I'm currently building the Heller HMS Victory and have a set of aftermarket sails I want to use. When I built my Model Shipways Privateer Rattlesnake I added the sails after I had installed and rigged the yardarms and that worked ok - but the rigging on the Victory is more complex and perhaps it's better to attach the sails to the yardarms before they are installed and rigged on the ship. Any thoughts?

On my old Revell Victory, I added the standing rigging (black thread) followed by the sails. I then added the running rigging (brown thread)

Grant,
Thanks for your response. I may end up following your suggestion.

Sorry Paul, I don't have any suggestions for when to add the sails...but it looks like you are off to a fantastic start! Kudos for the Rattlesnake...another one of my favorites!

No real thoughts, more like questions to trigger thoughts ...
What is most complicated; getting the sails properly attached to the yard arms or getting the yard arms attached to the masts?
What would be easiest in this case?
Can you manage to get the yard arms in position when they are "weighed" down by the "heavy" sails ?
Attach the sails and furl them temporarily to make the yard arm assembly more manageable and unfurl them afterwards ?
Is the yard arm attached to the mast with a single, easy to handle, pivot point (I'm not familiar with Victory's rigging ...) ?

Make a work item plan to describe each required piece of work for both methods and try to imagine how you would perform these jobs. "With the yard arm hanging from the mast, hold the sail in place and attach it at the first attachment point to the yard arm."

A general principle is to use subassemblies when there is a lot of fiddly work on a small area and then attach the finished subassembly to the rest.

/ Robin

Robin,
That's great advice, thanks!