HM Cutter Alert by VTHokiEE - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - 1:64

[VTHokiEE]

1 hour ago, EricWilliamMarshall said:

How is shaping, etc. of planks different between the first pass and second?

It depends on what you would like your finished planking to look like. There are things that you may settle for in a first planking, like tapering to a point or having a plank sit/finish on another instead of the keel (I'm not certain the correct term for this) that you want to avoid in a second planking. I tried to have my first planking be practice for the second layer so it isn't a huge difference aside from not wanting to have many gaps (and trying to keep my gluing a bit prettier). I did do at least one shortcut and I had wonky garboard planks on my first pass (the garboards on my second layer aren't great but they will be painted over and I think I'm satisfied with them for my first planked model).

 

If you look at the stern on the first layer you might see that I placed a stealer that tapered all the way down to a point. I don't want to do this on the second pass; I'm trying to have stealers look like stealers and only go to about half of the plank width. Unfortunately today (with about 8 planks/side to go) I realized that I over tapered the stern so I need to do a few more stealers than I originally thought 🙂.

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by VTHokiEE

[Old Collingwood]

On 3/11/2020 at 12:45 AM, VTHokiEE said:

Small update: I still need to attach the top 1x4mm strip in order to call the 1st planking complete but after a good deal of sanding and some filling here I am:

 

Next up I have to attach the stern post; I’ll have to be careful after that in order not to knock it right off again.

Love the hull planking   you have got some very nice close wood work there.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

On 3/15/2020 at 6:47 PM, VTHokiEE said:

Time for an update, I followed B.E,'s advice and after smoothing the hull a little further I attached the stern post:

 

Next I started planking the transom, attached the counter and sanded it all.

I didn't know the best way to temporarily attach the spacers for the final plank, so I went with painter's tape and it seemed to work alright.

Then after some final sanding I think I'm ready (deep breath) to start the second layer of planking.

 

Very very nice  - nothing wrong with that  I would be really chuffed and happy  like a  happy dancing little Pirate.

 

OC.

[VTHokiEE]

Oh there will be some happy pirate dancing when I finish this layer off. Planking was the scariest part of taking on this model and while it had a few hiccups along the way I think I can say that I’m comfortable with at least the process. With any luck I’ll have a update within a week 🤞.

[Old Collingwood]

1 minute ago, VTHokiEE said:

Oh there will be some happy pirate dancing when I finish this layer off. Planking was the scariest part of taking on this model and while it had a few hiccups along the way I think I can say that I’m comfortable with at least the process. With any luck I’ll have a update within a week 🤞.

I will grab a propper seat  now I found this   I remember planking my HMS Greyhound kit  - it  sent me nuts and seamed to take years  to get anywhere.

 

OC.

[Gregory]

Just a suggestion:

 

When you want to complement the builder, can you do it without re-posting all the images again.  It makes it harder to follow the updates when there are so many duplicate pictures.

[Edwardkenway]

She's looking very nice Tim, your planking looks A1😁👍

[VTHokiEE]

Finally time to update this log. I have completed the second layer planking and have few observations. There are 50 planks provided for the second planking; when I was planking the stern I had a premonition that I was using up a plank (and I was right). If you want to have all your planks available for planking you will want to trim the ends off several planks instead of simply using one plank. I realized this before I did it, so I only have myself to blame, but maybe the observation would help some. Second, I unfortunately had a few planks that had milling issues, they were quite thin in spots.

In the end things worked out fine (at least as far as I can tell). I still have some sanding to do, but here we go (starting with a picture simply lining the hull off).

Before I press on, I picked up a container of wipe-on poly, but I have never used it. When is appropriate? Before/after I place the wales? I assume this would go on before I paint the wales and the bottom? Any guidance would be much appreciated.

 

EDIT: I emailed Chris and I believe that other Alert Kits have extra planks. Mine was one of the first version 2 so most likely others will have plenty of planks.

Edited April 17, 2020 by VTHokiEE
Pictures were out of order

[Old Collingwood]

Firstly  hope you are all safe and sound.

 

Hiya mate,  lovely work on the second planking - its always hard to get it nice and tidy, as frankly I really made a dogs dinner of mine,   but yours has come out really well with nice tight joins between the planks.

I know what you mean about different plank widths and even the overall  quality  - some can be terrible  with rough saw cut jagged edges, splits in them and as you say different thickness.

 

With the liquid poly  I personaly would do it last after the wales are fitted and any  fine tune sanding was done,  I assume you are going for a  clean wood look without paint  (nice)

 

Hope that helps my friend.

 

OC.

[VTHokiEE]

2 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

With the liquid poly  I personaly would do it last after the wales are fitted and any  fine tune sanding was done,  I assume you are going for a  clean wood look without paint  (nice)

I’m doing well so far (it’s easy to stay out of trouble when I haven’t left the house is weeks 😁, but wish I had less work and more ship building time).

 

Thank you for the generous comment and the advice, that does help. I think I am going to do some paint, sticking with the kit depiction. I believe that it will leave enough unpainted wood to have a nice overall look.

[Old Collingwood]

I  have been cracking on with my spit  (when its raining outdoors  - must get me Vit D  and see some planes (any planes) lol,    I have been trying the same as others on here to do my bit to cheer our family on here up  with my silly jokes and gags  (not hard after writing nearly 1000)

 

OC.

[Blue Ensign]

Personally I wouldn't use wipe on poly where I was going to paint. 

In my build I taped  along the waterline level and applied poly above that up to the wale. I then taped above the waterline and painted below it.

 

B.E.

[VTHokiEE]

5 hours ago, Blue Ensign said:

In my build I taped  along the waterline level and applied poly above that up to the wale. I then taped above the waterline and painted below it.

Thanks BE; following up, is there a reason not to use the poly over the paint? Paint the Wales, below waterline first and then apply poly to the entire hull?

[Blue Ensign]

I've never tried using poly over paint so I don't know. To bare wood it does bring up the colour very nicely and does impart a very subtle and slight sheen to the Woodwork.

I suggest you try it on a bit of painted wood and see if you like the effect.

 

Cheers,

 

B.E.

 

[MEDDO]

This is a test piece on scrap wood I made just to see if I like that particular color.  Wood is cherry and the top edge approx 1 cm has wipe on poly applied.  I just wanted to see if the paint looked different over bare wood vs the wop.  The right side has about 15 coats of very thin paint.  In certain light you can almost see a difference in the sheen/tint but it is very very subtle.  I would probably not wop before paint but at least in this small sample it didn't matter too much.  Next time I get the wop out I am going to coat the entire thing just to see what wop looks like over top of the paint.  Just to see because why not

 

[VTHokiEE]

Thanks Meddo, that’s a great example. I think I’ll run a few tests and see what I come up with. It has dawned on me that I forgot to pick up a can of white spray paint for below the waterline. I ordered (I think) everything else for my build when the stay at home orders started but I always assumed that I would grab a can of spray paint on my way home from work at the right time so it slipped my mind. I could always go down to the store and grab a can but hard to rationalize it at the moment. Anyhow, back to the build. Planking the deck was much quicker than planking the hull since I picked up the laser etched deck. I had to do a bit of sanding to get it to fit easily (which I blame on me breaking the bulkhead at the start) but I think it looks really nice.

 

Next, planking the interior bulwarks and placing the wales.

[Old Collingwood]

Looking really nice mate.

 

OC.

[Edwardkenway]

Nice work Tim,  you're doing a great job of her!

[Blue Ensign]

As you've bought the grating set which has the cable cut out slots in the leading edge, you may wish to fill in the Navel holes cut into the deck.  Navel holes were a feature of a later period.

I think Chris removed them from the later issues of the laser deck.

Otherwise you could simply place something over them such as a rope coil.

 

B.E.

 

[VTHokiEE]

7 hours ago, Blue Ensign said:

Otherwise you could simply place something over them such as a rope coil.

Thank you so much for pointing that out! After going through AoTS Alert, your build log and Chris’s thread I see exactly what you mean. I have to think on how best to address this. At the moment I think I’ll need to at least fill the hole somehow (otherwise I can see myself or someone else pushing the coils into the hole), but I’m not certain that I can add planking there that will match the rest of the deck and that I’ll be happy with. This leaves me thinking that I’ll have place something over them such as a rope coil or two (I think unattached rope coils don’t have a real downside).

[VTHokiEE]

Quick question, I realize this topic has been gone over and over and over, but I’m about to paint the inner Bulwarks with Humbrol Acrylics. Do I need to (or maybe should I) thin it? And if so how much? Thanks in advance!

[Ryland Craze]

I have never used Humbrol Acrylics but I always thin my acrylic paint.  The more I thin it, the less you will see of the lap marks and brush strokes.  This will require many coats of thinned paint.  Test on some scrap wood first.

[Old Collingwood]

As Ryland said  - it depends how you want the wood finish to be  (still show the wood grain  - or aim for a smoother finish)   if you look at pics of say HMS Victories   inner bulwarks  they  look like a fairly thick layer/layers  of paint has been applied,   but it really depends how you  feel about the finish  also how thick the paint is inside the tins/jars, if it very thick  you could dilute it say  3/4  paint to 1/4  acrylic thinner  or  distilled water.

 

Hope this helps mate.

 

OC.

[VTHokiEE]

13 hours ago, Ryland Craze said:

The more I thin it, the less you will see of the lap marks and brush strokes.  This will require many coats of thinned paint.

Thanks Ryland, this is what I assumed (and I probably should have ordered a little more paint until I determine what the correct ratio is).

13 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

say  3/4  paint to 1/4  acrylic thinner  or  distilled water

Thank you! This gives me a reasonable starting point. I'll have to think about how much I want the grain to show through, but I feel like I would want it to at least a little.

 

I need to carve out a longer chunk of time before I start painting I think; at least I have the deck marked off and ready to go.

[VTHokiEE]

Small update - Planked and painted the inner bulwarks. As a note for my future self the Humbrol went on really nicely straight from the container so I didn’t end up thinning it at all.

I also have marked the gun port locations using the kit template. I’ll draw the gun ports in next. 

I decided to put of placing the wale mainly because I don’t have a great way to mark the run of it yet. I thought I could use a compass, but the one I own will not work at all so hopefully I can come up with a better solution while I’m working on the gun ports.

 

(Also please keep your fingers crossed for when I pull back the tape 😁)

[Old Collingwood]

That is looking very nice my friend  - very tidy work.

 

OC.

[VTHokiEE]

Working through the gun ports. MSW is such a help when it comes to seemingly simple tasks like this. I did some research and saw people drilling out the gun ports and filing them out so I followed. First I cut the vertical lines.

Then drilled small holes across.

Lastly filed the port down to finish it off. I’m enjoying this step more than I should be. I think it’s because I’m finally using the nice files I bought (that still need a tool sleeve 😁).

 

[Old Collingwood]

Very tidy work  - same method as I used   tried and tested  on here.

 

OC.

[VTHokiEE]

Thanks OC! This site is full of so many good methods.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

11 hours ago, VTHokiEE said:

This site is full of so many good methods.

I completely agree!!