Henry Grace a Dieu (Great Harry) by Louie da fly - FINISHED - Scale 1:200 - Repaired after over 50 yrs of neglect

[liteflight]

Steven,

Blast from the past, which might be answered while you are gathering your equanimity

 

The shallop/ chaloupe/ ships boat.

it appears to be about the size of a ladybirds wingcases ( ladybug to our US cousins)

could you give me the overall length, please.

I have just looked back through your build and the wonderful pics of the finished boat.  Judging by the scale on your cutting board, and the VAST match, it seems to be close to 45mm long

 

I have a sudden fancy to (try to) make one, or more.  Once I have a form, I aim to try planking with thin pine (0.007”, 7 thou), paper and perhaps papier-mâché, oh and plunge-forming.

 

tia, Andrew

 

Edited June 28, 2022 by liteflight
Found answer - no need to bother the rigger

[French Mr Bean]

A superb restoration job. Bravo !

[Louie da fly]

On 6/28/2022 at 4:19 PM, liteflight said:

it appears to be about the size of a ladybirds wingcases ( ladybug to our US cousins)

More like a Greengrocer (big cicada)

 

I just measured it; just on 40mm. Looking back at the original pic on the Anthony Roll I could have made it quite a bit bigger, maybe as much as 15mm more (and there's room for it on the weather deck).

 

Steven

[Louie da fly]

I haven't posted for a while - not because I haven't been doing anything, but because the progress wouldn't have been terribly obvious in a photograph. Finally there's been enough progress to post photos for the forecourse and fore topsail rigging.

 

These are in the sequence I worked on the various bits of rigging - having now completed, there are several things I would have done in a different order (access with tweezers, taut ropes going slack as the next one went on, things like that).

 

First the martnets - these were superseded by leechlines about the middle of the 17th century, but this appears to be how the leeches of the sails were furled in 1545. The martnets go both sides of the sail. There's a deadeye for each set of six - a line goes through each of the three holes in the deadeye and each and each end of the line is fixed to a cringle at the leech of the sail. First the deadeye with the three lines going through it, then threaded loosely through the leech (too small for cringles!). The little clothes pegs are acting as weights for other ropes that are in place but not finalised.

  

Fake cringles - just went through the fabric with a needle and looped the thread around the edge and back through the hole. This is one of the things I will change - adding other ropes interfered with the tension of the martnets. When I do the mainsail I'll leave them unfinished till a lot of other stuff is done, and only fix the ends right at the last minute.

    

Rear martnets in place.

Adding braces. They go from the mainstay to blocks on pendants from the yardarms, and thence back to a pair of blocks attached to the stay and down to deck level.

 

I've belayed them to the side rails.

  

Cleats to belay the foresail lifts and (I think) topsail sheets - it's awhile ago, and there are so many ropes. Note the size of the cleats compared to my enormous match stick. And the second photo shows more ropes (sorry, can't remember which ones!) belayed to the bitts. 

   

Making blocks out of pearwood. They are gradually getting more and more like real blocks (even down to the groove for the strop) , but they're pretty tiny, so detail suffers.

 

  

   

As it turned out, they were still too big, so unfortunately I had to cut them down further and lost even more detail. They also keep splitting and having to be glued back together before they can be put to use. And in almost all cases I have to re-drill the holes - they seem to close up as I put the strops on and the thread won't go through. If I remember, I re-drill them before I put them into place - it's very annoying and difficult to drill them out with my big heavy power drill once they're in position on the ship. (Yes I know, there are better drills to use, but I've not got that sorted). So here's a bunch of them ready to go.

 

Foresail lifts and topsail clewlines, and blocks for various other things - the ones at the middle of the yard are for the buntlines (fortunately the topsails don't have martnets).

Fore topsail lifts and clewlines belayed to the top.

   

Next to do the topsail braces - the same as the braces for the course, but they have an extra pair of blocks - one pair at the topmast stay, another pair at the foremast stay and one for each pendant - so I have to make six of the rotten things for one pair of ropes! Here they are at various stages of completion.

VERY slow progress - mostly because of having to make so many blocks. They're just within my skill level, and so I feel honour bound to make them myself. And anyway I don't think you can buy them that small.

 

Steven

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by Louie da fly

[Keith Black]

 Steven, what is the block size? I picked up some 3mm single blocks form Cornwall Model Boats a couple of years back, they are tiny little buggers. 

 

https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000001.pl?page=search&SS=3mm+blocks&PR=-1&TB=O&ACTION=Go!

Edited July 13, 2022 by Keith Black

[Louie da fly]

These ones are (approx) 2mm x 1.5mm. Just within my capabilities . . .

 

Steven

[BANYAN]

Looks great Steven, your persistence is paying some real dividends.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Louie da fly]

And some more rigging for the fore course and topsail.

 

Bowlines

   

and their belaying points - cleats on the central bulkhead of the forecastle

A clearer view of the forecourse braces and their belaying points.

Curving the fore topgallant - the boltropes are simply glued on with PVA (white) glue and wetting the edges of the sail enables it to be curved around the barrel of a pen.

The six blocks for the fore topsail braces are now complete.

 

 

Steven

[French Mr Bean]

Good work, the result will be excellent!

[BANYAN]

Those sails with their rigging looks great Steven; amazing detail noting the scale you are working with.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Louie da fly]

It's been a while since the last update. Mostly sails and rigging for the foremast - I thought I'd be on the mainmast by now, but it's been going very slowly. Quite a lot of fiddly work, but not much dramatic to see where I've been.

 

I had to replace the fore-topgallant shrouds - they were looking particularly tacky, the ratlines had gone "feathery" at the ends.

 

  

Fore topsail braces

Adding the new topgallant shrouds.

 

I'd discovered the main topgallant had bent both forwards and sideways, so I had to remove the stay (which had gone loose), bend the topgallant mast straight with my trusty soldering iron and put in a temporary rope holding the fore and main topgallants taut so a new stay could be added. 

Adding blocks to the fore topsail stay for the forecourse bowlines to run through 

And the corresponding blocks on the bowsprit.

Combined fore topsail sheets/forecourse lifts

Fore topgallant stay added while temporary rope makes sure it will be taut.

Forecourse bowlines in place

Topgallant lifts, clewlines and sundry blocks. I've also glued the parrel truck to the mast, with a (non-historic) small wedge to hold it in place.

Overall view

 

And then - disaster! The topsail yard broke - possibly at an earlier mend. So after a lot of soul-searching I decided to cut away the robands and fish the yard (shouldn't be all that obvious when it's fixed.

 

Fish being cut to shape:

Yard glued back together

And fish glued in place

Robands replaced, along with the blocks for the sheet and brace.

And then another disaster - the bitts which were just end-glued to the deck, lifted off under the force of all the lines that were belayed to it.

 

I tried gluing it back on with a sort of spacer (made of balsa) to hold it in place:

 

No good at all. Just messed up the foredeck and the bitts came loose again immediately. I decided I had no option but to remove all the ropes that were belayed to the bitts and make a new set, this time with "pins" carved into the ends, to fit into holes in the deck. All very well, but there was no way I could get a drill into that confined space. I ended up drilling them by hand with the pointy end of a fine file, and an awl. VERY fiddly and time consuming. Unfortunately I did't take photos of the new bitts and the holes in the deck, but here they are glued in place. I'm just hoping they'll stay this time.

 

 

But this time I've added a new couple of side-rails that will take quite a few of the ropes that were belayed to the previous bitts. That should reduce the force on the join with the deck. Unfortunately there's a bit of shine from the (CA) glue, which I can't do much about.

Steven

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2022 by Louie da fly

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  Steven,  I totally get the pain of repairing things that come loose.  'Seems fixing problems (as well as mistakes) is something inherent in most craft/hobby endeavors.  Many times I've wished better foresight in predicting future difficulties - "If only I did it this other way ..."  Since there are future projects queued-up in my head (and kits are on the shelf),  I'll try to figure ways to make fife rails, deck eyes and pin rails (etc.) as secure as possible.  

 

   Your work on this build is amazing ... if only your 'younger self' could see what you're doing now.     Johnny

[druxey]

Sorry about the travails of breakage and failed glue, Steven. Kudos for persisting and overcoming!

[Roger Pellett]

At the risk of committing heresy!  Why not omit the ratlines from the topgallant shrouds?  I believe that I have seen drawings of Carracks where a Jacobs ladder ran up the backside of the mast.  

 

Roger

[GrandpaPhil]

Amazing work!

[Louie da fly]

Thanks everybody for the likes and supportive comments (very welcome under the current circumstances, when I've been seriously considering throwing the rotten thing against the wall and taking up croquet instead ).

 

Snug Harbor Johnny and Druxey, unfortunately the bitts coming away was a fault on the part of my "current" self - I already knew from previous models that butt-joints are a bad idea but I wanted to keep the original bitts that I'd made back in the day and didn't think about the forces they'd be subjected to. Or if I did, I thought "she'll be right". But unfortunately though we learn from our mistakes, sometimes the lessons don't stick straight away - we have to make the same mistakes again before those lessons really sink in.

 

Roger, you have a point. However, the Great Harry is somewhat later, and while I'm mainly working off the reconstruction picture in Landström's book The Ship, more importantly, the original representation in the Anthony Roll shows ratlines in the topgallant shrouds. And the "feathery" ratlines were mainly the fault of my own carelessness in cutting off the ends cleanly.

 

I still haven't quite finished the foremast rigging - there are a couple of things to do on the topgallant - braces and bowlines - and I'll have to belay again the ropes that were fixed to the old bitts. (BTW, I've decided that for the mainmast I won't be re-using the original bitts - I'll be making new ones with "pins" carved into the bottom of the uprights - once bitten, twice shy).

 

Steven

Edited August 6, 2022 by Louie da fly

[BANYAN]

Very nice work Steven, your persistence to get it right is 'Admir'able - sorry couldn't resist.  Seriously, though, your GH is looking great and I really love those sails.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[woodrat]

On 8/7/2022 at 7:05 AM, Louie da fly said:

I've been seriously considering throwing the rotten thing against the wall and taking up croquet instead

Could we have a video of that , please?😀

Dick

[French Mr Bean]

This model is really very nice to look at.

[druxey]

I feel your pain, Steven, but don't do that!

[Louie da fly]

OK, so I've decided not to destroy the model - Not just yet, anyway (are you listening Harry?)

 

Instead I've been working on various bit(t)s and pieces.

 

Replacing the mainmast bitts with new ones that have built in "pins" so they won't be pulled off the deck like the foremast bitts were.

 

 

 

 

And re-threading the lines from the forestays onto the new foremast bitts. One bonus - I managed to get them tighter so they were straighter. As I'd previously cut these ropes to length, I had to extend them (by gluing another bit of cotton onto them) to be able to pull them tight - you can see one of them leading aft past the edge of the forecastle, being tensioned by a couple of miniature clothes-pegs. Once the glue was dry, I cut them to length again.

   

And I've added the fore-topgallant braces (I needed to make 8 tiny blocks - two for the pendants, 6 to run the downhauls through - one pair for each of the mainstay, main topmast stay and main topgallant stay) and down to deck level). And of course I'll have to repeat the whole exercise when I come to do the mainmast - (oh, joy.)

  

 

I still need to finalise all the downhauls that were attached to the forebitts, which are still waving in the breeze at the moment. As I mentioned before, I'll be belaying most of these to the new side railings I've added, so the forces on the bitts are minimised. Heaven forbid that they pull off the deck again! Once that's all done I'll be able to move off the "repair" phase and back onto moving forward.

 

Steven

 

 

 

 

 

[Baker]

Very nice work Steven

Please continue with your GH and forget all about croquet 😉

 

[druxey]

Glad to read that you have got going again. Hopefully the bitts hold now.

[Louie da fly]

On 8/14/2022 at 9:13 PM, druxey said:

Hopefully the bitts hold now.

 

Unfortunately - no, they didn't. Not long after I glued the lines from the forestays on, the wooden "pins" snapped off, leaving me back where I was - or slightly worse off. Now I had to smooth down the protruding remnants of the pins before I could start again.

 

This time I did what I should have done in the first place - I made new uprights with metal pins inserted in them, using brass sequin pins which have come in handy before. As there was a pretty sever splitting risk, I put the pins in first, then carved the uprights around them.

 

    

   

 

I managed to salvage the crosspiece from the second broken set of bitts - the rest (and the original that I'd made back in the day) had to be discarded.

 

I left it with the cross piece glued to only one upright, so I could adjust the width to line up with the holes in the deck.

And I thought I might as well do the main bitts as well, before I put a whole bunch of ropes in for the mainmast.

Unfortunately, I used the wrong tool - a cobbler's awl - to make the first hole in the deck, and SNAP! - the deck planking broke. So I then had to figure out how to repair the decking, while in the meantime working out how to make the balance of the holes for the pins without breaking anything else. Very difficult, particularly as I had very little wriggle room. I finally decided to use a sewing pin as a "drill". Very laborious - if you've ever had root canal treatment on your teeth you'll know what I mean - but it worked eventually.

So here's the resulting hole (where the pencil mark is).

After several failed attempts at gluing in a replacement piece for the deck (including taking off the hatch cover and longboat so I could slide a bit in underneath the deck to support the new piece - that didn't work either), I came up with a solution that ended up working - wedge in a piece that was much too thick (so it came up above the deck and then pare it down to deck level.

 

And finally, the bitts are in place, for both fore and main masts.

   

And the hatch cover back in place.

 

Still working on repairs, rather than moving forward. But once I've glued the loose ropes back in place I'll be able to go ahead again (sigh) 

 

Steven

 

 

[druxey]

The Battle of the Bitts! An epic combat indeed. Let's hope the result holds this time around. Neat repair job, Steven.

 

For drilling small holes, do you not have a set of small drill bits, #61-80? Using them a pin chuck, you can drill holes in tight spots when necessary.

[Roger Pellett]

Steven,  

 

Give yourself a couple of gold stars, or better yet a good stiff drink, for not damaging something else while you pared down the excess material.  I would have poked a chisel thru the aft bulkhead!

 

Roger

[BANYAN]

Persistence has won out (hopefully); I admire that you stuck (no pun intended) with it.  The repairs are looking good.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Louie da fly]

 

I know just how he feels . . 

 

Steven

[Baker]

I have this feeling sometimes too.

ps,

you suddenly look a lot younger 🤣 

[GrandpaPhil]

We’ve all been there.

 

However, the Henry Grace a Dieu is looking awesome!

Edited August 23, 2022 by GrandpaPhil