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Royal William, Euromodel, a retro log

Hi Ken

The crows feet between the stay and the sprit mast looks very neatly rigged. Lots of tiny blocks and knots so not an easy task. What is the diameter of these crows feet?

Thanks

Allan
Hi Allan. Thanks for your comment. The cord for the crows feet was from a Caldercraft kit and it was marked 0.1, anything thicker looked out of scale.
 
it was marked 0.1
Thanks Ken,
0.1mm sounds too small, but that rope sure looks a lot bigger than 0.1mm diameter. Using the formula from James Lees' book the crows feet should be about 0.5mm diameter at 1:75 IF my math is correct going through the ratios he gives. Could it be 0.1 inches? It looks smaller than 0.1" though. Not a big deal, just curious. Thanks again!
Allan
 
Thanks Ken,
0.1mm sounds too small, but that rope sure looks a lot bigger than 0.1mm diameter. Using the formula from James Lees' book the crows feet should be about 0.5mm diameter at 1:75 IF my math is correct going through the ratios he gives. Could it be 0.1 inches? It looks smaller than 0.1" though. Not a big deal, just curious. Thanks again!
Allan
Hi Allan. I agree .1 does sound too thin, although it was marked as such I think that it’s probably more like .25, whatever it is it looks in scale. Ken
 
I made up the ships boats, a Pinnace and a Launch. I didn’t like the ones supplied in the kit so I bought a couple of Caldercraft ones, I think that they were for their Victory. I used styrene strip to make up the ribs and gunwales and wood strip for the rest. I put some decoration along their sides to match the ships decorative hull. For this I twisted two strands of brass wire together then hammered them flat, it took a bit of experimenting but I got the result about right. I’ve put pictures of my boat building process so it should be self explanatory. It was a nice little project to have done after the trauma of the rigging.


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FWIW Caldercraft made the same mistake as some other kit makers on the pinnace. Pinnaces were usually single banked as they were often too narrow (under 7'6") for two rowers on one thwart. When single banked they were set up with one thole for every thwart and they alternated port, starboard, port, etc. There would not be any thwarts without a thole. This is more than likely just a misinterpretation of some pinnace plans that only show tholes on one side and the viewer designing the kit assumed there would be a matching one on the opposite side for the same thwart and alternate thwarts with no means for rowing, which was never the case.
Allan

Tholes shown only on the starboard side on this 8 oared pinnace
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Tholes shown clearly as alternating on the top and elevation views.
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Pinnace showing location of port and starboard tholes via elevation view starboard and top view drawing port side tholes
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Allan
 
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I spent many hours shaping and making up the yards with all their associated blocks and foot ropes.

After some thought I came up with my own simple method of making the irons that support the yardarms. I bent a piece of brass wire to use for the yard end irons and used heat shrink tube for the hoops. I cut a small piece of tubing and heat shrunk it into place on the arm, it was quite thin so I put another one over the first, this gave a good thickness. I drilled a hole through it and passed a wire through, I drilled a hole in the end of the yard then slid the wire into it, I could move the wire in or out to get the correct size rod and I could move the yardarm up or down and rotate it until It was in the right position, a drop of cyno then fixed it in place. Lastly I trimmed the protruding wire and put a drop of matt paint over the end. Unless you knew how it had been made you would even after close examination think that it was a neatly made metal piece.

For the foot rope supports I used pieces of brass wire, I flattened one end, drilled a hole through, filed it round then blackened them. They were easily made and fitted. I think that they look uniform and neat and you need to be fairly close to know that they aren't rope, that did for me.

When I first made up the yard arms I tried using thin strips of black card as the irons but as they were only 2mm diameter I couldn't get it to wrap around and stick down it was then that I thought of heat shrink tubing and hey presto it worked. I thought that it would probably work as the metal bands on the anchors as well. Not all of my ideas work, most don't but you don't get to see those.

Again I think the photos show my workings better than my explanation.

I’m off to Hospital tomorrow, another op on my arm, a pretty invasive one this time, I’m not looking forward to it.


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I spent many hours shaping and making up the yards with all their associated blocks and foot ropes.

After some thought I came up with my own simple method of making the irons that support the yardarms. I bent a piece of brass wire to use for the yard end irons and used heat shrink tube for the hoops. I cut a small piece of tubing and heat shrunk it into place on the arm, it was quite thin so I put another one over the first, this gave a good thickness. I drilled a hole through it and passed a wire through, I drilled a hole in the end of the yard then slid the wire into it, I could move the wire in or out to get the correct size rod and I could move the yardarm up or down and rotate it until It was in the right position, a drop of cyno then fixed it in place. Lastly I trimmed the protruding wire and put a drop of matt paint over the end. Unless you knew how it had been made you would even after close examination think that it was a neatly made metal piece.

For the foot rope supports I used pieces of brass wire, I flattened one end, drilled a hole through, filed it round then blackened them. They were easily made and fitted. I think that they look uniform and neat and you need to be fairly close to know that they aren't rope, that did for me.

When I first made up the yard arms I tried using thin strips of black card as the irons but as they were only 2mm diameter I couldn't get it to wrap around and stick down it was then that I thought of heat shrink tubing and hey presto it worked. I thought that it would probably work as the metal bands on the anchors as well. Not all of my ideas work, most don't but you don't get to see those.

Again I think the photos show my workings better than my explanation.

I’m off to Hospital tomorrow, another op on my arm, a pretty invasive one this time, I’m not looking forward to it.


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That is a lot of work with a lot of details, Ken. They look great!
Regards, Peter
 
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Hi Ken, thank you for sharing your latest pics, the rigging looks great. Terribly sorry to hear about your recent surgery, hope the road back runs smoothly.
 
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Hello again. I’m recently out of hospital, cancer related surgery so I don’t feel like writing much at the moment, so to continue with my build log I’ll just show pictures of how I progressed with the spars and running rigging.


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I wish you a well recovery, Ken. And good to see you still have some energy to build on you model.
Regards, Peter
 
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Reactions: Ken
Hello friends. Thank you Paul, Peter, Daniel, Jack and Victor for your kind wishes, they boost moral more than an extra tot of rum. I have every confidence that all will eventually be fine, I’m not ready to haul my flag down just yet, besides I’ve only just started a three decker and I need at least a year for that.

I’ve continued the log the same as I did yesterday by just showing pictures of the rigging progress and the anchors. I’ll soon have shown the complete build and will have then time to start my new build log.


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