HM Cutter Sherbourne by Stuka - Vanguard Models - 1:64

[AJohnson]

Sanding is not the best, but as Craig said feel or touch is the best way to gauge how smooth it is. From the pictures above I think more sanding. Also holding the hull up to a light or window will show up any imperfections visually better. 

[chris watton]

I would not use filler for the first planking, especially if there are no huge gaps in between the planks, it just makes for more unnecessary work. 

Also, I do recommend a small sanding mouse, I use this on all my hulls, and for the Sherbourne, it literally took no longer than 3 minutes to sand the whole hull smooth (then using a bit of sandpaper for the extremes and more awkward areas...)

[Stuka]

22 minutes ago, chris watton said:

Also, I do recommend a small sanding mouse, I use this on all my hulls, and for the Sherbourne, it literally took no longer than 3 minutes to sand the whole hull smooth (then using a bit of sandpaper for the extremes and more awkward areas...)

Hello Chris, I was actually considering buying one, any recommendations of a particular one? 

[Stuka]

1 hour ago, AJohnson said:

Sanding is not the best, but as Craig said feel or touch is the best way to gauge how smooth it is. From the pictures above I think more sanding.

Hello Andrew,  I did sand some corners here and there and felt it with my hand several times so now It feels very smooth so hopefully all goes well.  I might had used to much wood filler though

[chris watton]

22 minutes ago, Stuka said:

Hello Chris, I was actually considering buying one, any recommendations of a particular one? 

Nothing flash, as you're just sanding wood, so something like this:

 

BLACK+DECKER Mouse Detail Sander, 55W, 240V, Corded, Includes 6 Sanding Sheets, BEW230-GB : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

 

They do save a lot of time for sanding.

Edited October 10 by chris watton

[Stuka]

21 minutes ago, chris watton said:

Nothing flash, as you're just sanding wood, so something like this:

Thanks for the tip Chris, I hope I will do your model justice 😆

[glbarlow]

On 9/13/2024 at 3:53 PM, Stuka said:

sawed the glue with my mini saw

Isopropyl alcohol is useful in loosening white/ yellow glue (not CA) glue, a modelers best friend, a better than sawing. Isolate the area with paper towels, apply it with a dropper and give it seconds not minutes to work. It may take more than once for yellow glue, white PVA separates quickly.
 

Never be reluctant to remove, back up, restart, replace. These are wood models, not assemble in place plastic ones. Wood is very forgiving if treated carefully. I’ve backed up on hull planking that I often feel like I’ve planked three sides of a hull. Often laser cut  parts are cut a little big on purpose to allow for variations in each build, no two models are the same. You can sand it smaller, can’t make in bigger. As pointed out getting the ‘infrastructure’ or bones of the model correct is crucial to your enjoyment at later stages. 
 

Vanguard models are excellent, both for quality of parts and depth of instruction. You’re off to a good start. Have fun. Although without Chris’ skill and while I have that mouse sander I rarely use it for fear of losing the symmetry of the hull. I just sand away by hand. 

Edited October 10 by glbarlow

[Stuka]

44 minutes ago, glbarlow said:

Isopropyl alcohol is useful in loosening white/ yellow glue (not CA) glue, a modelers best friend, a better than sawing. Isolate the area with paper towels, apply it with a dropper and give it seconds not minutes to work. It may take more than once for yellow glue, white PVA separates quickly.

I did see it being mentioned before. I just gotta find out where I can get some of it in my town. 

[glbarlow]

Any hardware store. And correction. Denatured alcohol (also used as camp stove fuel) not isopropyl alcohol 

[Ronald-V]

11 hours ago, glbarlow said:

Although without Chris’ skill and while I have that mouse sander I rarely use it for fear of losing the symmetry of the hull. I just sand away by hand. 

Same here...it would feel like too little control to me. With sandpaper grid 80 or 100/120 it comes off just like that, especially such a small hull. But if you like it better with a machine, go for it

[Craigie65]

11 hours ago, glbarlow said:

. Denatured alcohol

Might be known as methylated spirits, or even just meths.  Hardware stores and even amazon will sell it.

I use isopropyl alcohol rubbing alcohol.  It works well on PVA but can strip acrylic paint!

[Stuka]

Thanks for the tips, Ill take a look around and see if I find anything 👍

Edited October 11 by Stuka

[Stuka]

Hello 

So 2nd plank layer, I looked around on the forum and elsewhere to see how people attached the planks if they used PVA glue. And since I dont own any good pins for that I ultimately decided to go full CA glue.  Starting from the bow adding some glue then pressing the plank until the glue has taken its grip and thereafter moving towards the stern.  However with the first set of planks I thought for some reason that the planks where going to end right before the stern planking patterns (part 60 R/L) . I realized this mistake and tried correcting it with the 2nd pair of planks.  Its not a big deal I think we are talking about 1 mm of plank.  Also wont this area be covered with the waterline "plank" the one I see painted black in the pictures anyways not a big deal I think ultimately, moving on.  With the tapering like the manual suggests I only tapered my planks by the bow down to 3mm from the 2nd bulkhead and im quite happy with the result.  Working with CA glue is not ideal cause several times my fingers get stuck and leave these ugly marks on the planks so im lucky this will be sanded down and painted over. I can imagine why people would rather use PVA glue especially if the hull is not going to be painted.  

[chris watton]

CA glue is fine for 2nd planking, I have always use it.

[Ronald-V]

Personally I find working with scaled planks easier than a plank as long as the hull (or at least shorter lengths). For example in my Sphinx build I used 12cm long planks. On the back I put a few narrow stripes of PVA with empty spaces between these stripes spread over the plank. In the empty spaces I put a small drop of CA. This way you can work accurately and calmly with the glue without having to work on the model. After I have applied the glue to the plank I still have more than enough time to position the plank. Hold it for a few seconds and it stays perfectly in place. Everyone develops their own way of working that suits them...find your way  

Edited October 13 by Ronald-V

[Stuka]

Hello again 

Now after a long time Im finiushed with the second layer of plank. I had work and other things in the way so it took longer than I thought. 
The second planking was in a way much more tricky than the first layer atleast to my first impression since this is my first ever model. Since I didnt have any way to press the plank down if I was going to use PVA glue I choosed to go with CA glue. And It went alright apart from my fingers becoming stuck and some other mishaps here and there. But its all apart of learning and next model I will try get hold of more gel/thicker CA glue so it doest run everywhere. 

Tapering could again have been better at the end cause the last plank on each side I had to sand for so long until they would fit. Had I tapered and had a bit more patience I could have made it so 3 heavily tapered planks could run the final area instead of me having to to a custom made plank where I had to sand and dryfit until it made the fit. 

Some mishaps happend like when I used a piece of wood to hold a plank at the stern waiting for the CA to dry. After waiting 1 minute the plank had attached itself to my planking and when I tried getting it off it of course took some plank with it.....Learn from your mistakes as they say.

I used probably to much woodfiller but the sanding im going to be doing will tell. Since this is my first model I have no way yet as of telling if im overdoing something so I will just have to find out.                  

All in all, Happy to progress having made some mistakes but most importantly all this gives me experience with modelling and thats worth gold 🙂

[Stuka]

Question 

When Im painting the hull should I use Varnish before or after painting. Or even both?  

[Stuka]

Painting layer for layer by brush, Hopefully it comes up nicely, might thicken the paint though.

[Stuka]

Update 

So painted some 5 layers total and finished with the varnish and just added the main wales on each side. Using pins was very tricky so I slipped sometimes with the pins.  Regarding the next step of gluing the depth markers I read that they are to be painted copper. So I assume I gotta buy a copper paint for them but im checking other builds to see how others did it. 

[Craigie65]

Hi Robin,

Sorry I have not looked in for a while, life eh?

You are making great progress, you should find the rest of the build straight forward.  I am sure you will have learned a lot from persevering with this build.

Looking forward to the next update?

[Stuka]

Hello Craig !
No worries, Life is life after all 🙂Thanks for the encouragement though means alot. Now the Cutter is coming along nicely its just alot of problem solving all the time but nothing I should not be able to solve.

[Stuka]

Depth markers added. I bought some actual loctite superglue Gel, which didnt run off as much as the other variant I had used for planking, The result was much better but still far from perfect. Some of the markers turned at the last second and set in with the glue so to late to fix.

As for the painting on brass I had already started painting one of the markers with copper when I realized hey this might be the wrong way. Looking up ways to paint on metal I realised I should have used a primer. But I went ahead and did around 2 layers of copper paint on these brass parts so they looked okay. Now I know for the future though that a primer is to be used for better results which Is why I bought this water based primer I hope works. 

Also added the outer stern transom as I looked at some pictures this thing is to be slightly covered by the black planks running around the bulwark and I was unsure if I needed to sand it that much for a perfect fit. So I went ahead and did some partial sanding but not overly much then glued it on with PVA glue and used some CA for the tricky edges. Still have some edges left to fix though.  


Edit: When I did the painting the masking tape wasnt perfect especially in the tight spots around the prow and rudder area. This is where I had some paint bleed which I sort of helped with using a knife and carefully dragging it on the paint for some of it to fall off.

Edited November 8 by Stuka

[palmerit]

52 minutes ago, Stuka said:

When I did the painting the masking tape wasnt perfect especially in the tight spots around the prow and rudder area. This is where I had some paint bleed which I sort of helped with using a knife and carefully dragging it on the paint for some of it to fall off.

Use Tamiya tape. Regular masking tape is going to be garbage. Frog tape would be better. Tamiya tape works great. It's more expensive, but you don't use much. 

 

Here's blind comparison:

 

[Stuka]

Hello again 

So moving on I Installed the inner bulwark and spirketting patterns, The bulwarks I installed without any issue but the spirketting part closest towards the bow I had to trim some millimeters so it would fit the curve which after it was all fine.  Today I sanded the top of the bulwark patterns in preperation for the gunwhales. I felt the sides with my finger to check for any bumps to make sure it would sit flush. Later I took a round file just like the instructions and did a small dent for the bowsprit and I hope it is good enough cause I dont know exactly how big the gap is supposed to be but I think this will be fine. Moving on I then installed my minisaw on my trusty Fiskars tool and sawed open the gunports which went without any trouble.  Lastly I filed the sides of the gunports and the oar holes for which I used my minifiles. Having never used the minifiles before alot I used all the wrong files before finally finding the cube shaped one which did the job perfectly. 

So this is the result now, Im quite happy so far as this is my first ever model so Im not too hard on myself if a mistake happens along. 

[Stuka]

On 11/9/2024 at 12:09 AM, palmerit said:

Use Tamiya tape. Regular masking tape is going to be garbage. Frog tape would be better. Tamiya tape works great. It's more expensive, but you don't use much. 

Thanks for the Input aswell Palmerit. I used the blue tamiya masking tape that Chris offers on his site. Perhaps I need better technique

[Stuka]

More work has been done, added the gunwhales which I did using CA glue due to the fact I found no good solution to using PVA. Because if I had used pins on the gunwhales I feel that I might had just slipped and broken the piece. Anyway back when I added the first bulwark I did so without a plank bender or using a good technique, that resulted in that the curve to the bow became how to say it "uneven?" so the gunwhales dont fit correct by the bow but they still fit good so it wasnt a huge problem. 

After the gunwhales I used a tiny amount of PVA glue to glue both the swivel gun posts aswell as the timberheads. Then I today took an old 4mm plank and trimmed it and bended it with my electric bender to get that nice curve so then I could glue it on the stern board. Finally I carefully painted the stern side timers aswell as the plank on top of the stern board.

Edited November 16 by Stuka

[Stuka]

Hello 

Since Saturday, I have been painting the Gunwhales, swivel gun posts and timberheads black, precision work to say the least with my sometimes shaky hands. I also fit the stern transom rail and used some wood filler for the side rails after which I painted them black.  After those steps I fit the bulwark rail which went well using tonnes of clamps 😁. Had to trim the rails by the bow by some mm or 2 for them to fit properly other than that no problems. 

Today for the first time I tried out my hand drill set that I got with the model and using it I drilled the holes for the gunport eyeholes having never used one I accidently drilled some holes through the entire bulwark (whoops)  barely noticable though. Some time later the next step involved me attaching the 8 Cleats which was easy work using the tweezer but I gotta say wow these pieces are thin to handle. Added aswell the side channels with PVA after just a sanding touch.

Finally I opened up my primer for the first use and figured I might aswell cover the entire side of the PE brass sheet so thats why I did I hope it looks good as long as the black colour later sticks im happy.  Got one more side to prime in a couple of hours but thats work for the future🙂

Edited November 18 by Stuka

[Stuka]

Alot of work has been done now on the deck details, Cannons have been assembled and painted, Deck details like the chimney, deck hatches, companionway have been glued down, and the million eyeholes which had my me fiddling for a long time have been mostly added. 

Along the way as I was drilling the dowels for the deck pumps I accidently broke two of the drillbits one of which is the 0,8 mm Im certain off. Probably just to me mishandling it and drilling to far in and then with forceful movements so that was unfortunate but I still managed so far with the smaller and bigger ones. 

An error that happend was that I blindly followed the instructions on constructing the pumps so I made them 25mm long each. however on an unrelated note I read in Palmerits build log that Chris stated that they should be 15mm not 25mm that leaves enough wood left for some mast later. Im not entirely sure what exactly is affected but some mast is going to be 20mm to short so I hope it wont be ugly. 

Painting the main windlass for the Sherbourne I didnt have any wood colour so instead I just did a mix from the grecian paint set with red and black to gain this dark brown colour.  

For attaching the rudder since the fit was pretty tight I actually put in PVA glue in the slots and then gently very gently hammered it in place using the wooden handle from one of the old files so It fits like a glove now 👍. 

In case anybody has problem with fitting the deadeyes inside PE-5 I solved it this way I bought these mini lockring pliers cheaply and fit them inside and just worked my way around to expand the loop.  Then I just fit the deadye and using the other plier I gently closed it around finally I did atleast use a tiny bit of CA gel to make sure it wouldnt accidently pop out or something. 

Next step will be gluing on the swivel guns that I have prepared now for assembly 

 

Edited November 24 by Stuka

[Craigie65]

Really taking shape now, Robin.

 

We have all been there with snapped drill bits. It’s fun digging them out 😡 The fine bits cannot take a lot of lateral pressure.  Apparently HSS bits are stronger than the tungsten carbide ones, although the former are more expensive. 

 

You should be able to source suitably sized walnut dowel to replace the stock you used on the pumps.In the UK Cornwall Model Boat stocks various sizes.  I am sure you will find somewhere closer to home.

 

 

[Stuka]

15 minutes ago, Craigie65 said:

You should be able to source suitably sized walnut dowel to replace the stock you used on the pumps.In the UK Cornwall Model Boat stocks various sizes.  I am sure you will find somewhere closer to home.

Thanks for the suggestion Craig, I will see how I will solve this issue 🙂