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ClipperFan

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  1. ClipperFan
    Rob, I meant no critique of your unique approach to recreating McKay's Clippers by heavily modifying Revell's excellent "Cutty Sark" model. For one thing, you were the only one even attempting to build "Glory of the Seas". That project is what initially gained my attention. I really admire the dramatic seascape of your "Donald McKay" and hope you complete that effort some day. Meanwhile your Glory is more and more resembling the magnificent profile of her docked at San Francisco in 1877. Her spectacular masts really match her impressive Hull. It's beginning to show exactly why Glory was so popular when she sailed into sight.
  2. ClipperFan
    Rob, while I was intrigued with your imaginative approach to modifying. "Cutty Sark" hulls to recreate McKay Clippers (a process which admittedly has its limitations due to the substantial differences between UK and American hulls) it was your scratch build of "Great Republic" which really impressed me with your in depth modeling skills. You outdid yourself with the GR and GS now appears to be surpassing even that magnificent creation.
  3. ClipperFan
    Rob, it's great to see you back in action. I can never get enough of your impressively beautiful model. Keith, now that we realize how substantial "GLORY of the SEAS" was, she would have been dwarfed by the "Great Republic." It's hard to fully visualize this but since we're all familiar with football fields, GR would have been practically 112 yards long! Imagine walking the decks of a floating football field....
  4. ClipperFan
    Vladimir, the places I know are the Peabody-Essex Museum, Salem, MA; USS Constitution "Old Ironsides" Museum, Boston, MA; South Street Seaport, Lower Manhattan, NY; Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, CT & the J Russell Jinishian Nautical Art Gallery, Stonington, CT (not technically a museum but the owner actually created and curated the Mystic Art Gallery and might know one or more Museum contacts. I'll let you know what I find out.
  5. ClipperFan
    Jared, really nice work and great detailed description of your process to create these beautifully realized deck structures.
  6. ClipperFan
    Rob, that's a very nice display plaque. It's quite reminiscent of a 2 page display in "Some Famous Sailing Ships & Their Builder Donald McKay". Key difference is your inclusion of non McKay vessels. On left are depicted evolution of McKay's Packet Ships while on the right are his progressive examples of his California Clipper Ships.
  7. ClipperFan
    "Great Republic" as originally launched was 335' long with a 53' beam while "GLORY of the SEAS" was 265' long with a 44' beam. At 1:96th scale, Glory would be 9" shorter and 9 " narrower as well. Both models would be impressive at 33" for Glory and 42" for Republic, just counting hull length alone. I always thought it would be an exciting display to see a great number of McKay's vessels all constructed in meticulous detail at the identical scale. Interestingly, McKay's gargantuan Clipper "Donald McKay actually eclipsed the rebuilt "Great Republic" in carrying capacity, making her the largest ship in the world back then.
  8. ClipperFan
    Rob, thanks for sharing some waterline equal views with us. As I suspected, mammoth "GLORY of the SEAS" in fact does dwarf "Cutty Sark" in size. However both vessels clearly are also Clipper Ships. We can also see how Donald McKay's final "Medium Clipper" really emphasized carrying capacity over pure speed for the sake of speed alone represented by Extreme Clippers.
  9. ClipperFan
    Simon, Ach, it's way too late laddie.... the "Scottish connection" goes 'fair dinkum deep' as Donald McKay himself was a Scottish Immigrant from Nova Scotia who gladly became an American citizen and one of the most innovative Clipper Ship designers of any nation. "Cutty Sark" herself is a quite beautiful lady with an yacht like loveliness to her Hull and an impressive rig as well. She well deserves all the accolades she's won over her Century and a half of service. Pity that we Americans didn't respect our own heritage enough to spare at least one of our own magnificent Clipper Ships, which we now can see from Rob's amazing comparison, in many ways, were an order of magnitude in a league of their own.
  10. ClipperFan
    Rob, it's a sad irony that the very nation that introduced and perfected the Clipper Ship has not one intact example left. Meanwhile the UK will ultimately have not one but two fully restored examples: 1869 "Cutty Sark" and the 1864 "City of Adelaide" currently undergoing restoration in Adelaide, Australia. Interestingly enough both of these vessels were Scottish built ships. I have another request in respect to the comparisons of "Cutty Sark" and "GLORY of the SEAS." If it's not too much to ask, could you elevate the UK vessel so that their waterline match up, then take some more pictures of the two broadside and in three quarter profiles, bow and stern? It would be powerful to see this dramatic comparison.
  11. ClipperFan
    Rob, welcome back and Happy New Year! While it's one thing to read and try to visualize size differences between the massive McKay Clippers and her UK counterparts, it's entirely another to see this disparity, even just in model scales. Wow! I am just blown away by comparisons of these two beautiful vessels. Thanks for sharing.
  12. ClipperFan
    George, Rob Wiederrich has a very detailed explanation as to how he recreated Glory's built masts, including contrasting white painted interiors, varnished wooden exteriors with red iron bands. It sounds odd, but it's really elegant. Happy 1st day of the New Year 2022!
  13. ClipperFan
    Jared, those gangway ladders really show how tall the "Flying Fish" bulwarks really were. Happy New Year to your entire family!
  14. ClipperFan
    My Fathers Son, I know for a fact that the Revell "Cutty Sark" is 1:96th scale while Vladimir entirely scratch built his "GLORY of the SEAS" to the much larger 1:72nd scale. This is not a true "apples to apples" scale comparison. Rob Weiderrich's scratch built replica is 1:96th, so it's still possible to get an accurate to scale comparison. Eventually, when he's completed rigging his Glory, I'm sure Rob would be willing to take some shots of the two vessels so this can be seen.
  15. ClipperFan
    Vladimir, these bird's eye views of CS vs Glory are great. What I was really hoping for as comparison was to see the two vessels broadside at "sea" level. If it's not too much to ask. As for the NRJ article, I will pick up the pace on that, for sure.
  16. ClipperFan
    Pat, my next step in our Glory venture is to submit an article to Nautical Research Journal about the journey of discovery Rob has spearheaded in our shared goal of recreating Donald McKay's last, longest lived Clipper. I'm going to submit an email inquiry to the Editor for their specific publishing guidelines. Having the support and encouragement of Michael Mjelde is a big help. As for my other projects, I'm sure Rob would be the very first to agree that's for another board, not his and I absolutely respect that. Very soon look for a new board in Research for that ongoing topic.
  17. ClipperFan
    Rob, Vladimir inspired by our exhaustively detailed research of the hull form of "GLORY of the SEAS" which I refer to as the "Rosetta Stone" of McKay's Clippers, I finally sketched what I consider the most nautically accurate reconstruction of his most famous Extreme Clipper "Flying Cloud." Every other model of this magnificent vessel only depicts her Bow as the Stem. Yet from the very beginning "Flying Cloud" was described as having identical Naval Hoods and Cutwaters as Glory. In fact, the famous color woodcut of her East Boston launch and her NY loading scenes both woodcut and watercolor also depict these devices, albeit somewhat crudely. Similar to the Bjorn Landstrøm approach, I precisely traced the lines of "Flying Cloud" then overlayed the missing nautical devices to recreate her accurate profile. End result, in my humble observation, is a much sleeker, more ornate vessel. If anyone's interested, I'd love to collaborate on a similar project like what we endeavoured on magnificent Glory. FYI I'm also very close to completing a similar reconstruction of McKay's premier Extreme Clipper "Staghound." Ultimately my goal is to finally accurately realize as many of Donald McKay's spectacular Clippers as possible, based on historical resources and contemporary images. How about it, any takers?
  18. ClipperFan
    Rob, Vladimir, while sitting in a doctor's Waiting Room for my wife's routine appointment I borrowed her notebook to doodle. There I found this rough conceptual sketch I did of the carved work above the Stern of "GLORY of the SEAS." The approach is to model these carvings similar to those which were on her carved arch of her Bow cutwater. This is still very much a work in progress but I thought you might appreciate seeing the direction I'm going in.
  19. ClipperFan
    Vladimir, Happy, Healthy (non Omicron or Delta) Safe New Year! Let's all hope and pray 2022 is a year of recovery for our entire world..... Meanwhile Vlad, please share your comparison images of "Cutty Sark" and "GLORY of the SEAS". Of course, with Cutty being 1:96th and Glory at 1:72nd there's an obvious size discrepancy but the Hull comparison would still be informative.
  20. ClipperFan
    Jared This combination of beautiful varnished mahogany board and polished brass is very elegant. It definitely adds a touch of class to your project.
  21. ClipperFan
    Jared, Rob discovered that "GLORY of the SEAS" in fact did have iron safety railings running clear across the Stern edge of her Forecastle. If you enlarge this photo of the ship's boy standing on the roof of the Boy's House looking forward it's clearly visible. That leads me to believe that such a common sense safety feature would have been incorporated on all of McKay's Clipper Ships. On the other hand, there's also photographic evidence that the 5' ladders to the rear Poop Deck in fact did not have Guard Rails on them, while the steps up to the Carriage House roof which were 2' shorter, did. Go figure....
  22. ClipperFan
    Ach! Vladimir my European friend, you beat me to the draw. Merry Christmas, the safest and happiest New Year! Rob since this is on your board, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too. I wish the same to Arina "theAuthor'sDaughter" and her wonderful dad, Mike Mjelde!
  23. ClipperFan
    Jared, You're welcome. If it helps to envision these structures, both Rob Wiederrich and Vladimir have constructed these on their Glory builds. Merry Christmas to you & yours too!
  24. ClipperFan
    Jared, As I've repeatedly observed, the versatile talent you guys routinely display just blows me away. I see you already have a typical figurehead version of this Clipper's bow. This may come as a shock to you but the way the model is designed very likely doesn't reflect the actual vessel designed by McKay. There are 3 components that comprise a McKay Clipper Bow: Stem, Cutwater and Naval Hoods. For some reason only the Stem is present on this model. The way the flying fish figurehead is simply tacked on below the Bowsprit is awkward and is also inaccurate. Instead, I've depicted a more lifelike figurehead and how it would have appeared on the actual vessel. Included are a couple photos of a genuine McKay Clipper "GLORY of the SEAS". The other pics are a sketch and its reversed traced directly from the original ship's lines in Bergen, Norway utilized to create the model.
  25. ClipperFan
    George K nice work on the anchor stocks, they look very realistic. As far as pin rail holes, I suspect but have nothing to verify, that for stowage convenience, holes were probably provided across the entire length. I can say from personal observation on the USS Constitution at least, that the bright, varnished wood was much lighter than belaying pins, which appeared to be darker, dull finish, probably due to their tougher wood construction. I hope this helps.

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