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Thanks Dave, much appreciated. Yes indeed! I've had Sphinx sitting in a corner of my workshop since Christmas, and when I look at current Sphinx build logs (I'm following @Blue Ensign, @hollowneck & @glennard2523) I start drooling in anticipation. I regularly have to excercise restraint to stop myself opening the box and starting construction as I know I just couldn't handle having two major kits on the go simultaneously. Last year I enjoyed having a small pinnace build on the go at the same time as Speedy as it provided variety, but DoK plus Sphinx would be too much. Of course not Rob, and thanks for the kind words. Much of what I've learned has been through other people's logs on this site and if I can pay some of that back through my own builds then I'm very happy. Derek

Making your own rope is honestly dead easy and very satisfying, and you've got plenty of space to set up a temporary ropewalk whenever you needed it. Have a look at the Rope Rocket and Servomatic videos on Chuck's site to see how fast you can make and serve rope. I enjoyed seeing your great basement, but I get embarrassed whenever I see such tidy and well organised workspaces as yours and Glenn's - I've been too shamed to post mine before! Many thanks. I paid extra for the boxwood version but it was worth it. (I agree about David's planes!) Derek

You've got your priorities all wrong Glenn. What's a bathroom?

Looking absolutely superb. I can't wait to get started on mine, and shall doubtless use your log to guide me. I hope you're going to get Chris's Indefatigable in due course as I regard you as the trailblazer on all these great kits and will shamelessly copy your research and enhancements 😬😁 Derek

Nonsense - you're already ahead of me on Byrnes tools - I want the thicknesser and disc sander! 🤢

Thanks Glenn. The garage is great for the ropewalk and general DIY. I'm fortunate to have a separate workshop for hobbies - this is the 'tidy' half (I daren't photograph the other part)!

Bobstays & Bowsprit Shrouds Thanks for all the positive support - much appreciated. The bobstays and shrouds were relatively straightforward to rig. I decided to follow full size practice by serving the lines, using my finest thread - Mara #150. Bobstays were usually doubled, which I achieved by threading lengths of served line through the holes in the stem and gluing the ends together. Here's the inner bobstay first, showing the join: Then I had a brainwave for the outer bobstay and realised I could hide the join in the stem if I made the hole bigger: Here's the two finished: The bowsprit shrouds were equally straightforward... However compare the lanyards: For the bobstays I just used some ordinary Mara thread (#70, I think) but for the shroud lanyards I used the thinnest rope I could make - 3 strands of Mara#150 - giving a more realistic 0.30mm result. I'll replace the bobstay lanyards as soon as I run up some more line. I've added a touch of raw sienna acrylic paint to the cut ends of the shrouds to represent the protective leather caps. While on the subject of lines, I thought I'd say a word on my ropewalk. A few years ago when I was fitting out my garage I built a number of workbenches on lockable wheels in order to give me maximum flexibility when using various tools. This turned out to be a happy decision for rope making, as it means I can use the benches in conjunction with my Syren Rope Rocket to make rope of any length I want. In practice I tend to start with the headstock and tailstock 13 ft apart which gives me 10 ft rope which works well for me. Here's the two six foot benches set up with the Rope Rocket: Here's the benches stowed away alongside two smaller ones. The wheels reduce the bench footprints to a minimum, still leaving room for both cars (and a pile of junk!): More relevant, here's some of this morning's production, 0.65mm on the left; 0.50mm on the right: I knot the ends until I can apply heat treatment to stop the rope unravelling. I use a crafter's hot air gun; others bake in an oven. I just find the hot air quicker and easier. Finally I should add that my wife found the design for the workbenches on Pinterest (the first and only time I've found a use for the latter!) and I tailored them to suit my tools and needs. I know they're not a new concept and some modelers use similar ideas in their workshops, but the flexibility and convenience they give me makes doing jobs in the garage much less of a chore and therefore much more likely to get done. Shrouds next, I think. Derek

Looking very neat David, especially your wooldings. Following Gregory's post I couldn't resist looking it up. According to the OED woold (first noted in English around 1616) is derived from earlier German and Dutch words meaning to wrap a rope or chain round something to strengthen it. Hence woolding refers to the resulting wrapping as well as the act of wrapping it.. Derek

When you find the solution Glenn please let me know - I struggle with this too. However... That's my reasoning too! Derek

Great use of silver soldering - those stanchions look superb. Derek

I agree - can I have the buxom Duchess of Kingston please? 😬

Rigging the bowsprit I just had a couple of items on the hull to finish before I could start rigging. First, the rails on the quarterdeck: These were straightforward to construct, with each railing made from three patterns laser cut from 1mm wood sheet. To hide the laminations I applied water-based filler to the top of the handrail and rubbed it down before painting. However the pieces are quite fragile, and despite my best efforts one of the supports broke as I was installing the starboard rail. Fortunately the kit provides 14 spares, two for each of the seven supports, each of which is slightly different: The last little job was blackening and fitting the stove flue: That last photo reminds me of a small detail I forgot to mention before. I like to simulate bolt heads where appropriate - two are visible on the timber just aft of the flue. For bolts like this I use an old hairbrush with black nylon bristle which are just the right diameter when inserted in a hole and trimmed off. Here she is ready for rigging to commence: I started with the gammoning, using about 1 metre of 0.5mm line (dark brown spun from 3 strands of Gutermann Mara): Here's a link to my Speedy log describing the method I used. It took ten turns to fill the gammoning slot, and a lot of patience to weave the line through the head rails! In particular, the Speedy log describes how I differed slightly from the kit instructions which show the loops running parallel between the bowsprit and the slot. I followed full size practice in which each loop starts at the front of the bowsprit and goes to the aft of the slot, resulting in a twisted effect. Btw, I'm no longer stressing about losing the knight's helmet's plume on the figurehead. It appears I've left no room for it, which is puzzling as I don't see how I could have fitted the figurehead and the bowsprit any differently. Next set of tasks will be finishing the rigging to the bowsprit. Derek

Good to see you back on Speedy Vane!

Truly a thing of beauty - even a perfectionist like you must be delighted at your achievements. The sweeping lines of those planks really enhance the beautiful shape of the hull. We're also cruising there in late July, early August. I'm taking a saw to bag me some of that cedar😁

A really good point Glenn. Kit supplied timber can vary considerably in thickness, even from the best companies. I try to plane planks down to an even size but it's a pain and I can see a good thicknesser being the best solution. How bad is the dust though? Derek

Thanks David, much appreciated, although having just caught up with your Duchess log I think you're being unduly modest! Machine tools can certainly help make jobs easier and quicker but careful use of hand tools can usually achieve the same end result and often with at least as much satisfaction. That mast head in your last post looks absolutely fine to me. Having said that, I love tools and asking a tool-o-holic like me which is my favorite is like asking me to name my favorite child*. Each has it's place, and most can be used for other jobs around the house. I've used the Byrnes saw to make picture frames and the larger mill and lathe to make plumbing parts that I couldn't find in the shops (always good selling points when trying to persuade the holder of the purse strings that I need another new 'toy'!). (* Janet, but don't tell the other two)** A good table saw is indispensable if you want to cut your own timber and the Byrnes is certainly the class leader. However I still hang on to my old Preac for really fine jobs. Sadly the Preac company is now defunct, but if you ever see one on the second hand market I'd snap it up if I were you. Anyway, a good table saw would have to be the first serious purchase for me (I'm not counting Dremel-type drill tools as they're relatively modestly priced and I assume we're talking significant investments?). However the one tool I'd probably shed the most tears over if you took it away from me would be the Proxxon micro mill, purely because it has allowed me to tackle jobs I simply couldn't do before and has thereby greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the hobby. This was especially true when I built models by firms other than Vanguard and Syren and had to remake lots of out-of-scale and inaccurate parts. Just to give one example, kit ladders usually look far too chunky to me. The micro mill allowed me to make my own, being accurate enough to cut a series of precisely spaced slots 0.5mm wide and 0.5mm deep in 1.0mm thick timber to fit the steps. If you look round the site you'll find lots of examples of people putting the mill to good use. Of course these are just my views - I expect other people would have different choices. The best advice I can give is don't just buy a tool because it seems like a good idea; wait until you've got a real need for a particular machine then do your research and go for the best you can afford based on that research. For example I didn't go for a wood lathe until I decided to make my own masts and yards from square stock and wanted to be able to shape them more quickly and accurately. Hope this helps. Derek ** Janet is a pseudonym 😬

Just catching up with your log David, and she's looking beautiful! I particularly like your ship's boat - the extra refinements like the cap rail make all the difference. I must get my finger out and start making more progress on my Duchess. Derek

Coming along very nicely David. I agree with your comments about ships' boats - not my favourite part of the build either. I'm tempted to go with Tom's suggestion when I get around to unboxing Sphinx. On ratlines, I think the idea is that white thread is easier to see. Having tried it once, I'm going back to black. Nice mice, btw. I make mine on the lathe, but your results look just as good and probably involve much less messing around trying to get angles and such right. Derek

More Strops Thanks for the kind comments and likes - much appreciated. I've tried to continue following full size practice in rigging the various blocks and deadeyes to the masts. I'll describe the method used in rigging a 3mm deadeye to the fore main mast. Following the steps I described in my previous post I produced a served line 0.5mm in diameter and 40mm long, with spare serving line left at each end and cut on the diagonal just outside the served portion . The line needed to be long enough to form an eye at each end, seize the deadeye and wrap round the mast leaving a short gap between the eyes. The gap doesn't need to be too precise - just wide enough to allow a decent lashing between the eyes. To form each eye I held the cut end in a loop with self-close tweezers while I wrapped the spare serving line round the join (I think I must have been stirring paint with those tweezers😬😞 I tried gluing the join first but found the result too bulky. Instead, I wrapped the join first, finished the serving line with a half hitch round the served line, applied dilute PVA and trimmed when dry. Here's the result with the deadeye seized in: Previously I would have used 18/0 fly tying thread for the seizing, but I found that the Gutermann Mara #150 I used for serving was thin enough to do a decent (ie non-bulky) job. I'll probably still use the fly silk for smaller tackle. I've also got the #150 thread in the shade I plan to use for running rigging (shade #854 for running rigging, #696 for standing) so I used that for the lashing. I started by tying one end to a loop... ...then with the strop in place round the mast I used a needle to thread the line back and forth between the eyes to create the lashing, finishing with a hitch round the centre: I've probably got the gap between the eyes a little wide in this example, but I still like the extra little detail. Lots more blocks to attach to the yards next. Derek

Rigging the Masts & Yards Thanks guys, much appreciated. On my last model I found rigging the bowsprit quite challenging, especially the part where four deadeyes had to be seized into a ring. Here's how I tackled it on Speedy. This time round I decided to try a different approach, making a strop from a circle of served line into which I seized the deadeyes. I worked out the length of line I needed by adding together the circumferences of all the deadeyes and the bowsprit, plus 10mm to allow for overlap and seizings. To my surprise this actually worked out about right! As the line would be served I used some spare thread from a kit, while for the serving line I used Gutermann Mara #150 in dark brown. #150 is the finest thread I've got, apart from fly tying thread. I've not measured it precisely, but I doubt it's more than 0.1mm. With the kit thread it produced 0.5mm served line. Here's the Syren Serv-o-matic set up with a fine needle starting the serving line off: Not shown on the photo, I spread dilute PVA on the first few millimeters of line before serving it, just to prevent any tendency for the serving to unravel. I wanted to leave plenty of spare serving line, so to prevent it tangling up as the machine span round I taped the excess out of the way: To save having to cut long new lengths of thread for each strop I clipped the thread holder to the handle, meaning I was always dealing with a single complete line and minimising waste: I'm always losing stuff in the workshop, so cut down on the frustration I try to keep tools where they're needed, as far as possible. So on the Serv-o-matic machine I've stuck a magnetic strip to hold the fine needle I only use for serving: When I got near the final served length I smeared dilute PVA on the last few mills then threaded the needle through again, with a clip on the serving line to stop it unravelling: When dried I made diagonal cuts at both ends, just outside the served portion, glued the cut ends together to form a circle, wrapped the spare serving line round the join, then finished with more dilute PVA before trimming: I felt the result was a bit chunky, so on my next attempt I trimmed the serving line right back then used fly tying thread to reinforce the join. Here's the strop with the first three deadeyes seized in: On reflection I could have used black fly tying thread as the brown is too light, but the join will not show as it will be hidden under the bowsprit. With 3 deadeyes in position I slipped the strop over the bowsprit and into its final position before seizing in the final 3mm deadeye: I'll tackle strops on the masts next. Derek

Masts & Yards Some progress to report. I've finished all the basic carpentry and ironwork on the masts and yards, and have started rigging the various blocks, lines and footropes. Following my usual practice I've made my own spars from boxwood, preferring the lighter wood to the kit material. Also, preparing the spars from square stock makes it easier to produce octagonal sections in the centre of the yards - with a couple of exceptions such as the mizzen yard and the cro'jack which are round throughout. Here's the full set of yards before painting: Care is required when making the mizzen yard (aka the lateen yard - the 3rd from the top of the photo) as the point where it attaches to the mizzen mast is slightly off-centre. Only by a few millimetres and easily missed, but it makes a difference. I covered spar making techniques in my Speedy log so I won't repeat all that here, but will just mention a couple of slight tweaks this time round. A quick way I found to trim the corners off the octagonal stock held in the Proxxon lathe was with an old drill gauge - crude but effective: I made more effort to get a nice transition from the central octagonal section to the round ends. I found the best way to do this with a file held securely on the lathe rest: The rest of the process is just the usual tapering with sandpaper and files. When fitting cleats to the yards I usually struggle to get enough contact between the flat cleats and the round yards for the glue to grip. On the Duchess I tried using my finest rat tail file to make the undersides of the cleats concave to match the yards. Difficult at this scale but worth the effort: Various holes followed, using the micro drill attachment described in more detail here: Then it was out with the spray gun: I'll cover rigging the masts in the next post. Derek

Hi Glenn. Here's a link to the technique I think you're referring to... Derek

Wow. Just wow! (That's me being speechless too)

Partly work around the house; partly other hobbies, especially astrophotography. Here's some recent shots - all from a suburban garden:

Very little to report I'm afraid, as I've been caught up in other projects. However I've finally got round to gluing the cannon and most of the deck furniture in place so I'm posting a few pictures of the current state of play. Mostly components I've already described - the one small exception being the spouts on the pumps, simply made from short lengths of brass tubing. Amazing what you spot in photos but miss on the actual model! I've just noticed the main mast bitts are really wonky and will need fixing The only other work I've done recently is on the spars, where I've made some of the masts and yards. I've had to put the Duchess in my dust cabinet to protect her while I file and sand the spars on the lathe, which makes lighting and photography a challenge. I'll record some of the detail in due course. Derek