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

[Bruma]

Thank you, Shipman!

I know the color of the yards and the forecastle arrangement now, but the question was related to the original Cutty Sark. 

Longridge refers to "pinrail at the break of forecastle":

 

 

(I hope it is ok to put part of the book's page, if not just tell me and I will remove the image immediately)

 

So I guessed they were the curved pinrails visible in the Campbell's plans.

Since I would like to put billowing headsail on my Cutty, I need to a belay pin for the sheets...

Edited December 12, 2020 by Bruma

[Cirdan]

I think black yards were common in those days. As far as I know only the Thermopylae had white yards. Unfortunately I cannot offer any help regarding the pin rails.

Edited December 12, 2020 by Cirdan

[Cirdan]

Because I own the Revell Cutty Sark kit myself and plan to build it at some point in future, I am personally interested in these questions. But, as shipman already said, there is nothing we know for sure.

There is an early model of the Cutty Sark which shows a ladder in the middle of the forecastle and a series of belaying pins on both sides: 

 

https://www.johnsankey.ca/cuttysarkmodel.html .

 

Of course the fact, that the model may be built in the 19th Century, perhaps around the construction date of the original ship, does'nt mean that it has to be an accurate model. And I couldn't find any information about this model on any other website. But in terms of the belaying nails and the position of the ladder, it is roughly the same as Longridge's model. 

 

Then we have the "Denny Model" built by Sir Maurice Denny in 1934. Denny Bros. was the shipyard which finished the Cutty Sark after Scott & Linton went bankrupt. We can assume, that Denny had enough information of the original ship to build his model in accordance with the original data. But to verify this we have to go to the Denny Museum in Dumbarton or the National Maritime Museum where the model is now kept. An there is no really good picture of the model in the net which can show us anything we want to know:

 

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/1113791.html

 

A good reference may be the the model by Cyril Hume (1932), because Hume was a serious researcher an he spoke to men who sailed on the Cutty Sark, and he asked them especially about rigging details. But we have the same problem here as with the Denny model: there are no really good pictures. In this case, probably because the model seems to be in need of considerable repair:

 

https://collection.maas.museum/object/237188

 

Cyril Humes model of the Thermopylae in the same museum is, however, very good documented in pictures.

 

And last but not least there is an interesting website by a modeller who has dealt extensively with rigging an belaying issues. At the end of the following page he offers a belaying plan of the Cutty Sark:

 

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

 

Maybe this information helps a little.

 

[Bruma]

Thank you Cirdan for sharing all this great information! 

The first link shows a forecastle similar to the one shown in the Longridge's book. 

It seems indeed to be an early version of the Cutty, as you pointed out. And it is different from the one outlined by Campbell and proposed by Revell. 

For the others models it is impossible to say, even if the arrangement of the fore topgalland stay in the second one is not the one suggested by Campbbell's plans. 

The website might be the answer, and the fun fact is that I already visited it, but then I completely forgot it! Thank you! The author suggest to use three pins located on the foremost part of the side rails. 

The nice news is that they are depicted in the Revell model too! The only difference is that Revell put four of them instead of three. 

But, in the end, I think I will use them, it seems to be completely reasonable! 

Thank you so much Cirdan, I was  really stuck, this is a great turning point! 

[Cirdan]

Hello Bruma,

 

I am happy that I was able to help. I find the way you do the kit is inspiring.

[shipman]

Just a thought......

it is often said there was a certain commonality/ convention in the ship world, especially handling running rigging and the use and position of belay points.

After all, crew would have to find their way about in pitch dark on a pitching ship in any weather, even if they had just joined a particular vessel.

Different periods may have varied, but seamen were a notoriously conservative bunch (for obvious reasons).

I would suggest, if you can find a reliable plan of a similar ship to the Cutty, it isn't so far fetched to apply that plan.

[Jim Lad]

Bruma, this link to a photo of the 'Cutty Sark' taken in Sydney during her working days may be of use to you. It's from a glass plate negative, so is very fine grained and can be enlarged quite a bit.

 

John

 

State Library Victoria - CUTTY SARK (slv.vic.gov.au)

[Cirdan]

Is it from the time under the command of captain Woodget?  The forecastle arrangement seems to be the same than today. 

[Bruma]

On 12/14/2020 at 11:51 AM, shipman said:

Just a thought......

it is often said there was a certain commonality/ convention in the ship world, especially handling running rigging and the use and position of belay points.

After all, crew would have to find their way about in pitch dark on a pitching ship in any weather, even if they had just joined a particular vessel.

Different periods may have varied, but seamen were a notoriously conservative bunch (for obvious reasons).

I would suggest, if you can find a reliable plan of a similar ship to the Cutty, it isn't so far fetched to apply that plan.

Yes Shipman, you are absolutely right. 

They needed some standard and they surely apply them on the Cutty Sark too.

 

20 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Bruma, this link to a photo of the 'Cutty Sark' taken in Sydney during her working days may be of use to you. It's from a glass plate negative, so is very fine grained and can be enlarged quite a bit.

 

John

 

State Library Victoria - CUTTY SARK (slv.vic.gov.au)

Jhon, thank you for the link, those images are really great! 

Unfortunately they confirm once more the many lives of the Cutty Sark:  the fore topgalland stay  is not as indicated by Cambpbell's. 

Another strange fact (at list at my inexperienced eyes) is the famous picture taken by Woodget:

 

https://viewer.slv.vic.gov.au/?entity=IE930286&mode=browse

 

The main mast is not equipped with skysail! Even the relative yard is missing and the mast itself seems to be shorter than expected. On the other and, the royal sail seems to be slightly bigger than the one visible in the Campbell's plan. 

What a mess... 

 

3 hours ago, Cirdan said:

Is it from the time under the command of captain Woodget?  The forecastle arrangement seems to be the same than today. 

 

And the stairs are clearly visible, but no pin rails! 

I'm impressed by this old kit, it is really good in so many regards. 

 

 

Thank you again to everyone, 
it is great to know I'm not alone in this endeavor!

 

[shipman]

I'd like to know how Woodget managed to take that photo (4).

Something not quite right there.

[Jim Lad]

That photo was taken from one of the boats.  The ship isn't moving very fast in the light breeze and if you look closely, you can see a line leading back from the whisker boom - no doubt a painter to make sure the boat didn't get left behind.

 

John

[Cirdan]

This photos show the Cutty Sark in her days at Falmouth from 1922 to 1938. She was restored in accordance to her early days. The 2nd photo shows the middle ladder to the forecastle as it is shown by the Longridge model and the "early model of the Cutty Sark". 

 

https://nmmc.co.uk/2019/11/150-years-of-the-cutty-sark/

 

[If you copy the URL of the photo into the adress bar of your browser you can see a high resolution pic. Due to the copyright I can't post it directly.]

 

We can assume that this (in the eyes of the restorer) was the original look of the forecastle. There are no pin rails. In the days of captain Woodget it was altered into the arrangement we can see today.

 

 

[Bruma]

Thank you again Cirdan, really nice image! 

As usual, one question answered, two or many more opens. 

The forecastle is the same as the one shown by Campbell, but the bowsprit is completely different. Stays number and placement, footropes arrangement are similar to longridge version. The Revell kit is on the other hand  seems to follow Campbell's plan, at least for the bowsprit shape and fittings. 

Oh, and the lifeboats location with relatives davits, moved forward in the picture... 😵

[shipman]

As a cadet training ship the decks were altered drastically, at least 8 pairs of boat davits and across deck partitions and extra covered companionways.

I wasn't aware she was used at the Festival of Britain which was a very popular event. Where are the photo's that must have been taken?

Time for more digging. It's unfortunate that everything on the internet is only there because someone could be bothered.

[shipman]

http://www.hms-worcester.me.uk/page24.html

[Bruma]

Mast detailing, painting and assembly. 

 

All the lower masts are divided into two shells. 

I glued them together, filled the gaps along the seams with putty and sanded the juncture in order to have a smooth surface. 

The kit provides a good detail in this area but some parts are missing or simplified. 

There are no futtock shrouds, for instance, so I placed hand made eyebolts for them on both sides of all three masts. Position, size and orientation are taken from Campbell’s plans.

The jackstay on main and mizzen masts are simplified and oversized, so I removed the original one (visible in the picture down below, close to the mizzen mast) and I recreate my own version. 

Homemade eyebolts are fitted in predrilled holes (mini drills bits proved to be really useful along the entire build), glued in place and fitted with relative bars. The bars are made of spring steel (I hope it is the proper name in English). They maintained their shape and are perfect for the job.

 

 

I have also added the eyebolts at the mast base, they were absent in the kit. 

 

 

In the above picture it’s also visible the painting job: a first coat of matte white was followed by brown oil filters in order to enhance the shadow and break the white monotone. 

The blacks are all tire black, whit gray dry brush. 

 

All the tops were modified. The kit provide plastic shrouds and to fit them the tops have dedicated holes. 

They need to be filled with putty, sanded e prescribed. The excess of plastic around the holes needs to be removed. New holes were drilled for the futtock shrouds, following the right position indicated by Campbell’s plans. 

Even if I think this part was improved by my effort, I now think that I should have done more. They are still too thick and the lower metal frame should be added. But now it's too late. 

Many times along the build I have had to decide if “it was good enough”,   and usually I made the wrong decision.

Anyway, I thought it was easier to rig the shrouds with the masts not glued on the hull, so I started with the futtock shrouds and the main shrouds.

After many tests (I had no experience in rigging at all...) I found my way, here you can see the process in the making:

 

 

 

And here is the final result:

 

 

 

The black of the shrouds was attenuated by brown pastels. 

 

In the last images eyebolts and blocks are also visible. I decided to install them now, with plenty of space to operate.

 

Enough for today. 

 

I hope you like the updates and I wish you happy holidays!

 

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2020 by Bruma

[Cirdan]

 

On 12/26/2020 at 9:31 PM, Bruma said:

I had no experience in rigging at all...

 

This is hard to believe! Your improvements are once again very inspiring. How did you make the eyebolts? They look nearly perfect, even in this scale. 

[BETAQDAVE]

On 8/16/2020 at 5:30 PM, shipman said:

It's such a shame Revell moulded the deck in two sections; the join is always an eye-sore. When I eventually get going on mine, I'm seriously considering making my own in one piece. Or cover it all with planking, either way it's a pain. I'm following your build and looking forward to seeing your progress.

    I thought the same and although it was a bit pricey, I went to this site: Scaledecks.com and took care of the problem with mine.  It's an actual wood product about the thickness of a heavy sheet of paper backed with a thermal fleece.   Unlike some products out there that have a self-adhesive backing that makes aligning and placing the sheets very difficult, this backing provides plenty of surface for styrene cement to bind with and yet allows you to fine tune your placement.  The pattern is very accurate and there is good contrast between individual planks which really makes it quite attractive.

 

[Bruma]

17 hours ago, BETAQDAVE said:

    I thought the same and although it was a bit pricey, I went to this site: Scaledecks.com and took care of the problem with mine.  It's an actual wood product about the thickness of a heavy sheet of paper backed with a thermal fleece.   Unlike some products out there that have a self-adhesive backing that makes aligning and placing the sheets very difficult, this backing provides plenty of surface for styrene cement to bind with and yet allows you to fine tune your placement.  The pattern is very accurate and there is good contrast between individual planks which really makes it quite attractive.

 

Thank you, Dave. 

I considered this wooden deck, but they were too expensive for my firs ship build. They cost almost like the entire kit. 

But they seem to be good, maybe next time! 

 

 

 

21 hours ago, Cirdan said:

 

 

This is hard to believe! Your improvements are once again very inspiring. How did you make the eyebolts? They look nearly perfect, even in this scale. 

 

Thank you Cirdan,
I have made a small video to show you the eyebolt making process.
Bear in mind that this is not the best way but just my own way.
It is relatively easy and fast, but after a while it start to wipe out the last bit of mental sanity I still have ...
I have made more than two hundred of this small guys and many more are needed... 
I hope the video will be useful even with my bad English.

If you need further details, please write me!

 

 

 

[shipman]

Thanks for the video, Vlad.

 

My experience using copper wire for eye-bolts and hooks is that if any tension (from rigging) is applied, the copper bends and distorts. Brass wire is more practical.

Either way, as you make them they should be soldered closed.

Another way is to twist the wire tails together (I use lock-wire pliers - very quick to do).

The twisted end holds the glue better. Where you can get access, the wire can be spread for extra security.

 

Happy New Year.

[Bruma]

Thank you, Shipman

I use both copper and brass, depending on what I have at disposal. 

The small eyebolts made in the video are mainly used for the jackstay bars, so really low tension applied. 

The only tensioned eyebolt made in this way are the one on the davids and on the fish tackle, and they seem to stay in place till now, but I will add a drop of glue to be sure.

Twisting the end together doesn't work for me because they become too bulky and they need big holes to be fitted in. 

[TIPP]

On 12/15/2020 at 10:00 PM, Cirdan said:

This photos show the Cutty Sark in her days at Falmouth from 1922 to 1938. She was restored in accordance to her early days. The 2nd photo shows the middle ladder to the forecastle as it is shown by the Longridge model and the "early model of the Cutty Sark". 

 

https://nmmc.co.uk/2019/11/150-years-of-the-cutty-sark/

 

[If you copy the URL of the photo into the adress bar of your browser you can see a high resolution pic. Due to the copyright I can't post it directly.]

 

We can assume that this (in the eyes of the restorer) was the original look of the forecastle. There are no pin rails. In the days of captain Woodget it was altered into the arrangement we can see today.

 

 

 

On 12/15/2020 at 8:04 PM, shipman said:

I'd like to know how Woodget managed to take that photo (4).

Something not quite right there.

 

[TIPP]

On 12/17/2020 at 6:22 PM, shipman said:

As a cadet training ship the decks were altered drastically, at least 8 pairs of boat davits and across deck partitions and extra covered companionways.

I wasn't aware she was used at the Festival of Britain which was a very popular event. Where are the photo's that must have been taken?

Time for more digging. It's unfortunate that everything on the internet is only there because someone could be bothered.

 

CS at MILLWALL 1951.docx

[TIPP]

 

Here is a picture of Cutty Sark at the time of the Festival of Britain (1951).   There is reference to the ship in the Official Guidebook, but I can find no picture of her as an exhibit.  The idea was to 'test the water' to see if there was enough interest to justify raising the money for a permanent home for her. (There was !!).

[TIPP]

 

The original arrangement of the foc'sle was altered after the ship left Falmouth in 1936, most likely when she was refurbished as a visitor attraction in Greenwich in 1954.  The single central companionway to the anchor deck was removed and replaced with twin companionways, one either side of the central windlass, thereby making visitor circulation easier.   In the process the curved pin rails at the break of the foc'sle, described by Longridge, were removed.   

 

Today, the three headsail sheets belay to the three pins on the pin rails abaft the heads on either side (see my pics attached).

 

The fore topmast staysail sheet occupies the foremost pin and the flying jib sheet, the aftermost pin (This follows standard practice that the highest sail - or in this case, the furthest outboard - takes the aftermost pin in a set.)

 

[Bruma]

20 hours ago, TIPP said:

The original arrangement of the foc'sle was altered after the ship left Falmouth in 1936, most likely when she was refurbished as a visitor attraction in Greenwich in 1954.  The single central companionway to the anchor deck was removed and replaced with twin companionways, one either side of the central windlass, thereby making visitor circulation easier.   In the process the curved pin rails at the break of the foc'sle, described by Longridge, were removed. 

Thank you for the detailed information. 
I think I will stick with this last version, now I know that it is at least plausible. 

You guys are really a great resource! 

[Bruma]

Crosstrees and mast caps

 

The provided cross trees have holes for the plastic rat lines that have to be filled. 

There is also some plastic to be removed to clear the space between the fore and the after cross tree.

I removed the plastic thumb cleats and rebuilt them out of a small brass rod.

The original ones are bulky, fragile and misplaced.

To make the new one, one end of the rod was made flat with flat pliers and bended backward to form the thumb cleat, while the rounded one is inserted inside pre drilled holes in the spreaders.

Here you can see a work in progress image:

 

 

Each crosstree has many eyebolts. Luckily the number, position and function of each of them is detailed in Campbell's plans. 

New holes were also drilled to accommodate the futtock shrouds. 

Drilling the holes, making custom eyebolts, painting them and fitting each of them with relative blocks for all the three crosstrees is a quite time consuming and tedious operation, but it has to be done and it’s better to do it now than later. 

 

I’m quite happy with the final result:

 

 

In this image the mast caps are also visible. They are still in an interim stage. I removed the original plastic eyebolts and replaced them with custom made ones. 

The plastic ones are oriented horizontally instead of vertically, misplaced and bulky. 

The rolley are also hand made, I did some preliminary tests and they seem to be quite tough, I hope they will endure the stress test of the rigging.

In the final version, visible here, I also grooved the front structure to make it more similar to the original one and moved the lift block more forward. 

 

 

Back to the crosstrees, later on I decided to add another small detail: the fairleads. They are made out of plastic, shaped properly to fit the final position and drilled with micro drill bits. 

All the parts are painted in the usual way: base acrylic coat and oil washes. 

That’s the final result:

 

See you next time! 

 

[shipman]

Good progress, Vlad.

What will you be using for the chain elements of the rigging?

[gak1965]

On 12/26/2020 at 3:31 PM, Bruma said:

Mast detailing, painting and assembly. 

 

All the lower masts are divided into two shells. 

I glued them together, filled the gaps along the seams with putty and sanded the juncture in order to have a smooth surface. 

The kit provides a good detail in this area but some parts are missing or simplified. 

There are no futtock shrouds, for instance, so I placed hand made eyebolts for them on both sides of all three masts. Position, size and orientation are taken from Campbell’s plans.

The jackstay on main and mizzen masts are simplified and oversized, so I removed the original one (visible in the picture down below, close to the mizzen mast) and I recreate my own version. 

Homemade eyebolts are fitted in predrilled holes (mini drills bits proved to be really useful along the entire build), glued in place and fitted with relative bars. The bars are made of spring steel (I hope it is the proper name in English). They maintained their shape and are perfect for the job.

 

 

I have also added the eyebolts at the mast base, they were absent in the kit. 

 

 

In the above picture it’s also visible the painting job: a first coat of matte white was followed by brown oil filters in order to enhance the shadow and break the white monotone. 

The blacks are all tire black, whit gray dry brush. 

 

All the tops were modified. The kit provide plastic shrouds and to fit them the tops have dedicated holes. 

They need to be filled with putty, sanded e prescribed. The excess of plastic around the holes needs to be removed. New holes were drilled for the futtock shrouds, following the right position indicated by Campbell’s plans. 

Even if I think this part was improved by my effort, I now think that I should have done more. They are still too thick and the lower metal frame should be added. But now it's too late. 

Many times along the build I have had to decide if “it was good enough”,   and usually I made the wrong decision.

Anyway, I thought it was easier to rig the shrouds with the masts not glued on the hull, so I started with the futtock shrouds and the main shrouds.

After many tests (I had no experience in rigging at all...) I found my way, here you can see the process in the making:

 

 

 

And here is the final result:

 

 

 

The black of the shrouds was attenuated by brown pastels. 

 

In the last images eyebolts and blocks are also visible. I decided to install them now, with plenty of space to operate.

 

Enough for today. 

 

I hope you like the updates and I wish you happy holidays!

 

 

 

 

What beautiful work you have done throughout the build. Not sure why, but the top just really caught my attention, particularly the way you made plastic part look so realistic. It is going to be a fabulous model when it's done.

 

I have a particular soft spot for the old Revell Cutty Sark. My grandfather made two of them when I was a boy and he was living with us between when his wife died and he eventually passed away in '69. Sitting next to him while he worked on those models (and a Revell 1:96 Constitution he was working on when he died) was probably what got me started in modelling.

 

[Cirdan]

3 hours ago, gak1965 said:

What beautiful work you have done throughout the build. [...] It is going to be a fabulous model when it's done.

 

I agree totally!