Bill97

Thanks Popeye. You have been extremely kind and helpful. Appreciate your information and advice.

Thanks popeye. Very interesting. Looking at the davits I did not consider having the life boat pass through them one end first then the other. I was trying to figure out how it could be done with life boat parallel to ship. Whoever designed it that was genius. So for the chain on the rudder it is OK to just attach the ends of the chain to the eye bolts on each side or should I run them inboard somewhere and attach them to something?

Hey Rob I noticed in some of your post photos, and photos from other builders, that it seems as if you do not attach the yard to the mast until after you attach the sail to it? Is that correct? The instructions show attaching the yard to the mast during assembly. If I am correct in what I think your photos show, do you find that better, and I guess possible?

Thank you popeye2sea! Now it makes sense. Thank you as well John. This site continues to be a wealth of knowledge and help to model ship builders with limited knowledge like myself! I am even learning nautical terminology! Had no idea the lines used to lower the lifeboat were called Falls. So Popeye2sea, if I understand you correctly the Falls are simply rigged either up and down or crisscrossed on the davits for safe keeping (lack of a better word) until needed to lower life boats. They are not actually attached to the lifeboats at this point, but to the other cleat on the davit? And John you are saying the same thing only having the falls attached to the life boats as if about to be lowered or returning to the skids? Looking at the design of the davits, I am curious just how they worked? Did they pivot in some way allowing the life boats to be extended out over the side of the ship? Just trying to picture how they would have worked. With the falls attached to the life boats it seems that no matter how the davits were rotated the lifeboat would hit one or the other and not be able to extend over the side. Since you were so very helpful I wonder if I may trouble you with one other question? On the back of the ship the instructions show attaching an eyebolt to the top of the rudder and two additional eye bolts on each side. Then either rigging rope or chain (I have seen in some of my research) from the side eye bolts to the rudder eyebolt. When I have done this it really looks odd and does not appear as if it would have accomplished anything in reality. What am I to do here? Instructions are limited at best.

Looking for help from anyone familiar with building the Cutty Sark. I am building the Revell 1/96 but I think any build would provide an answer to my question. Read everything I can find on MSW but at a loss. I am trying to rig the two lifeboats to the divots. Revell instructions show vertical lines. Other instructions and actual photos show an X pattern. But nothing explains what to actually do. Anyone have an idea?

Back at it a little today. Had to step away a few days because of busy schedule. Nice way to relax and spend part of Independence Day. Working today on life boats and davits. Weathered the davits, life boats and top of deck house with some black and white wash. Instructions simply had the 3 pair of oars glued in. I added tan thread as tie downs for a little more realism. Instructions showed rope (tan thread) attached at ends of life boats and then running to davits. However there was no place on the life boat ends to connect a pulley so I fabricated a set up using left over parts from previous builds.

Continued some work on both ends of the ship today. On the back end I added the black rope rail around the top of the deck house. On the bow I added anchor supports, rail poles with rope to be added later, and the red and green lights on the side. I have continued to refer to the older assembly instructions provided by Arctic37. So much better than what Ravell now includes with the kit. Had an oh *^#% moment today. As some know Ravell now includes decals for the name and decorative scroll work on the bow. I definitely don’t like it as much as the molded form on other ships like the Constitution. On the Constitution I carefully painted the raised design and name with a fine point brush. On the Cutty Sark it is just a peel and stick decal that looks like a peel and stick decal. Since that is what was provided That is what I applied. Well, somehow today moving the ship around and leaning it over to touch up paint I accidentally damaged the decal. So I just sanded it off and will either try to hand paint something in that area or just leave it black. I know I can find new decals on eBay but don’t know if I really want to put decals back on it.

Continued today with mainly touch up and fine tuning my painting. Also added the wheel house. I found Artic37’s Cutty Sark build. He included the building instructions from an older production that are much more detailed and informative. In the instructions with my kit it said to paint the 8 bucket shaped objects back by the aft deckhouse brown and place them under the quarterdeck rail. Gave no name to these pieces. In the Instructions Artic37 provided they are called fire buckets and instructions say to paint red. That made more sense to me so I changed them. Also weathered the top of the two deck houses. Developing into a beautiful ship.

Just a bit more at the stern of the ship today. Also did some fine tuning of some of my paint lines to get sharper edges. Once all the deck elements are on, probably some time this week, I plan to do a little additional touch up. Have some glue spots that are showing up a bit shiny I want to touch with some matt top coat and a few little white spots on the deck where the weathering effect needs to be touched up.

Continued to work from the bow back toward the stern adding deck elements. Some of which I must admit don’t know the name of. One of the things I really liked when I built the Revell USS Constitution is that the instruction book had several pages that listed all the parts by number and name. The Cutty Sark instructions did not have that. Something I am curious about and someone may know. On the deck house in the back there are two elements that look like upside down baskets near the front. No idea what they are. The instructions had me put the compass on the back end of the house. In videos I have watched the compass is in the front where these little baskets are. One other thing I have noticed that I have to work on is my sharp edge painting. When I look with my naked eye I think my edges look pretty good. But when I take a picture and zoom in I can see a bit of fine tuning is needed. I added some weathering to the sides of the deck houses as well.

Oh no Rob. Based on some photos Bob sent me over on my Cutty Sark build log I removed the chains today and reinstalled them more accurately to the 1912 photo. Had to risk doing some deck damage doing that. Kind of scared to remove them again. Wonder if I might brush them with a little black wash?

Thanks again Bob. Modifications made.

Thanks Bob. This helps a lot and explains it. Going to see now if I can make these changes. I currently have the chain coming out the bottom instead of over the top of the windlass 😳. Hope I have enough chain and can get it lose without doing any damage. Do you have any knowledge of the color of the roof of the two deck houses? As I mentioned, the YouTube videos I have looked at seem to show them all white.

Yes I have seen Sailcat’s restoration! Quit a feat to be proud of. I am still debating if to fabricate something that would give the appearance of being used to protect the forward hatch from the destruction that would have been caused by the anchor chain. Would not be authentic but as we have all said, something was probably there. Or at least I need to severely scar up the paint under the chain. Continued today along the deck adding elements and features. The instructions say to paint the top of the deck houses kind of a gray brown. However the videos I have watched of the ship museum show the tops white (I think) so I painted them matt white.

Thanks for your compliment Rob. I was kidding when I said I should just throw my Cutty Sark away. I do thoroughly enjoy building these model ships. I find very enjoyable and therapeutic, maybe. A little glass of KY bourbon, some nice background music, and my ship and I am in heaven. Doubt I will be as accomplished as you, and at 68 I guess I can only get just a little bit better. I really like your idea of experimenting with new things to improve skills. I think my Cutty Sark is coming along nicely with advice acquired from this site. I am honing my skills for my next build, the 1/100 HMS Victory, which I received as a gift and have yet to open. Planning to tackle it starting this winter after giving all I can to the CS. The instructions said to paint the roof of the little deck houses a color, but I noticed I the video of the ship museum shows them all white. So I painted them white.