Richard44

Thanks for the comments Tim and B.E. and for the “like” Kurt. The starboard side has been completed and cleaned using acetone and very fine steel wool. There is still some cleaning up to do. The stem will be finished once the port side is done. The waterline (tape) looks to be way off at the stern, but it’s simply the angle at which the photo was taken. It was actually difficult to get a decent photo due to the glare off the newly cleaned copper. I didn’t have any real problems doing the coppering, though there were quite a few plates removed and scrapped as they didn’t go onto the hull correctly. Even so, I have 100 plates left over. A bit of a rest and then onto the port side. Cheers

The plates came that way Tim.

For a first time builder, you're doing extremely well. You should be very happy with how the build is going. Cheers

Onto the coppering. Slow and tedious. You can really fix only one plate at a time, instead of a string of three or four. The limiting factor being a race between you positioning the plates and the CA going off without the plates being where they should be - I tried to do this and lost. So plate-by-plate, although there are some places where there is time to position two plates that are still linked. Scissors were used to trim the plates when required. The white patches on the plates in the photos are pieces of rubber gloves, CA bonds to these with a speed that is unbelievable. No attempt has yet been made to clean the plates, I'll do this when the coppering is finished. The white circle in the photo below is the scupper coming from the manger. It will be painted when I get around to touching up the wale. The tape marks the waterline. Back to the coppering. 🙂 Cheers

Hi Tim, These are the ones I bought to replace the Amati ones. But like the ones B.E. bought, they are not complete - barrels only. You'll have to make up yokes for them. Your ship is looking really good. Well done on adding the elm tree brake pumps, these make a nice easy addition. Cheers

As I mentioned in my last post, I had a few small jobs to do before starting the coppering. The first involved the anchor cables about which I have been puzzling for a while. These are fed from the anchors through the hawse holes, but then what? The kit plans and instructions are no help at all. The TFFM gave me the clues I needed, and I should point out here that I have the original Practicum, not the more recently published books which may contain more information. Antscherl says in the TFFM text that there are stopper bolts on the deck which secure the anchor cables by using short lines called “stoppers”. The deckplan shows five of these from the fore hatch to the main hatch, and these also do double duty as attachment points for the relieving tackle of the guns. The kit plans show only three in the same area, immediately behind the guns, just for the relieving tackle. So the cables come aft from the hawse holes, past the fore hatch and as far as the main hatch. They then need to be fed below decks for storage, presumably through the main hatch. The TFFM says the grating for the main hatch is in three parts, and I have therefore assumed that the foremost section of the grating is lifted free to allow for the cables to be run through the hatch and stored below. Out of curiosity, I checked the build logs of others that I had bookmarked to see what they had done. Only one of those I looked at did what I have described above - Blue Ensign’s build. So my immediate problem now is that I made and installed the grating of the main hatch in one piece quite some time ago. If I want to run the cables through to and down the main hatch, there is only one thing to do - remove the grating and build a new one. Time for a deep breath and trust that I can remove the old one with minimal damage. I used some isopropyl alcohol to soften the PVA, being aware that this will cause some bleeding of the permanent marker that I used to simulate the caulking of the deck planks (I tried it on a test piece). The grating came off relatively cleanly with only some minor bleeding. The old grating still in place and its replacement. The old grating removed. The new grating in place. Whilst looking at one of the rigging plans, I noticed that the foresheets were led directly across one of the gunports on the outside of the hull, then were belayed to a cleat on the bulwark which meant that they were again led across the gunport, this time on the inside of the hull. This didn’t seem like good practice to me, as there would clearly be a risk of the sheet being severed when the gun was fired. On the model, the sheet is led through a hole (a fixed block in reality) in the bulwark then goes forward to the cleat. Importantly, in the TFFM, the block is located on the other side of the gunport, so the sheet is completely clear of the port. The rigging plan showing the locations of the gunport, the foresheet running across the port, and the fixed block (the hole through the bulwark). The positions on the kit plans of the hole and the eyelet are shown in red and the new positions in blue. The inside of the bulwark showing the new location of the fixed block (the hole through the bulwark) and the run of the foresheet across the top of the gunport, if the fixed block was not moved. That's it for now. Cheers

You're making wonderful progress Eugenio, you must be happy with how the Victory is going.

You can't adjust the speed of the Proxxon. This has never been an issue when sanding wood, but could be if it is used on a plastic model. Edit. Oops. The Proxxon has a choice of two power packs - one of them allows the speed of the tool to be adjusted. 🥴

I have a Proxxon pen sander and can highly recommend it. This is my second one, the first lasted for 20 years or so. As Mark said, these tools are not designed for bulk removal of wood, but I have just used mine to fine sand the second planking on the hull of my Pegasus build. Cheers

The second layer of planking is finally complete!😊. It took quite a while with numerous interruptions including making two small boats (link below). Scale length planks were used below the wale to just below the waterline, and full length planks below that as I intend to copper the hull. The planking below the waterline is not as neat in some places as I would have liked, but it will be covered. There is still some sanding to do, and quite a bit of touching up of the painted areas. A moulding has yet to be fixed between the lower counter and the planks. A few small jobs first then onto coppering - should be fun 🥴. Cheers

Thanks for your comments James. Yes, some swearing was involved especially when I dropped one of the knees (that go on the thwarts) onto brown pile carpet 😬😬. It took me about 20 minutes to find it, using a torch held at a low angle - probably could have made a new one in the same time. Cheers

Once all the ribs were in place in the VM boat, the gunnel was glued in position. The ribs were then trimmed flush with the top of the gunnel. The small slots in the gunnels for the oars, three each side, were carefully cut using a standard razor saw, albeit one with 54tpi. The MK boat has thole blocks (I guess they’re called) on top of the gunnels for the oars. Both boats were then just about complete, but both lacked rudders. The VM kit comes with a wood core (rudder plus tiller) and PE facings to go on each side. The facings have the pintles and gudgeons as shown. For some reason I didn’t particularly like this setup, so I just used the wood core. The MK kit just has separate rudder and tiller, both wood. I now had to make the pintles and gudgeons for both boats, but after several attempts I decided that my skills were not sufficient to make such tiny parts. I therefore glued, using epoxy, the rudders to each boat, and used narrow paper strips to represent the braces for the pintles and gudgeons. The Vanguard boat complete with rudder and tiller. The Master Korabel boat complete with rudder and tiller. The oars for the VM boat were PE, and only needed painting. The MK kit supplied very delicate laser-cut wooden oars that needed the handles built up and rounded off. These had a rounded end which I squared up. They too were painted. Vanguard supplied two PE grapnel-type anchors, shown in the above photo. These were assembled (only two parts each), rings added to the shanks and rope tied to the rings (neither were supplied). I decided to put one anchor in each boat. The painted oars, assembled anchors and boat hooks. Black painted planks were glued below the gunnels to be the wales. Finally the bottoms of the boats were painted white, the topsides and interiors left natural. The Vanguard boat. The Master Korabel boat. Both kits were tricky to build. Vanguard have now released an updated cutter kit, so while I have a few niggles about my kit, they’re irrelevant now. The Master Korabel kit had superb laser cutting that needed almost no sanding to get pieces to fit. The instructions though needed some interpretation, but otherwise were perfectly adequate. Cheers.

That's a good looking capstan Tim, and very well done with the pumps.

Nice work Eugenio, your latterns look really good, as does the stern. I agree about the chains, they do look oversize. Cheers

I had the same trouble with my older cutter kit - I think I also used strips of masking tape wound around the hull. Great fun 🙂.

Work on the boats has continued, albeit slowly. The following photos show them after finishing most of the interior fittings. The VM boat uses PE for the floorboards and gratings whereas those in the MK boat are laser cut and scribed. The ribs for the VM were made from leftover 0.6x1mm pear strips from the MK kit, rather than trying to cut down the 1x2mm strips as supplied (the new cutter kit does provide 0.6mm pear for this purpose). The ribs in the VM boat have not yet been trimmed. The instructions say to trim these level with the top of the planking, which makes gluing the gunnel on top of the planks awkward as there is little or no support (as B.E. has pointed out in his log). A photo of the new cutter shows the ribs extending above the planking in order to support the gunnel and I have kept the ribs overlong at this stage in order to do this. I have added lifting ringbolts in both boats and a small foredeck in the VM boat to cover the ply stem. Cheers

Thanks for the comments guys. I've been following both of your logs with much interest. My progress has been slow recently, but I hope to have an update soonish. Cheers

That's looking really good Tim, you're way ahead of me 🙂. Cheers

Hi B.E. Your boat is looking really good. I'll have an update on my build soon. Like you though, the stern sheets didn't quite fit my hull, and I'm now trying to correct for this. About the rudder. The rudder/tiller is one piece and when I did a dry fit of it against the hull I found that the tiller does not quite clear the transom. The easy solution of course is to round down the transom. In the photo, your new rudder looks taller than the original. I don't yet know though whether I'll modify/re-do the rudder similarly to what you're doing. I'll complete my build and log even though the kit has been superseded. Cheers

Many months ago, I ordered the Master Korabel (MK) kit, but pandemic struck and delivery was delayed. Meanwhile, Chris (Vanguard Models, VM) released his cutter as a standalone kit, so I also ordered this. Both kits arrived within a week or so of each other, so I thought that I would do a comparison build log rather than two separate logs. The log lacks a little as I somehow managed to lose some photos and couldn’t recover them. Although the VM model is to a scale of 1:64 while the MK one is 1:72, I think they are close enough to stand comparisons. I have put this build log into the 1751-1800 time slot, as is my Pegasus build, though the boats could easily belong to other periods. The two kits. The VM is on the left and has two laser cut sheets, a sheet of PE and a bundle of 1x2mm pearwood strips. Instructions need to be downloaded from the VM website. When the kit contents are compared to the instructions, it seems that something is missing. There are only 1x2mm strips in the kit yet the instructions mention 1x3mm strips in a few places. I checked this with Chris and he told me that he re-considered the 1x3mm strips as he thought that they were over-scale and replaced them with 1x2mm. The MK kit contains only seven laser cut sheets of various thicknesses - no PE. Instructions are included - a sheet of photos at various construction stages, a sheet showing all the laser cut pieces with each identified, and a double sided sheet of written instructions in English, though the terminology takes a bit of getting used to. Both kits start out the same - make up the jigs which are used until planking is complete. The keels with the VM one on top. The MK one has small slots along it through which ribs are inserted, and has small fairing blocks glued at the stem. These have laser etch marks to show how much bevelling is required before gluing in place. The two jigs, the VM one on the top. Formers are glued to the keel, and the formers in both kits are partly cut to allow removal from the shell of the boat once planking is finished. Fairing blocks are in place at the stem of the VM model. The VM kit is relatively simple, and planking starts immediately. I started by gluing in place the garboard strake, then continued as per the instructions. Tapering of the strips is required, I did this by eye, and finished up by only needing one stealer strip next to the garboard strake. The MK kit requires you to glue ribs in place first, with the first four at the bow being pre-cut to allow them to fit together. The first four glued in place. There is a horizontal former (I guess you’d call it) slotted to let the ribs be fed through it, then through the keel slots and back up the other side. A few minutes soaking allowed this to happen relatively easily. With care no breakages should occur. The next set of ribs are positioned over the formers glued to the keel, and can be carefully glued to the very bottom of the formers, but not the tops. The dark lines on the formers show where they will be broken to allow the tops to be removed later Once those ribs are in place, planking starts. All the planks in the MK kit are laser cut and spiled. Once planking is complete, the shells are carefully removed from the jigs and the formers broken away. At this time the remainder of the ribs in the MK kit are fitted. MK boat on the top. VM's cutter on the left and the MK boat on the right. As I intend to paint both boats, putty was liberally applied to the hulls to cover the places where adjacent planks didn’t quite meet (ie the gaps). The VM boat is on the left. Next will be the interiors. Cheers.

Just a short update. The second planking above the wale has at last been completed. With the wale in position, I measured from its top edge up to the top of the gunport pattern amidships. This was exactly 24mm, and given that the supplied wood for the second planking was supposedly 4mm wide, I thought six planks will neatly go here. However, after five strakes it was obvious that the last 4mm strake was going to be far too wide. I guess I should have measured the supplied wood, but I didn’t think of it. The wood is actually 4.2mm (or thereabouts) wide, meaning that the last gap is actually only 3mm. Fortunately I had some 1x3mm walnut strips, so this is what I used for the remainder of the strakes. I can’t see that using 3mm rather than 4mm will cause me any problems later. That's it for now, Cheers

As far as I can tell from the photos, you seem to have the wale positioned correctly. A build log from some time ago warned not to get the wale too high at the stern, otherwise the quarterlight won't fit - you may want to check this.

Very nicely done Tim.

I personally would never use CA as a gap filler. If I need to fill gaps I use PVA mixed with sawdust (as someone suggested above), or more simply, putty or your favourite filler. As you know, CA is very unforgiving and could form a hard "blob" if used to fill a gap, and this can be very difficult to sand flush without damaging the surrounding wood. I do use CA, and I'm using it on a current build to glue hull planks to the stem - it's impossible to get a clamp here. The rest of the plank is glued using PVA.

The wood glue plus a few drops of CA (I use gel) method can be very useful if the plank to be glued is in such a place where normal clamping is difficult, if not impossible. You can then hold the plank in place with your fingers (with care!!) until the CA grips, and then let the wood glue do most of the bonding.