reilly

Not guessing but the deck configuration and the shape of the bow reminds me of the letter of marque Lynx. Re-named Musquidobit after the capture by the British. Any Baltimore Clipper design will be beautiful especially designed by Chris. Looking forward to seeing more.

Not guessing but the deck configuration and the shape of the bow reminds me of the letter of marque Lynx. Re-named Musquidobit after the capture by the British. Any Baltimore Clipper design will be beautiful especially designed by Chris. Looking forward to seeing more.

I assume That this is at 1/64th scale but what vessel? Thanks.

It is 64th scale. I will announce the name of the vessel at a later date. I literally only started this on Monday.
 
I think this is my very first American vessel I have designed!

I assume That this is at 1/64th scale but what vessel? Thanks.

I assume That this is at 1/64th scale but what vessel? Thanks.

I assume That this is at 1/64th scale but what vessel? Thanks.

I assume That this is at 1/64th scale but what vessel? Thanks.

I've been working on the outside - the steps and the channels for both of which I cut brass scrapers. The plans show the corners of the channels rounded off but I struggled to achieve an acceptable result and decided in the end to leave them square.

 



Here is the Syren Windlass. Te instructions indicate that orientation is important. I didn't appreciate quite what that meant. You install an octagon onto a square stick so there is a risk, unless you understand what is required by way of orientation, that you will be a quarter turn out - as I was. But I don't mind. 
 Here are some overviews.
 



Best wishes everyone
Fred
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thank you JJ and Glenn and for all the likes.
 
I have started work on the deck. I just have the tricky hooked joints still to do. They did not come out too well on my Winchelsea but I am better prepared this time, I think.
 
I have purchased the Syren mini-kits available for the Cheerful and started putting those together. Nothing is yet fixed to the deck. Therein lies a conundrum: Is it simpler, and likely to lead to a better outcome, if all the deck fittings aare left off so the deck can be more easily sanded or should the fittings be fixed to the false deck before planking? I went for the former first because I intend to treenail the deck (in the approved Chuck fashion with a small drill, very sharp pencil and wood filler) and I want real ease of access to sand away the filler and secondly because, as I discovered with Winchelsea I am nothing like as good as I should be (and I hope I am better at it now than I was) at cutting planks to length. The downside is you necessarily omit that very fine detail where the grating coamings are rounded above deck level and left square at deck level so it is a balancing exercise.
 
Here are some photographs.
 
This is the super Syren windlass kit. I cannot bring myself to cover it in paint.







The seats of ease are not yet finished of course and will be painted in due course.
 

Have a good day everyone.
Fred
 
 

So the second last part of the build arrived today in the form of a ww1 postcard of U-9 for the base from a German bookseller. These were widely produced to celebrate war heroes 

Thank you Paul and Chuck. I forgot the caulking between the deck planks on my Winnie and shall forever regret it. I won't forget this time around!
And, though I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times and more, thank you Chuck for sharing your wonderful creations and making access to the craft of model ship making so much more enjoyable than I think it would be if we had only the mass market kits to make. Is  your next project  - plank on frame! - yet anything more than a twinkle in your eye?
Fred

Hi Christian,
 
Yes, I will offer the sets in 72nd, 64th and 48th.

My daughter painted this for me when she was 9 years old. I know it isn't museum worthy, but it is priceless to me and I have it proudly displayed in my workshop(s) for the past 30 years.  When ever she stops by, she says "I can't believe you kept that old thing after all these years" I tell her, it can't be bought with money marbles or chaulk.

Just completed my 1:48 scale New England Schooner by Model Shipways. A challenging build but I was very happy with the finished product.
Took me about 10 months start to finish.

This kit is over 35 years old, is no longer available, and deserves to be assembled.  This is my first ship kit--I have built some simpler scratch built ships, but figure a kit with detailed insturctions will help me develop experience with more complicated details such as the deck furnatire and rigging.
 
Artesania Latina's Harvey is a fictitious ship representiative of the Baltamore Clippers.  I have William L. Crothers' wonderful book, "The American-Built Clipper Ship" and love the sleek lines of these fast ships.
 
I started, of course, with assembling the Hull strcture and ran into problems right away.

 
The plywood used for the false keel and bulkheads is a 1/4" thick, but the slots used to slide the parts together were less than this; the bulkheads were an overly tight fit on the flase keel.  I ended up using a rubber mallet to pound the first one into place.  An assembly step requiring a hammer should have been a red flag, but I soldered on and forced the bulkhead into place.  This of course warped the keel out of the straight.  But, even though this was a test fit and no glue was used, I could not remove the bulkhead and ended up busting the keel in half.
 

 
I repaired the keel in an equally brutish manner, widened all of the slots with a dremel, and gave assembly of the hull another go.  This time I used a square to hold the bulkheads in position, and was pleased with the results.
 

I used to have a hand-me-down example of this kit. I was surprised at how large the finished model would be. The nice thing about Baltimore Clippers is that they are striking but not overly complex subjects. The AL kit can also be spruced up quite a bit if you have any inclination toward super-detailing, and, as you have discovered, there is ample resource material on the type out there. Plus, since "Harvey" is a representative model and not any actual historical vessel (as far as I know), you have latitude to modify the design and name it whatever you wish.
 
Enjoy!

First band on both sides is complete. As mentioned above, the result did not fill out the entire band. The stem & stern worked out precisely, but mid-ship came out short. I am still gonna blame this on how much I had to sand each stick to get a consistent edge. Each stick started at 6mm (at least somewhere), other spots measured more like 5.8mm. After sanding to even everything out the first band came out short. Not a big deal yet.
 
I think I will lay a couple more strakes under band A, and then put in a few sticks above the garboard and then re-figure the bands at that point.
 
Here's a few pix - nothing special to see other than the poor job I did on the 1st layer.
 

 
As much as I gripe about having to do 3 plank layers for this build, this middle layer has allowed for some experimentation. Given that nothing I do on this layer will be visible in the end. It does help with coming up with a strategy for the final layer.
 
 
 
 
 
 

I enlarged the mounting holes in the deck and installed the masts (temporarily).
 

 
 
I made the mast coats to fit around the bases of the masts.
 

 
 
 
These things were quite a challenge! They are 0.5 inch (12.7 mm) diameter. I figured if I tried to make them from an ordinary sheet of wood they would break apart while I was shaping them. So I decided to use 1/8 inch (3.2mm) plywood, hoping the cross grains would hold them together.
 
I picked a piece out of my scrap box, and I have no idea how old it was. But in hindsight it could have been left over from a kit from the 1960s. That stuff wasn't very good plywood to begin with, and the glue they used to hold the laminations together was pretty poor. I think the wood was holding the glue together.
 
Again and again pieces of the outer layers chipped off and I had to recover them and glue (Duco Cement) them back on. In some cases the pieces went to never never land and I had to strip a bit of a layer from scrap plywood, shape it and glue it in place. You can see one of these patches in the left hand part.
 
 
But as you can see I eventually got the parts shaped suitably. I will seal them and paint with the same brown as the bulwarks.
 

I just placed an order with Chuck early this morning. and a wood order the Joe Volpe of The Woodsmans Shed. For Chuck it was blocks and deadeyes, from Joe who is also member here Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Still have more to order but need the money first. They both produce some very high quality materials. You won't be disappointed.

This is not a post about the Byrnes Saw, I'll just sum that up by saying there is no saw but the Byrnes saw. It's also not about the Byrnes Disc Sander or Thickness Sander which I also own and are equally outstanding.
 
This is instead about Jim and Donna Byrnes and the level of customer service they provide in support of their amazing products. It's nothing short of OUTSTANDING!  I've had my saw for about 15 years and never had a problem until recently and likely one that I caused and not the quality of the design. Donna usually answers the phone because Jim is building things, I explained my problem to her, she said she'd have Jim call me back, which he did later that day. After some trial and error attempts per Jim's guidance he said "We'll send you a new arbor and an email on how to change it." Three days later I had the new arbor and installed it (after first admiring the piece, the milling is pure artistry) using his clear instruction. However another small problem resulted, by a few thousands of an inch the blade guard on the top of the table was rubbing the blade (after conferring further with Jim I had properly installed the arbor correctly). "Donna will send you a new blade cover." I'm sure he milled a special one that accounted for the few thousands because when I got it, again three days later, it was a perfect fit.
 
I've had other interactions with Jim and Donna over the years, always pleasant, always informative and helpful.  This incident though was above and beyond - total, thorough, and complete support for a product I purchased over 15 years ago as though I'd bought it yesterday.  No mail the unit in and we'll see what we can do, instead here's the part and how to install it. Who does that these days, what small business takes that level of pride and support in the products they produce over a decade after they sold it to you. 
 
Just Amazing!
 

Long overdue update.
I am not working as fast as I would like. I'm investing much time trying to recover my lost fingerpicking guitar skills, after some fingers surgeries; bought me a new motorcycle; and other assorted stuff.
Anyway, here it is. I finished planking the upper part of the hull with 2mm x 5mm planks. After a lot of sanding I did not like the end result very much. So I decided to buy some .5 mm planks from Modeller's Sawmill (excellent product and service by Joe Volpe, btw) and do a second planking. I cut the planks in half to have a more accurate planks length, and proceeded to paint al four sides with spray black paint. I will start the second planking job tomorrow, and will post the resultas asap. Thank you all.
 








 
 
 
 

I remember spending £547 on Sovereign of the Seas 30 years ago now. This was two years worth of hobby time (worked in a castings foundry at the time), but I did spend almost the same again on better materials, and a lot of the time was spent correcting (as best as I could) the shortcomings in the historical detail, even to the point of altering completely the deck and side sheers. But, as a hobby and the enjoyment from all the extra research, it was still a bargain.

The Ontario is just $500 if you buy direct from the MFG.  Shipping wont cost you $400.  It all depends on how much the kit is marked up by a distributor and what the wholesale cost it.   Remember too that the Cheerful isnt a kit.   You will need a table saw to rip your own planks which reduces the cost of parts.  All told about $500 rigged for Cheerful also.
 
In addition you need to look at the wood types.   Niagara is all basswood which is very cheap wood.  Better woods like Yellow cedar and boxwood used for Cheerful will add costs. Lots of it....
 
Shop around for prices.....and consider the quality of the contents.  Also check the build logs here for those kits to see if it is well designed and made of good materials.  What are castings like?   Good quality resin castings.....brass turned guns or awful white metal castings.
 
Lots to consider beyond size.
 
Chuck
 
 
 

Beautiful work on the model.  You really made it your own interpretation
on and its lovely