Rick310

Completely agree with Rob, keep them black! Rick

Rob , I agree with Rich that the ventilators in the planksheer would have some kind of valve(ball valve?) to prevent water from entering. The model of the clipper ship Challenge in the Smithsonian America History Museum has what appears to be a Ball valve on the end of the ventilator. I have an old photograph that I will try to find and post it. It’s a large model possibly 1:48 inches scale. I didn’t try to replicate it. Rick

Looks great!! Rxk

Thanks George, in making them, I was constantly referring back to yours. You certainly set the bar and I don’t know if I reached it but I’m going with what I have. Your blog has been a great resource! Rick

ClipperFan and Jared, thanks for your kind words and encouragement. ClipperFan, I really appreciate your meticulous research on McKays’s clippers and your relentless efforts to be as accurate as possible. Your artistic skills are amazing! As you, Rob and Vlad know, keeping everything in scale and not letting items get to big and out of scale, is a big challenge. Jared, I have been following your and George’s Flying Fish build and refer back to your 2 blogs frequently to see how you accomplished making various items. I also follow the steps you and George used for masting and rigging. I intend to rig aft to forward, inside out and bottom to top. Rick

I finished the mizzen topsail yard . This included the reefing blocks (2 mm blocks from Syren) and their tackles as well as the leach and buntline blocks. I also attached the chain halyard blocks and rigged their tackles as well. I won’t finish attaching the chain blocks to the cross trees until I’m ready to attach the mizzen topmast. The topgallant chain sheets were also rigged. I decided to add the bowlines per EdT and YA. These consist of a bridle threaded through a bullseye and he bowline’s standing end around the bullseye. The bullseyes were made on the lathe with boxwood and an appropriate diameter o.070. The hole in the bullseye is a #71 micro drill. The line is .008 , also from Syren. The lines for the lower yards will be .012 and thread for the upper yards. I finally got the main and fore lower masts made. This took 5 attempts to get 2 masts. The first 2 , the central spindle was 2 big, 1/4 inch square with the fish being 1/8 inches. When rounded and tapered on the lathe, the chapels came out too small. These were remade per George (GAK 1965). I made the central spindle 3/16 inch as well as the fish . When turned on the lathe, the mainmast came out acceptable, but the fore was not. Apparently not centered well enough. My last attempt on the fore mast came out pretty good. I noticed that the chapels on my masts are not as pronounced as on George’s FF. This maybe due to the tapering, from 13/32 to 10/32 apparently. Also added various eyebolts and blocks on the deck around the masts.

Nice job on the pin rails! Redoing items to finally get something acceptable has become routine! Better to remake an item now than to constantly be looking at it and regretting not having remade it at that time when it was still easy to get to it! Rick

Have to love autocorrect 😁 Rick

Agree! Rick

Do the fore bitts and fife rail support the main stay as on as on the Flying ? If so, the bitts would have to be substantial and no wenches Rick

At this scale, round seems reasonable.and more easily reproduced. Better a slightly inaccurate representation than a bunch of differing octagonal shapes. Rick

Really looking good Keith. The compensation plate is really well done! Rick

Nice!! Rick

No doubt the principle of the winches is sound. But I question if they were initially used on Staghound, why weren’t they used on McKays subsequent Clippers such as Flying Cloud or Flying Fish? Again, makes me wonder if they weren’t a later addition. Rick

Rob, are you sure that Staghound had deck winches when first launched? These seem to be a particular British item, per CS 1860’s. I am not familiar with any American clipper ship with these types of winches built in the 1850’s. Could these be a later addition? The Flying Fish was reported by McLesn to have a well lit forecastle. The plans show 2 rectangular lights on the main deck, right where the anchor chains run to the chain lockers. I opted not to model them as they are speculation. The Charles Morgan at Mystic Seaport has both octagonal and rectangular deck lights. Rick

Keith, you’re off to a good start! Rick

Beautiful figurehead Rob!! Incredibly well done!! Rick

Interesting that the Buttersworth painting of Sovereign of the Seas depicts a fished mizzen mast with mast bands . Does anyone know if there is a Duncan Mc Lean article of the Sovereign of the Seas that mentions if the mizzen is a built mast? Rick

It’s the ones that are close that are the most difficult to evaluate. Rick

Your model is amazing. Would be interested in learning more about your building processes and techniques. Rick

Rob, clipperfan, I would be hesitant to place too much stock in paintings that were probably not rendered from direct observation as Buttersworth and China trade paintings. Details that you are discussing would probably not be a concern of an artist painting a maritime scene. Rick

Nice job on the spider band! Although I used a single piece of boxwood, I like your idea of using plywood overlayed with basswood. Looks great and should have strength to prevent splitting. Rick

Clipperfan, that makes a lot of sense to me. Like saying Kleenx as generic for facial tissue Rick

Looks great Keith, this will be a interesting and fun build. Rick

A superb job!! Have really enjoyed following along! I was born and raised in Columbus, where did you live there? Rick