cdrusn89

Following Tom Luria's methodology (seen on YouTube) I fabricated the Fore Sail for the Simpson, lashed it to the boom and gaff and added the mast hoops. Then I made a little stand with a spare piece of 3/8"dowel to simulate the mast and "hung it up". I did not add the reefing bands/ties or the panel lines since the sail will be furled and much of this detail would be lost. I also made the sail only about three quarters as tall as shown in the sail plan. Previous experience has shown (me) that the larger the sail the more difficult it is to get it furled "properly". Not to say that mine are properly furled, just enough to look more or less "presentable" IMHO. Continuing on with the fore mast I added the rest of the detail using laser board for the bands around the square section and the required blocks. I glued on the trestle trees, added the mast cap and rigged the spreader lifts (using turnbuckles instead of deadeyes - I just could not manage to get the 3mm deadeyes to "work" - too small for my old eyes and hands). I fabricated the "stay irons" from brass flat stock and brass eyebolts soldered into the brass stock. At least I remembered how to do that as it has been many years and models since I had to solder brass fitting together. With the fore mast more or less completed (I am sure I forgot something) I furled the sail and added it to the mast along with the mast cap and the boom rest. Then I rigged the throat and peak halyards - took a bunch of line with the gaff down on top of the boom. Next up are the topping lifts and lazy jacks - then on to the Main sail.

I think I have the hull completed as far as I can before turning my attention to the spars and rigging. I added the bowsprit shrouds (chain) and the martingales (also chain) but have not completely tightened the lashings (hence the sag). I do not want to tension anything untill all the standing rigging is more or less in place. At this point it is hard to tell what might influence what. I added the six head sail sheet blocks (three on each side). They form part of the hauling tackle for each jib (jib topsail, standing jib and flying jib). They are on pendants to make it easier to rig them. Not sure if I could really get at them if they were on the deck. Likewise I added the bottom blocks (doubles) on deck for the throat and peak halyards for the gaffs. I put the mizzen blocks on pendants as well since there isn't much room between the bulwark and deckhouse and the pin rail is also in the way. Channels and chainplates are in place on both sides along with the cap rail mounted deadeyes. This is the starboard side. Initially i was going to use the kit supplied lower links (although there were not enough and they looked to be too long but...) but they proved to be (for me) too difficult to remake and I chose to shift to 3/32" X 1/64" Britannia metal strips. If I had it to over again I would probably use those strips (or 1/16" X 1/64" ones) for the lower links instead of the 24 ga wire. Still some touch up to do and one bolt head appears to have carried away. One note on the cap rail mounted deadeyes, the fore mast arrangement is shown on the sail plan rather than with the rest on the arrangement drawing, but there is a "extra" deadeye which is not labeled, listed on the rigging table nor can I figure out where it might terminate. I have left it off. It is the sixth one (from the bow) in the drawing below. Now on to the spars and sails.

The hull and interior deck furnishing are essentially complete. I still need to add six 3mm single blocks that are part of the sheet tackle for the three foremost head sails that are going to eyebolts on deck just aft of the forward most pin rails. These are shown on the rigging drawing but all the drawing shows is the blocks sticking above the caprail - no way to tell how they are attached to the ship. So I will put eyebolts in the deck and pendants on the blocks so they will be above the caprail. The channels are all cut, slotted and painted so they are next along with the deadeyes and chainplates. There are six deadeyes (smaller 4mm size) on each side (three each on the main and fore masts) that appear to be attached to the caprail. The drawings says "Plain padeye fisher 135". I can only guess what a "plain padeye" looks like and the AJ Fisher catalog is no help as there are no padeyes listed and the Fisher 135 is missing - 134 and 136 are there; 134 is a cleat and 136 is a boat davit, I am going to cut some small squares out of black laserboard and call that a "plain padeye".

Since I am working my way aft I decided it was time to add the bowsprit. Hopefully I can keep from snapping it off while adding them rest of the "deck furniture". In addition to the bowsprit and the associated reinforcing piece down the side I added the bolt heads (square this time) to the catheads and the reinforcing piece. Also two hatches, the capstan and the eyelets that lead to the chain locker(s). While trying to accurately locate where the fore sheet bitts should go I discovered that while the drawing is correct (if you read it very closely) I had built the main and fore booms using the single drawing as a template and did not notice that the sheet blocks are in different locations. Now they are correct but it seems like there could have been separate drawings for the fore and main booms rather than "hiding" the differences in the dimensioning.

I guess it is time to start installing some of the "stuff" I have been working on for what seems like a long time. I decided to start at the bow and work aft. First up was the cat heads. Not much drama but you have to be careful when cutting the bulwark to avoid it being too large. I have marked the cat heads for installation of some more plastic bolt heads which are shown on the drawing. The bitts also require some surgery to the deck edge and the timberheads so the bitts will stand up vertically. I have not installed the eyelets to lead the anchor chain to the chain locker because I used the two provided in the kit to clean up the holes where the chain passes through the forecastle to the anchors. The basswood hull material will just NOT take a splinter free hole. I have more 3/16" eyelets on the way and will get to them shortly. Just to be on the safe side, the towing bitts by the forward hatch are just sitting there at the moment so they will not get in the way of drilling the eyelet holes.

Thanks Rick!😀 After sleeping on it last night I decided that the brass backing links I re-purposed from a different Corel chainplate package were too over scale and looked for alternatives. I set up a little jig (two pieces of .039" piano wire set vertically into a 2 X 4) and tried making the backing links out of 24 gauge annealed steel wire. Actually I tried 22, 24 and 26 gauge wire but decided 24 gauge was "best". Here are the selected chainplate and the two alternative backing links. I made the replacement just a bit shorter (assuming I can replicate the length more or less exactly - yet to be established) so it will (in theory) hit the waterline the same as the drawing shows. One down and 21 left to go.

Back to the present. I got all the stern rail and bow splash rail completed and touch-up painted so I decided to take some whole model pictures. And some with what deck furniture is ready for "prime time".

It turns out I have several choices for replacement chainplates. Not sure why or when I got these but when looking through the various "fittings" sites i sometimes buy "stuff" "just in case". It would seem I must have visited the site with chainplates more than once as these all look like they are from the same vendor. I shortened and rebent the kit provided chainplate and drilled two holes (not very well) and that is second from the right. The other three are different sizes of the same design (from Corel I think). On the far right is a potential replacement backing link (suitably blackened/painted) because while the drawing says 22 required the kit only contains ten per the parts list. Any of the Corel chainplates are going to require an upsize in the deadeyes. The two on the left use 5mm and the one on the right 6mm. The kit "large" deadeyes are 5/32' = 4mm (3.968mm according to my converting calculator). I am going with the shortest of the Corel chainplates. I think I have just enough room to bend it down after it clears the molding strip since the channels will be mounted below the cap rail. The backing link is going to have to be on top of the chainplate but I do not see any other solution.

While waiting around for the pin rails which were just installed to get "set" I started looking ahead to the channels. Here is the picture from the plans for the channels/deadeyes/chain plates for the main mast. And here is one of the kit supplied chainplates with a deadeye mounted using 26 ga wire (no mention in the instructions of how the deadeyes are supposed to be attached). I measured and my waterline is within 1mm of where it is shown on the drawing so it would seem that unless I want the chainplates and the backing link down to the turn of the bilge I need to find anther solution. Presently looking through the "parts bin" to see what is available and considering how the supplied chainplates could be modified to be used.

Stern mid rail and timberheads in place, masked and ready for seal and paint. Top stern rail has been painted (ocre) and is drying now - probably will need second coat. Transition pieces also in paint drying mode - will definitely need a second coat and probably a third. Bow splash rail pinned in place and has been left to dry over night. Plan to remove (carefully) and seal and paint before reinstalling. Looking for the material for the upper rail as what came with the kit is "lost in space" and I want something a bit wider (to allow my usual set of errors to be more or less correctable) anyway.

The wheel house now with the Caldercraft 24mm brass wheel which is about 2mm bigger than the Britannia cast wheel provided with the kit. The instructions with the Caldercraft wheel say to paint it walnut but after getting all the nice detailing I did not want to hide it under paint so I just painted the "handles dark brown and will leave the rest brass. I probably also need another coat of black on the upper "housing" and clean the CA off the wheel face - don't want to do too much with the CA solvent as that is what holds the whole thing together..

I saw from the drawing that there is supposed to be a curved piece of the stern rail that meets the cap rail to make the transition from the stern rail height to the cap rail. No mention of this in the instructions that I can find. Clearly (to me) there is no way to make 1/16" basswood bend 90 degrees in 3/16" (the height of the stern mid-rail). At least none of the basswood i have will do that; I tried. So I thinned down some 5/16" wide basswood so that it took three pieces to get to 1/16" thickness. Then I built a little jig to hold them in place after soaking in hot water. The jig is below but I used clamps not masking tape to hold them while drying. After they were dry I used 60/40 PVA/H2O to bind the pieces together and then taped them back on the jig to help keep the shape as I noticed they tended to want to unbend a bit if left "unrestrained". I need to paint them orce to match the main deck cap rail then cut them but not until I get the stern rail completed. I also completed the forward fife rail, or at least the forward portion. The drawing shows "legs" under the parts that extend aft of the pin rail but I think I will wait until the fife rail is installed to add them as they will be very vulnerable if they are added now. Here are all the remaining deck items after one coat of Vallejo matt varnish (except the fife rail which is just out of the picture to the right).

I got the qdeck planked and two coats of WoP. If I had it to do over again I would start at the edges and curve the planks to follow the cap rail. Then they meet in the middle starting at the stern and extending probably about a third of the way forward. As it is I had to make three very sharply pointed pieces on each side. If I had started on the sides the pointed pieces would have been covered, at least partially by the wheel house and associated grating, which, by the way is not mentioned in the instructions either.. I also planked the forecastle using my "best judgement" on how to deal with the unusual shape. it has one coat of WoP now, more to follow. i had to resort to filling in the outboard pieces with sawdust as the space that was left was too small (for me) to be able to cut a very tiny piece and somehow get it into the opening.

While trying to figure out how to plank the forecastle I decided to work mon the qdeck. Having learned while doing the main deck that graphite from darkening the sides of the planks to simulate caulking is messy, I applied masking tape over the cap rail. The main deck cap rail had to be repainted it was so messed up with graphite (not to mention a few dings and scrapes). So here are the king planks and "end plank" in place ready to start the "real" planking.

Here is the main deck planking with one coat of WoP. I clearly could have done a better job at color matching the pieces but with a few more coats of WoP the differences will be reduced (I hope). The hatch covers are just sitting there to provide some idea of what the main deck will look like when finished.

Main deck planking is complete but I will spare you a look at the "mess" while it is being cleaned up in preparation for the Wipe-on-Poly. After doing the main deck I looked at the quarterdeck and forecastle. the qdeck looks like it should not present any problems as it is almost rectangular with a few rounded corners. I am going to use one of the 1/8" wide plonks across the front so I won't have a bunch of plank ends under the deckhouse. The forecastle on the other hand presents quite a challenge and the drawing is no help. The drawing seems to show that the forecastle is one, roughly triangular shape. The reality (as you can see below) is there are two extensions that run aft down either side for about 15mm (5/8"). If I plank it as the main deck with simple fore and aft planks there are going to be some really short, funny shaped pieces on these extensions. To avoid this I am thinking of running three rows of planks along each side of the forecastle (I think I can get the 1/16" X 3/32"boxwood to make that bend without pre-soaking or heat. Might be hard finding some way to hold them in position while the glue dries. I might have to resort to CA. With the three edge rows done then I can cover the rest of the deck (not that there will be much left) with planks running fore and aft. Anyone have another idea (run the planks athwartships?).

Half the deck (actually a little more) is finished but still needs a good sanding and a few coats of WoP. I started with the 1/8" wide king planks on each side of the centerline. The boxwood material I bought (from Modeler's Sawmill) is 3/32" X 14" long so it would not reach all the way from bow to stern on the main deck. Since much of the centerline area is covered by hatch covers I saw no reason to worry about plank length of sequencing until I reached the outer limits of what the hatches will cover. So I laid down six rows of the 14" lengths on either side of the king planks. And then filled in the area left open to the stern. I did not try and keep the planks continuous since the joint area is covered by the "small" hatch. Outside that area I choose 4" plank length (~22' at scale) and a four drop sequence of plank ends If I had it to do over again I would choose a somewhat shorter plank length as my Byrnes table saw cannot cut something 4' long without removing the rip fence which I am loath to do. In the end I cut each piece as it went on the hull anyway so having pre-cut lengths turned out to really be required. I thought (briefly) about adding another 1/8" wide plank at the outer edge and using that as a nibbling plank but in the end just went with sharp points on the outboard planks. I have not tried a nibbling strake on a solid hull before but remember that it was quite a chore cutting into the nibbling strake on a plank on bulkhead model when the area that required nibbling was on a bulkhead. Here EVERY nibble would be over a solid surface. Maybe if I could figure out a way to not get the nibbling strake glued down except on the very outer edge. In the end I chose the "easy" way. When I got to the outer edge it turned out I needed the extra 1/8" wide strake anyway since the 3/32 would have left a very narrow gasp so having the extra 1/8" pieces really worked out.

I got the cap rail completed on both sides - now on to the main deck planking. In case anyone is wondering the two-tone paint job on the cap rail is because I want the upper rail to be ocre not white. Since there are rails above the cap rail at the bow and stern I chose to paint those portions of the cap rail white and will use ocre on the stern top rail and bow splash rail so there will be a continuous "ocre line"when viewed from above. The pencil lines are approximately where the hatches will go. It appears there will be six or seven rows of planks on either side of the king planks before I have to start worrying about plank length and stagger.

While reading through the instructions for the third time I noticed sort of in passing that the double blocks under the booms are supposed to have a becket for the standing end of the boom sheet lines. No mention of this on the drawing so I got the booms out of the "To Be Installed" box and added a becket to each block. Having done that I wondered about what size line should be attached as the booms will be lashed down with the furled sails and gaff on top so getting at them to run the line later is unlikely to be successful. There is a table on the rigging sheet (sheet 2) that purports to cross from the cordage descriptions in the rigging table (#40 Linen for example) to diameters. Unfortunately the description in the table and the running rigging table do not correspond (the rigging table uses numbers like 30, 40, 100). So just looking at the diameters it looks like the running rigging called out is very "heavy" based on building a number of ships at this scale. I am going to use the Syren Ultra line for this build (I have a bunch of it) and I have never dealt with nylon fishing line - monofilament but not nylon. The question is what sizes to use. The standing rigging table gives diameters so that is easy - just pick the Syren size closest to what is in the table. For the running rigging (even though the kit only has two sizes of tan line which are approximately .009" and .014" in diameter) the major hauling parts .018", the minor hauling parts and the tackles supporting the major hauling parts .012 and for downhauls and other minor lines the .008. I am going to use the .012' for the booms and attach the line before the booms go aboard.

My intent is to get the cap rail installed and then plank the main deck I wanted to get a "head start" and get the king planks laid while waiting for the cap rail paint to dry. The center line planks are 1/8" wide while all the rest will be 3/32 (6" at full scale) and about 4" long (22' at full scale). Since there are no "opening below" I am going to just have the hatches sitting on the decking rather than gluing down the hatches and planking around them. Here is the first king plank in place and weighted down while the glue sets.

Thanks Jacques. Even more interesting (to me) is that the entire deckhouse is racked aft 5 degrees according to the drawing. I made no attempt to model this as the forward portion is partially the machines hull. I doubt anyone will notice.

Nine pieces of the deck furniture are complete (more or less for the deckhouse) and headed for the "To Be Installed Later" storage bin.

The grey paint arrived today and first up was to paint the deckhouse roof. As seen here it does not yet have the sliding cover in place as there was a minor issue after it was painted. Also of note is I got all the timberhaeds installed and sanded down flush with the bulwark. Next step is to paint the inside bulwark, plank the area below the aft deckhouse leaving an opening where the forward facing door will go when the deckhouse is truly installed. Hatch and smoke stack will also go on during actual deckhouse installation

Considering the rigging to come. I started a spreadsheet of all the standing and running rigging needed and found the rigging drawing somewhat confusing. Yesterday I discovered on sheet 3 (of 3) there is a drawing showing how the throat and peak halyards (one of each on all three masts) are supposed to be rigged. This drawing answered one of the questions I had about the throat halyard (raises the gaff to spread out the fore, main and mizzen sails attached to the respective booms). On the rigging drawing (sheet 2) it shows there is a triple block at the top of the throat halyard tackle. Try as I might I could not figure out how that would work and all of the reference material I have was. no help. From the ships I have built it was common practice to have the "jig" end as referred to in the drawing (I would call this the standing end but...) terminated at a becket on the upper block of a throat halyard. Not so on the Simpson - the jig end and the tackle on the hauling end terminate at the pin rail and thus you need a triple block at the top. Unfortunately I did not have any 4mm triples so I ordered some from Model Expo. I have plenty to do before I need them but I feel much better having solved what was to me a mystery.

After I looked at it enough I came to the conclusion that having the molding stripe stop at station 8 just was not going to work. So I created another 2mm X 2mm piece of boxwood and ran it through the same molding cutter I used for the first piece. Then I went back to the thickness sander and (making sure I kept the flat side against the sandpaper) thinned the piece down until it was just over 1mm thick. Doing this was to avoid an abrupt change in thickness at the junction. I think this looks much better IMHO. I also fabbed the four towing bitts and six just plain bitts from Swiss Pear. The painting instructions say these should be brown so I think varnished Swiss Pear will be close enough. Here they are after the first coat of matt varnish (from Vallejo). I also used cut off toothpicks for the "posts" The drawing indicates that the square posts would have to be turned to form a round portion for insertion into the deck. I think toothpicks into a hole drilled with a #48 bit is much easier as long as you can get the hole pretty much in the center of the bitt.