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Deck of a part-built model showing the companionway, cannon and standing rigging

Model Ship Rigging for Beginners — Line, Cable, and Where to Start

Rigging is where a model ship comes alive — and where a lot of builds stall. This is the plain-English version: what the lines are called, which ones matter most, and how to make your own consistent cordage instead of fighting flat thread.

Standing rigging vs running rigging

  • Standing rigging holds the masts up: shrouds, stays, backstays. It's static and usually the thicker line.
  • Running rigging moves things: lifts, braces, sheets, halyards, ratlines. Finer, and there's a lot of it.

You'll make far more standing rigging than running, and it's where consistent thickness shows most.

The names you'll hear

  • Rigging line: the general term for the cordage. On a model it spans fine lifts to heavy shrouds.
  • Anchor cable / hawser: the thick rope the anchor hangs from. The biggest single line on the ship — make it clearly heavier than everything else.
  • Shrouds: the side supports of a mast. Multiple, parallel, evenly spaced.
  • Stays: fore-and-aft supports. Typically a touch finer than shrouds.
  • Ratlines: the little cross ropes on the shrouds you'd "climb." Very fine.

A sane order of work

  1. Plan the thicknesses from your drawing before you touch thread.
  2. Make the rope in batches by size.
  3. Fit standing rigging first (shrouds, stays), then running.
  4. Add ratlines last — they're fiddly and you don't want to disturb them.

Why make your own line

Bought "rigging cord" comes in fixed sizes and often looks too perfect — more toy than tall ship. Twisting your own on a rope-making machine gives you a real helix, a true round section, and any thickness your plan asks for, from ratline-fine to anchor-cable-thick, all from one tool. It's also cheaper: plain thread by the spool beats specialty cord by the metre.

Don't over-think the first ship

Pick one scale (1:72 is forgiving), make three line sizes (thick / medium / fine), and rig to the plan. Uniformity beats ambition — a ship with consistent line in three sensible sizes looks more "right" than one with twelve slightly different cords.

The RopeMaster 4000 covers that whole range from a single machine; the DIY kit is there if you'd rather build it yourself. See both in the shop.