Yabuhebi

Started working on the ratlines...foremast and then back! I also drilled the holes for the cannons. I took a 1.9mm drill and using a 12x12mm block as a guide, drilled holes in all of the backings. They aren't perfectly squared off, but when I put the cannons in place, they appeared to look good. Be sure to see that there are 2 sets of cannons. The longer ones on the very lowest deck. I dipped all of the cannons in Birchwood Brass Black. I would dip half a deck in for about 2-3 minutes. Take them out and let them sit on a towel till dry and then re-dip them for another 3 minutes or so. After than, I would place them on toothpicks to dry. I may have to add a little paint to help hide flaws, but they seem ok. Once done, I moved on to the ratlines. I took the shroud blueprints and placed paper over the shrouds and drew lines to create the ratlines for the starboard lower, futtock and upper ratlines. I had to darken some of the shrouds and lines to make them show up through the paper. Once done, I cut them all into the right shapes and started with the foremast lower shrouds. I clothpined them to the shrouds to help keep the ratlines consistent. At first, it was a learning curve to tie the clove hitches but once the muscle memory kicks in, it actually goes pretty fast. Not fast enough for my back, but quick enough! I was able to finish the lower fore ratlines and start on the futtock ratlines. I have only CA glued the outer knots, the inners remain free. I will wait and straighten them all out and then add some watered down white glue to set them in place. The rest is going to take some time to finish! This was about 2-3 days of a few hours...my patience isn't as forgiving right now. Perhaps I will switch off between ratlines and making cannon lids or move to making the lanterns and life boats? This will be a haul and I'll see you all at the end!

Looking back at my picture log, I see that I started working on the shrouds back on January 18, 2025. Learning how to serve line, create semi realistic seizings and more! Well, six weeks later and I think I may have finally finished with most of the standing rigging! I think if folks look at this as a 'how not to do a model' guide, I would suggest following the directions and the real life sequence of standing rigging installations. I had opted to do the lower shrouds and then move right to the fore and back stays before moving back to the upper shrouds. After the fact, it did cause some issues, some of my back stays are not in the right location because of this and most definitely, they are not laid correctly around the mast heads. Is she close to perfect, well I think we all know my answer and I truly love the people that actually take the time to look and comment. I think that is validation enough!!!!! I tried to add a few pics of the various areas. I am going to have to clean this sucker up! She's a real dust magnet! Anyone have techniques or tools they use to clean in the tight spots, let me know! I have mentioned that I needed a new platform to work on the model. I have used a home made case that normally holds my belt/disc sander. It was skinny enough for the model and low enough to keep the mast heads from hitting the heat ducts in the basement. However, when I was working on the very top, I had to stand. In addition, the wheels really weren't made for pivoting very easily and every time I tried to turn the boat around, I had to hold on to it so it wouldn't fall!!!! I found a nice table option online through Titan Attachments. I can raise and lower it (using a twist tightening knob) and she turns very easily and is very stable! On to the next phase! I still have to add the fire buckets, which I will do next. Then I think I will do the ratlines. I think this will be along the same line as doing the copper tiles. A long, tedious task that I will do in small time increments, unless it goes quickly. Once done, I will look to install the jib and flying booms and do all that rigging. I haven't done it yet, because it will really limit my turn around space, once it's done! Then....I think I will add the lower deck cannons. They have to be drilled into place and I haven't done them yet. I won't do the lids, but I will at least get the cannons so they are all level. I should have done them ages ago! Then, on to the yards and the running rigging! Woot! My bet though is that will end up being put on hold till this fall. Winter is coming to an end up here and I'll soon be working on my real sailboat getting her ready for our 5 month sailing season. But till then, I'll keep cracking on!!!!!

Very true! I think about when it's finished and someone asks me....do you know what all these ropes are for? Sure I do!!!! Thanks Mark! Chris

One of the things that has bothered me was my rigging of 2 blocks together. It started as I was doing all of the cannons, which require a double/single combination. I get that the rigging line would start from the single block, go up to the double block, back down and through the single block, back up and through the double block. In real life, this bitter end could be coiled around the rigging and secured. However at this small scale it looks terrible...well at least the way I did it. I seems to create an hour glass shape and my way never seemed to give that coiled look. I think that is why you see so many models use a flemish flake, which wouldn't be done in reality...it's a very dirty set up if you've ever seen what the deck looks like after a few days of rain and dust. Not much to do about the cannons now! I had installed the foremast stay and preventer stay that run through the bowsprit bees. They are then secured to 2 blocks on each side. Again, I just hated the look and the blocks on the port side was WAY too close to each other. I cut the lashing and redid them. This time, I just tied the bitter end under the block so that you get the sense of the block rigging. For the short port side, I just tied 2 knots in the stay that are hidden under some of the other yet to be used blocks. I am much happier now. I used this technique for some the last back/breast stays I did and they look a lot better. I may go back and redo all of them now.

After finishing all of the various back and breast stays, I moved on to the futtock and then upper shrouds. I did notice that I made 2 of the back stays on the foremast too tight and there is a noticeable forward rake to the t'gallant section of the foremast. This has also caused a lot of the other lines to droop. It may be the stay that is lashed to an eyebolt, which would be great because I can just cut those lashings and redo. It it's one of the others, the deadeye lashing is all glued, so I may have to look at cutting the tops and retying them. I'll keep you posted. I did the catharpins for the foremast. I think I need to make the others a bit shorter so that the lashings pick up any slack. You can see that mine are sagging a bit. I think that white glue will help to smooth that out. These were the first I did, so I know to do a better job to make them #1 look consistent and about #2, 2-3mm shorter than the futtocks. Also, the directions call for catharpins on shrouds #4-9, so 6 of them. But the books all say they go on shrouds #4, 5, 7 & 9. That is what I did. The futtock shrouds are attached to a chainplate under the platform with a PE hook and then lashed to lower shrouds. I had to drill out the hooks so that I could get the .75mm line through the hook. I tried to just create a loop on the shroud and then tie the hook to the loop but didn't like that. The hooks are also a bit larger than the chainplate hole so it takes some time to get them in place. According to my books, the shroud is laid in front of the futtock, then wrapped under and around the futtock and then laid on the side of the lower shroud. You can't pre-form the seizing for these, you have to tie the lashing and then add a few hitches. It's fiddly, but doable. The back stays are there and they do get in the way, not unmanageable, but they are there. My feeling is the stays get in the way but I think had I done ALL of the shrouds first, they would have been in the way of doing the stays.....50 50 and pick 'em. After the futtock shrouds, I moved on to the upper shrouds. Here I made an installation mistake. The lay of the shrouds and backstays for the upper mast should have the upper shrouds laid first and then the back stays...alternating starboard then port. Since I did the stays first, I have to lay the upper shrouds on top of them. My model will never make it into a maritime museum now!!!!! Adding the deadeyes, I should have waited till morning. I did all 6 on the starboard side and started lashing them when i realized that I was using 5mm deadeyes and they should be 3.5mm. The next morning, I was able to pull the deadeyes off without damaging the shrouds. I added the correct sized deadeyes and was able to add some seizing to secure them. A bit sloppy but done.

Lol, you are NOT wrong Fritz. I was overthinking things when I added them. I just don't have it in me to remove them and re-orient them! I may try to drill the top holes but I don't have a lot of hope with such small bits! Just don't tell anyone else!!!!!

Continued to work on the back stays now. They are very labor intensive with the breast backstays requiring a tackle system and more complicate rigging that a standard deadeye to deadeye setup. I have to finish the fore port side backstays and then I will move back to the futtocks and catharpins. I wasn't happy with the way the mouse looked, so I coated most of them with white glue. this at least smoothed them out. Snaking them was harder than it read in the manuals and books. In the end, my ties were terrible and they are too far apart. It's hard to get good pictures of the rigging, I'll need to put up something white as a background to get a better feel for what's been done. I spent about 3-4 hours just working on the fore back stays today. Rigging the main shrouds for both sides and then taking the time on the starboard side to install the deadeyes, blocks etc takes a lot of time. The pics really bring out the dust!!!! So dirty, I think I'll have to look for a very soft, light brush to get into the nooks and crannies!

Continued working on the stays. Spent a lot of time on the fore and fore preventer stays that run to the bowsprit bees and then back to the knightsheads. I like it because there are a lot of little details: blocks, lanyards, etc. I think the port side came out better than the starboard side, I thought I had measured the second one so that it would fall in line with its opposite side, but it didn't happen. Doing the stays is a challenge. The directions are very simple and direct and if you don't have a background in this, it's hard to figure some things out. I spent a lot of my time using my books as references...especially Longridge. I've finished most of the forward stays and was going to begin working on the back stays. While the instructions don't state this, it appears that many of these stays are 2-sided. IE, one on each side of the hull. Thankfully, McKay's book has a table and since I was staring back to front, my first line was for the mizzen t'gallant backstay. McKay in very VERY small letters says it's 1 pair. I'll see over the weekend how this goes! Some of the stays I did were a struggle to figure out. The main t'gallant flagstaff stay goes from the main t'gallant mast to the foremast and then down to a belay point b9. It says this is above the foremast preventer stay. That's a bit vague and I couldn't for the life of me find any reference to b9 anywhere on the various blueprints. In the end, I drilled a hole above the foremast preventer line about 10mm above the foremast platform...so technically, it is above the prevent stay!!!!

I opted not to continue working on the upper shrouds or caparthins until I finish all of the stays. I think so far that was the right choice, it's bad enough I'm hitting everything with my arms and my magnifier headset!! It is a learning curve, especially trying to make the mouses for the various forward stays. For a few of the larger ones, I was able to drill a hole in some small dowel and then sand them into a pear/oval shape. After, I tried to seize them, which is very hard as the line keeps sliding off. The smaller stays were a bit easier just using seizing line to create the mouse. Although for a few, I used bigger line that does not seize well and then I went over it with my very thin (almost fly fishing diameter) line to try and clean and smooth them out. I'm still waiting on the 1.8mm line so I was able to do all of the forward stays except the 2 major ones and the fore stays that attach to the jibboom and flying jibboom as I haven't installed that yet. I put the yellow tape on this stay because I kept hitting it as it gets lost in the shadows.... Sadly, the foremast has taken a definite twist in shape. Given the way it is put together, I don't think I can break it apart without risking breaking the mast itself. I never noticed it until now but the cross trees are way off!!!!

That is what I am thinking. Running through those larger square holes in the marine walk....down past all of the interior structures where the gammoning is to that hole just the aft gammon slot. I am back home and thinking I'll try that. Waiting on the Rope of Scale 1.8mm rope and I'll let everyone know!

Working on the first stay, the main stay. It requires 1.8mm thread and the thread supplied with the kit is just terrible. I have seen others complain that it breaks under and stress. It did for me. It's fuzzy, unravels fast and is just plain ugly. I also messed around creating a mouse. Longridge suggest drilling a hole through a pear shaped piece and then adding many lines of thread around the mouse and hole....almost like creating a magnetic field around it with string. Then perhaps rig this to a serving machine and darn above and below each line to create the circumference lines. I tried that...eh. It didn't go too well. I used some dowel, drilled a hole, cut the piece small and then tried to sand into a pear shape. It didn't look too good. For the stay, I tried to worm the rope all the way. Once that was done, I retied it so that I could serve the upper section. When doing this, the rope broke in the machine because it frayed where it goes into the serving machine. Ugh. The worming went ok and the serving did too. Doesn't matter, I went to Rope of Scale and ordered 1.8mm GOOD rope!!! It'll be here in a week, and I'll be happier. Finally, a question for someone. The instructions call for the main stay collar to run through the marine walk (which I see) down through a hole in the stem. Which I am not sure what or where that is.... Part #55 is the stem. Is the hole they are talking about the one just above the 2 gammoning holes? Which is pretty hard to see on other builds and will be a bear to get to!

After this, I decided that before moving on to the catharpins, futtock shrouds and upper shrouds, that I would install the bowsprit and add all of the stays. I think that because they are all in a center line down the boat, it will be easier to install them without a lot of shroud lines getting in the way. The bowsprit requires 2 gammoning rigs to hold it in place. I was a bit nervous to do this. Number one, did I make the bowsprit right and number two, can I thread and lay down the gammons correctly? I created an eye splice to hold the gammon in place, with the eye splice laying directly under the bowsprit. I then added a bunch of CA glue to the other end of the gammon to create a stiff needle as others have done. To get an estimate of how much line I'd need, I wrapped the line around three fingers so that there were 10 loops on top...more than enough to do this. From the port side, I fished the eye splice under the sprit and then threaded the 'needle' down through it. The hard part for both was navigating the internal structures down to where the gammon slots are. Then threading back up and making sure that each pass laid smooth and correctly. AND....counting the loops to make sure I did nine!!!! I know it said to use smaller thread to tie down the middle of the gammons but I used the extra from the gammon line and threaded around a few times and tied them off. They are really invisible....I know because I CANNOT see them on any other builds! I do think that there might be a loose loop in one of them on the underside....sigh.

I finished installing all of the lower shrouds and their cleats. I believe they are pretty even across the board. After, I worked on installing the futtocks. It doesn't really say, but I believe they should be served, which I did. To install, I used my calipers to measure from the top of the hand mast on each mast to the base of the platform. Then I took this measurement to estimate where the futtocks should be under the platform. Once I had that position, I used small clothespins to hold them in place before tying them to the shroud. I tied the opposite end and then leveled them off before permanently securing them. Once I had all 6 done, I wen back and tied off all of the shrouds.

I saw your wish list and looked up the Shackleton. I've loved any show or movie involving her and it looks like a cool model to try. I have also been in love with the Bounty since I was 11 or 12 after reading the Mutiny on the Bounty. Of course, I really don't anywhere to put these models where they're done, so I don't know what I'm thinking!!!!!

So I looked through other builder pics and some live pics of Victory. I found a few things. I can find pics of the main mast shrouds and one side doesn't show cleats, but the other side does. So I don't know. I opted to have no cleats on the main shrouds. The cleats on the foremast are situated low on the shroud where the 'bow/bend/curve' is created. I had those wrong, they were way too high. The cleats on the mizzen mast are high, so I'll leave them alone. Thankfully, I had not tied the fore cleats down and I was able to removed them and CA glue them lower. Once done, I had to tie them off. Before adding the lanyards, it was a bit easier. Now I had to thread each one individually. Once done, I painted them all and they came out pretty good. Tightening down the lanyards was a bit of a learning curve. I started with the foremast and was able to really cinch them down. The foremast is solidly in the deck and was not going to move. Perhaps more as you go higher up the mast, but the lower foremast is a rock. I tried to get all the upper deadeyes even before securing the lanyards. I suppose I could have just tied them down so that if I had to alter them in the future I could, but my fear is that the environment would affect them if they weren't solidly glued in place. The fore and main shrouds went fine. I did have some trouble with the mizzen shrouds. Those deadeyes are much smaller and when I put any type or real torque on them to tighten them, I pulled the deadeye from the lower strop. They're just not as solid or beefy as the other larger deadeyes. I had to back off on these and hope for the best. I will be more careful on the other side. When it is all said and done, it's pretty good. Yes the top foremast and t'gallant foremast are a bit raked to starboard, perhaps the upper shrouds will do their job!!! So far, so good!

Thank you Mark and Bug!!! Much appreciated that you would stop by and take the time to comment. Means a lot!

Spent about 5 hours today working on cleats and rigging shrouds. If I read the blueprints correctly, there are not any cleats on the main mast shrouds and just 5 each on the fore and mizzen. Looking at the directions and taking a hash count of the number of lines belayed to cleats on the channels and I think that is correct. My first stab at putting the cleats up on the mizzen shrouds wasn't the best. They aren't aligned very well, but when they're blackened and the ratlines are installed, they'll fade into the back ground. Also, from a scale point of view, I would think that the poop deck hammocks would be 3-4' tall with the average sailor then being in the 5'6" range. Some of my cleats are going to be WAY TOO HIGH! I CA glued the cleats to the shrouds after first filing away any excess and filing the curved recess on the back to help with making them stick together. It's funny, when gluing things if any little bit gets on the lines they stick right away. Except when I WANT to glue something like a cleat to a line....then it's hit or miss if they will stick! Perhaps too many pictures below, but this really makes the boat come alive and I'm kind of excited about that! My hope is to finish the last channel tomorrow and tighten them all up and hope that my layouts are going to allow for even deadeyes across the board!!!

Finished all of the lower shrouds. Using scrap wood, I was able to create rigging templates for the channels that helped to keep them consistent. Once done, I wanted to take a stab at rigging some of the deadeyes. I managed to do 8 of them on the main mast, port side. I have to research exactly how they're tied off when completed to be sure I did them correctly and I have to add the cleats prior to finishing them. They will remain loose until all 6 sets of shrouds are strung up.

Since I had painted the lower deadeyes as part of assembling the chainplate platforms I had to paint the partner deadeyes. I don't have enough pins and I'm not really sure if I wanted to pin 30+ large deadeyes and a multitude of the small ones. I also did not want to paint them with a brush because it would absolutely clog the holes. Air brushing at least is clean. I tried stringing all the like deadeyes together on wire and painting them. It was a 70% success on the larger one, haven't looked at the smaller ones yet. I will have to touch up some with a brush and then go over them to make sure they stay clog free.

I managed to get all the lower shrouds done. Looking at the picture dates, it looks like it was about a 5 day ordeal. Very labor intensive and hard on my back, hunched over the model. I need one of those hospital tables that I can slide over my lap!!!!! I think that the shrouds laid nicely around the top of the mast for all three. After, I contemplated working on the jeers and other rigging tasks but I opted to continue with the deadeyes. I tried to use wire to create a 20mm spacer and it kind of worked. In the end, I did the first one with the space and then the next three by eye. They came out ok, but it was tedious. I used the wood backing that came with the photo etch and created a template to lay out the rest of the deadeyes. I cut out the cannons and interference on the chainplate platform. Using the first 4 deadeyes, I tried to create a line for the rest. When it was said and done, they all laid fairly evenly. After, I cut the bitter ends and seized them. I think in reality, there are 3 seizings...the one just above where the deadeye is, the middle one and end one. Also, the bitter end is pulled down a bit to create an open bulge. I tried that, but it was difficult for me. I ended up putting 2 seizings and tried my best to create the bulge. My only failure was trimming the bitter ends so they were even. Clearly, the middle one is too high and it's possible I could cut away the seizing, trim it and re-seize it. I may do that. They others....I'm CA glue committed there! Going over to the port side, I think I did a better job of laying out the jig. The pencil line is parallel to the top of the hammocks behind it and the holes ON the line are my go to placement of deadeyes. The first 4 seem to be ok! Practice makes perfect. I do hope that I have laid the bitter ends on the correct side. I can't remember where I saw it or what book (if I did) where I read it. I thought I read that on the starboard side, the ends face forward and on the port side they face aft. I hope that's right!!!!! ...cuz'... you know...I'm CA glue committed!

A great step to get past! First planking...second planking...copper plating....cannons....it just gets better at every step. The banding on the previous page looked great by the way!!!!

Ground out a few more for the main mast. I was able to get all of the shrouds and the swifter laid down. As I've said, the Rope of Scale, which looks great on its own, has a pretty aggressive cabling look. So when I start to serve it, it almost looks like it is actually worming the rope. I had to really concentrate on the serving process to be sure it looked good. You can see that some of the serving looks better than others. That being said!!!!! I think the shrouds laid down very nicely and they look a lot like they are supposed to. I did make the jeer strops WAY too big, but that's life! I am not sure right now if I'll install the jeer blocks or move on to the fore mast....try to keep to the theme of doing like things. Then once done, go back and add the jeer block for the main and fore and the sling for the mizzen. Once done, I think I'll move on to the various stays, then I'll complete the lower shrouds and begin work on the next level of shrouds.

Thanks to a LOT of great advice, I continued on and I am fairly happy with the results today. I removed the pendants, the binding around the mast was too loose and they obviously were too low. I cut them away and redid them. The end result actually turned out better. I still used my half *** homemade copper tubing thimbles, but they cleaned up nicely. I did make a mistake when re-rigging them. The plans call for the pendants on the mizzen to be .5mm and I missed that and used the .75mm line. Too late now! Hopefully weights and measures won't board the boat and find out! After that, I had already served and installed the port/starboard #1 & 2 shrouds. So I moved on to the remaining lines. I believe all remaining shrouds needed to be served where they rest around the mast. I was able to access the middle of each pair and when I attached the correct length line to the serving machine I used a little wire clip to mark the middle. Once secure, I served a few inches on either side. While this line is very small, you can see the difference in the line after it's served. The mizzen called for 3 pairs of shroud and the pendants. They actually laid down nicely and I am pleased that they look a lot like other builds. I didn't bother gluing these in place, I am not sure if once tensioned, they will be ok. I then moved onto the main mast shrouds. The plans call for all of the shrouds and pendants to be 1.3mm line. I had bought 1.3 from Rope of Scale and it looks just great. I used the same rope (in tan) for the cannon breach lines. Tat being said, I used the kit line for the pendants. I want to be sure that I have enough for the main shrouds and stays. This was the final result of serving the kit 1.3mm line. It looks pretty good. After, I added my new wooden thimbles to these pendants and I think they look pretty good! All because of the help, suggestions and encouragement from all of you!!! Time for a break!

Thank you Mark. I appreciate the kind remarks, my take on what I've done so far...well I am a bit more critical!!! I'll keep plugging away and posting my sometimes sad efforts! Perhaps a more do as I hoped and not as I actually did!!!!!

Well!!! I just went through your build log. Your skill set is many levels above anything I will ever hope to get to. Just head shaking how detailed your small scale work has been on the Lady Nelson. Well done. Having retired after 40 years working for the Teamsters, I know just how satisfying it is to be able to spend time doing the many things that took a back seat building a career. It looks like you actually served ALL of the block stropping? Wow. I took your advice and found some 14/0 fly thread. It should come by the end of next week and will try that. I still have the 10,000 yards (lol) of the Gutermann thread and while that seems to fray and catch on any little thing, might be just as good.