Glenn-UK

Now that I have completed the Duchess of Kingston build the shipyard required a good tidy up ready for the next occupant.

A selection of tools have been layout out in readiness for the Cutter Alert

The Cutter Alert has now moved into the shipyard and is ready for the hull assembly phase.

I do like to test fit parts to see if there are any potential problems. When fitting the inner, middle and outer stern frames to bulkhead 10 and 9 there did seem a slight alignment issue with the two outer stern frames, as shown in the photo below.

With a little bit of gentle persuasion the outer stern frames could be fitted in the bulkhead 9 slots.

The first task is to bevel the top edge of bulkhead 10 so it follows the same angle as the top edge of the keel. With the stern frames positioned in bulkhead 10 I marked the position of top edge of the keel on bulkhead 10 to make the sanding task easier.

Using my sanding stick it did not take too much effort to shape the top of bulkhead 10. As can be seen in the photo below the edge between the two inner stern frames still requires a tad more sanding.

Looking very good.  It is another master class of your building skills.

6 minutes ago, BobG said:

She's a gorgeous model and you created a wonderful build log to boot! Congratulations, Glenn, I've enjoyed following along. 

Thank you Bob

15 minutes ago, gjdale said:

Congratulations on completing a fine build. It has been a pleasure to follow your progress. 

Thank you Grant

20 minutes ago, KirbysLunchBox said:

Beautiful job!  

Thank you

1 hour ago, Edwardkenway said:

Great job Glenn,  such a beautiful looking ship, been a joy to watch!

Thank you Edward

1 hour ago, usedtosail said:

A beautiful build Glenn. I too will be referring to your build log when I start this kit later this year.

Thank you. Enjoy your build like I have.

4 minutes ago, ccoyle said:

Top-shelf work, Glenn!

Thanks

11 minutes ago, Ryland Craze said:

Beautiful model.  Congratulations on finishing your build.  I have enjoyed following your build log.

Thank you Ryland

19 minutes ago, Kevin said:

lovely build, its been a pleasure to follow your progress

Thank you Kevin

39 minutes ago, DelF said:

Well done Glenn. You must be justifiably proud of a fine model. 
 

Derek

Thanks Derek. I am very pleased. I have learnt so much in building this model. Your Soeedy log helped me a great deal.

52 minutes ago, James H said:

Well done! Very nice result 😎

Thanks Jim, it is a nice model, thankfully only I am fully aware of all the errors.

9 minutes ago, bolin said:

Very nice. Your build log will be of great value and inspiration when I get to building my DoK kit.

Many thanks, enjoy the build it is a fantastic model to build.

Just now, chris watton said:

Well done Glenn, you did a splendid job!

Many thanks Chris

Cutter Alert up next

3 minutes ago, VTHokiEE said:

Nice job, congratulations on completing her! She looks great!

Many thanks

All things must come to an end and today I finally completed my build of The Duchess Of Kingston. This has been a very enjoyable project and many thanks to Chris Watton for an excellent design.

I have made plenty of mistakes during the build and it is fair to say that there is still plenty of room for improvement especially with my rigging.

I have ordered a display case which will delivered in about 4 weeks time.

I have taken a few photos of my completed build.

The completed build

Another view

Stern Windows

Main Window

More Windows and Steps

Cabin Doors

Helm

Midships Deck

Bow Deck Section

Figurehead

Wishing your wife a speedy recovery.

The end of the build is now in sight. Today I finished belaying the yard lifts. It is extremely difficult to belay to the main mast bitts aft belaying rail due to the very limited access. I managed it with a few cheats, mainly using ca gel to hold the thread in place at times.

I have also added the fore yard braces, so all that is left is the main mast and mizzen mast yard braces and the anchor.

It has been a productive day the ship yard. As indicated in a previous post the seizing on the block at the end of the bowsprit for the fore topgallant stay had failed. My first task this morning was to remove the stay rigging and to refasten the block to the end of the bowsprit. Once this was done I was able to run in a new piece of thread for the fore topgallant stay.

Next I moved on to adding the yard lifts. I was surprised how much progress I have made in this respect today. All the fore yard lifts have been fully rigged and belayed.

The main yard lifts and the mizzen yard lifts have also been fully rigged but they have not, as yet, been belayed.

This is a picture showing the fore yard lifts. When belaying the foreyard I noticed I had failed to fit the two cleats to the inner bulwarks. It was a bit awkward to fit then at this late stage but thankfully I was able to get them glued on place. 

This next picture shows all the yard lifts, and the un-belayed threads for main and mizzen yards can be seen. They have been threaded down the masts toward their respective belaying pins. It is now simple a matter of a slightly adjusting the tension in each of the lifts when setting the yards square to the masts before the ends are belayed.

Once I have belayed the main and mizzen yard lifts, all that is left to do is to add the various yard braces and then to finally to add the anchor. With a fair wind I hope to complete the Duchess of Kingston build within the next couple of weeks. I have also started to look a suitable display case for this model.

On one of the most popular quiz shows on TV last week there was a round where the answers all ended with the letters QUE. One of the question was:

" A name given to a sailing ship, typically with three masts, in which the foremast and mainmast are square-rigged and the mizzenmast is rigged fore and aft."

My wife look at me expectantly waiting for me to show off my depth of knowledge. Sadly I could not offer an answer so she said what about BARQUE as an answer, as she had once heard of a ship called the Bark Endeavour. My humiliation was complete as BARQUE turned out to be the correct answer.

Progress has been a bit slower than expected over the last few days. All the yards have now been secured to the masts as can be seen in the picture below. IJN Yamato and Speedy are in the background.

I have almost completed adding the jeers, I only have the mizzen lateen yard and mizzen topsail yard jeers to complete. These jeers have been rigged and just waiting for me to be belay them.

In the picture below I was setting the position of the mizzen latten yard and getting the correct tension and position of the central block arrangement. The two tail threads have not been rigged through the blocks at this stage but are held under tension using a couple of reverse action twezzers.

In the next picture the two tail threads have now been rigged through the blocks and are now ready to be belayed to their respective cleats.

Thanks Rusty

Even when lines seem clear they become magically crossed during the belaying process.

I have now completed securing the yards to the foremast and rigging the jeers. As this work progressed there was a high number of mistakes, many of which have been reworked to fix but some are to remain. I have found this to be a very difficult task to get right. I lost count of the number of times the jeer threads seemed to get wrapped around the various stays.

First of here is couple of pictures of the yards in place

This picture shows the foreyard jeer blocks

This picture shows the fore topmast jeers

The parrel beads rigged to the top gallant yard

Finally the top gallant yard jeer rigged to the yard and fed through the topgallant mast hole.

10 hours ago, DelF said:

Good work Glenn. Great to see you working through the challenges. Just a thought though - isn’t that line in the last shot running rigging, not black standing rigging?

 

Derek

Hello Derek

The plan does call for 0.5mm natural thread. Thread has now been replaced. Thanks Derek.

Whilst working on securing the yards to the foremast I noticed the fore topgallant stay had become very slack. On further inspection I discovered the 3mm block at the end of the bowsprit had suffered a seizing failure. Fortunately this will be as simple task to remove the stay rigging and to then replace.

Picture of the failed block seizing failure, there must be a touch of ca still holding the block in place.

Work on securing the yards to the masts and rigging the jeers is very slow going at the moment. I have been learning from the errors made and refining my methods as I work on the foremast yards. Hopefully adding the the main and mizzen mast yards will be smoother and quicker.

The fore yard has two jeers, each jeer arrangement comprising a 4mm double block and a 3mm single block. Each jeer rigging thread is secured to the loop at the end of the yard 3mm block before being fed through the first hole on the 4mm double block and then fed back through the 3mm single block, back through the other hole on the 4mm double block and belayed on the deck.

This is a picture of the fore yard which shows one of the two jeer block arrangement. I found this particularly difficult to rig, but with a little patience and perseverance I eventually managed to complete the task.

I did find adding the truck and ribs when securing the fore top yard to the fore mast very frustrating initially. On my first attempt all the truck beads and ribs dropped off both threads. I did let out a shout in annoyance at my poor workmanship skills and my wife came through to see if I was OK as she thought I had hurt myself.

The second attempt was much better and I was able to install without too many issues. Yes I did forget to fit the final rib but I am not going to redo the work as I do not think it will be noticed when the DOK is fully rigged.

Adding the fore top mast jeers is still work in progress. There are two threads required. Each thread is tied to either side of the top mast middle crosstree and they are then fed through the 4mm double block on the yard. They are then fed up back up the other side and each are fed through a 3mm single block. Each free end is then secured to a loop at the end of a 2 x 3mm block assembly which is allows the jeer to be belayed in two places, via a hook and pin arrangement.

In the picture below the first 0.5mm black thread has been rigged through the double 4mm jeer block and associated 3mm single block and the free end is ready to be belayed to the deck. The other jeer rigging thread will be added in the morning.

Looking great