Enterprise 1799 by mikiek - FINISHED - Constructo - 1:51

[mikiek]

Rowboat - thank you for the kind words. Niagara offered a lot of opportunity for many different types of construction and techniques. As far as how to for frapping, the 3rd hand tool will be your best bet. Just lace up your 2 blocks with rope then put the blocks in the alligator clips. Get the clips the distance you want the blocks to be - probably about 1". Take the rope as it comes out the last hole and pull it up to the opposite block. At that point tie a half hitch around the ropes right under the block and put a spot of CA to hold it there. Then just start winding the rope towards the other block. Not too tight. when you are done winding you can put in another half hitch the keep the rope from unwinding. The trick is having enough rope to wind almost back to the other block and dangle an inch or so to the deck without having too much throw away. So keep track of how much rope you use on the first few you do.  I'll try to find some pix tonite.

[mikiek]

Rowboat - the Niagara log on page 15 shows another way you could frap those tackles. Just a couple of pieces of thick wire stuck into a piece of wood. If you scroll down a bit farther there is a pic of a real gun with tackles frapped. That was the pic that set the hook for me. It's an awesome look and the deck isn't all cluttered.

 

There is a trick you will be running into when you start pinning your rigging. The rope that falls from a sail or yard is pinned into the rail and then cut right under the rail. The coil that hangs over the pin is a second piece of rope. I debated doing something similar with the fraps. Lace up the blocks and cut the end near where it comes out of the block. Then use a second piece of rope to do the winding. No one will know but you.  In the end however, I went with a single rope.

[mikiek]

I posted my question over in the rigging forum and got an answer. Kinda like I thought the rope (clew) is siezed to the yard and then run down the front of the sail to the corner. It is then fed into the block at the corner and run back up to a block on the yard, then down to the bitts. Hopefully I can seize a rope to the yard without taking the sail off 🤨

I need to get going on that - there are only 4 more loose ropes to pin down. That will be a pretty big milestone although there is still the braces to install. And I also gotta figure out something to do with the coils hanging on the pins. I'm leaning towards taking them all off and recoiling most of them. Then I still need to find a better way to make them naturally bend over the rail and hang down.

[mikiek]

The mainsail is back on again but as you can see from the pic I have ropes dangling everywhere again. I hate re-doing stuff. Actually it's not quite as bad as it looks, the ropes with clips on the end need to be pinned but the others are just excess rope after being pinned. As I said earlier, from now on I will not trim ropes, glue pins or put rope coils on until the very last minute. This leaves room for a final re-tightening of everything and it's really going to need it. That may end up being the biggest lesson I learn from this rigging. So I better get used to leaving a mess until the final stages of rigging.

 

[mikiek]

Good progress tonite. I have pinned and/or repinned all loose ropes. So everything is fastened down now. Next step will be a readjustment of all the ropes I can work with - the ones where I didn't glue the pins. The alligator forceps which I mentioned a while back were a huge help tonite. I posted a thread on them in the tools forum. Check it out.

 

So a quick readjust and then I'll start in on the braces. The bad thing there is I will have to seize ropes to the yard tips - not an easy task when they are all installed.

 

That's the last real task. After that more adjusting and finalizing the ropes/pins and then hanging coils on the pins. There is definitely a light shining in the darkness.

[Elijah]

Nice work, and I like how that last picture you used has almost a dramatic feeling about it.

[mikiek]

Hey Elijah - good to see you and I hope you are well. I went back to look at that pic again and as usual, I'm seeing all sorts of little things that don't look right. For one, my sails are starting to appear wrinkled. They had such a good shape to them after I starched and ironed the heck out them when I first put them on. They don't look so smooth now. Probably from big fat hands brushing them around.

[Rowboat]

mikiek,

 

Thanks for the info on frappng. I tried my first attempt using the third hand tool, and I used a separate piece of rope for the frapping.

It will take a few more times practicing to get it right.

 

Your ship is coming along nicely, the sails are much better looking than mine.

Maybe I'll shop around for some sail material when it comes time to work with them.

 

Still reviewing the Niagara build, lots to read.

Thanks again.

 

Rowboat

 

[mikiek]

Hi Rowboat - it will definitely take a few tries to get your technique worked out. But I think it will be worth it. Frapping can be used elsewhere - not just the gun tackles. So it's worth perfecting.

I looked around on the site that I bought my kit from for the sail upgrade but did not see it. The other possibility, although unlikely, is that I bought the kit and most all my kits made in EU from a shop in the UK. Cornwall Models. It's been a while since I have bought another one but when I was buying them the euro kits are much cheaper from there. They don't pay import fees that we pay when a euro kit is shipped to a US shop for resale. They have a few kits that are literally 1/2 the price of the same kit by the same manufacturer sold in the US. Shipping is a little more maybe 10% but their turnaround is way better than any US shop I have purchased from. Orders usually arrive in 3 days by UPS. They have a huge selection of kits too. But any way maybe the euro version of the Constructo kit has different sails than the one they wholesale to the US.

 

Sorry and the length of the Niagara log. I do have a tendency to run my mouth sometimes. And I did a whole lot of experimenting on the side for that build. A lot of that had to do with the fact that out of the box the kit is modelled after the current day replica which is not the same as the historical original. Given there are no plans for the original there was a lot of debate about historical accuracy in the log. Everything from the deck furniture to the colors of the boat.

[mikiek]

MORE REWORK ☹️😩😠 - the rigging plans were done a little different than some. Instead of one large drawing with all the rigging shown, Constructo chose to break out the drawings into smaller units. There are I think 8 drawings all together. I like this approach as it helps me localize my effort on a certain sail or mast and the drawings are much simpler and less crowded. A lot harder to overlook something. Or so he thought.

 

It turns out that in several places - the foot of the fore mainsail for instance - different rigging is shown in more than one drawing. The clew of that sail shows 1 block hanging there in one drawing. So that's what I did. Unbeknownst to me there was another drawing showing 2 more blocks hanging off that same corner. So I had to remove the original block and strop 3 more to the eyeloop in the corner of the sail. That might have been easy if the sail was not installed yet (remember I have installed this sail twice so far) but when it is mounted and the eyeloop is about 8 inches in the air it gets interesting. And no way was I going to pull that sail a 3rd time.

 

The Lauck Street seizing method saved my bacon again and I was able to get 3 blocks stroped to the eyeloop with the sail still hanging. A little piece of magic but it worked.

 

Some of the various rigging drawings in the plan

 

One drawing showing the sail corners I was referring to.

 

Another drawing showing the same corners.

 

Three blocks stroped to the sail eyelit.

 

I can see the hem is getting frayed from all the abuse. But this time it should be right.

 

 

 

[Elijah]

Rework sucks, but at least it will be worth it in the end. It’s a lot better than being tormented by something you just know isn’t right. But I feel at least some of your pain since having to remove the cap rail on my boat. 

[mikiek]

Wow Elijah - I'll consider myself lucky this time. All I had to do was snip a rope and restrop some blocks.

 

I was reviewing the plans for the braces and came across a pleasant surprise. I guess I wasn't thinking but I had expected braces to be a weeks worth of work. At least given my limited availability. The plans show only 6 more ropes to install! Two per yard. I forget that Niagara was double masted with 4 yards per mast. Enterprise only has 1 mast with square sails and only 3 yards on that mast. I got most of the starboard side done tonite. I could be finished rigging tomorrow!!

 

I do still see a good 1-2 weeks of cleanup, tightening rigging and placing coils. But the little light in the dark looks more like a headlight now.

[mikiek]

Of course I can't stand it. Wanna keep on keeping on. So I finished the starboard side (excess rope still in excess) Some of the sails are crooked because I need to brace the port side so I can even them out. I also wanted to take some pix so one thing led to another. So here's Enterprise from the starboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Elijah]

Beautiful, and she casts a lovely shadow.

[mikiek]

I thank everyone for the likes and comments. And now a bit of good news, rigging is finished. Kinda sorta. I got shorted 4 pins. These are the white wooden ones - no idea what size. I do happen to have some walnut pins in the same size but they would look a little funky next to the white ones so I'm painting them to match. Should be dry in an hour. Ropes are already threaded thru the pinrail so all I have to do is drop the pins in place.

 

On a side note, speaking of paint. I haven't painted anything in probably 2 years. All my paints - Tamiya - are sitting in the garage which gets pretty hot and fairly cold at times. Tamiya uses a different type of top on their jars. None of the metal top with cardboard seal inside. It's all plastic and apparently seals very well as the bottle I used had the paint in perfect condition. I was impressed. If I remember you can buy just the bottles to store colors you have mixed. I still have jars of colors that I used for Niagara.

 

So next is the usual tidying up. I'm gonna use a compressor and blow some air around to clean up the deck. Then tighten sail rigging, clip the excess rope and make and hang the coils on the pins. I do need to check what kind of stand comes with the kit.

 

This one is gonna go to my father for display at his place. He has been waiting a long time for me to finish this. So have I for that matter.

[Nirvana]

Mike, I just finished reading through your build log, even with the "hickups" you had along the way (and you're not the only one having them, 😉 you have created a beautiful version of Enterprise.
Glad you got the sails rigging "under control" .

[6ohiocav]

Mike,

 

WOW! Tremendous progress since I last stopped in. Love the sail work. 

[mikiek]

Hello Per and Darrell. Thank you for looking in. As I'm sure you guys know, it's a good feeling to get to this point. It has left me with NO excuses to not clean my workbench, which I did last nite. I can actually see the countertop again.

[Atze99]

Hey!

I am building one myself now, and i have a few questions about the guns and deck. What finish did you use for the deck? it looks realistic and used! also the guns, how did you finish the kit guns? you made them black? is that a chemical or paint?

Would love to hear!

 

 

[mikiek]

Atze99 - I did my best to NOT color anything in this build. I tried to make it look like the cover of the kit box.  While it certainly is not realistic, I felt that the colors of the wood are attractive just as they are. I still feel that way. Same thing for the guns - usually we would blacken them somehow. I just left them brass. The deck & hull received several coats of satin poly finish. May do a few more before I call it complete.

[Rowboat]

I agree, I like the natural color of the wood, although maybe just put some shellac or polyurethane clear gloss to protect the finish.

Tone down any shiny areas using a clear matte.

 

The ship looks great, I hope I can attain that level of work on my Enterprise build

 

 

[mikiek]

Thank you Rowboat. Good to see you again. She's almost ready to cross the finish line but it's been hard to get motivated to wrap things up.

[Rowboat]

On 7/12/2020 at 7:58 PM, mikiek said:

Hi Rowboat - it will definitely take a few tries to get your technique worked out. But I think it will be worth it. Frapping can be used elsewhere - not just the gun tackles. So it's worth perfecting.

I looked around on the site that I bought my kit from for the sail upgrade but did not see it. The other possibility, although unlikely, is that I bought the kit and most all my kits made in EU from a shop in the UK. Cornwall Models. It's been a while since I have bought another one but when I was buying them the euro kits are much cheaper from there. They don't pay import fees that we pay when a euro kit is shipped to a US shop for resale. They have a few kits that are literally 1/2 the price of the same kit by the same manufacturer sold in the US. Shipping is a little more maybe 10% but their turnaround is way better than any US shop I have purchased from. Orders usually arrive in 3 days by UPS. They have a huge selection of kits too. But any way maybe the euro version of the Constructo kit has different sails than the one they wholesale to the US.

 

Sorry and the length of the Niagara log. I do have a tendency to run my mouth sometimes. And I did a whole lot of experimenting on the side for that build. A lot of that had to do with the fact that out of the box the kit is modelled after the current day replica which is not the same as the historical original. Given there are no plans for the original there was a lot of debate about historical accuracy in the log. Everything from the deck furniture to the colors of the boat.

First time I've heard of Cornwall.

Visited their site and they do have a lot of model ship's and fittings.

Thanks for the info.

 

Rowboat out.

[mikiek]

On 7/25/2020 at 8:18 AM, Rowboat said:

I agree, I like the natural color of the wood, although maybe just put some shellac or polyurethane clear gloss to protect the finish.

Tone down any shiny areas using a clear matte.

 

 

Hey Rowboat - just reread your earlier post. Most likely you will not want to use a gloss finish. It just gets too shiny especially if you display under a light. Satins are about as glossy as most folks might use. As you mentioned, I think matte is probably the finish of choice. There's a lot of modelling finishes out there, Valejo makes some good ones, but also most of your home finishing products will work too. Just stay away from the shiny stuff.

 

And always give any product a test before you apply to your build. Different woods can respond very differently to the same product. I even go as far as gluing 4-5 hull or deck planks edge to edge on some scrap so you have a big surface to test with.

[mikiek]

On 7/25/2020 at 6:06 AM, Atze99 said:

Hey!

I am building one myself now, and i have a few questions about the guns and deck. What finish did you use for the deck? it looks realistic and used!

 

Atze99 - I had to rethink the deck for a minute. I did use a stain there, but it is actually a clear stain - Minwax Natural Stain. I use that one a lot in various places on a build. It has no real color, but gives the wood a deeper, wet look especially down in the grain. I highly recommend it especially on premium wood. Your mileage my vary. Always test before you apply to your build.

[mikiek]

Wow man - I got up some gumption this afternoon and headed to the shop to start adjusting sails. This is really going to take some time. I loosened up a rope so I could bring one side of a yard down to level it and that loosened two rigs on the other side. Tightened those up which loosened the brace. Probably took 30 minutes to get the yard level and now the sail hanging on it has a foot thats too loose. 😣 I'm finding alligator clips to be extremely helpful here. I clip one on the rope I am working with so it's easy find in all the others.

 

Like I said, this is going to take a while......

[mikiek]

The saga continues. Went back for round 2 and ended up breaking a pinrail off the bulwark. That meant unpinning all the ropes to glue it back. Luckily it was just a 5 hole rail. The only good thing was 2 of the pins were glued in, so I had to rip them out. But that means when I re-pin, those ropes are now adjustable. A small win. Down side is 2 of the ropes were already trimmed leaving no chance of restringing them - not enough rope to go thru the hole and pull thru from the underside of the rail. I wasn't about to re-rig a new rope so I tied a few inches of extra rope to the end. That works but now there's a small knot in the line. I think I'll live. The alligator forceps proved their value again - was able to grab the pinrail, apply the glue then reach thru the rigging to the bulwark on the opposite side to place the rail. No other way that could have been done.

 

I'll reiterate in case you missed my first lesson learned here - DO NOT glue pins to rails until the very end of your build. You will need to adjust sails and rigging at the end. In fact, I would suggest paying more attention to the holes you drill into the pinrail. If you get them the perfect diameter where the pins fit snug you probably shouldn't even need to glue the pins at all.

[Auger]

You could add some bowlines to the sails. Not called out in the plans but really adds to the look of the rigging!

[mikiek]

Auger - your sails appear to be like mine. Someone else commented here that the sails from their kit did not look like mine. Since you are in France I assume you bought your kit over there? I bought mine from Cornwall Models in the U.K.  Do you happen to remember if there was a sail upgrade option when you bought your kit? I sort of remember that but I can't say for sure. Otherwise we have been wondering why the sails in kits from the same manufacturer would be different. Only other reason I can come up with is maybe a US version and a E.U. version of the kit?

[Rowboat]

I am about to start the standing rigging. Just put on the foremast shrouds yesterday, have not tied them off so they are just ropes hanging off the mast.

You did a great job, with pictures, of showing the rigging process on your ship.

I will be using your model to help determine where to put all the lines.

As well, I'll take your advise and not glue any ropes or pins to the rails until till the end.

 

Is it the case that standing rigging is meant to be tied off (secured) and not run through blocks and such.

Only the running rigging needs the blocks?

 

Also, are you now finished with your Enterprise?