palmerit

I built the Shackleton Lifeboat.

I previously posted that Lego was releasing its own version of the Endurance: I told my wife about it and she actually put it on my Christmas list. That was a nice surprise under the tree. It's been a while since I've had to help my boys build their Legos, though my job was usually finding parts for them. My boys also bought me a Model Shipways Syren. Another nice surprise. I think now I have about five years of models to build. My wife told me this morning that she tried ordering it from Lego on the day it was released but it quickly sold out online. It was sold out at one of the Lego stores in Nashville but she saw that there were some at the other Lego store. They wouldn't hold it for her. She said she went to that Lego store on Cyber Monday (and she never goes to the mall) after we returned from visiting family over Thanksgiving. There was a line out the door and they were only letting someone in after someone left. She saw two Endurance models remaining on the table near the front door. While waiting in line, one couple in the store was eyeing one up, another almost grabbed one, and the people behind her said they were planning to grab one if they could get inside. She was able to get one of the last two before they sold out. Over the Black Friday week the Endurance came with a free gift of the Shackleton Lifeboat at a larger scale. I hope it's okay to do a build log on a Lego set. I'm guessing I'm not going to run into problems with misaligned parts, poor instructions, and broken masts. And there should be far less sanding. And it'll probably take me 2% of the time it takes to do a simple wooden ship model. It's a nice thing to build while watching some football or movies with the family in the living room. It's Christmas Day, so it's two football games today on Netflix and maybe a movie tonight.

I haven't yet begun the rigging on my Sherbourne, in part because I've been trying to read build logs for tips and recommendations. I'm planning to post some of those here (for my reference, for others to check out). I'll update this post as I find more. Here's one on the NRG Rigging Project build that illustrates shrouds, ratlines, deadeyes:

I'm thankful that the first kit I bought was the Vanguard Sherbourne (a decision I made after reading a lot of posts here). The instructions are very clear, the pieces fit together really well, the parts are clearly labeled, the materials are high quality. It's kind of unfair that a complete novice can make a model that looks so good. (I have Syren on my list for a more advanced build someday after I clear the stash I've accumulated.) I've also been building the Model Shipways Shipwright series of boats (Dory, Pram, Smack). The instructions are detailed, but not always entirely clear. You'll see in some logs (not just mine) things like "I had to puzzle over ..." or "I had to read ahead ..." to figure out what to do. It's sometimes like solving a puzzle to figure out what the next step is. Once you figure things out it makes sense. Part of the challenge is that the instructions often describe the way to do something but the parts don't make it obvious which of a few ways to do something, the photos are fuzzy and not often from the best angle, let alone multiple angles. The plans in the instructions are inexplicably not to scale sometimes, and you often need to use the plans to build a part. Not all the pieces are clearly labeled. And what's in the instructions sometimes doesn't match the materials supplied. And much of the wood is basswood. It's not the case that pieces fit together, but that you need to align them right and glue them in place, sometimes hoping that you get them just right because a future step is going to rely on getting their placement just right, and neither the instructions nor the build make that obvious. My sense is that's not unique to these models but is fairly common to the design of lots of "old school" wooden ship models. I know this can read an indictment, and it's not intended to be, but as a heads up to the novice to expect more of a challenge than the "best for novice" designation or recommendation might seem to indicate. I've posted basically the same other places before. I'm posting here again for when future novices might stumble upon this thread looking for a "best" model recommendation. I'd recommend a novice either getting the Vanguard Sherbourne or one of the Vanguard fishing vessels rated as Novice. Then either continue with Vanguard Models or try one of the novice models from Model Shipways, Midwest, or Bluejacket if you want to exercise some other wooden model ship muscles. The Vanguard Models are more expensive. The Vanguard Models will take more time to build that the Shipwright Series models, so it's probably a wash in terms of the "dollars per hour" part of the equation, let alone the quality of the final product. The biggest challenge of the Vanguard Sherbourne (and the same would be true for the Vanguard fishing boats) is going to be the hull planking (haven't got to rigging on it yet, and I'm sure that's also going to be a challenge). The planking on the Model Shipwright series is definitely simpler. But unfortunately, the way the Model Shipwright series does its planking (laser cut parts of different shapes) is completely different from the way the Vanguard model does its planking (wooden strips). I did learn a lot doing the NRG half hull, but that's also a completely different way from either of those (scratch built pieces from a basswood sheet).

Oops. I was rounding the boom and the gaff in my drill and was a little too aggressive. These start square, being from a laser cut thick sheet. There’s a couple of precut holes, which in a nice gesture, but it also makes the wood really weak around the hole. Model Expo has a parts request page to order a replacement part (https://modelexpo-online.com/parts). In addition to ordering a new sheet with the boom and gaff, I also asked for another PE sheet because there weren’t enough long pieces for the pintles.

As someone who's brand new to this kind of modeling (just started over the summer) - and as someone who has used the forum to answer the question of what the "best" kit is (for a beginner) and who asked a "best second kit" question - when someone is a novice, or even has one or two kits under their belt, it is hard to even know what "with respect to what" factors to ask about or to specify. I wouldn't have known, for example, how different models can be in terms of the quality of their materials and the way they fit together and how different they can be in the clarity of the instructions until I worked on a couple of kits. If someone's a beginner, or has done one or two kits, they probably don't really know what the criteria are. Even reading build logs, you often don't understand what the differences are until you get your hands on a model. (It is odd to hear that some manufacturers still send instructions by CD/DVD. I haven't had a computer with a CD/DVD drive in a decade.)

Completed the mast. Thankfully had NFL Redzone to watch while sanding. Glad I had my air mask for this sanding using my drill. Also finished the stand.

I used the drill method to shape the mast. I wrapped the end in several loops of paper to avoid getting chuck marks on the end of the mast. And I used a clamp to keep the drill running.

The instructions acknowledge how much the dowel needs to be reduced in size. And notes how long it took the kit designer to do it. The question is still why? A 3/16” dowel could have been supplied instead. Maybe it was the economics and 1/4” dowels are way less expensive. Or maybe Model Shipways bought a literal ton of 1/4” dowels and supplies with kits with them whenever possible? Or is there another reason to supply a dowel so much larger than it needs to be?

The dowel supplied with the kit is a good bit wider than what’s needed in the plans. Not sure why. The instructions even note that the dowel is 1/4” and the plans indicate it should be more like 5/32 at its widest. That’s a lot of sanding, scraping, or planing.

Enlarging to 103% seemed to get the plans closer to scale.

I’m guessing the plans are out of scale (they’re on a page in the instructions, not on a separate sheet). The mast is cut from a dowel to 10”, with marks at 1” from the lower end and 3 1/8” from the upper end for the start of the tapers. The mast in the plans in the instructions is less than 10”. I’m guessing I’ll need to zoom in my printer. I saw in my Dory build from other logs that the plans weren’t to an accurate scale. Maybe the same is true for the Pram instructions? I missed a note to that in other logs, but I just made a quick pass. Frustrating if so.

At the step to make the display stand (which is before adding the rudder onto the boat). I wasn’t quite sure how best to notch the rods to accept the cross pieces. I ended up sawing down just a tiny bit to the width of the notch on both sides (measuring the the top the height of the notch on the cross piece rather than follow the instruction because the instructions weren’t entirely clear after a couple readings. Then I filed a bit on both sides, checking if the cross piece fit, filing some more, checking again, until it fit snug. Then glued.

It’s a bit unclear what PE pieces to use to make the pintles. I don’t know if I used the wrong piece for one of the gudgeons or if the kit doesn’t supply all the right pieces (I saw others suggest that there weren’t enough pieces or the right pieces). I’ll try to make it work.

Ah. I must have gotten one of their last ones.

To make the rudder gudgeons I had to wait until I had my razor saw and miter box. I had both, but the razor saw I had wouldn’t fit so I had to order a new one. You need to cut really small pieces of copper tube and a miter box is really the only way to go I think.

I just bought a bought a Byrnes. It arrived a few days ago. Maybe I got one of the last ones they had?

You can see the Model Shipways instructions online on the Model Expo web site if you want to check them out. They’re fairly detailed. I haven’t seen Bluejacket instructions, but I read that their models are a bit more complicated and detailed and kind of expect that you’ve done a model before.

For the future, I think isopropyl alcohol will loosen up PVA glue (you might still need to apply a sharp scalpel, but it will be loosened a bit). (Nail polish remover will do something similar with CA glue - superglue).

One thing to note if you’re looking at the Vanguard models is that they’re kind of in three pairs (three different styles, with a smaller and larger variant) - that was told to me by someone who built all six. Erycina (larger) Nisha (smaller) Ranger (larger) Saucy Jack (smaller) Zulu (larger) Fifie (smaller)

The Model Shipways Shipwright series (Dory, Pram, Smack) have complete instructions (unlike some model manufacturers where the instructions seem to be pretty sparse). I've now had experience with all three (completed the Dory, halfway through the Pram, started the Smack) - I started the last one because I was waiting for some tools I ordered that I wanted to complete the Pram and the Sherbourne. They've all been rewarding to do, and I learned a lot, and they're definitely a progression. Basswood is easy to work with because it's soft (easy to bend with water, easy to shape), but because it's soft it also poses some challenges (easy to break a piece, dent easy, they "fuzz" so it's harder to get a clean edge). I definitely needed with all of them to check out build logs here, but that's what's nice about this site. I've read that Bluejacket also makes quality models, but I don't know anything about them or the quality of the instructions. Both Model Shipways and Vanguard have their written instructions online (models also come with plans, which they usually don't post online), I think Midwest instructions are also online, I can't remember if that's the case for Bluejacket.

Note that if you paint the PE, research the right way to paint it. I painted the PE for my Sherbourne and used Vallejo acrylic primer (which works great on wood and plastic) and discovered that the primer (and paint on top of it) would peel off. I only then watched some YouTube videos and saw that you either need to abrade the PE (which is hard to really do on tiny PE parts) or use a non-acrylic primer like Tamiya Surface Primer. This video does a comparison of PE painting methods:

Not sure if you're specifically looking for a Dory because it's a Dory or because it's simple and good for a beginner. I did the Dory from Model Shipways as my 1 1/2 model ("1 1/2" because I started it while still also doing my first model, the Vanguard Models Sherbourne, as something to work on while waiting for paint or glue to dry on the Sherborne). It was a nice learning experience and produced a nice model, but the wood quality is not great and the instructions have some gaps and while easy to construct, it is easy to make a mistake and not get parts lined up quite right, especially without having much experience - thankfully, I could get on here for help. I have not built another Dory (and have not built a model from Midwest or Bluejacket). Vanguard Models make a bunch of entry-level models (Novice in their skill level) that have very high-quality wood and materials, clear and accurate instructions, are easy to construct, and are sold at a premium price but you get what you pay for. I'm building the Sherbourne. I found it easier in many ways than the Model Shipways Dory (or the Norwegian Pram, or the Lobster Smack). Vanguard also has a bunch of fishing boats that I've read are also great builds for beginners. I have the Vanguard Ranger in the queue for when I'm done with the Sherbourne.

I added the seats. The floor was tilted a bit because one of the bulkhead frames was tilted. I had to sand down the seat support piece on the one side so the seat pieces would lay flush. There ended up being a tiny gap between the seat pieces so I ended up putting some filler that I’ll sand in a bit.

Check out the Vanguard Models novice kits. I’m working on the Sherbourne and have the Ranger in the queue. Greats materials and great instructions. I also have the Shipwright series (Dory, Pram, Smack). They’re also nice. But I’d recommend a Vanguard model given a choice.