Ryland Craze

Thanks James.  I'll practice on an off cut of dowel. 
 
I am really impressed with the quality of the kit, but unfortunately I am not allowed to start until after Christmas.... 
 
Steve

There's hardly any taper on these. I just spun it in my fingers and sanded with a block 😁

James probably has some secret way of doing this, but the easiest way for us amateurs is to chuck the mast dowel into an electric variable-speed drill and taper the mast with progressively finer grits of sandpaper. The taper should be repeatedly checked against the plans using calipers.

I was doing some Christmas ornament woodcarvings and decided to try out the new  Veritas workbench table. Holding these small carvings has always presented a challenge but the workbench provided a nice secure work surface.  Those are Dockside 2mm micro gouges in the picture.
 

Hi Mike
 
This is purely my personal experience, but because the Veritas guide has a single roller I found it difficult to keep the blade level as I moved it up and down the sharpening surface, particularly with a very narrow tool like the 1/8" chisel I showed in my earlier picture. I found it hard to stop it wobbling from side to side. Other Veritas users have told me they've had the same difficulty, especially with very narrow tools. The Kell guide avoids this by having two wheels which hold the chisel rock steady. The two wheels also clamp the tool between them, ensuring it is held absolutely square.  
 
As I said before, Veritas make great tools and it may be lack of skill on my part that makes it hard for me to get good results with their honing guide - after all, some people hone freehand with great results, but I'm not one of them! I just find the Kell guide takes the skill element out of it. I should also add that it is a beautifully engineered tool, a real gem to own and use. Richard (a one-man-band with whom I have no commercial or other relationship) is a toolmaker by trade and it shows in his products. 
 
Hope this helps
 
Derek
 
PS  a couple of people sent personal messages asking what sharpening stones I use. I gave up stones some time ago in favour of wet-and-dry paper stuck to a sheet of plate glass. That way I can use (and easily replace) a wide range of grits to suit whatever sharpening or honing I need to do.

Very nice work Derek. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Your craftsmanship with the boxwood coupled with the well done decorations make for a stunning look.  The window technique is very creative thinking.
 
Merry Christmas Derek to you and your family.  I’ve enjoy our cross-pond dialog this past year and look forward to more next year. 
 

I made the wire jig exactly as you explained.  Measured the distance between the deadeyes from the plans.  It worked very well for me.

Your Longboat is looking good.  You are heading toward the finish line.  I stropped my deadeyes by forming the 24 gauge wire around the deadeye.  I formed the strop so that the two ends met at the top of the deadeye.  I trimmed the wire so that the two ends butted against each other.  I then opened up the strop, applied some CA to the underside of the strop and squeezed the strop down into the grove in the deadeye.  Be sure to insert the hook on the wire strope before you permanently close up the strope.

Preparations to repair the rigging have gone a bit slower than anticipated. I finally gave up trying to repair the broken brass chain plates that were on the model. Curiously the builder had decided to make them in 3 parts;  a lower section connected to the hull, a mid section that was bent and soldered to sit vertical and the schackle like shroud tether. Between alignment problems and poor solder joints (even after cleaning and tinning they would not hold) I gave up and started anew. The remade versions were one piece straps of 3/32 X 1/32 brass strip bent to the correct angle. The chain plates were fashioned with a narrow tang at the top similar to Cheerful's chain plates.  I must be losing it here is an [EDIT]I am working on 2 models at once, Cheerful and the Sharpie. The Sharpie chain plates were made differently on the original model. A brass strip was made of the dimensions stated and tapered a bit at the top. Atop the narrow end a small brass tubing of 1mm was soldered. To this new pre-formed shackles were attached. They were made this way to faithfully reproduce the original modelers intent. They are much harder to make however.These only need blackening to complete the process.
 
Now the club foot boom termination on the "car" or traveler for the jib was a different story. The model as received was missing the metal work and until I received help from Reuel Parker's article in Professional Boat Builder I was at a loss to come up with a design. In the PDF above, on page 54, figure 3, is what I needed to recreate the element. I tried twice to make the forward metal work but each time the results were either only partial fufilment or were unacceptable product. On the third try I decided to try a different approach. Starting with some 2mm square brass tubing cut to length to include the forward yoke to attach to the car and long enough to simulate the boom strapping.  The yoke holes were then drilled. From earlier experience I knew any files I had were too thick to fashion the yoke ears by removing the top and bottom walls of the tubing so I turned to my Byrnes saw knowing the 0.030 slitting blade could cut through the brass. Holding the piece safely was the problem.
 
Shown in the photo below I cut a narrow slit in a piece of hardwood, trial fitting as I went and flipping the face against the fence for an exact centerline cut. I stopped when I had a strong press fit of the 2mm brass tubing within the slit. It then became a simple matter of moving the fence gradually and subsequently flipping the craddle face against the fence to cut the desired openings. A small section of the piece was left solid on all faces to maintain structural continuity.
 
In turn the boom was shaved slightly to accomadate the newly formed simulated straps. The product is shown below the holding block. What remains is the "in haul" metal work to complete the final missing rigging elements. I don't want to admit to the number of hours it took to get to this point.
 
Joe

I thought I'd add a few closer photos of my framework before I move on to the stern. Maybe a little more interesting to look at than my previous post caught up more on the process than the result.
 


The ship is straight the photo isn't - the tick marks are a sign of my many measurements to ensure symmetry. No bulkhead from front to back has more than a .5mm difference from it's opposing side - the front three are through measured effort, the rest more ...'how'd that happen...'
 

 
Still have the top to fair. The off-centered ones between ports are there for support (two where a bulkhead was troublesome) and ensuring equal distance between bulkheads. Per Chuck's guidance every sill and support piece was measured close to the former, not at the outside, it's opposite on the other side is it's exact twin. The challenge, maybe not obvious in the photos with these are all the angles involved, as I noted above the angle finder and Byrnes sander were essential, for me anyway. A single plank run will be placed 1/32 from the bottom of all 14 ports, another along the top edge, front to back. I think I got it right, not a lot of tolerance, time will tell. 
 

 
It does't quite look like a ship yet, but it's getting there. The lines are really nice, 1/48th is so cool to work with.  I happened to notice the scale is very near the NMM plan I have framed on my work room wall - I was comparing measurements and was taken by my building a model so nearly equal in size to it's original draft.
 

 
More evidence of the tick marks, I showed in an earlier post how I record these on paper and fair for symmetry.  I hope the eventual planks are appreciate of the beating the bulkheads took for them.
 
I messed up and not am happy with my staining of the figurehead, I'm going to acquire another from Chuck and practice a little more before staining the next one. Still it looks pretty cool setting there.
 
So now on to the stern, I've tried and continue to try to learn all I can not only from Chuck's monograph, but the many build logs long past this stage with dates more than two years old now. My journey is underway.
 
Thanks for stopping by. You have many choices in Winchelsea build logs, I appreciate your taking a look at mine.
 
 

Thanks for your thoughts - very much appreciated. If all the kind thoughts here could heal, I would be well tomorrow.
 
 
Mark

Thanks Ryland. A related question - how did you get uniform separation for the deadeye? I was thinking of creating a wire gig that could be inserted into 4 of the holes - 2 at the top and 2 at the bottom. A large X shape. 

Completing the decoration
 
Finishing the starboard side decoration and then fitting the oval surrounds to the gunports was all straightforward. I fitted the four small side windows next, having glazed them using the same technique as on the stern. As with the decoration, the port and starboard sides are very slightly different - the windows will fit in the frames on either side but will not look right if not on their correct side. Again, careful study of the plans and manual is essential. Here's the port side gunports and small windows fitted:


When it came to gluing back the tiny dangly bits that had broken off the wooden window surround, I found it easier to glue them to the back of the PE surround before I fitted the latter in place. 
 
Next, it was on to the large windows at the aft end. These are ornate objects pierced with several holes that I did not want to glaze, so the first job was to cover all but the window openings with masking tape. Also, the windows were too large to allow me to use tweezers to dip them into the glazing solution as I had with the smaller versions. Instead, I stuck a piece of scrap wood to the front of the PE, giving me a handle that enabled me to dip the window flat against the surface of the Fantasy Film:

As before, the trick was to allow only the back surface to touch the film, then to withdraw it as quickly as possible and hold it in the vertical position while the excess film ran off the bottom edge. The first window worked fine. The second took two goes before I was happy. The first attempt left bubbles in the film - I don't think I lifted it quickly enough - and I had to wait for it to dry before I could cut it off and dip again. Once the film was dry I used a razor blade to cut round the back of the window frame so I could peel off the excess film and masking tape:

The next job was to bend the PE slightly to match the curve of the hull. I was reluctant to bend the glazed portion so I wrapped it in paper to protect it and held it in the rubber jaws of my vice while gently bending the bottom, non-glazed part:

Here's the port side fitted:

And a more atmospheric view (ie I got the lighting wrong!):

No prizes for guessing what I used the old cutting mat for!
 
That's almost all the decoration fitted. I'm holding off fitting the scuppers while I'm still handling the hull a lot. Next job will be the rudder.
 
Probably my last post for a while, so I'll wish everyone a happy Christmas and peaceful New Year.
 
Derek
 
 
 
 
 
 

Holy crap…those close ups really magnify the wood filler!  I have to start my coppering. 😳

I finished furling the jib.  It looks OK, but I’m not yet sure how I will belay the staysail and jib sheets.  I added (not glued) two timber heads, but I may not use both.  I’m still thinking and trying different solutions.  There aren’t many books on fore and aft boats.
 

 
       

Today I added the skeg and bilge keels. It takes a bit of looking at the pictures and estimating where things go. The pictures are great especially using the pdf and blowing them up fro my old eyes. There is a drawing in the instructions, but did not help much. 
 

 
I built the case for the center board and installed the frames. The slot for the center board in the keel plank was too big. I moved it to the front of the slot and filled the back-- not sure that was correct. There is a guide in the manual to position the first 2 frames from the front of the center board. For the third frame, the pictures blown up, show it a bit behind the back of the center board case, so I fit it in there.
Agree with @bobandlucy that letting the planks dry out overnight, or at least for a few hours on the mold was vey helpful in getting them to the right shape, I also used the a bit  of water on them and a hair dyer as suggested by @turangi as was gluing them in.
 
 

Here are the long awaited Pictures. We had an accident when moving everything to the Dining room table. You will notice the Tiller is gone. Now I have to do some repair.
 

Floyd, I do my seizings the way my father taught me to tie flys to my fly fishing line.  I found a picture that best illustrate this:

I found the above image at this website: https://sites.google.com/site/shipwrightsfaq/smf-sn-shopnotes/smf-sn-seizing?tmpl=%2Fsystem%2Fapp%2Ftemplates%2Fprint%2F&showPrintDialog=1
 
I usually do six turns of cotton thread.
 
Here is a YouTube video link of this process:
 
Also, John Earl has an excellent article explaining his method of seizing on his website located here: https://www.modelboatyard.com/stropping.html
 
There are many ways to do this.  I use watered down white glue to coat my seizings and once dry, snip the tails of the seizing line close to the loops of the seizing.  I prefer not to use CA on my rigging.  Rigging was very enjoyable on my model.
 
 

Hi Ray and welcome to Model Ship World.  Thank you for your service.  Like you, most of us started modeling at a young age.  Ask away and we will be glad to answer your questions.

Hi Ray and welcome to Model Ship World.  Thank you for your service.  Like you, most of us started modeling at a young age.  Ask away and we will be glad to answer your questions.

(Moderators: sorry for the ridiculously large size of some of these photo files. I ran into the dreaded Error Code 200 and could only get around it by changing those photos to PNG format.)
 
Back at the Endurance after an intense couple of weeks working on writing projects. I haven't made much progress during this time, but have accomplished a few things. I'm slowly making progress on the remaining ratlines, lifeboat davits, and the anchors. Not much of interest to show on the ratlines, so on to the lifeboat davits. I've now fashioned all four quarterdeck davits. This has been a pretty frustrating process, since I've never done anything quite like this before. But at this point, I'm mostly satisfied. They are all almost identical in shape and size, though the loops at the top are pretty inconsistent. I got better as I went, so I may redo the one on the right...at the very least, it'll be hidden on the backside when the ship is displayed. I still need to fashion the eyebolts to mount them on the hull.
 

 
For the anchors, I've spent quite a bit of time studying this photo of of the foredeck, along with the photos of the ship under sail. Of particular interest is that the anchors seem to have been stowed on top of the cathead davits, a task that appears to have been accomplished, in part, by using a portable davit with a pedestal base. In Frank Hurley's photo, the davit has been laid down between the port bollard and the capstan, while the pedestal base is still next to the starboard cathead davit. I've decided to install the anchors in similar fashion. (I also need to touch up some paint after handling the anchors so much...)
 
.    
 
I also decided to get ambitious and make that portable anchor davit. I started by rounding the end of a 6x6mm piece of wood (1st photo). Then I used a three-square file to angle the corners and to carve channels in the middle of each side (2nd photo). After trimming off the ends and drilling a hole, I tested the fit and shape of a piece of brass rod, both on the cutting mat (3rd photo) and on-deck (4th photo). Finally, I glued on two pieces of brass wire to function as the eyebolt loop and the crank that's visible in the photo of the foredeck; again, I took photos of it on the cutting mat and on-deck (5th and 6th photos). Once the glue is securely dried, I'll paint both the davit and the base with the same matte (metal) black paint that I used on the anchors. I'm not attaching the davit and the base to each other, though, and instead will replicate Hurley's photo.
 
.    .    .    .    .    
 
Next steps: paint the anchor davit and base, prepare the eyebolt mounts for the quarterdeck lifeboat davits, continue working on the ratlines.

for what it's worth, an old Body-Shop guy showed me years ago how to smooth bumpy or wavy surfaces on cars.   take a piece of radiator hose and wrap the sandpaper around it.   the hose is stiff enough to hit the high points of the surface, but flexible enough to follow the contour of the quarter-panel.   I've found the same applies to plastic models, and should also apply here as well.  

Plastic model assembly is not really all that much help in preparation for the skills and tools used for building a wooden hull.  
A major advantage of a wood based model for a plastic one is that it is much easier to backup and redo - often with much better quality wood - if you so choose.   The plans that come with the kit should have the patterns  for the parts that have been poorly assembled.  Obtain plywood stock,  It can be AA quality and thicker than the kit supplied.  Scan the patterns - double check for any scanner distortion and adjust and cement to the new plywood, cut the replacement parts out and assemble using your hard learned experience.    Check the vendors here,  planking stock is available.  The species will be much more scale appropriate. 

Ahh yes lumpy beginner hulls.  I almost wish I had some pictures of my first unfinished mess the Amati Adventure. That thing was just about as lumpy and misshapen as you could imagine.  I only got to about half way done the second planking before giving it the quits.  I didn't dare try another kit for 6-7 years.
 
I bought the kit without even thinking of looking for books or forums.  Just jumped right in and slapped it together like a plastic kit 😆.  Some of us just have to learn the hard way.