Wood Hull Screw Frigate USS Tennessee 1869 to 1886 by Keith Black - scale 1:120

[rwiederrich]

Keith…….you can do it.

 

I simply paint the shiny glued stropping flat black.
 

I will be adding the mizzenmast shrouds soon myself on my Glory.  
 

Post some images when you can.  
 

Rob
 

 

[Keith Black]

 To my dear friends and MSW family members Mark, Glen, Brian, Simon, Chief Mark, Gary, Keith, Eberhard, Rob, Pat Banyan, and Tom Black, THANK YOU! I can't say thank you enough and I am truly blessed and touched by your kindness and support. 

 

 3.0 was a success! Well, I've got one pair done, only 91 more pairs to go but who's counting!  But at least I know I can do this and make the deadeyes and lanyards look acceptable. The process isn't exactly kosher but because the size is so small you really can't see what's going on. I think what I've been able to accomplish is a pretty good representation of the real thing considering the scale. The deadeyes are .48 inches edge to edge, at scale that would put the top deadeye at a sailors throat level. If the deadeye were any higher, I think it would have been difficult tying the lanyard tail to the shroud line?

 

 I didn't whip the shroud lines, it's impossible for me. I dare say Eberhard could pull it off but he's an exception to the rule. Pat Banyan shared the 'zip seizing' method of whipping. I tried it but everything is just too small to make it work and look okay. So I just used a clench knot to join the sound line to the top deadeye and to the topsail mast. As I said, it ain't kosher but it's hard to tell the difference at normal viewing distance.

 

 So now it's on to more of the same, hopefully. The fool that I am can make almost anything once. The key is being able to make the some thing a multitude of times and for each one to look the same.

 

 

 

 

 Again, thank you.

 Keith

 

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by Keith Black

[GrandpaPhil]

Very nice!  Looking good!

[mbp521]

Beautiful job Keith! Never had any doubt whatsoever that you couldn’t pull it off. They are definitely tiny little buggers though. 
 

-Brian

[lraymo]

Wow!  I just read your saga of 1.0, 2.0, and finally 3.0 success!   What a journey!   I'm impressed with your ability to overcome frustrations... you must've taken others advice to step back, take a break, etc, because 3.0 looks fantastic.  Congratulations!   At some point, my little model is going to have me attempting deadeyes... I'm going to have to come back here for inspiration!

[Glen McGuire]

Well done, Keith!  Very impressive work!

[mtaylor]

This is impressive work, Keith.  Given the scale it's beyond impressive.  I'm glad you stuck with it and sorted things out.

[Roger Pellett]

Looks good Keith.  When my son was in high school, my wife had a poem posted in the refrigerator.  I don’t remember it exactly but it had to do with persistence being the key to success.  He hated it but it’s true.  Your persistence has produced good dividends.  Keep it up!

 

Roger

 

A random thought.  What about using heat shrink tubing in place of seizing.  At the scale that you are working to nobody is going to count the turns.

[Keith Black]

 

 Thank you to all for the likes, thank you for sharing my small triumph. 

 

6 hours ago, GrandpaPhil said:

Very nice!  Looking good!

 Thank you. Phil.

 

5 hours ago, mbp521 said:

Beautiful job Keith! Never had any doubt whatsoever that you couldn’t pull it off. They are definitely tiny little buggers though.

 Brian, thank you for the compliment and the vote of confidence.

 

2 hours ago, lraymo said:

Wow!  I just read your saga of 1.0, 2.0, and finally 3.0 success!   What a journey!   I'm impressed with your ability to overcome frustrations... you must've taken others advice to step back, take a break, etc, because 3.0 looks fantastic.

 Thank you, Lynn. I didn't put things away for a spell. I have to stick with working out a problem otherwise I just stew. 

 

2 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

Well done, Keith!  Very impressive work!

 Thank you, Glen. 

 

19 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

This is impressive work, Keith.  Given the scale it's beyond impressive.  I'm glad you stuck with it and sorted things out.

Mark, thank you for your support.

 

14 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

A random thought.  What about using heat shrink tubing in place of seizing.  At the scale that you are working to nobody is going to count the turns.

Thank you, Roger and thank you for the suggestion.

 

 The method I'm using (securing the shroud lines with a cinch knot) isn't difficult and it's positive. There's no chance of failure unless a line is cut. By the way, I'm using Gutermann poly thread for all the lines. The only thing really missing using a cinch knot to secure the shroud lines is the shroud line tails. I'm quite willing to make that compromise achieving the results seen in the photos I posted earlier. 

 

 

[BrianK]

Looks great Keith. I'll bet those other 91 pairs will fly by when you enter your zen dead-eye tying mindspace.....

If you disappear for a couple days we will understand. 😃 

 

BrianK

[lraymo]

52 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

I have to stick with working out a problem otherwise I just stew. 

Great job finding the solution!  Glad you didn't stew about it.  I do that sometimes, and I end up more frustrated than at the beginning!  Impressive, and good luck with the next 91 !

[wefalck]

I think you are getting there, Keith! As I say, patience and perseverence are probably the most important tools in our box

 

Concerning very small seizings, it is of course diffiult to reproduce them at very small scales, but one can fake them using some very soft thread that is not twisted together. Over here in Europe, one can find such thread in the sewing department, where it is sold for repairing ladies' stockings - but it becomes harder to get by, as few women seem to bother with repairing them. Another source are shops that cater for the fly-fishing fraternity and that may be a more realistic proposition in North America.

 

You only take one or two turns around the shrouds etc. and then go around the middle and make a knot in the back, so that it is not really visible. 

[FriedClams]

Way to go Keith - I knew you'd hang tight.

 

20 hours ago, Keith Black said:

The process isn't exactly kosher but

 

Anything that works is kosher and the result looks great.  Nice job. 

 

Gary

[KeithAug]

Keith - you came out the other side of Hell. Well done - they look pretty good to me.

[Keith Black]

 BrianK, Lynn, Eberhard, Gary, and Keith, thank you for the nice comments and that you to all for the likes. 

 

 The mizzen mast is almost ready for the yards to be added and rigged. The last remaining task is the ratlines, oh, what fresh hell will this turn into.

 

 I don't find ratlines to be aesthetically pleasing. I know they're a necessary evil but I think they disrupt the harmony created by the vertical shroud lines. Having said that, I'm not adding ratlines to the topgallant shrouds. Peterson's book depicts the topgallant shrouds without ratlines. I've seen several models without them and they don't appear in the H and H photos of the Tennessee. I'm going with 'less is more' and leaving them off the topgallant shrouds. Of course, I will be adding ratlines to the topsail shrouds so it's more teaching old fingers new tricks. 

 

 Once again, thank you to all for following along. Your support is greatly appreciated. 

 

 

 

 

 

[BANYAN]

You're really making some serious progress on the rigging now Keith; looking good mate.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[BrianK]

Keith, I will be curious to see how you space the ratlines. Is there a record of the "step size" spacing between ratlines on US Navy ships like the Tennessee? I have a Sterling Kearsarge sloop of war on the shelf that is hopefully in my distant modelling future. I would love to make note of your scale ratline spacing for future reference.....

 

BrianK

Edited February 21, 2022 by BrianK

[Keith Black]

2 hours ago, BANYAN said:

You're really making some serious progress on the rigging now Keith; looking good mate.

Thank you, Pat

 

1 hour ago, BrianK said:

I will be curious to see how you space the ratlines. Is there a record of the "step size" spacing between ratlines on US Navy ships like the Tennessee?

 Brian, 12 inches is too short and 24 inches to long, 15 to 18 inches? Maybe someone who knows will jump in and educate the both of us. That would make the spacing for the model .14/.15 inches thereabouts. I may have to increase the spacing to .20 inches out of necessity even though that would be wrong to scale. It's going to be another exercise in making my fingers do things they don't want to do. 

 

 I couldn't resist putting the yards on to see how everything looks. 

 

 

 

 Thank you everyone for the likes. 

[mbp521]

Looking good Keith! I must admit that what you call your “fresh hell” is one of my favorite things to do. For some reason ratlines provide me with sublime therapy. Actually, rigging in general is one of my favorite tasks in model ship building. I can get lost for hours in it. Not sure why, it’s just one of the ways my demented mind works.
 

But getting back to your build, looks like a beautiful day to be inside working on your ship, from the looks of it there seems to be quite a bit of white stuff on the ground outside. 
 

-Brian

[Keith Black]

34 minutes ago, mbp521 said:

Looking good Keith! I must admit that what you call your “fresh hell” is one of my favorite things to do. For some reason ratlines provide me with sublime therapy. Actually, rigging in general is one of my favorite tasks in model ship building. I can get lost for hours in it. Not sure why, it’s just one of the ways my demented mind works.
 

But getting back to your build, looks like a beautiful day to be inside working on your ship, from the looks of it there seems to be quite a bit of white stuff on the ground outside. 

 Brian, thank you. I'm sure I would enjoy all aspects of rigging if I felt more confident in my knowledge and my abilities. In what little I've done so far I've learned there are subtleties when performing each rigging task. Each task has a set of correct sequential steps that make working in tight spaces possible, knowing those steps only comes with experience. Hopefully by the time I reach the foremast I'll be able to go with the flow and enjoy each task as they present themselves.  

 

 It was a good day to work on the ship but then everyday is a good day. Even though there's snow on the ground it's melting rather nicely. We've had a Robin hanging about for the better part of a week. Spring will get here, none too soon. 

[Keith Black]

3 hours ago, BrianK said:

Keith, I will be curious to see how you space the ratlines. Is there a record of the "step size" spacing between ratlines on US Navy ships like the Tennessee? I have a Sterling Kearsarge sloop of war on the shelf that is hopefully in my distant modelling future. I would love to make note of your scale ratline spacing for future reference.....

 Brian, see the below link to a great discussion regarding ratline spacing.

 

 

[mcb]

Hi Keith,

 

If they don't appear in the photos that would be good enough for me!

Everything looks fine, symmetrical and taut.

mcb

[FriedClams]

You're back in step Keith - looking great!

 

Gary

[wefalck]

When thinking about ratline spacing, I am sure that contemporary books on rigging may have to say something about it, though this is more an artisanal question left to those in charge of rigging. However, if you try to lift your foot, you will find that lifting it in excess of 12" is quite a bit of effort, which is also why the distance between rungs on a ladder is around 9 to 10". So I gather a distance of 10 to 12" is ok.

 

Whether there are ratlines on topgallant shrouds depends on the time and the way how topgallant and (perhaps) skysail yards were fitted. Concerns for safety (and convenience) at sea were certainly less developed until the early decades of the 19th century, which is why one apparently sees topgallant ratlines rarely. Instead, a knotted rope may have been fixed to the top for the men to hold onto. In later years ratlines often also were absent, when the corresponding yards were set flying, meaning that the yard could be lowered to be reached from the topmast top, or even lowered to the deck.

[Keith Black]

35 minutes ago, wefalck said:

So I gather a distance of 10 to 12" is ok.

 Eberhard, 12 inches would put the ratline spacing a tenth of an inch apart. I think the ratline knots are going to look disproportionally large in comparison to the spacing. Also, at a tenth of an inch, the ratlines are going to appear to be a wall of thread. I've yet to make it upstairs to start the first ratline attempts, hopefully I'll have something in the next couple of days. 

[wefalck]

What thread are you using for the ratlines? On the prototype they would be probably around 1/4" to 1/2" in diameter, so 0.002" to 0.004" mm in 1:120.

[TBlack]

And I hate to mention it, Keith, but knots at this scale are going to be an issue - size wise.

Tom

[lraymo]

Wow, Keith! Amazing!  Your detail work is fantastic!  Also, it looks like you are using the Workmate Vise you found on ebay.  Cool! Are you liking it?

[Keith Black]

18 minutes ago, lraymo said:

Also, it looks like you are using the Workmate Vise you found on ebay

Thank you, Lynn. I've been meaning to say how indispensable this tool has become. I don't know how one would do off ship rigging without one or something similar. It comes in so handy for other uses as well. 

[lraymo]

Great to hear, Keith.  I've been using mine also (it held my ship hull at just the right angle to do the coppering!)   Do you also have special magnifiers to work on such small parts?  I wear glasses, and i bought a magnifying glass with an led light, but my eyes still get tired. So yesterday I bought a headset that hold magnifying lenses out in front of my glasses, and I'm hoping it will help with eye strain.  But your details are so small, I wondered if there's anything special you use to see your work!