HMS Sphinx 1775 by mugje - Vanguard Models - 1:64

[mugje]

Hello to you all,

 

It's been a while since I've been here online. I was dealing with some personal stuff and didn't feel to work on this lovely hobby of ours.

But lately I wanted to have something to work on again. I was building the HMS Pegasus from Amati, and I am about halfway I think. But

the motivation to work further on that project is a bit low. The great kits that Chris Watton is producing now in his own company are so much

further in design and realism that it's difficult to unsee the flaws in the earlier designed kits with the less quality materials and poor instructions.

Ofcourse there is a lot to learn about building these kits and you can easily update them with other materials, but at the moment I just like to build

something that is just beautiful and great out of the box without the need of altering to much. And Chris his new stuff is just perfect for this in my opinion.

Luckily I had the funds now to purchase such a gem from Vanguard Models and it's the HMS Sphinx. I ordered it yesterday from a online store in Germany

so I need to wait a few days before it arrives here in the Netherlands.

 

There are already great building logs here on MSW, so this one won't add much to it. But it's nice to have a watchful eye of the designer and builder here

on the forum, may I run into some difficulties.

 

 

[mugje]

Yes feeling like a little kid on his birthday again...received today a nice large box with the mail! 🎊

 

 

 

I won't take any unboxing pictures, because James did a fine job of that in the prototype log:

 

 

 

But I took a first glance in the box and was amazed with it's contents. First the plans and manual are really great, and lots of them! The amount of work in them must be phenomanal.

All the wood looks real good also. What really stood out to me was the amount of lasered and pre-cut wood! And the little bunch of loose planks compaired

to other kits i've seen. This kit is really something else in development and inovation. Great job of Chris and ofcourse James also with building and photographing the prototype.

 

First step now is to take inventory...if everything is in the box and then we can begin!   

Edited July 29, 2023 by mugje

[Katsumoto]

Gefeliciteerd met dit mooie pakket en veel plezier tijdens het bouwen! 🙂

Congratulations purchasing this beautiful modelship. I wish you a lot of fun during the build of this gem. 

 

 

[mugje]

2 hours ago, Katsumoto said:

Gefeliciteerd met dit mooie pakket en veel plezier tijdens het bouwen! 🙂

Congratulations purchasing this beautiful modelship. I wish you a lot of fun during the build of this gem. 

 

 

 

Dankjewel! Ik denk dat ik er zeker veel plezier van ga hebben. (Thanks! I think I will enjoy this the build a lot)

 

Also wanted to add....thank you Chris for labeling everything! Every bag with little parts, thread and wood panel is labeled with numbers which makes everything very easy to find and indentify. A little detail which makes a lot of difference in enjoyment.

[chris watton]

Glad you like it!

 

I think your kit comes from Krick, if so, they produce their own plans and instructions for the German market (We send the kits without plans and instruction manuals)

[mugje]

1 hour ago, chris watton said:

Glad you like it!

 

I think your kit comes from Krick, if so, they produce their own plans and instructions for the German market (We send the kits without plans and instruction manuals)

The store where I bought this one was 'JoJo Modellbau', but there where stickers from Krick on the box also. So I think this shop bought it from Krick indeed. (price difference was significant) 

 

It looks that they replaced the manual with the English one from your site, so quite happy with that service of them.

[mugje]

Okay, one of the first steps is roughly shaping the stern piece and bow piece. Doing the major shaping of these pieces while they are not glueed on the false keel makes life a bit easier. This is by the way suggested in the very clear instructions.

I used a tip from Glenn-UK his log where he traces some lines on the filler pieces of the stern so that I had a global idea for the first attack with the Dremel  

 

[mugje]

But I wasn't really satisfied about how much material I could shave off. I thought it was easier to see how the lines need to run when I used some scrap pieces between the stern fillers and bow fillers. So I took this extra step and it helped me better to visualise how the shape needed to be. Previous experience with other ships definitly helps with especially the stern piece to shape.

I think they are not far of the final shape now. The final shaping will happen when it's glueed on the false keel with the rest of the bulkheads.

 

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by mugje

[mugje]

Just a dry-fit (careful to not breaking the bulkhead taps) to see how everything lines up and to look at her size  

Love how tight the bulkheads slide in the false keel, everything fits real precise. 

 

[mugje]

So yesterday evening after the dry-fitting I secured everything with glue so it could dry overnight. So the Orlop and lower deck are now in position. 

This morning I glued the bow piece, bulkhead 12 and the sternpiece into place. And just now I "painted" the gun port frames into place.

This "painting" with diluted PVA is a really nice and calm way to fix everything together. Great tip learned from the manual  

Previous ships it was a race against the clock to fix a false deck or something into place with clamps, nails etc. before the glue sets...this diluting of the glue 

and just brush it into the joints is such a nice non-stressed way  

I made a building slip for this phase of the build, not knowing it was really necesarry but it certainly can't hurt to keep her keel straight.

 

Also how every piece clicks tight together is such a satisfying way to build, I can really appreciate the engineering behind this design.

[mugje]

So with both sides of the gun port frames in place and glued, the next step was to place some coamings and gratings on the lower deck. Everything is laser-cut also the gratings and I must say I really love these lasered gratings. I prefer these over the gratings in older kits where you need to make them yourself. The details on these lasered ones are really beautiful.

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by mugje

[Vlax]

New builder myself and I'm excited to watch your build log. Great job! 

[mugje]

12 minutes ago, Vlax said:

New builder myself and I'm excited to watch your build log. Great job! 

 Welcome and thank you! And everyone else for the likes  

[mugje]

 

Next step was fitting the gun deck support beams and the stern counter frame...everything was quite straightforward. If you just read and follow the manual carefully there can't go anything wrong. Oh yeah and first varnished the deck with the hatches etc.

 

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by mugje

[mugje]

Only thing I would say to future builders of this ship...treat the stern frame spacer beam on top of the stern frame really careful and take your time. It's really delicate and at first I was a bit enthousiast to push it in the slots and heard a little crack, but stopt luckily in time before damaging it really. The plywood of the spacer was a bit thicker then the slots in the stern frame pieces.

I needed to careful sand the thickness of the spacer so it went smooth in the slots afterwards. 

 

 

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by mugje

[mugje]

Today I installed the false gun deck. She begins to look more and more as a ship  

 

 

 

 

Cool little detail in the design were small cutouts at the base of the bulkhead tabs, where you could slide the deck in.

This would hold the deck in place at the outside edge, so you only have to put some nails at the centerline of the deck to keep holding down

and "paint" some glue underneath. In this way the curve of the deck is easily obtained. Bit difficult to see on the photo, but I hope you get the idea  

 

 

 

 

Next were the vertical gunport frames. Great care is needed to install these, because they have some thin parts that could break if you push to hard. And the fit

in the slots were pretty tight. I used a scrap piece of strip wood to push them in the slots of the horizontal frames. This dispersed the forces a bit. This went without

problems.

 

 

Edited August 5, 2023 by mugje

[James H]

You'll find things a LOT more solid from this point, especially when you get the inner bulwarks added.

[mugje]

Thanks James! Can't wait to go to the next step. It is such a fun way to build this one, a real pleasure

[mugje]

Next step was to sand the inside of the frames so the gundeck bulwark pattern can lay flat against it. Took quite a substantial time and my fingertips to sand all the char off  

 

 

 

But the result was nice and flat so the pattern could lay against it and glued on the backside with diluted PVA

 

 

 

 

I looked a bit forward in the manual and saw that James when painting the inner bulwarks red, he first brushed some diluted varnish on the bulwarks and then the red? Never heared of that before...is that as a sort of primer for the color? I always painted the color on the bare wood so wondered where this was for. Or I just don't understand it properly  

 

 

[James H]

The varnish is just to seal the timber before paint. I generally do this for any area that receives colour. 

 

You can also use sanding sealer etc. but if you're not used to doing any of that.....just do as you normally would.

[mugje]

I took a look at the lasered maple gundeck and it is a bit 'hairy' on top, what would be the best way to get this surface smooth without loosing the lasered details?

I asume scraping, or is sanding a better approach? Anyone some tips?

 

 

[mtaylor]

I'd go with scraping gently.  Testing first on the off-cut scrap of the sheet.

[mugje]

Thanks! I think that's the best way too...with less pressure on the blade then normal. I will experiment a bit

Edited August 16, 2023 by mugje

[James H]

I'd go with a gentle sanding of 400 or finer grit, and then use a soft brush to remove dust from the engravings. 

[mugje]

Thanks James! I'll try both methods...first the parts you don't see well in the finished built 

[mugje]

Couldn't sand away all the hairs, because the lasered details will fade away i'm afraid. The main gundeck was already a bit lighter lasered then the forecastle and quarterdeck patterns...so I hope some varnish will seal the hairs a bit and bring up the details a bit more, because they not that visible on this part.

 

 

[mugje]

Chris is so very kind to send me a replacement of the main gundeck. That's topnotch service right there!

 

I was planning to shop some figures and furniture for the ship so Chris can ship the replacement with it. Great stuff!  

[mugje]

Update:

 

first the montage of the gundeck bulwark patterns. Went really well. The tin pieces bent nice, so no soaking. (pictures are a bit dark because of the sunblinders are down)

 

 

 

Next step was to test fit the gundeck and chequer pattern. I found the gundeck quite a difficult part to get right. First I tried a bit intuïtif, but that to unclear where to sand the edges a bit off. Then I saw in Glenn-UK his Sphinx log that he used a card pattern for this. This was a good solution and gave me more steering about how much to trim the edges. The Chequer pattern looked a good fit so no trimming there. The gundeck pattern just lays at a very small angle on the false deck. Personally I don't think it will matter much and i'm not daring to sand anymore of the edges because then there would appear gaps between the deck and bullwark that are to big to hide with the spirketting strips. You can see the gap here in the lower picture. Don't know if other people noticed it too that the outlining of the lasered gundeck lays in a slight angle in comparison with the deck planks. Because I measured everything from the middle plank of the gundeck and with a triangle I saw the lines at the back of the deck and the little notches at the front were a bit in angle.

Not a problem I think because the cabin bulkheads will cover this gap or I fill it up a bit with a scrap piece. 

 

 

 

 

 

I read in Glenn-UK his Indefatigable log about 3M spray mount so that thin pieces of wood wouldn't curl when you use PVA. At first I didn't really understand it why and how, until I smeared some PVA on the chequer pattern....wow that curled immediately! That was quite a panic situation right there  . But with a lot of clamps I got the thing flat on the false deck. So after learning the hard way haha...need to have that 3M spray mount asap! Just for my information...will this curling happen with all the thin pieces of wood? Or is it with specific pieces? And has this glue a strong bond on wood? Some reviews on the internet say that it comes off after a week or so. (not sure if they use it on wood, because it's normally for paper?) I see that "Pattex" and "Bison" also have a glue spray. Most important quality is that it's not PVA I asume.

 

 

 

 

 

Also painted the inner bulwarks with red ochre Admiralty paint. Thinned it down with some extra water so the details wouldn't get lost.

 

 

 

 

 

So this is the state she is in now...I haven't glued the main deck yet, so that will be the next step. ( Big step!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 21, 2023 by mugje

[mugje]

Before I glue the lasered main deck I wanted to do this little job at the stern cabin. These two patterns give the cabin a nice clean finish. Because the patterns are both a bit oversized due to individual building differences, I traced both pieces on some card, cut them out and tested them where they need to belong. Just removing a little bit every time until I had the right shape. That final card shape onto the wooden pieces....and well you know the rest. Happy with the clean result and placed some purchased furniture from Vanguard Models to see how it looks. I like it a lot! I have also a desk, but I think...with also the cannons in the cabin I think it would be a bit overkill...but that comes later. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chuck]

Nicely done.