A prince amongst kits

[oldmodeller]

 After a couple of weeks hard work and detail painting I have finally reached the stage of rigging this delightful old kit. No real issues with the build except, for once, I could have done with the new computerised instructions showing placement of parts as it was a bit of a puzzle fitting the multi part bulkheads. I had to have a couple of dry runs and I could have pre assembled a bit more prior to painting but hey-ho, that’s model making for you. I watched a TV documentary a few weeks back which showed riggers working on the Victory in Portsmouth dockyard. One shot was taken at the main mast fighting top and this showed the shrouds actually being rove from the port side main chains, up through the lubber hole, through the gap between the lower main mast and topmast, down through the lubber hole on the starboard side and down to the starboard main chains. I wondered if I could replicate this on the model rather than cutting and glueing to the mast as I have always found this to be a weak point. Being an old kit, it was supplied with the preformed ratlines rather than the jig. I managed, by deft folding, to pass the ratline up through the lubber hole, across the top and back down. I inserted the mast into the deck but did not glue it. I then threaded the ratline ends through the deadeyes on the main chains on both sides. An application of cement and the ratlines held taunt by clothes pegs until dry. I left the ratlines unglued at the top to enable me to centralise the mast when the rest of the top hamper has been fitted. The fore and mizzen mast was tackled in the same way. Time to fit the top masts now.

[Ratch]

Excellent! Rigging these ships has always been a mystery to me.

[Sailorman]

Here is a sketch I came across that you might find interesting.

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

That sketch has made me very glad that I'm not into building model sailing ships! Must admit they do look good when done properly like oldmodeller's above!

[oldmodeller]

By the looks of that sketch I'm still not putting all the ropes and blocks on my models. Still, if the Airfix kits were 5 times the size I might be able to add a few more

[Sailorman]

I think you're doing a brilliant job. Keep posting those pictures. You are tempting me to give the ratlines a go!

[steven_kerfoot]

Very nice work. I built the Prince some years back with Victor and Royal Sovereign. However, back then I didn't have the shelf space to add the masts so basically it was just the hulls of the ships in a display that essentially showed the evolution of British warships of the age of sail. I do have the kits to make again, plus the others of the siling ships Aifix issued, including the Saint Louis. Did your kit come with the old plastic rigging or the thread and lattice arrangement where you had to make your own rigging? The kits I have are a mix, so I'll be watching how you do with interest. The only ship I rigged so far was a 1/350 RMS Titanic and that's a very different job.

[oldmodeller]

Hi Steve. This kit came with the pre moulded ratlines.

 Just added the rest of the mast assemblies and fitted the upper ratlines. Although prominent on the box artwork, Airfix did not supply the ratlines for the fore and main topgallant masts so I have made these up using the ratline jig. To do this I measured the distance from the mast cap to the cross trees and also the distance across the crosstrees. I wound the horizontal lines first then one vertical. The second vertical was determined by measuring down from the top and across from the first vertical using the measurements obtained. The lower end of the vertical was then nocked into the appropriate groove at the base of the jig and returned to the top. You will notice that I did not use the vertical grooves for the tops of the ratlines. I instead wrapped them around the top bar to make the final height from the top to the first horizontal a little less.