Constitutional effort

Greetings Sea Lords and Ladies, I have been inspired by all your talents to delve into the sea of sails, fitting for action beyond the store bought ships. I have selected to go where (no Clipper has gone before?) I had vowed not to go, the land of rigging and ratlines! Behold the the reason:

http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/...pssundkrlg.jpg

Right out of the box she looks grand, but I long for more detail! I spent some time doing a repaint on her, that helped, but not enough. After scouring the site and getting over the intimidation of all the masters here and their work, I decided to dive in anyway . . . First the rat lines-I had the dream of making a winding jig as shown in another thread, but when I got the brass ratlines from the Anchorage Store, I realized I could never do that well, so they sat in the bin for a year. As of late I have been kept home for a week now working through some mind altering drugs to stop my cursed seizures, the time off had been grand, but the meds have fed the ADD side of my brain and with Mrs. Clipper up north tending to her father, I have been left with my elves and an endless supply of energy, what to do? Rats!

http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/...psalpgiaji.jpg

I pondered the threads on how to paint them and decided to simply mark them, so out came the permanent marker and instant black rats! Let the ink dry for a bit so it sticks well, then I proceeded to discover my tweezers are rubbish!

http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/...psgjn6uegm.jpg

Knock that off! This blurred vision thing is a drag, gladly it passes quickly! After carefully planning which ones to use where, the rats are cut free, dropped to the floor-thankfully it is tile-and using a bit of masking tape it is lifted back to the workbench. A touch of thick CA on each place I want it stuck, a bit of fiddling with the tiny rats and clumsy hands, ta da!

http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/...pscnngeqmr.jpg

More rats! More rats! Sounds like a Frank Zappa concert!

http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/...psnkn2vwds.jpg

Once you get the first one in place the next one beckons and suddenly you are done! Yea! Now I may have glued the bottoms to the rails and not the proper rail, and I may have affixed the tops to the platforms instead of the masts, but hey, I am not schooled in rigging - yet! I feel a wonderful sense of accomplishment at this point so don't wreck it! So for my next act, I will endeavour to rigg the Constitution! (Sounds like our current national politics), but wait, I had a paint brush a year ago . . . . to be continued!

Oh wow, that looks fabulous!

I cant wait to see it finished.

Put her in a game and show us what she can do.

Those ratlines look nice, but I'm afraid if somebody upgrade his ship this way he can't refuse to rig this ship. :help:

Just my first impression, when looking on USS Constitution...

Wonderful. I've been tempted to try this myself, but as yet haven't.

Rigging is under way . . .

Very good thus far Dave. :clap: The idea for colouring in the ratlines is inspirational.
I have some Ratlines to do, but have not had the temerity to try them yet, and could not find my gun blacking anyway. Your solution may be better and even less messy.:question:
Whatever the result of your rigging, you can be assured that it will come out better, than that which you mentioned in relation to your politicians.:wink:
Rob.

Great, looks amazing :clap:

Hi Dave, looking good so far.
For myself I have used Langtons ratlines for the SoL and have had to make adjustments to the placing, but
I think so far at least they have worked. For the rigging I have used the paintbrush method, although my bristles actually came from a nylon dustpan and brush set, the ships though I did not fully rig as, to me at least, if fully rigged as per Langtons excellent book, the ship gets a bit lost in the lines, so I only put up a token rigging, but
I think they came out looking ok.
Just a suggestion me old china :happy:
http://www.sailsofglory.org/attachme...4&d=1457296330

Looks great! I tired markers but the ink wouldn't stick. Yours turned out splendid so it must have been the marker I was using?

So now the Constitution is rigged! Well kind of, I selected a few less than scale to keep it from looking like a spider's nest, looks great to me! I used Keith's brush technique which was great, but I did use the nylon bristles from a bench duster brush, now I have one of those too! Enjoy!

http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/...pspvyyjxeu.jpg

http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/...psxeaagkhe.jpg

looks good to me too, nicely done Dave

Even better by just trimming a bit off the vacuum formed box the ship fits back in place without touching the rigging! Now for the other 46 ships in my collection . . .

Hi David,
Looking good. You may find it helps to do the bottom rat-lines first. As for the full-rig? That is up to you. I always fully rig as in the Langton book. It is not hard to do. I think looks good and makes the model stronger.
Be safe
Rory

It looks really good, David. Well done! :thumbsup:

I think you have the handle on this rigging Dave.
I have been thinking myself that a full rigged ship of that size looks a bit lost in the process.
Token rigging does it for me.
Also item two fitting back in the box was a worry, but you seem to have solved that too.
Now all we need are a few shots of how you have customized the box.
Rob.