ScottRC

I fixed and repainted the stern railings, then I temporarily put in everything I could for this picture- the mast, quarterdeck, and forecastle deck. 

Previously, I installed the two main belaying rails for the ship, on both sides of the amidships section. I will install another, smaller pair immediately behind the forecastle. I want to discuss the arrangement of the deck furniture before moving on to potential shroud arrangements. Firstly, I used the two futtock riders that were supposed to go at the break of the quarterdeck to create a set of guiding rails for the mainmast. That way, I could adjust the rake of the mast while ensuring proper alignment. I did not intend to use the pieces as intended, so I reused them. 
 
Secondly, I want to talk about the two holes in the deck. There are two holes on either side of the mast partners that were originally intended to accommodate a pin rail. This obviously wouldn't have existed on a mid-15th century caravel, or any lateener for that matter. Anyway, I need a way to cover them up, and I came up with several options. Firstly, I could install two bilge pumps over them. My only issue with this is that the ship would likely only need one. Secondly, I could offset the halyard knight to cover one of the holes, and make a smaller knight for the parrel tackle to cover the other hole. The offset of the halyard knight would make no sense in the absence of a mizzen stay, so I compromised between the two. Over the port side hole will go the ship's single bilge pump, and over the other will go the parrel knight. The halyard knight will go between the aft hatch and the mast partners, on the center line. 
 
While the rigging of the ship is a long way off, I would like to at least discuss the shroud arrangements, as they will affect the deck arrangement. The only issue is that contemporary depictions of shroud lines on caravels do not show the tackles. Most of what we know about caravel shrouds come from lateeners before and since, and contemporary square-rigged ships. Last time, I simply went with the standard lateener shroud tackle approach. There would be no issue with doing it that way this time, but I might want something more interesting. Should I go with the standard approach, there would be no need for deck ringbolts to accept a whip. Should I decide on two pairs of whip-and-tackle shrouds, there would need to be four ringbolts on the deck. 
 
I'm sure Steven has some answers as to whether that seems reasonable in light of archaeological and pictorial evidence. I'm sure caravel rigging was not standardized at that point. 

Thanks everyone.  My wife reminds me that this is the time we will never have again and we must take full advantage of having our grand babies with us so intimately.  They are not moving far away...and we generally see them once a week or so.  We had a big fire in the pit last night...enjoying *smores*.  It was nice..untill the boys began to rough house....dad had to shut that down fast.   Boys will be boys...they say......  The girls weren't far behind them.
I can only see my model room through memory......    I still have my advice and opinions though......
 
Rob

So, it's been a while since I have done much to the Kearsarge, I've been focused on the Discovery for a while. However, time to restart this log as well. I was putting in the hammock netting when I was last working on this, but I realized that I made a mistake, somewhat early in the proceedings. You may recall from an earlier post that I didn't understand this:
 

 
Well, looking at the model as it was coming along, as well as photos of the real ship made me realize that this was not the way that the interior of the ship should look (you want to look at the gunport on the bottom of the picture.
 

 
The gunport is the thickness of the hull, but you want it to be the thickness of the hull below the hammock nets and the thickness of the hammock nets in the area where the hammock nets are. That is what that picture in the instructions was trying to show. It just wasn't clear why, or, for that matter where the change should occur. This requires fixing, so this is what I am doing.
 
Step 1: Again look at lower gunport. I thinned 1/16 square stock to about 1/16 by 1/32 so that it was the thickness of the gunport, and then glued two sections the height of the hammock netting to either side of the gunport. It sticks into the hull, but that's okay, I'm going to sand it later.
 

 
Step 2: I put another piece of the about 1/16 by 1/32 wood as a cross piece. 
 

 
Step 3: Add a piece of 1/4 by about 1/16 wood to cover the whole thing:
 

 
Step 4: Sand until even with the top of the hammock netting and the inside of the hull/hammock netting:
 

 
Much better.
 
Hopefully, this will keep someone from making my mistake. Six more to go as the hammock netting gets put into place.
 
Regards,
George
 
 

Hello all. I've been running around dealing with a bunch of things (including some work on RRS Discovery and have just recently gotten some time to work on the Kearsarge. I've opened out the gunports as can be seen in the photos below. For the large ones, I used a razor saw to cut the vertical slices and then clamped a metal straight edge to where the bottom cut needed to be, and opened it out with a reinforced cutting blade from my dremel, which worked well. The smaller gunports were done similarly, vertical edges defined by razor saw, and used the cutting wheel to open it out, but more or less treating it like an abrasive. Everything then squared up with sandpaper. I think, on the whole it went well.
 
Ship as a whole (Discovery in the background) awaiting wood for the second planking.
 

 
And two close ups.
 

 

 
However, I could use some assistance from anyone who's built this before (or maybe @MrBlueJacket because I am confused at this point.
 
There are two points of confusion. The simpler one first. The instructions say to put the gunport frames in, making sure that they are flush on the outside of the hull. As you can see from the upper and middle photo where I have one of the frames dry-fitted, the frame is wider than the bullwarks. My natural inclination would be to glue in place, sand the inside so that it is flush with the inner bulwark as well, gap fill with a bit of putty. However, the following sketch is provided for one of the next steps. In it we see the frame jutting into the ship over the bulwarks, trimmed (?) as shown. The instructions don't mention the trim, although they a later photo suggests that they do need to be trimmed down to the edge of the inner bulwarks. Any thoughts welcome.
 

 
The more complicated question relates to this instruction in the booklet:
 
"Remove the pivot gun (LK28C) and sally port (LK28D) hammock net ends from the carrier sheet. Remove 1/32" from the forward end of each pivot gun port cutout and glue a pivot gun hammock net end (LK28C) in place. Using the large gun port lid (LK64) as a guide trim the aft end of the cutout to its length plus 1/32".  DRY FIT a pivot gun hammock net end to the aft end of the cutout and adjust as necessary until the large gun port lid fits tightly between the two ends, then glue them in place. Set the lid aside."
 
"Remove 1/32" from both ends of the sally port openings and glue the sally port hammock net ends (LK28D) in place (PHOTO 10")" 
 
Okay, so here is the problem. There are 8 pieces labelled LK28C that look like the parts in photo 10 below. When I look at the plans, they say to use LK28D (which frankly doesn't make sense). Earlier, the instructions indicated that I needed to cut out the sally port openings in the same way as the gun ports, however, nothing on the plan is labelled as a sally port; the closet thing is the port by the accommodation ladder (PEK11 in the diagram). The entry is defined by two ends of the hammock nets marked with parts LK28E. I have no part LK28E, and the part list doesn't list it either. There are 8 part LKE28D (the sally port hammock net ends) but only 2 sally ports, and bottom of what I think are the sally ports is the top of the bulwark, so no need to cut anything out of the bulwarks.
 
 

 

 
So. My interpretation of what I should do is:
Make the small gun port frames flush on both the inside and outside of the bulwarks. Use the 8 LK28C parts to frame up the large, pivot gun ports, and prepare them for the hammock netting. Conclude that the marked LK28D parts on the plan is a misprint and use the LK28C parts as above. Use the LK28D parts for the two sally ports in place of the parts marked LK28E on the plans, and hold off doing anything for now, because they would just wind up sitting there. Anyways, thanks for looking in and the likes. I'd love folks opinion on the plan above.
 
Regards,
George
 

Just got a nice deal on "the next one." New in box 1:96 cutty, still in plastic wrap. 1987 version. Only set me back $60. 

I think I am liking the process of attaching the running rigging for each mast and spar before attaching the backstays and ratlines.  Its so much easier to get to belaying pins.   I have the mizzen almost complete.
 
 
 
 

 

Got started on some bowsprit rigging. Couldn't really figure out a good way to attach the chains. This is what I settled on 

Anchors aweigh!

There are a fair number of tools and supplies necessary for rigging the model. Styrafoam trays are pretty handy in keeping sets of tools herded together and reduces the amount of time spent looking for the tool you need. My work bench is still a bit of a dog's breakfast at times but organizing it once in a while saves alot of foul language... I've also added a picture of the chain used on the model along with some reference material from Harold Underhill's book, Masting and Rigging the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier.
 

After another lengthy hiatus, work has resumed on my Cutty Sark. I left off work last spring after discovering I had made a somewhat serious error on some of the rigging of the masts. It has taken several months to reconcile these errors, and  deciding whether to undo a substantial amount of standing rigging or leave well enough alone and charge on. I opted for Option B as the mistakes can only be noticed by me and an astute number of serious clipper ship aficonadoes on this website. 😉 I have fitted a number of the lower yards with ties and halliards and have now dry fitted the upeer yards on all three masts. I spent the last couple of days manufacturing collars for the trusses. Now I can continue rigging the yards with ties, lifts and halliards. Here are some pics showing all the yards in place , the upper ones being dry fitted.
 

Hi Guys,
I have commenced the running rigging at last, starting with the three sets of lifts for the 3 yards mounted on the lower masts. Baby steps... And what with runing the rigging to the spider bands at the bases of the masts, meant coiling down the ends of those lines. In the past, I used to leave enough thread after running the line through its various blocks and tackles and coiling the surplus several times around the belaying pin. However, with greater efficiency and less toil in mind I decided to put Tom Lauria's method into practice. He coils the lines off the model and places the coils on the pins. It is a more accurate depiction of how lines are coiled onto pins at the expense of having two lines make up each individual rope. Here's a link to his video:
 
 
I did make a couple of modifications to his technique so as the loop around the pin didn't come undone and used diluted white glue to set the coils up permanently. Here are a few pic's of my efforts:
 

Here I used a scrap piece of cedar strip as the pins were more easily pushed into it.
 

Here are the coils around the pins with an additional pin set back from the top edge of the cedar strip. This allowed for a bigger bight to pull under and into the coil of rope.
 

Here I used actual belaying pins to thread the bight as it made it easier to place the coils onto the model. As mentioned I used diluted white glue to set up the coils and allowed for longer tails so the bight did not become unstuck.
 



And here are the results of the lifts' rigging onto their respective belaying points. It took a bit of trial and error to come up with a successful method but I am hoping it will alleviate some of the hassle in this repetitive task. Cheers
 
 

Hi everyone, 
 
Whatever happened to Marc and the build?  I'm still alive and the ship is still in the state of the last posting.  
 
Just after my last post I had Kidney stone issues, then my Father had a fall and passed without ever regaining consciousness. Then I finally got the kidney stone resolved, which was followed by a life-threatening medical issue that required emergency surgery and half a year of recovery.  That takes us into 2024 which had me dealing with additional family loss and medical fun. Then we adopted a puppy during the summer that has taken up our time.  At the beginning of 2025, my dog and I had unplanned surgeries (not together😉).  She is healed and I still have a week or so of recovery left. Now we're caught up to the second week of January 2025.  
 
I have the model in my family room so that I look upon her almost everyday.  I'm hoping to get back to work in the next couple of months.
 
stay well and I wish you  a happy New Year. 
 
Marc

thanks Rob for clarifying. indeed as you stated. besides there was not much more to work on anyway - for simple reason , height of standard door opening design in buildings  V. 

Realizing just how big this beast is going to be. Running out of workspace!

Got my photoetch kit last week and got some of it placed. This was my first time using photoetch. I love the look! Not sure if I can go back to those crappy plastic decals ever again. Currently working on the rope railings on the bow. More updates to follow.

Made a little more progress. Got some more items attached to the deck. Davits are just loosely in place for now. Worked on the lifeboats a bit. Used some leftover deck cleats on the ends of the boats so I have something to attach to when I rig them to the davits. I am not liking the gold anchor chain supplied with the kit. I might get some black chain instead.

Quick pic update on some work done.

Back at it now. Finished a different build for a customer of mine. Here's the result of what was distracting me from the 1/96 project. Will post where I am at on the 1/96 asap.

Quick update. Deck attached to hull and some painting done.

Thank you for that wonderful photo Yves, I glued the first two planks on the stern last night with Tight bond wood glue. This morning when I removed the clamps the wood came off as if never glued. Have to do some research for wood to ABS bonding.  Superglue would work ,but I would like a little more working time to make minor adjustments. I saw a post where another member, Luekutus,  planked his Calypso and left the bow unplanked. Here is a copy paste of his Calypso. 
 

Hello Everyone -
This is the first plastic ship I've attempted in many years. As a kid we used to build all the old kits including Revell, Monogram, Lindburg Line, and of course Pyro.
My son gave this to me for Christmas and I'm going to jump right on it.
Cool box

Everything in a sealed bag

The hull halves were a little tricky to align. It took a lot of trimming
 
So I used contour puddy

The copyright stamp is not exactly subtle

Small parts getting spray painted - guns
I had hoped to leave the gray color of the kit, but removing the parts from the 'trees' and trimming left marks, so I used Testers gray spray paint.

Parts assembled after spray painting

Decent detail: deck planking, guns, and even right hand and left hand propellers



I taped the hull for the bottom paint and the deck for the gray. I will spray paint the 2 deck pieces then paint the wooden decking by brush.

I would just spray the entire thing but I don't want paint accumulation to cover the detail.
 
Thanks for looking in and comments welcome - Kenneth

Really nice work Jared.  You are past the monotonous part of rigging shrouds, running rigging can be fun since every line is different which does present a challenge, but in a good way.

As promised, I finished planking the main deck.
Earlier I had mentioned that I was uncertain if the deck at the bow had a canvas or tarpaper cover.  I recently obtained a clear photo postcard of the J H Crawford’s sister boat the Paul L. The Paul L capsized in May 1910 after being unloaded of coal on only the starboard side.   It may be difficult to see here but the bow is clearly planked without canvas or tarpaper.  Contrast that with the canvas used on the hurricane deck

This is my early process on planking.  I added six access or storage hatches.  I built those up on a maple veneer base and then placed them. All the planking was 1/32 by 1/8 basswood. The holes in the decking are where the mid-deck stationaries will be placed. The orange dot will place a capstan.

The finished product. I included numerous slots in the deck for the stationaries, hog chain braces and bits.  This will be stronger than simply gluing them to the deck like I did on Thistle.


Next step is to begin building all of the “stuff” on the main deck.  This includes machinery, engine room crew quarters, and of course, the Scotch Marine Boiler.  Many thanks to Keith Black in his Lula build for finding a YouTube on an operating Scotch Marine boiler video. That will be a great help in building my boiler.

 

I ended up with another step before I can begin planking the deck.
 
As I mentioned earlier, I had problems with the hog chain braces getting in the way of later construction.  So what I tried this time is epoxying 5/32 x 5/15 K&S brass tube as a guide in the hull.  The 4/32 x 8/32 basswood hog chain braces are removable and just slide into the guides.  It is hard to see from the photo, but the braces are all at 60 degrees.  Hopefully, this will work better.  I left the braces long and will cut down to length later.
 
I also added the rudders.  I needed to add these now because of the decking over the false transom. 
 
Lastly, I added the strake around the outside of the deck.  I do not know what this is called – let me know if you know the correct name.  On a clipper ship, the bow section is a nibbling strake – no idea what it is on a steamboat.

So now I finally can begin the planking.  [ I promise I will do it this time] You can also see the center plank that I laid for a reference point. It will be trimmed for the boiler pit and hatches.

I decided to paint the entire hull white for want of a better decision.  This is the hull colour of many of the museum steamboats. Likewise, this was probably the most economical as no tinting was required. So white it is.
 
I used Alan Bates’ method of combining the deck beams and the guard’s outriggers into a single beam.  Much simpler and stronger.  This is different from the Bertrand which had the outriggers separate from the deck beams.  This is what my early gluing and clamping looked like. Lots of clamps…

Another deviation was the outriggers at the stern where the wheel was located.  Again, Bertrand had separate outriggers. However, JHC’s sister ship, the Paul L, had that area blocked in with timbers.  This was evident with the Oshkosh Public Museum online photo of the Paul L when capsized. [I am not permitted to publish that photo here, but you can check their website.] So, I used solid blocking.
 
This is what the final product looks like.

My next project is to complete the main deck decking.  There are a few issues there:
1.       If the bow did not have a canvas or tarpaper cover, I would suspect the deck needed to be caulked.  You would not want water draining into the hold where the coal bunkers are.  Over the guards it makes no difference.
2.       I may try something different for the hog chain braces.  The braces really get in the way as you build the boiler deck and the staterooms.  Maybe a guide in the hull where the braces can be removed during construction.
3.       The same is true for the inner cylinder timbers with their support braces for the sternwheel.  On Thistle, I completed them in situ – which was a horror story.  Now I may make them a separate and removable component.