US Brig Syren by Marsares - Model Shipways - 1:64

[Marsares]

Wahooh!

 

... it arrived! After a long wait, my US Brig Syren finally managed to paddle across the pond and land in the UK. An interesting mix of nerves and excitement, but all good!

 

I've decided to go for this particular kit as it's a model from a period that I particularly like, so it should keep me motivated throughout the long haul that I'll have ahead of me. Furthermore, as a total beginner I was looking for something that would be doable, yet be challenging whilst providing enough support through an excellent manual, the designer's presence on the forum here and a plethora of excellent build logs of other members. I also was keen on a plank-on-bulkhead model as it felt that it would stretch me a bit, whilst not being as challenging as a plank-on-frame model.

 

The Syren it thus was. Yes, yes, I know... yet another Syren blog. 🙂

 

I've spend today unpacking everything (including some new hand tools that I had to order as my DIY equipment is too big and clumsy), categorising and counting everything. To my surprise, everything seems to be there although I had 11 pieces of a particular timber bit, rather than the required 17. I'll pick that up with Model Expo, no doubt they'll whiz over the missing 6 pieces. I don't think it'll hold me back any time soon though.

 

I'm expecting progress to be slow. I'm a stickler for detail and a bit of a perfectionist, so things like this tend to take longer with me anyways. I also want to use it a bit as a test-bed for developing my modelling skills, so I want to try certain things on the ship that are perhaps a bit more advanced such as a bit of spiling of the hull planking, proper use of stealers and drop-planks, detailed tree-nailing and perhaps some other things, just to get my teeth stuck into it.

 

Besides that, after ordering the kit we found out that my girlfriend is pregnant, that I got a new job which I'll be starting soon and that we're moving home. Yes, timing is impeccable as always with me! 🙂

 

It's like Xmas came early... or more likely, very late in this instance!

 

 

Sorting, categorising and counting everything against the inventory log.

 

 

A bit nervous about how small some of the pieces are, especially with my clumsy hands. Luckily I got some really good tweezers that should help me out!

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Martijn.

[JeffT]

Good luck with the build Martijn, I know you will enjoy it.

[Tigerdvr]

Welcome to the Syren clan Marsares. Your picture looks like a 2.5mm deadeye. I'm working with some of those now as part of the mainmast standing rigging.

Take your time and enjoy your Syren project. There is a ton of good information here on MSW.

 

Cheers, Harley

[Charley54]

Hello from another Syren devotee. As they say - two heads are better than one - I will look forward to following your log

 

Charley

[Marsares]

Thanks everyone, really looking forward to the journey ahead. In no rush to complete it, as they always say: enjoy the journey rather than the destination!

 

Progress has been slow at the shipyard but plenty of activity in the adjacent pub where plans, manuals and other build logs are eagerly studied before the tools are taken up. Of course, all this is done whilst consuming a certain amount of themed ale! :-)

 

Edited February 9, 2014 by Marsares

[dgbot]

Have a great time.  You will learn a lot from this model.

David B

[NWdiverTodd]

Welcome aboard the Syren build crew Martijen!

 

-Todd

[alde]

Congratulations on all fronts. Have fun with the build.

 

Al D.

Edited February 13, 2014 by alde

[Marsares]

No progress yet as I decided to wait with the build until after the move as I didn't want to move a very fragile hull and potentially break it in the process. It's been very frustrating as I'm dying to get my hands on it and to start working, but we're moving this weekend so after that I can start in earnest. We'll have a very nice conservatory next to the living room, and I've already claimed part of the conservatory for my working area. Until then, this is the sorry progress that I've made: packed everything up again! :-)

 

 

Positive news though as my drawplate from Model Machines arrived as I'm planning to do some proper tree-nailing on the hull in due course. Very pleased with as it's solid quality. Anybody has any hints for using this? I've been told bamboo skewers work the best if you're aiming to use the smaller holes...?

 

Edited March 4, 2014 by Marsares

[HIPEXEC]

Looking forward to watching your build. Good luck!

Rich

[dgbot]

Have fun.

David B

[Marsares]

USS Brig Syren

Part 1: Introduction

 

After we finally finalised the house move, unpacked and gave everything their new home (except the cats, who are wandering around restlessly and are desperate to go outside and work on their tan), the time arose to give the Syren its new home.

 

So for the second time, the box was unpacked, all the various tools and materials were organised and put away in a structured fashion and the build began.The admiral pops every now and then into the shipyard as she has no idea what to expect, but probably more so in order to check that I'm not yet nerd-raging and throwing a tantrum - and perhaps throwing some bits and pieces around. I've managed to disappoint her so far, but I'm sure the time will come sooner or later!

 

Each and everyone of you probably have seen the following a million times by a million people, but as it's the first time that I've ever done anything like this I'm going to pretend that you're as green as me and post way more detail than anyone would be interested in. It's a learning curve for me and if I can share my learning (and mistakes I'm sure) with others, than so the better.

 

I also plan to do a few things that are not part of the kit such as proper tree nailing, using a different type of wood for hull and deck planking, hopefully some spiling for the hull planking, trying my hand at some carving in order to replace some of the castings that I'm not happy with (this is most likely the stage that the Admiral will see tools flying around), making my own gun carriages and some others bits and pieces that I haven't decided on. I'll keep you posted on the high and lows!

 

So... without further ado, lets progress to the real work. The shipyard is more or less up and running, the coffee machine is all fired up and all the plans, materials and tools are laid out!

 

Kind regards,

 

Martijn.

Edited March 11, 2014 by Marsares

[augie]

Bon voyage!

[Marsares]

USS Brig Syren

Part 2: The Bulkhead Former, Rabbet and Stem Knee

 

Step 1: Bulkhead Former and Keel Holder

The first thing that I noticed when I unpacked the bulkhead former was how warped the wood was. Granted, I've seen worse on the forum, but I wasn't quite expecting this. Secondly, the wood appeared very soft to me and indeed very fragile. I've read lots of stories how people experienced that certain parts snapped off and I now understand how that could easily happen.

 

I contemplated for a moment to cut my own bulkhead former and bulkheads from some other and stronger wood, but given that I don't have a proper scroll saw (yet!) I parked that idea and decided to run with what was in the box. Should things snap, I can always make my own. 

 

 

In order to get rid of the warping in the wood I skipped ahead to Chapter 2 in the manual and created a keel holder. Luckily I had some pieces of wood in the shed (the benefits of 4.5 years of DIY in my previous house) that were ideal for the job. Ideal, expect the fact that they were warped as well. Luckily, my trusted metal ruler was true and straight so after some measuring and bending of the wood whilst I glued and nailed it to the base I managed to get the warping out of the wood. 

 

After inserting the bulkhead former into the keel holder I put the ruler next to it and voila.... as straight as it can be. It's amazing how exhilarating and fulfilling little things like this can be. I can already see that this will be a nice hobby!

 

 

Step 2: Rabbet

After I was satisfied that the warping can be negated with the keel holder and then later on fixated by adding bulkheads and bulkhead fillers, I proceeded to cut the rabbet to size (leaving it slightly oversized), soak it in luke-warm water for 10 minutes and then leave it to dry on the bulkhead former whilst held into place by clamps and elastic band.

 

Another observation was made: the clamps that I have bought are rather strong and leave indentations in the wood, so a note to myself was made to in the future put a piece of scrap wood between the clamps and the final wood. Furthermore, once soaked, the wood was incredibly easy to bend. I wonder if pear will have similar properties, as I intend to be using that for my hull planking. Alas, the pear has not yet arrived so I can't test.

 

 

Step 3: Stem Knee

The manual stated that the stem knee needed to be tapered in order for the figurehead to fit on it. So I took the sexy vixen Syren out of her plastic bag, lingeringly ran my fingertips over her and gazed upon her shapely curves until I felt a tap on my shoulder and got the evil eye from the Admiral. With a blush on the cheeks I remarked how warm the conservatory was and that it was a purely professional relationship that we had.

 

Anyways, quickly moving on I placed the Syren roughly where she would sit and traced a rough outline around her, thereby ensuring that I would not get too excited whilst sanding and end up eating in the edge that will lie against the rabbet. With a big contour sander I proceeded to gently taper the stem knee, often checking with the figurehead to ensure that I don't go too far. This seems to be one of the key principles of the hobby: measure and check again and again and again. 

 

 

After a while I ensured a smooth fit between the stem knee and the figurehead.I noticed that the bottom part of the figurehead will need some gently manipulation in the future as she will probably interfere with other elements of the ship as she currently would sit. I'm not sure in how far this will matter, as I'm intend to try to carve a new figure head as I'm not too impressed with the quality of the casting but given that I've never ever carved anything, at least I got a fall-back option.

 

 

Happy with the results I realised that the stem knee in reality would not have been a single piece of wood and remembered that on one of the building logs I saw that somebody added some fake lines to simulate that the stem knee was constructed of multiple pieces. Of course, with my scatter brain, I had no idea whose log it was so after trawling through most of them I saw Dubz' log again and noticed that he was the one who did it. By the way, Dubz, your log has been a great inspiration for me so be prepared that I'll be regularly plagiarising your work (copying is the most sincere form of flattery they say!)....

 

After some delicate measuring I traced the outline with a pencil and then played around a bit on a scrap piece of wood with a hobby knife. I noticed that the cut would be too fine to notice, but that when tracing it with a micro awl with moderate pressure, I got the result that I was looking for. I then traced the lines that hit the edge of the stem knee towards the flip-side of the piece of wood and replicated the exact same pattern. I learned that when tracing something, you have to hold your tool of choice very closely against a ruler as otherwise it may jump out of place and follow the natural grain of the wood. Luckily, the one time this happened it wasn't very noticeable!

 

 

That's the progress so far, not bad for a couple of hours work I guess. This evening I'll be once more reading up on Chapter 2 (always good to read ahead) and hopefully tomorrow I'll find some time to taper the bulkhead former between the bearding line and the rabbet, and to glue the stem knee and keel and to temporarily tape the false keel. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Martijn.

Edited March 11, 2014 by Marsares

[dgbot]

You are off to a good start keep up the good work.

David B

[Charley54]

Martin, glad to see you off to a fine start.

 

Charley

[Marsares]

USS Brig Syren

Part 3: Bearding Line and Keel

 

Step 1: Bearding Line

With the rabbet glued on the bulkhead former and left to dry overnight, it was time to draw the bearding line on port side of the bulkhead former, using the punctures that the laser made as a guide. Following that, I tapered the bulkhead former from the bearding line down towards the rabbet whilst trying to ensure a smooth transition.

 

Once again I found that the wood was very soft, which wasn't a problem in its own right as it meant that it was easy and fast to work with, but that it was also very fragile. Especially on places where the bearding line and rabbet were very close to one another, the wood just disintegrated whilst slicing it with my very sharp hobby knife (see the right hand side on the photo). Now, I don't think this will be a problem whatsoever for later down the course, but I don't think basswood and I will become best friends. I'd rather spend more time on a harder wood and achieve a clean finish with a sharp edge, rather than working with cheap wood that throws so many limitations your way.

 

In the end though, I achieved a result that I was happy with. I've spent quite some time on this, as it feels that it's one of those foundational activities that could create a lot of problems further down the line if not done properly. After some trial and error I found that chiseling didn't produce good results because the wood is so soft, instead a hobby blade with a sharp rectangular blade did a much better job, followed by some sanding with a fine grade paper.

 

 

Step 2: Keel

Once I was happy with the previous step, I proceeded to glue the stem knee onto the bulkhead former. This was a pretty straight forward step. When the wood glue was somewhat dried up I proceeded to glue the keel in place. This proved to be a bit more tricky given that the keel was very straight, yet the bulkhead former was pretty warped as I explained in my previous post.

 

Sometimes in life, things happen for a reason though and I was happy that yesterday I skipped ahead to Chapter 2 and actually made a keel holder. Sticking the bulkhead former upside down in the keel holder straightened it out and thus allowed me to glue the keel in place, whilst ensuring that the rabbit has a consistent depth on either side. Some elastic bands did the trick for the rest.

 

 

All in all, not as much progress as I was hoping for but the work on the rabbet and bearding line will come in good stead further down the line I'm sure!

 

Thank you also for all your kind remarks, it's really encouraging that people are interested in progress. Also, if you see me making a silly mistake, do shout! It's my first time, so I'm bound to make some! ;-)

 

Kind regards,

 

Martijn.

Edited March 12, 2014 by Marsares

[dgbot]

The bad thing about basswood is that the chisel must be razor honed in order to work.  You are doing a fine job.

David B

[AndyMech]

I must say, I love the format and the detail you are putting into your log - explaining how you did something, in addition to the result, goes a long way toward others learning how to build ship models.

 

My own kit of the Syren is sitting in storage, waiting for me to finish the Constitution Cross Section.  By the time I get it out, you log will be far enough ahead I'll never catch up -- and that's a good thing.

 

Andy.

[augie]

You're doing a very thorough job of it.  Keep her clamped as much as possible until your bulkheads and bulkhead fillers are in place and you won't build a banana.

 

Your attitude of looking ahead is one of the essential parts of model ship building.  Everything early on comes into play later.  Two examples are hull fairing, which will determine how smoothly your hull planking turns out, and setting up your sills, which will determine the height of the gunports and the amount of clearance you will have for the waterways. 

[Marsares]

Thanks for all the responses all!

 

@David: indeed, I guess I came to the same conclusion. I've packed up my 12-set of chisels that I specifically bought for this, guess I may have to invest in a sharpening stone as well. :-)

 

@Andy: I'm glad you're finding my blog useful. I think I've read every existing Syren blog over and over again, it helps so much to read how others are approaching the ship building business. I've picked up numerous tricks and would be delighted if people find my build log as useful!

 

@Augie: very good point about the sills. I was aware about the importance of establishing a natural run that is mirrored on the other side of the ship, but was mostly focussed on the horizontal plane whilst perhaps being at danger of ignoring the vertical plane. I'll do some measurements to ensure that it's located in the correct vertical position, thereby giving sufficient space for the waterways. Great tip, thank you!

 

Kind regards,

 

Martijn

[dgbot]

Any chisel that you buy has to be resharpened and honed.   There are many tutoriols out there.  The main secret is the angles ahve to be the same at all time and you have to remove the burrs.  This is also true for planes as well.  Though I bought  Lie Nielsen fingerplane and it was razor honed at the factory.

David B

[Marsares]

Any chisel that you buy has to be resharpened and honed.   There are many tutoriols out there.  The main secret is the angles ahve to be the same at all time and you have to remove the burrs.  This is also true for planes as well.  Though I bought  Lie Nielsen fingerplane and it was razor honed at the factory.

David B

 

Ah, good point, David. Wasn't aware of that, so I'll have to start looking into that. Another string to add to my bow, that's how I look at it! :-)

 

Kind regards,

 

Martijn

[Marsares]

USS Brig Syren

Part 4: Bulkheads, Minor Tantrums, Bulkhead Fillers and Repairs

 

Step 1: Bulkheads

Whilst I successfully completed the first chapter of the manual, the work so far didn't quite look like a ship as it was rather two-dimensional, so I was excited to start carving out the bulkheads from their laser-cut homes. This was very easy to do with a sharp hobby knife, although fitting them was a bit more time consuming. Once I had cut them, they didn't fit straight away as the fit was too tight. Nothing that couldn't be solved with a needle-file and after a few bulkheads I got the hang of it. 

 

Rule of thumb: once you've filed away the laser-char, you're very close to the money. Obviously, the main rule of ship building still applies: take little off and measure often. I'm now starting to get in the habbit of cutting/filing/chiseling away tiny amounts and constantly checking if it fits before you go too far. It's easier to take material off than to add on! You're looking for a snug fit, without having to force the bulkhead into place. Be careful, they're incredibly fragile (see my minor tantrums later on... haha!)

 

It's also important that if you're filing to ensure that you're filing under a 90 degree angle. If you maintain this, chances are that the bulkheads will slide in under a more or less 90 degree angle onto the bulkhead former almost naturally. The less you deviate from this, the less you have to re-align the bulkheads with the bulkhead formers later on. Once I dry fitted all my bulkheads and measured them up, only one needed minor re-alignment so I marked this one up for later.

 

 

Once I had dry fitted all the bulkheads suddenly the shape of the Syren materialised. It's a rather amazing moment, as suddenly you grasp what it is you're building. I checked the ship from all angles to ensure that the lines seemed right and that nothing was out of order and then took all the bulkheads out again. I then proceeded to glue them in place with white carpenters glue.

 

I've read on several other blogs that people got their alignments wrong and because they started at the stern or the bow, the alignment exacerbated as they proceeded as they measured from bulkhead to bulkhead. Instead, I opted to start in the middle so that creep would be minimal. I've also got out my trusty square angles and held each bulkhead in place whilst I glued them with carpenters glue. 

 

I made one mistake though, which I still regret. When I fitted one of the first bulkheads the dry fit was fine but with glue it didn't slide as far as it should have and ended up sitting 1mm too high. I tried to pull it out again, but it got locked into place. This will definitely impact the outer shape of the hull, but I'm confident that I can fix this (see repair later on). What I did from there on instead was to dry fit a bulkhead, and then add a few daps of CA where the bulkhead and bulkhead former meet.

 

 

Step 2: Minor Tantrums

All good so far and confidence was building. Until disaster struck! Well, not quite disaster but the first time I experienced this my heart certainly skipped a beat. Whilst putting the final bulkhead in place (at the stern) I pressed it too hard and the back piece snapped off. Certainly not a happy bunny, but after some meditation and some deep breathing I regained my composure, got the CA glue out and stuck it back into place.

 

 

My hate/hate relationship with the basswood continues. It is just too fragile for something as structural as the bulkheads or the bulkhead former. I find this the major drawback of the kit so far, for the amount of money that you spend on this kit you would imagine that they'd provide some better quality wood. And it's not like I'm careless, as nearly everybody seems to experience this. Over the last two days I've also managed to snap 3 bulkheads, again not a major disaster but it wouldn't have happened if the wood would have been better. I do wish I had stuck to my original idea of replicating the bulkhead former and bulkheads in harder wood, but what's done is done and I'll persevere.

 

Other than that, I managed to cut my thumb with the hobby knife. Some crocodile tears and stamping on the floor later and the Admiral showed up, gave some TLC and stuck a nice kiddies monkey plaster on my thumb. I also asked for a magic kiss but she declinded. Bah!

 

 

Step 3: Bulkhead Fillers

With the bulkheads firmly in place and my thumb looked after, I could now measure, cut and fit the bulkhead fillers. In order to ensure that the bulkheads would be square to the former, they had to be the exact same width on the port and starboard sides. I first measured the required distance between the bulkheads, as close as possible to the bulkhead former as if the bulkheads weren't squared to this, you'd still get the right measurement. 

 

 

The rest was rather straight forward. I ensured that I cut the bulkhead fillers a little bit too thick and then sanded them on either side to get rid of the saw markings. Once they were all dry fitted, I took my calipher and measured everything to ensure that it all made sense and checked the angles of the bulkhead former to the bulkheads themselves with a square angle. When I was happy that it was all as it should be, I took each balsa block out one at a time and glued them in place with some carpenters glue. Given that my balsa blocks weren't totally square, I couldn't nicely align them with the top of the bulkheads so I left them sticking out a bit above the bulkheads as shown on the photo. 

 

 

I then took a large and small sanding block and proceeded to sand the top of the bulkhead fillers off until I hit the bulkheads and former themselves. The laser charring is actually quite useful in this instance as the moment you start sanding that away, you know you're at the right spot. This took about an hour, in spite of the balsa being very soft, but it's an awkward spot to sand as you're surrounded by the very fragile bulkheads. For once though, I managed not to snap one off!

 

Once done, I ended up with a perfect smooth plane where I can later on place the deck planking on. What's more, once I took it out of the keel holder it didn't move out of shape and maintained it's perfect straight lines. No banana-shaped Syren clearly! I placed a metal ruler on top of it to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating but nope, perfectly straight it was indeed! I'm a happy bunny.

 

 

Step 4: Repairs

As I mentioned, when I glued one bulkhead in place it didn't slide down far enough as the carpenters glue got sticky. As a result, the shape of the hull wouldn't be right so I steam-bent a strip of wood and glued it on either side of the bulkhead. Plenty of clamps ensured that it stayed in place and once I'll start fairing the hull I should be able to sand it down until I achieve the right profile.

 

 

That's it so far. I've also made some mock-ups for the deck planking and simulated caulking for the lower deck. Eventually I settled on using black paper between the deck planks as it gave a much more uniform look, but I'll post about that next time when I conclude this piece of work and the fairing of the hull.

 

Kind regards,

 

Martijn.

Edited March 15, 2014 by Marsares

[Marsares]

USS Brig Syren

Part 5: Lower Deck Planking, Fairing, Framing Templates

 

Step 1: Lower Deck Planking

Whilst I was waiting for my home move and decided not to start on the Syren build until after the home move I've been reading lots and lots of build logs and have been mulling over a few things, one of them being caulking and how to simulate it. There are a plethora of methods, most commonly used seems to be marking the side of the planks with a pencil. This gives a subtle appearance, but not always uniform results. 

 

Therefore, I decided to build a mock-up with black paper between the planks. Given that I had no black paper, I took a piece of white printer paper and coloured it black on either side with a black felt pen. If you do so, make sure that you've got a water-proof marker otherwise it will bleed into the wood once you stain/lacquer the wood! I then glued a small strip between the mock-up planks, leaving it to stick out above the planking. Once dried, I cut the excess paper off with a hobby knife and sanded the planks smooth. This gave the following result:

 

 

Happy with the results I decided the replicate this on the lower deck planking. If things didn't turn out quite as I'd hope for, nothing would be lost as this deck will be hardly visible once the model is completed. Given that the workspace between the bulkheads was limited and I've already snapped a fair few bulwarks, I decided to make life easy for myself and glued the black paper strip to the sides of the planking with a bit of carpenters glue before I glued them in-situ:

 

 

Having left everything to dry overnight, I cut off the excess paper and then started to sand the planking down. Unfortunately, for some reason the dust of the black paper started to get into the soft deck planks, thereby creating a bit of a smudged appearance. I tried different grades of sand paper but eventually I realised that scraping the deck would solve the issue. I grabbed a hobby knife with a rectangular blade and although scraping didn't totally get rid of some of the smudging, it reduced it to such an extent that I'm fairly happy with the results.

 

A few planks I didn't press sufficiently against each other, so the gap appears somewhat wider but where I have done it properly I really like the results. It's a bit more pronounced than simulated caulking with a pencil, but with a bit more practice I am sure that I can get the caulking virtually uniform. On the hull and deck planking I will also have an easier workspace, so I can minimise the sanding and use mostly scraping. All in all, a fairly successful test and I've decided to try this for the hull and deck planks later on.

 

 

Step 2: Fairing

Fairing was one of those tasks that I didn't look forward to. Not because I thought that it would be tedious or anything, but getting this right is so critical for the look and shape of the hull that I wasn't quite sure how to approach it. However, it was remarkably straight-forward, as long as you take things slowly and regularly check with a hull plank.

 

In the middle of the ship, where the hull is fairly straight, I used a larger sanding block that cut across three bulkheads. Initially I tried using a sanding sponge, but quickly I realised that having a solid base for your sanding block is crucial. I mentally divided the hull into horizontal strips and sanded each one at a time, tackling three bulkheads at the same time and then shifting along one bulkhead. Where the hull curve became more pronounced, I could only tackle two bulkheads at the same time and at the bow, stern and near the keel I replaced my large sanding block with a much smaller one that allowed me to follow curves more smoothly. Don't forget that you have the laser-etched reference marks, although you shouldn't take these necessarily as the gospel.

 

I decided not to fair the bulkwarks yet, until I will have put the gun port sills and lintels in place. I've snapped enough of them and with the gun port framing in place, hopefully they will have strengthened up sufficiently to withstand some sanding.

 

 

The key thing to remember is to check all the time with a piece of hull planking. Given that this is a plank-on-bulkhead model, the joints between hull planks will fall on the bulkheads so having a good base to glue them against is critical. The hull plank should follow a natural run and then smoothly fall against the bulkhead. Where the hull curves significantly, you may have to twist the hull plank a bit or apply some pressure on it, but it should fall flat against the bulkhead in any case.

 

Once you've checked all the bulkheads across the full length of each bulkhead, it is also important to check the full run of the plank. If you clamp it against each bulkhead, do you have a smooth run or are there some kinks or awkward bends in it? If so, now is the time to change this. The repair I carried out on one bulkhead previously because it was sitting 1mm too high worked out nicely and with some sanding I regained a smooth run of the hull.

 

 

Step 3: Framing Templates

 

With the fairing done I was excited to progress to the next chapter of the manual. However, once I've cut out the frames and put them against the model, they didn't line up at all. I checked and re-checked, measured everything up and checked whether my bulkheads are still square against the former but all adds up and there's no mistakes. I also read in other build logs that sometimes the company send the wrongly scaled templates, but I checked them against the A2 plan and it all matches up. 

 

My bulkheads are also square against the former and I rechecked this. In any case, it can't be the reason why they won't line up as the creep is nearly identical on starboard and port side:

 

 

 

The only thing that I can think of is that the templates are pushed too far out because I haven't faired the bulkwarks yet, thereby introducing creep that gets progressively worse as you proceed along the hull. Any ideas are welcome though!

 

Nevertheless, it doesn't stop me from putting a temporary batton in place in order to establish to run for the gunport sills and then to start working on the sills and lintels and subsequently fair the bulkwarks. Once I've done this, I can recheck the templates and see if the line up better. Watch this space! :-)

 

Kind regards,

 

Martijn.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Marsares

[Charley54]

Martin, everything looks really good. You are moving right along. I like the effect of the black paper you are using to simulate the caulking. It seems more consisitent than the pencil method I have been using. I have been struggling with that. It looks like a bit of work though. Your templates look OK to me. I believe Chuck intended to allow for some variation- just so you start from the last bulkhead and go forward from there. I had some of the non scale templates initially and they were really messed up yours are probably OK

 

Charley

Edited March 16, 2014 by Charley54

[Marsares]

Martin, everything looks really good. You are moving right along. I like the effect of the black paper you are using to simulate the caulking. It seems more consisitent than the pencil method I have been using. I have been struggling with that. It looks like a bit of work though.

 

Charley

 

Thanks, Charley. It is a fair bit of extra work, but I think it'll be worth it. The problem with the supplied wood is that it's so soft that it doesn't hold a clean edge, which makes the pencil method somewhat unreliable I found. I must say, however, that your lower deck with the pencil does look very clean and smooth! I'm considering replacing the hull and deck planking with pear and will experiment some more with both options then. Will post my findings in due course...!

 

Progress will slow down in the near future I fear. I'm currently at home waiting to start my new job on 24th March, so got plenty of time to spend on the Syren for another week. Then again, as somebody else said on this forum (and I'm paraphrasing): it ain't a hobby if it's rushed! :-)

 

Also thanks for the encouraging words on the template, Charley. When I initially put them on I was a bit dismayed after all the careful work I had done before to ensure that everything is squared and lines up neatly. Now I'm fine with it. I do think that fairing the bulwarks will pull the templates more in line and there may indeed be some variation allowed in them. Worst case, I'll have to make my own templates which shouldn't be too difficult as it's all about evenly spacing out the gunports.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Marsares

[dgbot]

Looking good.  I will will be interested in your paper caulking. As I never had good luck with it. As for the cannon port, take a good look at the plans and they may be able to give you an idea of what to use.

David B

[Larry Van Es]

Your care in making the filler blocks is something that all future builders should pay attention to. When I was at this stage I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but I did have a degree in mathematics. My knowledge of geometry told me that if I made the filler blocks square and exact in width then the whole keel would have to be straight. This is one of the few things that I did right on my build. My posts on this in MSW 1.0 have been lost so I'm glad to see you post this.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Larry Van Es

[Marsares]

Your care in making the filler blocks is something that all future builders should pay attention to. When I was at this stage I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but I did have a degree in mathematics. My knowledge of geometry told me that if I made the filler blocks square and exact in width then the whole keel would have to be straight. This is one of the few things that I did right on my build. My posts on this in MSW 1.0 have been lost so I'm glad to see you post this.

 

Hi Larry, we're not too dissimilar I guess as I have a BSc and MSc in Civil Engineering which - as you can imagine - relied heavily on geometry and mathematics so I came to the exact same conclusion as you, hence why I spent so much time on squaring up everything. I seem to be spending much more time on the first few chapters than I thought i would, but I'm learning to hold myself back as it feels that these foundational stages make or break the model further down the line. Patience is a virtue!

 

Get the bulkhead former straight, square the bulkheads, properly and evenly install the fillers, thoroughly fair the bulkheads and constantly check everything with measurements, templates and temporary battens and you save yourself a world of pain later on I'm hoping. These aren't the sexy stages as most of the work will be hidden, but as with structural engineering, get the structure right and the rest will fall into place. :-) 

 

On a side note, this is my first build as well and having looked at the photos of your Syren, if mine comes out half as good as yours I'd be a happy bunny indeed! Well done, Sir!

Edited March 16, 2014 by Marsares