usedtosail

I glued two of the lower deck sections to the bulkhead. Because there is a curvature to the deck, I used these modified clamps to hold them while gluing which worked great.
 

 

I glued two of the lower deck sections to the bulkhead. Because there is a curvature to the deck, I used these modified clamps to hold them while gluing which worked great.
 

 

This will be my second Vanguard kit. I have wanted to build this ship model ever since it was released. I will be building it for our new first grandson, Thomas Joseph. His nursery is a nautical theme so the completed model will go in there when he is older. I have to include a picture of the little guy. The sailer suit was actually his father's, our son, from when he was a baby.
 

 
Ok enough of that. I have unboxed the kit and started cutting out the bulkheads and keel. Pictures of the actual model coming soon.

I glued two of the lower deck sections to the bulkhead. Because there is a curvature to the deck, I used these modified clamps to hold them while gluing which worked great.
 

 

I glued two of the lower deck sections to the bulkhead. Because there is a curvature to the deck, I used these modified clamps to hold them while gluing which worked great.
 

 

I have been using Dullcoat Lacquer on the Mara polyester ropes I make for the past 5 years with good results. 

I have been using Dullcoat Lacquer on the Mara polyester ropes I make for the past 5 years with good results. 

I glued two of the lower deck sections to the bulkhead. Because there is a curvature to the deck, I used these modified clamps to hold them while gluing which worked great.
 

 

I glued two of the lower deck sections to the bulkhead. Because there is a curvature to the deck, I used these modified clamps to hold them while gluing which worked great.
 

 

Thanks EvanKeel. I will follow along with your Bounty Launch build. I really liked that kit too.
 
Just your typical shot of gluing the bulkheads to the keel. Of course everything fit together like they were made for each other.
 

Thanks Joe!
 
More unanticipated issues!  I had to redo the trestle trees.  If you look at this photo from my previous post, notice the location of the aft cross tree.

 
There is a slight gap between it and the aft opening of the floor, whereas the forward cross tree is just about even with the forward opening of the floor.  Look also at this photo of my previous post--

 
This is exactly how Petrejus shows it.  However as I began test fitting the bolsters on the trestle trees, and blanks for the topmasts, I began to realize that it wasn't going to work.  There simply wasn't enough room between the cross trees for the mast and topmast to fit correctly, and the bolster to be in the right position on the mainmast.  I thought at first this might be due to the substantial rake of the mast.  But Petrejus' Irene is raked also.  Ahhh, I realized my error.  I had scaled the top down, based on Chapelle's drawing, and the photos of the Jefferson model, whose tops, though I don't have measurements, looked by eye to be slightly on the smaller side.  My mistake was in also scaling down the cross tree spacing.  I had previously been puzzled that the Petrejus' trestle trees seemed too close together for the mast to fit through, and I had adjusted them for my masts.  This should have tipped me off, but I didn't change the cross tree spacing at that time.  Fortunately, the trestle trees were easy to remake, and I could reuse the cross trees.  Here is the new arrangement--
 
 
Testing this with the mast, bolsters and topmasts, I think this will work.   I could now move on to the hounds/bibs.  Blanks are cut and the joints cut.  These need to be thinner than the trestle trees, but I used the same stock, as I don't have any thinner at the moment.   Rather than sand it thinner now (actually it also needs a slight taper), I'm going to assemble them, and then do the final sanding to thickness--


 
Petrejus says that all tops should be parallel with the load water line, though, curiously, Chapelle's drawing shows the tops not at all parallel to the waterline, and not quite perpendicular to the mast--somewhere oddly in between.  I cut the hounds parallel to the waterline and did some rough shaping, testing it against the mast.  Here it is clothes pinned to the mast, and supporting the trestle trees and top, with my template for the rake--

 
The top looks very slightly pitched back, but I think it's actually due to my camera not being exactly level.  That also makes the rake look just a bit more than it really is-


 
Satisfied, I now have a pattern to roughly shape the other pieces.  The rake of the fore mast is less, so that top angle on the hounds will be different--

 
The others will be roughly shaped, tested, and then the contours finalized, along with sanding them to the correct thickness.
 
Ron 
 
 
 

Thanks EvanKeel. I will follow along with your Bounty Launch build. I really liked that kit too.
 
Just your typical shot of gluing the bulkheads to the keel. Of course everything fit together like they were made for each other.
 

Thanks EvanKeel. I will follow along with your Bounty Launch build. I really liked that kit too.
 
Just your typical shot of gluing the bulkheads to the keel. Of course everything fit together like they were made for each other.
 

Looking at my efforts, I realized I needed to do this all over again but with a harder wood because the square edges of the boomkins were already beginning to wear down during the fabrication process. Using 1/8” x 1/8” stock pear wood that I had left over from when I constructed my Rattlesnake, the results were much better. They were then painted black. The brass bands held three eyebolts. Two eyebolts, one on the aft side and the other on the bottom of the boomkin, were aligned lengthwise following the line of the boomkin. The third eyebolt located on the top of the boomkin was installed perpendicular to the boomkin as was shown in the various photographs of the actual ship. To do this, a pin was used to make the initial dent in the brass for the #77 drill bit. The holes were drilled through the brass into the wood. After each hole was drilled, a full-size eyebolt was inserted so the brass band would not move while the next hole was being drilled. Then the eyebolts were removed, cut to size, and permanently installed with CA glue. This secured the brass bands as well.

Bow Boomkins
I was about to install the grating and fabricate the seats of ease in the bow when I realized that the pair of bow boomkins needed to be fabricated and installed first because they were physically below the grating. Surprisingly, the practicum did not address these components.
 
Initially, utilizing the kit’s 1/8” x 1/8” stock basswood, the boomkin were fabricated by tapering the pieces of wood to 3/32” x 3/32” at one end. Then, with a square cross-section needle file, the triangular indents on the tapered ends were formed. Using 0.005” brass metal sheet, two strips of the metal were cut to size, wrapped around the boomkins to form the brass bands, and then blackened.

For your info, my HMS Indefatigable build will be published as a two-part article in the Model Boats magazine, with the first part available in this month's mag.
 
It's the Model Boats mag that first drew me into this hobby with Keith Julier's period ship builds. If it wasn't for him, then I doubt MSW would exist, and my interest in this hobby. 

https://www.modelboats.co.uk
 
Here's the intro pages for Part 1 of my article.
 

 
 

Thanks EvanKeel. I will follow along with your Bounty Launch build. I really liked that kit too.
 
Just your typical shot of gluing the bulkheads to the keel. Of course everything fit together like they were made for each other.
 

Congrats on the completion of a really beautiful model.  Well done!

Your grandson is very cute! I love that the sailor outfit his father wore was saved to be worn again by a new generation!
I've been reading through your build of the Bounty Launch as I start mine. It been very helpful and I'll be following this build as well.

This will be my second Vanguard kit. I have wanted to build this ship model ever since it was released. I will be building it for our new first grandson, Thomas Joseph. His nursery is a nautical theme so the completed model will go in there when he is older. I have to include a picture of the little guy. The sailer suit was actually his father's, our son, from when he was a baby.
 

 
Ok enough of that. I have unboxed the kit and started cutting out the bulkheads and keel. Pictures of the actual model coming soon.

This will be my second Vanguard kit. I have wanted to build this ship model ever since it was released. I will be building it for our new first grandson, Thomas Joseph. His nursery is a nautical theme so the completed model will go in there when he is older. I have to include a picture of the little guy. The sailer suit was actually his father's, our son, from when he was a baby.
 

 
Ok enough of that. I have unboxed the kit and started cutting out the bulkheads and keel. Pictures of the actual model coming soon.

Thanks Derek. Your Duchess is beautiful.
 
One last picture of the Duchess in its new case, which I finished today.
 

 
I will be delivering it to my friends later this week.

Thanks Derek. Your Duchess is beautiful.
 
One last picture of the Duchess in its new case, which I finished today.
 

 
I will be delivering it to my friends later this week.

Thanks Derek. Your Duchess is beautiful.
 
One last picture of the Duchess in its new case, which I finished today.
 

 
I will be delivering it to my friends later this week.

Transom & Stern Near Complete
 
A short update.
 
The windows (or lights) have been sitting on my padded shelf for a long time, waiting for this moment. There is nothing special about installing them, all the readiness work in creating, measuring, and fitting their frames was done long ago with the installation of the stern frames and later with the transom and its associated work.
 

The challenge of this task was to install the very nicely scaled, but as a consequence very fragile, boxwood windows without breaking them using the very minimum of PVA glue. Much of the frame shows of course, so only a very small amount of glue in the very edge of the corners works.
 
Following a lot of hold my breath moments, well more specifically five such moments, and without breaking anything next up was the acetate used as window glass. For this I used Liquitex Acyrilic Matt Medium. It takes little to hold the acetate and the medium dries clear, still I applied it only to the corners of the window.

Finally I added the sills below the windows to complete the transom interior. Using a ¼ by 1/32 strip of Yellow Cedar these require some work matching up the angles and lengths required. I did all the cutting and fitting before the windows were added to have more working room and less stress working around installed windows. Only minor adjustments, with WOP added before installing, were needed for the final fitting.

And with that my transom and stern are complete for now. There is a railing to add to top off the stern frames later in the build (I’ve already used the template to cut these to the proper height), below that rail the work is done.
 
Thanks for stopping by,  your likes and comments always appreciated. I’m off to continue Chapter 5.