Enterprise by src - Constructo - 1:51 - or Lessons in Adapt Improvise and Overcome

[cog]

I was thinking more in the line of some 20 weeks ... Glad the blackening didn't disolve the parts during that time, Sam. Every bit of progress is progress. You should be used to yours by now. Mine is even slower (if possible at all) The detail on the yard is wonderful.

[src]

Thanks all, and to all who hit the like button too.

Continuous baby steps it seems like. One day.....One day she will be finished. I am to ornery to quit!!

Carl, fortunately only one was left in the solution so there was only one to remake. No more progress other than a couple of blocks stropped. 

 

Got a call from Better Half this morning, her car wouldn't start. Its been pretty cold the last couple of mornings and her commute is only mile or two now that she is taking the train to work - a tank of gas lasts her all month. I dont think she is driving it enough to fully charge the battery during the week. It was at 12.15v when I got home, once I jumped started it it was showing 14.2 at idle so I am assuming the alternator is ok. It was 12.5 with the motor off after driving it for a couple of miles. We will see what it does after sitting on the charger overnight. The battery is less than 2 years old. Good times! LOL

Sam

[src]

Well, this virus is causing all kinds of havoc. My work closed yesterday for at least two weeks. I am expecting it to be more like two months. The two theme parks that provide the bulk of our business are both closed and since all of our current contract are onsite we can't work. Probably better that we are all home with family and staying away from others for a bit. The up side is I get time to work on my build again!!

I spent today redoing the foot ropes on my Fore Yard as well as working on the Fore Top yard. The first round of foot rope came out all wonky and I have been staring at them for the last year whenever I was in the office.

They are better now, not great but better. I also inadvertently upgraded my MAC OS to the latest version. The downside to that was I lost Photoshop, IView Pro and a couple of other programs. I found through the forums here that PS Elements was available as a non subscription download. (I really HATE subscriptions/cloud based software) So I also spent some time playing with that. Time will tell if it will be a replacement to PS or not. I dont need much. The same forum topic has some other options I can try also, we shall see.

Below are a few picture of the "progress."

 

 

Before

 

After

Not outstanding, but better. I will sleep on them and see how I feel about them in the morning.

[mtaylor]

Great to see you being able to make some progress, Sam.   Black clouds, silver linings and all that.  

 

Foot ropes.. try weights and then brush on a bit of white glue/water - 50/50.   That usually has worked in the past for me.

[cog]

7 hours ago, src said:

Not outstanding, but better. I will sleep on them and see how I feel about them in the morning.

Since you have time on your hands, you can always redodelydumdo them ........

 

Left looks pretty good to me, you cut it somewhat short on the right one. Getting a bit mean, been to Holland?

[popeye the sailor]

glad to see your back at the table Sam........things are getting crazy 'round here too.  hope your set to weather the storm.

[jct]

I think getting the correct"weight" to ropes is toughest part...they look pretty good

[src]

Thanks everyone and to all who hit the Like button.

Carl, agree, its not quite as bad as the picture makes it look, the angle I shot from exaggerates it, but it is a bit short. Then again, I could always put the taller hands on that side.....

 

Mark, I did something similar, rather than white glue I used artist matte medium. The thing I am really struggling with at the moment is getting the horses to hang straight for some reason.

My Fore Top Yard is better, but still some flaws. Like Carl said, I have plenty of time to re-re-redo things, however what I dont have is rope to keep re-doing and finish without making another purchase.

 

Dennis, It has calmed down here a bit, might get crazy again come the weekend. We will be ok, Better Half is still working, for the moment. She works at a school that teaches cinematic makeup, prosthetics etc. They closed the classrooms and sent all the teachers home Monday but there is a skeleton crew holding the fort down till at least the end of the week. We will be fine; I was watching what was going on in China way back in early Feb. and started buying some extra shelf stable goods, a little bit each week just to be ahead of the freakout if/when it came. Glad I did, on Saturday when I went into my local neighborhood grocery store for fresh produce and meat for the week there was a feeding frenzy going on. It was two hours before I got out with just a basic purchase of meats, fruits and veggies. Oh, and for some reason I felt the need to buy a 5 pound package of American style Swiss Cheese.....! Not even the real thing. 😂😂 Fortunately almost everybody was being pretty stoic about the whole thing, extra polite, very little cutting/pushing/shoving. However, there was one guy, every time I got anywhere near him he was ranting about how this is all this political figures' fault. Broken record, he was worse than me complaining about not being able to work on my build!😂  Other than that, we have a saving account and an earthquake kit, we wont starve.

Now, does anybody know where I can get a years supply of toilet paper???? And, who wants a grilled cheese sandwich with me???

 

Current progress on the Fore Top Yard. You can see what I mean about the Horses not hanging straight. I clipped a alligator clip to the ring adn painted it with matte meduim but they still want to go screwy on me.

I need to spend some more time with PS Elements, apparently there is no way to write custom actions, sub-optimal. I have to go poking around my old PS folders and find my actions and transfer them over.

Sam

 

 

[src]

J,

Our comments crossed in the either, I agree, that is the fiddly part.

Sam

[SHIPSCAT]

On 3/19/2020 at 5:23 AM, src said:

where I can get a years supply of toilet paper

Hello Sam, I will send you some 😂🚽.

 

Jo.

[popeye the sailor]

grilled imitation Swiss...........never had it,  but I'll tyry it     want a Baloney & whipped cream sandwich.......a three stooges treat!     {tried it when I was a kid.....it was pretty good!}

[Sjors]

Hello,

 

Anybody at home?

 

Sjors

 

[src]

Hey all, sorry, been away obviously. Been working on other projects around the house. Sjors, good to see you. I will be back to finish, but its going to be a while longer.

Sam

[Sjors]

He Sam,

 

I’ll be waiting for you 😃👍

Don’t stay away to long......

 

Sjors

[cog]

Didn't notice, your usual presence I thought.

[EODGoat]

Almost a year later...  

[allanyed]

EODGoat, Yes a year  since his last post but It is five years that you have been a member and this is your first post so please accept my warm, albeit belated,  welcome😀

Allan

 

 

[EODGoat]

On 11/4/2021 at 7:45 AM, allanyed said:

EODGoat, Yes a year  since his last post but It is five years that you have been a member and this is your first post so please accept my warm, albeit belated,  welcome😀

Allan

 

 

Haha!  Truth.  To be fair, I got sent overseas for five years minus all my stuff.  But, I retired and I'm back stateside now with this fine group and enjoying the builds!  Thinking about tackling a Vanguard model kit after I figure out this new job for a couple of months.  Thanks Allan!

[src]

Wow, where did 2-1/2 years go????

All, thanks for your patience, been busy with other projects and well, the more I didnt work on my build the easier it was to not build.

First, in the last year and a half my company has moved, twice. My commute is now double each way and by the time my day ends there is no desire to sit a the bench and build. A residential move is in order but housing prices need to drop, I am not buying a house at the top of the market with retirement 10 years away.So, that leaves the weekend. Last Saturday I sat down and said to myself each weekend will have some amount of time devoted to building. Hopefully that stirs the juices and I will be more open to spending time at teh bench and not in front of the idiot box.

That said, I have finished the Fore Top yard, the last of my yards. Now its on to crossing them and finally finishing up. I have planned all along to furl most of the sails, I have spent too much time detailing things to hide it with sails. Yesterday I spent time reading up on furled sails and ordering some silkspan. I have started reading up on sail dimensions and shape. Next weekend will be drawing up sail plans and learning how to furl them.

The foot ropes on the Fore Top Yard one came out OK, better then the Fore Yard, I may go back and redo the Fore Yard foot ropes. then again I may not.

Pictures or it didnt happen:

 

 

[mtaylor]

Good to see you've returned, Sam. 

[src]

Thanks to all who hit the like button. Mark, it is good to be back. I have not had much time to brows builds yet but I will stop by yours hopefully toady and see what I have missed.

Nothing to show, I ordered some silkspan and Japanese paper. one of those will become my sails furled and unfurled.

Pictures when there is something to show.

Best,

Sam

[src]

I think I am going to furl all the sails rather than some. I noticed in my hiatus that I made the main mast wrong. It should have been several feet taller, it is noticeable in the plans and the photo on my wall. I missed it and Lees makes no mention of Masting ships like the Enterprise. Or, I missed it. Regardless my driver (spanker?) is now going to be too short for the width. The more experienced here will/ have seen it right away. That's what happens when you venture off script without the proper knowledge. Live and Learn.

 

I am using Land Lubber Mikes post on furled sails and used Lees Masting and Rigging to start laying out my sails. I drew than full size in Illustrator and printed the Fore sails, they seem about right to me. Then again, re-read the first paragraph. I bought some silk span, that will get washed today and I will start figuring out how much to reduce the height.

More to follow.

 

Sam

[src]

I am not 100% set on all furled sails, being wishy-washy!

I ordered some silk span as well as Antscherl's pamphlet on making sails from silk span. I made my stretcher board, mixed my paint and got going.

Deciding on what color I was shooting for stumped me for a bit until I looked around our shop and found a roll of canvas. The boss wasnt too keen on my cutting a piece out of a brand new roll so I grabbed our PPG paint chip book, found a color that I felt was close and wrote down the number. Paint chip books can be hard to get so I didnt want to take the shop book home. Since Home Depot sells PPG paint it was a simple matter of tracking down the right chip and taking a couple home for matching.

I am not great at matching colors but I feel I came pretty close, this is just a tad warm but should go well with the other wood tones.

 

 

The pamphlet instructions say to make a very thin wash and build up the color slowly. I found a 3" taklon brush worked well.

After that a bow pen was used to draw in the seams. This is going to take some practice, the pen wants to be moving as soon as the paint starts to flow and then you have to keep a consistent speed to have a uniform line. I expected to get two or more sails out of this piece. It is hard to see in the picture but the bottom half came out better than the top half:

 

 

The next step is to cut strips out of another sheet that has been painted and "glue" them down with artist matte medium. Hopefully I will have that done during the week.

 

Sam

[src]

Inching along, I started laying in the reinforcements. I am not sold on the proportions of the reinforcements. I am using Lees for my sizes but I am thinking of following the guides in Antscherl's pamphlet.

 

Apologies for the poor photography, side light would probably have been better to see the outline of the sails. this is the Fore Course and (oops!) Fore Top and Fore Top Gallant sails. You can just make out the outer dimensions of the sails, the sides are the outer edges of the reinforcements and the tops/bottoms are the pencil lines. I plan to get the head and bolt ropes attached today and get them up against the ship see if I hate them and need to re-try.

 

Edited August 20, 2022 by src
Miss Labeled the sail names

[src]

Mostly finished with my first two sails, not sure if they are keepers or not. I do have some areas that need to be glued down better and then fill in the areas around the cringles(?) I used the reinforcement sizes in Lees, and they seem out of scale?? If I furl them it really doesn't matter. if I choose to show them I may hate them, Might try another set with smaller reinforcements more in line with what the sail making pamphlet from Antscherl suggests.

 

In Process, I used eh tweezers to hold the rope in place while the matte medium used as an adhesive dried:

 

 

Almost finished, need some fine tuning and some tying off of the loops on the corners. Side light really helps bring out the detail (and the flaws... 😞

Edited August 22, 2022 by src
Added comments

[src]

AAAnnnnnnddddd after only two weeks I have a sail bent. LOL its only been what 12 years since I started this build?

 

I took a few tries to get the robands on more or less to my satisfaction. The sail is still slightly off center, hopefully it does not show when its furled.

On to the top sail.... might even be less than two weeks before I get it done even!!

 

[mtaylor]

Looks good and don't knock the speed, Sam.  Any progress is good, even if it's just thinking about the project.

[src]

Thanks Mark, agreed on the "any progress." trying not to fall into the "Just get her done" trap.

Sam

[src]

It is Labor Day and Murphy stopped by for a visit, actually he was here a couple of years ago when I did the foot ropes on my Fore Yard. It seems I wrapped the stirrups so they hung from the front of the yard instead of the back! 🙄 I kept trying to bend my sail to the yard and could not figure out why it wouldn't sit correctly. Then I looked closely and realized my stirrups were hanging from the front. No worries sez I, I will just remove the sling cleats and re-install them on the other side. Except since I decided to install studding sail iron now those  are backwards. Off came the cleats and back to the correct side they went. Now I am redoing the stirrups and foot ropes. I am consoling myself with the thought that I was never really happy with how the stirrups hung.

 

But wait, there is more Murphy declares!!! If you order before midnight you get a free Cat-astrophy!

 

Yesterday I stretched and colored another sheet of silkspan and this morning painted in my seam lines and set aside to dry. I am still learning the correct speed to draw the bow pen to gt a consistent and accurate seam, fortunately these sails will be furled, so the seams should not be really obvious. However, Commander Lorcan (the cat in Cat-astrophy) decided my work was substandard, even for me, and walked across the stretched and painted silkspan, tearing and permanently wrinkling the sail material.

So now I am off to re-stretch yet another piece of silkspan.

 

Labor Day indeed!!

Sam

 

[jct]

Seems cats are attracted to Enterprises 🤪