Dealing with breakage, as one completes a sailing ship model?

I've seen lots of complaints about either too-brittle or too-soft styrene in recent Revell kits.  Apparently the company has lost virtually all interest in quality control - at least in its sailing ships.

I'm having a little trouble figuring out just what broke.  Maybe a little jargon would be in order (please accept my apologies if I insult anybody's intelligence).  "Spar" is a generic term that covers all the long, skinny, cylindrical parts of the ship's rigging.  The vertical ones are called "masts."  In the case of the Alabama each mast is (if I remember correctly) composed of two sections:  the "lower mast" and the "topmast."  The horizontal spars are called "yards."  The Alabama has two yards apiece on her fore- and mainmasts.  From the bottom up, they're called the "lower yard," "topsail yard," and "topgallant yard."  (A "yardarm" is the outer extremity of a yard - the part outboard of the cleats for the sheet blocks.  Each yard has two yardarms - one at each end.)  The thin spars fastened to the aft side of each mast, projecting upward at a slope, are called "gaffs."  They support the heads of the "gaff-rigged foresail and mainsail."  The mizzenmast also has a horizontal spar, called a "boom," that stretches out the foot of the sail.  That's called the "gaff and boom rig."  The thick spar sticking out the bow is called the "bowsprit."  The skinnier extension of it is the "jibboom."  I think that covers all of them.

When I encounter a broken styrene spar my usual approach is to "dowel" it.  Find a piece of stiff wire of an appropriate size, and a drill bit of a slightly larger diameter than the wire.  Drill a hole in each broken part, snip off an appropriate length of the wire, and superglue it into the two holes, thereby stiffening the repaired part.  The idea of making the holes slightly oversized for the wire is to give you a little flexibility in lining up the broken parts.  If you're careful, and paint the repaired joint carefully, it should be virtually invisible.

I confess I've never found it necessary to replace or reinforce any of the spars on a big Revell ship kit.  But the last time I built one of them was twenty-plus years ago.  I suspect the styrene from which mine were molded is a very different substance from what Revell has been using recently.

Just a couple of thoughts:

• Give your rigging seqence or strategy some thought.  Rig from the inside out as much as possible in order to minimize having to reach across finished sections.
• Try some different rigging tools.  Model Expo sells some inexpensive forcep-type rigging tools that I find very helpful - if nothing else they help keep my fat fingers a safe distance away from the fragile stuff!

One adavntage of wooden kits over plastic - you break a part and you just make a new one!

Good luck,

Mark

Sorry to hear about your mishaps, it is so easily done.

You have probably already realised that it is not a good idea to have loose clothing  on your arms when ship rigging. I wear short sleeved close fitting tops such a polo shirts for this aspect of modelling.

One of the dangers when feeding and pulling long lines thro' blocks on the yards or masts, in concentrating on the job in hand, you forget the loop  just waiting to snag on a cannon barrel, or deck fitting as you pull the line thro'

I have mentally trained myself as soon as I have fed the line thro' a block, to stop and check the position of the trailing end. A few disasters surely do concentrate the mind. Using long nosed narrow tweezers both straight and curved help, as does copper wire which can be bent to any shape and with a little 'V' or fork cut in the end in, makes an excellent aid.

It is sometimes necessary to stand when rigging the higher mast areas, but I also have an elbow support, a simple box affair with a bit of padding, at the right height to both steady and relax my arms when rigging those tiring mid height areas.

I enjoy the rigging aspects of modelling, but satisfying as it is, it is always fraught with danger!

The horizontal spars (yards) on the masts. The large one on both the foremast and main mast were the ones that broke. My usage of yard-arm was meaning the long piece (usually 2 piece) sticking out from the bow of the ship at an up angle, and of course very easy to snag when turning the ship around (for instance).  Ironically the masts themselves and particularly the top mast pieces which are quite thin, have survived my first ship rigging intact. The pieces that broke were comparitively hefty. I see those were the ones that Mr. Eppinger wired, on his Kearsarge, I suspect to avoid exactly what happened to me.

I have become much more aware of snagging on canons, fittings,  etc when pulling through, and also when to quit for the night, and not try to get too much done all at once.

Building a ship like this is certainly unique to all of the other model building I've done. 

I have taken to not wearing long shirts when doing this. I appreciate the advice and learning new (correct) terms as well. Thanks for listening to my complaining as well. 

Build hull-only models

I assemble as much of each piece of rigging as I can separately, and only attach piece when they can go no further separately.   For example, when I put on a yard arm, I would already have attached all the foot ropes, all the blocks, the studding sail rings and booms, the slings, and I would have already threaded all the blocks.  

Knock on wood, I haven't dismasted any of my sailing models by accident yet.  

The incident with Victory doesn't count.  

It sounds like the spars that broke were the fore and main lower yards.  (Not yardarms.  The yardarm is the outermost extremity of the yard - and each yard has two.  I get a little amused every time I watch the old movie "Mutiny on the Bounty," wherein Charles Laughton announces, "Mr. Christian, I won't rest till I see you hanging from the highest yardarm in the British navy!"   No real naval officer would say such a thing.  Criminals were indeed "hanged from the yardarm" - that is, by a rope running through a block at the end of a yard.  But even if we accept that some particular warship's uppermost yard was higher than any other, there would have been two highest yardarms in the British navy - one at each end of the highest yard.  Come to think of it...maybe the highest yard was tilted....)

One of my big criticisms of the current generation of reissued sailing ship kits concerns the instructions.  When I was getting into the hobby (in the late 1950s), it was taken for granted that every plastic kit's instruction sheet included the names of all the parts.  Like many other modelers, I got some of my first exposure to nautical (and, for that matter, aviation) technology from instruction sheets.  (I imagine that's where I first saw words like "fuselage," "nacelle," and "aileron.")  Nowadays, the manufacturers insist on printing those infernal "multi-lingual" (read:  non-lingual) instructions, which rely almost entirely on illustrations.  I appreciate that companies like Revell are obliged to cater to international markets.  But how much ink and paper would really be necessary to tell the modeler at least a little about the model he's building - and for which he paid a very considerable amount of money?  In the case of the current issue of the Alabama, Revell has compounded the insult by providing a set of miserably inept drawings (so bad they're hard to follow) and a photo of a completed model built by somebody who couldn't even figure out where the vac-formed "sails" were supposed to go.  Any educational value that kit might have had has been just about obliterated by those gawdawful instructions.  The plastic sailing ship model may well be on its last legs; it would be nice if the manufacturers would stop trying to kill it.

Lots of experienced modelers rig their models in about the same sequence that was used in the originals.  Install the lower masts, rig them, then move on to the topmasts, rig them, etc.  That method keeps the size of the model as manageable as possible for as long as possible.  It also prevents some possible mistakes, in that it forces the modeler to set up the rigging in such way that the topmasts can be installed after the lower masts are rigged, etc. - as was the case in the real ship.

The masts just about have to be rigged on the model.  When it comes to yards, booms, and other movable spars, I like to do as much rigging as possible with the spar in question clamped in a vise on the workbench.  The process of securing the spar to the model, and tying off the relevant lines, doesn't take long - and the less time it takes, the less likely I am to break something.

When you get a bit of practice you'll develop a sort of automatic eye that will solve many such problems.  But I find that every time I start rigging a ship model I start making mistakes that I thought I'd outgrown years ago.  I guess my problem is that I don't spend much time in the workshop these days; years go by between rigging exercises, and the senile old brain and slightly arthritic fingers forget what they've been taught.

Good luck.  Despite its more-than-occasional frustrations, it's still a great hobby.

I can honestly say that I am an expert at breaking major features off of my ships.  I started building square riggers in my early teens, and I have found that growing older has deprived me of some skills that I always took advantage of.

The first is my eyesight.  I have noticed that I have gone from near to far sighted, and no longer have the peripheral vision I once had.  How the changes in my vision affects my building is that, as many others modelers will tell you, you develop a feel and sequence in rigging a ship, however, you still need to judge distance, which I would error to do, hence causing some entanglements.  The remedy was to let my optometrist know what I was doing so that she could adjust my prescription.

Second was my dexterity.  I always took advantage of having small, nimble fingers and long skinny arms that seemed to be held in one position for hours.  Well, as age progresses, I have had to learn that fingers fatten up and get a little stiffer, and although the brain may tell my arm to move outward and to the right, it actually moves downward and to the left hence causing an entanglement.  What I have to do now to combat this is, well, work slower.  I can no longer move like a spider spinning a web though a 1/196 scale ship and not mess something up with my fatter, slower, and stiffer fingers and arms that after 20 minutes of being held in suspension turn numb and work like two rubber hoses.  I have to take more breaks, sit back and think through a process before diving into it.  For what I have found that say, rigging a futtock, what do I do if my tennis elbow acts up, or is my forearm gets tired?

Third problem that I have noticed is that my mind tends to wander more.  I tend to think ahead and at times, find the right hand doing a future action while it should still be working on the present task.  At times, I find the hand just going to the foremast when it should have stayed on the mainmast and snap, crackle, pop.  What I have been doing here to combat this problem has been to confront my ADDA. I must concentrate on the task at hand (no pun) and not zero in on the missed knot somewhere else or try ti realign  the yard that is slightly out of alignment on the opposite mast. 

I have been able to overcome these issues with great success.  But the fourth issue I have not.  This is family.  Family is very demanding on time and personal space.  I am always having it interrupt my rigging process to attend to the honey do questions and to break up squabbles between the cats and help the kids with whatever little issue they need attention to. In working around the family, I tend to rush my models, meaning that I either will rush a process hence causing a great boo boo, or what has been happening lately, I tend to move the model to another location without prior thought and planning to the models safety, hence knocking off a bowsprit, or in my Alabama's case last week, the jib boom and upper mizzen assembly.  My corrective action to this issue has been first, have the family meeting, included would be all three dogs, the dog who is visiting, and the two cats, plus kids, wife, and any other attendees who feel it necessary to became part of my little nautical world, where I make it known that there has been a reason why there are less sailing ship models in the house and why my attitude, personality, and overall mood has been affected because I have not been able to build a model within the past four years that hasn't had a major accident happen to it.

Scott 

Oh dear, I suppose most of us past our first flush of youth can relate to some of what Scott says. In my case a head band magnifier has become an almost permanent attachment when dealing with any of the smaller detail, such as the Hammock Cranes I am making at present.

However,in terms of rigging they can be a dangerous thing because of the false perspective they give and the distance they stick out from the forehead.

Still as long as we continue to enjoy it what does it matter if we are a little slower, a little less dexterous, we have a wealth of experience to fall back on, and perhaps a little more patience than in our youth.

When you think of the alternative..............

I can certainly relate to all of Scottrc's points.  I was born nearsighted; for many years I took great pleasure in working on models with no magnification.  (When I was working at the Mariners' Museum the other staff members made a joke out of the fact that whenever I was inspecting or working on an old model I took my glasses off.)  I've now entered into the world of bifocals - and because my right and left eyes are (and always have been) different, the usual headband magnifiers don't work well for me.  I had the optician make me a pair of "single vision" glasses that are strictly for closeup work; when I go to the workshop I use them in place of the bifocals.

I've got bad arthritis in both knees and one hip, but so far my hands aren't bad.  I do notice that, occasionally, when I work my fingers  into some unusually twisted configuration my hand suddenly cramps up.  I've also noticed - and several other Forum readers say they've had similar experiences - that if I spend time in the workshop regularly those incidents become less frequent.  And my optometrist tells me that closeup work is actually excellent exercise for middle-aged eyes.  Modeling can, quite literally, be therapeutic.

When it comes to the family-related matters that Scott mentioned, I guess I'm lucky.  The last of the kids moved out of the house three years ago.  A few years before that, when my mother passed away, we inherited some money and my dear, dear wife insisted that we spend some of it on a detached workshop.  (She admits to an ulterior motive:  she wanted the mess out of the house.)  So I bought a pre-fab wood building (10'x20') and had it installed in the back yard.  Nobody but me goes in it regularly; I can leave my stuff set up as long as I want.  I've had 45 years' experience living with cats in the house; it's been many years since any of them committed any horrendous sins against any of my models.  (The furniture is another matter.)  I do have a current problem with a senile, black-and-white beast named Willie who, if I forget to shut him in the house when I go to the workshop, plants himself on the workshop steps and yowls.  This sometimes happens at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m.; I can only imagine what the neighbors think.  If I get up and let him in, he wanders around the shop for a minute or two and starts yowling to get out.  My wife and I agree that he's suffering from a bad case of Catzheimer's.

George makes an excellent point about the time factor.  One of the reasons I enjoy model building is that, since I'm an amateur, it has no deadlines.  That fact also can be therapeutic.  I vividly remember my grad school days, when it was pleasant, after a day spent studying for an exam or working on dissertation research, to look at my little, in-progress model of the Hancock and say to myself, "nobody cares when I finish it - if ever."  I long ago concluded that people routinely use their hobbies to put elements into their lives that would otherwise be absent.  I get no pleasure whatever from model contests; many of the people who do seem to be folks who don't have to contend with much competition in their day jobs.  (Maybe one reason I don't like judging contests is that I have to judge students' work all the time.)  For me, model building provides freedom from worrying about deadlines, or other people's standards - or imposing standards on other people.  For me, that's what makes it such a great hobby.

Just go to a fabric place.  There you will find the forceps mentioned above.  They run about 6 bucks or so.  They are roughly 5-6 inches long and are bent at the end.  Get two of them.  Also, go over to the sewing needles.  Pick up a set of heavy fabric needles, or needles that have eyes that are at least 2mm.  All you do is cut the eye so that it now ends in a "Y" shape.  Stick this needle into the end of a dowel.  Mine are adjustable so I can make the dowel length anywhere from 4-8 inches.  This is a perfect tool for pushing lines around pins and whatnot.

Revell kits, while the plastic has indeed gotten dry and brittle recently, usually have very well thought out rigging plans.  Just follow instructions.  Ratlines first, then standing rigging.  Run you lifts, sheets and clews next, and then finish with the last of the running rigging.  On the Revell kits, I usually work back to front.  I try to leave key lines slack and adjustable, so I can go back and make necessary adjustments in order to fix lines that become slack, etc.

Also, Revell is well known for reusing parts across different kits.  Always, ALWAYS save any leftover parts from previous builds.  They will come in handy if you break or lose pieces.

But, the biggest advice I can give, depending on how much of a stickler you are is, don't sweat it.  I'm sure you'll get it fixed and it will look incredible.  I've heard so much about the Alabama kit that I'm thinking about picking it up.  Please post some pics when you can.

Enjoy your build!

Grymm

Mr. Tilley, our mutual affiliation with felines.  I wish I had a detached workshop.  My older stepson has moved in with us and my 17 pound Maine Coon "Rocco" has taken an interest in him.  My Stepson is currently rooming in the same room as my workstation.  I have to check constantly to make sure the door is closed. Once again I caught Rocco sitting on my bench, head curiously cocked to one side, paw raised in the air, playfully swatting at the banner hanging from the Main Mast of my Heller La Reale.

I will have to talk to the wife about a workshop....well....beg actually, but you know what I mean...

Grymm

   Add to all the pitfalls mentioned, the fact that my workshop moved, sometimes rather violently! All the frames were erected, and all the hull strakes formed and attached to Sihaya    aboard a guided missile cruiser, during a six month Mediterranean deployment. I guess the answer to breakage is, "if you can build it, you can fix it"

model building provides freedom from worrying about deadlines, or other people's standards - or imposing standards on other people.  For me, that's what makes it such a great hobby.

mfsob wrote:

You guys are just making this whole "my shirt sleeves are snagging on the sailing ship parts" problem harder than it needs to be. Simplest solution is to just skip the clothes entirely.

Thats OK,until you drop your exacto knife,or drip solder.

reklein wrote:

mfsob wrote: You guys are just making this whole "my shirt sleeves are snagging on the sailing ship parts" problem harder than it needs to be. Simplest solution is to just skip the clothes entirely. Thats OK,until you drop your exacto knife,or drip solder.

Or stick parts of yourself to the workbench with superglue

Julian

A screen door inside the house to keep pets out yet allow air circulation and communication occur! Who da thunk!!! Thats a terrific idea. Ya got any ideas on how to keep me from accidently destroying two weeks work?

there are no claw marks on the screen YET.

    YET;  an annoying little three leter word, indicating that "Murphy" has been too busy to bring the situation under his attention.  Patience is just a part of a cat's hunting strategy......a cat will figure it out.

Hmmmmmm, , , , what to do? ???

Get an AUTHENTIC genuine Samaraii sword{a SHORT one}, then perhaps commit "Hari Kari" ? ? ?   Hmmm just an idea, perhaps not to practical, but!    I KNOW that feeling!

SteveH

Hi

 Ok before someone decides to do a "figure" model in "explosive mode", be aware someone has already done that. See our favorite mag back issue to 2004, the Great Scale Modeling 2004 has in it one such model. At the Oklahoma City big model show on page 39, figure "N", by Geno Savoy. He shows a model jet with spilled paint on it, as the "scale modeler" goes berserk turning into the "Incredible Hulk" with two raised fists{in full CRUSH mode} about to SMASH his spoiled model. One of those we've ALL been there before somewhere over the years. If you have an old back issue look for it, it's GREAT! Otherwise check F.S.M. archives. It's worth the effort to see one of our fellow modelers has put that frustration in such a diarama!

SteveH