Timmo

Thanks BE. Some tricky tying of strops ahead for the bouys.

Looks good so far. Keep it up. Waiting for more.

The lower stays have also been completed.

Again following from Dan Vadas' fine swan class build I turned some mice (mouses?) from wood for the stays, which were served a few scale feet past the mouse for each.

The timber used for the say mouse was some manner of African Blackwood, possibly ebony obtained from a mate throwing out some old book ends, The book ends were 'L' shape with carved elephants attached. He kept the elephants and passed on the ends thinking they'd either be good as pizza oven fuel or for boat building.

I've never worked with such a heavy, dense wood before. It's great and turned the very small mice nicely.

Also knocked up were some anchor buoys .

And in a little experiment a 9lb gun in 64th scale was tinkered with on the lathe. Not the neatest but fun and it's incredible how black this timber is. There more uses for it in future I'm sure,

The lower rat lines have been tied for a while now but I've just finished colouring them black with ink.

Also installed are the cabin light lids which were the kit ply with planking attached on one side to match the hull and sanded thinner with a rebate on the edges cut in. A ring bolt was added on the inside face.

Very nice work Peter. She looks great in the final shots.

That first layer smoothed up nicely. Good work.

Futtock shrouds here.

I tried seizing an eye for the hook end but the result just looked over scale.

A simple knot worked out better. The shrouds were passed around the futtock stave to the right tension and the seized to the lower shrouds. This follows practice seen elsewhere and has the advantage of leaving a tidy result with no large knots on the futtock stave.

Rat lines approach but I'll mix it up with some stays to relieve the monotony.

Interestingly. While tying the F shrouds outside on the deck on a hot summer's day Granado was caught in an unexpected squall.

The wind came out of nowhere and increased rapidly in strength until trees began shaking and the outdoor umbrella came down on my work table, nearly claiming Granado. It was all hands on deck to reduce top hamper until the gust departed as suddenly as it arrived.

Gives you an appreciation for mariners being caught by a sudden squall and laid on their beam ends...

Great space there Joe. You'll enjoy the extra room.

Very nice work Peter. I always like the look of the sails you add.

Domanoff! You've gone gold standard there Joe.

Mine needs new clips as the ones on it are small battery terminal gator clips and the thread often slips through as it's too small.

Catharpins were made up using Dan Vadas' HMS Vulture example as a guide but of course aren't nearly as neat.

The serving machine is great. Well worth the effort of knocking it up. I'm looking forward to a pic of this modelling Mecca you're going to have Joe.

The lower shrouds have been rigged and lanyards tied. The foremost shroud was seized it's entire length and the rest seized on the uppermost portion down to about where the catharpins will be.

Very clean work Bob.

Nice work there. It becomes quite addictive using the lathe like that. Nice move with the allowance for off centre dowel.

Small progress but the sort that makes a difference in the mental battle that is rigging-the final shroud for the lower mainmast has been installed. I'll rig the dead eyes when the mizzen ones are done.

Also the gammoning for the bowsprit has been installed.

As per AOTS an eye was spliced in the 1mm rope with a needle used for this.

The addition of the extra rails did make the rigging of the gammoning a bit more difficult but this was expected and the hours spent measuring back when making the hair bracket and other rails paid off. The foremost middle rail on the port side broke free while rigging but this was no drama and made the rigging easier.

Five turns around the bowsprit before the thread was threaded into a needle to spread up the final turns around the centre of the gammoning before it was tied off.

Gammoning finished.

Also, here is my new bench I mentioned a way back that should increase my workspace. It's an old cast off (with vice included) from the engineering shop at work that I've added a new plywood top and back to.

I'm staggered at how simple general household maintenance tasks and woodworking is when all the tools are ordered and close to hand. If only I didn't have to share it all with the family wagon...

Messy cutting and sanding will be done there while in the distance at the back on my old modelling table the sharp eyed observer will see a byrnes table saw picked up second hand from a MSW member. I can now see why people rave about these machines. Scratch builds are what the future holds if I'm not being too optimistic.

Some nautical trivia from my beach holiday. The town of Whitianga in Mercury Bay is know for a visit by Cook aboard the Endeavour but another of his majesty's ships left a more enduring mark.

HMS Buffalo was a transport ship built in Calcutta in 1813 and later used to carry convicts and colonists to Australia ( New Zealand was never sullied with transported prisoners) and transport kauri timber spars from NZ for the admiralty. She was blown ashore in a gale in 1840 and later broke up on the beach which was named after her and where I now paddle about with the kids. Only two souls were lost during the wreck.

It's hulk was briefly uncovered during a tsunami scare only 100m off the beach in 1960 and there are various small bits and pieces of her including copper sheathing in the local museum.

There are some rather nice images of the Buffalo by artist G Jackson on signs marking the spot of the wreck with the one of her grounding capturing the sense of stricken inevitability that must have hung over her once she was on the beach in a then-remote bay with little in the way of other vessels or infrastructure about for aid.

The waters are somewhat more calm today..

There are plans for the various conversions of the vessel in the NMM but little in the way of a proper hull plan that I can see with some initial looking although there are some slightly misshapen looking models in Australian Museums that can be seen online.

It would make a nice scratch build project one day...

I'm away from home for a couple of weeks on summer holiday but after days of boating, fishing, swimming and general lounging about I've been rigging the yards in the evening. These are now all complete with the exception of the stirrups for the horses which are brass rod and will need some crafty cutting twisting and blackening when home again.

From left are the mizzen yards sitting on the mizzen upper and top mast and at right the main. At lower left is the spritsail yard.

Note the early style rigging of the main yard horses with deadeyes. This would presumably have allowed them to have the tension adjusted as per the shrouds but seems to have dropped out of favour in latter years.

More top work Joe, she looks great with all the deck fittings and the boxwood looks so crisp. You should be very proud.

Given you've done anchors and fish davit etc that I've left till last I think you've passed me now.

I've just finished rigging the yards and will post a pic but I look forward to following happily in your wake now.

Superb work on that deck mike. It's given me the inspiration to try it one day. Merry christmas and all the best for 2015

That's a fine boat you've got there Ron.

Coming together there ray. That's a fine collection of His Majesty's vessels.

Small world isn't it Joe? The physical end of the business is disappearing rapidly all right - this website is an example of why. On the plus side when I started out only 15 years ago I didn't think I'd be involved in some of the cool things we do online now.

But I miss taking a new reporter out to show them the press in full flight as it was a good education on the potential for their mistake to be on every one of the 50,000 copies spinning through it.

On the modelling front I've gained a very large workbench which will enlarge my modelling space dramatically and am also re jigging the serving machine slightly to speed up shroud production to try to keep ahead of you

Ray, I agree. Diana is a beautiful vessel and you are more than doing her justice and she looks very good next to Lady Nelson.

BE- is your admiration for lower hamper only because that's the stage Pegasus is at?

Come on, we're all waiting for you to finish your masterpiece and inspire us all-especially those dealing with the tricky string-end of things.

Another diversion here but here's a souvenir that some might appreciate - a very fine depth gauge. It's from the now abandoned engineering workshop at the paper where I work after the press was decommissioned. It was used to calibrate press rollers to very fine tolerances for decades

Little ship modelling value but it makes you appreciate the quality and workmanship that used to go into tools that is so hard to find now.