St Roch by Lecrenb - 1:48 scale - RCMP Schooner rigged as schooner c. 1930/35

[Lecrenb]

15 hours ago, Coyote_6 said:

That is a very good looking little ship.  Very nice - love that deep douglas fir look!

Thank you Steve!

[Lecrenb]

The day before Hallowe'en and we're ready for the spooky, candy filled debauchery!

I have started sail making, and while waiting for the silkspan to dry I made up a couple of miscellaneous details...

I turned St. Roch's bell and carved out the plaque to hold the RCMP crest. The clapper is made from an old stanchion. 

The badge pixellated in my phone's macro mode, it looks better mounted on the wheelhouse front...

Here is the bell mounted on the foremast...

The numbers under 'St Roch' are 1928, the date of launching.

Now back to the sails.

 

 

 

[Lecrenb]

I have studied David Antsherl's appendix on sail making, and I previously made the recommended frame to hold the silkspan and practiced using it by making St. Roch's boat covers. 

First I taped the silkspan to the frame using medicinal tape from my first aid kit. This is waterproof and holds nicely. Then I thoroughly wetted the silkspan using a water spray through my air brush. After it had dried I airbrushed on flat white, followed by buff.

While the paint dried I made paper templates of each of the three sails: jib, foresail, and main sail. They are about 30% reduced in height because I intend to furl them and I did not want them to be too bulky.

Then I laid the templates onto the dried silkspan, trying to maximize the unused border areas as these will be used to make the tablatures and reinforcing panels. 

I aligned the foot of each sail so that when I drew the seams on I could use a single seam line that would cross each sail. Then I used a pencil to draw the outline of each sail onto the painted silkspan.

At this point I deviated from Mr. Antsherl's process. For drawing the seam lines onto the sails he recommends a device called a 'Bow Pen' which is an old drafting implement. I actually have one in my Staedler 'Techmatic' drafting set that I used in my Electronic Technology course back in 1972! However, it is a very fussy device and even after practice drawing a straight line of consistent width and free of skips and blots is hard to do.

I used a 'Road Striping Pen' made by Woodland Scenics. This is part of their system for making asphalt roads on model railroad layouts, and I also happen to have one of these! They are available in most decent hobby shops or on line for about $18 in either white or yellow ink.

I made witness marks a scale 21 inches apart (the width of each sail cloth) along the top and bottom of my frame, lined up with the vertical side of my sails (the sides that will go up the masts). My template alignment worked out and I was able to draw seam lines from top to bottom across the three sails.

Next up I may add another light spray of buff to tone down the seam lines and colour match them to the sail cloths.

Mr. Antsherl says to add the tablatures and reinforcements at this point, but I will probably cut the sails from the silkspan first.

My experience tells me it I will have an easier time adding these items off the frame, and besides, the material for these parts is coming from the extra silkspan at the side and bottom of the frame.

 

So far so good... we'll see how I get on tomorrow...

This is new territory for me so any comments are most welcome.

Regards,

Bruce

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Lecrenb

[Dr PR]

Be sure the silkspan is very dry before handling it!

 

As I recall, on sailing ships the tablings along the edges of the sail were on the port side, and the larger corner reinforcements and other extra cloths were on the starboard. Will you add boltropes?