Hog2sail

Well, It's almost done. I cheated a little bit on the Rigging and used CA to make some of the connections. Remember the 3 ft. rule. I also added ghost sails. I know there isn't suppose to be a line from the aft end of the Main boom to the Main Gaff to the top of the Main Mast. But I added it to give the eye a vision of the sail. Besides anyone who comes to my house and sees it will never know. So you purist don't sink my ship! I still have to tie the Rat Lines (eek) and add the spreader Stays as well as add some rope coils and a couple other finishing touches as well as touch up a few places of paint. It was a fun build and for my first ship build I'm very happy with the results. Eddie

Elia, Thank you. A little up-date. I mounted her on the display plaque I made. I also added the spreaders to the mast's and added the spreader struts. I first made the struts out of wood but I didn't like the way it looked. So I used a piece of Piano wire that I use for my sailplanes. It's not exactly how it's suppose to be, but it serves the purpose and the average person will not know any difference. I also added the tip of the mast's. I used a piece of Bamboo Skewer you would use to Bar-B-Q with and cut the sharp end off and glued a BB from my Red Ryder BB gun to the tip. I'll probably paint the BB later. Right now it looks like a brass ball on top of the mast. The masts are just setting in the deck hole and not glued. Also the top mast and the Mast caps are just setting on the main mast and fore mast for a visual and to take a picture. I'm so use to it sitting in my vice, that it looks funny to me in sitting in it's base. Here's a couple more pictures. Eddie

Thanks. Yes I will add the anchors and chain later and connect them to the Catheads.

Well, I did something wrong, no picture. I'll try again. Remember, this is the 3 foot rule. Don't look too close. He,he he. Eddie

Well, I haven't had a chance to work on it today. I was being one of Santa's Elf's today. I'm kind of at a stage that I'm not liking very well. I'm ready to mount the spreaders on the Mast's and installing the Mast's, then start the standing rigging. First I'll mount the ship on it's stand and get it out of the vice. Then I'll mount the mast's and start the standing rigging. However I'm debating whether or not to do the lower Chainplates before mounting the Mast's. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, so I'm trying to think of things I can do now that will help with my tumbling hands and fingers breaking something. Any thoughts? I'm building this by the 3 foot rule. From 3 feet it looks really good! (eek) Here's a few updated pictures I've taken. The Mast's are not installed and glued. I just put them in the deck holes for the pictures. I'm not going to add the sails when it's done. However the Gaff's and Booms will be in place as if the sails were mounted and ready to sail. I'm really not looking forward to the rigging. Both the standing and the running (however much I need without the sails). And for sure I'm not looking forward to tying the rat lines. I just hope I don't get frustrated and put it aside before I finish. Every time I do that with one of my builds It's hard to come back to. Anyway here's some pictures as she stands now. Thanks for looking. Eddie

Hi Gary, I'll try and post some updated pictures later today if I get a chance. I haven't gotten a whole lot farther due to the Holidays. Hopefully later today I can get the Mast's mounted. That's if Moma quits dragging me to the Mall. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas everyone. Eddie

Tadeusz, thank you very much. Eddie

Thanks guys, I do have the Model Shipways Manual MS2109 and Howard Chapelle's book "The American Fishing Schooners". I also managed to find a couple pictures on the internet. So a little more studying and I should be able to figure it all out. Some of this stuff takes longer researching than the time it actually takes to build it. Thanks again for the info. I'm enjoying the build. If nothing else it's teaching me to be patient. I've got another 3M sailplane I partially designed to scratch build after this. That will be a piece of cake after building the "Latham". Eddie

I started a build log on here in the Kit Build section and I'm getting close to starting all of the rigging. However this is my first ship build and I'm having some difficulty determining all the rigging. I don't plan to add the sails. I like the look of the ship without the sails, showing all the rigging. However the drawing that shows all the rigging for the Latham has it's sails showing all the stitching along with the rat lines and it's very difficult to determine where all the rigging line(sheets) go. I do have the book by Howard Chapelle "The American Fishing Schooners" and it's very helpful. However I was hoping to find a diagram or a photo just showing the rigging without all of the other stuff. Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Eddie

Thanks everyone. I'm going to try and finish off the hull and deck prior to starting on the masts. I need to add a couple more little things to the deck, like the Iron Cat-Head and a couple cleats. Build an anchor box and add the propeller and paint the yellow stripe and scroll around the Hawse pipe. I think I'll wait until the end to paint her name on the transom. We'll see. I also need to add the chain and anchors to the Cat-Head, but I think I'll wait until it's about done before adding the anchors. I'll post more pictures as I get farther along, as well as pictures of my mast construction and it's fixtures. Thanks everyone for viewing and your comments. Eddie

Continuing with the build. Next will be pictures of the deck structures and paint. That pretty much gets us up to date. I'll post more pictures as I build. I'm sure I'll have questions regarding the rest of the build. Should I post questions here or somewhere else on the forum. Thanks for looking. Eddie

More pictures of completed deck. Also the Plaque and Waterways I made that it will be mounted on when complete. I got bored working on it, so for a change of pace I built a Dory to sit on the deck when complete. Eddie

OK, I'm back. All the pictures previously shown gets us to the completion of the hull planking. Here's some more pictures. Eddie

For some reason I didn't take any pictures while I was planking the hull. A couple things regarding a couple of the pictures. You can see a bit of red in a couple pictures. That's auto body filler to fill in a couple low spots ( or should I say bad planking). There is also some white. That's light weight spackle to fill in some of the seams. I learned this from my sailplanes. Dinner time, Moma is calling. I'll post more later. Eddie

More Pictures

Hi All, Well I decided to try and do kind of a build log for the Benjamin W Latham by Model Shipways. This will be my first wood ship build. But by no means my first wood kit build. A little background before we get into the build. I'm a retired Design Engineer for a Civil Engineering firm. I build and fly RC Sailplanes and have built, designed and scratch built numerous sailplanes. I love building, but I don't need anymore sailplanes or for that matter have room for them. I wanted to build something else, and something with a bit of a challenge. I've always loved the old ships and square riggers, so I decided to build one to feed my hunger for building. I wanted something with a bit of a challenge, and with my sailplane building experience, I figured I could build an intermediate model as my first kit build. However my sailplanes have 10 foot and 11 foot wings compared to this whole ship that's only 24". So I definitely have a new challenge. Now, I'm not trying to be a perfectionist or build this as 100% authentic. But something closer to maybe 90-95% authentic or per plans. I have made a couple changes to start with and a couple mistakes as well. So you purist out there, don't blow me out of the water. The first and main thing I changed from the kit was the deck planking. The plans call for 1/16" wide strips for the deck planking. I've read and understand the reason the original Latham used narrower planks for the deck. But I just didn't like the looks of the narrow deck planks. So I decided to use 1/8" wide strips instead. Also, I'm not going to build the Seine boat as part of the kit and display. But will build it separately and display it as a different kit. I started the build a couple months ago and have been taking pictures as I go and have pretty much completed the hull, with the exception of a couple additional items that still need to be added. But basically I'm about to start with the build of the Masts and Spars. From this point on I'm totally lost as how to proceed and this is where the real challenge will begin. Hopefully some of you out there can help me along with the rest of the build. So I'm going to try and post pictures of what I've built so far and get you up to date before I continue building, Any tips, ideas, suggestions, criticism etc is welcome. So please chime in. So my next post will be the beginning pictures of the build and I'll continue posting pictures to get you to where I am with the build to date. So here goes. Hope I can post the pictures. Eddie

I was wondering if someone could give me the general procedure for installing the masts, spars and halyards? This is my first ship build, which is a MS Benjamin W Latham and I was wondering what the best procedure is for installing the masts, spars and halyards with the various bands and ironwork? Even though this is my first ship build, I have built and scratch built many sailplanes. So I have the building skills, but like my first sailplane build I was kind of lost as to what was the best procedure for the various construction applications. Now I can pretty much scratch build a sailplane blind folded so to speak. As I'm sure many of you can do with the ships. Basically what I'm wondering is should I build and add all the various bands and ironwork to the masts, spars and halyards prior to installing them on the boat? Or should I install the masts and continue the building process with the masts installed? It just seems to me it would be easier to add as much ironwork as possible before raising, or installing the masts with less of a chance of breaking something? I have pretty much completed the hull, deck and all of it's components, so I'm about to start on the masts and spar construction. Any tips, suggestions, pictures, etc. would greatly be appreciated. I've been taking pictures of the build as I go and I'm thinking of doing kind of a photo journal of the build if I can figure out how to post pictures. Thanks in advance for any help. Eddie

I'm getting ready to purchase Model Shipways "Bluenose" or the "Benjamin Latham" for my first model ship boat, Any preference on which ship? They both look pretty similar. However there seems to be more info regarding builds on the Bluenose. Even though this will be my first ship build, it won't be my first build. I'm retired and love building. I build and fly RC Sailplanes. All of my planes are 3M balsa kits with the exception of a couple scratch built planes I drew the plans for and built using a plank on bulkhead type build for the fuselage, then fiberglassing and painting them. Therefor I don't believe I will have a problem with a plank on bulkhead ship build. Other than it's much smaller than a 3M sailplane. So with my old man's eyes and hands, the rigging may become a bit difficult. I use to fly fish and tie my own flies, so that may be a little helpful. Anyway, any tips suggestions, reference etc. would greatly be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Eddie

Sal, I just read through your whole build log. Great job describing what you have done. You would never know this was your first boat build. Your attention to detail is spectacular. I'm getting ready to build my first boat also and after reading and looking at your build I'm really thinking of building a Phantom. I only wish it was a little larger. I'm a retired Civil Engineer, Senior Designer and love the old school drafting prior to Auto Cad. I have plenty of time on my hands and love building. Although I have never built a boat, I build and fly 3M RC sailplanes including scratch building a couple. So I do have a little building experience. Even though I believe I could build an intermediate build I thing I'll stick with a beginner build to start with. So thank you for such a good and detailed build log. It will make it much easier to build following your build log. Congratulations on a beautiful model. Now all I have to do is decide whether to build the Model Shipways "Phantom" or the little larger "Harriet Lane Gun Boat". In any case I'll be using your build as a guide and inspiration. Eddie