Fair American by JLong - Model Shipways - 1:48

[JLong]

Happy New year all!

 

This is the first progress update of 2025 for the Fair American Model ship. Which makes this the start of year 6 of the build - Seriously hoping to finish by the summer!

 

Anyway, I'm starting on rigging the yards, with the Main Lower Yard.  There are 2 buntline cringles on the sail, so I need two blocks each side. these are 3/32" Singles. Looking at the Niagara plans I purchased, these blocks are nearly vertical above the cringles, or at a slight angle, so thats how I arranged them on the mast

Of course once I attached them, they're facing the wrong way. They need to have the block holes going vertically, to allow the rope to pass straight up to the top. This was because I only used a single knot at the top of the block when stropping. I didn't think about that.

So I removed that block and added another knot, making sure the ropes go parallel to the block holes.

Now when I added them to the mast, they're facing the right way. I also had to tie them so they stick forward just a little so the rope can reeve through nicely, while also being aware of the orientation of the foot ropes and cleat side, so it's not backwards.

Here is the finished yard with buntline blocks and then a single leechline block on the outermost end of the yard.

The sheet blocks were next. I used 5/32"blocks for these. The rigging plan doesn't specify sizes of blocks, but I later found an excel sheet that ''someone'' created that I used for a guide of rope size and blocks, shown later....

Additionally, during my research and learning about model ships, I saved this snippet about general rigging. It shows some basic blocks and locations on the yard.

On the Niagara plans, the Clueline block is on the Inside of the yard, and the sheet is outside of that. In other ships, I've seen it the other way, where the sheet block (the bigger block, is the one closest to the center of the block. For mine, I tied it off outside the cleat, where the foot rope ties in. 

The sheet was 5/32" and the clueline block was 1/8" single block. Tied and glued in place.

The braces were next. How I strop the blocks is, again, fairly simple. I'll take the rope starting at the bottom, over hand knot it on the top...

Then add some CA glue to secure it. 

I'd put the trimmed/stropped block into a little jig with .031" drill bit, and hold the two ends with tape. Then pinch and CA glue them close to the block and let it dry.

Then I can take small black sewing thread and make a neat little seizing. I have to knot the first loop and glue, make a couple more loops, then knot the last one and glue. After which, I'll trim all the loose ends up. I'm pretty happy with the look.

That's one!!!

I'll look at the plans for the lengths of the braces and try to make a loop to that size.

This is trickier. I had to sort of guess the diameter of the loop before I knotted it, so that it will fit over the end of the yard and not be too tight or loose.

But I made it work on my little jig. The reverse action tweezers were handy with adding some small amount of tension before I glued things.

2 braces done....

The first time I added them and glued them to the yard, they were facing the wrong way!!! Luckily I noticed/remembered the orientation of the main yard - according to the rigging plans these ropes are braced on the Foremast, so they need to go forward.

 

Thats it for today....I have more progress with this one yard, but that'll wait for another post in the future.

 

Thank you for reading and following along

 

- Jason -