Stuntflyer

For the coachwork there are numerous repetitive ornamental mouldings. The first of these to produce is a five-reeded column. This is ⅛" wide, so it was tricky to work. I used a micro-milling cutter (Proxxon) on my mill using an x-y table to incrementally cut reeds into the stock. Also required were columnar capitals. Again, two different micro-milling cutters were used. One was a flat-bottomed cutter, the other a very small ball cutter. These produced a fair imitation of the design. 
 
The millwork is gradually being built up on the pattern piece. The pattern will be integrated into the coach, as the assembly will be painted when completed. The outer corners still need to be bevelled. Each column consists of three pieces. The reeds are stopped; that is to say, they do not extend the whole length of the column. Plain pieces of stock are grafted on the top and bottom to produce the effect of stopped reeding. In addition, there are small fielded panels in the column bases. These were cut in using a scalpel and a micro chisel. The panels in the doors and on either side were added using stock a scale ⅜" thick. 

I've been busy over the past few days with the timberheads, those pesky boom crutches and painting. The timberheads proved to be not too difficult as long as I was careful while filing them to shape. The boom crutches proved to be another story as making these put my patience to the test. I only had to make three to get the required two though the process took the better part of a day. I was relieved to get them glued on the boat. The cleanup painting continues. . . .
 
Viewing the boom crutches from this angle distorts the symmetry of the two pieces but you should be able to get the general idea of how they look.

 

I finished the first long gun – the second one is about one week behind . I followed the long gun design in Chuck’s Syren plans (with a few small changes) as basis for the build. Images 1, 2 and 3 show how the wheels and the axles were made. I glued 4 roughly square pieces of pear wood on a beech dowel (img 1a and 1b), turned them on the lathe to the required diameter, drilled the holes for axels and bolts (img 1c and 2a), and cut them apart with a little saw (img 2b). The finished wheels are shown in img 3a. Images 3b, c and d present how the axels were made and how the axels’ bearings were built by turning a brass tube down to the correct size. For stabilization a second tube was inserted during the lathe work.
 

Image 01
 

Image 02
 

Image 03
 
 
Images 4 and 5 show the making of the carriage parts. I glued 6 correctly sized pieces of pear wood together with a piece of paper between each pear wood layer (img 4a). The paper insures that the pear wood pieces can be separated from each other later on (img 5). The resulting block of layered pear wood was processed with mill, drill, and sanding wheel to arrive at the desired shape (image 5a). After painting the finished pieces the gun carriage was assembled on a jig (img 6b). The result is presented in image 7.  The finished gun can be seen in images 8 and 9. Image 10 shows the long gun in its place on the Syren.
 
Thomas
 

Image 04
 

Image 05
 

Image 06
 

Image 07
 

Image 08
 

Image 09
 

Image 10
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thank you, Hakån. I now intend to use a toned rather than pure black. The latter would look too intense at this scale.
 
This morning I performed surgery successfully on the planking and frames in the coach section. The end patterns for the coach have also been cut and fitted. Elastic bands hold the model to the pedestals temporarily.
 
There was some hesitation on my part as to the completeness of the draught. The side windows showed no indication of panes. Were they open spaces? In the 1830's modern sheet glass techniques had not yet been invented. Only spun glass was available for glazing, limiting pane size. The height of these openings was 19". Most panes during this time period were only about 15" high at most. I finally found a reference to spun glass panes that said the maximum dimension of these was about 23". Therefore I have the confidence to install single, large panes along the sides of the coach. Of course, these would have been expensive, showing off the Commissioners' importance and rank.

I've been busy over the past few days with the timberheads, those pesky boom crutches and painting. The timberheads proved to be not too difficult as long as I was careful while filing them to shape. The boom crutches proved to be another story as making these put my patience to the test. I only had to make three to get the required two though the process took the better part of a day. I was relieved to get them glued on the boat. The cleanup painting continues. . . .
 
Viewing the boom crutches from this angle distorts the symmetry of the two pieces but you should be able to get the general idea of how they look.

 

I'm working my way upwards with the planking around the gun ports.  I'm taking my time.  It seems best to wait to sand this area until I have all the planks down.  This is the rough look then.  I usually clean things up a bit for the photos I post.  So . . .this is kind of the equivalent of meeting someone for coffee without first showering, brushing my teeth, and combing my hair. 
 

 

 
Erik

Thanks again, folks. No further finish on the surface of the base is necessary, Tom.
 
The latest progress has been slow. Making and installing the gunwale was tricky. It is a scale 2½" wide by ¾" deep. That translates to about 3/64" by 1/64" full size. I cut this to shape from sheet Castello and carefully rounded the outer edge with fine sandpaper. The gunwale was carefully glued to the upper edge of the sheer strake and frame tops.
 
At the bow, where the fore deck is flush to the upper side of the gunwale, revision was needed. I sanded off the paint and applied a very narrow strip of Castello over the sheer strake to match the rest of the gunwale. As masking off the top accurately would be almost impossible, I scribed the line dividing the painted area and re-painted the deck. 

She's back on the bench - continuing the channels and chainplates.  No more guarantees when she will be completed - maybe sooner than later ?!?

I chose to begin the running rigging with the foresail halliard and the jib halliard and it's in haul and outhaul and then move on to the lower yard and it's rigging.
 
The one item of note on the halliards is the traveler to which the jib halliard is attached. This was made from a ring formed from wire, to which a small brass shackle was attached. The shackle was one of those odd bits that we collect over the years. Fortunately, I had remembered to place the traveler on the bowsprit before I had done any of the standing rigging to the bowsprit. It would have been much more difficult to make it up in place now, rather than simply sliding the completed part on when I did.
 
The lower yard had been made up and painted earlier, but still needed to be fitted out. This meant adding the foot ropes, the yard portion of the sling, the sheet blocks, the lifts, a truss, and the brace blocks and pendants. After these were all in place,  the yard was mounted to the mast on the pin that had previously been mounted on the mast. The truss was then completed, securely holding the yard to the mast. After that I added the sling portion around the masthead and then ran the lifts through blocks hooked to eyes on the mast cap.The braces won't be run until later.
 
I am now working on the topsail yard and it's rigging. 
 
Bob
 
 

The baseboard has now been completed and the pedestals installed. The model has been temporarily mounted and the rudder hung.

Druxey,
 
Thanks for the second opinion.  That's exactly the kind of feedback that is so much appreciated.  It keeps me from screwing up what will otherwise be a good build because I pull an amateur move that seemed like a good idea to my inexperienced mind. 
 
All,
 
I'm not going to go with the blue.  If you compare the photos of the model in the Rogers Collection I posted above, with my high tech coloring project below, you'll see that rather than simply being trim, the two blue strakes will make up a greater portion of the above-the-wales planking.  Also, as Chuck stated, it looks a little odd as those planks narrow at the bow and stern.
 

 
Erik

Its your project and you must make it look the way you would prefer it to look.  I wouldnt do the chamfer thing on those planks however.  That often looks pretty cheesy...especially if its not done to all of the planking.
 
Just remember that the two planks on our model are much wider than the area on the Rogers model (which isnt really the Cheerful).  It will in fact be wider than the wales I believe.  Except however at the stern and bow where that strip gets narrower.  This is taken directly from the original drafts.  So that band of Blue would not be consistent and it would appear to be even prominent than the wales.   I came very close to painting it the same way.  But after using colored paper on my model to do a test I found that I didnt like it much.   The odd shape with the width change just made it look like a mistake.  But hey that just could have been me.....maybe you would feel differently after seeing it.
 
I would recommend that you do the same to test how you feel about it.  Take some photos and do a comparison. As far as sanding a chamfer into the edge of the plank so it would show up...That would be a bad idea.  It is not something that was done in reality but it would look very deliberate as if it was.  In most cases the blue will not block the fact that there are two planks anyway.   That is something that would be very hard to undo after the fact as well.

I've been busy over the past few days with the timberheads, those pesky boom crutches and painting. The timberheads proved to be not too difficult as long as I was careful while filing them to shape. The boom crutches proved to be another story as making these put my patience to the test. I only had to make three to get the required two though the process took the better part of a day. I was relieved to get them glued on the boat. The cleanup painting continues. . . .
 
Viewing the boom crutches from this angle distorts the symmetry of the two pieces but you should be able to get the general idea of how they look.

 

I've been busy over the past few days with the timberheads, those pesky boom crutches and painting. The timberheads proved to be not too difficult as long as I was careful while filing them to shape. The boom crutches proved to be another story as making these put my patience to the test. I only had to make three to get the required two though the process took the better part of a day. I was relieved to get them glued on the boat. The cleanup painting continues. . . .
 
Viewing the boom crutches from this angle distorts the symmetry of the two pieces but you should be able to get the general idea of how they look.

 

I was able to complete the inboard stern details today. The knees with 5mm cleats, 9mm cleats on the stern frames, 22 gauge wire horse, false stern post and seats were added. There are tiny washers at the base of the horse made from 28 gauge wire. After forming them they were flattened with a plier. The outside diameter is only .065 so they are quite small. Being very hard to handle a few did end up as a permanent fixture in the carpet.
 

I've been busy over the past few days with the timberheads, those pesky boom crutches and painting. The timberheads proved to be not too difficult as long as I was careful while filing them to shape. The boom crutches proved to be another story as making these put my patience to the test. I only had to make three to get the required two though the process took the better part of a day. I was relieved to get them glued on the boat. The cleanup painting continues. . . .
 
Viewing the boom crutches from this angle distorts the symmetry of the two pieces but you should be able to get the general idea of how they look.

 

Another minor update:
 
The underwater hull has been refined and the gudgeons added. The lower gudgeon is conventional, but the upper one on the transom is a small eyebolt. This was often the case with open boats. I looked at photographs of extant ceremonial barges and noticed that the transoms were invariably painted. It was an awkward job to do at this stage of the build, but I was successful using a 00 sable brush. 
 
The mounting of the model now needed to be considered. I decided to make a simple pair of pedestals in clear acrylic. These were turned, then polished. I was filing the keel slot in the second of these when one side cracked off. I had to repeat the set-up to produce a duplicate piece. Grrr!

I've been busy over the past few days with the timberheads, those pesky boom crutches and painting. The timberheads proved to be not too difficult as long as I was careful while filing them to shape. The boom crutches proved to be another story as making these put my patience to the test. I only had to make three to get the required two though the process took the better part of a day. I was relieved to get them glued on the boat. The cleanup painting continues. . . .
 
Viewing the boom crutches from this angle distorts the symmetry of the two pieces but you should be able to get the general idea of how they look.

 

I've been busy over the past few days with the timberheads, those pesky boom crutches and painting. The timberheads proved to be not too difficult as long as I was careful while filing them to shape. The boom crutches proved to be another story as making these put my patience to the test. I only had to make three to get the required two though the process took the better part of a day. I was relieved to get them glued on the boat. The cleanup painting continues. . . .
 
Viewing the boom crutches from this angle distorts the symmetry of the two pieces but you should be able to get the general idea of how they look.

 

I've been busy over the past few days with the timberheads, those pesky boom crutches and painting. The timberheads proved to be not too difficult as long as I was careful while filing them to shape. The boom crutches proved to be another story as making these put my patience to the test. I only had to make three to get the required two though the process took the better part of a day. I was relieved to get them glued on the boat. The cleanup painting continues. . . .
 
Viewing the boom crutches from this angle distorts the symmetry of the two pieces but you should be able to get the general idea of how they look.

 

I've been busy over the past few days with the timberheads, those pesky boom crutches and painting. The timberheads proved to be not too difficult as long as I was careful while filing them to shape. The boom crutches proved to be another story as making these put my patience to the test. I only had to make three to get the required two though the process took the better part of a day. I was relieved to get them glued on the boat. The cleanup painting continues. . . .
 
Viewing the boom crutches from this angle distorts the symmetry of the two pieces but you should be able to get the general idea of how they look.

 

I was able to complete the inboard stern details today. The knees with 5mm cleats, 9mm cleats on the stern frames, 22 gauge wire horse, false stern post and seats were added. There are tiny washers at the base of the horse made from 28 gauge wire. After forming them they were flattened with a plier. The outside diameter is only .065 so they are quite small. Being very hard to handle a few did end up as a permanent fixture in the carpet.
 

I've been busy over the past few days with the timberheads, those pesky boom crutches and painting. The timberheads proved to be not too difficult as long as I was careful while filing them to shape. The boom crutches proved to be another story as making these put my patience to the test. I only had to make three to get the required two though the process took the better part of a day. I was relieved to get them glued on the boat. The cleanup painting continues. . . .
 
Viewing the boom crutches from this angle distorts the symmetry of the two pieces but you should be able to get the general idea of how they look.

 

I've been busy over the past few days with the timberheads, those pesky boom crutches and painting. The timberheads proved to be not too difficult as long as I was careful while filing them to shape. The boom crutches proved to be another story as making these put my patience to the test. I only had to make three to get the required two though the process took the better part of a day. I was relieved to get them glued on the boat. The cleanup painting continues. . . .
 
Viewing the boom crutches from this angle distorts the symmetry of the two pieces but you should be able to get the general idea of how they look.

 

I've been busy over the past few days with the timberheads, those pesky boom crutches and painting. The timberheads proved to be not too difficult as long as I was careful while filing them to shape. The boom crutches proved to be another story as making these put my patience to the test. I only had to make three to get the required two though the process took the better part of a day. I was relieved to get them glued on the boat. The cleanup painting continues. . . .
 
Viewing the boom crutches from this angle distorts the symmetry of the two pieces but you should be able to get the general idea of how they look.