Flying Fish by Jared - Model Shipways - 1:96

[Jared]

A day of celebration!  Finally finished rigging  the last of the shrouds and ratlines.  Phew!!

 

[Rick310]

Well done!!!  The way nd is in sight!

Rick

[gak1965]

On 12/7/2024 at 3:34 PM, Jared said:

A day of celebration!  Finally finished rigging  the last of the shrouds and ratlines.  Phew!!

Great new Jared. Looking fabulous!

 

George

[Jared]

Time for some holiday season fun.  My nephew who lives in Singapore gifted me a laser cut wood "sailing ship puzzle" when he visited last year.  Needing a break from rigging my FF, I had a go at it this week.  I was quite amazed by the very high quality and precision of the laser cut pieces (photo 1).  It was actually quite a fun build!   

 

While it bears only minor resemblance to a real tall ship, I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to interest a child in getting into our hobby.  Seasons Greetings!

 

 

Edited December 13, 2024 by Jared

[Jared]

Gaff & Spanker boom mounted and rigged.  Quite delicate work.  It was made much easier by not having the mizzen backstays and shrouds in the way.

[Jared]

I will begin by wishing you all a very happy New Year.  My celebration begins today as I rejoice the completion of the standing rigging on my Flying Fish.  A number of photos are attached.

 

Now the real fun begins!   I am not expecting any of the remaining modelling. work to be easy 😬.

 

Best wishes to you all for 2025.  Thanks for looking in.

[Rick310]

Looking good Jared!  You keep inching closer to the finish line!

Well done!!

Have a Happy New Year!

Rick

[ScottRC]

Really nice work Jared.  You are past the monotonous part of rigging shrouds, running rigging can be fun since every line is different which does present a challenge, but in a good way.

[Jared]

Sorry for my 2 month absence.  After completing the standing rigging I needed a brief mental rest and time to think about how I would complete the fragile yards with their fittings and tackle the running rigging.

 

This week I built the mizzen topsail,  topgallant, royal and skysail yards. 

 

 They have not yet been permanently attached.  Making and soldering together the small trusses on the topgallant and topsail yards was very challenging.  Fortunately the yards are painted black, which does a great job of hiding less than stellar workmanship 😬.  I have been following the earlier advice to apply super glue into all drilled holes to try to strengthen the spars at these weak points.  For these 2 yards I am using straight pins to help secure them to the masts.

 

The last images are of the unpainted and painted mizzen royal yard and the unpainted skysail yard. 

 

 On all of these yards except the mizzen skysail, I intentionally left a small gap between the vertical and horizontal pairs of  eyebolts at the outer ends to reduce the risk of breakage from drolling at this fragile area.  Because skysail yard is just to frail, I will omit the eyebolts altogether and simply tie the running rigging to the yard ends.

 

 

Edited March 6 by Jared

[Jared]

Progress on my Flying Fish has been slow this past month, due to the difficulty of the work involved with the rigging of the lower mizzen yard and mizzen topmost yard.  There were a few times I felt like giving up as the rigging challenges seemed overwhelming, because of the small scale and really tight spaces I had to work with.

 

However with a lot of thinking I came up with some tricks and compromises which allowed me to complete the following:

 

1.  Beginning with the mizzen lower yard, I secured the chain sling and the lower mizzen yard lift.

 

2.  The mizzen topmost was then mounted and the standing lift installed.

 

3.  Rigging the mizzen topmost halliard was the most difficult due to its complexity and the very tight spaces.  I had to remove the gin blocks from the model to allow me to run the fine chain though them. To help rig the chain I used fine 0.01" dia thread attached to a fine needle to help me fish the fine chain (see photo) through the gin blocks and eyebolt on the top center of the mast.  (I decided to skip creating a gin bolt on the mast).  

 

Another simplification I did was to tie a square knot to secure the halliard to the belay pins.  The belay pins supplied in the kit are too short to allow rigging around the bottom part of the belay pins.  As a rope coil is secured to the belay pins, this hides my simplification.

 

I have attached several photos to help the viewer see how the lines are rigged.  Unfortunately with the depth of field limitations of the camera lens and numerous outer lines already on the model,  it will be difficult to really understand it all.

 

Thanks for looking.

[gak1965]

Jared,

     She's really looking fantastic!

 Glad you took the time you needed, and are ready to proceed apace.

 

Regards,

George

[Jared]

Thanks George.  At times I wonder how I got this far!  The rigging really make this model so beautiful.

[Jared]

I tell you you can't let your mind lapse on this build.  I just realized the mizzen topsail yard lifts should have been black, not white.  Fortunately the fix was quick and easy:  a dab of black paint.

 

I have now mounted the mizzen topgallant yard and installed that yard's hoist.

 

[Rick310]

You are right Jared, the rigging is complex.  I have to think several steps ahead so as not to paint myself in a corner!  I just started rigging and it is a slow process!  I’m also scared to death that I will snag something and break it!

Keep up the good work, slow and steady!

Rick

[Jared]

I am pleased to report that I have completed the mounting of all yards on the mizzen mast, along with the yard lifts and halliards.  The rigging of the top-most 3 yards was considerably easier than the lowest 2 yards.  I still have a few rope coils to add to a few of the belay pins.  

 

My plan is to next mount the yards, lifts and halliards on the  for the main mast and then the fore mast, starting in about 3 weeks.

 

Thanks for looking.

[gak1965]

Getting really close there, Jared!

 

Regards,

George 

[Rick310]

Flying Fish is looking really good Jared!

What a difference with the yards on her mizzen!

Rick

[Jared]

After a great eco-photography break to the rain forests of Costa Rica, I am back to my build.   Over the last 2 days I have rigged the lifts for the lower yard on the main mast, which required a lot of patience.

 

One question I have for the group.  As I proceed through the rigging I am finding that some of the lines have begin to sag.  I am looking for suggestions what I can do about this.   Having to tear out lines and re-rig would be a real nightmare.

 

Thanks

Edited Sunday at 09:13 PM by Jared

[gak1965]

6 hours ago, Jared said:

As I proceed through the rigging I am finding that some of the lines have begin to sag.

Hi Jared,

     Glad you had a good time in Costa Rica. When you say that some of the lines are starting to sag, can you be a bit more specific? Are you concerned about the bit of slack in the tackles that are connecting the lifts with the deck or other lines, and if so, are we talking mostly standing or running? I found that I got a bit of slack in the tackles as well. Part of the problem (I think) is that the stress on the lines was bending the yards slightly up, which caused a bit of slack in the tackles. The crane on the model was made of brass, not iron and so bent more easily than on the real ship.

 

In a couple of cases, it got loose enough that I was able to do a wrap on one of the belaying pins, but I mostly just ignored it. No one else noticed, and real ships tend to not have running lines that are extremely taut when they don't have sails.

 

Regards,

George

[Dr PR]

I learned long ago to rig the ropes with barely enough force to pull them straight, without bending anything. This will eliminate almost all slack lines.

 

You can permanently fix ropes in the straight shape by painting the rope with shellac or white glue (shellac for polyester and white glue for cotton and silk). This is also good for "training" lines to have a  smooth curve or sag where appropriate.

 

However, I do have this problem on my current build with lines to the fore course (spreader) yard because there are several lines lifting the yard and none pulling down. The yard rides up and the lifts and buntlines go slack. If I had rigged the course the lines to that sail would have pulled the yard down. I can probably solve this problem by weighting down the yard to stretch the lines tight and then fasten (glue) the trusses to the mast. Another option is to drill a small hole through the yard and into the mast, and push a wire or pin through to hold the yard in position.

[Jared]

Thanks for the suggestions.  The lines that I am concerned about are some of the stays, which are starting to sag as you can see in the attached photo.

 

I have tried coating the lines with dilute white glue but so far it has not fixed the problem.  I am going to try more concentrated white glue near the rope attachment points once the ship has been completely rigged.

 

Cheers

[Jared]

While rigging the lower main yard lift I noticed that I had made an error in rigging the lift on the lower yard of the mizzen mast.  The upper portion of the rope should have passed through the lubber hole and not outside the top see #310 & 313 above).   This has now been corrected. 

Edited 21 hours ago by Jared

[Rick310]

Jared, for what it’s worth, I’ve been dragging my line through a dilute solution of white glue and then hanging it with weights to stretch while drying, both running and standing rigging.  Don’t have enough running rigging to tell yet, but hopefully the shrouds on the mizzen and main masts will stay relatively tight.  Been gone for last  10 days, so I will check when I get home tomorrow. I anticipate having to adjust the lanyards, but hopefully not too much.  
One issue is the change in humidity, high humidity, lines swell and tighten up, dry humidity and line go slack, as I understand it.  The solution of white glue is supposed to protect the lines from moisture.  Running the lines through wax is supposed to do the same thing.

Rick

[gak1965]

3 hours ago, Jared said:

Thanks for the suggestions.  The lines that I am concerned about are some of the stays, which are starting to sag as you can see in the attached photo.

Jared,

    Is it only the forestays, or are you seeing other stays sag a bit as well? If it's just the forestays, did something happen to the bowsprit or the dolphin striker? That seems more likely than the foremast starting to bend forward to any degree.

[Jared]

It is mostly with the forestays George.   There is a tiny  bit of looseness in the bowsprit which I am having difficulty troubleshooting. The give is not much - but just enough to make the sagging worse.  I have tried glue at the base of the bowsprit with a weight attached to the tip but it did not work.  Will try again.

 

Thanks