James H

Paper modelling is still alchemy to me. I have amazing respect for those who can build this stuff like I've seen.

Outstanding! 👍

Pins are pushed through the pear and into the MDF below.

Today, I finished fairing the hull. At least it's one time I wear a mask where I don't actually mind doing it! Again, a good indicator or when this is done is when the char is gone. Fairing the bow and stern assemblies first saves a whole lot of time too. Next up are the external pearwood bulwarks (first layer). Before these can be fitted, they need to be pre-bent. Each one is soaked in hot water for about 45 mins, by time the water has then gone cold! The bulwarks are then taken straight from the water and laid onto the MDF frame, and clamped. It's also pinned through the pear and into the MDF in some places that are awkward to clamp. When dry, these will be taken off and then properly aligned and glued. You can see from these pics just how the bulwark clings pretty much to the whole area of faired bulkheads, so there's no ripple/gaps you need to negotiate. And just to prove I'm also an untidy worker and these photos are a facade, here's the desktop. Until next time...

You can always replace them eyelets of your choice, of course.

Just a small update. Sphinx comes with a series of jigs to ensure that the bulwarks are always properly spaced throughout your build as the upper decks will depend on it. There is always a little leeway, but at least you can check things as they are planked etc. These are the jigs which are not glued into position. I'm halfway through fairing the hull, but been doing some other stuff between tasks. This time I turned my attention to the 20 cannon and the binnacle. The binnacle is a nice, easy item to construct and there's little to do wrong. In fact, I can't see how anyone could stuff this up. The cannon are also very easy, just time consuming as mass producing any one individual item always is. Note that with these, there are no fiddly PE capsquares to fit. This time, they are a part of the pearwood carriage sides. So no awkward bending and fitting to do. What this does mean is that you will need to paint the carts before complete assembly. It's easy enough, and a little paint is just scraped away before gluing the side into position on the rest of the assembly. The guns are also black resin, so no painting needed. Back to fairing the hull in the morning, then I can get onto fitting the first layer outside bulwark and the first layer of planking. Until then...

A lovely kit. You should do this one pretty quickly.

Putting the manual together is what Chris does. I create the text and photos (editing in Lightroom and Photoshop). I might also annotate these with Illustrator too, to make things even clearer. I think @chris watton uses InDesign, but I'm sure he'll correct me if I'm wrong.

Before I head to the cave and work on some deck stuff, I'm spending some time on photos and captions for the manual. This will save me the gargantuan task later on 😬

I think so. My personal aim is 12 weeks or thereabouts. Then the manual needs to be done, including plans printed, box art labels done etc.

Just outstanding The whole model, and that interior finish. Beautiful.

The long strips I first fitted to the bulkheads, are the top and bottom sides of the gun ports. These can only fit in one way. The gun ports are numbered 1 - 11 from bow to stern, and the side frames are fitted in pairs, slotting into the positions on the strips I just mentioned.

Pretty sure the blue areas are the remaining photo-resist film from production (from my old days in circuit board manufacture). That should be easy to gently sand away, or even peel, depending on thee type of resist (ink or film). When I built this model, I painted blue (I think) in the bare brass areas, then rubbed the parts over some very fine grade abrasive paper to reveal the brass, and then rubbed over finer papers until it was polished. I then sealed the brass with lacquer so it didn't tarnish.

I think I'll definitely do the cannon this week. That's the most numerous of the deck furniture to build.

A week has passed, so I have something I can share that's worthwhile. With the basic skeleton now assembled, the bulkhead ears strengthened with the longitudinal strips, and the ply deck fitted...I can now finish the framed cannon ports. These are done in the same way that Chris used on Amati's forthcoming Victory that you may have seen in my build log. These are added in pairs, numbered from the bow, back towards the stern. I push these into position so they are at right angles to the long pot strips I fitted. This is important as they'll need to line up with the inside bulwarks which have the port holes laser-cut. Stern and now filler blocks are now marked, shaped and fitted. I used a Dremel for these for speed. Before the inner bulwarks are fitted, I nee to sand the inner bulwark frames smooth. The best way to gauge this is that the work is pretty much done when all the char is removed. There is leeway in subsequent part fitting even if you sand these a little more than just the char, but the char is a good indication. Another nice feature of this model is that you can fit the inner bulwarks with just clamps, and then paint in the glue from within the frames, once everything is aligned. There's little to no fettling to do here either. The gun ports in the inner bulwarks are also slightly smaller than the framed ports, so you can trim them to size later. Before the rear inner bulwarks are fitted, two pearwood beams are added to the rear hull. These also tie the stern timbers to the side frames. Now the rear inner bulwarks are fitted. Any small gaps between the bulwarks and ply deck will be hidden with the deck and the spirketting. Unlike Chris' test hull, this model will be painted, and the inner bulwarks will be painted red. However, they won't be painted in the cabin areas, but left in varnish. To mark the extent of the paint, I test fit one of the cabin bulkheads. The inner bulwarks can now be painted. Before paint, the surfaces are sanded with 320 grit paper, and wipe on poly is applied only in the area of the bulwarks that will be painted (spirketting will be fitted to upper and lower bulkheads). I don't like to glue parts onto surfaces where poly has been applied, so take this into consideration. For paint, I airbrush Tamiya Flat Red over the timber, then give a very light brush coat of Vallejo Flat Red, which gives a very pleasing finish. Once the masking is removed, the laser-engraved maple deck is then fitted. Some adjustment is made to the edges so it fits properly. I use Titebond Extra for this to allow me more time to manoeuvre things. Clamps hold down the deck adding the edges. Small clamps in the middle areas. The spirketting is also painted in the same colours, but only in the area that will require it (not the cabin!) This is then fitted. Cabin seat patterns are now adjusted to width and fitted. A little sanding of the MDF frame area needs to be done first, but not too much. Some MDF parts are now added to the bow area to help with fitting the outer patterns. Anything above deck level will eventually be broken away when the deck is fitted. Finally, those safety gates which gave strength to the unsupported bulkheads, can be removed as the whole structure is now very strong. After this, the hull can be faired for fitting the outside patterns and planking. Whilst I was waiting for stuff on the hull to dry, I worked on the stove. Here you see the pear carcass being assembled. And of course, this is mostly sheathed in photo-etch. I'll not be sanding this hull until later this week when I finish work for Easter. That means I can do that task outside, but I will work on some deck stuff this week....maybe cannon. Until next time 😁

All Artesania instructions are now supplied on a CD. It can be problematic if your laptop doesn't have a drive, like my MacBook Pro. I took the disc to work to have it transferred to a USB drive so I can access for my review. Another problem is that I don't like to have my Mac in the workshop due to dust, so the only real option is to have it printed.

For me, I can't understand why paint the hull brown 🤔 Surely better to use nice, quality timber and varnish, surely?

Ok, I've fixed the Artesania Latina link. Also, I received a kit from them last week which I'll review in the next week or so.

That's the Amati sanding block. I quite like that as locks the paper in place and has one curved end.

Been a busy weekend at chez-Hatch. I wanted to het the hull skeleton as far as I could so I can fit the laser deck and red bulwarks/spirketting this week. Work starts on the first and last bulkheads which are fitted with their bow and stern patterns respectively. The first bulkhead is dry fitted to the false keel so the two adjacent patterns sit snug to the keel. A clamp was deployed until fully set, then the assembly was removed from the keel and a sanding block/Dremel used to shape. I really do recommend a rotary tool for shaping the stern. It will be make things much, much simpler. Before shaping the stern, the assembly was slipped back onto the keel and glued to the bulkhead which sits adjacent to it. Shaping was done after removal. The tape on the stern assembly issued to protect the filler panel from breaking away. With so many bulkheads and interlocking slots, I always like to dry-fit all parts where possible, and then paint wood glue into the joints afterwards. This method works perfectly well, and you can dilute your glue too if you wish. Modern wood glues seem to set too quickly that I see this as a way of making sure everything seats before the glue turns. With the bulkheads slotted into position (minus the bow and stern assemblies I just made), the small orlop deck section is slotted into place, followed by the laser engraved ply lower deck. Care needs to be taken not to damage the bulkhead ears. If you look closer, you'll see the bulkheads have safely gates on the outside, protecting the ears somewhat. These are removed later, before fairing the hull. The model is now turned upside down and supported while I paint wood glue into the various joints between the MDF and ply parts. The bow and stern sections are now finally slotted into place and glued. It's important that the bulkhead ears are protected from quite early on in the build, so I changed the sequence so that the longitudinal gun port strips are now glued into place. These are labelled 'TOP' and 'BOTTOM' to remove any confusion. The blanking/strengthening section on the rear bulkhead can now be carefully twisted away as the bulkhead ears are now protected. We also need to later fit the stern gallery timbers which will run through this area. The first pear wood is now used with the grate coamings. These are assembled and the outer edges have their char removed. I also remove star from the two open sections that won't have grates fitted. Now, the deck beams can be glued into position. Clamps ensure they are aligned and vertical. With these in position, the coamings and gratings are glued into place. Four longitudinal deck support strips are now fitted, with one pair being 'OUTER' and the other 'INNER'. Finally, for this update, the ply deck is fitted. These sections clip into the bulkhead ears so they are self firmly at that point. All you need to do is to pin them down in the middle. I also chose to paint glue into the joints after fitting the deck parts. More as soon as I have something to show you. 😃

You'll be surprised just how this build could be built by someone only just intermediate. Chris has created a kit that is designed to be as foolproof as possible and it's my task to create a manual which takes the sequence and makes it simple and clear to the average modeller. I hope I can do that. I love Barcelona. Visiting again by ship next summer (2022), but only for the day.

I love this kit (having so far failed to finish mine), so following along ☺️

Work officially starts on this tomorrow, but I thought I'd do a quick test fit of the bulkheads, and the lower deck and orlop deck section. The fit is absolutely perfect and everything nice and square. This will give a rough idea of the genesis of this build before I crack on with the instructions images tomorrow.

Hi Alex, The model you see is the design prototype from Chris, so I had nothing to do with that one.

I suppose the only problem is that there isn't a finished model to post pics of. Chris has test images in his Vanguard Models traders topic that have been there for a while. That kit also has numerous changes which will be seen in this topic. Of course, this one will also be masted and rigged, unlike the test hull Chris made. There is a profile to be seen on the National Maritime Museum page: