US Brig Syren by Pygothian - Model Shipways - Scale 1:64 - 1st Build

[Pygothian]

Well, after lurking here for just over a month, reading, studying and absorbing as much information, my first kit The US Brig Syren arrived from the US model expo after over a month delay.

 

I must admit customer service from outside the US at Model Expo has been poor, and shipping was extremely slow and extortionate. Packaging was substandard, and I just hope nothing had been damaged in the crushed, non-padded box.

 

1st step is to clear some clutter from my work spaces. They are not really usable for anything at the moment.

 

I've taken a few quick snaps of the box, the contents, and other items I've ordered.

 

I will wait until I clear a nice spot, and distract the 3 yr old before opening the box, and getting the obligatory shots and item stocktake.

 

 

 

 

This is where I do my office work, and occasional gaming. It needs a major sort

 

 

 

 

 

My spare office is currently set up building a carbon fibre RC 6 turn brushless 1:10 buggy. I will maybe pack this away and use this zone.

 

 

 

A very excited 3 yr old wanting to build a ship

 

 

 

Substandard packing, with crushed box, tape not sealing all over and some random fish and chip paper. No bubble rap to cover to precious contents

 

 

 

Out of focus picture showing the Syren box, a plank bender, some spare boxwood planks, a hull vice, micrometer, and draw plate.

 

 

 

And here she is. The Syren in her box.

 

I'll clear a work space, organise my tools, get some sandpaper, blocks, glue in the next few days.

 

Unfortunately I'm Oncall for Obstetric emergencies tomorrow, and trauma Thursday, so I may be stuck at work for the next 48 hrs, but fingers crossed I get to open the box!

[Larry Van Es]

Welcome aboard. It's going to be a real challenge working on a the Syren with a 3 yr old about with the limited space that you have. I have 7 grandsons. But then again they're all hyper-active like me. Think about finding a place way up high where it can be stored when you're not working on it. One of my favorite parts of my log that has been lost on MSW 1.0 was when one of my grandsons “helped me” while spending the night. I put him to work sawing some scrap wood to keep him busy. I was planking the deck at the time. I glued several pieces of his wood to “shore up the bulkheads” under my planking. It can't be seen now but he and I know that it's under there. He refers to it as our model now.

[augie]

The kit box doesn't look much the worse for wear.

 

Take a careful inventory and notify ME if any pieces are missing or damaged so they can get them out to you.  I've found they are very good in that regard.

 

BON VOYAGE !!!!

[Chuck]

Great to see it finally arrived...remember .....have fun with the project.      

 

Chuck

[Pygothian]

Thanks guys, it's not only a 3 year old but a 22 month old too. I'm considering putting a key code lock on my office to keep little fingers out. Make it my man cave.

 

Tonight I'll open the box, stock take, and then likely place some orders for some upgrades from Chuck!

 

No one in labour currently so I might get a quiet night without an epidural or Caesarean section

[fnkershner]

I vote for the Man cave idea. Great to see you get started.

[Gahm]

Have fun with the project! Building ship models is a great hobby, and Syren is an excellent start!

 

Thomas

[Captain Slog]

I must admit customer service from outside the US at Model Expo has been poor, and shipping was extremely slow and extortionate. Packaging was substandard, and I just hope nothing had been damaged in the crushed, non-padded box.

 

Hi Pygothian,  I have been keeping tabs on when your Syren would arrive since my next purchase at some stage is likely to be a Model Shipways kit from Model Expo and being a fellow Perthite was interested in your experience.  Well doesn't sound to impressive from your comments!  My Endeavour took just 6 days from the UK door to door!

 

Anyway happy building and will be following your build.

 

Cheers

Slog

[Jeff-E]

Hi Pygothian,

 

I hope all is well with your kit and no damage has occured.

 

Look forward to you making a start an will follow your build.

[Rowan]

G'day mate, all the best with the build. Looking forward to following your progress

Rowan

 

[Pygothian]

Thought I was going crazy for a second.... Another Rowan. Not many of us around.

 

Cheers

Rowan

[Bill Hime]

I can't wait to get a look inside that box ! lol, it's kind of like watching someone open Birthday gifts!

[Pygothian]

Well I've cleared up a space in my spare office where I was building an RC car, and placed the tools I've collected thus far on the desk. I have quite a few more parts on order from model expo including mini pegs, more clamps, a rope walk , and a bending wood jig from another hobby shop.

 

Here you can see my collection of glues, scalpels, syringes, forceps, probes, electronic micrometers, spirit levels, saws, drill bits, wood filler, tooth picks, clamps, pins, some printed documents I've found etc.

 

[Pygothian]

Now for the Grand Opening of "The Box"

 

I've been hanging out for this moment for over a month.

 

The box front

 

 

The side of the Box

 

 

Some close up details on the front of the box

 

 

With one quick snip of my scalpel, the sticky tape holding the box closed was opened to reveal a beautifully packaged ship.

 

 

My first impression was wow, it looks very high end, and the sweet smell of timber filled my office

[Pygothian]

I next removed the hefty booklet, some rather massive plans that I haven't attempted to open as yet until I work out a way to iron them flat. The item list was there, and is dared quite recently, so I am hoping this is an updated model Chuck had mentioned in a post I read somewhere.

 

A high quality semi gloss ~80-90gm paper spiral bound colour manual which is 132 pages.

 

Some coloured templates I think in A4 and some open larger stapled. I haven't looked closely at them as yet.

 

 

 

 

 

I opened up the smallest plan and pinned it down with some objects to get a picture. There are many massive plans, that I'll need to work out a way of flattening and hanging them.

 

 

[Pygothian]

Next I took out each part of the kit, and placed them side by side.

 

The parts look very good quality, there is no warping that I can see, and laser cutting is pretty good I think although I'm not expert.

 

A box containing a multitude of tiny parts including flags, nails, cannons

 

 

 

I bag full of various lengths and thickness of wood planking. There are literally hundreds of them.

 

 

An overview of the precut pieces side by side. They all look immaculate and precise.

 

 

 

A close up of the bulkhead former

 

 

Close up of things I don't even know what they are!

 

 

Looks like a close up of some oars maybe for the miniature boats on the ship

 

Boats and bulkheads

 

More bulkheads

 

A bag with what appears to be brass rods, and some more precut stern

[ZyXuz]

unboxing is always the happiest moment

all the best on your build! 

[Charley54]

Glad you finally got your Syren.  I'll be watching closely. I need all the help I can get with mine.

 

Charley

[aliluke]

Good to see you underway Rowan. I remember you were tossing up a while back on which ship to tackle. The Syren is a great choice - a very fine ship with lots of detail from what I've seen. Looks like you are very organised too with tools etc. One good starting mission is to sort and separate the planks by their size, label them and then check they match the parts list. Wish I'd done this on my AVS as the planks provided didn't match the parts list at all - many sizes provided that weren't needed and many needed sizes not provided - and I didn't discover this until well into the build!

 

I look forward to your progress.

 

Cheers

Alsitair

[Pygothian]

Hi Alsitair, that is the next thing to do on my check list. I'm going to stock take each item off the parts list, and measure each plank with two different electronic vernier calipers to make sure the sizes are correct. Thankfully they convert from inches to mm for me, and I'll print out a chart of common inch fraction so I get familiar with how many mm that is.

 

Cheers

Rowan

[Pygothian]

Here are some pictures of the back of the wood showing the laser cutting

 

[Pygothian]

Just had a knock at the door, and it's like everything is coming together.

 

 

Thanks to Aussie048 and Brian C for putting me onto this device.

 

http://www.hobbytools.com.au/plank-forming-jig/

 

It came in 4 business days, and in a nice padded Australia post tough bag

 

 

 

 

This little device looks like it will come in handy. I know I could of build one, but I'm not that handy

 

Cheers!

 

Rowan

[Pygothian]

I know it's a little off topic but my wife just bought in some pumpkins she carved while I catch up on some sleep before my night of trauma

 

 

Pretty impressive for her first try, learnt from YouTube

 

 

Take care all

Rowan

[Rowan]

Thought I was going crazy for a second.... Another Rowan. Not many of us around.

 

Cheers

Rowan

 

True mate; and with you I have meet two in six months, before that two in my whole life.

Like some one else said, look forward to see it coming out the box.

But wow to send some thing so precious with out proper packaging (+ no bubble wrap ). Unbelievable. I just ordered the "Mermaid" from N.S.W. and was quite relieved that it arrived properly packaged.

"Syren" is looking good so far mate so all the best. I'll be six weeks behind you so will follow your build with interest.

 

Rowan

 

 

( Cool pumpkins   )

Edited October 31, 2013 by Rowan

[Pygothian]

I was seriously tossing up with the mermaid cutter deluxe from model shipyard. I loved the idea of their books and DVD, but felt they were charging too much for their starter kit, with tools I didn't need, and to buy the ship and just the books and DVDs was going cost cost 3 times the Syren, which I heard has an excellent support group and manual.

 

I'll keep a close eye on yours, as I am interested to see if the books and DVDs are worth it, and if so, get the a Mermaid or Norfolk as my next baby

 

Cheers

Rowan

[gil middleton]

Rowan, Thanks for your comments and good to see you underway. I marvel that you can make any progress with work and wee ones. Years ago, I gave up oil painting because emergency call interrupted a wash or detail, with wet brushes and left a mess. At least the three dimensional art of model ship building will patiently wait while you look after the important stuff and contemplate your next step. Good luck on your build. We'll all enjoy watching her come to life. Cheers, Gil

[augie]

'Close up of things I don't even know what they are!'

 

I personally guarantee that you will be able to identify each part, in the pitch black darkness of night, by the time you are finished    
 

[Pygothian]

Well I was hoping to get a start today to chapter one, but feeling really under the weather, so waiting for my paracetamol and ibuprofen to kick in, moved so e spare monitors out of office 1 to office 2 and setup a tri screen computer, and ordered an ipad nano that apparently will be here Tuesday to take photos of the build and update / research my progress, That was a hard justify to the wife so she bought some 1500 thread Egyptian linen to spite me..

 

Anyway, hopefully I'll be in my office, kids free at grandma and sharp scalpel in hand popping some bulkheads

 

See you soon!

 

Rowan

[Tigerdvr]

Welcome to the Syren group. I am sure you will enjoy this project.

It's a great kit with tons of support here on MSW

[Bill Hime]

Great to see that box open! I hear a lot of organizing in your thoughts. Man after my own heart. I look forward to following you along on this great journey! Enjoy!!!

 

Warm Regards,

 

Bill