Ryland Craze

Ok, this log is going to be very brief as it simply highlights the work I've done over the last week. 
 
The subject of this is the 33' Royal/Admiral's Barge that I've built for the Vanguard web store, hence why this has been brief. The kit itself has been designed using Admiralty drawings and has minimal construction save for the essentials which would otherwise impede the painting job you'll need to do. The hull is very much complete and is printed in 3D.
 
The hull is printed in grey resin, and they are ultrasonically cleaned. It's still prudent to prepare the surfaces with a good quality primer. I use Tamiya Fine Surface which etches itself into the surface to create a stable base for your paint.

 
Now this is where, in my opinion, I went wrong. The hull needs to be painted to represent a wood colour, and my choices wee too 'orange' in appearance. If I was to do this again, I'd use Desert Sand Yellow instead of Flesh, and a warmer oil paint. The grain is created by dragging the oil over the acrylic base colour, using fine sponge.


 
The first timber parts are now added to the bow, with the vertical part needing bevelling on the rear face. This can now be painted in red.

 
 
The hull now has the exterior wood finish masked off. For this model, there wasn't a waterline added, but instead the first two lower strakes are masked off. You can see I used the tape for a convenient place to remove excess paint while painting the black and red colours. The internal panels require a tactic to make sure they are properly painted. Firstly, they were entirely painted in gold. When dry, the red was added as a thin red wash which floods around the lower areas of the relief. Cheating? Yes, but the results are easy to obtain.


 
 
Paint is removed from the inside keel so that the pearwood floor will adhere properly.

 
 
The rear seating is now fitted, along with the two parts which sit at the end of the seating. All this is now painted in red.

 
 
The floor is now fitted.

 
 
Breaking off the hull to get the base built. This is simple, and the supports are handed, so there's a front and rear. I mark which is which on the underside of the base. You can leave this in natural pear, or paint in a suitable colour. For mine, I decided to blast it in Games Workshop Chaos Black spray. 


 
 
The rudder is made up as a typical sandwich. This is then painted and the card hinges are fitted. These hinges are only applicable to the 1:48 version.


 
 
The rudder is now fitted and the other end of the hinges glued to the model.

 
 
The oars are now shaped and fitted to the model. I sat a sanding sponge along each side of the hull in a suitable place so that the oars could droop onto it evenly along the length. 
 
And that folks, is it! My shortest build log, but you may find it useful if you wish to build this gorgeous little model kit.

@etsinko 's Build log for MK's "Polotsk" is a reference I used for my (incomplete) build.
 
Near the conclusion of his build, he mentioned to me the following:
...there were a few custom parts involved:
1. I used aftermarket lasercut grating
2. I made my own ropes
3. I used aftermarket wooden belaying pins instead of brass one that came with the kit
 
Personally, I lament the inability to purchase scale-accurate belaying pins from Russia. The available brass ones that are close in scale work but one must paint or chemically treat them.

I believe they have, only as you pointed out we can no longer purchase their kits here due to the present geopolitical situation. I'm sure we all hope that things will be resolved soon for the sake of everyone involved. We have modeling friends on both sides.
 
As for rigging, I am not planning to add sails. As I outlined earlier, I plan to replace ALL the rigging line in the kit, since the supplied rigging line is the kit's biggest weakness. Doing so won't be cheap, so I plan to economize a bit by adding only the standing rigging and minimal amount of running rigging, e.g. lifts.
 
P.S. I should add that this build will be taking another brief hiatus soon, as I currently have another project on its way here from Poland (which should provide a hint on the nature of the new project), but I won't disclose what the subject is until I get the build started. 😉
 
 

Your work on this very nice kit is excellent, Chris.
It is truly unfortunate that we can no longer acquire this kit (or any others from this Russian manufacturer). I purchased a Master Korabel kit pre-Ukraine/Insane invasion; it was a superb kit that was developing into a very nice model when I suspended work on it (schooner Polotsk kit, 1788). The 1:72-scale innovative kit design came with high-quality materials throughout (laser cut pear and excellent P/E) as well as a decent visual, non-English manual.
 
I wonder if the company has survived the madness? IMHO, Russian and Ukrainian ship modelers are some of the finest in the world.
I'll be very interested to see your work on the rigging. Sails?

The fashion pieces have been added. Like other parts, these were pre-cut (BTW, I found out that these pieces are cut from 'black hornbeam' -- since hornbeam isn't black, these pieces must have been dyed, as I previously supposed), but they did not fit in the allowable space. I needed to cut them into two parts, trim a little off of the curved section, and then glue the separate parts to the hull.
 

Congratulations, Kevin, on finishing this striking model. I can't believe it only took you six months!! 😮

Kevin,
  Incredible work!

Brilliant to see it done, and so quickly too. Excellent work!

link to the gallery
https://modelshipworld.com/gallery/album/2979-belle-poule-1834-by-kevin-occre-190-french-frigate/
 
 

Good evening, everyone.
Well after 183 days that is the Belle Poule completed, there are several things I may do in the future, like add more ships boats, and some extra rope coils.
I started this build June 2024 having put the Indefatigable to one side due to personal reasons, but felt the need to do something, I set aside a six-month time slot and build just OOB.
Very quickly I concluded that as she is a large vessel, I needed to do some things to her to set her aside from other builds, so OOB went out of the window.
Copper tiling was added, I may have gone a bit small in tile size but the result was ok
Deadeyes were not used on this vessel but a type of turnbuckle, although not that realistic I made these up rather than bare brass wire
Gunports, I wanted them shut with muzzles poking through, with meant increasing the height of the carriages and filing the muzzle ends down the fit through
Hammocks I made individually, rather than the one piece folded
Belaying pins changed from being oversized to 1/64 scale brass ones
I discarded the OcCre rigging thread and used another company and down scaled everything
Blocks, the kit supplied 4mm single and double this was reduced to 3mm and various other sizes based on my limited skills.
I reduced a lot of the deck fittings in height, like pin rails, and added some things like the chicken run under the deck fitted ships boat
I quite happy with how she turned out
I would like to thank OcCre and James Hatch for passing the kit to me for review and build
Thank you to all that followed and with likes and comments
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Absolutely a work of art.  I love the second picture.  It is so realistic.

That is definitely something I would not mind having on my shelves sir. Very nicely done!

Here are the two BR86 locomotives together:

They will both get their clear coat, decals, and any weathering around the time that I build and finish the Dora railway gun. Not sure when I will get to that as I want to get back to some wooden ship model work, I need to get my 1:48 Phantom and my 1:16 Hydroplane models completed. As those make progress, I really want to dive back in to the 1:48 L'Invention scratch build I started quite a while ago. But there may also be some time for a plastic side project as well - the D51 Slag could happen in the not too distant future! 
 

Today I put the BR86 together after painting the 'steel' brake pads and tires. Here is the mostly finished product:

It will get a clear coat, decals, and windows later. The amount of weathering will also be determined later.
 
But for now - done!

Thanks for all the recommendations. you are right there are numerus hobby / art supply stores here. The apple wood that I am collecting is for a future build.

Art supply stores will often have a variety of basswood sheets and dowels too (I go to the locally-owned one frequented by art students in the local colleges, but I imagine that a place like Michael's or maybe Hobby Lobby (in the US) might have them too). I've seen a bunch of basswood (and balsa wood) on Amazon too.
 
If you ever need a wood (in strips and sheets in various model-sized dimensions) other than basswood for a future model, there are a few places you can order them from. I had to replace a walnut dowel for a Vanguard model and I ordered it from agesofsail.com (they have wood from the same supplier - I think Occre - that Vanguard sources from). I ordered some wood from Model Expo (as part of another order) but it wasn't as nice as the wood from https://www.modelerssawmill.com (which is what Syren Ship Model Company recommends). I'm sure others have other recommendations. 

You are doing a fine job and flexing your problem-solving muscles really well! You are a natural for ship model work. The issue with some species of wood is that they are not consistent in density, as you've discovered. You can either coax the piece or, if it doesn't comply, cut another pieces to the same pattern - assuming you have sufficient stock.

All those drawings add up to plenty of inspiration.
The copy of the Van de Velde grisaille “enlarges” nicely.
It has an enormous amount of detail.
 
Back to your model  ………… you are a quick builder.
Looks like the gold leaf will work out well.
 
Mike

The detailing is indeed amazing. The man used a reed-pen. Look at the hatching:
 

I've been lucky enough to see a couple of those grisailles and they are wonderful things! Especially looking closely at them.

Just like you said: I get them. I help a befriended art dealer with some explanatory texts and information on his maritime paintings, and sometimes he finds things that are not very profitable as merchandise, but gold in the hands of fools like me. He understands my madness.
Earlier he donated a beautiful life-size copy of a Van de Velde grisaille, which hangs in my living now.

I could not agree more. Getting a feel for the ship/boat or whatever it is puts me in a whole different mindset when it comes to tackling the model. It's kind of personal if that makes sense.

I guess it depends on how people get drawn into this hobby. I didn't grow up by the sea or have any particular interest in naval history or have some family connection. I suppose if someone did, that would draw them to a particular subject. I did discover that a distant uncle died in the sinking of a ship of the line that was a sister ship of the Victory - and in fact entertained the idea years ago of trying to model that ship - but that was just passing interest before I ever bought my first model kit. I had no interest in any particular ship, or time period, so that wouldn't answer the question for me. So starting with that would have not led me to a model ship.
 
For me it was just wanting a hobby after my younger son went away to college. I hadn't realized how much time I had spent with him, going to his soccer and hockey games, taking him places for sports and other activities on weekends. My wife is also a university professor and she has been able to quilt as a hobby for nearly as long as we've been together. I just never really had a hobby outside of cooking (which is dual use) and a bit of genealogy over the years (the next steps of which require full-time research since I've exhausted what's available on ancestry and other online sources). I ended up deciding to buy a model ship after stopping at Bluejacket on a vacation to Maine. I thought, why not. I also got a plastic model tank (which is almost done) and a plastic model ship (which I haven't started). I didn't necessarily think the wooden ship would really capture my interest. I was always drawn to model ships (and dioramas and things of that sort more generally) when I saw them in museum, but I didn't necessarily think I'd end up building one. Given the stash I've accumulated, I sure hope the interest keeps going.

@Glen McGuire there are 1,200 glove hitchs, 600 per side. Yyeehhaa!!!..
 The cannons are in the paint shop so I am making a list of things I need to study.
This is a big ship,  after looking at Chris beautiful   Duchess of Kingston , by Vanguard Models , now I got to look at this huge horse barge. 

Up first is drilling holes for the crowsfeet on all masts.


Many more notes have to be looked at into, the list  continues.  I have to find all the parts and try to figure it out.  Rodney has got gunport llids made of wood in the box , but has the kit lids installed on the ship. I t looks like there is errors in the plan an instructions 🙃 😕 😅.  And he had to move some of them didn't like it so he put the kit lids on. I have to see why latter.
 It would be a lot easier if I could talk to Rodney, but he can't remember anything about ships. It so sad to see my friend this way. That's why I got to do a good job,   "For Rodney  "  .

Also for the next few days I will be tracing the plans, and making diagrams for the ratlines. . This morning I hit my first roadblock, whether to attempt this. I was looking at Bugs Pegasus log, to is awesome, and almost  decided to change ships lol. I need to do this one. I need practice on my ratlines.  Because  
The next model I buy will be the one that I will try to do the best. 
 


There is so much to do its like I first joined
the excitement of starting a build.
 I have found much useful information from Rodney's notes, and what I can find on the net. The Frist Mate just this morning showed me how to put pictures in my files so I can study them closer up. It's a life saver. Lol  So giddy up partner's, lol I just thought we might even see Texas long horns soon LOL. Hang tight @Glen McGuire I got to go round them up lol
 
Just Bob M. for now.     

Well done, Bob!  You rose to the challenge and put together a great model!  It was a treat to be a small part of it.
Clear skies and sharp tools,
Gabe