| To begin with, you may want to make your own cordage using a Ropewalk kit or making your own "Easy Ropewalk" with a variable speed electric drill and eyehooks. You will find "helping hands" are useful for such tasks as putting strops around blocks, but not much help when working on the model itself. A couple of clamps (hemostats) are useful, to attach to the end of a line as a weight to keep it straight while working on it. Tweezers are also useful, and a couple of other tools you can make yourself out of heavy wire - such as coat- hangers, and dowels for handles: · Take 3-inch length of coat hanger wire,, mash one end flat, and file a V in the end -- useful to push ropes; · Take another, mash the end, and drill a small hole through it (like a long sewing needle)-- thread a line through the hole to work it through the rigging; · Take a third, flatten the end, and file a hook on one side -- useful to pull a line through the rigging. Now take a half-inch dowel and cut off 3 three –inch tubes. Drill a hole in one end to accommodate the end of one of your tools. Press fit with wood glue.. Repeat with the remaining two dowel pieces. |