Landlubber Mike

Hi Ian, thanks very much for the kind words. Hopefully they end up looking ok in situ There are times when I think to myself that I could have been done with this build a long time ago. I've probably easily spent over 50 hours in the aggregate studying how rigging works, how to create sails, how to best furl them, etc. It's all been worth it though, as I now have a better appreciation and understanding of the operation of these ships, where I might not have gotten that had I just followed the directions and attached line A between points B and C. Now I can see why people really get into improving their kit or moving totally to a scratch build.

Thanks very much Peter - these pictures are very helpful. Your furled sails came out very nice indeed The spanker in particular looks perfect. I see you included the clew, which I think most furled spankers fail to include - nice job! I spent a few hours yesterday evening studying and preparing how I will go about furling the jib and the fore topmast staysail. From my reading of I think Lees, it looks like smaller ships had a less complicated halyard set-up at the peak cringle. Rather than running a block at the peak cringle (where the line is first attached to the stay and then runs through the block and then reeved through the chocks on the mast), it sounds like smaller ships had a more simplified structure where no blocks are attached to the peak cringle - instead, the line is attached to the cringle directly, then it runs up to the chock. Since the Badger is a brig, not sure if that qualifies it as a "small ship" for purposes of going with the single halyard. I might just rig it as a double, as it doesn't add much extra work. I also learned from Lees that the fore topmast staystail had a netting over the bowspirit so when furled it didn't sit directly on the bowspirit. Add another thing to the list I suppose

No problem at all - sorry for the bad links, I fixed them in my post *** Sorry again - for some reason, I needed to use the full editor to fix the links. They should be fixed now.***

Hi again Zyxuz, Since I've been thinking about color schemes too, I took a look through my Gardiner book which uses pictures of models at the RMG, and have been picking out some color schemes that I think can work well with the Unicorn. Since you're thinking about this too, I thought I would pass them along - hope they are helpful. 1. Sloop c. 1710: http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66358.html 2. Sloop c. 1710 (very similar to Corel's scheme for Unicorn): http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66359.html 3. Gualaloupe (very similar to Unicorn): http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66470.html 4. Thames (white painted under thick black wale): http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66457.html 5. Lowestoft (gorgeous ship with white under black wale): http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66300.html 6. Mermaid: http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66279.html 7. Minerva (uses blue and red accents like you were thinking): http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66278.html 8. Diana (also uses blue and red accents): http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66533.html Just for fun, this Samarang is incredible - one of my favorite models in the Gardiner book: http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66666.html

Hi Zyxuz, I'm fairly certain that copper plates were not in use for the Unicorn you are building. The Unicorn was launched in 1748, and from my Gardiner book on Frigates, it looks like coppering started in 1761 and was more commonplace in the late 1770s. Just wanted to throw that out there. If you want to paint it white below the water line, a good Unicorn can be seen on the thread I posted this summer that became a compendium of ideas about the Unicorn kit (there are other ships posted that could serve as other possible samples of color schemes that might work for you): http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/2444-quality-of-corel-kits/?p=66398 I'm thinking about going with a color scheme similar to the Pandora build here - with a thick black wale, more black on the ship, like on the rails, spars, and stern, and red for the bulwarks and some of the deck fittings (no coppering of course). http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/2444-quality-of-corel-kits/?p=66523 I'm not really a fan of how Corel has the area around the gunports without a thick wale. I think if you look at the plans for the Unicorn in the Chapman book, they seem to contemplate a thick wale. Click here, and then click the picture to zoom in and you can maybe see what I'm talking about: http://www.sjohistoriska.se/ImageVaultFiles/id_3085/cf_1803/55.JPG Let us know what you decide Aside from that, I think I'll explore adding small boats and lanterns to my build as another modification.

Nice work, and nice save on the planking Did you decide on the color scheme yet?

Looks great Robert. Not sure if you had this issue with your kit, but the carriages and trucks on my Badger were of very poor quality walnut that splintered just by looking at it - Caldercraft kits are great, but the walnut is a big disappointment. It's probably a bit tedious to scratch the components, but the results look to be well worth it!

Very nice job John - looking great!

One other issue that I need to work though - the Badger sail plan in the Chapelle book shows the main/spreader yard below the gaff, with the modified main course above it. See the sail plan below. The kit instructions, however, have the main yard where Chapelle has the modified main course, which I think is incorrect. The kit configuration seems to be consistent with other brigs that did not use a modified main course, such as the Swift sail plan which is also in Chapelle (p. 105). Decisions decisions. Right now I'm leaning towards leaving the main yard as per the kit instructions - I think moving it down will make it look out of balance relative to the fore yard. Of course, I'm open to suggestions as I'm just fumbling my way along.

Finally finished the furled yards for the square sails. They take quite a bit of work (literally hours per yard), but I think they will improve the overall look of the ship. I started with the topgallants, and worked my way down. I got to the main yard, and was like, wow, this came out pretty nice. Then I was tying myself in knots trying to figure out how the main course was supposed to be rigged. The instructions said it was rigged as a crossjack yard, and it didn't have all that many blocks attached. It wasn't until I looked back at Chapelle's "Search for Speed Under Sail" which has a section on the Badger that Caldercraft's kit appears to follow closely, and with some help and guidance from Jim Lad (thanks John!) at the link below that I realized that I made a mistake in attaching a furled sail to that yard. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/4120-crossjack-yard-generally-did-not-carry-a-sail/ Essentially, the Badger's main yard was a spread yard to sheet the topsails on the main mast, and the Badger also carried an improvised main course that was fitted to a crossjack of almost the same length and secured to the main mast only by halyards. The kit instructions just have one "main yard," so I'm assuming that it accounted for the spreader yard. So, after hours of effort on the main yard, I was left with this nice souvenir All in all, my complaining aside, I think everything came out pretty well. Here are the final products: You'll see that I tried to pre-rig the lines attaching the yards to the masts and the buntlines. I figured it would be easier to do that before the sails were added. Since the buntlines come from the foot of the sail, I glued the line on the pre-furled sail and ran it through the appropriate block. They should be locked in pretty right after furling. Next up are the jibs and spanker. Not really looking forward to doing them - the jibs need jib stays and halyards, along with extra rigging for the inhaul and outhaul (I think). The spanker is tricky in figuring out how to cut the sail back to reduce bulk, yet leave enough in spots to be true to the brail lines. Also, per the zu Mondfeld book, there are a number of ways of attaching the spanker to the mast, so I need to pick one and figure out how to execute it.

Nice start John, looking forward to being a spectator as the build progresses. By the way, I'm very jealous that you live in Sydney - one of the most beautiful cities in the world

Thanks again John!

Hi John, thanks so much for that explanation. That makes a lot of sense. So, it sounds like I shouldn't show a furled course on the main yard whichever direction I go - either including the spreader yard or not including the spreader yard. If it's not too much to ask, how does the running rigging change if one goes with the spreader yard and the modified main yard like in the Chapelle plans? In the kit instructions, the main yard has blocks for the sheets, lifts and braces. With the spreader yard and modified main yard, from Chapelle it sounds like the blocks for the sheets are moved to the spreader yard (since the topsail is sheeted to the spreader yard, rather than the main yard). Does the spreader yard have lifts and braces? And does the modified main yard not include any blocks, except for those attached to the halyards? Thanks very much again in advance. Mike

Thanks very much John, this is very helpful information. I take it that the main yard would not hold a furled course then? So it looks like if I stick with the instructions, and keep the lower yard rigged as a crossjack with no furled sail, the sail plan would look similar to the Collier sail plan (and I found a picture of the Lady Washington with sails set that seems to have no main course): Just out of curiosity, if I went with the spreader yard and a modified main yard, how would these be rigged? It looks like the main yard would no longer hold the clews down on the main topsail, so I would think that those blocks would be on the spreader yard. And then the main yard would have to be modified to hold the main course? Probably all moot if I am showing my model with furled sails, but just curious. Thanks very much again John for your post and in advance for any answers you might have to these questions! Mike

So I guess my question now is, if I decide to stick with the Caldercraft instructions, should I go ahead and remove the furled sail from the main yard? I think I'm too far into the model right now to figure out how to rig it correctly with the spreader yard. Chapelle's book has the sail plan for the Brig Swift from 1778, which is very similar to the Badger, and the plan does not show a main course. So, I think only adding furled sails to the main topgallant and main topsail yards would be consistent with other similar vessels of that time period. Thanks very much in advance for any guidance or opinions. I guess I'm getting what I deserved by going down the sail route

Hi everyone, I've been adding furled sails to the yards of my Caldercraft Brig Badger, and am a bit confused on what to do with the main yard. The instructions say that the main yard is rigged as a crossjack, and later say that because it is rigged as a crossjack, there are no buntlines, cluelines, sheets or tacks rigged to it. This got me confused as to how the main course would be bent to the yard if the yard didn't have this rigging and the associated blocks. Tonight my copy of the Swan Class Volume 4 book arrived in the mail, and when flipping through it, I saw that the author mentions how one of the yards (I believe on the mizzen mast) is rigged as a crossjack and therefore carried no sails. So a light went on in my dim head that maybe that's why the Badger's main yard lacks all that rigging and blocks. If this is the case, I wish this light went on a couple of days ago before I spent hours furling the sail to the main yard I went back to my copy of Chapelle's "Search for Speed Under Sail" which discusses the Badger (or at least a number of ships during that period that were called the Badger), and has both a sail plan for a ship along with a picture of a model with both furled and full sails. The sail plan looks to be the one that Caldercraft used in creating the kit. Both the sail plan (below) and the model show four yards attached to the main mast, the fourth being referred to on the sail plan as the "main yard or spreader yard." Chapelle goes on to say: "The rig of the Badger [as shown in the sail plan] was that of a brigantine, to which an improvised main course had been added. The main-topsail was sheeted to a spread yard, on a horse, as in a contemporary cutter's square topsail. The course was laced to a crossjack of almost the same length as the spread yard. This yard was hoisted into the gored foot of the main-topsail, secured to the mast only with the yard's halyards. It is possible that no braces were fitted to this yard, as it could be controlled by those of the spread yard. The rig allowed the course and topsail to be lowered to the deck without interfering with the spanker." By this description, I'm assuming that the main mast yards from top to bottom were the main topgallant, main topsail, main course, and spreader yard?

Making very slow progress on the furled sails, but just about done with the square sails. I decided that I should pre-rig the spars with as much rigging as possible as things might be a little difficult once the furled sail spars are attached to the masts. So, I've been pre-rigging them with the parrel lines, slings, truss pendants, etc. The Caldercraft instructions are great, but all I can say is thank goodness I have the Lennarth Petersson book In a way it's been good to go down the sail route as I've had to learn what the different lines are intended to accomplish. I think I figured out which block needs to be attached to the sail clews - the clew block (who knew ). The diagram shows the clew lines starting attached to the yard, running down about 20mm to a block (the clew block I think), and then back up to a block on the yard before the line heads down the mast to get belayed. So, hopefully I'm correct that with the furled sails, I should just go ahead and attach the clew block to the clews, and run the rigging as per the diagram. The Badger's main course is rigged as a crossjack - so, no cluelines or buntlines, sheets or tacks. If that's the case, does anyone know how the main course was rigged at the clews? I've also been trying to think about how to approach the spanker and jib(s). The spanker should be fairly straightforward, aside from figuring out how to cut the sail to reduce bulk yet be true to the brail lines. The jibs are a bit more difficult in that I will need to add halyards and jib stays, along with some extra rigging. I also am trying to figure out from the Chappelle plans whether the two fore sails shown are two jibs, or one jib and a staysail (not sure it will matter all that much in the end).

Looking great John! Thanks for sharing your trip with us too - looked like a real blast.

Hi ZyXuz, I'm wondering about a thick black wale also - i think it would look nice, but I like the look of the wale broken up as in the Corel model. I don't know what to say on the planking. These models take a long time to complete, and you'll be looking at it each build session. If the planking bothers you that much now, then maybe the best thing to do is to remove it and try again? A lot of work has gone in already, but maybe that will spare you a lot of aggravation and disappointment down the road if you're not happy with it now? Then again, the beakhead bow on the Unicorn has those headrails, rigging, etc. that might end up covering up a lot of that area too? Good luck whatever you decide!

Very nice Ian! Fantastic work! I'm afraid I haven't done much research on the riding bitts, so can't really help you there. I can try to look this weekend if I have time.

Hi ZyXuz, I like the color choices you are thinking about. I've been thinking about colors for mine in preparation for figuring out what specialty woods I will need to order as I'm planning on using little to no paint on my build. Rather than go with the blues and reds in your picture, I think I'm going to make more use of black in those areas, as well as the galleries and at the stern, and for the spars and mast tops. I will probably end up using boxwood for the accents around the black, as boxwood against black really pops out. I'm thinking of something similar to the Pegasus, which was the general scheme used in the Unicorn model in the second link: http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/victory-models-hms-pegasus.html http://www.shipsofscale.com/gallery/jshorter/hmsunicorn/index.html I'm probably going to leave the hull in natural wood, without "white stuff" or anything. I'm generally not a fan of white paint, as it looks pretty garish to me against the beauty of natural wood (at least that's what bothers me about my Badger build). Even using "Dull White" admiralty paints, I thought the paint was too starkly white. Painting and color choices is always a deeply personal decision, so I am hesitant to give my opinion. I generally subscribe to the school of thought that fewer colors (like 3-4) of greater contrast would look better on a build than using lots of different colors. If it were me, the blue looks great but I think I would skip the red stripe in your second version, as it just becomes too busy looking for me. Of course, you can probably paint much better than I can, and will be able to pull it off where I'm fairly certain that I would not be able to. Just my personal preferences, and informed in large part by my terrible skills at painting. Good luck whatever you decide!

Thanks very much Peter, this is very helpful. I have the Pegasus kit also, which I will start probably after the Corel Unicorn. Personally, my view is that these are sailing ships, and if sails can be done well, they should be added to the model. Full sized sails seem quite tricky, which is why I started first with furled sails. Some people use silkspan as well for full sails, so I might experiment with that on future builds. I've seen the technique of "pulling a thread" for the seams, which seems to work pretty well. All that being said, I think if you could pull it off, the Pegasus would look fantastic with sails. Hope you enjoy your trip abroad!

Very nice and careful work Ian. Looks perfect - like you intended to cut out the waist all along Much better look to the model, and not to mention, from my limited research, much more realistic for a ship of this type during this period. Well done!

Hi Peter, thanks very much for your kind words. I thought about adding bolt ropes, but after furling the sail tight against the yard, I don't think the bolt rope would at all be noticeable (the pictures don't show the yard head on, so it might look like the bolt rope should be noticeable). Perhaps I made a mistake in furling and furled them too tightly against the yard? I've been considering the seams as well. I didn't want to go with sewn seams as I think the seams would be out of scale. I'm worried that if I tried penciling in seams that I would run into the same problem, or that they would be too light to be noticeable (or too dark and ruin the look of the sail). I might have to experiment a bit to see if I can pull off the effect. Have you tried it? I saw your Granado photos on your Pegasus log - wow, fantastic build all around (your Pegasus is great too)! I really like the furled sails on your model, which give the exact look I'm hoping to achieve on my Badger. Could I trouble you with a couple of questions? I'm just about done with the square sails, and am trying to plan ahead for the spanker and jib. 1. For the spanker, how much did you reduce the sail, and if you reduced it, what was the end shape like? I would think that the head and luff of the sail would be full length, and rather than cutting the sail out as a triangle with the third side from the end of the gaff to the beginning of the boom, you would reduce the sail in such a way that you would end up with a four sided sail, with the new bottom "corner" of the sail sorta following the brail line from the old bottom corner? 2. On the spanker, did you add blocks to the gaff at each brail line? Most furled spankers I've seen don't have that detail. 3. On the jib sail, does the bottom block of the halyard at the head of the sail travel down with the jib as it is furled? Put another way, is the bottom block attached to the head of the sail such that as the jib is furled, the line/distance between that block and the other block of the halyard is increased? 4. Did you install clews on your square sails? If so, did you add tackles for the running rigging? I'm trying to figure out what the tackle looks like and where the lines go from it. Thanks very much in advance, and thanks again for the kind words.

Very nice work Ian. You're a brave man