Duchess of Kingston by Usedtosail - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - 1:64

[usedtosail]

When I removed the weights and clamps from the fore deck, most of it was glued down well but there was a slight raised area around the fore mast hole and fore hatch opening. I couldn't get wood glue into the gaps between the deck and plywood sub-deck and I didn't want to risk using thin CA to wick between them, so I tried wicking some isopropyl alcohol between them, hoping it would soften the wood glue that was already there. I put a weight directly on that spot and when I checked it the next day it had worked. So now the fore deck is glued down so I can start fitting the inner bulwark pieces to fit the gun port openings.

[usedtosail]

I fitted and glued the two forward inner bulwark pieces in place. Once I had the bow trimmed back to fit, the port side piece fit perfectly but I had to remove some material from the starboard side piece at the deck level to get the spacers to fit into the gun port openings. Even then it was a struggle to get the spacers in place after I put glue on the back of the inner piece. I need to still trim the top down a bit. Today I glued the two aft inner bulwark pieces in place. I didn't do any trimming on these as the fronts matched the forward bulwark pieces and the backs matched the aft pretty well. I did not use the spacers with these as they did not line up with the existing holes, so I do have some holes I need to fill now where the spacers would have gone. And I need to trim quite a bit off the top of the starboard side piece.

 

[Dave_E]

Wonder that sucker didn't fall off the cradle. 😆 Very nice!

[usedtosail]

On 2/3/2022 at 1:13 PM, Dave_E said:

Wonder that sucker didn't fall off the cradle.

That's how good Chris' working cradle is - haha.

 

I cleaned up the oval gun ports and the top edges of the inner and outer bulwarks. The next step in the instructions is to paint the outer bulwarks but before I do that I gave the outside and inside hull and deck a coat of wipe on poly.

 

 

Painting is next.

[usedtosail]

To start the painting of the upper bulwarks, I masked off the lower hull. I brushed on some wipe on poly over the edge of the masking tape to help prevent bleeding. I then gave the upper bulwarks the first coat of Humbolt Matt Blue enamel. So far, so good.

 

 

I also started cleaning up the wood trim pieces that will be added to the outer hull after it is painted. These are very delicate and require a light touch. As others have done I will separate some of the rails of the larger pieces so I can control where the joints end up.

[usedtosail]

I removed the masking tape today after a second coat of blue paint yesterday and I was relieved to find a nice paint line all the way across each side of the hull. I am going to wait another day for the blue paint to fully dry before masking it off for the red sections along the bulwarks.

 

 

While waiting for the paint to dry, I cleaned the char off the outer trim pieces and the tops of the bulwarks. This was tedious work, but I managed to not break anything while doing it, which again surprised me. I am going to try soaking and bending these as they are now once the red paint is finished. There is still char around the window frames because these areas will be painted black before the trim is added to the hull.

 

[Elijah]

Looking very nice! Seems like a fun kit!

[usedtosail]

Thank you Elijah. It has been fun so far. I especially like the amount of detail provided and the real thought that has gone into the design of it. @chris watton has done a fantastic job on the kit.

 

I masked off the top of the blue paint and added the red paint at the top of the bulwarks. I then soaked the top bulwark trim in hot water for 30 minutes and slowly bent it and clamped it to the hull. I will let this dry overnight and then do the same thing with the larger trim that goes below it.

 

[usedtosail]

Thank you all for the likes. The top trim looks like it molded nicely to the hull, so I did the same with the larger trim pieces that reach back to the transom. When these dry I'll paint the window trim black.

[usedtosail]

I painted the window trim and the pieces that fit on the bulwark tops black. I noticed that the window trim doesn't extend all the way back to the transom, which I think it should. I am not sure how I will deal with that but maybe I'll just paint the area between the trim and the transom black. I also have the counter masked off to paint it blue. 

 

[usedtosail]

Since the last update I have painted the counter with the blue paint and glued the bulwark cap pieces in place. I didn't like the look of the exposed edges at the hanses so I bent a 1/64" thick piece of basswood to fit and used thinned wood filler to cover the rest of the exposed edges and feather these areas into the caps. I have glued on the first set of bow trim and am in the process of bending the aft ends of the long window trim pieces to fit around tight to the hull.

 

 

[usedtosail]

Here is the starboard side window trim being bent to the hull. The port side came out nicely even though I had already painted it around the windows. I thought I could bend these as I glued them down but the bend was more severe than I originally thought.

 

[usedtosail]

After touching up the red and blue paint one more time I started gluing the port side window trim to the hull. I first used pins in two of the gun port openings to align it, then I trimmed the bow end to fit. I then glued the aft portion to the hull using wood glue and clamped it. When this is dry I'll work my way toward the bow.

 

Edited March 11, 2022 by usedtosail

[usedtosail]

The window trim is attached on both sides now and I touched up the black paint on it. I also painted inside the three large windows with black paint, and touched up the blue paint a bit. Next step is to soak and clamp the upper wales to the hull to bend them.

 

[usedtosail]

The upper wales were soaked and bent to the hull. After soaking I used my electric plank bender to put the bow curve in, then clamped them to the hull to dry. Clamping was a bit of a challenge but I improvised as you see below with the lower wales. I ended and painted the upper wales black then soaked and bent the lower wales to the hull in the same way.

 

 

I have marked the hull for the upper wales so after the lower wales dry I can glue the uppers on.

[usedtosail]

I glued the upper wales to both sides of the hull using medium CA. I started at the bow and worked my way back to the stern gluing a few inches each time. I trimmed the aft end of the wales just before I glued the last couple of inches to fit nicely into the window trim. I then touched up the black paint on the wales. I have the lower wales painted and will glue them on tomorrow.

 

[usedtosail]

The lower wales went on today. The spacing is a bit off but once I had the first one started I didn't want to try to release it for fear of really messing up the planking.

 

 

I started getting the photo etch trim pieces ready by cleaning them with acetone then brushing on a coat of Bin primer. I wasn't sure how the primer would  affect the small details but it was thin enough so they still look good.

 

[usedtosail]

I am mostly getting parts ready for the next steps. I painted the primed photo etch parts with gold paint mostly, but a few parts have white, red or copper paint too. I also painted the wooden transom trim pieces with gold paint. The upper transom piece that you can see in the photo below needs a slight curve to fit properly so I gave it a quick water bath then bent it to the hull to dry. After it dried it had a nice curve so I primed the area that will be painted red. The other parts being painted are for the stove project.

 

 

On the hull, I cleaned up a few CA spots from gluing the wales on, touched up a few spots of black paint on the wales, and gave it another coat of wipe on poly, so it is ready for the next steps.

[usedtosail]

I have finally finished painting all the photo etch parts I am going to need for a while. I will give them a coat of matte finish tomorrow.

 

 

I glued the wing transom pieces to the transom and also added the piece with the window openings. There is a plastic trim piece that fits over the top of that piece which I bent to follow the curve of the transom. I now have to paint it before it gets installed.

 

[usedtosail]

I painted the transom decoration piece, first the background blue, then the raised components and the edges gold. I used a small pointed brush and took my time. I did have to go back and touch up a couple of spots with blue. I was very happy with the result.

 

 

Before I glued it to the transom I painted the top of the back of the transom with black paint to provide a better background for the decoration piece.

 

 

When that dried I glued the decoration piece to the transom, then the other two gold trim pieces.

 

 

I have one more photo etch piece to add to the transom and I need to trim the gold trim pieces and the transom will be done for now. I then added the horseshoe and fish plates using the small pins in the kit. I used a small drill bit in a pin vise to open the holes for the pins through the keel. After I glued the plates to the keel, I clipped off and filed the ends of the pins and touched them with copper paint to match the plates.

 

The next step in the instructions calls for gluing the cheek rails to the stem. But as other build logs have noted there are different and better instructions in Plan Sheet 5 for the bow area. The figurehead slides into a slot on the stem and if you glue the cheek rails first it won't fit into the slot. I trimmed the excess plastic on the base of the figurehead until it fit into the slot. You can also see the horseshoe plate in this picture.

 

 

 I glued the head to the figurehead and painted the background blue. I paint the raised portions gold when that dries.

[usedtosail]

After trimming the gold wood trim pieces, one more photo etch piece, a couple of tiny wood filler pieces and some touch up painting, the transom is complete.

 

 

The focus now shifts to the bow. The figurehead is painted and ready to install and I very carefully removed the char from the cheek rails and brackets. I have also started painted the blue and black areas of the stem.

[usedtosail]

I glued the figurehead in place and cleaned up the slight gaps with the stem. I added the cheek rails and the photo etch trim that goes between them.

 

 

More rails to add but first they are being painted black.

[usedtosail]

I finished up the bow section today. This entailed the catheads and their brackets, the head rails and their brackets, the hawse bolsters, and all the photo etch decorations that adorn them. I started using floor finish to glue the flat PE parts but switched back to CA as those that I glued with the floor finish had a tendency to fall off. I am not sure if I was not using enough or not holding them long enough so they set right. In any case the CA works great and holds the pieces nicely so I'll stick with it for the rest.

 

 

 

 

The next step is to add the rest of the PE decorations down the sides of the hull.

[BobG]

Gorgeous model, Tom!

[usedtosail]

Thank you Bob and the likes too. Much appreciated.

 

I spent today adding the phot etch decorations down the sides of the hull. It was a tight fit for a few of them but mostly they went in without any problems. I did have to touch up the gold paint on a few of them for spots that I had missed when I first painted them. It is very hard for me to see gold on brass when I was painting them but the light I had over the model when adding them made it easier to see the spots. I again used thin CA to hold these down and the longer pieces I did in stages, which helped a lot.

 

 

I still have to do the trim around the quarter galleries and the gun ports, so that will be next.

[usedtosail]

I finished adding the quarter gallery photo etch pieces, as well as the PE gun port frames.

 

 

Having the holes and pins to align everything worked really well. Later I added the scupper covers to the hull too. So far I have only lost one PE piece, the cat head end, but @chris watton was kind enough to include two extras with the kit. I thought I had lost one of the scupper covers, and there are no extras included, but I found it on the bench while installing the others. I was greatly relieved. I also touched up all the nail heads with gold paint, even though the brass color blended in pretty well. Next up is assembling and installing the rudder.

[usedtosail]

I assembled the three wooden parts of the rudder and removed the char. I glued the straps to each side, using one pin to align the strap to the holes. I rotated the strap on the pin, put glue on the rudder and rotated the strap back until I could see the holes were aligned. I then drilled holes in the rudder notches and glued a piece of wire in each one. I added wooden gudgeons from Syren to the wires instead of the supplied PE gudgeons as I think they look more realistic.

 

 

I don't have enough brass pins left to fill all the holes in the straps but I found some brass nails that have a very similar head size so I will use them on one side. I also need to give the rudder a coat of wipe on poly before attaching it to the hull.

[usedtosail]

I finished the rudder and glued it to the hull. I then glued the gudgeon straps to the hull.

 

[usedtosail]

After the rudder I started working on the bulkhead that goes between the two decks. I painted the blue on the inner piece and black around the windows on the outer piece. I then glued the outer piece to the inner piece, then painted the top edge black. I added the window PE trim, the hinges and door pulls, and the decorative crown. I glued the bulkhead to the two decks using weights on either side to hold it tight to the decks and take out a slight curve in the piece. Finally I gave the wooden parts of the bulkhead a coat of wipe on poly.

 

 

While I was working on the bulkhead I also assembled the spiral staircase. I gave it a coat of wipe on poly and glued it into the deck opening after I installed the bulkhead. It would have been easier to install it before the bulkhead because I could have seen the tab and the slot that it fits in better, but I was able to get it installed after a few minutes of effort. I also installed the dome canopy base after very carefully removing the char and the some after painting it copper.

 

 

Also while doing all that I made up the side steps ands the channels and installed them. I gave them all a coat of wipe on poly after they were installed.

 

 

I am now working on the tiller housing and tiller. I shaped the tiller and stropped two 2mm blocks to the end and glued the sides of the tiller housing in place. The next step will be to install the tiller on the top of the rudder. I have also started assembling and painting the ships wheel. I'll have pictures of those components in a day or so.

[Keith Black]

Very nice, Tom. She's looking lovely.