Rigging and adding Langton Ratlines to SOG models

[Capn Duff]

At long last, some may say, here is my how-to for the rigging and adding ratlines to SOG ships
Apologies for the lengthy delay but real life has thrown a number of curve balls over the past few years and this project has been thrown on the back burner more than once, but that’s life.
So with this I will show how and what I do to my SGN ships to give them the impression of being rigged and the adding of Langton ratlines. This particular ship will be a 64 gun from wave 4 but the procedure will be the same for most of the ships, it will be the length of the ropes and the positioning of ratlines that will change.

A finished article below, if you don’t like this then don’t use it, this is just my interpretation and you can do without or add to it, entirely up to you





Why paint ratlines, yards, fighting tops and spars black and not brown or same colour as the masts I hear some ask. Well in this day and age most ropes were tarred due to saltwater , rain weather conditions and manhandling. In the merchant marine captains were not particularly bothered how their ship looks as long as it was seaworthy.
However the military mind is somewhat different, as I am sure any who have been in a military environment will attest. I can see you nodding here, the military mind needs things to be neat and tidy and “uniform” so black tarred ropes on light coloured yardarms is a no no, Officers, RSM’s, Bosuns etc etc would be close to apoplexy to see non uniform or out of place looking items. I can attest to once when serving in BAOR on Bielefeld Ridge expecting a visit from Royalty and the CO didn’t like that some trees had leaves while others didn’t, it being Oct, so a helicopter was flown over our position to remove the offending leaves from the trees and after the RSM had the troops “area cleaning” to pick up the leaves around our vehicles and trenches so it didn’t look untidy..... I kid you not.
So that’s why I say to paint black and as far as I know military minds are similar in most countries, I served with Italian, French, German, US, Greek, Dutch and Turkish servicemen and its the same , just varying degrees on nationality and branch of service.
But your choice if you don’t want to but I encourage the fighting tops if you will be using ratlines as it will cover any blanks or holes left .

Equipment needed
1. Your model, yards painted
2. Ruler to measure the rope lengths
3. Nylon brush with black bristles, these will be our ropes. I have two brushes one with long bristles and one smaller bristles, if you want to use only one get one with the longer type as you can cut it down. Mine I got from a local discount store, the dustpan and brush set cost £1 and between the two brushed I have rigged over 90 models
4. Sharp pair of scissors, craft knife or snips to cut the bristles and the ratlines if used.
5. Tweezers, I prefer the angled type but use any you wish and what you are used to using.
6. Superglue, I use the Gorilla glue, GEL type as it does not instantly stick and gives you a bit of time to position the rigging lines and ratlines
7. Langtons book on painting and rigging 1/12000 model ships, this is useful but not required as you are using this howto and I done this bit for you, but still a useful book.

1: So to start, we need our ship, a blank canvas taken out of the box





2: Take our rigging brushes and cut the bristles from the plastic giving you a few lengths of nylon , I tend to cut a section at a time and use this first, as you will see from the pics of the brushes



3: First paint the yardarms, fighting tops and boom spars black.
When painting the fighting tops make sure you paint down the mast by one or two of the rings on the mast, this will cover any gaps when adding the ratlines, if you don’t use ratlines then you don’t need to do this bit, your choice.




If you go over the mast too much or onto the sails, just touch up these bits , for most masts I use a lemon yellow and add either white or more yellow to match the original or GW Averland Sunset and add either white or beige or a redish flesh .
For the sails I use any white and add a little light grey so its not pristine white, again your choice here.

4: Get your ratlines, for this ship I will be using PE3 for others I have added to the site the best fit ratlines which is in the how to section.
Paint this black





5: We will now at the first bit of rigging, you will need 11 bristles and these will fit between the masts and to the bowsprit
For positioning I used Rod Langtons book on painting and rigging of ships, but at a reduced amount.
I am not as good as others on this forum who fully rig ships using cotton, you will know who I mean, I bow to their skill and patience, but I wanted the model to be seen and when fully rigged you tend to see ropes and miss out on the hull. So my rigging is representative to look the part and still see the ship, bu your choice to take further if you wish.
Cut the following lengths of bristle and glue them as follows

1. Bottom main to base fore 20mm
2. Mid main to mid foremast 22-24mm
3. Bottom top sail mainmast to bottom of fighting top 16mm
4. Top spar main mast to top of fighting top foremast 21-22mm

5. Bottom mizzenmast to base mainmast 21-22mm
6. Mid mizzen mast to mid main mast 15mm
7. Mid mizzen to bottom of main mast fighting top 12mm
8. Top spar mizzen to mid top of main mast above fighting top 16mm

9. Top spar foremast to tip of bowsprit 36-37mm
10. Mid spar on foremast to mid way bowsprit 27-28mm
11. Bottom spar foremast to black join on bowsprit 13-14mm



To position put a drop of superglue gel on each end of the nylon and using your preferred tweezers place in position as per the diagram. You may need to do this a couple of times if you as clumsy as I am, but once in place leave and allow to set. Using the gel type or glue allows a bit of time to do some minor adjustments.
Try to get the ends attached to the sails in the middle of the sail and those touching the deck or fighting tops also in the middle, however with the fighting tops painted black you can place to the side of mast if you cut too long, don’t worry it will not be noticed on the table.



We are now ready to start on adding the ratlines TBC

[Bligh]

Close the thread until you finish Chris. I can then put it in the "How to" section without having to mess with comments from other people.
Rob.