Dutchman

Masting goes on...
 

 
 

Time for another update. I got stuck into the head rails. Boy, that was a fiddly exercise, definitely the most tricky part of the build so far (in my case anyway). I think I got away with it. There are plenty of mistakes I can point out (and will be obvious for most of you on the forum), but overall I am pleased with the look.
For each head timber in between the rails there are a few in the bin and a few still on the floor bounced out of sight. The carvings are also a fit iffy.
I also want to give a bit of a plug to John Garcia from Model expo. I ran out of small eyepins and couldn't find them on line. When I asked John if I could buy them from model expo, he just asked for my mailing address and sent them to me free of charge. Now that is service....
Now for some photo's.
Cheers, Peter

Your Syren is looking fantastic. 
Steve

Thanks Steve and also thanks for all the 'likes'.
 
I originally decided to stay with the content of the kit and not to upgrade. But I finally couldn't help myself and I ordered some rope and some blocks from Chuck. So once that arrives I can make a start with the rigging of the carronades which should keep me quiet for a while.
I must also admit that I was originally a bit disappointed with the castings in the kit. But as I am applying some TLC with a file, sandpaper and some paint, I am pleasantly surprised with how they end up looking. Even the basswood I find great to work with.
Anyway, back to work (real work that is, not modeling...sigh).
Cheers, Peter
 

Hi and tanks for the likes,
dunn some more work 
planking of the baboard side is also dunn and am at the start of the stern, 
The sanding in not dunn yet but its coming nicly together 
I will Soon begin the treenails,  for this I will use walnuts color with light oak finish 
Fore the Wales I maby using round headed metal nais ( I maby the first to do this on the syren)
 
Svein.erik 
 

Worked on getting through the stern framing today between watching games of soccer. Got the sills and lentils sanded down. For sanding the exterior I used a DeWalt finishing sander. That is the best purchase I have ever made for building the Syren. It has saved me endless time in all the sanding of the gun ports. For the interior, the finishing sander will not fit, so I used a small pencil-like vibrating sander tool I picked up a while back when making the whale boats for the Kate Cory. That did the trick in no time at all. I then cut some spare sheet wood to fill in the two outboard gaps in the stern framing and then sanded the stern sides to fair against the future plank lines. Nothing broke, so I must be doing something right!  :-)  
~john
 

A bit more progress. I got as far ahead without doing the head rails and figurehead as I am comfortable with. So I going to bite the bullet and work on the head rails next. (either that or filing down 128x 2.4mm blocks for the gun tackles, I probably work on both...).
I had to do the pin rails twice. On the first attempt I rushed it a bit and placed them by lining up the top of the pins with the railing, placing them way too high. I used the pin locations on sheet 8 to line them up (and didn't check against other photo's, etc.). Some of the pins were butted up against the railing so you wouldn't be able to place a rope around the pins. So I took a breather for a few days and end up prying them off, cleaning the lot up and start again. The photo's show them at the corrected locations.
It's not a hobby where you want to rush things to keep things moving.
Anyway, here are some photo's.

More progress this week between classes and grading papers. I have started to work on the stern. Yep - those little ribs are quite fragile, particularly where they have been inscribed with the laser cutter... so they tend to bend then break away from those marks. Cyanoacrylate to the rescue. I'm going to let this set overnight before continuing the stern framing.
~john
 
 

@Barbossa. Thank you for your effort to explain me. I think though, and if not please correct me, that the extremities are similar to the image of the above link. I believe the picture I posted above lets that detail to show otherwise. Here its a better pic. Please comment if am still not following.

Another update. I haven't been confident to start the head rails yet so instead of this stage slowing me down, I decided to have some fun with the carronades and building them instead. At one stage I had all 16 sled components with the eyebolts and photo-etched part ready and glued together. I felt quit smug with myself lining them all up and did a final check against the instructions. Yep, I got it wrong. The eyebolts of the top sled were at the carronade side, not the photo etched detail side. DOH... So I had to pry the sleds apart, remove the photo etched part of the top sled and redo the lot. I was not in the mood taking photo's.
One thing I benefitted from is that I got into the habit of using the least amount of glue where no strength is required. Some parts of my build are not glued at all. So the sleds came apart without breaking any.
Anyway, enough dribble. Here are some photo's.

Made more headway this afternoon given the lousy NH weather we are having today.... expecting some 12-18 inches (30 to 45cm) of snow.... So... what better that work on the model?! 
 
- Sanded down the sills and lintels, and everything held together. Nothing broke, so I am happy. 
- Trimmed the gun port template and taped that into place. 
- Marked all the little bits that make up the vertical walls of the gun ports.
- Set the mini chop saw fence to cut the gun port walls and chopped slew of those then started to glue them in.
- By the way: I am LOVING my new Dewalt finishing sander. It has saved me a ton of time, and is delicate enough to get it done safely.
- Some images follow....
 
 
 
 
 

The gun port lintels are complete. Now to sanding.... stand by! 
~john
 

All,  Got back into the model this week after a prolonged becalming. All is well. I finished off the gunport sills today and have built a couple of short wooden pieces to help act as a jig for the gunport lentils. I'm happy with the sills: they are level from port to starboard, and they make a nice smooth line down the side... This is all coming together nicely, though the sanding is coming in the future... lots and lots of sanding.  :-)
 
~john
 
 

Another update with Chapter 9 almost finished.
I haven't added the scuppers yet as the brass tube supplied in the kit was 1/8" in size and not 1/18" as listed in the parts list. Luckily I tried fitting one on a test piece and found the scale a bit 'odd', before going 'gung ho' drilling holes in the hull. I ordered a new tube on line.
I chemically blackened the eyebolts before fitting them. The cut-offs are used to 'pin' the main and fore channels to the hull as shown on the first photo. they are also used as the port hinge pins.
I have been a bit slack making progress photo's. I obviously am having too much fun.
Next on the list are the head rails and figurehead. I will be doing some serious carving practice on test bits first before touching the laser cut ones.
From when I bought the kit, I always feared the head rails would be the most challenging part. But then again, I wasn't even sure I would even get this far.
So, onwards we go 
Cheers,
Peter
 
 

Hi Floyd,
Here is a photo of the paints I used.
Peter

As long as I still have easy access to the deck I added the anchor cable along with 2 stoppers on each side. The stoppers were built according to the description in Charles G. Davis ‘The Built-Up Ship Model’ consisting of an eye around a thimble (img 1) secured with ‘round seizing’ and with a ‘double wall with ends hitched’ as stopper knot (img 2) at the other end. Img 3 shows the finished stoppers. In img 4 the lanyards are attached (simulated splice). Imgs 5 – 7 show the anchor cable arrangement with the stoppers in place.
 
Thomas
 

Img 1
 

Img 2
 

Img 3
 

Img 4
 

Img 5
 

Img 6
 

Img 7
 
 

Hr 1101-1110
Finished red cutter and mounted in the waist. Loaded with a water barrel, oars, bucket and a spare boom.

Also capstan with copper flashing and squared inserts.

Needs a little clean up, but making progress...
 
Next up, boat hooks and boarding pikes.

I have done some more work on the rudder and the stern section. You definitely have to take your time making the hole for the rudder. I have added the ships name, stern carvings and the quarter badges. The quality of the quarter badges are a bit disappointing but I tried the best I could with what was in the kit. I don't think it's too bad.
When adding the letters and carvings I put the ship in a near vertical position to create a horizontal surface to work on and used the Gorilla wood glue, which gave me plenty of time to fiddle with the locations before the glue set. I avoid CA glue in these cases because of the speed it sets.
I tried a few options ageing the copper but I am not happy with the results so far. I haven't included any photo's of the copper test plate yet.
Here are the photo's.

Formed and glued the rabbet to the BF. Now to research this whole "shaping the rabbet". 

Another busy couple of weeks. I have effectively finished the deck level.
Still need to build the ship's boat (bought the Jotika one, it is a project all in itself) and scratch build a cradle for it.
Would like to have a go at doing the rigging for the cannons and I still need to scratch build some windows for the stern, my first two attempts did not turn out well.
There are definitely some places where the paint could do with a touch up, but looking the photos I am seeing stuff that I have never seen with my naked eye. I also know that I need to redo the lashing on the anchors, the current version is definitely temporary.
 
I've made a few mistakes along the way, some corrected, some too far gone and I will just have to live with.
 
But I am ecstatic with the results so far considering this is my first "big" ship.
 
Also, I curse whoever came up with the hatch rings design to a life of eternal scurvy!

I’m posting a build log for my first build: the “New” Swift from Artesania Latina. Apparently, this kit has gone through a number of iterations over the years. Since I ordered it in November from my local hobby shop, I assume this is the most current version. For those who have posted build logs for this boat, you’ll notice the differences. Some of the changes made are somewhat superficial (in my opinion as a rookie modeler), like the sail configuration has been modified. Other changes are more substantial.
 
 
The boat no longer has a lower deck beneath the cabins. The false deck is one solid piece. It is also only single planked, which I understand will likely force me to paint it? I had hoped to leave in with a wood finish, unpainted. Oh, well. On to the build.
 
One curious thing about this kit is that there are no plans. Only a poster of 1:1 color photos of different views of a completed build. I contacted AL by email to inquire whether plans should have been included. After a few days, I received a response that the plans were those photos. I don’t consider those “plans” in any sense, really. But that’s all there is. The instructions with a couple of generally technique videos come on a DVD in the kit and are also viewable on the AL website if you view the Swift model online.
 
I dry fit the bulkheads on the false keel. They seemed to all go in fairly easily. Unfortunately, the keel is warped. I tried a number of times and ways to straighten it by moistening, bending, flattening with weights, moistening only one side and clamping flat...nothing worked.
 
I finally decided to use balsa fillers between bulkheads at selected spots to either mildly constrict or expand the interbulkhead distance in that spot to try and straighten it in that manner. I also added some filler at the bow and stern to aid in planking. It’s not perfect, but hopefully workable. 
 
I soaked the false deck and left it rubber banded in place over night to develop the compound curvature necessary, then I glued it the next day. Now I’m ready to start planking. Attached are some photos to document my progress. Hopefully, I will get better at posting. Not sure how this will work, but here goes...
 
 

 








 

John,  For what it's worth I used a marker on one edge of my Syren planking.  I have used pencil and didn't like the mess of the powdered graphite getting all over. 
 

This marker has 2 different tips - I used the bigger one and ran an edge of the a strip before I cut it to length for each plank.  You have to be careful at the ends as it will wick up if you're a bit heavy with the marker.
 
Here it is on the Syren - note the "golden oak"  stain!

 

The Copper plating didn't turn out as difficult as I thought it would be.
I kept the jig relatively simple and stuck to the instructions. The only difference is that I kept the nail heads on and didn't glue the nails in. I just glued the second tier of wood straight onto the nail heads (after filing them down a bit to create an even surface), using wood glue.
Next I'll make up a few test boards (Luckily I made way too many plates...) and practice with ageing the copper to get it a bit darker.
Cheers,

Right, I see. Thanks!
 
But creating a mold would create another problem (challenge) for me. But the first thing would be getting a prototype. I will stay tuned and see how this project goes.
 
Cheers!