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Ships in Scale - Latest Issue
September/October '26

Where to Buy Wood for Model Ships?

Hamilton, messaging Vahur directly is probably your best bet for a quick answer.
C

By Desert Animal · 1 hour ago1 hr
Where to Buy Wood for Model Ships?

I just visited Hobbymill.eu to see about a wood package for Cheerful, but I see it's out of stock and no price is listed for either the boxwood or Alaskan Cedar versions....any indication of when this will be back in stock, and what the cost is of these options? Thanks!
hamilton

By hamilton · 1 hour ago1 hr
US West Coast Brigantine "Galilee" (1891) as an Ocean Research Vessel (1908)

I concur with your mast truck reconstruction, Terry, other than the tenon might be somewhat smaller.

By druxey · 6 hours ago6 hr
HMS Winchelsea 1764 by Greg M - Syren Ship Model Company - 1:48 Scale

Thanks Steve. It does show on the plans, but it is very thin. I may still remove it yet, although I thinned it up enough that it looks fine on the ship.

I've since focused my energy on Chapter 6 or more specifically bending and cutting 24 gauge wire.

I came up with a calculation of around 400 eyebolts including the fore/quarter deck and cannons. After spending a couple hours making 40 eyebolts the first night, I realized that I needed to find a more efficient way to construct them. So I decided on the second day to bring my tools upstairs and do it while watching tv and try to focus on batches of 1 tool/1 task to minimize the amount of tool swapping for each one. I quickly discovered this was slowing me down because I started to have to police every piece of wire at each step. Finally, an idea hit me to make multiple eyebolts from the same length of wire, reducing the tool swapping and wire policing and speeding up the overall process considerably.

Setup

I start by chucking a #70 bit in a pin vise and then clamping the pin vise in a table vise.vertically. I leave the wire on the spool and pull a foot or so out. I also upgraded to a pair of Xuron 9200 micro-shears.

Step 1.

I then loop 24 gauge wire around the bit. Then needle nose tweezers flatten the loop in the wire. At 24 gauge, fingers work well too and are gentler on the wire finish, but hard on the fingernails. I then move down the wire about 3/4-1 inch and repeat the process. The pin vise gives a nice flat surface for flattening the loop, but also allows the wire to be easier to manipulate than if the bit is clamped directly in the table vise. This is the 2nd eyebolt on the string. Note, I’m left handed and the orientation of the loop and feed direction may be different for you.

I clip the wire after 10 loops. The more loops the better, but by the 10th loop the wire starts to become less manageable.

Step 2:

I then start at the end with the entry point of the loop facing me and grab the loop with tweezers and push the free end to be perpendicular to the loop. Because I’m keeping them stringed up, if the loop is off or the tweezers weren’t in the right position so it gets distorted, you can put it back around the bit and reset it; or just clip it and move on.

Step 3:

Now it’s just a matter of bringing out the side cutters and clipped the wire where it goes behind the loop. The only bit of scrap wire to get lost in the carpet and stepped on is the bit from the last eye bolt in the string.

I don’t worry about closing the eyebolt as it will be hidden once installed. For illustrative purposes. I’ll clip the eyebolts to length when I need them.

I put 100 eyebolts to a bag and then made up all the split rings I'll need. All in, it came out to about 10 or 11 hours of work over 4 days.

By Greg M · 7 hours ago7 hr
US West Coast Brigantine "Galilee" (1891) as an Ocean Research Vessel (1908)

Fore-Topgallant/Royal Mast
The combined topgallant and royal (TGR) mast was the uppermost spar in the foremast. According to various sources, in the latter days of merchant sail, it was customary to combine two or more of the upper masts into a single spar, eliminating the mast doublings common in earlier eras. I am not familiar with the reasoning behind this evolution, other than it simplified the construction and rig somewhat. In the case of Galilee, this upper mast carried the the topgallant and royal sails, and included a bare top pole.

Profile view of the bare TGR mast. (Blender)

From a distance, the TGR mast appears to be basically a long tapered pole. However, when examined in perspective, the construction is more complicated:

Extreme perspective showing the key profile elements of the TGR mast. Forward is up. (Blender)

Ignoring the mast base for the present, the mast has three distinct steps. The lower and middle steps provide stops (or hounds) where the topgallant and royal backstays attach to the mast. The uppermost step is simply the point where the metal truck is attached.

This view shows the typical design of a TGR mast heel. Note the offset, which provides room for the ratlines and stays. (Blender)

As with the topmast, the heel is provided with a slot to accommodate the heel fid to support the mast on the trestletrees. There is also the slot for the top rope sheave. Also, as with the topmast, the upper point of mechanical support for the TGR mast is the topmast's cap ring. Again, I probably should have modeled the ring with some space to allow for a sliding fit!

As will be seen in future posts, all the spars on this mast have sliding yokes. So the TGR mast has tye sheaves to hoist and lower these spars into position.

The fore-topgallant spar tye sheave and the stay stop funnel, (left), and the same for the royal spar and royal stay (right).
The "funnels" were employed to mutually protect the mast and stays from wear. (Blender)

The final, physically-attached metal part on the TGR mast was the mast truck fitting. There is no good image of this part, so I mimicked a design provided in my references. Some indicate there were actual sheaves incorporated into the truck while others show they were simply U-shaped channels cast into the fitting. I have no clear photos showing the employment of the foremast truck and the mainmast's truck is completely different.

My reconstruction of the foremast truck casting. Totally conjecture, based on descriptions of mast trucks in references. (Blender)

This view shows the entire foremast in context.

The completed foremast. The only thing lacking is the slight forward bend, which I may or may not include! (Blender)

Next up: Constructing the main mast.

By CDR_Ret · 8 hours ago8 hr
Hasty Hydro seaflea - by AndyP - 1:1 - from Muskoka Seaflea plans

The last update for the season comes a little later than I intended.

The Labour Day weekend has come and gone a couple weeks back, and the great summer clean up is just about done. The cottage dock has been removed from the water and the summer toys have been put away to await next year. All boats have been pulled out of the water and are making their way to winter storage. The leaves are beginning to change colour and depart their lofty perches. I did manage a swim in the lake yesterday, but the water is inevitably getting colder.

The Seaflea project has been put to bed until the weather turns warm again. The little motor is sitting on its stand in the tool shed and room has been made in the “boathouse” to keep the snow off the hull.
Summer is always a temporary state of affairs around here and we look forward to its arrival every year, with the knowledge that after a few short months it will be but a pleasant memory.

When the seasons turn, and with the promise of vernal renewal, no doubt the seaflea project will once again take to the water, and I will be sure to share with you all any new developments. Bigger motor maybe?

Andy

By AndyP · 8 hours ago8 hr
HM Armed Cutter Sherbourne 1763 by TMJ - Vanguard Models - 1:64 Scale

The below image depicts a first run 'trial'/experiment in rigging the breech ropes to these small guns. It proved to be a very successful 'failure'! While this breech rope definitely needs to be remanufactured (the seizing is horrible), this preliminary process taught me how I truly need to go about rigging these guns. I'll need to make small fixtures for both the breech ropes as well as the tackle hauls. I'll also be breaking out my 'fly-tying vice' and a thread bobbin to help with the seizings and stropping's. I'll add photos and explanations as to 'why' when I actually do that and 'hopefully' prove that tool to truly be beneficial. That's another experiment all together. We'll see...

Proper rigging of the tackle is going to be a bit curious, at best. The actual Sherbourne would 'not' have had any 'in haul-tackle' for its small 3" guns. It simply wasn't needed! Three-inch guns were certainly a little heavy, but in such, they were also still light enough to be effectively manhandle back into their in-hauled positions for reloading, however. Vanguard added eyelets to the back of the guns, as well as atop the deck to facilitate this fictitious in haul sort of tackle. Seeing how it's there, I might as well use it, if I can. Historically accurate, 'NO'... but it 'will' add complexity and eye-candy to the finished model. The only problem being that there is very little room between the guns and the hatch comings to allow for such 'in-haul' tackle. Blocks will almost be kissing each other on the out-hauled guns, and the deck eyelets totally vanish underneath the guns when the guns are in-hauled to their proper 18"-24" positions! No place for in-haul tackle left at all! I'll need to be scratching my head on 'that' one. 🤔

By TMJ · 8 hours ago8 hr
Hawker Typhoon 1b "Car Door" by AJohnson - Airfix - 1:24 - Plastic

Looks really good!

By AndyP · 9 hours ago9 hr
Hawker Typhoon 1b "Car Door" by AJohnson - Airfix - 1:24 - Plastic

Time for a little update, I've been adding details to the wings, most of the time spent making up the quite complex wheel wells. These were made up with side panels and a "roof" to depict the under surface of the wing's top skin - lots of little ribs to add. I'm still not finished picking out some details, but I have used a wash and dry brushing to grubby things up a little.
I'm also on with the visible gun bay, using the resin and P.E. extras I got to to go with this kit, will do an update on that next.
Thanks for the likes and kind words.

By AJohnson · 10 hours ago10 hr
Gun storage

Good point, I had forgotten about those. You can see an example of this cover in the below picture from 1775.

https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-200785

By Thukydides · 11 hours ago11 hr