bhermann

I remember those mast hoops being fidgety things.  In order to allow for sails and anticipating some breakage, I put a few extra on each mast before installing the cheeks and trestle trees, to hopefully ensure I could survive losing a few while lacing the sails on.  Nice job on the boom rest and pin saddle, they are very crisp assemblies.
 
Bob

Masts
 
I've made some progress on the masts.  After spending a week or two going through all the plans for the masts, the various parts, and all the rigging that touches the masts, I finally felt confident that I understood everything.  I decided to work on the fore mast and main mast at the same time since they are nearly identical.  
 
I started by cutting the masts to length, cutting the tennons to fit the holes in the deck, and doing all the tapering.  The tapering was pretty easy - the lower masts are straight on one side and tapered on the other three sides.  I only tapered them from the trestle trees and up since the taper on the rest was very, very slight.  I also cut and tapered the top masts.  The top masts were tapered on all sides, so I stuck them in the lathe and used sandpaper to shape them.
 

These got a good sanding, then I stained them.  The plans call for it being 'natural', but I used a light stain on the deck and I want these to match.  So they got a good coat of stain and were placed in a little stand I made to dry.
 

For the mast fittings, I decided to work from the bottom up.  For this first part, I'm going to build out everything up to where the first mast hoops go, then I'll stop and work on mast hoops for a while.
 
Pin Saddle and Boom Rest
 
So, the first things to make are the pin saddle and boom rest.  These are nearly identical.  They only differ in the chock placements and the use of belaying pins on the fore mast.  The kit provides some laser cut pieces for this.  However, I really wanted to add the 'recessed metal band' detail indicated on the plans, and I didn't think I'd be able to pull that off using the kit's parts.  I decided to go a completely different way.
 
I started with a dowel rod that had the same diameter as the pin saddle and boom rest.  The masts at this spot are 5/16", so I used a 5/16" drill bit and my drill press to put a hole straight through the dowel rod.
 

Next I drilled the holes for the belaying pins on the pin saddle.  This is easiest to do now before I start making the cut for the recessed band.
 

Once that was done, I stuck the dowel into the rotary vice on my Proxxon mill.  I used the mill to carve away a recessed area for the metal band. 
 

Then I cut the end free with a razor saw.  I repeated this process for the boom rest (but without the holes for the pins) and did a quick test fit on the mast.
 

Then I cut and shaped the 8 chocks (4 for the fore mast, 4 for the main mast) and glued everything in place.  I masked off everything higher up on the masts, and give these areas a good airbrushing with white.
 

I used some 1/64" thick brass strip to form the metal bands.  The strips were bent around the recessed area, then secured with a short brass rod that runs through holes in the band.  I also installed the belaying pins on the pin saddle.
 

Gooseneck
 
Next up was the gooseneck.  For this, I made two metal bands by folding over some brass strip and drilling a hole through them.  I ran some brass rod through the holes to form the joint on the back of the band, then shaped the rest to form the parts that go around to hold the rest of the gooseneck assembly.
 

The gooseneck has a uniquely shaped ringed piece held between the two bands.  It has one horizontal ring that attaches to the gooseneck, and two vertical rings (one for the fore boom, and one for a tack line).  I wanted this piece to be pretty strong since it will hold the fore boom.  I decided to make it out of some thicker brass I had laying around.  I started by drilling a couple holes in the brass.
 

Then I stuck it in the mill and 'eyeballed it' to mill it into the general shape.  I left a thin 'stem' coming off the back that I bent around to form the ring that connects to the gooseneck.
 

 

All the parts for the gooseneck were ready...
 

The bands were glued in place, then brass rods were added to hold the connector, which holds the oddly shaped ring piece.  That piece moves freely, which I think is the point of the assembly.
 

Metal Sheet
 
As a final step, I added the metal sheet to the main mast.  I'm leaving all the metal work on the ship as brass (since paint comes off brass too easily, and I'm horrible at blackening), so I really wanted that metal sheet to be brass.  However, I didn't have any suitable brass for that on hand, so I used some copper tape I had lying around.  I'll probably check my local hobby store for some brass that I can swap out for this metal sheet (I'm not happy with this one spot of copper on the ship).
 

And now I'm done with the lowest parts of the mast.  Next I'll work on making the mast hoops so I can drop the required number in place before adding the trestle trees.
 
 

Nirvana - Sure, I can send over the SKB files, as long as you promise not to judge me on the quality of the models   You can get the model here.  Note that the scale of individual parts (and the pieces that make up those parts) is not at all accurate.  I was primarily just trying to figure out how the parts go together.  There's also a lot of places where the model is 'hacked', with lines in wrong places, incomplete shapes, etc.
 
Dave B - I never thought I'd use the mill as much as I do, especially since I have a small one that can stay set up all the time.  Just did the tenons for the masts with it - they came out perfect and only took a minute or two!

I have also used a similar to Chuck's tip.
I opened up the rope and passed through only one of the three strands. After applying some ca glue, I cut the two other strands and made some turns around the rope with the first one, covering so the cuts and simulating the seizing.
Tserniki vessel of Mykonos
Thx

JP - I'm glad to be of service - it is one of my "big 3" reasons for doing a log.
 
Thanks for stopping by, Elia.  I find that I am rediscovering things as I look back through the old photos.
 
Dave - yeah, those sails are scaring the crap out of me.  I have two different piles of cloth in the corner of the room waiting their turn... it's coming soon.  I look forward to seeing your success story...
 
And now a word on tapering spars.  Bluenose has two different types of tapering going on... the traditional symmetrical, taper to a point type that is done on the topmasts, and an asymmetric, one side stays straight while the other narrows that is used on the lower masts, the gaffs, booms, and bowsprit.  I am going to start with the second type.  I am showing the mainmast, but I used the same process for all of these.  First I lay the dowel on the plan and mark the final width at the end of the dowel and the spot on the dowel where the taper starts.  Then I put the dowel into the vice with the section to be removed rising above the jaws.
 

 

 
Once that is positioned, I sand everything off that is above the jaws until I am left with a flat side that gets wider at the end of the dowel.
 

 

 
After this is done I carefully sand the flattened section until it is round all the way up the dowel again, taking care not to remove any material from the side that has no taper.  The finished product for the main and foremasts looks like this:
 

 

 
The masts just have a taper at one end.  The other spars are tapered at both end (so they have a bowed profile when viewed from the side).  This is done by applying the same technique on both ends, one after the other.
 
Bob

Thanks for the demonstration, Eric.  Now there is yet another possibility to consider. I like the construction method that follows actual practice this closely.
 
Bob

Mast Planning
 
Over the last few days I've been knee-deep in fore mast details.  I decided that before I do any work building the masts, I want to fully understand every part and how the assorted rigging gets attached.  This led me to doing various drawings of everything.  I'm sure experienced modelers just know this stuff, but I'm still new to all this, so having to draw everything out really helped me to understand how everything was constructed and rigged.
 
I thought I'd post a few of the drawings.  Be aware that nothing is to scale - I was only trying to map out the general construction and rigging.
 
I started by drawing up the fore mast (lower and top masts).  I mapped out all the various parts that need to built.  I used SketchUp to model the individual parts (not all accurate, but close enough that I understand the construction).
 

That gave me a pretty good idea of all the metal work, and all the possible places that rigging might be attached.
 
My next step was to take this and draw on all the rigging.  This was fun (really, it was).  I got all the lines on there, but the various hardware (blocks, hooks, etc) aren't exact.  I decided to leave those kinds of details for another drawing since this one was getting cluttered.  I color coded all the different types of lines.  Since I did this in Photoshop, I can easily turn off groups of layers to hide/show various types of lines.
 

Once I had a good idea of all the rigging on the fore mast, I made a spreadsheet of all the lines and figured out the size of rope to use, etc.  All that was left was to figure out the exact hardware and runs of each line.  I followed the general concept I used for the bowsprit, where I listed out each run and illustrated the various details.
 

There were a lot of revisions to this one, and I had to consult other sources for some of the details.  For example the throat halliard wasn't detailed enough in the plans to figure out exactly how it runs, so I had to consult Chapelle.  It is still a work in progress, and will likely be refined/updated as I go.  But I think this gives me enough of a roadmap that I can start building the fore mast.
 
All this is overkill...but as someone who knows very little about real ships and rigging, forcing myself to map everything out has really helped me to understand how everything comes together.  There were many things that I would have done wrong if I hadn't gone through this process (and probably several things I still have wrong!)
 
I'm out of town this weekend, but I think I've got everything ready to start actually building the fore mast when I get back next week!

Brass Bolts
 
So I finally got around to checking the mail today, and my brass bolts from Model Motorcars arrived.  I ordered these hoping they would work as shackle pins for rigging.  They work great!
 
I got two sizes (0.5mm and 0.6mm), and the larger size seems to work best.  I made the holes in my shackles using a #69 drill bit, so these these things are tiny.
 

As you can see, they've got a perfect hex-shaped head, and they're threaded.  The threading gives it a little 'grip' in the shackle, and so far they are holding firmly without any glue or soldering.  Since they are brass, they match perfectly with all my metal work (all done in brass), and they are easy to snip to length with a pair of shears.
 
Here's one in a shackle on the bowsprit, trimmed.
 

These things look so much better than the metal stuff I made myself!  And here's one connecting the guy line to the hull, before it got trimmed...
 

Anyway...if you're looking for a simple solution for shackle pins, these work great.  And they weren't too expensive...it was $5.00 for 20.
 
Ok...now I've got to get back to analyzing the plans for the fore mast and re-drawing all the various pieces to be sure I know how they're assembled and what they do...

Thanks everyone!  I try not to go overboard on detail in my posts...but I do get carried away!  To help limit my over-posting I started a blog when I began this build, and it is now up to 90 articles.  The post there about the bowsprit was even MORE detailed   (It actually took up four articles...basic construction, turnbuckles, eye splices, and rigging).  I'm also getting close to 3,000 photos of my Bluenose build on my computer - might have to invest in more storage!
 
I do find that knowing I'll have to explain myself keeps me honest while I'm working.  I'm less likely to take a shortcut if I know I'd have to admit to it.  When I started building ships a couple years ago I never would have thought that posting here would have such an impact on my process.
 
I'm moving right on to the masts.  Tonight I've cut the dowels for the fore mast, fore top mast, main mast, and main top mast.  I've milled the base of the fore mast and main mast to fit into the slots in the deck, and I'm working on building a board to hold the masts while I work on them.  Just for fun I taped the top masts to their respective lower masts and put them on the ship...this thing is going to be tall when its finished!

Mounting the Bowsprit
 
Hopefully my last bit on the bowsprit...
 
I rigged everything I could with the bowsprit off the ship.  I got the backropes, guy lines, and bobstays attached to the bowsprit.  I ended up pulling out the pins I made for the shackles and replacing them with bigger pieces of wire.  This keeps those shackles removable for now, which will come in handy.  I've ordered some really tiny brass bolts, so I'll wait until those arrive and see if they work for pins - if not I'll try making some.  In the meantime, ignore the big pieces of bent wire holding shackles in place.
 
I made the foot ropes and attached them while the bowsprit was off the ship, but they ended up being the wrong length once I got everything installed, so I pulled them off and remade them.  (Removable shackles came in handy there.)
 

Next the bowsprit was installed.  Obviously this is pretty easy - it just slides into place.
 

Gammon Iron
 
I made the gammon iron from a piece of brass strip.  I folded it in half and drilled a hole near the fold, then glued a brass rod in the hole (as a bolt), and cut the fold off.  Now It looks like two pieces.  I bent it to the right shape and drilled the other holes for the bolts into the hull.
 

Jumbo Jib Traveller Block
 
I made the jumbo jib traveller block from a piece of strip wood.  It was carved to the right shape, and the bottom was shaped to match the curve of the bowsprit.  From the plans, it was a little difficult to quickly tell exactly how the jumbo jib boom connects on there without more digging - it might be a ring - so I left the wire unglued for now.  That gives me options when I go to hook up the boom - just pop out the wire if something needs to slide on there.
 

Rigging
 
Next I started in on finishing up the rigging.  I started with the backropes.  These are attached to staples that go into the rail.  The staples were installed, and the lines were attached.  Thanks to Brian's advice I'm slowly getting better at eye splicing.  However, I did find it easiest to tighten the line, mark the length, then remove the line from the ship and do the final eye splice with the rope off the ship.  (Another way that having the shackles removable helped.)  I just found it easier to mess with the rope and do the wrapping when I didn't have to worry about holding it in place.  My lines could have been a little tighter, but this worked pretty well here.  I don't think I'll be able to get away with that on the masts, where I'll need the tension on the lines to be more precise.  Hopefully by then I've got a lot more experience with all this stuff and securing the lines is easier.
 

The guy lines and bobstays were also installed similarly.  The plates were mounted to the hull, hardware installed, then the rope was measured, removed, spliced, and reinstalled.  Most of this went pretty quickly since all the hardware was made in advance.  Each eye splice got easier and easier.
 
Footropes
 
Once all those lines were finished up, I tried the footropes again.  This time I got the length right.   The stirrups gave me some trouble.  My first attempt didn't turn out well, so I pulled all the knots apart and removed them.  Originally I tried running each stirrup from one side to the other, tying each knot (guy - footrope - footrope - guy) as I went.  I found it very difficult to keep the right amount of slack between each guy/footrope while also getting the knots tight.  
 
For my second try, I tied the stirrups to the guy lines on both sides first, being careful to leave the stirrup hanging just right so it hit the footropes.  I found this to be much easier, since it was just 1 knot controlling the amount of slack instead of 3.  Then I went through with some black thread and tied the stirrups to the footropes.
 

They didn't turn out perfect, but I think I can live with it.  I plan to keep an eye on it over the next week or so, and if they bug me too much I'll pull the guys and footropes off and redo them.  I think I'll be able to live with them.
 
Finally, I cut, tied and installed the jib stops using some tan rope.  Those were easy...not much to say about them.
 
So, the bowsprit is now built, installed, and rigged.  I learned how to eye splice (thanks!), learned how to make turnbuckles and shackles, and got more comfortable with understanding the rigging plans.  I *think* I'm ready to tackle the fore mast.
 

...so about those shackles and turnbuckles....
 
Shackles
 
I made a bunch of shackles from brass wire, and they looked fine.  But when I tried to use one on the ship, it was way too big and out of scale.  To make it smaller, I had to switch to thinner wire, and I wasn't happy with how those looked.  This photo is of one of the smaller shackles that is about the right size, but ugly...
 

So, I decided to take a different approach.  I have a lot of 1/64" thick brass strip lying around, so I took a stab at making shackles out of that.  I determined the size I wanted the shackles to be before being bent, and marked that out on some scrap wood.  I glued a brass strip down and used my drill press to put in a bunch of holes.  I'm doing all the drilling and milling before I cut the individual shackles, so right now I'm working with one long strip that will turn into a bunch of different pieces.  The holes were positioned so they will end up at both ends of each individual shackle.
 

Next I moved the board to my mill.  I used the mill to take off a little bit of the brass strip between each pair of holes.  I did this on both sides so that the body of each shackle was narrower than the ends.  I didn't get too precise with this - just eyeballed it.  Then I pulled the strip off the board and cut the individual shackles apart.  Now I had a pile of flat little brass pieces.  They looked pretty rough at this point.
 

Using round nose pliers, I bent each one into a 'U' shape, and they suddenly looked like pretty decent little shackles.
 

They ended up working great.  While they look rough when they're flat, you don't notice the imperfections once they're bent.  I tried a few different ways of making them, but the process above was the only one that produced usable results.  I'll need more shackles for other parts of the rigging, so maybe I'll be able to refine this process a bit as I go.
 
Turnbuckles
 
For turnbuckles, I considered ordering some, but it gets expensive really fast.  I don't really care if they are 100% accurate, but I wanted something more than just wire.  I wanted to try and reproduce the basic look of actual turnbuckles.
 
I have a fair amount of brass tube left over from making my pintles and gudgeons.  The tubing is about 1/16" in diameter, and the opening is just the right size to fit the brass rods I have.  I started by using my mill to carve away part of the brass tube to create an opening.  Because of the size, I'm only doing this one side - I'll just try to make sure that's the side that faces outboard and gets seen.
 

Next I cut some pieces of brass rod and made rings on end.  I stuck those through the tubes.
 

Finally, I trimmed the rods to the right length and bent them to create the ring in the other end.  On most of them, the tube fit tight enough that it didn't slide around.  On the few that did move a bit, I just roughed up the brass rod with a file, and slid the tube over the rough spot.  That seemed to create enough friction to hold the tubes in place.  No glue, no soldering.
 

So, now I had staples, links, shackles and turnbuckles.  Everything I needed to start rigging, which brings me to the point where I posted my update above.
 

 
 
 

Bowsprit
 
Ok - the bowsprit is done!
 
I posted a quick update before, but now I'll go through what I actually did.  Since the bowsprit uses several things that I'll be doing a lot more of (tapering, making hardware, rigging), I thought I'd explain how I did everything so you more experienced folks can point out where I could have done things easier or better.  Since it might get a little long, I'll probably break it up into multiple posts.
 
So here we go...
 
I decided to tackle the bowsprit before the other masts/booms/etc, and see it all the way through rigging because it gives me a chance to get my feet wet with a variety of things that'll be doing on the other masts/booms.  I definitely learned some lessons.
 
Tapering the Bowsprit
 
The first step was to actually build the bowsprit itself.  The bowsprit on the Bluenose is tapered, but the tapering is only on the top and sides.  The bottom is straight.  So I can't just stick it in a drill/lathe and sand away.  To help get the tapering right, I drew up a model of the bowsprit at actual size and marked a bunch of reference points.  I figured out how much needed to be trimmed off each side at each point.
 

Next I stuck the dowel rod in my mill and cut notches at the correct depth for each reference point.   While I had it in there, I also squared off the rear end.  
 

With all the reference notches in place, I started sanding with a sanding block to give the bowsprit the tapering.  The notches made this pretty easy - I just sanded a smooth line from one low spot to the next.
 
Jib Stop Rails
 
I made the rails for the top from some strips of basswood.  They were cut to length, then I used the mill to cut out the spots where the jib stops will go.  
 

Bands
 
While the bowsprit's paint was drying, I started in on the bands.  I made these from 1/64" thick brass strip.  I soldered on pieces to form the rings.
 


My soldering skills are not great, but I managed to get these made pretty easily.  (And apparently I did a decent enough job that they held throughout rigging - no problems with the soldered-on rings breaking off).  The bands were installed onto the bowsprit along with the eyebolts and staple depicted on the plans.
 

Planning for Rigging
 
Next up was the rigging.  I decided to do as much of the bowsprit rigging as possible before installing the bowsprit on the ship.  This seems to be the method many prefer, so I thought I'd give it a try. I didn't do that on my first build because I was concerned about getting the length of the lines right (and not running out of rope).  But for the Bluenose, I'm replacing all the kit's line with rope from Syren Ship Model Company, so I can always order more if I need to.
 
Since I'm determined to do the rigging more accurately this time, I decided I needed a better understanding of all details before I start.  I'm not familiar enough with all the normal lines and parts to be able to quickly glance at the plans and know what should be done.  So, I spent some time making my own rigging diagrams based on the plans.  These are fairly simple, and definitely overkill for the bowsprit, but they helped force me through the process.
 

I made another sheet that shows the footropes.  (I did that one separately so I could better visualize the stirrups.)  As part of these plans, I mapped out how everything was connected and all the parts required.  I also figured out which sizes of rope would get used for each line.
 
I made a bunch of staples and shackles pretty easily from wire.  Nothing too exciting there.  However, the turnbuckles and shackles required more work...

Brian,
 
Thanks for those photos!  That seems like a very straight-forward way to make these.  I had been assuming that I shouldn't wrap an eye splice, but if that is typical, that makes this much easier (and better looking!).
 
Trying to find info on how eye splices are done **in model ship building** has been a great example of how this hobby can be tough for someone without much experience.  I'm sure many modelers who have been at this for a while take eye splicing for granted, but for someone relatively new to the hobby, it has been really difficult to find information on the 'correct' (or at least 'acceptable') way to do it.  All my research on eye splices led me to info on doing eye splices on actual rope, which obviously isn't easy/possible at this scale.  I looked through the various books I have, and didn't find any info.  I did a search on the forum and found 18 pages of results - but unless I was ready to dig through tons of build logs (I wasn't), there wasn't a topic that seemed to address this.
 
Sometimes it is these 'basic' techniques that us newbies really need some help with, and your photos really helped!
 
I've got to make a few more shackles before I can finish up the remaining lines for the bowsprit, but once I get those knocked out I'll give your method a try!

Went digging and found a picture of how I actually made that one.
 

 
As you can see, what I did was take the end of the rope and unravel it a bit, then cut each strand to a different length past the point where the serving ended, and then the thread is tied around it above the end of the serving (just a simple square knot) and then was wrapped around it until all the rope ends were covered.  The thread ends were dabbed with glue to prevent fraying, and then trimmed off.  
 
That's it, pretty simple, and works great.

Dave - here is an eye splice that I made the way I described, and how it looked installed on the ship.  It was for the forestay on my AVS.  For my purposes, this system works perfectly fine and I saw no need to struggle with making an actual eye splice in the tiny rope! 
 

Bowsprit
 
Busy few days, and I'm supposed to stop working on my ship (or doing ship related things on the computer), so I'll just post a quick status update, and I'll catch up on the details later...
 
I've been working on the bowsprit.  I ended up making 2 because I wasn't happy with the shape of the first one.  I've started rigging it, which has been 'fun'.  I took a LOT of shortcuts with rigging on my first build (basically just tied all the lines off), and I'm trying to do a better job with this one.  Of course the first four lines I run require an eye splice, and I don't know an easy way to do those.
 
Lots of brass pieces had to be made for the end of the bowsprit.  Everything was made from brass strip and brass wire.
 
Hoping I can get the remaining rigging prepped over the next few days so I can get this installed.
 

In addition to adding the fore staysail and jibs, I added more stays to the bowsprit and boom

 
 
So here are the results for the fore stay sail and jibs. In these photos the otter jib hasn't been rigged and thus the droopy appearance.  But I'm happy with the forming of the sails.  
 
 
 

Also, i found that I could stiffen the lines using the CAG-400.  I placed it on the sheets which allowed the sails to keep their form and preventing the sails from rotating on the stays back toward the center line.


hopefully, you can see how much the fore stay sail and inner jib stick out overboard and that the sheets are angled back onboard to the forecastle.
 
So I got to this point and was proud of the way that the sails and sheets looked.  Then I noticed a big issue.  next post I'll explain why I had to take all of the sails back off the ship.
Marc
 
 

Hi,
I don't seem to have photos of setting up the ratlines, but I'm sure that you've seen plenty.  Also I do have photos earlier of the ratlines.  I did make one change which is a knot that  Dan Vadas uses to finish the ratline.  I'll take a photo and post it later, but he has a great explanation.  I'll also look for the link to his post.  All of the stay at this point are served with chuck's machine.  Also the sail's eyes are served.  I used a method for forming the sails used described by Jersey Frank 
 
I used the Golden acrylic primer and applied it to the front and back of the sails.  I put brass rods through the eyes to keep the sail strait.  As it dried I pulled and used a hair dryer set on low to help form the belly. 
 
So here are my first results.
 
 

The dories are done!  And I'm not kidding, oar am I?
 
(Sorry - I've been saying 'dory', 'kid' and 'oar' way too much the last week or so).
 
The remaining dories were finished up over the weekend.  It didn't take long, just a lot of repetitive work to cut the rails, drill all the holes for the pins, cut+install the pins, and add splash rails and rope.    They aren't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with them.  I think they did turn out better than I was expecting, and certainly better than I could have made with the kit's parts.
 

With the dories completed, I turned my attention to the two kids.  These little racks will hold the two stacks of dories on the deck.  Each kid is made from two long rails with a couple cross bars.  I cut the 4 rails to length and notched them where the cross bars will hit.
 

The cross bars were made from the same material.  They were cut to length, then all the parts were pinned onto a build board and glued together.
 

To make the angled pieces that will support the dories, I used a contour gauge to get the shape of the dory hull at each of the cross bars.  I transferred this to some sheet wood and used that to mark off the pieces.  There are two pieces for the bow and two for the stern (x2 since we have two kids).
 

These were cut on my Proxxon scroll saw, cleaned up, and glued into place.  
 

While the stain was drying on these, I turned my attention to the oars.  I decided to only make 4 oars - two for each stack of dories.  Obviously they would have carried more, but I think if I tried to show the actual amount, you'd just see a pile of oars instead of the detail in the dories.
 
I made the oars from some strip wood.  I cut several lengths of wood and clamped them together.  I marked the shape of the handle on one side, and filed them down to rough in the shape of the handle.  Since they were clamped together, I was able to do all of them at once.
 

Then I removed them from the clamp and did the rest of the shaping by hand with sandpaper.  The handles were rounded off and the blade was shaped. Once I was happy with the shape, I stained and painted them.  My color scheme wasn't based on any actual research - I just went with something I thought would look interesting.
 

Suddenly, I had all the pieces I needed to put these on the deck.
 

I decided that I didn't want to just tie them down.  I wanted to be able to remove these if needed once I start rigging.  So, I made a set of 'S' hooks from brass wire and seized them to some tan rope.  I sized the ropes so they hold the dories firmly, but are still loose enough that I can unhook the ropes and remove the dories.
 

Finally, the dory kids were glued onto the deck and the dories and oars were put in place. 
 

 
I haven't actually glued the oars in - they are just sitting in the dories at the moment.  I've got some small buckets on order, and I want to see if the dories look good with a bucket in each one - that may impact how I arrange the oars.  I'm also waiting on a couple more styles of wooden barrels.  
 
According to my list of stuff to do, I think I'm done with everything on the deck and below.  I *think* I'm ready to start in on the masts!
 

Update on the dories...
 
I've got all 4 dories built, but only one is "finished".  I found that it was easiest to cut all the pieces for the 4 dories at once and do the basic assembly and painting in an 'assembly line' process.  However, once it gets to adding the rail and final details...that takes some work.  So I'm doing the last few steps one-at-a-time.  
 

 
I decided to make the thole pins from brass rod and leave them unpainted to match the rest of the metal on my build.  These should probably be blackened, but since I'm leaving all the other metal pieces as raw brass, I think it makes sense to leave these as brass as well.  
 
Compared to the prototype, I used thinner stock for the seat support rails and for the seats themselves.  I also positioned them lower, which should help to keep things nice when stacking these on the deck.  The rail on the one finished dory was made from 1/64" thick sheet material.  
 
Obviously the dories aren't finished and I haven't built the racks to hold them, but I think they are looking good sitting on the deck!
 

 
 

I found this on line at a hobby supply outlet. 
Fits into the drill press chuck making for quick changes and accurate holes.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 210 - Mainstay
 
Once the main shrouds were installed the main stay was next.  Like the lower shrouds and the forestay, this was 10 ½" rope.  The first picture shows the main shrouds in place and tensioned, and the mainstay rigged so the served areas could be marked out.
 

 
The shackled bullseyes and eyebolts through the main deck beams were installed earlier.  In the next picture the stay has been served and leathered and is rigged to allow the glue on the leathering to dry in position before painting.
 

 
The stay is clamped where a collar seizing will be placed after the stay is secured at the fore ends.  In the next picture the first seizing at the lower port end has been tied.
 

 
The lower ends of the stay are served as well as the collar at the top.  In the next picture frapping turns to the first seizing on the port side are being made with the aid of a sewing needle.
 

 
The next picture shows the four seizings on each leg completed.
 
 
 
I was very pleased that the stay clears the chafing battens on the mast by about six inches and is just inside the sheet bitts, so I may not install the spreader that was used if needed to keep the stays outside the mast.  The smaller bullseyes inside and just aft of those for the main stay will anchor the main topmast stay and will hopefully fit as well as the first.
 
The last picture shows the completed main stay with the collar seizing applied below the top.
 

 
The sheer poles have yet to be installed on the main shrouds and the lanyards are still dangling loose.
 
 
Ed

Thanks Bob!  I was actually looking at your build log the other day to see how you handled the dories...now I know why they were missing

Nice work on the prototype, Dave.  I found the kit-supplied dories and materials to be too hard to get a good result with, so my deck is dory-free.  I like your approach and may re-try.  Who knows. maybe you'll be my inspiration to get moving on this guy again!
 
Bob

Nice work on the prototype, Dave.  I found the kit-supplied dories and materials to be too hard to get a good result with, so my deck is dory-free.  I like your approach and may re-try.  Who knows. maybe you'll be my inspiration to get moving on this guy again!
 
Bob