chris watton

Very nice progress, and a tough decision whether to leave the hull unpainted. I do think that the white complements the pear very nicely.

Not sure yet, have to be careful of laser cutting time. At this rate, I will only be able to produce one kit per day for laser cut parts..

I have the more expensive Tamiya Yamato kit, and it is so much better than the standard older kit. As it's snowing heavily here today, I won't be going to the workshop to sand the prototype hull. Instead, I thought I'd dry fit another critical area, the bow. This is made up of 14 parts and, as with Duchess and fishing boats (and all new future kits), it has the rabbet worked into the prow and keel parts. Again, these are just for checking and are throwaway parts.. The figurehead is the kit version. Each kit will have a 3-d printed figurehead with zero trimming required. The 20 x 9 pounder short cannon barrels will also be 3-d printed in a matt black colour, an example of which is shown. I have given Jim two sets of carriages, a set with and a set without the cap squares pre-cut into the cheek. I think the pre-cut cap squares may win the day. Ladders this time will be laser cut and etched in 0.6mm pear, making them more to scale, thickness-wise (5 ladder sets altogether for Sphinx)

This is always my dilemma, price. If I was designing for a large manufacturer, this model would have been trimmed down to the absolute bare minimum, to keep the material and packing cost low. I do not consider this so much, but it still means it will cost more than an equivalent size 'mainstream kit' - although they are basically empty shells (As an example, even a small model like Duchess of Kingston has well over an hour's worth of laser cutting time per kit). Right now, considering the amount of materials required for this (many pre made parts means a lot more sheets of pear, maple veneer for decks and plywood), plus cutting times, it will not be below £500, but I hope that people will find pleasure in the build, rather than frustration. There will be a lot of parts both in wood and PE, but that doesn't mean complicated, it just means there's less parts the modeller will have to fashion themselves, plus more detail than conventional kits. It would be so much easier (and so much quicker, development-wise) to just include the bare minimum and a bunch of wood strip and drawings and then ask the customer to get on with it, with the end result being totally dependant on the skills of the customer. Price would be halved, but I suspect many kits would be abandoned out of sheer frustration - and my design philosophy has always been to design a model kit how I would like it, if it were my hard earned buying the kit. But this way, time and costs are quite large - but I also know there will be a lot less 'abandoned projects' with these kits. For Sphinx, like Duchess, this will be only one version, due to materials being tested for the prototypes. There will be a pearwood block and deadeye option, as usual, but that will be it. I am sure some will not use the laser etched decks and plank their own way, which is fine. Some of the results of this look stunning from what I have seen. But I prefer the customer to have the choice, they can use the pre made parts if they wish, or depending on their own preferences and skill level, can use the kit as a basis to really make it their own. (BE's Zulu kit and DELF's Speedy immediately springs to mind) Not sure about manger, as I have made 'concessions' with the extremities of the hull to ensure they are more than robust enough for sanding, so the front upper deck stops at bulkhead 1. Am sure there are seats of ease located on the bow gratings, but haven't thought of flag lockers yet, as I have spent all my time sorting the basics for the hull assembly. As mentioned before, for the larger models, I will dial back slightly, so hull and decks will be conventionally planked (as I can only buy certain materials up to a certain size), but will still include as much deck detail as I can get away with. But if Sphinx sells well enough, it may be worth transferring some of the same design cues to the much larger kits - but for the larger kits, I will also need to invest in another more powerful laser machine.

Hull from figurehead to stern is around 605mm long (Speedy hull length is 440mm). With bowsprit, it will come to a little under 800mm. Not too big, not too small.

I do not know yet, but am hoping for April/May release. If I get furloughed again, maybe sooner! Just dry fitted (not glued in place until outer hull planked) forecastle and quarterdeck beams, all seems fine.. ETA - All upper deck beams will be in pearwood

I always think that (even now)! when it comes to making them, but once I get started, I am always surprised that they are all completed in a couple of days. The new boats will have planking laser cut on a 0.6mm pear sheet, so not so thick (although you still have to taper them yourself, you need something to do..) ETA - I think Sphinx will work just fine without boats, as the quarterdeck will be designed to be only partially planked, showing the deck beams..

I have been ploughing on with designing the Sphinx model kit. here are a few (bad) pics of my prototype build (the third and hopefully final). I am just making this up for pictures for Jim, who will once again build the finalised model for the instructions and box art. This is a lot more complex than previous Vanguard Models designs, and as such, is taking far longer to develop. However, I am hoping the end result will mean that many will be able to make a very nice model from the kit, and enjoy the build without the need for special skills.. For now, this is as far as I will go, design-wise, and may pull back a little on larger models, due to material costs and cutting/engraving times. Knowing me though, I wont.... Regarding the pics, please bare in mind this is still in prototype stage (with a hope that this will be the final stage for all parts that have been fitted), and this model will probably been thrown away once I have what I need from it. Oh, and one last pic that Jim sent me, with progress on the ships boats, three of which will be included in the Sphinx kit.

Occasionally, both for the gunwales and main wales (the latter if they are single strips), I will just pin them in place with little to no glue. I then cut off the exposed parts of the pins and sand smooth and then touch up with paint.

I could get them in 48th, but it would take a few weeks. If you tell me the sizes I can let you know.

Yesterday I had a small amount of stock for a selected few Blomefield pattern cannon. I will be having more sizes made in the future, but what I have now is shown in the line drawings. These are 3-d printed and are of a dull black colour. I will be using the 9 pounder Armstrong shorts for Sphinx. These (Blomefield) were introduced in around 1795, so it is very probable that if the model you are making was launched around this time, it would have had the newer Blomefield pattern. However, I would assume that older ships that were still active after this date would have kept their original armament throughout their operational careers (Armstrong pattern). I will get some pics of the castings soon. Cannon Carriage and gun sets (Blomefield) – VANGUARD MODELS

I did design a 72nd Surprise 15 years ago, but was never released (This was for Amati). It is a shame, as it was to be quite detailed.

Looking good, Rusty. Don't worry too much about the thin vertical pieces on bulkhead 9, these are just a leftover from an earlier idea of having the cabin doors separate, and open if the modeller wished. However, this never got passed development stage, as I feared the pear bulkheads would be way too fragile with an opening and very thin door frame (as the pear bulkhead requires very slight bending in order to fit in place), so that idea was ditched. The thin verticals are simply the leftovers... I almost filled in that door area on bulkhead 9, but decided to leave it...

I would recommend using matt only, not satin and especially not gloss, for the clear varnish.

A little update. It has come to my attention that a lot of emails have gone unanswered. I can only apologise, the email account was not added to my main accounts, as I thought all mail came via 'enquiries@..' I feel really bad about this, as there are a lot of emails from people that I didn't even know I had, and must have thought I was ignoring them. However, this has now been resolved, so no more unanswered emails! Sorry, Chris

I am working on it, just CAD stuff though, so no nice pics to show. Mainly masts and yard drawings, just to get the laser cut and PE associated with these assemblies nailed. I do have the sample cast resin stern and figurehead decoration arriving next week, and the PE for the three ships boats arriving too. These will be included in the Sphinx kit, but also available to buy as separate mini kits once ready (22 foot yawl, 24 foot launch and 28 foot pinnace) I am back at work full time, too, which is a pain, and I have had to spend a lot of time at the laser machine, cutting production parts for existing kits

Just a little update - In case some of you tried to make purchases on my website with a credit card and payment not completing, I had a long talk with the payment gateway tech support, and it appeared that one of my payment plug ins was not updated to to the latest version (should have done it automatically). We have now installed a new plug in that WorldPay gave me, which seems to have solved the payment fail problems. If you did try and order and wonder what the hell was wrong, sorry, it wasn't you, it was a pesky plug in... All is fine now...

Could it be for the drift rails, I wonder?

I had to log off and go to work when I typed that reply. I meant to add that the cannon are of the Armstrong pattern, as most of the subjects I will be doing are from around 1720-1800 - although I do know that after 1794, the Bloomfield pattern was to become standard in the navy (where the loop was forged over the knob on the cascabel).

They are the earlier versions, without the ring

I now have 1:64th carronade kits available. These are: 12 Pounder early carronade with choice of truck or sliding carriage. (These really are quite dinky...) 18, 24 and 32 Pounder carronades. They are sold as singles and include the black resin barrel, PE and laser cut pear carriage parts. For the 18, 24 and 32 Pounder carriages, there are choices for mounting on the deck or on the lower gun port opening ledge. In the pics, the trunnion bracket on the carronade barrels overhang the upper bed slightly, it does not on the production kit parts. https://vanguardmodels.co.uk/product/carronade-kits/ Also available now is the 18 Pounder short barrel.

That is true, but you still need someone very good to digitally sculpt the parts, and that's before high quality 3-d printing costs. That book is very good, with many fascinating letters, I loved the ones from the French side, after the Nile.

Not sure about conversion kits, as it is the most expensive parts like figureheads and any decoration that would need to change. I think the closest I have come is the three ship options for Vanguard. I do have an idea for some future kits, though, regarding choice. For those who like the details and dispatches for the battles, this book (or MP3 CD) is terrific, highly recommended: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hour-Victory-Royal-Navy-Nelson/dp/0857895737/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1JUX9AEIEYMLV&dchild=1&keywords=in+the+hour+of+victory&qid=1605881752&sprefix=In+the+hour%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-1 Certainly throws new light on some aspects of the battles it includes, especially the Nile and Trafalgar

Problem is, if one were to produce kits of most of the vessels at Trafalgar, many would look almost identical, especially with the 74's. Most would not be able to discern the difference between Victory, Temeraire, Prince, Neptune or Royal Sovereign for the 3-deckers.

I have been listening to the Hornblower audio books when at work, they are certainly more fast paced than the Aubrey books (some of the latter can get a little exasperating, for example, a very long winded chapter dedicated to land enclosures). But I do like the fact that the Aubrey novels use real ships names and the historical side is spot on. One thing that grated slightly when listening to 'Lord Hornblower' last night, is when Hornblower is chatting to this old sailor and they're reminiscing about the days on the old Indefatigable with Pellew in 1792 or 1793, when it wasn't commissioned as a razee frigate until December 1794. But that's nit picking, the stories are great, and on the whole, pretty fast paced.