JerseyCity Frankie

Small update...installed the Fore gaff, main gaff and driver boom. There is a lot more to learn regarding rigging...like which knots etc. But that takes time I guess. Nice to discover which line is for what part to move or hold still.



 

Finally named her...🙂
Used tape to measure the position.
And found letters at Cornwall Model Ships at the right size and color. 
Afterward I applied a thin layer of varnish.

Ive got a great idea! Let’s just stick to the topic and refrain from personal nonsense? The greatest aspect of MSW is the openness of the discussions on the many topics pertaining to ship model building.

Hi Friends:
After a little less than a year I finally finished my Baltimore Pride II. This was my first ship without sails and I showed it as if I were in a dry dock, a different view of all my other models.  Here some pic´s:
Saludos, Karl

Hola a todos:
After almost a month I have new updates.  One important decision was to put or not to put the sails, and finally I decided that this will be my first model ship with no sails and present the ship as if it were on a dry dock or cradle.  However I decided to place most of the rigging except those that hold the sails. Here you can see the rigging of the main mast finished.
 
Next step, the Foremast rigging.
 
Saludos, Karl
 

Ive got a great idea! Let’s just stick to the topic and refrain from personal nonsense? The greatest aspect of MSW is the openness of the discussions on the many topics pertaining to ship model building.

Wouldn’t it be better to attack the points I’ve made rather than make a personal attack on the person making the points? What aspects of my opinions of ship model restoration are wrong, in your opinion? 

A  model that has not had its rotting rigging replaced is simply going to keep deteriorating. Also, prior to falling into the hands of the conservator, the models physical properties were altered and deformed by the rigging as it shrank. Wasn't the restoration begun because of this damage? The shrinking rigging is very often the sole cause of the damage that has befallen the spars. Allowing the original rigging to keep negatively effecting the rest of the fabric of the model ALSO comes with ethical considerations.

My advice to anyone reading this and contemplating the restoration of a ship model is NOT to attempt to retain as much of the old Rigging as possible. The rigging on an old model is the first thing to go as it's made of efemeral material. It gets brittle and has lost its strength and by the time it's in your hands the rigging is falling to pieces. If you "restore" a length of line on a model that has snapped, your repair job will only last as long as it takes for the next stretch on the same length of line to part. In my view, if any part of a length of model line has parted, the ENTIRE length should be replaced. If your goal in restoring the model was to stabilize it for a future in a collection, you aren't doing other conservators any favors by returning this model to the collection as it's rigging will continue to deteriorate-the repair of that one broken section will NOT prevent the rapidly increasing rate of decay that has already been underway on the model and is sure to continue.

Ive got a great idea! Let’s just stick to the topic and refrain from personal nonsense? The greatest aspect of MSW is the openness of the discussions on the many topics pertaining to ship model building.

So the guns are taken on board but much to hurried, the board of ordnance did not have the time to repaint the carriages in the new color.
 
Have to change that still ...
 

 

 

 
And now just the Trafalgar slice missing 🙂
 

 
XXXDAn
 

Thank you. I'll try to do my best.
Cont.




L'Artesien in 1:48 scale is big model. Compare to my 1:96 Bellona
 


 

This model of the M.V. Wyhuna was built by my non paternal grandfather in 1955.
Its a beautifully crafted scratch built model and hard to believe its 65 years old. 
It was built to enter a competition run by the Argus newspaper, which was a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia. Established in 1846 and closed in 1957. It was the general Australian newspaper of record for this period. 
Im told he won three competitions, this model is at the family home, another went to a sister and a third went to be displayed at a modelling club. 
The Wyhuna is a former Port Phillip pilot cutter and Australian Maritime college training vessel. Built by Ferguson Shipbuilders of Port Glasgow, Scotland. 
Its main task was to lead ships through Port Phillip heads renowned for being a very dangerous stretch of water which claimed many ships and lives. 
In recent years it was apparently saved through donations and returned to Melbourne, but I can't find a lot more about where it is today.
I grew up with this ship always sitting on a mantle piece and never really took a lot of notice of it. But now at 53 I've taken to modelling wooden ships, I've no doubt that now I have some time this was actually my inspiration.
Cheers
Peter. 

Wouldn’t it be better to attack the points I’ve made rather than make a personal attack on the person making the points? What aspects of my opinions of ship model restoration are wrong, in your opinion? 

Update April 30 2019.
 
Can't be any happier. All sails have been fixed to yards and furled in position.
Now the actual rigging can start with shrouds and stays, etc.
 
Of course the yards look misaligned  Nothing is fixed yet!!!



 

 

 
A clean-up of this mess is in order to start the rigging process!!!

 
Thanks for watching. As always all comments are welcome.
 
 
 

Hello,
many thanks to you all for the LIKES.
 
Currently I am still working on the shrouds of the mainmast.
For this I show some pictures serving the shrouds and attaching of the dead eyes.



Furthermore, you can see a comparsion with an original seizing


Here are some pictures of the current status:



 

Its not every day on the internet that you see the CEO of a company step in personally and address the complaint of one of the companies customers! And even on the rare occasion we see this happen, seldom do you hear more than some platitudes and vague generalities.
Its refreshing to see this kind of response, an actual precise explanation from a person that could have very easily pretended not to know about a problem.
Model Expo has been an important part of this hobby and I wonder how many of us would be making models today if the company had not been there over the years offering tools and kits? I wish all hobby companies were as attentive to their customers.

Hi Paul,
 
Yes, I was aware of the dates and the correct flag for 1790, but I kind of argued with myself that as the ship survived until 1814 then either flag would probably have been OK ! (at least within the right time period.)
(The correct 1790 flag would have been easier as I wouldn't have had to have it flipped and it couldn't have been displayed upside down either  )
 
I'm sure there are (in fact I KNOW there are!) a few more "slightly less than accurate" features on the ship so I'm not unduly worried about the flag!

Although it's a few weeks since the last of the rigging was done, Leopard's keel is still not about to rest on its proper base yet.
There have been several small peripheral jobs to be done and although they're 'small', they're 'big' in terms of the time it is taking to get them done!
Finally have the anchors prepared and ready. One particular item (well, two of the same) that has been particularly challenging to rig has been the anchor buoys. They have been equally as challenging and frustrating as any other aspect of the rigging on the entire ship - - - but they're done now . . . YAY!
Creating the basic buoys was fairly easy . . . their rigging was something else >>>

The plans I have show nothing of how the anchors were stowed and my knowledge of this is limited to what I have seen of other modellers stowage of their anchors. There appears to be no 'standard' method of stowing and lashing anchors so I have done what fits best around and along the fore channels on both sides.
A couple of blocks are mounted in 'stand-off' metal brackets and are attached, one each side, to the hull between the main and mizzen masts. I'm sure they'll have a proper nautical name but I don't know what it is. I believe these blocks are used in the running rigging and are associated with the fore course sail. Here's the one on the starboard side >>>

The main lower stunsail yards were a welcome uncomplicated venture for a change! Here's the starboard side >>>

Up to this point (after 9 years) this ship has had no real identity. It was time to change that. I really wanted to create the lettering myself . . . and I DID try, but when I tried to cut these tiny 5mm letters out the results were pretty appalling. When you see them you'll understand why they weren't going near the ship! 
I opted to buy a sheet of self adhesive vinyl letters >>> 
The rudder was a project I made several years back and it's been in 'the box' since. With its pendants >>>
A small detail, but there are so many of them are the coils for looping over the belaying pins . . . AND they're very frustrating trying to get them looped over (and to stay looped over!) when there are now so many lines making everything very congested. I've done around 20 of them and there must still be at least another 20. (I'm scared to count them!)
As far as I'm aware, apart from these coils, there are just the stern lanterns to be done then Leopard can rest her keel in her proper base.

Thanks for your comment, Mustafa.
 
'Front end' rigging all done now. Martingale fitted and also rigged.

That vertical 'stick' above the martingale isn't the bowsprit flagstaff, it's just a cocktail stick inserted where the flagstaff will eventually live.

I then fitted the main topsail yard >>>

Although the remaining 3 yards are 'ready and waiting' I've held off fitting them for now as there are a few other tasks that now need attention.

Among the other tasks are the anchors. The 2 smaller anchors were a bit of a disappointment when they arrived.  They only consisted of the basic undrilled anchor and the 2 pieces that make the stock. No flukes or metal to create the ring were included.

 The above picture also shows the flukes that I had to make. As I had no brass of the correct thickness I cut these flukes from 1mm thick maple that I had previously used for other tasks. I epoxied them on to the anchors. It didn't matter that they were wood as it all ends up black.

I'm going to post a dissenting opinion of this book and warn model builders to keep a strong sense of skepticism in their model building minds when taking information from it. Peterson says he's based all his rigging on only three unidentified models for the three rigs he is describing. Red flags should pop up right there. That's not a strong base to build on. Although there are many detailed illustrations in this book I see inconsistencies and inaccuracies on almost every page on every drawing. How much of this was due to Peterson not understanding what he was seeing and how much is due to the models themselves having built in inaccuracies, we will never know. But my point is that there are SURELY a lot of inaccuracies in the book.
sadly, there aren't easily available alternatives for the subject matter he is dealing with. There SHOULD  be a real Rigging book available for those interested in rigging these great smaller vessels. I'm surprised these books don't already exist.but this book is NOT the source it should be for accurate information. There are Schooners  Cutters and Lugers sailing today, there shouldn't be any reason we can't have a book that is perfectly accurate.
if anyone wants discussion on examples I've found of bogus information in the book I would be happy to go into detail. But I will point out just one example so as not to make this too long. Page 18 is devoted to the Toprope. It's the line used to set and strike the Topmast. He's depicted it with a tackl rove to disadvantage SPLICED onto its hauling end. This line is now too short to allow the spar to lower to the deck AND with the block rigged in its end, it can not be unrove. The spar can't reach the deck since you will two-block at the odd masthead sheave with the spar only halfway down the mast. Even if you could reach the deck, you couldn't move it away from the base of the mast since you can't cast off the tackle. In actual practice a Ships Toprope is not left in place but rather it's only rigged when setting or removing the Topmast, so it shouldn't even be on the model. It does NOT require, nor can it have, tackle on its end for hauling, as in actual practice the line is taken to the windlass. With the tackle rove upside down, hauling the spar aloft is made unnecessarily difficult and shows someone didnt understand the use of blocks and tackle. The block spliced to the end of the too short line completes the picture of a giant inaccuracy. The idea that Peterson devotes an entire page and two drawings to this suggests to me that he was not being carefull when planning the book, he should have caught this mistake or at least explained that it was an eccentricity of the source material, if that's what it was. It's damaging to our shared understanding of rigging that this book is out there in the world full of so many inaccuracies, allowing model builders to unwittingly perpetuate mistakes. This is one of the worst examples in the book but believe me: there are MANY other  issues with this book.

WOW - this is spectacularly well done!  You are a builder after my own heart.  This should be a magazine article, as it so perfectly illustrates what is possible when it comes to broadening the subject matter that is available to plastic builders.  Very, very impressive!

Thanks Pat, Carl, Kevin, Jean-Paul and 'the likes' for not forgetting me! 
 
Update on a modification made right back at the start of the build.  I had initially planned to add a bowsprit step to achieve 2 things: a little more 'interest' on for the upper deck for those peeking through gun ports and a more robust engineering solution to the attachment of the bowsprit.  Both of these are still valid, but a third reason has also just become apparent to make me very glad I decided to mod this.  Bottom line, I can't quite see myself moving forward and rigging 'Jason' at this point, which would still be a long way off if past progress is any indication.  However, I would like to leave that option open for the future, and this allows me keep moving forward without making any sort of final decision.
 
Some angled 'wedges' were added to the first deck frame to match the angle of the bowsprit step which was then glued into place.  A pin was then inserted at the center position of the bowsprit position.  Maybe went overboard on securing this, but don' think you can be too careful, it was pinned at the bottom, PVA glue secured to the beam, and then pinned into the beam.  While positioning all this it was important to keep checking the clearance over the figurehead, I'd worked through this already when making the original modification and luckily no further complications arose.
 

 
A hole can then simply be drilled into the end of the bowsprit, and once the aft end is appropriately angled, this sits very snuggly and securely even without glue.  The benefit is that this is removable and replaceable even with the fo'c'sl deck in place.  I've made up a 'stub' that will probably be used for now, and also a dowel that can be made into a bowsprit should I also go in that direction.  The fore bits are also now glued in position with a few other details which will likely be lost when the fo'c'sl goes on, but its fun to experiment.
 
In other news, there was some months ago an addition to the Wellington family, her name is Mazie, and shes a loveable 14 week old 'Whoodle' (Wheaton terrier/poodle mix).  While she has many particular skills, dockyard assistance is not currently one of them...

I probably have to wait until I start working on her for real and do more on my other kits. Here you can see her in comparison with my Granado and Snake.  

Finished model! At least finished enough, he was very pleased indeed. Perhaps I'll do some more work with pencil on the deck when I visit him again. 
It was a very interesting project. Certainly without that correspondence and motivational discussions for such a rare built, I wouldnt have done it for my self.