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The bulkheads and the frame. Let the glue begin to flow and the dust begin to fly (but first turn on the fan and open a window). This kit comes with a most wonderful invention, the inclusion of printed plans that lay out every part to its exact size and the numbered board its on. It may seem trivial, but it’s worth the time to lay out each bulkhead on top of those plans and number them accordingly. I dry fitted my bulkheads as you’re supposed to do and couldn’t figure out what was wrong, until I did the above and figured out in my casual approach I’d reversed 6 and 9. That’s what dry fitting is for, to avoid fatal dumbness. The instructions recommend, and so do I, to partially fair the frames before mounting them, especially the last and first four. I use a Black and Decker mouse sander to save my shoulder. It really helps, but don’t over do it. Test fit a lot as you’re sanding, the electric sander doesn’t know when to stop. The real fairing has to be done once everything is mounted and glued. Once the bulkheads are fixed in you can sand more but you can’t sand less. This same is true for the extra pieces provided for the stern and bow, get them 85% right, but save the last 15% once they are glued in. The way I test this is to keep laying a walnut plank (because its easier to bend than the limewood first plank) across the dry-fitted frames to make sure it touches most of the frame at the same time its firmly touching its neighbors to either side. Building the frame this large is a slow process. I glued a single frame with PVA white glue, put the decking on top, squared it up with my Pinnacle Precision mini-squares and clamps then walked away. My only concession to speed was to start from both the stern and bow since the deck is in two parts. I suppose you can do this faster by gluing in more than one at a time, but the foundation of a good model (literally and philosophically) is a square frame. It can’t be corrected once done wrong, so it's worth the extra time. Also it not a time for cyano (superglue), you need to the drying time and strength provided by standard PVA white glue to square things up. The decking helps alignment, but it alone doesn’t make the frame square. I use balsa filler for both the stern and especially the bow. However, I personally think it’s important not to over-engineer these things. Get the balsa from your local hobby store and shape it in wherever there is a severe curve. The objective is to help make the curve with the plank and to keep individual planks from buckling. As anyone who has planked knows, around the bow you are curving the plank twice, both around and down. (I sometimes hear the plank screaming at me what the heck are you doing to me, when that happens its time to get some sleep). The balsa helps to avoid an uneven first planking. In my opinion I’m not trying to make a first hull with balsa, the first planking does that. This model has an extreme bend in the stern, pre-sanding this bulkhead is essential, the balsa applied here is to add some form and a little additional bonding space for that severely curved plank. I’m just trying to help minimize the smoothing work between the first and second planning. It’s all to make your planking life easier (and it does become a life in and of itself, but not as bad as ratlines do…that’s another story). That dummy gun port strips were fun to fit. The stern half was easy, but to first make the bow fit the curve between frames 2-3 I had to soak the strip for 30 minutes and guide it through while wet. Tapering and beveling the leading edge helped guide it into frame 2. Yes it’s a bit warped, but its straight where it counts. It only has to go to frame 2. There is no gun port between frame 1 and 2. The plans show this fact, but the instructions don’t mention it. I can’t wait to fit the gun port patterns to the hull later, should be a blast. Though I plan to minimize the paint I use on this model as noted in the first entry, it will have paint. I always paint whenever I can and try anticipate in advance were I can paint to make it easier on myself later. I’m sure in this case I overdid it, especially with the red since those areas below hatch covers likely will either barely be seen or not seen at all, but its really easy now and paint’s cheap, especially when compared to saving my aching eyes. I use Caldercraft Admiralty paints. Not easy to get here in the US and I'm sure other brands are fine, their color and coverage just works for me. EDIT NOTE PLUS GUNPORT Stage. I want to go back from time to time and add lessons I learned later, this is one. As noted I paint when I can. This is a good time to paint the fore side of frame 15 red or whatever color you want. While it is covered by the deck above eventually, you can see this frame rather easily from the aft most maind gun deck gun port. Another of those anticipatory moves is to score (score, not cut) the bulkhead tabs that will eventually need to be removed once the upper decks are installed. Reading way ahead in the instructions and the plans comes in handy and is a fun use of an afternoon or two. This is one of those lessons I learned from other models. Its much easier to remove these times without marring a finished deck if they are pre-scored. You still have to twist and snap and sand, but you’re more likely to come away with only what you wanted to remove and not leave a deep gouge in the deck planking, I said more likely. The last, very important, step here is to fair the frame. Btw, these photos were before the final fairing. If you’ve done the pre-work described above, it’s relatively easy with 100 sandpaper on your sanding block. Again, I don’t need to over-engineer, just make sure there is clean plank contact on each frame and on its neighboring frames. As an aside: If there is one best friend to every modeler it is named dry-fit. You can dry-fit many times, you can glue but once (well more than once for things you break off or try to de-bond to fit again because you didn’t dry-fit it enough times. Never done that…much anyway. Ok, I lied; I’ve done it a lot because I don’t learn). That’s it. I’m caught up with where I am in the build process. Now to go take some photos, read a book, or back to the hobby room. Wonder which I’ll do… If this were a photography blog, I'd fit in a lot of Google Adsense hyperlinks for product links, but its not. So just to plug my favorite "tools:" Where would I be without my Jim Byrnes table saw, and sure hope he soon sends the sander I just ordered from him. Life is made easier with quality stuff around.

The other logs provide nice photos of the Vanguard by Amati Victory Models box contents, and as I said this won’t be the traditional log. Suffice it to say it Chris Watton created a well designed kit full of nicely cut laser parts. Even with having to sand the burned edges, laser cutting makes for accurate fits. The MDF frame precludes the warping that sometimes comes with Ply. Heck, the weight of the box alone says “work to be had here.” The keel. The instructions cover the basics, here are my thoughts and notes on extras. This is the best time you’ll ever have to fit and mount the final stand. It’s just a piece of MDF with walnut glued on the bottom at this point, but it has the final keel installed if you’re following the instructions. It’s easy to work with and there’s a high probability you won’t mar the final hull (it not being there and all). I use brass stands and walnut baseboards I obtain from an online store (I don’t like the customer service from this store, so I won’t mention its name. You can find stores like it I’m sure). With a ship this size it’s important to take the mounting screw past the walnut keel into the MDF frame. I used #6/32 2.5 inch screws mounted into holes hand-drilled with a pin vise first starting with a tiny drill bit then moving up in bit size to avoid splitting the frame and to keep it straight. I probably should have done three, but my test mount shows it to be pretty sturdy with just the two. I’ll epoxy these in later. To prevent splitting I used machine and not wood screws and reinforced either side of the frame with scrap MDF. As you can see from the photo, it seems to have worked. My son looked at this and said, “Good, I see you’re halfway done.” Smart guy… Now I take it off and it doesn’t go back on until the hull is finished. My board was later finished with Watco Danish Oil, but any good stain and finish will do. The instructions say to thin the stern to half its thickness so the planked hull will match the sternpost. However, it doesn’t mention cutting a bearding line. Perhaps that’s because the 74 hull lines are so “round” it isn’t needed as it would be for the sleek lines of a frigate. Nonetheless, I cut one. I feel it will make placement of the garboard (first plank laid next to keel) easier to fit, and especially with a second planking and copper on top of that. Basically a bearding line means cutting the MDF frame with a curved Xacto knife in where it meets the walnut keel the whole length of the ship about .75-1 mm on either side, fun stuff that, The goal is thin enough to hold the edge of the garboard, but not so thin as the walnut keel has nothing to adhere to, breaks loose and has to be re-glued. How’d that happen… Update Post First Planking: Because I hope this log might help future builders and not just glorify my work I must update and correcta statements I made in this entry. While I did add balsa between the stem and frame 1, frame 1&2 and frame 2&3 I thought and stated that would be enough. It was for the 6 boats I did before this one, but they weren't wide belly 74s. While it served, planking would have been easier and I do recommend also including balsa between frames 3&4 as well. The extreme bevel I put on frame 17 was right and needed, as was the balsa I included between frames 16&17. I don't think any additional balsa was needed and sliming the keel along the stern post is very necessary. What I hat I would do different is to put an a 30-45 degree bevel on frame 16 as well. I had fair it to match 17, but left it more curved. Again, it worked out ok, but would have worked better with a more direct flat angled service than just a curved faired match. The planks make a severe curve at the stern. They have to be wet for this to happen in any case. I hope this update helps. I put it here so its in the right place for anyone reading this for help on building the model. After planking has started is too late.

There are several excellent build logs on the HMS Vanguard already, so why do another one was my first thought. I decided what the heck the world needs more build logs. For credibility purposes, I posted a few photos of my completed HMS Pegasus in the Gallery portion of MSW. Here’s why I am a bit reluctant: 1. Since completing the HMS Pegasus in 2010, the sixth of almost back to back models over 6 years, I had shoulder surgery (which in part I think had to do with long periods holding small pieces of wood) and I don’t want to go through that again. 2. Back in 2010 I did very detailed build logs on my Lauck Shipyards Fair American and the Amati Victory Models HMS Pegasus for MSW, and they are lost forever. To be clear, I consider that my fault for not keeping an offline copy of the text, though I do have the photos. Frankly I wish I had those logs for myself here 3 years later to remind me of what I did and not have to learn those lessons again. 3. My primary interest these days is photography and traveling so I just don’t want to spend as much time modeling as I did for the first 6 models I built. I tend to obsess. Plus having finished my niece's wedding photos I still have a photo landscape book to prepare from my recent trip to Iceland. I was particularly focused on historical accuracy for the Pegasus, I bought the Antscherl/Herbert Swan and read other not as good books, obtained copies of original drawings of the Pegasus from the Admiralty, (great for framing and workroom wall art by the way), kit bashed like crazy, etc. For the Fair American I was meticulous and obsessing over every detail, wanting to obtain, in my own mind at least, master class status as a builder. Now, not so much of any of that matters. My goal is just going to be make the best of the Chris Watton designed kit, replace a some of the wood with quality stuff from Jeff Hayes at Hobbymill, and just go for “pretty.” Fair warning, it won’t be historically accurate, for starters I’m not going to paint it with the Nelson yellow and black colors. I want to use some nice woods on the upper hull, perhaps cherry, yellow heart, and ebony, I haven’t really decided yet. I know when I do I’ll be able to get high quality lumber from Hobbymill. Also, more than likely I will stub the masts for the simple reason it’s so big already and the location I have in mind for the finished work won’t support three feet of height (oh my gosh, substituting pretty and the table location for history, what is he thinking). I will endeavor however to make it right, nothing that detracts from the quality of the finished product. It will look like a 74 and have the name Vanguard on the back. I like to think of it as the Vanguard from some parallel universe. For many of you, the above paragraph was the last you read as you marked this log as “do not bother.” Nonetheless, I hope I can offer a few insights here and there that might help you in your own mission-oriented kits. So check it out from time to time if you like. If not, that’s ok too. I’ll have fun writing it anyway. I’ll try not repeat what others cover, but who knows. While I could I suppose, I'm not going to go for every extra level of detail, though I enjoy looking at those on the Pegasus with my magnifying glass... I may not be as good a builder those other guys, but I’m no rookie either. I hope to be casual about all this as well; I’m going to try and not obsess about stuff as I have in prior models (as much anyway). Hopefully I’ll give you something useful to apply to your modeling; otherwise I’m either wasting my time or just seeking positive reinforcement (which isn’t t bad, so feel free to offer it…frequently). So with that as the intro, and if you’re still with me, the next post will cover the initial steps.