chris watton

Here are some pics of contents, the second pic shows all of the laser and PE sheets for Alert. The laser has made some black marks on the acetate sheet, but this is just confined to the protective film, the actual parts are perfect.

Marvellous work, looking great!

They are for Speedy, I never said the guns for Alert were resin. I did change the winches on Alert from metal to resin (at quite an extra cost, as I had already had all of the castings made), as I wasn't happy with both the quality and amount of shrinkage. Cannon were OK. Resin castings cost a lot, lot more than white metal, so had to weigh up the costs for Alert as I wanted to keep it well under £200. There are 24 cannon barrels altogether for Alert, more than usual for such a small vessel. The only way I could add the resin cannon to replace castings is to change the wood strip from box wood and pear to Tanganyika (box wood is eye wateringly expensive). However, for future kits, I want to keep metal castings to an absolute minimum, and have worked the resin cannon cost into Speedy (this is what you probably read), as Speedy doesn't have a more expensive to make octagonal winch drum to put in the kit box. So, Speedy will have 20 x half pounder and 14 x 4 pounder cannon and Cochrane figure in resin. Essentially, I didn't want to price myself out of the market with my first kit, I was pushing it a bit using the woods. ETA - To show you what I mean when I said I wasn't prepared to put the metal castings in the kit, and decided to have them resin cast, I have attached some pics of the difference, both from the exact same 3-d file. I want to use white/Britannia metal as little as I possibly can in future..

Sorry, you are right. The kit has two sheets for keel and bulkheads in MDF and all other wooden laser cut parts are limewood (1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm and 3mm). The stand is in laser cut clear acetate. Seven laser cut sheets of different materials in all. There are three photo etched brass sheets, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6mm thicknesses (which includes a nameplate for the stand). First planking is 1.5x5 limewood, second planking and other hull strips is pear wood and deck planking is boxwood. Six different rigging threads, resin cast main and small winch drum, cast metal cannon and anchors, and a full colour 56 page plan and instruction manual with parts list in A3 format.

Thank you! I am trying so hard to get the UPS rates down right now, but cripes UPS are hard to deal with. I promise that if I can get the price down for your shipping, I will reimburse you the difference, and this applies to all orders (although US and UK are nigh on perfect - but Canada and Australia prices are mad!)

Thank you very much! Had a manic couple of days, but a good manic. For the next kit, I think we will have 20 made up kits ready to go before adding it for sale. Lesson learned there!

Thank you so much guys, I have literally spent all night on the UPS website raising shipping invoices, ready to ship the first batch! Haven't been able to carry on with my Speedy model tonight... lol

Thank you! The Alert is just under 640mm long and around 530mm high

Cheers guys, your comments are much appreciated! What's going on with the Like button being so far off to the right!

Fantastic kit.

Thank you! I appreciate it, scary and exciting time for me. Hope you like it, this has been one hell of a learning curve, and am sure things will become easier and more streamlined as I get used to it all.

Finally have everything here and first 10 kits are almost ready, so the website is now live. Still negotiating with UPS for better tariffs, which should be sorted very soon. The website is all thanks to Steve Urwin, who has helped me more than I could have hoped. My wife tells me that she has really enjoyed the time it takes in making up the rigging thread, and didn't curse me at all.... lol https://vanguardmodels.com/ Right, I can now carry on with Speedy...

Spent all day sorting all of the laser cut wood, phot etched sheets and wood strip. Here are a couple of pics of the strip and laser and PE sheets bagged up, ready to go in the first kit box. All of the wood strip will have its part number on the bag, so my wife tells me (she is packing the kits..)

Thank you When we have all the parts together and bagged for the first kit, I shall take a pick of the contents and post it on here.

Cheers Alert was of a much larger design, being the largest class of cutter. In fact, she was as big as some smaller brig-sloops (Speedy is only marginally larger). Even having 12 6-Pounder guns, instead of the usual 4-Pounders. ETA - Alert has a much finer hull, a lot less 'tubby' looking than Lady nelson.

I now have all the parts with me to start making the Alert kits and the 160kg pallet arrived earlier today with photo etch and laser cut parts, It may take some time to sort the kits, a few days I think, but at least I now have everything I need (including Chuck's fantastic rope for the anchor cables), at last!

Excellent work, it looks amazing! On a very tenuously related note, I have just watch a YT vid of the Russian 2nd Pacific Fleet 'Voyage of the Damned' I laughed so much at some points, well worth a watch if you have time for comic value alone:

Thank you! Yes, regarding Vanguard, that is one of mine. (All of the Victory Models range is) I threw out the anchor hawse rope I was going to use for Alert and other models, I wasn't happy with the quality as it didn't really match with the rest of the rigging. With that in mind, I will use Chuck's thick rope for the hawse for all kits. So, I have the boxes made and printed in the Czech Republic, resin castings from Hungary, laser cut and PE parts, some wood and other fittings from Italy, pear and boxwood strip from Germany, rope from the US, manuals printed in the UK, and smaller rigging thread from the UK. A year ago I was convinced I'd never design, let alone produce another kit again!

Not sure 100%, but the openings are mostly covered with the laser cut combings and shot garlands anyway. I thought it looked neater than just having the planks terminate to the edges.

Just had a sample of a laser engraved deck for Speedy arrive. I know how difficult it is to get the planking right, more so on smaller vessels where the planks bend and taper at the extremes. The engraving isn't as heavy as they were on the Mercury, and look almost drawn on with a pencil, a lot more unobtrusive. This will be done on 0.8mm plywood. What do you think?

Well done so far, deck detail looks good. One thing I would suggest (based on experience) is to apply masking tape to the bow platform decking, to protect it. This is because by the time you are ready to finally finish that area, the hull will have gone through a lot of abuse with the two lots of planking, gluing and sanding. If fact, it may be worth re-planking the front half round deck after you have completed the first planking. This is because the lighter first planking wood edges will be seen on the finished model, whereas if you re-plank after completing the first planking, the edges will be finished off with the same colour second planking.

Always use a matt varnish.

The sculpting's are 100% digital. The STL files are then passed onto my resin caster, who then 3-d prints the masters into tangible form which are then used to make the moulds for the resin production castings. These should be virtually identical in both size and detail to the 3-d printed master. So will remain at the required scale, in this case, 64th, and not something like 1:78th by the time they are passed onto the customer if using cast white metal..

Cheers, I am not a fan of too many figures on scale models unless a diorama, but I liked the idea of having a known commander that is connected with the vessel that also helps shows the scale of the ship in relation to a person. I do plan to have a Nelson next, followed by Pellew. Having said that, it may be fun to have an able seamen figure and name him 'Jack Nasty Face'!

Just received a pic of the 3-d printed 64th scale Cochrane figure. I will keep the base as they will be resin cast (more expensive than white metal, but next to no shrinkage, which I think is important) , so if people want to fix directly to the deck, the base can be filed off.