BenD

The polyester ropes I make at Ropes of Scale are a bit shiny. It's only really noticeable on the black and dark brown ropes. I've noticed that it helps make the details pop even in low lighting, so I'd personally leave them as is.

 Brushing the ropes down with matt varnish after rigging is an option. In the picture, you see unvarnished ropes on the right and varnished ones on the left. 

I approve. I just got an airbrush and spray booth. Right now, the booth sits on one end of my crafting desk, taking up about one-third of the space. It's not great if you are building ships... 

Hello Everyone,

The Canada Post strike ends tomorrow, Tuesday the 17th. That means my usual shipping prices will return. They are much cheaper than FedEx or other couriers. I'm hoping that all of the orders that were stuck in the system get sent out quickly. 

Canadian customers. Oversize letter mail rates will return. You can't beat $2 stamps!

US Customers. $7 USD tracked parcel rates will be available once again.

For the rest of you around the world, there should be much more affordable rates. 

I wish everyone a happy holiday season.

Getting a set of drill bits with a large shank will help.

Another solution that worked for me was to use some aluminum foil. The pictures below will demonstrate. The bit never moved when being used.

19 hours ago, Thukydides said:

That's awesome to hear Ben. Your rope is fantastic and this is proof I am not the only one who thinks so.

@Thukydides your Alert build is just fantastic. It is a great example of what kind of detail can be added with after-market parts... and a lot of talent!  

13 hours ago, Katsumoto said:

will you do a cable sample cart as well?

I might just do that. However, I will need to add all the smaller sizes of cable to the collection first. I'll get around to that in the next few months.

2 hours ago, clarkt said:

Glad your business is doing well, and hope you will continue to make cotton rope.

I will keep the cotton ropes in production so don't worry. You are not the only one who is worried that I would discontinue them. In fact, I was going to add some more sizes of ropes and cables to the cotton lineup this summer or fall. I've also found a nice light brown color to add to the mix. So look out for that.

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A big thanks to everyone for the likes and support!

I hope now that I'm working on this full time I can add new products. The next possibilities are adding linen ropes or making more affordable/longer ropes with a modern machine. 

Hello Everyone,

It's been a while since I last posted. Ropes of scale has been keeping me busy, so busy in fact I had to quit my day job. Thank you guys/gals for all of your support!

I've finally added sample cards to the website after years of people asking at least once a month. This product has gone through a few iterations over the past year or two. These are simple, affordable, and hopefully useful.   

Sold separately or together.

Size Card contains every size of polyester rope sold from 0.25mm - 1.8mm. 

Color Card has one length of each color sold from the Ropes of Scale lineup.

https://ropesofscale.com/products/sample-cards

Hey Marcel, What ships have you been building? Welcome to MSW.

I just got into card modeling. I just butchered the seahorse Armed Virginia Sloop -1776. I was rushing and messed up some of the alignment... mistakes were made, and lessons were learned. Anyway, I've just got my hands on the Shipyard HMS Alert -1777 and have put all the frames together. Look's promising. 

The Seahorse 3D-printed ones look really good. The only problem is they are slightly translucent at that size.

Shipyards card blocks are actually pretty decent. They do need a lick of brown paint to look better, and of course, they need to be carefully assembled.  

The HIS new rounded blocks look great. They only make the rounded ones from 3mm and up. If you have the money these might be the best option. If Syren made smaller blocks I would tell you to go all in on their CNC blocks. 

The Caldercraft ones are the typical European blocks that most kits use. They are not great-looking and need sanding, shaping, and re-drilling.

Some day I plan on getting a CNC machine and making blocks to sell, but that is a few years down the road. 

For brush painting, it really comes down to how much thinning is needed. I've found the Vallejo paints made for air-brush are really nice out of the bottle for hand brushing.

I was looking at some Citadel paints at a hobby shop a few days ago. I should have bought some to try them out. The Vallejo model color ones I have need quite a lot of thinner to make the brush strokes disappear. 

As for mixing paints on models, I've personally had no issues. I only use acrylics. 

I also bought some mixing balls a few months ago. They are really amazing at getting a bottle mixed up and ready to go. I highly recommend them to anyone. 

6 hours ago, modeller_masa said:

I'm sorry that the example of RoS was cable-laid, which is composed of 3 ropes.

People get confused about cable-laid ropes quite a lot. 

That 3.8mm cable-laid is three 1.8mm ropes laid together. Each 1.8mm rope has 39 yarns, which means the cable has 117 yarns. 

Back at it! I like how the ship's wheel turned out. 

You'll be done with your Wolf before I even take mine off the shelf.

2 hours ago, Thukydides said:

The polyester rope has many of advantages, but there are two big disadvantages to it that i have found.

1. It is very stiff and doesn’t like to be shaped unless you want to use heat (which I don’t want to bring near the model itself).
2. It doesn’t adhere very well to white glue.

This is totally how polyester behaves. One thing I've found about rope made with Gutermann E thread is it takes CA glue really well. Some polyester threads I've tried end up weak and crusty after being glued with CA but this stuff gets super strong. Another way to shape this rope is to use "super thin" CA, it goes right into the rope and then holds whatever shape you want. You will need a good applicator to pull this off. 

Every type of thread I've used for making rope has problems. I'm always looking for new threads to try.

Absolutely beautiful ship. Estimating 2,500 hours of work involved... sounds about right for this level of kit bashing. 

Looking forward to the photo shoot.    

9 hours ago, Katsumoto said:

I hope you will follow me again on the next journey. I have already done a lot of research for this model and that project will also be quite a challenge.

What's next up in the shipyard?

I have an article about pine tar that might interest you https://maritime.org/conf/conf-kaye-tar.php It states that the production went on well into the 1900s.

I'm pretty certain the industrial process for coal tar didn't pick up until the 1850s (Can't seem to find my article on it). The Grecian being an American vessel I'm not sure about what tar would be used. The Royal Navy would have used Pine tar to the bitter end no doubt. 

On tall ships today they use pine tar and coal tar mixed together from what I've read.

A common brass and copper cleaner from the grocery store should do it.  I used a product called Brasso. Your coppering looks pretty good, just needs a good pollish.👍

Before. 

After.

I've been working on the HMS Snake for years on and off. I'm not saying it's a bad kit, it's just a lot is expected from the modeler to just figure out. Who knows maybe it's right up your alley.

Some day I'll finish that damned thing! 

I'm with the rest of the group on recommending The HMS Speedy or Flirt from Vanguard. Good quality laser cut parts and excellent instructions. 

The way you are doing it on your build is just fine. I will add some pictures of the ways I know. 

There is the "cut splice" way. which is a bit difficult to do for a model.

Wrap around the cascabel like The way you have done on your build log. 

The next one only works if there is a ring on the gun.

There is another way with a four-strand rope but I don't have any pictures. I've also seen some breach ropes that run through the carriage itself and not even touching the gun. 

I was asking what word processor are you using to open the spreadsheet. If you said Microsoft is blocking it I'm assuming you are using Microsoft Word. I have not been able to get it working on that program.

I've been using a free word processor called Open Office to open the spreadsheet. I'll add a download link.

https://www.openoffice.org/

I have no problem opening it. I'm using Open Office 4.1.7. What are you using?

I think I found what you are looking for. They are not cheap, but they are well made. They might also take 2-4 weeks to arrive as they are made to order.

https://www.hismodel.com/articles-detail-414

The closeups look incredible! The Ramshead block you scratch-built just fits right in. 👍

Oh wow, they just updated their website. Look's pretty good and is working on my Chrome browser.

2 hours ago, ChazG said:

Just found Catopowers Wolf build - all paper laser cut at that scale. One is tempted!!

I've been watching that build as well. I have the HMS Wolf on the shelf and keep looking in the box at the perfectly cut laser parts, drooling a bit.. then eventually putting it back. Need to finish other projects first. 

The 1/72 card kits are more expensive but you get so much more. I'd say do as much as you can with this one then try out laser-cut ones. They even have the Le Coureur in 1/72.

I'll be watching your progress, good luck.

Welcome to MSW!

I've seen people use the card stock from cereal boxes. It's usually about 0.5mm thick so you would need to laminate two pieces together. Craft stores usually have all types of thicknesses, but you will pay an extortionate price. 

The Shipyard laser-cut kits come with everything to make the kit. They are not nearly as affordable as the 1.96 booklet kits though. 

On 4/14/2023 at 12:23 AM, Twokidsnosleep said:

Just got my order and am super happy with the quality of these ropes..soon to the riggin !

 

Glad you like the rope! I'll be looking into your black pearl build.