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_SalD_

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Everything posted by _SalD_

  1. _SalD_
    Thomas, I used a 50 - 50 mixture of MinWax natural and golden oak. I didn't want the deck too dark.
  2. _SalD_
    I was a little disappointed in the way I finished the deck and I learned what not to do next time. I drilled all the holes for the treenails prior to staining the deck which in hind sight I don’t think was a good idea. Prior to staining the deck I stained a test strip with holes in it similar to the deck and found that the stain was bleeding into the holes making a dark ring at each hole. To avoid this I filled all the holes with wood filler before staining. There was no bleeding into the holes but the stain was a little blotchy (yes Augie I tried pre-stain this time). I believe it was from not sanding the deck enough to remove all the wood filler that was on the surface. I was a little reluctant to sand too much in fear of sanding through the deck plank but again in hind sight there was plenty of material left to sand. For the treenails I decided to show only the treenails located along the deck beams where I had a butt joint and not at every beam between the bulkheads. I thought it would be too much, not to mention I didn’t want to drill all those holes. The only problem was that after I filled them with wood filler and stained the deck the treenails didn’t show up too well. I may redo them. For the waterway I tried a few different procedures to make the triangular chamfer strip from the 1/16” square stock. There is probably a real simple way of doing this but what I came up with was; first I cut a V-groove in a piece of scrap pine using a V gouge, making the depth of the groove slightly less than the finished shape of the waterway. Next I taped two erasing shields on either side of the groove to avoid sanding into the pine. The shields are 0.1 mm thick. Then I laid the wood strip in the groove and removed the top half using my dremel’s drum sanding attachment. What was left was a nice 1/16” X 1/16” chamfer strip.
  3. _SalD_
    Popeye, what can I say that the others haven't already, very impressive, the map is terrific. And I hope you don't mind but I find it very interesting to look around on your work top. I always find things that help me with my build, for instance the inverted clothes pin, who would have thought, I love it.
  4. _SalD_
    Not a problem Jim. I'll bring it with me on Saturday.
  5. _SalD_
    Thanks Patrick, the Admiral is always making me swab the decks gerty, thank you Jim, I'll see you on Saturday and I will bring the manual. Do you know you can download each chapter from the Model Expo website? They're located under the document tab on the Syren page. Thanks George and welcome aboard. There's always room for another cigar smoker. How about a scotch to go along with it?
  6. _SalD_
    Thanks Thomas, I like how the tapered aft planking came out. I'm glad I did it that way. Thanks Augie and ..."I just leave some DNA.", I'm not going to ask how. And thanks to everyone for all the 'likes'
  7. _SalD_
    The deck planking went surprisingly well. I’m glad I used the tick strips along the bulkheads because they were a big help in keeping the stern planking in line. I’m also glad I the used balsa wood infill between the bulkheads because it gave me something to set the push pins in to hold the planking in place. Nibbing the planks at the bow wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be either. The only problem I discovered after I had installed most of the nibbed plank was that I didn’t pay close enough attention the diagonal length of each nib on corresponding planks, either side of the centerline. This resulted in the flat portion of the nib, on corresponding planks, not starting in the exact location along the margin plank. Lesson learned for next time. Planking in progress Push pins used to hold planking in place Planking complete, not sanded Planking sanded, no finish Aft companion way opening cut out Marking hatch and mast locations This is a little off topic but whenever I do any major home improvement projects, e.g. finishing off the basement, which involves framing walls and installing drywall I have a little habit of hiding a little something in the wall just in case someone in the distance future knocks the wall down. So prior to putting up the last piece of drywall I will put an empty (clean) beer bottle, with a dollar bill and note inside of it, in the wall. To that effect I decided to place a little something in the hull of the ship before finishing the planking. The beer bottle I couldn’t fit but the dollar and note went in okay. Who knows maybe a hundred years from now a budding model ship builder will buy the ship at a thrift shop and find the treasure and note while restoring it to its former glory.
  8. _SalD_
    Very nice carriages Thomas. Where do I put my order in?
  9. _SalD_
    Tom, Stern is looking good. I did something similar with the name on my Phantom but I only used plain paper. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/6582-phantom-by-drwatson-sal-%E2%80%93-model-shipways-completed/page-6#entry223365 And where did you still find floppy discs??
  10. _SalD_
    Very nice Patrick
  11. _SalD_
    Thanks Augie. He's a good guy and he's learning a lot so I think we'll keep him around.
  12. _SalD_
    I decided not to use the laser cut margin plank that was provided with the kit because it would have required quite a bit of sanding to make it fit. I used the remaining 1/16” thick sheet of basswood I use for the cap rail to make the margin plank in one piece. I used a paper template to get the shape of the bulwarks and then traced it onto the wood sheet. It was then cut out, sanded to fit and glued in place. We had one minor glitch with the margin plank when the apprentice carpenter, who was responsible for measuring it's length, appears to have used a tape measure with the first few inches broken off. Subsequently, the margin plank was a little short. Now this shipyard’s owner is very frugal and not wanting to spend the money for new planks decided to install a deck plank at the stern, athwart of the main deck planking to fill the gap. Similar to an edging plank in your hardwood floor. Moving on.... After reviewing some of the build logs here on MSW I decided to place the deck planking similar to what Thomas (Gahm) did on his Syren, that is to follow the bulwarks with the planking toward the stern of the ship. I like how this looks so I thought I would give it a try. I would also like to thank Thomas for giving me a few pointers. I don’t know if this is newbie over design but to help me keep the planks in alignment I pasted little tick strips along each bulkhead marking the location of each plank. Since most of the first four planks on either side of the centerline will be covered by deck furnishings I decided to install each of them in two pieces. The ends of each plank meet at bulkhead ‘D’ where they will be covered by a grating hatch. The planks towards the stern were sanded down to fit the curve of the bulwarks with the aid of a template. All other planks will be installed cut to length per my layout drawing. My planking ‘shop drawing’ to help me keep track of which plank I’m working on and where the butt ends are located.
  13. _SalD_
    Thanks Tom, I appreciate it. and thanks for all the likes.
  14. _SalD_
    Ship is all repainted and ready for the deck.
  15. _SalD_
    Timbers, nice to have another Syren build to follow. I like the foam board idea but I'll have to stay away from the microwave unless I want to risk bodily injury. I also hope the lighting works out for you it will be interesting to see.
  16. _SalD_
    I don't wish to bore you with this but after doing a little more reading on deck planking and downloading and reading through Chuck’s original build log I think I have a path forward on my deck layout. Below are three layouts of different deck patterns. The first is Chuck's layout, the second is a 4 butt shift and the third a 3 butt shift. Treenails between the joints are not shown for clarity. In Chuck’s original build log he uses a three butt shift but uses the bulkheads instead of the ‘actual’ deck beams to space the joints. I believe that’s the same conclusion I came up with after drawing his plank pattern but just didn’t know how to explain it as well. Chuck’s log (star date 2007): I also read a few articles from Practical Shipbuilding, by A. Campbell Holms, on deck joints and in Article 336 it states: Being a structural engineer myself it’s hard for me to ignore rules and specifications (much too anal) so in a round-a-about way, what I’m trying to say is that I’ve decided to use the four butt shift pattern, shown above, for the deck on my model. With the four butt pattern there are not as many joints that will fall off the bulkheads as with the three butt pattern. And in reality with the balsa fillers I have between the bulkheads there will only be four or five joints that won’t have any support beneath them. All that being said, now I have to go and actually do it.
  17. _SalD_
    popeye, just catching up with your build, gorgeous! I also appreciate that you show how you build the pieces, great work.
  18. _SalD_
    STSCM, welcome to the club. I'm finding this model to be a fun build and a challenging one. Good luck.
  19. _SalD_
    Augie, Dirk thanks for the input. Augie your right I forgot to show the treenails at the intermediate bulkheads (lots of holes) and Dirk I didn’t show the cut outs but I should have. I’m still scratching my head over this but I did lay out Chuck’s planking pattern to compare it to the one I did. After I did this I realized (I think) why he did it that way. On the 4 butt shift the butt ends of the planks don’t always fall on the ‘supplied’ bulkheads but in between on the ‘imaginary’ ones. Where as in Chuck’s pattern the butt ends all land on the ‘supplied’ bulkheads. If I use the 4 butt shift I would need to provide supports at the end of the planks where they missed the bulkheads or use and unusually long plank to keep the ends on the bulkheads. So for now, seeing that this is my first deck planking attempt, I’m leaning towards Chuck’s layout but I'm still reading. I also understand Augie’s point that sometimes you can’t go with 100% accuracy at these scales.
  20. _SalD_
    I’m a bit confused, not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last. I’ve been reading up on laying the deck planking from various sources and it appears that the two most common patterns used were the ‘4 butt shift’ or the ‘3 butt shift’ systems. Chuck recommends using the ‘4 butt shift’ in the instruction manual. Now maybe it’s me and I realize that reading a couple of books in no ways makes me and expert on decking, but… the planking layout shown in the manual doesn’t appear to match either the ‘3’ or ‘4’ butt shift pattern above. Depending on which pattern you use, you would have either three or four planks in between repeating butt joints, the manual shows only 2. Using the 4 butt shift pattern above and a plank length of approximately 20 feet I came up with the pattern shown below. I would appreciate any comments, pro or con, or just hit the 'likes' button. Please let me know if I’m totally off base and should keep reading. Thanks
  21. _SalD_
    Finished the inboard planking and gave it a couple coats of paint. I made the cap rail in one piece from a basswood sheet that was 3”x24”x1/16” thick. I used a heavy card stock to trace the top of the bulwarks instead of the wood sheet itself because it was a bit more flexible than the wood and less expensive if I messed it up. I cut the card stock pattern out, traced it on the wood sheet and then cut the rail out with an x-acto knife and sanded smooth. While the cap rail glue was drying I made the 1/16” square molding strips that go along the outboard edge of the cap rail. I pretty much made these strips similar to the smaller molding strips at the stern by using my drafting triangles to hold the strip steady, then scoring the wood with an x-acto knife and then forming the groove with the compass point held in a mechanical pencil. The only difference was that for these strips I borrowed an idea from Richard’s (rtropp) build log and used a small piece of sandpaper folded in half to clean up the groove. Before I start the decking I’m going to repaint everything (where's Earl Scheib when you need him) . The sheer plank, the stern cap rail and the upper wale got pretty beat up while installing the inboard planking and cap rail. Now I know why Dirk recommended not painting the black until everything was installed. Live and learn.
  22. _SalD_
    Thanks Augie. I need to give Dirk credit for the sheaves, if it wasn't for his build log I would have never thought of doing it.
  23. _SalD_
    Started chapter 7 (inboard planking) by thinning the bulwarks to the required thickness. Prior to sanding I placed the fillers strips at the stern per Chuck's instructions and also placed some filler at the bow, as Dirk recommended, to help with placing the planks in the bow. After placing the first 3/16” plank I cut pieces to fit around each sweep. While placing these strips I used a 1/8” spacer to keep all the sweep opening consistent. For the remaining planks I used the pieces left over from the hull planking. Being consistent, I planked over the gun ports and cut them out later. I also made up the two sheaves located at the stern and cut the opening in the planking.
  24. _SalD_
    Robert, I used 1/8" square stock on either side of the sweeps. Much simpler and saves a lot of sanding. I also used a temporary 1/8" square filler between the other two to get the openings consistent, just take it out before the glue sets up.
  25. _SalD_
    Nice job Brian, the grating looks a lot nicer with the edges finished off.

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