What's on my desk? Part 59.

February 18, 2025

Hello there.

February is already half over. Time flies...

I've hit another snag with Fram. I ran out of chain for the anchors and bowsprit. Another webform sent to OcCre. Hopefully I'll receive an envelope this week.

The gear that I received last week was inserted into the steering post. This then needs a chain going around and into an eyehook attached to the rudder post. Like so:

I was also able to hang one of the anchors. This was primed black, then drybrushed with two metallic colours.

Rigging the shackle left me a bit puzzled at first. This is a double-eye block. Where does the line start and end? A quick internet search led me to a shipbuilders' blog, where I found the following image:

Pretty handy. The line starts at one of the blocks, then feeds through the holes. The loose end is wrapped around the davit, where it's accessible to the crew.

While waiting for the chain, I continued with the hull attachments for the rigging. These are thick PE, but they need a place to go. You need to cut pieces out of the trim plank. This caused the plank to come loose, so it was a process of cut-glue-cut-glue. But eventually I had all the locations cut:

The parts going into this need their top end bent into a ring. I knew with the tools I have this was impossible to get right, so this morning I went to the hardware store and got rounded pliers. Works like a charm:

Another big job was the masts. I used my electric drill and... this actually works!

This is a piece for the bowsprit, and I would have been able to do this by hand. It would not have been fun, but it would have worked. The bigger mast, though... It's a dowel of 8mm thick and needs a taper to 2mm. Three quarters of the material needs to go. To get that thing straight in a non-hand-breaking manner would be next to impossible without tools.

So here's the bowsprit finished, dyed and varnished: