Marsares

Well, unfortunately the Syren is stil lingering in the drydock as our twins have arrived and the combination of sleep deprivation and nappy duty is keeping me away from the ship. Even dreamed about her last night, about putting her in storage. One could say it was a nightmare!

USS Brig Syren
Part 7: Stern Framing
 
Step 1: Verticals
Taking the stern frames out of the wood was somewhat nerve-wracking. Having broken a fair few bulwarks already, I was only too aware how fragile the basswood is especially for pieces that are so thin. Nevertheless, I managed to cut them out unbroken and started cutting the fillers to length, using the provided template as a guide.
 
Placing the first filler was dead-easy, placing the first vertical less so. I had to ensure that it ended up in the right position in three different planes, with little to go by. I set up a quick and dirty jig using an iron square to at least lock the frame in two different planes, with the third one judging by eye. Adding the next frame gave a further complication as it needed to up exactly like the previous one, whilst maintaining the appropriate distance between them. In order to achieve this, I stuck a temporary piece of width, cut to the appropriate length, between them and held it in place with a piece of plastic band whilst the glue dried up.
 

 
I used this method throughout and achieved a result that I was happy with, without snapping a single one of the frames. Happy days!
 
  Step 2: Horizontals
Before I started adding the gunport sills and lintels, I noticed that the tops of the stern frames were not 100% aligned so I clamped a temporary batten in place to completely line them up before I taped the template in place using the laser markings as a guide. Before I started glueing the spacers in place I remembered that a few chapters down the line a cardboard cannon was used to judge the appropriate height of the gun port sills. I think I remembered this as at the point of reading it I didn't quite get why it was done at such a late stage with everything already in place and no ability to make any adjustments.
 
Therefore, I quickly knocked this up and tested the laser-markings for the gunport sills and noticed that they didn't quite sit in the right position. The gun would have some clearance from the sills, but it would be absolutely marginal and ideally the gun would sit in the middle of the gunport. I rechecked my measurements, but the only thing that I think I could have done wrong is that the whole stern is slightly twisted towards the bow, thereby lifting it somewhat up.
 

 
It approached dinner time anyways, so I left it there and thus giving me some time to mull things over. I am not too worried about it, by dropping the lintels and sills somewhat I should be able to achieve a good clear finish with the cannon in the middle of the gunport. Still, any thoughts are appreciated!
 
Kind regards,
 
Martijn.
 

USS Brig Syren

Part 6: Gun Port Lintels and Sweep Ports

 

Step 1: Gun Port Lintels

For the gun port lintels I used the same approach as for the sills, as in that I ignored the templates and got a temporary batton in place. I've read on various other blogs that they with their lintels they had them glued in the right place, but then when they checked a while later gravity had taken it's toll and they were no longer in the right location. Therefore, I decided to align the top of the temporary batton with the bottom of the lintels, so the lintels could somewhat rest on the temporary batton.

 

Given that that the natural flow had been established for the sills, it was just a case of replicating this flow for the lintels whilst bearing in mind that a distance of 15/32" should remain between them, as that's the height and width of the gunports. I toyed with making a 15/32" block of wood to get this distance consistent across the whole run of the ship, but instead reverted back to my trusted calipher.

 

I basically used my calipher to quickly mark the appropriate distance by hand, clamped a temporary batton in place and then re-measured with the calipher and adjusted. Once the distance between temporary batton and gun port sill was perfectly 15/32", I double-checked the flow of the batton before I started placing the gun port lintels.

 



 

Step 2: Sanding

With the lintels and sills in place I felt that the bulwarks were now sufficiently supported to take some serious sanding. I was still somewhat apprehensive, given that I had snapped a fair few previously, but it was remarkable how strong the ship now had become. Still, a fair bit of sanding had to take place in order to ensure that the bulkwarks would end up as 3/32" below the railcap and 1/8" thick at the deck level.

 

I tried various tools, including electrical ones but at the end of the day nothing beats some elbow-grease I found. The outside of the ship was rather easy to sand as you had easy access and the curve of the ship helped, the inside turned out to be a completely different kettle of fish. Luckily I had seen this problem coming so I ensured that the lintels and sills were placed as much as possible towards the outside, with as little as possible sticking out on the inside.

 

Eventually I ended up using three tools over and over again. Especially the big sander turned out to be a life-safer on the sanding of the inside given it's many curved angles.

 



 


Step 3: Sweep Ports

After some rigorous sanding, the gunport templates started to line up very well but still I decided to used my own measurements for the sweep-ports and once again used my calipher to ensure that everything was at the right distance of each other. 

 



 



Step 4: More Sanding

With the sweep-ports final sanding took place, once again by hand. It's imperative to constantly keep checking with a temporary batton to ensure that you're fairing the hull correctly for planking later on. I've completed the whole hull now and re-took measurements, it's now just a case of fine-tuning here and there.

 



 



 



 

Off to Chapter Four - Stern Framing! Let's see how many of those little buggers I'll manage to snap! :-)

 

Kind regards,

 

Martijn.


 

USS Brig Syren
Part 5: Gun Port Sills
 
Well, progress has been virtually non-existent the last month or so. First we had a bit of a heart-attack as at the 12 weeks scan the sonographer dropped a bomb-shell on us: "Well, here's your baby.... and here's your second baby." Apparently my girlfriend was laughing hysterically and I was white as a sheet. Very happy of course once it sunk it, but reading up and shopping takes a lot of time, and the little peanuts aren't even born yet.
 
Drop on top of that a new job in London, so I'm away during the week, and time to work on my beloved Syren suddenly has become a precious commodity. Nevertheless, today is a bank holiday so I've finally managed to complete Chapter Three.
 
Step 1: Gun Port Templates
As you would have read in my previous post, I was somwhat flabbergasted as the templates that were provided with the kit really didn't line up with reality, which was rather frustrating as I had spend so much time ensuring that my bulkheads were square to the former. Eventually it dawned on me that the only thing I hadn't done well enough was the fairing of the bulkheads, and that they needed some further sanding. I got on with it and eventually the templates started to fall in line. They still weren't perfect, but given that plenty more sanding will follow in order to line up the gun port sills and lintels, I didn't want to go too far at the first step.
 

 
Step 2: Gun Port Sill Height
Another thing that came apparent from the templates that if I followed the laser-etched markets on the bulkheads, I wouldn't get a natural flow but also that the vertical location of them seemed somewhat out of line. I flicked through the manual and noticed the following build-up from the top of the bulkhead former:   - Deck planking: 1/16" - Waterway: 1/16" - Space between top of sill and top of waterway: 1/16"     Getting the right vertical location of the gunport sills is critical, as otherwise at a later stage your waterway may be too close or too far from it, which will impact on the look of your finished model. So I quickly knocked up a little piece of wood that gave me the appropriate distance and scribed new marks on the bulkheads, ignoring the original laser-etched ones.   Step 3: Gun Port Sill Flow With the new vertical locations marked on each bulkhead, I could tentatively clamp a temporary batton in place. From there on it's just a case of constantly checking it by eye from the sides to ensure that you have a natural flow. Key is that you don't try to force the batton in place, but try to let it run as much as possible how it wants to, bearing in mind that it doesn't stray too far away from your markers.     It's a good idea to check the run from every angle possible. I found that once I had established a natural run from one angle, it didn't always feel smooth enough from another one.      Once I was satisfied with my gunport run, I added a temporary batton on the port run. This is important as you don't want to start getting the lintel in place on one side, before you mirror it as closely as possible on the other side in case further adjustments are needed. I basically followed the same procedure as for the gunport side, and once I had established a natural flow I checked on the stern and stem to ensure that they ended up in the same position. Luckily, mine did. With some further measurements and minor adjustments and managed to get a identical run on both sides of the ship.     Step 4: Gun Port Sill Placement I used a different approach from the manual when I started placing my gunport sills as in that I left my temporary batton clamped in place. After all the careful measurements that I had done to ensure a natural flow, I felt that I wouldn't be able to quite replicate that by marking the bulkheads, so instead used the temporary batton as a guide. This gave the benefit that it was really quick and easy to put the gunport sills in place, whilst it also gave me a great guide to ensure that they were level in the horizontal plane.     Once I had left the carpenter's glue to dry overnight I removed the temporary batton and checked the flow of the sills from all angles. After that, it was just a case of replicating the process on the port side.      
Kind regards,
 
Martijn.

USS Brig Syren

Part 5: Lower Deck Planking, Fairing, Framing Templates

 

Step 1: Lower Deck Planking

Whilst I was waiting for my home move and decided not to start on the Syren build until after the home move I've been reading lots and lots of build logs and have been mulling over a few things, one of them being caulking and how to simulate it. There are a plethora of methods, most commonly used seems to be marking the side of the planks with a pencil. This gives a subtle appearance, but not always uniform results. 

 

Therefore, I decided to build a mock-up with black paper between the planks. Given that I had no black paper, I took a piece of white printer paper and coloured it black on either side with a black felt pen. If you do so, make sure that you've got a water-proof marker otherwise it will bleed into the wood once you stain/lacquer the wood! I then glued a small strip between the mock-up planks, leaving it to stick out above the planking. Once dried, I cut the excess paper off with a hobby knife and sanded the planks smooth. This gave the following result:

 



 

Happy with the results I decided the replicate this on the lower deck planking. If things didn't turn out quite as I'd hope for, nothing would be lost as this deck will be hardly visible once the model is completed. Given that the workspace between the bulkheads was limited and I've already snapped a fair few bulwarks, I decided to make life easy for myself and glued the black paper strip to the sides of the planking with a bit of carpenters glue before I glued them in-situ:

 



 

Having left everything to dry overnight, I cut off the excess paper and then started to sand the planking down. Unfortunately, for some reason the dust of the black paper started to get into the soft deck planks, thereby creating a bit of a smudged appearance. I tried different grades of sand paper but eventually I realised that scraping the deck would solve the issue. I grabbed a hobby knife with a rectangular blade and although scraping didn't totally get rid of some of the smudging, it reduced it to such an extent that I'm fairly happy with the results.

 

A few planks I didn't press sufficiently against each other, so the gap appears somewhat wider but where I have done it properly I really like the results. It's a bit more pronounced than simulated caulking with a pencil, but with a bit more practice I am sure that I can get the caulking virtually uniform. On the hull and deck planking I will also have an easier workspace, so I can minimise the sanding and use mostly scraping. All in all, a fairly successful test and I've decided to try this for the hull and deck planks later on.

 



 

Step 2: Fairing

Fairing was one of those tasks that I didn't look forward to. Not because I thought that it would be tedious or anything, but getting this right is so critical for the look and shape of the hull that I wasn't quite sure how to approach it. However, it was remarkably straight-forward, as long as you take things slowly and regularly check with a hull plank.

 

In the middle of the ship, where the hull is fairly straight, I used a larger sanding block that cut across three bulkheads. Initially I tried using a sanding sponge, but quickly I realised that having a solid base for your sanding block is crucial. I mentally divided the hull into horizontal strips and sanded each one at a time, tackling three bulkheads at the same time and then shifting along one bulkhead. Where the hull curve became more pronounced, I could only tackle two bulkheads at the same time and at the bow, stern and near the keel I replaced my large sanding block with a much smaller one that allowed me to follow curves more smoothly. Don't forget that you have the laser-etched reference marks, although you shouldn't take these necessarily as the gospel.

 

I decided not to fair the bulkwarks yet, until I will have put the gun port sills and lintels in place. I've snapped enough of them and with the gun port framing in place, hopefully they will have strengthened up sufficiently to withstand some sanding.

 



 

The key thing to remember is to check all the time with a piece of hull planking. Given that this is a plank-on-bulkhead model, the joints between hull planks will fall on the bulkheads so having a good base to glue them against is critical. The hull plank should follow a natural run and then smoothly fall against the bulkhead. Where the hull curves significantly, you may have to twist the hull plank a bit or apply some pressure on it, but it should fall flat against the bulkhead in any case.

 

Once you've checked all the bulkheads across the full length of each bulkhead, it is also important to check the full run of the plank. If you clamp it against each bulkhead, do you have a smooth run or are there some kinks or awkward bends in it? If so, now is the time to change this. The repair I carried out on one bulkhead previously because it was sitting 1mm too high worked out nicely and with some sanding I regained a smooth run of the hull.

 



 

Step 3: Framing Templates

 

With the fairing done I was excited to progress to the next chapter of the manual. However, once I've cut out the frames and put them against the model, they didn't line up at all. I checked and re-checked, measured everything up and checked whether my bulkheads are still square against the former but all adds up and there's no mistakes. I also read in other build logs that sometimes the company send the wrongly scaled templates, but I checked them against the A2 plan and it all matches up. 

 

My bulkheads are also square against the former and I rechecked this. In any case, it can't be the reason why they won't line up as the creep is nearly identical on starboard and port side:

 



 



 

The only thing that I can think of is that the templates are pushed too far out because I haven't faired the bulkwarks yet, thereby introducing creep that gets progressively worse as you proceed along the hull. Any ideas are welcome though!

 

Nevertheless, it doesn't stop me from putting a temporary batton in place in order to establish to run for the gunport sills and then to start working on the sills and lintels and subsequently fair the bulkwarks. Once I've done this, I can recheck the templates and see if the line up better. Watch this space! :-)

 

Kind regards,

 

Martijn.

USS Brig Syren
Part 2: The Bulkhead Former, Rabbet and Stem Knee
 
Step 1: Bulkhead Former and Keel Holder
The first thing that I noticed when I unpacked the bulkhead former was how warped the wood was. Granted, I've seen worse on the forum, but I wasn't quite expecting this. Secondly, the wood appeared very soft to me and indeed very fragile. I've read lots of stories how people experienced that certain parts snapped off and I now understand how that could easily happen.
 
I contemplated for a moment to cut my own bulkhead former and bulkheads from some other and stronger wood, but given that I don't have a proper scroll saw (yet!) I parked that idea and decided to run with what was in the box. Should things snap, I can always make my own. 
 

 
In order to get rid of the warping in the wood I skipped ahead to Chapter 2 in the manual and created a keel holder. Luckily I had some pieces of wood in the shed (the benefits of 4.5 years of DIY in my previous house) that were ideal for the job. Ideal, expect the fact that they were warped as well. Luckily, my trusted metal ruler was true and straight so after some measuring and bending of the wood whilst I glued and nailed it to the base I managed to get the warping out of the wood. 
 
After inserting the bulkhead former into the keel holder I put the ruler next to it and voila.... as straight as it can be. It's amazing how exhilarating and fulfilling little things like this can be. I can already see that this will be a nice hobby!
 

 
Step 2: Rabbet
After I was satisfied that the warping can be negated with the keel holder and then later on fixated by adding bulkheads and bulkhead fillers, I proceeded to cut the rabbet to size (leaving it slightly oversized), soak it in luke-warm water for 10 minutes and then leave it to dry on the bulkhead former whilst held into place by clamps and elastic band.
 
Another observation was made: the clamps that I have bought are rather strong and leave indentations in the wood, so a note to myself was made to in the future put a piece of scrap wood between the clamps and the final wood. Furthermore, once soaked, the wood was incredibly easy to bend. I wonder if pear will have similar properties, as I intend to be using that for my hull planking. Alas, the pear has not yet arrived so I can't test.
 

 
Step 3: Stem Knee
The manual stated that the stem knee needed to be tapered in order for the figurehead to fit on it. So I took the sexy vixen Syren out of her plastic bag, lingeringly ran my fingertips over her and gazed upon her shapely curves until I felt a tap on my shoulder and got the evil eye from the Admiral. With a blush on the cheeks I remarked how warm the conservatory was and that it was a purely professional relationship that we had.
 
Anyways, quickly moving on I placed the Syren roughly where she would sit and traced a rough outline around her, thereby ensuring that I would not get too excited whilst sanding and end up eating in the edge that will lie against the rabbet. With a big contour sander I proceeded to gently taper the stem knee, often checking with the figurehead to ensure that I don't go too far. This seems to be one of the key principles of the hobby: measure and check again and again and again. 
 

 
After a while I ensured a smooth fit between the stem knee and the figurehead.I noticed that the bottom part of the figurehead will need some gently manipulation in the future as she will probably interfere with other elements of the ship as she currently would sit. I'm not sure in how far this will matter, as I'm intend to try to carve a new figure head as I'm not too impressed with the quality of the casting but given that I've never ever carved anything, at least I got a fall-back option.
 

 
Happy with the results I realised that the stem knee in reality would not have been a single piece of wood and remembered that on one of the building logs I saw that somebody added some fake lines to simulate that the stem knee was constructed of multiple pieces. Of course, with my scatter brain, I had no idea whose log it was so after trawling through most of them I saw Dubz' log again and noticed that he was the one who did it. By the way, Dubz, your log has been a great inspiration for me so be prepared that I'll be regularly plagiarising your work (copying is the most sincere form of flattery they say!)....
 
After some delicate measuring I traced the outline with a pencil and then played around a bit on a scrap piece of wood with a hobby knife. I noticed that the cut would be too fine to notice, but that when tracing it with a micro awl with moderate pressure, I got the result that I was looking for. I then traced the lines that hit the edge of the stem knee towards the flip-side of the piece of wood and replicated the exact same pattern. I learned that when tracing something, you have to hold your tool of choice very closely against a ruler as otherwise it may jump out of place and follow the natural grain of the wood. Luckily, the one time this happened it wasn't very noticeable!
 

 
That's the progress so far, not bad for a couple of hours work I guess. This evening I'll be once more reading up on Chapter 2 (always good to read ahead) and hopefully tomorrow I'll find some time to taper the bulkhead former between the bearding line and the rabbet, and to glue the stem knee and keel and to temporarily tape the false keel. 
 
Kind regards,
 
Martijn.

Well, unfortunately the Syren is stil lingering in the drydock as our twins have arrived and the combination of sleep deprivation and nappy duty is keeping me away from the ship. Even dreamed about her last night, about putting her in storage. One could say it was a nightmare!

Hi guys (m/f) ;-)
 
The finished setup:
 

 

 

 
on the sides there will be two more pieces of carving..
 
Best,
Michiel

Here's the finale version:
 






 
For those interested here:
 
http://www.modelships-beagle.eu/smf/index.php/topic,960.msg56442.html#msg56442
 
is a full track of the carving
 
Have fun,

USS Brig Syren

Part 6: Gun Port Lintels and Sweep Ports

 

Step 1: Gun Port Lintels

For the gun port lintels I used the same approach as for the sills, as in that I ignored the templates and got a temporary batton in place. I've read on various other blogs that they with their lintels they had them glued in the right place, but then when they checked a while later gravity had taken it's toll and they were no longer in the right location. Therefore, I decided to align the top of the temporary batton with the bottom of the lintels, so the lintels could somewhat rest on the temporary batton.

 

Given that that the natural flow had been established for the sills, it was just a case of replicating this flow for the lintels whilst bearing in mind that a distance of 15/32" should remain between them, as that's the height and width of the gunports. I toyed with making a 15/32" block of wood to get this distance consistent across the whole run of the ship, but instead reverted back to my trusted calipher.

 

I basically used my calipher to quickly mark the appropriate distance by hand, clamped a temporary batton in place and then re-measured with the calipher and adjusted. Once the distance between temporary batton and gun port sill was perfectly 15/32", I double-checked the flow of the batton before I started placing the gun port lintels.

 



 

Step 2: Sanding

With the lintels and sills in place I felt that the bulwarks were now sufficiently supported to take some serious sanding. I was still somewhat apprehensive, given that I had snapped a fair few previously, but it was remarkable how strong the ship now had become. Still, a fair bit of sanding had to take place in order to ensure that the bulkwarks would end up as 3/32" below the railcap and 1/8" thick at the deck level.

 

I tried various tools, including electrical ones but at the end of the day nothing beats some elbow-grease I found. The outside of the ship was rather easy to sand as you had easy access and the curve of the ship helped, the inside turned out to be a completely different kettle of fish. Luckily I had seen this problem coming so I ensured that the lintels and sills were placed as much as possible towards the outside, with as little as possible sticking out on the inside.

 

Eventually I ended up using three tools over and over again. Especially the big sander turned out to be a life-safer on the sanding of the inside given it's many curved angles.

 



 


Step 3: Sweep Ports

After some rigorous sanding, the gunport templates started to line up very well but still I decided to used my own measurements for the sweep-ports and once again used my calipher to ensure that everything was at the right distance of each other. 

 



 



Step 4: More Sanding

With the sweep-ports final sanding took place, once again by hand. It's imperative to constantly keep checking with a temporary batton to ensure that you're fairing the hull correctly for planking later on. I've completed the whole hull now and re-took measurements, it's now just a case of fine-tuning here and there.

 



 



 



 

Off to Chapter Four - Stern Framing! Let's see how many of those little buggers I'll manage to snap! :-)

 

Kind regards,

 

Martijn.


 

Thanks for the contribution guys,
 
at least now the question is reduced to wether the pw had bronze or iron guns, not clear at the moment.
 
for now I'll assume bronze.
 
here's my first attempt at carving them:
 

 


 

 
I assume that by leaving the opening closed by a thin wall, so that the silicone will not completely encircle the handles I will actually be able to cast them...
 
If someone as has a reason to beleave other wise please let me know ;-)
 
Best,
Michiel

I decided, mainly based on the excellent examples I've seen here to cast the gun barrels from Tin using silicon moulds.
 
with this I also decided that I should than also add all the details. This brings me to the dolphin shaped handles on top. Some barrels have them some don't. The books on the seven provincien all feature them. However all the barrels I know from my birth town Vlissingen, like these:
 

 
 
 
don't but than again:
 
 
 
these does 
 

 
to make it more complicated the drawings from the Adelaar wreck:
 

 
show them only on the 6 pounder...
 
So I'm trying to decide wether the barrels that have been present on the Prins Willem would have had them and other decoration, or if they would have been as smooth as some of the barrels above. 
 
If any of you has some deep insights please enlighten me….
 
Best,
Michiel
 
(ps the original PW model did not have guns, at least they did not survive…. )

I finished another little detail - the rudder coat. Image one shows the jig and process which I used to make this piece. The finished rudder coat mounted on the stern of the Syren model can be seen in images 2, 3 and 4.
 
Thomas
 
 

Image 1 Jig and process for making the rudder coat
 
 

Image 2
 
 

Image 3
 
 

Image 4
 
 
 

Have fun, it is a really fun build and I am having a blast although I cant find enough time to work on itl there are plenty of Syren build logs that will complement the excellent manual. Looking forward to your build!

Setting up to bevel bulkheads.

Welcome to another Syren build log!
 
I couldn't resist the Ebay bargain that I found of this kit on the Model Expo site, so I decided to make it my next project. Here is a sneak preview of how she was packed for shipping to my home city.
 


 
I have to say that the overall care was impressive in the way the kit was packaged! Considering that it had to come all the way from the US to my home town in Australia, it arrived nicely.
 
I have had a glimpse over the contents, and instruction manual/plans. I am very impressed with the level of detail in the instruction manual! The parts are nice and neatly packed, and it even included an apology letter stating that Model Expo was short on the Cannon Balls part. All I had to do was e-mail them and they will be sent free of charge! Great service! You can see why people on this forum have great things to say about Model Expo.
 
For now I will leave it as a teaser preview of whats to come. I would like to finish my Mare Nostrum before beginning the Syren...although it is calling out to be built. I must hold off on the temptation, and complete my Mare!
 
Regards
 
Adam

I finished the stern davits. I made them out of pear wood (image 1) and mounted them (image 2) by notching the davits (and not the stern). I felt it would be easier to recover from potential mistakes using this method. Images 3 and 4 show the davits in their final position.
 
Thomas
 
 

Image 1
 
 

Image 2
 
 

Image 3
 
 

Image 4
 

A little update.
Deck fittings in place.

Still hectic at my job but I've done some work on the model.
 
The main mast is now mounted and I also made two more tops. The details on the smaleest one is much reworked to fit and get more in scale. I also noticecd the problem Karl mentioned in his Vasa thread about the squared hole being to small so I widened it a little and will also rework the mizzen mast a little to make it work.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
/Matti

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.

During the last weeks I spent some time on the figurehead.
 
As shown in the following images I used a block of pear wood cut to the right dimensions with a hand scroll saw (image 1a), glued a copy of the Syren figurehead from Chuck’s plans on it, cut it out roughly with the scroll saw (image 1b) and mounted it on a copy of the bow as a stand for carving (image 1c). By means of a rotary tool, different carving knifes and my sanding sticks (already used for the head rail) I refined the shape of the figurehead (image 2). The arms (and later also the head) were separated from the body as it was easier for me to focus on the body shape and the arms/ head as individual pieces. In this way the chances are also increased not to mess up the whole figure if the one or other part does not work out the first time  . The obvious disadvantage of this method is, however, that the figure needs to be pieced together later without showing too many seams. This turned out to be more challenging than initially expected.
 
As a next step the scales for the fish tail and the fin pattern were inscribed (image 3). To make the details more visible I enhanced them with some graphite powder gained from a pencil. The excess powder was “washed away” with Golden Oak wood stain (MinWax). Then I carved arms and head as separate pieces (image 4). Getting a decent looking face at that scale is a bit tricky.
 
The different parts of the figure were finally assembled, correct transitions between the parts established and the seams hidden. The result is shown in images 5 – 9.
 

Image 1
 

Image 2
 

Image 3
 

Image 4
 

Image 5
 

Image 6
 

Image 7
 

Image 8
 

Image 9
 

Thanks Al, really appreciate the kind words.
 
I think my education as an engineer has taught me a certain structured way of thinking and to measure everything - and again - before you commit. Other than that, all it takes is patience... which I'm learning to have more of! :-)

It amazes me that some people can take on a challenge like the Syren as a beginner and do such fantastic work. You are an inspiration.
 
Al D.

USS Brig Syren

Part 6: Gun Port Lintels and Sweep Ports

 

Step 1: Gun Port Lintels

For the gun port lintels I used the same approach as for the sills, as in that I ignored the templates and got a temporary batton in place. I've read on various other blogs that they with their lintels they had them glued in the right place, but then when they checked a while later gravity had taken it's toll and they were no longer in the right location. Therefore, I decided to align the top of the temporary batton with the bottom of the lintels, so the lintels could somewhat rest on the temporary batton.

 

Given that that the natural flow had been established for the sills, it was just a case of replicating this flow for the lintels whilst bearing in mind that a distance of 15/32" should remain between them, as that's the height and width of the gunports. I toyed with making a 15/32" block of wood to get this distance consistent across the whole run of the ship, but instead reverted back to my trusted calipher.

 

I basically used my calipher to quickly mark the appropriate distance by hand, clamped a temporary batton in place and then re-measured with the calipher and adjusted. Once the distance between temporary batton and gun port sill was perfectly 15/32", I double-checked the flow of the batton before I started placing the gun port lintels.

 



 

Step 2: Sanding

With the lintels and sills in place I felt that the bulwarks were now sufficiently supported to take some serious sanding. I was still somewhat apprehensive, given that I had snapped a fair few previously, but it was remarkable how strong the ship now had become. Still, a fair bit of sanding had to take place in order to ensure that the bulkwarks would end up as 3/32" below the railcap and 1/8" thick at the deck level.

 

I tried various tools, including electrical ones but at the end of the day nothing beats some elbow-grease I found. The outside of the ship was rather easy to sand as you had easy access and the curve of the ship helped, the inside turned out to be a completely different kettle of fish. Luckily I had seen this problem coming so I ensured that the lintels and sills were placed as much as possible towards the outside, with as little as possible sticking out on the inside.

 

Eventually I ended up using three tools over and over again. Especially the big sander turned out to be a life-safer on the sanding of the inside given it's many curved angles.

 



 


Step 3: Sweep Ports

After some rigorous sanding, the gunport templates started to line up very well but still I decided to used my own measurements for the sweep-ports and once again used my calipher to ensure that everything was at the right distance of each other. 

 



 



Step 4: More Sanding

With the sweep-ports final sanding took place, once again by hand. It's imperative to constantly keep checking with a temporary batton to ensure that you're fairing the hull correctly for planking later on. I've completed the whole hull now and re-took measurements, it's now just a case of fine-tuning here and there.

 



 



 



 

Off to Chapter Four - Stern Framing! Let's see how many of those little buggers I'll manage to snap! :-)

 

Kind regards,

 

Martijn.


 

USS Brig Syren
Part 5: Gun Port Sills
 
Well, progress has been virtually non-existent the last month or so. First we had a bit of a heart-attack as at the 12 weeks scan the sonographer dropped a bomb-shell on us: "Well, here's your baby.... and here's your second baby." Apparently my girlfriend was laughing hysterically and I was white as a sheet. Very happy of course once it sunk it, but reading up and shopping takes a lot of time, and the little peanuts aren't even born yet.
 
Drop on top of that a new job in London, so I'm away during the week, and time to work on my beloved Syren suddenly has become a precious commodity. Nevertheless, today is a bank holiday so I've finally managed to complete Chapter Three.
 
Step 1: Gun Port Templates
As you would have read in my previous post, I was somwhat flabbergasted as the templates that were provided with the kit really didn't line up with reality, which was rather frustrating as I had spend so much time ensuring that my bulkheads were square to the former. Eventually it dawned on me that the only thing I hadn't done well enough was the fairing of the bulkheads, and that they needed some further sanding. I got on with it and eventually the templates started to fall in line. They still weren't perfect, but given that plenty more sanding will follow in order to line up the gun port sills and lintels, I didn't want to go too far at the first step.
 

 
Step 2: Gun Port Sill Height
Another thing that came apparent from the templates that if I followed the laser-etched markets on the bulkheads, I wouldn't get a natural flow but also that the vertical location of them seemed somewhat out of line. I flicked through the manual and noticed the following build-up from the top of the bulkhead former:   - Deck planking: 1/16" - Waterway: 1/16" - Space between top of sill and top of waterway: 1/16"     Getting the right vertical location of the gunport sills is critical, as otherwise at a later stage your waterway may be too close or too far from it, which will impact on the look of your finished model. So I quickly knocked up a little piece of wood that gave me the appropriate distance and scribed new marks on the bulkheads, ignoring the original laser-etched ones.   Step 3: Gun Port Sill Flow With the new vertical locations marked on each bulkhead, I could tentatively clamp a temporary batton in place. From there on it's just a case of constantly checking it by eye from the sides to ensure that you have a natural flow. Key is that you don't try to force the batton in place, but try to let it run as much as possible how it wants to, bearing in mind that it doesn't stray too far away from your markers.     It's a good idea to check the run from every angle possible. I found that once I had established a natural run from one angle, it didn't always feel smooth enough from another one.      Once I was satisfied with my gunport run, I added a temporary batton on the port run. This is important as you don't want to start getting the lintel in place on one side, before you mirror it as closely as possible on the other side in case further adjustments are needed. I basically followed the same procedure as for the gunport side, and once I had established a natural flow I checked on the stern and stem to ensure that they ended up in the same position. Luckily, mine did. With some further measurements and minor adjustments and managed to get a identical run on both sides of the ship.     Step 4: Gun Port Sill Placement I used a different approach from the manual when I started placing my gunport sills as in that I left my temporary batton clamped in place. After all the careful measurements that I had done to ensure a natural flow, I felt that I wouldn't be able to quite replicate that by marking the bulkheads, so instead used the temporary batton as a guide. This gave the benefit that it was really quick and easy to put the gunport sills in place, whilst it also gave me a great guide to ensure that they were level in the horizontal plane.     Once I had left the carpenter's glue to dry overnight I removed the temporary batton and checked the flow of the sills from all angles. After that, it was just a case of replicating the process on the port side.      
Kind regards,
 
Martijn.