USS Syren 1803 by Dubz

[Dubz]

Finishing Chapter 6

Painting the sterns cap rail.



This ended in sanding and painting all black parts again as it was recognizable were painted before and after. So hint again, paint after ALL is done



Installed the second transom layer, needed a bit sanding and adjusting but then fits, after that I made the two molding strips ... got a bit too short with the fashion pieces for the lower molding strip .. but ... ok ... I'm definitely NOT redoing this



All seems well .... but .... maybe you can see the problem here ...



So, like Dafi likes to say ...deconstruction ...gnarf ... hmpfh ... arghhh

On the starboard side the 2nd layer was to short, I didn't took attention, so that the molding strips had a wrong angle and were to close to the starboard gun port. I had to fill it a bit and need to repaint again, but overall the OP went ok






I took a little break from work and did a working stand. Also repainted the part between the two molding strips. I always use Tamiya Masking Tape to mask. It's absolute great.





And once again, my two babies



It's fun to see how small one of the Sherbourne guns is on the Syren. Looking forward to have the carronades built to see THIS difference, guess the cutter won't last long



cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

I remembered that I bought years ago the Syren parts from Jerzy. Today I searched and found them, so a little comparison.

The parts from the kit are ca. 0.38mm thick, where in the parts from Jerzy, which came with two boards, one is ca. 0.15-0.18mm thick, better say thin here, the one with the hammock cranes is, makes sense imo, thicker with ca. 0.25mm.



Another point is, that Jerzy's parts are imo much nicer and detailed.

Check the Syren typo here (left is Jerzy's):



Or the horse shoes for the sweep ports (Jerzy's is the lower one)



For a better picture



This is imo another big minus for the Kit. There is nothing to say about anything Chuck were responsible for, what he created is outstanding and near perfect. But what Model Expo but in the kit could/should be much better imo. Yepp the wood IS better then in most of the kits I checked, even I'm not happy with (hey ok I'm German, maybe that's the reason ) the lasered wood is really good, but especially the metalparts (casts, guns, anchor, anchorstock (sucks big time imo) are crap for a Kit I paid round about 526.- Dollars for, resp. an "Advanced Kit".

To make it clear for $240.-, that's how the Syren is actual selling, the kit is absolute valuable and advisable!! But not for the double ... just my moaning 2 cent

cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

Today I build the cap rails. Unfortunately the provided wood doesn't fit (not wide enough) for me and I had no clue what to use for the bow ... so I did the whole thing with a sheet of pear (I have always a lot of spare wood in my workshop).

First was to trace the profile to some cardboard.



I then use a circle to transfer the profile to the pear sheet. Made it bigger as it will be sanded down later to the needed size.



Then the scroll saw had some work to do Here is a picture after the first rough sanding.



As in real the cap rail was not in one piece I cut it to make it look like being more then one piece.



To make the installation easier as some little bending is (always) necessary I drill holes in the cap rail and use some brass wire as nails. This makes sure that the position will not move when gluing.



Then it was time to glue the cap rail. As the position is fixed with the nails I just need clamps to have pressure.



After the glue dried the nails will be hammered fully in and then a lot of fine sanding is needed.



The next was the moulding strip. I didn't used the kits wood here again instead some pear strip (it's good to never throw away any wood rests. Sometimes you can need them )



Again a lot of fine sanding has to be done to get nicely rounded edges.







After all it was time to paint the cap rail.





Next will be the deck planking or coppering the hull. It depends when I get some wood, as I want to check making the deck with pear.

cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

A little Good Night Post with some impressions after removing the mask tape and polishing the painted cap rail


















The last days the progress is a bit slow I'm preparing for coppering and started to build the jig. Next here will be checking out wich nail pattern I want to use. Chuck seems to be simplified and I like to check out one with more or all nails shown. But not sure yet



The next I did were building the, working, sheaves.







Finally, and sorry, a big rant one more time about the metal casts. To be honest it is a shame for a kit like this. The casts are just worthless and will be trashed. Money for nothing



Especially the quarter badges are a joke. Both are totally different, check here:





And finally here, they are totally different. I'm not only disappointed I'm gettin' angry more and more. Where was the quality control?



I wanted to avoid as I think I don't like to make them by myself but it seems I have to (maybe I learn to like it then )

Once again, I'm really sad about the kit, I had very high expectations, but there are so many parts just crap .. it hurts my heart.
I mean they should just sell a lasered wood kit (the lasered parts and the wood IS very good!) and let me buy the rest by myself, what I do anyway now ...

Enough rant for today. Hope you don't mind.

cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

Finished the first stamp (starboard) today. I used 0.5mm steel wire and made sure that they all have the same distance. The head of the wire is filed to be exactly round.





Made some test plates and glued them on the hull.



Does this look ok? Maybe more nails? I'm not sure how much they should overlap. What about the joins should I work the overlapping there more out?


Coppering .... somehow I like it, it has something meditative







To get a constant pattern I sometimes had to use slightly larger plates. There are already some scratches but that's fine for me as I'm thinking about a little weathering anyway.


After mass production of plates ...



I could finish the starboard side of the hull today. I thought it would take muuuuch longer to copper, but overall it was an easy task.

The only a bit "tricky" part was the last belt at the waterline. I used a Tamiya masking tape (6mm quite the height of a plate) to mark the running of the last row. Overlapping plates I "overmask" with another sheet of tape. I then used this as a guide to cut the plate with a sharp cutter.



Some impressions of the coppered side.









Overall I like the look and feel. It might not be 100% accurate but it makes the feeling of a coppered hull very well imo.

cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

To illustrate the "problem" here's a picture with the "missing plate". In original a plate has round about 100 nails. They go around the edges and with a "special" pattern within the plate (this pattern differs from nation to nation though). As we overlap most of them we get the impression that every plate has it nails at the edges but, as the waterline row has no overlapping plates, sure it's the last row the nails are missing there, so another stamp is necessary.

Another advantage of a third stamp is, that I can use this one also for the overlapping plates at the stem and stern post.


cheers,

The edges nails are always at the bottom of a plate there is no problem with the keel. The jig was posted in #124, but here we go again together with the stamps



On the starboard side you can still see the "old" plates used for the last row. Take a look at the top nails there.



Here you can see the port side with the new stamp. See the nails at the top of the plates. Looks much better imo.



Both variants here.



It's exactly the way to made it. The only difference is the third pattern for the parts where I need nails at the bottom and top of a plate.

I did not burnish the plates it's the look how the tape is. I like it though

I simply relied on the adhesive backup. It works quite well. I tried to remove mostly all fingerprints with Aceton (nail polish remover of my girl ). I like to weather it a bit. Not pink as it would look when the Syren would be on journey more the usually expected green, like she is at harbor for quite some time already. I'll try a method with acetic and salt though ...

Did this answered your questions guys? Don't hesitate to ask

More impressions of the finished coppered hull:







Unfortunately I have a minor flaw with the waterline on the port side, anyway The port side was anyway a bit more difficult and took longer as I tried to get it kinda the same as the star board side ... but no change to get it exactly the same to many variables



More pictures









Next will be the rudder and then the double sheave at the stern, that will be fun though ... hmpf .. after that the planking of the deck is on the list.

cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

It started as joke but  .... gnarf ... deconstruction time yeah .... On the port side there were a major flaw with the waterline, imo one of the most important lines and as even my girlfriend has noted it it had to be corrected ... hmpf ..

The masking tape shows the waterline how it kinda should be.



Deconstruction



The result looks much better though, not perfect but better






I indeed coppered in-between keel and false keel. Coppering had two reasons: To avoid the strong retarding growth and to do something against the boring worm. To make it exact the COPPER did nothing against this mussel but the underlying tarred felt or paper layer.

Now there are two point of views about the false keel imo. Just to nail the false keel on the keel would still have been a weak point against the boring word. One argument could be to have the tarred felt or paper in-between, the other that there were copper with the underlaying felt. Based on the mail about the Victory I decided to go this way.


I found out that a mixture of vinegar (acetic?) and salt is a very good mixture to remove the fingerprints. It will also remove the patina (if someone wants this).

It's hard to see here, but maybe



I then did the false keel with a lot of nails



... and started on the rudder ... to drill the hole for the rudder was somehow challenging ...





cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

Unfortunately I forgot a little detail with the rudder. It has to be thin downed from the top to the bottom also, so my favorite thing .. deconstruction.





Here you can see also the difference between the fresh coppered ruder and the already coppered hull. I used a mixture of salt and vinegar and the patina gets wonderful imo.






I did the 10 scuppers with a 2mm brass tube. With a file the opening got a bit more open and then blackening the brass.





I then did the missing double-sheave at the stern. It looks like nothing but took ours. I should have done that before finishing the stern. Anyway here they are






As I have to wait for pear wood for the deck planking, I start doing some hull stuff. Closing the sweep ports (looks like a mess though ... ) and the fenders on the port side.







The copper really gets a nice patina ...



cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

Did a bit photo etching stuff I hate and love macro photography For me it's a good way to check what I build. I'm not the best in making acurate squares but I try to get an "athmosphere" with my builds, thats why I love details, even if a detail for itself sometimes looks not perfectly build, all together I try to get a coherent picture.




I had to revise my deck planking plan as I (as always ) forgot about a simple rule, that a plank should be not longer than round about 6 meters. I choosed the 4-butt shift pattern with a plank length of 6.08 meters. If a plank would be slightly longer with a removed join (e.g. after the main hatch and at the bow and aft) I removed the join. Right now I have a dedicated binding strake in mind wich will be longer than the other planks (not knowing if the Syren had one, Chuck?).

The plank width is 20cm (3.125mm == 1/8" in the used scale), afaik there should be 2 nails used with this width but I guess this would be too distracting so I go with one nail as Chuck did.

As it is quite hard to get exactly 3.125mm (I get only 3mm pear and the included strips would be even less as they had to be sanded a lot to get sharp edges) I hope that the cardboard I'll use for the caulking will give me the correct width.

This time I'll try to be very careful with the symmetric of the planking, don't wanna make the same mistake as with the Sherbourne again  

Any comments would be appreciated




Wooohoooo got a small parcel today from UK The 18pdr from Caldercraft perfectly fit as 24pdr for the Syren (the heck knows why ) A bit modifications e.g. soldering will be necessary but overall they look great





BTW the coppered hull gets nicer and nicer imo





Last but not least a little "trick" that was helpful for me building the sweep port doors. I found it hard to made them exactly fit so I cut the sides in an inboard going angle (bad english? I fear )



Then I could press them in the ports (an advantage of the soft wood ...hmpf)



And the sanded them down.



So they look like perfectly fitting

cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

Waiting for some brass and pear atm, so I just checked today how I could build the carronades. Will be tough stuff and lots of soldering I guess ...

All brass will be blackened. I'm thinking about a smaller threaded rod too and the breech line ring is to big atm ...





Small comparison of the kits and the caldercraft carronades.



Right now I take the following three pictures as reference for me. The drawing is the same as in "Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War", the smaller carronade is from the Niagara the bigger one I don't know but I guess from an american ship too (green inboard).


2 more pictures. The first how I try to do the breech line ring (need to get some more practice in soldering again ...)



And here are some minor modifications, e.g I rounded the slot ends and else.



As I got my wood today I might switch to the deck planking first, before finishing the carronades.


Slooooooooooow progress .... the wood I got sux But expecting new from a different source soon ...

Did all the breech line rings ... puhhh ... looks like nothin' but was time consuming and macro is brutal





And my girl finally made the "Syren Parts Box" - For every build I get a box like this





cheers,

Dirk