Syren by JesseLee - FINISHED - Model Shipways - scale: 1:64

[GLakie]

Looks good Jesse!  

[mrangus]

Looks good Jesse. the rose aura is cool.

[JesseLee]

Not sure how that happened. My camera has different settings & the same one doesn't always focus right so I have to change it sometimes to get the shot I want. Different picture modes show the light different. I'm no expert on all this techno stuff so I never know how these things will turn out.

[lambsbk]

Just catching up Jesse. Looking great.

[JesseLee]

Got the stern cap rail constructed & painted. Stained the unpainted outer hull planks with a golden oak/golden pecan mix. painted the inboard stern red.

 

 

 

[GLakie]

Nice job on the rail Jesse. I like the black. 

[Beef Wellington]

Very nice indeed Jesse, the wood tone looks great against the black.

Edited August 19, 2015 by Beef Wellington

[cog]

Nice JesseLee. Those are some serious clamps you are using there

[JesseLee]

Thanks George, Jason & Carl ! Those clamps are some new plastic clothes pins that are out now. They have rubber padding & work great for clamping wood. 

 

I forgot to show the molding strips. Somehow I forgot to take pics of the process. I cut the groove in them with small needle files. I found this worked better for me than using the awl like the instructions said. I soaked them & made the curve with an old curling iron the wife doesn't use anymore. Glued them on & stained them. I spaced them by using a scrap piece of wood between them that was the right size.

 

 Sorry the pic quality isn't that good.

 

 

[PeterN67]

snap... i broke three of mine bulkheads, one by myself and  2 by the movers who moved my house..... but very glad to have seen your fix... will do the same for mine.. thanks for the tip. she's looking grand...

Edited August 19, 2015 by PeterN67

[JesseLee]

Thanks Peter. I broke a lot more bulkheads than I showed in this log! I seem to be awful heavy handed & clumsy with them.

[lambsbk]

I don't see any clumsiness Jesse. Great to see your work coming along.

 

Dave

[Gahm]

The stern of your Syren turned out very nice indeed! Especially the cap rail which is one of the more difficult parts to build!

 

Thomas

[JesseLee]

Think I'm going to wait on the cap rail until after I plank the deck & copper plate the hull. I have already dented up the stern cap rail doing all this other work.

 

The deck planking is next. Trying to figure out a planking pattern. This is one of the most difficult steps for me. Trying to look over other  Syren builds. Seems everyone takes a different approach. Will probably do whatever pattern will butt up to the actual bulkheads that are with the model to make it simpler for me but just not sure.

[cog]

JesseLee,

 

You may want to put a thick cloth on your workbench if you need to turn her over ... less chance on damaging caprails e.a.

[JesseLee]

Getting confused & frustrated a little. Already glued my margin planks on but thinking it would have been better not too yet. Seems it would be easier to cut notches out for joggled plank ends if the margin planks are removable. The instructions are a little vague on the planking pattern. It mentions the four butt system but doesn't show any planking patterns at all. They show good pics fore but no clear deck shots aft. Looking over other builds. Some have tapered the planks going toward the bow. The instructions don't seem to show this but it is not clear. I'd rather not have to do this because of having to figure out the exact width would drive me insane. If not wouldn't the planking be joggled aft also? The instructions miss this. Getting concerned about the cast metal parts supplied in the kit. I don't have that kind of carving skills & have no idea how to make metal look like wood & also match the wood color. Don't know what I'm going to do.

[Beef Wellington]

Jesse, not exactly experienced in this area either, but this worked for me.  I shaped the margin planks as I went and actually glued in position last.  Found shaping each plank end first allowed the profile to be transferred to the margin plank and doing it that way also allowed small errors to be corrected as I went.  It also meant that in the event of catastrophic failure, would be relatively easy to make another one.  Think there are some pictures in my log.

 

I avoided tapering the deck planks for similar reasons as I just could be confident I'd be able to get to the appropriate tolerances to look right and get good symmetry, luckily on 'Jason' though the areas where this would be most noticeable will be obscured by upper deck so I may try in the future....that being said, I believe the time period in question is when there was a transition to more industrialized production which resulted in using straight planks rather than individually shaped ones.

[_SalD_]

Jesse, I don't know if you've had a chance to look at my build but I tied to explain the different planking patterns, 3 butt, 4 butt and what Chuck used.  see link 

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/8410-us-brig-syren-by-sald-–-model-shipways/?p=292710. 

 

Also the planking is tapered towards the stern not the bow.  Your right though, if you don't taper the planks at the stern you should nib them into the margin plank otherwise they will end at a point. I tapered mine so I didn't need to do that.

 

I didn't find nibbing the margin plank at the bow with it glued in place to difficult.  I cut the deck plank first then laid it on top of the margin plank to mark where I needed to cut it.

 

Hope this helps.

[augie]

Just catching up.  Nice progress!  Check your local hobby store and hopefully they have some paint that can make metal look like wood.  I think I found some under the Testor's Model Master line.

[JesseLee]

Thinning down the inside bulwarks turned out to be way more involved than I expected. Took a long time & keeping them the same thickness was really fun . I ended up with notches in the bulkheads. Filled  them in with wood filler. Planked the inside bulwarks.

 

 

[augie]

Yes, that thinning is tedious.  But the inboard planking looks great.  You'll get more thinning work on the ship's boat!!

[Piet]

Nice planking on the bulwarks JesseLee.

 

Cheers,

[popeye the sailor]

looking good Jesse........the cap rails will tell the tale 

[JesseLee]

Getting behind on my posting, got a lot of catching up to do.

 

As I stated earlier, I'm going to wait on the cap rail right now but will work it in before too long. Got the inboard bulwarks painted red. Took a clearer shot of the transom molding- that first pic was pretty out of focus. Glued the forward margin planks down & did the companionway framing.

 

My stupid computer wont load the pics in order again but you can tell what's what.

 

 

[cog]

JesseLee,

 

Jupz, that's a model boat under construction ... Looking good ... you got the bit about the computer right as well!!!

[GLakie]

Looking good Jesse. You've got a nice solid coat of Bulwarks Red on her. 

[JesseLee]

Thanks Carl & George!

 

Now the deck planking. Got the rest of the margin planks down. The thought of joggling had me joggled for a while but I finally decided to go for it. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be but did have some goof up's along the way. I studied the instructions & others build logs trying to figure out what butt shift to do. I settled with the one Chuck showed in the instruction manual because it made it much easier for me to have them always lay on the existing bulkheads ( a little confused as to which butt shift this actually is ). I did the caulking the same way I did the outer bulwarks, I used black paint- wiped on like stain to keep it thin. Was very unsure of how well I would get the planking spaced & keep it straight from front to back so I slowly cut it all out & dry fitted the whole deck before I glued anything down - holding a lot of planks in place with strips of masking tape to keep it from popping all out on me. This was the first step in this whole build where I got it right the first time. Didn't have to start over anywhere- it all fit right so I picked each piece back up & glued it back down. The glue must really swell the wood because the glued pieces all fitted tighter than the non-glued dry fitted pieces.

 

[Chuck]

Nice progress!!!   You are getting a lot done. It looks just great.  

[JesseLee]

Thank you Chuck, this is a great build!

 

Scraped the deck with a razor blade. Got it all even & smooth but nicked the crap out of my bulwarks in the process! Got a lot of spots to fill & re-paint!

Edited September 18, 2015 by JesseLee

[Omega1234]

Hi Jesse

 

The deck looks great, despite the collateral damage to the bulwarks. Hopefully the patching up won't be too much of a pain!

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

Edited September 18, 2015 by Omega1234