Cutty Sark by David Chapman - Revell -1/96 - PLASTIC - beginner's build

[Dr PR]

You were talking about making sails and looking for a material of approximate scale thickness. I am currently working on sails for my 1:48 schooner and I am using the thinnest #00 silkspan. It is 0.0015 inch (0.0381 mm) thick. Here are some scale thicknesses for comparison.

 

Scale          thickness

               inch         mm

1:1          0.0015     0.0381

1:24       0.036       0.9142

1:48       0.072       0.3048

1:64       0.096      2.4384

1:72       0.108       2.7432

1:96       0.144       3.6576

1:200     0.300      7.6200

1:350     0.525    13.335

 

So silkspan is a reasonable scale material for sails at scales from 1:40 to 1:96. It may be a bit too thin for 1:24, and too thick for 1:200.

 

Another thing you might try is parchment paper (used for cooking). It is only 0.0005 inch (0.0127 mm) thick. The resulting scale thicknesses are 1/3 of what is shown for silkspan. It might work for scales down to 1:200. However, it is fairly stiff and might resist any complex shaping - especially for furled sails.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding but isn't that table the wrong way round? I don't think the sail material would get thicker as the scale gets smaller! I don't know what the sailcloth thickness would be at 1:1 but if I assume roughly 1mm, then:

 

Scale	mm	inch
1:1	1.000	0.0394
1:24	0.042	0.0016
1:48	0.021	0.0008
1:64	0.016	0.0006
1:72	0.014	0.0005
1:96	0.010	0.0004
1:200	0.005	0.0002
1:350	0.003	0.0001

Tissue is about 0.05mm so true to scale at 1:24, though it seems to give quite a credible representation at other scales. 

 

[David Chapman]

Apologies, had a shoulder replacement on my birthday, yesterday. 

Will get back with you soon.

David

[ccoyle]

15 minutes ago, David Chapman said:

had a shoulder replacement on my birthday, yesterday

 

Happy birthday? 😬 Hope everything heals up quickly!

[Scottish Guy]

2 hours ago, David Chapman said:

Apologies, had a shoulder replacement on my birthday, yesterday. 

 

Belated happy birthday and get well soon.

 

Micha

[Kevin-the-lubber]

4 hours ago, David Chapman said:

Apologies, had a shoulder replacement on my birthday, yesterday. 

Ouch, hope you have a really great outcome without too much pain along the way.

[David Chapman]

Thank you all.

[Keith Black]

 Happy Birthday, David. Heal quickly. 

[David Chapman]

Back at it.

Shoulder is better every day.

 

Touched up and finally up off deck.

Pretty happy.