petervisser

Hi Alan,
Thanks for looking in. As for the Workmate, here are some pic's of this handy-dandy unit. I am sorry to tell you that it is no longer made. I remember buying this in Duluth, Minnesota in the early 80's. I was sailing on the lakes at the time and the 3rd engineer and I went to a model shop in town. He was into scale railroading and I went to have a browse. The Workmate was on the shelf for sale and I snapped it up on the spot. It has served me well for many years and is very versitile. It clamps to the workbench (or not) and tilts and turns as necessary. It also came with rubber and metal inserts for the jaws to accommodate different materials. Seeing that it is no longer available, I will be taking much better care of it...
Cheers,
Peter
 

 

 

 

Hi Burma. Thanks for looking in and pointing out the top and cross-tree holes for the shrouds. I have partially drilled out the holes in the cross-trees but have yet to do the same for the tops. But worry not because they will be modified. Lots of work yet to be done before they are installed.
Cheers,
Peter

After a long hiatus from Cutty Sark, I have finally started on the masting and rigging. This is just a short update as to where I'm at with the project.
 
The first step in this long and involved process is to fabricate the parts that hold the masts together, they being the tops and cross-trees. My old kit had these pieces marked out on sheets of ply which had to be cut out with a scroll saw and fret saw. I cut the pieces out with the scroll saw and then filed and sanded out the pieces to size.
Due to the fact that the tops are less than detailed as marked out on the plywood, I opted to use them as templates. The templates were then used to trace the shapes on thinner sheets so that I could sandwich the gratings in between. I decided to use styrene for the grating as they are a uniform thickness and width and there is no sanding involved for such small and delicate strips. All will be painted white so there won't be an issue with the different materials.
Here are some pics of the initial construction.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Colin and welcome to the site. I just did a quick search and both Ages of Sail and Cornwall Model Boats have Cutty Sark fitting kits for sale and in stock. I would buy the kits complete as this option is cheaper and quicker in acquiring the parts you need. The list is pretty long...
Good luck!
Peter

Thanks for the likes gentlemen. I forgot to post a few pic's of the boat conversions. I basically chopped of a portion of the stern to two of the Biliing F167 life boats and then glued on a transom converting a double ender to a squared transom boat. This to me was the easiest solution and now all the boats are to a more correct scale and configured correctly.
Here are some photos of the conversion...
 

Hi All. Well, it's been a while since any serious work has taken place on my model ship bench. I am happy to be back and have resumed work on my CS.
I have finally dealt with the boats that are aboard the Cutty Sark. Two lifeboats and the gig and jolly boat. The kit came with three plastic boats and I realize that they are a serious no-no to some builders. I am not one of those however, and with a coat or two of paint they look way better than anything I could cobble together.
The kit came with 3 boats all described as lifeboats. They were F167 (good) and F405 (not good) it being way to big for the scale of model. I decided to get two more of the F167's and modify them by altering their transoms. That would convert them into a jolly boat and a gig. I added some lifelines to the gunwales of the lifeboats to make them more authentic.
I lashed down the jolly boat and gig but have not done so yet for the lifeboats. They would be in the way when it comes time to set up the shrouds and the rest of the rigging going to the belaying pins. I'll have to tie them down after the rigging is complete.
So here are the results...
 

 

 

With all the blocks attached and jackstays installed along with other odd and sods I could now apply some paint to the yards. My new airbrush came into its own and made short work of getting a uniform coat of black to cover the different materials that make up the yards and their jewellry. The studding sail booms were stained and varathaned. I also took the opportunity to install the footropes. Next step is to paint the blocks that make up the braces and install them on the yards. So lots to do before any real rigging takes place. Here are some pic's of the yards getting prepped.
 

Yards prior to painting with blocks, jackstays etc. attached.
 

Yards primed.
 

Main mast yards.
 

Mizzen mast yards.
 

Fore mast yards.

Just a little update with the masts of my Cutty Sark. It was quite the process getting the masts, tops and crosstrees assembled. I tried to prep them as much as possible before the paint came out. I decided to paint/stain them as they now appear on the actual ship in Greenich. They were first stained and varathaned and then masked off for painting. In the past I have always painted by brush and Humbrol enamel paint, but decided to invest in an airbrush and acrylic paint instead. The primary reason behind this is because of the many, many blocks which I will be painting in the future when the yards are assembled. What a time killer! Airbrushing them will be way more efficient! So with a brand new airbrush in my shop I opted to airbrush the masts as well. A bit to learn but I am very happy with the results. And no more "holidays"! A super investment that only took several decades to find out....
Here are some pic's of the results.
 

In this picture the masts are stained and varathaned, and some are masked with tape and saran wrap.
 

Here they are spray painted which went super slick.
 

The finished product with the deadeyes and mast bands painted.
 

The underside of the tops.
 

The topsides of the tops.
 

The crosstrees.
 

This is my new airbrush. It came as a complete set with the compressor as well. Beside it are a bunch of belaying pins. I can't believe I used to paint these by brush. And two coats at that!
 
Thanks for looking in.
 
Peter
 

Hi All,
Just popping my head up after a long while with Cutty Sark. I have been in the shop from time to time, but that was for other projects. I have been working lately on CS's yards and they are now done except for the paint. I am now poring over the Campbell's rigging drawings, Longridges chapters on rigging as well as Underhill's book covering the same topic. All three are invaluable. Less so the drawing that accompanies the kit. That said, not everyone is a rigger and the drawings are adequate for a completed model.
Here are some pic's of the yards in place. They are dry fitted for the moment, so not all are level.
 

 

 

 

I have finally started work on the masting. Boy, there sure are alot of spars compared to my last model. The foremast went together with lots of trial and error. Mostly error. But once I established a system, the other two masts went together rather easily. All the masting is currently dry fitted so that they can be worked on. There is a ton of fittings that will be glued on piece by piece and careful planning is called for before the spars are stained and painted. I'm pretty excited about getting to this stage. Rigging is one of my favourite phases of the build. Once the spars are fitted, rapid progress can be made with the rigging. Here's a photo of the masts in place...
 

And now the Yankee Hero is finished.  Some details I'd do differently, but it's done.

Welcome Brian, from one former mariner to another. Good to have you here.
Cheers,
Peter

With all the blocks attached and jackstays installed along with other odd and sods I could now apply some paint to the yards. My new airbrush came into its own and made short work of getting a uniform coat of black to cover the different materials that make up the yards and their jewellry. The studding sail booms were stained and varathaned. I also took the opportunity to install the footropes. Next step is to paint the blocks that make up the braces and install them on the yards. So lots to do before any real rigging takes place. Here are some pic's of the yards getting prepped.
 

Yards prior to painting with blocks, jackstays etc. attached.
 

Yards primed.
 

Main mast yards.
 

Mizzen mast yards.
 

Fore mast yards.

Another update. Of late I have been working on the yards of the model. They were all precut for length and tapered at the Billing factory. The lengths were for the most part accurate. I can't speak to the diameters but I'm gong with what they are. The trick is to study the material I have as to what blocks to afix to the yards, prior to their installation. I am using Campbells plans along with Longridge's Cutty Sark book and Underhill's Masting and Rigging book. Using three sources can get a bit confusing, so I come up with a hybrid solution to get the results I want. Although not 100% accurate it will at least be realistic. Here are a few pic's of the block preparation...
 

 

 

 

 

 
And yes, I am using the plastic blocks that are provided with the kit. I realize that there are some who would consider this a faux pas, but my reasoning is this. They're readily available, having come with the kit and will be painted once installed. I have used these blocks with all my Billing kits and have not had any issues. They do require some shaving and trimming to remove the excess plastic and the holes need some reaming. This is usually a huge pain but after much trial and error I modified a clothes pin to hold the block while I work on it, saving huge amounts of time and curse words...

Welcome Brian, from one former mariner to another. Good to have you here.
Cheers,
Peter

Welcome Brian, from one former mariner to another. Good to have you here.
Cheers,
Peter

With all the blocks attached and jackstays installed along with other odd and sods I could now apply some paint to the yards. My new airbrush came into its own and made short work of getting a uniform coat of black to cover the different materials that make up the yards and their jewellry. The studding sail booms were stained and varathaned. I also took the opportunity to install the footropes. Next step is to paint the blocks that make up the braces and install them on the yards. So lots to do before any real rigging takes place. Here are some pic's of the yards getting prepped.
 

Yards prior to painting with blocks, jackstays etc. attached.
 

Yards primed.
 

Main mast yards.
 

Mizzen mast yards.
 

Fore mast yards.

With all the blocks attached and jackstays installed along with other odd and sods I could now apply some paint to the yards. My new airbrush came into its own and made short work of getting a uniform coat of black to cover the different materials that make up the yards and their jewellry. The studding sail booms were stained and varathaned. I also took the opportunity to install the footropes. Next step is to paint the blocks that make up the braces and install them on the yards. So lots to do before any real rigging takes place. Here are some pic's of the yards getting prepped.
 

Yards prior to painting with blocks, jackstays etc. attached.
 

Yards primed.
 

Main mast yards.
 

Mizzen mast yards.
 

Fore mast yards.

Another update. Of late I have been working on the yards of the model. They were all precut for length and tapered at the Billing factory. The lengths were for the most part accurate. I can't speak to the diameters but I'm gong with what they are. The trick is to study the material I have as to what blocks to afix to the yards, prior to their installation. I am using Campbells plans along with Longridge's Cutty Sark book and Underhill's Masting and Rigging book. Using three sources can get a bit confusing, so I come up with a hybrid solution to get the results I want. Although not 100% accurate it will at least be realistic. Here are a few pic's of the block preparation...
 

 

 

 

 

 
And yes, I am using the plastic blocks that are provided with the kit. I realize that there are some who would consider this a faux pas, but my reasoning is this. They're readily available, having come with the kit and will be painted once installed. I have used these blocks with all my Billing kits and have not had any issues. They do require some shaving and trimming to remove the excess plastic and the holes need some reaming. This is usually a huge pain but after much trial and error I modified a clothes pin to hold the block while I work on it, saving huge amounts of time and curse words...

Hi All,
Just popping my head up after a long while with Cutty Sark. I have been in the shop from time to time, but that was for other projects. I have been working lately on CS's yards and they are now done except for the paint. I am now poring over the Campbell's rigging drawings, Longridges chapters on rigging as well as Underhill's book covering the same topic. All three are invaluable. Less so the drawing that accompanies the kit. That said, not everyone is a rigger and the drawings are adequate for a completed model.
Here are some pic's of the yards in place. They are dry fitted for the moment, so not all are level.
 

 

 

 

Just a little update with the masts of my Cutty Sark. It was quite the process getting the masts, tops and crosstrees assembled. I tried to prep them as much as possible before the paint came out. I decided to paint/stain them as they now appear on the actual ship in Greenich. They were first stained and varathaned and then masked off for painting. In the past I have always painted by brush and Humbrol enamel paint, but decided to invest in an airbrush and acrylic paint instead. The primary reason behind this is because of the many, many blocks which I will be painting in the future when the yards are assembled. What a time killer! Airbrushing them will be way more efficient! So with a brand new airbrush in my shop I opted to airbrush the masts as well. A bit to learn but I am very happy with the results. And no more "holidays"! A super investment that only took several decades to find out....
Here are some pic's of the results.
 

In this picture the masts are stained and varathaned, and some are masked with tape and saran wrap.
 

Here they are spray painted which went super slick.
 

The finished product with the deadeyes and mast bands painted.
 

The underside of the tops.
 

The topsides of the tops.
 

The crosstrees.
 

This is my new airbrush. It came as a complete set with the compressor as well. Beside it are a bunch of belaying pins. I can't believe I used to paint these by brush. And two coats at that!
 
Thanks for looking in.
 
Peter
 

With all the blocks attached and jackstays installed along with other odd and sods I could now apply some paint to the yards. My new airbrush came into its own and made short work of getting a uniform coat of black to cover the different materials that make up the yards and their jewellry. The studding sail booms were stained and varathaned. I also took the opportunity to install the footropes. Next step is to paint the blocks that make up the braces and install them on the yards. So lots to do before any real rigging takes place. Here are some pic's of the yards getting prepped.
 

Yards prior to painting with blocks, jackstays etc. attached.
 

Yards primed.
 

Main mast yards.
 

Mizzen mast yards.
 

Fore mast yards.

Each plank is a small project in itself:
cut plank to length, measure the with at each bulkhead against the tick marks, use a plane to reduce the width of the plank, chamfer one edge, edge bend to get the right fit, test out how to hold the plank using rubber bands, clamps etc., add glue, clamp down, scrape off excess glue, repeat... Now the end is in sight. Only a few evenings more...

Another update. Of late I have been working on the yards of the model. They were all precut for length and tapered at the Billing factory. The lengths were for the most part accurate. I can't speak to the diameters but I'm gong with what they are. The trick is to study the material I have as to what blocks to afix to the yards, prior to their installation. I am using Campbells plans along with Longridge's Cutty Sark book and Underhill's Masting and Rigging book. Using three sources can get a bit confusing, so I come up with a hybrid solution to get the results I want. Although not 100% accurate it will at least be realistic. Here are a few pic's of the block preparation...
 

 

 

 

 

 
And yes, I am using the plastic blocks that are provided with the kit. I realize that there are some who would consider this a faux pas, but my reasoning is this. They're readily available, having come with the kit and will be painted once installed. I have used these blocks with all my Billing kits and have not had any issues. They do require some shaving and trimming to remove the excess plastic and the holes need some reaming. This is usually a huge pain but after much trial and error I modified a clothes pin to hold the block while I work on it, saving huge amounts of time and curse words...

Just a little update with the masts of my Cutty Sark. It was quite the process getting the masts, tops and crosstrees assembled. I tried to prep them as much as possible before the paint came out. I decided to paint/stain them as they now appear on the actual ship in Greenich. They were first stained and varathaned and then masked off for painting. In the past I have always painted by brush and Humbrol enamel paint, but decided to invest in an airbrush and acrylic paint instead. The primary reason behind this is because of the many, many blocks which I will be painting in the future when the yards are assembled. What a time killer! Airbrushing them will be way more efficient! So with a brand new airbrush in my shop I opted to airbrush the masts as well. A bit to learn but I am very happy with the results. And no more "holidays"! A super investment that only took several decades to find out....
Here are some pic's of the results.
 

In this picture the masts are stained and varathaned, and some are masked with tape and saran wrap.
 

Here they are spray painted which went super slick.
 

The finished product with the deadeyes and mast bands painted.
 

The underside of the tops.
 

The topsides of the tops.
 

The crosstrees.
 

This is my new airbrush. It came as a complete set with the compressor as well. Beside it are a bunch of belaying pins. I can't believe I used to paint these by brush. And two coats at that!
 
Thanks for looking in.
 
Peter