Granado by RMC - FINISHED - Caldercraft - 1:64

[jwvolz]

The Syren rope and blocks look good; fine choice. 

 

I was wondering how you were going g to get shrouds and stays installed with the masts fully assembled...

[Vane]

I was thinking the same thing. Shouldnt the shrouds be one of the first things to assemble before adding everything on top?

[RMC]

Unfortunately I'm thinking the same thing.  As I said in my last post putting on the shrouds is going to be 'interesting'.  It's a fundamental mistake, and will be difficult rectify, though I have a couple of ideas.  Pity I didn't have them earlier.

[RMC]

The lower shrouds are now attached to the main mast.  I made things more difficult than I should have, but tying the shrouds on proved easier than anticipated and they turned out quite acceptably..  The photos give an idea how they were done.  Once the shrouds are attached to the deadeyes and made taut, the respective loops should line up quite nicely.

 

 

 

 

 

[RMC]

A start has been made in installing the deadeyes.  It's a rather fiddly job.  A shown, I use a piece of copper wire of the appropriate length as a jig, with a small piece of insulating off the wire to prevent the top deadeye from falling off.  The two sides of the 'rope' are held by a small alligator clip.

 

 

 

Partly finished -

 

and finished.

 

 

[Ronald-V]

great job! Are you using the supplied thread?

Edited November 9, 2019 by mugje

[RMC]

No.  I've used Syren thread.  It's better quality than that supplied in the kit.  Incidentally, it is easier to work with if you wet it when tying knots.  The thread you see tied around the shrouds, for example, was wet - it 'behaves' (stays in place) far more easily than when dry.

[Ronald-V]

I thought so...it looked way better then the Caldercraft thread

[RMC]

The main shrouds are finally finished.  The process did not go smoothly and a couple had to be redone.  Here are the results.  I'm not especially happy with the port side, but it's OK, and later, with all sorts of other things going on, any inadequacies will be obscured.

 

 

 

 

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[flyer]

If you mean by inadequacies slightly different deadeye heights, then I would take this as better authenticity.

 

The function of the shroud is to support the mast. To do this efficiently all shrouds must have the same tension. The ropes are working and therefore tensions must be frequently adjusted. This could result in different heights of the deadeyes. You could reset them at the same height for an Admiralty inspection but in everyday operation I think you would see slightly different heights.

 

That's the educated guess of a landlubber or perhaps my personal excuse for imprecise work.

 

Keep up your great work.

Peter

[RMC]

Thanks for the comfort Peter. 🙂  The way the damn' thing is going I may need it again.  As I'm rather sick of deadeyes and shrouds, I think I'll finish off some of the deck furniture next.

[RMC]

I changed my mind.  I decided to get the lower shrouds over and done.  Here is the starboard side.  The pin rails make doing the mizzen shrouds a bit fiddly.  Those supplied are of poor quality ply so they have been replaced.  The photos show that I need to trim the thread a little better, though they don't look too bad in the flesh.  On looking at it, I may have cut off the shrouds too high (and thus the pin rail is too high), though they are consistent with Petersson's illustration.  I will think about adjusting all of this.  Comments welcome.

 

This is how I maintain the correct orientation of the deadeyes.

 

 

Too High?

 

[RMC]

I have adjusted the heights of the pinrails. They do look a little better I think.  The photo shown took four attempts to download so I won't bother with another couple.  I notice the lanyard on the lefthand deadeye seem to overlap.  That has been corrected.

 

[RMC]

Very slow progress.  The futtock staves and the catharpins are now finished.  These are quite awkward jobs.  The staves have to be in position to be tied, and gravity is not on your side.  I used one of my wife's lightweight material clamps to hold the stave across the shrouds.  I then tied off the stave to one of the shrouds.  The clamp was removed, and the remaining shrouds (with some difficulty) were tied off.  It is far easier to tie off by making the stave 'too long' and when in place, cutting it off to the required length.  (See the last two photos.)

 

It's a bit blurry, but here is the stave cut to length.

 

 

 

 

[Ronald-V]

ìt looks wonderful!

[Kevin Kenny]

The rigging is coming along great. I used a paper template behind to get the lines right. You are so close to the end. Keep at it.

regards

kevin

[RMC]

Thanks mugji and Kevin.  A bit of encouragement is probably useful right now.  With the fires, people in Sydney are stuck in their houses with the smoke, quite aside from the poor people at the fire fonts.  We looked directly at the sun late this afternoon and it was  a blood red ball.  Never seen anything remotely like it, but didn't have a camera to record it.  It makes boat building a bit trivial.

 

 

 

 

 

.

[GrandpaPhil]

Sorry to hear that.  Be careful and stay safe.

 

I lived near wildfires a few years ago and that is nerve wracking.

[Vane]

I am very grateful for this log since its a great inspiration for my own Granado build which are quite behind. I have finished my hull and managed to clean up all gunports. Next is to start with the big guns. I have done mine in Tanganyika so it will be interesting to see the difference in style later. 

[RMC]

Thanks Grandpaphil and Vane for your kind thoughts.  Vane: I'm glad to have helped.  A lot of what may be useful to you may be found on my Vanguard log.  If there is something I may be able to help you with, let me know.  Kind regards to you both..

 

Bob

[RMC]

I made a rather silly mistake on the main yard.  There is supposed to be a 6mm octagonal section. Unfortunately I took the centre section down to 6mm which made it impossible. Fortunately I had some 0.5mm thick timber which I cut back to the required width for the faces of the octagon.  Here is the result.  Painting to come.

 

I took a photo of the sun today at about 3pm.  The smoke here is off the scale.  Interestingly the sun shows up in the photo as the 'normal' colour.  In fact it is a deep red.  The sky is orange.

 

 

 

 

[Kevin Kenny]

Everyone makes this same mistake, in fact ithink i haVe made it more than Once. You are  in The home stretch now. Looking good

kevin

[RMC]

Thanks for the encouragement Kevin.

 

The main futtock shrouds are now complete.  The process proved easier than I anticipated.  First the hooks were inserted to the strops.  The 'ropes' (wetting it makes them easier to work with, and make sure they a longer than will eventually be necessary) are dropped down over the front of staves, then looped over them.  They are then loosely tied to the appropriate shrouds.  The futtock shrouds may then be pulled through the loose knot to the appropriate tension, then properly tied off.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ronald-V]

That's really neat looking!

[RMC]

Thanks mugje.

 

The lower mizzen is now finished.  Boat building is on hold for the weekend - it's off the the beach and away (?) from the smoke.

 

 

 

 

 

[RMC]

Here is a bit more progress.  The tops are now complete. I thought the sailors needed a little more protection, but I can see that some adjustment and a little more trimming of the mesh is required.  If it doesn't work out, it's easy to get rid of it.  The railings are both dry fitted at the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

[RMC]

The topmast shrouds are now complete.  They are not finally tied off.  We are going away tomorrow for a couple of weeks (fires permitting) and I will leave them until we return.  Sometimes the thread may stretch a little and I can then make any adjustments to the lanyards.  I have redone the protective mesh on the tops and this time made a better job of it. 

 

Best wishes to all for Christmas and the new year.

 

 

 

 

[RMC]

Well the fires didn't permit, so it's Christmas at home.  For us it's a minor inconvenience - others are having a very, very tough time indeed.

[RMC]

The mizzen topmast shrouds are now done.  Working with 2.5mm deadeyes  is fairly difficult.  I discovered the holes for the lanyards are 0.5mm, but the wire used for the spacing jig is 0.6mm - so one of the holes had to be drilled to that size.  Here's how they turned out.  Again, they have not been finally tied off.  I have a couple other photos, but as it took five attempts at downloading the one below, I think I'll call it a day.

 

[Ronald-V]

On 12/21/2019 at 7:12 AM, RMC said:

Well the fires didn't permit, so it's Christmas at home.  For us it's a minor inconvenience - others are having a very, very tough time indeed.

good to hear that you are safe 👍