Well Smack Saucy Jack by DB789 - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - 1:64

[DB789]

Chris very kindly and very promptly sent me the replacement parts I needed. 

 

The rubbing strakes fitted around the hull much easier than I expected, particularly with my slightly bulging bulwark on the starboard side which with judicious sanding and now the rubbing strake is largely invisible.

 

What did throw me is that both the upper and lower rubbing strakes are longer than they need to be. I’m so used to Chris’s laser cut parts fitting precisely that I thought I’d made a mistake but it seems not and cut them to size. 

The upper rubbing strakes required more care as there is an area where the channels are glued and some other holes that need to be on the right place on the hull. Measuring against the plans I found that fitting the strake at the bow and cutting any excess off at the stern left everything in the right place. 
The lower rubbing strakes did need some shaping at the stern to fit. These were then repainted and I used PVA plus pear dust filler to fill the small holes below between the stern counter and the planking. 


Inboard I fitted the belaying pin racks….

… and then the already painted black gunwales. Needed some more sanding at the stern to get the stern gunwale flat. 

Then applied Danish oil to the engraved deck to give it some more definition and the inner bulwarks and belaying racks. 

The previously assembled grating was also fitted. 

 

Now ready for some deck furniture to be glued down. Front hatch, mast base ring, another belaying pin rack, the capstan and companion way also added. 

One thing I should have done much earlier and before spraying the hull white is fit the rudder hinges which are now a different white to the hull. 

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2022 by DB789

[allanyed]

Nicely done!  The contrasting colors are quite striking and look really good.

Allan

[DB789]

Thanks Allan. 
 

The Jack’s hull is now complete. 
 

The channels were fitted and needed two cut off pins each to attach them to the side of the hull. All as per the instructions and lined up perfectly. Deadeyes and their holders and other PE rigging hoops and attachments were added to the hull. 

The winch was added forward. I used the methodology for painting the resin drum of the winch as though it is wood that James H details in his build log which entails dragging a darker oil paint into a paler beige oil paint. It produces a highly realistic result. 
A notch was sanded in the starboard gunwale to accommodate the bowsprit as per the method in the instructions and the anchor cable holes were drilled out. 
Other PE such as the cleats and belaying pins were attached. As was the PE frieze on the stern. 

Also the rudder and tiller. The latter needs sanding to give it a sanded shape. Is the tiller to scale - it seems large and high compared to the companionway? I notice it does on Nisha too? Maybe they were just big. 
 

I tried to coat the exposed wood on the hull with wipe on poly. Living in the UK I don’t think you can buy wipe on poly so instead I mixed 50:50 Vallejo matt polyurethane varnish and white spirits. This didn’t work well and just seemed to strip the oils out of the wood leaving it looking pale and tired - not sure what I did wrong?! After this debacle I treated the exposed wood with straight polyurethane varnish which seemed to revive it somewhat. 
Time to dye the sails tomorrow. Aiming for a colour similar to James H achieved on the prototype which is much more soft pink / orange than the later fishing boats. So they’ll probably end up dark brown… 

 

Edited September 16, 2022 by DB789

[Glenn-UK]

Nice work you have a great looking model.

 

I also live in the UK and make my own WOP solution with a 50:50 polyurethane varnish and white spirits. I use Ronseal Ultra tough internal mattcoat varnish and that seems to produce a really nice finish. I use measuring pipettes droppers to get an accurate 50:50 mixture

[DB789]

Thanks Glenn, I’ll try that next time. 

[DB789]

Well I’ve messed up the sail dyeing. I used RIT “Tan” and clearly far too much and for too long. The colour looked so weak initially that I kept adding more dye. Ended up with sails an ugly matt brown colour. Not what I was aiming for at  all.

I’ve ordered a replacement set of sails from Chris… an expensive mistake. Unfortunately there’s not a lot more building I can do on this boat until they arrive. The mast and spars are ready, except the topsail spar which won’t take long to build.
 

My wife gave me the Erycina kit for my birthday recently so she’ll be my next build before I attempt HMS Alert. I may start on her skeleton whilst I wait for the new sails
 

[Glenn-UK]

I have found (several times when I've made an error) that Chris is pretty efficient at sending replacements so I would assume they will arrive early next week.

 

I plan to build Saucy Jack in parallel with Erycina. My Sphinx build is nearing completion so I hope to start these new builds next month.

 

The Alert is a nice looking boat and one I really enjoyed building. I think you will not encounter too many problems with that kit.

[ct mike]

I'm ready to dye my sails at this time too. My wife and I are going to try tea to get that nice ruddy red brick color.  Some cherry fruit flavored and some regular brown tea mixed together in varying combinations and we will be doing swatches to look for the bet results.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Mike

[DB789]

Glenn,

Yes, Chris is super at sending replacement parts out. I don't quite know how he and his wife manage to do everything and provide excellent customer service too.

We'll likely be building Erycina at the same time then, I'll be doing a build log but likely less detailed than this one as Erycina has quite a few build logs already. 

My Saucy Jack won't take very long to finish now once I replace the sails. I'm going to attach some blocks, etc. whilst I wait for the sails rather than start Erycina. I'm looking forward to Alert, but already dreading cutting the gun ports.

 

Mike,

Are you building Saucy Jack too? Is there a build log? I'm trying to get to roughly the colour James H achieved on the prototype Saucy Jack which just used Rit Dye "Tan" and is a much softer colour than on the later fishing boats. I did lots of swatches for my Nisha build to get to a ruddy red brick colour - see my Nisha build - link below. I tried lots of swatches but used cotton like that in T-shirts for my samples. The end result from using exactly the same mixture on cotton swatches and Vanguard's premium linen sails was completely different. The end result worked really well, but wasn't what I was aiming for. It may be the same for tea-based dye. Be very interested in your results for my Erycina build.  

 

[Glenn-UK]

Hi Dan

I was dreading cutting out the Alert gun ports but they are actually quite easy to do. Check out post 80 on my Alert build log where I added the gun port cut outs. I used tape as a guide and a razor saw to make the vertical cuts.

 

Glenn

Edited September 17, 2022 by glennard2523

[ct mike]

Dan, Yes, I'm building Sauce Jack too but I don't think there is a build log.  As for dying the sails on Jack, I've read all the posts on dying and then using swatches of different material and then dying the linen sails supplied and the end result being different. So. like I said tea, since my wife has done a lot of dying in her time and tea was her suggestion, was the way to go for me.  Mixed Black Cherry Berry herbal tea from Celestial Seasonings for the deep red color and some Lipton Black Tea for the brown.  The ratio my wife and I found to be beast was 1 to 1 bags of the black cherry and the Lipton's tea made just the right coloron the cloth not in the measuring cup.  The other ratios we tried were either too pink or too dark.  We used old thin cotton tee shirts as swatches, but until we dipped the sails in the mixture we thought was closest to what we wanted we couldn't tell.  Once we decided we left the sails in the mixture over night and dried them this morning and they look great.  The great thing about the tea is you can soak them again in different rations if you aren't happy to get a different result without having to scrap the dyed ones. Good luck,  Mike

[DB789]

Thanks Mike great advice, pls do share some photos of your Saucy Jack and the dyed sails on this log. I’d be really interested to see the colour you’ve achieved and how your Jack is progressing. Dan 
 

[DB789]

Chris sent me the replacement sails very promptly as always! Once I had these I decided to experiment with the old set to see what happens if I try and dye on top of the brown. So I put the already dyed sails into a litre of hot water with two drops of RIT dye “Scarlet” and stirred them for just five minutes before dishing them out. Amazingly they went almost the colour I was originally looking for which is a pinky orange colour as per the box art. So I didn’t need the new sails after all. 
 

I’ve not had much time on the Jack this week but have added all the blocks attached to the hull, mast and spars and today I’ve added the mast rings and attached the mainsail to the main gaff. The photo below is taken in a very yellow light so not the real colour of the sails. 

I use a clove hitch to attach the main gaff which may be inaccurate as there are two ropes around the gaff at the attachment point but is the knot I find easiest to use. 

A view of the blocks on the mast. I much prefer Chris’s pear wood blocks which are an extra over the walnut ones supplied with the kit. I don’t always have the right sizes available so some are 4mm when they should be 3mm and some are 3mm, bit of a muddle and not something I thought through before fitting them.

Mast stepped. Temporary piece of rigging keeping the main gaff up and sail out of way for when I start the shrouds. Main boom and main gaff fitted. Bowsprit in place but will remove whilst doing the shrouds so I don’t break it by accident. 
 

I’ll take some better photos in daylight tomorrow so the new sail colour can be seen, it’s much softer than it appears in these photos. 

[chris watton]

Looking good Dan!

[DB789]

Thanks Chris, that’s due to yet another excellent kit from you. Much appreciated. 

[DB789]

The Jack has her shrouds fitted now. I’ve tried to do these properly on her in the correct sequence using the same piece of thick thread with a deadeye in each end looped around the cross trees in the mast. First pair shown below. 

Rest of the shrouds fitted. 
With hindsight the deadeyes are a little too high, the shrouds a little short and the lanyards too long, but not a big enough mistake to warrant redoing them. 

[Glenn-UK]

Looks like you've made a good job of the shrouds.

[DB789]

Thanks Glenn.

 

Ratlines now complete. Fairly straightforward - only query is whether it’s better to start at the bottom and work up or top and work down? I started at the bottom and by the time I reached the top I’d added sufficient tension to the shrouds that the bottom ratline on each side is sagging and may need redoing. This is the trickiest ratline to adjective as it’s onto the deadeye seizings not not plain shroud. 
Also added the port and starboard mast stays and one of two forward stays. The standing rigging is mostly complete except for the second forward stay which runs to the end of the bowsprit. Bowsprit is now glued in place.

Small clumsy accident in that I managed to catch the top mast on my sleeve and break the tip off where there is a hole in the mast. Slightly messy break but have fixed it using CA glue (titebond wasn’t strong enough for this). You can just about make out the break in the photos above. 

[Glenn-UK]

Nice work. When adding ratlines I have found it better to work from bottom and to add every 5th one first (The 0's in attached photo). Then I add the middle ratlines between every 5th one (the 1's in the attached photo). Finally I add in ratlines in the gaps.

 

[DB789]

Thanks Glenn, that’s a very sensible idea. I’ll do that next time. 

[DB789]

Topsail and topsail yard fitted. 
I’ve found it hard to use the belaying pin rack behind the mast. Really hard to get the lines to loop around the bottom of the belaying pin. There must be a technique for this, I just don’t know it?

 

Then finished off the rigging and added the jib sails. The rigging was the most challenging I’ve attempted yet, she’s a little more complicated than Nisha and I had some difficulty ensuring that all the lines stayed taught, a few have quite a bit of tension on them which isn’t ideal. 
 

She’s largely complete now, so some more comprehensive photos.

Yet another excellent kit from Vanguard that’s produced another lovely looking boat despite my building skills. 

I simply couldn’t get all the lines onto the belaying rack so I tied some off on the loops in the deck at the mast base. 

 

I’m very reliant on CA glue to seal each knot, but it discolours the thread and often makes it stiff and straight for the first 3-5mm - is there a better approach to tying the knots? 
 

Over the next few days I’ll be adding some coiled ropes and some deck clutter to finish her off. Deck clutter will be the anchor, boat, crates and barrels mostly included in the kit. There’s also a little touching up of paint to be done before signing her off. 

[Glenn-UK]

A great looking model, well done

[DB789]

Thanks again Glenn. 
 

The Jack is still not quite complete as I have to add the coils of rope where I can. As most sheets and stays run to the belaying pin racks where there is no room for coils I won’t be adding coils to all rope ends, just a few. 
 

Completed the deck clutter. Painting the resin hull of the cutter to look like wood was a challenge. So I experimented, firstly all was painted with Tamiya red brown then a coat of raw sienna oil paint painted over the top which was next to invisible on the Tamiya but provided a medium for the burnt umber darker oil paint to be dragged into. All as per James H’s instructions for the winch drum but with a darker base paint. It worked to some extent but the boat is a darker brown than I’d have chosen. - I need to buy some more oil paint colours. I then added the pear wood parts and smeared these unevenly with burnt umber. Then sprayed the lot with a Matt acrylic spray varnish to seal it and painted on a green blue pale enamel paint around the first strake and the top of the edges.

 

The oars needed some very careful sanding to shape them. 

Its turned out ok enough to include on the Jack but a bit darker brown and given the clinkering on the hull I didn’t think I’d get a clean line to paint white anti-fouling on the hull.

Also prepped the barrels and crates in the same way. The banding on the barrels was painted with a Humbrol metallic gunmetal as was the anchor.

They look quite good aboard ship. 

[DB789]

I’m bored of doing the coils so I thought, having built both I’d do a brief comparison of Saucy Jack vs. Nisha her most comparable peer from Vanguard. 

Whilst hull lengths are similar, the Jack is much chunkier and would have had a much greater displacement. The Jack also carries a larger rig, taller mast and longer bowsprit with a little more sail area. The completed model feels noticeably bigger. 

Despite both being fishing boats, the hull shapes are very different. Nisha has a sleek hull more like a racing yacht with a raked keel - this would have been to get fish back to port as soon as possible. Jack has a rounded heavy hull more like a small merchant vessel with a keel parallel with the waterline, speed was not such a priority for her as she carried the fish back alive in a water tank amidships. 

In terms of build, Nisha was marginally easier due to her easier hull shape to plank and slightly less complicated to rig - mainly due to the belaying pin racks on the Jack. 
 

Jack took me 2.5x as long to build as Nisha. Partly due to her being a harder build, partly I was busier with other things and partly my taking more care. My breakage count was down massively from Nisha where I broke almost everything. 

In terms of features, both have nice deck fittings. On Nisha I particularly liked that the companionway could be open with a ladder down into the hull. On the Jack you get more in terms of extras such as the cutter, barrels and anchor. 
 

Overall, they’re both lovely models and despite seeming similar (both single masted, cutters with a slightly different type of gaff rig) they’re very different builds and I’d strongly recommend both. Thanks to Chris at Vanguard for producing both of these! 
 

Here she is being welcomed to the fishing fleet. She adds some contrast to the fleet with her white hull and lighter sails. She’s much smaller than the two luggers. 

Aiming to finish off the rope coils and complete her tomorrow. 

Edited October 8, 2022 by DB789

[Glenn-UK]

A very nice collection

[DB789]

She is now finished. Thanks to Chris for an excellent kit and to James H for a superb prototype build log. Some final photos in daylight (in case you haven’t seen enough already in this log!).

 

 

Thanks for all the advice from everyone else - hugely appreciated. 

Edited October 9, 2022 by DB789

[chris watton]

Very nice job!

[Glenn-UK]

Great job. I'm looking forward to building this one.

[ccoyle]

Congratulations! That is a sweet fleet!

[DB789]

Thank you everyone for the positive feedback!
 

My next build will be the lovely Erycina. But I’ll take a week or two’s break before starting her.