"Need some help! C18th ships + 1/1200 construction" Topic

I've had a pile of Langton stuff languishing in a drawer for a few years, and I finally got motivated to start building them. This is my first-ever Napoleonic-era ship, and, characteristically, I left my damn rigging guide on a different continent. Nothing deterred, I fudged a trial build anyways:

So far so good. I discovered "Rory's guide to rigging", which has been EXTREMELY helpful (even if it will never win any prizes for clarity of writing or photography!), and between that and squinting at photos of other people's models, I've gotten this far.

However, I'm still short some info that will help me finish off this one (and hopefully make the next one better), so I'm helping some of you experts can give me some advice. Here's what I wanna know:

1. Where do the ropes currently dangling from the bottom of the forecourse and maincourse attach to? Everyone else seems to model courses furled, so squinting at pictures hasn't helped me here.

2. Where do the trailing/bottom corners of the various jibs'ls and stays'ls rope to? (I just ended up attaching them to whatever was convenient; not the most professional method)

3. On ships with no sprits'l, is the sprits'l yard fixed in place, or should it be angled to match the yards on the masts?

4. Would the royals be flown on a separate spar-- i.e. is the royal t'gallant yard on a royal t'gallant mast, or on the t'gallant mast? Should I cut the mast down in height if I model a ship not carrying royals? Should I scratchbuild some sort of royal t'gallant mast for ships *with* royals?

5.Tell me about flags and pennants. What would a private ship be flying? What about an admiral's flagship?

6. Is the spanker fixed in place, or would its spars be angled to help catch a wind?

7. I modeled the spanker on hanging from the sort of longer spar characteristic of the 1770s and '80s, when lateen mizzen-courses had just gone out of style. Anyone know if the front/lower end of this spar should have ropes or cables attached to it?

Anyway, this all ended up more complicated than I expected, but that's the way I roll. Go big or go home. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out!

Looks like you did a great job, more than many people would attempt.

1. Those lines are the sheets and would be run back in through the bulkhead from the outside at a point aft of the sail. Another line attached to the clew of the sail is the tack which runs opposite the sheet and is used to pull the windward edge of the sail forward and the sheet on that side is slack or lazy.
2. The heads'l sheets are usually attached to a pin rail on the bottom of the foremast or on railings in the forecastle.
3. Fixed.
4. Royals are flown on a separate mast and often taken down in combat or heavy weather, although you could certainly leave the mast on if the royal yard is not mounted.
5. That is a whole question by itself! Plenty of prints online. Check out Langton's gallery for ideas
6. No – think of the mail sail on a modern sailboat (sloop).
7. Yes but not something you'd need to model in 1/1200!

I hope it helps you:
link

I do it this way, I don't know if the same than Rod Langton guide. I learned watching scale model ships.

By the way, good job. To be your first boat you have marked a fairly good level, congratulations.

Hi Kniazsuvorov,
Sorry my guide had bad bits. It was done to help me only, as a add on to Rods book. Some folks asked how I did rigging. So Vol put it on his blog for all to see. The photos of the ships were my frist and I'm now better at it. Part 3 page 2, Part 3 page 10 on would shows you what to do. I changed ships for the running rigging to a ship with courses set. It is all in the guide. O.k. I did not show the full sail rigging a step to far for me. Your work is great, if I helped a little I am pleased.
Yours is so much better than mine.
Be safe
Rory

Looks like good answers here already, so I'll just add: beautiful work! Your very first ship looks fantastic, and I look forward to seeing more!

Thanks all for the answers-- very helpful. I picked the ugliest model I had (Langton's British 50-gun) to try building first. It was a good learning experience, but I think I'll need to do a couple more at least before mine look as good as Julian or J. White's!

Not my very first ship, incidentally-- just my first Napoleonic boat, and the first time I've made my own sails. Plenty of pics of my old Anglo-Dutch stuff kicking around the web.

My photography used to be a lot better, too; the pics up top on this page are terrible!

OK!

I'm Sorry you hate your ship and your photos! Do you hate yourself too?

Ha! Some days ;)

Seriously though, I have no issues with the way the ship turned out. I'm just saying that Langton's British 50 is a boxy and unattractive vessel (at least before the sails went on), and therefore one I was prepared sacrifice as a guinea pig.