Badger by Landlubber Mike - FINISHED - Caldercraft - 1:64 - Brig

[Landlubber Mike]

Hi Peter, thanks very much for your kind words.  I thought about adding bolt ropes, but after furling the sail tight against the yard, I don't think the bolt rope would at all be noticeable (the pictures don't show the yard head on, so it might look like the bolt rope should be noticeable).  Perhaps I made a mistake in furling and furled them too tightly against the yard?  

 

I've been considering the seams as well.  I didn't want to go with sewn seams as I think the seams would be out of scale.  I'm worried that if I tried penciling in seams that I would run into the same problem, or that they would be too light to be noticeable (or too dark and ruin the look of the sail).  I might have to experiment a bit to see if I can pull off the effect.  Have you tried it?

 

I saw your Granado photos on your Pegasus log - wow, fantastic build all around (your Pegasus is great too)!  I really like the furled sails on your model, which give the exact look I'm hoping to achieve on my Badger.  Could I trouble you with a couple of questions?  I'm just about done with the square sails, and am trying to plan ahead for the spanker and jib.

 

1.  For the spanker, how much did you reduce the sail, and if you reduced it, what was the end shape like?  I would think that the head and luff of the sail would be full length, and rather than cutting the sail out as a triangle with the third side from the end of the gaff to the beginning of the boom, you would reduce the sail in such a way that you would end up with a four sided sail, with the new bottom "corner" of the sail sorta following the brail line from the old bottom corner?

 

2.  On the spanker, did you add blocks to the gaff at each brail line?  Most furled spankers I've seen don't have that detail.

 

3.  On the jib sail, does the bottom block of the halyard at the head of the sail travel down with the jib as it is furled?  Put another way, is the bottom block attached to the head of the sail such that as the jib is furled, the line/distance between that block and the other block of the halyard is increased?

 

4.  Did you install clews on your square sails?  If so, did you add tackles for the running rigging?  I'm trying to figure out what the tackle looks like and where the lines go from it.

 

Thanks very much in advance, and thanks again for the kind words.

Edited October 24, 2013 by Landlubber Mike

[flyer]

Hi Mike

 

Thank you.

As I’m presently abroad I will have to check the answers for some of your questions when back home in order not to tell you a lie. Also because of possible collateral damage of an extensive kitchen rebuild, which also affects the living room, my little workplace is cramped with ship models looking for shelter there. Anyhow I plan an extensive cleaning up of Granado (I like to show the models without display case and have to clean them every year or so) and plan to take some pictures afterwards to put them into the gallery of finished models.

1. Well, I was simpleminded enough not to reduce any of the sails in size. That accounts for the still bulky look of most of them.  Your idea about how to reduce the size seems fine.

The most important point is to look again and again for some even finer cotton. I was lucky enough to find some I still like for the yarn count. But the seams (they were single seams, put on by a professional seamstress) still look out of scale. 

I found that furling the sails is best done when they are rather damp. This takes away any stiffness and they can be furled quite tight. On the other hand this forbids the use of glue for boltropes and the hem.

 

I’m still undecided how to make the sails for Pegasus but the decision point approaches fast. I was thinking of making the seams by ‘pulling the threads` (described elsewhere in this forum) but this still leaves the question how to make the hem. Probably the boltrope will be hand seamed on again but only where needed. And where it is possible I shall reduce the size of the sails a bit.

 

I’ll check for the other points later and will try to add a few pictures.

 

Cheers

Peter

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks very much Peter, this is very helpful.  I have the Pegasus kit also, which I will start probably after the Corel Unicorn.  Personally, my view is that these are sailing ships, and if sails can be done well, they should be added to the model.  Full sized sails seem quite tricky, which is why I started first with furled sails.  Some people use silkspan as well for full sails, so I might experiment with that on future builds.  I've seen the technique of "pulling a thread" for the seams, which seems to work pretty well.

 

All that being said, I think if you could pull it off, the Pegasus would look fantastic with sails.  Hope you enjoy your trip abroad!

[Landlubber Mike]

Making very slow progress on the furled sails, but just about done with the square sails.  I decided that I should pre-rig the spars with as much rigging as possible as things might be a little difficult once the furled sail spars are attached to the masts.  So, I've been pre-rigging them with the parrel lines, slings, truss pendants, etc.  The Caldercraft instructions are great, but all I can say is thank goodness I have the Lennarth Petersson book

 

In a way it's been good to go down the sail route as I've had to learn what the different lines are intended to accomplish.  I think I figured out which block needs to be attached to the sail clews - the clew block (who knew ).  The diagram shows the clew lines starting attached to the yard, running down about 20mm to a block (the clew block I think), and then back up to a block on the yard before the line heads down the mast to get belayed.  So, hopefully I'm correct that with the furled sails, I should just go ahead and attach the clew block to the clews, and run the rigging as per the diagram.

 

The Badger's main course is rigged as a crossjack - so, no cluelines or buntlines, sheets or tacks.  If that's the case, does anyone know how the main course was rigged at the clews?

 

I've also been trying to think about how to approach the spanker and jib(s).  The spanker should be fairly straightforward, aside from figuring out how to cut the sail to reduce bulk yet be true to the brail lines.  The jibs are a bit more difficult in that I will need to add halyards and jib stays, along with some extra rigging.  I also am trying to figure out from the Chappelle plans whether the two fore sails shown are two jibs, or one jib and a staysail (not sure it will matter all that much in the end).

Edited October 28, 2013 by Landlubber Mike

[texxn5]

Wow Mike....that's impressive....looks really nice....keep it up Dude.

[Landlubber Mike]

Finally finished the furled yards for the square sails.  They take quite a bit of work (literally hours per yard), but I think they will improve the overall look of the ship.  

 

I started with the topgallants, and worked my way down.  I got to the main yard, and was like, wow, this came out pretty nice.

 

 

Then I was tying myself in knots trying to figure out how the main course was supposed to be rigged.  The instructions said it was rigged as a crossjack yard, and it didn't have all that many blocks attached.  It wasn't until I looked back at Chapelle's "Search for Speed Under Sail" which has a section on the Badger that Caldercraft's kit appears to follow closely, and with some help and guidance from Jim Lad (thanks John!) at the link below that I realized that I made a mistake in attaching a furled sail to that yard.

 

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/4120-crossjack-yard-generally-did-not-carry-a-sail/

 

Essentially, the Badger's main yard was a spread yard to sheet the topsails on the main mast, and the Badger also carried an improvised main course that was fitted to a crossjack of almost the same length and secured to the main mast only by halyards.  The kit instructions just have one "main yard," so I'm assuming that it accounted for the spreader yard.  So, after hours of effort on the main yard, I was left with this nice souvenir

 

 

All in all, my complaining aside, I think everything came out pretty well.  Here are the final products:

 

 

 

You'll see that I tried to pre-rig the lines attaching the yards to the masts and the buntlines.  I figured it would be easier to do that before the sails were added.  Since the buntlines come from the foot of the sail, I glued the line on the pre-furled sail and ran it through the appropriate block.  They should be locked in pretty right after furling.

 

Next up are the jibs and spanker.  Not really looking forward to doing them - the jibs need jib stays and halyards, along with extra rigging for the inhaul and outhaul (I think).  The spanker is tricky in figuring out how to cut the sail back to reduce bulk, yet leave enough in spots to be true to the brail lines.  Also, per the zu Mondfeld book, there are a number of ways of attaching the spanker to the mast, so I need to pick one and figure out how to execute it.

[texxn5]

Those look nice Mike, a very artistic touch and they'll really look good once they're hanging....

[Landlubber Mike]

One other issue that I need to work though - the Badger sail plan in the Chapelle book shows the main/spreader yard below the gaff, with the modified main course above it.  See the sail plan below.    

 

 

The kit instructions, however, have the main yard where Chapelle has the modified main course, which I think is incorrect.  The kit configuration seems to be consistent with other brigs that did not use a modified main course, such as the Swift sail plan which is also in Chapelle (p. 105).

 

Decisions decisions.  Right now I'm leaning towards leaving the main yard as per the kit instructions - I think moving it down will make it look out of balance relative to the fore yard.  Of course, I'm open to suggestions as I'm just fumbling my way along. 

Edited November 4, 2013 by Landlubber Mike

[flyer]

Hi Mike

Your sails are looking nice. Nevertheless the promised answers to your questions: (I hope you don’t mind invading your blog with a few photos of Granado.)

 

1. My sails – especially the topsails - are still too bulky. Yours look better.

 

 

2. No. I think they would be covered by the furled sail anyway.

 

 

3. Yes, it must to work properly.

 

 

4. Yes, and they look much the same as yours.

 

 

My main sources are:    ‘The masting and rigging of English ships of war’ by James Lees and

                                               ‘Seamanship in the age of sail’ by John Harland and Mark Myers

Cheers

Peter

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks very much Peter - these pictures are very helpful.  Your furled sails came out very nice indeed  The spanker in particular looks perfect.  I see you included the clew, which I think most furled spankers fail to include - nice job!

 

I spent a few hours yesterday evening studying and preparing how I will go about furling the jib and the fore topmast staysail.  From my reading of I think Lees, it looks like smaller ships had a less complicated halyard set-up at the peak cringle.  Rather than running a block at the peak cringle (where the line is first attached to the stay and then runs through the block and then reeved through the chocks on the mast), it sounds like smaller ships had a more simplified structure where no blocks are attached to the peak cringle - instead, the line is attached to the cringle directly, then it runs up to the chock.  Since the Badger is a brig, not sure if that qualifies it as a "small ship" for purposes of going with the single halyard.  I might just rig it as a double, as it doesn't add much extra work.

 

I also learned from Lees that the fore topmast staystail had a netting over the bowspirit so when furled it didn't sit directly on the bowspirit.  Add another thing to the list I suppose

Edited November 7, 2013 by Landlubber Mike

[ianmajor]

Mike,

 

Hum..I understand the words ... but I struggle with the sentences! There is a lot more to this rigging than meets (my) eye.        

I obviously need to do a lot more reading on the subject to understand better.    

 

Your set of furled sails looks tremendous. I can't wait to see them in situ.

[Landlubber Mike]

Hi Ian, thanks very much for the kind words.  Hopefully they end up looking ok in situ

 

There are times when I think to myself that I could have been done with this build a long time ago.  I've probably easily spent over 50 hours in the aggregate studying how rigging works, how to create sails, how to best furl them, etc.     It's all been worth it though, as I now have a better appreciation and understanding of the operation of these ships, where I might not have gotten that had I just followed the directions and attached line A between points B and C.  Now I can see why people really get into improving their kit or moving totally to a scratch build.

Edited December 3, 2013 by Landlubber Mike

[Beef Wellington]

Mike, I think you've hit the nail on the head.!.  So much of me wants to move onto my 'next' build (which doesn't exist yet) so I can do better what with skills learned on this build, but balancing that with the ship currently in progress to do it justice is a real dilemma.  Take consolation that for every additonal bit of effort and detail you put in you're getting a far nicer result that you'll be happy with (and its cheaper too than moving onto a whole new kit!).  Keep up the great work!

[Landlubber Mike]

It's been a few weeks but I've been busy in the shipyard.  I managed to get the fore topmast staysail and jib attached and furled.  Before I get too far, let me mention the resources that were of immense help in figuring out what to do:

 

1.  Lennarth Petersson - Rigging Period Ship Models - pictures say a thousand words, and this book really simplifies the mysteries of rigging.  Helpful to see the pictures of how the rigging for these sails works, but I would say that it shows rigging for larger ships so, for example, the haliards would be more simple than the block and tackle arrangements shown in this book.  Still, very highly recommended.

 

2.  The Fully Framed Model (TFFM) Vol. 4 - This Swan series book is an incredible resource for anyone that wants great detail into rigging period ships.  Antscherl compiles a lot of research into this book, with excellent pictures, to help one go step by step.

 

3.  Lees - The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War - Good detailed historical account and narrative description of these sails and their rigging.  

 

4.  Harland - Seamanship in the Age of Sail - Excellent descriptions of the actual mechanics of bending, raising, furling, etc. sails.  Very helpful discussion of what went into furling sails, particularly how the sails were gathered and then a "skin" was draped over the entire bundle.  The remaining 2/3rds of the book goes into fantastic details on how the sails operated in various conditions, etc.

 

Here are the pictures of where I am now, and I'll set up the next couple of posts to talk about the construction of both sails.  Needless to say, for what ultimately looks like rolled up wet tissues, these things took a while to figure out how to construct and to install.  But, I very much like the end result, which to me anyway looks better than a ship bare of sails.  The staysail needs a bit more positioning, which I will do once the sheet whips are installed.

 

 

 

Edited December 1, 2013 by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

Fore topmast staysail.

 

This sail took a ton of planning as there are a number of ways that these could be installed on a ship - bent to a fore topmast preventer stay, bent to a fore topmast staysail stay, and I think they could also be set flying (no stay at all).  Then there was the question of how to run the haliards - single, double, etc.

 

Based on Lees and TFFM, I decided to add a fore topmast preventer stay and bend the sail to it.   Not sure if this was 100% historically accurate, but this route helped simplify things a bit as the preventer stay would use the existing bee sheaves in the bowspirit, and the running end would end in an eye and mouse around the mast, rather than have a running end that ended in haliards somewhere down the mast.   It also added a sense of symmetry with all the rigging, which is more artistic than anything.  

 

Another reason to go with the preventer stay over a staysail stay was that there was not much room to furl the sail as it was given the proximity of the fore stay and fore preventer stay, but using the bees gave a couple of millimeters of extra space.  As you can see in the picture below, the staysail is probably only 25% of what the full sized staysail would look like.  This was to ensure a tightly furled sail and keep the sail in front of the fore stay and fore preventer stay. 

 

 

Two other things I had to add to the model for the staysail.  First, I needed to add a cheek block on the port side of the fore topmast head (I also added one for the jib sail on the starboard side).  Second, from Lees, Petersson, and TFFM, the staysail was not laid on top of the bowspirit, but instead was laid on top of a netting between the bowspirit horses.  So, I added the horses and a simplified netting run between two staves that the horses went through.  I unfortunately don't have a picture of this, but the staysail covers all of it so I didn't go all out with a very detailed netting.

 

After all that, the rigging of the staysail is fairly simple.  The staysail is triangular in shape with a peak cringle at the top, the tack at the fore bottom corner, and the clue cringle for the sheet pendant at the aft bottom corner.  After threading the fore topmast preventer stay through the hanks on the sail (constructed of beading wire from a local craft store and painted brown):

 

1.  Peak cringle:  The haliard (to pull the sail up the stay) is run from the peak cringle up through the lower sheeve of the port cheek block, and belays either to the foot of the fore mast or to a timberhead opposite the after fore shrouds, port side.  Also attached to the peak cringle is the downhaul (to pull the sail down the stay).  The downhaul is threaded through a few of the hanks, through a block attached to the foot of the stay, and belayed at a port timberhead.

 

2.  Tack:  The tack is tied to the cringle.  This is the one fixed corner of the sail.

 

3.  Clue cringle:  The sheets are attached to the clue cringle, which in turn split into pairs of whips.  The sheets go to each side, ending in a block.  The standing end of the whips are attached to an eyebolt, run through the block on the sheets, and the running end is belayed to a timberhead (I haven't done this step yet).

 

That's it for the staysail.  Next the jib.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

Jib sail.

 

The jib sail was simpler in some ways (not requiring the netting/horses or figuring out what kind of stay to use), but requires a special piece of hardware called a "traveler" which is detailed below.

 

Similarly to the staysail, I had to cut down on the size of the jib sail to ensure a tight furl.  Looking at pictures of ships with furled sails, as well as the pictures in the Harland book, it's amazing how tightly these sails were furled.  The jib had more running room, so I went with a larger sail than the staysail - I also wanted to run it up the jib stay a bit higher than the staysail, so I needed more cloth to work with.

 

Construction was very similar to the square sails on the yards - using fabric glue I added bolt ropes and cringles.  As mentioned above, for the hanks I used very thin beading wire which is much more flexible than using brass wire.  The wire was looped around a brass rod in a spiral shape, painted, then cut as needed and shaped into a loop.  Real hanks had a more complicated shape which I couldn't duplicate at this scale, so I just went with simple loops. I also painted them brown because it seems like these tended to be wood.  The pictures below show the sail (with the sheets installed), as well as bent to the jib stay.  The pre-furled shape of the sails is probably a bit different in the angle at the tack is the angle formed by the jibboom and the jib stay.  I figured that this would make furling the sails down to the jibboom a lot easier.

 

 

 

Setting up the jib was a lot easier than the staysail, except to the extent that I needed to built a traveler.  The traveler has three main pieces:  the main loop that goes around the jibboom, the shackle that runs forward to the end the jibboom on which the outhaul is attached, and then a hook to which the jib's tack cringle is attached.  These were created using brass wire and a hook from the kit.   A block is also attached to the traveler for the downhaul.  The traveler itself (minus the shackle) was covered in leather for protection.  I didn't bother to simulate it as such but just left it as blackened brass.

 

 

 

Here is how the rigging proceeds:

 

1.  Jib stay:  The jib stay is attached to the traveler ring, through the hanks on the sail, up through the top sheeve on the cheek block on the starboard side, and down to the aft end of the starboard fore channel.  Given the size of this ship, it seemed correct to tie it off directly, rather than use a block and tackle arrangement as in larger ships.

 

2.  Outhaul:  This line is tied to the shackle of the traveler, runs forward along the jibboom through a sheeve, to a timberhead on the starboard side.  This functions similarly to the tack for the staysail in that it establishes a fixed position for the sail along the jibboom.

 

3.  Downhaul:  Similarly to the staysail, it attaches to the peak cringle, runs through a few hanks, down through the block attached to the traveler, and belays to a starboard timberhead.  

 

4.  Haliard:  Similarly to the staysail, the haliard is run from the peak cringle but up through the lower sheeve of the starboard cheek block, and belays to a timberhead opposite by the aft end of fore shrouds, starboard side.  As with the staysail, I ran these without a block and tackle for two reasons.  Historically, it seemed smaller ships did not use a block and tackle.  From a practical standpoint, and probably more importantly, adding a block and tackle would have been very hard to achieve given the scale and general size and busy-ness of the ship.  So, I felt comfortable not using block and tackles.

 

5.  Tack:  The tack is attached to the hook on the traveler.

 

6.  Sheets:  The sheets are run just like for the staysail.

 

Here's the end result (sorry, had the TV on in the second):

 

 

 

Hope all this is helpful (and accurate and correct!).  I found that there was a lot of information online for furling and adding square sails, but not much really on the fore and aft sails.  I spent many hours trying to figure all this out from the resources mentioned above, and at least to my eye, I think they really improve the ship.  So, if I can give back to others for all the help I've received on here in the past five years, I'll feel very happy.

 

Next, I'm going to finish the rigging of the bowspirit, and work my way aft on the model.  I still need to create the spanker, and furling it shouldn't be too difficult, but I'm a bit burned out after furling the square sails and fore sails 

Edited April 2, 2014 by Landlubber Mike

[shark bait]

Very well done Mike.

[ianmajor]

Lovely work Mike. Those sails look just right.

[j21896]

Outstanding research Mike!  And outstanding job putting it all into practice!

 

Cheers,

Robert

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks very much everyone.  It was a long detour, and I probably would have already been done with the build had I not gone the furled sail route, but I'm liking how the ship is turning out with the furled sails.  They are actually turning out better than I expected.

[ZyXuz]

nice work, Mike!

your ship will be just perfect after you put ur spanker on

[riverboat]

Just awesome!! Mike....

[Landlubber Mike]

Just awesome!! Mike....

Thanks Frank!  Your furled sails and words of support were a big source of inspiration in getting me to this point, so thank you!

[Blue Ensign]

Good explanations and fine work Mike, well done

 

B.E.

[texxn5]

Looks good Mike....just getting caught up....

[Stockholm tar]

Mike,

 

I'd just like to add to what's already been said, and say – very well done!

 

It's good too that you're taking your time over each part, and your log is very well written and clear. A joy to read. As for those sails, well what can I say, other than they look spot on, and so real. It feels as though you could let off the lashings and set them!

 

That's going to be one very good model when finished.

 

 

[riverboat]

Hi Mike, just wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! Have fun  with the kids Santa!!

Frank

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks very much John and Kester.  Kester, I appreciate the kind words.  I still have the spanker to put together, which is going to be a bit of a challenge given its shape and the fact that it's lashed to both the mast and the gaff. I had one of those "ah ha!" moments in the shower a couple of weeks ago (where I tend to do my best thinking), so I think I might have come up with a potential solution.

 

Frank, thanks so much for the kind wishes!  Best wishes to you and your family this holiday season and new year.  I wish the same to all my other friends here on MSW!

[Landlubber Mike]

For a quick update (no pictures at the moment), I've been working through the running rigging, and have the bowspirit rigging all in place.  I have the fore course and fore topsail yards up, with the lines pre-installed.  

 

I thought that it might be easier to work from the bow of the ship to the stern, and pre-install as much of the rigging as possible.  I also delayed fully fitting the fore mast backstays so that my sausage fingers would have a little more room to maneuver on the foremast running rigging.   Let's just say I'm going cross-eyed trying to keep track of the spaghetti of lines hanging off the fore mast right now.    

 

The kit's instructions have you install each of the yards, then add the lifts and buntlines, then the sheets and clew lines, and then finish with the braces.  I thought it might be easier to complete the rigging per yard as each yard is installed (minus the braces on the fore and main masts, which I will just do at the end all at once), and work my way up the masts and from bow to fore mast to main mast.  Not sure which way is better, but I almost feel that minus the tangle of lines, it ultimately is easier to do it my way.  We'll see what happens.

 

For those building the kit (and probably others), the kit tells you to pre-install the blocks on the masts and the yards, without forewarning you that some of the blocks need to have the standing end of the running rigging attached to them.  I had to remove and re-install the lift blocks for the fore and main yards and for the spiritsail yard, which was annoying.  I had to do the same for some of the blocks on the bowspirit as well.

 

Overall, it's amazing how much line even a small brig like the Badger was fitted with.  I love the look as more and more line is attached, but I can see why many choose to just do admiralty type models 

[ianmajor]

Mike,

 

It sounds like it is going well. I look forward to the next photos.

 

The Season's Greetings to you and your family, and I hope you have a prosperous New Year.