My Fathers Son

I agree exactly about the scale problem, my own Cutty is approx 1:100 and had to surrender to the fact that I wanted to display something that represents what she looks like, but the rigging scale would not be absolutely correct. So my deadeyes are all 5mm. I could have gone for 3mm for the upper shrouds, and in hindsight, probably should have, but it's been a steep learning curve for me also. I used 1mm thread for cable, 0.7mm for halyards and 0.35mm for ratlines. I will use the same sort of scale to differentiate between the rest of the stays, halyards, and finer ropes like buntlines. At the end of the day, it's your project and the level of detail you go to is always personal choice, I have had to make plenty of such decisions myself as I wanted to retain as much of dad's original material model as I dared. Keep up the good work.

NenadM I believe these are known as Crosstrees. They are not a single piece but a construct of a number of pieces. The piece below is normally on the side of the mast and are known as Cheeks, their purpose is to provide a support for the Trestletrees that run fore and aft either side of the mast. Cross trees would be set into these providing a base onto which a platform was built leaving a gap either side of the mast known as a lubbers hole. Bolsters were mounted on top either side to support the shrouds that would pass around the mast and down through the lubbers hole. The holes you have made are for the upper shrouds either side and the running gear for the bunt lines on the front. These are typical constructs that can be found described here on Model Ship World. Hope this helps Simon

Hi, I used something very similar on my Cutty Shrouds. The two strips are CA'ed to the jaws of the clamp on the left and then just clamp the other end when its positioned correctly. I found that anything heavier than this dragged on the shrouds and upset the balance and tension of the shroud. I too would credit the idea to this platform but not to any specific post. Very nice shrouds, your Cutty is looking very good. Simon

Hi all, I have been quiet of late as progress has been slow. Basically, I have been trying to make head or tail of the Rigging plan for Cutty and not getting anywhere. I dont want to start on bits and pieces only to realise later on I have made a rod for my own back, so I want to make sure that I am working from the centre line of the boat outward. I have made and installed the Gaff sail, and am now working on fully dressing all the yards for the Mizzen Mast. Just the Royal to finish off. I have given up trying to understand Cambells drawing and have gone to Harold Underhills Plate No 34 - Running Rigging on Square Sails. I am fairly sure I know where I am going with the Stays and Shrouds. If I am reading this right, Bunt and Leech Lines go in front of the sail and Clew, downhaul and sheet lines behind. This starts out very simple from the Royal and gets more complex as you work your way down to the course and the deck. At that point, I will have to go back to Cambells drawings to get an idea on where to install the belaying points for the lines. One thing is for sure, I dont have enough Pins. Oh well, after I have completed the Mizzen, at least I will be able to estimate what I will need for the rest of the boat. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

A little progress made.

Working on those pin rails I have the aforementioned problem with the proportions of the pins. They are 9mm so already large scale wise, but the pin is disproportionately short compared to the handle. Not a major problem when used on the brass pin holders on the mast but problematic on a pin rail. I have some mahogany strip that I wanted to use but as you can see, there is not enough pin protruding from the bottom of the rail. I don't have a micrometer but that looks about 1.5mm thick. I tried a Starbucks stirrer. That is better as the stirrer looks about .75mm. I then tried a Costa stirrer, this looks about .5mm so I suspect I will have to go with that. So one more to make, then I can look at the posts, that will be square mahogany stock and I will try to make them a little less blocky. Simon

Today Well, I turned them around and managed to install the chains. I will put the rear stays in place tonight so it is not swinging around. Will have to sort out the stations and rails on the Liverpool House next. I have made canvas covers for the two life boats. Might be a little oversize but I have not tied them down yet. I have now installed the rails o the Liverpool house and set up stays for the gaff. still need to install a pin rail either side before I can go ahead with the Mizzen Backstays. Simon

Well, I turned them around and managed to install the chains. I will put the rear stays in place tonight so it is not swinging around. Will have to sort out the stations and rails on the Liverpool House next. I have made canvas covers for the two life boats. Might be a little oversize but I have not tied them down yet. Simon

Thanks for the likes guys but has anybody spotted my schoolboy error. The bleeping gaff and spanker are mounted in reverse, do'h. Oh well, they will have to be removed, revised and re-installed tonight. Bah humbug. Simon

My stepfather was Sicilean, amazing how as kids the first Italian words we learned were cuss words. Simon

Well, I am glad to say that I have finally finished up the ratlines. I have also reworked the connection for both the gaff and spanker. These need to be stained and varnished and the upper chain installed but I am happy with the metalwork now. Next biggest job that ends to be broken up is making the sails. Lots of part started jobs to finish off. Need to work out where all the deck rings will go to secure rigging. Need to calculate just how many rigging blocks I am going to need and how many I have. I also need to take stock of what I am doing with belaying pins and whether I can use the ones I just bought. I would really like to be able finish before the Christmas decorations go up and that's about 2 months (and a bit) so should be doable. Simon

Those frames are looking good. I will tag along with your build.

Thanks Mark, but I think the Captain should hold fire before casting of just yet. I started on the Fore Mast and worked back and you can see the progress in the standard of the Ratlines, this is definitely a case of Practice makes perfect, not that my latest lines are perfect but they are a huge improvement on my first attempts. Before I proceed to the Backstays, I have to take stock of the jobs I have left to do that would be easier if the Back and Forestays are absent. For instance, I need to locate all the Belaying Pin locations and Deck eyes. I should now instal the railings on the Liverpool house and certainly do that before installing the Gaff and Spanker. Rob recently mentioned his method of planning a build, setting out small tasks to complete and completing that target before setting the next task. This is to give a sense of progress and to be able to envisage the end result. As I have taken on this challenge without plans or instructions, when I read my book, I should have drawn up a task list, I could then have used Robs method and I would be able to see what I had achived, and what is left to do. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I started this blogg in January this year, and I aim to finish by Xmas this year, this should be achievable without to much haste. Simon

An evenings work. that completes the ratlines on the starboard side.

I have been making some progress. All the ratings on the Foremast are finished. I have installed the shrouds on the main mainmast and the ratings. Backstays are left of for the time being to allow access. I am now installing the shrouds on the mizzen mast. I won't leave the ratings for later as before, that was far too much to do at once. Must remember to install the two rails before finishing the backstays. Ordered and received more brass belaying pins, not really happy with them. I thought the ratio was supposed to be 1/3rd handle and 2/3rds spine but these look closer to 50/50 and there will be very little spine below the rail. Bah humbug, this is why I like to see what I am buying, really wish I could find somewhere closer than Cornwall to get these things. Simon

Went for a drive down to Portsmouth today, the Historic Dockyard is open but much of the items are only limited access so going in was not a good idea today. I did however, get to take a few images from the quayside and Portsmouth rail station of HMS Warrior. Not sure if anyone is building or planning to build her, but thought i would share a few of them.

So I have reached the part where I have to convince myself that "Patience is a virtue". Each step you take then impacts on the other areas of the task in hand as fat fingers get in the way. Arthritic fingers take time and effort to respond. On the Foremast, I have installed the Shrouds and Backstays, but realised that I would struggle to access the mast to install the Yards if I just went ahead and installed the forestays. So I took the time to install the various peices of equioment on the yards and then installed them. I mislaid my chain supply and this delayed me a bit, but I found it right where it was supposed to be, do'h. They are a bit loose as they swing on their pivots and chains, so started on the outer lines but then realised that I had left the Ratlines of so have had to stop this and go back to getting them finished off. While I was working on them in position, I found it frustrating that they swung around, so I used a few Crocodile clips (I found a box of 80 for £3.99 in Lidl) and attached a length of "Rope" with a loop on one end. You can see that two of these will stabalise a Yard quite easily while you work on the it. I have started the Ratlines and found it quite difficult to get the lines through and round the Shrouds to tie them in with Tweezers. So I have gone back to needle and thread. These are not sewn through the Shroud, but I find the needle much easier to pass behind the shroud. Also, the pointy end is good for loosening a knot if it is not quite right. Also, I have shown the rear deck house so you can see my efforts on the boats. I will have to work out whether I am making the rest of the oars, masts and gaffs or whether I am making covers. Might do a mixture of both. I am quite please how they finally came out. One of the things I love so much about my Admiral, is that she has an opinion, she is not one to sit on the fence. She is generally sat next to me watching telly while I am working on CS and when I show her the pictures of models on the net or from on here, she definitely appreciates the skills, but anything without sails is incomplete, in her view. I have explained the complexity and the difficulty in getting the scale right for sails, but she is adament. However, sails on a ship should look off if they are not full of wind, if you are depicting the vessel at sea, a ship looking like it is is the duldrums is not how such a magnificient speedster should be displayed. So I am thinking that I should be going for the look of a vessel that is at rest, but not at the dockside. So I will do sails but they will be furled. This will allow me to leave the cover off of a longboat. Also, I am looking to have her look like a working boat, and a model that is 60 years old, not something that is brand new, out of the box. That way, while I will be responsible for much of the look of the boat, I can still say "This is dads creation!". Simon

I have finished with the boats for the time being as I can now access them and add any finishing touches at the proper time. I did buy a book Ship Modelling Simplyfied by Frank Mastini but have fallen foul of the Electronic world. Actually have a book, you know, those things that have shhets of paper bound up between hard covers, you would read a section, work on completing the task and then move on to the next section. I think I need to charge up my old Kindle as this is still possible with that, but using the Kindle App on my phone is not. The point of this is getting jobs done in the right order. While Frank has told me to complete the Futtocks and upper shrouds, I have gone ahead and started the main shrouds and that is going to impede my work on other rigging tasks and installing the Yards, so I am putting that on hold for the time being. The reason I had started this was to add stability to the Masts, I have glued these, but they are stil a little unstable. I carried out an Audit on what Yards had survived and it appears I was missing 4. Also, they are not necessarily the most accurate in sizes, but I have decided to go with these as they were dads work. A lot of cleaning up was required and one of the larger yards, the Lower Top Sail Main yard was badley warped. 30 minutes in hot water and then clamped overnight to a metal ruler has cured that problem. So, I am now making the missing 4 and then converting the fittings on them to match those in Harold Underhills Plate no 18 to get the metal work into some semblance of what should be. I am not going to be able to do Sheaves so I wil have to improvise on this. This image is the Yards for the foremast. I still have to recreate the Royal, but the Upper Topsail Yard has been recreated and fitted out. Lessons learned here are Antiqued Brass Wire makes more realistic Bands than sheet Brass and are easier to make, and Pi is an important number to calculate the size of the blank. I have to admit that this took longer than I envisaged, but the effort will be worth it when they are installed on their Mast. Simon

So boat 1 now has 4 oars, mast and gaff. Just needs rowlocks, lifting eyes and fittings for rigging for mast/sail.still need s a rudder as well.

I started installing the Shrouds on the main mast and realised that in doing so, I would be restricting access to the ships boats, and in particular, the mounts on which they sit. I have not been happy with the two lifeboats, I know I could do better so bit the bullet and took time out on the rigging this week to construct a matching pair of life boats. So first, I set out to find a decent drawing of life boats and struggled a bit to find one of the type in Cambells drawings. I did however find this. So I used the Windows Snip and Draw app to scale these to a boat that would be 25ft (about 80mm or a bit less) and drew out the profiles for the rib sections. However, I had decided that I would only make one set of these and use them to design a template and use that to build the hulls. These are set in place on two toothpicks inserted through holes drilled through each piece and then the whole thing was sanded to reflect the proper profile. I then cut out 2 matching Keels to fit over the template. These are two layers of coffee stirrers and I alternated the joints to add strength. I then set the Keel on the template but this is simply placed there, not fixed in place. I then started planking, from the keel down. The strakes were spot glued with CA to the Keel, Stem and Stern Posts being carefull not to get the glue to go through and stick to the template. I did wax the template as well. Moving from side to side, I built it up, removing it from the jig frequently to unstick the parts from the jig as careful as I was, the glue still seeped through in places. As I finished a boat, I left it on the jig overnight to set up the glue, after a litle light sanding of course. The wood is Basswood 1/32 thick so there is not much scope for sanding, but as I knew I would be paainting this, I was not overly worried about it being a bit transparent. I then cut and bent basswood strips for ribs to add a bit of detail and strength. Note the specialist tool for wood bending. I would heat the copper pipe with the torch and then wrap the wetted strip around the 15mm copper pipe while it cooled down. The results were not unsatisfactory. I am in the process of installing seats and location hole for a Mast. I will create a few brass pins to emulate the rollocks and have a go at a few oars and a mast with a gaff rig, nearly finished but bit of tidying up of the paint work.

As promised, a couple of images of progress. I am reconsidering the Datlines as this looks on the heavy side, so may unpick this and start again. I have since installed the Belaying pins, 7mm brass but an short again. Time for more shopping. I have some cog wheels on order because I want to have a try at seizing a cable and should have enough to make a basic ropewalk as well. Onwards and upwards. Simon

Sorry about the gap in my posts, but I have not had much time to spend on my project. Well threading the deadeyes in reverse works a treat. Because I am threading from an accessible angle, I can get the CA'd end through the blocks and grab the end with fine point tweezers. Once you have got the thread through the last eye, knot it and then start to pull back through the blocks and apply a little tension. The blocks hold the tension nicely after pulling each part through in order and you can then tie off the end neatly above the Deadeye. The foremast is done with the Shrouds and backstays and I am now moving on to the Main Mast. I will leave the Forestays until after I have hung the yards in place as they will compete for space. Pictures will follow later this weekend.

I did try that but the problem is my aging eyes struggle to focus in the space and it doesn't help that I am trying to feed the thread through from the constricted side. It just occurred to me that I could load the thing in reverse and add tension afterwards. To tired in the evenings to think outside the box, 😆.

I will try that as I have not installed the lower deadeyes for the main master. I was thinking I would find a needle the fits though the deadeye and grind away a section of the eye of the needle. I should be able to pull the thread through. Might have to shorten the needle as well so it fits in tight corners.

Taking my time on the Foremaat shrouds. Threading the lower deadeyes is a challenge. There is just no space between the deadeye and the gunwhale. I used ca glue on the shrouds higher up the masts, simply put a small amount on the end of the thread and you have a needle that is part of the thread. Can't do this down below as I can't get a short enough glue section and feed it through. Using a needle threader works fine on the top deadeyes but the wire doesn't penatrate far enough to open up on the lower ones. I made a tool with very fine wire loop on the end and passed it through but I then struggled to serate the wires once I had them through the other side. Patience is a virtue but I can't do more than two shrouds per evening at this rate.