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At the start of the year I was contacted by a customer to finish off a model of the Cutty Sark, so after a long trip the model arrived back at the work shop. The model itself was basically just the hull and the start of some of the masts etc so overall this would be pretty much a full build staring with the hull. After having a good look at the hull, the prep work could begin firstly with the re-paint carefully adding all the fine detail as things progressed, the re-paint was done using enamel paint as well as Admiralty paints and the white line detail using Becc lining products. Once the hull had been completed and detailed the work could begin on the deck area this included making several of the fittings as well as repairing others prior to fixing back into place. With the hull and deck areas 99% finished the next task was to move onto the masts their construction, for this I did some research using info from previous Cutty Sark restorations to achieve the best result possible.
As you can imagine the masts would take some considerable time to build, these were then painted and detailed using Admiralty paints where possible before being positioned on the model and fixed into place taking care to achieve the correct alignment. Now we came to the rigging for this I had to refer to some rigging plans from the previous builds as this was to be a complete re-rig. The re-rig as always started with the shrouds and ratlines which on the cutty Sark are quite a challenge, this was then followed by all the forward stays then the back stays thus locking the masts securely into position. Now the masts were secured the work could begin on making all the relevant yards and stun sail booms etc this had to be done as carefully as possible as furled sails were to be added at the request of the customer. After a couple of weeks or so the yards were completed including all the relevant details eg foot ropes etc and blocks.
The next stage in the build process was to make up all the sails by hand using previous info checking sizes etc as things progressed these could then be furled prior to very carefully fitting each one to its relevant yard before fixing to the masts in there marked positions. Once all the yards were back in position the next task was to complete the rest of the rigging with all the yard braces etc as well as yard lifts and finer details. With the rigging now finished one of the final tasks to do was to add all the rope coil details etc plus any other details required to enhance the end result thus completing the build of the Cutty Sark. As per normal I then carefully checked over the model prior to housing it in its bespoke display case which was supplied by Maritime-Models.
