Ryland Craze

Very nice job on your Virginia. It is hard to believe this is your first model.

Sorry to hear this. I am glad that all occupants got out safely. There is a wealth of knowledge on MSW that will help you when you pick a kit to build.

Wow! You are a very skilled modeler. I love your work. It reminds me of some of the homes at Colonial Williamsburg. I cannot wait to see the work that you do on ship models.

Good job on painting the hull. You are learning a skill that will come in handy for this and future builds.

I agree with the above comments. You have picked a good model for your first build and you will find a lot of support here on Model Ship World. I look forward to following your build.

Very clean and crisp looking model. Excellent job on coppering the hull. You are well on your way to creating a very nice Syren.

Welcome to Model Ship World Patrick. I would be interested in seeing a build log of your New Bedford Whaleboat as I am always interested in seeing alternate ways of building ship models. You may have something in your build log that will help other modelers on their builds. I would also like to see some pictures of your miniature historic buildings.

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.

Congratulations on completing your Lady Nelson. You did an excellent job on this kit and I liked the modifications you did. I am glad this kit helped to rejuvenate you back into ship modeling after a short absence. I can not wait to see what you do with your Cheerful build.

I thought I was seeing double in the picture of the two hulls. I could not "like" that post. Removing the laser char has never been a favorite chore of my builds. Your Cheerful is back on track nicely and I look forward to seeing more progress.

Your reworking of the parts is an improvement over the kit supplied parts. This makes the difference between an average model and an exceptional model. Keep up the good work.

Don, Congratulations on completing your Longboat. You did a great job on building it and I look forward to following your Winchelsea build.

Thanks for your comment, Captain and also for the tip on getting clean painted edges. I enjoyed your AVS build log and it is one of the best constructed AVS models that I have seen.

Congratulations Bob. You should be proud of the finished model and your craftsmanship. I have enjoyed your build log and will be referring to it, especially the pictures, as I continue with my Longboat build. Your build is truly an inspiration for any Medway Longboat builder.

There is an IPMS Chapter located in Indianapolis. The Club may have someone willing to take on a commission build. There website link is: http://www.ipmsroscoeturner.org/

Perfection is an understatement of you work. Truly a piece of art.

Alan, Welcome to Model Ship World. Thanks for the memory of building balsa planes and the smell of the Ambroid glue and the dope. I always enjoyed painting the planes. I look forward to seeing your Scottish Fifie Fishing vessel and I hope you will start a build log. This is a very enjoyable hobby and you have come to the right place to get advice and share your success on your build.

Justin, I use tape most of the time when I paint my models. I use tape to get a straight edge such as the red top of the rudder and also use tape to cover up the natural wood in case I should accidentally drop or splatter some paint. My Longboat was pretty well taped up for over two months during the painting process. I mainly use blue painters tape for general cover up and use Tamiya Fine Line or 3M Fine Line tape to get a sharp edge. A good cover up of tape, paper or cloth is cheap insurance when painting, as I have learned this the hard way. I remember taping up my 1/48th Longboat and it was a pain with all of the tight turns of the exposed bulwarks. The design of the Medway Longboat eliminated this as there is an inboard sheer strake attached to the inboard edge of the caprail. All I had to do was tape below this strake to keep paint from hitting the natural wood bulwarks. When I saw Chuck demonstrate his painting technique, he had squares drawn on a sheet of wood. There was never a model that he demonstrated his painting technique on, but I would not doubt that he uses very little, if any, tape in his painting of his ship models. He is that good.

Welcome to Model Ship World. You have built some nice models and I look forward to seeing you start a build log on your Lady Nelson. The Connecticut Marine Model Society is a club that meets in West Haven, CT that has modelers of all skill levels and also some musicians. I am sure their meetings are on hold due to Covid-19, but hopefully will start back up in the fall. Here is a link to their website: http://www.ctshipmodels.org/index.html

Thomas, I am glad you have experienced success in your photo etching of your parts. It is an interesting process and I have been very fortunate to have seen Gene Berger demonstrate how he makes his photo etched parts. Gene continues to improve his photo etching expertise with each project he completes. He shows that it can be successfully done in a home workshop. For those that want more information on do it yourself photo etching, check out Gene's photo etch tutorial at this link: http://geneberger-models.com/photo-etching/

I have never used Humbrol Acrylics but I always thin my acrylic paint. The more I thin it, the less you will see of the lap marks and brush strokes. This will require many coats of thinned paint. Test on some scrap wood first.

Your Speedy is coming along nicely. I love the boxwood. This is going to turn out to be a beautiful model.

Assuming this hull is to be doubled planked, I would smooth the run of the bottom plank along the bulkheads G to L. This could be accomplished by taking a small amount off of the bottom plank where it dips down. The problem lies with the plank above the bottom plank. If the hull is to be singled planked, I would remove the last two planks installed and start over. You should definitely consider lining off the hull using the procedures in the links below. This would prevent this type of error. Chapter Two of the Medway Longboat instructions also explains the process of lining off the hull. https://www.syrenshipmodelcompany.com/medway-longboat-1742.php The link to the download of Chapter Two is located about midway down the page. I hope this helps.

Here is the link to a PDF version: Chuck Passaro Rope Recipe.pdf

You have done a beautiful job. I love the pear wood and the contrast between the different planks. Can't wait to see more.