SAILS from a shirt

[Moltinmark]

Prepared the yards with foot ropes.

 

I cut a piece of a shirt 17 x 6 in along the button up side. I trimmed off the buttons between the buttons & the back seam giving me a full bolt rope along the top.

 

Cut out the sails slightly larger than the molded plastic.  soak them in hot water tamp them damp with a paper towel and lay them on the mold.  brush water glue mixture on just the top surface while it was still damp. 10 min later brush a light coat of pure glue.  Tie the bottom corners with thread before it completely sets up.  If you peel the top Edge back just a millimeter or two leave the rest of it glued to the mold, LET DRY, so the sail will not move as you sew around the yard, going across and then tie it off at the other end of the yard. REMOVE from mold.   At this point you will have a prepared yard w/Sail and foot rope.  Question; at this scale ( 1/96 ) do I omit tackle blocks since theres no where to attach them without tangling the rigging ?

 

And just tie off bottom of sail to the lower yard ?

does this look OK and keep going?

Also do the yards HAVE to be angled or can they be straight? 

[Moltinmark]

Tried a different way and I think looks better. Don't really like how much it covers the rigging maybe I'll furl them. How do you think these look ? I've asked my sister who does patchwork quilting if she can make them 

[Jaager]

There are definitive threads here covering sail making in scale.  Also about the fabric or paper that have been found to simulate sails as well as is possible - given the limitations in scaling the material both in weave and in thickness.   As far as furling the sails.  The consensus seems to be that the depth of the sail should be 1/3 - to avoid a bulky look. The material should be as light as possible.  It is just my feeling, but white sails are probably a conceit of painters.  I doubt that the canvas was bleached. 

Tabling and attachment of bolt ropes and rigging are also discussed.

 

Polyester, ugh!

Edited December 26, 2020 by Jaager

[allanyed]

Mark,

It is very hard to find cloth sails on a model, especially with sewn hems and seams,  that look close to scale unless building at perhaps 1:12 or larger.  If you are happy with the look, good for you, but if not, maybe try a different material such as silk span and then you can forget sewing altogether.  You can make the sails any color you want, including an old grayish canvas, you can add the reinforcement pieces, proper looking panel seams, they can be furled or not.  There have been a number of discussions on sail making recently here at MSW using materials other than cloth.  Do a search on silkspan and you will get some thoughts from a number of other members.    Great looking sails can make an otherwise OK model look stunning.  Poorly made,  out of scale sails can make a stunning model look, well, not so nice. 

Happy New Year!!

Allan

 

 

Edited December 26, 2020 by allanyed

[Moltinmark]

10 hours ago, Jaager said:

There are definitive threads here covering sail making in scale.  Also about the fabric or paper that have been found to simulate sails as well as is possible - given the limitations in scaling the material both in weave and in thickness.   As far as furling the sails.  The consensus seems to be that the depth of the sail should be 1/3 - to avoid a bulky look. The material should be as light as possible.  It is just my feeling, but white sails are probably a conceit of painters.  I doubt that the canvas was bleached. 

Tabling and attachment of bolt ropes and rigging are also discussed.

 

Polyester, ugh!

Thank you for your input being in lockdown has kind of limited my options. I thought I'd just try the shirt they do have the billowing effect of being filled with wind and the shirt was originally a very light yellow which I had read is a good color. Sales cover much of the work that I did on rigging so I think I am leaning towards doing a furled sail no. But I did learn a little bit about making sails

[Moltinmark]

5 hours ago, allanyed said:

Mark,

It is very hard to find cloth sails on a model, especially with sewn hems and seams,  that look close to scale unless building at perhaps 1:12 or larger.  If you are happy with the look, good for you, but if not, maybe try a different material such as silk span and then you can forget sewing altogether.  You can make the sails any color you want, including an old grayish canvas, you can add the reinforcement pieces, proper looking panel seams, they can be furled or not.  There have been a number of discussions on sail making recently here at MSW using materials other than cloth.  Do a search on silkspan and you will get some thoughts from a number of other members.    Great looking sails can make an otherwise OK model look stunning.  Poorly made,  out of scale sails can make a stunning model look, well, not so nice. 

Happy New Year!!

Allan

 

 

Thank you for your reply. Being on lockdown is kind of limited my options and thought I'd give the shirt a try. It was an interesting experiment and I learned a little bit about making sails. I'll try to find some silk span and I have seen some of the videos and will try that to see how it looks maybe I'll just do furled sales as I don't like that cover up of my rigging

[allanyed]

I do not like to suggest that anyone spend any amount of money, but if you don't mind you can get the booklet on sail making by David Antscherl available from SeaWatch books for $8.  There are also some great videos on the net that show many of the steps as well.   No need to go to a  store,  I bought all the materials required on the net and had it in a couple days.

 

Allan

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by allanyed