zoly99sask

Bit by bit her rigging is coming along. I've got the bowsprit rigged and affixed. Here's a shot of it with a short focal range and a perfectly focused background.
 
Here's a closeup at the bow - and in focus. I'm just noticing the rough edge where the bowsprit emerges for the first time. I'll have to clean that up. 

I'm rigging the mast now and am most of the way there. It looks like a real mast being prepped - lots of spaghetti, all of it making perfect sense to me and to nobody else. I've love to show you a photo, but it was either out of focus or it wouldn't load.
 
A serving tool from Ship Ahoy Models arrived and I managed to get the forestay spliced, served and moused on the first try in less than 2 hours. I've got a nice picture of it; it woulndn't upload. But here's the serving tool. It's well-built and operates smoothly. Part of me felt like I should make my until this arrived; I couldn't have come anywhere close to this and would have spent far more time and just as much money trying to work it out. 

That's all I've got. I'm disappointed; I wanted to show more stuff but ... out of focus or wouldn't load. I'll try again in a couple days. 
 
 
 

That looks great. I especially like the rope work. 
Steve

I'm still plugging away, an hour here and an hour there. It's summertime and the basement workshop gets moist and unpleasant. So I keep the model on the dining room table (I'm on borrowed time with that), and carry it downstairs when I work on it.
 
I'm literally tying up loose ends - coils. I'm down to my last 10 or 12 of them, all at the bow. After than, I just have to put in the swivel guns and the flagstaff on the stern, and it will be done.
 
I'm starting to think about a display case, and am realizing it involves tools I don't own.
 
All the bites that hold the coils together are real; I made them the way I was taught when I was first learning to sail. As everyone here surely knows, getting them to lay or hang naturally is no small trick. Here's what it looks like. 
 

I've been making my way through the rigging. I've been picking my order as I go, doing what seems to make sense next, with an overall game plan of avoiding getting my fingers and tools twisted in the rigging that's done. 
 
So I tend to work on related systems (e.g. Forestay and associated halyards) rather than in the layers of standing and then running rigging. I'm also trying to minimize doing the more intricate work on the boat itself. Like the parrels - I much preferred doing those on the workbench than on the mast under the forestay. 
 
But it means working several steps ahead; Igor example, I needed to have the tops'l yard ready to rig and on the topmast before I installed the flying jib stay. So I'm working several steps ahead.
 
The whole thing is fraught with peril, and I've made a few layering mistakes. But nothing I couldn't re-rig free of damage.
 
Next up are the topmast backstays, and the rigging for the tops'l yard. 
 
I haven't been finishing off lines lines as I go. I can see where it will cut off access to some of the cleats that aren't yet occupied - especially at the bow. That will be a tedious last step. 
 
The big lesson I've learned is to let the lines sit overnight before gluing in the cleats and washing the line with dilute white glue. They have a lot of stretch in them and they need to settle.. and I've caught a lot of errors that way.
 
I'm enjoying the rigging. I thought it would move a bit faster, but im in no rush. 
 
Here are some photos. 
 
 

So here's where I landed with the lettering.  First the letters were painted in a darker brown and then overpainted with yellow ochre and few highlights.  The goal here was not perfection as I new that was not going to remotely close, hopefully "impressionistic" describes it.  Was very happy with the outcome, may touchup a little more but I'm forcing myself to stay away for now.  The placement may look a little odd, but I had to estimate where the decorative rails will be so it should be correctly aligned when those are in place...something to potentially still go awry.  I'm following the guidance that the letters should fill the upper counter leaving a little space between the rails.  The photos are a little unkind and to my eye looks better in person.
 
First picture is the obvious comparison to the kit supplied PE letters, and you can see the perspective narrowing of the font.  I placed the lights in the stern while fine tuning the angle as it seemed that these need be complimentary somehow, although the angle varies from every viewing angle.
 

Hello Jörgen, yes it's Postnord. And after reading complaints on their Facebook page all hope is gone that one will ever get service from them... You are right about waiting for the parts. But I can't wait... I have been thinking that I should just go full on and follow the instructions to 100%, see what happens and then get the complete kit when/if Artesania Latina issues it. By the way, also in the shipment the Postnord misplaced are these and these AND THESE So you can understand I'm really really mad
 
Thanks Peter, I'll try and keep all in mind.
 
Thank you Zoran, and thank you for visiting. If you are referring to the drawn line on the hull that is just a marking of the curve the final planking should have. I used it to get the angle of the gunports. Although the gunports where very low. She was never meant to sail the high seas, so they did not think this was too big a problem (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have a vague memory that I read this somewhere.) Where DeAgostini will put the waterline I have no idea. If all turns out well they might even put it in the right place  but I wouldn't bet money on it...

July's stuff came a little early. 
 
A bunch of 0.5x5mm strips, a cannon and decorations:

 
In detail:

 
 
And the planking of the stern continues:

 
 

The Jarvis brace winch was not invented until I believe the mid 1880s so in 1855 it was most certainly NOT included in the deck gear on board. The photo in post 64 shows a Jarvis brace winch, two halyard winches, and a pump in the back just by the mast. I don't believe any winches like either of those would have been fitted to her in 1855. I don't know what types of mechanical assistance was available in the time she was built but I suspect you have more searching to do unless the ones you pointed out for mining are close enough to what was there. 

Hi again folks, some help please.
 
According to the Contract "Sundry Fittings. - Metal spider hoops, with brass belaying pins to each mast, and hoops with hooks and rollers for awning, a patent winch on fore and main masts, …"  I am trying to determine what these 'patent winches' were.  
 
According to Underhill in Masting and Rigging the Clipper Ship and Ocean Transport, page 149, "The use of deck capstans as mentioned earlier in this Chapter also went far to reduce the labour in hoisting yards, but the final stage was the introduction of the halliard winch in place of the rope purchase, (Fig 148c [not shown here]).  These winches are very simple, and although the supporting frame may vary in different makes, the mechanical design is the same.  The principle feature is the drum, which not only does the hauling but also stores the wire taken in, so there is no need to feed it off the winch.  A large hand operated flywheel at one end drives the drum through a worm and pinion gear, while at the other end of the drum is a band brake."
 
Noting that Victoria had wire rope for much of her standing and lower rigging, I think it safe to assume this may be the patent winch being referenced?   I also note the use of 'singular' form of 'winch' in the Contract wording.
 
A quick search of the internet found a catalog from Bruner and Lay (undated) in which several versions of single and double winches for use with wire rope for hoisting loads (the catalog is for mining equipment but the princile would be the same? see following:
 

 
However:  as the caption to the following picture (taken from the Sea Shanties website, also indicates a 'singular' winch of a similar style but double sided.
 

"THE HALYARD WINCH has replaced the use of the capstan for hauling on the topsails in many sailing ships. The machine does the pulling on the ropes and the singing of a shanty will not help it to work more efficiently. The capstan is still used, however, for other purposes, and can be seen on the right of this photograph, which was taken on board the Penang."
 
Does anyone have further information on these winches?  OR, does anyone think this is too large a leap of faith?
 
cheers
 
Pat

Here's a 1934 12" Craftsman-branded Walker Turner scrollie I just picked up last weekend for $20. It has the original stand and fretsaw blade vises and guides. Sometimes you can find oldies that still work well. Apart from being slathered in oil because of a leaky crankcase gasket, this saw is in great shape and runs smoothly. Switching blades is very easy.
 
Steve
 
 

Just remembered that there was an old Scroll Saw floating around the shop, don't know where it came from. Knocked the crud off and took some photos, thought someone might be interested. Uses coping saw blades and has a two speed pulley setup. Hooking it up to a power supply and a new table should be all that is needed to put her back to work.

Hah, that's nearly exactly what I did , and I also used a Q-tip dipped in Acetone to go over each one when the paint was almost dry. This took a little of the paint off, allowing some of the original to show through, and taking all the shine off it as well.
 
I've finished the red touch-up, masked the grey (which I haven't touched up yet) and gave the hull two coats of Testor's Dullcote. The difference is extraordinary - you really have to look hard to see any of the touch-ups. The only ones that stand out a little bit are a couple that I'd done with a slightly darker shade of red near the stern. I'm more than happy with the result .
 
I've fitted the Bilge Keels. I had to think a bit on a way of holding them in position and came up with the following. There is a thin printed line to follow, so I used some Tamiya tape to make it easier to see as it would have been hidden once the keel went on :

Next I shaped a strip of balsa to follow the curvature and taped it to the hull :

I taped and clamped the keel to the balsa strip and ran a bead of glue on the edge closest to the centre of the ship so it won't be seen when the ship is the right way up :

The finished job. You can see the touch-ups on the gaps (or not ) :



 
  Danny

Nothing more to report here, but I ran across this amazing build of the exact same Shipyard 1/96-scale paper model kit on the German paper model forum Kartonbau.de. OMG, what an incredible build. I'm completely blown away. I highly recommend checking this out for yourselves. 
 
I took the following photo of the completed model from the builder's blog, but there are MANY more great photos there, and hopefully this will inspire people to check it out.
 

 
The URL for the build log is: http://www.kartonbau.de/forum/hms-mercury-1779-1-96-von-shipyard-construction-reports-ships/board5-ships/t25313-f6/?l=2&l=2
 
The blog has already given me ideas, including starting over! 
 
Clare
 
 

Not much to add to the build, but I did get an opportunity to work on the model a bit. One of the San Francisco Bay Area ship model clubs I belong to had a table at the San Mateo County Fair. The clubs here are very low on manpower, so we had one person work a few hours each day. I took the first day, a Saturday afternoon. I brought two small projects to work on. One was a beginner kit that is part of Amati's First-Step series, which I worked on to familiarize myself with it and to show people that they don't have to take on a massive project to start with. The other was my HMS Mercury kit.
 
You can only make so much progress when you're interacting with the public, but I did manage to do some work.


 

 
The model doesn't look much different than it did, but the internal bulwarks pieces are now being secured into place. Since I started that task, I'll plan on finishing that much before I go back to my wooden projects. I will probably add the doors back into place that I had to temporarily remove.
 
I have to try not to get too distracted, as the next step will involve installing the gun deck furniture, including furnishing the great cabin. That's fun stuff, so it will be hard to resist!
 
Clare
 
 
 

Okay, before getting back to my other projects, I thought I'd wrap up this issue about getting the bulwarks into position so that the gunports line up with the inside pieces. First, I had to finish up the windows, which worked out fine, using a film of canopy glue for the glass. They're not perfect, but they're mostly down inside the ship and not very visible. As I worked to get the bulwarks pieces in position, the addition of the newly windowed doors could wait.
 
I cut and temporarily positioned the internal bulwarks pieces to help me with the alignment of the large outer bulwarks pieces. Without doing this, I don't know how one would know where the big pieces would fit.

As you can see, some of the inner pieces have to be trimmed to fit. None are glued in at this point. You can see the seam where the large pieces meet between the first and second gun ports in the foreground on the left.
 
At the bow, I ended up with a small gap for some reason.
 

I will probably glue a support piece on the inside corners, which will be covered by the inside bulwarks pieces. I know the outer layer looks pretty gluey, but it's all going to get covered up anyway.
 
Inside the great cabin, I didn't worry about the alignment except at the very stern. If everything else lines up, this area should be fine. I did discover than I needed to bend the stern transom framing back a little, so that things lined up better.
 

Here's the same bulkhead viewed from the cabin forward of the great cabin...
 

And another view of the great cabin from a higher angle...

It's pretty cool to be working with this kind of interior, as you never get this kind of detail in a wooden kit.
 
That's all for now. I may tinker with installing the doors and adding the inner bulwarks pieces over time. But, this was a nice break, and I'm ready to make some progress on elsewhere.
 
Until my next break!
 
Clare
 
 

Hi Shiphile,
 
Those are some really great looking kits. I'd like to try one of the boxed kits sometime. I'm in the same fix regarding the HMS Mercury kit. It's a nice kit, but it's more money than I should really be spending.
 
Anyway, I've started to take a shine to the smaller paper model kits in 1/96-scale. My first shipmodel was the Model Shipways Phantom, oh so long ago, and after that, I swore I'd only build in larger scales. But, I really enjoyed working in 1/96-scale with the HMS Alert kit. The smaller size makes for a neat model, plus it takes up far less room on the shelf.
 
The low cost of these paper model kits makes it difficult not to go out and buy ones that I might be interested in building. Then, I thought it might be interesting to buy one and try enlarging it to another scale. I had to catch myself from going out and buying yet another kit – they're just so darned cool!
 
Clare

Following your thread.  I have built the boxed laser cut Le Coureur.  Just recently got a copy of the Le Coureur in 1/96 card format with laser cut frame.
I am just starting another box laser kit of the Baltimore Clipper Berbice.  All I have done so far is cut out and trail fit the frame.
Tucked away is a box laser kit of the HMS Wolf, the 10 gun Sloop.
I love Shipyard kits, looking forward to your build of this vessel.  I wanted to buy the HMS Mercury but the cost was more than I could handle and opted for the HMS Wolf.
Cheers Rick

A long belated thanks, Zoltan! It's been, what, six months since I last posted? 
 
I just finished writing up an article for SIS on buiding the HMS Alert paper model, so that's been occupying most of my paper modeling time for the past few months. With that done, and having spending a pretty significant amount of time working on my main wooden ship modeling projects, I thought I'd put a little time into HMS Mercury again.
 
I've been contemplating those fake window panes and recently realized that forward partition is pretty much right under the edge of the forecastle deck, so those windows are pretty visible. Also, since I'm building this model so that the stern gallery windows are clear, you'll be able to look inside and see the windows in the aft partition as well. 
 
So, I broke down and cut out those fake windows. I had to remove the partitions in order to do it, but that wasn't too bad.
 
I actually managed to cut out just the fake glass panes of those 4-pane windows in the forward partition and its doors. However, the after partitions and doors all have 6-pane windows, so I had to cut out the whole window section in one piece and then rebuild them.
 

 

 

 

As you can see, the results aren't perfect, but I'm reasonably satisfied, because I'm pretty sure I can't do better than this. I'll try using some canopy glue to create the window pane glass.
 
So far, I have all but 4 doors left to do. Once that's done, I'll move on to the next thing.
 
Before I started getting obsessed with getting rid of the fake windows, I went on to the next step, which was to add the gunport frames to the bulwarks core pieces.
The frames came from the laser-cut super detail set I purchased from GPM. It was a little confusing figuring out which piece was which, because many of the pieces vary in shape and have unique part numbers. 
 
I should point out here that one of the reasons I got inspired to do some work on the model again, is because I was at a local IPMS conference and spoke with someone who was building his first paper model, and I think it was also his first ship model, the larger 1/72-scale boxed kit of the same ship, HMS Mercury. He's doing a great job and some photos of his progress were posted on Ages of Sail's blog here:
 
https://blog.agesofsail.com/2017/03/08/a-172-scale-hms-mercury-card-model/
 
Clare
 

One thing Ive seen over and over, within this forum and in others, is that many common questions arise that typically already answered at length in other places.  Any trip to another forum and you will see that asking a question like this normally is immediately followed by some snark comment about you not doing any due dilligence or research.   One thing Ive always appreciated about this forum is that despite some builders clearly not bothering to read other logs, they STILL get lenthy anwers and help from some of the same people whom I know have answered that same question a half-dozen times or more...  so really, I see nothing wrong with how anybody does anything around here.   This forum is already far better than many others...   no complaints at all. 
 
For me, I often totally forget the like button, and actually regret not utilizing it more just to let others know that the work they put into their logs is appreciated, is being read and is still worth doing.   As a relative newb, I rarely have anything useful to add, so try to remember that many of the likes your getting might be from folks not nessesarily ingoring your question, but maybe just are not able to answer it (or if like me, like your question because they themselves have the same one...).  
 
Plus, who am I to critisize your work?  An interesting phenomenom I noticed having read (I think) almost every Longboat build log is that the same people will comment "beautiful job" and "clean work" even though clearly one builder is light years better or cleaner.   To me this is not a dishonestly but rather quite helpful, not only to the builder but also to the continued interest and growth of the hobby.   Truly good criticism comes across in a way that is hard to distinguish, and I personally appreciate the subtlety and the respect people of all skill levels within this particular community show to each other.  
 
Honestly...  this is without a doubt one of the best forums I have ever been lucky enough to discover.   No ego's, clean language, genuine interest in the work and best of all: lots of help....

My first ship build was the single mast, "Armed Virginia Sloop"; my second was the two mast American Privateer, “Fair American”.  Now I feel I’m ready to move up to a three mast ship and I chose the Model Shipways, “Rattlesnake”.  It should offer me new challenges and keep me busy for a long while.
 
I plan to use the plans from the ME kit, as well as plans from the Mamoli kit.  I also acquired the plans from Howard Hann, which will be my ‘go to’ source whenever there are ‘disagreements’.  I don’t intend to use the Robert Hunt’s kitbashed version.
 
One challenge with the Rattlesnake is that it is a smaller scale than the two previous models.  I’ll have to get used to smaller blocks, lines and many other items found on a Revolutionary era ship.  To help in the transaction, I decided to make the ship’s boat first.  I purchased the Model Shipways 4.75 inch boat, which seemed to be about the right size based on the kit’s plans.   Rather than do a whole build log on the boat, I attach some photos of the boat’s build in progress and the finished product.  I have to thank the build log by JSGerson.  I followed his log and didn’t really have any problems.
 







 

At last I got something done.
 
DeAgostinis approach when building the hull is to assemble the keel after you done the first hull planking.
Why I just don't know. 
 
Had a really hard time cutting the 4mm trench along the whole hull:

 
This part was the easiest:

 
For some reason the bow part did not fit the false keel underneath. Unable to see exactly the point I had to fair away it took ages of hit and miss.
Doing this before the planking would have saved me a hour or so...

 
Again this was the easiest part. Good fit:

 
Gunports now following the curve of the (second) hull planking:

 
The line was determined by measuring from the gunports.
This is the curve the second planking will follow.

 
Started second planking of the stern:

 
I had ordered planking screws from Germany to aid me in this, but the Swedish post decided to misplace my shipment.
Seems as all they can do is do a search on the computer (as we do at home with a tracking number).
And when I asked when they would get someone to look for it they answered after a brief silence that they don't do that...(!?!) 
Thats service!
Anyway, a combination of CA and wood glue made the strips follow the curve of the stern:

 
One side (almost) finished:

 
Gunports will have their finishing touch later on:

 
And lower part done:

 
Now I will work upwards to the top of the stern, and I have 50 gunports to open up 
 

Pucko,
 
Nice update 
 
PS: Be careful with your spacing here. This caused me a lot of grief. 

Update;
 
Moving onto lathing the yards. First looked for dowels that had visible rings, in order to better replicate the yards looking as if they came from in scale real trees.

 
Example of sailcloth and initial stitching, as well as first turned yard. It looks thinner than 8mm – but it is as Corel sized it.

 
Returned to sewing center to finish up the sails. I’m so glad that I met Ivy – she was awesome. I did the cuttings. She (thankfully) did all of the machine work. The resulting stitching, and the hemming is 100% her great work. She also used an industrial steam iron to fold the double hems, then perfect stitching. Came out so well.
 
All of the following photos highlight her great work. Sewing center also had perfect cutting tools
 

I used an unbleached cotton muslin, that has those little black specks here and there - adds to the unrefined look too the sailcloth IMO - Last two are how I decided to add the reinforcement to the lower main sail. Copied what I saw on the 1/10th - As always thanks for dropping by
 
Cheers,

B.E.,
 
Thank you - as always - for your kind thoughts. For me this is such a compliment as well given your absolute mastery of this hobby. (:-)
Regarding the crows feet (I assume you meant those ropes used by sailors to straddle yards?) - I have looked into this, checked with Anderson, checked on the Vasa specific site per Fred Hocker, it seems that Vasa did not rig these.
Now I am indeed thankful. Also all of the models that I have seen, including the museum's 1/10th preclude rigging these as well.
 
That said your advice will stay with me for future reference. Thanks for your post.
 
So searching (too much) tend to bring up things that I did not want to really know about Grrr ha ha
 
Regarding those euphroe blocks that I was so proud of - well this came up. So much for my accuracy (will not go back to revisit this)

below from Fred Hocker (copied and pasted)
 
We have three different sizes of euphroe found on the ship, a 4-hole, 5-hole and 6-hole. The number and find location of the 6-holers indicates that they were used for the martnets on the fore and main courses. The locations of the others are less clear, but could have been used for the dead ends of a number of different lines attached to the stays, or for crowsfeet at the forward edges of the lower tops. There is no sign on the main tos of dedicated holes for the legs of a crowsfoot, but they caould have been tied to the rim or railings.
 
Again Mates thanks so much for all of your encouraging comments, likes, and visits.
 
Cheers,

Stunning work on the rigging  Michael just wondered if you know that there are a set of sails for the Vasa . If you look on the Cornwall model ship site they sell them. I have fitted them to mine and they don't look to bad .
 
BV