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Admiral Beez
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And that’s a wrap. With the installation of the four anchors, HMS Spartiate (74 guns), launched in 1797 at Toulon, captured in 1798 by Nelson at the Nile, and later flagship of the Royal Navy’s South America station until 1842, is now complete. She joined Nelson’s column at Trafalgar, where, alongside HMS Minotaur, she captured the Spanish Neptuno (80 guns). With battle scars still visible, Spartiate’s flag from the battle was sold for £384,000 at auction in London on Trafalgar Day, 21 October 2009. I’ll post some final photos with her crew and nameplate soon. The final touch, with her nameboard in place. Cardstock painted in the same red acrylic as the ship, then run through the laser printer on Google Docs using Cinzel (Medium) font, which was ChatGPT's recommended font for Napoleonic era Royal Navy nameboards. I have some 1:150 scale people (railway N-Scale) that I may add later, but the ship project is done. Thank you everyone for your advice and encouragement over these more than four years. See you on the next build, the kitbashing of Harugo's 1:350 scale IJN Mikasa into HMS Formidable. I'm looking forward to builds that do not have rigging beyond signal hoists and wireless lines.
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Merry Christmas all. I’m now installing the blocks for the running rigging. Moving along nicely. The blocks that come with the kit are oversized, but they’re easy to work with.
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Nail polish remover (acetone) will quickly remove CA from your tools and anything else. My tweezers sometimes get clogged with CA, so I keep a glass jar of my daughter's nail polish remover with stainless steel balls in the bottom to raise the level. I then leave my CA encrusted tools in the jar for perhaps ten minutes and they come out looking brand new.
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The book on rigging has been a godsend for this project. I may not be to Royal Navy spec, but my rigging will be as close to the book as possible. My custom pin rails seem to be working out nicely. The kit only provides about ten sets of blocks, so I am using them sparingly across the build.
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I'm pleased with how it turned out. I bought a micro pin vise drill to ream out the holes, necessary as some of the CA glue blocked them. We'll now start installing the running rigging, running it through the holes in the pin rails below - but not knotting it permanently until I am sure there are no crossed lines. When we're done I'll mock up belaying pins.
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I bought a sheet of v-groove styrene today at my local hobby shop. Here’s where we are so far.
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That's a good idea. Did you affix a vertical support underneath to keep them level and help adhere them to the hull sides? I like how you've replaced the central stairway to the poop with the traditional British separate stairways. I'd already painted and assembled mine by the time I'd realized that was needed. So, in my mind my ship's recently captured and not yet fully converted to RN spec.
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I've gone as far as I wanted on masts and booms. I'm stuck at the moment as the running rigging can't get around the belaying pins as provided, so I must pull them off and redesign it.
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Standing rigging and ratlines now complete, less bowsprit shrouds (WIP). I should get through the yards, sails and running rigging fast enough. I think this will be the last (and my first) rigged model I build for a while.
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Landlubber Mike's technique for furled sails
Admiral Beez replied to Landlubber Mike's topic in Masting, rigging and sails
Thank you for sharing this. I shall give it a go. -
Some progress. Just eight more sets of rat lines to make. The white paper structure is to prevent ratline trimmings from falling into the waist.
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Here's what I'm doing for my ratlines. I've taken the original Heller shroud tool, cut out the middle piece and then wrapped around this 0.25mm horizontal lines (the 0.4 mm vertical lines are already on the line). Then I coated all these lines with clear craft glue diluted with water. Then using a wide paint brush I covered the lines with the glue/water mixture and left it to dry overnight. In the morning I repeated this treatment, leaving it again overnight. On the next day the lines were now stiff with glue. I then cut these off and basketweaved them around the vertical shrouds, followed by each intersection get a dab of clear craft glue with an old paint brush. So far I am happy with the look and am pleased to have finally found a method that works for me, helping me to overcome the procrastination that's delayed this project for a year or more.
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Main and Fore Preventor Stay
Admiral Beez replied to Admiral Beez's topic in Masting, rigging and sails
Thanks. I don’t see the crows feet on most Napoleonic era models. Did HMS Victory ever have them? -
Newbie question here. On my model build (see here) of Heller's 1/150 Le Superbe (but built to a British fashion), the front of the main and foremast top platforms have a line of small holes. The image below says lines from these holes should connect with the fore and main preventor stays, but I do not see this feature on other models. Maybe it was a French feature I can ignore in my captured HMS vessel?
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Topmast shrouds now complete. Ratlines are next. I’m considering using the Heller shroud loom for just the horizontal lines to create the ratlines without having to tie hundreds of tiny knots. If it works, I’ll CA glue the hardened horizontal lines to the shrouds.
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Ready to begin the upper shrouds. The rigging around the tops was tricky, and when I had the window open in the rain, the damp caused all my lower shrouds and stays to droop. Thankfully when the weather improved they tightened again, but this made me think of the men on the high seas having to constantly adjust line tension with the weather. My ship will live in a sealed plastic case, so the weather outside shouldn’t impact the lines.
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Fabricating the futtock shrouds using 0.4 mm chord and 1mm carbon rod. I tied them at the bottom near the deadeyes, and then pushed them up to just above the first ring on the mast, matching the blueprints. I then CA glued the knots to the shrouds, and trimmed off the excess chord.
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Proper stays now installed. I was looking at the shrouds and thinking how to keep them spread for the ratlines. I then realized this kit does not include the lower futtock shrouds and catharpins needed to spread the shrouds and to secure the top platform deadlines from below the top. I suppose Heller didn't see these as necessary since their shroud tool does the job. So I can fabricate these myself.
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I’ve decided to not use the Heller shroud tool and instead thread them myself. Here’s today’s update. Disregard the forestays, those are just temporary to prevent the shrouds from pulling the masts backwards during installation.
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Good point. I’ve redone them with more thread left at the top so I can CA them to the mast head.
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Deadeyes now in place. I clear coated them and added a black wash to bring out the rope look.
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The deadeyes are all painted and clear coated. The outward face has simulated rope, the backside is flat. My plan is to glue the shrouds behind the deadeyes (as per the Heller instructions) and then paint the portion between the deadlines with the tan colour used for running rigging (see HMS Victory below). At this scale I think I'll be happy with that.
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I was thinking that too. I have to cut the top in order to separate the two sides, but I can tie it together at the mast head.
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We've given it a go, and I think I'm satisfied, especially at this small 1/150 scale. I still need to trim the outer edges. On my first attempt I used water-dilluted Gorilla glue, but it turned into a pasty mess. So, I tried again using my standard CA glue and once generously applied with a throwaway paint brush the entire structure became solid, like plastic overnight. I like how it should remain taut without me having to tension the dead-eyes, etc.
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We’re moving along nicely now. I brushed white craft glue onto the tips of the threads and micro drilled by hand the holes to facilitate inserting the stays. Below you can see the micro drills and threads awaiting glue drying. I also CA glued each knot and then trimmed away the extra thread past the knots. CA glue the knots first! Only then trim the knots!
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