HMS Vulture 1776 by Dan Vadas - FINISHED - 1:48 scale - 16-gun Swan-class sloop from TFFM plans

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks for the comments once again George, Robin, Mark, Greg, David, Russell, Maury, H, Jihn, Mark and Carl .

 

Robin, I don't have any more pics other than what I have in this build log - sorry.

 

Topsail Yard Tyes

 

Before going into the construction of the Topsail Yard Tyes a warning to others building from TFFM - there is an error in their rigging, pointed out to me by none other than the author David Antscherl. Unfortunately this error was pointed out just as I had completed them . No biggie, I just pulled the whole lot apart and re-did them. At least this gave me an extra couple of days working on the model .

 

TFFM has you rigging the topsail tyes in similar fashion to the lower yards, whereas they use a DOUBLE block on the yard. The standing end of the Tye, one each side, circles the topmast and lashes back to itself via an eye. It then goes through one of the sheaves in the double block on the yard, up to the tye block under the top, and down to a double block for the tackle. The other side does the same.

 

The tye block has two buntline blocks lashed to it's top :

 

 

 

An overall view of the tye rigging :

 

 

 

The blocks under the top :

 

 

The double blocks on the ends of the tye falls :

 

 

The lower end of the tackle has a single block on a pendant which hooks into a ringbolt in the channels on either side. The fall of the tackle belays to a convenient timberhead. This is the main topsail tackle :

 

 

 

And the fore one :

 

 

 Danny

[GLakie]

Sort of a bummer TFFM let you down, but a good thing David let you know about the error. Looks great! 

 

Cheers

[gjdale]

Nice catch Danny, and beautifully executed. Glad to hear you enjoyed your "bonus" couple of days on the model.

[AON]

Thank you very much for the note about the error in TFFM

(even the masters are due their one misteak)

Printed out your correction description and inserted it between the pages of my volume copy for future reference!

[BANYAN]

Some very impressive rigging there Danny - a pleasure to view.  Hopefully one day I might get back up to the Port Mac show and catch sight of this beauty in all its glory.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Danny

Another display of excellence, what more can I say!

Robin, Danny's log as I can see has the most step by step photos anywhere. I know what you mean I think, you would like more because you don't want it to stop! Who does, NO ONE!

Cheers

Greg

[kees de mol]

Looking great

[Alex M]

Hi Dan,

 

I can nothing add to have been said, only echo other comments: impressive rigging!

 

Alex

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks again for the kind comments George, Grant, Allan, Pat, Greg, Kees and Alex .

 

Parrels

 

The Parrels act as bearings to enable the yard to be raised and lowered more easily.

 

Construction of these starts by PVA gluing together the Ribs in two stacks. This way they can be very accurately drilled and shaped symmetrically. The ones on the right have been finished :

 

 

Once shaped Isopropyl Alcohol is used to separate the individual pieces :

 

 

The Trucks are turned on the lathe. They are more barrel shaped than round :

 

 

Next an eye is "spliced" into one end of two lines, and the ribs and trucks are fed onto them :

 

 

The two eyes are lashed together around the port side of the yard. The trickiest part of the operation is lashing the lines around the mast. They go over the parrels 3 times and tie around each other. Lots of care needed not to damage anything, like breaking off yards etc    :

 

 

 

 Danny

[tkay11]

Just want to say, Dan, that I've used this method of yours for cleats (after your posting on cleats) and it's such an elegant solution for consistent width and height of small pieces. Thanks a lot!

 

Tony

[Dan Vadas]

Glad to be of help Tony .

 

Topsail Yard Lifts

 

As with the lower yard lifts these are used to square the yard. They attach a little differently to the lower ones.

 

 

A Span fitted with a thimble at each end is clove-hitched around the topmast cap :

 

 

The thimbles at the ends of the span are lashed to thimbles in the standing ends of the lifts :

 

 

Then the lifts go through the lift blocks on the ends of the yard, up through the lower sheaves of the sister blocks lashed to the shrouds, and belay to the aftmost cleats on the lower part of the shrouds :

 

 

 

 

 Danny

[GLakie]

I can see by the quality of your work Danny, that you really do love this part of the build. Very nice.

 

Cheers

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Danny

Another beautiful piece of work, I and everyone has said everything we can about this build, but it's still not enough. Well done mate!!!

Greg

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks George and Greg .

 

Topgallant Yard Parrels

 

The topgallant yard parrels are smaller versions of the topsail yard ones. MUCH smaller. Here are some of the pieces with a topgallant yard truck and rib for comparison :

 

 

The parrel attached to the fore yard ready for crossing the yard :

 

 

 

The topgallant yard lift is seized around the end of the yard rather than to the upper block. There is no lower block. The halyard belays to the aftmost cleat on the topsail shrouds :

 

 

 Danny

[GLakie]

Looks great Danny, but I wouldn't have expected any thing else.  Like we used to say in the building trades, " If you do a really good job once, they'll expect it all the time".   

[SawdustDave]

And that is another lesson learned by me from a great master. Thanks Danny.

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Danny

When you said smaller, you mean smaller. The scale wasn't apparent until you place the 5c piece. Don't sneeze when you are handling them or they will be blown away.

Cheers and Havagooday

Greg

[AnobiumPunctatum]

Really wonderful

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks George, Dave, Greg (that happened and Christian. Robin, I think Druxey explained how they fitted in the post you put up - I don't know any more about them.

 

The Cat came back       !!!

 

Below are some pics of the damage caused by Pud on his most recent (and hopefully LAST) excursion through my ship. All damage has been repaired, and wasn't quite as bad as it first appeared. The Crowsfoot Euphroe block lashing was the most difficult piece to repair. The whole repair job took me a full morning, but Pud is still alive and well

 

 

 

 

 Danny

[cog]

Dan,

 

Sorry to hear about the damage ... glad it was quickly repaired... maybe be prepared and have a ball of wool ready ...

Edited May 24, 2015 by cog

[mtaylor]

Thank heavens I only have a small dog who can't jump up on the bench.   Although anything that hits the floor is hers....

 

That's a very good repair.  Looks like it's never been damaged.

[GLakie]

Nice job on the repairs Danny!  Pud's rigging ability currently leaves something to be desired, but he's learning. Remember, practice makes perfect.    

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks guys, but the pics above only show the damage, not the repairs (there was damage on TWO masts). Here are the repairs :

 

 

 

 Danny

[BANYAN]

That's a good recovery job Danny - Pud must have a short life expectancy as that a few lives expended on this build alone (kidding of course - I hope you have many happy years with Pud and the Vulture!)

 

cheers

 

Pat

[GLakie]

I might have been a little premature in my "nice job on the repairs" statement Danny, but I already knew you'd have her back ship-shape in no time. But we have to remember Pud's in training and mistakes are inevitable. He's going to be a great helper, specializing in rigging.   

[Jim Lad]

Nice to see everything back in order, Danny. 

 

John

[dgbot]

Nice repair but as for Bud he thought it was a natural enemy Vultures and cats do not get along

David B

[druxey]

The door, Dan, the door! Please close it so both Pud and you may live out your natural life spans. Your riggers did a good running repair, though.

[mtaylor]

Oh... I thought the last picture showed the repair.....

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Danny

Are you sure it was Pud and not Ziggy? To me the damage was almost CATastrophic!