Harriet Lane by Organ tech - Model Shipways

[trippwj]

Your HL is coming along very nicely!  The HL was also my first wooden model - she sits forlornly in a glass case waiting for me to once more bring her back to the table and finish the rigging. Regrettably, the more I work on her the more issues I see. This is a fun, though challenging due to scale, model to build. I believe that I replaced much of the supplied thread with materials from Syren.

[Organ tech]

1 hour ago, trippwj said:

Your HL is coming along very nicely!  The HL was also my first wooden model - she sits forlornly in a glass case waiting for me to once more bring her back to the table and finish the rigging. Regrettably, the more I work on her the more issues I see. This is a fun, though challenging due to scale, model to build. I believe that I replaced much of the supplied thread with materials from Syren.

I am also confining the supplied chain to the anchors and paddle wheel detente, too thick for the funnel guys. I used thick thread there.

[Organ tech]

1 hour ago, trippwj said:

Your HL is coming along very nicely!  The HL was also my first wooden model - she sits forlornly in a glass case waiting for me to once more bring her back to the table and finish the rigging. Regrettably, the more I work on her the more issues I see. This is a fun, though challenging due to scale, model to build. I believe that I replaced much of the supplied thread with materials from Syren.

Thanks for the compliment!🙂

[Organ tech]

1st shroud in place. Easier than I thought. Long pointed stamp tongs are much better than tweezers for this work. I am also putting up the inter mast stays.

[Organ tech]

More shrouds added, this is going fast. Two pairs of stamp tongs make short work of getting these over the cross tree.

[Organ tech]

Going too slow to post much. I am getting my shrouds up one by one. I glue the chain plate in place 1st, then thread over the cross tree an tension with a weight( clothes pin) before glueing. The small size of this model has me using “bottle ship” techniques, I.e. creating visual illusion, such as gluing, alone, rather than tying knots, in many places.

[Organ tech]

Rat lines in progress. Even with my much finer thread, the clovehitches make big lumps and create a staggered look. To the naked eye they look OK.

[Organ tech]

Clove hitches weren’t looking good so I am glueing ratlines to the shrouds ( as the instructions suggest). The knots are just too big for even this fine thread.

[druxey]

Clove hitches only look 'right' at much larger scales than the scale you are working at. With scale model work at any size, there are always compromises to make appearance look correct.

[Organ tech]

1 hour ago, druxey said:

Clove hitches only look 'right' at much larger scales than the scale you are working at. With scale model work at any size, there are always compromises to make appearance look correct.

 

1 hour ago, druxey said:

Clove hitches only look 'right' at much larger scales than the scale you are working at. With scale model work at any size, there are always compromises to make appearance look correct.

So I see🙂. My clove hitches on the lower third of my starboard formast shrouds will stand as a monument to my learning experience. Luckily, at normal viewing distance, they look OK, sort of like antique votive ship modeling.

[ERS Rich]

Good move….the difference between theory and reality….clove hitches sound good in theory, the reality is impossible to execute….why not cutoff the lower rat lines?

[Organ tech]

37 minutes ago, ERS Rich said:

Good move….the difference between theory and reality….clove hitches sound good in theory, the reality is impossible to execute….why not cutoff the lower rat lines?

They don’t look quite bad enough (to me) to replace. The knots have glue in them so the shrouds would be entirely replaced. The labor intensive deadeye/ lanyard work makes that a lot of backtracking. I could always do this later, long after completion of the model🙂

 

[Organ tech]

Afterthought— I could synch new shrouds to the existing dead eyes. 🙂

[Organ tech]

My biggest boo boo on this whole project is that my skylights and companionways are misplaced, and glued down such that the guns cannot be placed realistically ( and there are more of them to place) 😞. If they are mussel loading. This ship was captured in the civil war by the CS and used as a merchant ship- tender, with one blockade run to Cuba. I could hang a confederate navy Jack, in place of the American flag aft. 🤣🤣

 

Edited August 12, 2021 by Organ tech

[ERS Rich]

It’s all good….

All part of the learning curve…..

 

Regarding the cannon….the casual viewer will never know the difference, in the end you will still have a nice model.  Plenty of oh’s and ash’s from family and friends and something the family will want to keep….

 

[Organ tech]

20 minutes ago, ERS Rich said:

It’s all good….

All part of the learning curve…..

 

Regarding the cannon….the casual viewer will never know the difference, in the end you will still have a nice model.  Plenty of oh’s and ash’s from family and friends and something the family will want to keep….

 

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement 🙂. The civil war was very transitional in that breach loading and mussel loading were used side by side. More research my reveal that HL’s guns were breach loading(?)

[druxey]

Harriet Lane's armament was of three muzzle-loading Dahlgrens and one Parrott gun. I suppose you could leave them off the model....

[Organ tech]

Still working on my model🙂. All of my shrouds are up, but not the back stays yet. I am waiting on those to give me more room to reach in to belay the bunts on the pinrails. I am glueing the ratlines one by one to the shrouds. I have way to much glue on them, giving them the look of icicles, that real ship crews delt with.

Edited August 22, 2021 by Organ tech

[ERS Rich]

Keep going you’ll get the hang of it!  I use CA applied with a pointy toothpick.  Just a tiny dab at the location.  Dries clear.

 

Good luck with it….

 

 

[Organ tech]

Small glue soaked thread loop glued to the bulwark belying pin. I will thread the bunt and clew lines through these loops. If done right, I will create the illusion that the lines are on the pins. The loop will be coaxed under the pin rail a little more.

[druxey]

Tough work at that scale!

[Organ tech]

My sail making consists of copy paper, soaked in black tea, with buntlines glued on. The topgallent sail is in place. On the real ship, the bunts would pass through much smaller blocks, on the mast, than those on the mast for lifts and braces. On this scale, I omitted them. I will create the illusion of the full buntlines by making the mast to pin rail runs, separate pieces of thread.

[Organ tech]

Top sail secured. Looks messy , but the bunts will all go to their homes.

[druxey]

Usually sails are attached all the way along their yards by short lines called robands. At such a small scale I'd simply use a thin line of glue.

[Organ tech]

1 hour ago, druxey said:

Usually sails are attached all the way along their yards by short lines called robands. At such a small scale I'd simply use a thin line of glue.

I see—— you are absolutely right!! I wasn’t heading my own source material, such as the attached photo from Villiers, Last of the Wind Ships. 

[Organ tech]

2 hours ago, druxey said:

Usually sails are attached all the way along their yards by short lines called robands. At such a small scale I'd simply use a thin line of glue.

I see—— you are absolutely right!! I wasn’t heading my own source material, such as the attached photo from Villiers, Last of the Wind Ships. 

[Organ tech]

Just now, Organ tech said:

I see—— you are absolutely right!! I wasn’t heading my own source material, such as the attached photo from Villiers, Last of the Wind Ships. 

I am replacing the top sail with one that appears to be more correct. I am only putting these two square sails on the model. I am going to add two of the jib sails and need to study how those are rigged. Any instruction is welcome!

[Organ tech]

7 hours ago, Organ tech said:

I see—— you are absolutely right!! I wasn’t heading my own source material, such as the attached photo from Villiers, Last of the Wind Ships. 

I am replacing the top sail with one that appears to be more correct. I am only putting these two square sails on the model. I am going to add two of the jib sails and need to study how those are rigged. Any instruction is welcome!

[Organ tech]

I bought two books that should answer my questions even though I know one of dates way before the period of my ship.

[druxey]

Rigging square sails didn't change a lot over time. Again, at such a  small scale I'd glue the edge of the jib sails to their stays.

Edited August 27, 2021 by druxey