Revell Cutty Sark completed,now for the....

That sounds like a cool diorama.

I'm planning on doing the CS soon so please keep the pics coming.

Mike

She looks great! But way too tall to be a lumber ship.

You've scaled up the deck houses and cut down on the number of yards. My only suggestion is that these ships weren't square rigged, rather schooners, yawls.

I'd eliminate the topmasts.  Think about beating up and down the lee coast and letting in at pirate coves. True sailor stuff.

I model N scale and dream of a layout where I can have a row of 1/144 B-36 bombers off to the side.

I had a great meeting this afternoon in Ghirardelli Square, looking out over the Hyde Street Pier NPS Museum where the lumber schooner C.W. Thayer is moored, and , Senator, she ain't no Cutty Sark.

But it's a great theme; rails meet the sea.

 

it looks great keep the pics coming.

While its true that schooners were probably the predominant type to haul lumber on the west coast many square riggers were in the business. Even the Cutty Sark worked the rice trade from Hong Kong to Vancouver for a few years. Check out this pic. I borrowed from "West Coast Windjammer" by Jim Gibbs.

Also when I was at the Maritime Museum in San Diego I was told by a guide there that the Star of India had hauled lumber from alaska.

reklein........I would be interested to know how you secured or built the bowsprit/jib boom connection on this kit. I have the Revell Cutty Sark half built and this particular part and or connection is quite weak. I was thinking of somehow strengthening it with small alum tube, before rigging.

 

Yours seams to be holding the tension well. Any tips? 

Nothin special here. I found the fit into the deck required some filing to get it to slide into place.Other than that I just watched that the tension of the lines was even. Notice I didn't take any closeups. I have found it a little curious that there has been no comment about my cutting off the hull for a waterline model though.

I'll take the liberty of making one small suggestion, which should take about a minute to implement and will make quite a difference in the ship's appearance.

The upper topsail yards are in the wrong places.  In this particular rig the lower yards and lower topsail yards swing on fittings that are permanently fixed to the lower masts and lower mast caps, respectively.  All the other yards move up and down the masts - up when the sails are set, down when the sails are furled.  You've got the topgallant and royal yards in the correct, lowered positions, but the upper topsail yards are raised.  They should be lowered to within a couple of feet of the lower topsail yards.  Most of the ships in the photo you posted above have double topsail; you can see how close together the upper and lower topsail yards are when the sails are furled.

I actually like the waterline configuration.  One doesn't see many sailing ship models built that way, but it gives a totally different "look."

JTilley,any criticism from you is greatly appreciated. I had snapped the yards on temporarily while starting the rigging, I discovered my mistake when starting to rig the lifts. The Revell plans are very weak in where everything goes and I have been refering to my books for whats going on. Also I'm not trying to be too accurate,which sounds like an excuse for laziness, but just want an effect for my Model Rairoad. A mistake I made due to lack of foresite and hurry was to open the main hatch and build a coaming there to show a possible loading scene. Others take note.I've been wondering a little about wether the lower masts and yards were iron or wood on the CS, But since I'm not modeling her per se I guess it doesn't matter. The scale is so small I'm not too conserned about a lot of detail, I think my next ship is gonna be 1/2" or better and the subject will be a raft.

reklein - I'm glad you hadn't mounted those upper topsail yards permanently.  I think you'll find that lowering them makes a big difference in the appearance of the finished model.  That photograph is a good source of inspiration; notice how the lowered yards on several of the ships are cocked at careless angles.  That sort of thing would have been anathema to the captain of a tea clipper, but was quite common in the latter days of the working sailing ship.

I thought I knew the answer to your query about the construction of the Cutty Sark's spars, but it turned out to be a little more complicated than I thought.  Remarkably enough the wonderful set of plans by George Campbell doesn't answer the question thoroughly.  He does say all three lower masts and the bowsprit are iron, and that the topmasts are wood, but (unless I've missed it amid the huge amount of text on the drawings) says nothing about any of the other spars.  The newly-added conservation information on the Cutty Sark's website, however, clears it up:  http://www.cuttysark.org.uk/resources/14/uploadedFiles/Conservation%20Plan%201%20History%20of%20Fabric.pdf

It seems the original specifications in the contract for the ship's construction called for the fore and main lower masts to be iron, and the mizzen lower mast to be wood.  The latter got replaced by an iron one in 1887.  The fore and main lower yards are steel.  All the other spars, including the crojack yard, originally were wood - with plenty of ironwork for the various fittings attached to them.  During the restoration of the fifties and sixties, all (or nearly all) of the wood spars were replaced.  For the sake of maintenance and longevity, steel was used for all the replacements bigger than 5" in diameter, and wood for the smaller ones.  The one exception was the jibboom, for which the replacement was made of wood.  That's the only originally wood spar that can be seen clearly from a normal viewing angle; all the others normally show up in silhouette.  (I think the topmasts and topgallant masts are painted to look like bare wood; all the yards are, and were originally, painted black.) 

That material recently posted on the ship's website, by the way, is fascinating and extremely detailed.  It takes a minute or two to download, but anybody interested in the ship will find it worth reading.

Docks and water Etc. Jtilley thanks for the tips. It needs more work but the garden seaon has arrived and I need to get out.