Lecrenb

Thanks Kurt... I am musing about doing that with my no-sew, which has become my go to adhesive for anything textile related. Your suggestion affirms my thoughts and I will try this when I get back to it after the weekend! Regards, Bruce

I will definitely be paying more attention as I move onto the running rigging... my standing rigging is Amati and fuzz free. Although all four falls came from the same coil of line only that one has a fuzz problem...

Yes, but in this case the falls would be hanging outboard, and what pictures I have do not show this configuration on St. Roch...

I had to take a couple of days and work off the outdoor fall "honey-do" list, however the davits are painted, mounted on the ship, and rigged. Here is the aft motorboat davit, the clothespin maintains tension while the 'No-Sew' sets up on the cleat... I have no clear photos of the bottom davit bracket, so I made a fitting that is functional and conforms to what I can see on pictures... I see some fuzz on the line, not sure how I'm going to deal with this since it will be very difficult to replace the line at this point. Any Suggestions?? Here is the motorboat secured to the falls and lashed down to the cradles. I added a pin to each cradle on which to hang the falls. This seemed to be the best arrangement given the close quarters and absence of pin rails. And here is the dinghy... Sailors can handle the lines without leaning outboard... The poop deck is very tight with the boats installed, so although the spare rudder can still fit under the cradles, I don't think it is practical to stow it there because it would be very difficult to handle it. I am thinking good thoughts about stowing it in the waist like it is on St. Roch today...?? This evening I will print the decals, but there is a three day relative riot happening because this is the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, so I won't get them on until next week. Once the decals are on the hull will finally be complete and I can move on to the masts and standing rigging! Thanks for looking in, and any suggestions and comments are always appreciated. Happy Canadian Turkey Day, Bruce

Thanks Yves. I wish I could take total credit, but the davits started off as Caldercraft items that I modified! Regards, Bruce

I have finished fabricating the davits... I added keepers to each pulley so the falls won't slip off. I extended the shafts to the correct length for St. Roch, based on photos. I also opened the eyelet at the tip that will receive the upper block for the falls, this should make it easier to do the final assembly... The davits mount outboard, and period photos show they rest on the rub rail and fasten there as well as to the cap rail. The latter, from plans and photos, appears to be a strap that is wrapped around the davit and then bolted flat to the cap. I have replicated this using scrap brass from old photo-etch frets. The davits are also placed relative to the lower deck portholes based on photos. In the picture I am trial fitting the motorboat davits to the cap rail. I still have to make the base mounts and then it is off to the paint booth. I have also decided, in the absence of definitive evidence, to hang the falls' coils on pins that I will install onto the cradles. This keeps these lines handy, and more importantly, inboard! As always, comments and suggestions are welcome!

I said earlier that the next time I showed the ship's boats they would be installed on St. Roch; and here they are! First I lashed the lower fall blocks to eyes in each boat... Then when I went to install the boat covers, some of the holes tore, so I had to digress a little bit and fit doublers of silkspan wherever there were grommet holes... After trimming the doublers I could begin to lash down each cover, using bowlines at each of the 'darn cat ears'... this picture shows the motorboat cover lashing started, and the upper falls with their eye splices... Next up are the bow and stern lashings on the dinghy cover... And the motorboat cover complete. Keen eyes will see I have installed the boat's rudder and am waiting for the prop... And finally here are the boats all lashed down and secured to their cradles! I can't put it off any longer... I have to finish the davits! Thanks for looking in, and as always comments and critiques are welcome! Regard, Bruce

Things are coming along... I made the triple blocks, a scale 9", from a walnut strip. These will be used to rig the falls for the boats. I added cast brass eyebolts that will connect the blocks to the davits, and lash them to the eyes under the boat covers. The davits started out as Caldercraft items, they have the correct shape and taper. I removed the Caldercraft parts from the davits and added my own eyepins and cleats for accuracy. The cleats are held to the davit with a wire pin for strength. One davit is laid out with the blocks spaced as they will be once rigged. I still need to add a pulley guide, then make the davits longer to correctly fit the model. Then it will be off to the paint booth and assembly. The blocks on St Roch are metal clad... I will try and round mine a bit more without breaking anything, we'll see how that goes! I will paint them grey except for the sheaves. The next picture shows one of the motorboat davits on St Roch. The picture shows griping spars, but period photos do not show them, so I will be leaving them off the model. Period pictures also do not show the falls coiled onto the davit cleat... not sure where they were hung so I'll have to do some thinking on that. Getting closer to adding more fiddly bits to complete the hull! Bruce

For some strange reason I keep holding off on the boat davits... probably because I know I will knock them off the model more than once unless they are last to go on! With that in mind I made the life rings next, St. Roch mounted four around her deck house. I started with plastic rings from New Cap Maquettes. They are the right size and cross section, but they come with plastic lines molded on around the ring. These were the first things I cut off, resulting in the picture below: Next I trimmed up the molded seam lines, and painted the rope rings black. Then I used my miniature drill to make holes through the rope rings, and began stringing hemp lines around the perimeters. Here are the four rings complete and looking much better than when I started... Again I used 'No Sew' at each rope ring to hold the line. It dries clear and flexible, and will allow me to make minor adjustments to the ropes once it has set up. Next I need to add the name decal to each life ring, and make the brackets that mount on the ship to hold the rings...

And here they are done, didn't take much time at all. The first picture shows the shaped rails off the ship for painting. I never try painting anything so fussy on the ship where the paint will get everywhere it shouldn't! After painting they popped right back into their holes... Et Voila! Done! Getting into the last of the hull details now. Davits and life rings to come, then lastly the decals! I'm starting the masts by marking the various locations for the bands and other fittings... stay tuned for more fun and games! Regards, Bruce

Nice idea Keith, I will consider it for next time. Usually I run the railings by the airbrush, but there weren't that many so I brushed it on...

In between fussing with davit blocks I made good progress on the poop deck railings... The port rail is painted and installed, the starboard and stern rails so the CA can set up and fix the assembly. Then they will come off the ship for painting... Lots of fun! Thanks for looking in! Bruce

Thanks Keith!

Progress on the boat covers... the No Sew worked a treat, and bonded the 'darn cat ears' very well to the cover... I moved on to drill the grommet holes, and like David Antscherl said the holes drill cleanly in the painted silkspan. I used a tapered cocktail toothpick dipped in Tamiya XF-18 Semi-gloss Black to paint the grommets. Just dip the pointy end into the paint then into the grommet hole, it leaves a neat painted circle. After that I prepared the motorboat by gluing a spar bow to stern to 'tent' the cover like the original, and also glued the gripes in place. The picture shows the boat and cover to this point. Next I centered the cover over the boat and used a water soaked paint brush to wet it, enough to start getting a tent shape and fold around the edges, and the 'darn cat ears' stayed on, Yay! I left it at this point to dry, I will give it another wetting before lashing the cover to the boat. First I have to lash the triple blocks to the eyebolts in the boat, these will be the lower part of the falls. Almost made a mistake when I forgot to make sure the 'darn cat ears' would not interfere with the gripes, but fortunately there were no conflicts! So far so good, so I made a start on the dinghy. Since it is done the same as the motorboat I won't repeat the details in this log. Next time you see the boats they should be in their chocks with everything lashed down!

Ha ha! Does sound better than "Darn its"...!