My Fathers Son

As I am getting close to mounting the masts, I have been looking at what angle should me at. I have read somewhere that the Fore would have a rake of 1 1/4" per foot, the Main at 1 1/2" per foot and Mizzen at 1 3/4" per foot. Does this sound reasonable?

Spent some time on the saddle blocks on the skysail and upper top gallant yards this morning I will shape brass wire to form the restraints to hold these to the mast. This should be a loose fit and the masts suspended from chains. I might still file these down a bit as they are a bit heavy. The jackstays are a bit heavy but thus is the smallest I could get them. Simon

So yesterday, in preparartion for the receipt of the supply of my deadeyes, I cleared down the deck, made sure everything was secure and cleaned up any surplus glue stains. Then two coats of Humbrol Matt Cote varnish on everything. Err, ignore the homemade micro saw resting on the boat racks. BTW, the wire on the end of this was dads solution to mounting the yards on the masts. Simon

Well, that is the Main Mast ready to be installed. That is the last mast to be fitted out, just have a few bits to add to the Mizzen but that wont take too long. I have ordered my outstanding deadeyes from Cornwall Model Boats and if they are true to form, they will arrive Wednesday/Thursday of this week. Simon

The trouble with living and working close together is my car never gets a good run, so Saturday, I went to Worthing in Sussex to have a nose round the Sussex Model Centre. It's a fantastic shop but concentrates on RC or Plastic Models. Plenty of raw materials though but only small selection of bespoke parts and I am short on dead eyes. I was able to pick up 20 but that still leaves me short by 80. Still, the staff in there know their stuff and put themselves out to be helpful so happy to recommend them, just need to know what you are going for. They did have some 3mm dowel so I can have a go at the stunsail booms. Spent the evening fitting out the main mast, still have the spreaders and Royal Shrouds to finish of before I can install it on the Hull. I am holding of fixing in any mast until I have enough deadeyes and unfortunately I do not have enough to complete one yet. Just going to have to swallow the delivery cost, bah humbug. Simon

Still have not made my mind up regarding the stunsails but have completed the Spreader on the crosstree, the Topgallant and Royal Shrouds and started on the ratlines on the Foremast. Its a good job that my mother hammered in to me that patience is a virtue. I have also made the two spider bands at the base of the mast although ooking at this installed on the boat, they are mounted a little high. Question, do I install the yards before or after I mount the mast on the boat? I have installed the sturdier fittings on the yards but not the foot ropes or block and tacles of the running rigging. Also, the drop of the foot rpoes is a bit vexing at present. The difference is going to be small at this scale as 3ft is 10mm and 4ft is 13.3mm. In order for the sailor to balance on these, the centre of gravity would need to be below the level of the yard. These gentlement woud have been fit so their COG would be quite high but being 19th century gentlement would likely have been on average about 5' 8". I am tempted to measure the stays on these at 12mm as a compromise working on the basis that the rope would sag at the point the sailor was standing and the yard would have been just below chest height, or should that have been waist height. As always, any hints or help on this subject would be greatly appreciated. Simon

I like that idea too, think I might use that on my Cutty, dad did not actually have that decoration on her and that is why the front stem doesn't scan right.

Ok, so before last weekend, she was looking like this. I have since finished the TopGallant and Royal Shrouds on the Mizzen mast bar the Ratlines. I have also installed most of the hardware on the Foremast and the Futtock Shrouds on there as well. I have started the Topgallant Shroud on there but still have to thread the Lanyards on the starboard side. I still have the Cross Tree to assemble for this mast and two spider bands for the foot of the mast. I am content with how the foredeck is looking. I made the pump cross piece and this operates the rods that connect to the windlass, I will be hanging two handles for this on the side of the Heads, along with the rods for the winch. There may be deck bolts I need to install but can't identify them at the moment. I have cleaned up the yards for the foremast and painted the course yard black. I have installed the rod accross the top of each yard but have still to create the climbing lines on these. I have also still to create the centre braces for the Royal and Skysail yards in a similar style to the one I created for the Topgallant Yard. This will leave the blocks for the running rigging to attach. I am in two minds over what to do for the Stunsails. I can see from Cambells drawings that there are Stunsail yards and sails fitted and in her restored state in Greenwich she definitly has the yards installed. Dad did not create these yards and looking at the older images of her, they were not there. If I am going to add them, I have to decide now so I can make the yards and install them. Decisions, decisions.

The cables came out quite well. I had two grades of copper wire extracted from a Control board for a Boiler, the smallest grade needed ssix strands of wire to create something that was acceptable but the other heavier grade needed just two strands. I spun this using my Lidl Drill and have used this to create the stays for the jib boom. I have glued the capstan in place and made the rocker for the pump. I will make racks for the handles for this and the bars for the Capstan. The Fairleads are wrong, it is supposed to have one Post and two rollers under the shoulders but I just cant get them in this scale and try as I might, I haven't found a way I can make them. Its something I can look at this in the future as they are easily accessible. I have also installed the ships bell. You can see I have used a little bit of artistic licence on the connectors for the Cable stays for the Jib. Just a bit of a cleanup and varnish required in this area and find out where the deck bolts have to be for the rigging.

Ok, two things have happened that are helping me in my quest. Firstly, I have found digital copies of Campbells drawings of the CS that is the layout, the sail plan and rigging plan. From what I can see and from looking at images of the actual boat, there are a few differences plus I am working with a base that is not strictly to scale. This does however give me enough of an idea on what I need to do and I would never have been able to get my head around the rigging without something like this. Secondly, I have bought a Kindle version of a book called Ship Modelling Simplified. This is helping me a lot in setting out an order of things that need to be done reinforcing my Admirals mantra of Finish the deck fittings first. I had started out on finishing of the Stern and moving forward but the book tells me to start from the forward position and work towards the Stern, so that is what I am doing. In the mean time I had made an attempt at installing some of the standing rigging on the mizzen mast. The above are my first attemps at Lanyards and Deadeys. I had tried a single piece of wire bent at each end to standardise the distance between the deadeyes but I struggled with this. So I made a tool consisting of a stripp of lite ply, 5mm by 60mm, with two pairs of wire on which I can mount two deadeyes. These keep the deadeyes in the correct position. I mounted the lower deadeyes and lashed them to the mast below the platform. I then added my tool and connected it to the lower deadeye and had another on the upper pins. I was then able to loop the stroud around the deadeye and clip both the rope together up the stroud. I could the seize this in place in two places and a touch of CA on the seizing keeps the whole thing in plaace with consistand distancing and direction of the deadeye. I could then remove the tool and thread the lanyard in the correct order with tension and the final length is looped onto the seizing on top of the upper deadeye. Moving to the front of herI have secured the jib boom in place and installed the chains that support it from below. I have changed the original Cathead so it exists both inside and outside of the hull. Not easy to see here but I also made whiskers and CA'ed them to the Catheads. I am now experimenting with making my own cables with copper wire I have stripped from coils from a dead ECU from a domestic boiler. One thread is very thin. I have spun 3 lengths together which you can see hanging of the bow, but I think I need to add more lengths to pruce a realistic cable strong enough to stabalise the Job Boom. Need to read a bit more of the book to see what is next, but I suspect finishing the Capstan and Windlass is the next in line. TTFN Simon

Thanks Leo, I allways appreciate all the comments and support I have received on this forum, it has helped a lot.

Not much got done this weekend but I heard about a model shop that specialised in Boats and it is located in Chatham historic boatyard. Well, the shop was a bit of a dissapointment as it was very limited in stock but I still managed to get some things. However, it was a lovely day weatherwise and the Dockyard is free to visit, so phone in hand, I started to have a look around. There are three ships onsite. HMS Gannett, 1882 hull with 4 guns. The upper decks and masters cabin were open so I had a walk round. She is still afloat in Dock no 5 but the water is dead and green as a result of the copper cladding. In dry dock no 4, is HMS Ocelot, a 1962 Cold war Oberon class submarine. She is closed to visitors as there is no chance of Social distancing in a submarine. In dock no 3 is HMS Cavalier, she is also afloat. She is a 1944 Destroyer that was updated and refitted in the 50's and retired in the 60's. There is also a fantastic indoor sheed houseing WW2 vehicles, miscelaneous boats and item's plus lifeboats through the ages. These are just a few of the images.

Hi all, I am looking at making the Fairleads for the foredeck and am struggling a bit on size and design. These are mounted on the topgallant rail which was Teak 6-1/2" x 3-1/2" and looking at the image of the real thing, this looks to be about 3 1/2" wide and a ration of 1:13 against its length. At 1:100 that makes it about 1mm wide and 13mm long and just over 1mm high. That seems very small and I am not going to be able to make this with a central post, two roller posts and the shoulders to cover these. Worse still, I couldn't see anything sutable on Cornwall Model Boats website. Any idea's?

Well it got to me, I could not stare at it any more to the point that I was ever going to be satisfied with the look of this without dealing with this mast. Also, fiddling with bits of the mast, trying to adjust the length of the lower mast was not going to work so I am remaking this section of the mast, sorry dad, but yours had to be replaced, I am keeping the the mid and upper sections. This gives me the chance to learn from my first attemps on the iron work which while ok, but were not the best I can achieve. Having read NenadM's comments on the scale of the bands on this section, I have bought a supply of 8mm brass belaying pins. I know they are way to big for scale but for practicality, they will at least hold the ropes and give me the chance to apply the rope 2-3 turns and still have a bit of room to hang the ends loops of rope for the lines. When making the lowest band, I will install 6 hoops aligned vertically for the blocks to hook onto and horizontal in the next hoop for belaying pins. I will also change the universal joint on the lower gaff to match the design of the one on the upper gaff but hope to refine the finish a bit. If at first you dont succeed, try, try again. Simon

Hi NenadM, The image you have shown here is the foot of the Mizzen mast. At 1:100 I am going to have to surrender to practicality on my Cutty but she is not as strict to scale as yours. I am currently remaking the Lower Mizzen and fitting out this section with hardware and the image you have shown has been a great help as I had not realised the lower band was going to have blocks. I have managed to get sight of Cambells drawings and unfortunately, he has not detailed this section of the mast unless you can see the detail here. Loving the detail on your Cutty. Simon

Well, I haven't touched the Mizzen mast this weekend but have continued with the brass Davits. I spent some time thinking about the fittings on this and tried to make the blocks and cleat. I used a short length of 2.5 copper cable and filed down and approximate shape for the cleat being carefully not to separate it from the rest of the cable. I then mounted both davit and cable in my new magnifier holder clamps so the were level and just touching. A Liberal coating of flux and cut of a tiny amount of solder and applied the heat and the job was a gooden. I then fine tuned the shape and removed excess solder with a file. I shaped the blocks from 2mm Square sapele and drilled them. Threaded the cable and secured it to the davit with rope at the base. Remembered this morning that I really should have painted it before mounting the rigging, do'h.

Hi all, You know when you look at something and it bugs you but you cant quite see what the issue is? Well, it has hit me what is bugging me, the Mizzen mast is too short. The confused scale of this model is getting to me a bit, but I can see what is wrong now. One, the lower mast is too short, not by much but enough to notice. When I compare the proportions of the three masts, the Fore and Main Masts are in proprtion but the Mizzen c omes up a little short. Part of this is dads error, he shorted it about 1cm and the other cm is down to me. When I reworked the hounds, I overdid the overlap. The reason this happened is I did the Mizzen first and just adjusted the joint by removing material from the rear of the base of the centre mast and adding to the from, but on the other two, I actually added extra material below and shaped the joint to create the space for the Shrouds to pass between the masts. I can add a cm to the base of the mast, this will be below decks and wont interfere with the structuarl integrity, but will bring the Hound up in close allignment to the other masts. Bah humbug, but I am not certain whether to undo the hound as there is a fair bit of ironwork already installed. I had an attempt at the Brass Davits yesterday and you can see the difference. Leaving asside that the first attempt was two short, there was not enough space for the block and tackle between the boat and the davit, the brass looks way neater and stronger. Just need to design and soldier a cleat and eye to secure the ropework. I have made 3 basic one so far and continuity is an issue with the bends and eye at the top. It's about a 10p coin curve but a 50p would be better, if only it didn't have a those bleeping angles on it. Hope everyone is having a fruitfull weekend. Simon

Hi Marc, Thanks for this, it is coming along, not as quick recently as work has been taking a priority. Also, the things I am working on take a long time and progress is not as obvious. I managed to get the bends all done without any casualties, but I am not happy with them, they are way too fragile and look it, so even if they never have to lift a lifeboat, they dont look sturdy enough to do the job anyway. I have some brass rod so will have a go at thet to see if this improves the look. I am planning to set up block and tackle on each if I can make something that looks the part. With the shops back to opening to the public and a day off work meant I could take a wander through the local hobby shop. Hobbycraft are not specialists so there is lots of generic stuff for all hobbyists but nothing for the specialist boat builder, but I did manage to get some fresh blades and a third hand with magnifier so was not a total waist, plus some dowels so I can start on replacing the missing yards. I have made the replacement Spanker Gaffs, I sourced some chain in antique brass and found a way to make a universal joint for them. No images at the moment, will upload some later in the weekend. I have made some bollards and am ready to install them and the anchor chain chutes to the chain store are ready to install, and my son and I had a go at the figurehead. Scale is a bit out, its too large but will have anorther go once the Jib is set up with the chains and lines.

Hi all, its been a while since I last posted. That funny old week mentioned in my last post nearly ended up with me being made redundant, missed that by the skin of my teeth. Obvious progress made is very little as the things I m working on are small and time consuming. I have managed to fix most of the superstructure to the deck from the aft deck to the foremast, but forward of this point, most things are made, bar the Anchor chain and the feed lines for these. I have brass tube on order but having to wait a while for it to be delivered. In th emean time, I have been tidying up the masts. Dad had simply nailed three sections of dowel together in straight lines, and this did not work for me as you need the space between the masts at the overlap for the Shrouds to pass between them. However, I wanted to keep the masts Dad made so I just added extra to the front of the mid and upper sections , shaped them as best I could. I toyed with making brass Mast caps but that was an abject failure. So I have made these in light ply and after gluing in place, It have thinned them down and painted them black. The image below is the Foremast before I painted and stained the masts. Hindsight being a wonderful thing, I really should have painted and stained these before starting on the deadeyes. This is the very first part of the rigging I have attempted. One thing I am stuck with is the spacing on the deck. The mix up on the scales between length and width is one thing but the other is that the Main Mast is set about 1/2 inch (12mm) to far aft and this area is now a little cramped. I will remake the hatch cover a little smaller. You can see my latest effort on the signal cannon, I intended to drill out the barrel for a few mm but none of my drill bits are up to it. You can see here that I have created the chicken hutches. I still need to install the Bollards, I have ordered the upright parts and I will glue/solder these to Brass plate and install them. I need to finish the Boat rests for the life bouts. I have finnished the one for the starboard side but I am toying with the idea of remaiking the port side one to match. I have made Davits for the boats, but I am in two minds whether the make new in Brass or use the ones I made and curved, using water, heat from my soldering iron. Had to heat it up, turn it of to cool a little then use it as it was far too hot when lit and burned the wood. There is one resting on the boat slides as an example. If I make any progress over the weekend, I will update again. TTFN Simon

Emm, I am pretty sure my Admiral would not, but if you used wooden clamps, you could put water in the pan and put on the stove, the heat would speed up the bending process!

Hi all, its been a funny week at work and this has disrupted my progress a little. I have decided to work from the rear to the front and make each component until I am happy with them all and then install them to there permenant position. The signal gun is a first attempt, the barrel is not too bad but the mount is not acceptable so will be starting again. I think there is supposed to be two meat barrels and I am aware that there should be three bands, but that is beyond my current skill level and facilities. The bands are made from 15mm plumbing pipe, I have cut strips and then filed them as thin as I can, but they still look clumsy. The barrel is too stumpy as well, I hadn't tried to use my mini drill as a lathe at that point, might try again but that is fine tuning that I can do when I have the main structure and components sorted out. I tidied up the Liverpool house and am content with this, I have the brass stantions for the railings but having read that they get in the way when installing the rigging, I will set out the holes for them, but will leave installing them. I am contemplating changing the front railings as they appear out of proportion, they are too tall and the support posts too heavy. I could do with a mini lathe but all I have is a drill and my imitation dremel. I have been making wooden Belaying pins on the dremel from bamboo tooth picks as the 5mm brass ones I bought would not be able to catch the thread when installing the running lines. These ones are 8mm, I know they are over scale as that puts them over 2' long but I do not have much choice. Planning ahead, I have started making the fittings for the lower deadeyes and it is going to be almost impossible to thread these in situe. You can see that there just isn't room to get even a curved needle between the deadeyes and the gunwhale, so I will have to set up a rig where I can construct the lower and upper deayes in place, thread them up with the lanyards, then install them into the predrilled holes in one go. I think that the standing rigging for the mizzen mast looks a little like this. So my rig that I will set up will consist of two uprights that will be removed after installation. The base can be 1mm x 3mm walnut strip with drill holes for the lower deadeyes. The top piece can be 1mm x 1mm walnut strip that can be strapped to the upper deadeyes, and the down cables attached when the main rigging elements are installed. In the mean time, I will set up the deadeyes locations so I can position the fife rails correctly. I have been practicing my metal work skills this week and have been working on the bilge pump but no pictures today, this is still experimental at this stage. Simon

Hear, hear, at least we have the benefit of a master at work.

Thats for the help Keith, I finally got round to finishing of the Wheel and Gearbox yesterday. The wheel is retained by an Earring backstay mounted between the outer board and an inner piece so it turns. The name plate is sheet brass and used a Dymo printer on clear tape. My hands are far too shaky to get that to look nice otherwise. I have some clear auto lacquer and will coat this so it retains its shine. I added a little detailing to the Liverpool house prior and getting ready to install the hand rail but I read from someone that this is likely to get bent out of shape when rigging so may hold of from this. Half way through the meat barrel last night I slipped with a craft knife so gave up for the evening, but is true now that this is a labour of blood and sweat, if not tears, bringing the model back to life. The two fife rails are constructed but not installed as I can't determine the correct position until I have a better idea where the deadeyes are going for the mizen mast, I dont want to crowd the area until I have this set out, much to the dismay of she who shall be adored, who thinks I need to be more methodical. She is right of coarse as I have drifted from task to task a bit.

Hi all, Had my covid jab yesterday so feeling a bit off today, but woke early and after making a coffee, set out my workshop. I finshed the Steering gear box yesterday and am waiting on the postman for the wheel. Looking at the deck it seems I have lots of things with the main construction done but nothing is actually finished, so I have tried to sort a few of them out. I started with constructing the roof mounts for the Captains Gig, glued it up then painted the roof white. Another coat and I can install the brass rings to secure the ropes that will hold the Gig in place. I was lucky to get my delivery from Cornwall Model Boats today, pleasantly surprised at the speed of the delivery. The Ships wheel I ordered was included but as you can see, some assembly is required. The spokes dont actually click in place and keep falling back out. Will CA glue hold this or do I have to solder them? I carried on with painting, but it all needs to be rubbed back down and another coat applied. I can then apply the final trim aound the houses in Mahogany strip. I still need to work on the hull as I need to round of the curve on the rear, its quite obvious in such close up images.

The doors are 16mm. I lowered the roof and took out the sill above the doors. At a scale of 1:100 that would be about 5'6". The average sailor in the 19th century could walk through with only a small duck of the head. I have stained the side walls and planked the roof with beech sticks. The sky light was interesting, the window frames took a bit of fiddling gluing 1mm square beech stips, these still need to be glazed before I stick them in. I am quite pleased with this, not too fancy to be so far from what dad started but true to the spirit of the ship. Next will be the steering gearbox. Must start that shopping list before long.