Redshadowrider

Slow and steady as she goes….. I have made some progress over the last couple of days. The single blocks have been installed on the flying jib boom, and the bowsprit cap. They are a little difficult to see, but came out fine. The open and closed collars are well along in their completion and will be installed when I get the loops in the lines figured out. Then it’s a matter of adding them in the proper order. Newbie notes: I highly recommend the open and closed hearts that I got from the Syren Ship Model Company. They are the 7mm size and are quite strong for printed parts. If you want to work with the wood laser cut ones do not let me stop you. However, if the wood is weak you can get pretty frustrated. My opinion only…they should be included in the kit due to their size, but that’s just me.

Thanks, @Dr PR What you indicate about the small coolers is exactly what I expected. I work in a 3 car garage, so I don’t anticipate cooling the whole thing. I have decided to do what I have done in the past. Just work in the morning for a few hours and when the humidity is lower. I could move inside my home office, but there is so much to move. I can make progress. As seen by my next post.

Been Struggling….. To those following this build, hang in there. Two things have been slowing my progress on the bowsprit. First, this is the time of year that the heat reduces the time I can spend working in the ship in the garage. So much so, that I am considering purchasing one of those small “coolers” that work in small areas. I have been researching them and trying to separate truth from advertising. Second, is the creation and install of the open and closed hearts. The instruction manual, and practicum are a little hazy. So, I have been going through other Syren build logs to try and find clarifications. Last night I found the clarification on the build by @abelson To me it is the most clear, and concise set of pictures and instructions I have found. My personal thanks go out to him. I am now confident that I can begin moving forward. That just leaves the heat, which I am already working on. 😊

Thanks Phil, I thought about light ply, as I have quite a bit of it. However, I just wasn’t in the mood to shape 10 of them. If the resin hearts turn out to be too brittle, I will go to elsewhere. The flying club I am in has a couple of members that make parts for us, but you are right about very small parts. To me, 3D printing still has a way to go before it can create strong usable pieces. I will be providing information on the quality of the resin hearts going forward.

It Was Inevitable… After the open heart experience of crumbling wood, I started on the closed heart parts. I was able to shape the first one and it came out ok. The second, however, broke when trying to remove the laser marks. It took me less than a minute to decide that with 10 needed, I did not have the patience to create the closed hearts, nor did I want to go back and create the open ones either. So, I bought them. I have held off from any additional work until they arrived from Syren Model Company. I do not fault the kit manufacturer for providing them as laser cut parts, but there comes a point where parts this small just as well be included with the kit. That said, this is not the only reason I have not moved forward. Since my work area is in the garage, summer is not the best time to work there. It has been around 90 degrees, with 70-80% humidity. (Right now it is 83 with 78% and it’s only 10:15am.) Now that I have the parts, I will begin my work early, with a fan, and go until it is too hot. Should be able to begin updating again.

And Here We Go Again…. Open and Closed Hearts Although I was not looking forward to another mini shaping process, I thought I was prepared to shape it with very careful treatment. (see picture). I decided to remove the closed hearts (10) from the laser cut stock, and begin sanding their shape. I left the center of them in place and delicately sanded clean their shape outside first. The one is in the picture is number 1 of the 10, and I think it is very workable. Only 9 more to go…yikes. However, the Open Hearts are another story. Like the fife rail, the wood is very crumbly, so much so, that I was barely able to remove the laser marks. In fact, the first two, came apart at the slightest touch. So, on the next two, I barely removed the laser marks, and then decided to bathe them in a mixture of white glue and water. My thought is to strengthen the parts before shaping and hardening their surface. Well, that didn’t work either…at least for one of them. In the picture, you can see one that is complete while the second has a part that has already fallen off. This while only soaking in the water/glue mixture. So, I will probably make 2 new open hearts out of different wood as I did with the fife rail. Once resolved, I will do another update. My Thoughts: I appreciate the fact that multiple copies of both parts are provided in the kit. However, for the open hearts there only 4 when the piece of wood they are cut out of has enough room for many more. Even then, I am not sure if it would make any difference.

Thank you Phil, I have appreciated everyone’s compliments and input. As to your questions, no I am not going to add sails. Since this is my first build ever, I am following the notes from Chuck’s prototype build and the instructions in the manual. The points you raise are valid ones and I find them informative. However, I am posting this as a guide to other first time builders and trying to give them something that gives them direction on how and when I did things coming from another first time builder. I am totally amazed as to how complex, detailed, and intricate this model is even at 1/64 scale. I think it is a good thing that I did not know this before I started. If I had, I might have done something else. That said, I am going to press on and hope that this guide can help other newbies to build it, or to decide if they want to move forward. Thank you, again, for your ideas and input it is appreciated.

Ready for Rigging…Almost I completed most of the bowsprit today, but still have some final adds to go. I did, as the instruction booklet says, and did some filing work on the cap rail. The goal is to lower the sprit to 1/16”-3/32” above the figurehead. It is right at 3/32”, and I may very well leave it as is and glue it in, but I have some time to make the final decision. Before I move forward, I still need to add the 3/32” single blocks to the cap, flying jib boom, glue on the simulated staples to the cap, and dolphin striker. All of these will be much easier to do before gluing in the sprit. And, finally, I have two things to add that I have skipped, the bumpkins, and the rail netting. The bumpkins will be in place before running the bowsprit rigging, and the netting before l move to the masts. And, then finally, I will add the ball truck to the jack staff.

Progress Has Been Slow I haven’t been able to do much lately, but it is not on the construction side. I have been held up by 2 items primarily. First, is the figurehead and its appearance. What you see in the picture is after about 3 or 4 attempts using different colors. My goal was to have color, but not so much detail as to draw the viewer’s eyes away from the rest of the ship. And I wanted it to look like other figureheads of the day. I looked at numerous examples, and still wanted to get the mix just right. I am happy with the final result, and its gloss is what I was going for. Second, the bowsprit has taken much longer than anticipated. Most of the delay was due to one item. The 1/16” tape that represents the iron bands around the base. I did not find the tape in the kit that is used to represent them. Normally, that should not be a problem because I use similar tape as striping on my planes. However, in this scale, I do not have anything as narrow, nor any black striping. So, I took some 1/4” striping, cut down to 1/16” and then painted it. I tried ordering some from the hobby site I use, but they won’t have any until the end of June. I believe the substitute worked out fine and am now back on track.

Onto Chapter 16 - Bowsprit I completed the sweeps, attached them, and lashed them down along with the longboat. Two pictures are attached, one is the sweeps drying after a coating of tongue oil (See Newbie Below). The second is of the sweeps and tie down rigging for the longboat. For the sweeps, I used the drill rig to sand the shafts into the round shape required. I found that the shaping worked best by doing the shafts first, followed by the paddle end, and lastly the handles. (Both paddle head, and handle were done by hand.) Newbie Advice: If you haven’t worked with laser cut parts before, be very careful where the paddle head and shaft meet. Laser cut parts make it much easier to shape the final part, but as the cuts get closer together, the burned areas also become weaker. This can be seen in the circled area. The part where the paddle head became much stronger than the shaft, and it broke with just slight pressure. This is also relevant when lashing the finished sweeps together. When tightening them together in a group, it is easy to snap off a paddle head. I will not admit to having done this myself….oops, too late.

Thanks for the kind comments. I am guessing that, although different media, I am able to transfer much of my plane building to this project. I don’t build them much any longer, I am allergic to balsa dust. Go figure.😁

Big Change With Longboat It’s amazing how the height and depth perception changes with the addition of the longboat. The perception has really changed and the Syren is starting to look like a real ship…only in miniature. Those areas, and small blemishes have started to move into the not noticeable. I still have the sweeps to sand, lash together and add, but that should go quickly. At this point, I can only imagine how the result will begun to appear when adding each new element of the rigging. Unfortunately, it’s that time of year where mowing becomes a have to do, and the heat will begin to shorten my building time. I can always pray for rain, but that doesn’t help much. And the pics.

@schooner…Thanks, I can say the there are some pretty thin areas, and one that needed repair. I think that my technique comes from shaping balsa airplane fuselages, and cowls.

Ready for the Gallows Bits Finally completed the longboat and it is ready to be added to the deck. I still have the rest of the sweeps to finish before mounting it in place. **One thing that became clear during the construction, using my drill apparatus to turn the oar handles does not work well due to the oar being quite small.**. So, they were sanded by hand. Many a profanity was issued when trying to attach the gudgeons and pintles. If they were any smaller, a sneeze would cause them to disintegrate.

Thank you all. It took a while to figure out, and it’s not perfect. It is difficult to get the sweep perfectly centered, but if I loosely hold the sandpaper, the wood is flexible enough to wobble without breaking. And by using a small bar clamp on the drill (See post #373.), I can set the speed where I need and concentrate on shaping. One tip I have is that progress can be felt in my fingertips. With it starting out square, I can sand until no more vibration from the sharp edges is felt. Then it’s just a matter of shaping the paddle and the handle ends.