gjdale

Kevin,
 
I don't know about others, but I think the creation of your workshop is every bit as relevant as details of the build itself.  Please keep posting updates and photos.

I'd certainly like to build this one Jeff - one day......  It's on my "to-do"list, but not until I have developed a few more skills and experience through some other scratch builds first.

I'm another devotee of dilute PVA. When I wanted to re-do a couple of ratlines recently, I simply worked a bit of isopropyl alcohol into the knots with a stiff brush and they came off easily.

Love the way you've re-posted your log Gil. It's a real treat to re-read and a reminder of some great tips and techniques along the way. I'm still going cross-eyed with ratlines, so by the time your are up to date and moving forward, I should be ready to follow along just behind you.

Thanks you all for the warm welcome back to MSW.   I'll try to rebuild the log near to the original form, however, the sequence may change in order to deal with specific areas from start to finish.  I've learned a great deal from many of you and value your comments.
 
Fortunately, our many online friendships were not lost with the crashed hard drive.  Cheers, Gil

Continuing the journey then. Once the Stern re-build was complete, it was on to the rigging, starting with the bowsprit.
 
Here's a couple of pics of items various and overall bowsprit rigging:
 

 

 

 
I picked up a few tips and tricks from others here.  This is a picture of some Mast wedges, made according to advice from Danny (they are turned from Castello boxwood, with lines scored to represent the wedges):
 

 
When it came to attaching shrouds and getting the distance between upper and lower deadeyes even, I borrowed an idea from EdT, which I found in his most excellent Victory build log:
 

 
For adding mice (or is that "mouses") to the stays, I followed advice from David Antscherl in his TFFM books, and turned them from wood.  Here is a picture of some mice and the snaking between the Main Stay and the Main Preventer Stay. ('tis to be hoped the snake does not eat the mice! ):
 

 
Somewhere around this time, Mobbsie drew my attention to the deteriorating state of the workshop. The Admiral agreed with Mobbsie and I was dispatched (with funds) to procure some better storage and thence to clean up the shipyard.  Here is the clean version, under the watchful supervision of the site foreman, Sam the chocolate labrador:
 

 
After much procrastinating, it was time to tackle the ratlines    We had quite a discussion again over colour.  There many differing opinions on this, but in the end I settled on black ratlines.  To help get them at the right interval and parallel, I used a card template - here's one in use on the Mizzen:
 

 
This is an early shot of ratlines in progress (actually the Foremast):
 

 
Since then, I've been slowly but surely continuing to tie ratlines.  I've now completed all three lower masts on the port side and am ready to start on the starboard side.  To finish this post and bring the log completely up to date, here are a few progress photos taken tonight.  I might add, that I had my own mini-disaster while taking these.   As I was trying to get a better camera angle, I knocked over a glass of red wine - all over the several modelling books I had been using for reference (not to mention the carpet!)   Fortunately, not too much damage was done, but it was a bloody waste of some very good red wine!
 

 

 

 

 

 
That's me up to date folks.  Thank you to all of you who have contributed to my previous log and for advice, assistance and encouragement along the way.  If I've left anything major out of the story to date, let me know and I'll see if I've got some photos.
 
Cheers,
Grant
 
 
 
 
 

Well, here we go with what you might call the "Executive Summary" of my build log.  I started this log when I first joined MSW in Sep 2011.  At that time, the model had been under construction for 15 years, although the last six years had been a complete hiatus while work, family, and life in general got in the way.  This is state of the ship around the time of joining MSW:
 

 
Form here I'll just focus on some of the key events of the last 18 months or so.  First up was a decision over hammock netting.  We had quite a discussion over whether to use black or white (or other colour) netting.  After many, many trials, I settled on black netting made from Tulle (comes white, but painted black).  Here's a shot of the completed netting:
 

 
In Jan 2012, I decided to take a little side-road to scratch build one of the ship's boats.  I settled on the 34ft launch, using lines from AOTS and guided by a mini-practicum by Bob Hunt.  Here's a photo-essay of this little journey:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
A little bit further down the track, I became dissatisfied with the look of the Stern and Quarter Galleries.  Although I'd already made a mod to the kit some years ago, my experience here at MSW convinced me that I could do better.  Danny came to the party too, providing detailed drawings and long distance e-mail support, guidance and mentoring along the way.  I owe a great deal to Danny for the way this turned out and this whole exercise summed up for me what this wonderful site is all about.  Enough blathering, here's a little photo-essay of this adventure:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I'm not sure about limits to pictures in one post, so I'll just break this one off here and continue shortly.
 
Cheers,
Grant

That's about enough for me for today.  What's posted so far took 800 hours in the shop ----- and doesn't fill up a page here!!
 
I'll pick up tomorrow with mast construction.
 
Just want to encourage everyone to get back on board if you can.  We'll get the site back up to make us all feel proud again (once we survive the shock).
 
Best regards to all.