Ryland Craze

i await the company doing the decals, meanwhile i have today just put this on the table

Incredible work Kevin. Congratulations. You must be well "fatigued" after such a build 🙂
 
Are you going to resume the building of the big gun?
 
Yves

Lovely work Kevin. Great to see this mammoth task completed. You should be very proud!

Wonderful work. That is certainly a build to be proud of. Excellent! 
Chris

This is one to be proud of. Well done, sir!

Congratulations on completing a fine build Kevin. 

Congratulations,  awesome work, very nicely done.
Bob  M

thank you

Thank you, ive seen yr Sphinx Build, and certainly looks great, go for it, 

Very nicely done, Kevin!  Congratulations!

Fantastic build, one day I can hopefully do half as good on that kit.

Thank you Andrew

Thank you

Impressive work, Kevin!

good evening everyone
 
first of all apologies for this build log, my standards are not very high at the best of times, and circumstances have left this log looking quite sorry for itself,  i will try and get back up to how i used to present my builds, with regular updates, they used to be daily, 
 
anyway with that out of the way i would like to show the non believers that i can actually finish a build. and i present you with a completed HMS Indefatigable , but before the photo's a big thank you for @chris watton and @James H and for the followers, and contributors. 
more photos will be in the gallery
Kit Vanguard Models
Scale 1/64
Paints AK Acrylic with a hairy stick
had the kit 825 days, but on the table 442, - not worked on every day though

Kurt,
 
What is the deadline for entries?

The Board of Directors of the Nautical Research Guild is pleased to announce the 2025 Photographic Ship Competition. The last NRG model photo competition was in 2021. Just like last time your photographs will be submitted on-line. 
Gold, Silver and Bronze medals will be awarded for the First, Second and Third place models in three categories: Novice, Apprentice and Master, and a Best of Show medal will be awarded to the best Gold medal winner.  
The competition is open to all Regular Members in good standing of the Nautical Research Guild.   We have established a reduced fee $20.00 membership open to Non-members who wish to participate in the 2025 Photographic Ship Model Competition.  The special half-price membership entitles the new member to receive the digital Nautical Research Journal and all membership privileges for one year. 
The fee is still only $30 per model entered and entrants will also receive a written review of their model. Winners will be announced at the Annual Member’s Meeting. 
The contest rules and entry forms are on the NRG website. https://thenrg.org/contests
Download the rules and entry forms and follow the directions to enter.  A separate entry form is required for each model entered.

You should have gone with Modeller's Sawmill.  I believe the tariff from New Jersey is much lower.  😁  

Helter Skelter Time my friends.
I just received a shipment of milled wood from Estonia by regular post (mail). It took 19 days to arrive since it sat in U.S. Customs for about a week. I figure they couldn't figure out what to do on tariffs since it was a box of wood when they opened it (and didn't re-seal it well). Another fact: I've ordered rope from Canada and since it (com)packs into a normal letter-sized envelope it sails through to the USPS and usually within 7-10 days to my doorstep. No tariff nonsense, so far...
 
For U.S. Customs Declarations (all packages), most of our ex-U.S. vendors know to indicate that their shipment contains "hobby parts."

Closing in on a finish for the Southlandz show coming up on Saturday, June 7. Will it be finished by then? Rat Fink and Ed Roth seem to have their doubts. Stay tuned.

I decided it was time to start adding vegetation to the Moniteau Creek area. As a reminder, this area was pretty grassy/weedy/scruffy back then, with scattered bushes and a handful of trees.
 

So I started with a layer of complex grasses. Modelers often use static grass for this, which is a product consisting of fine grains that are applied onto a glued surface and then made to stand up vertically using static charge. It actually works quite well, but my problem was that static grass doesn't come in the proper brown/deep yellow shade of late fall Missouri prairie grass. I also find that most manufactured scenery products never manage to have the subtle complexity in color and texture that natural materials do (just like the ground cover already used). But I found a really effective natural replacement that comes out like this:
 

Any guesses?
 
It's hair. Mrs. Cathead's hair, to be specific. Her hair color is nearly exactly the shades of dried Missouri prairie grass, and has all the natural complexity one could want in a scenery product. Here's how I used it.
 
I took some clumps leftover from the hairbrush (we save some of these anyway for use in deterring garden pests like mice). I twisted lengths of hair into tightly wounded bundles, then cut them off into short clumps that stick together naturally. 

I then spread scenic glue on a patch of landscape and began planting the clumps, teasing them apart a bit to create the naturally even clumpiness of prairie grass while still covering most of the landscape. To emphasize this point, too many scenery makers assume that natural grass grows uniformly, like a lawn, but prairie grasses especially grow in tight clumps with space around their base. That pattern is actually essential to the survival of a variety of native animal species, but that's a different discussion.
 
Here's a shot of one creek bank done, and of the broader area in various stages. The glue starts out white but dries clear.
 


And one more view of a completed area:
 

I really like the natural complexity in color and pattern this creates. It needs some bushes and woody growth to break up the pure grassiness, but it's a great start. I will be using static grass elsewhere in Rocheport, but wanted the creek banks to be especially wild and diverse in a way that static grass struggles to get right.
 
If you're wondering, I haven't poured the creek water yet because I want to do most broad-scale scenery work first, to minimize the chances of dripping glue or color onto the finished water surface.
 
I can give two other quick updates. One, here's the nearly finished bluff line on the east side, with mineral staining added. Here it's lit by a nice low-angle western sun. And the main Missouri River riverbank has had its scenic base layer of dirt and shredded leaves added, with the bluffs continuing on the backdrop downriver and the river itself having its base color added.

And two, I've started experimenting with various arrangements of building footprints for the town. I'm having to compress a lot of visual interest into a small area so there are various ways to use specific buildings to highlight aspects of the real town. I'm mostly going to use laser-cut wood kits for all of these, probably scratchbuilding a few simple structures. I don't feel the need to build all the buildings to match real ones; the keystone "real" structures for the location are the grain elevator / hay barn and the depot. The rest can simply create the right era and feel. Someday I can always go back and scratchbuild specific town buildings but I really don't see the need to put that much time into such things up front.

Hope my unorthodox scenery in this post wasn't too hair-raising. You can always comb through other build logs for more normal content.
 
Thanks for reading!

Now THAT is a great idea! I will tuck that wee bit of info away for future reference.

Cheers Guys for your  comments and 'likes'  much appreciated.👍
 
Post 82
Boom and Gaff
I have spent a couple of days looking at the two booms I will include with my model.
An interesting use of terminology here.
What we may generically know as Driver Booms are referred to by Steel as Main Booms in relation to cutters and Sloops.
Again, there are defined proportions relating to Driver/Main Booms.
The Steel tables indicate subtle differences in the taper arrangements between  Driver booms and Main Booms, mainly in relation to the position of the widest diameter, but the differences at  1:64 scale are minimal.
Driver Booms – largest diameter – mid point along the boom
Main Booms  -   largest diameter - Position of the sheet – just inside the Tafferal.
 
The  sizes of booms is confusing, it must be tricky to decide what to apply to the Harpy Kit.
Unfortunately Steel doesn’t have tables relative to Brig Sloops.
The kit Main Boom seems to be based on a 200 ton Brig with a Boom diameter of 10½” – 4mm at scale.
Harpy is a 316 ton vessel, yet a Sloop of 300 tons has a Boom diameter of only 7⅜”-  3mm at scale.
 
There are also defined proportions set out in Steel for Gaffs
Length of Gaffs 5/8 of respective booms, diameter of Gaffs -same as booms.
The kit seems to follow these proportions.

4529a
Both booms were shaped on the lathe using sanding papers.

4540a

4542a
I note that the boom jaws lack iron bands which were common for these items.
I used heat shrink tubing for the purpose, but black card would suffice.
The Gaff
On my build I found the jaws  a tad too small to fit around the mast in the raised position even tho’ the overall mast dimension including the cheeks is the correct diameter.

4554a
Here I have  thinned down the jaws as much as I dare but the fit is not ideal.

4549a

4550a

4551a
Fortunately, on my build the Gaff will be in the lowered postion where the fit is fine.
Had I been rigging the Gaff in the raised position I would  have to re-do the Gaff for a better fit, probably by splitting the jaws and re-attaching with a slightly less tapered boom at the inboard end.
 
B.E
01/06/2025
 

Wonderful stuff you are now producing Chuck, and I think us modellers appreciate the extra mile you go. 
It has been a great experience using your resin blocks and deadeyes, and the other little detailed fittings.
 
Did you decide whether to  produce the Belay pins at 1:64 scale?
 
Regards,
 
B.E.

I have to do some post processing to all my 3d printed stuff so they are always removed from the supports.  Its more work for me but better for you guys.  
 
I dont see many that offer 3d printed parts with such a routine.  Most just print and package.  
 
But all of my parts are lightly sanded if possible to remove the support divots and then they are sprayed and misted with a conservators UV protective coating.  In other cases they finish is optimizes to make them look less like plastic as well. The color and matte or satin finish.
 
Now yes…it could be expected that the end user/builder should do all this but most dont want to or dont know how.  So its an extra service I provide that hopefully makes my parts stand out from all of the many others.  Most just sell “straight from the vat” gray 3d prints you have to paint and finish yourself.  Folks dont know I do all this pre printing processing and post printing processing but based on the volumes being sold I think you guys appreciate it.
 
As you can see I couldnt possibly feel good not doing all this knowing I could finish all my parts so you can use them straight out of the bag.  But it would be a whole
lot quicker and easier if I didnt do all this. In fact I have nearly sold out of some thimble sizes already and will be printing more over the coming week.
 
No painting or finishing required.  Even these small black thimbles.  And certainly my blocks.  Counting and packaging just requires some patience.  In the big scheme of things a small amount of time considering all that goes into making this stuff.
 
No plastic gray looking blocks and fittings from Syren.