Step 19B, continued

Thanks, JJ. And here's your latest update!

Sort of had a marathon session yesterday, in that I spent 3-4 hours assembling and installing lines A9 & A10 (Travelling guy), A11 & A12 (Guy pendant), and A13 & A14 (Flying jib boom guy). The worst problem was, I really couldn't figure out where the thread stopped & started on the pulleys, so I sort of winged it. And in the pictures, the end of all those threads are not permanently attached (yet), I just looped them around where it looks like they terminate on the jib boom.

I put all this together "on the ground" - if I had tried to attach this rigging with the rings attached to the ship, I would have smashed something (either the model, or my head against the wall). So here's the latest pics:

This picture shows all the rigging putting together, and the guys attached to the blocks. Like I said, if I had tried to do this with everything attached to the ship, it would have been a nightmare:



Here's a close-up of the starboard side lines attached. The rings that are attached to the beakhead bulkhead wound up being horizontal; that's just because of the tight space that they got installed into. The port side rings are more vertical (could be, because I'm left-handed, and it was just easier attaching the rings on the port side):



And here's a top view, showing port & starboard lines attached to the bulkhead:



And lastly, a view of about where all the guys lines get attached to the jib boom. On the starboard side, I have the outermost guy looped around the end of the spritsail boom; this was done just for convenience. All three lines pass over/through/around the boom about half-way between the end of the boom and the bowsprit (the port side is more accurate):



So today, if I work on this thing, will be to finish attaching the guy lines, then study the instructions to see if there's anything else that I can do before moving on (and I just realized that yes, there is some more to do). I also wanted to give enough time for the glue to get good and hard on the rings, before I start putting tension on those guy lines. It would just suck, if the rings popped out when I'm trying to tighten up and secure those guy lines.

Happy viewing!! Don't forget to turn your clocks back tonight (for those of us in the U.S.)

Step 19B, still

I went to bed last night, thinking of different ways to try and make some rings to attach to the bowsprit boom lower, where those guy lines would pass through. I finally hit upon the idea of drilling a hole down the length of some plastic rods I had (2.5 mm diameter). The rings aren't shaped in the best manner, and their thicknesses vary a little bit, but they're glued to the boom, and not yet painted (the rods are white). So tomorrow, I'm going to try and attach a couple more pulleys (at least 4, if not more). I'm going to hold off on securing any rigging in this step, until I'm sure I've got all the blocks in place, so I won't be fighting any previously installed rigging, to get some more blocks put in place.

Tim,

once more absolutely fantastic work!!! And your results are really looking great! You're getting there! Awesome - I could not do it!

(Clock to 'fall back' was last week in Europe )

Cheers,
Jan

Thanks, Jan. Today, I attached thread to 10 blocks, 2 of those blocks go on the spritsail boom lower, and the other 8 get attached to various places on the bowsprit & jib boom. Maybe later tonight I'll do the actual attachment. I think these 10 blocks will almost "wrap up" step 19B, as the remaining blocks in this step need to be placed next to the standing rigging that gets attached to the bowsprit.

Yes, Europe "fell back" on the clocks last week. In my workplace, we have a digital clock with many different time zones on it, and as far as I know, no one has bothered to change the CET display.

Thanks again for taking a look.

Cheers,

Tim

Step19B...still.

Well, as long as I'm doing some laundry, I thought I'd post a few things.

Remember those rings I mentioned a few posts back? Well, here's what they look like - I haven't painted them yet, but will when I go and do all needed touch-ups on the bowsprit area:

The starboard side:



The port side:



Boy, those threads are fuzzy!!

In each of those pictures, the block hanging down is p26/p27..I don't recall what thread goes through them, but I think it's a "V" something.

Here's a picture of just some blocks on the bowsprit. Because one end of the thread that goes through these blocks attaches to a yardarm or a forestay (and that assembly step is a ways off), I labelled each block with what block they are, and what thread goes through them. I think some of the lines are actually staysail halyards (or halliards, if you prefer).



And lastly, if I didn't write this before, some dimensions for all that netting that was put in place a while back. These dimensions start forward, and move aft:

focsle area: 10 mm high x 87 mm long
waist: 10 mm high x 138 mm long
poop: 10 mm high x 151 mm long
quarterdeck: 6 mm high x 136 mm long

The quarter deck dimension is a bit misleading: it starts out 10 mm high, but as you proceed to the stern, it shortens to 6 mm high.

And I should be painting some blocks instead of blogging, but I'm currently painting blocks P1 and P2 (that's right - capital P!) as well as some p blocks. I need to paint another P3 block, because the lines that come from P1 and P2 go through P3 and upwards. Of course, for all you who are modelling at home, you can spot straightaway the location of this tackle right at the end of the bowsprit, given the superb clarity of Heller's drawings.

So, see you next time, here, on the same bat channel, at the same bat time!

Just amazing!!

Keep up your good work and your courage!!

Cheers,
Jan

Just mind boggling to watch the detail work you are doing here Tim! Amazing!

Thanks, Russell & Jan. Doing this kind of detail work gets me motivated to do more!

Unfortunately, I haven't worked on Victory for almost a week - been in a time crunch with my current work schedule, and having to wait for paint to dry slows things down. Plus, I'm still trying to figure out how to rig blocks P1 & P2 to p29 and p30 (I think that's the right numbering!). From what I've come up with, the flow of the thread between pulleys doesn't make sense, especially since the "distant end"of the thread from this pulley combination goes all the way up to a fore top yardarm. So once i get that problem settled, I'll be on my way!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Step19...almost finished!

So I think I've got the last of the pulleys attached to the bowsprit & jib; I think the last blocks I need to attach are on the 2 parts that are angled out from the uprights that hold the bowsprit in place (I don't have my instructions handy, so I'm not sure what the name of those parts are).

Here's a picture of 2 lines that actually get attached to the top yardarm on the foremast. I used the 0.6 mm thread for these two lines (mostly, because it looks neat!), but taking into account that these lines were used to move the yard in the horizontal plane, it just seemed to make sense to use a thicker thread. The foremast is taped together, and the 2 lines are taped at the very top of the mast. You'll notice, to the left of and behind the mast, a sheet of paper taped to the bookstand. That's the sheet where I wrote down the many blocks needed for this step, as well as what line number will be going through the block. It was a lot easier to take 10 minutes to write that stuff down, rather than use a magnifying glass and try to read Heller's instructions each time I installed a block.



So, if all goes well, I should be starting assembly of the mizzenmast, and making-up the shrouds & rams heads, hopefully by the first of next month!

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving, too!

Moving on from step 19 to step 22!

Well, after studying Heller's diagram in step 19B, with regards to the last blocks that get attached, and checking some references, I decided that a) I really can't decipher where things stop and start, and b) I can come back to this later, as the installation shouldn't be hindered by any other parts that might get in the way. I did, though, paint those hand-made rings flat black, and I still need to complete the attachment of the lines that go through those rings. I also noticed that some rigging I previously installed (I think it's lines V1 & V2), should have gone through the little "bridge" on the bowsprit, before getting attached to their belay points on the beakhead bulkhead.

So, some thoughts on preparing the mizzenmast: I cut a piece of dowel rod to fit inside the two parts that make-up the lower mizzen mast, to try and give it some stiffness. Not problem there, but when I put the halves of the mast together, there was a lot of mis-matching between the two halves, which required a fair amount of scraping & sanding to get somewhere close to smooth. Since then, I've been painting the mast yellow, but brushing the paint onto the mast, I'm left with a really ugly mess, as that yellow goes on unevenly. Even sanding the paint afterwards, I tend to sand down to bare plastic (which is defeating the purpose). So to make life a little easier, I'm going to get an inexpensive Badger airgun, and paint all the mast parts using the airgun, instead of going nutty trying to brush-paint them. So that's on hold for a couple of days, until I get a chance to go to the store & get the airgun. But that will at least give me a day or two to glue the mainmast parts together.

Additionally, I cut the dowel rod a bit too long, apparently, as I have also assembled the futtocks, but when I first tried to fit it into the mast, it stuck up by a good quarter-inch. So I had to cut the bottom of the futtocks off (to include its pyramidical base), and now it fits like a charm. Will have to pay attention to that on the main mast (but not the foremast - I glued it together a long time ago).

Now, on another subject, is the placement of the rings (part 40) on to the mast top. The drawing for the mizzen mast is smaller than that of the fore & main mast drawings, and the placement arrows for parts 40 get a bit lost in the detailed drawing of the mast top. Hence, I mistakenly glued the rings to the underside of the mast top, when they should actually go on the top side. So I'm thinking of either a) cutting off the rings, and re-gluing them to the top of the mast top, or b) drilling out the entire ring, and putting in new rings.

Option c is to not do a thing about it, because the instructions show that to each ring, a "p" pulley gets attached, and then to that pulley, another "p" pulley gets attached (so that there are 2 pulleys for each ring). But the instructions (at least here in step 22) don't know show how much distance should be between the first pulley (which would be attached to the ring) and the second pulley. The instructions do show that the upper pulley is finalized in step 27C (or maybe 30C), that it's apparently a buntline (and here again, the instructions account for only 2 buntlines, so we're left with 2 sets of pulleys that apparently are unemployed). And if these pulleys are actually for buntlines, their make-up is completely senseless: the upper block should be a double-shived block, so that the bitter end of the thread can be tied off on something, somewhere. Plus, it seems to make more sense that it's easier to haul downwards on a rope to lift something, as opposed to having to haul it upwards to achieve the same thing.

Yeesh. So that's where things are at, and maybe this weekend I can post some pix of the painted masts (and since college football season is winding down, I'll be getting more of my weekends back!).

Hi Tim!

Even though it's a little tricky to follow your work without the help of some pictures your fight with and/or against the instructions and not-so-well fitting parts becomes clear enough.

Let me comment on two of your remarks:
From what I understand you have been doing all your painting by brush so far?
Be aware that an airbrush is no quick solution, if you are not experienced with working them. Especially if you go for a cheap one and don't get the color thinned correct, and get a wrong pressure, or a wrong distance to spray, you may be set up for disaster. If brushing on does not work and you are looking for only a few parts, you may actually try a rattle can, I know some here do use them occasionally and are getting quite good results.

Second, let me quote




Actually, that's wrong. You will always arrange lines in a way that you pull upwards, you will be able to get much more power this way. All lines are attached in a way that you pull upwards. just some very small auxiliaries, i.e. to lift a bucked or some small stuff, may occasionally be rigged in a way to pull downwards for simplicity.
Reason is simple: pulling downwards, the limit is your body weight, or maybe that of two persons that can 'hang' on to that line at a time. A (somewhat) trained person can pull upwards easily more than his weight. In addition you can easily have working groups of several people hauling on a line if you pull upwards (or, for that matter, away from the block).

Cheers,
Jan

Hi Jan!

Thanks for the sympathetic ear about my travails with everything!

Yes, so far, everything's been brush-painted. That's a good thought, and one I didn't think of, about using a spray can, instead of trying to use an airbrush. For the price of Badger's low-end airbrush, I could probably get several cans of spray paint. I guess I need to call my local hobby shop, to see if they have this paint in a spray can.

That's interesting commentary about pulling up vs. pulling down. My experiences are different!

Today (well, yesterday, actually), when I got home from work, I glued the main mast together. Then, last night, I tried to dry-fit it into the hull, but I found that it gets stuck about 2 decks down - time to get the file and widen some of those below deck openings.

I was browsing through a general-purpose ship modelling book (Ship Modelling from Stem to Stern, by Milton Roth), and I found a very detailed rendering of the rigging of the mast top (not sure if it's the fore or main mast). But it's another reference to use.

I also took a stab at fabricating the shrouds, at least for the mizzen mast. Fairly simple, just have to practice with it a few more times.


So, stay tuned, there's always more to come!!

Fantastic progression on the rigging Timothy! You seem to have things well in control! I do have a couple of books by Lennarth Petersson on rigging period ships. If you need anything from within, just let me know and I can try and scan it up for you. Keep up the great work!

Hi Todd,

Thanks for the offer. If there are any drawings showing any of the rigging around the mast tops that you can scan, it would be appreciated. Always good to have plenty of references!

In other news, I was at my local crafts store, and I was looking at getting Badger's low-end airbrush gun. But between the price of the gun, and a can of propellant, the total was 50 dollars, and I just couldn't see spending the bucks. But I think it caused me to re-dedicate myself to painting the masts by brush. And along those lines, I was doing some more painting on the masts, and I figured out that maybe if I dilute my paint a little bit, it will flow on smoother, and not dry-out before finishing a section on the mast.

I counted how many of those rings (part 40) I have left - 17. A quick check of the instructions shows that I need 16 to complete the masts...so I'm going to try and dig out the 4 rings on the mizzen top, and hopefully, will be able to re-glue in their proper position. If I can't dig the entire ring out, then I'll just cut them off (hopefully intact) and just glue them to the topside.

No Problem. I will pull the books out and get some scans!


As for the airbrush....justifying purchases is never an easy decision. But it does sound like you might be open to the idea at some point! Starting small, as you mentioned with the Badger and canned air is a great way to start.

Best of luck on the rings!

Thanks, Todd.

So, just some pictures of how the mizzen mast is coming along:

Here's the mast top, after I sliced the rings off the bottom of the top, and re-glued them to the topside. It's also before I painted it black:



Here's a pic of the instruction sheet. As you can probably tell, it's not real clear if those rings are supposed to go under or on top of the mast top:



Here's what is called the futtocks glued together (prior to painting), with the mast cap in place (also before gluing, but with its set of rings attached)



And here's the a partial assembly of the mizzen mast:



One of the figurines that flank the shield under the bowsprit popped off a while back. In the interim, I saw a photo where the figurines had their toga(?) painted red, so I took the opportunity to paint my figurines' togas red, also. Here's a front and back view; the other figurine, I painted its toga, while it was still attached (no pic of that!). Sorry these are blurry, but I couldn't tell, in the viewfinder, if it was in focus or not.

OK, Photobucket is hosed up, so maybe later I can add those 2 pictures.

Here's a fun fact: I opened a new jar of flat yellow paint, and proceeded to spill about half of it on my cutting mat. I was able to mop up most of it, but still...

Hi Tim,

it must be pretty nice to do some building for a change - as compared to the week-long rigging, which was/is very impressive work of yours!!

Those Heller instructions are just amazing... to confuse matters entirely, may it be that they try to tell you that there were rings on top AND under the mast top? Never mind...just an impression from looking at the instructions...

I'm glad you didn't spill any paint on your Victory - that would have been a disaster and not a 'fun fact' at all - even I would be sufficiently embarrassed with what happened to you...

Keep up your spirit and the great work!!

Cheers,
Jan

Thanks, Jan. My worry nowadays is that, in moving the ship back and forth between the workbench and its "storage" spot, I'm going to bash the bowsprit into a wall and wreck everything!

When I spilled the paint, I was just in a rush, so I hadn't put the paint jar into a paint jar holder I made (anticipating spills!), so it probably serves me right.

Still working on getting the lower mizzen mast painted. The yellow looks ok, but when I painted the black bands, the black bled underneath the masking tape, so I'm now I'm going back and forth touching up with yellow, then black, then yellow, then black...

I've also been contemplating how to get the deadeyes rigged, without losing the vertical spacing between the top and bottom deadeye. So I came up with the idea to get some wire and make some spacers with the wire, once I get around to installing those deadeyes. I might post a picture later today to try and explain that a little better.

Oh, I also re-glued the one figurine back onto the stem & shield.

Thanks for taking the time to read my musings!

Cheers,

Tim

One solution to that problem is to paint some of your favourite clear coat on the edge on the masking tape. That should stop most bleeding. Almost all of the bleeding will already have been done by the clear coat. Of course, the tape should be well burnished.

Hi Grant,

Would you believe I don't have any clear coat?

A problem I have encountered with burnishing the tape, is that when I try to remove it, it causes the underlying paint to sometimes chip off.

Well, here's an interesting thing: apparently, when you're trying to post something, and another user makes a comment on your blog, it blows your post right out of the water! I say this, because I was in the process of writing a long-drawn out post about the deadeyes, and how to keep the spacing between them the same. So instead of re-writing whatever I was rambling about, here's the pictures of using some floral wire to keep the distance between the deadeyes:



In the photo below, the piece of wire that is in back, is actually my first attempt. The wire in front, I had some difficulty in getting the dimensions correct!



So that's about all, for now. It looks like the ice from the ice storm today has melted, so I'm going to go drive around a bit,just to get out of the house.

Talk to you all later,

Tim

The mizzen shrouds

So here's a couple of pictures of my attempt at making the lower mizzen shrouds. It took three attempts: the first time, I found that my thread was about to break, the second time, I cut the overall length of the thread too short, so of course, third time's a charm!

Here's a wide view:



Here's a close-up of what will be the starboard side. Some of the shrouds are crossing each other; this is the reason why I started with the mizzenmast, to try and get my technique down pat before doing the fore or main mast.



And here's the shrouds with what will be the ratlines temporarily in place. The ratlines are only on one side of the shrouds, and they're not glued in place. I'm hoping I can install the ratlines to make it look like there is a little bit of slack in them, so that they don't look like they were just pasted straight across the shrouds:



In other news, I'm just about done painting the parts that make-up the mizzen mast. I also stopped at Home Depot on the way home from work tonight, and picked up some 400 grit sandpaper. I've been going from 220 grit to 800 grit in my efforts to smooth out the yellow paint on the mast parts, so hopefully, using the 400 grit will help to smooth things out, without actually sanding down to the original plastic (as usually happens with the 220 grit. And using the 800 grit, only smooths down a bad paint job!

Tim,

once more, I just admire your patience with all those threads! Amazing work you are doing there to the mizzen shrouds!!

Cheers,
Jan

Hello Jan, and a late Merry Christmas!

Thank you for your words of encouragement. I'm hoping to try and put some of the ratlines on the shrouds this evening, but if that doesn't happen, well, there's always tomorrow!!
Cheers,

Tim