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With my shallop approaching completion, I'm starting a new wooden vessel. This is Vanguard Models's HM Armed Cutter Sherbourne – 1763. Sir Thomas Slade's most notable design was HMS Victory. Victory was laid down some four years before Sherbourne, though commissioned over a decade after. The box And content The figures and pin pusher are extras that I bought. Strip Wood The dark wood at the bottom is pear, the pale stuff in the middle is lime (or bass wood), and the dowels are (I think) walnut. The sheet wood: Shown here with the acrylic display stand. In addition to the book, the kit came with 19 sheets of drawings And, those figures I'll take a view on how I use these guys; as presented, they are more appropriate to Trafalgar and the Napoleonic period than to the 1760s. Side note: This Vanguard kit is Chris Watton's second Sherbourne in this scale. The other is still available; this version benefits from additional research and learning.

When a person's got rather too much on their hands, as it might be, several armour projects to finish and more to start, an aeroplane and a half to build, a company of figures to paint, a group build to host, a zillion books to read, a life to live and so forth. When there's already little enough time in the day to do what needs to be done. Then, my friends, then is the time to build my first wooden ship kit. I haven't built a plastic sailing boat since I was 12. I haven't built a wooden boat ever. I don't even speak nautical. I suffer from sea-sickness and a fear of the ocean. I've been building plastic kits of tanks and planes and the occasional battleship all my life and they are sometimes interesting, but I have never really considered them to be beautiful objects in their own right. But these wooden boat models have the potential to be truly beautiful. I think it's the combination of a form perfectly suited to its job and the organic material from which it's made. When I see them in cases in museums I want to stroke their curves. To me they are like fine musical instruments, or antique furniture, or a shining dog. I can barely keep my hands off them. So I'm going to put my hands on one of them for the rest of the year, most likely longer. I have an awful lot to learn and perhaps will make an awful mess of this first one. I don't think so though. It's a kit designed with beginners in mind by Chris Watton, or as we know him @chris1966, so I've got an internal line to the boss! I've already asked advice on choice of subject and he's been a very friendly and helpful chap. The kit, from Chris's company Vanguard Models, arrived here yesterday and so far all I've taken out of the box is the 36 page instruction manual which, for once, I intend to follow to the letter. (Edit: That didn’t happen!) It's very clearly written and well illustrated and since it is downloadable from the Vanguard Models website, I think I'm able to show you pages from it as the build progresses. (Please let me know if that's a copyright problem Chris, and I will desist.) Updates to this thread will be infrequent (Edit mid-may: Wrong, sometimes there have been three per day!) and I intend to stick to business here and only chat about the model. (Edit: and life the universe and everything else too. It's more interesting that way, I now think.) I'm reading a build log of this kit over on the forum 'Model Ship World' where they have kept to the topic and I must say, it's very easy to read and learn from that way. (Edit: But the digressions of Britmodeller are much more interesting.) There won't be an update for quite some time. I will be reading books, watching videos, acquiring tools and so forth for a few weeks. I'll return with an update when I've actually done enough construction to have something to talk about. Until then, fair winds and following seas!