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Odds Should you need additional details, if you do not already have it, get a copy of Chapelle's American Fishing Schooners 1825-1935. As the Gertrude Thebaud was built in 1930, the book has a lot of appropriate details from fittings to rigging. I love/hate this book. I love the details and use it extensively when building a schooner model. I hate the fact that the index only gives boat names, nothing on specific items. It takes a bit of hunting through the book at times, but it is definitely the best source of period information for the schooners such as your build that I have seen. Allan

Hej Jean-Philippe, Please do consider making your own. David Antscherl has written a VERY detailed piece on how to make sails from silk span and based on his work over the years, I am going to be using this in my upcoming sail making adventure. It is a supplemental booklet that comes with Volume IV of The Fully Framed Model. I will be posting on this in the next month or two so you will be hearing from a newbie when using this method. Allan

Thanks Roger!! Yes, real time. I have been under a bit of a self- imposed deadline and trying to give at least 5-6 hours a day on her, often more. BUT, I do NOT get any pressure from the client at all and it has been a great joy building a model of a vessel that is literally still on the drawing boards. There are two items that I have found in building the model that indicate some adjustments are needed on the drawings and they have welcomed these pieces of input. Back to making sawdust. Allan

Thanks to all of you! Thanks Pat, but I did not show the skylight in the photos as it is a mess IMHO. The photos do show the sliding tops at the entrance to the deck houses, but I left out the skylight for now. The problem was in making the hinges. The frame and protection bars were not an issue, but the hinges are really small even at this scale and have been a challenge. Couple ideas have come to mind that I will be trying today and tomorrow. Gary, I agree on the colors and was very happy that the architect had done the color drawing as well as the architectural drafts. To try to match it reasonably close I have, Castello for the decks and house tops, cherry for the rails, Swiss pear for the doors, hatches, and other red trim pieces, and English boxwood for the mast rings as it machines so nicely. Metal parts are all brass, most of which are blackened, frames are birch plywood, and deck frames and all parts painted white are made with poplar from the local Home Depot. Glad I have maintained a scrap pile over the years as it came in handy for this project. I last bought cherry about 10 years ago, and feel good now that I kept all the odds and ends that I feared would never see the light of day again. If anyone has good experience rigging wire shrouds and stays, I would love to read any advice you can offer. This will be my first foray into using stainless steel wire for the standing rigging. I have two sizes of 7X7 strand SS wire on order from McMaster Carr as they had a good selection of sizes to match scale sizes for the model and their prices are fair. Looks like I will have to make my own compression clamp fittings and not sure of the best way to make these. So far I could not find any that were small enough to go with the wire sizes I will be using. I was able to find down to 1/16" but that is the equivalent of 1.5" diameter rope which is too large in this case. Allan

The deck is planked and the deck furniture in place. The skylights on the forward cabin area (which is set up as a classroom for twenty students) did not come out as I wished so will be a do-over. The top of the aft cabin can be removed to view the inside area and worked out as I had hoped. For finishing the deck planks I mostly used a scraper to remove high spots then sand paper finish and still find this preferable to any other methods I have tried in the past. I know this is common methodology, but for those who have not tried it, it is worth a go. Stiff backed razors or even a chisel can be used as a scraper if there is not a scraper already in the shop. Note there are side benches midships that seat 8 per side as well as the bench area going down into the aft cabin. The back rests in this aft seating area are sitting loosely at this point but will give an idea on their shape. These took a bit of doing as I had to start with a block of wood and cut, carve and sand to get the shape required. There was no way to bend these as they are quite thick at the forward area where they make a 90 degree bend. Not sure I like the design of these rests, but they do match the drawings. There is a bit of clean up with a scraper and sand paper, but nothing major, mostly finger prints/dirt/pencil reference marks/small glue spots which will definitely show once a clear coat finish is put down. Photos really help spot otherwise unnoticed items to clean up and other faux pax. After the final cleaning up should she should be ready to start masts, booms, sails and rigging. Going to give my first try using silk span and have been studying the supplement in Volume IV of TFFM on making sails with silk span. I had always used maximum thread count cloth in the past, but want to see how well this method compares. Allan

Just posting a "Like" is not enough Gary. Following your build has been a great ride!!! You have given a lot of good information for future use by many members and it is greatly appreciated. Allan

Shipman, talking to the void for years? Yeah, it happens to most of us. Love the beard man. Bet you are getting busier as Christmas approaches!! Allan

Ronald, Regarding the TIGHT turn on the plank in your last photo, David Antscherl addresses this in detail in Volume II of The Fully Framed Model. He also goes into detail of bending using the Kammerlander method of using a heating iron against wetted wood while it is held in the place where it needs to be bent to shape in Volume I. Specifically regarding that crazy tight turn area, it is common to have a triangular gap between the last "straight" strake and the curved strake. This would be filled with a field fitted piece of wood. Allan

Mark, Don't throw away the bamboo chopsticks. Split them several times, stick them in a plastic bag, and they are ready for the drawplate to make trennals the next time you need some. Allan

I have never been a fan of edge bending, but that has changed for some situations in the past few weeks. Follow Chuck Passaro's tutorial and you should be pleased with the results. A lot depends on the wood. Walnut in most kits is really miserable wood to work with and often very porous and prone to cracking and splitting so be careful if that is the wood you have to work with. Castello, bass, pear, poplar, and fruitwoods are good candidates for edge bending. Chuck uses dry heat with his heating iron which works, but I found some scorching on a cherry cap rail so added water to the iron and used the steam setting and I was pleased with the results. Allan

A Sailor Went to Sea. Cool name..... Do a search here at MSW on blackening. There are lots of posts on blackening brass with many do's and don'ts. A key point to remember is be sure the pieces are clean. Best to pickle them first, then clean with acetone. Avoid touching with your fingers as oils from your skin getting on the piece will screw up the process. Tweezers are the way to go for handling. Allan

Pascoe. I just re-read your note and am editing my first response I assume you have the chain set up for supporting the anchor once it was up and in place to secure it . For the cathead, the cat falls were used for catting the anchor. The fall of the tackle was rove, running from the double block and through the sheaves in the cathead. The standing part of the fall was clenched to an eyebolt under the cathead and the running part led in on to the forecastle, generally to a cleat on the inside of the bulwark or sometimes to a timber- head close by. (From Lees' Masting and Rigging) What are the two lines going to the sprit, topmast stay and preventer stay or some other? You may find good details in Chapelle's book on Baltimore Clippers. I am sure there are members here with expertise in these clippers and can give you better information. Allan

Keith, Hope you are right for the day sailors they take out. Druxey, so starting so early in your life delving into ship modeling was what led you to becoming the virtuoso in ship modeling as well as the other arts I know you have succeeded in over the years. Alas, my first wooden model was about 1959 or so and was a POB balsa disaster. Then I took the big step and jumped back in in 1978 and stayed with it pretty much continuously ever since. Couple hiatus in there somewhere before the internet. But, even today with Boothbay 65, it is a never ending learning experience for which I am grateful and thank you and the many others that have shared so much with us. Allan

Retired Guy (Love the name) and Bruce, THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Keith, The way they explained it to me is that the idea of the vessel is for day trips with pretty large groups and it is outfitted for wheel chair access which has not been done before. In addition to the aft cabin, the forward cabin has bench seating for 16 persons plus 4 chairs. There are also benches on deck for 24 including the enclosed benches just aft of the head. The deck seating will be more clear on the build photos in a few days, but I am not doing the inside for the forward cabin. The aft cabin top is removable so they can take it off and show the head and ramps to prospective investors. I saw no sense in furnishing the forward cabin and they said it was not necessary as it is just seating and such and shows clearly on the architects plans. To paraphrase Alfred Lord Tennyson in The Charge of the Light Brigade mine is not to question why, mine but to ....... :>) Allan

Cutting strips that small is certainly possible, but..... some wood species are fine for this, others, not so much. Sharp blade for sure, (new saw from Jim, so no doubt a good blade) Or, if you are having trouble getting the size perfect, cut to about 1.5 or even larger, then using a thickness sander (Jim makes a great one) you can safely reduce the size to within a thousandth of an inch or so. Just another way to get to the end result. Allan

Hi Wefalck, Great catch, my error for sure. Thanks! Allan

Masa Lloyd McCaffery describes in some detail the making shrouds on pages 111-114 of Ships in Miniature. He builds on a loom and for "large" scales such as 1:192 he uses brass wire for shrouds and and smaller diameter wire for the ratlines, and for small scales such as yours he recommends nickel cadmium wire. He uses a flexible glue to coat the entire set while it is still on the loom so the set up is not too brittle. Allan

I'm old Druxey, but in 1948 I was had not started reading (or ship modeling for that matter). 😁 I know, I know, the book is from 1948, but had to post this anyway. That said, the boot topping is an interesting item to remember. Allan

Thank you very much for the references Bob. Gary, what you describe makes sense to me! Thanks for the input, I appreciate it. Allan

Some up to date photos. White is the theme on this schooner with touches of tans and reds so I have been using a combination of poplar for things to be painted, castello for tan unpainted finish including the deck planking and cherry for the cap rail. There will be a number of trim pieces in red so will likely go with cherry or perhaps Swiss pear. I gave Chuck Passaro's method of bending planks for the cap rail and waterways and must say I was pleased. Being able to cut clean planks then bending rather than cutting curved pieces was a nice change. I did soak the pieces first and I used two hold downs in the center portion of the board during the bending. I used the boss' iron and used the steam setting as on my first test pieces the wood started to discolor when done dry. Probably too much heat, but the steam did the trick. I did trace the curve on paper and transferred it to the heating/bending board as a guide as the curves were not true arcs. Once released from the makeshift jig the pieces held their shape very well. I decided to go with cherry for the cap rail, but found I could not use cherry for the trennals as they were much too brittle and would not go through the draw plate at the smallest diameter that I needed. I opted for pear for the trennals and their cross section matches very closely to the color of the rail. Once sealed and top coated they will show, but should be nicely subtle. More photos of these in the next post. Note that the deck house bulkheads are loose at this point as there is some finish work to do before fixing them in place. Note that it looks otherwise in the first photo, but the door to the head will swing fully open with plenty of room to spare. Does anyone know of book they can recommend on rigging "modern" schooners. I can try to go take a look at some at the local marinas but I doubt they have very many, if any that are this large. The plans that I have from the architect shows the blocks and basic lines, but there are a lot of details that I would like to study if there are any good books available. Allan

Mike I have a few models that have been around for going on 30 years in which the lines are still taut so this is a new one for me. In any case, I am not sure why you would worry about the pins being glued. The lines are the only things that need to be removed and tightened as the pins would be kept in place. Just make sure you have sufficient line coiled as you mention. Allan

Welcome Dave!! I am with Ryland regarding painting. Actually I much prefer to not use paint but rather different types of wood, but that is not always possible. For my current project there is quite a bit of painting including the hull in two colors above and below the waterline, painted deck houses, and bulwarks. Once the hull was planked she was painted, but individual parts such as the deck house bulkheads have been painted before being fixed in place as not everything gets painted. Allan

Hi Dan, Welcome to MSW and thank you very much for your introduction. Feels like we now know you a bit and that is a good thing. Don't fret about being too near the sea, you are less than 500 miles up river from Pilottown at the delta. :>) Be very happy to have your heirloom vise. I have the very good fortune to have my grandfather's work bench which is just over 100 years old now. Again, welcome aboard. Allan

My fall back for any British ship is Lees' Masting and Rigging. Can hardly go wrong using his book. I have seen it as low as $68 at Abe Books. It has served me well for the 15 years or so that I have had it. Lenarth Petersson's book Rigging Period Ship Models is cheaper ($33) but extremely limited compared to Lees' book. Odd thing is that on Amazon, the hard cover for Petersson's book is about $33 but the paperback is $400 up to $651. Very strange. Allan