Ryland Craze

Richard:
I have the original Chopper and don't use it as often as I used to but I fixed the wear issue like you described by mixing up some epoxy and filling in the wear the blade makes to the cutting surface.  I carefully filled the groove and then smoothed out the epoxy using a plastic credit card blank.  It has held up for several years and it is about due to be refurbished the next time I use epoxy for anything around the shop.  It still cut great the last time I used it and the fix is so easy so I will preemptively fill in the slight groove.
Take care,
Kurt
 

I decided to add the wing fences next, even though they are not the next item in the instructions. I do think they add to the plane's "cool" factor.
 
Fences (left wing) vs. no fences (right wing).

 
All fences on.

Well the part I was dreading the most is done... I got the mast shaped. I decided to use the dowel and not the square pieces. I'm not sure why they couldn't have given us a smaller dowel sine we had to trim it down so much... I threw it in my drill and started trimming it with some 150 sandpaper. This was so painfully slow... So I got the bright idea to use the Dremel with a drum sander while spinning it in the drill 🤣🤣 I wish I thought of this first because it took off wood soooo fast. I had to be extremely careful though because it was so aggressive. I wish the instructions had more detailed drawings so I could at least have a diameter to aim for.... I keep regretting not spending the $30 for the drawings someone had linked in their log... Won't make that mistake again. 
I ended up making my own cleats for the mast because the laser cut ones were so small and looked ridiculous. 
I used some of the brass plate I got to make a pad for the boom but I'm not 100% happy with it. It ended up with small dents and scratches 😭 I might still use it though. 
 

Another hits the cabinet guys not wild about the pics but this is my third time at it and I am spent photography is not my game.

Photography looks good to me, Javlin. If you're not happy with the background, get some tri-fold presentation board, foam or card stock, from Michaels. It come in a variety of sizes, e.g., 36x48, and different colors, i recommend white as it will help fill in the shadows. 

After remodeling the kitchen over winter now the garden has started up again.
I did manage to get a stand made from a bit of mahogany I had, not sure if it works?
It's a lot redder in real life.

 

 
pleased with the brass fittings from Cornwall Model Boats, dulled down as they are bit bright otherwise.
Comments please.
 
Tim

This week the premium sails arrived and they look really nice.
 

 
Secondly, I understand now why I did not receive the sales in the kit as I was expecting. I found out that my kit is older stock that has not been produced since 2019 as I have the maple veneer for the deck. I did purchase it from Ages of Sail, so I probably will order directly from Vanguard directly.
 

Hey Cisco, I saw your AVS at the show.  Pictures just do not do your model justice.  It is an absolute beauty of a model and I look forward to seeing it completed.  Glad you won one of Chuck's kits.  I bought many raffle tickets for it, but no luck on winning one.  It was a great show and I look forward to next year's event.

Thanks for the kind comments, all.
The small raffle tickets were $1 each, I bought 20. The big raffle tickets were $5 each, I bought 6. After you bought your tickets, you could drop as many as you wanted into each category bucket. The categories were divided between automotive, armor, aircraft, ships, or supplies. All the proceeds from the raffle go to support the host club while the prizes were donated by individual members and local businesses, some national businesses. I don't know why, but I'm mostly always lucky when it comes to these type raffles. Lotto, not so much. 
Here are some select photos of the myriads of scale models that were on display.
 
 

The Pelicon 2025 show was a blast! Many, many, high quality models on didplay. Hundreds of people attended. There were raffle drawings every hour in numerous categories with a grand prize raffle at the final hour with some excellent prizes. I managed to win six of the smaller hourly raffles and two of the grand raffles! I felt like a bandit. 
I managed to win one silver and two bronze medals with my four entries, for which I was grateful. I took a ton of photos but won’t post all of them now at this late hour. What I will post are photographs of Nestor Espinoza’s Nationals winner, the Maserati 250F by MFH. An extraordinary, beautiful build. Nestor is a resident of Tampa who has published work from Mig Ammo.

Sanding, Sanding - Pause - More Sanding
 
Started on the longboat gluing up the lifts and waiting 24 hours to ensure that all of the glue had dried and set.  Admittedly, I am used to sanding being in radio control plane building and repair.  I have sanded wingtips, cowls, etc, and the only thing different is that I hadn’t worked with lifts.  Here are pics of my progress and, I have been able to get the first round of sanding done on the port side.  Next will be starboard, and then a final fine sanding.
 
 

Hey Cisco, I saw your AVS at the show.  Pictures just do not do your model justice.  It is an absolute beauty of a model and I look forward to seeing it completed.  Glad you won one of Chuck's kits.  I bought many raffle tickets for it, but no luck on winning one.  It was a great show and I look forward to next year's event.

I studied the Stays Mouse braiding system. I created a jig from scraps. I used two systems I found..🔥




The ends are tied on a rope wrapping machine. I gradually weaken the wrapping thread until it is gone..💥

Stays mouse on Main stay done..💥

Behold the stern completed. When creating the windows, I did not cut the 1/16” framing tape down to 1/32”. At the time I did not think it would make much of a difference, but at this scale it does! After the windows were mounted on the ship I added 1/32” x 1/16” wood strips on the top and bottom to create a thinner reveal of the white tape around the windows. This helped. 
 
The knees were created in cherry as shown in the photo. As with many parts of the project, I figured the stern would be easy. I was proved wrong, as I had to make many adjustments to accomplish acceptable results.
 
I am learning not to linger too long on a particular part of the project, only redoing things that look out of place or inconsistent with the rest of the ship. 
Steve

Dear Sir, I was at the North East Show on Saturday. I was also one of the Judges.
I thought your model was absolutely beautiful. Your woodwork was impressive and clean.
I wish your model was finished so we could have judged it for the Jim Roberts
Award.
Can’t wait to see the completed model next year.
Thank You
Tim Murphy 
 
 

Page 8!  At my rate of building speed thats remarkable.  Slow and steady.
 
First up progress on the AVS.  My shipmodel friend Jason and I drove the 4 hours to Connecticut on Friday night for the 42nd Annual Joint Clubs show.  Nothing in the world compares to the joy of 95N narrowing down into the George Washington bridge.  We almost ran out of things to talk about.
Anyway I wanted to display her at the Conference if I could get the main cabin planking finished so I had a Deadline.  
 
After dividing the front of the cabin into aprox 1/8" wide divisions I got 20? I think planks.  After gluing the the most starboard and then the central planks into position I made another 9 planks and glued them in 3 at a time.  

The top of the cabin curves upwards so if you put too much pressure on the planks they would suddenly flip outwards.  Inventive clamping became necessary.

Once starboard was done I did the same for port.  The penciled on triangles helped keep track of the planks order.  Its not as apparent as I had hoped but the planks narrow as they get towards the center.  
 
Looks a little rough in this picture and it was 2 days to go.  I scraped and sanded (180, then 220) the planks down close to level.

Next up was cutting the planks flush and inserting a curved molding over the cabin doors.  I traced the rounded profile I wanted and assumed there would be some springback so made my jig a little more curved.  Holly , even thick stuff, bends well with some heat and a touch of water.  I was thinking about complicated laminations but turned out to not be necessary.

I trimmed it to fit, had to bend it again a little more in 1 location and unbend it in another.  The molding fit into a rabbit that was irregular and wasn't a good "bed" so I used epoxy instead of yellow glue.  Its easy to get epoxy everywhere you don't want it so (like dripping over/into the doors) but I got lucky in this go around.
 
Final sanding was in the hotel the morning of the Conference and then she was good to go.

I think up next is making more deck fixtures and cleats and bollards.  Also some pumps so my AVS doesn't sink.  And on the horizon is Cannons!
 
I took some pics at the Conference which I will post next.
 
thanks for reading
Cisco

I noticed that there were a lot of doubled parts coming up, so I decided to take care of this task all in one shot. Exciting, right?
 

 
BTW, there are two different schools of thought about how to do doubled parts. This kit includes both the fronts and backs as outlined parts, like so:

The obvious problem with this method is that it is difficult to get the two outlined parts to match up exactly when the piece is folded (though there is a way to partially deal with this).
 
Other designers will do the back side of the part (usually the interior side) as part of a colored field (imagine the gray interior part [above left] printed on a gray field, with no part outline). The benefit of that method is that there are no white areas if the back side of the part isn't perfectly aligned.
 
That's it for now.

Thank you! Yes the models designed by Chris Watton are a lot of fun to build 💫
 
 
Thanks Thukydides!

Ronald,
 
It's simply beautiful.
Clearly a reference, and also a genuine wish to built a model created by Chris Watton.

Horizontal stabs on. This is the photogenic side. 😑  Hint: Pay attention to not man-handling the vertical stabilizer too much during the earlier stages of construction.
 

 
There is a serious dearth of internal structure inside the stabilizers -- just a single spar. Again, easy to build, but not particularly sturdy.

All assembly / fabrication for chapter 1 is now complete.  Still need to finish fairing the lower hull, especially in the stern.
 
I added the 1/8 x 1/16 inch strip along the top of the quarter deck bulkheads and the hance pieces.  To assist me with maintaining the correct shape while fairing the tops of the bulkheads I created some paper templates of the upper portions of the bulkheads to hold up to the model while removing material on the outside of the upper bulkheads.  You can see some of the paper templates on the build board.
 

 
The bollard timbers were an interesting little project.  Chuck did a nice job breaking down the process into simple steps.  
 
First I faired the stem and forward bulwarks to 5/32 and removed the majority of material from the inboard bulwarks at the bow.  I still have a decent amount of fairing to do as you can see.
 

 
Bollard timbers test fit prior to shaping them, you can see the marks I made to guide the tapering of the forward face.
 

 
View after tapering front and rear faces.
 

 
And the completed assembly installed in the model.  Didn't take any additional progress shots.  Just worked slowly with my set of miniature files to add the features to the timbers.
 

 
It's amazing how a close-up photo does such a nice job showing all the little imperfections.   
 
I put on a coat of poly to seal the wood.  I'll be coming back with my files for some minor adjustments at some point to even out the width and spacing of the features.
 
Now time to flip this thing over and clean up the stern prior to moving into chapter 2.
 
Steve
 

Lots of progress today! 
Steps 39, 40 and 48 done
 
Step 39: Pintles
     Got some 0.010" thick brass from Hobby Lobby and cut a 2mm strip out. Cut two 15mm  lengths of that and drilled some holes in the end and got started. You can see below the difference in length of these and the ones they supply... Went pretty well after I had those made. Just had to make sure the lower pin was slightly longer than the top one and then make sure to put them the in the right spot to line up with the Gudgeons. When gluing, I had to make sure it stuck to the right spot as well as keeping the pins parallel to the rudder edge. Next I did a test fit to make sure it worked and then I drilled a hole through the rudder to bolt the pintles on. Surprisingly I hit the hole on the other side very easily despite the angle I needed to drill at as you can see below. With the supplied nails, I cut them about .5mm longer than needed and tried my hand at riveting them since this seemed like an ideal piece for that. And it worked well!! It isn't neatly rounded but it definitely mushroomed out to hold it in! Success!
 
40: Display Stand
     Pretty straight forward. Biggest thing to note is the hole in the base is slightly too big for the supplied dowels. It's not so much bigger that it looks bad from one side so I used that as the top. Got it glued and square and then just filled in the gaps on the bottom with glue haha. I'm not super worried as I don't think this will be it's permanent display stand.
 
48: Oarlocks
     Another super short step but satisfying since it makes the boat look much different. I had to drill the PE parts out slightly for the nails but this was easy after glued to the pads. Pinned them with the nails and glued the oarlocks in.
 
Another very satisfying day! I'm super excited to start the the sail and rigging but not really looking forward to shaping the mast... I will try using a plane on the square parts they give but it seems most other kits give dowels so I might try my hand with the dowel first... We'll see.
 

Post 70
Rigging the Wheel
Steel indicates 3” circ line for the tiller lines which equates to a scale diameter of 0.37mm.
The kit plans suggest a 0.25mm line, but I am using 0.3mm Syren line.
I start on the Port side where the line meets the wheel drum on its forward end.
Sufficient line is required to complete the entire process.

4021a
I firstly secure the line to the aft deck eyebolt off-model. A false splice is used for neatness.

4023a
The line then runs to the tiller and back thro’ the deck blocks (in the correct sequence) and up to the wheel drum on the forward end.
Care needs to be taken to ensure the line is fed thro’ the correct hole in the blocks.
Three turns of the line around the drum, with a spot of ca at the centre of the third turn atop the drum.
Before this is done  the lines are checked for tautness  throughout the Port side set-up.
Given the length of the line care is also required when feeding it thro’, there are many snag points  on the surrounding fittings which may be dislodged if  caught when the line is pulled thro’.

4030a
I have used six turns  of line in total around the drum  because this best matched the block arrangement. It is a common novice mistake to wrap the line around the drum as many turns as it will take.
Five or six turns would be appropriate on smaller vessels, Victory had nine.

4029a
Must have been very annoying stepping over the tiller lines to gain access to the stern.
 
I last looked at the Binnacle in Post 54, but I’m no closer to a decision where or whether to place it.
It makes no sense to me to have a Binnacle where the Helmsman can’t see the compass, and a unit with a chimney without a lamp compartment.
I tried the double cabinet but the unit seems too close to the wheel and the viewing of the compasses is still obscured by the wheel.
My inclination is still that the small cabinet slightly offset to the side of the wheel is the practical option.
Being an important piece of kit it would be removed below deck in the event of an approaching action.

4033a
Small single Binnacles do feature in ships of the first quarter of the 19thc often one each side of the wheel, but I can’t find any examples of this cabinet style (above) positioned as it is.

4035a
Historical museum ships and some  contemporary models all show a centrally placed cabinet  before the wheel, but there is more space between the wheel and the cabinet; with Harpy the binnacle is hard against the wheel stanchion.

4036a

4039a
The Helmsman looks quite comfortable with the arrangement, but my dithering continues.....
 
B.E.
25/04/2025
 

Post 69
Deck fittings cont’d
Brake Pumps
A pair of these are the only means of clearing the bilge on Harpy.

3999a
They are nicely designed with hexagonal pump bodies and fine brass etch attachments.
With the open unplanked decks of Harpy the ‘elm tree tubes that run down thro’ the decks to bilge are on view.

4004a
Trickiest part of assembly is blackening and gluing the brass etch parts together without destroying the surface finish.
I added ‘lead’ discharge pipes to the pumps.

4009a

4011a

4012a
Getting to look quite busy on the deck.
 
Internal Bulwark ladders.
These don’t receive a mention until very late in the manual (Section 491) but they are made up as per the other ladders using parts 70 -73 from the 0.6mm  laser sheet.

4007a

4008a

4017a
Now, about those tiller lines….
 
B.E.
24/04/2025
 

The instruction manual describes the planking process.  Yes, plank widths will vary slightly from one bh to the next... since the bow is curved, a lot more tapering is needed (stern needs barely any tapering,  and actually widens, hence using stealers between planks).   There's TONS of info on here to help with planking.  For Sherbourne, the this are laser marked where to taper to aid with the fairing, and i think it calls for 12 planks (1st layer, 2nd layer was 13 for me).  For this particular hull shape, zero tapering for majority of hull length midship, but quite a bit (~4-5 bulkheads or so) at the bow.