Hi @ all!
Thanks Vermin_King! Indeed I tried to make the overall look a bit
antique. This is also why I chose to make the running rigging a bit "brownish dark" rather than the typical bright color of hemp rope, maybe slightly dirty by darkening with a bit of black (in my next built
).
Finally the fore mast is set completely (with the exception of the top sail halliard, where I made a mistake, more on it next time).
Material and Methods
Sails, plastic foil, sand and clear varnish. In addition some single thread, twofold woven thread/rope and plenty of 2.5mm and 3.5mm blocks...
When the sail is sawn to my satisfaction, I mount it with a thread on a stick (
pic. 1), attach more thread and some white synthetic packing yarn on each corner (
pic. 2) and hang the whole thing on two chairs over a small cardboard box (
pic. 3).
I use some plastic wrap foil or a plastic bag, filled with sand to give the sail the desired shape (
pics 3&4). Then I paint the sail with the clear varnish from below and wait until everything hardens (6-12 hours). In the pictures 3 and 4 you see the first sail hanging without the wooden stick. Later I decided to use the wooden stick on the top side of the sail as seen in the first and second picture.
I must admit it worked better for my
Elbing cog. This might have something to do with the varnish I use in this built. Sadly, here sometimes it is difficult to find certain products and I do not have the old varnish anymore.
The yard has to be prepared prior to attaching the sail. For the fore sail yard I needed 22 blocks (
pic. 5)
for the different rigging lines.
Pic. 6 shows the sail ready to be attached to the yard.
The next
picture 7 shows the ready fore top sail before mounting it to the mast. It shows what lines I have to attach to the yard and sail before mounting to the mast: two times clew lines (red), two times bunt lines (blue), two times brace tackles (green), and the halliard (halyard, black). In addition, not shown on the picture, were still the parrel beads on one side of the halliard. After mounting all this and other additional lines on the mast (i.e. lifts, leeches, sheets, etc.), the parrel beads went around the mast and were mounted on the other side. I will post a picture next time from the main mast rigging.
Meanwhile on the deck there was pure chaos (
pic. 8)
as the different lines were mounted to their destinations in the belaying pins according to the plans. Had to buy some additional tweezers to accomplish the task. Honestly, after making the fore mast, everything makes sense and rigging the next mast and next models should go more smoothly.
The rest of the pictures show how the ready rigged (except for the top sail halliard) stem of the Mayflower looks like based on the plans I use. On some pictures you can see how the thread is still fluffy despite using bees wax. Luckily this is all so small that it is barely seen. I still treat the threads with the wax after they are attached to the ship. But I've found some other yarn I will use in my next built.
I tried to accomplish a look of "sails in action" under a strong wind coming from starboard aft. Thus also, some of the lines are more loose than the others.
So much for now. Next post most probably next year as I will travel a bit to escape the dark days here in the North..
Rgds,
Radek