trippwj

Thanks a lot for this suggestion, I'm reading it (finished the second chapter) and it is a very interesting book. I'm not sure yet if it will provider the answers I was looking for in this particular case, but it is interesting non the less!
 
Through other sources, I found that in Sweden they employed the brigantine rig as early as 1669; with a gaff, but without the gaff-boom. The Dutch had coastal vessels with a gaff and a gaff-boom as early as 1672, but the image shows a vessel with a single mast. Steel, Goddard, & Co. "The Art of Rigging" London (1818) depicts an image of an English two masted vessel from 1725 which shows the complete rig (including gaff sail with gaff-boom) of what we would now call a brigantine. So, I'm less worried about the accuracy of the models I saw.
I will be in Paris in a couple of weeks, so I may as well try and visit the nautical museum there and see what more I can learn from contemporary models.
 
/Rabbit

With the latest round of exams out of the way and a full weekend without chores, it was time again to return to the model shipyard with the goal of finishing off the bunks.
 
I laid the floor beams and then planked the floor area of the rear bunk house. With some rubber bands and “test sticks” I fiddled with the layout until it looked about right. 

 
The bunks are not a straight line, and the aftermost part of the bunk has a weird little dip in, so I tried just laying some sticks out to get an idea of how that would look as well.  I will also mention that the height of the bunks was set up such that two plank-widths on the edges would provide a nice little lip around the bunk.

 
The fore and after ends of the bunk beams were done in one shot, with the goal of being to saw out the middle part after everything was built up.  This would add rigidity when cutting and sawing on it, as well as assure the larboard and starboard bunks were aligned with each other.  Then the weird dip-section was end-glued.

 
It was cut short, a tiny support post fitted in place at the joint, then the length of the bunk beam  siderail was fitted and glued in place. You can see little posts holding the whole thing up.  There should be a little support post at every rib, and also support beams for the bunk planking, but that stuff will all be covered up, and without some serious destruction, would never be visible on the finished model.  Thus, I elected to omit. 

 
Here is a shot of the completed bunk framing, sans extra bunk beams and support posts.

 
The middle section of the end beams was then sawed out.  This building method was definitely beneficial; I highly recommend it.  I admit I got the idea from Chuck’s modeling of full plank-on-frame longboats and such where all the ribs have a beam that later gets broken out.
 
 
I then dry-fit the bunk planking, and settled on leaving a small gap on the outboard edge.  In real life, this would provide a nice place to drop your keys into the bilge.  Real boats are full of this kind of stuff . Someone remind me to model a small keyring in the bilge. 

 
All the planking was glued in.  I usually use just a tiny dot of glue on the ends, and nothing on the butt-edges of the neighboring plank.  This provides a very clean “joint” between adjacent deck planks.  The ends were then carefully shaved with a sharp hobby knife to the edge of the framing.

 
Here is a closeup of the jointery. I liked how it looked just like this a lot, and in real life such a setup would allow you to shove stuff under the bunk.  But I really wanted the edge lip around the bunks, so I settled on taking these photos and moving on.

 
Here is what the aft part with the weird cut out looks like.

 
At this point I was interrupted by a marathon in my front yard.  Undeterred, I continued working on the boat but did yell out the window from time to time. 

 
Edge planking was fit up, the ends scored, cut, and shaved to final dimension.

 
The starboard side is done, the larboard in progress.

 
Here is a photo of the lip on the bunk I worked so hard on.  The wetwell is in the background.

 
Finally, I took some of my wife’s makeup remover cotton pads and cut them to simulate mattresses. 

 
A parting shot with all the deck beams replaced, and the model as it currently sits. 

 
Happy building!
-craig
 

oh great!  now we can stand outside of Sjor's house,  and all we'll hear is  pfffff.....pffffff......pffffff! 

I think we should give you a new name Sjors.... "King Plank" ..... nice bend on those strakes!!
Frank

Update time.....
 
I have now make 2 planks with the strange bend......
I think that this is the meaning.
If not, please tell me !
I have also go from the keel upwards....
Still a few more planks to go !
 

And so, as the sun slowly settles in the west, we bid adieu to our daring pin rail innovator and wonder, what the heck has his devious mind conjured up?  Will he make his thingy in 2 halves?  Will he make it out of pine or ebony?  What does cast brass really look like on the mast?  Will the fair maiden escape the rail road tracks?  And who DID put the bop in the bop sh-bop sh-bop?
 
Tune in tomorrow for the exciting continuation!
 
Now, then, with that out of the way - look forward to seeing how you tackle this wee conundrum, Grant!  Good Luck!

Hi all,
 
Back home after a week away with work, and just enough time in the shipyard to address the Mizzen Mast pinrail question.
 
I mentioned I'd come up with a cunning plan, and Danny picked it - that's exactly what I did....
 
First up, here is the starting point, showing the Mizzen mast with NO pinrail and with my scratch built mast cleats doing an admirable (if incorrect) job of securing the Truss Pendant tackle falls.
 

 
First job then was to create a pattern for the pinrail. A relatively easy job using TurboCad, although I did do a little bit of fiddling to get the size/proportions to my liking.
 

 
As I needed to construct this in four pieces (a la Danny's previous picture), I printed two patterns, cut them in half and glued them to a scrap piece of 1/32" boxwood:
 

 
Then it was simply a case of cutting out and gluing together..........or was it? 
 
On my first attempt, I cut out the basic pattern with a scroll saw, glued it all up and then tried to drill the large centre hole (about 6mm diam) ................. and watched the entire piece disintegrate. 
 
On the second (and final) version, I used a cylindrical stone in my Dremel to first cut the half-circle in each of the four pieces (stone was just the right diameter), then cut the four pieces off on the Byrnes saw, then got them close to final shape with the Byrnes disc sander, before temporarily gluing up and finishing the final shape by hand with a sanding board.  This proved much easier (and quicker) than using the scroll saw.  After that I drilled the holes for the belaying pins and did a test fit:
 

 
Then I soaked the entire assembly in isopropyl alcohol to separate the four pieces before carefully installing them around the mast.  Here's the final product:
 

 
Just waiting for the glue to set before re-attaching lines various.  In the meantime, I managed to fit the Mizzen Topgallant Yard with Tye, Parral and Lifts.  Once the lower yard lines are re-attached, I will have finished this stage of the rigging and will return to the Foremast to begin the process of attaching Clue Lines, Sheets and Braces etc.  And of course the Driver Boom and Gaff will need to be fitted soon as well...............
 

I emailed Model expo yesterday and Customer Service sent back that if I ordered the Essex it would be an updated kit. It looks like they have the bugs worked out.

And so, as the sun slowly settles in the west, we bid adieu to our daring pin rail innovator and wonder, what the heck has his devious mind conjured up?  Will he make his thingy in 2 halves?  Will he make it out of pine or ebony?  What does cast brass really look like on the mast?  Will the fair maiden escape the rail road tracks?  And who DID put the bop in the bop sh-bop sh-bop?
 
Tune in tomorrow for the exciting continuation!
 
Now, then, with that out of the way - look forward to seeing how you tackle this wee conundrum, Grant!  Good Luck!

This is a family friendly forum, please refrain from using the "B" word!     

And so, as the sun slowly settles in the west, we bid adieu to our daring pin rail innovator and wonder, what the heck has his devious mind conjured up?  Will he make his thingy in 2 halves?  Will he make it out of pine or ebony?  What does cast brass really look like on the mast?  Will the fair maiden escape the rail road tracks?  And who DID put the bop in the bop sh-bop sh-bop?
 
Tune in tomorrow for the exciting continuation!
 
Now, then, with that out of the way - look forward to seeing how you tackle this wee conundrum, Grant!  Good Luck!

And so, as the sun slowly settles in the west, we bid adieu to our daring pin rail innovator and wonder, what the heck has his devious mind conjured up?  Will he make his thingy in 2 halves?  Will he make it out of pine or ebony?  What does cast brass really look like on the mast?  Will the fair maiden escape the rail road tracks?  And who DID put the bop in the bop sh-bop sh-bop?
 
Tune in tomorrow for the exciting continuation!
 
Now, then, with that out of the way - look forward to seeing how you tackle this wee conundrum, Grant!  Good Luck!

the good news it you saw the issue before you glued it in and moved on!  You can overcome this, I am sure, with patience and some Oude jenever you can conjure up the proper solution!
 
Those cannon are impressive, but that sounds like a lot of rigging work!!!

Hi all. Here is my progress with the canons . I think its quite unusual but it fits my expectations. Was thinking how I can make the canons black without using paint. Then I remembered that as a kinds we use to make thinks black (sticks, metal arts) in an open flame. Because I cannot make campfire in home I used candle. Problem is that the black cote is not permanent and as soon as you touch it it going off. So the solution was a wax from the candle. After that the coating is quite hard enough for it . I decided to leave the wax to cool down it self, because you can get and nice and natural look of the surface, I tried to cool it down in a cold water but then you are getting a glossy look with is not fitting to the canons. Here are the pictures and results.

Thanks guys for the nice words and "likes".
 
Thanks for the info Wayne. That description helps to make sense of drawings I've seen. I assume that the "Bearers" are wooden beams.
 
Mark, It would be ready if I could do the pots and pans like Remco, but at this size I'm not sure that I could see them, no less make them.
 
Bob

As far as I know, it snows did not have a boom. I'm aware that in modern terminology the trysail mast is named as the distictive feature, but in older sources (in Dutch in this case) both the lack of a boom and the sharpness of the bow are named. The sharpness of the bow is even metnioned as the source of the name: 'snavelschepen uit zweden' (= beak ships from sweden), where 'snavel' in later times slowly changed into 'snauw' which is transliterated in English into Snow.
 
Where do you find the wonderfull images of the painting from? They are beautiful!
 
 
 
I've a 'digital copy' of the book, but it has ISBN: 0-486-27960-X, so that may be the English focused one?
I'll see what I can find (I more or less ignored it, because it predates the period I'm mostly intersted in).
 
Thanks for all the help!
 
Regards,
Sailing Rabbit

And when i was looking how the glue dry I have make the gun carriages.
Now I have to drill more then 250 holes for the eyebolts and paint everything......
I'm happy that I have a power drill and not doing it with a hand drill   
On the left side you will see the 18 pounds cannons and on the right side  the 9 pounds cannons .
 
 

Planking still keep on going.
I wanted to put a plank on the stern with the strange bend.
That is not working !
As you can see in the picture, the plank was destroyed........
So I have to remove that and try something else.
So I started at the keel and work my way up.
When I'm on that point again I can see what I have to do.
 
 

And so, as the sun slowly settles in the west, we bid adieu to our daring pin rail innovator and wonder, what the heck has his devious mind conjured up?  Will he make his thingy in 2 halves?  Will he make it out of pine or ebony?  What does cast brass really look like on the mast?  Will the fair maiden escape the rail road tracks?  And who DID put the bop in the bop sh-bop sh-bop?
 
Tune in tomorrow for the exciting continuation!
 
Now, then, with that out of the way - look forward to seeing how you tackle this wee conundrum, Grant!  Good Luck!

Here is an English "snow from the 1750's. The difference between a snow and a brig is that the snow has a small pole or mast just aft of the main mast. It stands on the deck and is secured under the main top. The driver or later spanker is laced to this smaller pole instead of the main mast itself. The sail is shown brailed to the gaff & mast. There is no boom. It appears as was often the custom, the same vessel is shown from the stern sailing away from the viewer. It can be seen that the driver/spanker is not extended past the stern with a boom as was common beginning in the 1780's.

Here is an English brigantine painted by John Cleverly in 1757. There is a lanteen yard instead of a gaff with a full mizzen sail. This sail is brailed up to the yard and the yard is lowered. French practice could have been different.

And so, as the sun slowly settles in the west, we bid adieu to our daring pin rail innovator and wonder, what the heck has his devious mind conjured up?  Will he make his thingy in 2 halves?  Will he make it out of pine or ebony?  What does cast brass really look like on the mast?  Will the fair maiden escape the rail road tracks?  And who DID put the bop in the bop sh-bop sh-bop?
 
Tune in tomorrow for the exciting continuation!
 
Now, then, with that out of the way - look forward to seeing how you tackle this wee conundrum, Grant!  Good Luck!

And so, as the sun slowly settles in the west, we bid adieu to our daring pin rail innovator and wonder, what the heck has his devious mind conjured up?  Will he make his thingy in 2 halves?  Will he make it out of pine or ebony?  What does cast brass really look like on the mast?  Will the fair maiden escape the rail road tracks?  And who DID put the bop in the bop sh-bop sh-bop?
 
Tune in tomorrow for the exciting continuation!
 
Now, then, with that out of the way - look forward to seeing how you tackle this wee conundrum, Grant!  Good Luck!

Thanks Lawrence. It's the "two halves" that is the issue - it introduces an inherent weakness. But..........I have a cunning plan. One might say, so cunning, you could pin a tail on it and call it a fox! (apologies to Blackadder). All will be revealed in due course..........

Wow, Mobbsie - just plain, simple, jaw bouncing off the table in awe WOW!  fantastic job there, sir.  Most impressive!