Ryland Craze

Beautiful job, Dave. Well done.

Would recommend to look into decent household vaccuums with some "silent" keywords in the name. I have a Bosch ProSilence (this one or similar https://www.bosch-home.com/ne/en/mkt-product/vacuum-cleaners/canister-vacuum-cleaners-bagged/BGLS42230), very quiet on lower speeds (that are more than sufficient), has a HEPA filter and does not take too much space. It even handles power planing well enough, so unless you do a full scale woodworking - it is more than adequate for the hobby needs. I have it for many years and it shows no sign of issues with wood dust.
 
It is so quiet that I run it at night when modelling in a living room while the family is sleeping in adjacent rooms. Just placing the hose close to the object that I'm sanding - a steady flow of air easily gets all the fine airborne particles, while the heavy ones just drop on the table, posing no risk to your lungs. No visible wood dust floats in the air, which makes it reassuring that the finer dust is sucked into the vac.
 
No sound boxes required. And they are not terribly expensive either (around 200 USD I guess). Not sure why everyone assumes you need a shop vac for our hobby, we are not grinding concrete and not sanding wood panels for hours every day. Despite a small-ish size, it takes a very long time to fill the vaccuum bag when woodworking, and the bags are cheap. Zero issues with clogging, leaking or anything. More than enough power when connecting to our tools.

It’s just a pre- announcement of a ‘copy’ being pieced together now by some Chinese hack. 😳
 
I just read it as well (as a guest, I was kicked out long ago). Interesting how some members are complimentary while the staff and admins work hard to disparage Chuck at every turn. This comment by a member “ I emailed Chuck with updates and progress pictures and found him to be very personable, interested and encouraging. A much more personal investment of his time and interest than one might otherwise expect from the head of a commercial venture.“ must have really hurt.
 

Don't forget that many of us don't have access to a mill, much less a CNC mill. So Chuck's offerings give us an opportunity to have the best results, despite not having a machine shop.
 
Best Regards .... Rick
 

Lower/Upper Apron
 
The pre-cut curved rabbet is a nice feature which avoid the headache of bending and adjusting a straight strip and gluing it to the stem. I had to tweak the curvature at the stem to get a tight fit between the lower and upper apron.  I found it tricky to  optimize the seam on both sides at once. A lot of back and forth was required here.  The final result is shown below. 
 
The Rising Wood
 
Before gluing the rising wood sections, I realized that the strip supplied for the rabbet was a touch thicker than the curved section.  I fixed this easily using my Varitas mini-plane. The rising wood then went on with no particular issues. Care should be taken to insure that the position of the rising wood is not shifted with respect to the plan. For this I used a plan that I had printed at my local printer. 
 
The Deadwood
 
I followed the instructions with no particular issues here. Gluing the angled wedges is easier than at the bow.  The completed assembly is shown below. 
 
 

Great repair Jean-Mark! One of the things I learned on my first plank on frame model was that my skills would improve dramatically as the build progressed. It is important not to "settle" for anything less than perfect early in the build or you will surely regret it later on. I also found that using 3X magnification loupes while working (regrettably 5-7x now 🙁) greatly improved the finished result. If you are happy with the work at 3x magnification you will surely be happy with the naked eye.

The Keel Assembly
 
The main challenge here is to make a tight fit at the boxing joint between the keel and stem. I had to shorten the curved stem just a touch to get a good fit. The rest of the keel assembly is a matter of gluing the various sections in the right order and on the right side. Very little tweaking of the edges is needed.  While I was waiting for my kit, I built a set of simplified "Ed Tosti" clamps.  I find these work better than commercial clamps to apply even and adjustable pressure to the parts being glued. They are kind of fun to make too.

Lower Apron and Angled Wedges
 
Here I encountered my first difficulty.  The stepped lower apron is attached to a sacrificial piece of wood (handle). This makes it easier to glue the wedges one by one.  Without the handle, the lower apron would certainly break during this operation.  I found that even with the handle, the lower apron remains quite fragile. If you force the wedge in position, you can slightly modify the curvature of the apron or even break it loose from its handle. This happened to me and resulted in a poor fit of the lower apron to the keel assembly as shown below.

I was able to correct this by gluing a sliver of wood between the apron and the keel as shown here.
 

This gap may also have been the result of the stem being glued a hair too low (less than 1/32th). Anyway, I am glad that I took the time to correct this. 

CHAPTER 1
 
Here we go.  I started ship modeling about 15 years ago.  I completed all Chuck's projects plus a few others (including Model Shipways Syren). I recently completed the Winchelsea and posted a few pictures on the gallery. Except for Chucks Medway, all my projects had been POBs.  I was therefore quite excited when the Speedwell kit was released. This offers me a great opportunity to work for the first time on a POF kit without having to scratch my own frames. Except for ripping planks on my Byrnes saw (yes I am among the lucky ones), I essentially work with hand tools.  In this blog I will report on my progress. All the Speedwell builders are well experienced, and I am hoping you guys can provide advices when I have questions or encounter difficulties.  Thanks in advance. (This will also free Chuck from answering my numerous emails). On occasion, I hope I can contribute some ideas and tips to those who will undertake this project. 
 
Parts for Chapter 1 are shown below.  Contrary to others, my kit survived posting very well.  Only one small part (5F) in the top center board seems to be missing.  It is easy to scratch build, so no big deal.
Assembling the stem is straightforward. Tweaking the edges as suggested improves the fit.  I had to tweak a few more edges than those indicated to get the tightest fit. 

Positioning the stem (long curved part to which the rabbet is glued) on the rest of the stem assembly can be tricky. It is important to follow the plan closely to avoid problems when making the boxing joint at the keel and to ensure a tight fit between the apron and the rabbet.  I think I glued mine a hair too low and had to make adjustments (to be discussed below).  Note that I postponed the gluing of the thinner knee of the head for the time being. To prevent knocking it off, it will be glued on only when the whole stem/keel/stern assembly is completed. 

Really interested to follow this one Dave. I've been interested in Kotare and I'm hoping they bring some other kits out soon having only recently built a spitfire. I'm definitely in.

Next up will be the Kotare Spitfire Mk.Ia.  I usually build my world war 2 planes in 1/48, but have been really happy with the wingnut wings kits and wanted to try Kotare, which is the company that some of the WNW designers and engineers moved to when WNW folded.  I got a good deal on it at the local IPMS show in February.  I will build the AC Deere "Kiwi" plane because I like the kiwi on the side and the black and white underside.  Given the quality of the kit, I don't plan much in the way of aftermarket.  I got the HGW seatbelts because I like them a lot more than photoetch and eduard masks because trying to mask canopies drives me up a wall.  I'm also going to try some camouflage masks.  Will probably be a little time before I make any progress - I have some work and family stuff coming up and want to make some progress on the two boats I'm working on.
 

First Cuts
 
Construction begins with the forward fuselage. One unusual feature of the Salmson was its powerplant -- a liquid-cooled, 9-cylinder Salmson 9Z radial producing 231 hp. The radiator layout featured shutters that looked rather like fan blades. You can easily see them in this photo:

from Wikimedia Commons
 
And here are the shutters as seen in the construction diagram:

 
The shutters are provided as a flat, printed part depicting the shutters closed, but the instructions say that experienced models may attempt to display them in the open position.
 
Challenge accepted:

 
That job took awhile, so that's all I got done this evening.
 

IT's RED!!!!
 
Wow fantastic job... Red isn't a great color to go overall with but you've done it justice...
 
Well done....

Outstanding choice for the finish...it really stands out and makes the viewer take notice.

Dave, congratulations on finishing your DH9. I bet it looks fantastic in its display!

Really nice build, I love the colours. 

Your Lobster came out fantastic, Dave. Congratulations for this vivid looking model and that you have mastered the British rigging. It´s always a WNW moment, when the upper wing falls in place without much effort.

Cheers Rob

Paul and Chris - many thanks.  I picked the scheme because of the bright colors.  The other decal choices that came with the kit were all based around the standard British olive drab.  This one was a lot more fun and looks good in the display case.
 
I didn't take many pictures between the last ones and now, but it is finished.  The rigging took a few evenings and painting was complete on the other parts, so it came together very quickly.  I'm overall very pleased with how it came out, and learned a lot, especially with the decals.  I really love these wingnut wings kits.
 
  

Thanks all for the likes, and for the comment, shipman.  I agree the Dino is a sharp looking car.
 
I've managed to get the exhaust and mufflers on, though did not take pictures of that yet.  It was a bit of a struggle to get the stuff to all line up and while coercing things into place, one of the header pipes from the engine to the collector came loose.  That was quite a pain to get it glued back in.
 
I've also worked on painting the body, as seen below.  I did a mist coat then a bit of a heavier coat on everything, then I glued in that piece that surrounds the engine compartment and worked on hiding the very obvious seam using some filler and sanding and priming.  It is much better than it was but still partially visible.  After that I put another coat of paint on the body but forgot to do the hood, trunk, and engine cover panels.   When I placed them on the body for these pictures, there was a noticeable but slight color difference so obviously I need to go back and give those panels another coat as well.
 
There is one issue that I have not figured out yet.  There are two little tubular pieces that fit behind that vent just behind the door.  Unfortunately on my kit, those pieces appear to be a bit malformed as if there was not quite enough plastic injected into the mold.  Once I finish painting the body and remove all the tape from the inside, I will need to address that issue somehow.
 
As mentioned, I am using Splash paints Rosso Corsa, which dries to a sort of satin finish.  I'll gloss it all up with some Tamiya X-22.

OK got some more work done. Started shaping the oars. After sanding the first one to shape I decided we could speed things up with carving them first.
Here are some pics of the process. The carving is not for the feint of heart. It's very easy to carve to far into the oar.
 

ld
 
I made up a cradle to hold it. Saw it on another build. Here one of them is shaped.
 

 
Then I made a crude attempt at ageing/weathering. Have to admit I have no idea what I'm doing here. Hahaha. These aren't even the colors they stayed by the time I finished the base.
 

 
 
I made a base and copied a deck planking pattern I found online. No idea if it's period correct etc. but figured it was good practice.
 

 
I'll call it mostly done, but I have some smaller rope coming for the beckets and I am still going to try my hand at building a tub to hold trawl line.
 
So a few questions for you that are following.
 
I can't find a suitable color for the thwarts and oars. They are supposed to be ash. I've tried a natural danish oil, essentially no change. I tried a provincial maple stain, too red. I have renaissance wax but would like a color on them first.
 
What method do you use to recreate the trunnels? I simply drilled a small shallow hole and put a dab of glue in it then sanded the area so the glue would grab the dust. After staining they took the color a little darker. You can see I still had some glue squeeze out that I didn't catch when sanding.
 
I cut the deck planks by hand I made them 10 mm across.
 
Also what's your preferred method of cutting planks to length? I used a straight edge and sharp blade. Still tough to get the cut square and vertical.
 
I've seen the "chopper" style of cutter and I've also seen cheap Chinese electric chop saws. Any thoughts on either of those? I don't know if those questions will get lost in this build log. Where is a more appropriate forum for those questions?
 
Thanks for all the comments, the Norwegiansailing pram arrives tomorrow!
 
 

The stanchions were stung together with 0.12” (.30mm) black rope prior to installation so that I wouldn’t have to thread them on the model. Mustafa used tan rope which I must admit looks great, but the real ship uses black rope; but it doesn’t have the visual impact like the tan. So be it. It was slow, tedious, tricky, and time consuming That one stairwell down, six to go. Hopefully these will get installed quicker.

If you look closely at Mustafa’s model. His stanchions fit into holes drilled into the top of the hatchway walls. For what ever reason, the walls on my hatchways ended up being too narrow to drill holes for the stanchion poles. To support the stanchions, I decided to use brass brackets on the inside corners of the hatchway. Hopefully these would provide sufficient physical support and glueing surface to hold the stanchions in place. Making the brackets was simple but installing them was a little tricky. Due to the installed beams, the most forward hatchway was the most difficult to access. My fingers were too fat to fit between the beams, so I had to do everything with tweezers. I couldn’t use CA glue because I couldn’t get the bracket into position, hold it there, at the same time applying minute drops of CA glue. PVA glue allowed me to stick the bracket in close vicinity of where it needed to be and maneuver it into the proper position (still not easy). Once it dried, then I could add more glue for proper strength. Once the brackets were in place, then the stanchion could be set into them. This was a time-consuming process because I had to wait for the glue to dry solid before I moved on to the next step. I also made a stairway plug to prevent anything from falling to the hatchway, like a loose bracket. Once anything fell in, there was no way I could get it out. It was a black hole.

What to do? So, for my second attempt, I messaged Mustafa (mtbediz), the man who inspired me to do this over again. He very graciously gave all the details which I followed with some minor modifications.
 
First, He used exclusively 0.8 mm brass wire, but I stuck with the 0.81mm music wire for the stanchion for reasons mentioned above.
He used a short piece of 0.81mm brass wire to create the rope tab. I used a short piece of 0.64mm brass wire which was cut and formed into a U-shape like he did. It was trimmed so the ends were even and placed near the top of the music wire piece like a flag with the open ends of the brass wire touching the music wire.
 
Mustafa used lead solder paste (I believe) to fill the interior of the “flag” and secured the two pieces of wire in place with metal weights. I had silver solder paste but found mine wasn’t sticky enough to stay in place when I tried to fill the “flag” void (paste too old?). As a result, I used soldering flux and silver solder wire. The surface tension of the flux held everything in position. It was backed up with a bolt so it wouldn’t move during the heating process.
 
To heat the assembly so the solder would melt, Mustafa used a heat gun which I don’t have. I used a mini-butane torch which worked quite nicely. The excess solder was filed off and a hole was drilled through the solder without any problems. The stanchion were painted black, threaded with miniature rope.

So, I chose 0.032” (0.81mm) music wire for the stanchion because it won’t bend with normal handling. For the rope tab, the idea was to wrap a 0.005” thick brass strip around the wire and then glue the ends together to form the tab. Lastly, drill a hole in the tab with a #78 drill bit to create a rope hole. Everything went according to plan…until it didn’t. For the life of me, I could not create the rope hole. My drill bit bent if I applied any pressure. (Cheap bits, I don’t know?) I tried creating a dimple into the brass with a needle for the bit to bite into, but all that did was deform the thin strip. I even tried using a very fine cone shape grinding bit but couldn’t keep it perfectly centered on the brass strip. It would drift and eat away one side or the other of the strip making the strip useless.

Waaaaayyyyy back in July 2018 when I was first installing ladders from the gun deck down to the pseudo berth deck level, I made and installed the associated ladder stanchions and hand ropes. They didn’t last long due to my inadequate fabrication and installation skills; and they were being battered about by handling the model installing other stuff. Well, due to my admiration and inspiration of Mustafa’s (mtbediz) fine workmanship of his model, I’m giving it another go. If I’m going to do it, it must be now before the gun deck becomes too inaccessible for this detail.
My first attempt, I tried to maintain the scale based on the US Navy’s plans and I wanted my stanchions to be robust enough to handle any jarring due to my manipulation of the model.

Hi all, been neglecting my posting,
Got the waist grates installed, stairs, pumps and some more railing built.
Been working on a block making technique (this is a combo of much of the info from MSW thank you all). Acquired an ellipse template, cut the strips from pen blanks jigsaw/table saw and cut the groves using Proxxon mill. Shaping with files/sander, drill hole with hand drill, put wire through the hole before cutting the block free (they sure are hard to find once they go flying). Haven't run them through the tumbler yet and I've only made single sheeve blocks so far.