dunnock

Thanks for your nice comment on the ratlines Jason. Your point on the tool used (pun intended) prompted me to look them up. This link brings up a five sided version and are listed as watchmaker's cutting broaches. I also have a set of round smoothing broaches that are useful for cleaning out holes in blocks. https://www.eternaltools.com/watchmakers-cutting-broaches-set-06mm-2mm I'm sure you'll be able to find a set in the US I think a bradawl is, to use a technical description, a 'pointing thing with a handle' to make a small pilot hole before drilling. David

Hi all and thanks again for all the likes. I have been working on the ratlines for the past couple of weeks and to break up this process, I’ve been finishing off the topmasts and begun rigging the bowsprit, which will be the subject of a separate post. My daughter, being a lot cleverer than I, provided me with a PDF file of lines drawn at 5.8mm which I printed off and cut to shape to use as a guide to keep everything straight. Lees says that at the time Diana was built, the first and last 6 ratlines did not tie to the first and last shroud on each mast. To remind me, I marked these on the paper guidelines. The ratlines are worked in 0.25 Gutterman dark brown cotton thread in the usual way with half hitches on the first and last shroud and clove hitches for the rest. To begin, I tied the first run and then every 5th and then filled in. Once you get going there’s a rhythm to it but I found that pinching such a fine line makes finger and thumb ache so I could only keep going for an hour at a time. The first set on the foremast and some of these will need retying. All finished now and I have started work on catharpins and shroud cleats. I liked Ray’s description of making the catharpins in his Diana blog from 2014 https://modelshipworld.com/topic/707-hms-diana-by-ray-finished-caldercraftjotika-a-38-gun-heavy-frigate-1794/page/13/ which I shall copy with grateful thanks. 0.5mm thread is stained and then served with Gutterman thread The eyes are seized with 5 wraps of the same Gutterman cotton thread and tested for fit on 1mm blackened brass rod as futtock staves. The shroud cleats I will be using are from Chris Watton and much nicer than the white metal ones in the kit That's all for now David

Dave, I forgot to mention that I finish off by using one of these square section cutters. I'm sorry, I've forgotten what they are called but they are very useful for enlarging drilled holes. Hope this helps David

Hi Dave, It wasn't too hard. I just drilled a 2mm hole from each side using a pin vice and then gradually squared them off, again from each side, with a fine square section file. I've not tested them yet with the fid so it might all go wrong yet... David

That's a very clever solution Jason and beautifully done David

24/10/2022 Hi everyone and thanks for the likes. I’ve made some progress on the topmasts (and none on the ratlines). I’ve used the dimensions in AotS Diana and cross-referenced with Lees for tapers and diameters. The main and mizzen topmasts are almost completed with some details still to add and then trimming off the waste wood. I’m now on with the fore topmast. I planned to make them in order of size but owing to a mistake on the foremast it suddenly turned into a mizzen mast! I have puzzled over the heeling of the main and fore topmasts which in Lees are shown as being of larger square section all round than the octagonal section of the mast but only larger athwartships in the AotS and the Caldercraft plans. I have followed the AotS but I am thinking to add further pieces fore and aft to give a more balanced appearance. Heel and block from the starboard side and from forward. If anyone has a more definitive view on how it should look, I would be glad of some advice. All three topmasts. The lower sections of the fore topmast (pictured in the centre) are finished, the hounds and upper sections are to complete and details to add

Thanks again for the likes and comments. Just a short photo update to show the completed lower shrouds. Theoretically all the lower shrouds should be in 1mm rope but I wanted to show a contrast between the mizzen shrouds and the fore and main so I used 0.75mm rope coloured as before with Jacobean Oak wood stain. No real problems were encountered except that I had to re-tie a couple of the seizings because I had cut the tailings a little too close, oh and despite checking the position of the mizzen shrouds several times, I still tied a lower shroud where the topmast backstay should be. Luckily it was a simple matter to put it right. Foremast completed, main and mizzen to set The ratlines are the obvious next step but I will break up this laborious task by making the topmasts. David

I've been away so I'm a bit late to add my congratulations on the completion of your wonderful model of HMS Sphinx. I have closely followed your log and like Pegausus before it, it has been an inspiration and an encouragement in my model shipbuilding. I will be greatly looking forward to your next masterpiece. David

Thanks very much Jason, I did get a few pings last night! It's good to see you back as your superb build of HMS Jason has been a big inspiration to me. Looking forward to following you continuing with your build as you return to the shipyard. In the meantime I will continue to flounder on in my own way. David

Thanks Jeff, your comments are much appreciated. Looking at the photo of the forward deadeyes and shrouds, it looks a bit washed out. I've completed the main mast and am starting on the mizzen shrouds and will take some better pics when they are completed. David

Thanks everyone for the likes and comments With the masts in place it’s time to start rigging… All the standing rigging will be made from hemp or cotton rope coloured with Jacobean Oak wood stain, except for certain stays and ropes where I have bought dark brown cable-laid rope from ‘Ropes of Scale’. Beginning with the foremast, the first to be added are the tackle pendants. These are fully served with dark brown Gutterman cotton thread. The kit instructions suggest that a pair are fitted to each side of the fore and main mast and singles to the mizzen but Lees says ships below 50 guns had only one each side. I found it easiest to make these tackles in pairs so for the fore and main masts, that is what I have gone with. The shrouds are 1mm rope which is nearest to the calculated 0.96mm. They are laid in pairs starting with the foremost starboard pair. According to Lees, the foremost shroud is fully served and the rest served to 8ft below the centre of the pair equating to 38mm. I used 40mm for simplicity. This is slightly different from the kit instructions, which suggests that the serving comes further down the second and subsequent shrouds to about the level of the futtock stave. The first snag that I found was that despite thinking I had lined up the guns to avoid shooting out the shrouds – they weren’t and needed moving by 4 or 5mm. This meant some reworking along the capping rail and moving the timberheads to get better alignment of the gunports was required. The second problem was that as when rigging HMS Fly, I found that preventing the deadeye from rotating while keeping the shroud tight and tying the throat seizing took several attempts, particularly on the first shroud which is much stiffer because of the serving. Once the throat seizing is secure then tying the remaining two seizings is made simpler using my ‘quad hands’. The fore top wasn’t as firmly fixed as I’d thought and I managed to knock it off when laying the second pair of shrouds. However it was now much easier to tighten the seizing around the head of the mast and I wish that I’d left them all off until shrouds and stays were fitted. The lanyards are 0.5mm rope and threaded starting from the right-hand hole in the deadeye. Lees's diagram only shows shrouds and deadeyes from inboard. To help with threading, I made my own drawing looking from outboard and hope that I have them all in the right orientation. This last shot gave me a bit of a fright and made me go back and check but it must be the camera angle that makes the chains and deadeyes look out of line because they are ok on the ship The lanyards are not finally tied off and looking at the tensions in the shrouds, I think that one or two will need to be reset. I plan to do them all at the same time when shrouds are in place for all three masts. Thanks for looking in David

Thanks Allan for your kind compliments. Lees 'Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War' is a great source of information although sometimes difficult to interpret, at least for me. As to your question, cartridge paper is just a high quality heavy paper about 250g/m2. I think. A lot of card stock seems to delaminate easily when you cut it or fold it, whereas cartridge paper is just one layer. It's so named because traditionally it was used to make paper cartridges. David

Thanks Andrew for your kind comments. I'm hoping for accuracy where possible but primarily for a pleasing look to my eye. If the two go together then I'm happy.

Thanks again for all the likes and encouragement. Over the last few weeks in between completing the hull and deck fittings, I have been working on the tops. There is quite a bit of work in them and they have taken some time. But first I needed to finish the mast heads. They were completed with ‘iron’ bands made from black cartridge paper and then mast battens added made from 3x1 walnut on the main and 1mm square on the fore and mizzen masts. The battens have recesses cut in to allow for the bands. The tops started with the kit bases and gunwales but I thought that they would benefit from some extra work. I used the drawing on page 81 of the AotS Diana as my pattern and enlarged it to 1:64 scale. For the planking, I used the thinnest strip that I had, some 5mm boxwood and the gunwale was laid over the top. The batten pieces for the main top were laid according to the pattern in the AotS which is slightly different from that in the instructions. The forward pieces radiate from a point on the forward edge of the lower mast and the aftmost from a point on the after edge. The fore and mizzen tops have a similar arrangement but the mizzen has fewer battens. PHOTO This arrangement of timbers leaves little space to place the eyebolts in between. The swivel socket pieces were added and the whole assembly painted matt black The Rail and stanchions were made according to the kit instructions using 1.5mm walnut. I cut a shallow rebate in the rail for each stanchion and when all glued together seems quite sturdy. The kit instructions say to fix the buntline and leechline blocks to the crosstrees with an eyebolt but in reality they were suspended from the floor of the top just aft of the crosstrees with toggles . I thought that it would be easier to add them now rather than when the tops were fixed in place. The strop was first seized around the toggle - a 1mm square strip and then threaded through the hole in the top. Using my quad hands, another seizing was formed around the strop and set at a distance to allow the block to hang beneath the crosstree. I used a piece of scrap 1mm square strip as a spacer. Finally the block was fixed in the strop with a dab of GS hypo and the strop tied off in a simple overhand knot. The trestletrees and crosstrees were rounded at each end and the lower edges outside the area of the hole of the top were given a slight chamfer as described by Lees in the section on Tops, Caps and Trucks. The trestletrees should have a slight rebate for the mast head but as it would not be noticed once the standing rigging was in place, I decided not to bother. I used 3x4 section rather than 3x3 for the bolsters to give a slight overhang of the trestletree. Finally the crosstrees were glued in place making sure all was symmetrical. The completed lower masts

Thanks to all for the likes. I’ve added the deck fittings and checked through the plans for any missing eyebolts around the hull and added them where needed. The fittings have been made up already so this part is mostly a photo update. Tiller ropes were added to the wheel and cleats to the forward legs of the belfry for the fore top gallant braces For the stanchions at the ladders between gun deck and gangways and quarterdeck I used HiS Model brass eyebolts. The threads were filed down and then blackened in the usual way. The hammock cranes have been fixed to the midships. The position of each hammock crane was marked on masking tape placed along the gangway. I used black netting bought from CMB and left over from HMS Fly but I’m not happy with the results. The knots look too big and ugly to my eyes and I think I would prefer to use white or off-white netting. There is no comparison with the netting in my photos of the Victory, which have a less tidy appearance and somehow look more natural. I’m not sure how it is possible to achieve such a look using the monofil nettings that are available, so for the moment they will stay as they are. Maybe the eye will be drawn away from the netting when there is some rigging in place. It feels good to have reached this stage and have the hull completed after 20 months of work. There is some touching up of paintwork and general tidying up to do but no doubt Diana will suffer more knocks during the masting and rigging to follow so I will leave the finishing touches till towards the end. David

Thanks to everyone for the likes The 2.5mm blocks arrived from HiS Model so I have been able to continue working on rigging the carronades. It proved to be quite frustrating becuase I was getting a lot of failures of knots and thread. I used clove hitches instead of siezings which against 2.5mm block look fine and a simple half hitch to complete the strop. I think that the failures were partly that the 2mm PE hooks are quite sharp on the edge. If I had to do a lot of fiddling to get the hook into the eyelet the hook tended to wear through the strop of the block. Also I was either cutting the excess thread too close to the knots or the knots weren’t holding. I must have re-tied some tackles 3 or 4 times. In the end I found that the best glue to hold the knots was G-S Hypo Cement, an adhesive meant mainly for gluing jewellery and I left a little more tailing than I would have liked. The wheels of the 9 pounders were rubbed on sandpaper before glueing with PVA to give a slight flat and provide better contact with the deck. The port tackles and breeching ropes were hooked on to the bulwarks. I am undecided about adding training tackles particularly for the carronades but will leave them off for now. I tried to get as natural a fall to the ropes as I could by painting them with dilute PVA and using pins to weight them into a natural position. Sometimes this would take a couple of cycles to achieve something that I was happy with. And the competed guns Most of the fittings for the forecastle and quarterdecks are already made so hopefully it will be a simple job to add them and complete the hull. David

Thanks Rob and you're welcome. David

This is my method for staining ropes. As I've said, it's a bit crude but it will work for short lengths. I have so far managed to run 4 metres of rope through at one go without difficulty by laying it onto a rod to dry as I go. It's best to wear gloves and probably an apron because it can be a bit messy if the rope flicks out at any point. Hopefully the following sequence of photos will explain... The roller on the right is made from a cut-down rope bobbin on the left (Amati I think) and a bolt CA'd into it. A head from a second bolt is cut off and glued to the other end to balance the weight. The thread for staining is placed underneath the roller and dropped into the jar containing just enough stain to cover the thread Lightly grip the thread with the tweezers with one hand and pull the thread through with the other. This will remove most of the excess stain which will flow back into the jar. When all the thread has run through, I lightly pull it through some kitchen towel and then hang it from a rod to dry. I'm sure that this process could be made more sophisticated but it doesn't take long to run the thread through and dry it off and is probably good enough for what I will want to do. I have tried to simply drop the rope into a tray of stain but it is messy to handle, you need a bigger vessel and there is the danger of the thread tangling as it is removed especially with finer threads. Hope this helps David

Hi Rob, No apologies necessary. Sorry I've not got back to you before: I've just returned from a few days away in Anglesey. In short, the answer is that the bobbin holds down the rope but I will take a few pictures and put them, together with a fuller description tomorrow. David

Thanks for the likes. The hemp ropes arrived from CMB so I set about testing them to see if they absorbed the stain better than the mixed synthetic ropes that I had tried before. The results were not very promising. I checked the ropes with the standard burning test and they were certainly cellulosic: probably cotton rather than hemp so they should have absorbed the stain better. It made me wonder whether it was the wood stain itself rather than the thread that was the problem. I had a walnut stain from a different manufacturer (Colron) and this produced a much deeper colour on both the cotton and synthetic ropes. I bought some Colron Jacobean Oak wood stain from my local DIY store and retested the ropes. Lo and behold, both types took up the colour. The Colron stains are water-based and notably thicker than the first stain I tried. These are the results: The mixed synthetic rope absorbs the stain to a lesser degree than the cellulosic but the Colron stain was so much better, requiring only a couple of dips to get the even colour that I was looking for. Serves me right for trying to get away with a cheap own-brand wood stain from a discount store. I have made a simple dipping trough out of one of those individual jam pots and a cut-down thread spool weighted with a bolt. It needs more refinement but works well enough for short lengths. I have finished the wooldings to the lower masts and bowsprit using stained 1.0mm cotton rope from Mamoli and which are 5mm wide. The bands are 0.6mm wide and still to be added. They will be cut from a manilla file folder. David

I’ve the last few days rigging the 9 pounder guns. The tackles are made from 0.25mm rope with 2.5mm single blocks and 3mm hooks the latter both from HiS models. They are very fiddly but once you get into a rhythm it’s easy enough. The siezings are simple clove hitches using Gutterman thread. At this scale it didn’t seem worth the trouble of winding proper siezings. The breach ropes are made from 0.5mm line. The strands are opened up and passed over the cascabel button to simulate the splice Now my arithmetic is usually pretty good but I must be getting too old because I realised about half-way through rigging the guns that I was going to be short of enough 2.5mm blocks to rig the carronades and have had to order a further supply from Radimir. In the meantime I turned back to the masts and the wooldings. I thought I’d have a go at staining the ropes to a more realistic dark brown rather than use the usual black thread provided but have run into difficulty. I had some 1.00mm thread left over from previous builds which I dipped in Jacobean Oak wood stain (with a couple of drops of detergent to aid wetting out) and after 3 dips with intermediate drying it came out to a satisfactory dark brown. The recommendation for Jacobean Oak came from B.E. in his build of Pegasus. However using a new batch of thread, I can’t get it to dye to more than a mid-tan. It might be ok for running rigging but is too light for the wooldings. The photo below shows cutting taken after the 2nd, 3rd and 4th dips compared with the wooldings already made and there is no comparison. In fact there seems to be very little further uptake of stain after the first dip. I have also tried to stain various other ropes with similar lack of success. I think that the content of synthetic yarn in these other threads is much higher than the original thread I used. And I’m not sure where it came from. Synthetic yarns are difficult to stain because of their inherent crystalline structure, particularly polyester which is normally dyed under pressure at temperatures above the boil. In the hope of achieving better results, I have ordered a selection of thread from CMB to try that are described as hemp, hoping that the synthetic component is low or zero. Looking through the various posts in the Masting and Rigging section of MSW, there is a suggestion that a mix of dilute PVA and acrylic paint will work. This sounds like a process akin to printing which probably doesn’t rely on the thread taking up the stain but just glues the colour in place and might be worth a try. If anyone has other suggestions, I would be very glad to hear them. David

Thanks Dave that's very kind and much appreciated David

Thanks for all the likes and Andrew, I think that you will be much happier with Chris's version of the carronade. I have ordered a further supply of rigging blocks from HiS Model and persuaded my wife that as it was nearly my birthday, an ideal present would be sufficient blocks to replace all those supplied by Caldercraft to finish Diana. While waiting for the blocks to arrive, I began making the lower masts and bowsprit. Based on the sizes given in the AotS and Lees Masting and Rigging, the diameters of both the lower main mast and bowsprit were too small. I calculated that the lower mainmast should be 11.2mm at the upper deck partner and the bowsprit the same at the home (which I took to be the point at which it enters the hull). I redrew all the lower masts based on the quarters and proportions given by Lees and used this as the basis for making them. Most recommendations for mast making are to start with square stock but I couldn’t find any suitable material that was available in the UK so I will be using ramin dowel. I began each mast by planning and sanding the square section mast head then using my Proxxon lathe I shaped the tapers of each mast. The diameter of all except the mizzen mast are too large for the lathe chuck, so the sections below the partners wetre planed and then sanded down in my hand drill. These sections are now undersized compared to the plan but as they will be below decks, they will not be seen. I used the cheeks from the kit but made the front fish from 4x2 walnut strip rather than the 3x2 suggested in the instructions which looked undersized to me. The masts are painted in yellow ochre. Iron bands are made from strips of black cartridge paper but to a slightly different pattern from the Caldercraft plan and more in line with that shown in the AotS. This is as far as I got with the masts because the blocks have now arrived. Great service as they were delivered in just over a week after I ordered them from the Czech Republic. They look very good and so much nicer than the usual square blocks. I am now pressing on with rigging the guns and carronades. Those 2.5mm blocks on the left are really tiny. I hope I've ordered enough! David

Since my last post, I studied Lees in more detail and concluded that the cleats will remain just cleats. I still don’t understand why the illustrations on page 170 shows cavel cleats with sheaves in 1710 but maybe this practice had gone out of favour by the time Diana was built. The cavel blocks part (115) have reduced in length by 2mm to fit the bulwarks of the open rails on the quarterdeck and I have followed Ray’s lead on his Diana build and added a sliver of 1mm to the back of each cleat to lift it clear of the inner wall. The quarterdeck balustrade was made up from kit parts. The instruction to cut 4mm lengths of 4x4 walnut for the lower section doesn’t take into account the camber of the deck and they need to be increased in length for all but the inner two pieces if the balustrade is to sit parallel. I reworked the replacement Caldercraft ship’s wheel by stripping off the dark brown colour and repainted it to a lighter shade which was more appealing to my eye. Prompted by B.E.’s comment in the log of his wonderful model of HMS Sphinx (https://modelshipworld.com/topic/29570-hms-sphinx-1775-by-blue-ensign-vanguard-models-164-scale ), I also include flanges at each end of the barrel. The replacement Carronades from Vanguard Models arrived promptly and have been completed. The small pieces of photo etch were a challenge and in fact I lost four of them during the chemical blacking process and are probably now lodged in the filters of some Severn-Trent water works. Replacements were made from the remaining pieces of brass sheet. I hope that these poor substitutes will not be too noticeable when they are rigged. The two carronades with only one front block are intended for the forecastle which has lower walls. This completes the work on the various elements of the forecastle and quarter deck, apart from rigging the guns and below are a few photos showing everything in place. Nothing is fixed yet as I will need as much space as possible for rigging the guns to mitigate my general clumsiness and tendency to snag any protruding parts. It feels good to have reached this landmark and to see Diana as a ship rather than a collection of parts but now they will all be removed and bagged up for safekeeping. It looks like the forecastle carronades are firing into the sea just off the bow so I will need to add the second block at the front to raise them to a more neutral position. After that I will not be able to put off gun rigging any longer. I have some 2.5mm blocks from Vanguard but stupidly I didn't buy enough to complete all the guns and as Chris is out of stock, unfortunately if I am to complete the guns, will have to look elsewhere. David

Thanks for the likes and kind comments. Another short update but mainly a call for help… I have been working on the various cleats for the forecastle and quarterdeck. The cleats at the stern are straightforward but I am confused as to how the other parts should look. In the photograph below, working from left to right, the kit part numbers are 113, 114 and 115. Part 113 is described as a rigging timber head by Caldercraft, and there are four at each corner of the galleries and two more on the forecastle. Are these actually knight heads? Lees book ’The Masting and Rigging...’ indicates that a knight head should have two sheaves and a belaying bar. Is that what is required here? Part 114 is a cavel cleat and again, according to Lees should have two sheaves and finally, part 115 is a cavel block which Lees also shows with a sheave at it’s base. Caldercraft gives no indication of whether sheaves should be added but if the cavels are glued to the inner bulwarks as shown, I don’t see how they could function. I hope that someone can help me unravel the mystery of the cavel! David