JerseyCity Frankie

for construction i use pear wood.

i start to build the orlop deck , 

adnd now the lower deck

Dear colleagues, although a member of this forum for some time, this is the first post.
I started building model while hms leopard 1790 1/300 scale. i use drawing from the book of rif winfield.
here are some pictures of the model .
 

The 10th edition of Marryat's assigns every ship a number.  The numbers are assigned in groups of 10,000 - 0-9999 with each group headed by a designator or some other grouping flag
 
BTW: 3rd and 4th from  the left of the top row in your collage are duplicates.

 
I checked Marryat's 1847 and 1855 for the ID in your collage - neither book uses the number 3 designator pennant, it's probably a later code.
 
Going by the 1847 book (warships aren't listed in the 55 edition because the French didn't want to play any more)
I'll assume the sloop of war Constellation retained the number of the frigate she replaced; 564, so I'll fly this hoist from the model's mizzen head:

I photograph the flags in maritime paintings whenever I come across them. I have been adding to this collage now and then. These shots are nearly all of commercial ocean carrier type cargo ships of the late 1800's. Note that in many cases the hoist starts with a number and there are nearly always four letter flags beneath.
Not sure if this helps but I am throwing it in there.

Folks
 
I've been neglecting my build for many weeks... Late summer travel and life adventures.
 
I did manage to make my way to the Charlestown Navy Yard for an Old Ironsides fix. As many of you know, she'll enter the yard in early 2015 for an extensive three year restoration so this was a last chance to walk the decks for awhile.
 
I got some more photos of the correct carronade:

 
Also a good shot of the interlocking planking on the gun deck:

 
The kids are at an age where they can appreciate the interactive displays inside the Constitution museum. They were put to good work:
 
Hoisting livestock onboard:

Holystoning the deck:

And shortening sail:

 
They will make good topmen one day!
 
The bell that Constitution carried into the Guerriere battle was cast by Paul Revere and sadly destroyed. Here is the one requisitioned from the Guerriere:

 
And here is a shot of my favorite artifact in the museum - a hand drawn diagram by one of her lieutenants of the battle with Java. You have to find a little box on the wall and open the door:

Many folks don't realize that Java stern raked Constitution TWICE during the battle.
 
Here are some interesting detail shots from a series of paintings of the Java battle done by George Ropes Jr. - the deaf/mute apprentice of Michel Felice Corne. I hadn't seen these paintings before:
 


 
These also suggest a pale yellow stripe and five stern windows for those who care to ponder such things.
 
Altogether it was a great day in the Navy yard. The only disappointment was not being able to make Henry's acquaintance. I flubbed up the coordination with our rendezvous. The kids and I got caught up in the long queue inside the Bunker Hill monument... By the time we got down and over to the Navy yard the 1812 Marine detachment had decamped for the day and Henry wasn't able to hang back.
 
We've had brutal heat and humidity for much of the past few weeks here and it has only just now abated enough for me to venture back into the garage workshop. Fiddling with the 24-pdrs...
 
Thanks again to those who follow my build log.
 
Evan

The rigging of the foresail was a rather painful process. My paper-sail turned out to be not quite fit for the purpose. They would be good to represent sails billowing in the wind. However, for representing sails that are hanging limp from the rigging in order to dry this technique is not quite suitable. In the past I made similar sails from ‚silk-span’, i.e. the silk cloth that is used to cover model airplane wings. These sails could be draped quite well, but the material would have been still too thick for sails in the 1:90 scale.
 

The foresail set for drying
 

Details of the foresail rigg
 
So I toiled, sweating blood, but am still not really satisfied with the result. The foresail simply looks too stiff. I also had too cheat a bit in the area where the sail is pushed together above the dead-eye. Due to the rather forcefull procedure of folding the sails some of the hoops on the which the foresail runs on the stay were ripped off. There are many area where some touching up is necessary.
 

Forestay set-up with dead-eye
 

Halliard/down-haul belayed on mast-cleat
 
On the botters everywhere half-cleats were used. This makes belaying a bit tricky on a model and somehow doesn’t look quite right, though I followed the sketches in BEYLEN (1985)
 

Fore-sail sheet
 

Forestay set-up with dead-eye
 
A shortcoming often seen on shipmodels is that the running rigging seems to be sticking out of the block, i.e. it doesn’t run properly around the sheaves. The reason, of course, is that usually only a cross-hole is drilled, without attempting to shape the sheave. The rather elaborate procedure of block-making described earlier was intended to remedy this. Looking at the pictures, however, it seems that I only have been partially successful.
 

Fore-sail sheet
 

Masthead with the head of the foresail rigged with a sheep’s head-block
 
And finally here a selection from my arsenal of rigging tools:
 

Rigging tools (from left to right): straight watchmaker’s tweezers, bent tweezers, stamps-tweezers for draping sails and straightening wires, two antique micro-crochet hooks to pull on rigging, pin-vice with forked needel for pushing rigging, pin-vice, sewing needle for making fake splices, micro-scissors, microscopy-scalpel.
 
Next the main-sail will go on. Another problem case ...
 
wefalck

First of all, thank you very much to all well-wishers 
 
 
With many parts of the boat actually now completed, I turned my attention to the sails. I did this before painting the model, as various fitting and shaping actions will be required that may damage the paintwork.
The plan is to show the sails in a sort of semi-set stage, as they would be when the boat is in harbour, in order to allow them to dry. This going to be a much bigger challenge to represent convincingly than fully set or furled sails. As the boat will be shown in its winter rig, there will be only two sails.
The raw material is a very thin tissue paper that I found in my stock. The first step was to draw a sail plan 'as built', i.e. with the actual dimensions of the mast, boom and gaff.
 

Sail-plan ‚as built’
 

Sail-plan ‚as built’ (detail)
 
 
The shape of each panel of sail-cloth was pencilled in also with the help of a french curve. The drawing then was backed with a piece of stiff cardboard and covered in clingfilm. Based on this pattern the individual sail-'cloths' were cut from the tissue paper with the addition of 1 mm for the seam. This is rather wide at this scale, but inconsequential as the sail will not be translucent, being tanned and dressed (i.e. soaked in a broth from bark and smeared with a concoction of tallow, oil and ochre) on the prototype. This treatment prevents the formation of mildew and permits one to furl the sails when still wet.
 

The ‚cloths’ of the mainsail.
 
Using the drawing as a template, panels were stuck together using wood-filler (CLOU Schnellschleifgrundierung) as glue. The tissue paper soaks up the filler, turning it into a sort of compound material. I prefer wood-filler over diluted PVA-glue because it does not swell the paper and the joints can be loosened and re-adjusted by applying a drop of thinner. After completing the basic sails, outside margins and doublings were added in the same way, based on the detail drawings in VAN BEYLEN, (1995) and DORLEIJN (2001).
 

Glueing together the sail cloths
 
To be continued ...
 
wefalck

Finally I feel I know enough to start the rigging.  I did the starboard shrouds, the fore stay and the spring lines.  I had to do the deadeye lacing three times and the spring lines twice.  I made a jig to help make the thimbles but I’m still scrap a lot.  I may have to remake the jig.  Still a long way to go but at least I’m started.
 
Bob
 

                         Starboard side
 

                         Main shrouds
 

                        Fore shrouds
 

                        Main topmast looking aft
 

                        Main masthead
 

                        Fore masthead

I wish I had better photo coverage of the intervening stages of this build. I made the sails out of two or three layers of tissue paper that was dipped in Minwax water soluble polyurethane called Pollycrilic which dries fast and transparent. I made forms of clay in the shape of the billowing sails and draped the wet tissue over them. When they hardened they had the belly shape I was after and I painted them and cut them to size and glued them to the model. The inner face of the sails were too smooth since they were in contact with the forms and there were some air bubbles but I disguised them with “patches” of more tissue.  
 
 

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02488/flag_2488242b.jpg
 
I wish I could tell you more about this image. Its said to be a flag flown at tTrafalgar from the San Ildefonso. Further its said to have been flown over St Paul's Cathedral during Admiral Nelson's funeral.

Another step is to remove a little bit of the “water” your ship (or in this case your creature) will displace so that the hull can be bedded in the sea firmly. I make a paper template of the hull or creatures waterline and put it in the bottle over the spot the assemblage is going to sit on and using an improvised tool I scrape out the outline of the ship or creature. I remove the template then excavate some of the clay out. How much clay to remove and how deep you go will be determined by your models draft. This is a slow messy uscientific process. The best tool I found for this bottle for this job was not my fancy articulated arm, it was a bit of stout copper wire wrapped around the end of a dowel. To get the angle I needed on the tool within the bottle, I was able to bend the wire against the inside back of the bottle into positions it could not have held while being inserted through the neck of the bottle. Little tiny bights of clay are removed one greasy little chunk at a time. Finally at the end of the days work I put in a piece of the Kraken to see what it would look like in there. I think I am finally ready to start actually putting things into the bottle.

I did some photoshop work on the print, trying to find a good fit between the tableau and the inside of the glass bottle.  The sea depicted in the print is NOT going to want to fit into the bottle.  If you had asked me to sketch the print I would have drawn the ship being held in the air above the sea by the Kraken. But in the print the ship sits on the surface of the sea and the waterline is in a conventional place. I may wind up using artistic license and depict the ship lifter right out of the water by the angry Kraken.

Alle Jahre wieder (Every year again), also known as "every decade the dafi manages to finish something" ...
 

 
... my small slice of in between meal is served  ...
 

 
... and lives ...
 

 
... while you can hear the chant "By the deep 17" ...
 

 
... the lieutenant and his midi are listening carefully ...
 

 
... and whisper it further with the speaking trumpet.
 
In the same time the crew ...
 

 
... with her own calm ...
 

 
... and sangfroid ...
 

 
... brings up a new rope.
 

 
And as the story was so great, here the whole picture :-)
 

 
Now only missing a new passe-partout and some good pictures,
 
cheers, enjoy and have fun, the dafi

I'm a huge knot nerd and I am glad to see a conversation here about knots.  Naturally, sailors are the best at tying knots and ship model builders can only benefit by learning some of the knots of the sailor. Model builders though probably only need to know a very few knots in order to aid in rigging their ships. The Overhand Knot and the Clove Hitch being the two absolute essentials. I am a big promoter of the Constrictor Knot too as I think it easily has a place among the "top ten" most useful knots. If I was to make a short list of "least know but most useful knots" the Constrictor would be my only submission.
Sailors will argue endlessly about which are the ten knots everyone on a ship should know. They all agree the Bowline, Clove Hitch, Reef Knot, Sheet Bend and Rolling Hitch should  be on the list but will begin to argue about what the other five should be. There are so many choices. Personally I would leave the Sheet Bend off the list but I know this is a heretical opinion. I just never have any confidence in it as I have too often seen it misbehave in different types of line.

Thanks Richard.
 
Glad you found the site of interest Lukas.
 
Hi Martin, I also have an optivisor but it irritates me to wear it too long, I prefer my extra strength  prescription specs but I think they need upgrading now.
 
Thanks for looking in Neal, this is how I did the base and water.
 
The base is constructed out of cardboard with a wooden framework.
 

The cardboard top has been sprayed with varnish to seal it, followed by coats of rattle can colours in blues and green.

A 10mm wide strip of tape surrounds the top, this will form the boundary of the ‘sea’ and strips of limewood will be fitted later, as will the moulding strips for the sides.
 
The wave pattern is then formed using a non silicone sealant working it into shape with a paintbrush handle, and then a wetted paintbrush to smooth and relax the waves a little.
 

As the sealant dries out overnight it clears to show the base coat beneath.
 

 
The 10mm x 2mm edging strips of Lime wood have now been sprayed (Regency Blue) and mitred around the edges; this will provide an even base for the acrylic case top to rest on.
 

A Georgian style moulding surrounds the base which I think is in keeping with a period look. After testing various varnish finishes, pine, dark and mid oaks, I have settled on a light oak satin varnish. This I think provides a good contrast to the dark sea.
 
I cannot completely finish the sea where it butts up to the ship until I am ready to set her in position, but a little application of sealant should then do the trick.
 

 
The colour tonings were then played around with until I reached a look I was satisfied with.
 

 
This was the final effect.
 

At this stage there was a lot left to do on the model, but the base was complete.
 
Regards,
 
B.E.

I'm a huge knot nerd and I am glad to see a conversation here about knots.  Naturally, sailors are the best at tying knots and ship model builders can only benefit by learning some of the knots of the sailor. Model builders though probably only need to know a very few knots in order to aid in rigging their ships. The Overhand Knot and the Clove Hitch being the two absolute essentials. I am a big promoter of the Constrictor Knot too as I think it easily has a place among the "top ten" most useful knots. If I was to make a short list of "least know but most useful knots" the Constrictor would be my only submission.
Sailors will argue endlessly about which are the ten knots everyone on a ship should know. They all agree the Bowline, Clove Hitch, Reef Knot, Sheet Bend and Rolling Hitch should  be on the list but will begin to argue about what the other five should be. There are so many choices. Personally I would leave the Sheet Bend off the list but I know this is a heretical opinion. I just never have any confidence in it as I have too often seen it misbehave in different types of line.

A simple man’s guide to sail making (part two)
 
The sail has been cut out complete with a hem all the way round, the positions of the cringles have been marked along the edges.
The hems are folded over and a small slit where the cringles are to be placed is made with the scalpel.
0.1mm line is then placed along the hem inside the fold and fished thro with a small pointy thing, to form the cringles.
This is the position so reached.
 

 

After the first few cringles have been formed the hem is glued down using neat PVA to hold the cringles in place.
 
In the pic below all the cringles have now been put into place.
 
Down each side from the top are the three pairs of Reef cringles, followed by three Bowline cringles; the leech line is attached thro’ the top two.
 
At the clue is the cringle for the blocks..
 
Across the foot of the sail are the cringles for the buntlines.

Bands, patches and linings
Additional strengthening pieces of ‘cloth’ are now required to be added to the sail. These are all attached to the aft side of the sail as shown above (Fore side on British ships.)
They comprise:
The reef bands, three narrow strips thro’ which the reef points are fixed.
The Patches small squares of material below the reef cringles at the leech.
The Top lining, the most distinctive addition whose purpose is to protect the sail from wear by friction against the mast top.
The Lining cloths which are strengthening strips staggered down the leech of the sail.
A bit like wallpapering this part, cut it to size, slap on the paste, and stick it down.
 

With the light behind the full effect of the various additions can now be seen.
A series of holes were drilled thro’ the Reef bands to take the Reef points, and again on the Head lining to take the Robands.
Some 150 reef points are required on the Topsail.
 
Once the sails are in place they can be manipulated at any later stage by the simple expediency of wetting them down.
 

The Mizen sail, the Brails that control the sail furling are all in place, there are matching lines on each side of the sail.
 
 

a simple wet down of the sail and haul on the Brails and the sail is loosely furled.
 

 
Modelspan is a tough material and in my workings with I had no failures.
 
 

 

I would use modelspan for kitting out models certainly up to 1:96 scale.
 
Cheers,
 
B.E.

Just for you JP I'll dig out my posts on the subject.
 
A Simple man’s guide to small scale sail making.
 
For this I used modelspan tissue at 21gsm.
 
This is where it all starts, my patent jig for sail making.
 

 
Well alright it’s a box with a hole cut into it.
 

The Modelspan tissue is taped over the hole – make sure the hole is large enough for the sail dimensions.
 

The witches brew – ear of bat, eye of toad, you know the sort of thing - actually pva diluted to the consistency of milk with a little yellow ochre  paint added.
 

Once the potion is mixed it takes on a fetching ochre colour.
 

The potion being applied, note the colour change and how the tissue has started to sag.
 

The completed effect, just needs to be set aside to dry............. but if you’re impatient like me...
 
 

A quick blast with the CPO’s hairdryer, diffuser in place – and were ready to go.
 
The tissue is now as tight as drum skin and much the same colour, a little more ochery than appears in the photo.
The sail ‘material’ is removed by cutting around the edges of the hole with a scalpel, or any other such sharp implement that is to hand, and is taped over the drawing as previously made.
 

I had previously  drawn out a scaled sail from the works of Jean Boudriot.
 
The lines are transferred and the fiddly business of making the sail up begins.
 
This will be the subject of the next post.
 
B.E.

Here is a photo I took on the Pride of Baltimore II showing a rope stropped block with a becket. This block has a becket on the bottom, the part with the shackle through it holding it to the ringbolt in the deck.  On your model the becket is larger than the one shown and is the part that is fitted around the boom.
 
The rope grommet which IS the Strop was made large enough to fit around the block AND have enough material left over to form the two seized eyes on either side of the block. In this case the strop was served and leathered to keep it from chafing. The seizings which formed the eyes were done with a lighter colored line and show up well in the photo. Metal thimbles are set into the seized eyes but this is not always done.
 
On your model you will have to make up some sort of loop of line appropriately thick enough for your strop, and long enough to go around the block, the spar on one side of the block and the small eye on the other. Making the seizings to form the eyes should present no trouble.

Here is a photo I took on the Pride of Baltimore II showing a rope stropped block with a becket. This block has a becket on the bottom, the part with the shackle through it holding it to the ringbolt in the deck.  On your model the becket is larger than the one shown and is the part that is fitted around the boom.
 
The rope grommet which IS the Strop was made large enough to fit around the block AND have enough material left over to form the two seized eyes on either side of the block. In this case the strop was served and leathered to keep it from chafing. The seizings which formed the eyes were done with a lighter colored line and show up well in the photo. Metal thimbles are set into the seized eyes but this is not always done.
 
On your model you will have to make up some sort of loop of line appropriately thick enough for your strop, and long enough to go around the block, the spar on one side of the block and the small eye on the other. Making the seizings to form the eyes should present no trouble.

Here is a photo I took on the Pride of Baltimore II showing a rope stropped block with a becket. This block has a becket on the bottom, the part with the shackle through it holding it to the ringbolt in the deck.  On your model the becket is larger than the one shown and is the part that is fitted around the boom.
 
The rope grommet which IS the Strop was made large enough to fit around the block AND have enough material left over to form the two seized eyes on either side of the block. In this case the strop was served and leathered to keep it from chafing. The seizings which formed the eyes were done with a lighter colored line and show up well in the photo. Metal thimbles are set into the seized eyes but this is not always done.
 
On your model you will have to make up some sort of loop of line appropriately thick enough for your strop, and long enough to go around the block, the spar on one side of the block and the small eye on the other. Making the seizings to form the eyes should present no trouble.

Here is a photo I took on the Pride of Baltimore II showing a rope stropped block with a becket. This block has a becket on the bottom, the part with the shackle through it holding it to the ringbolt in the deck.  On your model the becket is larger than the one shown and is the part that is fitted around the boom.
 
The rope grommet which IS the Strop was made large enough to fit around the block AND have enough material left over to form the two seized eyes on either side of the block. In this case the strop was served and leathered to keep it from chafing. The seizings which formed the eyes were done with a lighter colored line and show up well in the photo. Metal thimbles are set into the seized eyes but this is not always done.
 
On your model you will have to make up some sort of loop of line appropriately thick enough for your strop, and long enough to go around the block, the spar on one side of the block and the small eye on the other. Making the seizings to form the eyes should present no trouble.

The strop used on a real rope strop block is made from a rope grommet.
 
 http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=rope%20grommet&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi  
 
which is made by unlaying one strand out of a three stranded rope and then laying this single strand up alongside itself. The result is a rope ring with no visible end. Achieving this in small diameter line used on ship models would be very difficult so you would have to fake this up somehow. I would suggest unlaying each end of some thread of a correct length and gluing the frayed ends alongside the cheek of the block you are using, blending them together from each direction. When its dry you could put on your seizings and form the eyes.

I love this photo for a lot of reasons. here it serves well to illustrate the flags position in relation to the square sails and the point of sail the ship is on. In this case the ship is being sailed as close to the wind as possible,  she is trying to point in the same direction the wind is blowing from. She can't sail directly into the eye of  the wind. But if she braces her yards around as far as they can go, so far that the sails are contacting the stays as is visible in the photo, she can get within six points of the eye of the wind. She is said to be "Close Hauled" and in this case she is close hauled on the starboard tack, since the wind is coming over the Starboard side. The flags as you can see are streaming aft and to port. 
The flags are ACTUALLY indicating a very very slightly different direction of the true wind since the speed of the ship through the water makes them behave a tiny bit differently than a stationary flag on a fixed point in the wind would behave. So if she was sailing past a rock with a flag on it, the flags on the ship and the flag on the rock would be at very slightly different angles. The one on the rock indicating the True Wind and the ones on the ship indicating the Apparent Wind.

Flag hailyard line is going to be the thinnest rigging on the whole ship. I don't know the scale of the model you are building but its likely you don't need any special blocks secured aloft for the flag hailyards on your model, the real ones would be smaller than the palm of your hand. Your plan seams to  indicate a ring at the masthead, if this is intended for the flag hailyard I would omit it. The ball at the top of the mast is called the Truck. Often the truck on an actual ship has the sheaves for two flag hailyards cut into it. Otherwise the Truck is merely ornamental. Its likely that if you have a kit supplied truck that it will be too big and out of scale, find something at home that is the right size- the Truck should not be more than a few scale inches wider than the masthead itself. If it was me, I would run a single line of the smallest thread I could find directly to the Truck. Rigging generally belays on deck in such a way that the higher up in the rigging the line originates, the farther aft it belays on the rails at the bulwarks. So your flag hailyard at the masthead is the highest bit of rigging on the mast and should be belayed farthest aft of all the rigging for that mast on the rail.