Ryland Craze

Several members have added Indexes to "Points of Interest" to their Build Logs. This helps both themselves and others to quickly find the page or post to certain items during the course of construction - e.g. selecting "Capstan" will take you directly to the first post dealing with it's construction.
 
Here's how you do it :
 
The Index is merely a collection of Links. For those of you familiar with the method of creating a Link you can skip this next bit.
 
How to create a Link :
 
Find the Post you want to create a Link to, preferably by opening MSW in a separate Window. RIGHT Click on the Post Number :
 

 
This will bring up a Menu. Click on "Copy Link Location" :
 

 
Click on the "Edit" button in the post you want to create a Link :
 

 
Select the word (or words) that you want to turn into a Link by dragging your mouse across it while holding down the left button or using Shift + Arrow on the keyboard :
 

 
Click on the "Add Link" Button in the menu bar :
 

 
This brings up a small Menu. RIGHT Click in the "URL" bar. Make sure the cursor is inside the bar. Click "Paste" in the menu :
 

 
The Link is now attached to your selected word/s.
 
Example of an Index
 
It's helpful to place the Index in the first post of your Build Log, but if you can't do that for whatever reason you could create a Link to the Index page in the first post of the Log.
 
You can Format the text in the usual way (font, size color etc)
 

Al,
To upload photos, There is a link at the bottom of the editor "More Reply Options", click on this. It will open up a more advanced editor. At the bottom is a button "Choose Files". This will open the dialog to upload files. Once the file is uploaded, there will be a link "Add to Post" beneath the file name. This will add text that looks like: (square bracket)attachment=210587:Strong_Back.jpg(square bracket)
You can place this anywhere in your text. There is a button "Preview Post" that will load up what you have typed with the images so you can get an idea how it looks. If you are still having problem PM me and maybe we can figure this out.
 
Al are you still on active duty?
 
Good Luck,

Thanks to several members who gave help in uploading photos.
 
 

The photo above was taken about December 16, 2014.  I was well on my way in the planking process.
 
 

The finished work on basswood planking. 
Here is a view of the model as of today, January 23, 2015. 
 

All planking with .025 walnut, oak and jatoba is yet to come.
 

I have been studying material on planking to improve on the walnut on the lower hull to have as good a look as possible.  I am using DAP DryDex spackling for fill in some low spots and gaps in the hull.  More cleanup is required before I continue planking. 
 
I soaked the basswood planks for up to several hours before applying to the hull with cyano adhesive.  It worked well except in the bow area where the wet planks went straight from bulkhead to bulkhead in a relatively straight line creating a depression.  If I do this style of construction again I will place basswood fillers between bulkheads to provide a "fair" bend where the curvature takes place.

Hi Everyone,
Well The weekend is over and I have made some progress. Most of the progress was in researching and planning my next move. I spent 3 days planning where to put everything. My skipjack is very close in size to the Willie Bennet, so I did not want to use the same deck layout. I was hoping to put the second cabin midship like on EC Collier and Kathryn, but there was not enough room. So I believe my only concession to be different is that the forward cabin will have a flat roof and not sloped like the Willie Bennet.
The living accommodations on the Skipjacks were pretty slim. The headroom in the aft cabin on the Willie Bennet was only 3-1/2 feet. On the EC Collier (50') which was 7 feet longer, the headroom was 5 feet in the aft cabin and 3-1/2 feet in the midship cabin. Apparently the second cabin on Skipjacks was only big enough to lay down in and the aft (main) cabin was barely big enough to sit and cook in.
 
I got back to work on the boat and added the aft strongback, the forward strongback with knees and started adding the ceiling floor in the fo'c'sle cabin.

Hi Everyone,
Well I spent the past 3 days planking the Ceiling Floor in the hold and the forward cabin. Next I think I am going to finish the deck beams and the forward cabin bulkhead and bunks. I need to stat planning for paining as well. I want to paint the interior before I glue the deck beams on. Ben Lankford in his book stated that the interior of the boats were painted grey. I would have thought the interior would have been white to reflect as much light as possible. I guess I will look for a light grey. I have not decided weather to paint the interior by brush or airbrush. When I have been around wooden boats the interior seems to have had a buildup of paint on all of the surfaces. I am planning on airbrushing the hull.

Well, I promised "better" on the main ratlines and I hope I've kept that promise. Practice may not make perfect, but it does make better. I've always found that avoiding distortion of the shrouds is the hardest part of doing ratlines, but it gets easier as you get into the rythym. It's a shame that you only get to do these every couple of years or so -- it takes a while to remember what you learned in the previous efforts.   
 
With that overly long introduction, I've now finished the lower main ratlines. Now, on to the mizzen.
 
Bob
 
 

My previous attempt – The Albatros  by Constructo – was just that, an attempt. Because of pure ignorance and inexperience, I made many fundamental mistakes not helped by lack of proper tools, and what I now know were less than good instructions and merely adequate materials.
 
But I don’t regret it, it was so instructive, and has encouraged me to go onward and upward rather than be discouraged. Not that my current effort is going to be fault free, far from it I expect, but at least I’m better equipped, mentally and physically.
 
First off the Lady Nelson is a better piece of kit, mind you it should be, it cost upwards of £40.00 more, but the superior quality materials and documentation became immediately obvious as I opened the box. Having said that the ‘Building manual’ has less detail than the one with the Constructo kit, but its better written and additionally has not one, but five 70 x 50cm ‘Assembly Sheets’ which are beautifully produced and so helpful.
 
Well I say helpful, there are actually not one but two errors in the plans, on Sheet One bulkhead part numbers 2 and 3 and the two sets of plank termination patterns, part numbers 16 and 17 are transposed which could lead to disaster, but fortunately the errors are obvious when you present the parts to their supposed locations.
 
Note that much of what I write in this build log is going to appear naive, in-experienced and even wrong. Helpful observations would be appreciated.
 
The Build
 
The hull construction was completed relatively easily. I made two big mistakes which could have had awful consequences; I managed to snap the ‘walnut prow’ (part no. 21) in two pieces extracting it from the laser cut sheet! Gluing the two pieces back together seems to have worked, but it’s bound to affect its tensile strength. Secondly I completely forgot to glue the last and smallest bulkhead (part no. 10) in place before I glued the false deck in place. Thankfully I was able to tap it into place after.
 
Ensuring the bulkheads are correctly aligned which is vital of course, is actually made much easier by dry fitting the false deck in position as the bulkheads ‘set’. In this way the deck acts as a jig.
 
The (infamous) walnut prow, keel and rudder post were then fitted and left to dry before the false deck was finally glued in position – temporarily held in place with pins until dry. The fiddly stern counter frames were glued in place, each set allowed to dry before the next was fitted (not shown in the photos).
 
There remains the two bulwark strips to fit (they are currently soaking in warm water to facilitate easier bending), then after a thorough sanding is done and I can say the hull construction is complete.
 
I am under no illusion; this was the easy bit. The planking of the hull now follows, and I am approaching it with trepidation as I consider this the trickiest part of the build, which can make or break the whole endeavour!
 

Update on the planking.  Starboard side is complete and only a few more planks to go on the port side. (Phew!!   )  One thing I’ve discovered is that even the best laid plans can go awry.  After carefully laying out the planking profile for the hull I’ve ended up using a few partial planks at the center of the hull.  I didn’t bother shading the edges of the planks to simulate the caulking since the hull is going to be plated.
 
Starboard side, not sanded yet.                                               Port side with a few planks left to go.
   
 
 
Bow

 
I’ve also started planking the counter.  Planks around the tuck look a little ragged but they should clean up okay with the final sanding.

 
 
On a separate note, I’ve always had a hard time keeping a square edge on the little pieces of wood that I sand. To help me do a better job I made a little disc sander for my dremel flex-extension with some scrap pieces of wood.  I made a holder that the end of the extension sits in and is clamped in place.  For the disc I used a cap from a vitamin bottle and cut out round pieces of sandpaper, of different grit, held in place with double sided tape.  Now I can sand the ends square or at an angle using different drafting triangles.
 

This was the day I received the box in the post. Initial impression (following the initial gasps of delight) were how good the laser-cut pieces looked swiftly followed by how many of them there were! This was July 2012!
 
 
 
 
 
 

Until today the Pride has not had any love.  I have been enjoying two young bird dogs I now have and work keeps me away from home.  It’s been a tough 2014 with my mother in law not being well and passing.  Now my mom is fighting cancer so needless to say life has me on the ropes and the hits keep coming.  Ok enough complaining and making excuses.
 
 
So I decided in addition to the dogs maybe doing a little modeling might help lighten the strain I have been under.  I finished up planking the Starboard side this afternoon.  It did not turn out as well as I hoped.  I was hoping this job would be perfect, ok I have given up that dream.  I had to add some joggle planks where they don’t belong due to plank ends were going to look like pennants.  Still after initial sanding it’s not all bad for my second shot at planking a hull.  Once paint is on it will look great to anyone but fellow model shipwrights.

A belated welcome to JesseLee. And Welcome Dave and Druxey.
 
Thank you everyone for all the complements and the likes.
 
Cap'n'Bob, I like the detail of the framing and the cross planking as well. It it is a shame to hide it, I just hope the ceiling floor will look good enough to make up for it. What is really a shame, is the whole thing will be painted except for the wainscoting in the aft cabin.
 
Marty, after drilling a couple of holes in the keelson and trying to join the holes together, I decided I really did not want a working centerboard. Maybe next time.
 
My first foray into scratch building should have been with a set of plans, not a book showing how easy it is to build a skipjack. If I was to do it all over again I would build the EC Collier. The plans are very detailed and combined with the information for the Willie Bennet, would make a beautiful and detailed model. 
 
If someone wanted to build a plank on frame model of a Skipjack, the plans for the Kathryn are almost as complete as the EC Collier's. I thought it was funny that the skipjack was suppose to be an easy and cheap boat to build and someone comes along and spends the extra money to build one plank on frame. i.e the Skipjack Kathryn. The Kathryn may look like the other Skipjacks but she was built to last. The EC Collier was made of pine and fir. The Kathryn used oak framing and I believe pine planking. The plans for both describe the materials used in the original construction. 
 
My plan is to leave the hatches open to both of the cabins and allow the hatch covers to be removed. This will allow viewing of the inside details. My fall back plan is to glue them shut if I screw it up. It is always good to have a plan.
 
Speaking of planning below is some of my planning for the aft cabin. I need to reduce the cabin hieght by about 6 inches.

 
 
 
 

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments and encouragement, and for all the likes.
--
 
I'm done with the sweep ports.  Not because I'm particularly happy with how they came out, but because I kept trying to make them better and was at the point where I think I was starting to make things worse, rather than better.  So I reached the 'good enough this time' point and called it done.
 
A few of them came out pretty good, but there are a number that under the stare of the optivisor or macro lens, make me..  unhappy.  Oh well.
 
Close up of a pair of decent ones, before touch-up painting.

 
And some generic shots of both sides.

 
Now I get to start on what I hope is fun and interesting, building the deck furniture so that I can plank the deck!

I think I may have a new criteria for kit buying.  Does it have odd shaped sweep ports (i.e. not square)?  If yes, run away!
 
The entire time I'm working on these I'm deathly afraid of slipping and making a mistake that will wreck hours or days of work.  I'm halfway home, and managed to get them ok looking, if not great, but also managed to mess up all three colors of paint so more touch-up will be coming down the road.  Shocker!
 
Will finish up the starboard side ports tomorrow.  Here are the port side sweep ports, obviously not painted yet.
 

 
I did these by first transferring the center point for each port by making a direct tracing of the plans, and just taping that tracing to the bulkhead and using a sharp point punch to mark.  I did this while the bulkheads were masked, inside and out with masking tape for doing the black paint touch-up.
 
I then made a small brass jig with the center and end holes in it, and then positioning the jig over the center punch marks and drilling the three holes with a 3/64" drill (actually 1.2mm, but that's only 0.01mm off).  I then came back and drilled the center hole with a 3/32" drill.  I connected the holes with a small X-acto saw while it was still masked.
 
After finishing the touch-up work on the black paint, I removed all the masking, and enlarged the connecting line between the holes with a #10 X-acto blade, working very slowly and shaving a tiny bit off at a time, doing first the outside, then the inside, and then working to open up the middle to connect them evenly.
 
The port farthest aft is pretty lopsided, but the rest came out decent.
 

Well, as you can see, I got lazy with all the rigging.  I admire and envy all those builds with beautiful coils of rope everywhere.  However, my skill, eyes, hands, and patience meant that I cut corners!  Lots of short ropes and glue.
 
The same was true with the ratlines.  I experimented with the various options, then decided to use the needle method.  Even that proved a trial, such that I cheated, and just glued the final few tiny lines.
 
Here are the latest photos.  There are a few things I might go back and touch up, but, to be honest, I'm scared I will risk damaging the model.
 
So these are probably the final photos in this log:
 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
And, here she is sitting alongside my first build:
 
 

 
 
And so, as one of my favourite authors (William Goldman) said, on to the next!
 
I plan to post soon, with a summary.  At present it's too hot in Brisbane to do anything more active than play with models or computers!
 
Cheers,
 
Brett

It was some scrap that I had after our contractor did some work in the kitchen, figured I may as well use it for the PT Boat.  Better than tossing it in the trash bin, after all I paid for it!    

Here I’ve completed the decorative rail on top of the quarter galleries. My rail, Chucks has 3, has
4 decorative pieces in it  . My curve was a little bolder so it ended up too long for three so I
modified it to make four fit. I’ve decided to leave well enough alone with the windows. They won’t
be installed until much later as there is a lot of sanding and they will just trap dust and debris.
 

 

 
The only thing left to do for now on the galleries is to make the decorative columns. I am waiting
on a .016 kerf saw blade so I can cut flutes down the face of each column. 
 
That will complete chapter 6.
 
That will also catch me up to where Chuck is at right now. That will leave me time to work on
some other models I’ve shoved to the side. Also my daughter is moving to another house next
month and I have a looooooooong “Daddy do” list that will keep me quite busy for the foreseeable
future.
 
I just have to remember how to work at full scale again!  
 
 
 
 

Greetings, Happy New Year to all...    
 
I finally made it back to the bench today, thought I would jump ahead to the torpedo tubes for a little fun.  
The first step was to cut the supplied 7/16" brass tubing into four tubes 5" long using a small miter box and a fine-tooth razor saw.  This step didn't sound like very much fun, too many things to go wrong with a miter box cutting a round object.  Instead I used small tubing cutter, this was much faster and provided a much cleaner cut.
 
The next step was to draw a center line the length of each tube, the line was used as a reference point for attaching the various pieces to the tubes.  This was accomplished by laying each tube on the plans and marking the location of each photo etched part with a mechanical pencil.
 
The reinforcing rings were glued to the tube first the the reinforcement plates were added.
 
 

 

 

 

 
The next step was to drill a hole through the through the training gear lug along with a hole into the end of the training gear housing.  At a later point a length of .020 brass rod will be inserted through these holes.
 

 

 

 
Cheers,
Tim

​Note: Comments on messy bench are not allowed!    
 
 
At this point the pieced are placed on deck, nothing has been glued at this time.
 
Three overall progress views:
 

 

 

 
 
Cheers,
Tim

Nearly there!
 
Once again, a lot of fiddly stuff, rudely interrupted by life.  Slooooow progress at this stage of the process.
 
After lots of rigging, this was the status a couple of days ago:
 
 

 
 

 
 
And some different angles:
 
 

 
 

 
 
As you can see, I left the ratlines to the end - but that's for another time!
 
BTW, I never glued the hand cannons in, so removed them for the rigging stages.  As usual, there was a lot of re-doing of seizing and other mistakes along the way.
 
And, of course, the model fell over a couple of times, and needed minor repairs.
 
Soon I will post the finished photos - and a summary.
 
Cheers,
 
Brett

The lower shrouds have been rigged and lanyards tied. The foremost shroud was seized it's entire length and the rest seized on the uppermost portion down to about where the catharpins will be.

Here are the two risers profile drying, the lighter one (on the port) is almost dry.

Before I red paint the inners, I wanted to create the Risers, (I scribed them, accordingly to instructions) my scribing wasn't as close to the edge as Chucks' but I am happy with the outcome.
I used the metal ruler and my extreme fine teeth saw to create the line, I was able to go over it three times, then I cleaned it out with a light touch of blade #11.
It's amazing how the picture still reveal wood in the grooves.
Scribing comes first, then after the soaking I placed the riser to shape it along the inside of the frames.

I took everyone's warnings to heart regarding the frieze and was determined to stretch some paper.  I am not at home this week and therefore have no access any tools to attempt a frame like Michael demonstrated.  I had been using masking tape to hold the paper and decided to try gummed packing tape, as recommended in TFFM.  The local Staples does not carry it.  Something about "Nobody has used that for years".  I tried a series of clamps instead of tape but did not get equal pull across the edge of the paper.  So, with nothing to lose but time and patience, I decided to make the friezes from the paper painted with enamel.
 
In examining the draughts and a photo of a contemporary model of Atalanta, it appears the shear plank is much narrower than that called for in TFFM. The lower row of friezes buts up against the inferior edge of the shear plank. Consequently, the lower frieze is positioned too low and does not extend across the top of the gun port openings.  This left me with four options:  1) remove the shear plank and all the planking down to the lower edge of the gun port, resizing the width of four rows of planking, 2) redraw the lower frieze so that it is 2 mm narrower, approximating the width of the upper row of the frieze, 3) keep the dimensions of the lower the frieze and install it below the too-thick shear plank or 4) skip the frieze.  Well, number 1 was not going to happen and I really wanted that splash of color the frieze would provide.  I felt that narrowing the lower frieze would make the decoration seem out of balance.  That left me with option 3, installing the frieze below the shear plank, knowing it extends too low on the hull.  After carefully examining the draughts, I did not see any problem in proceeding with this last option.
 
After a little experimentation, the technique that worked the best for me was to cut the piece of frieze a little long to overlap the gun port openings.  Next, apply a thin layer of undiluted yellow glue to the back of the frieze.  Grasp the end of the frieze with a watchmaker's forceps and position the end at the edge of the gunport.  Slowly place the rest of the frieze in position.  Moisten the surface to remove any excess glue.  Finally, gently burnish it in place with a piece of planking.  This has to be done quickly because the glue is set within a minute.  Once completely dry, the edges of the gun port are cleaned up with an 11 blade. The slivers of blue above the gun ports were added separately.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Greg,here is a picture of the display case.  These wrap around two corners of the room.  Hannah in the center of the picture with her NRG medal.  To the left is an incomplete model of Amati's Prince which I started back in 1984-ish and never completed because of the inadequacy of the plans.  The reflected ship is Dapper Tom.  I forget which kit manufacturer.
 

 
I have finished the rest of the hull friezes.  Extra material was left around the quarter badge, as I am not sure how this will exactly fit. 

 

The last two floor boards were shaped (tapered) at the same time to get the same uniform shape.