Ryland Craze

Finishing the Hull Details, and Preparing for Masting:
 
Since the last build update, I have finished the details related to the hull, including oarlocks, windlass, rudder, horse, and eye rings.  I am still not especially happy with the windlass, in terms of how it's finish looks.  Even though the facets of the piece are relatively sharp, being filed into the wood, they are not well, defined, at least not under any light I have seen it under yet.  Does anybody know of a finishing technique to bring out sharp facets in such a small piece of wood?
 
The handles for the windlass have been made, but I will not put them on until the finishing details of the model are being installed.  The projecting handles just seemed too susceptible to being damaged at this point if I were to put them on.  A tip that I can perhaps offer about the installation of the Windlass.  I was wondering how I was going to get it into the riser without scratching the wood with the wire axle.  Instead of installing the wire into the windlass, I put pieces on each side through the riser, then positioned the windlass with drops of glue in the axle holes, then with fine tweezers pulled the axle wires through the riser and into the windlass.  It worked pretty well.
 
I also sanded the cap rail paint, and trim strip slightly, and put a few wash coats of paint to even it out a little.
 
When installing the horse, I chose to go with one that spans over the tiller rather than under it.  It may not look as clean from a presentation perspective, but I think it makes much more practical sense.  In the instructions to the kit, Chuck does mention that boats of a later decade did have this raised horse, so I will call my example from a later decade in the 18th century.
 

 

 

 

 
I have also started the main mast, and have opted to carve a mast step, like that shown in the plans. 
 

 
 

But I can sneak in a few minutes on the computer at work, can't do that with the building of models at work. LOL.
 
Later 42rocker

Thanks, Ryland, Bob, Grant and Alistair.
 
Here are the final photos.  By the way, the mounting is only temporary. The model will go in a case. Now that this project is done, I am going to try to redo my prior build logs for Fair American, Kingfisher and Syren, at least in very summary fashion.
 
Bob

Hi all,
 
I'm back from my weekend in Towson, MD for the Echo cross section workshop. I'll start off by saying "WOW!" This workshop was well worth the money I paid, and more. David and Greg are highly skilled gentlemen who know how to convey their years of experience to builders of all skill levels. As a rank beginner I worried that I'd be left in the dust by others much more knowledgeable than myself - that never happened. David and Greg gave a number of demos, each one taking us deeper and deeper into the skills needed for a build of this sort. In between demos everyone worked at their own pace and David and Greg were right there to answer any and all questions. The group had just 10 students and it really felt as if I was getting one-on-one instruction. This workshop was one of the best investments I could have made to further my ship building skills. Thank you David and Greg!
 
As stated in a previous post I did purchase the full Echo cross section kit and work will commence on it very shortly. Jeff from Hobby Mill always provides more than enough material and I've decided that between the material I have left over from the home work and what was supplied with the full framing kit that I am going to build a new keel for my official build. Everything posted up to this point was getting ready for the workshop. Now that I've attended the workshop I think I can do better (maybe even much better) so I'm going to start from scratch.
 
I did get one frame built during the workshop but did not raise it for a number of reasons. The primary one was I was worried about getting it home in one piece. Here is the final product from my weekend (raised frame at home).
 

echo_a
 
This is my cross chock. There is a slight blemish on the right side of the chock where the drill bit wandered too close to the side instead of going through the bottom. On the real deal I will be more mindful of this possible issue. For a first pass I'm pretty happy with it, even at this magnification the joints are not too noticeable.
 

echo_b

Hi Ryland - Glad to see you are reposting your log, I think Chuck just moved mine into this forum as well so we are all a big happy family again!
 
ben

Hi all,
 
I've had several requests to show how I built some special clamps that come in particularly useful if you are building a Fully Framed hull. They could also come in handy for other more "conventional" builds.
 
 

 
 
There are three types of Clamp :
 
1. The first goes between Frames to hold internal or external planks.
2. "Spreader" clamps that hold internal planking.
3. Parallel clamps that don't pull two pieces out of line like normal spring clamps have a tendency to do.
 
Full Credit for these clamps goes to EdT (Ed Tosti) - I'm only showing my method of copying his ideas. Ed's are probably of superior quality to mine - I've used a more simplified approach that can be done fairly easily by most builders using common Right-Hand threaded screws.
 
"Between the Frames" Clamps
 
 
In Use :
 
 
These are made from 3/4" x 5/32" (19mm x 4mm) brass machine screws or threaded bar and matching Wing Nuts - I found them at Bunnings, but they should be available at any reasonably good Hardware Store. The other brass part is some thin brass strip - I used 0.5mm. Note that you can use any sizes of screws and strip - I just used whatever I had "on hand" or could buy easily. I wouldn't go much thinner than the 0.5mm strip though - it's plenty strong enough and will fit right down into very narrow gaps between frames.
 
I cut the heads off the screws, cut a 4mm deep slot into the cut-off end and Silver Soldered the two pieces together. Then I drilled a 2.5mm hole to accept the 2mm Pin. A bit of "oversize" makes it a lot easier to push the pin through the hole.
 
The wooden pieces are made from a good hardwood - I used Australian Cherry Ballart because I had quite a bit of it in stock, but any other close-grained hardwood would do the job. A 2mm hole was drilled for the pin - this needs to be a good but "easy" slide-in fit.
 
The only item of note not shown in the pics below is some extra bracing I glued to one face of the larger block - this prevents the wood from splitting when pressure is applied. It strengthens the saw cut (these pics were taken before I had my first "Block Failure"). Note the direction of the grain in the large block.
 
 

 

 
 
 
Spreader Clamps
 
 
In Use :
 
 
These Clamps are particularly useful when you need to clamp planking etc and can't use one of the "Between the Frames" clamps, although they can be used in combination with one of them as shown in the pic above. They work very well anywhere inside a hull. I made these in 4 or 5 different lengths depending on the position in the hull they were to be placed. All parts were interchangeable, so a lot of length combinations could be used - the only difference is in the lengths of the brass tubing, the "heads" and "tails" of the clamps are all identical.
 
I used 4mm x 25mm RH-threaded Stainless Steel Machine Screws, Washers and Nuts (again because I had a lot of them in stock - any other combination around that size would be OK). The "swivels" are made from 1/4" (6.5mm) brass round bar that have been drilled and tapped to accept the screws. 5mm brass tubing of various lengths is the only other thing needed.
 
Again, the wooden pieces are made from a good hardwood. The "head" is drilled to accept the swivel, the "tail" is epoxied to the screw to prevent it from falling out when the clamp is tightened. I sanded the end of the "head" to allow it to pivot when necessary.
 
 

 

 
 
Parallel Clamps
 
 
In Use :
 
 
These clamps are particularly useful when you need to clamp two pieces together without distorting their faces from each other. They also avoid the twisting effect that you can get with G-clamps, but are usually used in similar situations to them.
 
They are made from two pieces of hardwood, 8mm x 11mm x 65mm. The same size Swivels as the "Spreader Clamps" are used, with the same size screws as the "Between the Frames" clamps. Again, use any sizes close to the mark that you can get - it's not all that vital.
 
Here's an Exploded View of the Clamp :
 
 

 
 
And a description of how it goes together is below. Two Swivels are threaded to accept the screws, one is a "clearance" hole drilled right through, and the fourth is a clearance hole drilled part-way into the swivel to act as a "stopper". This one is glued into the timber with Silicone or Epoxy.
 
 

 
 
I made about 18 "Between the Frames" clamps, 10 "Spreader" clamps and 6 "Parallel" clamps - that seems to be adequate.
 
  Danny

Nice job Rich.  The newer Enterprise kit has many improvements over the older version.  The rudder install and the head rails look really nice.

Jason,
 
Your Long Boat keel looks great.  I forgot about that step when I did my build log.
 
Also, the squares on your cutting mat can be used to line up your bulkheads when you glue them to the keel.  This was told to me by a master ship modeler and it worked when I loosened some when I was doing the fairing process.
 
I will be following your build.

To complete the model...the grapnel was painted and rigged. I made mine from scratch using boxwood.  I think they replaced the one in the kit with a cast metal version they had in stock,  It was added to the model so the rope looked natural.  I made some oars and placed them in there as well.  They were just cut from a 1/16" sheet and the handles rounded off.  Then they were painted.
 
That is essentially the end of the project.
 
Chuck 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to plank using boxwood purchased from Jeff at Hobby Mill...he is the best!
 
     Bob R.

The hull was planked using basswood as I was going to cover it with copper plates.

Hi All, I've been digging through my file and I'm putting to gether the pictures for my scratch build of Chucks Model Shipways Syren. The build is in the 1:64 scale. The main wood used was Boxwood, Cherry, Holly and Swiss Pear.
 
 
This log was started back in 2007 and I was bad about taking pictures but here is what I have.
 

Part 3:  Planking:
 
The first step in planking involves a choice.  What will the profile of your boats sheer look like?  With some guidance as to what period considerations this choice affects your model, the design leaves it up to you how pronounced you would like the sheer to be.  For me, I like the aesthetics of compound curves.  So I chose to put a pretty pronounced sheer into the boat, which had a consequence for me down the line in planking.
 
I followed the instructions pretty closely, and made good use of the tips on how to form curves in the planking using a hair dryer.  However there was one thing that I did not do, and I will excuse it as novice exuberance.  I did not measure my distances to determine how many planks were needed between the sheer plank and the garboard plank.  This did lead to an error, but reflecting on it, I don't think even with measuring that I would have caught it.  The error was this, in following the instructions i placed the forward edge of my garboard plank at 1/8" forward of the scarf joint in the keel.  However, I think, due to my chosen sheer, it should have extended forward another full width of a plank.  What I ended up with was a small filler piece approximately the width of one plank.  Please, if anybody can tell me if this is the right assumption I would appreciate it.
 
Also during this stage I broke off the stem above the cap rail.  It was a clean break, so I kept it off of the model until after I had completed the cap rail, and then glued it back on with no ill effects.

Thank you for moving my build log to the group forum Chuck.  And thanks Ryland, I will be following your log as well.  
 
 
Part two:  Bulkhead Installation
 
This process did cause me a few problems, but nothing that I would consider too great.  Being new to the building wooden boats, and being eager to dig into the model, I went a little too fast through this phase of the build.  I unfortunately didn't think of your advice, Ryland, or the ingenious use of lego blocks I have seen elsewhere on this site to true the bulkheads to the keel.  So I ended up with some less than true bulkheads.  This did cause some problems for me down the road, but I was able to deal with the problems as they came.  
 
As far as fit of the pieces goes, everything went together nicely, except maybe 2 bulkheads that needed to be lightly sanded to get them to snugly fit into the false keel.
 
After completing the bulkheads and transom, sorry no picture of the transom, I faired the hull using a 1" and a 1/4" sanding sticks.  I found that there was plenty of strength in the assembly at this point, even with no sheer plank in place yet.  I would credit the strength to the innovative bulkheads.  Being that the vast majority of the material in each bulkhead will ultimately be removed, I would consider the removable bulkhead center key to the ease of construction designed into this kit.
 
I did have a couple of areas where I removed too much material from the frame during fairing, which I remedied by gluing on wedges, filing and sanding to match the curve of the hull.

Originally Posted January 25, 2010
 
I have been working on my Armed Virginia Sloop and I can finally say that I have finished Chapter 5 of the practicum.
 
The first picture shows a side shot of my AVS. I have installed the swivel cannon posts and the channels. I pinned the channels to the hull and secured them with glue. I also elected to mount my AVS on pedestals instead of the kit supplied launching ways.
 
The next two photos show the deck details. I probably spent way too much time on them, but I was satisfied with the end results.
 
Here is a photo of the ships wheel, binnacle, elm tree pumps and the companionway. I replaced the cast metal ships wheel with a wooden wheel that I purchased from Model Expo.
 
This last picture shows the hatch and a close-up of the cannon rigging.

 
The completion of Chapter 5 basically finishes the hull. All that is left to finish is the masting and rigging. I have actually started Chapter 6 of the practicum and will post some pictures of my progress soon.

OK Chuck, I have pulled my partially completed Longboat out of the box and am ready to start back to work on this kit.  Your pictures really inspire me and like Chuck Seiler said, you can expand the pictures to get a better look at the detail.  Look for another Longboat build log soon.

After all of the bulkheads were installed, it was time to fair them.  I used sanding sticks that I purchased from a beauty supply shop.  You have to use a light touch to do the fairing or you will loosen up some of the bulkheads.  I actually loosened up several of the bulkheads, but it was an easy fix to reglue them. 
 
Here are some pictures of the fairing process and the sanding sticks that I used.
 

 
Next step is to start the planking.

Hello All,
 
This is a build log for my Model Shipways 18th Century Long Boat kit.  Two very new things for me, one building models from wood, and the second posting about a process in an online forum.  So here goes...
 
I have been interested in building models since I was a teenager, and indeed built many while in high school.  Though none have seemed to survive the journey into adulthood with me.  In the last couple of years, that interest has been rekindled, due to a remarkably well stocked hobby store in the neighborhood that I was living in, and the fact that my wonderful wife encourages me in my many hobbies.  I have since been working on many models concurrently, mostly plastic ships and balsa airplanes which adorn our son's bedroom ceiling after we are done flying them.  I had been dreaming about building a Model Shipways kit for quite sometime before the opportunity presented itself.
 
First a promotion forced us to move, and in an act of self consolation I bought myself the US Brig Syren Kit.  Once we settled into our new place I realized that I needed a bigger desk if I was going to work on the Syren, so it sat and still sits patiently in it's box in my office.  Soon I came across something that really piqued my curiosity.  That was the Long Boat kit.
 
I thought that it would be a great place to start, on something that wasn't quite so detailed as the brig.  Additionally, it is of course a very handsome little model too.  I got the kit at Christmas, and started it a couple of weeks later.  I have been taking pictures during the process.  Over the next week or so I hope to post everything up to where I am currently at in my build.
 
So far it has been a very pleasurable experience, I am especially enjoying working with wood instead of plastic as a medium.  I feel as though there is a life in the material itself that I just do not feel with plastic.
 

I like milling my own wood, but I'm not up to harvesting it myself.  I understand that for some of the woods there are some special issues.  For instance if holly isn't harvested in the right season, and I think kiln dried, it ends up with grey spots.  I value my hands enough that I'm not going to use a chain saw, and haven't split logs since boy scout camp a LONG time ago.  It is a cool thing to do, and I wish you the best of luck.
 
Dave

Robbyn, you are seeing one of the reasons to convert to the dark side of scratch building (or at a minimum, aggressive kit-bashing).  Kits almost never include the material required for this approach.  We are lucky, however, to have vendors such as HobbyMill or the Lumberyard who can provide sheets of wood to replace the kit supplied materials.  Are you single or double planking?  If double planking, the thickness is typically 0.5-1.0 mm.  Sheet veneer could be used in that case and can be purchased from many sources.  When you purchase wood, be sure to get the right species.  The "walnut" provided in most kits is too brittle and the grain is too coarse.  Check out some of the scratch logs to see the species that are commonly used.  Swiss pear, pear, costello boxwood and pau marfin are all tight grained, easily worked with hand tools and are reasonably flexible. Regardless, considering your location, it is either a long drive or mail order.

Hello all! I am back. I jusat found out yesterday that the site went down completely, so I have spent some time getting back onboard and navigating the site. I will go thru my notes and attempt to re-create my build log. Comments welcome.

My old log was lost, as was the Hannah one.  After a lot of thought, I have decided to just restart both where I left off.  I didn’t save them, and given the choice between spending time on the computer and spending time in the workshop, it was an easy choice.


I’m looking forward to the workshop in 2 weeks.  I redid my keel (pictures below are the fifth redo).  I had originally planned to use the previous one, but had made that with the dimensions from the contract, which are slightly different than the plans.  When I made the framing jig and it was loose on the keel, I realized I might have other problems down the road, so I made another keel using the wood Greg sent.  I have also made the dead flat and dead flat one frames.




I’m going to hold for now and play with my new ropewalk. I don’t want to make any more frames until after the workshop as I think they will be a lot better after.
 
Dave


 

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Welcome back. We have a lot of work to do. Fortunately I have all the Naiad posts saved as Word files and all the associated images, so I will be putting up the entire 176 parts as soon as I can. The model is approaching completion, so I do not expect more perhaps 10-12 new posts, but there has been enough interest in the old posts to make the effort worthwhile. We will all need to be showing a lot of patience for awhile.
 
I will also opening a topic in the book section for "The Naiad Frigate - Volume I. There are some content updates I want to share there.
 
I will also be reposting the 1:96 Victory Build log, but that will be taking a back seat to Naiad for awahile.
 
Cheers,
 
Ed

Work on the boiler is now complete, although it won't be mounted on the ship for a while yet until other work is done. The kit provides laser cut framing for the boiler and steam dome along with separate boiler ends and steam dome top. The parts all fit perfectly. The framing was then planked to reproduce the jacketing. The dome planking required extensive shaping by sanding on sandpaper wrapped around the boiler. I used boxwood for the boiler jacket and left it unpainted. It was finished with Wipe-on Poly. Bands were made from black painted paper for both the boiler and steam dome. Mounts for the boiler were made from stripwood.
 
The smoke hood and funnel were made for one end. The hood used laser cut framing that was assembled and then filed and sanded to shape. The funnel is a piece of dowel with the top drilled out. The funnel bands are also paper.
 
After assembly of the various parts, the detail items were made up and installed. Photoetched brass was used for the boiler door hardware.The steam pressure gauge was made from a slice of brass tubing, a disk of styrene, a paper face from the kit and a drop of Micro Kristal Klear for the glass. The various piping items were made using the kit supplied cast metal els and valves and aluminum tubing, as well as additional photoetched and wood parts and a piece of clear plastic rod for the sight glass. The piping work was painted using Polyscale flat aluminum ,with some red and black details.
 
The boiler is one of those things that is just fun to make.
 
Bob