RossR

There have been a number of very nice results from first time builders with this kit. I think you made a good choice. Good luck with your build.

looking forward to following along when you get back to the half Hull.

I have reached a milestone on the model today. I have added the driver topsail and the bow sprit sail. This completes the rigging on the ship. two items left. Adding the anchors and then adding a lot of rope coils.

I really enjoy your build logs. Your work is always great,

I made some more progress this last week. I have all of the braces completed along with the remaining back stays. Most important I have the driver completed also I have also prepped the anchors and they already to add to the model.

I love the result with steel wool, but hate the mess. I have tried other products like various grades of sand paper, and various brands and grades of “Scotchbrite” type products and the result is never as good as with steel wool. Has anyone found something less messy that produces a result like steel wool?

I use denatured alcohol from the hardware store with good results. If you live somewhere where Everclear (180 proof grain alcohol) is legally sold, that would probably be the best option. No additives would be present to prevent human consumption, just 90% alcohol. In Minnesota where I live it is not legally sold.

It has been quite awhile since my last post on this build. Since may last post my oldest daughter was married, I had a busy time at work, and I finished my other build. Now time to get back focused on the Frigate Diana. I have added the mizzen top sail and the mizzen top gallant sail. I should have the driver and driver top sail installed this week. I see the light at the end of the tunnel on finishing this project.

Tonight I finished my Santisima Trinidad Cross Section. As I mentioned in an earlier post I am only building the mast to the Cap on the main mast because of where it will be displayed. I am happy with how the futtock shrouds look. Even though it isn't exactly realistic with only four shrouds to connect 5 futtock shrouds to. It doesn't look as bad as I thought it might. Overall I am very happy with the results and my wife wants it displayed on our fireplace mantel which is a nice bonus. Next up will be finishing my Frigate Diana. I suspect it will be 4 - 6 weeks to finish that one, then I will start my NRG Half Hull.

I love the base you built. Looks fantastic.

I have had much better luck with a collet type vs a chuck. My chuck pin vise wasn’t very expensive, so a higher quality chuck may work better than what I experienced.

I have made some slow progress over the last month or so. I have secured most of the deck features both on the top deck and the lower decks. I have glued the ballast pieces that you see here to the bottom of the hold. I will add the remaining ballast after everything else is complete as it will not be glued in place. I assembled the main mast up to the cap. Based on where I plan to display this model, I am only building up to the cap on the main mast, without the main yard. For the top I added a piece of 1mm x 3mm limewood around the edge to conceal the plywood edge. Then I added the ribs to the top and the braces underneath the top. Then the main mast was assembled and the top was attached. Then the shrouds were attached. The first should is served for the entire length. Otherwise they are only served at the area that wraps around the mast. Next up will be the ratlines and futtock shrouds. I considered leaving the futtock shrouds off. The issue is the cross Section only has four of the main shrouds. I suspect the actual number would have been at least 12 and maybe more. I will have to condens the area were the futtock shrouds attach to the futtock stave compared to how the would be attached on a full model. This will not look realistic, but I think the model will look better with the futtock shrouds.

The quality of your rigging work is incredible. I will be building US Brig Syren soon and I will use your build as the standard I try to achieve. I suspect I won’t quite match your quality, but thank for giving me something to shoot for. great job

Nice job on the planking. Looks great. Definitely worth the time you put into it.

Thank for sharing all the detailed steps. This is really helpful to us that are still trying to figure out proper planking.

I am considering trying the cotton rope from ropes of scale for the ratlines on one of my current builds. The website says they apply watered down PVA to the rope. Does anyone know if this rope works well with all of the clove hitches needed for the ratlines. I had a hard time getting the clove hitches to hold with polyester rope on a previous build.

I assume what you have are the 2mm x 5mm lime wood strips, If so that seems like a pretty thick addition to the bulwark. Be sure any cap will still cover it. A lot of Occre kits also use some 5mm x 0.6mm sycamore. Not sure if Polaris does, but that might be a better option for the inner bulwarks if you have any.

I used to think I liked adding sails because of the extra rigging details that came with the addition of sails. Seeing the level of detail you are adding with out sails is really eye opening to see what can be done without sails. I have the US Brig Syren on the Shelf, and your rigging has me really excited about that build without sails. Great work and thanks for sharing. Sorry If I missed it in an earlier post, are you using rope supplied with the kit or purchased from Ropes of Scale or Syren or from somewhere else?

You did a really nice job on your support columns. Mine got a little skinny on the round part.

It is what I had on hand, so I tested it and liked the result. If I like the result why is it better to stay with one paint system? you understand the chemistry better than I do, just curious why.

I have used shellac over water based acrylic paint with good results. I usually use the FolkArt brand craft paint. Available at the big box craft stores. I am sure it isn’t the highest quality paint, but it works well for me.

I like adding as much rigging detail, but worry my sails cover up much of it or detract from it. Love what you are doing? How are you adding the leech lines, what is the sail end attached to? similarly do you have the bunt lines just drop below the yard the back up through the block to the belay pin?

I will be starting my half hull in a few months, really appreciate the level of detail you are sharing, plus the tip on using card stock. Keep up the good work.

I don’t have experience with it, but I think Renaissance Wax might be worth looking into.

I mentioned in a previous post that I expected my progress to slow due to busy work life for the next couple months, so no new pictures or progress. I did want to share a follow up to a post I made in a topic related to why we started building models. After the post I thought a little about how I look at the models differently now than I did when I started. I only wanted to build the kit on my first model. It didn't occur to me to consider accuracy of the kit or the level of detail the manufacturer chose to include. I discovered MSW as I was completing that model. Since then I have slowly started thinking more about those details. Particularly scale. I also had an opportunity to acquire a copy of Lees Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War and two of the Anatomy of the ship books, Victory and Constitution. To be honest I am struggling to get much out of Lees book. I feel like I need Masting and Rigging for Dummies first. Lees book is full of great information, but not written for a beginner. Anyway, after the post the other day, I decided to use Lees to figure out what diameter the shrouds should be on my current build. I know Lees book deals with English ships and mine is model is Spanish, but it was more of an exercise in using the book to calculate the should diameter. I did make the assumption that the Mast on the model was an accurate scale representation of the actual diameter of the mast on the real ship. In Lees the diameter of the various lines are calculate as ratios of other lines or ultimately the associated mast. My lower mast was 0.478 inches in diameter. According to Lees the main stay would have a circumference of 1/2 the diameter of the mast. That works out to a diameter of the main stay of 6.85 inches. .478 x 90 (scale of my model) equals 43 inches. Divide that by 2 and you get a circumference of 21.5 inches which equates to a diameter of 6.85. The lower shrouds are then calculated as 6.85 x 0.60 equals 4.11. That divided by my scale of 90 equals a shroud diameter of .0457. As a check on reasonableness I pulled out the Victory Anatomy of the Ship book and checked the lower main shroud diameter of HMS Victory and that is listed as 11 inches in diameter which works out to 3.5 inches. Divided by 90 and I get 0.038. The Santisima Trinidad was slightly larger that the Victory so I would expect a slightly larger line. I may also be basing this on a mast that is not an accurate representation. Either way, I was excited to use Lees and not just have it take up space in my shipyard. I was also excited that I had some 0.045 rope from Syren left over from my Diana, and I am going to use it on this current build. Any way I want to thank everyone on the site that has helped me appreciate the details that can make a model even better that the kit. If you are only interest in building the kit, please know that that is just fine. I think that approach got me started on a hobby I really enjoy . Thanks for reading and being patient with my lack of progress,