CDR_Ret

While I am procrastinating with the Salamandre, I did a couple of fixes for Liffey and Schpitzbergen, correcting the run of the deck aft on both, and replacing the boats with a slightly better placeholder models.
 

 

 

 

I think I have more or less settled on this color scheme for Phoenix:
 

 
While I was at the local Hobby Lobby to get some fresh CA glue, I decided to shop for paint for trim work. I wanted to go for the yellow ochre + red ochre look seen in the photo, and I think I may have lucked out. These two colors are a pretty close match to what I was looking for:
 

 
In fact, they are a better match than can be seen in the photo, because no matter how much fiddling I did with the camera settings on my phone, I couldn't get the image colors to match the real-life colors (imagine everything with a redder tone, if you can).
 
Anyways, I really must wrap up my Hurricane build and get back to this one.

Hey, I'm still here! 👀
I've made some fairly significant progress on the texturising, rigging and modelling this ship -- including setting up a figurehead which took me a long time! I'm still doing some final cleanup but I'm finally nearly ready for some renders.
 
I've started working in a job full time so I haven't had as much time as I used to, but I'm still doing bits on this every night.
 
I should be posting some more updates (comparatively) soon. Keep your eyes peeled!

Hello,
 
It’s time for some evaluation of this modified proxxon KT 70. As a test I made a setup to use the xy-table over its whole range with fixed steps in both x and y direction. In x it was 8.9 mm step and in y 3.1 mm. That way the whole range is covert with 15 steps. I use the scale ring to make the steps and note the DRO display values. Here you see the setup with a camera positioned to show the readings.
 

 
This is how the table is stepped from bottom-right to top-left.
 

 
I also did the inverse movement from top-left to bottom-right and again noted all displayed values.
When entering the values in a spreadsheet and plotting things you get the following results.
 


 
You can see that the curves are not ‘flat’ and that moving up and down follow a different path.
Not flat means that the pitch of the xy-table is slightly off its nominal 1 mm. In the x direction we have about 0.3 mm error after 120 mm and that can be explained with a pitch being 0.9975 mm.
For the y direction it is about the same result, a pitch of 0.9980.
 
The different paths are a result from backlash, that is ‘play’ between nut and screw. For both x and y it is about 0.1 mm.
 
I assume the DRO is correct and has no play. To be sure I also checked a small movement (8 mm) in the x direction somewhat in the middle of its range with a dial indicator. The result is shown next.
 

 
The dial indicator and the readout give almost identical values. Ok, then I trust the DRO from now on. It is convenient because it keeps track of the millimetres already moved and it eliminates the backlash error.
 
That is it for now, hope you liked it.
 
Best regards,
Kris

Hi all - I’m brand new to ship modeling, though I’ve been a hobby woodworker for about 15 years building furniture, clocks, and doing a lot of turning on the lathe.  Have also built doll houses and small scale furniture for inside.  I’ve been thinking about trying my hand at model ships for a while, having spent many years growing up in Cape Cod fishing and boating.  Looking forward to learning a lot and picking out a first project (I did see there are helpful resources here as well). Thanks, John

Micha, being an NRG member means you're providing financial support for MSW. You've only been a member of MSW for a short period of time but by the number of your post thus far you obviously find benefit in being a MSW member. For myself being a member since 2016 MSW is a major part of my life. I consider 99.99% of the MSW membership my 'family'. MSW is way too important to me, I'm happy to support MSW by being an NRG member.  
 
 Having access to the MSW database is invaluable, I dare say that if you have a question about ship modeling the answer can be found in the MSW database. The better question is, why would one not want to support MSW by becoming an NRG member.    

Just renewed last week. If I remember correctly, it will be seven years now.
I'll be honest, I feel a little bit of pride being an NRG member.
I can't begin to express what this website and organization has given me. 
Chatted with people from all over the globe. Tips and techniques I would have never thought of. 
 
Not much of today's modern life can afford me that. Seems everywhere online is filled with dishonesty.
This is my happy place. 
Good honest people. 
 
 
Tom L. 
 
 

Sorry to contradict, but regular beeswax is acid! Use Renaissance (conservators') wax, if you have to.

I would recommend checking out this thread regarding laser-cut frames, etc. Kiyoo Iizawa was actively involved in this forum a few years ago and did some beautiful work using CG modeling and laser-cut components. He was writing a manual/book to help modelers get into laser-cutting modeling, but after some attempts at collaboration, I think there was an (amicable) divergence of views on how to present the process.
 
Terry

Well, it depends what you are doing with them on a ship model ...
 
Actually, I think there are four different topics here:
 
1) how to convert a 2D-paper drawing into a CAD-drawing
2) how to loft such drawings into a self-consistent data-set that produces a fair hull, and
3) how to convert the resulting CAD-drawing into instructions for the laser-cutter that produce the expected results.
4) is the laser-cutter available suitable for the task in hand
 
As Chuck suggested, it may save a lot of time, effort and money to verify point 4 first. If the available laser-cutter is not suitable, it may be simpler to work the traditional way.
 
On the other hand, as the envisaged model is planned to be only a foot and a half long, one may get away with quite thin (ply)wood or even cardstock. The bulkheads are only needed to define the shape of the hull, if the spaces in between are filled with a softer wood, e.g. balsa. The bulkhead do not need to be structural parts. One has to adapt the building technique to the available tools, in this case the laser-cutter.
 
Some people work from sets of copies of original builders' plans, but it may be worthwhile going through steps (1) and (2) in any case, as this allows you to verify the fairing of the hull before one cuts anything. Even going only through step (1) is useful: if it turns out that a bulkhead is wrong, one can easily correct it in the 2D-CAD and print it out again. 

I have to disagree about the accuracy of 2D drawings, and restate what Terry said.
 
You can draw nice 2D frame/station drawings, but you have no way to tell if they will produce a smoothly faired hull surface. Even working from a Table of Offsets will not guarantee frames/stations for a smooth hull. I have done this several times, and when the 2D frame/station drawings are erected in 3D the resulting hull surface is often wavy.

My neighborhood library recently got this cool laser cutter, and I had the idea of maybe using it to build a frigate model a foot and a half long and with detail akin to a half block, maybe a little more.
 
I'm thinking of making the framing and ribs with Vectorworks and then using basswood to manually plank the hull and do the rest.
 
I've however never done any of this before, so I would like to hear your guy’s experiences with whether something like this Would work. I'd also love any tips for any aspect of this project, especially transcribing the Frigate's plan into CAD.

I believe there are a few kit manufacturers that have done this and sell kits with laser-cut wood for assembly. (See the "sponsors" list on the right side of the forum home page. E.g., Syren Ship Models and Vanguard Ship Models.) Syren Ship Models has a special "installment purchase" group build project for the frigate HMS Winchelsea (1764) going on at the moment. It's a beautiful model and extremely high quality. See:  HMS Winchelsea (1764) by Chuck Passaro|A plank on Bulkhead scratch ship model project|32 gun English frigate (syrenshipmodelcompany.com)
 

Syren Ship Model Company|Boxwood ship model rigging blocks|Ship Model rigging rope |turned brass cannon| Chuck Passaro
 
There are a number of forum members doing CAD modeling and publishing their progress in CAD "build logs" which you can review to get a sense of what's involved in what you are asking about. I must confess that I am a "board and tee-square" draftsman and my knowledge of the CAD technology is general and theoretical, but not practical. As do some others, I find that the manual drafting techniques which I learned long ago in school continue to serve me well for my purposes. There are many advantages to CAD drafting, particularly in terms of presentation to untrained eyes. The ability to produce a 3D rotating projection of a shape as complex as a ship's hull that is instantly understood by any viewer is an amazing feature, as is the easy replication of various modifications in the design process. For those of us who were taught to "read" draughts and thus acquired the ability to "see in three dimensions" the shapes depicted in traditional orthographic projection the advanced features of CAD are "overkill" for modeling purposes. In fact, if you are contemplating creating a 3D CAD file of a particular historic vessel, you will have to learn to read the original orthographic projections in order to translate them for loading into your database anyway. (And from what I've seen looking over the shoulders of the CAD wonks who are doing that in this forum, translating draughts into CAD can be quite a challenging task that I've decided is beyond my ability to master in the time I have left in this life!  ) 
 
To get as good an idea of what you are considering getting into, I suggest you read and follow "CDR Ret's" fascinating "build log" of his digital recreation of SS Galilee, an 1891 merchant brigantine designed by Matthew Turner beginning at:  
As for laser-cutting wooden parts for a model, I expect Chuck Passaro of Syren Ship Models knows as much about applying that technology to creating parts for ship models as anybody and he has addressed it in his many posts on this forum. I would only say that the specifics of laser-cutting technology are way above my pay grade, but I do know that the primary advantage of laser-cutting is in its ability to repetitively produce large quantities of identically shaped parts. This makes it particularly useful in the manufacturing of multiple ship model kits. On the other hand, if you are scratch-building a "one-off" model, getting out your shaped parts is faster and probably a lot more enjoyable doing it the old-fashioned way than spending hours and hours programming a laser-cutter to then burn the parts according to your data, after which you will have to sand the char off all the edges!  
 
As for basswood, I expect as you research your options based on the data here in this forum, you will conclude that it is not a prudent choice of species for the purpose you intend. While it's frequently used in lower- and middle-quality range model kits, and as a soft wood it is easily worked, it is really only suitable for painted finishes and presents finishing challenges even then. It is not suitable for fine carving work which requires a fine-grained hard wood such as box or apple, nor for planking that will be finished "bright" (showing the wood's natural color.) Given the sort of model you are interested in building, I expect you will conclude upon further analysis that there are other wood species that are more easily worked, stronger, and, if you intend to finish any of it bright, far more attractive than basswood. Think of it this way: basswood is like the wood 2X4 dimensioned construction lumber is made of and what you are contemplating building is a Steinway piano.  (Don't let the cost of expensive finish wood species scare you off. A ship model requires so little of it that building with cheap wood is a foolish economy in the end.) 
 
I'm not trying to scare you off at all. I just want to give you what I hope is some direction for finding out what you will probably need to know to get where you want to go. There is always a tendency for newer modelers to "bite off more than they can chew" and there are some significant learning curves to be conquered before anyone can accomplish the incredible level of workmanship that can be seen from what some of the masters of the craft post in this forum. Very few of us will ever achieve such levels of artistic accomplishment, but we all can certainly try. The trick is not to be too hard on ourselves as we journey towards becoming better and better at it nor to discourage ourselves by unreasonable comparisons with prodigies. The greatest enjoyment in modeling ships is simply in the doing of the thing. 
 
 
 
 

IMHO, going directly from existing drawings to code that drives a 2D laser cutter is risky when cutting out frames or bulkheads. I have no experience with the quality of plans from the big national museums and other credible sources, but when I manually compared the body and halfbreadth plans of my 1891 brigantine project, it was an exercise in frustration. Heights and breadths of station and waterline intersections did not agree among the three views. The point I am trying to make is that there is no guarantee that using existing plans (especially if they are old, original drafts) will drive a laser cutter that will result in a smooth, fair, hull surface without a lot of extra work.
 
The above observation was the reason I went to CG drafting in the first place. After nearly a decade of periodic frustration, trying different methods and different copies of plans from the Smithsonian and other museum/library archives, I found that using the DELFTship Free naval architecture software was pretty much ideal for fairing out the hull lines because it had the features needed to visualize the shape of the hull, remove low and high spots, and compare the resulting lines to the original drawings. The bottom line here is that obtaining a set of working plans that will actually be fair and eyepleasing in the real world won't necessarily yield the same set of station lines, waterlines, and buttock lines as in the original set of plans you obtained. It is up to you how far you are willing to deviate from the original drawings. There are a number of MSW members who have posted their projects using DELFTship Free, including my own.

Comparison of the final modeled stations (green) in DELFTship Free compared to the original G.C. Berger drawing stations. Waterlines (blue) were included to ensure the correct vertical scale.
To understand the genesis of these lines, please refer to the Galilee research log in my signature.
(High-resolution plans obtained from the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Library; G.C. Berger, Pacific Marine Research Society; Date and provenance unknown.)
 
Once you have what appears to be a valid set of lines to work with, then you can start thinking about what laser setup to use for cutting out your parts. Remember to cut to the outside-most of the front and back curves for each frame or bulkhead.
 
Terry

IMHO, going directly from existing drawings to code that drives a 2D laser cutter is risky when cutting out frames or bulkheads. I have no experience with the quality of plans from the big national museums and other credible sources, but when I manually compared the body and halfbreadth plans of my 1891 brigantine project, it was an exercise in frustration. Heights and breadths of station and waterline intersections did not agree among the three views. The point I am trying to make is that there is no guarantee that using existing plans (especially if they are old, original drafts) will drive a laser cutter that will result in a smooth, fair, hull surface without a lot of extra work.
 
The above observation was the reason I went to CG drafting in the first place. After nearly a decade of periodic frustration, trying different methods and different copies of plans from the Smithsonian and other museum/library archives, I found that using the DELFTship Free naval architecture software was pretty much ideal for fairing out the hull lines because it had the features needed to visualize the shape of the hull, remove low and high spots, and compare the resulting lines to the original drawings. The bottom line here is that obtaining a set of working plans that will actually be fair and eyepleasing in the real world won't necessarily yield the same set of station lines, waterlines, and buttock lines as in the original set of plans you obtained. It is up to you how far you are willing to deviate from the original drawings. There are a number of MSW members who have posted their projects using DELFTship Free, including my own.

Comparison of the final modeled stations (green) in DELFTship Free compared to the original G.C. Berger drawing stations. Waterlines (blue) were included to ensure the correct vertical scale.
To understand the genesis of these lines, please refer to the Galilee research log in my signature.
(High-resolution plans obtained from the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Library; G.C. Berger, Pacific Marine Research Society; Date and provenance unknown.)
 
Once you have what appears to be a valid set of lines to work with, then you can start thinking about what laser setup to use for cutting out your parts. Remember to cut to the outside-most of the front and back curves for each frame or bulkhead.
 
Terry

Thank you Brother! Well, it is off the beaten path, but welcome to the thread....
 
So far everything is going well, Doc is happy, Last scan showed no tumors and in 10 days I start another course of chemo... Prophylactic in nature to keep it from coming back since this type of cancer never goes away and could show up anywhere at any time... Year and a half in and I'm doing well they tell me, almost a third of the way to beating the average life expectancy of this... (5 years) God willing is all I can say....
 
I'll keep plugging away at something, like the title says keeping my head in the game....

My doc and surgeons have said that basically.... keep going and don't stop is the best mental and emotional health thing we can do.  The body many times follows along.  

Hi Everyone,
So after a bit of a hiatus, I'm back with the first of three major update posts to Confederacy. In this post, I'll cover updates to the bow and a couple of minor enhancements to the outer hull. Change log is first, photos at the end. As always, feedback most welcome!
 
Upper headrail remodeled to taper properly. Pendant joint added at the top. Carling atop the upper headrail remodeled; trim rail now blends smoothly where it meets the rail Lower headrail remodeled as two distinct pieces that follow the hull and connect with the bottom of the catheads Upper and lower headrails are now adorned with decorative reliefs Hanging knees installed beneath the catheads Boomkin holsters installed the upper headrails to support the bumpkins Beakhead platform flattened, height adjusted; position of the doorsand round houses adjusted accordingly Ledges that connect the beakhead platform to the prow grating installed Seats of ease installed in front of the bumpkins atop the grating Color theme of the bulkhead has been updated; doors and roundhouses are now white; decorative motif (white on blue) carried over from the side of the hull Gammoning slots cut into the gammoning knee have been corrected so they aren't covered by the headtimbers Safety netting added to the headrail barricade Tip of the cutwater has been cut back a bit to accommodate the figurehead Horseshoe plates flipped from heel to toe (I had them on backwards originally) Bower anchors haver been upscaled to their (nearly) correct size Chain plates, channel ties, and straps (lanyards) in place on the forward channels; main and mizzen channels in progress Inboard and outboard rings installed on all gunport lids; outboard rings each have their own bones in the armature allowing them to pivot as the rope pulls the port open And now the photos:

Hi,
 
I am coming into this from a long career of fiddling with all sorts of things including models of all types.  I am now approaching retirement and am in what my brother terms a STABLE condition (Stuff Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy).  I think its fair to say that many modellers have a stash that they do not really own....they are merely its custodian until the whole lot is released into the market again, and acquired by the next generation of optimistic custodians.
 
The local auctioneer is familiar with this syndrome and claims that he rarely sells stuff, he merely rents it out for a few years and then back it comes again.  It was at this auction house that the item that is the subject of this posting appeared.  This is the large scale (1:50-1:64) Sergal model of the Great Harry/Henry Grace a Dieu.  As it dates to 1975 or thereabouts I may well be its third or fourth custodian.  The photo shows the state that it is in.  The kits itself is complete and undamaged, bar the castings which are entirely missing.  I paid about 45USD for it.
 


 
However, the photo shows that it is in critical condition as the box is compromised with bits falling out of it.   Parts of the model were scattered around the auction house floor, behind the cupboard where it was displayed and in the store area and a search recovered all of them, bar those elusive castings and the presumed contents of three mysterious empty tubes (These are pictured - any ideas?).
 

 
This is both an impressive and rare model (production <100).  The photo below of the full scale plans with the one foot ruler show the scale of it.   As this is a waterline drawing the hull goes down perhaps another four inches.  
 

 
But it has no future in its current state, and I currently have no time to build it immediately.   Such models can be 'reboxed' in cardboard banana boxes and the like, but my experience is that their prospects of survival remain grim.  This is a pity, as it's an impressive model of a rare subject.  I would think that if the production run of fifty years ago was under a hundred we may be looking at a global population of viable examples of maybe ten or less.   Its size is its downfall, the thing is simply too big, heavy (10Kg+) and 'stuffed' for the structural strength of the box that it is in.
 
Thus, wearing my custodian's hat, I intend not to build this model and make a log of it, but to restore it to its as manufactured condition (with a box that is visually identical but much stronger) and log that process here.  In this case that means replacing all the boxes, interior packaging and castings with reproductions.  As a package design specialist I have the graphic and prototyping facilities to do this and I have already done it many times.  The photos below  shows a restored Mantua 'Astrolabe' that was literally a pile of cardboard rags and a scatter of parts in several separate locations when acquired for USD10.  It has now been restored to 'as sold' condition, and added to the custodial stash.  If I do one a year when I retire, I'll be 147 when I'm finished - Do your own math!
 

Rob 
 
 
 
     

The NRG is an educational organization, dedicated to providing our members with the knowledge to improve the quality of their model ship building.  One of the most common problems model builders have is rigging their model.  Kit instructions are poor.  Often, the materials provided in the kit are improperly sized or the cheapest that the manufacturer could obtain.  We all know that blocks are not square!  I wanted to develop a project whose purpose would be to teach ship modelers how to mast and rig a ship without having to build a complete hull.  This model is a 1:48 scale cross-section at the level of the main mast of a late 18th century British sloop of war, Swallow 1779.  To keep the size of the model manageable and eliminate the need for a building board, the hull is cut off just above the waterline.  For the same reason, only the center portion of the lower yard and the lower part of the topmast are constructed.  Also, because this is a cross-section, certain lines, such as the stays and backstays, are not included.  My emphasis will be on demonstrating techniques to improve your rigging skills.  Skills that can be used on your next project.
 
As this was developed as a teaching aid, certain shortcuts and compromises to historical accuracy were taken.  Wherever possible, I have used measurements provided by the plans and such authorities as Steel and Lees.  I apologize in advance to the master modelers who might criticize my shortcuts.  I have kept the use of power tools to a minimum.  The only thing that is outside the normal collection of hand tools is a serving machine.  The Guild hopes to begin selling this kit in the next few months.
 
The kit contains all the materials required to complete the model.  But I always keep my scrap box nearby for those times when a piece of a contrasting color wood is desirable.  I will mention those times as the build log progresses.  Also, the build log is made up from the best photographs taken from three builds of this model.  A sharp eye will notice some differences in the wood color because of that.
 
The hull is constructed in typical plank on bulkhead style.  There is a notched spine and notched bulkheads.  The laser cut sheet of one-eighth inch basswood ply also contains a template for the top and four types of spacers, A through D. 

The spine and the frames are assembled as seen below.  Frame 1 is installed with the printing facing aft.  This gave me the option of painting the exposed bulkhead after construction was completed.


 
The mast fits in the slanted slot between Frames 3 and 4.  To keep the mast vertical, support spacers are glued on both sides of the spine.  They will be sanded flush to the spine when the hull is faired. 


To prevent the hull from twisting and to strengthen it, spacers are placed between each frame.  The three aft spacers are “B”, the next one is “C” and the two foremost ones are “D”.  They are placed close to the edge of the frame for maximum stability.  The laser char only needs to be removed from the fore and aft sides so that their surfaces are flat.  If too much wood is sanded off, I glue strips of paper onto the edge as a filler to prevent distorting the hull.
 
The hull and deck were faired so there are smooth curves fore to aft.  I used a sanding block for this.  I did not fair the bulwark extensions (the thin strips of wood above the deck) to prevent them from breaking off.  This model has a significant camber to the deck.  Sanding sticks help getting into the corners.  You can see that the mast supports have been sanded down to match the height of the deck.

Next up is planking the hull.
 
 

@64Pacific - Thank you so much for the kind words. While I won't undersell the amount of time or tediousness of such an undertaking, I absolutely love following the projects of the other 3D artists on this forum and draw continued inspiration from their works.

Specific shout outs to @CDR_Ret and @Martes for their continuous updates (both blender users) that keep me engaged in my own projects, even if I'm not as disciplined at sharing regularily. And many other talented artists I many have missed.

Finally, from an aspirational perspective, I'm still very humbled at what @herask was able to do on his swan-class (HMS Pegasus) 3D model. It is one of the most comprehensive digital ship models I've ever seen, even among the professional 3D artist's portfolios over at ArtStation. In point of fact, it's that level of detail that I hope Confederacy has when finished.

Point is, give it a go! There's a great community here to cheer you on and provide assistance should you need it.
Best,
-Nate

Okay, so I've expanded the Shader Editor and have zoomed in to see the two boxes. The title of the two are "Principled BSDF" and "Material Output" The 'Material Output', as the name suggests, is the master output of our node. This is our always-on node, and 99% of the time, only the green 'surface' bus is used. For purposes of this tutorial, we can ignore the output box entirely. (note to advanced users I will be sticking to bump map workflows and will not be covering vector displacement, nor volumetrics, blackbodies, etc.)
 
So in the olden days, Blender had different shaders - with their own settings - that you'd use to create materials. At the time, you would use a different shader, or combination of shaders, to create something like glass or water than you would use to create a wood, fabric, or plastic material. Thankfully, a few years back, blender introduced the principled BSDF shader, which can be used for almost everything - from organic materials like skin, all the way to complex metals, and everything in between. So lets take a look at it...

Obviously, there's alot here, but we really only need to connect something to the 'base color' input to create a simple texture. So lets do that.
 
If you haen't already download your rope texture files and find the one that was meant to be the base color. This is super easy, as it will be the only image in the set that is in color, looks like a picture of rope, and is not bright purple (Normal map). Go to Add->Texture->Image Texture and a new bx will appear.

 
And after...

 
In the new image texture box, click on 'open' and blender with open a directory where you can browse to where you have your texture files stored.

 
Once it loads, click and drag to draw a line that connects the 'color' output of your image texture node to the 'base color' of the Principled BSDF shader.

 
We'll add the other images in a moment but I want to point out that even now, our rope is textured. To illustrate, I'm going to make the3D Viewport bigger, and change the Viewport Shading method to rendered (the top-right most circle icon in the viewport), as seen here.

 
and after...

 
So there's our rope - and with a texture... Just not very convincing at this point. Not to worry

***Continued in next post***
 

It is really refreshing to see a well put together tutorial that is not a video. I might have to give this a try in Modo, but I have been thinking about a switch to Blender and this may be a good starting point.

Pat, right you are. Stern lamp, Masthead lamp, Port and Starboard lamps were all required on all US steam ships traveling at night from the 1855/60ish time period onward. I'm not sure about the poor visibility lighting requirements and if that applied to all sailing vessels. I'm sure I read the requirements regarding such but that's been more than five minutes ago.
 
 Hey, don't you have a walkabout stick that you can use to beat some of those gators off? 

3D Ropes in Blender - Part 3: Textures
Welcome back everyone.
 
In this part of the tutorial, we will texture our rope using textures from the poliigon.com website (no affiliation). Here's the link: https://www.poliigon.com/texture/fabric-rope-001/2339
Disclaimer: The images for this material were at one point offered for free, but I cant say for certian if they still are, as it just shows 'purchased' under my account. When I got them they also came with an unrestricted license, so DM me if you want me to share. That said, please consider checking out the other textures on the site and supporting the creator if you like them. 
 
Like all things in blender, materials and texturing are a rabbit hole in-and-of themselves. So if you are completely new to this, please check out my [now abandoned] texturing tutorial here:
 
When doing ropes, it's best to texture your rope segment before applying the array and curve modifiers. Why? Because you only have to do it once! Provided you use tileable textures and you correctly UV unwrap the rope segment (cylinder object), you can duplicate it for each curve on your ship, and the ropes will always look good.
 
Step #1. Workspace Windows
 
First, let's setup our workspace. By default, blender looks something like this:

 
In addition to the 3D Viewport, Outliner, and Properties panels, we need to see the UV Editor and the Shader Editor. How you arrange your workspace is completely up to you, but if you hover your mouse at the corners, the cursor will turn into cross-hairs, allowing you to split the screen into additional windows, like so:

 
and after...

 
We obviously don't need to see three of the same thing, so let's change the top-right workspace to be the UV editor, and the bottom-right workspace to be the shader editor. To do this, click on the top-left most icon in the windows, and select the UV editor and Shader editor from the drop-down, respectfully.

 
then...

 
and after...

 
 
Tip: hover your mouse somewhere over the Shader Editor window and press 'N' to hide the Active Tool sidebar - we won't be needing it for this tutorial.
 
Step #2. World Lighting
 
Add some sort of light to the scene via the 3D viewport, or toggle the Object/World lighting dropdown in the Shader Editor to setup environment lighting. I'll be using an HDR with Cycles rendering, but the setup of that is beyond scope of this tutorial. Failing that, Look Dev mode comes with some HDR's built in, but Look Dev is worse than Evee in showing the result of our work here.
 
Step #3. Create a New Material
 
Okay time to setup our rope texture in the shader editor.
First, click on the cylinder to select it, then click on the material properties icon in the Properties Editor panel (the red checkered ball icon, 2nd from the bottom)

 
Click on the bar with the word 'New' in it to create a new material.

 
Then, triple click on the 'Material.001' that gets added to the list to rename it to 'Rope', like so:

 
Note that there are now two new boxes in the shader editor. We are now ready to import our image files into the shader editor and create our rope material. FYI - I'm going to break off here and resume with step #4 in the next post.

Best,
-Nate