davyboy

Continuing to build in the spacers between the bulkheads. It takes time to cut and shape the material I am using. 
What it looks like is immaterial as they will never see the light of day once the decks are installed. 
KFC have kindly changed from plastic sports to wooden spoons and forks and this has provided a cost effective source for this purpose. 
As I go, I am checking for straight lines and the fore section is now very stable and nearly complete.
Just the sections aft of bulkhead 14 to complete. 

Simon 

I have reached another small milestone.  All of the below deck fittings and cabins are completed.  The gun deck is fully framed as well.   Next up I will start planking the inboard bulwarks.   That should make a huge difference.  
 
I hope to see many of you this weekend at the New London show.   It should be a very enjoyable weekend.   I am looking forward to it.
 







 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chuck

All keel sections are complete. Moving on to the rabbet. I think I'm not going to try an remove all the laser burn. I just gave it a light sanding to smooth things out nicely. I think most of this will not be visible in the end. Hard to get all of it on a picture as its quite long.
 

 

 

I've been making a little progress and got the keel finished up.  Thought I would throw a few pictures of where we stand so far...
I have the build board all set to go.  I pretty much followed Mikes lead - can't go wrong doing that....
 


Next up will be attaching the false keel - seems I forgot that till I seen the pictures...   After that I think I will put on some WOP that to protect what I have done so far. 
Then fixing the plans to the build board.
So far --- so good...    Thanks for looking in.
Steve
 

On the undecked starboard side the carlings are installed

The carlings support the ledges which in turn support the deck planking


This completes main deck framing. Now for deck furniture.
Dick

A picture of my Beaver’s prize model.
 
Recently , I compared the historical plan from the London museum with Hahn plan.
The breadth on the body plan is not the same. Hahn plan has a larger breadth: +4mm .
By the way, the distribution of the cant frames (aft) seems to be wrong. 
 
Congratulation on your model. Framing is superb.

Dear Mike,
Your model is a lot better than mine 🙂
I should start a new one with my level of today understanding.
The Hahn method is good but could be improved without to much trouble.
 
Best
Michel

I assembled half of the ship's hull.

Hello,
the last bulwark(?) between captains bed place and the lobby is installed. 



Before I install the deck beams I have to make a decision, where to place the cannons? All sources say, there where 8 6 pdrs at the QD and 2 6 pdrs at the FC. But I never saw a model with a cannons at the FC! At least there is not so much space for cannons.
 
That cannon to the left has the problem with the shrouds, and the cannon to the right with the hight of the fife rail.

At least I could place all cannons at the QD, without one in the captain cabin. That would make the captain happy. And that is what you see at most of the models. If no one has a veto, I think I build it so.

 

I am happy to remove the word "dead". The rest I leave to the moderator. This is an open forum and disagreement is allowed as long as it is polite so maybe dead wrong is a poor choice of words.
Woodrat
 

Main Stay Tackles
Todays task was to add the two main stay tackles. There are a number of belaying pins that need to be added to the beams, as a couple of these are required for belaying the stay tackle rigging. It would have better if I had fitted these belaying pins before the beams were installed as the locating holes needed to be opened up a tad. For the most part this was easily achieved.

One hole was a bit more difficult to open up but thankfully I was able to do it

The belaying pins needed to be trimmed so they would fit flush as are fitted to either side of the beam. Once I was happy with the test fit they were glued in place.

With the belaying pins in place I was then able to fit the two stay tackles. These tackles are indicated by the yellow arrow on the photo below. On reflection I should have positioned the lower stay tackle slightly higher up the stay as it is at a bit of an angle.

The first double block assembly was secured to the main stay.

The bottom block was secured to the beam with a hook and eyelet and once rigged the free end was tied to a belaying pin.

The completed first stay tackle.

The process was repeated for the second stay tackle.


 
 

Just a brief update on the latest work on the keel and stem.
 
The rear of the keel tapers in width from 12" to 10" and so this was sanded to size. I also drilled the scarph joint with a #75 drill and used 24 gauge copper wire as bolts.

The stem was glued to the front section of the keel at the boxing joint. The front of the keel and the lower part of the stem also taper in width from 12" to 10" and so this was also sanded to size before the boxing joint bolts were added.

At present I haven't glued the forward section of the keel to the rear two pieces as I feel it might be easier to have the keel in two parts whilst I am shaping and fitting the other pieces which fit to it, such as the stepson and the deadwood etc. I am less likely to knock it and damage it if it is in two smaller parts rather than one longer piece. Finally at this stage I fixed the acrylic stem mount to the board.

I am really not happy with the octopus. There is no iconographic evidence for its use on galleys or any other ship, so it is gone. I have gone instead for a more austere look. I am happy with the figurehead. Prof Wachsmann has published his thesis that these figureheads reprsent birds' heads and that may be so in most cases but in the case of the Tragana ship the backward curved protuberances on the "beak" resemble no bird I know but would be consistent with a crocodile.

Dick

Mid Deck & Quarterdeck Bulwark Hammock Cranes and Poop Stanchions
After completing the backstays my next intended task was to add the two main stay tackles. However as I was looking at the rigging plans and the Indy to check the belaying points I noticed that I had not fitted the various hammock cranes and stanchions to the gunwales. Also I had not added the thread to the quarterdeck barricade hammock cranes.
 
The easiest task was to add the 0.5mm black thread to the quarterdeck barricade hammock cranes. A length of black thread was cut and run through my block of beeswax. I then used a hairdryer to melt the beeswax which helped to stiffen the thread. The thread was then added to the quarterdeck barricade hammock cranes.

Next I moved on to the mid deck stanchions and hammock cranes. This uncovered another error with my build in that I had incorrectly fitted the mid deck gunwales, they were fitted back to front. If I fitted the hammock cranes in the holes provided the access to the Indy via the steps would be blocked. I simply added two new holes so the access via the steps was clear.
 
The inner stanchions were fitted and rigged first. Once they were done the hammock cranes were added. These cranes required a length of 2x1 to fitted as well as 0.5mm black thread.
 

The next task was to add the Quarterdeck Bulwark Hammock Cranes and Poop Stanchions. This was a bit more difficult to do as access to the gunwales was restricted by the shrouds and backstays. However I took my time and I was able to complete the task.

I am hoping to add the two main stay tackles tomorrow before I go away for a few days so on my return I can then start work on making the various yards and booms.
 
 

Main mast breast and shifting backstays, main topsail mast back stay and main topgallant mast backstay
After a few days work all the various backstays required for the main mast, the main topsail mast and main topgallant mast have been rigged and belayed. I am very pleased with how the Indy is now looking. Moving forward the next few days will be spent adding the various backstays for the fore mast, the fore topsail mast and fore topgallant mast. I have attached a photo of the completed main backstays.

The next two photos show the completed breast backstays, which have now been belayed to one of the main shroud cleats.

The photo shows shifting backstay and the topsail and topgallant backstays. 

The next photo shows the belaying of the shifting backstay to a belay pin

The final photo is a close up of the shifting stay eyebolt and block

 
 

Wait a moment - I've got a match here somewhere....

Thank You...
 
The cabins on the aft lower platform are completed.   No detailed explanation since they are built exactly like the others.   Each partition wall is built up with two layers glued together.   Then they are detailed with hinges and door handles as required along with any upright timbers 1/8" x 1/8" strips.   Their heights and widths are adjusted to fit under the deck beams etc.   Finally they are assembled and glued into position.
 
Here is the tiny powder and filling rooms completed.  These walls are slightly thicker than the other cabins as was normally the case.  An extra laser cut sheet of parts shows how all the cabins are prepared for you.   They are all numbered and shown on the plans.  I built them in the order that they are numbered.
 

All of the cabins completed.
 


Next up is to complete the remaining deck beams carlings and ledges.
 
 

Hello,
A while back, I captured some general shots of the model. It remains under a dust cover while I´m outfitting the yards. Regrettably, I don't have any recent pictures available right now.


 
 

Johaan - would you post a few photos of the whole ship as she stands - as distinct from close ups of your extraordinary rigging? This truly is a remakable build. One for the ages.
best wishes
Fred 

I finished the deadeyes and deadeye strops this week.  And set a new personal record for the most discarded/rejected parts.  Haha.  I can laugh now, but at the time, it was the height of frustration.  I think to get the 8 usable deadeye strops shaped correctly and mounted, I wound up with an additional 15 or so I scrapped.  Admittedly most of that was trying to get the first couple formed.  Once I had a system down for shaping them, things went more smoothly.  I wound up chipping the paint off some of the chain plates, so had to touch that up.  And I wound up rubbing off the finish of the annealed wire I used for making the strops from handling too much, so had to blacken those again . . . which made a bit of a mess on the deadeyes from blackening smudges coming off of my fingers.  So, I had to re-sand some of the deadeyes to remove that.  All in all not the most fun part of the build.  So, I'm happy that buttons up Chapter 9 of Chuck's monograph, and I look forward to getting away from handling metal and back to working with wood for the next parts of the build!
 
Erik

Beatiful, beautiful, beatiful. I love it. The only problem I have with it is this. I look at your work - and Siggi's and Johann's and Chuck's to name a few and I think: "B*****, I am going to take up gardening or ball room dancing or something....."
Best wishes
Fred

Moving along I've finished the boxing joint and the first parts of the keel.
 
Next I'll add the false keel and the pieces on top of the keel for the rabbet strip.

Hi All, 
 
About to start the Syren Speedwell build. I have received the chapter 1 and 2 parts and have gone through them all - the quality is great. As this is my very first ship build I will be taking it fairly slowly and will be learning from the other excellent builds on this forum. Any tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciated ! 
 
I have already assembled the build board from 25mm thick MDF and have glued x2 50x25mm strips to the underside of the board lengthways, along with a series of smaller strips across the width between the 2 long pieces. Hopefully this ensures the board does not warp. The plan I have had printed and have secured to the board using 3M mount spray aligning using a centre line on the board as reference. 
 

 

The manufacture of beams continues.  All the beam 'blanks' have now been completed and I've started to work on the deck opening framing for them. Everything still, of nececcity, still unfixed, so everything needs to be carefully marked as it all goes together like a mad jigsaw puzzle.
 
below are a couple of images of the forest of frames all roughly in place.
 
John