Ryland Craze

Just a heads up on the restocking effort.   
 
I finished making enough Blocks and now tan rope to reopen.   I am about 85% finished with Dark Brown rope.  I basically only have .018 and .012 Brown rope left to make.   I figure 25 - 30 packages of each....but I am running out of steam, LOL.   Thats about half of the amount I am usually at when fully stocked.  So maybe a couple days before I reopen.   After a full 8 days just making rope from sun up to sun down its getting really hard to stay focused.  But I am almost there....If I sell out in one day again then I just quit, LOL.   
 
Chuck

And here is the other version...or one of them just so they are all in the same place.  This was the different lower counter design.   
 

 
sternfriezespeed.pdf
 

Reposting the painted friezes as someone asked if I could make them slightly more blue but keeping them dark rather than the usual light blue background for them....The frieze I am using is actually on a darkish brown background.   But I think this will do the trick.   There are now three versions.  This will be the last one!!!
 
You just cant please everyone.   But try these if you want.
 
 
sternfriezedarknew.pdf
 

Good luck on your journey, 
Looking good.
Bob  M.

Have raised anchor and set sail again. Installed the carved bow filler pieces port and starboard carved to the rabbit line. Then installed (cemented) the aluminum tube rudder Bearing. The 3/32 rudder shaft was  inserted thru the tube rudder bearing down to the the recess in the keel to assure proper alignment before cementing the bearing. 

Started the adventure early this morning under a waxing moon and rain. Great conditions to sit with a coffee and assemble the ship. Building the keel was pretty straightforward. The instructions were a little vague depicting the stern assembly vs the bow. It all came together after looking on sheet 3 of the plans and seeing that a space is left between the keel and bulkhead 18 for the rudder shaft (1/8” aluminum tubing). Would have been nice if this was spelled out in the instructions. Time to drop the anchor and retire for the day. 
 
  

 

Cabin Planking
 
I do not want to stay idle on this project and got on to do the cabin's planking. I first checked the aft platform height with the planking extension template. The fit is very good as seen below.
 
For this I had to scratch the beam clamp. Thanks Chuck for providing the drawing. It is a relatively easy task, the main challenge being to make exact mirror copies port and starboard. I was happy with the outcome:
 

I used the template to scratch the planks. Those are a bit tricky to glue on because of the subtle bends and the challenge to clamp those in place.  Here I used modified clothespins to secure the planks in position:
 
The next photo shows the finished work. A bit of a gap aft, but this will be hidden when more parts are added.

Aft Lower Partition
 
I decided to scratch the aft lower partition as well.  I followed the plan carefully and made minor adjustments to fit my model.  Very little adjustments were actually required, which is nice. 
Nothing is glued yet and a little more narrowing at the side is needed to account for the inboard planking. Notice here that the midship beam clamps are also installed and a beam was scratched to check the partition positioning. Everything seems in good agreement with the plans. The work on this section will resume when parts become available. 
 
Fore Partition
 
I decided to scratch this section as well. It is a fun little project and there is to char to remove! 

The parts copied from the plans fit nicely. Again, nothing glued yet.  I also started to work on the fore castle. I installed the beam clamps and scratched a few beams. 
 

 
More on this later. 

Time for a final wrap-up posting, with lessons learnt. I won't list all of the new skills acquired in building the pram. Suffice to say that, if someone had shown me pictures of my finished model before I started work on the Model Shipways banks dory and told me that I would soon build a pram like this, I would have refused to believe it. That's how far forward the two kits have brought me. So many, many thanks to both David Antscherl and Model Expo for making the "Shipwright" series available to novice builders!
 
That's also a message to anyone new to the hobby who may read through this log in the future: No one way will suit everybody, but the "Shipwright" kits have been a wonderful introduction for me and I'd recommend other beginners give them at least careful consideration. That includes starting at the beginning with the dory, not skipping forward and beginning with the pram or the Muscongus Bay sloop.
 
Next, these kits are intended as learning experiences and if all a novice does is learn before pushing an unsatisfactory model aside, then at least she or he will have learnt. However, I hope I have shown that it is possible to produce very satisfactory display models while learning also. Curiously, I think the key to making it all work is a bunch of things that we were supposed to learn at kindergarten but too often have forgotten through the decades since -- things like patience, precision, persistence and perseverance, pragmatism, practicality, a healthy dose of perfectionism and others of that kind.
 
One shock (and I know I'm not the only one to run into it) was discovering that you can't always simply follow the instructions. With that comes a warning, founded in experience with the pram: Sometimes you can't rely on the written word, but when you step away you are flying solo. It is very, very easy to crash and burn! So care and forethought are essential.
 
Lastly, I think I have confirmed to myself (and maybe to others) that, when building a model, there is a major advantage in understanding the full-size prototype. Not just understanding it as a physical artifact that could be displayed in a museum but understanding it as a human creation -- as something built to fulfil a purpose and used in a particular way. In concept, the Norwegian pram is not so very different from the pram dinghy my parents bought me when I was 12, while it has much in common with my current 22fter too, so I came to it with my own understanding of such boats. In the case of the banks dory, I am 9/10ths the way through writing a book on the halibut fisheries of the northwest Atlantic and hence deeply immersed in details of life and work aboard dory schooners. But the better example comes from Jean Boudriot's superb "74-Gun Ship". I am (at long, long last) working through the fourth and final volume. For those who haven't read it cover to cover: The first three volumes tell you all you need to know of the physical structure of a French ship-of-the-line of the 1780s that you might wish to represent in miniature. The 4th puts the people and their work into the ship. There's no one thing there that I didn't know something about the English equivalent of (some of it from N.A.M. Rodger's "Wooden World", for example, or Brian Lavery's books). But to see the layers upon layers of complexity involved in operating a major warship, all laid out together, is stunning.
 
But only when we understanding how and why men lived aboard and worked the ship we are modelling will its many complex details begin to make sense. And only when they do can we make sensible decisions about how to fill in the inevitable gaps in contemporary information.
 
 
Enough with the deep thoughts better left in academic ivory towers! Building the pram was a very satisfying experience and I'm looking forward to tackling the Muscongus Bay boat.
 
 
Trevor
 
 

Thank you to all for your kind comments on my build of this kit! I am very, very aware of how limited my skills are compared to yours.
 
And @druxey: Having been born and raised in England, then spending my adult life in the birthplace of hockey, I am fortunately not a baseball fan. (If I was, as a Nova Scotian, I'd probably follow the Red Sox and that must be a painful experience for all concerned 🥲) Last night's game was exciting but I don't need to cry when the chances of this world deny Toronto victory.
 
After all, when it really mattered, Bluenose never lost the Fishermen's Cup!
 
Trevor

FINISHED
 
Or that's what I'm declaring anyway:
 
 
In truth, that mainsheet is refusing to lie quitly where it wa put, so  it will likely need more attention with white glue:

 
But I'm still calling the model "finished". This build log isn't quite done though. However, my final thoughts will have to wait for morning: The 7th game of the World Series is nearing its climax as I type!
 
Trevor

Oars and Rowing the Pram:
 
The pram is designed with two rowing positions, one for each thwart, and (many steps ago) I added the four wood-and-brass fittings for holding the rowlocks. (The latter are technically "crutches" but nobody remembers that!) The kit comes with four rowlocks and laser-cut blanks for four very elegant oars. However, I very much doubt that the full-size boat could be rowed by two people. Certainly, once the mast is stepped, an oarsman on the forward thwart would forced to sit ramrod straight, pulling with arm muscles but unable to use the power of his/her back. That would quickly prove exhausting. Even with the mast left ashore, two adults would have trouble: The one on the forward thwart would be forever hitting the back of the other, when leaning forward to bring the oars towards the bow to begin the next stroke. Maybe two small teenagers could row together but I see the pram as a boat for one oarsman -- one usually sat on the midships thwart but with the forward position available when going for a quiet evening row with a significant other draped across the sternsheets. (Politically correct here: I make no assumptions about the genders of the two!) With the weight of the decorative individual far aft, the oarsman would have to move to the forward thwart to maintain fore-and-aft trim.
 
So: Only one pair of oars aboard, usually used in the after rowing position (the one at the midships thwart).
 
With that decided, preparing one pair of oars was straightforward and fully explained in the kit instructions, so no need for me to add much here. Mine turned out as:


 
Oar handles are supposed to be left as bare wood. (The idea is that your hands blister less. Mine get torn up anyway, so I wear padded weightlifter's gloves when rowing any serious distance!) To simulate bare spruce, I used the ModelExpo clear finish, as with my pram's floorboards.
 
The looms and shafts I did with tung oil, to simulate varnish -- as with the pram's hull. The blades I painted white, just for the visual effect on the finished model.
 
The leathers were placed as per the instructions, without trouble. I used 1-inch strips of the paper that I had dyed with leather die for "leathering" the boom jaws. The instructions call for raised "buttons" at the handle ends of the leathers. I did not deign to have anything of the kind on mine: Buttons are needed by racing oarsman, who have to concentrate on speed and power, so cannot spare thought for finesse. Otherwise, they are only needed by rubes who haven't learnt to row. So not on my pram, thank you 😀
 
Oars used to come from the manufacturer with a copper strip nailed just above the tip of the blade, supposedly to halt any splits that may start there. The kit instructions call for painting the tips to simulate the metal. However, Shaw & Tenney of Orono (https://www.shawandtenney.com) have deeper and wider knowledge of traditional oars than anyone else I know of, and they discourage the reinforcement. Not unreasonably, they advise that the nails holding the metal strip create more trouble than the strip prevents. (Having used the same pair of their oars for 20 years with no splitting, I cannot disagree.) My inclination, therefore, was to leave the pram's oar blades white. But I couldn't resist the visual effect of genuine shiny copper. So I sliced some adhesive copper tape in half lengthwise and stuck that on. Call it artistic license!
 
 
The remaining problem is what to do with the oars because, in truth, the kit ones are much too long for such a small boat. Even with the handles slightly crossed in front of the oarsman's chest, in the approved posture, so much of the oar would be outboard that the poor guy would wear himself out fighting the weight of the oar instead of working at pulling ahead. The trouble is even more acute with the sailing rig in use and the oars merely stowed (awaiting a need -- such as when the wind dies to a mirror calm and the sailor is called home for the family dinner). In fact, my choice for auxiliary power in such a boat would be a canoe paddle, rather than oars.  Still, it would be a shame not to display the pram in all the glory the kit can provide.
 
After some thought, I chose to show the one pair of oars in their rowlocks, with handles tucked under the mast thwart -- where they would be a nuisance while sailing but secure and ready to hand as the wind fails and the sail hangs like the flat board that the kits provides for. Rowlocks are glued in with CA, to avoid losing them, but the oars are loose.
 
So, my version is:

 
Now I just have to tidy up the running rigging.
 
 
Trevor
 
 

Tiller finally completed -- only seven months after I started on it!
 
I explained the logic of my chosen solution back on post #89, so no reason to repeat any of that. However, discussion on another MSW thread through the summer got me thinking, so I will state one more point:
 
When building a model of a specific vessel, Nelson's Victory for example, we should really strive to represent that one prototype as she was at some stage in her career. Heading off into fantasies of how she might have been, even though she wasn't, isn't what most of us are about. However, the pram isn't one boat but a design from which many full-size boats have been built. I am not trying to replicate any one of them specifically. Rather, I am aiming for a model of a boat as I would want her if I had one to the pram's design. I haven't tried personalizing the hull but I have modified the rigging, much as I would with a full-size boat. As it happens, my 22fter arrived with a short stick for a tiller, similar to the one in the pram kit. That had met the previous owner's needs but was dangerously inadequate when sailing in the sea breezes in my harbour. I added an extension right away and, as soon as I could, stepped up to the much-more-elegant tiller that the builder offered as an optional extra on new boats:
 

The pram needs a different shape of tiller, to suit her different rudderhead and the angle of her rudder hangings, but I have gone for a similar concept.
 
 
Since this was a substantial departure from the kit design, I needed to begin with a card template, to check the length and curvature needed, if the end result was to match the ergonomics of a solo pram sailor sitting astride the midships thwart:

 
Then it was time to rough out a scrap of hardwood -- in my case a bit of jatoba, as I have oddments left over from a (full-size) boat project:

 
Back in the spring, I got some way forward with shaping that but the Dremel cut too deeply at one point and I gave up for the summer. Maybe I should have started over but, in recent days, I decided to press on, even though the final tiller would end up thinner than I would have liked (about 1 inch diameter, if scaled up). After a whole lot of hand sanding, I ended up with a near-final shape, matched to the rudder, though with extra wood left at the rudder end as I could not be sure where the side pieces would lie:

Also in the spring, I made two side pieces, following the kit's design but longer and in jatoba.
 
I checked the alignment of rudder and tiller on the model (then checked again, and once again). Happy with that and to be sure that everything would line up, I taped the rudder and tiller down:

then slipped a brass rod loosely into the hole in one side piece, placed that in the notch in the rudderhead and lined everything up. Oily tropical hardwoods can best be glued as though they were solid plastic -- meaning CA. A dollop of that on the tiller (avoiding the rudder) and the side piece was pressed into place. Once set, the whole thing could be flipped over, taped down again and the second side piece added in the same way. That gave me:

 
Next was a whole lot more sanding, not least to make the top and bottom surfaces of the main tiller and its side pieces flush. Also to smooth the junction between those into a prettier curve. Then I tried putting annealed brass rod through the holes in the side pieces, following the kit instructions. Putting rod into holes was easy but when I tried to make heads out of the stumps of the rod, I just bent the metal and cracked the wood. So I fastened a short bit of rod into place with CA, filed down the metal and sanded the glue off the wood. With a whole lot more sanding, shaping and a hole drilled for the tiller-extension's pivot, I got to:

That got its fancy end dipped in white paint and the rest wiped down with tung oil, bringing out the rich colour of the jatoba.
 
Meanwhile,. I took the kit's tiller extension but did not even try inserting the brass crossbar as the instructions want it done. The diameter of the provided rod is very nearly as large as the thickness of the basswood extension, leaving no room for error and very little strength. If the pieces were double their thickness, I would have fitted a wooden crosspiece with a half-lap joint instead, but that was beyond me too. So I gouged a slight groove into the very end of the extension and glued a bit of brass rod there, using CA again.
 
My attempt to form a head on the next piece of rod was as unsuccessful as the previous one had been, so I made the extension pivot from a brass nail, glued into its hole, cut, filed and painted over. That gave me a finished tiller unit that looks like:

And in place on the model:

 
Not as neat and nice as I had it in my mind's eye -- but very little turns out that well! Anyway, I'm happy with the final outcome, not least it's colour contrast with the rest of the pram.
 
Now I have oars to finish, running rigging to tidy up and then I think the model will (finally!!!) be finished.
 
 
Trevor
 

This is my recently acquired 1:12 MFH Ferrari 315S under construction. The model came to me as you see it here, the modeler decided to part out his MFH collection. For the time being, modeling time has been at the back of the list of important things to do while I recover from surgery and my wife and I take care of our baby great granddaughter during weekdays. Will get back in the swing of things, hopefully soon. Here are some photos of what has been done on her so far.

I just found out this morning that NRG member David Okamura has passed away. You may not know of him, but if you have ever enjoyed any of the card model builds I have shared here at MSW, then you owe a small debt of gratitude to David -- he's the man who got me started in card modeling.
 
I first met David at a meeting of the Ship Modelers Association (they met in Placentia, California) about twenty-five years ago. He was already a very skilled card modeler at the time, and when I saw his models at the club's show-and-tells, I said, "Wow, I can't believe that's made out of paper!" Sound familiar? David almost always had a new model or two to show at the meetings. He often did beta builds for designers, and if you had ever had the chance to admire his work, you would understand why those designers sought David's assistance. I decided I had to try a card model, too, and that was all it took to get me hooked. So, if any of my models have tempted you, or perhaps even persuaded you, to try a card model, it's partly thanks to David's having persuaded me to try one.
 
Rest well, friend.
 

David showing one of his models at a 2009 SMA meeting

If Chitubox can do this with non-perfect stl's, that might be easier! The repair was the biggest challenge for me. I will still post the step by step using Onshape though 🙂

I might have to update my chitbox, LOL
 
I have only been using the free version.   I should have looked at the other levels especially with the amount of 3D printing I have been doing.   That really solves a lot of my heartaches.  Thank You!!!

Chuck since I noticed you use Chitubox, that software has a boolean function built in as well.  
-Import a stl of the figurehead, and a stl of the shape you want cut out. Im using the Pegasus head piece I used blender to trace.
-Align the pieces to how you want them to sit on the model
- Up top select the "Boolean" option and then select the configuration of which piece you want to cut.
-Hit apply and it will give you a new "Cut" piece.

Yes! I will do a step by step with more detailed screenshots. Stay tuned!

Wonderful....how do you create the boolean function...Can you do a step by step or point to a youtube video for us knuckleheads...screen shots would be great if you have the time.
 
That I believe is the missing piece.  At least for me to create what I need.   I just have to find time to figure out how to master that boolean step by step in onshape.  With these tools mentioned in this topic I think it is a complete introduction for anyone to make these stl files and refine them.   It should prove to be a valuable resource without getting to technical ....I hope.
 
Chuck

I also don't have any skills with the likes of Blender and Z-brush, but I have found a workaround that makes it easy to make the slot it the figurehead:
 
I draw the shape of the prow and extrude it to the correct depth:

 
I then import it into my slicer (Lychee) along with the figurehead and position them. I find it is much easier to work in the slicer than in a 3D CAD progam when manipulating the part positions:

 
I then merge the parts and export a combined stl. The file actually still contain the seperate parts, which is detected by the next program, Onshape, a free online 3D CAD program. The prow is then subtracted from the figurehead with a boolean operation:

 
and the final slotted figurehead can then be exported and re-imported into the slicer for printing:

 
This all takes 10 min total - except that the original file produced by meshy has topological errors. They are fixable to a sufficient extend in the slicer for the purpose of printing, but that is not good enough for the high tolerances of the Onshape program, so it is nessecary to repair and re-mesh the original figurehead file before this simple workflow can be completed. And that took me a bit of time to work out! I used a free Autodesk program called Meshmixer to repair and re-mesh the model here. So provided that you have 'water-tight' stl files, making the simple geometric subtraction to get a slotted figure is relatively simple, but it took some work to get there! 
 
I have attached the slotted file here as well.
 
BR
TJM
 
 
 
Grønland figurehead cut.stl

I am just going to keep adding tips and tricks I have learned along the way.   Remember that we are all pretty much new to this.  The more good images with any background you have the better your results.   I can not vouch for the accuracy of this drawing but I wanted to document the method I used.
 
In many of these image to 3D AI programs you can upload multiple images of an object from different views.   Side , back, front etc.   But it is hard enough finding one view of an image that is any good.  
 
So lets say you want to make a 3d printed figure of a midshipmen for your model.
 
You can go up to any generic AI program like ChatGTP and ask them for it.  But you must be very descriptive.   For example I wrote this in ChatGPT.
 
Create a highly detailed image of standing figure of a typical sailor midshipman on frigate in the British Royal navy in the period of about the year 1800. Can you create 4 differnt views of this standing figure with no background.   Make each view separated by space so none of the views overlap.  Leave some space between each view.   
 
I may have been able to make this request more detailed but I just wrote this on the fly.
 
The image it made for me is this.
 

 
Now is it correct to the period....I dont know, I would have to research that.   But anyway...
 
Next you take this into any photo program like photoshop and split it into 4 individual images.
 
Load it into Meshy or any other image to 3D program.  If I had time I would prob ask Chatgtp to redo this image without the hat and make him look a bit scruffier.   But I really only wanted to demonstrate another tip or method.   For those of you more experienced than me at this please feel free to post your tips here as well.  
 
Also for us neophytes....If anyone knows how to easily do this...If someone could create a step by step for how to create the slot for a figurhead so it can be slipped onto a stem I would appreciate it.   Hopefully using free software.   Maybe Blender or freeCad.   I would like to give folks as many tools and tips for creating viable carvings and figureheads using this technology.   But my knowledge is limited.   So I am hoping those with the knowledge would be willing to share.   
 
 

 
Scruffier with no hat...
 

 
And these are a few 3D conversions from meshy and hitem3D to show how very different the results are after using the same image from chatgtp.  The free retries were used in each program to make two figures from each platform.
 
The two center figures are from hitem3D.   A very different result and I will leave it up to you which one is better.   I know what my preference is.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

That is what I prefer to do for my own models if I wasnt commercially making a kit of course.   The folks who buy the kit get the perfect one but I will go in a rework it a bit before I glue it in position.  I like to make the print look like it has a few carved faces and I do some undercutting to make it look better when the light hits your finished carving.   Some careful cutting around the softer details makes them crisper as well.
 
OK folks....you can also try HITEM3D
 
This still has a free option and its also returning high quality and resolution prints....This is the only other site that I like the resolution and print quality.  They also have the ability to upload multiple images of different views to make your rendering more accurate.   The results are actually slightly different as this algorithm returns a slightly more stylized rendering.   But they look great and you can download them.
 
 

Here are 3 views in the Chitbox slicer...and yes for a figurehead you still have to bring it into another program like blender and cut a slot for the stem.   Or you could do this by hand and just file out a slot after printing.   I hate Blender and other CAD programs and just cant get the hang of it.
 

 
 
 
 
 

Chuck; you make a very good point that has otherwise bothered me; the output looks too perfect! For figures such as the captain above, it's great, but for carved work on a ship, the surface lacks the markings of actual tools. Your concept of hand carving the output before hardening addresses this issue.

Lovely rendering.  Yes I Broke down and paid.  I thought they gave you a bunch of free downloads.  Maybe they changed that.  
 
There are other sites that do this but Meshy 6 is the best out there.  
 
Chuck