jack.aubrey

5 hours ago, the learner said:

Looking foward to your return and hope that you are doing well during this covid-19 pandemic time.

I'm going very well, for the moment.

Unfortunately I'm forced at home and quite far from my model: when the rule to avoid moving away was issued I was in Tuscany at my daughter's house and I cannot return to Milan. This is anyway a big advantage 'cause Milan and surrounding towns are the main epicentre of he pandemic virus. I cannot forecast when I'll be able to return and finish this model.

Sincerely, Jack.

Monday, December 9th, 2019

In the ten days since my last message I dedicated very little time to modeling: all I managed to do was finishing two of the five sails that would now be ready to be fixed on their respective spars.

Unfortunately the day I have to leave my mother-in-law's house free (I remember that it was sold) is approaching and there are still many activities to do to free all the rooms. So, even if ahead of my original plans, I find myself in the need to dismantle my workshop and move everything inside it to a temporary location (I hope for as little time as possible) +/- by the end of the year.

Consequence is a mandatory stop to the modeling activities related to the Ragusian Carrack for an indefinite period of time. Obviously, when I'll be less busy it should be possible to resume work on the sails and on the final set-up of the rigging, activities that I theoretically could perform at home, but now it's early to have a accurate plan.

I am therefore greeting all those who are following or have followed my log hoping to write and read news soon. In the meantime, I offer all my best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, in case we don't have to hear ourselves in the coming weeks.

Best regards, Jack.Aubrey.

Friday 29 November 2019

I'm working to prepare the sails. In total there are five sails: one on the bowsprit, one on the foremast, two on the mainmast and finally a triangular sail on the mizzen mast. To consider them finished I have to wait for my wife to sew stitches around their perimeter, task I prefer to have her do as I don't feel enough good for it.

The first image shows the main mainmast sail. I have greatly reduced the height of this sail because I want to present it curled up the main yard and therefore the task would be easier to manage with less amount of fabric.

01 Ragusian Carrack/28112019/IMG_20191128_155621.jpg

Here the lateen sail of the mizzen mast . . I think I will present it wrapped on the yard.

02 Ragusian Carrack/28112019/IMG_20191128_155613.jpg

Here is the upper sail of the mainmast that will be shown unfolded . .

03 Ragusian Carrack/28112019/IMG_20191128_155601.jpg

The sail of the bowsprit, shown unfolded . . I think to redo some sewing here resulting too coarse.

04 Ragusian Carrack/28112019/IMG_20191128_155548.jpg

The fore sail to be presented wrapped on the foreyard.

05 Ragusian Carrack/28112019/IMG_20191128_155553.jpg

That's all for now, cheers, Jack.

Monday 18 November 2019

Standing rigging is finally over . . . . rat lines obviously were the major, boring effort.

01 Ragusian Carrack/18112019/IMG_20191118_165745.jpg

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Wednesday 6 November 2019

Further small progresses . . . . this time it's up to the mast.

For the future I have decided that I will limit myself in posting messages only when significant steps in setting up the rigging are complete, otherwise I think to run the risk of being too much repetitive.

So I give you a rendez-vous for other images and comments when I'll finish the installation of all the standing rigging, a milestone that seems to me adequately representative to show and explain.

Greetings, Jack.Aubrey.

01 Ragusian Carrack/06112019/IMG_20191106_170332.jpg

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Tuesday 5 November 2019

I finally started, I fixed the masts and . . . . for now I'm working on standing rigging. It takes a lot of patience.

01 Ragusian Carrack/06112019/IMG_20191105_160027.jpg

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Giovedì 31 Ottobre 2019

I'm working almost exclusively on masts and its rigging.
For the moment my strategy is to prepare all the mast individual components in a separate way with all the blocks and other necessary elements.
So, as you can see from the following two images, I worked mainly on applying the necessary pieces to each of the yards or masts independently of the rest. In this way all the points in which the running rigging will pass should be ready and in theory they would not need further additions once installed in their place.

01 Ragusian Carrack/31102019/IMG_20191031_173712.jpg

02 Ragusian Carrack/31102019/IMG_20191031_173718.jpg

Then I started putting the pieces together.
In the coming days, when I'll be 100% sure, I will definitely fix the three masts with glue and a new cycle of activities will start from there.
In the meantime I started doing some experience with bowsprit and anchors.
The following three images show the (almost) finished assembly of the anchors and a pair of definitive cables from the tip of the bowsprit to the hull sides. Little stuff compared to what awaits me but it is a good exercise to practice patience, the true virtue of the modeler.
However, this is a job that I will have to carry out in the next few weeks together with that of completely emptying my mother-in-law's house, house we recently sold.
Incidentally this fact will deprive me of the availability of my much appreciated workshop which (unfortunately) is in the house in object. So at some point I will have to interrupt every activity and park all the contents of the workshop in a temporary warehouse waiting to buy a new home, where surely there will be space for the future, a new facility that, at this point, will exist as long as I practice this hobby.
I hope to finish this model just before that time. I should theoretically make it but in the negative case I think I can continue at my house. The remaining activities should be more than feasible even at home . . . apart from the four cats who are my assistants.

03 Ragusian Carrack/31102019/EFFECTS.jpg

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Sincerely, Jack.

4 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

How colorful !! Very well done, Jack.

Yves

Yves, you are my best supporter, many many thanks for your appreciations. Jack.

Monday 21 October 2019

By now the classic activities on the hull are practically almost finished; only some detail activities are remaining (rudder, figurehead, etc.). They can be performed later. For example, the installation of the rudder would make the use of the building slip unpracticable; until now it proved very useful and with exceptional stability. So whoever expects to see the rudder will have to wait again . . .
As for the figurehead I have to wait for the coming of some carving inspiration, something that is totally missing at the moment . .

So I started thinking about the installation of the masts and then proceeding with the stanging and running rigging.

So I started to study the two plans in order to understand how the whole rigging system and sails is structured. Although it is a relatively simple masting, for me this is a real headache. To understand something more and also to memorize as much as possible, I am preparing a document where I try to clarify and write down what to do. Even if it is a document only useful to the undersigned, I attach it to this post just to show the "method".

Thanks to the "method" I realized that new details on the decks and tops are needed, and also some changes due to the impractical nature of the proposed solution are required. In any case, I spent a couple of afternoons making and installing the missing details.

The photo 01 shows the new elements applied in the poop area: the decorated shields on the external sides, the pinrails added inside the walls, some cleats and the poop lantern . . .

01 Ragusian Carrack/21102019/IMG_20191021_165514.jpg

Also at the bow I am preparing material for the belaying pins . . .

02 Ragusian Carrack/21102019/IMG_20191021_165524.jpg

Finally on the main deck I installed new pinrails applied similarly to those on the poop deck . . .

03 Ragusian Carrack/21102019/IMG_20191021_165536.jpg

In short, many details, even tiny ones, that will be used later for the rigging. I have prepared all these pinrails to replace an almost similar number of cleats. I thought it impossible to fix these cleats seriously because of their small size and almost no surface that could be used to glue them to the sides. Hence a functionally similar solution but which gives me more guarantees of robustness.

That's all for today, Jack.

Rigging.pdf

Saturday 12 October 2019

These last 15 days saw me and my wife busy with a cat that got sick and gave us a lot to do to treat it. This fact, which continually created unplanned situations, prevented me from dedicating myself to the usual activities on this model and consequently I did nothing really interesting.

Using few free moments I managed to finish the chain plates, to paint them and, finally, to install them, by fixing them on the sides of the hull in correspondence with the wales. The result is practically equal to the MarisStella project even if the technique I used is not the same.

The first three images show the finished work.

01 Ragusian Carrack/12102019/EFFECTS.jpg

02 Ragusian Carrack/12102019/IMG_20191012_160621.jpg

03 Ragusian Carrack/12102019/IMG_20191012_160634.jpg

Another task, small but truly interesting for the method I used to obtain an acceptable result, is highlighted in the last image, the result of a copy & paste of two images of the lower zone of the foremast and the mizzen mast. These are the four cleats visible at the bottom of the two mast that are very small and difficult to fix properly in their place.
This experiment, perfectly successful, is important as there are many others to install and therefore replicable.

04 Ragusian Carrack/12102019/Due&TreResized.jpg

Good-bye, Jack.

Thursday 3 October 2019

While some activities on masting are still continuing with bland rhythms, I started preparing the chain plates with their deadeyes. 
Unlike those adopted on more recent sailing ships, such as those of my Soleil Royal (which gave me quite a bit to do), on this carrack they are relatively simple to build. For today I have finished preparing those of the starboard side, in the next days I will also finish the port side.

See you soon, Jack..

01 Ragusian Carrack/02102019/IMG_20191002_173141.jpg

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Wednesday 2 October 2019

Yesterday afternoon, with the friend and fellow model maker Antonio, we lathed the famous 12mm. rod destined to become the main mast. For this event, I had the opportunity to use a simply monstrous lathe, more or less 2-2.5 meters long, with which a pole could have been turned.

A heartfelt thanks for the unexpected help.

Today, in my workshop, I proceeded to complete the mast with its accessories and below I show you the model with all the components of the masting positioned, obviously excluding spars and beams.

Sincerely, Jack.

01 Ragusian Carrack/02102019/IMG_20191002_160815.jpg

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Wednesday 25 September 2019

I prepared all the pieces that make up the masts of the carrack, with the sole exclusion of the mainmast due to the known problem with the lathe. At the end I took the decision to color both the masts and the yards: the masts are colored with yellow ocher paint while the yards in black. When completely dry, I sanded the pieces with very fine grain paper to give them an appearance of "used".

Below two images of the foremast and mizzenmast . .

01 Ragusian Carrack/26092019/IMG_20190926_105955.jpg

02 Ragusian Carrack/26092019/IMG_20190926_110029.jpg

Below, instead, the lower yard of the mainmast and the beam of the lateen sail on the mizzen mast . .

03 Ragusian Carrack/26092019/IMG_20190926_110054.jpg

04 Ragusian Carrack/26092019/IMG_20190926_110109.jpg

Here below the other remaining yards (bowsprit, foremast and mainmast) . .

05 Ragusian Carrack/26092019/IMG_20190926_110124.jpg

06 Ragusian Carrack/26092019/IMG_20190926_110132.jpg

One last mention about the lathe issue: I had almost definitively decided to manually taper the mainmast but today I received an email from my common friend Antonio who offered me the availability of a "REAL" lathe located in his workshop. Obviously this changed all the scenarios. Next week I will also finish this missing element.
Best regards, Jack.

Thursday 19 September 2019

With these last details I finally put an end to the guns installation. I'll almost open a bottle of Prosecco or Lambrusco to celebrate this event . . .

01 Ragusian Carrack/19092019/IMG_20190919_170220.jpg

02 Ragusian Carrack/19092019/IMG_20190919_170300.jpg

Now there are many other activities that can be started. Rudder installation, figurehead, anchor installation, masts and so on.
For the moment I decided to experiment the building of the masts and maybe even various spars and rods. There is no particular reason to do one thing before the other and so I follow the will of the moment.

Using my small Proxxon wood lathe, I started to prepare the foremast and the mizzenmast. The foremast consists of a 10mm diameter rod that must be tapered up to a 6mm diameter. The mizzenmast is an 8mm rod to be tapered to 5mm. Using the lathe the operation became to me particularly well and I am very satisfied.
I then completed the foremast by installing the top, ready for some time.

03 Ragusian Carrack/19092019/IMG_20190919_170337.jpg

04 Ragusian Carrack/19092019/IMG_20190919_170345.jpg

But now there are two beautiful problems to be solved: one is very simple, since it is a question of choosing whether to leave the masts and the yards in their natural wood-color or to color them, as they most likely were: masts in ocher yellow and yards in black.
The other one is more complex and concerns the mainmast: it involves turning a 12mm diameter rod that must reach the 8mm at the end. But the problem is that my lathe reaches a maximum of 10mm and therefore cannot be used as I have done up to now.
I have to find an alternative route that I currently can't see, even using Google Maps !!
In the meantime I will take time working on the other elements of the masts but for my problem I need an adequate idea.

05 Ragusian Carrack/19092019/IMG_20190919_170637.jpg

See you soon, Jack.Aubrey.
 

Perhaps it was better to adopt roperings at the end of the blocks of smaller diameter . . . any comment ?

Tuesday 17 September 2019

The installation of the 6 guns on the main deck is finally complete. Two guns are still missing: the ones of smaller caliber located on the quarterdeck . . . . anyway the most is done.

01 Ragusian Carrack/17092019/IMG_20190917_105831.jpg

02 Ragusian Carrack/17092019/IMG_20190917_105849.jpg

03 Ragusian Carrack/17092019/IMG_20190917_112032.jpg

04 Ragusian Carrack/17092019/IMG_20190917_112011.jpg

To diversify the work around the guns, I prepared the four planned fife rails. Here I indulged myself with a pretty showy coloring with the aim of creating some kind of color contrast . . . a bit like the ocher color for the gun carriages.

05 Ragusian Carrack/17092019/IMG_20190917_105837.jpg

06 Ragusian Carrack/17092019/IMG_20190917_105856.jpg

Another hour of work and even this tedious activity can be said to have ended happily.
Greetings, Jack.

Thursday 12 September 2019

During these 10 days since my last update for this model there have been very few news worth to be illustrated: I had to prepare a bunch of raw objects that required lot of patience, anyway very important to allow the implementation of the blocks and finally start to install the guns.

The images show the gun carriages definitively fixed on the decks: the fixing takes place through the insertion of a pin that passes through the carriage into the deck floor; it is visible, even if with some difficulty as it was later painted, in the central part of the carriage itself.

The images 01 and 02 below show the eight guns that make up the ordnance of this model, partially "wired". Each rope endpoint of the completed tackles is fixed to the deck with a drop of super glue and cut. Later I will prepare the rope curls, as I did for other models in the past, trying to make them better as realism. The curls will be applied over the endpoints so that they look like its natural continuation.
 
01 Ragusian Carrack/12092019/IMG_20190912_145128.jpg

02 Ragusian Carrack/12092019/IMG_20190912_145134.jpg

In the next two images (03 and 04) I started fixing the gun barrels on the carriages. The barrels are glued in their position with a small amount of two-component epoxy glue. Now I have to wait sometime to allow this glue to harden and then I will be able to proceed with the subsequent operations. Each gun has its own supply of ammunitions, prepared days ago, fixed to the deck with a drop of superglue.

The recoil rope has already been added to all the gun barrels, in the next days this rope, prepared before fixing the barrel to its carriage, will be definitively fixed on the inner side of the bulwark.

As you can see, there is still a bit of work to flag this activity as completed, but surely I'm approaching the final tasks.
However, this trick cost a lot of working hours and lot of patience.

Cheers, Jack.

03 Ragusian Carrack/12092019/IMG_20190912_153039.jpg

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Monday 2 September 2019

The challenge to install the guns has began.
As anticipated it's a long and boring task but must be done . . I started with the cannon balls stock . . . at least these are now ready.
See you soon, Jack.

01 Ragusian Carrack/02092019/IMG_20190902_172330.jpg

Thursday, August 29th, 2019

Adding new details. .

Having prepared the bowsprit on a lathe, I then fixed it in the correct position.

01 Ragusian Carrack/29082019/IMG_20190829_103636.jpg

In addition to the bowsprit in this picture you can also see the cathead, applied also on the other side of the hull.

02 Ragusian Carrack/29082019/IMG_20190829_103657.jpg

Here are some details of the base of the bowsprit, including the classic rope binding from the bow to this mast.

03 Ragusian Carrack/29082019/IMG_20190829_173326.jpg

A beam has been installed also aft, protruding far beyond the hull.

04 Ragusian Carrack/29082019/IMG_20190829_173314.jpg

Finally the last missing detail on the railing between the main deck and the quarterdeck.

05 Ragusian Carrack/29082019/IMG_20190829_103651.jpg

Now I will dedicate myself to the guns, task quite long and boring. Luckily, there are only eight.
Greetings, Jack.

Saturday, August 24th, 2019

I've finished also the last railings, using the small columns lathed last thursday . . . now I have to think about and plan the nexts activities.
See you soon, Jack.

01 Ragusian Carrack/24082019/IMG_20190824_180540.jpg

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Thursday 22 August 2017

Day spent on the lathe to prepare the columns needed to install the railings between the various decks of the carrack. Next step their installation, after which this chapter will also be finished. Dimensions: those of the first picture mm. 16, the others mm. 22.
Salutoni, Jack.

01 Ragusian Carrack/22082019/IMG_20190822_172716.jpg

02 Ragusian Carrack/22082019/IMG_20190822_172739.jpg

Other images of the model taken yesterday, today I would like to start making the railing columns described in the previous post, even if I would like to do them with a slightly different shape. First I'll do some prototypes before deciding.
Salutoni, Jack.

01 Ragusian Carrack/20082019/IMG_20190820_150509.jpg

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Friday, August 16, 2019 - Railings of the forecastle

The building the forecastle railings is still in progress. I decided to glue the two lateral railings built earlier. 
In order to ensure the necessary strength of the bonding, until I'll have also installed the front and the rear railing, I have glued a temporary batten that connects the two sides getting their force thanks to the gluing to the foremast stump. In due course it will be removed with a light touch or twist as the glueing has been done with a point of cyanoacrylate glue.

Best regards, Jack.

01 Ragusian Carrack/16082019/IMG_20190815_165452.jpg

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Wednesday, August 14th, 2019

I started to build the forecastle railings . . for this task I identified the possibility to build these elements separately and assemble them on the model as final process. This fact has two great advantages: it allows greater precision in the preparation of the pieces and, last but not least, greater ease of execution. Furthermore, the experience gained up until now has played an essential role.
There is still a lot to do before finishing, but it seems to be progressing very well.
See you soon, Jack.

01 Ragusian Carrack/14082019/IMG_20190814_173229.jpg

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