Ryland Craze

It has been a while since I posted my progress on my Medway Longboat.  The world has changed a lot since my last post.
 
I have completed the painting using many coats of thinned Grumbacher Red Cadmium Medium Hue.  I am satisfied with the outcome.  It found that I achieved a better finish using a fatter round brush than the one that I posted a picture of in a previous post.  I believe it laid down a much smoother coat than the smaller brush and the color was a consistent flat, slightly satin finish.
 





I have a few more items to complete and I will be finished with the hull.  Please stay safe.

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.

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.

THANK YOU JOHANN AND DAVE, AND ALL THE LIKES!
 
WELL I AM STARTING TO DEAL WITH ALL FURNITURE AND BITS N PIECES AS I SAY ON BOTH MODELS. SO I WILL BE JUMPING BACK AND FORTH ON BOTH MODELS. BECAUSE THIS SMALL STUFF IS A BIT OF A CHALLENGE. THE DECK-HOUSE AND COMPANIONWAYS ALONE TOOK ABOUT AN HOUR EACH. THEY HAVE ALL THE TRIM TO DO. TAKES FOREVER.
 
 
 

After an almost sleepless night, I decided to remove ALL the deck planks and start over.  So I used water and lifted the planks from the false deck.  Since I’m pretty impatient, I used too much water which caused the center of the swiss pear false deck to warp.  I cut out about an inch of warped wood and cut a piece to replace it.  The deck is now cleared for action and I’m ready to try again.
 

You can see the old deck planks on the right which will find a place in my trash bin.  The hatches are able to be re-used.  I need to do more sanding and create new tick strips.
 

Thanks guys, sounds like a plan. You're right EJ_L, if I wait for my next build it could be a while! 
 
Hi Ryland...I'll attempt to post some of my historic building pics now. The subjects I choose are usually local (Albany and Rensselaer counties in NY) and almost always have some kind of personal connection. One represents the building as it appeared when built (Sherman farmhouse, Pittstown NY), one as it appeared shortly before it was torn down (early 18th century Albany Dutch home in the 1940s) ) and another "exploded" view to show how the Dutch used brick veneer on timber frames (Van Alen house, KInderhook NY). 

Thanks for the likes everyone and thanks for coming by.
 
I didn't thin the primer. I just used it right out of the bottle. The paint is supposed to be about the consistency of milk and the primer seemed to be about like milk. 
 
Let's hope I can do a nice job painting the 3 colors on the hull. The primer was just opening act. The main event is yet to come!

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.

Well I tried out my new airbrush for the first time today and it's awesome! 
 
 I had previously sprayed a filler primer on the hull and sanded it a bit. Today, I decided to use my airbrush to spray the hull with Vallejo Gray Surface Primer and it's much, much better than using a rattle can. I started off with my small cup with 10 drops of paint in it and quickly found out that I needed to switch to my largest cup. I put 30 drops of primer in it and added 3 drops of Vallejo Flow Improver to it and it seemed to work fine for me. 
 
I'll most definitely try out my larger fan nozzle the next time I prime a hull. The small 0.3 mm regular nozzle had too small of a spray pattern and it took a lot of passes to get consistent coverage. 
 
I don't know if I needed the Flow Improver but I had read good things about it where people saying their nozzles don't clog when they use it. So I decided to give it a go.
 
I don't know anything about what pressure to use so I just used the compressor as it came out of the box. It showed about 22 PSI when I was spraying. The video that came with the kit said it is capable of up to 65 PSI. 
 
I also took the airbrush apart and cleaned everything. I know that I need to at least clean the cup and spray cleaning fluid through the airbrush until it is clear but I'm not how sure I need to do the complete cleaning. It was pretty simple to do so I figured it would be a good idea.
 
I may never use a rattle can again!
 
 

Well done so far, Jeff! You chose a great model to build and saved yourself a lot of confusion and frustration by starting with a model that has instructions that are as good as they come. 
 
The best piece of advice that was given to me when I was starting out was to slow down, take my time and enjoy the building process. To that I'll add, read ahead a few steps in the instructions so you can better see where your current step is taking you and refer often to your plans for measurements and further understanding of what you are doing.
 
I look forward to seeing following your progress.

I always look at the end of the section I'm working on, if I know what it's supposed to look like when its done its easier following the instructions to get me there. As others noted the first planking serves only as a base for the second.  Be comfortable sanding the heck out of it and using wood filler as necessary. The smoother that base becomes the easier and better looking is the the 2nd planking.
 
Think through any tapering you might need to do on the 2nd planking, better yet look at BE's and James builds, they've done one or two so steal, I mean learn whatever you can from their build on the second planking - even if its not in the words you'll see things in the photos. Believe me I'm doing that with my first scratch build in Cheerful - I have 4 particular build logs I look at, only at the post and pages that are at and just after the step I'm on. That's the best thing about this forum, you're not alone. Stealing, I mean adopting the best practices of others is how we all get better. If all else fails leave the area a few up from the keel and below the curve of the side until last. If you have to fill it in, fill it in a place where you can't see it when it's sitting on the shelf. Don't tell anybody I told you that, the perfectionists just fell off their chairs. Me I never make a mistake, that I can't hide.
 
I'm a big fan of @chris watton and Vanguard Models, I'm first in line (at least in my mind) for his shipwright version of HMS Flirt and already have HMS Speedy. I believe you chose wisely, not only because of the superb instructions but because Chris is a world class designer. AND he's on this forum so you can always ask the guy who designed or his ace master builder @James H any question.
 
Here's my modeling maxim: It won't all go perfect, mistakes are a part of the process. The best fun is to Adapt, Improvise, Overcome. Clint Eastwood borrowed that quote from me, no wait - I stole it from him. Have fun, power through any frustrating moments, get to the other side and enjoy your work.  That's my whole list of platitudes for the day, I'm all out now.

Next up was the start of the first layer of planking. This was the point as a newbie I was dreading. Just hoping I could muddle thru this step without ruining the model. While the planking may not be great I was able to complete the first layer. 

After deciding to try out this hobby I made my first mistake.  I selected a ship that had poor instructions and did not have a single build log on this site. I have put that model on the shelf for now and decided to look for a model more fitting to be built by a newcomer.  After seeing and reading the build logs by James H and BE I was very interested in building the Lady Eleanor for my first ship build. The Vanguard model site had the complete manual for this kit available for reading. That convinced me that between the other build logs and the very complete instructions that this was a good kit for a total newbies first build.
 
The model is extremely well built and the directions take a beginner thru the steps assuming you know very little about ship building and terminology. I really appreciate the instruction detail and there are plenty of photos to help visually with the build. The initial building of the bulkheads on to the false keel was very easy. The bulkheads fit snugly into the keel and required no squaring.
 
Here is the ship assembled with the bulkhead and sub structure put together. 

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.

Copper plating is finally complete. This was by far the most satisfying part of the build. Especially with the last plate being installed.
 
Overall, it was not too bad, especially after I became very proficient in removing the backing from the tape. 

I feel like the first row was the most important since all copper plates will follow the shape, so definitely take your time with this! Also the shape naturally came out by making sure the plates overlap the same distance throughout all plates. Another note, make sure that the planks are completely smooth and any gaps between the planks are filled in. I did not 100% do this and I can slightly see some plank lines that are under some plates. 

To anyone who is copper plating, I highly recommend listening to a podcast. Some podcasts I discovered and also recommend are No Such Thing as a Fish and Reply All. One episode from Reply All which I whole heatedly recommend is called "Long Distance" (Episodes 102 and 103). Listening to podcasts made time fly by and also made copper plating very enjoyable. 
 
Here are photos showing different angles:

 

 

 

 

 

 


Some other photos with a dark table which I think helps show the pattern more.

 

 

 

 
Photo with the deck:

 
Bonus photo of the messy work area 😄

 
Crazy how different it looks with different lightings and backgrounds...

Thanks again for the warm welcome everyone. I have a quick question that I'll ask here despite there almost certainly being better places to ask it (forgive the newbie). I'm probably 80% along on the whaleboat I mentioned in my intro. I started it last Fall with a hiatus or two along the way. The question is whether a build closer to completion than its beginning qualifies for a build log? I have taken photos along the way but not specifically intended to illustrate specific techniques. Most were taken with my phone and intended to show friends and family how it was coming along. There are already several good build logs here on this particular subject but I think my take on this boat represents an alternate approach that some might find useful/interesting. It's also possible that the final 20% of this build could take me as long as some of you knock off ships of the line!  

Hello all...newbie to ship/boat models here but not to making little things. My primary focus is miniature replicas of historic buildings but I’m quickly learning a lot of the skills and techniques I’ve developed doing that lend themselves fairly well to my first attempt in at least a couple decades at a proper wooden boat model (MS New Bedford Whaleboat). I went with that particular kit as a result of one of my other hobbies (genealogy) and the fact that I actually thought it would be a nice, relaxing, breeze of a first build (famous last words). It turns out that a few of my long-lost ancestors from both mom and dad's lines put in time on whaling vessels (one on the Morgan) and this kit would be a nice little tribute. Thanks to the New Bedford Whaling Museum for their wonderfully extensive ship crew database and making it freely available online to the public. Don’t worry, there weren’t any officers in the family, just restless teenagers from Massachusetts and Connecticut who probably had few options and no clue what they’d gotten themselves into. I’ll bet they had some interesting stories to tell when they made it back to the farm in New England! But I digress. I tend to digress a lot. Just tell me to stop, My wife does it all the time. 
So, to make a long story longer, I stumbled on this forum recently while trying to find a source for realistic miniature rope (thanks Chuck) and also found a real gold mine of absurdly humble craftspeople whose willingness to share their experience/talents/knowledge with those of us a little further back on the learning curve is a real treat and greatly appreciated. Hopefully I can make a contribution myself every now and again. Looking forward to being a part of the crew...Patrick.

As one of those in the trenches adding the tags, It's going to take a bit for us to go through all the build logs.   They are a great way to find additional logs for a given topic or ship.

I didn't work on the dory much for a bit, but I got back to it and finished the main sail (wish I'd chosen a thread with less contrast, maybe) and made the little cleats which was kind of fun and satisfying. I like the little fiddly bits like the cleats and the mast step. I must have made the wire hoops for the sail/mast too big because I barely have any left for the boom, but at this point it's clearly the S.S. Good Enough! Currently puzzling a little over the rope traveler in the back but I think I basically get what it's supposed to look like/do.
 

I'm going to take a moment here before I start bumbling through the rigging to allow myself a sense of accomplishment. It's taken forever, I've asked one million questions, and I've made significant errors at every step, but here we are. 

As for applying the CA glue, look at the tip of the month in this link (near the bottom)
 
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1105166336677&ca=64bf22da-704d-496c-8e70-95bc1220ea79

Ok, Take II. I started a build and a build log, got very discouraged because it's a beginner's model and I found myself stymied by something new at every step, and scrapped the build log assuming I wasn't going to continue. I've taken a couple of deep breaths and am going to give it another go. 
 
Here's the image from after I assembled the frames, placed them (incorrectly) on the bottom piece, and attached the stem and transom (possibly also not quiet correctly.) I'm about one step past that and about to cross my fingers and see how planking goes. 
 
 
 

Hi all done the advance and retard mechanism and started on the throttle linkages