MD11pilot

Amazon is one of my best friends.  I should own their stock.  I found this set very nice, as it comes with 5 of each size, in a nice case that has plenty of space to label each spot with both metric and english measurements for easy reference,  and you *will* break those little buggers.
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002O0G0ZS?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00

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.
 
 

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.
 
 

Thanks for the suggestion Augie.  I suppose that's a special order item.  I doubt Sears has those bits on the shelf.

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.
 
 

The instructions show the wales painted black at this point.  There really is no problem waiting to paint and stain until a bit later.  You will do some painting after the hull planking is complete.  But, it is very satisfying seeing your treenailing framed by the nice black wales.  For that reason I went ahead and painted the wales.
 
 

Paused the planking to add the tree nailing.  
 
I used the technique used in the instruction manual of drilling holes and filling them with filler.
 
I first tried a 3/64" bit, but that turned out to be too big for my tastes.  A 1/32" bit worked well.  I used a pin vise drill.  I bet a Dremel tool with a flex shaft would have been a lot easier but I couldn't find my extra small chuck adaptor to hold the very small drill bit.
 
 

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.
 
 
 

Floyd, thanks for checking in.  One of the first things I did to get started while waiting for my kit to arrive was to make some of the tools I found here in the Forums.  I thought your idea for the planking clips was brilliant so I made up a bunch of them.  It wont be long now before I can put them to use.

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....
 
 

Sophie deck. My favorite ship model photo. You can see the scribed deck in this shot. The black football shaped objects are the smallest seeds I could find. I hope they never get wet and start to sprout one day since they are all over the rigs of a lot of my ship models! Donald Mcnarry describes using "Lobelia" seeds on his miniatures but I have never had any luck finding them. The cannons have a very slight blue color drybrushed onto them. I was watching a film and the cannons in the movie had a bluish cast to them so I said "why not"? It plays off the red nicely and to me it doesn't leap out at you and offend the eye but at the same time it suggests (to me anyway) the reflectivity of a glossy black surface. The coils of line are deliberately all different shades of grey and pale tan to suggest lines of various age and use.
 
 
.

Canons were made of wood tooth picks. Gun carriages are made of sheet styrene. Trucks were stretched sprue. The pommelion is brass rod inserted in a hole I drilled in the end. The swelling at the muzzle end and the ogee aft the trunion are each made of one turn of wire twisted on the underside. Fortunately there are only 14 of them. At this scale the breaching rope is going to be carpet or button thread.

I wish I had better photo coverage of the intervening stages of this build. I made the sails out of two or three layers of tissue paper that was dipped in Minwax water soluble polyurethane called Pollycrilic which dries fast and transparent. I made forms of clay in the shape of the billowing sails and draped the wet tissue over them. When they hardened they had the belly shape I was after and I painted them and cut them to size and glued them to the model. The inner face of the sails were too smooth since they were in contact with the forms and there were some air bubbles but I disguised them with “patches” of more tissue.  
 
 

With Frank getting back on his feet and Sjors turning his attention to the Spanish fleet, I thought it would be a good time for a small update with some long promised photos.
 
The main and fore lower yards have been completed with the exception of the braces and sheets as I would surely entangle myself if those were in place.  The spaghetti all over the deck are those ropes ready to be deployed later.
 
The main and fore topsail yards have been pinned in place and are ready to be rigged.  We'll set the rigging spiders loose after celebrating the Memorial Day holiday here in the US.
 

 

 

 

 
I gotta tell ya that this rigging is a slow process but I haven't had so much fun since........planking......or was it coppering?
 
 

Standing Rigging
 
In the last week I've added a lot of the standing rigging and started the rat lines. I discovered that I am short several 2.5 and 3.5 mm deadeyes, so I pestered Model Expo and they promised to send more. I the meantime my Syren is a little lopsided, with some shrouds missing on the port side.
 
I experimented with the ratlines and found that clove hitches were a lot of work to tie. But Ship Modeling Simplified by Frank Mastini says that at small scale a simple overhand knot is simpler and neater than a clove hitch, so that's what I used. Here are step-by-step instructions for tying the ratlines.
 

1. Clip some 1/4" graph paper to the shrouds. Micro clips for igniting model rocket engines are great for holding graph paper, loose threads, and rigging deadeyes.
Start with a clove hitch on the left-most shroud, since a clove hitch is self-tightening. Pull the line across the next shroud with your right hand.
Then use your left hand to put some angled tweezers in the "hole" between the next 2 shrouds and the ratline you're working on. Grab the end of the line with the tweezers.
 

2. Use the tweezers to pull the line through the hole, then push it through the loop in the line in your right hand. Here I've already grabbed the end and dropped the tweezers. I wish this picture was a little clearer.
 

3. Ta-da! You have an overhand knot around the next shroud.
 

4. Tighten up the knot, then move on to the next shroud.
When the line is done align everything with the graph paper, then put a drop of medium CA on each knot. Blot quickly with a paper towel, and make sure the graph paper is not stuck in back.
In 15 seconds you can trim the ends of the lines.
When all the lines are done, touch each knot with a black Sharpie marker to cover up shininess from the glue.
 
After my deadeyes arrive I'll try to get some photos of my Syren with some standing rigging in place.
 
 
 

Carl, those are the Draft (or Draught) Marks - a gauge of how much the ship is loaded.
 
Rudder Coat
 
A feature rarely seen on a model is the Rudder Coat - a tarred canvas that prevents water from entering through the helm port.
 
I made it from 1500 thread per inch Egyptian Cotton, which I colored with diluted Walnut wood stain. This was then PVA glued into place - one face at a time allowing each one to dry before proceeding to the next :
 



 
Wedges were used to hold the upper edges in place while the glue dried. The extra will be trimmed off later :
 



 
  Danny

Ahoy Mates
 
Sorry for the delay, BUT
 
As we all know the ladies can take some time to get ready
 
After much deliberation, testing, posts and some beer, well maybe a lot of beer,  I have decided to let the lady show some skin. Many hours of testing only confirmed that for this build “not staining” would be my best move. After wiping down the hull with mineral spirits I found that this “look” suited my lady better then any other.
 
Thank you all for your patience and help on my build. I would have never reached this point alone, “Really” Thank you, (place bowing emoticon here)
 
Back to the build:
 
Using Buck’s suggestion to make patching dust with finer grade sandpaper I came up with Basswood Patch Mk2. The finer dust was collected and then water added. About five times as much as needed. The dust was then allowed to ‘soak’. After which I stirred in a very small amount of PVA glue. Then I put drops on areas I needed to fill. The surface tension used to keep the mixture in place. It usually took three to four applications to fill a small void. 
 
As for the Sanding gala. I used an eraser as my sanding block. It was one of those moments when you look at something completely unrelated to the task and say, Hummm.
 
The finish so far is one coat of “General Finishes” satin Gel Topcoat wipe on Urethane thinned with mineral spirits. I want to paint the wales black and keel tallow, and then I will put on a few more coats of Poly: Oh yes, and a million more treenails
 
Suggestions, comments welcome and “again” thank you MSW

Eric, I think the trick here is not so much which rotary tool but that you use a fine diamond bur with the tool. I have a Proxxon with a flexible shaft. The flex shaft just allows for more precise motion control. And only separate the hinges from their photo etch grid once you are done with the thinning task. It makes for much easier work that way because you have a nice handle!    
 
Thomas