This is the way we loom a shroud, loom a shroud, loom a shroud...

Grymm wrote:  From a business standpoint, I cannot believe that Heller would use the resources to create something like a loom and it not be worth a darn.

Grymm, I'm afraid your confidence in the hobby manufacturing industry, and Heller in particular, is misplaced and unjustified.  Those people are constantly spending money on stuff that doesn't work.

As for the "rigging loom" - if some of you guys have managed to make it work, great.  I still find it hard to believe that it offers any advantage whatever over rigging shrouds and ratlines the "old-fashioned way."  I've preached this sermon before, but I continue to think that many modelers get scared off rigging ratlines to scale for no good reason.  The truth is that tying all those clove hitches does take a certain amount of time - but not as much as most people seem to think.  And that task requires no more manual dexterity than do plenty of others involved in the building of a ship model.  I'm convinced that most ship modelers would be perfectly capable of rigging their models' ratlines to scale if they'd give their fingers the chance to learn how to do it.  There's a learning curve there all right, but it's a short one.

I've used the Heller looms for the USS Constitution but I place the deadeye assembly at the bottom to line up the closest space. Then tied the lines following but a touch of ACC. On the Cutty Sark I hand tied inplace the 989 (Yes I counted) knots needed to make the ratlines. I have a few pictures in the webshots album.

 

Jake

Actually, I found that the rigging jig works. I've used the method for the Soleil Royal model. Soliel Royal was finished over 20 years ago, and the lines looked just fine, the last time I saw it..

The trick is DON"T use white glue. Mix Testors tube glue with Testors bottled (liquid) glue, about 50/50, maybe a little more liquid then thick.( Test on scrap thread, for consistency). A drop will immediately soak into the thread and disappear.If you want to seize it afterwards, great. But give it time to set up first. A second drop on the seizing will make it, too, permanent.

Warning be very sparing. Excess will, indeed, use capillary action to reach the plastic jig. Do the edges (fore and aft, top and bottom) first. They'll prevent spread from the inner points. You'll also be, most careful, when you start. It's tedious, and you may start getting careless after a while.

Once it sets up finger nail clippers or suture scissors work great for trimming the foot ropes. I looped the thread around the bottom of the jig to provide excess for seizing to the deadeyes.

I liked it, and it was sure easier than mounting the footropes after the stays are in place.

Mike K.

Hmmm.  Interesting.  So, glue is NOT the way to go.  But, being the eternal optimist that I am (I know, it's a fault at times), I firmly believe that the loom has some sort of use, and not just as spare plastic. 

I do agree.  Setting up the shrouds/ratlines on the ship is the most efficient way, and that's what I've been doing on the Cutty Sark, obtaining "average" results (this is my first attempt, so my lines are a little slack in places and I've gotten an odd "twisting" out of the whole thing once I'm done with a set.  I've got a lot of practicing ahead of me).  I also find that the clove hitch is very therapeutic and helps me focus, forgetting about my back pain for a bit.

But, perhaps there's a way to combine the two.  I'm going to try to use the loom tonight and make a set for my Soleil Royal that I'm ever so slowly working on.  But, I'll clove hitch or thread the shroud instead of gluing.  Perhaps there's a use for this thing yet.  From a business standpoint, I cannot believe that Heller would use the resources to create something like a loom and it not be worth a darn.

So with that, if anyone has actually used the loom to adequate results, any tips would be a good time saver for me.

Thanks as always,

Uncle Grymm

Yup, after you have deciphered their code of what  numbers on the jig correspond to which ratline and have strung up the assembly, they want you to take white glue, dilute it with water, and brush it over the entire ratline, then when it is dry, take a exacto and cut it out.

Great theory, but even fabric white glue doesn't hold well enough or long enough.  My ratlines started to pop apart after about a year, even after spaying them with laquer.  And they won't hold up to the pulling and tugging that you will do to them when attaching the ratline to the ship.

So then I started to take thick CA and dot every intersection and then bushed the ratline with diluted epoxy or urathane, which worked, however, although you have a great looking ratline, it then becomes a Chinese firedrill of trying to get the ridgid ratline to fit.  It will either to be too long, or too short.  And futtocks are a nightmare to try to tie up to one of these preformed, ill-fitting, ratlines.

After doing what seemed to be the "easy" way, I am back to setting the ratline up directly on the ship.  It may take some time, but it beats the hassle of trying to what seems to be putting a square peg in a round hole.

Scott

The only thing the Heller shroud loom is good for is scrap plastic!

About all I can say is that I think the thing is a dumb idea and can't possibly produce a reasonable-looking result.  It's the product of a hoax perpetrated on innocent hobbyists by kit manufacturers.  You're quite right:  though there are plenty of types of glue that are capable of holding pieces of thread together, the result is bound to look like pieces of thread glued together - and that's not what ratlines look like.