Rattlesnake by scott larkins - FINISHED - Model Shipways - Scale 1:64

[JPett]

Ahoy Scott  

 

That's not a mast, but I am still jealous

 

You really did a great job on your hull and completed it. It is truly something to be proud of

 

"Congratz" 

 

Good luck with the masts  

[scott larkins]

Now for the foremast.  Again, I used my drill as a laithe.  Make sure you measure according to the plans and your caliper.

 

The plans show that the top of the lower portion of the foremast is squared.  I measured out the square piece and used left over planking to make the square.  I sanded down this portion of the mast even more so the square pieces would be closer to the round portion so it looks like it blends better.  Just follow the plans.

 

Here are the platform rests.  I photo copied the plans and cut out the pieces from scrap.  Just that simple.

 

I used the laser cut platforms and then planked over them according to the plans.  I used extra pieces of the planking for the gunwals of the ship. Put on the pieces according to the plans.  Not to tough.  Where possible I cut the wood a little longer so I could sand them to size.  Then I sanded the tops with fine sand paper.  I was pretty happy with this.

 

Once I was done with the planking I added the sides and back.  Next would be the front.  I soaked the wood for a long time and bent it just for the front.  It was a little tricky, well, maybe a lot, to get the wood to stay bent however.  I had to use CA glue along with wood clue to get the front to stay.

 

Once the sides of the platforms were on and sanded down I moved on to the platform support pieces.  I used a combination of the plans and what I actually came up with to make sure these pieces were as close as similar as I could.  I actaully think I got it pretty close.

Edited October 11, 2014 by scott larkins

[scott larkins]

Foremast continued.

 

Here is the finished platform supports.  Be careful when using the plans vs. what you actually create.  I suggest you put the platform pieces together according to your squared mast top and not the plans.  It was a little tricky.  I tacked on two pieces of wood to the side of the mast and then measured the places where the four pieces of wood would cross so I could cut them to fit.  I didn't trust the plans vs. my actualy product.

 

Next was the cross tree.  I made it the size of the plans but again, connected the four pieces to the squared off top of the top foremast.

 

Here's how the platform finally looks on the mast.

 

And here too.

 

Oops, I forgot one thing in the plans and my finished product.  I made my square pieces to thick.  But I like the way the pieces lined up and looked.  So I ended up actually cutting out the areas where the rat lines and shrouds come up to the mast.  Yeah, I messed up but I think I recoved pretty well.  My bad, hopefully you will learn from my mistake.

 

Really big word of warning here folks.  Make sure you look at the plans before putting on all of the block and tackles.  There are different sized pieces for different circumstances.  I messed a few up, but luckily since it's just string I was able to easily recover.

Edited October 19, 2014 by scott larkins

[scott larkins]

And finally the finished product.  Tied on blocks and eye bolts included.  Sorry I couldn't get closer pics of the platforms.  The camera just wouldn't focus too close.

 

 

Edited October 11, 2014 by scott larkins

[mog]

Scott,

Are there buntline blocks on the AFT side of the platform ?  Some folks say to put 6 on the front and 6 on the aft, however not sure what the aft side would be used for as the plans don’t really show them, your thoughts

MOG 

[scott larkins]

Mog,

 

No, no bunt blocks or lines on the back.  The plans don't call for it and I don't see a need for them.  The bunt blocks up front have a specific purpose.

[mog]

Thanks Scott,

your advise and help as always is much appreciated

MOG

[RevKB]

Great Job Scott on this build, i stayed up until 2am last night reading through the whole thing. I was blessed that you commented on a few things i was curious about. One thing that still puzzles me though, where do you find the messurement for the whale line? Im sure i will find out with further reading, but if i ask then i can check that off my list and think on new things.

 

In His dust Kenny

[scott larkins]

Ken,

 

If I understand your question correctly, the top of the wale line, lines up with bottom of the deck line.  If you look at the plans that display the planking you can see how the two line up.  Not the top of the deck planking, but the bottom, or in line with the bulkhead deck line.

 

If anyone else thinks differently please chime in.  Since this is my first build I am by no means an expert.

 

And thanks Ken for the compliment.  I think you just found the best thing about this site.

[JPett]

Ahoy Scott and Kenny  

 

While the top of the wale does follow a line similar to the outside edge of the deck it does not follow it precisely. If you look at the plans you will see that it starts at the deck in the bow then drops slightly below midship and then rises slightly above it in the stern. I only know this because I followed the deck line and it caused my window in the stern to be off.

 

On the plans that  show the "inside view of the bulwarks" , the image just below that shows the deck as two broken lines that are both above and below the wale. They are marked "top of deck center" and "side" with the side also showing the position of the scuppers 

Edited October 16, 2014 by JPett

[Martin W]

Hi Scott -- Terrific work.  Those chainplates are always tricky to align just right.  I like the way you've handled them.

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[scott larkins]

Thanks Martin.  The truth will come when I try to tie in the shrouds.  The little voice in the back of my head says something will go sidewasy.  I'll keep my fingers crossed though.

 

Good catch Pett, I had forgotten about those two points in my post.

 

And the masts are all done. Starting to look like an old sailing ship now.

 

 

Edited October 18, 2014 by scott larkins

[JPett]

Ahoy Scott 

 

WOW 

 

There are no other words 

[scott larkins]

Just checking in folks.  Yes, I'm still working.  Been getting the block and tackles put on various parts of the ship and gaff.  I'll get some pics put up soon but not a lot to say on it.  Just follow the plans but occasionally look in the instructional manual. Occasionally there is a better pic in the manual then the plans. Perhaps it's really just a better angle.  Soon wil be the ropes on the yard arms and their block and tackles.

[Martin W]

Glad to hear you're still at it, Scott.  One knot at a time!

 

Cheers,

 

Martin

[dgbot]

You are doing a fantastic job Scott, your Rattlesnake looks great.

David B

Edited November 4, 2014 by dgbot

[scott larkins]

Okay, here is my continueing saga with the masts and yard arms and tackles.

 

Yeah, lots of blocks here.  I used window screening material for the protective fencing.  Because I have two dogs that like to jump at my storm doors when we have visitors or mama and I come home, I keep a supply of screening material. Who would have figured.  LOL

 

More blocks. Again, look at the drawings and the manual to make sure you get the right size and number of blocks.

 

Funny how the tiny top of the mizzen mast has so many blocks.

 

As I've said before, I cut/sanded my yard arms out with my drill as a poor mans lathe.  Yeah, I ended up snapping three yards.  AAaahhh!!  Then in the center of the lower yards I simply used a mechanical pencil, put the lead on the side of the yard ared, extended out the lead and broke the yard in to four sides twice.  Then I used my exacto knife and "scraped or plained" between the lines to get the required octagon sides as per the plans.

 

Here are the ends of the yard arms prior to cutting and afterwards.  What is nice with my train hobby and ship hobby is the ability to use tools from both to help the other.  I used my rail cutter to cut off the square ends on the arms.  Also pictured is the pieces for the center of the lower yards.

 

Here are the Gaffs

 

And the Gaff ends

 

And finally the finished Gaffs.

 

Lots of eye bolts on the bow sprit

Edited November 4, 2014 by scott larkins

[russ]

It looks like it is coming along well. Small steps, but it will get there in the end, Good work.

 

Russ

[scott larkins]

As I've been working on the yard arms and  blocks and tackles I've taken a few breaks so as not to burn out.  Here are a few brass pieces I've done some work with.  I plans didn't really say if they were rope or brass and I like the look of the brass.  I'm not sure  how to describe the work I did, but I'll try as the pics go along.

 

If you try this, make sure to leave a lot of brass on either end.  I tried to do just enough, twice, and it didn't work out until I used lots of extra.  I used the left over dowel of the jib to bend the brass and used my fingers to bend the brass around the wood piece.  I had a little help with some forceps as well.

 

 

 

Again, use extra brass on both ends,  I first bent the brass around the wood bulleye on one side and wrapped the thread as per the plans.   I continued to bend the brass around the extra dowel and repeated the bending of the brass around the wood.  I rebent the brass around the wood dowel a few more times just to make sure it wrapped well.  I used forceps to bend the end of the brass into a hook on each end which I tied more thread to and then put it on to the jib.

 

 

 

And here are the collars combined on the jib and roped in.

Edited November 16, 2014 by scott larkins

[russ]

Those straps would have been done in rope, but it will not be that noticeable a difference.

 

Russ

[scott larkins]

Okay, been working on the foot ropes.  This series of picks was for the spirit sail yard.

 

Here I first drilled holes in the underside of the yard.  These will be the tie in points for the hanging ropes.

 

Here are the hanging ropes after they've been glued into the tiny drilled holes.

 

Now I'm sure some people would not approve of my way of making the loops in which the foot ropes would be threaded.  I cut the ropes 1/2 from the bottom of the yard after I wrapped it once around the yard and used a small dab of CA glue on the back side of the yard to hold the rope in place.  Once dried I dabbed another dot of CA glue on the end of the rope, used my small dweezers, placed it right next to the dot and then wrapped the rope end until it touched the longer piece of the rope.  Sometimes it takes me a few tries, other times I get it right the first time.

 

Then I tied the rope to the end of the yard, cut off an appropriate length, threaded it through the hanging ropes and then tied the other end on the yard where the plans said to.

Edited December 1, 2014 by scott larkins

[JPett]

Ahoy Scott

 

Nice work 

 

Regarding your technique,

 

At this scale I feel you have to be creative. The end result looks much better when you minimize and just show the important stuff. The fun part being "what's important" is totally subjective and up to you. Well almost "lol" 

 

Your kit looks great  

[dgbot]

Great way to make stirrups.

David B

[scott larkins]

thanks guys.

[scott larkins]

Okay, time for the four staircases.  I show the process I used here.  All four staircases were the same.  The plans wanted you to make a jig to set the stairs all the same, but I didn't have the patients for it so I eye balled the design process.  Perhaps others would have made the jig, and my hat's off to you for doing so.  My patients weren't there for it this time.

 

Here I set up the angle for the stair case, note the bottom footing and the front that would sit up against the decking.  I also rounded off the top to make it look a little better designed.

 

Once I figured out the angle I cut out 8 identicle pieces of wood and sanded them all to be the same way.  By this I mean I lumped them all together and took to sanding them as one piece.

 

Then I used a small piece of scrap wood and simply moved it up the side of the ladder and marked each stopping point.  I think I got lucky because the plans called for 6 steps and when taking in the angle, the piece of scrap wood it all measured out to be exactly 6 steps.  I guess sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.  LOL

 

I measued the width of the deck where the ladder would be placed so as to make the ladder the appropriate width.  Word of caution here.  When making the measurement and then cutting out the step, make sure to take off the width of the side of the ladder or it may end up being too wide.  And no, I didn't make that mistake, but I almost did.  Again, I cut out all of the steps the same width, stacked them together for each ladder and then did a finished sanding so all of the steps where the same.  Then I glued each step on the lines I previously marked and let them dry.  Once dried I glued the other side of the ladder to the steps.  Make sure to look at the steps when you glue that second side on.  Some of the steps may not have dried to the first side straight.  Fortunetly it's easy enough to straighten those out.

 

And here is the finished product. Even without the jig, I think they came out pretty good.

Edited December 7, 2014 by scott larkins

[JSGerson]

I found making those #$%#%$# stairs was a b*tch. You made it look easy. It seems to me that sanding those steps ends at a perfect 90 degree angle had to be tricky not to mention gluing them perfectly vertical. Good job!. 

[Martin W]

I don't know which will make you swear more -- stairs or tying off all those little blocks.  Your use of the brass is interesting indeed, and will make for a distinctive build in the end.

 

Well done.

 

Martin

[scott larkins]

JSGerson,  Yes, getting the ends of the steps was a b%^&h but that is why I stacked them all up on top of each other and sanded them all at once with fine paper. That's why I also said, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.  LOL

 

And Martin, yes, all of those blocks were nasty and never seemed to end.  Too bad I still have the ones on the end of the sails to put on.  I'm going to furl the sails so I'm not done yet.  I'll probably have to send the MS for some more size 6 blocks.  MS really cut us short on the two smaller blocks.

 

Next comes the shrouds and rat lines.

[dragzz]

thats looking really good so far

[scott larkins]

Okay, I continue to plug along with the shrowds now.  I had purchased a loom for making these, but too late did I realize that it would become useless.  I would only be able to use the loom to make the shrouds if I had made them several steps ago when I did the first level of the masts.  Which at the time was not practicle as I was constently removing, refitting and replacing the masts.  So, my opinion, don't purchase the loom for this model.  It will not be useful here.

 

So anyways, here I go.  Before doing any of these steps I cut off long lengths of thread, waxed them and hung them in my furnace room to straighten the string with various weights.  Can't have wrapped string bend marks in the thread.  I hung them for a few days.  I kind of felt like a horror picture show.  LOL

 

The first thing I did, according to the instructions and plans was two wrap a dead eye with the thickest rope available.  There is a thread chart in the instructions as well if you are so inclined.  I was.  Anyways, I first made a simple knot, like when you start tieing your shoe.  I put the thick string in the loop, then looped that thick string around the thin one and back into the thin loop.  Kind of a loop within a loop.  Then pulled the little string down until there was a smaller loop made in the thick string.  Then I inserted the dead eye and then made another knot in the thin string and pulled it tight.  You will have to leave some extra string up top so you can follow the plans.  As you will see below.  Yeah, it took me a little giving an pulling and a few swear words.  But if you follow the plans you'll get it.

 

Once you follow the thick rope tieing instructions as per the plans you'll be okay.  I touched each not with a small dab of CA glue,  Make sure to leave a bit of an extra hole above the lower tie I described above.  You'll need that loop to feed the dead eye lines.  Follow the plans.  I really needed my big maginfying glass with the light for this stuff.  Man my eye are getting old. Once you string up one dead eye, you wrap the shroud line up through the platform, between the lower and upper masts and then singe right up top there with a thin thread.  I suggest you eventually put a dab of CN glue up there but not yet.  I found I had to play around a little bit up there in order to make the shroud tight.  Which by the way I never really got them as tight as I liked.  I would have snapped the wood.  It took me about 1.5 hours to do a set of shrouds.  But that's me.

 

Here you can see several dead eys and shrouds tied.  I have these set at 8mm.  Seems to be what the plans called for.  I cut out about 5.5 inches of rope to tie the dead eyes together.  Yeah, it was a little more than I needed but it's far easier to work with a little extra than come up short.  I might have been able to get away with 5 inches.

 

Now this step is the for the line that goes up to the next level of the mast.  The upper mast.  Now I believe the plans called for rope where I have brass wire but I could not possibley see how a rope, pulled taught, would ever wrap out to the side of the dead eye the way the plans called.  So I used brass just like the lower dead eyes.  You can see that I simply wrapped the wire around the smaller dead eye, gave it a couple of twists and cut off the extra.

 

Here you can see how I put it in place.  I basically wrapped the longer lower brass wire around the bottlom of the larger dead eye brass chain link.  It took a little finagling but I got it.  This was the only way I could figure out how to match the plans.  My apologies to the purists.

 

Then string it like the other dead eyes.  A little more difficult given the smaller size, but as you can see, if I can do it, so can you.

 

Then the last line to the top gallant mast.  A simple block tied to a thicker rope, up and over to the other side and tie.  If I read the plans right, yep, the middle rope seems to tie around the middle like that.  If any one can tell me where the rope actually ties off I can easily make the correction.  I could not figure it out.

 

And there you have it so far.  I have to finish the other masts, then move up to the next level and then the rat lines.  I'll add pics and instructions as I go.  TTFN

Edited December 17, 2014 by scott larkins