The Ship Model Forum

Hello, here is my latest video about rigging and colormatching when building from scratch.

It is important for the aesthetics of and authentic feel of your model ship that all raw surfaces are stained to match the original colour, and not have one element looking glaringly different from the others. Even if it seems a small thing that many will not notice, you will know and you will not be satisfied with your project.

Here in this video, I am using a tradtional stain/dye...black tea. It has been used for hundreds of years to stain and dye all sorts of things. Today we use it here to stain the small wooden parts that are secured to the ship. The rigging thread I have used is dark, soo that it complements the dark stain on the hull and decking I have made. This creates a weathered, authentic look on all parts of the model.

Depending on how dark you want the stain, you can merely dip it in the black tea, or leave the parts in the liquid for a few seconds or minutes longer. Be sure to dry them completely, before you add them to your rigging.

securing your bullseyes to the rigging can be a little fiddly, but keep going, keep trying, eventually you will do it easily.
Thread it on to your rope and move it into position. Tie a knot. Then, create a loop and hook it over the bulleseye, pull the rope to tension, do the sme again, until you have completed five such loops, securing each at the base of the bullseye. Then ,move on to the next one. it is a process, but with practice, you will, like me, get the muscle memory nd your hands can complete the task for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZpmWWOIe18&list=PL5g6B09m0wL3EOzxDgJNi9-IqQeWs-rMM&index=9&ab_channel=BrankoStipanovic

A couple of comments:

- tea is only a moderately good choice for dying/staining, as tea contains organic acids (tannin) that may eventually destroy the rigging threads; also the organics will break down under UV-light (day-light).

- for a model of that period (16th century), there would have been probably triangular dead-eyes, not bull's eyes to set the shrouds

- dito., at that period belaying-pins were not used yet.

- dead-eyes would be set to the hull by what are called chain-plates and chain, not rope

- dead-eyes are not fastened to shrouds using knots, but the shrouds were laid around them and then laced together

Nota bene: running rigging is not tarred (i.e. dark), but is left un-tarred - just in case you are planning videos on that too ...

_________________
Eberhard

Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)

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