AnobiumPunctatum

I don’t think so. There is also a lot of support for you there. 
 
The description of how you make and prepare your gratings shows again what I mean in my last post. I can prepare the gratings with my small CNC-mill and build the jig following your really good description. Thanks very much.

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. 
 

 

I have completed the rabbet strip and the false keel. Looking good so far and goes together easily.
 

A little more progress. Finished the stem. Not perfect but I do like the way its going so far. Also tapered the stem and joined the front part of the keel.
 

 

 

Weekend progress. Have most of the stem assembled. I used the ultimation sander to clean up the ends. I removed the 120 grit sand disc that came with it and replaced it with 220. The 120 is a little too much for this. I glued the two halves of the lower keel together and the first section of the keel which forms the boxing joint. The inner parts are just dry fit for now.
 

 

One completed keel assembly.

Still needs finish applied, I may opt just to use sanding sealer.  I'm not a huge fan of wipe-on poly.
 
Everything pretty much fell together once things were tweaked just a bit.  

Couple of things...
Be very careful with the knee of the head, I sneezed and broke one. When trimming the apron blocks, be sure to use a very sharp blade and very small slivers, as I chucked a couple I popped the first frame out of it's sprues (and yes I think USPS played football with my box, as most everything was detached).  I'm going to look like Popeye after sanding all the char off these frames.
 
I need to probably tackle putting the build board together before I get to far ahead of myself.

Shawn

Thanks everyone for the feed back and likes!
 
I'm not much of a wordsmith, so please excuse my crude presentation.
 
I'm getting pretty close to having the taper finished, hopefully.

Shawn
 

Building has been continuing, I'm about ready to finish gluing the front apron.
 
Looking forward at the rising wood.  However laying it on the plans, the slots for the floors progressively get wider and wider and don't match my plans.  Sorry about the bad picture, maybe time to learn how to take a photo with the camera I bought six years ago?
 
Thoughts?
 

 

Just a quick little update.
 
Needs some clean up and on to tapering.
 

Welcome...
 
I was very excited when i was able to get chapters 1 & 2 for this new project.
 
I already have my first question.
 
When test fitting parts of the stem assembly the instructions suggest only sanding slightly on certain edges of each piece. 
 

However when I removed the pieces with no sanding, there is a slight gap.  Is it appropriate to correct the other end?
 
 
 
 

The Keel Assembly
 
The main challenge here is to make a tight fit at the boxing joint between the keel and stem. I had to shorten the curved stem just a touch to get a good fit. The rest of the keel assembly is a matter of gluing the various sections in the right order and on the right side. Very little tweaking of the edges is needed.  While I was waiting for my kit, I built a set of simplified "Ed Tosti" clamps.  I find these work better than commercial clamps to apply even and adjustable pressure to the parts being glued. They are kind of fun to make too.

Lower Apron and Angled Wedges
 
Here I encountered my first difficulty.  The stepped lower apron is attached to a sacrificial piece of wood (handle). This makes it easier to glue the wedges one by one.  Without the handle, the lower apron would certainly break during this operation.  I found that even with the handle, the lower apron remains quite fragile. If you force the wedge in position, you can slightly modify the curvature of the apron or even break it loose from its handle. This happened to me and resulted in a poor fit of the lower apron to the keel assembly as shown below.

I was able to correct this by gluing a sliver of wood between the apron and the keel as shown here.
 

This gap may also have been the result of the stem being glued a hair too low (less than 1/32th). Anyway, I am glad that I took the time to correct this. 

Hello all,
 
I recently started this project and will be reporting on my progress in this blog.  Stay tuned. 
 
Jean-Marc

Don't forget that many of us don't have access to a mill, much less a CNC mill. So Chuck's offerings give us an opportunity to have the best results, despite not having a machine shop.
 
Best Regards .... Rick
 

I don’t think so. There is also a lot of support for you there. 
 
The description of how you make and prepare your gratings shows again what I mean in my last post. I can prepare the gratings with my small CNC-mill and build the jig following your really good description. Thanks very much.

It woul be a lot of fun to make a build log of your kit there.
I love your ideas and how open you share your knowledge. Without this I was not able to finish the frame design for my Alert. I also learned a lot to continue with my Sloop Fly. Thanks for that.

I own a small CNC. What has changed is the precision for cutting out parts. So you begin to think about problems, which you not have, if you cut out parts manually. The model is further build by the model builder. The quality depends further on the knowledge and experience of the builder.
I prepare my parts directly from my own reconstruction with the CNC. By all the precision It is not possible for me to build my model in the quality you are showing here. I simply love it.
 
I do not like competitions for my hobby and will never participate in one.
 

steps.....
 






 

I own a small CNC. What has changed is the precision for cutting out parts. So you begin to think about problems, which you not have, if you cut out parts manually. The model is further build by the model builder. The quality depends further on the knowledge and experience of the builder.
I prepare my parts directly from my own reconstruction with the CNC. By all the precision It is not possible for me to build my model in the quality you are showing here. I simply love it.
 
I do not like competitions for my hobby and will never participate in one.
 

I don’t think so. There is also a lot of support for you there. 
 
The description of how you make and prepare your gratings shows again what I mean in my last post. I can prepare the gratings with my small CNC-mill and build the jig following your really good description. Thanks very much.

I don’t think so. There is also a lot of support for you there. 
 
The description of how you make and prepare your gratings shows again what I mean in my last post. I can prepare the gratings with my small CNC-mill and build the jig following your really good description. Thanks very much.

I don’t think so. There is also a lot of support for you there. 
 
The description of how you make and prepare your gratings shows again what I mean in my last post. I can prepare the gratings with my small CNC-mill and build the jig following your really good description. Thanks very much.

Yes; Christian is absolutely correct: Whenever possible, run the grain along a piece, not across it. Avoid cross-grain! As you had it is weak and prone to snap.

I don’t think so. There is also a lot of support for you there. 
 
The description of how you make and prepare your gratings shows again what I mean in my last post. I can prepare the gratings with my small CNC-mill and build the jig following your really good description. Thanks very much.

I think you are doing more than an outstanding job with this kit beauty or for the ship modeling world. Everyone may know my opinion for that matter! 🙂

I own a small CNC. What has changed is the precision for cutting out parts. So you begin to think about problems, which you not have, if you cut out parts manually. The model is further build by the model builder. The quality depends further on the knowledge and experience of the builder.
I prepare my parts directly from my own reconstruction with the CNC. By all the precision It is not possible for me to build my model in the quality you are showing here. I simply love it.
 
I do not like competitions for my hobby and will never participate in one.