flyer

The shipwrights in my wharf worked rather slowly lately. After Bellerophon any project seemed a bit trivial. A longer inactive period has now ended and they are set to proper work again. I used the beautifully laser engraved lower deck to try different methods to caulk the seams. But neither following the seams with a sharp pencil or fine marker nor filling the seams with black paint and scratching the deck clean again produced acceptable results. Finally, I decided to use the main deck just as it is, with a layer of clear varnish. Now I glued, filled and sanded the first planking layer. During that task I found that my worry about perhaps building a too simple kit was rather invalid and the task was as demanding as ever but fortunately included a much smaller hull than the last one. I love the elegant lines of Alert’s hull

Hi Techtonic Thanks for the hint and congratulations for finishing that monster. And what a lovely result you got and in such a short time! Did you ever sleep? About using others’ ideas in one’s own build: I’d rather call it borrowing because I don’t keep them but preferentially pass them on. Some details you found in my log were other’s brainchild. And anyway, I’m rather flattered that you found my example helpful. Cheerio Peter

A smaller boat is very high up on my wish list too. Logic dictates that any ship definitely needs at least one boat to communicate with the shore and for various other tasks. In ‘The Naval Cutter Alert’ Peter Goodwin writes about boats: “… For conveying stores, dispatches and officers and crew, the Alert carried a single boat. (…) In all probability, 6- or 8- oared cutters varying between 12ft and 18ft in length were employed. Alternatively, a long boat either 14ft or16ft in length may have been used. (…) In December 1763 one such (Admiralty) order decreed that during winter only one small 4- oared boat should be allocated and that it should be carried rather than towed to avoid being lost. An order of June 1779 mentions 16ft boats for cutters while another of July 1783 recommends the addition of a second boat. (…) When not in use the boat was stowed on the upper deck between the main jeer and topsail bitts and the two elm tree pumps abaft. (…) When required the boat was either swung out or hoisted inboard from tackle suspended from the boom. Should the vessel encounter action the boat was towed astern… The ships boat also served to convey boarding parties onto vessels ordered to be searched; and for laying out the kedge anchor for warping the ship; or for towing the ship when becalmed. ” A contemporary model of the naval cutter Hawke kept at NMM shows a small boat stowed on deck. I guess that all this information is also valid for any other ship or smaller vessel. So, each vessel must have had at least one boat. It may not always be shown on contemporary models because smaller vessels may have towed it quite often but for heavy weather there must have a been a possibility to take it aboard. I really would appreciate a model of a small 12ft or 14ft boat which would also fit all your small models. With a small stand to place it on deck included, you should be able to sell at least one model to every serious model builder who bought one of your smaller kits 😉. Peter

The Naval Cutter Alert by flyer - Vanguard Models - scale 1:64 The next project is another step ahead in kit quality – a Vanguard Models kit. The HMS Vanguard kit itself was also a Chris Watton construction, however with his own line of products I believe he took quality one or several steps further. Although the kit looks great, there are – fortunately - still possibilities to change it to my liking or even to improve it a bit. For additional information I will count on Peter Goodwin’s ‘The Naval Cutter Alert 1777’, a book of the AOTS series. My first thoughts are: The cutter must have a boat. With the kit I ordered Vanguard Model’s 18ft cutter with the intention to shorten it to 14 or 16ft to easier find room on deck. In the meantime, Chris Watton announced that he will soon offer a printed 14ft cutter. I will consider this or – if it is still too large – perhaps commission Caldercraft’s 14ft jolly boat. Sails will be hoisted. But I will make my own as the kit’s ones are not to my liking. The rigging layout could be changed to an improved and standardised cutter rigging without spread yard and with spreaders for the shrouds. However, right now, I think the kit’s rigging scheme has its very own charm and is not only confirmed by the contemporary model of the cutter Hawke but also by contemporary paintings of Charles Brooking. Decision to be taken later. Shipping in Light Airs in the Thames Estuary by Charles Brooking 1723 – 56

Very nice! This seems to be a 18ft cutter. Do you also plan to offer a smaller 12ft or 14ft boat, suitable for your smaller vessels, such as Alert?

Hi Nils As we would say in Swinglish: I pull my hat before you (ich ziehe meinen Hut vor dir). Not only have you built another unique, detailed, outstanding gem but you also finished it in about 8 months! From scratch! Without plans! Wonderful! Cheers Peter

Hi Allan, And a happy new year to you too! Yes, Lees mentions '...through blocks under the fore top...' several times and the drawings show those blocks fixed at the extremes of the trestle trees - except on page 102 where a 'double block is seized to the crosstree'. I wonder if regulations in those times really went as far as to specify the exact locations of those blocks. Lees, in his introduction, mentions that his written sources mainly deal with size and dimensions. I guess that the actual run of the lines of the running rigging he shows is an average of the many but still limited number of models he studied. I'm always tempted to follow kit instructions if they are not directly contradicted by e.g. Lees. Respectable kit designers may use Lees or their own research for the rigging plans and certainly try to be as historically accurate as possible. But even somebody like Chris Watton may have to use approximations sometimes to construct a practicable and sellable kit. And then sometimes I'm just lazy and tempted to take the easy way out. Cheers Peter

The question I tried to answer was about the green circled blocks in the 2nd picture of #1: I took those as indication of having two identical rows of blocks on the forward and aft crosstree. The lines then are going through the identical blocks on each crosstree thus leading free of and above the fore yard, perhaps to give some space to brace the yard. In Lees' book you find on page 73 top right an illustration for the buntlines, installed that way. (BTW on Bellerophon I used a similar arrangement also for the main yard.) The two outboard single block pairs were thus used for the buntlines and the inboard double block pairs I used for spritsail and sprit topsail braces. This is confirmed by Lees again on page 101 respective page 105.

conclusion After more than 6 years, I'd say it was a rather longish journey but I really had a lot of fun along the way and it was definitely worth the effort. The outstanding quality of the kit and the possibility to build 3 different ships makes it easy to overlook a few shortcomings, such as questionable details in the rigging plan or the very questionable gun carriages. On the plus side are also things like the very detailed plans such as the sail plans, the boats or the many fine details to build bulkheads or stern and side galleries. A perfect kit where you may build just out of the box without research or rounding out with additions might be just a bit dull - I will probably find out more about that with my next project. In any case this kit enables you to build a wonderful model of a 74, the backbone of the wooden walls protecting Great Britain during the Napoleonic wars. Finding a good enough place to present the rather large end result is another story... a few final pictures.

Thank you all for the compliments as well as for all the support carrying me through this build. And a very happy New Year to all of you! Peter

changes, amendments and mistakes The biggest changes were the dummy gun carriages on the gun deck and the cast gun carriages, the stern decoration as well as leaving of the spritsail topsail and its yard. The most rewarding improvement, in my opinion, were the dummy carriages. Thank you, Michael (md1400cs). On any kit which includes such dummy guns, installation of a sort of dummy carriage should be tried. Minor amendments were the changed curve of the stern, the scuppers, the sails fabricated my way, the flag, shot garlands, the captains skylight, the taffrail, the rudder chains, the anchor bolsters below the fore channels, the traveler on the bowsprit, anchor buoys and several minor changes. The biggest, uncorrected mistake is probably that I did set up the preventer stays above the stays, thus having to hang the staysails onto the stays themselves. slightly reworked gun carriage for the upper gun deck and dummy carriage for the lower gun port with dummy-carriage and -gun / carriage and no gun / gun and no carriage the elephant was scratched away and replaced by a epoxy-cast of Bellerophon finished transom with new rail on top spritsail without topsail and traveller on the bowsprit, holding the jib stay

Thank you, Nils. When I see what quality you achieve, scratch building your Ergenstrasse, I appreciate your compliment even more. Oh, and a very happy new year! Peter

empty belaying pins and ringbolts, loose ends Despite having to overcome a shortage of usable belaying points on the forecastle there were still a few unused pin positions on the poop deck. Also unused ring or eye bolt positions around main and mizzen mast had to be filled. The kit instructions put eye bolts into those locations. However I think that ringbolts, allowed to lie flat when unused, would be more sensible when mounted on the deck. I didn't find much about that in the web but thought it would be easier to run about on deck if you wouldn't have to fear to catch your bare feet in a ring, take a tumble and break your ankle. To imitate a ringbolt with a small fixed ring which encloses the movable one tightly, I bent an eye bolt 90° and put a drop of glue onto it to simulate the fixed ring. After fixing all loose ends I could find, finally...finished! the way I fabricated the imitated ringbolts unused ringbolts around the mizzen mast foot fore mast foot with eyebolt(with tackle) to the left and one of the empty ringbolts lying flat on the deck moderately busy scene on the finished forecastle the skipper seems quite fond of his ship - and so am I...

anchors A suitable stream anchor was added to the 5 anchors from the kit, all completed and stored. A conflict for space occurred between the sheet and bower anchors and the lower stun sail booms. The only way I could think of, was to place the anchors on top of the booms. Thus, to set booms you have to move them from under the anchors. Anchor buoys were formed with some 2-component putty and hung into the shrouds. As I understand anchors were buoyed and buoys should therefore be shown whenever a cable was bent to the anchor making it ready for use. For size I used information from John Harland who writes that '... the anchor buoy was in length one-quarter the length of the anchor shank, in diameter, one-eight...'. port side with sheet and bower anchors and the extra stream anchor lashed to sheet anchor stream anchor the cable is attached to the bower anchor and the cat block with tackle is hooked into the ring starboard with sheet and bower anchors and the kedge anchor lashed to the sheet anchor kedge anchor anchor buoy stowed in the fore shrouds the buoy rope lashed to the anchor

jib sail Several tries were necessary to find an adequate size for the jib sail. To me it was clear, that the kit's plan for the sail was grossly unfitting. Trying to draw one following the description in James Lees in 'Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War' was more difficult than expected. Several attempts were tested with paper templates just to prove unsatisfactory. Finally I tried to use the same proportions in regard to rigging and the other sails as Pandora's jib in the ATOS series has. Judging by eye it looked about right. To bend the jib to its stay I used again figure-of-eight robands. The tack was hooked into the traveler and the rigging set up with help of the kit plans and instructions and some clarification by Lees. Now I only have to install the anchors, to check the natural hang of all lines and to clean up everything... Oh yes, and to find a suitable berth for a rather big model... trying to find the right size - the smaller blue outline is the final one detail of the peak all sails are now installed