Ryland Craze

Hello Dan, and a warm welcome to the forum from the other side of the Pacific!
 
John

Welcome to MSW Dan.

Welcome to MSW, Dan.   When the Dory is finished, feel free to post some pictures of the finished model in the gallery.  And on Pram, by all means start a build log.  It's the best way to meet other builders and also get help when you need it.

Hi, 
My name is Dan. Greetings from Northern California. I built a lot of models when I was younger including an RC glider an RC Boat, and  HO trains but I have not built anything for years. I retired about 6 months ago, but have remained pretty busy with a job I do as a volunteer and a labor of love. I cleaned and decluttered my garage with my new-found time and energy. I almost got rid of my old workbench but could not bring myself to part with it. I cleaned it up and found a space for it.  I then had the urge to build some more models! I have tired some ships in the past, that did not go so well, so I decided to start with the Lowell Dory kit in the Model Shipways shipwright series. I have really enjoyed building it and the instructions that come with the kit are great. I found this site as I was nearing the end of the build. I am just starting the second model in the series, the Norwegian sailing Pram and have been very grateful for all of the pictures detailed information and suggestions in the build logs on the site.
 
Dan

Mark, it only seems like I'm thinking that far ahead. In reality, it's more like how many steps ahead can I fear? 😕
 
Then, the real question is not how far in advance was I in fear, but was I afraid enough? 🤔 Now, we'll just have to wait and see!
 
Here's the latest. I've gone through test fitting the box structure shell and then seeing how well it will mate with the lower hull. 
 

 
The clamps are there to hold the two parts together tightly, so I can see exactly how well the walls will sit on the beams. 
 
I'm kind of thinking now that it might have been a better order of construction to add those beams just before the two sections glued together. But, the fit seems okay.
 

 
The biggest problem I had was handling the box structure. The instruction have you leave the door panels in place – I assume for strength. The problem is that every time I picked up the structure, my thumb would pop a door loose. I now have these walls glued to the box structure's framework, and I don't think any of the doors remained.
 
Below, you can see the fit of the walls on the beams. In this photo, you can see that they're close, but not quite where I want the fit to be. This is about as good as it's going to get in this area, as the fit is much better closer to the ends. We'll just have to see if there's some way I can minimize this apparent gap when I get further along in the build.
 

 
Finally, here's a test fit of the laser-cut external framework piece. Laser-cut design certainly makes this type of construction very easy.
 

 
By the way, on the real Atakebune, through those open doors, you should probably end up seeing the sliding wall panels of the samurai living spaces, probably quite decorative. They would form a kind of central structure, probably with a floor plan similar to the castle structure that will go on later.
 
The castle museum model is a little bit light on detail, so this is similarly light, and probably there would be wooden covers for those firing ports on the top deck. There were also likely similar ports across that middle band as well. But, I think any available information on such firing ports may all be just guesswork.
 
 

 
The fit here looks very good – much better than I'd anticipated. 
 
The one thing yet is that the main wall pieces are very thin, and there's a little minor warpage around the doors. So, I think I'm going to reinforce those areas with some vertical wooden strips on the inside. They may actually not be necessary with the laser-cut frameworks glued to the outsides, but I'll do it just to be safe.
 
 
 

Slow progress; I had my nose in books working out background, as I try to work out a scenario for a SDF RR car.
The SDF were busy before the war in all areas with the Italians in Libya in the North and Italian Somaliland in the south and east. I found some of the SDF logs for the occupation of Karkhur Murr (in the north close to the Libyan border) in 1934 and it looks like the vehicles were all Thorneycroft cars.
The IWM photos of the Rolls-Royce SDF cars is dated 1941 in Omdurman so they had them then in possibly a sand and brown paint scheme
In the south the Italian threat was removed as the British Gideon Force pushed the Italians out of Ethiopia in 1941. The camel corps of the SDF were part of Gideon Force but the country was not conducive to vehicle patrols. 
In March 1941 Kufra Oasis (in southern Libya) was captured by the Free French and became a base for the British Long Range Desert Group and was garrisoned by the SDF. The SDF also had responsibility for running the Kufra convoys to supply the oasis from Wadi Halfa 1200 kms away on the Nile. 
My reading shows that the convoys were lightly escorted, they were far from the fighting and petrol was an issue. Typically a convoy would use thirty trucks with twenty carrying supplies and ten carrying petrol for the convoy. As fuel was used trucks were left behind to be reclaimed on the way back

The sand is quite firm in this area with a thin crust on top. Once broken the crust doesn't easily reform and so the convoy tracks are still there 80 years later.

So my location for the Rolls-Royce cars is on garrison duty at Kufra in 1942. 
My colour scheme is plain sand which seemed to be the dominant scheme for SDF trucks and cars on convoy duty. They are all seen as light and single colour. 
Abandoned SDF trucks from teh convoys are all single colour

 

Even the evidence of lunch is still there too

I may be completely wrong but it fits what I want to do and none of my neighbours appear to be ex-SDF.
 
I have decided not to try to bulge the tyres. My book notes that too low a tyre pressure resulted in punctures and too high a pressure got you stuck. As experience developed they generally used 30 psi in the sand. the tyres are nothing like modern sand tyres and the photos hardly show any deformation. I will probably just flat them a little.
 
If the historical interludes are boring please let me know and I will desist. I find this area hugely interesting and can get a bit out of hand.
 
Thanks for looking in
 
Alan

Jax only works on brass as I understand it.  Same with the old "Blacken It" stuff.  If copper, use liver of sulpher.  Quite a few builders are using that.

Back when I was on the FD and still on the ambulance I responded to a kickback situation and the saw operator wound up dead.  Combination of penetrating wound and traumatic impact of the 2 x 4.

Good to know guys, thanks.  I'll be on the lookout for it.  
 
When I bought my Byrnes saw, I had zero experience with table saws.  I watched a number of videos online which were for full sized saws before starting, but I still ended up muddling through it for a while.  Kickbacks a really scary!  Even small hobby saws are no joke!  

I second BobG's comment.  A lot of great questions from the audience.  
 
@tlevine A shout out to Toni for keeping an eye on the questions that showed up in the chat window.  Great job answering those questions.  Thanks for your work there. 

Kurt did a great job explaining the necessary basics. He went over safety, setup and adjustment, various blades and accessories, different kinds of cuts and cutting lap joints. It was especially helpful for those of us who are new to table saws but also a good review for those more experienced. He said it will be available to NRG members on the website soon. He also said that there will be a part 2 workshop that will get into more advanced techniques. 
 
 

David the Zoom coverage of your model was so lacking (not anyone's fault, just the nature of remote viewing) at the HRSMS that it did not do your model justice. In terms of fittings, the Florida Sharpie has minimal fittings as i suspect the real craft did, given they were built in "back yards". My sharpie has 4 open chocks at the bow/stern for mooring, two bowsprit cheek mounted blocks for anchor operation and nothing else. The tack rigging is all deck mounted blocks. The rudder is in an aft wheelhouse so not much external there to speak of. Cleats are all located on the main cabin as the helm controlling all but the jib. If that helps.
Joe

Take one into your local hardware store.  They usually have gages to check size and proper threads to match what you have with what they sell.

The work is progressing slowly because unfortunately my job takes up a lot of my time these days and I can only devote a little time to my hobby.
However, I have made some progress.
The electrical part has been installed in order to light the two rooms.

 

 


And the planking of the second belt has started. I still have 3 rows to port and 5 rows to starboard to finish.

 
 
 

 
In a few weeks, I hope to have more time to finish my planking. But I'm racking up the hours these days at my office... I  look forward to quieter days 😉.
 

Thank you to all the 'Likes'.
With the critical period finally over at my job, I was able to devote some time to my hobby again and finally finish planking the hull.
A good step passed. 🙂

 

 

 
I decided to proceed to the treenailing of the hull. But I unfortunately broke the only drill bit of size #78. While waiting for a new batch of drills to be delivered, I decided to proceed with the last task producing a large amount of sawdust: to thin down the bulwarks inboard.
 

 
I started by roughing it all up with my Proxxon rotary tool. Then I finished the process using various home-made tools on which sandpaper was glued.
 

 
You will notice that to consolidate the planking of the hull, I coated the inside with a thin layer of woodfiller.
I can now proceed to the installation of the false deck.

UGH!!!  Brings back memories for sure.

Here are the piles. All the split rings and eye bolts were made from 24 gauge wire.
 
On the left are around 140 split rings. They were formed around a #41 drill bit. 
On the right are around 315 eye bolts. The eye was formed around a #61 drill bit.
 

 
Now the work on the carriages can commence. 
 

The hammock cranes are different heights. The only pictures of hammocks in the cranes I’ve ever seen show them folded in half within the cranes. I would think that the hammocks in the shorter cranes would have been shaken loose by the motion of the ship if they were folded in half. Longridge, Goodwin in “The Construction and Fitting of English Man of War” and McKay in “The AOS Victory” make no mention of their proper stowage. Only of the cranes themselves. Mondfeld shows them folded in half. Lavery in “The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War”says that within the lower rails “they must have been stowed - lengthwise -  on their sides” -  which to me makes perfect sense - but he’s specifically referring to the cranes at the break of the poop and quarterdeck.  
 
The cranes at the forecastle and quarterdeck are only slightly larger than those at the break of the poop. My question is how should I stow the hammocks in those cranes, folded in half or lengthwise on their sides? 
 
 

Started the companionway this afternoon. Using the plans for the sizes and started with a 5/32" board and ripped .03 strips and sanded them to .025 thick. Not sure how to build this without any frame so I glued 1" long steps together laying them on my granite work surface with weights on top to keep them flat.
 
Parts laid out to dry
 
                                                                                                                 Door Pieces
                                                                 
 
Sides                                     
 
                                        
                                                                                                      Roof in the middle
                                                                                                                 Rear Side
I'll make the roof and doors in two pieces so its very obvious that they should open with the hinges in position. When glue dries I use the disk sander to square the edges and then sand in the sloping sides. The sides need to angle to make them perpendicular to the keel and match the slope of the deck.
 
Regards
Will
                                                                 

Thanks everyone for comments and likes
 
The margin  planks and waterways are now complete so I'll try to document the process. In the above post it shows a piece shaped to the bulwarks which was used to cut the forward margin planks. I used a drafting compass to mark the 1/4" width of the plank. Cut the piece close to the line on the scroll saw.

 
After cutting the inner shape it was sanded to the line a spindle sander.

 
Now I marked the first scarf on the piece after fitting to the stem. Using a #11 blade the scarf was cut, but two problems arose from the cutting. The first was cutting across the grain of the maple required many passes and the result was the cut was too wide with edge angles and the second was the small portion broke off when the blade finished the cut. Many attempts resulted with one or both results so another process needed to be developed. Looking at the traced pattern of the scarf maybe it would be easier to saw the cuts and then finish with the flats.
 
The traced scarf shape
 

 
Next I sanded the flat portion of the scarf
 

 
The tab protruding from the recessed portion is what kept breaking while cutting with the #11 blade. After sanding I put the piece in a small vise so the recessed line was level with the top of the vise jaws and used a razor saw to make the cuts.
 

 
Then it was a simply paring down to the level of vise jaws. A little filing and I had a joint. Made the balance of the margin pieces the same a the fore section. Still had several joints/pieces that had to be remade but a lot easier with this method. Once the margins were glued down I made 1/32" strips for the waterway. In doing this I realized that there had been no mention of scuppers. I see them in the photos and drawings so I guess that's my next step.
 
Margin Planks and Waterways
 

 
On to scuppers
 
Regards
Will
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hello Ladies and Gents just want to let everyone know that I'll be taking some time off for the Christmas holidays.
I'll be out of the shop between Dec. 20th and Jan. 2nd I'll start up again on the 3rd of Jan.
Just want to thank everyone for supporting my small shop and hope to hear from you in the New Year.
 
Merry Christmas and Happy New Years,
Joe
Modelers Sawmill
thewoodmansshed@gmail.com
 

Plans - keep in mind that the original kit plans were drawn decades ago when customers were closer to being scratch-builders than assemblers.  With today's kits having lots of preshaped laser parts, photo-etch, resin, etc., they much more assembly-oriented.  Consequently, the plans have to reflect the many preshaped parts to help the modeler succeed.
 
Photo sets - When building the display model of all our kits, I am also fitting the preshaped parts to validate them.  Because many of us (me included) are visual learners, I found it useful to take photos of as many steps as possible to get a feeling for how things were working out.  Making them available to the modeler seemed like a natural thing to do.
 
Kit designer - My Dad was a naval officer and the first model kit he bought me back in the early 1950s was a ship model.  Over the next few decades, I assembled a lot of plastic ship and aircraft kits and became very interested in how things were put together.  That's when I started to draw them.  Life happened and, like most of us, I had to work for a living to support a family.  While working on my PhD in the late 1970s, I started drawing plans for small naval combatants (PTs, MTBs, MGBs, etc.) based on the actual yard drawings and selling them to modelers.  After a number of years designing technical training for nuclear power and teaching technical writing in a college, I got tired of the corporate and academic worlds and started building custom ship models.  BlueJacket was just down the road, so I was a frequent customer.  I designed my first kit for them (80' ELCO PT) in the mid-1990s and soon was doing it on a regular basis.  Eventually, I was doing it full time.  So far, I've provided those services (as an independent contractor) to three different administrations (the Hammers, the Margers, and the Damucks) and plan on doing so until I am physically unable or have croaked...

Once again, I've never tiled a hull so I'm talking out my hat more or less. In my mind I see gluing nice shinny new tile onto the hull being much easier than tile that's been messed about with. The more even/flat the edges and no chemical residue left on the tile's glue side sounds like the ticket. Reading what folks have gone through coppering a hull individual tile is a difficult and messy process.  
 
 Eric, have you thought about using copper tape and a pounce wheel? Attached is a good discussion regarding tape vs tile.
 
 

I did find this image in the Ship Modeler’s Shop Notes (rights reserved, Nautical Research Guild and The Mariners Museum). One is the image directly and the other is a closeup, where you can see the texture of the coppering.