Landlubber Mike

Try Cornwall Model Boats - I bought extra parts for my Unicorn and was very happy with the customer service. http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/corel_fttings.html

Hi Jason, On my Badger, I ended up gluing the masts in. I figured it was one less variable for me to have to control. It was nice having firmly established masts so that I could run the standing rigging with taut lines right off the bat, rather than constantly fiddling and checking to make sure that the mast hadn't moved a bit, needing more tension on the other side, etc. That being said, gluing the masts gave me a lot of anxiety, as you really only have one shot to get them right Now that I have a better understanding of how the various standing rigging works, I might consider not gluing them in on my next build. I've been attaching the spars to the masts the past week or so, and I haven't been able to firmly glue them in place. I am using pins and glue, but there still is a bit of flex in the spar. It's actually working out well, as I've been able to add the running rigging lines and use the lines for tiny adjustments to get the spars to the correct orientation. I imagine that it would be a similar process with similar benefits with the masts, so I can see why many prefer not to glue the masts in.

Hi John, I came across this try works guide online while hunting for info on the Morgan. Thought I'd pass it along: http://modelshipworldforum.com/resources/furniture/Tryworks_Building_Guide.pdf

Really nice work John. Thanks also for sharing the pictures of the actual ship - gives a lot of food for thought on how to improve it. Great job!

Love the approach Jason! I've been using the figure-8 seizing method which I've had mixed results with when needing the blocks to hang down lower. This looks like a better way to go about it - thanks!

Here's a close-up of what I think is the Trophy of Arms on a Victory that was just added to the gallery: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/gallery/image/5751-hms-victory-1765-graviou-francis/

Hi ZyXuz, Thanks for your thoughts on this. I'll be curious to see how those Amati parts work out - they look like very good options. My cast metal pieces are terrible Not sure if I'll be able to carve something, but it will either be fun to try or extremely frustrating! I havent decided about the deck either. Part of me is like try to get the ship as historically accurate as possible. The other part is like you're going to burden yourself with something that only you are going to appreciate, while others looking at the ship will likely think the opened portholes look odd

Hi again ZyXuz, Just out of curiosity, are you planning to add the stern detail piece that goes to the top of the stern? I can't make out from my cast metal piece what it's supposed to be, but from Ollyweb's beautiful build, it looks like it's a bunch of flags or something to that effect. The Chapman plans, however, for the Unicorn (on which the Corel kit is largely based it appears) seem to have two women and a lion (can't make out the starboard far end figure - will have to check my book later at home). Click here, and image 55 for the Unicorn plan (the high resolution is better). http://www.sjohistoriska.se/en/Collections/Archives/ChapmanNet/ChapmanNet/Drawings/?pressimagepage=5 I was thinking about carving my own stern ornamentation as my cast metal part is pretty terrible. I even ordered a second just to practice on, but it's just as bad. Going with the Corel design would be easier than the Chapman design though. While we're on the topic of modifications and the Chapman plans, if you look at the plans, the quarterdeck portholes slowly become more and more open as you proceed towards the bows. Ian suggested that the Corel plans have the quarterdeck about 4-5mm too low (if I remember him correctly). Are you thinking of making any modifications to the quarterdeck? I might do it if I am able to figure out how to do it, as well as if i can cleanly open up the portholes.

Thanks Frank! Your furled sails and words of support were a big source of inspiration in getting me to this point, so thank you!

Congratulations! Beautiful build!

Really nice work - I'm planning on scratching the stern on my Unicorn as well as the cast pieces are very disappointing. I bought a spare set of the cast pieces to see if I could modify them in any way to improve them, but I think I'm going to forget that idea and just build them from scratch. Your method, along with the Naiad method, will be bookmarked for future reference!

Looking great Jason! Very crisp work as usual. i thought the mast construction part was a lot of fun on my build. You've probably already thought about this, but look ahead at the plans and instructions to figure out whether it makes sense to attach some rigging now, so that you can access the blocks fairly easily (though, it looks like you're not attaching the blocks right now). Going through the running rigging on my build now, I might have approached the build a bit differently than the instructions.

Thanks very much everyone. It was a long detour, and I probably would have already been done with the build had I not gone the furled sail route, but I'm liking how the ship is turning out with the furled sails. They are actually turning out better than I expected.

Jib sail. The jib sail was simpler in some ways (not requiring the netting/horses or figuring out what kind of stay to use), but requires a special piece of hardware called a "traveler" which is detailed below. Similarly to the staysail, I had to cut down on the size of the jib sail to ensure a tight furl. Looking at pictures of ships with furled sails, as well as the pictures in the Harland book, it's amazing how tightly these sails were furled. The jib had more running room, so I went with a larger sail than the staysail - I also wanted to run it up the jib stay a bit higher than the staysail, so I needed more cloth to work with. Construction was very similar to the square sails on the yards - using fabric glue I added bolt ropes and cringles. As mentioned above, for the hanks I used very thin beading wire which is much more flexible than using brass wire. The wire was looped around a brass rod in a spiral shape, painted, then cut as needed and shaped into a loop. Real hanks had a more complicated shape which I couldn't duplicate at this scale, so I just went with simple loops. I also painted them brown because it seems like these tended to be wood. The pictures below show the sail (with the sheets installed), as well as bent to the jib stay. The pre-furled shape of the sails is probably a bit different in the angle at the tack is the angle formed by the jibboom and the jib stay. I figured that this would make furling the sails down to the jibboom a lot easier. Setting up the jib was a lot easier than the staysail, except to the extent that I needed to built a traveler. The traveler has three main pieces: the main loop that goes around the jibboom, the shackle that runs forward to the end the jibboom on which the outhaul is attached, and then a hook to which the jib's tack cringle is attached. These were created using brass wire and a hook from the kit. A block is also attached to the traveler for the downhaul. The traveler itself (minus the shackle) was covered in leather for protection. I didn't bother to simulate it as such but just left it as blackened brass. Here is how the rigging proceeds: 1. Jib stay: The jib stay is attached to the traveler ring, through the hanks on the sail, up through the top sheeve on the cheek block on the starboard side, and down to the aft end of the starboard fore channel. Given the size of this ship, it seemed correct to tie it off directly, rather than use a block and tackle arrangement as in larger ships. 2. Outhaul: This line is tied to the shackle of the traveler, runs forward along the jibboom through a sheeve, to a timberhead on the starboard side. This functions similarly to the tack for the staysail in that it establishes a fixed position for the sail along the jibboom. 3. Downhaul: Similarly to the staysail, it attaches to the peak cringle, runs through a few hanks, down through the block attached to the traveler, and belays to a starboard timberhead. 4. Haliard: Similarly to the staysail, the haliard is run from the peak cringle but up through the lower sheeve of the starboard cheek block, and belays to a timberhead opposite by the aft end of fore shrouds, starboard side. As with the staysail, I ran these without a block and tackle for two reasons. Historically, it seemed smaller ships did not use a block and tackle. From a practical standpoint, and probably more importantly, adding a block and tackle would have been very hard to achieve given the scale and general size and busy-ness of the ship. So, I felt comfortable not using block and tackles. 5. Tack: The tack is attached to the hook on the traveler. 6. Sheets: The sheets are run just like for the staysail. Here's the end result (sorry, had the TV on in the second): Hope all this is helpful (and accurate and correct!). I found that there was a lot of information online for furling and adding square sails, but not much really on the fore and aft sails. I spent many hours trying to figure all this out from the resources mentioned above, and at least to my eye, I think they really improve the ship. So, if I can give back to others for all the help I've received on here in the past five years, I'll feel very happy. Next, I'm going to finish the rigging of the bowspirit, and work my way aft on the model. I still need to create the spanker, and furling it shouldn't be too difficult, but I'm a bit burned out after furling the square sails and fore sails

Fore topmast staysail. This sail took a ton of planning as there are a number of ways that these could be installed on a ship - bent to a fore topmast preventer stay, bent to a fore topmast staysail stay, and I think they could also be set flying (no stay at all). Then there was the question of how to run the haliards - single, double, etc. Based on Lees and TFFM, I decided to add a fore topmast preventer stay and bend the sail to it. Not sure if this was 100% historically accurate, but this route helped simplify things a bit as the preventer stay would use the existing bee sheaves in the bowspirit, and the running end would end in an eye and mouse around the mast, rather than have a running end that ended in haliards somewhere down the mast. It also added a sense of symmetry with all the rigging, which is more artistic than anything. Another reason to go with the preventer stay over a staysail stay was that there was not much room to furl the sail as it was given the proximity of the fore stay and fore preventer stay, but using the bees gave a couple of millimeters of extra space. As you can see in the picture below, the staysail is probably only 25% of what the full sized staysail would look like. This was to ensure a tightly furled sail and keep the sail in front of the fore stay and fore preventer stay. Two other things I had to add to the model for the staysail. First, I needed to add a cheek block on the port side of the fore topmast head (I also added one for the jib sail on the starboard side). Second, from Lees, Petersson, and TFFM, the staysail was not laid on top of the bowspirit, but instead was laid on top of a netting between the bowspirit horses. So, I added the horses and a simplified netting run between two staves that the horses went through. I unfortunately don't have a picture of this, but the staysail covers all of it so I didn't go all out with a very detailed netting. After all that, the rigging of the staysail is fairly simple. The staysail is triangular in shape with a peak cringle at the top, the tack at the fore bottom corner, and the clue cringle for the sheet pendant at the aft bottom corner. After threading the fore topmast preventer stay through the hanks on the sail (constructed of beading wire from a local craft store and painted brown): 1. Peak cringle: The haliard (to pull the sail up the stay) is run from the peak cringle up through the lower sheeve of the port cheek block, and belays either to the foot of the fore mast or to a timberhead opposite the after fore shrouds, port side. Also attached to the peak cringle is the downhaul (to pull the sail down the stay). The downhaul is threaded through a few of the hanks, through a block attached to the foot of the stay, and belayed at a port timberhead. 2. Tack: The tack is tied to the cringle. This is the one fixed corner of the sail. 3. Clue cringle: The sheets are attached to the clue cringle, which in turn split into pairs of whips. The sheets go to each side, ending in a block. The standing end of the whips are attached to an eyebolt, run through the block on the sheets, and the running end is belayed to a timberhead (I haven't done this step yet). That's it for the staysail. Next the jib.

It's been a few weeks but I've been busy in the shipyard. I managed to get the fore topmast staysail and jib attached and furled. Before I get too far, let me mention the resources that were of immense help in figuring out what to do: 1. Lennarth Petersson - Rigging Period Ship Models - pictures say a thousand words, and this book really simplifies the mysteries of rigging. Helpful to see the pictures of how the rigging for these sails works, but I would say that it shows rigging for larger ships so, for example, the haliards would be more simple than the block and tackle arrangements shown in this book. Still, very highly recommended. 2. The Fully Framed Model (TFFM) Vol. 4 - This Swan series book is an incredible resource for anyone that wants great detail into rigging period ships. Antscherl compiles a lot of research into this book, with excellent pictures, to help one go step by step. 3. Lees - The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War - Good detailed historical account and narrative description of these sails and their rigging. 4. Harland - Seamanship in the Age of Sail - Excellent descriptions of the actual mechanics of bending, raising, furling, etc. sails. Very helpful discussion of what went into furling sails, particularly how the sails were gathered and then a "skin" was draped over the entire bundle. The remaining 2/3rds of the book goes into fantastic details on how the sails operated in various conditions, etc. Here are the pictures of where I am now, and I'll set up the next couple of posts to talk about the construction of both sails. Needless to say, for what ultimately looks like rolled up wet tissues, these things took a while to figure out how to construct and to install. But, I very much like the end result, which to me anyway looks better than a ship bare of sails. The staysail needs a bit more positioning, which I will do once the sheet whips are installed.

Congratulations! That's really great news Kids are wonderful, but I found that when the second was added (in my case, having twins the second time around), I had almost no free time for a few months. Enjoy your time with your baby - the Blandford will be there when you're ready

Thanks! By the way Ken, your AVS is incredible. Very nice crisp work!

Hi folks, I've been working on laying the running rigging lines on my Badger, and have come to the point where I need to start finalizing the lines that belay to the knightheads and timberheads. Is there any particular way in which lines were belayed to these items? I've looked at my reference books and various build logs here, and it seems like there is a variety of ways to approach them (though most times it is very hard to see from the photos exactly how the builder approached them). One approach I've been thinking about is to treat these lines similarly to belaying lines to pins, where the line is run around the timberhead or knighthead about two to three times, and then a separately prepared rope coil is added over the timberhead/knighthead. The end result would be something similar to what my friend Aldo prepared on his Badger as can be seen here: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/gallery/image/2424-msw101medium/ http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/gallery/image/2423-msw100medium/ Other models I've seen appear to show the line wrapped around the timberhead and knighthead a few times, and then cut without any additional rope coil added. I would think in some cases, the crew would have wanted an extra length of line to work with, hence the added rope coil. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Looks great ZyXuz, paint job came out very well. I'm sure you're glad to get that step behind you

Wow, that's very impressive Mark! Now that you're retired (congratulations by the way), you'll have even more time to admire your handiwork

Looking great Kester. It's quite a busy little vessel, isn't it?

Hi Andy, my deepest condolences. Take care.

Hi Frank, let me echo what others have said - hope you're doing ok and that things are fine now. Best wishes to you my friend.

Those tops look fantastic Jason. Really nice job!