HM Cutter Alert by Thukydides - Vanguard Models - 1:64 - first build

[Vladimir_Wairoa]

great work. wow.

[Thukydides]

Log #68: Master & Commander

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by for the comments and encouragement. I continue to slowly work on the rat lines, but decided to take a bit of a break to do something a bit more fun.

 

As I have previously shown I ordered a figure from vanguard models which I plan to include on Alert to demonstrate scale. To start things I cut it off of the base and primed it in black before doing a zenithal highlight with white ink.

The zenithal highlight does two things. First it helps me to get a feel for the model and second it highlights the areas that will be brighter giving me less work later.

 

The next step was to base coat the colours and start work on the face. As a general rule I like to paint inside out. Starting with the hardest to reach areas and then moving on to the easier ones. My go to for painting white skin is the following tutorial.

 

You can see below the state of affairs after the base costs and the skin done. Note at this point I mistakenly thought he was wearing boots, this was corrected later.

Next up was the pants and socks. After difficult to reach, my next priority is to paint the hard colours, the ones that don't cover very well. The paints I used for the pants can be seen below.

Then I painted the coat and here are the paints used for it.

You may be wondering why I have red on a blue coat. The reason is that I find for making shadows I like to mix in a colour from the other side of the colour wheel. In this case I went with red as I wanted a warm purple for the shadows.

 

And then finally the gold details. I did this in a non-metalic metal style using the following paints.

And here was the final result. Not the smoothest gradients I have ever done, but good enough. Particularly when you are looking at it from normal viewing distances it holds up well enough.

Edited January 14 by Thukydides

[Blue Ensign]

Very nicely done Daniel, it's always the eyes that give me the most trouble. 

 

B.E.

[mugje]

You can see it's one of your specialties...very nice painting job and thanks for explaining  

[Thukydides]

3 hours ago, Blue Ensign said:

Very nicely done Daniel, it's always the eyes that give me the most trouble. 

 

B.E.

Thank you. The key with the eyes is to build in the shadows and then use a brush with a very good point to put in the eyeballs and the pupils. The process described in the video takes a while so is not really practical if you are doing a whole bunch of figures, but if you have one you need to look good I find it works every time.

[AJohnson]

Very nicely painted figure. I have bought the same and some sailors, marines and gun crew for my Trial, so thanks for sharing your techniques.

[AON]

found myself coming back to this multiple times

well done

[GrandpaPhil]

Excellent work on the figure!

[Thukydides]

Log #69: Ratlines Complete

The ratlines are finally complete. I can say without a doubt that this has been the most tedious part of the whole build. How people have the patience for the ratlines on Victory I really don’t know.

 

Thank you for all the encouraging feedback on the commander. I have put him to the side now as I still need to varnish him to take some of the sheen off certain colours of the paint (particularly the light blue). I will likely not attach him to the ship until the very end as even though I will be pinning him, the risk that he is either in the way of a line I want to run or that I catch him as I am rigging is too great.

The second time round on the shrouds I tried to be more methodical and also played with using the hair dryer as I went along.

 

The ultimate result of this was funnily enough a worse job than the previous time. Try as I might I couldn’t get the ratlines to stop pulling in the shrouds and so this side has more of a pronounced curve to the shrouds. This was incredibly frustrating, but in the end I just couldn’t face pulling them all off and starting again. I will just use this side as the back of the model :).

I did learn a lot of lessons about what not to do so maybe next time I will be able to do a better job. I might also experiment with different materials as though the definition on the rope I used is really nice, getting the correct tension was really hard due to how inflexible it was. I also need to pay more attention to the tension of the lower ratlines as opposed to the upper ones.

Lots of lessons learned.

[mtbediz]

On 1/21/2024 at 4:27 PM, Thukydides said:

I couldn’t get the ratlines to stop pulling in the shrouds..

I am watching your build with admiration.

 

I use the method in the photo to stop ratlines from pulling the shrouds. I clamp the shrouds between two strips of appropriate width using clamps, so I can maintain the distance between the shrouds. These strips also help to keep distance between the ratlines same. You may want to try it in your future projects.

[Thukydides]

@mtbediz that is a really good idea, I will have to keep that one in mind. Thanks.

 

 

[VTHokiEE]

She’s coming along really nicely!

[druxey]

My own method for dealing with ratlines so that shrouds do not 'hourglass' is to tie every fifth ratline first, then every third one and finally all the remaining ones. By not progressively working every one up in sequence, this has always worked well for me.

[Thukydides]

10 minutes ago, druxey said:

My own method for dealing with ratlines so that shrouds do not 'hourglass' is to tie every fifth ratline first, then every third one and finally all the remaining ones. By not progressively working every one up in sequence, this has always worked well for me.

So that was pretty much what I did, I did the top and bottom ones, then the middle, then half way between each of those and so on. I think part of the problem was I was using the hair dryer to relax the lines, but it may have made them shrink a bit and pull it in more as early on I was not seeing the same degree of hour glass shape. Either that or the collective tension of the rope exacerbated it more as more lines were attached.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice.

 

Next time I will try to take more care and maybe experiment a bit more before committing stuff to the model.

Edited January 22 by Thukydides

[Thukydides]

Log #70: Rigging the Gaff

With the ratlines out of the way and lots of lessons learned I have now moved back to a more fun part of the build. I do enjoy the rigging as it always feels like there is tangible progress when you are doing it. My plan is to rig the gaff and boom first followed by the topmast and then slowly work my way forward.

 

Step one was to prepare the necessary blocks. I tried a new technique for attaching hooks based on suggestions given back when I was rigging the cannons. It seemed to turn out pretty well so I may continue playing with the method you can find more detail on in @glbarlow’s cheerful log.

And here is the final result along with a block for the gaff peak halliard.

The rigging of the gaff is a bit confusing as it is called different things by steel and the alert book, but I think the discussion is best summarized by directing you to @Blue Ensign‘s log here. The main difference from my perspective is that I had previously decided to use smaller blocks for the peak halliard (or outer tie) than the throat halliard (or inner tie). This meant that the steel rope sizes (3.5 and 3 inch circ. respectively) did not make much sense as I would be using the smaller blocks with the thicker rope.

 

In the end I just reversed the sizes using .45mm and .35mm rope. This may not be technically correct, but it visually lines up with what I have already done.

I have also come up with a new way of faking a splice. I think this looks better than my previous attempts and though I may play with the method some more I thought I would share it.

 

The first step was to use a needle to pull the rope through itself. I did this twice, first one way and then the other. Once I had done this I split off one of the rope strands and repeated the process.

I then split off a second strand and pulled only one strand through twice. The end result is progressively less of the rope woven into itself.

This final result was coated with watered down fabric glue and left to dry. Once dry I used a scalple to remove the ends leaving the imitation splice.

With that I have the gaff raised.

I am currently using clips to hold things in tension until they stretch a little to hold their shape. Please note that I currently have everything only temporarily secured and I am aware that the throat halliard is tied off on the wrong place (it is meant to tie off at the bits). I need to do some more research to figure out what all these tie offs look like and where the excess rope should go before I secure everything permenantly.

Edited February 9 by Thukydides

[Thukydides]

Log #71: Raising the Boom

Next up is the boom.

 

I rigged the block for the boom topping lift in much the same way the other blocks seized to the mast head were done. The main difference is I used a 3.5mm block instead of the 3mm ones. I had wanted to use a 4mm one, but as I have previously discussed, when I went to buy them they were no longer available and so I had to settle for 3.5mm.

I also have been experimenting a bunch with the fake splices and I am slowly getting better at them, though at the same time they are slowly getting closer to a real splice.

According to steel the topping lift should be 4.5 inches cir, this works out to .57mm, but as I didn’t have any 0.6mm rope I instead used 0.5mm.

Counteracting the topping lift we have the sheet tackle. For this I used 0.45mm line copying BE’s arrangement.

For the sheet line I used 0.35mm line. Steel seems to indicate this should be 3 in cir which works out to 0.38 so close enough. I am still having a bit of trouble with the different names between the alert book, steel and the kit instructions, but as there are so many mistakes at this point I am mostly just making sure it makes logical sense and roughly corresponds to steel / the alert book.

And here is the current state of her. Now that all these counteracting lines are in place I need to tie them all off to get rid of the clutter. You can also see I am still working on the tackle for the boom topping lift as the block is spliced onto the line, but is waiting for the glue to dry before I cut off the ends.

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by for the encouragement, she is really starting to look like a sailing ship now.

Edited February 9 by Thukydides

[oakheart]

5 hours ago, Thukydides said:

she is really starting to look like a sailing ship now.

Your work is an inspiration for me, thanks for sharing.

 

Tim

[Glen McGuire]

The seizing and (fake) splicing on your rope work is exceptional.  Well done!

[AJohnson]

49 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

The seizing and (fake) splicing on your rope work is exceptional.  Well done!

Yes, thanks for sharing all these great details. I will be trying to replicate them later this year hopefully on my Trial. 

[Thukydides]

2 minutes ago, AJohnson said:

Yes, thanks for sharing all these great details. I will be trying to replicate them later this year hopefully on my Trial. 

Just as long as you replicate my later versions not the earlier ones . Some of them are frankly awful, but this model was meant to be a learning process so by the time I am done hopefully I will somewhat know what I am doing.

 

As an update, this is what I have found works the best at this point (an update from my previous post where i detailed my method) is to do as follows:

1. Use a needle to pull the whole rope through itself at the starting point.
2. Split the pulled through strands into the three segments and use super glue on their ends to make sure they don't unravel.
3. Weave each of those ends back and forth through the rope pulling them through with a needle. Ideally you want to weave between the strand not through them, but this is sometimes hard to achieve given the small scales.
4. Pull everything tight and while left under tension coat the splice with watered down fabric glue and leave to dry for a few hours.
5. Use a fresh blade to cut the ends off and then cover the splice with a watered down coat of matt varnish.

In all stages use the smallest possible sewing needle that will allow you to get the rope or strand through the eye.

[Blue Ensign]

Your Alert is looking wonderful, a credit to your skill and perseverance.

 

I first came across  the 'false' splice many years ago from Gil Middleton's  superb Caldercraft Victory build.

It is a really useful technique, that I thoroughly endorse.

 

B.E.

[Thukydides]

Log #72: Tying Off Lines

Thank you to everyone for stopping by and for all the likes.

 

First off I would like to show off the new tool I made. I discovered that machine sewing needles are better than hand ones for splicing as the hole is closer to the point. So I just made some handles out of spare wood I had lying around. I used standard needles in sizes 70 and 90. The hole on the 70 is not big enough to get whole ropes though, but once you split apart the strands it works better as it is about 0.25mm thinner than the size 90 one. The size 90 one is pictured below.

With all the principal lines in place for the boom and gaff, the next step is to tie them all off. I started with the boom tackle as this one was obvious and has no impact on other lines. I decided to leave a bunch of extra rope in a loose coil after tying it off on the cleat. So step one was to cut the line short and super glue the end to the deck.

I then separately made the coil. I am still playing with the method for making these and will probably give a more detailed explanation of what I do when I am confident I like my process.

For the backstays I belayed them to cleats on the rail and then wrapped extra rope around the base of the block.

I continue to play around with the best way to secure hooks to blocks and I have a new method I am trying out. I arrange the line similar to the previous way of doing it, but I splice the ends into each other and secure it in place with fabric glue.

You can see the end result below seems to look less bulky than my previous attempts.

For the boom toping lift, Goodwin indicates this should be belayed to a pair of single blocks hooked on to the starboard channel. I did a bunch of thinking at this point as I am planning on including the topgalant stays and so wanted to make sure that they would have a place to belay to. In the end I secured the fall to base of the lower block, but then hung the extra on the nearest shroud cleat.

You can see how I used the eyebolt inbetween the last shroud and the standing backstay to leave the sternmost one for the topgallant backstay. My rope coil was not the best, but it looked close enough that I decided to chalk it up as a learning experience. Also being behind the shrouds it is not really that visible.

And that brings us up to date. Next I need to secure the inner and outer ties for the gaff and then I will move on to setting up the topgallant.

Edited February 16 by Thukydides

[jpalmer1970]

Coming along very well 👍

[Glen McGuire]

That ship is as clean and tidy as your storage shelf!  Both very impressive!  

[Thukydides]

Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement. I am wondering if any of you might be able to offer some advice on my current dilemma.

 

I have been thinking and have decided I need to figure out what spare apars I will depict. I may need to drape rope coils on top of things and so before things get too cluttered, now would be the time to add the spare spars.

 

Goodwin lists the following spars/masts in addition to the normal ones.

1) storm topgallant mast

2) storm gaff

3) driver boom

4) mizzen mast

5) outrigger

6) mizzen yard

 

My questions with regard to this are as follows:

1) would the ship have carried all of these?

2) would they have carried any spares of the regular yard or would they have jurrie rigged something from the above list.

3) would the storm gaff and driver boom have used the same jaws as the regular ones (ie if they needed to swap the boom out they would have attached the jaws to the new one) or did they have their own set permanently attached?

 

Basically I am trying to figure what of the above list I should depict on the deck.

[mcpwilk]

Superb modelling to date. I enjoy splicing but splicing scale ropes is a little more taxing than splicing full size ones!

 

Having a scale figure helps improve perspective. If you want to try some larger scale Nelsonian sailors, the Victory Miniatures web site is worth a look (https://www.victoryminiatures.co.uk/index.php?id=about).

 

Mike

[Thukydides]

3 hours ago, mcpwilk said:

Superb modelling to date. I enjoy splicing but splicing scale ropes is a little more taxing than splicing full size ones!

 

Having a scale figure helps improve perspective. If you want to try some larger scale Nelsonian sailors, the Victory Miniatures web site is worth a look (https://www.victoryminiatures.co.uk/index.php?id=about).

 

Mike

Thanks. Yes it is a bit of a pain, but I have found it looks way better, though as mentioned I still havn’t come up with a methodology I am completely happy with. I need to do a bit more experimenting.

 

With regards to the scale figure, I do indeed have one. If you scroll back up to Log #68 you can see me discuss how I painted him.

Edited February 25 by Thukydides

[Thukydides]

Log #73: The Yards

I have spent the last couple weeks working on the yards and masts. As before I have been using my drill and lots of masking tape to prevent the chuck from damaging the yards while being turned.

 

I decided to put some extra effort and make the octagonal centre portions for the spreadsail, squaresail and topsail yards (the topgallant at this time appears to have been rounded in the middle). I did briefly consider adding battens, but my research suggested that this did not start being common practice till later. If you are interested in the reasoning behind this I would recommend taking a look at this post in @Blue Ensign’s log as he comes to the same conclusions I did and I don’t feel like it is worth repeating his excellent explanation.

To make the squaresail and spreadsail I bought some square poplar dowel from a local store and used a mini plane to get the octagonal shape before turning them on the drill. Since these will all be painted black the wood colour difference doesn’t really matter.

 

I realized that I had made an error on my topgallant mast as I had made the upper sheeve on the same side as the lower one when they are meant to be perpendicular to each other. The reason for my mistake is mostly due to this being erroneously shown in one of the Goodwin drawings. So I had to use some filler to move the lower one as it will be painted and so the filler not visible. If you look closely you can see I also made the same mistake on the storm topgallant mast.

Further to my previous post I also made some extra yards and masts to show on deck. In order from top to bottom they are:

1. Storm topgallant mast
2. Topgallant mast
3. Mizzen mast
4. Mizzen yard
5. Outrigger

I decided not to do either the storm gaff or the driver boom mostly because I didn’t feel like making them and I figured the above 4 will be enough to illustrate the idea.

 

And that is as far as I have gotten, not a lot of progress to show, but getting all the masts and yards made is a big step and next up I can move on to painting them and attaching everything to them.

Edited March 5 by Thukydides

[jpalmer1970]

Excellent work. You have made lots of great additions to bring this build to a very high level.

[Thukydides]

Log #74: Painting the Yards

I have been slowly picking away at finishing up the painting and shaping of the yards and masts.

 

I had acquired some brass sheeves for putting in the masts. Ideally I would have thought of this earlier, but trying to adjust the holes on the spars already on the model struck me as a bad idea. I blackened them all in one go and it went will with no issues with flaking that I usually have blackening things.

 The next step was to paint all the proper parts black using some primer. As usual this required several coats with sanding inbetween each to get a smooth surface.

Then using a similar method to that discussed previously with the boom and gaff I highlighted them all. You can see here the spars to be rigged:

And the spars that will go on the deck:

The highlighting is fairly gradual as I want them to still read as black even though the upper highlights are actually a medium grey. The main benefit is probably on the spars with the octagonal section in the middle as this makes that much more visible.

 

And here are the spare spars tested on the model. I am still not sure exactly how to secure them and where exactly to put them. Where they are they are obscuring the eye bolts for the rear gun tackle. If anyone has any suggestions for the proper placing of them I would appreciate any advice you can offer.