trippwj

Harvey & Kevin - Thanks! Will do some digging there. Fenous - you are more than welcome to apply for any open positions, though the accomodations may be a tad cramped for you... Andy Taylor - appreciate that - you are in my old stomping grounds there! Went to College at Roger Williams (back in the "good old days" when it was a much smaller college!) Maury - will send you a message, and THANKS!!!

The fore Top Mast is a single spar - none of the contemporary drawings show any cap and trees so used the total dimension as a single spar. It measures 51 feet (4 1/4"). The diameter at the mast cap is same as lower mast (3/32") tapering to 1/16" at the peak. To make this one, I started with a piece of 3/32" square basswood cut to the right length plus about 1/2", and then used a plane to get an octagon from about 1/2" above the heel to the upper end. I then sanded the octagon to round it and obtain the taper. Since this is so small, I hold the mast in a piece of sandpaper (started with 80 grit) and rotate while drawing through the paper. Once it is rounded, I continue but move progressively up the spar for my starting point for each cycle. This takes more off the top part resulting in the narrower top. Continued until I had a gradual but consistent taper to the desired diameter at the top. Took about 20 minutes with measuring. Finished with 400 grit paper. As mentioned above, I re-built the mast cap. I wasn't real happy with the britania metal one provided. Dimensions on the cap are as follows: Width is twice the diameter of the topmast (3/32" x 2 = 3/16") Length is twice the width (3/16" x 2 = 3/8") Thickness = 5/6 the diameter of the topmast (5/64") The top of the lower mast was squared off to about 5/64" Hope this helps!

I am going to back up here and discuss the process I used for masting the Harriet Lane. The plans and instructions are rather basic concerning the masts. Since the HL is built by one of the more famous American Clipper Ship builders (William Webb of New York), I used the information contained in Underhill's Masting & Rigging the Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier. On page 249, he provides a set of formulae that can be used to determine the size and tapering (also in Table 5, page 250). The total length of the lower fore mast above the deck from the plans is 4.5" (converts to about 54 feet). Extending this down to the heel tenon (where it mounts to the keelson) is 5.5" or 66 feet. The given diameter at the base using Underhill is 22 inches, the first quarter tapers to 21 5/8, second quarter to 20.5, third quarter to 18 7/8. The diameter is 16 1/2 at the hounds and at the head is 13 13/16. Where the lower foremast passes through the deck, the diameter is about 21 5/8 inches or 5/32" diameter at scale. This tapers toward the top to about 3/32" that gets squared off to fit the mast cap. I wound up replacing the mast cap that was supplied with one carved from some of the extra wood in the kit. Nice and confusing, huh? Basically, I sanded the provided dowel to get a smooth finish, then tapered it via sanding from 5/32" at the deck to 3/32" at the mast cap. The same process is used for the main mast - which has, essentially, the same dimensions. I did things a bit differently for the topmast - used the same reference in Underhill, but since I had a systems failure (my original topmast broke) I built the new one out of square stock, which was handy since the base of the topmast where it fits into the tree is square. Will describe that process in a later post!

You are too kind, Sjors! Sarah - to avoid cluttering your build, I am going to add some info to my build log on the masts and yards. That work for you?

The instructions are rather generic - a couple of drawings in the instruction book, the plans sheet, but since it is at such a small scale (1:144) and the topmast and top g'lant yard are very small diameter, the detail can get lost or overwhelm the spars. tapering the topmast is a very delicate operation since it starts so small.

Dang - no pressure here I used a couple of books to figure out the taper and arrangements - Underhill's Masting & Rigging The Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier, Murphy & Jeffers Spars and Rigging from Nautical Routine, 1849 and Biddlecombe's The Art of Rigging. Each is a good reference for different aspects of the masting and rigging. Let me pull some info together and will post a bit later this morning concerning tapering etc. As to the boom rest - the fore mast is completely square rigged so no boom rest nor gaff. Only the main mast is rigged with a boom rest and gaff driver (spanker). Here are a couple of pictures that may hel slightly. I will go back and get the info on tapering and fittings a bit later today. Rigging as shown on the plans sheet Rigging the bowsprit from Underhill

Thanks, Andy - will give that a try. Those are about 1:29 scale give or take?

Looking for a source for either shipyard or nautical (19th to early 20th century) figures. My model is 1" = 32" scale = figures would ideally be between 2" & 2.25" in height. Any idea where I can find some? Many thanks!

Hmmm...can rule out tug boats and clipper ships right off the bat...very pretty vessel, Anja - gonna need to do some pondering to find this one!

Hmmm...from Popeye to Alice's Resturant! Nice recovery, Augie!

Absolutely beautiful job - boat and painting!

Looks really good, Frank! Not bad for a non-seamstress!

I do, actually, have another column in the spreadsheet where I track the purchase price. Also, and probably fortunate that my better 3/4 is not on MSW, I have a "Slush fund" - each paycheck I have a fixed amount put onto a stored value prepaid credit card - that's mine for books, tools, supplies, wine, song, etc. Once it's gone, it's gone (until the next paycheck, at least). Also got some great deals on books via the NRG book sale. Time now for one last purchase there!

Congratulations, garward - the detail and realism are amazing!!!

Very nice job on this! In answer to the hatchet question, the harpoon line would be afixed to the loggerhead (that post in the stern), and in most cases that would also be where the hatchet would be found.

That is a sharp looking build so far - amazing how much individuality can be put into these kits!

42 rocker - Glad it is of use to you! I like the MacGregor books - he covers a variety of aspects of different types of ships. I started listing the downloaded files as I would stumble across the same document again and again and wound up downloading multiple copies - since some were upwards of 30 megabytes, it quickly ate up drive space!

Thanks for reposting this one, Sjors - I had somehow missed it on MSW 1.0!!! Nice work on the planking.

Very nice work on those, Sjors!

Augie - thanks! The little one (Cricket) is a doll. Craig & Yves - have been studying your logs getting ready to start this one. Tim & Bob - I utilized the most effective set of logical points and reasoning in a detailed conversation with the overseer. Even tried having Cricket do her "sad puppy dog eyes". Finally got special dispensation to begin work on the EC Berry, HOWEVER - at a cost. You wouldn't think that a person with over 300 skeins of yarn waiting to be knit into something would need more...oh, well, it is a reasonable sacrifice! Started work on the building board today. Look for some poictures tomorrow (probably). Now I need to find some more space at the shipyard for the in-progress builds. This little corner is getting crowded!!!

Augie, Anja & Sjors - thank you! It took awhile, but i like the way it turned out! Adam - appreciate the idea about the beads. Haven't done anything the past week but hope to get back to her this week. Joshukr - welcome aboard!!! Thanks for stopping by. Which kit is that you are holding in your avatar?

This is very interesting to me - will be taking notes! Thanks for the detailed explanations.

Craig - Off to a great start! Look forward to the next frame as well!

Sir - (you do out rank me, you know!) - See the scroll work thatBob has done on his Constitution is one good example of working with Styrene. See http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/423-uss-constitution-by-bob-riddoch-model-shipways-scale-176/page-3