Happy Birthday, Ian! Wishing you all the best, you got one 1 year wiser!!!! 
HMS Medea (28) (1778) 1/48 scratch build
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Hello Ian.
I wish you all the best and a very Happy Birthday
I wish you all the best and a very Happy Birthday
Thanks Uwe and everyone who also wished me a Happy Birthday. It was good, but now Covid has found me. At least now I feel a bit better (day 3) it has at least given me time at home to finish the copper work on Medea. Images to follow.Hallo @Masters Mate
we wish you all the BEST and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY
How is your work on your Medea going? Any updates for us?
I'll call this done at last.....A big job for a beginner but it satisfies me and I can live with the mistakes. The copper tape is quite forgiving but adherence in our heat here will be a problem I think. All the more reason for my wife to keep the air-conditioner on 
I still have to add the finishing beading along the top edge of the copper
Next to complete a few things with my rope walk and get some rope made for the guns.
I still have to add the finishing beading along the top edge of the copper
Next to complete a few things with my rope walk and get some rope made for the guns.
After many delays I finally got my home made rope walk working to a certain point and this is my first rope. Three strand linen. It needs to be a bit tighter but I still have many adjustments to make to be able to control the speed of the machine.
My main aim is get these six guns lashed in so I can get on with the quarterdeck and before I forget where the quarterdeck goes...... It has been a saga of delays which has frustrated me.
I will put up some of the images of my rope walk next. Be prepared to be shocked...
My main aim is get these six guns lashed in so I can get on with the quarterdeck and before I forget where the quarterdeck goes...... It has been a saga of delays which has frustrated me.
I will put up some of the images of my rope walk next. Be prepared to be shocked...
Ian,
You will have much fun making some ropes for your models. If I may comment on those beaching ropes on your guns I would colour them a bit as plain white looks a bit unnatural. I am using MINIWAX fruit wood stain for that. And the standing rigging ropes are stained with MINIWAX Jacobian stain to represent the tarred outlook. And, as you said, you have to experience with different aspects of rope making to provide even more authentic appearance. I hope you don't take my comments offensive, they did not mean to be that!
Your copper plating looks very good. I am trying to avoid copper plating because I am not sure I can do it properly. As a number of other things...
Janos
Janos
Thank you for your comments. I really appreciate them.
The rope on the gun is just an experiment. I'm still trying to get the tension right and all that. I have beige linen thread which I will use later, and colour it, probably with tea.
My rope walk is more of a rope "stagger" I'm afraid. But I'm learning all the time and as a scratch build for my first wooden model, I try to do everything I can with materials I can access easily.
Thanks Stephan
I have just gone back to your excellent post about your rope walk https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/threads/make-your-rope-on-a-rope-walk.9094/ and will now make some more adjustments. So many good ideas to collate from so many people but I think my rope walk is mostly based on yours.
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If there are more questions, just asked. I'm glad to help
. This is the mess I have developed so far as a 'rope 'walk'. As soon as I started trying to use it I began changing things. I guess that's what Research and Development means. At least SOS is the place to be for that. Some of the 'found' parts. I decided on the blue steel batten material in 90cm lengths for the track. Why? Because I had some and I thought it would work well as an adjustable length track. More of that later.
Some of the bought parts I had ready.
The two 12V motors were salvaged from an old Epson printer.
The gears were mounted with bearings either side.
2mm brass rod was inserted through the inner rim of the cogs and the axles. I wanted them removable in case none of this worked !
More to come ....
The trolley is a beast. I will probably start again but most of the top part can be salvaged. The castors did not work as well as I expected and the track is rubbish, so I will model the next one on Stephan's 4 wheel one.
For some silly reason I mounted the spreader on the trolley. Then cut it off and made a handle for it. Then placed it aside as too small.
So this is where it's up to at the moment.
I must say it's great fun once things start to work out. I have a lot of tidying up to do before I'll be satisfied but it seems to want to make rope if I can learn to control the speed.
More to come after I make some rope.
For some silly reason I mounted the spreader on the trolley. Then cut it off and made a handle for it. Then placed it aside as too small.
So this is where it's up to at the moment.
I must say it's great fun once things start to work out. I have a lot of tidying up to do before I'll be satisfied but it seems to want to make rope if I can learn to control the speed.
More to come after I make some rope.
. I scrapped the blue steel track, put the caster wheels on all four corners of the trolley and added an aluminium guide for it to track along the gap between the boards on my outdoor table. That gives me a working length of about 1 1/2 metres which is fine at the moment. 
I think some of you will be seeing the problem already....
Everything walked along okay. Speed is the issue, I think.
This is my new spreader. Made from a $2 wooden spoon and worked really well.
At first glance the rope looked okay. I wet it, stretched it, even let off a bit of tension to reduce where it had bunched up.
So fellow shipbuilders, what did I do wrong? Too much tension. Too fast?
The three double strands wound up really well from the three cogs. It was only when I turned that motor off and started from the trolley end with the spacer that it started to bunch up. Maybe I wasn't moving fast enough ahead of the rope forming.
I look forward to comments and will not be offended if you tell me start over.
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You have to experience a little bit. First make sure all 3 strands are equal in lenght.
Then you start the rope walk (don't turn on the trolley motor, keep that still with the spoon in place) wait till the trolley moves to the ropewalk about 10 to 15% of the starting length of the strands (1,5 meter makes about 15 to 20 cm) then start the trolley and let the rope push the spoon to the ropewalk (this is a handli g you have to feel by doing it often). The 10 - 15% and the speed of the spoon you move, even the weight on the trolley are adjustments you have to experience to get a good result. 15% and more weight gives a stiffer rope, less a more flexible. I once tried cotton yarn, bit difficult to say what went wrong exactly but the moving of the spoon must be at one speed to get a good result over the lenght.
Ohla Batchvarov @shipphotographer.com have a beautifull movie where she shows how to do it.
Succes
Then you start the rope walk (don't turn on the trolley motor, keep that still with the spoon in place) wait till the trolley moves to the ropewalk about 10 to 15% of the starting length of the strands (1,5 meter makes about 15 to 20 cm) then start the trolley and let the rope push the spoon to the ropewalk (this is a handli g you have to feel by doing it often). The 10 - 15% and the speed of the spoon you move, even the weight on the trolley are adjustments you have to experience to get a good result. 15% and more weight gives a stiffer rope, less a more flexible. I once tried cotton yarn, bit difficult to say what went wrong exactly but the moving of the spoon must be at one speed to get a good result over the lenght.
Ohla Batchvarov @shipphotographer.com have a beautifull movie where she shows how to do it.
Succes
Thanks Stephan
From your description, I think I made a mistake by turning off the main motor before starting the trolley motor. Should they both run together??
I'll have another look at Ohla's video. It didn't all make sense before, but now maybe I will understand.
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Here, I made an updated more detailed video:
Greetings. I also recently started rope knitting. I think you knit the basic cables in the same direction, it must be the opposite. I had the same problem. Ondras
Thank you Ohla. That makes more sense now. I will keep trying to improve.
You are right. There is a lot to learn. Thank you.