Cutty Sark by Bruma - Revell - 1:96 - PLASTIC

[Jim Lad]

These two well known images of the 'Cutty Sark' during her wool carrying days show the courses clewed to the quarters.

 

John

 

[Bruma]

Thank you, Jim, for posting the images. 

I don't know why I didn't look at those pictures myself, but now it's fair to say that the question is settled! 

Thank you again.

[rwiederrich]

10 hours ago, Bruma said:

Thank you, Jim, for posting the images. 

I don't know why I didn't look at those pictures myself, but now it's fair to say that the question is settled! 

Thank you again.

Well there you go.  All my images of her, in her early years shows her at quarters, however, I'm sure After the Portugues bought her she had modified rigging prior to her dismasting.  I'll keep searching.

 

Good call....

 

Rob

 

[Bruma]

Hello everyone! 

Just a small break before summer holidays: a recently discovered picture of Cutty Sark sailing in the South Atlantic during the Tea Trade, spring 1871, under full sails. 

Note the unusual rectangular shaped clouds, never seen before or after this peculiar day! 🤣 😜

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  As posted way back a year and a half ago, I test-folded a mock paper sail 'clewed to quarters' as it could then be bunched up  to the top of a yard - just to see if 'dog (or mouse) ears' could then hand near the ends of the yard.  Now the paper did get thick with all the folding (as opposed to the remarkable thinness of canvas on an actual ship), so a section was cut out of the pre-folded paper to reduce thickness somewhat - then refolded.  Sure enough, I thought the result looked OK (the ears could even be smaller and twisted a little to make them look thinner).  So can this be a case where one can have the cake and eat it too?  That is, one can clew to quarters and still have the ears on the furled sails hanging near the yard ends by pulling the clew outward during the folding process (ergo the clew line would have to be loosened).  My test photos follow:

 

 

  Men standing on the foot ropes would pull sections of sail up the front in sequence.

 

 

  The yard below was flipped to the front side.

 

 

[Bruma]

Hello! Here I am again with some updates:

Mizzen mast has been stepped up, crojack and mizzen lower topsail in place.

Stepping the mizzen is the same business as the main and fore mast. The only thing I changed is that the mizzen is not glued, but held in place just by the shrouds. No real reasons for this; I just wanted to try something slightly different. In the end, the glue is not needed, and I’m happy with this choice.

Shrouds in place, ratlines, fairleads, all as usual. 

Here is a close up of the fairleads:

 

 

Since these are the last ratlines on my Cutty Sark, I took the opportunity to make a small video of the process. 

No audio, slow and not so steady hands due to the uncomfortable position, with the smartphone in the middle, but just to share a long and repetitive process that I ended up liking. 

If you struggle to get a sleep, here it is:

 

 

 

Once the mast was stepped, I installed and rigged the crojack and the lower topsail.

Once again, the process is similar to the other sails and other masts. Sails are prepared before installation, and rigged as much as possible before being installed on the mast. 

Here are some images:

 

 

 

A small mention for the stays: It would have been better to pre-install them starting from the main mast. I thought I was smart pre-installing them on the mizzen mast before stepping it, but it is better to do the opposite  in my opinion. I ended up removing them from the mizzen and starting all over again to be fitted on the main mast. Here is a close-up of the topmast and topgallant stay on the aft of the main mast:

 

As you can see it’s quite crowded, not an ideal place to work with knots and tweezers.

 

And, at last, the Cutty as she is now:

 

 

Thank you all for passing by!

Edited September 30, 2023 by Bruma

[Keith Black]

 That's such beautiful work, Bruma. I throughly enjoy each new post. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Marco, these last few photos are very helpful for me to understand what additional fixings I need to put on my masts and yards before I commit to assembly. I omitted all the eyebolts apart from those for the jackstays as the load bearing eyebolts will be better made from wire, and I want to do all the hole drilling before I go any further.

 

The ship itself is of course simply fantastic, and the sailwork is the star of the show. You've heard it before but it's still worth saying again, that never before have I seen any sailwork as good as this. They really do look like cloth and, as I touch on below, that's quite an acheivement.

 

Every so often I make another attempt at forming a 'half-gathered' sail like those shown in the second picture of post #361, but no matter how much I make it wet, EzeTissue won't 'sag' or distort enough for this. Did you find the same? I can drag and shape it as much as I want, but when it's dried, if I flatten it out again it is still perfectly true to it's original cut shape. In other words, it behaves just like paper (unsurprisingly) when you seem to have got it to behave a little bit like cloth.

 

I'm also looking at your furled sail on the mizzen. Maybe I need to try a multi-part approach, once I figure out what the parts should look like before being worked.

[Bruma]

Thank you all for the likes, and thank you to Keith and Kevin for the comments.

 

On 10/6/2023 at 8:08 PM, Kevin-the-lubber said:

Every so often I make another attempt at forming a 'half-gathered' sail like those shown in the second picture of post #361, but no matter how much I make it wet, EzeTissue won't 'sag' or distort enough for this. Did you find the same? I can drag and shape it as much as I want, but when it's dried, if I flatten it out again it is still perfectly true to it's original cut shape. In other words, it behaves just like paper (unsurprisingly) when you seem to have got it to behave a little bit like cloth.

 

That sounds strange to me, my experience is really different. Once wet, the material behaves like cloth, and it can be shaped at will. Once it's dried it retain the shapes usually.

Two things come to mind:

Did you use thin metal wire all around the sail like I do? I think it is quite important for the final result, it gives some fixed reference.

Did you paint the material before shaping it? The color might help keeping the shape once dried. 

If I can help, please write me, modelspan is really a great resource! 

 

 

On 10/6/2023 at 8:08 PM, Kevin-the-lubber said:

Marco, these last few photos are very helpful for me to understand what additional fixings I need to put on my masts and yards before I commit to assembly. I omitted all the eyebolts apart from those for the jackstays as the load bearing eyebolts will be better made from wire, and I want to do all the hole drilling before I go any further.

Once again, if I can help, please write me. It is really a huge task... 

 

 

 

[Bruma]

Hello everyone! 

I'm sorry for the long absence, but finally I have some updates to share:

 

 

Mizzen mast completed and all sails completed! 

 

Yes, finally, even the last mast is completed! 

There is not so much left to say; the mizzen is similar to the main and foremast... 

The only thing worth mentioning is that I decided not to mount the Mizzen Staysail and the Main Royal Staysail. The  Mizzen Staysail has been sacrificed in order to see the deck better. Without the Mizzen Staysail, it seemed to me a good idea not to mount the Main Royal Staysail too, in order to better balance the appearance of the ship. 

As for all the other masts, also the mizzen has been trimmed a bit, about 1 centimeter on top.

Here are some pictures of mizzen completed:

 

 

 

 

Some details: 

 

 

 

And here the ship as she is now:

 

 

And here is a quick test of focus stacking, hoping to get you on board! 

 

 

 

That’s it for now, still many things to be done, but I finally see the end.

 

 

Oh, a question for all of you rigging masters: what is the path followed by the course's clewlines?

As you can see here they are visible here but the line is interrupted:

 

 

But they are not present in the main fairleads diagram:

 

 

Am I supposed to belay them directly to the pin rail port and starboard without passing through the fairlead or should I belay them elsewhere? If so, where?

Thank you!

 

 

 

[Keith Black]

 Golly, I love those sails. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Looks like you’re very close to finishing a particularly fine build of this kit. It’s worth saying that, while the sails are simply extraordinary, the rest of the build is pretty special too.

[gak1965]

Absolutely amazing!

[archjofo]

Hello,

the rigging with the sails looks very realistic. A really very nice model.

[72Nova]

The most striking Cutty Sark model I've seen!👍

 

Michael D.

[Jim Lad]

Bruma, take that main clew garnet straight to the pin - not through a fairlead.

 

John

[Bruma]

 

Thank you all for your comments and likes! 

I really appreciate all of them.  

And please, if you see something wrong, strange or missing, do not hesitate to point it out! 

 

 

11 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Bruma, take that main clew garnet straight to the pin - not through a fairlead.

 

John

Thank you, John, for helping me again, just to be clear: do you mean the pin on the main rail, port and starboard, or the fife rail at the mast foot?

I'm tempted for the first answer, but the fife rail seems better for avoiding interference on the walkways... 

Thank you again!

[Jim Lad]

The pin on the main rail, mate!

 

John

[Bruma]

On 1/24/2024 at 1:11 AM, Jim Lad said:

The pin on the main rail, mate!

 

John

Okay, thank you again! 

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

so sweeet Bruma. 

[Bruma]

On 1/25/2024 at 6:20 PM, Vladimir_Wairoa said:

so sweeet Bruma. 

Thank you Vladimir! 

[Lost and Confused]

Your Cutty Sark is magnificent!! I am well along on my own. I have studied your work for months. Keep the posts coming.

[NenadM]

Master work!

[kirill4]

On 1/23/2024 at 11:22 AM, Bruma said:

 

Thank you all for your comments and likes! 

I really appreciate all of them.  

And please, if you see something wrong, strange or missing, do not hesitate to point it out! 

 

 

Thank you, John, for helping me again, just to be clear: do you mean the pin on the main rail, port and starboard, or the fife rail at the mast foot?

I'm tempted for the first answer, but the fife rail seems better for avoiding interference on the walkways... 

Thank you again!

Good day,

Dear Bruma,

Great job!  

I never tire of admiring it, I look at it with pleasure every time!  looks very cool!  

I have some doubts about whether the tension of some rigging of the lower sails is shown correctly in this scenario of the position of the yards...

 would it be more logical to see tight tacks and loosened sheets on the windward side and vice versa on the leeward side of the main sails ...? Clews of the windward side of main sails pointed aft maybe looks a little strange ? 

I meant it should be looks like this ...?

 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

I echo the sentiments of all above - simply extraordinary!

[schooner]

Great build and build log, nice clear photos!

 

I really appreciate your posting of the video of how to do ratlines back in September. Although I use clove hitches all the time on my real boat somehow when using thread around another vertical thread I keep screwing it up. Your video is great because you tie the knots slowly and your use of tweezers keeps your fingers from blocking the view of what you are doing. I'm no in the process of tying stress-free clove hitches!

[Keith Black]

 Tim

 

 Another method for creating ratlines is the weaving method. At smaller scales clove hitches often look too big. Please see my post # 694 in the below build log.

 

 

[schooner]

Thanks Keith,

Actually I did try that based on what I saw on your log. The threads I have to use for the upper shrouds at 1:96 are just too narrow (thin) to swing it, even with my wife's thinnest needle. I will try it again when I get to the lower (& thicker) shrouds. 

Keep up the great work on the Tennessee, she's a beauty.

[Keith Black]

  Tim, thank you for your kind comment. Tim. I use a #12 beading needle for the ratlines. What size and type thread are you using? 

 

 https://www.amazon.com/Beadsmith-English-Beadwork-Off-Loom-Stitching/dp/B002RT5PS4/ref=asc_df_B002RT5PS4/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198071571252&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18312801332564015936&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1019476&hvtargid=pla-319559777651&mcid=10da84b3628836bb9e2a4ea40031476d&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIib654PmZhQMVnDbUAR3KPgP1EAQYBSABEgICmPD_BwE&th=1

[Bruma]

Hello everyone! 

First, sorry for not answering your post for so long, and thank you everyone for the comments and likes. I really appreciate all of them. 

 

On 3/29/2024 at 1:41 PM, schooner said:

Great build and build log, nice clear photos!

 

I really appreciate your posting of the video of how to do ratlines back in September. Although I use clove hitches all the time on my real boat somehow when using thread around another vertical thread I keep screwing it up. Your video is great because you tie the knots slowly and your use of tweezers keeps your fingers from blocking the view of what you are doing. I'm no in the process of tying stress-free clove hitches!

I’m really happy you find it useful! Thank you!  

 

I have been away because I’m again in love with a side project related to steam locomotives…. This time, I tried to make my 3d printed locomotive move! 

Here is the result:

 

 

 

 

Still a lot to do, but promising I guess! It is at 1:87 scale.  

 

But now, let’s get back to the Cutty Sark. 

I will post updates in the next few days, I need some free time to take some decent pictures. 

Meanwhile, I would like to address Kirill’s question about the courses. 

 

On 3/11/2024 at 9:00 PM, kirill4 said:

I have some doubts about whether the tension of some rigging of the lower sails is shown correctly in this scenario of the position of the yards...

 would it be more logical to see tight tacks and loosened sheets on the windward side and vice versa on the leeward side of the main sails ...? Clews of the windward side of main sails pointed aft maybe looks a little strange ? 

I meant it should be looks like this ...?

 

 

 

First, thank you, Kirill for pointing it out. I really appreciate this kind of constructive criticism; it makes me think and raises questions, which is part of the never-ending learning process. 

I have had the same doubt. In order to better understand my point of view, let my use this picture from “Seamanship in the age of sails”:

 

 

To me, if you are sailing from F to D, the courses need to be set as I depicted them. The wind is still pushing “from behind”. As soon as you move to position C, you have a wind component “pushing against you”, and you must use the tacks to catch the wind (together with braced yardharms). 

Since with my Cutty Sark I’m trying to represent the point of sail indicated with the letter “D”, I think I get it right, but I would be glad to read opinions from others, more experienced, sails masters. The good news is that, if needed, I can remedy and shape the course with the tack tightened. I just want to be 100% sure about what to do!

 

Thank you all!

 

Edited April 7 by Bruma