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

[Bruma]

2 hours ago, shipman said:

As promised.......

Thank you shipman, 

They seem to be really nice.

And the chain looks food too!

 

1 hour ago, Cirdan said:

as Marco shows the ship with the white sheer line, which it only had in Captain Woodget's time, one should be historically correct if the railing and stanchions are shown in white.

I really hope so, even if I must admit I was not aware that the white sheer line has been introduced only during the Woodget's period. 

 

 

[shipman]

Just came across these images of the Denny model, Scottish Maritime Museum....

 

[BETAQDAVE]

3 minutes ago, shipman said:

Just came across these images of the Denny model, Scottish Maritime Museum....

 

A very impressive model there!

[shipman]

28 minutes ago, Bruma said:

 

''I was not aware that the white sheer line has been introduced only during the Woodget's period''

 

Neither was I. 

 

 

 

[Bruma]

 

Well, with all the due respect both for the modeler and the model, there are some elements not so accurate, at least in comparison to how the Cutty Sark is now and how it is depicted by Campbell. The bow and the figurehead location are the most visibile ones.

[shipman]

When were the Campbell plans first drawn up? Though these are, or appear to be comprehensive, they aren't the only plans available (ie Underhill).

 

Decorative elements at stern and bow have been changed, damaged or lost at different times.

Lubock mentions the lurid dancing naked witches; removed early on for Victorian 'decency' reasons.

[shipman]

Campbell = 1950's. Underhill = early 1930's.

Having seen the thoroughness which Underhill researched his other subjects, personally (for what it's worth) I'd go for his interpretation.

In the end, I don't think either got it completely right.

Too much is lost and forgotten and any claims to definitive historical accuracy are ultimately based on conjecture.

Until the original plans turn up (not entirely impossible) nothing is written in stone and I for one am getting rather weary of this aspect, which I feel is getting close to the autistic spectrum.

Build your models and enjoy doing it.

[Cirdan]

5 hours ago, shipman said:

Just came across these images of the Denny model, Scottish Maritime Museum....

 

 

 

Hmm...but I think this model is not the Denny model. At least it's not the model that is shown as "Denny model" in the NMM. 

[Cirdan]

5 hours ago, Bruma said:

I must admit I was not aware that the white sheer line has been introduced only during the Woodget's period. 

 

To be honest I must admit that I don't know the exact time when the white sheer line was introduced. But in the early years of the ship it was not white but light brown or in brass colour. Perhaps the switch happened at the same time as she began her career as a woolclipper.

[Cirdan]

1 hour ago, shipman said:

Until the original plans turn up (not entirely impossible) nothing is written in stone

 

In Eric Kentley's book on the Cutty Sark an original plan by John Rennie is shown on pp 36/37. Rennie was the chief draughtsman of Scott & Linton. The plan is housed in the Glasgow Museums Collection. I did some research on it in the net a while ago but with no result. So I cannot say, when it was discovered. As far as I can see the forefoot is not so much angled than the Underhill plan (and the "original" ship in Greenwich) shows. In this respect the Campbell plan (and the Revell kit) seems to be more accurate. But I wonder if this document was consulted for the recent restoration. 

 

[shipman]

Cirdan, hi.

The 'Denny' model could be wrongly attributed, but the museum claims it is?

The Rennie drawing is fascinating, thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Somewhere I'm sure I read that the fore deck house was not there originally?

This photo shows a square forefoot?

 

[Cirdan]

Hi shipman,

 

thank you. This pic undoubtedly shows a square forefoot. Some problems seem to be unsolvable. Perhaps some minor alterations were made without drawing a new plan (square or rounded forefoot). 

 

The plate of the first picture from the Scottish Maritime Museum states, that the builder of this model was one Peter Steel, so it seems clear, that it is not the Denny model, which was built by Sir Maurice Denny. 

[Bruma]

On 3/2/2021 at 3:00 PM, Cirdan said:

Some problems seem to be unsolvable.

 

On 3/2/2021 at 1:01 AM, shipman said:

nothing is written in stone and I for one am getting rather weary of this aspect, which I feel is getting close to the autistic spectrum.

Build your models and enjoy doing it.

I completely second that! 
All we surely know is that we don’t know enough. That’s why, without sure information, I've never ventured in major transformation of the kit. 
Looking for new evidence and getting to know the history of the ship is a wonderful adventure, investing countless hours to modify a shape that might turn out to be wrong, is just looking for mental diseases 😅

 

 

Updates time! 

 

Stepping the fore mast: shrouds, ratlines, fairleads, fore stay and fish tackle. 

 

As mentioned in the previous post, in order to complete the bowsprit rigging it’s necessary to fit the fore mast. 

After many dry fit tests, I decided to move on (not without a lot of apprehension), and to glue the fore mast in place. 

I decided to use the CA gel glue, it dries slowly, it’s quite thick, and it creates a strong bond when dried. 

Particular care was dedicated to have the right longitudinal slope of the mast itself. 

The angle should be (according to Longridge) 86 degrees. (85 and 84 for the main and mizzen respectively). 

Once the glue has dried, I have started to tie the shrouds. The distance between deadeyes has been eyeballed, without using dedicated tools. 

In order to balance the stress on the mast I have started from the fore shrouds, always going on pair, port and starboard. 

The lanyards have not been tied until all the shrouds were secured in place. In order to keep an even tension in all the lanyards, I have used hanging clamps, visible here:

 

 

And here a close up view:

 

 

The fore royal backstays are still missing. There are differences on the mast length between the kit and the Campbell’s plans (which are shorter). I still have to figure out how to deal with it and I think I will come back to this once the royal yard and relative sail will be ready to set in place.

After some days, once I was sure that the tension was even, I started to tie all the lanyards permanently. 

My first idea was to tie the ratlines only after all the sail has been placed. But I changed my mind. 

In fact, I would like to represent my Cutty Sark with full sails (except for stunstayls), with the yards braced on a beam reach. In this configuration the leeward shrouds are almost inaccessible. 

So I have started to tie the ratlines, here is a work in progress:

 

 

In the above picture the sheer pole is also visible. It has been glued first (again with gel CA) and then tied up. 

After hundreds of clove hitches, the ratlines were completed:

 

At this point, another detail needs to be added: the fairleads. 

They are made out of small deadyes (2 mm). I grooved the channel for the shrouds, glued the deadeyes to the shrouds and then tied them with small threads. 

This is the result:

 

 

These one are only the main fairleads, topmast and topgallant backstays fairleads will come shortly after. 

Another view of the deadeyes and the fairleads:

 

 

With the shrouds in place, I turned my attention to the forestay and to the fish tackle, both of them are visible here, in this horrible picture, sorry about that:

 

 

The hearts of the forestay and the triple top block of the fish tackle are both scratch built out of plastic. I wasn't able to find a small enough in commerce and since they are pretty visible I decided to build my own. 

The hearts are also visible in a picture in the previous post, just in case someone wants to see them better. 

The last detail is the cleat for the forestay. It is also scratch built, and it is a copper wire flattened at one end. 

 

 

Enough for today, as usual thanks for following along and I hope you like it! 

Edited February 5, 2021 by Bruma
Typing errors

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

lovely work Bruma, I have one revell in the storage shed somewhere , contemplating i could jump on her for the rigging and masting sake. looks great.

V.

[Bruma]

Thank you Vladimir, you should really start to build your kit, rigging the Cutty Sark is a lot of fun! 

And thank you all for the likes!

[shipman]

Just been breezing through my folders of the ship I've gleaned off the 'net over the years (A LOT).

 

No one seems to have picked up on the changes made to the 'Liverpool/Monkey Poop'.

There are several subtle differences, but the main one is what happened to the prominent side rails?

Before restoration they were there and now they've gone.

[Bruma]

Can you please elaborate a little more? 

What do you mean for "prominent side rail"?

Images are welcome! 🙂

[shipman]

(boy holding the rail) Sorry, having difficulty combining text and images. Anyway, these rails feature on most models I've seen, including yours, Marco.

It appears I was assuming these rails were present pre-fire. May be it was a mental confusion, as when I went back to my files, the rails indeed weren't there pre-fire. However, all kits seem to include them, Longridge includes them and they can be seen in several 'period' photo's.

Now I've given myself a brain fog. By including these images I hope you can see what I'm getting at?

[shipman]

Realised I have a migraine!

These rails.....were they mounted as a safety feature when 'Cutty' was a training ship?

Your collective observations and opinions are very welcome.

[Jim Lad]

In the State Library of Queensland image of Cutty Sark at anchor in Sydney Harbour, the white stanchions of that railing stand out quite clearly'

 

John

[shipman]

John, hi.

Clearly the rails pre-date her training days.

[Bruma]

Ok, I'll put away the wirecutter! 😉
Talking about railings, I still have to add the rounded section at each end. It will be pretty fragile, and I'll wait a bit further to install them.

 

By the way: I have a question about fore course clewlines balying pin, you can follow the relative thread here if you have any hints:

 

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Bruma
Link to build-related topic added

[shipman]

Rigging isn't my strong point.

Curious to know why the rails were never fitted at Greenwich.

Another curious thing.....we never hear from folk who are/were involved with the hands on work, restoring and maintaining the ship.

[kirill4]

Aha.!!!.. very agree!!!... it would be very interesting!!!!

But where it could be found?...

I think this people who involved in restoration works never visit ships models sites ? :))) 

than there should be another,more serious  resourses exists ?

I knew There are many publications about 16-17  th centures archeologicals works we could easily found in the internet ...same should be exists in later investigations/reconstructions ... in Cutty Sark reconstruction at least... oh... \I remember there were published some works in a few volumes about CS reconstruction jobs but unfortunately |I don't have this works and I'm not sure which reconstruction periods  it was consurned...first or second ones, after BIG fire?

[shipman]

'I remember there were published some works in a few volumes about CS reconstruction jobs but unfortunately |I don't have this work'

 

Ok......what are these few volumes?

I enjoy a good hunt (for information).

[kirill4]

Good day,

I have to remember and try to find it...where I saw it,may be it were some kind of specifications in a few volumes, what were done... can't clear remember :(((

I will revert later on ...

[kirill4]

I RECOVERED WHERE i saw it

http://forums.airbase.ru/2009/04/t66930--postrojka-modeli-katti-sark.html

Edited February 9, 2021 by kirill4

[Cirdan]

You can read the volumes online via the following link. If I remember correctly, they could also be downloaded directly from the Cutty Sark Trust until a few years ago.  This is also possible here under this link, but only if you register.

 

https://www.yumpu.com/en/Cutty_Sark_Conservation

 

 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by Cirdan

[Bruma]

What a great find Cirdan and Kirill! 

I was aware only on the volume 4, by far the less interesting of them all. 

Thank you! 

[kirill4]

Dear Cirdan,

Thank You very much!!!