robdurant

With the help of some of the planking pins, I glued the deck down. Once the glue was in place, I placed the deck, and the Aliphatic glue (Carpenter's glue) gave me enough time to predrill holes for planking pins, and secure the deck to make sure it was well in contact with all of the deck beams. Clamps were used round the inside of the deck opening. I left it overnight to set, and then pulled the pins back out with some needlenose pliers... nice and easy. And here's a different shot showing something of her lines... Thanks to those who've looked in

A big thank you to whoever fixed the title on this log... I've added the bridging pieces to the tops of the bulkheads and the stringers that run across the tops of the bulkheads to tie them together. The deck was added again while all of this dried to ensure that it was all lined up. It all seems to have gone quite cleanly. I also began to build the ship's boat davit while I was waiting for glue to dry. The photo below is after all the clamps were taken off...

As I near the completion of Barque Stefano, I had a hankering to build something that was simple, where I could just follow the instructions, straight out of the box. Time will tell how closely I manage to do that, but having looked longingly at Nordkap as a teenager, she was the vessel I settled upon. Here's a picture of what she's meant to end up looking like Nordkap builds up into an 81cm l.o.a, 21cm beam vessel - so there'll be loads of room in the hull for all the radio gubbins. She's also small enough not to be too cumbersome to move around when building. I bought a new building board, and set about separating the laser cut frames from the "sprues". Then I looked at the plans and noticed some strange discrepancies... There are two sets of measurements on plan 1 - the first shows the gaps between the forward extents of the frames (4-7) - this should measure up to 159mm. A second set of measurements show the filler blocks that will sit on top of the keel - these are 48mm, 50mm and 50mm - 148mm, leaving only 11mm for three frames - but the frames are 4mm at the least - closer to 5mm in fact... The instructions simply say that the frames are "quite vertical" and then leave the builder to work it out. Instead of guessing, I decided that using the deck would be a neat way of ensuring that the frames were essentially in the right position, so this part was cut out as well and used as a guide to get the frames in the right place. So... so far I've fitted the frames, and added the blocks in between - which have all turned out to be around the 48mm mark. This _may_ come back and bite me later, but I feel much more confident knowing that the deck fits with the frames in their locations, than simply hoping for the best. The observant among you may notice a curvature of the keel (higher in the middle than at bow and stern - it's around 4mm, although it looks worse, perhaps because of lens distortion in this photo) - ironically, having cut the keel parts to be 55cm and 52cm respectively, I now realise that these are perhaps slightly short for the deck... removing the deck after gluing the frames in place got rid of this curvature entirely, and so I probably will need to modify the deck a little down the line, but that's fine - it'll be millimetres here and there, not centimetres, and the hull will be the right shape. The next step is to add the stringers along the bulkhead tops, and as I do that I can ensure the keel is straight. I'm not worried about modifying the deck to fit, I just wanted everything to be in the right ballpark. I've also added the doublers that create something of a rabbet at bow and stern. More soon Rob

Over the past few days, I've made good progress on the bowsprit rigging, including making the "whiskers" on the catheads, which were soldered from 1mm and 0.5mm brass rod, and then sprayed with white primer. The topgallant shrouds were also set up. I wanted to use black card for the strapping on the cathead whiskers, but also wanted them to be strong enough to withstand knocks and bumps, so rather than simply stopping them at their inboard extent, I have them bending 90 degrees, and fitting into a hole drilled into the cathead itself. This provides lots of strength, and I'm confident they'll withstand gentle knocks... Hopefully I'll avoid anything more dramatic. Adding the "hooks" for the rigging first... Then bending them to fit... and trial fitting them in the holes drilled in the cathead. They were fitted before I bent them vertically up, so that I could ensure they both bent up the same amount... and black card was added to simulate the metal straps... The finished article, once rigged... (rigging required that I make some 0.5mm rope, and then stained it... For those interested (and as an aide memoire for myself, it was made with #100 DMC Cordonnet crochetting thread, 1x thread per strand, 3x strands). The rigging was fastened using #50 DMC Cordonnet thread, and fixed in place with watered down PVA. And as mentioned at the beginning, I've also rigged the top gallant shrouds... Rather than adding deadeyes, I've copied the way these were rigged on my Ethalion... It's nice to feel that progress is being made.

Thanks for the likes. The chains are now all added to the bowsprit.

Topmast shrouds and ratlines are complete. I've been doing a little work on the bowsprit, adding the inner and outer bobstays using the kit supplied chain, which was chemically blackened. The chains were attached using black thread, which will be trimmed one I've put some glue on it to stop the knots coming undone.

Not much to report, but I've finished the ratlines on the Main topmast... Onto the Mizzen topmast now...

Thank you @rwiederrich - yes, it's definitely a personal choice, and not one that's historically accurate, perhaps. I just like the look

Thank you, Ian

Okay - time for a short update... I've added the futtock bars - it took me a lot of head-scratching to work out how to do this neatly, but I ended up using 0.5mm brass wire, with a loop at one end, that was tied to an eyelet in the mast, having hooked the other end through the eye in the bottom of the deadeye strop... They were tested for size, then blackened before final fit. The parts... And the fitting... And then I went on to put on the topmast shrouds, and I've begun the ratlines... Progress is being made As before, the ratlines are DMC Cordonnet #20 Ecru thread. The same stuff I use for rope-making. It's lovely stuff to use for tying ratlines - very forgiving, and once brushed with watered down PVA, I've had no problems with knots coming undone. Once the topmast shrouds have their ratlines, I'll need to add the futtock bars for the crosstrees on the fore and main masts. Thanks for looking in and taking an interest. Happy building Rob

And a last post for today.... I've roughly shaped the bow, changed the lighting, started playing with moving the camera, and added some texture...

Well, it's a bit of fun, but I'm definitely making progress learning blender now... Here's a few seconds of the hull so far at dusk... I haven't closed off the bow or stern at the moment... it's more of an experiment... Once I'm happy with it, I can up the rendering settings, and it'll look much sharper, but I thought some might be interested.

Hi all, Thanks for the likes. I've completed the main shrouds, and added the mainmast stay. This one had to go on first, as it attached to a pin inserted into the jib boom. (That was my kludge fix for gluing the foredeck down too early!). Having said that it all went together okay, and looks fine. I've finally added the deadeye strops (Caldercraft) and fixed the tops to the masts, now as well. I've also done some tidying up, gluing down the anchors, fixing the anchor chains, and removing the excess, which was just sat on the deck up till now. I've also added the eyelets underneath the pin rails round the fore and main masts. Not a lot to show, but it is progress These parts are very fragile, and I can see trouble ahead when it comes to tying things off... time will tell how much of a headache this proves to be. Happy building to you all Rob

Progress is being made, and confidence is growing I'm pleased to see that the flow seems to be good between each frame... Next is some work on the transom...

Hi all, A tiny update... I'm still working on getting this into Blender to check out the stations before I commit too heavily to real components (and working on Barque Stefano, too)... I've managed to work out how to get things neatly out of QCAD (the 2D CAD programme I use) into Blender, so progress is becoming more simple... Here's a teaser with deadcentre and '7' frames in place....

Rattling down continues... Work has just begun on the ratlines for the Starboard Mizzen shrouds. Port Mizzen shrouds are done, now. In retrospect I didn't tighten the shrouds enough, and it's caused them to become slightly wavy on the mizzen mast. This was my nervousness at making sure they didn't pull out the deadeyes from the rail. Not a disaster, but not quite as neat as I would have wanted... Oh well 🙄 This is all part of learning about this homemade rope... it doesn't behave quite the same was as the caldercraft rope I used on Ethalion. It's much softer and more easily stretched out of shape.

6mm at 1:63 is around 38cm or 14 7/8 inches - so a big step, but not crazy. Here's the 6mm guide template for anyone who wants it, in PDF and CAD (*.dxf) format 6mm Ratline Template.pdf 6mm Ratline Template.dxf

A small update today. I spent my day off yesterday beginning the ratlines for the mainmast shrouds. I was pleased to complete the starboard side. I use 6mm lines placed behind the shrouds as a guide, and begin by adding spaced out lines, then filling in the gaps, gluing each row as I complete it. The ratlines are #20 DMC Cordonnet Crochet thread... The same stuff I use to make ropes. I'm pleased with how it looks, and how easy it was to tie. As a natural thread, it takes the watered down PVA really well, and is easy to clip to length once dried. That's it for today. Happy building, all Rob

Thanks, George. Yes the work being done now all seems to make a difference to how the final model will look, which is spurring me on. It's startling how much sail these vessels can spread. Stefano must have been an amazing sight, even though she was a humble working vessel.

I've just finished the yards on the mainmast. It's a process of keeping the faith as you go, as it has to look like an explosion of rope before order then appears out of the chaos... Here are the footropes in process... And then completed... And here's a shot of the whole mast... the lower stunsails have had the stunsail yards attached to the tops, but haven't been rigged at all yet... None of these yards are finally attached, but are pretty much complete as units. To have a bit of a break from the yards, I think I'll do some ratlines on the lower shrouds. I think I probably need to tackle the futtock shrouds (metal bars?) first, though, otherwise they're going to be a bear to access. Thanks for looking in

Not much work done on this recently as I've been on a push to get Barque Stefano completed... but we're making progress. The sails are complete, and being attached to the yards... However, tomorrow I have an exciting day planned. I'm visiting the National Archives in Kew, London, to look at the Captain's and Master's logs of HMS Bristol. I'm hoping to read the logs for a few major events in Bristol's history - in particular her dismasting during the Great Hurricane in 1780, and a few other events. So... watch this space, and I'll try and share some of what I discover. I find this part of the process really helpful in building the desire to really dig into the design and build. The connection with the vessel drives me on to see the model completed. Thanks for looking in.

Hi all, Not much more to show, except the reefing points that are now stiffened using watered down PVA front and back. This was done before they were trimmed to length, by placing a small ruler behind the reefing points. Then they were trimmed to the bottom of the ruler giving a nice neat line.. The second photo is the progress on the mainmast lower-topsail yard with the footropes in progress.... . As always, thanks for the likes and encouragement. Rob

Time for an update. I've had a week off, so progress has been made. I've added all of the iron banding (black card), and painted the tips of the spars. The remaining rails for the yards were assembled using jigs, soldered, sprayed black and installed... Then I began to go through each yard individually (starting with 62, the mainmast royal yard), adding all of the eyelets, blocks and footropes (which are made from 1 strand, 3 threads per strand, ECRU #100 crochet thread, dyed to make approx a 0.5mm rope). This rope is too large for the eyelets, so it's secured to the eyelet using Gutermann sewing thread - the same thread I've used for sewing the sails. The following pictures are from the third yard I've been working on - 62c - the Mainmast upper topsail yard. The stirrups for the footrope are from the same rope. At the same time, the stunsail booms are fixed in position, and the blocks attached. I've attached the topgallant stunsails to the booms they hang from, and attached them to yard 62d (the Mainmast topgallant yard), leaving the belayed end coiled until the yards are finally attached. The Royal and TopGallant sails have then been attached to the rails on the yards, giving the following effect... I've almost ready to attach the Mainmast Upper Topsail to the Upper Topsail yard, but first, I need to put on the reefing points. These will be from #80 DMC Cordonnet crochet thread, which is thin enough to fit through the needle, and unlike the sewing thread, can be glued with watered down PVA so that I can make the reefing points hang more naturally... Time will tell whether this plan works out okay I think that brings me up to date. Thanks for all the likes and encouragment. Rob

Here is the stack on Victory...

Congratulations on a beautiful build.