USCG Harriet Lane by _SalD_ - Model Shipways - 1:96

[_SalD_]

Thanks for the advice druxey.  My daughter uses 'Tacky Glue' for her craft projects maybe I'll give that a try.

[_SalD_]

I decided to revisit the lower and topsail yards to make their center portion octagon-shaped.  For the octagon shape section I used some dimensional lumber from Midwest Products that I had purchased a while back.  I had to remove the jackstays and a couple of eyebolts to fit the battens. (sorry for getting my finger in the way)

Battens glued and tied.  Once the glue was dried the battens were stained and the eyebolts were reinstalled.

For the footropes and their stirrups I decided to use 30 gauge florist wire (blackened).

The stirrups were made by wrapping the wire around the yards a couple of times and then forming a small eyelet at its end. 

The footropes were then laced through the stirrups and the ends were wrapped around the yards.  I had to keep the jackstays off until all the stirrups and footropes were put on.

Completed yards.

This will be my last post in this build for a while because the wife and I will be heading back to Florida for the winter.  And since the ship is at a point that it can’t be easily transported it will have to wait until next spring to be finished. 😪

 

I would like to thank all those who have been following along with my build, for all the kind words and for all the likes.

 

Have a Happy New Year and see you in the spring.

[druxey]

Safe travels! Your footropes and stirrups look very neat.

[_SalD_]

Hello all, just a little update.  I’m back up in Connecticut but the shipyard has been commissioned by my wife and daughter for wedding preparations.   My daughter will be getting married this coming September and the wife being frugal as always has voluntary me to make all the table center pieces.  Therefore the shipyard will be shut down for a bit longer. Not that I mind, looking forward to the wedding.

 

Air brushed flowers

[druxey]

Well, that's an interesting change of pace! Thanks for the update.

[bobandlucy]

Sal, you're doing such nice work!

[chuckthedragon]

Sal, she's coming out beautifully!  I love the fact that you decided to ignore the "warnings" in the instructions about adding detail because it would be too difficult.  Your work on the bowsprit and jibboom is inspirational to me!  In other words, I will be copying you😊

 

You probably already know that William H. Webb designed and built the Harriet Lane.  I know it is late in the game, but I just this week discovered that Webb published a portfolio of his plans in 1866 or so.  The plans are on internet archive.  As it turns out, he built a first ship in 1855 that is identical to Harriet Lane, the America, for the Russian Government.  The bad news is that the kit is very inaccurate in certain respects, location of the wheel, use of chain trusses, number of boats, shape of the water closets, all of which you have already completed.  Also the kit omits a gaff on the foremast which is shown on the sail and spar plan of the America.

 

The plans for both ships are downloadable as tif files.  Here are the links, in case you chose to take a look.

 

https://archive.org/download/WEBB-BodyPlanCrossSectionsPlanHalfBreadthPlan/America - body plan%2C cross-section%2C centerline section%2C half-breadth plan%2C %26 gun-deck plan.tif

 

https://archive.org/download/WEBB-BodyPlanCrossSectionsPlanHalfBreadthPlan/America - spars %26 sails.tif

 

https://archive.org/download/WEBB-BodyPlanCrossSectionsPlanHalfBreadthPlan/Harriet Lane - body plan%2C cross-sections%2C centerline section%2C half-breadth plan %26 gun deck plan.tif

 

https://archive.org/download/WEBB-BodyPlanCrossSectionsPlanHalfBreadthPlan/Harriet Lane - body plan%2C profile%2C half-breadth plan%2C %26 berth deck plan.tif

 

[_SalD_]

Thanks for the information chuckthedragon, those are nice drawings you found.  Like you said, it's a little late for me but not for you.

 

And a little update.  Three more weeks to the wedding and I should be back modeling.

Center pieces finished.  Had to air brush all those flowers.

Bouquet, pocket squares and corsages ready .

Gift box and something that goes in the restrooms, done.

Still working on the head table decorations.

 

 

 

[chuckthedragon]

Well, Sal, maybe next time . . . .  I'm excited about the work you're doing on the rigging.  I'm planning to follow your example.  Happily for me the plan includes making sure I have all of my attachment point in before I permanently step the masts😁.

 

You are awesome to do all of that work for the wedding!  Blessings on your house!

 

Chuck

[_SalD_]

Hello all.  Well it took me a little longer than I planned to get back to my build but it’s been a heck of a year.   First, as per my previous post, we had our daughter’s wedding which went off without a hitch.  It was a beautiful day and a good time had by all.  Then things went downhill a bit. First it was hurricane Helene and then Milton, the latter of which made landfall right where we live in Florida on Siesta Key.  Fortunately we didn’t have any major damage to the building other than some minor water infiltration.  There was a lot of landscaping damage however.  After that crisis settled down two of my three daughters had to be admitted to the hospital for different issues at different times.  Fortunately again everything worked out and now everyone is fine, thank God.  Now that things are somewhat back to normal I’m going to try and finish the Harriet Lane.

 

Being away for so long it took me awhile to figure out where I left off and where all my parts were located but after a while I got back into the swing of things. 

 

Fore lower yard sling:

I thought I would change things up a bit and use a different lower yard support sling than what was detailed in the instructions. I decided to use some of the left over chain that was used for the anchor chains and chain trusses to make the sling. The chain was looped around the top of the mast cap and the two ends were brought together with a chain link with a hook attached.  The hooked was connected to an eye bolt fastened to the top of the yard.

 

Fore lower yard lifts:

The lower yard lift rigging was modified from what was shown in the instructions by bring each end of the lines down to a block and tackle that was secured to the ships rail and tied off to a belaying pin.

 

  In ordered to do this I needed to make and fasten pin rails to the interior side of the bulwark.  At this point in the build this wasn’t an easy feat. 

The lift lines were rigged through the blocks previously attached to the end of the yard and below the mast cap and then brought down and finished by seizing a double block to its end.  A single block was stropped with a hook and eyelet and hooked to an eyebolt fastened to the ships rail.  The halliard was rigged and belayed to the pin rail.

 

I'm not sure if I explained this too well but if you would like more detailed information I used the book 'RIGGING PERIOD SHIP MODELS' by L. Petersson as a guide (page 38).  Thank you all for following (if I have any followers left after the long hiatus) and it's great to be back.

 

[_SalD_]

Fore lower yard braces

As per the instructions the rigging for these braces is to run from the pendants back to cleats located at the stern of the ship.  However after studying bobandlucy’s  Harriet Lane build I decided to change this rigging a bit.  The reason for this change was that while studying bob’s build I noticed that his lifeboat placement interfered with the midship gun ports.  To avoid this I thought I would move the lifeboats farther astern.  If I did this though, then the lifeboat stanchions would interfere with the lower yard brace rigging.  My solution was to start the rigging tied to the main stay then through the block on the end of the pendant then back to a block fastened lower down on the main stay to another block fastened farther down on the main stay and then tied off to a cleat on the bulwarks.

 

The hardest part of doing this was attaching the cleat to the inside of the bulwark.  If you look at the picture above you’ll notice a little hole in the side of the hull that goes all the way through. That’s the only way I could drill the hole to attach the cleat on the inside of the bulwark.  Now I need to fill the hole and paint. 

[_SalD_]

Topsail yard lift blocks

I decided to install the lift blocks on the mast for the topsail yard as shown in the instruction booklet. 

Topsail yard lifts

The topsail yard lifts were installed similarly to the lower yard lifts by running the lines through the pulleys on the yard and mast and then brought down to a halliard near the bulwarks.

 

 Topsail yard parral

For the topsail yard parral I used some small jewelry beads for the parral beads and pieces of cardstock for the trucks.

Topsail yard tye

For the topsail yard tye I seized a hook to one end to attach to the eyebolt glued to the top of the topsail yard.  The line was threaded through a hole I drilled (very carefully) through the mast just below the lower stop.  The line was then brought down and belayed to the bitts at the deck.

Topmast yard braces

The topmast yard braces were installed per the instructions taking the line aft, through the inner sheave of the double block on the main mast cap and down to belay at the bitts below.

Topgallant yard parral

For the topgallant yard parral I used some thinner back line.

Topgallant yard tye

The topgallant yard tye was done similar to the topsail yard tye.  A hole was drilled again very carefully through the mast just below the upper stop.  The line was belayed to the bitts on the deck.

Topgallant yard lift blocks and lifts

The topgallant yard lift blocks were installed per the instructions.  The lifts were run from the yard through the blocks on the mast and tied off to cleats installed on the shroud. 

Topgallant yard braces

The braces were installed as per the instruction the line running aft to the outer sheaves in the double block at the main mast cap then down to belay at the bitts.

 

[_SalD_]

Moving right along now!

 

Boom parral

For the boom parral I used a different size jewelry bead that I blackened. Beads were threaded and tied around the main mast.

Topping lifts

The topping lifts were installed per the instruction by first attaching two blocks above the main masthead.

The lift lines were run from the end of the boom through the blocks installed above the masthead then down to the deck.  I did follow the superdetail described in the instructions by providing a block and tackle at the end of the lift lines. I used the cleat nearest the water closet to tie off the halliard.

 Main sheet

The main sheet was rigged from the block attached to the traveler to the block on the lower side of the boom.  To tie this line off I used some small bollards I had left over from another build that I secured to the deck.

Gaff parral

The gaff parral was made similar to the boom parral.

Gaff throat halliard

The gaff throat halliard was installed per the instruction and belayed to the bitts at the deck.  Sorry no picture.

 

Gaff peak halliard

The gaff peak halliard was also installed per the instructions and belayed to the bitts at the deck.

Vangs

The vangs were installed per the instructions and the halliards were tied off to existing cleats on the bulwarks.

 

[_SalD_]

Ensign halliard & Ensign

The ensign halliard was installed and tied off to the little bollard at the deck.  The ensign from the back page of the instruction booklet was used and curled trying to make it look like it was blowing in the wind.

Davits and falls for the boats

I wanted to use falls on the davits for the life boats and I also wanted to keep the boats above the rails. To do this however I noticed that the davits provided would not be high enough.  In order to raise the davits I made up some extensions out of 1/8” diameter dowel.

The davits were installed a little farther back than what was called for in the instructions to keep the boats clear of the aft cannons.

The falls were added to the davits and rigged to the boats.

Looking back I'm glad I changed the configuration of the lower yard brace because it would have been a real bear working around it trying to install these boats and the boom and gaff.