Naval Cutter Alert 1777 by serikoff - 1:48 - two hulls: skeleton and fully planked and rigged - based on Trident Model hull

[Chuck]

Its fine keep going with posts about your models.   Both models are looking great so far.

 

Chuck

[James H]

Following along.

[serikoff]

2 hours ago, Chuck said:

Its fine keep going with posts about your models.   Both models are looking great so far.

 

Chuck

 

49 minutes ago, James H said:

Following along.

 

Thank you for your hospitality. You have a great forum, and I'm glad I can contribute my part; maybe it will be useful to someone.

[serikoff]

Chapter 2.

 

Decks (1st hull)

 

June 2025

 

Knees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 08:16 PM by serikoff

[serikoff]

Lower deck.

 

 

 

 

Imitation bolts and nails.

 

 

 

The imitation was done using gel ballpoint pens (without a ball) of different diameters.

 

 

Here are the connection points in the power boards.

 

 

Result:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[James H]

27 minutes ago, serikoff said:

 

 

Thank you for your hospitality. You have a great forum, and I'm glad I can contribute my part; maybe it will be useful to someone.

I also have this kit in my stash.

[serikoff]

Imitation of bolts on frames.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[serikoff]

8 minutes ago, James H said:

I also have this kit in my stash.

The kit is very good, except for the hull and deck. Everything on the deck is a bit large, and I'll be redoing it all. The cannons are good quality, as are the anchors, but the small parts are also a bit large, and I'll be redoing them from brass. But for a first kit (for someone), this is a great option; if you want more, you can improve everything as much as possible. But this is the option I highly recommend. 😉

[serikoff]

Lower deck.

 

1/4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 06:37 PM by serikoff

[serikoff]

Lower deck.

 

2/4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 06:38 PM by serikoff

[serikoff]

Lower deck.

 

3/4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 06:40 PM by serikoff

[serikoff]

Lower deck.

 

4/4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 06:41 PM by serikoff

[serikoff]

Ladders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[serikoff]

Keel. 

 

(imitation bolts and fixation)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[serikoff]

I printed out the new Nelson.

I assumed an average height of 180 cm, but according to verified data, the average height of sailors of that time was 165-170 cm.

 

 

 

And here, for comparison and understanding, is how cramped it was on the lower deck in such small ships... and at the same time, it was dark and damp... but what impresses me more is how cramped it was there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, I made an imitation of the bolts on the outside:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up is the upper deck, stay tuned, it'll be interesting.

 

 

Edited Thursday at 07:37 PM by serikoff

[serikoff]

Oh, I forgot... this is what the hull looks like under Tung oil.

 

It's a little darker than I expected (I think it would be lighter under Danish oil), but I'll use it on the upper deck, and then they'll contrast and not blend together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[serikoff]

Upper (Main) Deck.

 

1/6

 

 

Beams, carlings and knees:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To position all the deck parts, it was necessary to calculate the position of these elements:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 09:04 PM by serikoff

[serikoff]

Upper (Main) Deck.

 

2/6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the way, the hulls are absolutely identical, and the deck from the first hull fits perfectly on the second one!

 

 

Edited Friday at 09:03 PM by serikoff

[serikoff]

Upper (Main) Deck.

 

3/6

 

October 2025

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kit came with two sets... although I ended up installing something other than what I originally wanted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to remake the obviously incorrect parts into the ones that should be there.

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 09:02 PM by serikoff

[serikoff]

Upper (Main) Deck.

 

4/6

 

 

 

 

The deck carlings in the forward section run parallel to the ship's axis, but in the aft section the side carlings begin to converge inward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The deck from the first hull still fits freely to the second one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 09:02 PM by serikoff

[serikoff]

Upper (Main) Deck.

 

5/6

 

There was a misalignment with the aft beam; it should have been a bit lower and further away. I made some overlays to increase the beam. They also reinforced the deck while it was removable.

The deck will be removed until the last moment. This makes it much easier to sand it and adjust all the parts on and under it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 09:01 PM by serikoff

[serikoff]

Upper (Main) Deck.

 

6/6

 

November 2025

 

After sanding, I started making the lintels. This wasn't too difficult, but I made them different, based on anatomy. This was to increase the area near the gratings frames so I could nail the boards. This was omitted from the kit.

 

 

Plus, the bulkheads vary in thickness in different areas of the deck. This depends on many factors: distance, gun weight, and the position of other components.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since this hull will show everything inside the ship, I decided not to make a crossbar on one side so that more of the lower deck would be visible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This officially concludes the second chapter.

 

This means that almost all the work on the kit is behind us, and now it's time for the second hull: planking and deck work. Things will get more interesting later, so stay tuned. 🙃

 

 

 

[serikoff]

Chapter 3.

 

2nd hull

 

June 2025

 

So, almost all the major work on the kit's hull is complete. As I mentioned, everything on this hull will be made from scratch, following the anatomy. (The kit has some decent parts, but there are some issues with scale. While the hull is fine, the smaller parts are typically scaled up to make it easier for beginners, but again, the parts are still quite good.)

 

 

Starting with this chapter, I'll be going into more detail about the construction (since the kit's construction is all straightforward according to the instructions, although I deviated from them quite a bit to make improvements), and all further work will be pure improvisation based on anatomy. Let's get started!

 

As I mentioned earlier, I scanned the first case and printed the second one (exactly the same) on a 3D printer.

 

 

 

The first thing I needed to do was find a starting point. That was the railing. From there, I would plank the hull downwards.

For this, I used the template from the railing line kit.

 

 

 

___________________________________________

 

Inserts.

 

1/2

 

But the first thing I did was mark out and install the side walls of the gun ports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After sanding, the black hornbeam inserts were completely flush with the hull profile.

 

Edited 14 hours ago by serikoff

[serikoff]

Inserts.

 

2/2

 

July 2025 

 

After that, I installed red pearwood inserts in the forward section—for the anchor cable and for the forward gunport.

Also, at the stern, I installed black hornbeam inserts, which I used to make the inserts for the gunports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

____________________________________________

 

A small return to the first hull, made some adjustments to the rudder and its hinges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 12 hours ago by serikoff

[serikoff]

Applying the Waterline.

 

For this I needed a special tool, which I bought at a flea market and which is many years old, but still works great.

 

 

The cutter's hull was tilted... or rather, the bow of the ship was raised by a certain degree. I'll talk about this in more detail later, but to accurately convey this angle, I transferred the waterline position forward using the keel and measured it aft with a ruler.

 

 

 

I then adapted the hull base (frame holders) so that the rear of the holder raised the hull to the desired angle.

 

 

 

 

Then I attached a marker to the tool and drew a waterline. This is just for reference, as this line will be very important later and will be drawn with a blade.

 

 

 

 

 

[serikoff]

Keel.

 

1/2

 

I made the main part one piece, imitating a joint. It's both simpler and stronger.

 

 

I also made the imitation of bolts simply - using brass wire on liquid СA.

 

 

But the forward section is more complicated. I'll be making the keel two-tone! Light pear wood up to the waterline and dark pear wood below.

 

 

 

Plus, it's a little wider at the top. So I decided to redo the joint... It took a lot of work, but I did it right, and it's better this way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the same connection from the other side.

 

 

And I decided to decorate the top of the stem with this color scheme.

 

 

 

Below is a pear, above is a blue hornbeam, yellow boxwood and black hornbeam.

 

I also made complex connections using imitation. Where the connection was almost straight, I reinforced it with pins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[serikoff]

Keel. fixation

 

2/2

 

I simulated the bolts in the same way. The bolt positions are the same as on the keel of the first hull (described earlier).

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also showed Latin numerals earlier how I did it.

 

 

 

 

The hole positions, as on the first keel, have been changed compared to those provided with the kit. This will be important when installing the rigging.

 

 

Well, when everything was ready, I simply glued the keel with CA gel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[serikoff]

Railing-sill.

 

1/2

 

August 2025

 

To make the railings (window sills) inside between the inserts (posts), I first installed stoppers and will use them to glue a positioning strip to support the window sills. This strip will then be sanded down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 10 hours ago by serikoff

[serikoff]

SternPost.

 

A small digression. I glued balsa inserts into the stern to make gluing the planks easier and made a hole for the rudder.

The sternpost is also two-tone (light pear up to the waterline, dark below).

 

 

 

 

 

Trying on the steering wheel (from the first hull).

 

 

 

 

Edited 12 hours ago by serikoff

[serikoff]

Railing-sill.

 

2/2

 

Let's return to the railings. I also made them two-tone: black hornbeam and yellow boxwood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The starting point is ready, and now you can start planking!

Edited 12 hours ago by serikoff