russ

just a small reminder we're still alive and kicking. rigging phase draws ever nearer...:-))
 

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 281 – Main Yard Rigging 2
 
The first picture shows the main yard ready for the next rigging steps.  The taut chain sling may be seen in this picture.
 

 
The topsail sheet chains are hanging from the cloverleaf sheet block under the center of the yard.  As described before, these chains are linked over the central pin within the block to allow them to pull down on the yard using the two tackles soon to be added.  This also permits the chains to hang somewhat slack under the yard on their way to the cheek blocks at the ends.  The two triple tackles for the sheets are shown rigged in the next picture.
 

 
The lower blocks of these tackles are hooked to deck eyebolts just forward of the mast and the falls are belayed on the topsail sheet bits using the long horizontal belaying pins.  The next items to be installed are the clue garnets with the main sheet blocks, tacks and lazy tacks attached to a single large shackle.  The next picture shows the prefabricated gear for one side.
 

 
 
The large line is the tack that was used to haul the weather side of the sail taut.  The smaller line is the lazy tack, used to control the sail as it was switched from tacks to sheets while the yard was being braced when the ship tacked.  The large block is the sheet block.  The sheet will be added later.   At this stage outboard rigging – mainly braces and lower course sheets – would be an obstacle to the work and subject to damage.  The smaller attached block is for the clue garnet.  The standing end of that line is shackled under the yard, passes through this block, back through one sheave of the quarter block and belays on the main fife rail. The hooked double block in the picture is a quarter block.  The second sheave on this block takes the fall of the reef tackle.  The next picture shows these lines rigged. 
 

 
The tacks are belayed on cleats on the bulwark rails and the lazy tacks to the first pins on the main pin rails.  These remain unglued so they may be adjusted when the sheets are added later.  In the next picture the topping lifts, buntlines, leechlines and reef tackle have been added. 
 

 
The next picture shows a closer view of these lines.
 

 
The bunt and leech lines pass through single blocks hooked under the rim of the top, down through shroud fairleads and belay on the main pin rails.  The reef tackle falls pass under the yard, through the aft sheaves on the double quarter blocks, and belay on the fife rail below next to the clue garnets.  Next the bowlines.
 
 
 
Ed

While awaiting my order from Crown Timberyard, I used what I could from my remaining stash of boxwood strip to plank the inner bulwarks. I used 1/16" strip for the spirketting and 1/32" strip for the remaining planking.This was fussy work because of the need to fit the planking around not only the gunports, but the numerous sweep ports as well.
 
After the planking was installed and sanded, it was painted, using four brush coats of Vallejo carmine red, lightly sanding between coats. Since I still don't have the wood for the exterior hull planking, I'm going to plank the deck next.
 
Bob

Lees gives similar dimensions.  Pick your medicine
 
Common single block
Width of the sheave was 1/10 more than the diameter of the rope, the diameter of the sheave was four times the width of the sheave.  The width of the sheave hole was one sixteenth more than the width of the sheave and the length of the sheave hole was one and one third the diameter of the sheave.  The length of the shell was eight times the width of the sheave hole; the width was two fifths the length of the shell; the breadth was six times the width of the sheave; and the position of the pin was eleven twenty- firsts from the top of the block.  The edges of the sheave hole were chamfered off and the shell slightly rounded. The pin was made of wood on small blocks and iron or brass on larger blocks.    
 
For common double or triple blocks they were made in the same proportions as the single blocks except in the width of the shell.  This was increased by the separating piece or pieces between the sheaves which were five sixths the width of the sheaves.  James Lees; The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War page 164
Allan

I just got started on my Fair American. It is my first build. I chose this model as I felt it would be a good learning experience and I have a great support group to turn to here on this forum. I am also a member of the Ship Model Society of NJ.  I began by inventory of all pieces. I then got up the courage to cut the rabbet. I then remopoved the bulkheads and checked for proper fit. My question is, If the bulkheads dot not land precisely on  the bearding line, how should I go about to adjust? Should I bring the Rabbet up higher? Should I drop the bulkheads down to meet the bearding line? Should I add woodfiller to the bulkheads  to meet the bearding line? My idea is to bring the bulkheads down by adjusting the joint but I then have a bulkbhead that is not quite fluch with the centerkeel pieace. I could add material to bring it flush but that changes the height of the bulkhead rails.
Your help is greatly appreciated.   

Tea is acidic and will bleach with time as most natural organic dyes. You would have to look for a permanent, synthetic dye or ink.

I have used heavier bond paper for sails with good results in my opinion. I use artists' pastels to color my paper sails.

Thank you for your interest and support.  Over the past few years I kept busy supporting a number of full scale ship building projects in both the US and Canada.  While continuing my shipbuilding consulting business, Linda and I recently completed a move to Indio, CA.  With my shop setup nearing completion, I plan to return to woodworking and ship modeling in the coming months.  Currently planned projects include:
Steam Tug "Seguin" 1:48 scale built in Bath, ME in 1884 (Bluejacket kit) Restart of my Brigantine "Newsboy" 1:64 scale built in 1854 (semi-scratch from Model Shipways kit) Restart of my Brig "Fair American" 1:48 scale circa 1780 (semi-scratch from Model Shipways kit) Restoration of family antique tables Regards,
Pete, Shipbuilder
 

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback. The last and most difficult of the paneling is complete. Strips were edge-bent after soaking in hot water to create the curvature. One continuous panel was created to take the place of the knee at the bow. Not as crisp as the other panels, but this issue should fade as the knees are added.
Steve

 

The friezes were treated with Minwax Polycrylic before using a glue stick to apply. The difficult part was cutting the friezes off the sheet. The mouldings were edge-bent with dry heat to conform to the shape of the hull. Gluing these was a challenge.
 
After the glue dried, the mouldings and hull were sanded. Wipe-On-Poly was applied to the entire outer hull including the friezes. 
Steve

I hope this doesn't sound big headed. I was in the dining room today - that's where Niagara is docked now. Couldn't help but wander over and pull up a chair and just gawk for a while. A good 10-15 minutes. Sometimes I amaze myself How in the world did I do all that?
 
I'm glad I can still have an interest and be proud  of past projects....That may be tougher to say when I have no more room for them

It's been a long time but I'm back at it. I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to get the shipyard more organized and have a ways to go before I'll be happy with it. I'm going to have way more modeling time now and plan to take full advantage of it. 
 
I managed to get the deck done and finished with water based stain and wipe on poly and install the stanchions for the bulwarks. The bulwarks were soaked and clamped to the stanchions with cloths pins and will be ready to attach tomorrow. It's not much but it's progress. Here are a couple of pictures.
 

Nice Planking.
 
Michael

The stern under the mirror is finished ..
 


Closing the hull ..
 

 

 

The left part of the hull is finished and ground before installing the pins..
 

 

 

 

 

The standard Rigging is complete, It was not too bad, I did have a lot of bending especially at  the  top mast and royal, an issue with the thin plastic. I did my best with the backstays too equal them out, but they seem to have a mind of there own,,, when the model is complete I will make final adjustments, ,,,I hope,,  I had plenty of black cord included with the kit for the standard Rigging, and it looks nice Tedious, but I enjoyed it,,Now on to the Running Rigging,,,,sorry it is hard to see all the rigging,,tough to photograph. the fore mast in the first pic is not as bad as it looks in the photo, and I have adjusted it since,,,
 
 

I mounted the masts to the ship, another learning curve, since the masts are plastic , they are very flexible so I should of lands the masts slightly toward the stern so when doing the standard rigging they would be somewhat straight and not leaning forward as you'll see,,,other wise I guess this sep was not too bad,,,

Sorry I have not updated for a while,Here is what I have been doing,,
I built the masts and added the foot ropes and blocks,, Two things I would do if I had to do over again.
One would be to find a better way to attach the yards, the method Revell uses looks goo on paper ,but to me its horrible, the break off and were very frustrating,
I need up putting a fine pin through the center of the yards and into the masts, I then glued everything to hold in place. It worked, but I would find a better way to keep them secure.
Two , I would go further into the rigging plans and attach other blocks that have to be used in running rigging, there are not a lot, but its just easier to watch the blocks to the yards while the masts and yards are not mounted yet. there wise all went well, when I fine tune the model after completion, I will add a drop of glue to the loops holding the ropewalk on the yards,,
 
 
 

I have been working my way around the deck fitting the many rings and other bits and pieces required for rigging connection. Quite a bit of time and not really much to see. 
So I decided to complete something that has a bit of visual impact, davits and tackle for the jolly boat at the stern.

The banner I made separately from the letters. This gives me an opportunity to work more precise and to make the painting work also look better. The letters will be glued on later.


On some photos, one can see the 3D-effect of the banner on the edges


Dražen

Actually scale means nothing and the measurements are what you need.
 
It depends on what size you need for the ship you are working on.  If you are building a frigate at 1:64 scale and your frigate carried 12 pounders then my  1 29/64" barrels are fine.   If you are building a larger ship that carried 42 pounders then my larger size would be better.   
 
What are you building?  What scale.....and what size guns did she carry?  You can also download the drawing from my site (cannon page) and compare them to your plan to see if they match as well.
 
Chuck

Thanks. I think the tape was fine. I just did not get it down well. That is on me. The raised line usually comes from having a lot of layers build up against the tape line. That is my experience with it. I usually hand rub until it is gone. 
 
Russ

Hi all,
 

 
Well, this is quite something for me.....the first build log on Model Ship World V2.0. My last work was published on the old version about 12yrs ago. My apologies for being so tardy. Over the last years I've been busy working with plastic models and magazine publication stuff, and whilst I still have some commitments left to fulfil, I thought I'd dust off (quite literally) my 1/80 Caldercraft Mary Rose kit. Thirteen winters and summers haven't warped the old frame and she's still rock solid. I started building this one year before I launched Model Ship World in 2006, along with Chuck Passaro. 
 
It's about time I did something. 
 
The basic frame is built and the decking is in place under the fo'c'sle and sterncastle decks. It's also under half an inch of dust, so I need to clean this thing up. Glad I bought it when I did. The price is about £100 more nowadays! 
 
I don't intend to leave it as plain as shown in the finished model photo. Instead, It'll be full of red, gold and green in the same way that the Anthony Rolls depicted her in the 1540s. 
 

 
Over the next months, my time on this will be very limited, but I'm at least hoping to get the hull planked and sounded outdoors during the summer months.
 
Has anyone else here built this kit?
 

 

Happy Thursday Everyone,
I have a little progress to report. I've been working away at several different things, mostly because it only takes a few minutes to paint something and then you can't handle it until it's dry, so as a result I've had several different things on the go at the same time.
I have the upper hull painted. Next I believe I will add the cap rail and then begin coppering the lower hull.
 

I'm simultaneously working on the gunport lids -
 

the gun carriages and -
 

the mast top.
 
I know that many are of the opinion that the gun carriages provided in the kit are not quite right, but I have decided to just go with them anyway, rather than make new ones. I've used brass rod for the axles and I've blackened the guns. I don't have any brass rod that's the right size for the trunnions and rather than order some in, I discovered that 1 1/4" finishing nails are exactly the right size, so that's what I used. To my surprise, the nails blackened just like the brass did when placed in the blackening solution.
 
The mast top was a bit of a mystery to make. As is the case for almost everything in this kit, the instructions do not address it, photos in the instructions are so dark as to be useless and the plans are not at all detailed. In fact, they're worse than that - they're usually contradictory and sometimes just plain wrong. While the plan is drawn full scale, the dimensions indicated (in the few places that they are indicated) don't agree with actual measurements taken from the plan and often the same component will be different sizes when it's shown from more than one perspective. So, I more or less made things up as I went along, but in the end I think it's an acceptable result and I think it's more or less what the plans are getting at.
 
Now on to cutting copper plates!
 
David

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 280 – Main Yard Rigging 1
 
With the studding sail booms mounted, the next step was to attach much of the rigging at the workbench.  The first picture shows this bench work in progress.
 

 
The yard is mounted in a simple holding fixture for this work.   After some experimenting, the holding clamps are now lined with molded epoxy resin jaws.  The first step was to hang the footropes and stirrups.  The topping lift pendants may be seen dangling from the ends.  Also, most of the blocks have been lashed on in this picture.  The next picture shows a closer view.
 

 
The lashing of the footropes to stanchions on the opposite side of the yard near the center is shown in the next picture.
 

 
In the last picture, the lower topsail sheet chains have been threaded through the sheet block under the center of the yard and out through the fairlead irons and the cheek blocks at the ends.
 

 
The last item to be fitted after this picture was taken was the center sling chain.  This may be seen in the last picture that shows the yard connected to the mast.
 

 
The sling chain was pre-measured and shackled to eyebolts at each end.  One was pre-fit to the central yard band.  After hanging the yard, the mast was then marked and drilled for the other eyebolt so the truss would be horizontal.
 
Ed