Hi @ all!
Small changes in the look. I've attached the 5-hole deadeye for the main topmast stay and glued the outlook with the futtock shrouds in place on the foremast (
pic. 1&2).
I must say that the foremast shrouds look very chaotic and messy...
The futtocks also stretched them a bit apart so I consider attaching catharpins, but need to figure out which ones. I think I've seen a description about some from that era which use a deadeye and a block. Not the easiest ones but more according to the time period of 1620.
Method for stays and shrouds
The deadeyes for the shrouds were first glued "head on" in about the same height as marked with the blue dotted line in
pic. 3. Because I do not use any jig due to the small scale, this was the best way I could come up with to get them as even as possible. Of course it did not work out with every one, especially the mizzen mast ones differ quite a lot. But this was a merchant vessel so things were not as shipshape as later on in the royal navy...
Pic. 4 shows what I do to avoid them to twist:
- Once I pull the first thread through the lower deadeye the upper one twists a bit.
- Then I give it one more spin in the same direction, before
- leading the thread through the second hole in the upper deadeye.
- That way the tension from the twist will "straighten" the twisted deadeye back in place.
For the stopper in the stay foremast stay I used a drop of glue (
pic. 5), because it seemed impossible for me to twist a thread around the line in that position at the bowsprit. The other stays have a thread winded around the line.
I tried to give the stays a bit of slack, after all such a heavy rope bends under its own weight and the weight of the big 5-hole deadeyes, but judge for yourself!
One mistake I made by attaching the mizzen stay (which is made out of three threads compared to the main stay with four) to the main mast as the main stay...
Had to cut it, adjust the length in several places and put it where it belongs, to the mizzen mast. Was quite some work. Puh...
Next is the terrifying ratline work which I am so bad at that afterwards the shrouds look like a hurricane destroyed the ship..!
But this is a welcomed challenge and opportunity to improve...
My apologies for the quality of the pictures but I still have to use my smartphone... :/
-Radek