Dziadeczek

Hi Martin, I don't know about any Czech shipmodeling book, but for a beginner I would recommend three (at least), all in English: - Wolfram zu Mondfeld - Frank Mastini - Milton Roth (the last one is a little dated now, as far as sources of materials, but still valuable as far as some modeling techniques) And there is a bunch of other, more advanced books depending on the specific topic, like rigging, planking, armament, sewing (sails), etc... Plus, you have many monographies describing in detail a specific ship. The best however source of info, I think, is still this Forum, and in addition you have your native (Czech) speaking forum, where among the others, famous Doris Obrucova belongs to. (I don't have their link at the moment - check archival posts.) Greetings, Thomas

That's not a round house, that's a capstan, at least per MS plans.

I made mine from ebony, but later on I decided to paint them with an iron-looking paint, because the ebony looked too much like 'ebony' and not enough like iron. So, any hardwood should be OK, provided that you paint them afterwards with flat black paint. Greetings, Thomas

I have this one by Crepin.

This is a corner of a sail from the "Star of India" in San Diego.

I am sure there are many different ways to do it and some members will explain their techniques, but I do it in the following faschion: I use a very thin cotton fabric for my sails, instead of silkspan. I found it in my local fabric store (www.moodfabrics,com) a fabric known as cotton muslin, already factory coloured into a nice cream (eggshell) color - perfect for sails, so I don't need to color it by myself. It is used primarilly for linings for suits or similar. But my model is in 1:48 scale, so this muslin is barely thin enough for my sails. It might be too thick for your model though, if your scale is smaller. I wanted to show all sewn details of my sails, and I feared that silkspan, being soooo thin and delicate, would not allow this... After preparing my sails in the traditional way, I attach (glue) to their edges a bolt rope, making sure that it isn't attached to the edge of a sail, but instead it lays ON the edge, on the AFT side of the sail. After the glue (white glue like Elmer's), slightly diluted with water, has dried, I sew the rope with a very thin needle and thin thread of almost the same (only slightly darker) color that the sail itself, like on the attached pic. I found out that if I leave the rope only glued there, it has a tendency to split from the sail, if you manipulate it with your fingers. Sewing it, reinforces the bond and secures it. It is an extremely tedious and time consuming process (if you think, tying ratlines is tedious, think again!), I work with magnifier Optivisor and have a thimble on my finger to push the needle through the slightly stiffened (by glue) fabric. I place the sail on a rubber mat, like yours, but on top of that mat I place a piece of ordinary cardboard and only then I place my sail on top of it. The cardboard allows me to push the needle through the rope and the sail and a bit more (perhaps 2 to 3 mm - the thicknes of cardboard) on the other side. It is easier than, to push it all the way through. I sew through the middle of the rope and through the sail, just perhaps 1 mm from its edge. After the sewing, the thread is nearly invisible, only from a very close distance, say a few cm, similar to full size sails.

There is available a very good little brochure by David Antscherl on making model sails from silkspan, if you decide to use this medium.

The best and most detailed rigging I have ever seen on a model!!! 😃 👍

And this one is from Harland.

This is from Lees "TheMasting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625-1860". It all looks rather complicated, perhaps for your model you might simplify it a bit...

Perhaps it is a bonnet, which is a piece of canvas that is laced together with the rest of a sail to make it bigger. That part you encircled in red might symbolize that lacing.

Awesome!!! Thanks so much for everything! Thomas

How do you subsequently carve those reliefs in styrene? I am curious about the process, so, could you please, attach a couple of pics of your tools and the process showing it? Thanks! Thomas

Yes, definitely! I always stretch my ropes just after they are twisted and removed from the ropewalk. Grab both ends with your hands and give the rope a stretch, until it is no longer 'springy'. Cotton ropes (especially longer ones on larger models) will in time stretch a bit, even after your pre stretching, due to changing weather and humidity in the air. For running rigging, it perhaps would be a desirable effect - looser, hanging ropes looking more natural, but for standing rigging (like shrouds or stays) not so much. So, you'll have to mount those rather tightly on the model, (but not too tight otherwise you might break the topmasts, or bend them excessively. )

If you make a rope from right hand twisted threads, your rope will be a left hand twisted type. If that's what you want, it is OK. But, as you'll notice, majority of ropes on a ship, are right hand type ropes, so you'll need left hand twisted threads in order to obtain right hand type rope from them. Always, the opposite - left hand type threads give right hand type rope, and vice versa. In my case, I had some right hand factory twisted threads (see pics), so I had to 'untwist' them on my ropewalk to obtain left hand twist on them, and then further continue left hand twist on them in order to finally obtain right hand twist rope.

A while ago I bought some cotton cordonnet thread by Lizbeth - for crocheting, tatting and knitting purposes. I bought two sizes, nr. 40 and nr. 80 - just to experiment a bit with twisting model ropes from it, since it appears that the French DMC no longer makes theirs excellent threads, as well as the German Anchor bid the dust too. This thread already comes pre singed by a gas flame, so the fuzz is greatly reduced (for all those who for some reason are unable or unwilling to do it by themselves). It is made in China, but from an excellent Egyptian cotton, even, with long fibres, with no knots and unevenness. First trials turned out surprisingly well. The ropes came nice and even, the residual fuzz was eliminated by running the ropes through bees wax and burning it away. One other thing - pretty much all threads nowadays come as right hand twisted in factory, so, in order to obtain right hand twisted ropes from them, I had first to 'untwist' the factory twist and continue twisting threads on my ropewalk, to end up with right hand twisted ropes. But, that did not seem to be a problem... Here are some pics.

Years ago I built a worktable (workbench) from plans in The Family Handyman magazine. It is very functional, serves me well through all those years, it is easy to clean and its size can be adopted to your space. Main advantage is that it doesn't have legs (it is permanently bolted into a wall, so cleaning junk from underneath is easy. Also, it is easy to sit close to it, with my legs under the drawers. The disadvantage is that it cannot be moved and/or taken away into a different location. It is permanent in its dedicated space. Here is a link to my earlier post (#3 there)

Hi Waldemar, That was exactly my understanding (English version of the book shows exactly the same), but I wanted for someone else to confirm it. I did exactly, like you suggested. Wrapped the parrel rope ends twice around the yard and tied them together crossing them in front of it. No falls whatsoever. Still, I am doubtful that they did not have a possibility to loosen/tighten it somewhat, when necessary... Thanks again! Thomas

Thank you Mark, for your post. Yes, I have the book you mentioned. Before I wrote my question, I checked it. Among many details of rigging explained by Mr. Frolich, I unfortunately did not find sufficient explanation on their parrel. I need something like this, a drawing or a photo, showing where the lines (ropes) go. See post # 187 Unfortunately it shows a Dutch parrel, and a double one too. Perhaps the French one was similar, I don't know. And Mr. Boudriot doesn't show this detail in sufficiently clear way... Thanks again, Mark! Regards, Thomas

Does anybody have a good illustration, perhaps a picture or a drawing showing the exact way of rigging to the French parrel for my 74 gun ship model? J. Boudriot in his vol. 3, page 160 doesn't explain this very clearly and his drawings, being very small and sketchy, don't show the parrel-ropes exactly how they should run. At least, I am not getting it... It looks like this triple row truck-and-rib parrels (identical for both topsail yards, the Fore and the Main) differ quite a lot in their rigging from English practices and, frankly, to me, don't make much sense. I am not seeing, for example, their falls explained, how they run and how this parrel was loosened and tightened? Any help will be very appreciated. Thomas

Aha! Everything clear now! MANY THANKS!!! 🙂

Fantastic workmanship! I am intrigued by this "cannula" of yours. Can you, in a couple of sentences elaborate, how exactly you use it? I see that it is a medical needle of sorts, mounted in a wooden handle. Do you pass its sharp end through the bight of the rope and then feed the end of your rope into the channel of this needle and finally pass this through the rope? Or else? Regards, Thomas

For my French 74 g. ship, I built the transom of my longboat from individual horizontal planks, following J. Boudriot.

Slight degree of edge bending with heat of pre wetted planks is possible, so either side is OK for spiling, the top or the bottom.