wefalck

... actually, I would have thought that the part is really U-shaped, or even slightly V-shaped - the position to which the stay will attach is not defined in the way it is modelled; the stay would in practice slip to one of the corners and then pull slightly sideways.

JerseyCity Frankie, that's a good point - haven't thought about this.

Dafi's sail-making technique would also make nice flags ... In another forum (http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=163736&start=120#wrapheader) Jim Baumann discusses how he makes flags by printing the design onto ordinary white paper and then splits the paper to only retain the top layer. Two mirror-images of the print-out are glued together. These flags can be nicely shaped. The figure-modelling fraternity uses tin-foil (better, but now difficult to obtain - in the old days chocolates were wrapped in it) or aluminium foil.

Send them an email last nigth, enquiring, whether they could deliver directly to a non-professional. They called me up this morning, curious what I was going to use them for. I had to 'confess' that it was for modelling purposes. We then had a nice chat about the applications and needs. In fact, HORICO did offer the strips and other tools from their range to a modelling supplier, but somehow it did not catch on. They realised that they would need some sort of holder for the strips. I gather, they are thinking about this market. Their carbide rotary tools seem to be of good quality, but rather expensive for us modellers - even when you consider that these burrs my last a modeller's life, there is always the risk that you break a small 25 € tool ... That is probably, why they could not sell to our market. In any case, exceptionally they will send me my strips

At this link you can see the whole range of HORICO strips, both diamond and carborundum: http://www.horico.de/en/praxis/separierstreifen/2-uncategorised/91-alle-streifen.html

Glad to see that my interpretations/guesses were correct. This arrangement with two back-stays and a sort of triatic stay running from the fore-mast top back down to the main-mast cap is rather intriguing. I don't remember having seen this before. It actually makes it impossible to have stay-sail running on the main top-mast stay.

That's the kind of price I saw on Amazon, while dental supply-houses in Germany charge around 4 to 6 € for the dozen plus shipping ... actually the 30x series is not diamond-coated, but carborundum-coated according to HORICO. The diamond ones have a different number. The thin steel backing with a total thickness of 0.1 mm made them particularly interesting from my point of view, as you can widen narrow slots and the likes with them. No other file or sanding-paper is that thin.

How much did you actually pay for these HORICO Stahlcarbo® strips ? The only Amazon-offer I saw today seems to be grossly overpriced. So far I only found suppliers that would only sell to professionals or traders, but not to private persons. May have to contact the manufacturer directly.

Actually, the first drawing puzzled me somewhat: I gather the bow is to the right ? So what is shown in the top of the main-mast ? This means that single or double back-stay goes down from the fore top-mast to the cap of the main-mast ? A rather unusual arrangement ! By the middle of the 19th century iron caps have come into use together with eye-bolts as fastening points for triatic stays and the likes. Likewise, a lot of forged iron-work began to replace certain ropes or chains - less maintenance required. I would interpret these 'square' structures between the stays and the caps as some sort of U-shaped iron rods that are bolted to the middle of the cap and provide the attachment point for the stays, the angle of which adjusts itself. Never seen something like this before, but it makes sense mechanically.

When you fold strips of cloth over the edge of your sail, you end up with a hem on both sides - which is not correct and doesn't make sense really. On the prototype the hem would be folded over to the port side (for fore-and-aft sails) or the back (for square sails). Similarly, the bolt-rope goes onto the port side and back of the sails respectively.

I guess it depends on in which direction you use the tool and on the shape of the file you use. I would have to read up again on file-making, but believe that after being hewn, they would be tempered to destress them before hardening. So there is not that much reason for them to break along the teeth lines really. Perhaps so, if you use really cheap ones. However, files are really hard and therefore brittle. If you turn thme into turning tools they would need to have some hardness drawn from them so that they are less likely to break.

Ad 17: couldn't this be the fishing tackle for the anchors ? I would have thought that the foresails would be running on stay, not set flying. Therefore, there should be another stay between nos. 3 and 4, and 4 and 5. The stays leading down to the jibboom could go around fairleads and then down to the whiskers and back to the stem or the knights. So 9, 10 & 12 would be stays.

Good method and I have used it myself. However, for the period of the ARROW there wouldn't have been metal grommets, but rather ones fabricated by the sailmakers by stiching around the hole. So, you may want to use instead of the CA some white glue on a toothpick that has been tinted a tad darker than the sail. You could also use a light dab of CA and then use some thick acrylic paint of a suitable colour to imitate the grommet. The dab of CA prevents the paint from bleeding into the fabric (which, I assume, is what you use).

Thanks for reminding us of the RB products. Meant to look into them, as I am increasingly use Plexiglas, bakelite and styrene for my projects. Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before the Chinese began to flood the market directly via ebay, I did buy a few times at VME. Friendly people and good quality. When I happened to be in the USA on business, I had stuff delivered to my hotel. Working for the UN, importing stuff into the EU was also relatively hazzle-free and the US Postoffice offered a 'surface' service that was reasonably priced (but you had to wait for one or two months, which didn't really bother me). Now there is only airmail at ridiculous prices, which makes buying from the USA very uncompetitive. Sorry for the US trade, but the Chinese seem to be able to ship stuff for next to nothing. While browsing the dentists' and dental technicians' arsenals, I recently came across a couple of interesting tools: - so-called separation strips. These are used to file the sides of teeth or false teeth. They are abrasive material of various grades on a backing of either Mylar or stainless steel. For the time being I got some Mylar ones, which I bought to make sanders for my filing machine and the micro hand-sander I built. I have not being able to identify an on-line source for the steel-backed ones. One may need to buy directly from the manufacturers: http://www.horico.de/en/neuigkeiten/2-uncategorised/91-alle-streifen.html. The Mylar-strips are about 5 mm wide, while the steel ones come in width down to 3 mm. As you can see in the link, Horico also makes fine-toothed steel-strips, i.e. saws. This is how the Mylar-backed are sold and they work very well: - There is also one provider for something like a miniature hacksaw that uses the above steel sawblades or abrasive strips: http://www.ebay.de/itm/172605444198?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT. I have not seen this on offer somewhere else and this offer appears to be rather pricey. Haven't tried this yet. - Flexible abrasive and polishing discs: TT These are quite aggressive and seem to last a while. I have used them as micro surface-grinding discs on my micro milling-machine. I should take some pictures of other tools and materials in my chest from the medical/dental realm ...

This is called a safe-edge in the trade and many files can be bought ex-factory like this.

Looks more like the finish of the small boat production . Some pictures of the construction would be nice ! I think you are a professional. In both senses of the word, in terms of the quality of the products, I gather also economically speaking ?

That was exactly also my understanding of the term. And my memory served my right, there are various illustrations in Underhills 'Masting and Rigging': Figure 87 on p. 85 shows the thing and plates 36, 37, and 38 shows how they are used to keep running rigging from the higher yards close the shrouds and out of the way of lower yards. These thingies, that look a bit like the old-time wooden sewing thread bobbins, have a groove along their length of the diameter of the shroud and, according to requirement, up to four holes lenghtwise.

I have a 1905 book on rigging that was written by the naval architect who build (among others) the 5-mastes-ship PREUSSEN. It gives the dimensions, breaking strains etc. of every bit of rigging. However, it was written at a time, when some form of materials testing already existed and the production processes for steels were quite well-controlled, so that qualities could be produced repeatedly with confidence. This meant the the margin of error was reasonably small and, therefore, safety margins could be reduced. I use this book as a guidance for minimum dimensions. Fifty years earlier they had to work with much larger safety margins, as metallurgical processes were less reliable and materials testing in its infancy. So with time parts become much more 'delicate'. Too me the strap and eyebolt look a bit on the small side, actually. It is not only the static breaking strenght that counts, but also the dynamic strains, when on sea.

I, indeed, tend to think that parts that were turned on the prototype, such as gun barrels, are best reproduced as turned parts. Casting, 3D-printing, or milling will not reproduce the surface and geometry in sufficient quality. I tried to be polite about the Ukrainian language, as I know from my experience in the UN that some people are quite touchy in this respect However, I would contest your classification of languages. The slavonic (of which Russian is one), romanic and germanic languages have a common root, an indo-european language. Have a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages. And beyond Europe here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_family. This reminds me of an old joke: Q: Which is the most widely spoken language in the World ? - A: Chinese ? - A: No, bad English ! But this is besides the topic. So, back to the topic: I love these CNC-milled wax masters and the cast parts made from them ! I should really look one day into this technique. The main difficulty is to find a brass-foundry that doesn't charge you an arm and a leg ...

Wire and natural fibre rigging obviously are rather different animals. Wire rigging, together with steel masts in the later days, can be probably considered as static. To the contrary, hemp ropes, would change their length and elasticity as a function of wetness. It also stretches, although pre-streched by the riggers, when on the ship. So some degree of adjustment over time may be needed. In addition, the captain/mate may decide that adjustments say to the fall of the mast may be needed as a function of the actual load line in order to correct luffing or leeching behaviour of the ship. There would be also a difference in ship management when working up and down confined waters around the European coasts compared to running across to Cape Horn or similar, where the ship might be running on the same bow for days or weeks. Under such conditions the lee-shrouds etc. will become somewhat slack after time due to the streching of the wind-ward ones; if you then change tacks, the rigging would come over with a jerk that may lead to the breakage of masts or the former lee-shrouds etc.. For this reason the standing rigging has to be kept taught and then eased back into a new trim.

On the topic of tarring lanyards - just thinking and without references: the lanyards need to be protected, but at the same time need to move reasonably well, so that adjustments can be made, when at see. So, something like impregnating with Stockholm Tar is more likely than a thickish coat of pitch, as found elsewhere on the standing rigging. There has also been the practice of shrouding the deadeyes and lanyard with canvas, when at sea. I have seen this on one or two old models and photographs, but otherwise this seems to be a neglected subject. Not sure to what extend and when exactly it was practised. As it looks a bit messy and covers one of the characteristic features of the rigging, it is rarely, if ever seen on modern models.

My mother had this surgery in her mid-80s and no sees better then ever I understand that even in some parts of Europe (not talking about the developing World) money (not talking about regular hospital and doctor's fees that in most parts of Europe are covered by health insurance) makes a difference, when it comes to treatment ... Cataract normally develops slowly over years, so patience may be the strategy ...

"My dust problem is quite evident in this picture, ..." - yes one tends to see much more dust in photographs than in real life Apart from this problem with which we all battle, sharp work as ever

Exactly, at least not permanently.

I don't know what model this is, but the rigging doesn't seem to be completely correct. In principle there are four single blocks, two are hooked to eye-bolts in the waterways and two are stropped to the tiller. The fixed parts of the purchases are spliced to an eye above the blocks that are hooked to the waterways, then lead to the blocks stropped to the tiller and back to the tiller. Here, the loose ends of the purchase could be turned around the tiller, or around the pin mentioned in my previous post. They are not really belayed, but the turns around the tiller or the pin provide friction and hence take away some of the force of the tiller, making it easier to control it. In the model above the loose ends of the two(!) purchases seem to be joined above the tiller, which does not make sense, of course. Unfortunately, I don't have a clear enough picture that shows this arrangement. Here is the only one I could find quickly: Just for curiosity sake: there is also a sort of intermediate version, where a small wheel is mounted on top of the tiller. Here the purchases are continuous and wound around the drum of the steering wheel: This gives some mechanical advantage because of the difference in diameter of the drum and the wheel, plus the purchase, but does not have the braking effect to seperate purchases would have. Both pictures are from models belonging to the Altonaer Museum in Hamburg/Germany.