Ryland Craze

The anchors look great Daniel. 👍
I'm pretty picky about fittings but white metal anchors were one of those items I was  fairly relaxed about. There were sufficient after-market versions to suit all sizes - from kedge to Best bower, if a full set was required.
 
B.E.

I would never ever use white metal castings in any of my kits again. The whole lot for Alert were thrown away and I was happy to take the finacial hit.

Log #85: The Anchors
Thank you to everyone for you kind comments and encouragement. I have spent the past couple weeks making a brief detour from the rigging, but before getting to that I did clean up a few lines. First up were some blocks with hooks for the topgallant backstay tackle and the topgallant yard halyard tackle.

I am getting much better at these now I have my process down and can produce them pretty quickly at this point. These ones only took about 15 minutes to make all in.
 
I then secured the topgallant yard halyard using one of these hook blocks and another block attached to the halyard itself. I belayed the falls to the bits and then ran the coil over the nearest cleate.

With that out of the way I decided to take a break from rigging and look at the anchors.
 
As I have one of the earlier versions of the alert kit, mine came with the cast metal anchors and I can see why Chris has moved away from these. They are easily one of the weakest parts of the kit. I debated for a while as to whether I should just chuck them and draft and 3d print some new ones, but in the end I decided to try and work with them. As I have previously noted my goal with this build has been to stay pretty close to the kit and I though with a bit of work I could make them look ok.

The main problem as you can see from the right hand anchor in the above picture is that they lack detail and the molding process has resulted in some flash and warping. I decided to try and file them down to remove the excess material and make them look closer to how they appear in the illustrations in Steel.
 
I also decided not to use the PE ring from the kit and instead made one out of paper clips which I wrapped around a drill bit to shape them. I then added the puddening to them with 0.35mm brown rope and seized them with 0.2mm beige rope. The seizing rope was a bit too big, but my only other option is the white fly tying thread I have and I thought the contrast would not look right.

You can see in the above image one of the biggest problems I struggled with, getting the primer to stick to the anchors. Despite washing and filing most of the surface off of them, I could not get the primer to hold well.
 
Then I was on to the anchor stock. The kit version did not look enough like the real thing so I scratch built some new ones out of the offcuts of the 3mm laser cut sheet.

I used the drawing in Goodwin as a template which I photocopied and resized (with some trial and error) and cut them all to the rough shape before carefully planing and sanding them to the correct size. Then I got to test out my recent acquisition of a mini drill press to drill the bolt holes.

With the holes drilled I used black monofilament fishing line to represent the bolts. I put these through before glueing the stock to the anchors to make sure I could get them through properly. Once everything was in place I just used a sharp craft knife to cut off the ends.

I then added iron straps using shrink tube and painted the straps and the anchors. I will not go into detail on the painting as I have previously described all these techniques when I did the straps on the boom jaws and when I painted the cannons.
 
Here is the final results. In the end I am pretty pleased with how they turned out and they look reasonably like the real thing.

 

Thank you very much, John!

Use a section of Flexi-file sandpaper to do the final cleanup of the openings. 

 

The introductory pictures of this kit are very promising (indeed, the instruction booklet reminds a lot the style of the WnW's). In addition, a Spitfire cannot be missed.
Cheers,
Dan

Very nicely done!

What a sharp looking plane you have, Dave! Very well executed, the paint finish is spotless and it looks wonderful with its vivid livery.
Congrats,
Dan

CAF is legitimate.  They are a MSW Sponsor/Advertiser.  Check the right hand column of the home page.
 

I'm not sure where to post this question, so here it is:
Under Guidelines there are companies that aren't allowed for reasons stated. My question is about CAF Models and if they are on, or perhaps should be on the list, or are they a  legitimate company that honors copywritten protections of other's creations?
Admin: if this isn't the correction place , let me know where it is refiled, or respond to me by PM..
V/R
R. Chisum

Hello community,
As a newcomer, I naturally also have an opinion on this.
I think you should go for a higher quality kit as a first kit to avoid frustration.
I speak from experience. My new start was with Victory Models. The material and accuracy of fit were perfect.
My current kit comes from the company Occre, which calls itself the market leader in Europe.
My model is explicitly advertised as a beginner's model.
Well, funny is different, if this had been my first kit I might have given up the hobby again.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

I've continued to work on the keel. I pulled the parts from the billets and prepped them. Chuck has mentioned that the wood is so thick it's pushing the laser cutting to the extreme. You can see the wedges and how the laser cut tapers. It doesn't cause any issues though. The wedges were assembled, cut to match the plans and added to the lower apron. Next I will be adding the rising wood and working on the deadwood and wedges that go on the deadwood.
 
 

Good early afternoon all.  Its spring here in Delware, everything is growing, it won't stop raining, time for an update.
 
I finished the rudder.  After all my trials trying to blacken the brass strips I ended up painting.  Abbadon black, which covers very well.  Paint definitely obscures some detail but I'm going to live with it.

After all that work drilling holes, and as I suspected would happen, its hard to see the bolt heads.  I do think my stern/rudder gap is satisfyingly small, the rudder does swing side to side, and I will take it as a win and Finally Move On.  There will be a touch-up painting later on but for now I removed the rudder and stored it in a hopefully-safe-but-not-so-safe-that-I-can't-find-it-later location.
 
I had planned to build the ship's base and brackets next but hadn't been able to work up much enthusiasm.  So instead I built a work/storage cradle, a much simpler task.

It holds the ship quite securely (we have "hey lets knock this over" cats who don't respect anything or anyone) and I don't know why I didn't make one before. 
 
Next up per the Lauk Street Practicum is making the oar ports.  These are a nice feature that reminds you of the smaller size of this model and I like the diagonal placement.  Each port is located about 1/4" from a gunport.  I cut out a strip of cardboard, drew a 45 degree triangle and cut out a strip the correct length of the port.  Push the template up against the sheer strake and draw the line.  For the port side I flipped the template over.  Easy.

Then drill holes- smaller ones at each end and a bigger one in the middle.  I clamped a piece of backing wood to the inner bulwarks while drilling to minimize tearout, which mostly worked.  The small bits go right through the backing wood no problem so watch your fingers; I poked myself twice by holding too close to where I was drilling.  Then I used a combination of my smallest Veritas chisel, a new scalpel blade, my smallest round file, and cloth backed sandpaper I cut into very thin strips to further refine the holes.
 
Of some concern is the condition of the deck railing, which has been covered with blue tape for months.  It has some dents and some tape adhesive "grunge" to be dealt with.  I do NOT want to remake these so It'll be very light coats of alcohol to dissolve the glue residue followed by gentle water and my trusty mini-iron (usually used for plank bending) to see if I can swell out the dents.  I said it before; I should have waited to put the deck railings on.  Or at the very least not sanded them down to finished width until I was done handling the hull so much.  Next time...
 
I did pop a short, not well attached, piece of inner bulwark planking out while drilling, which I am gluing back into position below.

And thats where my AVS stands today. 
 
And finally, reading material.  I have been going 1 chapter a night for a while in Grant Walker's new book; it is amazing.  Heavily researched, lots of great close-up shots of the exterior and endoscopic shots of the interiors as well.  Can't recommend it enough.  And he talks about an upcoming 4th volume...

 
Ok thats it, have a peaceful evening.  thanks for reading
 
cisco

Nicely done,  Congratulations.   

An excellent first model, Chris!
 
John

Well done and congratulations!  🎉

Looks great! Congratulations!

Congratulations and well done!

Well done and a nice presentation, Chris. You can be proud of the result.

So I made a little tub for the trawl line. I thought the bottom at about 3/4" looked good but after building it became a little larger...I did it all by eye and didn't taper the first few enough so I tapered the next couple a lot to get it back on track. I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt.
Soaked some strips I cut from 1/16" material and wrapped them and allowed to dry. I carved the inside leg of the clothes pin rounded so it didn't put any flattening pressure on the inside of the tub. Pro tip- when gluing the bands on, line the seams up so they can be hidden in the back... ahem...
 

 
 
 
And the star of the show, the Dory. I will call it officially complete, although I will add the tub to the base and make a case for it.
 
I used Minwax Golden Pecan 245 for the oars and the thwarts. This I think gave them just a hint of color. I decorated the oars with a layer of fine Corinthian leather. When installing the leather wraps, my suggestion is to shave the leather thinner than you think it should be. I did the math so you don't have to, about 11 molecules of leather thick is about right. 👍 So get out a sharp blade and your magnifier!
I also installed and glue treated the becket ropes. Gave things a light coat of renaissance wax and that is about all there is!
This was great fun and I'm looking forward to the next build!
 
Chris
 

To the best of my knowledge, there hasn't been a Ferrari I didn't like. Ever. I've only known one person who was a Ferrari owner and he owned two. He had a job and a salary very similar to my own, so I was very curious as how the heck he did it. According to him, from time-to-time, you can buy a Ferrari that needs work for a reasonable price. On top of that, he had learned to do all his own work making repairs. I had always assumed (incorrectly I suppose) all Ferraris cost a small fortune.

Are you talking about the air vents at the top side/rear of the doors? The 288 GTO has some vents almost identical to those. The main thing is, you want those "tubes" that fit on the back side of the body to give the appearance of being an intake tube when viewed from outside the body. You could probably use some short pieces of Plastruct tube to make a pair if you must. You just need something that hides any view of daylight beyond the opening. You won't see them from the bottom when it's all together.

Thanks as always for the likes.
 
I've finished the details under the front bonnet, shown in the first photo.  I did not bother with any attempt to add detail, as most of the stuff is covered up by a plastic cover and the spare tire, as shown in the slightly blurry second photo.
 
I just need to put the interior on the chassis and proceed with the body.

Post 17
The Journey resumes.
 
My Medway Longboat has been quietly maturing on the stocks for the past year whilst I have been building Indefatigable.
 
Time to get back on the job, eh Gromit.

4646

4648
With a year away from the build I need to re-acquaint myself with the current stage before I begin, and a re-read of Chuck’s  log and other excellent group builds is where I start.
 
B.E.
13/05/2024

This is as good as modeling gets, an incredibly stunning  image. It's like you hit the pause button on a video. I am in awe.