Sail Help

DARIVS ARCHITECTVS said:
This video is what I followed to make my first sails. Sail making is not simple, but that's what sets sailing ship models from all others. It's not impossibly hard, it's time consuming, but worth it. Starching and stretching the sails can be done to simulate the wind filled effect.



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I've used a fabric stiffener spray instead of starch, quick & easy.
 
Billy O said:
Does anybody have a video of simple sail making?
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Within my experience, I find no such thing as a "simple sail". You need to define the size of the sail. the mast/yard on which it is bent, the amount of detail desired, the scale, the cloth to be used, the
amount of sewing detail desired, the type of ship, the degree of detail in the rigging to be affixed to the sail, the sailing conditions - full -and-bye, lashed to the yard, what tack - port or starboard. etc. There are books by the dozen on this subject. You need to study a few to get acquainted with the foregoing.
 
Billy O said:
Does anybody have a video of simple sail making?
Click to expand...
Within my experience, I find no such thing as a "simple sail". You need to define the size of the sail. the mast/yard on which it is bent, the amount of detail desired, the scale, the cloth to be used, the
amount of sewing detail desired, the type of ship, the degree of detail in the rigging to be affixed to the sail, the sailing conditions - full -and-bye, lashed to the yard, what tack - port or starboard. etc. There are books (and chapters in books) by the dozen on this subject. You need to study a few to get acquainted with the foregoing. You also need a good sewing machine, and an accomplished operator (I hire a quilter from a local quilt shop). This is not a difficult skill problem, it is simply a fact that there is A LOT OF DETAIL to remember to account for. Sail making really has very little to do with ship modeling. You build the ship and you build the sails. As a final step you tie them together. Get a book, find a picture of what you need and copy it to scale. If you make a mistake, throw it away. Correcting mistakes will generally take more time than doing it again. There is a learning curve to this. You start at the beginning and lea)rn through mistakes. There is mre to thread than meets the eye), books on cloth (Jo Anns generally is a good place to start learning about thread). Sewing machines are the biggest technical problem; rent, borrow, or hire one; a good machine for sails can cost 15k. Learning to use one is also a time consuming task; generally it takes years. There are also books on thread (it turns out there is more to thread than meets the eye).
 
An interesting thread. Not to hijack it, but the longstanding debate about sails on ship models comes to mind. Traditionalists argue that it is improper to have sails on a model that shows the underbody; sails are only proper on a waterline model. The reasoning is that, in the real world, you can never see both sails and underbody.
 
AndyA said:
An interesting thread. Not to hijack it, but the longstanding debate about sails on ship models comes to mind. Traditionalists argue that it is improper to have sails on a model that shows the underbody; sails are only proper on a waterline model. The reasoning is that, in the real world, you can never see both sails and underbody.
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I can understand that perspective because it is the more traditional style in displaying a ship model, but another idea is that a ship appears complete with all the rigging, sails and hull with everything showing. This is how I chose my first model. It's a matter of preference. The downside is that the sails make it harder to see some of the deck details, but since my model is displayed in a standalone case which you can walk around 360 degrees, that problem is reduced a bit.
 
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