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Paragon - a modified Mayflower by Mahuna - Finished


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aragon – a Modified Mayflower

Part 13 – Ladders, Pumps, Bell, Railings, etc

 

Ladders

 

The ladders were built according to the instructions.  Cuts would be made in the ladder sides, so that the treads could be added.  I knew I needed a way to make these cuts spaced consistently.  To do so I made a sled for the Byrnes saw that was similar to the sled for the gratings.  The difference was that there are a number of cuts in the base of the sled that are 1/32 apart (I made these cuts with the sled for the gratings).  By placing a small brass strip in any of the cuts, I could replicate the distance between cuts.

 

          post-331-0-80633300-1437189670_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-56714100-1437189698_thumb.jpg

 

I cut appropriate pieces for the ladder sides, and glued them to a flat piece of wood using Ambroid glue.

 

          post-331-0-04501500-1437189729_thumb.jpg

 

I then ran these strips through the saw using the sled described earlier.

 

          post-331-0-21656700-1437189760_thumb.jpg

 

I made the side pieces for one ladder at a time, and dissolved the Ambroid glue in an acetone bath.

 

          post-331-0-03435300-1437189788_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-20477300-1437189802_thumb.jpg

 

It was pretty simple to create the ladders.  The top and bottom treads were installed on one side.  When the glue set, the second side was added.  From there on it was a matter of sliding each tread into a slot.

 

          post-331-0-89492100-1437189864_thumb.jpg

 

The legs of the ladders needed to be trimmed to match the deck camber before installation.  This was done a little at a time, trial fitting after each trimming.

 

          post-331-0-63029400-1437189926_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-18130200-1437189959_thumb.jpg

 

 

Ship’s Bell

 

The bell was turned on my Sherline lathe (it actually was one of the first things I did on the lathe).

 

A small piece of 3/32 brass rod was used.  The first step was using a center drill to create the opening in the bottom of the bell. 

 

          post-331-0-71348400-1437190006_thumb.jpg

 

These drills are used for starting holes.  The bodies are thick so that the drill doesn’t waver like regular drills will when they first start contacting the surface to be drilled.  The angle between the point and the body is also sharp so that the drill can be used as a countersink.  Since the body of the drill is angled, the hole the drill made in the rod was also angled.  After drilling, the bell shape was made using a file, taking very little off at a time until a reasonable bell shape was created.

 

           post-331-0-57270100-1437190044_thumb.jpg

 

           post-331-0-62545200-1437190085_thumb.jpg

 

When I parted off the bell I saw that the drill had gone in deeper than I had shaped the bell, so that there was a very small hole left in the top of the bell.  This was perfect for fixing the small ring at the top of the bell (I could say that I meant that all along, but probably wouldn’t get away with that for long).

 

The bell looks a little large to me, but in this scale it represents about 8 inches in diameter, which sounds reasonable.

 

 

Pumps

 

There are two pumps that sit at the base of the main mast.  I made these out of castello, since it shapes cleanly.  I used a 3/16” square piece of castello, hollowed out on the lathe using an appropriate size drill.  I then cut it into an octagonal shape using the 7/10/7 rule.  The pump handles and brackets were made from African pear (and no, they don’t work) and the ‘iron’ bands were made from black paper.

 

          post-331-0-07662600-1437190131_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-96478600-1437190155_thumb.jpg

 

I decided not to install these pumps until after the main mast was stepped, since they’re pretty delicate and also very near the mast.

 

 

Railings

 

The difficult part of making the railings was getting the uprights all parallel and evenly spaced and perpendicular to the railings, while also having the base conform to the curvature of the deck camber.  After several failed attempts I devised a couple of gluing jigs that would hold things in place until the glue set.  I made the jigs out of small aluminum strips, cutting the channels for holding the uprights on the mill so they were properly spaced.  I marked the camber on the strip and shaped it with a hand-held rotary tool. 

 

          post-331-0-46338800-1437190199_thumb.jpg

 

The jigs did their job, as all good jigs should.   :P 

 

          post-331-0-35452700-1437190266_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-46369300-1437190305_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-28409700-1437190357_thumb.jpg

 

 

Base

 

I wanted a base that would provide stability and contribute to the looks of the model.  I decided to make mine out of maple, since I found a nice piece with a very nice grain in it.

 

I didn’t want to use brass pedestals, so I shaped some maple to fit the contours of the hull bottom, and routed a channel for these pieces to be inset into the base.

 

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          post-331-0-80867000-1437190426_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-45534900-1437190477_thumb.jpg

 

Although the grain of the base is nice, the tones of the wood didn’t match the ship’s colors.

 

           post-331-0-31450600-1437190509_thumb.jpg

 

The base of a ship, or any piece of art, needs to complement the piece it holds.  I mixed a stain by combining Minwax Sedona Red and Golden Oak – this solved the problem.  I’m pleased with what the base adds to the presentation.  Here’s a photo taken after stepping the masts.

 

           post-331-0-25265200-1437190552_thumb.jpg

 

Next up – making and fitting out the spars.

 

 

 

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Beautiful work, Frank.  The metalwork looks great.

Mark
"The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me

Current Build:                                                                                             
Past Builds:
 La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD           Triton Cross-Section   

 NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit                                                                            HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64               

 

Non-Ship Model:                                                                                         On hold, maybe forever:           

CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed                                                   Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned)         

         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

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Well done and a good write-up.

 

Bob

Every build is a learning experience.

 

Current build:  SS_ Mariefred

 

Completed builds:  US Coast Guard Pequot   Friendship-sloop,  Schooner Lettie-G.-Howard,   Spray,   Grand-Banks-dory

                                                a gaff rigged yawl,  HOGA (YT-146),  Int'l Dragon Class II,   Two Edwardian Launches 

 

In the Gallery:   Catboat,   International-Dragon-Class,   Spray

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Frank,

I'm all caught up with your build. I shall now follow your very skilled steps as she grows towards completion. Completion.... both a happy and a sad day!   Was Peter the model for your figurehead?

Rich

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Rich - LOL - I hope Peter is looking in!  It was great to see you today, and I hope you get over your cold soon.  Completion day won't be sad at all - I'm itching to get on to the next build.

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Hi Frank

 

Truly magnificent work! From the choice of wood colours, right through the beautiful execution of each detail. all adds up your Paragon being simply beautiful.

 

Each time I look at your progress, I walk away amazed. Nice method of building the ladders, too. I might lock that away for future reference!

 

Thanks and all the best!

 

Patrick

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  • 2 weeks later...

Paragon – a Modified Mayflower

Part 14 – Spars

 

Hi All

 

It has been about a week since my last post.  Sorry for the delay – life tends to get in the way sometimes!  So here’s the latest update:

 

The type of ship I wanted to make would need mast tops, and the Mayflower instructions clearly showed these.  Before starting on the masts and yards, I decided to make the mast tops.  The Mayflower kit used solid milled pieces as the tops, but I wanted to make the tops out of different woods and wanted to construct them as they were probably built.  I found a short essay on making mast tops in one of the NRG Shop Notes books, and decided to use those notes as a guide.

 

A detailed documentation of the process I used for making the mast tops is quite lengthy (approx 15 Mbytes as a PDF), so I won’t try to include that in this post.  Instead, I’ll provide a summary.  The detailed description can be found at the following DropBox link:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ehxulpcim57izps/MAKING%20MAST%20TOPS%20FOR%20THE%20MAYFLOWER%20MODEL.pdf?dl=0

 

Making the Mast Tops involved the use of my lathe with a riser block (which allows stock of greater diameters to be turned)

 

          post-331-0-04225100-1438138741_thumb.jpg

 

It also included the Rotary Table on the milling machine

 

          post-331-0-09426800-1438138776_thumb.jpg

 

and the Tilting Angle Table.

 

          post-331-0-54251600-1438138810_thumb.jpg

 

Since there were 16 uprights, each upright would need to be at 22.5 degrees from its partner.  This required a crib sheet, rather than trying to keep the math in my head.

 

          post-331-0-61984000-1438138862_thumb.jpg

 

I needed to prove out my planned process, so I produced a prototype Mast Top.  The size and angles of the top were not important, I was testing the process I planned to use.  The prototype turned out pretty well, so it proved the process.

 

          post-331-0-21858100-1438138897_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-65699900-1438138918_thumb.jpg

 

The following photo shows the Top and Bottom rings for each mast top, along with the sheet I used for calculating the sizes of the tops.

 

          post-331-0-86395600-1438138965_thumb.jpg

 

The rings were the critical components for the Mast Tops, but there were other components needed – the floors of the tops, the trees under the floors, the uprights, and the walls between the uprights.

 

          post-331-0-44493000-1438138997_thumb.jpg

 

I was happy with the finished product.

 

          post-331-0-81960700-1438139022_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-87843100-1438139052_thumb.jpg

 

Once the mast tops were completed, I could turn to producing the spars required for Paragon.

 

I used square stock.  First I marked each piece for the required taper and cut the taper using sharp chisels and a jig for holding the pieces.

 

          post-331-0-08105000-1438139084_thumb.jpg

 

When the spars had the correct taper, I then cut them to octagonal shape using the 7-10-7 rule.  I used a printed sheet I received at an Admiralty Models workshop, and cut the spars using the chisel and jig shown above.

 

          7-10-7 Sheet.pdf

 

The topmast yards for both masts were quite small, but I was able to produce them using the same process as the larger yards.  The following photo shows all of the spars except for the fore and main topmasts:

 

          post-331-0-37206800-1438139193_thumb.jpg

 

After making all of the yards I attached the various blocks to them before installing them on the ship.

 

          post-331-0-91149300-1438139223_thumb.jpg

 

I had never made wooldings before, so I spend some time experimenting with them, using test pieces to verify my thoughts on how to proceed.

 

          post-331-0-76687700-1438139257_thumb.jpg

 

The bands were made form manila folder stained to match the wood of the masts.  They are not a perfect match, but I’m happy with the appearance of the masts.

 

          post-331-0-09409100-1438139293_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-42183800-1438139322_thumb.jpg

 

When I started making the various components for the masts I realized that there were a lot of pieces that needed to come together, so I made a chart to keep track of what needed to be done.  When all was completed it seemed like the end of a fairly long project.

 

The following photo shows the masts stepped on the ship.  The yards are already installed, via pins to hold them in place, and some pre-rigging has been attempted.

 

          post-331-0-52595200-1438139367_thumb.jpg

 

Next post will be about making and fitting out the channels, and installing the deadeyes on the Mast Tops.

 

 

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Hi Patrick

 

Complex is one way of putting it!  I sometimes called it something else (not printable) during the four weeks it took me to make satisfactory tops.  Lots of do-overs, and lots of lesson learned.

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Nice work, Frank.  She's really coming along.

 

Bob

Every build is a learning experience.

 

Current build:  SS_ Mariefred

 

Completed builds:  US Coast Guard Pequot   Friendship-sloop,  Schooner Lettie-G.-Howard,   Spray,   Grand-Banks-dory

                                                a gaff rigged yawl,  HOGA (YT-146),  Int'l Dragon Class II,   Two Edwardian Launches 

 

In the Gallery:   Catboat,   International-Dragon-Class,   Spray

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Paragon – a Modified Mayflower

Part 15 – Channels and Deadeyes

 

The channels were pretty straightforward – the hardest part was shaping the interior edge so that it laid properly against the hull.  The channels need to follow the curve of the hull for and aft, but also need to match the up and down slope of the hull.  This was accomplished by test fitting numerous times, then making very small adjustments until I was happy with the fit.  I made pegs of steel wire to hold the channels to the hull.  The support brackets above the channels are for appearances only.  Originally I had planned to drill and peg these, so I made them thicker than they should have been.  Too late to change them without serious rework.

 

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          post-331-0-14416100-1438226071_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-94079500-1438226142_thumb.jpg

 

The Mayflower had triangular deadeyes of two different sizes.  I gave some thought to producing them myself and even developed a couple of prototypes.  On further thought (and using my basic arithmetic skills) I realized the amount of effort (and time) it would take to produce the number needed – about 90 of them, in two different sizes.  So I contacted Chuck (Syren Company) and he made them as a custom order – I received them within a week! 

 

          post-331-0-34085300-1438226180_thumb.jpg

 

The lower deadeyes would be secured to the hull using chain, so I needed to strop the deadeyes to the chain.  I made up a simple jig to get this done.  I was able to get the deadeyes and chain set up pretty quickly, and I made eyebolts from copper wire for attaching the chains to the hull.

 

          post-331-0-48054200-1438226224_thumb.jpg

 

After blackening the copper parts I was ready to install the lower deadeyes.

 

          post-331-0-03047100-1438226264_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-43942200-1438226315_thumb.jpg

 

I installed some fake masts so that I could mark off the run of the shrouds, using a line attached to the top of each mast.

 

          post-331-0-46583200-1438226382_thumb.jpg

 

I put some masking tape on the hull so that I didn’t need to mark the hull itself, and drilled through the masking tape at the appropriate marks.

 

          post-331-0-98051100-1438226411_thumb.jpg

 

I’m fairly happy with the results, but now that I’ve begun the standing rigging I have experienced some small problems that I would avoid next time.

 

My method of stropping to the chain was OK, but I needed to pay closer attention to getting the gap between the deadeye and the chain uniform.

 

The deadeyes turn very easily, which makes it hard to install the lanyards while keeping the deadeyes lined up.

 

          post-331-0-32581500-1438226461_thumb.jpg

 

The mast tops each have six small deadeyes, three to a side.  These deadeyes are for the shrouds to the top mast, but they also secure the rings that will hold the futtock shrouds.  To make these rings, I seized an appropriate piece of rope around a drill bit.  (The following photo is a little out of focus, but it’s the only one I have of the rings before installation).

 

          post-331-0-47531500-1438226491_thumb.jpg

 

The lines were run up the holes in the mast top for the deadeyes, then the lines were held in a spread position (not glued) to the railing of the mast top.

 

          post-331-0-40278700-1438226525_thumb.jpg

 

A deadeye was then glued to the spread lines.

 

          post-331-0-01951900-1438226563_thumb.jpg

 

After the glue was set, one side of the line was glued to the deadeye.

 

          post-331-0-11805500-1438226597_thumb.jpg

 

Then the opposite side was glued and trimmed when set.

 

          post-331-0-82265200-1438226640_thumb.jpg

 

The mast tops were temporarily fixed to the fore and main masts, and the three masts were temporarily stepped (because I was anxious to see how it looked after all the work).

 

         post-331-0-21057900-1438226685_thumb.jpg

 

The next post will address the completion of the masts, and will cover some miscellaneous details required for the rigging.

 

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Frank - I never did ask you.  What sort of jig did you use for stropping the lower dead-eyes, and did you use wire?  They look very neat, and I'm having a heck of a time getting even soft copper wire to form the stropping/chain plates as neatly.

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Hi Brian:

 

The jig was very simple - three holes lined up with the holes in the deadeye.  I used pins to hold the deadeye in place.  Another hole for a pin through the bottom link of the length of chain to be used.  I held the jig on the workbench using a clamp.

 

post-331-0-70854000-1438262003_thumb.jpg

 

post-331-0-96473200-1438262072_thumb.jpg

 

For the process I followed the Mayflower instructions:

 

Stropping Deadeyes.pdf

 

Hope this helps.  If not, let's talk.

 

 

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Thanks Frank.  I may give that process a try, modified for the length of my plates, but I'm not sure about having the wire seam on top of the dead-eye like that, might be difficult to hide, will see!

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Brian - Now that you mention it - I wrapped the wire fully around the deadeye (the double wrap still fit within the grooves around the deadeyes), then wrapped both sides around the 'stem' under the deadeye.  This is where the lack of precision came in - I didn't take care that each deadeye was wrapped identically.  With your level of precision (and the forewarning) you should be fine.  Your deadeyes are probably a lot larger than the ones I dealt with, and being round may be easier as well.

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Paragon – a Modified Mayflower

Part 16 – Final Work before Rigging

 

When I had the masts, topmasts, Mast tops, and yards all fabricated, I thought it wouldn’t be long before I began the rigging for Paragon.  Wrong – there was still a lot of small work to be done - I still needed to make a lot of the smaller items for the masts: tops, trees, cleats, and then needed to fit them together, poly them, etc.

 

I made up a little checklist to make sure I didn’t forget anything:

 

          Mast Prep Work.pdf

 

 

 

Before I could step the masts, I needed a way to ensure that each mast was at the correct angle – the foremast leans a little forward, the main mast is raked slightly aft, and the mizzen is raked aft a little more than the main mast.  I hadn’t planned this out when I constructed the hull – simply drilled holes into the deck where the masts would be.

 

I decided that the best way to maintain the angles I needed was to make mast coats that would hold the masts at the proper angle.

 

Here’s the process that I used (sorry, no photos of the individual steps):

 

I chucked a length of square wood in the lathe and drilled or bored the proper size hole for the mast.

 

I removed the wood from the lathe and sanded the correct angle on one end using my Byrnes disk sander.

 

With the wood chucked into the lathe again I machined the wood to the correct outside diameter and then parted the mast coat from the stock.  This gave me a bottom that was slanted and a top that was level. 

 

The last step was to round off the top edge by hand sanding.

 

          post-331-0-61173300-1438643727_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-78494600-1438643760_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-56986100-1438643792_thumb.jpg

 

I also needed a way to make sure the masts were truly vertical.  I had read in an article by N. Roger Cole about using two vertical lines to eliminate parallax (def: the effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions), so I built a gantry with two ‘plumb bobs’ (fishing weights) suspended from it. 

 

          post-331-0-82129500-1438643835_thumb.jpg

 

There was enough room and height to place the ship between the vertical lines of the plumb bobs.  I first used the plumb bobs to make sure the ship was vertical in its base, then stepped the masts.

 

          post-331-0-11896600-1438643867_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

The rigging also required some Knightheads and Ramshead Blocks.

 

          post-331-0-34023800-1438643903_thumb.jpg

 

These were made of castello boxwood to ensure sharp edges and were fabricated using parallel Barrette escapement files and round escapement files.  Since the cuts needed to be precise in a very small area, I put together a small jig that would let me hold the item securely and still use a very small file.

 

          post-331-0-72477500-1438643933_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-91303500-1438643967_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-85339700-1438643999_thumb.jpg

 

The original jig had a flat bottom surface, and I needed to hold it tight so I added a cleat on the bottom which would help keep it in one position.

 

          post-331-0-12902700-1438644032_thumb.jpg

 

Since all files cut on the forward stroke only, this helps keep the jig tight against the work surface.  I made the base of the jig from thick stock so that my fingers would clear the work surface.  This jig has become one of the most useful items for doing very small filing and cutting.

 

 

 

Paragon also needed lots of small cleats.  I tried making my own, using several different approaches in wood and brass, but didn’t want to spend as much time as it needed, so I bought some cleats from Syren Company (Chuck).  These were perfect.

 

          post-331-0-39186600-1438644091_thumb.jpg

 

The cleats need to be sanded to remove the laser burn, and to provide rounded sides where appropriate.  They also should have small wire pegs inserted in them so that they can be securely glued to the ship.  I used a .5mm drill with a 3/32 shank in my rotary tool, held the cleat with small pliers, and the variable speed foot pedal to drill.  After gluing in the peg, I was then able to hold the cleat by the peg for the shaping.

 

           post-331-0-10316900-1438644138_thumb.jpg

 

After being painted black they were mounted, and looked fine.

 

          post-331-0-40925000-1438644170_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

In the above photo there’s a stay collar with fairly large triangular deadeye – I needed to make several of these.  I started by gluing together 5 pieces of 3/32 flat stock using Ambroid glue, so that I could make 5 identical deadeyes.  When set, a copy of the plan was glued to the group using a glue stick. 

 

          post-331-0-20278400-1438644238_thumb.jpg

 

The outline of the deadeyes were all shaped at the same time, by cutting the shape out on the scroll saw and sanding to the final shape.

 

          post-331-0-88875900-1438644270_thumb.jpg

 

Then the holes were drilled through the stack of deadeyes using the Sensitive Drilling Attachment on my Sherline Mill.

 

          post-331-0-28092900-1438644339_thumb.jpg

 

The deadeyes were separated by briefly soaking in an acetone bath.  The groove around each deadeye was cut with my rotary tool and finished off with a small round escapement file.  The final shaping was to provide the gentle roundness to the edges of the deadeye.

 

          post-331-0-83038600-1438644379_thumb.jpg

 

 

Finally, the ship needed Fiddle Blocks for the various tackles, so I used the Fiddle Block kits sold by Syren - they were easy to make and did the trick.

 

          post-331-0-02194900-1438645277_thumb.jpg

 

So Paragon is ready for rigging, but now we need rope to do it with.  How I made model rope will be covered in the next part.

Edited by Mahuna
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Hi Frank

 

The quality of your workmanship really shines through in the last few photos - really nice, crisp and clean work. The same goes for your workshop, which would be one of the truly desirable "man caves".

 

I've also gotta say that the gantry is a great idea, as well. I'm looking forward to your next update about the ropes.

 

Cheers and all the best!

 

Patrick

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Thanks Patrick

 

When we moved into this new home back in 2003, we converted a separate garage into this work space - 12 ft x 20 ft and air conditioned.  Originally it was intended for my bird carving, but in the last couple of years it has become my model shipway exclusively.  While I was still working I also used it as an office during my last couple of years of employment (I was a telecommuter), and it sometimes was hard to stay focused on work.  Now that I'm retired I spend a good deal of my time there having fun.

 

The gantry worked really well, but I have some ideas on making a new one out of brass and aluminum that can be adjustable and can be taken down for storage - a side project for sometime in the near future.

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Your detail work is great.  I hope to see her some day.

 

Bob

Every build is a learning experience.

 

Current build:  SS_ Mariefred

 

Completed builds:  US Coast Guard Pequot   Friendship-sloop,  Schooner Lettie-G.-Howard,   Spray,   Grand-Banks-dory

                                                a gaff rigged yawl,  HOGA (YT-146),  Int'l Dragon Class II,   Two Edwardian Launches 

 

In the Gallery:   Catboat,   International-Dragon-Class,   Spray

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Thanks, Bob

 

Not sure how to travel with it now, but perhaps.  Of course, if you can ever make it down here to the Phoenix area I'd love to have you visit.

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Paragon – a Modified Mayflower

Part 17 – Making Model Rope

 

I use DMC Cordonnet cotton crochet thread for rope making.  It comes in several standard sizes, from 100 (smallest) to 20 (largest), and is very consistent in quality and color (I buy ecru-colored thread).  It’s 100% cotton, which is my preference.

 

The following photo shows some spools of the Cordonnet, along with some rope samples I’ve made with it.

 

          post-331-0-99000200-1438739398_thumb.jpg

 

The thread itself has a very nice right-hand lay, so it can be used right off the spool if the size is right.

 

          post-331-0-75176700-1438739445_thumb.jpg       

 

 

 

I use the Prozak 3 vertical ropewalk from Domanoff Workshop.

 

http://shipworkshop.com/products/tools/prosak-30

 

Using the Prozak, I made sample rope from all of the Cordonnet sizes, both 3 and 4 strand, and measured the diameter of the resultant rope (including single-strand right off the spool).  I put together a reference sheet of all of the sizes.

 

          Rigging Line Sizes.pdf

 

 

 

I’ve tried different methods for measuring model rope (and threads). 

 

First I used a traditional measuring stick, where you mark off a 1 inch gap, wrap the rope around the gap counting the turns, then divide the number of turns into an inch to get the size.  This is fairly accurate, but the result will vary based on how tight or loose the windings are around the stick.

 

I’ve also tried a digital caliper, but I find that no matter how gently I use it the rope gets compressed and the results will vary.

 

I finally came up with the method I like best:  I mount a digital micrometer in a vise, set an approximate sized opening, and slide the rope along the top of the measuring rod.  By adjusting the opening until the rope can be moved through it with slight friction, we have the correct rope size.  I find I can be pretty consistent in measuring to the nearest .001 inch (one thousandth).

 

          post-331-0-49973000-1438739515_thumb.jpg

 

 

Initially I used India ink for coloring the rope, but I found that it made the rope fairly stiff and unnatural feeling.  After reading how N. Roger Cole colors his rope using RIT fabric dye I started using that method.

 

The standing rigging is a deep warm black (lots of brown undertones in it).  The running rigging is a nice hemp color.  The formulas I use are the same as Roger uses, with some minor modifications. The PDF shown above has the formula for each of the colors.

 

First I boil sufficient water for the mixture.  I put some in the first container, and add a wetting agent to the water.  A measured amount of the hot water goes into the container for dying, and I add the appropriate amount of the various colors.  I’ve found that as soon as the dye mixture starts to cool down the color will loose intensity, so if I’m dying a lot of rope I’ll mix a new batch when the mixture is only slightly warm.

 

I use a product named Liquitex Flow-Aid as my wetting agent.  You could also use Photo-Flo or any other wetting agent.  In a pinch a few drops of liquid dish detergent would also work.

 

          post-331-0-49057100-1438739548_thumb.jpg

 

The line to be dyed goes in the wetting agent for about 5 minutes, then is transferred to the dye solution for the specified length of time (7 minutes).  When the time is completed the line gets hung for drying.

 

          post-331-0-95048000-1438739574_thumb.jpg

 

The hangers I use are from a wooden rack for holding spools of thread, a reject from my wife’s sewing room.  Each wooden arm has 10 dowels for the thread spools, and the whole contraption had 8 rows.  I took it apart into the individual rows.  When I get into ‘production’ mode, I have rope hanging all over.  The lengths I make on the ropewalk are a little over 6 ft long, so these are hung vertically.

 

          post-331-0-39222000-1438739603_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-49844400-1438739717_thumb.jpg

 

For rope right off the spool, I generally use about 16 ft lengths, and hang these across the room.

 

          post-331-0-94712000-1438739649_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-61984200-1438739740_thumb.jpg

 

 

After the rope has dried overnight, it needs to be heat-set and waxed.  Heat-setting will help the rope to remain color-fast.  I don’t think this is so important in model rope, but since my wife told me I should do it I take the time to do so (one of my mottos is “a happy wife is a happy life”).  I heat-set by running the rope over the hot housing of a small incandescent lamp that clips to the edge of my bench.  I’ll generally make about 4 slow passes with the rope.

 

          post-331-0-01990900-1438739768_thumb.jpg

 

When heat-setting is completed I normally hang the rope overnight again.  I’ll skip this hanging if I’m in a hurry for a size.

 

 

After heat-setting the rope, the next step is waxing the rope.  I’ve tried beeswax but was never happy with the process.  I’ve started to use Conservator’s Wax and I’m really pleased with it.  I dip my index finger in the wax (it’s very soft and translucent)  and rub the finger and my thumb together to spread out the wax, then run the rope through my coated fingers while rubbing the rope back and forth (a little of this wax goes a long way).  I’ll do this 3 or 4 times, then I’ll run the newly waxed rope over the lamp I used for heat-setting, agin making 3 or 4 passes with the rope.

 

          post-331-0-93929700-1438739813_thumb.jpg

 

The line is hung overnight again, and is then ready for use.

 

          post-331-0-18639100-1438739859_thumb.jpg

 

 

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Paragon – a Modified Mayflower

Part 18 – Standing Rigging

 

Sorry for the delay since the last post – I’ve been dealing with some health issues.  Hopefully we’ll get them cleared up soon.  I had mostly finished the standing rigging and had started on the ratlines when I needed to put things aside.  I’ll try to catch up here, but then it will be a while longer before I have any more progress to report.

 

 

I decided to pre-rig as much as possible off the ship.  It sounded like a good idea, since it would make it easier to bring line to the small blocks and other fixtures.  Unfortunately when I started the standing rigging most of the pre-rigging was in the way so I removed it.  You may see some lines on the ship in some photos, and then maybe will notice that they disappeared – that’s the reason why.

 

Some of the pre-rigging made sense, so it was used.  This mainly consisted of the rigging for holding the yards in place on the masts.  If I had waited until after the standing rigging and ratlines were in place I’m sure it would have been much more difficult.

 

 

Rigging started with the installation of the gammoning on the bowsprit.  When I built the beakhead I had made a couple of small gratings for the area of the gammoning, and made them removable to give me more room to install the gammoning – they certainly helped.

 

          post-331-0-05821500-1439175785_thumb.jpg

 

 

I pinned all of the yards to the masts, and installed the slings that were used for raising and lowering the yards.  The slings for the mizzen yard and for the main course were brought to the related knightheads, since I thought this would be much more difficult once the standing rigging was in place.  The following photo shows all of the slings in place.

 

          post-331-0-49147500-1439175806_thumb.jpg

 

 

Parrels are part of the rigging on the main course and fore course, and also on the mizzen.  They all serve to hold the yards in place.  I started by milling castello to 1/32” strips and gluing them together using Ambroid glue.  Once the glue was set I filed the middle area down, leaving the ends the size that the parrells would be.  Then I used a small triangular file to make a cut in the middle of each parrell.

 

          post-331-0-08894700-1439175835_thumb.jpg

 

Then, using a small parallel barrette file (and my favorite jig for fiing) I rounded over each wing of each parrell.

 

           post-331-0-93041800-1439175855_thumb.jpg

 

Then I used a razor saw to cut halfway through between the parrell and the middle of the stock.  This would make it easier to separate each parrell when ready to do so.

 

          post-331-0-19998800-1439175884_thumb.jpg

 

Last task was drilling the holes for the lines through the parrells.

 

          post-331-0-74202600-1439175907_thumb.jpg

 

Then a bath of acetone was used to separate the individual pieces

 

          post-331-0-20404200-1439175933_thumb.jpg

 

When these dried I separated off the individual parrells at the cut I had already made.  I used some 11/0 beads to make the parrells.

 

          post-331-0-38519200-1439175966_thumb.jpg

 

I thought the parrells turned out pretty well.

 

         post-331-0-60259300-1439175997_thumb.jpg

 

         

 

 

I needed some splices for the stays, so I made them by making the end of the line unravel then used some white glue to glue those frayed lines to the body of the line.

 

          post-331-0-28125500-1439176047_thumb.jpg

 

I also need to make a mouse on each stay.  I did this by wrapping some fine thread around the stay, using white glue liberally applied to keep the line in place.  At this scale I didn’t think I needed to go through the effort to make a mouse the more traditional way.

 

          post-331-0-41981600-1439176090_thumb.jpg

 

 

I decided to use ‘zip seizings’ on all of the lines that I could – in my opinion this is a much easier way to do seizings, and at this scale it looks better than anything I could do using a more conventional approach.  (I learned this approach through Wooden Ship Modeling for Dummies by the late Hubert Secard).

 

The following photo shows the tube created for seizings, along with a couple of seizings already cut from it.

 

post-331-0-50072700-1439176136_thumb.jpg

 

 

All of the standing rigging has been completed, and the following photos show the progression to the current state of the rigging.  There are a few lines I will need to re-rig, but overall I’m pretty happy with it.  The only rigging I have done prior to this is for the pilot ship Phantom, which is a much simpler rig.

 

 

post-331-0-60126300-1439176241_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-27871800-1439176292_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-86003300-1439176337_thumb.jpg100d

 

          post-331-0-71992100-1439176369_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-86826500-1439176413_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-62595700-1439176458_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-87981200-1439176495_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-29289000-1439176538_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-21658400-1439176575_thumb.jpg      

 

          post-331-0-75211500-1439176643_thumb.jpg

 

          post-331-0-47662400-1439176686_thumb.jpg

 

 

When I get through the current issues I'll be tying ratlines, so I don't think I'll have any updates for a while yet.  In the meantime, thanks to everyone who has been looking in.

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Looking great Frank!  I really need to sit down and practice the zip siezings, I can see a number of places in the AVS rigging where they will be very helpful.

 

You'll also be happy to know that I broke down and made another jig tonight.  :)

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