Lucia A Simpson 1875 by cdrusn89 - AJ Fisher - 1/64

[cdrusn89]

All three lower masts are now on the hull.

 

The Fore and Main peak and throat halyards and the topping lifts are in place and secured, at least by clamps after passing through the the respective pin board hole.

 

When I got to the mizzen I realized that the pin rails there (and I think at the bow) are going to be a problem. The instructions call for 3/32" X 5/32" material for the pin rails. Those work out fine at the Fore and Main masts but because the bulwarks are shorter on the quarterdeck (13mm vs 5mm below the cap rail) the 3/32" thickness ( 2.5mm) leaves a pretty narrow opening below the bottom of the pin rail. There are similar measurements at the pin rails on the forecastle but there is no deckhouse getting in the way up there.

 

I am in the process of fabbing new pin rails from 1/16" X 3/16 stock. Hopefully I can get these installed without messing up the deckhouse or the bulwark. I am not sure the additional 1/32" is going to "solve" the problem but it is a step in the right direction. It is not clear to me how anyone could use the pin rails as provided  -  even sticking the line in the pin rail hole and jamming a belaying pin to secure it would be problematic.

And yes I recognize that the Fore mast is racked back too much. I hope to correct this to some extent when all the forward leading stays are in place and tightened.

Edited June 9 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

I know it has been like three weeks since I last posted but I have not been idle.

 

I have all the lower shrouds and ratlines in place. I used the ratline spacing template I had from Sphinx which are 6mm apart. Since Simpson is the same scale I decided 6mm was "good enough". I used .030" Syren line for the shrouds. The plans said .027" but I decided to go a size larger (Syren comes in .025 and .030) and to use .005" black line for the ratlines (from Bluejackets). I have previously used Syren .008" line for the ratlines at this scale but like the .005 since I believe it is 100% cotton and ties better (and obviously) smaller knots (and is considerably cheaper). The instructions suggest gluing the ratlines on rather than tying them but the Bluejackets line comes on a regular thread spool and has a good bit of twist in it that does not fall out even after 4 days hanging with a weight on the end. I built a test jig to see if gluing was an option (for me). I coating the thread with dilute white glue and hung it up to dry. I had to have the jig on its side (and turn off the ceiling fan) to get the thread to "stick" and would only be able to do one ratline on each mast as touching anything before the glue dried caused movement of the ratline just placed. Soooo I decided to tie the standard clover leaf knots as I have done before.

The mizzen ratlines are the easiest since there are only three shrouds and only every fifth ratline covers all three shrouds. Don't ask me how I know but it takes a mind shift when switching sides on the mizzen as the shrouds with ratlines every 6mm are on the left now, not the right.

 

I added boom rests for all three booms since I needed something to "pull against" when tensioning the topping lifts and peak halyards. I find it hard to believe that the real ship did not have removable boom rests - probably not where I put them but there somewhere. I also rigged the boom sheets and added rope coils on deck after belaying the sheet lines as shown on the plans.

I

I added the side lights but used platforms and bulbs from Billings Boats. They are a bit larger than the Britannia metal parts that come with the kit but I think they look better. A sailor climbing the forward ratlines would have to step over either set.

I finally got around to adding the capstan bars and stowage location.

I populated all the pin rails except the three at the extreme bow including rope coils. 

 

I decided that the only running rigging on the Main and Mizzen top masts would be the top sail halyards and since these start at the becket of the block at the top of the mast I added them to the pin rail and coiled up a sufficient quantity of line so I will rig this "in reverse". I followed the same tactic with the five halyards at the fore mast. The lines are coiled up on plastic tubes and labeled with the sail (although the lines are pretty much all the same length).

Here are two shots of the ship from the quarters.

 

 

[JacquesCousteau]

Very nice work, the model’s really coming along well!

[cdrusn89]

Thanks Jacques!

[schooner]

Nice looking ratlines - the small knots look great! What do you use to trim off the excess from the knots?

[cdrusn89]

Tim,

 

I use cuticle clippers. These are from West Germany and were about $45 when I bought them in 2019. They really stay sharp as long as all you cut is CA hardened rigging line.

Edited Sunday at 10:21 PM by cdrusn89