84 ropes later: all guns in line

As every year, the Diana has spent most of this summer in the cupboard. Now and then I did do something, but always the same thing: preparing the ropes for the guns. There had to be a great many of them, three per gun, and there are 28 guns on the gun deck. That soon adds up to 84. At a quarter of an hour’s work per rope plus a great deal of other fiddling that produces nothing, that is still some 21 hours of hobby time in recent months.

Unfortunately I had just not enough blocks. So I ordered new ones from Syren, and the wrong ones at that: by accident the 2 mm ones instead of 2.5 mm. And 2 mm really is too small. The 2.5 mm ones have been sold out for a while, so now I have ordered others from Cornwall. Those are not in yet, we will have to wait and see whether they do the job. They are for the upper deck as well, by the way.

Yesterday I started rigging the first guns.

And this afternoon they are all in line, rigged and all. Fortunately rigging went faster than preparing. At the front I made a few small helper strips, because otherwise there was nowhere to fit the ring bolts. Well, you will not see any of it like this, so a bit of cheating must be allowed.

Piet thought it looked neat, but a lot of work for something that will soon be invisible: only the ten guns in the waist will remain visible later. He is entirely right of course. But this is how I see it: it is not so much a lot of work as a lot of hobby, and that, on the other hand, is a good deal more enjoyable than work.