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I am currently making the pin rails for my 'Harriet McGregor' (c1860). It will be easier to drill the holes for the belaying pins prior to fitting the pin rails in place. My problem is the spacing and location of the holes. Underhill (Masting & Rigging.......), shows the majority of holes located in the area of the shrouds/backstays, with a few others in various specific areas. Is this accurate, or are there holes equally spaced along the entire length of the pin rails (which he hasn't shown for the sake of clarity)? What would be the "normal" distance between belaying pins?

 

Grant.

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Greetings Grant,

 

Typically, pin rails are located slightly aft of each mast and at the bow sprite, port and starboard along the inner bulwarks. Unless you have other information, I would use this as a starting point: Relative to length of pin rails, and spacing for belaying pins, establish the length the pin rail first based on number of pins you think you will need (plus several extras), then divide the pin rail length by the number of pins to determine spacing. As with so many modeling situations, there are no hard and fast rules and you have to use common sense. Relative to minimum spacing, think about how much space you would need around a pin to coil maybe 30' of 3/4" line - I expect 12" to 14" o.c. min. would work. I would say just jump in a do what makes sense and you you can't go too far wrong.

 

wq3296 

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Also with belaying pin rails, be careful as alot of small holes in one strip of wood makes the rail very weak. as i have found out while drilling the last hole and the strip spliting in two!!

Regards, Scott

 

Current build: 1:75 Friesland, Mamoli

 

Completed builds:

1:64 Rattlesnake, Mamoli  -  1:64 HMS Bounty, Mamoli  -  1:54 Adventure, Amati  -  1:80 King of the Mississippi, AL

1:64 Blue Shadow, Mamoli  -  1:64 Leida Dutch pleasure boat, Corel  -  1:60 HMS President Mantra, Sergal

 

Awaiting construction:

1:89 Hermione La Fayette AL  -  1:48 Perserverance, Modelers shipyard

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My two or three cents about pins and pinrails: Use the smallest possible pin you can find or make, this will prevent a cascading series of scale issues from developing later. Obviously the smaller the pins, the more can be fit on a rail. Every pinrail I have seen has the pins spaced evenly about 10" apart. Any closer together and the belayed lines passed around the pins would interfere with each other and the sailors couldn't get their hands in there.

Most of the pins I see on models are too big and have en exaggerated shape and if scaled up would look like three foot high wooden lightbulbs. Most actual pins are two inches wide at most and are seldom longer than 18". They do flare out on their upper halves, but only a bit and a human hand can still grasp them- the commercially available ones all too often flare out into nearly spherical globes. Also consider that once there is a line on the pin, the pin itself is no longer visible except maybe its very top. For this  reason I mostly just use wire or rod.

An issue that always arises is the apparent low number of pins, modelers often find their accurate plans do not provide enough places for all the lines to belay to. This is a very common problem.

As mentioned above, another very common problem is not fixing your pinrail strongly enough. There isn't very much tension on them but the pinrails on models do very often pull out or distort from the accumulated strain placed on them by the rigging, which apparently over time can contract.

  

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 Niagara USS Constitution 

 

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S.Coleman,

thanks for the warning.

JerseyCity Frankie,

thanks for your thoughts. I ended up with a spacing varying between 12-14 inches. The belaying pins @ 1:60 will be 8mm long with the diameter 0.8mm for the top and 0.5mm for the bottom. I intend to use copper wire 'bolts' to fix the pinrails to the frames.

 

Regards,

Grant.

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  • 1 month later...

I read this after my own issues. I searched to see what other modellers do. Yes mine initially looked like bulbs as you described and obviously far to big. Not sure why the kit manufacturers would make them so big, I turned mine and took off the bulb, I appreciate there is a lot more per rack, not sure if I will live with the comprise or replace the racks. Pondering this change

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