chris watton

Pear wood was initially meant to be for the 'Master Shipwright' kits, but I realised very quickly that limewood was way too fragile for the type of designs I had in mind, plus I winced when seeing close up shots of the limewood parts, being quite open grained. This is OK if the parts are to be painted and the parts are prepped correctly, otherwise, I just didn't like it and realised that if the kits were to be a little different from the more 'commercial' kits I have designed in the past, I must invest in better quality (closer grained and less fragile) woods. Once I got to know the properties of pear better, this opened a lot more options for me, like pre-cut drift rails, which would have been a disaster in more open grained woods, with parts breaking when just trying to remove the parts from their retention tabs (One of the main reasons I always endeavour to place the tabs along the grain, rather than against it).

I did mention earlier in this thread that if some asked, I would be open to the odd boxwood version. However, the Duchess kit has been tried and tested with pearwood, and two fully built up hulls have been made up and tested with the pearwood, and I know the designs work well with this material. This means that officially, the pearwood version is the only version, with the only option being the machined pear wood blocks. I do not know how well some of the major boxwood patterns would bend, so I decided that no official 'Master Shipwright' version will never be offered. That plus the cost is very high, as there are a lot more laser cut sheets in this than the previous kits. I have seen Delf's amazing work on his Speedy, and he is clearly comfortable with the boxwood, but it is most certainly something I would not recommend for the less experienced. Anyway, I think the pear suits the model perfectly. There is no way I could have got away with some of the more intricate cuts with the laser with 'kit standard' woods that are more open grained, like lime or walnut.

This is so important. When James was building the second prototype, he called me to tell me that the inner bulwarks did not fit, being a lot larger than they should be. The next morning, he discovered they fitted exactly as they should, once all moisture had gone. This is a relatively easy kit to build, as long as you take your time on certain parts, and leave all parts to be curved dry fitted (clamped and/or pinned) in place until completely dry before gluing in place.

First batch of orders were picked up today, wait, no, yesterday, Monday, so most should receive today (Tuesday), with other countries not too far behind. Am very much hoping that with this kit, no one will have any issue whatsoever with hull assembly and fragility - I designed it so it's as strong as a Tonka Toy. So if you break it, then there's no helping you, really....lol

I am sure I create a rod for my own back when it comes to the rigging plans, as I prefer to try and do the lines to scale thicknesses, but this means every line is double, so whenever they intersect another line, trimming is required. A long job when drawing the lines. When they are printed, however, you can hardly see the double lines, so always wonder if it's worth just drawing single lines and saving myself countless hours. Always think this with every new kit, but when it comes to it, I always choose the more time consuming method, but I think they do look better, especially when picking out some areas to zoom in. For this reason, it is the rigging plans that take the longest to draw by far.

UPS are picking up Monday, as it took an age to sort out plans and manuals for each kit, so the real delivery day will be Tuesday. I have no idea why UPS do this when I arranged pick up for Monday!

Just thought I'd add a pic of the Duchess plan and manual set. 81 page full colour manual and 13 50x70cm plan sheets

I hate them too, and would one day like to find a way of having the hulls pre made/cast, complete with rib detail, in resin.

Not yet, although at times I am tempted, like now, just back from work and am dead... Already had the Sphinx figurehead and stern decoration sculpted and paid for, and now with the resin casters. Slow work now, though, being back at work. This week I have been designing the boats (28 foot pinnace, 24 foot launch and 22 foot yawl), which will be included with the kit, but also make them available as mini kits, like the 18' cutter. Have done a 26 foot launch (for larger frigates) at the same time.

Duchess of Kingston is now officially in stock!

OK, I finally had 17 boxes arrive just now, for the Duchess of Kingston plans, manual (81 pages) and box art. We can now (well, my wife...) sort out the plans and manuals to put into the kits and I shall organise the UPS pick ups. All UK customers should receive by Tuesday, and outside UK a day or so later. I had to re order more Speedy plans and manuals, which will be here next next, as I ran out of those...

Personally, I make up all masts and then add what blocks I can before stepping in place. I then usually sort out as much bowsprit rigging as I can (shrouds, spritsail yards etc.), and then on to shrouds and ratlines for the masts.

Very nice model, and I love the looks, it is stunning. But I think a lot of the areas would be better suited to injection moulded parts, due to the shapes (not sure you could get away with included a few lengths of wood dowel to simulate those composite modern material masts and booms). Also, I want to concentrate on the classic age of sail era for my main kits for now, as this is my main area of interest.

yep, she's the one that puts all the kits together, I wouldn't have a clue! Oh, don't think I have mentioned this as they're not so big a deal - all kits, including Duchess of Kingston have new thread for the small sizes, most small sizes being Gutermann. Also, every Duchess kit has a special coaster in black and white, with the yacht profile etched into the surface.

Just thought I had better do an update for Duchess.. A 'small oversight' at our printers means that the 1:64 Duchess of Kingston royal yacht will now be released on Thursday 6th November instead of today. I can only apologise for this to our pre-order customers, but it is totally out of my control. This is the first time the printers have let me down, and I feel terrible. My wife has agreed to have Thursday off work, so that when the printed material arrives on Thursday, they will be added to the kit contents and I shall book the UPS pick ups as soon as possible. I promise it is worth waiting for, and almost two thirds of the stock has already been pre-ordered, so I had better order more castings sets and materials... Thank you, Chris

All laser cutting was completed weeks ago, so am well ahead of the curve for this one. (It was a few weeks cutting, though, lots of parts in this one). As soon as the printed manuals, plans and box label arrive, the kits are ready to go out the door

It is funny, I always used to want to specify hull length and overall length, but no one ever wanted hull length, so that was dropped (but this was years ago) For all future models, I will include both hull and overall measurements. Hull length for Duchess is around 445mm. I have attached a couple of (bad) pics of the cannon I had arrive yesterday. The cannon and carriage nearest the rule is the Sphynx short 9-pounder (7 foot), with a 32 pounder next to it. The row of 4 cannon from bottom to top are the 9-pounder short, 6 pounder, 4 pounder and half pounder swivel. My picture taking isn't so good, and the details are hard to define, but they are detailed and I am more than happy with them. Also a pic of a new family member, and the reason I am having a couple of days off work to look after her. Trouble is, she's so naughty that I cannot even do any of my development stuff. As soon as my head is turned, she's causing mischief! Finally, I just received confirmation from the printers that the Duchess printed materials will be with me at the end of next week, so all orders will be shipped either next Friday or the following Monday.

Of course!

Thanks Mike. This is the one I am developing: https://prints.rmg.co.uk/products/lines-and-profile-plan-of-the-sphinx-1775-j4272?variant=9699771220012 Like the Fly, but bigger. I did initially intend to do Atalanta, another Swan Class, but figured that too many others are doing this class now, and wanted to bring new classes to the market, rather than re-treads. At this early stage, at least. So r Atalanta was replaced for Sphynx.

The kit can now be pre-ordered here: https://vanguardmodels.co.uk/product/duchess-of-kingston/ And very well done, James!

OK, thanks to Jim Hatch (who has really helped me this year), the Duchess of Kingston is now available for pre order. All work for manual, plans and box art complete and just sent off to the printers. https://vanguardmodels.co.uk/product/duchess-of-kingston/ My wife told me she wants to keep the prototype model in the living room, as she seems to love it, too! Now I work on Sphynx. This will take time to develop, as I want to continue the same design philosophy I used for Duchess, only on a much bigger scale (and of course, I am back at work full time) - but this does take a lot more time than simply drawing out a bunch of bulkheads and supplying wood strip for the hard work. But, I hope, more modellers will be able to do a great job without having to need master modeller skills. And those that do, the sky's the limit! I have been working closely with Master Korabel to produce the short 9 pounders for this model. I received the samples today and they are quite stunning. Exact scale even down to the diameter of the trunnions, and finished in a nigh on perfect looking dull black. I will have more sizes made by them in the future. In the meantime, I am planning to have the 32, 24 and 18 pounder carronade barrels cast (and the early 12 pounder carronade with trunnions - plus a short 18 pounder for 18 pounder frigates). Would there be anyone interested in these, so I know how many to have cast? Cheers Chris

A lot of times, I usually add a little more than needed, especially if the parts are easily lost. Nothing worse than having to stop your build because a small part flew out of the tweezers and, no matter how hard you look, you can never find the damn part. Until a few weeks later, and it was under your nose the whole time...

The elevating thread bars were originally part of the casting, but they proved too fragile so I got rid of them and added the hole to which a length of brass rod will fit into, to simulate the threaded bar. If I had kept the threaded bars, I would have had around 75% scrap rate.

12 pounders are 46mm long in total, so are the 8'6" type (for the 50 gun Bristol) I do have some 37mm 12's, but not cast yet. These are for 12 pounder frigates, rather than the larger vessels. Also have a short 18 pounder for 18 pounder frigates (42,8mm), but this too needs to be cast for production parts. All barrels are for larger vessels at the moment (being around 48mm long in total)

OK, Duchess of Kingston will be available for pre order very soon, as it is almost ready. In the meantime, I had a set of cast black resin cannon barrels arrive, including a PE sheet for each. I am selling the 9, 12, 18, 24 and 32 pounder cannon barrel and carriage sets in pairs, which include the laser cut pear, photo etched parts (including flintlocks) and 2 cast black resin barrels. https://vanguardmodels.co.uk/product/cannon-carriages/ I also had sample castings for the carronade barrels, which look fine, so will order production sets to be made. Again, I have the PE sheets done for these, just need the barrels cast now. I have been working on my 7th kit, Sphynx, but because I am no back in full time employment, things are going slower than I would like. Still, get something done every day when I have the spare time. The short 9 pounder barrels (7 foot, as opposed to 8 or 9 foot versions) have been cast by MK, and the figurehead and stern decoration is being carved (digitally) right now, so everything's still moving forward...