brunnels

Looks great, I can definitely see the benefits of tying the rigging off beforehand like that, but since I've only ever rigged one ship I feel like that would be overwhelming for me and I would get lost haha. I like that you added the black trim rail on top of the stern piece, I was thinking about doing the same.

That looks great welcome to the exclusive club 😁 , are you going to open up the Quarter Galleys as well?

Luckily I looked ahead on that part as I was curious what the slots were for. I removed the timberheads and slotted them in place while I applied the filler. Definitely a good thing to point out though for anyone else getting to that step.

Gangways: Gangway knees, I removed the char, primed and painted all in flat red. Each knee is specific to a spot, so it is important to keep them numbered and separated throughout the process. Knees glued into location Next are the gangway decks. I first glued these together and let sit between some heavy books as they wanted to curl from the glue. I then applied several coats of WOP. Next were the gangway steps Before I painted any of the upper decks bulwarks, I wanted to get the scroll work done. I honestly had concerns how these would turn out as mine weren't perfectly aligned. I taped off the deck, and added filler to the gaps of my scroll work, and then worked it with some small files. To my surprise they actually came out looking pretty decent, I haven't painted them yet, but will post better pics once that step is complete. Now that the scrollwork filing was done, it was time to add some Vallejo Flat Red to the Quarter deck and forecastle. I then painted the gunwales black. Here are the waist gunwales installed next to the gangways. Then I glued in place the QD gunwales. Next step will be adding some filler between the QD gunwales and the scroll work to make it seem like one piece, then the scrollwork will get some paint as well. I plan on adding the catheads to the forecastle before I cap it off with the gunwale.

Quarterdeck and Forecastle Deck Beams: Removed the char, painted and glued in place the quarter deck and forecastle deck beams and their corresponding knee joints. QD, FC Decks: Next I sanded the deck pieces to a good fit. The forecastle deck didn't take a ton of fitting, but the QD needed a bit of fitting at the rear. Once glued in place I followed up with several coats of WOP. I then soaked the 2 inner bulwark pieces on the forecastle in water and clamped in place to form up. While the fc pieces are forming, I started work on the QD inner pieces. These required minimal fitting, and glued easily in place.

Loving the progress, such a unique model so far. Those MDF port jigs are ingenious, a big reason I love Vanguard models is that Chris seems to continually put a lot of thought and effort into developing solutions to minimize mistakes on the consumer end.

From what I have researched they had two LT's.

I ordered a complete set of blocks and deadeyes a couple weeks ago for my next model, they are fantastic quality and they really do look quite good, I honestly forget they aren't wood when looking at them. I will probably use these blocks for all my models in the foreseeable future as the price to quality just can't be beat. Keep up the great work Chuck, I have yet to be disappointed in anything I have purchased from you.

On my Beagle I shellacked my masts and then used a Matte varnish on top to tone down the glossiness of the shellac, maybe you could try the same with a bit of Satin varnish?

Unless I'm mistaken I believe the captains hammock was strung up in the small starboard side cabin outside of the great cabin.

Finally got the guns in. I gave up on the gun tackles and just put in the breech lines. After more than a week I just couldn't get a result I was satisfied with, so I threw in the towel to move on. I will have something to research and improve upon on my next model. Now that the cannons are in, I glued in the Great Cabin furniture. My next task is the quarter deck framing, I have started to de-char the pieces and prep for painting.

That looks great, much better than I could probably manage.

Definitely thinking about a Sphinx set if it fits the budget, I'm awful at making those little buggers out of wood lol.

Looks great, your really booking it now.

I have had the same thoughts as well, I also would think there would be concerns with the guns being more exposed to the sea water, but like you said it must have not been a big problem as it seems to be the standard an many ships.

Anchor liners/Bill Boards Not sure what these parts are officially called, but inspired by @Blue Ensign design for the top "bill board" section, and looking at a lot of contemporary frigate models I noticed many had a sort of swooping part over the gunwales which is also present in the AOTS Pandora book. From what I can gather it seems like these swooping pieces were more permanent, while the top billboard piece were less permanent and could be unbolted from the ship, but I could be totally wrong on that. I grabbed some graphing paper and took some measurements and made a template piece. I then grabbed some maple veneer off cuts and copied the template over and then cut it out with some scissors. I glued the swooping pieces to the gunwales. I then added a 1x3 piece on top of the gunwale piece, and then added a couple vertical pieces for the top billboard part to be built on. I used pear strips, with holes and some small brass wire cut off in the holes to simulate bolts. Then a couple coats of WOP, and this is the finished result I downloaded the Indefatigable instructions from Vanguards website, because Chris included some cool little maps in the instructions you can print and cut out. I cut a few out and folded them in various ways just to add a little life into the great cabin.

I needed to order some more rope for the cannons, so while I wait for that I started to work on the Great Cabin furniture. I am using the 3d printed furniture from Vanguard, I painted with some Model Expo Cherry Paint that I had left over from my Beagle kit. I then added went over with a little American Walnut paint to add a little depth. I Varnished with WOP, but Its a little glossy so I will probably try a Satin or Matte Varnish to tone down the shine. I'm also going to try to print out some little maps or papers to add a little life to the cabin. I also wanted to try out making a captains hammock, so this is my first attempt. Once I get to the QD beams I will figure out the ropes to hang it.

That's exactly the look I was going for, but I believe his ropes are larger diameter and I don't think they would fit through the 2mm blocks I am using, heck its difficult to get the .1mm thread through those blocks. I may try messing around with some slightly larger Syren rope I still have to see if it looks too out of scale, .1mm thread is just so thin its hard to make look like real rope.

Fantastic result, the Swan class ships are gorgeous.

Here is my first dry run at rigging the cannons, nothing is glued in place, I just want to get my process down before I start an assembly line. My feelings are mixed, for the amount of work that is involved I'm not really sure if the effort pays off at this scale. I'm fairly happy with how the breeching line went, but the gun tackles and rope are so tiny that I can't really get a good looking result yet. The blocks are Chucks 2.5mm resin printed blocks, they look fantastic but their size isn't easy to work with. I was going for something like this on the gun tackles where the excess rope is wrapped around the line, but the .1mm rope is so small that you Its hard to make it look nice without looking like a blob of white rope. I know many like to coil the ropes to the side, and I think that looks great but I don't really want to go with coils at the moment, plus I'm just horrible at making coils. Here is the other side At this moment I'm considering just doing the breeching lines, but I'm still working on alternative ways to rig the tackles to make them look good. I just don't want to spend a huge amount of time working towards a result I won't be 100% happy with.

Those cannon look great, I think you made the right choice doing the cannons first.

Before I secure the cannons in the ship I wanted to install the deadeyes and chain plates. Looking at all the pieces required on the photo etch was fairly intimidating, but it all went together fairly easily and I had no real issues other than needing lots of touch ups on the paint. Next I finished the carriage quoins which was the last non rigging piece of the cannons I had left to finish. Cannons aren't glued in yet, as I will do that after I figure out the rigging of the guns. Next step will be rigging the guns (if I can manage the super small blocks)

Well looks like I am going to need to by some more replacement parts. Not sure how or when this happened, I opened up my fittings box this weekend and noticed the lanterns had somehow got crushed. Does anyone know if the Syren lantern kits are similar in size and shape to the ones that come with the Sphinx? Trying to decide if I should order another Vanguard set or go with one of the Syren kits.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who had to use a ton of nails on the wale.

You are giving me too much credit lol. Only reason I am rigging the cannons after is because I have never done it before and am ignorant to which way is easiest. I'm sure in the next week I will be wishing I did it your way.