Belaying Pins and rack. DIY

 

Making belaying pins seems like a lot of work when so many companies out there still offer little bags of them on the web. But when your decking out a Spanish Galleon, 6th rate frigate or a Man of war the expense can become unreasonable for a navy on a budget. 

What you need:

1. Box of round cocktail toothpicks
2. Hobby Miter-Box & Saw 
3. Pencil 
4. Round hobby file
5. Pin-vice & bit (not larger than full thickness of tooth pick)
   
6. Square Dowel  
7. Sand paper 
8. CA Glue

Use pencil to mark 2 of more holes in your square dowel. Then drill them out with a small pin-vice to make pilot holes for your rack.

Using a larger pin-vice bit, widen the holes to accommodate the end of the cocktail sticks.

 

 

 

 this can also be done with the round hobby file

 (Caution if you use the larger pin-vice first the square dowel will split, a little CA glue on the end can remedy this.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Cut Rack from end of square dowel

Insert Cocktail sticks in pin-rack. Mark with pencil a circular ring on pin.

Cocktail Sticks

Remove from rack.

Use a round File

File a divot in the cocktail stick completely around the circumference just above the line.

Example of finished end.

Cut off end.

Sand off edges of rack. Insert Pins. 

 I don't glue the pins in until the final touches of the ship's completion. The reason is if you want to secure lines to the pins and make sure the line stays taunt it is much easier to adjust the line by gluing to the pin then putting it in the rack, rather than adjusting the line behind a secured pin.  

 

Dead Eyes, by hand.

This is a section I wanted to make to help out the like minded frugal ship modelers out there. By no means is this a proper tutorial of rigging. Model ship builders would be appalled by my decorative attempts to fancy up my gaming models to meet the historical accuracy of their meticulous work, but for gamers it is a way to make their models look better without spending a lot of money. 

 

 

Making Dead Eyes is really easy.    

What you need:

1. Dowel Rod
2. Pin-vise Drill    
3. Hobby Miter box & Saw
4. Sand paper
5. Pencil 

Mark 3 dots on the end of a dowel rod.

Use a Pin-Vice to drill holes. The deeper you drill the more dead-eyes you can make.

 

Put in Miter-Box

Slice like Pepperoni

Lightly Sand

 

Make more than you need, they are prone to break and you can save what ever you use for other boats or flotsam & debris. 

There is a reason I didn't specify the bit size or dowel rod diameter. That is a matter of scale and visual appeal to the game modeler. 

 

 

 

French Brigantine "Coque en Fer"

The French Brigantine "Coque en Fer" or translated in English as "Iron Shell", is a light merchant vessel that makes birth in the colonial port of Martinique. Her defiant christening was an Idea of the cargo company's book keeper who saw a deficit in recruiting sailors to serve aboard some of the more vulnerable short hall vessels in the Caribbean. With no extra coin to spend on cannon or careening, the company anointed the vessel with a name that would instill an undeserved confidence in her crew and hesitation to potential buccaneers with an inexpensive embellishment to her reputation. This has given her crew a bit of sang-froid attitude they really can't afford. After months of success, awe struck by the ship's fortune the company has almost bought into its own trompe l'œil. "Je ne sais quoi?" exclaimes the Company's owner Jean Maurice de Toulouse, How long would they have lasted on board a ship called "papier mâché" No?   

Port Side

The Coque en Fer sports 8 Cannon for defense, her delusional crew have been warned not to go on the offensive on several occasions. 

   

The Fan Tail

Starboard Side

 

Chiquita Tartana

 

 

The Chiquita Tartana is a proud little craft of the Spanish merchant marine tasked with moving coca beans from Cartagena to exchange for tobacco in Santiago. Her north to south sojourn makes use of her Lateen sale rig, perfect for the trade wind that remain predominately beam reach through the trip. Recently missionaries in Rio de Hacha have began growing bananas in the new world, which have brought bonus profit to captain Plátano who throws in a couple of bunches to boost profits in the West Indies. La Chiquita has become well known as the Banana Boat of Santiago.        

 

This little ship is another product of FireLock Games', Blood & Plunder Line. The Tartana is a plain little kit with a lot of potential not all included in the box. With a few dowels, some toothpicks, cheap jewelry rings and wax string this kit can become a work of art. Firelock's 28mm ship line is the most extensive in selection in the gaming industry and a great start to pimp-a-ship. 

  

    

 

I seriously Up-Gunned this Boat to 10 cannon. this also provides a good view of the "Dog Head" suspending the anchor line.

 

The tiller on the Tartana was a bit awkward and not practical to work with.

 I wanted the rudder to look mechanically feasible so I constructed this.  

Hand made belaying pin racks.

The brace for the mast is a common 

Mediterranean mechanism

 to shift the mast fore and aft. 

Windless

 

Home made "Dead Eyes" really jazz up the rigging.

 

Spanish Ensign is removable to strike colors. 

 

I used magnets and steel wire to attach the flag.