Mercury by The Sailor - Amati/Victory Models - 1:64 - Russian 20 gun brig

[The Sailor]

Hello, a few days ago I started a second project: The Russian brig Mercury.


The original

The Russian 20 gun brig Mercury (Меркурий) was laid down in Sevastopol on January 28, 1819 and launched on 7 May 1820. She was designed as a patrol ship to guard the Nothern Caucasus coast. The Mercury fought in many important naval battles during her career.

The kit

The weight of the box is really notable. The shipping details showing the kit weighed 6 kg. No wonder, the 5 mm MDF for keel and frames weighs more than plywood. Furthermore the kit contains many brass etched parts, 17 plan sheets, a flag set, a 20-page step-by-step instuction (hull assembly only) and much more.

Scale: 1:64
Length overall: 860mm
Height overall: 654mm

 

I wonder why there are no building logs. In fact I found only one in a Russian forum. Is there something wrong with this kit? Or with the ship?
Anyway, let‘s start!

 

 

The false deck and the gundeck are a special feature of the kit. The planks are laser-engraved.

 

 

It looks pretty nice. Unfortunately it‘s plywood.

Next stage and the first problem was to fit the plywood gun port patterns. I‘ve soaked the parts for one hour, but for all that it wasn‘t possible for me bending the patterns vertically. So I planked the bulwark with 1x4 mm stripes. That means a little more work but much more easy on the nerves. Later on I can use the gun port pattern for marking the gunports.

 

The planks are only glued among each other, not to the frames.

 

And here we have the bulwark; still without the gunports:

 

 

[Barbossa]

Hi Richard,

 

This is a buildlog I'm certain to follow. Mercury was (more or less) released the same moment as HMS Pegasus and I was long in doubt which one to choose.

Although I finally settled for the "Peggy", I still might purchase and build Mercury later on and in the meantime learn from you.

Good luck and enjoy.

[demonborger]

Mercury is very interesting kit and one that I am considering. There are many interesting kits that don't have many build logs here or else where, and other kits we have dozens of logs. Mary Rose is another interesting kit with no build logs.

If you wouldn't mind could you post photos of the various components of the kit? The Chinese do a good job of providing such information (which is how we can see that their kits are poor quality copies....) but the european kit manufacturers provide no photos of the kit components, frustrating for the consumer.

[Blue Ensign]

Nice start Richard, looking forward to seeing how this one develops.

 

B.E.

[aliluke]

Hi Richard

I look forward to this one unfolding as well. Good call on the plywood gun port pattern - mine, on the Fly, is still causing me grief well after the second planking is finished and I'll take your approach should I come across another one on a future build.

 

Cheers

Alistair

[hamilton]

Wow Richard - I was just getting into your Endeavour build, and now I find this!! You are prolific! It's interesting to note a nice model like this with no logs attached. Certainly there are some very famous subjects out there (Victory, the other Endeavour, Bounty) that get a lot of hits - but there are others like this one, the Corel Bellona (though Harlequin started one a while back...), and as demonburger noted the Mary Rose that get missed....hard to say why....I'll watch this one attentively. And please don't neglect the Endeavour! A very exciting build

hamilton

[ZyXuz]

This is one beautiful ship and you started it well

keep the good work coming 

[mtaylor]

Richard,

 

I hope you don't mind if I pull up a chair.   I'm rather fond of the "rare" builds. 

 

 

[pete48]

Very Cool Richard ,Looks good

[The Sailor]

Thank you very much for your kind comments and your interest, Christian, demonborger, B.E., Alister, Hamilton, ZyXuz, Mark and Pete.

I agree with demonborger and Hamilton. Some some ships/kits are more favoured then other.

Cristian
Well, the decision was not easy for me because I also like Pegasus, Fly, Badger and many other of those 'handy‘ ships.

demonborger
Sure, I‘ll show the components throughout my build log.

Alister
I‘m glad I didn‘t use the patterns. I‘m pretty happy with my conventional planking.

Hamilton
Don‘t worry about my Endeavour. She‘s not forgotten.
 

[ASAT]

Richard, did you have to taper the bearding area and the stern post area or is the keel and sternpost wide enough to accept the planks? Like your decision not to use the patterns...

 

Lou

[Jeff-E]

Hi Richard,

 

I have just found this log looks like an interesting build we don't hear much about other countries ships, like Russia, as she was not known as a great sea power at a time  when England ruled the waves which  is maybe why the kits of the main sea powers of the period are more popular.

 

You have made a great start and I like how you over came your problem with the precut gunport patterns, very nice fix    

 

I will follow with interest

Edited December 6, 2013 by Jeff-E

[Small Stuff]

What an intresting Brigg, Richard!  And with an exiting history! Thanks for sharing. I'll follow!

[The Sailor]

Thanks for stopping by Lou and Stan.

 

Lou, the sternpost should be tapered and I did it. I hope, I can show some pictures the next days.

 

Jeff, it seems that everybody want's to build British ships.

[realworkingsailor]

I think there was a few build logs of this ship on the old MSW.... And we all know what happened....

 

Interesting idea, dropping the gunport patterns, looks like it should work well for you.

 

Andy

[The Sailor]

Hi Andy, I hope there will no prblems occur when cutting the gunports.

 

Now here are some impressions of the first planking. The starboard planking is done, on port side are still some gaps.

 

 

 

 

 

[WackoWolf]

Very nice and clean. Your off to an excellent start.

[pete48]

Wow Richard, She's taking shape pretty fast, Looks Great

[The Sailor]

Thank you Joe and Pete.

 

Well, the first planking is done now. After sanding the hull I've marked the gunports by using the gunport pattern.

 

 

 

And some more pictures of the hull as of today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aliluke]

Hi Richard

You are moving along very well. One suggestion is to make the gun ports narrower than the pattern suggests. I take this from my Fly pattern where the ports are arguably too wide. That might not apply to Mercury though however it is easy to widen a narrow port and much harder to make a wide port narrower.

 

Cheers

Alistair

[hamilton]

Hi Richard:

 

Wow! You're working at a feverish pace - or at least it looks like it from here in the land where no modelling is getting done! The first planking looks great - what elegant lines on this vessel!

 

I agree with Alistair's suggestion - when I was dealing with the ports on Blandford, I constructed one of the cannons and made a little square of the deck planking to set it on. I could then move this little mock-up around on the deck and get a good impression of the size of the gunports, and their location. Using the kit-supplied gunport pattern as a guide to locating the ports is a great idea (and avoids the issues with the pattern that others have noted on Pegasus/Fly). But you may find that the ports sit either a little too high or too low - double checking always to be advised!

 

Anyway, I'm really impressed with your speed and accuracy - I've been told I build fast, but my results are nowhere near as nice as yours!

hamilton

[Jeff-E]

Hi Richard ,

 

Very nice and smooth first planking you are making excellent progress

[The Sailor]

Thank you very much Alistair, Hamilton and Jeff.

 

And thank you very much for the hint, Alistair. Believe it or not, there is a different of approximately 1mm in height and width between the size of the pre-cutted gunports and the plotted gunports. My marked gunports have the size of the plotted ones. Well, you can't measure enough.

 

And here we have gunport zero:

 

 

 

Of course the whole gunports have to be placed higher. My fault...

 

 

The position of this one should be correct now.

[ronkh]

"Well, you cant measure enough."!!

 

Isn't that the truth!

 

Very nice so far Richard and I really like your planking. Well done.

 

Kind regards,

 

Ron.

Edited December 9, 2013 by ronkh

[Barbossa]

Hi Richard,

What a promising start. I like the planking and the shape of the hull.

Just one question: your last pic shows that one of the frames is in opposition with the last (or first) gunport.Of course this part is to be removed later and probably I've got this wrong but this is the first time I notice this in a kit .

[The Sailor]

Thank you very much for your kind comments Ron and Christian.

 

Christian, it's indeed strange. The plan shows no frame at this position, but everything else seems to be correct. I think, I have to re-measure the position of the gunports. Fortunately i've cut the gunport with a knife so I can close it again very quickly. But don't worry, this is still the first planking.

[Blue Ensign]

Nice job on the first planking Richard; I'm interested to see your gunport cutting thro' to completion and hear your views on the plank/cut method compared to using the provided gunport patterns.

 

B.E.

[The Sailor]

Thank you very much, B.E.

Well, the main problem with the gunport patterns provided with my kit was the grain of the plywood. It was easy to bend the patterns horizontally, but imposible bending them vertically. My method was much more easy but a little more time consuming. But don‘t get me wrong, there were no problems at all glueing the gunport patterns of my Pickle. Next time I‘ll try it again with the provided patterns first.

Anyway, the cutting is done and she looks like a warship now.

 

 

 

 

After cutting the oar ports on portside I can start with the second planking.

Edited March 23, 2014 by The Sailor

[Beef Wellington]

Don't know how you find the time Richard, like many have commented will be nice to see this rare build unfold. The kit looks to be of high quality and I'm sure you'll do her proud.

 

Are you planning to use the decks as supplied, or use traditional planking following the marked template?

Edited December 13, 2013 by Beef Wellington

[ZyXuz]

Well done Richard! I love the clean cut on the those ports

Best wishes on your 2nd planking