Out of curiosity I had to go onto the Vanguard Models website and check the Surprise instruction manual to see just how many eyebolts there are with the kit.

Over 700 of the little blighters 😄

And people think ship building is fun...

4 hours ago, Dale-A said:

Over 700 of the little blighters 😄

You must have missed the other P/E sheets...😂

Inner Bulwarks Pattern Fitting

This is my first test to see if my decision to mount the gundeck cannon sooner than later was a good choice...or not! I found that this pear pattern didn't need to be soaked and it conformed nicely to the bow framing with only the manual's temporary clamping for positioning the first hull plank (not shown in this photo). However, this may not be the case for other Surprisers. If you try this and get the least bit of resistance to forming the curvature, stop and soak it as the instructions advise.

The two tiny hawse holes need to align perfectly. I used a handy toothpick. This pear pattern also slipped over all the protruding cannon without any problem. At this stage, it's only held in place temporarily to locate the first hull planking strip below it and tight against the pattern's lowest edge. After clamping it from stem to stern, Surprises' shapely and gentile tumblehome comes readily into view. mmmm. nice.

For planking I have a soaking tube. In the case of Surprise's first planking strip, only the first several inches needed the water softening treatment for a couple of minutes. I pour hot water into a 2 foot section of 2" diameter PVC pipe (capped at one end!) and clip whatever length of strip into the tube is required. I use a combination of planking techniques for my builds, using this hot water "jig" and sometimes a heating iron but rarely the "nipper" that's shown in the build manual. I'm not too concerned about this wood swelling as it sets after gluing. I also used a single strip for this foundational plank, fore to aft. This presented no problems.

Mounting the First Stern Patterns

The stern structure is complex and requires precise sanding to multiple areas. The transom (upper and lower) pear patterns fit superbly but you'll still need to pay careful attention to where and how these initial "locating" patterns meet. Pay attention to the small "locking tabs" – and the mating of the inner stern pattern to the MDF superstructure, especially as it "wraps" around to where the end of the first lime wood plank will be affixed.

Work(sand) the uppermost edges of this lower transom prelim piece so it rests tightly against the temporarily positioned upper one. Take your time with this since even a tiny misalignment will cause big issues later. The four "locking tabs" are a brilliant alignment solution. The lower transom offers a gentle concave mounting to the mating MDF supports and doesn't require soaking. I've removed the tack nails (6) that are necessary to hold this pattern's inward curvature until the glue sets.

On the interior side, the arrows here point to the two center MDF vertical supports which only require a light sanding, the next two outer ones need more sanding to reduce their thickness and finally, the outermost supports should be sanded down substantially. The reason for this fettlin'? Aim for a nice transverse curvature, starboard to port as shown by my (imprecise) dotted white line. This upper pattern isn't glued at this stage but prepping the bits to which it will mount is important. Speaking of "bits", there are no bits n' pieces – fiddles or cellos – in the Captain's quarters yet...too dusty!!

From the outside, the lower transom ends will need to be sanded fairly aggressively (Chris left plenty of "extra" material on the part). I alternately clipped and held both the lengthy pear bulwarks pattern – and the first planking strip that meets it – up to this area while I was prepping the lower transom's outer edge and the MDF corner bits. Like the upper-to-lower transom fit, this area is also important to spend time with to obtain a smooth transitional fit.

First planking is underway; the stern's severe tuck is tricky, but doable. The second pear "skin" will be considerably easier to accomplish. I'll post photos when I have the second planking done and all the pear patterns are mounted. My planking techniques are nothing unusual, just the normal tedium, plank-by-plank.

In the meantime, Good News from Chris: the missing 3D-printed rudder hinges for Surprise arrived today. I counted eight (8) of these tiny guys after I spread them out on my workbench. I'm glad my sneeze was beforehand! (a mild Summer cold)

10 days to Pennsylvania via regular post from Old Blighty. No tariff that I'm aware of...

First planking issues and my solutions.

The bow/stem area: the first hull planking mandates dramatic plank tapering to the 6mm wide X 1mm thick limewood strips. I started the taper at about the 5th bulkhead, narrowing the strip down to approx 2.0 mm where it meets the stem. The limewood doesn't like edge bending and is too thick; I'm using a combo of hot water soaking and a heating tool to form the curve to conform to the first two bulkheads; this is more difficult than it should be. Given that the planking material is too thick, there are not many other solutions that will make this easier. Starting with the 2nd plank below the initial full-size one that abuts the pear pattern, and continuing downward to the keel, six to eight planks require the tapering and shaping shown here. A plank “nipper” tool doesn’t work well on the narrow tapered strips, only hot water and a heating tool will make these behave.

Start the first layer of limewood plank tapering at about the point shown by the arrow.

To conform the tapered planks to the first bulkheads (that have been aggressively faired), I added a thin strip along the first horizontal bulkhead. Note that I will only add two additional planks to the five shown here because I'm not planking to the keel; my Surprise will be placed in a waterline diorama so little to no hull area below this demarcation will be visible in this area. The model's keel will rest on the baseboard case's plywood bottom.

I was tempted to "thin" the ends of these planks, however, between wood filler and sanding, this critical visual area will be smoothed-out for the pear final layer.

The stern planking terminations: the stern's first planks terminate in a challenging "tuck" to meet the transom, nearly a 90 degree severe curvature. Despite dramatic fairing and sanding down stern formers on the last bulkhead, the only way I could accomplish this "tuck" with the 1.0 mm thick planks was to narrow their thickness considerably. I accomplished this with carefully shaving the tips of the planks with a scalpel tool (about 20-25 mm) and making the correct angle cut at the ends so they form a continuous abutment with the first pear pattern mating at the transom.

Unlike the bow and stem area, the ship's waterline exposes this critical area over several inches along the hull and the stern tuck in its entirety. I plan to continue the first planking and will likely need at least one stealer, perhaps two to accomplish a smooth presentation for the second pear planking layer. This area will also get a little filler and aggressive sanding. I haven't planned on tapering the stern's 6.0mm wide planks, but I could change my mind!

Three planks are shaped with several more to go; the tips of all these planks need to be thinned down in order to make the severe bend. This planking (and the second pear one) will continue from the tuck toward the bow for about 3 or 4 bulkheads and be fastened slightly below the waterline as previously described. Lots of confusing pencil tick marks can be seen as I was trying to figure out an approach to this challenging part of the build. How many planks? Do I taper? Stealers? Grrrrrrrrrrr

This shows the conformance problem quite dramatically. Despite thinning down the end of the 1.0mm limewood plank and giving it the hot water and heating iron treatment, it still split trying to get it to attach to the last formers and bulkhead with the kit's temporary mininails. This standard European planking technique doesn't lend itself to proper spiling, tapering and edge bending in a single planking layer. Double layer bulkhead planking vs full framing with spiled planking?

At the end of the day, the second pear layer will disguise all the bother and only the model's maker will know what lurks below...

I wonder if the tuck needs to be so sharp. I see it appear in many build logs. But in my opinion, and when I look at many contemporary models... I don't see such a sharp angle, but rather a flowing line. That is why it does indeed seem very difficult to me to bend a plank into such a short radius. I could be wrong, of course, but I struggled with that myself on the Sphinx; I had it too sharp because I didn't want to sand away the fillers completely. But after looking at a lot of rear ends 😏, I saw that it needed to be smoother. But perhaps it is different with this French model? I am just a layman in that regard. 😁

8 hours ago, Ronald-V said:

I wonder if the tuck needs to be so sharp.

Thanks for your thoughts and observations.

From the models I've seen that were made during the era (not contemporary models), various French warships – and particularly frigates – had this steep stern tuck design. I am also not an expert in nautical design and therefore I can't envision an engineering reason why this was done, but it was. I have built several Vanguard models and dealt with double-planking so hull challenges aren't new to me. Others here have suggested attaching a strip to only a few bulkheads at a time. I'll consider this, do a test and see if this "hack" helps with conformance.

On my Sphinx build (neé HMS Camilla on MSW) I circumvented this problem by planking only with the thinner pear strips which awarded me with a near-perfect steep stern tuck presentation; her bow was not as bluff either. When I get back to my Surprise I may decide to handle the stern planking in the same way (i.e. omit the lime wood planking entirely). My existing eight plank bow will be filled and sanded so the pear appliqués will end up looking fine.

Inner (first) Bulwarks Pattern mounting solutions

I found it much easier to mount the first inner bulwarks patterns by first, cutting it into two pieces and then, second, gluing only limited sections at a time. Applying the glue along the entire length and then adjusting and aligning precise openings wasn't ideal: this kit has built-in, demanding tolerances that require precision woodworking skills. I found it best to attach this critical component (the starboard and port bulwarks foundational patterns), in small steps, as follows:

Viewing the port bulwarks pattern from about two gunport positions aft of midships, I cut the lengthy pear pattern into two sections (cut line and arrows shown here). My reason? The gunport openings didn't align perfectly from stem to stern. The discrepancy wasn't large but it was noticeable when attempting to get the openings to line-up and there wasn't any other reasonable way to accomplish this across the entire length of the hull. By cutting and "shifting" the two pieces I was able to align all the openings perfectly. When I say this, I mean a tolerance measured as +/-0.15-020, or less than 1.0 mm. It should be noted that I DID NOT soak the patterns and clamp them; I found this step unnecessary and the stem section conformed to the bulkhead headers without the soaking and clamping step which possibly could have presented additional tolerance issues had I followed the instructions.

At the foremost position at the prow, I aligned the inner bulwark pattern with two toothpicks pushed through all three pattern layers (the ship's hawse holes). After gluing and clamping, I also used the kit's thin nails to further secure the end of the bulwarks piece; the nails will be covered by the second outer bulwarks engraved layer.

Two other things to note in this photo: The rough, uneven, tapered first layer planking will get some minor filling and sanding. The planking's rough ends will disappear once the "skins" for the stempiece are attached on both sides and the second pear planking layers are in-place terminated evenly against the laminated stem. This view also shows the full extent of my first planking at the prow: six layers only, no further planking required to the keel. Any need for an additional plank or two will be double-checked when I draw a nominal waterline.

I found it much easier to glue and clamp the long pattern in small increments; the arrows show where the first glue step ended. The pear pattern is flexible enough to be pulled forward for a couple extra gluing steps along its shortened length: this was so much easier than attempting to wrestle this ungainly long piece in one continuous mounting step. Light filler and some additional sanding will provide a smooth surface run to attach the second planking below.

Note also the small "ledge" where the first planking meets the thin pear pattern; if you don't see this along the full length of the bulwarks you may have a compromised presentation when the engraved pattern is mounted and you begin adding the final planking.

A Confession: It was such a bad decision to mount the cannon on the gundeck early. I've had to reattach three thus far with lots of hull work still left. The decision I made (show breeching ropes attached to most - but not all - long guns), required their inclusion in the early infrastructure stages. There was no possibility of being able to mount them with their breeching ropes otherwise. As it is, I'll still need to "fish" several long guns through the gunport openings later. This will be a very fiddly task but there is no other way to handle this. Even in midships, where there is better hand and finger access, it would be impossible to mount the cannon with breeching lines (and possibly training tackles) once the gangways were mounted - and deck mounting still withstanding!

I realize none of my above "solutions" will be helpful for those who have marched onward and are past this critical stage and haven't had any issues. This isn't posted for those colleagues. As I stated earlier in this thread, I'm not focusing on frequent posting until I get to the final tophamper stages. However, where I've encountered some difficulties and unintended consequences, I figured it doesn't hurt to show some solutions for others considering this multifaceted building journey.

Pattern Mounting Tip: Mind The Gap

A short n' sweet post. Similar to the foundational laser-etched pear pattern mounting patterns (that's a mouthful!), I think it's important to align the gunports from stem to stern.

I've mounted the second overlays by separating the single piece pattern into two sections. Aligning the fore-aft gunports in two sections produced an approximate 1.5 mm gap; I chose the same spot to cut the pattern as I did with the foundational one noted previously.

As noted, it is considerably less hassle to work with two separate pattern pieces; gluing, aligning and clamping them will deliver a more accurate result for these detailed and excellent looking final skins. I will insert a 1.0-1.5 mm pear strip into the gap before adding the pulley overlay pieces and wood finishing. If this isn't done, the gap would be a quite visible eyesore across three etched planks.