plastic ratlines

No such thing. Go ahead and rig the shrouds and stays, and just leave the ratlines off until the mood strikes you. Easy enough to add later. The Heller loom thing is pretty useless, I heard one modeler once say he liked it.

I have never seen plastic ratlines (or even the shrouds, for that matter) thin enough to look realistic.  However, I think photo etch would be great.  Probably pretty expensive for larger ships, but wouldn't PE shroud-ratline assemblies be great for the little 1:600 models?

White Ensign Models has PE ratlines, in both 1/700 and 1/350 scales, I believe. Search their site for "ratlines" or "Atlantic Models."

Bob:

Rigging ratlines does not have to be a life sentence - they can be built up on the model pretty quickly.  I use a thinner thread for the foot ropes, strech them out between a coule of nails, soak it in white glue and let it dry.  I then cut the lengths that I need and glue them on to the shrouds with white glue.  I took me about a day to rig the Imai Susquehanna and about two hours to do the Harriet Lane. The white glue dries clear and gives the thread a "tarrish" bulk.

It's a lot easier if you build up the ratlines before adding the running rigging.

Remember it's only one line at a time. Not that hard,

THe biggest thing is to not get complicated a simple overhand knot wil do , pull each areas apart after you put the ratline in to forn the sag, every great once in awhile you need to watch for a knocked-knee area, but it will turn out OK. 

Big Jake

Remember it's only one line at a time. Not that hard,

THe biggest thing is to not get complicated a simple overhand knot wil do , pull each areas apart after you put the ratline in to forn the sag, every great once in awhile you need to watch for a knocked-knee area, but it will turn out OK. 

I agree.  I always use simple overhand knots.  Once you get started it goes quick. I have watched women knitting and notice this.  When you start a session, first few knots go slow, then worker accelerates and succeeding ones go very fast.  Problem is, I can only do ratlines for about a half hour at a time, so the acceleration time comes into play each session.

My mind wanders when I get up to speed, and I find myself thinking of the most unrelated, non-sensical things :-)   Your fingers and autonomic nervous system takes over and you don't need to think about what you are doing.

HEY, Bondoman, are you talking about me ?? I do believe that at one time on this forum I said exactly that.I have used a homemade version copied on the one from a HELLER kit I once had.I still use it for smaller ships but use the homemade one for larger vessels.I use a very heavy( to me anyway) thread from embroidery for the verticals and finer(for linen) thread for the crosspieces.I do this so I can thread the crosspieces through the verticals Then apply axtra thin super glue to lock it in place.I had to get away from things with sails for a while though.After over a hundred builds for clients(including restorations) I believe I got a little burned out!!.Oh, well,one of these days! Thanks for keeping a sane touch on sailing ship stuff. tankerbuilder