rvchima

Proxxon Sander (my favorite tool for removing laser char)

Ever wonder what's inside a Proxxon oscillating sander? Well mine started running erratically and making funny noises a few days ago, and it's only 7-8 years old! Can you believe it? So I took it apart (typical engineer). There's a switch, small permanent magnet motor, fan, eccentric, a big, heavy weight, and a plastic arm that oscillates the head back and forth. I cleaned everything out using my airbrush as a blower, added a drop of oil on each side of the motor and some graphite on the other parts. It should be good for another 8 years. 

Boat Beams

The manual says that if the rear beam hits the chain pump handle you can cut a little notch in the beam. Mine hit way too much for that so I gave it a good twist. It would never go around but no one will be able to tell. The handles definitely should be smaller.

5 hours ago, chris watton said:

You can give the wheel a few coats of spray primer, white or red oxide. This does help round off the edges. Wooden wheels are always way too thick and out of scale for 64th, metal ones almost as bad, and 3-d printed versions too fragile.

Thanks Chris. I tried to paint the wheel to look like wood and left the PE rims and hubs blackened. A better wood color would have helped.

Upper Decks, Railings, Cathead, Binnacle, and Drumhead Capstan

The fore and aft upper decks and railings are all complete. The aft deck took a little shaping but the forward deck dropped right into place. As before, I stained the decks with Minwax Golden Oak. The belfry, stove chimney, and some belaying pin racks are also done.

The stanchions for the quarterdeck railings are flat and need to be sanded round. I chucked them in a rotary tool and hit them with sandpaper wrapped around a dowel and taped to a stick.

Here's a view of that railing with the drum head capstan behind it and some more ladders nearby.

A lot of parts in this kit are PE brass that are typically cast metal or wood in other kits - eyebolts, belaying pins, etc. I had my doubts about them at first, but frankly they look just fine. However the ship's wheel is three pieces of PE glued up and it looks pretty flat. I considered buying a better wheel but would have had to resize the drum to make it fit, so I stuck with the PE. The binnacle is very nice.

Catheads - from the manual: "The holes in the bulwark are deliberately left smaller than required for alignment and part integrity when assembling. You will now need to open these up to fit the catheads. Use small files and a sharp blade to open these up to size." Easier said than done. I spent a couple of hours on each side filing those slots to within a hair of the railing and deck before those pieces would fit.

I agree with everyone - your planking is perfect, too nice to paint.

I used my electric plank bender the other day to fit one inner bulwark, and wouldn't you know it, I burned a finger pretty bad. I like to tease my son about all his football (soccer) injuries and now he's giving me grief about yet another model making injury.

That is a beautiful model Walter. It makes me want to start another (but maybe no cannons!)

Forecastle Beams Installed

My quarterdeck beams all ended up about 2mm too long and had to be trimmed on each end to fit. I did build the hull with the recommended jigs in place so I don't know why the parts were off. The forecastle beams dropped into place perfectly. I really hate to cover this all up.

Beautiful job on the planking. I also like your plan to leave the hull natural. It will look great.

Do you have an electric plank bender for the stern? I bought one part way through mine and it worked amazingly well.

Quarterdeck Beams Installed - 308 Hours, 122 Days

This was another satisfying task. I added the optional hanging knee braces below the beams, sanded most of the laser char, and finished all the pear wood with Watco oil stain. Yes, I know most of this won't be seen, but the pear wood is just so pretty that I can't resist.

Cannons Installed with Breech Ropes

This took another 12 hours over 3 days. About 27 hours to build and install 20 cannons. Now it's time to cover them all up with another deck.

Breech Ropes

On 4/10/2024 at 6:16 PM, Thukydides said:

You should still do them off model. Just you are limited by the fact that you have to run the ropes through the rings on the guns. I did some posta on my method in my alert log.

As suggested, I am rigging the breech ropes to the cannons off the model. I just use a single knot under the barrel with a spot of CA.

Then I glue the cannon to the deck.

The ends of the breech ropes must go through the eyebolts and get tied with much thinner thread using a single clove hitch. It is quite difficult to tie a clove hitch in that tight space, but it is MUCH easier to tie a clove hitch in your hands by overlapping two simple loops. There is an excellent animation of the procedure here. I hold the clove hitch with an electronics test hook clip, then put the breech line through the clove hitch, through the eyebolt, and back through the clove hitch. I grab both ends of the breech line with another test clip (red.)

So now I have a clove hitch around the breech line as desired. I release the yellow clip, snug up the clove hitch, add another single knot and a spot of CA for safety, release the red hook, and trim the ends. Fairly painless.

A New Base

The outrageous patina on my copper hull needed an equally outrageous base. I made one out of a light cherry with a Bubinga veneer, finished with Watco natural oil and several coats of Minwax wipe-on polyurethane. I have been ordering brass name plates for all my models from a vendor on Amazon. The temporary base will go back on while I am working.

I have just started to rig the breech ropes for the cannons. @Thukydides posted a brilliant description of a jig for rigging the cannons off the model here. However, the instructions for the Sphinx had me install the eyebolts around the gunports about 20 pages ago, so I will have to do that rigging in place.

Cannons

Not as painful as I thought - it took about 15 hours to build 20 cannons.

Eclipse

We had a solar eclipse today, 87 percent coverage where I live but only briefly visible through the clouds. I managed to get one decent photo with my old Celestron 90mm  spotting scope with a solar filter and an iPhone holder.

Cannons

In my last post I wrote how much I was enjoying this build but I'm not looking forward to this next part. At least she's not a first rate.

Chain Pumps, Hand Pumps, Grates and Finally the Stove

This part of the build is quite enjoyable. Each little component adds something interesting to the model. I built the stove almost two months ago and finally got to install it, and to jump ahead three pages in the manual past those instructions.

Interview with Chris Watton in Nautical Research Journal

If you haven't seen it already, there is a fascinating interview with @chris watton, designer of the Sphinx kit, in the latest issue of Nautical Research Journal. When I was looking for a new project I was debating between the Diana by Caldercraft and the HMS Fly by Amati. Moderator @ccoyle told me that I had a good eye because both models were designed by Chris Watton, and suggested that I consider the Sphinx. After reading the article I realize that I could have chosen any number of kits and that Chris would probably have designed most of them.

The only thing missing from the article is a photo of Chris' private collection. My house is getting crowded. Chris' house must be a museum.

8 hours ago, Thukydides said:

She is looking good, I like the patina, very visually striking.

Thank you Thukydides. The patina is more intense than I ever imagined but I like it. I was hoping for a visually striking model (even if not quite historically accurate) and it is certainly turning out that way.

By the way, do you have another name besides Thukydides?

Two Ladders - Never to Be Seen Again

Chain Pumps and Supports

4 Hatch Coamings and 88 Cannon Balls

I figured it would be easier to place the cannon balls before the coamings were installed.

The Flirt is attacked by a giant mythical beast!

Outside of the Hull (Finally) Complete

The rudder, displacement numerals, and random reinforcing plates are now attached.

The rudder was hard because of about 120 nails holding the gudgeons and pintles. Those parts are non-functional - the rudder is actually held in place by 5 PE pins. A while ago I mentioned that my rudder wouldn't fit past the rudder post so I removed 1/4" at the top. Now the top pin has nowhere to attach. And with the pins the rudder was now a few mm wider and wouldn't tip in place. I had to use my trusty rotary tool to enlarge the hole in the hull, which is what I should have done in the first place.

I glued the displacement numerals with CA. The plans showed the starboard side so I did that first using a cutout copy of the plans for placement. For the port side I made a mirror image of the pattern with Photoshop and started gluing. After a while I realized that Roman numerals look the same forwards and backwards, but XI is not the same as IX. So I had to remove and reverse a few numerals. That removed the patina, which turns out to be fairly delicate. I touched it up with random green and black acrylic.

When I attached the copper plates I covered up the holes for the horseshoe and keel plates. I laid the paper cutouts in place, poked a pin through a marked hole, and hit the corresponding hole through the copper on the first try. Amazing!

Thanks everyone! Now I know how NASA faked the Magellan radar map of the surface of Venus.

Ha ha, only joking. I'm retired from NASA and we never fake anything.

Now the Copper is Green!

I experimented with high-test vinegar and ammonia, salt and Miracle grow, cleaning the foil with alcohol and, lacquer thinner. (I did not try peeing on my ship.) Nothing had much of an effect until I tried the Novacan black patina that I use for stained glass and to darken the photo etched parts. It made the foil look like a tarnished penny, dark brown, almost black. I wanted green so I took a chance on a large bottle of Jax Green patina from Amazon. It didn't do much by itself and it tended to rub off. But over top of the Novacan black - wow! The patina seemed durable but I air-brushed several coats of acrylic floor wax over it just in case.

Here is a photo of all the samples I tried. No point in identifying the losers, but the Novacan + Jax + acrylic is at bottom right.

Here's a shot of the chemicals.

Novacan black starts to darken immediately and unevenly, but I brushed it continuously with a stiff 1" paint brush until it evened out (15-20 minutes per side.) I rinsed the hull with a sponge and water.

Jax green patina paints on like water, one wet coat, and turns green as it dries. I let it dry overnight.

Halloway Quick Shine is an acrylic floor wax that plastic modelers use for a clear coat. I masked above the water line and applied three light coats with an a air brush.

I doubt if I used more than 1/2 ounce of anything.

Before

After

There were gaps between the stamped plates on the copper tape that I neglected to remove towards the bottom of the hull. They are pretty well camouflaged now.

The green patina is not at all what I was planning on - it's even better.

I built the cabin walls while I was waiting for chemistry experiments to react.

Now to attach the rudder.

My Copper Won't Turn Green!

I finished coppering the hull and rudder, and was ready to age it. In 2013 I used kitchen vinegar and salt on my Syren and it looks great. Today I made up some samples of my copper foil on wood to experiment with. I tried

• 6%   acetic acid kitchen vinegar with salt
• 20% weed killer vinegar with salt
• 20% vinegar with Miracle Grow
• ammonia with salt
• ammonia with Miracle Grow
• lightly sanding or rubbing the foil with steel wool first

Nothing had any effect at all on my samples. They are just as shiny as before, and I am stumped! Does anyone have other suggestions for ageing the copper foil?

I just discovered that Novacan Black Patina for Solder blackens the foil almost immediately. That's not the aged green that I was looking for but it's a start.

Chains are Done, on to the Interior - Temporarily

One of the first tasks on the interior is to place 6 eye bolts around each gun port, 120 in all. As Walter says,

On 3/17/2024 at 5:28 PM, wvdhee said:

It's therapeutical 😉

My curved hemostat was perfect for inserting the tiny eye bolts.

Four more bolts with tiny rings go in the floor, and a wooden ring surrounds the mizzen mast. I was getting excited about working on the cabins, but today my extra copper foil finally arrived from China. So back to the hull and rudder.