vaddoc

Today I would like to introduce my new chosen-out project :
It will be the well known lightship Elbe 1 ( named Bürgermeister Oswald), the "red Lady", since then being appointed as an German lightship and on duty in the German Bay, mouth Elbe river, Northsea. After serving for 50 years it was directly replaced 1989 by an unmaned lightvessel-robot on the former position of Elbe 1.
 
Several years ago my attention was drawn to this lightship, and to keep in mind for building a model of it someday. At that time I had purchased a special edition of the rare  1994 MODELWERFT magazine, related exclusingly to the Elbe 1 Lightship an kept it since then somewhere in my hobby office. A few days ago I remembered it and went looking for that magazine, and it seemed to be lost. After a days search I finaly found it sticking somewhere between my maritime books on a shelf.
 
This publication was issued by author Helmut Thomas, a very talented and skilled senior modelist. The incredable model he had created of the Elbe 1, the fine pics and detailed build log description shown therein was very inspiring for me and it was my "benchmark" if I ever were to build it myself, knowing that I would be pleased to get at least somewhere near to that benchmark.
The 80 page publication was comprising also 2 outfold double pages of a buildplan including lines and frameplan. I let these build plan pages magnified to scale 1:87 in my local copy-shop, and started to study all about the ship, and if I could possibly build it, ot try to do so.
In comparation to Helmut`s model that would have been too large (length 114 cm)  I decided to downscale it to an overall length of 66 cm. An apprropriate glas-case for that size would also be whithin my capability afterwards.
 
I remembered that once Billing Boats had brought out a model in scale 1:50 of this model, but it was the predecessor of this lightship with several differences, Unfortunately today there was neigther an unbuilt Billing-Kit perhaps even with fine fittings-detail-kit (lightmasts, etc, ) to be found anymore, so a scratch build would be the solution.
 
So this is what came out : .........
 
Nils 
 
The beginning

The rare "Modellwerft special" magazine of 1994 / 1

Model of Helmut Thomas

a postcard

side view overall

frameplan
 
 
 

So the paint has settled further and it actually looks pretty good! Especially the red and Turquoise are really nice. Some photos bellow in natural light. The hull of course is rough despite so many cycles of filling and sanding. Never use Beech!




But look what the postman dropped, all the way from the colonies across the pond!

Till next time
Vaddoc

So the paint has settled further and it actually looks pretty good! Especially the red and Turquoise are really nice. Some photos bellow in natural light. The hull of course is rough despite so many cycles of filling and sanding. Never use Beech!




But look what the postman dropped, all the way from the colonies across the pond!

Till next time
Vaddoc

So the paint has settled further and it actually looks pretty good! Especially the red and Turquoise are really nice. Some photos bellow in natural light. The hull of course is rough despite so many cycles of filling and sanding. Never use Beech!




But look what the postman dropped, all the way from the colonies across the pond!

Till next time
Vaddoc

Dear Friends
 
Another quick update to share some photos!
Mark, it is Valejo matt acrylic paint, it is just that the photo was taken immediately after the coat went on so still wet.
 
@64Pacific Thanks Scott, welcome!
 
@KeithAug Keith, I do not think Humbrol enamels will be arround for long so if you use enamels, stock up. I bought some of the enamel varnish.
 
So I carried on with painting. The white paint has exceptionally poor coverage. I must have put on 15 coats, not with the greatest of care I must admit. But it came out alright - modern paints are so forgiving. I am not sure what the shiny areas are but it does not matter, these should disappear after varnishing.
 
I then masked again and added the red waterline. The red color has much better coverage


I could have sanded the paint but I decided not to bother. Also, I should have first painted the red zone, mask and then paint over. I did not really pay much attention but in the end it came out fine, I just had to mask and remask again and again.
 
Then, I added the turquoise - very nice color, excellent coverage. I was more careful this time and came out much better.

 



There is a masking line that shows, I masked without thinking. I could have sanded it off but did not bother, it actually looks ok.
I will now give it a couple more days for the paint to cure and then I will protect the paint with enamel Humbrol varnish. I am dissapointed with the water based ones - Poor adhesion and not as hard.
 
So next I started work on the rudder. In the plans it is only 1.5 inch thick - that is 4 mm in the model. So I made a card template and cut three pieces to laminate

Waiting for epoxy to cure - then the rudder will be painted in same colors.
 
Take care all
Vaddoc

Dear Friends
 
Another quick update to share some photos!
Mark, it is Valejo matt acrylic paint, it is just that the photo was taken immediately after the coat went on so still wet.
 
@64Pacific Thanks Scott, welcome!
 
@KeithAug Keith, I do not think Humbrol enamels will be arround for long so if you use enamels, stock up. I bought some of the enamel varnish.
 
So I carried on with painting. The white paint has exceptionally poor coverage. I must have put on 15 coats, not with the greatest of care I must admit. But it came out alright - modern paints are so forgiving. I am not sure what the shiny areas are but it does not matter, these should disappear after varnishing.
 
I then masked again and added the red waterline. The red color has much better coverage


I could have sanded the paint but I decided not to bother. Also, I should have first painted the red zone, mask and then paint over. I did not really pay much attention but in the end it came out fine, I just had to mask and remask again and again.
 
Then, I added the turquoise - very nice color, excellent coverage. I was more careful this time and came out much better.

 



There is a masking line that shows, I masked without thinking. I could have sanded it off but did not bother, it actually looks ok.
I will now give it a couple more days for the paint to cure and then I will protect the paint with enamel Humbrol varnish. I am dissapointed with the water based ones - Poor adhesion and not as hard.
 
So next I started work on the rudder. In the plans it is only 1.5 inch thick - that is 4 mm in the model. So I made a card template and cut three pieces to laminate

Waiting for epoxy to cure - then the rudder will be painted in same colors.
 
Take care all
Vaddoc

Dear all
 
Thank you for your good words and encouragement. I apologise for taking so long to reply, I simply have had no free time at all.
 
At this time I 'd like to clear a misunderstanding: The Admiral does not have a strong opinion whether the hull should be painted or not. But if it does get painted, she has dictated the colours. So our options are still open! 
 
Back to the boat: I replaced all the screws with wooden nails dipped in PVA. It was a good time for this repetitive task, as I was able to work in the house and did not matter how tired I was. I forgot to take pictures though.
 
Then, I filled all the gaps with filler. The larger gaps were also filled from the inside. This time I used Osmo filler, beech colour. I had not used it before. It is ok, it sands fine but it dries incredibly fast. So the hull looked something like this:


I only found time to go back to the boat today. So, I started sanding the hull. I used 120 grit initially but then went to 80 grit. After the bulk of the filler was removed, I used carpet knife blades to scrape the excess wood. It went largely ok. Some edges need a bit more attention and lots more sanding with finer grits is needed but it is getting there. 
 







The bow needs definitely more work. The gaps do not look too bad and the colour of the filler I suspect will change after the sealer is applied. I may experiment with Tung oil although I seem to remember that Beech does not like oils much. 
As sanding progresses, a few more gaps will appear that will need filling. Also, before I started sanding I noticed a screw hole I had forgotten to nail. I need to locate it again and put a nail in.
 
Regards
Vaddoc

Dear all
 
Planking is finished! I also trimmed the planks at the transom and shaped the stem.









 
John and Bob and to all that hit the like button, many thanks!
Keith, whole heartedly recommended. 
 
Thanks Michael, following your post I did quite a bit of internet search. I think it really would be very nice to have a model of the Universal 4 in the engine bay. I am not sure though I can pull this off! We ll see!
 
No idea, thanks for the good wards and indeed, you are spot on right. More in the post bellow
 
My dear Patrick! So nice to have you back!
 
Now, I am generally happy with my planking planning. If I was to do it again, I may have used a second stealer or have used an extra plank at the curve of the hull. But overall it is a feasible planking. None of the planks had an impossible curve and the planks blanks were no bigger than 20-25 cm wide, though the sheer plank I think was 70 cm long!
 
My frames were very wrong. Especially the two aft frames were completely wrong and even mispositioned. I had to sim one side and chisel away on the opposite, essentially fairing as I went along. Now you might ask if I had done any fairing before planking, the answer is none whatsoever. I relied on the CAD drawings, on which I did not spend much time and then used plywood which was bending when cutting the patterns. Still, the wood showed me the correct shape and thankfully, my transom placement proved very accurate.
 
My first planks were poorly made. As I was getting into rhythm, the planks improved considerably. I tried to remake the first 2 planks but it was very difficult-I gave up.
 
I regret using a knife to cut the planks instead of sanding them into shape. This caused poor fitting with one another. Also, I regret I did not bevel the first 4 planks where there is the hollow at the stern. These gaps bother me a lot and will get worse with sanding, I hope filler will do the job. Planking the contralateral side created problems due to the wrong frames and some of the planks could have had a more elegant run. I really should have used the disc sander instead of a knife
 
However, I started this boat with the intention of cutting some corners to speed things up and cut costs. I still think it will work!
 
Next, to replace the 850 screws with wood nails and fill and sand the hull. Will I paint it? It depends. If it looks half decent, I ll leave it. If it looks awful, paint will hide all sins!
 
I suspect I ll end up painting it. The Admiral wants red or green bottom with Ivory upper.
 
Regards
Vaddoc

Oh dear Keith! I must admit I feel a bit guilty. I did not take this boat seriously in the beginning, hence the horrible plywood frames and the general casualness in the planning, fairing and overall arrangement. Indeed, I initially intended to paint the boat. But I do agree with you, if after the filler goes in, the wood sanded and sealed, it looks any good, I ll leave it unpainted.
 
Michael, I think you have a point. Bluenose, J class boats and many other (I think mostly American) boats have similar shapes, with horn timbers and the widest part of the hull very close to the stern. I tried to find on the net photos with raw planking but could not find any. 
 
So I ve done  a few more planks, things are moving on much faster for a number of reasons. The planks are easier to spill, I am getting better at it and there is no need to steam the planks, they take the curve well. Beech is a very nice wood for planking! 
 
My frame fairing is abysmal though! A couple of frames aft in particular are very wrong. Not sure what happened but I correct them as I go.
 
So far, the initial plank planning is working. The planks just bellow the turn of the bilge are the ones that I think will need the most spilling and are quite curved. However, they are not impossible and in real life should be feasible to produce.
 
Some photos for your daily dose of planking:
 
The planks are now 65 cm long-6.5 meters in real boat. This is one of the most curved planks.

However, this plank will only need 25 cm wide stock.

This is the state of the boat now. This plank needs a bit more work before it can be installed.




 
This is plank No 13, just 15 planks more left.

Bruce thank you for your kind words, it is certainly worth it.
 
After countless attempts, the starboard plank is done but I am a broken man!
 
I ve never had such difficulty producing a plank. It is however a very complex shape and due to the twist along its axis both at the bow and stern, even tiny changes in the shape or even the width of the plank, bring on massive changes to the fit. 
Some photos to show the end result-both planks were difficult but the starboard one almost defeated me. The planks can be edge bent a little so the gaps will close further.







That was more than enough for today. Tomorrow I ll steam the planks and install them again with screws. The reason is that while this plank finishes vertical at the sternpost, the next one will finish horizontal an the transom so at the stern, the two planks will meet at 90 degree angle. Maybe some adjustments will be needed but I will not know until I start work on the next plank.
 
Regards
Vaddoc

Now, this is impressive. Its one thing to design a hull on CAD, but these complex shapes like brake handle and gear selector or the gearbox, this is on another level! 
Hope all go well with your health.
 
Vaddoc
 

Why Thank You Vad, I've been into engineering drawing for a long time, mostly paper & ink, occasionally vellum... Mechanical drawing mostly aircraft & machinery but some surveying and spatial representations, (read technical illustration) A couple of years ago I decided to learn how to do it on computer, I'm no expert and it has taken a while to get the hang of it but I'm getting there... It definitely getting faster, but that is practice...
 
I know enough to know that line drawing hulls for ships is a very technical genre of drawing has it's own issues separate from pure mechanical drawing... That is why Marine engineering is it's own separate science and art... It does flow over into pure mechanical drawing and design from time to time but only after the purely marine design elements are mostly done... It's every bit a technically demanding a field as aircraft design... Doth are derivatives of mechanical design, specializations if you will of the basic core skill... I've done some fuselage work in the aircraft industry and know that some of that experience will translate to ship hull drawing...
But I'm not there yet... (hope to get there eventually, sooner rather than later) There are some ships I want to build before the end and since there are no models or easily available plans, I'll have to do it by reverse engineering off pictures... Which is what I'm doing here... Honing the skills required...
 
I know enough and have been advised that Rhino is the software to use for ship hull modeling and the little I've played with it has shown me the way, so hence the title of this pathway into modeling, getting back into and keeping my head in the game...
 
As far as my health, right now it's stable, the last scans said I am clear of tumors, the nature of the cancer doesn't allow for a remission diagnosis or proclamation, and I will be receiving treatment for it the rest of my life... (currently in my third cycle of Chemo) But then with the grace of the man above, I'll get done what I need to get done... And there is no sense in worrying about it, when it's my time it's my time which isn't today... Thank you for the kind words and thoughts, they help a lot....
 
EG

Now, this is impressive. Its one thing to design a hull on CAD, but these complex shapes like brake handle and gear selector or the gearbox, this is on another level! 
Hope all go well with your health.
 
Vaddoc
 

You are very right Wefalck, enamels have a much better self leveling potential as they take a long time to dry. But this is counterbalanced by the hair and dust particles they attract. Still, modern acrylics with a bit of retarder can have fantastic self leveling when applied by brush but they need speed, extra care and the margin for error is small. Their coverage is appalling - I am already at coat number 9 and still needs more.
 
Because of the above, I was determined to use enamels on this boat. I rushed to buy some of the Humbrol enamels before they are pulled out of the market - apparently one of the ingredients is now banned in Europe. I decided on the colors. And then I used acrylics! 
 
I must admit I am not giving this boat my full attention due to work and life commitments so I expect a bit sloppier results - We ll see how it turns out!

Hello Ekis,
The project is currently dormant. I rigged the mast and spars, but waited to put the sails on it because then the model would be almost impossible to transport by car. My intention was to first take the model to the model discussion of my modeling club. That happened in November last year.

In the meantime I have started a new project: a kind of triptych of the sloop that we used to row during our nautical training in the navy in the seventies. I want to build a rowing version and two sailing versions of it. The rowing version is now ready, I am now making the sails of the first sailing version. Unfortunately I didn't get around to writing about it on this forum.

But now to answer your question: Yes, I intend to finish the clipper. And the story on the forum will take its course. It just might take a while.

I have finally caught up on taxes, financial dealings for the nonprofit I am Treasurer for, my own savings accounts, and preparing a lecture - it has been a hectic couple of weeks - and can now get back to important things! I have a little bit of progress to report on the ship model.
 
I left off with the preparation of a sail, the main spar gaff topsail. The next step was adding the boltropes. These are on the port side of fore-and-aft sails where the linings were placed (on square sails the bolt ropes are on the aft side of the sail).
 
I made a few changes to my work area.
 

 
I stapled a sheet of parchment paper to the cardboard work surface (the other side serves as a cutting board). I also have a piece of parchment paper to place over the glued areas for heating them with an iron. The parchment paper seems to work better than the waxed paper.
 
The little Mini Iron II (Clover No. 9100) is a quilting iron for seams. I saw it mentioned in another post on the Forum as a plank bending tool. But it is also perfect for ironing the tablings, linings and bolt ropes after they have been glued. It is less cumbersome than a large iron and the  small tip gets into tight spaces. But I also used it to iron the entire sail after everything was finished. And now I have a plank bender too!
 
It is basically a 40 Watt/120 Volt soldering iron with specialized ironing tips. It has three heat levels, low (200F/105C), medium (390F/200C) and high(580F/295C). They recommend the low setting for silk.
 
I also mixed up some diluted white glue 50:50 with water. I like the white glue because it dries without a trace and you can loosen it if you need to with water or the diluted glue. The small clamps are essential to prevent the sail from moving while you are attaching the ropes!
 
This sail has a larger boltrope across the head (1/2 diameter of the main topmast stay) and smaller ropes on the leech, foot and luff (1/4 the diameter of the topmast stay). I used 0.012" (0.30 mm) rope on the head and 0.008" (0.20 mm) on the other sides.
 
Note that the rope is glued to the port side of the sail (opposite the tablings) and not to the edge of the sail. This is the way the books say to do it and it gives a larger surface area for the glue to attach to. I do not plan to lace the bolt ropes to the sail edges as is done with real sails, because the lacing material would be microscopic.
 
At the corners I created a small loop "cringle."
 
This method requires a bit of patience. Of course the rope has a mind of its own and wants to be anywhere but exactly along the sail edge. So you have to do a little bit at a time and wait for the glue to dry before continuing. The little iron does speed things up a bit. There were a few places where I had to go back and reposition the rope so it was nice that the white glue can be softened after it dried.
 

 
After the glue set up I seized the cringles with small stuff and white glue. This should place all the strain on the bolt ropes. As you can see in the photos there are a few small spots that can be reworked to get the rope exactly along the sail edge.
 
After the glue dried the small stuff was trimmed.
 

 
 
The ends of the larger rope across head of the sail were turned into a loop for a cringle and a short bit of rope was glued down along the top of the leech and luff. Small stuff was tied around the cringle for seizing. Here I did sew some small stuff through the sail material and around both ropes.
 
The head of the sail will be laced to the spar. For this I will sew the lacing through the sail material just inside the bolt rope.
 
Here is the finished (I hope) sail. Eight more to go (if I install the fore course).
 
 
 
 

 

Here is my first attempt to make a sail. First I arranged the sail templates on the two usable sheets of sail material.
 

 
 
Then I cut off one of the ragged sides of the second sheet where the template for the main gaff topsail fit.
 

 
 

 
Here is the sail piece and template after trimming the sail from the sheet.
 
My first mistake was failing to draw on the cloth lines before cutting the material from the sheet. It probably would have been easier to draw the sail outline and cloth lines on the sail material sheet before cutting the sail from the sheet. This is what Tom Lauria suggests.
 
I just aligned the template edges with the sail edges and drew tic marks where the lines should terminate. Then I penciled in the lines with a mechanical drawing pencil, using #2 lead. A drawback to this method is that the tic marks are visible on the sail after the lines were drawn.
 
I also discovered that even though the sail material is very thin and easy to wrinkle I could erase the lines I screwed up and draw them again. There were a couple of opportunities for that experiment!
 
The dry sail material is pretty tough and I have seen no tendency to tear.
 
One slight variation from Laura's procedure was cutting the tabling strips from along the edge of the hole where the sail piece had been cut out. He just cut a bunch of narrow strips from an unused part of the sail material sheet.
 

Here is the work area for gluing the tablings and linings to the sail. The plastic tray held white glue (school glue, Elmer's glue, etc.) and water. I used a fairly narrow paint brush. Tweezers were necessary for handling the thin tabling strips and the lining pieces. I also had a thin probe to help lift stray ends and realign them.
 
One thing I did different from Lauria's tutorial was to cover the work area (a sheet of cardboard) with waxed paper that was clipped to the corners of the cardboard. I was worried that the glue would stick the sail to the cardboard. The waxed paper worked well to prevent this.
 
 
 

 
Here is the "finished" sail ready to add the bolt ropes. The material is slightly translucent, and against the dark background you can see the linings at the corners (on the back or port side of the sail). The thin tabling strips are visible along the sail edges on the starboard side of the sail. After it has dried overnight I will iron the sail again to take out wrinkles. (It ironed out perfectly smooth the next morning!)
 
One thing about this process that isn't clear from Lauria's video is whether the white glue was diluted before using. He used a wet brush dipped into the glue, so in that respect the glue was diluted. This was a good thing because it delayed the drying of the glue to allow things to be moved into position. But the strength of the glue was unpredictable, depending upon how wet the brush was and whether the glue was becoming diluted from the water on the brush as it was dipped into the glue. Sometimes the glue was thicker than at other times. I am concerned that in some places the glue was too watery and the pieces may not remain glued together. I may try just using diluted glue (1:1 with water).
 
I did have a few problems. First off I got glue on my finger tips and then they stuck to things I didn't want to pull on. I kept a paper towel close by to wipe my fingers on.
 
The long tabling strips were a bit unwieldy and tended to go out of line or settle with raised sections. It was easy to correct this using the metal point or just the tweezers to fit in under the wayward portions and pull them straight.
 
I did use a piece of waxed paper on top of the glued sections as I heated them with the iron. I guess I was using too much glue because I had the same problem Lauria demonstrated in his video. The tabling strips often stuck to the piece of waxed paper as I lifted it. With practice I learned how to lift the paper from the appropriate direction to avoid this problem.
 
But another problem I saw arose from the extra glue on the lower sheet of waxed paper after I painted a line of glue along the edges of the sail. This glue tended to glue the sail to the waxed paper after I had heated the area with the iron. So after each tabling I wiped the waxed paper sheet with the paper towel to remove glue. All part of the learning curve!

I decided to try to prepare some silkspan for sails. I followed Tom Lauria's YouTube procedure in Making Sails for Ship Models From Silkspan. It looked pretty simple. I used a buff color acrylic paint to color the material and give it some "body." I cut the 36" x 24" silkspan material in half and worked with 18" x 24" (457 mm x 610 mm) pieces.
 
I spread the material on a large plastic sheet and sprayed it with water. Then I rolled the paint onto the material until it was opaque. I attached clips to the corners as Lauria showed and then lifted the sheet off the plastic. It immediately, ripped, disintegrated and folded over on itself repeatedly! When I tried to separate the folded layers it tore some more. Here is the result:
 

 
The photo isn't in sharp focus, but you get the idea. Not perfect! The wet silkspan disintegrated when I tried to lift the corners. When I did start removing the material from the plastic it ripped everywhere I pulled. I ended up with a soggy mess. I think it was a bad idea to spray with water first. The silkspan Lauria used may have been a better quality than the SIG 00 material I am using.
 
OK. If at first you don't succeed ... I tried again, but without the water spray. But I did add a few drops of water to the paint to thin it a bit.
 

 
The second attempt came out much better! The acrylic paint I used dried to the touch in an hour or so. The edges are a bit wrinkled and the corners are shredded, but I should be able to get several good sails out of this. I will need another sheet to finish them all.
 
I repeated the steps used in the second attempt and got this result.
 

 
Disappointing! Again, the damp material ripped as I tried to remove it from the plastic sheet. But there is a lot of usable material and I should be able to get the rest of the sails and the tabling and lining material from this sheet.
 
Murphy really got in his licks on this job!
 
I think with the SIG 00 silkspan it would be a better idea to hang it or put it in a frame and spray the paint on with an airbrush. But if you are persistent you can get usable sail material.
 
After the paint dried the material was easy to handle and didn't tear. When I smooth it with my hands on a flat surface the wrinkles smooth out nicely. I am hoping that a warm iron will smooth out the wrinkles permanently.
 
NOTE: After the material dried over night I ironed it with a dry iron (no steam) on the lowest heat setting. The wrinkles ironed out nicely leaving very smooth sail material!
 
The dried material measures 0.001 inch (0.0254 mm) thick. This scales to 0.048 inches (1.2 mm) at 1:48 scale. So it is a reasonable scale thickness for sail material.

SAILS
 
I have pretty much developed the sail plan for the ship. Here I will talk about the fore-and-aft sails, and I will deal with the square sails in another post. I plan to follow the procedures in Tom Lauria's YouTube video Making Sails for Ship Models From Silkspan.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_m_VWzk4w8
 
However, because this model is 1:48 scale I will add the boltropes (to be described later).
 

 
NOTE: The first thing I did was measure everything on the model (mast heights, stay lengths, etc.) and made sure my CAD model has the correct dimensions. Some things had changed since I restarted this build four years ago!
 
NOTE: The dimensions and proportions shown here are about right for the first quarter of the 19th century (1800 - 1825). They were slightly different for other periods.
 
I consulted half a dozen books to learn the "rules" for sail design. Most were really interested in large square-rigged ships, but I have some books specific to fore-and-aft rigs. As usual, no two authors agreed on the details, but the general ideas were there.
 
The main sail - the gaff rigged sail on the main mast - is the largest and contains all the elements of the remaining sails. Here the forward edge (luff or forward leech) is on the right side of the drawing and the leech (or after leech) is on the left. The length of the head (top) and foot (bottom) are determined by the length of the gaff and boom. The forward corners attach to eyebolts on the gaff and boom. The after corners are  forward of the gaff/boom ends to allow rigging to a block or sheave. The height depends upon how high the gaff is rigged. The angle of the top of the sail is determined by the angle of the gaff - it ranged from 25 degrees to 30 degrees on schooners. Here is it 25 degrees.
 
The sail is made up of "cloths" 24 inches wide, running parallel to the after edge or leech of the sail. From the 15th century on the width of these cloths varied, but was often 27-28 inches. By the 18th century in England and the Americas the width had become 24 inches.
 
Each individual cloth was sewn to its neighboring cloth with a 2 inch overlap. I do not intend to sew together individual cloths, but will mark the seams with light pencil.
 
Around the edges of the sails is a second layer called the "tabling." Some authors call this the "lining." However, other authors reserve "lining" for the additional pieces added at the corners of the sails. In addition, there is a reef band 1/6 up the forward edge or luff of the sail. Larger vessels could have up to 4 reef bands. All of these pieces are shown in grey.
 
Edit: The tablings were the folded over edge of the sail cloth that was stitched to provide strength to the edge of the cloth. Tablings were usually placed on the port side of fore-and-aft sails and the after side of square sails. Some authors say the linings were on the starboard side of fore-and-aft sails and the forward side of square sails. However, I have read a few books that say the opposite about tablings and linings! Some say the tablings and linings were on the port side of fore-and-aft sails.
 
Reef bands were on the forward side of square sails and on the starboard side of fore-and-aft sails. They were sewn under the edges of the linings for extra strength. On author claims the reef bands were sewn on both sides of the sails for extra strength.
 
I also show a possible downward curve (roach) in the bottom edge (foot) of the sail. I am still trying to determine how common this was, how deep it ran, and if it was commonly used on schooners. In this case the sail will not be lashed to the boom, but will be attached only at the clew and tack.
 
Different authors describe different widths for the tablings. I have used tablings that are 3 inches wide across the head, leech and foot of the sail. Some authors say 2 inches wide at the foot and leech and 3 1/2 inches wide at the head. The forward edge, or luff, has a strip made of a 24 inch piece doubled over to 12 inches wide. The reef band is 1/4 the cloth width, or 6 inches wide.
 
The linings are 24 inch wide pieces attached to the starboard side of the sail. They extend about 3 feet from the upper (peak) and lower (clew) corners, but where there are reef bands they extend up to 1 foot above the highest reef band. At the lower forward corner (tack) the foremost cloth is doubled.
 
I have drawn two holes or grommets per cloth across the head of the sail. Some authors show only one hole, in the center of the cloth.  Some show one hole, positioned at the seam between cloths. Another says there should be a single hole in a cloth, two in its neighbor, one in the next, two in the next, and so on. Take your pick.
 
The forward edge (luff) has holes positioned at the spacing of the mast hoops around the mast that the sail is attached to (not to be confused with "mast hoops" that fit tight around the mast for structural strength). Spacing was generally 24-30 inches. The hoops were at least 1 1/4 the diameter of the mast so they could move along the mast smoothly. Some authors say the sail had two holes for the hoop lacing to pass through, but others said only one hole. I have chosen to use one hole. However, some authors say sails had cringles (short pieces of rope) laced to the bolt rope for the attachment points instead of grommets or holes.
 
Now let's look at the other sails. In all of these drawings the cloths are 24 inches wide and can be used for scale measurements.
 

 
The fore gaff sail (left) is similar to the main sail. Perhaps it should have a reef band (to be determined). The fore staysail (right) is triangular, and the construction is generally the same as for the trapezoidal (4 sided) sails. However, the rules for the size of the triangular sails are more complex. The side laced to the supporting stay (head of luff) was sometimes called the "stay," if for no other reason to confuse as to whether an author meant the stay (rope) or the stay (leading edge of the sail).
 
The stay/luff of the forestay sail was supposed to be about 4/7 the length of the forestay (rope). But what is the" length?" Is it from the lower end of the stay to the mast head, or up to the mouse or seizings forming the loop around the mast? I chose to use the length from the bowsprit to the mouse, because the sail cannot extend up beyond the mouse. Starting at the lower forward corner, the tack, I measured up the forestay the required distance. The leech extended down to the height of the bottom center of the course. The foot length was calculated as a "little over" half the width of the course (to be described later). The clew (bottom aft corner) of the sail was to be cut at a right angle, so I used geometry to determine the configuration with the proper foot and leech lengths coming together at a right angle.
 
Next the jib and flying (outer) jib.
 


 
 
 
These two sails are very similar, the jib on the left and the flying (outer) jib on the right. The stay/head of the jib is 3/4 the length of the jib stay/preventer (ropes). Again, I used the distance from the lower end of the stay (rope) up to the mouse. The leech is 3/5 the length of the jib stay. The foot is about the length of the boom, or in this case, the bowsprit. The leech should be about 1 1/2 the length of the foot. These calculations varied over the years, so check the date of your model.
 
The flying (outer) jib stay/luff is 4/7 the length of the flying (outer) jib stay (rope). None of the calculations for the leech or foot worked to complete a triangle shaped anything like a jib (either the leech and foot ends would not meet or the sail was ridiculously narrow from clew to stay. So I made the foot about as long as the jib boom, ran the foot a bit below horizontal fore to aft, and connected the peak to the clew to get the leech. It looks like the flying jibs in drawings of topsail schooners.
 
Note: The foot of the triangular foresails should be about as long as the bowsprit, jib boom, or flying jib boom. It doesn't have to be exactly as long, but about the length of the associated spar. When in doubt, this is a simple rule to follow.
 
This leaves the two fore-and-aft topsails.
 
The main gaff topsail (left) was four sided, but almost triangular, with the topsail spar almost vertical behind the mast in the American version. On European vessels the spar was closer to horizontal, making a trapezoidal sail.
 
The dimensions are determined by the length of the gaff and the topsail spar, leaving enough space for the corners of the sail to attach to the spar ends or running rigging for the sail. The tack extended below the gaff. The leading (luff) edge had a 12 inch wide lining for added strength.
 

 
The main topmast staysail (above) rode on the main topmast stay (rope) between the main topmast and the cap of the foremast top. It was attached to the stay with hanks (robands) or with a lacing, depending upon the vessel.
 
The length of the sail stay/head was shorter than the stay (rope) enough to allow rigging to the foremast and the main topmast. The leech extended down to where it was rigged to a block on the main mast top cap. The foot was long enough to fill the space between the foremast and main mast, with allowance for the sheet and block at the mainmast head.
 
Two of my references for this were Lees' Masting and Rigging and Mondfeld's Historic Ship Models, but these just had the rules for square rigged ships, and they sometimes didn't work on the schooner. Marquardt's The Global Schooner provided some rules, but not enough to actually design the sails.
 
So I blended information from all sources to arrive at these sail designs.

I have been working on the standing rigging for the main mast. After installing the shrouds I added the main backstays, port and starboard. These attach to deadeyes in the channels and secure to thumb cleats high on the topmast.
 
Then the main top backstays were added, leading down from just below the truck at the mast top to luff tackles hooked to ring bolts in the deck. These are "running" stays. The windward stay tackle was tightened to support the mast and the leeward stay was loosened to allow the boom and gaff sail to swing outboard.
 
After the backstays were done the main stays were added. There is a port and a starboard main stay, and they attach to luff tackles that hook to eyes on vertical timbers of the fife rail. These are both moused like the forestay.
 

 
These also were running stays. Like the main top backstays (and the fore top backstays) the windward side main stay tackle was tightened and the lee side tackle was loosened to allow the fore gaff sail to swing outboard with the wind.
 
Please ignore all the loose line ends laying on deck. I am still rigging the ship and everything hasn't been tidied up yet! Besides, I still don't know where everything will be belayed.
 
 
 
 
The mainmast top isn't quite as complex as the foremast top.
 

 
In the left picture above you can see the two pendants for the main boom topping lifts hanging from the aft crosstree. The right hand picture above shows the pendant for the main gaff throat halliard riding over the shrouds and the main stay lines. It has eyes spliced in the ends, and these are lashed together to close the loop as they are on the fore mast.
 

 
The main topmast stay is secured above thumb cleats on the main topmast with an eye spliced around the mast. The lower end is spliced around a wooden thimble (or truck). Another thimble is spliced to a ring bolt in the aft side of the fore mast cap. A lanyard is attached to one thimble with an eye, and is reeved through the thimbles several times. The loose end is tied around the splice at the ring bolt.
 
Also notice in the picture the small stuff line tied around the jib stay and preventer and looped over the mast cap. This was an added bit of "insurance" to keep these lines secured over the cleat on the back side of the mast.
 
 
 
 

 
The aft channels and deadeyes are similar to the fore mast rig. Again a wooden "stretcher" is tied on above the deadeyes to prevent them from twisting. This provides two extra belaying pins on each side. One will be used to belay the running end of the mast tackle on each side.
 
The standing ends of the mast tackles are hooked into ring bolts on the channels. The lower block of the luff tackle can be seen here, with a long served strap hooked to a ring bolt. The fall of the luff tackle is belayed to the forward belaying pin on the spreader.
 
 
 
 
I think this finishes the standing rigging. It is a stopping point so I can get caught up on a presentation for next month, taxes, house cleaning, etc.
 

 
And this leads to the next step. I have purchased some silkspan and I will try to make some sails for the vessel.
 

I am still working on  the foremast standing rigging.
 
As I started planning this bit I realized I had not installed sheer poles to keep the deadeyes from twisting. Mondfeld says these were introduced in the mid 1800s, but this is incorrect. Lever describes sheer poles in 1808. The original sheer poles were just iron rods tied to the shrouds immediately above the deadeyes to prevent them from twisting due to forces on the shrouds. But Marquardt elaborates a bit, saying that a "wooden stretcher" or "squaring staff" was seized to the shrouds to prevent twisting, and these sometimes served as a belay rack. I decided to use these wooden stretchers on my model.
 

 
I first painted them with the brown I used for bulkheads and sanded them to a nice finish. Then I wondered if I should use tan or dark brown rope to lash them to the shrouds. I decided to look at photos of existing ships and realized that the entire assembly should be dark brown/black like the shrouds. I drilled them for three belaying pins. These will come in handy for belaying the falls of the mast tackles and running backstays.
 
Then it was on to complete the standing rigging on the foremast.
 

 
 

 
This image shows the foremast tackle. This heavy purchase, also known as a burtoning tackle,  was used to load cargo, cannons and other heavy objects. It was also used to bring in the anchors.
 
The rig consists of a block on a pendant from the mast top. Through this runs a runner tackle from a double block below, through the pendant block, to a hook on a ring in the channels.
 
The luff tackle has a double block seized to the runner and a single block below. The single block has a long strap with a hook below. This long strap was served for extra strength and protection from chafing.
 
The hook on the strap was hooked into an eye spliced on the end of the fish tackle. The other end of the fish tackle was seized around the fish hook that was used to catch and raise the crown of the anchor.
 
The method of fishing the anchor is described here:
 
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/27410-small-ship-anchor-handling/?do=findComment&comment=787942
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
At the very top of the foremast two foretop backstays are attached with eye splices above the rigging for the topsail yard and the foretop shrouds. These port and starboard lines lead down to luff tackles hooked to ring bolts on deck or attached to the channels.
 
The foretop stay attaches above the backstays with an eye spliced in the end of the rope. It runs down through a sheave in the end of the jib boom (see below).
 
 
 
 
The fore backstays lead down to deadeyes on the aft end of the channels. Above where they attach is a spliced eye in the strap for a single block for the flying jib halliard. Above this is the spliced eye for the flying jib stay that passes through a sheave in the end of the jib boom (see below).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

The foretop stay passes through a sheave at the end of the jib boom and leads back to a deadeye on the starboard side of the bowsprit cap (below).
 
The flying jib stay passes through a shackle on the traveller and then through a sheave near the end of the jib boom. It then leads back to a luff tackle attached to the port side of the bowsprit cap (below).
 
I have rigged this so the flying jib stay also serves as an outhaul for the flying jib that is attached to the traveller.
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
Here you see that luff tackle for the flying jib stay that allows the stay to be slackened to haul in the foot of the flying jib attached to the traveller, or to allow flying jib stay to be tightened to haul out the foot of the flying jib.
 
On the far (starboard) side you can see the deadeyes for controlling the tension on the foretop stay.
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
The jibstay and preventer feed through the bees behind the bowsprit cap. They are the same cable that was looped around the fore mast top and spliced together, so either could be said to be the stay or preventer. The jib will ride on the aft most of the two lines.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
The jib stay runs to deadeyes attached to a ring bolt on the starboard side of the bow forward of the hawse openings. Other standing rigging for the bowsprit and jib boom is secured to points in this area.
 
 
You can also see where the flying jib stay luff tackle fall leads back to the foremost belaying pin on the port bow pin rail.
 
 
 
 
 
 
I should add a comment here about how some of these lines were rigged to allow them to be tightened occasionally as the ropes stretched. I show the jibboom guy, jib stay, martingale backstay  (and the topmast shrouds, foretop stay, flying jib stay and bobstay) rigged with small deadeyes and lanyards secured around the lines. But some vessels just used simple eyes, or hearts, to tighten the lines. Other vessels used double blocks instead of deadeyes with the falls belayed on deck. I suspect smaller vessels just used eyes and the larger ships used deadeyes. "Mid sized" vessels might use any combination. So you need to do your homework to see what the ship you are building used. I probably could have used simple eyes on a schooner of this size.
 
I think this completes the standing rigging for the foremast.

More details for the rigging of the fore top.
 

 
After the shrouds and tackle pendants were in place (and the loose shrouds were tightened) the next thing was the pendant for the fore gaff throat halliard.
 

 
 
I put a short leg and long leg in the pendant from the double block. On the ends of each leg are eyes, and these are tied together with lashings on the starboard side of the mast head.
 

 
The halliard loop rested on the shrouds and the pendant hung between the tresletrees on the aft side of the mast. The rake of the mast allows the block to hang free.
 
 
 
 
 
 
The next consideration was rigging the fore course yard sling pendant around the mast top. The sling has two parts. The upper pendant loops around the mast top and hangs down in front of the mast, with an eye in the lower end. The lower part wraps around the yard and has an eye above. The two eyes are tied together with lashings to support the yard.
 
There were two options for this.
 

 
A common way to rig the sling is shown on the left in the drawing above. The sling just wraps around the back of the mast and hangs on the outside of the trestletrees and cheeks. However, this causes it to pull tightly around the edges of the cheeks, where it will chafe, and come together at a fairly wide angle at the eye above the spar. This means the lower part of the sling that wraps around the yard must be very short if the yard is to hang close to the top. Another way to rig this is to lead the arms of the pendant forward over the fore crosstree and then down to the yard. But this causes the sling to ride over the fid for the fore topmast, causing it to chafe and lying in the way when the topmast was to be lowered.
 
The alternative is to loop the sling over a thumb cleat on the aft side of the mast a distance above the trestletrees as shown on the right side of the drawing. The sling pendant then hangs over the forward edge of the fore crosstree and comes down in a narrow angle to the eye. The eye is higher between the cheeks, allowing the yard to be rigged higher. It is this method that I chose to use.
 
Again I created a long and short arm for the sling pendant, with eyes at the ends of both parts. These were lashed together on the port side of the mast top.
 


 
The lower part of the sling loops around the yard.
 

 
The fore stay loops around the mast top and rests on a thumb cleat just below the top cap. In the drawing above I show it hanging outboard the cheeks and behind the forward crosstree. But it actually gives better clearance for the other rigging if it hangs over the forward edge of the crosstree as shown in the photos.
 

 
 
Some drawings show the stay to be spliced to form an eye around the mast and others show it "moused." I decided to try to create a mouse for this model.
 
The mouse is just a lump on the stay that is too large to pass through an eye in the end of the rope. I made the eye small enough that the 0.055 inch (1.37 mm) stay rope will just barely slip through it.
 
I tried a couple of methods to create the mouse. First I just tied a simple overhand knot in the rope and then tried to wrap  0.008 inch (0.20 mm) rope around it. This produced an unsightly asymmetrical lump.
 
 I started over and used a needle to work the small rope through the larger stay and then began wrapping layers of the small rope around the larger one, like serving but in multiple layers. I made the larger part of the lump on the lower end - where the eye will rest - and tapered it toward the top. I applied white glue between layers to hold the mouse wrappings together.
 
I think I got a bit carried away and made the mouse extra large, but it works!
 
 
 
At this point none of the shrouds and stays are fastened to the hull - I haven't installed the lashings on the deadeyes and hearts. But the next things to install are the jib stay and preventer, and these will pass through holes in the bees on the bowsprit and have deadeyes on the lower ends. Then everything will have to be tightened with lashings and the mast will be permanently in place.

My daughter has gone off on what she calls a sabbatical. So far as I can tell this involves an extended holiday from work drifting around Europe chasing the snow. She parked her car here before she went which is how I discovered that it was more of a garbage truck than a family vehicle. Anyway, today I spent 6 hours getting it back to being tolerably habitable. The good news is that I found enough half eaten snacks to replenish our pantry for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately I didn't find any money.  Today wasn't very productive in the shed but fortunately I did get some time yesterday.
 
I started by machining the wedge angles on the edges of the rudder frame outer thickening pieces. I used a block of wood to hold the pieces on the mill at the correct angle, the angle being set using a bit of trigonometry. I don't have one of those clever little digital angle gauges but sometimes the old methods work perfectly well. You can see in the picture that the thickening pieces are screwed to the wood,  but what is less apparent is that they are set in a cut out which supports them on 3 sides. I decided that relying on the screws alone probably wouldn't have worked. 

I machined both thickening pieces without removing the wooden block from the vice - thus ensuring that the wedge angles on the 2 thickening pieces were identical.

Using a similar technique I machined the other two wedge angles with a different block set at a different angle. You can also see that I used the central piece as a template for scribing on the final internal shape of the thickening pieces.

Then it was back to the jewellers saw to cut out the internal shape. I still hadn't ordered the coarse saw blades so inevitably it took longer than it should have with more breakages. Old fools never learn!

I then machined on the final chamfers on the little nib on the left hand side in the above shot. The three pieces were then assembled together using the small brass locating pins.


The assembly was held together with stainless steel clothes pegs and flux, solder and heat were applied to turn the three pieces into one. Apologies for the messy soldering, I was rushing a bit.

The good news is that it cleaned up quite well.

Now I have to cut the bottom profile which of course is now 0.3" thick and well beyond the wildest aspirations of my little jewellers saw. I need a different plan.
 
 

Exactly so!
 
Back to boats:-
 
I did a bit of pencil and paper draughting and dimensioned up the centres for cutting the various circles that will eventually form the core of the frame.
 

I then glued the template to the brass sheet and mounted it on the mill.
 
The various diameters of circular features were then cut with a step drill.

At this stage I also drilled location holes for pinning the thickened sections of the frame in position (red arrow). These were drilled in a location that would subsequently be removed.

I then started sawing away the unwanted parts of the frame. I didn't have coarse enough jewellers saw blade but I ploughed on anyway, taking an excessive amount of time and breaking an excessive number of blades. I really must listen to my own mental advice in future and put stuff aside until I have the correct tools to hand.

Anyway - some time later:-

Next a bit of filing:-

Then the 2 thickening plates were cut and drilled with 4 holes. The lower pair of holes match the location pins in the central frame piece (pins already inserted in the photo).

The upper pair of holes are for retaining screws to clamp the ticketing plates for later machining operations. They are also in the scrap area and will be cut away later.

Now back to moaning about planned obsolescence. 🙂

I'm nearly at the end hull sanding.


I just needed to build up the keel slightly.

I also needed to get the transom to the correct shape and "fix" the shape by attaching a pre-shaped piece of ply. Shaping the ply took a bit of fiddling with card templates but eventually I sorted it.


I have had enough woodworking for a while so I am now figuring out how to make rudder post.


I plan to make this out of brass. The key complication is that the lower portion (red arrows) is somewhat thicker than the remainder of the frame surrounding the screw. I plan to fabricate it out of 3 pieces of 0.1" brass plate.

In drawing the yellow is the 0.1" portion while the orange is the thickened 0.3" portion.