Glenn-UK

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.

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

A good couple of days work in the shipyard where I have added all the blocks and stirrups to various yards. It seemed a never ending task of seizing blocks and then securing them to the yards. All the yards have now been painted black and they are ready to be be rigged. The fore yard has been tied in place and I'm currently in the process of rigging the two jeers which is proving to be very fiddley. On a side note there has been an addition to the shipyard with a gift from my sister in law. The boat shape planter was made by a local craftsman and will look resplendent once it has been filled with some hanging basket bedding plants in the next few weeks.

She is really coming together now, you are doing an amazing build.

Thanks Derek My original Speedy build is dead in the water as I made far to many mistakes. It was a fun build and I learnt so much about building these models. I might build a new Speedy at some stage depending on what new designs Chris comes up with. My next two projects will be the Cutter Alert and then the Sphinx.

Thanks, I hope to start rigging the yards in the next couple of days

Work has progress well on the manufacture of the various yards. All the mizzen mast yards are fully complete and are now ready for rigging. The main and foremast yards are made and they are now ready for the blocks to be added and then will be painted black, noting I have already painted the two topgallant yards. I have also added a pin to each yard so I could dry fitted them to the masts. This gives me a an idea of how the Duchess Of Kingston will look when fully rigged, it looks very impressive. I have attached a picture, noting the yards are only pinned so they are a bit wonky, especially the fore top gallant yard. I do really like how the Duchess Of Kingston now looks. My completed IJN Yamato model can be seen in the background as is my partially built Speedy which I had to abandon due to my many errors in the rigging.

Hello John Many thanks for you kind comments. Glenn

Hello Derek Many thanks for your very kind comments. There are a few flaws as I continue to learn and adapt my methods so I can enhance my rigging skills. Overall I am very pleased with how the Duchess has turned out so far.

I have now finished rigging all the masts which for me is a major milestone completed. I will now be moving on adding the yards to the masts however I have to finish making all the yards before they can be pinned to the masts which should keep me busy for the next few days. Here are some pictures of the completed mast rigging. Sorry this picture is a bit of out of focus

Thanks Rusty

Thanks Bob My pictures do not show the model in the best light or the justice it deserves. It is a excellent model and full credit must go to Chris Watton for his design work and quality of materials. Also many thanks to Jim Hatch for his build log for the prototype which has been essential reading.

I have continued to make good progress with the rigging phase of the Duchess of Kingston. All the shrouds, lanyards and ratlines have now been installed. All the stays have been rigged apart from the 3 off required for the fore topgallant mast which I plan to add in the morning. I have provided some pictures of the current stay of play. Once I have added the fore topgallant stays I can move on to rigging the 9 yards (three per mast) and then finally the anchor. I am expecting to spend 2 or 3 days per mast (famous last words) so hopefully the Duchess will be completed within the next 3 to 4 weeks

Great work Derek, your Speedy build is looking amazing.

The build is coming along very nicely. Very impressed with both your speed and workmanship with this build.

I use a spray can of primer which is designed for photo etched parts. I gave a quick spray over and was not too bothered about the inner strips for this part as the skylight was cleaned in acetone prior to adding the primers. The red paint was applied with a paint brush to the skylight without any issues. The finished part will get a thin coat of polyurethane varnish to protect it.

Currently I am adding the ratlines to the foremast shrouds. This is a task I really like doing. I decided to try and record a video of me installing the ratlines. Although I did my best to stop my hands obscuring the view, at times it was impossible to do so. The quality of the video is not very good but hopefully you may find it interesting and useful. Adding ratline video With reference to the video content I start the process by securing the ratline with a simple half hitch knot which I position behind the shroud line which is then adjusted to the correct horizontal position (as provided by the paper ratline template). The line is then tied to the next shroud line using a standard clove hitch knot. As can be seen in the video I use the tweezer's to position and tie the clove hitch knot. This process is then repeated to tie the ratline to the other shroud lines. A touch of ga is applied to the first and last knot before the excess thread is trimmed away. Finally the lines are coated with a diluted pva solution.

Great to see the progress you've made and there is plenty of very useful build information.

Nice work Rusty

I can confirm the cutters are brilliant. Best I have.

Main and Fore Companionway Hatches I will not add a lot of detail of the build process as they are both essentially a repeat of the rear hatch skylight build process. The only difference is there is an inner and outer framework which allows the hatches to be seated. My jig was adjusted slightly so that the inner main hatch frame assembly could be positioned and held secure once the glue had been applied to the joints. Once the glue had cured the outer frames were attached to the inner framework. The main hatch was dry fitted in the framework. It is a nice tight fit. I repeated the main hatch build process for the fore companionway hatch. The assembled frameworks were painted ochre red. The hatches are only dry fitted at this stage. Another assembly task completed. The only deck items still to build are the 12 sets of the 6-Pounder cannon and carriage assembly.

Rear Hatch / Skylight Assembly This is another simple deck item build. The rear hatch / skylight assembly comprises the following parts: 2 x Rear Hatch Combing End (wooden part) 2 x Rear Hatch Combing Side (wooden part) 1 x rear hatch skylight (photo etch part) These parts were removed from their respective sheets and the laser car was removed from the visible edges of the rear hatch combings. The photoetched rear hatch skylight part was cleaned in acetone and then given a coat of grey etch primer. It is now ready for painting. The jig I used aft companionway assembly was modified so the rear hatch combing parts could be aligned and held in place. Once I was happy with the fit in the jig a touch of pva glue was applied to all the joints. The rear hatch frame was then removed from the jig after the glue had cured. Next a thin layer of pva was applied to the top edge of the frame assembly and the skylight was positioned and clamped. The completed assembly was painted red ochre. Another simple deck item assembly successfully completed.