Lightning by von stetina - 1/96 - extreme clipper

[von stetina]

As soon as the ratlines are done I will mount the davits and boats. Braces go over this area so I think it's time to put them on. Another thing to catch a finger on...

 

I have no pictures yet but I'm doing the ratlines. I quickly learned to use tape wrapped around the tweezers to limit the amount they open. They would damage the work when they opened.

 

For doing work shaping blocks I modified a set of tweezers. A lot of blocks are tiny at this scale. Some smaller than a grain of rice.  I'll try to remember to take a picture of them.

 

All the photos for a bit. I've a brass Fairfield coal drag conveyor and a stock pen to build to bring some money in. It kills me to have to take time off from the Lightning. I'll keep an eye though to reply to anyone.

 

Bruce

Edited January 5, 2015 by von stetina

[EdT]

Bruce, I've missed seeing your postings.  Welcome back.  Lightning looks great and her boats are fantastic.  Very good idea to use metal for the small breakable parts - especially as we get older and lose control of our hands.  Even though our cats have passed on, I wouldn't dream of rigging one of these without a case.  Unfortunately, my dismantled Victory case is going to have to be enlarged for YA.

 

I cannot discern the bullseyes.  Where have you used them in place of deadeyes - and do you have a source for when the change took place.  I'm also still looking for a supplier of teeny tiny chain for halyards et al.  Any ideas?

 

Ed

[michael mott]

Ed try th ho and N scale model railroad supplies, I got some extremely fine chain for a commercial model many years ago. I had to represent the catenary arch of hanging power lines responsible for a fire, for a court case. My client won his case eventually against the city and power company.

 

Bruce the model looks great and i see the block of the deck.

 

Michael

[von stetina]

Hi Ed,

I've noticed the changes in photos. In MacGregor's Book  there are some good photos. YA is there changed to the closer mast doublings done by putting a sort of dogleg to clear the shrouds, and iron mast caps. I don't remember if she had been switched to bullseyes for upper shrouds or not.  I have 3 different plans of 3 different ships done by Crothers and the differences are interesting.

 

I found it at only one small RR business They are the only place I found it in 10 foot bulk packs, everyone sells it by the foot. I'll look up their name and post it later or e mail it you. I found that for Lifghtning I needed more than 9 feet.

 

Enlarge the case...it really brings home the size of these ships doesn't it. I read somewhere that one could build two 74 gun ships with the timber it took to build some of the big clippers.

 

Shop foreman shown below.   winking.

Edited January 6, 2015 by von stetina

[DanO]

Bruce,

 

You have taken a pile of wood and metal and turned it into a masterpiece. There are few who have this ability and applaud you for your accomplishment

[Mirabell61]

Bruce ,

 

your Clipper looks fantastic, I`m with DanO, you have created a masterpiece, very well done !!

 

Nils

[Michel]

Beautiful, the top !!

[von stetina]

Hi guys,

 

It's good to be back. I've finished the work that I need to bring in the bucks, now it's fun time.

 

I'm doing the ratlines now. I'll never forget how to do a clove hitch, there are well over 1000 of them. As I began I found that my tweezers were opening too far at times and stretching the ratlines above and below. By limiting them with tape I solved this. I forget the dia. right now, but I think the thread is about .015.

 

As I had finished this side I could finally put on the davits and hang the boats. The griping straps are of paper strengthened with acrylic gesso.

 

I found that very few tools have been needed. I'll show the later. I've been up all night so i'll get back to you this evening.

 

It's so good to be back, I've missed you all. I see Dan wrote. Hi buddy.

 

Bruce

[druxey]

We've missed you as well! Nice to see you back on the real job, Bruce.

[rwiederrich]

Fantastic work Bruce....How do you make, or where do you acquire your brass fittings...such as your davits/fixtures and windows.  Very impressive for sure.

 

I use a lot of HO scale train cast parts for my builds...they are easy to acquire.

 

Rob

[von stetina]

Hi Druxey,  Thank you.

 

These pics show the ratlines in place.  Up from the rail a bit are the fairleads. They are made by cutting tiny brass tube pieces that have had a groove turned into them so that they can be tied on. They must be check for the fit of the lines that travel through them first. They are so tiny that a dab of glue on them stuck them in place, after drying they were tied on. On the topmast and topgallant shrouds the shrouds get too close together and the ratlines are carried over onto the backstays. I found this fact in the Underhill book about masting and rigging.

 

You can see that not all of the ratlines go across all of the shrouds, but only the 5th is carried over all of them.

 

On the top and topgallant masts you can see the practice of using bullseyes instead of deadeyes. The plans show this as well as many old photos. It was probably easier to take up the slack under way? 

 

If you look at earlier photos of the lower mast tops you can see the extra bracing McKay used for extra strength between the top and cap on the lower mast doubling. Also you can see his practice of using a 3rd topmast backstay carried before the last shroud. [it sure makes the ratlines there a problem.] I'm sure it helped down on the Australia run in the storms. Also the 11 1/2 inch shrouds, stays, and backstays up to the topgallant level would give a lot of extra strength for hard driving. The extremely long sharp hollow entrance was probably for storm performance also. I think she had the sharpest entrance of all the clippers. It's no wonder his ships held so many records for speed and 400 plus miles per 24 hours. The immigrants must of had quite a ride. 3rd class down below must have been quite an experience. I wonder if they had access to the ship surgeon too. Did they get to hear the band or get the ship newspaper Lightning Times? The very long list of captain's rules sure applied.

 

Bruce

[von stetina]

These are the tools in use. Not many. 3 tweezers have done most of the work. There is a paint brush handle with a needle in it. This is for undoing knot goof ups. For cutting off loose ends you can see the bamboo stick with a broken off safety razor half. Very sharp.

 

Bruce

[von stetina]

After looking at the model for all this time I found that the wooden stock anchors noted on my plan set looked out of place on such a progressive vessel. The big splash of brown drew the eye too much up on the this area. I made an artist's call and put more modern looking anchors in place. I find it much more pleasing to the eye.  My research showed the type as correct for this period also. I feel that as long as this was historically feasible it would be OK.

 

All for now. I'll be back soon.

 

Bruce

[vonstetina]

Hi guys,

 

I'm finally back on my Lightning model. I've been making progress when I've had the chance. Hopefully I will have a good stretch of building ahead now.

 

The yards are going up now and it's quite exciting to see. I've taken the advice in Gerald Wingroves book on ship modeling and started at the top. It makes great sense, I would have been snagging lines on tools and fingers the other way.

 

Also I've run the mizzen rigging first as it is overlapped by the main. I've had to make more special tools. Especially to reach down into Lightning's main deck obstructed by 2 gangways. A real problem getting to those belaying pins.

 

One important thing that I had to learn was to not snatch my hands back towards me quickly, but to move slowly and feel for lines.. A bad habit that snapped some lines up top. The rigging up there at 1/8 scale is only .008 to .010 thick.

 

The hardest part of the work has been the lifts. I don't know how to describe this, but it's tough to get nice square yards. The top yards are so tiny and light that not much weight hangs them down.

 

First thing to mention is that all of my yards have hinged parrels. I felt this was a must for doing a sane build. Can't imagine any other way. Once the parrels were closed I ran the halliards. Then lifts, then braces.

 

Many of these blocks are 6 and 7 inch blocks. Smaller than a grain of rice. Doing these in wood was ridiculous. I used Wingroves method and am now turning all blocks of brass. After so many years I now have a lathe.

 

 

 

I'm having a teeth grinding time getting this post up with the pictures included. New computer...nuff said.  So I'll post this, then follow on with the pics. I hope...I may need to get the wife involved...

[vonstetina]

Pics I hope. Here goes.

 

No good. To say I'm p----d would be a vast understatement. The browse goes to documents after I select the pics, where of course nothing is.

 

Sorry, I'll try with my smarter wife.

 

And where has my picture with my cat gone from the left.

 

Bruce

Edited April 21, 2016 by vonstetina

[EdT]

Good to see you back, Bruce.  Look forward to the pics.  In their attempt to make it easier to use, Microsoft has succeeded in making navigation through the file directories almost impossible.  My sympathies.  Who files all their documents - or pictures - in one place??

 

Ed

[vonstetina]

My wife rescued me. Here are pictures showing the hinged parrel, and a yard going up. Note that I attached the rigging to the yard before putting the yard up. At this stage I found the work the hardest part of the build yet. I have the whole mizzen complete, part of the main, and the fore royal up. I'll post this work soon.

 

For now I'd like to include some detail shots of other parts of the ship also. Some related to rigging, some not. Some show fairleads

 

Bruce.

 

 

[vonstetina]

Id like to mention that after belaying lines it's best to leave extra thread hanging off and not put any white glue on the pin yet. I have made a little jig for making the rope coils, which will go on later.

 

Bruce

[JerseyCity Frankie]

11 1/2" Standing rigging all the way up to the tgallent level? Thats some mighty thick line! Must have been a bear to manhandle that line back in the day when they were rigging. Just getting a backstay that long aboard and on deck in the right spot must have been a challenge. Then to raise it into the rigging that high? Crazy.

[rwiederrich]

Fantastic work Bruce...really!  I love this model...following with great anticipation.

 

Rob

Edited April 21, 2016 by rwiederrich

[Jim Lad]

Great to see you back, Bruce!

 

John

[vonstetina]

Hi Frankie,

 

I agree, it was hard for the model builder too!

 

The ship must have been able to take some driving. Another thought I've had is that the weight of all that heavy rigging on those smaller upper masts and the tops must have been hard on them. All that weight bearing down. But one can see why McKay's ships set the speed and 24 hour records. If you look at the hull construction too you will see they were built like line of battle ships with only a tiny bit of room between the frames. Huge backbones too. Amazing.

A letter I found from a passenger in an as yet to be published book by a distant McKay decendent says she was never beaten in a race. Not even by his other ships.

 

Bruce 

[vonstetina]

Thank you Rob and John. It's good to be back. I had a very long stretch of boring jobs to do.

 

Bruce

[bhermann]

That is some amazing work, Bruce.  Very clean and crisp.  Good to have you back, and happy you got the picture thing sorted out.

 

Bob

[Elia]

Beautiful work Bruce.

[NenadM]

Wow, Bruce! School example how to make perfect model!

[von stetina]

Hi all,

 

I've been gone getting my ticker re-plumbed. Had a bad ekg, then a heart catheterization for a stent, found out a stent wouldn't work. I had a triple bypass at the Gainesville/Shands V.A. Hospital within 4 days. Had a bleed, they stopped that. I went home for  3 weeks and passed out. Ambulance to Tallahassee this time as they could only get me back to the V.A. hospital by chopper for $40.000. I spent 5 more days with them trying to figure out where my blood went. Anyways, the V.A. was terrific [Tallahassee too] and I'm all patched up and am shortly to finish Lightning. Below are some pictures of me adding rigging that I forgot to put on earlier. It is a terrible job getting in behind what was there. Also Lightning has that recessed deck with the flying bridges making it very hard to get to the belaying pins.

[mtaylor]

It's great to see you back and patched up, Bruce.   Lightning is looking great.

[druxey]

Quite the excuse for not posting for ages, Bruce. I'm glad the story has a happy ending and that you are back in harness.

 

The rigging work looks beautiful.

[Eddie]

Hey howya goin mate, good health to you.

 

Nice job on the rigging so far and the ship she look good waiting to see more.