Krelis

Once of the decision points in the scratch build is the type of woods to be used. While I like boxwood, the chances of needing to go through massive amounts of wood as I fix mistakes necessitate looking for a less expensive alternative. I wanted a hardwood, but also wanted a variety of wood to better show off the ship. I chose cherry for the keel and keelson assembly and rock maple for the frames. As I move further into the model I will make the decisions for the remainder of the ship.
 
I wanted to jump into the build and make sawdust. So I picked up some cherry and maple from my local supplier and milled them down. I will start with the keel assembly, then move on to the building jig and re-lofting the frames.  
 
Here are photos of the keel assembly. I have been trying Dave S's technique for the jointing by cutting the first part, then cutting the matching piece by placing black tape over the second piece, clamping the two pieces together, then cutting the tape around the joint with and Xacto knife. This is then used to cut the second half of the joint. I also used a black wax pencil to mark the interior of the joint so the glued up joint would show well.
 
I did not like the first attempt at the deadwood, so I redid the keel and deadwood. Tomorrow, I will start working on the building jig as well as testing stain. While I do not plan on staining the entire model, I would like the cherry to be a bit darker than it is currently. It would darken over time, but I would rather not have to wait 10 years. I think the darker cherry would look nice against the maple - providing I find a satin I like.
 

I think it's a great idea too, Dan.
Thanks for the photo!
 
Michael, it looks like a guy squatting down in the top would have plenty of space to operate the swivels up there, the muzzel isn't that long, and the ramrod wouldn't be either, which would take up most of the required room.
 
Concerning Jan's question, I grew up around black powder guns/muzzel loaders, and so long as the round shot is the correct diameter it would be snug enough in the barel that it will not roll out. Dan is right in that if the shot was loose in the gun, additional wadding would be rammed down on top of the ball in the muzel to keep it in place (I did see on the QAR reaserch site that they did find wadding made out of hemp fibers, so its a very viable option).
 
-Matt

Jan - 
 
That's actually a good question, and not stupid at all.  I recall reading contemporary accounts where such things did happen.  
 
However, I don't think that it would be a large problem here.  The process of ramming the ball down onto the wad that covered the powder charge would tend to stick it together.  Then, the ball and the inside of the barrel were pretty rough so there was a lot of friction, reducing the likelihood of it rolling out.  If it was a problem, then a second wad rammed on top of the ball would solve the problem completely.  If everything failed, it was only a one pound shot, about the size of a golf ball, so not much of a headache.
 
This is my take on it based on only a few times when I watched or participated in firing reproduction black powder guns and small cannon.  Anyone with more experience or knowledge is invited to correct me.
 
Dan
 
 

Like this
 

 

Part one:
 
On the frontdeck I had to make a railing and today I started with this thankfull job. Readymade-raillings are for sale but I dont like them because they never fit the way you want and I think they are ugly. Make them myself it is then. First I make a design and then I mark the position of the stansions so I know how much I have to make.

 
28 It has to be.


Brass strip 2x1 mm.

 
This how they have to be when they are ready. If my Autocad-teacher would see this drawing he would not stop crying.


Cut the stansions


And then the drilling. Drill-thing a mould and enough drill-bits (I tought)



 
Ohh no there goes a drillbitt.... again... They are supersharp and I like the universal diameter of 3.2mm but when you look at them, they break. Or I am just a clumsy man? It was my last 0.55mm bit so I had to use a conventional drill.


Ready

 
Marking where the stansions end and where the pin starts

 
In the lathe. It's not really the right way to use this machine but hey! Who knows?!
 





 
Movie-clip


 

Planked!!! The lower hull planking is finished.  I have done some sanding but need to do more.  I am very pleased with the way it turned out. 
<<Gary>>
 

Here is a progress update after installing nine strakes down from the wales.  The planks are laying nicely on the bulkheads.  
I have done some light sanding but obviously will have to do more when all the planks are on.  So far my approach to planking the hull seems to be working out OK.  I estimate that six more strakes and some stealers will finish the job.
 
<<Gary>>

Thanks everyone for the likes.  Not much time for the model over the last few weeks but I was finally able to finish the gudgeons.  There were made in a similar manner to the pintles, two pre-drilled brass straps connected by brass bar which was then drilled for the pin and filed to shape.  Some of the detail is obscured by the blackening.  I have not decided yet when to install the gudgeons but will not ship the rudder until much further along into the build.  
 

 

 
Since I was playing around with metal I decided to make the hook and eye assembly for the riding bitts.  The crosspiece is not bolted to the standards.  It is held in position with a hook and eye attached to the medial side of the two standards. These are made from 1" thick brass which was filed to shape.  The eyes and the bolts are made from brass wire.  Sorry for the dust in the picture.  
 

 

I have not decided what I am going to do to reconstruct the build log.  Like most of us, I did not save any of the text accompanying the photos.  Over the next few days I will figure out my next step.
 
But now there is a new beginning so I will post some pictures of the progress so far.  They are not the best pictures (I have to rely on ambient lighting) but I wanted to get the build log restarted.  When Sadie heard about the disaster she insisted on getting back on line!
 
Toni

aha, thanks!

Poop deck is starting to look very busy now. I was putting the helm station off for awhile, though now it's almost done. On the dash are four repeaters showing, depth, wind angle and wind speed, speed over ground and course over ground. Next to these are the displays for each engine showing, rpm, engine temp plus shut down buttons and ignition keys - these keys are only a second step as the engines are actually started below. Also in front of the helm on the dash is a gyro compass repeater - the actual gyro compass is in the chart house. I'll use decals to show these on the helm station.
 
The other item I've made is the megnatic compass.

Makes me wonder why the shipyard did not install a forward portside gallow in the first place.. was the extra line to give the trawl a wider spread, or maybe for a more easy retrieval of the trawl?

Makes me wonder why the shipyard did not install a forward portside gallow in the first place.. was the extra line to give the trawl a wider spread, or maybe for a more easy retrieval of the trawl?

Makes me wonder why the shipyard did not install a forward portside gallow in the first place.. was the extra line to give the trawl a wider spread, or maybe for a more easy retrieval of the trawl?

Makes me wonder why the shipyard did not install a forward portside gallow in the first place.. was the extra line to give the trawl a wider spread, or maybe for a more easy retrieval of the trawl?

Just kidding of course, I only admire Kees' speed of construction where he does not even bother to take the price tag off his base material, typifies Kees as a very practical boat builder, and a true artist maybe?

Thank you both, I will certainly be asking for help very soon. There is no doubt that it is very difficult to get accurate results with just hand tools plus it is time consuming. I decided I needed a scroll saw and a disc sander. I bought the Dremel scroll saw but the disc sanders were just too expensive. The problem was solved when my neighbour gave me a jigsaw, an old single speed drill and a bag full of sand papers, I would make a homemade disc sander!
I put a cap on £15 in term of costs so I used whatever I had in the garage. The end result functions almost flawlessly. I had to find a way to reduce the speed but as this old drill has a universal motor it just needed a £1.5 rheostat. It has a 200 mm plate and it is not rally too noisy. Total cost was around £11.
I had to cut up the old lofting table though to reclaim the MDF. Serves it right for being inaccurate though.

Just kidding of course, I only admire Kees' speed of construction where he does not even bother to take the price tag off his base material, typifies Kees as a very practical boat builder, and a true artist maybe?

I finally started with the “mass fabrication” of my carronade carriages. The prototype was already published a few months ago. The trick now is to find a process to build 16 identical carriages based on this prototype. Image 1 shows the wooden parts provided in the Syren kit cleaned up, painted and with ring bolts mounted. For ring bolts I use the Dafi photo etched versions. Image 2 shows the different metal fittings for the 2 carriage parts. They consist of the photo etched hardware provided with the Syren kit, holes drilled with a pin vise and #80 drill, polished and blackened, as well as 0.4 diameter nails from Scale Hardware, some custom parts such as the carriage bolt (made from a small brass nail) and the breech rope rings. The 3 mm hooks are from the same Dafi photo etch plate as the ring bolts.
 
Images 3 and 4 show the fabrication process of the wheels. 32 brass strips were roughly cut to the correct length (image 3a) and mounted on a piece of (pear) wood with 2 precisely parallel horizontal planes (image 3b). The whole assembly was then fixed in a Sherline vise on a tilting angle table (image 3c). This arrangement allowed milling all wheel carriage sides at the same time in an identical fashion (images 4d, e, f). After some clean up, fine shape adjustments, and blackening (image 5a) the wheels were assembled (image 5b). For bolts I used the 0.4 and 0.7 nails from Scale Hardware, and the roles were cut to the correct length from a brass tube with the right dimensions.
 
The first carronade “production” type is shown in images 5c and d. It obviously will take some time to have all carriages finished (36 parts per carriage – not counting the hooks), but this is now just a matter of patience and getting the job done  .
 
Thomas
 

Image 1
 
 

Image 2
 
 

Image 3
 
 

Image 4
 
 

Image 5
 
 
 
 

Hello fellow shipbuilders
 
Last days I worked on two or three different things. The frontmast, a hole for the postside trawl gallow and I have lenghtened the spraydeck.
 
First I marked the position of the opening. This opening was added to the ship ten years after she was build. It was necessary because of the extra trawl gallow (which was placed to guid the portside fishingline to the fishingbeam).
Then I cut it out and sanded/filed everything smooth. Some halfround to make it all look good and finished.
 

nice and clean
 

Marked

Super handy this disk cutter
 

cut, sand, file... and relax
 
 
 
 
 
some halfround to have a good finish

Yes! It fits.
 
 
 
Then I did some work on the fronmast. I gave hem his final position and I adjusted him to the spraydeck.
 

The frontmast in his position
 

 
 And then the extension of the spraydeck. This also was done ten years after build. It was made to protect the fishermen against the waves. Some years later the extension was removed again.
 

 

 
 

After some adjustments I gott it right.
 

 

It doesn't makes the ship more beautiful but I think it looks very sturdy this way. With all the additions you can really see that the ship is a true workingship.
 
 
 
 
And now a nice pic of the ship with both masts in place. Looks good hey?
 

 

ok, 11.95, sold

Just kidding of course, I only admire Kees' speed of construction where he does not even bother to take the price tag off his base material, typifies Kees as a very practical boat builder, and a true artist maybe?

I finally have my head rails finished.  As this is one of the more challenging assemblies of the Syren build I will summarize in more detail the method I used to make these head rails.
 
The whole assembly was built out of (regular) pear wood as the firmness of the wood facilitates getting clean looking edges and inscribed lines, and especially helps with the making of the tiny head rail timbers. Contrary to Swiss pear regular pear with its yellowish look blends in nicely with the color scheme chosen for my Syren, especially once stained with Golden Oak wood stain (MinWax).
 
Cheeks and rails were all built according to the same method which is demonstrated with the example of one of the middle rails in images 1 – 4. I first used the laser-cut bass wood part from the kit to transfer the correct lines to the pear wood sheet (images 1a and 1b). Then I took the remaining negative shape of the same part, which is left in the kit-provided bass wood sheet when the respective positive part was cut out, as guide to impress and carve the “decoration” lines into the pear wood (images 1c and d). Finally the part was roughly cut out (image 1e).  In the case of the middle rail the part was cut in 2 pieces using the dimensions of the kit provided parts as guide (image 2f). However, to ensure that the head rail timbers would all end up with a concave shape I increased the length of the middle rail piece, which is supposed to run closely along the ship’s hull, by about 2mm. The middle rail was then fitted to the ship’s hull (image 3), the 2 pieces glued together and its shape refined via sanding (image 2g). Finally the knee for the cathead was fitted to the middle rail, the whole piece sanded to its final shape (image 2h) and permanently mounted on the ship’s hull (image 4).
 

Image 1
 
 

Image 2
 
 

Image 3
 
 

Image 4
 
 
That was the easy part  .
 
 
The challenge with making the head rail timbers lies in making the 2 pieces of each timber appear like you are looking at one continuous piece. As demonstrated in image 5 this can be more readily achieved adjusting the timbers like shown on the left side (a)) of the drawing. However, this method implies making tiny pieces with “crooked” angles (image 6). Once mounted these parts need to be adjusted to their final shape. To be able to do so it is very helpful to have easy access to the head rails from the top and the bottom and therefore to mount the ship’s hull upside down when needed. I also made a good number of special sanding sticks (image 7, top) to be able to do the fine sanding required within the head rails with the timbers mounted, and I needed a special wire tool (image 7, bottom) for mounting the head rail timbers, which are closest to the hull. My finest tweezers were too big to get these parts in their correct place.
 

Image 5
 
 

Image 6
 
 

Image 7
 
 
The top rails were built following Chuck’s instructions in the Syren booklet. They did not pose any significant challenges. Images 8 - 10 are different views of the finished head rails.
 
 

Image 8
 
 

Image 9
 

Image 10
 
 

A little update: during the last few weeks ship modeling time was very scarce. Between traveling (image 1  -   ) and multiple home projects I was able to finish all my belaying pins (image 2), and as a “reward” for having this highly repetitive work finally behind me I built the capstan.
 
My first attempt using mainly the parts provided in my Syren kit ended up about 1mm smaller in diameter than what was shown in Chuck’s plans (image 3). So I considered this a “prototype” and built a second one out of pear wood. Image 4, 5, and 6 show the building process. The drum head was constructed in the same way as described in the Syren instruction book. Of course, not having photo etched parts makes some things a bit more challenging (metal ring, image 4). The capstan foot I built in a slightly different way (image 6), using 2 slotted disks instead of individual tiny chocks. This also helped considerably with the chock alignment  . The finished result is shown in images 7 and 8.
 
Thomas
 

 
Image 1
 
 

 
Image 2 - All belaying pins are finished
 
 

 
Image 3 - First capstan attempt
 
 

 
Image 4 - 2nd capstan attempt: making of the drum head
 
 

 
Image 5 - Making of the capstan foot
 
 

 
Image 6 - Capstan foot continued
 
 

 
Image 7 - Finished capstan
 
 

 
Image 8 - Capstan mounted on Syren deck
 
 

A little update. Things as usual are moving very slowly due to lack of modeling time (what’s new ? ). I finished the first 4 carronade carriages and the first “production” carronade (image 1).
 
Images 2 a-d show the fabrication of the hinges for the gun barrels. For this I milled a grove into a brass strip and silver soldered a brass tube into the grove. The result is shown in image 2a. To cut hinges from this piece with always the same width I combined my Taig lathe and my rotary tool with flex shaft (in lack of a suitable table saw) to a metal cutting device (see images 2b and c). The resulting hinges are shown in image 2d.
 
Image 3a and b present the method I used to determine the correct location of the hinges on the carronade carriage. I placed the gun barrel-hinge assembly on the carriage in such a way that the elevation screw was located correctly on the metal fitting and marked the front end of the hinges with masking tape. As a next step I placed the hinges alone nicely centered on the carriage, with the right distance between them and the front end aligned with the masking tape (image 3a). To help with this process I covered the carriage first with further masking tape and a double-sided sticky tape on top of the masking tape. Once aligned satisfactorily I marked the 2 front ends of the hinges on the masking tape, removed every tape with the exception of the tape with the alignment marks and mounted the hinges permanently using these marks (image 3b). Finally the gun barrel was mounted, the elevation adjusted with the elevation screw, and barrel and screw glued in place. The final result is displayed in images 4 and 5. Images 6 and 7 show the first carronade in its final place on my Syren model.
 
Thomas
 
 

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Image 3
 
 

Image 4
 
 

Image 5
 
 

Image 6
 
 

Image 7