Albatros by Dr PR - FINISHED - Mantua - Scale 1:48 - Revenue Cutter kitbash about 1815

[SaltyScot]

3 hours ago, Dr PR said:

That indicates a single piece lid.

 

My thoughts exactly, Phil.

 

3 hours ago, Dr PR said:

The question then is if you have room for hinges on the bulwark planking over the gun ports? Are the bulwarks high enough on your model to allow the gun barrels to extend freely through the gun port and not strike the top of the port or the underside of the port lids? The guns should be elevated a bit from the horizontal to extend the range (how much I do not know).

 

I will add this to my research list.

[Dr PR]

Progress, slowly but surely! The starboard side rat lines are finished. Half way there!

 

 

The forward ratlines were tied with 0.012 inch (0.3 mm) brown polyester rope. The polyester is springy and the knots were untying themselves as fast as I could pull them tight. The clove hitches on the center shroud weren't much of a problem, but the lark's head (cow hitch) knots on the outer shrouds were horrible. I had to put a tiny drop of Duco Cement in the loose knot and then pull it tight and hold until the glue set (20-30 seconds). CA gel would probably work but you would have to be fast - one slip and it could set before the knot is tight or in the right position.

 

I looked through my modeling materials and found a small spool of what appears to be cotton rope of about the same dimension. It was left over from a previous kit - or perhaps this one! I used this for the after ratlines, and used simple overhand knots. After I pulled the knots tight I put a small drop of diluted white glue (1:1 with water) on them. The white glue soaked in and fixed the knot after it set for half an hour or so. This allowed plenty of time to reposition the knot and pull it very tight. It was MUCH easier than trying to use the polyester!

 

****

 

Falconer's Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1769) has this to say about

 

"RATTLINGS, enflechures, certain small lines which traverse the shrouds of a ship horizontally, at regular distances from the deck upwards, and forming a variety of ladders, where by to climb to any of the mastheads, or descend from them. Hence the term is apparently derived from rath, an obsolete word, signifying an hill."

 

Webster's Third New International Dictionary says "rat-line also rat-lin or rat-tling [origin unknown] 1. or ratline stuff : small, usu. 3-stranded, tarred rope used for cross ropes on ship's shrouds.

 

Webster thinks rath is an Irish earthwork fortification, perhaps on a hill? "Fairy denizens of rath and hill."

 

And now we know.

Edited May 11 by Dr PR

[Coyote_6]

She's looking grand Phil.  That is one to be proud of.

[Andoni]

Hi Phil,

 

Wow just wow! I binged your entire build log last night and I'm almost speechless in astonishment and admiration of your build. Your effort in ensuring historical accuracy and your meticulous attention to the fine details is truly impressive. 

 

I've just resumed building my Mantua Models Albatros, after a 1.5 year hiatus, which is my first wood model ship. I believe my model is the 1971 version, the plans are in Italian, the instruction guide leaves much to be desired, and the kit doesn't provide enough materials on its own. Still, I'm enjoying this craft very much and seeing the ship come together is quite satisfying.

 

I've enjoyed reading your build log and appreciate the time you took to document your process. I'm looking forward to seeing your completed ship. 

 

Best,

Andoni

[Dr PR]

Andoni,

 

Glad you enjoyed this log. Since the Albatros is your first wooden ship you should worry less about historical accuracy and getting it "perfect," and use it to learn different methods for building things. There are a lot of folks on the Forum who are happy to answer questions.

[SaltyScot]

Very nice, clean lines there, Phil. I am going to "steal" that idea with the PVA glue, it makes a lot of sense! Oh, I like your color scheme too by the way.

[Dr PR]

Mark,

 

The white glue soaks into the threads of cotton and silk lines (I prefer silk) and binds the knots. But it doesn't bind to polyester ropes. So the knot really is free to slide up and down on the polyester shrouds if you tug on it hard enough. But for ratlines that isn't a problem. If you did somehow manage to move the knot you just have to slide it back in place and apply a drop of water to loosen the glue. When the water evaporates the glue will set again.

 

I really like silk thread for seizing and such. When it gets wet it goes totally limp, making tight knots and seizing. Cotton is almost as good when it is wet.

Edited May 13 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

The port ratlines are finished!!!!!!!!!

 

 

The model is almost finished!

 

There are only three things left to do (that I can remember now).

 

First I need to figure out how the port anchor buoy should be handled while the anchor is being fished. Was it pulled out of the water first before the anchor was fished, or left in the water while the anchor was fished? While the crew is fishing the anchor, if the buoy is brought aboard, what did they do with it while handling the anchor?

 

Second, I need to add horses (foot ropes or man ropes) under the jib boom.

 

Third, there is the chafing mats or serving on the main boom topping lift.

 

I need to check my to-do list to see if there is anything else I have forgotten.

Edited May 14 by Dr PR

[Javelin]

Phil, 

 

She is looking brilliant, perfect really. I can not describe it any better! 

 

Nowadays the buoy is brought onboard first, however, the buoy in our days is connected with an anchor hoisting wire. So the wire between the buoy and anchor is dedicated to hoist up the anchor. The second wire is the one actually holding the ship/object that is anchored. In your set-up this is very different of course. 

It does however seem logical to get it out of the way first, since it would defenitely tangle with the anchor and anchor hoisting rope while hoisting the anchor. Something to do with your good friend Murphy. 

 

 

[SaltyScot]

Pristine is all I can say, a sight to behold.

[Dr PR]

One of the details I wanted to add to the model was the "baggywrinkles" (baggywinkles, chafing mats) on the main boom lifts. I posted how I made these from pipe cleaners in this link:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/38184-chafing-mats-or-service-on-lines/?do=findComment&comment=1100130

 

Here are some photos of the finished part in place on the main boom topping lift.

 

 

 

I had to unhook the standing part of the lift runner tackle from an eye bolt on deck to give the lift enough slack to wrap into the pipe cleaner coil. Then the tackle was hooked back to the eye bolt to pull the lift taut. The eye bolt is close to the bulwark so I had to use a small dentist's mirror to look down between the deck house and the bulwark to see the hook and eye.

 

As I slowly withdrew the mirror the end of the handle caught on something (fore gaff vangs?). There was a slight tug and then "pop." Another plastic hook broke - on the fore gaff peak halliard upper block. You can see the block hanging down over the gaff at the upper left of the last photo.

 

One step forward, one step back!

Edited May 18 by Dr PR

[SaltyScot]

Your attention to detail is awe inspiring, Phil. Now I also know what baggy wrinkles are too  

[Dr PR]

What? I thought everyone knew what baggywrinkles are!

[SaltyScot]

21 hours ago, Dr PR said:

What? I thought everyone knew what baggywrinkles are!

 

I am spreading the word, Phil.

[Dr PR]

Here is a bit more progress. I have added foot ropes to the bowsprit. Apparently these ropes were called "horses" up through the end of the 1700s (in English). Then they were called "man ropes." Today to be politically correct perhaps we should call them "people ropes." Horses, manropes, people ropes - they are all silly. Obviously they are foot ropes (or footropes)!

 

 

When I started investigating how these ropes were attached I found varying opinions - probably all correct for particular ships at a certain places and times. Lee's Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War says the ropes were attached to eye bolts on the sides of the bowsprit cap. But he talks about large square rigged ships of the line and doesn't belittle himself to talk about the other less important ships like schooners. But I have seen foot ropes on schooner models rigged this way.

 

Lever's The Young Sea Officers Sheet Anchor, Marquardt's Global Schooner and Mondfeld's Historic Ship Models all say the rope was looped around the jib boom behind the bowsprit cap and lead forward to the end of the boom. This is how I have rigged it on this schooner model. The forward ends of the lines could be attached to the end of the jib boom with a cut splice or two eyes. I used two eyes.

 

The books say that often knots were placed at intervals to give the sailors better footing. Again there are different opinions. Depending upon which author you read the knots were this type, that type or some other type. But most say overhand knots were sometimes used, and this is good enough for the model. However, bosun's mates like to tie fancy knots. Left to themselves they often tie elaborate knots to escape the boredom of life at sea, or to look busy when the bosun is looking for someone to do real work.

 

Now I just need to train the foot ropes to hang in a smooth catenary.

 

****

 

I think there are only two things left to do on the model. I am working to finish rigging the port anchor buoy. I will probably rig it like the starboard one, although it might not have been tied in the storage position until after the anchor was secured to the rail.

 

The flag is a problem. I have a good image of the fifteen star and fifteen stripe flag used from 1795 to 1818 (the "Star Spangled Banner"). So far I have printed it only on 24 pound printer paper, and that is pretty heavy. I need to try to print it on thinner paper if I can find some suitable for my printer.

 

I have lost my "to do" list so I think that should finish the model. But I still need to build a suitable display stand.

Edited May 19 by Dr PR

[SaltyScot]

6 hours ago, Dr PR said:

But I still need to build a suitable display stand.

 

On that note, I found a beautiful old piece of wood here on our property that I intend to shape and use for my stand on the Lynx. I find bringing a natural aspect into something like that, without it being too distracting of course, lends the final display an air of "class". Just my 10 cents worth, Phil.

[Dr PR]

I rigged the port anchor buoy about the same as the starboard buoy, mainly because I couldn't think of a more reasonable way to deal with the buoy while the anchor was being fished. In this scenario after the anchor was hauled up horizontal the buoy was pulled in, tied to the forward shroud, and the rope coiled and tied in place to get it out of the way.

 

 

Now I just need to add the flag.

[Coyote_6]

Beautiful work.  I will be watching closely how you tackle the flag - I will be needing an 1813 flag myself.

[Dr PR]

Thanks Steve.

[Dr PR]

The schooner has a flag! This means this build is finished!! At least for the vessel. I still need to make a better support stand.

 

 

The US used a fifteen star and fifteen stripe flag from 1795 to 1818. This is the original "Star Spangled Banner" from the War of 1812. I guess I had forgotten that the flag ever had more than 13 stripes - if I ever learned it. But I have a 15 stripe flag I received from the Buffalo New York, Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park to commemorate the War of 1812 - guess I never counted the stripes! As more states were added the flag returned to 13 stripes for the original colonies and more stars were added to the blue field for additional states.

 

I printed the flag on ordinary 24 pound printer paper, with the two sides on one side of the paper. It was folded over and glued together with white glue, with a strand of 0.008 inch (0.2 mm) rope captured in the fold. I made eyes in the rope at top and bottom, and tied the flag halliard to these eyes. The flag was folded over conical files to produce the curves in the flag. It didn't fare too well wit the folding and some of the printed ink flaked off. I had to do some touch up with colored markers.

 

Here are some photos of the finished model.

 

 

 

 

 

Port bow and midships views.

 

 

Quarterdeck view and the ship's 16 foot cutter.

 

 

Bow and stern views.

 

 

 

 

Fore top and fore topsail, and the main top and main gaff.

 

 

Topsails and a close-up of the main gaff yard topsail yard. Americans raised this yard almost vertical as shown, but the Europeans hoisted it nearly horizontal, with a trapezoidal sail that was almost square.

 

 

Port anchor being fished and the starboard anchor in the stowed position on the rail.

 

 

 

Pivot gun and the bowsprit and jib boom.

 

 

For now the build is finished. Someday I will get around to making a better stand for the model, and I will post more photos when that is done. But now I will be working on the MSI model.

Edited 12 hours ago by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

I started the model about 40 years ago  - in the mid 1980s. Life, marriage, a house and other events intervened and the hull sat on a bookshelf until November 2018 when I got tired of looking at it and started work again. In the '80s we didn't have the Internet and I didn't know of a source of books or other information about schooners, so I was winging it. Back then I thought I would build the kit as a modern schooner. Over the years I learned a LOT more about schooners and decided to kitbash the kit into a hypothetical 90-100 ton revenue cutter of about 1815 -  a vessel that probably never existed. I made a lot of mistakes while learning how to model a topsail schooner.

 

1. Stern, The biggest mistake is in the stern. Instead of a "square tuck" as would have been used in the early 1800s I constructed the stern in the "V transom" style of the late 1800s.

 

2. Rabbets. There are none. The hull planks terminate with blunt ends aong where the rabbets should be. In the 1980s I knew nothing of rabbets, and the kit instructions said nothing about them.

 

3. Cannons. I used the cannons that came with the kit. They were pretty ridiculous, and were bored much too large. But I wasn't planning on purchasing any new parts because this was just a "learning build" to come back up to speed on wooden ship modelling after a long hiatus. I should have tossed the kit parts and bought some more realistic cannons.

 

4. Gun Carriage Tackle. I positioned the eye bolts on the gun carriages too far forward - like many illustrations show them. This caused problems when trying to rig the gun tackle for guns run out in the battery position. I had to rig the guns in the stowed position in order to fit the tackle between the eye bolts on the carriages and the eye bolts in the buklwarks.

 

5. Gun Port Lids. The kit cannons and carriages were much too large for the gun ports. The guns would only point down when run out. I made new lower profile carriages so the guns would run out straight, but this left no material above the gun ports for the port lid hinges to fasten to. So I built the hinges into the edges of the bulwark top rails. I should have used two-part lids, with the bottom part hinged and swinging down and the top part "portable" (removeable).

 

6. Deck House. I used the plans for smaller revenue cutters from the late 1700s and early 1800s to design the deck house. But I made it too wide. It should have been about 4 feet narrower, or 1 inch (25 mm) at the 1:48 scale of the build.

 

7. Pivot Gun. The pivot gun table is too close to the fife rail at the base of the main mast. I had to place the rope coils for the belayed lines behind the fife rail, between the rail and the mast. In front of the rail would have allowed easier access to the lines.

 

8. Pin Rails. I should have installed the pin rails on the bulwarks before installing the channels. It would have been good to attach the pin rails with pins or nails from the outer side of the bulwarks to hold the pin rails in place. But I installed the channels first and they prevented using pins to attach the pin rails. So the pin rails are held in place only with glue. Fortunately the belayed lines attached to the pins did not create enough strain to break the glue joints.

 

9. Rudder. I really screwed up by placing the gudgeons on the rudder and the pintles on the stern post! I later repaired this.

 

10. Parrels. The holes for the lines for the parrels on the boom jaws should have been drilled into the ends of the jaws, with the knots in the ends of the lines on the sides of the jaws. But the jaws were very thin and I was afraid the wood would break. So I drilled the holes top to bottom with the knots on the bottom side. This puts the knots between the boom jaws and the boom support on the main mast.

 

11. Gaffs and sails. The gaffs should be a bit longer (or the heads of the gaff sails should be a bit shorter). The sails should have been cut a bit around the gaff jaws.

 

12. Ratlines. I waited until all the other rigging was finished before installing the ratlines so there would be better access to the fife rails and pin rails when belaying the lines. But this created a very crowded area around the fore top that made adding the upper ratline difficult. At least the upper 1/4 of the fore mast rat lines should have been installed before the other rigging.

 

13. Plastic Hooks. I used some nice looking commercial plastic hooks in the rigging. A great many of these broke and had to be replaced with home-made metal hooks.

 

14 Polyester Rope. I used polyester rope in the rigging. It looks very nice but it caused several problems.

 

   14a.The ends became unraveled after cutting, so I had to put glue (Duco Cement) on the ends after each cut. However, I probably would do this with almost any rope just to stiffen the ends so they could be pushed through small holes in blocks without unravelling.

 

   14b. I seized eyes and loops with fine nylon thread that was soaked with dilute white glue. But the glue does not adhere to the polyester, allowing the ends of the eyes and loops to pull back through the seizing causing the termination to fail. About the only glue that would hold to the polyester was CA (cyanoacrylate) or "supe glue."

 

   14c. Polyester rope is springy and often pulled back out of knots and seizing before I could pull the knots tight. I sometimes had to repeat knots several times before I managed to catch the ends before they pulled loose. This was very frustrating! For the ratlines I gave up and used cotton thread.

Edited 10 hours ago by Dr PR

[Paul Le Wol]

Phil, congratulations on completing your Albatros. Beautifully done!

[ccoyle]

Very handsomely done!

[Dowmer]

Congrats Phil, it is a very handsome ship.  Most of the mistakes you mentioned will only be noticed by you.  And we ourselves are the most critical observer.  I have always been tempted to make a revenue cutter representative of the one “on station” up in Port Townsend Washington in the 19th century. If I do, I will definitely be re-reading this thread. But first, I have a Sloop to finish that has been sitting on my shelf just like yours for the past 25years.  Life gets in the way but I will finish it some day. Thanks again for the journey.  Cheers. 🍻 

[SaltyScot]

Congratulations on reaching the finishing line on this one, Phil. Your build log, and now the added notes at the end of the blog, will continue to be an inspiration for me as I begin my journey into the world of schooners. We are apparently going to have a few very rainy days here this coming week. If that is so, I will leave my (real) boat and fishing poles at the dock and get back to my Lynx build