dafi

The main yard was finally also finished so far, here is an overview of the collection of all the blocks that have now snuggled together. Always seen from both the front and the aft. And as already written earlier, the stirrups and foot horses will only be smoothed and provided with gravity during the final installation.





The center of the yard with the chain sling ...





... and the yard arm, 9 blocks in 8 sizes :-0





Then came the exciting moment, the test hanging http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

First the lifts.






Then the yard tackles with outer tricing line.



And usually as last the braces.





And there is another little tidbit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime, as can be seen in the pictures of the lifts. Consequently, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be fitted. These replaced the double pendant of the braces of the 1760s. For this purpose, the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.



Exciting.

XXXDAn

The main yard was finally also finished so far, here is an overview of the collection of all the blocks that have now snuggled together. Always seen from both the front and the aft. And as already written earlier, the stirrups and foot horses will only be smoothed and provided with gravity during the final installation.





The center of the yard with the chain sling ...





... and the yard arm, 9 blocks in 8 sizes :-0





Then came the exciting moment, the test hanging http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

First the lifts.






Then the yard tackles with outer tricing line.



And usually as last the braces.





And there is another little tidbit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime, as can be seen in the pictures of the lifts. Consequently, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be fitted. These replaced the double pendant of the braces of the 1760s. For this purpose, the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.



Exciting.

XXXDAn

And at some point we got serious with the foot horses. First the thimbles were tied into the stirrups and the four-pack on each side was secured against being breathed away.



Then average out the distances for the stirrups.



For the distance between the thimble and the upper reference point, I made a small 9 mm gauge so that the distance is even when being glued down. Then 3 turns with the free end and glued that on too. When all 4 stirrups were in place, the foot horse was pulled through the thimbles and secured with an external knot before and after the thimble to prevent it from slipping through.



Then a short standing test, and lo and behold, it looks quite plausible.



Then knotted the eye on the inside of the foot horse to secure it. It was THE perfect eye. But I had overlooked the fact that the clamp on the other side of the yardarm went further out than expected, see orange thread ...

... so I cut off the eye and spliced in an extension, luckily it's hardly noticeable at this point, uffz.




This time the length was better and the eye was lashed with 4 turns on the other side of the yard.



Here is the finished ensemble and ...



... even our little able seaman was happy with it up there.



XXXDAn

After the leechline and bowline blocks had worked out so well, we continued with the tricing lines of the yard tackles pendants.

The block on the yard tackle pendant was hauled to the yard with the outer tricing line and the lower block with hooks was hauled with the inner tricing lines to the shrouds to be hooked/fastened there. Unlike other load rigs, the yard tackles were not struck off when not in use, but were also used as to support the braces in strong winds or for other purposes.

And so that the whole thing doesn't get too boring, this time the blocks are 7" and 8", i.e. 2 mm in my scale. But it doesn't matter, it works just like the other 🙂

First on the filed needle, then stropped in as usual ...



... and succeding the function test.



Fits. Then, as usual, tied the eyes with the pointed clamping tweezers and quickly put them all on the leash, such a stopped block is too quickly inhaled.



And to show that you can get these blocks to the yard even with sausage fingers like mine ...



... you just have to make sure that you …



… get not tangled. And already finished.



You can clearly see the noticeable difference between the 2 mm block of the tricing line and the 2.5 mm blocks of the leechline.

The tricing line is one of the thinnest in the entire rigging, here hanging loosely with the yard tackle in use ...



... and with the yard tackle pulled up.



For the sake of completeness, the inner tricing line next to the 4 mm clue line block.



XXXDAn

The main yard was finally also finished so far, here is an overview of the collection of all the blocks that have now snuggled together. Always seen from both the front and the aft. And as already written earlier, the stirrups and foot horses will only be smoothed and provided with gravity during the final installation.





The center of the yard with the chain sling ...





... and the yard arm, 9 blocks in 8 sizes :-0





Then came the exciting moment, the test hanging http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

First the lifts.






Then the yard tackles with outer tricing line.



And usually as last the braces.





And there is another little tidbit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime, as can be seen in the pictures of the lifts. Consequently, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be fitted. These replaced the double pendant of the braces of the 1760s. For this purpose, the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.



Exciting.

XXXDAn

Well, what can I say. I'm only away for a few weeks because of work and already my tinkering room doesn't want to let me back in ...

"What does THIS strange man want here?!" was one of the nicer questions I had to listen to ...

After some persuasion à la "man cave whisperer", I was allowed to do something in there after all. In the meantime, I had revised my lists of blocks for the Victory again. I had noticed that McKay had left out some quite some blocks in the AOTS and that there were also some errors among them. I had therefore plowed through the entire Steel of 1795 and worked through the various entries, compared them and selected the most plausible variant, possibly adding variants. All in all, there were significantly more blocks added, both the standard blocks and the special types. But more on that later.

The last thing I did was to replace the square shoulder blocks, which are used on the ship today and which McKay also shows, with contemporary round ones. The main yard continues to serve as a model playing field. Here is a reminder of the last status.





Next came 3 x 2.5 mm blocks on each side for the belly and nock gordings.



Check on the tweezers whether the paint application is complete and either brush on the tweezers immediately ...



... or after the block has been pinned. Place a strop around the fixed block as described before ...



... and checked the length in place. Since the block hangs in front of the yard, the legs must of course be different lengths.



The pointed tweezers with clamping function do a good job here, first one side ...



... and neatly trimmed, and the other and you're done 🙂



Here is a comparison of the simplified version with a simple knot on the top of the yardarm and the more correct solution with a lashing.

Since the lashing is tricky to thread, a classic needle helps.



And this is how it should look 🙂



With this technique, I'm now just as fast for the small blocks as I am for the large ones 🙂

XXXDAn  

A small end of rope did the job 🙂
 
That is why the ropes are measured in cicumference and not in diameter as we usually do. Many modelers already fell in that trap.
 
XXXDAn

... and already Steel is a mere collection*** of earlier works that were simply updated.
 
XXXDAn
 
And those earlier works the same ...
 
... and later works too ...

The main yard was finally also finished so far, here is an overview of the collection of all the blocks that have now snuggled together. Always seen from both the front and the aft. And as already written earlier, the stirrups and foot horses will only be smoothed and provided with gravity during the final installation.





The center of the yard with the chain sling ...





... and the yard arm, 9 blocks in 8 sizes :-0





Then came the exciting moment, the test hanging http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

First the lifts.






Then the yard tackles with outer tricing line.



And usually as last the braces.





And there is another little tidbit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime, as can be seen in the pictures of the lifts. Consequently, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be fitted. These replaced the double pendant of the braces of the 1760s. For this purpose, the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.



Exciting.

XXXDAn

Yepp, it is Lees where I found it first, then being confimed by the find at Steel. By this resaerch it became quite obvious that Lees uses quite a lot of Steels informations, sometimes word by word. (This is not a moan 🙂 ). These details can be found in Part III "Progressive Method of Rigging Ships" in the article of "Rigging the the Lower-Yards" in the passage about Fore- and- Main-Braces, Preventer-Braces and Slings.
 
Also most of these details are repeated in the "Tables of the Dimensions of ..." in the sections for lower fore mast and lower main mast.
 
XXXDAn

Yes, dafi knows how to do it, dafi hasn't forgotten anything ...

...

...

... the wrecking ball!





What happened again?

I always say it, my biggest problem is getting the big exhibit in P. out of my head.

For almost 20 years now, I've been looking forward to those great special shoulder and quarter blocks that I discovered back then back there, building them exactly according to McKay and Bugler's plans and, in my exuberance, not even realizing that they are much rounder in the classic literature ...

Thank goodness there are some people in my german pack and also here in the MSW who are not so obsessed and have a keen eagle eye and have pointed this out to me. Thank you!

So I made new rounder blocks. I used this too to do some more research, as I was slightly irritated at the first pass when I noticed that these blocks on the foremast lower mast and topsail are all the same size, just like on the main mast lower mast and topsail. Thanks to you @druxey for reassuring me in theses sizes and confirming this on the basis of Steel's information.

At this point, in response to a few questions, I would like to repeat the painting method: first, using an old disheveled brush, two layers of very thin paint in a darker brown, which is the base color. The thin paint makes it easy to get to the sides without pasting over the holes.



The highlighting color in a lighter brown, applied with a dry brush, is applied on top. This emphasizes the edges and the depths remain slightly darker, which gives optical depth. And the deliberately uneven application of color keeps the whole thing alive and no longer looks like plastic.



Then the grand finale: as the new round blocks are the same size as the old square ones, simply press the new ones back into the strop from the side and you're done.



The same with the sheet quarter blocks, before - after http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif





You see dafi still can do it http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif

XXXDAn


PS: All those of you that already got a delivery of blocks will get a free upgade of the blocks in question http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

... and already Steel is a mere collection*** of earlier works that were simply updated.
 
XXXDAn
 
And those earlier works the same ...
 
... and later works too ...

The main yard was finally also finished so far, here is an overview of the collection of all the blocks that have now snuggled together. Always seen from both the front and the aft. And as already written earlier, the stirrups and foot horses will only be smoothed and provided with gravity during the final installation.





The center of the yard with the chain sling ...





... and the yard arm, 9 blocks in 8 sizes :-0





Then came the exciting moment, the test hanging http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

First the lifts.






Then the yard tackles with outer tricing line.



And usually as last the braces.





And there is another little tidbit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime, as can be seen in the pictures of the lifts. Consequently, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be fitted. These replaced the double pendant of the braces of the 1760s. For this purpose, the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.



Exciting.

XXXDAn

Yepp, it is Lees where I found it first, then being confimed by the find at Steel. By this resaerch it became quite obvious that Lees uses quite a lot of Steels informations, sometimes word by word. (This is not a moan 🙂 ). These details can be found in Part III "Progressive Method of Rigging Ships" in the article of "Rigging the the Lower-Yards" in the passage about Fore- and- Main-Braces, Preventer-Braces and Slings.
 
Also most of these details are repeated in the "Tables of the Dimensions of ..." in the sections for lower fore mast and lower main mast.
 
XXXDAn

And at some point we got serious with the foot horses. First the thimbles were tied into the stirrups and the four-pack on each side was secured against being breathed away.



Then average out the distances for the stirrups.



For the distance between the thimble and the upper reference point, I made a small 9 mm gauge so that the distance is even when being glued down. Then 3 turns with the free end and glued that on too. When all 4 stirrups were in place, the foot horse was pulled through the thimbles and secured with an external knot before and after the thimble to prevent it from slipping through.



Then a short standing test, and lo and behold, it looks quite plausible.



Then knotted the eye on the inside of the foot horse to secure it. It was THE perfect eye. But I had overlooked the fact that the clamp on the other side of the yardarm went further out than expected, see orange thread ...

... so I cut off the eye and spliced in an extension, luckily it's hardly noticeable at this point, uffz.




This time the length was better and the eye was lashed with 4 turns on the other side of the yard.



Here is the finished ensemble and ...



... even our little able seaman was happy with it up there.



XXXDAn

Great piece of information Dafi!!!
 
It took me a little while but I did find this in his Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship, Volume I, page 283, 1794 edition
 SLINGS have a long and short leg, and a large thimble seized in the bight. The long leg passes round the after-part of the mast, and reeves through the eye in the short leg; it is then brought back, and securely seized to its own part in several places. By these the yard is retained at the mast-head with a laniard, that splices in the thimbles in the slings, at the fore part of the mast and then reeves through the thimble in the strap upon the yard, and so alternately till the laniard is expended. The end then fraps round the turns, and makes fast with two half hitches. In time of action, the yards are slung with chains.
 
Looking at Lees, he conjectures that rope slings came into use about 1773 and the use of chains in time of action appeared about the same time.   He goes on to say chain was used at all times as of about 1811.  
 
Allan

And another little tid bit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime. And if "the road to Trafalgar" doesn't count as wartime, what does ?!?

 

 
Here you can also see that the chain sits on a wedge at the back, whereas the rope slings is passed over the bolster of the mast head.
Until 1760, the braces were supported by preventer braces, whereby the hanger was doubled.
 

 
However, as this proximity was certainly not as effective when under fire, the preventer brace was later brought to the front of the yard.
Consequently, since the chains are attached here, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be attached. For this purpose, the standing part of the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.
 

 
Exciting.
 
XXXDAn

And another little tid bit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime. And if "the road to Trafalgar" doesn't count as wartime, what does ?!?

 

 
Here you can also see that the chain sits on a wedge at the back, whereas the rope slings is passed over the bolster of the mast head.
Until 1760, the braces were supported by preventer braces, whereby the hanger was doubled.
 

 
However, as this proximity was certainly not as effective when under fire, the preventer brace was later brought to the front of the yard.
Consequently, since the chains are attached here, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be attached. For this purpose, the standing part of the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.
 

 
Exciting.
 
XXXDAn

And another little tid bit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime. And if "the road to Trafalgar" doesn't count as wartime, what does ?!?

 

 
Here you can also see that the chain sits on a wedge at the back, whereas the rope slings is passed over the bolster of the mast head.
Until 1760, the braces were supported by preventer braces, whereby the hanger was doubled.
 

 
However, as this proximity was certainly not as effective when under fire, the preventer brace was later brought to the front of the yard.
Consequently, since the chains are attached here, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be attached. For this purpose, the standing part of the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.
 

 
Exciting.
 
XXXDAn

And at some point we got serious with the foot horses. First the thimbles were tied into the stirrups and the four-pack on each side was secured against being breathed away.



Then average out the distances for the stirrups.



For the distance between the thimble and the upper reference point, I made a small 9 mm gauge so that the distance is even when being glued down. Then 3 turns with the free end and glued that on too. When all 4 stirrups were in place, the foot horse was pulled through the thimbles and secured with an external knot before and after the thimble to prevent it from slipping through.



Then a short standing test, and lo and behold, it looks quite plausible.



Then knotted the eye on the inside of the foot horse to secure it. It was THE perfect eye. But I had overlooked the fact that the clamp on the other side of the yardarm went further out than expected, see orange thread ...

... so I cut off the eye and spliced in an extension, luckily it's hardly noticeable at this point, uffz.




This time the length was better and the eye was lashed with 4 turns on the other side of the yard.



Here is the finished ensemble and ...



... even our little able seaman was happy with it up there.



XXXDAn

And at some point we got serious with the foot horses. First the thimbles were tied into the stirrups and the four-pack on each side was secured against being breathed away.



Then average out the distances for the stirrups.



For the distance between the thimble and the upper reference point, I made a small 9 mm gauge so that the distance is even when being glued down. Then 3 turns with the free end and glued that on too. When all 4 stirrups were in place, the foot horse was pulled through the thimbles and secured with an external knot before and after the thimble to prevent it from slipping through.



Then a short standing test, and lo and behold, it looks quite plausible.



Then knotted the eye on the inside of the foot horse to secure it. It was THE perfect eye. But I had overlooked the fact that the clamp on the other side of the yardarm went further out than expected, see orange thread ...

... so I cut off the eye and spliced in an extension, luckily it's hardly noticeable at this point, uffz.




This time the length was better and the eye was lashed with 4 turns on the other side of the yard.



Here is the finished ensemble and ...



... even our little able seaman was happy with it up there.



XXXDAn

And another little tid bit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime. And if "the road to Trafalgar" doesn't count as wartime, what does ?!?

 

 
Here you can also see that the chain sits on a wedge at the back, whereas the rope slings is passed over the bolster of the mast head.
Until 1760, the braces were supported by preventer braces, whereby the hanger was doubled.
 

 
However, as this proximity was certainly not as effective when under fire, the preventer brace was later brought to the front of the yard.
Consequently, since the chains are attached here, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be attached. For this purpose, the standing part of the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.
 

 
Exciting.
 
XXXDAn

And another little tid bit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime. And if "the road to Trafalgar" doesn't count as wartime, what does ?!?

 

 
Here you can also see that the chain sits on a wedge at the back, whereas the rope slings is passed over the bolster of the mast head.
Until 1760, the braces were supported by preventer braces, whereby the hanger was doubled.
 

 
However, as this proximity was certainly not as effective when under fire, the preventer brace was later brought to the front of the yard.
Consequently, since the chains are attached here, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be attached. For this purpose, the standing part of the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.
 

 
Exciting.
 
XXXDAn

Another difference I noticed are the yard tackle blocks and the braces pendants.
 

 
 
Steel mentions that the pendants of the braces of the main yard*** were 1/10 of the length of the yard. In the navy they were sometimes operated without pendants, i.e. the block was lashed directly to the yardarm.
In this matter, one probably has the freedom, as long as no direct references can be found in the logbooks. Are there any hints for that? @Morgan
 
It is interesting to note that Steel has replaced many long tackle blocks with normal double blocks. In particular, the stay tackle blocks and the yard tackle blocks are equipped with 17" double blocks instead of 24" long tackle blocks. More stable blocks or simplification of the material list? Or signs of the beginning machine milling of blocks? All other sources speak of violin blocks for the entire time frame.
Steel also gives the length of the pendants of the yard tackle blocks as 1/10 of the yardarm length. In many other sources I have the impression that the pendants extend to the fishing in the middle of the yard, i.e. they were about twice as long.
 
The two different versions are shown opposite each other in the picture.
 
And how could it be otherwise, questions upon questions ...
 
XXXDAn
 
*** The brace pendants of the foresail are 1/8 of the yard length according to the Steel

And at some point we got serious with the foot horses. First the thimbles were tied into the stirrups and the four-pack on each side was secured against being breathed away.



Then average out the distances for the stirrups.



For the distance between the thimble and the upper reference point, I made a small 9 mm gauge so that the distance is even when being glued down. Then 3 turns with the free end and glued that on too. When all 4 stirrups were in place, the foot horse was pulled through the thimbles and secured with an external knot before and after the thimble to prevent it from slipping through.



Then a short standing test, and lo and behold, it looks quite plausible.



Then knotted the eye on the inside of the foot horse to secure it. It was THE perfect eye. But I had overlooked the fact that the clamp on the other side of the yardarm went further out than expected, see orange thread ...

... so I cut off the eye and spliced in an extension, luckily it's hardly noticeable at this point, uffz.




This time the length was better and the eye was lashed with 4 turns on the other side of the yard.



Here is the finished ensemble and ...



... even our little able seaman was happy with it up there.



XXXDAn