US Brig Syren by Gahm - Model Shipways

[kscadman]

Hi Thomas, thanks for the info on the Caldercraft guns. I'll have to remember that for a future build. Your cleats are looking good and I like the way you fastened your stern gunport lids.

 

Richard

[augie]

Stern looks GREAT!

[Blue Ensign]

I'm with Augie and Dirk, just love your build Thomas.

 

B.E.

[Gahm]

Richard, Augie, Dirk, and B.E., thank you for your nice comments!

 

I am always in awe when I look at your build logs. The creativity, the ideas on how to improve on the details of already well designed kits, the craftsmanship     . . .  it is just a pleasure to watch and learn!

 

Thomas

[texxn5]

Very nice build.  I really enjoy following these logs and learning so many techniques to do things...

[Gahm]

Thank you, John. You are absolutely right, this forum with its many logs documenting different techniques and styles is really a great resource for building ship models!

 

Thomas

[Gahm]

I added boarding ladders and channels – and with that I am finished with Chapter 9 .  

The channels as well as the boarding ladder steps I pinned on first (image 1) before I glued them to the hull in order to guarantee optimal placement. This is especially of interest with the channels as the precut notches which determine the locations of the dead eyes later may interfere with the gun ports if the placement is not done correctly. Images 2 – 5 show some different perspectives of the model with boarding ladders and channels attached.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ferit]

Do you own a five-axis CNC machine?!... 

[Gahm]

I could use one of those for the next step, the head rails!

 

Thomas

[texxn5]

Wow, this is such a fine build. Looking really good.

[Gahm]

Thank you, John!

[Gahm]

I started with the first part of the head rails, the cheeks. After a bit of experimentation I found a technique which seems to work for me. I use pear wood as it allows for more precise carving of the scrolls due to its higher density. However, this advantage turns into a disadvantage when the molding lines need to be done. The grain of the wood very easily derails the impression of straight lines. Therefore I took the laser cut negative shapes of the cheeks (which are left when you cut out the cheeks provided by the kit) as guides to impress and carve the lines into the pear wood (images 1 a d 2). I finished the lines and the carving of the scrolls before I roughly cut out the cheeks with a (manual) scroll saw (image 3 and 4). All that remains to be done is sand the pieces to the right shape (image 5). Images 6 and 7 show the first prototypes temporarily mounted to check for the right fit.

 

Copying of the cheek contour onto the pear wood

 

Impressing and carving the molding lines into the pear wood 

 

Lines and scroll are done before cutting out the cheek

 

The cheek is roughly cut out with a manual scroll saw

 

Finished cheeks after sanding 

 

Temporarily mounting of prototype cheek to check for correct fit

 

[kscadman]

Hi Thomas, fantastic scroll work. And I like your usage of the pear wood! 

 

Richard

[Gahm]

Thank you, Dirk and Richard!

 

Dirk, I am still convinced that you will be finished with your whole ship when I am done with the rails. Actually you are already very advanced with your rails and they look very, very nice! So better don't wait for me!

 

Richard, after having worked on the cheeks I realize what kind of tricky stuff they are. And the rest of the rails is probably not much better. So I am even more impressed by how quickly you put the whole rails together and how nice they turned out!

 

Thomas

[Ferit]

Nothing surprising  ... All as expected... All as ususal... Everything in beauty... 

Edited October 9, 2013 by ashiponthehorizon

[rafine]

Really nice work on those cheeks, Thomas. I've never been able to carve them like that.

 

Bob

[Pygothian]

Watching your build is making me nervous. I will never be able to do my Syren justice when it arrives and I start.

 

Cheers

Rowan

[Gahm]

Ferit, Bob, Rowan,

Thank you for your nice compliments! Your feed back on those cheeks is most welcome. I have done several prototypes by now and there was/is always something about them which I think I need to improve upon. That is one of the problems when you are too close to a project! 

 

Thomas

[Gahm]

Cheeks are finished and mounted. Using pear wood it was difficult to apply the impression method to the lower parts of the cheeks with satisfactory results. So I built each part out of three layers, the middle one being about the thickness of the middle “molding line” (Img 1/ Fig 1).  Gluing the 3 pieces together generates natural guides for the molding lines which can be opened up with a carving knife to match the upper part of the cheek (Img 1/ Fig 2). The tricky piece is the transition from the upper to the lower cheek. After fitting both parts to the model I glued them together without permanently mounting them to the Syren. In this way it was much easier to clean up the transitions (Img 1/ Fig 3).  The final result now permanently attached to my Syren is shown in Img 2 – 4.

 

Image 1

 

Image 2

 

[

Image 3

 

Image 4

 

 

[thowen]

What a beautiful model. 

[Blue Ensign]

Beautiful fine work on those rails Thomas, a pleasure to see.

 

B.E.

[Gahm]

Dirk, thowen, B.E., Thank you for your kind comments! With these head rails I follow Chuck's advice in the instruction booklet and take each step as a little project on its own. That makes for slow progress, but eventually I may be getting there 

 

Thomas

[Ferit]

Love the colors, so smooth...

Love the build, so flawless...

[Gahm]

Thank you, Ferit! I highly appreciate your kind words!

 

Thomas

[rafine]

Really nice job on the cheeks, Thomas. I've gone the lamination route on my last few builds and like it a lot. You can save some effort by sanding the edges of the pieces to form the moldings before gluing them together, rather than carving them in.

 

Bob

[kscadman]

Beautiful work Thomas, I can't wait to see your headrails. Are you going to make those out of pear as well?

 

Richard

[Gahm]

Thank you, Bob and Richard!

 

Bob, you are right , sanding the edges before gluing the parts together helps quite a bit to get a "decent" guide for the lines. I mainly used the carving knife to open up the lines to the same width and depth which the upper cheek parts had so that the transition looked a bit smoother.

 

Richard, yes, I intend to do all parts of the headrails out of pear wood - and any other "fine detail" work on my model as well. A denser wood has just a lot of advantages when it comes to detailed work. And I was lucky, when I built the quarter badges I ordered me some Swiss pear wood, which turned out to NOT have the typical reddish look but was more of a yellowish to greenish color. Initially I was a bit disappointed and did not like it too much until I discovered that it perfectly blends in with the bass wood I am using on my model! 

 

Thomas

[Gahm]

A little progress - I finished the hawse pipes. The anchor cables which are shown in the pictures are not my final choice. But I still have some time to get me the “right” ones. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gahm]

Yes, I liked your idea of showing the lead as an additional detail of the hawse pipes. Makes them look a bit more interesting than having just for black holes there 

 

Thomas

[Jason]

What a clean, well done job!  Great work!

 

 Forgive me if I missed this in the log, but what sort of stock did you use for the hawse lining, and where did you get it?