HMS Sphinx 1775 by cdrusn89 - Vanguard Models - 1/64

[cdrusn89]

Much as would have liked the suction vises to adequately hold the boats such was not the case. Try as I might they would not stay secure or even a reasonable approximation of secure while I added the ribs.

 

So I resorted to more "primitive" methods.

 

I cut a slot in a scrap piece of wood, fashioned some supports from square stock scraps and there is the yawl base.

Y = yawl and the arrow points forward since the supports are "tailored" to some extent.

 

Since the hulls do not yet have there finish coat of paint I use rubber cement to attach the hull to the base.

 

And here is the yawl after interior painting and floorboard installation.

Edited February 19 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

The yawl with the seats and such installed. And yes I know that gloss finishes were not used in this time period but I could not resist some shiny surfaces - it is a boat after all.

 

Next is the gunwales on each side and the stern then then hull paint and wales.

 

The Launch and Pinnance are coming along nicely.

[cdrusn89]

A word about knees.

 

I had the devils own time getting them on the yawl. I painted them black (using a blunt Sharpie, easier and faster than paint), tried to get them in place with PVA but eventually settled for thin CA. Use a half needle applicator and hold the knee in place with the tweezers in one hand and the CA applicator in the other.

 

They are very small and it is not obvious from the instructions which way (long side on seat or on bulkhead) they should go. I finally figured out it must be long side on the seat, otherwise they would stick up even more than they do, at least on mine. I have to assume that my seats are higher (but I carefully measured the directed 3mm down from the gunwale) or there is something else working here of which I am not aware.

 

It would be really nice if there was a drawing of each of the boats somewhere. Where exactly the seats are supposed to go is "left to the student" with only the pictures in the instructions to go by. A drawing would also help locating the ribs. Spacing them 5-6mm apart per the instructions leaves a lot of room to both get out of sync between the two sides but also mess up the seat spacing. On the yawl I had to put seats where there were ribs which is not how it is supposed to work as best I can tell from the pictures.

 

On the yawl I finally fixed the forward and rearward most seats from the pictures (but could easily be off a mm or two) measured the remaining distance and spaced the two middle seats so they are equally spaced.

 

With six and seven seats on the other two boats that may not work as easily - I am poor at math.

 

I just looked at the knees for the Launch and Pinnance and they are even smaller than on the yawl. And there are more of them; 14 on the Pinnance and 16 on the Launch.

 

I am considering gluing them on the seats before they are installed on the boat and not painting them black like in the instructions but leave them "natural," laser char and all - I can't imagine trying to get the char off something sooooo small).)

[cdrusn89]

I got the launch completed through the seat installation.

 

Maybe tomorrow I will try and get the knees installed - 18 by my count (two on each side of the two seats where masts will be fitted). Should be much fun.

 

I will paint the hull before installing the wales and the bulkhead supports at the oar locations - drawing would sure help to figure out where those are more exactly than just using the photos in the instructions!!

 

Note - I broke (the gods of model ship building owe me another $1) the aft seat structure twice. I had to add a support under the second break to keep the two sides more or less level. My plan is to put all the oars in the center of the boat to hide the added support and hopefully where the two breaks are located.  I also broke both of the seats with the mast cutouts but made replacements for those from the excess material on the carrier sheets. They need several more coats of WoP so they "match" the others.

Edited February 21 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

Yawl is DONE!!!

 

Complete with anchor (and rode although you can't really see it, I know it is there), three sets of oars and two boat hooks.

 

I seriously doubt that the boats were stored with the rudders in place - too hard to keep them secure and they are a very critical component but since the supplied rudder include integral pintles and gudgeons I decided to put the rudder on. Now if I can get the tiller to point dead ahead...

[cdrusn89]

While working on the wales on the other two boats I wanted to make a recommendation for those who build these later.

 

On both the Pinnance and Yawl the wales are located on top of the second plank down from the sheer. On the Launch they are on the sheer and the oar "locks" are created by short sections of planking above the sheer plank(s).

 

So I recommend that on the Yawl and Pinnance that the wales be installed after painting the hull but before the seat installation and other interior "furnishing".

 

Here is the Pinnance ready for seat installation:

It will be much easier to get the clamps necessary to hold the wales down while the glue dries without the seats etc.getting in the way.

Don't ask me how I came to this realization.

On the Yawl I had to use clothes pins that were sanded down narrow enough to fit between the seats and they were not really strong enough to pull the wales into the hull curvature at the bow. I eventually had to soak the wales pieces and bend them on my duty plank bender to get them in place.

 

So - add the wales on the Pinnance and Yawl BEFORE adding the seats etc.

 

 

Edited February 24 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

Launch almost complete.

 

Some touch-up on the inside and outside of the planking defining the oar lock locations and gluing the oars and boat hooks down and then on to the Pinnance.

Edited February 26 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

Launch is FINISHED!!!

 

I did not use the "extra" tiller. It was one less thing to do and I am. not sure what it would add.

 

Pinnance has the wales now so the seats and the rest is "coming soon".

 

I think the oars successfully "hide" the problems and extra support I added to the  after seat piece(s).

Edited February 26 by cdrusn89

[Ronald-V]

Nice job! Looks like a fun little project. Looking forward to tackle it myself  

[cdrusn89]

Thanks - I will be glad to get these behind me. Am considering doing the cannon next instead of the "real" ship. I really hate stopping the hull construction in the middle to open the armory. I may have some cannon that will fit already made from a previous error in not checking sizes accurately enough but will get the Pinnance finished then move on to the cannon or the hull.

[cdrusn89]

Pinnance is finished and has joined its cohorts in the Sterlite storage case where they will await the completion of the model.

[cdrusn89]

So I decided to see about the already constructed cannon that I have "in storage".

 

As I recall these were supposed to go on the Confederacy (I did not like the Model Shipways cannon for some reason) but were too tall to fit through the gun port. (and I never thought about sanding the wheels down a bit)

 

And as it turns out I have exactly twenty of these all ready to go, including the breeching tackle.

 

I went ahead and built one of the cannon that come with the Sphinx kit (which I might add are somewhat different from what Vanguard sells on their site - at least what they were selling last year).

 

Here they are side by side:

 

Overall the ones I have (which are Syren Ship Model Company products by the way) are about 1/8" longer. The cannon is narrower although the Syren guns are "advertised" as being 12 pounders while Sphinx carried nine pounders.

 

Since the issue on Confederacy was height I used my handy dandy height gauge and here is what I found:

The Syren cannon are about 1.6mm (aka .065") taller.

 

The real question that I will not be able to answer for some time: is this too tall??

 

End result I wait until I have a gun deck to measure before I build any more cannon.

 

On to the hull.   😃

 

 

[cdrusn89]

Sp it is time to build the hull!

 

So I got the bow and stern "assemblies" together without too much trouble although I was scared to death I would glue the formers to the keel that I only put glue on the tabs until I got Bulkhead 12/13 off the keel. Then I painted every junction with diluted PVA.

 

So here is what they look like. I have sanded one side of the stern.

Pay no attention to that white glue on the cutting mat - I will clean that up before I quit for the day.

 

I did not use any rotary tools to do what you see on the stern.

 

I did use a Soft-Sander with their 220 grit paper (which is more aggressive than any 220 paper I have seen so far).

 

The shape of the sanding block (and it is flexible (sort of) allowed me to easily find a contour that matched what I (think) I needed to do although with only a picture to go by I might be way off.

 

I think that side needs a bit more work - what you see took about 15 minutes.

 

 

The Soft Sanders (this is not a commercial - I am pretty sure i saw these on MSW somewhere) come in a variety of contours and since we are not sanding autos or boats you will get half a dozen sanding pads out of one "stick".

 

Hopefully I will have both bow and stern done tonight.

 

Edited February 29 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

Both bow and stern templates have been faired.

 

Again I am not sure what the "test" would be here other trying a fairing strip but given the limited area in play I am not sure it would prove much. I pretty much just sanded until all (or almost all) of the laser char was gone as it looks from the picture in the instructions.

 

Edited February 29 by cdrusn89

[Theodosius]

Good job on the boats. I mean one can't stress enough how smal these are 🙂.

Edited February 29 by Theodosius

[cdrusn89]

Thanks Theodoius - yes they are quite small but can be detailed to a surprising (to me) degree. I am. not looking forward to having to get the laser char off the oars again. I think next time i would just paint them completely.

 

So with the bow and stern assemblies done (for now) it is time to get the bulkheads out of the carrier sheets and onto the hull.

 

No great difficulties encountered. I would note that unlike many other kits I am familiar with the laser work here is really good. Typically there are only two tabs holding these huge and complex bulkhead pieces onto the carrier sheet. Makes getting them out really easy. I use a #17 Xacto knife and a small hammer - a few taps on the tab on each side and the bulkhead literally falls out.

 

I started adding the bulkheads in the order shown in the instruction. I had not gotten very far (Bulkhead 1-1 and 2) before I noticed a problem.

 

Clearly bulkhead 1-1 is not perpendicular to the keel.

But I pressed on adding the remaining bulkheads per the instructions. The orlop deck (I thought the history said these 20 gunners did not have an orlop deck??) went in without incident - it fit very nicely.

 

On to the lower deck - it took some finesse but it too went in and seated home. And low and behold the problem at Bulkhead 1-1 was resolved.

Looks pretty perpendicular now. And i did not pay any particular attention to this are getting the lower deck on - I was more concerned with the bulkhead ears further aft.

 

So here are the hull assemblies as they stand now:

I used the machinist blocks and clamps to keep the keel steady while getting the lower deck in place.

 

And now for the PVA painting festival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 29 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

So the glue painting party is over and the glue dried for most of 24 hours.

 

Now to "get on with the show".

 

Much as I appreciate the provided building cradle I am kinda :married: to my Amati keel holder for this task.

 

Unfortunately, at least at this point this I am reluctant to just grab a hold of the MDF center keel and "hope for the best". I have zero experience with keels of this material so I added "tabs" of cedar to two of the center sections to give the holder something to grip that is not really part of the center keel. Although the two screws have not done the structural integrity of the center keel any favors I am hoping that they can spread the load across a larger area an thus induce less strain to the center keel.

On to the next step (#41).

 

 

 

[cdrusn89]

Upper and lower gunport frames in place and another glue painting party was held to round out the night.

 

Several of the frames took a little persuading to lock in place and I was taking no chances of them pulling out while the glue dried. If I had enough clamps of the correct size I would have clamped ever bulkhead upper and lower but I did not have enough of the long plastic ones so I made sure they were placed anywhere I thought might be a problem.

 

Sure beats cutting 100 or so pieces of stick wood and trying to get the angles and length correct so as not to distort the frames and still get the gun ports the right size/shape.

Edited March 2 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

One coat of WoP on the deck and the gratings/coamings and now the coaming are glued down.

 

Special care must be taken to both get the correct coaming/grating in the correct place (I initially confused the two with openings for ladders) and to get the "notches" clear of the holes (squares/rectangles) in the deck as if they are obstructed it will not be obvious until it is likely too late to be able to correct on the lower deck.

[cdrusn89]

Gun deck support beams in place to dry.

 

In some cases it took a few "taps" with a small hammer to make sure the beams were seated in the holes in the deck. I did take a 220 sanding stick very gently to the posts where they enter the deck as some were close to an "interference fit". Per the instructions on the one piece beams I used a clamp at each end to ensure the beam and the bulkhead were aligned.

 

On the two piece ones in addition to a clamp at the top where the beam and bulkhead meet I stretched a rubber band around the deck beam support and bulkhead to keep it pressed into the bulkhead slot.

Edited March 2 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

I revised my ship holding method for now as this foam seems to provide a lower work position to put the gunport frames on.

I got the deck patterns on but not without having to enlarge the notches on both sides several times to get the two halves to fit together without overlap.

 

I used the fit, pin and paint the underside method then turned it back upright and put some machinist blocks on the deck to hold things down while the glue set. I did manage to break one of the interconnections and almost the other but I am not sure this is really a problem.

 

[scrubbyj427]

Looking good Gary. 

[cdrusn89]

Thanks Scrubby - it is taking shape much faster than Winnie did. But then I did not spend as much time cleaning off laser char.

 

For the gun port frames (sides actually) I went back to the Amati holder but am keeping the foam one handy as it puts the hull in a better position (for me) to work on the gun deck.

 

Gun port sides went is without much drama although I did manage to break the top part off two of them. I had a paint and glue party once all the frames were in place.

Next are the filler pieces fore and aft.

 

Don't ask me how I know but it is possible to get confused when switching from side to side and fore to aft to make two sets of fillers for the starboard side forward. Luckily there is plenty of "meat" on the carrier sheet so I was able to fabricate a new set to work from.

 

Here are the starboard side fillers - port look pretty much (lets hope) the same.

Bow could use some more work I think but this will all have to be faired again before planking so maybe close is good enough.

 

So on to fairing the inside of the bulwarks.  The first thing i noticed is that some (about half a dozen on each side) of the gun port frames stick out past the edge of the bulwark.

These pieces are presumably glued to the top of the horizontal framing but it does not take much imagination to foresee one or more being tron off during the fair process.

 

So I went around and sanded these back (carefully) before I started on the general bulwark "clean-up".

 

 

 

 

 

[cdrusn89]

No good deed goes unpunished.

 

Despite of my precautions mentioned above I still managed to "remove" 8 of the gun port frames sides pieces above the upper longitudinal frame.

 

And rather then try and figure out which little piece came from where I cut a new piece from the carrier sheet scrap with the correct cross section and made new ones. Luckily the ones I broke off were all the same height so I only had to make one source piece. I also cleaned up the top of the longitudinal frame and glued them down with undiluted PVA.

 

I can say that sanding down the fiberboard is considerably more difficult than the other materials used for bulwark frames and longitudinals. I broke my own rule about nothing more aggressive than 220 grit sandpaper and used 120 grit to get most of the laser char off the inter bulwarks. I can also say that I managed NOT to break off the pieces at bulkhead 3 that sticks out over the deck.

 

So here we are with the bulwarks faired ready to start installation of the bulwark "planking".

Edited March 4 by cdrusn89

[cdrusn89]

So I got the forward bulwark bulkheads "planked" and the QD Beam Spacing Pattern on the hull, held a glue painting party and am ready to call it quits for the night.

 

Stern bulwark bulkheads tomorrow.

 

Did I mention you cannot have too many clamps.

Edited March 3 by cdrusn89

[Ronald-V]

You are doing well, these steps are pretty fast with all the lasercut pieces.

[cdrusn89]

Thanks Mugje - yes, I am not sure I want to go back to cutting upper and lower sills and sides for every gun port - especially not on something with more than 22 ports.

 

The stern bulwark "planking" needed more "fashioning" since I presume it needs to fit under the QD Beam Spacing Patterns. That was not a problem for the first two gun ports back but from there aft the bulwark "planks" were progressively over the QD Beam Spacing Pattern. It took several tries with 220 grit paper to get the bulwark trimmed down enough to fit as well as being slightly too long as mentioned in the instructions.

 

Everything finally fit into place and another glue painting party ensued.

 

 

[cdrusn89]

Since  am now at the stage of adding the gun deck and great cabin floor I need to decide whether to use the provided checkerboard or make my own.

 

On Winchelsea I made the floor using Boxwood and Swiss Pear and it came out pretty well (IMHO) but that was at 1/4" = 1'.

 

Here the strips would have to be narrower; about 1/4" using the supplied floor as a template. with that many strips (about 22 or so) it is not hard (for me) to imagine a glue joint failing and some part or parts coming apart. You can see where that happened on the left side above. As it turned out I made this piece big enough that was not a problem but the more strips the more likelihood of problems. The other issue is thickness. On Winchelsea the floor was 3/64" (.047); where here it s is about half that (.0244). In order to get sufficient area for the glue to hold the floor has to be built thicker; typically 1/16" or so and then use a thickness sander to get the desired thickness. That is another time when the glue joints can fail, even if using fine paper in the thickness sander.

 

I think I will stick with the kit flooring but I will wait until the bulwarks are painted to install it - no sense risking getting red paint on the floor and having no choice but to fabricate my own.

 

 

Edited March 4 by cdrusn89

[Gregory]

Do you have small table saw? 

You could glue square stock together then slice of strips as thin as your saw will allow..

[cdrusn89]

Greg,

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

Yes, I actually have two Byrnes (may he rest in peace) table saws and your proposal would work fine up to the limits of the saw which would be a strip about 3/4" "tall" (aka wide). Then I could glue the deck up in strips to whatever width was required. Not sure to what "thinness" the saw will cut but I doubt .025" so some thickness sanding would still be necessary. I would have to be very careful gluing up the square stock as any void in the glue coverage would likely lead to so parts coming off the "sheet. Same problem with gluing up strips but probably easier to manage with square stock.