HMS Mercury 1/72, Shipyard models

[Bonden]

The ship in the water looks great!

It is brave to put the lanterns and small cannons on now. I am afraid of tearing them off while building on the ship, which is why they will be my turn later.

 

[Atamini]

Thanks @Bonden, the swivel guns and lanterns aren’t fixed in place as yet so can remove them easily if they get in the way. I just want to have all fittings built before the rigging. It’s almost there, though there’s a few other details I’ll be adding to the hull like the scuppers and small ports between the gun ports. I’ve got the framing plans from HMS Medea another Enterprise class, which shows the port location. Almost spot on with HMS Pandora. On the outside, you would be forgiven if you thought they were the same ship. Another detail is the mizzen spanker boom. Mercury may have had a boom on the mizzen after 1793, though most likely not prior. Considering Mercury was commissioned in 1778, the spanker boom wasn’t put into practice on British full rigged ships until 1793. Prior to this, she would have had the smaller cut loose footed mizzen without a boom.

 

[tedboat]

Superb work - most impressed; love the sea

Ted

 

[Atamini]

The progress on the build has slowed again as I’m making up the blocks for the rigging. Every block and deadeye, comes as three pieces for a deadeye and single block. More pieces with double blocks etc. While painful haha, they produce very scale accurate blocks. I’ll post some pics below of the process. Basically the inner sheave has glue placed on by a tooth pick and the outer part of the blocks are glued onto them. They do go together quite easily, especially the blocks. The deadeyes however, care must be taken to not clog up the slots. I used a small sewing needle to open up the holes after the blocks were glued.

 

[Atamini]

So it’s been a crazy couple of weeks but I haven’t been idle on the Mercury. Shipyard don’t include any ship’s boats in the laser cut kit. I do find this a little strange as their smaller paper kit does include them.

I sourced 1/72 scale Launch, pinnace, cutter and yawl wooden kits which come quite detailed out of company from China. These are the four boat set for a kit of the HMS Surprise, so perfect I thought for Mercury.

All parts a laser cut, though fragile so a new sharp blade was used. I won’t write much about the build up as the photos should make it quite clear.

 

[Pgtaylorart]

Very nice! I’d like to get a set of these boats also. What is the website or name of the company, please?

Thanks,
George

 

[Atamini]

Not a problem, bought them through fleabay

 

[Jimsky]

Here you go, George

1:96 Dinghy Model Ship Lifeboat Model Ship Kit - 4 PCS/packet | eBay

1:75 scale life boat 1:96 scale life boats. we also have different scale life boat see here 1:35 scale life boat. 1:48 scale life boat. 1:64 scale life boat. above this scale all is wooden kit. Scale : 1/96.

www.ebay.com

 

[Pgtaylorart]

Thanks, Atamini and Jimsky!
I’m also building a Shipyard kit. It’s the 1/96 HMS Enterprize which does come with the lifeboats, but I’m not very happy with them. These look much better and I’m glad to see they come in 1/96 scale as well.

 

[Atamini]

The cutter now built up. Same process as the launch, just smaller.

 

[Bonden]

Oh yes, the boats look like they were made for the Mercury. For a short time I wondered if I might also ...
But I show my ship in a scene before a battle, and it is well known that the boats were launched beforehand.

 

[Bonden]

Hi, maybe it's me, but I just can't find the link to the 4-boat kit in 1/72nd scale. The longer I look at your pictures, the more I think about equipping my ship with boats.

 

[Pgtaylorart]

Hi Bonden,
I found the 4 boats sold separately on eBay.

Full Rib Scale 1:75 Model Ship Long Boat Wooden Model Ship Kit HMS surprise 7503 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Full Rib Scale 1:75 Model Ship Long Boat Wooden Model Ship Kit HMS surprise 7503 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[Atamini]

Hi, maybe it's me, but I just can't find the link to the 4-boat kit in 1/72nd scale. The longer I look at your pictures, the more I think about equipping my ship with boats.

Hi mate, they’re actually 1/75 but actually measure up against AOTS HMS Pandora plans a mm short of 1/72, so more than suitable.

Look at this on eBay
Full Rib Scale 1:75 Model Ship Long Boat Wooden Model Ship Kit Free Post

 

[Atamini]

The Jolly boat now made up. This was and is the most difficult of the four boats, not only being the smallest but due to the rather blunt bow and curved stern, require quite a bit of plank bending.

 

[Bonden]

Great, thanks - just ordered the four pieces of jewellery. And in my head I move a new scenery for my diorama...

 

[Kurt Konrath]

The small boats are a ship building project in themselves.

 

[Atamini]

Great, thanks - just ordered the four pieces of jewellery. And in my head I move a new scenery for my diorama...

Brilliant! Haha, well you could still have a battle diorama of the ship preparing for battle. Launching the boats etc.

The small boats are a ship building project in themselves.

That they are, and a nice break from making all the blocks!

 

[Atamini]

Finally onto the last of the four boats, the pinnace. This is a yummy favourite aesthetically of all the boats. It’s also the only boat we had on the Endeavour replica that was built as the original.

 

[Highflight]

Looking forward to this build. I have been looking at the Mercury Russian Brig by Amati. Do you have any comparison between the Shipyard kit and the Amati kit?