Preussen by Ian_Grant - Heller - 1/150 - PLASTIC

[Ian_Grant]

Just recently started this kit after finally finishing Heller 1/100 Victory.  What a change from 18th century rig and cannons.  Long narrow all iron hull with midship bridge.  Five iron masts. The decks are crammed with machinery such as manual brace & halyard winches and several capstans..

 

Kit Summary:  Hull halves were crammed across the kit box diagonal; I think they must have wanted to use the same box size as the Passat kit. The stem and lowermost rudder mount were bent because the diagonal really is slightly too small.  Kit includes thermoplastic sails.  Kit does not include blocks, or any representation of turnbuckles for shrouds and backstays.  Aside from sprues holding the 5 decks (foc'sle deck, fwd well deck, bridge deck, aft well deck, poop deck) and some hatch covers, there are only six parts sprues four of which are identical - a very tiny pile compared to the ~21 unique sprues for Victory. The instructions are good for assembly, with many fine diagrams showing what goes where, but rigging details are sparse.  The good news is that Heller did not scatter the rigging instructions all through the assembly drawings but instead devote several drawings at the end to rigging: stays; shrouds and backstays; lifts and braces; buntlines and halyards. The bad news is that belaying points are in Heller's patented microprint. Also the proper connection of Jarvis brace winches is not shown i.e. leading blocks.

 

At this point I must mention that Heller's engravers depicted the steel hull plates nicely, but they mysteriously disappear below the waterline. It bothered me enough that I bought Evergreen 0.005" sheet and cut it into plates which I glued on individually, in a double layer every 2nd row to simulate the riveting overlaps.  It looked like hell at first, but after some caulking (acrylic painter's caulk squeezed out of the tube via a very small hole drilled in the cap end to provide a very small bead) and painting it actually turned out pretty well.

 

I have joined the hull halves and painted the black/white/red colour scheme.  I have painted and washed and varnished the decks and I am busy painting various bits of deck machinery and steel bulkheads.  I need to attach it to a stand before gluing in the decks, though.

 

One question for anyone who may have built this kit:  there is a little auxiliary bridge on the after storm gangway with a second binnacle. Around two sides of this bridge there are rows of something similar to plant pots (?!) outside the railings.  They are hollowed out. They do not appear to be for something to glue into as far as I can see in the instructions.  Anyone know what they might be?  The only thing I can think of is, possibly, fire buckets?

 

I will try to figure out how to attach some pictures later; it's late now.

[Ian_Grant]

If, dear reader, you are trying to decide between this kit and "Passat", be aware that the "Passat" kit provides both blocks and plastic shroud/backstay turnbuckles but no sails i.e. the exact opposite of this kit.   Further, the yard trusses are much more detailed (and fragile) on "Passat" than the simple trapezoidal blobs provided on "Preussen". But there was only one ship like "Preussen".

 

You can read about the "Passat" kit here:

https://modelingmadness.com/review/misc/ships/ger/komapassat.htm

 

If you elect to build "Preussen" then surf on over to the site below for very detailed rigging inventory and an extremely helpful and detailed belaying diagram you can download:

http://jans-sajt.se/contents/Navigation/Modelling/R_Preussen.htm

 

I highly recommend Harold A. Underhill's book "Masting and Rigging: the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier" to aid in rigging "Preussen" (or "Passat" for that matter).

 

One last note: I just returned from a week's cruise on "Royal Clipper" which is a 440ft five-masted square rigger inspired by "Preussen" which carries 226 passengers and 106 crew.  It's an awesome ship to sail on; I've never had any interest in a trip on one of those "excessively excessive" cruise ships but THIS is a different world. I never got tired of watching them make sail, or of coming up on deck in the middle watch to see the stars and the sails drawing. Here is the ship:

And here I am steering all 5000 tons of her (still in my bathing suit from snorkelling just before we set sail again). The fore lower topsail was damaged in a strong wind and was sewn by the bosun on deck the next day. Sorry, no front views for reasons of internet privacy:

If you are interested in sail, and I guess you are if you're on this site, consider a cruise in Med or Caribbean, or better yet a transatlantic crossing on this ship (disclaimer: I have no connection to the ship or company).  You can read about "Royal Clipper" and the company's other sailing ships here:

https://www.starclippers.com/en/

 

Edited May 3, 2020 by Ian_Grant
spelling

[rwiederrich]

Looking forward to your pictures....cuz ya know...if there ain't no pictures....*It didn't happen*.   Heeheehee.

 

Clipper fan...even though the Preussen wasn't a clipper...….she's still magnificent.

 

Rob

[ccoyle]

Ditto on the waiting for pictures. I'm fascinated by the twilight years of commercial sail in the 20th century -- looking forward to seeing this project come together.

[Ian_Grant]

Rob,  I love your Cutty Sark diorama with the famous jury rudder!  And your "Great Republic" scratch build is incredible.  I fear my efforts will seem simplistic to you, but here are some photos anyway.

 

Hull plates I added below waterline:

I taped the decks in place so we can see where we are going.  That's my serving machine in the background (it makes a handy stand for the upside-down hull at this point):

 

Deck close-ups.  This is the first time I ever used a wash and I like how it turned out.  But there are so many coats of paint and varnish I worry about gluing stuff down, especially the pin rails which will have stress on them when rigged.  Haven't painted the inside bulwarks yet. I think I will paint a white "waterway" along the deck edges so I can glue in the decks then paint the bulwarks without fear of getting some paint on decks. They call for the cap rail to be painted Humbrol #63 (same as all spars) but I may leave it white just to make it easier.

 

That's all for now.

 

[yvesvidal]

12 minutes ago, Ian_Grant said:

I love your serving machine made with Meccano/Erector parts. It brings back a lot of fond memories.

 

Yves

[yancovitch]

would like to know if this will continue....

[hof00]

Looking good!!

I was also looking at the Meccano....🙂

 

Cheers....HOF.

[Ian_Grant]

Dear Yankovitch:  Not to worry, this log will continue until the bitter end.  I tend to go a while between entries as opposed to reporting daily details. 

 

I worked for a time on painting deck machinery.  The instructions say to just cover all winches, bollards, capstans, and cleats etc with matte gunmetal grey, but that sounded awfully drab for the pride of the Laeisz fleet.  Instead I painted the machine "frames" the same green that I used on the bollards, and used tank grey on the "innards", just to accent them. Here's a picture of the wheel just in front of the chart house on the midship bridge deck.

 

Incidentally, I wondered what those black round things were at the corners of the house until I noticed a line drawn in the instructions, with no reference. I realized the steering lines from the ships wheel pass round these swivels then go down through the deck in the slots just beside the aft ventilators.  Does anyone know if that would be cable, or chain? Thanks in advance.

 

Here are all the decks at the moment.  As I mentioned in an earlier post I decided to paint a white "waterway" at the edges of those decks confined by bulwarks to make painting inside those bulwarks easier after I glue in the decks. Capstan barrels are all glued in but not yet the heads with bars because they're fragile.

Of particular interest to me are the Jarvis triple brace winches. The photo below shows Heller's rendition of the full set of five beside one of the cargo winches. Each of these 1/2"x1/4" machines has three pairs of brace lines emanating from it. Looking forward to rigging them **not**.  Also I want to add a shaft with hand cranks at each end from brass microrod, somehow. Don't know why Heller didn't provide cranks - the pumps and halyard winches have very detailed little crankwheels and such.  Incidentally, "Royal Clipper" replaces each of these triple brace winches with a pair of hydraulic winches turning in opposite directions with each single brace line from a winch fanning out to the three lower yard ends on its side of the ship. Not sure how they handle the brace geometry problem which these brace winches with conical barrels were designed to solve.

 

 

I also painted the gilt work at the bow and stern.  This has given me the merest hint of what it will be like to paint all the gilding on the "Soleil Royale" when I get to her next. It is pictured below, not ideal but pretty good to naked eye. I'll need to improve. I ordered vinyl adhesive lettering for the name "Preussen" in white letters aft of this gilt work on each side, and also the name and home port in gold at the stern.  Unfortunately I could not find sub-2mm letters so I will have to use the decal for her name in the gold-framed spaces which is too bad as I expect the decal will show between the letters. The order was from UK and it is certainly taking its sweet time getting here.....alas covid....

 

Getting tired of green and grey machinery I decided to start assembling the masts. First I had to try to reconcile Heller's basic diagram with Underhill to decide where all the stays and backstays attach.  I cut off the too-large molded plastic eyes and drilled holes for copper eyes. Then I started painting the masts and lower yards, completely painted in one colour as in ships of the time (Humbrol #63 according to Heller, which looks about right).

It was a long and ongoing process:

 

                     Wife"What did you do today?"                   Me"Painted spars".

Next day:     Wife"Did you work on your ship today?"    Me"Yes I was painting spars".

Next day:     Wife"Did you paint spars again?                  Me"Yes""

Next day:     Wife"Are you finished the spars yet?"          Me"Nowhere near"

 

There are many many spars on a 5-master.  My #63 paint seems to need four coats to give a consistent colour coverage.  To add to the pleasure, every one of the thirty yards on this ship has five ejector pin marks to fill on its upper surface.  Could not Heller have put them on the lower surface , out of sight? Similarly, each topgallant mast has three of the same on one side. All these parts are each molded in a single piece so perhaps Heller were making sure they'd come out of the mold without warping?

 

I mentioned earlier that the Passat model has much more detailed yard trusses.  Here is a typical yard (as yet unpainted) from this model. Not a very realistic appearance. The mast has a tiny little semi-circular pin to engage the hole in the "truss".  I've decided that the risk of these attachment points breaking if I brush a yard while rigging is too high, and could be a nightmare to fix, so I am going to make some basic trusses from 1/32" brass rod.  Nothing fancy, just replicate the basic shape and not worry about trying to produce bolt heads etc at the swivel points. This stalled for a while due to COVID isolation until I discovered that my local hobby shop is doing curbside pick-up of orders so I just got some rod yesterday. I will do the same as on my Heller "Victory" i.e. have the rod inserted in a hole drilled in the mast, unglued, so the yard can "give" if I happen to knock it.

 

Speaking of rigging, this kit does not provide the rigging screws to tighten the shrouds and backstays.  I figured I would make something out of micro brass tubing and 0.3mm brass etched eyelets.  I've discovered that K&S no longer sells 1/32" brass tube at the retail level.  One can, however, order direct with minimum 30 pieces at USD$3.60 each.; you can do the math. Fortunately I've since found tubing by Albion Alloys in even smaller sizes and plan to order from UK.

 

That's all for now.

Edited May 9, 2020 by Ian_Grant
clarification

[Marten]

On 5/3/2020 at 3:34 AM, Ian_Grant said:

I realized the steering lines from the ships wheel pass round these swivels then go down through the deck in the slots just beside the aft ventilators.  Does anyone know if that would be cable, or chain? Thanks in advance.

Hi Ian.

Steel-wire, cable-laid, 21 strands, 70 mm diameter in all, runs aft from the main steering-barrel in front of the chart-house, down from the Liverpool-House to the after deck over two rollers, mounted in these "slots", further aft then through some horizontal on-deck rollers to the tiller below the poop. And please don´t forget: 21 strands it has to be .

Cable-, not hawser-laid :-)

Gx Marten

[Marter1229]

Does the gluing of painted parts give you any problems?

[Emgee]

My stepfather had this kit - the hulls did not fit together so he sent away for a replacement. It has been sitting, unopened, in the attic (UK) for over 10 years, so if anyone wants to follow the above inspiring construction course, give me an offer! I see it is around the £100 mark so will accept lower. Ian_Grant: Mum and he were on the Royal Clipper for its maiden voyage across the Atlantic and they sailed on her a few times more, even paid for my sister to go to Mexico on her, hence the interest in the Preussen kit

[Ian_Grant]

On 6/18/2020 at 8:18 PM, Marten said:

Hi Ian.

Steel-wire, cable-laid, 21 strands, 70 mm diameter in all, runs aft from the main steering-barrel in front of the chart-house, down from the Liverpool-House to the after deck over two rollers, mounted in these "slots", further aft then through some horizontal on-deck rollers to the tiller below the poop. And please don´t forget: 21 strands it has to be .

Cable-, not hawser-laid 🙂

Gx Marten

Cable-laid....21 strands....0.5mm scaled diameter....got it!   Thank you very much Marten!  So I need to make little rollers where the slots are, then the wires pass over the rollers, angle through the railing down to the after well deck, run along this deck on say two more pairs of rollers, then (a) disappear through openings in the poop bulkhead? (b) pass through more rollers to go up to the poop deck then go down through this deck?  I've seen such tiller lines on other build logs but didn't realize they would be routed like this on such a big ship.  Do you have a reference book detailing things like this on the big windjammers....I'd like to buy a copy.  Thanks again, Ian.

[Ian_Grant]

On 6/19/2020 at 7:22 PM, Marter1229 said:

Does the gluing of painted parts give you any problems?

I try to avoid gluing painted parts, but if needs must I use cyano glue on painted parts.

[Ian_Grant]

On 6/30/2020 at 3:19 AM, Emgee said:

My stepfather had this kit - the hulls did not fit together so he sent away for a replacement. It has been sitting, unopened, in the attic (UK) for over 10 years, so if anyone wants to follow the above inspiring construction course, give me an offer! I see it is around the £100 mark so will accept lower. Ian_Grant: Mum and he were on the Royal Clipper for its maiden voyage across the Atlantic and they sailed on her a few times more, even paid for my sister to go to Mexico on her, hence the interest in the Preussen kit

Yes, my hull halves were both twisted from being crammed across the box diagonal.  If you held the stem and keel together, they both flared out at the stern.  If you clamped the stem and stern, then the keel flared apart mid-hull. And it is a very small keel to clamp onto. This long-ish hull is made of very thin plastic, far thinner than the reassuringly thick and solid hulls of "Victory" and "Soleil Royale", and there are very few alignment pins to help you.  If you sight along the keel line of each half, the thin plastic ripples up and down a bit as opposed to being a straight line. I decided on a multi-step gluing process. First I glued the stem and 2-3" of keel. After that dried, I glued the stern and 2-3" of keel. When that was dry, with the ends fixed, it was relatively easy to glue the remaining keel, aligning as I went, and clamp with small paper clamps. I added some wood inside to straighten the keel; a bit tricky when there are five mast steps inside the hull.

 

After gluing, when I dry-fitted the forward well deck it did not align properly with both hull sides - there are little molded-in vertical "stops" in the hulls to locate the midship end of the deck, as well as the horizontal support tabs. There was about a 1/8" offset(!), which could be corrected by twisting the hull slightly. When gluing I sat and held the hull securely with the deck aligned until the glue set up.  Same observation and procedure with the after well deck.  Even the bridge deck required some hull flexing to align!  But in the end it all turned out, although I'm not absolutely convinced that there isn't a very slight remaining hull twist.  Hard to tell by eye.

 

A final note on adding the bridge and well decks:  there are small "ledges" provided inside the hull to locate the bottom face of the decking, but they stick out LESS than the molded triangular "webs" reinforcing the bulwarks above deck level. So every time you press the deck past the bulwark webs, it falls into the hull past the ledges!! VERY frustrating!  I added a few bits of evergreen projecting further out, below the decks, and it became child's play to slide the well decks in from midships due to their taper. This also avoided smearing model glue on the bulwarks.

[Marten]

On 7/1/2020 at 6:49 AM, Ian_Grant said:

Cable-laid....21 strands....0.5mm scaled diameter....got it!  

Hi Ian.. These 21 strands ( cable-laid ) were pulling your leg, weren´t they? In fact I can´t tell their exact  number, but for break resistance and to come up with a 70 mm diameter it could have been made to these dimensions.by her master designer Georg W. Claussen of Tecklenborg/Geestemünde.

 

On 7/1/2020 at 6:49 AM, Ian_Grant said:

So I need to make little rollers where the slots are, then the wires pass over the rollers, angle through the railing down to the after well deck, run along this deck on say two more pairs of rollers, then (a) disappear through openings in the poop bulkhead? (b) pass through more rollers to go up to the poop deck then go down through this deck? 

 

Fabricate some rollers , if you feel like it, but remember their tiny diameters, and wether it will catch at all some eagle-eyed onlookers´ glance at the model : ca. 450 mm : 150 = 3 mm dia. And yes: the steering-cable runs through openings at the foot of  the poop-bulkhead right to the after steering quadrant, not up to the poop deck itself..

I am the happy owner of the THE BOOK : "Königin der See - Fünfmastvollschiff Preussen" by Horst Hamecher. Out of trade long enough, but you might find a copy at an online-marketplace, like this one :

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-königin-der-see/k0

Good luck

Marten

[Ian_Grant]

Hi Marten - Yes I understood you were joking about the 21 strands LOL   🙂

 

Couldn't find an english version of your magnificently titled German tome on "Preussen", but I did come across "Last of the Wind Ships" by Alan Villiers featuring many many photos aboard large windjammers so I ordered a copy out of interest.

 

Here are a couple more photos of the build.  Unfortunately the Li battery for my old camera is on its last legs - now a single flash photo per charge cycle!! - so pictures are limited.  I've ordered a new battery.

 

This shows the evergreen stubs I added to prevent the well deck from falling into the hull when mounting.  You can also see a wood mounting block for the stand, and the re-purposed part for the supplied stand acting as a support for the rather flimsy mast step

 

My lettering arrived and looks great.  There's more in gold on the stern but a picture will have to wait. Next steps are to add the forecastle railings and anchors.  Then I will reeve the steering cables as you explained (thanks again) before adding the final deck at the poop.  EDIT:  Doh!  Just noticed the gold letter "N" fell off!  Will replace and this time brush over with matt varnish.

 

Speaking of varnish, my old can was a little gummy and tinted; the whitish marks you see all over the black are brush strokes. Any touching of the hull shows up starkly on the black portion. Will another coat with a nice new can of varnish conceal this mess?  I could always pass it off as salt stains 😉

 

I also painted the #63 colour on the bulwark rails.  A fiddly job when four coats are needed for coverage. Some touch-ups required. Next I will paint the matte white on the lower part of the inner bulwarks (just below the pin rails) then glue the pin rails in solidly with model glue with no paint intervening, then paint the pin rails and bulwark sides above them. 

 

It's looking nice with railings being added. Will replace this blurred photo later.

 

I ran into a problem with the ladders, specifically, the ends are mitered in the wrong direction so if you have the nicely molded steps on the visible side then the bottoms are teetering on just the miter points. If you orient the miters flat against the deck and bulkheads then the rather ugly what-was-meant-to-be-the-back-side-of-the-ladder is visible.  Not sure how to fix this; would be awfully fiddly trying to add little pieces at four ends of nine ladders. Buy after market?

 

A second annoying problem is the two pumps.  Each is set just aft of a mast, and the mast's bitts enclose both the mast and pump with no belaying pins on the portion of the bitts beside the pump handles. I noticed that the pump shafts touched the bitts before the pump touched the deck. I added tiny slivers of evergreen to make it touch the deck. But now I noticed in a test fit that the pump interferes with the stays running from cleats at the mast foot to the next mast aft.  What- really?!

 

You'll notice I have yet to add a single piece of rigging. Once I have the well deck pin rails installed, I will have to manufacture about 160 "turnbuckles" for the shrouds and backstays from micro brass tube and etched eyelets. Then the rigging work can begin.

 

I improved the bowsprit considerably by cutting off all the chunky-looking plastic "cleats" to tie on martingales, shrouds, foremast stays etc and adding etched eyelets in small drilled holes. That was another thing betraying the age of this kit. Unfortunately I forgot to take a "before" photo but it was mighty clumsy looking. Also, the supplied martingale was a flimsy little thing, which was to be butt-glued to the bowsprit.  Yeah, that'll hold!  I made a martingale from micro brass tube with an etched eyelet in the bottom end, and glued it into a hole drilled in the bowsprit.

[yancovitch]

amazing how many build logs suddenly disappear.....amazing.....

[Ian_Grant]

On 9/23/2020 at 1:07 PM, yancovitch said:

amazing how many build logs suddenly disappear.....amazing.....

I admit it's a while since I posted, but the Canadian summer is too short also people finally became comfortable with having me in their home to renovate as long as I wear a mask.  When not working, the cottage beckons: swimming, sailing my dinghy, biking, canoeing, wine, rye and ginger.........

 

I have made some progress and I did get the new camera battery.

 

More coming soon........

[Ian_Grant]

Let's see, where was I?.......I have the bulwark pin rails attached and painted in the well decks. Here is the model with the lower parts of all five masts dropped in. I spent some time making notes about all the attachment points for mast stays...again....and I need to add yet more eyes for them at the lower and topmast caps. I dry attached the main topgallant mast to check the angles of some of the stays using a brass tube. I plan to cut these brass tubes into short lengths and glue in an etched eyelet to form rudimentary "turnbuckles", if rather one-ended. They'll pass through the pin rails and into holes drilled in the deck to emulate the attachments to hull plating not just bulwarks.

 

For the pictures, I sat the top of the boiler house, which includes part of the forward storm gangway, in place.

 

 

I actually added a piece of rigging, finally, on the anchor crane. Round the capstan three turns and coiled onto a bollard. I just stuck the hook on the railing. The shiny eyebolts will get some matt varnish later.

 

Thanks to Marten's advice I also rigged the steering cables. I formed some guides from old Revell plastic blocks. I filed one face off a pair to form the guides at the rear of the bridge deck. Another two pairs were filed slightly shorter and attached to the after well deck using short lengths of brass rod. The steering cables pass through the after bulkhead.

 

 

 

 

Here is the lettering at the stern. I added Ferdinand Laeisz's initials on the small shield at the centre for lack of a better idea.

 

That's about it for now. I'll check in again when I have the "turnbuckles" completed. This could be a while; I'm busy working jobs and there are 146 shrouds and backstays on this ship.

 

 

 

[Bill Morrison]

Beautiful work!  I am impressed!  I especially love what you did with the lower hull plating.  Great job so far!

 

I once ordered the Heller 1/150 Cap Horn only to discover that no such ship existed. The kit is heavily based on their Preussen except that she depicts a five masted barque.  The Flying P-Line did have a near sister to Preussen that was one of only a very small number of such barques named Potosi, so I have been building her as that ship.  Your work is inspiring me to proceed with the conversion!

 

Again, WELL DONE!!!

 

Thanks!

 

Bill

[Ian_Grant]

Bill, thanks for your kind words and encouragement.  I remember reading a thread, probably somewhere in model ship world, where the author advocated buying a "Cap Horn" (less popular and apparently much cheaper than Preussen on ebay or whatever) and simply converting the jigger mast to square rig and hey presto! - a Preussen.

 

I was aware of Potosi but I thought it was the only 5M barque ever in the grain/nitrate fleets. Apparently as a barque much more manageable than Preussen.

 

Since you have Cap Horn, perhaps you can help me on something. The photo below shows an auxiliary bridge attached to the after storm gangway. The square hole accommodates a ladder up from the after well deck. The central hole is for a second binnacle. Holes near the edges are for stanchions. Do you have any idea what those bucket-like objects along the two sides, outside of the railing, could be?

 

One final comment: my model kit arrived with the curved stern railing twisted and broken. Broken I could patch, but twisted would be impossible to glue onto the stern properly. I figured if I could heat the plastic to soften it I might be able to undo the twist. Well I put it in hot water (I recall some of my old lego blocks getting distorted when I used to take "submarines" I had made into the tub with me). I put the railing in a pot on the stove. I kept pulling it out and it was never getting malleable then suddenly it just collapsed and melted/distorted.

 

I sent a message to the Heller website for a part replacement but I have heard nothing. Anyone - does Heller still exist? Is there somewhere I can get a replacement part?

 

Thanks,

Ian

[Bill Morrison]

Ian,

 

I will check on that detail issue for you.  I also found Heller's website, which is up and running. According to their online catalog, Cap Horn has been reissued but Preussen has not.  Given that they are virtually the same kits except for the one mast, that railing should be available to you.  I have copied their "Legal Notice for you, including their email address:

 

Legal notice

Heller Hobby GmbH
Erlenbacher Str. 3
42477 Radevormwald
Germany

Telefon: +49 2195-92773-0
Fax: +49 2195-92773-29
E-Mail: info@heller.fr

Managing Director: Heinz Engstfeld
Ust-Id. Nr.: DE327404132
Amtsgericht Köln HRB 100034

[Ian_Grant]

Bill, that's a great idea!  I will try to contact them about it although I only know the part number in the Preussen kit.

 

I was thinking of asking my brother if he could 3-D print one for me; not sure of the capabilities of his printer, resolution-wise. I was also going to ask him about making me some "iron" sheet blocks.........

 

Thanks again for your help!

 

Looking forward to your "Potosi" log.....

 

Best Regards,

Ian

 

[Ian_Grant]

It's taking less time than I thought to produce my "shroud turnbuckles". Tedious though. Cut 146 short lengths of 0.6mm OD brass tube and glued an etched brass eyelet into one end of each. There are two lengths - the shorter for the bridge and poop decks where they attach right to deck level, the longer for those which pass through a well deck pin rail and thence to deck. Photo below after most of the shorter ones are glued in.

 

For the poop deck I added small strips of white-painted evergreen over Heller's original holes in the deck, because the tubing is undersized for the holes and I didn't want a glue mess flowing onto my deck. Photo below shows starboard side, unfortunately out of focus as my old camera couldn't zoom in well. You can see the brass with eyes, all at odd angles since they ascend to different locations up the jigger mast. I'll be painting them white.

 

The ones on the bridge deck are secured and painted first coat of white. Again, sorry for the focus. I had a little trouble setting them all at the same height while wearing my headband magnifier. Again, all at individual angles which I set roughly by eye but I will be be bending them later which should not be a problem with these tiny tubes.

[Bill Morrison]

Ian,

 

I did not see your response until today.  Anyway, the part number in the Cap Horn kit is part 75 for the curved railing at the stern.  The other two railings for the poop are 73 and 74.

 

I recommend that you contact Heller and ask for the Cap Horn part. It is in production while Preussen is not.

 

Bill

[Ian_Grant]

Bill,

 

I already did but no reply yet. Maybe they're in a Covid shutdown. Maybe they just whisked a part into the mail without bothering to reply. I don't know. My French isn't up to phoning them.

 

Since it is the stern railing, and accessible at any time, I suppose I can wait.

[Bill Morrison]

Corporate service to the customer isn't what it used to be.  Oh well.  Perhaps I could loan you  the part for your brother to copy.  Let me know.  We can keep that idea as a standby.

 

Bill

[Ian_Grant]

A quick update - I finished the 146 renditions of rigging screws for shrouds and backstays. This photo shows what they look like, passing down to the deck inside the bulwarks. A big improvement, I think, on Heller's suggested small loops of thread passed through the pinrail holes with knots trapped underneath. I'm getting close to some serious rigging. Just need to form brass yard trusses somehow and oh,... figure out what thread to use. I have three sizes of chain too with probable need to order more of whichever I choose. Probably the 42 link/inch at this scale.

 

[Bill Morrison]

Ian,

Looking great!  Any luck yet with the railing?

 

Bill