USS Syren 1803 by Dubz

[Dubz]

I decided to start the build of the USS Syren.

I could complete chapter 1 today.





Knee of the head:



My babys together



And the mermaid



Cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

Chapter 2, Part 1

A little progress on the Syren.

Set the bulkheads and the fillerblocks.






Fillerblocks at the Bow.



Unfortunately the bulkwarksframe tend to break, especially on the parts where the laser might burnt a bit to hot.







Rough Fillerblocks at the stern.



And sanded



Fairing the hull.




Actual state






Starting with Chapter 3.

First the template was cut out and glued together. Then I tried to find a good running line and fastend a temporary batten to the hull.





I used a lot of pins to check the position with the lasermarks and find an overall good smooth run. Hopefully I got one






Next was the building of the gun port sill. I used my temporary button as guide and made sure that they are in a good horizontal angle.







cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

Continuing chapter 3

Next step was sanding and fairing the gun port sill and then building the lintel. I first checked rough with the template.



Descided to make me a little tool to make the lintel following the exact line of the gun port sill.








Sanded the lintel too, and checked the run with a single plank. I think it looks ok, will do a final fairing and fixing of little flaws after all the rest of chapter 3 is done.









Finishing chapter 3

Used a temporary batton to sand the topside of the lintel.








Then I did the green frames for the gun ports.






Then the red frames for the tops of the sweep ports.






Last but not least the blue ones definig the sides of the sweep ports.








After sanding and fairing (some minor flaws need to be fixed later) I oiled the head knee and the rest, especially the gun and sweep ports. This will make it easier to to the final sanding and the coloring of the ports.










Today I spent some time to do the final finishing of chapter 3.

Last night I prepared the Syren with filler, especially the gunports in preparation for coloring, don't like to have little gaps there.
I also tried to correct some not so smooth runs at the bow.



Today I sanded the filler and made sure that the lines ar looking homogeneously. It's a bit tricky to get the little inboard bump (right word?) consitent, and I might do some more sanding before planking.







Cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

Starting with chapter 4.

Here I got the first imo annoyance of the kit. These fragile peaces are breaking right when you look at them To be honest, I would like to see things like this made with solid wood and not this cheap laserburned scrap. Also carving/sanding the sides would be much easier. I regret, that I did not redid these parts with pear, would have made it easier





Anyway, this is the first part where I  by intention not exactly followed the instructions, but the plans. That means, that the ports will not be on a straight line and a real square, but following the bend of the deck so that they will be in slight a trapezoidal shape (gnarf ... sometimes my english is soooo ******* ).

Checking gun port height.



Checking the lines.





Using a lot of filler






Nearly the end of chapter 4.

Sanding the sides of the stern. I used my Proxxon first to remove most of the stuff, then finetuned by hand following the shape of the hull.






Checking the run.



Alomost finished.






Finishing chapter 4.

Filler pieces added below the counter.



As always using a lot of filler



Sanded and faired. Hope it is right this way ....





Cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

Starting chapter 5.

Alot of little stuff has to be made to prepare for planking.

First I prepared the hull for the sheaves, as I want them shown as block (will be pear though).





As I wrote before, I regret that I not made the fillerblocks up to the deck, so I had to go the hard way



Next was painting the ports.





The deck sanded.



Preaparing the batten for the upper whale (not sure if I do the whale with 3 planks as in the instructions, or 2 what I think is "more" correct"... Chuck?)





Nedd to fix some things ... arghhh.





Did the fakedeck. Used the penciltechnique, seems to work good, no hassle with  black paper then, yeah





Cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

It's a while ago since I made the last post. The last weeks were buildingwise very frustrating for me. I don't know if I got a kinda "bad" kit or just to dumb to build. Maybe it's because I'm used to work with pear or I have bad luck with the kits wood ... one of the major problems for me was that the strips for the planks have a wide range of size. From 2.79 to 3.40 mm (not near constantly 3.175mm as it should), the next problem was that alot of the strips, imo, are badly cut, to get a smooth surface, I sometimes had to sand them down another 0.3mm on both sides.

My main mistake might have been, that I didn't checked before but trusted in the size ... not good ...

To measure the correct position for the upper whale I glued 7 strips together ... with trust ... haha ... the result was totally removing all the planks I did till I found out that there must be something wrong .. arghhh ...

I then selected the planks with kinda the right size and made a new measuretool. As you can see in the next picture, there ist a good difference of size ... arghh again ...



Finished the planking of the starbordside, but not really happy with the result.





I couldn't get the lines exact in the way they should be, very frustrating. The shearstrake is not following exactly the lastplank .. arghh again ...






The next catastrophe was the portside. I started to low, even I really trid to made the upper wahle the same as the starbord .... failed to get the same run of planks ...





This was a time were I was very closed to start the Syren chainsaw massacre ...

Inbetween I started the boat to get some feeling of success ... nope, frustration again, I should stop building ... another thing I need to redo ....




Anyway, starting over, still not exactly like the starbord side ... **** it ....










Made the stern



Right now planking the hull.





Secured the allready planked parts as the wood is veeery sensitiv for scratches ... arghhh ... not used to that





Whe this is finished I will made the whales.

I have one question for the whales btw, are they "simplified" for the kit or wasn't there used a buttstock technique?

Cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

I finished the planking of the hull. Haha, I really have trouble with the wood, e.g. the "behaviour" when its wet, dry, whatever ... also this wide spread of color when it's oiled is not relly what I like ... not sure yet if I will use the kits wood for the deck planking ... anyway ... as the hull will be coppered and painted (puhhhh .... ) I guess the hull is quite ok.

It was alot of sanding











There is only a minor problem with two of the bulkheads at the bow, it looks like they are a bit to big. It's hardly ssen and not feelable, I hope it will be gone when the hull is coppered.













My two babys





cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

One of the parts I love and hate is coming soon, the nailing Love, because I love the look, hate, because it's not really fun to drill hundreds of holes and prepare hundreds of nails ... sure, most will be done with the waxingmethod, but the nails on the whales will be from gauge wire, and to make it even harder not the easier, softer brass wire but iron wire, gnarf. Brass might be to "bling bling", where iron will give a more discreet contrast. Less distracting imo. I did this for the Sherbourne allready.

The following picture shows the nailingpatterns I have in mind, any comments are welcome



Yesterday I could finish the whales. Unfortunateley there where one 5/32" x 1/32" strip missing but I replaced it with some pearstrips.
On the position of the lower whale I pinned a temporary batten as guide for the "middle" whale which I then glued with a combination of CA (for the bow and the stern, and some drops inbetween) and "normal" wood glue. I then removed the batten to place the final lower whale withe the now glued middle whale as guide ... and so on The seams are just made with a little cut. Aftherall the edges get rounded a bit and the whole whale was sanded.



I'm still struggeling with the wood. Am I to perfectionist and only moaning or is it my kit? The following picture shows the 5/32" x 1/16" strips and as you can see there is a big difference (imo) with the dimensions, the colors and the quality of the sawing (some are really perfect, some are ******) ...



Hull with whales is now painted down to the waterline plus some mm. I used Tamiya masking tape and Humbrol color. It's painted three times. After the first I waited a day and then sanded it down a bit with 600 paper, after the second I waited another day and the polished with a cotton towel, as this will remove a bit of the color especially on the edges I painted the third time, waited 4 hours and the did the final polish to get a little shine on the matt color.









cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

Finishing Chapter 5, the last thing to do were the nails. I decided (might change again ) not to nail the whales and else.

As a guide I used my nail pattern printed on a transparent sheet. I then used an awl to mark the holes to drill. Big mistake with this wood ... arghhh ... as the wood got "pressed" horizontally a bit. I hate the wood (like the color though .... ), that's my personal opinion, maybe because I'm just stupid to handle it ... I don't know, but I have the feeling that just a closer look is producing ditches and else in this ***** ...





Holes drilled.



Waxing




Problem. As the awl pressed the wood to much, the wax is not only in the drilled holes but a bit in the horizontal outside ... arghhh ....



Anyway, pictures of the hull








On the portside I used a needle to mark the holes, much better result ... anyway ....






Starting Chapter 6.



I made the stripwood and fashion pieces for the stern transom. I hope all will go well, as my whales are a bit deeper than they should ...





I bought me some nice books



cheers,

Dirk

[Dubz]

The Cap Rail for the stern is quite challenging ... I like to have the top of the cap following the run of the hull, this is quite hard with the wood. I remember that for my Alert there was a wood delivered I could easily bend in every direction I want, atm I try to find out what wood this was

So before finishing the stern I started with Chapter 7 and did the inboard planking



I glued some filler at the bow to make sure to get a nice curve there.



After the planking was done I filed and sanded the gun ports (something I would like to be "better" .. it's hard for me to get exact optical squares ...). Anyway I took the change to make the "overlapping's" (don't know how exactly this is called) more constantly, even the ports are now slightly bigger then they should, I think this is more easily to overlook than the inconsistently overlapping's.



Some Impressions.







I then painted the inboard in red.









Before you guys miss my typical moaning about the wood I found out where all the ditches come from. It's from the clamps .. arghhh ... this wood is so sensitive, that even a light clamp will have enough pressure to ditch the wood ... gnarf ...

Next to do will be all the cap rails and a working stand

Today I could finish the cap rail for the stern. Fortunately I found one of the easy to bend wood strips in my wood collection. I have no idea what kind of wood it is, maybe someone can help to identify.

It's absolut easy to bend, it' hard to cut, and very hard to sand or file. When sanded you get a really smooth surface and nice rounded edges. Imo the perfect wood for a stern, should be part of every kit as it makes it much easier!



Bending the cap rail.





Cap rail and fashion pieces.









For better fixation of the cap rail I used some nails. The next days I will try to sand it a bit more down, as it is a bit to big as suggested and then paint the whole thing black

Cheers,

Dirk