Richvee

Work is moving along. All yards have been completed and hung! Each is complete with all reef, bunt, leach, lifts, and sheets. The braces have not been added yet. They will wait until I make the rope coils for the pin rails. The braces, along with the fore tack/clew garnet/and fore sheet rig would inhibit access to the deck. I'm happy to report there were only a few minor setbacks in the process. I knocked the boom's main topping lift, and had to re-rig that whole thing. I also managed to burn part of the topgallant halyard tackle trying to "de- fuzz" the royal clew line. I used a different thread for the royal clew...a .005 white line from Bluejacket dyed to match Chuck's light brown line. Brown  Rit dye did the trick, but the line was way "fuzzier" than Chuck's superb line. So I tried to pass a lighter over the .005 line, and the topgallant halyard caught fire. I spliced it by using a little CA on the ends, slicing both end on a diagonal, then a dab a CA, and rolled the two lines together in my thumb and forefinger.  Came out OK. I can't even tell exactly where the slice is in the maze of rigging under the fore top. 
 
Next up is making all the rope coils. I'll be experimenting with different methods, but as of right now I'm leaning towards following Tom Lauria's method on You tube. 
So that brings me to here....
 

 

 
A look at the tryworks and some running rigging at the pinrails. Some hanging threads on the backstay that have to be trimmed off. I had to re-tension the backstay after knocking the bowsprit and the forestays numerous times during rigging. Luckily tightening up the backstays took care of the forestay's sag. 
 

 

 

Well, that about wraps it up. The following pictures were taken by my daughter with a better camera than I have, so I'll use them even though there's a few odds and ends that need to be finished when these shots were taken. Namely the barrels need to be lashed and rope coils needed on a few davits.
 
I purchased a case, for what I though was a reasonable price, from a gentleman who runs a site called Grandpa's cabinets. You can customize size, wood choice, and finish, and it comes complete with high quality plexiglass. Assembly is simple. I also purchased a nice, unfinished table that will serve as the display table. I'll post some final pictures when the table and case are set up. Right now I need to finish the new base, and I'm waiting on a nameplate that I ordered.  
 
Anyway, I really enjoyed this build. I think it's a sharp looking vessel, and I'm a little surprised how few KC's are on this site.  So it's my first completed ship build. (I'm not going to count the Taurus, and Benjamin W Latham I built almost 50 years ago as an early teen. I think the Taurus is still sitting around my mom's house, but the Latham is nowhere to be found. 
 
  I learned a ton about model building, and whaling. It's been a great journey. Not only did this build lead me to this site, it lead me to a great club, The ship Model Society of New Jersey. 
 
 I've taken advantage of Model Shipways end of season sale and picked up the Pride of Baltimore 2 for a50% off, so that's on it's way and will be the next project. 
 
Thanks to everybody who checked in, and for all the likes along the way. Special thanks to this site, as I would have never been able to complete some things without the help and knowledge of the members here. This place is a wealth of information and the contributors are great. . 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the likes and looking in. Closing in on the finish line. The boats are loaded, and hung from the davits. The spare boat is also lashed to the tailfeathers. All that remains is the rope coils on the davits, and lashing those barrels to the rail.....If I decide to use those barrels. 
 
 

 
About those barrels...I picked them up from an "S" scale website years ago when I ordered the brick for the tryworks. I've painted them, re painted them, tried drybrushing some "age" onto them, added a coat of dullcoat.... I'm not sure I like them. My wife says I need to make them look "worn". I said how much more worn can they look? I don't know.  Maybe I've been staring at them too long. Maybe they do look horrible. I need some honest opinions. 
 

 
 

 
My daughter will be visiting tomorrow. I hope she remembers her camera. I hope she can take some decent pictures for me. 
Happy holidays to everyone and thanks for checking in. The final product is real close now!!
 
 
 
 

More whalecraft....

 
Here's some loaded in a boat. 
 

 

 
I still need the second line tub for each boat, and it looks like I have enough room under the forward 3 thwarts for a waif, and maybe a boat hook, and boat spade. 

Tryworks tools and lances.
I made the handles using a drawplate and running bamboo through it to about .03" or about 3" diameter. The strainer is made out of a thin brass ring and the base is a piece of styrene filed to fit. The holes are #78 drill bit. The lances are 32 gauge steel wire. The tips are just punched flat om an anvil and shaped a little with files. 

 

 
The bucket is also a piece of brass tube, and the "poker" laying across the cooper's bench was made out of a thin needle, with the eye cut opened and turned a bit to look like the tool in one of the above posts from New Bedford. 
 

I have spent the past month experimenting with different methods of rope hanks. The two I ended up using are Tom Lauria's method  which makes a wider loop of rope. I used these on the main rail, and sparingly on the fore rail where things are real tight. On the fore rail, the hanks are almost all made using this method I ran across on youtube. One thing I changes from the way these are made in the video is, I needed to coat the whole hank in diluted white glue. Not just the top and bottom as shown. It gave the hank stability as I worked on getting the upper loop back through the hank.  It was easy enough to make the hank flexible when installing them by wetting them with some more diluted white glue. 
 
Here's a shot of the main rail, with Tom's method.
 
 

 
For the fore rails, with many more lines, I used the second method for more of the hanks for thinner, compacts coils. 
 

 

 
Rigging is almost complete. I have added the braces for the top 3 yards, and the clew, tack and fore sheets.
 

 

 
The only thing left is the brace for the lower  yard. That runs from the main shroud, the the end of the yard, and back through a block on the main shroud. Thys will severely limit access to the deck, so I need to fabricate a few tryworks tools and install them before adding these last braces. Hopefully I can make a few that look something like these on display at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. 

 

I can't seem to flip these right side up. Whatever I do, they load upside down? I hope you get the idea of the tools. 
 
 
 
After the tryworks tools, it will be on to fabricating oars, masts, line tubs, harpoons, and maybe a few other items  for the whaleboats. I want to try to furl some sail cloth around the whaleboat masts. We'll see how that works. The end is near, but still a lot of work to go. 
 

Work is moving along. All yards have been completed and hung! Each is complete with all reef, bunt, leach, lifts, and sheets. The braces have not been added yet. They will wait until I make the rope coils for the pin rails. The braces, along with the fore tack/clew garnet/and fore sheet rig would inhibit access to the deck. I'm happy to report there were only a few minor setbacks in the process. I knocked the boom's main topping lift, and had to re-rig that whole thing. I also managed to burn part of the topgallant halyard tackle trying to "de- fuzz" the royal clew line. I used a different thread for the royal clew...a .005 white line from Bluejacket dyed to match Chuck's light brown line. Brown  Rit dye did the trick, but the line was way "fuzzier" than Chuck's superb line. So I tried to pass a lighter over the .005 line, and the topgallant halyard caught fire. I spliced it by using a little CA on the ends, slicing both end on a diagonal, then a dab a CA, and rolled the two lines together in my thumb and forefinger.  Came out OK. I can't even tell exactly where the slice is in the maze of rigging under the fore top. 
 
Next up is making all the rope coils. I'll be experimenting with different methods, but as of right now I'm leaning towards following Tom Lauria's method on You tube. 
So that brings me to here....
 

 

 
A look at the tryworks and some running rigging at the pinrails. Some hanging threads on the backstay that have to be trimmed off. I had to re-tension the backstay after knocking the bowsprit and the forestays numerous times during rigging. Luckily tightening up the backstays took care of the forestay's sag. 
 

 

 

Topsail yard in place. It sure is getting crowded under the top with all those lines running through the fairlead holes. I used a row of 2.5mm wooden bulls eyes to serve as the fairleads under the top, and on the shrouds.  The fore tac, and clew line, and the braces are left off to allow a little better access to the rails on the deck to belay all these lines. For now, they are run through the belaying pin holes with extra length, and the pin in each hole to hold the lines there. 
 
 

 

Did as much detail on the lower yard off the model as I could. Lift and brace blocks, reef tackle blocks and line, bunt and leech line, chain sheets, footropes and flemish horses. Everything went pretty smooth. I fastened the blocks to the sheet chain, and added the tackle line, then I rove the tackle through the lower blocks that I had strapped, but left a long piece of wire still on the blocks, so I could thread the wire through the deck eyes next to the mast and secure the block after the tackle was rove through the blocks. . I figured it would be easier to fasten the lower blocks to the deck eyes with the tackle already rigged through the block. That worked out real well.
 
  I was able to fit the pin through the truss to secure the yard to the mast with minimal trouble.  Had a little trouble with the sling chain. I was a little off when I cut it to length when I test fitted the yard. I had to undo the ring bolt under the mast, remove the chain, clip two links off it and re attach it under the top. While the sling chain was off the model, and after resizing, I soaked it in acetone for a few minutes, dried it and blackened it. The original plan was to just paint it once it was in, but since I had it off the model, I went with the blackening. It took a very nice black color, as did the sheet chain.  None of the lines a permanently belayed yet. Some are wrapped around their pins just to keep some order. Tensioning all these lines is going to be interesting, given that fact that the yard  swivels on the truss. I'm not sure if I should level the yard, and add a drop of CA on the truss, or let swing and let the lines actually hold it in place.
 
Here you can see the sling chain tight, and in place
 

 

AHHHHH!!😱 The bunt and leech lines are through the wrong hole in the blocks! Looks like they'll be getting re done. 
 
 
Chain sheet and block
 

 

Thanks for the likes guys. A little update on the progress of the fore course. After drilling the sheet sheaves, painting, and adding the iron straps, and multiple eyes, it was time to work on how this truss was going to hold on. Small plastic discs with pilot holes proved to be  a futile endeavor. I decided to try  making 4 eyes with 24 gauge steel wire, and the truss could slip in between them, and get secured with a brass pin through it and clipped flush. 

I made another half a dozen before finding 4 I liked and the brass pin slipped through easily. Next was to drill pilot holes for these eyes. I put the yard in a vice, and taped 1/32" square strip of wood on the yard to keep an even spacing between the eyes. 

 
This ended up working OK, and it was time to test fit the yard. To my amazement, it seems this will work!
 


I added an eye at the end of the sling chain which I cut to it's proper length, and drilled a corresponding hole on the top side of the yard on the center band that will hold the sling chain. 
 
I took the yard off, and added the blocks for the reef tackle, lifts, braces and clew lines.  Then it was time to attempt that sheet block for the chain topsail sheet. I cut the rough shape out of a piece of styrene plastic, and then another to make the front and back plates. Then I took 2 - 2.5mm metal bullseyes I had laying around, filed them real thin, and glued them to the plastic to resemble the pulleys in the block. I let that dry, and then filed the plastic to it's final shape, as best as I could. Then I added two very thin strips of wood to the front plate to get the look like the one on the Lagoda. It's very small. It measures 10mm across, 7 mm deep, and about 2mm thick.  I drilled a small hole top center of the block, and added an eye on the bottom side of the yard. A pin will be inserted through the front plate, through the eye in the yard, and through the back plate to hold the block in place. I tested it's fit on the yard to make sure I had the eye on the yard the popper distance away from the yard so the block holes for the pin and the eye on the yard lined up.
 
It's looks a little rough, as the camera picks up every little detail, but I'm happy with the result. 

 
Once again the "real block"
 

 
I blackened the sheet chain, and wove it through the block. And here it is pinned to a piece of Styrofoam, waiting to get installed on the yard. It will go on last, after the lines I need to put on like reef lines, footropes, stirrups and flemish horses. 

 
Added the jackstay, bunt line and leach  line blocks, and stirrups. Coated the stirrups in diluted white glue, and they're hanging straight to dry. 

 

 
I again tried to replicate some detail I saw on the Logada. The stirrups were lashed to the jackstays with manila rope.  

 
..And my attempt. Not exact, but I think a decent facsimile of it...🙂

 
A few more details and it will be time to get this yard on the ship. 
 

A few looks at the gaff and boom now complete. Special thanks to @michaelmys for explaining how that peak halyard rig works. Both ends belay to the pin rail on opposite sides, starboard side directly  the the pin rail, port side with a take up tackle. It appears that the hauling end was used to raise the gaff to certain point, then made fast, and then the take up tackle side was used to further raise the gaff to position, the tackle giving it that added power needed. 



If you look closely at the above photo, you can see somehow I managed to rig the throat halyard and bring the hauling end down on the wrong side. 😣. I don't think it will bother me enough to go in and re-rig it.  It will probably cause more harm than good trying to get in that tight space now. At the end of the gaff, you can see I hooked the sheet to the gaff topsail halyard.
 
Completed boom and gaff

That brings me to here....

Long way to go, but it's starting to feel like I can see the finish line.  On to the yards!!

I got to the point where my little workbench was proving inadequate to accommodate some of my recent power tools purchases. Thanks  to our club’s annual auction, some  nice pieces have been added at some great prices, so it became time to expand the workbench, which once again put the whaleboats on hold. The bench is now complete. Time to start modeling!! 

So the hiatus is over. The Medway longboat is complete, sans rigging. I'll save that for another day. Now it's time to get back to this ship and finish her. #2 whaleboat in progress...
 

One complete whaleboat. At least now I know how high I need to put the boom to clear a whaleboat on the tail feathers. Not sure if I want to make one at a time, and see if I get any better as I go, or make the remaining 3 simultaneously. 


Couldn't resist to see how one looks on the ship. 

 

Continuing with whaleboat number one’ s details. Cuddy details,(loggerhead, lion’s tongue, cleat, starring oar brace,  then some paint before moving on to oar locks,  thwarts and thwart braces. 

Before moving on to the boom, gaff and yardarms, I thought it is about time to at least make one whaleboat. I've decided I will make one to completion, try to take notes and see how one comes out, then tackle the other 3. I've given a lot of thought to the color scheme. Looking at countless pictures and visiting New Bedford and Mystic, the colors vary greatly. I've decided to stay close to Ronnberg's colors on his 1/2" scale model in New Bedford, except I'm going with white boats where he went with the blue/green bulwarks color on his. 
   
..As I've mentioned earlier, I started this model some 30 years ago. back then the hull was sanded, rails and deck added, topsides and bulwarks painted. At that time, I used a floquil "rail green" on the bulwarks. Recently I came across the bottle in my storage, and low and behold, it's still as good as new! So the whaleboats will have the same green inboard as the main ship's bulwarks from the thwart stringers up. Green thwarts, cuddy board and bow box. Grey ceiling, black rails, black gunwhale strake. The sheer strake will be assorted colors for each boat. I'm thinking blue, yellow, and red. The 4th, spare boat that sits astern on the tailfeathers was a spare, so there would be no identifying stripe on that one. I may make an exception and outfit this boat fully as well, even though it was a spare. Ronnberg did this as well, and I'm leaning this way as it gives a nice appearance to the finished model with all four whaleboats finished and equipped.  
 
I started with carving/sanding the machine carved hull to shape. Approximately 1/16" think and 1/32" at the top where the ribs will be placed. Below is the beging of the carving. The top of the rails have not yet been shaved down to 1/32"
 
    
 
Once this was done, I added the flat keel, (1/32 X 3/32 thinned to 1/16" wide at the stem and stern.)  Then the rail. 1/32" strip on the inside and outside

Once dry the rail was sanded and the outside rounded a bit. 
Next came the exposed tops of the frames, (1/32" srtip) the thwart stringers (1/32 X 1/16), the clumsy cleat, and the bow rails with it's open slot. 

I've decided against planking the ceiling. I'm planning on fully equipping all the boats, so by the time I've added thwarts, line tubs, harpoons, masts, oars, etc, very little of the ceiling will be visible.  
 
Next up was the cuddy board and standing soles. Both were made with 1/8" X 1/32 strip. For the cuddy, the strips were glued edge to edge, then trimmed to fit with about 1/32" of the rail showing on each side. I think that will give a nice touch with the black rail showing a little around the green cuddy board. The standing soles were not painted, as the crew needed sure footing these were eft unfinished. I plan on trying to get a weathered wood look for these. (Thanks for the tip, Bruce!)

Next, I planked the bow box with 1/8" X 1/32" strip. My research shows many boats had a vertical board at the very front that ran under the bow box planks. If you look close at the very front, maybe you can see I tried to replicate that. Added the oarlock pads, and the horn cleats on the rails. 
 

That's where I'm at now. Again, the question arises, how much is too much detail on these little boats? 
I think I'll add the pads under the thwart stringers that held the oars upright when under sail, or running with a whale, the foot brace up near the cuddy board, and of course the cuddy board details---Loggerhead, lion's tongue, cleat, steering oar brace, and lifting eyes. I think that will be a sufficient amount of detail. 

Had a nice weekend up in New Bedford at the museum. I could have easily spent half the day looking at Eric Ronnberg's 1/2" scale Kate Cory. So much interesting stuff there. 

Some inspiration to get my whaleboats going

The plastic worked well for the 2 pin pin rails on either side of the fore mast. This time they're epoxied on there. 

Halyards and downhauls for the Jib, flying jib, outer, inner, and topmast staysails are in. 
I found it interesting the topmast halyard didn't have a block at the head cringe of the sail, it was just sister hooked to the head cringe. So I just hooked the downhaul to an eyesplice in the halyard as shown below in the top of the picture. 

Jib and flying jib halyards and downhauls

That brings me to here...

Next, I think it's time to get serious about these darn whaleboats. 
But not before a a little weekend trip to the New Bedford whaling museum. The wife and I are headed up there early tomorrow morning to spend a day there...Russ--I'll ask about the plans they used to sell on line..maybe we'll get lucky and they'll have a set laying around they would sell. 

It's been a frustrating few weeks in the shipyard. I've re-rigged most of the upper stays, fore royal stay. Just too much slack after tightening the cutting-in tackle. I must have re rigged the 4 backstays half a dozen times. I think I have all the standing lines where they need to be now. 

Ran the jib halyard and downhaul, and belayed the downhaul to the bow rail.

Then, more trouble. As I tried to belay the hauling end of the halyard to the pin in the small pinrail on the fore mast, I realized the little two pin rail on either side of the mast is not going hold up the strain, off they came. 

 So now I need to construct some new pinrails. Got an idea at work today. I found these plastic dividers we use. The thickness looks to be just about perfect. Hopefully I can fashion 2 rails, with two belaying pins in each that will hold up when affixed to the spider band with lines belayed to it. Because as you can see, the wooden one shown below didn't stand a chance. 

 
 
 

Looking for some advice. This week I finished off the cutting in tackle not without some setbacks. First, I had a pretty major catastrophe as I swung my arm around the model too quick and snapped the fore royal mast off right under the royal crosstree.  . The fix took some time. The repair is not real pretty, but  fairly well hidden under the crosstrees. The top most ratlines are going to have to be redone. 
 
 
with the repair done, I managed to finish the cutting in tackle, tension the lines and secure the lower blocks to the belly chain bit. 

 

All things considered, I'm happy with the cutting in tackle. Here's where the problem has arisen. 
Upon completing the Cutting in tackle, I noticed a LOT of my standing rigging had way to much slack in the lines because of the tension from the cutting in tackle.  I cut away the fore topgallant and main topmast backstays, the outer mainstay, the main topmast stay and spring stay and main topmast spring stay. I reattached them, but haven't secured them all yet. 
 
Is there an order I should secure theses stays in that may avoid slack as I proceed, or is this just trial and error until I get all the lines to look good with no noticeable sag in them? 

Thanks Kurt.  I was pretty happy with the look.
 
Wayne, I hope you get back at it soon. I've seen your log, you're off to a great start.  Be sure to check out John B.'s KC log, as well as the many Morgan builds on this site. In particular, Bruce's Morgan, particularly his whaleboats, are stunning.   Not only am I learning ship modeling, but I'm getting quite an education in the history of American whaling. Fascinating subject, IMO. 
 
I'm learning the hard way I shouldn't have tied off the standing rigging. I've already untied the backstays, and will probably need to undo the inner main, outer main and spring stays to re-tension them. 
 
 
It was a productive Sunday in the shipyard. Not only finished the cutting in pieces, I managed to get the blubber hook rigged. Ends are just wrapped around the windlass until final adjusting. 
 
 

Still need to lash that hook to the bit as well. 

Upper blocks shackled into the pendents.

 
 
Lower blocks fit with wooden toggle, and blubber hook. A little extra detail adding the small rope handles on the lower block with the blubber hook. 
 
 
Now all that's left to do is rig these things. 

So I have started on the tackle and pendants. After studying the MS plans,  the rigging specs booklet from New Bedford, it seems the Kate Cory's pendants were 8"c tarred hemp and not chain. So I used Syren .045 black rope, and 3.5mm bulls eyes for the thimbles and lashed it to the main mast. This illustration I found on line was extremely helpful for me in understanding cutting in tackle. 

To the left is the lower block setup with the blubber hook. The toggle strap is similar. The second is the upper block configuration, and the third is a chain option for the toggle rig. The far right shows the falls and guys.  
 
I added the bull's eyes for thimbles on the pendants and lashed it to the main mast as shown in the plans and described in the rigging Specs.
 


I've made one set of upper blocks, without the guy block strapped in yet. Chuck's 9/32 block kits add a nice touch to add detail to these 17 1/2" blocks used on the KC. 

Next up the lower double block. and figuring out how I'm going to represent the linkage between the pendants and the upper block straps as my metal work is no way up to the task of making shackles. 
 

The standing rigging is just about complete. Backstays and royal Forestay still need to be tensioned and cut. 
 
I decided to use small bulls eyes for thimbles as my metal working "skills" need a LOT of work. Hope they don't look to oversized. 

It's amazing what the camera picks up. That drop of glue on the trestle tree looks horrendous, yet hardly visible looking at the model. i'm going to have try to clean that up a bit. 
 
Next up I guess is cutting in tackle. Or whaleboats. If I get frustrated trying to rig the tricky cutting in tackle I'll switch over to whaleboats for a spell. 
 

Spring and summer is a slow shipbuilding season for me as my other interest, baseball umpire, take up a good portion of my free time. Bad weather has kept me off the baseball fields, and added some time in the shipyard. 
 
Main shrouds rigged. A few loose ends still to be cut off on the starboard side. 

Grid made from a copy of the plans, and taped to a thin plastic sheet for some stability.  Now ready for ratlines. maybe I can get them done before the Northeast joint clubs show in 2 weeks.