Sounds like a great trip Graham.
Regards,
Bill
Regards,
Bill
HMS Snake
- Thread starter Graham
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The rigging is what make it finally look like a real vessel. Nice work.
Very Nice and Well done ! :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Donnie
Donnie
That's the standing rigging now complete and I think I have earned a cold one. I think a final learning point from this phase is to be very clear on the sequence of fitting and especially the loops you need to drop over the mast tops before you glue the next mast up. Plus my knots are quite a bit neater and tighter now, so when I looked at my first efforts on the bowsprit I ended up re-doing that. All-in-all an enjoyable phase as it all starts to come together and I achieved it without breaking anything. Apart from the handrail on the forward fighting platform. And one of the deck pumps. Still, let's not go there. Spars next and a quick look at the running rigging plans has given me a headache, but it can't be worse than fitting catharpins - can it?
What's best - work from the front of the ship back, or vice-versa?
What's best - work from the front of the ship back, or vice-versa?
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Looks pretty good. The rigging changes a normal model into a real looking ship.
I dropped a question in an earlier post and would appreciate you experienced guys helping me out. I am about to start the running rigging but what is the best approach - rig the foremast and work back or vice versa. My plan at the moment is to fit the spars on the foremast and finish that rigging before I move to the main and then the mizzen - I want to avoid constantly knocking the spars out of alignment as I have been doing with the bowsprit spar. But I might be wrong and your views most welcome.
I always work from the front to the back. I do the lower ones and then come back to the next higher ones, etc. I work both the standing and running rigging that way.
In my last post I said I was on with the spars, but the plans call them yards, so I looked it up:-
Spar - any ship's mast, boom, yard, or gaff
Yard - tapering spar attached to ship's mast to spread the head of a square sail
So there you are, you learn something new every day.
Below is how I went about it and it is based on learning from a few cock-ups, a strip and re-start of the main mast yards and a moderate amount of colourful language. I'm not saying it's a tutorial, just what works best for me. This is the last set of yards for the foremast.
Spar - any ship's mast, boom, yard, or gaff
Yard - tapering spar attached to ship's mast to spread the head of a square sail
So there you are, you learn something new every day.
Below is how I went about it and it is based on learning from a few cock-ups, a strip and re-start of the main mast yards and a moderate amount of colourful language. I'm not saying it's a tutorial, just what works best for me. This is the last set of yards for the foremast.
Tapering the dowel to form the yard. I bought a small David plane to do this and could not use it; I tried various angles, directions and blade depth settings but all I managed to do was gouge chunks out. It seems to work OK on other wood but not the dowel wood, so I'm putting it down to the dowel grain - that's my defence and I'm sticking to it!. So I went the tried and tested route with grades of sandpaper and some elbow grease. Get the shape and then stick on the cleats (small triangular bits of wood to stop the ropes sliding) and the hardware for the stunsails. Put a brass pin through the centre point.
Learning point: As I mentioned in an earlier post when I was doing the Bowsprit the plans are not symmetrical i.e.one side of the yard can be 2 or 3mm longer. So, trust your calipers or ruler only and DON'T mark off positions from the plans.
Paint matt black.
Learning point: Use enamel paint as it covers the dried CA and metalwork much better than acrylic.
While the yards are drying tie the pulley blocks. Then tie them on at the centre section of the yards. Sorry to repeat myself but measure carefully, they only need to be slightly out to be noticeable when you compare both sides.
Learning point: Don't tie on the ones at the very end of the yard yet as these will get in the way of fitting the ropewalks (next step).
Learning point: As I mentioned in an earlier post when I was doing the Bowsprit the plans are not symmetrical i.e.one side of the yard can be 2 or 3mm longer. So, trust your calipers or ruler only and DON'T mark off positions from the plans.
Paint matt black.
Learning point: Use enamel paint as it covers the dried CA and metalwork much better than acrylic.
While the yards are drying tie the pulley blocks. Then tie them on at the centre section of the yards. Sorry to repeat myself but measure carefully, they only need to be slightly out to be noticeable when you compare both sides.
Learning point: Don't tie on the ones at the very end of the yard yet as these will get in the way of fitting the ropewalks (next step).
Attachments
I rarely ever do this to a post, but I could not help but touching up those nice Yards and reposting them. I brought out the details of the Yards. I hope you do not mind. ;-)
I like'em ! Nice !
Good Rigging practices also. :handgestures-thumbup: :handgestures-thumbup:
How did you get your black paint so smooth ?
Donnie
I like'em ! Nice !
Good Rigging practices also. :handgestures-thumbup: :handgestures-thumbup:
How did you get your black paint so smooth ?
Donnie
Cheers, Donnie, that looks great! Maybe I should put a decent camera on my Christmas list as well.
Regarding the paint job, I finish the wood with a fine wet & dry paper, paint it, leave for a day to fully harden, a quick rub with fine wire wool and then paint again. One of the tricks I learned from plastic modelling is not to have the paint too thick - and Dad always said that two coats are better than one. Regards.
Regarding the paint job, I finish the wood with a fine wet & dry paper, paint it, leave for a day to fully harden, a quick rub with fine wire wool and then paint again. One of the tricks I learned from plastic modelling is not to have the paint too thick - and Dad always said that two coats are better than one. Regards.
Your camera seems to be doing a pretty good job of taking pictures. What I did was post processing using Corel Paint Shop Pro X9. Or you could use a free program link GIMP which can be found here: https://www.gimp.org/
Make sure you download the correct version (that is if you run windows). When you run GIMP for the first time, it will open up an open palate that is really strange to view. To fix the "window" appearance to make GIMP open up like any other windows program, then do this:
At the TOP menu bar, go to Windows > "Single-Window mode".
The program should do image compression as well. Just as idea for you.
Donnie
Make sure you download the correct version (that is if you run windows). When you run GIMP for the first time, it will open up an open palate that is really strange to view. To fix the "window" appearance to make GIMP open up like any other windows program, then do this:
At the TOP menu bar, go to Windows > "Single-Window mode".
The program should do image compression as well. Just as idea for you.
Donnie
