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

[Overworked724]

Second time around was much better. I got the shingles much more symmetrical and aligned…not finished, but the roofs are done. Hard part’s over. 
 

 

 

Cant wait to see what they look like when finished. Right arm is holding up well. 👍🏽

Edited November 19, 2021 by Overworked724

[CPDDET]

Looking great, Pat. As always.

Glad to hear the arm is continuing to improve.

[niwotwill]

Love the shingles, any chance you'd make me a pair? HA HA HA 

Just remember that the recovery is a long process and don't push it too hard!

 

Regards

Will

[Overworked724]

So, I can say the roof sections turned out pretty nice. My second attempt (left) gave moderately better results as my technique improved. Took a while to complete, but hopefully worth the time. Call it practice for the arduous task of coppering soon to come. 🤣

 

 

 

Moving on…

[Overworked724]

Work in progress…windows in but didn’t turn out as clean as I’d hoped. 
 

 

Still…much better than the metal kit pieces. Moving on to the bottom halves. Going to go simple here…just because. 😁

[Overworked724]

Finished (at least as best I can manage) with the galleries. 
 

The bottom portion was easy. I can make a tear drop shingle in 2 seconds. So making the lotus pattern at the curved apex of the base was simple. Sanded a bit and waalaa!

 

 

The flower pattern in the middle section was a bit cleaner and easier than trying to create the wreath. So opted for that simple decoration in the front and sides. Threw it together and here is the result. I may or may not try the volutes again later…I can always add them if I can make them cleanly enough.
 

t

 

And again compared with the metal cast piece from the kit (starboard side).

 

 

One thing I did before putting the windows in was ensuring I had predrilled my pins. The back shows the sandwich sections quite nicely. 
 

 

It is certainly worth the extra time to make these.  The lack of consistency between the two metal cast pieces from the kit are comical. They have different lengths and patterns between the two…Shame on Model Shipways!  
 

 

But in truth, I’m a crappy painter and there was no way I’d be able to make a realistic looking product from the metal kit pieces. 
 

Another minor hiccup…my handmade galleries just barely fit between the upper shear strake and wales. So I needed to trim the needle heads and sand down…can’t even tell I did that. 😎

 

Next pic will be the final product after some tung oil and test fit on the sides of the ship. 
 

Moving on…

 

 

[CPDDET]

Sometimes we learn as we go. Thanks for sharing your methods, I've learned a lot.

[Overworked724]

Ok. I’ll call this long winded side project done. I’ll put these in the ‘glue on last’ box of goodies. I’ll put in the guide holes later. 
 

Here are the baby pics!!  They aren’t perfect, but they are pretty. I’m not unsatisfied with my efforts. 👍🏽

Here are the mismatched kit pieces:

 

Here is the front view of mine:
 

 

Bottom view:
 

 

Top view:
 

 

Here they are all tucked in! 🤣
 

Moving on….

[VTHokiEE]

They looked really nicely done! I’m going to need to re-read this section of your log several times. The outcome is pretty awesome - it’s no wonder you’re happy with them.

Edited November 22, 2021 by VTHokiEE

[Overworked724]

Just because I knew these custom galleries were going to be a tight fit, I decided to button up my train of thought and make certain the guide holes were in and the positioning was good…since I didn’t want to mess with it later…especially if I mucked it up. 
 

Here’s how I did it. 

The pins in each gallery were created as a mirror of the other…so I couldn’t accidentally glue them in onto the wrong side of the ship.

 

I got some foam display board from Walgreens. Cut a section out and layered it with Scotch tape. Pressed in my gallery, and traced out the outline in pencil. Note how I left some tape hanging…
 

Remove the gallery and you get your image trace with pin locations. 

 

Pull up the tape and position it on the ship at the correct location (I have to eyeball a bit since my double blocks don’t sit flush against the stern).  Then used a T-pin to scribe in the pin hole locations. Removed the tape. And drilled in the guide holes. 

 

 

 

Test fit the little monsters and if you did a good job tracing, they should fall right in place. 
 

 

 

Now I am settled, and the galleries are put away…to be glued in when I feel like it. But ready for that day. 👍🏽. (I still can't believe how friggin nice these things came out...it was worth the journey...and makes me remember the ship model is 1000+ projects which all come together to create something wonderful).
 

I can safely say that I am NOW officially moving on. 🧐

 

Edited November 23, 2021 by Overworked724

[Gahm]

I love your galleries! They are so much better than the kit provided stuff!

 

Thomas

[ccoyle]

Wow! Great result with the galleries!

[Overworked724]

Sweep port doors.  I’ll be doing these before the hull coppering…because I’m a procrastinating chicken. 
 

One problem I found was making the little hinges consistently. Tried nylon, wire and wood. Finally decided to take a swing at these using wood. The glue sets up quick and I can easily shave the two sides evenly. No pics yet…but I have a plan using the tiny wooden tree nails I made which I used for the deck/bulkheads. Have tons left over, and they are almost the perfect width. So…we’ll see if the results bear fruit. 
 

Also while I’m at it, I need to remake the gun port doors…because I made the originals too narrow! 😖

Edited November 24, 2021 by Overworked724

[Overworked724]

The little wooden hinges for the sweep port doors actually turned out looking ok. They weren’t that hard to put them on, just finicky work. 

 

 

 

We’ll see if I can do justice to making the doors. 🙏🏻
 

Moving on….

[Overworked724]

Got the sweep port doors made for both sides. Took a while as some of the openings were more trapezoidal than rectangular!  😖

Unstained, they do pop out. 
 

 

I checked the fit/look of the hinges on one of the doors.  I’m satisfied that I can align the hinges cleanly. 
 

 

I also tried using a simple red sharpie to ‘color’ the shipboard side. Since the sweep ports are so small, you can’t really see any details for the sweep port doors. So I figured a quick slap with a red sharpie would be fine. 
 

 

Moving on…

 

[Overworked724]

Ok. Not sure how everyone else did their sweep port doors, but I’m approaching this like the galleries. I’ll get them set for gluing on then put them off to the side until later. 
 

I sanded them flush so they aren’t proud of the side of the ship. I’ve decided I’ll put a single coat of ship’s bulkhead red on the interior sides. Then I’ll pencil the edges, glue on the hinges, test fit…then set them off to the side until I’m ready to glue them in…which will take only a few minutes. 
 

Im a bit afraid of snapping off the little hinges or worse…and once those things are in they aren’t coming out. 
 

🤔
 

 

[CiscoH]

Hey Overworked724- your build is amazing.  The scratched galleries especially.  A word of caution- we use sharpies a lot at work and my experience is the black ones fade considerably (not exposed to any sunlight just LED lights) in a few years.  I don't know if its the same with the red ones but it might be something to paint instead. 

[Overworked724]

1 hour ago, CiscoH said:

…  I don't know if its the same with the red ones but it might be something to paint instead. 

Hey Cisco!

 

Thanks for the kinds words!  Much appreciated. I actually agree with your recommendation not to use the sharpie. I did decide to use paint instead. 👍🏽

[Overworked724]

The sweep doors are done.  Not certain if the hinges look ok or not…seem to be passable. I painted the interior side red and stained after the pics below were taken.
 

I’ll glue them in once the coppering is done. That’s next on the agenda..,once I finally figure out my pintles and gudgeons. 
 

Here are a couple pics. Interested in feedback if anyone has any. 
 

 

 

Moving on…

Edited November 29, 2021 by Overworked724

[Overworked724]

Small detour to bash the other metal pieces. Ship’s wheel was certainly not something I planned on using from the kit. 
 

I opted for one of the boxwood ship wheel kits made by Chuck’s company (Syren).  I got the 15/16” boxwood ship wheel pack which was actually a lot of fun to put together. It also had a lot of extra parts in case I screwed up!  
 

Here are a few pics…

 

Template worked great to manage the little bits. 

 

 

My rotary tool made the creation of the wheel spokes a fairly quick job. 
 

 

 

And a quick coat of Golden Oak on the final product made it obvious why I went with a wood wheel. 😁 Wouldn't even know how to make the metal piece look realistic!!

 

 

Moving on…

 

[Gahm]

Beautiful work! In my opinion a nicely executed wooden ship's wheel makes a big difference to a ship model.

 

Thomas 

[Overworked724]

Meandering thought led me to a quick realization…the cannon balls for my replacement carronades are way too small…by amount 1mm. I did a bore measurement of the carronades and it’s just shy over 2mm. So, I need to replace the kit beads (~1mm) with correctly sized bearings. 
 

Amazon to the rescue. 

[niwotwill]

Patrick

 

She's coming along nicely very nicely. You might check with Model Shipways that multiple size cannon balls.

 

Regards

Will

[Overworked724]

9 hours ago, niwotwill said:

You might check with Model Shipways that multiple size cannon balls.

Good suggestion, Will. But I found some cheap 2mm diameter bearings on Amazon cheap. 👍🏽 Arrive tomorrow.  

[niwotwill]

Where would we be with Amazon Prime? But I do hate to see local business getting hurt.

 

Regards 

Will

[CPDDET]

4 hours ago, niwotwill said:

Where would we be with Amazon Prime? But I do hate to see local business getting hurt.

 

Regards 

Will

Sad but true

[Overworked724]

Wow. Didn’t think my Amazon ball bearing purchase would destroy Model-expo!  🤣

 

Well…two things…Model Expo doesn’t  sell 2mm ball bearings I need. But if I need to go down in size…they do sell 1.5mm balls but at like twice the cost. 
 

But I do agree Amazon has done a fantastic job killing local manufacturing and business interests. 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Overworked724

[CPDDET]

My "I need this yesterday" attitude hasn't helped either. But who can argue with almost instant gratification.

[Overworked724]

1 hour ago, CPDDET said:

My "I need this yesterday" attitude hasn't helped either. But who can argue with almost instant gratification.

And with ship model building, there is always a persistent feeling of being rushed!!! 🤣

 

On a more serious note. Had to restart my pintles and gudgeons. Realized my original cuts were too thick. 
 

My goal is to ‘prefit’ my P&G’s so that my rudder is functional as well as removable. But I don’t want to mess with fitting 4 sets of these buggers after coppering the hull. I know I’d start scarring the copper and the illusion would be lost. My goal is to remove one area of anxiety and focus on coppering…then have my P&G’s sitting in the wings waiting for install. 
 

…he said no so confidently. 

Edited December 8, 2021 by Overworked724

[niwotwill]

Patrick :

Love that ships wheel from Chuck. I had a lot of fun making it as you stated you had fun. Its really cool how the stuff from Syren Model Ship works so well making wonderful pieces.

 

How's the shoulder doing?

 

Regards

Will