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

[JesseLee]

When I finally decided to tear off the cheeks & head rails I wasn't sure what I could re-do them with since I don't have a lot of milled wood to work with. I do have some lime wood & beech given to me by Dennis all the way from New Zealand. The problem with that was the upper head rail needs such a wide piece that none of these strips would work. I wanted to have all the cheeks & rails made out of the same kind of wood to keep the staining consistent so I had to find another option. I was going to look into getting a piece of poplar from Lowes like Piet told me about but I still haven't been able to get there yet (since being disabled from chronic lyme I can't drive anymore). So I rummaged through all the scrap I've got & found some blocks that were large enough for the upper rail. Don't know what kind of wood it is. It is hard but not real hard. The sawdust from it was yellowish. Anyway with nothing much but some small hand tools & a small hobby saw I painstakingly milled it down & cut & carved out the cheeks & head rails. This wood did so much better than the original basswood did but not as good as a harder wood would. I did have to harden it up some with watered down PVA when I cut the scroll lines. Much happier with these than the first ones.

 

Used some aluminum tubing for the hawse holes. Still working on the deck side of them.

 

Jesse

 

[mtaylor]

Very nice work on the head rails and cheeks, Jessee.  They look great!

[Elijah]

I agree with Mark! I'm glad you have gotten it worked out .

[Burroak]

Jesse your doing a great job. I hope the head rails on my ship turn out close to that.

[cog]

Neat result JesseLee.

[_SalD_]

Nice work Jesse, headrails came out great.

[gjdale]

Great job Jesse!

[GLakie]

Your headrails turned out great Jesse. Certainly a milestone!   

[GaryKap]

Jesse -

 

Very nicely done, and a good "save".  Your head rails are a metaphor for many other things in life - never give up and keep on going.  You worked with what you had and produced a result that looks as good as any of the other build logs on this site.  Keep it up.

 

<<Gary>>

[Piet]

Well done JesseLee!  That unknown brand of wood looks very nice and so does your head rail and cheeks.

 

Cheers,

[Gahm]

You are on a very good track with that head rail! This is one of the most difficult parts of the whole Syren build!

 

Thomas

[popeye the sailor]

hey there Jesse.......I see it's never a dull moment at your ship yard.   I hope you recovered most of the parts......naughty kitty      good to see though that your making some progress.......and looking very nice in the process      super job with the head rails.

[JesseLee]

Thanks for all the positive feedback & all the likes.

 

I made the top rails out of the same mystery wood & scrolled them the same way. The instructions say to drill the holes for the stanchions part way through the bottom of the top rails then glue wire stanchions (left a little long) in top rail holes, dry fit & measure wires against upper head rails to mark hole positions & get wire lengths. Drill holes half way into top side of upper head rails, clip wires off to right length & assemble all this. I found it easier to glue top rail on then drill from underneath straight through the upper head rails  up into the bottom side of the top rails.  I cut the stanchions to the correct lengths, pushed them up into the holes& glued them. Filled the holes left on the bottoms of the upper head rails with glue & sawdust mix. Worked very well & hardly shows at all. Then made the bumpkins & glued them on. Pinned them with small wires to hold better

 

Jesse

 

 

[GLakie]

Nice job on those headrails Jesse! The symmetry is perfect! 

[captgino]

Very nice result!! It was worth all the efforts I put in.

[Elijah]

Looks great Jesse!

[Gahm]

Your head rail looks very good! Excellent job!

 

Thomas

[_SalD_]

Nice job Jesse, that had to be one of the most challenging parts to make on this build.

[gjdale]

Great work Jesse. Your perseverance has paid off.

Edited February 9, 2016 by gjdale

[Canute]

Well done, Jesse. Head rails look great.

[Piet]

Very nice looking head rails JesseLee, will done.  Glad you found some of that mystery wood, it's really looking very nice.

 

Cheers,

[JesseLee]

Thanks George, captgino, Elijah, Thomas, Sal, Grant, Ken & Piet - & thanks for all the likes also.

 

I added all the inboard eyebolts & cleats before putting in the swivel brackets. I started with the supplied brass eyebolts. I don't have any brass blackening solution right now so I tried painting the brass with Testor's flat black enamel paint. This doesn't always work well. I found that I was constantly having to repaint any eyebolts that got rubbed or touched & then the paint build up was too much. Got tired of this so I ripped all of them out & made my own eyebolts out of black wire I have.  I like that no painting is needed & the eyebolts are a little stronger than thin gauge brass but I could not get them as small as the brass ones were. I fear they will look too much out of scale (a little too big) but it's the best I can do at the moment.

 

I used the metal cleats supplied in the kit - had to clean them up a lot & added wire pins in the larger ones because they had none. the instructions say to paint them red , black or to look like wood. I see that most everybody else who have done the Syren have gone with red but I decided on black instead (don't know why- just did for some reason).

 

When I went to start on the swivel brackets I realized my gun port sides needed squaring up better. Hit them with a mini flat file for a quick & easy fix. The swivel brackets sit slightly above the deck & I had a hard time getting such a narrow edge to stay glued securely so I secretly hid small blocks up under them that the sit on but are not seen. They are more securely attached now.

 

While working on the inboard stuff I managed to break one of the bumpkins & looking around I noticed I had broken off & lost the stern port lids & a few of the other gun port lids. I think it might have been better if the instructions would tell you to do the inboard work first & then a lot of the outer work but maybe I'm just too clumsy?

 

Jesse

 

 

[Elijah]

Looks great Jesse!

[mtaylor]

Jesse,

 

Battle damage in the shipyard happens to all of us...  I just hope you found all the parts.

[Beef Wellington]

Ouch...I have given up following the order that instructions indicate unless I'm convinced its the right way to go, Caldercraft for example don't suggest doing coppering until the upper deck fittings are pretty much in place which doesn't make sense (to me).

 

You seem to be past the ringbolt conundrum, I similarly failed trying to blacken.  In the end, I simply stuck hundreds of the eyebolts into a polystyrene sheet and used a dull black primer/topcoat mix from a spray can.

[Piet]

Hey JesseLee, if those are the black wire eye bolts you put in, well, they look pretty good from here.  I wouldn't worry about them being slightly out of scale, it surely doesn't show.  Nice progress my friend.

 

Cheers,

[JesseLee]

Been struggling to get much done. My illness has been acting up lately leaving me feeling pretty bad about 2/3 of the time making building difficult. I was about to start on the swivel brackets & pin rails. Looking at some others Syren build logs I see rudder coats being added. I tried to look up whether there was one on the Syren & found no info at all but I like what I see on the other builds so I decided I would do one too. I made a jig for making it off ship. Used an old bandana my daughter had thrown out. It will be painted black when done so it doesn't matter that it is pink right now. Began the process of trying to figure this out.... 

 

Jesse

Edited February 21, 2016 by JesseLee

[JesseLee]

This took several do-overs before I got it to look & fit right. During this process one night our cat decided she wanted to lay as close to me as possible. She jumps up on the bench, steps over the ship as I'm working on it & lays down right behind it. I picked her up & put her on the floor. She jumps right back up & lays her head down. I am getting soft as I get older. In my younger days this would have resulted in the cat getting a flying lesson. I gave in & left her there & worked around her the best I could since I wasn't going to work on it much longer anyway.

 

Jesse

 

 

[GLakie]

Sorry to hear about the "flair-up" Jesse, but there's no deadline on her. Just concentrate on getting well! 

 

Edit: Your cat probably senses you're not feeling good! 

Edited February 21, 2016 by GLakie

[JesseLee]

Yes George, the cat & the dogs are very sensitive to this. The sicker (don't know if that is a proper word) I feel the closer they cling to me. One of our dogs will shove herself up under my bench even though there isn't really room for her under there on some of my bad days.

 

Jesse