GeneralNuisance

Update on the windlass and lamp rooms: I’ve shingled the inner walls and plan to paint them white. I’ve painted the interior of the portholes gunmetal grey to simulate metal. I have opaque tracing paper coming to line the porthole interiors so there will be light that can come through but not enough to see inside. I have a set of fairy lights coming with 20 lights. This number will be enough to light each room and porthole and provide the needed effect I’m looking for, as you can see in the lower left of bulkhead A3 there’s a hole drilled through which will be used to feed the lights through. Work time today: 4 hours Total time: 10 hours

I finished off my Essex yesterday which means, at last, it’s time to begin the Endurance in earnest! Starting at the forecastle; I’m following in the footsteps of several who came before me and planking the outer wall with tapered planks so as to make the wood more apparent. I found a grinding dremel head that matches the 1/4” aimed for by guys like @Tomculb and it allowed me more control with no fear of the wood breaking as I went. Got some good smoked wood smell as the friction burned a little but nothing too problematic. I also sanded down the wood and used a file to really make those board divisions pop. If it’s still to my liking when I paint it I plan to do some dry brushing to get some grime in those cracks (like a real ship would have). As you can see with the clamp I put some boards in place so as to make my job easier when it comes time to plank the windlass room and lamp rooms. I'm also planning ahead to do some lighting through the ship but am planning to go the cheap route and simply use fairy lights that I’ll run through the whole ship. These will provide that nice warm yellow glow rather than the harsh white usually associated with LEDs. Thanks for stopping in!

Big update. I added the sails and finished the rigging. The rigging is not perfect and I may have taken a few shortcuts as everything gets so jumbled up anyway that no one will notice some lines that don’t fully reach the deck. One thing that kept bugging me was the anchor chain. I hated that it dangled so far and so finally I went back and fixed it. All that remains is: - small boats installation - hanks on pins - paint touch ups - small details on deck

Progress and some setbacks. I got the sheets installed on the mainsail and that all went well until I realized part of the reason I was getting sag in some of my lines is because I attached the two sets on lines on the sail too high. So it’s pulling in the wrong place on the block it connects to, thus causing sag. I decided then that it really didn’t bother me so much that I needed to redo it. However there was something that did bother me and that was the sag in the jib line, I just couldn’t let it go. And so for that one I went back and tightened the top of the line. It lessened the sag, not totally but enough that I could love with it. The thing I know about these builds is that the ONLY person who ever notices these flaws is me, and if I can live with it everyone else can too. Today it’s on to prepping the remaining four sails.

Alright, we’re nearing the main stretch. After deciding to furl the lower sails so as to leave the deck more visible I’ve run into the problem of there being so many lines that it’s hard to tie them to the pegs without pulling on another line or fouling something or other. So really it all boils down to patience and sturdy hands. On the side I’ve also been working on a cheap model from Amazon and doing the preliminary work on the Endurance. I’m quite happy with how the sails turned out. I toyed with some different designs but in the end I opted for just furling the sails provided in the kit.

In today’s session I got to work cutting down the main bulkhead in the two areas I want to add my own touches to, namely the space for the windlass beneath the forecastle and the adjustment to the propeller space, making it rectangular as opposed to the semicircle it has standard in the kit. This follows in the footsteps of many other builders I’ve seen on here. Additionally I ordered some resin stanchions from a guy with a resin printer that @theoracle09 designed as that option is far more affordable than the brass ones which I was able to find, at minimum, for $8 for a pack of 10. As I got the ship on Black Friday I really didn’t feel like spending half the price of the ship on stanchions. Finally, I finished the anchors paint job off. As I said in a previous post, I opted for enamel even though it leaves the anchors shiner than I’d prefer, but! In my head narrative that’s just because they have a fresh coat of the paint they would regularly repaint them with. Something not removed from reality at all as I know many ships that have the shiny paint on any and every surface. Total time 2 hours

Thanks for the input. After part time volunteering two summers now on a tall ship here in Michigan I think the thing I love most about doing these builds are the “flavors of life,” the little touches that reject perfection and embrace these being working ships that were apt to get scuffed, damaged, and dirty

So in my early research in trying to get this ship designed I noticed there appears to be an extra boat lashed to the main mast's ratlines. As I'm doing some planning ahead I'm wondering if this would be a worthy addition to the build as it adds more flavor to the build. I recognize that might be me getting very ahead of myself but I think it's worth considering. @Tomculb any thoughts on this that could help?

The jibs are in place as is the mizzen sail. I’m currently trying to find an effective way to shape the sails and would appreciate any suggestions that are effective.

Today it was the outer and staysail jibs. I love this part of the build when I start to really see it all coming together. I’ve got a lot of work to do yet but we’re making progress and getting closer

Starting off I wanted to do something small I could work into my rotation as I finish off Essex so I took to the anchors. I’ve seen some different choices for paint/staining on these and I opted for enamel paints. It gives it a little more of a shine than I’d prefer to be there so I’m not totally sold on whether I’ll keep this paint or strip it and add another. I found some difficulty in finding a glue that would properly bond the two parts of the anchor—which is part of the reason I went with the enamel because it acts like its own glue, though if anyone has some suggestions for another material I’d happily hear it out.

Got the yards on the mizzen finished. Next up will be lines and then the long work of sheets before I reach the finishing touches.

Got back to the shipyard and finished off the yards on the main mast. Of course I realized I somehow forgot one of the yards for the mizzen, so I’ll have to backtrack to get that together before I can put the finishing touches on the yard rigging.

Finished the yards today, time for a few days off for a family Christmas.

The first deviation is in the stern. After looking at the historical paintings, modern depictions (Heart of the Sea was a big inspiration), and watching videos from Home Harbor on YouTube, I opted for a different layout. This allowed for the eagle insignia as well as the placement of the name plate which, in this case, was made from some gold stickers. Finding the eagle was the real struggle, I bought a 100 pack of assorted eagle pendants online and the quarter style eagle ended up being the only one that fit… and so it became the eagle on the stern. You’ll also notice I added rudder chains that weren’t in the original build and while I know these wouldn’t sag this much on the real ship, again, I find the look of it like this to be striking and so artistry won over accuracy. Another change I made was in the tryworks. While the original style called for an exposed brick layout, I preferred the idea of a tarred or painted brick oven and so I went with that. Historically accurate? Probably not but it fits better with the aesthetic I’m going for. Next is the alterations in the deck. You’ll notice the weathering as I like to make my ships look as though they’ve been sailed for a few seasons rather than being the off the lot clean. My practical time on a ship then has shown me how quickly the paint on deck wears down so I think it has, once again, a nice look to it. In addition to this I made the decision of cutting an actual hole into the deck for the hatchway, I painted the interior black to lend a greater effect and depth. You’ll also notice the sharpening wheel and the coil of rope, again, for greater effect. I altered the wheel rigging as well into something functional. Now if I turn it the rudder will turn! Which I just found neat. Some barrels for texture. Finally I added a spritsail yard. The reason for this is, firstly, aesthetic, but also because in a great many of the paintings of the ship the spritsail yard is present (and once again it offers more line texturing so it got included).