DB789

Thanks Walter, I think you’re right that the root of my problem is probably fairing. I did check the flow with a piece of planking - it seemed fine, but I guess not

Thanks Jim, Andrew and Simon. The bulwarks are glued and fit well. I’ve started planking, following the method in the instructions, tapering heavily at the bow. My planking skills are pretty poor and whilst the first three planks go on fine I’ve struggled with the compound curve on the fourth and fifth planks just forward of bulkhead 1. First three are fine…. On my build the curve just becomes too sharp and the edge bending causes the wood to snap. I’ve tried lots of different approaches such as soaking, soaking and then using an iron and jig (as demonstrated by Chuck), Amati bending tool, etc. but I just can’t get it around the curve without snapping. Planks four and five are much harder for me. Clearly this is a limitation of my skills not the kit - any advice or recommendations would be hugely appreciated. The planks are a thick 1mm and even if not perfect I’m confident I can get a good base, even from broken planks with some filler and sanding. But it would be good to try and improve my skills so I can plank neater for the second planking (also painted so I can use filler and sanding liberally). Thanks Dan

Thanks Allan and Mugje. I agree, Chris’s kits are superb and really interesting choices of subjects. I like the unusual ones! The temporary keel base and jig for the keel now snaps off and there’s a build cradle for the rest of the build. Here she is with those two 24 pounder cannon. The hull was faired, which was a pretty easy job, I followed the photos in the manual. The prow was then assembled, fitted and glued, them left to dry overnight. After that the plywood bulwarks were soaked in hot water for 15 mins then clamped on to take the shape without glue. All as per the instructions with a clamp on every bulkhead. Now drying for 24 hours.

Thanks Andrew, enjoying following your Trial build. So impressed that Chris changed the name for your gun brig base to “Sparkler” - now that’s customer service! Theo - thanks too The last day on Adder has posed some interesting challenges of my own making. I decided to fit the plywood false deck before the aftermost bulkhead part 153 to help ensure that the bulkhead was at the right angle. So far, so good. I’ve fitted 8 of these plywood decks to VM models so I know the drill, but on Adder I snapped it down the centre line. I could not fit the two parts so that they were aligned leading me to think that the structure below must be out of alignment. I contacted Chris suggesting that I’d better start again and buy the MDF sheets and plywood deck again from him. Instead, he told me that once the deck is split it’s hard to get the halves aligned, but there’s a neat trick to achieve this: taping the two halves together before they are fitted and then adding them, letting the glue dry and removing the tape. This I did and it worked very well. I clamped a flat piece of scrap wood on top to ensure the central join stayed flat and painted diluted PVA over all the joints below. I also added most of the MDF pieces that form the bow structure. Then it was time to fit the rear bulkhead 153, but as can be seen below there’s a small overhang of the false deck over the end of the keel and the longitudinal formers parts 31. Checking vs the plans, this results in the bulkhead being at the wrong angle and the false deck needs to be sanded back in line with the keel and parts 31. The gap between the bulkhead and the keel shouldn’t be there in the photo below (unglued). If you’re following the sequence in the instructions, this will need to be sanded back before the deck is fitted as the bulkhead will already be in place. I checked all this with Chris and he told me that he usually makes these type of parts over long to cover all eventualities, better to have too much than too little. Now in the right position and back on track below. Chris thanks so much for your help. Whilst the glue was drying I started work on the cannons and carronades. The 3-D printed resin barrels are very high quality, but on the carronades the cavity for the barrel is shallow and if you look closely you can see the flat bottom ~1mm inside the lip of the barrel. I saw on someone’s build log that they had drilled these a little deeper, so decided to do so too. The barrels are surprisingly strong and easy to drill. In the photos below the right hand barrel has been drilled to ~2.5x as deep. It’s grey because of the resin and the inside of the barrel will need to be painted black again.

Thanks Simon. Your Trial is looking good too.

Thanks Chris, timing worked for me as I’d just finished Ranger. I only started Adder last night… I’ll be aiming as close as possible to Chris’s prototype and won’t be modifying anything on Adder.

Thanks Kai, good luck with Sherborne. I’d like to build her too at some point.

Thanks Chris, I thought it would be something simple like that. It’s so appreciated having you available on MSW to answer queries such as this.

Next to go on is the rearmost bulkhead 153. This is a pearwood piece that is the rearmost bulkhead. There is a small inconsistency here between the instructions and the part. The part has two square holes in it which are not present on the photo of the part in the instructions. The holes go against the end of parts 31 (see photo below) but there is no tab on parts 31 to go through the holes. The instructions show that there should be a tab at the end of parts 31, but my parts 31 don’t have it (photos below). I think that the holes in 153 should be there and parts 31 should have the tab. This is very very minor and I’m just raising for awareness for other builders and it really doesn’t matter for the build. The lower half of part 153 is covered later by etched planking which will hide the holes. I just need to be extra careful getting 153 aligned without the tabs.

Whilst I’ve been away Adder appeared on my doorstep. Adder will be my ninth build (all from Vanguard) and my first square rigger. My plan had been to build VM’s Speedy next, and I like to only have one kit waiting to be built next so a stash doesn’t build up. But speaking to Chris, he advised me the following: I have a great deal to learn on how to rig a square rigged boat and where all the lines go, so having a slightly reduced rig for my first square rigger makes absolute sense. Chris also advised that the bluff bow on Adder is not a problem for planking as half the hull is covered in pre-cut engraved parts and the actual planking is all white painted and below the waterline. I know I’m not a builder who has the patience to ever produce a planked and fully unpainted hull, so that’s music to my ears. I had also really liked the look of this highly unusual boat when Chris first released pics of his prototype and knew I’d want to build her, so it became a question of whether I should build Adder or Speedy first. Chris’s guidance made it very clear to me that Adder should be the first. Beautifully packaged with the usual exceptionally high quality content that I have come to expect from Vanguard. Some photos of the box contents: Those two 24 pounder cannons, which are Adder’s raison d’etre, are huge. Shown here compared one of the tiny surplus to requirements 4-pounder cannons from Grecian. Chris has continued to innovate here and the first instruction is to build a throw away keel base / build slip which the keel slots into. Furthermore, the keel itself is attached to a jig that will be broken off later. All very clever and helpful. The bulkheads slot in easily. Once the bulkheads are in parts 30 are dropped into place each side of the keel to secure them. As in other VM builds these do a wonderful job of making the structure more robust, but can be stiff to push fully home. As usual I did break each of these at least once fitting them, but they’re fully seated in place and the breaks don’t seem to matter. There’s so much robustness and other supports to ensure alignment in Chris’s hull structure that a few small breaks don’t matter. On Grecian by mistake I left out a whole set of bracing supports across the bulkheads without any detrimental loss of structural integrity for her hull. Photo of Adder with Alert below. Adder is roughly the same length, albeit a very different shaped hull. I knew her dimensions, but as a two-master she looks bigger in the VM photos. She is going to be a very nice easy size to case and display at home. Lower deck was fitted and parts 31 across the top of the bulkheads, another part ensuring the structure is straight.

So glad it was a help! James does make the prototype builds look effortless. Enjoy and do post some photos of yours when she’s complete.

Looks great, it could be the perspective in the photo, but it looks like your bowsprit isn’t straight. I think that it should be parallel to the centreline of the hull and roughly in line with the boom. Photo from my very dusty Zulu below.

Thanks Chris and Bob, I’m very glad Chris W included them too. I’ve really enjoyed making them. Although my wife is asking me where all these boats (now 8 in just under 2 years) are going to live and she may have a point…. Having swapped messages with Chris, my next build will now be Adder, not Speedy. Chris assures me that despite the bluff bows the planking isn’t too difficult on Adder with all the planking being under the white paint and below the waterline and only 12 planks per side with the rest pre-cut. I think Adder is such an interesting looking boat, but the main reason for switching now is that Chris has left off some elements of Adder’s running rigging which makes her more straightforward to rig than Speedy which has everything included. So Adder is probably a better intro to square riggers for me than Speedy. My pre-order of Adder is in.

Thanks Jacques, Essentially she’s very similar to Nisha, just bigger. Planking particularly straightforward on Ranger and rigging a little less fiddly by virtue of being more accessible due to her size. Rigging is much the same except for the topsail which has an additional yard on Ranger whereas it joins onto the topmast on Nisha. Overall, Ranger is bigger boned and more robust than little Nisha, although that didn’t stop me breaking lots of the MDF parts and stepping on the resin boat - but that’s more to do with my clumsiness!

Ranger is welcomed to the fishing fleet. The fleet. Note how much taller Ranger is. Overall length and hull volume are considerably smaller than Zulu. I haven’t included Alert or Grecian as the risk of a breakage getting them out of their cases is too high. With Erycina, similar hull sizes but very different rig. Both have very graceful lines. With Saucy Jack. The shape of the two boats’ bow and stern are very similar, but whereas SJ is short and tubby, Ranger is long and graceful. I’ll be taking a few weeks off boat building. My next build is highly likely to be VM’s Speedy which I have waiting unless I’m tempted in the meantime by something more bite size such as VM’s Sherborne (not promising to build all the VM armed cutters as I have done for the fishers!) I do really want to build VM’s Adder too, she looks great, but I’m a little daunted by planking those bluff bows. I think Speedy before Adder.

Ranger is essentially finished… I may yet decide to add some barrels that came with the kit if I can drag the paint to give a good enough approximation of wood to include. I also may add rope coils, but it’s one of my least favourite jobs and I still haven’t done so for Alert. Lots of photos below. Thanks to Chris for the superb kit, James for the excellent build log. Thanks also for the advice and likes on MSW - much appreciated. My thoughts on Ranger are that this is yet another extremely high quality, well thought out kit from Vanguard. Highest quality materials, superb instructions, etc. …. Everything I’ve come to expect from a Vanguard kit. She builds into a stunning boat too. My build closely followed that of the prototype, I’ve only erred on minor details such as painting the channels white. Having now built all six Vanguard fishing boats, this is also one of the easiest and most suitable for beginners. I thought the hull and planking the easiest of the 6 fishers. Of the 3 cutters and the ketch Erycina, she is the easiest to rig by virtue of just being bigger and less fiddly. The two luggers are by far the easiest to rig, but if you’re not so keen on the less ship-like lugger rig, then I’d recommend Ranger as an ideal first boat. I’d also add that the luggers, and Zulu in particular, are a little trickier to plank. The resin boat is a nice touch in the kit, which only Saucy Jack and Ranger in the VM range include. I’m slightly in two minds whether to include these boats though as I find the interior of the boat very difficult to look like wood. There’s less going-on on Ranger’s deck as she’s a fish carrier, not a fishing boat so fewer winches and other fishing gear. I guess I do need those barrels, and there’s a resin anchor too (also broken when I trod on the launch). I really like the photo-etch detailing on the stern and gunwales.

Sails complete. Still a few lines to tie-off. I still need to add the port backstay. She is very pretty this boat with lovely lines and full spread of canvas. Despite being an 1864 vessel and older than the the other Vanguard fishers except for Saucy Jack, she feels more modern and yacht like. I managed to step on the resin tender when I first opened the kit. I have painstakingly glued the little boat back together plus some filler. Not looking terrible, but if you look closely some of the breaks are visible as a dent in the port gunwale aft that I couldn’t repair with filler. I’m planning to try to drag some oil browns on the interior to give a more wood like appearance than the current matt Tamiya Red Brown paint.

Thanks Rick. Ratlines complete. Stays, except for backstays added. Left backstays off whilst I’m setting the mainsail so they’re not in the way. Topsail added too. All fairly straightforward, just followed the excellent Vanguard plans. The most challenging element is adjusting the lines to achieve as uncreased sails as possible - this boat has big sails compared to the rest of the Vanguard fleet. Most of the lines are not fully tied off or glued as I’m still adjusting for position. My sails are a paler, pinkier colour than most fishing boat builds on here - I’ve avoided the RIT dye Wine colour and tried to mimic the trawler Vigilance’s sails which I saw and photographed in Brixham in 2022.

Shrouds fitted. Starboard ratlines done, port ratlines in progress.

Just a quick update. Decided on a colour for the sails, RIT dye tan (mixed quite strong) and after that the sails dipped for a minute or two in weak RIT dye scarlet mixture, the latter to give the sails a less bland brown colour. Fitting out below. First two shrouds on each side being added. The instructions say add the main topsail to the first first, I’ve decided not to as it will be in the way for the shrouds and ratlines and I’ll risk breaking the topsail yard.

I can attest to your success there! It worked for me.

Simon, She looks super, I really enjoyed building this one too. Such a great kit. you’ll enjoy Nisha too, similar size and rig and I thought a little bit easier to plank. I’ve done a log on all six Vanguard fishing boat builds (Ranger still under construction + Alert and Grecian as my skills have slowly improved) as a relative newbie to boat building it’s been wonderful to have such a wealth of experience and advice available plus some encouragement - so i’d recommend a log if you can face the work! Also we get to enjoy reading it. Dan

Beautiful model and case. I’ve really enjoyed following your build!

Ranger’s hull and spars are now complete. I can’t do anymore until I make a decision on what colour to have the sails. I had originally intended the undyed white straight from the packet. Is that just too white? It’s a starker white than the photos convey. I had some spare Saucy Jack sails so I dyed one of these with tea. Not sure I like the faintly orange tinge that the tea gives them? Or do I stick with the red / pink sails of the rest of the fishing fleet despite having promised my wife I wouldn’t? Alongside Nisha to give an indication of how dark red sails would look. Or the paler sails Saucy Jack has. I reached this colour by accident and may well not be able to reproduce it. I’m thinking this last might look the best and also be a bit different from Nisha and Erycina. For the sake of completeness here’s some photos of Erycina with Ranger. She’s an almost identically sized boat although with a different rig. Incidentally, Erycina started off life with a cutter rig before being cut down to a ketch and the mizzen mast added. Any thoughts welcome! I’m stuck on Ranger until I can make a decision on sails. Thanks

Thanks Rick, this is an easy boat to make and look good thanks to Chris’s excellent design. I’d like to think I’m getting better at building them, but in reality this is by far the easiest of the four non-lugger rigged fishing boats from Vanguard.