"Flying Cloud " by Mamoli - kit bash

[Peter Voogt]

More pics of fabricating mast caps and adding the t'gallant masts. Everything is dry fitted and a little loosey-goosey. The line of the masts should all be fair once buttoned down. still more work to do requiring repeated dis-assembly before I lock the door on that.View attachment 531285View attachment 531286View attachment 531287View attachment 531288View attachment 531289View attachment 531290View attachment 531291View attachment 531292View attachment 531293View attachment 531294View attachment 531295 In the last pic the masts are trimmed to size, with some turning reduction in diameter required on the top inch or so. I included the supplied castings for comparison. In several instances the eyebolt holes were filled solid. On others the ring was incomplete. There's no fixing the daggone things.

A nice progress, Pete. With the masts she has a complete different appearance.
Regards, Peter

 

[Peter Gutterman]

Thanks everybody. The masts are taken directly from the sets of plans I have (Mamoli and A.J. Fisher). I thought they looked a little tall, but the main assembly is 20" -160 scale feet which corresponds to the sources giving her mast height that I have. If the top gallant masts look a little spindly, maybe that explains a nearly disastrous dismasting she experienced en route to California in a storm.
My files I picked up from various and disparate sources over the years. Some were my Dad's going back to the 1940s. Some of the diamond grit files I got from Amazon ("The Great Vending Machine in the Sky"). And, yes, they are standard clockmaker's tools, and my dad liked to tinker with clocks.
I guess I'm drifting into doing a more complete rig. I find that the look of a fully rigged clipper is pretty irresistible.
As for working tiny, my hands have gotten wobblier, my fingers somehow fatter, my vision blurrier and my patience and attention span are on the wane.
I'm afraid I can longer claim any pretense to the Peter Voogt and Rob Wiederrich category of detail excellence. I muddle through the best I can.
Thanks for all the good words and interest. It does serve to fuel the motivation.
I'll be happy with a nice "decorative mantlepiece" model.
Pete

 

[The Gavel]

Thanks everybody. The masts are taken directly from the sets of plans I have (Mamoli and A.J. Fisher). I thought they looked a little tall, but the main assembly is 20" -160 scale feet which corresponds to the sources giving her mast height that I have. If the top gallant masts look a little spindly, maybe that explains a nearly disastrous dismasting she experienced en route to California in a storm.
My files I picked up from various and disparate sources over the years. Some were my Dad's going back to the 1940s. Some of the diamond grit files I got from Amazon ("The Great Vending Machine in the Sky"). And, yes, they are standard clockmaker's tools, and my dad liked to tinker with clocks.
I guess I'm drifting into doing a more complete rig. I find that the look of a fully rigged clipper is pretty irresistible.
As for working tiny, my hands have gotten wobblier, my fingers somehow fatter, my vision blurrier and my patience and attention span are on the wane.
I'm afraid I can longer claim any pretense to the Peter Voogt and Rob Wiederrich category of detail excellence. I muddle through the best I can.
Thanks for all the good words and interest. It does serve to fuel the motivation.
I'll be happy with a nice "decorative mantlepiece" model.
Pete

Pete! Love it - looking forward to seeing the amazing spiderweb!

Blessings.
Chuck

 

[Peter Gutterman]

After a little flailing about determining how to mount the teeny-weeny deadeyes for the crosstree shrouds, I settled on some pins through eyes to hold the deadeye to a block of wood while I looped some line around the deadeye with a slip knot and a wee drop of thin CA to fix it. I drilled a small hole through the top masts, put a fine wire through them looped at both ends as a mount to tie the deadeye "chains" off to.
To shape the t'gallant masts I am using a150 grit sanding belt (well worn), and finish shaping with a 150-grit sandpaper block. For me this is easier to control than a lathe. Slow, but sure, requiring only a light touch. I have the mizzen done. I resist the strong temptation to glue anything down until I am sure I won't close the door on anything that would require undoing hours, if not days' worth of work. An easy big pile of poo to step in.
Finally, I had to make and glue some eyebolts to the mizzen crosstrees as one of the edges of the
a tiny hole to hold a deadeye chain in place was broken off. A challenge for palsied hands.
But creeping up on it, frequent breaks to peruse and ponder, make Pete a better craftsman and a happier camper.

 

[Peter Gutterman]

I've made my mast caps of boxwood with birch ply top and bottom for re-enforcement and to give the illusion of an iron band. I have added eye bolts to the sides and back. Following are pics of the t'gallant mast couplings and the mast caps with their eyebolts. nothing is glued down. Question: Do I next move on to modelling the spars and attach those to the individual mast sections separate from each other before permanently putting them together and/or gluing the lower masts to the ship? Thoughts? I may glue down the crosstrees and attach the deadeyes, which will still allow me to separate the mast sections.

 

[Peter Gutterman]

The crosstrees and top mast caps are glued down. The mainmast shimmed so that it sits properly in its' seat. Now all the masts sit fair whether glued or not. The mizzen crosstree deadeyes are glued in place. they reflect some of the simplification I choose to adopt at this scale, given the limits of my current abilities.
Admiral Kate. 46 years on the bridge.

 

[Peter Gutterman]

Thanks, Jim!

 

[Peter Gutterman]

And everybody else!

 

[Peter Gutterman]

Something I never picked up on until now which abruptly became GLARING is that I placed the channels (and therefore the shrouds) too far forward on the fore and main. That's a major redo X 4!!! .
So, after changing my underpants, I decided " OH well, what's the least amount of surgery required to make this acceptable".
I finally concluded that a wee bit off was better than "OH F**K That REALLY sucks!" So, after a deep breath I decided that I could bathe my brain in the exquisite sounds of early 18thc. Baroque lute music and just accept this as another chapter in the learning curve of patience and progress. I figured out the minimum that had to be cut off and what I could keep with a minimum of compromise. So, I figured out what I could live with. No need to panic and rush it. Nothing good ever got done in a hurry.

 

[Peter Gutterman]

I reckon my next post will be post op and spare you the gory details.
Ever your faithful servant, Pete

 

[dockattner]

after changing my underpants

 

[Peter Gutterman]

I'm surprised nobody picked up on this before now. Perhaps too kind and circumspect to rub my nose in such a glaring error.
Anyhoo, I was never going to be able to just live with it, this model has enough foibles to live with without the most obvious ones.
Sometimes I feel like an archeologist.