Sailcat

Continuing the saga of little tiny handles for little tiny Buckets ...





 
A comparison of the wire I chose first then the thinner one I wound up using.

 
Painting the Buckets.

Thanks to other members of MSW I was able to figure out how to do windows for the Skylight.



 
Adding tiny, little details to the Bowsprit.

 
Hand carving a replacement Bucket as one was missing.

 
 
Here's one of the kit Buckets and the one I made.

 
Re-working the remaining Buckets, the kit moulded handles looked really clunky so I cut them off and made some from thin wire.

More painting and detailing - now we're at the 'staining from use' portion.



 
The Coop final.

 
The Wheel 'almost' final.

 
Cabin Skylight 'almost' final.

 
Wheelbox final and with Wheel.


 
The Dame 'almost' final. Painting her pupils was something I didn't think I'd be able to do.

The various stages of painting - repetitive images but the colour changes with each successive one, really ...






 
The Coops start to finalize.


 
The Skylight and Wheelbox getting close to completion.

Thanks for all the kind words and thanks to Jim, Popeye and Sailor123 for your answers to my questions
 
Advancing forward now, dealing with the occasional bout of disbelief and trying not to get impatient had resulted in some more work, go figure, lol.  Here we go with a batch of progress photos.
 
After all this time I have finally tied off the lines for the boat davits, which had been hanging loose.  Here I applied the 'zero tension' strategy by dabbing diluted PVA into the blocks to lock the lines in such a way as to simulate tension.
 

 
I chose to simply hang the rope coils off the davit 'cleats' after perusing images on the Internet, it seemed like the common method.
 

 
Attaching the life rings onto the aft rails, just a dab of GS cement.
 

 
Bumkins (aka bumpkins aka boomkins) being affixed to the hull.  At first I had planned to modify these but instead I left them as is in order to represent the kit origins - something I have done here and there through the build.
 

 
Hanging the anchors ... here is where I was applying weight to the forward end and then soaking the line in diluted/tinted PVA to give the illusion of weight tension.
 

 
The result with the anchor canted more realistically.  The tint in the PVA is diluted black China ink, not a lot, to give the lines a dirty look when the glue dries.
 

 
A bow view shot of the anchors in place.
 

 
Attaching the 'chains' to the bumkins, some thin black nylon in this case.  This is the midships bumkin.
 

 
And here's the aft bumkin.
 

 
While I was attaching the blocks for the running rigging I consciously chose not to attach the blocks for the braces with the fear that I'd wind up getting confused and use the wrong ones.  Sage forethought as I would have made more mistakes ... but now comes the time to attach all the rest of the blocks for the braces.  A look at the mizzen mast with additional blocks in place.
 

 
Putting the blocks on the bumkins - this is the port aft bumkin.
 

 
And the port midships bumkin.
 

 
Here we go with the first brace, mizzen royal starboard, loosely in place.
 

 
Both mizzen royal braces in place with slight tension.
 

 
And a not too clear view of the mizzen royal braces tied off - additional detailing like rope coils yet to come.
 

 
So now there's just the rest of the braces to do ... just ...
 
This is the part that I never thought I'd get to in times past.  Getting here fills me with mild disbelief and moderate elation, but also there is the growing concern of what happens when I tie off the last line and glue down the last rope coil.  The question of who gets the Dame and where she will stay is still up in the air, thought I now have a place for her to reside temporarily while I figure this out.  However, such concerns I am putting aside until such time as they become the primary ones, right now I just have to concentrate of making sure I do the braces correctly.
 
Stay tuned for more ... but hopefully not a Lot more

Thanks for all the kind words and thanks to Jim, Popeye and Sailor123 for your answers to my questions
 
Advancing forward now, dealing with the occasional bout of disbelief and trying not to get impatient had resulted in some more work, go figure, lol.  Here we go with a batch of progress photos.
 
After all this time I have finally tied off the lines for the boat davits, which had been hanging loose.  Here I applied the 'zero tension' strategy by dabbing diluted PVA into the blocks to lock the lines in such a way as to simulate tension.
 

 
I chose to simply hang the rope coils off the davit 'cleats' after perusing images on the Internet, it seemed like the common method.
 

 
Attaching the life rings onto the aft rails, just a dab of GS cement.
 

 
Bumkins (aka bumpkins aka boomkins) being affixed to the hull.  At first I had planned to modify these but instead I left them as is in order to represent the kit origins - something I have done here and there through the build.
 

 
Hanging the anchors ... here is where I was applying weight to the forward end and then soaking the line in diluted/tinted PVA to give the illusion of weight tension.
 

 
The result with the anchor canted more realistically.  The tint in the PVA is diluted black China ink, not a lot, to give the lines a dirty look when the glue dries.
 

 
A bow view shot of the anchors in place.
 

 
Attaching the 'chains' to the bumkins, some thin black nylon in this case.  This is the midships bumkin.
 

 
And here's the aft bumkin.
 

 
While I was attaching the blocks for the running rigging I consciously chose not to attach the blocks for the braces with the fear that I'd wind up getting confused and use the wrong ones.  Sage forethought as I would have made more mistakes ... but now comes the time to attach all the rest of the blocks for the braces.  A look at the mizzen mast with additional blocks in place.
 

 
Putting the blocks on the bumkins - this is the port aft bumkin.
 

 
And the port midships bumkin.
 

 
Here we go with the first brace, mizzen royal starboard, loosely in place.
 

 
Both mizzen royal braces in place with slight tension.
 

 
And a not too clear view of the mizzen royal braces tied off - additional detailing like rope coils yet to come.
 

 
So now there's just the rest of the braces to do ... just ...
 
This is the part that I never thought I'd get to in times past.  Getting here fills me with mild disbelief and moderate elation, but also there is the growing concern of what happens when I tie off the last line and glue down the last rope coil.  The question of who gets the Dame and where she will stay is still up in the air, thought I now have a place for her to reside temporarily while I figure this out.  However, such concerns I am putting aside until such time as they become the primary ones, right now I just have to concentrate of making sure I do the braces correctly.
 
Stay tuned for more ... but hopefully not a Lot more

Thanks for all the kind words and thanks to Jim, Popeye and Sailor123 for your answers to my questions
 
Advancing forward now, dealing with the occasional bout of disbelief and trying not to get impatient had resulted in some more work, go figure, lol.  Here we go with a batch of progress photos.
 
After all this time I have finally tied off the lines for the boat davits, which had been hanging loose.  Here I applied the 'zero tension' strategy by dabbing diluted PVA into the blocks to lock the lines in such a way as to simulate tension.
 

 
I chose to simply hang the rope coils off the davit 'cleats' after perusing images on the Internet, it seemed like the common method.
 

 
Attaching the life rings onto the aft rails, just a dab of GS cement.
 

 
Bumkins (aka bumpkins aka boomkins) being affixed to the hull.  At first I had planned to modify these but instead I left them as is in order to represent the kit origins - something I have done here and there through the build.
 

 
Hanging the anchors ... here is where I was applying weight to the forward end and then soaking the line in diluted/tinted PVA to give the illusion of weight tension.
 

 
The result with the anchor canted more realistically.  The tint in the PVA is diluted black China ink, not a lot, to give the lines a dirty look when the glue dries.
 

 
A bow view shot of the anchors in place.
 

 
Attaching the 'chains' to the bumkins, some thin black nylon in this case.  This is the midships bumkin.
 

 
And here's the aft bumkin.
 

 
While I was attaching the blocks for the running rigging I consciously chose not to attach the blocks for the braces with the fear that I'd wind up getting confused and use the wrong ones.  Sage forethought as I would have made more mistakes ... but now comes the time to attach all the rest of the blocks for the braces.  A look at the mizzen mast with additional blocks in place.
 

 
Putting the blocks on the bumkins - this is the port aft bumkin.
 

 
And the port midships bumkin.
 

 
Here we go with the first brace, mizzen royal starboard, loosely in place.
 

 
Both mizzen royal braces in place with slight tension.
 

 
And a not too clear view of the mizzen royal braces tied off - additional detailing like rope coils yet to come.
 

 
So now there's just the rest of the braces to do ... just ...
 
This is the part that I never thought I'd get to in times past.  Getting here fills me with mild disbelief and moderate elation, but also there is the growing concern of what happens when I tie off the last line and glue down the last rope coil.  The question of who gets the Dame and where she will stay is still up in the air, thought I now have a place for her to reside temporarily while I figure this out.  However, such concerns I am putting aside until such time as they become the primary ones, right now I just have to concentrate of making sure I do the braces correctly.
 
Stay tuned for more ... but hopefully not a Lot more

Thanks for the kind words and I'm still having a 'geek-gasm' over how quickly the old reflexes and data set have dropped back into their places.  
 
I believe I mentioned before that this new arrangement makes 'on deck' rigging a lot easier in terms of angles, approach and access ... enough so that I can now proclaim, "The Fore And Aft Running Rigging Is Complete!!" (cue marching band, cheerleaders and confetti, lol)
 
But as with many things in life the completion of one stage leads to yet another, with the accompanying questions and pleas for advice - but that comes after the pictures
 
First of is the best shot I could get of the halliards and downhauls for the Fore Topmast Staysail and the Flying, Inner and Outer Jib sails.  The set isn't as 'perfect' as I would like but the geometry here has been determined by the size of the blocks I used, which were too large for scale.  I did manage to set them with almost no tension so the standing rigging still looks taut - that took some finicky finessing let me tell you, lol.
 

 
Here's where I admit that in my enthusiasm for progress I neglected to take as many photos as I usually do, but I did remember to take a few.  This one's of halliard tie off's with rope coils emplaced.  The rope coils I made for these were a bit smaller then the average as with the no-sails set up most of the halliard is run through almost to the bowsprit.
 

 
And finally the downhauls tied off and with thicker rope coils to reflect that there would be more line stowed here under these circumstances.  Somehow I don't think I put enough coiled line here to properly reflect the 'real' situation, but that can be corrected easily enough - these coils are easy to get at unlike many of the others behind the deadeyes and such.
 

 
With a great sigh of relief I can now let go of the anxiety of leaving the fore and aft rigging for so long.  This leaves one major final stage rigging adventure and that is the Braces and this is the final stage for me because I am not rigging for the stuns'ls.  But before that can happen there must first be an accounting of all the little details which I have left incomplete for various reasons.  One of these details is the placement of the bumkins which can now be fixed in place - I left them off until now on the advice of many who told me not to put them in place until I had to, sound advice which I'm glad I took.
 
As well are certain finishing touches which bring with them a foreshadowing of the completion.  Finally setting and tying off the boat davits will be accomplished soon and I'm planning to simply make more on my rope coils and attach them as seems appropriate - Question Number One; Is this correct or is there a different way that these lines are coiled?
 
The anchors which I scratchbuilt so long ago can now be linked to their chains and stowed, which leads to - Question Number Two; can anyone give me a link or photo which shows how this is done?  I know the basics but it's been so long since I thought about it that I do no want to depend on my flawed recall.
 
Life rings will be attached as well, I had considered omitting them but they add a nice touch to the look.  I never did attempt to print out the ships name small enough to label the life rings ... and I doubt I will at this point, lol.
 
Holy wow ... it feels weird to be talking about the completion after all this time ...

Thanks again for the kind words and support, everyone. It certainly helps ease the struggle of trying to remember, recall and reinvigorate while trying to get the old brain to play along, lol.
 
Something that occurred to me during this return process is that though I've been away from the build for months at a time, in the olden days of wind sail that span would be considered a medium duration at best.  Sometimes ships and crews wouldn't return for years and along with the uncertainty of if they would return at all family and friends would simply hope for the best, and this was the normal shape of things.  These kinds of thoughts kept my chin up during the hiatus, not knowing if I'd ever be able to return to the shipyard  is a downer to say the least.  And with that preamble out of the way ...
 
SHE'S BACK!
 

 

 
What is mercifully not easy to see in these photos is the accumulated fine dust and thin cobwebs - you can see the little brush I was using for cleaning up process.  That plus a modified 'foot' pump were enough to deal with the evidence of time sitting.  And the next pic is after the meticulous go-over was completed.
 

 
When last I left off the Vangs, Boom Sheets and Signal ensign had been attached, awaiting finishing touches.  Months later the loose ends have been clipped and rope coils have been placed for the boom sheets.
 

 

 
The Main Topmast Staysail halliard had been tied off but the downhaul was hanging loose.  Finally got around to tying that off.
 

 
Here the ends of the signal ensign and the starboard vang have been clipped and rope coils placed ... hard to see but this is the best my camera can do.
 

 
One of the things I discovered immediately upon the return to the threadwork was that it was easier for me to accomplish the tying off to the on-deck portions.  With that, and bolstered by enthusiasm and frantic energy, I set up, ran through and tied off the halliards and downhauls for the main topgallant and royal staysails.  Here are the halliards tied off at the spider band and rope coils in place.  It might look inaccurate because it is, yet another instance of doing the best I can with a kit rebuild.
 

 
Finally the downhauls tied off and rope coils in place, again hard to make out clearly and I probably could have left some details, like the rope coils, out and it wouldn't have been noticeable ... but I felt compelled.  That let's me know that I'm finding the groove once more
 

Thanks for all the kind words and thanks to Jim, Popeye and Sailor123 for your answers to my questions
 
Advancing forward now, dealing with the occasional bout of disbelief and trying not to get impatient had resulted in some more work, go figure, lol.  Here we go with a batch of progress photos.
 
After all this time I have finally tied off the lines for the boat davits, which had been hanging loose.  Here I applied the 'zero tension' strategy by dabbing diluted PVA into the blocks to lock the lines in such a way as to simulate tension.
 

 
I chose to simply hang the rope coils off the davit 'cleats' after perusing images on the Internet, it seemed like the common method.
 

 
Attaching the life rings onto the aft rails, just a dab of GS cement.
 

 
Bumkins (aka bumpkins aka boomkins) being affixed to the hull.  At first I had planned to modify these but instead I left them as is in order to represent the kit origins - something I have done here and there through the build.
 

 
Hanging the anchors ... here is where I was applying weight to the forward end and then soaking the line in diluted/tinted PVA to give the illusion of weight tension.
 

 
The result with the anchor canted more realistically.  The tint in the PVA is diluted black China ink, not a lot, to give the lines a dirty look when the glue dries.
 

 
A bow view shot of the anchors in place.
 

 
Attaching the 'chains' to the bumkins, some thin black nylon in this case.  This is the midships bumkin.
 

 
And here's the aft bumkin.
 

 
While I was attaching the blocks for the running rigging I consciously chose not to attach the blocks for the braces with the fear that I'd wind up getting confused and use the wrong ones.  Sage forethought as I would have made more mistakes ... but now comes the time to attach all the rest of the blocks for the braces.  A look at the mizzen mast with additional blocks in place.
 

 
Putting the blocks on the bumkins - this is the port aft bumkin.
 

 
And the port midships bumkin.
 

 
Here we go with the first brace, mizzen royal starboard, loosely in place.
 

 
Both mizzen royal braces in place with slight tension.
 

 
And a not too clear view of the mizzen royal braces tied off - additional detailing like rope coils yet to come.
 

 
So now there's just the rest of the braces to do ... just ...
 
This is the part that I never thought I'd get to in times past.  Getting here fills me with mild disbelief and moderate elation, but also there is the growing concern of what happens when I tie off the last line and glue down the last rope coil.  The question of who gets the Dame and where she will stay is still up in the air, thought I now have a place for her to reside temporarily while I figure this out.  However, such concerns I am putting aside until such time as they become the primary ones, right now I just have to concentrate of making sure I do the braces correctly.
 
Stay tuned for more ... but hopefully not a Lot more

Thanks for all the kind words and thanks to Jim, Popeye and Sailor123 for your answers to my questions
 
Advancing forward now, dealing with the occasional bout of disbelief and trying not to get impatient had resulted in some more work, go figure, lol.  Here we go with a batch of progress photos.
 
After all this time I have finally tied off the lines for the boat davits, which had been hanging loose.  Here I applied the 'zero tension' strategy by dabbing diluted PVA into the blocks to lock the lines in such a way as to simulate tension.
 

 
I chose to simply hang the rope coils off the davit 'cleats' after perusing images on the Internet, it seemed like the common method.
 

 
Attaching the life rings onto the aft rails, just a dab of GS cement.
 

 
Bumkins (aka bumpkins aka boomkins) being affixed to the hull.  At first I had planned to modify these but instead I left them as is in order to represent the kit origins - something I have done here and there through the build.
 

 
Hanging the anchors ... here is where I was applying weight to the forward end and then soaking the line in diluted/tinted PVA to give the illusion of weight tension.
 

 
The result with the anchor canted more realistically.  The tint in the PVA is diluted black China ink, not a lot, to give the lines a dirty look when the glue dries.
 

 
A bow view shot of the anchors in place.
 

 
Attaching the 'chains' to the bumkins, some thin black nylon in this case.  This is the midships bumkin.
 

 
And here's the aft bumkin.
 

 
While I was attaching the blocks for the running rigging I consciously chose not to attach the blocks for the braces with the fear that I'd wind up getting confused and use the wrong ones.  Sage forethought as I would have made more mistakes ... but now comes the time to attach all the rest of the blocks for the braces.  A look at the mizzen mast with additional blocks in place.
 

 
Putting the blocks on the bumkins - this is the port aft bumkin.
 

 
And the port midships bumkin.
 

 
Here we go with the first brace, mizzen royal starboard, loosely in place.
 

 
Both mizzen royal braces in place with slight tension.
 

 
And a not too clear view of the mizzen royal braces tied off - additional detailing like rope coils yet to come.
 

 
So now there's just the rest of the braces to do ... just ...
 
This is the part that I never thought I'd get to in times past.  Getting here fills me with mild disbelief and moderate elation, but also there is the growing concern of what happens when I tie off the last line and glue down the last rope coil.  The question of who gets the Dame and where she will stay is still up in the air, thought I now have a place for her to reside temporarily while I figure this out.  However, such concerns I am putting aside until such time as they become the primary ones, right now I just have to concentrate of making sure I do the braces correctly.
 
Stay tuned for more ... but hopefully not a Lot more

Thanks for all the kind words and thanks to Jim, Popeye and Sailor123 for your answers to my questions
 
Advancing forward now, dealing with the occasional bout of disbelief and trying not to get impatient had resulted in some more work, go figure, lol.  Here we go with a batch of progress photos.
 
After all this time I have finally tied off the lines for the boat davits, which had been hanging loose.  Here I applied the 'zero tension' strategy by dabbing diluted PVA into the blocks to lock the lines in such a way as to simulate tension.
 

 
I chose to simply hang the rope coils off the davit 'cleats' after perusing images on the Internet, it seemed like the common method.
 

 
Attaching the life rings onto the aft rails, just a dab of GS cement.
 

 
Bumkins (aka bumpkins aka boomkins) being affixed to the hull.  At first I had planned to modify these but instead I left them as is in order to represent the kit origins - something I have done here and there through the build.
 

 
Hanging the anchors ... here is where I was applying weight to the forward end and then soaking the line in diluted/tinted PVA to give the illusion of weight tension.
 

 
The result with the anchor canted more realistically.  The tint in the PVA is diluted black China ink, not a lot, to give the lines a dirty look when the glue dries.
 

 
A bow view shot of the anchors in place.
 

 
Attaching the 'chains' to the bumkins, some thin black nylon in this case.  This is the midships bumkin.
 

 
And here's the aft bumkin.
 

 
While I was attaching the blocks for the running rigging I consciously chose not to attach the blocks for the braces with the fear that I'd wind up getting confused and use the wrong ones.  Sage forethought as I would have made more mistakes ... but now comes the time to attach all the rest of the blocks for the braces.  A look at the mizzen mast with additional blocks in place.
 

 
Putting the blocks on the bumkins - this is the port aft bumkin.
 

 
And the port midships bumkin.
 

 
Here we go with the first brace, mizzen royal starboard, loosely in place.
 

 
Both mizzen royal braces in place with slight tension.
 

 
And a not too clear view of the mizzen royal braces tied off - additional detailing like rope coils yet to come.
 

 
So now there's just the rest of the braces to do ... just ...
 
This is the part that I never thought I'd get to in times past.  Getting here fills me with mild disbelief and moderate elation, but also there is the growing concern of what happens when I tie off the last line and glue down the last rope coil.  The question of who gets the Dame and where she will stay is still up in the air, thought I now have a place for her to reside temporarily while I figure this out.  However, such concerns I am putting aside until such time as they become the primary ones, right now I just have to concentrate of making sure I do the braces correctly.
 
Stay tuned for more ... but hopefully not a Lot more

I use two kind of liquid plastic cement, the regular and the super thin.  For long seams like a hull I prepped the edges then clamped and ran the thin cement along the seam on Both sides (inside and out).  After curing for 2 days I then ran a bead of 2 part long set epoxy along the inside seam for extra strength.  Normally I don't take the extra step with the epoxy but my personal experience with plastic models has been, "The longer the seam the more likely the glue will fail eventually."
 
I used to use excess 'sprue' from the parts trees to add reinforcement but the epoxy bead provides more strength I found.
 
Hope this is of some help.

Thanks for all the kind words and thanks to Jim, Popeye and Sailor123 for your answers to my questions
 
Advancing forward now, dealing with the occasional bout of disbelief and trying not to get impatient had resulted in some more work, go figure, lol.  Here we go with a batch of progress photos.
 
After all this time I have finally tied off the lines for the boat davits, which had been hanging loose.  Here I applied the 'zero tension' strategy by dabbing diluted PVA into the blocks to lock the lines in such a way as to simulate tension.
 

 
I chose to simply hang the rope coils off the davit 'cleats' after perusing images on the Internet, it seemed like the common method.
 

 
Attaching the life rings onto the aft rails, just a dab of GS cement.
 

 
Bumkins (aka bumpkins aka boomkins) being affixed to the hull.  At first I had planned to modify these but instead I left them as is in order to represent the kit origins - something I have done here and there through the build.
 

 
Hanging the anchors ... here is where I was applying weight to the forward end and then soaking the line in diluted/tinted PVA to give the illusion of weight tension.
 

 
The result with the anchor canted more realistically.  The tint in the PVA is diluted black China ink, not a lot, to give the lines a dirty look when the glue dries.
 

 
A bow view shot of the anchors in place.
 

 
Attaching the 'chains' to the bumkins, some thin black nylon in this case.  This is the midships bumkin.
 

 
And here's the aft bumkin.
 

 
While I was attaching the blocks for the running rigging I consciously chose not to attach the blocks for the braces with the fear that I'd wind up getting confused and use the wrong ones.  Sage forethought as I would have made more mistakes ... but now comes the time to attach all the rest of the blocks for the braces.  A look at the mizzen mast with additional blocks in place.
 

 
Putting the blocks on the bumkins - this is the port aft bumkin.
 

 
And the port midships bumkin.
 

 
Here we go with the first brace, mizzen royal starboard, loosely in place.
 

 
Both mizzen royal braces in place with slight tension.
 

 
And a not too clear view of the mizzen royal braces tied off - additional detailing like rope coils yet to come.
 

 
So now there's just the rest of the braces to do ... just ...
 
This is the part that I never thought I'd get to in times past.  Getting here fills me with mild disbelief and moderate elation, but also there is the growing concern of what happens when I tie off the last line and glue down the last rope coil.  The question of who gets the Dame and where she will stay is still up in the air, thought I now have a place for her to reside temporarily while I figure this out.  However, such concerns I am putting aside until such time as they become the primary ones, right now I just have to concentrate of making sure I do the braces correctly.
 
Stay tuned for more ... but hopefully not a Lot more

Thanks for the kind words and I'm still having a 'geek-gasm' over how quickly the old reflexes and data set have dropped back into their places.  
 
I believe I mentioned before that this new arrangement makes 'on deck' rigging a lot easier in terms of angles, approach and access ... enough so that I can now proclaim, "The Fore And Aft Running Rigging Is Complete!!" (cue marching band, cheerleaders and confetti, lol)
 
But as with many things in life the completion of one stage leads to yet another, with the accompanying questions and pleas for advice - but that comes after the pictures
 
First of is the best shot I could get of the halliards and downhauls for the Fore Topmast Staysail and the Flying, Inner and Outer Jib sails.  The set isn't as 'perfect' as I would like but the geometry here has been determined by the size of the blocks I used, which were too large for scale.  I did manage to set them with almost no tension so the standing rigging still looks taut - that took some finicky finessing let me tell you, lol.
 

 
Here's where I admit that in my enthusiasm for progress I neglected to take as many photos as I usually do, but I did remember to take a few.  This one's of halliard tie off's with rope coils emplaced.  The rope coils I made for these were a bit smaller then the average as with the no-sails set up most of the halliard is run through almost to the bowsprit.
 

 
And finally the downhauls tied off and with thicker rope coils to reflect that there would be more line stowed here under these circumstances.  Somehow I don't think I put enough coiled line here to properly reflect the 'real' situation, but that can be corrected easily enough - these coils are easy to get at unlike many of the others behind the deadeyes and such.
 

 
With a great sigh of relief I can now let go of the anxiety of leaving the fore and aft rigging for so long.  This leaves one major final stage rigging adventure and that is the Braces and this is the final stage for me because I am not rigging for the stuns'ls.  But before that can happen there must first be an accounting of all the little details which I have left incomplete for various reasons.  One of these details is the placement of the bumkins which can now be fixed in place - I left them off until now on the advice of many who told me not to put them in place until I had to, sound advice which I'm glad I took.
 
As well are certain finishing touches which bring with them a foreshadowing of the completion.  Finally setting and tying off the boat davits will be accomplished soon and I'm planning to simply make more on my rope coils and attach them as seems appropriate - Question Number One; Is this correct or is there a different way that these lines are coiled?
 
The anchors which I scratchbuilt so long ago can now be linked to their chains and stowed, which leads to - Question Number Two; can anyone give me a link or photo which shows how this is done?  I know the basics but it's been so long since I thought about it that I do no want to depend on my flawed recall.
 
Life rings will be attached as well, I had considered omitting them but they add a nice touch to the look.  I never did attempt to print out the ships name small enough to label the life rings ... and I doubt I will at this point, lol.
 
Holy wow ... it feels weird to be talking about the completion after all this time ...

Thanks again for the kind words and support, everyone. It certainly helps ease the struggle of trying to remember, recall and reinvigorate while trying to get the old brain to play along, lol.
 
Something that occurred to me during this return process is that though I've been away from the build for months at a time, in the olden days of wind sail that span would be considered a medium duration at best.  Sometimes ships and crews wouldn't return for years and along with the uncertainty of if they would return at all family and friends would simply hope for the best, and this was the normal shape of things.  These kinds of thoughts kept my chin up during the hiatus, not knowing if I'd ever be able to return to the shipyard  is a downer to say the least.  And with that preamble out of the way ...
 
SHE'S BACK!
 

 

 
What is mercifully not easy to see in these photos is the accumulated fine dust and thin cobwebs - you can see the little brush I was using for cleaning up process.  That plus a modified 'foot' pump were enough to deal with the evidence of time sitting.  And the next pic is after the meticulous go-over was completed.
 

 
When last I left off the Vangs, Boom Sheets and Signal ensign had been attached, awaiting finishing touches.  Months later the loose ends have been clipped and rope coils have been placed for the boom sheets.
 

 

 
The Main Topmast Staysail halliard had been tied off but the downhaul was hanging loose.  Finally got around to tying that off.
 

 
Here the ends of the signal ensign and the starboard vang have been clipped and rope coils placed ... hard to see but this is the best my camera can do.
 

 
One of the things I discovered immediately upon the return to the threadwork was that it was easier for me to accomplish the tying off to the on-deck portions.  With that, and bolstered by enthusiasm and frantic energy, I set up, ran through and tied off the halliards and downhauls for the main topgallant and royal staysails.  Here are the halliards tied off at the spider band and rope coils in place.  It might look inaccurate because it is, yet another instance of doing the best I can with a kit rebuild.
 

 
Finally the downhauls tied off and rope coils in place, again hard to make out clearly and I probably could have left some details, like the rope coils, out and it wouldn't have been noticeable ... but I felt compelled.  That let's me know that I'm finding the groove once more
 

I just realized that I neglected to thank everyone for their kind messages and good wishes - so an extra big Thank You to everyone for your support.
 
When last we left I had completed the raised work area - this opens the door to the next bit of fun which is the rest of the big re-think of the workspace.  The first bit of business was to move a shelf and re-purpose it.  This was done at the Admiral's insistence, she didn't want the shelf where it was anymore so this worked for both of us.
 

 
The shelves were open slat design so I laid some shelf liner to protect the wood and to close the gaps.
 

 
Next up came the installation of wall shelves but in a new position from their previous layout.
 

 
Then the installation of a small stuff shelf to the right of the work area, similar to the one I had before but a little prettier.  This is for stuff like glues, thinners and other regular use small items.
 

 
Then began the process of unpacking and arranging and re-arranging.  Plus assessing what I have, where it is and trying to recall th einventory and so forth.
 

 
And of course the lighting.  I'm using a couple of the old lamps plus an even older lamp which I had stored away for some future purpose.  The where of placement will likely evolve as well but the set up as it is seems to work pretty well.
 

 
 
And here we come to another stop.  Along with the re-think of the set up is also a re-think of how I store and array my working tools and supplies.  I realized that I was utilizing old patterns from my previous set up working off the couch in my living room.  Given that I am now in a truly different situation it's time for me to change things up, from where and how I store my brushes and paints all the way to the placement of the waste bin.  
 
One of the ways in which I took the new set up for a test drive was to disassemble, repair and reassemble a little 3 tier wooden jewelry box I had once used for paint storage and is now returned to that task.  As well I am in the process of fabricating a new brush holder and figuring out where I stored all the little bits and pieces of repurposed stuff, not just rigs and jigs but basics like my toothpick container and the 2 part epoxy, lol.
 
So things are going well.  Once I have a bit more of the basics nailed down I hope to move the Dame back to her berth and then begins the process of figuring out not only where I was in the rigging but What It All Means once more ... after this much time away from it all my brain can process looking at the Dame is, "Holy cow, lookit all them threads ...."

Thanks for the kind words and I'm still having a 'geek-gasm' over how quickly the old reflexes and data set have dropped back into their places.  
 
I believe I mentioned before that this new arrangement makes 'on deck' rigging a lot easier in terms of angles, approach and access ... enough so that I can now proclaim, "The Fore And Aft Running Rigging Is Complete!!" (cue marching band, cheerleaders and confetti, lol)
 
But as with many things in life the completion of one stage leads to yet another, with the accompanying questions and pleas for advice - but that comes after the pictures
 
First of is the best shot I could get of the halliards and downhauls for the Fore Topmast Staysail and the Flying, Inner and Outer Jib sails.  The set isn't as 'perfect' as I would like but the geometry here has been determined by the size of the blocks I used, which were too large for scale.  I did manage to set them with almost no tension so the standing rigging still looks taut - that took some finicky finessing let me tell you, lol.
 

 
Here's where I admit that in my enthusiasm for progress I neglected to take as many photos as I usually do, but I did remember to take a few.  This one's of halliard tie off's with rope coils emplaced.  The rope coils I made for these were a bit smaller then the average as with the no-sails set up most of the halliard is run through almost to the bowsprit.
 

 
And finally the downhauls tied off and with thicker rope coils to reflect that there would be more line stowed here under these circumstances.  Somehow I don't think I put enough coiled line here to properly reflect the 'real' situation, but that can be corrected easily enough - these coils are easy to get at unlike many of the others behind the deadeyes and such.
 

 
With a great sigh of relief I can now let go of the anxiety of leaving the fore and aft rigging for so long.  This leaves one major final stage rigging adventure and that is the Braces and this is the final stage for me because I am not rigging for the stuns'ls.  But before that can happen there must first be an accounting of all the little details which I have left incomplete for various reasons.  One of these details is the placement of the bumkins which can now be fixed in place - I left them off until now on the advice of many who told me not to put them in place until I had to, sound advice which I'm glad I took.
 
As well are certain finishing touches which bring with them a foreshadowing of the completion.  Finally setting and tying off the boat davits will be accomplished soon and I'm planning to simply make more on my rope coils and attach them as seems appropriate - Question Number One; Is this correct or is there a different way that these lines are coiled?
 
The anchors which I scratchbuilt so long ago can now be linked to their chains and stowed, which leads to - Question Number Two; can anyone give me a link or photo which shows how this is done?  I know the basics but it's been so long since I thought about it that I do no want to depend on my flawed recall.
 
Life rings will be attached as well, I had considered omitting them but they add a nice touch to the look.  I never did attempt to print out the ships name small enough to label the life rings ... and I doubt I will at this point, lol.
 
Holy wow ... it feels weird to be talking about the completion after all this time ...

Thanks for the kind words and I'm still having a 'geek-gasm' over how quickly the old reflexes and data set have dropped back into their places.  
 
I believe I mentioned before that this new arrangement makes 'on deck' rigging a lot easier in terms of angles, approach and access ... enough so that I can now proclaim, "The Fore And Aft Running Rigging Is Complete!!" (cue marching band, cheerleaders and confetti, lol)
 
But as with many things in life the completion of one stage leads to yet another, with the accompanying questions and pleas for advice - but that comes after the pictures
 
First of is the best shot I could get of the halliards and downhauls for the Fore Topmast Staysail and the Flying, Inner and Outer Jib sails.  The set isn't as 'perfect' as I would like but the geometry here has been determined by the size of the blocks I used, which were too large for scale.  I did manage to set them with almost no tension so the standing rigging still looks taut - that took some finicky finessing let me tell you, lol.
 

 
Here's where I admit that in my enthusiasm for progress I neglected to take as many photos as I usually do, but I did remember to take a few.  This one's of halliard tie off's with rope coils emplaced.  The rope coils I made for these were a bit smaller then the average as with the no-sails set up most of the halliard is run through almost to the bowsprit.
 

 
And finally the downhauls tied off and with thicker rope coils to reflect that there would be more line stowed here under these circumstances.  Somehow I don't think I put enough coiled line here to properly reflect the 'real' situation, but that can be corrected easily enough - these coils are easy to get at unlike many of the others behind the deadeyes and such.
 

 
With a great sigh of relief I can now let go of the anxiety of leaving the fore and aft rigging for so long.  This leaves one major final stage rigging adventure and that is the Braces and this is the final stage for me because I am not rigging for the stuns'ls.  But before that can happen there must first be an accounting of all the little details which I have left incomplete for various reasons.  One of these details is the placement of the bumkins which can now be fixed in place - I left them off until now on the advice of many who told me not to put them in place until I had to, sound advice which I'm glad I took.
 
As well are certain finishing touches which bring with them a foreshadowing of the completion.  Finally setting and tying off the boat davits will be accomplished soon and I'm planning to simply make more on my rope coils and attach them as seems appropriate - Question Number One; Is this correct or is there a different way that these lines are coiled?
 
The anchors which I scratchbuilt so long ago can now be linked to their chains and stowed, which leads to - Question Number Two; can anyone give me a link or photo which shows how this is done?  I know the basics but it's been so long since I thought about it that I do no want to depend on my flawed recall.
 
Life rings will be attached as well, I had considered omitting them but they add a nice touch to the look.  I never did attempt to print out the ships name small enough to label the life rings ... and I doubt I will at this point, lol.
 
Holy wow ... it feels weird to be talking about the completion after all this time ...

Thanks for the kind words and I'm still having a 'geek-gasm' over how quickly the old reflexes and data set have dropped back into their places.  
 
I believe I mentioned before that this new arrangement makes 'on deck' rigging a lot easier in terms of angles, approach and access ... enough so that I can now proclaim, "The Fore And Aft Running Rigging Is Complete!!" (cue marching band, cheerleaders and confetti, lol)
 
But as with many things in life the completion of one stage leads to yet another, with the accompanying questions and pleas for advice - but that comes after the pictures
 
First of is the best shot I could get of the halliards and downhauls for the Fore Topmast Staysail and the Flying, Inner and Outer Jib sails.  The set isn't as 'perfect' as I would like but the geometry here has been determined by the size of the blocks I used, which were too large for scale.  I did manage to set them with almost no tension so the standing rigging still looks taut - that took some finicky finessing let me tell you, lol.
 

 
Here's where I admit that in my enthusiasm for progress I neglected to take as many photos as I usually do, but I did remember to take a few.  This one's of halliard tie off's with rope coils emplaced.  The rope coils I made for these were a bit smaller then the average as with the no-sails set up most of the halliard is run through almost to the bowsprit.
 

 
And finally the downhauls tied off and with thicker rope coils to reflect that there would be more line stowed here under these circumstances.  Somehow I don't think I put enough coiled line here to properly reflect the 'real' situation, but that can be corrected easily enough - these coils are easy to get at unlike many of the others behind the deadeyes and such.
 

 
With a great sigh of relief I can now let go of the anxiety of leaving the fore and aft rigging for so long.  This leaves one major final stage rigging adventure and that is the Braces and this is the final stage for me because I am not rigging for the stuns'ls.  But before that can happen there must first be an accounting of all the little details which I have left incomplete for various reasons.  One of these details is the placement of the bumkins which can now be fixed in place - I left them off until now on the advice of many who told me not to put them in place until I had to, sound advice which I'm glad I took.
 
As well are certain finishing touches which bring with them a foreshadowing of the completion.  Finally setting and tying off the boat davits will be accomplished soon and I'm planning to simply make more on my rope coils and attach them as seems appropriate - Question Number One; Is this correct or is there a different way that these lines are coiled?
 
The anchors which I scratchbuilt so long ago can now be linked to their chains and stowed, which leads to - Question Number Two; can anyone give me a link or photo which shows how this is done?  I know the basics but it's been so long since I thought about it that I do no want to depend on my flawed recall.
 
Life rings will be attached as well, I had considered omitting them but they add a nice touch to the look.  I never did attempt to print out the ships name small enough to label the life rings ... and I doubt I will at this point, lol.
 
Holy wow ... it feels weird to be talking about the completion after all this time ...

Hoisting the Courses and Cro'jack.




 
Belaying the lifts.




 
A little 'doctoring' of the footropes for the proper 'hang look.'

 
And here is where I was suddenly informed by the Admiral that we were moving ... 'suddenly' meaning this was a spur of the moment decision and I had not been consulted in the matter.  The story of this saga can be summarized as, "A mad dash to prep for moving, finding new tenants for the mid-month to try and save a full month of 'double rent', the revelation that the new place would not be available until the next month due to a clerical error on the part of the landlord, finding alternate accommodation and storage for all our stuff, moving in and discovering how much work needed to be done to make the place liveable, counting the days until I could set up a workshop area for myself."  The discontinuity in building due to this was about 6 months.  And here's the last shot of the Dame in the old place.

Starting to think about Yards and the rigging attachments.


 
Stern decal in place.

 
The 'misaligned' breadboards once again.

 
A 'natural light' shot of the Wheelbox.

 
The re-do of the footropes on the Yards (these are the Mizzen yard set).  The blue stuff is 'hard' insulation foamboard - kind of like 'dense' styro and it proved to be a great working surface for this kind of stuff.




 
'Flash light' shot of the stern decal to highlight the difference between the ink jet and the paint.  Somehow this contrast disappears in natural light - a 'Happy Accident' which was not planned at all.

The Bowsprit Footropes in place but I have yet to add the 'foot knots'.



 
Working on the 'name plates' on the sides of the Wheelbox.






 
And affixing the nameplates on the breadboards.  This is where I made the Huge mistake of Trusting my first set of measurements and Not doing a 'dry fit' test ... big oops but one which I was not able to correct.   You will see later why this is a mistake.

Producing 'home made' decals turned out to be involved but not impossible.  I first 'set up' the images using GIMP (a freeware version of Photoshop) and this involved lots of printing and checking.  Once I was satisfied with the 'templates' I then printed them onto 'printable' transparent plastic sheets (available at stationary and craft shops).


 
Because I was dealing with 'gold' and ink jet printers have issues with gold I chose to utilize the transparency and add the gold colour behind the printed image.


 
Scale view using a Canuck dime and (what else?) a Tic Tac.  For reference purposes - the 'surface' of the transparency where the ink jet ink was printed was 'sealed' with a carefully applied coat of clear matte.

 
Somewhere along the line I decided I wanted to include the bowsprit footropes.  At first I was worried but it turned out to be not too difficult, just touchy.  Here's the stirrups being 'tied on.'


 
"Seizing' the 'eyes' in the ends using needles.

 
Footropes passed through and then 'weighted' to create the proper hang effect.

David, Popeye & David - Thanks for your kind words and support     
 
And thanks for the photo 'Sid' David - it is an inspiration.
 
To continue with the reposting ... here are some views of the Fore and Aft standing rigging.


 
Attaching the chains aft ... these turned out nice.


 
Rigging lines in process, before dyeing and after in some cases.


 
Comparison of the sizes of the rigging lines.