Erycina 1882 by CTDavies - Vanguard Models - 1:64th Scale - Plymouth Trawler

[CTDavies]

Hello Everyone, Chris here from Germany tuning in again after a long while.

Many years ago I was fortunate enough to find an HMS Diana from Calder Craft on eBay classifieds here in Germany, which I worked on a bit before it stalled. It was probably a bit too much for a ship novice so I bought an HMS Fly from Amati/Victory models which also ended up on the shelf of shame, waiting for some more love and attention one day, hopefully. Hoping to build a model ship that I would eventually finish I looked at Vanguard Models' fishing boat line and imediately liked their Erycina and Saucy Jack. The first because of her very elegant lines, that latter because she was almost the opposite - at least in my eyes. Not much needs to be said about Vanguard Models' kits as there are plenty of build logs here of their more popular (I'm assuming) Ship of the Line and other warship kits.

So let's see how it's going:

I hope the pictures are not too big here. I use Windows photo viewer which also lets me resize them for emails and internet posts etc, so I hope this is adequate.

Bulkheads and keel are all done in mdf and being laser cut fit is flawless. There should be a small notch in the keel for one of the Gypsy Winch parts which isn't there, so I had to change that part much later when I realised this. Maybe Chris wants to make a note of this.

So Here all bulkheads have been attached to the keel with all doublers and fillers, plus the false deck. I noticed that the deck is not symmetrical. 'Top' is written on the deck but there was no warning in the building manual, so beware. I nearly missed that!Then I could start the dreaded planking. For me this is the make or break part of building ship models.As is obvious by the planking here I started from the top and worked myself downwards until about half was done, then I continued at the keel working my way up. For me the most important rule here is: you can't force wood to do something it doesn't want to. That always needs to be kept in mind.Here the second planking just about complete (image above). One strip of wood snapped as can be seen here, but I didn't worry about that too much, as the hull will be painted anyway.A nice feature of Vanguard model kits is the one-piece deck with laser 'engraved' planks etc. Here the deck is being glued in place and, most importantly, held down by clothes pegs on which the front end has been cut to a vee-shape to ensure that the edge of the deck is being held tightly against the false deck and the bulwarks.An importang milestone has been reached and I'm quite statisfied.I still had a can of Pine wood stain which seemed to provide a nice golden brown colour, which was what I was looking for here.Looking good so far, all it needs now is a lacquer finish. I have never been good at brush painting, so this was done with an airbrush.

The white up front is a left over from a failed attempt at brush painting. Apart from that the sheen is pretty much what I was hoping for (image above).The areas not to be painted white were masked off with Tamiya tape and the water line drawn on with a soft pencil.Dymo tape was used as a guide for cutting away the Tamiya tape along the water line. As you can see here a bit more work is required here, before the final layer of paint is applied. I ended up filling in all the cracks with white filler and then painted the white in Mr. Surfacer 1000 primer out of a rattle can. Perfect!Voila! The deck was left masked off as I wanted to paint the upper part of the bulwark in another colour. I liked the idea of dark blue, more of that later...

(hmmm, there is no preview function here, so it's win or loose. If I did everything right, the images shouldn't be scattered all over the place - we shall see (as Arthur Harris said)

Edited August 6, 2023 by CTDavies
correct typos etc

[CTDavies]

To me it looks like my first post here turned out pretty much ok, so on with the show...

As I said I liked the idea of painting the outside bulwarks in dark blue, instead of dark green as given in the instructions. I watched several cutter videos on YouTube (search Pilot Cutter) and could see some very nice boats there, in various colour schemes. The dark blue here is just what I wanted, almost black.The wales (I'll call them that here, not being sure if that's the right word) were then painted white which added a nice contrast to the dark blue. As I said everything was done with an airbrush. I am useless at brush painting.What I also noticed on YouTube is that the decks are nearly always grey, so I applied a grey stain to the one-piece deck. It still looks a bit rough here (image above) but it settled down later. What I also saw on Youtube was that the inside of the bulwarks were frequently painted as well. I choose grey here again, as I had decided to use grey as a 'main colour' for the various deck furnishing parts (following image).Then most of the deck furniture was added (Saucy Jack in the background, much smaller than the Erycina)So now I will move on to the masts and rigging. The latter is something I have never done before so we'll see how that goes. This is where I'm at right now (following picture)I have to admit that the masts as supplied were a bit dark for my liking, so I've ordered some other dowels as a possible alternative. I'm guessing that the wallnut dowels are supplied because they are nice and straight. Will have to see how the other material compares.

Size comparison: Erycina and HMS Fly

 

More in a couple of weeks, I hope... Chris

Edited August 6, 2023 by CTDavies
correcting typoes etc

[jpalmer1970]

Looking really good 👍

[CTDavies]

I was hoping to get more done this weekend after the dowels for the masts arrived. In the end I decided to go with basswood dowels twice stained with cherry wood oils. Still just a tad too bright for my liking but they will have to work for now. As ist happened I must have lost some of the photo-etched parts needed for the rigging so I have contacted Chris at Vanguard Models to see if I can get replacements.

Vanguard Models Saucy Jack in the background waiting for some paint.

[CTDavies]

I've had to pause on the Erycina for a short while as I managed to loose some photo-etched parts. An additional etched parts fret was ordered last week Monday and it arrived here in Germany today, which was excellent considering it went though customs and all. Great service by Mr. Watton of Vanguard Models.

However, in the mean time I painted the hull of my second Vanguard Models project, the Saucy Jack. So this update is more about her.