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

[Dr PR]

I decided to take a little time and touch up the hoops. The narrow parts were about 0.020" thick so there was extra material to be removed from the thicker spots (radial). I used a small file to take off the high spots around the loops. I also filed material from the vertical parts to get more even 0.050" height.

 

Then I applied two coats of the brown paint I used for the bulwarks and deck furniture. After this was dry I buffed the pieces with #0000 steel wool.

 

So here are the 26 finished mast hoops. Carefully hand crafted individually produced (none of those mass produced parts) wooden mast hoops made in the USA!

 

[allanyed]

On 5/17/2023 at 9:32 PM, Dr PR said:

Carefully hand crafted individually produced (none of those mass produced parts) wooden mast hoops made in the USA!

Hi Phillip,

The rings look super!!!  Maybe I am missing something but what is your point of having been made in the United States?  It looks like the methods you show will work for members in Australia, China, England or any country for that matter.   

Allan

Edited May 19, 2023 by allanyed

[Dr PR]

Allan,

 

It was a tongue-in-cheek reference to times past when in my childhood many American companies "proudly" claimed their products were "Made in the U. S. A." - as opposed to inferior foreign made products. Of course now all products of American companies are made in China (although the marketing types don't proudly boast of this).

 

But my mast hoops actually were made in the USA.

 

Of course this method - or any other modelling method - will work anywhere there is someone capable of doing it.

Edited May 19, 2023 by Dr PR

[Isaiah]

Looking good, such neat work.

 

[Dr PR]

We had nice (dry) weather and I didn't have other pressing obligations so I finally got around to staining the blocks. I wanted them to look darker and more weathered than the natural castello boxwood light color.

 

Following the advice of others on the forum I decided to use Fiebings Leather Dye to stain the blocks. I looked at all the color options and chose Light Brown. I thought Dark Brown would be too dark. I tested the dye on a piece of castello boxwood and it came out a medium reddish brown that looked OK. I also tested the dye on a string of very small blocks and they looked OK.

 

I have 677 Syren blocks and hearts in 15 different sizes, and I didn't want to dump them in the dye all together. So I strung each type on 0.013" (0.33 mm) brass wire, with a tag telling what size each is.

 

 

I stained the test piece of boxwood for 0, 1, 2 and 3 minutes before wiping the stain off. There was a slight darkening the longer the stain was left on the wood, but not much difference. I decided the shortest staining period was good enough. I dipped the strings of blocks in the dye and immediately shook off the excess and rubbed them with a cloth to remove excess dye.

 

Here is a comparison of the unstained blocks on the top and the stained blocks below. I am very disappointed with the results!

 

I have little experience with stains -  and even less success! I guess I should have known that dying the blocks was a mistake. The flat faces of the blocks run with the grain, and stained OK, but unevenly. But the ends are cross grain and more porous, so they took up far too much stain. The result is almost black!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The small blocks are basically UGLY! And the large blocks are even worse!

 

 

 

In many cases the smooth faces of these blocks stained unevenly. Definitely not good!

 

I will let the blocks dry a couple of days and see if they look any better. But right now it looks like I have ruined $150 of blocks.

 

I guess I could soak them in alcohol to remove as much stain as possible, but that might loosen the aliphatic glue I used to assemble the larger blocks. If all else fails I can paint them - what I should have done in the first place!

 

I think the suggestion to stain blocks is perhaps the worst idea ever imagined!

Edited May 23, 2023 by Dr PR

[Twokidsnosleep]

Oh no. Don’t panic you have not ruined everything.
they don’t look that bad.

Leave them a day and re-group

Then:

test the alcohol wipe on one

test sanding the end grain a bit on another

You will find a way to make it work…won’t the ropes cover most of the end grain areas anyways??

 

Hilarious as I was thinking about using my Fiebings USMC black on the deadeyes I made…maybe I will test drive ONE

maybe a bit of a dip in pre stain evener first 🤔

 

There is an old saying: if you cannot be a good example, be a terrible warning 

😊

Edited May 23, 2023 by Twokidsnosleep

[Gregory]

I'm with twokidsnosleep.

They take a little getting used to.

They have a nice aged look rather than the bright look of untreated blocks.

I used Fiebing' for these blocks.  There is some variation, because the blocks were from mixed batches I got from Syren.

Try rubbing them down with some satin poly thats been thinned 50/50 with mineral spirits. 

[Chuck]

Call me crazy but I think they look fantastic.  But thats just me.  I would love to find and use wood that color for my blocks.  The darker ends look really good to my eye as well.  You dont want them to look plastic and they look very authentic now.  Try test stropping one or two blocks with tan rope of the appropriate size and they will look just fantastic.

[Dr PR]

Gregory,

 

Your blocks look very nice. The hooks are nice too. Where did you get them?

 

Chuck,

 

I haven't given up. I'll try an alcohol wipe to remove some stain and redistribute the remaining stain more evenly. It is your large blocks that are the greatest disappointment. They make such nice assemblies! I'll keep working on them. The stropping will cover some of the ends on the smaller blocks.

 

This brings up a question - were the strops the light color of the running rigging, or dark (tarred) like the standing rigging?

Edited March 15 by Dr PR

[Gregory]

4 hours ago, Dr PR said:

The hooks are nice too. Where did you get them?

I got those from Crafty Sailor, but he may have stocking issues because I believe they came from Russia..

Won't hurt to check, cause I could be wrong.

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by Gregory

[Dr PR]

After a couple days drying the smaller blocks look OK, and I will use them as is.

 

The 9/32" double blocks came out very dark all over. At least it is an even stain - the sides are just as dark as the ends. But I think I will try soaking them in alcohol to lighten them a bit.

 

I used an alcohol wash with a paint brush on the larger 5/16" blocks and it helped a bit for removing the darker blotches, but they still look less than perfect. Like they were painted by a drunken sailor - and I was completely sober when I stained them!

 

EDIT: After a few months I have come to accept the staining, and the blocks will look OK on the model.

Edited January 5 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

I ordered some of Chuck's (Syren Ship Model Company) new hooks. They come 90 per package (40 3mm, 40 4mm and 10 5mm). Here is a photo of the pieces just removed from the sprue, photographed on 1/4" (6.35 mm) ruled paper.

 

 

They are black so they require no further finishing and I like the curl at the end of the hook for the mousing twine.

 

Now the question is what dimension stropping rope can be used, and what dimensions are needed for ring bolts and other attachments. I measured several of each size and came up with these dimensions.

 

A is the inside diameter of the ring.

B is the thickness of the hook at its widest point.

C is the width of the gap.

 

              3mm                       4mm                      5mm

A   0.023"/0.58 mm    0.031"/0.79 mm    0.037"/0.94 mm

B   0.022"/0.56 mm    0.024"/0.61 mm    0.035"/0.89 mm

C   0.021"/0.53 mm    0.029"/0.74 mm    0.034"/0.86 mm

 

I measured these dimensions using a set of tiny drill bits (61-80 gauge) for A and C, selecting the largest bit that would pass through the opening/gap. I used a digital caliper to measure B. These things are tiny and I consider it almost a miracle that I didn't lose one into never-never land in the process!

 

The hooks are a bit flexible, and they will slip over a wire that is slightly larger than the gap at C. So they will snap over a wider piece and then hold in place. I also tortured a few to see if they would break, and none broke using the tensions we normally put on things while rigging models - and a little more.

 

 

The purpose of all this was to determine the size of ring bolts and other fittings these hooks will work with. The wire diameter should be less than the hook gap (C) width. The inner diameter of the ring should be greater that the hook width (B).

 

                                                                   3mm hook            4mm hook               5mm hook

Maximum ring wire diameter              0.019"/0.48mm     0.028"/0.71 mm     0.033"/0.84 mm

Minimum internal diameter of ring     0.023"/0.58 mm    0.025"/0.64 mm    0.035"/0.89 mm

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

I have put off making the pin rails for too long. Before I could do this I needed some belaying pins so I could measure the pin diameter to determine the hole size. I have 40 8.5 mm brass pins left over from a previous project, but it looks like I need 44 pins!

 

I thought about 3D printing the belaying pins, but they would be too brittle and would snap off with the slightest bump or tug.

 

I ordered 80 9 mm bronze belaying pins from Ages of Sail (part #AM4101/09). They are packaged 20 pins for $9.12. They look really good! 9 mm is the right size for 1:48 scale. They are a scale 16.8 inches, and Chapelle's "The American Fishing Schooner" shows belaying pins to be 17 inches long.

 

 

The bronze pins are darker than the brass parts and I think they will not need any further coloring. Some had a bit of turnings on the pin end, but this snapped off with slight finger pressure. A few had small points on the handle end but this will file off easily.

 

If you recall your ancient history, the discovery of bronze changed the way people used metal. Bronze is harder than copper or brass and keeps an edge so it made good tools. Perhaps that is the reason these pins are made of bronze. They will be much stronger than brass or wooden pins.

[Dr PR]

Having nothing better to do with my time (hah!) I decided to compare the new 9 mm bronze belaying pins with some older 8 mm brass pins I had. This yielded some surprises!

 

 

The new 9 mm bronze pins are on the left, and the old 8 mm brass pins are on the right. You can see what I meant when I said the bronze pins were a darker brown color that needed no further treatment. The brass pins are much shinier and just wouldn't look right without painting them.

 

But another surprise was the overall difference in size. The head/handle of the 8 mm brass pins is 4 mm high, with a 4 mm pin that is about 2 mm diameter. But the 9 mm pins have a head only 3 mm long and about 1.4 mm diameter.

 

Furthermore, the "9" mm pins are actually anywhere from 8.05 mm to 8.47 mm long. However, the heads that are most visible are a consistent 3 mm long. It is the pin part that varies in length between 5 and 6 mm. For me this isn't a problem. Overall the Age of Sail bronze pins are much more consistent in dimensions than the older brass parts (that I bought in a hobby shop somewhere in North America decades ago).

 

The pin part of the brass belaying pins is tapered and about 0.79 mm to 0.84 mm long and does vary a bit in length. The bronze pin is a consistent 0.88 mm for its full length.

 

Both will fit onto a 0.035" (0.9 mm) hole, and that is what I needed to know to make the pin rails.

Edited June 3, 2023 by Dr PR

[Gregory]

I like the new pins..  

 

Birchwood Casey  Plum Brown creates a nice brown effect on brass, but it is a bit of a pain to use.  Involves heating the metal.

[Dr PR]

PINRAILS

 

Now that I have the belaying pins and know the shaft diameter I have no further excuses to put off making the pinrails.

 

The first thing I had to figure out was how to drill a straight line of evenly spaced holes. I have seen some pretty nice builds where the holes in the pinrails were unevenly spaced and misaligned. It was very noticeable and I do not want this on my build. There is no way to drill a bunch of evenly spaced and aligned holes with a pin vise. Inconsistencies in the wood diverts the drill bits out of line, and effects the spacing. A milling machine would make the job easy, but I don't have one (no room for it). So once again I have to make do with my ancient Dremel drill press from the 1970s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This thing has a long list of problems. The drill is fixed and the table moves up and down - with a lot of sideways slop. There is no X/Y adjustment. Worse still, at the maximum up position the table moves backwards. So it is impossible to get precision alignment of anything.

 

I clamped a piece of wood to the table to work as a guide, with the edge spaced 0.1" (2.54 mm) behind the drill axis. A sacrificial piece of wood rested against the guide. The piece to be drilled slides along over the sacrificial piece and against the guide. This ensures all the holes will be in a straight line spaced 0.1" (2.54 mm) from the edge of the work piece.

 

The thumb screw like thing under the front of the table is a limit stop. I set it so the table stops rising before the drill bit passes through the sacrificial piece of wood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I needed a way to evenly space the holes 0.22" (5.6 mm) apart. This is the spacing I need to get the right number of holes along the length of the pinrails. To do this I made an indexing tool. It is a flexible thin brass strip with a 10 mm brass nail alignment pin soldered into one end. About 3/4 inch (19 mm) from the end of the strip with the alignment pin I drilled two small holes. Then I positioned the strip on the wooden guide piece so the alignment pin was 0.1" (2.54 mm) from the face of the guide piece. Two 8 mm brass nails were driven through the holes and into the guide piece. This fastened the indexing strip to the guide piece. After that I just had to position the guide piece so the face was 0.1" (2.54 mm) behind the drill bit, with the index pin 0.1" (2.54 mm) to the side of the drill bit for this test run. You can see this in the photos.

 

 

On a test piece of wood I drilled the first hole with the work piece pressed tightly against the guide, using a 0.039" (1 mm) drill bit. Then I lifted the end of the index strip and slid the work piece over so the point of the indexing pin (brass nail) dropped into the freshly drilled hole. Next I drilled a second hole, always holding the work piece against the face of the guide. The index pin was lifted, the work piece moved until the pin dropped into the latest hole, and the next hole was drilled, etc.

 

 

The proof is in the pudding, as they say. Here you see ten evenly spaced holes all in a straight line the proper distance from the edge of the work piece. Now that I know this will work to drill the holes in the actual pinrails I can start cutting the pieces to fit in place along the bulwarks.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

I have pinrails!

 

 

 

The pinrails turned out nice, and the bronze belaying pins look good.

 

This is another case of doing things out of order - after all this build is a learning experience, and you need to screw up occasionally to learn how not to do things.

 

I had planned to use small brass nails to pin the pinrails to the hull planking. But there are several problems trying to implement this idea. First of all, the fore mast and main mast pinrails are inboard of the channels. And I have already installed the channels and deadeyes, placing them in the way of getting a pin vise in position to drill holes. Next time install the pinrails first!

 

 

 

 

The second problem is that the pinrails are made of 1/16" (0.0625" or 1.59 mm) thick basswood. The 8 mm brass nails are 0.026" (0.66 mm) diameter. The wood thickness is only about 2.5 times the diameter of the nails, leaving 0.018" (0.46 mm) of material between the holes for the nails and the top/bottom surfaces of the pinrails. Even on the best of days drilling a hole 8 mm (0.3") deep with that tiny room for error would be a problem. Doing it blind from the outside of the hull, with a handheld pin vise, really reduces the probability of success.

 

Third, hand drilling 12 holes with a 0.026" (0.66 mm) drill bit has a pretty high risk of breaking the tiny bit.

 

If * I had used 0.1" (2.5 mm) thick wood the odds for success would have been better. As I said, this build is a learning experience!

 

So I am going to leave the pinrails as they are. They were glued (Duco cement) to the bottom of the cap rail and the outboard planking, so there is a pretty large glued surface. I just have to remember to not put a lot of tension on the lines that are belayed to the rails.

 

****

 

*IF. OCUI Dave Woods (OCS A6904) told me his grandpappy once set him on his knee and said "Davy, if a frog had wings it wouldn't bump it's rear when it hops."

Edited July 20, 2023 by Dr PR

[John Ruy]

10 hours ago, Dr PR said:

The pinrails turned out nice, and the bronze belaying pins look good

Looks very nice. 👍

[Gregory]

Maybe a little late for this go-round,  but having heard from builders in the past about the challenges of mounting pin rails, I came up with a little idea that has worked well for me.

 

I put a little brace under the back of the rail.  It gives a larger surface for mounting to the gunwales, and the modification is virtually invisible once in place on the ship.

 

 

Edited June 7, 2023 by Gregory

[Dr PR]

John,

 

Thanks.

 

Gregory,

 

That's a good idea. I certainly don't mind that you posted it here. Maybe it will help others who face this problem.

 

In my case I decided to mount the pinrails high against the bottom of the cap rail. This was not unusual, especially when you consider at the 1:48 scale of this model the cap rail is only about two feet high (1/3 meter). This gives a relatively large contact area for the glue.

Edited June 7, 2023 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

I am working on details on deck that need to be finished before I can start the rigging.

 

 

 

 

 

The binnacle was finished several years back. I have fastened it to the deck with lashings to eye bolts. The binnacle was "portable" furniture. Portable means not permanently built into the ship's structure.

 

I also added handles for the doors in the companionway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lazarette hatch is in place. A lazarette is a storage space in the stern of a ship. I have seen a reference that said the space was used to store bread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added hinges for the skylight openings. I suppose this is getting down to knit-picking, but ever since I built this skylight I have thought I should put some hinges on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 12, 2023 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

More fiddly bits. The fore course sheets led back to midships. The fixed end was attached to a ring bolt outboard. The running part passed through a single block attached to the sail's clew and back to a sheave in the bulwarks. Inboard the fall was secured to a  cleat on the bulkhead.

 

I made the blocks for the bulkhead sheaves from a 0.125" x 0.125: x 0.25 inch (3.2 mm x 3.2 mm x 6.4 mm) piece of scrap wood. The long slots were cut out with a 0.039" (1 mm) drill and finished with a small file. The slots were 0.15" (12 mm) long. The 0.125" (3.2 mm) diameter sheaves were made by soldering 1/16" (1.6 mm) and 1/8" (3.2 mm) concentric tubing together and cutting off thin slices. These were filed/sanded down to 0.035" (0.9 mm) thick. A toothpick was trimmed to a 1/16" (1.6 mm) dowel that served as the pin for the sheave. The inboard and outboard edges were beveled to leave a surface about 1/16" (1.6 mm) wide, the thickness of the hull planking.

 

 

 

The sheaves were fitted into holes cut through the bulwarks a bit below the cap rail. A cleat was fastened to a frame just forward of the sheave position.

 

 

It was a lot of work for just two small details. If I do add sails to the model I probably won't install the fore course, so these sheaves and cleats won't be used. But they do add another small bit of detail to the model.

 

I also added "chains" in the channels for the fore and main mast tackle. Originally I just had one eyebolt through the channel, but this didn't provide a place to secure the fall, and it wouldn't have been strong enough to take much pull from the tackle (there shouldn't be much load because this is just stowage for the ends of the tackle).

 

 

I originally made the port side gunport lids closed with the cannons stowed, and the starboard port lids open with the cannons run out. However, the open lids were often bumped, the hinge straps were bent, and the port tackle lines broken. It was a continuing nuisance so I decided to close the starboard side lids.

 

 

 

I will need quite a few eyebolts and ringbolts for attaching rigging to the hull and deck so I started making these. I have posted my method for making the eyebolts and blackening them here:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/19900-brass-black/?do=findComment&comment=991402

 

Edited July 4, 2023 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

I have been working on the boom rest for the main boom on the main mast. It is a pretty simple piece, but I had to do a bit of research before making it.

 

The first question was whether it should circle all the way around the mast or should it be "C" shaped with the gap on the front side of the mast? I have seen both, but the "C" shaped parts were on square riggers where the driver/spanker boom does not seem to swing wide over the side. On schooners the gaff sails are often swung far out over the side to catch following winds, so I made the boom rest circular to accommodate this.

 

How high above the deck it should be placed? Obviously it should be high enough to clear the deck furniture when the boom swings, but that is only a few feet. It seemed to me that the boom should swing high enough to pass over the head of the helmsman. I looked at several drawings in Chapelle's books that showed the deck and the boom above it, and had a scale in the drawing. From this I learned that the boom height ranged from 5 feet to 9 feet (1.5 to 2.75 meters) above the deck (lower on smaller vessels and higher on larger ships), but 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 meters) was more common. So I decided to place the bottom of the boom rest 6 feet above the deck. The rest is a scale 6 inches  (152 mm) thick, so the boom centerline will be about 7 feet (2.1 meters) above deck.

 

Drawings and photos I have of  replica vessels show from 4 to 8 supports under the boom rest, arranged symmetrically around the mast. Since this model is of a fairly small vessel I decided to use four supports.

 

 

I cut the circular rest from a  sheet of 1/8 inch model airplane plywood. I used plywood because I thought a piece cut from a plain sheet of wood would be fragile and probably break along the grain as I was shaping it. The plywood was three layers with grain arranged at right angles. I made the piece with no problems.

 

In addition to glue to hold the rest in place I made a 0.040" (1 mm) dowel from a bamboo skewer. This was inserted into a glue-filled hole through the boom rest and into the mast.

 

 

 

 

The wooden pin was sanded smooth with the edge of the rest and then any gaps were filled with white modeling putty.

 

After that I cut four triangular supports from a 1/16" piece of basswood and glued them below the boom rest. When the glue dried I coated the new pieces with shellac. After that dried I painted the whole thing with the straw color paint used on the masts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I need a boom to place on the boom rest!

 

Oh, I did remember to put the mast hoops on the mast before I installed the boom rest!

 

I have been trying to decide where to mount the ship's bell. There is no space on deck for a fancy belfry, and these vessels were fairly inexpensive to build and didn't have a lot of decoration.

 

I think I will hang the bell from the boom rest on the aft side of the mast (some lines run down the forward side to purchases on deck). I have seen several examples where the ship's bell was mounted on a mast.

Edited July 28, 2023 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

I looked for examples of the ship's bell hanging from a sailing ship mast and found none. I did find some examples on 20th century ships. In fact, there seems to be very little written about the bell. But Wolfram zu Mondfeld (Historic Ship Models, Sterling Publishing, Inc., New York, 1989, page 158) does describe ships' bells and variations over the centuries. He says the bell was originally located somewhere near the stern, usually in an ornate belfry, until the 18th century when the bell moved to the bow.

 

But, of course, he talks about ship bells, and not schooners. I looked at photos of schooner models and recent real vessels, and even there it is difficult to find photos of the bells. But I did find a few, and since schooners are a relatively new type of ship, all have the bell near the bow.

 

I looked for a place to place a simple mount somewhere on deck on my model, and there really isn't free deck space where the bell could be mounted and not interfere with something else. But I do have bitts that form the bowsprit step. I wondered if I could extend those bitt timbers to form a belfry? I decided to experiment with a fancy belfry to see what it looks like.

 

 

 

The original bitts and bowsprit step are shown on the right. I made a belfry that had the same dimension timbers and spacing for the bowsprit step with the bitts extended to support a cap to hold the bell. The cross piece of the step was extended to provide purchases.

 

Over the top of the belfry is a thin strip of wood that was soaked in water and then bent using a soldering iron to heat the wood.

 

 

 

Here is the assembled belfry before painting. The "bolts" are 8 mm brass nails. The cross piece ends are drilled to carry belaying pins.

 

The belfry is quite a bit taller than the original bitts. The cross piece is about a foot above the deck and the entire belfry is just four feet tall. Although this isn't very high it is much taller than the other deck furniture. The galley stack, deck house and binnacle are only about three feet tall, and the bulwarks and cap rail are about three feet high. Is it just too tall for this vessel?

 

A series of pictures follows showing the original bitts and the new belfry for comparison.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, it does appear to stick up pretty high, but maybe not too high. The foot of the fore staysail is about 4 1/2 feet above the deck in my current plans so maybe I should raise it a bit for more clearance..

 

I can see no reason this belfry won't work, and it does provide a home for the bell at the bow. It is probably a bit too fancy for this mundane revenue cutter. I'll have to think about it and see if I can figure out a simpler and less obtrusive belfry.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Dr PR

[John Ruy]

2 hours ago, Dr PR said:

I'll have to think about it and see if I can figure out a simpler and less obtrusive belfry.

Hi Phil, 

 

Nice work on that belfry. However, I’m just returning from Nova Scotia where I just took a cruise on the Bluenose II. One of my photos did capture their placement of the ships bell on the Fore Mast. Nova Scotia takes great pride in the Bluenose II being a detailed replica of the original 1921 Bluenose. 

As for my own placement of a ships bell, I would probably keep it simple on the Main Mast as I did on my build of the Arctic Explorer Bowdoin. 

Your Albatros build is setting a high bar for My on build of this Revenue Cutter. 
 

Nice work. 👍

 

[Dr PR]

John,

 

Thanks for the information and photos.

 

A cruise on the Bluenose II! That is really nice!

 

I like the position of the bell on the fore mast. I do have room there to place the bell although it is in a lot of lines leading down to belay on the fife rail. I also need to put a band around the fore mast to hold up the mast hoops and keep them from dropping down on the fife rail when the sail is not attached. Maybe I can accomplish both goals with a single fitting.

 

I think I will give more thought to putting the bell on the main mast like your Bowdoin. It doesn't have the rigging complications. I would use a cross between the Bluenose and Bowdoin - a separate metal band around the mast below the boom rest.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

Well, I decided that fancy belfry was too highfalutin' for this simple vessel so I put the bell on the main mast as I originally planned. But I didn't use a separate band around the mast below the boom rest supports because that would place the bell too low and interfere with the pumps. I did want it a bit below the top of the boom rest so it didn't interfere with the bands and other fittings on the boom jaws.

 

Edited August 7, 2023 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

The fife rail at the base of the fore mast was my next project. With my original belaying plan I had eleven tackles attached to ring bolts around the base of the mast and twelve lines belaying to pins on the fife rail. This was much too crowded around the mast base. All of these lines should be belayed at the base of the mast and not on ring bolts or pin rails on the bulwarks (or cleats on the shrouds).

 

After studying several references I realized that not all of the tackles need be at the base of the mast. In particular, the fore course yard lifts and the topsail yard lifts could be rigged with the tackle between the yard arms and the mast, with the falls coming down to belay on the fife rail. This eliminated four tackles at the base of the mast. The remaining seven tackles can be arrayed around the mast without crowding.

 

With that problem solved I could make the fife rail.

 

 

The main stays (port and starboard) will belay to the metal eyes at the base of the after posts.

[Dr PR]

I know I am not alone when I say there are some parts of model building that I enjoy less than others. I have seen some posts saying that hull planking is the least enjoyable task, but I will gladly plank a hull before I have to do cannon rigging! For me it is the most tedious and frustrating modeling task. I have only six small cannons on this model. I think I would go crazy trying to rig a 100 gun ship!

 

Here is the problem:

 

 

I need to rig the gun tackles between the eye bolt on the bulkhead and the eye bolt on the cannon carriage. As the ruler shows this is a distance of a little less than 3/4 inch (19 mm). I had rigged these tackles earlier, but I did not like the way they turned out. The distance between the points is so small there isn't much room for the smallest of blocks and hooks. When the guns were run out the blocks were almost two-blocked. And the small size makes handling the parts difficult.

 

I have decided to place the guns in the stowed position, and that gives a bit more room. And I have obtained some small (not small enough) hooks to use with the blocks. Here is the plan:

 

 

I am using Syren 3/32 inch blocks and Syren 3 mm hooks. These parts are very small and hard to handle. Somehow I managed to make 24 block and hook assemblies (4 per cannon) without losing any of the parts!

 

 

Since these are small 6 pounder cannons I will need a simple gun tackle with two single blocks. Each block and hook assembly will be about 0.2 inch (5 mm) long, leaving about 0.375 inch (9.5 mm) between the blocks. I made two different assemblies, 12 with only the hook attached to the block with an eye in  the strop, and 12 with an eye at both ends of the block, one for the hook and one for the standing end of the tackle. The rope is Syren 0.012 inch (0.3 mm) ultra tan, and the seizing is a very fine (about 0.0025 inch/0.06 mm) tan silk thread (the smallest I can find). As you can see below the assemblies came out about as planned.

 

 

 

I used shellac to "glue" the seizing in place, and ordinary white "school glue" to fasten the rope to the sides of the block. This white glue dries clear. I did encounter one problem. One of the hook eyes broke as I was straightening the hook and block. Another stretched quite a bit (as you can see in the picture). Maybe the alcohol in the shellac softened the plastic. From now on I will use only the white school glue.

 

 

 

 

Working with the small rope bundles supplied by Syren resulted in tangles almost immediately. I solved this problem by buying some bobbins at a local sewing supply store. There was a variety of types but I chose a metal bobbin with holes that made it easy to secure the loose end. I spent a couple hours carefully winding the rope onto bobbins. Each package of rope from 0.008 inch (0.2 mm) to 0.025 inch (0.63 mm) fit on a single bobbin. The larger diameter ropes (0.035 inch/0.88 mm and 0.055 inch/1.37 mm) were too large to fit on a single bobbin, but these are easier to handle without getting everything knotted up.

 

 

Edited September 1, 2023 by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

Here is a photo of the finished gun tackle:

 

 

I decided to use a method for securing the tackle falls like I have seen in photos of some museum ships. After the fall is looped back through the hook eyes it is wrapped around the running parts. This ends up using 20 scale feet of rope!

 

Now only five more to go!

 

I broke another of the tiny 3 mm hooks while trying to hook it over the eye bolt on the gun carriage. The wire is small enough diameter but I was pulling it at an angle. This calls for extra caution when working with these hooks. There will be quite a few more in the rigging.

 

If you look closely at the picture you can see the spacing between the two blocks is about the same as the distance between the front of the gun carriage and the bulkhead frame around the gun port. If the gun was run out I am not sure which would happen first - the carriage would contact the bulkhead or the tackle would be two-blocked. A better arrangement (in hind sight) would be to place the eye bolt on the carriage farther back. Perhaps this is why some guns were rigged with the eye bolts for the gun tackle all the way back at the rear of the carriage, sometimes on top of the carriage sides instead of on the side as shown here. That would allow greater freedom for aiming the gun at an angle horizontally through the port.

 

This build has been a learning experience!

Edited September 2, 2023 by Dr PR