MD11pilot

Cap rail and "fashion pieces" added.  Like most folks, it took a couple tries to get the cap rail right.  
 

 

I wanted to add beading to the moulding strips, as pictured in Chuck's instructions.  I tried to create the bead on the strips freehand, but just couldn't get a straight line.  My stylus would follow the grain and drift off the centerline ruining the piece.  So I made a very simple jig out of scrap material.
 
It's nothing more than a couple pieces of planking glued on top of plywood creating a channel just wide enough for the the moulding strip.  I predrilled a hole to tightly hold a T-pin just poking thru the center of the channel.  By pulling the strips thru this jig I was able to get a decent beading effect.
 

 
Adding the moulding to the transom...
 

 

The transom is thinned down to proper thickness.
 

 

Okay, I admit it - I'm really lousy at keeping my log up to date.  So here's some catching up...
 
After completing the exterior planking, I paused for a couple days just looking at the ship and taking stock.  Unfortunately, I didn't like what I saw.  Specifically, the treenailing was garish.  Too big, and too dark.  So I made the decision to paint the planking yellow ochre, thereby covering up my mistake.  I actually like it painted, even though that was not my original intent.  The treenailing faintly shows thru the paint giving a nice effect in my opinion.
 

 

 

I painted above the waterline, actually going about 1/8" below the line to make sure there were no uncovered areas when the coppering reached this area.
 
I was cheap and used regular masking tape.  I tried my best to get good adherence with the tape but still had some bleeding under the tape.  That's not a big deal on the hull where it will be covered with copper, but it's a really big deal when it bleeds on to the planking around the gun ports.  That ended up costing me extra time doing extra sanding.  I've read about good results using Tamiya masking tape on other building logs.  Probably a good investment.
 
And that brings me up to date.
 
 

So far, I've been building on top of my "DeskMate".  But to draw the waterline, I finally had to put together a building board.  I also used some scrap MDF to make my waterline marking jig borrowing ideas from the many samples on the website.
 
 

Adding the stern post….
 

Hull planking complete.  I learned quite a bit.  Even tried a couple stealers.  Now just need to do a lot of sanding.
 
 

Planking nearing completion.
Even though the hull will be covered with copper, I am trying my best to do a decent job of the planking as a learning exercise for future projects.  
 
 

Here's where it got interesting for a new guy -- the mysterious world of planking the hull.  
I don't have a lot to add to the instructions and the excellent build logs of the experienced folks.
I would like to hear from others on their techniques for clamping the planks.  I found the "binder clip" plank holders a great help at the beginning, but needed other methods when the hull got "curvy" or the balsa blocking got in the way.
Here's a pic of a few ways I found to clamp the planking with appropriate inward and downward pressure.
 

 
The binder clip upside down
A small binder clip with a piece of planking
A piece of scrap wood pulled down snugly with a rubber band
T-pins are useful in some situations

Then moved on to more planking and the addition of the wales.
 

Stern planking was pretty easy compared to other sections.
 

...and if she doesn't have a good side you can always claim you were going for the "post-Trafalgar" look.

Been out of town a lot lately so the build is progressing at a snails pace.  Before I left I was able to finish the stern framing.  Seems like a simple step, but had it's own little challenges.  Getting those gun port sills and lintels level fore-aft as well as side to side on the steeply sloping stern frames was tricky.  Plus, the lintels are not directly over the sills, so getting the required spacing was an unexpected problem.  I clamped a piece of wood across the back of the stern level with the sills which allowed me to use those gun port spacers I made earlier.
 

 
Then it was off to work......
Had a nice layover in San Francisco.  I always stop by the Balclutha.  It's a giant iron monstrosity of a sailing ship but still fun to look at.  I spent a lot more time staring at the rigging now that I'm into this hobby.
 
And who could go to San Fran without getting some seafood and sour-dough bread.  It's even better to have them at the same time!
 


 
Back home after a couple weeks.  Time to get to work. 
Next step is to establish the proper line for the uppermost wale plank.  I first pinned a batten following the reference marks on the bulkheads.  Since I'm new to this and have very little personal opinion on how things "should" look I could find no reason to stray from that line.  It looked pretty good to me.  So the wale planks went on, and I got to work on the gun port planking. 
Chuck makes a couple of statements in the instructions about each plank being a little project, and if you're not satisfied with a plank, throw it out and try again.  Now I know what he means.  Each plank on the second row will usually touch four or five gun or sweep ports.  Cutting the notches is precision work and if you mess up one of the notches, the whole plank is ruined.  One of those first planks took me five attempts.  I almost threw the whole damn model in the trash.  But you do get better, quicker, and more precise on each plank.  So, If you're a newbie like me, have faith and do NOT throw the model out the window.  For no particular reason I started on the starboard side.  I should do all my "firsts" on this side -- planking, coppering, rigging, etc.  I have a feeling this ship is going to have one side that looks much better than the other!
 

 
Starboard gun port planking on and a light first sanding.
 

 
Port side planking in progress.  I expect it will go much quicker.

Sanding the sill and lintels to match the bulwarks.  I started with the big sander.  It takes off wood in a scary hurry, so I had to use a light touch.  One slip and I'd be rebuilding big sections.  I got away with it.
 

 
Back to sanding blocks and files to do the inside curve.
 

 
Trying to get the "graceful" curve.  Satisfied so far.
 

 
The tops of the sweep ports need to be 1/8" above the sills, so I made these little spacers to help make the job easier.  The little tail on the spacers helps keep the spacer in place and makes sure I don't accidentally place the spacer in place with the wrong side facing up.
 
 
 

Making a little progress after getting back in town from a trip.
 
After attaching the keel and knees and letting the whole thing sit in the DeskMate for a couple of days, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the BF warp was completely gone.


 
 
Now time to add the bulkheads.  I found one that was missing a sizable portion of the middle ply and the bulwark extension was hanging by just a thread of the outer ply.  The picture is not so good, but you get the idea....
 

 
What to do, what to do?  I braced the bulkhead  and shot it full of expanding foam.  After it cured, I carved off the excess foam and hardened the exposed surface of the foam with some glue.  Came out pretty good I think.  Was a lot easier than trying to carve wood to fit exactly in the hole.
 

 

 
Gluing in the bulkheads trying to be very precise with alignment....
 

 

 
It is no secret that the bulwark extensions on the bulkheads are fragile.  But, in my kit, they were extra flimsy.  I think the laser cutter was set too hot.  Instead of making a nice little line on the surface of the wood, the reference lines burned thru the first ply and, in some cases, half way thru the center core.  You can see how that would make them even easier to break than normal.  I think I probably broke off half of them at one point or another.  If you're getting ready to start your own Syren, you may want to dab some CA on these reference marks before you remove the bulkheads from the plywood sheets.
Has anyone else had this problem, or was I just the lucky one?
 

 
Out into the garage for the next step.  Going to make lots of sawdust cutting and fitting the filler blocks.
 
Used balsa filler blocks to stiffen things up.  Shaped and sanded the filler blocks to match the bulkheads. 
 
Used a drum sander on a drill press to do the initial shaping/faring of the bulkheads. 
 

 
Back inside to start working on the gun port framing.  Used a batten and the gun port template to find a nice line across the hull.  Turns out the reference lines on my kit were dang close.  My line never varied by more than 1/32" from the reference marks.  This step is just a lot of cutting, trimming, sanding, and gluing.  Kind of relaxing.  I found that Binder clips really helped with the sills.  After dry fitting, the binder clips make a nice little shelf to sit the sill on when gluing it in and help to keep the sills nice and level.
 

 
To make it easier to install the lintels, I made little 15/32" spacers.
 

 
Now I didn't have to worry about measuring anything.  Just sit the lintels on the spacers for perfect parallel installation.
 

 
Now it's back out into the garage to sand the framing down to match the bulwarks....
 
 

Chapter one:
Clamped the BF into a desktop "Workmate" to straighten a slight warp.  Soaked and formed the rabbet strip.  Glued it on the next day.  I'm using "Gorilla" brand wood glue.  I like it.  It "grabs" rapidly and is tough stuff.
 
Cut in the taper to the rabbet.  It gets interesting at the aft end where the taper area is large - the grain of the different layers of ply want to fight your blade.  But with a combination of a wide blade X-acto, a chisel, and sandpaper, I got 'er done.
 
Tapered the fore end of the stem.  Added the stem knee and keel as one step.  I purchased a small bucket of assorted binder clips.  Glad I did.  I'm finding them very useful.
 

Hi all.
 
Yup, another Syren.  It's popular for good reason - a quality kit, Chuck's detailed instruction set, lots of Forum support, and it's a gorgeous little ship.
 
This is my first ship model.  Yes, I know, it's too ambitious for a first build.  But I've been a hobbyist, woodworker, do-it-your-selfer all my life so I thought I'd dive into the deep end.  If I want to learn the entire skill set needed for my ultimate dream boat, the Surprise, then I need to practice on a ship that has all the same elements.
Feel free to chime in if you see me heading in the wrong direction.  I don't plan to stray from Chucks practicum, so hopefully I wont make any irreparable errors.
 
While waiting for the Syren to arrive, I set up shop in the basement using an old computer hutch as my work station.  Gathered all my hobby tools and purchased a few more.  Found some great ideas for planking clips on other folks logs, so I made some of those too.
 
The kit arrived in fine shape - good packaging by Model Expo.
Initial impressions very good.  The hardware kit is very complete.  Glad to see the bags of blocks/deadeyes - thought I was going to have to make all of 'em.  Back in the day, I built RC airplanes just when laser cutting was coming on the scene.  It has come a long way.  The laser cut parts in this kit are very precise and crisp.
 
So after a cursory inventory of all the included parts and a day of reading through the manual it's finally time to start making dust......
 
Eric
 

The Interior of the transom is planked and painted.
 

The transom is thinned down to proper thickness.
 

 

Okay, I admit it - I'm really lousy at keeping my log up to date.  So here's some catching up...
 
After completing the exterior planking, I paused for a couple days just looking at the ship and taking stock.  Unfortunately, I didn't like what I saw.  Specifically, the treenailing was garish.  Too big, and too dark.  So I made the decision to paint the planking yellow ochre, thereby covering up my mistake.  I actually like it painted, even though that was not my original intent.  The treenailing faintly shows thru the paint giving a nice effect in my opinion.
 

 

 

The planking on the foredeck has been completed with the addition of the treenails (drill and fill method) and the finish applied.  The belfrey and it's railing have also been completed.  I left this mostly in natural finish to complement the similar railing on the quarterdeck.  Here are a couple of views:
 

 

 

 
Now it's easy to see the alternating open decking areas fore/aft.
 
Next shall be the fabrication/installation of some head timbers and the catheads.  The cats are quite large and require some 'surgery' to install so I'll be moving slowly ---- only get one shot at this.  Cutting slots in the finished hull is not my forte.
 
 
 
 

Thank you Glakie and CaptainSteve, and thank you for all the likes!
 
I found specifically Tamiya masking tape a very useful tool, and not only for covering up areas when painting a part of the model. It sticks well to pretty much any surface, you can nicely write on it with a pen, it is pretty transparent, and it peels off easily. So it is perfect for marking things on the model without leaving any permanent traces.
 
Thomas

Nice work using the tape for alignment of the deck-rings Thomas.  She's looking splendid! 

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