Beef Wellington

Beautiful work there Ronald on the head 'foundations', also really highlight your fantastic clean planking. Great stuff.

The former (Anchor Clinch) is undoubtable the period correct solution, it is also referenced in James Lee's Masting and Rigging English Ships of War.

Nice start, looking forward to seeing another fun project come together BE

It has clearly been a very long time since last I was here and I hope that people remember me! Suffice to say it has been hard to make any progress beyond a snails pace. I last left off after focusing on the complex bow structures. To keep moving I needed to install the rough tree rail and the various supports as well as the Fretwork to the upper finishing. Dimensions were estimated from plans and contemporary model, and these all seem to vary to some degree. I had held off making the fretworks as I wasn't sure of the approach, and I wanted to get a curved profile. In the end, shaped billets were made to size and shaped, thin 1mm square boxwood strip (which I had hand sanded down to ~0.5mm) was then glued to the upper and lower edges. Once dry, the back was cut away and finished by hand. This is where the piper must be paid for any prior size and alignment estimates- as things stood I'm estimating that this is maybe 1mm shorter than it should be per the various plans and diagrams (4mm vs 5mm), but this was necessary to sit appropriately. Unfortunately, my progress was so slow making the rough tree rails that I neglected to take photos. These were cut from 2mm boxwood following the profile of the hull and were 3mm wide. The curved for'ad sections were made separately using a similar technique as taken for the decorative rails and then joining to the main rough tree rail. This follows the sheer of the deck, rather than the wale, so a template was made to ensure that these were positioned correctly. The timberheads were then added using 2x5mm pear strip., because these are continuations of the frames, they need to be perpendicular to the keel. There seems to be a huge amount of small variation on how these were constructed and captured on plans and models, and a variation even between the plans I have for HMS Jason showing these and the various Artois class models. The template was once again used to ensure the consistent height above the deck. Much of this process required fine adjustments using the Mk. 1 eyeball which seemed to take a considerable amount of time. In the end, I drew inspiration from model 1794-3 illustrated on page 19 of the AOTS Diana book. This has 2 curious semi-bulkheads installed in the timberheads, as well as being solidly built up at the stern. I have no idea what these are as I haven't seen them anywhere else. The mizen and main backstay stools have also been glued into position. Finishing up with some overall shots of where things stand (The quarter gallery lights are not attached, but were placed to get a sense for proportion when finalizing the fretwork)

Will follow you closely on this build, the lines of this ship are quite pleasing. I have seen others struggle with some aspect of this kit, I hope those kit failings have been corrected and this is a pleasant build for you.

Hi David, I hope I didn't add confusion, these are the things I find endlessly fascinating. Its always hard to explain shapes on 3D curved surfaces but I think the post below the master Chuck on his Speedwell model illustrates well, it shows a planking template to apply to the hull. The rise of the wale flattens off slightly and is probably most visible when viewed from the front, and the same being true for the line of the top timbers as they approach the centre.

Hi David - the placement of the wale is indeed challenging. A fact that is maybe completely obvious to many but only hit me after a lot of looking at plans and models is that there are essentially two curves/sheers that are followed. The deck/gunports, and the upper hull/wale. The second is most important to get correct as the top of the hull, lines of planking, molding and the wales should all essentially be parallel. Once seen, this is something that can't be unseen! If you are happy with the line of the hull at the bow, then I would suggest using that as a basis for aligning the wale (basically measuring down equal distances from the top of the hull). When viewed from the side, the wale should have a gentle flattened 'S' shape. The same alignment is true at the stern, but if you are building with the raised bulwarks, then this is much easier to accommodate - the top of the raised bulwarks follows the sheer of the deck, the moldings follow the sheer of the wale. Good luck!

Congratulations Stergios, she's looking fantastic.

Best wishes Rob, I'm sorry my hiatus delayed responding to yours!

That is just beautiful planking!

Awesome progress! Question on the galleries, do you think you will be using the resin/plastic galleries in the final version? It feels a little our of keeping with the other wonderful wood of the model.

Your planking looks spot on, very nicely done. I'm pleased to see that you appear to have filled in the stern a little to allow the planking to sit nicely against the sternpost, think you will be much happier with that result. The shaping of the plank ends in this area can be challenging further up the hull, definitely not something to rush. Looking at what you have done so far, sure you will encounter no major problems. You have a wonderful model coming together here.

Looks like the perfect balance to my eye...1 too few, 3 too many 🙂 The different paint tones really catch the eye and enhance the whole, very much to my taste as well. Wonderful model you have there, very well done indeed!

This is definitely going to give the Caldercraft Snake/Cruiser model line a run for its money! Maybe this will show whether CC have completely lost interest in new static kit development when some of their established legacy models comes under direct competition.

Love the picture of the stern Christian, the more muted monochromatic approach is definitely to my tastes as well...the Norman knights don't look quite so...Norman! Good luck moving forward, but you already seem to have the major challenging elements completed successfully.