Greg.Ashwood

Looks perfect, Mark. Did you try dry fitting the decorations to make sure they are OK? 

Well,here is transom support version 2.0 - better angle on the rear edge,more room for the gun port,& lower piece re- cut for the metal bands. I am pretty happy with it now. Gotta love these re-do`s.As always,thanks for looking in & hitting the like button
 

 
Mark
 
 
 

Thanks,Frank. Yes,this is not your ordinary run of the mill kit. Many parts have to be formed & shaped with the materials provided so it is a bit of a challenge. 
 
Mark

Well,I decided to modify those stern pieces a little further. The upper piece should have a bit of a slant at the rear edge instead of perfectly vertical,so out with the belt sander & beveled the rear edge. Much better now I think. Thanks to keith w for the heads up on this. Now I have to modify the bottom piece to fit again,which means re-carving those grooves for the metal bands.
 

 
Mark

All I will say Pete is very well said.
 
Denis.

Now here is a philosophical comment which might just make things a little easier or maybe more difficult. It may be a little cavalier of me to say so but whilst the drawings from Euromodel are accurate and historically correct, I have been wondering of late whether I should or need to be absolutely precise to a fraction of a millimeter. When all the stern ornamentation is in place and the second planking is there, the positioning of the wale could well be a little subjective ! How come ? Well, we are looking at a three-dimensional model that is accurately portrayed in a two dimensional drawing. No question on that. Reality is that say, 45 mm. measured vertically off the plan could easily be 49 mm. when measured on the hull surface since the hull curves inwards. The purists will throw their hands up in the air but the most simple approach is to eye-ball the plans(along with measuring) and produce a 'best fit' for the wale positioning. My point is that in the past I have been critical of those who do not have the wale exactly butting up against a certain point on the stern metal castings. Is there room allowed in our thinking to tolerate small discrepancies ? After all this is a quasi-scratch build anyway. So look at the various photos in the Photogallery for the Royal William on the Euromodel website and compare what you see against what is in the drawings. Many small variations will be noticed.
 
In summary, the important thing with the wales is that they follow the line of second planking (as they would have done historically) and that the stern ornamentation inclination follow the lines of the wales. If the conjunction of the wales and metal pieces varies a little, maybe this is not a big issue ???
 
It depends on what you want to achieve but what I am saying is maybe we should be prepared to exercise a degree of your own interpretation. I have yet to see two identical Royal William ships.
 
So much for a little bit of raving on my part.
 
Pete

First,Thanks for all the nice comments. 
 
Pete - That sounds like it may be a good idea to pre-bend at least the lower wales. 2 by 7mm walnut is a real pain to bend.
 
Keith - I was considering installing the wales before the transom,but did not want to try & chisel parts of it out while at the same time trying to fit the galleries. I also thought about just installing the lower wales first,but I didn`t know exactly where to end them under the transom. They appear to end in a curve to match the bottom decoration,which can`t be put on until the transom supports are i place. I am considering making the lower wales out of basswood - much easier to bend. Since they will be painted black it doesn`t really matter what kind of wood they are. The only trouble with using basswood for the wales is I would have to be careful not to ding them up - basswood is kind of soft. I may try to bend those walnut strips first to see how they come out. I remember when I built the Wappen Von Hamburg the lower wale was 3 by 8mm walnut - talk about hard to bend.
 
Mark

Keith - my notes are already amended and also include a few of Mark's photos (with permission). By soaking those wales in dilute ammonia (cloudy ammonia in supermarkets) for a minimum of seven days, they become so pliable that clamping them down onto the first planking until dry works a treat. Of course you guys would know about the use of ammonia but maybe some others who read this may find that useful to know. The only problem of adding those reformed wale strips on after the second planking is that historically they would then project out from the hull surface a little too much - but lets not get too pedantic.
Pete

Beautiful work, Mark. I have to say that your accuracy and neatness is on a level beyond mine. That plank solution to positioning the transom support is brilliant, I wish I thought of that. I worked off pencil marks drawn on the hull - nowhere as accurate or repeatable as what you did. Also love the precision of your cut piece. Pete should strongly consider inserting this suggestion into his I-I. 
 
Pete, your I-I states that in a real ship, the wales go on first and then the hull planking is fit around the wales. I saw that before I applied my second planking, and considered adding the wales first. In hindsight, it was something I should have done. Those walnut wales are extremely difficult to bend, I could not get them to sit correctly. They protruded at such an angle that at a few points, I sanded through the entire thickness of the plank. All hidden with filler and black paint now. 

Mark - all seems to be going well so far. I like the addition of the small strips to ensure correct transom supporting block angle.  As I sit here in the background, I just wish I had the availability of all these RW posts when I did mine. These postings in fact are encouraging me to go back and do some savage re-writing of my original notes !!! One thing I am reconsidering is to actually bend the wales into the 'final' shape over the first planking in what I consider would be their approximate position. After drying, they would be removed. That way the major forming is done. When the second planking and stern ornamentation is completed, the wales can be added - I think - without too much extra trouble.
 
Just a thought and would appreciate a few comments without hi-jacking your post.
 
Pete

Real nice job Mark

Euromodel were more than happy to replace those incorrect pieces but Mark - to his credit - substituted his own. He is to be commended for taking this approach; many others would not ! I think the essence of problem solving is good communication and Mark and I did that through a series of PM's.
 
Pete

Update - started working on the transom & ran into a problem. After a lot of measuring & head scratching it seems the 2 main pieces that make up the transom support were made wrong. After contacting piratepete007 - the writer of the interpretive manuals - he contacted Euromodel & found out that a few years back the people doing the laser cutting cut a batch of these timbers the wrong thickness. I was going to contact them for some replacement parts but decided to just make new ones - not too difficult. In the first picture you can see the 2 parts sitting on top of each other,the thicker one on the bottom as it shows in the plans & Pete`s info. The problem is the thinner top piece should be wider than the bottom one. The second picture is of the new pieces I made. Finally,in the last picture I used one of the bulkhead knock-outs as a template to form the correct deck camber on them. Euromodel knew about the bad parts,but someone unknowingly put them into some kits. I guess I am a perfect example of Murphy`s law.
 

 

 

 
Mark

Thanks Greg
 
Mark

Thanks Ian - those gun ports were a bit fiddly to do,but I am happy with them.
 
Mark

Hi Mark,
 
That looks fabulous. I should mention that I have gun port envy. Yours are so precise looking. Mine... well they need a lot of work.
 
Best, Ian

You could do it that way, but all the carvings on my Sovereign are carved individually from boxwood. As boxwood changes colour with exposure to light, getting darker over time, the look is constantly changing. Therefore, all carvings must be in boxwood for consistency. Maybe another time on another model. 
Regards,
Bill

Looks like an excellent candidate for resin casting.

This photo shows the size of the gunport surround carving in its rough format. It remains to clean up and finish the carving prior to mounting on the bulkhead.
 

 
More to follow.............

Thanks Mark. There are four gunports between the carvings that get surrounds although, in the Van de Velde sketch there is an indication of two more outer ports that do not have cannons. They do not appear on the Payne engraving. Not sure yet what I will do about them yet.
 
Regards,
Bill

Howdy Nils
Your talent in model making is very very good. Hope that you will getter better soon.
All the best
Greg

Howdy Mark
New to this site and I'm very impressed with your work.
All the best
Greg

Martin,
thank you for your words and for compliments on the winches....
 
Nils

Hi Nils -- It's been a while since I've checked in.  The work on the winches is, of course, spectacular.  I hope your neck starts feeling better soon.  Have you worked with a physical therapist?  After a few horse accidents, I found that the therapists who taught me how to move and how to hold my head and shoulders did more than doctors and pills to alleviate the pain in the long term.
 
Best wishes,
 
Martin

Vielen Dank Dirk,
 
its getting a bit better with every week....
 
Nils