I inherited a wooden ship model that was made for my father by a friend in the late 50’s or early 60’s. When I got it, it was covered in dust and the rigging is in tatters. I’ve cleaned it up a lot, but I don’t have a clue about how to go about rerigging it. I know little about this kind of ship, but from the rigging it appears to be a brigantine (two masts, the main mast only square rigged), and I think the scale is around 1:90. I don’t know if it was scratch built or a kit. The name is Newsboy, Boston. I’m hoping someone out there recognizes this ship, if it is a kit, or can provide some direction on how to go about rerigging and restoring it. Any information would be useful. Thanks,
That’s the one! Looks almost exactly the same. Thanks a bunch for the information and links. If I get hold of rigging plans, will there be how-to instructions? I’ve never attempted this before, but I see special tools for rigging in the Micromark catalog and I assume they’re necessary. I also assume things need to be done in a particular order to work… or am I just overcomplicating things?
The plans are not going to have much in the way of “how to” instructions. For that, you can start by doing a search here for threads about ‘rigging’. There are several wooden ship model web sites - Dry Dock Models has forums arranged by topic. Wooden Ship Modeling for Dummies has a lot on basic techniques with photos and some demonstration videos, but requires an annual fee to access.
There are also tons of books that deal with model ship rigging. Check the ones mentioned in the old posts here.
But the biggest thing would be to practice- it’s not only knowing where all the lines go, but developing the skills required to tie all those little knots and get everything snug and tight.
I’m a sucker for all those special little rigging tools, too. But starting out you can also accomplish the same thing with a couple pairs of good tweezers and some alligator clips.
You also might check around to see if there are any ship modeling clubs in your area. Nothing like getting some first-hand advice from some fellow modelers.
If you go to that link for Model Expo, and look at the bottom of the page, you will see an instruction booklet that you can download. There are some rigging instructions in there.
Nothing can replace a good ship-specific rigging diagram, but for some general information, try this link: http://www.all-model.com/index.html which contains the Wolfram Zu Mondfeld book “Historic Ship Models” as well as many useful links to other online books (George F. Campbell’s “China Tea Clippers” and “The Neophyte Shipmodeller’s Jackstay”, D. Miller’s “British Warships of the Second World War”); also available are some ship plans, a few for free (Mayflower and Wappen von Hamburg), and lots of others for sale. The “Neophyte Shipmodeller’s Jackstay” is a good source of how-to’s as well as the Mondfeld book. A note on using these pages - don’t just rely on the links down the left side - those take you to the beginning page of each chapter. Use the “Next Page” and “Previous Page” buttons at the top right of the page to leaf through the chapters.
Sorry for not getting back sooner, but thanks to all you guys who responded. It really illustrates the value of this forum— I got more information in 48 hours than I could have gotten in a couple of weeks of research on my own (considering I didn’t have a clue about where to start). Again, THANKS!