Beef Wellington

Spectacular Thomas, only wish the pictures you have posted could be enlarged more!

The black & white checkered floor for the captain's cabin is printed, in scale, on a sheet of the Sphinx plans. Although not delineated in the build manual, I'm pretty certain the intention was to provide a printed and scissored "cut out" to simply affix over the laser-etched floor pattern on the one-piece gun deck, or as B.E. indicates, perhaps not use it at all. I haven't had to make this decision since I'm not building this kit as a quasi-Admiralty dockyard "reveal" model. Had I gone this direction, I would have stained the pear flooring slightly darker and chose - as B.E. also says: "…the understated look…"
 
As many are witnessing on other HMS Sphinx logs, this kit includes many nice touches and encourages various levels of "scratching" enhancements.
Really nice work, B.E.
 
Ron
 

As all your previous builds, a real delight to follow although your last comment caught my uttermost attention :
"Four months into the build.."  : and the progress on the hull is more than obvious.
It is amazing how much the quality of (some) brands of kits have improved, thus allowing both speed and workmanship.
Most impressive.
 

Post Fifty-four
Completing the Great Cabin.
 
The cills are made using 0.8mm x 6mm Pearwood strip.

1832
The unused seat pattern (198) made a good template for cutting the cill to fit between the frames.

1838(2)
The slots were cut out on the scroll saw.

1835
Fitting was a case of slowly adjusting the slots to fit.

1841
The process went far more smoothly than I dared hope.

1846
The bulwarks have been given the w-o-p treatment and I’m still not sure whether to paint the panelling with an ivory tone.
Also wracked with indecision about the kit provided ‘parquet’ flooring or use of the alternative b/w chequer.

1845
This I can defer until I see how things look between the Qtr deck beams.
 
The Gallery doors present something of a problem, I removed these when I modified the Qtr Galleries, and the question is how or whether to refit them.
I don’t think Chuck fitted doors to the Quarter Galleries of Winchelsea.
 
The doors are engraved on one side only, are not square, and if to be displayed open need reversing to show the patterns.
If hinged on the left they open against the bench arrangement, and either way they open onto the spirketting and deck clamps.
Another feature that I can’t get my head around and I’ll leave them off for the present.
 
The port linings and inner bulwarks have been painted; careful masking of the port surrounds is required to avoid getting paint on the ‘bright’ outer planking.

1850(2)
Tedious business this, using a fine brush and not too thin a paint mix to decrease the risk of bleed.
I note that Chuck leaves the inside edges of the planking around the ports clear of paint, an arrangement I followed on my Cheerful build.
I do like this effect, but it is not one reflected on many contemporary models and I think I would struggle to replicate it on the 1:64 scale Sphinx.

1867

1861

1859

1857(2)
Four months into the build and I am now ready to set out the centre line deck fittings.
 
B.E.
21/12/21
 

Spectacular Thomas, only wish the pictures you have posted could be enlarged more!

A little update . . . I made the travelers (imgs 1 to 3). The leather lining was simulated with a layer of silkspan painted with leather paint. The jibboom was lashed to the bowsprit (img 4), the flying jibboom was mounted and the various blocks added. Imgs 5 to 8 show the blocks and the simulated round seizing. Img 9 presents the current state of the bowsprit assembly.
 
Thomas
 

Image 1
 

Image 2
 

Image 3
 

Image 4
 

Image 5
 

Image 6
 

Image 7
 

Image 8
 

Image 9
 
 

Thank you Harshil for your kind comment, and thanks for all the likes! Feedback and encouragement are always highly appreciated 🙂.
 
Thomas

I made some progress on the bowsprit assembly. I turned bowsprit, jibboom and flying jibboom out of bass wood, which was especially selected for very little grain. As all pieces are pretty fragile the shaping on the lathe was done with sand paper held between two fingers to apply equal pressure from both sides (image 1). The result is shown in image 2. The details like sheaves, bee blocks, cleats were done following the Syren instruction book. The lead plate for the sling saddle (image 3) was simulated with a piece of photo paper painted lead gray and ‘metalized’ by buffing it with ‘Grimy Black’ from ‘Doc O’Brian’s’ weathering powders (Micro-Mark). Image 4 shows most of the details in place as well as the dolphin striker. The latter was made out of box wood for stability. Image 5 shows the dolphin striker and the Jack staff mounted and painted. I used the staples for both parts to fix them in their place. I also made the bowsprit cap out of box wood. The holes in the bass wood version included in the kit were too large for my jibboom, and they did not take the angle of about 20° into account. Image 6 presents how I simulated the leather lining for the jibboom. A piece of paper was painted with several coats of enamel leather color and fixed around a wooden dowel turned to the diameter of the jibboom at the location where it crossed the bowsprit cap. This arrangement was sanded to an angle of 20° on both sides, slotted on both ends with an Exacto knife, and mounted on the jibboom at the appropriate location.  This of course was a bit tricky 😉. Once the jibboom was glued in place, the little pieces resulting from the slotting were bent upwards and glued to the bowsprit cap with white glue, which could be cleaned up with water (hence the enamel leather color in order to prevent the paper from dissolving). The result is shown in images 7 and 8.
 
Thomas
 

Image 1
 

Image 2
 

Image 3
 

Image 4
 

Image 5
 

Image 6
 

Image 7
 

Image 8
 
 

Looking very well done, B.E.   I'm not sure the windows were really for looking out at the sea but more for light,   Then again, maybe putting a stool on top the "bench" wasn't all that uncommon.

Post Fifty-three
 
The Great Cabin flat pack assembly continues.
 
I faffed around with the octagonal style cover but couldn’t get it to sit right with my eye.
With the kit set-up the Rudder head position throws the cover too far backwards when the forward edge at least should meet the deck edge. To achieve this the cover would have to be too broad and not fit between the stern frames as required.
This also has implications for subsequently fitting the rudder and seating the rudder head within the cover.
 
Back to basics I considered the purpose of the fittings; to give a reasonably realistic impression as viewed obliquely and from above thro’ the Quarterdeck beams.
With that in mind I have opted to follow Chuck’s lead.
 
A rectangular cover masks the actual line of the rudder head and provides a clean line to set the benches against.
 
The cover is fashioned from some Pear sheet, and decorated with some ebony strip, and a depiction of a Greek sphinx.

Very keen on Greek mythology were the Georgians, altho’ the Sphinx is a far less attractive subject than the rather elegant Pegasus.
 
Both winged creatures, but I wouldn’t fancy meeting this Woman/lion/Raptor combo, who delighted in tearing humans limb from limb if they couldn’t answer her bloody questions.
 
Still one young likely lad who went by the name of Oedipus did indeed answer her riddle correctly, and in a fit of pique, Sphinx threw herself from a cliff and smashed on the rocks below
.
Fortunately, a fate not shared by the ship named for her.
 
Still I digress.

1816
Trial fit of the cover, I basically followed Chuck’s method, without the luxury of laser cut parts.

1826
The benches are fitted each side of the cover. Fairly straightforward using Pear strips of 6mm and 10mm widths.

1829
I use scale figures to set the fittings at the right height. I find that such figures do aid the setting up of these things.

1830
The distance between the bench tops and stern Window cills is around a scale 4½ feet, which seems a little high to me, the Captain would have to stand on the bench top to see out of the stern windows.
 
The cills and the Gallery doors are yet to be fitted, then the area can be cleaned up.
 
B.E.
19/12/21

Post Fifty-two
 
Great Cabin modification
With the Qtr galleries now in place I can move onto an area of the build that excites my interest, the fitting out of the Great cabin.
Chris’s design lends itself to this type of Navy Board style conversion, but is perhaps less relevant if the Qtr deck is to planked over and the model fully rigged.
Having said that I would probably have done it anyway.
 
Again I will be using Chuck’s Winchelsea example as a guide.

This shot from Chuck’s wonderful build shows a typical arrangement altho’ with Sphinx the head is octagonal and of smaller proportions.
 
There are drawings of the Rudder cover and bench arrangements in the Pandora book, good for dimensions, but not a good fit for layout.
The first task is to create the internal framing to support the cill and internal horizontal planking.

1794
Small sections of 4x4mm square stock are used for this and fit between the vertical stern framing just below the window frames.
For the internal planking I am using 4mm x 0.8mm Pearwood. Strip.

1798
This continues down the stern frames to the deck allowing for the rudder head space and cover.
 
I have cut the octagon shaped cover from a section of square stock Walnut, hollowed out to fit over the rudder head.
The octagonal Rudder Head cover, which scales to a diameter of 30” (12mm) and a height of 35.3” (14mm) sits between the central stern frames.

1804

1807
I am constrained in the actual positioning of the cover by the position of the Rudder head and stern post, and this will ultimately determine the layout of the bench and other fittings.

1800
I think I am likely to have more than one nibble at producing the cover, my preference is for Boxwood with Pearwood mouldings.

1808
If I can’t get the Octagonal cover to work I may have to follow Chuck’s example of a rectangular box which would give me more leeway.
 
Before I do further work on the cover I need to see about the bench arrangement.
The bench seat scales to a depth of 15” (6mm) and a height of 20” (8mm)
 
Without a formal plan to work to a lot of trial and error will be involved, and I expect to be faffing around with this set-up for a while yet.
 
B.E.
17/12/21

 

Catching up a little Rob, seems I've missed a few trials and tribulations but you've definitely overcome them.  She really is turning into a beauty.  The kit seems intriguing, they provide some really very low level detail but seem to omit or simplify some of the larger scale items like the rudder.

I've done a little work to add the rudder retaining chains, and the rosette round the rudder post on the deck.
 
Rudder chains:
 
Here is the soldered clasp at the end of the chain that will go into the hull against an X-acto #11 blade...

 
The chain was cut to length (using eyeball 1.0), and allowing for a little droop, and tied off to the spectacle plate...
 

 
The end result was as shown below...
 

 
Rosette round rudder plate:

(part 46 on the 3mm walnut sheet, as I remember). This is a very square part, due to the laser cutting, and I wanted to round it off to make it look a bit smarter... This was done by putting the part onto the end of a dowel that fitted the internal diameter... (masking tape was used to take up a bit of slack). By mounting the dowel in a electric drill / screwdriver, I was able to sand the edges to remove char, and begin round off the top.
 

 
Once done, the slot was filed into the bottom to accomodate the king plank on the deck.
 

 
Dry-fitted...

 
Once I was satisfied, it was glued in place.
 
Photo-etch pulleys for steering chains:
 
These are small, but it IS possible  
 
They start off looking like this...

 
The bit that will make up the plate opposite the hook can be bent a little first...
 

 
MarisStella provide the pulley inserts... there are small and large, and no indication in the instructions which is the right choice. Trying them it seemed to me that the large was too big to fit, so I went with the smaller.
 

 
The bending process continues by bringing the two sides in...

 
Closing the two sides in...

 
Now the holes can be drilled out (0.5mm) and 0.4mm wire used to capture the pulley inside the casing.

 
The bar through the centre holds the unit together, and because no solder or glue has been used up to this point, this whole unit can now be blackened.
 
Rob

 

Hi all, and thank you for the likes,
 
I've made up the tiller. This is made up of six parts. Three wooden, and three metal.
 
First is to find the tiller parts - marked as 46 - on the laser-cut sheets. One part is on a4mm sheet, and the other two on the 2mm sheet, but all are very well marked.
 
These are glued together as shown, leaving a gap for the rudder post. The parts glue like this...
 

 
And can then be marked up for the front to back taper..
 

 
And the extra cut back...
 

 
A test fit meant cutting down the rudder post to size (approx 3.8mm square).
 

 
Now the photo-etch detailing can be added to the tiller, along with two eyelets (I reused some eyelets I had left over from a previous model, because they were already blackened, and readily available, but there are eyelets provided on the photo-etch sheet. What I couldn't tell was whether there were any assigned for this particular task - there didn't seem to be any specifically marked 46 (for this stage).
 
Here it is with the photo-etch in place... This is _very_ zoomed in - it looks much more tidy to my eye in person, if a little heavy for scale? The part is etched to help with the bending, but this means it is full depth, rather than the half depth of the pintles and gudgeons (which were etched back to give the rivet detail).
 

 
I'll see if I can live with it, and if it starts to irk me, I'll replace it with card, painted with Tamiya dark iron... instead.
 
I've also put the eyelets onto the spectacle plate ready for the rudder chains...
 

 
And blackened one of the 1mm chains (3x 1m lengths are provided in the kit) ready to install.
 

 
And I've started working out how to form the shackles - the smaller of the two sizes provided - which are tiny, indeed. I found cutting the excess brass away from these parts quite tricky, and you can see the remaining on the part below. Filing it is, from what I could tell, almost impossible as they are so delicate. Perhaps I could use a sharp knife and a solid surface instead. More practice is required, evidently!
 
 

 

 
The following photo gives some idea of the size...
 

 
Linked together, and awaiting solder, it looks something like this...
 

 
I've yet to see if I can solder this... it may pleasantly surprise me, but I ran out of time today
 
More soon! In the meantime, happy building to you all.
 
Rob

And now it's daylight, some better photos... 

 

 

 
 

Okay - more work on hanging the rudder... 
 
I test fitted the rudder with the pintles and gudgeons in place, and it quickly became apparent that there was going to be a massive gap between the rudder and the hull. 
 

 
I wasn't happy with that gap at all... but equally I didn't really want to start over, and I wanted to try and use the photo-etch pintles and gudgeons if I could, because they're really nice and sturdy.
 
I put my thinking cap on, and it occurred to me that a big part of the problem was that the rudder didn't extend very far out towards the forward extend of the pintles... so I decided to increase the size of the angled section at the front of the rudder. I used the walnut from the laser-etched sheet that I took the rudder from, and created a triangular cross-section that I could then use in between the pintles.
 
In the photo below I've only fitted the top section. The remaining section is behind the rudder with the next part already cut and bevelled at the top.
 

 
The net result is shown below... 
 

 
Then I covered the extra sections with copper tiles.
 

 
Having taken this photo, I then opened out the hole in the hull that the rudder passes through to allow the bottom of the rudder to swing forward a little more.
 
Here's the before and after (still dry-fitted)...
 

 
It's not perfect, but I'm much happier with the gap. There's a bit of touching up to do and it all needs to be fixed in place, but if I were starting out all over again, I'd definitely do a lot more to the shape of the rudder first of all to make sure I avoided this re-working.
 
That's it for this evening. Thanks for the likes, and happy building to you all.
 
Rob
 

Okay... pintles and gudgeons... 
 
MarisStella in their plans have sections where they show all the component parts of one area of the model (e.g. the rudder) laid out alongside each other.
 
In plan 5, section P19, all the component parts of the rudder are shown... At first glance it seems that there's duplication, but actually when you look more closely it's the pintle components and the gudgeon components. (I was struggling to remember which was which, but the pintle is the one with the pin, mounted on the rudder, and the gudgeon, the one with the hole mounted to the hull).
 
These components are all labelled neatly on the plans, and those labels are also on the photo-etch fret, so no problems identifying them.
 
They go as follows:
 
er is the strap at the top of the rudder (the spectacle plate that provides the mountings for the rudder chains) This will have two eyelets added.
dr, cr, br, ar are the straps, with two associated pieces of photoetch that form the pintles.
 
The mountings for dr, cr, br and ar have their respective gudgeon partners, dh, ch, bh and ah which will mount on the hull. I decided to start with the pintles on the rudder before cutting out the gudgeon parts.
 
These are very similar parts, so I was careful to keep a note of which was which. Note that the ends of the straps are designed to follow the stern-most edge of the rudder, so it DOES matter which way up they go. They are the right way up in the photo below.
 

 
What are the rounded parts? They're the formers that provide shape and support for the front part of the pintle. The instructions are sparse for these parts, but the plans are helpful.
 
First fold the rounded parts along the line (I would suggest folding with the photo-etched line on the outside.) It's pretty thick metal, so you'll need pliers or similar to do this. Then stack two, one on top of the other and put a length of 0.4mm wire through. I found that mine folded so precisely that there were no problems with the holes lining up, although I did opening them up a little with a 0.5mm drill.
 
Now they can be soldered together - I used lead, soft-solder - and you should end up with something like this (excuse my soldering... I need more practice, clearly!). It doesn't actually matter how neat the solder looks here as long as it isn't sticking out too much. It's going to be melted again when we add the strap in a minute.
 

 
By drilling a .5mm hold into the wood I was using as a soldering board, I could cut the wire so I had about 8mm left on the side that would end up being the pin, and insert it to hold the assembly flush to the board ready for the next step.
 

 
Now the strap is bent round the part to form it into the right shape and soldered into position. Once cooled, you can lift the whole assembly out, and it should look something like the assembly below...
 

 
 
Now - I can't emphasise this enough... do make sure you cut off the right end flush to the assembly, otherwise you'll have the pin going up instead of down (or the straps with the endings facing in the wrong direction), and you'll end up doing it all over again.
 

 
With a bit of clean-up, I think this should look okay.
 

 
This part was dr, now I need to add the spectacle plate (er), and the three remaining pintles, cr, br and ar, going down the rudder, one in each of the flat areas. I'm waiting to put these in place until I have the gudgeons complete, so I can check the spacing and make sure it all lines up nicely.
 
That's all from me for now. Hope it all makes sense.
 
Rob 

Thank you all for the likes and encouragement  It's very very good to be back in action again.
 
Looking at the plans, I realised I hadn't shaped the front edge of the rudder - nearest the hull - before plating it. With some careful application of a sharp scalpel blade, I was able to carve this wood away, and then wrap the copper round, as it now protruded a couple of millimetres in front of the front edge of side of the rudder. 
 

 
Then I got stuck into making the pintles and gudgeons. But real life calls, and I think that subject deserves a slightly more in-depth post, so I'll write about that tomorrow.
 
Happy building, all!
 
Rob

EUREKA!!
 Thanks for the likes but really there was little to like in my last post.
 
I made all the parts from the lower cheek up to the level of the bolster. Before finally accepting that I had made such a fundamental error with the position of the wale, I wanted to make a final check on all the measurements related to its position.
 
It was only then I found that the real problem was with the stem, which I had scratched from 7mm boxwood sheet. When I transferred the tracing from a scaled-up version of the drawing in the AotS Diana to the boxwood sheet, the tracing must have moved. This is the only explanation I have for the difference in profile along the top edge which was 2mm out at its junction with the stem.
 

 
 

 
It was a great relief to find that the solution was a relatively simple matter of reducing the stem to match the correct profile. However it meant that I had to remake the trailboard and because I had (stupidly) already cut the hawse holes, quite a bit of work replacing bow planks, plugging the holes and cutting new holes in the correct position.
 

 
Having made sure that all the components lined up, I have now fixed them in place.
Initially I placed all the hunting dogs and scrollwork on the trailboard but because of the addition of the filling piece that isn’t part of the kit, it looked overcrowded and out of balance …
 
 

so I removed both dogs and just went with the single ‘running’ dog which I think looks more balanced
 


 

 
I’m glad to have got this stage sorted out. Looking at the photos in close-up, I will try to improve on the paintwork but overall, and at normal viewing distances, I am quite pleased with the results.
 
The gammoning knee supplied is the wrong shape compared to the drawing in the AotS so I have made a new piece. Initially I cut it out from a piece of 7mm boxwood cut back to 5mm but it was too prone to splitting when it came to cutting out the slots for the head timbers. Since it is being painted, I decided to go with a new piece cut from the ply provided. When I drilled the hole for the mainstay collar, I realised that the first head timber (the stem timber?) would cover it so I guess that the head timbers will also have to be modified down the line.
 
0
The failures are on the left with the kit part and my final effort on the right
 
I’m looking at the wash cant in the AotS and wondering about the best way to make this up. It seems to have quite a complex curve. Perhaps a series of reducing triangular pieces laminated together and then shaped to the curves might be the best approach.

You're a braver man than I, David. Those scuppers look like you've got their position perfectly. Did you drill straight through from the outside?
 
Glad to hear you managed to find the solution for the level of the wales and how it all fits together at the prow, too!
 
She's looking very smart indeed.

Try not to overthink it Stergios, I know you'll be just fine.  If you don't permanently secure any if the ropes with glue, you can always detach and refix it.  Until you have the ropes on the model, its very hard to get a sense in 3D for how they all lay out, so don't think you've made a mistake if you need to redo something, think that is just a natural part of the process.

Forgot to show the three ships line abreast
 

So finally she is finished !
 
In
 

 
Between her sister ships Agamemnon and Snake.  Since all 1:64 scale can appreciate their size and how they would have appeared back in the day.
 
So for my next project in the new year: While I await the Amati !:64 Victory and Vanguard's latest frigate in development.
 

 
 
 

Lower shrouds done, moving along. I find ratline making to be somewhat relaxing

Actually I do not bother too much about it 🙂
 
First they are not appearent with the naked eye,
 
second the paint is usually filling these steps up easily as they are that tiny,
 
third I could easily sand or scratch them off if they proove calling attention,
 
and possibly last I always turn the parts in a way, so that they are not in prominent places.
 
XXXDAn