18 ft Cutter by - Dr PR - Vanguard Models - 1:64

[Dr PR]

I need a small boat for my Albatros topsail schooner build. I have made small boats from scratch before and it is a lot of fun. But back then it was the only alternative - there were no small boat kits. This time I decided to use one of Vanguard's small boat kits. The 18 ft cutter is the smallest they make.

 

Rather than bury this kit build in the log for the schooner where most people would never find it, I wanted to start a log just for this kit. I asked the forum administrators where to post this build log - there is no section for general small kits like these boats and boat fittings. I was told to put it in with ship kit builds, in the appropriate period. I asked Vanguard what period this boat would have been used and it was used from about 1785 to 1815. So it could have gone into the 1751 to 1800 log.

 

My schooner model is 1:48 scale, and I need a boat about 3 to 3 1/2 inches (76 to 89 mm) to hang under the stern davits. The Vanguard 18 foot cutter is about 3.4 inches (86 mm) so it is the right size. At 1:48 it will be a 13.5 foot boat - think of it as a 14 foot cutter that has shrunk a bit over time. I looked in W. E. May's The Boats of Men-of-War and the basic cutter design appears to be the same for all cutters of the 14 - 18 foot length. So I don't plan to try to rescale any of the pieces.

 

The kit comes in a small plastic bag. You have to go to the Vanguard web site to find the instructions in a PDF file.

 

 

It contains a 2 mm MDF board, a 1 mm pear sheet and a 0.72 mm pear sheet. These are laser cut. A 0.36 mm brass photo etch sheet contains many small detail pieces.

 

 

 

 

After reading through the instructions I decided to prepare some of the photo etch parts first. Four of the pieces are deck and gratings The instructions tell how to make simulated wood grain paint for the deck boards but I painted them with the same brown I used on the bulwarks of the schooner.

 

 

 

 

Two small pieces fit together to make the boat anchor. The instructions say to glue them together but I soldered them. They make a very nice anchor!

 

The mast bracket is a very small piece that must be bent to fit one of the thwarts.

 

I used Birchwood Casey Brass Black to blacken the anchor and mast bracket.

 

I will be building this a bit at a time to take a break from rigging the ratlines on the schooner.

Edited 22 hours ago by ccoyle
corrected log title

[Dr PR]

Here is part two of the cutter build. The 2 mm MDF board contains a base for the assembly and the bulwarks. I used a hobby knife to cut the small tabs that hold the laser cut pieces in the carrier board. They came out easily. Each piece is labeled so it can be identified in the instructions. The instructions are clearly written and easy to follow.

 

 

 

 

The first step is to assemble the bulkheads on the base. The bulkheads have tabs that fit snugly into holes in the base. The positions on the base are labelled with the corresponding bulkhead number.

 

THE BULKHEADS ARE NOT GLUED INTO THE BASE.

 

Most of the bulkhead pieces will be removed after the planking is in place so you don't want to glue them to everything!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next you must remove the keel, transom (stern bulkhead) and bulkhead C14 from the 1 mm pear sheet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I departed from the instructions a bit here. They say to put the keel in place on the bulkheads and then glue the transom onto the keel. But I could see there would be a restricted work area for gluing the transom in place if the keel was positioned on the bulkheads. I wanted to attach the transom at right angles to the keel, and the laser cut pieces fit together a bit loosely. I glued the transom onto the keel first, clamping it in place until the glue set. For this I used Duco Cement because it forms a very strong bond with wood and sets fairly quickly.

 

 

 

 

I ran into the first problem when I was fitting the keel onto the bulkheads. Each bulkhead fits into a notch on the keel. The slots in the bulkheads that fit over the keel were a bit too narrow and did not want to slide into place. The MDF has very little strength and can fragment easily so I did not want to force things.

 

The pear keel measured 1.06 mm with my calipers, and I just happened to have a small file that also measured 1.06 mm! I pushed the file edge on into the slots in the bulkheads to clear out some of the char and get the slot sides parallel (the laser cut is actually somewhat "V" shaped, and that is probably why things were a bit too tight).

 

 

 

 

After a little shaping with the file the keel fit into the bulkheads slots. Things were still a bit tight but that is good.

 

The instructions tell you that you will have to "joggle" the pieces a bit to get everything to go together. You must start at one end and fit the keel into each bulkhead one at a time. I found that rocking the bulkheads fore and aft a bit helped the keel find its place. Eventually you will get all the bulkheads in place on the keel.

 

Each bulkhead has a rectangular cutout. The bottom of this cutout will line up with the top surface of the keel adjacent to the bulkhead (top and bottom relative to normal boat orientation when floating). Keep working the keel into the slots on the bulkheads until all of the surfaces are lined up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the keel is in place the instructions say to paint the joints between the bulkheads and keel with glue. They recommend Titebond I or II wood glue. I have Titebond Original Wood Glue - I don't know if this is type "I" or not. I have never used Titebond before but it is the choice for many of the members of the Forum. I have been using SigBond aliphatic resin for much of the schooner build and for my MSI build.

 

 

 

 

 

While the glue was setting I removed the two bow blocks (C11) from the MDF sheet and shaped them as shown in the instructions. Then they were glued in place at the bow. These will form a surface for the planks to glue to at the bow.

 

 

 

These steps prepare the framework for planking. Next the bulkheads will have to be faired (shaped) to the run of the planking.

Edited yesterday at 05:20 AM by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

This morning I decided to begin fairing the bulkheads on the cutter as a way to avoid having to tie more ratlines on the schooner. What started off as a simple task turned out to reveal a problem.

 

 

I installed the 1 mm pear bulkhead C14 according to the instructions. You can see in this photo that the bulkhead tabs fit into the holes on the MDF base, with no gap between the bulkhead  and the base.

 

But when I started fairing the bulkheads part C14 was far out of alignment with the other bulkheads and transom. There was no way that the surface of C14 would align with the inner surface of the planks. This would be very visible in the finished model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first plank is supposed to fit against the "shoulder" on the bulkheads. The red line marks the line of these shoulders, and the shoulder on part C14 is obviously way out of alignment.

 

You can also see how the notch in bulkhead C14 does not fit into the notch on the keel, and the gap is about the same length as the difference in alignment of the shoulder.

 

Not as noticeable is the misaligned angle of bulkhead C14 and the notch in the keel. C14 should be tilted back a bit more for the keel to fit deeply in the notch in the bulkhead.

 

 

 

 

Fortunately the Titebond glue is water soluble. I "painted" a couple drops of water on the joint between C14 and the keel, and in a few minutes the glue softened and I was able to remove C14 from the keel.

 

You can see from the glue residue (left arrow) that the bulkhead had not fit all the way into the notch in the keel.

 

The slot in the bulkhead (right arrow) is long enough to allow it to fit deeper into the notch in the keel.

 

 

 

 

This problem really is "much ado about nothing!" With a minor adjustment of procedure the parts fit together perfectly with no modifications.

 

First I fit bulkhead C14 into the notch in the keel as far as it would go (upper left arrow). I had to remove the assembly from the base to do this, but it plugged back in place easily.

 

When the assembly was plugged back into the base the tabs on the bulkhead rested against the surface of the MDF base (lower arrow). The tabs were not aligned with the holes in the base. The bulkhead also fit onto the keel at the proper angle.

 

The shoulder on bulkhead C14 now aligned perfectly with the shoulders on the other bulkheads (red line).

 

When the glue sets on C14 again I can resume fairing the bulkheads (in the meantime I guess I will have to tie more ratlines). Initial results show the surface of C14 where the planks will attach is in correct alignment with the surfaces on the transom and other bulkheads.

 

Problem solved! I hope any other problems that may arise are as easy to fix!

Edited 18 hours ago by Dr PR

[Dr PR]

I started fairing the bulkheads in preparation for planking the hull.

 

 

This was pretty straight forward, and bulkhead C14 faired in with the transom and other bulkheads. At the bow the filler blocks were shaped to match the first bulkhead.

 

 

 

 

Next I started planking the hull.

 

The hull planks are laser cut in the 0.6 mm pear wood sheet. There are 11 planks per side and that should be just enough, with no spares.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first planks to be installed rest on the shoulders on the bulkheads. These are the upper most planks when the hull is right side up as it would float in the water.

 

I immediately encountered another problem. I shaped the forward end of the first plank so it would fit into the rabbet groove cut into the keel at the stem. I finished shaping the entire plank with no problems.

 

Then I put drops of Titebond glue above all the bulkhead shoulders and put the plank into position, pushing it into the rabbet. I wasn't pushing hard, but the thin pear wood broke.

 

I was wary of this thin wood, especially at places cut across the grain. I knew this was prone to breaking along the grain. Obviously I wasn't careful enough!

 

When I make things of wood this thin I use plywood. The alternating grain layers makes it much stronger and less likely to break.

 

 

The solution was to glue the broken pieces together with Duco Cement, wipe off the wet Titebond glue, and wait for the Duco to harden. Fortunately it sets pretty quickly. But in the mean time I had supper. After a couple hours I started adding the first planks again.

 

The planks were shaped to fit the hull by painting a drop of water on the planks and then holding them in place on the hull while I heated them with my plank bending/quilting iron tool. These thin planks bent mostly to shape with a single pass. I repeated the wetting/heating two more times just to be sure. Then the planks held their shape without any additional force.

 

I put a drop of Titebond glue on each bulkhead above the shoulder. The plank was longer than necessary and the end protruded beyond the transom at the rear. I used a small rubber band to pull the aft end of the plank tight against the transom until the glue dried. The rubber band wasn't very tight - only a slight pull was necessary to keep the plank in place. The forward end was held in place by the rabbet groove in the stem.

 

 

 

The garboard strakes were the next to go on. I filed and scraped the inboard sides to fit to the keel.

 

The planks were wetted and bent with the planking iron to twist the fore and aft ends to conform with the curvature of the bulkheads. Again, after heating the planks held shape.

 

I painted Tightbond on the bulkheads and along the keel piece. Clamps held the ends to the keel. In the middle I used another clamp to hold the plank against the bulkheads.

 

The assembly was pretty strong. I removed it from the base and painted more Tightbond into the inside space between the planks and the keel.

 

I made no attempt to taper the forward end of the garboard strake before attaching it to the hull. When the glue dries I will place another plank alongside and mark where it curves over the garboard strake. Then I will trim the garboard so the plank fits tightly to it.

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Dr PR

[schooner]

Hi Phil,

 

Looks like you are making good progress and solving the little problems that inevitably come up.

 

I have not built the 18-footer but I hope to near the end of my Syren build. I did do the 24ft launch (I have a build log under the 1751-1800 section). One suggestion that may help you avoid a problem - the transom is a weak point when planking the hull since it is just hanging out there in space and not attached to the base. You might want to consider attaching some scrap wood to the base that will reinforce the transom vertically and athwartship so it doesn't break off under pressure.

 

keep up the good work.

Edited 14 minutes ago by schooner