Hanse Kogge by Catopower - FINISHED - Shipyard - 1/72 scale - CARD

[Blackreed]

The model is beautiful so far.

I really like the hinges, they look like they all work. Heavy duty.

it looks like you could run a key way to that windless through the side, that’s removable, I guess the feat would be holding the windless in a specific position, how is that done?

[druxey]

An interesting arrangement, Clare. 'Ingrown channels' sounds like a painful condition! Looking good, though.

[catopower]

After looking in on Chuck Seiler's Wütender Hund builds in card and wood, I'm inspired to get my own cog project completed.

 

 

But, I had one of those bewildering moments today regarding this project that's making me question my sanity...

 

You might have noticed that there is still a big opening in the center of the deck. Way back in the build, around the time the deck was laid, there was supposed to be a coaming put in place around this opening, just forward of the mast. 

 

 

Now, I skipped this step for a long time because I was sure I made the coaming and misplaced it. I finally figured I must have accidentally put it into a stack of things to throw out. 🤨

 

For the longest time, I had resigned myself to the idea that I'd have to make a new coaming from scratch.

 

So, today, I was back to working on the model, which is pretty close to completion, so the number of parts remaining on the sheets is dwindling. Then, I noticed some parts on the sheets that seemed curious. I looked for them in the instructions and, lo and behold, here were the parts for the hatch coaming!

 

It seems that I never actually did construct it. My recollection was completely wrong. I can't imagine how I could have ever thought I'd lost something I never built. Apparently, I'm losing my mind!

 

 

Well, I finally put the parts together, and now have a completed hatch coaming on deck. 

 

 

 

 

I don't think I've recovered my sanity, and I may not any time soon, but at least my model is one step closer to completion.

 

 

 

 

[Chuck Seiler]

1 hour ago, catopower said:

I don't think I've recovered my sanity, and I may not any time soon

    Of course not...you are a ship modeller.

 

    I am happy that I was able to provide inspiration.  After all, it was you and Chris Coyle that inspired me.

 

    One might wonder why you would not install the hatch coming and cover earlier on.  I found it very handy as a hold-place when installing the very  delicate upper planking areas.  Just sayin'

[catopower]

Hi Chuck,

 

Well, that's the whole thing. I didn't install the hatch coaming because I had somehow convinced myself that I lost the parts. So, I just pressed on, not to be held back by it, figuring the lost hatch coaming might turn up. Then, it sort of did, right in the parts sheets.

 

I wonder if there might be leprechauns or gremlins messing with my mind? 🤔

[druxey]

Yeah, it's called 'covid brain'. Either that or advancing years.... In my case, I prefer the first explanation. Nice to see you back, on the job, Clare!

[catopower]

Druxey, thanks for the possible explanations. 

 

It felt like I'd been working on this project since before Covid, but I just looked and I'd started it just about a year ago. So, thanks! I'll blame it on "Covid Lockdown Brain", though advancing years may actually be the true culprit. 

 

Anyway, I just came out of quarantine, which I had gone into due a client I saw recently having gotten sick, then diagnosed Covid positive(!). Fortunately, their symptoms have been mild and I've come through testing negative. So, all is sort of well.

 

Gave me more time to deal with ship modeling projects. 

 

Only problem is that the weather here has been gorgeous, and my cat is seriously distracting me with her shows of "cuteness".

 

 

 

[catopower]

Card model making, with its large numbers of parts and limited instructions, resulted in another discovery the other day. I found some parts on a sheet that look like something I should have used by this point. So, I went back and checked the part number, then hunted through the instructions again to find that the parts were referenced many pages earlier.

 

Gotta spot the little numbers in one of the photos. I realized it's a bit like finding Waldo...

 

But, adding the parts at this stage was no problem. There are still plenty of parts and I'm approaching the end of the main build. So, I'm hoping I haven't missed anything else. Or, more appropriately, I hope I haven't missed MUCH else.

 

In the photo below, I marked the forgotten pieces with red arrows.

 

 

 

With that mystery solved, I also assembled the railing at the stern castle. That's another 27 parts on the model...

 

There are a few more do-dads to go on the model yet. But, I'm kind of itching to do some rigging, so while I'm dealing with these things, I'm also prepping the rigging material and getting ready to detail the sail.

 

 

[catopower]

Trying to make regular progress on the Bremen Cog. More doo-dads done and I started dying the line for the sail.

 

The Shipyard kits include linen rigging line. It's very nice, but it's white. So, I've started staining more of it, most just enough to deal with current steps. 

 

I think I'm caught up on the "extra" parts I'm finding. I did discover that the instructions completely missed one set of parts that I found still on the parts sheets. These are what I might just call trim pieces or battens that fit on the aft side of the stern castle. The parts can be seen in some of the instruction photos, but they're never labeled to show you where they go.

 

 

And as for the doo-dads, here are mast coat, anchor, and some pieces that mount to the hull for the attachment of the backstays.

 

 

 

 

 

It's really pretty interesting how detail oriented these kits are. More so than most wooden kits I've seen (except for maybe the wooden versions of these cogs).

 

If you look closely at the mast coat, it's actually built up from several laser-cut hoops. Most are cut and lined up so that they look the coat is made up many wedges, though mine look like they're leaning a little. But, the top hoop is laser engraved on the top face, so that it looks like the ends of the wedges. The engraving make this piece pretty delicate. Two larger hoops at the bottom complete the assembly. In all, the mast coat is made up of 8 pieces, and an expert modeler would have gotten the laser-cut details lined up perfectly so that the wedges didn't lean like mine do.

 

 

 

[Chuck Seiler]

19 hours ago, catopower said:

I did discover that the instructions completely missed one set of parts that I found still on the parts sheets.

DOH!  I think I had one or two instances where the parts were mislabelled in that the part that was supposed to go on one side was labelled for the other.  My other problem is that small parts will drop off the sheet as part of handling.  Sometimes I will find it at the bottom of the box, sometimes I won't.  I have gotten to the point where, if I find a part ABOUT to fall off, I will take it off and put it in a small box for later use.

[catopower]

Well, at least I'm at the point where I don't think I have to worry about mislabeled parts, etc. I managed to get those fiddly beam ends together and mounted. 

 

Unfortunately, the insructions don't really make it clear about the pieces for the forward most set. For those, each piece is a slightly different size, so that the final assembly has a certain angle to it. Problem is, they don't point out that the pieces have to be stacked in one order for one side and a different order for the opposite side.

 

Me, not being smart enough to think about this in advance, managed to stack both sets the same way. So, I ended up with two "left shoes", as it were. I managed to deconstruct one of them and re-assemble it in the proper order. Wasn't ideal, but it worked out okay. 

 

You can see the layering in the "beams" glued into place below. I'm going to paint these to try to hide that layered appearance.

 

 

 

You can also see the base of the mast, which I test fit into place. The mast is supposed to have three distctively different diameters to it. Rather than turning down a single piece or trying to otherwise cut the dowel to shape, I went the route of drilling out the ends of the lower pieces and fitting the upper masts into place. I've done something similar in order on antoerh model in order to join two different kinds of wood into a single mast, and it worked out well enough, so I tried it here.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, I still have to stain the wood, though I think the instructions call for painting it. Also there's a mast truck I need to mount at the top, mast coat at the base, and a spider band. Those are all provided as laser-cut card stock.

 

 

 

 

[Chuck Seiler]

3 hours ago, catopower said:

Problem is, they don't point out that the pieces have to be stacked in one order for one side and a different order for the opposite side.

Those were in the double secret encrypted instructions.

 

Your mast looks good.  I built mine while waiting for parts to dry...stained it with golden oak.

 

Overall, looking good!!!

[Louie da fly]

I've never seen a "staged" mast like that. I wonder what evidence the kit manufacturers have to back it up.

 

The cog itself is looking very good. Whatever problems you may have been encountering, you seem to have progressively triumphed over them.

 

Steven

[Chuck Seiler]

10 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

I've never seen a "staged" mast like that. I wonder what evidence the kit manufacturers have to back it up.

I thought the same myself.  There had to be an easier, more efficient and stronger way to do this in real life.  ...or was it a single bigass pine tree?

[catopower]

21 hours ago, Chuck Seiler said:

Those were in the double secret encrypted instructions.

 

Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced my double secret decoder ring... I guess I have to start looking for specially marked cereal boxes again.]]

 

17 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

I've never seen a "staged" mast like that. I wonder what evidence the kit manufacturers have to back it up.

 

Well, it's actually just a mast with couple shoulders for seating of shrouds and such. I think it's just that the change in mast diameters at the shoulder is a bit extreme. That, and maybe the "blocky" shape of the mast.

 

[catopower]

Working on the sails a bit today. Finished adding the boltropes. The line for this is just glued around the edges of the sail and bonnet.

 

 

 

 

Shipyard does a very good job with sails. It seems that they laser-etch the seam lines into the cloth. My HMS Alert kit was the same way, and I was really happy with the results I was getting from working with the sails for that model.

 

I'm looking forward to lacing the bonnet into place and lacing the sail to the yard. I just have to finish shaping the yard first.

 

[Louie da fly]

Those bolt ropes look very good, and that's a very nice decoration on the sail. Have you any idea what the significance of the key is?

 

Steven

[ccoyle]

4 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

Have you any idea what the significance of the key is?

 

It's the key from Bremen's coat of arms.

[Louie da fly]

Thanks.

 

Steven

[goetzi73]

Hello Steven,

 

for further Information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Bremen

 

and the official Website of the City of Bremen:

https://landesportal.bremen.de/bremer-landessymbole

(in german, maybe google translator will help)

 

Götz

[Chuck Seiler]

Clare,

 

    What did you use to make the holes at top/bottom of the sail?  They look larger/more crisp than a normal pin hole.

[catopower]

Chuck, that's the way the sails came. The holes are nice and clean and I think I might be able to run the rigging line through them pretty well without having to enlarge them. Of course, I'll dip the tip of the line in CA first to harden it and then cut it sharp. 

 

But, I don't think they're really any larger than the diameter of a small sewing needle. I guess we'll see how they look when line is laced through them.

[catopower]

Well, today, I laced the bonnet to the main sail. Took quite a while. Felt a little burned out, like when I'm tying ratlines for an hour. But, it's done, and I'm pretty happy with it.

 

 

 

I found it necessary to poke open some of those holes with a sewing needle, so I decided to make a new "Ship Modeler's Marlin Spike" with a sewing needle glued into a wooden handle. Later, I ground open the eye of a needle and glued it into the other end of the handle to use as a kind of line grabber.

 

 

 

And the laced bonnet in place...

 

 

Now, I just need to shape the yard and then lace the sail to it. Should be able to do that and to step the mast and start with the standing rigging this weekend.

 

By the way, for those wondering about my Woody Joe Kitamaebune model, in between steps, I'm building up the sail from individual panels. I'll be posting something on that build log soon. I'm pretty determined to get both these projects done very soon. I have a third small project that's I didn't create a build log for, but it's close to being done too, though I'd started it a few years ago. I'll post photos in the gallery of it when it's done.

 

Edited April 10, 2021 by catopower

[Louie da fly]

Nice work, mate.

 

Steven

[druxey]

Very nice and neatly done, Clare. The sail material looks very convincing.

[catopower]

Thank you Steven, Druxey.

 

I've been particularly enjoying this part of the build, mostly because the sail provided in the kit does turn out so nicely. It's painted according to the kit's instructions and I think the laced bonnet is a nice detail too. 

 

I've been dragging my fee on a rigging project, so I think this is going to help me get back into a proper rigging mode. At least I hope!

 

[catopower]

This seems like a minor update, but switching gears to woodworking and rigging is a milestone for me on this project.

 
Since my last post, I finished making the mast and shaping the yardarm. With the yardarm done, I laced the sail to it. Like lacing the bonnet to the main sail, it took a little while. But, the results were good and I'm happy with how it went.

 

I'm now preparing the rigging line for the next step, which is to add the shrouds to the mast. This includes attaching the shrouds, turning each around a deadeye, and then reeving the lanyards through the deadeyes to secure them into place.

Of course, I need to have the mast in place to add the shrouds, so that is now all set. You can see the model rigged with a temporary forestay, which is to help in the tensioning of the shroud lanyards.

 

 

 

Looks like I'm also ready to add the reefing points to the sail. The kit instructions simplify this task a bit by attaching separate pieces of riggign line to both sides of the sail.

 

I don't know that this is actually easier or better than just using a sewing needle to poke holes in the sail and threading the reefing points through them, but I'm happy to try out the method that's shown in the instructions.

 

[catopower]

I added most of the reefing points on the sail yesterday and finished them up today. Also, started a block stropping production. There are three sizes of block in this kit, all laser-cut from card stock. 

 

Lastly, I added the shrouds, and I'm now adding the upper deadeyes. I don't have any photos of that part yet, but here are some photos of the sail with the reef points going on.

 

 

 

 

This method of attaching reefing points actually has some advantages. It's not difficult to do and since they're glued on, they "hang" perfectly. Threaded reefing points have a tendency to float unrealistically, and you have to treat them with some kind of glue and maybe some ironing to get the correct results.

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2021 by catopower

[Chuck Seiler]

Are the reef points just knotted at one end and glued on?  What glue did you use?

[catopower]

Hi Chuck, yes that's all there is to them. I used Aleene's tacky glue. It seemed the safest bet.