James H

Consider those as being 'Limited Edition'

I think with Sphinx taking a full day to produce, adding more to it wouldn't be beneficial (especially in cost to the customer), plus it's sort of reckoned that if you are building at Sphinx level, that you can work out any rough bevelling quite easily. The manual does show that bevelling, so the builder isn't really in the dark, so to speak. 
 
Ok, dimensions:
 
Erycina, with masts and bowsprit is 525mm long x 379mm high
 
Nisha, with masts etc. is 387mm long x 311mm high

I think with Sphinx taking a full day to produce, adding more to it wouldn't be beneficial (especially in cost to the customer), plus it's sort of reckoned that if you are building at Sphinx level, that you can work out any rough bevelling quite easily. The manual does show that bevelling, so the builder isn't really in the dark, so to speak. 
 
Ok, dimensions:
 
Erycina, with masts and bowsprit is 525mm long x 379mm high
 
Nisha, with masts etc. is 387mm long x 311mm high

Work on this is progressing swiftly, especially when you consider that I've not got to the same stage with Nisha over the last couple of days.
 
All photos are from the manual, but here I've done no re-cropping, but simply resized the originals for MSW.
 
Both of these new fishers are designed to be very simple to build and there's actually less planking involved than the Zulu and Fifie. Construction is very much the same, with similar stern timbers as seen on Sphinx. In fact, these also have the little safety gates that strengthen the parts until you can safely remove them. 
 


Just a small selection of the SIXTEEN bulkheads on this little model. You can see that bevelling lines are also included. 

A Dremel is used to make short work of these. In fact, it took only 30 mins to bevel all parts on this model.


The keel. Note that all slots are numbered too, so you really shouldn't get the positions of individual bulkheads wrong! All bulkheads are dry-slotted into the keel.


The bearding parts are now bevelled and fitted into position. These are also pinned into the keel to ensure the correct positions.




The lower deck serves the purpose of simply holding the bulkheads in position and also for masts etc. that will plug down into it. This is now slotted into position, again without glue. Note that engravings show which is the front and TOP.


 
Four bulkheads into which the lower deck were slotted, are now filled in with these pieces that strengthen the overall skeleton. These are glued into place.


The longitudinal deck beams are now dry-slotted into place. Builders of the other VM kits will be familiar with this approach. 

Midship bulkhead doublers are now glued to either side of bulkhead #9.
 

The stern timbers are now slotted into position, 3 on either side of keel, and these are identified with INNER, MIDDLE and OUTER engravings. 


 
The hull is now turned over and a slightly diluted Titebond is brushed into the joints. As this model has so many interlocking joints, this is a good approach to take so you know glue won't be setting are you're working through the hull. It also gives you some time to make sure everything is to your liking before committing to glue. The hull is now left a couple of hours for the glue to penetrate and set.


The ply deck is now fitted, engraved face upwards. This just needs to bend slightly to lock into the bulkhead ears at one side before snapping down into the other side. No amendment is needed at all here and the deck lies perfectly flat over all bulkheads. Not even any sanding of the sheer is needed before fitting! Small clamps are used to hold the rear deck down onto the stern timbers. Next up is fairing and planking.

 
More soon....
 

Work on this is progressing swiftly, especially when you consider that I've not got to the same stage with Nisha over the last couple of days.
 
All photos are from the manual, but here I've done no re-cropping, but simply resized the originals for MSW.
 
Both of these new fishers are designed to be very simple to build and there's actually less planking involved than the Zulu and Fifie. Construction is very much the same, with similar stern timbers as seen on Sphinx. In fact, these also have the little safety gates that strengthen the parts until you can safely remove them. 
 


Just a small selection of the SIXTEEN bulkheads on this little model. You can see that bevelling lines are also included. 

A Dremel is used to make short work of these. In fact, it took only 30 mins to bevel all parts on this model.


The keel. Note that all slots are numbered too, so you really shouldn't get the positions of individual bulkheads wrong! All bulkheads are dry-slotted into the keel.


The bearding parts are now bevelled and fitted into position. These are also pinned into the keel to ensure the correct positions.




The lower deck serves the purpose of simply holding the bulkheads in position and also for masts etc. that will plug down into it. This is now slotted into position, again without glue. Note that engravings show which is the front and TOP.


 
Four bulkheads into which the lower deck were slotted, are now filled in with these pieces that strengthen the overall skeleton. These are glued into place.


The longitudinal deck beams are now dry-slotted into place. Builders of the other VM kits will be familiar with this approach. 

Midship bulkhead doublers are now glued to either side of bulkhead #9.
 

The stern timbers are now slotted into position, 3 on either side of keel, and these are identified with INNER, MIDDLE and OUTER engravings. 


 
The hull is now turned over and a slightly diluted Titebond is brushed into the joints. As this model has so many interlocking joints, this is a good approach to take so you know glue won't be setting are you're working through the hull. It also gives you some time to make sure everything is to your liking before committing to glue. The hull is now left a couple of hours for the glue to penetrate and set.


The ply deck is now fitted, engraved face upwards. This just needs to bend slightly to lock into the bulkhead ears at one side before snapping down into the other side. No amendment is needed at all here and the deck lies perfectly flat over all bulkheads. Not even any sanding of the sheer is needed before fitting! Small clamps are used to hold the rear deck down onto the stern timbers. Next up is fairing and planking.

 
More soon....
 

Providing you build to plan, yes 😉

Yes, give or take a couple of millimetres, by Sphinx is around the stated size.

Got the port side decorations applied.    A word of caution.   Handle them lightly and with care.    They look fantastic.    They really add to the look of the ship.       I did have problems around the fore and main stools.   In my case I just removed the stools for now and will reapply them later.      If you can't remove yours you will have to trim the decorations a bit so that they fit.    Interestingly, when I look at the plan sheet that shows which decoration goes where  (Plan sheet 13) the stools are not shown being attached.   The channels are there but the stools are not.  (at least I don't see them) 

She's looking real nice!

Shame you don't want the ratlines, but this is a yacht
Can also be built with very basic, standard tools. Lots is pre-cut/pre-fabricated, engraved, and from pearwood. You can see a build log in my signature, and the instructions are downloadable to see first, from the website.
 
https://vanguardmodels.co.uk/product/duchess-of-kingston/
 

She's looking real nice!

Have finished the side galleries and the stern decoration.     Unfortunately, I will have some correcting to do as some of the decorations and edging don't quite line up like on the prototype.     For myself, I don't think it's too big a deal as I should be able to make everything look quite nice.   The issue will be that it won't be quite "authentic".     Fortunately, for me, all that photo etched brass decorations are going to draw most of the attention.   They are super well presented and fairly easy to place.  
One thing I found was the instructions say to soak the resin stern piece.    On my model, there really wasn't all that much of a curve and all I ended up doing was clamping the piece while the glue (CA) set.    Worked very well.   
Overall, I hate gold painted metal.    I am using the vallejo liquid gold and it is so fragile even when applied over primed brass.     I am going to have to do lots of touching up.    Plus I am continually amazed at how well James got his prototype to look.    I can only wish I could get that exactness that he achieved with his.    Even with a relatively steady hand I just can't get the margins of the gold to be well defined.
 
Another suggestion I would make for those following me, is that with the lower sections of the side galleries, I would try and use the photo etched decorations to help guide the shaping of these pieces.     What I did was shape them to look very close to what the instructions show but when it came to attaching the decorations, it turned out I took a bit too much of the wood off so the decorations are a bit oversized.     I think they still look acceptable.
 

They sure do. 
 
The main wale is quite proud, and there is a thinner section that runs above this. 

I suppose that depends on whether Bismarck excites you 🤣
 
If it doesn't, then you'll bee ambivalent, but I know quite a few who are seriously looking forward to it.

Please can we keep this on topic please for the Amati release?
 
Thanks.

I suppose that depends on whether Bismarck excites you 🤣
 
If it doesn't, then you'll bee ambivalent, but I know quite a few who are seriously looking forward to it.

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

1/72 Brockley Combe, 1938 Cargo Ship
Navarino Models
Catalogue # B721
Available from Navarino Models for €299,00
 

 
Brockley Combe was a British cargo shop which was built by Hill Charles & Sons in their Bristol shipyard, in 1938. She was a typical example of a dry load cargo ship of the age and was 56.2m long. Her power came from a diesel engine. Information on Brockley Combe is scarce at best, with me only being able to pull a single image from an online search. Her career came to a sad end on 15thDecember 1953, when she broke up and sank after running aground south of Jersey, on the islands known as Minquiers (known as "the Minkies" in local English). Thankfully, no one perished in the sinking, with all of her crew being rescued by the Jersey lifeboat. 
 

 
 
The kit

Navarino Models generally produce models of ancient and traditional Greek vessels (being a Greek company), so this particular model stands out a little in their catalogue. Their instruction manual says that the lines of this vessel were found in a book that ironically deals with scratch-building ship models without kits. Navarino took the lines and developed this 2016-release kit of this little-known vessel, sharing her with us and allowing us to recreate a 1930s cargo ship. This is no small venture either, with the model being roughly 730mm in length when complete.
 
Navarino’s kit is packed into a very sturdy, single-piece corrugated box with a colour image of a completed Brockley Combe model on the lid. The lid is tabbed so you just pull this out to unlock the contents within. After removing the two instruction booklets and two plan sheets, your construction materials are uncovered. What you’ll immediately notice is that there are no actual sheets of parts from which to remove the individual components. Instead, all the various bulkheads, false keel, bulwarks etc. are pre-removed and, in some cases, bagged for a little extra security. Unlike many kits these days, the parts in this have been routed on a CNC machine, so there are no black/char edges to clean up before use. There are some slightly fuzzy edges on some parts, and you will need to tickle them with sandpaper to sharpen them up, but that, and regular hull/frame sanding is about the only waste material you’ll create when building this model. No empty wooden frames to dispose of at all.


The false keel in this model, like the bulkheads, is machined from a good quality 6mm ply. It also comes in two parts that you will need to glue together and reinforce with the supplied pieces. A quick text of the fit shows that I’ll need to remove a small amount of wood from one joint, so the keel bottom and deck height are even. All slots are evenly machined and also very, very accurate. Test fitting the bulkheads shows not only a very snug fit, but also that they fit at the correct 90° angle to the keel parts. Note also that the bulkheads also have other slots too, into which two 4mm x 4mm longitudinal stringers locate, further helping keep things true and rigid. As an aside note, all parts in this kit are numbered with what appears to be a laser. 




There are a wide range of 1mm ply components in this kit, and they are all bagged in a clear sleeve. These include the bulwarks with their pre-cut portholes and scuppers, cabin fascias, doors, various deck parts (5 main sections), bulwark cap strips. Also worthy of mentioning are the marked positions on some decal parts, for the deck structure locations. Deck parts are also accurately notched to receive the 6mm bulkheads.






Another bag of ply parts contains some 6mm ply sections that glue into the stern and bow areas to create a solid block that you will then sand to profile before planking commences. 


More 6mm ply forming the false keel reinforcement plates, and forecastle and main loading hatch structures.

This little bundle are the parts for the loading hatch profiles, with their curved roof sections. All nicely machined and held together with elastic whilst in the box.

When it comes to planking this hull, 60 strips of superbly cut limewood are supplied, each measuring 500mm x 1.5mm x 8mm. You may feel the need to halve that width when you plank around the fairly tight curve that exists on some of the bulkheads. Timber quality really is very nice, with this material being creamy and homogenous in appearance, with nice, sharp edges.

Another bundle of wood contains more Ramin and lime strip wood, as well as Ramin dowel. Again, all materials here are of high quality.

This material is for the deck planking and to me, it looks like Sapele due to the grain pattern and resin spots. Some edges are a little fuzzy, so it would be an idea to gently sand each edge before fitting to the decks.

A smaller bag of ply parts are included for the rudder, and numerous other structural and superstructure areas. 


No matter how smooth you get that hull, the final planking will be achieved using 0.15mm aluminium sheet, cut into 20 strips of 25mm depth. It would appear that these need to be divided further into their correct lengths and then a riveting tool used to add that important detail to them. This material should form well around the hull but check how this would be laid out in pattern with regards to the bow and stern. You’ll need to fit these with cyano or contact adhesive. 

A small cardboard box contains various fittings and rigging. In there, you’ll find two small plastic launches with a clinker hull, brass and copper wire, rope, copper and brass rod, brass tubing, brass nails, stanchions, portholes, anchors, rigging rope spool, and other various fittings. 






Two plastic sleeves hold the parts for the staircases (pre-machined), rigging blocks and copper eyelets. A set of ship name decals is supplied, as are flags, printed on stiff paper.



The last bag of components are all cast from a creamy yellow resin, save for one metal cast part for the mast. Here are all of those important detail features that you will scatter around the decks and superstructures. These include funnels, life preservers, bitts, winches, cleats, hatchways, doors, boxes and the single, large funnel. Most parts will need some form of clean-up, as you would expect with resin, and I would also recommend that you wash them first to remove any traces of mould release agent that could prevent paint adhering properly. 



A set of simple but useful colour illustrations are included in one of the manuals, but the text is in Greek. Another copy of this is included in black and white, but with English text. It also has a table of parts to reference. I think the instructions supplied are adequate for the model as most of it is straightforward and can be referenced on the two plan sheets.



Both plan sheets have the charm of being hand-drafted and annotated. This takes me back to my days of school woodwork, but the illustrations are easy enough to follow and should provide a competent builder with no problems. 



 
Conclusion
This is the first Navarino kit that I’ve seen, and I do really like the way things go together, the quality of materials and those little quirky things like not having to remove parts from frames. Brockley Combe is truly a multimedia kit, with not just timber, but also metal, resin and a little plastic too. Materials quality is excellent. Whilst I couldn’t recommend this kit to a raw beginner, I do think that someone with a model or two under their belt could do this some real justice. Some experience with resin could be useful, but not necessary. In all, a lovely model of a classic cargo ship of yesteryear, and one with character too!
 
My sincere thanks to Navarino Models for sending this kit for review on Model Ship World. To purchase directly, click the link at the top of this article. 
 






 
 
 
 

That just looks really nice.  😁

1:10 Blériot XI
Amati Model
Catalogue # 1712/01
Available from Amati for €284.43
 

 
“England’s isolation has ended once for all!”, so was written in an English newspaper, on the day after Louis Blériot flew across the English Channel from France. The French aviation pioneer, in his modified type XI monoplane, took off from Les Baraques near Calais at 4.41am on July 25th 1909, and landed at 5.17am in Northfall Meadow, near Dover. The Bleriot XI made its debut at the Paris Salon de d’ Automobile et de l’ Aeronatique in December 1908, along with two other Bleriot planes; the type IX and the type X. In October 1908 the London Daily Mail had offered a prize of £1,000 to the first aviator to cross the Channel in either direction. Bleriot’s exploit was proceeded by the unsuccessful attempt of another aviation pioneer, namely Hubert Latham.

Designed by Louis Blériot and Raymond Saulnier, the Bleriot XI was a light, sleek monoplane built using oak and poplar wood with cloth-covered wings and was powered by the very reliable but simple Anzani 3-cylinder 25 HP engine. The plane's sporting achievements, robustness, functionality and piloting ease contributed greatly to its commercial success, and it was actually the first aircraft in the history of flight to be used in war, when Italian Capitano Piazza piloted a Bleriot during the Libyan campaign between 1911 and 1912.
Sourced from Amati and Wikipedia
 
The kit
This kit is certainly not a new release, but it is one for which you can’t really find an unboxing/summary/review. After talking with Amati, we thought we’d redress that issue and bring you an article on this kit, in the style of our regular ship reviews. As you would guess from a 1:10 aeroplane, the box for the Blériot isn’t too small, with it taking up a reasonable chunk of my worktop real estate. Whilst being fairly average in weight, it’s a little top heavy with the parts packing, so careful if you prop it up against a wall like I originally did! Amati always ship in beautiful boxes, and this sturdy and glossy crate is no exception, with a very nice photo of a finished Blériot model on the lid, along with a period photo and detail image. You’ll also get a good idea of the size of this project when completed, with the given sizes being:
 
Wingspan: 84cm Fuselage length: 80cm  
A note of course that the timber parts within are all laser cut, as we’ve come to expect from this and many contemporary manufacturers. The box sides contain more imagery of the finished model at various angles. 


Lifting the lid, you can see why the box is top heavy. Most of the parts are sitting on a card plinth within the base of the box, designed to stop the various elements rolling around within. Right on top is a large and thick cellophane sleeve containing all of the laser-cut wooden sheets, plus the two sheets of plans. We’ll look at the latter in a short while.

The fist 3mm thick ply sheet contains parts for the fuselage and tail frames, plus some jigs for creating those spoked wheels. Jig parts are also included for creating fuselage sections, ensuring that the various frames etc. are correctly aligned. As you can see from the sheet, none of the parts are numbered, as you wouldn’t want that with a model whose frames are very visible timber. These can be checked off against the supplied parts sheet. Laser cutting is also excellent with very minimal scorching. Being quite light, you will be advised to stain the frames when the time is appropriate.


This second sheet, again in 3mm ply, contains mostly parts for creating the wings and horizontal tailplane. Here you can see the various ribs with their notches for wing spars etc. 


We have another ply sheet here, but this time in a much thinner 1mm material. The larger curved parts here are the enormous wingtips, with the thin material designed to be able to create the curved underside of the thin wing. The smaller parts are mostly infills, which will then sit on top of the moulded wingtip and pack its thickness up to a more realistic 2mm.

This small slip was packed into the sleeve, and it depicts the cut-outs needed in both dowel and strip for the main fixed tailplane section. This is supplied at full size for easy reference.

There are three trays of components in this release. This first tray is the most obvious as it contains the large propeller/airscrew. These are standard Amati trays and the packets and parts inside are held in situ by a clear plastic lid.

The prop/airscrew is finished in a dark varnish. Not sure how accurate this is, and I may consider stripping this and making it look laminated, along with a lighter varnish. The prop hub is a series of PE parts which need to be fitted.

We now have several frets of photo-etch, all individually packed in thick plastic sleeves. All PE is of different gauges, but the connection tabs are quite small, so it won’t take long to remove them from the frets. A small file can then we used to smooth off the connection points. You will note parts here for the engine and engine framework etc. 




These are the cylinders, comprised of parts which stack upon one another, creating a cooling-fin effect. That should look quite nice when done, and beats using plastic where you’d need to remove an awkward seam.

This is the material for covering the wings, tail and part of the fuselage. After being cut to size, this is applied with PVA and CA before being painted all over in dilute PVA. This will give it a smoother and more drum-like surface and of course, pull it taught. 

For a model which at first glance, appears to be mostly stick and string, there’s a surprising amount of photo-etch.

The second fittings tray. Let’s take a look…

As the aircraft has numerous pivoting surfaces and pipework, we are supplied with a range of both brass and copper tubes of various lengths and gauges. 

You will of course need some nails too, and some eyelets for things such as rigging.

As well as brass eyelets, a bag of copper eyelets are also supplied. The bag of copper rods you see here are actually the wheel spokes, and they have a flat end on them to secure them in the jig whilst you assemble the wheels.

 Yet more brass nails and also brass strip parts which appear to be undercarriage related. 

Our last components tray.

In here, we have various brass eyelets, engine components such as cylinder heads, large turnbuckles, undercarriage suspension springs, brass rod, riggings cord, plumbing parts etc. Quite a few parts here are cast in zinc alloy as they are stronger and hold detail far better than white metal or Britannia metal fittings. 





This little pack of curios contains parts in both timber of plastic. The cones form the ends of the large fuel tank for which you’ll need to construct a planked drum. Parts here exist for the control stick base, cylinder bases and the engine crankcase etc. Some minor clean-up of the plastic parts will be needed. 

Injection moulded rims are supplied for the wheels, with two per wheel. These will be assembled on the jig, and along with the brass hubs, they will be spoked just like the real thing. Minor clean-up will be needed to remove the sprue attachment gates.


Large rubber rings are supplied for the tyres, and these will sit neatly into the recess between the two rings that make up each wheel.

Yet more brass and copper tubes/rod.


Of course, we can’t have a wooden model without timber strip. This will be used for some frames, wing/tail spars, leading edges etc. Timber quality is Amati standard, as always. Some flexible pipe is also supplied for plumbing the engine, fuel tank etc.





As always, Amati’s instructions are excellent and productions all of their own. This 62-page A4 (landscape format) manual is produced in full colour with photographs that describe the various stages, step by step. Whilst the text is in Italian, there is an English translated sheet for those who need it. As well as photographs, a series of illustrative drawings helps the modeller throughout, and everything is also annotated superbly. A parts list is supplied here, as it on the English translation. 














Two plan sheets are included with one of these depicting various views of the Blériot for constructional reference, and also a sheet with plan parts supplied. These can be married up against the unnumbered parts on the laser-cut sheets.


 
Conclusion
Despite the minimalistic look of the Blériot, this isn’t a weekend project, by any means. There is still going to be a concerted effort needed, as with any model whose main assembly is in timber. Overall, the skeleton of the model is actually straightforward and only minimal tools will be required. Some care will be needed in covering the wings and tailplane, and you may opt to use an antique style material which is used for covering flying model aircraft wings and applied with an iron. Overall, the timber parts are superbly cut with little scorching, and the numerous PE sheets/frets will keep you entertained for many hours, as will those wheels which are built up from individual spokes. If you are a super-detailer, then you could also rig the fuselage with wire and use reproduction turnbuckles, instead of the supplied rigging cord. There are many possibilities, should you wish to deviate from an already excellent kit. You will need a large area to display this model, or it could hang from the ceiling in your study, recreating those stylish days of yesteryear. This kit is also very reasonably priced, so if those memories of the Flambards TV series or the original books by  Kathleen Peyton etc. are what fire your imagination, give this kit a shot!
 
My sincere thanks to Amati for sending the kit you see under review here. To purchase directly, click the link at the top of this article.
 
 

That just looks really nice.  😁

1st Planking Band Ready on Starboard side and Added Garboard strake, blatantly copying @glennard2523 with his 2-Plank Garboard Strake idea:
 

 
Mu 1st Plank Band consists of 7 Planks, 2 are very lightly tapered, 5 next are tapered to 2.5mm
 
Port side almost the same status

You got it. All char removal is a good indicator that all is faired to the same level for inner bulwarks. I just used a piece of 110 grit paper, doubled over for stiffness but allowing to form into bulwark side shape.

You got it. All char removal is a good indicator that all is faired to the same level for inner bulwarks. I just used a piece of 110 grit paper, doubled over for stiffness but allowing to form into bulwark side shape.

I use spots of Gorilla CA gel on all my second planking 😉