Glen McGuire

I was going to do lifts and braces for the all the lower yards, then top sail yards and work my way up. But I changed my mind and decided to do it mast by mast and complete the fore mast yards first. Here's the fore mast lifts and braces threaded but not tied off. And here they are all tied off. Here's a shot from the front showing all the fore mast yards nice and parallel with each other. I highlighted the fore mast yards as it's kind of hard to tell which yards belong to which mast from this perspective. I find the rigging of the fore mast yard braces on the main mast interesting so I thought I'd show some close-ups of how I did it. The red arrows point to the fore lower yard brace line as it's tied off at the main stay, runs to a block on the yard arm, back to a single block also seized to the main stay, then thru a bullseye seized to the shroud (at least I can't rig a bullseye upside down 😃), and down to the deck. Here's the fore top sail yard brace and the fore top gallant yard brace as they are rigged at the main mast. The arrows follow the starboard side braces. The red arrows follow the fore top sail yard brace and the green arrows follow the fore top gallant yard brace.

Wait a minute! I thought a ship in bottle with penguins was next on your list!?!? And I know just the guy that can carve you some awesome penguins. Check out what @gsdpic did. See post #18. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/37836-friendship-sloop-by-gsdpic-bluejacket-shipcrafters-112/#comment-1091805 And your Lula is really coming together nicely. Wonderful work, Keith!

Very interesting process. Thanks for walking us through it.

Well dang! You are absolutely right, Henry. And I agree that it's too late for this build. I think it's better to be consistent, even if it's wrong, than to have some blocks done one way and others differently. So I will continue down my errant path.

Totally agree with Keith. Like I said in a post on my build log, Bob works at warp speed! Amazing indeed!!

Welcome to MSW! I hope you will start a build log for your project so we can follow your work.

Jerry Lee Lewis showed up this week and started banging on his keyboard singing, "Whole lot of hankin' going on!" I haven't done an exact count yet, but I figure I'm gonna need 60 or more of these things. And that was followed by a whole lot of stroppin' going on. These are single blocks that go on the ends of all the yards for the lifts and braces. 48 of them for starters. Here they are secured to the ends of the yards. The top one in each circle will be for the lift and the lower one will be for the brace. First lifts to be installed were for the fore and main lower yards. For these 2 yards only, the lifts run to a double block that is fixed to an eyepin on the mast cap. That created a major steady-hand test as I had to drill holes for the eyepins in the mast cap with a spinning bit way too close for comfort to lots of rigging. I could envision one little blip making an unspeakable mess! But we got through it ok. Sigh of relief! Here's the lifts in place for the fore mast lower yard. And here's the same for the main mast lower yard.

Agree with Mark. Your ability to duplicate all the intricate piping and mechanical structures based on your own pictures and memory is what amazes me the most.

I am on board and caught up on all the posts. This looks like an interesting and fun project, Mike!

Lula and the pile driver look better together than chips and queso! Superb work, Keith!

Completely agree with Paul, JC!

It just needs to be in a video game! Then the kids won't be able to put it down! Nice work so far on this, Bryan. It's gong to be interesting to watch this one unfold.

No constructive criticism here, Steve. That is superb work. When it looks that good with a super closeup picture, you know you have done well.

Nice work on that crane, Keith!

It is truly amazing to get that close and see how immense those things really are. That makes sense now. Thanks for the explanation, Henry. Yes! Wouldn't it be great if all of us had such access to the real life version of whatever model we are working on! Only in our dreams!! And back to the task at hand. Without an SIB in work, I've been able to focus on the Constitution and get a lot of work done (although I'm still on impulse power compared to @Knocklouder's usual warp 9 speed!). The next thing on my to-do list was making the saddles that are affixed to the top gallant and royal yards and provide the buffer against the mast. Here's one of the yards with the saddle attached and eyepins in place. Adding the single-row parrel tied off to the eyepins. Here's the fore topmast yard installed. I was starting to tie off some of the halyard lines to the fife rails at the base of the fore and main masts when I realized the mizzen mast did not have anything near it to off lines to. A quick peek at the instructions told me I needed to add a spider ring around the base of the mizzen mast. I had to poach some belay pins from some of the rails inside the bulwark to outfit the spider ring. My ring is cut in half since the mast is already installed, preventing me from sliding the ring over the end of the mast and into place. Mizzen spider ring installed. And then it was rinse and repeat on hanging the remainder of the top gallant and royal yards. Shortly thereafter, another milestone reached - all the yards are hung! WOOHOO!!! I really need @BANYAN to send me some of that Bundy rum so I can properly celebrate these milestones!! The yards are a bit wonky since I have not added lifts or braces yet. But I believe she is starting to look a bit majestic now with her arms spread wide!