zoly99sask

Ah! That is the trick! I have been fighting that same issue with mine and that "bow" in the rope was one of the biggest annoyances with trying to keep them tight. As much as I hate to do it, I may redo my crows feet to see if that improves the overall look. May rebuild those blocks while I am at it. Don't have to do them all but three of them for certain are bothering me. Thanks for figuring that out!

Denis – thanks, yes that does now look as it should. Also thanks for your continued support and kind thoughts.
 
Yup sails keep me up at night J  Would definitely add a big “bang” to this project.
 
EJ – just a thought; I had difficulty trying to properly scale the euphroe block threads taught. A bow seemed to always stay visual coming from each side of the blocks
 
I went from Chuck’s  .018 to his .012 and that helped a bit. But the real solution was to use a routing bit and add indented grooves to the blocks themselves. This allowed the rope bends to be better hidden within the block.
 
Now when pulled the ropes take on a better scaled toughness through the blocks to their respective shrouds.

Cheers,

really fine rigging Michael....I was looking at your earlier pictures....noticed the gammoning was gone.   then I saw that you changed it over to the black thread.....looks much better  
 
she'll look good in sails  

EJ,
 
Thanks for your nice comments – Yes your advice is well taken. This happens to be something that I have the foresight of understanding. Most of the standing rigging won’t be secured until much latter.
 
I also assume that I will need “reaching room” when attaching yards, sails, and required running rigging. It is my goal to complete the Vasa in 2017.
 
============================
 
And then move backwards to 840 AD or thereabouts (Oseberg) I will, for that one, leave several sections open, including part of the deck, and the hull on one side – making visible construction details that would otherwise be all covered up. So the extra work will be with wood. An area that I like to work with.
 
Probably won’t add the sail, nor its simple rigging, but instead truncate the mast for a partial display. So it will be just basically a hull model.
 
I was just going to ignore this one (too big1/25th scale) but have reconsidered this in hindsight.
And so many actual photos of the Oseberg are available making the structural accuracy easier to replicate correctly.
 
Below is a replica of the Gokstad detail view– (the Oseberg was built as a burial shrine). But these two give great insight into their construction. Oseberg is the full view photo.
 
 

Hi Mates,
 
I had mentioned that I slightly tweak Chuck’s (Syren) already super excellent blocks. This how I do it. The changes are very subtle, but for me make it worth it.
 
1) enlarge the pre-drilled holes (I’m sure most of you already do this anyway)
 
2) using the same drill bit I now angle it to “round out” and deepen the pulley look further.

 
Using a file I add grooves to the upper and lower edges

 
Using a small sanding block I sand the four side edges a bit inward.

 
Last bit I just started “now” after going to Chuck’s site to order more rope I saw his new blocks that included the four pins that attach the two block sides together. Hmmm – that looked so great.
 
Granted his blocks are larger but nonetheless wanted to add that look as well.
 
Using a tiny drill bit just drilled eight holes.

 
Here are some comparisons. AGAIN absolutely NOT implying anything at all missing regarding Chuck’s super perfect blocks down to the smallest scale.

 
 
This pic is a perfect example of how amazing his super small blocks actually are without any of my obsessive tweaks (;-)

 
PS: whatever these are called I have to pull them all off. Again a novice with rigging when I made those it did not occur to me to be sure that ropes will be able to loop through – well they can’t – did not leave enough space grrrr.
 

 
Cheers,

Henry - Thanks for posting this. Vocabulary is still new for me - really enjoying the learning process as well, Also thanks for your very timely info, i was incorrectly going to pull all of these fairleads. Yikes - thanks again
 
Denis - After reading Henry's post I will follow his lead and loop ropes around the lower part of the pulleys and tie them off to pins here and there.
PS: I have notice one and two "n"s in the spelling of your name at from various members.
 
Joachim - Thanks so much - glad that you are back indeed. Your Amerigo Vespucci is an incredibly beautiful build - almost impossible to find enough superlatives to describe your work.
 

mates,
 
Thanks for all of your very nice posts and likes !
 
Frank (Riverboat) SO nice to see you active again - we've missed you on your build logs! - welcome back indeed. thanks as well for your continued visits, and super nice compliments. 
 
Buck - You're the best always - Thank You
 
Frank - this is the lathe that I have. For longer yards see note.

Thanks John and Pat.
 
Some new tools came yesterday, including a precision hole punch set. The set can make perfect holes from 0.5mm to 2.0mm in 0.1mm increments. Here's a pic of the set, using the punch and the results in one of the decks (the view is from the back side) :
 

I could only use the set for 3 of the holes, the largest ones at 0.6mm. The others are 3 x 0.4mm done with a micro-drill, and 4 x 0.2mm done with a sharp needle.
 
  Danny

Moving on from that debacle . Part numbers 10aP and 10aL were a weird shape. All I had to go on were a rendered photo of the forecastle deck and the instructions were a little vague (to put it mildly ) :
 

Here's part 10aP (the letters "L" and "P" are "Left" and Right"). Part 10aL is the rolled cone to it's left :

And here they are fitted to the false deck. I found it much easier to glue the pieces into this deck than to try gluing it under the proper deck, though it was a bit scary - if I'd have dropped one into the hull it would have been there to stay  :

The Forecastle Deck glued in with the Hawse "Funnels" in place :


  Danny
 
 

I've started fitting the lower Hull Skins, beginning at the bow. The first one was a little tricky, but it finished up fairly good with only a slight bulge on each where I had to make a small cut (as per instructions). The second one was easy, I only had to sand 0.3mm off the front of the keel end to get it to fit perfectly . No touchup has been done yet. I'll get a tube of Tamiya Putty tomorrow :
 

Notice the pattern printed into the red underwater skins. I guess it is supposed to represent barnacles and rust, I think it looks a lot better than plain red .

I've taped some thin foam to the decks to protect them while I'm working upside-down.
 
  Danny

Lower Hull skins continued. No major problems, the stern ones were actually quite easy. The thin strip between the two forward ones actually took me longer to do than the two with the wild curves :
 



The "gaps between the sheets are actually invisible - it's just a trick of the lights coupled with the macro lens that make them appear rather large . I still have a little bit of work to do on the "peak", once the glue dries properly.
 
 
  Danny

Thanks Pav. I did indeed experience a few more gaps, but I think I have worked out the cause of every one of them and it will stand me in good stead for when I do Bismarck's hull .
 
Speaking of hulls - I've finished skinning this one . It isn't the best job I've seen, but it's by no means the worst either . A bit of "Starving Cow" overall, but at least it's reasonably even in that regard. Halinski give you absolutely NO margin for error in the fit of the sheets - I cut each one EXACTLY as printed, but still managed to get a few small gaps. It was a good lesson for future card builds. Here are some pics of the completed hull :
 




The starving cow is not as pronounced as the pics indicate. I used a rounded piece of Castello on each join to press the cut edges down after the glue dried. This leaves a shiny mark which brings up the effect of a ridge where in fact the join is flat. The shininess will disappear later when I spray the hull with matte nitrocellulose lacquer.
 
According to the instructions sheet #29, the last to be fitted in the mid-section, should have been a touch long and would need trimming to fit. Guess what - it was a touch SHORT and will need a bit of filler :

I bought a tube of Testors Plastic Filler (the model shop didn't carry Tamiya filler ) and tried it out on a test piece to see how hard it would be to use. Not too bad, although it dries VERY quickly and will need to be done in very small lengths at a time :

Here's a bit I tried on the hull. It takes watercolour very well and shouldn't be a problem to paint :

 
  Danny

Thank you Pat, Pav and Carl .
 
Pav, I spent a full day Fairing the hull - it was spot-on according to the laser-cut frames. Most of the gaps were the result of a slight miscalculation of the placement of the very first skins. They should have been 1mm further aft. The gaps between the grey and red sheets came from some sloppy cutting on the first few skins . I improved the cutting later on.
 
I've filled all the gaps, they have turned out rather well. The pics below show the sequence of my method.
 
Because the putty dried so quickly I needed to thin it with Acetone to make it workable. I did some testing to see if the acetone would damage the printing - I found that if I worked quickly enough it would flash off before it could get to the print.
 
I applied the putty with a toothpick, pushing it into the gap rather than trying to spread it to minimise the width of the filling. It looks lumpy and bumpy because it is :

Next I carefully scraped off the majority of it with a narrow chisel :

Then I used a Q-tip dipped in Acetone to remove the rest of the excess. Here's a finished gap :

There were quite a few to fill. I probably could have gotten away with doing about half as many, but they were easy enough to do once I started :

And the hull all filled and ready for touch-up paint :

 
  Danny

@ Carl - indeed I did Carl, thanks for the good wishes 
 
@ Sailor - Thanks for stopping by.  I'm not going to go with a nameplate, simply ochre letters painted on the upper counter (what you see is simply some masking tape holding on some paper to get a sense for scale and proportions).  The question of font is interesting, I think Times New Roman was invented sometime in the 1930s, but it seems a reasonable approximation for a serif font available in Microsoft products looking similar to fonts used in 1790s (looking at among other things the "Culloden" ship name on the MSW background).  Of course, if my attempt at painting comes anything close to this I'll be happy.

Hi EJ,
 
I think you are referring to the "round-up" of the stern. Most commercial models of square-tuck sterned models present the transom as being flat, but this was not the case in actual practice.  There is, as you note, an upward camber of the transom wale (beneath the chase ports) that follows the arc of the stern counter, as well as the galleries above it.  However, there should also be a corresponding outward arc of the transom, from the ship sides toward the sternpost.  This arc in two planes (upward and outward) carries up and past the stern counter into the fashion pieces.  All of the Tanneron models display this characteristic (see stern pics of L'Agreable and Le Brilliant on the first page of my build log), and many good pictures of the Vasa's transom and upper stern display this feature to good advantage.
 
On one of the arsenal sites I found this proposed framing for SR's stern:

Below the stern counter, this plan correctly shows the framing for the round-up of the transom, however, it seems to show the upper framing of the fashion pieces as being flat, which is incorrect.  The dual arc of the transom timber, above the stern post, is what provides a footing and gives shape to the coved supports to the fashion timbers.  Round-up should be continued into the upper stern, but here it is not.
 
The other interesting feature of this framing diagram - for those who are interested in developing plans for a scratch-build of SR - is that it shows the correct profile of a pre-1673 stern, where the widest point of the stern is at the middle deck level, as opposed to the lower deck level on the Tanneron model of SR (which is actually a model of the second SR, ex Foudroyant of 1693).
 
My only other contention about this framing for the first SR (1669-1692), is that the framing of the stern counter should close-in this lowest stern balcony, which shouldn't be a balcony at all.  Otherwise, I quite like the shape of the plan and will tweak it for a future scratch-build.  I think the cyma curve line of the tafferal is very well drawn, here.

Marc,
 
Thank you for that. I was fairly certain that the round up is the way to go but the drawings I had either do not show it at all or make it appear to be flat. Flat did not see right but I could not tell and I have learned not to just assume that all ships were built similar no matter how much sense something makes. I will model it that way!
 
AS to the model in the photo, I do have some more pictures of it. I can post them later on when I get home. THey are mostly of the stern as I collected them when I was looking at different versions of the stern configurations.

Sjors, I use piping for a lot of storage. Wood strips, dowels and model railroad track all have their tubes out in the garage. That is originally what I was using for my ship wood as well until I got this cabinet.
 
I meant to post this a couple days ago but I did finish up the starboard side gun ports and more sanding. She is starting to look good on that side now. The port side is also well underway and I am hoping to have the ports finished up in a couple more days and then more sanding on that side. Once both sides are where I like them I will build out the stern and the 2nd planking will start. If I can manage it at work, I am hoping to get a 4 day weekend this weekend and should be able to get in some long build days. 

So... busy tying more blocks. I have the lines from the center of the yards down to their respective Belaying pins. Coiling the excess rope as I go.
Here are the first three ropes belayed.

Neat is the word of the day. Well done
 
Regards

Thank you. 
There is a couple great build log for this ship. Check out the following...
 
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8085-armed-virginia-sloop-by-gunthermt-model-shipways-scale-148-complete/?fromsearch=1
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/11079-armed-virginia-sloop-1768-by-zoly99sask-model-shipways-scale-148-second-build/page-1

I think it's hard to do unto others as we'd have them do unto us. It's hard for me not to see Likes as somehow lesser than a written comment, yet my personality really struggles with writing lots of generic "Looks nice" posts if I don't have something specific to say, and so I work hard to remind myself that a Like is a completely legitimate response. Also, sometimes nobody knows the answer to your question. I know I've felt bad about not responding to a question in a build log before, but if I don't feel I can add anything helpful, it doesn't feel right to take up space saying "Beats me".
 
Finally, I struggle to decide where the line between constructive criticism and nitpicking is. We all have different standards for "good enough" and photos can often be very unforgiving, so I don't know how or when to point something that looks wrong to me but the builder might be fine with. I'm also not such a good builder that I'm always comfortable attempting to critique others' work, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard. It's a difficult situation to parse.
 
This also goes back to the tension between the two roles of build logs: as a live community experience of a model's progress, and as an archive of the work that was done. In the former role, lots of comments are welcome and even psychologically beneficial. In the latter, lots of comments are a PITA, as anyone reading through a past log has to wade through lots of irrelevant content. The only other online forum I frequent (a baseball site) has the opposite problem: all comments are essentially live-streamed (they aren't numbered and tagged as at MSW), making it really easy and fun to interact with people but nearly impossible to find past content again. Neither approach is perfect.

Frames assembly and gluing on a flat surface in 3 layers:  a plexiglass sheet, wood glue does not stick well on it and it does preserve the next layer under the paper pattern.
Under a Russian, multi layered. It is difficult to find a large very flat surface made of wood because stability and wood do not go together. A good flat surface need to be made from a harder material like high density plastic, glass or a mineral like table pool table slate or granite flat surface.

Main Mast in place along with the bowsprit

Hi Eberhard and thank you very much for that very helpful feedback.  I have tried to find smaller rod but to date can only get 3mm BUT only in bulk and at 1m lengths.  This supplier is quite distant (here in Aust) so postage is an issue.  Based on your info I will look further into this.  I like the idea of the acrylic cement.  Noting the small tube size, would a drop of this solidify within the ferrules and remain fixed to allow me to work it?  That way I would not need rod at all?
 
As to turning, yep, I have learned those lessons the hard way   I take very very small cuts and pause after every three.  I have also found the appropriate feed speed and rpm to make this work but it is very tedious.  I only need 10 all up so thankfully, I will not need to turn too many more as I have found doing 15mm lengths the best.
 
cheers, and many thanks again.
 
Pat

Long time since my last update... 
Mast, spars, bowsprit, jiboom,...