US Brig Syren by Argaen Lok (aka Scott Larkins) - Model Shipways - Scale 1:64

[Argaen Lok]

On 9/5/2025 at 8:05 AM, schooner said:

Great stain color and your treenails look just right for size and color. Just to double check - the instructions call for drilling the treenails with a .55 bit but you used a a .025, is that correct? They sure look right.

Yes sir, 0.025 pin vice drill bit.  I did some test drills with a few different size drills before settling on this size.  I'm not sure where the 0.55 comes from as that might actually be bigger than the wood width itself. I don't know the exact date these instructions were written so I don't know what scaled bits the writer was referencing.  Always my advice, do testing on scrap pieces before settling on anything.

[alde]

On 9/7/2025 at 7:17 AM, Argaen Lok said:

Nope, no pre-stain.  Just put it straight on.  After I did some test stains on some scrap pieces first.

Thank you, I bought some but have not tried it yet. I'll follow your lead and do some testing on scrap.

[Burgundy]

Just started this build myself, but accidentally made a mess of the filler blocks and had to order up some new parts from Model Shipways. Will pull up a chair while I wait!

[Argaen Lok]

Still working on the hull planking.  My least favorite part of the build.  As per the instructions, I'm trying to file the front of the planks down to 3/32 but it's still not working well.  The tough part is, you shouldn't sand down just the top of the bottom of the plank, but I think you should sand both the top and the bottom to 3/32.  The instructions were not clear on that.  I started sanding just a top or bottom but it seemed to be causing alignment issues with subsequent planks.  So now I'm doing top and bottom and tapering out to the D-rib.  But I still think it's not going to work right.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to do a bit of my own planking to get it done.

 

The instructions also talked about plank creep.  I think, if you remove the glue that squeezes out between planks and at the open bottom of the planks, the creep should not happen.  So what you see in the pic below is just before I cleaned off the glue.  Sorry for the blurry pic. I was holding the plant and ship with one hand and trying to take a pic with the other.

cou

 

And then at the bow you of course have to cut the plant to fit into the bow and I also sand down the inside of the plank so it fits into the slot I created when you put the false keel together.  See three pics below.

 

 

 

hope these pics help.

[Argaen Lok]

Forgot to add the work I do for the wood bending at the stern. I soak the wood in hot water and after a few minutes, I use my thumb nail and index finger to pinch a crease on the inside of the wood so that it bends up into the stern.  I'll have finished pics of the process once I'm done planking this side of the model.

 

 

 

[Argaen Lok]

Happy to say that I am officially half way done planking.  Yep, just finished sanding the port side hull.  Took about a month to put on all 26 of these planks.  According to the instructions, I should have only used 23 planks but I ended up using 26.  Not sure if my calculations were off or I put my planks tighter than the instructions figured.  Hope I have enough wood left over to do the other side of the hull and the deck.  Gonna be close. I did run into some issues while planking.  Probably self-induced but a bother nevertheless. I have seen in other build logs some of the same issues I had, which ended up being a weird tear drop shaped hole in the hull right in the middle.  Yep, I got it too.  I also developed an issue up in the bow.  The instructions said to taper the front of each plant, up at the hull to about 3/32 and you should be able to plank the entire hull.  Nope, didn't work for me in the slightes.  Actually, it got quite ugly up at the bow as you will see in the pic. But once I got everything fitted and sanded, in the end, it all worked out good.  See the pics below.

 

You can see in this Pic, I developed that tear drop planking issue.  I ended up filling in the middle planks in order to get the upper and lower planks lined up again.  Took a little head scratching and anxiety to get it right.  I figured it out.

 

Here's that hole in the bow that I was talking about.  Tapering each bow part of the plank to 3/32 just didn't work as the instructions said it would, at least for me, and as you can see in the pic above, some of the planks started getting kind of ugly.  And I ended up creating this hole.  Again, great anxiety but I worked on it, and was able to close it up. I was really not happy with myself.

 

In the pics below, you'll see that I got everything worked out and sanded and it all came out pretty good.  If you can zoom in on the sanded pics, you can see how I fixed my self induced problems.  I was also able to get the stern planks bent into shape and glued pretty well.  I was pleased with the way it came out.  I was at least able to do one thing correct.