Mike_H

Oh my giddy aunt! She looks absolutely magnificent, and the detail seems extraordinary - much more than I would expect from a 1:64 model. I’m sure that I won’t be able to resist, even with 20% VAT. And while that 20% price hike might seem bad news for us in the UK, it is great news for model ship builders as it’s a sign of Vanguard prospering. But a question: the closed gun ports are obviously shown with port lids (or they wouldn’t be closed). Why are there no port lids on the open ports? Mike

Welcome. The model looks great - even upside down. I don't think you can rotate them using the forum's tools, so you need to do it at source - on the camera or phone you took them on, or on the computer they passed through. Mike

Chris, congratulations on the 2nd anniversary, and on how much you have achieved. You must make the decision, but I certainly hope that the business can have you full time.

Quite exceptional painting, James.

Great to see the painting develop as you go - I particularly like the extra vessels appearing at the end. And of the painting itself the background landscape is incredible. I like the graffiti too - Vega and Kilroy.

I've been busy! Rigged the tackle for the tiller ropes Then fitted the platforms and all the deck fitting except the guns. Eagle-eyed will spot that I'm missing the pins from the bitts - there aren't enough in the kit to fill all the rails! You can also see that I've followed my guru again and put copper 'sheet' on the bitts, and continued with the brass edging on the rails. I tried to take a panorama shot, but it was not good. Instead, here is a set of pics scanning from forward, aft. And one in all its glory Of course, I know where the mistakes are, but I am delighted with how she looks. Now to make 12 more sets of breeching ropes, assemble 14 more guns and then mount them all. Might have to install the gunwale rails after that.

Anyone have a problem with drag-and-drop occasionally not working? I'm using an old iMac, and quite often I can just drag photos from Photos to the panel in a comments window on MSW. But then in stops working. If I restart t he computer it fixes itself for a while. Simply quitting either Photos or browser (I've tried Safari, Firefox and Chrome) doesn't fix it.

Looks very neat and clean, as ever, Ben. (Though I think you mean rudder, not anchor, straps). I've chosen not to install the gunwale rails until all of the deck fittings are in place. In theory this is to enable maximum access, though really it's because I think it will be a pain. It's coming up, though.

Buying one a month is a good idea, but my real problem is I would need another bench in the shipyard, and the Rear Admiral likes to sleep their every other month. And perhaps more importantly the Admiral thinks it's a bedroom. Best of luck next week.

Ah, of course! And having inadvertently sanded the keel on my Snake, giving me grief subsequently, thankyou for the reminder of a lessons I should have learned. And thanks for your filler recipe. M

You make a compelling case for spray paint and masking tape, James. The knock-out argument is how convincing the planking on the main wale looks with such a uniform coat of paint. That and the assembly of the quarter galleries is huge testament to the quality of the kit design. Kudos to you and @chris watton for your respective roles. Some questions: I'm sure this will be clear in the manual, but did you change your mind about masking-off the keel? The photographs shows it masked but then painted. What kind of filler do you use? It looks fine-grained, hard, and buff coloured - all good things but I've not found those properties in one tin or jar.

I should confess I stole that colour scheme from @Beef Wellington...

Hi Sjors Thanks so much for the details of the coppering and of your tools. Have you used double-sided tape this way before. I would worry a little that over time the adhesive would go brittle. If not, then this looks like the future to me: quick and clean is what we all aim for. Your list of tools is pretty exactly what I’m thinking about (though that would be news to the admiral!). I’d be tempted by a chop saw, but I’ve not looked much beyond the lathe and bench drill. I think you can get extensions in Australia, and we spend quite a lot of time there when there isn’t a pandemic. Let’s see how many tools I can sneak in the house! Very sorry to hear of your colitis - though glad it’s not too debilitating. Perhaps being off work explains your progress! best wishes Mike

Here is very exciting news! It would be a travesty if the range and quality of your products couldn't support two employees, so I sincerely hope this comes to pass, soon.

On the basis of the two very small parts I have bought from you, the packing service has been exemplary, so I'm sure you will miss the support. We all will too, that's why there have ben so many expressions of concern! In all seriousness, best wishes to her for a speedy recovery.

Good progress Sjors. Double-sided tape is interesting, did you apply it to the hull and then stick on the tiles? On another point, I'm thinking of buying some Proxxon tools, and I can see you have some. What do you recommend? Mike

Working on the deck fittings. The gratings were fiddly, but fun. Sadly the supplied walnut strip for the framing was split, and the replacement I ordered was very pale, essentially the same colour as the deck. So I stained it a kind of teak colour, that makes sanding to fit and end-grains difficult, so I mitred the corners. I have also added a galley flue and rearranged the path of the cable. The flue is solid, though, as has been remarked elsewhere, it usually sported a cap when not in use; I imagined my cap being of sheet copper Next, the companionway, wheel, a possible binnacle (from Vanguard Models, badly stained, but a decent colour match) and the capstan. Petrejus tells me that capstan heads were often covered in brass sheet - so mine is painted to look that way. I was not convinced by the PE wheels, or that Snake would have had a double wheel. So I glued the two together, back to back, making something more substantial and also allowing me to paint it and keep a brass hub and rim showing Here they are roughly in place Finally, pinrails and belaying pins installed. Again Petrejus reports that the rails were often edged in brass to protect from wear and add some decoration - so mine are. I read in Steel that belaying pins were 16" long, or 1/4" at 1:64 ie 6mm, so the kit-supplied materials are not ridiculously small, though they are somewhat over diameter. I have seen pictures of pinrails bolted to the bulwarks, so I have borrowed from that by using round-headed black pins instead of hidden wire to give strength.

Stunning as ever. Have missed your work over the last couple of months. Hope you are well, and thanks for sharing. Mike

Great to see you back, Ben. Your Snake looks crisp and clean as ever. Mike

A little bit of blackening. I'm moving onto the deck furniture now, and thought I would start by installing the ringbolts (largely for the guns, but in other places too) while nothing else was in the way. There are 200 of these provided, in nice shiny copper. So that's 200 tiny pieces to be painted black. And there are 4 eyebolts and then 5 little photo-etched (PE) brass pieces for each gun. So the guns alone have 162 tiny pieces to be painted black. I also need to decide what to do with the gun barrels. So I thought I would try some chemical blackening of the kind described here. To stop the small pieces drifting off on their own I tied them onto small loops of fishing line. The supports for the guns need to fit in slots pre-machined in the gun carriages. Joy-oh-joy every piece of brass is alittle over-size so needed to be filed down fore and aft I set up in the laundry. Across the back you can see: (a) pH minus ie sodium hydrogen carbonate, (b) sodium bicarbonate, (c) water and (d) John Wardle black antiquing solution. Across the front: the columns for the display board, the small parts for the guns, the guns themselves, two sheets of PE, a pair of wooden tongs (most metals are a bad idea in one or more of acid/bas/blackening solution), and a measuring spoon (about 3 table spoons - 45 ml - in 250 ml of water is about right for both acid and base. Blackening is a 10-fold dilution) And how did it go? Great at first on the small gun parts: But the guns, no so much: You can just see in the middle one of the guns came out solid black, but most have only a few spots of black acne. This matches the descriptions on the blackening page ,linked above, of lacquer coating on the brass. So after soaking in iso-propanol (acetone is not readily available in the UK, it seems) I scrubbed them with steel wool and gave them some extended acid treatment. After neutralising and washing, I then painted on neat blackener and then dumped them in the dilute solution. For about 15 of the guns the results were good. The others needed a repeat. And here is everything that's fit to show: The PE worked perfectly. The brass columns not at all - including on the parts that had been extensively filed, so not a lacquer problem. This being a selenium solution, that reacts with the copper in the brass (see @bartley's post here) I wonder if this is a particularly low copper brass. I did get a little bit of antiquing, which I think I quite like. As also explained in the links I've given, the blackening is microscopic selenium metal particles that are not chemically bonded in place. I messed around for quite a while exploring rigging options handling one of he guns extensively. As the following shows, it doesn't look so black anymore: I picked the least impressive of the 18, and perhaps bronze would be ok. I will give this one another bath in the solutions. Of the fittings, only the eyebolts in the bulwarks were blackened all the other parts were painted from an earlier mock-up. They look fine to me. The kit recommends 0.75 mm neutral thread, which looked too skimpy. Lavery in "The ship of the line vol 2" quotes 7" circumference for breeching on a 32 lb (long) gun, which would be 0.88 mm diameter at 1:64. I didn't have any 1 mm neutral so tried black for size - I've ordered some 1 mm neutral. Because the cascabel does not have a loop for the breeching (as was quite common with carronades) I'm going to imitate a (ahem) cut splice.

And I this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KR9IW9U/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ditto!

Couldn't agree more. Will be hunting down some "matte-finish lacquer-based clear nail top coat".

Stunning model. I like to believe the speed and quality of James’ work stems from the quality of Chris’ design - so I too could be this quick. Not (entirely) true, of course. And it’s about the journey anyway. But IWOOT as the kids used to say.

Erik, she’s absolutely beautiful, small wonder you have her on display as people enter the house. I’m impressed by your rope-work and that the nail polish you have used is not obvious at all in the photographs. Would you mind sharing the details of the product you used? The bottle coyly has it back to us in one of the phots, and I can see it’s an OPI product from Coty, and appears to be available in the UK. But that doesn’t narrow it down much! Anyway, well done on the build. Mike

Just did a quick search for Endeavour Longboats, having negleted them since I finished mine. Found yours. Great start, how’s it going? Mike