Pic 98:    The final touch. On a real ship the running rigging would be belayed around the pin in an under-and-over pattern, and the surplus line hung in a loop over the pin's head. That is often impossible to do on a model, as you simply cannot reach the pins well enough to do it and the thread does not bend to scale. So to give the visual effect, I made this jig from thick cardboard with pins hammered through it. It replicates a pinrail: the distance from pin to edge is the same. Take a few inches of thread, loop it back and forth as shown, then tie it off and glue the knot. Then dampen along the edge of the board, so that the threads will retain the curved shape when you remove them. When dry, pull the pins out and remove the loops...