catopower

Forward, Back, Cha Cha Cha... That's the kind of dance it's been the past couple days on this project. I made the standing portion of the vangs. Are these pendants? Anyway, made all four of them with 8mm fiddle blocks stropped in their ends. Then, I realized that I didn't rig them with beckets. Had to redo all four... 😖 Today, I fixed the issue, cut away the temporary line I had in place of the vangs, and rigged the vangs. All looks good. They're not permanently in place, since I may have to remove the gaff when I rig the sails. During this last step, the stropping of one of the double blocks (the very last one I was working with, of course) gave way, so I had to remove the eyebolt for that block. It didn't want to come out, but finally did. I destroyed the eyebolt in the process, so had to replace it and re-strop the block to it before finishing up... three-four... cha cha cha... Now, I'm all set to get to work on the sails. They're basically cut and ready to finish up. More on that next time.

Flag work aside, and with all the main detail work done, I finally made some progress on rigging.

In my own experience, contact cement has worked fine for attaching wood veneer planking, and I think it will continue to do so. If working with thicker planking, I would use PVA and a little CA glue. But, there is very little hold necessary for veneer planking. It's not like a countertop or shoe that has to stand up to decades of abuse. Never seen contact cement bond fail. But, that's just me.

Hi Gregory, for the folds, it's hard for me to describe. It's basically a matter of holding the mounting edge tight, while pulling down on the top edge of the flag. I start closest to the mounting edge. I guess the trick is to fold back and forth, just keeping in mind how gravity keeps pulling down on it, while the wind is trying to push out on it. Because it's plain paper, it keeps its shape pretty well. I haven't decided yet just how windy the conditions are for the ship! On the tissue paper, yes, I taped it to a plain sheet. Did that a couple times. The way my printer, a Canon IX6820, feeds, it doesn't feed it evenly, and I end up with a crumpled mess. I might try again in the future, but for now I'm pretty happy the way the single-thickness plain paper is turning out.

Made my first attempt at printing flags on tissue paper and couldn't get the paper to not jam up in the printer ☹️ I was able to print on regular paper and thought about folding them over, but I know how thick that ends up. Decided to see how good the alignment consistency is on my printer. Turns out, if I'm careful and have the images perfectly centered, I can print one side, flip the paper over, and print on the other, and it's pretty darned close. I have three usable flags done this way now, and just the pendant left. I don't have any artwork for that flag, so I'll have to draw it up from scratch. Pretty basic, so it shouldn't take that long to do. I only folded the flag above. I didn't try to wet it at all. I'm not sure of the colorfastness of this ink. I'm using some cheap third-party ink, so I think I have to spray this with something to keep the colors from running. But, I'm not sure if that's just going to make the whole flag itself waterproof, and prevent me from using water to shape it. It probably doesn't matter, as I think the flags will shape nicely, even without wetting them. The one thing I forgot about is the white edge of the paper. It's just like paper modeling, one needs to color the edge to take off the bright white color. Note that I tried to give the above flag some texture, but I made it a bit too wrinkly. I'll keep that in mind for the final flags.

Hi Patrick, thanks for the link! That's exactly what I've been thinking of doing. I hope I can get my flags to look as nice as yours!

Didn't get any feedback on my questions from my last post, but I'm moving on now. Looking at the flags in this Mamoli/Dusek kit. They appear to be printed nylon. They're not really dissimilar from the flags in the Woody Joe Charles Royal Yacht kit, but those flags could be shaped quite nicely. These don't seem to hold my attempts at shaping. I've found what I think is appropriate artwork on the Internet, so I'm considering printing the flags on my color inkjet printer. I think I want to print both sides of the flag and fold over and glue. I'm considering trying to print on silkspan if I can get that to work. Any suggestions on how to do that successfully? I just don't want them to be look too thick. I just noticed that the first flag is truncated slightly on the left side. I think I can fix that without too much trouble. Alternatively, anyone know of a source for the needed flags?

Still working on finishing up my "inherited" Yacht Mary build. It's actually been nice working on wooden ship models for a bit. I'm now waiting for an order I place with Syren Ship Model Company, so I thought I'd pick up a little side task that's related to this HMS Wolf build. Specifically, I've been playing around with my AnyCubic Photon Ultra. This is a dip resin printer, for those that know about these things. I got mine a couple years ago. I don't use it a lot, particularly since I don't really know much in the way of 3D CAD work, but I've acquired some 3D print files for some figures that should go well with HMS Wolf. I printed them out prior to the weekend, and I've been trying to modify them a little and paint some of them. HMS Wolf, being a brig should be commanded by a Lieutenant with a midshipman as an assistant. So, below, I painted what I believe is the correct uniform for a lieutenant, shown on the right side of the photo below. To his left is his midshipman, then petty officer and sailor. Not too happy showing photos of the figures, as they look much better to me by my unaided eyes. It's been a long time since I've done much miniature figure painting, and I did a LOT back in the 80's. So, these are 1/72 scale. Hopefully, these uniforms are right. I'll be painting a handful of sailors as well. Haven't decided how many figures I would put on the model, but I think it will be nice to have a few for scale reference.

I guess I'm a bit late here. Given the small scale (1/8" scale, correct?), have you considered just "faking" the beckets by using your halliard to strop the block and then continuing it on to run through whatever tackle it's part of? That's what I do when I have a becket block that's too small for a real becket (blocks maybe 1/8" or smaller). Let me know if that makes sense.

I agree that the Vanguard Models Sherbourne should be a great way to enter the hobby. And, as I DO have a connection with them 😉, I should mention that Ages of Sail, just down the coast from you is a Vanguard Models dealer. You'll find the prices, plus free domestic shipping (any order of $150 or more), and proximity of shipper should give you the best experience. Just sayin'! Welcome aboard, in any case Duane!

Thanks Druxey. Nothing like a snugged up rudder. It's so nice to look at the model and not be instantly drawn to that huge gap! Well, I'm turning my attention to the rigging now. I've already simplified the rigging of the topsail and spreader yard, based on the great photos and paintings people have contributed. Now, I'm looking at the rigging of the gaff and mainsail. Below is from the Mamoli kit drawings. My plan is to make some small modifications based on the photos of the Utrecht replica. Special thanks to Gregory and Patrick(Baker) for the painting and Utrecht images. 1. I'm going to replace this block(Fiddle block?) with a single sheave block attached at the gaff. 2. This brail block will be moved down the gaff slightly. 3. This brail block will be move down and replaced with a double block, so the brail from block 2 will pass through and down to the deck. 4. No need for this extra block, since block 3 will have a pretty clear path down to the belaying points at the deck. Something else I noticed about the Utrecht replica and wondering about this on the Mary, is the lack of ratlines on the shrouds. It's been my plan to rattle down the shrouds. But, there's really no need for anyone to climb up the mast, except maybe a lookout. In the following excerpt from Ab Hoving's new book "Dutch 17th Century Ship Models in Paper", he shows another state yacht with no ratlines. Since this is essentially what the Mary was, would it have been without ratlines? Or, being a ship of the British Royal Navy, would they have added ratlines? I'm not quite at the stage where I have to worry about the ratlines, but we're getting very close. Any thoughts? Oh, and in the meantime, I decided to practice working with my laser cutter to make the 5-hole deadeye for the mainstay. I think this one is large enough, but I made parts for a slightly larger one. I guess I'll go ahead and make that one and see which looks better.

Thanks Patrick, John! I'm much happier with the appearance now. De-bugged, indeed! Meanwhile, since I was in the process of trying out the gun tackles, I went ahead and just rigged them all. Was a bit of a challenge with only a small amount of cursing. During the process of making the gun tackles, I'd managed to lose a couple blocks to the rug monster. Later, I decided to hunt around for scattered debris. Interestingly enough, I not only found the blocks I'd lost, but two other, larger blocks, that I didn't recall losing. And then, most important of all, the yellow item on the right side of the photo below. That's one of two sweep port lids, from my as yet unfinished HMS Wolf model, that I didn't realize I'd lost! 🤣 It's now safely in storage for when I return to work on that model. Hopefully, that will be sometime late next month.

A minor update, but fairly significant for the model. Today, I got sick of the enormous gap between the sternpost and rudder and I clipped off the pintles and just pinned the rudder into place. I think it makes the model look a whole lot better! Yes, it's not perfect, and you can see one of the pins if you look closely. But, I'm not striving for perfection here. I'm just going for a better appearance, and I think this works. Now, I can move on to other things, as this is the last item that just bugged me!

Hi Glen, Here are the pics, for what they're worth. The model scale wasn't specified, or at least I never saw it. It's a pretty good sized model, 1.4 meters long. It's an interesting model. But, models in Japanese museum models are often very so-so in accuracy, I've found. They're often there just to give people things to look at. Scale can be way off. In fact, in this same museum, there's a nice model of a Japanese Edo period warship. It has figures on it in one size, and then a giant figure sitting in a chair on it, depicting the daimyo, or clan leader. Probably not much here you can use, but they're interesting to look at... Of course, the term Kentoushi-sen is rather generic, and could refer to different ship designs that were all used as envoy ships at some point. Anyway, as you know, very little information regarding Japanese ships before the Edo period was documented. Most documentation seems to consist of an ancient scroll painting, and maybe a brief description. But your model looks like it's coming along swimmingly, and I'm enjoying watching your progress!

Ah, got it. I do seem to recall something about this. Well, for those waiting, I hope the kits make it into production!

This is way too late to be of use to the original poster, but last I checked, the Clyde Leavitt plans were available from Taubmans Plan Service, now part of Loyalhanna Dockyard. It's been a long time since I've dealt with this place, so I don't know if they're even still in business. But, their website is still up, and they do list the Clyde Leavitt plans. Also, with all due respect to the responders here, but Gerard DID say up front that he knew the ship described by Davis was NOT the Lexington, and was still interested in building it anyway. And, it really IS a sweet looking ship!

Hi Black Dog, Not at all the same thing. Amati Prince DID reach the market a LONG time ago. It's just now out of production. But, the plans and all the fittings are available, even if you can't find the kit second-hand anymore. A couple years ago, I managed to acquire one with the hull already with first layer of planking. Some fittings were missing, but it was easy to order replacements for those. I hope to take this on sometime in the not TOO distant future (= a year or two away). I also bought a new set of plans, to make sure I had a good, complete set. These kits are out there, but you do have to get your name out there for people to find you when they're dealing with clearing out old kit stashes.

Gary, I just discovered this build log. I love that you're taking on an A.J. Fisher kit. I've ordered plans from them over the years, and always meant to try out one of their kits, but never got around to it. I've built a few solid hull ship models, but gave up on solid hull kits after building a couple. Now, I feel I'm being drawn back to them again. Seeing your build is making it more likely that I'll try building a solid hull kit again soon. Wonderful work and very inspiring!

Okay, I broke down and started rigging the gun tackles on the Mary's cannons. The way I'm building her, she'll only need six guns. And, given that at this scale, they're not too tiny, that's about as easy a rigging job as there could be. It's not going to get any easier in the future, and perhaps this will help me decide if and how I can rig the guns on my smaller HMS Wolf model. First, in order to mount the guns securely, I've been pinning them to the deck. In this case, a sewing pin cut off and inserted into a hole I drilled into the bottom of the gun carriage. Don't ask me why I chose sewing pins and not just some brass rod. The pins are a hard steel and hard to cut. I tested out each gun in position, to locate where I need to drill a hole in the deck. Note that they don't line up quite right, but that's because the locations of the gunport in the hull are off slightly. But, that's the way it was built, and it's not actually very obvious. Then, test fitting each one. This particular gun gave me the most trouble. I don't think the carriage is quite square. I'll probably shorten the pins a little. Some are longer than they need to be. They seem pretty well hidden underneath those carriages, and then definitely keep the guns solidly in place. Now, I'm in the process of rigging the gun tackles. I'm using Chuck's 3/32" 3D printed blocks. To be safe, I drilled out the holes with a #78 bit, which worked well, and allows me to pass a his .008" Ultra rope through it pretty easily. I decided to do a simplified job of it, using no hooks, just tying the strop through the eyebolts. I don't have a photo of them, but I have double-blocks stropped through eyebolts that will be attached to the bulwarks. Oh, and I realize that this particular gun is missing the trunnion caps. That's because it was one of two "spares" I decided not to use. Then, during the rigging process, one of the eyebolts got stuck and broke off. So, I just put one of these spares back into service. It'll get it's trunnion caps shortly. My work schedule changed today, and I think I may actually have enough spare time today and tonight to complete these! 🤞

I FINALLY made some progress on setting up the shrouds on the Mary. I find this to be a lot of work and am usually much happier when I get to the part where I can just mindlessly tie clove hitches for the ratlines. Took me quite a while to be happy with the work I was doing, first seizing the shrouds around the mast head, then adding the deadeyes, and then seizing them into place. This was a good project for easing back into this process, since there are only four shroud pairs total. Note that the shroud lanyards are not yet secured, since the setup is only temporary, to make sure everything lines up okay. The slight variation in the line of upper deadeyes should mostly go away when I secure the lanyards. They're still loose enough to cause that bit of variation. This is also kind of a practice run for rigging the shrouds on my HMS Wolf card model, which is currently on hold, but I'll be getting back to shortly. All the rigging here is Syren's Ultra Scale Rope, and the deadeyes are also Syren's 3D printed swiss pear colored resin deadeyes. It's been a while since I made my own chain plates of this type, and stropped deadeyes with them. I had to handle and work the parts a lot to adjust the fit, which is why so much of the blackening has worn off the deadeye strops. I'll get back to working on my technique in future builds. While I was working on the model, I also decided to secure the anchors and run the hawsers around the windlass and down the chain pipes. The cat heads were made by my predecessor and had only one sheave, so I had to get a little creative with the rigging of the tackle. I think it works okay. The more I work on the model, and the closer it gets to completion, the more that rudder gap bugs me. I'm getting closer to the point where I'll probably just cut off the hinges, and pin the rudder into place. I hope to have the model done by the next meeting of the South Bay Model Shipwrights in Santa Clara. We had our most recent meeting this past Saturday. This month's was a small gathering, but we meet in a rather small meeting room anyway, so it wasn't crowded. I didn't really make that much progress on the model since the last meeting, so I decided to leave it at home and bring something that would hopefully inspire me to get back to. Below, you can see my 1/72 HMS Wolf model, sitting in front of a 1/72 Master Korabel kit of the Russian tender Avos. There's also a 1/72 Disar kit of l'Hermione, the French 32-gun Condorde-class frigate. And in the second photo is a USS Constitution cross section, and the Spanish treasure ship, Nuestra Seniora del Pilar de Zaragoza. Anyway, next, I will need to come to a decision on the rigging of the Mary's cannons. There are only 6 or 8 guns depending on what information source you use, so it shouldn't be TOO bad. But, I've been having such a hard time working with the small blocks needed to rig the gun tackles. Wish me luck...

And, I still really love the lines of that ship, whatever it actually is!

When I first began ship modeling, more than 30 years ago (!), I had the Davis books in paperback and tried building the Lexington. Having never built a wooden ship model before, I wasn't up to the task, lacking skills and knowledge, so it was a failed attempt. In fact, I don't think I got very far at all before I realized this was way too much for me at that time. I think it could be done if you have the plan set, but there may be easier or more well documented methods of building up a framed model from scratch. Also, it's been argued for decades how that ship is very unlikely to actually represent the Lexington. So, you should just be aware of that.

Glen, I'm really happy to see someone taking an interest in Japanese watercraft, and your Kentoshi-sen is looking great! I've been focussing my own study of Japanese boats to mostly coastal and river craft, so I don't know much about the oceangoing vessels of the earlier periods. There seems to be much less info on those. I recognized the term Kentoshi-sen, but don't know much about them. However, I do recall seeing a model at the Sea Folk museum in Toba, Japan, and I have a couple photos I took of it, if you're interested. A bit different from this one, though, and I don't know what information it was based on.

Congratulations Tim on a beautiful build! Very inspirational. I haven't built a solid hull model in at least 10 years. You're making me think it's time to take one on again, and I've always had an interest in this particular ship and kit... 🤔

The next issue on the Mary is to fix the positioning of these fittings that work like cleats or kevels. Does anybody know the proper term for these Dutch belaying points? These fittings were mounted so low on the bulwarks that there was no room to wrap lines around them. I had to debond the glue that was used on them, which was some kind of rubbery adhesive. It made them easy to remove, but left a lot of rubbery glue spots and some hard to remove residue on the model. I did what I could and re-attached the fittings with thick CA glue. This allowed me to finally rig the lines for hauling up the lee boards. Rope coils to come later. Looking ahead at rigging the vangs, I noted that an image of the Utrecht reconstruction showed small pin rails at the bulwarks, aft. So, I added those to the Mary. I didn't have a whole lot of room to do this, as the forward wall of the stern cabin is about an 1/8" further forward than the plans show. This was an adjustment made by the original modeler. Made the spacing a little tighter, but I think the new pin rails should be okay.