Chuck

Beautiful work as always. She looks really spectacular.

Very nice Ben. Neatly made little stove.

The Bow Timbers These arent very difficult to make and build. But yes...you do have to take your time and go through all of the steps with each bow frame. They are laser cut with all kinds of reference lines on both sides of each frame. There are also laser cut spacers that go between each bow timber. They are 3/64" thick. In fact the first piece we will add is right next to the upper apron. It is 3/64" thick and the easiest part to add. This is being used for one purpose only. It is being added to make the upper apron wider before we add the actual bow timbers and spacers. They are labelled P1 and S1....respectively for the port and starboard sides. You do have to bevel the heel to fit tight against the cant frame. But thats pretty simple to do with a sanding stick. To position this piece properly on the side of the apron, Just make the forward edge flush with the shape of the upper apron. See the arrow in the photo. Below is the first actual bow timber (bollard timber) on the port side....P2 Lets start shaping it. Note all the reference lines. There are more on the other side. This shouldnt be scary at all for folks who havent done this. Just carefully go through the steps one at a time. This would be so easy if you had a disc sander etc. But as I mentioned, I will be doing all shaping and sanding by hand. I am just using a #11 blade and some sanding sticks and sandpaper. Thats it. I know that many of you dont have a disc sander. Step 1...Concentrate on establishing the angle on the heel of the bow frame. This angle is the same for every bow timber. There is a laser etched line on one side for this purpose. But to help see the correct bevel, I lightly sanded both sides to remove some char. Then I drew a pencil line to better see the actual angle and what needs to be removed. This is done on every Bow timber as step one. There are countless ways to create this angle....sanding....cutting...disc sander...you name it. But his was how I did it. I first used my #11 blade to slice most of the meat away. I did this carefully only taking off a thin slice with each pass. The blade actually slices through the cedar like butter. Just get the heavy stuff off close to the reference line for now. Then use a wide flat sanding stick to take it to the finish line. Keep the stick flat and always touching the surface. Sand slow and you wont round off the face as is typical if you quickly stroke back and forth. Go slow and deliberate. If by chance you actually do round off that beveled face its OK... You can take some medium grit sandpaper and bend it loosely. Then once again sand slowly and deliberately. But this time keep the folded sandpaper only in the center of the face as if you were trying to make it concave. But in actuality you are just removing any rounded areas to get it back to a perfectly flat face. This shouldnt be needed if you are careful with the sanding stick. But yes a disc sander would take care of this in about 30 seconds. But you can get a really tight joint doing it by hand…the old fashioned way. Test the bow timber on the model.... How does that beveled angle sit against the cant frame? Nice and tight? Note the bevel line and how it lines up with the edge of the cant frame. All of the bow timbers should all line up this way or at least be very close. How do you know how high against the upper apron this should be placed? There is a laser etched reference line on the back side that lines up with the top of the apron. See below. After this all of the remaining bow timbers and spacers will all be at the same height basically. We will trim them all down to the nice shear line later after they are all placed on the model. Ok that was step one. Not so bad although I am trying to give you a ton of detail. Now step two.... Adding the bevels (basically pre-fairing each bow timber inboard and out). Once again my preference is to just use a sharp #11 blade. Replace your blade the moment it gets dull. I am just shaving from the edge to the etched reference line. Go slow. Only shave a little at a time. Dont go all the way to the line yet. Use a sanding stick for that. But this goes pretty quickly. What is most important is to shave with the grain. Not against it....just like your 5 o'clock shadow. If you shave the wrong way it just wont work. You will make a mess and break chunks off ruining the bow timber. But if you are going in the right direction...it cuts like butter...really. In fact here is a little tip. You will have to reverse directions on each half of the bow timbers. They are curved and the grain is different on each end. You will know what I mean when you try this. You will have a nice little pile of shavings. Then clean it up with a sanding stick. The outboard side looks like this. Note the spacer ready to be glued onto the bow timber. Do this before you glue it on the model. And the inboard side. All sliced with a #11 blade close to the bevel line...then cleaned up with a sanding stick. Step 3.....actually thats about it. I guess step 3 is just gluing the spacer onto the side of the bow timber. A laser etched line is there which shows exactly where is should go. Line up the outboard edges flush. Then step 4....glue it on the model. Dont forget to place this first one at the proper height. Use that refernce line on the back side I mentioned earlier. It is really not too bad at all... Then just repeat this with the other bow timbers...but dont forget to use another loose spacer when you glue it in position. See the pic below that shows the third bow timber just after gluing it. You want the air spaces to be nice and even between these timbers. So use another scrap piece of 3/64" thick wood along the lower end to help you with that. Make sure you dont glue it in place. You want to remove the spacer when you are done. I have just two more to go. I will do those tomorrow. Sorry about the long post but this log is really my notes for writing the instructions later. I dont want to forget anything.

Nicely done. That is just as she is supposed to look at this stage.

A nice fresh start.

Thank You. Its instrument grade Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Some Yellow Cedar can be very grainy but if you hand pick the really clear stuff it can show quite beautifully. Really nice boards have no grain at all showing. Chuck

It really does look good. I hope the new planking billets will match in color close enough. You should cut some strips and then apply some finish as a check before you glue any down. You could easily remove those few planks on the qdeck if they dont match and just use the same new stuff.

Thank you so much...yes its super busy right now. But it still beats watching TV.

Here is another quick angle with some Photoshop. I added some reference to where the wales would be. I needed to check some angles and this was the perfect tool for the job. This is of course just an estimate to where they will be. I just eye-balled the placement of the wales best I could in photoshop. I wanted to see what the framing would eventually look like after planking. How much would be exposed. Also, Just a note to say it would be great to have a disc sander for the bow timbers, but I know that many of you who will be building this do not have one. So I have been working all of these parts on this project only by hand just like all of you will have to. It is quite possible to get fairly tight joints just using a sharp chisel and #11 blade along with some sanding sticks. Its just a matter of going slow and being very careful.

Yes every six or seven frames but there are times where it was smart not to do any progressive fairing. For example…not until all the cant frames were done. Same is true for these bow timbers. I waited until all of them were finished and then faired them. What you see above is about 95% done. when all the framing is complete I will break out some battens and test the smooth run all over. To remove any dips and small imperfections.

This Medway longboat is 1:24 The Model Shipways version is 1:48….a tiny little thing. Two different models.

A quick test of the bow timbers. I simplified them as I know how difficult they can be. Increased the air spaces in width and the width slightly on each bow timber. I did this to reduce the number of timbers. Much like the Pegasus model in the picture posted by Greg. Note the comparison between Speedwell and Pegasus bow timbers. Pegasus has fewer bow timbers and 3 air spaces. That is what I wanted to replicate on my Speedwell for simplicity sake. Because we are planking from the wales up this will have no effect on the overall look of the model. But it will make this tricky area a little easier. There is one less timber to worry about and I combined the little filler with the outer-most timber so it was one piece. It will be covered up anyway. This also makes life much easier. No crazy jigs for these or shortcuts really. In my opinion that would make the whole process more difficult. All of the crazy jigs that I have seen on those Asian kits look over-engineered. And the finished results are less than satisfactory. It actually went very quickly just being careful and deliberate with each timber. You can see the timbers for the port side ready to go. They are laser cut with etched reference lines on both sides. I will of course take tons of pictures and do a step by step when I do the other side.

Wow a really spectacular planking job and hull. I am enjoying your progress.

Its 1:24 actually.

Very nice gary…That is a great looking hull.

Nice progress…

Looking really nice. Well done

Thats a good start Mike. Mike will be following all of the framing plans and jigs you currently see on my build. He is basically recutting to my plans out of Boxwood as he prefers that over yellow cedar. He also enjoys the challenge of cutting all of those frames from scratch which is very rewarding. However Mike will be using all of my laser cut cedar jigs and parts that wont be visible on the final model. In essence it will still be the same project. It will be interesting to see if the build concepts will work when parts are scratch made and how difficult it will be to replicate without a laser cutter. It will be the only such version of my interpretation of Speedwell. Plans containing all of my frame drawings will not be available on the final set of plans for the Syren Ship Model Company project. There is no need for them since all frame parts are already laser cut…as a deterrent against kit piracy. Having said this…a fully scratch version can be made using the frame drawings and plans developed by David Antscherl in the Seawatch two-volume book set. I am looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

Very nice progress...

You could do that if you choose. I have not however but I am applying a sanding sealer to the frames. And yes the fore and aft sides were finished before assembling them on the keel. The outboard side will be finished after final fairing. Many folks dont apply any finish and that is another option as well. You are less likely to highlight any color differences in the wood used throughout if you dont apply any finish at all. Its perfectly fine to do so. In fact I dont think Greg applied any poly or sanding sealer on his model at all. He can confirm this of course.

Thats very nice but the bow timbers on Speedwell will be do e in the traditional sense individually with air spaces between them. hopefully sometime this week. Here is what it will look like …this is Gregs showing comparison with Pegasus in 1/4” scale. Speedwell on the left.

You are correct. That has been fixed for everyone elses model. But I noticed it too late on mine. Dont want to risk damaging the mode at this point. You can only see it when the hull is upside down anyway. So I am not worried about it on my model.

You may just be holding the thread too tightly as you serve. Just guide it onto the rope. I have never seen this happen to anyone before. Its definitely in your technique or the thread you are using to serve with.

With a group build that is up to you guys. If enough folks buy the kit and want a group I will start one. We need at least 6 to 10 people for that. As far as a limited run…It all depends really. It depends on demand and on how easily I can get milled Cedar sheets. There is a lot of wood in the kit. And yes unfortunately that means it will be expensive. I will make that decision after its launched. If I can manage to get enough wood and enough time to laser the parts I wont limit production. But yes that will absolutely mean that there would be a long wait between batches while Joe mills more Cedar sheets for me. For framing alone this kit will need over 25 sheets of 1/4” Cedar. I will need over 250 sheets just to make 10 kits… The same is true for the other thicknesses. Its really just a problem with having enough lumber to make them. The supply chain is a real bitch. Not to mention I also need wood to continue making all of my other products. For any mfg..if you use a wood other than basswood its problematic getting enough material. There are literally only two people in the entire world that are milling Alaskan Yellow sheets. Only one in the USA. Think about that.

It will be a while yet until the first chapter is released. I want to get much further with the prototype. In fact I wont be giving parts to a beta tester until all the framing is done on mine. Then he will hopefully be able to build it just as easily as I have. If that goes well I will star selling chapters. Both Mike and Rusty will be beta building. It probably wont be until Summer if not later when they are for sale. I am not rushing this to market and will be taking my time with it. Mike has started building already. Rusty hasnt. But I will be getting parts to him very soon. I want to make sure to get it right. Lets see how those bollard timbers and hawse frames go next!!!