robdurant

Great job Rob.
 
I remember making the *Hanks* for the sails for my Great Republic.  I made them by wrapping wire around a 2mm OD piece of stainless steal wire.  Then I cut them along one side...creating hundreds of tiny rings.
Like yourself I afixed them to the bolt ropes.
 
I, however, then thread the stay through the row of hanks and fixed it to the mast....holding the sail permanently on the stay.
 
Love your progress.....
 
Rob

Some nicer photos of Stefano with her stay sails attached to the stays... 
 

Some nicer photos of Stefano with her stay sails attached to the stays... 
 

Finished the somewhat complex radar structure.  
 
As you can see, it's made up from a combination of styrene tubes and wood dowels.  A few construction notes:
 
It's just a bit oversized.  That's due to a gap between the instructions and the diagrams.  For those who might follow, the thing I didn't do was to resize the basic A-frame (before any bracing) to match the full size template.  I cut it to the length specified in the instructions, and that's a bit too long.  I then added braces, and only discovered that it was oversized as I got into the detail.  Not a big deal.  
If you follow the instructions, the whole thing would be yellow.  But the box art shows the white top, blue radars and silver (e.g. unlit white) sidelights.  So I resequenced things to match the box art, which i smore interesting. Regards,
David
 

After a very enjoyable day off, more progress has been made. I've been attaching the stay sails... These are attached with tiny rings which are opened up one by one, and threaded between the bolt rope and the sail... The sail is then lifted into position and the rings closed one by one. I've found that a pair of tweezers is essential for holding and opening the rings, then a pair of pliers with grooves helps to grasp the ring to close it (a smooth pair of pliers won't stop the ring pinging round flat, and that led to considerable frustration at the beginning of the process. I've got quite good at it now.
 
 

There are two staysails waiting to be attached. I wanted these in place before I added the backstays, so that I still had easy access to the centreline of the model, where all this takes place. I think that's proven to be the right approach. 

Thanks for all your comments, and for showing an interest
 
Rob

After a very enjoyable day off, more progress has been made. I've been attaching the stay sails... These are attached with tiny rings which are opened up one by one, and threaded between the bolt rope and the sail... The sail is then lifted into position and the rings closed one by one. I've found that a pair of tweezers is essential for holding and opening the rings, then a pair of pliers with grooves helps to grasp the ring to close it (a smooth pair of pliers won't stop the ring pinging round flat, and that led to considerable frustration at the beginning of the process. I've got quite good at it now.
 
 

There are two staysails waiting to be attached. I wanted these in place before I added the backstays, so that I still had easy access to the centreline of the model, where all this takes place. I think that's proven to be the right approach. 

Thanks for all your comments, and for showing an interest
 
Rob

I would be very interested to hear that. Hope it proves satisfactory they're hulking great models when they're rigged (of course that's part of the appeal)

Yes, I paid a fortune to case my Heller Victory, but after five years of working on it it's an investment in keeping it safe and free of dust.

Thanks to Javelin, I got my head screwed on straight and have now fixed the running light positions.
 
Regards,
David

So... it seems like something of a crime to cover up planking, but I've used some car body finishing filler (polyester-resin) to begin making the hull watertight... and now begins the sanding... and more sanding... and then filling... and then sanding... and (you get the picture...)
 
First comes the filler... 

Then, after 20 minutes it's set enough to be sanded... and it's worth sanding it sooner rather than later, as it only gets harder...  I'm using a very coarse paper glued to wood to ensure I don't sand peaks and troughs into the hull... This is most certainly a job to be done outside, with a mask on, and with the door inside shut... the amount of dust is considerably...
 

It's a start. And it suggests that I will, indeed, end up with a watertight hull.
 
Thanks for looking in and for the likes and encouragement
 
Rob

Since you are not going to have visible planking, I urge you to use f/g cloth, if you're not already planning to. Wood around moisture always changes and cracks will appear in an unclothed hull. The cloth helps stitch the planks together.

So... it seems like something of a crime to cover up planking, but I've used some car body finishing filler (polyester-resin) to begin making the hull watertight... and now begins the sanding... and more sanding... and then filling... and then sanding... and (you get the picture...)
 
First comes the filler... 

Then, after 20 minutes it's set enough to be sanded... and it's worth sanding it sooner rather than later, as it only gets harder...  I'm using a very coarse paper glued to wood to ensure I don't sand peaks and troughs into the hull... This is most certainly a job to be done outside, with a mask on, and with the door inside shut... the amount of dust is considerably...
 

It's a start. And it suggests that I will, indeed, end up with a watertight hull.
 
Thanks for looking in and for the likes and encouragement
 
Rob

So... it seems like something of a crime to cover up planking, but I've used some car body finishing filler (polyester-resin) to begin making the hull watertight... and now begins the sanding... and more sanding... and then filling... and then sanding... and (you get the picture...)
 
First comes the filler... 

Then, after 20 minutes it's set enough to be sanded... and it's worth sanding it sooner rather than later, as it only gets harder...  I'm using a very coarse paper glued to wood to ensure I don't sand peaks and troughs into the hull... This is most certainly a job to be done outside, with a mask on, and with the door inside shut... the amount of dust is considerably...
 

It's a start. And it suggests that I will, indeed, end up with a watertight hull.
 
Thanks for looking in and for the likes and encouragement
 
Rob

Yeah, the case for my Niagara cost more than the kit. It was a little over $500 for the wood pieces (Bluejacket) plus the cost of the glass/plex and the poly. That said, there is a lot of work out into these things, it's nice cherry wood and it seems safer and more secure...

Rob, I had the same dilemma over a  case for Diana. I was going to make one myself from acrylic sheet but at the time, my daughter was looking for a larger aquarium for her fish and since a case is just an inverted aquarium, I asked if they could make one for me and they agreed. The price was not much more than the price of the acrylic sheet. I'm waiting for delivery but if I'm happy with it, I will log the details.
David

I've reached a milestone - the hull is closed up. I've also cut out the beams where the deck opening is to give space to access the motor, rudder servo, battery, etc... 
 
 



Thanks for looking in, for the likes, and the encouragement
 
Rob

Congratulations on a beautiful build.

It's been a while since I posted an update, but today I managed to get the remaining forestays, and some of the main stays set up.  Here are a couple of photos of progress, since the weather was playing ball...
 
 


 
 
 
Happy building, all
 
Rob
 

Now back from vacation and back to the model.
 
Painted the cabin and mounted some accessories on the sides.  Cabin in pictures is dry-fitted to the main hull at this point.
 
Regards,
David

Here's the pilot house with the roof not done yet.  Dry-fitted at this point.
 
Regards,
David

It's been a while since I posted an update, but today I managed to get the remaining forestays, and some of the main stays set up.  Here are a couple of photos of progress, since the weather was playing ball...
 
 


 
 
 
Happy building, all
 
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.
 

Thank you Andrew and Rob for your kind words. It was good to make some progress.
 
Rob

So I got most of the structural prototype completed, again this was mostly to check the fit of major components and adjust my cut files.
I ran way behind on schedule due to my machine being down but managed, with the aid of a lot of coffee and loud music, to crank out another set of parts for the prototype that I will begin to build shortly. These are now packed up and on their way back to work with me. 
More updates to come soon.
JJ

It's been a while since I posted an update, but today I managed to get the remaining forestays, and some of the main stays set up.  Here are a couple of photos of progress, since the weather was playing ball...
 
 


 
 
 
Happy building, all
 
Rob