Dr PR

ANCHOR BUOY Here is a drawing of an anchor buoy and anchor from zu Mondfeld's Historic Ship Models. The buoy could be anything that floats. Some were made of layers of cork, some layers of wood, and some were made with staves like barrels. One reference said they were covered with canvas and tarred to make them watertight and resist the effects of water exposure. The length of the buoy was 1/4 to 1/3 the length of the anchor shaft. The buoys were fastened into a rope "cage" made of slings and hoops. Every reference I found showed this same arrangement with four "arms" for each sling, all gathered into an eye. However, for small boat anchors there may be only two arms for each sling. Each arm of the sling had an eye. The rope hoops passed through the eyes and the ends of the hoop were spliced together to form a circle. When the hoops were pulled tight the slings were stretched and tightened to hold the buoy securely. The upper eye on the buoy was attached to a lanyard that aided in retrieving the buoy and fastening it to the foremost shroud. The lower buoy eye was attached to the buoy rope. Several references said the buoy rope was 1/3 the diameter of the anchor cable and a minimum length of about 18 fathoms (108 feet or 33 meters). The buoy rope was tied around the anchor crown with a clove hitch. The end of the rope was laid out along the anchor shaft and tied to it with seizing. There were usually two seizings near the end of the rope, with a buoy knot at the end of the rope. Most references show another seizing around the shaft and rope close to the crown and clove hitch. The buoy rope was coiled and lashed to the forward shroud at the deadeye. For modeling purposes the rope doesn't need to be a scale 18 fathoms. Several posts on the Forum tell of clever reuse of beads, toy footballs and other similar objects for the buoy. I just carved my buoys out of a round dowel using a hand drill and files as my "lathe.". One reference gave the dimensions of a "typical" buoy, but it must have been for a "typical" ship, whatever that is. It was much too large for my 1:48 scale schooner model! I used 1/3 the length of the anchor shaft for the long axis, and that came out to be 0.572 inches (14.5 mm). The diameter is 0.318 inches (8 mm). Of course these are approximations. What I ended up with is what came from carving the buoy from a 3/8 inch (9.5 mm) dowel. I coated the buoys with shellac to seal them. When the shellac dried I painted the buoys with burnt umber (dark brown) acrylic to simulate a tar coating. The next step was to make the slings from eight lengths of 0.025 inch (0.63 mm) rope with eyes at each end. I made a tool by driving two pins into a scrap piece of wood, then cutting off the heads of the pins. The spacing between the pins was a "guestimation" based on measurements around the buoy bodies with extra rope for the eyes at the ends and an eye in the middle where the slings will come together. The only way to know for sure if the length was correct was to make one of these things - if not I get the pleasure of making more slings. I tied off the end eyes with small black thread but you could just glue the two strands together. These things are pretty small and the seizing is not that noticeable. Two of these pieces were tied together in the middle, with an eye loop in both, to form George's "4 legged spiders" or what I called "quadropuses." The next problem was to figure out how to control the eight ends of the slings while trying to wrap them around the small buoys. This looked pretty tricky and I was prepared for "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" (pardon the pun, with apologies to Shakespeare) to befall me. Fortunately Murphy took the day off and what I had imagined to be a trying exercise turned out to be pretty simple. I placed a small drop of CA (cyanoacrylic) glue at the point of the buoy, and another on the sling below the central eye. I held the sling in place until the glue set. Then the buoy was inverted the the second sling was glued to the other end. I don't like CA, primarily because I have always had bad luck with it. Almost every tube I have used hardened almost immediately after I first opened it, so I usually got only one use from each tube. I prefer Duco Cement (nitrocellulose dissolved in Acetone) because it sets pretty quickly (20 to 30 seconds) and I have had tubes last for decades. But for this job I wanted instant gratification when I placed the slings on the buoys. As my luck would have it, the cap of the CA bottle was glued permanently in place. But the entire top of the bottle screwed off so I got a few more drops from it. I didn't have any of George's small cocktail umbrella rubber bands - actually they reminded me of the little bands dentists place on kid's braces. Instead I cut thin strips of blue painter's tape and wrapped them around the slings and buoys. This actually worked pretty well. I could reposition the ends of the slings under the tape to get fairly even spacing around the buoy. Then the hoop ropes were threaded through the eyes on the sling arms and pulled tight. Looks like I guessed correctly for the length of the sling ropes! I only wrapped the ends of the hoop ropes around each other with one turn, and no knots. I put a drop of Duco Cement on the junction and worked it in with a needle point. There should be no strain on these ropes so the simple glue joint should be strong enough! Here are a finished buoy on the left and another in progress on the right. The CA cement left a white blob at the ends of the buoys and the Duco Cement leaves a shiny film. I will need to touch up these areas with burnt umber and flat black paint. After everything is dry I may coat the entire buoy with dilute white glue to hold the slings and hoops in position. I will have to wait until I have finished the ratlines before I can tie the buoys to the fore shrouds. My anchor cables are 0.065 inch (1.65 mm) diameter. The buoy ropes should be about 1/3 as large, so I will use 0.018 inch (0.45 mm) or 0.025 inch (0.63 mm) diameter tan rope.

George, Thanks for the information. The file about anchors is well done. I have found most of the information, in bits and pieces, in several of the books I have. I was wondering how to tame all those loose ends and your idea of using a (very) small rubber band is good. I don't think I have any here, or if I do I don't know where to find them! I will try a thin strip of painter's tape. But I expect Murphy to be right there to "help" me!

Dowmer, Thanks for the link for the flag. I don't know if my printer (Brother LED printer) will print on paper that thin. It is a laser-like printer with a very hot fuser, and I can't run anything through it that might melt (would destroy the fuser). That rules out taping the tissue to a heavier sheet of paper. I'll try hand feeding the tissue paper - the worst that can happen is a paper jam. Farther down in Chuck's post he shows how he makes the anchor buoys. The longboat buoys are a bit simpler than what all the books show.

I have been doing a bit of calculations for the anchor buoy and ratlines. ANCHOR BUOY Marquardt (p 192) says a "normal" anchor buoy was 54 x 30 feet (1.37 x 0.67 meters). At 1:48 scale this is 1.125 x 0.625 inches (28.6 x 17 mm). This is almost as long as the shank of the anchor on my model! Marquardt does say smaller anchors had smaller buoys. I looked for photos of models showing the anchors and anchor buoys. I found four. A = length of anchor shaft (head to crown) B = length of anchor buoy Photo A B A:B 1 0.938 0.3215 3.00 2 0.319 0.109 2.93 3 2.78 0.922 3.02 4 0.328 0.147 2.23 So actual anchor buoy length is about 1/4 to 1/3 the anchor shaft length. Since my model's anchor is very close to actual scale for a schooner of the model's size, and the anchor shaft length is 1.716 inches (45.2 mm), the anchor buoy should be about 0.57 inches (14.5 mm) long, and (using Marquardt's proportions) about 0.318 inches (8.0 mm) wide. RAT LINES (Ratlings) Lever (p 25) says ratlines were spaced 12 inches (305 mm). Marquardt (p 172) says 12 to 16 inches (305 to 406 mm), with 13 inches (330 mm) most common. Lees (p 44) says 13 to 15 inches (330 to 381 mm). Mondfeld (p 288) says 15 to 16 inches (381 to 406 mm). Chapell (Fishing Schooners p 586) says 16 to 16.5 inches (406 to 419 mm). So there you have it. Ratlines were definitely spaced just about any distance you want! For my model, an American schooner, I will go with Lever, Marquardt and Lees 12-13 inches, or about 0.25 inches (6.4 mm) at 1:48 scale. I would rather use Chapelle's 16 inches because I would have to tie a lot fewer knots!

I have printed the flag, and the flag halliard is already in position. I am trying to figure out how to fold the flag so it hangs "naturally." I need to print it on lighter weight paper. I never visited the NROTC building at OSU. It used to be a Quonset hut down by the railroad tracks. I don't know where it is today.

I have had the same problem with some of my CAD designed parts when it came time to actually make them I'm afraid the computer design is more accurate than I am when I start cutting pieces. I always make parts a bit oversized. It is a lot easier to remove a bit than it is adding it back!

I just realized that I need to add the anchor buoys and rigging to the anchors. And I probably should put foot ropes (horses) on the bowsprit and jib boom. Wonder what else I will think of before this is done. Any suggestions?

I worked for a couple of days to clean up the loose ends of the belayed lines and attach the rope loops. I left the lines longer than needed so they could be loosened and tightened as necessary to get them running right. The deck was a mess of loose ends looking more like a plate of spaghetti than a ship. After they were all glued in place I cut off the loose ends. Then I installed the rope loops I made in post #307. I did match the rope size in the loops with the size of the actual line, but I made no special attempt to make the rope coils any special length. In reality some would have more loops than others. Maybe on the next build! At the bow the lines from the fore sails belayed at pins on the port and starboard bow pin rails. Some of these lines are the sheets for the fore sails, and they must wrap around the stays of the sails farther aft. I haven't "tamed" them yet to hang in a realistic fashion. The sheets of the fore staysail pull the clew of the sail forward, causing it to fold back. I haven't figured out how I will fix this so the sail hangs more naturally. The fife rail at the base of the fore mast has many lines belayed to it. This was the most difficult part of the belaying plan - there were more lines than there were belaying pins. But by putting some of the tackle aloft - such as the yard lift gun tackles - the number of lines to be belayed and the crowding of tackles around the base of the mast was reduced. The area around the fore top is pretty crowded. The lines from high on the mast are routed through fairleads on the fore top crosstrees to eliminate tangles and chafing. Some of these lines had to be untied after belaying, pulled back, and rerouted several times to get all of the lines to hang without tangles and chafing! I was worried about getting the lines belayed and the rope loops hanging correctly on the bulwark pin rails because I had to work "blind" from outboard to get the lines hooked around the bottom of the belaying pins. The gaff sails hanging on the centerline prevented me from having unobstructed access from across the ship. It did take some patience and repeated attempts but I learned the routine and it wasn't as bad as I had imagined. The rope loops with two "eyes" to fit over the belaying pin worked nicely. I put a small drop of cyanoacrylate (CA) glue on the part of the loop that would rest against the pin rail. After the loop was in place I put diluted white glue on the top of the pin and the loops that fit over the pin. I think they worked out OK. I worried most about the four lines that belayed to the main mast fife rail. Access to these belaying points was the most restricted of all because of all the other rigging. The main problem can be seen in the picture left above. The pivot gun table is much too close to the fife rail to allow the rope loops to hang on the forward side. So the lines had to be belayed from the aft side of the rail. I made a wire hook to help pull the lines under the rail and loop them around the bottom of the belaying pins. The picture right above shows the rope loops hanging behind the rail. Fortunately there were only four lines to rig this way! There aren't many lines to belay at the stern. However, the lines there belay to cleats, and not belaying pins. This requires a different arrangement for the small loops that tie around the cleats. My pre-assembled rope loops weren't optimal for this belaying method. There are still a few more lines associated with the ship's boat to be belayed here. The ratlines and the boat are all that remain to be rigged on the model. I will be doing this bit by bit, while I resume my USS Cape build. I will also need to make a permanent base to display the ship. I did discover one more broken plastic hook - on the port cat block. Soon that will have a metal hook!

I use Squadron White Putty to fill small gaps that will be painted (it is white and stands out like a sore thumb if not painted). If you are filling larger gaps and cracks in hull planking there are better fillers. There was a lengthy discussion on the Forum a month or two ago about how to make wood fillers using sanding dust from the wood you are using and mixing it with something like white school glue (Elmer's Glue All or similar) that dries colorless. Smear the paste into the cracks and sand it after it dries. If the gaps are pretty wide (1 mm or 0.039 inch) I just shave off a thin strip of wood, taper the ends as necessary, and glue it into the crack. Use the same wood that you are planking the hull with and the filler will not be noticeable.

I agree with Trevor that you probably should have a bit more curvature in the planking at the bow. That would bring the point where they join a bit farther back. In your post #63 it looks like you didn't cut back the side pieces #21 at the bow far enough. Also, It looks like the hull sides are a bit too vertical at the top - in other words the planks should slope outwards more. This would cause the line of intersection of the planks (the stem) to angle back and intersect the gammoning knee a bit farther back. You could cut the planking back from the bow and reshape the filler to add some of curvature to the planking, and increase the outward "V" flare a bit. Or you can just live with it. No one else will notice on the finished model. The real problem will be finding a place for the gammoning ropes if the knee doesn't protrude far enough forward from the stem. I had that problem on my Albatross build. My solution was surgery on the bow to extend the gammoning knee. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=912575 One Lynx plan shows the gammoning ropes running under the knee and over the bowsprit, rather than the ropes running through an opening in the knee. However the Lynx model in the Smithsonian doesn't appear to have gammoning. Chapelle doesn't show gammoning in his drawings of Lynx or Musquidobit, although he does show this in drawings of other vessels. I have seen instances of where the gammoning was positioned inside the bulwarks at the bow. Unless you have drawings showing the the British added gammoning around the bowsprit and knee I think you can leave it off. And that means you don't need a long knee. In fact, some vessels had no knee at all, with the stem rising straight up to the bowsprit. The modern Lynx reproduction has a much larger decorated gammoning knee, but I can't see any gammoning in the photos I have. Murphy often gives us additional opportunities to practice our modelling skills.

You did not "cheat." You improved the chance of success!

There are days when nothing seems to go right. But it is amazing how a bit of sunshine can make things right again.

Nice planking job. Can't say as much for the Texas penguins! Kind of like the Wyoming jackalope. I am from Arkansas originally and we have learned to be leery of Texican exaggerations! But I do have relatives from Texas. My father's mother was an Austin, related to Stephen Austin, as in Austin, Texas. So I guess that gives me some immunity from exaggeration.

The model is fully rigged (almost) - I think. All of the sails and running rigging are in place. I still have a lot of tidying up to do to trim excess line lengths and add the rope loops to belaying points. But I think all of the lines are in place except the ratlines. The thought of tying thousands of knots for the ratlines brings nothing but joy to my heart! One more plastic hook broke. I replaced it with one of my metal hooks. I suspect it will be necessary to tighten some of the lines, but at least the all are in place (I hope)! After that the ships boat will have to be added. I have a Vanguard Models 18 foot Cutter kit for the boat.

Falconer's Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1769) says the lanyards in deadeyes were smeared with hog's lard or tallow so it slips more easily through the holes. Consequently I would suspect that they aren't tarred heavily, But the fat probably oxidized to a brown color, so the lanyards wouldn't look like new rope - unless they were new. He doesn't say anything about rat lines (rattlings) being tarred or not. But they are part of the standing rigging. Since the shrouds were tarred it is safe to assume the ratlines would be tarred also.