Ryland Craze

Hi Greg, I’m currently getting going on a website, as soon as I have something I will post a link. Ben and Dusan are building two prototypes to prove the structural design and provide input while I build ahead and I’m still writing instructions. This is a massive model and the instructions are very long for chapter one. 

Is this a prototype build Ben? I don't see a website for them.

Looking forward to watching your progress. Looks like a great project.

Looking forward to seeing this Ben...

Hi All,
 
About to start a new build of the beautiful 50gun 4th rate HMS Portland of 1770, This kit has been developed by the Portland Scale Ship company based in Oregon USA.
 

Damn, I thought I put more than enough deadeyes in - I shall add a few extra for future kits.

Build days 171-172: 4 hrs / Total 359 hours
As of today, Mizzen and Main backstays are complete.
 
I have run out of 3mm deadeyes just 4 pieces to go as well as 0.75mm black thread. I don't remember wasting so many 3mm deadeyes, but apparently the kit did barely contain any surplus. Now I'll need to head to the local hobby store to buy a small box of them, in order to continue with the Fore backstays .
 
Photo 894: Not much detail one can see from a distance however I still add here a photo for evidence.

DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP....... Take a long break, review things. And when you are no longer fustrated come back to the work bench, and it will all begin to fall into place.😉

You're definitely on the right track!!

I will continue making those as well.  Those are no big deal to make.
 
Once Speedwell moves along a bit more I am sure they will be in stock more often.  I literally just made 6 more ropewalks two days ago and they sold out in an hour.  And only one serving machine left in stock.   So it looks like next week I will make a bunch more of those.
 
Chuck

Love to hear you have a plan.   Looking forward to using more of your rope and fittings in the future.  
 
what about the rope rocket and servomatic.  

As I get close to retirement I am shifting my business plan a bit.   I am not retiring yet,  but I am starting to create the end game plan.     My business is currently really two sep. divisions or production flows.      Production of kits and then Production of after market parts, blocks and rope and fittings etc.   Both take a huge amount of time and effort.  I have mentioned before that I am currently working 7 days a week and 12 hours a day easily.  Now that I have moved and enjoy the leisure living in the back country of NJ, my wife has started to use the word "leisure" as a verb.   Chuck we need to "leisure" more.  You work to much.  I want to travel more.  You are going to have a heart attack...yada yada yada.    Sooo,  the Speedwell will be my last physically produced kit.  In addition,  I have stopped production of all of my kits...Kind-of.   I AM NOT GOING OUT OF BUSINESS.  Let me make that perfectly clear.  In fact my business and sales is now greater than at the height of the pandemic.  Lots of rope and blocks being sold.  LOL  I have many many years left in me.    BUT moving forward, I will now be focusing on just fittings and related ship model items...No kit model production.      I am retiring all of my kits.  This includes Speedwell.   I sold the last of 50 Speedwell chapter 1 and 2 sets recently.   I will only be selling the remaining chapters to those who bought those 50 chapter one and two sets.   So that will be easy enough for me to handle and administer.     Its just getting tougher and tougher to source enough wood to make this stuff in the USA and remain profitable.   I also dont want keep buying and storing a mountain of wood in my garage.  Literally a mountain of it as you can imagine.  In addition I just dont have the time or desire to do this in 60's.   The good news is that I will be introducing a ton of new fittings.  Stuff for French ships too!!  I am slowly revamping my website...and you might experience disruptions as I make it easier to find all of the fittings I offer.  I have hundreds and hundres already  and many more on the drawing board.    This is mindless repetitive work and will help pay the bills into retirement and beyond.  So no plans to stop making that stuff anytime soon.   In fact my wife wont let me fully retire until Im 67 so there is that.  God bless her.   Now the fun part...just because I am not producing these current kits any longer doesnt mean that someone else wont be MFGing them.   All of my kits already available will not just go away...you do know him and love him.   I have reached an agreement with Chris at Vanguard who will be taking over the reigns and manufacturing my kits.   This will take some time as Chris is finishing up his Surprise model kit.      The Winnie group is fine...just not selling any more starter bulkhead sets or chapter one sets.   I will continue making later chapter sets available for the group in perpetuity.  Its not a big deal until Chris can take over.      The longboat group build will also remain because that will probably be the first kit being produced by Chris followed by the barge.   So stay tuned and please dont bother Chris about getting any of this stuff.  It will be made available as soon as he can get to it.  He is busy like me...so keep that in mind.   All Winnie parts, and Speedwell Chapter sets and Cheerful parts will continue being sold on MY site for folks currently building them until the hand-off is eventually made.   So fear not!!!   NOW...this frees me up to build and design Newer projects.  These however will be made with the idea that the models will be built using plansets and thus not dependent on kit production.  Those will be released here as open source plans or at Seawatch as a new book.  Or if Chris wants,  he can take them and run with them too.  That is my retirement plan.   Keep making parts for sale for all of your projects while still building models that interest me and passing those designs on.   Now back to making rope!!!  Blocks!!! and other stuff....   Lantern mini kits both English and French are next on deck.  Then ship's wheels and a whole host of other good stuff for you folks!!!       Chuck

Well done, Mark! Scrap wood is so versatile if one has the right idea.

I ran some old fence slats through the thickness planer, Steve, then cleaned up the edges on the table saw. I was actually surprised how clean they came out for being rough cut wood. I am still considering painting the whole thing white, we will see.

Well, we can't have that, can we. Here is an image from Amazon of an organizer that I liked but, they wanted $36 for it! 🤨
 

 
So, I collected up some scraps, literally, and threw this together. It still needs some compartments on the bottom and something to slot tools into at the front but it will do nicely I believe:
 

Wonderful!
 
Best Regards .... Rick

Thank you for all the likes.
Many thanks for @Baker, @druxey, @wefalck, @GrandpaPhil, @ccoyle and @Michael Mash for their positive response. Too much honor.
 
@wefalck: the crew was made by my friend Herbert Tomesen's company, which is specializing nowadays in making all sorts of human figures, using 3D photography. The firm hires re-enactment groups of people who are dressed in the appropriate clothing and can be delivered in any wanted pose or stand. Usually the scale is 1/87 (HO), but 1/72, 1/120, 1/160 and 1/220 are also available. For me he simply prints them at my 1/77 scale, but I am not sure he can do that for everyone...
This is his site, the artwork is done by my son Emiel: https://www.artitecshop.com/nl/figuren/

Good save on the copper Kevin, it will all blend in time.  Your Indy is a fine looking ship!  

good evening everyone
 
This week i had to do something about the hull
i had used copper tape, and cleaned them with nail varnish remover, before using an acrylic varnish, but never wore gloves at any time, so i think the oils from my fingers wore everything away
its a shame, as i now have a two tone hull, and made worse by not wanting to do the bow, which is not quite so bad

 
 

Started this build a week or so ago , so I'm a little behind on the build log. But I still have pictures of my progress up to this point.
 
It all started off fairly smooth, getting the bow transom knee on and assembling the stern transom and knee. Got everything placed in the build jig and the first 2 bottom planks sanded, curved, and glued on. Keel plank went on after the bottom planks were dried.
 
Next up were the garboard planks. I was a bit nervous about the rabbets that had to be cut, but practicing on some scrap wood helped. Soaked, formed, and glued the garboards.
 
Then it was on the the first of the second planks, where I am currently. I got some better pictures of the rabbet on this plank, prior to soaking and forming.

It's good to see you back in your workshop, Bob. Another one almost done already, you are a marvel. 

Time heals all wounds, things are starting to get beck to normal.  The arm still gets a little sore but much better. 
 The sails are hung, all the holes for the rigging are made it just a matter of glueing them on and tieing things up.


I tied the yards on, with the help of just a thouch of CA to keep the yard in place then tied them on.
I added a breach rope only for the four upper cannons ,and painted the ship's boat, I will make a stand for it later.
 


Just a few lines to run, some knots to tie and I am going to call it finished for now.
Will be sliding this ship right next to the Duchess in Kingston in the display case. 
  So with just a few lines to run and some last minute changes this should be finished soon, but something might come up to delay the process for awhile lol.
   Time to start thinking of my next build, well waiting for my next Surprise build to be released  I will attempt to build two Bluenose  ships, one is a Billings model and one is a 1962 vintage Scientific 


 
 So  the Hind is in the display  case but needs more work. The first Mate is going home for a visit  with her sisters , and will be gone a week, so lots of time for the shipyard follies  lol for a week anyway.
 
Bob  M
 
 

The shipyard is getting an overhaul today. I went ahead and ordered some much needed accessories for the yard, just things like a laser level, a decent contour gauge; stuff like that. Because I was looking where I could keep these items so that they were handy, I decided to clear my table off completely and (finally) get things organized. "Craft room organizers" were ridiculously expensive so I decided to build my own from sone scrap wood I had laying around. Images to follow.

This is the paint job for one of the hull halves. 

I made sure to attempt to accurately portray the way hot, wet climates beat up and destroy wood. Clearly, this junk has not been well taken care of. My decisions for this model's paint job were based primarily on this black-and-white photograph, which I have interpreted in color: 

Let's see how we got there. 
First, I applied a coat of cream colored paint, which was almost the same color as the plastic: 

Then brown on the very organic-looking wales, and a creamy tan on some of the planks, which may have been replaced recently. I made sure to make it as messy and sloppy as possible, which will come in handy when weathering. 

A healthy coat of a light brown shade: 

A very heavy coat of antiquing medium, my favorite paint for the last two years: 

I made sure to rub some of the paint off to add to the weathering effect. I also dry-brushed on a mixture of brown, white and grey, which you can barely see in photos: 

I then added muck on the bottom, as well as barnacles and algae: 
Finally, the eye and serpent carvings were painted: 

This is approximately how we will continue the paintwork throughout the construction of this model. We will pay special attention to weathering and shading, and spend as much effort as possible making this ship look like something that would have really existed in the South China Sea. You should be able to see a clear distinction between this and Aoshima's paint job, which looks toylike in comparison. We will paint the gunwale in a bit.