Arrow by mikiek - FINISHED - Amati - 1:55 scale - American Gunboat

[mikiek]

I've done some serious multi tasking in the last 24 hours. Arrow, the tugboat and Niagara. When things are clicking, it's really fun.

 

I put together the carronade carriage today. It's not glued in yet but I might before I shut down tonite. The kit provides 2 round wooden platforms for the guns. They're not bad but they are a little small in the hole in the deck where they will sit. The earlier pix show this and also the pieces underneath the deck. It didn't look real good so I painted the area underneath the platforms black to make the pieces not so obvious.

 

 

The carronade was a little funky. The parts came in a plastic bag with no instructions. You have to glue the trunnion loop and what I believe is the breech rope loop to the barrel. It will be a pretty wimpy breech rope as that loop can't be any bigger than 1/64". I really prefer a chunky piece of Syren rope for the breech. The long gun is next and then masts & yardarms.

 

 

[donrobinson]

She is turning out to be a cool looking ship

[mikiek]

Thank you Don. I agree. When those masts and sails go up it will add a lot more. Besides, I'll have to learn how to make sails.

[donrobinson]

Does the kit come with sails?

[mikiek]

It does Don. However having no experience with sails myself, I have no idea whether they are any good or not. Will have to research sail making when I get to that point.

[mtaylor]

Mike,

On the musket stowing... I would think they'd keep the muskets close at hand since this basically a "day ship" with no provisions for much of anything other than the guns.  

[mikiek]

It sure is tight Mark. I suppose it would make a difference whether they used that center beam to get from bow to stern. I imagine they would or else just stay put. No wonder no one wanted to crew these things.

[mikiek]

Now that the tug is winding up I can get more time for Arrow. This is a good break from rolling hammocks for my Niagara build.

 

It's funny, I guess the person that was translating the English instructions was changed somewhere about where the guns start. I had no complaints with the instructions for the hull - framing, seats, planking. However when I started the guns, the grammar got worse and parts started to be mislabeled. I was having to reread everything 3-4 times to make sense of it. I'm now starting rigging and they are better again.

 

So - rigging. If you have followed the Niagara log, you know my thoughts on that. One of the big reasons I choose this build was due to the lateen rig. Much simpler than square rigging. I also picked up the Lauck Street tutorials and practicums a while back and I've found the pieces on rigging very helpful. The techniques for seizing made good sense and watching the video gave me the urge to give it a try. I can't say it will help everyone, but it was a good investment for me.

 

I've started with the mast tops and shrouds - per the instructions. I suspect I'll be jumping out of order pretty soon as the plans call for shrouds to fasten to eyebolts with rings (no channels or deadeyes) and none of those are in place yet. There's about 35 of those all around the deck and rails.

 

So here's the kids first attempt:

 

 

No the masts are not raked backwards. This is the lateen rig.

 

 

The Lauck Street seizing technique lets you slide the seizing around (it's not the zip seizing) to tighten up around blocks, etc. Each one of these ropes was a loop on each end for a block and one in the middle to go around the mast.

[thibaultron]

Which Lanck rigging practicum has the seizing tech. you mention?

[Elijah]

Looking good, Mike! it must be a little more fun building a ship with that kind of rig !

[mikiek]

Ron - I bought the entire DVD set - about 14 discs. It's on the Lady Nelson discs and several of the others. If you are familiar with them most of the practicums are written up. Those discs also have some 1-2 minute videos that show the seizing. It's not real different than other YouTube videos but I never realized that you could slide a seizing around after completing it. That one point has made all the difference for me.  I would take some pix and show it but I suspect that might be copyright infringement.

[mikiek]

Elijah - my hope is that it won't take too long to rig. Although to do it justice I will have to make sails. Besides that, I just think it is an interesting and very different boat.

[thibaultron]

I bought several, years ago. I'll have to go back and look through the files. Thanks.

[mikiek]

As Joel would put it - the Lauck Street DVDs have led me to an epiphany. Working the seizings has become childsplay.  It's not the whipping part - nothing revolutionary there. I just didn't realize that after you are done with the whipping, you can slide it around on the rope or pull the rope thru it.  Maybe everyone knew that but me

 

At any rate, I am progressing with the rigging of the spars. Remembering this is a lateen rig, a yard will be bound to each mast. First a gammoning on the yard. One end of this is supposed to be the haliard and run up thru the mast top. The instructions were terrible on how to do this, so I used a suggestion from this post.

 

Over the gammoning a parrel is made to hold the yard to the mast. This showed me the value of sliding the seizing around. According to the instructions you seize a loop on the yard, run the other end around the mast and seize another loop on the yard. You end up with something like this.

 

 

 

Well for me, trying to seize that in place would have been a bear. The rope around the mast has to be tight (no room for fingers) and all sorts of other ropes in the way.  Instead I seized a loop in a third hand, then slid the loop over one end of the yard and down to the gammoning. Then slid the seizing down to tighten. Easy enough but how do you seize a loop to the yard on the other side of the mast?

 

Rather than doing all this with a cut piece of rope I used the whole spool. Seized the first loop at the end of that. Then I seized another loop about 10" down the rope from the first one, again with the third hand. This loop is run around the mast and slid over the other end of the yard and down to the gammoning. At this point both loops are in place on the yard but there is a lot of excess rope between them. Given that the rope can still be pulled thru the seizings that's exactly what I did - pulled all the excess thru the seizing.

 

 

Worked like a charm!  And since the rope is still on the spool I don't have to cut and throw away the excess rope. Like I said, a new world has opened. Now tell me I'm not the only one that didn't know about this.

 

 

[jbshan]

Your fingers are 55 times too big to do the thing the way they did on the original.  You got to be creative.

[mikiek]

Steady progress is continuing on Arrow. Mostly rigging - some I've done before, some not. I had hoped that lateen rigging would be less involved than square rigging. I'm beginning to think differently While rigging the spars has not been terribly difficult, the sails will be another story. They have to be almost laced up to the yards and the full detail even has a lot of telltales running from the foot to the luff.

 

 

 

 

So I am adding hardware to the deck - cleats, eyebolts with rings. I decided I would blacken these vs the painting that I have gotten used to. They came out nice. My biggest gripe with blackening is that most of it ends up coming off on your fingers or tweezers. I found that letting them sit for almost 24 hours after rinsing them off seems to help keep the color. Typically I would dry them with a paper towel and start using them right away. Maybe letting them dry out helps keep the black on. The color is holding up better this time whatever the reason.

 

 

I've completed gun tackle for the bow - the long gun. After installing them on one side of the gun, I am disappointed. It looks like a bowl of spaghetti. All the fasteners seem to be too close together. I will definately have to rethink this. The result so far is not acceptable.

 

 

 

So far with the rigging, I have gone with whatever was supplied in the kit. The Amati rope doesn't look too bad - oddly there is no black rope, all tan. Not overly impressed with the blocks. Cleats are pewter and do not have the small post on the underside (for added strength when gluing) like the Model Shipways kit.

 

 

[Tigersteve]

I wonder if the line for the gun tackle is too thick, resulting in the spaghetti look. It's all looking good though. 

Steve

[mikiek]

Good point Steve. I can try the next smaller size. Problem is it's not much thicker than the rope I am using for seizing.

[mikiek]

Rigged up a tackle with the next smaller size rope. Now it looks like a bowl of angel hair.

 

I'm going to move the two ringbolts on the deck outwards. I'm hoping it will spread out that X a little. Of course the other option - wait, wait, don't say it! Frapped - which is probably how it was kept most of the time anyway.

[mikiek]

Made a concerted effort to get some work done on Arrow today. I think I have overwhelmed myself lately with various projects - models, RC sailboats and RC speedboat. That last one is a new direction. It's an RTR (ready to run) so there's no real build, but in less than a week I've managed to almost destroy it. Cracked it up on a wall, I've now learned fiberglass repair. Smoked some of the electrical components - now waiting for replacements. When it works, it's a thrill. 60+ mph.

 

Back to reality. I believe I have finished installing the deck hardware and have rigged the 2 guns on their platforms. This rigging really cluttered up the area, so in an effort to clean it up some the gun tackles are frapped and I rearranged the fasteners.

 

Here's what she looks like:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've started looking into sails and all that goes with that. That's the next big step.

 

 

[mikiek]

Back to rigging for Me and My Arrow. Anybody remember that one?  The instructions are so poor here. Essentially "do like the picture". I'm not sure the order of things but sooner or later I'll have to hang the sails so today I put together one of the kit supplied patterns. I've researched some and read several threads here at MSW. I got some ideas, but didn't want to go to a lot of trouble with this. I played around with paper (for about 5 minutes) and decided I didn't want to go there. Finally I decided to try the material and pattern in the kit. There are 2 lateen sails. I've done 1 mainly as a trial, just to see what worked and what didn't.  When I get it finalized I'll post some steps when I do the other one.

 

One thing I did pick up on from a post and I agree completely. It's real hard to keep all the parts in scale. Some things would have to be really small to be accurate. I would prefer to show all the parts so a viewer could get an idea how it all worked - even if that means making some parts larger than they should be. Within reason of course. The telltales on this sail are an example. I would have had to use very thin fly tying line to be accurate. I used some sewing thread instead.

 

I'm really hoping for some critiques on this sail. It's the first one I have ever made. It seems OK to me but who knows?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nirvana]

Mike,

if that is the instructions, well then to me it's a really nice outcome.

[mikiek]

Thanks for stopping by Per. I appreciate your comment. The problem with "the picture" is there are no size details. As usual, there were not many rope diameters supplied and no size specifications in the picture so all the ropes were just a guess. No order to the installation either. I guess I'm going to lace the sails to the yards before I step the masts.

 

I also need to shape the sail a little. It's flat as a pancake right now.

[mikiek]

I had a question to post so I also took a few pix. She's not at any particular milestone right now. Just working on the standing rigging. Instructions are difficult as they just show one side of the fore/aft rigging. I'm assuming all rigging to be symmetrical? If there's something on one side a similar something should be on the other?

 

I will say I'm pleased with my sail so far. It has proven to be very durable as I laced it to the yard and am working with the mast/yard. All the strips I glued on have held up and the sail has held it's shape nicely. So my question is regarding the last pic.

 

 

 

The ropes that come from the yard to eyelets on the leech, do those terminate at the eyelets? Maybe a big granny knot on the other side? Or do they go thru the eyelet and back up to the yard on the other side?

 

[donrobinson]

Looking good Mike. My guess would be it's tied off at the eyelet. I don't see any other ropes tied to the spar in the diagram. (edit) I just had a look at the picture on the box and it looks like they are tied off there also.

[Blighty]

I just found this log, very attractive build Mike, hope you don't mind me jumping aboard.

 

Blighty

[mikiek]

Welcome Blighty. I hope I don't scare you off with my rigging problems   She is a good looking boat, albeit somewhat off the beaten path.

 

I'm still plugging away at the sail and rigging. Still working on the rear mast (not sure if that would be the Main in this case). I've been doing the rigging from the inside out. Which means quite a few lines were put in place before I started the shrouds. It just seemed like once those shrouds were in place there's no getting underneath them. Almost all the lines are either seized to an eyebolt or fastened to a cleat on deck. At best a difficult task.

 

There are 3 main shrouds per side. All extend only about half way from the mast head and terminate with a seized block. A line runs thru the block - one end has a block seized the other end runs thru an eyebolt on deck and is cleated. Another line runs thru this block - on end is seized to an eyebolt on deck the other end runs thru an eyebolt on deck and is cleated. A little complicated but not a real problem.

 

Here is my problem. The 6 shrouds (3 per side) were made from 3 ropes middled and seized at the mast head. The yard with sail is attached under the mast head with the yard being on the starboard side of the mast. The port shrouds run down to the deck nicely but the starboard shrouds have to go over the yard before heading down to the deck this looks rather funky. I'm not sure what the solution is.

 

If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them. I am probably going to post this question in the rigging forum as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will say again, I am very pleased with the sail. The printed pattern may not look as good as if I had cut & glued strips but it has held together well. All the strips I did glue on have stayed on well. That was a big concern after I mounted the sail to the yard and began rigging. It has been "roughed up" several times. I will do a how-to when I do the fore mast.

 

 

[mikiek]

Never got any feedback regarding the shrouds. I kinda had one of those 'duh' moments, realizing I could just turn the shrouds where they wrap around the mastheads so that the seizing is over the yard rather than centered on the mast. It worked OK.

 

I believe I have finished one sail/mast assembly. I think I have been working on it for about a week. The lateen system has it's own set of quirks but I imagine it's still easier than square rigged. I still credit the Lauck Street tutorials for opening my eyes to seizing and how it can be done. I always thought seizing had to be done at the point where it would end up. If you wanted a rope seized to an eyebolt you did the seizing at the eyebolt. I'm sure that's how it was done in real life. I never realized I could do the seizing 2"-3" away and then slide the finished seizing where ever you want it. Almost like zip seizing but it looks a lot better. Or maybe I'm the only one that didn't know.

 

I did cut some corners on the cleats. They are too small and there is just not enough room to tie them off correctly. I glued them with CA instead. We'll see how that works out a year from now.

 

Some of the ropes are a bit loose.  I've already cut the ends to size, so the only way to really fix them would be to pull them, replace the rope and re-rig. That ain't hapnin'.  I thought I would paint some lacquer on the ropes to stiffen them up and see if they shrink a little after they dry out.

 

Anyway, below are some pix.  Looks like I will be taking a break from Arrow for a bit. I'm short quite a few blocks and don't have near enough to do the fore sail. More on order.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mikiek]

I threatened to show you guys what I did for the rear sail when I did the fore sail. So I'll hold true to my word. This is just one way of hundreds so I'm not suggesting you follow my lead but maybe there will be something you can use someday.

 

The sails with the kit come with stamped markings - edges, strips, etc. I decided I was going to just work with what was there.

 

Preparation - Cutting the material is not difficult with a new blade and a straight edge but the material can fray some and leave threads hanging loose. The fix for that is to starch the heck out of the material before you do anything with it. Problem is starch can burn under a hot iron, so you can't just soak the material and then iron. You have to spray lightly and iron, then repeat this 4-5 times. The material needs to be able to stand up on its own. Same goes for the scraps. Some of that will be used for cutting thin strips for the sail.

 

The sail marks show a border all the way around the sail edge, and 2 strips running diagonally for the telltales. These strips were all cut from excess material and were about 1/8-3/16 inch wide.

 

Strips were glued in place with Elmers. I will say I was impressed with the way it held the strips to the sail, even with a little rough-housing.

 

The next step was to put eyelets in the appropriate places. I had a thread about what would be grommets in this day & age. It was noted that reinforcement stitches would have been added but no sort of metal grommet. In that same thread someone suggested poking holes for the eyelets then using some dyed Elmers with water place some of that around the edge of the eyelits. So I mixed Elmers & water 60/40 and added walnut crystals for color. I'm sure brown paint could have been used as well. I dipped a round toothpick in the glue and then slowly stuck it into the eyelit hole and twirled the toothpick aroundso that all the edge of the eyelit picks up some of the mixture. I had to do this on both sides of the sail.

 

 

 

 

Now time for the teltales. I found it was easier do use a pin vise and drill holes into the material and then use a needle threader to pull the lines thru.The lines are about 2 inches with a halfhitch  tied in the  middle to hold the line in place on the sail.

 

 

 

Next you have to give these boys a haircut.

 

 

I applied a spot of CA where the knot in the telltale meets the sail. This keeps the telltale in place. I had to hold the telltale in place while gluing because some of them ended up glued in funny directions.

 

 

And finally I have to get them to lay flat against the sail. Once again Elmers come thru. Just white glue and water. And you start painting the telltale.

The result.

 

 

Then there is the rope that goes around the sail edge - don't recall the nautical term. I glued that again with Elmers. I had to do that in small chunks. The material tended to shrink up for some reason so I would glue about 3-4 inches and then put a weight on it while the glue set.

 

One thing, with all the Elmers being applied it did give the sail a good stiffness that I liked.

 

Then I laced up the sail to the yard. Don't know what this lashing is called but it was easy and worked well.

 

 

Now to get the rigging up....

 

 

[Haliburton]

Hi Mike, it's been a long time since I dropped in on your build, wow it is looking great!  I love your detailed photo narratives!   Scott