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Moonbug

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Everything posted by Moonbug

  1. Moonbug
    Thanks @brunnels - much appreciated. While I make reference to David Steel, Lees, and Greg Herbert - I always try to make sure there is credit where credit is do - I frequently refer to Dan Vadas' build of the Vulture which is one of the best examples of pure craftsmanship and accuracy. I also constantly hop back to @Blue Ensign's Pegasus build for accuracy as well - but BE also did such a fantastic job of translating Steel, Lees, and Greg's references in what 1/64 scale should be it saves me loads of time flipping through pages and doing math.
  2. Moonbug
    Next up are the main and preventer stays as they're obviously much easier to add at this stage prior to the foremast shrouds. As the largest line on the ship, the mainstay runs at 10" circular translating to 1.26mm at 1/64, or in my case 1.25 - which I had to take the time to spin since I didn't have that size immediately available. For those of you using the magical Syren rope rocket, I achieved 1.25 mm by spinning four lines of Gutermann Mara 15 thread. After doing a little search and noodling, I found some evidence of the preventer stay being below the main, while most had it above. I went slightly above for a selfish reason - I was able to lash the preventer stay collar right up against the bottom of the cheeks rather than adding a couple of cleats to keep it in place. The closed heart on the preventer stay collar is a 5.5 mm heart from Syren - a smidge larger than it should be, but they're so easy to assemble, sand, file, and deal with it's well worth it. The mouse is put together the same as the Mizzen both for the main and preventer. Both should be three times the diameter of the stay and both of mine came out larger than they should be, but about as small as I could get them and still be able to work with them. The heart on the mainstay is a twin to the one I made in an earlier post on the bowsprit collar - 5.95mm (6 really) boxwood and the whole thing is lashed with .45mm diameter (3.5" circular per Steel) tan rope at the lanyard. The preventer stay mirrors the main with smaller dimensions - the stay itself is 7" (.88mm diameter) mirroring the main shrouds. I measured the mouse as best I could but ended up just 'eyeballing' it to get it a bit smaller than the main mouse and still look right. The twin closed 5.5 mm heart is lashed with .30 mm rope. After some measuring, remeasuring, and adjusting the heart placement a couple of times, I still ended up with a bit longer lanyard than I'd like, but acceptable to me. An overall look at the rigging thus far before moving on to the foremast shrouds.
  3. Moonbug
    The Main shrouds are basically thee same as the Mizzens. There are two key differences however. First, the size of the line. The main shrouds (according the Steel) are 7" circular, which translate to scale as .88 mm diameter, my rope is .85 which of course is an inconsequential visual difference. The second difference is that the foremost shroud for the mainmast (as well as the foremast) is served for its entire length while the remaining shrouds are served for the first 8' scale feet. Another interesting deviation between the kit schematics and TFFM is a difference in the number of shrouds - the kit shows 8 and the TFFM shows 9 - four pairs and a 'swifter' with a spliced eye over the masthead. I'm sticking with the 8 four a couple of reasons - A) it's easier to do four pairs than adding a swifter and B ) - probably more importantly - I didn't look this far ahead when I was adding the deadeyes and only added eight. No way I'm going to back and redoing all that work for one more shroud... Otherwise the main shroud process is a repeat of the mizzen; measuring the shroud, serving the line, looping and seizing the shrouds at the masthead, then attaching the deadeyes using my handy (slightly larger than the mizzen) spacer. This time however, I measured each shroud around the mainmast and marked the distance of where I'd need to serve with a touch of white paint. The total length needed to serve is slightly different for each shroud as they each angle a bit different as they move from for to aft. Overall, a slow process which took three days to complete for the mainmast.
  4. Moonbug
    Next up is the Mizzen stay as getting this rigged prior to the mainmast shrouds ensures that I have proper access - particularly to the collars which I find to be a little fiddly anyway. Starting with said collar - the Mizzen stay is 5.5" circular, so I'm .60mm served with Mara 120 for the collar and .75mm for the Mizzen stay itself. The collar is pretty straightforward and is seized the same as the bowsprit collars on previous posts. The hearts are closed and for these I'm going with Chuck's Syren product - easy to put together and work with - including filing an indentation around the edge within which the strop will fit. The lashing is .15mm for mostly aesthetic reasons - it's the smallest rope that I have that still retains some "visual to the naked eye" detail. The stay itself has a mouse near the masthead so creates a bit of a challenge in terms of planning and execution. The top portion is served to just below the mouse with an eye into which the rest of the stay are inserted. To get the serving correct, I started by looping the end of the stay then feeding my serving line (mara 120) into the stay via sewing needled. The eye was 'hand served' then I was able to load the entire thing into my serving machine to do the rest of the portion that needed it. The mouse is a sanded dowel that is drilled out with a hole just big enough to accommodate the served line. I don't have an exact diameter of the bit that I used because I started with "very small" and then gradually increased bits until the serving line barely snugged its way through. I've seen quite a few different ways to simulate the 'woven' texture of the mouse. My option was this bandage. My Admiral happens to be allergic to latex and cannot use just any type of bandage, so we have a few different versions of fabric bandages. This particular one had the look and feel of weaving at the correct scale. The added bonus is that it has adhesive - though I did had a dab of CA to ensure it does not come loose. The mouse is listed as three times the diameter of the stay, but the bandage added a little bulk - so I did have to scale the mouse down a tad as the original effort was a little big for my taste. Ultimately I just 'eye-balled' it until it looked right to me. The mouse is then painted first black, then brown to try and match the color of the stay. Finally, the lower end of the stay is seized to a twin closed heart to the collar and lashed. One note in the second picture below - although the lashing behind the mast looks much lighter - that's a trick of the camera where my overhead light was shining - all the lashings are the same color.
  5. Moonbug
    First, a shot of all three of the burton Pendants. Quick photography note - this image is actually three different shots "stacked" to clear up the difference in focal length and focus between shooting each mast. A neat trick that's easy to "google" on the internet for those of you who use Photoshop. On to stepping up the masts starting with the Mizen shrouds. The shrouds are 4.5" circular (.57mm diameter at scale) and are served for the first six feet (about 2" at scale). First, I measured my line and marked where they'd be served, then I used a .60mm line served with Mara 120 and did all the serving in advance. The shrouds are wrapped around the masthead and seized on top of the burton pendants in pairs alternating between port and starboard. There are obviously many techniques shown throughout this forum when it comes to how to handle deadeyes and lanyards. I created this spacing jig using straight pins. I measured and cut two different sizes for the two different sized deadeyes and silver soldered them with a little handle. Using the spacer I measured the bottom of the shroud and kept it place with a touch of CA before seizing it. The lanyards are 2.5" circular which works out to .30mm diameter line. I did have to slightly bore out the holes of my smaller deadeyes to accept the lanyard. My personal process is to feed the lanyard through the deadeye, tie off the knot from the initial feed and leave the other end loose until I can tighten the lanyard to the proper tension / distance and lash it off to the shroud. Then I go back and seize the top end of the shroud.
  6. Moonbug
    Lovely, lovely work BE. I only see one - rather significant - problem. You are inciting within me the desire for another of Chris' great looking kits - and my Admiral will surely disapprove as we just started shelling out for our 3rd daughter through University.
  7. Moonbug
    Beautiful work as always Giampiero. A couple posts ago regarding working on the headwords there are a couple small chisels in the picture - can you tell me what brand those are?
  8. Moonbug
    Good to see you back at it Richard - I admire your persistence.
  9. Moonbug
    Very nicely done. Also - I'm very in touch with the "...at all times am aware of where my hands are" concept - especially as I lose some dexterity with age.
  10. Moonbug
    Well this little burton pendant ended up being a little bugger. First I wandered around searching through my little drawers and containers to find something that might work for the thimbles at the end of the pendants. What I ended up deciding upon were these little nuts left over from some model or another. They were an adequate diameter and just needed to be rounded off by slipping them over a toothpick and barely rubbing them against the belt sander. The darn little splice at the center where the pendants slip over the mast head ended up being much more fiddly than I expected. The thimble is lashed first - sticking with my toothpick to keep everything in place. For the mizzen (this pendant) I used .5mm served with Mara 120 and slipped a needle through it (which took several tries) to start the splice. I then wrapped additional 120 thread over to finish it off. It actually took me a few tries to get the length of the splice correct, and the 'bottom' of the splice is a little messy as I had to use a dab of CA glue - but I've masked it by laying the ugly portion against the mast. The final product looks pretty good to me. The other two pendants for the fore and main are the same process but with slightly larger line. I'll be using a .75mm line served with Mara 70 thread to create a 1mm pendant.
  11. Moonbug
    Snazzy idea for a little deadeye jig!
  12. Moonbug
    I had several work meetings this morning which required little participation on my behalf. As a result, I mostly just mulled over the Mainstay collar until I gave up on work and trotted into the shipyard. This largest of the bowsprit collars requires a thicker rope than the others (8" of served cable according to Steel) so I used a 1mm rope and served it with Gutermann mara 70. I had several feet of 1mm rope that I made that hadn't turned out quite as tight as I wanted and looked a bit funky, so I kept it around to use as the base for served lines. The main stay collar is a bit more complicated than the others as well. It has a spliced eye on one side, then it's lashed to a closed heart, then it pass through the knee of the head, then another spliced eye is looped through the first one. Pretty easy to turn the whole thing into a big lumpy mess if one isn't careful. Starting with the heart - 15" according to Steel which translates to 5.95mm at 1/64; we'll call it 6mm. I actually made this heart (and it's compliment from the main stay) from some hardwood I had lying around that was part of a pen case. It's not quite as hard as boxwood but hard enough and has a little bit more color to it. I shaped two ends of a 6mm wide strip then drilled and shaped the holes before cutting them off and rounding off the hard edges and adding a groove for the line. The rest of the process isn't really documented per se, but I do have to point out an oversight. I didn't look far enough ahead (or at least missed this need) so I ended up having to drill the hole in the knee of the head now, as opposed to before I constructed the bits and finishings of the bow. Little bit of a pain the rear, and yes I did go back and touch up the spot where I scuffed the yellow paint. The last photo shows the finished collar with everything attached, lashed, and seized.
  13. Moonbug
    More work on the bowsprit standing rigging. First I went back and swapped out the dark rope with tan on the heart lashes; much happier with the look. The large open hearts for the double strop Forestay are cut from a strip of boxwood. Rounded the end, drilled a hole, sanded it square, and added grooves for the strops before cutting it off. I won't go through every collar, etc since it's pretty well documented in several places (and I also forgot to take very many photos of the process), but here are a few photos of the bobstay collars, bobstays, bowsprit shrouds, and associated hearts and lashes. All of these are following Steel (and Lees) via Danny Vadas' wonderful build log of the Vulture that I have referenced many times. The hearts are all made as shown in the previous post, the lines are all .50 mm served with Mara 120 thread and lashed with .10mm tan.
  14. Moonbug
    Relatively small update with a fair amount of work. Starting the standing rigging at the bow with the inner bobstay and collar. I had some closed hearts but they were neither the shape or size that I wanted so I modified them rather than start from scratch with new ones. Although Steel mentions closed hearts being used and other documentation such as Lees mentions deadeyes used on the bobstays and bowsprit shrouds, I'm opting for closed hearts as that is what is laid out in the TFFM and I'm trying to err toward Steel and the TTFM as much as feasible. I'm using .45mm rope served with the Gutermann Mara 120 . After a couple of efforts, I haven't done as nice of a job as some at the splices where the served rope meets and is wound together, but I'm quickly learning that each year that goes by seems to cost my little sausage fingers some dexterity. The other notable thing here is that I've lashed the hearts together with dark rope as shown in my TFFM reference illustrations. However - nearly every other reference I've seen shows them lashed together with non-tarred tan. I'm not sure I'm digging the dark - so I'll likely go through and change them out and do the rest in tan. Greg, @dvm27 any insight here?
  15. Moonbug
    While working on the lower masts, I've also been doing some "rope work" to prepare for the standing rigging. As I've mentioned in several previous posts, I'm using @Chuck's Syren Rope Rocket which works great. I use Gutermann brand Mara thread in 120, 70, and 30 weights and combine those options in dark brown and tan to create what I need. The chart below lays out combinations that create the sizes I need. The left number is the weight, the middle number is the number of threads per line, and the right figure is the number of lines per rope. I premade a variety of different sizes and shades, but mostly the dark rope for standing rigging for now. I did a little bit of serving of some rope to get ready the standing rigging for the bowsprit. I made my own hand spun serving machine based on examples I've seen. The rope slides through the gears with a spool mounted on the bottom. Turning the handle (while steadying) the bottom thread seizes the rope about 6 to 7 inches at a time. After much turning, I decided my shoulder was a little sore (I've had a some work done on it since I got a little broken in Afghanistan a few years ago), so I created this little drill bit tool to turn the handle for me. Worked pretty well - not to fast, but steady. Takes about a minute to get a 6 inch served rope.
  16. Moonbug
    Prior to staring the Main mast I went back and added a detail to the foremast that I'd forgotten - the pinning along the cheeks. It's an easy addition, though obviously takes a bit of time. This is also the reason I always save the ends of pins/nails that I clip off. This way I can sharpen an end, sand the backside, then poke them in where needed (after pre-drilling of course). There isn't too much detail to go into for the Main, as it is almost identical to the Foremast. I scaled it out the same as the rest; I did however make the cheeks a little more pronounced as I said I would and am happy with results. The good news - it's also not so different as so stand out greatly when you see all the masts set in place.
  17. Moonbug
    Thanks so much Pete, appreciate it. I'm glad she is as well; much easier to cope with our own tribulations than those of our children. Foremast today - pretty much the same process as the Mizzen of course, except the cheeks are a bit longer. Granted, the cheeks here are not quite as pronounced as they probably should be according to the TFFM, but I'm still ok with them. I'll likely make them more pronounced for the main, while still trying to maintain some consistency. The only other thing worth nothing here is that with these bibs I've etched out and scored the pattern in which they would have been put together rather than one solid piece. Once again the woolding loops are manila folder strips wrapped twice around the mast. I also didn't mention with the mizzen that I tacked in some nails to give it a nice authenticity detail.
  18. Moonbug
    Nicely done. I agree that these are a really nice (and visible) touch and are often overlooked.
  19. Moonbug
    Got to work on the MIzzen mast. Although I know that the masts are all measured by the Main (and thanks again to BE and others for doing the math for the rest of us from Steel's work), I wanted to start with the Mizzen because it's a bit easier and I want to get my feet wet again. I started with the measurements and diagrams in the previous post and lathed out the mizzen then added the cheeks and the bibs. After adding the two 'filler' sides to the masthead above the bibs, I used sliced electricians tape to simulate the iron hoops that hold the masthead pieces together. Then I added slim strips as the vertically placed battens. Cross trees and trestle trees are added then I simulated the hoops for the wooldings by using a manilla folder cut into a strip then painted. The woolding itself is my homemade rope using the famous Syren Rope Rocket. This particular rope is .045mm made from 4 doubled up strands of 120 mara thread. Going to have to even out that tiny lump there that I didn't notice until the macro shot... Also, they're difficult to see here, but the bolsters are added by rounding one edge of a small square strip and mounting them on each side where the shrouds will extend down to the deadeyes.
  20. Moonbug
    I appreciate everyone's warm thoughts. The last couple of days was mostly research and digging up my past references. Feeling quite a bit 'out of the loop' in many ways, but decided to jump right back in with some mast measurements and planning.
  21. Moonbug
    Hello everyone. I realize it's been quite some time. I appreciate folks looking into the build as well as those who've reached out. By way of short explanation - I'm doing well. Sometimes (especially when you have four grown children) life simply gets in the way of one's hobbies. I won't go into detail of course; but my oldest daughter (now 25 yrs old) survived a serious sexual assault nearly two years ago since I last posted. Needless to say, it sent our family on a much different trajectory than any of us anticipated leaving things like hobbies much less of a priority than taking care of one another. She has overcome much and is well now. After many months of walking by my shipyard as it collected dust, I'm once again feeling the pull to work in there again; so soon I'll have some more Peg updates. Thanks again - and I'm enjoying catching up on some of the cool projects that have happened during my absence.
  22. Moonbug
    Hey B.E. - I totally understand where you're coming from in terms of whether to include the binnacle. Your dedication to representing a contemporary model version is a cool avenue to take. That said - I do love m'self a good binnacle, and yours is quite nice.
  23. Moonbug
    Thanks @BobG, much appreciated. I've been working pretty hard on my golf game. Truth be told - I was pretty darn good back in the day toward the end of my Air Force days, but then I got broken a bit in Afghanistan and my swing has changed as a result. Trying to make the adjustments for that - as well as just getting older. Continuing work on the launch, I used the photo-etched harpoon tips and blackened them. To create the harpoon itself, I sanded a dowel down to approximate diameter, then cut a notch into the end to hold the head. Then I wrapped it in place. This is based on both my ship research and my anthropology research for the time period. These photos are a bit deceiving, but those 1/64 scale folks know just how small these buggers are. I used a jeweler's saw with the smallest blade I had to very gently stroke back and forth and create the notch. The grappling hook is pretty straightforward, the photo-etched pieces glued, blackened and then attached to a coiled rope dabbed with some diluted white glue to hold it in place. The oars at this scale a BUGGER. I started with a 5/32 x 1/32 piece of walnut. I used walnut instead of boxwood because once again I am paying very particular attention to my color schemes, and I want the oars to stand out from the launch, yet blend with the other walnut deck fittings. Anyway, I mark off the length of the paddle, and rounded and squared off portions of the oar. Then I trim/sand the handle square, only to finally round out the portions in the middle. Lastly, I thinned down and shaped the paddle ends. I think I ended up doing about ten of these - at least a few of which broke - to end up with the six that I wanted. This is a very slow, gentle, and tedious process of sanding. I'd guess that I probably devoted about an hour to each oar. My 'mounting' technique is a combination of organization and haphazard-ness. In other words, I don't like an OVERLY organized or militant look to things, because it feels unnatural. Yet, I don't want it to appear as though the crew is completely void of discipline. So the spare top masts are strapped down, the launch secured, and the oars and bits and pieces stowed. I threw in an extra coil of rope for good measure.
  24. Moonbug
    Rounding off axles is always a pain - but for char on wheels, I’ve found that sliding them onto a toothpick until they “lock” in place, then rolling them very gently along a flat piece is sandpaper let’s you sand a minuscule amount at a time without altering their shape.
  25. Moonbug
    As a note of perspective - I’m probably upward of $1,000 all-in on the Peg by upgrading timber and parts that it sounds like are being included with the Indy. My guess is that most of the “serious” builders end up spending this much regardless - so one might even consider it to ultimately be a cost savings.

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