mikiek

Great ideas fellas and pretty easy as well. I wasn't necessarily expecting to add a real grommet to the sails. I just didn't want to poke a hole and leave it at that. I think it would have looked funny. I love the idea of hardening the holes with some colored glue. Solves 2 problems - a stronger hole that stays open and it'll look like something is there as reinforcement. Win, win.

Thank you Joe. I think it adds something to the display. Kinda makes it look a little like something in a museum, plus the build is still clean after 3-4 months on display. That's saying something given that the cats sleep on a sofa back right next to it. Oh yes, I found a local shop that makes all sorts of things with plastics. This one was a little pricey as I had them build a base stand as well as the case.

I've started the lateen rigging for Arrow. Sails are included in the kit and I plan to install them. In the lateen rig, the triangular sail is almost laced to the yard. This means a bunch of holes running the length of one edge of the sail. The instructions say to just poke holes. I think that would end up looking pretty bad. I'd like to reinforce the holes with something. Tiny grommets would be the ultimate - not sure if something like that is even available. Any other ideas would be appreciated.

Glad you got a new start. I was afraid all that good mojo from Phantom might slip away

One was full of holes But seriously, there is a painting of the battle that shows possibly the hull colors might have been different. It's hard to tell. And we'll never know if that was actual or just the artist's rendering. Joel, I think you posted that at one time or another.

Mike - if it was one panel I think the gold would look nice. If it's panels all the way to the bow, it might be too much. But that's just my taste (or lack of it) Of course that begs the question, if not gold then what? I agree with Steve, white would be kinda ordinary. You might try painting some card stock gold and position them. At least you wouldn't have to redo the wood panels. I would only want to have to make them once.

Matt - the dark wood, walnut? It has great color all by itself. Try Minwax Natural stain. It really doesn't have any color, it just gives the wood a wet look. Finish with a matte varnish. That is of course unless you like shiney

Looks wonderful Per. Nothing like finished mahogany. You might try some stain sealer first if you have some.

Rigged up a tackle with the next smaller size rope. Now it looks like a bowl of angel hair. I'm going to move the two ringbolts on the deck outwards. I'm hoping it will spread out that X a little. Of course the other option - wait, wait, don't say it! Frapped - which is probably how it was kept most of the time anyway.

Good point Steve. I can try the next smaller size. Problem is it's not much thicker than the rope I am using for seizing.

Steady progress is continuing on Arrow. Mostly rigging - some I've done before, some not. I had hoped that lateen rigging would be less involved than square rigging. I'm beginning to think differently While rigging the spars has not been terribly difficult, the sails will be another story. They have to be almost laced up to the yards and the full detail even has a lot of telltales running from the foot to the luff. So I am adding hardware to the deck - cleats, eyebolts with rings. I decided I would blacken these vs the painting that I have gotten used to. They came out nice. My biggest gripe with blackening is that most of it ends up coming off on your fingers or tweezers. I found that letting them sit for almost 24 hours after rinsing them off seems to help keep the color. Typically I would dry them with a paper towel and start using them right away. Maybe letting them dry out helps keep the black on. The color is holding up better this time whatever the reason. I've completed gun tackle for the bow - the long gun. After installing them on one side of the gun, I am disappointed. It looks like a bowl of spaghetti. All the fasteners seem to be too close together. I will definately have to rethink this. The result so far is not acceptable. So far with the rigging, I have gone with whatever was supplied in the kit. The Amati rope doesn't look too bad - oddly there is no black rope, all tan. Not overly impressed with the blocks. Cleats are pewter and do not have the small post on the underside (for added strength when gluing) like the Model Shipways kit.

Gotta save a little time for the "non-floaters"

My order from the model shop came in today. Minus the tires - backordered. Pretty poor turn around - they were in stock 15 days ago when I ordered. It took them 12 days to ship and apparently in the mean time they ran out. I did get my order from Tippiecanoe Boats today. T50 trimaran is in hand - hull number 22. It's going to be a screamer. I'll definately do a build log when I start that. I'm glad I have the experience of 2 of their other kits before starting this. It looks like a challenge.

Thanks guys - the gammoning came out nice.

As Joel would put it - the Lauck Street DVDs have led me to an epiphany. Working the seizings has become childsplay. It's not the whipping part - nothing revolutionary there. I just didn't realize that after you are done with the whipping, you can slide it around on the rope or pull the rope thru it. Maybe everyone knew that but me At any rate, I am progressing with the rigging of the spars. Remembering this is a lateen rig, a yard will be bound to each mast. First a gammoning on the yard. One end of this is supposed to be the haliard and run up thru the mast top. The instructions were terrible on how to do this, so I used a suggestion from this post. Over the gammoning a parrel is made to hold the yard to the mast. This showed me the value of sliding the seizing around. According to the instructions you seize a loop on the yard, run the other end around the mast and seize another loop on the yard. You end up with something like this. Well for me, trying to seize that in place would have been a bear. The rope around the mast has to be tight (no room for fingers) and all sorts of other ropes in the way. Instead I seized a loop in a third hand, then slid the loop over one end of the yard and down to the gammoning. Then slid the seizing down to tighten. Easy enough but how do you seize a loop to the yard on the other side of the mast? Rather than doing all this with a cut piece of rope I used the whole spool. Seized the first loop at the end of that. Then I seized another loop about 10" down the rope from the first one, again with the third hand. This loop is run around the mast and slid over the other end of the yard and down to the gammoning. At this point both loops are in place on the yard but there is a lot of excess rope between them. Given that the rope can still be pulled thru the seizings that's exactly what I did - pulled all the excess thru the seizing. Worked like a charm! And since the rope is still on the spool I don't have to cut and throw away the excess rope. Like I said, a new world has opened. Now tell me I'm not the only one that didn't know about this.

Excellent idea Frankie. That does make more sense. What the instructions have pictured seems almost like a chicken & egg scenario. You can't do A before you do B, but you can't do B until A is finished.

Haven't found any Googles for this and the instruction pix are not making much sense. My next build step is to add a yard to the mast of a lateen rig. One end of the rope used for the gammoning goes up to the mast top as a haliard. Where is the other end of the rope? How is it fastened?

Go for a wood wheel! Wood belaying pins for the spokes

Elijah - my hope is that it won't take too long to rig. Although to do it justice I will have to make sails. Besides that, I just think it is an interesting and very different boat.

Ron - I bought the entire DVD set - about 14 discs. It's on the Lady Nelson discs and several of the others. If you are familiar with them most of the practicums are written up. Those discs also have some 1-2 minute videos that show the seizing. It's not real different than other YouTube videos but I never realized that you could slide a seizing around after completing it. That one point has made all the difference for me. I would take some pix and show it but I suspect that might be copyright infringement.

Hey Elijah - the double fold and binding was pretty standard. Hammocks were stowed like that for a variety of reasons. To get them out of the way. To let them air out. And yes, for limited protection against flying objects. Lead, wood and otherwise.

I'll agree with you Joel. An entirely different venue. I imagine the Great Lakes fleet broke a lot of traditions. Do what they must but not much more.

Now that the tug is winding up I can get more time for Arrow. This is a good break from rolling hammocks for my Niagara build. It's funny, I guess the person that was translating the English instructions was changed somewhere about where the guns start. I had no complaints with the instructions for the hull - framing, seats, planking. However when I started the guns, the grammar got worse and parts started to be mislabeled. I was having to reread everything 3-4 times to make sense of it. I'm now starting rigging and they are better again. So - rigging. If you have followed the Niagara log, you know my thoughts on that. One of the big reasons I choose this build was due to the lateen rig. Much simpler than square rigging. I also picked up the Lauck Street tutorials and practicums a while back and I've found the pieces on rigging very helpful. The techniques for seizing made good sense and watching the video gave me the urge to give it a try. I can't say it will help everyone, but it was a good investment for me. I've started with the mast tops and shrouds - per the instructions. I suspect I'll be jumping out of order pretty soon as the plans call for shrouds to fasten to eyebolts with rings (no channels or deadeyes) and none of those are in place yet. There's about 35 of those all around the deck and rails. So here's the kids first attempt: No the masts are not raked backwards. This is the lateen rig. The Lauck Street seizing technique lets you slide the seizing around (it's not the zip seizing) to tighten up around blocks, etc. Each one of these ropes was a loop on each end for a block and one in the middle to go around the mast.

Does that mean I can stop making hammocks at 130??

Thank you Joel. I'm pretty happy with them or at least how I envision them. Somewhere I saw where the troughs were closed off with a slab of wood at each end. From the pix I see I still need to clean up the ends - terminate the rails at the stanchion.