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David, Hopefully someone will have an answer, but I have never seen hearts for shrouds with our without deadeyes as well. I checked a few of my books and cannot even find where hearts alone for shrouds are used. The first drawing you show has a label Version A. Is the second labeled as Version B by chance? As she was discovered in tact by Kennard and Scoville, perhaps this can be confirmed as accurate with some digging into their research of the wreck. I am curious to see if anyone has knowledge of the use of these hearts in place of and/or in conjunction with the deadeyes. Curious minds want to know. Allan

Arthur Welcome to MSW. Please post an intro on the new members forum, you will get a warm welcome. You may want to PM Pete for information but also, there is a sizeable collection of many L. Francis Herreshoff plans at Mystic Seaport, so you might want to contact them as well to see what is available and the cost. Or just do a search on the net for information on the BB 14 . I found the following Googling Buzzard Bay 14 in a few seconds and there appeared to be a lot more that might be of help once you have the plans and start a build. https://www.artisanboatworks.com/classic-designs/sailboats/buzzards-bay-14 Allan

Regarding the port holes, based on the fact that you could machine away the outermost surface of the square brass tube, it is apparent that the soft soldering was sufficiently strong. Which soft solder and method did you use for these delicate parts? As above, very clever solution to making these pieces!! Allan

Hi Keith, Sorry for causing some confusion/miscommunication. When machining on the lathe, for example, I just go with the hardened brass. I only soften the brass pieces that need to be bent into shape such as the saddles, goosenecks, &c. For the cutting and filing of sheet material, for example, I have never really noticed much difference, if any between softened and hard brass. Regarding the waterline, I have not asked the architect about this feature. He has been extremely difficult to reach as he just about lives in the Ernestina while they are rebuilding her so I have limited my questions for now. I am curious to know about this myself. Hopefully will have that mystery solved down the road a bit. Allan

Lev Are you going to build the frames as was done in real practice or will they be paired/sandwiched frames? If the former, any of the woods mentioned work well as well as castello and others. If you are going to make paired frames wherein there are two laminates, you can go with an inexpensive species such as poplar, especially if you are going to plank over the entire hull. Allan

Thanks to all of you for your comments. I am always very interested to hear of any questions/concerns/mistakes I've made in order to make improvements in my never ending journey towards the quality of a Greg, David, Keith, Gary, Chuck, Ed and many other artists out there. I have huge doubts about ever reaching that goal, but there is a lot of fun and satisfaction being gained during the trip itself even if the end is still nowhere in sight. Allan

The hull is painted and the rudder and prop mounted. Few spots need a touch up, but in pretty good shape so far. The upper roller for the jib furler needs a pickling bath before getting blackened. The deck house is unusual (for me at least) in that it has curved bulkheads running fore and aft, thus the shape of the beams in the photo. These bulkheads will fay to the inboard side of the fore and aft beaming, leaving a solid landing for the deck planking on top of the beams. Based on the architect's drawings, the top edge of the red bottom paint is not perfectly horizontal. It lies 0.25" above the water line aft. 0.20" above the water line midships, and 0.38" above the water line forward. The stripe follows the sheer line of the deck. Allan

While coats of paint on the hull dry, some metal work was done. I have been using brass and silver soldering with no issues. As this is a modern day schooner, there will be jib furlers used. This took some research to understand how they work and what they look like as these were totally new items for me. Making the parts took a little doing on the lathe, but in the end I was able to make each of them in two pieces soldered together. The saddles and other parts for the booms were pretty straight forward to make and solder. I softened the brass before shaping, cut and filed to shape, then soldered. Everything was then pickled for an hour and hit with steel wool before finishing. Allan

SG, Is this for your Bounty model or some other? Goodwin gives lengths for the bottom planking at approximately 25 feet for British men of war. If this is for Bounty, and she was built as a merchant vessel, it may be a little different. Allan

Very nice tutorial Keith!! Depending on the ship and era, keep in mind the pattern of the ends of the planks are a bit more complex, usually with a three butt or four butt shift system rather than a single butt shift system as you show which would be extremely weak. I realize with a POB, this may be nonsensical, but it can be done. Thanks for sharing! Allan

Neil, Why should the first layer of planking be so bad?? There are great tutorials and tons of advice on planking here that should alleviate fear of doing a credible planking job. For that matter, with a little practice and following these lessons here there is no need for double layers of planking given appropriate types and sizes of wood. If you must do a double planking, the first layer could be used as a practice run. Assume you cannot use fillers or cover ups and you will take a little more time, but will be happy in the end. This may be a crazy thought, but here you go----> If doing two layers, for the first one you can go with spiling or bending as shown in Chuck's very informative videos to learn the practice or maybe try one method port side and the other method starboard side on the first layer to see what works best for you. Allan

These last photos show the blocks as mentioned in the previous post. I know that with a kit, it seems impractical to buy a book that shows how the rigging goes, but there are too many lines to describe in detail here. Lees Masting and Rigging would be my first choice as it covers a wide range of years, albeit for British ships. Lennarth Petersson's book Rigging Period Ship Models is a much a cheaper book to buy but only deals with one specific size ship and small time span. Still, it is probably a better guide as to what goes where . I just checked and there are copies for as little as $11.49. Lees book can be found for $75-$120, a much better value in my opinion depending on what your future builds may be. Allan

Hi Richard, Not sure about French ships, but there seems to be a lot of mistakes in their picture. First, there is no room for the shrouds and stays which would go around the mast head first. For any blocks that were rigged to the mast top, there likely were no knots, but rather the individual blocks would have a loop that is seized to itself. I don't think there would be any blocks attached to the foot of the upper (topgallant?) mast is it had to be unshipped and taken down in some conditions. Blocks attached to the cap, for the lifts or example, would have a span clove hitched to the cap itself. There were sometimes eye bolts on the under side of the cross trees and caps to which blocks were seized as well. Can you identify each of the numbers and that may help get more detailed answers from the members. Again, I have no experience with French built ships, but the photos just do not look right, to me at least. Allan

Please do go with the jpgs. I agree, most folks will not open the attachments. When I attach a jpg here , it takes the same as a pdf, a second or less. Thanks! Allan

Glad to help out Richard. The other sections of the book on the rigging, belaying, and more are extremely useful. For sizing, the last portion of the book gives a series of ratios for the masts, spars, and rigging lines. Remember rope sizing is always given in the book in circumference, not diameter!! Allan

Also keep in mind that the shape of the rabbet is dynamic, never being the same angle along the length of the keel except in the area of the dead flat. The angle should match that of the frames/bulkheads where they end at the keel/rabbet line. There is more to it depending on the era as the keel itself changed over time as well. For a kit, the same basic idea should apply, though. The following was posted in the past but this may help you avoid a search. Allan

Gary, Many thanks for your reply on the dry transfer letters. It was not wordy in the least, I appreciate the detail you gave. Allan

Thanks everyone. Keith, I laughed out loud when I read your suggestion. It is a good one!!! Druxey, I totally agree that a point of light, be it a bulb or otherwise does work when holding up the item to put the light behind it, but outdoors in bright sun really showed up things quickly and painfully. not painlessly, that were less noticeable indoors. This tells me more light in the shop is probably a good idea 😁 Allan

Thank you for your comments everyone, I really appreciate it. Keith, Thank you very much for your comment on the wheel, I really am grateful for you pointing this out. I double checked the wheel dimensions against the drawings and you are correct, the rim is 0.14" wide. The drawings show the rim at 0.12 wide. I have no idea how I missed this. Over all diameter is good, but the rim is too beefy. I will definitely check with the builder to see if this is OK or if I need a redo. In making the model, I have found several potential problems with their drawings and the builders have been very receptive to receiving my notes on these. Please keep in mind this vessel has yet to be built in real life, (they are looking for investors now for the first one) so some things on the drawings may change. One note for now. I took the hull outside in bright sunlight to start spray painting the hull. I have never done this in the past, always doing things under shop lights. Tiny, and I mean tiny, spaces in a few places between strakes showed up that I never noticed under shop lights. As the hull will be painted, it is not a problem to fill this with sawdust and glue then sand it and then paint, but I will be checking all my planking on any model I do in the future, strake by strake, in bright sunlight. No doubt my old eyes have something to do with this, being able to read without readers when outdoors in the sun, but no way when under artificial light. Allan

Hi Andre, If I may make a suggestion, consider using copper. It is obviously soft and is so easy to blacken with liver of sulfur compared to blackening brass. Ed Tosti's log on the clipper ship Young America gives a good bit of detail on its use. The best part is that it can be used on the copper prior to installing or in situ because it will not stain the wood. Allan

Hi Richard, Based on the written description and detailed lower mast drawings in Lees' Masting and Rigging English Ships of War, pages 3 and 4 here is some information to consider. After 1800 the wooldings consisted of both iron hoops and iron bands. The iron bands go under both the cheeks (#59) and the rubbing paunch (#60) . Alternating with the bands, the iron hoops go over the cheeks and under the rubbing paunch. At the top of the masts there are four battens. The battens go over the hoops. The hoops/bands on the drawing you show are presumably iron bands as prior to 1800, the wooldings were pairs of wooden hoops with rope wound between them which would have gone over the cheeks. You mention a pair of part 60 which is the rubbing paunch. There should only be one on the foreside of each of the three lower masts so it is a little confusing as to why they call for a pair of them. Hope this is a little help for you. Allan

Andre, the chainwales (obsolete spelling of channels) are made of wood, so I assume you are referring to the strop around the dead eye and links below. If that is the case, try using brass. First heat it with a butane torch (even a cigar torch lighter - not a cigarette lighter- works well) until it is red. It will then be very soft and will have no spring left in it. You can get a good quality torch lighter that is refillable and can actually do silver soldering with it. Allan

Richard, you are absolutely correct about seeing if CA holds up. Would be a scary thing to hear cracking and creaking of a model coming "unglued" one night and you wake up to see a pile of wood pieces 😀

Jim, In looking at deck drawings of other similar ships on the NMM Collections site, the ladders are indeed one hatch over. Even so, if Goodwin is correct for this time period and the length of a single bar was 1/3 the maximum beam, (The Construction and Fitting of English Man of War, page 150) the bars for Leopard 1790 would be 13' 6' long and interfere with ladders anyway. He notes that the bars on Victory are 16 feet long which is actually only 0.31 the beam. Using this in place of the 0.33, the bars are still going to be 12'- 6" long. In this case the bars interfere with the cabins as well, which of course can be taken down. Sorry for the poor resolution in the pics below, took the contemporary drawings from the NMM website. If you go to the site it is a bit more clear. https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/81517.html Allan

The hull took 17 strakes of planking on each side, so took over a week to complete. Sanding and fairing is 90% complete, with a few high spots to be taken care of. The remainder of the deck beams and carlings are going in followed by the spriketting over the next few days. With the entire hull being painted, I was not as careful as normal in getting the planking done so there were a few tiny gaps between the planks in several spots. Some glue and saw dust that I save from the thickness sander when thicknessing the planks does a great job in filling these and matches the color of the planks. The hull is white above the waterline and red below. I have found it best to paint the entire hull white first. 3 to 4 coats works well with some steel wool or very fine emery paper between coats. Once this is complete, the waterline will be taped and the red below the water line will be painted. If the white is not done for the entire hull, but rather ends below the water line and above the keel, the red does not look exactly the same at the transition where the white ends and bare wood starts. Barely noticeable but noticeable none-the-less. Allan