HMS Leopard by toms10 - FINISHED - 1:85 scale POF/POB

[mtaylor]

Well done on the milestone Tom...splice the main brace.  

[toms10]

5 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Well done on the milestone Tom...splice the main brace.  

Thanks Mark. I am not sure what you mean about splicing the main brace. 

[toms10]

Hi Mark

I just found out what “splicing the main brace” means.  Page 296, last paragraph in Harland’s book Seamanship in the Age of Sail.  I feel a bit silly now but am more educated. Thanks. 
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Tom

[Bluto 1790]

HI Tom,

"Splicing the main brace" is an expression in very common usage but I reckon that more than 99% of people using it don't know its origin and original meaning -- just like so many other old expressions, so don't feel silly!

 

. . . and milestones! . . . that's the thing about this ship building -- there are so many milestones and it's great when we get to each one and tick it off!

Once you get the yards on and rigged it's going to look complete but if you're adding sails it's going to be even 'more completer'!

[toms10]

Hello all

I haven’t posted anything in a while but I have been busy. A great deal of reading and studying various rigging books and chipping away on the yards. Seems I am putting in time but not seeing much progress right now but I am gaining more knowledge on running rigging! 👍 I am in the process of tying the various blocks to the yards. Will most likely need to put an order in with Chuck as I don’t have enough to complete the job. No rush though, I still need to make all the sails. I plan on trying Ron Neilson’s method that he outlined in the 2018 winter NRG Journal (vol #63) Here is where I stand today with the yards. 

 

Tom

[toms10]

Got a little farther. In the words of a fellow member, “Taking baby steps”. 😁. Added the stuns’l booms to the main and fore course and top yards. Just need to add the foot rope and then they will be ready to have the sails attached. Of course I still need to make the sails but that’s a minor detail. 😁😁😁

 

When I do get to attaching the yards to the masts I think it would be easiest to start with the bow sprit and work my way back to the mizzenmast. I also think starting with the royals and working my way dow would probably be the easiest since the lower sails will make it more difficult to work around. I’m not sure what the best way to go is right now.  I’m just learning as I go. 
 

In hind sight I probably should have waited to put the backstays on. Now I need to work around them to tie the running rigging off. Oh well next time. 
 

 

Tom

[John Ruy]

2 hours ago, toms10 said:

In hind sight I probably should have waited to put the backstays on

I know what you mean. In reading your post I just realized I forgot the foot ropes, on the Top Gallant Yards before mounting them. 😆 

 

Your yards look fantastic. Love the detail in the irons and ropes. She’s looking great, Tom.  👍

[toms10]

I changed the pace a bit and started construction on the sails. There are 27 including all the staysails. I intend on furling the main and fore course sails so as not to obstruct the deck too much. Possibly the fore stay, lower main and mizzenmast staysails as well. Not sure about those yet. 
 

i borrowed a technique from fellow CT club and MSW member Ron Neilson aka Hollowneck on this forum.  He gave a demonstration at the Northeast Joint show in New London back in 2019... someone at the show filmed it and posted it on YouTube. 
 

So far I have the base construction for all the sails completed. Now I need to add the linings, bolt ropes and crinkles. Then I can bend them to the yards and start assembling the yards to the masts. Sounds simple but that is a ton of work and will take quite a bit of time. 
 

Below are some pics of a few steps of the sail construction. I did take pics of each step and may put together and post (when I find the time) a more in depth tutorial of what I did. 

Here is the paper cutout with seam lines done with colored pencil.
 

A piece of painted silk span was then attached to the paper on both sides with spray adhesive. On one side the silk span was cut to the exact size of the paper base. The other side was cut oversized to be folded over the edge to hold the forming wire and act as tabling. 
 

Inserting the annealed wired along the edges. This will allow me to form the sail to get a billowed effect. This was done by folding the silk span edge over the edge of the sail while capturing the wire underneath. 
 

Here is the finished fore top gallant sail awaiting linings, bolt ropes and cringles. 
 

time for more research and learning as I go. Good thing this is a hobby without a deadline as this project is taking forever. Half the time actually building and half the time figuring out how things worked and what to do next. I guess that is the “scary” part of doing your first scratch build. 😜👍
 

Tom

[John Ruy]

Tom,

 

I will be following your process closely. I have a pair of schooners I want to configure with full bellowing sails as when they raced. (Elsie and Bluenose) I wasn’t able to get the effect on the America I built last year. 
 

I am looking forward to watching you bring these sails to life. What weight paper and silk span are you using?

 

Keep up the good work time is irrelevant with this hobby, we are in it for life. 👍

[toms10]

Hi John

i am using just 20# standard white copier paper. As for the silk span, I purchased it from Bluejacket. Not sure what weight it is.

 

Tom

[TomShipModel]

Good morning.  I did silk span sails for my 1:96 HMS Liverpool.  I used silk span as it can be draped, furled, and billowed very easily using dilute white glue with a touch of biocide in the mix to prevent mildew.  I use three plies and laminate them together.  The center plie has the tabling penciled on.  Up to 1:48, this should work well.  This method has been demonstrated many times and was put in NRG Ship Model Shop Notes 2.  The results are very good.  I modifi ed the method slightly to suit my model.  I've presen ted this method several times at our local clubs.  Here is a photo of the results.

[toms10]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for insight.  The results in your pictures speak for themselves.  Really nice.  I will need to take advantage of my NRG membership and look into getting the NRG shop notes.

 

Tom

[toms10]

Just bought the NRG Shop Notes Volume 2. If I like them then volume 1 will be a great gift idea for somebody 😜😁. Now if I could just get the admiral to read this post ....

Tom

[TomShipModel]

Your model is excellent.  Since you are going to bend sails, a very good reference is "Seamanship in the Age of Sail" by John Harland.  I am not a sailor, and this book will help you to enhance realism.  For example, a ship like yours did have 37 total sails.  However, they were never all set.  The reason is that they would blanket each other and be counterproductive.  So, stay sails would be set if a ship was sailing close to the wind.  However, in that sitution some of the square sails would not be set and those that were would have their yards braced to the extreme.  Also, studding sails were normally not set on both ends of the yard.  They would be set on one side or the other and normally not bent at all.  The only documented case of a ship having every sail set was when Constitution was becalmed when it was being chased by a British Squadron.  The ship was being towed/kedged, in the hope of finding any wind.  Once they did find some wind, only the sails that were favorable were left set.

 

Finally, many of the running rigging lines would actually hang with a drape.  For example, if the courses are furled, both the sheets and tacks would be hanging slack.

 

I really appreciate your build and good fortune with your sails.

[toms10]

Hi Tom,

I do have that book and it has been a great help.  Like you I am not a sailor and learning as I go.  As you mentioned, I will not be doing anything regarding the studding sails.  Those are stored in the sail room below. 😄  I am not sure what sails I am going to set.  I may just take a a picture out of the Seamanship in the Age of Sail book or some other reference and duplicate it.  Thanks for the help (I can use all I can get) and the kind words.

 

Hopefully we can see each other in New London at the joint conference in October.

 

Tom

[TomShipModel]

That would be great.  The person who put this silk span method into shop notes was the late John Wisner, a member of the Connecticut Club.

[toms10]

Tom

I am a relatively new member of that club.   I am starting to reap the benefits of not only friendships but not trying to reinvent the wheel and seeing others great ideas. 
 

Tom

[toms10]

Hi everyone

Here is a little more sail work. I ended up going with the darker bolt ropes. There were cases for both light and dark. After making a couple small sails with the running rigging color I could barely see the rope on the sail. The color was too close to the sail. Including the cringles it was a lot of work that would basically go unnoticed. I leaned toward the more artistic side where the “ordinary” non-modeling person would appreciate the work. Neither one seemed to be wrong from the research I did. 
 

 

Here is how I did the cringles. The head cringles is just a loop with a simple knot at the base to hold it firm. The leech cringles were done by piercing 2 holes first.
 

Second, the bolt rope was glued in place from the head down to the first cringle hole. From that point the bolt rope was just laid in place. 
 

I then ran a 50 wt thread through the first hole with a very small sewing needle and tied a simple knot over the bolt rope to hold it in place and start the cringle.  Repeat for the second hole. 
 

I then took a straight dental pick and pushed it in between the sail edge and bolt rope to form the cringle. Then glued the bolt rope to the edge of the sail up to the next cringle hole and repeated the whole process for the next cringle. 
 

I glued all the knots with Liquitex matte medium to hold them and allow me to trim them very close. 
 

 

Here is a close up of the results. It is a bit tedious but I like the results and at 1:85 scale that is about as real as it is going to get; st least for the capabilities of this modeler. 😜

 

This may rank up there with tying rat lines!  

 

Tom

[John Ruy]

12 minutes ago, toms10 said:

This may rank up there with tying rat lines!  

Great job Tom. 👍 I like your process looks really good. I got to say I liked ratline tying better myself, but then I sewed my bolt ropes on cloth sails. 
 

Looks like silk span and gluing on bolt ropes is the way to go. 

[TomShipModel]

Well done Tom.  Maybe I'll get to see it up close in New London in October.

 

Tom 

[toms10]

8 hours ago, TomShipModel said:

Well done Tom.  Maybe I'll get to see it up close in New London in October.

 

Tom 

That is the plan. I was actually pleased that the conference was pushed out to October. I don’t think, no wait, actually I know it would not have been finished in April.  😁

Tom

[John Ruy]

10 hours ago, toms10 said:

Liquitex matte medium to hold them and allow me to trim them very close. 

Tom,

 

Is this Liquitex the medium for acrylic paints? 
 

Thanks

Edited February 21, 2021 by John Ruy

[toms10]

Hi John

here is a pic of the bottle and uses. 
 

 

 

I am not much of an artist so I don’t know much about paint mediums and what is used for what. I am just adapting a technique that was shown to me by Ron Neilson at the last “in person”  New London” conference a couple of years ago. This stuff acted like a glue in this case so it made sense to use it for securing knots. It dries clear with a matte finish and is a bit pliable. One more reason not to use CA on rope. 
 

Tom

[TomShipModel]

Yes, this is used to prep the canvas for painting.  I do use it for setting knots as well.  However, on caution is that for black and dark brown rigging it does give a bit of a white haze on the line.  I typically use dilute white glue to set knots on dark colored line.  As you had mentioned, for me, the only use for cyano on rigging is to point the line to run it through a block.  Cyano just makes rigging too brittle and the stretching and slackening of  line due to temperature and humidity changes could (an in my case does) break the line at the interface between the cyano hardened line on the rest of it.

[John Ruy]

1 hour ago, toms10 said:

This stuff acted like a glue in this case so it made sense to use it for securing knots. It dries clear with a matte finish and is a bit pliable. One more reason not to use CA on rope. 

Thanks Tom... (both of you)

 

I have used Tacky Fabric glue and CA on knots. Mixed results with both. I’ll give this a try. Nice to lean from the Pros. 🧐

I do paint hulls and masts with Acrylics this stuff may help the flow there too. 
 

John

[toms10]

John

As Tom R. (TomShipModel) mentioned, I have been using Elmer’s white glue diluted with water (1:1) for securing knots. This is the first time I used this Liquitex medium. As Tom R. Said, it can leave a milky residue on dark rope where the diluted PVA does not.

 

that makes a great lead in to my next picture. After sleeping on it I decided I did not really like the dark bolt rope. Just a little to much contrast to the sail... almost distracting. So I took some of the rope I make for running rigging and dipped it into some Special Walnut stain and what came out is much more to my liking. The new rope is obviously the sail on the top. It’s a little more work but I am much happier with it. The lower one is Coats and Clark thread for buttons and craft.  The color is Chona  Brown which is almost identical to my standing rigging.  

Okay, I have beaten my bolt ropes to death. Time to run with my decision and go forward!  I am going to replace the dark with the lighter rope. Luckily it is only on 2 small sails. The ones in the picture are royals. Doing a lot of one step forward and 2 steps back lately. 🤔

 

Thanks to everyone for their input. 
 

Tom

[TomShipModel]

Yes, lighter rope would be appropriate as these ropes had no preservative on them at all.  You started with the simply ones first.  When you get to the Topsails with two reef points on every cloth and two or three reef bands; then the fun begins! 

[toms10]

So I have been playing with sailmaking lately. Finished putting on the bolt ropes and cringles for the sails I plan on hanging (about 18 or so). The lower ones will be furled. Still need to figure that out. 
 

In the mean time... let the reef pointing begin!  I am rough guessing at about 500 plus. This kind of make ratlines down right exciting 😜😁. Here is the spritsail getting started. 

 

And when those are done it will be roband time!  That is probably another 500 ropes!  Then I can start attaching sails to yards and then attach the yards to the masts.  At least that is the plan. 
 

Please note that all plans are subject to change without notice... and usually do!😁

 

Tom

 

 

[toms10]

Houston we have propulsion!  Actually it probably should be London we have propulsion!  I was able to mount my first sail today. It took all afternoon, mostly staring at it figuring out all the intricacies of rigging. This is going to take a while 🤔😮. My goal is to bring the completed model to Modelcon in Philadelphia in August. Should not be a problem but I have learned that I am not the speediest modeler and I can only put a couple hours a day if I am lucky. I would be very hungry if I did this professionally. 😜😁

 

here is my sprit sail. 

 

 

Now I have to try furling a sail as that is my plan for the top sprit sail. 

 

Tom

[John Ruy]

1 hour ago, toms10 said:

I would be very hungry if I did this professionally. 😜😁

You may not be doing this professionally, but your finished product will be very professional. 👍

 

I love the Red Flag on the end of your bow. I should have had that on my CWM. I could have avoided repairs.  😆

 

Sails are looking perfect. 😎