Medway Longboat 1742 - 1/2" scale - by BobG - FINISHED

[Chuck]

Nicely done!!!   By the time you are all done, you will be ready to rig that 3 decker!!!

[BobG]

17 minutes ago, Chuck said:

Nicely done!!!   By the time you are all done, you will be ready to rig that 3 decker!!!

Thanks, Chuck. It's hard for me to even imagine the patience it would take to do a 3 decker!

[Nunnehi (Don)]

Bob,

 

I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, beautiful work! You’ve jumped well ahead of me as I got distracted working on another project that had been sitting on a shelf for several years - will get back on it soon. 

 

Don

[Ryland Craze]

Congratulations on your rigging and iron work.  Your Longboat is coming along nicely.  I appreciate your detailed pictures as I will be referring to them while building my Longboat.

[BobG]

Thanks Don and Ryland. All 40 million California residents are now officially on shutdown so other than riding my bike, working in the yard and taking long walks with my wife, I have lots of time to work on my boat. I have quite a ways to go so I'll just keep chipping away at it. It's extremely satisfying when a task turns out well. I hope to see you both make some progress on your builds soon too.

[Diver]

On 2/7/2020 at 7:28 PM, BobG said:

O'k, I'm finally getting around to making my first build log after encouragement by some the members here. I've been reading the forum since the fall of 2014 but only began posting recently and I completed my first model boat two years ago. To date I have built a small dory by Artesania Latina, the Indian Canoe by Midwest Products and the Batelina by Maris Stella. I began working on the Medway Longboat about 3 months ago and I am about to start the rigging. None of my previous builds had any rigging so this will be completely new to me and I'm sure I will be able to use some good advice as I attempt rigging for the very first time.

 

Even though I'm pretty far along in my build I thought I would go ahead add some photos and brief comments from the beginning. Perhaps in reading my log someone might find something useful for them. I've certainly benefited from reading build logs by others and, at least for me, photos can often be more helpful than words. I'll try and point out some of the stumbling blocks I encountered along the way and how I tried to overcome them. None of these difficulties had anything to do with the kit itself, they were all self-made by me and were just part of the learning process for me. As you probably know, the kit itself is simply fantastic in every way.

 

This build has been a big step forward for me from my previous builds and that's been a very good thing. It has challenged me just the right amount for my continued growth in ship modeling. I'm learning so much and my confidence is growing with each completed step. Chuck describes the skill level for he kit as intermediate/advanced and it's certainly been that for me. It's been the perfect next step in the evolution of my ship building knowledge and skills and continues to be a pleasure to build.

 

Any comments whatsoever are whole-heartedly welcome 100%.  Thank you for reading if you got this far.

 

I've completed the interior and am currently working on the rudder. Here are some fairly recent photos of where I'm at on my Longboat build: 

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

I  hope that my build gets results close to yours.  Looks great

[Osmosis]

Very nice work Bob. By looking at it it could have been your 1000th shroud Very nice indeed.

[BobG]

Thanks, Art, you're too kind. 

[BobG]

1 hour ago, Diver said:

I  hope that my build gets results close to yours.  Looks great

Thanks very much. Unfortunately, I didn't heed the good advice to start my build log at the beginning. I thought it would be difficult since I'm a master at screwing things up on the computer at times but it's really quite easy and I'm enjoying it now.

[BobG]

I got two more shrouds and deadeyes rigged. Rigging the deadeyes and seizing them to the shrouds is easily the most fiddly thing I've ever done in my rather brief time model ship building. Getting the blocks at the same height, reeving the lanyards so the the holes in one deadeye stays parallel to the other deadeye holes and then seizing the lanyard to the shroud without the deadeyes twisting while everything is wiggling around was an exercise in frustration for me at times. There's got to be a better way than I'm doing it but I'm happy with the results so far. If I had dozens to do I'd be pushing up daisies before I got done!

 

EDIT: Big oops newbie mistake below! I noticed that I have the upper deadeyes upside down on the port side. So guess what? Snip, snip, turn the deadeyes and reeve the lanyards again. I know we probably learn more through our mistakes but I'd rather not make the mistake in the first place!

 

I have the upper blocks upside down in the photo below. the single hole should be pointed up towards the shroud. I corrected it as you can see in the second photo.

 

 

Here are the deadeyes after in the correct orientation after I rotated the upper ones and reeved them again:

 

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by BobG

[BobG]

After I finally got all 4 shrouds with the deadeyes completed and noticed that I had the upper deadeyes on the port side upside down. I edited the previous post so you can see what I mean in the photos. I corrected it by cutting the lanyards, rotating the upper deadeyes to the proper orientation and reeving the lanyards again. Sometimes it's two steps forward and one step back but on I go...live and learn! 🤗

[BobG]

I have some questions about which size of rope to use on various lines of the rigging. Where is the small .018 size rope used in the rigging? I know it is used on the boom sheet but it is unclear to me where else it is used in the rigging. Thanks very much.

[Chuck]

Bob I hate to say it but please look at your plans!!!!  Its all right there in front of you.  Also noted in the instructions.

 

Chuck

[BobG]

24 minutes ago, Chuck said:

Bob I hate to say it but please look at your plans!!!!  Its all right there in front of you.  Also noted in the instructions.

 

Chuck

Ok, Chuck, I figured out why I wasn't finding this information. I've been primarily referring to your build log for guidance because I can expand the photos in your build log larger on my computer. I see now that that the instructions on your website are much more detailed. Sorry...I feel a rather stupid about that. 🙄

 

I will say that, at least for me, I can't differentiate exactly the sizes of the all of the lines from the plans only. Maybe I'm dense and half blind but, for example, the .018 lanyards look thicker on the plans than the indicated .025 halliards.

 

 

 

 

[Chuck]

Nope....but they are also all labelled.   Go by what they are labelled as.   Every line on that plan is labelled with the size.   Dont look at the thickness of the line on the plan....except for the shrouds they are all the same thickness more or less.   As most rigging plans are.  Thats why they are labelled.  It helps make the plan more readable that way.   

 

also look here on MSW.....everything is posted here for download.

 

 

[BobG]

3 hours ago, Chuck said:

Nope....but they are also all labelled.   Go by what they are labelled as.   Every line on that plan is labelled with the size. 

Chuck, I have been using the full size plan that came with the mast and rigging kit. It does not have all the lines labeled on it...only the main sheet, topping lift, peak halliard and throat halliard. I simply assumed that the plan that came in the rigging kit was the one to use and the rigging plan available online was the same thing for people who like to use their computers. The online plan does have every line labeled so I'll use that one.  

 

This is the plan that came with the rigging kit:

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by BobG

[Chuck]

That is indeed strange.  Use the downloaded version of the rigging plan i posted .  Every line is labelled.

 

Medway rigging plan - no sails - medwayrigging.pdf

[BobG]

I made the chainstays for the backstays, blackened them with Jax Pewter Black and glued them to the hull. Then I served the backstays and the forestay and stropped the blocks with thimbles for them. I was able to seize the port backstay to the mast and rig the port backstay tackle. I'll rig the starboard backstay and the forestay tomorrow and then begin working on the bowsprit.

 

I'm not always happy with the Jax Pewter Black. I clean the brass well with white vinegar and rinse it with water and the pieces blacken nicely but when handling them the black flakes off at times exposing the brass. I've tried redoing those pieces again but the black still flakes off so I painted those spots with a dilute solution of Vallejo Black Acrylic. They look pretty good but I might try a different blackening agent in the future.

 

I also am beginning to have a bit of a tangle of lines even though I have them weighted with alligator clips. I thought it would probably be best to wait until all the lines were rigged before making a final tensioning and then gluing them into their belaying places. I'm not sure if this is the best strategy and I'm glad I don't have a couple dozen lines hanging around!

 

Port backstay:

  

[MEDDO]

Bob looks really good.

 

[BobG]

Thanks Michael. The rigging can be tedious but I find it very satisfying when I complete a line!

[EricWilliamMarshall]

On 3/19/2020 at 4:50 PM, BobG said:

I've just completed a ship modeling milestone for me. I finish rigging my first ever shroud and reeved the the 2 deadeyes to it.

Woo-woo!! (I have yet to cross this magic line myself...)

[Nunnehi (Don)]

Bob,

 

Thanks for posting all the close-ups, they look great! I really like your thimbles too, I may give those another shot. 

 

Don

[BobG]

Thanks Don. I couldn't make the thimbles the way Chuck does. My punch wasn't the right size so I went with Plan B that I talked about in a previous post. It worked out pretty well. The close up photos show every little detail though so things look kind of rough even though you can't really see that level of detail on the boat with the naked eye...thank goodness! 

 

I hope all is well for you and your family and friends during this difficult time.

 

[BobG]

I'm plugging away on the rigging little by little. I completed rigging the starboard backstay and tackle. Then I seized the forestay shroud to the mast, seized a deadeye to the end of it and rove the lanyard to the bow. I'll begin the bowsprit tomorrow. The rigging really makes the boat come alive!

 

[MEDDO]

Very nice and clean rigging.

[BobG]

Thanks, Michael, I appreciate it.

[JpR62]

Superb work on this longboat. It is true that the rigging immediately gives another dimension to the model.

Your rigging is precise and will be an example for me to follow.

Thanks for sharing !

 

 

 

[gjdale]

Lovely work Bob. Well done!

[BobG]

Thank you so much Jean-Paul and Grant for your kind words and thank you to everyone else for your likes and taking the time to check in on my build log. I look forward to watching the progress that each of you make on your Medway Longboats. I also hope that each and everyone of you and your family and friends are safe and well in this most difficult time for the entire world. 

 

Best regards,

[BobG]

I made a small bit of progress today. First, I stropped the block for the jib halliard with a thimble and made a hook to attach it to an eyebolt in the stem. Then I seized it to the halliard and seized the halliard around the mast.

 

The Mind Haze IPA helps to keep the hands steady!

Then I began to work on the bowsprit. Getting the bowsprit positioned correctly and then drilling the hole through the thwart at the bow for the square brass support looked tricky. I read the instructions a couple of times and heeded the warning from Chuck that you need to make sure you've got the measurements right before you drill the hole since you only have one shot get it right. I fiddled around with the bowsprit trying to hold it in place and estimate where the hole for the support should be but that seemed like that would be a hit or miss way to do it. So here's how I went about it so far:

 

I filed a pin on the end of the brass support:

 

Then I took the bowsprit and wrapped a piece of 20 gauge copper wire around the end of the bowsprit where the pin will go and formed the copper wire so was it close to perpendicular to the bowsprit. I then positioned the bowsprit by eye at the correct distance and angle and marked where the copper wire was touching the top of the thwart. I drilled the marked spot with a tiny drill bit just barely into the thwart and positioned the bowsprit with the copper rod touching the hole to see how everything looked. 

 

It looked good so I drilled the final hole. Chuck used a #49 drill bit which is .073" but I didn't have one of those so I used a 5/64" bit which is .078. It worked just fine. I forgot to take a photo of the bowsprit with the copper wire jig marking the spot so I took a photo that shows it in place after I drilled the final hole to give you an idea of how it worked for finding where to drill the hole through the thwart.

I used some small files and a scalpel to square up the hole and press fit the square rod into it. I left it long at this point.

Tomorrow I'll simulate the iron bands around the bowsprit with black masking tape and finish them with Doc O'Brien's Rusty Brown Weathering Powder before cutting the support rod to size. Then I'll drill the hole in the bowsprit for the support pin and make the other short rod with a pin on the end that goes into the bowsprit at an angle from the front of the stem. I'll test fit of everything first to double check the alignment and then glue everything in place after blackening the brass. Hopefully, it will all line up nicely.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 26, 2020 by BobG