This will be my first new build log on DDM, as opposed to re-posts.

Another day, another Barge.

On the basis that I’ve nothing else in mind to do I thought I would have a play around with Vanguard’s offering of a Resin model at 1:48 scale.

You could be forgiven for thinking I’m obsessed with small boats, well this will be the third Barge I’ve made, and if you include the smaller Pinnaces, the total goes up to seven.

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Queen Anne style Barge circa 1702 - Syren 1:24 scale. Completed August 2021.

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Admirals Barge circa 1750 – Vanguard 1:64 scale. Completed December 2022.

A 1:48 scale version will complete the set.

Unlike the previous wood versions this Resin model is all about preparation, painting, and finishing techniques, the actual construction time will be fairly short.

The 3d printed kit is priced at £58 for the 1:48 scale version, a little cheaper at 1:64. Scale.

 

A look at the 3d kit

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As built by Jim Hatch.

Vanguard describe the model as a Royal/Admirals barge. It is quite a fancy Barge even for an Admiral, given the bow and stern decoration, and the crown motif on the Flying Transom.

The kit depicts a 33’ 10 oared Shallop circa 1691 and is based on a model held by the NMM which is thought to represent a design for a Barge built for William 111.

This is the contemporary model of a Shallop on which the kit is based, and it is a close representation.

 

A look at the makings

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As can be seen the hull interior is nicely detailed with the futtocks

Also, the long timber strips containing the chocks to take the stretchers, used by the oarsmen to brace their feet to give purchase when rowing.

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The stern topsides are richly decorated.

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The clinker planking is clearly defined.

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Here a comparison with the 1:64 scale version which Chris sent me to look at some time ago.

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This is the extent of the Pearwood, not very much to do with construction but I suspect great care will be required in handling these pieces for clean -up and fitting.

There is a nicely shaped display base that may lend itself to a spot of wood dye and polish.

I now need to work out a plan of approach, colour schemes, and techniques.

B.E.

26/07/2026

Interesting to see how you are going to approach this one B.E.

Looking forward for updates 🙂

Count me in too! There’s no harm in enjoying building small craft! I have found with model building that sometimes the little projects that can be completed relatively quickly do wonders for my motivation!

Andy

I’m excited to follow along with this one. It should be an interesting combination of plastic and wood techniques.

Adam

Do you plan to populate it? If so, I know there are 3D printed 1:48 STL’s or printed figures available from a couple sources.Your build will be a great addition to your argy-bargy flotilla!

Count me in too B.E. - I always enjoy following your builds.

Cheers Guys, I hope I can do justice to Chris's Resin beauty.

14 hours ago, modelshipdood said:

Do you plan to populate it? If so, I know there are 3D printed 1:48 STL’s or printed figures available from a couple sources.Your build will be a great addition to your argy-bargy flotilla!

Thank you Ron,

There appears to have been a great tradition of 17th/18thc model makers to add figures to boat models. Fine examples are to be found in the Kriegstein Collection, the Thomson Collection, and specifically in the case of this particular Shallop, the book Navy Board Ship Models by Nick Ball and Simon Stephens. ( not to be confused with the earlier book of the same name by John Franklin)

I will be adding a full set of figures to 'people' the model, but unlike my previous efforts from the Frankenstein school of figure modelling I will be working with Herbs model figures Home | Herbs Figures  to produce bespoke figures.

On with the show.

Regards,

Maurice.

10 hours ago, Blue Ensign said:

I will be adding a full set of figures to 'people' the model, but unlike my previous efforts from the Frankenstein school of figure modelling I will be working with Herbs model figures Home | Herbs Figures  to produce bespoke figures.

Good thinking. Herb has posted quite a few 3D figure variations. Please let us know how this new aftermarket vendor works for you.

Post 1

I have decided to model the Barge as a Royal Barge rather than a Navy Barge.

The distinction between Royal and Naval barges may be minor in the case of smaller Barges but show Royal Barges are a whole different thing as enjoyed by Prince Frederick below.

Prince Frederick’s Barge in use 1732 and in operation until 1849, a long career.

There were no doubt less opulent barges for say popping down to Greenwich for a pint in The Plume of Feathers.

By all accounts Frederick was a bit of a lad in his youth, fond of drinking, gambling and women and apparently also Rowing and Cricket.

Back to the build.

Outer Hull

The first consideration is the colour scheme, and whether to have the hull with or without a contrasting lower hull colour.

The main task will be to replicate a varnished wooden hull colour, with or without the waterline painted in.

My approach will be to use a combination of acrylic and oils – always remember fat over thin.

I will be hand painting throughout this project.

The outer hull has been washed and primed using Vallejo white acrylic primer below the Gunwale. White has also been used below the Gunwale on the inner timberwork.

For the Gunwale inner and outer I have used Black primer.

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A base coat is now added, I am using Vallejo Brown Ochre acrylic for the hull below the Gunwale, two coats have been applied.

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A coat of Vallejo Gloss Acrylic varnish is applied over the base coat for protection. Even so, handling the boat will increase the risk of paint rubbing off particularly along the plank edges and raised rails.

I am taking care to handle the hull as little as possible with bare hands.

With the varnish dried I used a combination of various shades of oil paints, randomly applied, and blended on the model to produce the wood effect.

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Rather than use my tube oils, I am using oil brushers for the purpose, more convenient, and with a much faster drying time.

Quite satisfying playing around with oils, there is more than adequate working time.

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Oiling completed, I was looking for a rich darker wood finish, sort of in the vein of the Prince Frederick Barge photo above.

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I am content with the result and will now allow 24 hours for the oil finish to fully dry, although it is touch dry in an hour or so.

 

B.E.

29/07/2026

A very realistic result.

Beautiful work

Thank you Patrick, the trick with oil blending is knowing when to stop, or even remove with white spirit, and start again. The possibilities are endless.😉

Maurice

Post 2

Six days later...

A simple build board is made to support the hull, and I avoid touching any of the finish with bare hands if possible.

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I use a Vinyl glove on my non brush hand when I need to support the hull.

This is my proposed colour scheme, but things may change in the light of experience.

Ext Hull – Dark varnished wood effect

Gunwale exterior and interior Vallejo Carmin red /Satin varnish Finish

Interior hull planking - Matt wood effect.

Futtocks and frames – Matt wood effect.

Chock Rails for the stretchers – Dark wood effect.

Capping Rails – Black - Satin Varnish Finish

Panels interior – blue ground/ gold relief

Seats and thwarts – varnished wood

Thole pins – gold

0ars- to be decided.

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Two coats of Vallejo Satin Varnish have now been applied to the outer hull, this was again left for 24 hours before handling.

Now happy with the exterior wood finish I turn to the inboard woodwork.

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For the interior planking I also used ochre- Brown for the base coat, followed by oils. The Chock Racks were painted in a darker shade of oil.

That is the end of the easy bit.

The detail painting is difficult to say the least, multiple thin coats of paint, some in awkward to get at areas, and tiny fine detail painting, in several colours.

The stern-sheet support panels were painted Carmine Red.

The stern sheet area is supplied as just the resin surface, which seems unfinished.

It would have been boarded and in respect of a Royal Barge have some sort of covering.

An easy addition to make, using a card template. Chequer patterns were very popular in the 16^th/17^th centuries.

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I tried a few versions before settling on this one.

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Much of the floor area will be covered by the foot boards.

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For the Gunwale I am using Carmine Red; I rarely use gold on my builds but this will be the exception, and Vallejo Old Gold will be used for the scroll work and rail edges.

The inner Gunwale panels and decoration are very tiny, beautifully reproduced in the resin, but a challenge particularly for old eyes.

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Having primed them in black I begin with painting in the gold panel edges and relief designs. The gold allowed me to better define the panels for painting the subsequent colours, a one-shot exercise this ain’t.

Several days of painting and many touch-ins ensue, as the cruel macro reveals my deficiencies.

This is all very much work in progress; amusing to think that in the same time scale I could assemble a large Vanguard hull.

A way to go I think before I achieve a finish that suits my eye.

B.E.

04/08/2026

Looking at models like your, I really have to work on my painting/staining skills. I like what you did on the hull.

Thank you Roland, I also need to work on the painting skills, this fine detail work is the very devil.

I suppose it depends on how many times you are prepared to look at the macro and re-visit the work.

Maurice

Post 3

Another four days, and the painting saga continues.

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The stern seats are of Pearwood, only needed a slight bevel on the edges and it slipped into place with just the lightest of flex involved.

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I preferred a natural wood finish for the benches and having coated the part with gloss varnish, the oil paint treatment was used to give a richer dark wood finish. This was then sealed with satin varnish.

That tricky business of hull rails.

I’ve been putting off painting these fine lines in gold.

3mm and 1mm Tamiya tape was used to mask above and below the lines but there’s very little room for error.

I am mostly concerned with keeping the paint off the varnished hull, which will be more difficult to remove.

The Painted gunwale and capping less so as they can be more easily re-touched.

Three coats of Gold paint were applied before removing the tape.

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The Proxxon vice is great for holding things steady at multiple angles and also provides a useful hand steady for painting delicate areas.

As I suspected it is taking a lot of work to achieve the finish I aspire to. When I think I’m getting close, the macros tell a different story, and another bout of re-touching begins.

A few of the recent macros I used to give myself grief.

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Only when I am happy at 9” viewing will the process stop, and I’m not there yet.

One problem area on my hull is that a raised crown design on the Flying Transom was poorly defined on one side making the painting very difficult to get an acceptable result.

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Sort of getting there but the jury is still out.

 

As a break from painting I will look at the footwaling next.

 

B.E.

08/08/2026

Post 4

The footwaling and fore decking are produced in Pear, and accurately slot between the frames.

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The footwaling needs to be stained as the basic colour does not tone with the scheme.

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I again used oils; a mixture of Ochre and earth colours dragged across the boarding.

This finish I will seal with matt varnish.

 Bow Platform

This slots against the stem and runs beneath the gunwale. It is supported at the inner end by a panel that fits against the forward frames and is notched fit over the clinker planking.

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Unfortunately, the fit of this panel is not very good, leaving gaps along the sides.

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The answer is to make a card template and cut another piece.

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The platform engraved with planking lines just needs a little gentle fettling to get the fit.

The Platform is given the oil treatment to match the stern-sheets.

A hole is drilled thro’ the platform to take the Fore Flag staff.

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I can now add the foot boarding. Small dots of ca are applied beneath the board edges which sit atop the futtocks.

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Back to looking at the paint again with a critical eye and then onto the thwarts.

 

B.E.

09/08/2026

Post 5

A question of stretchers

These are fitted next.

I had originally thought the chock positions were incorrectly placed along the ‘moulded in’ strips.

This seemed to place the stretchers too far beneath the thwart ahead of an oarsman to be practical.

However, Chris has faithfully followed the contemporary model arrangement, as above, and following a play round with a test figure, the arrangement works.

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The oar used here is not the correct scale, simply used to check the angle to the thole pins.

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This contemporary model would certainly suggest that an oarsman gained purchase against a stretcher below the thwart ahead.

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The stretchers are secured with a spot of ca.

Thwarts

These fit with minimum trimming of the ends, a check should be made that they sit fully down on the risers.

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The thwarts are given the oil paint treatment to match the stern benches.

I intend to include staffs for the Royal Ensign and Union Flag. To this end a step needs to be fixed to the foot boarding to take the heel of the staff.

The hole is pre-drilled in the thwart.

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For the Flag staff dimensions I have little to go on for length, so as a starting point I used the actual dimensions on my Syren Queen Anne Barge, (1:24 scale) and halved the size.

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A final check of the rowing position using my test oarsman.

 

The re-touching goes on……

 

B.E.

11/08/2026

Post 6

Oars.

Kit boat oars are often a problem for me.

In the case of the Barge oars they are laser cut Pearwood, but due to their square profile would require careful rounding of the shank and thinning towards the outer end of the blade.

The main issue with this kit is that the oars at 78mm are simply too short for single banked rowing which the Barge is set up for.

The beam of the Barge is 6’ 6”;

For a 7’0” beam Steel indicates an overall length of oar at 20’.0” and gives the dimensions of the various parts that make up the total.

This converted to 1:48 scale equates to 127mm overall length

I also took the actual dimensions of the oars from my Syren Queen Anne Barge model, which are close at a converted 123.5mm.

As I am including oarsmen on my model, oar size is very relevant.

To make the oars I am using Boxwood square stock of 1.8mm section.

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This is marked with the various sections and leaving the Loom section intact the handle and shank are rounded to size.

The Blade is made separately and is set into the Shank.

The blades are shaped from some 1.5mm x 5mm Limewood strip.

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This shows the difference between the kit oar and one cut to the dimensions of Steel.

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This contemporary model shows the length of oars used for single banked rowing.

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It is always useful to have a test rower to check how things look.

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More fining down is required, and maybe a tad off the length, but getting there.

Once I’m satisfied with the ‘prototype’ I will have another eleven to make, what joy.

 

B.E.

12/08/2026

Nice to see a variation of the traditional stick and string build logs. 3D printing is taking over the model building hobby and I hope to see more such builds.

As a project it does make a nice change, but at heart I am still a wood and pva man.

There's no denying tho' that Resin and 3d printing, particularly for fine parts, is the way to go, I'm amazed at what can be reproduced now.

Regards,

Maurice.