HMS Inflexible

1:300 Scale - HMS Inflexible, Lake Champlain - 1776

I enjoyed building the Enterprise so much that I decided to take another ship in the same scale.  War Artisan's Workshop sells a whole fleet of ships that took part in the Battle of Valcour Island.  Each printable ship kit is currently available for $5.00.  I took the plunge and decided to tackle the largest of the British vessels that took part in the battle, the HMS Inflexible.

Inflexible with a U.S. Quarter for scale.

The Inflexible was a 180 ton, 80' long three-masted ship armed with eighteen 12 pound guns.  What amazes me is that she was not built on Lake Champlain, where she fought.  Instead, she was built in Quebec City, then moved in pieces to St. Johns, where she was reassembled and launched.

The Continental Sloop-of-War Enterprise tries to outrun the British.

The photo above gives some idea what the Continental Navy on Lake Champlain faced during the fight for control of Lake Champlain n 1776.  The Enterprise was one of the American's larger ships (a few were a couple of feet longer).

Completed Hull next to the finished Enterprise.

Constructing the hull of the ship was pretty straight forward.  The pieces were printed, folded, glued, and in my case, painted due to low ink on my printer.  I decided to use toothpick bits for cannon this time around, which looked a little large, but from a distance give the impression of a well-armed vessel.

Building one of the masts.

Building the masts and sails was also fairly simple.  The instructions that come with the kit list the sizes of the pieces you need, and each it cut from readily available material.  In this case, I used floral wire, toothpicks, and a bamboo skewer.  Rigging is black thread that's been run through some PVA glue and allowed to dry.

Bow Spirit, Main Mast, and Mizzen Mast in place.

Rigging the Inflexible was the most difficult part of this build.  First, there's a lot of lines!  Next, my thread wasn't really cooperating.  Third, my glue wasn't drying fast enough to keep things in place.  Overall, it took me about a week to complete the rigging, and I'm still not happy with it.  It's loose in places, but really, from a distance, it doesn't look too bad.

So, another build complete.  I'm really enjoying these tiny ships.  I think I'm going to purchase another one soon.

HMS Inflexible, port side.