Navwar Dutch 64 Gun Finished

(Note: This is the first ship I rigged correctly after receiving Rod Langton's rigging guide.)

I finally finished the rigging for this ship. I haven't picked a name for it yet. It is based on Navwar's 64 gun Revolutie. I do not know how many ships were built in this class since information on the Napoleonic period Dutch ships is not easy to find. This is the general armament and crew of the ship:

The modifications include scratchbuilt masts, yards, brass sails, shrouds/ratlines, and base.

Here is my Dutch fleet so far"

Update - Two Navwar 1:1200 50 Gun Ships

A good friend in the UK pointed out that I was not rigging the mizzen masts on my non-British ships correctly. I have been rigging all of my different nation ships British style. The Royal navy rigged it's mizzen mast yards back to the driver. All other nations rigged the mizzen yards forward to the main mast. He also was extremely generous and sent me a copy of Rod Langton's book on painting and rigging 1:1200 ships. Thank you from the bottom of my heart Rory!

Here is the 50 gun ship Rotterdam with the mizzen yards correctly rigged to the main mast:

Summer Hiatus - 64 Gun Dutch Navwar

I haven't posted anything since April for the simple reason that I haven't done anything since April. The "Honey Do's" are all encompassing since the weather has changed. We are 3" below are normal rainfall so I have had no excuse to stay indoors and work on miniatures. I have accomplishe a great deal unrelated to wargaming however. I have put a large number of plants and trees in the ground, put in new water lines for said plants/trees, built a 40' x 12' pad on the end of the barn, replaced all of the electric fence ribbon on the horse fenceing, repaired a lot of that same fencing, and built steps and a deck around the spa on the back patio. I am only about a quarter way through the to do list. A storm went through yesterday and I actually got to set down for several hours and rig one of the two Navwar Dutch 64's that have been sitting on my workbench since April. I have only mounted the mast sails, ratlines, and standing rigging so far. I still have the sprit sail, forestay and jib salis to mount and the running rigging to do to finish. here are photos of the progress so far on these 64's.

Both painted hulls and the scratchbuilt masts

Dressing up the scratchbuilt brass sails

Still a long way to go. I will post the completion photos when I'm done.......sometime in October?????

Two Navwar 1:1200 50 Gun Ships

(I note that this post gets viewed frequently so I want to point out that the rigging is incorrect, done before I had a good reference to go by.)

Here I present the completed Navwar Dutch 4th rate 50 gun ships Rotterdam and Batavier.

The Rotterdam was launched in 1761. Her dimensions were Length 136'; Beam 39'; Depth 15'; 937 tons.  Her compliment was 350 men and boys.
Armament:
24 x 18 pounders
24 x 12 pounders
8 x 8 pounders
She was captured in 1781 by the British.

The Batavier was launched in 1779. Her dimensions were Length 144'; Beam 40'; Depth 16'; 1048 tons. Her complimen was 300 men and boys.
Armament:
22 x 24 pounders
24 x 12 pounders
8 x 6 pounders
She was captured in 1799 by the British.

These ships are typical for Navwar, taking a considerable amount of work. New masts, sprit and jib boom had to be built for both ships. I use two methods for sails for these ships. For the Rotterdam I cut new sails out of thin brass sheet, attached clew lines and yards, then painted them. For the Batavier I cut the Navwar sails off of the spindly masts and reshaped them using a small sanding drum attached to my Dremel tool. Then I attached clew lines and yards to the modified sails and painted them.

In the photos below the Batavier is on the left and the Rotterdam is on the right. I would sincerely appreciate comments or votes on which sail set looks the best, the modified sails on Batavier or the scratch-built brass sails on the Rotterdam.

Thank you for looking and don't forget to vote for wich sails look best - the modified molded sails on the left, or the scratch-built brass sails on the right.

Scratch Building 1:1200 Ship Masts

I find myself scratch building replacement masts for every ship model manufacturer except Rod Langton's ships. GHQ's masts are featureless, soft and flimsy; Davco's are as flimsy as GHQ masts but are as detailed as Langton's; Navwar masts are featurless and run from relatively stiff to extremely flimsy, but the sails are so bad and yardless that even with sturdy masts I would still want to redo them. So here is a short tutorial on how I create masts that look close to Davco and Langton masts.

I am going to start with a 50 gun Dutch Navwar ship for an example.

The first thing I do is take measurements of the masts that came with the model. I measure the lower mast, top mast, and top gallant mast for each of the three masts. I also measure the bowsprit and jib boom.

I use music wire bought at Hobby Lobby. Sizes: .047 for the lower masts, .039 for the top masts, and .032 for the top galant masts.

I measure and mark the wire, then cut the pieces with a pair of small dykes.

The ends have burrs and can be very sharp so I grind them smooth with a silicate grinding wheel attached to my Dremel tool.

Or you can just use a file to accomplish the same thing.

For the fighting tops you can use any type of card. I have used thin paper card, plastic coated tags, old credit cards, etc. For this examply I am using an expired plastic insurance card.

I measure the fighting top on the model's mast and cut a strip the same width with a pair of scissors. Measure slightly more than the width of the topmast wire from the end of the strip and mark with a pen. With a small drill bit the same size as the lower mast wire, drill a hole through the mark.

Now I cut the fighting top to size and round the corners off of the top mast side. I run the lower mast through the hole in the fighting top leaving just about 1/8" extending through the card. I use just a small drop of superglue to glue the top mast to the lower mast and fighting top.

Next I cut two pieces of black thread and tie them around the joint and add just a dab of superglue to the knot to hold them.

Next glue the top gallant mast to the top mast and tie with two pieces of thread the same way.

I glue up the bow sprit and jib boom the same way.

When the glue is dry, clipp off the tie ends with a clipper or xacto knife.

The mostly finished masts and sprit:

Some times I make up masts for two or more ships at the same time if they are around the same size.

And painted up:

I start the process again for more ships.

Here I am adding a little extra detail to make the masts look even better. I cut narrow strips of thin paper card stock and cut them into 10MM lengths. Then I glue them to oposite sides of the lower mast just beneath the fighting top platform.

Cut three lengths of black thread and tie them around the strips and mast.

Here are comparison shots of Davco's masts and my scratch built masts.

Here are the masts going on the ships:

And masts waiting for two more ships:

I hope this provides some help to a fellow modeler. Thank you for looking.