Gregory

The main yard was finally also finished so far, here is an overview of the collection of all the blocks that have now snuggled together. Always seen from both the front and the aft. And as already written earlier, the stirrups and foot horses will only be smoothed and provided with gravity during the final installation.





The center of the yard with the chain sling ...





... and the yard arm, 9 blocks in 8 sizes :-0





Then came the exciting moment, the test hanging http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

First the lifts.






Then the yard tackles with outer tricing line.



And usually as last the braces.





And there is another little tidbit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime, as can be seen in the pictures of the lifts. Consequently, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be fitted. These replaced the double pendant of the braces of the 1760s. For this purpose, the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.



Exciting.

XXXDAn

A small end of rope did the job 🙂
 
That is why the ropes are measured in cicumference and not in diameter as we usually do. Many modelers already fell in that trap.
 
XXXDAn

Coming soon.   Resin cast barrels.
 
I have three sizes of cast resin barrels that will soon be available on my site.  Currently I have the 11/16" tall and the 1" tall barrels.  I am waiting for my casting guy to make the third smaller size.  I may even make a fourth smaller size later as well.
 

 
I have the two smaller sizes and I am waiting for the last larger size not shown. They are cast in white resin or a light tan like my carvings for the ship models I make.   This makes it so much easier to prepare than building my laser cut versions.   Those will still be available but these resin versions will give you guys more options.   These can be prepared in minutes...
 
Just clean whatever flashing which is minimal.   And remove the small vent hole plugs with a sharp #11 blade.   
 
Then brush on some gel stain...in my case pictured,  I used General Finishes Fruitwood gel stain as usual.   I have one coat of stain on these.  You can add more to deepen the color as you see fit.  Then I just used a black sharpie to color the raised iron hoops.   You could use any color you want for those as well.  You could use a copper leaf pen for example.   It isnt difficult....and takes just a few minutes vs. a much longer time to build my laser cut versions.
 
Each size will be sold two per package.
 
Its unfortunately too late for me to add these in the hold of Speedwell....but when you need to make a dozen or more barrels for the hold its nice to not have assemble them one at a time.
 

 
And Buckets...crates...and other items will soon follow.   And whatever else I can possibly think of...please let me know if you guys fancy something in particular.

Is there any documentation of what references riggers referred to while working.
 
I suspect they pretty much knew what needed to be done, and did it.
 
I don’t visualize anyone carrying a measuring tape around with them.

The next step in the Mamoli plans is the construction of the False Fore Deck (their terminology) and the Stern Galley. The fore deck only involved placing a precut piece over the main deck along with four false futtocks, two on each side. 
 

 
The stern galley pieces were precut, (remember this kit was made before lasers) and needed a little adjustment for fitting. 
 

 

 

 
I have studied many builds to determine the shape under the stern galley. This kit supplied a piece of inverted quarter round that was placed below the galley, so that is the route I will go.  
 

 

 
After the glue was set, I shaped to match the last frame.
 

 

 
Next up - working with then ports.
 
 

I have placed an order with Modelnet for 2mm, 3mm and 4mm blocks. As Gregory says, their pricing is competitive and their shipping charges are also very reasonable. Once I have them I will try some macro photography to compare them with HiS blocks that I have. 
 
George

Here is one of my favorite references for making blocks from Mondfeld.  I had just about got to the point of going forward with this method when Chuck started selling his blocks.
 

You can see that taking it down to very small size is possible.
If you have a small table saw, i.e., Proxxon, Byrnes, etc.,  it will really help with the grooves..
 

And another little tid bit that is not normally seen on models. According to Steel, the rope slings were replaced by chain slings in wartime. And if "the road to Trafalgar" doesn't count as wartime, what does ?!?

 

 
Here you can also see that the chain sits on a wedge at the back, whereas the rope slings is passed over the bolster of the mast head.
Until 1760, the braces were supported by preventer braces, whereby the hanger was doubled.
 

 
However, as this proximity was certainly not as effective when under fire, the preventer brace was later brought to the front of the yard.
Consequently, since the chains are attached here, the forward-facing preventer braces should also be attached. For this purpose, the standing part of the brace was attached to the rearmost shroud of the foremast, ran to a block on the front of the yard, back to a block on the rearmost shroud and from there to the forecastle.
 

 
Exciting.
 
XXXDAn

Pricing at that ModelNet site looks very competitive….

Tony and GrandpaPhil,
Here is another link for Seahorse 3D printed blocks. It's a model shop in Poland though I have not used it yet. 
https://modelnet.co.uk/collections/marine-fittings-1 . There is a filter option for '3D' which selects the Seahorse parts. You can also find them on Ebay if you search for 'seahorse block 3D'. 
 
Wefalck,
I agree entirely that the blocks should have a family resemblance and mixing the cheap, kit blocks with the finer examples is visually distracting. This is more obvious for the larger blocks where the shapes are easier to see at normal viewing distances but less of an issue for a 2mm block which is a 'blob' unless you get really close. What I don't know is whether blocks from HiS, Shipyard or Seahorse look OK next to each other. I might just have to buy some of each and see which I prefer. 
 
George
 

Welcome to MSW Chris.  Looks like a nice kit that you have,  There is a contemporary drawing of Ontario (16) 1780 at the RMG Collections site you might want to download as a reference.  https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-84516    After a quick look the kit plans seem to be very good.  Thanks for sharing your build.
Allan

Hello Model Ship World,
I am starting a new build log of the HMS Ontario in 1/48 scale by Maris Stella. I have been trying to get this kit for a while and always missed someone’s auction or it would run out of stock. So as luck would have it I won the kit in a raffle held by Olha Batchvarov’s you tube channel. 
The kit came with all the upgraded blocks and cannons. And all the 3d printed parts. So far I got the slipway built and the keel. Thanks for looking. Hopefully I started the build log correctly. 
Thanks for looking!
Chris

I have the main top yard and the main yard completed.  These were similar to the top gallant yard except with the addition of the stuns'l booms.  I deviated from the Occre plans a little with the brackets that hold the stuns'l booms.  As I have on other components, I used the US Brig Syren instructions for the brackets.  I used two pieces brass tubing for the inward bracket and a piece of brass tubing and a piece of brass rod for the outboard bracket.  For soldering, I used a paste for the first time.  It worked great with just the heat from a lighter.  
 

 
I also added a thimble to the main yard for sling.  I this was one of my better splices.  It is time consuming to manually serve the splice and it isn't perfect by any means, but I am pretty happy with the results.
 

 

 
I also had a pretty good view of the northern lights the other night.
 

 
I have the four yards for the fore mast left then time to start tackling the sails.  
 

Here is one of my favorite references for making blocks from Mondfeld.  I had just about got to the point of going forward with this method when Chuck started selling his blocks.
 

You can see that taking it down to very small size is possible.
If you have a small table saw, i.e., Proxxon, Byrnes, etc.,  it will really help with the grooves..
 

Here is one of my favorite references for making blocks from Mondfeld.  I had just about got to the point of going forward with this method when Chuck started selling his blocks.
 

You can see that taking it down to very small size is possible.
If you have a small table saw, i.e., Proxxon, Byrnes, etc.,  it will really help with the grooves..
 

Good early afternoon all.  Its spring here in Delware, everything is growing, it won't stop raining, time for an update.
 
I finished the rudder.  After all my trials trying to blacken the brass strips I ended up painting.  Abbadon black, which covers very well.  Paint definitely obscures some detail but I'm going to live with it.

After all that work drilling holes, and as I suspected would happen, its hard to see the bolt heads.  I do think my stern/rudder gap is satisfyingly small, the rudder does swing side to side, and I will take it as a win and Finally Move On.  There will be a touch-up painting later on but for now I removed the rudder and stored it in a hopefully-safe-but-not-so-safe-that-I-can't-find-it-later location.
 
I had planned to build the ship's base and brackets next but hadn't been able to work up much enthusiasm.  So instead I built a work/storage cradle, a much simpler task.

It holds the ship quite securely (we have "hey lets knock this over" cats who don't respect anything or anyone) and I don't know why I didn't make one before. 
 
Next up per the Lauk Street Practicum is making the oar ports.  These are a nice feature that reminds you of the smaller size of this model and I like the diagonal placement.  Each port is located about 1/4" from a gunport.  I cut out a strip of cardboard, drew a 45 degree triangle and cut out a strip the correct length of the port.  Push the template up against the sheer strake and draw the line.  For the port side I flipped the template over.  Easy.

Then drill holes- smaller ones at each end and a bigger one in the middle.  I clamped a piece of backing wood to the inner bulwarks while drilling to minimize tearout, which mostly worked.  The small bits go right through the backing wood no problem so watch your fingers; I poked myself twice by holding too close to where I was drilling.  Then I used a combination of my smallest Veritas chisel, a new scalpel blade, my smallest round file, and cloth backed sandpaper I cut into very thin strips to further refine the holes.
 
Of some concern is the condition of the deck railing, which has been covered with blue tape for months.  It has some dents and some tape adhesive "grunge" to be dealt with.  I do NOT want to remake these so It'll be very light coats of alcohol to dissolve the glue residue followed by gentle water and my trusty mini-iron (usually used for plank bending) to see if I can swell out the dents.  I said it before; I should have waited to put the deck railings on.  Or at the very least not sanded them down to finished width until I was done handling the hull so much.  Next time...
 
I did pop a short, not well attached, piece of inner bulwark planking out while drilling, which I am gluing back into position below.

And thats where my AVS stands today. 
 
And finally, reading material.  I have been going 1 chapter a night for a while in Grant Walker's new book; it is amazing.  Heavily researched, lots of great close-up shots of the exterior and endoscopic shots of the interiors as well.  Can't recommend it enough.  And he talks about an upcoming 4th volume...

 
Ok thats it, have a peaceful evening.  thanks for reading
 
cisco

While I'm experimenting with paints, stains, dies, and finishes, I finished the last task in Chapter 3 of the practicum.
 
 

 

 
 

I would never ever use white metal castings in any of my kits again. The whole lot for Alert were thrown away and I was happy to take the finacial hit.

Log #85: The Anchors
Thank you to everyone for you kind comments and encouragement. I have spent the past couple weeks making a brief detour from the rigging, but before getting to that I did clean up a few lines. First up were some blocks with hooks for the topgallant backstay tackle and the topgallant yard halyard tackle.

I am getting much better at these now I have my process down and can produce them pretty quickly at this point. These ones only took about 15 minutes to make all in.
 
I then secured the topgallant yard halyard using one of these hook blocks and another block attached to the halyard itself. I belayed the falls to the bits and then ran the coil over the nearest cleate.

With that out of the way I decided to take a break from rigging and look at the anchors.
 
As I have one of the earlier versions of the alert kit, mine came with the cast metal anchors and I can see why Chris has moved away from these. They are easily one of the weakest parts of the kit. I debated for a while as to whether I should just chuck them and draft and 3d print some new ones, but in the end I decided to try and work with them. As I have previously noted my goal with this build has been to stay pretty close to the kit and I though with a bit of work I could make them look ok.

The main problem as you can see from the right hand anchor in the above picture is that they lack detail and the molding process has resulted in some flash and warping. I decided to try and file them down to remove the excess material and make them look closer to how they appear in the illustrations in Steel.
 
I also decided not to use the PE ring from the kit and instead made one out of paper clips which I wrapped around a drill bit to shape them. I then added the puddening to them with 0.35mm brown rope and seized them with 0.2mm beige rope. The seizing rope was a bit too big, but my only other option is the white fly tying thread I have and I thought the contrast would not look right.

You can see in the above image one of the biggest problems I struggled with, getting the primer to stick to the anchors. Despite washing and filing most of the surface off of them, I could not get the primer to hold well.
 
Then I was on to the anchor stock. The kit version did not look enough like the real thing so I scratch built some new ones out of the offcuts of the 3mm laser cut sheet.

I used the drawing in Goodwin as a template which I photocopied and resized (with some trial and error) and cut them all to the rough shape before carefully planing and sanding them to the correct size. Then I got to test out my recent acquisition of a mini drill press to drill the bolt holes.

With the holes drilled I used black monofilament fishing line to represent the bolts. I put these through before glueing the stock to the anchors to make sure I could get them through properly. Once everything was in place I just used a sharp craft knife to cut off the ends.

I then added iron straps using shrink tube and painted the straps and the anchors. I will not go into detail on the painting as I have previously described all these techniques when I did the straps on the boom jaws and when I painted the cannons.
 
Here is the final results. In the end I am pretty pleased with how they turned out and they look reasonably like the real thing.

 

If you put them in a block/rock tumbler for part 6 it really helps to get a more rounded shape and easier than getting sanding by hand..
Allan

I use that method and carve the grooves in with a scalpel.

Here is one of my favorite references for making blocks from Mondfeld.  I had just about got to the point of going forward with this method when Chuck started selling his blocks.
 

You can see that taking it down to very small size is possible.
If you have a small table saw, i.e., Proxxon, Byrnes, etc.,  it will really help with the grooves..
 

Here is one of my favorite references for making blocks from Mondfeld.  I had just about got to the point of going forward with this method when Chuck started selling his blocks.
 

You can see that taking it down to very small size is possible.
If you have a small table saw, i.e., Proxxon, Byrnes, etc.,  it will really help with the grooves..
 

Here is one of my favorite references for making blocks from Mondfeld.  I had just about got to the point of going forward with this method when Chuck started selling his blocks.
 

You can see that taking it down to very small size is possible.
If you have a small table saw, i.e., Proxxon, Byrnes, etc.,  it will really help with the grooves..
 

Here is one of my favorite references for making blocks from Mondfeld.  I had just about got to the point of going forward with this method when Chuck started selling his blocks.
 

You can see that taking it down to very small size is possible.
If you have a small table saw, i.e., Proxxon, Byrnes, etc.,  it will really help with the grooves..