Ryland Craze

Well, a but of a delay in progressing..... caused by self-inflicted sillyiness with the No. 11.  Is it just me but this always happens just after I think 'now don't put your finger there....'!

Anyway, back to work - and next is:
Keel Preparation for Framing.
Rebates for floor location:

 
 
The keel and the base of the floor are both notched ¾” making a 1/12” housing.
At scale this is 1.2mm, or 0.6mm each. I could ignore this if the frame was perpendicular to the keel, but as the rake needs setting I’ll have to create a means of doing this without driving me potty.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The above diagram shows the relationship of keel to keelson. The rabbet is at 8” above the base of the keel (6.35mm at scale) from stem to skeg, and the dimensions are based on a plank thickness of 2 5/8” (1.88mm at scale).
The bearding line is 1.5”(1.2mm at scale)  from the top of the keel at the centerline, but varies as the garboard angle changes.
I’ve knocked up a crude little router plane for the keel notch, using a blade 6mm wide (pinched from my Quangsheng Plane) and set at the correct depth. Its reversible left and right to get into the ends of the keel, as I didn’t think ahead to do this before assembling the centerline.
 


 
 
 
 
 
For the 6.5° angle on the base of the frame floor a simple little jig for running a sanding strip in the centre of the frame heel makes quick work of them. The dimensions are so small it only takes seconds.


Then a run through the thicknesser ro remove the paper template and set final size to scale:

...and finally finished frames ready for assembly.

A comparison shot for fun! I am pleased with the way the wood matches the oak at scale,

Next post (finally) will be cutting rabbets and setting up the frames on the keel. All for now!
 
The Friends of Vigilance facebook site has a great week by week chronology of photographs and commentry here which currently shows the planking - they are well ahead of me! 
 

Nice start to your Medway.  I look forward to following your build.

As always, thanks for the likes folks.  I finished a few different things over the last week.  I spent time shaping the rudder.  Using the plans I drew the lines that I would sand down to on the rudder faces and sides.  Doing this gave me the visual cue to not over or under sand.  Once the rudder was done I cut out the rudder port.  I made a paper template from the plans that I used to get the shape correct.  Next I made the top of the rudder post.  This took way more time than it should have.  I accidentally removed too much material from the laser cut piece.  So I would up gluing on a chunk of scrap wood to that piece and then shaping the whole thing again.  Sometimes it's the one little piece of wood that is the biggest pain!  The last thing I did was shape the 6 timber heads.  This was a bit nerve wracking as a newbie, but they turned out OK.  The photo below shows the tools that wound up working best for me (as well as a rough cut timber head before clean up).  For some reason, on any model I build, I'm most comfortable using either a #17 or #18 X-Acto chisel blade with no handle (rather than a #11 blade w/handle).  I know it's weird, but it gives me more control by holding the blade directly.  The overall height of the timber heads match the plans, but my angled faces are not as tall as the plans.  No big deal really since all 6 look the same.
 
The next thing I'll be working on is the boom crutches.  Wish me luck!  Haha.
 
Erik

Your photos are so pristine they almost look fake.  Gorgeous!

Very, very impressive all round, Erik.

Good grief! With attention to detail like that, you can be my accountant any time! As an Earth scientist, I'm glad NCAR is in such good hands.

Thanks for the kind words!  Toni, as far as the photos go, your comment is worth an explanation of how I get my photos.  I take the photos on my work space, which is pretty darn small.  Especially for the last year or so since I've been working mostly from home (I'm a remotely working accountant for the National Center for Atmospheric Research). I threw in a photo of my work space too.  Basically my work day, and hobby, all take place on different sides of my L-shaped desk.  It means my commute from work to modeling at the end of my work day takes about one second.  Haha.   I have a large sheet of light blue construction paper for a photo background that I tape down to my work surface.  For lighting, I always take the photos mid day in front of the window, which provides good area lighting, and use a halogen desk lamp with 700 lumen bulb as a spot light aligned with the lens of the camera.  The camera I use is a 7 year old Olympus OM-D mirrorless camera with a 14-22mm lens mounted on my now 30 year old Gitzo tripod.  I use the self timer so I'm not touching the camera when the shot is taken, this aids in crisp photos.  For each shot I take a 3 photo bracket by 1/3 stops using aperture priority with an F stop of F22 (creates the greatest in-focus depth of field).  The aspect ratio I prefer is 16:9 which gives a horizontal rectangle photo, rather than a square, so there is not too much dead space at the top and bottom of my photos.  For size I select 1280 x 720.  This is big enough to see details, but small enough to not use a lot of memory.  Once I have all my photos I upload them into the Olympus photo software on my laptop.  I delete 2 of the 3 photos taken in the bracket, selecting the one that is the best brightness wise.  The only editing I do is making the crispness greater (not sure why the camera doesn't automatically do that itself with in-focus photos), and to get the boxwood to look the actual color/shade it is, I've been color correcting slightly by adding a small bit of blue hue and very slightly removing red hue.  This has been an evolutionary process for me.  I don't have any kind of formal training, and taking photos of something as large as Cheerful, the largest model I've ever built, has had it's own learning curve.  I threw in a photo of my last ship build below, a 1/350 scale tugboat, for a comparison of the "normal" size I'm used to photographing!  For me, presentation is a fun part of participating in forums, so I really strive to have good photo presentation for you wonderful folks!   Hope this is useful for people.  I encourage my fellow modelers here to play around with their photography.  You'd be surprised at what you can come up with.
 
Erik

Continue with the seams for the armor plates.
This time on the underwater ship.
It takes a bit of effort and nerves. They have to be attached very precisely and parallel.
But it seems to work:
 

 
However, I have to move the torpedo tube opening a little at the stern, so I first closed it with styrene.

Nice start to your Medway.  I look forward to following your build.

I applied the first batch of lozenge decals today. They went on beautifully on the inside of the fuselage and need to be flat coated then.
 


Initially I wanted to assemble the HGW seat belts, but couldn´t find the heart in me to start. There are four pairs to be made for the captain/observer in the front cockpit, the pilot, the foldable co-pilot seat and the rear gunner. Interestingly these four stations were only manned by a crew of three on night missions often only two crew members. The captain/ observer crept through a tunnel out of the front cockpit for takeoff and landing, because in case of a nose dive, he would be crushed in the front office.

Speaking of nose dives, to distract me from the seat belts, I even had a peek on the waves for surfing, but on this cold, grey, stormy day, there was no surf to speak of, so back to the belts.
 
Well in the end, I assembled all four pairs and now my eyes are hurting . They are a bit simpler to build u, than the WWII ones, but fiddly as well. Again, it was helpful to fiddle the belt parts through the buckles, when these are still on the PE fret. On the picture, they havent received their brown oil color wash, which will be followed by a matte coat tomorrow.
 

 
Cheers Rob

Any stage of progress is fine.

Not all build logs are created equal! I've seen build logs posted after the initial build was started. It's a good way to get feedback.

I joined a few days ago and I would like to start a build log the only problem is that the ship I am currently working on was brought half built (very good I might add) 
Is it possible to start a build log with it or is it better to leave it and start a fresh with my next build. 

Hi All -
 
Not sure if you saw the announcement but the book is now at the printer! I’m waiting for the specific ship date but we’re are shooting for end of April. 
 
Mike 

I did add the side support to all frames. I bought a bundle of random sticks a while back to have scrap to pick from. With the grain vertical the edges could snap easy. 
 
I’m going slow, I’ve been at it all day. I finally figured out I can glue 2 or 3 frames at a time, I had in my head to glue all 10 at the same time. 
 
So far everything feels and looks like it should. I used my old fairing stick to line up the frames. Once the glue sets it’s time to flip it and stabilized it for fairing. 
 

 

Almost ready to glue the frames to the keel. 
Not sure how to glue so much at the same time and keep it aligned. The Titebond Quick & Thick, is thick and quick. It’s almost CA but I don’t get my fingers stuck if I touch it. The frames slide side to side ever so slightly. 
 
I almost made an issue on frame 6, figured it out quick enough I got it unglued before it set. 
 
I’ll likely sit here and stare at it until it clicks what to do to get it aligned and glued. 
 
I’m also trying to decide if I should tape the 2 part frames. I see the cut difference on the one piece frames so the support piece might not be needed. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will follow with interest....looking forward to your updates.   Enjoy the project.

First I’ve seen on a kit review, to comment on the smell.  I like it!  I thought maybe I was the only one to notice.

Looking good.  I just finished my Medway in December. It was a very enjoyable build even with all its challenges.  Chucks instructions are excellent, as are all the build logs.  Lots of tips to be picked up in them.

Magnets and this metal board work great. That’s about 90 deg angle as I can get. Now I need to make sure not to accidentally rip it off the board. Now I need to slow down and read again. The sanded cedar makes the hobby room smell great! 
 

Char is relentless. It wants to stay in view. It looks like it’s gone but shows up when coated with WOP. Extra sanding here and there and it’s gone. My middle notched piece was shorter than the space, I left the gap, well as I look, in the middle, both sides have a small extra gap. I thought I tucked it forward. Guess not. 
 
So far so good. 
 

 

I had been eyeing this boat for some time. I finally bought a kit a few weeks ago. There are many great build logs, I don’t plan to bring anything new to the project, I’ve seen many outstanding examples of fantastic craftsmanship. It’s an honor to build such a wonderful kit. I hope I can build it in a way it deserves, I will certainly try. 
 
I’ve had it all out of the box 4 or 5 times, it smells so good. This time when I got it out I kept going. 

Thank you in advance to anyone following, liking, or commenting. I tend to not be chatty in my responses, but I’m grateful for comments, tips, and encouragement. 
 
I printed out the sections a while back and have been reading them and marking notes to remember to do certain things. In an effort to not muck it up. So far, so good. 
 
Pictures I take and post are milestones for me and the build. I try to show the progression of the work, so someday I can look back and see how bad I was at this lol. I have my moments of a perfect fit, then I have to paint, paint is not a strong suit, yet. 
 
Wake up, let’s get started….
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Based on y’all’s feedback, I ended up modifying my block sander with 320 grit and replaced the paddles with sandpaper. I just stapled a double ply to the center mandrel. Worked like a charm! Chuck’s blocks came out looking incredible. 
 

I am so sad to hear that Maggie is going through this difficult time. I wish her all the best and hope that she will recover quickly and fully. You both are in my thoughts and prayers.

There's a PE 'horseshoe' to add there. You'll see something similar towards the stern where a 'fishplate' will fasten.
 
These were for strengthening the timber joints on the real ship.