OceanGopher

Finally finished the pinky schooner. Got the bowsprit rigged and the anchors added. Pretty proud of myself that I actually finished. Taking a short break by working on a balsa wood airplane model - Corsair. Still debating on what to work on next model-wise. I have a Pride of Baltimore and a Syren sitting under the work bench.

Here are a few pictures of the bowsprit work as well as the finished model. One thing I did differently on the bowsprit rigging from the plans was I used eye splicing vs. shackles. I just couldn't construct anything that small that work well so I opted to do eye-splicing of the lines. Sorry for the historical inaccurracy but for my sanity's sake, I went with my own solution.

 

After taking a short break, back to work on the rigging of the pinky schooner. Got the main boom and its gaff done. I learned from my previous experience on the foremast and rigged as much of the roping I could to the boom and gaff before attaching to the main mast. So here are some pictures of my progress. Next up, the bowsprit. I think that is the one area of the rigging I most dread.

 

Continuing with the rigging of my foremast. Have added the peak and throat halliards of the foremast. Added the jib topping lift as well as the jib halliard. The hardest thing for me to do has been the served collars that all these masts need for the rigging. I couldn't find a good explanation or example of how to create one of these so I ended up making a jig in the shape of the served collar to be produced, laid out line in the shape and then wiped CA glue on it. Had to constantly run my knife over it to prevent it from sticking to the jig but in the end I got a workable collar made. If anyone has other suggestions, I am open to advice. Also pardon me if I use the wrong nomenclature for the various things I've rigged. It's all pretty much Greek to me.

Here are some more shots of what I've got accomplished.

 

I've been tackling the rigging for the pinky schooner. I was terrified to start but finally took the plunge. I found the blocks and deadeyes for this model extremely difficult to work with. I have gone through at least a dozen needle threaders because the holes are so small that pulling that thread through destroys the threader so easily. Here are a couple of shots of what I've gotten done thus far.

I've also found I should attach the blocks to the booms first before attaching those to the masts. I didn't do that with the foreboom and now trying to get the blocks right. Oh well, live and learn.

Just to start with, I have never built a wooden ship model. I use to build WWII model planes but that was way back in my early teen years. I had lots of fun with them  so I thought why not at least attempt to see if I could do a wooden ship model. 

After reading several articles about what would be an appropriate model for a beginner, I settled on the Glad Tidings Pinky Schooner from Model Shipways.  Because there have been a number of build logs done with this model, I thought this would be at least a model I might be able to complete.

I spent the first six months just putting together the hull and its masts. That just about did me in.  I didn't keep a daily/weekly build log .. I instead snap pictures all along the way.  So this build log will be of those pictures.  I hope some of these might come in handy for others out there trying to do their first model. Hopefully I'm using the right terminology for the different bits and pieces so that others can follow along and learn.