Ryland Craze

Well, she's finished. Overall I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. I'll put additional photos in the gallery shortly.
 
Now, what to build next...
 
 

Started interior panels. Feeling like a jewlery master, they are sooooo small! I cant make it without a magnifying glass, any attempt to photo them without it fails.

 
Boxwood behaves perfectly, no splitting, no cracking, and tweezers do not leave any traces on it!

 
That is how one panel looks through a magnifying glass:

 
2.5 hours later, and I just installed bottom parts for all panels on one side of the boat... Looking forward for a weird weekend
 
I wonder how I was supposed to make them with a basswood from the kit? Tried it, just for fun, it is close to impossible, the wood grains are too big.

Just got my Model Machines 4" Table Saw from Jim & Donna Byrnes!!! All I can say is WOW!!!! A very well made machine!!!
Cuts great!! Very quite running!! A very solid saw for serious small wood work!!!
 
AL
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The brigantine Newsboy was designed by Dennison J. Lawlor of Chelsea, MA (designer of the very successful pilot schooners Dancing Feather, Hesper, and Phantom) for owners Dabney & Cunningham of Boston.  Newsboy was built at the Joshua C. Adams and Elisha Brown shipyard in Owl’s Head, ME where she was launched in June, 1854.  She had a length of 111 feet, beam of 27 feet, depth of 12 feet, and tonnage of 290 tons.  While described as a brigantine, the rig is more accurately described as a hermaphrodite brig because there were no square sails on the main mast.
 
The Newsboy was engaged in the triangular trade: carrying lumber and manufactured goods from New England to the Mediterranean; transporting wine, oil, and fruits to the West Indies; and returning to New England with rum, molasses, and sugar.  The Monthly Nautical Magazine said “having a reputation for speed, by wringing reluctant laurels from her competitors who have chanced to fall in company with her at sea….she does her designers no discredit…her log will speak for itself”.
 
The model is built to a scale of 3/16” to the foot (1:64) based on an old Model Shipways solid hull kit and plans by George F. Campbell.  The model is plank on solid construction, with built up bulwarks, planked decks and topsides, coppered bottom, and scratch built deck furniture/fittings.  Limited commercial fittings will be utilized where appropriate, and the rigging will be proportional linen line with Warner Woods’ blocks.  The Brigantine Newsboy is my 4th wooden ship model and the 2nd in my series of mid 1800’s American merchant sailing ship models.
 
As time permits, I will attempt to post the high points of my previous MSW Build Log.
 
Peter Jaquith
Shipbuilder

While working on the next batch of guns, I decided to make the lower main capstan, the first of three capstans that will be done. As with the other deck items, I chose to make the capstan from boxwood strip and sheet. It was a very enjoyable piece to make, with the exception of the 16 tiny chocks that had to be individually fitted between the whelps. Very fiddly work, but satisfying to get it done.
 
The guns are well along and should be mounted and rigged in the next few days.
 
Bob

Hi Chuck, Not gonna happen. The planking of the hull will take a loooooong long time if
I hope to come even close to your work..
 
Thanks Augie. They are so much fun aren't they!
 
Thanks Mike and Ben.
 
Thank you Al D. The practicum and plans are outstanding. You will love it.
 
Hi Bob, The pleasure is all mine.
 
Ok I've squirreled myself away most of the last few days and have made a good deal of progress.  
 
Here is a picture of the plans depicting the stern framing.
 

 
There are eight stern frame sections  that fit into the slotted bulkhead section.
 

 

 

 
The next step was to add the sills for the stern lights and the lintel filler pieces above
them. I used both the plans and the transom cut out to alien everything.
 

 

 
In case you can't tell I'm having a ball here!
 
Once it all dried the stern was sanded smooth. I then added framing the quarter
gallery entrance and the aft-most gun port.
 

 

Thanks all for your kind words.
 
Sometimes you run into a part and had no clue that it would be that hard to make. The quarterdeck transom is such a part, looking rather unexciting. One redo and the better part of a couple of days work went into it. I had expected the counter timbers to be trickier but after watching Mark doing his Belona's counter with the help of a jig, I constructed a small jig that saved a lot of head aches. The mortises on the wing transom I had made light-years ago had to come off as the spacing was all wrong. Where would a shipwright be without his bottle of isopropyl
 

 

 

 

 
Remco

Finished one caprail. Turned out to be unexpectedly tricky to make a proper templates, so I just glued a Big Ugly Something and then sanded it down to name it a caprail. As you can see, right caprail looks legit, left one is just a piece of wood:

 
Remined me of a childhood, when I was locked up in a summer house for a month, and was so bored that made a solid hull ship about 25cm long, carved from a single piece of wood using one chisel and a sharp knife (that were the only tools available, apart from the garden shovel and a hammer). It is just a matter of time required to sand...
 

 
Speaking of mistakes, now a bit incorrectly aligned frame is very visible, one side of the hull have a wrong shape. Unfixable on a current phase of the build. Always always align your frames perfectly! Lesson learnt.
 
Chuck, do you recommend to cover a panted parts with a wipe-on poly? Is poly compatible with acrylic paints like Galeria that I use on your advice?

Molding strip under friezes and some interior details completed. The red paint is much smoother than it appears here. I applied 4 coats thinned just a little bit with water. Used 1/64" and 1/32" shims to get the floor spacing as close to the plan as I could. The front platform required a lot of sanding and fitting to place it low enough thereby making room for the risers which I have yet to work on.
 

Hi All,
 
The framing of the gun ports is moving along nicely and one pleasant thing I learned was that
there are no sweep ports to worry about.
 
A batten strip was pinned to the bulwarks at the previously marked reference lines and a smooth
run was established. I then marked the bulkheads for the final placement of the sills. The sill and
lintels were cut from boxwood.
 

 
At the bow the bridle port fell over a bulkhead and the bulkhead had to be cut away prior to framing it.
 

 

 
To add the lintels a piece was cut at the correct height and long enough to sit on both sills this
gave a consistent height and eliminated the need to measure each one.
 

 
I have done the preliminary sanding to the out board side.
 

 

 
On to the transom soon!

Time for some work on the exterior hull. The first items that I made and installed were the fenders and chesstrees. These were made from boxwood strip and sanded to shape and to fit the hull contour. Next, I added some black painted molding on a line above the gunports. I prefer to install the molding in pieces between the fenders and chesstrees, rather than notching those pieces to fit over the molding. Then, I made and installed the entry steps. These were done with pear strip cut to size and filed to shape. All of this work was done on both sides of the hull.
 
I was enjoying this, so I decided to do some gunport lids as well. I made up and installed five lids on the starboard side. The exterior of the lids was made up of pieces of boxwood to match the hull planking. The recessed interior was done with thinner wood and painted red to match the gunport linings. The hinges are from the kit photoetch sheet. Lastly, I added eyebolts. The lids were pinned and glued to the hull for strength.
 
I'm tempted to continue on with the channels and more lids, but may also return to more guns and quarter deck framing. I'll decide today.
 
Bob
 
 

Time for another update...
 
I took David's suggestion and cut the holes for the sheaves before turning the mast down to its final dimensions.  Here's a look at the mast with the holes drilled.
 

 
Then I turned the mast down the rest of the way.  Here's the mast laid on the plans.
 

 
Finally, I cut the grooves between the holes to simulate the sheaves.
 

 
The instructions say the leave tenons at the top and bottom of the mast.  I'm going to try to do that, but, at the top, there isn't a great deal of extra room.  I might just cut the mast a little long and fit the extra into the ball truck.  At the bottom, there's plenty of room and the tenon shouldn't be a problem.
 
Once the mast was done, I turned my attention to the wide thwart and the mast hoop.  I've found my new favorite modeling material:  Birchwood Casey Brass Black! 
 
I started by cutting and forming the brass strip.  I know that's a little out-of-order.  I should have annealed it first, but it seemed to work alright.
 
Then I passed the formed strip through a flame to get rid of any coating that might be on there.
 

 
Here's what the formed pieces looked like, pre-blackening.
 

 
I dunked the formed pieces in isopropyl alcohol, then rinsed them with water, then put them in the Birchwood Casey ... and watched the magic!
 
Here's the ironwork installed.
 

 
Looks good, right?
 
Right.
 
So now it's time for something tragic to happen.
 
I drilled the holes for the four belaying pins.  I painted the pins using Polly S acrylic Wood Tan.  (Just happened to have some of that around.)  There is not a lot of room for these four pins.  My thwart must be a little more narrow than Chuck's because his look like they have more room between them than mine.  I hope this doesn't make rigging too difficult.
 
Then it was time to install the completed assembly in the boat.  Measure, cut, fit, glue ... and here's the result.
 

 
Anyone notice anything odd?  How about a closer look?
 

 
That's right!  It's in BACKWARDS!
 
I was really impressed with how good this whole thing looked and then I looked in the instruction book again.  BACKWARDS!  I installed the stupid thing BACKWARDS!  Measure twice!  Cut once!  Arrrrrrgh!
 
Once again, I was glad I was using white glue on this model because removing the thwart was fast and easy.  Ken Quast, another model builder in our club, told me, when he messes up a part, it's usually faster to just make another one rather than try to fix a mistake.  I really considered that, but this assembly took me the better part of a week to do.  I thought I'd give fixing it a try before pitching it and doing it again.
 
I put a couple of little patches on the notches I'd cut, then I cut new ones.  I sanded the whole assembly and, although you can see where the old notch was, it will probably be hidden when the knees are installed.
 

 

 
So there it is.  All the thwarts are installed.  I need to hit them with the Watco's Danish Wood Oil and then on to the inboard details.
 
 
 
 
Dan
 
 
 

Spent the last several days looking over the instructions, plan sheets and parts list, plus went through every Bennett build thread here on MSW. Lots of fine work by some talented folks! Thanks to all of you who have taken time to post your build progress.
 
Got started with the build by setting up the build board and attaching the hull moulds. Built up the keel assembly, cut the rabbet; cut, fit, and attached the remaining keel parts and transom. Fit it all into the hull moulds and secured it to the build board at the stem and stern posts. Cut and attached the chine logs and carved and sanded them to shape.
 
Next thing was to cut the hull side planking pieces and fit and attach them to the chine logs, stem post and transom. Sanded and faired them along with the chine logs. Checked the tick marks for the sheers and looks like the hull side planking is just about wide enough to cover them.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Just a couple of bumps so far; I misinterpreted the plan sheet and cut the aft skeg a tad too short leaving no clearance to attach the transom between the stern post and the aft skeg. Had to remove the stern post and put a short 1/8” strip between the two pieces. Problem solved. Next, had a wrestling match with the chine logs. Finally epoxied those little buddies to the transom and let it set up, then formed them around the molds and clamped and epoxied them to the stem post.
 
So far, so good... Should get along to the bottom planking in the next few days.
 
Thanks to all for your interest and comments!

Egad!!!!!   I need to get a-postin' before I slip to page 3.
 

Here are some shots of last week's work.  We don't need no stinkin' fancy-pants gudgeons!!!!  Just slap on some robust eyebolts....honest.  As indicated in previous posts, they could get away with a lot of things that could not if they planned on the ship being around awhile.
 
 

The rudder (AKA the bard door) is hung.  The tiller has not been added yet.  It will eventually stained the same color as the exterior hull.  The two 1"thickbattens were only on the starboard side.  They were nailed on to the rudder boards and helped hold it together.  The nail were supposed to be less obvious, but the stain enhanced them.
 
You will be hearing more about the hole in the top later.

Got the cap rail sanded and shaped today. Average width is around 0.100 inch except where it flares slightly at the bow.
 

Had no time to model for a month, but now finally back to the bench!
 
Installed the risers, it required a better fairing of the frames, and I was not risking to clamp them while glueing.
Here comes the nasty part - painting. I truly hate it, my painting skill suck and the whole procedure is extremely risky. That is why I always opt to natural wood color, maybe a bit of stain But this model have a rich red color which adds a style, so there is no choice.
I used Galeria Acrylic Crimson paint, same as Chuck. Results are quite ok in places where you can wipe away unnecessary paint with a cloth:

 
But I totally failed in an area with problematic access, like transom. Well, that would be an experience...

 
Maybe I should have mixed it with water, to make paint more liquid?

Completed Model
3 months, 180 hours
 
I put in a lot of hours the last couple of weeks and finished my hydroplane model and stand. It took a total of 180 hours to build the model over three months, but one of those months I was on vacation and didn't work on the model. Here are the photos of the completed model.
 

Framing and planking the hull was a lot of fun. The mahogany finished up beautifully and the headless brass nails shine like jewels.
 

The vacuum formed plastic cowls were a pain to build. They are finished with Krylon products: several coats of white primer, many coats of gloss cherry red, and several coats of gloss clear.
 

The silver trim strips around the cowls and on top of the rear cowl are soft white plastic painted with Testor's silver paint. The silver paint looks OK, but not as nice as the chrome plated parts. The trim strips would not stick to the painted cowls with CA so they are held with more brass nails.
 

The rudder, prop, and exhaust manifolds are diecast and chromed.
 

The aluminum piece on the nose is nailed through the plastic. I pre-drilled the all the nail holes with an undersized bit and an electric drill. When I was done I realized that each time I drilled a hole some plastic would melt and stick to the bit, so that each hole got progressively larger. I had to fill the holes with epoxy and start over.  Then I attached the aluminum piece with heavy duty double sided tape before nailing it down. There are probably 100 other nail holes drilled into the plastic cowl, and I had to scrape the drill bit clean with a razor blade after every one.
 

There is a lot of nice detail in the cockpit. The steering wheel is another diecast piece with a painted rim. The floor and foot pedals are photo-etched aluminum.
 

The dashboard has photo-etched holes surrounded by tiny rings. Behind the dash is a cardboard piece with printed gauges. The nine cowl hold-down clamps are made from three separate photo-etched pieces epoxied into tiny springs and nailed into place.
 

I drew up the stand from some photos of the actual stand that I found on-line. It is built from 1/4 inch basswood and painted with the same Krylon primer and paint as the cowl, but I left off the gloss clear coat. The top is black craft foam attached with double sided tape. The lettering was done with a Brother label maker using white-on-clear tape. I added a couple of leftover decals for fun. The base is African ribbon mahogany that matches the look of the hull.
 
 

Looks like my log was hit pretty hard by the recent data loss. I should be able to replace everything. I just need to find the time. I was getting ready to post some new updates anyway. Hopefully in the next week sometime.
 
Charley

A small update. I've added another batch of guns at the aft end of the gun deck. They were made and rigged exactly like the first batch at the fore end. Since I really hate repetitive tasks, there will be no more guns for a while. Next, I will do the aft end of the quarter deck framing, and then likely will do some work on the hull exterior before returning to more guns.
 
Bob

Decided to fix the shear plank by redoing the planking once more. I realize that I could have left things as they where but I need planking experience anyway. After sanding the hull with 400 sandpaper to a near sheen I applied the stain, 1 part Golden Oak to 3 Parts Natural and a coat of Wipe-On-Poly. After removing the bulkhead centers I thinned the bulkhead tops to 3/64". 3/64" + 1/32" plank + 1/64" overhang will give a 3/32" cap rail. I stained the hull inside as well. I then added the cap rail which is now ready for sanding.
 

Finished thinning down the bulkheads.  I feel that I am working with an egg shell as the hull is very light.
 

Here is how my experimentation with the swivel gun yoke turned out.  Not bad for a prototype, but still needs some work.
 
    "Barn door" with lower pintol in the background. 

First, let me say I have already found this forum to be an invaluable resource for both the neophyte ship modeler and the experienced builder. To that I offer a big...
THANK YOU !
...to the owners and administrators of Model Ship World and everyone else who has taken time to share your knowledge, experience, and wisdom on this forum. Thanks Folks!
 
Now on to some business...
 
Although not my first boat build, this is my first wooden sailing craft build. I've been working on a scale model Dodge Runabout (Legend Model Boats) for several months now (see link in my signature). Its coming along nicely but I still wanted to try my hand at a sailing boat.
 
As for experience, I've been into model building in general since I was a kid and have been fooling around with model railroad stuff for nearly 40 years – mostly HO with a smattering of On30. I prefer working with wood and build mostly kits, but do a little scratch building too.
 
In choosing my first sailing craft build, I thought something rather basic might be in order, so after looking over a lot of stuff I decided on the Willie L. Bennett Chesapeake Bay Skipjack by Model Shipways. Why the Bennett? First, Model Shipways and Model Expo seem to have a topnotch reputation in the model ship business. Second, I like the larger scale, the smaller price tag, and it does seem to be a tad less complicated than, oh say, Nelson's Victory or something on that order...
 
So we'll start with the obligatory “the box and what's in it” shots...

 

 

 

 
After unpacking, ran through the parts list – everything looks good there. I retrieved the plans and instruction booklet and will spend the next week or so studying this stuff and getting a little more familiar with the pieces, parts, and process. Should get started on this thing for real in a week or so. Until then...

Hi All,
 
Not much to report on. I have started sanding/fairing the lower portion of the hull. When I do that
I set the hull upside down on a small homemade down draft table to help contain the dust. I place
some wood blocks on the table that are thick enough to keep the tops of the bulwarks from hitting
the table and hopefully protecting them. Then it's just a matter of sanding, checking with some
planking strips, sand some more, etc etc etc.
 

JVO,
You can do it with a slightly cheaper saw than Byrnes Saw in cost.  I'm making planks down to 1/32" on a Micro-mark saw.  However, it's a big pain and it's not as accurate.  I'm only getting about a 50% yield on cut planks.  When this one finally dies, I'll be getting a Byrnes. 
 
BTW, the price difference on a Byrnes Saw and Micro-mark is about $70 and Jim's saw is much more precise and robust.  No plastic for one thing.