GuntherMT

After som professional help I have been able to insert a picture! It might be a small step for mankind but a giant leap for me...
@ccoyle If we were on the same continent I would buy you a beer as a thank you, but unfortunately I´m in Sweden. But if you happen to visit Sweden I will buy you one and show you the Wasa museum!
 
 

Once you have your files uploaded, your attachments bar will look like this.
 

 
To insert an image into your post, place your cursor at the desired location, then click the "+" on the thumbnail in the attachments bar. Afterwards, if you need to, you can resize the image by double-clicking on it and using the pop-up menu that results.
 
Hope that helps!

We strongly discourage the use of third party hosting sites for your MSW photos. Those sites can go down, in which case all of your photo links here will be dead. It's happened before. We have very good file uploading capability built into our forum software; the tool bar is located at the bottom of your reply window.
 

After a long break from ship modeling, for many reasons, I started building OcCres Cazador. But it felt like all my wood working skills hade abandoned me. Whatever I did pieces broke, did fit, or ended up the wrong way. Basically I failed in everything. Finally I decided to take a break and work on an easier kit to get some confidence back. From the vaults I got my trusty Greek Bireme and started to build it instead.
 
So far only one (lousy) picture but more is on the way. Anyway, the mode lkit is great (as all Duseks are according to me) and is going together smoothly. There are other Bireme builds here which are and will be much much nicer than mine. I will build it straight out of the box.
 
 

I have a shameful confession: since the beginning of the build, I've never actually read who Oliver Cromwell was further than a basic summary. "Some aristocratic British dude, whatever, I like the model". In hindsight that was not the smartest thing, it's like picking a rare name for your child without googling it first 🤦‍♂️
Over the last year I found more and more articles about him and his legacy, and it started to smell pretty bad. History (and the present) have had enough brutal authoritarian tyrants, and Cromwell was a pretty dedicated one. I started feeling shame and disgust when opening my own build log, like it's a dirty word that may be actually offensive. I hereby apologise to Irish for my ignorance..   Luckily, there is a way out without deviating from history - that ship was renamed once it was captured by HMS Beaver. The new name was very creative - "Beavers Prize" - probably to make sure nobody would contest the origin of the vessel   It's great! It has no relation to any historical figures, a bit humorous and may work as a conversation starter  The spelling is not so obvious (Beaver's Prize is also used), but I would use the simpler spelling with no apostrophe, same as on the original NMM plans.  So from now on this log is renamed accordingly.  Horrah to the Beaver!      There are a few modifications that need to be done. When captured, it was measured and the plans were drafted. While there, some improvements were suggested and then implemented: * Second double-level capstan (I guess capstans were like clamps - you can never have too many) * Improved lower deck layout * Fore mast moved ahead a bit * New galley stove installed   Quote from the Hahn's book "Ships of The American Revolution":   Suggested changes are drawn as a dotted line on the NMM plan:    I really like that changes, especially the second capstan - it would make the quarter deck a bit more interesting.   P.S.: the actual construction is going well, all treenails are in place and I'm sanding and scraping the internal planking. Will post photos once that phase is completed.

I should have known you would have this covered. I should have checked with you first. but I am happy it looks good. chapter 3 should be done next week. Maybe I finish the whole thing by the end of Feb. Which will be a record for me.

Finally I have reach a major milestone!  I am not sure why my hull doesn't look as good as some but I am going to stick with this. I did bevel the edges of the planks, but maybe not enough. As the admiral says the best planking I have ever done. I still have significant sanding to do.
 
I do have a couple of questions -
- In another log it mentions a 1/16" notch in the transom wings. If I read the instructions and plans I don't see the notch. It looks like all I ahve to do is adjust the length of the cap rail and the stern end raps around the transom.
- I noted the Ryland suggests fitting the stand at this point. Are you suggesting gluing it in place? or gluing the stand to the base?
- Do I need to sand out the laser char on the inside of the frames?
 
 

Here is my 2nd try 😅 I took Jim's suggestion (Jim I wish I was 1/2 the modeler you are. I loved visiting your Man cave) I think it came out much better. I also am getting the hang of the Heat gun. This is going to be a fun step.

I want to thank everyone who has expressed an interest in my build. We really have a great group that works hard to support each other. I wanted to post just a brief update. In the picture below you will see the results of the repair. And I am happy to report that Fairing is complete. All Laser char is gone. Tomorrow it is on to chapter 2.
 
 

Ok finally I can give an update on my build. First a huge shout out to Ryland. We spent a couple hours on the phone talking this thru. 
 
I spent a couple days using Alcohol trying to dissolve the Titebond II. That did not work very well. So I bought some Acetone. It took 3 days of careful soaking and disassembly, but I successfully removed most of the frames from the keel. I have just reassembled everything and left it to dry. I added the guidance tabs Ryland used. I also used toothpicks to get the glue into the notches in the keel. It appears to cause less mess and not need the brush with water. So cross your fingers and tomorrow we will see the results.

Ok here are some pictures of my progress. I am told that my Rockler Order will arrive tomorrow. I will start working on the Keel then.

Hi Folks,
 
Found the site, joined the site, binge read a LOT! Got inspired, checked the workshop (shed at the bottom of the garden), ordered a skip to make some room and will be ready to research and build shortly. Main area of interest, late 18th - mid 19th. However a man's gotta know his limitations, so a Victory kit will not be dropping through the letterbox any time soon! I do however like Alert and have ordered a kit from Vanguard.
 
I will be starting smaller so I am looking for a kit that would make a good match for one of the boats from Victory, something around 1/24. Any and all suggestions gratefully received!! There is method behind my madness. I wish to make a gift to a very good friend who will be leaving the Royal Navy at the end of the year. I have a couple of chunks of HMS Victory (with the certificates) and will be incorporating some of it within the build. I have already turned a pen set for her and this would finish the pressie nicely.
 
I will try not to ask too many stupid questions along the way, but if you don't ask then you will never find out.
 
Enough waffle for now.
 
Tim
 
 

Happy new year. Posted this on Jim's log in error (now deleted that post).
 
Progress on my build did slow down over the last few days due to forming a child care bubble with our new granddaughter.
 
I have fitted the wales and cappings to the hull. The wales proved to be more problematic than I was expecting. I had to remove and refit the port side to get them looking right. I'm not sure what I did but the top wale started and finished at the right points (according to the plan drawings) but drooped somewhat around the midships. Once the lower wale was fitted the bottom edge was far too close to the water line. I did ponder leaving it as fitted but decided it would be better to remove both wales and start again. I used a strip on my 2mm tape to set the correct line for the upper wale. Once that was fitted I used  another length of my 2mm tape to set the correct line for the lower wale, maintaining the 3mm gap between the wales.

 
I then proceed to paint the stern area blue (sorry no photo) and then moved on to painting stern decorations. The resin upper part has been painted blue and gold. The fascia panel has been painted red and I have added a black backing sheet behind the windows.

 
The PE parts have been cleaned in acetone and given a couple of light coats of white primer and are now ready to be painted gold and white as necessary. It was not easy to get a decent photo of the white primed PE sheets.

I have heart wrenching news, for me anyways. I had a friend over and his young son got a hold of my model and while running with it, he fell and landed right on top of it. This the result. I'm going to have to start this whole thing over again as its not salvageable. 😧 😭
 
 

Well, I'm bummed. I have cataracts in both eyes; been there for a few years. Been slowly getting worse and Friday it really was bad. I see the the eye surgeon Monday, so I'm on hiatus for a few weeks (I hope).

Nope...its 9 planks.  With the end of the tick strip also falling on a line....see below.
 
Cut some thin tick strips from paper.  Hold them along the edge of the frames with the end of the tick strip against the keel rabbet.  You will need to mark the overall length of the frame from the keel rabbet to the sheer.  Its very easy to do.
 

...Take that tick strip and lay it on top of your planking fan.  Because we know that this area will need to be split evenly into nine planks, its just a matter of sliding down the fan until it fills the space up.  Then mark the strip with 9 tick marks.  with one end of the strip against a line.  The black horizontal lines on the planking fan were just put there so I have some reference to help me keep the strip level rather than angled.
 

 ..Take that strip back over to the same frame and transfer all those tick marks onto the frame edge.
 

All of the frames have been marked except for the three frames at the bow and the three frames at the stern.

Finally decided to join in with the Medway Longboat project. I liked the lines, it'll teach me some fundamentals and it's designed by the Maestro, Chuck. The wood is excellent to work with and I've tried to keep my big mitts clean. I opted for the half lap joints to stretch my skills. I thought I did a pretty good joint and glued the stern together. Oops, it was bent. I figured out I only checked the thickness along the immediate outside edges but failed to check it was uniformly the 5/64" thick on each side. After an application of isopropel alcohol and dismantling the boo-boo, I made a little sanding fixture to keep the joints uniforms. Now, it's nice and straight.

It's a piece of .040 inch styrene sheet with two .080 x .125 styrene strips.  The .080 will allow me to get very close to the 5/64" dimension.
 
I built up the keel and got it ready to add the bolts. I drilled the bolt holes with  a #74 drill. Next step, wipe on poly.

 
I worked on the floors and frames, making sure every one fit nicely,  The fun will begin when I start fitting all of them into the keel.  Bow frames.

 
Stern frames

 
I have to attach the transom, but have a question for the mavens. Do I remove the char in the groove to attach it to the keel. I cleaned up the char on the top edge and am contemplating how to keep the transom square to the keel.
 
So far, it been a pleasure working with this wood.

I finally have had time to start on the Longboat. I found that this is a good re-starter kit for me - the last one was over 45-50 years ago and was never completed due to a whole bunch of things - mainly life.  I did spend some of that time building flying models and some small furniture so i have some experience with wood. I am not a great craftsman by any means, but I try and a I enjoy it.
 
To date I have built both versions of the keel just to see what I can do. I did build 2 versions of the half lap keel - the first not so good - the second is what I selected and I am now on my way.
 
I have the first 5 frames fitted and have the rest of the frames built and ready to start fitting. I did leave the transom off for the moment so I can rough fit the frames without breaking it off  - I'm sure I would.
 
.
I'd like to thank all of you for your build logs. I learned a lot about the tricks and pitfalls you all have found.
Also - Chuck for the great well thought out kit
 
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and will have a great New Year.
Tom
 
 
 

Not much has happened since my last post but thought I would give an update on my progress.  I have started to work on the shrouds and the first thing that I did was to make the deadeyes.  The Syren deadeyes are made up of three layers that are glued together.   I made a simple jig to hold the layers as I glued them up.
 

 
Once glued up, I separated them from the frame that was holding them.  I sanded off the laser burn on the edges being careful not to change the shape of the deadeye.  I then placed them in my Model Expo block tumbler to soften and round their edges.
 

 
Here is a picture with the deadeyes stropped with 24 gauge wire and the hooks added.
 

 
The next step was to make the straps that hold the deadeyes and nail them to the wales.  I pre-bent the straps around the molding before I installed them.  I then tried blackening them, but failed miserably.  So I wound up priming them and painting them with matte black paint.  Then I installed them per the instructions.
 

 
The next step was to use my Syren Serv-o-Matic serving machine to serve my shrouds and backstays where they are seized around the mast.  This was my first time using the machine and it worked great.  I had no problems and I am pleased with the results.
 

 
Next up is the installation of the shrouds and the backstays.

I have started rigging my Medway Longboat and it has definitely changed the appearance of the model.  Most lines are temporarily installed and will be permanently glued when all lines have been installed and re-tensioned.  I also made up the pedestals from the display base kit and fitted them to the hull prior to the mast being installed.  I would recommend this being done earlier in the build, possibly after the planking is completed. I was afraid I would break the thole pins on the cap rail as I had the hull upside down while fitting the pedestals.  Here is the progress to date:
 

 

 

 

 

 
Making the thimbles was a lot of fun.  I had many failures before I finally got the hang of it. Here are a couple of blocks with the thimbles made and blackened and some extras for later use.

 
The mast bands were made using matte black chart tape.

 
Next up is to work on the shrouds.  I plan to serve these using my Syren Serv-o-Matic ship model rope serving machine. 
 
Thanks for checking out my build log.

I have made some progress on my Longboat and I shared this with the members of the Ship Model Society of New Jersey during last nights Zoom meeting.  The mast has been finished by adding the simulated  iron bands and eyebolts.  I made the two upper iron bands using 1/16" wide chart tape and then formed the eyebolts using 22 gauge wire.  I then weathered the iron bands and eyebolts with Tamyia rust weathering powder to give it some contrast.
 

 
For the lower iron band, I used some black masking tape cut into a 3/32" wide strip and then made an eyebolt using 18 gauge wire.  The hook in the boom was also made using 18 gauge wire.
 

 
I also added the knees and belaying pins.  The knees were painted off the model and then glued to the thwarts.  I used some 1/16" wide chart tape to help align them onto the thwart before gluing.  The belaying pins were turned using my dremel and some small files.

 
The horse was made using the supplied 20 gauge wire.  It was blackened and then a 1/4" block was seized to the horse before attaching the horse to the stern.
 

 
My next step is to fit the pedestals that came with the engraved base from Syren Ship Model Company to the hull.  I feel it would be difficult to handle the hull while trying to install the pedestals with the mast and rigging installed. 

Thanks shipman for your comments.  I am glad you like the colors I chose.  I actually painted the cap rails with another red (you can see remnants of the paint in the second picture of your quote) but it was too bright for my liking, so I sanded it off.  The Grumbacher Cadmium Red color was a better choice to me as I felt it closely matched the colors on the contemporary models in the NMM that the kit was modeled after.  The freizes provided in the kit were drawn by Chuck Passaro and were based on the NMM models.  I have attached the pictures of the two models that Chuck Passaro modeled this kit after:
 

 

 
And here is a picture of my model from page 4 of my build log :

Thanks everyone for your replies and for the "Likes".  Progress continues at a snails pace on my Longboat.  I have completed all of the shaping of the mast, boom, gaff and bowsprit and finished painting them and applying WOP on the wood surfaces.  I stepped the mast (temporarily) and I am ready to start the rigging. Here are some pictures of the status of the model that I shared with my Club members on Zoom this past Saturday:
 

 

Thanks everyone for your comments.  It is hard to believe that it has been two months since my last update.  Time seems to fly by quicker the older you get.
 
I have been working on the mast, boom, gaff and bowsprite following the instructions on how to complete these.  These all started out as square stock.  They were rounded using the 7-10-7 method with the templates supplied in the instructions.  I first drew lines on the wood stock using the templates.  I then drilled holes using a dremel drill press for the simulated sheaves in the locations per the plans.

 
I then took my miniature block plane and knocked off the edges to create an octagon shape.  Using my sanding stick, I knocked off the other edges to create a rough round shape.  I then placed the rounded wood in my drill and shaped the now dowel to the proper dimensions using various sanding sticks.  For the simulated sheaves, I used a scalpel blade to connect the two holes of each sheave and then used a small round file to shape the simulated sheave.
 
I am very glad to get this portion of the build behind me.  They turned out a lot better than what I expected and I am very happy with the results.  With this behind me, I can now move forward to completing the mast and installing it.  I am looking forward to the next stage of the build.

I have been working on my Medway Longboat at a snails pace and thought that I would post my progress to date.  I shaped the laser cut knees and decided to paint these off of the model.  I used some double sided tape and placed them on a scrap piece of wood for painting.  Later, I will glue them to the thwarts and touch up the paint.
The next item was the mast thwart ironwork.  I used the supplied brass to construct this.  I used Blacken It to blacken the brass.  It worked really well, but when I installed it on the thwart, I somehow chipped a portion of the blackened part.  Since it was glued to the thwart, I could not remove it.  I tried to re-blacken it on the thwart, but had no success.  I then painted it with some Floquil Grimy Black paint.
 
The next step was to turn the thole pins using my dremel and install them on the cap rails.  I turned six more than what I needed and picked out the best of the lot to install on the model.  After turning them. I ran them thru my Byrnes draw plate to make sure they were all the same size.  I made a jig from some scrap wood to drill the holes for the thole pins so that I would have consistent  spacing between the pins and also from the edge of the cap rail.  You can see the lip that I put on the jig in the picture below.  I took the locations for the thole pins from the plans and marked the location using a thin strip of masking tape.  I sighted the leading edge of the masking tape through the hole and drilled the first hole. I placed a thole pin in the hole on the jig into the cap rail and this held the jig while I drilled the second hole.  I glued the thole pins in pairs and used my electronic calipers to insure that I had a consistent 3/16" height.

Here is a picture of the model with the thole pins installed.
The last thing I did was to make the grapnels.  This was a fun little project and they turned out a lot better than what the fuzzy picture shows.  My camera would not focus properly on the black grapnel on a white background.

I just have to make the windlass handles and turn the four belaying pins and I will be finished with Chapter 4 of the instructions.  Then it is on to the masting and rigging portion of the build.