Ryland Craze

Good evening--
  Here's the stempost and the keel that I added today. Everything was stained with Minwax "Red Mahogany."

 

 
--Michael

Welcome aboard! Your Niagara looks very nice.

Bob  M.

Welcome!

I joined 3 days ago. Please excuse if I downloaded in the wrong area but I am having trouble navigating the website. I am sure I will catch on.
Best Rick (RVB)

Me too ! (with AI of course) 

And now, just for fun . . .
 
Several days ago I noticed that the photo editing software on my Google Pixel phone had changed, and today I received the email from Google notifying me of the update. Gee, Google, thanks for the heads-up, I guess? 🙄  Anyways, the updated software includes a new AI assistant. Well, of course this latest update demanded that we test the limits of what the fancy-shmancy AI can do, so I loaded the photo seen in my previous post and asked the AI to redo the photo in a cubist style.
 
And this is the result:
 

I dunno, but I'm thinking the new AI assistant is confusing cubism with a Rubik's cube. 😂  Color me unimpressed!

Getting close to the end now! Just the landing gear, propeller, and a little bit of rigging left to do.
 

Lava! 

Clear coat then Mordant earth which is supposed to crackle ; let’s see. 

Now the red base, fluro red, orange and white, the Lava field! Next a clear coat then a crackle coat. 

Most of the blocks are tied on, some on the booms and gaffs , a few blocks here and there. The Bobstays are next,  I must do the crowsfeet lines, maybe tomorrow,  can't spend as much time in shipyard as I would like , but winter's coming. Lol.


The plans are of no help but I have got all the help I need here, I asked a few people  and I  am good to go. I can feel the end is near, for this  build, I just have to  run a few lines and make the anchors  and flag.
 Thanks for looking in. It's  been  fun.
Bob.
 

Empennage is complete, except for rigging.
 

Things are moving right along now. The vertical and horizontal stabilizers have been added, along with the struts for the latter.

All of the parts for the rudder and elevators have been cut out and prepped.

And replanked and first light sanding again…
Let’s see if I can finish this before this Sunday evening, or else end of next week!
Frank.

Little setback, two planks weren’t satisfactory and had to be removed and replaced….
Almost made it planking the deck this holidays…
Frank.
 

Port side square framing well underway.
 

 

Thanks guys.  Kent I hope you are on the mend.  I really cant make any more battlestation kits because it was given away as a limited edition.  All 25 went fast and are being built which is great but they were signed and numbered.  
 
I doubt the guy who got kit number 7 of 25 would be very happy with me if I suddenly made another 25 kits.
 
But I could be wrong.
 
chuck

Good for you Chuck. Don’t be like me.  I’m 721/2 yo.  I have been. Under the weather for 8 months and in hospital for 45 days with 2 very major heart surgeries.  I now have an LDVA implanted in my heart….bionic man.  I have on client left but I am going to focus on family and modeling…. I started POF back in 1986 but no longer on hold. Starting with Speedwell and going next to your other models and also Chris’s.  So happy to hear that you have a retirement plan.  If you would like to sell another Speedwell Battle Station I would be interested. I hope to be a regular contributor to the forum. Good luck. It is harder than you think so listen to your wife. 
have a good retirement
thank you
Kent

I am actually in a comfortable position with my inventory so I could start spending time working on the model again.  I cant tell you how good that feels.
 
I am not doing any heavy stuff yet...but its a start.  I had time to finish rigging those last four cannon on the port side.   That alone was a great thing to have completed. That actually finished up chapter 8.
 
Its a good thing because chapter 9 is where the real fun begins.  Its basically all about those fun little deck fittings.  So I started slow..
 

 
There are four ladders to be built.   Two leading to the poop, and two leading to the fcastle deck.  These were made exactly like the others we have made for speedwell.  Everything is laser cut.  I just cleaned the char and assembled them.  One note however...because of the deck roundup, the ladders leading to the poop deck need some tweaking after being built.  The bottom of each side was left a tad longer so you can sand the inboard side shorter.  You will need to do this so your ladder doesnt slant when you place it against the bulkhead.  You want it vertical with the columns of the bulkhead behind them.  So that inboard side will need its bottom edge shortened slightly.
 
Its the little details.
 

Here is the shorter ladder up to the fcastle deck...and you can see the guns that I finally finished rigging.  Those are my Swiss Pear color 3D printed blocks used for the guns this time.  I switched them out to try both colors.  I think I will fully rig her with the Swiss Pear blocks now that I see them on the model.

In addition, I also finished the stack for the fire hearth...I had built this a while back when I made the fire hearth but it must have gotten lost during the move.  So I made a new one...I will also include those parts in chapter 9 in case anyone loses theirs as well.  Nothing difficult here...fake it till you make it.  We wont be using a real coaming here.  Its just a laser cut boxwood square basically.  Sand the char off and apply some WOP.  Then center the hearth stack where the laser etched reference is and you are finished.  I also knocked off the top edge all around this simulated coaming.  No hard edges for me!!
 

Here is what the stack looks like on the model.   
 

And here is an overall shot of the progress to date although I have some paint touch-up to do and some dust clean-up.  But its really nice to making some progress again.  Next up I will be finishing up the fcastle deck fittings.
 

Hello everyone!
I decided to make a stern sink, not an imitation, as Corel suggests, but as it was on the prototype and on the museum models. To do this, I had to cut out a part of the afterdeck deck. There is a beautiful decor on the inside of the sink, but I'm not a good artist, so I just painted it red. I may add an applique later. I also experimented with the colors of the exterior paint and the decor of the side balconies. I'm not very satisfied with the result, so I'll probably redo it.

Starting on the base. My plan is to have all 4 flying just over the crest  

It is not exactly like Chuck's, but I tried to keep the style the same.

Reconstruction of the aft wall of the upper deck.
Drawing of what remains.

Result.
Swivel guns may have originally been placed here. That's why two holes were provided in the beam on each side. Whether these were still present after the renovation...?

The supports in the middle are a guess. 

The drainage channel of the deck above; once painted, you won't notice the wire anymore.

I know what you mean Mike. Looking over the framing, knees, etc of Constitution and Constellation I am awed by both the size and fit of the massive timbers. That they were able to piece these timbers together with  hand tools and simple rigging  makes me marvel at their craftsmenship.