Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack by palmerit - Model Shipways - 1:24

[palmerit]

Making the small chainplates for the backstays was a new challenge. The kit supplies a somewhat thick “strip” of brass that I first drilled two holes in (on the strip). I regularly heated (with a long lighter) the end I was working on, but it still took a while to drill through with my pin vise. I then drilled the top hole again with a wider drill bit. Then attached the strip in my vise to shape them half round at the top, and then cut to length in my mini miter box. I filed the cut. Then sanded with fine grit sandpaper to remove the oxidation from heating the metal.  
 

The kits came with pins (for the bottom smaller hole) but I’m using the pins that came with my Sherbourne (they’re thinner and the same color of brass). 

Edited February 5 by palmerit

[palmerit]

The instructions for the blocks were a little confusing. Early in the instructions, it says “only two of these have a loop at one end and a hook at the other”.  On first reading, I thought only two have hooks since the previous strops I had made (for the Pram and Smack) had loops. But then later in the next column it said “for the five blocks with only a hook …” so clearly, there are two blocks with a loop and a hook and five blocks with only a hook. 

Edited February 6 by palmerit

[palmerit]

[palmerit]

Finished stropping the blocks. 

[palmerit]

Preparing the sail. Painted it after taping it with a slurry of glue and water to stiffen the fibers. Because with my Pram my smaller cutting mat left green stains on the sail (Model Expo is sending a new one), before I taped this one down, I put down some plastic (Saran) wrap taped around the mat. I hope that works better. 
 

The reef points are short lengths of line that will be glued to the sails. To stiffen them, I cut some lengths of line, painted them with the slurry, and hung them from my table, using some clips to weight them. We’ll see how they are tomorrow evening. 

Edited February 7 by palmerit

[palmerit]

Working on the main sail. 

[palmerit]

Finished the sails. Just need to add the reef points to the other side of the main sail. 

Edited February 9 by palmerit

[palmerit]

I was able to attach the main sail to the main mast.
 

But I was really struggling to figure out how to attach the sail to the gaff and the boom. The main instructions are pretty spartan. The appendix explanations are incomplete. They kind of describe the lashings. But don’t describe the lacing. 
 

Then I looked at the instructions for my Pram. I hadn’t finished that yet because I was waiting for a new piece of sail material to arrive from Model Expo. It just arrived today. I looked back at the instructions for the Pram and the description of how to add the sail were much more complete. Now that I have a new sail, I’ll finish the Pram, then turn to the Smack. 

[palmerit]

More progress on the sail. Learned some things after finishing my Pram. 

[palmerit]

More progress on the sail and rigging. 

[palmerit]

For my next model with rigging, I'm going to do some more research on knots. This kit suggested double half-hitches everywhere. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, if the line is just too thick, but the knots seemed large. And my understanding is that you'd really never even have knots on a ship. The knots serve their purpose on the model, but a bunch of huge knots just seems wrong.

 

I also need to research - if I'm using knots - how to get them to be snug when I'm try to get them up against a whole (e.g., for the parral beads along the boom).

Edited Wednesday at 09:45 PM by palmerit

[palmerit]

Speaking of parral beads. This model recommends them but does not supply them. I ended up ordering ordering a multipack for around $15 from amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CD19WZZC?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

It came with small containers with several sizes (from 6/0 to 15/0). I probably have enough "seed beads" to last me multiple lifetimes.

 

I'm sure I could have found a bead store someplace in town. But it was just easier to buy a small pack and now I have them.

 

[Kenchington]

3 hours ago, palmerit said:

For my next model with rigging, I'm going to do some more research on knots. This kit suggested double half-hitches everywhere. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, if the line is just too thick, but the knots seemed large. And my understanding is that you'd really never even have knots on a ship. The knots serve their purpose on the model, but a bunch of huge knots just seems wrong.

I don't think you are doing anything wrong. Far from it! I think your rigging looks very fine indeed. But you are right that a lot of half-hitches and overhand knots look too bulky.

 

First off: I'd recommend starting your reading with Ashley's Book of Knots. The first chapter contains more wisdom about traditional cordage than you'll find anywhere else, while the rest of the tome presents (literally) thousands of knots used on shipboard. There are many other works, some more practical, others more historical. But Ashley's will give you the fundamentals to build on.

 

Next: A sailing ship has many, many knots (though pedants like to fuss over when and where a complex twisting of fibres should be called a "knot" and where it should be something else, such as a "bend"). However, full-scale rigging also uses a lot of splices and seizings, which are much neater than a bunch of half-hitches.  Neater but very, very challenging at 1:24, let alone smaller scales!

 

For anything from rope represented at 1:10 up to seizing twine used aboard a (full-scale) sailing dinghy, I find that tuck spices can be useful: Pass the full thickness of the free end under a single stand and repeat, instead of opening out the strands and passing them in turn. At 1:24, eyes can be formed by a crude seizing actually formed like a whipping, without the frapping turns of a proper seizing. (It could even be finished to look like a spliced eye with a serving over the splice!) I find it best to use a West Country whipping: Pass very fine thread where you want to seize an end to make an eye, centre the work at the mid-length of the thread, tie half a reef knot around the parts forming the eye and pull tight, then pass the ends of the thread around the other side of the work and tie another half of a reef knot, bring the ends back to the front, tie again ... and keep going until you are satisfied. Finish with a reef knot, dab of white glue, then cut off the ends of the thread. The great thing with the West Country, rather than a common whipping, when working at scale is that the first couple of knots stabilize the work, after which it is a whole lot easier to proceed.

 

Beyond that, I'd say get imaginative. I've just represented the Mathew Walker knots on my dory's stern becket by tucking each strand once as though starting a back splice, then bringing those strands back over the knot so formed, pulling them together and cutting off short. Crude, ugly and bulky – but much nicer than the overhand knots recommended in Model Shipway's instructions, while being far, far easier than an actual Mathew Walker!

Edited Thursday at 01:08 AM by Kenchington