JerseyCity Frankie

I got the fo'c'sle almost finished. When I added the bumpkins I also added a new cleat on the upper bulwark just inboard of the bumpkin for the Fore Coarse Tack Line to belay. I rigged my version of the tack/sheet/clew tackle shown in Petersson. I used a 1/8" Bluejackets plain bullseye to hold the two blocks and provide a place for the bitter end of the tack line. And it works pretty well although I have not rigged the sheet line yet. There is shot below of the tack line/bumpkin as they stand for now - I think I need to reroute the tack line either over or under all of the head sail sheet lines that are running over the boiw area there.
 
Making steady progress elsewhere. I think I have the rats nest depopulated and am working the pin rails making things tight and putting coils on the belaying pins. I also got the ratlines completed on the stbd side. Port side tomorrow - I promise.
 
Here are some shots of the fo'c'sle as well as the port side fwd pin rail. The goal of getting everything done by the 18th (three week road trip starts then) still seems feasible.

In the context of a block in the age of wooden sailing ships the Strop is the rope that permenantly encircles the block and is the part that provides the attachment point where the block is positioned in the rig. It’s nearly always a Rope Grommet that has the block itself seized within it with its extra length formed into an eye. Often the strops were wormed served parceled and tarred to give them the greatest possible longevityand this made them black. But if you google “stropped block” today you get modern photos of rope stropped blocks which nearly all appear to be made for demonstration or decorative purposes and all of these are just the color of the rope, tarnish brown.

In the context of a block in the age of wooden sailing ships the Strop is the rope that permenantly encircles the block and is the part that provides the attachment point where the block is positioned in the rig. It’s nearly always a Rope Grommet that has the block itself seized within it with its extra length formed into an eye. Often the strops were wormed served parceled and tarred to give them the greatest possible longevityand this made them black. But if you google “stropped block” today you get modern photos of rope stropped blocks which nearly all appear to be made for demonstration or decorative purposes and all of these are just the color of the rope, tarnish brown.

In the context of a block in the age of wooden sailing ships the Strop is the rope that permenantly encircles the block and is the part that provides the attachment point where the block is positioned in the rig. It’s nearly always a Rope Grommet that has the block itself seized within it with its extra length formed into an eye. Often the strops were wormed served parceled and tarred to give them the greatest possible longevityand this made them black. But if you google “stropped block” today you get modern photos of rope stropped blocks which nearly all appear to be made for demonstration or decorative purposes and all of these are just the color of the rope, tarnish brown.

In the context of a block in the age of wooden sailing ships the Strop is the rope that permenantly encircles the block and is the part that provides the attachment point where the block is positioned in the rig. It’s nearly always a Rope Grommet that has the block itself seized within it with its extra length formed into an eye. Often the strops were wormed served parceled and tarred to give them the greatest possible longevityand this made them black. But if you google “stropped block” today you get modern photos of rope stropped blocks which nearly all appear to be made for demonstration or decorative purposes and all of these are just the color of the rope, tarnish brown.

In the context of a block in the age of wooden sailing ships the Strop is the rope that permenantly encircles the block and is the part that provides the attachment point where the block is positioned in the rig. It’s nearly always a Rope Grommet that has the block itself seized within it with its extra length formed into an eye. Often the strops were wormed served parceled and tarred to give them the greatest possible longevityand this made them black. But if you google “stropped block” today you get modern photos of rope stropped blocks which nearly all appear to be made for demonstration or decorative purposes and all of these are just the color of the rope, tarnish brown.

Evening, 
Thanks Gary, really enjoying your Niagara! Really coming along nicely. 
 
I saw how you had trouble with the masts and not enough room for all the ropes at the cross trees. 
It has me re-thinking what I have so far, but I think I have it figured out.  
 
Started looking at the Anchors. Kind of a side project while other things have my main focus. 
I'm going to replace the Britannia stock with wood. 

Looks so much better.
The metal pieces will need a clean up. 

I also made cuts for the Catheads. 

I was insane keeping these things aligned. 
Measured, measured then re-measured, constantly checking alignment with a small ruler. 
Wish I had pics of it, quite the process! 

The Catheads received a good sanding, and all appropriate holes for the hardware were drilled. 
Was REAL careful with those Sheaves at the head. Slightest curve to the drill bit and you could come out anywhere!
They were then shaped to hug the Bulwarks at the Main rail. 

They were then stained an Early American. Same stain as most of the deck furniture and parts of the Bowsprit.  
I should have the eyebolts and brass bars installed shortly.
The brass bars I'm going to blacken with Birchwood-Casey.  

 
Tom E 
 
 

Except for some rope coils on deck for the anchor tackle, the fore deck and forward fife rail are complete (as far as I can tell at this point). I have both anchors "catted" and lashed over the rail. All the lines terminating at the forward pin and fife rail have been secured and rope coils added (where I could - in some cases the pins are so close together I can't get a coil on every pin without having them too bunched up IMHO. Now it is on to my favorite task (NOT) - ratlines. I still have to connect the Top Mast, Top Gallant and Royal stays forward and tighten and secure the lines at the forward pin rails then it will be on to the braces and course tack and sheet lines.
 
I did decide to add the bumpkins for the Fore Course Tack lines, much as Darrel (6Ohiocav) did. You can see the port one in the yellow circle in the photo below. Still working the stbd side so I will hold off further pictures of the fo'c'sle  until that is finished.

You are going to find this guys photography website helpful, I think:  https://www.fourmilephotography.com/FlagshipNiagara
 
ive been collecting photos of Niagara for assisting my build and one photo I liked had a watermark from his website, when I went to check it out it felt like I’d struck gold.

In actual practice they would not be tied to anything. If it was me and I was commited to displaying the oars in their thole pins I would drill and pin them in place using very thin wire. 

In actual practice they would not be tied to anything. If it was me and I was commited to displaying the oars in their thole pins I would drill and pin them in place using very thin wire. 

Bowsprit has been completed and is ready for installation. Bowsprit cap and Dolphin Striker have been formed and installed.


 

I tried a rough fit and found out I needed to remove some material from the Bulwark to get it to fit properly.



 

I still need to add the staples holding the Dolphin striker. I plan on using some 26 gauge wire.


 
I decided to add the Niagara name plates at this time. When I built the Baltimore I waited to the end and it was a real pain installing the name. Not going to make that mistake again.



I will need to clean them up a bit, but am happy with the outcome so far.


 

 
Ron

 
 
 

You can do this: delete all the photos in your post using the EDIT feature at the bottom of your post. Then upload the photos one at a time in the proper sequence. By “one at a time” I mean you have to hit the SUBMIT button after uploading ONE photo at a time, and hitting the EDITbutton again to upload the next photo.

In actual practice they would not be tied to anything. If it was me and I was commited to displaying the oars in their thole pins I would drill and pin them in place using very thin wire. 

In actual practice they would not be tied to anything. If it was me and I was commited to displaying the oars in their thole pins I would drill and pin them in place using very thin wire. 

Just had some pics of the painted Nelson figure, should arrive tomorrow (not the painted one, though...)

You also need to understand that those kits made 25-30 years ago would never be good sellers now.  They are just a handful of laser cut parts made from sub par wood. ....  Along with a bunch of wood strips and some bad castings.   Model builders expect a lot more today for their money and they are notoriously frugal.   To give a builder what they expect these days is quite expensive.   It would be very easy and affordable for me to design a new kit like Model Shipways Armed Virginia Sloop.   There are about five laser cut sheets in the entire kit and the instructions are 30 pages long.   It would never sell!!!!   They were basically starter kits with a  bunch of raw wood.
 

In contrast.....my new kit of the longboat has 26 laser cut pieces and almost no strip wood.....very expensive, with about 100 pages of instruction.   The old kits can now be considered semi scratch in my opinion....especially if you ditch the castings.  Very few parts were laser cut and designed with ease of construction in mind.  And all this for a smallish kit of a longboat.  Folks dont even want to learn to plank anymore.  They want even larger kits to have all of the planking pre-spiled and laser cut......but they only want to spend $250.
 

 
Very very different these days to design a kit that will be well-received....Builders have gotten very spoiled.  This leaves very little profit per kit when most builders expect to pay about the same as they did for the AVS with cheap wood.  Design and prototyping takes a whole lot longer now.   At least for anything innovative.   
 
So when you consider that any new kit will cost an old established company around $30,000 to develop.  This is significantly cheaper for newer small companies where the owners are usually also the designers and also work the assembly lines.  I dont have to pay a good designer $50 an hour for about a year and half to design and prototype.  I do it myself and it doesnt cost anything. So the old companies cant afford to spend that much to develop a new innovative kit project.  They are kind of withering away because of that.
 
 
 

Harrier has been sailing for a while now but I've finally got her how I wanted her with some modifications to improve yard rotation and hence windward ability and also the cosmetics like gun and other rigging. 
Also, I've got evidence that she sails uploaded to youtube, (check my other vids and you can also see my recently built cedar canoe that's kept me from ship modelling for a bit).
 
Thanks to all who offered advice and knowledge, whether you knew it or not, and provided actual bits for her. It wouldn't have happened without you.
 
 
 
 

 
Harrier cleared for action.
 

 
The deck hatches lines offering access to the radio gear disappear at the right angles. You can see the rear hatch to the left in this shot and the clear tape that's used to seal them before sailing. After many attempts to get a self sealing hatch with rubber seals this was far easier and more effective.
 

 

The tiller is functional with the lines coming from a drum servo below decks and pulling it to either side. The wheel, however, is static as it felt like one more thing to go wrong and a little fragile. It's nice watching the tiller swing under a ghost helmsman's hand.
 

 

 

 

 
Sailing into the sunset. I've got plans scaled for a 1/36 Enterprize class 28-gun frigate and might start on some smaller pieces of that in near future. However, if the bank balance allows this year I'll crack into my real dream of a 1:1 sailing dinghy. Time for the real thing.
Thanks for following this drawn-out build.

And here  are some newer photos of the kit taken with a proper camera…  its the first time I am doing ratlines so its far from perfect. And also I decided not to put any nettings on her. I just think this scale is too small for some of the details.

I'm getting close to finishing up the rigging on my Yacht Mary, and  was exploring some technique for setting up the several tackle required.
I was wondering about the methods others may use.
 
I set up the final dimensions, and then hang it with some tension on it.  I then wet it down with very thin white glue.
It usually dries overnight before I fit it to the boat..
 

After over ten years of very intermittent work, I'm finally seeing the end of the tunnel..

A milestone day - the Fore Mast has all it yards and as much of its rigging as it is going to have prior to installation and then, and then the Fore Mast is in place onboard the hull.
 
Quite the rats nest that needs to be straightened out of the comes days and weeks.
 
I have an internal deadline to finish by the middle of August - we are leaving on a road trip to see the Tall Ships at Eire, PA and then a "side trip" to Bluejackets in Maine to pick up the case they are building for it. I have built cases using Model Expo "kits" but I wanted to get this "done" without further effort on my part (other than driving 600 miles out of my way and back to pick it up). I used to spend a good deal of time in Maine on business but have not been there in 15 in years or so. Will be good to see what has changed.
 

Is someone being prevented from doing so? I’ve never seen a hint of that here. One can find ship models of every skill level here on Model Ship World but I have NEVER seen anything like condemnation of someone’s efforts or mean-spirited dissmisiveness of a model. Far from it! It’s very rare to see even the most gentle criticism of some small detail in a build log. I’ve simply NEVER seen anyone being discouraged from building a model or sharing photos of it here. 

Is someone being prevented from doing so? I’ve never seen a hint of that here. One can find ship models of every skill level here on Model Ship World but I have NEVER seen anything like condemnation of someone’s efforts or mean-spirited dissmisiveness of a model. Far from it! It’s very rare to see even the most gentle criticism of some small detail in a build log. I’ve simply NEVER seen anyone being discouraged from building a model or sharing photos of it here. 

Tom:
While you are working near the skylight, I was wondering if you intend to include a compass on it. While building my model, I discovered there is no mention of a compass or binnicle in the directions. Nor have I seen one in any build logs. Hard to imagine Niagara without one. 
There is a pic in Jersey City Frankie’s collection of pics of the actual modern ship with a “cabinet” containing the compass forward of the tiller, atop the skylight. 

Bluejacket Shipcrafters have a short tutorial in their newsletter archives on using a three-layer silkspan set up for sails.  I tried it for an awning and it worked well for me.  https://myemail.constantcontact.com/News--tips--and-happenings-from-BlueJacket-Shipcrafters--Inc-.html?soid=1105166336677&aid=fVLCRI0uZ9o
 
Steve