Justin P.

Yes. I use it all the time. Got a question?

I suspect Ill join the cohort of those who've snapped one of those frames as well! If you don't mind Ill follow along!

Yep... that's basically what Ive decided as well.

Yes... Ive been plugging away. School has started up and with COVID the kids are homeschooling, meanwhile Im also still working from home so things have been pretty hectic. The last few stages of my build have gone well. Slowly, but well. Its amazing just how much time some of these steps can take, and Ive just been chipping away as and when I get a few hours in the shipyard. Also, I may be overdoing things a bit as my patience has grown and my ability to overlook flaws has diminished. Just getting the painted gunports finished took awhile, as I really wanted them to be just so, and thus open many hours filing, filling, painting, and then in some cases going over them all again. I really look forward to a time when I can get some of these things done right the first time. The result is that my gunports are really squared up and have nice clean edges-which was the goal.. I then started in on planking in the sills and lintels. This was a pleasurable enough task, but did take a LOT of time as notching in the along the ports took a lot of trial and error until I figured out a system and tool combination that provided consistent results. I planked up both sides, sanded and then stained. I was quite pleased with how it turned out. The transom came out well, too. I opted to deviate a bit here where the upper transom calls for a single piece of laser-cut 1/16th thick sheet cut out for framing in the ports. I chose to simply plank it in as well. This may well have been a mistake, we'll see when I get there. Then began the lower hull planking saga. I think overall Im getting closer to doing it right, and farther from doing it wrong - BUT there are still a lot of problems... I mean, its better than I was expecting it to be. Ultimately this area is painted over and then coppered so Im not overly upset, and Im glad Im only gonna need a tiny bit of filler at the stern. I used a combination of tapering, tick marks, and edge-bending, with the last plank on both sides needing to a be spiling job from a piece of sheet I had laying around. I also had a bit of trouble at the transom where the planks bend upward to meet the transom and stern post. I needed a bit more support to get things to lay down properly and so had to improvise some filler and an additional plank. Of course that was not the only improvising that was required - meet the rubber-band/post clamping jig. Some other planking shots and my edge-bending jig: And here is where I am today: Yes, I stained it. Why? I have no idea. I just felt compelled, and yes I am still going to paint it black per the instructions. Next I need to add the second layer of wales just under the ports, and move onto the transom. Anyway... its coming along. As for the trunnels I agonized over in an earlier post, I decided to forgo them completely. I think at this scale they'll be a detail that will detract rather than provide to the overall piece. Thanks for watching!

Hey Bob! Funny you should mention it....

Can you confirm the entirety is Syren product?

Clean work, glad I discovered this build before it was over!

Its looking really great, I very much like how the carronades turned out. Lots of clean details, my favorite.

Model Machines currently sells a selection of blades that correspond (perhaps not exactly) to the above document. I buy direct from him.

Seems too large to be a button to me, I agree its more likely a knob or handle of some sort.

I think people can sometimes get bogged down in equipment and machine tools if led to believe they are "needed" to achieve a satisfactory result. I think if your are an efficient and knowledgeable user of mills and lathes then by all means, we all do things our own way. Not knowing someones experience or skill set with mills and lathes, they wouldn't be my recommendation for something like masts and spars. I think its important to remember that perfect results from machines require a certain level of understanding and knowledge with those machines. Hand tools, in my opinion, can be a bit more forgiving even if result as not as exact. I know my scrap pile consists of far more machine mistakes than it does mistakes made by hand tools.

I agree, I actually found using a lathe to be more work. I tried at first because I had one, and wanted to use it. Eventually I settled on square stock, an Ibex finger plane and sand paper. Much easier.

Its just a mark. Place pencil onto the wood, and twist back and forth like you are just trying to make a dot. That mark will hold up against staining and light sanding. In this case I think I just used too much pressure.

Busy week. I managed to get all the gun and sweep ports constructed. This took me forever, but Im happy with the result. As mentioned above, I constructed everything all the way through this process against the recommended instructions, as I felt more comfortable with fewer passes with the fairing sticks. I wanted everything in place so I could just fair once. This may have meant two or three times the work, but for me, less room for error. Below is shown this process, with the starboard fairing near complete, with the inboard and port sides left to be completed. This work was done with a combination of knives and sand paper. And now pictured with everything completed to the point that I could move on. I then started work on the stern framing, which thanks to the excellent production quality of my particular sample everything went together nicely. I proceeded with building out the ports in the same manner as above. Its at this point that the build proceeds into paint choices, upper wale planking and thoughts about finish and tree nailing. I really wanted to think this process out before proceeding, so as I do in my professional life I decided to mock it up first. I built a dummy section of upper wale with gun and sweep ports; painted and planked it and then added treenails. Finally a wash of stain as per the recommendations. Its at the treenails where I deviated. In other Syren builds, the treenail examples Ive seen haven't sat well with me. All other details might be wonderful, but it seems some of the proportions and material choices just put me off. Im a big fan of the filament and/or pencil type so thats the direction I went. Paint: Model Shipways "Bright Red Trim." I had done the other in "Hull Red" but I rejected that immediately and did not move forward with that mock-up. At the moment Im feeling rather ambivalent about the result. The full mock-up is done with a .5mm pencil while the partial mock-up below is done with .6mm monofilament. The monofilament is much cleaner, while the pencil crushes the grain a bit and results in the elongated "eye" shape around the nails. Not something I want all over my model. The filament at .6mm is still a bit too large for this scale (in my opinion). I may knock-out one more quick mock-up with a smaller filament size if I can find it, or I may try some blackened wood filler. I should sleep on it. Otherwise, Im happy with the Golden Oak Miniwax stain, the choice of graphite for the caulking and paint choice.

Thanks. Yes I do plan to taper it. I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes I deviate on steps, knowing how I work and in which order I might achieve greater success. For instance, Im now working on the gun ports and will not fair any of it until the entirety is constructed. The instructions say to fair as I go (i.e ports/lintels then the next step) but I know that just wont work for me. Im bound to take too much off if there are multiple steps.

Hi Tom, I wish I could help more, and likely someone can but wanted to point out that it might be helpful to know what vessel we are talking about. This might be an important detail - I dont know, just guessing. Is this from your Leopard project? Good Luck!

Definitely get the blocks.

Glad to be back following along, I missed the last few weeks but Ill try to catch up on my reading. Looks great so far!

Fantastic re-post of great info. Thanks! Also, Ive been away for a bit, but your progress is wonderful. I love the details you are putting in.

Glad to be focusing back on this project. Along with work I took some time away from Syren to finally finish my Bounty Launch which had been sitting around for some time. Now that I have no more open projects, Im very happy to say my attention is squarely on this complex build. Reorienting myself to where I left off took a bit of time, I needed to assure myself that I had completed outer fairing to the point where I thought I ought to stop. I couldn't quite recall where my mind was when I set this aside. Needless to say I sanded a bit and ran a few battens satisfying myself that I indeed came to good stopping point. I then went ahead and installed the lower deck planks and stained according to Chucks good suggestion of Miniwax's Golden Oak. I very much enjoy the warm, weathered look this stain imparts on basswood. I'll need to experiment a bit to get the right whitened/silvered tone for the upper deck but suffice to say that on its own its a really nice color. The next few steps proceeded well. I cut out the gunport templates, taped them together and strung them up to the bulkheads. Unfortunately they didn't quite fit very well, which must be a problem with printing because I really couldn't hunt down a problem on my build. Reading through the instructions a bit relieved my anxiety some, as it turns out the overlay of this template and the positioning of the bulkheads isn't terribly critical. More important that the port sills go in along a smooth line and that they go in square. Running another batten to check the line of the sills gave me the confidence to go ahead here. After installing the port sills I went ahead and ran a second upper batten for the lintels. Of course something didn't feel right as I was checking this out. This inner ear I credit to having read the instructions so many times, as Chuck clearly states that this isn't necessary, and that what I ought to do is simply measure the 15/32" from the top of the sills and mark the locations of the bottom of the lintels accordingly. Curiously, I went ahead and took a line off my batten and then went back and cut a couple 15/32" sticks and sure enough had I gone ahead with my batten I would have screwed up. Thankfully I caught this, and took the reminder to slow down and read the instructions yet again. Something I must remember. The sticks proved very useful, leaving me with perfectly level equidistant port sills and lintels. Next Ill finish off the bow and the gunport frames. Then more sanding...

No offense Greg, but that is outrageous! I don't pay for cable, just internet. We have HBO, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, Peacock and Apple TV and we pay less than $200 for all of it (including the high speed internet to stream it). I havent see an ad or a commercial in 3 years. It all is connected seamlessly on our living room TV (and can be watched anywhere we happen to go. That said, I watched Greyhound on my phone, on a plane and still loved it. Cable TV is a rip-off.

I feel similarly. I know next to nothing about WWII Naval warfare or ships, at least compared to the Age of Sail. I too felt the movie was really more about pressures of leadership, vigilance, and commitment to duty. The noise maker and radio hijacking bit was an interesting twist if only just a thematic element and not something that ever actually happened. It was exceptionally heavy on CGI, which I noticed early on but quickly forgot about as the characters and momentum of the story was exhilarating. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It is, after all, a movie - not a treatise or history lesson. It will eventually be available to rent either on DVD or elsewhere, it was only released on Apple TV due to COVID. Expect to see it at your local Redbox.

That satin! Wonderful job Bob. I hope you are pleased.

Looks really great. I might have lost my mind trying to work out those tiny sheaves - perhaps I will when I get there. Definitely understand how work gets in the way, I had a great productive few months and now Im all bogged down myself with "emergent issues." Though, your description is a bit more gracious that mine might be...

Nice work!