Original 1960’s Airfix HMS Prince

[Bigfoot57]

So when I last left you, I’d repaired the anchors as they weren’t stuck correctly since then I’ve done the masts and the rat lines which are still to be finished couldn’t believe how long and how fiddly this so-called simple task was anyway here’s some photos to show where the progress at the moment
starting with the bowsprit mast was painted & the spars were added 1st with Tamiya liquid cement and once this was dried, I actually tied the spars onto the mast using thread then I need the ratlines and finally, foot ropes which were used so that the crew could get out onto the spars to furl & unfurl the sails
this was repeated for all the remaining masts Took approximately two weeks to complete, hence the lack of any postings
You can also see I had to do a repair on one of the spars on the bowsprit hence the piece of wood on the end
other photo show the construction of the binding for the bowsprit which attached to the very forward end of the ship normally, this would form a figure of a loop around the end of the bowsprit I’m loop back around from the Forward end of the ship but because of the way they’ve already started the construction on this the small front deck was already in place and I didn’t want to remove it with a fear of breaking it or other damaging it some other way so what I did was I got two pieces of Dowel with a gap in between to make the binding, which is then looped over the end of the bowsprit and pushed inside the ship to make it look like it had actually been looped around

[Bigfoot57]

So here’s where I am now with all three masts in place We have a slight issue with the foremast in that it has a slight lean backwards which I will correct with some standing rigging so is what the ship looks like now with all the rat lines now in place to get the tension on each line after tying the knot and applying glue by hung a pair of reversible tweezers from each of the lines whilst the glue was setting this kept them taut apart from the little link lines that run from the top of the spars to the base of the fighting platforms which i’m in the process of constructing this will complete the ratline installation and we can move onto the standing rigging

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Wow. What a transformation from the kit when it first arrived. That sir is looking quite remarkable.