MEDDO

Post 52: Serving the Ropes
 
I am using Chuck’s serving machine and his rope (a historical item now)
 

 
To my eye many examples, which I see here and elsewhere are too heavy.   I like a lighter look.  My preference is to choose a different thread thickness depending on the original  size of the rope. 
 So, I use three different threads:
Veevus 16/0 fly tying thread            diameter -.            0.04 mm
Veevus 8/0 fly tying thread              diameter -.             0.06 mm
Gutterman  50 wt cotton thread    diameter              0.128 mm
Mara 120                                            diameter              0.15
 
 
It is pretty difficult to measure these small diameters but they can be calculated from the Denier measurement and there are also some literature measurements which agree fairly well with the calculation.  Of course, the main thing is what the result looks like when served on the rope and if it appear s correct to you but, for comparison, I have made some measurements on the final served lineI also made some measurement on the final thickness of the rope
 
The first thing I should say is that Chuck’s rope is pretty close in diameter to what he says it is.
 
0.88 mm rope served withwith16.0 fly tyiing thread             diameter           0.936
0.88 mm rope served with 50 wt Gutterman Cotton            diameter            1.11
1.12 mm  rope served with 16/0 fly tyiing thread                  diameter            1.26
1.12 mm rope served with 50 wt Gutterman Cotton            diameter            1.47
1.37 mm  rope served with 50 wt Gutterman Cotton            diameter            1.60
(with the lay)
1.37 mm  rope served with 50 wt Gutterman Cotton            diameter            1.71
            (against the lay)
I prefer the appearance of the final line when it is served with the lay (as recommended by Druxey incidentally). It gives a slightly  "bumpy” look as the thread partly fills the gap between the strands.  However, this is a personal preference and others may prefer the more regular look obtained by serving against the lay.  I generally find that this method produces a slightly lager diameter.
 
I hope these data are of interest
 
John
 

Finished with the ship's boat - decided to make a cover for it and not try the interior detail.  The cover is made from a piece of fine-woven cloth glued to the blank side of a white index card cut to size with a piece of string embedded to model tie-down ropes.  This worked pretty well when I made hanging hammocks for the berth deck of my Constitution cross-section and I think came out pretty well on this boat.
The cleats on the side of the cradle were home-made - from this angle at least they look serviceable.  

 

 

 
Now onto rigging the spares, which is usually fun, although I think things will get a bit crowded.  Given the placement of some of the blocks hooked into the eyebolts on the deck - especially the fore running backstays, I probably shoulda rigged those before tying down the ship's boat...
 

 

1:123 La Couronne
Ship Model Okumoto
Catalogue # LC-SMO-K80
Available from Ship Model Okumotofor ¥ 51,840
 
 

 
 
Couronne (French for "crown") was an emblematic ship of the French Navy built by order of Richelieu. The Couronne was the first major warship to be designed and built by the French themselves in accordance with Richelieu's plans to renew the French Navy, after a series of warships had been built by the Dutch. The construction was supervised by Isaac de Launay Razilly (died in Arcadia 1635), and overseen by the famous carpenter Charles Morieu, from Dieppe. She was being constructed at La Roche-Bernard and was one of the most advanced units of her time. After launch in 1632 or 1633, she was moved to Brouage in September 1634 where she was completed around 1635 by Mathieu Casteau. She carried up to heavy guns, most on her two-deck broadside but also 8 firing forwards from the bow and 8 firing aft, an unusual feature until Dupuy de Lôme redesigned naval artillery. 
 
 
Couronne took part in the Battle of Guetaria on 22 August 1638, and another expedition to Spain in 1639 under Henri de Sourdis. The ship was disarmed in 1641 and scrapped between 1643-1645.
Extract courtesy of Wikipedia
 
The kit
 

Ship Model Okumoto isn’t a name that you’re likely to have encountered much, if at all, during your exploration of this hobby. They are one of an extremely minor number of Japanese companies who are producing wooden ship kits. In fact, the only other company that I can think of is WoodyJoe, and they don’t sell these frame-style models that Okumoto are now selling. At the moment, Okumoto only produce three of these kits, with a fourth being released in the next weeks. Model Ship World has been sent all three current releases for review, so I thought we’d first take a look at this most famous of French ships.
 

If you expect your model ship to be packaged into the typical cardboard box with glossy box art and other such niceties, then this might just surprise you. Okumoto has chosen a lockable, clear plastic case to package their kits into, and there is no box art. This simple approach has its identity defined by the set of instruction sheets that has a photo of the finished model sat on top of the timber parts. It’s as simple as that. Whilst unconventional, this approach is actually quite charming and certainly engaging. Opening the box reveals three stacks of laser-cut wood (Agathis), a small bundle of thin strip wood, short dowel sections and a packet with five bundles of toothpicks. The latter have quite ornate turning on their blunt end and have obviously been chosen for this purpose. I remember using the same thing when I built my Panart San Felipe. There are 26 sheets of accompanying plans and drawings, plus the colour laser-printed image of the finished vessel.
 








I know that there are a number of modellers who aren’t fans of laser cut wood due to the scorched edges, but the heat from this laser seems to have been very localised and not caused as much as is seen on contemporary kits. Look at this photo to see what I mean. On the reverse of each sheet are a few lengths of sticky tape. This is designed to hold the parts in their respective places because with this kit, there is no reason to cut the parts from the sheets! Yes. They are completely cut out and ready to use! Removing the parts also shows that no sticky residues are left from the tape, so this isn’t a concern. As this model is going to be POF, it’s pretty important that there aren’t any unwanted nasties to overcome, such as numbering of the components. This is also correct as the part numbers for each sheet are supplied on the accompanying plans. Another feature of each laser-cut sheet is the thickness of the timber and sheet number, laser-engraved onto the end of each one, making identifying even easier. Most of the strip material is cut from the same timber and in the same fashion with the tape holding the strips in place. 

Dowel and separate strip wood is high quality too, but I’m unsure as the material used for the latter. Those bundles of toothpicks are very good too, with no low-quality material that splits and splinters. 

Underneath the colour print of the finished La Couronne, lurks a 6-page photo driven instruction manual. Now, here’s the rub…it’s all in Japanese! The various sizes etc. are understandable, so you will need to the aid of a mobile app, such as Google Translate, so scan and change the language into your own native brand. That app actually works pretty well on this sort of thing. Check out this screenshot comparison.



 
Next up is an A2 sized plan, printed at actual scale to the model. All text and dimension on this is printed in English, and the drawings include an above elevation and a starboard side profile. 


 
A further six sheets show the parts plan for the laser-cut timber, simply for referencing purposes.

 
Each frame is now shown on the next series of drawings, indicating joints and positions for the deck beams. There will be course need to be some tracing of positions from these to the timber parts.

 
The remainder of the plans contain drawings which pertain to the fitting of rails, lodging knees and just about every other aspect of the model, in more precise detail that the previous plans. Whilst Japanese text is present, so is English text, so there shouldn’t be any confusion in what you are studying. All plans also show the specific part numbers for just about everything, whether you need to know them or not. 


 
Conclusion
La Couronne is, according to Ken at Okumoto, one of the most popular model ship designs in Japan because the shape is very appealing to wooden ship builders. This kit, at time of writing, is their latest release, and Okumoto misjudged how popular it would be with customers and as a result, they quickly ran out of the first production batch. Whilst the model itself is superbly designed and produced with high quality, there are perhaps a couple of areas where artistic licence/vs simplicity might have crept in, but that really doesn’t detract from what is otherwise a highly attractive and authentic-looking POF build of this historical vessel. You could, if you wished, go even further with the model and add internal deck planking etc. For me, the model is perfect without any added embellishment and will provide the modeller with a challenge and a great introduction into the world of POF ships, and without any real compromise in the standard of the finished build. These aren’t cheap models by any stretch of the imagination, so I would ensure that you’ve a number of completions under your belt before diving into an Okumoto kit. I would say these are an excellent transition kit between POB and POF, if POF was what you really wanted to tackle, but didn’t have the tooling to do so. I think the only thing I would’ve liked to have seen included are the gratings. I don’t know how easy they would be to replicate in this scale, but may try to add them myself.
 
There are two previous releases to this. These are Santa Maria and Endeavour, and I will be looking at these too over the next weeks. 
 
My sincere thanks to Ship Model Okumoto for kindly sending this sample out for review on Model Ship World. To purchase directly, click the link at the top of this article.
 
 

 
 
 

Just to show you a different look with the barge here is a friend of mine building it right now.  Early paintings show the planking painting white.......it looks nice.
 

Thank you Glenn and B.E. for your kind words and thank you to all the 'Likes'.
Glenn, indeed I chose cherry wood for the hull. The deck will be made of boxwood.
Blue Ensign, I do not claim authorship of my modification because it is indeed while browsing through your superb build log that I came up with the idea of this addition. I really liked the idea of seeing the space under the skylight.
 
I continue in parallel to finalize the two rooms that we will see from the openings of the deck.
I just finished the 2 side walls of the room that is under the companionway.
 

 


I am now going to make the wall that will separate the 2 rooms.

In order to be able to securely fasten the model to the stand, two recesses for nuts were milled into the keel board and two holes were drilled for M3 threaded rods.


Today I glued the ribs into the prepared keel board. For the right-angled alignment I built small auxiliary constructions out of Lego bricks.

 

I came across a fascinating video made at the U. S. Naval Academy museum on design and history of ships during the era leading up to the War of 1812. Many gorgeous ship models are featured.
 
Sorry if this video has already been mentioned on this site.

Keep going...
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

One more thing for the newer members I have said before.  This is a world wide forum with people of all skill levels.  We literally have some of the best modelers in the world post regularly here.  People who literally wrote the books on our subjects.  Sort of a basketball forum with Lebron posting daily or a swimming forum where Phelps is all over the place.  Sometimes this is pretty intimidating.  Us mere mortals must always remember everyone starts somewhere and we all want to improve.  Some of those "pros" are the nicest and most helpful people here.  The tone and encouragement from everyone here on the forum makes this the best place to be

Hello, this afternoon my book arrived, 65 days late. It is worth every penny and day to wait for it. It is a beautiful frigate and in the 1/48 plans it looks huge.

Post One
 
This involves the keel assembly and I was happy to follow the leads of JpR62 (Jean-Paul) and Chuck Seiler, by using scrap 1/32” sheet to assist the alignment of the inner keel pieces.
 

0681(2)

0697(2)
I utilised the fret cut out to hold the bow section during keel gluing and the inner keel sections.
 

0690(2)
The stern section is likewise fitted in a jig for gluing.
 
I also agree with Chuck Seiler’s approach of assembling the keel pieces as two separate sections and bringing them together only after tapering and the addition of the inner bow and stern keel pieces.
 

0703(2)
This is a long keel secured initially only by the central scarph and I share his concerns about the risk of breakage.
 

0709
Gluing the bow inner keel piece.

0713
…and the inner stern keel piece.
 
 
The stem, keel, and Sternpost require tapering.
The pieces are 4mm thick and will initially be reduced to 2.5mm. Final finish 2.38mm or thereabouts.
 
The taper runs down the stem, starting 18mm down from the head, and from inboard to outboard. The taper continues along the keel from top to bottom and is also applied to the lower sternpost.
 
To this end I have pva’d a styrene strip 0.25mm x 2.5mm along the parts to be tapered to give me a guide to the thin end point.
 
With the two sections joined the centre inner keel piece can be fitted which adds security to the structure.

0721
Initially I used pieces of scrap 1/32” sheet to centre the piece along the keel, but this didn’t give a good result; something must have been off, probably me, so I resorted to placement by eye which worked better.
 
 
Chuck mentions that the piece was made long on purpose and that sanding the after end may be required. In my case it did, reducing the keel slot size, the implications of which I have yet to find out.
 
 
The final tweaking of the tapering is now done making sure the inboard edges of the keel remain untouched so as not to affect the rabbet.
 
 
The final task of this part is to attach the transom piece.
Chuck makes the point about ensuring the transom is perpendicular to the keel.
 

0735
There are etched lines to assist centring the transom, but I then used my eye and diverse methods to try and check that the piece was vertical to the sternpost.

0746
One of the diverse methods I used to check the transom was level.

0741
Not quite as simple as may seem given the inbuilt flexibility  due to the length and relative thinness of the structure.
 

0756
A coat of w-o-p and I can move onto the next part.
 
 
B.E.
01/03/21
 
 
 
 

Post 51: Stepping the mast
 
The mast was a fairly tight fit and so after leveling the ship with a digital inclinometer, a digital level in the cross- hair mode was to check the vertical alignment:
 

 

 
Other distractions such as the Australian Open Tennis Championship and the Americas Cup have kept me out of the workshop lately and now it is the start of the rugby union season.  I am also waiting for the delivery of some rope from Chuck so there might not be much progress for a while.
 
This will give me time reflect on my rigging strategy.  Chuck suggests rigging from the inside to the outside and I can see the logic in this.  However does prevent preparing the shroud gangs off the ship slipping and other standing rigging off the ship and slipping the over the mast.  They would need to be seized on the ship and, although my Quad Hands would help, I am not convinced I can do it uniformly and without damage to other fittings.  I can always slip the shrouds over but not rig them until later.  Its kind of messy so I need to think a bit more about it,
 
John
 

Thank you so much......I just wanted to reach out and let all of you know how grateful we are for every donation you folks have sent during the pandemic.   
 
Many of you have sent us donations large and small through the Donation box on the top right side of the forum.   I dont know the screen names of those who sent us a donation or I would thank all of you individually......but we appreciate the support.
 
It means a lot to us!!!  Thank You from all of us!!!
 
😍
 
 

One more thing for the newer members I have said before.  This is a world wide forum with people of all skill levels.  We literally have some of the best modelers in the world post regularly here.  People who literally wrote the books on our subjects.  Sort of a basketball forum with Lebron posting daily or a swimming forum where Phelps is all over the place.  Sometimes this is pretty intimidating.  Us mere mortals must always remember everyone starts somewhere and we all want to improve.  Some of those "pros" are the nicest and most helpful people here.  The tone and encouragement from everyone here on the forum makes this the best place to be

There is no real official protocol and we just put it where we think it will fit nicely.  Most of the time if the question is very specific to a problem you are having in your build then the build log would be a good place (my gunport template won't line up with my frames any ideas?).  If it is a more general topic then the specific sub forum would be nice as an independent topic (want to start using an airbrush to paint where to start?).  
 
Sometimes question in a build log become so interesting and consuming with so many posts the mods will split it off into its own sub forum as a new independent topic.

Outstanding description. It looks really good. I’m very glad that you went ahead and made these pieces yourself. Gives me some inspiration so when I get to that step I’ll try that as well

Outstanding description. It looks really good. I’m very glad that you went ahead and made these pieces yourself. Gives me some inspiration so when I get to that step I’ll try that as well

Channels, Chainplates, Dead Eyes, and Strops
 
This is that moment when you know you’re not in kit world anymore. No PE to cut out and assemble and or laser ready wood to shape and paint, for this segment of the build everything is made from scratch. By now I sound like a broken record, but here again was something I’d never done. While Chuck’s monograph was as clear and helpful as always, I still had to figure out a way make each of these components. I had never worked anything from metal, I know - what limited skills I have.
 

 
First up is the channels, take a stick of wood, make it pretty and capable of holding deadeyes and chainplates, then make four of them. The best purchase I’ve made for my modeling is my Byrnes saw, nothing beats it. Quickly moving into second place is my Proxxon MF 70 Micro Mill. I’m learning more and more how to use it, still basic stuff, but things I’m not really sure how I would have made without it.
 

 

 
I chose to make these from my stash of boxwood. I like the yellow cedar but boxwood works better for more intricate pieces, it is a harder wood and holds shape nicely. The boxwood and yellow cedar are complimentary on the model, adding just a little tone difference. Chuck’s mini-kits come in both woods, I chose the boxwood for all of mine, even the ones I painted.
 
-
 
Next up is making the 6mm deadeyes. I made a simple jig to line up the three pieces, a small center and two outer pieces, basically a vanilla Oreo cookie, glued together after removing the char.
 

 
I wanted to give the deadeyes a little character, a bit too neat right off the sheet, so I tumbled them in this MicroMart block tumbler. It has a 220 grit sandpaper bottom, sides, and a 4 part spindle also covered with 220 grit. I connected the spindle to my drill, tossed the blocks inside and spun it until I liked what came out. Two things if you haven’t used one of these; I was more successful with it sideways as shown and I needed to reverse the drill (as in screw out not in) to match the the sandpaper. I’m left-handed so maybe I assembled it backwards, I do that on occasion, it’s a right-hander’s world. I finished them up with wipe-on poly. 
 

 
Then is was time for me to become a blacksmith and work in metal, I'd put it off as long as I could. I approached this step with a bit of trepidation. The monograph was clear enough on what to do, I just wasn’t sure how I was going to make 6 (near) identical backstays and 8 (near) identical chainplates from a strip of brass. For starters, it hadn’t been easy to find the right thickness and width of brass, but fortunately I’d completed this hunt a few months ago. Now I have enough to make 176 chainplates, just in case. My first step, seemingly as always, was to find out how many different tools I could use - this is just a sample. I always hand drill everything made of wood with pin vises. However, this cheap battery powered drill was essential to drill the holes in the brass, I’d have been twisting forever otherwise. The vise from the Proxxon mill proved equally handy off the mill to firmly hold the pieces.
 

 
To make both the backstays and chainplates requires a bit of shaping and filing. I kept the shape simple so I could repeat it multiple times, jewelry making is not in my future. I of course could have filed these by hand, but hey, there is a mill sitting right there. It was slow going, for me, to set zeros on two of three axis for each side, 22 times (I did the backstays working from the center as shown in the previous photograph). 
 

 
Having finally completed the chainplates it was time to determine the proper angles using a temporary mask and string, a process most of us know and applies to any model (well not modern war ships I suppose).
 

 
With the holes marked and drilled then it’s a dry fit to confirm everything is lined up. I only needed about a third of the length to attach the strops, but I didn’t know that when I was making them.
 

 
And then off to the blackening station. I chose to blacken rather than paint these. The result is a more worn, gun metal look.  I was originally going to paint them Iron Work Black like other parts of the model but then decided I liked these. I think it provides a little character, more of a ‘I didn’t buy these from the store’ look.
 

 
I normally like to explain how I did something in the hopes it will help others in some way, or at least provide a way they don’t want to do it. I had someone ask me recently in a PM to explain how I did seizings, so I went into great detail and even linked a YouTube video. The person replied, oh I don’t want to do it like that. Sigh...
 
Anyway, my advice for making deadeye strops is go find another build log. I had to learn every step of the way here. I’ve never soldered anything for a model, never used solder paste (though its kinda cool, you apply it, hit with a torch and it flashes into a finished connection). Now I’m going to use it for some ring bolts just for fun. I had many fails. First make a circle and solder the opening (ok, got it, at least after I learned how to use the solder) then shape that around the deadeye in the traditional shape, Pop, there went the solder joint, start over. I settled on a length of wire 22mm long. I couldn't get 21mm to work without the joint popping while bending it around the deadeye, I started with 24mm, tried 23mm - really these small differences mattered - they were too big, so 22mm it was. After many attempts I got 8 to shaped around the deadeyes and mounted on the chainplates. So yes, I made it all myself from brass strip and black wire. But I’m not the one to ask on best practices even though it turned out ok and I held to my standard of doing it over until I got it right.
 

 
This stage took me a full month. Of course it was partially due to Snowageddon here in Texas, rolling power outages, the lowest temperatures since 1949, real snow to play in with the grandkids. I was playing outside with them on a Friday after it finally warmed up to 24 (F) degrees (from below zero earlier in the week). On Monday, three days later, it reached 76 (F) degrees…Texas…
 
I admit was frustrated a bit during this phase, so many fails. I thought more than once to use some retail ready fittings in lieu of my own but none would really work without cheapening the model, and I would have regretted it later. I am glad I did it all myself, I would encourage anyone who gets this point to do the same, if I can anyone can. The next time a model calls for metal work I now have some experience, I bet I could do it in half the number of fails.
 
On to fun stuff, I'm not far from finishing the hull. I'm going to finish making everything including the bowsprit before gluing anything on.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you were mildly entertained.
 

Thank you very much for your greetings. I'm sorry I didn't answer them all to save space. My mother left, but I was taught from an early age that "to do everything in my power" was the greatest treasure of my life.  
Thank you again for your concern！

I think you’ll love working on this wonderful kit

I'm sure the tribute to your skills and to your husband on Czech TV must have been bitter-sweet. That is a magnificent model and we appreciate you sharing it with us. I know it is not the same, but you have a band of supporters here on MSW for your future models.

These are magnificent examples of mixed media use in ship model building, Doris. Do they not have dust in your country? I wonder how you keep these masterpieces in pristine condition without being encased.
 
Whatever will you do next? I hope you will share it here. We talked once of your publishing a book based on your techniques. Did that ever come to fruition?

Hello everyone, 
 
I decided to start another kit, this time it will be the Queen Anne Style Royal Barge by Syren Ship Model Company. This was the first time I had ordered anything from Chuck, and have never seen customer service or products like his, I ordered this kit and some deadeyes for my Flying Fish build on Monday and got them early Wednesday. The kit itself is very nice, the laser cut cherry wood is very precise and probably the best I have ever seen.
 
I chose this kit because I really want to build POF models, but don’t really have time to do all the research and prep work that goes into a proper scratch build. I am also working on another model as I mentioned before, but sometimes I get a little burnt out if I only have one thing to work on, and this picture specifically sold me on this kit:
 
 
 
I had to wait until this morning to really look at the kit. While I rummaged through every thing I took some of the more delicate laser cut sheets and put them in a plastic container, I then took that container and put it on a separate shelf in my garage, that way my clumsy hands wont destroy them by accident! 
 

 
Really the only thing I got done today on this build is some sanding, I started with the laser cut sheet with the 4 pieces that make up the keel, I used 220 grit sand paper and lightly sanded both sides of the entire sheet to remove all the laser cut char. I then used a #11 blade and cut each of the 4 pieces out, followed by another sanding along the edges to remove any more char. I made sure not to touch the scarf joints, these are laser cut to exact dimensions so I will leave them alone for now. 
 

 
The next step was to taper the keel from 5/32” to 3/32”, I used my calipers to mark a line along the bottom of the keel 1/32” from the edge on both sides, which acts as a nice guide when tapering. 
 

 
Well thats all I got done today, the Admiral and I decided to paint the interior of our house, so I will probably have to wait a few more days before real progress can begin! Thanks for reading. 
 
Bradley 

Thank you to all the 'Likes'.
 
With the installation of the square tuck and the two filer pieces, I finish the construction phase on the skeleton of the model. A few more sanding touches and I will be able to start planking the hull.
 

 
A copy of the square tuck template is glued on a piece of cardboard that will allow the piece to be cut from a 1/32" thick sheet of Yellow Alaskan Cedar.
 

 
Once the piece is glued, the space at the back is filled with different pieces of Alaskan Cedar and then sanded.
Time to start planking the hull.