Flyer by WRed27 - Constructo - Scale 1:100 - First wooden ship build

[WRed27]

A bit more slow progress on the Flyer. I feel like I’m doing everything twice because there is so little guidance in the instructions. Even trivial things like the length of thread to cut for the line between deadeyes - I initially cut enough to get them attached but did not leave enough to tidy up the ends nicely! I’ve no clue how generous they are with the thread length supplied so trying to be fairly economical!

Anyway, I’ve started with the main mast, and put the pair of main stays on first. I’ve not glued the mast in so am relying on tensioning stays/shrouds for placement. I’ve also put the shrouds on, and the aft pair on each side are really pretty tight to ensure the mast rake is aligned with that in the plans.

So far so good I think, and starting to look a bit like a ship! Although I’m still not happy with the fuzziness of the lines in spite of running them through wax. I think I’ll need to coat them with a glue/water mix to improve the appearance.

Hoping to get the foremast stays & shrouds in place this weekend.

[WRed27]

Some more slow and steady progress on my Flyer build.

All the lower shrouds are on. I ended up coating them with glue/water mix to try to de-fuzz them a bit and i think they are looking OK. I’ve also managed to ensure no unwanted mast bend - everything seems to be lined up quite nicely.

I’m not entirely happy with the thread between the deadeyes, but I think that’s more a reflection on the thread quality more than anything else. It feels as though the thread has a larger diameter than it ought to have, and consequently it doesn’t look as clean as it might. I wasn’t sure how to tie off those threads either, nor indeed what to do with the shroud ends, so I’ve gone with something that looks OK and is practical at 1/100. There are two seizings on the shrouds, and the line between the dead eyes is just wrapped around the shrouds a couple of times and tied off. I’ll glue them before cutting off the excess.

I’m pleased that I was able to get a constant distance between the deadeyes. For the initial pair I measured everything as far as possible in advance and attached the deadeyes to the shrouds before anything was attached to the model. But latterly I would attach the first deadeye to the ship, and do the second one whilst it was attached. I found that it was quite easy to adjust the shroud length with just the throat seizing on the deadeye so could get a good compromise between the height of the deadeye and the tension in the shrouds.

 

I’ve also attached two of the three forestays. There’s not a great deal of standing rigging left to do, and thankfully I don’t think I’ll run out!

 

I’ve done a couple of test rat lines. I’m not sure whether it’s the colour combination, the thread diameter or the fuzziness, but I really don’t like them. I’d not really paid much attention until now, but the only two threads supplied with the kit are one dark brown and one natural. The thread diameter is not specified but I believe they are both 0.25mm, and the rat lines do not look right. I think the rat lines should be rather thinner threads, so have tried a 0.15mm thread from another kit as a test.

 

The uppermost ratline is the 0.15mm thread, whereas the two below are the kit supplied thread. I’m not sure if it’s easy to make out in the image, but I think the thinner thread is a much better choice - it also appears to be better quality with far less fuzz! Still not sure on colour through - I can’t help feeling they ought to be darker! The decision might be made easier by the scarcity of thread in the UK at the moment - most seems to be out of stock!

 

Still, plenty to be getting on with in the meantime!

[WRed27]

We continue… Standing rigging is all done now. I struggled with this a bit - firstly with the longest of the forestays. It was a bit of a delicate balance to get it sufficiently tight without pulling the mast forwards resulting in the other stays sagging. So they are not quite as tight as I would like, but at least they appear straight so I’m happy enough.

Likewise with the upper shrouds. It’s hard to tell from the plans whether there should be an eyelet drilled into the top of the mast, but decided against this. Instead I tied a temporary thread around the mast, and seized the shrouds above this to stop them slipping down the mast when under tension. I wasn’t sure how to deal with an odd number of shrouds, so the aft shroud on each side is a single thread knotted around the mast. The final challenge with the shrouds was again getting them nice & tight. There are no deadeyes; this model simply threads the shrouds through small holes in the tops (which I had to re-drill to make evenly spaced), and then there is a some kind of stopper knot underneath. I could not get a knot tied close enough to the underside of the tops to keep any tension on the shrouds. So I ended up forcing the seizing & temporary thread a few mil down the mast, tying off the bottom of the shrouds, and then re-tensioning them by moving everything back up the mast and glueing it before removing the temporary thread. I think I just about got away with it.

I’ve also tidied up the loose ends on the lower shrouds. Still need to decide what to do with the anchors, and also where/how to tie off the main stay pair as this is not clear in the plans.

I’ve also been working on the various yards and booms etc. I bought a super-cheap lathe from Lidl last summer. I’m not normally a fan of tools from Lidl! But it does seem to be adequate for my needs - I’ve been able to shape the various dowels more easily than I could with the dremel bodge that I used for the top masts!

I’ve got 3 or 4 more left to shape, and then I will attempt to decipher the plans as best I can. I have been spending a bit more time looking at some specifics and I think it makes sense for the most part, but there are still some noticeable gaps.

There is still the small matter of ratlines too - I’ve decided to go with the 0.15mm grey thread so can work my through tying those in small chunks.

 

Feels like it’s coming together at this point!

 

[WRed27]

Ratlines… Incredibly slow progress on these, mainly because I’m not finding it much fun. At all.

This model doesn’t even have ratlines on the upper shrouds, and only 2 masts with 4 shrouds on each side. I’ll be terrified if I ever take on a larger model!

Still, half way there, and I think the second set is probably better than the first so hopefully the next two will go OK.

I used a template to space them, and they are ~3.5mm apart at 1/100. They looked too close together when I started at the bottom, but I think they are about right now that they are tied on all the way up.

The yards etc are all ready to go so once I’m done with this, I can get back to something a bit more exciting! That ought to be some motivation to get them done!

I’m inclined to go without sails as I don’t think the material looks great. But given how long the foremast ratlines are likely to take me, I’ve got plenty of time to reconsider!

 

 

[WRed27]

Well finally the ratlines are all done, which is a relief.

I’ve also loosely fitted some of the yards on to the foremast but I think I’ll need to take them off again.

I was deliberating how to attach the yards to the mast. The plans show them attached to a block above them, and the line then runs down to a belaying pin, which is what I’ve done so far. There does also appear to be a direct yard/mast attachment, but no guidance on how that’s done. I initially thought I could omit that, since the lines (braces?) running from the foremast yards through blocks attached to the main mast and down to belaying pins would hold them nicely in place. Only when I attached the first yard to the main mast did it occur to me that that wouldn’t work for the main mast yards, since the braces would pull the yards away from the mast, rather than pinning them to it!

So I’ll likely seize a couple of loops on a line, wrap it around the back of the mast and slide the loops onto the yards, which I can then tighten & glue.

 

Progress so far:

I’ve attached the spanker gaffs on both fore & main masts. This was pretty straight forwards, other than the plans not showing how to attach the line on the gaff that is closest to the mast. I chose to attach a block (glad I bought additional ones) to the mast right under the foretop/maintop and then put multiple wraps around the gaff, feed it through the block & tie off to a belaying pin. Seems to do the trick!

The plans do not have anything at all attaching the spanker boom. I think the assumption is that the boom will just hang off the bottom of the sail, which is OK if you’re attaching sails! So I’ll have to work out how I’ll tackle that. It’ll probably be something not too dissimilar to lazy jacks on a yacht. Other than that I still need to work out how to tie off the main stays, and what do to about the anchors, but I’m quite pleased with how it’s turning out.

 

[WRed27]

A little more progress, and some mistakes made…

All of the yards are now attached (although many still hanging loose!), and I’ve started putting the various lifts on and the braces working from the bottom up on the foremast.

Having despaired previously at the lack of guidance in the instructions, I am at least comfortable with the plans, and the order in which to do things now that I’ve spent a lot more time studying them.

 

I realised that I made a mistake with a pair of blocks that are used to feed a brace from one of the foremast yards down to belaying pins at the foot of the mainmast. The plans appear to show them attached to the main mast, but actually they should be on the shrouds.

However, I’m leaving them as they are as the misplacement does not cause any issues with the rest or the running rigging.

 

I’ve also had to deviate from the plans slightly in terms of which belaying pins to use for which lines. There are only 4 belaying pins on either side each the mast, and 4 in front. I’ve adjusted things slightly to avoid braces rubbing against shrouds etc, and it feels more logical to me! I did double-check plans to make sure that my belaying pins were correctly placed (which they were).

 

Incidentally, I find wrapping line around belaying pins at 1/100 really difficult!!

 

 

 

Other than that, I’m pleased with progress so far. It’s fairly slow going, but I’m enjoying seeing it come together. Not too much left to do at this point, although I am nervous that I’ll run out of thread for the running rigging. This is a bit odd since the thread I’m running short on should have been used for the ratlines, and wasn’t - so I should have loads to spare! We’ll see!

 

Here we are so far - main big omissions are anchors and spanker boom along with the remaining running rigging. I’ll probably complete the braces from the yards on the foremast and then attach the boom before tackling the remaining running rigging on the mainmast. The anchors will be last as they won’t be obstructed by any rigging as far as I can see.