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Jared
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Everything posted by Jared
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My preference would be to captain the ship so I wouldn't ever have to do any climbing 🤣
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- Flying Fish
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Thank you. It makes sense. It would be a rather tight squeeze I would think to climb up behind the futtock shrouds!
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I started working again on my ratlines a couple of days ago, after a week of unscheduled rest due to an unplanned bout if covid. Fortunately it was mild. I am using the mercerized cotton thread that was recommended by George (much nicer to work with than the thread I had been using, all of which I removed from my model. I experimented with the sewing needle method Rich recommended and really like it. I will update my progress once I have completed one of the lower masts. My question for the group is how high up the shrouds on the lower mast should the ratlines go? The kit instructions are not overly clear. It looks like they only go up as far as the lower end of the futtock shrouds, and not behind the futtock shrouds. Instead it looks like attach to the futtock shrouds and continue up to the top. Have I got this right? I have quite a few books on rigging and model ship building and not one shows a clear drawing or photo. I also looked at some of the build log photos of others but am still a bit unclear on this. Thanks for your help as always.
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Thanks. That is an interesting approach. It would certainly simplify aligning the connecting rungs. When I receive some mercerized cotton thread I ordered I will experiment with this technique and George' and see which works best for me and looks best. Having limited vision in one eye and consequental loss of 3d sense, elimination of knot tying is certainly an attraction! Thanks for everyone's helpful suggestions and thoughts. Jared
- 416 replies
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Thank you. What do you mean by "threaded the ratlines rather than tied them off"? Thanks George. For the ratlines I was using black polyester thread from my wife's sewing basket. I will get some cotton thread.
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I have a question for the group. The Flying Fish plans show the rope diameters for the shrouds and ratlines on the foremast as being 10.5 and 1.5 inches, respectively. That works out to be 0.035" and 0.004" at scale. I started the ratlines using very thin black thread line but don't like how it is looking (see photo). Thevthread is very difficult to work with and I think it looks too flimsy on the model. It is also near impossible to get it to appear linear. I have had to stiffen it with white glue to reduce the ratline waviness. The topmost ratline in the attached photo was made with a much thicker/stiffer black sewing thread. It is only fitted temporarily on the ratlines so the knots are not overly tight or small. It is easier to work with and I think it will look better, but not to scale. I would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks
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All lower shrouds have now been lashed to the deadeye and sheer boards. Getting the deadeyes to all line up was quite tricky and required more than one try for several of them.
- 416 replies
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Thanks George. I fully agree with your ratline suggestion.
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Thanks for all the feedback. Over the weekend I discovered Ashley's book of knots. In this encyclopedia of nautical knots he mentioned that the ratlines were lightly tarred. Work on the model is progressing painfully slowly. I managed to lash all of the lower formast shrouds in place. Patience is the name of the game!
- 416 replies
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Thank to each of you for your feedback. Black ratlines it will be. There were suggestions in the forum I had linked to that the ratline were more lightly treated than the other standing rigging. If left untreated I would expect thin lines to deteriorate quicker, however, they could be easily replaced as needed on the fly. I am saddened to learn the rigging on the present day Cutty Sark isn't as it was historically.
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You are doing a fine build!
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Looking for some feedback as to whether to make my ratlines tan or black. There is a long thread on this topic at: After reading through it all the comments I am still left wondering which way to go. It is surprising that none of the more notable rigging books in my collection talk about the color - were the ratlines tarred or not? My thoughts are for using tan ratlines - this is how they are on the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, which I visited and photographed two years ago. Any thoughts? Thanks.
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Thanks for your encouraging feedback. In the last 2 days I have added the spencer mast to the lower mizzen mast. The hoops for the sails were made from a Manila file folder. The band that holds the mizzen and Spencer masts was made with difficulty from a brass strip which I bent and soldered. Unfortunately the space between the spencer and mizzen masts is greater than it should be, but not much I can do about it. Hopefully the standing rigging will hide this. And speaking of standing rigging I completed the siezing of all the lower shroud line, using a rigging tool I made some years ago when I built the Morgan whaler. The lines in the lower fore and main masts were made using 0.035" black rigging thread (not supplied in the kit). The line on the lower mizzen is 0.028". All lines were waxed before siezing with black sewing thread (common whipping knot). The white line in the last photo was used to better demonstrate how the siezing knot looks.
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This weekend I attacked the gin-blocks (labelled iron blocks on the model plans). They form part of the rigging used to raise and lower the topsails on the fore, main and mizen masts. A pair of gin-blocks mount on the tressel cross trees under the upper tops (on p&s sides). This wasn't very clear from the drawings and I am thankful to George (GAK1965) for helping me understand what was needed. The gin-blocks are somewhat complicated to make due to their small size and complexity. Fortunately George presented an elegant way to make them in his FF build log (pg. 14). The only thing I did differently was to lightly solder the brass bits together as I was having too much difficulty trying to hold everything together with superglue. My finished gin-blocks are shown below with some on the intermediate steps. The black paint is a great way to hide craftmanship challenges that are better not to be shown 🙄. The last photo shows the gin-blocks mounted on the main mast. Anticipating later rigging the chains through them will be tight and challenging I fed avthin steel wire through each to help me fish the chains through them later in the build.
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Thanks. To clarify this rail is all wood. The plywood layer was quite strong on its own. The thin basswood layer was only added to increase the thickness to 2 mm.
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I made the ring-shaped belay pin rack which mounts to the mizen mast from a 1.5 mm thick piece of scrap plywood to which I glued a 0.5 mm scrap of bass wood sheet. I then traced the design with a compass on it. The holes for the belay pins were drilled on a Dremel drill press, fitted with a Proxxon X-Y table. The ring shape of the belay rail was then filed and sanded to shape. It was then mounted on the mizzen mast, painted and fitted with 10 belay pins.
- 416 replies
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Happily just completed the four bowsprit guys. It was slow delicate work, but easier than the chainwork because of their more accessible location. The footropes were then added (Photo 3).
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Here I have added the martindale backropes (chains) and the martindale stays, probably the most challenging part of my build so far (Photo 1). The bowsprit shrouds (chains) were then added, producing a web of chains, hearts and brass strips when all was done (Photo 2).
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The chain jackstays on the bowsprit have been completed and mounted as shown in the accompanying figure. I found the rigging the lanyards between the hearts to be quite challenging, owing to the awkward underside location of the jackstays. Required a lot of patience and steady hands to complete.
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Thanks George. The figurehead was quite simple. I simply glued the wing on using gel super glue. I then painted a clear primer on the wings and later, white acrylic paint. I was going to crimp a brass strip then drill a hole through the cramped part through which I would make a ring to attach to the bobstay chain. However I kept breaking my drill bits and came up with the soldering approach. It took me quite a few tries to get it right. Working at such a small scale with vision problems is quite challenging.
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No worries - I wasn't embarrassed at all. I truly admire fine workmanship and appreciate your input to my log Clipperfan. Thank you.
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I completed the iron straps on the stem that attach to the bowsprit bobstays. These were made by soldering a brass ring through a short section of brass strip, something much easier to say than do. After a number of failures, I figured out a way to do this. The brass strip was then bent to fit the stem and cut to the final length (Photo 1). Using very fine stainless steel wire I linked one end of the tiny diameter chain to the brass strip and the other end to a wooden heart (Photo 2).
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Vlad's workmanship is incredible! Museum quality for sure. Unfortunately my skill level is nowhere near that. 🫣
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