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

cdrusn89 · June 9

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 · June 28

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 · June 28

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

cdrusn89 · June 28

Thanks Jacques!

schooner · June 28

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

cdrusn89 · June 28

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 June 29 by cdrusn89

cdrusn89 · July 1

Proceeding apace I decided to get the after end of the ship "finished", except for the final tensioning of the backstay/top mast shrouds and the inter-mast stays.

I took the pictures in my make shift "photo studio" which I hope to use to take the pictures for the NRG model contest, assuming I get the Simpson finished by the end of the month. Pay no attention to the bottom surface. I have been promised a white sheet to cover up the wood working bench.

So here is the mizzen mast with all the rigging that I intend to provide in place. The only new running rigging is the topsail halyard and down haul which you can see joined together aft of the throat/peak/topping lifts. I ran the down haul through the small block at the aft end of the gaff, along the boom and then down to the deck. I have a rope coil that will go on top of the cabin roof where the down haul line leads down from the boom.

After i got the topmast shrouds/back stays connected and the deadeyes lashed up I added the railing along the stern rail.

Next up was the boat and davits/tackle. Since there was no boat included with the kit I used a vanguard 1/64th, 3-D printed boat (18' cutter) which is probably too wide and too short to fit under the davits and not hit the stern. Given my unwillingness to pursue a different boat at this late date I decided to mount the boat on a skid on the cabin roof to starboard of the mizzen mast. I toyed with the notion of fabbing a cover from the left over sail material but gave up when I could not figure out the correct shape of the cover and not wanting to cover the work I had done on the boat interior.

Here is an overall view of the stern from the quarter (the whole ship in this view is one of the required photos for the NRG contest).

So with the boat on deck I turned to davits inboard and added a eyebolt and cleat to hold the boat tackle in place. It is hard to see but there are coils of the boat tackle on deck below the cleats. I used Bluejackets .005" white line for the boat tackle as it is the smallest line i have.

Here is a shot of the "quarterdeck with the davits and tackle in place.

Hard to get the camera to focus on the deck but you can see the white rope below the davit.

And this is another required shot (directly astern).

And yes I know the ship is listing slightly to starboard. That happened the last time I had to fiddle with the mounting screws. I am waiting until everything is DONE before I try and tackle that issue. But at least the masts seem to line up correctly and I had to drill the mast holes.

Paul Le Wol · July 2

She looks beautiful Gary! Good luck in the Photographic Competition.

cdrusn89 · July 2

Thanks Paul 😀

cdrusn89 · July 3

I got all the back stays and topmast shrouds installed and lanyards revered but not yet secured (good thing).

I cleaned off the workbench (more or less) and took the model off the turntable which makes switching sides while rigging much easier. It does however present challenges to keeping everything clear of the "swing radius", especially of the bowsprit/jib boom.

First order of business was to get the model level. As at least an approximation of this I used a thick plastic ruler across the cap rail amidships and stuck thin pieces of wood under the baseboard until I got an indication of level.

For those interested the model was 2.5 degrees out of level.

I turned out the workbench lights and set up the laser level to see if the masts are straight.

I fiddled with the back stays and topmast shrouds on the fore mast until I got the laser light on the entire mast. Disregard that toothpick I got the fore mast straight without it.

The bowsprit (jib boom actually) is just a bit over to port - you can just see the laser light on the down haul block just behind the first two stays. Need to tighten up the starboard side guys on the jib boom.

Since the fore mast blocks most of the light from getting to the main mast I had to use the "seaman's eye" to adjust the main mast back stays/shrouds to get it in line. I could not get the light to hit the very top of the mainmast but it is "really close".

So now I have to go secure the main and fore mast back stays and top mast shrouds in these positions before everything "springs back" out of shape.

Once I have the main/fore "squared away" I will turn the model around and see how the mizzen masts looks. Hopefully the main mast will now be the "gold standard" and I can adjust the mizzen to line up with the main.

Once all the stays/shrouds are secured I can get the yardarm/raffee in place. Given that three of the fore mast stays pass through the raffee I will have to unfurl at least part of the raffee to pass the stays through.

Should be an interesting evolution.

cdrusn89 · July 3

The mizzen mast turned out to be a bit more problematic than the main/fore. In addition to tightening one side and lossening the other back stay/topmast shrouds I had to rerigged the lower shroud deadeyes on the starboard side as they the lower shrouds had become noticeably loose after the back stays/upper shrouds were tightened.

In any event i managed to get the mizzen mast straight.

It was much easier to get the laser on the hull centerline at the stern as there are obvious reference points (rudder et al)

By the seaman's eye all three masts appear to be in alignment.

I am not sure how I will deal with the list of the model on the display stand. I can correct for the photos and then crop the base out of the photos) but when "on display" the list would detract from the overall appearance - maybe a discreet wedge or two under the baseboard would work - I am not sure redoing the screws in the solid hull can be done by me) is such a way as to guarantee the model is perpendicular to the base.

SaltyScot · July 3

3 hours ago, cdrusn89 said:

I am not sure how I will deal with the list of the model on the display stand.

Just a suggestion, Gary. I though that if you added another board under the current base (stained to the same color of course to match), and put your "discreet" shims between it and the current base at the relevant points, wouldn't that level it up enough? Once it was stained and the shims sanded down to the boards profile you would not even see them. Like I said, just a suggestion.

cdrusn89 · July 3

Everything I know about the Great Lakes schooners I learned at the Tall Ships Erie in 2019. Below is the Denis Sullivan which at the time was the "official tall ship of Milwaukee" (or maybe Wisconsin). She is now some sort of "school ship" in St. Croix according to the internet.

Anyway the thing I found interesting was the single yard arm on the fore mast and that it was rotated out of the way when not in use, or presumably it might be tilted with the raffee sail (aka topsail) furled on the yard. The only rationale that comes to (my) mind for allowing the yard to rotate would be to allow the ship to moor to a pier where buildings (like warehouses) were very close to the pier for ease of loading/unloading. However, since two of five stay running forward from the fore mast pass through a cut-out in the sail the sail would have to be furled sort of "around" these stays. As you can see in the picture the yard is bare so no help here. And of the tall ships I have seen in the US no other one carries a rig like this so...

I have the yard in place on the model and able to rotate. I originally furled to raffee sail on the yard but I have since unfurled it and am letting it dry now.

Plan is to tie the sail on the yard - sail plan shows it tied on at lower corners and at the edges of the cut-out for the stays - attach the halyard and raise the sail - then spray a little water on the sail and see what can be done about furling it.

I have an idea how the sail would be rigged on the real ship. If the yard was tilted to one side you could reach the sail attachment points on one side from the ratlines, then tilt the yard the other way and do the other side - then level the yard, attach the halyard and haul away. Probably not too difficult unless the weather is not cooperating which on the Great Lakes can be much of the time.

Edited July 3 by cdrusn89

cdrusn89 · July 3

After further consideration and a more careful viewing of the picture above I think the answer to how is the raffee furled is that is furled against the fore top mast on the forward side, not on the yard arm. Since I did not make the other topsails and do not have the time, materials or inclination to do so now I will dispense with the raffee and leave all the topsails off. I think it would look strange to have just the one upper sail in place. In fact I think that the raffee was probably only set when running more or less down wind while the other topsails would have been more useful at other points of sail. How someone gets up to near the top of the fore topmast to furl the raffee is a mystery to me - bosun's chair?

So now to secure all the back stay and topmast shroud deadeyes and proceed with rigging the inter-mast stays.a

cdrusn89 · July 4

Inter mast stays between main and mizzen completed - some trimming left when glue dries.

Moving on to main - fore mast inter-mast stays.

Sorry about the background it was all I could find at the moment. My photo study is still under construction.

Dr PR · July 4

Gary,

Would the raffee have been furled at all? On some topsail schooners with the square topsail the topsail yard and sail were rigged on deck, and hoisted into position with the halliard. Then the clews were hooked to the ends of the spreader yard. This sometimes was done with the royal on large full rigged ships.

The raffee could just be hoisted when it was needed and dropped when not. Since these sails were used only when running with the wind most of the rigging used on the square sails of larger ships wasn't used.

cdrusn89 · July 4

Phil,

I know from experience onboard the Pride of Baltimore II that their upper yard arm on the fore mast (Royal I guess) is rigged on deck and raised on the halyard.

The picture of the Denis Sullivan clearly shows (if you expand the image) that the raffee is furled against the fore topmast.

cdrusn89 · Wednesday at 12:34 AM

Almost done.

When it became to add the jib sheet lines things got a little complicated. I had added three 3.5mm single blocks on each side just behind the raised forecastle deck because that is where I thought the "turning block" of the jib sheet tackle went based on the rigging plan. Red circle below:

When it came time to actually rig the sheets lines using these blocks produced somewhat unrealistic (IMHO) leads and runs for the tackle.

Further review of the rigging plan revealed that each sheet line was allocated four belay points, two on each side (dah). That accounts for the six pins on each of the two forward pin racks.

So I decided that one pin was for a pendant holding the turning block and the other the bitter end of the hauling line. You can see some of the standing jib tackle in place in the photo above.

So I revised the plan and now need to either remove the "extra" blocks or just leave well enough alone. Jury is still out.

I probably mentioned this before but I got the running lights back in place in the correct orientation but here is a better picture of the port side light (and it is actually on the port side showing the red light from dead ahead to 112.5 degrees relative.

And I have the fore yard arm rigged and in the "stowed" position.

Cleaning up odds and ends and completing the re-rigging of the jib sheet lines.

Once they are done there is a bit of paint to touch up and add the name boards which is a story for the next post.

Edited Wednesday at 12:37 AM by cdrusn89

schooner · Wednesday at 11:05 AM

Looking REALLY good!!

cdrusn89 · Thursday at 01:00 AM

Thanks Schooner - I have the Syren kit (must be five years old now) sitting under the work bench but am not ready to get in "cannon making mode" again just yet so it will have to wait as it is not yet "next".

The name boards. Although the instructions say the name boards are white letters on a black background I did consider doing it the other way as the label maker I have did a pretty nice job and the small size letters were "just right". But as best I can tell there is no label maker (or decal maker for that matter) that will do white on black.

So I fell back on what I initially thought was the next best and bought several sets of white dry transfer lettering from Woodland Scenic. I measured the gap between the cap rail and the lower trim and cut some basswood stock to the measured 3/16". I started with some 3/64" thick because that was what it was already. Painted it black, two coats with 220 grit between to get it smoother and then got the letters out and...

Either I have forgotten or never tried to do this many letters in a row but this was definitely not easy. After three tries this is the best one

Not good enough by a long shot. It was really, really hard to get things lined up one letter at a time while looking through the other letters on the sheet and being very, very careful not to press too hard elsewhere as it does not take much pressure to transfer a letter you don't want.

So I thought about other alternatives and remembered the friezes that were part of the Winchelsea build. These were printed on fairly thin standard copy paper with my ink jet printer (Canon 6820), cut out and then glued onto the ship sides with dilute PVA. They looked "great" if I do say so myself.

So I thought I would try that here.

I used PowerPoint to get the text and a rounded rectangle as the background. It took some fiddling around with fonts and font sizes but I finally got what I thought would work.

I printer them out on a heavier weight paper and here are several versions. The ones on the far right are the "good" ones (one is already cut out).

I carefully cut out the name with a new #11 Xacto blade and glued it onto the per-painted basswood strip. A sanding stick rounded the ends and reduced the length to just past the paper. I used a Sharpie (wide tip) to blacked the wood where I sanded and to cover up the white line that is the end of the paper.

Here is the first (of four) required.

And here it is installed on the stern

For the bow I had to thin down the basswood as the 3/64" did not want to bend around the bow and wood is cheap so I will use 1/32" (or maybe a little thinner) for the two name boards at the bow.

The stern has both the name and home port so I need to go back to PowerPoint and make up that one but I think this 'problem" is "solved".

ccoyle · Thursday at 01:41 AM

Looks great!

cdrusn89 · Thursday at 02:09 PM

Thanks ccoyle!

The stern name board looks a little "off-center although this is what the drawing shows. Please do not notice the "hole" under the stern rail at the extreme port side.

I should touch up (very carefully) the edge of the cap rail back here.

The anchors are attached to the chains and lashed down.

The last items to be installed are the two forward name boards (I screwed up the first two tries) and the two flags which are still "being processed".

After that it is on to "picture taking" for the NRG photo contest.

cdrusn89 · Thursday at 04:11 PM

I my haste to get the top masts in place I forgot that there are mast hoops for the topsails on the main and mizzen masts.

I had some 5/16" and 1/4" wooden mast hoops that are laser cut and thought MAYBE I could cut them open and TWIST them around the top masts and live with the small "crack" in the hoop. Not in my lifetime, the hoops are so fragile there was no may I could get them around the top mast in less than two pieces.

I rummaged through my "parts bin" and found some plastic mast hoops in black.

They are about .095" thick and have a ring for connection to the sail.

I cut them right next to the attachment ring and they could slide around both top masts. I used some liquid plastic glue to attempt to glue them back together but was unwilling to hold the end together by hand for the glue set time which seemed like hours. The liquid glue did restore more or less the black finish that cutting them had disturbed.

Here is what the main top mast looked like.

Compared to the mast hoops on the lower masts they are much thicker and the ring attachment stands out.

So, since I had enough of the plastic hoops to make another set I started by sanding the hoops down to approx .05". Still thicker than the lower mast hoops but about as thin as I could go without risk of them getting "crooked" with one side/end noticeably thicker/thinner than the other. Don't ask me how I know this.

I cut the ring off and used the plastic glue to restore the finish playing particular attention to the outer edges as that is really all that can be easily seen.

Here is the mizzen mast with the new, smaller hoops without the ring. They are still black but not nearly as noticeable as the larger ones.

Short of painting them brown this is the best I can do. I looked at the other schooner i have built and all have mast hoops on the top masts, that carried topsails.

And here is the main - looks much more "in scale" than before (IMHO).

cdrusn89 · Thursday at 10:06 PM

I declare the Lucia A. Simpson FINISHED!

Here are some pictures of the ship as a whole.

Now I need to clean up the workbench so it can become ma photo studio. Hopefully I can use my Canon E-60 to good effect once I get more/better lighting.

Paul Le Wol · Thursday at 10:46 PM

Gary, congratulations on completing your Lucia A Simpson! She is exceptional. Hopefully you have inspired others to build this beautiful model.

ccoyle · Friday at 01:28 AM

Congratulations on finishing a rare bird -- maybe we'll see some more AJ Fisher projects around here now!

schooner · Friday at 11:41 AM

Very well done. I'm impressed with your technique for the furled sails - I'll have to use it when I get around to building my FORESTER kit, an old Model Shipways West Coast Lumber schooner.

Once again, great job.

JacquesCousteau · Friday at 02:16 PM

Very nice job!

cdrusn89 · 2025-07-12T21:50:02Z

Thanks everyone.

She is entered in the NRG Photo Model Contest and these are the pictures I submitted. The eight views (sides, bow, stern and quarters are "required" photos, the others are optional but I thought it useful to show some of the details.

We will she how she looks to the NRG judges.