gieb8688

Michael, thanks! I just finished up the lower ratlines for all three masts after tying nearly 2,000 clove hitches with #50 black thread. I now have tying clove hitches down pat in any direction.
 
Just a few observations I have made: working black thread on black shrouds requires keen eyesight and great depth perception working at times with a pair of tweezers in each hand. If you have trouble with chopsticks don't even start. I found that wetting the thread before tying really helped to reduce the spring effect and sizing in the thread as well as friction when tying knots. File the ends of the tweezers down to a point and file the ends square; then file the inside gripping surfaces flat so they match each other when squeezed. Test by picking a thread off a flat surface. Do this before even starting. Tie the extended lines first and once all the knots on one row are tied glue each knot and ends of thread to be cut off with watered down white glue. Watering down allows the mix to penetrate the tiny thread and bond to the shrouds. When seizing the clove hitch to the shroud tighten slowly and the final pull to the right to set the knot in the right location and then hold the shroud with the tweezers at the knot and tighten to the left. (opposite if you are left handed) As you are tightening the knot pay attention to the lines above and below to avoid over tightening and causing them to sag. Work from the bottom (dead eyes) to the top (fighting top) when adding lines; this allows the excess ends to hang down out of the way of the next one to be tied. Cut off excess lines after the knots once the glue has set with the tip of sharp scissors cutting only the line. Once at the shroud seizing near the top the use of magnification will really help.
 
Once completed and all glue set if you have any sections that are not pleasing or have sag cut them away and add a new section making sure the clove hitches straddle the existing knots, this will align the new section with the existing lines. OK sorry more than just a few observations.
 
Here are the results of it all.
 

 

 

Now to add so more mast details before moving on.
 
 

Tom, thanks I will continue to follow your build, it looks like you are ahead of me with the yards. I finished up the shroud lines and have mastered using my Sherline lathe setup for seizing lines. The real trick is speed being slow and slight tension on line being seized and feeding the thread at a slight angle towards the chuck end for the tight wrap. 
 
I started adding the deadeyes to the shroud lines tying off at four locations on the back lash. I found with my line that using tweezers at about 1/8" above the final position and bending the line back and tying a loop off with thread then add the deadeye adjust to final location 1/8" and lash off that this would take up the stretch in the line when tying off to final location. I used a ruler to maintain alignment of the deadeyes which I found could easily be slightly adjusted using the stretch in the line. Once one side was complete I added the sheer pole to hold the deadeyes facing forward before I will add the ratlines. I hope this makes sense, but pictures may help as well.
 

 

 

 

Now back to adding sheer poles to the next two masts.
 

Thanks very much MD1400cs, and Dan,
 
the case is done, except for the four bottom metal corners, I should have bought 8 instead of 4, ordered 4 more
Every time a case is complete, I `m glad there was no broken glass during process....
On the KWdG there is still some rigging to be done, I`ll forward a set of final Photos, when all is complete..
 
Nils
 

Baseplate with 6 positioning pins and removeable bottom rail of the glas bonnet
 

corner pin
 

mid-length pin, the width of the ships own stand base fits well in between those lugs
 

pins, (screws) clipped off at the rear side
 

frame, glass and metal corners....
 

 
 

have to mount the four bottom metal corners securely, before the bonnet can be taken off in one part
 

 
 
 
 

Update
 
all  24 boats mounted and with attatched falls. The collapsible boats (3 story) are a bit higher above deck, so those davits had to be made new
 
Nils
 

The first and the second boat get spacer lugs for mounting the boat on top
 
 
 

The supports for the oars, the seatings and the floor planks are mounted already (only for upper boat)
 
 
 

in total there are 4 boat types ( four large, open ones, two smaller open ones, twelve large closed ones, and six collapsible ones)

 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hi, at last an update : standing rigging (almost) completed !!
Heres's the pics (part I )
 
Cheers !

Build Log
Posting #4
Stepping of Masts and Rigging Shrouds
With the foremast having already been stepped the original shrouds were stripped off, and the original channels refurbished and fitted.  The original main and mizzen masts were stepped and a complete new set of shrouds were rigged.  The shrouds are copper wire, as are all the mast stays that came a little later.
 



Next came the “tops” for each mast all newly fashioned from rimu and shaped and drilled as per the originals which had suffered over the years.  New topmasts and topgallant masts were made of New Zealand kauri a very straight-grained timber that was extensively used for masts and spars on the windjammers in the 1800s and 1900s.  The fids are short bits of copper wire – the originals.  These mast sections were swayed up, as they say, and shrouds rigged for topmasts and topgallant masts.  Wire for these is smaller in diameter to keep a semblanceof scale.  Ratlines were all done using rigging thread.    

Then came the fore and backstays.  Following on came the job of refurbishing the sound yards and making up just a few to replace those infested with woodworm.  You very quickly learn that spars have a great many holes needed for the various fittings.  The little drill press again was invaluable.  Julius has simply made up copper wire eyebolts which he stuck into the holes where needed and for opposing fittings used a single piece of wire with an eye on each end. The photos indicate the “before” state, as well as the typical home-made fittings.


Thus, having now fitted the standing rigging, and the preparation of the yards, it was time to sling the yards into place along with their associated lifts and halliards.  It was quite an eye opener to learn how much cordage was needed to reeve the halliards in their triple block configuration.


As can be seen in 2 photos above, the transformation to having the running rigging for the yards - the braces - in place is significant.  I can tell you that quite a few hours was taken up in achieving this milestone.  To this point in the project, I still had enough of the original rigging blocks for this phase of rigging.  My apologies for the imperfect lighting for the photos. Please ask if you would like further detail on any aspect of the project.
 

Build Log
Posting #3
Preparations for Standing Rigging.
As already mentioned 96 deadeyes (blocks) were needed in order to set up shrouds and backstays.  The photos below show the development.  From strips of hardwood the basic shape of the deadeyes was formed; then grooves were cut using a parting disc on the (Dremel) drill press – this was the starting point for the circumferential grooves that were completed later.
After scribing the lines for the various holes in the blocks the drill press was used to drill all the holes.  You sharp-eyed folk will notice the “fairing” of each hole – my method for doing that was simply to run some nylon monofilament (fishing line) backwards and forwards through each hole to produce the fairing in the correct direction.

 
Having then cut the strips into blocks it was a matter of using very small files (pattern files?) to cut the circumferential grooves.
Next was coating them with polyurethane as you can see below.
 
Finally the “chain plates”, made from wire, as Julius had done originally, were fitted to the blocks as shown.  As many scratch modellers find, you are often making up a new jig for making parts, such as chain plates.  I have now quite a collection of such jigs

Reflection.  Some of you probably wonder why I have made the various fittings instead of commercially manufactured fittings obtained from model makers’ stores. My main purpose in attacking this project is to turn this model into a memorial for my uncle.  So I felt it worthwhile to set to and do it as much as possible by hand.  I wanted to experience something of his life and the challenges he probably met in the building process.  I learned very early in this project is the requirement to be patient!  If you do something in a hurry you can quickly end up damaging your earlier work, so patience becomes progressively more important as the model becomes more complex, especially in the rigging.
Note:  This is a retrospective build log, the project having seriously recommenced in 2010.  In 1968 I had replaced: some of the bulwarks, the broken bowsprit, the deck over the focs’le, the foremast, fore topmast and foretopgallant mast, the mizzen mast, then set up foremast shrouds and stays, and had rigged the halliards for the foremast yards.  Then a glass case was made which has helped keep the model free from dust. 
Please therefore understand that I write now with the benefit of some hindsight!
 
Now to the business of stepping some masts.

At long last - having been much diverted over the past 6 months, I will attempt to write a coherent story of this project.  In introducing myself I outlined the history of this model which you can read in my earlier postings.  Briefly, the model was built by my Uncle Jules (Julius, born 14 Feb 1888) just before 1900, he is photographed with it sailing past him in 1899,so I know it does sail!  It has no name.  At age 14 Jules went off to sea for six or seven years, serving in several square riggers including the large "Down Easter" Edward Sewall.  A few surviving letters home showed that it was at times a very tough life.  Among his relics is his sailmaker's palm, and sketch books with some stunningly beautiful miniature drawings of a variety of  sailing ships, plus his army issue copper pannikin (bowl) and mug from his first World War service.  Sadly he died in Cologne Germany (occupational force) of the influenza epidemic.  So this project is my memorial for Jules.
 
My Dad inherited the model in the 1940s and it lived in its cradle on the wall of my parents bedroom until 1968 it was passed on to me.  Having had a very quiet life the model was in a pretty sad state.  The fore and mizzen masts were infested with woodworm as were several other masts and yards including the jibboom.  There were no sails, these having presumably fallen apart over the years, butut the rigging was still recognisable.  I was intrigued to discover that the ship had been altered after the sailing photos - in place of a large cargo hatch there is now a smaller hatch, and a deckhouse has been added. You can still see the outline of the big hatch in the decking.  The hull is made from a solid piece of timber (lumber)
 
On taking possession I began the restoration by cleaning out the accumulated dust of 60 years or so and fitting new mast sections, and jibboom, plus renewing bulwarks. Then did nothing from 1969 to 2010, except to get a glass case made for it.  So for this posting I close now with a few photos of as it was.  The fresh paint indicates where timbers have been replaced.

Hello Everyone,
 
Thanks again for your likes and complementary comments.
 
A long day and a bit has seen the lower gallery supports made with only the rudder hole and a slight tweak and final sand to do. I was moving into new territory here and didn't know how it would turn out but again I'm delighted at the result, more grins here.
 
First I'll say in fairness to Euromodel  I found the piece that in my last post said was missing, it was in the bottom of the box, it had broken in half and I hadn't been looking for something that size, the annoying thing is that having made a new piece it wasn't needed at all, ah well.
 
I took note of all the advice that I'd been given about carving small amounts at a time and keep checking against the hull. I would normally guess what size would be needed and hack away only refining it near the finish and if it didn't work start again, this would not have got me anywhere with these supports, I was surprised just how critical accuracy was so the new me just kept chipping, carving and sanding bit at a time all day. You'll see in my pictures what was done, the only thing I would have done with hindsight would be to carve the recess for the casting before I had done the curve because after it couldn't be held in a vice because of that concave curve and was very awkward to hold. The outer edge of the supports profile was quite accurate and needed only minimal shaping. 
 
I have taken some of the decorative castings for this area out of the bags to see how they would fit and Wow, they are something else, better than could be imagined without seeing them in the flesh. I hope that I can do them justice.
 
Pete has shown the gallery cast parts, their numbers and position that they go, on checking I realised that by opening up the windows which form the bulk of the gallery I have filed away the numbers, er!
 
Finishing off I will say that I don't envy those who started this kit without all the logs and information that is now out there, I don't know how they did it, the plans for this difficult area  are vague to say the least. It wasn't overly difficult but it was knowing what to do, I couldn't have figured it out from the plans alone. I'm sure there will be other areas like this and I think that this is why it gets a reputation for being such a difficult model to build. Just my thoughts.
 
 
Ken
 
 
 

 

 


 
Not glued yet, when held the gaps aren't there
 

Hello Everyone.    As you'll see I've had another busy time at the shipyard.  It's come along so well that I'm actually grinning at the thought of showing it off. As I mentioned earlier, until the hull is sanded it looks a bit rough and you don't get that thrill of seeing what it's eventually going to look like, but now!

I gave it a good sanding, there were a few seams that I rubbed some filler in to try and get it as good as I could. I cut out the grooves for the stem, keel and sternpost, made them up and fitted them. I'd not done it like this before but had a good feeling that it was the way to go. I'm delighted at the result and don't think that I could have had as neat a result if I had tried to butt the planks against the prow and stern. I decided to stain the hull to give the wood a slightly warmer than walnut look. I rubbed in some light teak stain, this gave it a slight honey coloured tone a bit like pear, it also brought out the grain so again I was pleased. I think that I'll give it a coat of sanding sealer so that the nice surface doesn't get any stains on it that I won't be able to remove.
 
I am now in a dilemma, whilst I realise that it will never be used as an example of how a model ship should be planked I am so pleased with the way it looks that I am now undecided whether to leave it bare showing off the wood or to paint it as had originally intended. Hmm! thoughts on this please.
 
I am now nearing the part of the build that I am dreading most, The stern gallery support and the galleries themselves. Mark in his log gives an excellent account with good pictures of how he accomplished his galleries but until I start I have doubts on how I'm actually going to get this done, I've got a couple of pre shaped pieces of wood, the third and thinnest was missing so I made one up off the plan and I'm now wondering where to start?
 
 
Ken

Dear friends, 
thank you very much for all your comments and praise. I appreciate your attention and support. That is a great honour for me. 

Now I have a lot of duties and work around the house and I also spend much time on cars´ care/detailing, but I try to continue with RK whenever possible.
 
How I achieve these accurate and clean results with card and foil planking.....  I use ordinary but very sharp scalpel from Tamiya manufacturer and long ruler to cut foil strips. I do not need any special tools. The strips are cut on a hard cardboard pad. In the same way, I cut cardboard tapes and other parts, but I have to repeat cutting more times because the material is thicker - sometimes up to 2mm. These cut strips are always straight. I shape and bow them during sticking to the model using hot air for attaching foils while I stretch them slightly. For bending the cardboard into the curve I use hot steam. I always attach the strips slightly tightened.
 
The "wooden" planking is ready and improved with Tamiya colours (thinned with original thinner and retarder - it is easier to apply on the surface then) to achieve more realistic appearance.
Before painting:
 
 

During the weekend I made wooden finish of the hull using foil stripes. Later, it will be modificated with darker colours and of course I will create treenails and pins in wooden planks as well.
 

This is my 1st build log on MSW and 3rd build to date. The kit was a gift from my wife who apparently found a print-out lying around in a strategically visible place. Intent going in was to follow the detail instructions provided on DVD, be as clean as my noob skills allow, but be creative with how the ship is finished. Not attempting to produce a faithful reproduction of the actual Hermoine. Experimented with a dark brown shoe cream on the gun deck. 
 
No big issues during planking, pics are after initial sanding. This was my 1st build without a 2nd finish layer of planks so made more effort to get tight joints. Was a bit nervous following the instructions and not having the keel installed during planking to be able to see if I was getting a nice fit with the keel. On my last kit, deviated from the instructions and installed the keel ahead of where instructed to.  
 
Decided to see how the hull turned out stained, could always paint over if not satisfied. Happy with the results at this point.

If I was going to keep the stain it needed satin poly and my master carpenter brother in-law told me to use Scotchbrite rather than sandpaper between coats. Had to order online so made the mistake here of going ahead fabricating and installing the gun port moldings, too impatient for the Scotchbrite to arrive. Pic below is after 5 coats of poly. 

After 1st visit to the hobby shop and art supply big box store, came back with Naphthol Red from Golden for the port moldings but after doing the ports on the open gun deck didn't like the color. Re-painted with Red Oxide (shown) so had to paint over the already installed moldings on 10 ports. Not that clean, guess I will just have to live with it and learn.

As my deck is a darker shade, used Titan Buff on the quarter round moldings. Was my 1st time using Artesania's micro-shaper for the moldings, it was easy to use and worked well. Might also use the Buff color on the cap rail moldings, will decide after installing the final additional planks on the upper hull.
 
 
 

A brief update... and a little milestone!
 
I finished first planking on the starboard side... Now I'm working down the port side.
 

 
And here she is on her new stand - not perfect, but it's nice and solid, and it'll do for building purposes.
 

 
Thanks for looking in and the likes and encouragement

It's been a while since my last update, and lots has happened, so here's an update.
 
Deck planking
 
I completed the gun deck, with 1mm maple. I'm pleased with how this has come out, and I'll be wiser when I start the quarter deck later on in the build. Replacing the wood seems to have been a good choice, not least, because I've been able to vary the widths of the planking to reflect the real ship more truly.
 

 

Inner planking for gundeck
 
I pre-painted the gundeck inner walls red using the admiralty paints and installed them.
 

 
Stern
 
Using Ray and Beef Wellington's logs as a guide, I approached this part of the build with trepidation. Only time will tell whether I've got it right, but I used scans of the plans as templates as others have done before me to line up the parts for the stern. So far, it doesn't look too bad!
 


Once the stern parts were in place, I opened up the area where the keel former would go to take a wider stern post from boxwood.
 


 
 
First hull planking
 
This is in 1.5mm by 6mm lime. It's lovely wood, actually. Really sharp and easy to form. I filled at the bow and the stern with balsa to act as a support for some of the more complex curves that this hull contains.
 


 
I started putting a plank on each side (to prevent the keep getting twisted) and once I reached where the gun deck was, I marked the frames and the gun port positions (The height of the port rises slightly at the back (between 21 and 25mm from the gun deck)) before I lost the frames as a reference behind the planking.
At present the gun ports are marked out as they will look when framed, so the holes made will need to be larger. This has helped in terms of understanding where the bulkheads meet up with the gun ports. (For some of the gun ports, one side of the port frames will be bulkhead.)
 
I've used a mix of plank nippers and boiling water to edge bend the planks so they aren't forced round the corners. After reaching roughly the point where the wale is, I started to work all the way down on the starboard side. Here's the progress so far.
 

 
 

Thanks for the likes
 
I’ve added the 7mm waterways, and continued planking with 3mm from the centre out towards the edge. To do this I needed to find a way of cutting a whole bunch of 3mm planks to the same length. I used a template with a stanley knife blade, hitting it with a hammer, to cut the planks one by one. This was surprisingly effective and quick, and I’ve been very pleased with the results. The template was made using "display case section" offcuts stuck onto a ply offcut. I used the display case section because I had it left over... the advantage being that it's nice and square, reasonably cheap (from Cornwall Model Boats) and a good size for this stuff... and they can be quickly and easily glued with carpenters glue.
 
Hopefully the following pictures are fairly self-explanatory. It's probably worth saying that if you're going to hit a stanley knife blade with a hammer, please wear safety goggles!
 

 

 

 
Once cut, the 3mm planks aren’t very sharp on the edges, so I made a second template to sand them to size… this was a head-scratcher, because I wanted the planks to end up exactly 3mm wide… eventually, I settled on using 1.5mm plasticard glued together with plastic-weld… This allowed me to make two sides (one fixed, and the other floating) that could be put on each side of a stack of planks… One edge was flattened using a scraper, and then the planks were turned over to scrape the other side to get the width down to 3mm.
 

 

 

 

 
The pressure of the scraper and a hand holding the floating side of the template in place was sufficient to get the job done...
Once scraped, I edged all the planks with a sharpie marker.
Here are the results...
 

 
Once I got to the edge of the top and butt planking, I started adding these in. I’ve been using Shipyard Sid’s template to do this, and it’s been extremely helpful.
 

 
I’m almost finished on the port side, then it’ll be the same again to complete the deck.
 
Here are the results so far... Not perfect, but it hasn't been scraped yet, so I'm pretty happy. The caulking should tone down a little bit when it's scraped, and I'm aiming for the newly built look, so I don't mind if it's fairly dark.
 

 

 

 

 
That's it for now
 
Happy building
 
Rob
 
[edited to restore photos, 11, 13 July 2017]
 
 

Two views of the work in progress on the fellows including the draft apartments of the Pacha and the future poop.
 
I leave you for a good week because I go to a congress modeling exhibition MMB forum.
cordially
Michel

We'll look a little bit at the accessories. Many are repetitive and represent a work almost to the chain. Hints or tips to avoid this hassle.

The 16 upper and lower hats of the portholes of the fellows. They are the result of milling of a bar in general shape, then at the end sculpture with the scalpel and needle files, finally sawing, thickness by sanding back, and we start again.

The 15 sets of the third battery ports. Getting quasi perfect circles would be very long, and as I am old and slow then let's be crazy, work with the techniques of our time. So a draft in CNC milling machine (a friend of mine knows how to do this, thank you Luc) and pick up the scenery and needle files.

For the nailing of the pre-pleats on each chord, like the finer one of the vertical wall above, there is no way to do otherwise by working by hand. 2000 nails with orange head in three dimensions on the three pairs of pre-wires, one pierces, one sticks, next! ! !
And for the nails of 0.6 without brass head hardens, more than 3000, one drills, one engages the clamp that cuts flush. Needless to say, we have to do this on a virgin wall of all scenery and then sanding the whole.
I do not show the wall studded because one sees almost the nails that the nose on it.
 
But the result of these punishments is there too.
 
For the portholes is another story
See you soon

Let's continue the construction detail
On this view we distinguish:
The bread oven
The main mast
The passages of the bilge pumps and a pump
The puit aux boulets and its entrance by a sliding trapdoor
The great sep of halyard
 
On the second picture the three pairs of ebony loudspeakers are positioned before gluing
Next picture the pecks are glued in place. The rounded parts at the bow are cut in the ebony mass because this wood breaks with the cambering.

I present here the latest photos of my Royal Sun. It is not finished and if it interests you I would put you following as work progresses.
Excuse me but not speaking English I use the Google translator

Update...
 
the first open port side boat has been set in place and rigged with the forward pulley. I think I`ll have the two first boats of each side in the open mode, as well as the third boats (also open), but they are a bit smaller, like on the actual ship. The blocks (3mm double sheave ) are out of Chuck`s production, I saved them up at the time he still was producing pear blocks in that size for this application.
All paint touch ups will be done after all the boats are rigged
 
Nils
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Just a sideon view as she is now. I think the red is a nice contrast with all the black and gold so far. Also figured I'll paint it red first as I can always paint over it black if I wasn't happy, so critiques are most welcome  
 
Also planning on making the spar decks above the waist and half deck... now it's described from the early 17th century as either gratings over beams or light fir planks. The few models I've seen with these have a mixture of either idea but I'd like to go with what was most probable. From the Payne's engraving it shows a full deck of what appears to be grating over the entire waist. On Van der Velde's there is a deck... but it's not detailed as to whether it's planks or gratings. Opinions please
 
So the pics below;
detail from a painting of the Prince Royal which actually looks to be netting?!? Or very large gratings... 
 
the next is a detail from Paynes engraving of the Sovereign showing a similar deck which is most likely gratings also..
 
A model of the Prince Royal from the Tower of London showing beams and light spars over the f'cstle, waist and half deck. This is neither gratings or planks but more like frames for a covered awning?!? Though could still have enough strength for crew to walk over. 
 
Finally my Sovereign now with the red uppermost panels.

Not quite the same angle, but an idea. I think I haven't done too badly so far

The girdling is probably unknown technology in ship modeling, but the relevant records prove that it was necessary to perform on some ships, whose hull had excessive draft and lower gunports were just above water. The girdling helped to improve the displacement. Of course, it was an unnatural interference into the original construction.
My target is to make the model as accurate as possible based on historical accuracy, and according to records Royal Katherine was girdled soon after launching.

Wooden-look planking on underwater part of the hull.