that the kevels are placed is that it would be extremely difficult to work the lines belayed here.  The lines that go to these kevels are the sheets and tacks for the courses and the sprit sail.  Another problem... the main sheets come inboard well aft near the quarter galleries and then belay amidships on one of the kevels.  Do I run the sheet over the tops of the cannon barrels or down on the deck beneath the barrels.  Either way it looks like they would foul on the cannons when worked.
 
Perhaps this is the reason why the sails set for battle did not include the lower courses?
 
Still to come...16 more cannons on the fo'c'sle, quarter deck and cabin deck( not sure what the deck between the quarter deck and poop deck was called).
 
Enjoy

It is amazing the amount of knowledge that we acquire in the building of these ships.  Naval architecture, naval engineering, rigging, coopering, ships chandlery, woodworking, sailmaking, rope making, armaments, etc. etc.

Jay,
I have those pics for you.
It looks like the bentinck shroud legs are middled through a thimble eyespliced into the shroud, the splice served.  There are 4 legs, the center pair are not actually shroud legs but they look like a long seizing, frapped, between the middle futtock shrouds and the bentinck shroud thimble.  The other 3 legs have a thimble spliced into each end with a frapped seizing attaching them to the futtock stave. The shroud legs are served their entire length.
 
The lower end of the bentinck shroud is seized around a heart with a throat and four round seizings.  The lower heart is stropped double with two eyes. The eyes are held with a pin through an eyebolt in the waterway.  The lanyard starts with an eye splice in the upper heart and the end is hitched round the shroud at the throat seizing end the bitter end seized to one of the parts of the laniard.
 
Also visible in the photos is the attachments of the catharpin legs.  You can also see that the bentinck shroud is served where there may be chafe from other rigging.
 
Hope this info helps.
 

Yes I did Jay.
 
I went to specialized lumber store that saves old barn siding and the like. For 25 bucks I got a great deeply weathered and gray  hunk of siding. It measures 1"X 12" X 3'. It even has a few nail holes in it.  I'm going to cut it to size *8" wide by 28 ". The rip will be a 45o that will enable me to put the beveled piece ripped off  glued on the other side  thus preserving the weathered appearance. This piece will project higher than the base forming a lip in which the plexi glass case to fit into.  I all ready  assembled  the case  but had the plexi glass dealer cut the pieces.  I will post the case when finished along with the still incomplete model. All those little whale hunting gear takes time to assemble.
 
Thanks for asking
 
S.os

That's exactly what I was referring too, also.   It's not just the thickness of one line.  Your trying to draw four items through, the line doubled and two sides of whatever your using to draw.  The hole in the block now has to be three or four times larger than it should be.
Seems to me like your better off hardening the line with a drop of CA

Once you serve, it's in your blood forever.  It's one of the reasons I build ship models.

Once you serve, it's in your blood forever.  It's one of the reasons I build ship models.

Once you serve, it's in your blood forever.  It's one of the reasons I build ship models.

Once you serve, it's in your blood forever.  It's one of the reasons I build ship models.

Just a minor update. I've had a lot of travel lately.
 
I wanted to preserve the rotation of the capstan on both levels. Revell had originally allowed the spar deck capstan to rotate and I wanted that also. The trick is getting it through the deck without painting the deck or gluing it to the deck. So I came up with a capstan 'sleeve' idea. I.e., I will make the spar deck capstan separately and paint it separately and then glue the entire assembly to the axle. A start of this idea is shown below.

The distinction between whipping and seizing is that whipping is applied to a single rope to prevent unlaying and seizing is joining two items together.
 
There are several styles of whipping, i.e: plain, palm and needle, sail makers and there are several types of seizings, i.e: cross (or throat), racked, flat and round.

My goodness, Henry, that is great work. Many thanks.
I will have to digest some of this, but I already know that I have more work in stall.
 
Your details are perfect about the futtock shroud attachments. I knew that the futtock shrouds did not simply go under the stave and down. That is why I tried to make that transition piece in my log, but then again that becomes very detailed and complicated.
 
However, I see that the bentnick shroud does have a large thimble at its end and the futtock lines are looped through that. I did not know that the bentnick's splice was served because it was so hidden in the previous pictures. This clarifies this view. I already made some metal loops to take their place and probably will leave it at that for my port side.
 
The plans did call for the attachment to the waterways to be where you have shown it in one of your pictures. I am surprised because that seems to be a spot that interferes with the operation of the gun to the right. But what do I know.
Again I have drilled holes and was ready to mount the eyebolts a bit further to the left of what is shown. Need to rethink!
 
The attachment to the waterways is simple, permanent, but does require that special block(s). They don't look like 'hearts' but I am still tempted to use the deadeyes I have to take their place. After all, this is a rather permanent situation and my approach still is to make things look a bit 'real', even if it isn't.
 
From all I have now I am more satisfied about my rigging from here on. So, Henry, my most thankfulness goes your way, my friend, my 'young salt'. I appreciate this.

Jay,
I posted some info and picures in your other thread about the futtock shrouds.
 
Hope it helps.

I like it.  My kit has neither capstans nor helm.  I am thinking about putting them in