Hi All,
It has been a long week for me. I have finally started the thing I was most afraid of: the standing rigging. And it is a bit more complicated than I thought. As you can see in the first picture, a lot of research is needed.
Not even the bier helped to understand the lines and diagrams from the kit plans. So, I started a long, tedios and boring period of searching and reading information from the all-knowing internet.
The other ropes that are in the picture are the tackles. And here is where the fun begins. To create them, one must learn how to seize an eye. There are a lot of descriptions in the internet about this and, as always, practice makes you perfect. Since today I have a disposition to get into boring details, one needs a sort of a jig to make them. First you need a dowel with the proper diameter for the eye you want to seize, then you need a 3rd hand to help you keep everything steady. After that you start with a clove hitch (sic, you have no clue what this is :D, check here) do turn the seizing 7-8 times around the rope and work some other magic and this is it, you have a seizing. Trim the excess rope and then glue it with something (diluted white glue or varnish) to make sure it stays together.
You can see some of the pictures with the progress and some helpers I had to do the job below.
Here is the final result. This was a useful thing to learn, all of the masts standing rigging (the stays and the shrouds) will be using this.
But I had some feeling that something is missing, so I have looked over the various books on the rigging matter. I still have to fit a lot of things on the mast's top before attaching its shrouds on the hull. The deadeyes for the top mast have to be there and also some blocks that will be needed later for the running rigging have to be in place. At this moment, I do not know exactly all of them, so it is time for more reading before going on.
This is all for now, I will keep you up to date with the changes.
Have a nice day!
It has been a long week for me. I have finally started the thing I was most afraid of: the standing rigging. And it is a bit more complicated than I thought. As you can see in the first picture, a lot of research is needed.
One of the easiest thing to do was the masts wooldings. After trying it two times I become a little expert on it. So, woolding is the rope folded around the mast. Its role is to increase the mast strength. On the real ships there were no strong enough trees to create the lower masts from one piece. So they were made from more pieces held together with nails, glue and wooldings. On the model itself, they have only a decorative purpose and make it look more real.
The other ropes that are in the picture are the tackles. And here is where the fun begins. To create them, one must learn how to seize an eye. There are a lot of descriptions in the internet about this and, as always, practice makes you perfect. Since today I have a disposition to get into boring details, one needs a sort of a jig to make them. First you need a dowel with the proper diameter for the eye you want to seize, then you need a 3rd hand to help you keep everything steady. After that you start with a clove hitch (sic, you have no clue what this is :D, check here) do turn the seizing 7-8 times around the rope and work some other magic and this is it, you have a seizing. Trim the excess rope and then glue it with something (diluted white glue or varnish) to make sure it stays together.
You can see some of the pictures with the progress and some helpers I had to do the job below.
Here is the final result. This was a useful thing to learn, all of the masts standing rigging (the stays and the shrouds) will be using this.
This is how it looks from above installed on the fore mast's top. There will be here two tackles (already installed), 3 shroud pairs and one stay.
I have also prepared a 'jig' to help with keeping the deadeyes at the same level and I was going to start attaching the shrouds and the deadeyes.
But I had some feeling that something is missing, so I have looked over the various books on the rigging matter. I still have to fit a lot of things on the mast's top before attaching its shrouds on the hull. The deadeyes for the top mast have to be there and also some blocks that will be needed later for the running rigging have to be in place. At this moment, I do not know exactly all of them, so it is time for more reading before going on.
This is all for now, I will keep you up to date with the changes.
Have a nice day!
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