pirozzi

The fore topmast stay rigged in place. I made some little rope coils for where it belays to the bowsprit. I took some suggestions from modelers of this forum for making the coils and they came out great. I never had much luck with them before. I mixed some wood glue and water to make it real thin. Then wound the coils on a tapered wood dowel, soaked them in the glue, peeled them off the dowel and let them dry. I put a weight on top of them to keep them flat . Perfect.

Vince P.

Hi Denis,

This is e test message.

Vince

I have started with the standing rigging. The lower forestays for the foremast and a hand rope along the bowsprit. The heavy rope for the stays only comes in tan, so I colored it using black beeswax. That great idea came from my fellow modeller Denis Pink from New Zealand.

Vince P.

The foremast is set on the ship. Now the fun part comes with the standing and running rigging for the mast and bowsprit.

Vince P.

Hi David. Thanks. She will be about 40 inches high. It is going to so big, I will have to come up with someplace to put her. The glass case I bought is big enough to sleep in.

Vince

She's looking great Vince. How tall will the completed model be?

 

David

The bowsprit with the stays and lanyards rigged.

Vince P.

Completing the blocks and lashings on the bowsprit prior to starting the standing rigging and placing the foremast. There is quite a bit of rigging in this area and it will get congested, so I will have to figure out just what order to do each line in order to make access easier.

Vince P.

Looking good.

Vince

Hi Frank,

Putting a small metal pin in the center of the yard and drilling a hole in the mast or bowsprit is the way to go. It makes it simple to hold it in place so you can lash it.

Vince P.

The fore royal yard mounted and rigged. After hanging and rigging the sail, comes a big part of the build. The mast will be set on the ship and all of the standing rigging for it and the bowsprit will be completed.

Vince P.

Hi Vince,very neat work,a work of art to be sure,I have had this model for  about 14  years,now retired trying to decide what colors to use, there are several blogs on the sos,I would like to follow yours, picture relationship(photo's) is a good research tool which I find very encouraging,thanks for the pictures.Q,. what kind of glue are you using for the ornamentation, Ed

Hi Ed,

I used CA glue. The middle thickness works best. One thing, since most of the ornaments are placed on painted surfaces, make sure to scratch off a little paint where the contact with the glue will be made. I had a little trouble with them staying on until I figured this out. Good luck on your build. Let me know how it goes. It is definately a fun project.

Vince P.

Fore topgallant sail set and rigged. As you can see, the amount of rigging lines going down to the deck is getting impressive and I have not even set the royal yet. It is a good thing I inceased the amount of belaying pins and cleets from what the kit recommended. There is no way there would have been enough and I may even get close anyway.

Vince

Vince, how did you bend the gun portholes on the 3 triple curved walls on the deck?  We tried it as it shows in the book by putting it in a vice and trying to tap it with a hammer.  Do you have any suggestions?

Joe

I actually tried to bend them too by hammering them. They are too thick. I finnaly just put them in without bending them at all and they look OK as is.

Vince P.

Hi all

 

As I had some time on my hands ( waiting for some wood ) I had a go at weathering one of the small sails.

 

Before I did this I did not know if the sails will shrink or not, I did e-mail Mantua asking them if the sails are pre washed about 4 weeks before I did the sail as sooner or later I had to know but like before I never got a reply  ( so much for the support ).

Some photos are of the sail wet and one dry .

It was soaked in tea for 4 hours.

 

Denis.

Hi Denis,

I sure does look like it shrunk some. That is why I was afraid to soak mine. The color is nice but shrinking might be an issue when hanging them.

Vince P.

Hi guys, just a quick question from a newby, I can accept the fact that there were no footropes at points of time in history on these ships, so how did the sailors manage to take in / reef sails?. Must have been a bit dicey I would have thought

tony

Probably so. I guess that is why they added them later on. I certainly wouldn't go out on those yards, especially in heavy seas.

Vince P.

Fore top gallant yard in place. Still have to lash it to mast and then hang sail. According to the rigging manual, there were no foot ropes on these upper yards.

Vince P.

Hi Tim,

I found using colored bees wax works best. You should wax the lines anyway. I found both brown and black bees wax. Just run your rope through the wax until you like the color. It works very well.

Vince P.

I find it easier to place the yards on the masts before setting the mast on the ship. Add all of the blocks and footropes etc. first before attaching to mast. One the yard is set on the mast, then hang the sail and add the running rigging. If you place the sail before adding the yard to the mast, it puts more weight to the yard and makes it harder to secure it to the yard.

Vince P.

Thanks for the responses.

I don't remember exactly but I think I've read somewhere that the jib sails and staysails replaced the spritmats topsails. So that they are not used at the same time. 

I do also suspect that and want to be sure.

You are correct. Jibs and Staysails came after the Spritsail era.

Vince P.

I noticed that you have footrope and stirups. Footropes only came in use after 1640 and only on  the lower masts. for the topsail after 1680 and the rest after 1700. Flemish horses only on the main mast started in 1670.

Are these the Mantua Sails for this ship? Nice job of rigging them on the yards.

The rigging plans for Mantua contain so many errors. I am building the "Le Soleil Royal" and the rigging plans are wrong in so many areas. If you want to see my comments on the corrections I have made so far, it is on the shipofscale web site.

Hi Gary,

The sails are the kit I bought from Mantua. I am using the book by R. C. Anderson for the rigging. The SOS was built around 1637 and modified and redesigned several times after that. It mentions using footropes on the lower and top masts. There are some great websites with photos of completed models. I am taking some info from them as well.

Thanks,

Vince

Fore topsail with running rigging at the sail completed.

** OK, my build log is up to date again. The postings will come slower now because I have to do some building between posts.

Vince P.

Fore topsail yard in place.

Vince P.

Foresail with running rigging on the sail completed.

Vince P.

The foresail after appying the lacing stitches.

Vince P.

Nice job. I too have found that Mantua's research is very flawed and especially the rigging is very bad. I have this model and will be starting it after I finish their "Le Soliel Royal". The one I am doing seems to be a better kit and does not omit some of the things like lifeboats. I had problems with their fittings like you did. However, since I am not an artist or a machinist, I am very greatful that they make all the fittings and that we can purchase quality fitting from different suppliers. You comments on the insufficiencies of the kit will be very helpful. According to James Septon's book "Sovereign of the Seas", the kit is a good representation of the actual ship. What books are you using for building this?

Hi Gary,

I have several books, but rely on two mostly. "Anatomy of Nelson's ships" which has much info on English ships in general, and "The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast, 1600-1720" by R.C. Anderson. This book has all you will ever need to rig a ship in the pewriod of the SOS. It even makes reference to the actual SOS itself. I am using this for the main references for making the rigging as complete and accurate as possible.

Vince P.