Lecrenb

Another neat idea! See my reply to Wefalck above for a picture of St. Roch's sail today...

Not a bad idea! The picture is the foot of St. Roch's foresail today... the sail is modern material but the restorers have replicated the corner reinforcing and used the original iron hoop cringle...

The tablings are all on my sails, and after studying photos and talking with my contact at the Vancouver Maritime Museum I realized that the reinforcing patches are on both sides of each corner and wrap around the bolt rope... Therefore I have to set the bolt ropes and then add the patches on each side as I come to a corner. Each cringle is lined with an iron ring for strength and to prevent chafing, and I will model these with thin slices of brass tubing. Brass looks much better than styrene in this application. The first photo shows my first corner... A little fit of trimming is needed, otherwise I think this will pass muster... The No Sew is still setting, the rope will look better once it is fully dry. The next picture is the second corner, the cringle has just been tied in and the No Sew applied. After drying the patches will go on. I will continue working my way around the foresail, and then sew on the mast hoops... baby steps; this won't be rushed so it may be a little while before I post again. Comments or suggestions on my progress are always welcome, Bruce

Moving on with the sails, I did give them an extra shot of buff to tone down the seam lines and give them a colour match. Once everything was fully dried I cut the silkspan from the frame then cut out the sails along my earlier drawn pencil lines... the seam lines are subtle but visible, which I think is how they should be... I couldn't resist scrunching up the foresail and setting it in place between the boom and gaff. Just to check the fit and see how it might look... Next I cut 1/8" (scale 6 inch) strips from the waste silkspan for the tabling. Using the waste means I get an exact colour match to the sails. Per advice received here on the forum and from the Maritime Museum I am setting them onto the port side of the sails. I brushed on water first, then diluted No Sew, which set down nicely with the tabling right along the sail edges. I did not want the glued sails to stick to the frame, so once the tabling was set in place I carefully lifted the sails up off the frame and set them a bit to one side. You can see the No Sew left behind in the picture. They will now not stick to the frame, and once they are dry I can add the remaining tablatures. Once the tabling is complete I will move in to the reinforcings. These are my first sails and so far, so good!

Those are nice sets! Obviously lasting several lifetimes and something to pass down! Yours is more versatile that mine, having the pen handle. You have to come to grips with mine, then you can draw straight lines. I did well on the course so I guess I figured it out, but it took me some practice! Regards, Bruce

Very interesting, I had not heard of this device before... your comment jogged my memory, I had forgotten about my Dad's old drafting pens that are now stashed in one of my drawers somewhere, and they could be loaded up with inks of any colour and used like the striping pen... I could see drawing water lines or other fine details with these as well. The striping pen does not add a measurable amount of volume, but how much do you really need, especially at smaller scales Yes, you remove the pencil holder from one of the compasses and substitute the bow pen. This is not as awkward as one might think when drawing straight lines as opposed to circles.

Thanks for the video Alan, and I agree if you are comfortable with the bow pen then it will work for you. The key word is comfortable, and this takes practice. I just find the striping pen an easier proposition... Regards, Bruce

Hello Druxey and thanks for your question! Here is a picture of my drafting set next to its' bow pen and with the striping pen. The second picture is a closeup of the two. Essentially the striping pen works like a Sharpie fine point marker except it is loaded with white or yellow ink, the colours of highway lane markings. The bow pen is designed to be loaded with ink or paint, and if you load too much or too little it will either blot or run out partway along a seam line on your sail. It takes practice to make this work, and I know others have had success using it. I find the Road Striping Pen an easier proposition. In my 1:48 scale it lays down a line a scale 2" wide. Lighter pressure makes a narrower line. Enjoy!

Hi Phil, thanks for your comments! Yes, the silkspan must be completely dry... as this is akin to watching paint dry it is good that there are other things to make while I wait! Good advice on placing the reinforcing pieces, especially since photos of St Roch with raised sails are few and hard to interpret details. Yes, I will be making boltropes, and of interest is that St Roch used eye splices and shackles at the sail corners, and not rope cringles. As I work through the rigging I should get very good at eye splicing! Regards, Bruce

I have studied David Antsherl's appendix on sail making, and I previously made the recommended frame to hold the silkspan and practiced using it by making St. Roch's boat covers. First I taped the silkspan to the frame using medicinal tape from my first aid kit. This is waterproof and holds nicely. Then I thoroughly wetted the silkspan using a water spray through my air brush. After it had dried I airbrushed on flat white, followed by buff. While the paint dried I made paper templates of each of the three sails: jib, foresail, and main sail. They are about 30% reduced in height because I intend to furl them and I did not want them to be too bulky. Then I laid the templates onto the dried silkspan, trying to maximize the unused border areas as these will be used to make the tablatures and reinforcing panels. I aligned the foot of each sail so that when I drew the seams on I could use a single seam line that would cross each sail. Then I used a pencil to draw the outline of each sail onto the painted silkspan. At this point I deviated from Mr. Antsherl's process. For drawing the seam lines onto the sails he recommends a device called a 'Bow Pen' which is an old drafting implement. I actually have one in my Staedler 'Techmatic' drafting set that I used in my Electronic Technology course back in 1972! However, it is a very fussy device and even after practice drawing a straight line of consistent width and free of skips and blots is hard to do. I used a 'Road Striping Pen' made by Woodland Scenics. This is part of their system for making asphalt roads on model railroad layouts, and I also happen to have one of these! They are available in most decent hobby shops or on line for about $18 in either white or yellow ink. I made witness marks a scale 21 inches apart (the width of each sail cloth) along the top and bottom of my frame, lined up with the vertical side of my sails (the sides that will go up the masts). My template alignment worked out and I was able to draw seam lines from top to bottom across the three sails. Next up I may add another light spray of buff to tone down the seam lines and colour match them to the sail cloths. Mr. Antsherl says to add the tablatures and reinforcements at this point, but I will probably cut the sails from the silkspan first. My experience tells me it I will have an easier time adding these items off the frame, and besides, the material for these parts is coming from the extra silkspan at the side and bottom of the frame. So far so good... we'll see how I get on tomorrow... This is new territory for me so any comments are most welcome. Regards, Bruce

The day before Hallowe'en and we're ready for the spooky, candy filled debauchery! I have started sail making, and while waiting for the silkspan to dry I made up a couple of miscellaneous details... I turned St. Roch's bell and carved out the plaque to hold the RCMP crest. The clapper is made from an old stanchion. The badge pixellated in my phone's macro mode, it looks better mounted on the wheelhouse front... Here is the bell mounted on the foremast... The numbers under 'St Roch' are 1928, the date of launching. Now back to the sails.

Thank you Steve!

The foremast components are completed... Yay! From top to bottom; the boom, yardarm with aerial insulators, and the gaff. The pin rails are on the right. And likewise, so is the mast... here it is on the ship, with the silkspan coat covering the wedges. The finish is an airbrushed coat of Minwax Colonial Maple wood stain, followed by Tamiya XF-92 Yellow-Brown and finally Tamiya X-26 Clear Orange. The stain does not adhere to the styrene mast bands, so masking was not necessary and a light scrape with the X-Acto knife quickly removed it. I applied just a mist coat of the Yellow-Brown, to enhance the stain, then the Clear Orange gave the desired Douglas Fir look I wanted. Finally the mast bands were painted white. The mast coat was glued on with No-Sew, then painted with Cockpit Green mixed with Light Grey, to give the colour of painted canvas that is seen on St. Roch. The mainmast is just set into its hole and will be properly raked once it is ready to be mounted. Somewhere along the way I knocked the sailor off his perch atop the hold... another lesson not to get too far ahead of myself because I had to fish him out from amongst the cargo... fortunately he was uninjured and no first aid was required! The foremast is ready to be permanently mounted but prudence dictates I wait a bit... There are several things that can go forward at this point... making the foresail and fastening it to the hoops and spars, making the standing rigging ready for once the sail is mounted (so the hoops will slide down from the mast top), and painting and finishing the main mast. One thing at a time, a bit at a time... Thanks for looking in, Bruce

Good morning Veszett, and thanks for your interest and suggestion! I do have some small stereo speaker cable made up of #40 gauge wires, these will be my antenna wires. Your idea of using the pen caps is a good one, but too large for my scale. The aerials will be about 4mm diameter. However, I could put grooves in a dowel like the pen caps, so I will try that and thanks for the idea! Regards, Bruce

Yes, I am thinking ahead as to how I might do them...