I can’t believe that I’ve managed to run out of Blocks. I know I didn’t lose that many! Anyway, I ordered some more from Amazon. I have Prime so there were no Shipping charges. I bought a small pack of 30 Blocks directly from Model Shipways and they charged me $9.99 for Shipping for a pack of Blocks who’s Shipping Weight is negligible. Probably about the cost of a regular letter. Certainly no more than 1oz… As a matter of fact, I weighed them and they weigh 1/4 oz!!! So my advise is to order Blocks through Amazon to avoid the ridiculous Shipping Costs.

Anyway, the pack on the left are Single Cleaves and the one on the right are doubles.

Just working on the Fore TopGallant. It’s basically they same rigging as the rest. Although there’s 2 Lines that go back to the Main Mast from the ends of the Yards.

Completed the Fore Upper TopSail. Every Sail / Yard takes a lot of rigging.

I made these coiled up line for the Stays being tied off on the Belaying Pins on the Pinrail.

Not sure what these Bars that stick out to the side are called? I asked some Sailing friends about it and so far nobody has been able to tell me what the name of these Bars are.

I figure if I can do 1 Sail per day… I have 7 more Sails left. I should be done in about a week time.

These Sails… Now that I’m in the “Production mode”, I may complete this ship a bit faster. Although, there’s no telling how squeezy it’s going to get. I finally gave in and ordered some Surgical Offset Scissors. There’s some areas that are getting increasingly more difficult to get to. Reaching all the way down to tie off the line is getting more and more difficult.

It only cost like $8.99 with free shipping. Hopefully I get it soon.

By the way, this is my first post on WordPress using my new Google Pixel 2xl. I absolutely love this phone.

I worked on this one off and on all day and finally finished last night. I found that pre-adding a few lines through the Blocks made it easier to rig.

I’m running short of these Single Sheave Blocks. I counted them out and I’m going to be about 20 or so Blocks short. Hmmm… I can’t believe that I’ve lost that many. Anyway, I went ahead and ordered some more. At first I ordered them from Model Expo… $5.99 for 30 Blocks and then it was $9.99 for Shipping!!! Then I looked on Amazon and they had them for $16.99 for a package of 150 Blocks and since it’s Prime, no Shipping. I wish I would have checked with them first.

I suppose I’m on the home stretch for this ship. I am thinking that if I do approximately one Yard and Sail per day, then it should probably only take me about 9 or 10 more days to complete the ship. As I mentioned in a previous Post, this is a rather leisurely pace.

Now that I have my first Yard all rigged up, the Foresail, I am going to start a Production line for the rest of the Sails. I’m currently painting the Yard for the Fore Lower Topsail.

I found to get a decent taper on these Yards from 6mm down to 3mm, that it’s easiest to simply use my Electric Pencil Sharpener. I stick the end down into it and it takes like 2 shoves to get a decent 3mm end. Then, I take some Sandpaper to taper the rest down. I know it takes a lot of elbow grease but that’s the only sure way to get the taper… Short of going out and buying a Mini-Lathe or something.

Here is one of my new Yards, the Fore Upper Topsail Yard that I just stuck into the Pencil Sharpener for 2 blasts…

See… perfect every time.

Anyway, the Foresail is all done and the Fore Lower Topsail, the next one up is my project for tomorrow.

I was working on the Foremast Yard and Sail for the better part of about 4 hours now. I finally got it on the Mast.

Almost completed with all the Tackle for the Foremast –

As I was making these Yards, I realized that each one takes up 8 Blocks. There’s 10 Yards so that will be 80 Blocks. I wasn’t as conscious of this until just now when I thought maybe I won’t have enough Blocks.

Well, sure enough, after counting out my Blocks, I only have just enough for the Yards, which doesn’t leave me enough for the Blocks I need down by the Bars sticking out on the sides. I know those things require Blocks. I simply cannot believe that I ran out of Blocks like that. I realized I may have lost a few, but I didn’t think I lost that many to where I ran out of Blocks.

Anyway, I ended up panic buying some more Blocks from Model Expo. I know I’m going to need some. The shipping was $9.99 for an order of Blocks that cost $5.99!

I just discovered something interesting as I was making the Footropes. Rather the line that comes down from the Yard to hold the Footropes. I’ve been making this out of wire with a loop in it. Like this –

Anyway, after I make these, I will run Line through them to make the Footropes. Well, as I was twisting them, I kept having a problem with breaking the wires when I was twisting them with my Pliers. I was using these tools to make the wire twists –

But, I found that to avoid breaking the wire while you’re twisting around the scribe to make the loop. Just use your fingers to twist the wire. It does just as good a job as the Pliers and you don’t risk breaking it.