Thukydides

Log #62: Rigging the Mainstay

Having finished the last halliard pendant it was time to move on to assembling the next stage of the mast. However, at this point I noticed an inconsistency in Goodwin which I want to briefly discuss. The following is a diagram I have been using to organize how I went about ordering the mast head, but there is an issue with block number 26.

This is referred to as the foresail halliard, but in all other places in the book, the foresail halliard block is sized to the mainstay, not to the masthead. Additionally it appears to me that the Hawk model follows the sizing to the mainstay convention. I have assumed that this was just an error on Goodwin’s part and plan to size the foresail halliard to the mainstay (this is also how the kit instructions say to do it).

Next up was attaching the cheeks (I think that is what they are called). These were glued and clamped in place and left to dry overnight.

Then on to the mainstay. There seem to be two possible ways to turn the stay in the deadeye. First there is the method used by the Kingfisher model and that is the one recommended by the kit. This was also chosen by Chuck for his Cheerful model and most models of Alert I have seen appear to go with this method.

The second is to wrap the stay back down around the deadeye and size it there. This is the method used in Goodwin and on the Hawk model. 

I decided to go with the later method as

1. I went with the Hawk arrangement for the running backstays so I might as well go with the theme.
2. Most other models I have seen use the kit arrangement so this allows me to do something a little different.

I sized it using the 0.2mm line Ben custom made for me. So with that the mainstay is attached. Next up is the preventer stay and then I will have to go through all the standing rigging to adjust the tension and secure it in place.

12 minutes ago, TJM said:

Right, that is also what i understood, and I think you are right that it is a bit too long! I will have a look and modify as needed. Your drawing is very helpful, thank you!

 

With regard to plank lengths, I should have been clearer: I was referring to the second planking, and was just interested to see that you had done this on your Alert, as I had considered doing it as well. For the first planking, I definitely think it makes sense to have full length planks, as the bulkhead frame would cause some difficulty in fitting shorter lengths for this layer!

 

TJM

Ah I understand. So I much prefer the look of actually cutting the planks into their proper lengths, but I can't answer for you what you prefer. I would say that it is not much extra work so if you prefer the look, I would recommend going for it.

31 minutes ago, TJM said:

Thank you @Thukydides! I think you may be right. I will have a close look at it later. I did not intensionally bend i up but it does look like it is doing that a bit on my photos. I actually made a shape rather close to the one you show in your linked post 12, except that I had a notch in it to fit it into the slot in the stem - this may also contribute to it looking a little wrong. 

 

But again, thank you! This is very much the kind of feedback I was hoping for. And by the way, if I can even remotely approach the quality of your Alert planking result, I will be quite happy indeed! It is very impressive.

 

I also was considering if I should use ~14 cm strips for that more realistic planking look like you do on Alert, but I am wondering if I should leave the deviations from the manual for a future build to avoid overcomplicating things here on the first. But I am not decided yet.

 

TJM

 

So what I mean by not bending up is essentially it is too long. It should terminate a bit earlier, I would guess right at the beginning of the notch. I have drawn in red on your picture what I would guess it should be.

In terms of the lengths I don't think it matters that much for the first layer. The process is the same you just do it on a smaller scale.

Good progress. It is hard to tell from the photo but you garboard plank may rise a little too much up the stem. It should essentially run straight to meet the stem not curve up on it or you will have trouble fitting all the planks in and the run of them won't look quite right. Not a big deal for the first layer, but as this is your first major build you really want to use the first layer as practice for the second.

I don't have a good picture of my first planking on alert, but see the below link for the post on the second planking in which you can clearly see the garboard.

Great job. Congrats on an excellent model.

Log #61: Shroud Batons & Running Backstays

With the shrouds secured I decided to add the shroud batons before too many other ropes end up making everything difficult to manipulate. To make them I cut off two 40mm lengths of the leftover pearwood thin strips used for the molding and sanded them until they were smooth. Then I gave them a quick coat of WOP.

I attached them to the shrouds using clove hitch knots and gave them a coat of varnish to hold them. You may notice that I have not trimmed the ends of the thread yet. This is because it is possible that when I am doing the final tension on the standing rigging there is always the chance the tension may cause the baton to shift slightly. If this happens I don’t want to have to reattach each knot and so with the longer ends I can just pull it tight again if it releases. Once everything is finalized I can cut them short and bend them behind to secure them.

I have also been slowly adding to the ropes at the top of the mast. I mentioned in my last log that I had the pendant for the gaff done. For this I used 0.6mm line sized with 10/0 fly tying thread. For the block I followed the kit arrangement and used a 4mm double block.

I also got the first of the pendants for the halliards finished. This also used 0.6mm line sized with 10/0 fly tying thread. For the block I used a 3.5mm block (3mm ones recommended in the kit seemed too small). I had wanted to use 4mm single blocks for this, but I was unable to find any (due to these blocks being made in Russia, they are hard to come by these days).

I also have completed work on the running backstays. For this I decided to go with a single tackle option for the folowing reasons:

1. It is consistent with the arrangement on the Hawk model. This model is dated to around the time of Alert. Now there was likely a significant variation on cutter rigging, but I figured this was at least a reasonable choice.
2. I liked the look of it better than the double tackle option such as on the Kingfisher model detailed in Peterson. If choosing between two equally valid options, I tend to go with what I aesthetically like.
3. It is less work than the the double tackle option.

I used 0.5mm rope to run from the fiddle block through the pendant and secured it to the hull using one of the Syren large hooks. For the tackle I used 0.45mm rope and a 3.5mm single block. Again here I would have liked to use a 4mm block, but I had to make do with what I had.

Up next, I need to add 2 more pendants and then I will be able to start assembling the mast and move on to the mainstay and preventer stay.

The faring looks good to my eye, but if you haven't already you might want to use some thinner batons to test that everything lies flat. Not faring properly was one of the errors I made and it caused me lots of grief later on.

Good luck, take your time, treat every step as it's own project. In my experience I have never regretted taking more time or going back to redo something I wasn't completely happy with.

What Chris said should work.

You could use small amounts of isopropyl on a swab (I assume this is acrylic paint), but the problem with wood is you may still end up rubbing it around more than rubbing it off. you could try putting a few spots on the offcut of the deck and letting it dry for a few days. Then try the isopropyl on it as a test to see how well it works. Maybe a combination of scraping and then a bit of isopropyl might work, but I would test it before using on the model.

Did you varnish  the deck? If so what did you use. If you used an oil based varnish then the isopropyl will be much safer than it would have been on bare wood.

For the CA shine use matt or ultra matt vanish. Just dilute it 50-50 with water and brush it on. When it drys it will get rid of the shine. If the spot of CA is particularly thick you may need a second coat on that area. See the link below, you can get it in much smaller bottles, just look for your local hobby store (the ones that sell D&D figures and Warhammer).

https://www.amazon.ca/Vallejo-Ultra-Polyurethane-Varnish-28-653/dp/B09RMTHG9P/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=vallejo+ultra+matt&qid=1699876988&sr=8-1

In Goodwin’s Alert book he shows how a mizzen mast might be temporarily rigged on a cutter (such as Alert) in light wind. The diagram shown is below:

What I don’t understand is how the outrigger is attached. I assume it must be run through one of the gunports and the tackle would hold it in to the ship, but I don’t see what prevents it from sliding further in. Does anyone know how the base of the outrigger would have been secured?

It is looking great. Getting planking done is one of the important milestones in any build.

Log #60: Shrouds Complete

With the first two shrouds in place I followed my usual process of moving to mass production. First I made 8 laniards using 20cm of 0.5mm rope. This does waste a bit of rope, but I am unsure of how much exactly will be necessary for the proper tying off and it is much better to have too much than too little. For each of these lengths I tied a knot on one end and soaked it in diluted matt varnish to fix it. The other end I dipped in super glue to make sure it was nice and hard for threading purposes.

Then I threaded the laniards onto the deadeyes. One problem I encountered was the tendency for the deadeyes to twist. One trick I found helped with this was to first determine which way they wanted to twist and then to twist them 3 full rotations in that direction before attaching the laniards. This created an opposing force which wanted to twist back and counteracted the natural twist of the rope.

I used masking tape to hold the excess rope in place. I will adjust the tension on everything once all the standing rigging is in place.

With that the shrouds and standing backstays are done. I also have the pendants for the running backstays and the gaff halliard done. Next up I need to do the pendants for the spar halliards.

That is a great planking job.

One thing you can do is identify the way it is trying to twist and pre do a couple of twists in that direction. That will make the rope want to twist back and may help counteract the forces. That is what I have been doing with the shrouds on alert.

Minor update, I now have three shrouds rigged on each side.

welcome to MSW.

1 hour ago, mgatrost said:

 

Looking great, will you be putting the sails on?

Thanks, I have not decided yet. When I first started this build I was aiming for a more realistic depiction and had planned to add sails. However, as things have progressed I have moved in a more stylistic, artistic direction and so I don’t think sails as I had originally planned would fit. So basically I am trying to decide between no sails or furled sails. I have seen some examples of furled sails that I think would fit with the current theme, but I am unsure if (1) it would look that much better than no sails and (2) if I could do a good enough job not to “spoil” the model.

I think I am going to do some more research and make a decision at a later date, but at this point I am leaning towards no sails as my depiction is thematically trying to look like a contemporary model and very few of those had sails. That being said I am open to suggestions of models with a similar artistic style I could look at which did indeed use sails.

@allanyed I have noticed that Lees at times makes reference to cutters as if they are different, but never clarifies if his general statements applied to them. One of the shortcomings of the Alert book is that Goodwin rarely clarifies (particularly in the drawings section) why he is arranging things the way he is. Another great example of this is our previous discussion on the rigging of the cannons. So it is hard to tell if he is just making an assumption or if he read some tibit at some point which indicated that Cutters had their shrouds rigged in this fassion.

That is looking really good. You are making great progress.

22 minutes ago, allanyed said:

Your work is astounding. 😀

Question, hope you don't mind.   Were the forward shrouds set up like this on the cutters rather than the common sequence, ie:  pair on the starboard then pair on the port, etc. with a swifter being the aft most rigged with an eye splice if an odd number of shrouds?   

Allan

Thanks coming from such an accomplished builder that is a real compliment :).

For the shrouds I relied primarily on the Goodwin Alert book. In it he arranges them as follows:

What makes it complicated is in other parts of the book he refers to the 5th shroud (#s 12 and 10) as the standing backstay. Here he refers to 6 and 7 as the standing backstays and then also has single eye splices for the running backstays as well.

I ultimately have decided to dispense with the extra standing backstays and will just be rigging a running backstay. So I will have 4 shrouds and 1 standing backstay and 1 running backstay. Since the running backstay has to be an individual eye splice (due to the angle), I thought going with the Goodwin arrangement of having the first shrouds be done individually since they are seized all the way down made the most sense.

In general for better or for worse as this is my first build I have relied heavily on Goodwin. If I was doing the whole thing over again I might question this a bit more.

Log #59: Finishing the Mainmast

As noted in log #57 I have been working on finishing up the shrouds in preparation for attaching them to the model. The final thing that needed to be done before I could begin putting everything in place was to finish the Mainmast.

First up was to attach the boom and the gaff. The kit provided parell beads seemed a bit small for my upsized boom jaws so I ordered some matt black beads form amazon. In theory they were meant to be all the same size, but in practice they came in a fairly wide variety of sizes. Using my calipers I measured and categorized them using the smallest fore the gaff and the largest for the boom.

Then I removed the mast from the model for the last time to finish the painting. This could be done on model, but it is much easier when you are able to move it around to get the best angle. The process was similar to previous painting explanations. I will note that it is important to make sure all of the highlights are consistent and any reflection points match all over the model. So for example I made sure the reflection points on the round part matched those on the pumps.

With that all done it was time to attach the first of the shrouds. These are only loosely in place for the moment with just enough tension to hold the lines straight so they start to get used to the position they will be in. I will be going through and retensioning everything once all the stays and shrouds for the lower mast are in place.

I have not previously shown this, but I did size the cleats to the shrouds before fastening the shrouds to the ship.

The two first shrouds are now done and I will be sequentially adding the remaining ones.

That is really interesting, great find

14 minutes ago, Nearshore said:

What an amazing build. You skills are very impressive!!  You have given me some ideas to use on my build.

 

Nearshore

Thank you very much. It is always nice to hear that people have found the log helpful.

Thanks @mugje and @jpalmer1970 and everyone else for all the likes and encouragement.

I am still plugging away on the lower mast and hopefully will have more to show soon. In the meantime see below for a preview of coming attractions.

6 hours ago, jpalmer1970 said:

I used the mini drill press for drilling the holes for the belaying pins and the eyebolts that secure it to the deck.

What is the brand and how do you like it? Is it very precise? Like you I have limited hobby space and so no room for a large tool shop so I am always interested in smaller versions of these tools.