gak1965

Taking a brief break from tying ratlines and starting to make some the yards. Trying an experiment to see if this is easier than the way I made the yards on the Niagara. I start by marking the dowels that will become the yards, indicating the end of the yard, the iron band on the yardarm, and three lines at the center that defines the center itself and the iron bands that the trusses are attached to. I also marked the location of the holes that I need for the jackstay eyebolts. I then went in and drilled all the jackstay eyebolt holes using my drill press (Santa was very good to me this year) From there it was off to my mini-lathe to turn the yards. Of the first three, I think that the fore and main turned out fine (bottom and middle in the picture, but I'm going to bin the mizzen which is just a mess. It was half the diameter of the main and needed a gentler hand, I suspect. A couple of things I learned. One is that I should have drilled the jackstay eyebolt holes larger, they often gotten filled in the process of turning the yard, to the point where I could barely or couldn't find them. I still think that drilling first is the right idea, I just need to actually make the hole a little bigger so it will survive the sanding. The other thing is that I really need to be careful about putting pressure on the yard with the sandpaper. One reason I'm binning the mizzen is that the narrow point between the yardarm and the unmodified wood snapped just as I was finishing up, and it was because I put too much pressure on. I still think that cutting the yardarms first is the correct move (it gives me a nice template to work against, but care is required. Thanks for looking in, George K

Well, it turns out that once you get started, the ratlines go faster than you originally thought. I was hoping for 3 weeks on the rest of the port side, and finished in 2, so, not too bad. Some photos of the ship overall and separate masts, although, I find it doesn't look all that different with and without the ratlines, at least at a macro level. I'm about to make the first of the yards, seeing as I should only be few weeks away from finishing the ratlines. Step 1 was just to build out a table with the actual dimensions of the yards, the yardarms, and the diameter at center and iron bands and their corresponding scale size. I pulled the values off the plans, but they are also in the article from the Boston Daily Atlas that Lars Bruzelius transcribed (http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/News/BDA/BDA(1851-11-04).html). For me, given that there are 15, all different yards, this is way easier than doing the calculations one at a time from the plans. I will note that in the section marked 'Scale (in) - frac', I selected the nearest measurement that I could realistically build to. A couple of observations/questions. First, the plans suggest that all of the spars used 3/4 inch iron rod as a jackstay. Was it common to use the same size jackstay on all the yards? I mean the mizzen skysail was only 6.5" at the center and 4.25" at that iron band that demarcates the beginning of the yardarm, that seems, I dunno, kind of overbuilt for the size of the spar. Given the physical properties of the materials, an iron jackstay with a spar attached if you will. Second, the kit has a really weird set of Britannia fittings. There are 4 (nominally 3), identically sized "upper yard trusses" and that is it. Given that there are 9 yards secured with trusses, and six yards that use (hopefully correct term here) truss cranes to attach the yard to the halyards, so, I'd need 15 of these, not 4 or 3. Given that they are all different sizes, and the kit has 1/32 thick brass, I guess I'll just scratch build them (although I see that bluejacket has 3 sizes of trusses - so if the scratch ones are a disaster, I can default back to those). Third, was the use of a deadeye on a shroud or backstay as a truck for fairleads a McKay thing? Usually I see this as a board attached across multiple shrouds. Just curious - another one of those repeat tasks, a bit of a nuisance (I think I need 34 of them total). Finally, the instructions say to leave out the course clew and reefing tackle if you aren't going to install sails. Is that common? When I rigged the Niagara the instructions suggested (and I followed) including the clew and reefing tackle, and attaching the clew garnet to the reefing tackle. Was this just the difference between 1813 and 1851 or just two ways that one can handle the situation? Above the course, I need the clew to have something to attach the sail end of the sheet so they will be there - it just feels a little asymmetrical, but if they were really removed I'll probably leave them off. As always, thanks for looking in! Regards, George K.

The carving (and the ship overall) is looking great, Vlad! I'll echo @BANYAN, you're a braver man than I for even trying at such a small scale. George K

Amazing and quick!

That is genuinely amazing work!

Yikes. Another reason to not put on sails...

Following as well.

I like the look of the knots as long as they are reasonably tight so I don't mind the time (absurdly) much, although I am with you on the copper tape. I am curious about adhesives and thread that you use for your ratlines. This ship is also 1:96 and when I get near the tops and the shrouds start to get really close together, I will tie knots on the outer shrouds only, and use glue on the intervening ones, and then at the very top I find that the only practical thing is to glue the line on. But particularly the final (only glued) line is always a royal pain in the posterior. Getting the glue to stick and the line to stay can take longer than tying the darn knots. I'm using CA on cotton thread, should I be using something different that won't slide around so much? Regards, George K.

Well, just shy of two weeks since the last update, and progress has been made, even if it is slow. As I mentioned I am in the delightful stage known as tying ratlines, and these are simple overhand knots using pretty vanilla black cotton sewing thread. So, I've completed the port side mizzen mast (lower, topmast, and topgallant shrouds), and the lower shrouds on the port side main mast. First, the mizzen: And the lower main: For the main, I tied as per the plans, across 5 of the 6th shrouds, except every sixth line at which point I went across all 6 shrouds. A few photos of multiple masts with with (where relevant) the templates for the next batch of shrouds. You will note that I clamped the lower shrouds to keep them from spreading, but didn't do this anywhere else, principally because the topmast shrouds aren't in a line; if I had clamped them it would have stretched the shrouds in a way I didn't want to happen. Finally, here is a shot of (most) of the ship as it stands today. I'm hoping about 3 weeks to get the port side finished, and another 5 (ish) to do the starboard side. My recollection is that I got a lot faster toward the end of Niagara so, we'll see. It would be nice to finish this chore before the end of March, but that seems to be the schedule. My intention was to work on the yards once I made progress on the ratlines, and I think that this constitutes 'progress', so, hopefully some pics of yards when the next update comes along. Thanks for looking in! George K.

Well, at a minimum you can say that chipped paint would have been realistic for the ship in life . I had vaguely thought about getting this as a 'simple' project to have going once I start the Discovery, I'm a lot less certain of that now. Keep it up, I know you'll get there. George K

I believe @MrBlueJacket called it "hours of fun"

Well, "one week" of effort appears to have been more like 17 days, but the mizzen is mounted and rigged. This is the end of the standing rigging (except the ratlines), and actually, there are 12 clew tackles installed, so I guess the running rigging has been started. The mizzen is relatively clear since there are no fife rails, and rather than have the lines in place cluttering things, I haven't installed them there yet. Now for the ratlines. I intend to make the yards and supporting hardware (e.g. trucks, gin blocks) while tying the ratlines. That way if I do 5-10 lines (20 - 50 knots) per day, I should be done with them in a month or so. At 1:96, 15" is 5/32 inch, so I made a sheet of lines with that spacing in PowerPoint and printed it out to use as a guide: I attach that at the top (I'm working on the lower port mizzen shrouds, now) using clamps and two pieces of scrap wood. The similar feature toward the deadeyes is to try to keep the shrouds from compressing in - I'll move up as I move up the shroud. The above photo makes it look like they aren't very straight, but as can be seen below they aren't bad at all, if I do say so myself. The knots are simple overhand, stabilized with a bit of glue. I find that anything larger (a) starts to get very big and out of scale, (b) puts more strain on the outer shrouds, contributing to the squeezing in, and (c) is radically more difficult to set up with the proper distance between the knots. Anyway, I hope everyone is having a good year, and thanks for looking in. George K

Putting up sails - you're a braver man than I. Looking great! George K

Just my $0.02 here, but if you overcut the bottom, is it really that much of a problem? Mount the "armor", fill in any bottom gaps with putty, then glue the whole thing on the deck. Looking good and I'm sure you'll find something that works. George K

Just found your log and it's looking great. Two quick observations from someone who has built the Niagara kit. First, buy a lot more of the small eyebolts. I don't know what they were thinking; I wound up ordering 240 additional eyebolts in order to finish. Maybe they didn't include the bolts needed for the jackstays, or perhaps I missed something, but I went through those things like there was no tomorrow. The other observation is that all Model Shipways kits (I'm on my third) don't ship all of the line diameters indicated on the plans; this is also true with regard to deadeyes, bullseyes, wire, etc. The plans are frequently of the ship, rather than the model, and then the kit has a subset of the needed sizes. Not looking to beat up on Model Shipways - I like the fact that they are "semi-scratch", you really get to build skills - but I always wind up with a pile of leftover wood and having to order a bunch of things that fall into the 'fittings' bucket. Good luck going forward, George K

Well, it's the end of the year, so here is the Fish as of the end of 2022. The mizzen is mounted, and the lower mast rigging (shrouds and forestay) are in place. I need to make two more gin blocks before fitting the topmast and topgallant shrouds and stays, but shouldn't take more than a week to get to the point where the standing rigging is done except for ratlines, at which point I'll start making the yards while getting them done. Have a safe and happy New Year. George K

@Snug Harbor Johnny good luck on the Thermopylae. Hopefully the Revell directions (particularly the rigging instructions) will be as good as those they ship with Connie even if getting into the spaces was challenging. George K

Thank you. I saw that you had finished the Egyptian boat. Are you thinking a clipper next?

Thanks. Mike R was the man with the notion of starting at the mizzen (which is not what the instructions suggest). My last build was the Niagara at 1:64 and the combination of two masts and the extra space meant it wasn't a big deal to start forward, but boy does it matter her.

Thanks Rick. Re. the Butterworth painting, barring new data it's going to be impossible to ever really know. I think there are 5 active Fish builds now (yours, KeithBrad80's, Jared's and my Model Shipways kits) and Rick310's 1:64 scratch model from the same set of plans. It would be interesting to set them up side by side some day and see the specific interpretation differences. For instance, I included the cutwater and naval hoods that aren't on either the plans or the Butterworth painting (but which Clipperfan has convinced me must be there), but I left off the mast hoops on the mizzen and kept the cabins pretty much as per Ben Lankford's plans (well, and I painted it green per a note in Stephen Ujifusa's book Barons of the Sea that McKay wanted to paint her that color). Like I say, it would be cool to do a side by side. Maybe once we are all finished, we can do a series of 'standard' photos and create a small gallery called 'Varieties of Fish' or some such. Hope you had a great Christmas/Hanukkah, and have a safe and happy New Year George K

Really nice looking deck house. I love the interior rooms

Not at 1:96 😀

Well, almost a month since my last update, but the standing rigging on the main mast is done (well except for those pesky ratlines, but who counts those). Thanksgiving, visiting my younger daughter in Boston, a multi-day all hands at work, Christmas|Hannukah shopping, lights, and catching some sort of nasty cold|flu (but not COVID) definitely slowed the pace of progress. I used the same strategy as before, getting everything in place but not anchored, and then tightening from the top down. As before, the only lines that I did not do that on were the topgallant shrouds - and in that case because they really weren't impacting how the mast moved in three dimensions. The first couple of pics just show the mast and the lines going up: And all the lines that were starting to become quite the mess on the deck: And here are a couple of photos of the mast with all the lines in place. One of the sheer poles on the port side looks a little odd in the photos, but it's a trick of the angle thing - looks fine on the port side itself, and looking at the pictures, I think that the folds of the paper I have to provide some contrast are making the skystay look a bit weird too. And a close up near the bulwarks: You may have noticed a bunch of tan lines in the photo. As I indicated I would, I mounted the clew tackles for both the main and fore masts because they are attached to the deck via eyebolts that are inside the fife rails. It was a pain in the posterior now, it would be worse once the ratlines and/or other running rigging (or yards for that matter) were in place. A couple of pics of them with the attachment points to the clew chains hanging out of the way: Well, on to the mizzen. One thing that I have found is that if I was starting over from scratch I would follow @MikeR's method and rig from the mizzen forward. Having the shrouds and backstays in place makes it 20 times harder to lash the stays in place, and his method keeps all of that clear until after the stays are in place. As always, thanks for looking in, and if I don't post again until after the holidays (gonna try to get one more in 2022, but you never know) have a happy holiday season, however you celebrate and a good 2023. George K

One thing I've learned as I've been working on my fish is to do it your way, mizzen to fore. Access to the anchor points for the forestays looks like it will be much easier that way. Your ship is looking fabulous and I can't wait to see it progress.

Wow. You can take a dry dock tour of the Texas. Pretty awesome. https://battleshiptexas.org/drydock/