HMS Sphinx 1775 by brunnels - Vanguard Models - 1:64 scale

[brunnels]

I'm very excited to start this model, I have been wanting to try out one of Vanguard Models offerings and the Sphinx is probably the top kit I have been drooling over for a bit.   Just opening the box I can see a completely different level of quality from the packaging, instructions and the materials.

 

I plan on making the ship fully rigged, adding some personal touches and modifications to make it my own, but this is only my second kit so I will try to keep within my limits.  I have taken many inspirations from all of the phenomenal Sphinx logs that have come before me, and I am excited to join the Sphinx club.

 

I took a couple of days off before this Memorial day weekend, so I was able to get a nice start on this Sphinx.  I think we all have seen how the bones of this model goes together so I won't post a ton of those photo's.  Chris's engineering is quite clever on how the model is assembled,  I keep telling myself "thats clever" while putting it together.  I think the worst part about building a Vanguard kit is that I'm not sure I will be able to go back to older style kits.\

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gun ports installed

 

Inner framing sanded 

 

Forward Inner bulwarks being glued in.  I think its time to invest in more small clamps as this was almost all I had. 

 

Rear inner bulwarks being glued

 

Inner bulwarks in, you can see here one of the modifications I am planning with opening up the quarter galley doors and opening up the quarter galleys following Blue Ensigns method in the future. 

 

Painted the bulwarks and great cabin walls.  For the great cabin I was going for very light blue like HMS Victory has.  I mixed a couple drops of Model Shipways blue trim in some white paint until I got similar to the photos of Victory's great cabin color.  I'm not certain if I like it or not, It just doesn't feel like it fits next to the red and the color dried a little bluer than I was expecting and reminds me of a color you would see in a children's nursery.  Another option I was considering was a shade of white as that seems like another common color for the great cabin.

 

What I was going for, maybe it will look better when I put some walls in between the red and blue and add some furnishings.

 

 

[PvG Aussie]

Brunnels, you have made a great start on this build. Enjoy every moment as it is a good looking ship.

Cheers,

Edited May 28 by PvG Aussie

[mugje]

Great start! Recognize the part of "oh that's clever", had that many times myself. This kit is well designed.

 

Enjoy your build!

[James H]

Beautiful start. This was my cabin on Indefatigable.

 

This stuff is supplied with Indy, but is also available separately on the VM site.

 

[Kevin]

great start, i love VM kits, 

[DonSangria]

Apperantly you embark on the same journey as me, from the Beagle (first Kit) to the Sphinx. I have the first planking almost finished. I guess you build faster than me, so I will follow along. Nice start and enjoy!

[Lee Spender]

Nice I have had my eye on this kit for some time will get it sooner or later and you have made a great start it looks great.

I think the cabin colour is fine it will tie in nicely when everything gets built around it.

[brunnels]

4 hours ago, James H said:

This was my cabin on Indefatigable.

I like your blue much more, maybe I just need to go a bit darker in color.

[brunnels]

Inspired by @James H I decided to darken the blue in the great cabin a bit.  I like this shade quite a bit more.

 

I also decided to plank the portion of the bow that isn't covered by the kits bulwarks, I used some spare 0.5x5mm basswood I had.  I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the front mdf portion where the bowsprit comes through the hull, I know most won't see these details, but I'm the kind of person who enjoys looking in every nook and cranny of a model.  

 

 

[brunnels]

Thinking about adding black and white checker flooring instead of the laser cut pattern the kit comes with.  Does anyone have a link to a good high resolution printout of a black and white checker flooring pattern?  All the images I have been able to find online print out very poorly.  I'm assuming printing the pattern is how most do this task?

[Thukydides]

You could just make one. It shouldn't be too hard to do something like that in GIMP. And you could make it as high resolution as you liked.

 

Alternatively you could easily paint it by hand.

[brunnels]

30 minutes ago, Thukydides said:

You could just make one. It shouldn't be too hard to do something like that in GIMP. And you could make it as high resolution as you liked.

 

Alternatively you could easily paint it by hand.

I thought about making one, but my graphic design skills pretty much start and end at Microsoft Paint, I'm more of a spreadsheets guy lol.  I may give GIMP a try, thanks for the suggestion. 

 

I thought about painting it by hand, but there would probably be more rectangles and other odd shapes than squares if I tried that. 

[James H]

If someone here has the knowhow, maybe they can make a vectored one in PDF form, that can then be scaled and printed to whatever size. 

[brunnels]

29 minutes ago, James H said:

If someone here has the knowhow, maybe they can make a vectored one in PDF form, that can then be scaled and printed to whatever size. 

I think the GIMP software that @Thukydides mentioned might be the ticket.  I spent about 15 minutes in GIMP and already have a solid checker pattern I like, I just need to play around with the sizing, and figure out a suitable shade of white.  I will share my image file once done in case anyone else want's to use it.

[AlanDavison]

There is a full size pattern on one of the plans showing the Checker pattern in black and white. I just cut it out, trimmed it a bit and stuck it over the engraved patten! Ever so easy

[mugje]

9 hours ago, brunnels said:

I thought about making one, but my graphic design skills pretty much start and end at Microsoft Paint, I'm more of a spreadsheets guy lol.  I may give GIMP a try, thanks for the suggestion. 

 

I thought about painting it by hand, but there would probably be more rectangles and other odd shapes than squares if I tried that. 

If I would do it by hand...it would be pretty easy with a good set of masking tape? 

[Blue Ensign]

As Alan has said above there is a  design on the plans.

Using a good quality paper, take a few photo copies  in case you mess one up, trim to fit, spray with Artist fixative, job done.

 

B.E.

[brunnels]

Here is the end result of my checker pattern I made in GIMP.  I made the squares the same size as the laser cut pattern which is right about 3mm per square if I remember correctly.  I printed them on some 200g Brochure paper we had at the office.  I tried to make the white a little "off white", but it doesn't really show that well in the photos.  I am happy with this result and will glue it in place at a later time. 

 

The next step in the instructions was to glue the deck sheets down.  

 

Once the glue set on the deck, I started on the lower trim pieces for the bulwarks.  Once again I ran short of small clamps, but should have more coming in the mail today or tomorrow.  Can never have too many clamps!!  

 

 

 

[Thukydides]

It looks great, well done.

[brunnels]

Well, something about the blue just wasn't sitting well with me, before I started this kit I had in mind to make it similar in color to Victory's cabin.  But I think i just couldn't find the right shade, and the one I had on there at times I liked it, and then the next day I wouldn't be a fan, plus I wanted to paint the cabin window pillars as I didn't like that the MDF was visible, and I thought the pillars also being blue was just too much blue.  So I went with my backup choice Vallejo Ivory White, and I'm very glad I switched as it looks much better to me.

 

I also painted the cabin rear bulwark in white, and hit the cabin seat/counter with some amber shellac.  I think the amber shellacked pear wood goes pretty good with the original floor and now I'm debating on which floor to use.  

 

Black and white checker option

 

Also printed a rug to tie the room together. 

[mugje]

I must say...that white does look really good. Maybe even for my own build. Not sure what the correct colors would be in that time, but this looks really nice.

[James H]

I still like the chequers you printed out, against that ivory white wall area.

[brunnels]

I spent the better part of Saturday sanding down and fairing the hull.  Once the sanding was complete I soaked the plywood patterns for the recommended 45 minutes, and then clamped on the ship to dry out until the next day.

 

The next day I spent a while dry fitting to find the best alignment, so much alignment of future parts depends on pieces like these being properly aligned.  I then applied diluted glue and then started to clamp and nail the pieces in place.  The Vanguard nails are smaller than the nails in my Beagle kit, the Model Expo nail pusher I have is just too large for the Vanguard nails and would bend a significant amount of the nails, a smaller diameter nail pusher is going to go on my research/shopping list.

I didn't cut the quarter galley doors open on the plywood piece while gluing, this was intentional as I figured the piece might not retain the needed shape at the rear and wouldn't be glued down as strongly if I cut it first.  So once the glue had dried long enough, I opened up a slit in the doors with knife until I had a slot big enough for a file, I then filed the doors open to match the interior.  I then added small strips of leftover .5mm basswood to cover the gaps between the hull.  I intend to fix the floor area between the pieces as well when I tackle the quarter galleys in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

[brunnels]

Got a start on the first layer planking.  Only put down 3 planks per side, but it was a nice warm up.  I'm really loving the lines of this ship so far. 

[brunnels]

1st layer planking still ongoing, I'm averaging about 2-3 boards per side each night.  I will say this ship has been pretty easy to plank so far, this is only my second kit, but its much easier going than my Beagle kit was.  I have not soaked any wood yet, and have been using the plank bending tool that Vanguard sells on their website.  I have a few spots that need some light sanding from the bulkhead needing a little more fairing, and a few minor gaps that will need some filler, but every thing is laying flat against the bulkheads which I am happy with.

 

[James H]

Sphinx is a lovely kit to plank, and you're right about it being easy. 

 

Loving your work on this.

[brunnels]

Finished putting the boards down for the first layer.  A few gaps that need some filler, and a few bumps that will need to be smoothed out, but I'm happy with the result.  I decided to not plank some of the deadwood area on the first layer as it will need to be sanded down to 0mm per the instructions anyway, I have seen a few others go this route on various models and decided to try this method. 

 

While the PVA glue was drying for the final planks, I decided to start wet forming the pear laser cut patterns for the out hull.  While these won't be used for a few more steps, I wanted to give them ample time to dry in position over the next day.

 

Question for the experts.  I have been thumbing through the instructions and it doesn't look like these slots in the stern frames are utilized, is this assumption correct?  I just want to make sure I haven't missed anything as it looks like the stern fascia pieces will cover them.

 

[chris watton]

Thoese slots were just for my benefit when designing the kit. I usually remove them for the final production files, but decided to keep them, in case any modeller found them useful for any reason.

[DonSangria]

I think they helped me with the positioning of the parts as a reference point.

[mugje]

Regarding not planking the deadwood...I don't know if you are going to paint the hull white, then it really doesn't matter, but the "facings" that cover the stern post are 1mm thick and the supplied planking is 0.8mm thick. So if you want to level that out then it would be handy to cover a bit of the deadwood and sand it back to the required thickness that would level everything out in the end result. I used some filler afterwards because I also didn't plank the deadwood, but saw later the thickness differences in the wood. Hope my store makes a bit sense lol.

 

Great planking by the way! Nice base for the second layer.

Edited June 11 by mugje