The chainplates are flat pieces of wood that run along the sides of the ship and hold the deadeyes in place. The deadeyes are the home for the ratlines and shrouds that extend down from the masts, crosstrees and yards, etc.
On this ship, there won’t be anything rigged to the deadeyes, but it remains important ensure that they are all even and arranged properly for accuracy.
I began by prepping all of the deadeyes and parts (called strops) that will attached everything to the hull of the ship through the chainplates. While my first choice is to blacken all of the photo-etched parts to patina them, it was much more economical and efficient to just spray paint them.
I did however choose to blacken the eyebolts and the nails using a 50/50 mixture of Bluejacket’s solution and water. The nails ended up darkening very nicely, but the eyebolts are sketchy at best. They’ll all require some touchups once everything is mounted.
Assembly involves removing the trim on the side of the hull, mounting the chainplate, then fitting each deadeye into the grooves of the chainplate. The deadeyes are then held into place and braced with a series of “strops” – metal strips that extend to the hull and then are secured with nails.
Care must be taken to ensure that the deadeyes, strops, and nails are all placed evenly and consistent angles. Normally – the angles of the mounts would line up with the angles of the ratlines and shrouds as they extend down from the masts. However, in this case – there are now rigging lines as reference, so I lined them up as evenly as possible based primarily on aesthetic.
The Lehman Shipyard 