chris watton

Nicely done!

My wife just posted a packet of fine brass pins to a customer in the US, and the exact postage cost was £4.20. Not every company inflate postage charges to customers. In fact, due to a bug in the UPS live module we use, we have supplemented the shipping of every Sphinx kit to the US by at least £5 - so not everyone is 'out to get ya'.

OK, I now have the Saucy Jack kit available, as my boxes just arrived, and those were the only thing I was waiting for (apart from premium sail sets) Saucy Jack – Barking Well-Smack – VANGUARD MODELS All kits with optional sail sets now have a sail set included, with the premium sails as an optional extra. I am including the 'standard' sail sets at no extra cost, as the quality is not what I expected and do not expect my customers to spend a Penny on them. This has been a disappointing lesson for me - sail sets made by the same people who produce for other manufacturers do not 'gel' with the overall quality of the kits I offer. The 'premium' sail sets are produced my Master-Korabel of Russia, and I was expecting a full shipment of all sail sets for all kits that have them. Unfortunately, yesterday, I only received sets for the Fifie and Zulu, and not Nisha, Erycina and Saucy Jack. I am OK for Nisha and Erycina for now, but would have liked the Saucy Jack sails available for the release of the kit, today. I am currently awaiting an ETA for these, but they are being produced and they will be available in the next few weeks. The picture shows the model with the premium sails. I have two sample sets made and sent when developing these kits, and then order the production quantities soon after. These were ordered in February, so under normal circumstances, I would have had these available as stock already.

For clarification about lines, it should be mentioned that I used the line drawings for Ranger, and not Saucy Jack, for the designs. I did not 'stretch' the lines of Saucy Jack to produce this - the plans I worked from are completely separate...

I must be honest, I am not sure what's tripping you up here. The pendants are shown clearly on Rigging Plan 1, and there is even some text that reads 'Add pendants of tackles first: 2 per side for fore and main mast and 1 per side for mizzen mast and all topmasts'

According to Robert Gardiner's Frigates of the Napoleonic Wars, Indy (and the other two razee's converted at the same time) had the quarterdeck and forecastle removed, and transforming the old upper gun deck into a frigate style quarterdeck with gangways. But because the great cabin was at this same level, a poop was needed, and the position of the stern and quarter galleries betrayed their origins as a two decker. She must have looked very distinctive when compared to standard frigates in her squadrons, with her oddly positioned stern and quarter lights and of course, being on average around 15 feet longer than a standard 36 and 38, and the full mast and spar plan as a standard 64 (although with the main mast cut down to compensate for the one missing deck). So Indy does have a certain 'Beefy' look about her.

When I have completed most of the hull on my test bed model, I will show it on here and explain my decisions regarding the choices I have made

I am the same! I almost forgot about the 4 carronades under the poop, and then had the problem of the barrels sticking out when in place. My solution for these 4 carronades (now inaccessible) was to make the carriages slide back and forth, and securing the carriage with the lower bed/slide with a pin. This means they can be pushed in until the outer hull is complete, and then can then be pulled back out.

Just about completed designs for the poop area. Pics look a little rough, but please remember this model is used as a test bed, nothing more, to see how well parts fit. They are altered if required (and this is often...) The chequered floor is actually laser engraved high grade card. All false pillars in this kit for stern, quarter galleries and poop screen will be in pearwood. I think they are much better than the usual photo etched ones. I have just glued down the poop deck. Next - second planking... Oh, I also added a pic showing the two designs I did for the poop screen bulkhead. I decided to go the upper pattern.

I cannot speak for Amati, but I do have some good stock of Tanganyika that I use to plank my prototypes. You can see it on my Alert and Speedy, the original prototypes were made before finally settling on pear. But you are right, this material (and to a lesser extent, walnut) can be of massively variable quality. But I guess this is true to a certain extent for most natural materials.

I have a batch of really nice Tanganyika that I did intend to use for kits until I opted for pear, and I use it (Tang) for my prototypes. Problem with this strip is that I really like it, it looks tonally pleasing - but that doesn't mean the next batch I order would be the same. And this is the big problem with this material, it is never consistent.

I will show you the problems I can have with maple veneer. This is a picture of a few examples of a whole batch I had to return. However, all of my supplier current stock is like this, which is absolutely no good to me. But as always with natural products, this is something I sometimes have to contend with. For Indy, I have attached a pic of the sample deck planking I received. It is called Red Alder. It is slightly darker than lime and consistent in colour/tone and grain fairly tight, which is important for deck planking - needs to be quite plain. I did contemplate Tanganyika, but realised that some batches are great, and some are God awful, so didn't really want to risk that. Same goes for maple strip, some batches could like like that scrap you see in the maple veneer pic.

Cheers I had originally intended for the larger models to be not so parts heavy as Sphinx, more like the Amati Victory design, but I think scale deck beams are a step forward and, as the deck beams have absolutely no relation to the hull framing spacing, or kit bulkhead spacing, I could not go back to that relatively archaic method, not when a simple beam ledge pattern can in integrated in with the bulkheads to take the beams, making the beams perfectly aligned and spaced with the minimum of fuss. So I have already gone right past my original remit for this kit, but I do believe it's for the better. After Sphinx, anything less for even larger and more expensive kits would seem regressive.

There is no maple veneer laser etched decks in this kit, the decks you see are 0.8mm plywood sub decks (using 800x600mm size sheets), like any other normal kit, except I have lightly etched planking detail, in case some want to use as a guide when planking with the 1x4mm planking strips. the 1x4 planking strips will be standard in this kit, it does not have a laser etched maple veneer deck option for two reasons. The first is that I have to get this size made as a special order, and the price per sheet (one 800x600mm sheet per kit) is a lot, over double the cost of the standard 600x400mm sheets, coupled with the fact that I cannot use every one of the very expensive sheets, as some will have natural marks and colours too contrasting on the surface that will not look right on a finished deck. This is always a problem with the standard 600x400mm sizes, and I can only use around two thirds of each maple veneer order because of this. The second reason is time, each full Indy deck sheet would take over one hour each. It makes no economic sense, coupled with the fact that half the modellers who buy these kits go their own way anyway, and plank the deck. Indefatigable is designed with individual deck planking and hull planking in mind (as will all very large kits). I am using a maple veneer deck set for mine to simply speed up the development process. As for the cut outs on the ply sub decks, if you want to plank the whole deck without the optional openings, then just leave the retention tabs in place and plank over them. If the price to scrap ratio for the maple veneer was much better, I would use it, but unfortunately, this isn't the case.

Don't forget that there's quite a few cannon to be added to the quarterdeck (14) and forecastle (6), and they aren't small, so the openings have been made to take that into account

Although they will be completely hidden! Cannon carriages - These will be the same as I did for Victory. The front axles will have a tab which will locate into a slot on the gun deck. The barrels are added after. I didn't want to do this, and avoided this method, hoping to think up a solution. However, unlike Sphinx, this has some pretty heavy duty beams and a much wider gangway with boat beams under the gangway, not on top. The only real solution was to add the carriages and then barrels later, so no cap squares. The 12 pounder long chasers on the forecastle will have integrated cap squares, however, and the 18 x 42 pounder carronades have none anyway.. ETA - The kit will come with 1.5x6mm limewood for first planking, I used 1x5, so I could more easily check the overall run of the planking, all is fine...

All of my kits are FULL kits. It will be entirely up to the modeller as to what to leave on or off, but the kit will be complete - full hull, decks, fittings, masts and rig. What you see is simply a work in progress, the model is nowhere near complete! Here are the upper and poop sub decks (to be planked over) They come with tabbed slots, so you have a choice whether to leave them in situ or remove them, so you can see the deck below.

Just a little update on Indefatigable. Development going well, still tons to do, but the pre prototype (test bed) model is starting to take shape with final parts (and some not so final parts)..

Yes We shall sort something out once I have your details via email.

On a happier note, Indefatigable development moves on relentlessly. I have started the first planking of the hull, which will take a few days. Still not sorted a figurehead though, but all armament, anchors and other castings type fittings have already been produced. I decided to 3-d print the majority of the belfry. This is still quite small, and the original has many shapes. I did originally design it in separate parts, with laser cut and engraved supports, but it would have been quite fiddly to assembly, and I don't like fiddly if I can help it. I then designed it with the stanchions and canopy (always a problematic shape if in wood form) as one piece, and the bell cross beam in pear. I have attached my original drawing for this, it will not look as 'clunky' as a wood only part. As with the anchors and guns, this is produced using black resin.

Just a little, if regretful update: Over the past few months, material costs have risen from 10-25%, from essential materials to stuff you don't really give a second thought to, packaging materials. On top of this, in the UK at least, electricity/fuel costs are rising - this does have an impact, especially for larger kits like Sphinx, which takes a whole day of laser cutting time per kit, a lot of electricity. With this in mind, from Monday, I have to increase prices across the board by 10%. I really don't want to, but have little choice. I have swallowed any past extra cost as best I can, like the import duty costs for my materials from the EU, but I cannot soak up the new price rises for the rest of the materials I have to buy that go into each kit.

Have just ordered some more books....

Cool! When international shipping is finally sorted (still get only one option of $90 for shipping), I shall place an order for those two Naiad volumes. Can never have too many books. Although my wife may beg to differ....

Just had a new book arrive for stock: Ship Models from the Age of Sail – VANGUARD MODELS It is very nice, written by Kerry Jang, and features Speedy as one of the builds. There is reference to Chucks (Syren Models) great models, and a picture of the fantastic Winchelsea and Cheerful. Book is hardback and full colour. I shall keep one for myself...

Not sure if mine's been sent yet Checked shipping again today, and it's done up, £90!