petervisser

Top 3 planks and bottom 2 on both sides.  Wood quality is 'ok.'  If I wasn't adding wood filler I would have replaced.
 
Now to take a break (while I still can get my hand inside) and get the lower tier gun ports marked and cut out, the bulwark supports in and the blocking for the masts / deck openings put in.
 

All of the initial prep and plan drawing has paid off.  Obviously some sanding in the future but the shape is coming in.
Mark

Front mast done. I have it rigged to it will be slinging a torpedo outboard starbord 

Rigging the single (small) cargo booms. 

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

Thanks for looking in, for a change i was building some 1/76 rail wagon kits, but added some cleats onto the after bulwarks and made a couple of more ventilators on the island. The instructions are very vague with this kit (the person who sold the kit actually copied the zvezda instructions- must have lost originals). I was going to do a little more but our fur lined psychopath pinched my chair!


Take care all
Keith

I LOVE this book too. I am using it to help me with the rigging of my Cutty Sark. It helps answer some questions I have while trying to decipher Campbell's drawings which are also very helpful. But sometimes there is just too much information on the drawing to see clearly how the running rigging "runs". All the best going forward with the strings and things!
Peter

There is also Cutty Sark by Noel C.L. Hackney - #3 in the Classic Ships, their history and how to rig them (series) 1974 Patrick Stephens, Cambridge (England) in association with Airfix Products Ltd., London   They come up from time to time through Amazon (although sometimes listed as unavailable ... until another comes up).
 
 One must can get past the "compressed" logic of the book's format (done to lower page count , thus printing cost) - as it was originally made to super-enhance rigging a CS plastic model originally released in 1:130 scale, and there are optional enhancement to various aspects of that version - and also the difference between 'harbor rigged' and rigged with sails.  Although there is a bit of back-and-forth to get the big picture, there is a vast amount of info on rigging the CS (darn near every line you can imagine, how to route it and where to belay it) - a lot of which may be applicable to other clippers of that era.

I LOVE this book too. I am using it to help me with the rigging of my Cutty Sark. It helps answer some questions I have while trying to decipher Campbell's drawings which are also very helpful. But sometimes there is just too much information on the drawing to see clearly how the running rigging "runs". All the best going forward with the strings and things!
Peter

Thanks Peter, hope you start a build log for NL your work on Cutty Sark is excellent.
 

Hi Ed,
What a great buld log so far! You're certainly getting me excited about starting my own NL. However there's this pesky Cutty Sark on the bench that requires finishing. Thanks for posting your build log. Hope the recovery continues as planned!
Cheers,
Peter

Superb looking model thus far Chris. And yes your ship's boat turned out very well too!
 
All the best with the rest of your build.
 
Peter

I still work with breaks. Other Small Staghorn harnesses..


More work on the largest triangular Deadeyes. Homemade production is literally done by hand..
 



I found new options for the MF 70 cutter..👌

side groove..


rounding of edges..

Test with 0.52 mm cable..

 

is that photo etch?.........looks really good as to how thin they are.   wish I had decorations like that for my Sergal Thermopylae.  they are so thick,  it's a b...... to bend them!  really compliments the model 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.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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...
 

 

 

Well, the railings are completed. It was a bit of a slog. The first coat of primer took 2 hours to apply to all the railings. Phew. That was a bit much, my neck and back told me. Thereafter I painted them in sections as they still wanted two coats of white. But now they're finished and I am pleased woth the results. Modelling will now take a back seat for a few months as summer is arriving and the outdoors and the yard call for some attention instead. I hope to putter with the ships boats during rainy days, whenever they happen. Cheers guys!
 

Hi All,
 
I have been busy in the shop of late due to the self isolation and making some progress. But boy, there is no rushing with a model ship so things are going slowly. I have been detailing some more of the main deck and added some fairleads and mooring bits here and there. I have also tackled the railings on the foc'sle and aft deck which went rather well considering. I tried my hand a soldering and it went so-so. In the end, I found that they didn't need it, and all is well seated without. I had intended to solder them so I could paint the railings off the model. But they looked so good without solder that I decided to paint them in situ. Therefore I had to tape off the stanchions at the base. Now the tedious painting begins. One coat of primer and two top coats. It took 2 hours for the first coat. Yikes. As mentioned earlier, model ship building is not done at lighning speed...
 

I just finished up the labour intensive work on the deadeyes on the main deck. It was a multi-step process that invoved some "metalwork". Billing supplies the chain plates and a bunch of plastic deadeyes. I opted to poach a bunch of deadeyes from another kit so as to use the chainpates that were provided. It would not have been easy to use them together. Once the chainplates and deadeyes were married, I used a drop of glue to make them rigid so as to paint them easier.
 
Here's a bunch of pictures showing the process...
 

Finally, here are some photos of the gunwale stanchions and trim along with the attachment of the foc'sle deck. I didn't think I would bother with the trim and stanchions but other builders of this model added them so I had to try and keep up. I have finally found a re-purpose for the styrofoam trays our meat gets packaged in. They are perfect for holding tiny fittings while they get painted!
What with the foc'sle deck being added, I had to afix the bowsprit in place. This made the model instantly longer by 8.5" so it is alot more susceptible to damage. Yikes!
 
 

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...
 

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.

Hi Guys. It's been a while but I'm still plugging away. Albeit slowly. I finally got around to fitting the decoration to the hull. It's a part of the build that I had been struggling with. The parts that came with the kit included two plastic molds of the name and scroll work for the bow and a decal with the name, port of registry and scroll work for the stern. Nothing too inspiring to attach to the model. I then searched around for suitable replacements, first acquiring the brass fitting sheets that come with the Sergal kit which is 1/78 scale. Although the scale is very similar to my model I found the name boards and scroll work to be a bit oversize. Then I discovered that Artesina Latina also does a Cutty Sark model at 1/84 scale and they sell fittings seperately on request. Bingo! A perfect solution. I decided to use the scroll work pieces that came with my kit to provide some relief and added detail to the bow. I simply sanded off the scroll work to make the pieces smooth. A bit of paint, and presto, they were installed on the model. The decoration arrived from AL and were then also added to the model. The scroll work on the stern meant that the wood strake around the hull had to be modified to accept the decoration, but the sacrafice is worth it I think. I also added some white styrene strips to the bow decoration to jazz up. Here are some pic's of the result...