The Bowsprit was mounted onto the bow.
After putting an eye bolt onto the gaff and fashioning a hook from wire for the boom the bowsprit, gaff and boom were painted and the boom attached. The project is now on hold for a few weeks as I will be away.
Back from vacation where my wife and I both managed to get COVID and waste about 10 days isolating ourselves. The first thing I did was to make a tiller for the rudder. I used a toothpick which I carved a rounded end and some decoration on and tried to square the tiller a bit where it attached to the rudder. Using a small drill, I made a hole in both and put a wire in to "pin" both parts together using CA.
I then started rigging, which for me appears to be the most onerous part. I am using small tweezers to tie the knots and it has not been easy. If someone knows any instructions for a beginner to learn how to do rigging. I would be interested!
I am thinking I will put the tholes in last. I can just picture myself damaging them as I reach past to put in the rigging.
Starting with the boom, I have used the tan rigging line. The end of the line I wipe with UV setting glue and set it before threading the lines through the blocks. This really helps to make the procedure easier. After I make the knots to secure things in place I dab them with UV setting get, set it and cut off the excessl
Using a jewelry wire bending jig, I make up coils of line for the ship. After a few lengths of line is wrapped around the jig, I glue the coils together with UV setting glue. Otherwise the coils would fall apart.
The coils are then glued to the boat, making them look like they were part of the lines I installed for the boom.
The coils are then glued to the boat, making them look like they were part of the lines I installed for the boom.
Good morning Rob. I agree with Alan - a really good looking model. All the detail adds a lot. Cheers Grant
PA: a real bummer you and your admiral getting the COVID while on holiday.
When else would it possibly happen!
Thank you both Grant and Alan!
Next up was rigging the gaff. the Jaws of the gaff are very delicate and It took time to place the rigging line with the correct number of parrel beads (I believe 4 was the magic number for me). It was next to impossible for me to thread the rigging line through the hole in the gaff jaws so I ended up wrapping it around the eyebolt for the throat halyard and I secured it with a dab of UV glue.
After that it was fairly easy to seize the peak and throat halyards for the gaff and thread them through the lower block on the mast and the lowest sheave on the mast respectively.
The other ends of the lines were secured to the belaying pins on the port side the. They were secured to the belaying pins using UV glue. Using my jig I made two more rope coils for the lines. For the throat halyard line I used only 2 pins to make a smaller coil. The smaller coil I had "draped" over a thwart by gluing the coil to the edge of the thwart and holding it down into position with a pair of forceps when I hardened the glue.
The other ends of the lines were secured to the belaying pins on the port side the. They were secured to the belaying pins using UV glue. Using my jig I made two more rope coils for the lines. For the throat halyard line I used only 2 pins to make a smaller coil. The smaller coil I had "draped" over a thwart by gluing the coil to the edge of the thwart and holding it down into position with a pair of forceps when I hardened the glue.
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The gaff itself was then tensioned down a bit and also held it place with a bit of UV glue to set some tension in the lines.
Next I had to make up some chainplates out of the supplied 28 gauge wire. the base of the plate was wrapped around a small nail and crimped with a pliers to a length of 8 mm.
The 8mm stems were then silver soldered, and the stems filed flat.
The 8mm stems were then silver soldered, and the stems filed flat.
I mounted each stem in a vise and places a deadeye on top and wrapped the wire around the deadeye.
the wire was then wrapped more and snipped where the eds met.
The ends of the wires were tapped down with a small hammer and silver soldered together. The 4 chain plates were almost identical.
the wire was then wrapped more and snipped where the eds met.
The ends of the wires were tapped down with a small hammer and silver soldered together. The 4 chain plates were almost identical.
The chainplates were positioned as shown in the building diagram. After marking the area, a small hole was drilled in the side of the ship, going through the ribs. small included nails were shortened so they did not go through the ribs and the chainplates were nailed into place.
I started rigging the shrouds by tacking the first shroud line with some UV setting glue. (You can tell I like UV setting glue)
I made a "deadeye claw" as suggested by the instructions by bending 2 lengths of 28G wire together and bending two "fingers" on each end the approximate 8mm long space that I measured off the plans for the distance between the two deadeyes.
The claw was held together by a drop of, you guessed it, UV glue.
I made a "deadeye claw" as suggested by the instructions by bending 2 lengths of 28G wire together and bending two "fingers" on each end the approximate 8mm long space that I measured off the plans for the distance between the two deadeyes.
The claw was held together by a drop of, you guessed it, UV glue.
The deadeye claw was used to set the distance to the other deadeye on the shroud.
The shroud was wrapped around the other deadeye, held in place by a dab of UV glue.
The shroud was wrapped around the other deadeye, held in place by a dab of UV glue.