Ryland Craze

Nice job. You are well on your way to finish this ship model.

Good choice for your second build. I am definitely going to pull up a chair for this build.

Your craftsmanship is outstanding. I am really enjoying following your build log.

In addition to Chuck's articles, another good article on planking is A Primer on Planking by David Antscherl. It is located in the MSW Database at http://modelshipworldforum.com/ship-model-framing-and-planking-articles.php. If you follow Chuck's and David's techniques, you will not have any problems lining out your hull and planking it.

Congratulations on completing your HMS Alert. You did an excellent job on building this model. I am looking forward to seeing it on display at the NRG Conference in San Diego.

Very nice. I can not wait to see more.

I agree with Cathead that the slight difference between the plans and the laser cut parts should not cause you any problems. Once you install the bulkheads on the keel assembly, most of the remaining parts will be cut from sheet stock. You can easily adjust for the small differences. This kit is very forgiving. Check the scale ruler on sheet one of the plans. It is in 1/4" increments and mine checked out exactly to the inch. I purchased my kit when it first came out five years ago. Printing the plans over the years may have caused them to loose their accuracy. Good luck on your build. You are off to a good start.

Welcome to MSW Hervie. I will be following your Syren build log. I can tell from what you have already written, this is going to be an excellent build log. I have this kit in my to do stash. Looking forward to future updates.

I used a sanding stick to taper my bow section. I slightly tapered mine down to the flat portion of the keel.

Congratulations Dan on winning a Gold Award. You did an excellent job on your Longboat and it is always nice to see your work recognized by other ship modelers.

That is a nice building slip. Thanks for the link to Hobbyzone. They make some nice products for the modeler. I look forward to your build log on the Riva Aquarama.

Outstanding craftsmanship. This is a beautiful model and it has been a pleasure watching a Master Modeler at work.

Denis, Here is a link to Ron Neilson's Revenge with the bottom left natural: Revenge

Art in its best form. I am really enjoying this build.

Ken, Your Rattlesnake looks great. It was a real pleasure meeting you at the SMSNJ Club meeting last week. There is a lot of talent in that Club which shows in the models they build. Your Rattlesnake is coming along nicely.

Your Cheerful is looking great. We missed you at the Northeast Conference. Don't slow down too much as we would like to see you bring your Cheerful to next year's Conference. Looking forward to more updates.​

Congratulations Sal on being voted first place for the People's Choice Award. There were a lot of excellent ship models on display and that award is quite an honor to receive. It was a pleasure seeing you and your Syren at the Conference. You have built a beautiful model and your build log will be a great reference source for future Syren builders.

Nice job on the winch. Will this be made into a mini kit like your other deck fittings? It has been a joy watching the Cheerful being built.

Really nice work Erik. I can not wait to see the rest of the hull planked.

Your windlass turned out really nice. The iron straps and hinges are really small and difficult to make. You did an excellent job on making them. I enjoy following your build log.

Agree, there are several ways to get the same end result. This is what I like about this hobby, woodworking in miniature. I remember when I first started in this hobby, I always liked the smell of fresh milled wood when I opened a new kit for the first time. I have never done full scale woodworking, but have always liked wood products. I can see from the pictures that your excellent full scale wood working skills have filtered down to your ship modeling.

Thanks everyone for the comments and Likes. Dave, I started off using your method, but I had problems keeping the holes squared to the base. The reason I started with a small square file was that I could lay the flat side of the file on a scrap piece of planking and insert it into the hole on the windlass. This made the small square hole right angled to the base of the windlass. The windlass on the Longboat is made out of a square piece of wood, whereas your windlass tapers from the middle to the ends. My method would not work on your windlass. The file acted as a starter hole and it kept the impression of the nail square to the windlass stock. I hope this makes sense. ​Your windlass looks great as well as your AVS. I have enjoyed following your build log and look forward to you completing it. I have a MS AVS that is begging me to finish it.

Thanks Chuck for your comments. Your work inspires all of us to try to do better with our builds. Cathead, I really struggled with making my windlass. It took me three attempts until I finally made a windlass that I was satisfied with. I am going to try to explain how I made mine. I made a jig by cutting some scrap wood at 45 degree angles and I placed my windlass in the "V" that was formed with the scrap wood. I then used sanding sticks to shape the windlass being careful to keep it horizontal to the wood base. Once I had the shape of the windlass, I made another jig to drill the holes in the windlass. I used a #61 drill bit in my pin vise and would twist it several turns. Then I would keep rotating the windlass until I drilled all four sides of the windlass. The holes would eventually go all the way thru the windlass, meeting in the center of the windlass. The windlass now has round holes. To get them square, I placed the windlass on a flat piece of wood. I then placed a piece of old planking material to use as a resting place for a small four sided file. I then pushed the file, with pressure against the wooden base, into the round holes in my windlass. It is important to keep the flat side of the file horizontal to the wood base. The flats of the windlass will lie naturally flat on the wood base. The final step was to open up the hole to about .045 inch. I had taken a finishing nail and filed the point square and pushed it into the square hole made by my square file. I filed the corners of the nail so that it left a crisp square edge. Once I finished with the square holes, I placed a small bit of wood into the windlass hole to fill the interior of the hole so that you could not see all the way through the hole. This was quite a challenge for me and I had many failed attempts trying other methods. I finally got thru this and am now able to continue on with the build. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to ask me.

I finished the interior ironwork. I definitely appreciate the work of the Longboat builders before me as I had trouble with the small locker hinges and ironwork due to my stubby fingers. I also had several pieces that mysteriously disappeared from the tip of my tweezers never to be found again. Here is a picture of the longboat with the thwarts installed. All that is left to do for the interior is to install the six knees on top of the thwarts and against the sides. I have also decided to redo my belaying pins.

Thanks Greg and Chuck for your comments and also the Likes. I do not like doing things over, but I do see improvement in my work when I do things over. I hope to finish the interior and all of the ironwork before I head up North in a couple of weeks.