palmerit

Yeah, that’s it. Not sure how you’d secure that to a mast.

As in this book? https://archive.org/details/TheAshleyBookOfKnots

Now that I’ve finished the Pram and Smack, I’m getting back to rigging the Sherbourne, my first model I started. Some of the blocks are tied to eyelets. I followed the instructions for tying them in the instruction book. I also need to tie blocks using a line that goes around a mast or a yard. I’ve attached a copy of the drawing from the plans for one of them and a close up photo from the instructions. I know I could just knot the line to the mast with a half hitch (plain simple knot) and then tie on the block. Are there alternative ways to tie this on? I’m not sure what to search for to see what options there might be. Is there a name for tying on a block like this I could use in a search? I might resort to just a couple simple knots but I’d like to see other options I might have.

Otto Frei (https://www.ottofrei.com) also has some descent tools. I bought my Optivisor from them (lots of knockoffs on Amazon) and got my tiny metal files from them. In one of the orders I placed, I also bought a couple of tiny squares, some tiny drill bits (the .5 and .6mm ones that break so easily), and some 100-packs of scalpel blades. They make stuff for jewelry but those tools can be used for model ship building too. I also bought some stuff from J. Stockard Fly Fishing (www.jsflyfishing.com) - some nice scissors for cutting rigging, a whip finisher (we'll see if that actually works - it was pretty cheap), a bobbin holder that might help with rigging (we'll see), and some very fine thread. If you ever opt to get some Quad Hands, order directly from them (www.quadhands.com). Seems like a lot of them on Amazon and elsewhere are knockoffs. Early on, I bought some nice tweezers from Tamiya (they had more in stock than some of the places online that see them). If you're doing airbrushing, and use Vallejo air paints, www.scalehobbyist.com has the best prices and selection that I've found. I also bought the Lee Valley micro trio. They are nice. I also visited a Lee Valley store in Niagara Falls when visiting family.

Vanguard is a great company to start with and their Sherbourne a great ship to start with. I've seen Chris Watton post that he barely makes any money on this one because it's a starter kit to get people hooked on the hobby. That means you get great material and instructions for the price. The material and instructions are certainly better than the Model Shipways kits I also built. I'm still a novice, but here are a few things I learned - I welcome the experts to call BS on any of these that seem wrong (I'll learn something if they do): - Treat each plank as its own project. While the first layer isn't visible, the more you do to make it look good gives you practice for when you do the second layer. - This hull is painted completely, and you can do a ton with filler and sanding. But it's still good practice for later models to try to do a good job. I certainly didn't, but I tried. - While a beginner kit, the bow of this ship is a bit more challenging than the one I'm working on now from Vanguard (Ranger). This requires hot water and a heat source (like a soldering iron, or a soldering iron retooled for model ships), and doing some curving of the planks in both direction (check out videos and build logs and the Articles Database). This one curves almost 90 degrees to the bow, which does mean a double bend in some places. You can see my build log for my novice attempts (that I tried to mimic from other build logs and sources). If you try to force the wood too much it'll likely split. - Wait until the plank is pretty dry before trying to sand it (to bevel) or glue it into place. I've seen some use the soldering iron to speed up the drying. - Bevel the edges where the plank you're adding meets up with the plank that's there (I just use a sanding stick a little at a time, and test fit it. - Use a very sharp hobby knife (I use a scalpel) - I replace the blades often (bought them in packs of 100). And cut gradually, with multiple passes, so you don't end up following the grain of the plank and messing up your cut. - After gluing in a plank and letting it dry, check to see that a plank's setting flush with the bulkheads. If it isn't, you can try to shape a bit on the hull by wetting it down and running a soldering iron over it. Then add some more glue underneath and clamp and rubber band it. If you don't get the planks to lay flush, you end up with steps rather than a smooth hull. While you will (and can) sand those out, the more you decrease the stepping/clinkering the better. - You do have a few extra planks, so if you really screw something up you can start over (though you don't have that many extras). - Know that unless you're really skilled, your planking job is probably going to look less than what you had hoped (both first and second). At least mine did. You can really do a lot with filler and sanding. My final hull looked a lot better than what I thought it might. Be careful not to sand too much. The first planking wood is a bit thick (certainly thicker than the basswood on some Model Shipways kits) but the second planking wood is thinner (though harder). - Be careful with the stern area when you're planking and sanding. I broke the end of the stern off twice just being careless. I think others have done that on this and other ships. Just know you can repair it (some repairs are easier than others). And it'll be good practice since even following a kit, there's times when you can or need to scratch build pieces. Even on the Sherbourne, I had to scratch build some pieces near the stern because I had messed something up in the build earlier on and pieces that were supposed to meet up together would not.

My first planking on the Ranger seems to be looking a bit better than my first planking on the Sherbourne. The top photo is my Ranger, the bottom my Sherbourne. Still a bunch to get learn to better, but nice to see a bit of improvement from my first attempt.

Finished my Smack. The rigging was definitely a challenge on this one. The instructions weren’t always the clearest and the rope isn’t the greatest. And it was certainly a step up from the Pram. I had some challenges with the brittania metal in places. It’s used for some of the rigging and the hole in those parts is too small (or the rope too thick) so I had to bore out one of them a bit. While I thought there was more than enough metal left, just a tiny bit of tension on the rigging broke one of the pieces. I could have tried to craft a new piece (or wait to order a replacement) but I just superglued the line back on. I’ll face that side to the wall. I definitely struggled with the rope coils after the rigging tie offs. I tried a few different approaches, which is why all the coils look so different. Next model with coils I’m going to have to research approaches some more because I wasn’t happy with anything I tried. It was the first time in this new hobby that I was getting frustrated.

Slowly continuing with the first planking. I’m just doing one plank on each side at a time. While this is an “easy” planking, as my second strip planking (my other four models were different), it’s still a bit of a challenge. After adding a couple of planks around the bulge of the hull, I found that the planks were not completely seated and adding another layer of planking would create a clinker effect. I first tried taught rubber bands but they didn’t quite due the job. Now trying some clamps.

Starting the first layer of planking.

Funny. As I was typing my response (I got distracted) and said Chris would respond, he had already responded.

I actually ordered my Vanguard Sherbourne directly from Vanguard (UK to US) because it was out of stock at agesofsail. The shipping was a more than it would have been from agesofsail. The shipping wasn't crazy. I pulled up my order and the shipping was £35.99 (around $45 given today's exchange rate) - that was 18mon ago, so who knows what it might be now, and who knows what kinds of tariffs might be added now. While the shipping was kind of high, the model directly from Vanguard was cheaper (based on the exchange rate then) than the same model from agesofsail (since agesofsail needs to pay duties and shipping and then adjust for exchange rate). So the overall price to get a model in my hands from agesofsail and Vanguard was pretty much the same, maybe a little more directly from Vanguard. Oh, and the Vanguard model was here in about the same time as another model I ordered from agesofsail arrive. When I ordered my Sherbourne, I think it was a month or two later that agesofsail received a new shipment. It'll be restocked there, but since it's a pretty popular model, I'm sure it sells out pretty quickly. If you don't want to wait, I'd just order directly from Vanguard. When I've seen others ask if Vanguard models will be stocked at agesofsail soon, I've sometimes seen @chris watton respond when a shipment will be on its way. For comparison, I ordered a model from Pavel Nikitin and its shipping was over $100. And it'll take a couple months to be sent and who knows how long it'll take to get to the US from Ukraine (I'm patient since I have two lifetimes worth of models waiting to be built).

I've seen some logs and posts and videos recommending beeswax. Is that recommended for coils? Or used also with glue? Or instead of glue? I saw a Tagliamare YouTube video on doing hanging rope coils and he recommended using beeswax (actually I think I've seen that conservators wax is preferred because of its pH).

This looks just like the seating area of the Smack, with a loop of rope on the seat. Useful to see the style and the scale.

Do you have photos of the jigs or can you point me to them if they were in a build log?

I'm curious about whether neat spirals are more common (on models or boats/ships) or if "garden hose" kinds of circles of rope are more common. The neat spirals seem to require a pin at the center and then spiraling around (using plastic of some sort as the base, perhaps with a piece of plastic on top, spiraling around, securing with something like shellac or glue). The "garden hose" loops would seem to be something you could do around a small dowel (that then has shellac or white glue applied, taking it off the dowel before it dries complete and sticks to the dowel). Don't know if people have thoughts. I'm not necessarily trying for a perfect match to the real world, just wondering what approach looks better, and maybe it depends on the kind of model.

This is a model that'll have a bunch of rope coils near the various tie-offs of lines. I made a poor attempt at rope coils on my Pram - which basically just meant that I stiffened the rope a bit with a white glue slurry so it lay a bit inside the boat, not that naturally, and certainly not in a coil. That one only had a couple of ropes because the rigging was so much simpler - and because I had inadvertently cut a third rope short at the cleat not thinking there'd be extra length coiled below. And the photos on the Model Shipways instructions are fuzzy and not always complete. I want to try some ways of doing a rope coil on the Smack. I'm gathering that some people do the rope coils completely off model as an independent coil and then kind of just glue the actual rigging line underneath or something to look like it's a continuous line. I think that approach would definitely be useful if trying to tie off some of the more intricate hanging bundles of line that I've seen on some builds. The Smack doesn't have a place to hang line, so it's just rope coils I think. I'm going to try to do the coils on the actual line. I've linked below a few build logs and posts showing how to do rope coils. If someone has another pointer to add to the list, please let me know. I won't be getting to do the actual coils probably until the weekend since I have more rigging to do, but I'll be reading and research a bit over the next few days. Again, these are just for coils that would lay on a deck or a bench, like I'll do on the Smack, not hanging rope coils - there are a bunch of posts for doing that in various styles.

One thing I realized too late was that sometimes I was trying to keep the planks the same width all along, but that meant that if I had a dip in the lower plank I was trying to close I'd then mirror that dip in the upper end of the plank I was adding. It was probably better to have a small amount of inconsistency in the width - almost imperceptible - to try to see the top edge of the new line of planks parallel. Not saying I'm seeing any of that in yours, but it was about when I got to the point you're at now that I think some of the problems started. I eventually ended up making the planks a bit too wide and then sanding them down to try to keep a parallel line at the top.

Slow and steady progress on the rigging and sails.

Adding the interior bulkheads. Following the instructions, I didn’t glue to the upper bulkhead ears since those need to be snapped off later. I need to order more .5 and .6mm drill bits. I was trying to predrill holes for some nails to secure the pieces and was trying to be careful but the bits snapped. Ugh.

Like those jigs. I'll need to copy them. Did you just use diluted white glue to stiffen the rope? Or some other concoction? And a very nice boat!

In its home in my office.

Bag 28 + sails and rigging. Finished. Looks pretty cool for a Lego model. We’ll see how much by comparison it takes to build the Occre Endurance I have packed away when I get to that.

Bag 27:

Bag 26:

Bag 25: