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Sails are rigged and guard rails are installed. For the rail wire I used rope soaked in chrome paint except for the entry area which is rope hooked to the stanchions. I have a few more rope coils to make and glue in place, otherwise ready to ship. Note in the second photo it is clear that there is a pretty large gap (4 feet) between the upper aft side of the fore sail and main mast. The gap on the model is actually a tad smaller than shown on the sail plan. I have no idea if this gap is to aid in sail handling when tacking and so forth or for some other reason. Perhaps it has something to do with allowing the wind to leave the aft side of the foresail without crossing over and directly onto the main sail and creating eddies or some other disturbance with the wind already coming directly on the main sail. I would love to hear from anyone that knows why this gap would be so large. I see this same gap on every sail plan of the schooners in Chapelle's American Fishing Schooners so I am sure the design is correct, but would like to know the reasoning. Even if the foresail extended back another 2 feet or more, there would be a lot of clearance to swing the boom and gaff to port or starboard once the fisherman's sail was down. Allan

Hi Phil, The rub-ons I was referring to are lacquer dry transfer type, about 25-50 microns (0.000025" -0.000050") thick. Is this the type you used or some other? The following is from an article I found on dry transfer lettering. Unlike vinyl lettering, dry transfer images and type looks as though they are printed directly on the surface – and they perform equally well on glass, wood, metal and plastic. With dry transfers, there is no edge and they are smooth to the touch. It means that the transfers you receive of your artwork are only the thickness of the lacquer ink. Lacquer adhesive is only on the image area so once applied there is no adhesive outline or residue. Especially important to note is that dry transfers can be made permanent with a clear spray coat of lacquer or workable fixative applied on top. From what I have been able to find so far, if the name was on the ship at all, the letters were only painted on, they were never made of wood or metal. Allan

Congratulations on your authoring the series. I will be ordering the first one as soon as I am done with the books I am currently reading now. Allan

Hi Jonathon, I agree with Henry's description as it is the same description that Lees wrote in the Masting and Rigging English Ships of War which is also my #1 go-to for rigging information for British ships in the time line he covers. But in some cases the pendants of the tackles may have been cut spliced with one length running down each side. (Longridge - The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships, page 213). Same was done for the burton pendants on the mizen. If having to choose one or the other I would go with Lee's description, but it may help if you would let us know what vessel you are building to be sure. From the picture on the right it looks to be pre-18th century. Allan

Mark There was likely no nameplate, but rather the name would have been painted directly on the stern if it was there at all. Not that the Americans followed what the British did, but the British began painting the names of the ship on the stern by order in September, 1772 some few years after Virginia was launched. They stopped putting the names on the ships after 10 years as they felt it was giving the enemy information unnecessarily . Again I don't know if the Americans followed the British practice, so if you do go with putting the letters on, rub on letters are a great way to go but be sure to make a template on paper and print the name on this template. Hold it to the stern to be sure that the curves of the stern do not wind up having the letters cup, but rather go straight across or arc slightly. Once it is correct, the template can be used as a guide for placing the final lettering directly onto the stern. ASIDE--I looked at your URL. Did you write the Oscar Jade series? Allan

I prefer hardening the end of the line and then cutting it to a point with a scalpel whenever possible, but sometimes the needle threader is the easier way to go in tight areas or other items such as blocks or sheaves. The only problem with the needle threader is that you are pulling a folded-over piece of line, thus double the diameter through a hole meant for one diameter if it is sized correctly. The line will compress somewhat but threaders are not always the strongest. I pinch down the plate to be sure the wire is tight then add a dab of CA so it is less likely to pull apart. If the line comes through the deadeye hole very easily with the threader, the hole was too big or the rope too small 😄 Allan

Jorge, Yes there is a frame and a matching plug that fits inside the frame. First I took the dry silkspan and cut it to fit just inside the outer edge of the frame. While it is laying on the frame and plug I wetted the silkspan with a water (brush or spray bottle works fine) Then I pulled the short edge on one side so there were no big wrinkles and taped it to the frame. Then I did an adjacent side, again pulling the wet material a little bit to get out big wrinkles and taping it to the frame. Then did the same with the remaining two sides. After it is taped I picked the frame with the material up to get it off the plug. I set it on blocks to dry as the sail material sags a bit. Once it is dry, it shrinks and is very tight. There is no need to try to pull it too tight while wet as it will tighten up on its own. Once it was dry I painted it. It will sag again at this point. This can be done carefully without the frame going back on the plug or with the plug in. If with the plug in, be sure to carefully remove the frame and painted material as soon as the paint is on so it does not dry to the plug. The plug will have paint on it if inserted during the painting, but I found this was not a problem once removed and left to dry while the frame with painted material were drying. Once the paint is dry, the material will be tight again. I then reinserted the frame on to the plug for the next steps of drawing the sails, doing the seams, etc. You can find a lot more details in David Antscherl's booklet on sail making which is available at SeaWatch books for $7. Hope this helps. Allan

Mark, Darkened seams only go where there was caulking between the pieces to prevent water seeping through the joint and causing rot and/or leaks. It is not so much a matter of personal choice, but what worked back in the day if you are trying to simulate actual practice. Allan

Jorege, Be careful with white glue as it is water soluble. If this was only a test, I suggest you try using matte medium. It will not dissolve if wet with water and dries clear, plus is less viscous than white glue so there is no worry of bumps and spots that may stand out. Sewing will be totally out of scale and not look realistic. At our scale you would be hard pressed to see a sewn line if it were to scale, which is not possible. Remember that there are seams for each panel and the edge of the sail prior to putting on the boltrope, not just a sewing line. The first photo below is one of several posted in the Boothbay 65 build log last week with additional explanations on sail making. In place of sewing, consider using a marker pen such as Liquitex which comes in many shades. I used a 2mm pen but if your lines need to be narrower, the tip can be cut smaller with a scalpel blade before charging the pen the first time. I also happened to give a thinned coat of titanium white artist acrylic after the seams were drawn to make them more subtle. Examples of before and after panel or edge lines are in the second photo below. David Antscherl recommends making seams, which should be about 2" wide (real world), with thinned paint to match closely to the sail cloth using a bow pen. Allan

Just checked in on your build Mustafa. She looks very well made. I hope you don't mind me asking, but as you have not yet finished the knee of the head, will you be tapering it up and down as well as fore and aft? It should go down to about 6" wide (or maybe less) at the forward edge near the top and then widen as it goes down and as well as towards the stem. Great work!! Allan

Bonjour Michel, Can you post some photos? I assume you meant deck not desk. Assuming the deck received the same kind of stoning by the deck hands, the color would likely be more of a greyish white for pine or oak unless they used teak or mahogany on the actual construction which would have been imported and maybe far too costly. As to the thickness, assuming the deck planks are somewhere around 2 or 3 inches thick, and the kit scale is 1:62, the deck should be about .82mm (for 2" planks) or 1.23 mm (for 3" planks) thick rather than 2.5mm Allan

Hi Jon Could Ross or anyone else at the yard explain why the two planks are not shaved down to match the edge of the adjacent planks? It appears that they do have gain all the way aft to match the others as if they were lap straked. Very curious. There are also some short narrow pieces five strakes up from the keel that match to a single wide strake. Was the idea to match the hull just prior to the current rebuild or was this something the yard did on their own? I can maybe understand it if this was configuration before the current rebuild as it may have had to do with when she was motorized around 1926 for sailing to the Arctic for scientific studies. Allan

Hi Dave, Aside from the kit containing the rope which is probably a good way to go, why would you want to use black? Standing rigging should be a dark brown as it was typically coated with Stockholm tar and the running rigging would be tan. Just wondering 😀 If you want to go with rope from Syren or some other supplier, or make your own, you can use Lees Masting and Rigging tables as well as the chart available here at MSW prepared by Dan Vadas which I believe was based on Lees ratios and will give you the rope circumference of every line. At the scales we normally work with, the only way to get exact circumferences for every line is to make your own, but there are so many that are close in size, 5 to 10 sizes would probably be more than enough depending on the vessel and scale. It all starts with ratios compared to the length of the main mast. Dan's information is really good except for ships from 1670 to 1711 as he used the wrong calculation for the length of the main mast. Allan

Druxey, to be clear are you using cloth "silkspan" or paper? There appears to be two different materials with the same name. I only remember the cloth "silkspan" when I was a kid, but now, if you buy silkspan on line, it is paper. To be sure, I am sure that silk is stronger, but I found that the silkspan paper is quite robust with several coats of paint. It can be punctured pretty easily with a needle, but I have had no problems at all with tearing. Of course making the paint style grommets helps as do the reinforcing pieces, and boltropes as they prevent tearing when puncturing holes for the various lines. I plan to try the cloth silk down the road, perhaps on Ernestina, to see how they compare. The price is definitely different! Allan

I prefer to do the wales first then work up and down from there. As these need to be exact, if you work any other way there is the danger of them not being where they belong. Even a few thousandths creep due to width variations of the other planks can create problems when you get to the wales especially if working from the garboard then up. When working down from the wales, care does need to be taken as you near the garboard so the advice of measuring carefully is a must to prevent one strake being grossly over sized or under sized in width. Also keep in mind that each plank also needs to be tapered in width as it goes forward and often widened as it goes aft. You cannot use planks that are of even width across their entire length which is a huge problem with the material provided in kits if they are put on as they come from the box and not tapered before putting the in place. As mentioned above it is great advice to read the tutorials here at MSW on planking, it will help you avoid a lot of problems. Allan

Stuglo, Micromark has its place as their catalog is great to see what is available either through them, or through a search on one's own to find the same thing and sometimes, not always, at better prices. I have been to their facility in the past when you could shop at their store and at that time at least, they did not make anything, but were strictly distributors. When in doubt about buying gadgets from any supplier, this site is wonderful in lending experience of others that have tried these gadgets. Some worked out, others not so much. Regarding the saw, where would you use it in the model construction? Allan

I am in agreement with many of the comments above regarding sewn sails being grossly out of scale. Assuming on a full size sail the stitches are about 1/8" apart, perhaps more, perhaps less, at 1:48 they would have to be a few thousandths of an inch apart. I don't think this is possible with any sewing machine. Sorry to be a naysayer, but sewn sails really stand out and not in a good way. Just my own personal thoughts. Allan

Jorge, This is easy for me to say, but maybe hard to do, but consider throwing out the cloth sails and read on line or in books the best ways to make sails. Silkspan or silk cloth used on model airplanes are great substitutes. Making Sails for Ship Models from Silkspan, Parts 1 & 2 - YouTube is a good video on how to do this and Sail Making Supplement booklet by David Antscherl from Seawatch Books is a great tutorial on making sails. Allan

So you have used silk cloth with acrylic paints with success? The material is certainly not inexpensive, but it is out there. Thanks Eberhard. Allan

Druxey and Eberhard, Just to be clear, are you talking about silkspan paper or silk cloth? Silkspan is a non-woven paper while silk such as K&S Aero cloth is silk cloth. Thanks for all your input! Allan

Eberhard, that is an interesting idea. I just checked on silkscreen material and this may be a good thing to test if no one out there has already tried. So far I found thread count from 83 TPI to 305 TPI and thickness from 34 to 100 micron. (0.083 to 0.1 mm if my math is correct) I think it a bit strange that they mix imperial and metric when describing the measurements. I just spent 20 minutes I will never get back looking for the thickness of 30 ounce duck canvas which I believe is close the thickness of sail cloth. Hopefully a member will know the thickness of old sail cloth so the silkscreen material can be compared regarding closeness to scale. Allan

I agree with all of the above, researching is fun, writing is fun, but the sexy part is the building and even more fun. Finding boat and ship knowledgeable proof readers should not be a problem even within this membership. It is a shame Bob Freidman at SeaWatch books is not taking on any new book projects. He took most of the pain out of the process but I am not so sure there are many, or any more for that matter, like him out there. Allan

Keith, The silkspan is a pain in the neck to handle compared to cloth because it is a bit fragile when wet and unpainted. But, it is far closer to scale than any cloth material I have used and with the acrylic coating is pretty robust and will last as long as cloth sails. There is no way to sew cloth and have it appear to be at scale for the scales most of use so I trust what Eberhard said as well as David Antscherl and his wealth of experience in many art media. Keep in mind there are three thicknesses of silkspan, but I have not seen anyone offering all three in recent years. I remember using silk cloth and dope 40 years ago for model airplanes and it was extremely strong. Other than the smell of the dope, I wonder if there are any other disadvantages to using silk as opposed to silkspan, if it can be conveniently found. Eberhard, the booklet is available from SeaWatch Books for $7 plus shipping. I believe shipping to France is charged at $13. Thanks for the tips on thickening the paint with gel for the grommets. Allan

For those who have studied David Antscherl's booklet on making sails, much of what follows will be familiar. There are some differences though. I started with making two frames and matching plugs, one for the larger sails and one for the smaller sails. When starting I found that due to the large sizes of four of the sails it was easier to lay out the silkspan on the board while dry and cutting to match the outside dimensions of the frame, less about an inch all around. Once this was done I wetted the silkspan with water in a spray bottle while it laid on the board and frame and then applied tape starting with the short leg on one end. Once taped on the first side the silk span can be gently pulled to remove major wrinkles. One of the long sides was then tapped and again, major wrinkles pulled out. The last two sides were then taped down. When I went to the local Michael's store, lacking a true artist store nearby, to pick up the materials I would be needing I found they had no gummed brown paper tape so I used painter's masking tape to tape down the wetted silkspan. I had absolutely no problems with the tape as it adhered to the wetted material very well. I removed the plug once the silkspan was wetted down and laid it on a couple blocks so the sagging material did not touch the floor. Once dry the frame was laid back on the plug. This is not necessary, but having the plug gave me assurance that I would not tear the material by mistake. Just be sure to remove the frame and span as soon as it is painted so it does not stick to the plug. The sails on this vessel are to be white rather than a canvas color so for the paint I used tubed artists' titanium white acrylic paint, not unbleached white. I diluted the paint with water to create a soupy mix and painted the silkspan with the first coat using a foam roller. Smaller setups can be coated using a wide brush. The plug was again removed and the frame set aside to dry. Once dry the frame can go back on the plug or left off and a second coat of paint thinned to the same viscosity as the first coat was applied. Note that as careful as I thought I was, there were still some wrinkles at one corner. It turned out to have no affect at all in the finished sails. Once the second coat was dry I reinserted the plug and drew the sails. I have seen a video where the sail was painted with a single coat of paint straight from the tube without being thinned so this may be an alternative method for me to try on the next project. The next step was to apply the sail panel seams. The size of the sails precluded the use of a bow pen as it would run out of paint before the long seams could be completely drawn. Reloading the bow pen and starting where the line ended does not make for a clean line so I was at a loss on how to make the seams. After seeing a video on sail making with silkspan I tried cutting strips of silkspan to about 2" width (0.08") but the long pieces were misery to handle and apply to the sail. It worked well on the small sails and matte medium works beautifully in "gluing" the seam down and is totally clear when dry. I found Liquitex brand paint markers with a 2mm wide tip and thought to give this a try. The tip can be cut smaller before being primed if the lines are to be smaller than 2mm. I bought several colors that might be a good match. They do offer an unbleached titanium which I think would work very well on old canvas sails, but was far too dark for these sails. I wound up using their "parchment" shade and even this was a little too dark. It was the closest I could find so I tried a few practice strokes then coated the lines with a thinned mixture of the titanium white I used on the sails. It leaves the lines visible but more subtle. The three lines on the left are straight from the pen, the four on the right are after receiving the thinned top coat of titanium white. The thinned paint was about 2 parts paint to 1 part water so less viscous than the original coats. The second photo below shows the seams on the foresail and staysail before the top coat was applied. The reinforcing pieces can be cut and applied using matte medium as an adhesive at this point, but I was worried that the sails might need some trimming for a proper fit on the boat. I doubt this would be a problem for square sails, but for large triangular and trapezoid shaped sails, I found it easier to cut the sail a bit over sized at this point. Fresh scalpel blades are a must when cutting this material, a good reason to use these instead of Xacto and other similar knives. The blades are far cheaper when bought in 100 piece packs and are as sharp if not sharper. The sail was then placed on the boat to make sure the size was correct, and then the reinforcing pieces were applied. Next up was the bolt rope. I used tiny dots of carpenter's glue, then once cured, coated the entire rope with matte medium. I had difficulty using only matte medium without gluing the ropes in place first, but others may find it better to forgo the pre-gluing and just use the matte medium. When applying the bolt rope the sail was laid on a flat surface, the sail pulled tight in all directions, and held in position with some small weights to keep it tight during this process as it was no longer on the frame. If done on the frame, the sail will already still be tight. I tried making grommets with a small brush as described in the sail making booklet but had trouble making these consistently round and all the same size. I then made a small brass applicator of the diameter that I needed and dotted the grommets with this. The grommet material was the same titanium white used up to this point, but darkened with burnt umber to match the color of the running rigging line. Once dry I trimmed the sail material where it overhung the bolt rope. Next up were the reef points. Each one was threaded through the sail at the appropriate position and knotted on one side. Each laid down in different positions and would not hang down which I believe is a normal occurrence. First some matte medium was applied at the hole and left to dry. Once dry I placed some weight on each one, in this case using small clamps. Each point was then coated with matte medium and let dry before cutting to the proper length. Next up will be rigging the sails in place. Allan

TMJ The only thing I recall below the orlop level on any rates are filling rooms and magazines, at least in the 18th Century and into the 19th Century. These would be enclosed with light rooms, etc, no open platforms. Allan