Altaya L'Ambitieux

[booth]

Issue 130 and 131 now finished. The yards are now being placed into position. At the moment they are all hanging loose and will stabilise when more ringing is added.
One thing that did cause me to have a sleepless night was how to get around the problem of the pulley with the ropes in the grating. It was a delicate operation cutting the grill behind the ratlines and rigging and then I had to thread the rope down one gap and pull it up the other several times!

[wingnut]

Hi Alan, she looks amazing are you now finished ?

[booth]

Thanks, it’s a way off yet, I still have to do the rear yards, sails, sail rigging, anchors, side cannon and hatches and the last thing will be the flags!
I hope to finish by perhaps February.

[booth]

Issue 132 and 133 now completed with the help of stronger reading glasses from Poundshop and a pair of tweezers.
The masts and yards now secured with miles of rope and pulleys. I haven’t fully secured them with glue yet as I know they will be knocked loose when I attach the sales. You can see the tread hanging loose all over at the moment.
I have had to redo the thread in pulleys and deadeyes at least once as it gets a bit confusing fiddling with thread and tweezers upside down and back to front.
Nest it will starting on the sails and I think that I will go with the sails as they are. I had thought of staining them with Tea and scrunching them up a bit to give a weathered look but I don’t think I will on this one as the sails are slightly off white anyway.

[booth]

Now starting to put the sails on. As there are so many ropes everywhere I have decided to fix all the sails on their yards at this stage instead of doing in order of the issues.

[booth]

That’s issue 134 filed away and the first four sails in place. I have also sown some other sails in place to avoid disturbing the rigging later.

[wingnut]

Hi Alan ! as always excellent work I don't know how you keep track of all that rigging

[booth]

I little update

The fact is that I struggle to keep track of the rigging!

It seems to have taken me a long time to do what appears to be little work. Because it’s a bit fiddly and complicated but mostly because I keep making errors and having to re-do rigging. One line I had to do 6 times before I got it corrsct.

Issue 135 was work on the sails at the stern




Then it was136 and more work on the bow sails and the first of the cannon on the side






But hark, what this I see on the night before Christmas………..the French sailors are going to be very happy tonight

[royjess]

Looking fantastic, the rigging is looking good

[Mark]

He he. Love the little elf ! You’re doing a fantastic job of the rigging Booth !

[Andi Little]

Simply astonishing - mine own efforts are humbled by comparison .............. I am deeply impressed.

[booth]

You may not say that if took another look!

I do choose which photos I upload and therefore manage to hide the bodge ups.

If you were to look closer you will see that it’s not that good in real life.

There is a reason I painted the launches. I made such a mess of the planking that I had to use filer to smooth the hull and stain/varnish to make it look acceptable.
Meanwhile, I hope the sailors don’t look behind and spoil the surprise

[booth]

I thought that I would take a break from the rigging and fix the cannon in place. First the smaller mid deck and then the heavier cannon on the lower deck.

[booth]

The rigging is taking some time as I keep getting ropes entangled and have to redo several times. So I have switched to doing some of the cannon hatches for a break once again.





I have thought about how I would do this for too many hours and in the end I decided on PVA and using little strips of masking tape to hold them in position while they dry.

The trouble with superglue is that you can’t superglue twice and so I have still left that option open if this doesn’t work.

[Morris]

Oh wow, this is beautiful!

[booth]

Ports all done now and so far none have fallen off!

The first two anchors are in place now.

As you may see, there are still lots of loose ends of rigging to glue once I decide that it’s time to finalise and glue.

[booth]

Issue 139 now done.

Now starting on the final issue 140. Its great feeling to be so close!

This one was the two sails on the prow, archers and rope around the rudder. I altered one anchor cable as it seemed a bit too tight and I wanted it to hang a bit loose.








I am happy with the anchors and the modelling tip in an earlier issue. That was not to actually put nails in but just make holes and the stain will help give the impression of nails. I did make a bit of a mess on these a couple of years ago in the construction and had to make some out of spare wood and then stain accordingly.

These are some of the failed attempts

[booth]

Well, almost at the finishing post!

I have now started to tidy up the loose ends of the riffing. I am glad that I have left them loose so far as I have had to tighten an few of them where I have knocked them or other rigging has made them a bit slack.



I am on the last page of issue 140. In fact I have been on this page for a couple of weeks on and off as the 15mm long rope coils seem to be taking ages.



I have set up a little rig to make it a bit easier but it’s still a bit fiddly and there are so many to make.



The stern rigging is almost finished

[booth]

Finally finished.

Firstly, a big thanks for all the positive encouraging comments throughout my project. They mean a great deal to me

It’s been over three years and I am pleased with the result. Now I have to re-design my man shed to make room for it. Doing the final rope coils for the rigging took a lot longer that I expected,

But here she is, with my spotless tablecloth as a backdrop.

Now I can turn my attention to the Bretagne and the Hermione

[royjess]

Wow! That just looks stunning, amazing!

Fantastic! Well done!