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Sparrow

Project Planning
The kit planning was done now it’s on to the meat of the plan and actually put ideas on paper.
The box art and my desire to include rigging gave me the idea to set the project at the stairs near the rail at the back of the ship where the elevation changes from the main deck to the poop deck. Yes that is what they call it Poop Deck. Now it was off to research tall ships. The internet is a wonderful place and I found lots of images and write ups on sailing ships. Since I was going to scratch build everything I needed good solid foundations for the entire ship. Since I only had two figures as the main focus of the project I planned on scratching a section of the ship. This composition decision was made to keep the focus of the viewer on the main subject. This is a key component to any vignette or diorama. You don’t want to much ‘dead’ space distracting from the primary thesis. I had these elements I wanted to include in my project:

1. The Figures,
2. A Canon,
3. A Poop Deck,
4. A Portion of Rigging.

The figures are the primary focus, while the canon allows for a bit more size in the project giving balance and room for the other components. So through the use of a secondary focal point I was able to expand the project to include the other elements.

With a keyboard and Google, I set off to get detailed information on the construction of a tall ship. I needed information on things like scale, size, composition, and construction. I knew this project was going to include a bit of creative license on my part. Even with that in mind I feel you need some type of historically accurate reference point. If you go to far from reality it becomes a Sci-Fi/Fantasy project; not what I wanted.

I found a ton of information on the internet and did not have to resort to any hard bound library books. Some of the sites I found include
Admiralty Ship Models
Rigging
Ship Rigging
Man of the Ocean
The Fram
J Christopher Galleries
Replica Guns and Swords
Pirate Weapons
The Guns of the Consitution
MN Historical Society


All of these sites helped me with one piece or another from the pullies to the rope color to the use of metal loops to hold the rigging blocks.

Armed with this picture and text background I have the necessary data to move forward.