RGL

So good! Seriously! The only way you will get it any more realistic will be to drop a few sardines in the hull to permeate that fishing boat smell. Just lovely work.

Nice work!

Speechless

Repairs ongoing, so I thought I'd knock up the studding sail booms. very easy really. I had not noticed when I first saw the rest of the cat damage, was that the starbord side was stoven in when the ship swan dived off the piano. I'd really like some advice on how the hell I'm going to fix this. How do I pull it out?

Ok, 3 hours work, Main wales repaired.

Days off so repairs start today. The port side channel was bent down breaking the chains. Luck would have it that I never glued it, but nailed it in. The ratlines have given the stays a stability so there will be no slackness when repaired, so it's a matter of replacing the chain links once the wales are re attached. There is so much rigging above them still in perfect order it should be quite simple. Putty and paint will hide a lot of sins. I reckon 2 days work. Kids at school and an eagle eye on the cat.

Oh, and the guilty party.

Well, damage photos. Luckily, the topmasts did not snap, only the caps split (which is probably a good thing they were designed in 2 pieces. The Bumpkins can be glued back together. I can't replace them as they are under the bowspit, which's cap has now cat teeth marks. One anchor is almost bent in two. The biggest issue is the port side main wale which has stove in a plank and popped all the metal work. As much as I wanted to have a tantrum and bin the whole thing, it is quite repairable. Not as good as I think It would have looked pre attack, but I have a new place to hide it from her.

Well, the bumpkin argument was entered into by the cat, who decided she didn't like them. Both chewed and snapped, and to add to the indignity tipped the entire ship off the piano, braking the foremast and stove in the port side main wales. Taffrails gone as well. Apparently it's my fault for putting the boat on top of the piano. 1 year of work gone. Bloody thing is curled up in front of me like it didn't happen. Photos soon preferably of a dead cat. Karma then bit me by tearing my calf heroically getting out of a van at work. 2 out if three to go.

I reckon they were only attached when they were being used!

Port side anchors (sans Bouys for the moment). I've included a few angles to show why the bumpkin stays would need to be unslung when the anchor is used (If the plans are correct, but all a bit late for the that).

Port side anchors. Having just looked at my log, I've forgotten to attached the bouys! that will be next and an easy fix.

Firstly the cable running into the hold. Dust comes up nicely with the zoom

Well, some time off and a rainy day, perfect for some anchor work. Now Banyan has posted his Bumpkins and it's put some thought as to how the hell do the anchors get pulled up past the Bumpkin stays? My plan, one side with a single stay removed (they can be removed very easily) and being drawn up with the mast takle used to pull up the bottom of the achors and the port side fully slung up. I have posted the AOTS pic of the slung anchors, and it just wont fly unless it's done this way. 

I'm now facing the same predicament as I've completed the anchors, and I think the cable will have to be slung under the rigging for the bumpkins. The foremast tackle is used to hook onto the bottom of the anchor and lift it up to the gunnel. I'll see how it goes as it does look clumsy

Well done, they are a pain to do at this scale

Great work which I expect is accompanied by great eye strain

Rigging line looks great. Is it your own?

Yep, the supplied ones have holes facing the wrong way which I'll have to re drill. I'm also crap at making a cable laid anchor rope! Nope, I'm wrong and you are correct. Lucky that I paid attention. I stayed up till 1.30am to watch the Aussie fall over at the start of his ice skating race, thank god I didn't get the drill out!

I took out the two anchors that came with the AL kit back when I bought it last century (It's the one on the left). Nope, not happy. I replaced them with 4 from Caldercraft. The difficulty I'm going to have is that the holes in the shaft for the anchor ring is orientated the wrong way, as you can see from the AOTS and Parkin, they face the other way.

OK, leave over, the kids are back at school, and the garden has been weeded and covered in a truck load of mulch.

I thought as a sorbet, I would make the anchor bouys. as you can see from the photos, a bit of off cut dowel and a file and they came out quite easily. I then spent two days serving the ropes that hold them, fitted them just like a real one and compared them on the shrouds, and at 1/48 they would have looked fine, not at 1/60. the term clunky comes to mind.

As such I used un-served rope and pained them black and much more to scale. If you look at the photo of them from the AOTS in the next post you will see the proper way are are supposed to look, but I'm just not Dafi and can't work at that scale.

Really nice build

Looking forward to this, should be fun.

Lovely work

From memory mine were 4mm wide, I'd dry fit the entire length but I drew on the frames in pencil FO I knew how to put the 6 butt shift. That way the tree nails line up correctly. It also resulted in not using stealers at the stern or the bow

Topmast tackle.