US Brig Syren by knightyo

[knightyo]

GREAT memory, Augie.. Thank you, good sir.  

Edited October 4, 2014 by knightyo

[mrjimmy]

 

Yes, it was Dirk......... welcome back, Alan.

 

Si

[knightyo]

Well, this year the following events occurred;

 

Got married

Finished school

Started a new Job

Purchased a home

 

For some reason, I didn't get a whole lot of modelling done.  I'm tinkering away again now however, and am working on the carronades!  The slides are shaped, but still need to have the blackened photo-etched hardware installed, etc.

 

I'm intending to blacken the carronades (pewter). Does anyone know what type of wire should be used for the breech line rings? Definitely don't want to have bright shiny silver breech line rings!

 

I should also mention:  The slides were made from Black Walnut which Rusty kindly sent to me many years ago when I was working on another smaller project (still unfinished of course).   I want Rusty to be pleased on this part, and to know that his generosity paid off, even thought it's taken many moons!  

Edited September 4, 2015 by knightyo

[Larry Van Es]

What are you going to use to blacken the pewter? I found it almost impossible to blacken pewter.

Edited September 4, 2015 by Larry Van Es

[knightyo]

What are you going to use to blacken the pewter? I found it almost impossible to blacken pewter.

Hi Larry,

 

Here's what I'm going to use... It will be interesting to see the results... But now that I think of it... The wire I use for the breech line rings  won't be pewter...  Hopefully the product will have the same oxidizing effect on whatever wire is used, so everything looks uniform..... I suspect I'm being naive, however

[druxey]

Pewter, if cast, has a surface deposit on it from the mold that inhibits the blackening agent. I abrade the castings with a 3M rotary 'spider', 400 grit, before blackening. That does the trick.

[knightyo]

Pewter, if cast, has a surface deposit on it from the mold that inhibits the blackening agent. I abrade the castings with a 3M rotary 'spider', 400 grit, before blackening. That does the trick.

 

This is great info.  I've filed just about every micrometer of each of the cannons in order to correct casting/shaping errors, etc.. Hopefully they'll accept the blackening agent.... I'm going to hunt for wire tomorrow so I can get the breech line rings done.

 

Worked on the "shingles" of the quarter galleries tonight.   The tops of each are nearing completion.  My eyes are NOT used to looking at things close up any more.   I'm really hoping they can "adjust" again... 

[knightyo]

The shingles are complete!  Both sides are done, and I've now lightly glued them onto thin bases of pear which have been sanded down to around to whatever size Chuck made them in his .pdf's. , I'm in the process of shaping the pear to match the bases of the shingles.  The piece pictured has a lot of shaping to go, but it shows the general shape I'm aiming for.  I also started the bases "wide" in order to give myself massive "error room" while establishing the molding line in the center of the piece.  I don't have my woodworking confidence quite back yet, and am being pretty careful. I'm now sanding down, and deepening the molding line as I go.  If I mess up, they should be pretty easy to separate from the shingle units, as they were just very lightly glued on.

 

 

[knightyo]

Breech line rings complete!  These guys were actually pretty easy.  I just used my pin vice to drill holes in the backs of the cannonades where it looked appropriate, bent wire, cut wire, and "glued" in with JB Weld.  I have no clue if the oxidizer I use for the pewter will darken the wire the way I wish, but we shall see.  They are almost ready for their dip. the elevation rods need to be purchased, and holes drilled to fit.  Then I think they will be ready for their long awaited dips.

 

I just realized these pictures are terrible. Lol.  The photography skills should improve pretty quickly as I get back into all of this. 

 

Also just realized by looking at the pics that some of the rings will need to be rounded a bit.  The wire I used is just malleable enough that this shouldn't be too much of a prob.

Edited September 16, 2015 by knightyo

[knightyo]

Wire used for breech line rings.

[knightyo]

The miniature brass bolts arrived, and they fit my pre-drilled holes really well.  However, when the bolts were seated in the holes, alignment issues between the bolts, breech rings, and the piece which lets the carronades move up and down became very apparent.  I've removed and reseated about half of the bottom rounded pieces as a result.

 

I also worked on the 2nd rounded pear pieces of the quarter galleries.  They are roughly shaped like the upper pieces, and now need to have the molding scribed within.  Once those pieces are done, I can start working on the windows; that is going to be extremely challenging, but also probably pretty fun.

 

[knightyo]

Today I was able to rough shape all of the quarter gallery components with the exception of the windows, which I'll tackle after the main components are finished.  I've set the components next to each other in order to give a rough sense of where I'm headed with these.

 

The molding pieces are pretty well sanded to their final dimensions.  They just need to have the molding lines fine sanded so they are all uniform.  

 

The "filler" pieces are all very "fat" at the moment.  I'm planning on carving as much of Chuck's detail I can into these, and want to have a lot of wood to work with in order to increase the odds that I can carve something acceptable into these things.  If the carving process turns into a train wreck, I'll just sand and shape everything smooth and pretend it's supposed to look like that. 

 

 

[Chuck]

That is looking very good Alan.  Its fantastic to see you back in the workshop.  Hope you are doing well.   These are difficult pieces to shape and they look like they will work out very nicely.

 

Chuck

[knightyo]

That is looking very good Alan.  Its fantastic to see you back in the workshop.  Hope you are doing well.   These are difficult pieces to shape and they look like they will work out very nicely.

 

Chuck

 

Thanks Chuck,  it's a blast to be working on this again.  I'm still following your practicums step by step.  If you see me start heading down a wrong path anywhere, just let me know!    

[knightyo]

Still working on the quarter galleries.  I "think" I'm about half done with these things.  All of the shapes have been rough cut, and I'm now just trying to shape everything with blades/files/sandpaper/swearing.  I wish I had more pics to post, but these things are really taking a long time.  I pretty much work on them as long as I can until either my back starts hurting, or my eyes refuse to focus any longer.

 

I'm really looking forward to finishing these, and then installing the windows, etc..

[knightyo]

Almost two years between posts and progress.  Life has slowed down a bit for me in recent months, and I've been able to start getting back into the hobby.

 

I've created silicon molds for the "devices" used to secure the bottoms of the guns.  It's proven extraordinarily challenging to manufacture these (am using pewter, the same as the guns). I've actually been working on these for months off and on, and teaching my pets new swear words. 

 

When I don't have the patience to work on these parts, I've been working on my Triton, since I'm in the "easy" stage of shaping the hull.  Man, that part of a build is satisfying.

 

I've also been watching Dr. Mike's method of creating nails with extreme interest, and have decided to create nails using his technique (practiced the technique quite a bit this morning). I've decided to incorporate nails into the hull of Syren, inside and out (haven't decided which metals to use yet), as well as the insides of the gunport lids.  I'm thinking brass nails would show up really nice against the bright red of the gunport lids, but might blacken them. Either way would technically be inaccurate I believe, as they were surely painted over on the actual ship?   I'll probably use the same pattern as on the Constitution below. 

[knightyo]

Below are a few of my nail "tests". The broken stick right to the left of the gunport has the smallest of the nails I created today.  The next stick has larger nails.  I also applied black paint to the upper nails to see how they looked against the hull.  If I do end up using black, I'll chemically blacken them. The black nails pictured looked misshapen, due to cheap acrylic paint globs on top.  

 

Also... Apologies for the dust and cobwebs!  I expected to see that when looking at the model again.  What I did NOT expect to see was the little dash of red paint on the left side of the gunport.  That will be remedied tomorrow.

[HIPEXEC]

Wow! Nice work.

[Tigersteve]

Agreed!

Steve

[knightyo]

Thanks guys.  I woke up this morning and had a nice hot cup of coffee while perusing MSW.  I then constructed about 180 little nails. That was really a fun way to start out the day.  I think I have around another 220 nails to go. 

[knightyo]

In theory, there are 400 miniature brass nails in this container.   The heads of the nails are just a bit larger than the shafts.  I used a steel ruler to "cut" and shape the heads of the nails, as it has a 90 degree angle, and each "side" would get a 45 degree bevel.  I'd like the heads to have been a little larger than the shaft, but this is do-oable.  The issue encountered which caused consternation is that the pliers I used to cut the nails from the wire as they were complete also pressed the metal at each cut point, creating a flat end which was usually also wider than the shaft.  Sooo... I had to file down the ends of every single nail down to the shaft width or less, so they'd insert into the hull.  At least it was very easy to do so.  The entire process was actually extremely easy; it just took time, and couldn't be done in one sitting.  I just worked on them in numerous mini-sessions throughout the week. 

 

Why bother creating all of these, when they can be purchased, you ask?  I do have a number of nails about the same size, and they just don't look as "realistic".  I also wanted to try out a new technique to see if I could pull it off.   

 

 

[knightyo]

For some reason, my post above wouldn't allow me to post the pic..  

[knightyo]

There are now officially 4 nails in the Syren.  Just test fitting halfway, here.   And of course the camera didn't focus on the nails, and I hadn't noticed until uploading....I also intend to blacken these.  I DO have a pewter oxidizer in the garage, but am not quite sure if that will work on brass.   I'm researching this a bit.  I also discovered that my pin vice is nowhere to be found.  I used my fingers to enlarge the existing holes with a larger bit.  That didn't feel wonderful, so hopefully I can find the pin-vice soon. If not, I'll head to the hobby store.   

 

I also discovered by taking this pic that the gunlid "straps" need to be sanded down a LOT, or replaced with metal. They definitely need help.  Of course these will eventually need nails as well!  Perhaps it would be neat to leave the nails shiny brass against the black of the straps.  Although it would be strange to have a mixture of nail colors, I guess.

[Gahm]

Your quarter badges shape up very nicely! They are tricky pieces to make!

 

Thomas

[knightyo]

Thanks Thomas!  It's going to be very satisfying to finish and install those quarter badges.

 

My pipette's arrived yesterday, so I'll be playing with the chemical blackening agent this weekend.  Items to be blackened are guns, nails and "gun holder thingies".    

 

Alan

[Tigersteve]

Shaping up nicely. 

Steve

[knightyo]

It's begun!

 

Remember how I said that these nails would be blackened?  Even though the oxidizer I have is "designed" for pewter, I was going to give it a try. However, the admiral instructed me to read the MSDS sheets on the oxidizer.  After reading said sheets, I decided it might be best to experiment with alternative blackening schemes.   The first "recipe" was to use Palmolive dish soap.  After about a week and a half, instead of blackened nails, I just ended up with extremely clean and bright nails.  Not to be deterred, I followed the second recipe. This entailed boiling two eggs and crushing them up in a Ziploc bag along with the items to be blackened.  This DID work a bit.  I now have a set of nails with various "shades" of color.   I was originally hoping for a consistent dark black across the board, but I'll admit that I do look the likes of these.  They also look like they've been painted along with the hull.  As you can tell, I'm trying to talk myself into being satisfied with these. I suppose they will also "tarnish" over time. Below is the start of the installation process, which is extremely satisfying.  By taking close up photos like this, it's also helpful to identify areas which need to be filled!  I'm also not happy with the uneven gap at the bottom of the gunport. We'll see what can be done about that.  

[knightyo]

What are your guys' thoughts regarding the stern decoration?  I think I ended up carving an item which was smaller than the pattern.  I must have made mistakes, and "hid" them by carving off the offending parts.  Should this carving be "thicker" overall?    I think this could be pried off and replaced without risking too much of a catastrophe....

[Tigersteve]

Echo Dirk here. Save your energy for the carvings, which are coming along nicely.  

Steve

[knightyo]

Here's the link to Alex's build which I'm trying to emulate a bit.  

 

Below is a pic of his Cumberland, and next to it the Constitution. I "think" the last pic is Alex's Cumberland as well.  At any rate, these are the looks I'm trying to achieve.