Speedwell Battle Station Kit 1752 by CiscoH - Syren Ship Model Company - 3/8" or 1:32

[CiscoH]

Good evening MSW

 

I won one of Chuck's Battle Station kits at the Joint Clubs Conference so I'm taking a short break from my Armed Virginia Sloop.  I justify taking on a second project with the excuse that this kit will be a great way to practice rigging a cannon, which I have never done.  The kit includes Syren rope and blocks, and at the Conference Chuck gave a presentation on how exactly he likes to seize his rope.  With this knowledge still fresh in my mind I felt I better use it before it was forgotten.  So here I go

 

Here's the kit unwrapped on my bed; there's a lot of parts in the little box.  Directions are downloaded from Syren's website.

 

I read through the directions, unpacked all the parts, and re-read the directions.  The wood is all AYC I think, which I haven't worked with before, my previous experience is with basswood (blah) and holly.  AYC seems to be a good compromise wood; midway between basswood and holly in hardness, very minimal grain pattern, and it looks great under polyurethane.

 

I glued the two base panels together at right angles, creating a 2-ply plywood of sorts.  The thicker piece had warped a little but I left them clamped under a block of wood overnight and it came out flat.  Then I used water-based polyurethane (because thats what I have for my AVS) on both sides of the panel.  I plan to paint the top black somewhere down the road and the urethane provides a good base.

 

Next was gluing in the frames.  Mine fit fine without any sanding and I checked each piece for square as I went.  The slots are deep and the frames didn't require much adjustment and stayed put, and each frame is labeled.  Frame 5 (pictured below) is narrower and will only fit in 1 slot so its harder to screw up placement.

After gluing in the 5 frames I waited an hour then sanded the backside of the frames flat and added the back panel  Once it dried I sanded it flush with the frame edges.

And finally I added the blocking.  The Ultimation Hand Sander I got 2 Conferences ago worked great for removing small amounts of wood without rounding the edges.  I glued the blocking in place and clamped (gently) across the top.

And thats where I am tonight.

 

thanks for reading

 

Cisco

[yvesvidal]

Interesting and unusual kit. I will be following with interest your model.

 

Yves

[Chuck]

Great start...This small kit should take you little time to complete.  Just have fun with it.  I am busy making the second set of kits as I write this.

 

Chuck

[Thukydides]

It looks like a fun little kit.

[Ryland Craze]

Nice start to this kit.  I just did not buy enough tickets to increase my odds of winning one of these.

[CiscoH]

Good Wednesday evening MSW.  Progress on the Battle Station, finally. 

 

As is typical I am making the kit much harder than it has to be.  After adding all the blocking I shaved them down to pretty close with chisels, then sanded them flush.  Two coats of water based polyurethane and 2, possibly 3, coats of black paint (Abbadon Black because I have 4 bottles).  Then I added the veneer end frames and deck beams.  I had a gap between the deck frame and the beam end it rests on so I chiseled out the beam and glued a slightly larger one in place; looks fine now.

Then I glued the end carlings and beam ends in place.  I made my own out of frame pieces; the kit supplied ones were fine but challenging to hold and sand (they are 1/8" square so jumped out of my fingers like fish).  I made mine a little oversize and trimmed them to fit once glued in place.  I will have to touch up the black paint later on.

 

Next up was the frame the Station sits on, elegant feet on each corner with butt joints.  The edges are a relatively long horizontal run, compared to their height, and I thought some drops would help break up the space.  I have a Keepsake Box, below, which provided some inspiration.

I liked the cove molding along the top of the base frame too.  But I wasn't sure about replicating it at such a small scale.  Here's my initial try at a drop, which I thought looked acceptable.  Then I simply traced the original pattern onto some scrap AYC frame material and tried to make the other 3 similar.

Butt joints are simple, easy, look good, and idiot proof.  So I went with miters instead.  I had to shorten the Battle Station frame about 1/8" to make the frames fit (mitering has the effect of shortening the side frames).  I did the actual miters on my Ultimation sander.

And here is a shot of the inner Battle Station sanded even with the faux deck framing and the frame pieces.  I forgot I painted the ports with Mephiston Red earlier.

And finally the cove molding.  This was a challenge.  I figured a scraper was the way to go and I tried making one from a razor blade, shaping it with files.  It turned out to be way to bendy and flimsy but was good practice (lower right in below picture).  Then I made the profile in my usual scraping tool, a piece of old sawblade (upper right).  It has a wide flat area that registers on the wood top and worked pretty well.  I used again some scrap framing from the sprue that held the base pieces.  It was extra challenging as these pieces were 1/8" square if that and holding it all steady took some effort.  I found it helped to waste away most of the "point" with my veritas miniplane before scraping.

Here's a side profile of the molding.  The ends don't scrape well so the middle 3/4 of the strip are deeper but you get the idea.  AYC is a soft wood (harder woods are definitely easier to scrape) but I think its working out ok.  And the cove will match the frame.  I hope.

And thats where we are.  Next is gluing the base to the frame and starting planking.

 

thanks for reading

 

Cisco

Edited Thursday at 04:53 PM by CiscoH

[Chuck]

Lovely work so far!! I am quite pleased with how you are making this little

project your own.  It should look great when completed.  
 

I just finished making another dozen of these kits.  I will be sure to

reference your log when my club starts building them.

 

chuck

[CiscoH]

Good Sunday evening MSW.  I got a little done this week.

 

I decided there was no way I wouldn't break the stand if I glued it on now so decided to add it later.  I touched up the faux beam ends with black paint and moved onto the decking.

 

The kit comes with printed decking and exterior planking but that would be easy.  I did my usual plank preparation of cutting strips from my shrinking billet of holly and smoothed the rough side with my Veritas string thicknesser.  The decking is curved so the easiest way to replicate it was tracing the edge of the pre-printed decking onto my holly strip, smoothing to the traced line, and using my trusty compass to mark the width.  I cut the concave side with a scalpel, then smoothed with sanding sticks.  I like to mark my planks with a pencil triangle to keep track of order.  And when I inevitably drop one (or all of them) I can instantly recreate their order.

For anyone following this procedure be aware that the planks are not all exactly the same width - some of the middle ones are narrower than the others.  Not by much but if you want your decking to exactly match the printed version some fudging will be required.  I sanded each board as I went to match the curves as closely as possible, and used #2 pencil for caulking.  I also edge glued each board with yellow glue which has some gap-filling abilities.

 

Here is the deck after glue only.  I tried to match the spacing and width of the printed version as closely as possible. I know it looks rough.

After scraping the glue beads off I trimmed the edges back to almost flush (the Veritas mini plane is such an essential tool), sanded with sticks using 180, then 220 grit, then applied 2 coats of water based polyurethane.  Now it looks like below, which I'm happy with.

Also in the above pic I have added the interior planking.  The kit provides a single piece of AYC which could be glued in place; I choose to cut it into separate planks.  The bottom one I glued to the laser-cut spirkiting, making it thicker.  (Its a different colour in the above pic b/c its been polyurethaned while the planks above it haven't yet.)  On the top 3 planks I sanded the edges so they have a subtle bevel; I think the directions say to paint the inboard all red and I was worried the planking seams wouldn't show. 

 

And at present its all drying.  Next up is enlarging the inner planking holes so they match the gunport and sweep port holes, then planking the outside.

 

thanks for reading

 

Cisco