Hi Tony,
Thank you for looking in and for the kind words.
We had lathes at school and since then I've always had a thing for lathes.
FYI I don't use the cross slide & cutting tool, I just use a sanding block to taper the yard.
Kind regards,
Garth

Hi Phil,
Thanks for looking in and for the kind reply.
Regards,
Garth

Part 10 Sails

My last real bit of scratch building on this build will be the sails. This part has been really concerning me as I had no idea where to start. I looked up some business that do alterations to clothes in our area and the reply was a questioning gaze …” you want me to sew what?!!!”
Well that idea put to bed I had to look elsewhere. I have my late aunt Ethel’s old Singer sewing machine in my garage. I have basically kept it as it may have some collector value. Fortunately, it is in superb condition and it still has the original manual.
After a quick read through the manual, I was sewing basic rows in no time at all. Further scratching revealed some pins, and I was A-for-Away.
If you are following my build, you will need extra linen. I think it came with issue 119. Otherwise any suitable cloth will work. Remember, the L drawings are for printing to scale. One other thing, I off-set the cut-out line by 7mm, perhaps leave around 10mm for the seam.
I cut the sails using my templates, folded and pinned the hems. Following that I sewed vertical lines at about 15mm intervals to suggest the various sheets of material. After a couple of hours, I had a set of sails – much easier than I expected.
In hindsight, I could have made the fore & main topgallant longer, but I am happy as is.
I painted the sails using matt black and draped the wet sails over a gas bottle hoping that they would maintain the gentle curve when dry. Not too successful though. Once dry I followed my grey dry brush formula and added a tinge of GW Sybarite Green.
I have some of the brass rings left over from my Victory jibs, a quick pass through the Brass Black and the jib was ready to go.
Once done I attached the sails to the yards as per the Victory instructions (HMSV Dual Pack 11 DL, p454) and added the blocks as per my drawings.

Kind regards,
Garth

Fantastic attention to detail Garth. Superb build!

Regards,
Phil W.

Nice work Garth
Loving this build
Chris

Hi All,
Before I begin, just a short summary of my running rigging process:

Anatomy of a Sail (on my ship anyway)

One of the reasons that I am attracted to sail ships, is the multitude of lines that fill the space between the masts & sails. They seem to traverse the model in a hap-hazard way and to the layman and look like a bird’s nest (What my fishing real sometimes looks like). I think that due to this, many people are put off by the complexity of the rigging.

By breaking this down and taking one sail at a time, I have only used 7 lines. Essentially the same set of lines are just repeated on the other side and then again on each sail above.

As I mentioned earlier, this is by no means a document on the design of sails. It is basically a ‘look-feel’ attempt to have a plausible set of sails on my model. So, for the purists out there – please forgive me. I drew in the lines in the instructions (01 Halyards, 02 Yard Lifts & 06 Brace) then added lines until my drawing looked busy enough. I have left out several lines, bow lines, tack braces to name a few.

I have attempted to illustrate this on the images below.

01 Halyard – raise and lower the yard.
02 Yard Lift – adjust the angle of the yard.
03 Sheet – adjust the tension of the sail above.
04 Buntlines – used to restrain the loose centre of the sail when furled. I fitted two to the lower sails.
05 Clew line – used to haul the corner of the sail up to the yard.
06 Brace – used to rotate the yard around the mast, that will allow the ship to sail at the desired angle to the wind.
07 Lower sail Sheet – adjust the tension of the lower sail.

Basically, every sail, bar the Jib and Lateen Sail are rigged in exactly the same manner, the only difference being the belaying point.

Garth, this is such an outstanding build from start to present, you should be very proud of your efforts. The level of detail, planning and construction is certainly top notch, in addition you should be congratulated for the excellent upkeep of your build diary.

Your efforts have certainly been noticed, so much so it has been decided to recognise your achievements by awarding you with the Yellow Medal, an award that is for the construction of outstanding builds and is seldom given. Congratulations and very well deserved.....

Regards

Alan

WTG

No more than you deserve for an excellent build and diary.

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Garth,
Congratulations on your yellow medal award.
Well deserved, not only for the build but your excellent diary as well.
Chris