Royal Louis 1780 by EJ_L - Mamoli - Scale 1:90

[EJ_L]

Success was had on another 20' length of rope, this one .080" or ~ 2mm diameter. Will likely be used for anchor cable on R.L. This required 4 threads of the Mara 30 size thread for each strand and 4 strands, for a total of 16 threads being stretched. Start to finish took me about 45 minutes, most of which was initial set up.

 

I tie my threads one at a time. It is time consuming and I may look into finding or making a bracket of some sort that can hold multiple spools of thread so I can tie off multiple eyelets at once. For ease of access, I start at the lowest eyebolt then move to the rear most, foremost, and finally top so I am not trying to work over the threads.

 

Once they are all tied on, you will have something that looks like this. it is a good idea to trim any overly-long threads so they do not tangle in the gears. Short tails, 1" or less are fine however.

 

When tying, you want to try to keep even tension on the threads, but with poly thread, it is a bit more forgiving. Apologies for the fuzzy pictures, really need a second person helping to do this, but as you can see in the picture, my bottom 4 threads has one that is far away from the others especially compared to the gaps on the ones in the middle. The middle ones will be fine as they twist up, but the bottom I would tighten.

 

Note: If a thread slips from your fingers before it is tied off, it is a good idea to pull the thread fully out of the stretched ropes back to the eyebolt and then re-stretch. Otherwise, you risk having the thread become tangled around the other threads from when it shot from your grasp. This happened to me a few times.

 

Time to twist. In a counter clockwise rotation, twist the threads, allowing them to tighten merge into one strand so that there are 4 strands. Even if you are only doing a 1 thread per strand lay, you still need to do this step only rotate the drill clockwise for single threads and C.C. for multi-threads.

 

Time to combine the strands. Rule of thumb here is whichever way, (clockwise or counter) that you twisted the threads, twist the strands. Start slowly, hand spin the first few rotations to see that everything is following as it should. You can see the center of the line merging together.

 

The lay is not very tight yet, but all the strands are going in the correct direction. Time to add speed. 

 

 

Run the rope walk till the lines become tensioned properly.  I recommend watching Chuck's YouTube videos as this is easier to show then write, and honestly it takes practice and experience to learn, of which I am still figuring out. I tend to over tighten. The line should look even and tight with only an inch or two free in front of the eyebolts on either end. I moisten the rope with water on my fingers while it is stretched out. Beeswax can also be used. This helps to set the threads and eliminate the "fuzzys" (technical term) that threads can develop.

 

Hold tight to the rope before cutting so it does not shoot off across the room, tangling itself up. If laid up right you should get something like this once free. The only loose ends should be the 1-2 inches where the strands were tied to the eyebolts. The rest should remain a tightly laid up rope.

 

If you end up with something of this nature when you release the tension on the rope and allow it to recoil, this means it is over-twisted, a comon and easy to correct issue. Under-tension results in the rope fraying and falling apart. Over-tension is easily fixed by running your fingres repeatedly down the length of the rope, allowing it to unwind til it lays limp and untangled.

 

Rope after I worked the over-twists out.

 

Next up, I lightly coiled the rope around my spread fingers to make a gentle coil that will lay nicely on the oven try I use to bake at 350 for about 4 minutes. Watch it closely as time varies with oven and you do not want it to melt. Remember this is poly-rope not cotton.

 

Once out of oven, and cooled, (Do not grab rope immediately. It was in a hot oven, it will be hot.) it should lay like natural rope and is ready to be wound onto something or coiled and placed in bag for storage. I wrap mine around plastic bobbins and have them sorted by size and color on hooks.

 

The pass/fail test is at the end, though if it did not unravel when cut from the eyebolts, chances are excellent that it is fine now, is if you take a sharp knife and cut, the end should be clean with no fraying. This one is good!

 

Good luck to all, and I hope this helps!

[Old Collingwood]

That was a Brilliant  (how to make rope)  explanation EJ  - very well laid out and explained  -  just shows how a genuine looking rope can be made in different thicknesses  with a little time.

 

OC.

[Ulises Victoria]

EJ. Use hooks instead of closed rings/eyeletes. That way you tie only once at the starting point and just go through the hooks placing your thread. That way you can use a single length of thread to make multiple strands. Saves time and it keeps an even tension in all the strands. Not sure if I am being clear with this. If not, I will assemble my ropewalk tomorrow and take some pictures.

[Hubac's Historian]

I somehow failed to comment on your quarter piece carvings, EJ, but I think they came out really well;  nice relief and I really like the use of color.

[TimC]

7 hours ago, Ulises Victoria said:

EJ. Use hooks instead of closed rings/eyeletes. That way you tie only once at the starting point and just go through the hooks placing your thread. That way you can use a single length of thread to make multiple strands. Saves time and it keeps an even tension in all the strands. Not sure if I am being clear with this. If not, I will assemble my ropewalk tomorrow and take some pictures.

I was going to comment this same thing.  This is what I do as welll. I got tired of making all Of those small knots on the eye hooks 

[Chuck]

Nicely done on the ropewalk.  Yea you should open up the eyes so they are hooks.  Just a little so you can tie the thread on one end.  Then instead of four lengths of rope to be tied you can jst walk back and forth with the one length to put as many strands in as you want.  Then tie iff the end.  It works so much quicker.

 

Try making 100 lengths of rope per day. Not as much fun but the results are quite consistent. Well done.

[EJ_L]

Work is slow right now on the ship, lots of life things getting in the way, but I am still getting some stuff done. 
 

Stropping blocks for the gun tackle. These are going on the upper gun deck where they are exposed in the waist. 

 

 

[EJ_L]

The guns in the exposed waist area are rigged in place and the stairs to the forecastle and quarterdecks are in place.

 

 

 

Work on the railings and ladders will continue next along with the additional deck furnishings that are still needed. Q.D. and forecastle guns will follow once railings are in installed.

[EJ_L]

Today felt like Christmas in the shipyard. New scotch whiskey and a new ship kit. Royal Caroline. I will be building this alongside RL as I like having a couple of projects going at the same time to allow switching back and forth to clear the mind. Will start an actual build log soon. 

[md1400cs]

E.J 

 

INDEED - Love Lagavulin - my all time fave of the super smokies - 

 

Congrats on your new ship the Royal Caroline is a beauty - we've all seen amazing logs on this awesome ship - good luck - I'll be on-board as well. You are way ahead of me - I can only handle one at a time. 😬 but your thoughts make sense.....

 

PS: your rope work looks great - I'm a bit nervous I don't think that I have enough of Chuck's to do my current build. I did not notice that he was dropping that products from his company, so did not buy any extra - yikes lol

 

Regards,

Edited June 12, 2021 by md1400cs

[EJ_L]

Been working on the bow. Added the gratings under the bowsprit and built the catheads. Will install the forecastle railings next and some details on the beakhead. 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Excellent work mate,   your work ethic and what you create  is just stunning.

 

OC.

[Hubac's Historian]

All of this is very precisely done, EJ.  I really like the scale of the gratings and the stairs.  Well done, my friend!

[EJ_L]

Marc, OC, thank you both very much for the kind words. And thank you as always to all the likes and those following along. 
 

Another update as I have had a productive weekend. Rails are up around the bow and now I have started a in-filling the decorative pieces in the rails. These are being carved out of polystyrene sheets as I did for the other carvings. 
 

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by EJ_L

[EJ_L]

First set of rail decorative carvings are ready for paint. Will have to repeat these three more times for the other rails. Not sure if I am going to paint them gold as the kit shows or a yellow ochre. Thinking that I may reserve the gold for the forecastle for country showmanship, and the quarterdeck for flag status and do the midship rails in the ochre. 

[Old Collingwood]

That is looking mighty fine EJ,   I agree on your decision about the Yellow Ocre  - surely the gold would have been left to the ornate carvings.

 

OC.

[KenW]

I really like those carvings.   Well done!

[EJ_L]

Three of the railings are complete. On to the next assembly. 
 

 

 

[EJ_L]

More work on the bow. Added the decorative rails to either side and the thickened planking around the hawse holes. 
 

 

 

 

 

[EJ_L]

Last few weeks I have been working on the figurehead. Here are the progress photos carving it out of a block of basswood. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 5, 2021 by EJ_L

[Old Collingwood]

That is Superb work carving that out of just a block of wood  - seriously good mate.

 

OC.

[GrandpaPhil]

Very nicely done!

[Hubac's Historian]

EJ, your carving skills are improving exponentially!  Fantastic work on the headrails and figurehead!!

[KenW]

Well Done!

Great carving.

Cheers

[md1400cs]

E.J.

 

Just catching up - really great work, banister railing, curved steps and your figurehead - super nice progress indeed.

 

Cheers,

[EJ_L]

It’s been a while since my last update. Been busy with other projects plus a much needed long vacation with my wife. Still busy but I have managed to get some work done with railings, ladders, bits and animal pens. Skylight is next. 
 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Loverly work EJ    those  ladders look superb  and the idea behind that  opposed  ladders  is a great idea.

 

OC.

[Hubac's Historian]

Very much agreed with O.C.!  If I could make one suggestion, it would be to consider swapping out the port-side quarterdeck railing for a better color match.

Edited October 24, 2021 by Hubac's Historian

[EJ_L]

OC, too kind. I despise building ladders. Those to me are more frustrating than rigging! One of these days I will take the time to make a jig to help build them, but like so many things, it takes time and I have not yet allocated the time for that project.

 

Good call on that railing Marc. I camera and room lighting are really not the same! I knew they were different but I did not see it as that bad until I looked at the pictures on a larger screen. I should have some more of the darker wood in the pile.

 

Thank you and OC as well as all of my continuous followers. I have had a lot on my plate lately that model building has been limited to only a few hours in a week. I try to make the most of them when I get them, but it does make for slow building of a slow build. Poor Royal Caroline is fairing even worse as she has been on the sidelines for months. All for a good cause and I will have my free time back in about 5 more weeks.

[EJ_L]

Major milestone weekend as Royal Louis crossed 1,000 hours of build time! 
 

Reaching this point was the installation of the skylights, the rest of the inboard carvings on the railings and building the upper decks gun carriages. Now I am working on gun tackle. I had to order more blocks though as I did not have nearly enough. With 6 blocks per gun and 20 guns, 120 blocks to strip is a lot. Makes me glad the majority of the guns on this ship are modeled dummy guns. 
 

I will likely be taking a break from Royal Louis though soon as my LEDs for Royal Caroline are scheduled to arrive this week. With those I can begin hull planking and after so much tiny detail work lately, I am ready for some easier planking. 
 

As always thank you to all for stopping in and following along!