vossiewulf

Glad to see they're working out for you Gaetan I hope you use them for many, many hours of fun modeling and the creation of beautiful ships.

Another note before an eagle-eyed ship modeler notices: the cannon are upside down. They should be with the trunnions at the bottom, but I would have had to make significant modifications to white metal carriages to make that work, and they would have been too high in the ports as well - Chris designed the kit with the Amati 3 pounders sitting low. So I flipped them with the trunnions on top, it's not too noticeable. I hope.

No, that would be the hardest place as the rope is being bent severely at that point, getting two parts to line up would be extremely difficult. The only place I can see cutting and gluing working is behind the breeching rings. Mike, yes I think it will work. I will put some glue on the tip of the loops and bisect them there, that leaves a clean joint. I can then slide them on the breeching rings and glue them closed where the joint will be obscured by the breeching rings and eyebolts. That's my theory, at least, will see what happens.

Thanks Chuck. I was wondering about that, whether it was too heavy. Unfortunately if it is, I will have to order something else- no other natural color line in similar sizes. Can you or someone explain why modelers make the breeching rope white? I would have assumed that white rope was a modern invention. And I've wondered why the rope would be a different color for the breeching rope than all other lines on deck.

The ladder looks good Mark, congrats on a nice scratchbuilt part. I'm sorry I didn't mention black under the grate, I thought that was fairly obvious. If you want to be very realistic of course, you can cut away the deck and false deck under the grates. Ship's wheels were a fairly late innovation, until then the steering was done with some form of tiller, and small boats (like cutters and such) maintained tiller steering all the way through the age of sail.

Oh I realized that after I put them in, but yes that might be a better way. The other one I didn't think of was the rings on the carriage- they're all installed but a pre-made breeching rope ain't going through those rings. I will probably have to yank them off the carriages, I don't see a good way to make the actual breeching rope in two halves.

The way I put it recently is that to build a really good ship model, you have to entirely build it in your head first, working out every detail and process and tool. If you say I'll just figure that out when I get there, the gods of ship modeling will definitely smite you. Welcome to your first smiting It won't be the last. Don't worry about the photo upload problem, just create an account on http://www.imgur.com and upload your photos there. That also allows you to paste in the photos in a certain order and to comment them as you go.

And finally I get to start playing with rigging, starting with breeching ropes. I was going to put on the seizing in the middle of the loops that go around both parts of the rope, but decided you probably couldn't even see them if I did. Also I like this thread, but it appears a bit too white to me, what do you all think? Plan is to put some glue on the top of the loop in the breeching rope and slice it there and install on the model that way. I saw no reasonable way of making them in situ.

Looks good Mark, nice progress.

Good eye, unfortunately I didn't think of it at gluing time They're stuck there, but I definitely won't forget the next time.

Thanks Mike and Pat!

Jason @ Crown Timberyard is back online. It takes typically 20 business days for him to deliver though, so you have to order a month out. I just received an order for square Castello boxwood stock to make masts and yards.

Rigging Period Ship Models

Two other books I recommend: Rigging Period Ship Models (excellent detailed drawings of everything) The Masting and Rigging of of English Ships of War 1625-1860

With stays (standing rigging that just holds the masts and bowsprit in place), including the shrouds, they were actually wormed, parcelled, and served. A serving machine is not difficult to make, search for serving machine here on MSW for self-built ideas. Otherwise I would recommend the serving machine from Syren Ship Model Company. You still have to put it together, but it works well and is not expensive ($55). It's very possible they simplified the rigging, as you say it's an entry level kit and that almost always means simplification. You're about to be confronted with the biggest mass of confusing terminology there is anywhere when you face ship rigging for the first time. You pretty much must get some books to help explain that terminology and what all the standing and running rigging did and how they were made and set up if you want to know what you are doing and to make a rig that is actually sensible. Another good move is to go to Syren and replace all the line that came with the kit with Syren rope, it's far, far better than average kit line and the entry level kits get the worst line. Very fuzzy with threads sticking out a scale foot or more. BTW don't use beeswax on your lines, it's acidic and will eat away the rigging over time. If you must use wax, use paraffin. But IMO the best rigging is just good line with no wax. And you're zooming right along, so make some decisions and order some things so you don't get stuck waiting for supplies to arrive. That's always very frustrating when you're on a roll with a build.

If you're set on that, you're replacing cheap wood with definitely not cheap wood. The preferred options are Swiss pear and Castello boxwood, with the former being a little more reasonable than the latter. As others have noted, you can also go with much less expensive maple or cherry, and since it's likely to be stained dark it may not be worth it to go for boxwood or pear.

The correct answer is real knife, but not necessarily a violin maker's knife. You're welcome //but you should keep around an Xacto for cleaning out dried glue and cutting sandpaper and the like

The lines running vertically to the mast top are called shrouds. The ratlines ran perpendicularly across the shrouds. Shrouds are served over their length, which means another very fine line was wrapped tightly with no gaps around the shroud. At one end is a big loop, at the other are deadeyes. The loops go over the mast top and the line is tensioned with the deadeyes at the other end. Rigging in the Age of the Spritsail Topmast is the best book I'm aware of about rigging close to this period. You'll need to delve into it pretty deeply to be sure you understand how the standing and running rigging worked and how they were set up and belayed.

When it comes to colors, look at what Backer said above - colors should either be red/yellow if it was painted in Spanish colors (semi likely on his Caribbean adventures) or green/white/red if it's wearing English colors. I'm pretty sure we have a reasonable amount of evidence to show that Spanish and English warships at least adhered to those colors, with geometric patterns common. I think the patterns are pretty wide open to interpretation but the colors less so. Unless you just prefer it otherwise, in which case you paint it as you like it and move on.

Ah yes, thin CA glue is for special purposes. The most cost effective thing to do is go to Amazon and get a 8oz bottle of medium CA glue. This is a bit thinner than gel but gel is rather expensive, you'll go through that little Loctite bottle in no time. Put the big 8oz bottle in your refrigerator, it will last a very long time. Then get tattoo ink cups. You can get 500 for $15. Drill the right size hole in a 3"x5" piece of 1/2" plywood or something else about that thick, this will keep you from ever spilling a cup. When you're ready to work you pour some from the fridge supply into a cup, after a few days you toss the cup and grab a new one. The best and cheapest glue applicator is some 24 gauge brass wire. You want something relatively thin for when you need precision. To control how much glue you pick up, you can either dip the straight wire or add a small loop in the end, the bigger the loop the more glue you'll pick up. Do not try to smear it on surfaces, it's messy and is likely to cause the glue to start to set before you're ready. Instead, apply it in dots with spacing and size such that you never get squeeze out, you've made a mistake if it ever squeezes out. By placing it in dots, you're minimizing the glue's exposure to both air and the surface it's on, minimizing the rate at which it will set. Glue applied this way has a much longer open time than you get smearing the glue.

Thanks Pat and Jorgen I mentioned I stopped for a few days to make a knife for Gaetan, he's now received it so not spoiling the surprise. It's curly maple and macassar ebony, although the ebony is suspiciously black. But it weighs a ton like ebony and machines like ebony (rock hard) so who knows. The blade is a Hock blade that I had forgotten I had. It's considerably bigger than the knives I've made for myself, but then again Gaetan is building a 1/24 74, maybe I should have made him an adze.

Did you steam the planks first Mark? That's generally accepted as the best way to bend planks, although some people just use a hair dryer. The only point is to get the wood hot enough that the cells become somewhat flexible. And trust me, I've seen worst first efforts at planking a ship than that, it looks fine. One thing, you need to put a finish on, even if it's just clear oil. The most important function of a finish is to slow the rate of moisture exchange in the wood and thereby mitigate the extremes of shrinking and expanding from changing humidity. Your ship won't last very long at all with no finish, whereas it can last decades or centuries with a good finish. Your list of improvements sounds great, you have the idea now- it's your ship and you don't have to accept just what the manufacturer gave you, you can do better in lots of places. And yep, that's an exciting feeling

Also, guns worked the same then as during the 18th century, and that means the gun crew had to be able to move the gun into and out of battery for firing and loading, they had to be able to control the azimuth and elevation of the gun, and they had to stop it from recoiling through the other side of the boat when fired. If you provide logical means to do those things for each gun, not even a museum could tell you that you're doing it wrong.

Yes, start a build log Alan. You'll get lots of help and you'll be able to ask many questions right in your build log.

Well I'm probably one of the least knowledgeable people here, but as far as I know we don't know very much about the details of how cannon were mounted and rigged this early. As I recall, the Spanish were still mostly using land-type carriages, and they and the English both carried about 9 different types of guns on board so it's at least a complicated question. Maybe someone else who knows more can step up.