Cutty Sark by petervisser - Billing Boats - Scale 1:75

[petervisser]

Just thought some of you might find this light assembly useful. Even though I have a double flourescent light above my work bench, I was still finding too many shadows obscuring my work. Therefore I bought a pair of light stands and LED portable work lights. I have set up the lights on either side of me and above the work area. The stands are telescopic and swivel so I can adjust the aim. The light is 3500 lumens, so now I see EVERYTHING!

Cheers,

Peter

 

[Keith Black]

Peter, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours. The Sark is looking wonderful. 

[petervisser]

Hi Guys,

I have commenced the running rigging at last, starting with the three sets of lifts for the 3 yards mounted on the lower masts. Baby steps... And what with runing the rigging to the spider bands at the bases of the masts, meant coiling down the ends of those lines. In the past, I used to leave enough thread after running the line through its various blocks and tackles and coiling the surplus several times around the belaying pin. However, with greater efficiency and less toil in mind I decided to put Tom Lauria's method into practice. He coils the lines off the model and places the coils on the pins. It is a more accurate depiction of how lines are coiled onto pins at the expense of having two lines make up each individual rope. Here's a link to his video:

 

 

I did make a couple of modifications to his technique so as the loop around the pin didn't come undone and used diluted white glue to set the coils up permanently. Here are a few pic's of my efforts:

 

Here I used a scrap piece of cedar strip as the pins were more easily pushed into it.

 

Here are the coils around the pins with an additional pin set back from the top edge of the cedar strip. This allowed for a bigger bight to pull under and into the coil of rope.

 

Here I used actual belaying pins to thread the bight as it made it easier to place the coils onto the model. As mentioned I used diluted white glue to set up the coils and allowed for longer tails so the bight did not become unstuck.

 

And here are the results of the lifts' rigging onto their respective belaying points. It took a bit of trial and error to come up with a successful method but I am hoping it will alleviate some of the hassle in this repetitive task. Cheers

 

 

[petervisser]

After another lengthy hiatus, work has resumed on my Cutty Sark. I left off work last spring after discovering I had made a somewhat serious error on some of the rigging of the masts. It has taken several months to reconcile these errors, and  deciding whether to undo a substantial amount of standing rigging or leave well enough alone and charge on. I opted for Option B as the mistakes can only be noticed by me and an astute number of serious clipper ship aficonadoes on this website. 😉 I have fitted a number of the lower yards with ties and halliards and have now dry fitted the upeer yards on all three masts. I spent the last couple of days manufacturing collars for the trusses. Now I can continue rigging the yards with ties, lifts and halliards. Here are some pics showing all the yards in place , the upper ones being dry fitted.

 

[petervisser]

I've been a tad busier in my workshop of late which I'm pretty happy about. Since posting last time, all the yards above the upper topsail yards are hung and secured in place with tyes, halliards and lifts. I have used Longridge's and Underhill's books as references and the end result on my model is acceptable to my own satisfaction. The running rigging for the yards uses quite a bit of chain which is novel for me. I was able to source the chain needed at a local bead shop. It is some kind of brass alloy which I have painted black in situ after the yard is placed on the mast. I have found it easier to paint the chain on the model as the chain is taut and easy to access from each side. The next set of rigging to install will be the sheets, tacks and clew lines. I am trying to work from the centerline to the rails in order to have easier access to the belaying points. Therefore the ratlines will probably be the last bit of rigging to complete.

 

[petervisser]

There are a fair number of tools and supplies necessary for rigging the model. Styrafoam trays are pretty handy in keeping sets of tools herded together and reduces the amount of time spent looking for the tool you need. My work bench is still a bit of a dog's breakfast at times but organizing it once in a while saves alot of foul language... I've also added a picture of the chain used on the model along with some reference material from Harold Underhill's book, Masting and Rigging the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier.