Dave_E

Hi Everyone, I’m thinking that model ship building is much like the industry I retired from, i.e. tons of research and development and lots of man hours to design, plan, buy etc., and then a couple of non skilled laborers put it together in 4 hours. I’m looking at the officers quarters bulkhead. Not one mention in the plans at all concerning the bulkhead, no supplied material for said bulkhead, only a view o the drawing. Did you Snake builders supply your own material and do your best scratch building the entire bulkhead?

Hi All, Couple of serious rainy days here in the PNW, so I visited the shipyard. Completed the gun ports (all except the one way up at the bow 🫤) with a cannon fit. Now on to the Timber and Knightheads.

NICE! Thank you! 😀

What is that and how does it work?

Hi Ed, I sort of went the other way. I built the cannons and then decided to raise the gun ports 1 - 1.5 mm. Looking forward to some photos on you log brother! 👍😀

Hi Vaidas, welcome to the forum! 👍😀

Welcome to the forum mate! 👍😀

👍😆 I feel you brother. For years I dared the Navy to let me back in. I could do that job in my sleep. Alas… all the Orions have been retired. 🥺

Hey Sailor! Welcome aboard. I spent 6 years of the Cold War chasing subs from my P-3. 👍😀

The ship is coming along great, but those trains are a real distraction! I wonder if I could talk my wife into giving up a 4X8 corner of our downstairs family area. 🧐 😆

Nice job on the rings! 👍😀

Welcome to the forum Goat (or is the a name we may use). 👍😀

I’m in. 🍿🥤 This is a scratch build, yes?

Greetings Michael! Welcome to the forum! Nice work! 👍😀

Sounds like a plan John! I concur on the metrics. The Lady Nelson was all metric, Model Shipways is not. For any layout work or measurements off the drawings, I use the mm scale! 👍👏😀

That garboard strake looks awfully wide. Is that the width of all your planking?

Good Morning Boys, After I slept on my dilemma, I got up this morning and looked at every build log I could find for the Rattlesnake (I think I have them all bookmarked 😳😄) and found a wide verity of builds regarding the gun port installations. Some go clear to the top of the bulkheads, others slightly lower and some lower yet. All the finished ships look so alike and unless you were eyeballing this particular thing, you wouldn’t know the difference. The drawings… as I think they all are… are wooden ship building hobby drawings… not CAD and such with tolerances like .09 - .1 inch that I’ve been using all my life in the aviation industry. John, you hit it on the nail. By my very best attempt to get the actual model to match the drawing I was 2mm lower than what I am now. I will still be able to get (1) 1/32 X 3/32 plank between the top of the gun port and the cap rail. Half of the completed ships I look at… that’s what they ended up with. So, all that math aside, it just looks like the carriages might be a tad large. When the model is complete (rigging included) if someone says, “Dave your cannon carriages are out of scale” they get a prize. 😆 John, your completed gun port installation is about a mm below mine. Your cannons will be very high in the gun port. But as Keith mentioned, modify the cannon carriage so the cannon sits lower in it. My cannons are all built, yours are not, go for it. There’s just no getting around the realism and end product of the Syren carriage! Unfortunately the cannon carriages that came with the kit are… atrociously not realistic and look like toys.

I had a terrifying thought tonight. Even though I used the Britannia cannons that came with the MS kit, I am using Syren’s cannon cradles which I’m pretty sure are 1:48. How bad have I goofed?

Disassemble time. I decided to make all the framework on assembly (that’s what we called it in the airplane manufacturing bidness). I’m putting along fairly well per the drawings and I thought “I better check the cannons”. Sure enough, they are too tall (notice the rear trucks are off the deck). So I must rip out the framing that’s done and raise it. 😑😳😄 Had to go up 2mm.

The fly swatter is from 20 years ago in a different house when my guitar building studio was a room in the garage and during summer months… yes there were flys. 😆 And I don’t know when the horse shoe showed up. 🤔😆

Hi All, I’m going to try a bamboo board for my bending station. Last year the plywood bending station didn’t take kindly to water or heat. So, got out the tools and am trying it out. I bent the waterways for the ship. Is that progress I see? 😁 We’ve got a good month or so yet of wet weather here and me thinks the flame has been reignited.

Go man go! 👍😀

Outstanding Sir! One photo there, I had to double take a look cause it looked like a photo of a real ship and the sea. I know it’s supposed to. 😄

Hey Cisco, I love your description of not making progress. 😆 Your work is outstanding, looking good! 👍

I never did chime in on the outstanding build. I hope mine comes close. For #2… excellent build Sir! 👍😀