US Brig Syren 1803 by Overworked724 – Model Shipways – Scale 1:64

[CPDDET]

Always good to have a plan.

 

[Overworked724]

Finished off remaking the gun port doors. Shown below stuck to some Tamiya tape.  This time I left out the rabbet on the side with the gun indent. I think it looks better and also didn’t think that edge needed a rabbet. 😁

 

Also made the ring handles (not shown). Will paint the doors tomorrow and size out a drill bit for installing the faux hinges. 
 

In the background…working out the plan for the P&G’s. It’s coming along. 
 

 

[Overworked724]

Putzing with the catheads. Finished up the sheaves.  My little sculpy sheaves turned out pretty decent!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving on…

 

 

[Overworked724]

Interesting note. When I trimmed off the sculpy sheaves from the sculpy rod I baked, it’s hard to make them “clean” (i.e. perfectly cylindrical). This became more of an issue with the outside sheave. 
 

So….I ended up again using some double sided tape on a popsicle stick and stuck them on. Then used a fine emery board to fair them up and take off the uneven edge to give them uniform thickness. Worked perfectly. 
 

👍🏽 
 

Live and learn…sculpy is fun stuff. 

[CPDDET]

Never used sculpy but wondered if one could pack it into an appropriate sized brass tube, then push it out with a dowel rod and bake. Might result in perfectly round rod? Just a thought, didn't mean to stick my nose into your more than capable build techniques.

[Overworked724]

1 hour ago, CPDDET said:

Never used sculpy but wondered if one could pack it into an appropriate sized brass tube, then push it out with a dowel rod and bake. Might result in perfectly round rod? Just a thought, didn't mean to stick my nose into your more than capable build techniques.

I might try that!!! Play Do for ship modelers!!!!

Edited June 27, 2021 by Overworked724

[CPDDET]

Keep us posted as I'm sure I will be using it sometime in the future.

[niwotwill]

Love the cat head sheaves. Glad to see you’ve found sculpy you’re right play dough for modelers

[Dsmith20639]

Instead of sculpy I wonder if someone makes small washers that could be used for the sheaves?

[CPDDET]

Possible. And if one had a lathe they could be made with that. But using sculpy is a pretty neat way to do it.

[Overworked724]

8 hours ago, CPDDET said:

Possible. And if one had a lathe they could be made with that. But using sculpy is a pretty neat way to do it.

Bingo!!!!  And since I don’t have a mill or a lathe, modeling with the sculpy gave me an opportunity for realistic illusion. Might not be wood or metal, but I think it looks pretty bloody good for a first attempts at catheads with sheaves (sans lathe).  
 

By the way…I’ll give all the credit to my knowledge and fearless attempts at ridiculous but fun uses of this stuff to Chuck since he used this stuff in his Sultana Practicum (my first and only build).  👍🏽
 

Edited June 28, 2021 by Overworked724

[Overworked724]

5 hours ago, Dsmith20639 said:

Instead of sculpy I wonder if someone makes small washers that could be used for the sheaves?

There probably is some washer or fitting which comes close. But the axle size and diameter is extremely small...watch fitting may come close. You’d still have some modifications to do...I was going for the best effect with least resistance. But there is always more than one way to skin a cat. 👍🏽

[CPDDET]

13 hours ago, Overworked724 said:

Bingo!!!!  And since I don’t have a mill or a lathe, modeling with the sculpy gave me an opportunity for realistic illusion. Might not be wood or metal, but I think it looks pretty bloody good for a first attempts at catheads with sheaves (sans lathe).  
 

By the way…I’ll give all the credit to my knowledge and fearless attempts at ridiculous but fun uses of this stuff to Chuck since he used this stuff in his Sultana Practicum (my first and only build).  👍🏽
 

And having a multitude of ways of skinning a cat makes for a great workshop.

[Overworked724]

On 6/27/2021 at 8:24 AM, CPDDET said:

Never used sculpy but wondered if one could pack it into an appropriate sized brass tube, then push it out with a dowel rod and bake. Might result in perfectly round rod? Just a thought, didn't mean to stick my nose into your more than capable build techniques.

 

By the way, if you look back on how I made my carronade sled wheels, I used that same technique to make perfectly round wheels of the same diameter...only problem was the metal plate was too thick for the cathead sheaves.  Something to think about...all I really needed was a slightly thinner piece of metal with a round hole and you're set.  Then you could make a ton of sheave wheels of the same thickness, diameter without sweat.

 

I'll remember that for future...just didn't occur to me until now!

[Overworked724]

On 6/15/2021 at 10:46 PM, WalrusGuy said:

The carronades look great, Patrick. I love the look with all of them on the deck!

By the way, forgot to say thank you for the kind kudos, Walrus. I constantly refer back to your build. 👍🏽

[WalrusGuy]

12 minutes ago, Overworked724 said:

By the way, forgot to say thank you for the kind kudos, Walrus. I constantly refer back to your build. 👍🏽

No worries! I am really enjoying your progress and how you are improving what the kit offers. The realistic sheaves look awesome!

[allanyed]

Patrick,

Great joinery throughout!  One thing to consider for the future, although fixable now if you want to do so, the wales taper in thickness at the bow to the same thickness as the surrounding planks so they do not stand proud of the adjacent planks where they fit to the rabbet.  

Thanks for all the photos and explanations on your build log.

Allan

 

[Overworked724]

We’ll…putzing putzing putzing. Got shoulder surgery next week. Until then I’ve been slowing messing around with the remake of the quarter badges. Words can’t quite express my amazement at how bad the metal kit pieces are…as others have noted, the two sides don’t match and the overall quality is also pretty awful. Leaving me with a fun running attempt at remaking them!  
 

The bit that I’m messing around with is…window frames. On my Sultana, I tried using strips of detail tape with passing (not great) results. 

 

So…I have been trying (without success) to make nicely shaped and consistent window frames. 
 

Would love to hear how others approached this part of the Syren kit bash. 
 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Overworked724

[Overworked724]

Ok…not sure if my reference to metal pieces and Brittania pieces are causing confusion…so I’ll just refer to them as metal pieces. 
 

To be clear, the quarter badge metal pieces are not very good. They are the opposite of good.  They are bad. They are inconsistent and do not match. 
 

But as I said, it forces me to approach them as a new project, so I’ll forgo requesting a replacement from the manufacturer. I’ve seen some builds that did get a better replacement…but I’ll just attack them as a scratch build opportunity. 😊

[niwotwill]

Patrick

Its not necessary for me to add more about how bad the quarter badges are!!!!! There are several posts where scratch quarter badges were made in lieu of kit slop. One in point is Thomas Gahms you might try looking at what he and others  did .

 

Give it a go and the light work might keep you busy while you recover. My wife has had both shoulders repaired and the recovery time was long and painful.

 

Best of luck on the surgery

 

regards

Will

 

[Overworked724]

Many thanks @niwotwill!  Yeah...the knife is coming down next week....so I'm going to enjoy myself this week!  I've seen @Gahm's build and frankly, his skill is a bit beyond me!  LOL. 

 

But...again, I'm enjoying the problem solving and out of the box approach using only my table saw.  Truth be told, I'm really equipment and skill limited...so I'm just enjoying the heck out of trying to find a reproducible way to 'creating' itty-bitty parts to replace the kits parts.  It's fun!

 

I have a pretty general game plan on how to create the quarter badges from scratch, piggy backing on a lot of what others have done before me.  The problem I was trying to tackle initially was the bloody window frames.  So...I did not want to use detail tape as used before on my Sultana.  I tried using wood, but these things are TINY - and a few efforts left me frustrated and exhausted!  Trying to get clean angles without a clear and defined 'macro' approach to achieve precision and consistency is a real challenge. 

 

So...I went a bit off the reservation.  I decided to go back to my old friend, sculpy (again) for a ridiculous approach to making the teensy-weensy-itty-bitty frames.  So here is my approach...still trying to refine this, but initial results seem promising.

 

1. Measured up the frames from the plans and prepared a 'template' by using a slitting blade on my Byrne's saw (just barely above table level - couldn't have been more than 1/64").  Used a block of spare wood to make the window frame template.

 

 

 

 

2. Used some flesh colored sculpy and smashed it into the 'template'.  Gently pulled it away and baked.  
 

I’ll paint later once I get enough 'good pieces'.  I know the sculpy might shift or bend - but frankly, after trying to make the frame by wood, I can't see minor shape shifting (the sculpy is firm but not fully rigid…and can bend or disfigure with too much manipulation) being too much of an issue.  Besides, the quarter badge frame still needs to be made yet - and the windows will be adjusted to fit.  

 

 

3. After baking and cooling, I used a flat razor and simply 'scraped' (sliced) very gently the proud image of the window frame from the sculpy backing.  I mean...these things are tiny.  But once separated from the sculpy backing (or block), they are pretty resilient and can be cut/sanded to meet the dimensions required. 
 

Keep in mind, in this method, you only need one template.  The 3 windows on one badge are mirror reflections of the windows of the twin badge on the opposite side.  Proof is always in the pudding....we shall see.

 

 

 

 

So...that's one approach.  But I'll be darned if I'm going to consider that cheating!!!  

 

Moving on....

 

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by Overworked724

[RichardG]

It's like 3D printing without the printer. Looks good.

[niwotwill]

Patrick I love your out of the box ideas. You're on a good path here. Love to hear your ideas for the next step.

 

 

[CPDDET]

As always, your outside the box ideas are ingenious. Thanks for teaching me new tricks!

 

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

[WalrusGuy]

Hi Patrick, here is how I did my quarter galleries:

 

I made a sandwich structure and detailed each layer before gluing it all together. Your window frames look really good! If you don't mind me giving a suggestion, try making them a bit thinner to match that of the plans. I like the idea of the sculpy, I will keep a mental note in case I ever need to do something similar!

 

Wishing you a quick recovery! 

[Overworked724]

Thanks @WalrusGuy!  Actually, it’s funny you mention making the frame edges thinner to match the plans. I was thinking the same thing as I reviewed the pics. 
 

🤔

[Overworked724]

Tried using a new window frame template to make sculpy windows with thinner frames…and the same method works. No pics on that, but I think I prefer the wider frames I made earlier. Don’t know why…maybe they have a better chance of hiding mistakes. 🤣 But truly, the wider frames give me some ‘adjustment room’ if needed. 
 

Decided to take a whack at making the window mounts…like @WalrusGuy, I’ll try making these as a sandwich. The first part I’m attacking is the frame mount (main body) made from 1/4” cedar section. The trapezoidal nature of the thing is mind bending…I ended up with a good result. Eyeballed mostly. 
 

 

 

 

I’ll make a bunch of these just to have some spares to mess with….

 

Moving on…

Edited August 7, 2021 by Overworked724

[Overworked724]

Two things….the upper and lower portions of the gallery focus the apex along the axial line. No machining here…just eyeballing and artistic skill. So this is less precision and more ‘expression’. So, I’ll give myself a lot of forgiveness. @WalrusGuy did a phenomenal job in his build setting up these sections. Since I’m working off the ship, I’ll go for broke and have fun using his build as a reference. 
 

 

My approach to these upper and lower sections is still TBD.  But I’m of the opinion that if you can nail down the center sections, you have a good chance of expanding the sandwiched frames on the upper and lower section with less difficulty. So…center section(s) first. 
 

Here we go…

[Overworked724]

Lesson learned….2D window frame dimensions do not fit a 3D structure. The window I made are too narrow.  There’s too much of a gap between the windows when I lay them in the window “base” (or whatever you call the part of the quarter badge where the windows are installed. )
 

I’ll make some a bit wider. 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Overworked724

[WalrusGuy]

The shape is looking really good!! I remember the upper and lower sections to be a bit trickier because of the rounded curves.