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

[mrangus]

Nice detail work Jesse. Looks nice even under the unforgiving photo lens....

[GLakie]

She's looking better all the time Jesse!  I hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

[Elijah]

Those are nice steps! Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year full of shipbuilding!

[rtropp]

Jesse

Looking very sharp. Its a pleasure to watch your work

Richard

[Piet]

Really nice work JesseLee.  Merry Christmas and have a prosperous and healthy 2016.

[dgbot]

Looking good Jessie.  What is the wire net for?

David B

[JesseLee]

David, that's actually the bottom side of a piece of marble counter top. Got scrap pieces for free from a company who stacks them outside the plant & lets people get what they want. I think it is fiber glassed on the bottom. I had the piece upside down because my small pieces were rolling off the workbench & netting part was keeping my small parts from rolling off.

[popeye the sailor]

nice progress Jesse......side profile looks super  

[cog]

JesseLee,

 

Progressing nicely, and looking good!!!

[JesseLee]

Haven't posted in a while. There hasn't been a lot to picture & post but I've been working on it. I'm on the scrolled cheeks & head rails. I studied upon others build logs on these steps.

 

I figured out a way to guide my scroll lines. I used a paper clip with the end filed to a point. Sorry for the bad lighting in some of these pictures. I hold it next to the wood & it slides along the edge marking as it goes. Then I cut it out with blades & mini files. The problem is the wood the kit provides for these pieces. They provide basswood which is horrible for trying to scroll like this. I read up on Dirks build & he had the same problem. I agree with him this requires much better wood for theses steps. I don't have anything like swiss pear which everyone seems to say works well for this. I did have some flexible beech gifted to me by someone but I didn't have enough different with sizes to make all the parts & I wanted to keep all these parts made out of the same wood so they would all match. I went on & made them with what was provided but the wood slinters, fuzzes, splits, etc. I don't like it at all. I tried to live with it & make it work at first but... well you'll see. I'll show what developed over several different postings.

 

This first set of photos are making the scrolled cheeks.

 

 

[JesseLee]

The next pics are making the catheads. No problem with these. Made false sheaves by drilling holes & grooving out the wood between the holes. Made cleat by stepping the wood & a wood pin for the false cleat.  Pegged them for extra strength. Cut a piece of cardboard to keep the same angle for the catheads shown on the plans. Theses had to be done first so I could get the right fit for the head rails. Again, sorry for the lighting quality in some of these photos.

 

 

[GLakie]

I think you did good Jesse, considering working with basswood. There's something I remember from another poster, (can't remember which one) , who "hardened" the basswood he was working on, with thin CA so it would hold an edge better. Don't know if that will work with the cheeks and head rails though, but it might be worth investigating. 

[JesseLee]

Made the upper head rails attached them, began work on the middle head rail. Got them all cut out, fit a9this is a difficult angle) & grooved when the same problem keeps coming up. Basswood sucks for trying to scroll at such a small width! I have been trying to live with it because I don't want to have to  mill & cut out all this with nothing but scraps of wood that are way too thick when all I have is a dremel & a few small hand tools. Like Dirk I just cant accept this. The rails split & some of the photos show how bad the scrolling looks on this wood. I made the decision to tear it all off & fabricate the pieces myself out of different wood. That has been another time consuming situation to deal with. Soon I will post what I have been doing with that process.

 

Jesse

 

[JesseLee]

I did experiment with that George, with mixed results. There can be staining issues with CA- it doesn't take stain well.  It didn't always absorb deep enough in the wood. Sometimes the raised edge of the scrolling splintered off anyway. I did find out that these newer stainable wood glues do take stain well. There were spots where I scooped a ridge of glue to fill a flaked off ridge. When it dried it blended in ok but everything was looking too rough & patched up & I couldn't live with it.

[mtaylor]

I've used a 50-50 mix of water and wood glue to harden basswood.  About all I can say is that it works.  It might take paint, but I doubt it will take stain.

[Piet]

I know what you mean JesseLee, about using soft wood requiring some detailed work.  I tan into the same problem with balsa on that little lobster smack kit.  

I bought a product made by Minwax called "Wood Hardener."  The can says that it penetrates dee into the wood, reinforces soft wood fibers and forms a solid base for filling.

It did work pretty good for me but you have to give it time to cure.  

 

Another option is to get some poplar from Home Depot or Lowes.  It's a lot harder then bass but still considered soft wood.  With care it works pretty well for detail work and with this Minwax hardener it may just be what you need.

 

Hope you'll find the right solution.  I would opt for the poplar though.

 

Cheers,

[rtropp]

I have reworked the rails a number of times.  I decided to use boxwood, which was a lot better than the supplied basswood. Even so, with my inexperience, i have remade, reinstalled and remove the rails a number of times.  I think, after a number of weeks, that I may be ready to get it right.  I will try your paper clip idea as I am not have a lot of success with the razor blade shaping approach.

Richard

[JesseLee]

The family cat Izzy decided she wanted to sleep on my work bench last night so she cleared an area of it off to lay down. Along with sanding sticks & mini files she shoved all the wood scrolled molding I've been reworking & dozens of pre-made eyebolts & tiny things like that. Still cant find all the wooden parts. Will have to re-do again some of the head rail pieces again. The carpet has swallowed up many of the tiny metal pieces that will probably never be recovered. Weeks of fabrication lost!

[DenPink]

Hi Jessy

With the metal parts try a magnet.

 

BTW it was me that gave you the flexible beech.

 

Denis.

[GLakie]

Hate to hear that Jesse!  One solution I've found to work pretty well for really small things lost in the carpet, is those lint remover rollers after lightly brushing the rug with a backwards sweep of a comb to bring them back up to the top. Might help retrieve most of the parts. 

[Elijah]

I wish I had some advice to share, but I don't. Good luck finding those parts!

[Canute]

Ouch, Jesse!   No intelligent fixes for that, short of locking the kitty out of your workshop.

[GaryKap]

Jesse -

 

Ouch!  Events like that are really painful.  If I might offer a suggestion for retrieving those small lost parts - if you have a shop vac, clean it out and then carefully but thoroughly vacuum under and around your work area.  Then sift through the "can" on the shop vac to look for the small parts.  This has worked for me in the (recent) past - those gun port hinges on SYREN.  If you don't have a shop vac, you could maybe borrow one from a friend, or buy one at WalMart.  They aren't that expensive and are a great help for keeping the shipyard tidy.

 

Good luck.

 

<<Gary>> 

[CaptainSteve]

Jesse. There was a post here on MSW that I recall seeing some time ago which may hopefully help you ...

The suggestion was to put some stocking material over the end of your vacuum cleaner. Then clean around the area. The stocking should stop any small pieces from disappearing into the nether regions of your vacuum bag.

[lambsbk]

...I'm glad your ship wasn't on the bench!

[Moonbug]

  Hello Jesse... sorry to hear about the feline intrusion.  I just wanted to let you you know I've used the suggestion Capt Steven makes: stocking / pantyhose over the end of a vacuum hose trick in the past and it works quite well.

 

Good luck,

 

- Bug

[rtropp]

Jessie,

tough break.  It happens to me all the time but no cat... just clumsy.  So, I bought some fine mesh window screen repair patches (4" squares) and clamped them to the end of my 1 1/4 inch vacuum hose.  It is now permanently mounted so I can use the vacuum to collect saw dust at my work table.  I actually have a car kit extension over the mesh.  If I pick up something I need, i just take off the car kit and the the object is caught in the screen.

 

Richard

[GaryKap]

Jesse -

 

Just to let you know...I am working on the SYREN head rails and am having the same problem as you:  they keep splitting and breaking .  I have to keep getting up and walking away until my frustration settles down.  So you are not alone in this.  On balance though, many other ship model kits don't provide nearly as much material and direction for construction of the head rails as the MS SYREN.

 

<<Gary>>

 

Added at 4:50 pm   Well...I just broke both middle rails AGAIN!!!  I have just joined the club of posters who have been saying that at least some of the wood parts of these model kits should be of a decent quality so this does not occur.  It does no good to have lovely laser cut finely engineered pieces that break in your fingers or with the slightest pressure from a tool.  

Edited January 26, 2016 by GaryKap

[cog]

JesseLee,

 

Had some catchin up to do, nice progress, sorry to hear about that glitch in your stock  production. I do prefere horss over cats ... they tend to stay off tables and workbenches ... however, they are a pain in the house ...

 

Like the details in your work. Looking better and better

 

cheers

[JesseLee]

Thanks Dirk, Dennis, George, Elijah, Ken, Gary, Steve, Dave, Bug, Richard, Carl for the encouragement & tips.

 

Dennis, thanks again for the wood. I have used some of the Lime & Beech for several different smaller things but nothing big yet. I'm still amazed at how flexible the Beech really is.

 

Thanks guys for the tips on picking up the fine parts- I'll start doing that. Did find a lot of my small eyebolts I formed with a magnet. I have learned to string my eyebolts on a looped wire.

 

Gary, I feel your pain. I have been remaking those pieces out of other wood but it is going ...s...l....o.....w......!!!!

 

Hopefully there will be enough progress to get back to some log pics soon

 

Jesse