prototype build HMS Sphinx 1775 by James H - FINISHED - Vanguard Models - 1:64

[Oboship]

I'm running out of appropriate words to comment on this beautiful model! 😊😉

Uwe

[Vane]

Now when all the details start to come to place I must admit that it exceeds my expectations by far!

 

[paul carruthers]

Has a price been decided upon?

[chris watton]

23 minutes ago, paul carruthers said:

Has a price been decided upon?

Yes. Sphinx will be £649.

 

It has well over double the amount of materials than Duchess, plus more expensive made to order thicknesses for pear sheet and planking (0.6 and 0.8mm)

 

I am still to complete the laser cutting of all parts, but I wouldn't be surprised if one kit takes the best part a day to cut - but won't know until I tally up the times for everything...

[BenD]

That price is justifiable considering the amount of parts and that it looks incredible. 

 

Looks like you need a second laser cuter.

[Glenn-UK]

Happy to pay the price, I will buy one as soon as the pre order sales are available.

[Larry 1406]

I’m in for sure, it’s beautiful. 
 

Larry

[James H]

I'm hoping to make an update on Monday with a completed hull, fingers crossed.

[Glenn-UK]

1 minute ago, James H said:

I'm hoping to make an update on Monday with a completed hull, fingers crossed.

Exciting times ahead

[Neill]

On 6/19/2021 at 4:05 PM, chris watton said:

Yes. Sphinx will be £649.

 

It has well over double the amount of materials than Duchess, plus more expensive made to order thicknesses for pear sheet and planking (0.6 and 0.8mm)

 

I am still to complete the laser cutting of all parts, but I wouldn't be surprised if one kit takes the best part a day to cut - but won't know until I tally up the times for everything...

Very fair price indeed , funds earmarked😀

[myxyzptlyk2003]

Definitely will purchase once it's available.      Also have just purchased the Duchess kit to show support for Chris going full time with his business.

[Malcolm Greig]

I'll be happy to dip into my model ship slush fund for the Sphinx. She looks a beauty.

 

Malcolm

[DonSangria]

Will there be sails as an option available?

[James H]

1 hour ago, DonSangria said:

Will there be sails as an option available?

I definitely wouldn't think so.

[chris watton]

I can confirm I will not be adding a sail set option, as the cost would be too high for the very small percentage who would want them.

 

I spent an extra month working on drawing sail plans for the Amati Vanguard, yet to this day, I haven't seen one Vanguard model with sails! Come to think of it, I have only seem one Alert kit with sails added...

 

And on a personal note, I do not like them on the larger models anyway, they never look right, especially in 64th scale - unless a real artist has a go...

 

Same goes for cannon rigging, but these are strictly personal preferences on my part.

[ERS Rich]

Hello,

 

Have enjoyed looking through this log several times.  Thank you!

 

The design and construction reminds me of fine furniture.  That is the core is a less expensive wood, popular in furniture, MDF in this case; with a veneer of expensive wood.  It’s a smart technique that’s been used for centuries.

 

Another advantage of this kit is less time is spent on the tedious shipbuilding tasks, like say cutting and fitting of small bits of wood associated with hull and bulwark construction.

 

More time can be spent on say the rigging, and adding additional detail - if that’s necessary, because as others have said what the kit offers out of the box is exceptional.

 

Another thought is the design goes easy on the builder - for example the breakaway bulkhead on the stern that protects the bulkhead ears.  This means the builder is setup for success. 

 

Time is priceless.  What normally takes many months for the skilled builder or even years for a newcomer, can be accomplished in weeks.  

 

This design solves the biggest problem with model shipbuilding - most people give up before finishing the ship.

 

This fine, unique kit may seem expensive, but in my opinion the time savings, quality, and ultimately the satisfaction, make the kit well worth the price.  Tremendous value.

 

Congratulations on your ingenious design Mr. Watton.  You certainly have made a significant and remarkable contribution to the craft.

Edited June 21, 2021 by ERS Rich
grammar!

[glbarlow]

Good call on sails, not something I’d ever want to see on a model I build. 
 

I likely will plank the deck, primarily so I can plank less of it, if that’s possible, to expose more of that beautiful detail below.

 

I can’t say I agree with much of anything @ERS Rich said, building your own isn’t  tedious nor is time consuming a problem. I’ve spent over a year now on Cheerful and enjoyed it all. I do agree Sphinx is shaping up to be a great build, as a kit it’s at the top of its class and I’m sure worth the price. 
 

I know I like many others want Chris to be successful. 

Edited June 21, 2021 by glbarlow

[Mike_H]

Well Glenn, I think there is a point about a model design being time-efficient for the modeller.  I can see no basis on which I could find enjoyment in cutting  out gun ports through splintering stripwood that I had spent hours - days - getting just-so.  Nor is there a lot of fun to be had in working out the extent to which the instructions has the assembly sequence wrong, or the drawings being nominal or indicative rather than instructive.  And I don’t think that view differs much from what @ERS Rich was saying.  It’s not so much about time saving as about be able to use time where it is most necessary.  For all that, I still want to build a kit, not assemble it.  And my word I want to build this one!

[James H]

There's so many tasks on a model which some modellers with either:

1. Fail at.
2. Hate.

This is designed to still be something you build and not just 'assemble', but at the same time, it's also designed to make those build tasks a little easier and in many cases, quicker. It's still not a model you can just jump into and build in a couple of months. I've been on this 12 weeks now, and I've still about 5 more to go, give or take. I know that I also work full time and have been creating content for a manual that will around 900 images and 20,000+ words, but I do work relatively quickly as I need to......Chris needs to be able to bring income from this intensive period of design and prototype build. 

 

Sorry about lack of update today. I sort of underestimated the list of last tasks to complete the hull. I'm working on this tonight and rest of tomorrow night too.

[chris watton]

Development for this particular kit has certainly been very intensive. Jim's model is actually the third prototype, the first two were mine, one a basic hull assembly, to iron out potential larger issues, the second to sieve through smaller issues, which leads to the production parts, which still need a further 'sieve' to help 'fine tune' the designs. Many, many parts have been tweaked over the past few weeks, and all for the better.

 

Tangible models need to be made, I know that when I design them in CAD, when I assemble in 3-D, all looks perfect. However, for wooden model kits, they never work out exactly how they look on the PC screen, too many issues can be very easily overlooked if the time wasn't put into assembling progressively better prototype models from the designed parts. At least, this is how I work, knowing the pitfalls of designing these things, and having to take into account all of the slight differences from one model and modeller to another. 

 

I know that most kits in the past (talking European kits, as these are the only ones I have experience with) leave the onus on the purchaser to sort problems out due to shortcomings. I wanted to address this by making a kit so complete (although you still need to pay attention and take your time), that the onus is on me, not you - most who are fairly competent at model building should really have any issues building this, but it's still not a quick build, due to the sheer amount of parts. But at least they are parts you won't have to make from scratch, some just require a little finishing..

 

Mad kit....

[ERS Rich]

My comments were meant to be, and are entirely complimentary.

 

The controversy over “time”, and the semantics of “building” or “assembling” is baffling.  

 

The time saving aspects of the design are a benefit not a knock.  Saving some time on some tasks is not the same as saying this is a cheap low quality kit - obviously it isn’t.

 

The chief benefit of this kit is one can achieve a fantastic result with a reasonable skill set, in a reasonable amount of time.  To paraphrase someone else, it makes the complex accessible.

 

As a mechanical engineer I understand the work required to create this kit is truly monumental. 

 

I wish all the best to Mr. Watton and his team.  And I plan to treat myself with this kit.

Edited June 21, 2021 by ERS Rich
grammar

[glbarlow]

2 hours ago, Mike_H said:

find enjoyment in cutting  out gun ports through splintering stripwood

There is what you describe, which doesn’t sound like much fun, and forming and framing gun-ports from wood I milled myself, very time consuming and very enjoyable. 

With kits I do t need much beyond a good set of plans. But that’s why Chris makes such great kits, both for the less experienced and still more than interesting enough for the more experienced. 
 

Only James can build these things quickly and per his post even he can’t knock out Sphinx in a few weeks. The most unimportant thing to me is how quick I can build a model, why would you want to. Cheerful has taken me over a year, I’m going to miss it when I’m done in a week or two from now. 

[Mike_H]

This would be so much easier to discuss in a pub!

[RichardG]

1 hour ago, glbarlow said:

The most unimportant thing to me is how quick I can build a model, why would you want to. 

 

I couldn't agree more. 

[Guyuti]

Well Chris, thanks for the update, so looking forward to seeing the finished kit, I have already put money aside to purchase this kit, which will go into my stash with all your other models you have produced to date. I will off course do build logs once it get to them.

I wish you every success for now and the future.

 

Regards

Guy

[Malcolm Greig]

Good discussion on ship kit building philosophy. In 1988 I brought the AL Endeavour. I made a complete bundle of it and it ended up in the bin. 2005 I brought the Caldercraft Mars. My luck was in as unbeknown to me Chris designed that one. It's completed and I how am fully committed and enjoying the ship kit building hobby.  All my kits are Chris Watton designed. 

 

regards

 

Malcolm

[James H]

This update takes me up to hull completion (apart from fitting the lanterns and quarterdeck hammock cranes which will be fitted later).

 

Work starts on fitting out the forecastle deck, fitting out with the hatch assembly, belfry, fore bitts cross beams and the breast beam rails.

 

 

Of course, there's those catheads which need fitting. These are designed with engravings that mean each cathead is an easy, multipart assembly, and they look rather nice when built up. Opening up the bulwark holes for the catheads was the longest task here, taking about 90 mins in total, but they fit superbly.

 

 

Ok, back onto the quarterdeck, fitting the stairs I made much earlier in this build. The same goes for my capstan and hatch assembly. The ship's wheel unit is something I made up in the last week, and that goes nicely into position.

 

 

 

Now, the quarterdeck breast beam rails are installed. These did look fiddly, but they fit together as easy as Lego! That's right down to installing the PE hammock cranes through all slots in each layer. When complete, these are painted black.

 

Time for timberheads! (and quarterdeck rail stanchions).

 

 

Followed by the rails:

 

 

Off to the other end of Sphinx now as I build up the head rails. These are made from laminated pear and the top of these are shaped as I did with the timberheads on the gunwales. Those 'seats of ease' are also installed.

 

 

 

Remember those cannon port lids? Here they are, finally installed.

 

 

 

The boat beams are now slightly different to the ones I used as they are engraved with the positions of the specific boat cradles, making things a little easier for the builder. The mounts for the beams are cast in a tough resin, attached with CA once I'd measured the 'between centres' to the holes in the gangways.

 

 

 

Hammock cranes are now installed and rigged.

 

 

The boomkins and figurehead parts are fitted, completing this update...

 

 

Here's a few pics of the build so far. Tomorrow I'll be sending Chris a pen drive with over 830+ photos and 24,000 words of text. Your instruction manual will be epic, in every sense of the word 😆

 

 

 

[Kevin]

stunning work, well done you two

[Glenn-UK]

@James H it looks amazing, excellent building skills and I'm sure the manual will be epic.

[chris watton]

Very nice work from James!

 

He now has all 23 sheets of completed 50x70cm plans , and I will start on manual as soon as I receive the pics. Still awaiting my lantern shipment, which I should receive in the next week, I hope.

 

Production laser cutting already well underway with laser machine running 12 hours per day minimum - but this will still take a while. Initial production run will be for 40 kits.

Edited June 24, 2021 by chris watton