Blue Ensign

Post One Hundred and Thirty nine Port lids Thankfully only three per side to prep plus the Bridle port lids. The Bridle port was originally moulded shut into the topsides pattern, but I opened it up early in the build, so the cut-away piece will require some fettlin’ Care needs to be taken in fitting the three lids to the correct port. They are handed Port and Starboard, and the best way is to check that the scribed lines match up with the adjoining planks. In retrospect I think it would have been better to fit the lids, if only temporarily, before the guns were put into place. I assembled the two parts of the lids before painting. 7473 The provided eyelets to represent the port lid ring bolts are 1.9mm outside ø but are rather too broad with a flat profile which is inevitable with photo etch. These are tiny fittings but I find them unconvincing, looking like what they are, bent over eyelets. The rings properly scale to 0.4mm ø wire, 0.7mm in the clear, pretty tiny stuff to scratch make. My compromise is to drill out the provided rings using a 1mm drill and dispense with the stems. 7477(2) The rings are secured to a fine bolt which allows the internal lid rings to hang naturally. The kit provided port lid hinges are finely made, these are chemically blackened before use. I used carefully applied ca to fix the hinges. The port lanyards are of 2” circ line (0.25mm ø line). Seizing the lanyard to the lid ring bolt is tricky at this scale without making it look oversize. 7487 7490 I use the ‘false’ splice method feeding the line thro’ and back the line before sealing with a spot of diluted pva and trimming. 7496 The forward port lid only opens to the horizontal level as it falls between the aft end of the Main Channel and stool. 7494 Rigging the aft port lid; the lanyard is threaded thro’ the ring before fixing. The lid is simply pushed into place in the pre- cut holes. 7509 7502 On the port side I left the forward port lid loosely closed. The lanyard tubes can also be seen, a fitting the detail devil in me couldn’t resist adding. Telephone wire sleeving is used to represent the leather port tubes. 7515(2) 7512 Just the Bridle Ports to sort now. B.E. 13/07/2022

Your planking is a thing of beauty Glenn, wonderful work. B.E.

Sorry Ron, I thought the yards were only temporarily in place and that you could just turn it around. As you say with the Topsail set it won't really be noticeable. B.E.

Very nice work on those yards Ron, I fully concur with your approach to the footrope stirrups I'm not a fan of the etched versions. Once in position I hang small weights from the footropes to tension the stirrups and apply diluted pva or similar to deter curl. Re the Main Topsail yard, the stirrups should hang down the back of the yard when you finally fix, but of course you know that. B.E.

Building that stern is an exacting business Yves, and you’re doing a fine job. She looks splendid with the ‘painted’ stern, well done👍 B.E.

I always love the look of your models Nils, and Elbe is no exception. Beautifully drawn sails, and a great idea for the printing. B.E.

I'm seeing it Ron, a very fine stern indeed. The open sash windows option is a nice touch, I did the same on my Victory build back in 2006, having seen them open during a visit to the Dockyard. The 'Indy' is going to make a great model, Chris does keep raising the bar. B.E.

Thank you, Ron, Glenn, and Mark, for your support, I am happy to follow your sound advice. Regards, B.E.

Cheers Guys, you have confirmed what I really knew. 👍 it sometimes helps when others put it in black and white. I will leave the skid beams insitu for the present and display the boats on their cradles as a separate display within the case, when the time comes. Regards, B.E.

Post One Hundred and Thirty Eight The Skid beams At this point in history these beams were temporary, held in position by brackets along the Gangway between Qtr deck and Fo’csle. On the Marshall painting they are not shown, and I have doubts about fitting them. I can see that the number of four beams in the kit has probably been taken from the Pandora AotS book. Minerva 1780 Four is the number indicated on several contemporary models, but these tend to be larger Frigates, the Minerva (38) of 1780 being one example. On this beautiful model, as with several others, only the crutches are shown, and I’m of two minds whether adding the skid beams will enhance or detract from the overall look of this style of model. I certainly don’t want to obscure the Upper deck details. 7438 The beams have been replaced by some pristine 2.5mm x 3.00mm Pearwood stock (Hobbymill EU) 7434(2) As I’m not big on permanent fixing, if an alternative is available, I drilled and pinned the skid beams to the brackets. If you look closely the bracket parts do have bolt holes in the side. 7435(2) I also considered whether to fit any or perhaps only one of the boats on the model, or have them set as separate displays within the main model case. If I am to display a boat on the skids it will be the Pinnace as the most elegant of the three. The artist in me is drawn to the clean uncluttered look of the Navy board style model, the detail demon in me says if its there and applicable – fit it. 7442 7443 7444 7446 I’m not convinced that I like the look of the bare cradles on the beams. Were I building a fully rigged version I would not have these concerns but Navy Board style models are of a different order, and often less is more in relation to this type. I will ponder the matter further while I attend to the Port lids. B.E. 06/07/2022

Thank you Yves, not sure about pushing perfection, but your kind words are very much appreciated. B.E.

They are very nice Nils, but all down to Chris who is providing an excellent service to ship modellers. It is also good that he is supplying them at different scales. This 3d printing malarkey is having a major impact on the quality of fittings available for which I am truly thankful. B.E.

Post One Hundred and Thirty Seven Command candidates. When I first saw Chris’s latest figures of Pellew and Hornblower I was pretty impressed, enough so to buy the 1:64 scale versions to satisfy my curiosity. They are indeed finely sculpted and detailed and altho’ not period dressed for Sphinx at least in her early years, they do look very fine on her deck as scale comparison figures. Both figures stand over six feet in scale height (sole of foot to Bi-corn hats) which is tall for the era, but Pellew was known to have been a tall man. I am not a fan of the bases which as a trial I have removed. 7410 I used side snippers to firstly reduce the base size by degrees, cut thro’ the centre between the legs using an etch razor saw, and snip away the remaining base. 7413(2) Beneath the soles of the feet, I supported the legs and then snipped away but not down to the feet, and then carefully sanded to the sole. Sir Edward did lose his foot during the surgery due to heavy handiness on my part, but it was quickly re-attached using ca. 7414(3) From aft the macro reveals a crack running down Hornblower's shoulder, this was not visible to the naked eye – well mine anyway. With the Hornblower figure, be careful in handling as the sword extension beyond his frock coat is very vulnerable to breaking. (Don’t ask me how I know) 7415(2) A fine pair of Quarterdeck officers. 7416(2) Hornblower would certainly have to duck beneath the beams. He is standing next to Capt. Grimm who stands at a scale 5’ 8” 7421 They do look good, particularly standing on their own feet and not on a pedestal. One or other could be re-identified as Captain Richard Lucas who commanded Sphinx in 1794. 7424 Back to the main event… B.E. 04/07/2022

That should prove an interesting exercise in self torture, I look forward to seeing the event. I hope you photo the process Grant, or is that a secret of ship bottlers, a bit like magicians not revealing their tricks.😉 B.E.

That is tiny work Grant, does it have the system whereby the mast and rigging are inserted flat into the bottle and pulled upright with a string, or does it fit fully erected thro' the base? B.E.

Love the Mermaid figure Thomas, and that port quarter stern shot is stunning. B.E.

There’s something seriously out of sync there Mark. Are you sure the deck beams were properly set before laying the deck pattern? Is it possible to remove the deck pattern, I can’t see from the photos what else to do. b.E.

Post One Hundred and Thirty-six Billboards, bolsters, and Linings. These do not feature on the Sphinx kit, but she presumably had them, and they are shown on the Marshall Painting. The Billboard is clearly shown, but the bolster can’t be identified, and there is no indication of the linings. I added this feature to Pegasus and will do so for Sphinx The dimensions of these fittings are given in the FFM Vol 11 for the Swan sloops which will be my guide for Sphinx. I firstly made the Bolsters in two parts using Pearwood strip. They are rebated on the back side to fit over the Preventer plates. With the bolsters in place the Billboards can be made. For this I use some 1mm pearwood scrap inscribed with 3mm wide boards which reflect the topsides planking. The topside decoration is carried across the Billboard. 7397 I haven’t yet decided whether to paint the bolsters to match the strakes. 7386 The decoration comes courtesy of some old Pegasus etch. 7390 The bolsters are only pinned in place in case I wish to remove them, but so were the originals. 7392 I did initially have some reservations about adding this feature in case it distracted in some way from lovely lines of Sphinx. It does appear on the contemporary model of Amazon, and I note that Chuck has added it to his Winnie build. 7396 I have still the Linings to do yet, a pity to cover up part of that nice top and butt wale planking, but they are part of the set. B.E. 02/07/2022

The NMM blurb about this model indicates that it is on loan from a private lender. Perhaps it's the lender who's short of funds. B.E.

Preventer plate saga continues… Chris has advised me that on the Admn plan the Main preventer plates are slightly longer than those of the Fore channels. I checked the plan and indeed they are, but the lower chains are shorter on the Mains (apart from the aftermost two) than on the Fore. The kit provides a standard length of lower chains for both Fore and Main (PE50) which fit the Fore channels, but create the issue (for me) on the Main channels. The problem sent me rooting thro’ my brass etch spares box; the solution came in the form of brass etched chains from the Amati Fly/Pegasus chains set that I bought years ago during my Pegasus build. 7362 It is serendipitous that the middle and lower chains of the Fly/Pegasus set are a perfect match to the Sphinx Main Preventer plates. 7355 So what you see is a sort of Sixth rate hybrid arrangement, Preventer plates courtesy of Sphinx, Middle and Lower chains courtesy of Pegasus/Fly. 7358 Problem solved for me but I believe the one sized middle and lower chains of the Sphinx kit may create issues for other builders, in relation to the Main Channels. That remains to be seen. B.E. 30/06/2022

I did a bit of d-i-y shimming on my clamp. 7352 I dismantled the clamp and lined both cup and ball with fine cotton material from an old handkerchief . I then applied a little lump hammer technology and bashed the spines on the retaining ring until it tightened to the point that movement was stiff. Hand tightening of the ring wouldn't hack it. With Indy I think you're going to need a bigger clamp, but if you buy another you can always use the spare bar clamps to give additional support. B.E

It remains a great puzzlement to me Ron, The gap between the underside of the Fore and Main channels and the Wale is the same on both plan and model. The Middle and lower chain parts (PE49/50) are the same for both Channels, only those for the Mizen and backstays are smaller (PE54/55) The preventer plates for the Fore Channel fit just fine but for a reason that escapes me those for the Main Channel are 1mm+ longer than those for the Fore. This is enough to throw the bolt holes of the preventer plate and lower chains out of sync as in the photos above. Maybe I’m missing the point but I simply can’t see why have two different sizes of preventer plate? Any minor adjustments would normally be done tweaking the middle link. B.E.

She's looking very impressive Ron, and that is excellent work on the snaking, not the easiest task to get looking right. Well done. B.E.

Well done Dave, cutters make such attractive models, and yours is a fine example. B.E.

Post One Hundred and Thirty five Fitting the chains There is a fold line on the Lower chain link which allows it to sit flush with the hull. Against this the top of the preventer plate is bolted, and you will note that this too has a slight rebate in the top end where it joins the lower link chain. I needed to check them carefully before fitting as the blackening reduces the clarity of these features. Fitting the preventer plates raised a question in my mind. The kit arrangement appears to have them with a gap between the hull and where they bolt to the Black strake at their lower end. My understanding is that these should be flush with the hull at all points and were cranked slightly to fit over the Black strake. Careful pressing of a hard edge just above the strake produces this effect. On Sphinx the bottom fixing of the preventer plates (PE51/PE52) run along the top-line of the wale, which provides a useful fitting guide and the lower link (PE50) joins this at the top end. In reality the middle links (PE49) varied in length as appropriate to each deadeye fitting, the preventer plates and lower chain links remaining constant. I am prepared to make replacement middle links if required using 0.5 mm ø brass wire which is scale to the 1¼”ø iron applicable. My approach; The lower chain and middle link are brought together thro’ the deadeye loop and trial fitted for line -up against the preventer plate top hole with the plate in the desired position. The preventer plates are then fixed with a bolt thro’ the bottom fixing. The shroud line is used to mark the position. Once satisfied, the pin is driven thro’ to secure both preventer plate and lower chain at the upper end. Fitting these things is a tiresome business made more so by my Amati keel clamp having developed the alarming habit of lurching violently in one direction or other without warning. I suspect that the ball and cup which allow it to rotate have worn like an old hip joint after many years of use. Time was taken out for a bit of remedial surgery. 7351 It took most of a day to fit one side of the Fore channel, and fortunately fiddling with the middle link proved unnecessary. 7340 7342 The backstay and Mizen chains are much simpler to fit having no preventer plates to consider. Every thing was going so well until I came to the Main Channels. Here a combination of preventer plate PE52, lower chain PE 50, and Middle link PE49 just simply would not fit. 7345 7344 I tried various combinations of middle and lower links combined with the preventer plates all to no avail. No one else has mentioned issues with this and I am at a loss to understand where things have gone awry. My options appear to be; Fix the preventer plate lower fixing on the wale, which does not accord with the plan - I don't fancy this option. Scratch make smaller middle chains, which I have a feeling may look too small. Ask Chris if he will supply me with a set of the smaller PE51 preventer plates as used on the fore channels. These do seem to match the fit. I will play around further but I think option 3 may prevail. B.E. 29/06/2022