GuntherMT

Hi , in reply to your message, I used paper for the back with black marker and put the frames on. If you look close the wood below is also raised using the supplied vaneer strips, I just shanferred the edges, amd added a little trim between. Oh and don't do what I did, that's instal the poop deck first and then decide to put in windows, then spend hours squeezing throught the gap between both decks.

working station is done. I prefer to build in the living room surrounded by the family. so this is the perfect workingstation for me in the pictue you can see how the ship didn´t fit and how I improved it so that the ship fits tide. I also good a new book which I found in a neighbours libary Only a cuttingboard is missing which belongs in the area of the working station under the books.

Wayne, could you use something like what I did for my top decks?  Run a section of planking or if you don't want any curve, use a larger stiff piece, and maybe build up the inside to match the curve, and use rubber bands to hold it down.
 
Something like this, but with the plank/board run through the frames, under the deck to stick out to either side, and then run the rubber band from one side to the other as needed to keep pressure on.  I'll remove the pictures after you've seen them if you'll remind me!
 

 
 

Cheers pops!
 
I tried to take dark background images earlier. I don't get why the LED lights look so weird in the image. IRL it is quite dim and have a grey/greenish tone, as the windows are tinted. The camera pick the light up as bright and almost blue.
 

 

 
Now it's back to shaping deadeyes and the metal parts for them so I can continue with the foremast.
 
 
Thanks for the likes everyone!
 
 
Matti

The lifts and Reef tackle pendant. The lifts are attached to a loop at the mast and attached with a toggle which is abut a 3mm piece or wood with a groove in the middle. The Pendants go through the sheeve in the yard, and held by a few loops around and left to fall through with a knot. I have finally attached all the railings on the tops as the pendants are apparently belayed to the tops. Only the braces to go, so a few more blocks to go on the stays yet.

Clue lines and sheets on the stay sail yards. I served the end of the sheets to make it easier to make the ball at the end (a simple knot) that goes through the loop on the served block. I've done the colouring in to show the run of the lines. Now these are belayed it is easier to belay the bunt lines and lifts to keep them taught without actually lifting the yards.

I've rigged as much of the bowsprit that I can until I get the masts erected. Constructo makes this rigging more like a detective story....I have to search numerous places and then guess where the line goes. Oh well...if it was easy anybody could do it.

OK, made the main pieces for the first dredge. Have to make a few more straight pieces with eyes on the end and then try to get it to all stick together. Wish me luck!
 

 

Thanks Popeye,boat supports done.Pumps took a couple of goes to get right.

Phenomenal looking work there.

When last we saw our intrepid little boat, the subdecks had been glued, but no fairing had been done.  Since then some progress has been made in that department.
I began by doing a 'rough' fairing to see where I needed to add any shims.
 

 
Because of adding all of the shims to the bottom of the bulkheads prior to mounting them, I found that no shimming was needed except for about half a dozen extensions that were not going to touch the planking without causing a 'dip', or needing to remove far too much material from their neighbors.
 
Once again I dipped into the 3/64ths basswood deck planking, and cut pieces for the extensions.  I used a second piece of basswood in the clamping so that the alligator clamps I used wouldn't leave divots in the shims where I didn't think I needed to sand very much material away.  Here you can see my clamping system so that I could use regular wood glue to hold the extension shims in place.
 

 
I made some blocks to reinforce the mast mortise, and placed them.  I made them overly long as I didn't want to apply a lot of glue right around the mortise.  This is also why I added a 'shim' to the edge of them, to get more glue surface away from the mortise opening.
 

 
I cut out bow fillers to a rough size with a hand scroll saw (I see a nice power band saw in my future I think, every time I use the scroll saw I see how useful of a tool it would be where I could guide a piece with both hands or a fence) and then did all the shaping with my Dremel and a drum-sanding attachment.  Once I had them nearly right I glued them in place before the final fairing, as I wanted them fixed in place to do the final shaping against the bulkhead, keel, and deck.
 

 
I did another run with a rough (120 grit) sanding block and reduced all of the bulkheads until I was seeing 'kit bulkhead' material on all the higher bulkheads, so that my mass shimming didn't cause the hull to be too 'fat'. 
 

 
I also realized that I had never beveled the stem, so I finished that, and trimmed the excess wood from the keel that extended aft beyond the sternpost.  At some point I need to make a tiny filler for the hole where the sternpost and keel connect that was left because of the keel being the wrong length.
 
And a couple test plank runs.  Very happy with how nicely they lay all the way from the keel up to the top of the bulkheads.
 

 
Still need to do a final pass with a 250 grit sanding block, but I am going to build out the stern and get it faired up with the hull before I do that.  Looks like the stern should occupy quite a few hours to get it right.
 
Fairly amazing to think that on the Carmen I was at this point in the build within a few hours of starting, since I didn't know any better, and did pretty much none of this early preparation work!  Then again, the planks didn't lay anything like this when I started working on them.

If you are referring to the trim that goes on top of the hull. I used the template that the boat popped out of. I traced the ship on to a piece of balsa. Trace all the way around the ship then move the shape about 1/8 of an inch over and retrace all the way around again. That way when you cut out you have the inner and outer shape. Hope that made sense.

To all my friends an fellow followers
 
I am away for some days, a week, as I go to the Austrian Alps to a mountain hut... Just me and my Little dog called Mila. We will be there, hiking, relaxing, no Internet, no TV, no Computer. I will take along James Cooks Logbooks, an Atlas with sea maps... and a handful of dreams.
 
CU all later
 
Cheerio
 
Max

Finally ready for a quick update , work time has been scarce but i have been working at the galleries and hope it has been worth it .My resent obcession with buying a new saw was partly brought on by trying to cut the strips for window frames ,it,s hard to get them even cutting with a blade !!! So finished my last one to-night although looking at the pics i may have to redo a few but will decide after cleaning up and varnishing , it,s been like a small model on it,s own , Think i might order brass scrolls etc as those provided are crap ,if they had been anything only ply i could maybe have done something with them but you get what you pay for !!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Winter arrives this weekend so hopefully more build progress 

Hola amigos:
 
Well, now I'm in the process of making the sails. First I had to learn how to use sewing machine from my wife, as well as learning to sew by hand to place the bolt rope that go around the sails.  
 
The BB kit has all the sails printed in one sheet of fabric, so the first step was to cut the different pieces, then to sew the hem around the borders and sew several lines along the sails to simulate the the different pieces that form it.  At last I sew the bolt ropes that go around the sails.
 
I must to point out that to make the bolt lines it was necessary to search for a suitable thread in fabric stores: size (1.2 - 1.5 mm diameter), material (cotton or polyester) and color (beige or light brown), not an easy task.   Finally I only find a white nylon thread with the correct size.  After doing several tries I accomplished an acceptable finish using a mix of white glue, water and the same acrylic paint I used to paint the plastic figures in the ship. In the pictures you can see some sails with the bolt ropes already sewn and some without them.
 

 
Saludos, Karl
 
PD: Thanks for all the likes
 
 

Thanks Jim,
 
Wonderful kits aren't they Time for another update.
 
* Breeching ropes are finished.
* Skylights have the windows in place and grills stuck over them. I glazed the skylights with clear seal, which gives a really nice old effect. I much prefer it to using clear plastic... Sorry about the pictures... they don't really capture it.
* Built the ladder to go inside the companionway (although it turns out you can barely see it at all through the partly open doors... - I know it's there! )
* Put the windlass together, and the pawl bitts.
* Added the flue and trim in front of the grating.
* Put more eyelets and cleats onto the deck.
* I've also glued lots of these parts onto the deck now (except the windlass and pawl bitts). Need to read up on making square holes to complete the windlass, and put pins in the bottom to locate them firmly.
 
Think that's pretty much it. Hawse holes and scuppers next
 

 

 

 

I've been working on two areas --one successfully and one not so much. The bowsprit is done, but not yet permanently installed. The work included tapering and shaping the piece, making and adding the bees and bee blocks, making and adding the cap, making and adding the dolphin striker, making and adding the gammoning cleats, jib boom saddle and spritsail sling saddle and adding the single woolding. The bowsprit itself is a dowel, stained with golden oak stain, and the other wooden parts are boxwood. The bowsprit will not be mounted until the various hearts and deadeyes have been attached.
 
 I have made the hearts from boxwood strip and the deadeyes I'm using are from Model Expo. I am now in the process of making their collars.
 
The less productive work that I've been doing is on the figurehead. I can only describe my efforts to date, both with clay and wood, to be embarrassingly pathetic. So bad in fact that I took no pictures and won't even describe the results. I need to do some rethinking. 
 
Bob

I've finally completed installation of my deck planks, which now require sanding and re staining. If you look closely you will see some plank seams appear darker than others. This darkness is due to the plank being slightly higher than the plank it's mated to, showing more pencil marked edge than intended. Sanding should eliminate that issue but I am a bit concerned about being able to sand the deck evenly.
 
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I decided to install full deck length planks and not to install the nibbing plank. I realize this is definitely non-scale but I believe this keeps the build well within my skill-set and due to the size of the ship keeps what will be a busy deck, more appealing to me.
 
Home life has been very busy and hectic, keeping out of the shop (as well as MSW), but laying 2-3 planks at a time has finally resulted in my laying the last plank this morning. 
 
I hope all my friends on MSW are doing well and in good health!

Here are the posts from my Badger log on how I added a furled fore topmast staysail and a furled jib.
 
 
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.
 

 

 

Here are the pictures - sorry they are a little dark, but the lighting in my living room (the only neutral background I could find) is not the best.  Thanks!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, the clews are created and attached.  I made them using 0.25mm natural thread from kit.  I ended up making them a tad longer and ran them into the sail and up along the outside edge a bit farther than necessary to ensure that the clews were visible when the dog-ears were folded down.  They were attached with fabric glue.

 



 



 

Next step was to bend the sail to the yard.  I didn't take pictures while this was in process, so hopefully the following description makes sense.  I used 0.25mm thread here as well.  First step was to mark on the front of the sail the points where the thread would be run through the sail - I marked points 5mm apart.  Second, I used a running knot to attach the line on one end of the yard.  Third step was to run the line from the front into the rear of the sail, then as you loop it over the yard, run it underneath the prior line and repeat til the end.  It got a bit tricky with the yard horses and blocks, but after a while you get the hang of it.  Once the sail was fully attached, go back and tighten the lines by pulling the vertical line towards the other end of the yard, and down along the top of the rear of the sail.

 



 



 

Next step was the first fold.  From the front of the sail, the bottom half was folded up so that the bottom line between the two dog ears was at the top of the sail.

 



 

Next step was to fold the bottom corners up and in, to help add more volume to the middle of the yard, and reduce the volume at the ends.

 



 

Next step was to furl the sail and attach the gaskets.  From my research, when furling the sails, the sails were "gathered up" such that the sail was folded into an accordion type of pattern with the final fold up and against the top of the yard.  That was a bit hard to do at this scale, so I ended up just folding and rolling the sail up from the front until it was tight against the yard.  Took a few tries, which helped I think to get the cloth more relaxed to get a tighter furl.  

 

Then the gaskets were installed.  I started with one in the middle, and then added three to each side roughly evenly spaced out.  These were fairly easy to do using a running knot, and then using tweezers to help tighten the furl as the gasket was tightened (sometimes with the help of some fabric glue to help keep the material furled).  After a few final adjustments, the knots were sealed with diluted PVA, and then the extra lines cut off.

 



 



 

Finally, using fabric glue, the dog ears for the clews were bent downward and glued into position.   

 



 

There you have it - the no sew method of furling sails.    I spent an inordinate amount of time researching and thinking about how to do these, so hopefully these look relatively authentic.  I know that opinions differ on whether sails should be attached or not, but I think furled sails add a nice touch and are a good compromise given the scale issues with adding full sails - plus, these are sailing ships after all 

 

I think there were lines running from the clews downward which helped to keep them in their downward orientation (and probably keep the furl tight).  I haven't figured out where those lines go, so if anyone has the answer, I would love to hear it 

 

The topsails and courses will be a bit trickier, given that they have blocks for the bunt lines, and yard horses.  I'm thinking that I will pre-rig the bunt lines by gluing a portion of the line into the sail to be furled, which will eventually be run through the blocks.  The instructions have the line started at the block by knotting one end of the line before it is run through the blocks - I think, however, that the line is technically started at the buntlines in the sail which are run through the blocks on the yard.  Haven't fully figured that out yet, so again, would love to hear from anyone with answers on how that works. 

 

I also have to do a little more research on the spanker and jibs - the spanker should be relatively straightforward, but how to reduce the sail to remove bulk while maintaining the brail lines will be tricky.  The jibs are are complicated, in that there are hanks, jib stays and travelers that need to be attached.  All part of the fun I suppose 

 

Thanks for looking in!

Thanks for all the information and  opinions. I have just finished with my ratlines on my MSW"s Armed Virginia Sloop. I ended up setting the spacing at 14" or .291 in 1/48 scale. It looks right at that spacing.
 
I made up a spacing block so that I could check the spacing as I went along. Being the Toolmaker that I am they all came out within .020.
 
As to the 1/16"  building tolerance,I would presume that you are  talking about 1/16" in full scale,which would be .001 ?  I have made up displays to show our building group just how close of differences can be seen by your naked eyesight.
As for feeling diferences on a surface,the average person can feel height differences side to side of .0002.
I uild to variuos tolerances as everyone does.
 
It just is up to each person as to what is important to them. 
 
 
  I tied on the outside right shroud line and then went across to the other side. Just used the block to check along as I went. It's just takes time-about 3 hrs later they were all done.
 
I did not measure any of them with a dialcaliper,I just looked at how they compaired to the setting gauge stick,and how they looked as a whole. It's better to have a little variation. Too perfect can also standout as being unnatural.
 
Thanks
Keith

I would weigh in on the side of the practical.  Differences of an inch or two at this scale are not going to be readily discernible.
 
There is always the internal satisfaction that comes from kn wrong that you have done it right. Or at least as close to right as you can.
 
But there is no avoiding the fact that soon after finishing any project new information always comes to hand. And it almost always contradicts what you have done

Really garym?
 
Assuming 1:48 scale, the difference between 12" and 13", or even 15" is practically indistinguishable. At 1:64 or 1:96 scale - forget about it. Even at 1:48 you can't build consistently to 1/16" tolerance no matter what the research shows. Research is important when it makes sense and will yield information critical to the proper configuration of the model. Beyond that how far do you want to take it?
 
wq3296 

Well, about time for a photo update -
 
I've been working on the After Air Defense Station/FC Director & Base/After Main Battery Tower & after stack, as well as a few other areas forward over the last couple months. The following photos show the progress:
 



 
Once again, nothing is cemented at this time with the exception of the 03 Level after superstructure - everything on it up to the after stack is now in place.
 
As of last night I have begun demo work on the center 40mm amidships gun tub as prep to modify the entire 6 tubs into the Zuni Chaff Launchers (4) and Mk. 56 FC director platforms - this will require quite a bit of scratchbuilding.
 
I've recently purchased the Eduard PE Hull (Gusset) Plates and Rails sets and will decide later whether to use the Pontos or Equard railings on the model. Both are very well etched and very similar. I'm leaning at this point towards the Equard set but either could be used without any real noticeable difference.
 
Hank