SkerryAmp

Adding the stern post….
 

Hull planking complete.  I learned quite a bit.  Even tried a couple stealers.  Now just need to do a lot of sanding.
 
 

Planking nearing completion.
Even though the hull will be covered with copper, I am trying my best to do a decent job of the planking as a learning exercise for future projects.  
 
 

Here's where it got interesting for a new guy -- the mysterious world of planking the hull.  
I don't have a lot to add to the instructions and the excellent build logs of the experienced folks.
I would like to hear from others on their techniques for clamping the planks.  I found the "binder clip" plank holders a great help at the beginning, but needed other methods when the hull got "curvy" or the balsa blocking got in the way.
Here's a pic of a few ways I found to clamp the planking with appropriate inward and downward pressure.
 

 
The binder clip upside down
A small binder clip with a piece of planking
A piece of scrap wood pulled down snugly with a rubber band
T-pins are useful in some situations

Then moved on to more planking and the addition of the wales.
 

Stern planking was pretty easy compared to other sections.
 

...and if she doesn't have a good side you can always claim you were going for the "post-Trafalgar" look.

Haha.  Yes, the lesser side is the 'wall side'.  Here's the rub---- no sooner you set it up that way, your Admiral will insist she looks better going the other way.  Don't ask me how I know this  

I think everyone gets to the point that there is a preferred side of the ship.

Welcome back to the yard.  Looking really good.  Now we don't want to hear of anymore ship tossing

Been out of town a lot lately so the build is progressing at a snails pace.  Before I left I was able to finish the stern framing.  Seems like a simple step, but had it's own little challenges.  Getting those gun port sills and lintels level fore-aft as well as side to side on the steeply sloping stern frames was tricky.  Plus, the lintels are not directly over the sills, so getting the required spacing was an unexpected problem.  I clamped a piece of wood across the back of the stern level with the sills which allowed me to use those gun port spacers I made earlier.
 

 
Then it was off to work......
Had a nice layover in San Francisco.  I always stop by the Balclutha.  It's a giant iron monstrosity of a sailing ship but still fun to look at.  I spent a lot more time staring at the rigging now that I'm into this hobby.
 
And who could go to San Fran without getting some seafood and sour-dough bread.  It's even better to have them at the same time!
 


 
Back home after a couple weeks.  Time to get to work. 
Next step is to establish the proper line for the uppermost wale plank.  I first pinned a batten following the reference marks on the bulkheads.  Since I'm new to this and have very little personal opinion on how things "should" look I could find no reason to stray from that line.  It looked pretty good to me.  So the wale planks went on, and I got to work on the gun port planking. 
Chuck makes a couple of statements in the instructions about each plank being a little project, and if you're not satisfied with a plank, throw it out and try again.  Now I know what he means.  Each plank on the second row will usually touch four or five gun or sweep ports.  Cutting the notches is precision work and if you mess up one of the notches, the whole plank is ruined.  One of those first planks took me five attempts.  I almost threw the whole damn model in the trash.  But you do get better, quicker, and more precise on each plank.  So, If you're a newbie like me, have faith and do NOT throw the model out the window.  For no particular reason I started on the starboard side.  I should do all my "firsts" on this side -- planking, coppering, rigging, etc.  I have a feeling this ship is going to have one side that looks much better than the other!
 

 
Starboard gun port planking on and a light first sanding.
 

 
Port side planking in progress.  I expect it will go much quicker.

Sanding the sill and lintels to match the bulwarks.  I started with the big sander.  It takes off wood in a scary hurry, so I had to use a light touch.  One slip and I'd be rebuilding big sections.  I got away with it.
 

 
Back to sanding blocks and files to do the inside curve.
 

 
Trying to get the "graceful" curve.  Satisfied so far.
 

 
The tops of the sweep ports need to be 1/8" above the sills, so I made these little spacers to help make the job easier.  The little tail on the spacers helps keep the spacer in place and makes sure I don't accidentally place the spacer in place with the wrong side facing up.
 
 
 

Making a little progress after getting back in town from a trip.
 
After attaching the keel and knees and letting the whole thing sit in the DeskMate for a couple of days, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the BF warp was completely gone.


 
 
Now time to add the bulkheads.  I found one that was missing a sizable portion of the middle ply and the bulwark extension was hanging by just a thread of the outer ply.  The picture is not so good, but you get the idea....
 

 
What to do, what to do?  I braced the bulkhead  and shot it full of expanding foam.  After it cured, I carved off the excess foam and hardened the exposed surface of the foam with some glue.  Came out pretty good I think.  Was a lot easier than trying to carve wood to fit exactly in the hole.
 

 

 
Gluing in the bulkheads trying to be very precise with alignment....
 

 

 
It is no secret that the bulwark extensions on the bulkheads are fragile.  But, in my kit, they were extra flimsy.  I think the laser cutter was set too hot.  Instead of making a nice little line on the surface of the wood, the reference lines burned thru the first ply and, in some cases, half way thru the center core.  You can see how that would make them even easier to break than normal.  I think I probably broke off half of them at one point or another.  If you're getting ready to start your own Syren, you may want to dab some CA on these reference marks before you remove the bulkheads from the plywood sheets.
Has anyone else had this problem, or was I just the lucky one?
 

 
Out into the garage for the next step.  Going to make lots of sawdust cutting and fitting the filler blocks.
 
Used balsa filler blocks to stiffen things up.  Shaped and sanded the filler blocks to match the bulkheads. 
 
Used a drum sander on a drill press to do the initial shaping/faring of the bulkheads. 
 

 
Back inside to start working on the gun port framing.  Used a batten and the gun port template to find a nice line across the hull.  Turns out the reference lines on my kit were dang close.  My line never varied by more than 1/32" from the reference marks.  This step is just a lot of cutting, trimming, sanding, and gluing.  Kind of relaxing.  I found that Binder clips really helped with the sills.  After dry fitting, the binder clips make a nice little shelf to sit the sill on when gluing it in and help to keep the sills nice and level.
 

 
To make it easier to install the lintels, I made little 15/32" spacers.
 

 
Now I didn't have to worry about measuring anything.  Just sit the lintels on the spacers for perfect parallel installation.
 

 
Now it's back out into the garage to sand the framing down to match the bulwarks....
 
 

Chapter one:
Clamped the BF into a desktop "Workmate" to straighten a slight warp.  Soaked and formed the rabbet strip.  Glued it on the next day.  I'm using "Gorilla" brand wood glue.  I like it.  It "grabs" rapidly and is tough stuff.
 
Cut in the taper to the rabbet.  It gets interesting at the aft end where the taper area is large - the grain of the different layers of ply want to fight your blade.  But with a combination of a wide blade X-acto, a chisel, and sandpaper, I got 'er done.
 
Tapered the fore end of the stem.  Added the stem knee and keel as one step.  I purchased a small bucket of assorted binder clips.  Glad I did.  I'm finding them very useful.
 

Hi all.
 
Yup, another Syren.  It's popular for good reason - a quality kit, Chuck's detailed instruction set, lots of Forum support, and it's a gorgeous little ship.
 
This is my first ship model.  Yes, I know, it's too ambitious for a first build.  But I've been a hobbyist, woodworker, do-it-your-selfer all my life so I thought I'd dive into the deep end.  If I want to learn the entire skill set needed for my ultimate dream boat, the Surprise, then I need to practice on a ship that has all the same elements.
Feel free to chime in if you see me heading in the wrong direction.  I don't plan to stray from Chucks practicum, so hopefully I wont make any irreparable errors.
 
While waiting for the Syren to arrive, I set up shop in the basement using an old computer hutch as my work station.  Gathered all my hobby tools and purchased a few more.  Found some great ideas for planking clips on other folks logs, so I made some of those too.
 
The kit arrived in fine shape - good packaging by Model Expo.
Initial impressions very good.  The hardware kit is very complete.  Glad to see the bags of blocks/deadeyes - thought I was going to have to make all of 'em.  Back in the day, I built RC airplanes just when laser cutting was coming on the scene.  It has come a long way.  The laser cut parts in this kit are very precise and crisp.
 
So after a cursory inventory of all the included parts and a day of reading through the manual it's finally time to start making dust......
 
Eric
 

with me,  I tend to build the type of ships I like..........but since I started to go rogue with the kits,  I've gotten into modifying and scratch building.  this has been a good.....and bad thing,  because of all the crazy ideas that have popped into my head.  but,  it's led to some really cool builds.   as long as I'm having fun,  I'm happy 

Whatever strikes my fancy - which is not necessarily a good thing as it does help to support build a.d.d  but it does make things interesting.
 
Perhaps it is eaiser with me to say what makes me not build a kit - or rule it out.  Size and cost.

Hey All,
 
So one thing that I managed to accomplish while being out of pocket and away from the shipyard for so long was to tackle a problem with my workbench that had always bugged me.
 
The bench I had picked up was this one from harbor freight
 

 
It is a great bench if you are not familiar with it and probably one of the best purchases I have made.  The trouble I had with it was the drawers.  They don't open up quite all the way.  This leaves a very shallow access to the drawer and with small tools or fiddly bits it was too easy for things to get hung up in the back.  My hands just didn't like trying to dig around back there so it limited my use of the drawers.
 
This is a pic of the drawer as it comes
 

 
However, after looking over the bench and consulting with my father who I had gotten the same bench for and had the same issue, he came up with an idea that was far to simple in it's concept we both couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it before.
 
Replace the runners.
 
So we purchased some runners from amazon,  these runners to be precise
10 Pack Promark Full Extension Drawer Slide 14" 100lb Load Rating 
And when we replaced the stock runners with the above sliders...walla!!
 

 
We had full extension drawers.
 
They handle a nice load on the drawer, slide in and out quite smoothly and make the drawer 100% useful.  Now, there were some minor (very minor) modifications that had to be made to the drawers due to the depth difference of the runners, but a quick shave on the drawers and we were in business.
 
Here is a side by side for ya
 

 
 
Granted, not a huge discovery but I thought it neat enough and useful enough to share with ya all, maybe someone else can make use of it.
 
 
Enjoy!!

Wow a little deja vu!   The mayflower is drying, football on the T.V  - so,  let's finish off the re-planking on the Santa Maria.  
 
Finished off laying the new deck planks, marking the lines, dotting the nails and then after some trials went with a 4:1 Natural / Golden Oak Deck Staining.  Much lighter, and I think much much better!!!!
 
(That other one was VERY dark!!)
 

 
I need to make the plank lines and nails a bit better/cleaned up and darker on the stern but will get to that once the stain dries a bit more!
 
Well, games are over for the night so off I go
 
Tomorrow is another day!

Wow a little deja vu!   The mayflower is drying, football on the T.V  - so,  let's finish off the re-planking on the Santa Maria.  
 
Finished off laying the new deck planks, marking the lines, dotting the nails and then after some trials went with a 4:1 Natural / Golden Oak Deck Staining.  Much lighter, and I think much much better!!!!
 
(That other one was VERY dark!!)
 

 
I need to make the plank lines and nails a bit better/cleaned up and darker on the stern but will get to that once the stain dries a bit more!
 
Well, games are over for the night so off I go
 
Tomorrow is another day!

Well,  my idea was to bleach the decks and then golden oak them back to a reasonable color, however - chalk one up to Miniwax stain,  bleach didn't touch it!!
 
So,  then thought about sanding it away - but really wasn't sure how I would go about that with them installed without damaging the inner bulwarks.
 
So, final decision!   Replank them.  The planks are are 1/64 thick so it really doesn't jump the deck height up noticeably and was easy enough to do.
 
However... PROBLEM!  (as always right).   I was hoping there was enough plank to do the deck and the final decking (fore and poop decks).  I was sadly mistaken.  I used up what I had and am now out of decking material.   Guess what, finding that size is NOT easy.  So,  what I will be doing is seeing what the Nina can do for me.  I am thinking about decking up the parts necessary with the Nina and then using the excess wood to finish up the Santa maria.
 
Until I decide that,  here is where the Santa Maria sits currently.
 
 
I started to plank the hull according to the instructions.  I am still not happy at all with my planking abilities,  my 10 year wedding anniversery is coming up so the wife and I are exchanging gifts and from what I understand she is doing I had better figure this planking thing out - and fast!!  (Ugh).
 
So, plank plank plank....
 

 

 

 
Really kind of embarassing - that hull is going to need a LOT of work regarding sanding and shaping!
 
I did however (as I said up above) get sidetracked with the planking and that is when I applied my magnificantly short sighted idea for decking up the Santa Maria.   Here is where that sits at the moment....
 

 
I did decide to vary the lengths and do simulated treenails with a mechanical pencil this time.  The solid planks and dark wood just were not doing it for me.  Once I fill in the rest of the space I will give it a VERY light stain of natural and Golden Oak (probobly like a 10:1 ratio) just to give it a little color and blend it all together, darken the nails and caulk etc.   The idea is to keep it very light.
 
 
So - enjoying this one,  but the deck debacle and really painful planking job so far is a slight spirit killer.. but I will get it all cleaned up and happy - I am pretty good at filler and shaping hulls (you should see what is under the mayflower second planking and filler hehe.
 
However, with all that said. my parts have come for the mayflower, so tonight will be finishing up all those fiddly bits, sealing it and getting ready to move forward with that one....
 
Until later - ENJOY!!
 
 
 
 

Ah, Santa Maria - We Meet Again!!
 
With the mayflower in a holding pattern until supplies are delivered I decided to come back to the SM for a spell.
 
When we last left our Maria we had a quarter deck done up, but sitting along side.  So, let's start by installing that.
 
The tabs lined up nicely with the bulwarks however they didn't quite fit nicely.  Between carefully filing the slots and reshaping the tabs I was able to finally get them to line up and pop in nicely.   However, once lined up and in it was a rough keeping them in there but I used some Masking tape to wrap it while it dried and it all worked out okay!
 

 
Let that dry and started on the poop deck/rear cabin.   The framing was laser cut, which was nice.  Popped out the parts cleaned them up and started installing.  First the innner wall....
 

 
Then the transom wall.   I have some alignment issues on the stern but am addressing them as needed and so far all is cooperating.   Once again, used masking tape as a clamp to hold the part in place (really starting to like the masking tape clamp method).
 

 
Then all that was left was to install the poop deck itself.   It went in like a champ.  Being my first run with an AL kit, so far so good!  Decent stuff (in my humble newbie opinion)
 

 
As you can see masking tape clamps all together until it was dry and then quick slice, peel away, sand and clean up and walla
 
A base poop deck!
 

 
All that was left for this evening was using the supplied veneer to finish off the inner wall and we are set aside for the evening.
 

 
 
Until later my friends... Enjoy and happy modeling!

Good Evening!
 
After doing a little bit on the Mayflower and having that sitting in a drying stage, I wanted to keep building so pulled out the Santa Maria for some updates.  It was a fair amount of work but only one piece this evening
 
The Quarterdeck!
 
Well, first I installed the other Bulwark so at least the vessel has two, instead of limping around with only one
 

 
Okay, NOW time for the quarterdeck
 
Here we have the false quarterdeck ready to go !
 

 
Once it is popped loose from it's sheet, the initial reference plank is laid.   I learned a long time ago it is very important to get this first plank and straight as you can as it will most certainly effect the alignment of every other plank after it
 
 

 
 
Plank after plan was laid,  as in prior projects the Archive Pen was used to caulk the boards. Finall we have a rough planked quarterdeck
 
 

 
 
Some careful trimming around the edges, done easily by flipping the part upside down and tracing the edge with a VERY sharp blade.  A dull blade can easily grab a plank at the edge and potentially yank it loose.
 
 

 
 
Finally the part is lightly wiped down with an alcohol rag in order to clean up any lose dirt, glue mistakes etc.   Once dry, I wiped it down with wood conditioner and then finally stained with the same mix of Dark Mahogany and Natural stain to match the rest of the ship.
 

 
This is a dark ship,  very different than what I tyipcally like but I am starting to appreciate the colors and the richness of it all.
 
So, for the evening this is set aside to dry overnight
 
Thank you again for stopping in
 

Thanks all for the likes - they are greatly appreciated!
 
Just a little bit more of an update.   Decided to tackle the bulwarks tonight on this one while the parts fo they mayflower sit ever so patiently (that is tomorrows event).
 
The kit comes with very well done laser cut bulwarks,  they were clean and uniform (quite nice).
 

 
Decided to go at it what I think was the simplest way, again going by the kits instructions and trying not to add too much "extra", spread a VERY thin layer of white glue on the bulwark.  Then just lay the african walnut strips and let dry.   One of the problems with the strips is because they are so thin  of the edges are VERY narrow (like a sliver) it was difficult to get the to alll lay flat.  So, flipped it over once they were all laid on and looked around my work bench for heavy objects to flatten it down.   This is when it occured to me with all my tools, gadgets and gizmos I don't have a good selection of flat weights.
 
So, had to get a little creative
 

 
Worked PERFECT!  whew.
 
Now, once all was dry and I was sure they wouldn't slip around, I then flipped it back over and carefully trimmed the edges.  One thing to note with the walnut, it is VERY dry and VERY brittle as it turns out.  So I had to use a brand spanky new sharp sharp sharp knife and score it.  DO NOT try to cut it in one shot, it seems suseptable to tearing
 
Luckily the tearing was just along the hull edge and a couple inside spots which will be covered up once assembled.   WHEW again!!
 

 
Then it was just a matter of lining them up and installing them onto the ships hull.  Easy peasy! (not really,  Had to go at the formers a bit more to get the curves a bit better, but eventually it went on relativly easy.
 

 

 
Letting that setup and dry solid and will install the second one tomorrow then move onto the additional decks.
 
So far, AL seems to make a fairly decent kit (still really digging the color build steps companion, very nice - very nice)
 
Until later...
 
Enjoy and happy building!!! 

Spent some time tonight wrapping up that last step, part of which was getting the deck on (which was done) and then the forward... uhm, hmm. not sure what it is called.. bulkhead I guess?   Planked.   The problem was that gap.  Needed to figure out what to do with that darn gap.
 
(The Gap)
 

 
So,  decided to take a crack at something.
 
The gap isn't TOO too huge, (smaller than my panicky mind made it out at first it seems) so I took some 1/32 balsa and cut traced the shape and cut a piece to thicken it just a little bit.  My plan was to thicken it a tad and then the planks would even it out and cover the gap. Looking ahead the deck that sits on it isn't such that a 1/32 extension was going to throw things off too much and most likely had I not just mentioned it - it may very well go unnoticed.
 
So, first traced out the shape I needed.   I did two JUST in case I needed  back up
 

 
Then, I rough cut them out - I stayed close to the line, but purposely made them a little over sized with the intent of shaving and sanding down to the final shape once installed on the ship.
 

 
Glued them on, shaved, shaped and attached the finish planks... and woohoo!  Looks good, not too thick and I think it will work out okay.   WHEW that one was averted (hopefully, always nervous it is going to sneak up on me later, but will see)
 

 

 
Just need to let it dry solid then go through and sand it out, clean it up and wipe it down with some finish and I think it will be good to go.
 
 
Thanks all, until next time..
 
HAPPY BUILDING