AntonyUK

Thank you for the Likes. Mark, would be nice to see your Friesland build! Thank you Scot, i hope to find few green sticks for the gun port covers. Found some time on the boat, planking second layer.
Few photos.
 

Magnet works well.
 

Update :...
 
fitted decore fries and handrail on the stb. poop deck. The solution with the soldered brass pins works out quite well....
Also fitted a handrail all around the gun deck
 
Nils
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 

the mermaid is holding a starfish in hands. What looks like she is having two horns are the remains of the charms hanging / holding loop. I use this for fastening the top to the cap rail...., providing more stiffnesss
 
 
 

Hi Nils.
Nice find the fancy decore. They are spot on for your Chebec.
Regards Antony.

After some thinking I have decided to pick the Santa Maria as my first project. I have some experience in plastic modelling but this is another level. I decided for Amati because I heard good things about this kit manufacturer. This particular kit is specified to be a level 3 difficulty, which means intermediate. Maybe I will struggle a little bit but this is a part of the journey I believe. If I have some issues I will ask for the help of more experienced kit builders so please check my build log. 
 
Here it is. The package was more heavy as I expected which is a nice thing. I really prefer the heavier kits. Maybe this is normal for wood but for me coming from plastic models, it is a little bit unusual.

I started by studying the plans of the ship and the instruction manual. For now, I understand the process, but there will be some parts where I will need help, especially on the part of the mast and the rigging. 
 

I started by carefully cutting out the pieces and numbering them in order to not mess them up later on.

 
After cutting them all out I have inserted them into the keel just to check them out. Obviously I saw some problems with one or two of them as you can see from the picture above. The center bulkhead and the one immediately on his right is not perfectly straight. Another unexpected thing was that one or two of the bulkheads were inserted to the keel with some difficulties and I had a hard time getting the out from the keel. I used a small hammer to get them out...
 

 
After this I started gluing the bulkheads and attaching them to the keel. I checked their position with a ruler just to be sure that they are straight.

After much straightening, I inserted a clip between the two bulkheads and I will let the glue dry for the night.
 
 
 

Antony,  thank you and everyone for the likes!
 
As for making the gratings curved, I plan on doing just that as both you and Dan have pointed out.  I will be progressively curving them based on the book plans.
 
Thanks!!
 
Jeff

Hi Jeff.
That's a lot of treenails.
Nice to see the correct patterns on your deck. The treenails are not to prominent. You have then as they should be.
As Dan pointed out. It's worth doing and they are a focus of people when they are looking at the deck.
A truly excellent build.
 
Regards Antony.
 
 

Thanks Usedtosail.  Yes, I found the bow challenging. I'm glad how it came out.     Now on to the stern.   I figured it would be easier after working on the bow.. But I'm finding that its a real bear.
 
I've spent hours and hours staring at the plans trying to figure out the stern.
First I started on the filler pieces.
Marked up the R bulkhead with some reference lines.
 
 
G
Glues some blocks together to be larger than the shape I needed.
 

 Rough cut them on bandsaw to the approximate shape
 

 

Made lots of sawdust using a dremal tool and sanding drum and sand paper to get to the right shape
 

The lower tips broke off.  they get quite thin.  I was able to glue them back on.  But they are supper fragile unlit they are glued in place.
 

Before I glue the filler, started working on the counter block.
The counter took me awhile. and several attempts.    The main reason being I tried a different approach than the directions.
What I was thinking was to make the counter in two slices instead of 1 thick piece.  The lower slice was cut to a thickness that would make the top surface the same high as the gun deck.  What I was trying to plan for was the quarter galleries.  The floor of the galleries are at the same level as the gun deck.  I was going to keep the counter block wide and extend it out to include the floor of the quarter gallery's.  This would make positioning and building the galleries easier.
However after a week of struggling with it, I gave up and  went back to  and following the instructions after all.
Through all this...I failed to take any pictures.....
So I'll jump ahead to pics with the counter block and the filler blocks installed
 

 
    
If you look close at the counter block.  You can still see that it is made up of two slices still.   But the two pieces together still match the plans shape and size.

 
Next I added the 2  outside frames of the stern.  Actually I had to do this twice.   Uggg 
Again, I spent hours looking at the plan, measuring and trying to figure out how to position these two properly.
The difficulty being they cant inward, as well as its edge follows the angle of the  bulwarks on frame R. 
And because of the angles, you need to bevel the edges so that they sit flush.   
and of course both sides need to be symmetrical but mirror.
 
Well after all the planning, I glued them in places... they looked good.  so I walked away and let the glue set.
Come back a few hours later to admire my work.    All looks good.   But then for kicks...I take out the stern rail piece that lazer cut. 
This will sit on top of the stern bulwarks.    My bulwarks were canted in way too much and were too narrow at  the top.  didn't match the top rail piece,
Swear, swear some more.     Then pry the pieces off without breaking them.  (Thankfully the Glue was not yet completely cured yet and I got them off )
 
 
  
 

Soo Attempt # 2 I learned my lesson and made a template /jig to position the pieces properly.
You can see in the pic the actual top-rail piece that the bulwarks need to align with.  and a template with the positions indicated.
With the template,  the second gluing attempt was much easier and accurate.
 

 

This time...  much better.  And some batons in place to make sure the run looks good as well.   

 
Now, I'll let those dry.   And start planning for the next part.
As this is a 1812ish version... I need to pick the stern so that I can adjust the other stern  frames to account for the sternwindow configuration.
 
 
The big question 3 or 5 or 6 windows.
I made a copy of the plans,

and then a copy of the AOS stern versions.

Then after an hour playing with scale,  I determined the AOS picture scaled to 179% will math the ME plans.  Or close enough.
So I printed the AOS versions to the same scale as the ME plan.
 


C2/3 (1803 version)  and c2/4 (current day)  are both out of consideration.    But I used C2/4 to size and compare the scale to the ME plans.
 
 
At this point, I like and would be happy with either c2/1 or c2/2   they are basically the same except for the 1 extra window. 
I'll play around with adjusting the frames to see how I can make either of them work. 
Right now I'm leaning towards the 5 window version just because it makes the framing easier.
 
I'll let you know what I decide in my next post.
K
 
 

I finally feel like I have made some progress!  I am close to getting back to before the falling disaster. But this time making the middle deck instead.  I have put on the hatches as well as started to make the shot garlands. According to the book, there should be nine cannon balls held on the shot garlands I have made.  But the wood supplied in the kit kept chipping off because of how close each cannon ball is to the next.  So instead,  I put seven instead of nine and that fixed the problem. ( And no,  not meaning to make that a Star trek reference!)   The companionways are all painted black because I am not making the lower deck nor cutting out holes to look deeper into the ship. 
 
 Thanks!!
 
Jeff

Thanks Dan!
 
A scroll saw looks to be exactly what I will need! Just did some prive checking and the hardware stores around me sell them from $81 - $150 dollars. Thats not bad at all!  I will have to ask my wife though,  before picking one up!
 
Jeff

I added the braces between the bulkheads today,and started on the transom.

I heeded Antony's advice and found that one of the corners was down by 0.014". I managed to reduce that so now there is no place (longitudinally, laterally, or diagonally) between the Veritas 24" steel straightedge and the face surface that'll accept a 0.003" feeler guage. There is a 5" long by 2" wide section at one end that's still off by 0.002":

I think I'll declare victory and move on.
 
Jonathan

The stempost is also reconstructed.
To be honest... The first attempt was not really a success and did not survive the construction process of the hull. He was broken off and is now made new again.

 
After sanding and put into the right shape (planking of the forcastle is started).

 
Thanks for following

For some reason the air brushing didn’t come out so well so I revisited using a brush and seems to have fixed my issues.

Two and a half bands done now. It's so weird seeing them on the frames. With the hull upside down and looking at the hull from above, the unplanked area has a perfect football shape. As I would have expected. However from the side you can see they run all over the frames. I'm not concerned, the dividers tell me it's all as it should be. It's just funny what a 3D shape can do to things.
 

 

 
I have recalculated the remaining space into 2 bands. Another easy thing to do with dividers. It actually worked out pretty good as the widest part of the gap looks to be divisible by the plank width. Four sticks in each band with only a little shaping at the outside frames. We'll see.
 
I am struggling somewhat with the walnut sticks. More than a few have broken on me. Even with wetting and bending them first.
 
It's also looking like I am going to have to work some magic with a few gaps. I hate using filler on material that will be stained - it always leaves spots because stain doesn't absorb as well as on the wood. I've tried the glue & sawdust routine - the results were not much better. I may go back and try dying the glue again. I did that once before but didn't take the time to get a perfect match. I was using walnut ink crystals for the dye so you would think (at least I would think) that a close match with walnut planking is possible.

Hi Jonathan.
Welcome to MSW.
Nice choice of kit. Lots of rigging nice to get you tangled up.
Watch there are NO warps in the board as they will get transferd into the model. Even the smallest warp will be devastating. 
All the best. Will be watching this wonderful ship being assembled.
 
Regards Antony.

Hi David.
That has been one enjoyable build... I have enjoyed every minute of it.
Top of the class in workmanship.
With the mods you have made it's turned ot to be a real masterpiece.
Congratulations of your compleasion of the Mississippi King.
 
 
Regards Antony.
 

Antony:
 
If you look at the third picture above your post, you'll see a semicircular guard on the inside of the third deck, which I assume was to keep passengers from getting close to the pipe.  That replaces the handrail at that point.
 
However, down on the second deck there IS a handrail and no internal guard, even though there would have been passengers and crew there who could get too close to the pipe.
 
I built it the way the model pictures and drawings show, but I suspect it's historically inaccurate on the second deck.
 
Regards,
David

Finished second planking of the hull and filled all gaps. Was a lot of dust! Few photos.
 

 

Worked on cutting out the scupper. 
 
Attached the Wales and side reinforcement. 

With some free time on my hands (It's 7F outside (-14C or 259K) and no flying for me!), I got back to the Syren. Moving now into the third chapter and looking at creating the gun and sweep ports when I noticed that my sanding had been, how shall I say this<?>, a little too zealous?! I removed a slew of the laser cut measure lines for this.... so out with the calipers and plans... I had to re-mark them all. Sometimes I feel like I have a toad for a brain. Ready now to move ahead. 
~john
 
 

Looking forward to seeing another Syren come together. Sounds like you've already found some excellent places to look for inspiration ways to go about each task.
 
All the best for your build(s)
 
Rob

I rummaged around the shop in the garage and found a scrap piece of hard maple to use as a building stand:

After a bit of work with some hand planes it started to take shape:

The rough edge on the right was cut off with a rip saw and everything planed square. 
A smoothing plane set for a fine cut provided the final finish:

The end product is shown below. I'll screw in a couple of poplar wood strips to hold the keel then finish it with Watco Danish Oil.

Jonathan

After considerable contemplation, I've decided on the US Brig Syren as my first build. I was thinking of getting my feet wet with the smaller English Longboat and English Pinnace kits. Then I found the Tigersteve and Blue Ensign build logs showing their fine work, especially the planking. Yikes! I got to thinking about that skill: I need something I can practice on so that it won't matter when I screw things up. 
 
Ah ha! The copper sheathed Syren! I can mangle the planks to my hearts content, slap on a coat of wood filler, sand it down, and no one will know the difference. Once I get good at it, I can order some hard maple (like Tigersteve did for the English Pinnace: see 30-Apr for the order list, 29-Sep for the results) and tackle the Longboat and Pinnace, where the planking is much more visible.
 
"Wait!", you say. Statistics show that 90% of first time builders who tackle a Big Boat give up early and the other 50% don't finish either. "Au contraire", I respond, I'll go ahead and purchase all three kits. Some time after Chapter 5 - Hull Planking, when I hit the doldrums and get dejected with the thought of never ever getting done (copper plate number one thousand thirty two, one thousand thirty three, ...), I can amuse myself by puttering around on these two more manageable craft. Plus word gets back that the Syren's User Manual is terrific (with color pictures no less!).
 
Now, having said all that, where did I put that order form ...
Jonathan

Hi Dave.
Been a while since I've seen a cross section here on MSW
Gotta follow along with this build.
Keep it square and centred.
Looks a nice kit.
 
Regards Antony.