18th Century Longboat by Jason - FINISHED - Model Shipways - 1:48 - first wooden model

[Jason]

Rigging the Gaff:

 

I was able to construct the gaff from the provided kit parts fairly easy, though I wish that I had a mini lathe.  I ran into problems with rigging the peak halyard, which you will see from the photos below.  I am not happy with the current job, so I will be redoing the peak halyard soon.  I was fairly frustrated so I have been spending my building time lately, getting my Syren kit framed up.  I will be returning to the longboat this week in the push to complete the model.

 

Any tips that can be given about making rigging lines look taught with out putting too much pressure on the lines would be greatly appreciated. 

 

 

 

 

           

Edited April 20, 2013 by Jason

[tlevine]

I have not started rigging the longboat yet but I took a look at the rigging thread.  As you know it is tightly wound onto a spindle and appears to be an acrylic-type product.  I made up a quick jig and had the same problem you had.  I think the problem is the memory in the thread.  This can be very difficult to get out of non-natural thread.  I was able to get the thread to straighten out by repeatedly wetting and stretching it.  I also ran the thread through my hands several times so some of the natural skin oils would be transferred to the thread.  After about five minutes of this I tied the thread back onto the jig and it looks much better.  I would suggest taking all the thread off the spindle and straightening it this way, keeping it hanging in long lengths and tensioning it while hanging.  When I make rope on my ropewalk I always loop it around a hanger and put a large springclamp on the ends of the threads to keep everything straight and under tension.

[Chuck]

As you can see the gaff is not heavy enough to stop the rigging from bunching up.  I put the tiniest drop of glue on the inside ofthe jaws and then applied some pressure on the tip of the gaff so the rigging was pulled tight.  I used CA glue.   To instantly lock it in,  I used some CA accelerator.   I just put some on a paint brush and hit the area with the drop of glue.   You can see how it makes a world of difference. My rigging looked slack like yours until I did that.   See the photo of it afterwards.

 

Chuck

[tlevine]

I completed this part of the build today and had decent results with the following technique.  After I tied the line onto the gaff, I wet it with very dilute white glue and formed the peak.  I did the same thing with the gaff peak halyard line before I rove it through the "sheave".  I have a picture of it in my build log.

[Jason]

Thank You Toni and Chuck.  I went back and re-rigged the gaff using both relaxing the thread, and gluing the jaws of the gaff to the mast.  The results were much better than what I had.  It's not up to a expert level by any means, but I am happy with it.  

 

The Repaired Gaff Rigging:

 

 

[Jason]

Shrouds:

 

After repairing the peak halyard, and making an afternoon run to the local hobby store to buy some dental tools to help with the rigging process, I tackled the shrouds.  I have to say as rigging goes, by following the instructions provided by Chuck, it was an easy process.  I definitely deviated a little in what "seizing" means to me perhaps, but overall I am very happy with the results!  As I have stated before in this log, wooden ships and rigging are a new thing for me, so some of the work is klunky compared to some of the excellent work on this forum, but that is what its all about for me, to learn by doing.

 

A little note on process:  I used the "claw" method described in the instructions to ensure the uniform distance of the deadeyes.  It worked great, and it only took my about three minutes to make the claw out of some wire and a drop of CA glue.  Once I had the shroud wrapped around the deadeye and secured, I took the claw off, and continued the seizing using both hands.  

 

The one down side here.  Perhaps I used the wrong material, but there was nowhere near enough black thread to do both sets of shrouds.  In fact, there was only enough to do one, and nothing else.  So I raided the Syren kit for some identical material.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2013 by Jason

[aliluke]

Hi Jason

That is turning into a wee beauty. I'll have to have a closer look at this kit - never much noticed it before. It's always good to see the builders hand in a photo - shows how delicate and small the work actually is.

 

Great work and nothing "clunky" that I can see.

 

Cheers

Alistair

[Jason]

Thank you Alistair!

 

I hope to get back to finish this model soon.  I have had an unusually large work load over the last couple of weeks, which has put a crimp in things at my shipyard.

[Jason]

Finishing the Rigging:  I finally had a Sunday evening free to work on a boat!  I was able to complete the fore and back stays, to the point that they just need to be finished by trimming the lines, and adding rope coils.  First I have to say, that I enjoyed this kit immensely.  I still have a little ways to go, but this little boat is really a wonderful project to work on.  I highly recommend it.

 

I am still really out of my element when it comes to rigging, so I do not have a whole lot to say as to the process, other than I followed Chuck's directions pretty closely.  Everything came out pretty smooth.  I think my favorite part was making the little hooks needed for the running back stays and the fore stay sails' running gear.

 

At this point I still have to trim off the ends of the rigging, I ran all of the lines pretty long so that I could finish each line easily.  Right now I have about a half dozen lines hanging from the boat, looking a little less than ship shape.  The next step for me is figuring out a good process for making rope coils, and finishing details such as the oars, anchor and windlass bars.  Not to mention some paint touch up from the handling process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 11, 2013 by Jason

[st george]

Jason,

 

Great job on the rigging mate.

[Chuck]

That looks really fantastic.  Very nice job on the hooks.  That is certainly a good skill to develop as many people stuggle to make good looking hooks.  You did a wonderful job of it.

 

Chuck

[42rocker]

Nice job on the rigging there Jason.

 

Later 42rocker

[Jason]

Thank you everybody!

 

Can somebody give me a tutorial, or point me in the direction of a tutorial on how to make a good rope coil?  I would appreciate it.

 

Thanks!

[michael20]

Hi Jason,

 

   What a fantastic job you have done on this kit.   Watching your build of this makes me want get started on mine.

 

           Happy modeling....

 

                Martin G.

[Anja]

Hello Jason,

 

Happy birthday.

 

Have a great day,

 

Anja

[st george]

Happy birthday Jason

[trippwj]

Hope you have a fantastic Birthday, Jason!

 

[Jason]

A belated Thank you for all of the birthday wishes!  Work has been really busy lately, not much time for ship building or checking content 

[fnkershner]

Jason - I am sad that I have found your log so late in the process. You are doing an outstanding job for a first build. Well done! I also have the Syren and hope to start on it in 6 to 8 months. by the way I love your avatar. I spent a wonderful rainy day on board. I hope they find the funds to save her. I will be watching as you finish the build.

[Paddy]

Hi Jason,

I think you're doing a great job. Have just started on mine so reading through the threads trying to get my feet on the ground.

 

Again, I think your longboat is looking good.

 

Paddy

Edited July 24, 2013 by Paddy

[Jason]

Thank you Floyd and Paddy.  I appreciate the feedback!

 

Floyd, I am glad you got to spend a day aboard the Olympia, she is truly a treasure.  I try to make it over to go aboard every couple of months, trying to take it all in, so that if she is relegated to the pages of history, I can have some idea of what it was like "back then".  If you are interested, and you use Facebook, the Olympia has a page where they post a lot of historic photos, and recently a lot of pictures from areas of the ship normally off limits to the public.  It can be found here:

 

https://www.facebook.com/CruiserOlympia

 

I hope to return to the longboat and finish her in the next couple of months. 

 

Cheers!

[Mirabell61]

Hi Jason,

lovely work you are showing, a great Inspiration to start thinking of what make or scratch i.e. a swan class`s Long boat should be from

 

Nils

[Blue Ensign]

Just enjoyed reading thro' your log Jason, a very attractive build. Now if only I can produce something like that in 1:64 scale, I'll be a happy man

 

Cheers,

 

B.E.

[Jason]

Finished at last ! 

 

So after a ship building detour to the Syren, I have finally returned to the longboat over the Christmas season with the intent on finishing her.  I was stuck for a long time, since the 10th of June 2013 to be exact, on the last little details.  The rope coils were particularly troublesome to me, and it took me weeks to try again after the first failed attempts.  I found a great resource here in another thread on Model Ship World, and be using that along with a few modification I came up with some satisfactory coils.

 

Here is a picture of the jig that I used to create the coils.  A strand of thread was started at the right of the jig, then the thread was wound clock-wise around the jig back to the beginning, where each loop was secured by a drop of CA.  After the thickness of the coil was satisfactory, I snipped the thread off at the left of the jig leaving about 2".  After the coil was removed from the jig, the thread at the right was given a few turns around the coil to simulate the attachment to the belaying point.  The thread off to the left was brought around behind and through the coil and glued with a drop of CA to the bottom of the coil to make it lay flat.  The last step was to trim the bitter end to length.  NOTE:  the picture shows the coil turned 90 degrees from how is was placed in the jig:

 

 

Another detail that I experimented with was "seizing" the anchor rope to the anchor and to the forward ring bolt in the boat.  I used a product called EZ- Line from a company called Berkshire Junction.  This stuff is pretty amazing in that is is very easy to work with, and stretches up to 5X it's static length without putting stress on the points it is attached to.  I am using it to rig a plastic steam powered ship now with some really delicate masts, and I can stretch the rigging lines to the deck with out detectable deflection in the masts!

 

 

 

The last step for me was to make up a couple of oars.  I inserted the blade end of the oars into the chuck of a hand held drill.  Then with one hand on the trigger and another with a scrap of sand paper wrapped around the shaft, I sanded it into a round profile of the desired thickness.  Using the same technique, I used a needle file to finish off the smaller diameter grips at the end of the oar.  Poor man's lathe I guess!  To finish the blade, I rough shaped it with a sanding drum from a rotary tool, then smoothed it out by hand.

 

And finally, the finished product!

 

Edited January 6, 2014 by Jason

[wlell]

Excellent work Jason. Great detail work.

[Chuck]

Really look terrific...well done.  Really hope you had fun with it.

[WackoWolf]

She came out Beautiful. You have done an excellent job. Thanks for sharing this with us. 

[Jason]

Thank you everybody! 

 

Chuck, it was a very enjoyable kit to build!  I would recommend it to anybody who has an interest in wooden ship models.

[Paddy]

Outstanding. What a wonderful model for displaying. Really like your mounting too.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Paddy