Hand crafting sails

I believe a sail is much like a wing on an aircraft and they actually have some three dimensional shape. This is accokmplished by sewing strips toether - much like the hull is covered in boards that are trimmed on the sides and bent in place. Just how exagerrated this effect is and if you could get it by stretching cloth over a shapped piece of wood or whatever probably depends on the scale and type of ship. Military miniature modelers sometimes use draftsman linen for flags and sails. I believe the basic process is to paint and or weather the cloth (type of paint???, probably actylic) let it completely dry ( a week??) the cpply thinned down white glue and shpe, let dry.

I have a 1/35th scale viking ship. Sail instructions fold over edges - stitch, run stitching down the length at points across the sail to simulate panels being stitched together.

Morwe complicated sails - like on a clipper should have tie up rope sections etc.

To do it right - probably means a bit of research - the sails can be models in themselves.

Val Kraut

The shape is a bit more complex. You'll want to add some "belly" to the sails. The easiest way to do this is soak your finished sail in water and then spread it out on a suitably sized bowl to dry. Use a little diluted white glue or clear lacquer to hold the shape.

Frank

While modern sails are cut to billow to specific curved shapes, old sails from sailing ship days were not- they were basically flat sheets of cloth. However, when held by yard at top and by corners, the aerodynamic forces caused the sail to take a three-dimensional shape. In last years of sailing ships, they did sometimes add some other lines to help shape specific shapes. It was not till first few decades of twentieth century, however, that anyone knew what best shapes were.

S>

I think most or all of the current Revell Constitutions come with vacuum-formed sails. You can use these plastic sails as patterns to make real cloth sails. Wet the cloth, adding a little white (Elmer's) glue, or starch, for sizing. Stretch over the plastic sails (the untrimmed sheet) and let dry. The cloth should peel off the plastic. Trim. You can dye the cloth with tea or weak coffee for a weathered appearance.

Basically yes, the square sails are trapezoids. The foot of the sail may or may not have a slight upwards curve to it, this varied from nation to nation. A good book on rigging such as James Lees' "The masting and rigging of English ships of war" or Karl-Heinz Marquardt's "Eighteenth century rigs and rigging" would give you more information of course, as would any of the "Anatomy of the ship" books concerning ships roughly similar to the Constitution.

Staale Sannerud

"Don Stauffer" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@usfamily.net...

The reason they were cut flat was not in ignorance but because of the stretchyness of cotton and linen sailcloth. After use, the sail would take on the desired three-dimensional (e.g., airfoil -- while it is an airfoil, the shape for an optimum sail is different than that of an aircraft airfoil) shape. Before dacron and other synthetics as well as polymer sizing came into use in the 50's it was common practice for racing sailors to give their new sails "shape" by hanging them horizontally and loading them with sandbags so as to stretch to the desired shape. As for knowing the "best"shape, true that didn't come into general knowlege until the 20th century -- but sailors, especially fishermen, and other small boat sailors have known about needing a curved foil since antiquity. Almost every conceivable kind of control line used to "shape the sail" were in use by the early 18th century. See "Eighteenth Century Rigs and Rigging" by Heinz Marquardt. "Historic Ship Models" by Wofram zu Mondfeld shows most "shaping" lines -- i.e., clew lines, leech lines, bunt lines, bow lines, etc. in use by the 16th century. Actual use may be far older, but there is almost no reliable documentation of rigging before the

16th century. The "right" shape is almost impossible to achieve in a model unless it is very large scale. One of the most common mistakes I see is an attempt to sew the model sails. It's hard to see how that can be done with scales smaller than 1:16. For one thing, the cloth is out of scale and for another, the stiching, even with the finest setting, is comparatively gross. People do sew accurate pond model sails, but those are not scale models -- although I think today most pond model racers would glue their sails rather than sew them. There are several ways to get the right shape. Some have been mentioned before. I like to soak the sail in thinned, water soluble polyurethane and then stretch it and allow it dry over a mylar balloon. Also, rather than attempt to make impossibly small scale seams, I simply draw them in using a striping tool. I first saw that in several museums -- I figure if that's good enough for a top maritime museum, it's good enough for me. The sails with the drawn panels looks neat as contrasted to a "sewn" sails that look positively clutsy with their grossly out of scale seams and stitching. If you can't put a detail in to the correct scale, then it is best to leave it out. The hardest thing about cloth sails is getting the right cloth. The best is old drafting velum -- this is an extremely fine linen, heavily sized with starch. Some modelers in the UK can still get it -- but it is impossible to get in the US -- I'm lucky, my architect friend scoured the east coast and got me enough of the stuff to last my lifetime if I'm careful. You just wash to sizing out in the washing machine. If you can't get the drafting linen, there are several suppliers of model sailcloths -- usually extremely fine linen (e.g., 300 or 400 count). Old, worn out, fine percale bedsheets are also a good, cheap substitute -- find them in a thrift shops. The worn sheets are much better than new because they don't have insoluble sizings and with wear, they get smoother and thinner. Coloring, as many have mentioned before is easily done with coffee (in the US) or tea (in the UK). I like to be a little sloppy with the staining so that the sail looks as if it has been used -- a little variation, mottling, etc. I also put in some small patches here and there for a more realistic look. I'm no expert on this, despite the above lecture -- and I'm still learning about how to make good looking model sails -- it is difficult. Very difficult. Frankly, I think it is about the most difficult thing to do right in building ship models. I've yet to make a sail come out right the first time -- it usually takes two or three tries -- and even then, I'm not satisfied. If you can't make the time to make acceptable sails -- then it is probably best to leave them furled, or leave them out altogether. Nothing spoils a good model more than to see a meticulously crafted ship hung about with clutzy pieces of out-of-scale rags.

Boris