chris watton
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Everything posted by chris watton
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Actually, no. I used the AotS Diana for those, coupled with James Lees The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625-1860. No Victory references were used at all for Indy.- 636 replies
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- Indefatigable
- Vanguard Models
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3D Printing Cannons in Resin
chris watton replied to thibaultron's topic in 3D-Printing and Laser-Cutting.
Nice thread. I have found that I have a 99% success rate by positioning the barrels almost vertital (with slight tilt). This minimises the areas for the supports, as commercial products would not look too great if the customer had to file/sand off all the support 'poc marks' the whole length of the barrel. It may take longer to print, but this is offset somewhat by the increased number of barrels that will fit on the build plate, and they will have much less clean up. Also, in the Winter months, I will have my oil heater on, and I have the tub of resin and build plate sitting on top of the heater overnight, so in the morning, both are nice and warm. -
Grecian is a kit I would consider 'Medium Size', with a hull length of over 500mm (vessels with a main deck length of around 100 feet, give or take a few feet). Speedy and Duchess would be Small/Medium, and Sphinx Medium/Large.
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Just an update on what I am doing right now, and what is planned for the next year. I did mean to have a couple of weeks off after Sherbourne and Adder, but cannot help myself, so started designs for the 17th kit. The next two kits will be medium size. The one I am working on now, once designed and plans drawn, will be built by Jim, along photos and text for manual. This then frees me up to concentrate on the 18th medium kit – so after a very large kit like Indy, there will have been 3 mediums and 3 smaller kits done. After this, the 19th kit will be large, and hopefully, we will have moved to larger premises by then, as space is a major issue now – so another very large kit like Indy is out of the question until we have more space. Also slowly building back up my stock of materials, pear sheet especially, and photo etched sheets for each of the kits. Finally, I already mentioned this, I would like to commission someone to produce more 3-d printed boat files for me – if you feel you can/want do this, let me know.
- 397 replies
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The website will always be a work in progress, as it is constantly updated and more products added - it is quite the job to keep on top of it. I would like a tick list for each kit on their product page, so you could tick the kit and however many extras are associated with that kit, but all of this takes time, and as James mentions, the site he inherited was a complete mess and has taken a lot of time to sort out from the ground up.
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Tie the two side deadeyes with a single rope, and the lower deadeyes with a single rope each, then the heart blocks with a single rope each - I should have made the drawing clearer, as they all look like the same length of thread.
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Well, when designing Speedy back then, it was more like a legacy type kit, as the laser cut wood was was to be limewood and sub contracted, and some Amati fittings, like ladders. I think only 20 were made like that before I realised I wanted better....
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OK, Plans and manuals for both Adder and Sherbourne are now at the printers, and I have been told they will be delivered to me by the end of next week. So now I can open for pre orders. Adder: HM Gun Brig Adder – 1797 – VANGUARD MODELS Sherbourne: HM Armed Cutter Sherbourne – 1763 – VANGUARD MODELS
- 397 replies
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I kept the PE cap squares just in case some modellers preferred to use them, instead of the now intergrated caps. I never liked the PE caps, sometimes way too fiddly, more so on the smaller size guns (and so easily lost)!- but I leave it up the individual modeller to choose, rather than taking that choice away completely. There was room of the new PE to keep them, so I did.
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Cheers! But just had over 80kg of photo etched brass sheets arrive for kits, boats and cannon (ordered last September)! So no rest for the wicked...
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OK, plans, manual and box label all now fully complete for Sherbourne. Was up all night completing manual, and then the box label this morning. Gonna have a couple of weeks off now..
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I would guess that the manufacturer updated some of the parts from wood strip to laser cut, but have never updated the instructions to tell you this. It is a kit that has been on the market for decades.
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- Baltimoe Clipper
- baltimore schooner
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Thank you All being well, both will be released next month, and then that is it for a good while.
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The wooden hoops are never shown because scaled down to 64th, they would be less than 0.6mm wide (1.5 " or 38.1mm wide full size).
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It is always a balancing act with prices. For these, I decided to subsidise them even more than I usually do, Sherbourne especially, in the hope they will attract newcomers and other modellers who haven't yet tried one of these VM kits and have no clue about the materials that make up the kits - hoping the dividend will be more people taking up the hobby, rather than being permanently put off. Prices will have to be higher in the future, though, as pear and PE brass have just risen very sharply, but I had the materials and PE before the price hikes for both Adder and Sherbourne. The cost of PE brass especially has just gone through the roof. Adder was almost abandoned last year, as I wasn’t sure how popular it would be (and the costs of producing these is great), so started to do Sherbourne instead. But as I kept looking at Adder, it grew on me, and ended up looking so much better than I had hoped.
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I have just completed the final job for Adder, the box label. Now onto Sherbourne. Also now have final prices: Adder - VM/15 - £246 Sherbourne - VM/16 - £149 (For first run of kits)
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The boats were done by a professional digital artist under a commission from me, so not sure about the software they used. I am always looking for people who can do such projects for me - I will need someone to colour a set of frieze work for me at some point too, so I can print them or have decals. Anyone who is interested in this, let me know. (I can do it, but it would save me a lot of time...) The plans are very low res - but am always mindful of people less scrupulous
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Large 3-decker kits have always been around the $1000 price, at the very least, because they are large 3 deckers. Anything much cheaper will have compromises. I saved up for months back in the early '90's for the Sergal Sovereign of the Seas, (back then, it was very normal to save up for what you wanted) it cost me £550. Taking into account inflation since then, that comes to around £1150 today.
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For PE, a Stanley Knife should do the trick. I have never used anything else.
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Thank you, Glenn. It is strange, seems like only yesterday I decided on the name for the model range, yet also seems like forever ago!
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And here are the Adder laser cut and PE parts, not on A3 like Sherbourne, but 50x70cm sheets. Also one of the profile plans, where the 'droop' of the foredeck is clearly visible.
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I will not be able to get Sherbourne as cheap as the other one, as this is very pre fabricated with many more parts, but I do plan to subsidise the first batch so that I retail it for under £150. One of my aims (as well as making a little profit) has always been to encourage new modellers to the hobby, and not put them off with crap. Sherbourne has 19 A3 size plan sheets (as well as a full colour A4 manual), with 10 plan sheets dedicated to the very simple masts and rig, breaking the rigging down into bite size portions. I have included here the plan sheets for the laser cut sheets and PE, so you can see what actually goes into the bulk of this kit, as well as a couple of profile plans.
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Very nice, Chris! Next week I shall start the manuals for Adder and Sherbourne, which will be the final big job.
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