Ian_Grant

That explains it. I thought the wood itself contained occasional dark patches. Some sort of tropical wood. Second planking looks very good!

Hi First planking looks good. Which wood species is that? Also, do you find your aluminum miter box wears on your saw's teeth?

Yes, that's a beautiful Connie! I love his sea and crew. I would have made the sails slightly less stained. I made this kit as a teenager and I just scrapped it recently after finishing the Heller Victory which supplanted the Connie in my affections. I'd love to make it again knowing what I now know as opposed to what I knew in the 80's, but there are too may other things I'd like to do. I did paint and fit my replacement stern railing from glow2be. I've also been busy painting and attaching the stanchions strips along the storm gangways. Why Heller didn't mold full railings like those along the bulwarks is a mystery to me. The situation now is I need thread to be able to go any further, other than that finally I am going to be forced to attempt, reluctantly, to fabricate some brass yard trusses.

I don't like the thermoplastic sails that came in the kit, and never having made cloth or silkspan sails I think trying to make 43 is too much. Plus with sails I'd feel obligated to rig all the buntlines etc and at this scale with these tiny blips of belaying pins that's too much for me to face! I have other stuff to do once this ship is finished 🙂 . I'm planning to just tie any lines that come down the masts to the pinrails around the rail as opposed to trying to belay on the pins and hide the cheating with rope coils. By my count there are 126 buntlines on this ship. I'd rather just omit them and the blocks which would be tiny and are not in the kit. I've been looking for thread now that the lockdown is opening up a bit. According to Underhill even the largest steel wire on the standing rigging is 4-1/2" or about 1" diameter which at 1:150 scale is less than 0.25mm. That is almost the smallest thread used on the Heller Victory. I bought some Coats and Clark XP Heavy Duty thread in grey, measuring about 0.25mm. It looks very small but held up against the masts it's ok. This again emphasizes how thin the ratlines would need to be for scale appearance smaller than the shrouds. This thread is a bit fuzzy so I will have to try applying beeswax. I did not have much luck with beeswax on the smaller threads on Victory, though.

This comment made me think of Sheldon's "Fun With Flags" blog on "The Big Bang Theory". What a great show that was.

Interesting wire, but even the "fine" grade at ten thou is a bit heavy for ratlines at 1:150 scale. I believe Blue Ensign employed fine wire in his "French 74" build. Might end up going that route.

Wow! I was not expecting so many replies so quickly. I figured wire rope wouldn't reach belaying pins to be handled. So in the case of my braces grey thread will run from the winch through the yardarm pendant block then become tan thread to go to deck level, perhaps in a whip. We're just coming out of lockdown again so I'll be able to shop for thread, finally. Thank you to all for your replies. What a great forum!

I have a query about wire rope employed on big steel windjammers vs (I'll call it) ordinary rope. Would the crew ever handle wire rope manually? Would wire rope ever be belayed to a pin? I ask because, for example, lower brace lines led (at least on non-British ships) from a deck-mounted Jarvis winch through leading blocks to the yard's brace block on its pendant, then back down through bulwark-mounted sister blocks to be tied off at a pin to enable fine tweaking of each yard's brace by hand; albeit pretty rarely I would assume. Was this brace line shackled to plain rope somewhere between the brace block and the bulwark so if handling became necessary at the pin the crew would be dealing with plain rope? I can't find this level of detail in Underhill's ocean carrier rigging book. I do have a Time-Life Seafarers book that mentions the "ends" of wire ropes were attached to ordinary rope where handled by the crew's hands; any one have detailed knowledge? Thanks.

Hello! I think you have your work cut out for you! Extending the beakhead, building up the stern, making all the figures we now know she was adorned with, etc. It looks like you planked your deck; I just left it with the inked planking as supplied 😞 . I will enjoy watching your progress. Now to figure out how to "follow" you! I too tried to build this model as a teen in the 70's but didn't get as far as adding wales or cutting gunports. I do remember the lump in the hull; I didn't know about fairing either. Your planking is much better than mine was. I painted some blue on it, as far as I recall. But when I read in the instructions that I was to carve two lions out of the supplied balsa blocks I decided that this model was beyond me. I switched to the Revell 1:96 Cutty Sark and Constitution kits instead. My Wasa hull is long gone, but I still have the fittings kit if anyone is interested.........

HAHAHAHA!!!! I think I remember the year you mean, which was before they changed from Victoria weekend to a weekend in mid-late June. My last time was the weekend with 43C humidex on Saturday. It was so bad OBC had to charter a bus to take exhausted people back on Sunday. Sometimes it was delightful cycling, sometimes not. 🙂

Very nice job, Bill!! I can't believe how quickly you finished this build. You had said before you were planning to build the Heller Victory, case it, and display it to the left of your man-o-war. Is the plan still the same? Where will you display the Mayflower? At the rate you go, you could cover the wall with ships 😉 I'm late to this party I know but I was very interested in your first post to see the kit deadeyes which had the three holes AND a groove around their periphery. There must be some new molding technology to allow this. You'll find the deadeyes supplied in the Victory kit to be unusable. This older kit's deadeyes have the three holes but just a single raised lip around the periphery since a grooved deadeye would prevent a standard two-part mold from opening cleanly. The lip only prevents the shroud from slipping off in one direction so it's well nigh impossible to tighten the loop and seize it. I've read where some modellers use glue as an aid but please, I urge you to buy some wood deadeyes to save your sanity. The Victory kit already has enough other problems to overcome. By the way, the Victory took me five years as at first I only worked on her in the winter. I'll be interested to see how long she takes you! Best regards, Ian

Dear "rookie": Thanks bro. For those unaware, "Rideau Lakes" is an annual double-century Ottawa-Kingston-Ottawa cycle ride with overnight in Queen's University residences on Saturday night organized by the Ottawa Bike Club. I rode it quite a few consecutive years between the mid 80's and mid 90's with bro joining me a couple of times.

I had an old M-class RC yacht from the 80's I hadn't sailed in decades. I decided to buy a modern RC set and try it at the cottage. To my utter shock it sank stern first, fortunately near enough to shore for me to snorkel down and find it. Turned out that the chunk of balsa, of all woods, that the teenage me glued in to support the rudder tube finally detached from the inside of the hull and water poured in. To make a long story short, I did a major refit since I needed to cut the aft deck to access the rudder tube. The idea was to change from a utilitarian rectangular hatch just abaft the keel to a "recreational" yacht design. I too liked the idea of a deep blue hull instead of the orange it came as so I painted it with marine paint I had left over from my 1:1 sailing dinghy. My new decking replacing the old white deck is much simpler than yours: a cutoff of laminate obtained from a counter supplier! Here are a few photos of the refit and how beautiful a deep blue hull is. My brother says I should put an Ikea logo on it as the sails happen to be yellow 🙂 . I meant to find some yellow pinstripe tape to accent the hull, plus paint crash-test-dummy style chequered circles on the "helmsman" but haven't as yet.

Wayne: Thank you for your comments! With the Passat you will not have to make all those rigging screws as that kit includes some reportedly sturdy ones. Miki: Thanks for the great photo which I have not seen!!! I must look for more books. Nils: Appreciated, especially given your many builds I have admired! George K: Thanks for your kind appraisal. No, I have no intention of using a jig for shrouds. I will rig them properly the same as I did for Victory after reading everyones' panning of that supplied jig. That said, because of the way the masts assemble one needs to seize the shroud pairs in place around the lower mast head (which in fact is part of the topmast piece). Too bad as with Victory one could seize them around a suitable dowel then slide them down the mast head before attaching the cap. I'm making the screws because the Preussen kit does not include them or any blocks, which I understand the Passat includes too. Rigging instructions?....we don't need no stinkin' rigging instructions... LOL. As opposed to the Victory kit where rigging instructions (and I use the word loosely) were scattered all over, the Preussen includes four diagrams at the end. Here they are: Each includes a belaying diagram at the bottom. The print is very small. Very. As you say the standing rigging is pretty good, although each lower mast only has five shrouds not six (except four shown on the jigger), as I have seen in model photos Miki posted earlier and now again in his Preussen photo (Thanks again Miki for the great shot!!). Now my attention is called to it, Heller calls for one stay (H1) leading from the side of the lower yard band to a screw just ahead of the first shroud, then five shrouds (5x H2), then a stay (H3) leading to the mast cheek, then the mast cap stay (H4). It seems a little silly to have H1 and H3 supporting the mast within feet of each other and the shrouds; I think I will change H3 to a sixth shroud, despite the fact that will increase my number of ratline clove hitches by 20%. HHmmmm....... The many ratlines will be a chore assuming I can find something small enough and non-fuzzy with which to rig them. The lower brace instructions are odd too. They show the brace block on a pendant (fine) with the two leads going to a pin on the bulwark rail and a spindle on the brace winch. No mention of sister blocks on the bulwark then to the pin, or worse yet no leading blocks on bulwark then under the mast top to guide to the brace winch to provide it with a steady lead as the yards swing. Having said that, I am not looking forward to rigging blocks at this scale. I nearly went cross-eyed using 2mm blocks on Victory's cannon tackles. Incorrectly, I think, every yard is shown as having lifts. I understood that for example the lower topsail yard takes advantage of the downhauls for the upper topsail yard as lifts for itself. Also leech lines are shown in addition to the many buntlines. I assumed Preussen would furl her sails to the yardarms not the slings so there wouldn't be a leech line, Can anyone advise? My 3D CAD for the winches looked great, but the gear detail went to oblivion in the actual printing. I am forced to revert to those provided for reasons mentioned in my earlier post. There aren't many notes in the instructions, but they are given in English, French, and German. Again, thanks you all for commenting. It's been said before but it is really motivating! Note: I can't seem to delete this unintentional blow-up of one of the sheets despite several tries. Oh well ;-(

A quick note to say I managed to add the safety netting. It is not yet stitched on or trimmed because I have no jib boom guys as yet. I broke off the bobstays at the stem and pulled the martingale off the bowsprit, in order to pass the inner bobstay and martingale through the netting before reattaching. The martingale broke so I made a new one. Only four inches of 0.6mm brass tube left, now. To make it easier I simply glued the bow end of the netting under some gratings I had made for the purpose after seeing the photos of "Passat" I refenced in an earlier post. Here is a photo against a black background, which is the only way I can see this netting. Not looking forward to trimming the tiny mesh for sewing to the guys!

Long time since I posted. What with lockdowns etc I took time to do reno work in my own house for a change so I haven't done much on Preussen. However, I DID get through to someone for a replacement stern railing. The Heller parts replacement source is Glow2Be in Germany. Go to the "glow2be.de" website, click on "Service" then "Spare Part Form" , print the pdf file and fill it out. I tried scanning and emailing to the address given on the form but it would not go through as the "glow2be" server would not accept messages from my "domain", be that Canada, North America, or whatever. I then FAXed the form to the number given and was rewarded after two days with news that a free part had been shipped! Customer service! Meanwhile, my brother sent me the ladders, jarvis winches, and railings he had 3D printed for me. He had trouble separating the fragile railings from the printed supports so they were not usable, but I no longer need one see above. The winches turned out ok but the spindles are very brittle so I've decided to use the Heller winches, maybe augmented with some brass. The longer ladders I drew in CAD are a perfect fit but it turns out I drew the steps too close together. Andrew is now printing a revised version with one fewer steps spaced out a little more, which should look better. On the actual model, I have been making some fake "rigging screws" for the various stays, again using the 0.6mm tube and brass etch eyes. I'm down to my last 15 eyes and last short piece of tubing so I need to put out an order. I just discovered that "Model Dockyard" has shut down for retirement which is a shame because Nick was very helpful. I decided I wanted rigging screws at the base of the lower and topmast stays, which meant breaking off the Heller supplied deck cleats I had previously glued. It left a little bit of a mess on the deck but by the time the pinrails are in and coiled it won't be visible I hope. I mounted the rigging screws on copper eyes which I had painted black but of course the paint flaked off as I tugged the etched eyes around the curves. Touchups will be needed. I did it this way because I don't seem to have much luck with blackener on copper especially but brass too. I get an immediate black appearance but it always seems to be a coat sitting on the surface which then flakes off. Maybe I need to etch the surface beforehand? Here's a photo of the rigging screws at the foot of the foremast. Excuse the sloppy knots; I just wanted to see how a stay would look! I also added the bobstays, formed from brass tube.They hook into etched eyes at the bowsprit end, but I cheated and just bent the other ends and glued into holes drilled in the front of the stem. The outer bobstay passes through an etched eye at the end of the martingale. You can just see several other "rigging screws" dangling; these are for the fore topgallant and royal stays as well as various staysail stays. The bowsprit looks much better to me than as supplied by Heller with all sorts of clumsy plastic cleats molded on. Sadly I realized that the presence of the bobstays means I cannot add the safety netting without cutting along its centre and stitching back together 😞 😞 . After my experience with needle and thread lacing the Hobby-Lobby netting (which I can barely see even with magnifiers) for Victory's hammock netting I am loathe to attempt this resewing of a cut especially "in place", so I will have to break off the bobstays and reassemble with the inner bobstay and martingale passing through the netting. I'll need to add the jib boom guys in order to stitch and trim the netting but I haven't been able to shop for grey thread to represent wire rope, due to the re-lockdown. One final note, the movable-arm lamp I had mounted to the wall broke off as its plastic mounting bracket fell apart under repetitive stress. I bought a chunk of aluminum to machine a new bracket but then I saw LED strip lights for sale. I bought a twin 48" fixture and boy, what illumination! This photo doesn't do it justice; the camera must have reduced the exposure due to ambient brightness. The broken bracket is just to the left of "Cutty Sark". Now I wonder how I ever built "Victory" with a bedroom ceiling light and a single bulb swing arm lamp!? The hall seems so dim now when I step out of the "shipyard".

About ten years ago I bought an old Bombardier Invitation 16 to sail at the cottage. This is a cat-rigged boat very much like a Laser 1 but slightly larger in all respects. I had one in the 80's because I'm a tall guy and the Invitation is a much better fit than a Laser for my height and weight (which is at the top of the range for a Laser). It has 90 square feet of sail, a roomier cockpit, and more room to duck under the boom. Unfortunately I sold it in the mid 80's because I spent so much time cycling that sailing just sort of fell off the map. And of course, when I met my now-wife shortly after, she mentioned she would love to learn to sail 😞 The lady had this one at her cottage, less trailer. When I went to view it, I checked the bottom (which was a bit beat up but hey, this boat went out of production in 1980), verified none of the screws holding fittings were stripped, poured water into the mast tube to verify it didn't leak into the hull, and looked over the rudder, tiller, daggerboard, mast, boom, and sail. The wood rudder and daggerboard needed fresh varnish, but everything looked good so I bought it. I did not think to sit the lower mast section into the hull tube and take a step back. The very first time I rigged it I saw the mast was leaning forward and to starboard. AHA...that explained the circular access port someone had installed in the foredeck...they must have been fiddling with the mast step block inside. I sailed it for a few years like that, until I just reached the breaking point with its handling: forward leaning mast equals downward thrust on bow equals constant weather helm. In heavy gusts it would luff uncontrollably. Very annoying! Plus it's embarrassing to have a boat whose mast leans to one side, when reaching across the lake towards someone's dock! I decided to attempt to replace the mast step a couple of years ago, and if the result blew out in the wind and wrecked the boat then so be it. This old boat isn't worth much now anyway. Plus it would be an excuse to the admiral for me to buy a new RS Quest or even perhaps an Aero 9 since I usually go single-handed. Step one: I cut a disc of wood the diameter of the mast tube in the hull, with a hole at its centre. I pushed it down to the bottom of the tube and used a cable installer long drill bit to drill through this hole and the hull bottom. Flipping the boat over I measured the hole as being 1-1/4" off centre to port (!!) which generated a huge offset at the masthead. Time to get to work. Step two: From the hull bottom, I jigsawed a radius around the drilled hole. The radius was large enough that I was clear of the base of the mast tube. I then cut out a little more to starboard to allow the mast tube base to move over the requisite 1-1/4". Also cut out some more forward for similar reason. Here's a picture (when my brother saw this he asked, "What the HELL happened?!!"). You can see the base of the mast tube inside the hull. Note this is after I sawed/chiselled away the internal bracing of the tube to the hull bottom. This consisted of very heavy fiberglassing over a wood block formed from a few layers of plywood with a hole for the mast tube. I was able to cut through the fiberglass by slanting a sawz-all blade in through the big hole. All the plywood was completely rotted and chiselled out in soft black lumps. Step three: I sanded and cleaned the inside hull bottom around the hole to remove the remaining shards of fiberglass bracing, with one-arm access through the 5" port in the foredeck. Here is the port (wire for light bulb inside) and the prepped hull bottom. The large yellowish things are flotation/reinforcing/sound deadening foam. Step four: I sat the hull on its storage chocks and braced it in place with stakes. A bolt was added through the hole I had drilled through the bottom of the mast tube, and a couple of tie-down straps were hooked around it and tightened to pull the bottom of the mast tube forward and to starboard. The bottom portion of the mast was inserted to decide on alignment by eye. Here is a view with the mast tube pulled into proper alignment; compare it with the earlier internal shot. Step five: I cut a three-layer square pyramid from baltic birch ply to fit around the mast tube. The rectangular recess in the hull bottom, from the previous step's block, was first filled in with two more pieces shaped to create a flat(tish) surface for the pyramid. The pyramid layers had to be cut in half to be placed around the mast, and in any case would not fit through the access port otherwise. I used my usual West System epoxy to glue everything in in one sitting, one piece at a time, alternating the orientation of the cuts. Here is the result: Step six: Duct tape the hull bottom to seal the large hole and fiberglass the entire internal mess with cloth and resin. A very painful exercise using one arm through a single 5" hole! Here is a completion shot: Step six (b): Scrape the epoxy from one's right forearm! (Hand was ok due to latex glove). Step seven: Demolish the bracing, flip the hull, remove duct tape, remove the bolt protruding from the mast tube, fill in the hole in the bottom and fair with resin. I don't actually have any pictures of the finished hull bottom. It's an ok job. I plan to refine it this spring. RESULT: She sails now with very little weather helm which feels much much better. I've been out in strong breezes with nary a creak from the step so that's a huge relief too. All in all, a job I approached with a lot of trepidation but I'm glad I finally did it. What took me so long?....I could have prevented so many dumps with the previous uncontrollable luffing...

Chris, That's great that it doesn't blush! Saves you some hassle. I see they have three different hardeners with different working times; you mentioned waiting seven hours for a coat to dry - you could get away with a faster hardener especially now the glass is saturated. Epoxies sure have changed in the last 30 years! When my canoe was completed, a friend of my father-in-law "borrowed" my strongback and forms to make one too (I was glad to get them out of the garage!). Unfortunately when he got around to epoxying his exterior it was in the fall and it (the epoxy) got cloudy as it dried so he ended up painting it red 😞 . I still use west system to repair my 1:1 dinghy and they now have different hardeners guaranteed not to cloud over. Speaking of which, would my recent mast step replacement in my dinghy be of interest at all in this categorised section?

I agree with Bedford. If you add the next coat while previous coat is a little tacky, you get a chemical bond between coats. If you wait until fully dry, then you must remove the blush for which acetone is the best. You need to rough it a little with sandpaper because now you depend on the physical bond between coats so a rough surface is needed for keying. When I made a cedar strip canoe I did three coats of West System Epoxy on the hull exterior in one day, the second and third applied before the preceding coat dried, as recommended by Ted Moores of Bear Mountain Boat Shop who wrote the book. God that was a loo-o-oong day! By the way I have been inspired by Chris's build to post old photos of my canoe build; see "Peterborough 16".

After seeing C Coyle's build log for his 12 footer, I am inspired to post some pictures of my 16 ft Peterborough cedar strip; didn't know we were "allowed" to post non-model builds. I made it from the book "Canoecraft" by Ted Moores, which contains lines for several different canoe designs. I picked the Peterborough as a good type for casual paddling at the cottage, since we already had a 16 ft kevlar Prospector for trips in the back country and his 17 ft "Redbird" design is too long to hang on our garage ceiling without interfering with the opening of the door! Shout out here for the Canadian Canoe Museum which is located in Peterborough. Haven't been there in a while but they have a great collection. This canoe was made in the days before digital cameras, but I just this minute took some photos of the old photo album and they seem to have turned out ok. I remember the first day I had my tablesaw out in the driveway, busily ripping six gorgeous 17 ft knot-free western red cedar 1 x 6 planks into 3/4" x 1/4" strips and in doing so creating a monstrous pile of sawdust under the saw as my blade kerf was 1/8" so one third of each plank became sawdust. My neighbour, after watching for a while, came over to ask just what it was I thought I was doing and was amazed to hear I proposed to make a canoe. I then used my router table to cut beads and coves into the strips' edges. When assembling, the strips are tacked to the forms cove side up, making it simple to run glue along inside the cove before pressing in the bead edge of the next strip above. I thought it would be a great woodworking challenge but making the hull was basically tedium. If you enjoy gluing endless strips, or sanding cedar with its attendant dust, or better yet sanding epoxy resin with even more horrible dust, canoe building is for you! I did enjoy adding the ash trim and making the seats once the hull was completed. The Peterborough is a good canoe for light paddling. Doesn't have the volume or the high stems for a long canoe trip, and the first time I sat it on my neck with the deep-carved yoke a friend donated the top of my head was pressed against its bottom! Very uncomfortable and not to be portaged...later changed the yoke to a shallower design but never carry it far. It weighs in the 68lb range I would guess, much heavier than our kevlar canoe which is another reason not to trip with it. Anyway here are a few random shots of various stages. My talented wife painted the West Coast Native loons each side of the bow, taken from an art book we had. God we were young then 🙂 Dust everywhere! Adding the gunwales with fiberglass on exterior sanded, but it looks dull until you wet or varnish it..... Making the seats which were later laced with leather "bootlace". The Admiral working on the art, with the hull cleaned but not yet varnished. Completion shot beside the old townhouse. First launch; Meech Lake QC.

You can buy Caldercraft copper eyebolts almost exactly the same size as Revell's plastic versions at many hobby suppliers, for example: https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?WD=eyebolts copper&PN=caldercraft83500.html#SID=154

iRobert, It's been a long time since you asked about this. Lest you gave up and set the box aside, you CAN get Heller replacement parts. I just explained how in another forum post. See below. And you are the second person I've seen with this problem in a Heller kit.

Nice looking little ship. How long is it? If I am to continue in this hobby I need to decrease the size of the models for display usage.

Paul, I too needed some replacement parts for a Heller kit. On the German glow2be.de website, click on "service" then "spare parts form" then select excel or pdf version. Being old school, which you can read as simply "old", I selected pdf and printed it. I filled in the part info and my address etc, scanned it and sent it to the address given on the form, "mail@glow2be.de" which resulted in a very long complex "undeliverable" message. If I understand it correctly, the "glow2be.de" server did not/could not pass along my message to "mail" because (a) it may not be an office365 server (?), (b) it cannot accept messages from my "domain", by which I guess it means Canada, or maybe North America?? Whatever, I found a FAX machine (old tech I thought only the medical profession was still using) and instead FAXed my message to the FAX number also given on the form. I just got a reply, after two business days, that my part is on the way free of charge. Customer service! By the way I replied to the nice lady to inform her of my difficulties contacting "mail@glow2be.de"; perhaps they will be able to fix the issue.

Mark, thanks and yes, I'm familiar with Daniel's work from the now defunct Pete Coleman site devoted to the Heller Victory. I had the pleasure of buying some of his brass etch to enhance my build. My favourite Daniel build is: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/349-sms-trinkstein-by-dafi-sos-stone-on-soil-flush-deck-frigate-of-the-austrian-mountain-navy/?tab=comments#comment-3313