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Mondfeld " Historic Ship Models " |
HANDRAILS including the taffrail, Fig. 40, around the
stern, are difficult to form due to their fragility. They may be made
from wood, tho sharp curves are almost impossible to bend from straight
grain. Where necessary, piece up the rail, trimming when the glue is
dry. Use a template (paper pattern) to get the exact alignment of
stanchion holes thru the rail and into the bulwarks. Press the
stanchion holes thru the rail and into the bulwarks. Press the
stanchions in place, then the -rail on top of the stanchions.
Alternative materials are plastic sheet or fiberboard. These will often
make a neater joint than wood.
The DECK and DECK FURNITURE
Ship model kits contain most of the deck -fittings and
furniture. These are quite simply applied by drilling holes in the deck
to take the mounting pegs or by applying glue.
However let me say this, that cast fittings are but substitutes for the
real thing — where you can, make your deck furniture of wood or brass.
Excessive use of castings sets you back, craftwise, to the stage of
plastic kits, yet without the cold, clean overall appearance of that
kind of model.
Starting at the bow the first item is the WINDLASS.
The barrels of the windlass lined up with the anchor hawse pipes, of
course. The cast fitting is practical for this item. Small ships and
schooners might have a small wooden windlass mounted on the bowsprit
bitts or between chocks in the bulwarks, Fig. 4 IF. A ratchet rim with
a gravity pawl hung from a centre post was usual. The barrel was
8-sided, tapering towards each end and pierced thru with holes to take
handspikes.
Mediaeval and earlier ships had a simple horizontal barrel
with similar handspikes but placed in the after part of the hull so
that it could be used for the anchor cable and also the halliards, and
mast raising rope when the mast was portable.
Sir Walter Raleigh, writing about the end of the 16th
century, mentioned the capstan as being a recent innovation, but there
is evidence of its use some time earlier than this. It would be a
simple tree trunk rounded off and extended to the deck below, fitted
possibly with chafing battens or whelps and turned by handspikes
running thru holes near the cap as in Fig. 41 A. This arrangement
evolved into the familiar pattern of 41 В which was basically a four or
six sided trunk faced with heavy whelps or chocks and capped by a thick
heavy disc called a drumhead to take square ended capstan bars. These
were fitted in naval craft larger than cutters or schooners. Large
warships, 3-deckers, would have capstans doubled up one above the other
on each deck. Frigate sized ships would have only the single capstan
but it was frequently capable of being lowered down bodily to leave the
top deck clear to stow a boat. Fig. 41 В shows 4 whelps but 6 or more,
narrower ones would be in order. The drumheads were about 6' 0"
diameter on 1st rate ships.
The cable was brought in by means of a messenger rope,
Fig. 42, whose ends were seized together to form an endless run around
two rollers at the bows and then around the capstan; it was seized to
the cable by short ropes called nippers and as each nipper closed up to
the capstan a boy (a nipper) would quickly unbind it, run forward and
tie to the cable again as it came through the hawsehole.
When the anchor was laid out, the cable was taken around
the riding bitts to hold it.
Naval ships kept to capstans whilst merchant ships turned
to the pump handle type of windlass, Fig. 41H. It required fewer men to
operate but was very slow; maybe a couple of hours or more to bring in
the anchor.
In case you come across the terms, the windlass parts
consisted of two heavy side timbers (CARRICK BITTS) with long knees, to
take the windlass barrel ends and a centre post called the PAWL BITT
which held a gravity type pawl plate and was crowned by rocker arms to
take the handles. These arms each raised a ratchet which in turn
engaged and turned the windlass barrel.
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Contents
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Model
scale
Ship lines
The hull, woodworking
Holes in the hull
Gun ports
Decks, laying of
Rails and channels
Wales
Stern and galleries
Head and its rails
Figurehead
Rudder
Steering gear
Deck furniture
Windlass
Capstan
Hatches
Skylights
Hammock nettings
Painting the model, colors
Waterline
Rigging:
 The spars
Tops,
crosstrees, cheeks
Mast,
boom, gaff, yards
Lower
and upper yards,
halliards
The
double topsail
Lifts,
footropes, sheets, braces, clew garnets
Yard
bands
Making the spars
Ironwork
Bowsprit, dolphin striker,
the doublings
Top, construction
Shrouds, deadeyes, lanyards
Books & Tools,
recommendations
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