Swift by GabeK - FINISHED - Artesania Latina - first wooden ship build

[Gabek]

Hey there, Russ. My biggest frustration is with the instructions (or really lack thereof) and the rigging plan of this kit. Because I haven't built one before but have done tons of reading, I find that I'm spending a lot of time reseaching each and every knot, hitch, etc. to get it right. The kit has many errors that I'm catching. Ah,well, it's keeping me out of trouble!

[russ]

Gabe:

That is really quite normal. Kit instructions generally do not tell you the details as much as they tell you where things go. A little research on seizing and kots is quite common.

 

Russ

[Gabek]

December 28-30, 2013

 

I was now pushing myself to try and finish the model for New Year's Day so things were happening fast and furious. With the masts stepped and sail hoops made I next went on to install the gaffs. As I threaded the parrels into the jaws the string was a bit too snug to fit and it actually tore through the wood, ruining the hole. Drat. I glued a small wedge of mahogany over the hole and later sanded it back to shape. Drilled the hole again and used a thinner thread for the parrels. This time the hole held..

 

While the glue was drying on this patch job I prepared the lower dead eyes by wrapping the chains from the kit around them. I must admit I was nervous about getting a tight fit and a nice, 90 degree bend on the wire. I concentrated on pushing the brass hard against the dead eye as I worked it around 360 degrees. To make the bend "crisp" I used a pair of hobby pliers without teeth and, holding the wire at the right location, bent it by hand over the side of the jaws of the tool. I was actually surprised and pleased at how smoothly this went.

 

 

I followed Mastini's method to mark the location and set the angle for the chains by taping the shrouds in place first. I then used a sanding cord to make notches in the channels for the chains. Holes were drilled in the flattened part of the chains, I shaped them to the curve of the ship and I drilled holes in the hull for the pins. When, as I was about to attach the eighth and last chain...

 

...the flattened tab snapped off.

 

Great. At first I thought of soldering the pieces back together but didn't think it would be a good joint. I ended up using some brass shim stock that I bent like the blade of a shovel around its handle. To avoid possibly overheating the brass and discolouring it I used epoxy to attach the new tab. Once the epoxy set I filed it down, shaped the tab and installed the last chain.

 

The broken tab and its replacement

 

 

Right after the epoxy set.

 

Cleaned up with a file

 

 

Installed.

Edited February 1, 2014 by GabeK

[Gabek]

December 30 - January 1

Standing Rigging

 

I was excited. I broke out the thread from the kit and, with 3 days to the 27th anniversary, was positive that a few feet of string and a couple of knots were not going to be a problem. And I'm quite sure that the veteran modellers here might be chuckling at me right now. This being my first model I had no idea what I was getting into. The instructions of course, were no help whatsoever.

 

The standing rigging seemed to be straight forward. I had read enough to understand seizing and, thinking about how to wrap thread around another piece of thread, another hobby of mine came to mind: fly tying. The small tools made for tying bits of feather, fur and other materials onto a hook seemed to be just perfect for this job. I first made some jigs out of some stiff steel wire to hold dead eyes in the fly vice for seizing the shrouds and to make consistent eye-splices. These worked quite well, in my opinion, and I managed to quickly prepare most of the standing rigging.

 

Tying an eye, not a fly.

 

I used black lacquer from my fly tying supplies to glue the seizing

 

Pull the wire out and the eye is free.

 

Not thinking ahead enough I had to scramble to colour the lines black. Most stores were closed. I ended up dipping them in a ziplock bag with a few mLs of black acrylic airbrush paint I had on hand. To spread the paint on the thread and to remove the excess I fashioned a little squeegee from a clothes pin with some foam glued in the jaws. I hung the lines to dry with spring clamps on the ends to keep them stretched.

 

I have always been amazed at pictures and drawings of the maintop on ships and how well thought-out the arrangement of the shrouds and stays were. When it came time to install the rigging on the Swift I tried to keep in mind which arrangement would make sense for mutual support.

 

The foretop on the Swift. (Ignore the wire jig for now)

 

Installing the shrouds and stays went fairly smoothly. I was not happy with having the forestay attached to a ring on the jib boom with just an eye splice, so I made a thimble with some thin brass shim. I was rather pleased with the result.

 

 

I think I made a small mistake on the shrouds, though. I was researching every step of the way and most of the literature showed that the tail end of the shrouds should face forward when seized to the upper deadeye. When I ran the halyards for the first few deadeyes I made sure that I did this, but it just didn't look right. I did a bit more snooping and found a picture showing the tail ends facing aft. So, I switched all the work around. After I finished tying all the halyards I happened upon another book (don't remember which one) that outright said the tail ends should face forward. Well, I just wasn't going to change them again. I was running out of time if I wanted to be finished New Year's Day. Next model I'll make sure they're done right.

[russ]

The rigging looks very good. The seizings appear very neatly done. Good work.

 

Russ

[Gabek]

Thanks, Russ. Although I kinda wince at my work in the photos...lots of little imperfections really become obvious!

Regards,

Gabe

[Gabek]

New Year's Day, 2014

 

As soon as I started looking at what was involved in the running rigging I realized that I wouldn't be finishing this model today. On almost every line that needed to be run I had questions that could not be answered in the instructions and I was researching every knot, hitch and halyard. While I liked reading and checking all of this I was now getting headaches from all the decisions I was having to make. Although I really wanted to finish today I wasn't about to give up on trying to complete as good a model as I can.

 

Jan 2-3, 2014

Resolved to take my time I first prepared the blocks. I felt that, right out of the box, the blocks looked too square, so I sanded down the edges to make them a little more oval and worn looking. I also stained them to make them look a little more like oak by putting a few drops of stain in a ziplock bag and tossing the blocks around in it for a few seconds before turning them out on a paper towel.

 

 

After spending a lot of time researching the multitude of blocks and which strapping, pendants, etc are used on a ship and how to make them for a model I made a list of what was needed for the Swift. I found an excellent method of strapping a block on another modeller's website (sorry MSW). To make all the straps consistent in size I went back to my fly tying gear. A made a jig out of steel wire that would allow me to hold the block in place while I made a larger loop of thread around it. A simple overhand knot and a drop of cyano under the block made a good simulation of the splice and I then used a much thinner thread to seize the loop tight to the top of the block and form the eye. This became an easy task and I rather liked making these.

 

 

The gaffs

Based on several sources I decided to add stop cleats on the gaffs for the peak halyards. After trying to cut wedges to size, with no luck, I ended up just cutting small blocks of equal size, gluing them in place and shaping them with a knife afterwards.

 

 

Stop cleats on the gaff to keep the peak halyards in place.

 

 

I went with eye splices on the throat halyards not only because it was the right choice but also because I found that a collapsible eye needle was the perfect tool for this. I can thank my sister who does a lot of beadwork for making me aware of this invaluable tool. In just a few minutes I had spliced an eye around the ringbolt on the gaff and several other places. Next time I think I'll thread the parrels AFTER doing all this! (I discovered that I'm bad at handling beads - there's probably more on my floor than I could count. So, once I got them on the gaff I wasn't going to take them off!)

 

Preliminary steps in splicing an eye around a ringbolt.

 

 

The actual installation of the gaffs and boom involved simply threading the parrel lines through the jaws and tying an overhand knot to simulate a stop knot. A drop of cyano finished the job.

 

 

 

It was about this time that I really began to notice serious flaws in the rigging plan. For instance, why would the throat halyards be tied directly to ringbolts on deck instead of to tackle? Even if, historically, it was tied off this way, what hitch would you use in the middle of a rope that would be secure enough to hold up a gaff and sail, be fairly quick to release for setting and trimming but not so easy that it could be accidentally unhitched? After A LOT of research, a post for advice here on MSW (http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5145-correct-hitch-and-advice-on-rigging-a-flag-needed/), and the fact that I didn't have enough blocks to correctly add tackle to the halyard (I almost stole some from the Harvey kit I have), I installed the gaff as per instructions and used a slipped buntline to tie off the halyards to the deck.

Edited February 10, 2014 by GabeK

[russ]

The rigging looks good so far. It is good that you are researching the flaws in the rigging plan. The results will be much better and you will be much happier.

 

Russ

[Gabek]

Feb 3-18

Running rigging and the end game

The basic sheets and halyards went fairly well, and I like adding the blocks to the rigging - but how to deal with the falls was driving me bananas! There really should have been more fife rails. After long searches I spotted some very old photos of pilot schooners. It dawned on me that this was a working boat, with seasoned professionals manning her, much like tugboats today. There would have been a practical, no-nonsense approach to sailing her so I decided to coil the falls where they lay. Flemish flaking was good for the navy and yachts, but not for this hard working little ship.

 

 

 

I had a small problem, though. I had run out of the line from the kit. The closest I could find was slightly smaller diameter, but I think this worked out in my favour. I began making coils of line for the cleats using a little jig made of bent wire pushed through card stock. The thinner thread made it look like lots of rope was belayed, but it wasn't bulky. I followed a trick I learned here of using watered down glue to help shape the line and make it lay flatter. I tapered the end of a dowel to wrap glue-soaked line for the coils on deck. Once wrapped, I gently nudged the coils off the dowel with a dental pick. While wet I could still shape them a bit. I trimmed the tag ends of these coils and glued one turn of the original fall to the top of these coil mounds to make them look the right sized line. The finished product was adhered to the deck with a few drops of cyano. I figured that the fore gaff downhaul would not have much line, being hoisted up to its maximum height, so I decided to just layout a figure eight fake for this line. I'm not entirely sure that this would have been done in 1805, but I learned about this technique on a Canadian Coast Guard page so I thought I would add this to the Swift as an homage to them.

 

 

I had assembled the anchors, filed the mould lines and spray painted them black about a month ago. Of course, I had to research anchors. So, now I added puddening to the anchor rings and did a real hash of the seizing. Actually, the cyano glue made a hash of them, causing the thread to go translucent and ugly. I ended up painting the seizings with an off-white model paint. I had toyed with the idea of building wooden stocks and even gluing veneer to the white metal, but decided to paint them to look like wood. Another hobby of mine, painting miniatures (Warhammer, in particular), has given me some skill in painting wood grain on pewter or plastic. I base-coated the stocks with a dark brown, then streaked on a fair amount of a tan, then gave the whole thing a wash in brown ink. They looked ok.

 

I was all set to tie anchor bends to the anchors but I did one more check on my booms and, once again, I was tying anchor clinches. My first attempt took almost two hours and looked hideously bulky and the cyano had wrecked the look of the seizings. I cut off the brutish hitch and tried another time with a much thinner thread. It was ok, but I was so tired of dealing with these clinches that I resurrected an idea that I had when I was making the base for the model. I ended up drilling a hole in the top of the oak base the same diameter as the anchor cable and ran the cable into it to look as if the Swift was at anchor. Considering that she had no sails it only made sense. My 1 mm bit would not reach all the way through the base, so I used some steel wire to push the cable in, giving it a bit of cyano to keep it in the hole.

 

The Swift gently tugging on her anchor

 

 

I glue-soaked and coiled the extra anchor cable around a tapered felt pen cap to fashion coiled mounds like for the running rigging. I tied the free ends of the cables to the knight-head and glued the coils down to the deck.

 

 

A few weeks ago I posted a question to MSW about rigging flags and got great advice. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5145-correct-hitch-and-advice-on-rigging-a-flag-needed/ A long time ago (probably 12 years ago) I bought a union jack to put on my model (sorry to my American neighbours). It had adhesive backed material that you just folded down to make a two-sided flag. I curled the flag around a few different diameters of dowels to make it appear to ripple. A short length of string with an eye spliced into it was attached to the 'seam' end. Even using this very slender thread the collapsible eye needle worked its magic and an eye splice was done in seconds. I cut and sanded down some thin birch dowel to make a small toggle to attach above the flag. The kit instructed to run the flag halyards to giant deck cleats. I quickly made a smaller cleat out of http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5145-correct-hitch-and-advice-on-rigging-a-flag-needed/ walnut and attached it to the mainmast. It was fairly simple to thread the toggle through the eye-splice above the flag, and tie on a sheet bend in the eye-splice under the flag.

 

 

I hoisted the flag, tied the flag halyards to the cleat on the mast and added a drop of cyano to keep it there. I started squaring away the model: matt varnish was painted on blocks, threads and other debris were cleaned off the model, a few stray smears of glue were dealt with...

 

...the Swift was done.

 

I'll follow up with a reflection soon.

[russ]

Very well done. Congratulations on an excellent model.

 

Russ

[Senior ole salt]

That's one fine looking model. Congratulations.

 

S.os

[Gabek]

Thanks, folks. Having this build log and all the great feedback from members it generated was a major factor in pushing me to finish. And, putting pictures up for everyone to see kept me on my toes, so to speak!

Regards,

Gabe

[3sheets10]

Great work Gabe! I am really glade you posted this log. You did some excellent stuff. It is fun to see what other people are doing with their Swift builds. I hope my build cleans up like your's. . 

[Gabek]

Hey there, 3sheets. You're doing excellent work (in spite of the puppy)! Having all the MSW crew behind you is an unbelievable resource, one that I could have used when I started this model.

Thanks,

Gabe

[themadchemist]

Beautiful work Gabe.
 
You have addressed many on the issues I have with the AL pilot boat's rigging plans. Very nice upgrades.
Have you considered adding sails? PopJack has sail plans he acquired from somewhere. I've seen a scratch built Katy that has the sails furled with the spars lowered which makes for a striking display also, in my opinion.

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/11029348_a-replica-of-the-virginia-pilot-boat-the-katy-in

[Gabek]

Thanks, Keith. Great to hear from you. I thought long and hard about sails. I read up on how to make furled sails and even bought some silkspan to give it a try. I also was about to bid on eBay on a "new" Swift kit with the sails just to install the sails and have a box of material. Unfortunately, the pricing went too high for my liking. In the end, I decided to go bare poles and put sails on my next kit, AL's Harvey. I've seen that Katy before! I think It was that model that convinced me not to try furled sails! I thought the fore sail looked a bit wonky. I do like that model, though. The rigging is right, for one! I'm still cursing that I didn't put blocks on the throat halyards.

 

Kind regards,

Gabe

[themadchemist]

The furled sails on a fore and aft rig do look, as you put it, a bit wonky. They look much better done on a square rig in my opinion. I've been working on my version of the Swift 'the DSotM' again. You addressed many of the issues and changes I've been mulling over. I plan to have the throat halyard blocks you mention. I also need to make a bunch more wooden mast hoops.

 

You did a really beautiful job illustrating how easily upgrading the Swifts rig is and how much more it does for the quality of the finished build. If you wanted to post even more pictures of your excellent job from more angles, it wouldn't bother me (hint, hint). There is quite a lot of upgrades in your build and they are magnificently done. The yoke and parrrels are such a must, I can't even image the bent strap connecting the spars, although there may have been pilot boats rigged that way (which I doubt)

[HIPEXEC]

Great job. Much better than my Swift.

[S.Coleman]

Absolutely unreal!! Awesome job and very neat and tidy. Good work! I love the clamps you made out of cable ties. I had never thought of that before. Thanks

[Gabek]

Keith has done it again! He motivated me to do something and I'm now posting my final reflection on the Swift. Inspired by one of my favourite movies, I'm going to use some headings in this post.

 

[Gabek]

Great job. Much better than my Swift.

Thanks for the compliment but I'm really envious of the sails on your model, Hip...they look awesome. I really feel like my model is incomplete.

Kind regards,

Gabe

[Gabek]

Absolutely unreal!! Awesome job and very neat and tidy. Good work! I love the clamps you made out of cable ties. I had never thought of that before. Thanks

Thanks, S.C. I appreciate the comments.

 

I can thank my father, a retired electrician, for showing me the trick of chaining cable ties like that. That d-shape they form does the trick and now that they make reusable ties it becomes practical to use them as clamps.

 

Regards,

Gabe

[Gabek]

For some reason this log isn't showing up on my content list.