whitejamest

Here is a small update on a very leisurely build log. I've added the planking to the insides of the bulwarks and painted them. The paint has shown me a few areas that will need to be cleaned up a bit, and then I'll start adding planks to the outside of the bulwarks. Strange to think that I might one day conceivably be done with the planking of this model. But that's crazy talk. I did add a detail that was not part of the kit, but that I have seen several other Speedy builders add - the spirketing strip at the bottom of the bulwarks. I thought it was a very attractive feature on those other models, and it wasn't hard to make. For what it's worth, I think if I were doing this step over again, I would probably not use pear wood. It's pretty tough stuff, which makes cutting out the gunports a little more laborious, and takes a little more elbow grease to sand down. If the intent is for the wood to be entirely hidden under paint, I think basswood would probably have been an easier way to go. Just something I'll bear in mind the next time I am planking inner bulwarks.

Thanks for checking in, I appreciate it. I coincidentally just recently started up again, slowly adding planks to the inside of the bulwarks. I hope to have some more pictures to post soon.

I think your planking looks very nice, and when all the copious amount of detail is added to the inside, you won't even see most blemishes that are catching your eye now. And in any event they are probably far more noticeable to you than to anyone else. I think you have a great looking hull. If I can offer more unsolicited advice, getting the tops of the frames a lot thinner will help you a lot when you move on to making the cap rail. Otherwise it ends up being much too thick and out of scale.

Something that I found handy at this step was to take a cylindrical plastic pen cap, cut it down to a length that spanned just a couple ribs, and then glue semi coarse sandpaper to the outside. It gave me a small sanding drum that could get into tight spaces. It was a bit of a pain to hold in my fingers while sanding, but it helped. Your boat is coming along very nicely.

Nice to see it underway again, it's looking great.

Really sharp looking, I love the colors.

Looking lovely. I'll be watching your sail work with a lot of interest, as I hope some time in the distant future to do the same for my own Speedy. I think silk span will suit you very well.

Really looking beautiful, nice work.

Personally I like the Minwax Natural look, though neither is a bad option. Nice looking deck, well done.

I have no experience with those particular figures, and will be curious about what you learn if you do go that route. I know 28mm figures tend to be a bit on the beefy end for 1/64 scale ship models, though it depends on the manufacturer. The chunkier ones I think are more like 1/56 or so. Perhaps the 25mm figures will be a better fit. Definitely way too small for 1/48 though.

I had the pleasure of going aboard her just this past weekend. I look forward to seeing how the kit comes together.

That's a fantastic looking boat. And I think the brass tubing for the shafts of the oars has come out well, nice idea.

Beautiful work!

I would pay Muffin a great deal if she could teach my own supervisor a similar attitude. The boat is looking beautiful. You do very neat work.

The planking looks lovely, and the striping effect just enough to say yes, indeed these are individual planks. The strength will increase drastically as soon as you have added a few of the simulated frames.

That is some very sharp, neat planking, well done. She will be a beauty. Also it's a contractual obligation to break a few delicate pieces on these little kits, so much better to get that out of the way early on.

Thanks very much for the kind words Aliluke. They are definitely fun kits. I hope you'll post pictures of your launch build. I'm sure it will be a lovely complement to your Fly.

What you say sounds very plausible to me Allan. I think on a kit like this it might not be terribly hard to adjust the oarlocks - cutting the protrusions off the laser cut rim pieces and reattaching them to align with another thwart. Delicate work, but doable. They don't have to bear up to stress. I wonder, on boats where the oarlock is not made of removable thole pins but consist of gaps in the gunwale, would those still have been present on both sides symmetrically, or would they alternate from one side to the other, one per thwart? Eventually I'll be working on Speedy's cutter, which has gaps rather than pins.

That's an interesting point Allan, and not one I had thought about while working on the kit. I just followed the kit design, which looks to me to be based on the diagrams in the "Anatomy of the Ship: HMS Pandora" book, or something similar anyway. There the breadth of the yawl is listed as 6'9". Measuring this model at its widest I find it is a little under 35mm, so around 7'3" in this scale. (We'll have to make some allowances for everyone's build coming out a little different, and the delicacy of sanding thin laser cut parts.) Is that wide enough for double banked oars? I have no idea. The point that having a single oarlock per thwart, rather than two on every other thwart, would give the oarsmen much more space makes sense to me. Definitely something I'll consider on the next boat, thanks,

I think with the second mast attached and rigged, and the brail lines and sheets squared away, I'm ready to call the little yawl "Done For Now." I haven't added any of the extra details, like the oars or anchor or boat hook, but I am going to hold off on those until I decide on how to populate this little model with figures. As a temporary measure, I took some of the negative space from the laser cut mdf sheet from which the bulkheads were cut, and made a little cradle for it to sit in. In the interest of creating more work for myself, I sealed it with Dullcote and painted it. Question for those more knowledgeable: I am assuming that even while rigged for sailing, a boat like this would carry oars as well. Is that true? Having just had the pleasures of rigging a small model with some very small spaces, I shudder to think about the crew trying to manipulate oars in there. But then they got to do it at 1:1. In summary, this kit was a lot of fun in a small package, for a small price. I'm very glad Vanguard offers such a variety of these kits. And I'm very glad to have had Blue Ensign's log to learn from. Now I think I need to get back to the Speedy. I'll just post one photo of the Done For Now model here, and if anyone is interested they can see a few more in its mini album here: https://modelshipworld.com/gallery/album/2707-22-foot-yawl-vanguard-models-164/

Rumors confirmed: Syren Ship Models to produce Millenium Falcon kit in Alaskan yellow cedar. Future plans for boxwood Death Star in 3/32 scale uncertain.

I also think making it look like extremely finely cut matching wood would be most attractive.

I like it a lot. I've been trying to think about how to mount a small ship's boat next to a larger model so that their water lines are about even, as if they were floating next to each other. Acrylic pillars look like a good option.

That is a very beautiful model indeed. Personally, I have a stronger interest in smaller scales than larger ones. Partly just for the dazzling effects of extreme miniature, but also partly because there is only room for so many 1/64 scale kits, let alone 1/48s. A 3/32 scale Speedwell in Syren Ship Models quality would be awfully hard to resist.

Thanks very much Aliluke, I appreciate it. I think you will enjoy the Vanguard boats a lot. You get a lot of fun in a small package. Your HMS Fly is looking fantastic, and I've pulled up a chair.