HMS Sophie Part 5

As I was working with a hand auger, and not a power drill, my mast holes are not exactly the size I was hoping for when I drilled them.

Uneven Hole

To compensate for this, I have wrapped paper around the base of my masts until they plug in snugly.

A completed Mast section

On the test fit, they now stay in place quite nicely, yet are still removable for storage.

There's still much to be done, but i'm pleased at how this is coming together.

HMS Sophie Part 4: Hull details

Bowsprit and fo'c's'le

The bowsprit is nested and glued into a hole i drilled at an angle into the solid hull (another perk of doing the hull as one piece). I've attached the upper part using my craft twine, and you can faintly make out two wire loops. These will attach the removable rigging (forestay and fore topmast stay).

Deck detailing courtesy of Starbucks

The actual deck is made of carefully selected coffee stirs gleaned with permission from local Starbucks. I cut them to size with side cutters, then filed the raw edges smooth on an emery board. They are held down with superglue, as I found that Elmers doesn't hold fast enough to keep them from springing back up. One all glued in place, it is sanded lightly, and i drilled holes at the edges of the planks with a pin vise.

Functional Deck Ladder

The gunwales have ladders integrated onto the sides (as does the HMS Surprise on which I've based much of this). These are spaced to hold figures based with more coffee stirs. My officer of Artillery shows functionality of the ladder, and also serves to give some sense of scale here.

Sophie's aft cabin and rudder

Here we have the aft cabin of HMS Sophie, as well as the top of her rudder. I am not entirely satisfied with how this portion came out, and may revise it in the future. The intent was to make a faux leaded glass window using window screen painted as the lead over a dark blue plastic card underneath. This technique has looked good on some scenery buildings in the past, but does not seem to quite do it here.

HMS Sophie Part 3

Continuing on with the construction of my 18th-19th century Sloop of War, here are some Hull shots of HMS Sophie.

Hull of my HMS Sophie, already afloat in the waters she'll be sailing.

Again, the hull is a solid plank of 2x6 left over from a musket stock project, shaped with planes and rasp files. One gunport was built out of small planks and some plastic card for the iron. I made a greenstuff mold, and copied the port for the rest of the ship.

Close–up of the gun ports and ladder up to the deck

HMS Sophie, WIP Part 2

The next phase in the construction was further work aloft in the rigging. Ive attached the spars to the masts using a system that compromises strength and playability against nautical accuracy. The yards hang from small blocks I made in a similar fashion to the deadeyes of the standing rigging, though with a trench around their perimeter. These are hung via twisted florist wire that will be painted to resemble rope that is wrapped around and through a small hole drilled in the mast. The finished assembly is decorated with actual miniature line to cover my "seams."

The spars themselves are made from square dowels that i shaped down using planes to resemble the shape seen aloft on classic sailing ships.