To victory and beyond ...

[dafi]

Then came a new adventure, the shrouds.

Somehow, all the interesting things I wanted to try always came to the point where the shrouds would have been installed. So I couldn't avoid it any longer, so I set off on a new adventure.

I ordered the cables for the shrouds and stays from www.modellbau-takelgarn.de. They had the complete range in tenths of a millimeter increments, and the standing rigging is a deep brown and not the usual bluish deep black.

The brown allowed me to achieve the color I wanted. First I made the ropes a whole lot darker with heavily diluted black artist's ink. What a mess that was. The lawn in the garden still looks sunburnt, but the new appearance is now a deep deep brown compared to the original. ...

To dress the eyes around the masthead and the first shroud, I went back to the glue fake method that I had already used for the bopstays. To do this, I measured the area to be dressed and always made a marker knot at the borders with a makeshift yarn as a glue border.

Then I applied the fake dressing. This involved the eyes below the crosstrees on a length corresponding to the masthead´s height and the foremost shroud along the entire length.

The procedure was always the same: apply a generous layer of white glue with a small wooden stick then spread the glue well with your fingers using the three-finger method and smooth with spit, allow to dry, then repeat and finally seal with black paint. The shrouds were now ready for further assembly.

Next, I determined the circumference of the masthead ...

... and made a template. A 10 mm round stick was wrapped with paper until the required 11 mm of the test loop was obtained.

The loop of the shroud was fixed with a pair of clamping tweezers ...

... tied with 10 knots - 5 at the top and 5 at the bottom ...

... and the package neatly secured with a seizing.

The two pendants were given their thimbles.

As there is an odd number of shrouds, the rearmost one was joined to the opposite side in a horseshoe splice.


And then there was the first trial assembly. Pendant starboard, pendant port, first pair of shrouds sb, first pair of shrouds bb and so on. This allowed me to check whether the aft shrouds would fit under the aft cross tree - they didn't at first.

So I raised the pairs of shrouds again and successively turned all the pairs further forward. And then it did fit.

When the stays came to lie on top, everything was tightened up even more and now keeps the rear cross tree well clear.

XXXDAn

PS: Here you can see again how model builder's impatience would take revenge if you had already glued the mast cap or even the fighting top ...

 

[europapete]

I like your meathod of having a second "working" mast ( whole kit) to develop the parts first, before fitting to the model.

 

[dafi]

Most important to do frequetn dry fittings. Even if one has no spare kit with extra parts, just use the ones you have. Saves lot of complications lster on in the build.

XXXDAn

 

[europapete]

Yep, I do that with my WW1 aeroplane kits

 

[Uwek]

I love what I see - great work on your lady

 

[dafi]

And the best: Like this you get the feeling that you have done much more than one kit ;-)

Best value for money!

XXXDA

 

[europapete]

I love the detail of the main shroud ropes being grey/black and the siezing being dark brown.

 

[dafi]

The next step was dead on onto the dead eyes

Before I started, I lifted the fighting top and checked that all the shrouds were in the right order. And indeed, there were two pairs on the starboard side in the area of the landlubbers hole that were lying crosswise.

Then the shrouds below were assigned to their dead eyes. God bless the inventor of the hair clips!

There is almost nothing better for pre-tightening some rigging than wooden clothespins in combination with gravity.

Then came a rough binding on both ship´s sides to get an even pull on both directions. As I had reinforced the mast well with a wooden rod at the time, there was no movement in any direction. It still looks wild, but it does the job.

To stabilize the rigging further further, I inserted the futtock stave. This stave is served over its entire length, in the original its a rope slightly thinner than the shroud, for the modeI I chose a core of 0.5 mm brass wire for stability reasons.

The official calculation is slightly different, but by analogy the following measure gives the same figures: Distance upper edge of cross tree to lower edge of mast cap ...

... is the same as the upper edge of the cross tree to the futtock stave.

Once the futtock stave was in place the "white glue serving" was also brought to the correct length.

Afterwards, I will continue the serving evenly below the sausage by a few millimetres and also use black paint to ensure a uniform appearance. At the moment only the outer shrouds are attached so that the other shrouds still have place to work. Nevertheless, this already stiffens the whole construction a lot.

This also allowed me to start tidying up the dead eyes. Four seizings for the dead eye in the shroud, and crossing of the lanyard on the back of the dead eye and tied to the side after a few windings.

And then it's on to the happy dead eye tying

XXXDAn

 

[Kurt Konrath]

Great work and explanation of what, why and how your doing the rigging.

 

[kirill4]

Good day Daniel,
Your rigging looks..... just GREAT!
Very well done!!!
Always wathing your posts with great interest!
All the best!
Kirill

 

[shota70]

Dear Daniel,
Your rigging work looks excellent !
Regards Shota

 

[dafi]

Thank you all for the kind feedbacks!

Here you can clearly see the difference between the wooden dead eyes from the early stages of my model and the new printed ones at the top of the shroud.

With the wooden dead eyes, I had to close the unsymmetrical holes and re-drill them. It was a lot of work. In addition, the lower dead eyes have an incorrect all-round groove: As with the upper dead eyes, this is wide to accommodate the heavy shroud. For the lower dead eyes, however, the groove should be significantly narrower, i.e. only a slot, which only had to accommodate the thinner iron fitting.

The appearance is also more even.

In addition, the groove is not circumferential, but interrupted in the area of the connection to the iron or shroud. This also prevents the juffer from rotating. And even a careless model builder like me gets a subtle hint from the resulting bulge in the shroud if he is about to bind the dead eye the wrong way round ...

In the picture you can see the comparison of the lower dead eye on the left with the narrow groove and on the right the upper one with the wide groove.

XXXDAn

 

[kirill4]

Good day,
Daniel, I don't remember , did I tell you about guttermann thread seria scala ?... it is very thin thread like a mono thread ...I found that it is very handy for making various imitation in rigging - of seizings , splising or "ending" the ropes of for shrouds"dressing"... just for info , may be it would be usefull in some extend ))

 

[europapete]

That looks like really useful fine thread. Thank you for sharing

 

[europapete]

Hey Dan, I just noticed that you have added a hand rope to the steps going up the side of the hull. Not seen that on any other model.
The closer one looks at this, the better it gets.

 

[dafi]

Thank you Kirill, I have the black 200 UNI-Caenis that is even too thin for my duties. Could saw the sailors trouwsers with it. But I use it to produces ropes out of it.

And Pete, the ropes on the side ladders were installed October 2014, means 10 years ago ;-)

XXXDAn

 

[europapete]

Lol, so much for my powers of observation!

 

[dafi]

Slowly and carefully we went on, and then the time had come ...

... both sides of the deadeyes were integrated into the shrouds and tidied up. Final alignment of the deadeyes angle comes when I tighten the lanyards.

The angle is also almost right. I mean the mast, of course, the fighting top is hanging so crooked on purpose ;-)

I now also have a good system for tying in the deadeyes.

Materials, 1 set of upper deadeyes starboard and port, a cable 0.9 mm, lanyards with half of it 0.45 mm and the seizings with 0.15 mm.

First assign all shrouds to the lower deadeyes. Secure with an auxiliary thread.

It will then look like what you have already seen.

For the sake of clarity, we will now continue with a single shroud.

The deadeyes are easy to hold with pointed tweezers, the ends should ideally protrude at the back.

A cardboard template on the chain board helps to maintain the correct height. One hand holds the shroud in the correct line to the lower target deadeye, a micro portion of superglue is placed at 3 o'clock in the groove of the deadeye, and by placing the protruding tips of the tweezers on the top edge of the template, the deadeye is pressed against the shroud at the correct angle of rotation.

Then, if necessary, apply a micro portion of superglue at 9 o'clock and position the free end behind the shroud.

Then close the eye with 2 knots. A little space must be left between the deadeye and the knot, as in a later phase 3-4 more knots must be added to the eye and the thicker lanyard must also be passed through there. I don't glue the two knots at this stage because I can still correct the eye if necessary.

Then the lower seizing of the 3 ones of the free end is secured and aligned. Depending on the era and nation, the shroud and free end either run in mirror image or asymmetrically with the shroud directed towards the center of the deadeye and the free end running out tangentially and then tied on at the top.

And then the lanyard can already be integrated and provisionally fixed above.

Only when all the shrouds have been fitted in this way will the remaining turns on the eye and the 3 upper seizings be completed, see above.

The final step will be to bring the lanyard forward over the deadeye under the knpt and tie it on above.

It actually went quite quickly, was looking even enough and, above all, the potential for frustration was manageable.

XXXDAn

 

[kirill4]

Good day Daniel,
Didn't You consider posibilities to use carton paterns which is fitted between mast top and chainplate with pencil drawn indication of position of all shrouds and deadeys, with all upper deadeyes temporary secured to this pattern in their correct position by this soft iron or copper wire and drop of CA gell on opposite of carton pattern, then ranning end of the shrouds could be run around upper deadeyes , fixed with penzet in correct position above upper deadeyes with drop of CA gell , than applied throat seising could be done... and went to the next shroud and next... when all will be done , You will have correct shroud length regarding all of the shrouds ... all upper dead yeas will be in the strait line of the same level, than carton paterh could be remowed and lanyards between lower and upper deadeyes could be installed and tight a little... to make just imitation that shrouds tighten a lot!!! ))
All the best!!!
ps
I was late !!! to make an order for all of that lovely additions You made and offer for the Victory model , such sad...

 

[Uwek]

Very good work my friend - I learnt something today - many thanks for this