MD11pilot

Your framing looks very good! The more effort you put in the initial framing the easier it will be later on with finishing the hull . . . especially the gun ports and the fit of the guns with regards to the gun ports.
 
Thomas

I started with the lids for the sweep and gun ports (still chapter 9 . . . I have the feeling I am stuck for ever in this chapter  ). In comparison to the plans the photo etched horse shoe hinges for the sweep port lids seemed a bit too thick and too triangular shaped . . . so I thinned them out and got the shape “more horse shoe like”.
 

 
 
I also experimented with changing the eye-bolt simulation on the gun ports to the real thing. The trick here obviously is to stay within scale and not to end up with rings which are too large. But I think my first prototypes (3 black eye-bolt ring combinations mounted on the little wood stick as compared to the not painted brass eye-bolt simulation) got close enough.
 

 
 
The next 2 images show my first set of gun port lids and how they (test) fit into the gun ports as well as the finished and mounted sweep port lids. As it is the case with most of  the Syren models I also will finally mount the gun port lids in the open position.
 

 

The yards looked really good on a paper towel.  They look fantastic suspended on the masts!  Keep the pics coming, Augie.  Those of us that are far back in your wake appreciate the motivation.

OK, time for a proper (Sjors approved) update.
 
As reported, the main and fore lower yards are now in place.  I've added the brace pendants, trusses and lanyards between the thimbles .
 

 

 
Here's what's really fun about this kit (thanks to Chuck).  When you put in a thimble, block or sheave way back on page 6 [without any concept of why you're doing it], when you get to page 116 and go looking for that item, it's already there!!!!!!  Really folks, these plans/instructions are the greatest thing since sliced bread.
 
In addition, the inboard main couse sheets and braces have been fixed to the bulwarks with about a mile of line waiting to be attached later (see above). 
 

 
We've just hit 1300 hours into  the build, adhering to my motto 'I may not be any good, but I am slow'. 
 
Will be finishing up jeers, lifts, leech/buntlines before moving on to the topsail yards.  Between shoveling snow, planting tomatoes (unusual, but this is Colorado) and an upcoming family visit we may be somewhat becalmed here.  But there's always time to do something.
 
All stay well.
 
 
 

If you want to know my secret to a flawless paint job, it is this, take any picture of your boat in dim light  .
 
Brian

This thread is for shortcuts to programmes of interest
 
Please drop a shortcut to a programme and the title of the programme to which it refers
 
 
The first one is The Ghosts of the Mary Rose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCmuMQLBoog
 
Battle Stations - H.M.S. Victory
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRXgMcyWcFU

I was also curious what a carronade would look like. Below is my first prototype.
 
Views of carronade prototype

 
. . . and how it fits into the gun ports

Hey, someone noticed! 
 
With all the recent international saber rattling about who has the most firepower, I decided it was time to replace the Sopwith Pup aircraft with her one (1) 7.9mm machine gun with something a little more potent.  Sjors 174 gun double decker thingy convinced me!
 
So here's an upgrade to 9 guns.  All 16" with a range of 20 nautical miles carried on a stable platform capable of 33 knots.  Oh yeah, there are another 120 'small' guns.  She's BB-55, the USS North Carolina, lead battleship in her class which is the class prior to the Iowas.  If you're ever in Wilmington, NC don't miss her.  I promise you that even for we lovers of the age of sail, she is impressive.

Haha.  Yes, the lesser side is the 'wall side'.  Here's the rub---- no sooner you set it up that way, your Admiral will insist she looks better going the other way.  Don't ask me how I know this  

I think everyone gets to the point that there is a preferred side of the ship.

Welcome back to the yard.  Looking really good.  Now we don't want to hear of anymore ship tossing

This is the rebuilt of my built log of the Mare Nostrum, which I completed.
The pictures of the start of the built are missing, so I inserted the pics of the instruction sheet to show the start.
 
Trust the pictures are self explanatory, since I will only publish the pictures, not the comments.
 
Regards
John
 
 
 
 

I have to tell all of you I just can't wait to get up in the morning and read the latest new posts. This such a fantastic group. Wonderful builds, great kits. Makes it hard to go to work. Nice work Thomas, you should take credit for the excellent job. But I also agree with you Chuck should also take credit for his work. He has done this hobby a world of good.

So Gil is Far Out ready for the parade? This is your last weekend.
 
For those on this forum who do not know. Next weekend is Opening Day for boating here in the Puget Sound. There is a big celebration which includes a parade of boats on the water. Gil's boat "Far Out" has been the lead boat for the parade for a number of years. He hosts many dignitaries as they cruise from one lake to the other. I mention all of this because I suspect the Victory is going to take a back seat for a bit.

This is a text that was published by Gerald Spalgo on the former forum.  He is one of the very best "weatherers" I know, next to an excellent model builder.
 
Weathering With Pastels:

I still haven’t got this all figured out yet, but I thought I’d share what I have learned so far so anyone interested can have a place to start from.

I’m going to repeat something that I’ve said before, to start this out. Ship Modeling is just an ongoing learning process that one has to be persistent with. You can't learn any other way, than to just do it. You are your on best teacher, and critic. No amount of reading will give you the same type of know-how that first hand experience will give you. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you have an idea or if there is a technique that you see some one else using that you would really like to try, then try it. I know ship model kits are expensive and no one wants to miss them up, but it's just wood, its forgiving to mistakes and it can be replaced if need be. After all you had no idea, just like me, how to even build a ship model until we tried it. So know that we know or are at least learning, it's time to up the skills needed to build even better models, and failures & successes will come, but hey , that's the fun in it. If your not having fun at it anymore, then it has become a job instead of a hobby. Making mistakes is not something that I'm afraid of, cause I know for a fact that I'm going to make them, but when I put a picture on this forum or in the gallery I want it to look the best that I'm capable of doing. Once you learn this, the better you will allow yourself to be.


The pastels that I’m using right now are Earth Tone-Soft Pastels. There are many shades of colors that can be used. I do not have all of them yet, but I will later on. There are also weathering powders that could be used, but I haven’t tried them so I don’t know how well they will work yet. These powders can be bought through Micro-Mark, and are called Doc O’Brien’s Weathering Powders. I also use three old paintbrushes to apply it with. Two of the brushes are a size 3, 1 soft & 1 stiff; the other is a small 3/0 size brush. Plus a soft-bristled toothbrush and a 1/8” round deer-foot paintbrush (for spots to small for the toothbrush. As far as the clear coat that I use, it is “Krylon’s” Clear Matte Finish. It works very well for this.

First off, try to imagine what something would truly look like if you were standing right there next to it. Now keep in mind how old these ships are. Some of you will have an advantage in this, as you have actually been aboard a ship or two. The rest of us will have to rely on photos and imagination. My deck on the Charles Morgan was first stained with Drift-Wood Stain and allowed to dry, 2 light coats, and then lightly steel-wooled. I used a medium shade of brown to cover the whole deck, then brushed it out with the toothbrush until it was even through out. I then used a shade that is almost orange and applied it down the middle length of each plank; then again I used the toothbrush and lightly blended the two together. Careful, blend only enough to get a smooth contrasting flow from one color to the next, too much and it will disappear into one color. Then I used a dark shade of brown and applied it to all the edges (of everything), and blended this the same way. I then sprayed two light coats of the matte finish on the surface to keep it from smudging. Now as I add more structures and pieces to the deck I continue to add the dark brown pastel to the edges of them. When finished I will need to give everything another coat of spray. That is how I did the deck.

Metal parts I paint flat black first, then I use the dark red shades to simulate rust, blow the excess off then use black pastel to soften the rusty look. The black pastel will leave a flatter, darker black than the paint is.
The top of the workbench, and the sideboards of the tryworks were painted primer gray, then black pastel applied over the primer.

Points to remember are for one never allow the unprotected pastel to get wet, it’ll turn into a wash and soak into the wood, so be very careful especially when blowing off the excess pastel dust (you know what I mean). Secondly, I’m only weathering used and working parts right now; I think too much will end up ruining the ship instead of making it look better. So, what ever is painted is the way those will stay. This is what I know so far. One thing I am going to try, is to get that greenish-blue effect on the top few rows of copper plates, but that will come later. The tryworks was weathered differently, so I won’t put that in this post, as it is long enough as is, and I used something other than pastels to do this.

Practice, and if you achieve something that I haven’t yet then post it along with the rest of this, so we can put together our own weathering techniques.
_________________
Gerald Spargo

Masts, Tops, and Top Masts Complete

15 weeks, 301 man-hours
 
The Syren has gotten much taller too! The masts aren't actually attached yet but they will be soon. I better build and attach the final base to the model before I attach the masts.
 

It took 19 hours to build the masts, tops, and top masts.
 
The 1/16" tape that came with the model did not stick very well, so I bought a roll of 1/16" flat black graphic tape made by Chartpak at a local art supply store. It sticks very well, but I coated the mast bands with some diluted white glue just to be sure.
 

I like this overhead view. In real life the cross trees would be about 75 feet above the deck. I have climbed about 40 feet up some big spruce trees in my back yard to trim branches, and it was terrifying! Imagine hauling sails this far above the deck in rough weather.

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....
 
 

I found this on the web a couple years ago.  Be sure to test it first.
 
Bob
 
Tannic acid does not produce a blue black color - that is a combination of tannic and ferrous acetate. Ferrous sulfate
I have being toying with either painting or staining the oar because I didn't care for the finish. Then I saw a pin titled "how to make new wood look old" from Frugal Farm House Design blog and I thought I'd give that a try. She gives an awesome step by step with photos to see it go here. I will just tell ya the basics.

Step one: take some steel wool and put in a jar and cover with vinegar. Let it sit at least 24 hours, the longer the better. (I expected the vinegar mixture to turn black or something but it didn't.)

after 24 hours

Step two: make a strong cup of tea. I used Chai. brush the tea on the wood and let dry.

Step three: brush on the vinegar mixture.
 

 
The before pic above is after the tea was brushed on & it was still wet.

I expected it to happen instantly and it didn't. I walked away and came back an hour later and it had worked.
 
 
 

Bring present build outside, secure it someplace safe, leaving it to the elements. Start second build, when finished planking, switch and finish the one outside. Repeat as often as necessary. (LOL)

Not a lot of display space around here that will hold her Eric so, for better or worse, she goes where she goes.  I've got one spot left after that.
 
A lot of wind so far but it looks to me like most of the snow is hanging up in the hills.  That's where we need it anyway.  Stay warm!

Well as I said before I have no pictures of the yards and running rigging, or at least I
can't find them so here are the final pictures. If I ever find those pictures I'll add them.
 
Thanks for looking along as we went down memory lane.
 
 

Hello Jinyang
Great work.
When you have finished modeling, it would be great to make a movie like I did almost 10 years ago.

Congratulations.
Bernard

I do like those spacer ideas and will try to remember them if/when I get my first kit
 
David

Yes, Confed is a beauty and I appreciate all those who have spoken out in support of her.  She's still in the running, especially now that Sjors has made his long awaited, world-wide announcement that he is going to build Agammemnon.  He's going to have more guns than the entire US Navy (albeit they will fire only cotton balls).  I wonder if he will mount it on top of his existing double decker Le Mirage/San Ildefonso ?
 
No decisions until the anchor cables go on Syren.  I'm having all I can handle right now making yards.....seemingly yards of them!  There's smoke coming out of my drill and I have more blisters on my fingers from hanging on then Mark Taylor has from typing 1000+ posts