US Brig Niagara by mikiek - FINISHED - Model Shipways - Scale 1:64 - First wooden ship build

[mikiek]

I took the one shroud that I made and put it on the main port side and it looks like they will be fine     Touching slightly but not enough to put a bend in the shroud. However Darrell said the clearance was worse on the fore. I need to make another webbing thing for the forward port.

[mikiek]

Rigging hammocks is almost as tough as gun tackles. Talk about repetition.  I've made 55 of the little guys and I'm not even finished with the port side yet. The forward stanchion assembly went in without incident. Now I just gotta fill it up. Pretty much as I figured, it will take about 75 per side. They look a little disorderly now as I have not glued them yet. I feel pretty confident that when I do I can get them lined up nicely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So far I'm still glad I went with this approach.

[jbshan]

They look pretty good, Mike.  You can tie a couple of ropes across the ends to close up the troughs, and don't forget if needed you can do them at an angle for clearance.

[mikiek]

Thank you Joel. I'm pretty happy with them or at least how I envision them. Somewhere I saw where the troughs were closed off with a slab of wood at each end. From the pix I see I still need to clean up the ends - terminate the rails at the stanchion.

[donrobinson]

Looks good Mike, I didn't realise there were so many sailors on the ship

[jbshan]

Don, there were something like 130 on board, on the day.

20 guns, 5 per gun gets you to 100 really quickly.

[mikiek]

9 hours ago, jbshan said:

Don, there were something like 130 on board, on the day.

20 guns, 5 per gun gets you to 100 really quickly.

Does that mean I can stop making hammocks at 130?? 

[jbshan]

No, Mike.  Ideally they each had two hammocks so one could be washed and the other used.  British practice of course, and I have doubts everybody slung a hammock every night purely from lack of room below decks.  Many 'standard and customary' practices I doubt were used on these vessels.

[Elijah]

Those hammocks look nice, Mike. Do you think they might have also served as a protection against small-arm fire? They look rather tightly bunched up.

[mikiek]

I'll agree with you Joel. An entirely different venue. I imagine the Great Lakes fleet broke a lot of traditions. Do what they must but not much more.

[mikiek]

Hey Elijah - the double fold and binding was pretty standard. Hammocks were stowed like that for a variety of reasons. To get them out of the way. To let them air out. And yes, for limited protection against flying objects. Lead, wood and otherwise.

[mikiek]

Hey everyone - we had one of those gorgeous days today so I opened up both ends of the garage and went to work. Hammocks, hammocks and more hammocks. I've been working on those on and off for some time now. And I am HALF WAY finished tonight. From cutting the fabric to binding them up each one takes about 4-5 minutes. And there are 71 shown in the pix below. I would also include some wastage, as I began the final placement maybe 10% of them were either too big/small or just looked bad and did not make the cut.

 

I glued them in place with a little CA. My goal there was a good even row, the tops in good alignment. A close inspection will show that in order to do this, some of the bottoms are barely touching the rail. Even with all that there is still not perfect alignment.

 

As I have stated previously, this is how they will be displayed on my Niagara. I don't plan on wrapping them in a cover or anything like that.

 

At least half the crew can sleep now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tigersteve]

Very nice work. 

Steve

[jbshan]

48 minutes ago, Tigersteve said:

Very nice work. 

Steve

ditto.

You get a sense of the multitudes involved, which shows up in the monotony for each item.

[mikiek]

Thanks for the comments and likes from you guys. I think you hit it Joel - monotony. No doubt that's why it's taking so long.

 

A few notes from thoughts after I posted:  I had a real concern about the shrouds having space the clear the hammocks. I even shortened the width a little - in scale they should have been 9/16" wide, I made them about 3/8 hoping when I doubled them over they wouldn't be too tall in the stanchions. As luck would have it, I made the stanchions wider than they needed to be. This allowed me to place them at a slight angle - the bottoms a little bit outwards to the tops. In other words instead of placing them slanted bow to stern I was able to slant them inside out. The good news is there is plenty of clearance for the shrouds

 

So I will have a design decision when I begin the starboard side as to using the same width for the stanchions or reducing that a bit.

 

I've also noticed from the pix that I will need to redo the pieces of wood at the ends of the trough. They look kinda silly hanging over the rail like they do.  Does anyone know the nautical term for this part? Was going to Google to get an idea of what they should look like.

[mikiek]

Joel - an observation on your comment. It was incredibly monotonous work. Probably worse than the gun tackles. Interestingly, it seems that this type of boring task is what adds the most life to a build. At least to my eye.

 

That one pic taken from the bow at almost deck level, highlighting the hammocks and the guns. The two most tedious and monotonous pieces of work make it look like a ship to me not a model. Especially right now since you can compare sides with hammocks and without.

[mikiek]

Rrr-ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-ll another one - Je-ust like the other one.

 

 

 

Time to blow the dust & bugs off the old girl and get back to the task at hand. This is 30 something rolls so I'm about half way there. The last time I was doing these start to finish in batches of 10-12. This time I'm going to cut & roll about 75 then go back and tie them up

 

 

[mikiek]

Still staying with it. I'm lashing the hammocks and getting the stanchions ready. I had the epoxy out earlier for the barge I am building to go with the tug, so I decided to go ahead and use that to get the stanchions on the handrail. Should be ready to paint in the morning. Then put the webbing in place. I showed the details for all this when I did the port side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got one helacious thunder/lightening storm outside.  G'nite ya'll.

[mikiek]

One more section finished. For some reason, the hammocks did not seat very well when I glued them to the rail. some of them are not laying squared up. This was about 25 rolls, meaning the last section has about 50. Won't be too soon to be finished with this task.

 

 

 

I took Don's lead and brought her out into the daylight for a few snaps.

 

 

A gorgeous day today. Quite similar to the day of the big battle.

 

[donrobinson]

Almost there Mike, don't quit now. Looks great

[mikiek]

Hi Don - Thanks.  Now if I can just come up with a plan for some admiralty style rigging. The minimalist approach.

 

I know I'm always whining & griping about rigging this girl. The fact is I like the way it looks right now. Don't need lots of ropes and yards in the way.  Besides I could save a bundle on the display case

[mikiek]

Don't know if everyone has seen this yet. I have a heavy heart this morning.  I am dedicating the completion of this build to Joel.

 

Niagara was my first build and I joined MSW because it quickly became evident that I would need help. Joel was one of the first experienced builders to jump into this thread with comments and advice. He seemed to have an above average interest in Niagara and that piece of history. Joel was always there to help and add commentary for all Niagara builders.

 

I will miss him greatly.

[mikiek]

Wrapping up Arrow so it's back here to Niagara. I have have more deck work to do than I remember. Hammocks for one. I had also decided that I didn't like the look of ships boats hanging off the quarter davits. So there won't be any. I won't leave them stranded though - besides Commodore Perry needs one.  I finished one of the yawls early on and that one will hang off davits at the stern. I was about half way thru another one that I will place over the grates on deck. Will not build the third one.

 

Then there's rigging. Again, early on I actually finished all the spars. Made them all from squares. Joel was always after me to rig this build so I'm going to give it a try. The spars are all still separate so I am going to rig each piece and then assemble them. Yards are up first. Believe it or not the royal shown in the pic took almost half a day. I was all thumbs today - have been for a while. I imagine it will come to me soon enough.

 

[Tigersteve]

You can definitely rig this one. Have patience. 

Steve

[mikiek]

Continuing with rigging. I have a good start on the upper yards - footropes, jackstays, parrels & halyards. So far it hasn't been too bad. I'm really going over the plans carefully to make sure I get all the blocks & eyebolts on now.

 

There are 2 pages of rigging plans. One is mostly standing rigging which is pretty good. The other has running rigging AND the sail plan including the ropes. I do not plan to have sails on this build and the difficulty I am having is trying to determine what running rigging I should include and what should be left out.

 

 

[Elijah]

Nice work! I personally really enjoy how ships look with the rigging. Anyway, nice work with those masts and spars, they look very good.

[mikiek]

Thanks Elijah - it's good to see you back again!

[iiihmb]

Hey your building log is great and your helping me a lot as I'm building the same ship. I don't even have the right sanding techniques down so I was happy to discover your Easy touch sander in one of your pics. Back to Amazon have it in a couple days.

[mikiek]

12 hours ago, iiihmb said:

Hey your building log is great and your helping me a lot as I'm building the same ship. I don't even have the right sanding techniques down so I was happy to discover your Easy touch sander in one of your pics. Back to Amazon have it in a couple days.

The Easy Touch is helpful in some instances although I will say other block sanders are just as effective. The annoying thing with the ET is replacing the paper. What they provide you with doesn't last all that long and removing the piece that is stuck on can be difficult. On the good side, if your hands are small the ET is easier and more comfortable to hold compared to the typical block sander.

 

Good luck with your Niagara. If I can be of assistance let me know.

[mikiek]

Greetings - believe it or not this build does go on. I've had some family issues and health issues but I find I would rather deal with this build then everything else. I think stress is getting to me as I am fumbling around a lot more than usual. And rigging doesn't always help the attitude

 

I'm still working thru the upper spars. I not sure of the wisdom in that but it is what it is (until it ain't anymore). These pix are rather poor, I think I need a different color background. Come to think of it that might help with the rigging too. Can't tell you how many times I have tried to thread a loop and missed 5-6 times.

 

I guess the pix are proof things are slowly moving ahead.

 

 

 

Guess I could have cropped my knee out of the pic   A different color cutting mat is on the Walmart list.