JerseyCity Frankie

I agree with those recommending a new modern kit. The wood won’t be dry and splintery and warped, the contents will be intact, the plans won’t be stained with someone else’s coffee rings, etc. a fair comparison of the cost of a new kit over an old one should take into account the amount of unknown troubles the eBay kit could contain. And if you’re going to spend six months to a year completing the kit, the higher cost of the new kit will mean only a few more pennies each day of work. Pennies that are totally worth it.

I wasn’t happy with the kit-supplied double blocks for my Model Shipways Niagara model. The kit supplies only two sizes of double blocks and apparently this is ok for most of the rig but the big sheet blocks on the main required bigger than the kit allowed for. There would be only two needed so I made them by laminating stripwood.

I just returned home from visiting family for a few days on waiheke Island.
I managed to paint, varnish and add the mast top supports. Also the seats of ease. Now just need to add details to the launch (oars, rudder knees etc)
then nearly finished.  also posting some detail shots...

Back in the ship yard. You have made amazing progress. l  Rigging looks brilliant.

SHIPS BOATS
I decided to scrap the sliced bread boat frames provided by the kit. Instead, I downloaded a plan for building a jig that allowed me to scratch build the boats.
I copied the jig frames and glued them to some birch plywood and cut them out on the bandsaw. I then assembled the jig and attached cherry veneer strips on the outer edge of the frames and inserted the ends in the bottom slit in the jig frames which held them in place.
I then cut a series of thin holly (very white) strip wood to use as planks. Using CA, I started to glue the stripwood to the cherry lined frames, being careful not to spill any glue onto the cherry strips that would affix them to the frames, since you have to remove the entire assembly from the jig after it is done. I also decided to overlap the holly stripwood to give it a realistic look. This eliminated the need to taper any of the strips.
Here are some photos of my first proto-type. Not bad for my first time, but I discovered some problems. As stated, I used cherry veneer for the frame wood, because it was easier to bend around the sharp corners of the jig frames. However, it was not stiff enough to hold the shape of the boat when I removed it from the jig. The vertical lines of the frames drifted outward quite a bit since the cherry veneer was not strong enough to hold it in place.
So back to the drawing board.  I need to use a stiffer material, and that means that I need to decide whether I can bent it around the jig frames, some of which are sharper than 90 degrees, or whether I can cut them out of solid wood in the proper shape, and still make them thin enough and strong enough to meet my needs

It's a bumpkin, boomkin, or some variation of that depending on where you're from.  Pretty much all vessels with a square fores'l will have boomkins forward, and sometime on the quarters aft as well, for the main braces and sheets.
 
The tack will run to a block on the boomkin the up to a pin, cleat, or post near the knightheads, or thereabouts.
 
The point is to haul the windward clew of the sail forward on the wind (close-hauled), which is what the yards do on the sails above the course.

OHIO STATE FAIR FINE ARTS DISPLAY

I am proud member of the Shipwrights of Central Ohio model club.  Each year, the club reserves a table at the Ohio State Fair in the Fine Arts Building, to promote ship building and to display member projects. I attended this past Friday and brought my Niagara and some rigging tools and spent the afternoon rigging the ship for interested Fair Patrons. 

We had a number of folks come through the building.  For anyone that has done something like this, the predominate comment we receive from the public is that they don’t have the patience to do something like that. However, I was lucky to attract two young boys, about 12 years old, who watched me rig the Topmast Staysail Halliard. They hung out for over a half hour. They watched me strop the block, tie it to the Main topmast stay (I should have done that before I mounted the yards) and then run the lines through the blocks and tie them off to the pin rails.

They asked a number of questions, and watched with genuine interest in the project.  I gave them some suggestions on some styrene model kits, and may get one of them to join the modeling club with his father.

I have seen many posts on how we need to get younger people interested in our hobby. I never had a good answer to that question, but now I do. Getting out and doing some “field” work may have inspired some young boys to pick up this great hobby.

If you ever get a chance to do something like this, please consider it.  It is not easy to transport a work in progress (I spent the first hour fixing the block I knocked off of the spanker boom), and it does take some time. But from experience, it is the best way to get folks interested in this hobby.  

It was great to get back to working on the Niagara. The road trip gave me some well needed inspiration to forge ahead.
 
Here are a few photos.
 

Good to see you decided to put sails on her! I know it’s a minority opinion, but I think a sailing ship model is missing a lot when there’s no sails on her. Yours look great and I know how much additional work is involved in making and bending on the sails. 

The nice thing about a fictional ship is that you won’t be limited by “reality”. Meaning if you’re building a “real” ship and you find reference material that clashes with your subject’s models construction or parts you have to alter the kit to match the reference material. If you’re doing a fictional ship your only concern is to stay within the state of the art of the timeframe you’re working in. Now you’re free from many constraints.

It's been a while since I've been in the Vic build room, what with work commitments, time and basically being in the mood to build, we've all been there. This is a problem because trying to pick up where I left off is a nightmare and also spotting errors made in the rigging routes and having to change them.  Making/adding sails has added to the build time but I always wanted sails and expected the extra work, (Not a race)  also the rigging of a sail filled ship is difficult getting good info on, as to where goes where and to what. I have also the issue of leaving all the standing rigging and lower ratlines off to enable me to gain access to lower mast centre anchor points. This in turn puts a load on the unsupported sail loaded masts. It's certainly uncharted territory for me as a hobby but we all started somewhere. As you can see the sails are not clean, I personally prefer them to look weathered and not bright. I furled the lower main sails due to the cannons being rolled out but will be dropping the rest. So far the sails are going on and anchored and then I will be adding all the rigging that enables the raising and lowering and other fixings. All the lines, well all that needed to be are numbered to enable me to put them where I have found they live on the decks etc. Thanks for all you comments and help, it's really appreciated. 

Rigging slowly moving forward, trying to plan ahead to ensure I have access to the lower mast for tying off lines and blocks, putting spars on now and trying to replicate the real fixing which is tricky at this scale but the kit has very simplified fittings and far from how they would be fitted. Sails are pre fitted to the spars as this would be impossible trying to do in situe. Oh If any one is building this kit, fit the deck netting on as late as you can, you will catch them several times. 

A few pictures taken with a boroscope, different perspectives 

I have now completed the cutting and stitching of the sails, well What the kit says the Victory was wearing. This falls quite short of what was fully worn by the ship, and I am making the missing ones at the moment minus the out riggers used for sailing at full speed. If there supplying sails with the kit, why fall short, yeh sails hide the work but the extra ones would no more than supplied ones. This all said even the plans to make sails, fall short. People will say it’s the kits budget price but why not forget sails completely like most kits do rather than offer them and fall short. 

Put a few more sails in position, not fitted / coloured or tell tails installed but just put in position with clips to keep them organised. There loaded with dried PVA glue in the cloth, which I will airbrush with water for the final shape. Then I will add the staining, worn look.  

Sails going at a snails pace, cut, stitched, fitted to the spars and test fitted before adding tell tails and staining to look used, worn and marked. Well thats what I’m trying to do but one will see if I made the right choice to  bear sails. 

The nice thing about a fictional ship is that you won’t be limited by “reality”. Meaning if you’re building a “real” ship and you find reference material that clashes with your subject’s models construction or parts you have to alter the kit to match the reference material. If you’re doing a fictional ship your only concern is to stay within the state of the art of the timeframe you’re working in. Now you’re free from many constraints.

The nice thing about a fictional ship is that you won’t be limited by “reality”. Meaning if you’re building a “real” ship and you find reference material that clashes with your subject’s models construction or parts you have to alter the kit to match the reference material. If you’re doing a fictional ship your only concern is to stay within the state of the art of the timeframe you’re working in. Now you’re free from many constraints.

The nice thing about a fictional ship is that you won’t be limited by “reality”. Meaning if you’re building a “real” ship and you find reference material that clashes with your subject’s models construction or parts you have to alter the kit to match the reference material. If you’re doing a fictional ship your only concern is to stay within the state of the art of the timeframe you’re working in. Now you’re free from many constraints.

Just finished rattling the topmast & topgallant shrouds. I thought it was actually kind of fun. They're not perfect, but they look okay. Now to attach the yards & mount the masts. Then the real fun stuff begins... the main shrouds.
 
Here is some more useless trivia. Catharpins: I always thought it was pronounced with the th as in the. It's not. It is pronounced cat-harpin. In fact, according to Lever, they actually changed the spelling to cat-harpin to get people to pronounce the word properly. Now aren't you glad you read this?

Setting the shrouds will probably be the most difficult thing I have done on this build. The shrouds that are served are VERY difficult to seize. The line does not slide along the length. Instead it falls & catches between each wrap of the serving. If you pull the seizing too tight, it goes in between the serving wraps. If you don't pull it tight enough, it cannot be placed easily. It moves & twists when you try to wrap it.  Here is my first seized deadeye. This took close to an hour, & it's just a topmast shroud. The main shrouds will be even worse.

Have you done the shrouds already? The reason I ask is because the backstays are attached to the masthead in the same way as the shrouds, and they go on OVER the shrouds. The shrouds and backstays and forestays all have an eye seized into their ends and the eye slips right over the top of the mast and rests on the bolsters upon the Trestle Trees. Here’s two diagrams I found by googling “topmast shrouds”. You can see the eyes that went over the mastheadand are now stacked on top of the bolsters and trestle trees.

This image is fuzzy but you can see in the upper right there’s a diagram showing each individual eye and it’s sequence in the stack of eyes.

This drawing omits the backstays eyes because it’s aparently the Lower masthead but the backstays would go over the shrouds and look exactly like the eyes of the shrouds in the drawing.

Heres the real thing being set up in the shop. I think this is for the Morgan. The eyes have been leathered.

Have you done the shrouds already? The reason I ask is because the backstays are attached to the masthead in the same way as the shrouds, and they go on OVER the shrouds. The shrouds and backstays and forestays all have an eye seized into their ends and the eye slips right over the top of the mast and rests on the bolsters upon the Trestle Trees. Here’s two diagrams I found by googling “topmast shrouds”. You can see the eyes that went over the mastheadand are now stacked on top of the bolsters and trestle trees.

This image is fuzzy but you can see in the upper right there’s a diagram showing each individual eye and it’s sequence in the stack of eyes.

This drawing omits the backstays eyes because it’s aparently the Lower masthead but the backstays would go over the shrouds and look exactly like the eyes of the shrouds in the drawing.

Heres the real thing being set up in the shop. I think this is for the Morgan. The eyes have been leathered.

Have you done the shrouds already? The reason I ask is because the backstays are attached to the masthead in the same way as the shrouds, and they go on OVER the shrouds. The shrouds and backstays and forestays all have an eye seized into their ends and the eye slips right over the top of the mast and rests on the bolsters upon the Trestle Trees. Here’s two diagrams I found by googling “topmast shrouds”. You can see the eyes that went over the mastheadand are now stacked on top of the bolsters and trestle trees.

This image is fuzzy but you can see in the upper right there’s a diagram showing each individual eye and it’s sequence in the stack of eyes.

This drawing omits the backstays eyes because it’s aparently the Lower masthead but the backstays would go over the shrouds and look exactly like the eyes of the shrouds in the drawing.

Heres the real thing being set up in the shop. I think this is for the Morgan. The eyes have been leathered.

Have you done the shrouds already? The reason I ask is because the backstays are attached to the masthead in the same way as the shrouds, and they go on OVER the shrouds. The shrouds and backstays and forestays all have an eye seized into their ends and the eye slips right over the top of the mast and rests on the bolsters upon the Trestle Trees. Here’s two diagrams I found by googling “topmast shrouds”. You can see the eyes that went over the mastheadand are now stacked on top of the bolsters and trestle trees.

This image is fuzzy but you can see in the upper right there’s a diagram showing each individual eye and it’s sequence in the stack of eyes.

This drawing omits the backstays eyes because it’s aparently the Lower masthead but the backstays would go over the shrouds and look exactly like the eyes of the shrouds in the drawing.

Heres the real thing being set up in the shop. I think this is for the Morgan. The eyes have been leathered.

SETTING THE COURSE YARD IN PLACE
 
With the course yard fully dressed, I pinned it in place, and weaved the lanyards for the truss blocks and sling ropes. I used a heavy .018 tan lanyard for the sling.
 
​The truss assembly has a complex combination of a double lashing around the yard, with two 1/8 single blocks, and a single lashing around the mast.
 
l also rigged the course lifts with .018 tan rope.