_SalD_

She's got most of her teeth.  Smiling over here.

Just a quick update this time around.
 
The planking of the foredeck has been completed.  The waterways, margin planks and planking are Swiss Pear supplied by Jeff.  Only the port side has been planked to allow viewing the gundeck below.  I used my usual hooked scarph joints where the planking meets the margins:
 

 

 
Next up will be to treenail this deck (drill and fill) and apply the finish before we proceed with additional foredeck details.

Carronade breech rigging.
 
To rig the breech lines I decided to glue all the cannons in place and not do them off the ship, pretty much how it’s described in the manual.  After doing three cannons I came up with a procedure that worked pretty well for me.
 

 
First I made up all the breech lines I needed for the remaining five starboard cannons with a breech ring and eye bolt seized to one end.  At the other end of the line I applied some ca glue to stiffen it up to make it easier to thread through the other rings. Next I glued the breech ring’s eye bolt to the bulwark and threaded the line through the left and center breech rings.  Prior to doing the right side of the cannon I glued the line to the deck on the left hand side of the cannon as Chuck did in his instructions.
 
 
 
On the right side of the cannon I glued the breech ring to the bulwark prior to threading the line through it.  I also slipped a ‘zip-seizing’ onto the line before threading it through the bulwark breech ring.  'Zip-seizing'?, you may ask.  While reading Brian’s (GuntherMT) AVS log I was intrigued with his use of ‘zip-seizing’ and thought I would give it a try and it worked out rather well.  Here’s a link for anyone interested in learning more about it http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8936-zip-ties-yes-or-no-for-seizings/?p=263833.
 

 
Before threading the line through the ‘zip-seizing’ I glued the breech line to the deck. Once the glue was dry I tightened up the line on the breech ring and applied some ca to the seizing.  Threading the line through the ‘zip-seizing’ was a challenge but with a little patience it can be done.  I'm also glad I added the breech rings to the upper sled, it made positioning the breech line much easier.
 

 
Starboard side finished.                                                 Port side done.

Carronade breech rigging.
 
To rig the breech lines I decided to glue all the cannons in place and not do them off the ship, pretty much how it’s described in the manual.  After doing three cannons I came up with a procedure that worked pretty well for me.
 

 
First I made up all the breech lines I needed for the remaining five starboard cannons with a breech ring and eye bolt seized to one end.  At the other end of the line I applied some ca glue to stiffen it up to make it easier to thread through the other rings. Next I glued the breech ring’s eye bolt to the bulwark and threaded the line through the left and center breech rings.  Prior to doing the right side of the cannon I glued the line to the deck on the left hand side of the cannon as Chuck did in his instructions.
 
 
 
On the right side of the cannon I glued the breech ring to the bulwark prior to threading the line through it.  I also slipped a ‘zip-seizing’ onto the line before threading it through the bulwark breech ring.  'Zip-seizing'?, you may ask.  While reading Brian’s (GuntherMT) AVS log I was intrigued with his use of ‘zip-seizing’ and thought I would give it a try and it worked out rather well.  Here’s a link for anyone interested in learning more about it http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8936-zip-ties-yes-or-no-for-seizings/?p=263833.
 

 
Before threading the line through the ‘zip-seizing’ I glued the breech line to the deck. Once the glue was dry I tightened up the line on the breech ring and applied some ca to the seizing.  Threading the line through the ‘zip-seizing’ was a challenge but with a little patience it can be done.  I'm also glad I added the breech rings to the upper sled, it made positioning the breech line much easier.
 

 
Starboard side finished.                                                 Port side done.

Best of luck with the Phantom Edward. It's a lot of fun building this model.

*Stretch* *yawn* *stretch*

After a year of hibernation, I think it is time for this thread to come back to life. Classes have just kicked back off so there is no guarantee for regular updates because classes have been demanding but working in the dry dock has proven to be a stress reliever in the past.

First, I want to make some very belated responses.

Russ, the vellum worked great; I was really happy with how it came out and a year later out in the garage and elements, it is not showing any sign warping or peeling.

Tom and Hamilton, thanks for the nice words. The chainplates were certainly finicky, they were one of the first things I had to fabricate a second time for acceptable results. I do like how they came out the second time though!

Update: 

It took about two days to clear the workbench, get it mildly organized again, and set back up for ship building.

After getting set up, I began working again last night. Most of the work from this first update is work that was completed a year ago so details might be a little scarce. Last night I drilled the #78 holes in the aft deck for the two pumps and an eye bolt that will be used later for tying of a row that will come off of the fife rail. The pumps were some of the previous work but they were cleaned up with needle files and i decided to drill a couple holes in them because they are not supposed to be solid pieces, the results are only okay but they are such small pieces that it's no big deal. They got eyebolt posts installed and then were painted black. Those items are now installed and glued in place.
 

 
With the aft fife rail installed as well.
 


Next, I noticed that the cleat on the fore deck fife rail was missing so I fabricated a new one out of boxwood and just need to glue it in place. The fife rails were made last year and were just cleaned up and then drilled with a #75 or #76 bit for the belaying pins. Chuck said that it would be impossible to drill between the two uprights but I found that to be wrong, not sure why he said they would be so difficult to drill, though mine are a little lopsided so there was some merit to his statement. I like having the extra two pins back there though.
 

Last thing I worked on last night were adding the belaying pins to the navigation lights to be handles, I drilled the holes with a #76 bit and added just a touch of glue to keep them in place. The navigation lights were fabricated following Chuck's recommendation to use paper clips for the posts but my painting job from last year is not very good so I may end up sanding then down and repainting them when I paint in the light colors. I just wanted to confirm which color goes on which side, if I recall correctly, the green good on the right and red on the left but I want to make sure before painting. Any guidance would be appreciated.
 

That's it for this update, it was great to get back to this project and I am going to try to knock out my obligations quickly today so that I can make a little Labor Day progress, stay tuned.

Groggily,

Thank you for the tips gentlemen.  I think I've solved the problem with an excess of wood filler, some re-painting is in order but hopefully this will work.

One thing about this hobby is you get very good at error corrections. I wound up getting very creative in fixing mistakes I made along the way. It keeps the brain from deteriorating. I'm an long time aviator and we used to say "flying is a series of error corrections....the first error you make is taking off...!" The same goes for model ship building.

Edward,
 
Can you post a picture of the damage? Pictures make it easier to give good advise.
 
Without a picture, I can only say that you could use some of the scrap wood that is wider than the bulwark thickness to make the repair. It may be feasible to cut out the bulwark in the damaged area, glue in the scrap wood, and then sans it down until it matches the bulwark thickness. Once complete, I imagine you could just recut the scuppers and move on with the project from where you left off. Just an idea.
 
Regards,

Max,
 
The deck fixtures look terrific.  I like the way you need your bars in the skylight window.  I also like that jig for sanding the wood down, I'll be borrowing that idea. 

Sails look real nice Jesse, I like the flag too.

Good Evening...
 
I got these to 80cm x 120cm magnetic whiteboards today at my work (For FREE)... I immediately thought that i could use them for the plans for my Syren in the Shipyard... Much easier to switch between the different plans... My Shipyard issent that big....    

The planking along the port side was getting a little wonky, so I stopped and remeasured the remaining gaps at each bulkhead and came up with a plank count and width for the planks that will go all the way to the transom. I did end up removing a few planks to redo them with less width in places.The tricky part, I found, was setting the tapering jig to these widths, but I eventually just cut a plank by hand using a straight edge, then used that plank to set the taper jig angle and distance from the saw blade. This worked well and I was able to cut a bunch of planks using the saw. I dry fit all these and adjusted an area that was a bit too wide by sanding each of the planks, then glued them in place.
 

 
Time for some wedges:
 

 
In between planks, I continued working on the hand rails for the stairs to the berth deck. I first blackened the supports I made using Birchwood Casey and they blackened nicely, even in the solder areas.
 

 
I was able to remove the ladder from the hatch with a little tug, then I glued two hand rail supports to the sides of the ladder at an angle, like this picture from the current ship.
 

 

 
I tied some line to the supports and glued the ladder back into place. I then drilled holes in the hatch coaming and glued the two top supports in place.
 

 
When these dried, I tied the lines to them using a little glue to hold the knots.
 

 

 
Now I have to make four more posts for the ladder from the spar deck to the gun deck.
 

Thomas, I thought about doing that but not for very long, nice work, keep it up.

Hi Denis,
 
Thank you, glad you like it,....
I`m not familiar with HO scale metal siding, would be curious to see the result, provided you give it a try..
 
Nils
 
I`m quite happy with the results so far
 

 
cabin walls painted white
 
 

 
working rooms under forecastle deck
 
 

 
the rear side of the walls with hollow rivets and "glassing ends" sticking out will be hidden under the deck afterwards

Small Update... 
 
The Gun port sills is underway... 
 
 
 

Thomas, I thought about doing that but not for very long, nice work, keep it up.

After several weeks of traveling and lots of other projects I finally resumed work on my Syren again. Nothing exciting - I just continued building the carronade sleds. So far I finished drilling the holes for all photo-edged sled parts and mounted them with the 0.4mm rivets from Scale Hardware on the sleds. Images 1 – 4 show the current status.
 
Thomas
 

Image 1
 
 

Image 2
 
 

Image 3
 
 

Image 4
 

Sails look real nice Jesse, I like the flag too.

Sails look real nice Jesse, I like the flag too.

Sails look real nice Jesse, I like the flag too.

Sails look real nice Jesse, I like the flag too.

Sails look real nice Jesse, I like the flag too.

Glued the sails in position. Running all the rigging....
 

Steamahs - a butter delivery system, best served just before lobstah