JerseyCity Frankie

Aren’t we lucky we’ve got the worlds best hobby? I feel sorry for other people that don’t build ship models! 

Aren’t we lucky we’ve got the worlds best hobby? I feel sorry for other people that don’t build ship models! 

Photos. Always helpful. I’ve not seen your stern decoration but I look at shots of the actual Ship and note there is a central raised circular plaque. My advice could be to cut this circle out of your decorative piece then attach the Port and Starboard wings of the decoration so their outer edges land where the plans indicate. Now all you have to do is make up the difference at the center. And I imagine this can be done with paint? Then glue the circular plaque on over the repair. I imagine this approach would be a lot easier than replicating the whole piece.

The lower yards are called the Course Yards and they are more or less fixed in position and always remain at the same height above the deck regardless of sails on them being set or furled. The yards ABOVE the Course Yards are nearly always “Hoisting Yards” meaning they are hoisted up (using hailyards) when sail is set on them and then lowered down again when sails are furled. (Split topsails and split tagalents partially break this rule). The upper and lower positions the hoisting Yards can occupie are more or less determined by the masts they are attached to via their Parrels: the yards are hauled up as high as possible and lowered down as far as possible. 
A shocking number of ship model builders don’t understand this and one often sees models with furled sails with all the yards hoisted high into their upper positions, a condition they wouldn’t ever realy be in on actual ships. Some model builders build their ships “bare polled” but position the yards high. There is ample room to debate this practice. 
Another trap to fall into is misunderstanding the Lifts on hoisting Yards. Many smaller spar upper yards have lifts that don’t run, they are fixed lengths of line that can not be adjusted from the deck, they are only tight when the yards are in their lower positions and when the yards are hoisted up, the lifts droop dramatically. (Topsail Yards however have lifts that do run) Many model builders don’t understand these lifts and depict them as being tight with the yard hoisted.

I have completed the main boom with topping lift, and main sheet, mainsail outhaul. All based on Peterson's "Rigging Period Fore and Aft Craft".

 

I have been making very slow progress.
Have added two furled sails. Flying jib, and fore gaff sail.
Made using tracing paper dyed with tea. Edges folded over and boltrope glued on. Furled when wet. Then allowed to dry.
Messy. And the rope tends to come off a little when you furl them. However, once furled - this is not very visible.
I think it gives a reasonable likeness of worn and slightly stained canvas. 

On going sail-making. Fore staysail, topsail and topgallant sail complete.
Temporarily fixed.
 

 
 

I have started on sail making.
Using vellum as a material.
Died with tea.
Small steel wires in seams.
Here are preliminary results.
Will post more info about the process shortly.

Slow progress. 
Ratlines finished.
Two yards in place but not quite finished.
One set of braces in place. Note that these start at the main shrouds, and return and run through a block attached to the shrouds. This is how she is rigged in the contemporary print I have published above.
Forecourse lifts.
Topsail sheets.
Lettering on the stern. 
Wooden grating around the binnacle.
Main top rope.
 
Small little pieces falling into place. Each one more satisfying than the last.
 
Tim.

The lower yards are called the Course Yards and they are more or less fixed in position and always remain at the same height above the deck regardless of sails on them being set or furled. The yards ABOVE the Course Yards are nearly always “Hoisting Yards” meaning they are hoisted up (using hailyards) when sail is set on them and then lowered down again when sails are furled. (Split topsails and split tagalents partially break this rule). The upper and lower positions the hoisting Yards can occupie are more or less determined by the masts they are attached to via their Parrels: the yards are hauled up as high as possible and lowered down as far as possible. 
A shocking number of ship model builders don’t understand this and one often sees models with furled sails with all the yards hoisted high into their upper positions, a condition they wouldn’t ever realy be in on actual ships. Some model builders build their ships “bare polled” but position the yards high. There is ample room to debate this practice. 
Another trap to fall into is misunderstanding the Lifts on hoisting Yards. Many smaller spar upper yards have lifts that don’t run, they are fixed lengths of line that can not be adjusted from the deck, they are only tight when the yards are in their lower positions and when the yards are hoisted up, the lifts droop dramatically. (Topsail Yards however have lifts that do run) Many model builders don’t understand these lifts and depict them as being tight with the yard hoisted.

The lower yards are called the Course Yards and they are more or less fixed in position and always remain at the same height above the deck regardless of sails on them being set or furled. The yards ABOVE the Course Yards are nearly always “Hoisting Yards” meaning they are hoisted up (using hailyards) when sail is set on them and then lowered down again when sails are furled. (Split topsails and split tagalents partially break this rule). The upper and lower positions the hoisting Yards can occupie are more or less determined by the masts they are attached to via their Parrels: the yards are hauled up as high as possible and lowered down as far as possible. 
A shocking number of ship model builders don’t understand this and one often sees models with furled sails with all the yards hoisted high into their upper positions, a condition they wouldn’t ever realy be in on actual ships. Some model builders build their ships “bare polled” but position the yards high. There is ample room to debate this practice. 
Another trap to fall into is misunderstanding the Lifts on hoisting Yards. Many smaller spar upper yards have lifts that don’t run, they are fixed lengths of line that can not be adjusted from the deck, they are only tight when the yards are in their lower positions and when the yards are hoisted up, the lifts droop dramatically. (Topsail Yards however have lifts that do run) Many model builders don’t understand these lifts and depict them as being tight with the yard hoisted.

Tarred nylon sein twine is certainly the best string anyone could ever want! Memphis Net and Twine is the name of the company I get mine from, the brand in your photos is unfamiliar to me but looks identical. When you consider what hardwear stores now charge you for cotton string of indifferent quality and the limited diameters to chose from (two), spending a little more to get a much larger amount of higher quality string with a choice of many diameters makes perfect sense.

I took the eyebolts I made up yesterday while watching football and completed the eyebolt installation on the interior of the hull. There are another twenty or so that are on the outside of the hull, cat head etc. I will do these after I get the main rail installed. Scroll saw arrives tomorrow (UPS promises) but I decided to start the main rail since several of the pieces are almost straight. Nothing a disk sander and some sanding sticks can't handle. The stern transom piece was somewhat of a struggle but I got it and the two adjoining pieces on the sides aft cut, sanded and fitted to the hull. Having the gun ports makes holding the rail on really easy. No excuses for it not being exactly where you want it. So here is the hull with three pieces of the Alaskan yellow cedar main rail in place for a trial fit.
 
Here is a close-up look at one of the 1/8" (3mm) single blocks. I used 32 ga (.012") annealed steel wire to do the stropping. I saw the "practicum" on the site on stropping the blocks using .008" black line and the 3mm hooks from Syren but thought this would be easier and maybe faster. I am only about a third the way through these (and half way through the doubles using the same wire) so I am not sure how it will all come out in the end. For the singles, I just caught the .012" light brown Syren line between the wire and the block at the bottom and then seized it when I was finished with the stropping. I cut 7" of line for each block so have about 6" left after the seizing - hope that is enough. My plan is to just take the line to the deck and cover the end with a coil of rope. Another thing to look forward to - making 200 rope coils.

“Without turning it into a hedgehog  or something..”. Lol!

Thanks for your comment, Tom.
 
In my post above I said the Leopards were inconspicuous crouching there on the beakhead and I was less than happy with them.  They were almost invisible because of the colour of the basecoat I had applied, so I removed them and re-painted them with a paler base colour then 're-spotted' them.  The spots look black BUT they are dark brown.  Here's a 'before-and-after' comparison >>>
They may be a little bit pale but at least now they can be seen on the ship. (I felt they were a waste of time previously, and didn't notice how invisible they were until I looked at the photos.  They didn't appear as invisible in reality but I find that photos seem to give a false impression.)
The drawing of the figurehead appeared to show her with 'blowing-in-the-wind' fly-away hair.
I couldn't imagine how I could carve that, so I glued thin strips of black tissue paper to her head hoping to create that illusion.
Also, she has had further breast reduction work done as, although her waist was reasonable slim, above there she looked like a black-haired Dolly Parton! > > >

Finally rigged the mizzen topmast shrouds then made a start on the ratlines.  Got 9 done on the port side and about 3 on the starboard side then decided to have a break away from all that tying of knots > > >

It felt like time to have a try at creating the figurehead. The 'carvings' on the stern had been made from air drying modelling clay as I had never done any wood carving and ended up with reasonably acceptable items.
Out came the clay and made a couple of attempts at the figurehead - - - both were disasters!  The figurehead is much bigger than any of the stern carvings and it is also 'full width' and I just couldn't get that clay to work for me.
A small scrap piece of softwood (I think it was Pine) served as a 'testbed' for my first ever attempt at wood carving. I expected it would have been as much of a disaster as had been my clay attempts.  I glued the drawing of the figurehead onto the wood and roughed out the profile on the bandsaw then proceeded to try to give her the shapes she needed with a craft knife and some riffler files.
I left some wood on at the feet in order to have something to hold while I tried carving. I also cut a central groove in the excess wood so that it would sit over a dummy beakhead.  After initial carving I was surprised that it almost resembled the drawing! > > >

I made 'her' with her face looking forward - the drawing showed her face looking to starboard but I wasn't sure if that was just meant to be a representation. Also, my 'woman' didn't have a nose and at first I couldn't figure how I could ever give her a nose. I eventually drilled a 0.8mm hole and glued in a tiny piece of wood and she has now ended up with a rather pointy nose! Also, at first, she was a bit fat and I don't think she would have been very happy with that so after considerable carving and filing and sanding she now looks a bit slimmer.
Initially, the softwood carving was just meant to be an experiment and I acquired a piece of Bass wood in order to make the "real" figurehead but it turned out worse than the pine edition and it also broke in a couple of vulnerable places, so I've gone with my first one.
In the picture above the starboard Leopard can be seen crouching behind her feet.
Although these Leopards are quite tiny, as well as being only half width, I decided to carve them from the Bass wood. I glued a drawing on one side of a piece of the wood, roughed out the profile again on the bandsaw and carved both sides of the 'Leopard' on the same piece of wood > > >
(Yes -- you're right . . . nothing on that piece of wood looks like a Leopard!)
Back to the bandsaw to slice each Leopard almost off the wood > > >
(Still nothing looking like a Leopard yet!)
Maybe something resembles a Leopard now? > > >
One of the Leopards crouches somewhat inconspicuously behind the feet of the figurehead > > >
 

Here are some photos of the longboat. About 90mm long at 1:72. Its pretty teensy. But a good little kit with most of the wood being pear. Sadly the keel and prow are in very crumbly ply which is hard to work with, and has a poor finish.
Stained the wales, rail and top plank with permanent marker to get some tidy colour, without the difficulty of painting at this little scale.

The model depicted wasn’t on public display. It’s across the street in their vast storage facility.

The model depicted wasn’t on public display. It’s across the street in their vast storage facility.

The model depicted wasn’t on public display. It’s across the street in their vast storage facility.

This is the end!  L'Hermione is completed!
Started in March 17, it took 18 months. I believe, or I calculated roughly about 800-900 working hours.
 
Its been a great pleasure and fan. The thing is: never stop working even a few hours a week.
 
Here are the finished pictures

Mizzen galant in position.... and just another sail and then end is near. Anchors and some minor righing work is still do be done.

So main galand and top galand in position

It seems am really sailing her... its a great feeling! 
 
 Today I  started playing with the though the build is comming to its end. 18 months is a long time.... I never believed I was going to see her finished. And thats because most of the builds in our blog start and remain unfinished. 
 
It has been a great experience and fan... I enjoyed every moment.... I still do. The sails will finished this month or latest beginning of Oct.

Fore course sail taking a lot of wind....  and the wind is blowing over port side.