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HM Cutter Alert, 1777 in scale 1:36 by own reconstruction

AnobiumPunctatum

AnobiumPunctatum

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Oct 23, 2018
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My interest in the Cutter Alert, 1777 began, as with many modelers who have built a model of the cutter, with the AotS volume "The Naval Cutter Alert, 1777" by Peter Goodwin. The book is now over 30 years old and, when preparing my project, I critically scrutinized the reconstruction presented by Goodwin.

My model is based on the surviving original drawings:
  • ZAZ7910 Sheer and Profile Plan (as designed for Alert and Rattlesnake)
  • ZAZ7911 Deck Plan (as designed)
  • ZAZ6437 Sheer and Profile Plan (as build for Rattlesnake)
  • Sheer and Profile (as designed copy from the Imperial Archives Copenhagen)
The two paintings of the "Alert" by Marshall were painted in 1755, according to the Science Museum website, and do not belong to the series of ship paintings that the same artist painted for King George in the 1770th. The paintings therefore show a naval cutter of the same name, but not the ship for my model. Their use is therefore limited.
 
In November 2022, I completed my reconstruction of the line drawing with the help of the drawings mentioned above.

Alert-001.jpg

Alert-002.jpg

In his book, Goodwin shows the classic frame arrangement of double frames followed by 2 single frames. He does not give any details for the cant frames.

Looking at the surviving disposition of frames plans from other smaller vessels of this period, it is noticeable that in the mid-1770s the double frames were abandoned Instead, two single frames were used, which were probably still connected with chocks. I reconstructed the frames for my model on this basis. In the area of the top timbers, the framing is a little bit simplified, as the required shifted frames are not visible after the planned planking of the hull.

The following picture shows the result of my reconstruction.

Alert-003.jpg

The build of my model started last year and some of you had the possibility to see the first results during the exhibition in Amsterdam. In the moment I am working on a new backbone. In the current backbone are some smaller mistakes I like to solve.

I will build the Fly and the Alert parallel. If I have finished a step at the cutter I will do the same steps for my sloop. So the build will take a little bit longer.
 
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The first component for the backbone of the Alert is the Fore Deadwood. This was milled from a piece of boxwood.

Even though I am very happy with the finished part, I will use a different technique for the aft deadwood. Before I could hold the finished part in my hands, I had a few failed attempts. With a much more complicated component, this method is unlikely to work satisfactorily.

Alert-004.jpg

Alert-005.jpg
 
As the weather has been nice over the last two weeks, I've swapped my little shipyard for my bike. As a result, I haven't got as far as I had planned.

As I wrote in the last part, I want to try a different technique for the after deadwood, especially to avoid milling on both sides. Firstly, the individual components of the deadwood are milled once with the correct side and once mirrored. In order to be able to glue the two sides together later, recesses are milled into which fitting pieces are glued before gluing them together.

Alert-006.jpg

The next picture shows the components removed from the board and trimmed.

Alert-007.jpg

Before gluing them together, a few small curves that inevitably result from the milling cutter must be removed. I do this with my little Proxxon.

Alert-008.jpg

The last picture shows the individual components after gluing them together.

Alert-009.jpg

A weak point became apparent when machining the parts. The direction of the wood grain of the tabs, which are used to position the finished component on the keel, follows the overall part. It would have been better to mill the tabs separately and rotate the grain by 90°. This would have made the components much less susceptible to breakage.

In the next part of the report, both sides of the deadwood parts will be milled and the deadwood glued together.
 
@Mirek Thank you very much. As writter earlier, this build should help to get the experience and techniques for the Fly.

Thanks for the Likes
 
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