USCGC Eagle by mysticlee - Constructo - 1:102

[mysticlee]

Introduction

 

US Coast Guard Cutter Eagle (WIX-327), originally the German training barque Horst Wessel. Length: 295 feet; beam: 39.1 feet; height of foremast and mainmast: 150.3 feet above the waterline (other specs are found on various Coast Guard websites).

 

I am a retired Coastie and as a cadet, I had the privilege of sailing on the Eagle several times, the most notable being in Operation Sail 1972, sailing from New London, CT, to Europe. During the ocean crossing, we competed in, and won, the Boston Teapot Trophy, awarded annually to the training ship that logs the greatest distance under sail in 124 hours (we covered 1,104 miles). After docking in Portsmouth, England, for several days, we competed in the main event of OpSail 1972 - the tall ships race -  that included three Class A ships: Eagle (United Stated), Gorch Fock II (Germany), and Dar Pomorza (Poland), along with hundreds of Class B and C sailing vessels. The five day race started off of Cowes, England, sailing north through the English Channel and the Skagerrak, and ending off the tip of Denmark. The race was highly eventful, with a great start for Eagle, many maneuvers and sail adjustments, parted sails and lines in stormy seas, and periods of unfavorable winds. To their credit, Dar Pomorza won the race, with Gorch Foch trailing by only a few minutes, and Eagle taking up third place. Following the race, Eagle made several port calls, ending in Lubeck, Germany, where thousands of visitors toured the ship, including several of Horst Wessel's original crew. The final event of OpSail was the Parade of Ships, with six square-riggers in one column, and smaller vessels in another column, sailing in to Kiel Bay, Germany, on display for the crowds attending the 1972 Summer Olympics. This was not the first, nor the last, transatlantic crossing for Eagle, and she continues to be both a rigorous training environment for the cadets, and an impressive ambassador for the Coast Guard and for the United States.

 

All of this is to say, I have fond memories of the Eagle, and always wanted to build a model of the Eagle.

 

In fact, I started this model in 1977, completing the hull, deck, and some of the fittings, until around 1979 when the project was boxed...until early 2024! Many military and post-military moves caused some damage to the model, but nothing that can't be fixed...and it's time to resume construction.

 

The Model

 

This is a model by Constructo, Barcelona, Spain. It is a wooden hull, with various wooden parts including bulwarks, cabins, shaped wooden tops and crosstrees, tapered wooden masts, spars, and bowsprit, and a few deck fixtures; plastic parts including windlass, winches, ship's wheels, chimneys, binnacles, life boats, blocks, pulleys, tensors, ladders, belaying pins (actually, fife rails), running lights, etc.; various metal parts such as eyebolts, pins, grommets, etc.; and stitched cloth sails.

 

The instructions and diagrams (in both English and Spanish) indicate a scale of 1:185, but this would equate to a model of about 19 inches, whereas the actual model (with bowsprit) is 34 5/8 inches. From this actual model dimension, I calculated a scale of 1:102.2 for the 295 foot ship, or 1" = 8.52'.

 

Early on, I decided that I wanted a more realistic model than would be possible with the provided plastic parts and off-scale components, so while generally following the assembly instructions, I started creating some of my own fittings, and adding details not in the instructions.

 

The Build

 

My goal is to complete this model to show the Eagle as it was in 1972. This means two significant variations from the Eagle's present configuration:

 

1. No racing stripe, as per 1972. I feel it's out of place on an historic ship such as the Eagle. There would have been better, more subtle ways to show the Coast Guard's name and colors.

2. Spanker and single gaff only. I understand why the gaff was split in later years (to match the ship's original configuration), but that's not how it was configured in 1972.

 

Other changes that have occurred since 1972 include relocated port and starboard running lights, a new pilot house in the aft part of the waist, different life boats, changes in ventilators and other deck fittings, new antennas for current electronic navigational aids, and most recently, a new figurehead. I'm sticking to the 1972 configuration as much as possible, guided by photos and publications around the same period, along with my personal photos and recollections.

 

My first task is to survey the damage, and develop a repair plan. I had boxed the model in its original box, but with a cut-out at one end for the bowsprit I had already finished and glued in place. Even with a large dowel protecting the bowsprit, it broke at the hull, and took with it the stays I had installed. This proved to be a blessing in disguise, because I determined that the bowsprit wasn't angled correctly (too low), so that gave me the opportunity to rebuild the stem and create a new bowsprit. Other damage included broken bumpkins (who bumped the bumpkins?), crushed wood around the bow pinrail, and a few broken fife rails. I had already painted the hull (red below, black along the waterline, white above), but the white paint was scuffed in a few spots, so it will need a new coat of paint.

 

In my next update, I'll provide photos of the current status, outline my plans, and begin work on the model.

 

Update#1

 

Below are photos of the box end and side for the Constructo model I purchased in 1977.

 

 

 

 

Next are photos of the model as it stands right now. I had previously constructed the decking with pieces of 1/16" square stock, sanded and lightly stained to resemble the Eagle's teak deck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The below image shows the broken bowsprit. The dolphin striker, martingale stay, etc., are not correctly sized, which will be corrected when I rebuild the bowsprit.

 

 

Although several of the above pictures show a finished base, that was actually the first sub-project I did in this process. I started with a piece of bare oak board, cut to size, routed the edges, then sanded and stained with three coats of golden oak stain, followed by three coats of wipe-on satin polyurethane. I ordered the brass stanchions online, and had to modify them by drilling out the internal threads (for the bolts that came with them) so I could fasten the base through the stanchions into the ship's keel and hull.

 

 

 

Now to start repairs. Below shows where the bowsprit was broken off, with some of the stays dangling, and the edge of the bow chipped away. Also note the bumpkin on the right is missing the eye and bottom support.

 

 

I built up the stem using several layers of wood, so as to bring up the angle of the bowsprit, as shown below.

 

 

Repairs are mostly done, as shown below, although a few touch-ups will be needed after I remove the dangling stays and re-work their attachment points. I used wood filler to repair the edge of the bow. Still needs some filling and sanding. The forward pinrail will sit on top of this edge, which will hide any slight imperfections.

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2024 by mysticlee
Update #1

[Rick310]

Nice build, I will enjoy following your progress!

Rick

[mysticlee]

Thank you Rick. I have many challenges ahead with this build, and I'll welcome any and all tips and advice.

[mysticlee]

For the new bowsprit, I tapered a 3/16" dowel using a drill and sandpaper. Then I constructed the bobstay, martingale stay, and dolphin striker using 1/32" brass tube, soldered at the junction points. This assembly is glued to the bowsprit using CA, after creating small indentations in the bowsprit at the contact points. I'm hoping this will be strong enough, but I may decide later to reinforce these glue points with PVA or epoxy. 

 

At key attachment points (for the staysails), I hand-drilled holes partway through the bowsprit, and inserted eyes cut slightly shorter than the hole depths, and glued them in with CA. I did this first on a test piece, and they seemed to be very secure. I'm not worried about the discoloration on the wood, as it will be painted later with Coast Guard spar color. I still need to add attachment points on the sides of the bowsprit to anchor the stays.

 

  

 

   

 

While I had my soldering iron handy, I repaired the forward port-side bumpking, shown below. I'll paint it white when I repaint the hull.

 

 

 

 

[mysticlee]

Since my last post, I created spreadsheet to identify the various deck fittings that need to be modeled, and mapped out the attachment points for the standing and running rigging on the deck, masts, and spars. The original model kit included written instructions and diagrams to describe the assembly, and it simplified much of the rigging and fittings. Also, the instructions were not specific on the placement of many of the parts (such as where the yards attach to the masts), so I'm going back to my Eagle Seamanship book, other documents, and photos (both recent and especially those in the photo book my academy class put together after our 1972 cruise) to identify the actual rigging and fittings.

 

Things are quite small on this model, so I'll be making some decisions on what to include and what not to include, compared to the actual ship. For example, I'll probably limit the running rigging to the braces, sheets, and possibly the clew lines between the yards/sails and the pin rails. I'll likely show the buntlines and leach lines on the sails themselves, but not carry the lines down to the pin rails, mainly because of the complexity and density of those lines. After all, the Eagle has over 180 lines of running rigging (in the configuration I'm modeling...over 200 in its present configuration), and I don't have the confidence and skill in depicting all of them, along with their attachment points, blocks, metal cheek blocks, etc. The model kit only showed the braces and sheets, and in greatly simplified form (i.e, using only a few blocks here and there, and in some cases running lines directly to the deck where one or more blocks are used for mechanical advantage on the actual ship). I'll settle on something between what the kit showed and what's on the Eagle.

 

I started making a few of the many fittings and fixtures I plan to model.

 

First, I need eight "large" mooring bitts (four on the forecastle, and four in the waist). The model came with several smaller plastic bitts that I may make use of in other areas (if I can remove the molding seams), but they are too small for use as mooring bitts. I didn't find any sources among ship modeling company websites for bitts that were of the size I needed (and that resembled the bitts on the Eagle), so I decided to make my own. To create the bitts, I fashioned loops of 24 gauge wire, glued each loop to a 1/8" dowel cut to 5/16" in length, and glued two of these to a small piece of heavy card stock (to simulate the base). 

 

Next, there are four benches on the mizzen deck that are used underway to cover four of the mooring bitts. I thought it would look better to model the benches instead of showing those bitts. I used a small block of basswood notched in the corners for the body of the bench, and 1/16" basswood square dowels for the legs.

 

Below are the bitts (both my fabrication and the kit's plastic version) and bench before painting. I'll be painting the bitts in Coast Guard spar color (which I need to mix myself to match the fittings I had previously painted on the model), with a medium gray strip around the barrel of the bitts. The bench will be painted to resemble the mahogany wood on the actual ship.

 

                         

 

Regarding paint, most of the fittings on the Eagle are painted Coast Guard spar color, including the masts, yards, tops, and cross trees, so I'll wait until I have everything fabricated (including the numerous attachment points), before painting. There are a few items that will be painted white or "mahogany" (including repainting the white on the hull) that will also be deferred until all are fabricated.

 

The model came with all ten square sail yards and two mizzen spars, but I determined that the square sail yards were not to scale (too small), based on the actual lengths of the yards from the ship specs. What I found was that the main and fore course yards supplied with the kit were a very close match to the length of the lower topsail yards, the lower topsail yards a match to the upper topsail yard lengths, etc., through the top gallant yards a match for the royal yard lengths. So I created new course yards (the kit's royal yards were too small for anything except material for possible use in other fittings). I tapered a 1/4" dowel using a drill and sand paper, and cut to length. Below shows the five yards for the foremast (the mainmast is identical), the largest being the one I made.

 

 

 

The kit included a few plastic "tensors" for connecting some of the standing rigging to the deck. They are oversized compared to the actual ship's 

turnbuckles, and resemble the pairs of deadeyes and connecting ropes that are found on wooden sailing ships. Instead, I'll create over 80 turnbuckles that more closely resemble the metal turnbuckles on the actual Eagle. More on my plan for the turnbuckles, and other fittings, in future posts.

 

[Roger Pellett]

A nice project, well executed!

 

Determining the correct scale is of course important as it will determine sizes of all of the fittings that you intend to scratch build.  As an ex Coast Guard Officer, you obviously know that the “length” of a vessel has several definitions; length overall, register length, etc.  Before getting too far down the road, you might want to double check scale by using a dimension less subject to interpretation.  I would suggest that you compare the beam of your model with the published beam.

 

You are fortunate to live in my favorite small town.  Mystic has it all; a great museum, beautiful architecture, and good restaurants.  I grew up in Northeastern Ohio which was ounce the state of Connecticut’s Western Reserve.  Many of the small towns  in that part of Ohio share Mystic’s timeless quality with their white Federal Style homes and Churches.  The row of houses  just across the river, from the Seaport is particularly impressive. 

 

Roger.

[Jim Lad]

It's always a good project to build a model of a favourite ship - someday I may even build a model of my all-time favourite ship, the 'Pilar Regidor', but that would be a pretty big model!

 

Good to see that you've decided to build her as you remember her on your epic voyage. You should find quite a lot of photos to support your memory of what the ship looked like at that time.

 

John

 

 

[mysticlee]

Roger, thank you for your compliment, and you are absolute correct regarding lengths. I used several known lengths (as you mentioned), along with draft, freeboard, beam, and bowsprit length, compared to the corresponding measurements on the model, to arrive at a scale of 102.2:1. As a retired engineer/Coastie, I try to get the details right, and make educated estimates where necessary. For example, since I don't have the exact measurements of virtually any of the actual deck fittings, fixtures, etc., I'm also using photos to estimate sizes and locations, and scaling accordingly. 

 

We love Mystic, and we were fortunate enough to buy a house built in 1866 when we moved here (on the Seaport side) in 2018. It's not as grand as those across the river, but it has its own history. We enjoy the beauty of those historic homes on the Groton side of the river on our daily walks through town and beyond.

 

John, yes, it's my favorite, and I have numerous photos to guide my modeling.

 

--Lee

[mysticlee]

Below shows the first few test turnbuckles, as yet unpainted (they will be painted white in production). The body is a short piece of 1/32"diameter brass tube. The eyes are formed from 26 gauge brass wire, which fits perfectly in the tube. I created a small jig (two small posts) for wrapping the wire to create the eyes. The eye on one end will be open initially, so that I can slip it onto the existing eyes fastened to the deck, rails, and other attachment points, then the eye will be closed. The standing rigging will then be tied to the free end of each turnbuckle.  I found it a bit tricky to cut the brass tube. I rolled the tube on a flat surface, and used a #11 scalpel blade to score it. The blade tends to wander under too much pressure. I'll need to refine my technique before mass producing these turnbuckles.

 

[Jim Lad]

Nice looking bottle screws! How are you going to prevent the open lower eye from opening under the strain when you tighten up the shrouds?

 

John

[mysticlee]

John, thanks for the question, I didn't think this would be an issue.

 

I was hoping since I'm using half-hard wire that it would be stiff enough after closing the eye with fine pliers. Not sure how much strain the eyes would be subject to when tightening the shrouds and all other stays. So I did some testing. First, I closing both eyes with pliers, attached a line to each eye, hung a 5 pound weight on one of the eyes and held the string on the other eye, and tried lifting the weight...one of the eyes bent open. Next, I soldered the eyes on another test piece (not easy, one eye got filled with solder, had to fiddle with it to clear the eye and make it look decent), then repeated the test with the 5 pound weight...it also bent open (broke the solder joint).

 

My sense is that 5 pounds is way more strain than would occur on the model. Before doing the above test, I pulled on attached lines by hand, and the eyes seemed to hold up ok. Obviously, I didn't pull 5 pounds worth.

 

Do you have any idea how much strain I would expect on the shrouds on the model? Any suggestions?

 

Lee

[mysticlee]

Follow-up: I tested with a 16.9 ounce (500ml) bottle of water as a weight, 1 pound 2 ounces, and saw no deformation of the eyes. Even 1 pound seems more than the amount of strain that would exist on the model shrouds.

 

To recap, I passed a piece of 28 gauge half-hard brass wire through a 1mm round brass tube (forming the body of the turnbuckle), and formed an eye in the wire at each end.

 

Anybody have any thoughts on how eyes formed this way hold up when tightening up the shrouds, backstays, etc.?

 

Lee 

[Jim Lad]

Sounds like they'll be OK, Lee. The only other way to strengthen them would be with silver solder.

 

John

[mysticlee]

Taking a break from my production line of turnbuckles, I turned my attention to the radar enclosure which is mounted on the foremast (below the fore yard).

 

Using numerous photos both from my archive and from current sources, I determined the size and shape of the enclosure for my model. The radar enclosure in 1972 consisted of a pair of horizontal concentric circles of steel bars about 8 feet in diameter, separated by about 30 inches, and connected by several vertical bars, and about 20 inches below which was a small platform connected to the above circles with additional bars, to support the actual radar sweep mechanism. The current radar enclosure is more oblong and includes an additional support for other electronics.

 

Below is my plan for the radar enclosure, and two photos of the fabricated enclosure, made with 1mm brass rods and wood for the platform, radar sweep and mount. For simplicity, I elected to place the support bars at the front and both sides, whereas the actual enclosure has more bars at different points around the circles. I left the attachment points longer than needed until I determine the exact rake of the foremast. The enclosure will be painted Coast Guard spar color, the radar sweep and its mount will be painted white, and the circular bars will be covered with baggywrinkle which will hide some of the imperfections (I haven't decided how to make baggywrinkle yet).

 

       

 

 

[mysticlee]

It's been far too long since I last posted progress on my Eagle model. Over the last seven months, I've been working on many of the deck fittings, and my amateur modeling skills has made it slow going (learning as I go), but I've been particularly negligent about documenting my work. I'll take the time over the next several days to catch up on what I've accomplished so far.

 

As I showed on an earlier post, I was making turnbuckles from brass tube and wire. I finished 80 long turnbuckles (for the lower shrouds and stays) and 40 short turnbuckles (for the upper shrouds and bowsprit stays). Samples are shown below.

 

 

One end of each turnbuckle is left open so it can be attached to the corresponding attachment point on the deck.

 

I needed to fabricate eyes for several deck attachment points (other than ones that I had already installed), and I elected to use a different method than I used previously. Having searched in this forum for various techniques, I settled on a twisted stem technique, expecting it to have stronger holding power, and being quite easy to make. I looped a length of 26 gauge brass wire around a straight pin (anchored to my work surface), and hand-wound the ends to form the eye using a wooden handle drill chuck to hold the ends. I made 16 of these eyes, as shown below.

 

      

 

I'll cut them to length when I drill the holes, and I'll use CA to glue them in place.

 

 

[mysticlee]

The barque Eagle has steel masts and steel yards, and metal bands are used at various attachment points (which are either eyes or tabs in most cases).  Examples are shown below.

 

                            

 

On the model, the diameter of masts and yards range from 7/32" (on the masts) to 3/32" (on the royal yardarms). The widths of the various bands will scale (actually, wider than proper scale) to as small as 1/16", or maybe 3/32". I'd like to fabricate bands wherever there's an attachment point (as opposed to omitting the bands entirely), so the question is how to fabricate?

 

I searched on the forum and found modelers using several techniques such as soldered brass bands on larger models, and other materials glued on smaller models (including car detailing tape, masking tape, electrical tape, circuit layout tape, paper, etc.). 

 

Considering the size of my model, I wanted bands that would look relatively realistic, easy to fabricate and install, and reasonably easy to drill through (with a #78 or 0.016" bit) without distorting the band.

 

I tested two materials. First I used 1/16" wide strips of heavy bond paper, affixed to a 1/8" test piece using PVA glue, then drilled and installed two test eyes. These were easy to make, although gluing required some fiddling to keep the bands straight. Drilling through was easy enough, although the end of one of the bands lifted when I drilled. See below.

 

           

 

I'm wondering if a coat of shellac before drilling would hold the band together. This might possibly be an acceptable method, especially once it's painted Coast Guard spar color (as all of the masts and yards will be, except white for the yardarms).

 

Next, I tried fabricating a band using a strip of aluminum flashing (because I had some available). I didn't glue it in place for this test, but I would use CA if I end up using this method.

 

 

This looks a lot nicer, although the metal may be thicker (i.e., stands out more from the mast) than it should be. Bending the strip into the proper size circle was tedious (and would be even more so for the smallest size I need), and drilling was more difficult (these tiny drill bits don't drill through metal very well).

 

I'll try testing a few other materials to see if I can improve on the results above. And I'll continue to document other fittings that I made over the past seven months.

 

[mysticlee]

Oops! Didn't mean to attach the above picture! It's one I took during the 1972 Eagle cruise to Europe. I'm using this and many others I took as a guide to the ship's configuration as it was then, as opposed to how it's configured now (several notable differences).

[Kenneth Powell]

Outstanding project and it's coming along great.

 

- Kenneth

[mysticlee]

Thank you Kenneth!

 

The Eagle sails with two motor surf boats housed on davits. The model of motor surf boat has changed over the years  (generally about 30 foot), but I was able to identify the model that we had in 1972. I used multiple photos to determine the size and configuration of the davits and boats, and crafted them from basswood as shown below. The davits are not quite finished; I still need to add the hand-crank handles. The davits will be painted with Coast Guard spar color, as will the interior of the boats. The boat hulls will be totally white (no racing stripe!), with black trim along the rub rail. The rudder is temporarily fitted in the picture below, and the propeller and shaft are not shown but have been fabricated. I'll be adding eyes fore and aft on the boat deck for the lifting points.

 

     

 

 

Another little detail was the ship's bell. I had several photos of the bell, both from 1972 (shown below) and current; it has not changed over the years.

 

I attempted to make a bell from a piece of copper grounding wire. It was looking decent, although not how I really wanted it to look. About that time, a friend offered me a ship's bell from another model of very similar scale, so I used that instead, and made the support pole and bracket. The bell will remain brass, while the pole and bracket will be painted spar color.

 

         

 

More to follow!

 

[mysticlee]

The Eagle has four ladders (staircases for landlubbers): two (port and starboard) from the foredeck to the waist (main deck), and two (port and starboard) from the waist to the mizzen deck. The pictures below that I took on the Eagle in August 2024 show a closeup of the starboard aft ladder. As best I can tell from pics I took in 1972, the ladders have not changed.

 

A plug for the Eagle permanent crew: I was given topside access to the Eagle one day in the fall last year, before normal visiting hours, to take as many pictures as I wanted. Many thanks!

 

     

 

I had the good fortune of a friend giving me a box of 50 sheets of furniture veneer samples. The pearwood sample was a nice color with very straight grain. I used it for constructing the steps, stringers, and railings. The support bars are made from 24 gauge wire soldered together. The bars were glued to the wood components using CA. The pics below show the steps being built, and the completed steps test fitted at the aft end of the waist. I'll be finishing the wood with stain and (probably) poly later, along with all other bare wood fixtures.

 

            

 

 

I made use of the veneer in a few other fixtures, as I'll show in upcoming posts.

 

[mysticlee]

A set of storage bins are mounted on the railing along each side of the aft foredeck, overhanging the narrow part of the waist deck between the galley, scullery, etc., and the railing, ending forward at the ladders up to the foredeck. In 1972, the bins on the starboard side were shorter than those on the port side. The pics below facing aft, starboard on the left, port on the right (the latter pic showing only part of the bins) are from my Europe cruise in 1972.

 

     

 

I modeled these with basswood. Each set of bins is one piece of wood, with lines scored to divide the sections. The lids are low-tech, pieces of card stock cut to shape. All will be painted white (they look white in the pics, that's just the lighting), and eventually affixed to the railing.

 

 

 

[mysticlee]

The Eagle's main steering consists of three ten-spoke ship's wheels on a common shaft, with a large support between the forward and middle wheels (which houses the gears), and a small support between the middle and aft wheels. Cadets man the steering, standing on grid platforms on both sides. A small section of grid platform aft of the wheels connects the two side platforms. The pics below are from last fall; the wheels and platforms have not changed over the years (although the aft platform was moved out of view in the right picture below).

 

        

 

I had two issues in constructing the ship's wheels and platforms.

 

First, what to use for the wheels? The ideal model wheel would be 18mm in diameter (including the spokes, equal to 6 feet at my model's scale), and would have 10 spokes. And I needed four of them (three for main steering, one for aft steering). The wheels that came with my model are brown plastic, about 13mm diameter (much too small), six spoke, and ugly.

 

I was excited to find the laser cut ship's wheel kit at the Syren Ship Model Company website...10 spokes, wonderful detail, but alas, 15/16" diameter (about 24mm). Unfortunately, being 33% larger than my desired size, I had to look elsewhere. After finding only a few other possibilities, I ended up buying 20mm wheels made by Amati (unfortunately, larger than I wanted, and only 8 spoke, but they're the closest I could find.

 

 

The second issue was how to fabricate the grid platforms. Again, I found nice boxwood grating kits at Syren, with 3/64"/1.19mm gratings. That grating size would have been larger than desired, but I would have settled for that, had their grids been thinner. Instead, I found .8mm x .8mm laser cut cardboard grating at ModelNet (UK), still larger than desired, but the absolute smallest I could find. While I was waiting for delivery (several weeks), I drew and printed a rough pattern, and planned the dimensions for all of the grids (include two needed for aft steering). Once the grid material arrived, I cut sections to the appropriate size, and attachd strips of veneer for the edging. I used small pieces of dowel for the feet. I glued the three sections of grid together with PVA, and reinforced the joints underneath. Shown below are the pattern and grids. 

 

        

 

 

       

 

I made the wheel supports from pieces of sheet metal around a wooden core. As a compromise (designer's choice), I omitted the large openings that show on the actual supports, and the fore-aft dimension of the smaller support is a bit larger than actual.

 

     

 

The larger support will be painted a brass color (If I get ambitious I may re-make it using brass metal), and the smaller support will be painted spar color. The borders of the grid platforms will be stained to match other bare wood components. I may stain or paint the grids too, as long as I can do so without filling in the holes in the grids. Testing on a few scraps will tell me what can be done.

 

 

 

[mysticlee]

The Eagle's aft steering (called the Captain's Coffin) is shown below, along with my fabrication. The grid platforms match those I made for the main steering. I fabricated the benches using a block of basswood for the lower part, and pieces of veneer for the sides and back. The benches will be stained to match other bare wood components. I'll add cushions later (using material TBD).

 

           

 

[mysticlee]

Next is the binnacle forward of the main steering. The 1972 photo below (showing two of my classmates manning the helm) shows the binnacle as it was then (now, all but the hood is boxed in with cherry wood). The size of the binnacle is distorted in this photo due to the angle and perspective. I used actual measurements from my visit to Eagle last fall to craft my binnacle. The body and stem are wood, the balls are round ball head pins, and the support bar is brass. The top hood will be painted brass color, the support bar black, and the rest white. I'll add a base ring before mounting on the model.

 

     

 

[Jim Lad]

Nicely made. It's unusual to see the quadrantal correctors (Kelvin's balls) painted white.

 

John

[mysticlee]

Thanks for the complement, John, and for reminding me of their technical name and nickname. We called them the navigator's balls when I sailed. Today on the Eagle, they're painted red and green (port and starboard respectively).

 

And thanks to all for the likes on preceding posts.

 

Lee

[Jim Lad]

Called Kelvin's balls after Lord Kelvin, who invented them.

 

John

[mysticlee]

I've been taking a break from deck fittings to start planning for the masts and yards.

 

The Eagle is a modern steel hull ship, and the yards and masts are also steel, although my model will use wood for those structures (painted spar color).

 

Metal sheaves are used in several places where wooden blocks would be used on wood-hull ships. The picture below shows part of the upper topsail yard and yardarm, with a sheave mounted to the yard to direct the sheet from the topgallant sail above, down and through the sheave, and across the bottom of the upper top yard toward the center. Also note the smaller metal sheave for the upper topsail clew, directing its line also across the bottom of the upper top yard, below the sheet line.

 

  

 

I thought I'd try modeling the sheet sheave using brass sheet metal. I cut a 1/8" strip from a sheet of .005" brass, and cut lengths 1/4" long. On each piece, I cut 3 tabs on each end, leaving a 1/8" square within the tabs. Then I cut the outer tabs on each end, leaving a diamond shape with a single tab on each end. I filed the points to a rounded shape, bent the tabs 90 degrees, and cut the tabs short, leaving a little less than 1/32". Using a common pin, I stamped a depression on the inside of the piece, and soldered a short length of 24 gauge wire in the depression. The wire post is inserted in a hole in the yard until the sheave is snug against the yard. This leaves a narrow slot that will accept the sheet line (or chain, as is used for lower yards, if I can find small enough chain), which curves around the wire post. See the pics below for the construction sequence, and showing the sheave test fitted to a dowel similar in size to the modeled yards.

 

                          

 

 

 

        

 

 

The final two pics show the first sheave I made. On all the subsequent ones I cut and filed the tabs a bit shorter to narrow the opening. I made a total of 16 sheaves, two for each of the course, lower top, upper top, and topgallant yards, and ditto for both the fore and main mast yards. The royal yard does not have this sheave, since there is no sail/sheet above. The sheaves will be painted spar color along with the main part of the yard.

 

For the smaller sheave shown in the first pic above, I'm thinking to use a similar technique, but with a second piece as a backing, and tabs only on one end.  I'll drill a hole through both front and back pieces, inserting the wire through both, solder the wire on the outside of each disk, and trim/file the wires flush. I'll use a thin spacer (such as wood veneer) in the gap during drilling and soldering. I'll leave tabs long, bend them outward, and shape them into a strap to attach to the yard arm (or in other cases to a line for attachment elsewhere).

 

There's also a double sheave below the center of each yard that redirects the sheet line from each side, downward to the deck. I'll model that sheave similarly.

 

That's all for now. Happy modeling!

 

Lee