Beef Wellington

Hi Rob - I put a link to the main yard plan below the picture, easy to miss... I think that gets to the art of seamanship and ship management....a longer topgallant mast would have allowed a larger sail area to be spread to harness the wind, but which (together with a little more weight) would provide more of a turning moment about the center of bouyancy. This could be offset with more weight lower in the ship to maintain stability but that is probably the art of the true seaman to continually seek the optimal balance of speed, handling and cruising endurance for the task at hand.

Vane, as soon as the new thread arrives I'll be back on it, have no fear. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the journey for me is more satisfying than the destination, and I find the huge difference in skills being worked to be mutually beneficial. I'm enjoying working with wood again on the QAB building a foundation and is a nice complimentary distraction to rigging - here I find the stock thread supplied to be the main source of frustration which is a shame....and while all that is going on the back of my brain is thinking about how to approach the planking and headworks on Jason, as well as approach the rope coils and anchor puddening on Snake etc. Darrell - thanks for the encouragement and kind words. I'll hopefully get some time soon to peruse your build log as well.

Great update as always Rob, wheel definitely looks better and know that will be on my list when I get there, I already have some of Chuck's Syren wheel kits to see how they turn out. Good call on the coaming height, believe these would have had a much lower profile on quarter and foc'sl and been of lighter build and less of an obstruction. The upper deck would be much more susceptible to water ingress, and a method of helping preventing water entering lower areas in heavy seas or rain. BTW, hope you don't mind me posting but probably more relevant to you in the near term, but while browsing in the NMM I found the following print of Diana's main yard. Lot more complexity to it than is commonly portrayed, and think the iron hoop and wooldings to be a feature I don't really recall seeing on other models. https://prints.rmg.co.uk/products/ship-plan-of-hms-diana-1794-main-yard-j5526?_pos=20&_sid=0141b51f9&_ss=r

Coming back to the original question on the use of the Ensign staff, I think current Royal Navy (and probably other Commonwealth, likely all other) provides the answer. By tradition, an ensign is flown from the ensign staff only while not underway either in harbor or at anchor together with the union jack at the for jack staff during daylight hours. Modern ensign staffs similarly pivot per Druxey's description to avoid any entanglement with the variety of modern operations that occur in the stern area. While underway, the ensign is flown from a different location wherever the primary mast structure is, which is both most visible and least encumbering. Taking this practice back to the days of sail, it would seem logical to infer from this the same practice (although I suspect the ensign staff would be removed entirely while underway) and with the sea going location being flown from the gaff peak and the ensign staff lowered or stowed.

Looking good Mugje. Are you also going to put some balsa filler between the last frames? That would probably help you visualize the hull curvature in this tricky area and help ensure the frames are fully faired. The wood from Arcowood looks great, looking forward to seeing it on the model.

Thanks all for the continued interest and kind words, unfortunately progress has been halted due to running out of certain line. I have an order into CMB for some more but with the current situation may take a while, work will resume as soon as the supply chain catches up...hopefully I can get some Queen Anne Barge time in in the interim.

Interesting subject Andy, definitely want to see how this plays out.

Beautiful result BE, I do love the colour tones of your builds and cleanness of your rigging...and very educational to boot . Looking forward to seeing your Queen Anne Barge take shape, more QAB can't be a bad thing!

Hi Gremreeper - Unfortunately I don't think there is a magic, secret solution to your problem. Wood strip, even as thin as 0.5mm just wont really bend in multiple directions readily, you don't mention whether you have tried soaking the planks or not, if not, then worth a try. Other than that, I think CaptPoison's suggestion to use a drop plank terminating in the area of the bulge is something worth pursuing. Another option would be to try and first heat bend a strip using a hairdryer to give a strip a slight curve across the width of the plank, and then try to fit on the curve of the hull, this may be sufficient to prevent breakage. And, if you haven't already, strongly recommend reading the planking tutorials as they are pretty comprehensive and provide great information on approaching this tricky step.

Alan, that bowsprit is a thing of beauty in of itself!

First off Peter, wonderful progress, you've clearly been busy and she's looking grand. On a couple of your questions above.... Blackening - this takes practice to figure out what works as it seems to be a bit of an art, and everyone seems to have their own preferred method. FYI - I used JAX Black, but I'm sure its similar to Casey. First off its important to have a clean surface, but not space shuttle clean - when I blackened the JB model cannons for 'Jason' I'm not sure I even did this and just took them out of the bags, but was careful not to get skin oil on them. Using thin latex gloves works a treat. The other common factor seems to be concentration of the solution. Using too concentrated a solution from my experience causes a very fast reaction with superficial and unstable surface blackening that flakes off. Much better to use a less concentrated (10 or even 20 parts water), slower reaction but structurally sound. I've seen many people dip the items in a 'bath' of reactant. I've found this problematic for 2 reasons, you end up using a lot of product, and as the reaction takes place the solution naturally weakens which in my experience just led to a more random outcome. The method that I found works best is simply to make up very small batches at a time, and brush on like paint using cheapo small nylon brushes (the kind sold in bulk in hobby stores for painting plastic models). The combination of the physical agitation on the surface, and ability to control where the solution goes provides a bit more control. The surface still needs to be buffed a little to remove any crud. Personal preference for me was to then spray with matt lacquer to dull any shine. Attaching blocks - There are a number of combinations to consider. To avoid knots, splices for a tack fall can be simulated by threading the line back through itself using a needle and then very fine thread used to simulate a seizing and also to help secure. I think I have some pictures in the my Jason log of cannon rigging that may be helpful. GS-Hypo glue is also very effective here, as well as good old diluted PVA to strengthen.

Just to expand on BEs comprehensive answer above, ships under Admiralty orders not under command of a squadron would use the red ensign. Seems most likely scenario here. Rounding this out with another interesting fact, in addition to certain Royal yacht clubs, Retired Royal Navy officers today also get to fly an undefaced blue ensign (upon application and approval) for a civil ship they are in charge of.

Welcome aboard Bob, and thanks for the interest from all: The upside of social distancing and resting in place is that there seem to be a few more hours in the evening with no commitments. The remaining keel sections have been installed which is a little bit of a relief as it should provide a little more strength, especially at the sternpost. The instructions indicate the thin center keel section is a little oversized and can be trimmed at the aft end. I'm a little concerned that for some reason I needed to shorten this to the extent that the slot for the frame is noticeably narrower than others, which will surely require some attention before frames can be attached (center of 3rd picture below). Open to suggestions on how this slot should be widened (centered, widen forward or aft). Its very difficult to get a sense of size from isolated photos, and it must be said that this barge at 1:24 is far from small. In fact, from stem to stern its nearly exactly the same length as His Majesties sloop of war Snake, but significantlymore susceptible to damage..

Great recovery, one important lesson is that most problems are fixable if you have the courage and ingenuity to try. The second is recognizing that problems will occur and not getting frustrated. Looking good!

Or you may want to stretch to the hardback edition, a new copy going for $989 on Amazon...