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HM Armed Cutter Alert (1777) - Vanguard Models - 1/64 - Completed Build

I started to prep for the gun rigging last night. I found a bag of blocks which are reasonably small I think. They look enormous but these are only little 6-pounders and real blocks seem to have been very big by our standards. I guess because they didn’t have bearings etc and their ropes weren’t happy going around small radius curves??

I have some polyester rope that looks good. It’s been wound around a piece of card so it has many kinks. I have it hanging up with a small weight at the bottom, hoping to straighten it. Gentle methods first - it can go in the oven if all else fails.

I also have an idea for the training tackles which I haven’t seen done before but I’ll test that and submit it for your approval before I do a dozen of them.
 
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I have come up with a plan for making vent aprons for the guns. I’ll use self adhesive aluminium tape, but only if I can locate that roll I ‘found’ in 1987.

EDIT: While looking for the aluminium tape I found some scraps of lead foil left over from armour and aircraft modelling days. Perfect!
 
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Smithy said:
I started to prep for the gun rigging last night. I found a bag of blocks which are reasonably small I think. They look enormous but these are only little 6-pounders and real blocks seem to have been very big by our standards. I guess because they didn’t have bearings etc and their ropes weren’t happy going around small radius curves??

I have some polyester rope that looks good. It’s been wound around a piece of card so it has many kinks. I have it hanging up with a small weight at the bottom, hoping to straighten it. Gentle methods first - it can go in the oven if all else fails.

I also have an idea for the training tackles which I haven’t seen done before but I’ll test that and submit it for your approval before I do a dozen of them.
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you are doing Very impressive and beautiful work , your model looks wonderful :) Thumbsup
 
Smithy said:
I'm bored with Alert.
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In a flash of insight I have gotten to the root of the problem. I feel no emotional connection to this vessel. It has virtually no history. I know nothing about it. It doesn’t excite me.

I only bought it because it was a bargain and the manufacturer has a good reputation. I don’t even think it looks nice which is probably why I have made mine in such an undecorated and gnarly style.

It’s not just at the present moment but throughout the build that I’ve been relatively uninspired which is why it’s taken me so very long to get even this far.

In theory, now I know the nature of the blockage, it will clear and I’ll generate some enthusiasm automatically.

Someone should write a book on the psychology of modelling. :D
 
I March Toward the Guns​

The niffnaff and trivia continue to be dealt with...

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Gudgeon and pintle braces; would they be under or over the copper? I have no firm information on this but we know that the boat was delivered to the Navy with the rudder fitted - even the Navy would have noticed if that was missing. Two days later Alert was dry docked and coppered. In the middle of a war, would the Deptford Dockyards have removed the rudder and unbolted the braces in order to apply copper underneath them? I'm guessing that they didn't and so I won't be fitting braces. That's one little task completed with a simple decision.

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These were the next parts to be manufactured. They are a pair of mizzen mast steps which will be attached to the step up to the rudder platform. No mizzen is included in the kit and I won't be making one but these big brackets are interesting I think.

The making of these simple things leads me to pass on some hacks which might be useful to some readers.

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Awful photo, sorry. I cut my photo-etch with a heavy duty (Stanley) knife on an aluminium anvil. The aluminium is firm enough to prevent delicate PE from distorting as it will if cut against a soft cutting mat, but gives the steel blade a fighting chance of staying sharp.

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I keep my drill bits in a packaging foam block neatly divided into sizes by the red lines, as you see. This keeps them instantly available without having to put the calipers on them every time. (Assuming that you put them back in the right place...)

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Even when drilling wood, a centre-punched hole helps me to start the hole in approximately the right place. Even if the dimple made by the sewing needle is a bit off, as here, I can easiy finess the drill into the right place. Without the dimple, it's anyone's guess where the hole will start and end. Sometimes my Proxxon runs right off the table!

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If you are doing a lot of PE work, jewelers' suppliers make a fascinating range of special pliers for bending and shaping, anyway you want me.

I attached a few other less interesting odds and ends of wood before beginning to plan for the mounting of the twelve guns.

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There's nothing provided in the kit for gun rigging and these, the smallest blocks in the box are waaay overscale. I have some in stock that are smaller and will do. They are only single blocks, not doubles so it's all going to be a bit of fakery really. I'm going to do the breeching rope properly, with the big knots but the various tackles will be neatly wrapped up by their working ends, concealing the blocks as much as possible. Ready for Captain's inspection - the way he likes it.

I'm going to try using fine brass wire as the rope in the tackles because almost every rigged gun I see on models looks like a hank of wool due to the hairiness caused by the tight bends. Brass wire is my chosen metal so that I can colour it with antiquing fluid. I'll let you know how that goes in a week or so.

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Kit rope for breeching on the right. Looks like parcel string - horrible, though beeswax would help it. The stuff on the left is left over from another kit and I thought it was polyester. I tried to melt the ends today and it's not plastic at all. It's very nice though. It was stored on a card so it's been hanging to get the kinks out. Once I realised it was natural fibre, I damped it slightly and hung it weighted, to dry in a warm place.

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Maybe a little too large but good enough for me.

The O rings and eye bolts in the kit are all PE which means awfully flat and sharp edged. I plan to make my own from tinned copper wire as soon as I can identify some. I have a box full of old wire but have little idea what it is. I know there's chromel and alumel and resistance wire and all manner of other interesting materials but the labels have fallen off so it will be trial time until I find something I can solder.

A gun without a bullet isn't a lot of use so...

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...I cleaned up the shot garlands and superglued the balls into them. I've left some empty spaces for artistic purposes. I think it's more interesting that way and it makes the garlands more comprehensible to the non-specialist.

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Those last two photos ARE in the correct order. When I touched them after a couple of hours, all the balls fell off. I hadn't remembered to de-grease them. D'oh! I cleaned them up with Tamiya Extra Thin polystyrene cement because that was the suitable solvent closest to hand. It worked a treat and the ready-use ammo is now secure.

Then I tidied up.

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The abrasives drawer isn't getting much better though...
 
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The Ships Cat said:
Saw this in another post, sorry to be a pain but forever inquisitive:
"I am building POF-models and other modelers building POB"
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Inquisitive is good.

Plank on Bulkhead is what your and my models are. Plank on Frame is where the original structure of the ship is reproduced exactly with all the frames and beams and so on. It's a big step up in difficulty.
 
serikoff said:
I'll get to the ropes and cables soon. I made a machine for creating ropes. And remind me, did you make one, what kind of thread do you use?
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No I didn’t make one. I found this in my leftovers from other builds. I do have a rope making machine though. My son made it for me. He also made a seizing/serving machine which is outstanding. You’ll see it when I next change my mind and do the rigging on Alert.

If there’s one thing about me that you can depend on, it’s my inconsistency.
 
Painting Perturbations​

Well, who'd have thought that simple painting operations would perturb me quite so much? Not I for sure. I've been a bit of a wizzzard at the painting of plastic aircraft and armour models for two decades, though mostly with the airbrush on large areas only resorting to the hairy old stick for the details. If that wasn't enough, three or four years back I drifted into painting figures which was mostly old fashioned brushwork with tiny details like eye pupils coming out fairly well. You might say I was a dab hand at painting. ROTF

However,

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Today I couldn't keep inside the lines at all! Did I say dab hand? This is more like daub hand! It looks better in the photos than on the wood, for a change. The main difficulty was with my vision. I've had a couple of 'events' which have resulted in both eyeballs being home to literally thousands of floaters, little particles of opaque tissue. For routine daily tasks by brain fills in the missing portions of my visual field like Photoshop removing warts. This sort of detail painting over such a large area demands an extended period of actually SEEING the end of my paintbrush and the model thereon.

After half an hour I couldn't see anything at all, I had a headache and eye ache and lots of tears and eventually I sort of went effectively blind in close up.Distant vision was still functioning so I went for a walk with the pooch until the headache went away.

As I walked, I pondered. Several factors had combined to make life tricky. I didn't use my lights as effectively as possible. D'oh! I didn't realise that it's been two or three years since I did any serious brush painting and my skills were rusty. D'oh! I didn't use my figure painter tricks for holding the model steady. D'oh! I didn't anticipate that painting wood would be so much more difficult than plastic or resin due to the texture which seems to almost repel the paint. D'oh! I didn't use my wet palette so the paint soon thickened up and I then failed to re-dilute it manually. D'oh! and D'oh! I didn't stop when I first encountered trouble but instead rushed to finish before I went bling. D'oh!, D'oh!, D'oh! And worse of all I forgot to use my new specially made modelling glasses - D'oh! D'oh and thrice D'oh!


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There have been multiple touchings up...

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... and some scrapings off too - later to be made good with a little more shellac.

I only attempted half of the boat, with glasses on, reclining with model clutched to my chest while I painted with thinner paint, using masking tape and stopped as soon as it began to blur. I've only this second thought that flow improver would be a very good idea too.

It's been another learning day. I've learned something about my own failing capabilities and how some forethought is now needed to compensate. Hmm.

I tidied up.

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The abrasives drawer isn't getting much better though...
 
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