Ryland Craze

good day Folks. 
finally ...finally chapter 12. My own poor instalment didnt her any credit. I must say it was most difficult of all parts. still not finished from side under cathead ...but im quite satisfied with outcome so far . its not as clean work as few of you but anyway. here it goes...thanks follr looking in. and now..m is there anyone to rig winnie? i know everyones eyes are sat on new pof l, but still. i guess i will skip that one. prices and tax have gone crazy lately....
 
 
 

Overall, I am satisfied with the way the rear wheel came out given it's a first try. Practice makes perfect and I've learned a few things giving this method a try. 
Will move on to other areas of construction and continue with the front wheel later.

The photograph of the galley on a model looks like a photo in a sales brochure.    Fantastic clean work Michael.
 
Tom

Sad to hear of your heart attack and so glad to hear of your recovery, Michael.  It's great to see (and marvel) at your wonderful work once again. You have been missed.  Welcome back.
 
Gary

Wow!  Your work is amazing.

B.E.
I just broke off two of the beautiful, curvy gunport bulwarks on my Vanguard Grecian. Grrrrrrrrrr. I had glued and clipped them carefully and then whilst placing the hull back into my keel clamper, I bumped two of the projecting small clamps and bits fell to the shop floor. An easy fix however.
 
These attractive design elements will draw eyeballs but also attract careless fingers!
 
Sorry: no photographic evidence of this cock-up!

Post Forty-three
The Preparation
I have (26) 5mm planks at midships which are marked off on the hull using a tick strip.
I intend to work a first band of six strakes below the existing planking, and I’m looking to have the plank ends at the stem not less than 3mm in width.
With this in mind, I apply the lining tape.

1173

1179
The first application of the tape, now the tweaking begins.
In these shots the upper tape marks the line of the first section.
 
I am aiming to get a smooth sweep up to the stem using edge bent and tapered strips only. I hope to avoid the need for spiling except perhaps when I reach the under belly of the hull.
 
The trouble with lining off is deciding when it is at its optimum line.
This process is more art than arithmetic and I find myself in an agony of indecision wondering whether I have reached that point.
Using strip wood there is inevitably error creep strake upon strake, so I will fit the first section and then recalculate.
 
The following photos show the point where I think I am getting close to an acceptable run.

1191

1193

1195

1199

1212

1205

1207

1203a
I think it needs a slight tweak as indicated.

1216
This looks better to my eye.
I can now proceed to mark off the strake widths at each bulkhead point and begin planking.
 
B.E.
27/06/2023.
 
 
 

Glad to hear that you dodged the bullet.  So many people do not get a second chance.

Good afternoon. And I'm already building this ship.

Very good point about the line size.  If you can squeeze double the line through the holes in the blocks the line is twice the circumference that it should be.  In general most builders find that undersize is better looking than over size on ship models.    
Allan

Thank you very much.

You really need to sand more of that bowsprit area, the bulwarks should be a nice line, with no kinking. Also, there is no need to soak the bulwark patterns, the curves are very slight.
 
Here's a photo from manual showing how that bowsprit area is when sanded.

Next, the deck is added. As for the fishing boats it slots nicely into grooves at the base of the bulkhead ears. There’s a separate section of deck at the stern which slots in too. Very neat. 
This is the point where diluted PVA needs to be added to all the joints in the structure. There’s still a small amount of bowing in the middle of the deck so it needs to be held down whilst the needs to be glue sets. I did this using small clamps through the hatch openings. 
 
The structures on the stern are then built up out MDF pieces and further pieces of MDF added under the stern deck to strengthen it and provide a base for the lower counter. 


At the bow a piece with a hole for the bowsprit is added as are both sets of parts 23 and 24 on the cheeks either side of the bow. 

Once the glue is set, it’s time to fair the hull. This is pretty straightforward, her lines are sleek and there are no difficult curves. I have tested planks lying across the bulkheads multiple times and looking good. 
What I don’t do initially is fair the top of the bow where the piece of wood with the bowsprit hole is. 

Jumping onto step 69 that myxyzptlyk2003 refers to in James H’s blog, there isn’t a photo of this in the instructions - but trial and error (photo below) shows that this needs fairing too and can be seen in the Step 115 as myxyz says. 

Once faired, I test fit the middle bulwark pattern again and then soak it in hot water so I can bend it around the curve of the hull astern. The bulwark is clamped and pinned and to dry, waiting to be glued once it’s dried out. 

Jim warns us in the instructions that the gun port arches are not strong. I can confirm that they are not. I broke two of them off the middle bulwark on the starboard side whilst attaching the port bulwark. Once the wood had dried out I  glued them back on cleanly using PVA. 
 
Furthermore I somehow broke an arch on one of the outer patterns. I didn’t realise this had happened and the part is long gone. I tried to make a replacement archway, but realised my skills aren’t sufficient to make it look good on an outer piece! So I have resorted to ordering a replacement from Chris. 

This is the shaped stern bulkhead. 

Then I make a mistake which I only realise later, but seems inconsequential. I should have added additional longitudinal beams (parts 33) to brace the aft bulkheads but somehow I missed them despite them being clearly there in the instructions. 
 
Instead I went straight for the sub-deck which comes in two pieces. 

The bow is then built up. The laser cutting of the MDF is wafer thin, I didn’t realise you would be able to cut MDF so thin. Yes I broke one of the slots but that’s me being clumsy. 

Beams are added across the hull, further adding to the strength of the already very strong structure. 

I should be finishing off the last tweaks on Alert, but I couldn’t resist starting Vanguard’s Grecian at the same time. Other than JamesH who builds the prototype and provides an excellent build log too, I think I’m the first to do a build log on this kit, so I’ll try and provide a bit more detail than I did on Alert. 

The kit came very promptly via UPS and extremely well packaged in a robust, well designed box. 

Inside the box there’s a large range of laser cut wooden and MDF sheets. Except for the decks the wood is all pear. The laser cut on these sheets is incredibly clean and precise. Not all the sheets are shown below. 
There’s also a box of fixtures including high quality resin cannon. There’s copper tape for the hull, a resin cutter, 3 sheets of photo etch, box of thread for the rigging, pear and lime planking strips, dowels, Vanguard’s standard but brilliant colour building manual full of step by step photos and instructions, eleven large plan sheets, and a clear acetate cradle for the completed build.
 
I went for all the extras too, so I bought the Grecian paint set, American flag, pear block set and PE copper plate set (not sure yet if I’ll use this or the tape - whichever is easier I suspect).
 
It is all absolutely excellent quality. 
This will be my seventh Vanguard build and the first time that one of the parts came broken - a dowel. I messaged Chris and within a day or two he’d sent me a replacement. Amazing customer service. 
 
 
There’s one other tiny error in the instructions that in the inventory there’s a sheet of 0.1mm PE listed that wasn’t included. I asked Chris and  he tells me that this was for copper sheet to face the rudder, but he couldn’t obtain the copper so it’s not needed for the build.
I was curious how big the completed Grecian would be. So here is Nisha and Alert against a plan of her deck. She makes Nisha look tiny. 

And is bigger than Alert, but by less than I had expected. 

Cant wait to get building her! 
 
 
 
 

Some surface primer applied and a little test to see if the motorized mechanism works.  
 
Scott

IMG_0595.mov

Despite working the weekend, fortunately not to bust, I completed 4 more rows. Needed to put 2 stealers on both side to continue the curve but not easily seen. Sanding as I go first with 60 grit then 240. Once done planking will sand lightly with 120 to 240 to 320. Use some cyano and sand lightly to fill the holes/ gaps  for now.


 

Ahoy all...
 
I should mention some key resources that I will be utilizing going forward...
 
Firstly, Robert Read has generously opened up all of his Titanic plans for everyone to access and download free of charge. 
 
1. Titanic Plan Page 1  This plan page is a starboard profile of the ship.  Updated 6/23/23
2. Titanic Plan Page 2  This plan page is a port profile of the ship.  Updated 6/23/23
3. Titanic Plan Page 3  This plan page has plan views of the upper decks, underbody, and forward and aft elevations. Updated 6/23/23
4.  Titanic Plan Page 4 This plan page has drawings of visible ventilators and a location map. Updated 6/17/23
5. Titanic Plan Page 5 This page has individual drawings of deck equipment and a location map. Updated 6/23/23
6. Titanic Plan Page 6 This page has plan and elevation drawings of “Boat deck” and “A deck” deckhouses.Updated 6/17/23
7. Titanic Plan Page 7 This page has plan and elevation drawings of “B deck” deckhouses, forward and aft well decks, and    docking bridge.  Updated 6/17/23
8. Titanic Plan Page 8 This page has Hull Lines drawings with sheer plan, body plan, and half-breadth plan.  Updated 6/17/23 
9. Titanic Plan Page 9 This page has a shell plating expansion drawing. Updated 6/17/23
 
These are available with certain conditions regarding attribution and non-commercial use, etc.
 
Of particular interest to me is the Shell Plating Expansion plan... I'm in the midst of the bottom hull plating and this is a critical guide.
 
Also very useful are the internal deck layouts available from the folks at Titanic Honor & Glory.  They charge a reasonable fee to get a single download file with all of the decks included.  You can zoom in and out and grab snippets to print as needed.  A wider set with individual files for each deck is also available, but not necessary for my purposes. Here is the deck plans link: TitanicDeckPlan.com. (Note:  I'm not affiliated in any way and don't get $$$ for the shout out)
 
Cheers,
Evan

U-505
 
A slight diversion…
 
I’ve been very interested in a future project to build a submarine kit – specifically WWII era Gato or UBoat of some sort…
 
I recently visited Chicago to attend a nephew’s graduation and was able to check off another bucket list item – visiting U-505 in the Science Museum.
 
It did not disappoint. 

For those not familiar with U 505, she was captured late in the war by a US Navy task force that was specially trained to board a U-boat after forcing it to the surface.  Dan Gallery was in command, and he wrote a very entertaining book about the effort that I read way back in middle school.  
 
The museum does a terrific job of presenting the story of her capture and highlighting the many contributions made by the combined team to pull it off.  However, they do leave out much that is interesting about U-505 and the overall operation that you can dig up with online searches.
 
A previous commander, for example, cracked under the tension of an extended depth charge barrage and pulled out a pistol and killed himself in front of the crew.
 
U-505 survived a low-level bombing and sailed across the Atlantic entirely on the surface and was probably the most damaged German submarine ever to return to port.
 
Most of the internal spaces had been gutted before the boat reached Chicago.  German companies donated most of the gauges, harnesses, etc., needed to restore the interior.

Dan Gallery himself was nearly court-martialed by Fleet Admiral Ernest King for his efforts.  King was angry that the sub was not scuttled after removing everything valuable. The key goal of the project was to capture the critical naval codes and Enigma equipment (along with useful manuals about torpedo technology, etc.) before the boat could sink.  An enterprising sailor managed to put the lid back on the main scuttle to prevent further flooding and the German crew otherwise neglected to arm explosive charges when they abandoned ship.  

The captured submarine was a dangerous liability… If another U-Boat spotted her being towed to a friendly port the jig would be up and the German navy may well have revamped all their codes and reconfigured the Enigmas – ruining a key advantage that the allies already had in place at that period of the war. 
 
Gallery managed to calm Admiral King down and issued a proclamation to his task force reminding them all to keep quiet or suffer severe consequences.  The captured U-Boat crew was sequestered and denied communication back to their homeland in violation of the Geneva convention.

Be sure to plan to visit this incredible artifact if you’re ever near Chicago.

 
Cheers,
Evan
 

So, after returning from a long weekend in Myrtle Beach, I made a tiny bit of progress. Work now shifts to making the 14-cylinder Pratt & Whitney radial engine.
 

Thank you, colleagues, for the warm welcome.

A little progress made. A couple of frames are still in the clinic.

I have attached all frames and am about to start the planking.  The non-cant frames look great and will not pose any future problem (I hope).  The cant frames DID take some patience.  If I were to do this again, I would NOT make the cant frames in the provided jigs and, instead, make them off model and install when the rest of the frame is in the framing jig.
 
These frames must be beveled on both sides to accommodate (a) the eventual planking and (b) attachment to the keel/tab.  The bottom of frames 1 and 24 are extremely small and required much care in sanding.  Once I could seen EXACTLY what kind of bevels I needed, the task became easier.
 
That being said, it does take patience, but not much more than you would need to correctly make any model.  This certainly is not a slap-it-together model...but I think the end result will be well worth it.
 

yes something like that, i think im starting to learn that detail like rivet heads is wasted on this scale vessel i have yet to see any that are realistic, unless done by scratch, IMHO 

I remember it took me several weeks to add 3000+ copper tiles when I built Caldercraft's HMS Victory so I'm not surprised this task will take you some time to complete, even without the interruptions of gardening related work.