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Special Lightning Sailboat

Sir
MM2CVS9 said:
Well, even though I have 5 builds on the bench already, I took on another one. A fellow bought a Dumas kit of the Lightning out of town. When he returned home, he went to the LHS to find a builder for the kit. The in house builder there was not interested in doing it, so he contacted Rod at the model club. Rod really builds gold medal winning ships that look like wood, but they are all plastic. He wasn't interested either. He asked if I would be interested (I felt good that he thought I was a good enough builder to recommend) and if so to contact "Q" at the LHS to follow up on it, which I did. He put the guy in touch with me, we talked and the upshot is that I was hired to do the build. I'm getting paid to do what I love to do! :yipee We'll see how I feel about that later. Nothing like a little pressure!

It is a 1:12 scale Dumas kit, and like all wood "kits", it is more a box of materials than a kit. I've done several of the Midwest kits (they have recently stopped making kits) and this one is similar. It has a 24 page manual with 9 pages of drawings, a 24" X 36" sheet of full size drawings, the wood, mostly mahogany and basswood, and a few do-da's of hardware, wire, brass tube and wire, some string for rigging. The rigging, eyebolts and stuff I'll replace with something I like better.

In talking to the client, the boat is the same as one owned by his dad. His dad sold it to a fellow from Traverse City MI, who promptly sunk it in Grand Traverse Bay. As he wants it to be that boat, I'll meet with him in a week or so to pick out paint color for the hull, color of the masts and spars, and pick his memory about stuff like the rigging color, trim and other stuff. He wants it to be a waterline model, so I'll have to reinforce the frames do I can cut off the hull to the waterline. It will have no sails, but will have standing and running rigging.

The real boats, there were over 11,000 of them built, were 19' long, 6' - 6" beam, 15'-3" long at the waterline with a sail area of 177 square feet. Most of them were built of wood, but the more modern one's were fiberglass. All of them were painted to the wishes of the owner. This one will be grey, selected by the client. There are sailing clubs and groups all over that have annual regattas and races for these boats.

The kit;














Meantime, I'll keep picking away on my fleet oiler build and the fleet of wood rowboats.
Click to expand...
Sir,

Your attention to detail and clean rendering of your efforts is humbling. You set the bar. In fact, I'm going to re - rig mine based on your efforts here.

But, I have questions, if you don't mind:
  1. What did you settle on for sail material? Even the cover?
  2. Did you do the sewing?
  3. What size/type if line did you use for running rigging?
Thanks and congratulations on finishing her, despite the 3 year gap.
 
JRGlasoe said:
Sir,

Your attention to detail and clean rendering of your efforts is humbling. You set the bar. In fact, I'm going to re - rig mine based on your efforts here.

But, I have questions, if you don't mind:
  1. What did you settle on for sail material? Even the cover?
  2. Did you do the sewing?
  3. What size/type if line did you use for running rigging?
Thanks and congratulations on finishing her, despite the 3 year gap.
Click to expand...

First -
Welcome aboard Modeler's Alliance
This is a friendly place and a source of assistance and constructive comments. Great bunch of guys.

I'm really still not quite finished yet. Still have the main boom rigging and some "look busy do-da's" to do. Thanks for your post and comments. Maybe it'll get me to actually finish this baby. It does take up quite a bit of real-estate on the bench.

The client that brought me this job (see post #27) had brought an old cotton bedsheet that was his dad's. It had a tiny monogram in one corner the he wanted incorporated in the build. I'm not very knowledgeable about small boat rigging. I looked at the sail material that came with the kit, also some stuff called silkspan, but it was kinda stiff and I couldn't make it look realistic. That's when I decided to do her at dockside. It just seemed simpler to me.

I cut the sails, sail cover and jib sail bag all from the bed sheet material. The boom actually has a sail attached and to the main sail rigging, with the cover lashed over it. I tried sewing the hems as I'm quite competent with a sewing machine, but I couldn't get the stitches small enough to look in scale to me. So, any stitching or hems were done by folding the fabric on itself about an 1/8th of an inch and gluing it with Aileen's Tacky Glue, although any white glue that stays a bit flexible after drying would work. The hems don't show anyway with the sails stowed.

The rigging line is;
The wire rope I used for the standing rigging is from Art Wox, #AW60012. About .80mm. I ordered it from BNA Model in Australia. It looked a lot better than the picture hanging wire I was gonna use. This rigging could also be the string type too. My boat depicts one built in the transition period when Lightning's were changing from wood hulls, wood masts and spars, rope rigging to fiberglass hulls, aluminum masts and spars and stainless standing rigging and synthetic rope running rigging. You have lots of discretion here to be creative.
The "rope" running rigging is mostly tan from Syren, .018 dia. But, in reality, boat owners often changed worn ropes as needed, so the colors varied as well as changed from natural fibers to the more updated synthetic fibers. So, I'm using other stuff from Bluejacket and my stash in different diameters and colors to hopefully, look more realistic. Whatever looks good to my eye. I used die cast cleats from Ages of Sail and Bluejacket, painted with Molitow liquid chrome to appear like chrome plated brass fittings. Drilled a tiny hole in the base, inserted a short brass pin to fit in a matching hole in the deck to make them solidly anchored. Didn't want them popping loose when I was messing with the rigging ropes.

Thanks again for your comments. Please post your work here on the forum, we'd like to see it.
By the way, it's EJ, not Sir. Sir was my dad, I'm only 78. :) :drunksailor:

EJ
 
EJ,

Thank You! Finding your post gave me hope. A simple Google search found nothing about building Lightnings. It was sheer luck finding your posts; its the joy and frustration of web searching.

I've posted an introduction along with pictures of my efforts to date.

These are my starter boats. I've learned a great deal about my problem solving skill sets, patience and ability to delay and not rush to my enjoyment of the end result and what I need to learn to get better.

Ordering new supplies now and will document my progress.

Re Sir. LOL. Sorry.... Its a holdover from living and working in San Diego and Coronado. I had former captains for bosses. It was just smoother to assume the honorific and it besides, with those guys, it just brought on good will. They could be tough sonsofbitches!

Yours, Jon
 
You're right. Apparently, the data on Lightnings is a well guarded secret. A set of plans and licensing for one starts at about $50.00 from the Lightning Association. I tried to contact them for info and never once got a reply. Most pictures on the internet are taken so far away that rigging details are difficult to discern. I was fortunate to find one on a local lake and the owner was kind enough to show me his boat and discuss it with me. My model is loosely patterned after his boat. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera with me that day, so only was able to take some notes and file some pictures away in my head.

EJ
 
JRGlasoe said:
. A simple Google search found nothing about building Lightnings. It was sheer luck finding your posts; its the joy and frustration of web searching.
Click to expand...
As your friendly IT guy here, is that how you found our little forum? Searching for Lightning boats or something?
 

(moon puppy​

As your friendly IT guy here, is that how you found our little forum? Searching for Lightning boats or something?)

No, I've been a member for a few years. A friend, you might remember him, Hippy Ed, coaxed me to the site from a different site. He passed away 3 or 4 years ago.

(Wow, what luck. Find a boat owner willing to talk about his boat... :rotf)

Yeah, kinda like asking an old Navy guy about ships, right?

EJ
 
Guys, I found the site by searching for Lightning builds. Nothing came up. After I stared searching for more kits/models, then I stumbled upon images of EJ's. The world unfolded from there.... I am a bit confused about the organization of information. But knowing forums like these, it'd be impossible to catelogue it in a more straight forward way so I took the advice if the moderator- reach out and ask.
 
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