Lady Eleanor by DB789 - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - 1:64 - Fifie

AJohnson · April 12, 2022

Regarding leaking paint from under masking tape, one little trick I use sometimes if the subsurface is a bit uneven (like most wood strip!) is to run a light coat of Matt varnish along the edge before you paint, this will help seal the edge hopefully against paint ‘wicking’ along wood grain etc.

Also be careful if comparing your build to the plans, the plans for my “Nisha” had been unintentionally reduced by 15%, not sure if that is the case with the Lady Eleanor plans.

DaveBaxt · April 12, 2022

59 minutes ago, AJohnson said:

Regarding leaking paint from under masking tape, one little trick I use sometimes if the subsurface is a bit uneven (like most wood strip!) is to run a light coat of Matt varnish along the edge before you paint, this will help seal the edge hopefully against paint ‘wicking’ along wood grain etc.

Also be careful if comparing your build to the plans, the plans for my “Nisha” had been unintentionally reduced by 15%, not sure if that is the case with the Lady Eleanor plans.

Great Idea Andrew and something I will try. Just wondering if people are having problems even with superior quality masking tapes? I apologise if i I have hijacked this thread.

Andyrew · April 14, 2022

On 4/12/2022 at 12:57 AM, DB789 said:

Think I’m going with option d (not listed above). Keeping the red waterline and painting on a bootstrap above it. The bootstrap will widen at bow and stern as it should but amidships it will narrow, not following the waterline. There will be less freeboard amidships but it’s the best compromise I can think of.

I had similar problems with my Lady Eleanor, but I went with what l thought looked right. These were working Boats and I don't expect that the Fishermen that sailed these Boats would be too bothered if the Boot Topping on their Boat was slightly different to that on another Boat. You are building a great looking Boat,

Cheers Andy

DB789 · April 14, 2022

Thanks for all the great advice and encouragement. I do sometimes feel that the Fifie is progressing despite, rather than because of me. So many mistakes (learning points!) but she still looks OK! The quality of the kit is so high that it’s hard to go very wrong.

Bootstrap now painted. A few areas on the line need touching up, especially around the rudder hinges which are hard to mask. The line of red follows the waterline of the boat, whereas the top of the white line does not. Still have the white on the rudder to paint. I think it looks OK. To touch up I’m planning to spray a small amount of paint into a cup and then use a brush - is there any reason that won’t work?

I’m using Chris’s engraved deck which I think looks really good. That’s now fixed down and weighed down by spice jars to hold it whilst drying. They’re not really heavy enough but have just about done the job.

I’m in the middle of fitting the timber heads and hope to have those and the inner bulwark rails fitted tomorrow.

Deck fittings going well too with the fish hatch complete now. The steam winch is complete (colours both Humbrol Matt 80 green and 153 red). Also the base of the foremast. May fit the wheel tomorrow too, think I’ll add a rope and holes in the deck for this too.

Not far off finishing the hull. Soon the dreaded rigging and masts… not that the Fifie has much in the way of rigging.

BobG · April 15, 2022

Looks great! Nice work.

AJohnson · April 15, 2022

Looking very nice, 👌

Dion Dunn · April 15, 2022

looks spicy! 😄

DB789 · April 17, 2022

Happy Easter!

Decided that there were too many “Lady Eleanors” out there so have named her the “Eloise” after one of the kids. It means my next build will end up with a boy’s name as the kids are now demanding a boat each… So she’ll be the Eloise out of Leith. I have added nameplates on each side at the bow and her home port on the starboard counter. Nothing on the port counter, haven’t decided whether to leave this empty or add her name again as the Reaper does. I wouldn’t rename a model of a specific historical ship, but there were lots of Fifies so I don’t think renaming can be too big a crime?! The letters are 2mm vinyl from BECC, I’ll add a fishing number between the strakes too but my wife has ‘tidied’ up the 3mm letters, possibly permanently….

The hull is almost complete. I’ve varnished it with Vallejo polyurethane matt varnish which has made the pear wood sides look amazing. Should I varnish the painted areas of the lower hull too?

Painting the rudder has proved to be troublesome. It is the only area where the brass rudder fittings are painted with the white Plastikote spray. I tried painting directly on the brass - that didn’t work, I then cleaned and primed with a metal primer then repainted - that didn’t work, the paint wouldn’t stick to the primer. I’ve now painted the metal with the red oxide primer that does stick to the metal and hand painted on some of the white spray, may need a few coats but should solve it. If not I’ll use a white humbrol enamel and accept that the whites do not match exactly. Consequently I haven’t finished the rudder fittings or steering rope yet.

Almost all the deck furniture is in place too. Exception is the bench forward (more below).

I’ve also added the aft boom which I have shaped by hand. I don’t have a lathe, slow turning drill or a plane or vice for that matter so I will have to do any mast and yard shaping by hand. The boom looks OK to the eye but the callipers tell me its cross section is now oval shaped. This could become a bigger issue for the masts.

I thought drilling the 1mm hole through a 2.5mm piece of tapered dowel for the boom would be the tricky part causing splintering, but the walnut wood is very hard and strong, I drilled a 0.5mm hole first and then widened it with a 1mm bit.

I have temporarily seated the unshaped masts. The aft mast is fine and I will keep near vertical as I think it looks better in that position and one of the other build logs said that this was a normal position for the aft mast in real fifies.

The foremast is a bit wonky and leans to starboard. It was a lot worse which was due to there being a glob of dried PVA stuck at the bottom of the hole where the mast sits (beginner mistake I see!). I’ve now abraded that away as best I can but the mast still doesn’t sit quite straight. As the mast is slightly off centre so is the notch for the bench seat. Fitting the bench seat the starboard side is ever so slightly over the starboard edge and the port side ever so slightly inboard so it’s hard to affix lining up the existing drilled holes as the starboard ones would attach through the walnut rubbing strake and port ones through the bulwark. Sure I can cut the pins short and use glue, but it will bother me being off-centre.

I think fixing the mast will fix the bench. I’m thinking of sanding the lower 1-2cm of the mast so it fits straight - would that be the best approach to fix this? Or should I try and shape the hole itself?

Thanks again for all the advice and encouragement.

DB789 · April 22, 2022

I’ve got about as far as I can on the “Eloise” until Chris gets some Master Korabel high quality sail sets back in stock.

Changes since last time are firstly the masts are shaped and seated. The foremast is now straight having filed the inside of the hole and the bench seat at its base added.

What passes for standing rigging on a Fifie has been rigged, although it will need to be loosened so the mast rings can be removed and the yards attached later. So I haven’t tied the lines off properly at the deck and that’s what the loose thread on the deck is.

Other blocks have been added to the hull too - my rigging is a bit messy but will improve as I get more experienced at it.

Eloise now has a Leith fishing number too and lastly her painted lower hull has been varnished with the matt polyeurethane varnish.

The kids smashed one side of the Perspex stand by accident but Chris is very kindly providing me with a replacement, thank you - great customer service! Luckily the Eloise was not on the stand at the time.

In the meantime I’ve ordered little Nisha as my second build to start whilst I wait for the sails. I next want to tackle a single masted boat with standing rigging including shrouds, deadeyes, etc. I’ve been so impressed by Chris’s Fifie that I’ll be sticking to Vanguard as a kit maker and I’m planning to work my way through the Vanguard range with a distant goal of eventually building the Sphinx, so my plan is a few fishing boats first, then the Alert and then one of the brigs. But even the best laid plans…

I’ll be back to this log as soon as I have the sails.

DB789 · April 30, 2022

The Fifie “Eloise” is very nearly ready to head out to her fishing grounds. The only things outstanding now I think are: beeswax on the rigging to reduce the fluff, coils on the end of the sheets and halyards - I’m adding these later as Eke did on his Zulu build, and fixing the angle of the mizzen yard (see below).

I’ve been away some of this week and spent the time devouring all of the build logs of Vanguard fishing boats on MSW. What a fantastic resource. As a result I’ve made a few tiny changes, most notably the white tips on the ends of the mast and boom. I’ve also added the hard points that the Fifie would have needed to sail on the port tack. Does anyone know how these luggers did actually tack? How did they get that huge foresail around the mast or did they have to drop it completely before tacking?

I couldn’t get the mizzen yard to sit at the correct angle so I have added an extra length of rigging from the aft end of the mizzen yard back to the mast ring on the mizzen mast. I appreciate that this isn’t authentic or how a Fifie would have been rigged so I’m trying to think of an alternative. Options are 1) try and insert some very fine steel wire in the seam of the trailing edge of the mizzen sale or 2) CAing the parrel beads into the right position so the yard sits at the correct angle - could become quite messy though. I have some steel wire on order.

The sails came very promptly from Chris, arriving on Monday and are superb quality. I dyed them using Rit Dye colour cocoa brown. I used three pints of very hot but not boiling water, a cup of salt and half a bottle of the liquid dye, stirred for 20mins then rinsed under the cold tap before washing in a bowl of warm water with some detergent. This gave me the dark brown with a hint of red colour I was hoping for. When I fished them out they appeared black and was a little worried that I’d gone too far!

The sails were tied to the yards with clove hitches and the knots sealed with CA. Unfortunately one splodge of CA dripped onto the sails. I tried to remove it and gently scrubbed it with an old toothbrush and soaked it in acetone based nail varnish remover but to no avail. I stopped after an hour as progress was limited and I didn’t want to discolour the surrounding area of the sail.
It’s disappointing but I can live with it. I may try and colour it with a permanent marker so it blends in more, but it’s not that noticeable so I may leave it too.

I had been considering adding reefing points but decided against for fear of getting more messy glue on the sails. I was also going to colour the stitching on the sail with a permanent marker but I like the contrast from the stitching and having some other white on the sail allows the glue spot to blend in a bit.

The rigging has plenty of room for improvement but I’m happy with it for a first attempt.

In the meantime little Nisha finally turned up despite UPS’s best efforts not to deliver her. Chris despatched her very punctually and she was meant to be delivered a week ago on Friday, I was then away Mon to Thurs and UPS were scheduled to deliver this Friday instead but didn’t. I contacted the UPS depot and was told that both times the “driver didn’t bother delivering all of his packages”. I only live 20-30 miles from Chris and could have walked there and back in the time UPS took to deliver.

I’m very excited to start building Nisha. She has come beautifully packaged and with the usual excellent quality of materials and instructions… but that’s a story for another build log.

Andyrew · May 1, 2022

You have built a great looking Fifie, I like the white ends on the Masts. I also had trouble getting the Mizzen Yard to sit properly, I put thin wire inside the seam on the edge of the Sails to get it to look right. You'll enjoy building Nisha, a great kit, looking forward to watching you build her,

Cheers Andy

DB789 · May 1, 2022

The “Eloise” is now complete. I’ve had a great deal of fun building her and I’m amazed by how well she has turned out as my first ever build - that’s mainly thanks to the excellent kit that Chris produced. I greatly appreciate all the advice and support I have received here and others’ build logs have been an incredibly valuable resource from which I have shamelessly plagiarised.

I have inserted steel wire in all four edges of the mizzen sail but I ordered 28 gauge wire and it’s not strong enough to enable me to shape the sail and hold the mizzen yard at the angle it needs to be. I suspect I’ll have to add back the extra length of rigging from the aft end of the mizzen yard to the mizzen mast ring as the current set up is too flimsy.