el cid

Most of the final details have now been done, but I haven't done a spinnaker pole, & it's an important detail so I'll probably make one. Below are photos of the rope coils etc. Initially I did a couple of coils by winding the rope around a piece of stick & then adding glue - & the result was realistic but I doubt that they would look good on a model. It became clear that the slightly messy yet realistic coils would catch the eye & stand out too much. I realised that the point of doing them neatly is that they don't stand out excessively on the model.
 
The coils were done by drawing an ellipse on a cork base, putting a piece of clear plastic over, & putting a series of pins on the line. Glue was PVA/water about 2:1, then superglue for the lashings & ties. A sharp eye can see that the CA actually stains the thread a little. On some models that might be unacceptable, but I accepted it as part of the ropework colour variations generally.
 
Anyway here's how they came up; halyards coiled at the mast:

 
Running backstay:

 
Jib sheet:

 
Lazy jib sheet, mainsail sheet:

 
Main sheet again:

 
There's a few stains on the thread from the old pins; I scraped some of it off with the tip of a knife but left some on, the odd stain looks quite good.
 

I've now finished the display stand. I've got a deadline to try & finish the last details of the model, if any of the Sydney forum members are interested there's an evening at our sailing club, talks by Bill Gale, Sean Langman & myself - & the model will be there - Wednesday 5th June. It's on the Ranger yachts generally & Cliff Gale's legacy of designs. Send me a message & I'll send more information.
 
John, I did consider keeping the bark on the base timber, but a section of bark was missing & I was more confident of the result with it removed.
 
Keith, yes, I was just using the timber as a stand to show off the brass on (while looking for a chisel to open the tin of paint).
 
The timber base was finished with 2 coats of clear polyurethane rubbed on with a rag, then rubbed with 000 steel wool dipped in beeswax/gum turpentine furniture polish, then rubbed with a cloth.
 
This shows how the brass tubes were filled with epoxy glue & drilled for the fixings - this technique was firstly to save cost (tube is 1/5th cost of a solid), & I don't have the equipment to drill out or thread the end of a solid. The brass flats were bend & shaped by hand.

 
Unsurprisingly the keel support was a bit too flexible, so I soldered an inner flat bar.

 

The dremel was able to give enough heat for this job. The brass was cleaned up & patinated to a dark brown, to tone it down visually, & was lined with some leather, then screwed together. The brass rods were glued into the timber & the timber will get some pads underneath, probably some unfinished cork.  The holes in the timber weren't done by eye, my brother has a bench drill so I used that.

 

 

 

 

 

Gregory,
In days of old, rope was given in circumference, never diameter.  Move forward a couple hundred years and modern day suppliers use diameter.  If you look at contemporary rigging tables, the dimensions will be the circumference, so beware if you are using them as a guide and order the rope diameter based on the circumference dimensions.  You will have rope that is 3.14 times larger than it should be.   
Allan

I suspect there’s a market for high quality period figures, there’s just not much available now.  With the advent of 3D printing, well-designed figures could be scaled up or down as needed. Can figures be designed as digital models directly or do you still have to sculpt a prototype? If digital only, maybe more economically feasible.
 
FWIW,
 
Keith 
 
 

I do also, but Chris needs to be cautious while building a small business. Chris, your initial plan sounds good, my suggestion is to keep adding figures to those available at a slow pace that won't distract you from your main kit development goals, and continue to do so as long as they sell reasonably well. Go captains > say three crew figures > lieutenant > bosun > more crew figures. And even if French ships aren't on the docket, if the rest of the figures sell well I would think about doing the same for the French navy.
 
The argument for is that even though I'm not much interested in figures, I've seen thread after thread of people looking for quality figures and not finding much. I think we rarely see figures on ship models partially because there isn't a viable option to put figures on deck of a similar quality to that of the ship build.
 
The other argument is if no one is really serving this market, it's possible without too much cost and difficulty to become the premiere supplier. And that drives traffic to your site from people looking for figures, and a portion of them end up buying ships too.

Thanks Thomas and thanks for all the likes.
I'm slowly closing in towards the finish line. This time I have added the clew lines, sheets and tacks for the main and fore course yards. I have added a photo showing some pegs on the ends of the lines before I belay them. I have gotten into a habit of installing the lines with pegs on them and wait a day before belaying them. One reason is that the lines will settle a bit, but I also found a number of times that I made a mistake somewhere and It gave me an opportunity to move them around and fix them.
At this stage I also fixed the Spritsail yard to the bowsprit. Here are some photo's again.

I suspect there’s a market for high quality period figures, there’s just not much available now.  With the advent of 3D printing, well-designed figures could be scaled up or down as needed. Can figures be designed as digital models directly or do you still have to sculpt a prototype? If digital only, maybe more economically feasible.
 
FWIW,
 
Keith 
 
 

The sculpting's are 100% digital. The STL files are then passed onto my resin caster, who then 3-d prints the masters into tangible form which are then used to make the moulds for the resin production castings. These should be virtually identical in both size and detail to the 3-d printed master. So will remain at the required scale, in this case, 64th, and not something like 1:78th by the time they are passed onto the customer if using cast white metal..

I suspect there’s a market for high quality period figures, there’s just not much available now.  With the advent of 3D printing, well-designed figures could be scaled up or down as needed. Can figures be designed as digital models directly or do you still have to sculpt a prototype? If digital only, maybe more economically feasible.
 
FWIW,
 
Keith 
 
 

Cheers,
 
I am not a fan of too many figures on scale models unless a diorama, but I liked the idea of having a known commander that is connected with the vessel that also helps shows the scale of the ship in relation to a person. I do plan to have a Nelson next, followed by Pellew.
 
Having said that, it may be fun to have an able seamen figure and name him 'Jack Nasty Face'!

Wow! The Cochrane figure is fantastic. Any chance you might produce other period crew figures of similar quality?
 
Cheers,
Keith
 
 

Wow! The Cochrane figure is fantastic. Any chance you might produce other period crew figures of similar quality?
 
Cheers,
Keith
 
 

Wow! The Cochrane figure is fantastic. Any chance you might produce other period crew figures of similar quality?
 
Cheers,
Keith
 
 

Just received a pic of the 3-d printed 64th scale Cochrane figure. I will keep the base as they will be resin cast (more expensive than white metal, but next to no shrinkage, which I think is important) , so if people want to fix directly to the deck, the base can be filed off.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 323 – Wrapping Up
 
Finally, 99.999% means complete.  Since the last post it has been a lot of little chores: snipping rope ends, the last few rope coils, touching up with paint, waxing standing rigging lines, clean up, etc.  Some of the "major" chores are described below.
 
The first picture shows the final disposition of the crojack sheets and tacks.  These were simply allowed to hang free from the clue garnet blocks with their full lengths coiled on deck.  They were tied down to one of the beams under the pile of rope coils to keep them vertical and straight..
 

 
The main braces could finally be run, since access was no longer needed to the deck area between the main and mizzen masts.  The next picture shows the starboard brace pendant shackled to the outer boomkin eye.
 

 
The fall of the brace runs from the yard pendant through the lead block on the rail in the center of the picture, then to a deck cleat.  The other blocks on the boomkin are the upper and lower main topsail braces.  Two missing eyebolts still need to be fitted on the rail. The picture also shows the completion of another chore left over from the volume II work, fitting chains to support the boomkins.  The next picture shows both of these.
 

 
The next picture shows the starboard swinging boom, the lower studding sail boom,  being lashed to the fore channel brackets. 
 
 
The alternative would be to store these on the skid beams over the cabin, but this seemed more appropriate, since in port these were often used to moor ships' boats.
 
The next picture shows the model with the dust case removed in the relatively cleaned-up workshop.
 

 
Finally, launch.
 

Please excuse the amateur artwork.  Couldn't resist.
 
Ed

Brocklebank  steamer Makalla, passing a Trawler. Both ,”Doing business on great waters”
Watercolour 11” X 9”

Foggie Thames
Afternoon quickie
Jim
W/C 11” X 7”

Your painting of that Buccaneer brought back a memory of that first Red Flag for the RAF. My squadron hosted the Buc crews for those 2 weeks. We flew cover/escort for them up to a range in Utah one afternoon. We started down a canyon thru a range of hills and followed them until the canyon got so narrow we were spending all our time avoiding rocks and not providing much cover for the Bucs. They both looked like they were flying on their shadows.  We climbed a couple hundred feet and stayed below the peaks of that range, while following. Gained much respect for their skills that afternoon. 👍

Exercise Red Flag.Quickie done this morning “ at 10 feet we were leaving a mini sand storm, so we gained altitude to 20 feet” 14” X 11” Jim

Thanks everyone.
A bit more progress on the rigging. This ships seems to eat lines and blocks so I had to order some more from Chuck.
The royal yards with their rigging are done as well. It's becoming quite a spiders web of lines and it's getting more difficult to show the complexity with clear photo's. At least it's covering up some of the mistakes I've made nicely...lol
Some photo's...

HMS DEXTEROUS  Rescue Tug, not an actual event, but I’m sure typical of many.
W/C 15” X 10”
Thanks Lou, Sub and Tug sounds good. Saw The Key in the Cinema. 
Heres something different. 
Not Naval, but once apron a time the RN had Armoured Cars!
Mobile Sand Castles!.Two Abrams MBT's somewhere out east!. a little bit out of the comfort Zone, but quite similar to painting Ships

HMS DEXTEROUS  Rescue Tug, not an actual event, but I’m sure typical of many.
W/C 15” X 10”

My respects, colleagues! 
We have finally completed the English translation of the instructions of our kit MK0303 "Tender "AVOS".
Please pay attention, that this kit comes in different options. For example my latest photos in this thread are of an exclusive version with treenails on pear hull planking imitations. Exclusive versions are not always available because of higher quality material requirement. 
If desired, you can contact online stores where our products are sold, for example, Crafty Sailor Model Store
https://craftysailor.com

I think the stowed boat looks great.  On a small vessel like a cutter, with limited deck space, things must appear “tight.”  I suspect IRL there would be much more gear stowed on deck, adding even more to a cramped appearance.  
 
Keith

Although cramped, when cleared for action the boat was towed behind which freed up the deck space anyway.