jpalmer1970

I have been focussing on the display case over the last couple of weeks. I had previously purchased a nice piece of American oak for the base board of the case and I am fortunate enough to have a neighbour with a well equipped woodworking shed who was able to turn the somewhat rough looking length of wood into a very presentable piece of oak. He ran it through his thicknessers, cut it down to size and squared it all off etc. So far I haven't decided whether to add any coats of wop or other finish to it as I quite like the current look. I also used an offcut of some Tasmanian oak I had to make 6 little feet for the base board so that it stands 10mm off the table on which it will eventually be placed. The feet will be glued and screwed to the base once I have finished the rest of the work on the base itself.

I also arranged for the manufacture of an acrylic cover made from 6mm thick acrylic. It is a five sided case that can just be lifted on and off the base board. The dimensions for the case are 180mm wide by 690mm long by 720mm tall. This took a couple of weeks to be made at a local factory and I was able to collect it earlier this week. I haven't unwrapped it just yet as I'm trying to keep it as clean and scratch free as possible!

The plan is to rout a 4mm or 5mm deep slot in the baseboard matching the dimensions of the case so that the base of the case can sit in the recess nicely where it will be held safely in place and can't be knocked askew. I also hope to add a nice chamfer to the edges of the base board just to make it a little more pleasing on the eye. Mounting holes for the brass rods will also need to be drilled in the base board to hold the model securely in place. Hopefully they are all things that can be done this coming weekend.

I have also received a nice brass plaque (3 inch x 5 inch) I ordered online with the name of the ship and the build details. This will be placed on the base board inside the case.

There has been very little work on the model itself, apart from a little touching up of the paint here or there and a check to make sure that the rigging is still correct and everything is in place. I am trying to avoid moving it in fear of knocking something about now I am so close to the end! 

Hello and welcome !

The first step in making the ensign was preparing the modelspan. I cut a section of the material and stretched it over a frame made from an old box and then applied a solution of watered down PVA glue across the material to strengthen and stiffen the paper slightly.

Once that had dried I then applied three coats of Vallejo white paint over a large area of the paper. Once that had dried the paper was then turned over and three coast of white were applied to the second side of the modelspan. I have found to my cost before that making just one flag isn't a good idea if re-dos are required, and so my plan this time was to apply the paint in such a way that I would be left with multiple versions of the ensign. I had thought that the French ensign was simply three equal sized sections of red, white and blue but it turns out that isn't the case - in fact the proportions are blue 30%, white 33% and red 37%. Apparently this helps make each section look equal in size when the ensign is fluttering in the wind - you learn something new all the time!

So having painted a large part of the background white I then marked off two white sections with some 10mm tamiya tape - these would be the white central portion of the ensign. I then applied three coats of Vallejo red and blue paint to the modelspan going well past the ends of where the ensign would finish so that it could then easily be cut to size. This was then repeated on the second side of the modelspan. I had thought French Blue may have been the correct shade but it looked very bright to my eye so in the end I opted for Imperial Blue.

I ended up with enough painted modelspan to make about ten ensigns in all! I cut the modelspan in half through the central blue section and trimmed one part down to the size I wanted my ensign to be -  30mm x 20mm.

The staff for the ensign was made from a length of 4mm oak. This was firstly reduced to 3mm diameter on the lathe before being tapered at one end to 2mm diameter. Three brass split rings were cut to size and glued around the staff as shown in the kit instructions. A loop was made in a piece of Syren tan 0.2mm line to fit around the top of the ensign staff and this length of line was then glued in a fold of the blue portion of the ensign.

All that was then required was to slip the loop over the top of the ensign staff and tie it off towards the bottom before trimming away the excess line. I then spent a little time rolling and coaxing the ensign into a shape that looked a little like it was just hanging in the still air - I didn't think it would look right to have it flying proudly in the wind on a yacht without sails!

The ensign staff was then glued into place on the stern of the model. This pretty much wraps up all of the construction of the model but there is still a little more work to do in touching up paintwork and checking the rigging etc before I can call it finished. I also have to work on the base for the display case and prepare that for mounting the model.

Looking very nice !

I decided that I couldn't really rig the sprit and the yard on my model without including sails as my understanding of the kit instructions seemed to indicate that these two spars are basically attached directly to the gaff topsail. I therefore decided that these two spars would be stored on deck, which was nice and easy! The next step in the build was a general tiding up of the rigging. I firstly made sure that all the rigging lines were secure and the knots varnished and then I trimmed away any excess rigging line. I then set about making rope coils in both the brown and tan Syren rope (6 brown and 11 tan). To do this I used a simple jig or four pieces of thin brass rod mounted into a piece of spare wood. These four brass rods then acted as a guide around which a length of line could be wound in a figure 8 fashion before being tied off with a couple of half hitches. One end of the line was then trimmed next to the knot whilst the other end was left about an inch or so in length. This gave me a coil of line with one end left hanging from the coil. These coils could then be hung on belaying pins or glued to the deck where the standing rigging was tied off.

I then moved onto the installation of the side rail stanchions. There are four of these fitted each side of the deck and I previously painted these in the brass Vallejo paint and predrilled the holes for them before the deck had become cluttered. It was therefore an easy task to drop these stanchions into place. The side rail (or rope) itself was made from 0.20mm brown Syren rope and was secured at each end to an eyebolt inserted into the deck.

I also released the mast hoops from the piece of tape that had been holding them out of way on the mast. Finally I installed the tiller and my latest (and last attempt) at the lifebelt. As mentioned previously this was made from some yellow plasticine and I had added four small parrel beads on some of the 0.20mm Syren brown rope around the edge. I also cut out and attached my very small decals showing the name of the yacht 😀

I am getting very near the end of the build now and really all that is left to do as far as the model itself s concerning is to make the pennant mast and install the ensign. A paper French ensign is included with the kit but I will try making my own from some Modelspan as this should hopefully make it look a lot more realistic.

Here are a few more images of the model as she stands at the moment.

On 1/10/2024 at 11:19 AM, BobG said:

...end up with something that at least looks acceptable even if it is not accurate!

I think that is a great summary of my approach here. I am sure Artesania Latina have greatly dumbed down the complexities of the rigging, but then they don't really provide any details about what they have done!

I spent the best part of a morning poring over the basic rigging plans provided with the kit trying to work out which lines I could still include without adding sails to my model. I realised that I had made a mistake with a couple of the blocks I had previously fitted on the mast as it became apparent that these were also the starting point for a couple of lines. I therefore has to re-rig two of the blocks with a small ring on the other side to which a running rigging line could be attached. As mentioned previously the plans show that some blocks are to be attached to rings sewn into the sails themselves and to get around this problem I decided to attach hooks to the end of the rigging lines, figuring that these could hook onto rings in the sail just as easily. This therefore allowed me to rig those lines and omit the sail - I simply hooked the two hooks for the top and the bottom of the sails together. It is probably far from nautically accurate but it seemed to be a sensible alternative to me. I did this for the tack and halyard for the jib and also the tack and halyard for the flying jib. The rest of the running rigging was fairly straight forward, though I did deviate again from the instructions in regard to the blocks attached to support the jaws of the gaff. The instructions show a single block attached to both sides of the jaws through which the throat halyard runs to a block on the mast. This seemed pretty complicated and my reading of John Leather's The Gaff Rig Handbook showed that there were various other ways the throat halyard was rigged to the mast - I decided to attach a length of line across the gaff jaws on which a single block was attached via a ring. The throat halyard then ran through this block and supported the gaff jaws as normal.

On previous builds I have always struggled finding a good way to secure the parrels or trucks securing the gaff jaws around the mast. I had previously found it difficult to secure the line holding the parrel beads tightly enough and also have some way of making a secure knot. Previously I had simply tied one end of the line to the gaff jaw, threaded on the beads and tried to tie the other end of the line off on the other gaff jaw. This time around I decided to pass the line though the inside of both ends of the gaff jaws and then I threaded the beads onto one of the ends of the line.  I then took the other loose end of the line and threaded that through the beads from the other direction and then each end of the line was then threaded from the outside of the gaff jaws through to the inside. The ends of the line were then looped around the mast and I tied the lines off together at the rear of the mast. The knot at the back of the mast is obscured by the end of the gaff and so should not be seen. I am sure this isn't necessarily the best way to do this but it is certainly a better way that my previous attempts.

All the lines were tensioned and tied off and the knots were given a dab of varnish. I am pleased to have been able to complete the installation of the rigging despite the lack of help provided by the kit instructions. Luckily none of the visitors to my house have an expert knowledge of sailing, so whilst my solutions may not work in practice I think they will pass muster for the casual observer! 😀

The next task is to cut away the excess lengths of lines and then add the false rope coils to make things look a little more ship shape.

Great work Thukydides. It is a laborious process but the end result is certainly impressive! 👍

Looking really good Andrew ! 👍 

Happy New year everyone!

I glued the bowsprit and the mast step in place. The mast itself was only inserted into the hole in the deck rather than being glued in place. I should be able to fix it rigidly in position using the standing rigging. The rigging thread supplied with the kit isn't that great so I swapped it out to use some thread from Syren, 0.30mm brown thread for the standing rigging and 0.20mm tan thread for the running rigging.

I began with the bowsprit which was all fairly straight forward. I don't know the nautical names of all of the various lines so I can't use them when describing what I did so please accept my apologies for any confusion that may arise from this. There are three lines running from eyebolts fixed to the hull to the tip of the bowsprit, one on either side of the hull and one at the fore, and these presumably give the bowsprit stability in those directions.

I should perhaps explain at this stage how I secure these lines in place on the model. Rather than using the multiple overhand knot method as described previously I have found that it is easier to use a simpler method in these circumstances given that there is far less room to work so close to the model. The following images show the method I use, in this instance when securing line to a split ring for one of the backstays. Firstly the rigging line is doubled through the split ring (or eyebolt/holt/block etc). A length of the thinner brown Mara thread is then used to seize the line to the ring. This is laid along the rigging line and temporarily secured with some tape on the left hand side.

A loop is then made in the Mara thread and the loose end is then wound around the rigging line and the line of Mara thread six times, working back towards the split ring.

The loose end of the Mara thread is then passed through the loop and both ends of the thread are slowly drawn tight. The knot is secured with some varnish and left for a while before the long ends are trimmed away.

Although the pictures show this being completed in the vice it is possible to carry out the same method just using your hands to hold the lines and this is how I do it when securing the shrouds to the mast or chainplates, for example. 

The running backstays were the next items to be rigged. There are two either side, one secured to an eyebolt at the top of the lower mast and the other secured to an eyebolt at the top of the topmast. These were tied off on cleats fixed to the cockpit coaming. I then installed the forestay and the royal stay from the masts to the bowsprit. There are three shrouds on either side of the mast and two of them run through the spreader bar fixed to the base of the topmast. These were all secured to the chainplates on the deck. 

With the majority of the standing rigging installed I was then able to return to each of these lines and adjust their tension so that the mast was held securely, had the correct angle of rake to the rear, and was vertical when looked at from the stern or prow. The instructions then suggest the boom is installed and whilst the inventory suggests that there is only one line used as the topping lift (on the port side of the mast), the illustration in the picture manual show that there are two lines used for this, one on either side of the mast. I decided to follow the pictures and installed topping lifts on both sides. I also installed the spanker boom sheet at the rear of the boom to hold the boom securely in place. All of these knots securing these lines to their relevant cleats etc have now been varnished to make them a little bit more secure and the excess line mostly trimmed away. I will return to them towards the end of the build to put coils of thread over them to represent the excess line - I find it far too difficult to coil line in situ on the model.

Unfortunately things seem to get a lot more complicated from here onwards. I have noticed that some of the images in the instructions show that rings or blocks are attached directly to the sails and that the rigging lines then attach to these in turn. As my model isn't going to have any sails I need to think of a workaround for this as I would still like to have some of the running rigging represented. I may perhaps seize some hooks to the ends of the running rigging lines and then I can hook them to eyebolts etc, that was the running rigging can be present but the sails omitted. There are some lines that seem to be sewn directly to the sails, such as the jibsail sheets, so I may just have to omit those from my model.

Here are some pictures showing the progress so far.

Welcome to MSW ! Good luck with your project. I am sure you will receive lots of useful advice.

I have been able to make some good progress with the build in the last few days - it is amazing how much more time you have when you don't have to go to work 😃

I finished stropping all of the blocks and then attached them to the mast, the various spars and the deck. There weren't actually that many of them to do compared to Alert so it didn't take long at all. I also attached the topmast to the lower mast and added the spreader bar. I also added the eyebolts that hold the belaying pins at the base of the mast and two cleats, the latter items again filched from some spares from previous builds. The instructions suggested adding the thick lead cleat castings as used on the deck to the mast but these just looked too clunky to my eyes, hence the swap to the wooden versions. Here are some images of various parts of the lower and topmasts before and after gluing them together.

One tricky Item to make was what the instructions call the lee fange spanner boom which is situated to the rear of where the tiller will be placed. It holds a block that holds the boom sheet and is made of a piece of brass rod 1.5mm in diameter which sits in two eyebolts in the deck. Attached to the rod are two glass beads which the instructions name as trucks and in between the trucks sits the two brass hoops I made earlier to which the block is attached. The problem that arose was that the glass beads have a 1mm wide hole in them and so cannot slip over a 1.5mm diameter brass rod! It is also not possible to widen the hole in the beads by drilling or filing, as unsurprisingly the beads shatter pretty easily! In the end I swapped the beads out for two wooden rollers or sheaves which could fit on the brass rod - another example of the pretty poor planning from Artesania Latina. It always pays to keep lots of spare parts and little items on hand even when you intend to stick pretty much to the kit specs!

I also decided that I didn't like the pedestals I had made a few months ago so I made another pair, this time using pieces of 16mm Tasmanian oak dowel. All I had to do was cut the slots to match the hull shapes and give the pedestals a couple of coats of wipe on poly.  The pedestals will eventually be reduced in height but I will firstly need to get the baseboard ready before I can do that. The baseboard is also made from oak so I am hoping that it matches nicely with the pedestals and the masts and spars. I also had to fabricate a couple of smaller turnbuckles for the rigging of the bowsprit and the forestay, and these were down in the same manner in which I made the chainplates - gluing eyebolts into a short length of brass tube.

So the next task is to fix the bowsprit and the mast in place and then the rigging will start. I have decided not to include sails on my model and I'm not sure if that will help or hinder the rigging process. The Artesania Latina instructions for rigging the model are not clear at all unfortunately. There are a few line drawings on the back of one of the plans and some photos of parts of the rigging in the manual but I think I will have to work it out as I go along.

I started work on stropping the various blocks that need fixing to the deck and the masts and spars. I thought I might detail the process and tools I use for this in case it is of assistance to anyone.

I am lucky to have a variety of fly tying tools which do double duty for fly tying as well as this sort of rigging work with my model ships. I certainly find the rotating fly vice a great help in holding small items with its adjustable jaws. It is also much more solid than a set of quad hands or a third hand type tool. I also use some hackle pliers to securely grip small items or thread, I have a good pair of sharp scissors for accurate trimming work, and some varnish and a needle to secure the knots when completed. Of course it isn't necessary to have a fly tying vice but I would certainly always use it in preference to other options, especially as it has this movable arm attachment which is very useful for holding the hackle pliers in any chosen position.

The blocks that are provided in the kit are a little chunky so I have swapped them out with 3mm pear blocks obtained from Vanguard Models. I am also using some of the Syren 0.20mm brown thread as the strop and some Guterman Mara 120 thread to secure the strop. Before starting any of the work with the blocks I make sure that the hole in each block is nice and clear by running a small drill bit through the hole to clear any obstructions or rough edges.

I begin by holding the eyebolt in the jaw of the vice and threading the 0.20mm rope through the eye and securing both ends with the hackle pliers.

A length of the Guterman thread is then placed over the two strands of the strop and secured underneath with an overhand knot. A second overhand knot is then tied on top of the strop rope and then another one back underneath the strop. I then add a little dab of varnish to these knots before opening the hackle pliers and trimming off the short end of the strop rope. This is done near, but not too close to, the knots.

The long length of strop rope is then threaded around a block and this is held in place with the hackle pliers. These are positioned so that there is a gap of a few millimetres between the eyebolt and the end of the block. The length of strop rope is then brought over to the left of the eyebolt so that it is parallel to the section that has already been secured with knots.

The Guterman thread is then placed over both lengths of the strop and a series of overhand knots are added, alternating them above and below the strop rope. I try to position the knots next to each other, rather than on top of each other, so that they proceed down the strop towards the block which results in the block being held tightly and securely.

Finally a double knot is tied adjacent to the block and then further varnish is added to secure the knots in place. 

I don't trim the remaining excess lengths thread for some hours to ensure that the varnish has had time to set. This ensure that the knots won't unravel if I am a bit enthusiastic with the scissors when I do eventually trim the ends away. 

Here is the finished eyebolt and block ready to be added to the model.

I want to thank everyone for the interest you have taken in my build of Pen Duick so far. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope you have a great New Year!

Jeremy

Most of the recent work on Pen Duick has concentrated on making the remaining masts and spars. The lower mast and bowsprit had been drilled and tapered previously but now I did the same for the boom, the gaff, the foremast, the topmast, the yard and the sprit.

The technique was the same regardless of which piece I was working on - I firstly drilled any holes for eyebolts or other metalwork in the full sized untapered Tasmanian oak dowels and then used the lathe to resize the dowels and taper according to the dimensions on the kit plans. Two coats of wipe on poly were then applied to the finished piece before the metalwork as added. Brass collars made from brass tube were then fitted where required, along with eyebolts and other pieces such as cleats and chocks. Some eyebolts will have a block attached to them and so these have not yet been added as it will be much easier to rig the blocks to the eyebolts whilst the eyebolts aren't fixed in place.

The gaff was the first one I made, as this was just a length of 4mm Tasmanian oak dwelling cut to the right length. The gaff jaws were made of 2 pieces of brass strip and formed to the appropriate shape. It was drilled and pinned to the gaff.

Three wooden chocks were also added, these were leftovers from my Alert kit. The section of wood at the far left is what the instructions call a cable hole. It was made from a 2mm thick piece of oak strip.

The yard and the sprit were also fairly simple spars to make. They started off as lengths of 4mm dowel which I reduced to 3mm on the lathe before tapering each end even further down to 2mm. Finally the spars were cut to size length wise - I had left them extra long to allow for better setup in the lathe.

The next dowel was for the foremast. This was again formed from the 4mm oak dowel and all that was required here was reducing the diameter to a consistent 3mm. A brass tube collar and eyebolts were again added as required.

The boom was made from a length of 6mm oak dowel that was reduced in diameter to a consistent 5mm along its full length. Again there was a fair bit of metalwork to attach to this, including a cleat that I scrounged from further leftover parts from my previous build of Alert.

Finally there was the topmast to make. This was length of 6mm oak dowel that needed to be reduced to 5mm and then tapered to 3mm. A 4mm brass collar was added to the top to which eyebolts were fixed. I also sanded two parallel edges to the heel of the mast so that this could fit securely in the yoke of the lowermost. The yoke and the cheeks were cut from a piece of 2mm oak and I used the parts supplied in the kit as a template for making my own versions.

So that is now most of the wood work completed on the mast and spars, and the next job will be to rig those blocks to the eyebolts and then get them attached to the various spars. 

Here is a picture of the model with the lower mast and topmast just slotted into place. As you can see it is quite a tall mast and I want to do as much work on it as I can before finally fixing it in place just to minimise the chance of knocking it in my small work area!

I haven't had a great deal of time to work on the model this week but I have been able to make a little progress. I continued working on the bowsprit and glued all of the brass collars and eyebolts in place. The two eyebolts on the brass pillar near the centre of the bowsprit proved to be a bit tricky to fit as the vertical brass piece is very thin and there really isn't much depth into which the stems of the eyebolts can be glued. i found that I could put one eyebolt in place but then when I tried to put the other one in as well it would push out the first one! Clearly having two separate eyebolts wasn't going to work so eventually I put one eyebolt in place with the stem left at full length poking through the brass pillar. I then used tweezers and pliers to curl the eyebolt stem into a circle to form the other ring. It was pretty fiddly to do but I got there in the end thankfully. Here it is all ready to be installed on the deck - but I will leave it off for a while yet, just to make handling the model a little easier on my small workbench.

I was also able to work on the lower mast piece. This is a 6mm diameter piece of Tasmanian oak and as with the bowsprit I first of all used the mill to drill a lot of the required holes for the eyebolts and other attachments whilst the dowel was still a uniform shape. I then used the lathe to give the mast a gentle taper to 4mm diameter at the top. Two coats of wipe on poly were then added to slightly darken the oak. 

I have also been experimenting with my plasticene trying to make the lifebelt. I have a had a few goes at rolling out a tube of the required size and squashing it into shape and my attempts are getting better, but it is still not quite uniform and symmetrical. I am wondering whether making a cutter, like a biscuit or cookie cutter, of the required shape may be easier and then simply cutting out a lifebelt from a slab of plasticene - I may give that a go this week. One success I did have though was with some waterslide decal paper I purchased from eBay. The lifebelt of the Pen Duick has the name of the boat stencilled on it and so my lifebelt will need the same. I wasn't sure if it would work but it appears that waterslide decals can be fixed to plasticene, as shown in the trial run below!

Thanks Bob! A lot of my workarounds arise simply because the way the instructions suggest you do things seem to be too complicated for me! Hopefully, easier is better sometimes!

Hi,

I have a similar clamp to the one you describe. I find that it does depend upon the actual model and what stage of the build you are at as to what is the best way to hold the keel. I sometimes use the keel clamper but I have also find that a desktop vice (or even a pair of vices) is sometimes more convenient. Sometimes I also make a simple building board jig or cradle to hold the model, especially when a lot of the hull work has been completed. 

I have been working on more of the deck fixtures this week. The turnbuckles were the next little project and they were constructed from various pieces of flat brass strip, brass wire and a few little pulley wheels. I believe these are used to tension the running backstay in connection with the little pulley wheel structures mentioned in the previous log update. I also constructed the nicely name lee fange spanker boom, which may normally be called a horse (I'm not quite sure - basically it is a sliding attachment point for the block at the back of the boom). The instructions asks you to make this by forming two ovals from thin brass wire but it seemed to me to be easier just to squash a brass split ring into an oval shape - this way it was much easier to control the shape and size of the oval. A block needs to be attached to the split ring linking the two ovals but I am holding off on that for the moment as I like to do all of the block rigging at the same time.

I then moved on to consider the tiller and the head of the rudder stem. You may recall my rudder is non-functional as the rudder stem does not extend through the hull. Consequently all I needed to do was get a stub of dowel the right size and drill a hole in this into which the tiller - a brass wire - could be inserted. I tried to give the end of the tiller a little ergonomic shape by dipping it into a pot of black paint and allowing a blob of paint to form at the tip of the tiller. 

I also considered what to do about the lifebelt. The kit provides what can only be described as a lump of metal which is to be used as a representation of the lifebelt. The instructions want you to paint this orange and thread some rope around the outside and call it done. That doesn't strike me as very lifelike and so I wondered what I could use to make a more releasing version of the lifebelt. Online images of the Pen Duick show the lifebelt on the yacht is actually yellow rather than orange and after some pondering I realised that a local office store sold yellow plasticine. I purchased a 500g block of plasticine and had a quick go at rolling out a tube shape which could be bent to look like a lifebelt. Here is a picture of the first attempt - I realised later that I didn't get the size right initially but this is a work in progress. It was surprising hard to roll a consistently size cylinder of plasticine - my skills have obviously faded over the decades! I'll come up with a better version in due course and I have an idea of how to trick it out to make it even more realistic, but that will have to wait until much later in the build. And I also have 499.5g of plasticine left over for more attempts! 😃

I was pleased to also find some time to start working on the bowsprit. I had previously cut a length of 4mm oak dowel to use for this and began by marking out the points at which holes needed to be drilled into which eyebolts would eventually be fixed. I use a small drill bit in the Proxxon mill to make sure that the dowel was level and that the holes were drilled centrally. I find it is easier to drill these holes into the dowel before it is tapered to shape - it seems easier to keep everything square and centred that way. There were various holes ended at both ends of the bowsprit and these were drilled and then I moved over to the lathe to taper the dowel to a 2mm thickness at one end.

When I cut the dowel for the bowsprit I had deliberately left extra length at each end of the dowel as I know from previous experience that putting the dowel in the lathe to taper it can often result (for me at least) in a breakage at one end when the tip gets thinner and thinner. This did in fact happen this time too but luckily the break took place past where the end of the bowsprit needed to be.

There are three brass collars that need to be fixed to the bowsprit into which the eyebolts are mounted. I had some brass tube on hand and was able to drill and cut a section of 3mm tube to act as the collar at the thinner end of the bowsprit. I did the same with some 5mm tube for the inboard end of the bowsprit but found that this was a bit too loose. I therefore cut through the section and removed a slither of the tube so that it could be squeezed more tightly onto the bowsprit. I mocked up these collars on the bowsprit and put it in place to see how things were looking so far.

I need to paint a few more eyebolts with the brass paint in the next couple of days and then I can fix the collars onto the bowsprit properly and secure the eyebolts in place. The third collar sits near the middle of the bowsprit and actually include a vertical section pointing up from the bowsprit into which two eyebolts are fixed above the bowsprit. I will need to make this from some brass strip rather than a section of tube so hopefully I will be able to get to that in the next few days too.

At this point I glued the deck fixtures mentioned previously into place on the stern part of the deck. That is almost all of the deck fixtures finished now apart from a few blocks that need to be attached to more eyebolts in the deck. So here is where things stand now.

And also a bonus picture with the lifebelt in place just to see if it was a great idea or a ridiculous one 😃 It will get better - trust me!

Hi Bryan, There appear to be a few build logs on the site so perhaps they may be a useful resource for help with instructions and the construction order?

Looking very nice. Alert is a great kit to build!

Hello and welcome !

Well done. That is great work with the PE. The model gets much bigger now the bowsprit is attached so be careful turning it around in a small workspace !🙂

It has been a little while since the last update and whilst I have been busy with the build I don't seem to have made a great deal of significant visible progress. The first task to accomplish was the painting of the various pieces of metalwork that needed to have a brass appearance. I used the Vallejo brass paint and my airbrush to give the stanchions, eyebolts, binnacle and various other parts a couple of coats of paint. The Artesania Latina instructions show the capstan to be left as bare wood but online pictures of Pen Duick show it to have a brass appearance and a flat greenish coppery coloured top. The wooden capstan in the kit has a distinctly domed top so I sliced that off and painted the whole thing with the brass paint - I decided to omit the greenish tinge to the top face.

Other items that were given a coat of paint included the brackets for the four pulley wheels that are fixed to the deck. I believe these are to do with tensioning the running backstays - my research into the rigging is only at a preliminary stage so far. 😀  You would imagine these little pulleys to be a fairly simply item to complete as they only comprise of three parts: the U shaped bracket, the pulley wheel and a short length of 1mm brass rod used as the axle shaft. However, in their wisdom AL have made the inside distance between the two sides of the bracket 2.5mm and yet the pulley wheel is 3mm wide! I therefore had to grind down the width of the pulley wheel a little on the bench sander so that it would slot into the bracket. It was then that I discovered the next little hiccup - once the wheel is in the bracket the axle hole in the bracket and the axle hole in the wheel don't line up as the diameter of the wheel is larger than the depth of the U shaped bracket! What would have been a fairly simple job turned out to be much more involved than it needed to be simply because of the poor quality of the fixings supplied with the kit. I got around the mismatch of the axle holes by sanding a little edge off the bottom section of the pulley wheel where it sits inside the bracket - this had the effect of dropping the axle hole in the wheel just enough so that it matched with that of the bracket. Luckily you can't see that the bottom of the wheel is no longer round!

I also spent some time working on the chainplates. the instructions suggest that you just take a length of 0.8mm brass rod and form a little loop at each end of it by which it can be attached to an eyelet in the deck and to the shrouds. Six chainplates are needed and it seemed to me that it was going to be difficult to form these consistently, getting the loops to be the same size and the straight section to stay straight and be a consistent length etc. I therefore had the idea of using some lengths of 1mm brass tube that I have on hand and glueing an eyebolt into each end of the tube. This method therefore allowed me to produce much more easily six identically sized chainplates. I have attached the deck eyebolts to one end but I am leaving them off the model for the time being until I start work on the rigging as they will undoubtedly only get in the way in the meantime.

Most of the deck fittings were now glued into place - things such as the cleats and eyebolts, and the pinprick and belaying pins etc. I basically started at the prow and worked backwards along the deck - the next items to consider are the assemblies that the instructions describe as turnbuckles, these are the the lever mechanisms used to tension the backstays I believe. There is also the assembly the instructions call the lee fange spanker boom (!) to make and then I will hopefully be able to turn my attention to the masts and spars.

Coming along very nicely !

16 hours ago, BobG said:

This is the point in the build where my build stalled to a stop. I was not happy with the quality of the fittings and found the instructions confusing

I can understand that. I think I am going to be making some of it up as I go along. It would be nice if the pictures in the manual weren't quite so blury when it comes to the little details. 🧐