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I now have the foremast yards up, which took a while because as noted above I wanted to stabilize the foremast with all of the stays before hanging the top three yards, which are only supported by the yard lifts, and I wanted to get their positioning right.  So lots of standing rigging and ratlines.  And I needed to do most of the main mast stays since it is partly stabilized by stays to the foremast.
 
The pictures below show the foremast yards, and you may see a bit of blue tape on the lower two where they meet the mast.  They are mounted using a hinge assembly that has a lot of rotational play in it, so without the tape they would slant all the way over and partly turn.  That of course will be fixed with the running rigging.
 
I'll now finish the main mast ratlines and then build the main mast yards and mount them, and then on to the mizzen.  I'll have to do the mizzen stays before mounting the main mast yards -- again because some of those stays run to the main mast and will move it just slightly.
 
Regards,
David
 
 

I believe the figurehead in your picture dates from 1922, after she was returned to Falmouth Cutty Sark images
Could be that the figurehead was painted after she became the Ferreira.
 
and great build so far Don!

 
 
 
 

I shared this w/another member and as seeing your excellent build, I thought I would also share with you.  Can you guess the name of this lady.
 

Finished the bowsprit standing rigging (see pics below).  The chains are a nice touch, and they are more than decorative -- they do provide a counter force to the upward pull on the bowsprit from the foremast stays.
 
I found that Mantua didn't supply enough chain to do the job as specified on the plans.  Fortunately, I had some leftover chain and used that for three of the top fittings -- the brass in my leftover chains is a nice contrast with the Mantua black chain used elsewhere.
 
This is my first Mantua kit, and it's about the third place in this kit where I've been short on something.   I've concluded that while Amati provides more than you need, Mantua provides "not enough".  I'm counting and conserving things to make sure I don't run out.
 
[Just noticed an unclipped rigging pigtail in these pics -- ]
 
Regards,
David

I'm doing this ship differently than the other two rigged ships I've built.  On those, I mounted all the yards on all the masts before doing any of the standing rigging.
 
On this one, in addition to the shrouds on the foremast, I've decided to do the foremast stays as well, and then complete mounting the yards.   I'm concerned that if I don't tension the foremast now, I'll have problems in two areas:  (i) The remaining yards, which have only the yard lifts for vertical support, might move a bit up or down as the mast is tensioned by the stays, and (ii) I don't want any "wrinkles" in the ratlines due to slight shifting of the shrouds.
 
So finish foremast stays and bowsprit stays, then hang the remaining foremast yards, and then do the foremast ratlines.  Then move on to the main in the same way.  We'll see how that works.  
 
Pictures of progress to date on the foremast are below.
 
Regards,
David

Foremast shrouds now rigged.  
 
Regards,
David

I've built the lowest yard on the foremast -- pictures attached.
 
The brass swivel fitting gives about a 90 degree swing to this yard, which I think could spell trouble while I'm building, so my next move will be to put up the foremast shrouds to give some side support to the yard.   The upper shrouds are already rigged so they will support the next yard up, and then the ones above have wooden fittings which will be stiffer.  I was originally reluctant to fix the masts too soon as I thought I might want to remove them to mount these lower yards with brass swivels, but now that I've done it it's actually easier with them fitted on the ship.
 
The swivel assembly on the yard is difficult and a bit fragile -- took a couple of tries to get it right.
 
Regards,
David

Pictures below of the lifeboats and the anchor.  The hull is now complete (with the exception of the lifeboat parrels, which the manual says leave until later).  So it's on to the masts now.
 
Regards,
David

Re my comments above about drilling holes under the channels for the deadeyes, I used the right size (short) drill on an angle and then angled in the bottom of the chain plate.  Worked OK, but some distortion of the rods that I couldn't fix.  I did that on the side that won't be visible.
 
Then I just bit the bullet and used a 1/16 inch drill straight down, which gave a hole a bit too large, but since I was reinforcing these by bending the other wire under the channel, worked fine.  A picture of that below.
 
Regards,
David

I've now pretty much finished all the deck structures and fittings.  Pictures here of all that.
 
Some comments on sequence.  I'm not exactly sure why, but I chose to go ahead and do the stern deadeyes early, which was a relief when I installed the curved stern railing.  I'm not sure I'd have been able to avoid mangling it if I'd done them in the manual sequence, which is during the rigging stage.
 
Speaking of those, the manual and drawings show a way to create the chain plate from wire, and then fix it to the deck below the deadeyes, which is conceptually fine for those in the middle of the hull if you have a 3 inch long .75mm drill bit -- mine are shorter, and I'm not sure they exist.  I may still do it by drilling on an angle.  It still looks like a flimsy fixing for the tension on the deadeyes, so I'm going to reinforce them to the bottom of the channel. 
 
But there's no clear way shown to attach the ones on the stern that you see here -- so I improvised by creating a sort of wire "plug" on the deadeye and gluing that into the hole.  I'll do the ones on either side of the hull next, as I won't want to try to maneuver those into place with masts and yards up (which is the way the manual would have you do it).
 
The other improvisation is the small front railing between the ladders.  I lost one of the stanchions on the floor somewhere, and of course Mantua provides no spares.  So I had to fashion the two rear stanchions out of wire.
 
Before I get to the rigging, I need to build the lifeboats and mount them, which is the next step.
 
Regards,
David
 
 

I finished and mounted the rudder, and applied the bow and stern decorations.  Pictures below.
 
The drawing shows the white rubbing strakes running straight to the figurehead at the bow, and the brass decorations on that same line without the bend you see here.  While the rubbing strakes would "frame" the top decoration, I'm not sure what the bottom of the lower one would look like.  In any event, as I mentioned above, I had missed that in the drawings and terminated the strakes at the end of the hull.  So I extended them and applied the decorations as you see here.
 
Also as noted in my earlier post, the space between the strakes at the stern was not wide enough for the stern decorations, so I had to file them down to fit.  That seems to have worked out OK.
 
Regards,
David

The white rubbing strakes are now on.  The manual wants pins to hold the curve, but I steamed the curve into the strips, then painted them, and then used CA glue.
 
I think I may have ended the strakes too soon at the bow, and if so, I'll fix that later.  I KNOW I have an issue at the stern where the width between the strakes isn't quite large enough for the brass figures that go in there, but I ran out of stern to fix the lower strake to, so I'll fix that as well by cutting down the brass to fit.
 
I need to touch all of this up now with black and white paint.
 
Regards,
David

Back from vacation, and found the extra copper plates waiting for me.  Took me a while amidst post-vacation catch up tasks to finish off the coppering of the hull.
 
That brought me to finishing off the keel, bow and stern.  I had planned to use copper tape for that, and as things turned out, it worked really well.  I've attached pictures showing pre-taping rough sections, and then the finished product.
 
Found there was a learning curve in handling the tape to minimize crinkles, but they show up no matter what you do, so I'm glad I used the plates for most of the hull, and equally glad I used tape to finish off the edges.
 
Now I can go back and pick up the sequence items I skipped waiting for the extra plates to arrive.
 
Regards,
David

Now some deck detail at the bow.
 
This will be my last progress post for a few weeks.  Off for a vacation with my wife.  The copper plates are now in shipping to me, so when I get back I'll be able to finish the coppering.
 
Regards,
David

More deck detail at the stern.  I need to find something to "decorate" that blank white wall above the railing.
 
Regards,
David

Here's the stern deckhouse.  I like the look of this model with the brass/paint/wood combination.
 
Regards,
David

The deck moldings and the channels are now on the ship, and they make it look much more finished.  
 
I'm having to work out of sequence waiting for the hull plates to arrive, but fortunately there are deck structures I can do.
 
Regards,
David

You're doing a wonderful job.  You're almost done....   I couldn't get my head around the nearly 2000 copper plates that were needed for my scratch built Great Republic...so I created my own system, by using copper tape cut into 8" strips and run through a clothes press roller that I modified for the purpose.  With a wire mesh gauge and some drywall sanding mesh paper I was able to emboss the nail imprints and  plate seams onto the strip, all in one simple pass through the press..
Then all I did was affix them...fast and easy compared to the tedium of single plate work.
I also loathed the final shiny copper color...and since the Gr was not covered with copper but with the yellow *muntz* metal plates....I chose to paint over my copper plates with a metallic paint that represented the muntz metal after it has oxidized.  It turns a metallic *brown*...instead of the typical greenish wash you see from weathers copper.   The Cutty Sark was also coppered in *Muntz* metal NOT copper.
When new the muntz metal was quite *Yellow*….more like brass.
 
Here is a pic of my copper strips..ready to be applied to the hull.

A bit more -- there is nice molding to dress the area where the planked deck meets the bulkhead.  See before & after pics.  [and again, pictures in reverse order]
 
Regards,
David

While I'm waiting for the rest of the copper plates to arrive from Ages of Sail, I'm doing what I can to move forward.  Here are the planked decks.
 
I can do the next steps involving more deck finishing, but don't want to do the port covers or the white hull strips until I finish the coppering, because they will mar/bend when I lay the ship on its side.
 
Regards,
David

[EDIT NOTE:  As sometimes happens on this site, the pictures came out in reverse order from what I intended]
 
I'm stuck at the moment because there aren't enough copper plates in the kit to finish the job -- by about 400.  Ages of Sail is sending me more, but in the meantime I'm working around it to the extent I can, which is limited.
 
I've mentioned above that I used a different approach to copper each side of the hull.  On the first side I started at the keel, then worked up a bit, then went to the waterline, worked down, and then fitted the two together.  You can see that in the picture below.
 
On the second side (the one I plan to display), I started at the waterline and am working down (you can see where I ran out of plates).  As the picture shows, it's a much better looking pattern up close.
 
From 3 feet or more away, the first side looks fine, but the display side looks much better.
 
Regards,
David

I haven't posted in a while because I've been coppering, coppering, coppering . . .
 
One side now done -- picture attached.  I started on the side I don't plan to display so I could learn from it.  Results are fine, but on the other side I think I'll start at the waterline and bring it down to the keel, where the final fitting of odd pieces and shapes will be easier.  On this side, I did it where the bottom and top layers met, and it was a LOT of cutting, filing, and fitting.
 
I'm a bit concerned about my supply of copper plates, but we'll see how that goes.  May have to call Ages of Sail for a "make good".
 
Regards,
David

Initial work on coppering.
 
Regards,
David

Here's why I abandoned the tape.  I made up a strip of the copper tape and put it above a row of the real plates that I have started at the keel.
 
It's really hard to get good shots of this because of the way the tape and plates reflect light, but you can see it in these two pics.  The pounce wheel does a fair job of making rivet marks at top and bottom, but the divider rivets just don't look right -- AND, the tape is really shiny compared to the copper plates.
 
Regards,
David

Have now painted the upper part of the hull black.  I brushed on the paint vs. spraying.  If I spray, I get spray mist all over my workroom (even with major plastic dropcloths) and have to be super careful not to track it into the house.  Just a mess.  I have a small exhaust fan mounted high, and maybe I'll get motivated and buy some flexible ducting to bring the exhaust down to the spray area I use.  But I used a foam brush here and it worked fine.
 
Time to start coppering.  I'm going to see if I can make copper tape work.  Stay tuned.
 
Regards,
David