Dr PR

The ratlines look good. I deliberately saved the ratlines for last because much of the rigging belays on the pin rails and fife rails and the ratlines would block access.

More progress, sort of ... Two steps forward and one step back. The fore topsail has sheets, clew lines and buntlines attached, along with the blocks for the clew tackle. This is the aft side where the bolt ropes are attached. Here is the sail installed on the fore mast. The bunt lines attach to cringles on the foot of the sail. They run up the forward side of the sail through wooden thimbles lashed to the topsail yard and up through single blocks attached to the top of the fore topmast. They lead down through fairleads on the mast top crosstrees and then belay to the fife rail at the bottom of the mast. Another picture from the rear. Things are getting crowded around the fore masthead! The topsail yard halliard, clue lines, topsail yard lifts and fore course yard lifts also run through the crosstree fairleads and down to belay at the fife rail or the bulkhead pin rails. So far the lines are running clear with no chafing. I may not need to reroute any of them! While rigging all of these lines the halliard slipped a bit, lowering the topsail yard - probably while I was rigging the buntlines. I didn't intend for the sail to billow out as if there was a strong following wind! Fortunately all of the lines are belayed with just one turn around the belaying pin, and held in place by water soluble white glue. So it is pretty easy to place a drop of water on the glued area and readjust the length of the lines. Pretty obvious are the dangling topsail yard brace pendants and locks. I have discovered that I didn't order enough of the 0.012 inch (0.30 mm) tan rope from Syren. But I did order one extra dark brown 0.012" package! I made the order calculations with my rigging spreadsheet, and I may have mixed the tan and brown ropes when selecting rope length cells. Or maybe I just used more rope than I calculated - I need about four feet more! I have ordered more. Work doesn't have to stop though. I have all the rope I need to finish the foresheets. The topsail yard braces will be some of the last lines to belay. I don't look forward to that! They belay on the rail at the base of the main mast, and that is one of the most inaccessible places on the model! It took me one hour each to rig the main topmast staysail halliard and sheet on that rail! The topsail yard braces belay inboard of those two lines. I'll have to devise some tool to improve my chances of rigging these lines!

Beautiful model!

Very nice model! I started my current topsail schooner build almost 40 years ago, and am finally getting close to the finish! Like you marriage, family, house and work really interfered with my ship modeling! I am looking forward to your finished model - however long it takes.

Some things are simple. For example, the forward bulwark stanchions were attached to the planksheer with metal "L" brackets with trapezoidal sides. There are a lot of these and photo etch would ensure uniformity. I may also get a lot of metal hooks in various sizes. The pilot house window shades and their supports could be made with photo etch or by hand out of thin brass. Ditto venturis. If here is room on a sheet I will add these. The scuttles and hatch comings had metal flanges. Antenna foundations, searchlight support flanges, smoke stack exterior and bulkhead plates. It would be easier and more uniform to make these by photoetch. But probably the largest number of pieces will be from all the minesweeping gear on the aft part of the main deck. There are some pretty elaborate frames, decks and cable reels. I haven't modeled these in CAD yet so I don't know the total number of parts. I will build as much as I can from K&S brass parts - if I can get them.

Paul, Thanks. I hadn't heard of fuzzy thread. I'll have to look around at Joann's to see what it looks like. As far as the nomenclature goes, here are some references. Chapelle's The American Fishing Schooner (page 401) said chafing matts were wrapped around schooner topping lifts - what I am interested in. He said "Chafing gear was of rope yarns, made up into 'baggy winkle' and wrapped around the lifts or jacks ..." Falconer's Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1769) said "Mat ... a sort of thick web or texture, formed of spun-yarn, or a variety of strands, or separate parts of small rope, or a number of rope-yarns twisted into foxes. The foxes are therefore larger or smaller, containing a greater or lesser number of rope-yarns, in proportion to the thickness of the mat intended to be woven. Mats are commonly used to fasten upon the outside of such parts of the standing rigging as are exposed to friction of other ropes ... The largest and strongest sort of these mats are called panches." Bjorn Landstrom's Sailing Ships (page 179) says "To protect the [schooner] mainsail from wear the boom lifts have been given baggywrinkles." Underhill's Sailing Ship Rigs and Rigging (pages 108 and 112) says "chafing gear" is also called "puddening." "... old rope, canvas, oakum, rope-yarns, etc., made up to required shape an fixed on stays, rails, etc., to prevent chafing the sails." Lever's The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor (page 68) says the rope/yarn wrapped around the anchor ring is called puddening. Nothing else that I could find about protecting sails from chafing. "Service" is commonly used to describe line wrapped around ropes, or "serving" the line. However I have seen a reference (which I can't find right now) saying that anything wrapped around ropes to prevent chafing is called "service." Most of the references I searched through don't say anything about chafing gear, mats, baggy winkles/baggywrinkles, panches, puddening, service or such. So take your pick!

My brother-in-law was "driving" Voyager 2. He calculated the orbits and the engine and thruster commands to get the craft to Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Really cool stuff, even if the paint did dry sssslllloooowwwllllyyyyy!

I made the mistake of visiting Caltech (in 1969) on one of the days when the winds pushed all of the LA smog to Pasadena. You couldn't see more than two city blocks. I walked around campus for a while until the smog started getting to me. I realized I was getting dizzy and might pass out so I went into a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant just to find a place to sit down. The air inside was breathable. In the '60s smog killed all the vegetation that was planted along the Long Beach Freeway into downtown LA. They replaced it all with plastic shrubs and trees, complete with plastic song birds! Plasticland. After I married I had a brother-in-law, three sisters-in-law and an assorted bunch of nieces and nephews who all worked at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories) in Pasadena. We joked that it was a family business. I recall flying down in the mid 1990s to be at JPL for the Galileo rendezvous with Jupiter. We had great views from the airplane until we started to descend into Burbank, and then the air became browner and browner. But the smog wasn't nearly as bad as in the 1960s.

Mark, I bought a 2 oz bottle of Sig-Bond years ago at our local hobby shop. It eventually became thicker. Then I bought an 8 oz bottle about five years ago from the same store when I restarted the Albatross build. It is still good. Unfortunately, the pandemic killed that hobby store (along with on line competition). So now I don't know where I could find it locally. You can order it on line from the manufacturer: https://sigmfg.com/collections/sig-glues They also have other glues and a selection of tools.

Mark, Thanks. Tissue paper and diluted white glue would be easy. I don't know if it would have a smooth finish. I was wondering if there is a way to make the "fuzzy" finish. But at 1:48 scale maybe just painting with flat paint would be enough.

Well it has been "thought out" many times. Each time I think I have the final solution I run across more information that makes me think it out again! I have a bit more progress to report. I finally got the fore course yard in position with all the rigging (I think)! After failed seizing, broken hooks, adjusted sling, and I don't remember how many other hassles it is hanging in the right place! There were other reasons for delays in continuing with the model. I traded in my 15 year old car for a new model. It has more bells and whistles than the US Navy! I have spent much of the week reading about 950 pages of the User Manuals to figure out how to make all that stuff work! And I had to wire a new circuit in the garage so I can plug it in for charging. Lots of fun! And the non-profit I am Treasurer for learned that the Federal funding for a three year project has been cut off! That has left us scrambling! We have contracts with a couple of businesses for the project, and some materials for the project that are already paid for. So we may have an unfinished project, wasting a lot of taxpayers money for the work already done. I guess this is the new "government efficiency." I wonder how many unfinished bridges there are in the country now? So it has been a hectic week. I am glad to be back at ship modelling!!

JD, I just came across a reference to your "bead detail" in the hull planks. Chapelle's The American Fishing Schooners (page 419) calls these "cove lines." He says: "After painted bands, multicolored, went out of fashion, coves about 3/4"wide were cut into the planking. One cove was an inch or thereabouts below the waist line and well above the quarterdeck scuppers. The lower cove had its top along the lower edge of the planksheer of the main deck. ... Discharge from the quarterdeck and main deck scuppers stained these coves, so the fashion did not last long. In the late 1880s the cove below the waist line alone survived, painted yellow. This practice continued to the end of the schooner construction at Essex." Now we know!

Mystery solved! For what it is worth, you aren't the only one to switch two bulkheads. On my Cape scratch build I carefully cut out each bulkhead, using pasted on prints of each one drawn to scale. Then after I had them in place on the center piece/keel piece there were nasty wavy high an low spots when I was fairing the bulkheads for the planking. I finally realized that I had mis-labeled the two parts when I was preparing the template drawings that were glued to the plywood to guide cutting out the parts! I had to take a bit off one and add some to the other. This is why I recommend pausing and measuring everything before starting the planking - or installing the deck. After the planks are on it is too late to correct mistakes.

Chafing mats, also referred to as "service," were placed on ropes that rubbed against sails and caused wear on both the rope and sail. Here are some examples: These photos are of the replica vessel Lynx. Several sources indicate they were made up of bits of worn rope and canvas, sometimes called "baggy winkle." I am looking for ideas for making representations of this stuff for scale models.

I have been ignoring this build while I try to finish my schooner build. I ordered and received some "S scale 1x10 Stripwood" (1/64 x 5/32 inch or 0.4 x 4 mm). This will be used for the outer layer of planking. I have been studying the curves of the hull and planning how I will apply this outer layer. I got the new planks from Fast Tracks Hobbyworks, Inc., in Point Dover, Canada. This is the Mt. Albert Scale Lumber that Gary recommended. **** I have mentioned how I avoided the draft by joining the Navy and some about my tour on the Cape. But the story of how I first arrived at the ship is an adventure in itself. Like most people who live in the US east of the Rockies, I knew California, Oregon and Washington were somewhere out west of those mountains, and I had learned the State names and their Capitols in grade school. But that was about all I knew about the West Coast. When I got orders to the Cape in Long Beach, California, the Navy provided airline tickets. All I had to do was get on the plane. As we were coming in to LAX (Los Angeles International) I recall looking out the window and seeing snowcapped peaks. "Cool!" I thought. My orders were to Long Beach Naval Station in California. I had no idea where Long Beach was (this was long before Google Maps), but I assumed it was on the coast because it had a beach and a Navy Base. I figured I would have to get another flight from LA to Long Beach, and wondered why the Navy just left me in LAX, so I went to an airline desk to book a flight. The fellow at the desk looked at me with a straight face and said "You can't get there from here!" Then he turned to help another lost soul. Well, that was a surprise! So I found an information booth and asked how to get to Long Beach. The attendant told me to take a taxi or the bus. Aha! Long Beach must be close to Los Angeles! I figured a taxi would be more expensive, and on my minimal ($68.00 per month?) Officer Candidate's pay I wasn't rich. So I decided to take the bus. I asked the attendant where the bus station was, and she said "over there," pointing out the door. LAX is a horrible place if you have to change airlines, or find the bus, because it is huge and it seems as if it is miles between the buildings. So "over there" turned out to be a long walk carrying my luggage. After half an hour searching for the bus station amid dozens of buildings I was exhausted. Then a taxi pulled up. "Hey buddy, where you going?" he asked. "Long Beach" I replied. "Hop in" he said. I may have asked what it would cost, but then told him I wanted to take the bus. "Well why did you stop me?" he shouted. "You are standing in front of the bus station!" and roared off in a cloud of smog (Los Angeles air). It was a featureless red brick building with no windows or signs - just a high wall with an unmarked opening. Sure enough, it was the bus station. I guess everyone on Earth is supposed to know unmarked buildings in LA are bus stations. So I rode the bus through endless expanses of roofs and pavement for at least half an hour, and finally arrived at the bus station in Long Beach. I was supposed to call the Duty Officer at the Long Beach Naval Station to find out where the Cape was. I found a telephone booth (remember those?) and looked in the phone book. Long Beach Naval Station wasn't listed! And no Long Beach Naval Shipyard – the largest on the West Coast!! Strange! I called the operator and she exclaimed "There's a Navy Base in Long Beach?!" This was starting to feel like an episode of Twilight Zone! I told her I had orders from the Navy to report there. She said "Just a minute." After a while she came back and said excitedly "I found it! It's in Los Angeles!" Sure enough, Long Beach Naval Station and Long Beach Naval Shipyard are in south LA, and not Long Beach. The operator connected me to the Duty Officer. And after a while he said the ship was in Al Larson Boat Yard in San Pedro, wherever that was. Before he hung up I asked where San Pedro was. He replied – as if everyone on Earth except me already knew that – "It's across the bridge" and hung up. What bridge? I eventually called a taxi and asked him if he knew where Al Larson Boat Yard was. "In San Pedro?" he asked. "Let's go" I replied, and we were off to find the ship. Well, there are two bridges, one from Long Beach to Terminal Island where the Navy facilities were, and another from there to San Pedro in far south Los Angeles. San Pedro was a pretty seedy place, with lots of bars and sailor hangouts. But shortly we found Al Larson Boat Yard. I could see the top of a gray mast above the high fence around the place. The taxi driver got out and banged on a door, and soon someone opened it. Yes, the Cape was there. I paid the driver and thanked him, and lugged my bags through the door to my first duty station. However, by this time it was a bit after 1700 (5 PM) and we weren't supposed to report to a new duty station after working hours. But I had just spent a long frustrating day trying to go where you can't get, and I was tired! So I dragged my stuff up to the gang plank and after a while found the deck watch. He called the duty officer, who turned out to be the fellow I was relieving. He was very happy to see me - even after working hours - because he was getting out of the Navy as soon as I arrived. I slept in the XO's bunk that night. So that was the beginning of my time on the USS Cape MSI-2. Here is my first photo of the ship, in Al Larson Boatyard. **** Oh, and the snowcapped peaks I saw flying in to LAX? I didn't see them again for six months. The offshore breeze blew the thick LA smog back into a high dirty brown cloud that sat over the LA area, and nothing was visible through it. But one morning I got up and opened the drapes on the window of my BOQ (Bachelor Officer's Quarters) room and there were the snowcapped Santa Monica Mountains in the distance! Strong winds the night before had blown the smog over to Riverside. The Cape's crest carried the motto "None Better." Somehow "You Can't Get There From Here" seems more appropriate.

Paul, It really doesn't get better at larger scales. At 1/4 inch scale (1:48) you just have more space to fill in with extra lines and details! It's a lot like having a larger desk or work room. All unoccupied space will eventually be filled. I think that is somebody's "law." Parkinson's Law?

You might find ponce wheels on jeweler's tool web pages.

Mark, That beam definitely needs to be raised to meet the level of the other bulkheads. I have had this happen with kits too. Perhaps the bulkhead is a bit too low. If so you might see some problems with hull planks around the turn of the bilge. It looks like the low spot is just aft of the main mast. Maybe there are structural pieces to frame the mast opening (partners) that rest on this bulkhead. On my Albatross build I had to add shims to the tops of several bulkheads to get a fair line for the deck. You may also need to shave a bit off the tops of other bulkheads to get a good lay of the deck. **** When bending planks it is best to heat the planks to make the bending go faster. I use a small quilting/plank bending/sail making iron and usually bend the planks in situ on the hull. to get the proper curves and twists in the planks. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37060-uss-cape-msi-2-by-dr-pr-148-inshore-minesweeper/?do=findComment&comment=1074225 https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37060-uss-cape-msi-2-by-dr-pr-148-inshore-minesweeper/?do=findComment&comment=1075263

Mike, For future reference for deck plank grout see these links: https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=602855 https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19611-albatros-by-dr-pr-mantua-scale-148-revenue-cutter-kitbash-about-1815/?do=findComment&comment=605072 I have also seen planking tests on some other threads on the Forum.

I use chain nose pliers (round node pliers) to start the loop and hook, and then to finish to a desired size I use ordinary needle nose pliers to tighten them around the shank of an appropriate size drill bit clamped into a vise. I do the same to make eye bolts and such. While holding the loop closed with the pliers I give the wire a tug to make a sharp bend at the loop where the shaft of the eye bolt or hook leads away from the loop. I do recall seeing someone with several chain nose pliers of different tip diameter to make different sized loops. I use K&S brass rod instead of ordinary brass or copper wire. The rod is hardened and much stiffer. It makes sturdier hooks and eye bolts. A friend who makes model railroad scenery kits showed me how to straighten and harden ordinary brass wire by clamping one end in a vise and giving the other end a hard jerk. It works, but I still prefer the brass rod. I think I have seen someone using piano wire, but it is very hard and stiff, and harder to work than the brass rod. I finish the loop by soldering - I originally left the loop end unsoldered, but really fine rope and thread sometimes managed to slip through the gap (with Murphy's help). I use a citrus based liquid flux (I like the orange smell), placing a small drop at the wire end. I have a soldering iron with a small tip. I place a small drop of solder on the tip and touch it to the joint. The liquid flux draws the solder into the joint. Sometimes I have too much flux or solder and the solder flows into the loop on the hook. I do have some woven copper solder remover - or you can use ordinary multistrand wire - to remove the excess solder. But I usually just clean the soldering iron tip (on a wet sponge) and then put the tip into the loop and draw the solder back down the shaft of eye bolts. For hooks I use a small diameter drill bit to drill out the solder from the loop. After the soldering and shaping is done I use Birchwood Casey Brass Black to blacken the hooks and eye bolts. Here are some of my home-made hooks on the right, and Syren 4 mm plastic hooks on the left. My metal hooks are stronger, but I have not mastered the technique enough to get consistent hook sizes. For more consistent results I think I need to make jigs of several sizes that the hooks can be wrapped around. I also haven't worked out a way to get the mousing tip on the hook. Steve seems to have figured that out. I'll have to practice a bit more. On real hooks the mousing end is tapered to a point, but I think that is a bit more detail than I want to attempt on these tiny hooks.

Your problem is obvious - you have an Apple product. They seem to make an effort to be incompatible with everything else. If you have Windows (you mentioned Microsoft) you can use the Print Screen key ("prt sc" or something similar) to capture an image on the screen. Then use the Microsoft Paint program (supplied with windows) and paste the saved screen image. You can edit the picture to change size, crop and such. Then save the picture as a JPG file. This will work with the Forum and virtually every other program..

1/8 inch blocks small? Try working with 3/32 inch (0.083 inch, 2.4 mm)! You did a nice job on the gun tackles! Did you make the hooks yourself?

Steve, I have been using Duco or something like it since I was a kid (1950s). It soaks into and adheres to anything that is porous. In the test I used a metal point to work the glue in between the rope strands. But I think it is fluid enough to soak in on its own. The polyester rope tends to unravel after it is cut. I always stick the freshly cut ends into the opening of the Duco cement tube to get a drop on the rope end. Then I twist the rope end between my fingers and the glue soaks in. When it dries (a few seconds) the end of the rope is stiff enough to push through holes in blocks and such. Even though I wipe my fingers immediately on a paper towel, I do go around with dried glue in my fingerprints! But unlike CA it wears off quickly. Duco does leave a dried film on anything it touches. In the case of the ropes it isn't noticeable because the surface isn't smooth. But if you look closely with a magnifier you might be able to see traces of the glue. Where it soaks into wood surfaces it can change how stains appear so use it sparingly. For most wood to wood jobs I use Sig-Bond aliphatic resin. I think Titebond is about the same.

I decided to test several "glues" to see which was best for bonding polyester rope. I used Syren Ultra Brown 0.018 inch (0.45 mm)scale rope in these tests. It is a medium size rope that provides a good surface area and volume to test the adhesives. The "glues" were: White glue - Office Works acid free school glue. It was used full strength, undiluted. Sig-Bond - an aliphatic resin. Duco Cement - an acetone solution of nitrocellulose. Loctite Super Glue Gel Control - cyanoacrylate (CA). Zinsser Bulls Eye Shellac - from spray can. I sprayed into a small bottle and then painted the shellac onto the rope with a brush. I twisted two strands of rope together and clamped both ends. Then a liberal amount of the adhesive was painted onto the strands. I used a metal needle to work the liquid between the two rope strands. Then the rope was pulled tight and twisted to keep the strands together while the glue dried. After the glues had set for 12 hours I clamped the ends of each strand with forceps. One of the forceps was clamped to the edge of the work table. On the other forceps a line was looped around the handles and the other end of the line was attached to a plastic bucket hanging above a small waste basket. The waste basket was there to catch the quarters when the bucket fell - they tend to "splash" out of the bucket when it lands. I have a box full of US quarters (25 cent pieces) for spare change. Quarters weigh 0.2 ounces or 5.6 grams. These were my test weights. With the bucket suspended from the lower forceps I added quarters to the bucket until the weight was enough to break the glue bond. Or that was the plan. Here are the results. Shellac - 0 g - The rope strands separated before I got them clamped into the forceps. White glue - 1187 g - With 2 lb. 9.9 oz. pull the cement failed. Sig-Bond - >2080 g - With 4 lb. 9.3 oz. pull the rope unravelled and pulled from the forceps before the glue bond failed. * Duco Cement - 2196 g - The glue bond failed with 4 lb. 13.5 oz. pull. Super Glue - 1410 g - the rope broke with only 3 lb. 1.7 oz. pull before the glue bond failed. The rope strands were tightly glued together but I could pull them apart by hand. * * The Sig-Bond and Super Glue failures were due to experimental design. When the rope was clamped in the forceps it tended to unwind. With the Sig-Bond the unwound strands pulled out of the forceps. With the Super Glue the strands frayed and cut along the edge of the forceps jaws. To do the experiment properly some means must be developed for holding the ends of the rope strands securely without damaging the rope. It is clear that shellac alone does not bond the rope strands together. It does serve to stiffen the rope. White glue was easily the weakest of the four glues. Sig-Bond produced a strong attachment between the rope strands, but it dried with a thick off-white crust on the ropes. Duco Cement and the Super Glue did not leave a noticeable residue on the ropes and both were better than white glue. Duco smells like acetone - it is the familiar "glue" smell from my childhood, and I don't find it objectionable. So little is used it isn't a hazard. Super Glue has an odor that really bothers some people. It makes my eyes burn if I use it a lot. I think I will use the Duco Cement from now on. Duco starts getting sticky in 20-30 seconds and sets in a minute or so, leaving plenty of time to tidy up a seizing. Even the "slow" Superglue gel starts to harden before I have time to finish the turns in a seizing, without reworking them, leaving a lumpy seizing.

Before you put a lot of planks on the hull clamp one on each side at the top of the bulkheads. Look at it from straight on bow and stern and see if both sides have symmetric curvature. I see a fair number of models that have wavy or asymmetrical curvature to the cap rails on the bulwarks because this last check wasn't performed before starting the planking. Your measurements and sanding probably will be enough, but it doesn't hurt to make this last check. This is a last chance to get it right.