Pitan

p.s just found this (1850's painting): https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/edmund-gardner/pilotage-service-mersey

Right click ion the image at the top to see the full painting.

Have a look at contemporary ship paintings, they'll give you a good idea of what people saw at the time.

The only image I noted that shows distinct hull planking, the cutter might be clinker built:
Shipping at Spithead with Merchantmen, a moored British Navy Third Rate Man o' War and the Cutter 'Thetis' in the Foreground by Francis Holman  (link )

The Google search I use: https://www.google.com/search?q=cutter+ship+painting

Click that and then switch to images.  Most images that I found in that search are too modern for Sherbourne (i.e. late 18c or early 19c) and show copper bottomed vessels.

A quick update on the 18' cutter, this is now fully planked, and the planking filled & sanded.

I should have reduced the planks more ate both the bow ...

... and stern.

Hopefully, I'll do better on the yawl.

The 18' cutter is a little big to live on Sherbourne's deck

Another Vanguard Sherbourne?

That looks like a quick start

I've started work on the 18' cutter and the yawl ... and taken a look at Vanguard's Hornblower figure.

The 18' cutter

Loose on its building cradle, the cutter has been fairly standard up til now.

The yawl

The yawl has been a little more eventful, with both the stem and stern posts breaking off.  The stem I found and glued back; the stern post I had to fabricate from spare wood.


Ship's officer (based on Vanguard's Hornblower)
#

Vanguard's figures are beautiful, but they generally represent Napoleonic characters. Sherbourne was a mid-eighteenth century vessel, and would have seen earlier styles.
So far, I've removed Hornblower's bicorne hat together with his epaulettes, and started cutting back his coat to suit an earlier fashion.
 

This build has been quiet of late, I've been thinking about adding sails, and final displaying of the model.

So far, I have two ideas that might work:

1) based on a painting of an 1806 vessel, HM Revenue Cutter Wickham by Robert W. Salmon (1775–1851), photographed in Kings Cutters and Smugglers (E. Keble Chatterton, 1912).
The original painting is, I believe, now at the Campbeltown Museum  (link: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/hms-revenue-cutter-wickham-164013).

Reviewing the source image, there are some changes needed in this sketch.  Any suggestions for improvements and guidance would be welcome

2) another thought, is something more conventional

Again, there will be changes needed here - suggestions would be welcome.

In either of these cases, I'll need a bowsprit.  Vanguard supply two options for the bowsprit bitt, one with a 5mm round hole, and an alternate with a 4mm square hole.  Vanguard supply some 5mm dowel for the former; I chose the latter.
To make my bowsprit, I ordered some 5mm square walnut, and made a bowsprit based on Vanguard's suggested dimensions.

Bitt with side and top views of my bowsprit.

The bowsprit is pierced for an outhaul.  My plan is to split the wood, and glue it fore-and aft of the bitt.


Somewhere in Kings Cutters and Smugglers, there is a remark that revenue cutters looked like vessels with a cargo of boats.
With this in mind, I ordered a couple of boats from Vanguard; an 18' cutter and a 22' yawl.

18' cutter

22' yawl

Good to see another Vanguard Sherbourne - and coming along very quickly.

9 hours ago, Isaiah said:

If that’s what you’re talking about.

It was, thanks

That looks like good progress.
I'm intrigued by your edge bending tool, haven't seen one of those before.

6 hours ago, Isaiah said:

What paint did you use for the hull? I’m looking at maybe airbrushing.

I may have primed the lower hull white (if so, that would have been an acrylic rattle can car-primer).

Top colours are Admiralty paint, based on a set offered by Cornwall Model Boats for the other Sherbourne kit.
(One each of: Dull Black, Ironwork Black, Matt White, Yellow Ochre, Red Ochre)

Think these are normal acrylics, very opaque, and a little thick for airbrushing. I hand brushed, but they might work thinned for airbrushing.
Where possible, I painted parts off the model, and touched up by hand after.

HTH

That looks like nice progress, Isaiah.
That hull should be nice and straight by now?

Off-topic, but the Royal Collection Trust site may have items of interest.

Examples
Painting of "Dirk, sword and cocked hat of Lord Nelson" (Willliam Gibb): https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/8/collection/929407/dirk-sword-and-cocked-hat-of-lord-nelson

Images from Robert Southey's book Life of Lord Nelson (v1 1814) https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/26/collection/1047034/the-life-of-lord-nelson-v-1

Less relevant, but maybe of interest
[Planning for Trafalgar,] a fair copy of memoranda issued by Lord Nelson: https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/25/collection/1198306/fair-copy-of-memoranda-issued-by-lord-nelson-regarding-tactics-and-sailing

A letter from Lord Nelson [, in his own hand,] to his father following the Battle of Copenhagen: https://www.rct.uk/collection/1198309/letter-from-lord-nelson-to-his-father-following-the-battle-of-copenhagen-dated-5
 

That's better

p.s. that Sherbourne kit review ... I happen to like the box you supplied, it suits my way of working very well.

Chris, this looks as though it was taken from Nelson's statue at Trafalgar Square?

There will be some distortion on the statue, due to the original sculptor exaggerating the top of the figure to compensate for perspective.
It is worth checking paintings made during Nelson's life, to make a more balanced form.

If I remember Nelson's biography, he had a relatively slight figure for much of his life.
He did, for a while, bulk up, but lost the extra weight during an illness (possibly malaria, though may have been some tuberculosis).

Think you are overthinking this.  At least, for a Vanguard kit.
Follow the instructions in Vanguard's manual, and your hull should be fine.

Looks interesting.
The kit has a hull cradle sized to support the hull at the frames (even before planking), but I can see other stages in the build where your jigs will be useful.

A modification of your cutting jig might be very useful when working on my mast and spars.  I wonder? Pondering ...

8 minutes ago, wvdhee said:

 

File the edges, paint them black and they look perfect imho.

Thanks, I'll try that

10 hours ago, Isaiah said:

What would you say’s wrong with the pins? Are they too small?

The kit supplies flat etched brass belaying pins.  Personally, I'd prefer round pins.

p.s. While you are replacing stuff, have a look at the belaying pins, see what you think.

Going to watch, this will be different even for a new kit.

I stand to be corrected, but, I thought Vanguard uses Ropes of Scale?
Though the supplied standing rigging is black in this kit, and you may want brown?

Been a while since my last update, my apologies if this post becomes too long.

The main cause of my delay was a self-inflicted problem.

The instructions tell us to make sure the eyebolt openings in the spirketting patterns line up with those in the inner bulkheads (parts 32 and 33, L & R).
Thing is, these parts fit the hull very nicely, and I didn't think about the holes until it was too late.

This left me with eyebolt holes very much out of line.

Sorting that out involved several iterations of filling holes and using a jig to line up and drill new holes.
This is, essentially, the jig I wound up with; a simpler style would be better.

Holes are now drilled, gun wales and rails have been added, along with a small colour change.

The starboard looks fine, but I have some fettling to do port stern timer (sp?)

Oh, and that starboard bulkead, at the bow, is now filled.

Don't think I'll try to correct that colour, it takes some looking to see the issue.

Don't think I've seen a small boat with a windlass before, what was the purpose?

p.s there isn't much space for bulldog/folder clip clamps on this kit - I did experiment, but the lower deck blocks the first few rows.

On 4/12/2024 at 9:31 AM, SighingDutchman said:

But I felt that if I took off more there, it would impair the natural run of the planks, and I would need to take off a lot more from the frames preceding it. So I think I will leave it as such.

Looking at images of my own build, the frames and keel doubler (cheeks? name?) looked very like yours.
I might have reduced more of the final (transom/stern?) frame, but then, every build is different.