The Ship Model Forum

A friend stopped building this model when he reached the rigging part and now I can understand why. I've started the rigging with the chain that is attached to the bow spirit. From there I can't tell if it is attached to the main mast with line #1 (red) or the line continues as line #2 (red) to the mizzen mast. Are there any sources that would help with the rigging of this particular model?

This is 100% standard ship rigging, although the use of chain is an unusual twist. The two stays (1) and (2) are entirely different ropes with different diameters.

A stay, any stay, will start out at the top of a mast, the foremast in your case. It will basically be a loop, an eye, in one end of the stay, placed over the top of the mast. The free end will then lead down and forwards, towards the end of the bowsprit in your case. There it will be fastened, usually with blocks or pulleys or deadeyes or some kind of tackle of that sort.

Similarly, stay (2) leads from the top of the mizzen mast down towards the top of the lower main mast and is fastened there.

The stay is one of the three sets of ropes that keeps a mast from snapping off like a rotten twig: The stay supports the mast from forwards, the shrouds support the mast from sideways, and the backstays support the mast from rearwards. The stay is by far the thickest of these ropes. Sometimes there will be a somewhat thinner "preventer" stay as well, serving as a backup in case the stay proper should break or be damaged in battle.

A good all-round introduction to the subject is Lennarth Petersson: Rigging Period Ship Models. You can get it from Amazon. It is fully illustrated and covers the rigging of a three-decked frigate ca 1800 in great detail, the rigging of your little bomb although different in numerous details is basically just a variation of the same theme. Armed with this book you will be able to decode the kit's rigging plan with relative ease.

Oh, and you should start with the shrouds. The front ones first, then working your way aft, alternating port and starboard. There was a system to these things. The stay is always the last thing to go over the masthead.