HMS Alert [1777] 1:48 POF by serikoff. (Two hulls: skeleton and fully rigged)

Hello everyone. I have a question for experts! Where can I find freely available books or drawings on an English cutter (like Aleart). I am interested in the rigging and its attachment to the hull. Because in Goodwin's anatomy according to Aleart, some nodes are well described, but others are completely missed. There is no information where all the running rigging goes. There is no diagram like in other anatomies. And I see that many do as they assume, but I (who understands rigging quite well) understand that many make mistakes. Below is a diagram of the rigging fastening on the Diana ship from her anatomy. A similar diagram is also available on Victory. But not on Aleart. And whoever thinks that the diagram can be borrowed from other ships, this is not so. On cuttter, it is quite different. If anyone knows where the issue can be resolved, I will be glad for help.
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Jimsky said:
Greetings fellow.

Here is the book you are looking for. Alert is the single mast rigging and should be identical to most Cutter rigging.

The Naval Cutter Alert (Anatomy of the Ship)​

by Peter Goodwin

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I know this book by heart. Maybe I wrote it wrong in the question, but I'll try to clarify it again. Goodwin did not indicate the scheme of fastening the rigging to the hull in this book. The knots of the beginning of the rigging (masts and yards) are described perfectly, but the places of their fixation on the hull are not indicated, as an example of the picture that I posted above.
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serikoff said:
I know this book by heart. Maybe I wrote it wrong in the question, but I'll try to clarify it again. Goodwin did not indicate the scheme of fastening the rigging to the hull in this book. The knots of the beginning of the rigging (masts and yards) are described perfectly, but the places of their fixation on the hull are not indicated, as an example of the picture that I posted above.
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Got it! The book you are looking for is RiggingPeriod Fore and Ast Craft by Lennarth Petersson

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The book's first chapter discussed The British Naval Cutter (including the belaying pin plan).
 
Jimsky said:
Got it! The book you are looking for is RiggingPeriod Fore and Ast Craft by Lennarth Petersson

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The book's first chapter discussed The British Naval Cutter (including the belaying pin plan).
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Thank you very much for your help. Now I just need to find this book in electronic form)))) I already have one (photo below), but it is in the image of a 3-masted ship. And what you advised should help, I really hope so. Thanks again.
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Jimsky said:
I believe the book was published in the electronic form of Kindle, and you can get it from Amazon (inexpensive)

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Thank you very much. This book is exactly what I was looking for.

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And I understood that there is no bar with pins in Goodwin's anatomy. And it is very strange that he did not indicate them not only on the plans, but also on the drawings in all angles... very strange.
 
I second Christian, the book also shows the "newer" Rig and not the "older", special one of the Alert with spread yard and else (the attached images the only ones I found showing this "older" rig in contemporary sources.

John Kitchingman 01.jpg

John Kitchingman 02.jpg

John Kitchingman 03.jpg

John Kitchingman 04.jpg

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cutter_rigging_f207.jpg


You may also check my Sherbourne build with the rig as it almost should be for the Alert:

British Cutter Sherbourne 1763 - 1:64 - Almost scratch

All the older buildpics can be seen here: https://picasaweb.google.com/11221460152...directlink Edit: I could restore a bit via Google Cache, I will edit here the next days: After a three year buildin
forum.dubz-modelling-world.com

cheers Dirk
 
AnobiumPunctatum said:
Be careful with the Petterson. It shows the bowsprit on the wrong side of the stem. I have not found any contemporary drawing which shows the bowsprit on the starboard side.
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Thanks for the warning, but the bowsprit position is not the worst thing. There are many omissions in Goodwin's anatomy and more than that. There is a question below.

Dubz Modelling World said:
I second Christian, the book also shows the "newer" Rig and not the "older", special one of the Alert with spread yard and else (the attached images the only ones I found showing this "older" rig in contemporary sources.

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You may also check my Sherbourne build with the rig as it almost should be for the Alert:

British Cutter Sherbourne 1763 - 1:64 - Almost scratch

All the older buildpics can be seen here: https://picasaweb.google.com/11221460152...directlink Edit: I could restore a bit via Google Cache, I will edit here the next days: After a three year buildin
forum.dubz-modelling-world.com

cheers Dirk
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Thanks for the pictures and the link to the review, it will be very helpful. And I have a couple of questions, I will write below.

Updated: I have already clarified all the questions that I wrote and soon there will be a detailed analysis of the entire rigging of the Alert
 
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serikoff said:
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Background

My name is Sergey, but in the ship modeling community, I’m known by the nickname serikoff.
Currently, I have an unfinished project, HMS Victory, which I started in 2009 (although the project was on hold for ten years). My plan is to bring the model to the stage of a partially outfitted hull, complete the copper plating, and then put it on hold in a custom glass display case. The truth is, I simply don’t have the space for a fully rigged and masted model of its size (1.5 x 1 x 0.5 m), so I may take a long time to finish it.

A Chance Encounter

One day, I stumbled upon a YouTube video showcasing the build of the Hayling Hoy 1760 model. Through the video’s title, I found a website, drydockmodelsandparts.com, which led me to my future project: the HMS Alert 1777 kit. On the site, I also discovered links to the shipsofscale.com/sosforums, which had over 25 build logs dedicated to this cutter. I instantly fell in love with this ship.

Desire and Decision

I spent a long time studying the kit and weighing my desire to purchase it. I read all the build logs on the forum, and since the reviews were universally positive, only three things held me back: 1. My unfinished previous ship. 2. The fear of leaving this project incomplete due to limited time. 3. The kit’s price, which ranged from $620 to $690.
Then, one day, I came across the kit on OLX (a local equivalent of Amazon) listed for just $350. That sealed the deal.

The Purchase

The seller was another modeler who already had five ongoing projects and one still in its box. To avoid temptation, he sold the kit to me. He had originally purchased it three years ago on AliExpress. Below, I’ll provide a detailed review of the kit.

Plans

I have very ambitious plans for this ship. Let me briefly outline them:
I plan to create two hulls for a single installation, both housed in one display case.
The first hull will follow the kit, built as a skeleton with all interior details, stopping at the point where the sides and decks are fully outfitted. I will then scan this skeleton hull and use a CNC machine to carve a solid replica.
The second hull, carved from a single piece, will be planked and detailed with decking and sides. All the kit’s components (gratings, cannons, etc.) will be installed on this solid hull.

But that’s not all. I also want to scale up the ship’s anatomy plans to match the kit’s dimensions and print them 1:1. Using these plans, I’ll fabricate the masts, yards, and rigging for the second hull. I’m undecided on whether to include sails.
The result will be a continuous building process with two extremes: 1. An admiralty-style skeleton hull. 2. A fully finished model with no cutouts to view the interior.

Some might find this approach strange, as it’s common to plank one side of the ship and leave the other open for viewing. However, I’m drawn to the two extremes: either a complete ship or just the skeleton.
I’m unsure if my plans will change along the way, but I’m committed to this vision and hope it comes to fruition. Wish me luck as I embark on this long but exciting journey.

P.S. Hopefully, nothing will get in the way, but if it does, I apologize in advance.

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P.P.S. As an alternative, I might even include sails—but no promises!

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(Photo of a museum model as a reference for execution).
Ship-1
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Hi Sergey. Just found your interesting project of the 2 Allert's. Set my chair and will follow this!
Regards, Peter
 
Hello everyone. I've been away for three weeks (caught a bit of a cold), and while I couldn’t work on my ships, I did something else.

For three weeks, I studied the rigging of the Alert 1777. It became a real puzzle for me… And realizing that the anatomy contains a lot of errors and gaps, I decided to write my own version of a complete and detailed rigging guide. I based it on various books, anatomical studies, and ChatGPT helped me along the way. I’ve explained everything in detail in this thread, where I also ask you to post any questions on this topic (so everything stays in one place).

Here, I’m simply sharing the images from my rigging guide and a link to the full-size 1:48 scale drawings of the entire rigging and spars. You can download all the images at this Google Drive link: Rigging Alert 1777 by Serikoff.

Below is a sample of two pages from the drawings (the file size is too large to upload here, so you’ll need to download the originals from the link).
If you’re interested, check out the thread on rigging!

Detailed Rigging for the Alert 1777 Cutter by Serikoff in 1:48 scale.

For those who enjoy reading, there's a lot of information below (which I will update over time). But for everyone else, here’s a brief summary. I have studied the anatomy of this ship and other rigging books (listed below) for a long time and created my own guide on making the masts, rigging...
shipsofscale.com




































Ship-1
 
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Continuing with the topic of drawings to wrap it up completely.

I have compiled another A0 sheet, with half of it containing the original drawings from the Trident Model kit—now in a more readable format (black on white instead of the nearly illegible blue on blue). The other half is scaled to 1:48, including the hull (side and top views), deck details, boats, and other elements.
Why did I do this, and why might it be useful for anyone building the Trident Model kit? This is for those who want to go beyond just assembling the skeleton and wish to add planking, decking, and other details. I specifically scaled all the elements so they match the true dimensions of the model in 1:48 scale.
Of course, these drawings won't help you build the hull from scratch—that’s not their purpose. Their function is to provide accurate real-time dimensions: plank widths, nail patterns and positioning, bolt placements, boat drawings (which are missing from the kit), and precise dimensions of some parts that were slightly oversized in the kit. Using these drawings, you can make necessary adjustments.
So, if you have the Trident Model kit and plan to add planking and some refinements, this will be useful. And if you also want to rig the ship with sails, the first two sheets and the rigging guide will help.
I made these drawings for myself, but I’m happy to share them with you.

Below is a sample of the format A0 sheet, as the full format cannot be uploaded here. You can download the original from Google Drive via this link.



Ship-1
 
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Hi, really intersting design. In my opinion it is possible that Alert‘s frame design only shows single frames as you can see by a lot of original drawings from smaller ships of this time. This framing method I used for my design. If you’re iterested I will send you a PDF per mail.
 
AnobiumPunctatum said:
Hi, really intersting design. In my opinion it is possible that Alert‘s frame design only shows single frames as you can see by a lot of original drawings from smaller ships of this time. This framing method I used for my design. If you’re iterested I will send you a PDF per mail.
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I will do it according to the set, I really like the design it offers. But any information is interesting to me. You can send it to me in a private message, thank you.
 
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serikoff said:
I will do it according to the set, I quite like the design that it offers. But any information is interesting to me, #s undersquare serikoff at ukr dot net#
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Hi Sergey. It’s better not to write your e-mail adres this way in your post. Because of scanning spam web-site’s / robots ……
It’s better to send it in a PM of write is fully like in the reply above …… at ukr dot net. Most readers know then what it means.
You can edit your post.
Renards, Peter
 
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I printed out the drawings in A0 format to check if I calibrated everything correctly. The size is certainly impressive!

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And 99% of the time everything suited me, but I still have to retype it and I was ready for that. I corrected some things, but the most important thing is to increase the whole drawing by 0.5%. It's a shame that I almost guessed the scale, but still not completely. And it could have been ignored, but I still increased it by these 0.5% and now everything is ok. And all this is because the drawing that came with the set was exactly smaller by this value. How so? ((( And I found out about the error when I started scanning the entire set. I scanned each plate of the set in case something gets damaged during processing, and then I can create a vector drawing from these scans and send it to a laser cutter to make the same part. This is exactly what I am doing now. I didn’t really like the wood on the keel frame parts. It was cut in such a way that the wood pattern has an unsightly silhouette. That’s why I decided to order 2 sets of keel parts from my pear. And I plan to use one in the skeleton kit, and the second one to make the second hull. I will tell you more about this later. I have been waiting for a month for them to help me cut my pear and then laser cut the parts. In the meantime, I am still finishing the copper sheathing on the Victory, but I really want to start Alert!

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I'm just shocked by these dimensions... I can't wait to work on the sails... eh...

Ship-1
 
The work on the drawings is now complete, and I can gradually start the construction. I have scanned all the sheets with parts, as well as all jigs and templates, in case anything gets lost or damaged. This way, I can always reorder a laser-cut part using these scans. In fact, I have already ordered the keel parts to be cut from my pearwood. I wasn’t satisfied with the grain structure of the wood used for the keel parts in the kit, so I decided to make them separately.

While waiting for the keel parts to be made and finishing the copper plating on Victory, I am slowly beginning work on Alert. To optimize workspace and improve efficiency, I have outlined a preparatory plan for the frames before assembling the keel and the building jig:

PREPARATION:​

  1. Cleaning – Removing sawdust left by the CNC router to minimize mess later.
  2. Numbering – Marking each part with its respective number.
  3. Sorting – Extracting and organizing each frame’s parts into separate bags for structured storage.
  4. Trimming – Removing milling tabs and ensuring 90-degree angles in rounded router-cut corners. CONSTRUCTION:
  5. Gluing – Assembling frame parts using dedicated jigs.
  6. Sanding - removing glue and polishing the surface.
  7. Shaping – Refining the frames to achieve the correct geometry.
  8. Simulating bolts that join the frame parts.
Only after these steps will I proceed with assembling the keel and the building jig, where all these parts will be joined together.
 
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