TJM

Right, that is also what i understood, and I think you are right that it is a bit too long! I will have a look and modify as needed. Your drawing is very helpful, thank you!

With regard to plank lengths, I should have been clearer: I was referring to the second planking, and was just interested to see that you had done this on your Alert, as I had considered doing it as well. For the first planking, I definitely think it makes sense to have full length planks, as the bulkhead frame would cause some difficulty in fitting shorter lengths for this layer!

TJM

Thank you @Thukydides! I think you may be right. I will have a close look at it later. I did not intensionally bend i up but it does look like it is doing that a bit on my photos. I actually made a shape rather close to the one you show in your linked post 12, except that I had a notch in it to fit it into the slot in the stem - this may also contribute to it looking a little wrong. 

But again, thank you! This is very much the kind of feedback I was hoping for. And by the way, if I can even remotely approach the quality of your Alert planking result, I will be quite happy indeed! It is very impressive.

I also was considering if I should use ~14 cm strips for that more realistic planking look like you do on Alert, but I am wondering if I should leave the deviations from the manual for a future build to avoid overcomplicating things here on the first. But I am not decided yet.

TJM

Log entry 3

I started the planking by adding a plank on top and bottom on both sides, to get a clear view of how many planks are needed on both sides. For a large part of the hull length, the distance between these first planks on the bulkheads are very close to 7 cm. It becomes slightly more at the stern and goes down to around 4.8 cm at the bow. 

So for the next few planks, I tapered the bow end down to 3.5 mm, used a bit of moisture and heat to pre-bend the plank to the hull and glued them in place, using pins to hold them in place.

 There are a few ridges between the planks and between the planks and the bulwark, especially at the bow end. It looks worse in these photos than in real life. Perhaps I should have faired ethe edges of the planks to get a better fit? I think it will sand down fine with enough material left to not cause issues.

All the planks lay flat against the bulkheads. 

I will re-measure now and re-calculate my tapering of the next planks before I continue.

TJM

@Nearshore, thanks, much appreciated!

Thank you Thukydides, if you mean laying strips of planking material along the hull in various places, to make sure they lie flat on the bulkheads, then I did do that. It looked good to me, but I am sure small issues will appear later 😉.

TJM

Thanks a lot everyone - happy to enter this community! 😊

Log entry 2

Inspecting the bulwarks, I noticed that the lower edge was a bit wobbly. It was glued to all the bulkheads, but between them, it was pushing out a bit - too much for me to be sure I could sand it away without issues later.

So I decided to try to straighten them with a bit of moisture and heat from an iron set on wool settings (I guess around 140C). This worked like a charm!

On this image you can see a straightened bulwark on the right and an untreated one on the left.

And both after treatment. Still a bit of residual wobbliness, but it is a fraction of a mm, and I think it should sand flush without issues later.

I proceeded with the first plank on both sides of the hull, tapering about 1 mm at the bow. I lightly moistened some areas and pre-into shape on the hull with the hot iron. Worked fine, and it was easy to glue in place with a few pins.

So far, so good!

By the way, if anyone sees anything in the above pictures that should be changed or corrected, please let me know 😊.

It is my first real build, so I don't expect perfection, but I am likely to miss some low hanging fruits that will make future steps easier!

TJM

Thank you! I will! 

So far I am really enjoying leaning something new. This is what gets me engaged in a project.

Log entry 1

Building the initial frame went smoothly, no issues whatsoever! 

I am vey happy with the ease of the fit of all the parts and the very clear instructions.

Sanding went much quicker than anticipated (only around half an hour) having pre-beveled the edges of some of the bulkheads with a Dremel,as per the instructions.

Soaking the side bulwark patterns, it was easy enough to form them on the model, though I found I had to pin the lower edge as I could not clamp it well. 

At this point, I have used around 6 hours over 3 evenings (after the kids sleep). I am happy with the progress so far. 

Now for the first challenge: planking. I will take my time with this (I can become impatient, but will try to go slow!). I have a naive hope that the second planking will be good enough to leave unpainted, but that is probably to much to hope for. If not, I may copper it instead of painting it. We'll see!

TJM

Hi all, 

This will be my first build log on MSW!

I have been lurking and reading through quite a number of build logs here and it is truly inspiring and humbling to see the amazing work by all the members. This is to a very large degree responsible for my own desire to try out this hobby!

I have no knowledge about sailing ships (or any kind of ships really), but I have a keen interest in anything 'history', and this fits that bill! 

I have plenty of experience with other creative hobbies, so I hope I am not biting off too much with a kit like Flirt for my first real build (I have tried out the hobby small scale on a small 1:25 Whaler - very fun to build, but the boat itself hold little interest for me). What inspired me to do the plunge was the amazing quality of the Vanguard kits which is clearly apparent from the many build logs on this site, and then the very high quality of the manual. I read it through a few times before ordering and it seems manageable with my (self-perceived) skill level. Let see... I am mostly worried about the rigging, but I guess I don't have to worry about that for a while yet!

One small setback was that I ordered the kit from Krick in Germany (being based in Denmark, it has become prohibitively expensive to buy from the UK), but I have not realised that on of the services that Krick provides is a full translation of the manual and the drawings into German! Which is a bit problematic as I don't speak German!

The manual I will just print myself from the pdf provided on Chris' site and I guess I will have to make do with the German drawings for the rigging. I will just translate what is needed back to English! 🤭

Anyways, if this small project goes as I hope, I will have find another EU based vendor for sny future kits (drooling over Sphinx already - all in due time...)

Well, enough intro, on with the actual log!

Hi everyone,

I am a new member but I have been lurking for a while, getting inspired by all the amazing builds on this site!

While I have very limited experience with model ship building, having only completed Artesania Latinas New England Whaling Boat kit as a kind of trial (it went ok), I have been assembling and painting miniatures for over 20 years and have other craft hobbies like bookbinding, so I am not totally new to alot of the techniques I see used in all the fine build logs on this forum! And this is exactly what got ne interested; I love the finished look af a sailing ship - they are just very aesthetic to me - and I am really intrigued by the construction process. I know next to nothing about actual sailing ships, but I guess that will come in time!

Having seen the amazing kis from Vanguard Models, I decided to start with HMS Flirt. I will be opening a build log for this soon! As I have a full time job, two small kids and other hobbies, progress is likely to be slow at times and come in 'sprints', but that is how it has to be for now 😉 .

Cheers from Denmark, and I'll see you around the forum!

TJM