egkb

I am doing a bit of painting when I get the chance but what with the drying time etc........
Also The Admiral is taking quite a bit of my time
It will get done soon I hope
There's just not that much time left free at the moment

Hi John,
 
To answer your question mate, I am currently working the shipyard at the moment. I had to wait for some 1.3 rope so that I can continue with the shrouds on the Main Mast, that rope has dually arrived so work goes on.
 
I have now made all the main shrouds and placed them on the mast but I haven't fitted the lanyards yet, that will be done today, depending on how I get on I will also fit the Catherpins and futtock shrouds.
 
It has been slow going mate what with the holidays and Grandparent duties but I should be able to speed up a little now were almost back to normal.
 
I will post some pics later today.
 
Be Good
 
mobbsie

This update will cover the cap rail.
 
I obtained a 1/16" sheet of basswood and copied one side from the plans. using a digital caliper to check the width I drafted the second line using a compass.
 

 
I rough cut the shape using my scroll saw.
 

 
final shaping used a table sander for the outer edge and the dremal sander for the inner curve. You can see my rigged vacuum. I try to be diligent about running a vacuum when sanding. First of all, I work in the sunroom and need to control that sort of thing since it is part of the house. Second, who wants to breath that stuff?
 

 
finally ended up with:
 

 
Now came the interesting part. I decided to attempt the 1/16 x 1/16 edge to the cap rail with a beaded finish per Chuck's note about advanced builders. ( I am not an advanced builder by any means but figured I should at least try.) After a couple of false starts I decided on a very simple approach that turned out to be surprising effective.
I used a divider, opened at half the width of the piece to score the center of the wood going ... very... VERY gently. The I alternated between a dental pick and sanding stick. I went over the edges lightly to give them the outside curves and then use folded sandpaper that I kept slightly opened with my finger in the center of it, to model the inner curves from the scored line. I have to emphasize that I have never worked with so light a touch. I am amazed that my ham handed grip was able to accomplish it.
 

 
This shot is before dusting and painting. Whenever possible I paint before adding to the ship. I use an airbrush which I think leaves the really fine details showing without paint build up obscuring it. Its just easier to do a little touch up later as required. anyway, I could not get the beading to show well once painted. It is noticeable when viewing the actual ship and I think it adds a really nice touch of realism.
 

 
finally mounted on the ship with glue. One of the nice things about using wood laundry clips is that you can cut the tips to shape in order to clamp in some difficult spots. (and they are cheap.)
 

 
Touching up black parts has become a lot easier once I have found this stain in a felt tip pen. It is almost unnoticeable once it dries.
 

 
I am glad I tried the beading and believe that I will attempt most of Chuck's hints for advanced builders. Heck, how else will I learn?
 
We'll see if I still feel that way after trying to joggle the deck planks
 
A happy new year to all.
Richard

Thank you very much for the information. I enjoy it very much. Thanks again.

used Wikki to explain one of the todays events   Siege of Cattaro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia     Siege of Cattaro Part of the Napoleonic Wars
View of Cattaro (present day Kotor) from the castle of St. John Date 14 October 1813 – 3 January 1814 Location Cattaro, Illyrian Provinces, Adriatic Sea,
(present-day Kotor, Montenegro) Result Anglo-Montenegrin victory[1] Belligerents  United Kingdom
 Montenegro
 Kingdom of Sicily  French Empire Commanders and leaders  William Hoste
 Petar I  Jean-Joseph Gauthier Strength 800 Marines, soldiers & sailors
One 38 gun fifth rate
One 18 gun Brig
3 gunboats 600 men[2] Casualties and losses 20 casualties All captured [hide] v t e Adriatic campaign
of 1807–1814   Timeline of the Adriatic campaign Lissa 29 November 1811 Pirano Cattaro Ragusa The Siege of Cattaro was fought between a British Royal Naval detachment and Montenegrin forces under Captain William Hoste, John Harper and Petar I Petrović-Njegoš respectively and the French garrison under command of Jean-Joseph Gauthier of the mountain fortress of Cattaro. The siege lasted from 14 October 1813 to 3 January 1814 during the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars when the French surrendered.[1] The engagement was fought in the Adriatic Sea for possession of the important fortress of Cattaro.
 
Background[edit]For more details on this topic, see Adriatic campaign of 1807–1814. The Northern walls of the Cattaro fortress Captain William Hoste who famously ordered guns to be hauled up the mountain to besiege Cattaro Cattaro had belonged belonged to the Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro, by 1797 they passed to the Habsburg Monarchy with the Treaty of Campo Formio. In 1805, Kotor was assigned to the French Empire's client state, the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy by the Treaty of Pressburg, but occupied by Russian troops under Dmitry Senyavin until they left after the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807. Three years later it was incorporated into the French Empire's Illyrian Provinces. Austria declared war on France in August 1813 and by the Autumn the Royal Navyenjoyed unopposed domination over the Adriatic sea. Working in conjunction with the Austrian armies now invading the Illyrian Provinces and Northern Italy, Rear Admiral Thomas Fremantle's ships were able to rapidly transport British and Austrian troops from one point to another, forcing the surrender of the strategic ports, Zara for example had been liberated in December.[3]
Meanwhile Royal Naval Captain William Hoste with his ship HMS Bacchante (38 guns) and a brig-sloop HMS Saracen (18-guns), under Captain John Harper had been given orders for the swift expulsion of the French in the region.[4] They took part in an attack that seized the islands of Hvar and Brač and moved along the coast. Cattaro was next on the target for the British; a body of Montenegrin troops under Petar I Petrović-Njegoš a popular spiritual and military leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the Petrović dynasty had surrounded the place. Saracen arrived first just outside Cattaro Bay but it was impossible to sail direct to the main fortress so Harper called on the local inhabitants to tow her along the rocky shore for 3 miles. Hoste in Bacchante arrived soon after with three Sicilian gunboats carrying fifty soldiers and assumed command. The British and Sicilians forced the passage between Herceg Novi and Fort Rosa and secured an anchorage some three miles inside the outer bay. [5]:141
Blockade and Siege[edit]On the evening of the 14th Harper left with two gunboats, the launch and barge of Bacchante and the boats of Saracaen entered the inner bay where he was fired on from the Island of St George. Afterwards heading four miles towards Cattaro he found four gunboats in a state of revolt and took possession of them. He then landed at various places where the local inhabitants were arming themselves against the French and collected volunteer crews for his new captures.[2]
At Perast Hoste found that the locals had taken possession of a French fort with 3 guns which they placed at his disposal, hoisting the English and Austrian colours. At 6am he used these guns, those of his gunboats and the newly acquired gunboats to bombard the island of St. George. Then within 15 minutes the Royal marines and the Sicilians under Captain Harper attacked, captured the island and the French had been driven from their guns and had offered to capitulate. The prize gunboats each had a long 24-pounder in the bow and two of them carried a 12-pounder carronade.[2][5]:137
By now only the main fortress of Cattaro was left and Hoste, Harper and his assortment of allies; British, Croats, Montenegrins and Sicilians surrounded the area. With the help of Montenegrins and the Pro Austrian natives of the liberated Bay of Kotor shores, Hoste found himself in an unpleasant position between the Montenegrins and their support on one hand, and the pro-Austrian population who were unwilling to submit themselves to Montenegrin domination on the other. Hoste made sure of his neutrality and the main objective was the defeat of the French in the region. He knew that politics would eventually play a role if and when the area was under allied control. He also had to make sure that by satisfying the British commissioner in the region Lord Aberdeen that the Austrians were the ones to end up with the spoils.[4] Hoste meanwhile had been ordered to attack elsewhere leaving Harper with the Saracan in charge. Hoste in the next month helped to take Split with troops of the 35th Foot and for the next month a hard blockade was made on Cattaro and the hope of the arrival of Austrian troops. Bad weather had not helped the situation, Hoste after capturing Cavtat further North soon returned to the bay but found no Austrian troops.[5]:137
By early December the local French commander, General Gauthier, had retired to Fort St. John with 600 men.[2] This fort lay on the side of the hill protecting the Western side of the fortified town of Cattaro. Hoste and Harper both agreed that use of the local armed populace would make do for the final stages of the siege. Preparations were made to put batteries all around Cattaro which meant using the top of the hill of St John as a primary position right above the fortress itself. Hoste and Harper ordered the difficult task of scattering batteries down the forbidding slopes of the Cattaro hills using block and tackle. In an "unmilitary manner" after 3 weeks of great exertion by Bachannte and Saracaens seamen in continuous rain an 18-pounder was hoisted to the summit on 23 December, a height of nearly 3,000 feet.[6] Meanwhile Bacchante and the rest of her crew mounted further pieces of ordnance; two batteries of 18 and 32-pounders were added. Hoste despite being ill personally helped the men get the equipment up the slopes of the mountain but further North and South respectively of the fort and the main battery on the slope.[2]
Medal commemorating HMS Bachannte'sbombardment of Cattaro 1814 On Christmas Day once all guns were in position and good weather had returned Hoste ordered the commencement of the bombardment. Fire was opened up from four different points with the 18 pounder above the St John fortress being particularly effective. Saracan and Bacchante were kept out of range by the forts guns until the bombardment started and opened up all they had. Hoste on the 2nd ordered Harper to lead a surprise night time assault. This was not necessary however as on 3 January 1814, when Harper was about to lead an assault, Gauthier offered to surrender. After ten days of shelling and no hope of relief the French surrendered to Hoste under honorable conditions and the British and Montenegrins took control of the fort and the town.[7] After a ten-day siege, the French garrison had no alternative and surrendered on 5 January 1814.[4][7]
Aftermath[edit]The loss on the British, amounting to only one seaman killed, and Lieutenant of marines slightly wounded. In the course of the twenty-day siege, Hoste had counted on the support of Austrian infantry which failed to show up. Hoste signed the articles of capitulation and the remaining French and Italian troops marched out in surrender, after which British troops marched in along with the Montenegrins. Hoste gave the town to the Montenegrin commission under Peter which aggravated Lord Aberdeen but Hoste argued that he had no choice in the matter.[8][citation needed]
Hoste with Bacchante and Saracen after a short rest and recuperation left Cattaro to sail to the fortress of Ragusa where they laid siege to the place in a very similar manner to Cattaro and on the 28th it surrendered.[5]:141 By the end of March all towns and cities had surrendered to the British or the allied rebels that had risen in revolt, leaving the Adriatic in complete allied control with the exception of Corfu. Cattaro was restored to the Habsburg Monarchy of the Austrian Empire by the Congress of Vienna.[9]

Yes, don't worry guys, as I said i want to scratch build the ports.
 
I trialed many fake tree nails before biting the bullet and I'm happy with result... 0.6mm holes, darkened up the natural putty with cedar.. They look more subtle in real life.
 
From what I can gather about tree nails is.. They really are a just representation of something, it is no use making them the same color or even close to the same color as you will not see them, but you want them dark enough to show up.. Its a happy medium thing. Just be sure you trial them with your chosen varnish as this obviously changes the putty color completely.. 
 
My best tip would be to varnish before drilling and puttying tree nail holes.. It firms up the timbers fibres and you get a neater hole, plus the putty doesn't get all in your grain and caulking..   Ollie
 

Crosstree assemblies are now complete. They're not perfect but i'm very happy with how they have turned out. I just need to paint both assemblies and then glue back onto the fore and main mast.
 
Getting there......

Probably best to wait on the new wood.  I know it's hard.  Any other parts of the build you can work on in the meanwhile??
 
Good hearing from you.

Quite pleased with myself! The scratch building is going pretty well so far.
 
Made two of the crosstrees. First cut pieces of 2mm x 15mm walnut to rough size, I then used a file to file the angled ends and then the notches to size.
 

 
The trestletrees were a little more complex. Fortunately, I was able to rescue a single piece from the wreckage and use this as a template.
 

 
I cut several pieces of walnut to approximate size and then pinned the trestletree to a piece.
 

 
I was then able to cut and shave the wood to shape using the template. Managed to complete three successfully so far. Two more required.
 

 
 
 
 

Quick update, here is where I'm at with sails and rigging so far. This one is a bit more complicated so I'm taking a break from it for a day or so to study the plan sheet more and pictures of others work on this kit.
 

 

 

Thank you very much, guys.
 
Alfons, the area is to big for painting so I'll use my airbrush.
 
Well, time for a little update. Some more rows on and time for planking the keel.
 

 
 
Again I started with the bulb area covering using 3mm stripes
 

 

 
 
The rest was planked with the 5mm stripes
 

 

 

 
 

Thanks for the compliments guys..  After looking at various logs and pictures I have decided to do tree nail..
 
I have chosen a Natural color as it was the lightest and i like "Cabots" Brand.  It shows up a bit darker than decking, blends in from a distance but nice up close..  The left hand run of single plugs are 0.8mm holes and i think this suits...     Regards Ollie
 

Or the 0.5 you showed previously also looks good, Ollie - have you tried the small holes with the filler?
 
John

Oh and Happy New Year too Eamonn.

Hi Sjors - no, there is no platform on the mizzen mast, the mizzen mast seems quite 'stunted' compared to larger ship rigged vessels.  The mizzen cross tree is about the same size as the crosstrees on the main and fore top masts.
 
Here is a picture of the deadeyes but not yet tightened fully, please tell me if I've done something wrong.  I first put the shrouds around the mast and then looped around the deadeyes before seizing them.  As is the shrouds looks taught, but I'm not sure how taught these need to be - the .75mm line seems much stronger than the masts at this scale and I'm worried I'd break something if they needed to be much tighter.  
 

Cheers Mobbsie and all the 'likes'.
 
Think I'm officially into the rigging stage.  Mizzen mast stepped and the shrouds in installed.  I'm going to wait to finish 'tightening' these until later.  Found the method of getting the 3.5mm deadeyes into the shrouds at the correct height very fiddly, after many choice words found that using 2 pieces of wire in the holes worked better for me (rather than a single one as called out in the instructions) as this provided some more stability.  Hopefully the 5mm deadeyes will be a little easier.
 
Theres quite a stack of shrouds around the mast which is quite pleasing, glad that these were served.  Following Andy's advice the Burton pendants were 'painted' with quite a bit of dilute PVA and then weighted so that they followed a more natural, less gravity defying line.
 
A belated Happy New Year to everyone!!
 

Thanks Tom and Jeff.. Back into it..  I have done about another 4 hours on various tasks...  I have finished deck planking, felt good putting that last plank in even though it was the trickiest.. .Very happy with result and i have to thank those who helped me..
 
I ended up with some with black from the pencil going into grain of some planking but i actually don't mind the effect...
I have scraped flat, sanded and satin clear coated, (still wet in some photos so looks glossy)
 
I also tried some tree- nailing with wooden tooth picks on my trial deck..  interesting how dark they come up after finishing... (because its end grain)
 
One trial is 1mm holes and other is 0.5 mm.. I would like them a bit lighter.. Will get some putty and other tooth picks tomorrow.. Still deciding.... will try more techniques.. Also showing my jig for cutting deck planks,, worked well, always square and good for trimming..  Ollie
 
 
 
 

Thanks Eamonn, work on this build is coming along nicely and could possibly be finished by late this evening if all goes well. I have the sails finished besides adding the reef lines yet after that I'll be starting on the rigging work. I'll post an update with pictures a little later.

Nice delicate work there Shawn !
 
Eamonn
 
Happy New Year BTW

"Drilling and filling" took less time than I thought that it would and, so, the treenailing  of the deck is done. I chose to fill with the lighter Golden Oak filler for the holly deck, rather than the Walnut that I used on the boxwood hull planking. After sanding, I finished the deck with Wipe-on Poly to seal and protect.
 
With the deck done, I have multiple choices as to what to do next. While the temptation is high to do some fun stuff, probably, in keeping with long standing habits, I'll drill all of the holes for the inner bulwark eyebolts, ringbolts and cleats.
 
Bob
 
 

Finally got through to JoTiKa today and should hopefully have a new 2mm walnut sprue on it's way over to me tomorrow.

Not a heck of a lot done tonight, just the mast, boom and jib clubs painted and blocks added. I can't sleep so I'm going to tackle making the main and jib sails yet before bed. Hopefully I get the rigging finished tomorrow sometime.
 

 

 

 

Can you believe it? It was a week ago that I was going to cut out the spiled planks for the Port side hull. I wish real life would get out of the way of my modeling. Well as mentioned above. I had had my fill of mistakes so I was going to use heavy paper instead of wood until I was satisfied. Well obviously I had plenty of time to think about it while going out to dinner with friends and entertaining house guests. (don't tell them what I was really thinking about). anyway I decided that since the lines came out so nice on the paper. I would just this as a guide and cut both paper & wood at the same time. I carefully clamped everything down along with a metal ruler and French curve. I put a new #11 in the knife, and off I went. Here are the first 2 planks. I am pretty happy.
 
Now time to cut the remaining 6 planks and get them on the hull. Hopefully today!

Next step was to furl the sail as much as possible off the build before attaching the gaff to the main mast:
 

 
 
I was able to completely furl the head area along the gaff up to the throat of the gaff.  You'll see I used three gasket type lines to hold the furl here, to somewhat represent the brail lines.  Not sure if this would be accurate as I think the brail lines actually ran through brail blocks at the gaff, and then were belayed down to the deck.  But, this would have been overly complicated at this scale, not to mention that multiple pins and cleats would have to be added.  So, I went with these three gasket type lines.  Ultimately, I went with two along the gaff, and moved the remaining line to the throat area of the sail (and not at the throat of the gaff itself).
 
I was also able to get the luff edge furled pretty well at this stage as well.  My plan of not angling the foot worked out pretty well, as you can see that the bulk is greatly reduced at the tack, with most of the bulk at the throat.  In case you're wondering, I'm using napkins under the red clothespins because I've found that the color on these colored clothespins can rub off on the sail cloth
 
From there, it was a matter of installing the gaff and lacing it to the mast.  As noted above, the lacing for the mast is a bit different than the lacing to the gaff - I think zu Mondfeld has 10 different approaches in his book.  From my research, part of the reason for the different lacing was so that the sail could slide more easily up and down the mast.  I used the mast lacing pattern as in this diagram:
 

 
 
Next I furled the rest of the sail, and added two more brail lines against the mast.  I also added a block and tackle arrangement at the deck as you can see in the third picture below.  I'm also planning on adding the outhauler line, which would run from the tack clew, through a sheeve at the end of the boom, and belayed at a deck cleat at the base of the main mast.  The kit plans have two pairs of deck cleats to be installed at the base of the main mast, with only one pair used, so all I needed to do was add an extra pair of eyebolts to the deck.
 

 
 

 

 
 
They still need some work to try and get in some folds, etc., but overall it came out somewhat ok I think.  I'd also note that in addition to real drivers having brail lines and blocks, there are a number of other inhauler/outhauler lines at the peak, as well as lines at the end of the boom.  For my build, I thought they would add too much complication given the kit's pin and cleat configuration, and I had already installed them per the kit plans before deciding on the furled sails.
 
So that's how I added a furled driver.  There are probably better ways of doing this, but hopefully this helps give people a jump start on how to approach them - I had searched all over the internet for methods on how to install a furled driver, but couldn't find any so hopefully this helps a bit.  
 
Thanks for reading!

My approach
 
Like the other sails, I started by drawing a general outline of the driver sail, tracing the plans for the gaff, main mast and boom, and then just drawing a line for the leech end of the sail.  The next step was to draw the pattern for the reduced sail. Here, there were three considerations:  (1) how to reduce it enough that I could get a tightly furled sail; (2) how to design the pattern so that the furled sail bulk would be thinner at the peak and tack, and thicker in the area in between; and (3) mechanically, how would I proceed with the furl given that the furl takes multiple directions along the brail lines. 
 
Here is what I came up with:
 

 
The total bulk of the sail is reduced to about 40% of the full sail size.  The depth along the head and along the luff is about the depth of what I used for the furled fore and main course sails.  
 
The shape is a bit odd in that at the head area, the leech end is angled inward, while at the foot, it runs parallel to the boom (on actual mizzen sails, I believe the foot of the sail was curved).  This was because of the way I planned to furl the sail.  First, I furled the sail up to the gaff, similarly to how I furled the square sails.  So, the leech end, like the sides of the square sails, was angled inwards to reduce bulk at the peak.  Second, I furled the sail at the throat area and the luff side.  The foot is parallel to the boom and not angled as the head was because I realized that as I furled the gaff area, the outer edge of the foot would be pulled upwards, essentially angling the leech end near the foot upwards.  So, there was no need to cut the pattern to an angle like I did with the head (otherwise, I would have almost no sail to work with at the tack).  Hope that all makes sense.
 
The other thing to note is that I added a mock clew at the edge of the sail.  Given the shape of the overall driver sail, I thought the clew on the actual sail would end up midway along the luff, rather than at the throat.  I also wanted to add an outhauler line that was attached to the clew.  I modeled this off the MS Brig Niagara instructions, where the clew is brailed up the middle of the luff.
 
With the pattern cut, I prepped the sail to attach it to the gaff.  I added lacing holes along the head (5mm apart) to run the lacing to the gaff.  I also added cringles along luff area (10mm apart) so that I could subsequently attach it to the mast.  I also added clew and tack cringles at those areas.  
 

 
 
From my research, it seemed that these sails were bent to the gaff with simple lacing that ended at the throat of the gaff.  I went with 5mm apart for the holes, which was what I used on the square sails.  The sails are bent to the mast using a different lacing pattern (shown in the next post) using cringles, which I represented by running a line of thread along the edge using fabric glue, and pulling it up every 10mm to create the cringle.  Given that the sail will be furled, these will not be visible later on.  They did serve as a good guide for the mast lacing however, which I couldn't accomplish using holes drilled into the sail itself.