Craigie65

Hi all,
 
I'm back into this now, with generally cooler weather meaning less and less in way of outdoor activities.
 
I've added three more planks to each side over the last 2-3 days.  It's going well and I'm pleased with the system I've worked out, and imho the results are decent.  The keelside planks are easier to glue on by working from the middle, marking the point and gluing a small section.  Then I glue outward to the bow/stern; a thin popsicle stick is good to hold the plank away from the hull while I use a microbrush to put on the glue.  I forgot to take a pic of that, so one of the below fakes it just to show how I'm doing it.
 
I want to shoot to finish the second planking by say the middle of next week.  There's no "schedule" of course, but at this point I am keen to get on to next steps.  I just have to remind myself not to rush it and make silly mistakes.
 
More soon.
 
Nick

What a beautiful project, just love it with this new designed hybrid frame.
For the freeze did you consider to transfer the print onto the wood using mod podge? You have to print on paper in mirror image. Apply mod popgeschiedenis to the wood and on the printed surface. Ensure the complete image is glued. Let it dry. And finally make the paper wet and carefully rub the paper away with water.
The only that remains afterwards is the image. Finally apply a layer of lacquere to protect it.
It works perfectly and looks like really painted on the surface.
 

Thank you!
I too love showing progress for new developments, I think I get just as excited as some of you! I have said many times, I really don't care what others are doing, I never even look or follow anyone else (except Chuck), so because I am not made that way, I am sometimes taken aback when I see certain things from others which appear to be so blatant. Designing these is a very personal thing and each developemnt takes a very long time, you know the exact times you thought of something new, or realised a solution to a particular problem and it works out well. I had assumed other 'designers' must share the same thoughts - so you know instinctively when and what some have used from your own designs for their own product.
It is, this part of the development is hell for me! The worst is yet to come, masts and rigging, just hours upon days upon weeks of CAD work...
 
But, it's gotta be done!
 
OK, here is another drawing (still in progess, doing the cutaway view today), showing the gun deck and upper deck beams, and the main cutaway profile showing lower, main and upper decks.

I am currently working on the CAD drawings for Surprise, these take an absolute age to do - but profiles are almost complete (need to do all these before even starting on masts, yards and rig)
 
But these three views should give a good impression of the hull and detail

An update!  A bit overdue, but progress is slowly being made, I just needed some time to update my log instead of looking at everyone else's on MSW! 😁
 
The main mast has also now largely been constructed, using the same techniques as the others with various card and styrene rod embellishments for the mast hoops and reinforcements.  I also used wire for the stanchions of the fighting tops rear handrail; I didn't fancy the chances of delicate wood stanchions surviving my rigging efforts later, or the chances of me adding the handrail once the rigging is on.
 
Also been tying blocks to the masts as I have been going along, so as not to leave all that to do in one hit.
 
Hopefully the next update (not as long a time gap as this one! 🤞) will be the masts completed.  Then on to adding blocks to the yards, before the dreaded "R" word we don't mention....
 
Thanks for looking in. 👋

Hello Craig
https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/glenns-giving-page-185
 
Thanks
Glenn

I fully agree when Glenn says "Your sharing is what makes Vanguard special".
 
But, and it's a big but, I also understand how frustrating and sometimes how annoying it must be when Chris is deluged with niggly criticisms when he has spent ages, and probably a lot of money, on designing a part for the model.  Even more so when a big manufacturer attempts to steal the market by releasing an inferior version of the kit first.
 
In the end,  I think the most important things are that VM continues to succeed, and that this forum continues to be a place where model makers can have a discussion with Chris about his kits.  It's the on-going dialogue that is special - and news about new releases can wait until they are ready.
 
Nipper
 

Just got some lovely steamed Swiss pear delivered to the UK. Superb quality. 
 
Thank you Vahur 

Just a quick update before we travel to yet another hospital appointment.
 
I have completed the second planking on the right hand side. For the most part I am happy with the end result. I did have some acetone on hand as the planks were glued in place to wipe away any excess.

As can be seen in the next photo I did not follow the correct method for planking around the bow but as the hull will be painted and copper plated it does not really matter for this build. I did find it necessary to laterally bend the tapered planks to get a good fit.

I did add some steelers when planking the stern. 

The left hand side is nearly complete and hopefully I will be able to complete this the next time I am in the shipyard. I did manage to release and reset the plank mentioned previously.

 

Thank you for all the messages of support, they are all greatly appreciated.

Glenn
My thoughts and prayers are with you, your wife and family.
Good luck with your fundraising.

I have now completed the first planking of the Grecian hull. This was an easy hull to plank and I am reasonably pleased with the outcome.
 
As can can seen in the first photo below I did have to add a steeler. You will also note I did also add a very small filler piece above the steeler.

The completed planked Grecian hull is now shown in the next two photos.

To complete the set I have added a photo of both the bow and stern areas.

Before moving on to sanding the hull I decided to do a dry fit of both the stern counter outer pattern and the keel outer patterns. I did have to slightly trim the plank edges so the stern counter outer pattern was aligned with the inner pattern.

After a short break away I am now back in the shipyard and I have made very good progress with the first layer of planking.
 
The first 5 downward planks (both sides) have been fitted in the first three photos below.

In the next few photos I am showing the method I have been using for fitting the planks. Each strake comprises a bow and a stern plank, which joins at the double width bulkhead. I always start with the bow strake and I shape the leading edge so it follows the bow curve.

Next I determine and mark the crossover point.

Once the plank has been tapered the planked it is held in place so its position can be marked. This makes the fitting, after the glue has been added, much easier as it is a very good point of reference.

Next I shape the end of the stern plank

And as per the bow plank I add a positional marker.

The planks, left and right sides, are now ready to be glued in place. I have marled the underside with an identifier.

The planks are then glued in place.

This is how the hull looks after a few more planks have been added.

The final set of photos show the completed bow section.
I do need to trim on plank, as can be seen below.

The stern section is almost complete. I am now in process of working out where to add the stealers. It will not take too much effort to complete the planking.

I'm aware that I need to get an update done. These photos represent what Surprise currently looks like.
 
Over this week, I'll prep some closer detail shots of construction etc that got me to this place. As you can see, she's changed quite a lot. The fit has been great throughout. I also need to paint those figures too! Please excuse photo quality. I did these with my phone.
 

Today I just released the stern frame jig. Now this is a little more complicated than the other parts. It required some cutting, since the main structure of the jig sits down into the bulkheads it needs to be lifted up for removal but we have stern structure that runs across horizontally into slots in the brackets, if we lifted the whole thing it would rip the stern apart. So I added some perforation on the brackets.
start by removing the upper extension wing brackets. 
I just sawed them right down the middle and removed the bracket.
From here go ahead and start cutting the perforation 

I used a micro saw blade on my xacto blade holder and cut them all on each bracket. It’s MDF so it cuts pretty easy.
once you have the main part of the Jig cut free it should just lift straight up and away.

From there the remaining jig is meant to slide out forward, note that the lower parts of the jig must pass through the slots on the bulkheads that the other part fit in.
you may need to saw off the ends of the horizontal frame brackets to help it out easier. 


If you made it through the stern assembly without gluing any parts to the jig then it should wiggle out gently and then pull right out.


now the bulkhead reinforcement hoops can be removed and we can begin fairing the inside of the hull. 

I have now made a start of adding the first planking layer. For the first few downward strakes I will use the double bulkhead as a join so I can add a bow facing and stern facing strake separately. This makes shaping the bow and stern termination much easier.
 
In the photo below I have prepared the first set of strakes for both sides noting I did taper the bow facing ones.

The hull has been placed on a towel in readiness.

Before the strakes were fitted I did bevel the top edge of the strake. In the following set of photos the first strake has been glued and pinned in place. I am really please with how this looks.

In the next set of photos the second strake has been added. I did bevel the top edge of the second strake to get a better, tighter fit.

Next it was time to add the add the garboard strake. I positioned a plank and marked the start point where the plank needs to be trimmed to follow the curve.

Using a scrap piece planking material I made a template for the bow curve.

Using the template I transferred the bow shaping to the plank.

Once the plank had been trimmed and I was happy with the fit the garboard plank was glued and pinned. I did slightly bevel the plank edge which butts up to the keel.

I repeated the same process to add the garboard plank on the other side.
 

And here is the full scene, Aubrey, Maturin, table with candles and music note stand - standard in all Surprise kits.

Knees and floor of the captain's cabin
The hanging knees required a greater degree of adjustment. Some of the lodging knees still had to be milled out for the LEDs. In addition, the knees above the LEDs were covered with aluminium foil so that they would reflect the light.

 

I used painter's tape to fix the lodging knees in place while gluing them.
 

 
In some cases, I fitted the knees a little carelessly, but these are areas that are not or hardly visible.
 

 


The sub-decks of the forecastle and quarterdeck were glued in place.



The floor for the captain's cabin was installed. I used black cardboard for levelling and fixing.
 


 
 

The laser etch deck has now been glued in place. I applied a layer of glue to the central section of the base deck as the outer edges will be held in place when the inner bulwark patters are added.

Whilst waiting for the glue to dry I did a bit more work on some of the deck items.
 
I have opted for a paint finish of the binnacle as shown in the photos below.

Next I completed the assembly of the skylight. I decided the base frame would look good painted black with the skylight window frames painted red with black window frames.

Having abandoning using the syren wheel for this project I have painted the wheel and ships wheels frames. I have also added the thread to the wheel drum. I did a trial test fit on deck. The ships drum does need to be rotated when it is finally installed so the two thread ends are correctly positioned for the rigging blocks.

Next I added the binnacle and skylight to the deck (dry fit only)

More deck items were test fitted, which confirmed that the laser etched deck was perfectly aligned with the base deck beneath as I did not have to do any work when inserting the various items into their respective locating holes.

Finally I set about fitting the inner bulwark patterns which is still WIP.
 
I trimmed the front and rear edges of both patterns and then they were test fitted, using pins to ensure the gun ports were all correctly aligned. As can been seen in the photo below the bottom edge of the port pattern will need trimming at the bow end as it is sitting proud.

It was a completely different story with regards to the starboard pattern which was a great fit at the bow end but the final stern section was sitting proud, as shown below. There is no movement in the deck to push down any further so I will have to trim the bottom edge.

 

With all work completed on the armaments they are now safely stowed away to be installed at a much later date.

It is now time to turn my attention to the hull construction activities and it has been a very productive days work.
 
First task was to add the locking leys to the hull frames. I did removed the laser char from the sides and slightly rounded the leading edge of the locking pins and I was pleased with the relative ease required to fit the keys.

More support pieces were then added.

The two base decks were then added which are held in place using locking keys.

The next task was to assemble bulkhead 17, a test fit was performed, as shown below.

Before gluing these parts in place I prefer to pre fair the various parts. I have marked up the various parts.

The next photo shows the parts after they have been faired.

The parts were then glued in place and only required a little bit more sanding.

Bulkhead 17 was then added to the hull.

Next task was to add the various deck beams.

I did also pre fair one of the bow shapers.

The next task was to add the 0.8mm deck patterns. The main deck section was slotted over the bulkhead ears and with a little bit of gentle persuasion the part clicked into place in to all the locating slots.

The rear deck section was then added.

All looks good so far.

The hull was then inverted so diluted glue could be brushed into the joints.

As I progressed on with the next couple of stages I realised that I had somehow missed adding the inner most bow shaper (left and right). Thankfully I was able to release the plywood deck and to then insert the missing parts. The deck was then clipped back in place. 
 
 
 

Gunwales and Rails
I’m back from a very nice two weeks in Scotland so not much progress made until yesterday, when rain provided a good reason to stay in and resume work on Harpy.
 
I’d missed out the stage in the instructions that said fit the outer sheer rails. They were painted matt black while still in the fret and then dry fitted and left clamped to the hull overnight before gluing them up.

I painted the gunwales before cutting them out and touched up the edges with a black Pigma pen.
The hole for the bowsprit was enlarged and a piece of 6mm dowel lined up with the bowsprit stop.

The presence of the bowsprit gives the correct positioning of the forward pieces of gunwale which are now glued in place.

The stern cabin roof, stern davit and cathead all need to be considered together to ensure that each fit correctly. @ECK and @Blue Ensign’s logs are both helpful in describing this. The top edge of my stern cabins were only marginally lower than the bulwark sides and needed to be sanded back and shaped so that the roofline met the gunwale. I also needed a little filler piece on the starboard cabin.

The basic arms of the catheads are made up to give the correct forward position of the gunwales. The gunwales were clamped and glued in sections to give time for correct alignment.

The cabin roofs were trimmed to reduce the overhang and then soaked and shaped around a jam jar to make fitting and glueing simpler.


I cleaned up the excess gunwale and outer sheer rail at the stern and fitted the assembled taffarel and it’s frame. This piece was also soaked and clamped to give the required curve to make fitting and clamping a bit easier.

Here it is all masked up ready to paint the ports and also the stern cabin sides. Originally I was going to leave the cabin walls natural but now think that I prefer them to be painted red ochre. It's a pity I didn't do this before because I think it's going to be an awkward paint job.
 
Thanks for looking in, the likes and kind comments
 
David

I have now completed assembling the various armaments. In the end I have made 8 x 6 pounder cannons, 4 x 4 pounder cannons and  8 x 18 pounder carronades. I do have another 2 partially built 18 pounder carronades which I will complete. I did end up removing the carronade ringbolt straps and ringbolts from the carronades as I thought they looked a bit chunky and did have a tendency to fall off at the slightest touch. I have not found a reliable method for aligning and securing the carronade ringbolt straps and ringbolts to the sides of the carronade gun carriage.
 
1 x 6 pounder cannon. I will probably add breaching rings to the appropriate side eyebolts. I used some spare belaying pins for the handle on the carriage quoin noting it is a bit oversized.

1 x 4 pounder cannon I will probably add breaching rings to the appropriate side eyebolts.

1 x 18 pounder carronade

The complete set of armaments

I have also painted the frames of the various hatches black.

The capstans has also been painted. At the moment I have painted the top section green but I might opt to use a different colour. The underside has not been painted as this area is not visible once installed.

The catheads have also been painted. I might add some embellishments to the side engravings and end caps at a later stage.

The two hand pumps wooden parts have been painted are are now ready be assembled with the PE parts.

I also now have an option to build and try out the Syren Elm Tree pumps which will be a side build project at some point in the future.

The ships wheel drum has been painted black. It will require a gentle sanding to removed some of the rough edges.

I also now have an option to build and try out the Syren ships wheel which will be a side build project at some point in the future.

Finally, for this post, the Syren serving machine has arrived. I have removed the laser char and assembled the basic frame, as shown below. I have also assembled the four wooden cogs and operating handle. This project is now on the back burner.

Now that I have completed building much of the deck items I will now start to build the hull, but this will have to wait a couple of days due to grandparent duties.

I have been making some more deck items. The first two photos show the WIP on the two hand pumps. All the PE parts have been chemically blackened.

The hand pump wooden assemblies have been glued together. All that is left to do it to add the PE parts. I have ordered two elm pumps from Syren so I am waiting for that to arrive before proceeding any further.

I have also assembled the two bitts.

 
I am currently making the various armaments, which consist of  18 pounder carronades, 6 pounder cannons and 4 pounder cannons. The build manual does detail the armaments fitted as follows:
US Privateer, Grecian was fitted with only 2 x 6 Pounder and 2 x 4 Pounder carriage guns
Royal Navy service Grecian was fitted with 8 x 18 Pounder carronades and 2 x 6 Pounders carriage guns
Pictures in build manual was fitted with 12 x 18 Pounder carronades, 2 x 6 Pounders and 2 x Pounder carriage guns
 
I am unsure what combination of armaments I will use for this model.
 
I started to assembly 10 off 18 pounder carronades. As shown in the photo below the carriages have been painted and assembled and they just waiting the PE parts and the 18 pound carronade barrels to be added.

I took great care with painting the 18 pounder carronade wheels, as can been seen below.

4 off 4 and 2 off 6 pounder cannon carriages have been painted red and the PE parts blackened. 

The carriage wheels are also ready be added.

The first two 18 pounder carronades have now been assembled.

I have also built 2 x 6 pounder and 4 x 4 pounder carriage guns.

I have added the carronade ringbolt straps and ringbolts but as they have a tendency to fall off I am not sure if I will use them for this model.

Post 5
Fitting the Bulwarks.
As is usual with Vanguard kits the bulwarks come in two sections (Fore and aft) of 1mm Pearwood strip.
They are marked on the interior with the frame positions and a useful fitting line which sits level with the deck line.

5623a
I dry fit them and use heat to reduce the spring before gluing and pinning.

5650a

5652a
Glue is not applied to the bulkhead extensions which are later removed.
The stern counter frames require fairing to allow the counter pattern to fit cleanly across all frames.

5634a
The counter pattern is wetted before clamping to the frames for better conformation and allowed to dry out. This can be speeded up by applying heat.

5642a

5645a
With the bulwarks and counter in place the stern timbers are   better secured against accidental damage.
 
 
B.E.
06/09/2025
 

It will slow down when I start working on the hull😀