Beef Wellington

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...

Its nice to get a sense for the shape of the hull. I suspect the Cruizer instructions are also rather meagre given this is an older kit, there are plenty of other logs to help you over a couple of the questions that seem to come up with all the Snake/Cruizer builds, so feel free to ask questions.

Well, this could be interesting 🙂 Definitely want to follow along.

Great start, looking great and very clean so far, based on how you're approaching this kit I'm sure you'll have no difficulty with something a little more complex in the future.

Keel Assembly: Firstly I want to recognize Chuck for providing amazing customer service, I'll get into details below, but suffice to say I needed a replacement sheet sent, not because it was defective, but because I messed up. There was no charge for the replacement, great support! The keel pieces have had some preliminary shaping done to them and been assembled, this was pretty much a weekends work (for me). The plans were used to establish the various joint angles of the bow and stern post while the glue set as there is a little play in these. This is my first time working with cherry, and so far it seems a pleasure being easy to shape with sanding sticks. Small guide holes have also been drilled as indicated on the plans for future mounting. MEA CULPA - Despite clear warnings in the instructions, I was worried that the scarf joints as supplied were not sufficiently 'tight', primarily due to the edges not being perfectly 90deg because of the laser cutting through the wood sheet. To try and 'correct' this the various faces of the scarf joint were gently sanded until these seemed much tighter. Big mistake!!! The result was that some of the length of the joint was lost before I knew it, and as a result, the keel was too short. No option but to restart... With the replacement parts in hand, the scarf joints received some VERY minor tweaking to fit and plenty of glue to ensure that any joint gaps would be filled. Once dry and cleaned up, the results are very satisfactory, which is all down to the precision of the pre-cut parts. Pencil was used to darken the face of the joint. The keel requires to be tapered, narrowing by about 1/5 of the keel width at the bottom on each side, this profile also follows around the stem (but stops short of the top where the profile remains square). This has been roughly shaped at this point and will need to be fine tuned once the other structural keel pieces are glued in place to make the whole assembly stronger. The stern post also requires some subtle shaping. Narrowing slightly at top, dictated by transom, and also narrowing at the bottom to match the rest of the keel. Apologies, these aren't the best photos...

Looking good, those close up shots show off your really fine planking Vane, well done. You seem to have got some really sharp square corners which makes all the difference.

Good choice BE, there was a less standardization of the flag of St Andrew, with colour even varying significantly today. Going with your selection will give a more period feel right off the bat. Interested to see how you tackle this. The proportion of the size of the Jack is interesting and seems odd. Given this would only be flown in harbor/at anchor, it seems way oversized compared to the Harbour Ensign. I'm assuming both would have been flown from a staff (?)

Greetings all, Really is time I got back to finish Snake, time just flies, and incredible that my last update was July 2015! . Firstly, she's been staring at me from across the room and I can't avert my eyes any longer from embarrassment with her so neglected. Secondly, I feel I really need to finish her to be able to hold my head up on this forum by having actually completed something, and thirdly, there are some things I need to contemplate on 'Jason' and skills to hone before I move forward. I'll be honest, it was a little bit of a challenge getting going again, there are many things about her that I'm not too happy with, but recognize that this is still a first build using kit supplied parts so just need to be happy with it. One trick I've found to reduce 'fuzzies' is simply to use a brush to stroke warm water onto the line. I've tried bees wax, but from my experience it just seemed to result in dandruff! So what exactly has been done: Rigging on the foremast has completed for now to include the sheets and clew-line Main mast yards are installed and similarly completed (some lines that belay outside of the line of the main shroud are being left for now to give more room to access the mizzen mast area) Much rework has been done in the completion of the above tasks, which certainly slowed progress, including: Re-rigging many of the horses in situ, trying to give them a little more 'slack' Definitely a case of 2 steps forward and 1 step back picking this back up. The dexterity needed to navigate around the increasingly catch prone pointy bits eluded me, and for every yard rigged it seemed I had to re-strop a block that slipped loose as a result of unwanted contact with a spar or line. Thankfully nothing wooden has broken. Putting a positive spin on this, it definitely required honing of skills - the most aggravating and challenging fix was probably the violin block for the fore mainyard lift (photo below). This was re-stropped in situ and required keeping the existing lines suitably taught and navigating around the existing rigging- despite some rather salty language, this was honestly a bit of a boost after recognizing that if that was possible, pretty much anything can be fixed. (Seizing black thread around black line against the black woodwork proved too much for the eye...) Finally where things stand. I'm standing by the decision to rig starting with forward masts and moving aft, going from lower to upper. Suspect next up will be the spanker and gaff before installing the cross-jack.

That's looking really good Jesse, love the look of your model and flags are definitely in keeping.

You've managed to get a really nice sag in the ratlines there Bob, something to aspire to!

Looking good Vane! Your right, boxwood is so much better than walnut to work with, and very nice planking job. One question, it looks like you have the planking on the stern fascia going vertical. Its the second Speedy build where the builder has done that and curious if its in the instructions? Considering that the frames would be vertical, the planking would need to be horizontal like the counter. The square tuck correctly has the planking vertical. Probably very fixable now if you wanted to, not sure how visible it is though in person.

Michael, that looks great, looking forward to moving my QAB forward as well soon so I can follow in your footsteps 🙂

I was expecting an Italian joke to pop up here, but it didn't directly, so no more need be said...

Very ingenious solution to the mast hoops, they look great.

Hi Eamonn, Please share pictures of the main boom to which you are the main boom expert, may come in handy as about to go there myself, or indeed any pictures of progress as long as they involve pins and clamps 🙂 All the best

Hi Stergios, wondering if you are still progressing on Snake? Looking forward to seeing some more updates. I'm setting myself the goal of finishing mine within next 3 months or so...

Having nearly finished Snake (been on hiatus for a while) and determined to finish, in retrospect I think I should have gone with 'Cruizer' for among the following reasons: Copper plating is not an easy out, its time consuming in of itself. You could always add it to a Cruizer model by buying separately if you desire. The masting and rigging is slightly less involved, 2 masts vs 3 - Snake is my first build and Cruizer might have been slightly simpler to get head around trigging and also less repetition

Mark - where does one buy mica for this purpose?

Hi Vane, catching up a bit here. I think you absolutely made the right decision, personal opinion of course. I feel even a less than perfect deck gives a better look than a 'perfect' laser etched version, nothing like doing it yourself. And I can relate to your concern for Diana, most definitely is time consuming. 'Jason' is on hiatus right now as I'm struggling to find some decent maple wood for the quarterdeck and fo'c'sl - my experience was the same as you - the maple I had to use for the upper deck required sanding pretty much every strip, and even when that worked out, there was some odd pitting on the deck surface that I just couldn't eradicate completely. BTW - she's looking great!

Mark, this is a good question. I know its a different period but Trincomalee clearly shows dummy lights, in her case painted green. It would seem odd to me to put glass in front of the wood as I can't see any purpose to it, and it was very common during this period to paint windows on houses with black background and simulated white frames to represent windows to maintain the symmetry in Georgian architecture - often windows were filled in to respond to the 1696 'window' tax - I jest not! Interestingly, the fore and rear light in the side gallery are similarly false. I suspect it is model makers whimsy to panel these with simulated glass for aesthetic purposes.

Looks very nice Peta, well done. I think Greenstone meant to say that the flagpole (or staff) would only be used if sails are NOT rigged. The staff would interfere with the workings of the sail.

Hey Mike, can definitely relate! The CC Diana kit predates the precut strip approach and is exactly what you are dealing with. What I found especially tricky was keeping the sides of the gunport vertical (parallel with hypothetical frames), but the top/sill parallel to the sheer of the deck. Can't tell from your photos whether the rearmost ports are completely square or not from your photos. Anyway, congrats on reaching this stage, looks more like a man o' war now than a bathtub, very satisfying I'm sure.

Bob, for what its worth, I'd vote for the thicker thread - purely because it may provides a little contrast to the other stays which will obviously thinner as they go up the mast. Something that I find visually more satisfying for some reason. Looking great BTW, don't beat yourself up over the serving!

Hi Chris, think its definitely worth planking the lower deck, I think the only hatch that will only be slightly visible is the lower fore-hatch, the center one in your layout. I did add this myself, even painting black it takes some craning to glimpse it once the companion ladder is in place. The lower main hatch is totally obscured by the main hatch ladder. Definitely agree with the lighter caulking. Starting to come together now, looks good.