Speaking of supplies, I shall be compiling a list of Vallejo paints that you might like to get your mittens on before we get any mini's (or other decorative parts). If all goes to plan, I will be doing a set of three tutorials aimed at beginner, improver and advanced levels of painting so that whatever your level of skill with a brush, you will have some handy tips to refer to.

Meanwhile, I have been fiddling around with bits of string and runny superglue in an attempt to create convincing-looking restraining ropes and tackle on the carronade - the next tutorial will be for the more masochistic amongst us..

For those of us that couldn't wait and simply had to glue the eyelets into the carronade platform before the rest of the instructions arrived *looks guilty*, fear not! all is not lost - merely a little more complicated, maybe..

Before I move on to describing what can best be described as a 'novel way' to making the tackle/rigging on the carronade, I'll have a quick rant about textiles and illustrate the method I used to make some extremely handy 'iron rings' which can be almost magically be fitted over painted brass rings with minimum damage risk to the paint!

First, textiles... I hate textiles - you cant paint onto anything made with natural fibres (with the notable exception of leather) without it ending up looking matted and messy - imagine painting your favourite woolen jumper - think for a moment about how it would look - capture that thought...

Cotton and hemp twine, used for rigging model boats is made of... yup, natural fibres.. when viewed under even rudimentary magnification you can see thousands of fluffy little fibres sticking out everywhere..

Since the model we are building is a scaled down version of the real thing it necessarily follows that if we were to magnify our model x85 times, we would have a life-size model of HMS Victory...

Now, do the same with that cotton... imagine how it would look eighty five times bigger - the rigging of the real HMS victory would look as is every rope were encased in freshly blow-dried poodles...

You cant paint a poodle and expect a smooth finish either..

This rant actually serves a useful purpose - apart from making my dislike of mixing textiles and scale modeling abundantly clear, it leads me on to illustrating how sometimes the enemy can also be a friend via a peculiar alliance with superglue....

Health and Safety advice.. Don't do this unless you are supremely confident with very runny superglue - you could use cellulose dope instead (with adequate ventilation) but it will take a while longer. I cannot stress enough that the following technique is fraught with potential mishaps - try it at your own risk.

First, find a drill bit of a suitable diameter - this will be the internal diameter of your 'iron ring'. Next pick a suitable gauge of thread to represent the iron ring. Simply tie the thread once, as if tying a very basic knot, around the drill bit. TIP, try applying some thinned down PVA glue to the thread and setting it aside to dry before tying, it helps dampen down some of those stray fibers and grips itself easily when tying knots..

Now comes the dodgy bit..

Very gently and very carefully apply the tiniest amount of runny superglue to the wound part of the thread - capillary action will draw the superglue around the entire 'ring' if you get it right (you may need to force your 'ring' off the drillbit, but it isn't too hard to do with the bunt edge of a knife).

The superglue effectively stiffens the fibers of the thread, plasticising them into the bargain so once the hoops are removed from the drill bit and the surplus ends are cut off you can then paint them - this is the only time I ever advocate using thick, un-thinned paint, as it will disguise the rough texture of the string.



Not perfect - but since you'll only get to see the good bits of each ring, the following benefit outweighs the effort

You can now cut into one edge of the ring and, the superglue having given it a certain springiness, it can now be gently opened up and teased over a painted brass
eyelet and when in position you can let it spring back into shape (TIP! add a dab of superglue between the ends to re-seal the ring)

Once the join has sealed - add another dab of paint and fix the ring into a natural position with a further dab of superglue.

You can now thread your restraining ropes.

Another problem I have with cotton or hemp thread is that it always behaves 'in scale' - many a great looking wooden model ship is let down by 'floaty rope syndrome'. If you look at a photo of the cannon on the real ship, the restraining rope looks heavy - because it is - and drapes itself accordingly over points of contact. Cotton isn't heavy and the resulting scale effect is ghastly to behold.

Using superglue for purposes it was never intended comes into its own again as with a bit of experimentation, you will discover that you can 'sculpt' your cotton thread to make it appear weighty and thus more in-scale.



I have added iron (string) rings to the restraining rope in order to secure the gun to the hull (simply cut, twist, pop over the ring in the hull and that's it!)

As per usual, you have delivered some pretty damn fine stuff Captain Stedders, no doubt about it you are an inspiration mate, you taut me some things today, thanks mate, downloaded an stored for future reference, now where do I send the cheque??

dontshootme:


Your question is most easily answered with a photo...


In this picture there are four such rings fitted to the carronade, two (one either side of the carronade carriage which the large diameter rope passes through after falling from the thimble and two more at the end of this rope that will attach to the hull) I have yet to add a further two to the tackle arrangements for the same purpose.

Eeep!

Damned if you are not right Mike..

BUT!! I have just noticed that in the picture of the model carronade (#6 I think, posted by Zeptrader) in the same thread that I have also positioned the tackle arrangement in the wrong place - if that model is correct then there are four sets of tackle..

However, in that picture the breeching rope looks even shorter than mine...



So, its either back to the drawing board and remake the tackle assembly (and continue my obsessional quest to find the ultimate, non fluffy and malleable twine) - or simply go with things as they stand (the easier option by far).

Hmmm..

Cheers Mike.

I am glad you brought up the issue of getting a balance between 100% historical accuracy and an aesthetically pleasing model as its actually an important point.

After looking at my model Carronades and the photographs of the real things, I came to the conclusion that trying to add two more sets of blocks and tackle would neither be practical (partly due to the fiddliness of making them in this scale) or make the model look nicer (getting the shorter set to 'hang' correctly around the breeching rope would not only be extremely difficult, but would probably end up looking a little too fussy - and therefore slightly messy if it was not done accurately.

I welcome your critique as not only is it well intentioned and informative but it helps to prevent any laziness creeping into my build, (within practical limits as pointed out above).

Capt can you kindly have a look at this on Ebay and tell me if these are the correct paints and what you think of the price.
Cheers
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vallejo-M...&hash=item4ce75e6026

Is that the thread supplied to us in the kit and did you bleach them?

Think Captain Stedders should be promoted to first sea lord for the valuable information he is supplying. It will save us countless hors and repairs. Many thanx skipper

cpt.stedders, great teach-in again,but I think people should consider buying a selection of threads/rope/twine, I go to caldercraft models, for mine, I get it from. .5mm - 2.5mm. in black and natural.saves helleva lot of messing.
another thing i remember you having trouble threading dead-eyes etc.the first thing i do is drill out the existing holes with 1mm. drill,then, wait for it, a tiny drop of thin superglue on the end of the thread then cut the end when dry, to a point, works every time for me,and also when rigging you will get poked in eye whilst wearing head magnifying glasses.but I am going to try the tip someone put up,a needle threader, the wire type, thanks, looking forward to the next one.