Cutty Sark - Academy 1/150 On a Reach Heading for London

[kyledehart5]

Excellent!! That looks super cool with sails up.

[406 Silverado]

That is just crazy with all of the rigging that you had to do but man.....the results................WOW!!   You got a payoff BIG TIME with the finish up of all of that Chris. That looks GREAT!!! 

[themongoose]

WooHoo thanks guys. Wish me luck today…i’m off to the basement with my coffee to see if i can do more without tearing anything down or breaking existing lines 🤣
I definitely don’t have the eyesight i used to. I’ll be focused on a spot where I’m applying glue or placing a line and one of my hands will invariably run into some rigging and stretch it before i pull back 🙈 blind am I it seems 😂 today’s lesson should be on spacial awareness maybe?

[BattleScale Collectica Show]

That looks absolutely beautiful Chris!

[armornutii]

  Ahhh c'mon Chris, yer making us look bad LOL, First the Space Shuttle now this old boat.....whatchya gonna do next my friend ?walk on water LOL.
     You are a heck of alot closer than Tiking....how ya feel about a shadow gleanning all your Jedi tricks??? Can you say restraining order LOL.
     LOVE watching your builds and it really is fun to see what you can do. Thanks my friend.

[deafpanzer]

You really did a great job with the rigging work!

[themongoose]

Jul 7, 2024 8:25:38 GMT -5 armornutii said:

  Ahhh c'mon Chris, yer making us look bad LOL, First the Space Shuttle now this old boat.....whatchya gonna do next my friend ?walk on water LOL.
     You are a heck of alot closer than Tiking....how ya feel about a shadow gleanning all your Jedi tricks??? Can you say restraining order LOL.
     LOVE watching your builds and it really is fun to see what you can do. Thanks my friend.

IF I get to sit in the confy lazy-boy chair you have in the model room you can shadow me anytime 🍻 
and thank you for the compliments 👍

[themongoose]

Many thanks to all you guys watching out there in MSC world! One last picture update for awhile. With 1 mast done i figure the rest will be just a repeat so i’ll post up finished pics in a couple days. This took all morning and it’s a sunny day out so going to go make some pina coladas and sit by the wading pool 😃
















something that gave me trouble during the build but turned into a neat trick was the thin CA wicking up thru the rope. It would make the rope stick out at all angles and not hang down like it was supposed to. Well the sails looked weird hanging straight down and i thought hey, how do you push a rope, you coat it in CA!! Will have a lot of matt coat to apply to kill the glossiness but the end effect is really cool i think 🤔 when you guys looked thru the pics did it appear there was wind in the sails?

[buddho]

The rigging on the sails is knocking this build outta the park...nice.

[armornutii]

   As that painter guy said" happy mistake", she looks almost ready for her voyage across the water.

[stikpusher]

The sails are looking great! Looks like you’re gonna be well beyond three sheets to the wind

[scottrc]

Excellent work!

[themongoose]

Jul 8, 2024 21:04:35 GMT -5 stikpusher said:

The sails are looking great! Looks like you’re gonna be well beyond three sheets to the wind

Oh i wish we had a laughing emoji to go with the thumb sometimes! 
😂🤣😅

[dukemaddog]

I have read this from beginning till now and you've shown some stunning work! Magnificent! I am overwhelmed at the quality here!

One thing I would suggest is; if you're going full sail and want the sails to appear to catch the wind; you should angle your yards between 20-30 degrees to one side. That way, maximum wind can be caught; it is how Cutty Sark won all those speed awards in her day. As the yards stand now, your foremast and main mast will have semi-drooping sails since the rear mast sails will be blocking them.

Just a suggestion; it's your model so you can build it however you like; it is still a stunningly outstanding job you've already done!

[themongoose]

Jul 11, 2024 13:00:28 GMT -5 dukemaddog said:

I have read this from beginning till now and you've shown some stunning work! Magnificent! I am overwhelmed at the quality here!

One thing I would suggest is; if you're going full sail and want the sails to appear to catch the wind; you should angle your yards between 20-30 degrees to one side. That way, maximum wind can be caught; it is how Cutty Sark won all those speed awards in her day. As the yards stand now, your foremast and main mast will have semi-drooping sails since the rear mast sails will be blocking them.

Just a suggestion; it's your model so you can build it however you like; it is still a stunningly outstanding job you've already done!

Yep I totally agree! I looked at doing that from the start but academy formed half the mount for the spars onto the masts themselves 😡 I had so much to learn on this i just opted to leave them be and not try to cut them off and refit them. Now that it looks so good i’m kinda regretting that 😩
guess i’ll have to build another one 🤪

[dukemaddog]

LOL! I understand. Many times I take the path of least resistance so I know all about why you did this. It does look fantastic, doing another one would be so cool to watch. Perhaps the Natchez, which I believe was her main competition in speed during those years. Something to think about.

[themongoose]

Jul 12, 2024 13:13:37 GMT -5 dukemaddog said:

LOL! I understand. Many times I take the path of least resistance so I know all about why you did this. It does look fantastic, doing another one would be so cool to watch. Perhaps the Natchez, which I believe was her main competition in speed during those years. Something to think about.

Good idea! I found  the  Clipper Thermopylae. They raced multiple times. Sounds like Cutty Sark was faster, she set the record from Sydney to London shipping wool. Clipper Thermopylae Has a very different look so they would be good side by side in the case 👍





the Revell version is very close to the same scale, plus when looking at the instructions I found it has an option to angle the spars right out of the box. Another 👍 for this one 😀

[kyledehart5]

Awesome. The Thermopylae looks really sweet too. Would be super cool to have a racing opponent for your Cutty

[themongoose]

My Cutty Sark is complete!! 28 days of absolutely no yard work, housework, honey-do projects, or anything not hygiene related  

99.999% out of the box. I had to add some bristles from a paintbrush to simulate the horse tail the figurehead is carrying. her name is "Nannie", she's a witch from a poem, and I learned "Cutty Sark" is the Scottish name for a short summer dress like the one she is wearing.









One of the guys from the Cincinnati Scale Modelers talked me through how to add the stays and braces. He was a great help and the reason I ended up getting so much rigging accomplished. I did find I had to shortcut the knots on the sails and yards/booms though. It was so out of scale when you made the knot that I ended up doing mostly slip knots and then putting CA on them with a needle. 


I took some initial pictures to see what I missed. The biggest thing was the top 3 yards on the main mast were slightly twisted. Back to the bench for almost an hour to straighten it out. At this point I figure sweat the details so the whole thing looks good.
crooked...


straight...



Once all the rigging was done I took her to the paint booth and very carefully sprayed flat over all the knots to kill that CA shine. Then I touched up the deck areas with semi-gloss to simulate the varnish. I weathered the ship as if she was at sea so I didn't want a ton of gloss on her.



Now I'm scared to box this up and transport it 

I used the same Vallejo Old Gold for the base as I did for filigree on the ship. The stand is horrible by the way. I was scared the ship would fall off. I made closed cell foam covers for the arms on the stand and now it's much more stable.



This is my favorite, how the plastic sails turned out. I love the wood grain but this turned out way better than I hoped.




I noticed when I took the 1st round of pics that I didn't put the stay in the right place so nowhere to put the Union Jack! You'll see it corrected in the other pics.

[handiabled]

Amazing work sir! The fact you completed this in such short order is astounding in itself. It's a more than impressive result for a build way out of your comfort zone with such a gorgeous result.

[moparman18064]

I’ve been loving this build on every step you have illustrated. The weathering on the sails has me blown away.

[themongoose]

Jul 15, 2024 12:51:06 GMT -5 moparman18064 said:

I’ve been loving this build on every step you have illustrated. The weathering on the sails has me blown away.

Thank you! I really appreciate that.

You know I experimented with painting in each crease. Once I found that helped the look i did 4 or 5 coats with flory washes in then, drying it with a hairdryer between coats so I didn’t wait around 20-30 minutes each time 😤 super impatient am i 🤣 but I don’t think with washes it impacts the look at all.

[kyledehart5]

I also really enjoyed following along with this WIP. And what an incredible build it was from start to finish. The wood grain, the filigree, the sails. You did some really impressive work with this!! Turned out awesome.

[bradley25mm]

Absolutely stunning work, and attention to detail. That is quite the undertaking. I looking forward to seeing it in person in September. Ship building has two categories. 1. Ships with very little rigging. 2. Sailing ships from the past. (My favorite being the U.S.S. Constitution). As they say” Patience is a virtue”. You’ve got a ton of it my friend, and it shows. What are you going to do next??

[themongoose]

Aug 1, 2024 8:48:35 GMT -5 bradley25mm said:

Absolutely stunning work, and attention to detail. That is quite the undertaking. I looking forward to seeing it in person in September. Ship building has two categories. 1. Ships with very little rigging. 2. Sailing ships from the past. (My favorite being the U.S.S. Constitution). As they say” Patience is a virtue”. You’ve got a ton of it my friend, and it shows. What are you going to do next??

given how this turned out i bit the bullet and committed to doing her racing nemesis…the Clipper Thermopylae

[kyledehart5]

That’s awesome! You can stage your own clipper ship race on the display shelf. Lol.

[deafpanzer]

I really enjoyed following your WIP and it really came out GREAT!!! Thank you for one of the reasons why MSC is a great place to hang out!

[fox]

Fairly new here and still roaming around seeing what's going on. Came on to your build and read through the whole thing. Amazing work from start to finish. Love the finish on the deck. Looks great. I usually take the deck off the plastic ships and replace with real wood. I guess when it comes to boats I like wood better. I place thin strips of ebony wood in between the planks to look like the caulking. Then, whatever way I treat the wood the black strips still show up. I really like the way you treated the wood features on your Cutty Sark. Would love to watch you build a wooden ship. I think you would do a great job. The rigging is a bigger challenge but I think you could handle it.

 Used to sail a wooden R/C "Emma C. Berry" for a while but I was too involved in racing larger and faster R/C sailboats like Marbleheads, 10 Rater and 12 meter boats. Like building wooden ships more than plastic. Finished up a plastic "Kearsarge" a few months ago and now working on a wooden "Bluenose II". The photos below are of me and my Soling 50/800 Marblehead after winning 6 out of 6 heats at an Invitational race in North Jersey back in the late '70s. Nobody could touch me that day. The "Emma C. Berry" is now Sailing on the 1/2 wall in our living room. Whenever the ceiling fan is turned on, the sails fill and she looks great up there.


photos.app.goo.gl/nVnXH2oTTAASYqyc6

Look forward to seeing more of your great work.

Stay safe.
Jim 

[themongoose]

That’s a cool r/c sailboat! I doubt i’ll ever build a wooden one but thanks for your vote of confidence 👍 for me i raced the 1:1 catamaran’s around lake erie and the chesepeake bay. Loads of fun. I’ve been following your bluenose build 😃 looking forward to each update 🤩

[bakster]

Beautiful work! One of these days I want to try building a masted ship. A few years off probably. Great work you did…