Beef Wellington

Hi Peter - planking is looking good, you handled that tricky area at the stern under the wale very nicely! Always hard to tell in the photos, but did you leave a lip for those few ports that will receive a lid at the bow and stern?

Peter - really nice start, as Ron says nice to see another build. Been out of the shipyard for a bit but look forward to following along!

Thanks all for the speedy replies. Going to go down the 0.3mm route. After making the post I realized that it was the time already invested that was giving me pause. After hearing your opinions, the demons have been purged. Pat - The cap squares are the PE parts provided in the kit, they seem to work quite well. These were rather fiddly to introduce the curvature, and I wasn't able to quite get the hard angle it ideally should because of the thickness. but think they are passable at viewing distance.

Thanks everyone for the very kind words and likes....we've reached another "phone a friend" moment to assist with my indecision: Hauling Tackle rethink: A previously described, looking to assemble hauling tackles off the ship. Initially planned to use 0.3mm Syren line for the block stropping and 0.2mm for the tackle fall to get a little size contrast. While initially happy with the result, after making some of these up and staring at them I can't help but feel the 0.2mm is undersized. A tackle was made up with 0.3mm line to experiment, this is a little harder to work with the frapping but think a suitably repeatable processes is possible after experimentation. Once made, they are very easy to hook into place, and seem to sit nicely even without dilute PVA. So, which size do you think looks most appropriate? While still a little undecided, I'm now leaning toward the 0.3mm, and suspect 0.25mm (if available) would be spot on! After rigging the tackles and mounted in the serving machine, the frapping then becomes more manageable. The final turn is simply fed through the previous turn and is held in place by friction quite securely. The comparisons: The 0.2mm tackle fall below: The comparisons: The 0.3mm tackle fall below (the line has not been trimmed yet) And side by side (0.3mm on the left, 0.2mm on the right)

Really nice details on the stern galleries there Rob, and the head rails came out really well, much better than the kit supplied items with the poor wood. I wonder where the AOTS book got the dental detailing from, its a nice visual addition, but doesn't appear on the NMM plans...nice to be left to ship builders discretion!

Very nice looking coils Stergios.

I'm with you BE, my knee feels sore just looking at the height of the top step. I think I would lean toward adding another. I had a similar conundrum with a main hatch ladderway that is clearly shown on NMM plans but just looks plain odd in reality so went with the aesthetic solution. Love the detail of the drainage holes.

Nice looking rope! I think there has been much debate on the subject of colour depending on a factors such as age. Pristine new rope with a single application would be lighter, older rope that has got dirty, weathered and recoated would be darker. Think you can go with your artistic gut and how much of a contrast you would like, if you are using black paint on the hull then my sense would be to use the darker brown for standing rigging, the second darkest shade could look good with an all wood finish. All personal opinion.

Thanks everyone for continued interest, kind comments.and likes... Block Stropping: I've started stropping blocks for the hauling tackles. I'm opting for a double-single block combination, although I've read that doubles were only used on 32lb'ers. What I think this really means is that the tackle consisted of 2 double blocks. For a mid-range 18lb'er, a double-single seems appropriate and makes engineering sense. This seems yet another painfully slow repetitive process! With this progressing in the background, will be intersperse with other sundry items. Whilst not too difficult once the approach has been proven, clumsiness never quite seems to diminish. Overall, happy with the way these turned out which is really testament to the fantastic blocks that Syren produces. The picture below is the result of 3 solid evenings work....sufficient for the waist guns. Hooks were threaded with 0.3mm Syren line, and secured using 4 alternating overhand loops using tan Uni-thread (barely visible given its so close in color, but is what was also used for the breech rope seizing). For the 1/8" double block, the strop was twisted through 90 degrees while securing to ensure the appropriate alignment with the block. GS-Hypo was applied and left to dry before trimming off excess Uni-thread Line held in position around the block and then secured with a simple overhand loop Dilute PVA applied to the overhand loop and the stropping around the block. Was very liberal with this as it is not visible when dry, and anything that provides additional security seems silly to ignore. Trim excess stropping line once PVA has dried Waist Beams: First off, a correction needed to be made to the interior bulkhead to correct the position of the beam at the front of the main mast. The position of these had been taken literally from the plans very early in the build and it was clear that they are not in the appropriate position relative to the mainmast. Secondly, needed to finally decide how to deal with the supplied walnut beams. These have a pretty rough grain and require a lot of cleanup to get nice smooth curves after removing from the sheet. Following the scheme shown on the contemporary models (painted red with upper natural face of boxwood), thin strips of overwide boxwood strips were liberally glued to the top of the beam, gradually sanded back and painted when flush. The lamination is virtually undetectable, and it also helps ensure the walnut grain is minimised. Filler can be used in any stubborn imperfections. Although a bit of a cheat, I just couldn't face cutting my own from box, and quite honestly, I doubt I could get satisfactory results with tools at my disposal. Sub-Deck alterations: Increasing the thickness of the beams also has the benefit that the top of the beams are flush with the sub-deck. Hoping this means that the gang boards can now be planked with the sub-deck providing a solid base, but remaining invisible from normal viewing angles. Slots were cut into the sub-deck to accommodate the laminated top surface. Picture hopefully self explanatory. In position, the next required adjustment is revealed. The waist opening in the sub-deck has perfectly parallel sides. After studying various deck plans, it appears more appropriate for the gangboards to follow the line of hull (i.e. planks are constant width throughout their length). The approximate width of the gang boards were estimated from the AOTS plans and transferred to the deck. The hashed area indicates what will need to be remove. In actuality, more will be removed to set it back from the actual edge of the planking proper. Back to stropping more blocks....

It must be very satisfying putting all of this together, they fit so well! 🙂 Love the approach, wish I could emulate!

You have a lovely ship going together here Harlequin, as others have said the wood tones are very pleasing and you've done well to make some of the lesser quality fitting really blend in. Will be following from here on if I may...

That is very very nice Simon. Are you flipping the planks around to get the slight colour and grain difference between the cut plank pieces? The results really do speak for themselves.

OC, Carl, Rob, Thomas, Mike, Dave, Pat and all the likes...definitely helps keeping one moving forward! Finally, have all the guns in position an the breeching ropes in place. Amazingly time consuming, no more need be said, and glad its behind me. I did allow myself the small concession of using a ringbolt for the less visible guns, and went with a ringbolt and ring for those visible in the waist area. Despite the latter being more 'correct', the jury is still out on whether the results totally warrant it at this scale as the eyebolts only version seems acceptable to my eye (comparison photo below). As usual, dilute PVA was used to help keep the breech ropes in position and to try give them a sense of weight. Photos seem to call attention to all the little dings and dents that seem unavoidable and thankfully not really noticeable during normal viewing. A very simple jig was used to help keep lengths consistent. When using rings, I found that opening up a ringbolt using a small metal point and reclosing was easier, faster and predictable than opening up the ring itself.

Love the those deck shots at the bow, really shows off the accuracy of your planking and ties everything together so nicely. You didn't comment, but in addition to everything else, had to admire the excellent consistent clean profile you achieved on the timberheads. Did you use some sort of jig for these? Would be very interested to learn from your approach.

Looking great Rob. You nicely dodged the bullet of having gunport/deadeye conflicts by the look of it. Agree with you on the walnut, yours looks very similar to mine - at this point I think I almost have the kit parts. Can't quite tell from the photos but don't forget to place the cavil blocks (for the for brace and the main courses). I opted to go with a range cleat as I felt the kit parts looked too clunky. Hoping to have a minor update on my side soon...