Sultana - Colonial Schooner, 1767 - by MS, Scale 1:64 [COMPLETED BUILD]

[moreplovac]

The buoy line was tied up on each anchor... A bit of a glue was put on three spots were seizing will stay and two runs around the anchor was quite enough to keep the buoy line in place.. and to look interesting.. More work on buoys will come shortly...




Then i started to do more ratlines.. Was contemplating how to make the spacing between ratlines as equal as possible and come up with this plan/idea. Not sure how it will be working but until i think of something more useful i will try with this technique.
The space between the ratlines was transferred on a piece of wood, then individual ratlines were fixed with a small piece of scotch tape on each mark.




This should provide fairly equal spacing for the ratlines. Then this template was fixed on the ship with a help of a small clamp.





When i work on one line, the rest of lines is dragged on the back of this white background so it is not in the way.





It appears to be working fine for now... Then each knot was fixed with a small amount of glue and after the glue is dried, the extra line was cut with sharp cutter. For this purpose i find it more useful to use a wire cutter (good one) instead of using scissors or nail clipper.




Happy modeling.

 

[moreplovac]

As i always looking for some improvement in building process and tools used, i was thinking of getting some sort of template to have making of ratlines a bit more unified and easier. The challenge with helping tools i used so far is that the piece of wood with markings was always standing straight up and not following rigging angle. This has the result that wood "moves away" from the rigging and makes ratline making process a bit difficult and not always with the same distance between two ratlines.

So my next invention was based on this: the idea is to have a top edge of the office foder presenting a place where ratlines needs to be mounted and top edge of wood piece is matching the previous ratline. The purpose of a small cloth pin is to keep the ratline rope fixed so the first knot will not be loose...

The sandwich was made, the edge were sanded to have a smooth edge and pin was glued to the edge. The distance between two ratlines is 5mm. The white color of a folder provide adequate contrast for the black ratline so it was visible enough and easy to mount...














Then this little helper was positioned on the ridging and fixed with another (normal size) cloth pin.










The third set of ratlines is completed now with a help of this tool.




These two pieces of toothpick were put in place just to divide two ringing lines so i can actually maneuver ratlines around the ridging ropes. The top of the toothpick were sanded (shape showed below) to correct spacing, cut to length of 15mm and put in between second and third ridging ropes.







Happy modeling..

 

[Norway]

Great tips, something to put a bookmark on. thank you for showing.

 

[moreplovac]

Great tips, something to put a bookmark on. thank you for showing.

You are welcome...

 

[moreplovac]

The ratlines work continues. Last part.. No much to report at this moment...




Ratlines appears to be much cleaner and unified when using a new jig..




And to protect it from the element, while waiting for a next ratlines round...




Happy modeling.

 

[moreplovac]

... and the last ratline...



So, this time consuming but very interesting task has been completed.









Overall happy with the result but i can see the difference between start and end job of adding ratlines.. Plenty of lessons learned and rooms for improvements. I am keeping a building notes so will not forget all things that come to mind while working on this nice model..

Moving forward... i have start cleaning up 16 kit provided cleats..




Happy modeling.

 

[moreplovac]

The cleats were modified in order to fit the scale of the ship. Out of the box they were looking a bit oversized... Each cleat was cleaned and filled to fit properly on the line. They were mounted on the inside of each shroud as per kit plan. They were glued first and then, when glue was dried, lashed with a black rigging line, in size .008. The lashing was tied around the center of each cleat. Just simple two knots were enough to fix the cleats to the shroud..

The coat of flat black will be applied to each cleat once all are mounted and lashed.





















During this process i noticed few ratlines that were become loose.. Not enough glue was applied to knots, so i decided to replace them.

Four removed ratlines...




and four replaced ratlines.




Happy modeling.

 

[moreplovac]

Cleats were installed and painted flat black.

Mental note to myself: don't follow practicum to the letter and paint cleats before mounting them... Much easier....










Next, rigging the stays..

I dont have enough black rigging lines so i will try to color some dark brown (or tan) lines instead of buying new set of lines.

Happy modeling.

 

[moreplovac]

The work on standing rigging has begun. Following practicum i will start by rigging the forestay, inner jibstay, outer jibstay and fore topmast stay.

The forestay will be rigged using a mouse. Apparently this is how schooners in those days were rigged, according to Practicum some other books referenced in it.

I was able to dig up some left over black rigging line in correct size i will be using it for this work. The rigging line is in 0.7mm (.028), and apparently this is the heaviest rigging line used on Sultana, with exception of the anchor cables. This rigging will be only one where a mouse is used.


The construction started by seizing a loop.








It is a bit of a challenge to have it done nicely since this is very tiny loop..









The loop is done, and the mouse position was marked with a piece of a tape...



With a help of a super glue i was made a pear shaped mouse by coiling sewing thread around the stay...








And completed assembly..

- I actually released that i made the same mistake as mentioned in Practicum; the mouse is positioned wrongly; the wider part has to be further from the loop. Need to find the way to correct it...




Testing on the ship.. Need to be tied up a bit more...




So, now to the rigging of the forestay. One more heart was made and seized on the end of the rigging line. The correct length was marked with a scotch tape and seizing done with a sewing rope...












And testing with some lineyards...



It is already too late, finishing it up tomorrow..

Happy modeling.

 

[Peter Fischer]

Perfekte Arbeit - Perfect work

 

[moreplovac]

Inner jibstay is next, a new heart was made and seized on the black 0.45mm rigging line that will be used for outer jibstay.





Then, to make a lineyard in the same length as fore stay, i made a small template out of a wire...










This will keep the distance until i finish up seizing a top part of the line.. Here i can see the mistake with a mouse :-(




and completed...









Then i drilled a hole in the jib for an outer jibstay rigging...



The outer jibstay 0.45mm will be was seized around the trestle tree. The opposite end will run thru a traveller, which i made out of a 0.3mm black wire..




The loop was soldered and soldering part filled...



Then the whole traveller was dipped into flat black paint and left to dry.

Soldering is done with a torch and solder-it paste..





Not the expert in soldering but this combo works perfectly well..



Finally a small piece of sewing thread was tied around the top of the traveller to finish it up.



Single block was seized on one end of outer jibstay ..





..which ended up today' activity.

Happy modeling.

 

[moreplovac]

Perfekte Arbeit - Perfect work

Thanks

 

[moreplovac]

Outer jibstay rigging was next.. first i have attached a single block to the hook... and color the hook in flat black paint..




.. and mounted on the ship.




Traveller was mounted next, fixed with a drop of a glue to proper position. Must say that traveller' position on kit plan and on Practicum do not match so i decided to drop it somewhere in between, where it made sense in my opinion. The outer jibstay line was pushed thru the jibstay and fixed with a scotch tape..

I usually do the block lineyards first before seizing the rigging, but wanted to test if i can do reverse - seizing first than lineyards..




Prep for seizing...




And seizing completed..



Now the other side..











Interesting view of all kind of roping ...





And the whole ship so far...
















Happy modeling.

 

[Peter Fischer]

wow!

Peter Fischer Switzerland Rigi

 

[Donnie]

Very good rigging techniques for deadeyes. Love the bouys. Overall very nice sultana.

 

[moreplovac]

Very good rigging techniques for deadeyes. Love the bouys. Overall very nice sultana.

Thank Donnie. Appreciated..

 

[moreplovac]

wow!

Peter Fischer Switzerland Rigi

Thank you Peter, much appreciated..

 

[moreplovac]

A bit more of rigging has been completed...

Fore topmast stay.... main topmast stay and main stay... Following Chuck' practicum the bullseye were simulated.






The rigging line going thru a block...



tightening the line with a help of a small home-made weight...





Lanyards for the stays on each side of a mast...




And the final product...











Happy modeling..

 

[moreplovac]

After few days vacation and due to the new job engagement i am back to shipyard..

Today i have attacked the anchors. The rope eye was made and attached to the buoy' other end, into the eye bolt.








The eye was made using fairly simple and self-explanatory process shown on next picture..




Both buoys completed and ready for mounting.





First the anchor was mounted and glued to the ship...




Then the buoy was attached to the ratline and the rope coils for both buoys were made...




The rope coil was attached to the ratlines.



And both anchors installed and waiting for a anchor cable to be installed... Not sure if i had to do this part (anchor cable) before mounting it to ship... We will see...



















Happy modeling...

 

[moreplovac]

Work on anchors continue with making a blocks with hooks... The blocks were provided in the kit, now the hooks have to be made...

The hooks were tied to the block with a rope that was glued to the block; the size is too small for any other type of knots (well at least for my fingers). So here is a hook and completed block.





I decided to simulate a wheel that is positioned inside the cathead and holds the rope, with a piece of wire.
This wire was inserted in the openings of the cathead...





The mounting of wooden block started by knotting the rope...











To make the rope as straight as possible, i used a tweezers as a load...





The the rope was tied to the cathead....











The other block was installed as well..




Both assemblies....




I am not sure if positioning the anchors this way is historically (and naval practice) correctly but i decided to leave it as-is to bring up a bit more details of wooden hooks assembly. It was meant to take a "wow" from people that are looking to the model (and are not following this post )...

The anchors were tied with a rope following some techniques from other ship modeling books.
















Happy modeling..