Blue Ensign

Post Eight
 
Upper deck supports
 
A couple of the support beam legs needed a little fettlin’ to get them to sit right down on the Bulkhead shoulder.
This only entailed sanding the leg bottoms by degrees until the beam was firmly down.
 
Depending on what arrangement I finally decide upon there may be a glimpse of the upper deck support beam legs.
In reality these are shaped columns and for those that may be seen thro’ the upper deck openings a little shaping is in order above coaming level.

0235(2)
This relates to support legs 4a thro’ to 10a.
Dry fit only at this point.

0237(2)
There is a risk of breaking the mdf legs so the shaping process was done very carefully using scalpel and light sanding strokes.

0229
Upper deck base temporarily in place.

0227
Whatever remains to be seen will link the two decks in a more realistic manner, all about smoke and mirrors below the Upper deck.

0231(2)
The shipyard is now closing for a week or so while I spend some time at the coast.
 
B.E.
01/09/21
 

Post Eight
 
Upper deck supports
 
A couple of the support beam legs needed a little fettlin’ to get them to sit right down on the Bulkhead shoulder.
This only entailed sanding the leg bottoms by degrees until the beam was firmly down.
 
Depending on what arrangement I finally decide upon there may be a glimpse of the upper deck support beam legs.
In reality these are shaped columns and for those that may be seen thro’ the upper deck openings a little shaping is in order above coaming level.

0235(2)
This relates to support legs 4a thro’ to 10a.
Dry fit only at this point.

0237(2)
There is a risk of breaking the mdf legs so the shaping process was done very carefully using scalpel and light sanding strokes.

0229
Upper deck base temporarily in place.

0227
Whatever remains to be seen will link the two decks in a more realistic manner, all about smoke and mirrors below the Upper deck.

0231(2)
The shipyard is now closing for a week or so while I spend some time at the coast.
 
B.E.
01/09/21
 

HULL ASSEMBLY
ADDING THE UPPER HULL SIDE PATTERNS
BUILD MANUAL STEPS 134 -137
 
 
LINK TO MY BUILD LOG INDEX
 
Tools Used
Titebond original glue
Old paint brush
Clamps
 
Gathering the materials required
The following kit parts are required for this section of the build:
136, 138
 
Assembly Process
The hull side patterns were removed from the hull, after being left clamped to the hull for approx. 18 hours to fully dry out. I was concerned with a little bit of bulging of the patterns near the stern area. On closer examination I found the problem was due to an alignment issue with a couple of the repaired bulkhead ears, which had broken off during the fairing process. I decided to remove two of the damaged ears and this solved the bulging problem.
 
Starting with the right-hand pattern I applied a diluted glue solution to the hull frame. I then carefully aligned the pattern with the first couple of gun port openings and added a clamp. More clamps were added as I continued to align the pattern moving toward to the stern. Finally, I applied clamps to the bow area and the hull was put aside to allow time for the glue to cure.
 .
I used all my clamps

 
Close up of the bow clamping

 
Clamping the stern area

 
 
I repeated the process for the left-hand pattern.
 
Death by clamping😂

 
After the glue had had time to cure the clamps were removed and I stood back to admire my work as instructed in step 130 of the build manual 😀
 

 

 

 
There is a slight misalignment at the bow. I will use some water to release the front edge and realign as necessary.

 

Anyone got a good Mouser
 

No not you Tommy..
 
Tommy was a good mouser, but not the sort I’m after.
Before I can do the Forestay a mouse has to be made.
Mouses are easy enough to make, it’s the finish that matters.
In reality they were ‘raised’ on the stay itself and have a distinctive woven appearance, this is the tricky bit to replicate, particularly at small scale, and even at 1:64 the Pickle Mouse is still only 6x3mm.
I have made my mouses using styrene tubing shaped on a length of 1mm brass wire.

So far so good.
But how to replicate that woven look in a scale pattern.
 
A rummage thro’ Mrs W’s tights (panti hose to our American cousins) drawer, to find a pair past their best. This is the most dangerous part of the build so far.
 
I would have asked but she’s gone to the Golf Club, and well needs must....
 

A piece of the material is stretched around the mouse which has been coated in ca, when dry it is trimmed and painted.
 

The completed article.
 
The Forestay collar is served from the eye to the mouse, for this I used super fine silk thread.
 

This was done by hand but if I had to do much of it I think a small serving device would need to be cobbled together.
 

The served collar before staining and on completion with the mouse fitted.

 

I will not seize off the lanyard until later in the build, minor adjustments may be required when the other tackle is installed.

I include this pic to show the effect of stretching and waxing the stay. It hangs loose in a natural curve without any tendency to kink.
 

 
The completed stay with deadeyes and lanyard fitted, the same procedure will be followed for the other fore and aft stays.
 
B.E.
 

Work on the masts has now largely been completed.
 

Top rope Sheaves are drilled.

Mainmast head assembled.

Foremast head and hounds.

The Gaffs were also completed in the same manner as the Driver Boom.
 
MAST HOOPS
 
This is something not included by Jotika, but applicable to the Main Mast.

These wooden rings were used where a driver boom was used in conjunction with the Gaff to provide ease of movement up the mast.
 
I had to remove the boom saddle in order to get them over the mast.
 
There are nine in total, made with a strip cut from a brown envelope and rolled around a piece of dowel several times, coating the paper with diluted PVA as I went along, and then finished with shellac in the guise of Knotting.
 

The dowel was sprayed with silicone polish to deter adhesion from the white glue.
 

The hoops are then cut from the now stiffened paper tube using a scalpel.
 
Further coated with knotting, they are then sanded to the required thickness
 
According to Marquardt the internal diameter of the rings should be 11/2” – 2” larger than the diameter of the mast which in the case of Pickle meant a 7.5mm dia rod as a former.

One other feature is required around the area of the gaff and Driver jaws, that is copper sheathing to protect the masts.
Copper tape impressed with a riveter was used for this.
 

The Mast hoops sit atop the Driver jaws.
 

 

Just the yards to finish off and it’s onto final assembly.
 
B.E.
 

Masting and Rigging – the final stage
 
Various sizes of Birch dowel are supplied to make the masts, the mast fittings are cnc walnut shaped parts which need some fettlin’ to get them to scale.
 
First up are the Bowsprit and Jib, for which my somewhat temperamental Mantua spar lathe with its very erratic toggle switch, is brought into use.
 

To taper the spars I just used sanding sticks with a range of grit papers glued to them rather than cut the taper in with a blade. With this size of stuff it is less risky than the blade.
 
In fixing the bowsprit and jib there are several things that have to be considered at the same time, the bowsprit has to sit squarely between the standards of the Pawl bitts, and has to run parallel with the stem and with the right degree of stive.
 
The angle of the mast cap has to be determined, so that it is vertical to the waterline, and the jibboom which passes thro’ it, sits parallel to the bowsprit.
 

The Bowsprit cap was a tricky little beggar to make, I scrapped three before success.
 
Jotika provided two cnc walnut caps(one spare) into which angled holes for the bowsprit tenon and the jibboom had to be drilled.
Problem is that no matter how carefully I drilled the holes the wood split away from the walnut faces. It was not until I drilled the holes in a piece of scrap and then cut the profile that I got the result.
 
Initially I thought that the cap looked a liitle bulky but when I checked the scale dimensions against the jibboom diameter it was spot on.
 
I modified the cap by cutting a groove on the aft side to take the jack staff, and drilled holes in the jibboom for the heel lashing and a sheave for the outhauler. I also formed a necking at the jibboom end, something omitted by Jotika.
 
I also needed to decide at this stage how to colour the masts, Jotika suggest staining them walnut, rather unappealing in my view, I will not be staining them walnut.
 

A little bit of trialling with various mediums, and I finally settled on a light oak satin varnish, enhanced with a touch of natural wood finish.

Now onto the mast assemblies.
 
Fore (or schooner Mast) and Main Masts
 
Jotika have these at 6mm diameter for their full length to the head which is formed by a separate square section of 4x4mm. The head section and mast have to be drilled and joined by a piece of brass wire and Jotika provide a centre finding template for the round section dowel, to assist the process.
 
This simplification (also used by Longridge in his Victory build) saves the modeller the task of squaring the mast head, but does not allow for those who may wish to do so, as the provided dowel lengths are too short.
 
The straight 6mm dowel just doesn’t look right to my eye, using Steel’s Fraction tables for masts I calculate that there should be a taper from 6mm at the partners to 5mm to the start of the head.
 
With the Jotika method the top of the round section outside of the masthead has to be angled so that the cross trees when fitted run parallel to the waterline, not to the rake of the masts.

The Trestletree/crosstree parts are cnc cut walnut, ok, but some adjustment was required to fit around the mast head. Double sided tape and a piece of the masthead timber were needed to set the piece out before gluing.
 
At this point I departed from the Jotika build instructions, as I fitted cheeks to the masts, the top angle of which created the parallel line for the Trestletrees.
 
A simple enough modification, and a feature that my research tells me was appropriate to schooner masts as well as larger vessels.
 
Main Topmast
 
This again is constructed from two sections, the lower section being fashioned from 4mm walnut square section, shaped to an octagon above the topmast sheaves.
 
As with the lower mast, it is connected by brass rod to tapered dowel for the upper part of the mast.
Jotika didn’t suggest it but at 1:64 scale I think a topmast sheave would be appropriate, so one will be cut into the heel of the topmasts above the fid.
 
Fore topmast
 
This differed from the Main Topmast in that it is supposed to be constructed from three sections, the first square stock shaped to an octagon, the second up to and incorporating the hounds (not present on the MainTopmast) and thirdly the pole head of the mast.
 

I decided to turn the mast above the square section as one, incorporating the hounds; this also gave me a little more lathe practice. Finally a truck was formed at the mast head.
 

I am a little puzzled why Jotika didn’t fit hounds to the Main Mast, perhaps because no stays were secured at that point.
 

Dry fitting the topmasts before any finishing work can be done, the cheeks which show up white here support the trestletrees and give the correct angle.
 

As can be seen she has quite a lofty rig, note the downward slope of the trestletrees which are parallel to the waterline, whereas the mast caps follow the mast rake.
 

 
Once I am completely satisfied with the fit I can fine tune the trestletrees and fix them in place. The topmasts will not be glued, both they and the mast caps are a snug fit.
 
I think I will however add a truck to the Main Topmast head.
 
B.E.
 
 
 

The Rudder
 
Usual blocky walnutty sort of thingy.
 
I looked at whether there should be any taper on the rudder both in fore/aft and top/bottom planes but decided that there was evidence that rudders remained the same thickness in many cases.
 
So blocky walnutty sort of thingy it is.
 
I started by fitting the tiller, I wanted to be sure that the angle of the tiller would be correct once the rudder was in place.
In considering the rudder, attention has to be paid to where it emerges thro’ the deck at the stern and how this is to be finished off.
 
In reality the rudder stock runs up thro’ the transom encased by a rudder trunk which prevents water ingress into the ship. At the bottom end where the rudder enters the hull a helmport or rudder coat is secured, and at the deck level a further coat is secured around the rudder head to prevent water running down the rudder trunk when the decks are awash.
 
I decided to give the upper end of the rudder stock a degree of round to facilitate turning.
 
The rudder was copper plated and copper tape was used on the inward facing edge of the rudder.

Close-up of the plated rudder showing the pintle straps in place, these need to be fixed first to judge the angles of the hull braces.
 
The difference in un weathered copper is clearly apparent.
 
The braces, gudgeons, pintles et al were supplied in etched brass. Jotika state that these should be painted black to represent iron.
 
 Hmmmn iron stuff on copper plating in 1805, not sure about that,   by that time a cuprous alloy was used for this stuff, whether there were exceptions on small vessels such as Pickle I don’t know, but in any event I ain’t painting mine black.
 

Some little fettlin’was required to get the tiller to sit at the correct angle for a 1:64 helmsman.

The trickiest bit is going to be getting the rudder to sit close to the sternpost when I fit the pintles and gudgeons.
 
Pintles, Gudgeons and Braces
 
An afternoons work to secure these, a little fiddly getting the pintles and gudgeons to meet up, and the straps at the right angle stuck to the hull without getting ca on the surface plating.
 

One of the scuppers can also be seen in this shot, four have been fitted along each side of the hull.
 

I have begun the weathering on the rudder but will stop the process a little earlier to give a lighter effect.
 

The tiller stands three scale feet above the deck, and Dick demonstrates the correct angle.
The rudder head was fitted with iron bands top and bottom of the tiller as strengthening pieces, as was the practice.
 
Channels or chain wales
 
These are pre-formed in 1.5mm stuff which is pretty bang on for scale.
 
I have added two knees to each channel for additional support. The Deadeye strops are brass etched and quite nicely formed if a little delicate. These fit into the notches on the channel face, and are then secured with a batten fixed across the edge.
 

 

Jotika suggest a 1.5 mm square piece of walnut for the batten but I went with a thinner piece of ebony stuff as I felt it looked better.
For the deadeyes I used a flatter pear wood version supplied by JB models, rather than the standard Jotika stuff.
 

 

This basically completes the external fittings on the hull; I am toying with the idea of fixing side steps to the hull and short ladders fixed to the inside bulwarks, but there is time to think about this whilst I prepare the masts which is the next build phase.
 
Jotika suggest that building the Pickle should take between four and six months of evening work, hmmn, seems to have been a bit of slippage here, I’ve spent over five months already, and not restricted just to evening work, in fact I don’t do evenings, I prefer to work in natural light as far as possible.
 
B.E.
 

Thank you Steve, I’m away at the coast, almost reluctantly, as I’m keen to resume the build with the first major modification in progress.
 
Regards,
 
B.E.
 

Thank you Steve, I’m away at the coast, almost reluctantly, as I’m keen to resume the build with the first major modification in progress.
 
Regards,
 
B.E.
 

Thank you Steve, I’m away at the coast, almost reluctantly, as I’m keen to resume the build with the first major modification in progress.
 
Regards,
 
B.E.
 

Very nice work as usual, B.E.
Steve

Well done Glenn, great photos of the bow/stern  off- model fairing process. 👍
 
B.E.

Positively rattling thro' this build, you'll have it finished before I've got the deck in.
Good to have a pathfinder to sort out any wrinkles of which there seem to be very few.
 
B.E.

I have entertained myself this week building Chuck’s delightful little mini kit of the double Capstan derived from his HMS Winchelsea kit.

3534(3)
At 1:48 scale it won’t unfortunately fit the forthcoming Sphinx build but it will sit in her case as an example of such a device of the mid-18th century.
 
I am ahead of the game in one respect, I have already made the 22’ Yawl which will also be supplied with the kit.

610(2)
At least one tiny element of the Sphinx build will be rigged.

620(2)

631
I have already decided to have only the Pinnace displayed on the hull so the Yawl too will sit within the case of the completed Sphinx.
 
B.E.
20/08/2021
 

 
 

Before coppering can begin the waterline has to be marked.
 
A base board is needed to sit the thing upright and held steady.
 

I construct a sort of Heath Robinson affair to support the model.
 
A little jig is provided in the kit to elevate the bows to assist the marking of the line which in the case of Pickle does not run parallel to the keel.
 

 
An inordinate amount of time is spent trying to ensure that Pickle sit perfectly square.
 

Not prepared to stick my hand in my pocket for a vernier height gauge (why are they so expensive) I consult Mr Robinson and come up with a carpenters pencil pva’d to a block of balsa with the chisel point the critical 50mm above board level.
 

Additional bandings are applied to hold the hull down firmly.
 
Around the hull we go and I am pleased to see that the lines meet at the bow; a little more tricky at the stern as the pencil doesn’t seem to want to go under the transom.
 

The pencil line was very faint so I go over it with a silver gellyroll pen to make it stand out against the black hull.
 
Seems I’m just about mm perfect for where the coppering will reach at the bows, and as for the stern I will continue the lines with a suitable curve.
 
Marking the waterline is one of those critical little jobs that can affect the look of the whole model and fine lined vessels such as schooners with drag at the keel present greater difficulties than larger vessels where the waterline runs more or less parallel with the keel.
 
B.E.
 
 

The second planking run
 
First up are the Black strake and Wale. Jotika specify the line of these two planks, and in order to get an accurate line, pieces of styrene strip of the correct width were temporarily attached to the hull below the gunports as a guide.
 

Medium viscosity super glue was used to attach the strakes.
 

Once the first ebony plank is attached, another is glued directly on top of it to form the strake.
 

It is then a simple matter to glue a further plank directly below it, and laminate it up to three thicknesses to form the Wale.
 

Below this, to below the waterline, ebony planks will be used, and above the wale, boxwood to form the ochre stripe.
 

A couple of the ochre (boxwood) planks have been put into place so I can gauge the effect.
 

At this point I am using scale 20’ planks, mainly because it is more economical with the ebony strip and I am in danger of running short.
 


Once below the waterline in the area to be covered by the copper plating I will start using boxwood again in the broadest strips I can get away with, hopefully 6mm. This should also help to reduce the tapering effect at the bows.
 

The planking will now continue to completion.
 
B.E.

Sand and fill...
 
Sand and fill, fill and sand, sand and fill, well that’s the order of the day..
 
Running my fingers with eyes shut over the sleek lines of Pickle, feeling out any little bumps and depressions, to be marked and attended to, before another round of sand and fill.....
 
Actually very little filler has been used, I got hold of some stuff called Model Lite which sands very easily, dries quickly, allowing several application/sanding sessions within a short time scale.
 

 
For the second planking I have decided to use Boxwood and ebony strip to represent both the Ochre gun port stripe and the hull planking above the waterline. I didn’t have enough suitable old stock boxwood to plank the model but I managed to obtain a supply of 0.6mm strip in various widths that will do the job. The 1x4mm walnut strip will therefore be set aside.
 

This photo gives an impression of the colour differences between the various wood types.
Apart from any other considerations 0.6mm strip will be easier to fit than 1mm. and the quality of the strip is better than the kit provided stuff.
 

At this point I have also fitted the stern counter and re-marked the bearding line for the additional tapering to accommodate the second planking.
 
As I won’t be using the kit provided 1mm stuff the bearding will only eat 0.5mm into the first planking.
 

0.6 x 4.5mm ebony strip has been used to plank the counter.
 
Deck planking already?
 
The lower (false) deck is required to be partly planked as parts of it will be seen thro’ the various hatches etc;
 
Rather than use the kit provided Tanganyika, I have opted for boxwood.
 

Caulking is represented by running a black permanent marker along one edge of the plank.
 
I drew out a little planking plan to gauge where the butts may meet in a three shift pattern, as the feature may be glimpsed thro’ the hatches of the main deck.
 
I am now ready to start the second run of planking.
 
B.E.
 

After around 5 1/2 months, HMS Sphinx is now finally complete and the updated box label and manual are with the printers for the next production run. 
 
This last stage has of course been the rig, but I've added a few photos too which show the stand etc. There's not too much to say at this point. You will notice that all the blocks are the optional pear set and not the standard kit parts. Here's a fe sequence shots showing yards fitted, and stays etc.
 







 
 
And finally, here are the completed images. 
 
Hope you like her!
 

 
 
 

Positively rattling thro' this build, you'll have it finished before I've got the deck in.
Good to have a pathfinder to sort out any wrinkles of which there seem to be very few.
 
B.E.

Positively rattling thro' this build, you'll have it finished before I've got the deck in.
Good to have a pathfinder to sort out any wrinkles of which there seem to be very few.
 
B.E.

Positively rattling thro' this build, you'll have it finished before I've got the deck in.
Good to have a pathfinder to sort out any wrinkles of which there seem to be very few.
 
B.E.

Well done Glenn, great photos of the bow/stern  off- model fairing process. 👍
 
B.E.

Thanks for the likes and comments. Starboard planking complete with first coat of WOP. 
 

 
The boxwood absorbed it like a sponge. It seemed it was dry before I finished. I need more practice on the lower belt, not that any one would know after it’s painted white. 
 
I’m not thrilled with the uneven color of the boxwood. I spent a lot of time sorting pieces to color match then the WOP found whole new colors to display. 

I’ll do more sanding later, need to do that in conjunction with port side. More details and photos after the planking is completely finished. 
 
Back to work. 

 
 

Log #10: Concerning Drop Planks
With the wales done I proceeded to line off the hull for a second time. With the benefit of having done this once and realizing why it was not what I wanted, I was able to arrange much more pleasing lines.

 


However, when I went to make my tick strips and mark the tapering at the bow I realized I had an issue. To fit the required number of strakes in the first band, I needed to taper them at the bow to around 2mm (on the diagonal so just under 2mm perpendicular to the plank). This is right at the edge of what is acceptable to me for tapering (half the width at midships).
So I had three potential ways to solve this problem:
Just accept the narrow tapering Adjust the tape lines to make them more “straight” running into the bow to create more room Add a drop plank right under the wales One was never really an option, I knew I would always be annoyed by how narrow they were. Two was not ideal because I really liked the lining off I had done and “straightening” the lines would risk the introduction of a “wiggle” in the planks near the bow (you can see this wiggle in my first planking). Three was by far the most difficult option, but in the end I figured that this whole thing is a learning process and I might as well gie it a shot. If they don’t turn out in a way I like, I can always decide to shift back to option one or two. All I will have lost is time. Also historically I believe that it was common practice for english shipwrights to put one drop plank right under the wales.
 
So what followed was an evening of reading, measuring, cutting, then reading and measuring again to try and shape the drop planks correctly. For the benefit of any other new builders who might want to attempt a drop plank I am going to detail my thought process below. I am not sure this is the best way to approach it so feel free to chime in if you have thoughts on the process.


I modeled the shape of the drop planks off of @chuck’s cheerful build log. However, that only gave me the rough length and shape, he never (that I could find) went into detail as to how he designs their measurements, so that part I was forced to improvise.
 
Step 1 - Calculations
I decided to use my lining off of the first band as the basis for my calculations. I knew I needed to fit seven planks in the band and that the drop plank needed to end at the 2nd bulkhead. This meant that at both the 1st and 2nd bulkheads, the width of the drop plank needed to be the equivalent of two strakes.
 
At the bow instead of dividing the space into 7, I now divided it into 6 to reflect the new taper of having “removed” one of the strakes. This now gave me my drop plank widths at both ends and the midpoint of the drop plank.
 
To calculate the width at the point where the drop plank splits into two planks I simply took the midpoint between the bulkhead 1 and 2 widths.

Step 2 - Determining the Bend
I pressed an old receipt against the bottom of the wales and ran my pencil along it to determine the shape of the curve. Using one of the ¼ inch strips I used for the wales I could get almost all the way there by marking out the curve. Ideally I would have used a piece of pearwood sheet, but I didn’t have one of those.
 
Step 3 - Cutting Out the Drop Planks
Using a sharp exacto knife I carefully cut outside the lines I had drawn. Then I used files and sandpaper to adjust until I was happy with the shape. When I had one plank done, I used it as a template to draw and cut out the other.
 
I then sanded and filled both until they matched and I was happy with the shape. In my case my ¼ inch stock was also slightly thicker (1.2mm) than the 1mm pearwood that came with the kit. So I also had to sand/scrape this down a bit to get the thickness closer to the rest of the planking.


All that was left then was to follow the normal process of attaching them to the model making small adjustments with sandpaper, filing and bending them round a pot to curve them. You can see below the finished product.


I may not have as much time in the next few weeks to work on the model so I expect that progress on the 2nd planking will slow down now. I will post another update once I have finished the first section.
 

Thank you Nils, Thomas, and Rusty, Alert  makes up into a very attractive model
 
One final tweak before the cover goes on, I utilised the NMM plan of Alert to cover the large expanse of  varnished wood on the base.

6354(3)

6357(2)
 
Improves the effect I think.
 
 
Regards, and thank you all for taking an interest in this build.
 
B.E 
28/07/20