DB789

Long overdue… but here are side by side photos of completed Adder and Alert. Both are excellent kits and build into lovely models.

Congratulations, another fantastic build Glenn. Very impressive! Like you, I wasn’t so exited about Grecian from a subject matter perspective, but she has still probably been both my favourite model to build and also as a completed kit. I look forward to seeing what you do with her.

Sorry, I’ve only just seen this. I have built both Adder and Alert. They’re both really great kits. As mentioned in the posts above they are a similar size and Adder has more rigging. The biggest difference in my opinion is that Adder is a much newer design by Chris at Vanguard and incorporates all of his latest innovations which greatly simplify the build - even with a very bluff blow to plank. In particular, there is no planking above the wales just engraved wood with lots of detail. Alert on the other hand was Chris’s first kit at Vanguard and the construction is more traditional. It’s still a superb kit and easy to build - but the hull is a little harder, there is more visible planking up to the top of the bulwarks and you have to cut the gunports yourself. There is also a lot of PE decorative detail that Adder does not have. The rigging I found a little easier as there is less of it. I really enjoyed building both of them. I’m away at the moment, but when I’m home I’ll take a picture of the two completed kits together and post it.

Chris - I can’t believe you get those emails - given their high quality, your kits are underpriced as it is! Nonetheless it is really hard to see the relative sizes of different boat kits from standalone photos, even when you provide full dimensions. Do you have finished versions of both Sherbourne and Alert? If not, would it help if I sent you side by side photos of Sherbourne and Alert once completed that you can send in reply to those emails? I haven’t a Trial yet to include. Mark & Hook - thanks so much for the advice on planks. I’ll likely try the tang from Cornwall Model Boats have. I may get 0.5 and 1mm to try both and see what looks best. The planks on the Vanguard engraved deck are ~3.5mm width. I think I’ll go with 3mm width planks, but could do 4mm. I have found a boxwood option. I might try that too. It’s only £12 for ten strips of 0.7x3.4x1000 mm which doesn’t sound too expensive but the company is on holiday until 8 Sept. BigCreek - thanks but I don’t have the equipment (or skill) to cut my own planks! Ronald - thank you. Loving your Sphinx build. Hugely impressive. Andrew - thank you, great to hear you’re back on the case with Bounty and Sparkler.

Please could anyone point me towards some materials that advise how best to do deck planking. I have never done this before. I can’t find information on MSW but I’m sure it’s there somewhere?! Thank you. Any advice on what wood to use (bass seems popular for decks?) and width (3mm?) and thickness (1mm?). I’ll likely use a pencil to simulate the caulking. Even better where to get the wood from in the UK, doesn’t look like Cornwall Model Boats where I usually buy model supplies has anything suitable. I’d like to get the materials Thanks so much. Dan

Sherbourne is my 11th model boat build and all of them kits from Vanguard due to their excellent quality in terms or design, quality of materials and instructions. Having just completed Duchess of Kingston I had intended to continue to increase the complexity of my builds with Speedy next, followed by Sphinx and maybe ultimately Surprise. But I was given Sherbourne last year and she’s a very cute little cutter so I’m building her with the plan of developing my skills a little further. My three key objectives are: 1) attempt to plank her deck rather than use the engraved deck from Vanguard; 2) try yellow ochre paint on the sides of the hull rather than varnished wood; 3 get to grips with wipe-on poly which isn’t readily available made up in the UK and my previous efforts, I think using the wrong thinner, have failed. I loved building the Vanguard fishing boats and this little boat has a similar feel. This kit is clearly meant for and ideal for beginners, but is still an exceptionally high quality kit given all the same Vanguard treatment as other kits in the range for a price that is simply far too low for what you get. 19 sheets of plans! Full colour detailed instructions with photos, high quality pear wood and brass PE. This will build into a wonderful little boat. The first stages are assembling the frames which fit together precisely and create a rock solid core for planking later. These are made of MDF and easily slot together with no breakages. The four timbers at the stern are wood which is nice as they will be the only parts of this structure visible in the finished kit. I have been describing Sherbourne as small, but I hadn’t quite realised how small she is. The behemoth next door to her is no ship of the line but merely another cutter Alert (albeit a large one). She is even dwarfed by some of the fishers: Zulu Fifie Even the tiny Nisha appears to have a marginally longer, albeit less voluminous hull. Size isn’t everything, she’ll be great fun to build.

Thank you very much for the comments and likes! Really appreciated. I have been trying to research how best to do the deck planking for a kit on MSW, particularly the margin planks. I can’t find anything as it gets caught up in the search with hull planking. Does anyone have any resources on this that they can recommend? Thanks.

11 months after starting, DoK is finished. I’m very pleased with the end result, although she’s not quite as tidy as Adder or Grecian, but that’s more a measure of how easy Chris has made the latter two kits with his most recent innovations. Dok is rightly classed by Vanguard as “experienced” whereas the other two are “amateur”, she has certainly been more of a challenge and taken considerably longer to build. Learnt lots as usual and my first ship-rigged model. Overall, yet another outstanding kit of an interesting ship from Vanguard, thanks again Chris. It’s a lovely sunny day in the UK so photos outside for a change. A bit of a break from building now, after that I have Sherboune and Speedy waiting to be built. I think Sherbourne first as she’ll be nice and quick, rather than getting stuck into another year long build such as this one. I hadn’t planned to build Sherbourne, but was given her as a present. I’m glad I was as I’d like to try a few things and develop some new skills on a small build. On Sherbourne in particular I’d like to try to plank the deck myself, try ochre painted sides (whilst I love the look of the bare wood sides in many of these kits, especially in the nice pearwood Vanguard uses, I can’t imagine in real life that many ships weren’t painted to protect the wood, maybe I’m wrong?), and finally try and achieve a usable wipe-on poly which isn’t readily available in the UK.

Work in the shipyard has continued very slowly due to the lovely weather we have been having in the UK, as well as busy work. All the yards and rigging lines are now in place but most of the lifts and braces are not tied off yet so I can adjust tensions and ensure that the yards are aligned. It’s a fiddly business, as I tighten one line a couple of others seem to slacken, will take me a while to balance it out. I also need to go through the rigging and touch up painting, in particular I used unpainted brass rings attached to blocks which need to be painted black where possible, should have painted these black first (or just bought black ones next time!). Likewise the parrel beads are shiny black plastic and need to be dulled down with some matt varnish. Duchess continues to be a big learning curve for me, entirely positive. But I’m not absolutely sure whether the run of each line is exactly correct. The lines bunch going through the tops and whilst I know which is which they do tend towards a bit of a tangle, especially on the mizzen mast with the cross jack and lateen yards just below the top. Not that much left to do, but busy couple of months ahead. I’d like to take my time to ensure that I can keep everything aligned. I hope to finish her in August. Still have the anchors to add too.

Please could I have some advice. I have rigged the fore and main masts except for the yard braces, I’m now onto the mizzen mast and trying to understand how the jeers work for cross jack yard. It looks to me from Chris’s plan that the line just loops around the base of the mizzen topmast and doesn’t go through any blocks - is that correct? Where does the jeers line start - is it just tied to the mizzentop? Anything that could help me visualise this arrangement would be hugely appreciated. I’ve trawled through all the build logs on MSW without success and the Peterssen book does not cover a cross jack yard with lateen yard below. Thanks again. Dan

Rigging is progressing and the spritsail and foremast yards are fitted. I keep crossing lines and my rigging is messier than I’d like it to be. Even with Chris’s superb plans I often find it difficult to work out the path of each line through the bird’s nest of other lines. It’s all a learning curve still for me, with the plan to eventually build a frigate (Sphinx and/or Surprise) - hopefully by then I’ll have a good idea of the run of most lines. The foremast and yards are mostly rigged but I haven’t added yard braces yet as they’ll get in the way when working on the main mast yards. Still to make the main and mizzen yards. Thanks for the likes and encouragement!

Andrew and Ronald thanks so much for your encouragement, you’re very kind! Having followed logs from both of you, you’re both much more skilled at this than I am. Andrew, please do restart your Sparkler, I’m looking forward to seeing how you complete her. I felt my logs were more useful and read when they were one of the first or only logs on a kit such as Grecian, Adder and some of the later Vanguard fishing boats… I’ve tried to be much more comprehensive on those and not so detailed on a well established kit such as DoK with plenty of other much better builds. It certainly is a support network! Duchess now has all forestays and backstays in place as well as all three crowsfeet. Most of the stays are just tied on with the knots not glued, so quite messy with lots of excess thread everywhere and some lines need a little more tension. I’m not sure whether to tie off, glue and trim all the lines now or leave them so they can be removed and adjusted when the yards and their rigging is added. It’s already quite a confusing forest of threads with the lines not trimmed, but access to areas such as below the tops is already quite restricted with all the stays, crows feet and shrouds in place. Any advice very welcome! Duchess looks near completion, but I still have not made any of the yards so there’s quite a bit of work still to come. I doubt that I will have time to start making the yards on the lathe for a couple of weeks due to other commitments, but I’m looking forward to getting on with this last stage.

Eck, your Harpy looks great - so fast to build her. Vanguard’s Grecian builds into a lovely model (still my favourite build so far, just about eclipsing Adder) but she’s not a difficult build and really won’t take you long!

More slow but steady progress! Topmast and topgallant shrouds completed as are the topmast shroud ratlines. Also added the bowsprit shrouds and the forestays and mainstay. I’ve added the foremast crowsfeet too which was much easier than expected! Lots of lines not fully tied off yet so I can adjust tension if need be. Makes the model look a bit messy. Thanks for the likes. Not sure I’m adding anything with this log that much more accomplished builders haven’t already achieved on the DoK! I’m enjoying the build so will keep going with the log.

Fantastic looking Speedy, I’ve really enjoyed following your build, I’ll certainly be benefiting from your log when I build Speedy later in the year - thanks. Mine won’t look nearly as good and I’m still somewhat daunted by the rigging…. which looks a step up in terms of complexity from Adder, Grecian and Duchess of Kingston.