Ryland Craze

Oops, I missed one.
In this work, I'm using black colored bond
to emphasis the bonding line
because normal bonding line is almost invisible.
Black bond is made by mixing small amount of carbon black into normal white glue.
How about the result?

Hi,
First posting trial to join this community!

Thanks.....  That is still the plan.  As soon as I complete the exterior planking with the square tuck and write the first few chapters of the monograph (which will be posted on my site as a free download)   the plans will be released.

The longboat for the waist is done. As I mentioned previously, I decided to go with a long ago begun, but not finished or used, boat made from basswood lifts. With some modification, this boat closely matched the shape and dimensions of the 28' longboat shown in AOTS Essex. 
 
I began by reducing the length and height of the hull and completing it's shaping. Next, I added the keel, stem and sternpost made from boxwood strip. I then painted both the exterior and interior of the hull. Work then proceeded on the interior with the addition of boxwood frames, gunwales and clamps for the thwarts and holly floor planking. Bow and stern gratings made from kit material with boxwood framing were next. After that, i made the thwarts and sternsheet from boxwood and added them. I also added boxwood knees at the bow and stern.
 
Next, I added boxwood rubbing strips to the exterior, before returning to the interior to finish the detailing. This included the windlass, made from boxwood with wire mounts, boxwood bowsprit step and mast step, wire mast clamp and oarlocks made from boxwood and wire.
 
All in all, I'm pretty pleased with this boat and don't believe that I would have done better, or even as well, if I had done it as plank on frame. The only downside was that I had to paint it, rather than leaving it natural wood, but I  like the way it looks. I still have to add oars, add chocks and ringbolts to the skid beams and mount the boat with lashings.
 
Bob

Made some progress this weekend, I finished up the rudder, the wire used to make the pins on the pintels was damn near impossible to work with, being so short it was very difficult to hold onto and hard to see without my magnifying headset, after quite a bit of struggle I finally got it all together.  For the tiller I cut a piece of 1/16"x 1/16" wood and rounded out the upper 2/3rds and paired it all down very carefully.  For the ball on the end I rounded the end of a 1/16" x1/16" stick with sandpaper then separated it using an xacto knife with a series of cuts to leave it fairly spherical, I wanted to avoid sanding this bit as it was so tiny that it was difficult to hold onto.
 

 
I put in the eyebolt and attached the gudgeon then attached the rudder and tiller to the boat.
 

 
I started to work on the mast a little more, I drilled all of the holes for the simulated sheaves then struggled for a little trying to figure out how to file down the groove between them.  I finally settled on a v cut from both sides using a sharp xacto knife to take out a decent amount of wood then dragged a rounded tool through the cut to smooth it out.
 

 
I made a little progress (very little) on the ironwork for the mast, I really only managed to start the ring for the boom, I bent it and soldered it but didn't have a chance to cut it down to size or blacken it/paint it.
 

 
With turkey day coming up on Thursday I'll have a decently long weekend to get in some more time in the shipyard.  

So it's been a few days, and I haven't accomplished nearly as much as I expected to this weekend, as I caved in and bought a new video game (Dragon Age) so wasted most of the weekend camped in front of the computer like the giant nerd that I am. 
 
I have accomplished a bit though since the last update, including some new 'firsts' for me today, so I figured I'd give an update since I'm inordinately proud of myself for the latest bit. 
 
To start off with, over the last several days I finished up the aft outer bulkhead planking, and then put on the sheer strake.  For the sheer strake I used 4" sections (16' scale planks).  This is the first 'scale' planking on the model, although I meant to do that for the black strake and simply got ahead of myself and forgot.

 
I also got the hole for the bowsprit drilled, but it is left undersized for now.  I'll open it up the rest of the way later when I've got the bowsprit shaped for best fitment.

 
The next 'first time' thing I did, was I ground a simple trim form into a razor blade, and cut a 'line' into the outside edge of the cap rail pieces for 'fashion'.  I am reasonably pleased with out it came out for my first try at this sort of thing.

 
Unfortunately, when I went to actually fit the cap rails onto the bulkheads I ran into the problem that lead to my other 'first'.  The curve of the cap rails as they approach the bow was completely different than the actual curve of the bulkheads.  If I'd used the kit cap rails, the very tip would have actually ended up just behind the bulkheads where they meet above the stem, instead of extending beyond it slightly.  If I moved them far enough forward to meet where they should, the curve completely didn't work for the rest, and they also came up very short at the aft end.
 
So, I scrounged around in the box of wood that I got from Reno, and low and behold, there was a small sheet of 1/16" wood.  I'm not honestly sure if it's walnut or not, but it's wood, and close enough!  So I used the curve of the bulkheads, along with the width/shape from the kit cap rails, and made forward cap rail pieces from this new sheet of wood.  The sheet of wood I have wasn't large enough to make the entire rails over, so I just made the forward sections.

 
To join them with the kit rails, I made my first ever scarf joints, and cut back the original cap rails to match up with the new pieces.  I used my little shaped razor blade and cut my line into these new parts, and placed them.  This part is where I was really happy that I didn't try to use the kit pieces.  These came out great. 

 
I clamped the kit cap rail into place on the starboard side, and then measured and cut a 1/16 x 1/16 piece and cut the 'line' into it and placed it at the stern, and then I glued the kit piece into place.  I haven't completed these steps on the port side yet.

 
My 'trim' line isn't aligned perfectly where the scarf joint is, but I think I can make it look somewhat better with a bit of work using the sharp edge of a riffler file.
 
Hope everyone had a great weekend, cheers! 

More photos this morning:  After looking at the boat again and comparing it to other member's models, I think I made the first plank a little to low at the bow (clamping problem ?). Didn't see it till I was finished. Easy correction I think is to just add an additional plank above and then taper it with my miniature plane down to the stern. Since the friezes will be applied over it I doubt the mistake will be even noticed.
 
Comments anyone, before I move on ?????
 

 
 
After removing the centers and sanding them down:
 

David Antscherl has given me permission to post a couple photos of his lovely Comet here. The model is not finished - it is in the process of being fully rigged.
 

 

I just finished writing a review on this book for my club newsletter.  So, I thought I'd share it with the rest of you.  I certainly agree with all the positive comments that have already been made.
 
BobF
Comet of 1783.pdf

Today I laid the final hull plank.    No pictures coming for a bit as I have everything lined off for the treenailing to commence and it looks rather messy as a result.

I spent a little more time with the Longboat last night.
 
I decided on the height of the pedestals:  2.5".  I made this determination in a highly scientific manner.  I raised the model above the base -- with a ruler next to it -- until I liked how it looked.
 
So here's how it all worked out:
 

 
I deviated from the instructions a little bit by making the chainplates before I stepped the mast.  I followed the instructions pretty closely, except that I soldered everything rather than use CA glue.
 
Here's the super-complex jig, a brass nail with the head cut off.  You can see the scorch marks from the soldering iron and the measuring line to show where to bend the wire.
 

 
And here's a chainplate being made.  The in-process one is below the finished one to show how it all works out.
 

 
These are little things...
 

 
Here are all four.  They still need to be painted.
 

 
And then I stepped the mast.  It took a couple of attempts to get the mast step to look right.   I think this is pretty close.  Tonight I'm going to do a little more beveling on it.  It looks a little too blocky to me as it is.
 
I drilled a small hole in the bottom of the mast and a hole through the mast step.  I ran a wire through the mast step and into the bottom of the mast, giving me a little spike on the bottom of the whole assembly that helped me line everything up.  The mark made by the wire showed me where to drill the hole and step the mast.
 

 
And here's how the boat looks now.
 

 
The gaff and boom are completed.  I need to make the other two chainplates and then start rigging.  Also have to get a base for the case made.
 
Coming right along!
 
 
 
 
Dan
 
 

The next sails to be installed are the jib and the fore topmast staysail.  I used Antscherl to determine the actual size of the sails and then trimmed them down keeping their triangle shape.  However, I didn’t reduce the foot of either sail.  Each foot is somewhat long, and I wanted that to show.  I also decided to install the rigging for the main topmast staysail and the main topgallant staysail.  I noticed that the lines are tied off to the gallows so there won't be a problem.  The metal clips you see are for their downhauls and halyards since I won’t install the gallows until all the lines are attached to the lower mast cleats.  Both main staysail's rigging was done as per the Syren documentation.
 

Well, unfortunately the Syren is stil lingering in the drydock as our twins have arrived and the combination of sleep deprivation and nappy duty is keeping me away from the ship. Even dreamed about her last night, about putting her in storage. One could say it was a nightmare!

Fellow Syren builders, I have a dilemma .  I think I know what I need to do but I would just like some verification.
 
Using the laser inscribed marks on the bulkheads I’ve positioned the temporary batten on the side of the ship marking the location of the top most wale. Now if I measure up from the top of the batten 7/8”, corresponding to the width of the seven planks that are placed above the first wale, the bottom of my top plank will not clear the top of the gun ports at around mid-ship. From the photos in the instructions it’s clear that the top most plank is a full plank and not cut around the ports.
 

 
Also at the bow from where my batten is positioned the top of the seventh plank is flush with the top of the bow filler where as in Chuck’s model (see picture below) the top plank is well above the bow filler.
 

My question is; should I move the first wale up so that the topmost plank clears all the gun ports?  If I do then this plank will now be above the bow filler also. I think I should but I don't know what impact it will have on things down the line.
 
What I’m not sure about either is the amount of creep that will occur in placing seven planks.  In theory the seven planks at 1/8”/plank should be 7/8”, but what is it in actuality?  Maybe I’m fine where the batten is now.
 
 
Maybe I'll do some more painting while I think about this.
 
On another note, I did cut out for the sheaves and made up a dummy sheave out of basswood for fit.  I want to use a harder wood for the real sheaves.
 
 
 
 
 
Also finished painting the gun ports And sweeps.
 
 

I prefer to use clamps, but I could not get them to work, so I am using pins to hold the planks in place until the glue dries.

The first set of planks were aligned with the transom. This created some odd angles to the transom. Now the planks are 90deg to the keelson and should make planking faster. It also looks better to me.

 

Back to the Masts
Putting aside the bowsprit for a while (according to David Antscherl) I started to work on the Mizzen Mast. But before I could even start that, I wanted to make sure there was nothing left to put on the mast before it was locked into place. And lo and behold there was. Looking at views other than the construction views of the masts, I discovered there were cleats that had to be installed, six per mast. Even though this is a kit bash and not a scratch build, I felt a bit guilty using the kit’s cleats instead of making them myself because I've scratch built so much already; but use them I did.

In addition to the cleats, the Mizzen mast had an additional feature which showed up on all the plans except Mamoli’s. This was a “rest support” (my term, don’t know what the nautical term is) for the boom. The only view I had was from the side so I just winged it.
 
First I traced the mast onto a piece of 1/16” stock boxwood to get the inside diameter and then drew a larger concentric circle around that about 1/16” wider. With progressively large drills, the center was cut out and then the outside edge was filed to shape. With a fine saw the “ring” was cut in half and glued to the aft side of the mizzen mast at the height depicted in the drawings. Based on what I could see in the drawings I determined that there were five brackets under the half ring. I cut 5 1/16” cube pieces and with just a touch of CA glue, glued them into place. Once dried and set, with a fine diamond needle file, they were delicately filed to a triangular shape. A touch of Poly-Wipe and it was completed. Sounds simple but I screwed up a number of times with a number of re-dos, but all in all, it seems to work.

I do have holly for the deck, but I got it in the same size as the kit decking, so should make no difference in height.  I've never really shopped at Hobby Lobby before, as I always thought it was more about 'craft' stuff (which honestly, it really is).  However, there are no traditional hobby stores at all on this side of town, and Hobby Lobby at about 30 minutes from my house is the closest place to get really anything hobby related that I can't get at a Lowes or Home Depot.
 
Made a little bit of progress since my last update, and learned another lesson about using clamps on painted surfaces (the lesson is - "don't do that you idiot").  I ended up having to do quite a bit of cleanup work on the inner bulkheads after leaving some divots and black marks on my nicely finished red bulkheads, so now I'm doing this when I need to clamp the outer planks:

 
I've got the three .030 planks on the outer bulwarks now from the aft gun port to the stem.  I need to trim them off at the gun ports now, and then paint the gunports again.

 
I also got a serving machine from Alexey and played with it a little bit this afternoon.    It will allow me to properly serve the rigging whenever I get to it - pretty slick machine, and the ability to fully serve the shrouds where needed in just a couple minutes will be amazing and awesome.  I need to find some slightly thicker thread though, the regular sewing thread I have is so fine that the 'serving' is sort of lost unless you are looking at it with a magnifying glass.

Hi everyone. Sorry I have not posted in a while. With all of the warm weather that summer time brought, I could not seem to find the time to work on my models. But now that the weather is cooling off, I have resumed work. Yesterday I completed beveling the keelson and today I started planking the bottom of the hull. I will post some pictures soon.

I had a random thought today that nail technicians would be outstanding model boat builders because they are so used to filing and sanding oddly shaped items down to a perfect spec.  On that note progress was made int he ship yard this weekend.
 
I used the new lathe to taper the mast, the dowel was far too whippy to actually use tools on so I ended up working it down with various grade of sandpaper, essentially using the drill method but on the lathe.  It's still slightly larger then the plans call for at the top and doesn't have the small "step" near the midpoint but I still needed to drill the holes for the simulated sheave and I was worried if I take it down to the spec I wouldn't be able to do it without breaking the mast.
 

 
And with a quick dry fit
 

 
I was working on putting the knees in and I think they are the quite possibly the most fiddly little bits that I've had to work with yet in this kit.  I wish I had installed the small board that fits under the front end of the cap rail (no idea what it's called) before I put the thwarts in because I couldn't get any angles to get it.  I ended up putting a pin it to hold it and slide it into posistion.
 

 
I used the pin to maneuver it into position with a touch of PVA on it and then a pair of curved tweezers to fulcrum it from below and push it tight to the cap rail.
 

 
I completed and finished the windlass and two handles, following the instructions I only dry fit the handle for a visual but pulled it back off while I continue to work on the boat.  This was also the point where I realized the kit came with rings and eyebolts for the lift rings on the floorboards, I had actually rigged some up from the wire stock that came with the kit, not perfect but already CA'ed into place so I'll have to live with them.
 

 
Then it was off to the races on the oarlocks, following a lot of the other builds I built a quick jig withe two holes  marked out to help me with spacing and height.  I laid the jig on the cap rail and marked the hole placement for all the oarlocks, pre-drilled them then glued an over length piece of wire in place with some CA.
 

 
I slid the jig down on top of the two wires and clipped them using a pair of flush side cutters.  The admiral will probably kill me because I didn't control the end that was being cut off and they ended up hitting walls and rebounding all over the work room never to be seen again (until you walk through with bare feet that is)
 

 
Finally I painted all the oarlocks and touched up everything I had dinged while putting all the various bits and bobbles together.
 

 
I started work on the rudder but didn't make much progress so thats where this weekend in the shipyard ends.  As always, it was an interesting, head scratching totally fulfilling weekend of work.

Hi Everyone. Thanks for the comments and likes.
 
Sorry for the delay getting back to you all. My PC's hard drive started failing and had to take her to the doctor.
 
During that time I was able to complete the startboard side planking, sanded it down and applied one coat of
wipe on poly. The good news is that I was successful in doing it without any drop planks or steelers. The bad
news is after sanding it a few joints aren't as tight as I would have liked.
 
All in all I'm happy with my first attempt at this type of planking. Hopefully the next one will be better
and the planks a little more uniform.
 

 
Well I'm off to the port side to start the last two bands of planking.

Hello,
 
Here is where I am with the fashion pieces in place.  I added to the port side to get better proportions prior to adding the fashion pieces.  I used a scroll saw to cut the round pieces and wonder why the kit designer did not add this to the laser cut sheets supplied with the kit.  I actually used some scraps from one of the laser-cut sheets.
 
Al

Got the counter and the transom planked.  You may notice that I thinned down the outside stern frames considerably before planking the stern.  The first photo shows how thick they were before it was planked.  After the sides of the hull were planked the outside stern frames were strong enough to handle the thinning down.  It makes the model more historically correct.  The inboard side of the stern and counter will not be planked so I wanted to make sure it looked as authentic as possible.  That of course means that I must really clean up the inboard side between the stern frames carefully to prepare it for painting.   I will fill any cracks and sand it smooth and do lots of surface prep.
 
Now I can have some fun.  Its time to put the fashion pieces on and the wales and fancy trim.  This is the step that will make it really come together.
 
Chuck
 

 

 

 

 

Needless to say my first smart move   The old adage soft wood hard spot then soft equals ouch happened.  The blade went through the length and hit the back of my hand.  The glove stopped the blade and saved me the hassle of going to the emergency ward and the complications from my meds and the wrath of my dear suffering sister.  Hurray for having them on!
David B

Thanks Marty, Bob and the "Likes".  I appreciate everyone checking out my build log.
 
Marty, I look forward to seeing the photo of your Longboat.  I like to study the photos of everyone's Longboat build.
 
Bob, I am flattered by your comment about my build.  I have studied your build log and have used your techniques throughout my build.  If my build comes out half as nice as yours, I will be really pleased.  Your build has set the standard for Longboat builds.
 
I have completed the rear platform and the forward wall of the locker.  I used BobF's method of making templates to cut out the platforms.  The templates really help to get a good fit.
 

 
Here is a picture of the overall look at the interior of my Longboat.