Ah ha! Somebody noticed. It is the wrong color but it's my ship and I can paint it any color I want.☺ I just like a boat that's white E-Challanged and that's the only reason. If I had owned a real clipper ship it would have been white too. Good question.

Spent several hours on this mess yesterday and today. Got the bowsprit and all the bow lines back on and except for the bowsprit having a little droop to it ,it came out ok. I hope the bowsprit will straighten up as the tension on all the lines progresses to the stern. All the lines are tied together through the masts and the tension on the whole thing holds it all together. The bow lines don't get tight until the stern mast is tied down. Then the whole thing should come together with all the lines working in concert to keep everything lined up the way the builder wants it done. Pretty much the same as a real ship. Here's a couple of pics.

Pete,
Copper sheathing is finest kind of work. Some difficult to do that detail.

Bill

That's why I use copper paint to do the bottoms. The plate panels are already molded into the plastic hull.

Why did ship builders use copper on the hulls?

Originally Posted by Kmot

Why did ship builders use copper on the hulls?

The hull was built just like any other hull but sheathed in copper to deter the worms and other boring critters from penetrating the hull.
Prior to sheathing they'd smear lard (tallow) on the under water body but that didn't last very long and was scoured off pretty quickly.

Copper was known to resist barnacles and other sea creatures like the torredo worms mentioned above. However they didn't have anything like copper paint back then but they did have lots of copper. So they hit on the idea to sheath the bottom with the copper plates and that kept the hull much cleaner for a lot longer and saved the owner of the ship lots of money in maintenance. We still use copper today for the same reason but we have a paintable type that is easy to apply and easy to keep clean. It is also known that barnacles and sea growth grow much faster in fast moving water so keeping a boat on a lift or on a trailer also keeps maintenance to a minimum.

Thanks guys!

Not a problem Kmot. I have answers that I haven't used yet so ask away.☺

Moving on the the foremast sails, several are kind of loose and their lines need to be tightened up. However their lines are tied in with the mainmast so it has to be firmed up before the foremast sails can be brought tight. Right off the bat there's big problems on the mainmast. The first pic shows the first three yard arms from the bottom are broken from their mounts on the mast. The loose lines going to these three yards show that the yards have each dropped about a half an inch.This must be fixed before any of the foremast sails can be worked. But before that the standing rigging that holds the mainmast in place has to be fixed too.

The standing rigging is that which hold the masts in place. They attach to the ship sides from the masts by means of a dead eye assembly that is adjustable on a real boat. These dead eyes on the model are not movable but they serve the same purpose and the two sections on the left were broken loose and are now glued back to their places. The slack in the lines is from the dead eyes being broken loose on the opposite side.

This pic shows how the lines between the foremast and the mainmast have tightened up some from getting the bow back together,. They look a little more organized. The top picture shows the slack in the area between the Mainmast and the mizzen mast where no work has been done. A good example of how all the lines have to work together to make the model stand tall and the lines look organized.

This is a better picture showing the difference between the lines at the right and those on the left.

What a mess! Going to take some serious work to get it ship shape again but it worth the effort. Clippers are great!

Your right Gravman but some times you luck out and you can pull one line tight and it tightens five other lines. The mainmast won't be too much trouble but the mizzen will have to be completly rebuilt. That will be the most of the work.

The CS is gonna have to take a break. I'm getting so that for every one thing I fix I break two more. So on the shelf it goes for awhile looking a bit better than it did. That's a window behind the model covered up for the summer. This is the morning side of the RV so it gets the full sun until after noon and the styrofoam helps keep the heat out. Works very well too.


This is the first clipper ship I built back in the early seventies. Not in too bad a shape but has some lines that need tightening.


Finally there is this Cutty Sark which is a plank on frame model about 4' 6" long and really quite the ship model. It's built without sails so the rigging will be a lot less tedious unless I can get a set of sails for it. Haven't found any yet. So all these are on hold for now while I find a nice simple car or airplane to build while my nerves settle down. I think I started a build on this model some where on here.


This clipper ship is also Cutty Sark but came to me in pieces. I've been fairly successful in locating parts for it thanks to several people on this forum so some day I'll build this one too. These three ships are all Revell and about 34" long.

Pete, You have your work cut out for you.

I'm curious about the little steamer in the last photo with the brass cannon on the forward deck.......