Stag by Jim Lad - FINISHED - Scale 1:96 - English Revenue Cutter of 1827

[augie]

Just don't hang around to meet the 'dropper'. 

 

Back to training the spiders.

[BANYAN]

Sorry Popeye, I see where you are coming from, but that was not the intent - you're a braver man than me if you wish to train snakes to do anything but scare away any unwanted visitors - most of them are far scarier than the spiders

 

cheers

 

Pat

[popeye the sailor]

no pat.....that's quite alright........no creatures in my wharf!  LOL!

[Jim Lad]

Oops!  First thing I did this morning when I got the Stag out at the museum was to start 'sweating up' the shrouds prior to finally securing them.  Blow me down if the lower deadeye strap pin on number two starboard didn't carry away when I put a bit of pressure on it!  

 

 

I've no real idea what happened as it was fine last time I touched it, and when I went to try and drill the old pin out of the upper end of the chainplate there didn't seem to be a pin in there.  Very strange!!

 

Oh, well!  A bit of fiddling with some copper wire for a strap and another piece for a pin and I was back in business.

 

 

A little black paint and all was well again - just don't tell the foreman rigger or there'll be hell to pay!

 

 

Once the shroud was back on and they were all tensioned correctly on both sides, I put in some time making a start on the ratlines.  Hopefully I can finish them off next time I'm in.

 

 

John

 

 

[cog]

Nice save on the deadeye John. Lovely job on the shrouds too.

[gjdale]

Nice save John

[popeye the sailor]

that's an expression I use  AK-k-k-k-k-k!  perhaps you forgot to put a pin in..........or maybe........gremlins    ya hate'em right!!........well,  I do myself!!!   quick fix.........problem solved......no harm,  no foul!   looking great.   I gotta get better at making chain plates....I like the way you did it.    more rigging.............more!!!   I love it!

[augie]

Nice fix John.  And darned, those ratlines just look natural.

 

Well done.

[michael mott]

great recovery John.

 

Michael

[mobbsie]

Hi John,

 

Good fix on the deadeye my friend, she's looking a real lady.

 

mobbsie

[captainbob]

Well done.  She's looking good.

 

Bob

[mtaylor]

Good fix, John. 

[russ]

The shrouds and deadeyes look great. Good job on the repair.

 

Russ

[Jim Lad]

Thank you all for your encouragement!  I have to say it wasn't a nice feeling to see that pair of deadeyes just dangling in the air!  The situation wasn't helped by one of the security blokes wandering past while I was trying to fix it and having a look.  "What's happening?"  "The pin somehow came out of this deadeye strap."  "Hmmm.  Obviously a totally incompetent model maker."  Grins and walks off while contemplate the penalties for 'securitycide'.

 

John

[newbuilder101]

Great job on the fix! She really  is looking terrific!

[Jim Lad]

Thanks very much, Sherry!

 

John

[Shazmira]

John, thank you for showing me that even a pro such as yourself can make a mistake, and recover from it. I am fighting with my own shroud lines atm, think they are winning at the moment! But you give me hope that persistence and patience will pay off.

[augie]

I know the word shows up a lot.  But when you top gun shipwrights provide inspiration to others, you've more than built a fine model.

[rdsaplala]

Hi John,

 

Just catching up with your wonderful build, she's really coming along Sir, very nice fix on the pin, and rigging looks fabulous

[JerseyCity Frankie]

I have been enjoying your  build log. I built a cutter too and I find them fascinating. So much sail on such a small hull. With all that canvas the small crew would have had a very difficult and dangerous time of it I think, more so than the larger crews of larger vessels. The margin for error when handling the lines would have been very narrow with the tremendous forces involved. The bowsprit has to be the  most dangerous bowsprit on any vessel, so complex an arrangement, so many lines converging upon its tip, so much at stake if it breaks. I get the strong feeling that if any one line parted the whole rig would go by the board in an instant. As for the comfort of life aboard? Imagine off watch life below decks on one of these vessels, even on the nicest of days the interior must have been very uncomfortable.

[Jim Lad]

Robbyn - call it a draw with your shrouds at the moment.   The trick is to make sure that your lower deadeyes are really well secured (which one of mine turned out not to be  ) and to use a spacer to get the distance between the deadeyes even - a length of hard wire bent at bothe nds is sufficient for this.

 

Augie and Aldo - thanks for the engouragement gents

 

Frankie - I agree that cutters must have been beasts to sail - and very uncomfortable - but many of these seamen literally grew up at sea.  When last in the U.K. I was talking with some people from the Norfolk Wherry Trust about the sailing of those craft.  They are very different craft, I know, but they informed me that they were sailed by a man and a boy.  The crunch was that a 'man' could be as young as 14 years old and a 'boy' as young as 6!

 

John

[michael mott]

John all your shenanigans with the shrouds is pulling at my soul. I am trying to get it right myself and it is tough. Kudos to you Sir for getting it done.

 

Michael

[Jim Lad]

Thanks, Michael - perhaps I should up the scale a bit to make it easier on the tiny pieces!

 

John

[mtaylor]

John,

What the others have said about inspiration.  I just find it amazing the details that your putting in a 1:96... and then there's issues with strengthening.  And you do it all in public.  I don't think I'd have that kind of courage to let every man, woman, child and dog passing by to watch. 

[Jim Lad]

Mark,

 

It's a bit un-nerving being out in the open when you first start, but it's actually good fun - especially with the small kids who are interested and sometimes ask the most amazing questions!  One of the main problems is in firstly choosing a model that can be built away from your main stash of odd tools and secondly in planning what you hope to achieve for the day and making sure that you have all the bits with you.

 

John

[fnkershner]

The discussion about how hard these craft are to sail is supported by the recent incident on the Baltimore Clipper II. She lost her bow sprit in heavy weather off the coast of France. As a result she also lost most of each of the masts. Pretty close tolerances and when you have lost the forestay.. Oh my!

Edited May 18, 2013 by Floyd Kershner

[Jim Lad]

And to make it even more fun on the Revenue cutters, Floyd, they were only allowed into port for stores or repairs - other than that they were supposed to be at sea on patrol, no matter what the weather.

 

John

[captainbob]

John,

 

You may have said on MSW 1, but I cannot find anything in the present thread as to the size of the stag.

So what was the length on deck of the stag?  At 1:96 it's fantastic.

 

Bob

[Jim Lad]

Bob,

 

The plans are currently at the museum, but if I remember correctly, she was 66 feet between perpendiculars.

 

More updates in a few days!

 

John

[Meredith]

.  The crunch was that a 'man' could be as young as 14 years old and a 'boy' as young as 6!

 

John

 

How times have changed!

We can tend to cotton wool our kids a bit too much these days.

But worse still - no personal responsibility - its always someone else's fault or society as a whole - or lack of 'entertainment" when kids (so called grown ups for that matter too)  mess up. 

Imagine the responsibility of the above mentioned man of 14!! And anything he did or didn't do - he would of had to wear the consequences. Not many others to blame if your out to sea with a crew consisting of a 6 year old!!! I guess they just accepted it as their lot in life.

 

I certainly don't advocate going back to hard times like that - but there must be a bit of a balance.

 

This is still a wonderful build..... bit hard for me to imagine the scale of all the tiny blocks and stuff.... I am starting to think I might head UP scale.. maybe 1:48 - not tinier :)