Gabek

ready

Neptune, Poseidon, Nij

I graduated from the stern decoration. However, the Eagles did not put because had already broken. Sculptures of eagles really stick out beyond the outline of the stern ...

Unfortunately construction is not shown from the beginning. However, I hope in a short time to fix it.

New Year's Day, 2014
 
As soon as I started looking at what was involved in the running rigging I realized that I wouldn't be finishing this model today. On almost every line that needed to be run I had questions that could not be answered in the instructions and I was researching every knot, hitch and halyard. While I liked reading and checking all of this I was now getting headaches from all the decisions I was having to make. Although I really wanted to finish today I wasn't about to give up on trying to complete as good a model as I can.
 
Jan 2-3, 2014
Resolved to take my time I first prepared the blocks. I felt that, right out of the box, the blocks looked too square, so I sanded down the edges to make them a little more oval and worn looking. I also stained them to make them look a little more like oak by putting a few drops of stain in a ziplock bag and tossing the blocks around in it for a few seconds before turning them out on a paper towel.
 
 
After spending a lot of time researching the multitude of blocks and which strapping, pendants, etc are used on a ship and how to make them for a model I made a list of what was needed for the Swift. I found an excellent method of strapping a block on another modeller's website (sorry MSW). To make all the straps consistent in size I went back to my fly tying gear. A made a jig out of steel wire that would allow me to hold the block in place while I made a larger loop of thread around it. A simple overhand knot and a drop of cyano under the block made a good simulation of the splice and I then used a much thinner thread to seize the loop tight to the top of the block and form the eye. This became an easy task and I rather liked making these.
 

 
The gaffs
Based on several sources I decided to add stop cleats on the gaffs for the peak halyards. After trying to cut wedges to size, with no luck, I ended up just cutting small blocks of equal size, gluing them in place and shaping them with a knife afterwards.
 
 
Stop cleats on the gaff to keep the peak halyards in place.

 
 
I went with eye splices on the throat halyards not only because it was the right choice but also because I found that a collapsible eye needle was the perfect tool for this. I can thank my sister who does a lot of beadwork for making me aware of this invaluable tool. In just a few minutes I had spliced an eye around the ringbolt on the gaff and several other places. Next time I think I'll thread the parrels AFTER doing all this! (I discovered that I'm bad at handling beads - there's probably more on my floor than I could count. So, once I got them on the gaff I wasn't going to take them off!)
 
Preliminary steps in splicing an eye around a ringbolt.

 
 
The actual installation of the gaffs and boom involved simply threading the parrel lines through the jaws and tying an overhand knot to simulate a stop knot. A drop of cyano finished the job.
 
 
 
It was about this time that I really began to notice serious flaws in the rigging plan. For instance, why would the throat halyards be tied directly to ringbolts on deck instead of to tackle? Even if, historically, it was tied off this way, what hitch would you use in the middle of a rope that would be secure enough to hold up a gaff and sail, be fairly quick to release for setting and trimming but not so easy that it could be accidentally unhitched? After A LOT of research, a post for advice here on MSW (http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5145-correct-hitch-and-advice-on-rigging-a-flag-needed/), and the fact that I didn't have enough blocks to correctly add tackle to the halyard (I almost stole some from the Harvey kit I have), I installed the gaff as per instructions and used a slipped buntline to tie off the halyards to the deck.

Oh I was also going to pass on the suggestion that CaptHarv gave me. He recommended replacing the plywood bulwarks with solid basswood. I found this shaped like a dream and was a well spent few dollars. I think the 3" wide by 24'' long sheet at Hobby lobby was $2 and it was a simple trace and cut with an exacto #11.
 
Just an Idea, I thought I'd share. IIRC Harv stated that they built the Swift as a club project and many had issues with the plywood, so this change was found to be the fix. It worked for me.

Feb 3-18
Running rigging and the end game
The basic sheets and halyards went fairly well, and I like adding the blocks to the rigging - but how to deal with the falls was driving me bananas! There really should have been more fife rails. After long searches I spotted some very old photos of pilot schooners. It dawned on me that this was a working boat, with seasoned professionals manning her, much like tugboats today. There would have been a practical, no-nonsense approach to sailing her so I decided to coil the falls where they lay. Flemish flaking was good for the navy and yachts, but not for this hard working little ship.
 
 
 
I had a small problem, though. I had run out of the line from the kit. The closest I could find was slightly smaller diameter, but I think this worked out in my favour. I began making coils of line for the cleats using a little jig made of bent wire pushed through card stock. The thinner thread made it look like lots of rope was belayed, but it wasn't bulky. I followed a trick I learned here of using watered down glue to help shape the line and make it lay flatter. I tapered the end of a dowel to wrap glue-soaked line for the coils on deck. Once wrapped, I gently nudged the coils off the dowel with a dental pick. While wet I could still shape them a bit. I trimmed the tag ends of these coils and glued one turn of the original fall to the top of these coil mounds to make them look the right sized line. The finished product was adhered to the deck with a few drops of cyano. I figured that the fore gaff downhaul would not have much line, being hoisted up to its maximum height, so I decided to just layout a figure eight fake for this line. I'm not entirely sure that this would have been done in 1805, but I learned about this technique on a Canadian Coast Guard page so I thought I would add this to the Swift as an homage to them.
 

 
I had assembled the anchors, filed the mould lines and spray painted them black about a month ago. Of course, I had to research anchors. So, now I added puddening to the anchor rings and did a real hash of the seizing. Actually, the cyano glue made a hash of them, causing the thread to go translucent and ugly. I ended up painting the seizings with an off-white model paint. I had toyed with the idea of building wooden stocks and even gluing veneer to the white metal, but decided to paint them to look like wood. Another hobby of mine, painting miniatures (Warhammer, in particular), has given me some skill in painting wood grain on pewter or plastic. I base-coated the stocks with a dark brown, then streaked on a fair amount of a tan, then gave the whole thing a wash in brown ink. They looked ok.
 
I was all set to tie anchor bends to the anchors but I did one more check on my booms and, once again, I was tying anchor clinches. My first attempt took almost two hours and looked hideously bulky and the cyano had wrecked the look of the seizings. I cut off the brutish hitch and tried another time with a much thinner thread. It was ok, but I was so tired of dealing with these clinches that I resurrected an idea that I had when I was making the base for the model. I ended up drilling a hole in the top of the oak base the same diameter as the anchor cable and ran the cable into it to look as if the Swift was at anchor. Considering that she had no sails it only made sense. My 1 mm bit would not reach all the way through the base, so I used some steel wire to push the cable in, giving it a bit of cyano to keep it in the hole.
 
The Swift gently tugging on her anchor
 

 
I glue-soaked and coiled the extra anchor cable around a tapered felt pen cap to fashion coiled mounds like for the running rigging. I tied the free ends of the cables to the knight-head and glued the coils down to the deck.
 

 
A few weeks ago I posted a question to MSW about rigging flags and got great advice. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5145-correct-hitch-and-advice-on-rigging-a-flag-needed/ A long time ago (probably 12 years ago) I bought a union jack to put on my model (sorry to my American neighbours). It had adhesive backed material that you just folded down to make a two-sided flag. I curled the flag around a few different diameters of dowels to make it appear to ripple. A short length of string with an eye spliced into it was attached to the 'seam' end. Even using this very slender thread the collapsible eye needle worked its magic and an eye splice was done in seconds. I cut and sanded down some thin birch dowel to make a small toggle to attach above the flag. The kit instructed to run the flag halyards to giant deck cleats. I quickly made a smaller cleat out of http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5145-correct-hitch-and-advice-on-rigging-a-flag-needed/ walnut and attached it to the mainmast. It was fairly simple to thread the toggle through the eye-splice above the flag, and tie on a sheet bend in the eye-splice under the flag.
 

 
I hoisted the flag, tied the flag halyards to the cleat on the mast and added a drop of cyano to keep it there. I started squaring away the model: matt varnish was painted on blocks, threads and other debris were cleaned off the model, a few stray smears of glue were dealt with...
 
...the Swift was done.
 
I'll follow up with a reflection soon.

Feb 3-18
Running rigging and the end game
The basic sheets and halyards went fairly well, and I like adding the blocks to the rigging - but how to deal with the falls was driving me bananas! There really should have been more fife rails. After long searches I spotted some very old photos of pilot schooners. It dawned on me that this was a working boat, with seasoned professionals manning her, much like tugboats today. There would have been a practical, no-nonsense approach to sailing her so I decided to coil the falls where they lay. Flemish flaking was good for the navy and yachts, but not for this hard working little ship.
 
 
 
I had a small problem, though. I had run out of the line from the kit. The closest I could find was slightly smaller diameter, but I think this worked out in my favour. I began making coils of line for the cleats using a little jig made of bent wire pushed through card stock. The thinner thread made it look like lots of rope was belayed, but it wasn't bulky. I followed a trick I learned here of using watered down glue to help shape the line and make it lay flatter. I tapered the end of a dowel to wrap glue-soaked line for the coils on deck. Once wrapped, I gently nudged the coils off the dowel with a dental pick. While wet I could still shape them a bit. I trimmed the tag ends of these coils and glued one turn of the original fall to the top of these coil mounds to make them look the right sized line. The finished product was adhered to the deck with a few drops of cyano. I figured that the fore gaff downhaul would not have much line, being hoisted up to its maximum height, so I decided to just layout a figure eight fake for this line. I'm not entirely sure that this would have been done in 1805, but I learned about this technique on a Canadian Coast Guard page so I thought I would add this to the Swift as an homage to them.
 

 
I had assembled the anchors, filed the mould lines and spray painted them black about a month ago. Of course, I had to research anchors. So, now I added puddening to the anchor rings and did a real hash of the seizing. Actually, the cyano glue made a hash of them, causing the thread to go translucent and ugly. I ended up painting the seizings with an off-white model paint. I had toyed with the idea of building wooden stocks and even gluing veneer to the white metal, but decided to paint them to look like wood. Another hobby of mine, painting miniatures (Warhammer, in particular), has given me some skill in painting wood grain on pewter or plastic. I base-coated the stocks with a dark brown, then streaked on a fair amount of a tan, then gave the whole thing a wash in brown ink. They looked ok.
 
I was all set to tie anchor bends to the anchors but I did one more check on my booms and, once again, I was tying anchor clinches. My first attempt took almost two hours and looked hideously bulky and the cyano had wrecked the look of the seizings. I cut off the brutish hitch and tried another time with a much thinner thread. It was ok, but I was so tired of dealing with these clinches that I resurrected an idea that I had when I was making the base for the model. I ended up drilling a hole in the top of the oak base the same diameter as the anchor cable and ran the cable into it to look as if the Swift was at anchor. Considering that she had no sails it only made sense. My 1 mm bit would not reach all the way through the base, so I used some steel wire to push the cable in, giving it a bit of cyano to keep it in the hole.
 
The Swift gently tugging on her anchor
 

 
I glue-soaked and coiled the extra anchor cable around a tapered felt pen cap to fashion coiled mounds like for the running rigging. I tied the free ends of the cables to the knight-head and glued the coils down to the deck.
 

 
A few weeks ago I posted a question to MSW about rigging flags and got great advice. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5145-correct-hitch-and-advice-on-rigging-a-flag-needed/ A long time ago (probably 12 years ago) I bought a union jack to put on my model (sorry to my American neighbours). It had adhesive backed material that you just folded down to make a two-sided flag. I curled the flag around a few different diameters of dowels to make it appear to ripple. A short length of string with an eye spliced into it was attached to the 'seam' end. Even using this very slender thread the collapsible eye needle worked its magic and an eye splice was done in seconds. I cut and sanded down some thin birch dowel to make a small toggle to attach above the flag. The kit instructed to run the flag halyards to giant deck cleats. I quickly made a smaller cleat out of http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5145-correct-hitch-and-advice-on-rigging-a-flag-needed/ walnut and attached it to the mainmast. It was fairly simple to thread the toggle through the eye-splice above the flag, and tie on a sheet bend in the eye-splice under the flag.
 

 
I hoisted the flag, tied the flag halyards to the cleat on the mast and added a drop of cyano to keep it there. I started squaring away the model: matt varnish was painted on blocks, threads and other debris were cleaned off the model, a few stray smears of glue were dealt with...
 
...the Swift was done.
 
I'll follow up with a reflection soon.

Feb 3-18
Running rigging and the end game
The basic sheets and halyards went fairly well, and I like adding the blocks to the rigging - but how to deal with the falls was driving me bananas! There really should have been more fife rails. After long searches I spotted some very old photos of pilot schooners. It dawned on me that this was a working boat, with seasoned professionals manning her, much like tugboats today. There would have been a practical, no-nonsense approach to sailing her so I decided to coil the falls where they lay. Flemish flaking was good for the navy and yachts, but not for this hard working little ship.
 
 
 
I had a small problem, though. I had run out of the line from the kit. The closest I could find was slightly smaller diameter, but I think this worked out in my favour. I began making coils of line for the cleats using a little jig made of bent wire pushed through card stock. The thinner thread made it look like lots of rope was belayed, but it wasn't bulky. I followed a trick I learned here of using watered down glue to help shape the line and make it lay flatter. I tapered the end of a dowel to wrap glue-soaked line for the coils on deck. Once wrapped, I gently nudged the coils off the dowel with a dental pick. While wet I could still shape them a bit. I trimmed the tag ends of these coils and glued one turn of the original fall to the top of these coil mounds to make them look the right sized line. The finished product was adhered to the deck with a few drops of cyano. I figured that the fore gaff downhaul would not have much line, being hoisted up to its maximum height, so I decided to just layout a figure eight fake for this line. I'm not entirely sure that this would have been done in 1805, but I learned about this technique on a Canadian Coast Guard page so I thought I would add this to the Swift as an homage to them.
 

 
I had assembled the anchors, filed the mould lines and spray painted them black about a month ago. Of course, I had to research anchors. So, now I added puddening to the anchor rings and did a real hash of the seizing. Actually, the cyano glue made a hash of them, causing the thread to go translucent and ugly. I ended up painting the seizings with an off-white model paint. I had toyed with the idea of building wooden stocks and even gluing veneer to the white metal, but decided to paint them to look like wood. Another hobby of mine, painting miniatures (Warhammer, in particular), has given me some skill in painting wood grain on pewter or plastic. I base-coated the stocks with a dark brown, then streaked on a fair amount of a tan, then gave the whole thing a wash in brown ink. They looked ok.
 
I was all set to tie anchor bends to the anchors but I did one more check on my booms and, once again, I was tying anchor clinches. My first attempt took almost two hours and looked hideously bulky and the cyano had wrecked the look of the seizings. I cut off the brutish hitch and tried another time with a much thinner thread. It was ok, but I was so tired of dealing with these clinches that I resurrected an idea that I had when I was making the base for the model. I ended up drilling a hole in the top of the oak base the same diameter as the anchor cable and ran the cable into it to look as if the Swift was at anchor. Considering that she had no sails it only made sense. My 1 mm bit would not reach all the way through the base, so I used some steel wire to push the cable in, giving it a bit of cyano to keep it in the hole.
 
The Swift gently tugging on her anchor
 

 
I glue-soaked and coiled the extra anchor cable around a tapered felt pen cap to fashion coiled mounds like for the running rigging. I tied the free ends of the cables to the knight-head and glued the coils down to the deck.
 

 
A few weeks ago I posted a question to MSW about rigging flags and got great advice. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5145-correct-hitch-and-advice-on-rigging-a-flag-needed/ A long time ago (probably 12 years ago) I bought a union jack to put on my model (sorry to my American neighbours). It had adhesive backed material that you just folded down to make a two-sided flag. I curled the flag around a few different diameters of dowels to make it appear to ripple. A short length of string with an eye spliced into it was attached to the 'seam' end. Even using this very slender thread the collapsible eye needle worked its magic and an eye splice was done in seconds. I cut and sanded down some thin birch dowel to make a small toggle to attach above the flag. The kit instructed to run the flag halyards to giant deck cleats. I quickly made a smaller cleat out of http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5145-correct-hitch-and-advice-on-rigging-a-flag-needed/ walnut and attached it to the mainmast. It was fairly simple to thread the toggle through the eye-splice above the flag, and tie on a sheet bend in the eye-splice under the flag.
 

 
I hoisted the flag, tied the flag halyards to the cleat on the mast and added a drop of cyano to keep it there. I started squaring away the model: matt varnish was painted on blocks, threads and other debris were cleaned off the model, a few stray smears of glue were dealt with...
 
...the Swift was done.
 
I'll follow up with a reflection soon.

December 30 - January 1
Standing Rigging
 
I was excited. I broke out the thread from the kit and, with 3 days to the 27th anniversary, was positive that a few feet of string and a couple of knots were not going to be a problem. And I'm quite sure that the veteran modellers here might be chuckling at me right now. This being my first model I had no idea what I was getting into. The instructions of course, were no help whatsoever.
 
The standing rigging seemed to be straight forward. I had read enough to understand seizing and, thinking about how to wrap thread around another piece of thread, another hobby of mine came to mind: fly tying. The small tools made for tying bits of feather, fur and other materials onto a hook seemed to be just perfect for this job. I first made some jigs out of some stiff steel wire to hold dead eyes in the fly vice for seizing the shrouds and to make consistent eye-splices. These worked quite well, in my opinion, and I managed to quickly prepare most of the standing rigging.
 

Tying an eye, not a fly.
 

I used black lacquer from my fly tying supplies to glue the seizing
 


Pull the wire out and the eye is free.
 
Not thinking ahead enough I had to scramble to colour the lines black. Most stores were closed. I ended up dipping them in a ziplock bag with a few mLs of black acrylic airbrush paint I had on hand. To spread the paint on the thread and to remove the excess I fashioned a little squeegee from a clothes pin with some foam glued in the jaws. I hung the lines to dry with spring clamps on the ends to keep them stretched.
 
I have always been amazed at pictures and drawings of the maintop on ships and how well thought-out the arrangement of the shrouds and stays were. When it came time to install the rigging on the Swift I tried to keep in mind which arrangement would make sense for mutual support.
 

The foretop on the Swift. (Ignore the wire jig for now)
 
Installing the shrouds and stays went fairly smoothly. I was not happy with having the forestay attached to a ring on the jib boom with just an eye splice, so I made a thimble with some thin brass shim. I was rather pleased with the result.
 

 
I think I made a small mistake on the shrouds, though. I was researching every step of the way and most of the literature showed that the tail end of the shrouds should face forward when seized to the upper deadeye. When I ran the halyards for the first few deadeyes I made sure that I did this, but it just didn't look right. I did a bit more snooping and found a picture showing the tail ends facing aft. So, I switched all the work around. After I finished tying all the halyards I happened upon another book (don't remember which one) that outright said the tail ends should face forward. Well, I just wasn't going to change them again. I was running out of time if I wanted to be finished New Year's Day. Next model I'll make sure they're done right.

December 28-30, 2013
 
I was now pushing myself to try and finish the model for New Year's Day so things were happening fast and furious. With the masts stepped and sail hoops made I next went on to install the gaffs. As I threaded the parrels into the jaws the string was a bit too snug to fit and it actually tore through the wood, ruining the hole. Drat. I glued a small wedge of mahogany over the hole and later sanded it back to shape. Drilled the hole again and used a thinner thread for the parrels. This time the hole held..
 
While the glue was drying on this patch job I prepared the lower dead eyes by wrapping the chains from the kit around them. I must admit I was nervous about getting a tight fit and a nice, 90 degree bend on the wire. I concentrated on pushing the brass hard against the dead eye as I worked it around 360 degrees. To make the bend "crisp" I used a pair of hobby pliers without teeth and, holding the wire at the right location, bent it by hand over the side of the jaws of the tool. I was actually surprised and pleased at how smoothly this went.
 

 
I followed Mastini's method to mark the location and set the angle for the chains by taping the shrouds in place first. I then used a sanding cord to make notches in the channels for the chains. Holes were drilled in the flattened part of the chains, I shaped them to the curve of the ship and I drilled holes in the hull for the pins. When, as I was about to attach the eighth and last chain...
 
...the flattened tab snapped off.
 
Great. At first I thought of soldering the pieces back together but didn't think it would be a good joint. I ended up using some brass shim stock that I bent like the blade of a shovel around its handle. To avoid possibly overheating the brass and discolouring it I used epoxy to attach the new tab. Once the epoxy set I filed it down, shaped the tab and installed the last chain.
 

The broken tab and its replacement
 
 

Right after the epoxy set.
 

Cleaned up with a file
 
 

Installed.

just another little update on the puddening of the anchor rings......... the rope I used started out a nice tan , but when I put a drop of cyno on it to keep it in place, it turned the color of the rope real dark, so I had to do a little coloring on them. hope they look passable !! I decided to redo the catheads, so before I add the rope to the anchors I want to work on those first.
 
 
 

December 25-26, 2013
 
After the gift opening, family phone calls and a bite to eat, I headed to the work room with the goal of trying to finish the model by New Year's day - which would make it exactly 27 years since I started the Swift. The only thing in my way was my stubbornness to not put up with AL's interpretation of ship building, and my lack of skill.
 
After installing several ringbolts on the deck it was time to add cleats. I really could not bring myself to install the cleats from the kit as they were extremely thick. I decided to reduce the width down to 1.8 mm instead of the 2.5 mm using a sanding stick I made by gluing sandpaper to a long piece of hardwood. After thinning the cleats I drilled each one through the middle for a pin and gave them all a varnish.
 


 
Before installing the bowsprit I read ahead in the plans and, sure enough, a hole had to be drilled for the jib tack and it would be so much easier to do this now. In order to make the 3D bend shown in the plans I also replaced the brass strip that was to be the bracket on the bowsprit with thinner stock. I installed all the cleats on the decks and masts.
 

 
I now came to a big moment - time to step the masts. I realized that in order to get the angle of the saddles and the mast 'grommets' (I've forgotten the name for the ring at the base of the mast!) correct I needed to establish the angle. I had built a Modified Mastini Mast Machine for this purpose, but I still spent a lot of time messing about trying to get all the angles right and making sure that the saddles would end up parallel to the deck. I'd appreciate any advice on how to make this easier the next time. For instance, should I glue the grommet before or after stepping? I've seen both methods, and I chose to glue them before thinking that it would set the rake of the masts. I also had a problem to fix...namely, the oversized hole for the foremast.
 
I thought I had written about this earlier but, looking back, I see I never posted anything about THIS mistake. So, a bit of a flashback...
 
The deck was done, hull was done and it was time to drill the holes for the masts. After a bit of research, I made my Modified Mastini Mast Machine to set the angle for the drill. Using a titanium bit...I screwed up my courage and started up the drill. I watched in horror as it skipped over and the hole ended up noticeably off centre. I'm not too proud to tell you that the air became blue with curses. I realized that a pilot hole was the answer so, once I calmed down, I drilled a pilot hole for the main mast and moved up to the larger bit - worked great. However, I now had to mend the mistake. Round files were used to widen the hole over and I glued a piece of balsa to fill in the off-centre side of the hole. Next problem, to patch the deck. Over the years the once almost white limewood had aged on the model and the pieces in the box were much lighter. My solution, I used an x-acto knife to lift a piece from where the cabins would cover the deck, fitted it and glued it in place.
 

Release the Kraken?
 
Back to the present, the hole was still a bit large and there was play in the mast when I was dry-fitting it. I wanted to tighten up the hole, but I didn't want to mess around gluing more wood and push the alignment. And this is where living in a cold country makes you an expert on filling in small spaces. I had a roll of closed cell foam weather stripping sitting nearby. I sliced a small piece of it down the middle and glued it to the mast. This made for a nice, snug fit and I went ahead and glued the masts in place, main first, using Gorilla glue. The Modified Mastini Mast Machine was used to keep the mast in place while the glue set. I chose Gorilla glue because it expands while setting, hopefully filling in any gaps around the masts.
 
 

Hi GabeK,
 
I see no-one has come back on this yet, so perhaps I can help.
 
To be accurate halliards which had any weight on them, such as for hoisting a gaff, usually had a tackle at the deck end to aid in the hoisting, which gave a mechanical advantage. This normally consisted of two double blocks with line rove between them, the end of the line being belayed to a cleat or pin, thus a knot wasn't needed. In fact it wasn't really desirable, since it could become very difficult to undo, if it tightened up under strain.
 
The end of the halliard proper was seized around the groove in the upper of the two blocks, whilst the lower block was fastened to the ringbolt in the deck. The line rove between the two was of smaller circumference than the halliard itself, one end being fastened at the lower end of the top block (usually through a small loop made in the seized halliard). It then ran through all the sheaves in both blocks, coming off of the top one, from where it ran down to the pin or cleat, where it was belayed.
 
As you say, there was a lot of rope left on deck when the gaff was hoisted. This was then neatly coiled, and hung from the same pin or cleat. On a model it is easier to make the coils separately, and attach them afterwards. You'll appreciate that the positions of the two blocks, relative to each other, will be different when the gaff is at full hoist than when it is lowered – them being closer together for the former position, and wider apart in the latter. You'd have to judge their approximate positions, on the model.
 
Regarding the flag, or ensign, at the end of the gaff. As far as I am aware, the toggle was the normal arrangement used on British ships, and I am not sure that other nations used this method. However, since the ship is American, they very likely followed British practice. The toggle was fastened close to the top of the flag, usually passing through a loop in the thin line that was stitched along the flag's hoist side, ie. that nearest the staff or halliards. The other end of the line, which protruded from the bottom for a little distance, had another loop in it. One end of the halliards also had a loop, through which the toggle on the flag was threaded, the other end passing through the loop in the end of the flag line, and normally made fast with a sheet bend. The ensign was now ready to hoist. All the other flags used would have had the same arrangement.
 
Incidentally, you might come to find that research is one of the more rewarding sides of ship modelling.

Hi Gabe, I have been looking at the question of  Ensign rigging myself today in connection with my own build.
 
Here's a schematic of the arrangement on British ships that I did some time ago on a different forum.
 

 
Essentially it follows the narrative answer given by Kester, hope it helps.
 
B.E.

I think I might post the completed model, Kester. But, I don't think I'll have a chance to work on it for a couple of weeks. A little behind in my paid work!
Regards,
Gabe

Jaws
 
I just hated the idea of installing the brass "crab jaws" that the kit provided so I began crafting wooden replacements. To get all the jaws for the spars to be at least close in size and shape I glued two pieces of solid mahogany with spray adhesive and traced a pattern on top. Before gluing them together like this, I drilled a hole in the centre of the piece and then sawed through the centre of the hole. I kept these two pieces together for all the rough cuts and shaping. I followed diagrams in Mastini and Lever for the pattern but, wouldn't you know it, the day after gluing the jaws in place on the boom I was checking out Longridge and The Anatomy of a Ship book, "The Cutter Alert" for details about the parrels and trucks and realized that I probably made a mistake on the shape and length of the jaws. Ah well, it's at least better than what AL had in my opinion.
 



 
 
I drilled holes for the thread that will hold the parrel trucks, which ended up being a bit premature because...
 
I still wasn't happy with the bulky look of the jaws on the spars so I brought out the file once again. After shaping the jaws a bit more I realized that I had just wrecked the location of a couple of the holes I had just drilled! Nuts! A bit more drilling fixed a couple of the holes but I ended up having to patch one hole and drill it again.
 
In my research on the jaws I read that they would usually be lined with leather to prevent damage from friction. Not exactly sure how this looked I did a quick search on the web and found several images. To simulate the leather I painted different shades of brown onto tracing paper. I chose tracing paper because it was very thin and would suit the scale of the ship better. After the glue dried on oversized strips of the painted paper I trimmed them back to size.
 

 
And speaking of trimming...I decided to sand the spars down a bit more. I brushed on some varethane and ran some thread through the holes in the jaws to make sure they weren't clogged. I tried out the beads I bought for the trucks.

Masts - part one
October 2013
 
The masts had been tapered years ago, but now a mistake in the instructions became evident. There is no mention of shaping in shoulders even though they appear in the plans. From the diagrams I had assumed that there was a bushing of some kind in the kit that would be installed. Not so.
 

Shoulders indicated on the plans...but not addressed in the directions.
 
 
The good thing was that I hadn't tapered the masts completely to their final diameter. I cut in to the masts with a hobby knife to mark the top of the shoulders and went at it with files and sanding pads. To complete the tapering I put the base of the masts into the chuck of my drill and used it like a lathe to sand them down..
 

Shoulders cut into the masts
 
The brass strips from the kit for the earrings and bands on the masts were very stiff and snapped when I began working on them. I therefore cut 5 mm strips off of brass shim stock using a straight edge and snap blade knife. My first attempt at the mainmast earrings looked good but when I dry fit the flag mast to to main I realized that the distance between them was much too big. The second attempt was much better. To keep solder from the outside of the brass I purposely left excess brass on the end. I tinned the inside surfaces first and then clamped the earrings with a hemostat and clothespin. It just took a little heat on the outer surface with the soldering iron to reflow the solder and make a tight joint. Trimmed the tail pieces to length, shaped the ends and drilled holes for the rings and the earrings were done. I followed this technique for the bands on the ends of the masts, bowsprit and boom.
 



The final earrings-with the mark I sitting in front
 
Fitted and installed brass bands on the ends of the jib boom and main boom. Here's another place where the instructions and the plans were at odds - and perhaps neither are historically accurate. The instructions called for two ring bolts placed on either side of the main boom through holes drilled in the brass. The plans show only one ringbolt on top of the boom and not through the brass but further out along the boom. The sheet appears to be wrapped around the boom just inside the brass. Again, I hit the books to find which one I should follow, eventually settled on the arrangement on the plans. I believe that, to be accurate, a sheave should be built right into the boom for the spanker sheet or a block on a pendant tied right onto the boom. I may just drill a hole to simulate a sheave. Can't decide just now...I want to get moving

Jaws
 
I just hated the idea of installing the brass "crab jaws" that the kit provided so I began crafting wooden replacements. To get all the jaws for the spars to be at least close in size and shape I glued two pieces of solid mahogany with spray adhesive and traced a pattern on top. Before gluing them together like this, I drilled a hole in the centre of the piece and then sawed through the centre of the hole. I kept these two pieces together for all the rough cuts and shaping. I followed diagrams in Mastini and Lever for the pattern but, wouldn't you know it, the day after gluing the jaws in place on the boom I was checking out Longridge and The Anatomy of a Ship book, "The Cutter Alert" for details about the parrels and trucks and realized that I probably made a mistake on the shape and length of the jaws. Ah well, it's at least better than what AL had in my opinion.
 



 
 
I drilled holes for the thread that will hold the parrel trucks, which ended up being a bit premature because...
 
I still wasn't happy with the bulky look of the jaws on the spars so I brought out the file once again. After shaping the jaws a bit more I realized that I had just wrecked the location of a couple of the holes I had just drilled! Nuts! A bit more drilling fixed a couple of the holes but I ended up having to patch one hole and drill it again.
 
In my research on the jaws I read that they would usually be lined with leather to prevent damage from friction. Not exactly sure how this looked I did a quick search on the web and found several images. To simulate the leather I painted different shades of brown onto tracing paper. I chose tracing paper because it was very thin and would suit the scale of the ship better. After the glue dried on oversized strips of the painted paper I trimmed them back to size.
 

 
And speaking of trimming...I decided to sand the spars down a bit more. I brushed on some varethane and ran some thread through the holes in the jaws to make sure they weren't clogged. I tried out the beads I bought for the trucks.

Thanks, Bill!
 
I just can't believe how joining MSW and starting this log has motivated me. It has been a real treat to connect with others in this really supportive and positive environment!
 
Much appreciated,
Gabe

Let me get this straight, the ARTIST that made this:
 
 
 
cant carve a spoked wheel? with those mad solding skills make em metal.

1987 - 2012
 
With a lack of skill with wooden models I knew I would have some difficulties with my first ship.  What I hadn't expected was that the kit itself would provide so many of my headaches:  unclear instructions and having to fabricate so many parts from scratch. 
 
Some interesting consequences of taking years to complete the Swift:
my knowledge of ship construction increased with each book I bought and website I found.  In some ways this became a bit of a curse because I kept second-guessing every step of the build - which did not help speed things up.   On the bright side, my disposable income increased over the years so I could afford more and better tools.   
Because I don’t have a lot of pictures of the early stages of the Swift I’m not going to log all my work.  Here's just a rundown of some the headaches, mistakes and modifications I made during this time:
 
August 1989:  Planking and Bulwarks
The first layer of hull planking was finished but I can't say that the hull looked very good. I now understand the reason for tapering the edges of planks!  On the deck I had used black felt pen on the edges of the limewood strips to simulate caulk and I followed a very beautiful, regular pattern of staggering the butt joints.  I now realize that I was thinking more like I was building a deck in my yard rather than a deck on a boat.  A shipwright would want to have the longest possible planks with the fewest joints.  I discovered a layout (can’t remember the book…I’ll have to find it again) that made so much more sense and is much more accurate than the beautiful but inaccurate planking I had done on the Swift  
 
I was already noticing an asymmetry in hull.  I wasn't too concerned because I knew I was going to use filler before the second planking.   Little did I know how this would haunt me…20 years later!
 
It was now time to install the bulwarks.  Unfortunately, these die-cut plywood pieces, when dry-fitted, splayed outward drastically and did not follow the upward curve of the hull at all.  I tried shaping the lower edges to fit the deck line better but it was a losing cause.  I realized that I was going to have to fabricate new bulwark pieces. 
 
December 1989:  New bulwarks
Using the shape of the old bulwarks as a guide, I made patterns with card stock and traced them onto 1/16" plywood.  (I never knew such stuff existed!  Now I keep a little supply of this and 1/32" on hand.)  Much better lines now, but they didn’t meet well at the bow.  I ended up cutting off the bow section of these new bulwarks and making, yet again, new pieces.  After gluing I spent many hours working the edges of the bulwarks to get the shape I wanted. 
 
July 1993:  Planking the bulwarks; Deck Cabins; Tapering masts and spars
I found it odd that the outside of the bulwarks were going to be planked over, but the inside was to be the left plain plywood.  I decided to plank the insides to make it look a little more realistic.  As per the instructions, I planked the outer bulwarks and transom with limewood. 
 

[you can see the planking on the interior of the bulwarks and the deck planking pattern I followed]
 
In December 1993 my first son was born and in 1996 my second son came along.  The next entry in my log was…
 
July 1998:  Installing the keel and stem 
I bought a few books in the 5 intervening years and became an armchair modeller.  Based on several readings I departed from the instructions and chose to install the keel and stem before the second planking was done.  After they were affixed, I carefully cut a rabbet into these pieces for the next layer of planks to fit into.  I was much happier that I had done this.  This whole process took two days…the only two days I would work on the model in 1998 and I wouldn’t take the model out of the box until…
 
April 2003: Second planking on hull
From April 2003 to October 2012, between running kids to soccer, baseball, music, scouts, etc., back surgery and completing my M.Ed, I managed to squeeze in about 7 hours of work on planking the Swift.  I had started at the deck line and was working downward and I felt that I was doing a good job on tapering the planks at the bow.  And, I was very happy to hide the ends of the planks in the rabbet I had cut into the stem.  However, it became evident that I was going to have to install joggles.   I was also having a heck of a time getting the planks to sit flat on the hull, particularly at the bend in the bilge, even with screw clamps. 
 
So we’ve reached 2012. 
My boys are big, I have a pretty nice little workshop and I don’t have to pack away the model each time I stop.  I have actually started the Harvey and a vintage ship in the bottle kit I got on Ebay.  My ship modelling library has become fairly impressive and I started scratch-building a miniature of the Beagle.  I also got an iPad and it became really easy to document my work in photos and make quick little notes.  It sits beside me as I work – playing music and giving me quick access to the internet if I want to look something up.  I still kept up the written log in my little book, though.  The rest of this log should be in smaller chunks.
 
And…my wife still puts up with me!
 
 
 
 
 

The Preface
 
It has taken me a while to build up the courage to start this log...but after a few months of reading these forums I now realize just how accepting and supportive the people are here.  Also, discovering that I'm not the only person who has an "accidentally long-term project" has made me less embarrassed to tell my story! 
 
But first, please bear with me as I explain how it all started...
 
1974.
I was in grade 7 and I had just found out that a teacher in my school built wooden ship models.  How cool!  But I nearly died when I priced out kits in a local hobby store.  For years I would drop in and just dream of the day I could afford to buy one.   This started a minor obsession - I began reading Alexander Kent novels and I became an amateur historian of Napoleanic-era ships, particularly the Royal Navy.  Dreaming, ever dreaming. 
    1986.  
University was finished and I was starting a career.  Still a bit broke with rent and car payments – still dreaming of getting a kit.  My girlfriend (now my wife), knowing just how much ships have been on my mind all these years, gives me Artesania Latina's "Swift" as a Christmas gift.  (And that was probably the moment I knew she was the right one!)  Boxing week was spent buying tools and supplies.  
 
That same Christmas I happened to get a little journal from someone else and I decided to use it as a log for this build.  So, in the box with all the parts this little book has sat and I have faithfully (more or less) kept track of every step in this project.  The first entry...
 
"Thursday, January 1, 1987.  Cut false keel & bulkheads.  Shaped the frames.  2 hours."
 

 
 
Let's just say that over the next 25 years I spread the work out pretty thinly, with a few big gaps around the birth of our two sons and switching careers.  Between 1987 and 2012 I logged 156 hours and I had a hull with partially finished second planking.  Sitting in the box were completed cabins and tapered masts and spars.  In that time I also built a pretty good collection of books and tools.
 
A quarter century in and the Swift looked something like this:
 

 
 
In the next log I'll go over some of the highlights up to this point in the build.

October – December 2012:  Completing the second planking. 
 
At this point the planking was really worrying me.  The veneer was being badly forced into place and there were all kinds of little puckers.  To try and make things more manageable I decided to switch and install some planks upward from the keel and just shape planks to fit where the strakes would meet.  
 
(I should mention that I decided not to install the sternpost so that I would be able to let the planks run over the stern and be trimmed back later.  In hindsight, I would have caught a significant mistake before it was too late if I had installed it before planking. You'll see what I mean in an upcoming post) 
 

[The next plank on the cutting mat with a traced pattern taped over the end]
 
Stealers and joggles helped me finish the planking at the bow and stern. I used tracing paper to get the shapes for the ends of the planks that would be adjacent to these.  
 

[close up of a stealer]
 
As I sanded down the hull all the imperfections and gaps really became obvious.  I did my best to fill these with slivers and, in a few places, I made a filling paste with sanding dust and carpenter’s glue.  This paste worked…but I did see a slight difference in colour.  Ah well. In the end I became so tired of sanding and filling I decided that I would live with a few imperfections.  I really needed to move on to keep my sanity!
 

[second planking done and sanded]