The braces were used to swing the yards laterally, and there is hardly any part of the rigging which has altered so little over a period of thousands of years. For smaller yards the braces were a rope with a seized or spliced eye secured to the yard arm, which was usually led down and aft to the deck.
   On the larger yards a single block was stropped to the yard. This strop the brace pendant -was very short in ancient times and in the early Middle Ages. From the 13th century the brace pendant grew longer and, longer, until the 16th/17th centuries a length of about 4/10 of the yard length was reached. In the course of the 18th century it was shortened again, until around 1800 the block was situated immediately on the yard arm where it was shackled to a ring bolt in the 19th century The braces of the lower yards ran from a ring bolt on the ship's side, then reeved through the brace block, and usually belayed to a range cleat; on the Continent after 1500 it almost always belayed to a staghorn. This applied to all yards until the first half of the 16th century, then later to the main yard. The fore braces were attached to the mainstay after 1525, then reeved through the brace blocks and leading blocks on the main stay, and often belayed to small kevel blocks on the bulwarks until the early 18th century when they belayed to the main bitts.
The top, top gallant and royal braces followed a similar route to the lower braces, except that the topgallant braces were often single, and the royal braces almost always single, as the drawings on the right show. The crossjack braces were frequently attached to the
last pair of main shrouds. The mizen and mizen topgallant braces were either taken to the main shrouds, or to the peak of the mizen lateen yard or the gaff, and from there again to the deck.
   The spritsail braces followed a similar route to the foremast braces. They ran from the fore stay and were taken via leading blocks on the fore stay to a belaying pin on the bow rail of the forecastle, either directly, or via a further pair of leading blocks in the head.
 

In some modelling books it is recommended to furl the lower sails and the spritsails to their yards, or at least to brail them leave the staysails and studding sails out altogether, so that the deck superstructure and the rigging can be seen clearly; otherwise the sails would conceal too much detail. For the same  reason many modellers prefer to leave off the sails altogether. There is good sens, in this advice, but on the other hand much of the fine effect of a ship under full sail is lost if some of the sails are brailed up.
    Now, there is a very simple and effective trick, by means of which the sails -including the stay and studding sails -can be set, whilst still leaving the decks and rigging fully exposed; the trick is simply to swing the yards round to one side.
    On a model with sails furled on the yard, or without sail altogether, the yards should always be at an angle of  90° to the ships' centerline. If you have set sails, this setting of the yards looks rather stolid and boring, and does not look very natural, since the wind would nearly always blow from one side or other to some extent. If you set the yards -and hence the sails -at 15° to a maximum of 35° from the ship's centerline, the effect is not only better visually, but you will also obtain a full and unobstructed view of the decks and rigging, at least from one side.