Erycina by DB789 - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - 1:64 - Plymouth Ketch-Rigged Trawler

[DB789]

Erycina will be my fifth build and my fifth of Vanguard’s superb range of 1:64 fishing boats. 

As always the kit lives up to my high expectations from Vanguard. Very good quality materials, instructions and plans. Lots of excellent build logs of Erycina to guide me here too. My log will be less detailed this time as I can’t better those of some of the more experienced builders. 

I dived straight in yesterday and assembled the basic structure which fits together very easily and forms a firm structure. The deck went on today and fits nicely too. Fairing next when the glue is dry. 

I haven’t decided what colour scheme to go for. I’m toying with either the James H prototype colours but with the inner bulwarks painted green too. That depends upon how well I plank the hull and whether the wood can be bare. Other options are something similar to Craigie with a black hull and green inner and outer bulwark or just a black hull with white rubbing strake as I did for Nisha (below). Might be quite smart having the pair similar. 

 

Edited February 2, 2023 by DB789

[DB789]

Erycina’s stern frames are very fragile - there’s a very narrow section that breaks easily and is protected by a “safety gate”. 
 

Snipping off one safety gate broke one side’s outer stern frame and sanding the stubs of the safety gate on the other side broke that one too. 

Once they’re broken off there’s not much surface to glue them back onto. 

So I inserted a piece of balsa wood between the stern frames to provide additional surface area for glue - not much but enough. Then sanded to shape. 
I hope the repaired frames are positioned correctly. They look about right and fit the stern “bench” insert. 

[DB789]

Lots of good progress. 
 

Inner bulwarks soaked and clamped to dry for 12 hours. Then glued. 

Stern counter soaked and clamped to dry. 
Then glued and sanded in line with the bulwarks. 

First planking. Doing these in halves. First three planks on each side fitted. No tapering as per the instructions. 

More planking progress. 
Erycina has a lovely hull shape which is also forgiving for the planking with no sharp or bluff curves.

I’ve stopped the first planking short at the bow so there’s plenty of room for a proper rabbet for the second planking. Looks a bit odd now and will need some sanding. I usually forget to leave a big enough rabbet, hopefully enough this time. 
Completed the first planking. 
Bit messy and certainly prickly but should be a good base for the second planking when filled and sanded. 

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2022 by DB789

[DB789]

First planking sanded and filled. It’s very smooth to the touch, much smoother than it looks in the photos. 

Outer keel, stem and sternpost glued and clamped to dry.

Stern counter was soaked in hot water for 30 mins. I thought that it had split but it’s just a mark on the wood. 

Then clamped on to dry overnight before being glued… 

…and sanded to shape on the sides. 
Starboard outer bulwark glued in place. Port outer bulwark glued and being held by clamps. As others have mentioned and similar to Nisha the holes at the bow don’t line up up between inner and outer bulwarks. It’s a rare occasion that Vanguard’s models don’t fit together perfectly, but it is very easily resolved. 

I’ll start the second planking in a few days! 

Edited October 25, 2022 by DB789

[DB789]

Life has been busy, but I’ve finished the second planking. Starboard side planked below. 

Note, I’ve broken the middle section of the rear transom - I’ll add it back later.

Both sides complete. 

The planking is tidy above the waterline but will need some fuller and sanding to fill a few small gaps below the waterline. As is typically the case with my planking, there’s stealers and slivers below the waterline too. I don’t mind too much what goes on down there as it will all be painted. 
 

I still haven’t decided what to do for the paint scheme. I’ve some Ronseal polyeurethane varnish as recommended by Glennard to make some wipe-on poly arriving on Monday. I’ll see how good the wood looks with that applied before making a final decision. 

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by DB789

[DB789]

I’ve been doing some research to help educate what colour scheme to choose. There’s four photos I could find of Erycina. 

I suspect that most of these were taken towards the end of her life (1930s) when photography was more prevalent. It’s clear that she had a painted hull by that point in her life. Unlike most photos of smacks her anti-fouling paint is much higher on her hull than her waterline. It’s possible (likely?) that this wasn’t the case when she was built and more likely that this was done to provide some additional protection to her wood later during her long, 50 year plus working life. There is a lightly coloured rubbing strake under the upper bulwark but it’s much slighter than the one in the kit.
 

I have been going through Marsh’s Sailing Trawlers again. As far as I can tell from the B&W photos, most smacks seemed to have had dark painted bulwarks and hull above the waterline. Below is a Plymouth ketch (not Erycina) and a Brixham ketch, both seem to be painted a dark colour.

Sometimes there’s a clear tonal difference between the bulwark and rest of the hull, suggesting a different colour (see below, another Brixham boat).

Some of the Brixham boats had the hull below the bulwark a paler colour, including Ibex, Erycina’s main racing rival, and other boats from Upham’s yard in Brixham. It’s hard to tell, but to me the paler lower hulls look to be painted not varnished wood. Nisha was a Brixham boat built at Upham’s so the kit’s colour scheme could be suitable for her, but Erycina was a Plymouth boat. 
None of the photos show these boats having a white “bootstrap” line between the lower hull and the anti-fouling paint. 
 

On the basis of this research I’m erring towards a green bulwark as per the kit, with a white rubbing strake and a black hull below that down to the waterline where I won’t have a white “bootstrap” before the red oxide anti-fouling paint. 

 

[DB789]

The bulkhead ears were twisted off and removed. 

The etched deck for Erycina came with more laser char marks than normal but could be easily cleaned off with some very fine sandpaper. The dust clogged up some of the laser etching so I ran a scalpel along all of the lines to clear them. Then I put a coat of Danish oil on the deck which made it a little darker. 

The deck fits very well, just need a little laser char removal at the edges to fit perfectly. I haven’t glued it yet as I’ll be painting the inner bulwarks. 
 

The varnish for the wipe-on poly came early and having applied it using Glennard’s 50:50 recipe of varnish to white spirit the pear wood does look super. 

[DB789]

Bulwarks painted matt green (Tamiya XF-5) inside and out. Needed a couple of coats. The etching for timberhead positions is still clearly visible through the paint. 

Tamiya masking tape is very good and delivers a clean line. 

Tiny bit of paint bleeding on the port side, but can easily be cleaned up and will be hidden by the rubbing strake. 
 

Once the paint is dry I can make a start on the timberheads. 

Edited November 13, 2022 by DB789

[Prowler901]

That looks lovely.  Nice work!

Todd

[DB789]

Thanks Todd! 

[DB789]

Settled for a fully painted hull. Red oxide below the waterline, black above with the green bulwark. 

So smothered the hull with filler to fill any small gaps and even out any low spots. For this I used a mixture of Ronseal filler and titebond glue. 

I usually use a white plastic based filler which is quite soft and is sub-optimal often sanding out of the cracks again when you later sand the hull. 
 

This new filler is very strong and hard and applying it everywhere was a huge mistake. It set rock hard and I’ve been sanding like crazy to remove it. It is much harder than the wood so  it’s quite hard to sand in raised bits of filler without eroding all the wood! 

Eventually I got close to a smooth finish and applied masking tape to the green bulwarks and painted all the hull below the bulwarks with the red oxide primer (it’s the undercoat for the black above the waterline too). Then filled any remaining small gaps and sanded hard again to improve the finish. 

 

I assembled the rudder and painted this too. 
That’s enough sanding. Added the rudder hinges / pintles to the hull then a final coat of paint. 

Rudder attached but not glued. 
The end finish is OK with a few small line showing faintly - which I want to show this is planked not pre-formed. 

In a few spots the filler is still raised and just visible on very close inspection (see above) through the paint. I’m going to leave these as the wood around them is likely quite thin now and I don’t want to sand through. 
 

Need to add the waterline and mask for the black paint next.
 

Not sure I’ll use that filler combination again except very sparingly - it’s a much better filler but poses additional challenges! 

[DB789]

Next apply masking tape ready for the black hull. I’m using Chaos Black for the hull, same as I used on Nisha and the Zulu. This is a lovely paint that sits really well on the hull. But it does chip easily as I experienced on those two builds. 
The black goes on beautifully, but the green bulwark has already got tatty from extra sanding, paint leakage and the masking tape. Easily touched up. 

Then the deck, aft companionway steps and two of the three chimneys are fitted. All are straightforward. 

Next apply some gloss varnish to where decals will go and once dry apply the stern decal. Then fit the outer stern counter. 

Then the rubbing strakes / go faster stripe are fitted. I’ve painted these white and they are a little more prominent than I expected. 

I’ve been using Tamiya Flat black acrylic to tidy up chips in the black paint, but it’s not a good match so I l’ll redo with the Humbrol enamel black tomorrow instead. 
 

 

 

[DB789]

Timberheads being added. I’ve decided to go for the contrast look with wood timberheads against a green bulwark. It looked good on Nisha so I’ve duplicated the look! 
Then railings added. The side railings are too long and needed to be sanded shorter to get the transom railing in the right place. 
Also added some PE eyelets, lots more fittings to follow tomorrow, waiting for the black paint to dry on the PE. 
The wood, including deck have been liberally treated with Danish oil to make them a bit darker. It’s still a little wet here in the photos so may lighten as it dries. 

[Glenn-UK]

Coming together nicely, looks good.

[DB789]

3 hours ago, glennard2523 said:

Coming together nicely, looks good.

Thanks Glenn

[DB789]

Life has been busy, so slow progress on Erycina. I’m also deliberately spinning this build out so I have something to build over Christmas, with the in-laws staying, and not a brand new project. 
 

The deck furniture is now complete and the masts in position but not glued. Bowsprit is glued. 
 

The lines of this fishing trawler are rather lovely. 
 

Onto the rest of the spars next. Plus I still need to add the decals on the sides tomorrow. 

[DB789]

Continued slow progress - life very busy, especially kids been at home all day during the school holidays limiting time available for boat building. 

Masts stepped - only main mast glued at this point. Main and mizzen sails added. Shrouds and deadeyes to add next, hopefully get the main shrouds rigged this evening. 

Nice present from my wife for Christmas! 

Ranger, the sixth and last of the Vanguard fishers. I look forward to building her. She looks to be just as excellent and high quality a kit as the other fishing boats. 
 

I am undecided whether to build Ranger or Vanguard’s Alert next. I have both kits. Part of me wants to complete the fishing boat fleet, on the other hand, I’ve built five fishers in ten months and maybe a change would be fun - Alert would certainly be more challenging. 

[ccoyle]

5 hours ago, DB789 said:

Nice present from my wife for Christmas! 

 

She's a keeper!

[DB789]

1 hour ago, ccoyle said:

 

She's a keeper!

Thanks Chris! 

[DB789]

Shrouds fitted on main and mizzen masts. 

For some reason I struggled to make the main shrouds on both sides tidy above the deadeyes.   I should really redo these, but I don’t have the patience (or enough suitable thread) to do so!

Did a much better job on the mizzen shrouds. 

I’m painting black where the natural thread ties onto the black thread above the deadeye as my CA soaked knots look messy. 

 

On the mizzen mast I couldn’t get the thick 0.7mm black thread for the shrouds through the holes on the mast ring so I tied them around the last and over the ring in a similar manner to the main mast. 

Ratlines next. 

 

[DB789]

OK - a bit of a disaster. I’d just finished all the shrouds and ratlines on both masts.

I decided to use a match that I thought was out but still hot to remove the excess fluff on the edge of the shrouds. The idea being not to touch the ratlines but just to melt the fluff.  A technique I’d used on other builds -but not a technique I’d seen on MSW for reasons that will become apparent. 
 

The match can’t have been completely out and must have touched a ratline as it flared up and burnt through two of the starboard shrouds and some of the ratlines. 
 

Damaged starboard shrouds and ratlines below. 

The port shrouds and ratlines below are still intact. 

I think that I’ll need to strip off all the main mast shrouds, deadeyes and ratlines to fix this though as the forward two port shrouds are on the same piece of thread / shroud as the damaged starboard ones and the rear shroud on each side is tied on top of the forward shrouds. 
 

Shrouds and ratlines to me is one of the more tedious parts of the build - so is there any way I can keep the intact port shrouds and ratlines and just replace the starboard ones with it still good. 

 

I guess I could tie off each of the port shrouds at the top individually and then just cut away the starboard shrouds? That would leave more knots / loops around the cross trees of the mast than it should have (I think I tied off each individual shroud on Nisha as she was my first build with shrouds and ratlines and she looks fine). 
 

Any ideas and advice welcome! Many thanks. 

[Glenn-UK]

I would simply replace the damaged shroud pair with a new shroud pair and strip away the ratlines. In the past I have undone completed ratlines without any problems.

 

Good luck with your repairs whichever way you chose to go.

[DB789]

Thanks Glenn, I’ll try that. 

[DB789]

I’ve followed your advice Glenn. Thank you very much. 
 

The two damaged shrouds have been cut away and replaced. I’ve redone all the ratlines too. It’s not noticeable that the damage happened, although I think I need to tighten up or replace that bottom ratline. 

To alleviate the boredom of ratlines, I’ve set up the running rigging for the mizzen sail and also fitted the port stay for the main mast. The mizzen rigging may need some tweaking and isn’t tied off yet. 

[Glenn-UK]

Glad you got it sorted, looks good.

[Prowler901]

Nice recovery!  Keep up the great work.

 

Todd

[DB789]

Thank you both! 

[Bowline]

hooray !! - back on track

[AJohnson]

Yes good save, on the home run and looking good! 👍

[Craigie65]

Well recovered, you are nearly there.

 

Loving the paint scheme. If you think the white is too bright for the rubbing strake, perhaps an off-white might be more in keeping?