fnkershner

So, here's my idea for the fake stanchions. I'm going to try a blend of ideas I've seen. I'm mounting a plank temporarily while I add the stanchions. My thinking is that the strength of wood glue against the bottom and planks should be enough to handle adding the second plank. I'm hoping with only 1 plank to deal with it'll be easier to cut off the bulkheads. Like my hi-tech jig? I'm still not comfortable with the length of the stanchions themselves though. I've read and read, following other build, but I don't seem to understand. Oh well, I can always rip it a part or use wood filler.

Me and my pups feel your loss.
The emptiness of a dear and loyal friend.

I have done some more work on the rudder and the stern section. You definitely have to take your time making the hole for the rudder. I have added the ships name, stern carvings and the quarter badges. The quality of the quarter badges are a bit disappointing but I tried the best I could with what was in the kit. I don't think it's too bad.
When adding the letters and carvings I put the ship in a near vertical position to create a horizontal surface to work on and used the Gorilla wood glue, which gave me plenty of time to fiddle with the locations before the glue set. I avoid CA glue in these cases because of the speed it sets.
I tried a few options ageing the copper but I am not happy with the results so far. I haven't included any photo's of the copper test plate yet.
Here are the photo's.

As promised here is a Picture of the other Jim inspired Jig. And about 1/2 a day of garage cleaning and its back to modeling!!
 
Dang it got cropped. So here is the same picture but rotated.

As promised here is a Picture of the other Jim inspired Jig. And about 1/2 a day of garage cleaning and its back to modeling!!
 
Dang it got cropped. So here is the same picture but rotated.

As promised here is a Picture of the other Jim inspired Jig. And about 1/2 a day of garage cleaning and its back to modeling!!
 
Dang it got cropped. So here is the same picture but rotated.

As promised here is a Picture of the other Jim inspired Jig. And about 1/2 a day of garage cleaning and its back to modeling!!
 
Dang it got cropped. So here is the same picture but rotated.

Hi Doug, 
Not sure if this is helpful but I cut a length, put it in a saucepan and put it on the boil for about a 30 seconds. Then I took it into the shed, got the strip out of the water and slowly rolled it with my thumb over both edges. It broke on the first attempt  because I went too quick but managed to keep it together on my second go.
Peter.

Thanks Jim. I can try that approach. I’ve never tried steam bending as opposed to planking iron (which I suppose comes down to internal steam bending). We even have a small steam cleaner out in the dairy somewhere!

Build a form out of ply, attach one end with a clamp and then apply steam slowly bend and clamp as you go. Works every time even for lateral bends

water line and some color on hull

This is my first kit build. I've dabbled with RC planes for a few years so maybe some of that experience will help me as I come up to speed building ships. I started in late December and kept my build log off-line. I meant to start the log here earlier, but just didn't take the time until now. The dates when I made my first entries are noted as follows.
 
12/27/2017
I purchased the Mamoli Yacht America as my first kit and received it on 12/18/2017. I selected this kit because I think it is a beautiful ship with great lines, and I also thought it would be a reasonable kit to start with as it did not appear to have extensive rigging. I considered selecting the Constructo America kit, but chose to go with Mamoli’s Amrerica kit because Constructo’s kit did not have a jib boom which to me is significant to the lines and the appearance of the ship. I realize that I could have added it, but this being my first kit build, I thought it was best to rely on the contents of the kit and follow the instructions.


I also spent some time on the internet and found ModelShipWorld.com. After reading through the build logs posted by Hamilton, Mojofilter, and Flyer, and then reviewing the documentation provided with the kit, I’m thinking I may have selected the wrong kit maker. I’ll move forward with it and do the best I can. However, as I progress with reviewing the great information I’m finding in this forum and other places on line, and then using some of that information to assess this kit, I have to say I am not impressed with this Mamoli kit. I read about the fire some time back and realize the company is out of business, but I don’t see myself building any other Mamoli kits that are still avilable. Today I saw a new build log started by Greatgalleons that looks to be a good resource. The ModelShipWorld forum is outstanding, especially for us guys who are new to this.
 
12/28/2017
Separated keel and bulkheads. Began reviewing instructions and drawings. Labeled bulkheads.

12/29/2017
I have found an excellent resource on Youtube. Gary Brinker has posted 40 videos of his Model Expo Bluenose build (titled “Bluenose 1” through “Bluenose 40”, averaging about 30 minutes each). These videos have some great discussion and a lot of good info and insights to consider. His ModelExpo kit appears to be far superior in quality and completeness to my Mamoli kit.
 
Completed first dry fit of keel and bulkheads. Forward bulkheads and deck fit was okay, but has some looseness. Rear deck and bulkheads were another matter. The 3 bulkheads closest to stern did not fit well and required trimming. I’m stopping to return to build logs and re-read and re-check photos.

01/01/2018
ModelShipWorld.com appeared to have a server problem and was down for a couple of days. I have not been able to re-read the build logs, but remembered some of Hamilton’s comments. I disassembled the bulkheads and keel and checked each against the drawings. I’m under-whelmed. As I look at the laser cuts, many of them are of very poor precision. For example, the slot in the keel for the second bulkhead back from the bow is not straight on either side.

With the cost of this kit, and the technology of CNC machines today, the quality of these cuts is unacceptable to me. These cuts should be perfectly straight and should be cut to the correct width so that there is no looseness with the bulkheads. Perhaps there needs to be some looseness to adjust the fit, but in reading Hamilton’s build log for this kit, he seems to have reached the same conclusion. Very poor quality in my opinion.
 
I also see the same issues as Hamilton did with the laser cut parts not matching the drawings, leaving one to ponder which is correct. I am assuming Mamoli used a CNC machine, and if so it’s obvious the CNC programming for the laser cuts did not match the drawings provided with the kit. Lining the tip of the bow up on the drawing, the following photos show the poor laser cuts.
 


Hamilton mentioned in his log that he would shim the keel to fill in the gaps per the drawing. The dry fit with the keel, the bulkheads and the deck pieces line up relatively well, they just do not match the drawings. My concern is, where is the inaccuracy and how does this affect the build later on such as when I begin planking the hull? Did they use an entirely different drawing to program the laser cuts? Should I trust the drawings? This kit cost too much for this level of quality, or lack thereof. I’d fire these guys if they worked for me.
 
1/25/2018
This entry to my build log covers several weeks of work. I spent time laying each bulkhead and the keel piece on the drawings to check alignment of the cuts. I found that if I align the stern up exactly on the drawing then the slots for the bulkheads and the masts line up fairly well. However, it shifts the error to the bow as you can see below.

After several dry fits with the deck pieces, it seems that the bulkheads line up very well with the slots in the forward and aft deck pieces. It doesn’t seem that the issue with the bulkhead slots in the keel piece not matching the drawing will have much impact to the overall alignment of the kit. Also, I could spend time shimming the keel piece to fill in the gaps in the picture above, but how much does that change the appearance of the model to the naked eye? I’ll give it some more thought, and might go ahead and shim it up to match the drawing.
 
There was more looseness with the bulkheads than I realized at first, and based on the other build logs I’ve read I decided that I should shim them up to fit better. The problem I realized was that I had no spare or scrap wood since this is my first kit. Also, there is only one hobby shop within 25 miles of where I live, and that shop did not have supplies for ship modeling. They are mainly a RC shop for cars and planes. At this point, I decided I would order a supply of wood and did so from Agesofsail.com (various widths in mm, 0.5 mm thick and 1 mm thick, 36” bundles of 10). It took 7-8 days to receive so I was somewhat dead in the water until then. I’ve now trimmed, sanded, shimmed, etc., all 15 bulkheads and the keel piece, where needed and have a pretty tight fit on all 15 bulkheads. Here is the dry fit with the shimming completed.

Here are the pieces showing some of the shims.

I noted from the other build logs that bulkhead 14 is not cut correctly.

So I am getting to an end of manufacturing the main rail parts.
Using both the plans and yacht I feel I have got a good fit.
After the last part been cut and trimmed, sanding and pre-stain is next before painting.
I worked from Stem and Stern to get my parts correct.

 

 

Thanks Peter.  I spent time today experimenting with the wood I had around here (no bending beech to try out though).
 
I certainly got some better results today using the brief soak and planking iron with SLOW bending - not too slow though as each of these took 2 or 3 minutes
 
The wood in order from the top of the photos are Swiss pear, jatoba, basswood, walnut and cherry.  After bending I clamped them together (hence the variation in size) and left them for a a couple of hours except for the Swiss pear.
 


 
The Swiss pear I clamped to the stern of the Syren and let it sit for a few hours before taking it off for the photos
 

 
I expect the Swiss pear will end up being my stern rail cap.
 

Jim - I have almost finished the other jig for my Chop Saw then it is back to modeling. I will post a picture this weekend. Also cleaning out the shipyard (garage) 

We want to make this CD as accurate and fun as possible but also affordable to everyone. Some of the higher end animations may not run on everyone's computers. We'll have to see how large the files are when finished. But chew on these for now. Denis is a genius!

I talked with Greg and David about an idea I have. I would like to make a program where you would be able to walk around the ship, like in a video game. and I would also like to add a feature where you'd be able to select a single part and rotate and view it from all the angles. but that is a lot of work for a single person and might take a while. also, it would largely depend on how heavy the model will be once it's finished, even optimized. might be unusable in the end, at least on lower end computers :-))
 
but if I'm able to pull that off, it would be a great visualization tool for model builders. no promises but I'll definitely give that a go when I'm done with modeling...

For those of you curious about how an actual rudder was constructed, our resident 3D guru, Denis, has prepared these renderings for our Swan class model. These tabled joints would be very difficult to emulate on model (please give it a go Mark!) and virtually impossible to see unless you could actually visualize both sides of the rudder at the same time. When completed our 3D Swan class ship will offer a more complete (and historically accurate) treatise on contemporary ship building than the AOS series.

 

True that, Danny. Most of the features on the platforms and lower deck are not visible in our finished models. How cool would it be to show the photo below and say "this is what my magazine looks like"?

Denis has been busy building our 3D Swan class ship. It's very exciting when it all comes together, for example the aft platform view below from the main deck (photo below). When paired with The Fully Framed Model series of books I don't believe there will be another more thoroughly researched and illustrated ship model reference available.
 
 

I could tell you Wayne...but then I'd have to kill you! Seriously, our renderings are being done by a very talented individual in Europe. I have no idea what software or computer he uses and wouldn't understand even if he told me. But I honestly can't tell whether the photo below is his rendering or my model.
 

 
 

I know what you mean, Danny. Remember that wicked sternpost and aft rabbet transition? David's illustrations were awesome but how helpful would these photos have been!
 

Admiralty Models has been working with a very talented 3D computer modeler who is building us a Swan class ship model (Pegasus). Besides the exceptional quality of his work, I can see the enormous benefit of a 3D model in showing how all the various pieces fit together. As the model's construction closely follows the actual vessel, it's build may be viewed in sequential layers. Our builder is precisely following the four volume Fully Framed Ship Model series of books, bringing David Antscherl's seminal work to life. In the near future, we will be offering the fully framed and fitted out computer model to those in the process of building a Swan  class model or are contemplating building one. Between the Swan books and computer images I believe we will have the most comprehensive instructions and photos available for  building a fully framed ship model. Stay tuned!

Jim - I have almost finished the other jig for my Chop Saw then it is back to modeling. I will post a picture this weekend. Also cleaning out the shipyard (garage) 

Boy did I have to dig to find my own log. So just a quick update. 
 
First let me bring everyone up to date on my quest for suitable Carronades. I have found USN Carronades on Shapeways.com. I sent a note to the creator and he is recreating them in the correct scale. they only cost $7.43 for 8. There is a shipping charge. but this sounds like the way to go. I should receive my first batch next week. For my own education I continue to try to find a way to do my own printing. I hope I have found the answer. We will see tomorrow.
 
Lately I have been working on building a couple ideas I got from Jim. See the pictures below. This piece of plywood fits perfectly in the drawer to my work station. As you can see I am a proud customer of Syrenshipmodels.com. 
 
More to come soon.