qwerty2008

Sound's right, it looks like 3 x the diameter of the boom, which I imagine to be 6-8"  But you only need a couple or 3 turns, which is about all the line they leave you up there for the job.
real boat
model boat

I have made some of the railing but have stopped until I figure out the hammock cranes. I made the first two hammock cranes and rigged them with some hemp cord and plastic (onion bag) netting for the picture. I also made a mockup of the stovepipe, I will try to get some 1/2 inch brass tube for the finished one. I am thinking of adding fighting tops to the mast as well.
 I was wondering where would the head be located on a mid 18th century schooner?








 
 
Lextin.
 
 
 

I have made some of the railing but have stopped until I figure out the hammock cranes. I made the first two hammock cranes and rigged them with some hemp cord and plastic (onion bag) netting for the picture. I also made a mockup of the stovepipe, I will try to get some 1/2 inch brass tube for the finished one. I am thinking of adding fighting tops to the mast as well.
 I was wondering where would the head be located on a mid 18th century schooner?








 
 
Lextin.
 
 
 

I have made some of the railing but have stopped until I figure out the hammock cranes. I made the first two hammock cranes and rigged them with some hemp cord and plastic (onion bag) netting for the picture. I also made a mockup of the stovepipe, I will try to get some 1/2 inch brass tube for the finished one. I am thinking of adding fighting tops to the mast as well.
 I was wondering where would the head be located on a mid 18th century schooner?








 
 
Lextin.
 
 
 

I've been meaning to do this for some time.  I was in a craft store looking for modeling paint for the LST when I happened on a box of Rit Pearl Gray fabric dye.

A lot of modelers dye their sails to "age" them.  They use coffee, tea, wood stains, all of which are fine except they all tend toward the red/brown tints.  Flax sails, and military sailing vessels used flax sails,  tend to age into the grays.

I was going to try a tiny bit of black dye, but finding a proper gray was fortuitous.  Constellation's sails are made from white Supplex - bright white burn your retinas if you look too long white.  I want to gray that brightness down a bit, not necessarily make them look 10 years on blockade duty off Ushant gray - that I'll save for Macedonian. 

So, I filled a 12oz cup with hot tap water, stirred in a teaspoon of dye, and lowered a scrap of Supplex into the mix.  Stirred it around, took it out and placed it back in, and stirred it some more.  I gave it a full 3 minutes on a timer, and here's what I got.

This is photographed outside in bright sunlight after the sample had dried.   One of Constellation's t'gallants is there for comparison.
 

For Constellation and Pride I think I'll go for 1 minute in the vat, though I think this will be good for Macedonian and Gazela.

Fairing the frames
I've been thinking about how I was going to manage to fair frames that are as slender as these are. Being so flexible, my worry was that I couldn't keep them in position in a jig. I tried clamping them all together and found that they were quite rigid and could resist being moved around quite well. I decided to fair them bundled together like. At this scale, I didn't think that the shape of the hull would be drastically affected by removing the space between midship square frames at this scale.
 
At first I used popsicle sticks and binder clips as clamping cauls. These were a bit cumbersome to work around and staring at me from my pegboard were my beautiful little brass bar clamps. I taped card stock to the jaws to prevent maring the wood and switch over these.
 
Shaped sanding blocks worked well for the outside surfaces (I chuckle thinking of putting this over my knee like Ray did!) but there wasn't much room to work inside. I was about to make a sanding stick, like Ray did, and then thought of my files. Believe it or not, I ended up using a chainsaw file to fair the inside of my frames!
 
First clamping method

 
Eventual clamping method.

Nice work!
 
Just remember, you can tell the experience of a builder by the size of their scrap bin. There's no lesson learned quite like repeating the same task and no lesson learned quite like the tasks that fail. We learn so much more from failure then success sometimes.
 
1:96, Wow, you do like a challenge

I just finished my first ship model last weekend, I've got another kit on the go, but this Triton project looks really cool and will most definitely be educational. I'm really looking forward to this.
 
Smaller scales appeal to me for some reason. This works out well because our house is so jammed with stuff that I really don't have a lot of room to display models!

The main deck planking in white maple. Dick
 

Geoff, here is how I see it,
Tar has been used for centuries.  Fabrication naturally has been improved and the process became more refined. Tar was black up to let’s say 1750. After that with a more refined distillation(photo 1), the color changed to dark brown with variations, because of time and provenance of fabrication, pine family, quantity applied, different recipes in different harbors where it was used and sun effect. Basically, it is as easy as this. The application changed a lot. In the 1600 period, ropes were immerged in a hot tar bath and then steamed. In 1700, every strand is tarred before to turn a cable.
Variations in color are also known
Jean Boudriot in the ship of 74 guns shows the color photo 2). He also says that the color varied up to a reddish brown (photo 3).
Stockholm tar is the most refined quality tar produced. If we buy it today, it will be black, but it is surely not the 1780 recipe. The best tar came from Scandinavian forest. It is clear, fine and a bit red. Moscovy tar had a clear yellow color and darkens when cooked.

I saw that:
 
Hello

I work at the  Swedish East India Man Gothenburg, all our standing and running rigging is made of hemp, therefore we use a lot of Stockholm tar to preserve the ropes, stays, shrouds ect... to prevent them from rot.

Stockholm tar is quite thick and if you paint it on a rail served with rope it will just be thick layer of tar on the outside of the rope that does not impregnate extremly well and it more or less never dries.
You want the tar to impregnate the rope thoroughly to prevent it from rot. What we do at Gothenburg is that we have a small electrical stove which we put a pot full of water on and then we put the pot with tar in in the water. We heat up the tar until it is not thick at all, like water (about 60 degrees celsius i think, for the tar). Then we paint the tar on the rope, since it is like water, you do not get a thick layer, instead it impregnates the rope and when it dries it forms a very thin black layer on the rope which is no problem to tuch and it will not be sticky. This black layer might not from the first time you tar the rope but the rope will not be sticky anyway once it has dried.

The one thing that makes the tar dry best and fastest is the sun, if you use heated tar on a rope an leave it out in the sun it will dry in a few days, however it is important to paint thin layers if you want it to dry. Of course tar never completly dries but the sun  makes it dry enough so that you can tuch it without getting dirty.

All this is based on our experience with our ships rig and natural fiber ropes ropes.

Concerning the smell, in my experience, if you tar a small rail with a thin layer of tar and it is outside, the smell will not take over and you will get use to it. Others who are not use to the smell will most likeley notice it but I do not think they will be bothered by it. Once again this is based on my experience, and I do walk around a ship daily that has all its rigging soaked in tar and therefore my sense of smelling the tar might be a bit "damaged".

I hope this helps

Just to liven things up (so to speak), here are two excerpts from Alexander D. Fordyce: Outline of Naval Routine (1837) http://books.google.com/books?id=vPANAQAAMAAJ
 
RATLING RIGGING (pages 45 - 46)
 
Girt out the Rigging with a Fore and Aft Swifter, but not very much out of the straight line; then spar it down with spare Spars, Studding-sail Yards, Boat's Oars or Hand-spikes, all seized on carefully square.
 
Nettle-stuff made from Bolt-rope Yarns, or something equivalent, is very necessary for seizing the Ratlings with; and, if new, it ought to be well and carefully stretched previous to cutting. The best Seizing-stuff should be preserved till the new Ratlings have been a little worn.
 
Fourteen or sixteen inches is a good distance between the Ratlings, and their places should be calked off all the way up and down before commencing. Each man employed should have a measure within his reach, and special care should be taken to make the Ratlings of the one side correspond in parallel direction with those of the other. This can only be seen from outside.
 
Make the Hitches neat, Eyes small, and Ratlings square one with the other. Few things tend more to snug appearance.
 
If the Rigging is to blacked after Ratling down, it is best to leave the Spars on till that is done; but if the Rigging is not to be blacked, the Spars may be taken off as the new Seizings are finished and blacked.
 
BLACKING RIGGING. (pages 46-47)
 
When blacking new Rigging for the first time, the best mixture will perhaps be found to be Stockholm Tar, Coal Tar, and Salt Water, in equal proportions, and heated up in the Fish Kettle, over which a Sentry should be placed. After the first blacking, half the quantity of Stockholm Tar is sufficient; Coal Tar alone being always used for the Yards and Bends.
 
The most convenient method of Blacking Rigging is with Top-gallant Masts on deck, but Royal and Top-gallant Rigging placed at Mast-heads; for the men who ride down and black the Topmast Stays, can then at the same time black the Topgallant and Royal Stays handily; or, what is handier still, men at the Mast-head haul over and black these small Stays, and pay them down forward when done; the men, also, who black down the Topmast Backstays, can carry on at the same time with Topgallant and Royal Backstays. In addition to all which, the Masts are kept clean.
 
If, on the other hand, Top-gallant Masts be kept up when Blacking, the Small Stays and Backstays must be let go, in order that they may be got at by the men on the Topmast Stays and Backstays; consequently, the Masts must be adrift, and exhibit a specimen of slovenliness unbecoming a Man-of-War. The Masts will, moreover, be daubed over with Blacking; and if it come on to blow so as to render it necessary to get Topgallant Masts on deck before the Rigging be dry, much injury must result to the Blacking.
 
Previous to commencing, the Decks should be well sanded, and the Paint-work and Figure-head carefully covered with old Canvas and Hammocks. The Quarter Tackle should be clapped on one side of Main Yard, and a Burton on the other, ready for Provisioning and Clearing Boats.
 
The Hammocks should also be covered, and the Quarter Boats lowered out of the way.
 
The finer and warmer the day, the better. The Blacking will lay on so much the smoother and thinner; but commencement should be delayed till the dew is well dried off.
 
Topsail and Lower-lifts should be blacked first; the men having to stand upon the Yards to do them.
 
A smooth, calm day is required for the Bends ; for the Blacking will not take effect, unless the surface it is laid upon be dry.

Picture should have been in last post.

Keel alignment guide with clamps to hold it all straight. It will be assembled as is until I feel comfortable to remove the guides.

A look inside the oar module.

Now the assembly

More plumbing done, I am getting better at bending the pipes without needing to cut and adjust, the joint in this run is to make the distance, the pipes are only 30cm long.
 

 

 

My rails are kinda short so I have been thinking a bought extending them up with stanchions. I made a mockup rail for the stern so I could show what I have in mind. Any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated also what is a good way to make the stanchions? and how far apart should they be?.


 
 
 
Lextin.

My rails are kinda short so I have been thinking a bought extending them up with stanchions. I made a mockup rail for the stern so I could show what I have in mind. Any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated also what is a good way to make the stanchions? and how far apart should they be?.


 
 
 
Lextin.

My rails are kinda short so I have been thinking a bought extending them up with stanchions. I made a mockup rail for the stern so I could show what I have in mind. Any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated also what is a good way to make the stanchions? and how far apart should they be?.


 
 
 
Lextin.

I think the spacing and the height both look good, Lextin.

My rails are kinda short so I have been thinking a bought extending them up with stanchions. I made a mockup rail for the stern so I could show what I have in mind. Any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated also what is a good way to make the stanchions? and how far apart should they be?.


 
 
 
Lextin.

Yesterday I made the mizzen t'gallant, a day or two before that the fore t'gallant.  Everything's painted, including the tip of the flying jib-boom, which has been bare wood for years now
 
   
 
   

First a pic of the flared tube fresh off the lathe. These are for the joined ropes from two or three masts to easily pull into the final tube back to the servo.
 

 
More plumbing done, that's tacking of the courses and raising of the gafs taken care of.
 

 

 
I have found that epoxy putty is excellent for fitting the tubes in place, easy and it allows time to adjust the position properly while getting a good hold on it fairly quickly.

Here's my fourth try with my "sea of grass".
 
To review, I selected an HO scale scenery kit for a field of barley and bought two of them - and a good thing, too. Each contained ten trees of eight strips. The strips are 4 in./100 mm long and .056 in./1.4 mm wide and assemble just like deck planks. The stalks are about .40 in./10 mm tall - about 40 inches/1 meter to scale and a close approximation of the short grass prairie of Kansas and Nebraska.
 

A tree of "planks" of prairie grass.
 
Being plastic, I tried gluing them to sheets of styrene but that didn't work; for some reason I couldn't discern these sheets of grass warped kind of like potato chips. I tried thicker plastic and it helped. For the fourth try I used contact cement to glue styrene sheet to 1/16th in./1.5 mm plywood. I detailed the strips and stalks - dark brown for the soil and darker green and pale green-yellow at random on parts of the stalks of grass. As I assembled the strips I bent and twisted most of the stalks to give them a more 3 dimensional appearance - about 5000 stalks!. The plywood and styrene base for the sea of grass is in four strips to fit through the opening of the sphere. I epoxied sections of brass tube to the underside of the strips for alignment with brass rods in three places. Here's the result.
 

This disc of prairie grass is 4.5 inches/114 mm in diameter.
 
I worked out exactly where the prairie schooner needed to be and flattened the grass in the wheel tracks and set the lower hull and wheel assemblies in place to see how it all looked.
 

Lower hull and wheel assemblies (with a yellow rubber band to hold them together) posed on the prairie
for a picture. The wheel tracks would show better if I photographed this at a higher angle - too late now.
 
I still got a little bit of the potato chip effect but I think it's more a result of having one side of the plywood sealed and the other side not sealed and subject to abnormally high humidity. I live in a desert and three thunderstorms have passed through in the last week. Didn't get any measurable rain - it all evaporated before it hit the ground - but the storms did drive up the humidity from the usual 10 to 15% to over 40% and I'm sure it's temporarily warping the wood a bit.
 
The "sea of grass" turned out to be more labor intensive than anticipated - especially with three false starts that used up most of one kit - but I think the result is worth it. 
 
Still working on figures and have detail work on the lower hull and wheel assemblies to finish before I can fit it all together inside the sphere.
 

 
Dave