Stevinne

This is a great beginner book, and it's still actively published today.
 
Even for an experienced ship modeler, I find books like this handy to have around to give to aspiring new ship modelers, looking to tackle their first kit.

Step 32:  PAINT THE HULL
I just hit another milestone on my Rattlesnake.  I finished painting the hull.  I used a combination of airbrush and hand brush painting to apply 4 colors:  Tallow or Ivory below the waterline, Black & Yellow Ochre on the outer bulwarks, Red on the inside bulwarks and Aquamarine Blue for accent trim.  But the first step was to Airbrush Tamiya white primer over everything that was to be painted.  Primer really brings out the imperfections in the planking job!  I spent some time adding more filler and sanding to smooth things out.  But I didn’t go too crazy with the filler!  Here are pictures after a couple of rounds of priming and sanding.  Now I’m ready to paint some colors.

 
It’s best to start with the lighter color paint and end with the black.  Next, I taped off the upper hull in preparation to airbrush the Tallow below the waterline.  I actually taped just below the Wale, since I didn’t care about getting this whitish paint where I was planning to paint the black.  Here are a few pictures showing my operation in the middle of airbrushing the tallow.  I took a couple of shots of the area in the corner of my basement where I have my homemade paint spray booth set up.  Thought maybe a few of you might be interested?  The last shot includes my Paasche Talon airbrush.  I’ve had good success with this airbrush.  But you really need to use paint that is made for airbrushing.  Otherwise, it tends to plug up, even when you use thinner.

 
For the next step I reapplied with a hand brush the red on the inboard bulwarks.  I did 3 more coats.  Next, I taped right at the Wale using Tamiya yellow tape.  This stuff really forms a nice tight seal.  Then I used regular masking tape to cover the lower hull with a plastic grocery store bag to protect the tallow paint.  I also plugged the gunport and oar port holes.  I bought a set of various size widths of automotive detail tape for my last ship.  I found the width that fit perfectly in the strake that would be painting aquamarine blue.  Then I airbrushed the Yellow Ochre.  I applied at least 5 thin coats. 
 
I decided to hand paint the black.  I started at the top with the quarter deck and railings.  Then I taped off the area between the wale and the waterline before brush painting the black there.  Finally, I removed the automotive tape and painted the aquamarine blue stripe on this strake of planking.  After some touch-up work, I took the following pictures.

 
I’m working on the Quarter Badges right now.  Then the next big task is the decks.  I’m going to wait until the decks are done before installing the Focsl railings.  Just another item that is susceptible to breakage!
 
Thanks for looking in!
Ed

I would like to find a new home for this book , not the type of model I build at least not yet . Free shipping is on me as long as it's the lower 48 and a member that's been here awhile . 

Thanks Andrew. I do wonder too why the Americans built a privateer with 18 gunports and only put 4 guns on her. I can understand being a few guns short due to cost or availability of cannons, but 14 empty gunports? 
 
I note that Alert also has an empty gunport forward that would be difficult to work and is almost covered by the anchor. 

Fitting out Grecian’s hull is nearing completion. A few remaining bits and pieces such as rudder chains and companionway stanchions. Also anything that requires rigging such as the wheel and binnacle (not glued yet) and the cannons / carronades. This is one of my favourite stages in building a model and true to form Vanguard’s fittings are high quality and go together perfectly. 


I hate applying decals but these went on very cleanly. I sanded the stern with 1000 grade sandpaper and applied gloss varnish first to reduce the risk of silvering. Then Matt varnish over the top to seal them once dry. 

I need to decide what armament this Grecian will have. I prefer the look of full gunports but as an American privateer she had 4 guns and in RN service was a ‘ten gun schooner’. Both leave a lot of empty gunports. The kit plan of 16 guns looks good, but I’m tempted to fill all 18 gunports, using the little four pounders in the two forward ports. I don’t for a moment doubt Chris’s research and suggestion that these ports weren’t used and don’t leave room to work the guns - but aesthetically I prefer it and as any more than ten guns is departing from historical accuracy (or really four guns as I have her registered in Baltimore and she’ll fly the Stars and Stripes) - so why not? 

My current plan for each side is as follows:
 
4 pounder
carronade
6 pounder
6 pounder
6 pounder
carronade
carronade
carronade
carronade

As a pilot thinking in terms of weight and balance - is that just too heavy forward especially given the shape of her hull with most buoyancy aft.

I have painted the AK Matt varnish on the forward starboard 4 pounder but not the other guns (photo below). It does make that cannon a little shiny in bright light. On Alert I didn’t varnish the guns and they stayed properly matt. Not sure which is better? Looking at photos of HMS Victory’s cannon suggests that they should have a bit of a shine on them? 
The only warning I have for other builders of Grecian is that Vanguard supply ~200 PE-8 pieces which are the ubiquitous pin-loops (not sure what the right term is for these). Examining the plans and instructions I counted ~195 of these needed if 16 guns are included. They are used everywhere including the masts, decks, gunports, channels, rudder chains, binnacle, etc. The instructions do warn you not to make all the cannons and carronades as there won’t be enough PE-8. But by my reckoning even making 18 guns (4 loops per cannon or carronades carriage) makes you short and that’s before the carpet monster takes its share. I’m so used to Vanguard kits oversupplying small PE parts in particular that I’ve not searched the floor for every loop that escaped me - I will be crawling around the floor later this evening to see if I can recover any… I’ve plenty of spare quite similar pin-loops from the Vanguard fishing boats and Alert that I can use on Grecian. They’re not identical in size and shape but no one except I will ever know or notice. Vanguard do supply enough PE-8 to complete the kit - but on this build if one escapes, it’s certainly worth tracking it down. 
 
I won’t have any time to work on Grecian for the next fortnight. My next job will be attempting to add a breach rope to each of the guns and rigging the wheel. 

Big night tonight - after 21 years of owning this kit - the Whiskey Plank is in!!
 
Before installation:
 
After installation:

 
After reading about the old custom of celebrating the last plank with a drink of whiskey amongst the builders, I couldn't resist the tradition here.  So the last plank, or "Whiskey Plank" has been installed.
 
So the port profile:

 
and the starboard...

 
On to the stern.  (And we'll see how she fairs with filler and sanding.)

The Alan Lewrie series by the late Dewey Lambdin is fun, light reading with good naval battles thrown in. Not nearly as realistic as Patrick O'Brian but very enjoyable. If weight is an issue, I'd recommend checking out the Internet Archive, a free online library with loads of books, though I believe you must have an Internet connection to read, as they work as a regular library, with only one person allowed to check out a copy at a time.

The Alan Lewrie series by the late Dewey Lambdin is fun, light reading with good naval battles thrown in. Not nearly as realistic as Patrick O'Brian but very enjoyable. If weight is an issue, I'd recommend checking out the Internet Archive, a free online library with loads of books, though I believe you must have an Internet connection to read, as they work as a regular library, with only one person allowed to check out a copy at a time.

The Alan Lewrie series by the late Dewey Lambdin is fun, light reading with good naval battles thrown in. Not nearly as realistic as Patrick O'Brian but very enjoyable. If weight is an issue, I'd recommend checking out the Internet Archive, a free online library with loads of books, though I believe you must have an Internet connection to read, as they work as a regular library, with only one person allowed to check out a copy at a time.

The Alan Lewrie series by the late Dewey Lambdin is fun, light reading with good naval battles thrown in. Not nearly as realistic as Patrick O'Brian but very enjoyable. If weight is an issue, I'd recommend checking out the Internet Archive, a free online library with loads of books, though I believe you must have an Internet connection to read, as they work as a regular library, with only one person allowed to check out a copy at a time.

The Alan Lewrie series by the late Dewey Lambdin is fun, light reading with good naval battles thrown in. Not nearly as realistic as Patrick O'Brian but very enjoyable. If weight is an issue, I'd recommend checking out the Internet Archive, a free online library with loads of books, though I believe you must have an Internet connection to read, as they work as a regular library, with only one person allowed to check out a copy at a time.

Hi All,
Sanson is finally complete.
From a near wreck to a tear-down and re-build, languishing in storage for quite some time.... 🙂
I was contemplating ditching it but I think I'm happy that I didn't.
 
Anyway, I'll let some photos do the talking....
 
Cheers....HOF.

Yes my friends,  I am going to mark this one Finished . It was lots of fun.
 I made the sail  and curved them , the main sail had a bit to much curve but it straighten out once hung.

The rigging went well, I still need to learn how to tie Knotts but I am getting there. 
So here is my Nina, all done ready for the display case.  But I will take some more pictures for the gallery, later.
  So I  guess that's all folks, thank you for looking, commenting  and likes.




    Time to thank MSW and the NRG for letting me hang around, while I try to learn how to build ship. This, for me is a valuable asset, worth donating to.  I don't think there is a better place to be than right here,  so many people to thank, I think I am a modeler forever  lol.
I can't belive how much fun this is
So with  my 3 Columbus ships Finished, it's time for me to build my big one, Pegasus,  I had it for awhile but was afraid to start it. But now I am not. It will be my next build, but I have some other work I need to catch up on. Then I will start the Pegasus.  Wish me luck lol 😆 
 Some  final pictures,  stay safe my friends. 
 
     Bob M.                 
 

A bit more work on the masts. I used a technique I learned wrapping the guides on my bamboo fly rod to make the mast wraps. The crows nests went together easily, the support pieces were white metal that I painted brown. The masts were stained with pecan stain. Nothing is glued in place yet. I'm waiting on some backing links for the chainplates, since the plates that came with the kit are too short. I'm not sure if I'll use them and the backing links or just create my own to use with the backing links. 
 
 

Hello Radek,
 
Thank you for your great contribution to this topic. Of course I was referring to your work when I mentioned 'other methods'. I could also have referred to Tomek from Poland (Seahorse) with his method of glueing pre-shaped planks, using only glue on the frame locations, with which he gets wonderful results too. But these are 'academic level methods', while I am presenting some high-school tricks, trying to lure newbies into working with the wonderful versatile material paper is.
 
About you question: do older ships get darker? I'm not sure. Maybe someone on this forum can answer that. I do know that getting older the ships become more and more interesting. I have seen shipwrecks literally covered with repairs. Very tempting to try. I think we should abandon these shining, gold-covered, sterile, clean ship models and show ships like they were: messy, bruised, stinking tools that were worn out to make as much money with them as possible and more...
 
Back to the show. Here comes
Part IV
 
Rigging a ship model is mainly a matter of preparation. You have to make masts and spars, sails, deadeyes and blocks all in advance, so while the paint on the model needs drying anyway we have plenty of time to do the necessary things.
Chapman was kind enough to draw all the necessary masts and spars on his drawing (see the first picture of this thread) and on top of that he also presents a small picture of the hookers rigging on the last plate of his book. 
 

Now we discover that he undoubtedly was a great shipbuilder, but he was not a rigger. Two things strike while looking at his sketch. The royal topsail was a flying sail, which means that it was hoisted from the deck in cases the weather allowed. Flying sails have no braces, but Chapman draws them anyway. Of course I left them out on the model.
Another subject where he seems to miss the point is the jib. This is the sail attached to the top of the jib boom. Chapman draws quite a large sail. This sail should however be small because it is only meant to be a steering sail. Of course I missed the point until I put the too big sail on the model. A strong suspicion that this could not be true struck me while looking at the result. The construction of the jib boom simply did not allow for such a large sail. The function of the long jib boom is to help the ship to make sharp turns. Because of its long keel, tacking is a bit hard. So a small sail as far forward as possible helps out if necessary.
Groenewegen shows us how small the sail actually was and a contemporary hooker model in the Rijksmuseum delivered proof: the jib was just slightly bigger than a handkerchief. So I made a new jib, much smaller this time.
 

 

 

 

 
All that said, the rigging of this model is quite a straightforward process. 
 
The dimensions of masts and spars can be taken from the Chapman draught. Of course the masts of the model will be a little bit shorter as they are stepped in another way than the original mast. A slot in the foot of the mast ensures that it will stay upright.
I always make my masts from square pieces of wood, shaping them on four sides to the right dimensions with a small Stanley plane, then proceed by making them octagonal and finally filing and sanding them round. I use a soft wood, mostly fir, but if the structure is too evident abachi or lime are good replacements. I use matt picture varnish with a little bit brown oil paint in it to give them their final look.
I always prepare my masts up to a stage that everything necessary has been mounted, including crosstrees, tops, yards, sails, blocks and all the rope work.
 
The rope I use is Irish linen. It is hard to get. I have some leftovers from my time in the museum and with my miniature ropewalk I can make any size I want. But nowadays there are many sorts and qualities on the market and you will have to make your own choice. Rope that is a bit fluffy can be improved by pulling it over a wax candle. The wax flattens the fluff and makes to rope better to handle. It the rope needs coloring I use aniline dye on an acetone base. They sell it here as leather paint, it comes in brown and black and it can be diluted with acetone. It dries immediately. 
 
For my sails I mostly use unbleached cotton, which is very cheap and comes in different qualities. Of course you need the thinnest one you can find with the finest structure available. Linen is another option, but more expensive. Silk however is no good, because it has too little substance. It may be useful for flags, but the sails I tried to make from it did not turn out to be what I wanted. The color can be adjusted in a bowl of strong tea. Make sure the cloth is soaked before you dip it in the tea, otherwise you will end up with very irregularly stained sails. The more often you repeat the process, the darker the sails.
I take a piece of cloth and tape it to the table. I glue the bolt lines on with white PVA glue and cut off the excess cloth. The top boltline is glued on separately, which allows us to make the ‘ears’ on both ends. On the lower corners of the sail nooses are made to attach sheets and blocks. With a soft pencil I draw the lines of the cloths and if necessary reefs are made. I don’t have pictures of making the sails of this specific model, but the process is the same for other models. With everything prepared the sail is marled to the yard. All necessary blocks must be attached now. I like my sails bellowing, so I usually spray them with starch used for ironing laundry. It is sold in spray cans and by blowing them dry with a hair-dryer you will get nicely bellowing sails. In the case of this model however I omitted that stage as I had other plans, as you will see later.
 

 

 

 

 

Deadeyes can very well be made of paper. I use two kinds: the solid picture-frame sort and the 0.5 mm box sort. I use a nice punch set I bought from a Belgium firm, which can be reached at: hvbuynder@skynet.be
The 1 mm one is slightly smaller than the other two. With some PVA glue I roll them between my fingers to get the middle disk in place, while squeezing them together with a pair of tweezers. Once dry they are soaked in diluted varnish and with a sharp pin I press shallow holes where the drill will do its work. Preferably I use a drill-stand, to make sure the locations of the holes are identical on both sides.
A thin wire around, twisted with a small pair of pliers make the chain plates. If large shackles are wanted a simple mold will do the job. The twisted part will be invisible because that’s where the deadeyes are located in the channel and the end can be pressed in a drilled hole in the wale below, secured with a drop of CA glue. This method never failed on me even with the tightest shrouds.  
 

 

 

 

 



 

For blocks I use an old ruler. This is a close-grained sort of wood of which I saw strips between 2 and 3 millimeter square, cut grooves on all four sides, drill the holes and cut and file them into shape, keeping them on the stick as long as possible. A few drops of teak-oil finish the job.



With all the preparations done we can finally start rigging. Square-rigged ships are always a lot more work than sprit and gaff rigged types, due to all the blocks and lines needed to manage these sails. The building of the hull cost me less than a week, rigging took twice as long.
Usually the standing rigging is done first, but with my method op preparing the masts with everything complete, it is a different story. What has to be done anyway are the shrouds and their ratlines. The shrouds were mounted together with the sails, so all we need to do is strop their deadeyes. Both for the lanyards and the ratlines I use white line. It is better for my eyes, but they have to be stained afterwards. Some people keep their lanyards white because they are part of the running rigging, but I don’t think that is correct. I studied paintings and original models and never saw any white lanyards. So I paint them after they are done with acetone based aniline.

The ratlines should be done with the appropriate knots, after which every knot is secured with a drop of CA glue. It is a good idea also to secure every block with glue as soon the right setting is reached. This prevents endless trimming afterwards and it hardly shows. For the right and even distances between them I use a piece of card on which the lines are drawn.
This vessel was given some additional swivel guns and placing personnel on board is a matter of taste.
 

 

 

 

 

 
So here is the result. As you can see, there are no bellowing sails this time. My inspiration came from an etching by Gerrit Groenewegen, showing a hooker, drying its sails. Emiel translated this piece of art in a photographic impression that speaks for itself. The model was built, to be used as a prop for this plate. It was a lot of fun.
 


 
This was my story about the light version of modelbuilding. I am sure many members of this forum can do a lot better than I did, so why not give it a try?
 
 

Thank you all very much for your encouraging remarks.
Amateur: Yes, I posted this tutorial on a small Belgium forum, which closed its doors a few weeks ago. Thought it was a pity to let it disappear, so I made the translation and tried again. Hope you like it anyway.
 
Part II
Planking a paper model can be a choice of several possible methods. You can plank with ‘real’ planks, following the run of the real planking of the vessel, you can plank in sections and you can use a combination of the two. Most of the time several layers of planks are used, but I will show the simplest method, with only one drawback, about which more later on.
First of all a few words about the material I use. For the skin a sort of card is used, which in Holland is called ‘hout-bord’ (wood-board) in English probably called -white mechanical pulp board-. It is a yellowish slightly spongy sort of material, much like the coasters used in pubs to place your beer glass on. If you ever bought a Polish kit and purchased the laser-cut parts too, you will know exactly what I mean. It can be bought in different sizes, but I mainly use the 1 mm thick one. The reason to choose this material will become clear in a minute, but I should warn you. This material is inclined to break. Not into two pieces, but it cracks and the crack leaves an ugly angle in the material you surely don’t want. So you will have to carefully pre-bend it with a round stick of sufficient diameter, rolling it in your hand until the final shape is more or less reached and the strip can be glued without stress. 
Starting in the mid-ship area it is a simple process to cut a strip of the right width and glue it to the frames, using only one half of the doubled frames to glue to. Thus the next strip will have a decent landing too. Working to both ends of the hull things will get a little bit more complicated: due to the difference in shapes of the frames the strips more and more begin to show a twist. So they have to be cut wider to begin with. The procedure is simple. 
 

Place the bottom of the strip against the keel and the last planked section, allowing for no gaps. Carefully fold the bended strip over the frames, in a way that they touch them entirely on both sides. With a pencil or pen the overlapping side against the already planked area can be marked. Also the height of the bulwarks can be marked. Take sufficient length and width for the strip, because it can easily be trimmed, but hardly enlarged once it is glued on. Cut the excess and place the strip back on its location. 

Now there is only side that is left to be shaped. The more often you do this, the better it gets. It is wise for your first efforts to begin cutting a bit wider than necessary. You can always trim later. Make sure that the strip touches the frames everywhere. Any gap will mercilessly show up later.

So in the end we reach the extremities. Now the spongy character of the card will prove to be handy. Cut a piece of card and fit it over the area to be planked. Make sure that it is a few millimeters wider than the gap it will have to cover. Place it in the palm of your hand and use something round to press. I use an iron ball, but I guess a firm spoon will do the job as well. The material will take a roundish shape and with some kneading and pushing and pulling the part will fit and close the remaining opening.
 



 
The result so far is rather crude, but have faith, all will end up ship-shape.
As stated earlier the frames above deck-level will have to be removed. Because we slightly perforated them in an earlier stage, this is an easy process: just push them forwards and backwards. They will break and can be removed, flush on deck-level. Prepare a strip wide enough to cover the inside of the bulwarks and glue it on the inside, lining up all the strips of the planking above deck-level. Save the shape of this strip on a separate paper for later finishing.
 

 
Here we are with our paper hull completed and more or less in shape.
Not really. The drawback of this type of planking is that angles in the shape of the hull are visible and we don’t want them. It is called ‘the hungry-horse-effect’, looking like the ribs of a neglected horse. So here comes the dirty part of this method. Putty has to be applied all over the hull and sanding is the only way to produce an acceptable shape. Don’t do this in-doors where your wife rules over the tidiness of the house. Your marriage will definitely grind to a halt and that might not be your intention. But applying putty can be done outside the house, as can sanding. It looks like a lot of work, but I doubt if it will take more than an hour all together. 
 

 

 

 

The trick is to do this in shifts. Apply a first layer of quickly drying putty. Use a flexible piece of card or plastic to cover the flat areas between the seams and as little as possible on the seams themselves. Try to follow the curves of the hull. Wait at least overnight until it is thoroughly dry and sand. Use a flat piece of wood and a curved one to wrap the sandpaper in. A few minutes of sanding will be enough to get your first result. You will not like it as it is. So put on a second layer of putty for finishing, only where necessary. After drying, sand again and mark the spots that are still not satisfying in your opinion. A fourth shift, only applied to places where it is needed will probably finish the job.
Of course this is dirty and on top of that it will take some experience. So there are other, more subtle solutions to the problem of planking. You can for instance work with longitudinal strips and apply several layers of planks on top of each other, combined with some sanding that will finally reduce any unwanted angles to almost nothing. You can also try to shape every section of planking you apply with a variant of the iron ball method: make shallow cuts on the inside of every section where a curve is needed and carefully shape them so that the frames become almost invisible. After that you will still have to plank the ship longitudinally, taking care to narrow the planks towards the bow and use stealers aft. You will end up with a magnificent hull. But that will take experience too. The whole process is about experience, but the method I described is easier if you use the trick I will show you here.
 
But before I unveil the trick, some more preparations have to be made. First you will have to make the rudder. No problem at all. Glue some layers of card together and take the shape from Chapman’s plan. With a few pieces of wire it can be attached to the stern. No hinges? No, why would you take the trouble of making a working rudder if it will never work anyway? We are making a model that looks like ship, but it still is a model and it will only look like a ship. 
Once you reached this point, it is wise to make a stand. I use strips of a beautiful kind of card, used for framing artwork, called ‘ivory-card’. The pictures show what it looks like and your art-supplier can help you out.
 
With the help of a block of wood of the right height you can run a pencil around the hull to mark the waterline and from there you can draw the run of the wales. This should be done with the utmost of care, taking measurements from the plan. Slightly off-line and the beauty of the hull disappears and leaves you with an inelegant and awful result, so take care. The wales can be made both from card and from plastic styrene. The same goes for the top rail, defining the top of the bulwarks. Now the lines of the hull will become visible and you can judge if a week’s work does pay.
 
 
Now the final planking is done. There is a firm in Germany producing self-adhesive foils, called C-D-Fix. They sell all sorts of decorative films like flowers, marble, and a variety of sorts of wood: oak, fir, beech and so on. Some builders use these foils, but I don’t like them, looking too ‘plastic’ to me.I use ‘whitewood’, a white foil with a wood imprint. Here is the address: https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/B9ED20F0-36EF-461D-9741-8F093C72F76F?ingress=0&visitId=9aa24d54-da79-4f8c-ab51-d6af39183894
Simply cut strips of the right width and cover the hull with a natural run of the planking. The material sticks remarkably well to the hull, especially if you heat it a little with a hair-dryer. Where the planks should be bended some more heat does the job. The process of planking is so fast that I don’t even have pictures of it. Here is the result after little more than half an hours work.
 

 

 

 
Next time we will give the hull it’s color and we will work on the details.

This afternoon I tied off the topping lift and tidied up the loose lines. That brought the build to completion. 
I would highly recommend this shipwright series for one like me, I am new to the hobby and have little experience with the wooden medium. It starts simple while you develop your skill. And this forum compliments, gives advice, and boosts your confidence. Thanks to everyone that was a part of my build. I hope along with all the other logs, someone will find something that will help:-)
 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

I just wanted to give a thumbs up to OcCre for their great after sales service.
After 13 months I am getting to the mast stage on my Revenge and realised that I was short on several dowels.
I filled in their online parts form on 29th June and a poster tube with half a dozen dowels was delivered today at no cost to me.

Very nice job, it looks great. You really did a lot with that kit.

And at that I’m calling my first ship done! HUGE thanks to @Stevinne for the help and posting pics of his build and to everyone else. I was close to calling it done here:

 
But pushing through the fear, taking my time, and messing up and redoing lots of things, I was able to achieve this result:
 

 
Still far from perfect but that’s part of the process I’ve learned. Now I can move on to other models!

A mad dash…
 
The last few weeks have been…busy.  We couldn't ignore our cottage so it beckoned us for several days (still did some modelling, but on another ship:  https://modelshipworld.com/topic/34723-hmcs-agassiz-by-gabek-hmv-card-model-1250/) Months ago we booked a trip to visit my parents in British Columbia…always a pleasure.  And on our return a devastating storm hit the park where our cottage is so we had to inspect damage (Nothing, incredibly…just some clean up.  Not so for many up there😢) These all added to my panic in finishing this model.  So, pardon me for a lengthy catch up post…
 
First off, I tightened up the running rigging, re-rove many lines to make a bit more sense, and created coils by soaking line in dilute PVA glue and forming them on sticks.  By this point the AL "plans" were completely ignored.
 


 
While I liked the shape of the sails I didn't like how the foot of the main sail, in particular, rested against the mast and main shrouds.  I first thought of using wire as a tack line to hold the sail off the mast. But right beside me on my bench was my 3D resin printer and the curing station…so I thought I'd try something:  I soaked some lines in clear UV resin, brushed off excess, then hanged them with weighted ends in the curing tank to see if I get a solid tack rope to push the sails where I wanted.  And it sort of worked.  I anticipated that the stiffness in the lines would make knot-tying nearly impossible so I made loops in the ends using a beading needle before soaking, which then cured into a solid ring through which I could tie them to the clews. 


IMG_7455.mov  

Longer pieces sagged, unfortunately.  I thought of a second coat of UV resin but then I was ok with the results.  The wind just dropped a little and the tacks went slack…that's my story. 
 
After gluing on all the coiled ropes I then turned to the remaining objects that needed painting.  By this time I was literally exhausted with this model and all the hours of sitting were killing my back…so I have to admit I was impatient and cranky.  I should have taken more photos.
 
Painting the anchor stock went ok but I refused to just leave the anchors hooked on the gunwales like AL depicts. I quickly checked a few resources and found a rig in AotS Blandford  that looked easy and doable.  At this point an 18th century anchor rigging on this 15th century ship could hardly look out of place! Unfortunately, I somehow misinterpreted the drawing and somehow ended up with this nonsense:

 
I hated the lantern.  It was chunky and not elegant at all.  I added some brass wire and painted the interior "baffles" silver, with an overcoat that was a blend from yellow to orange.  Over brushing brass acrylic on black primer of the housing turned out ok for me.  To simulate glass I used Micro-GLAZE.  Results were…meh. 
 
I showed you Higref and Thonk in an earlier post…these are a couple of heroic characters that have meaning to my son and daughter-in-law.  I created them in HeroForge - an online 3D character builder - and then printed the files to scale on my 3D resin printer.  Painting figures is another hobby so this was enjoyable.  The little splash of colour and scale they bring to the model is very pleasing to me.  I posed them looking outward and forward…on their journey of discovery!

 
I added only one of the kit-supplied flags…
 
…and I was finished!


Started on the case today. 
 
Clear skies and sharp tools!
- Gabe
 
 

I think I am going to call this finished, although it could use some touch-up (the photos don't lie) which I may do later.  The rigging was straightforward.  I was able to rig the mainsail and partially rig the jib off the boat.

Before stepping the mast, I glued the tiller to the rudder post, a bit tricky given the tight access.  Then the mast went in...

and I completed the rigging.  Sounds simple, no?  Belaying the lines on the little cleats just about drove me nuts. The supplied line is springy and slippery, and leaps off the cleat unless tension is held on it throughout the process.  All my pre-rigging unrigged itself  But I finally got everything secure and formed coils from the excess line.  So here she is...




All in all, this build was enjoyable if at times frustrating.  (Aren't they all?)  I wouldn't hesitate to build another Midwest/Model Shipways kit.
 

Here's he latest Tally Ho YouTube video, you can view how hanging a rudder is done in a real life situation. 
 
 

I pin (with steel pins glued in place) my rudders to the rudder post and fake the iron banding with pieces of card.
 
It prevents them from moving and thus getting broken in the future.

Totally agree.  If done this way I have never had a problem sliding the rudder in place.  A number of kits provide the hardware but some are way out of scale so may be this is part of the problem.   You may find some useful information from the below example from the original contract  for Elephant (74) 1786 for that particular size vessel.    Picture and a 1000 words, etc. showing the rother of the Elephant below
 
ROTHER                       The Rother-head to be made long enough to receive a Tiller above the Upper Deck, to be strapped and hooped with Iron as usual, to be 2 feet 2 inches Thwartships: Fore and Aft 2 feet 4 inches, and 5 feet 6 inches broad at the lower End, and 4 feet 6 inches at the lower Hance height above the Deck as the Draught shall Direct. To be well made, the Pieces tabled to each other, and all but the Main and Bearding Pieces, to be Fir.   To have 7 Pair of Rother Irons, the upper brace to have long Straps, that may turn and meet round the Post.  The second Brace 4 feet 6 inches long from the Rabbit, the lower one from the Back of the Post 7 feet; to be hung Flemish Fashion, and well secured with Chocks above Water to prevent its unhanging.                                                                                                                 The Pintles to be 3⅜ inches diameter, all of them to be 1 foot 1½   inches long, except the lower one, that to be 1 foot 3½  inches long; the Straps of the Rother Braces and Pintles to be 4½  inches broad, and 2 inches thick in the Shoulder of the Return, and to have an iron strap on the Back of the Rother, and a Ring Bolt with two Rings by 1⅞ inches diameter drove through the Rother; the Rings of sufficient bigness; and to have an Eye bolt on each Side at the Ends of the Wing Transom, with Bolts of 1¼  inches diameter for the Rother Tackles, that all, both Braces and Pintles be carefully let in, that the Irons bear an equal Strain, that every Pintle and Brace have Bolts in the strap as close to the Shoulder as may be, drove through with a Saucer-head, and well clenched on the other side, the hole for the Tiller in the Rotherhead to be cut both that above & below the Upper Deck of equal bigness, square on the foreside 11⅛ inch on the aft side 10 inches that the same Tiller may fit either hole.  The Bearding of the Rother, between the Pintles and Back of the Stern Post, to be covered with Lead turned and nailed on the Sides; also to Lead the Helm Port, as is done in His Majesty’s Yards.