Der Alte Rentner

Adopting Mustafa's method and adding Gregg's three hands, I have settled on a procedure that goes fairly quickly. Sadly not as fast as 2 minutes per block, but a lot quicker than what I was doing by drilling the holes before. I loop the rope once around the eye in the eye bolt and add a small drop of CA to keep the rope from moving in the eye. The only way I can get the knot to work was to adopt Hunt's technique of keeping the hook on the left of the block, for which I made a little rigging rig. (I won't bother showing pictures of the two other methods that were only semi-successful.) Tying the knot. After this, I use a thin brass rod to drop a little AC at both ends of the block. To keep everything from unraveling. Finished product.

That sounds SO easy. But I have found it quite difficult to tie that knot and keep the rope in the channel on the rim of the block. That may have something to do with the small size, or simply the nature of the Syren blocks. I am experimenting with different clamping techniques to try to tie the hook to the block today. I will post my results when I've found an effective and relatively easy solution.

Gregg, after seeing your list of resource materials, I ordered the anatomy of the ship by Karl Heinz Marquardt. The timing couldn't have been much better. I see in the diagrams for the armament, that the hooks should in fact be stropped to the blocks. Maybe I'll just make my own brass hooks and get to stropping after all. (maybe no one will notice that the eight I've already made will look different..)

Hi Gregg, What a finish to that hockey game! I can hardly wait for the next one. (I'm glad to see that 2 ex-Blackhawks are in the finals, which gives me a reason to root for one team over the other.) As for the hooks, I'm using the standard Jackstay eyebolts that model shipways provides with their kit. I did look at Syren for hooks, but they didn't come in brass, and they needed to be stropped to the blocks, which struck me as being more work than the method I'm using now. On the other hand it took me 2 hours to make six of them today. I did lose two in the process, however. Trust me, if I could find these in brass, I might consider doing the stropping. Given that I've got eight of 40 already done, starting from scratch would mean I'd be doing those eight again. (Two of the eight are deployed on the spar dack at the moment.)

It's funny that you ask. I couldn't stay up long enough last night to watch the overtime of Edmonton Florida Stanley Cup game, so I decided to watch the rest of the game at my Shipyard while doing some busy work. The busy work is fashioning the hooks and double blocks. The steps follow: Clamp the block in a sturdy vice. Do the absolute best you can to center the drill, which in this case a .48 mm drill, on the end of the block. No, I am not using the Proxxon mill to drill the hole. I'm using a pin vise. Open up the hole in the standard kit supplied eye bolt. Trim the bolt. Glue the hook into the block. And now for the tricky bit. If you didn't Center the hook well enough, you won't be able to get the thread through the holes nearest the hook. Even if you do center it, you will need to clean out the holes. So, I used the same drill and very carefully reamed out those two holes. Ta da... Note: I tried using some .30 mm brass wire wrapped around the block then twisting the ends to fashion a hook, sort of like this: But the brass kept breaking. I've made a grand total of four of these so far, and only screwed up once, where I didn't get the drill centered. For what it's worth, had I used the blocks that came with the kit, this would have been a piece of cake. Given that they are oversized and the holes for the line are in the center of the blocks not at the ends like with these from Syren. Note to Syren, perhaps you could offer up blocks with one pre-drilled hole? Since you're already done, Mustafa, this is all academic for you. But it's going in to my hard copy build log, so the details needed to be posted.

I think I've figured out the processes of making hooks and attaching them to the blocks. Next up, figure out how to rig the breaching rope. Of all the builds that I have studied, I like the looks of Mustafa's the best. I can't decide if I like how skinny these tackles look. I should probably hold off until the order of new materials arrives before I go into mass production. In the short-term, I'll be attaching hooks to the double blocks, which requires no rope at all. Just a lot of patience. 🙄

Given that Syren seems to be out of stock in the .30 mm and .45 mm sizes in tan, Ropes of Scale just got my order. I ordered an assortment of sizes in the tan ranging from the .25 mm up to the .7 mm. I'll see how these compare to what I have from both MS and Constructo.

As it turns out, it may be that the holes in the syren blocks are so small that the .008" (.20mm) line that came with the kit is all that will fit through. Before I go much further, I order some .25mm line to see if that works. In terms of looks and scale, I might get by with the MS .20mm. Either way, this is going to take a LONG time..

Welcome aboard Gregg. I doubt the planets will align, but my wife is trying to get me out to Boston sometime in the fall as well. If calendars permit, maybe we can tour the Constitution together.

For what it's worth, because I failed to note the Hunt misdirection(?) for the waterway early on, my carronades will NOT be pulled through the gunports. I will therefore be coiling the tackle, or doing whatever it is they're doing with the Constitution today. See above.

It looks I may(?) be shopping for aftermarket cordage. The plans call for .016 in (.41 mm) line for the tackle and .029 in (.74 mm) for the breaching rope. The kit provides .008 in (.20 mm) and .021 in (.53 mm) tan line. The only other tan thread that comes with the kit is so thin it must be intended to be used for seizing. For grins, I tried the thicker line on for size for the breaching rope. Unsatisfactory.. However, the Constructo kit comes with what measures to be roughly the correct sizes. No sizes are actually provided, so I'm going with what my Vernier caliper delivers by way of measurement. Here is the same cannon with breaching rope from the Constructo kit. It's a small thing, but I like the color and finish better of the material that came with the MS kit. Funny, in the photos, the difference doesn't appear to be all that great. I guess I'll order some properly sized cordage from the vendor that Gregg suggested and compare. While I wait, I'll start mass-producing blocks with hooks.

How about it. The instructions for the kit show this.

Interesting. Comparing size options between Ropes of Scale and Syren Ship Model Company, there seems to be a slight difference. Ropes of Scale's two smallest diameter ropes are: .25mm and .35mm. Syren's Ship's two smallest diameter ropes are .20mm and .30mm. I'll have to check to see what Model Shipways sizes are in the tan, as well as Constructo's, potentially rendering the point moot, but does anyone besides Gregg (and the DIY crown with rope walks) have a preference between Ropes and Syren?

So you didn't engage the lock on the hemostat, letting the spring clip do the actual clamping, yes?

This all comes up under the rubric of rigging block and tackle for the cannons and carronades. Somehow, I would have thought that the loose end would be wrapped around a belaying pin somewhere. Evidently not. Here are some methods I've seen employed. Not even the Constitution is consistent in this. Why the difference between forward and aft rigging? Other modelers: XKEN Unegawahya Mustafa and this. Sorry, I forgot whose build I saw this in. Obviously someone working on the cross section. Jon, I'm sure you're going to chime in with the "correct" rigging diagrams (at least I'm hoping you will 😁)

Judging by what I've found searching for "Stropping" everywhere on the site, I'm not convinced that this will be anywhere as easy as you suggest. I am compiling a list of techniques and may post those later, after I've tried all the methods. Say, can anyone save me the time of digging this up and tell me the thickness of the threads used for the block and tackle, and breeching rope on the carronades and cannons? Thanks to all..

Got any left over you care to sell? 😁

Hmmm, I never thought I'd be back this soon... You won't see the blocks installed anytime soon, but here are the Syren Ship Model Company 1/8" double and single blocks (left) compared to their equivalent(?) versions as supplied by Model Shipways (right). Yes, I'm sure those are the correct ones from Model Shipways. This was verified by the count of the blocks compared to the parts list that came with the kit. Attaching the hooks to the Syren blocks is going to be an interesting proposition. Pin vice and drill baby drill? Looks like it will work. I opened up the eye of an eye bolt and trimmed the bolt to fit the hole I drilled in the block. Only 79 more of these to go for the tackle. I had hoped to be able to wrap one of the Jack stays completely around the block but there's not enough material there to cover the circumference. And frankly, experimentation has shown that it's too difficult to do anyway.

Yes, I will rig them. In fact, I'm studying up on that now. I think I'm only going to use one set of block and tackle and a breech rope per cannon or carronade. Since, as previously mentioned, I've already installed the eye bolts in the bulwarks, and since I also didn't construct the pieces the breech ropes attach to with a pin, I will be using hooks to attach blocks and breech ropes to the existing eye bolts. I see I have much rigging and seizing ahead of me. So, while it may look like I'm taking a summer hiatus, I will probably just be busy for a time with fiddly work and finalizing year two of my build log for a spiral bound hard copy. I'll be back as soon as I have something interesting to display.

Except for a coat of poly, the addition of a pair of eyebolts and installation on the spar deck, the cannons are more or less done.

Oh good! It's the only chance I have to catch up to you Mustafa. (Like that will ever happen! 😁) Have a great summer.

I had hoped to finish the long guns for the spar deck today. But I grow weary. I don't think much needs to be explained below, except that I did take a slight deviation from the Hunt practicum in that I did not use a brass rod to support the stool bed. I figured that it would hardly be seen and add too much complexity to the construction. I took an easier route that didn't risk poking holes in the carriage sides. (Boy, it would have been fun to be able to jump from my previous post to the finished Constitution, like Gregg just did with the Santa Maria. Sadly I'm not quite as productive as he. Once again Gregg, congratulations on a beautiful build.) As far as the wheels are concerned, I'm going to take a simple approach by cutting dowels of the proper diameters and simply glue these to the ends of the axles. The quoins should be a piece of cake, since I think I still have some leftover material from when I built the carronades.

Geez Gregg! Coming from out of nowhere and crossing the finish line in one fell swoop. I'm delighted to be among the first to congratulate you on the successful completion of a very beautiful build. Congrats!

And of course, you seized the breach lines to eyebolts BEFORE you glued the eyebolts into the bulwarks. To borrow a phrase from a contemporary cartoon character, doh! I guess I will be cheating and using hooks instead. There's no way I can seized these now that my eyebolts are already glued into the bulwarks. Two steps forward, one step back..

Menschens Kind! Were the first words that came to mind. Loosely translated, holy mackerel, or maybe better- man oh man! I don't see where I'd ever have to make such parts, but I sure will look into the product and instructions to see how it's used. You never know when some nugget of information comes in handy at a future date. Wow!