HM Armed Cutter Sherbourne 1763 by Nightdive - Vanguard Models - 1:64 - First Build

[Nightdive]

20 minutes ago, bigcreekdad said:

Very nice work! Question....what were those round thingies you used to hold the second planks til dry?l 

Looking forward to your rigging. I'm on the first planking of the cutter Alert and both our builds have similarities.

 

Thanks for stopping by! Those round things are just thumb tacks with the white plastic bit removed. 

 

 

 

 

[Nightdive]

 

The companionway is almost ready for paint. I also found a better way to make its footprint slightly larger. 

 

I'd greatly appreciate any opinions on the hatch stay that Caldercraft's HMS Pickle has. I'm considering replicating it for the Sherbourne. Is it based on something real, or just model designer's imagination? The part circled in red is also a bit of a mystery to me. I think that the vertical iron has a tooth that catches on the horizontal piece when the hatch is open, but I'm not sure. I haven't been able to find any close-up photos in build logs.

 

 

[Nightdive]

 

I've made some good progress since my last update. 

 

Before gluing the deck on I performed some experiments with LED lights, and light was shining through even when both decks were in place. A layer of black paint seems to block it. I also painted the visible parts of the interior black. Fitting the inner bulwarks and spirketting on was fairly straightforward, but I had to add a small extension piece to one of them.

 

I built the hatch stays out of 0.5 mm aluminium sheet. I sanded it down to 0.3 mm after cutting the pieces. They were very tricky to install, but I think that the end result looks nice. I used brass pins for door handles and PE-21 hinges from the 0.2 mm PE sheet. There are only six of them and the manual says that they are "not in use", but I assume that they were originally intented for the port lids. I might try to fake those eight missing hinges with paint. The ladder was copied from the kit ladder and took me three tries to get right. 

 

 

I look forward to continuing this project next year. Many interesting phases of the build remain ahead. 

 

 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Edited December 24, 2025 by Nightdive

[ERS Rich]

Beautiful job!  Happy New Year!

 

-Rich

[Nightdive]

Happy new year to you too!

 

 

Gunwales are now installed and gunports painted. I filed and re-painted them multiple times to make the laminated structure of the sides less obvious. No masking was needed when using a tiny brush and painting from the inside of the ship.

 

 

I ran into some issues with the side timbers and transom rail, highlighted in red. There's probably something wrong with my counter installation, or it might just be that all the small deviations over the course of the build are catching up with me on these last few parts. I can probably sand the counter to fit the transom rail, but side timbers need to be modifed or new ones cut from scratch.

[palmerit]

3 hours ago, Nightdive said:

I ran into some issues with the side timbers and transom rail, highlighted in red. There's probably something wrong with my counter installation, or it might just be that all the small deviations over the course of the build are catching up with me on these last few parts. I can probably sand the counter to fit the transom rail, but side timbers need to be modifed or new ones cut from scratch.

I had to scratch build mine too. 

[Nightdive]

24 minutes ago, palmerit said:

I had to scratch build mine too. 

Good to know, I'll need to check out that part of your build log again.

 

I'll try adding two small extra bits of wood to mine first, the seam might not be too visible in a black part. 

[Nightdive]

 

The side timbers turned out to be relatively easy to fix. The sides aren't exactly identical anymore, but hopefully it'll be hard to tell since they can't be seen at the same time.

 

 

The stern is now nearly finished, but I might return to it later if I decide to build a rudder coat.

 

At which point should the model be varnished? I assume before any rope work, but before or after installing guns and other smaller parts? I have AK Interactive's matt varnish as recommended by the manual. 

[palmerit]

15 minutes ago, Nightdive said:

I assume before any rope work, but before or after installing guns and other smaller parts?

After anything that needs to be glued I’d say.