Derek C

Rigging the Longboat
I put the supplied rigging line aside, seems under-scale  and I didn't like the look of it, black too black and tan too shiny. The black line was supplied  presumably for the shrouds and stay, but would these items be heavily tarred on small boats where the rigging would be taken up and down regularly? in any case the stark black line didn't look good to my eye.
The kit instructions mention two line sizes only; 0.012" and 0.018" (0.30mm and 0.45mm Ø ) The instructions don't seem to specifically mention the size for the shrouds but I found on Chuck's log mention of 0.021" line (0.53mm Ø) which is the third supplied line in the box
These equate to 1.7" 2.7" 3.2" circ line at full scale.
Chuck comments - No....you should use smaller rope to seize the .021 rope around the mast.  Use smaller .008 or .012 black for that.  The rope is .021 because Expo doesnt have anything else other than really large rope above that size.   My .025 brown line is perfect size for the shrouds.  But for the kit they have to supply only what they have available.
Chuck  
Chuck's 0.025" (0.63mm) line equates to 3.74" circ at full size.
 
W.E May's book The boats of men of war gives Steel's 1794 rigging table for boats, in relation to ship rates.
From this table I have calculated the rigging sizes for our model.
Not a direct correlation for a given size of Long- boat and Steel does not mention the use of Running Backstays in relation to Long-boat rigging.
 
Rigging item    size circ  scale mm Ø   line used.
Shrouds             3½"        0.59mm          0.63mm
deadeye             5" Ø       2.64mm           3mm
Lanyard             1½"         0.25mm         0.25mm (Morope)
B'stay pendant    2½"        0.42mm         0.45mm
B'stay tackles      1½"        0.25mm         0.20mm
Fore Stay            4"          0.67mm          0.63mm
Deadeye            5" Ø       2.64mm           3mm
Lanyard            1½"         0.25mm          0.25mm (Morope)
Halyard             1½"         0.25mm         0.20mm
Sheets              1½"         0.25mm         0.25mm (Morope)
Single block       6"           3.17mm          3mm
Topping Lift      1½"         0.25mm          0.30mm
Peak Halyard    1½"         0.25mm          0.30mm
Throat Halyard  1½"         0.25mm          0.30mm
Jib Halyard         2"          0.33mm          0.30mm
Jib outhauler      2½"        0.42mm         0.45mm
Single block       7"           3.7mm           3.50mm
Boat Rope         7½"         1.26mm         1.14mm
Grapnel rope     3½"        0.59mm          0.63mm
Painter              3½"        0.59mm         0.63mm
The line, blocks, and deadeyes, used in each case are Syren, except where otherwise noted.
 
The first item of rigging is the Topping lift for the Boom.
This is spliced around the Boom end taken up thro' the top block on the mast and down to belay on the aft s/b side  thwart pin.
The boom sheet runs between two blocks one on the boom the other seized to the iron horse. I used Morope 0.25mm line for this.

2626
The mast is quite slender and to avoid pulling it out of vertical when adjusting the lift and sheet lines I found it  useful to rig a temporary forestay to counter the pull of the sheet.
I have also rigged a temporary line to hold down the Gaff whilst rigging.

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I used 1/8" Syren blocks for the Topping lift and Peak Halyard lines, hooked to the masthead rather than seized.

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Peak Halyard secured to the Gaff.

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I used Boxwood Parrel trucks to rig the Gaff.

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It is relaxing to be engaged with such a simple rig for a change.
 
B.E.

Many thanks to Al, Nils, Derek, and Mike for your interest and comments. 
Mast and spars.
I have not gone into further research regarding the mast dimensions, I will fine tune it by eye.
I divided the length from the thwart to the shoulder into quarters for the purpose of taper. From the plan 4mm at thwart, 3.6mm (1stQ) 3.5mm (2ndQ) 3.1mm (3rd Q) 2.5mm (Shoulder)
From the shoulder to mast cap; 2.2mm 2mm at centre, 1.8mm at truck.
A card gauge is used to monitor progress at the Quarters.

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The tapering was done on the Proxxon wood lathe.
 
Making of the Bowsprit, Gaff and Boom are fairly straightforward.

2237
The Gaff jaws were fashioned from some Boxwood sheet,  and it should be noted that the Boom is tapered each end from the centre where it thickens slightly.
Boom Iron
Always seeking the easy route I initially followed the kit instruction for making this; c.a. the ends and twist the extension to the horizontal before drilling the  hole for the Boom Gooseneck.

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This didn't work for me the c.a. failed to hold following the twist, so I reverted to silver soldering which achieved the objective.

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Trial fitting of the Boom iron.
The mast dowel takes some distress during the iron fitting process. Would have been better to use Boxwood for the spars I think.

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The completed iron set.
 
Mast colouring.
The problem with using the provided dowel is that getting a good finish using just varnish is tricky. Patchiness, uneven coverage, and strange over-scale grain patterns show thro'.
I found that sealing the dowel with matt varnish was necessary to seal the surface before applying my tinted varnish mix.
Several coats later with light in-between fine paper rub downs and I get the look I'm after.
So here's the completed masting set.

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The varnished parts were of a satin finish, and to complete they were coated with matt varnish.
 
B.E.
 

Evening, 
Been a while for an update, and admittedly I screwed up. 
 
There comes a point in almost every build where you realize you did something that cant be undone.....well, not easily.
I couldn't fix it as admittedly my build log is about 6 weeks behind the actual build......it my way of motivation.....it just me....my goblins.
 
In my last post it was brought to my attention that the correct way for the main rail was to use a square strip on top of the bulkheads, then the main rail on top. 
I missed this. I found it on Xkens Niagara build, but, I was unaware of this build prior. Some reason, I never came across it. Thought I did good searches. 
To all Niagara builders in the future, use the square strip on top, then the main rail on top of that.
 
Oh well, learning moment.   
 
With all of this in mind, I need to press on.
Its crossroads like these that cause folks to "mothball" a build and move on to something else.
I will not do this!
I have some fixes in my mind.  
 

 
 
The main rail fits on the timberheads quite well. 
Some humps, but I should be able to sand these down. 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
With the rail in place, it was time to sand and fill some gaps. 
 

 
 

 
Its about 20 degrees tonight in New Hampshire, without the wind chill.
Hot cup of tea will be on order all night!!!
 

Tom E 
 

When I got home from work today I was excited to see my wood had arrived I unpacked it and got It sorted .

 
tomorrow when I get home I will start gluing down the templates for the frames and start on my keel, keelson and false keel.
 
Mark
I found UWEKs log , and I found some great info .thanks again for the tip .
 
Derek

believe me Carl........if that's not the correct anti foil paint color........ paint it      I would!   

It’s a pretty safe bet that I’m going to paint it. 

And it starts.....

After turning my attention back to deck fittings and furniture, the first item was to make up the guns. There are six 3 pounders (very small ). I decided not to use the carriages and white metal barrel castings provided by the Lumberyard (the barrels were too large when compared to the plans), and substituted carriages and brass barrels from Syren. I used the 1:64 6 pounders (1 11/64" barrels) which fit the plans almost perfectly. I made one modification. The trunnions appeared too small, but I did not want to get involved with trying to drill through the brass barrels to add larger trunnions, so I added tiny bits of tubing to build them up.
 
After making up the carriage kits, I added the needed eyebolts and ring bolts from blackened brass. I also added the quoin handles, using the smallest brass belaying pins that I had on hand. 
 
I then started to rig the guns with their breech ropes and tackles. For the tackles I am using Syren 1/8" (3mm) blocks, which are the smallest that I can handle at this point, and Syren .008 line. After rigging two of them, I had had enough, so decided to mount them and move on to something else for a while. After mounting, I added separate rope coils to the tackle lines.
 
Bob
 
 
 

Hi, they look really well done, i like it is all black, not a shiny. Very inspiring.

Those canon look wonderful. I debated on whether not I was going to try to rig mine however I decided not to at this scale it at this level of my experience.  Now I can just imagine that this is what I actually did for mine. 

She's coming together beautifully Bob. If mine goes half as well as yours I'll be thrilled. 

Thanks so much Zappto, Michael, Al and the "likes". 
 
Michael, they are a pain to rig, but really not that difficult and not to be feared.
 
Al, I'm expecting great things from yours and look forward to it.
 
Bob

I'll try not to disappoint. How long did it take Lumberyard to ship yours? I haven't heard anything since I paid 2 weeks ago. He did mention that he was waiting to finish getting his thickness sander rebuilt.

No worries Nirvana ,
yea I’m getting ready to try my luck on the  Triton cross section .
Derek

Nirvana 
The list above shows the count of each wood some of the 1/4 I had him mill to 3/16 . The total price with shipping was $173.46

No worries Nirvana ,
yea I’m getting ready to try my luck on the  Triton cross section .
Derek

I received my wood order today looked pretty good ,and shipped fast .
 

I placed my order today and I bought way more than I need probably, but once i started ordering I couldn’t help it I wanted it all but the admiral only gave me so much to work with and of coarse I went over lol
 
its easier to ask for forgiveness then for permission
 

Have started making some (slow) progress on shaping the hull. Still working on a very small section (need to get it back a little further still to get the template completely aligned with the middle guide line) and moving forward slowly. Has required sanding back a lot more of the hull than I initially expected but I can see how it'll all come together. At this pace, I'll be working on this step for quite a while, but I think it'll start getting easier after this first section is in good shape.

When I got home from work today I was excited to see my wood had arrived I unpacked it and got It sorted .

 
tomorrow when I get home I will start gluing down the templates for the frames and start on my keel, keelson and false keel.
 
Mark
I found UWEKs log , and I found some great info .thanks again for the tip .
 
Derek

I received my wood order today looked pretty good ,and shipped fast .
 

I received my wood order today looked pretty good ,and shipped fast .
 

As I recall, his job started taking much of his time and then family.  I'm hoping he's ok and that maybe we'll hear from him one of these days.

When I got home from work today I was excited to see my wood had arrived I unpacked it and got It sorted .

 
tomorrow when I get home I will start gluing down the templates for the frames and start on my keel, keelson and false keel.
 
Mark
I found UWEKs log , and I found some great info .thanks again for the tip .
 
Derek

I received my wood order today looked pretty good ,and shipped fast .