HMS Flirt by TJM - Vanguard Models - 1:64

[TJM]

Hi all, 

 

This will be my first build log on MSW!

 

I have been lurking and reading through quite a number of build logs here and it is truly inspiring and humbling to see the amazing work by all the members. This is to a very large degree responsible for my own desire to try out this hobby!

 

I have no knowledge about sailing ships (or any kind of ships really), but I have a keen interest in anything 'history', and this fits that bill! 

 

I have plenty of experience with other creative hobbies, so I hope I am not biting off too much with a kit like Flirt for my first real build (I have tried out the hobby small scale on a small 1:25 Whaler - very fun to build, but the boat itself hold little interest for me). What inspired me to do the plunge was the amazing quality of the Vanguard kits which is clearly apparent from the many build logs on this site, and then the very high quality of the manual. I read it through a few times before ordering and it seems manageable with my (self-perceived) skill level. Let see... I am mostly worried about the rigging, but I guess I don't have to worry about that for a while yet!

 

One small setback was that I ordered the kit from Krick in Germany (being based in Denmark, it has become prohibitively expensive to buy from the UK), but I have not realised that on of the services that Krick provides is a full translation of the manual and the drawings into German! Which is a bit problematic as I don't speak German!

 

The manual I will just print myself from the pdf provided on Chris' site and I guess I will have to make do with the German drawings for the rigging. I will just translate what is needed back to English! 🤭

 

Anyways, if this small project goes as I hope, I will have find another EU based vendor for sny future kits (drooling over Sphinx already - all in due time...)

 

Well, enough intro, on with the actual log!

 

[TJM]

Log entry 1

 

 

Building the initial frame went smoothly, no issues whatsoever! 

I am vey happy with the ease of the fit of all the parts and the very clear instructions.

 

Sanding went much quicker than anticipated (only around half an hour) having pre-beveled the edges of some of the bulkheads with a Dremel,as per the instructions.

 

Soaking the side bulwark patterns, it was easy enough to form them on the model, though I found I had to pin the lower edge as I could not clamp it well. 

 

At this point, I have used around 6 hours over 3 evenings (after the kids sleep). I am happy with the progress so far. 

 

Now for the first challenge: planking. I will take my time with this (I can become impatient, but will try to go slow!). I have a naive hope that the second planking will be good enough to leave unpainted, but that is probably to much to hope for. If not, I may copper it instead of painting it. We'll see!

 

TJM

 

 

[Thukydides]

Good luck, take your time, treat every step as it's own project. In my experience I have never regretted taking more time or going back to redo something I wasn't completely happy with.

[TJM]

Thank you! I will! 

 

So far I am really enjoying leaning something new. This is what gets me engaged in a project.

[TJM]

Log entry 2

 

Inspecting the bulwarks, I noticed that the lower edge was a bit wobbly. It was glued to all the bulkheads, but between them, it was pushing out a bit - too much for me to be sure I could sand it away without issues later.

 

So I decided to try to straighten them with a bit of moisture and heat from an iron set on wool settings (I guess around 140C). This worked like a charm!

On this image you can see a straightened bulwark on the right and an untreated one on the left.

 

And both after treatment. Still a bit of residual wobbliness, but it is a fraction of a mm, and I think it should sand flush without issues later.

 

I proceeded with the first plank on both sides of the hull, tapering about 1 mm at the bow. I lightly moistened some areas and pre-into shape on the hull with the hot iron. Worked fine, and it was easy to glue in place with a few pins.

 

 

 

So far, so good!

 

By the way, if anyone sees anything in the above pictures that should be changed or corrected, please let me know 😊.

It is my first real build, so I don't expect perfection, but I am likely to miss some low hanging fruits that will make future steps easier!

 

TJM

[Thukydides]

The faring looks good to my eye, but if you haven't already you might want to use some thinner batons to test that everything lies flat. Not faring properly was one of the errors I made and it caused me lots of grief later on.

[TJM]

Thank you Thukydides, if you mean laying strips of planking material along the hull in various places, to make sure they lie flat on the bulkheads, then I did do that. It looked good to me, but I am sure small issues will appear later 😉.

 

TJM

[Nearshore]

Hi TJM,

 

Looking good so far. Look forward to watching your progess. This is a great site and there is an abundance of information available. Good luck on your build.

 

Cheers

Nearshore

[TJM]

@Nearshore, thanks, much appreciated!

[Theodosius]

That's a realy good start! I'm sure you have a lot of fun with this one 🙂.

[TJM]

Log entry 3

 

I started the planking by adding a plank on top and bottom on both sides, to get a clear view of how many planks are needed on both sides. For a large part of the hull length, the distance between these first planks on the bulkheads are very close to 7 cm. It becomes slightly more at the stern and goes down to around 4.8 cm at the bow. 

 

So for the next few planks, I tapered the bow end down to 3.5 mm, used a bit of moisture and heat to pre-bend the plank to the hull and glued them in place, using pins to hold them in place.

 

 

 There are a few ridges between the planks and between the planks and the bulwark, especially at the bow end. It looks worse in these photos than in real life. Perhaps I should have faired ethe edges of the planks to get a better fit? I think it will sand down fine with enough material left to not cause issues.

 

All the planks lay flat against the bulkheads. 

I will re-measure now and re-calculate my tapering of the next planks before I continue.

 

TJM

 

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by TJM

[Thukydides]

Good progress. It is hard to tell from the photo but you garboard plank may rise a little too much up the stem. It should essentially run straight to meet the stem not curve up on it or you will have trouble fitting all the planks in and the run of them won't look quite right. Not a big deal for the first layer, but as this is your first major build you really want to use the first layer as practice for the second.

 

I don't have a good picture of my first planking on alert, but see the below link for the post on the second planking in which you can clearly see the garboard.

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Thukydides

[TJM]

Thank you @Thukydides! I think you may be right. I will have a close look at it later. I did not intensionally bend i up but it does look like it is doing that a bit on my photos. I actually made a shape rather close to the one you show in your linked post 12, except that I had a notch in it to fit it into the slot in the stem - this may also contribute to it looking a little wrong. 

 

But again, thank you! This is very much the kind of feedback I was hoping for. And by the way, if I can even remotely approach the quality of your Alert planking result, I will be quite happy indeed! It is very impressive.

 

I also was considering if I should use ~14 cm strips for that more realistic planking look like you do on Alert, but I am wondering if I should leave the deviations from the manual for a future build to avoid overcomplicating things here on the first. But I am not decided yet.

 

TJM

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by TJM

[Thukydides]

31 minutes ago, TJM said:

Thank you @Thukydides! I think you may be right. I will have a close look at it later. I did not intensionally bend i up but it does look like it is doing that a bit on my photos. I actually made a shape rather close to the one you show in your linked post 12, except that I had a notch in it to fit it into the slot in the stem - this may also contribute to it looking a little wrong. 

 

But again, thank you! This is very much the kind of feedback I was hoping for. And by the way, if I can even remotely approach the quality of your Alert planking result, I will be quite happy indeed! It is very impressive.

 

I also was considering if I should use ~14 cm strips for that more realistic planking look like you do on Alert, but I am wondering if I should leave the deviations from the manual for a future build to avoid overcomplicating things here on the first. But I am not decided yet.

 

TJM

 

So what I mean by not bending up is essentially it is too long. It should terminate a bit earlier, I would guess right at the beginning of the notch. I have drawn in red on your picture what I would guess it should be.

In terms of the lengths I don't think it matters that much for the first layer. The process is the same you just do it on a smaller scale.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Thukydides

[TJM]

Right, that is also what i understood, and I think you are right that it is a bit too long! I will have a look and modify as needed. Your drawing is very helpful, thank you!

 

With regard to plank lengths, I should have been clearer: I was referring to the second planking, and was just interested to see that you had done this on your Alert, as I had considered doing it as well. For the first planking, I definitely think it makes sense to have full length planks, as the bulkhead frame would cause some difficulty in fitting shorter lengths for this layer!

 

TJM

Edited November 15, 2023 by TJM

[Thukydides]

12 minutes ago, TJM said:

Right, that is also what i understood, and I think you are right that it is a bit too long! I will have a look and modify as needed. Your drawing is very helpful, thank you!

 

With regard to plank lengths, I should have been clearer: I was referring to the second planking, and was just interested to see that you had done this on your Alert, as I had considered doing it as well. For the first planking, I definitely think it makes sense to have full length planks, as the bulkhead frame would cause some difficulty in fitting shorter lengths for this layer!

 

TJM

Ah I understand. So I much prefer the look of actually cutting the planks into their proper lengths, but I can't answer for you what you prefer. I would say that it is not much extra work so if you prefer the look, I would recommend going for it.

[TJM]

Log entry 4

 

Taking Thykudides' advise, I trimmed a bit off the garboard plank where it meets the stem. It definitely looks better and I am sure this will save me some pain later, when 'closing the gap' in the first planking layer. So thanks a lot @Thukydides, for pointing that out!

 

Otherwise, I continued with the planking, adding 3 more on either side. It seems to be progressing smoothly and both sides are quite symmetrical. 

 

 

 

 

 

The gap that is left is 45 mm for most of the length until close to the bow, where it smoothly tapers down to 30 mm. I have been trimming the planks, bending the stern end a bit down (the 'Chuck' way) and then with a bit of moisture, I dry fit it to the hull and iron it to make it conform to the contour of the hull. I do the same at the stern, though it seems it is not strictly needed. I then glue the plank in place and pin it down until the glue sets (at least a few hours) - I like to get the pins out, as they stick out and make ironing the next plank difficult.

 

With 45 mm left, I am missing 9 planks on either side and I have exactly 18 planks left, having discarded none - not much room for error here!! But so far, I have not had any issues, so fingers crossed that it continues like this!

 

TJM

[TJM]

Log entry 5

 

So, the planking is comming along. Even though I do my best to pre-bend in all directions, I do end up with some unevenness and tiny gaps.

 

Here is a pre-bent plank:

 

And in the process of glueing it on:

It looks quite ok here, and this side is the best one.

 

But looking at the bow section of the other side (starboard, I guess...), there is definitely some wobbliness going on:

 

It is not due my fairing of the bulkheads, the plank runs look ok. I think it is due to my method of ironing the plank on the bulkheads. If I press down between the bulkheads, by accident, I force the plank into a shape that causes a slightly ( 0.3-0.5 mm ) sunken plank in that spot.

 

I must just be more careful when I iron!

 

Here is a few photos of of the bow and stern:

 

I am happy with how the stern looks!

 

I am missing 11 planks on the first layer, probably another two evenings worth of work. 

 

After that, I will need som wood filler and a good sanding, but I still think I will be able to get a good enough base for the second planking layer.

 

TJM

 

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by TJM

[TJM]

Log entry 6

 

The first planking is now completed.

 

Not as pretty as I had initially hoped, but with sanding and a bit of filler, I am satisfied that it will be a good enough base for the second planking (which I am dreading a bit, with my experience with the first layer in mind - I like the work, but it is much harder to do well than I thought it would be!).

 

Making for the final plank

 

 

 

 

It has taken me 17.5 hours to get to this point, with the work being spread over 9 evenings. 11.5 hours was the first planking.

I don't know if this is slow or fast, but I wil not be able to keep up this pace for the whole build. But for now, I will try to use at least 3-4 evenings a week on the projet. 

 

TJM

 

[Diver]

13 minutes ago, TJM said:

Log entry 6

 

The first planking is now completed.

 

Not as pretty as I had initially hoped, but with sanding and a bit of filler, I am satisfied that it will be a good enough base for the second planking (which I am dreading a bit, with my experience with the first layer in mind - I like the work, but it is much harder to do well than I thought it would be!).

 

Making for the final plank

 

 

 

 

It has taken me 17.5 hours to get to this point, with the work being spread over 9 evenings. 11.5 hours was the first planking.

I don't know if this is slow or fast, but I wil not be able to keep up this pace for the whole build. But for now, I will try to use at least 3-4 evenings a week on the projet. 

 

TJM

 

I am buy no means an expert, but that planking looks pretty good to me.  A little sanding and you should be OK for the second layer

 

[TJM]

Thank you @Diver, that is encouraging!

 

 

[allanyed]

On 11/17/2023 at 4:02 PM, TJM said:

I think it is due to my method of ironing the plank on the bulkheads.

 In order to get rid of the lifting at the bow from edge bending will you be pre-shaping the planks using the method Chuck Passaro demonstrates in the four part video series on your second layer of planking or spiling planks from wider sheets as explained by David Antscherl in the Articles Data base here at MSW?  https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/APrimerOnPlanking.pdf

Allan

[TJM]

@allanyed, yes, I am pre-bending the planks 'laterally', much like Chuck does, with water and heat, but shaping the planks in the 'normal' way, I have been doing by simply using the hull/bulkheads as the template. But it may be better to use a cardboard tube or similar for that. 

 

For me, the difficult part is to taper the planks evenly, both on the individual planks and across the hull (so that they all have a similar thickness at a given part of the hull). Both are necessary to end up with a good result. I have seen Chuck's meticulous measuring of the hull, dividing it into parts and transfering the measurements to the planks, but I did not quite succeed in doing that well for the first planking. I had small gaps between the planks as my tapering was not consistent enough and I did not bevel the edges enough ro get a tight fit. And my planks got thinner and thinner as I moved on (so I started with too little taper).

 

Right now, I am wondering if it will be easiest for me to do full length planks or cut them into 'realistic' lengths of around 14 cm (can someone confirm that 14 cm is suitable for plank lengths at this scale?). I am thinking I may have an easier time shaping and fitting the shorter planks? And I do really like that look, from the examples I have seen. The master planks will at least be full length, to get a nice, even run to work out from.

 

TJM

[TJM]

Log entry 7

 

I sanded the hull, and most of it looks good. A few issues at the bow, as previously mentioned, but I think I can mange that.

 

 

I used a bit of wood filler and sanded it down again:

 

There is still a low spot on the picture above, that has since been fixed with another small dab of filler.

 

I then worked on the stern:

 

The pear wood is really much harder, but it looks very good. It will be interesting to see how it goes with the second planking with this wood.

 

I added the paster planks using super glue gel, as suggested in the manuel. I really dislike the stuff, I get it all over the place. I also have an sensitivity to cyanoacrylate which developed after a particular cyano heavy modelling session once. So I wear a carbon filter half mask when working with cyanoacrylate, and that is annoying. 

 

Anyways, i think the plank runs look good, and it was easy to lay it out with the laser engraved guide marks beneath the gunports.

 

 

 

 

 

I am still considering if I should do the second planking in shorter strips or not....

 

TJM

 

 

[TJM]

Log entry 8

 

I have had a small break from building while attending to other matters, but I have now begun the second planking. I decided to go for shorter strips, and so far it works well enough. 

 

 

I have added two planks on either side and mapped the hull sides in quarters in preparation for the following planking. I am hoping that this will help me achieve an even taper at the bow.

 

TJM

 

Edited November 30, 2023 by TJM

[TJM]

Log entry 9

 

I was able to do two full planks (in smaller sections) on both sides in one evening. With around 20 to go on each side, that is another 10 sessions to complete the second planking, assuming everything goes well. So I guess the aim is to have the second planking done by Christmas, but we will see if I get enough opportunities to work in the evenings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am quite happy with how it is going! No gaps between the planks, and they run smoothly for now. I use Chuck's method to bend the planks when needed, particularly at the bow and make sure I have a good fit, so that I don't have to bend the plank into place on the hull. I also bevel the edges of all planks so they sit tight against the previous plank. I use normal CA glue, but have the gel available if I think I need more time. 

 

TJM

[mugje]

Planking looks great! Don't think too much forward about how long it will take, just one plank at a time...

[Thukydides]

Looking good. A minor point, the butts of the planks should be perpendicular to the keel (they are attached to the frames on a real ship). So they will not always be at right angles. A relatively minor point that I also didn’t realize until part way through my second planking.

[mugje]

26 minutes ago, Thukydides said:

Looking good. A minor point, the butts of the planks should be perpendicular to the keel (they are attached to the frames on a real ship). So they will not always be at right angles. A relatively minor point that I also didn’t realize until part way through my second planking.

Oh wow...never thought about that either

[bigcreekdad]

You are doing a great job!