DB789

I did try mixing dyes together based on the colour mixes on the RIT website - I think that’s probably the recommended way of dyeing. My dye mixing is all in the Nisha log that I sent to you. I only tried the sequential dyeing for this set of sails as I was disappointed by the colour achieved from tan dye alone. Had no idea if it would work, but was very pleased with the outcome.

Ranger was the sixth and last of my fishing boats, so the dying was more by feel rather than measuring out exact amounts of dye. I used the RIT liquid dyes. This is the tan one, scarlet from the same range. https://www.ritdye.com/products/tan/ I think that the sails are made of linen. I experimented a lot on old T-shirts but the cotton fabric and weave made a big difference to the end colour, so they weren’t very useful. These experiments are all in my Nisha build log, link below. Broadly I followed the instructions and timings in this RIT Dye video for the tan but adjusted the strengths. It came out a bit drab and brown so I mixed up some scarlet and as an experiment put the sails in that for max two mins, maybe less. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL6NFLL8NI0 I can’t give you more accurate guidance than stronger than the instructions say on tan and weaker on scarlet. You’ll just have to judge it. Sorry I can’t give you better guidance! Your build is looking great so far.

Have fun with this one. I really enjoyed building her, she’s very straightforward and an imposing model when complete due to her tall mast and huge sail area relative to the other Vanguard fishing boats. She’s currently sitting pride of place on my mantelpiece. Sail colour is entirely a matter of personal choice, I have almost the full range across the six fishing boats, I think I like the ‘rust’ colour achieved on Ranger the best, partly because it doesn’t contrast too much with the white seams / thread running across the sail that doesn’t absorb the dye so the overall effect is less striped.

Thanks Andrew, Life has been busy and DoK is progressing, albeit at a near glacial rate. Fitted the anchor rope, had to enlarge the hawse holes to get the rope through. The woodwork on her masts and bowsprit is complete although they still need fittings and woldings added. In the meantime I was given Vanguard’s Sherbourne for Christmas which given her small size I’ll probably build between DoK and Speedy. Thanks for all the likes, apologies for the slow progress.

Thanks Bob. DoK’s hull is now mostly complete and fitted out. All that is remaining are a few eyebolts, chainplates and the outer edge of the channels, belaying pins, and the figurehead’s knight’s head which I’ll leave off until the bowsprit is fitted. The deck furniture is pretty straightforward and well designed - as usual for Vanguard and produce a stunning boat. The use of PE to decorate the hull on this kit is hugely impressive. My only variance from the instructions has been adding breech ropes to the cannons. The biggest challenge for me was the rails on either side of the poop deck. The stanchions are very fragile and part of the same piece of wood as the centre section of the railing. This means that the wood grain runs across the stanchion and they snap really easily. Luckily Chris has already thought of this and provided a spare set of stanchions (kudos to Chris for foreseeing this potential weakness for clumsy builders like me!). Nonetheless, I found it quite fiddly to get all the stanchions fitted and aligned. Not sure that they are, but they’ll have to do. Overall, building DoK’s hull has been rewarding and tested my ability a bit further than on previous builds, which is great and what I was looking for. Vanguard classify this as an “experienced” kit compared to Adder and Grecian which are “amateur”. This feels about right even before rigging, she’s certainly a step up in terms of complexity but still exceptionally well designed and very manageable. The big challenge ahead for me will be the rigging of my first ship-rigged vessel.

That’s a wonderful Speedy, I love the sails. She’s my next build, but won’t be as good as yours!

More progress. The main change since last time has been the fitting of the PE decoration which simulates intricate engravings on the model and looks great. I had planned and tried to use the Klear polish method to attach these but it didn’t seem to work, I thought the problem was that my polish had been open over a year since I built Alert and needed it last - but I now understand that the problem was the method I used. For instructions on how to do this properly I refer you to Glenn’s excellent Alert build log. Wish I’d not rushed and realised this before - using CA as I have is inevitably less tidy. The copper canopy isn’t permanently fixed to the hull yet. Nor are the cannons. DoK’s cannons are Vanguard’s old style of cannon carriage with separate PE capsquares. I didn’t fancy my chances bending these to fit so instead I ordered six new cannon carriages with integrated wooden (similar to those on Grecian, Adder and the newer versions of Alert and Speedy) from Chris. I’ll add breachropes later. The acetate in the stern windows does look a touch grubby so I’ve decided to go for the no glass option in the remaining windows. For the two highly decorative windows on the port and starboard quarter I’ve painted the frames inside black so it’s not just a view of MDF frames. I’ve no idea what it’s called but the “basket” at the bow has been the hardest part of this build so far. As for other logs, I’ve had to file the excess on the base and rear of the figurehead to fit. I’ve left the knight’s head off the figurehead for now as there are several reports of the plume being broken off during the build. I’ll add it back just before fitting the bowsprit. The three gratings/ hatches on the main deck are glued in place, as is the spiral staircase aft - this is a superb piece of design by Chris and exceptionally easy to assemble and install. Next a few more bits of PE, finish the rudder, add side steps and channels, then more deck fittings.

The two luggers, Zulu and Fifie, are very different from the other four fishing boats. If it were down to me I’d probably build Erycina or Ranger with the second being Zulu. But much of it being personal choice.

Progress update. Next the gunwales and side railings. The wood of the side rails, like the outer bulwark was very dark compared to the rest of the kit. I checked with Chris who explained that with kits with so many different pear sheets such as this it is almost impossible for him to ensure colour consistency across all the sheets - this makes complete sense. He very kindly agreed to let me buy a lighter version of these sheets which I used for the railings and should give more colour continuity between the outside of the hull and inboard. The gunwales were fitted first, then the railings soaked and clamped to dry. On the aft of the hull I used elastic bands not clamps. After 48 hours to dry the railings were glued on. The stern was shaped and the stern board fitted. I found fitting the wales quite tricky. I don’t have spreader clamps and resorted to elastic bands to hold the soaked wales in place whilst they dried. The upper wale was fitted first then painted black then glued. To position the lower wale I followed the excellent advice in the instructions and cut a lime plank to 3mm width and used it as a spacer. Elastic bands were needed to hold these in place. Stern decoration was added. The rudder is temporarily fitted but needs to come off to be painted. This kit’s decoration looks amazing and is so clever with the upper area a piece of 3D printed resin that can be soaked in just boiled water and then bent to match the shape of the slightly curved sternboard. I used the AK gold paint that Chris supplies in his Vanguard paint set which looks super. I struggled to find a good solution for glazing the windows. This kit needs something for the stern windows and the aft most windows on each side as there’s no stern cabin in there just structural MDF pieces which I have painted black. I tried Krystal Klear to create a film, but it was too lumpy and uneven making the glass look much too thick. In the end I used cut outs of clear acetate sheet which get grubby whilst being fitted and doesn’t look ideal. Any suggestions welcome, I’d like a better glazing solution when I come to build Sphinx 2 or 3 kits in the future (definitely Speedy and likely Harpy first) I noticed that at some point I’d damaged the bow area. The spike on the bow (I’m sure it has a name but I don’t know what it is) had lost the outer veneer on both sides. I’d painted over where the damage was as I hadn’t realised that it was damaged. I’ll need to do some simple surgery based on the plans to replace the missing wood on each side.

Glenn, such a pity. Your Adder was looking great. Be very sad not to repair her, although all your reasons do make complete sense. I like the tubing idea.

I’ve been a bit neglectful of this log of late. My apologies. Not sure I’m adding much on DoK as so many more experienced and better builders have already written excellent logs. Started some filler on the lower hull and painted the bulwarks blue and red. These are the colours from the Vanguard paints set. The imperial blue works well, but the red which is intended and ideal for the red inside the bulwarks on warships is too chalky and not rich enough for this decorative colouring. Then started the fill, paint, sand and repeat cycle for the lower hull. Going from this… …and this… … to many layers later. This.

Inner bulwarks are soaked and clamped to dry. I had a bit of a mishap with the engraved deck, entirely my fault. There’s significant tumblehome towards the top of the bulkheads so the deck needs bending to fit. It also needs a little sanding to fit properly, after multiple trial fits the deck split. I tried to fit it with glue and tape over the gap, but the gap reopened and in trying to remove the deck it splintered and broke. I emailed Chris to order a replacement - which arrived in the post the following morning - now that’s amazing customer service…. Thanks Chris, hugely appreciated. New deck went on carefully and cleanly. The next small challenge was fitting the inner bulwarks. I soaked these as per the instructions and allowed to dry for three days. I wish that I hadn’t soaked them as they now don’t fit the inside of the bulwarks precisely. There’s extra length on the bow end of these that can be removed, but they’re also too tall at bow and their aft end. I couldn’t use pins to align them either as only some holes lined up. Careful sanding of the bottom of the bulwarks and they fit much better. I’ve started filling below the waterline, but still need paint, filling and sanding alternately to get the hull smooth.

Second planking is complete. DoK’s hull is quite forgiving, but not enough that my planking didn’t get a bit messy at the bottom. I’ve added the waterline in the photo below. Everything below that will be painted white and I don’t mind what it looks like so long as I can fill and sand it smooth. The stern area was the hardest part, in particular how to terminate the planks against the counter. Looks neat in the photo but I’ve sanded it too much on the starboard side. I’ve put Danish oil on the planks as I usually do and also on the bulwarks. It seems to have stained the wood much darker than usual (Adder’s bulwarks behind in the photo are much lighter after Danish oil). Will need to think if I should have Danish oil on the inner bulwarks. The outer bulwarks are mostly painted so the dark colour doesn’t matter.

Thanks Andrew! Next the stern post was assembled and the lower counter soaked and bent around a varnish bottle to achieve the correct shape. The counter and stern post were glued in place. The outer side patterns were soaked for 90 mins in hot water and then clamped in place. I also put pins through the holes in both side patterns to ensure that they were properly aligned. After being soaked the alignment wasn’t perfect as the peat wood swells in water. I had to leave them clamped and pinned for almost two days to dry out and shrink back to shape. Once done, they were glued too. Lastly the outer patterns for the keel and stem were glued in place. First breakage for this kit happened here (must be a record for me, usually I’ve broken loads by now). One of the clamps pinged off and took off a small section of the port outer bow pattern off. I’ve grafted a new piece in place and glued it. Still needs to be sanded to blend in. Onto the second planking.

First planking. Complete on the port side. I know best practice is to do each side evenly for most hulls, but Chris’s bracing of the bulkheads makes the structure so robust that I don’t think that any planking could possibly warp the keel. I follow the planking methodology that Chris and James put in their instructions of tapering from the point the plank starts to not run easily along the hull - in this case usually around the second bulkhead. i know that the “Chuck” method of planking, measuring at each bulkhead, is far superior, but I have neither the patience to do it, nor the confidence that I can cut an exact taper into each plank. What I do use that Chuck’s superb tutorials taught me is the plank bending method using a jig and iron. Starboard side underway. I found easiest on this ship to fit the garboard plank but otherwise plank from the top downwards. Hull fully planked before any tidying up. Whilst it’s warm enough and a rare dry day in Gloucestershire, I gave her an initial sanding down in the garden. Despite appearing quite curvy in the pictures, she hasn’t been a particularly difficult hull to plank which bodes well for the second planking. I need to work out how far to trim the planks at the stern back.