markjay

Hi Everyone, thank you very much for dropping by and Liking. Quite a while ago I cut and shaped the part of the false wale that wraps around the stern. I posted this picture previously but figured I’d post it again as a reminder. Attached it about an inch at a time using pins, PVA and CA. It Is made out of 1/16” basswood sheet but will be sanded down to 1/32” to match the false wales that continue up the hull to the stem. 
 

 

 
A template for the sub deck was made using a file folder and used to mark a sheet of 1/32” basswood sheet. Once the sub deck was attached the sheer was sanded down to it.
 

 

 
A 7/32 x 1/32” strip of AYC was used for the rest of the false wale and sanded back down to the sub deck leaving it about 3/16” wide.
 

 
During the times the glue was drying I made a mould to shape the curved cockpit walls. Shaped one piece of 1/32” basswood sheet that was soaked in water for a few minutes. The grain is running vertically so it wasn’t difficult to shape. Let that dry for a couple of days and then glued another piece on top of the first piece.
 

 

 

 
Gave it a test fit to see how high it needed to be. Made some more parts for the main hatch. The center board crane was built up out of 5/16” x 1/16” AYC. Then more test fitting.
 

 

 
 
That’s about it for now. Hope to see you soon.
 

Its time for 600 knots 

Photo caption: "Chris and his assistant discuss Vanguard's latest project."

Thanks, glad to be of help.

Did you check out his other videos?

HOF, take a look at the utube video. It took some practice on my part but using the right thread all looks in scale. He also has several other videos related to rigging.



 

It is strange, in that they all seem to sell well, but do so in phases. For example, one week it will be all Trial Cutters, another week Speedy's, then Sphinx, then a run on Indy's etc.

Good luck  on your journey. 

Great choice Rod! That is one classy kit. I'll be following along.

What's in the Box
A photo of the box is at the top of my first post. The box weighs a hefty 13.5 pounds (6.1 kg).  Here are a couple of composite photos of box contents.

A lot of the weight is paper - a beautiful 152-page manual and 23 sheets of plans. The cannons, figurehead, and stern decoration are 3-D printed. The hull is double planked with lime wood and pear wood. The masts and yards are walnut. Most of the blocks and rigging material will go into my leftover box if I stop with a hull-only model.

The kit includes 33 sheets of laser-cut MDF for the frames and pear wood for most everything else, 1 sheet of laser cut acetate for a stand, and 5 sheets of photo-etched parts.
 
 

I finished my Mississippi River Steamboat Robert E Lee in early October, and took a break from ships to build a TV console for my son and daughter-in-law. In the evenings I was looking for a new ship to build - something beautiful but challenging that would not need to go in a case.
 
I found a build log for HMS Fly (Amati) built by moderator @ccoyle. Chris built his model as a hull model, no masts, yards, or rigging. What a brilliant idea! He built all the fun bits without ending up with a dust catcher. I started searching for other ships that might look good as a hull model and found the Diana by Caldercraft. I asked Chris for advice, and he told me that my taste was consistent as both models had been designed by @chris watton, owner of Vanguard models. I ordered the Sphinx and had it within a week, but haven't been able to start it until now.
 
There are at least 18 build logs for the Sphinx on MSW, 7 finished, 3 in progress, and 8 stalled. Here are links to the finished logs for easy reference.
 
HMS Sphinx 1775 (prototype) by James H - Vanguard Models - 1:64 - FINISHED
12 pages, 5.5 months. This is the prototype build used for photos for the beautiful manual in the kit.
 
HMS Sphinx 1775 by Blue Ensign - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - 1:64 scale
29 pages, 16 months. Built as a hull-only model.
 
HMS Sphinx 1775 by Glenn Shelton (glennard2523) - Vanguard Models - 1:64
10 pages, 5 months. Glenn wasn't happy with his work (which looked great to me) and stopped with a hull only model.
 
HMS Sphinx 1775 by glennard2523 - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - 1:64 - V2 Kit by Glenn Shelton
16 pages, 11 months. Glenn started over and completed an even nicer model.
 
HMS Sphinx 1775 by mtaylor - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - 1:64
17 pages, 10 months. Mark also stopped with a hull-only model. A very nice build.
 
HMS Sphinx by ECK - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - 1:64
Only 3 pages, 5 months. A fast build with a short log, but the model is gorgeous.
 
HMS Sphinx 1775 by Hollowneck - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - 1:64
19 pages, 16 months. Amazing model with full sails mounted in a diorama.
 

After the last several months away from ship modeling, I started building Bluejackets Lightship #112 Nantucket from 1936. This was a kit that I purchased at Bluejacket several years ago while vacationing in Maine.  After reading through the manual and studying the plans I proceeded to shape the hull.  This solid hull was very close to plans and very little wood had to be removed, therefore, according to manual, the use of hull section templates was not needed.  At the bow, I drilled out the hole for the central anchor hawsepipe boss and glued it in place.  Marked out locations of all portholes and drilled them with an 1/8 drill bit.  After gluing in the propeller frame/sternpost casting I proceeded to the next step but I'm a little confused.  Unsure of the ship's forefoot construction, the kit gives you a 1/16" x 3" x 6" piece of basswood for this step.  My question:  Is this supposed to be just a continuation of the keel around the curve of the hull, or is it to simulate an additional plate of steel that was welded to the hull in this area? 

I once owned a rescue dog who needed a lot of behavioral work. So after some one-on-one sessions with a specialist we eventually graduated to attending obedience classes with others. I can’t say that we ever overcame all the issues (and I’m not sure who was training whom!) but I certainly learned the value of positive reinforcement. Consequently, since I have a tendency to be easily distracted and leave unfinished projects laying around, I wanted to reward myself for completing my first wooden ship model.
 
While I enjoyed the wood model, my situation is perhaps not the best for them. Simply put, sanding wood makes too much dust for me to do in our living spaces and I really don’t have an interior space to do it. With the arrival of Winter sanding outside isn’t much of an option. So I’m putting off the next wood model until Spring and the return of good weather. So returning to my interest in card models I read up on the models produced by Tomasz Weremko, aka, Seahorse. Card models are certainly more apartment friendly than wood models and they are much more budget friendly. Level of detail, of course, is entirely in the hands of the builder and designer. While I’ve tinkered with designing and building my own card models, I’ve never actually built a commercially available kit.
 
I still consider myself a novice builder and while I love the look of fully rigged ships I hesitate to commit to building one. I wanted something small, preferably in 1/72 scale to match my last model, and without too much rigging. I first decided that Searhorse’s Armed Virginia Sloop would fit the bill. However, its 1/100 scale means that some of the details are going to be quite challenging for my hand-eye coordination. I confirmed that by reading Clare Hess’ build log. (Mr. Hess’ log can be found here: https://shipmodeler.wordpress.com/2022/07/29/building-the-armed-virginia-sloop-paper-model-part-1/)
 
But Seahorse also offers a US Revenue Cutter in 1/72 scale. In addition, according to Mr. Weremko’s complexity scale the cutter ranks as a ‘2’ as opposed to the sloop’s level of ‘3’. It ticks all the boxes! Did I mention the budget friendlyness of card models? I ordered both as full kits complete with laser cut parts, sails, dowels and (almost) all the necessary bits and bobs provided. Both kits and shipping from Poland came in at $72.00 USD.
 
I ordered directly from the Seahorse web site on December 4th and eagerly awaited the arrival of the kits from Poland. After checking the tracking website daily (which stopped showing progress once the packages arrived in Los Angeles on the 9th) they arrived in my mailbox on December 16th. Mustering my dog-training discipline, I’ll save the sloop for later but I instantly opened the cutter package and reviewed the contents.
 
As expected, there’s nothing disappointing about this kit. The basic model is presented as a saddle-stitched (e.g., stapled) booklet with full color photos of a finished model on front and rear covers. Ah, something to aspire to! There is, of course, a minimum of written text in both Polish and English comprising of a short history of the ship and ‘Basic Rules and Tools’ for construction. There are four pages of pictorial instructions, two pages of parts printed in black on white paper and two pages of parts printed in color on card. Now, in my set there was a second set of the card-printed parts inserted into the fold. I’m not sure if this was an oversight or if the second loose set was included because the printing of the first set (which is bound into the booklet) is a bit weak. Or, perhaps Seahorse can sense a ‘newbie’ and kindly included spares. Whatever the reason, intentional or not, it gives me a sense of security and a makes me think that Seahorse is a quality operation. (It’s also a bit unsettling that I joyfully anticipate looking at a centerfold of a model… ship!)
 
There are a couple of hazards for neophytes. The first is that the required thickness of card for laminated parts is appended to the part number and is easily overlooked. The number is followed by ‘//’ or ‘*’ or ‘**’ to indicate 0.3, 0.5 or 1.0 mm card thickness. However, I think I’ve shielded myself from this potential error by purchasing the laser cut parts sheets. I’m also puzzled by this sentence in the instructions: “To avoid too many symbols, uncommon thickness of some parts should be matched to the width of the stripes covering its edges.” I can only assume that this refers to the keel which is considerably thicker than 1.0 mm and has a piece that runs along the bottom edge of the keel. That ‘edge’ piece appears to be about 4 mm wide so, therefore the keel should be laminated to that thickness. Now that I’ve typed that up it makes sense to me.
 
I also see a couple parts with ‘W’ numbers which are not part of the printed sheets. I believe these need to be created from wire (which is mentioned in the ‘Basic Rules’). The templates for these parts are on the fourth page of instructions along with the mast and spar diagrams. The most numerous of these appear to be the rail stanchions surrounding the deck to prevent crew from falling overboard.
 
My last observation is in regard to the copper sheathing below the waterline. It’s interesting that Seahorse has provided a simple solution and a detailed solution to the sheathing. On one side of the copper colored sheet the sheathing is designed as strips to cut and apply much like the hull planking. But if you flip the sheet over you find that it has been printed to represent the individual sheets of copper. So, depending up on your sense of fanaticism, er, level of detail, you have options. I like that.
 
All said and done, I’m quite happy with my purchase. I’m not certain when I’ll get started on the cutter and the Virginia sloop is certainly farther down the line. (Maybe the sloop will be next Winter’s project.) At this point I’m still mustering my canine-induced self-discipline and working on resizing my skipjack design. But once I’ve hit the ‘proof-of-concept’ stage in that project it’s ‘game on!’ on the cutter.
 
Pictures (or it didn't happen!):

Took awhile for my eyes to uncross but the ratlines on the lower shrouds are done.

Go for it.

Go for it.

Look up Enterprise in whatever tables of masting and rigging are closest to its year and list them by spar and line.
Look up Surprise and do the same. 
If they are the same:
Mic the spars in the kit and tightly coil each type the rigging line around a dowel and count the number of coils in a 1 inch distance. The number of coils divided into 1 yields the diameter.  The tables are probably line circumference, so the table numbers divided by pi are your values for comparison.   If the kit numbers match the chart you made up for Enterprise then -- well the spar and line stock has to come from somewhere, so why not.  But the research of Enterprise masting and rigging scatlings needs  to be done first.
 
I forgot the blocks - do the same with them.
Block size is determined by the size of its line.
On an actual ship there is a variety of line diameter.  In scale a lot of that diameter is too close to differentiate. It simplifies things a bit.
Unless a ship is one of the rare ones with individual masting and rigging data,  A kit mfg would or should have done the same lookup.
It is then a matter of you being able to accept the compromises made for the material in the kit.

Shipyard makes a 1/96 HMS Enterprise card kit that runs about $38 at Ages Of Sail.
 
It will have the exact masting and rigging plans for the Enterprise.
 
Shipyard’s kits are amazingly detailed and designed.
 
Then you could cann materials from your Surprise kit to use on your Enterprise.

Hello all.
I have this crazy idea.
The idea is build the CAF 1/48 HMS Enterprise and then complete it by building the masting and rigging using the HMS Surprise in 1/48 parts and plans (which I abandoned)
A monster project!!!
Do you think is possible to do, and what difficulties I may encounter? Would you encourage or discourage this project?
 
Thank you all.

Rigging progresses. Earlier in the log, I mentioned that Grecian is not much trickier than Erycina. That’s true of making the hull, mast and spars. The rigging, however, is more complex. 

I’m quite used to fore and aft rigging now, but finding the yards on the foremast trickier. As a beginner to this, each of the yards seems to have seven lines attached to it to keep it in position. To start with I didn’t dare tie off and glue any of them for fear I need to change the tension on them later. So for the topgallant and topsail yards I had 10 lines dangling down weighted by crocodile clips getting tangled up…. So I took the plunge and tied off and glued some. Hope I won’t regret it. 

Fore course yard is yet to be fitted, although the sling for the yard can be seen loosely tied on for now and floating around. 

I’ve just noticed that in these photos that the forward two cannons are not in place. They’re not glued yet as they may be in the way, the downside of this is that I keep having to rescue them from my little son’s Lego fortress. 

I’m finding the rigging a little confusing despite Vanguard’s excellent plans. The Vanguard plans  superbly layout exactly where each line runs from and too and how it should be attached, they couldn’t be clearer. What I’m finding harder is where each line should run relative to all the other lines without touching them - it would be almost impossible to show this on a plan without it becoming incredibly confusing and furthermore the neutral lines are hard to see against a white background in the photos on Jim’s incredibly helpful build log. The Petersson rigging book doesn’t help in this regard either as it breaks out each line individually too.  I’m sure with experience it will become clearer where they should run, for me it’s a learning curve. I think they’re roughly right so far. 
 
The other thing I find hard is looping the line around the belaying pins and tying it off, is there a good technique for this? 
 
Grecian visiting Alert. 

Thanks again for all the likes encouragement and advice. 
 
 

Conclusion
for someone venturing into the RC world with a wooden hulled boat this will fit the job very nice, however as a static build it will be lacking in detail, having said that for the price it it is very well priced and will make a great build 

Yes, I think it's a strange decision by Artesania to do that. Surely it would make more sense to double plank it. 
 
Also, I don't think that a model released in 2023 should be making you cut out your own gunports. Yes, the template makes it easier. I had to cut out 80 gunports (maybe more?) on my Royal William, and that was an anxiety filled experience given that you don't know whether parts that have not yet been fitted (like wales, fenders, channels) will fit later on. It turned out that I made a dozen mistakes and had to go back and reposition gunports, which I was able to do because the model was double planked. But companies like Caldercraft and Vanguard mean that expectations are different these days. I shudder at the thought of having to cut out 200 gunports. 

Single plank model with 2mm thick planks is a recipe for disaster. You have to become very very good at bevelling planks and use a lot of filler. Given my modelling skills, it would probably be the latter! Good thing that the entire hull will be painted! 

My first kit was an Artesania as well. I never finished it. 

I think that's it. These kits aren't aimed at those who have little experience. I would be able to plank that hull, no problems, even in 2mm, but that's because I've some experience. For those who have little experience, it would be a nightmare, and buckets of filler would be needed.

Thanks for the review.   Coming from you, I can put total faith in your comments.   I am currently building AL's Soleil Royal and the two kits are so very similar.     Although I do question why AL chose to make the ST a single plank model whereas the SR is double planking.    For me with my modeling skills a single plank model almost puts it off my list of kits to do.