Fubarelf

Sails look great, John! I’m working on the jib sails now. Was planning to use some split rings I bought locally for attachment of the sails to the stays, but they were stainless and couldn’t be blackened. Waiting on some brass rings from Model Expo. Tim

Thank you, Nirvana! I considered that, but really like the look of the bluenose in full sail. It is a lot of rigging, but I am enjoying the process and learning a ton to apply to future builds. Tim

Continuing on with the sail rigging...Fore sail and fore top sail next, starting from the bottom with the fore sail. There are a lot of blocks and a fair amount of rigging required for the peak and throat halliards. Need to pay close attention to the rigging plan on sheet 6 to make sure all the lines run to the correct pins. I attached the fore boom and loosely rigged the sheet and topping lift so that they could be tightened up as needed once the sail was rigged and attached. Once the boom was in place I added all of the ties for the mast hoops to the fore sail and lashed the top of the sail to the fore gaff. I thought I had taken pictures of the completed peak halliard before I added the fore top sail but, did not have any when I went to edit the pics for posting. Once I had the gaff rigged, I lashed the bottom of the sail to the boom and then snugged all of the lines up. The fore top sail was next. I learned from the main top sail to attach all of the clew line fairleads and blocks, the rigging line and block and the mast hoop ties BEFORE attaching the sail to the mast. So much easier to work with the sail off of the ship, duh! Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of this interim step and only have a photo of the sail fully rigged. Once again, very important to study the rigging plan, check and double check all the lines to make sure they are all routed appropriately and tied off to the correct pin prior to any permanant attachment. I finished off all of the tie offs with rope coils. While I was looking things over, I noticed that my main top sail and fore top sail were rigged on opposite sides of their associated peak halliards. What I discovered is that I had placed the main top sail on the wrong side. Both sails are set to the port side, but the bottom corner of the main top sail and tack line goes over the main gaff to the starboard side. This is noted on the plans. On to the stay sail...4 more to go! Tim

Continued progress on the Dutchman. Completed painting the hull and then painted and attached her figures on the cannon ports. I used small "jewels" for the eyes where they fit and painted yellow eyes for the others. Wanted them to stand out against the black hull. Next, mounted the cannon to the main deck and rigged. I added weathering to the bottom of the hull to simulate algae and salt, and mixed some course sand Ito the paint in an attempt to simulate barnacles. Not perfect but I think they look pretty good at this scale. It took several sessions to build all of the fife rails, bits, belaying pin rails, anchors, figurehead and other details. Once I had them all finished and painted I installed everything on the ship. Finally, I added the deadeyes blocks to the chain plate channels. Rather than wrapping wire around the deadeyes and twisting to form the chain plates, I wrapped the wire and soldered. Thought this was cleaner look and it made for a better fit in the channel. That's it for now. Tim

Thank you, Bill!

Thank you, Gregg. The blocks on either side of the fire rail are for the main throat and peak halliards. They support the main gaff. Detail is on plan 6. Tim

Finished creating the rest of the sails! I redid the jib sail because I stretched it too tight while sewing and had a bow in the long side. Learned from this and allowed the sewing machine to just pull the material through. The rest of the sails went pretty quickly once I had the routine down. I have learned the hard way to really study the plans BEFORE starting to rig a sail. I rigged the main topsail next and started by tying the sail to the mast hoops in the same fashion as the main sail. I ran thread through the edge of the sail, evenly spaced for the 13 mast hoops, and then tied to each of the hoops starting from the top down. Here is where the "study the plans" part comes in... Did not catch that the was a clew line on this sail until after I had all of the mast hoops tied on. I did not want to redo that, so I figured out how I was going to add the clew line and did that with the sail on the mast. I looked at the build by Suburban Ship Modeler for reference, but the way he attached fairleads to the sail was just not working for me. I did use the brass tubing as he had but I tied on by running thread through the cut piece of tubing and the sail and then tied one more time around the tubing to secure it. I added a single, 1/8 block at the mid and bottom points and then threaded the line through. Will be ding this off ship for the fore topsail. With the clew line, there are four line that have to be rigged and the tied off at belaying pins. Two to the starboard rail, one to the port rail and one to the port side of the fife rail. I finished them all off with coils tied to the belaying pin. Finished sail. Tim

On to the sails! I started with the main sail, since I have the main boom rigged and can't really go any further without the sail. I started by tracing the main sail from the plans. I added "wings" (don't know the technical term) arrant the edges of the sail which will be folded over to create the hem around the perimeter of the sail and drew in the reefing strips and the seems that were on the plans. I pinned the tracing to the sail fabric and cut it out with a cutting wheel. Next I folded and ironed the wings and pinned the hem for sewing. I did not get any pictures of the sewing process. I used a zigzag stitch for the hem. Next I ran straight stitches along the length of the sail for the panel lines and then used a high zigzag in two lines across the sail for the reefing strips. I finished up by tying the reefing rope on both sides of the sail along the reefing strip. It's been a long time since taking Home Ec. in high school, but it sure did come in handy on this project. Once the silk was complete I lashed it tot he user gaff and the main beam and the finished up the rigging. One down, 7 more to go!! Tim

Finished up the planking and started sanding out some of the rough spots. The planks in this kit are really thick, so plenty of material to work with, although not looking for a perfect finish. After sanding, filling in a few gaps and low spots and sanding again, I added the wales, and other features to the hull. Planked the exterior of the fore cabin, painted and highlighted and added the doors. Planked the stern. Finished up the main structure of the hull by adding the railings. I built the bow and stern railing off of the hull so that they could be painted prior to installation and used mitered corners rather that the end joints shown in the instructions. The stern side railings had to be shaped so they curved down from the transom. I soaked the wood and used the plank bending iron. Also used the iron to bend the end of the side rails rather than cutting into pieces to form the shape. Next are all the small bits. 20 cannons to build! Tim

Thank you O.C.!

Thank you Gregg. Probably other ways to form the loop, but it’s working pretty well for me. I went back and looked at my pictures of the boom tackle and noticed one of my blocks is backward. Ugh! Good thing I didn’t glue everything down.

Made some progress on the rigging. The helping hands are indispensable for working on the blocks and there a bunch to do with the running rigging. I created a quick "loop form", for lack of a better name, using some rigging line and a toothpick. One end of the line is glued on the toothpick to keep it in place and the other has a loop, hardened with CA that I can slip on and off to position it once the block is held in one of the clamps. Once that is in place I can tie the seizing line in-between the clamp and the toothpick, which leaves a perfectly sized loop on the end of the block. After the loop is seized, I remove the block, wrap and glue the loose ends around the end, and then cut the line flush with the corner of the block. As a break from the blocks, I added the marker lights to the forward shrouds and the star to the bow. Next I started rigging out the main boom. I added the foot ropes and then moved on to the boom crutch tackle. There are a lot of blocks and lines in a small space at the stern. I have everything tied to the appropriate belaying pin or to a bitt, but nothing is permanent at this point. I need to snug thinks up and want to think through adding the sail before I lock everything in. Finished up with the topping lift. Looking at the remaining main boom rigging, the rest will wait until after the main sail is added. Tim

Thank you Gregg! I use the fuel tubing as a cushioned grip on xacto knife handles as well.

Finished up the standing rigging over the weekend! This was quite a process, as I redid several of the lines (some multiple times) not liking how they turned out (too tight, too loose, I didn't like the way it looked, etc). Hopefully I have learned enough from the standing rigging work to limit the number of redos on the running rigging I ordered the 3 clamp ;helping hands from Micromark. I used fuel tubbing from my R/C stash for extra grip on lines and to keep the clamp teeth from digging into the blocks. This will be a huge help as I get more into rigging blocks for the running rigging. Tim

Thank you, Hamilton!