Pic 95:    This is the base of the mizzen mast, and shows how the running rigging is fixed at the pinrails. Technically these are called belaying points. In real life the line would run over and under the top and bottom of the pin in a figure-8 pattern, but this is often impossible to do on a model due to scale or physical access. On this model I found that the pins were too short to do the figure-8 effectively, and in many cases they were simply too unreachable for the operation. Instead I use the technique seen above, feeding the thread through the relevant hole and wedging it in place with a pin. This is easy to do with tweezers, and allows easy adjustments later if needed. (Sometimes the pin can drag the thread through by an extra 2mm or so which can add too much tension, so keep your eyes open). When you add the coils (Pic 98) the trick is effectively covered.

I had drilled the holes rather tight, so had to cut a small flat onto the pins to get them in together with the thread. It's odd but the ship has a vast surplus of belaying points at the front, and a large deficit at the back, especially around the mizzen mast. Some holes have three lines, which seems excessive, so for the final lines I improvised and belayed them at the deck cleats.

Leave the surplus thread for now - if you cut it off, it's virtually impossible to make any alterations later.

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