gjdale

Looking really sweet Mark. I hope you spent the dime wisely...perhaps on some TicTacs, the international unit of scale measurement! 😉

Looking really sweet Mark. I hope you spent the dime wisely...perhaps on some TicTacs, the international unit of scale measurement! 😉

Looking really sweet Mark. I hope you spent the dime wisely...perhaps on some TicTacs, the international unit of scale measurement! 😉

Looking really sweet Mark. I hope you spent the dime wisely...perhaps on some TicTacs, the international unit of scale measurement! 😉

Thanks for the comments, the likes, and sticking with this journey.   No worries on the dime anymore... I spent it.
 
I made the chocks and installed them into the Licorne.  I've since been attacking the drawings making fixes for error areas discovered on this boat.  Here's some pictures of it in place.  It's not glued in yet as I need access to the area astern where the mainmast goes.  Once I'm done figuring out if I need to pre-installed suitable lengths of line for rigging the mast, I'll do that.  I suspect this will keep me off the streets and out of trouble for a few days. 
 

 

 
 

Nicely done Daria! Good to see you’ve got Dad back to work with you. 😊

Nicely done Daria! Good to see you’ve got Dad back to work with you. 😊

Nicely done Daria! Good to see you’ve got Dad back to work with you. 😊

Nicely done Daria! Good to see you’ve got Dad back to work with you. 😊

The apartment move is over, so we are finally back to modelling! 
Hull sanding took a while, and it was a big lesson about patience and persistence. 

To make sure that planks would not start peeling off - we used plenty of glue. Maybe too much, it took forever to get it out using a nylon dremel brush (did not want to apply any moisture to that fiddly planks, they are very sensible to it):

Before sanding:

After:

There are some gaps visible, probably due to wood shrinkage.
But we liked the process, good teamwork  And she loves making something smooth, even though it is hard to keep going without breaks.

I trimmed the plank ends, it was too risky to let Daria do it - they can chip out, it is easy to scratch the transom with a scalpel, etc. A mistake in this area would be hard to fix.

 
But the result is ok. I am not sure what I think about this ebony, not very familiar with the way it sands and scrapes, kind of course and shiny at the same time. 

Hello,
 
It has been a while but I promise I have been busy. It has not been  easy developing new kits whilst holding down a full time job, but I am enjoying the experience and hope that one day, I can quit the day job and concentrate solely on the Vanguard Models range.
 
OK, first to be released, which I am hoping will be in two or three weeks, is the Armed Cutter Alert. I am just waiting for everything to be delivered, so I can put the kits together in the boxes. I should have a final price soon, once I receive my final invoice for the laser cutting and photo etched parts.
 
I have attached a pic of the box art that I did for Alert. The manual is being printed right now (56 A3 colour pages).
 
I did start the designs for HMS Bristol, as this was to be my next kit. However, whilst reading one of my books during tea breaks at work, I learnt of the small 14 gun brig Speedy (1782), and her exploits when commanded by Lord Cochrane. I ordered the plans and decided to do this next. It seemed to make more sense, as I will be able to release this by the end of Summer (I hope). Because of the very fine lines, I have used a lot more bulkheads than is usual for this size of kit (15 bulkheads).
 
After this, I will hopefully have some money come in instead of all going out, and will concentrate of Bristol, followed most probably with a heavy frigate.
 
I will add a couple of pics of the Speedy prototype hull in a following update. I had the parts laser cut locally, as these are 'sacrificial' parts and used only to check fit and make sure the gun port pattern fits exactly as it should. I did intend to have the gun ports framed, as the Victory model, but realised the frames would have to be way too thin to achieve scale thickness of the bulwarks, once the inner and outer planking strips were factored in.
 
This is the new website (still work in progress until I finalise costs of Alert:
 
https://vanguardmodels.com/
 
And a big thank you to Steve Urwin, who has done all of that for me, which I appreciate very much.
 
Also a big thank you to Jim Hatch, who has helped with contacts for boxes and resin casting suppliers. Without MSW, I would not have even started down this path, so thank you!
 
Chris

Update
The assembly of the first frames on the keel.
 
I make the assembly of the double frames on a glass plate
above the plan drawing.
Advantage, after drying the adhesive, the frame can be easily
detached from the glass plate.
Straken and grind I'll do later.
 
Karl
 
Part 2
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks Pav. The card is actually held down with very thin double-sided tape, not glued.
 
The rocker covers :


 
There were no exhaust pipes with the kit so I printed out the ones from the Spitfire. These took me two days to make, but I'm very happy with the way they turned out  :



 
Danny

Hello friends of model making, 
 
I still had to complete the rudder pendants.
For this I needed served ropes and thimbles.

Thank you for all the comments and "Likes"  .
 
The first part of the engine in the instructions is the Supercharger. I've nearly completed it below :

 
These parts took me a while to cut. So far I've come across four similar ones, all turned out fine with no accidents despite some of them being only 0.35mm wide :

  
The supercharger finished :


 
I reinforced the engine block with some 0.5mm card :

 
Another tricky piece :

 
The cylinder heads took quite a bit of work due to the "bumps" on the sides :

 
The oil pan :


 
Danny

Cleaned up and dyed the oarlocks and then installed them.  Also made the cannon (let's call them "popguns" ) mounts and installed them.  The only thing left is the sheave and supports on the stern.  The catch is I'm tad undecided as there's three distinct types... there's a sheave on top of the stern, or a sheave hanging off the stern to the rear (not onto) or there's no sheave.   I'll ponder this a bit longer while I work on the chocks for putting this boat into the hull.   I'm also working and tweaking the plans for the barge which is smaller, unarmed (no cannon mounts) and looks essentially like the barge.  I put a dime and Pierre into the second picture to give a sense of scale.
 
Here's the pictures.  Not perfect but I'm pretty happy with it.  So unless I get a sudden "ah-hah.. I can do this better" moment, on the next barge.
 

 

I see you found that giant fake hand again Danny! 😉

I see you found that giant fake hand again Danny! 😉

I see you found that giant fake hand again Danny! 😉

Post 89
Boom and Gaff
As part of my reduced rig presentation of Cheerful  I decided to add the Boom and gaff, or at least make them to see how they look.
These are made from Ramin dowel a good straight fine grained timber which, as the spars are painted black, is a good substitute for  the more expensive Boxwood.
Boom
8mm ø dowel is used to make the boom which has an o/a length of 334 mm. The interesting thing about booms is that they taper both ends but not from the centre of the spar.
The taper is produced on the lathe using a card template to check the diameters at various points. The taper is achieved using sandpaper only.

8313
It's when long spars are required to be worked that the bed extension to the Proxxon lathe comes into its own.
A lot of taper is required on the boom reducing in the outboard end from 8mm to 1.5mm and the inboard end from 8mm to 3mm.

8546
The jaws proportions were transferred to 3/32" Boxwood sheet, and cut out on the scroll saw, finishing off by hand.

8550
Checking the fit of the jaws.

8548
...and of the parral trucks.

8549
trial fit of the boom.
Gaff
I used 5mmø Ramin dowel, and the procedure is exactly the same as with the boom, but with considerably less sanding dust.

8870
The 'iron' bands are once again  made from heat shrink tubing.
Mast rings

8885
I had Chuck's mini kit for the rings I used a few to slip over the stump mast and provide a spacer between the boom and gaff.

8880

8884

8881

8883
 
Getting close to completion now
 
B.E.
08/05/2019
 
 

Hi all - 
 
Just a quick post to finish up the foredeck well area.  The only things left were the Carley float life rafts.  They have appeared in some of the earlier photographs of the troop ship.  Although there is a record of a plan for their distribution, I have not been able to get a copy from the National Archives.  However, I don’t think its absence will make much of a difference. 
 
The photos show some floats hanging against mis-matched areas of the camouflage, so they must have moved around a bit. 
The basic principle seems to have been to put as many as would fit in as many areas as would not interfere with the working of the ship.  I guess they figured that if the ship was torpedoed in a combat zone it might be a long time before rescue.  And since they knew that most of the casualties from the Titanic were from hypothermia, they tried to get as many life rafts into the water as possible.

In keeping with the semi-scratch nature of the model, I found acceptable units already in production at Shapeways.  They come in sets of multiple numbers, so the cost was not prohibitive.  [I tried to import an image from their website, but couldn’t get it to work.] I trimmed them from their sprues and gave them a coat of grey primer.  This also worked for the dark sections of the camouflage.  Where the floats sat over other colors they were hand painted using a dry brush technique on the mesh floors.

On the face of the superstructure the floats were initially attached with tacky white glue.  When this was dry they were further secured with cyano.

Looking back, I should have installed them before the cargo cranes went on.  The lower floats were quite hard to position in the cramped space.  I decided to leave them a little crooked.  I think it reinforces the impression that they are temporary.

I leaned two small ones against the entryway house.  Two larger ones stand up near a stack of three. 

I also installed the twenty nine sit on the roof of the main hall.  There will be many more all around the ship.
 
More soon.
 
Dan
 
 

I see you found that giant fake hand again Danny! 😉

I see you found that giant fake hand again Danny! 😉

I see you found that giant fake hand again Danny! 😉