"Speeljacht" 1:50 - test model

[Seahorse]

Hello colleagues
Many modeler friends said to me that it would be nice to assemble a sailing ship, but rigging is generally too difficult. Therefore, a few years ago I asked Ab Hoving for an idea for a simple model with the simplest possible rigging, and I didn't have to wait long (2-3 hours) when a precise and immediately three-dimensional design of a "recreational yacht" appeared on my computer. ", i.e. "Speeljacht".
This design is very similar to the commercially available plans drawn by Cor Emke.
NVM 10.06.017 Speeljacht volgens Nicolaas Witsen (1671) - Modelbouwtekeningen.nl

Recreation on the water was probably not an invention of the Dutch, because in the tomb of Tutankhamun an image of the pharaoh fishing on the Nile was found, which can be considered entertainment on the water. However, until the 17th century, sailing ships of various types fulfilled basically only commercial and war functions or were used for work, such as fishing. It was only when the trade in Asia enabled merchants to build great fortunes that yachts for entertainment appeared.

Maybe it was then that "yachting" appeared as a way of spending time with family, friends or for business purposes. Not only did people relax by sailing for pleasure, but such expeditions were accompanied by delicious feasts, including plenty of drinks. Nicolaes Witsen even mentions a "beer house" under the aft deck. In addition to romantic trips, owning such a yacht meant prestige and/or wealth - a bit like modern billionaires and oligarchs.

The decorations were chic, but not flashy. The Netherlands was a Calvinist country, so one had to be modest. There was usually a family coat of arms on the stern.

A similar model was developed in wood by Kalderstock.
And for the inquisitive and curious: the Clean2Anywhere Foundation has been experimentally recycling plastic for several years, building replicas of small historical yachts from it, including this speel yacht. Link to one of the videos where you can see the construction of a speel yacht:
An amazing year of building ships from waste plastic! | C2A | Recap episode - YouTube


How is my construction going? So quick and easy that I didn't take many photos, especially obvious stages like frame frames,...



...or "first - false planking"



The retouched edge of decks has always "disgusted" me, so I experimented a bit and glued narrow strips on the visible edges, imitating the face of the boards. The stripe is 0.7 mm, my hand trembled a bit and it didn't turn out perfect, but I think it's a very good idea for the future.


Since masking the edges like this has a future, I went ahead and played with the edges of the planks at the stern. There is also something to complain about, but that's my fault - I liked the idea itself.


A large number of visible frames required tedious gluing and retouching, and initially I planned to glue them to the hull first and then continue covering them with the planks. Fortunately, before I started committing such stupidity, I changed my concept and glued this component separately, finally gluing the finished one to the model. In total, in four stages: 2 amidships and 2 aft.


The last layer of planks (in color) went very well, and of course the corrections were made on the edges that are covered with wales. This is how it turned out:



Modest decorations (as I wrote at the beginning) will only be made of cardboard, so that the model is fully paper as standard. It was necessary to choose the coat of arms of some noble family. The final choice fell on the van Loon family, also because their "palace" still houses a popular museum.(https://www.museumvanloon.nl)


That's it for now, only decorations, leeboards and very simple rigging remain.

Regards
Tomek

[Michael Mash]

Wonderful. Certainly looks a lot like an "Ab Hoving" vessel.
The simplicity should make it popular.

[abhovi]

I was wondering when you would come out with this one Tomek.
Looking splendid!
Ab

[JohnMGD]

Hello Tomek and Ab,

Nice to see that there now is a model with a rather simple rigging plan, but that is only one model, what about the other models out there.
Ab would it be possible to give a course in rigging historical sailing ships, would appriciate it very much, that is if you have time for this of course. For me that is the biggest threshold not to start a historical model, as you already know.

[abhovi]

You are right John, the rigging of a historical ship is a daunting task for many beginners. Even if I wanted to I could not give a course here, because it simply is too wide a field. Start thinking about the materials you want to use: wood, plastic, rope, cloth, glues, dyes and so on.
Then you need the knowledge to make something that reflects in some way the rigging of the depicted ship. There have been books written about the subject in a much better way than I could even bring it into words.
Then you need some knowledge about how ships show up on paintings because they are a very important source for what kind of maneuvering ships do in respond to all kinds of weather.
To make a long story short: if you really want, take a plunge right into it. Let yourself advise as much as you can and simply do it.
That is the only way as far as I can see.
The speeljacht model is a wonderful chance to dip your toes in...

[Siwi]

Originally Posted by abhovi

You are right John, the rigging of a historical ship is a daunting task for many beginners. Even if I wanted to I could not give a course here, because it simply is too wide a field. Start thinking about the materials you want to use: wood, plastic, rope, cloth, glues, dyes and so on.
Then you need the knowledge to make something that reflects in some way the rigging of the depicted ship. There have been books written about the subject in a much better way than I could even bring it into words.
Then you need some knowledge about how ships show up on paintings because they are a very important source for what kind of maneuvering ships do in respond to all kinds of weather.
To make a long story short: if you really want, take a plunge right into it. Let yourself advise as much as you can and simply do it.
That is the only way as far as I can see.
The speeljacht model is a wonderful chance to dip your toes in...

Indeed in preparation for rigging my current project I have gone over a wealth of research materials from books to videos and even got into the Aubrey-Maturin novels (Master and Commander) by Patrick O'Brian. I find it is often the case with paper models, that I end up learning a lot about the history and mechanics of the subject being built.


This little yacht looks excellent and I am sure will appeal widely.

[Dancooper]

Wow, that looks fantastic.

[firdajan2]

It looks great Tomek...


Jan

[paperairforce]

Very nice!

[Seahorse]

Thank you for all the comments.

@JohnMGD@ I think that the issue of rigging on sailing ship models can be divided into two aspects. One is the historical purpose of individual ropes and their evolution, which, as Ab wrote, is a never-ending story. You can become familiar with a specific era, a specific type of vessels, but to understand all the information and nuances you need to change your hobby to "studying rigging" :-)
The second aspect is the techniques of making individual rigging elements to scale, various "tricks" and "magic" to make the rigging on the model look like a real one. And here there is no one right and sacred method, everyone experiments and chooses what suits them best.

It took a long time to finish the hull, but it can finally be presented.


In accordance with period drawings, I applied thick nails (glue and paint) on the wales, and attached two pairs of reinforcements to the stem.


All the finishing touches and modest decorations appeared. Initially, I thought about cutting them with a laser, but it would require some plasticizing (e.g. with glue) and painting - which means a lot of work and time. So I cut out several copies by hand with a sharp scalpel and glued them to the sides. The decorative ends of the railings are simple bottomless "boxes" that I used to mask the ends of the edges of the railing.


In the stern part there are belaying pins printed in resin (bigger and thicker than the ones I have used so far (e.g. in "De 7 Provincien) and they will probably appear in the store's offer soon.), a bench and a rod on which the sheet of the second sail moved. And a few little things at the stern.
All decorations are "conventional", i.e. you can make others according to your own intuition and skills.



Leeboards, characteristic for coastal units that moved in shallow waters, according to the plans, had semi-circular indentations - after gluing such a part, I gently cut out these indentations with a scalpel, corrected them with a file and covered the whole thing with strips. They were hung with an eye on a hook coming from the side. They were lifted by ropes, which is clearly visible in the photos.


A few more words about the rudder blade, which unfortunately I don't have any photos of. A simplified version would consist of layers of cardboard and that's it. Usually, however, the rudder blade was thicker at the front edge and thinner at the rear. That's what I did: the side layers of 0.5 mm cardboard are glued together at the back, and an additional narrow strip of cardboard is glued between at the front. This can be seen on the masking strips. The front edge (where hinges are) was not perpendicular, but ended at an angle - the glued side parts in the color have appropriate protrusions at the front, which, glued together, create a triangular ending. The recesses for the hinge axles are, of course, masked with another small strips. The thicker upper part of the stern blade, where the tiller is mounted, was created by appropriate shaping and simply gluing thicker cardboard between. For imaginative modelers, instead of the missing photos, I am posting a scan of the parts.


And that's all.


Regards
Tomek