JerseyCity Frankie

Hi John,
My opinion is that the direction of the wood block may not be correct. Should rotate 180 degrees... 

I’ve recently purchased two different types of silkspan, from two different sources. I’d never seen the stuff in the flesh before and I thought it’d be different. The first batch I got was thin and too transparent and would tear as easily as tissue paper, I didn’t see the advantage over tissue paper since tissue has no grain and this stuff had distinctly visible fibers. The next version of the stuff was slightly thicker but disappointed too, the same issues with the other stuff just slightly less transparent. I had imagined something more like drafting velum or paper. If there is a spectrum between Kleenex on one end and writing paper on the other, this stuff was far too close to the Kleenex end of the scale for me. As I looked at the material in my hands I wished there was a version of it that was twice as thick, this stuff was too insubstantial for me. 
Ill likely try working with it to see if it can be stained and maybe strengthened by painting it with acrylic medium? I haven’t written it off yet but my initial impression was that I didn’t like it for being too flimsy.

I went and strengthened the forward Fife rail. I used .29 mm wire. Took a little patience to be sure I got the holes drilled properly. It’s a little hard to see in the pic but I put a wire in each of the joints.


 
I also have been working on the Bowsprit, It has been laid out and material removed to match the drawing. Now to start adding the cleats, foot treads and chocks.



 
Ron

I stretch SilkSpan like watercolor paper and use dilute acrylic paint on it. It works for me.

I’ve recently purchased two different types of silkspan, from two different sources. I’d never seen the stuff in the flesh before and I thought it’d be different. The first batch I got was thin and too transparent and would tear as easily as tissue paper, I didn’t see the advantage over tissue paper since tissue has no grain and this stuff had distinctly visible fibers. The next version of the stuff was slightly thicker but disappointed too, the same issues with the other stuff just slightly less transparent. I had imagined something more like drafting velum or paper. If there is a spectrum between Kleenex on one end and writing paper on the other, this stuff was far too close to the Kleenex end of the scale for me. As I looked at the material in my hands I wished there was a version of it that was twice as thick, this stuff was too insubstantial for me. 
Ill likely try working with it to see if it can be stained and maybe strengthened by painting it with acrylic medium? I haven’t written it off yet but my initial impression was that I didn’t like it for being too flimsy.

Pics of the anchor

I know on the schooner I sail on, only the halyard remains run when no Topsail is set. Both ends of the halyard are on deck with the hauling end on a designated pin and the working end simply tied to the sheer pole. We leave the Sheet off the rig unless we know we’re setting the Topsail, in which case we run the Sheet through its blocks while still at the dock. When the Sheet is run both ends are on two pins on the boom jaw itself on the Starboard side.
the tack remains with the sail, gasket coiled. When the time comes to set the sail, the furled sail is brought on deck and the Sheet and halyard are being on. We point up into the wind so the sail can be hauled up without fouling on anything and when in place we belay the halyard and Sheet and sweat the tack which then goes on one of those two pins on the boom jaw.
 
in this arrangment the tack is on the Starboard side and stays on that side, even when the schooner changes tacks. Some vessels have two tack lines on the sail, one on each side, and a line who’s name I don’t remember who’s only job is to raise the tack up so the opposing tack can pull up and over the falls of the Peak Halyard and thus set the sail on the other tack.

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. 

EDIT: we’re talking about a gaff Topsail, right?  I see a few days have gone by and nobody has answered. I feel your assessment is correct, three principal lines. A halyard to lift it to the Masthead at the top of the sail, a Sheet to haul the clew out to the end of the gaff, a tack to pull down the tack of the sail and later to haul the sail to the deck. A lead block or a sheav set into the Gaff for the Sheet, the line leads through this then back inboard to a lead block on the gaff jaws and then to the deck.
The tack opposes the halyard and this controls the shape of the sail, but nothing opposes the Sheet so hauling the Sheet tends to pull the Topsail away from the Masthead. The schooner I sail on overcomes this by having a dedicated jackstay, a bit of standing rigging that runs parallel to the mast from the bulwark to the Masthead. A shackle on the luff of the Topsail rides on this jackstay and this keeps the luff of the sail close to the Masthead and opposes the Sheet. Note that this is a flying gaff Topsail, there’s no such thing as a flying gaff.

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. 

Chuck provided a link to Bonhams auction house. They have a presence in NYC and for years they had an annual Nautical auction- I think in the spring- but they have not held the Nautical auction in New York lately, I think the last one was 2016? It would be sad if they have discontinued it but perhaps the market for Nautical stuff has dropped off?

Chuck provided a link to Bonhams auction house. They have a presence in NYC and for years they had an annual Nautical auction- I think in the spring- but they have not held the Nautical auction in New York lately, I think the last one was 2016? It would be sad if they have discontinued it but perhaps the market for Nautical stuff has dropped off?

I own both Lee’s rigging book and Sieele’s Masting, Rigging, and Sailmaking Book.   For fore and aft rigged vessels Lee’s book is of little help as it focuses on large square rigged vessels.  Steele provides details for rigging a cutter which is useful but dismisses anything smaller only stressing that they are lightly rigged.        
 
My interest is building 1:32 scale warships boats.  I just finished my third boat in the series, a rigged longboat.  The book that I found most useful was Tom Cunliffe’s Hand, Reef, and Steer that deals with traditionally rigged fore and aft sailing craft. While this does not give explicit directions for rigging a longboat, it does explain in detail the various lines required to control a flying job, jib foresail, and gaff mainsail, the way that these sails and their controlling  lines work, and practical advice for handling the rig.  This was a great help in achieving what I believe is an accurate representation of the rig.  
 
BTW-  I have a paperback edition of Peterson’s Rigging Fore and Aft Rigged Period Craft.  If despite the legitimate criticism posted above, you still feel that you must own a copy, send me a PM and I’ll pop it in the mail to you.  US addresses only.  This way it will be worth what you paid for it!
 
Roger
 
 

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. 

I recently picked up used hardcover copies of Petersson's books after reading some discussion of them. I had other original sources, such as Steel, as well as many of the "usual suspects," books of varying degrees of reliability and utility that have been published over the years. I found Petersson's books to be as Frankie described. I share Frankie's annoyance that the industry of ship model publications is one where the accuracy bar seems too often set unacceptably low and particularly so in the area of material marketed for "beginners." A "bad ship model kit" only causes pain for a little while, but bad information in a ship modeling book can bedevil a reader forever.
 
In the Age of Sail, it was the captain's prerogative to rig his ship as he saw fit (or delegate the same to his chief bosun.) There was a wide variety of rigging arrangements with the choice of one over the other simply a matter of style or opinion. As the saying went, "Different ships, different long splices." Those variations, however, do not entitle those who hold their work out as being accurate miniature representations of the real thing to simply "make it up as they go along" regardless of the principles of physics and engineering.  I sometimes see errors in rigging or construction details published in otherwise artistically beautiful and often expensive books. I often also see the authors of such beautiful and expensive books representing to the book-buying public that their books contain detailed instructions for building historically accurate models of this or that particular vessel down to the last drift and trunnel when, in fact, there is no contemporary data upon which to base such certainties. Indeed, most of such details were left to the discretion of the master shipwrights, shipsmiths, and riggers and no historical record ever existed of them in the first place. At best, these "super accurate" models, technical modeling tours d' force as they may be, can really only represent the expert modeler's interpretation of the original construction and rigging details based on contemporary manuals, specifications, and "rules of thumb." The same is true of most, if not all, "contemporary models" found in museums and respected private collections.
 
In recent decades, much credence has been given to the accuracy of "contemporary models" and we see errors obvious to the mariner's eyes in these doggedly replicated despite constructive criticism because "that's the way it is on the contemporary model." (A critical consideration is always what restoration or modification may have been done in the hundreds of years since it was built!) One may find that to be acceptable if one is building "a model of a model" rather than a model of a vessel, but that risks polluting the historical record going forward. Anyone who has done academic historical research using primary sources knows the frustration of encountering inaccurate threads in the historical narrative which have been perpetuated far into the future by author after author because somebody somewhere way back when was too lazy to check their sources. Somewhat uniquely, ship models often become part of the "historical record" as we see with the Navy Board and builder's yard models. We should, to the extent we are able, respect the fact that it is possible, however remote, that three or five hundred years from now, that Constitution or Cutty Sark we build today may be the only record posterity has of those ships. Striving for excellence should be appreciated as a characteristic of our hobby.
 
Ship modeling, if it is to have much meaning or offer much satisfaction at all, must be subject to standards. Absolute perfection may well be only a theoretical objective, but it is really the object of the game. Every effort, however much it falls short, should be applauded and encouraged, but let's face it, in any endeavor in which skill increases with practice and experience, nobody is done any favors by withholding constructive criticism and outright damage is done by publishers who print technical books for the profit of it without regard to the quality of their content. 

Since this topic was resurrected after two years, during which time we have kicked Petersson and his books around quite a bit, I think it is good that anyone new to the discussion, note that Petersson documented the rigging, errors included, that he found on contemporary models, without any apparent reference to other authorities or sources such as Steel.  I think he would have done well to have made this more clear in the books, and advised serious modelers to compare his observations to other sources.  It is certainly not a good idea to recommend this book as a primary reference source for model rigging without pointing out it's shortcomings.
 
It also provides an important lesson, in that it shows contemporary models are not without their faults, and not the final word on how we should pursue this hobby; at least not for me.
 
I am glad we have members on the forum who know enough about this stuff to point out some of the serious errors Petersson included in his books without any research beyond the models he examined.
 
Meanwhile, I have his two books and I find them useful as a quick reference, and really admire the drawings from an artistic standpoint.
However, I have learned to verify what I see in the books when it comes to rigging my own models.

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. 

EDIT: we’re talking about a gaff Topsail, right?  I see a few days have gone by and nobody has answered. I feel your assessment is correct, three principal lines. A halyard to lift it to the Masthead at the top of the sail, a Sheet to haul the clew out to the end of the gaff, a tack to pull down the tack of the sail and later to haul the sail to the deck. A lead block or a sheav set into the Gaff for the Sheet, the line leads through this then back inboard to a lead block on the gaff jaws and then to the deck.
The tack opposes the halyard and this controls the shape of the sail, but nothing opposes the Sheet so hauling the Sheet tends to pull the Topsail away from the Masthead. The schooner I sail on overcomes this by having a dedicated jackstay, a bit of standing rigging that runs parallel to the mast from the bulwark to the Masthead. A shackle on the luff of the Topsail rides on this jackstay and this keeps the luff of the sail close to the Masthead and opposes the Sheet. Note that this is a flying gaff Topsail, there’s no such thing as a flying gaff.

A nice material for modeling metal that would be nearly flat on the actual ship ( or an inch or less thick) is the foil wrappers found around the cork on some wine bottles. Its malleability makes it better than tin foil, its a bit thicker and the metal is often darker than the bright silver of tin foil too. Its perfect for hinges escutcheons and all sorts of bands plates or what have you.

The lower yards are now in place and some of the rigging is complete. I'm rigging them according to the brig Irene book. It's well researched and most of it is backed up by Steel and Levers. Note the crossjack yard only has a parrel and sling, no jeers per the book and well explained there. 

I took some much better photos  away from the harsh lights of my work table that show detail more clearly.
 
Thanks for all the nice comments above everyone. 
 
As usual failing to plan and ignoring the issue is causing me a bit of headache. I have to get Sophie mounted on her display base and at this level of completion it is going to be a challenge. That's my next project before moving onto the yards. Wish me luck...
 
 

I've gotten some details such as cap rail, fenders and side steps installed and painted the remainder of the hull. Starting to look like a ship...
 
 

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen! Thanks for your likes and kind words - they are very inspirational and motivating to do my best.  A moment of history for me - I've recently finished outer planking. That was quite a step. I'm happy that it's done according to instructions - without stealers. Next steps are thoughtful sanding and then inner planking. Then tree-nailing, primer and painting. And then the most fearsome moment for me on this project - deck planking. I was so keen to share results that couldn't wait until morning to take pics with good light, so pics have a "vampiric" look - sorry for them ;-) Later I'll try to do pics with better light. 

Bilge pump has been completed.


 
Fife rail has been started with one coat of stain. I will put a couple of coats of finish before I paint the Knees black. At the same time, I am cleaning up the belaying pins that have been supplied with the kit. Giving them a couple of wood colored paint to look more realistic.

 
 

During paint drying time I have started laying out the cuts for the Bowsprit. This will take some time to complete the layout and shaping.


 
Ron