Ryland Craze

Great job on the La Renard!  It looks very nice in the case.

Congratulations.  Excellent work on your Ferrari.  This one turned out nice.

Hi Harvey and welcome to Model Ship World.  If you get a chance, please share some pictures of your models.  We would like to see your work. 

Congratulations.  Your Flirt turned out very nice.

Looking forward to your Bluenose build.  There are several Bluenose build logs in progress that may help you with yours.

Your rigging has turned out very nice.  You are on the home stretch for finishing this model.

Congratulations n finishing your English Man O' War.  You did an excellent job on building this model.  It turned out very nice.

Planking can be a slow process, but taking your time will give good results.  The compound twists and turns are always tricky to do.

Welcome to Model Ship World Jose.  We have many builders of plastic ship models on MSW.  They build some outstanding models and you will learn a lot from them by following their build logs.  We look forward to seeing your work.

Your Syren is looking good.  I like the red you are using.  Is this artist acrylic paint?

Nice job.  What a wonderful birthday gift.  Your baby is one lucky child.

Mark, You are off to a good start on your Longboat.  This looks like a nice kit with good fittings and instructions.  Planking can be a very enjoyable part of the build.

The first plank is looking good.  I use a bit of water painted on the plank and the iron will turn it to steam which will help to loosen the wood fibers.  Your deck also came out great.  I think the stain color is ideal for this type of ship.

Your hull is looking good.  Another thing you could do is to coat the inside of the hull with wood glue where the planks did not end on a bulkhead.

Congratulations on finishing this fine model.  Thanks for the detailed build log.  This will aid future builders of this model.

The photos turned out really great.  I hope you add them to the Gallery for all to see.

I like the color combination and also the red oak stain.  I am a big fan of Minwax Wipe on Poly clear satin finish when I want to put a clear coat over the unpainted or stained portions of a build. 

22 hours ago, JohnU said:

Perhaps you can give me some pointers in using this site. I don't see how to reply directly to comments and am simply adding more replies to answer commenters. I see in other build logs where the reply is direct and the previous comments are quoted. Would you mind explaining how that's done?

John, I am glad to see that you have found how to reply to comments by using the quote button.  The + button to the left of the Quote button can be used to quote multiple comments by members.  You can also delete some of the quote if you want to quote a particular part of a comment, just as I did to your comment above.

I can see that your Longboat is going to turn out to be a beauty.  The color is excellent as well as your craftsmanship.  Chapter four will be a fun one and I am looking forward to seeing your progress.

Hi Captain, Your Bluenose is coming along nicely.  I also use diluted wood glue and it has always worked for me.  The simulated caulking will have the right effect once you sand down the deck and apply a finish over it.  I like Wipe On Poly clear satin as it puts a thin protective coat over the planks.  It is also good to use to finish unpainted deck fixtures.  It really brings out the wood and does not give it the heavy look.  I look forward to seeing your progress on this build.

Congratulations on finishing your Albatros.  You did a great job on your first ship model and I am sure that you learned a lot of new techniques and skills.

John, You are off to a good start on your Bluenose.  I can see that you have done your kit building research well.  You are using construction techniques not normally seen by beginner ship modelers.  I am looking forward to seeing more progress on your build.

Welcome to Model Ship World.  John Earle's instructions are a good supplement to the kit instructions.  Another good source is the book Ship Modeling Simplified by Frank Mastini.  This book is written for the beginning ship modeler and he uses the Bluenose kit as a basis to explain many of his modeling techniques.  Your progress to date looks really good.

19 hours ago, fnkershner said:

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?

The 1/16" notch at the transom wings is for the cap rail to fit under the transom wings.  I had to open the gap between the top plank and the transom so that my cap rail would fit under the transom wing.  The end of the cap rail will be flush wit the outside of the transom.

When you do your final sanding of the hull, that is when I would fit the pedestals to the hull.  The reason I would do it at this stage is because it takes a lot of handling to get the proper angle of the pedestals to match the hull.  This is my preference as others have fitted the pedestals with no problems at the end of their build.

You have to thin down the interior frames, which will remove most of the laser char.  I referred to the pictures in Chapter 3 and tried to make my model match them.  I recall that it was a lot of sanding, especially as the inboard frames are faired.  You have to thin them down so that you will be able to fit the sheer plank.  The goal is to have the cap rail with the sheer plank installed to be slightly under 3/16".

You have a lot of sanding to do.  I had a few places where sanding opened up small gaps between the planks.  I used Minwax natural wood filler thinned with water to fill in the gaps.  I wish I had used it on some of the wood where I joined two pieces together and then painted over the joints, such as the cap rail and cockpit seats.

Finishing the planking is a major accomplishment.  Now the fun starts.

Very lifelike.  Your son is a talented individual. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Welcome to Model Ship World Mike.  The older Caldercraft kits had "sketchy" instructions.  I am sure you will find MSW members are more than willing to answer any questions you may have.