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.

 

 

 

 

[David Chapman]

Wow, it's been 5 months since I last posted. Between my surgery and a River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest.

Besides not having our luggage the entire time, the cruise was a blast.

 

Anyway, never really stopped pecking away at the model. I'm well into the rigging and have just started the sails. Per a suggestion from here, I got some Eze Tissue and a bottle of Eze Dope. This is my first venture beyond "all stock". These products are made to cover the wings of model airplanes.

I started by soaking the Tissue in Dope and then draped and smoothed it over the tacky plastic sails. After a second coat and overnight drying I carefully peeled it off. While the finished product is a bit translucent, I'm quite happy with the result compared to the plastic version. And despite how fragile it appears, it's quite durable. It even transferred the texture of the plastic.

What do you think?

 

[Keith Black]

 David, it's good to see you post again, glad you enjoyed the cruise. The sail shapes will look good once trimmed but they're too transparent,IMHO. You need to add color. The link below is to Bruma's Cutty Sark build, his sails are some of the best. 

 

 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

David, I think you’re on to something here. I had fleetingly wondered about using the plastic sails as formers but parked my build, largely because I still don’t have a sails solution, before trying it. Anyway, I agree with Keith, they look very promising in the raw but need a bit of paint and weathering.

[David Chapman]

Still working on my Cuddy Sark.  

After trying many color combos, I went with the natural look for the sails.  It's taking forever!.... But the end is in sight.

Maybe by next Christmas I'll be finished.

BTW the blue tape is to mark all the long ends with very visible "flags". I've already broken off the bow sprit and a spar.

Repairs still needed.

Edited Thursday at 10:28 PM by David Chapman
correction

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Looks good! That EzeTissue is tough stuff, I’ve used it while experimenting and it doesn’t tear easily. My issue has been that I can’t get it to stretch or deform. When I’ve made a half-furled sail (albeit a not good enough example) using well dampened tissue, and spread the tissue flat again when I give up, it’s exactly the shape it was when I cut it out.  I haven’t tried using dope, does it make the fabric pliable?

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  The Eze tissue is a great idea.  Perhaps it is possible to introduce some opacity to the dope with pigment powder.  Experimentation is in order.  Another method might be (after drying and before mounting) to lightly spray some paint (at a distance) to lessen the translucence.  One could also lightly mark the seams and reef lines as well.

[David Chapman]

10 hours ago, Kevin-the-lubber said:

Looks good! That EzeTissue is tough stuff, I’ve used it while experimenting and it doesn’t tear easily. My issue has been that I can’t get it to stretch or deform. When I’ve made a half-furled sail (albeit a not good enough example) using well dampened tissue, and spread the tissue flat again when I give up, it’s exactly the shape it was when I cut it out.  I haven’t tried using dope, does it make the fabric pliable?

The Ezetissue is quite tough but I've had to be very careful about not tearing it. Needed to remake a couple of them due to tears. And as I have been using the now months old pre-molded sails, I have found that the tissue is more difficult to separate from the plastic "molds". Probably going to remake the last handfull+ to make it easier to remove the tissue from the forms.

And no, there is literally zero flexibility to the tissue no matter if I used the Dope or not.  They are all with-dope.  I can see where the tissue would be very difficult for furled sails. 

[David Chapman]

2 hours ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

  The Eze tissue is a great idea.  Perhaps it is possible to introduce some opacity to the dope with pigment powder.  Experimentation is in order.  Another method might be (after drying and before mounting) to lightly spray some paint (at a distance) to lessen the translucence.  One could also lightly mark the seams and reef lines as well.

Although I am sans paint sprayer, I tried nearly all of your ideas including graphite with no luck. As time has gone on, I'm happy with the end results.  Not in any frame of mind at this point to experiment further. Would be curious how you or others deal with it.