Beef Wellington

Kurt - might I suggest you create your own build log and share your pictures and approach there? I'd be very interested to see more of your beautiful work, but it can be distracting and a little confusing for followers of BEs log to see pictures of another very similar model interspersed. BE - my apologies for hijacking your log - I can remove....

Indeed they are wipers, Captain's windows for enjoying the view while sipping coffee in his comfy chair, can't let rain interfere....

Hi Mark - contemporary models seem to be a mix of blue and black on the stem so it seems 'correct' to go with either, but you are correct that the Bellona model is blue, the view below of the same model shows it a little more clearly.

Very interesting Rob, where did you obtain the log again? - I'd be interested to go through a similar exercise. Good to see 'Jason' gets a mention on page 132! BTW - I wonder if the ship's name it looked like you had difficulty transcribing on same page is Melpomene?

Excellent work on the rigging Jesse, think you've captured the scale beautifully. The colours really look spot on as well complimenting the rest of the model. Well done.

I would suggest calling Jotika/Caldercraft, if anyone can provide them it would be them and they are typically very helpful.

Nicely done, definitely worth the extra effort on the dummy carriages. Are you going to consider upgrading the metal carriages as well?

I'm clearly late to the party, but congratulations Bob on completing such a fine looking model, greatly enjoyed following your progress and looking to see whats next...

Glad to see you back Ferit. Nice clean work as to be expected, the replacement grating looks much better. Nicely done!

Very nice result, well done. As for the photo, look for a very feint greyish 'x' in the bottom corner that allows you to delete photos that have been uploaded, but not inserted.

Congratulations Christian, she really is a stunning and inspirational model. Agree with all the comments above on the case, and I think a one piece case would look complimentary with the console - personal taste of course. I personally prefer a more discrete stand as well. Something I may consider for 'Jason' is to display the ships boats at waterline height, possibly tied up alongside, this could probably be done relatively simply with some small brass rod mounted into the display base - again all personal taste.

Beautiful work Tiziano

Alan - I take my hat off to you, you really are doing an amazing job and overcoming challenges. I would love to tackle something like this one day, and its all the more impressive because you drafted the plans as well! I'll keep looking in and learning.

Apologies for being a little late! Lovely work on those ships boats Christian, they look much larger scale than they actually are! Really precise work, I can see these being a nice little distraction to the main ship.

Joe - that is looking seriously good, love the detail work on the binnacle, and the companion cover looks great. I didn't get a chance to comment on it earlier but I think the approach you took to the head works is was really wonderfully executed and adds so much character to the model. Really clean and precise work! I'm hoping to also use Chuck's ships wheel for 'Jason', but I don't think he makes a large enough version currently.

Hi Martin, I've been starting to play around with the headworks on 'Jason'. I'm of the opinion that the kit supplied parts are not the correct shape and will be making and shaping my own. Aesthetically, it seems the head rail needs to be shaped to allow the space between it and the hair rail to follow nicely and from the side they should be similar in profile. Just my observation, I'm sure there is something more scientific to the shape.

Looking good BE. Looks like I'm a bit too late, but one thing I found that works quite well for planking between the ports is to edge glue some planks together for the height needed and then shape/trim these back as a whole. This allows the interior edge to be nicely aligned. without needed to scuff up any paint.

One thing I did Stergios (I used the supplied CC rope), was to ensure that it had been fully straightened to remove any kinks ( simply running through fingers or leaving a length suspended from a door frame with a clamp on one end as a small weight). It should then hang a lot more naturally, and if necessary then a little watered down PVA can help as well once on place.

Hi Rob, I think Peter's question is a good one, that does not look at all like boxwood, European or Castello. From my experience it always has very sharp edges and flaky/splintery edges are never seen.

Looking good Mike - I like this stage of a build...so much potential to look forward to.....and few regrets or mistakes!

Hi Rob, really beautiful work, those rails look nicely in proportion and certainly 'finer' than the kit's walnut. Colours are always hard to judge in photos but glad you were able to tone those down a bit. Are you planning to attach all of the trim at this point? I'm planning to wait until I have the quarter deck in place before going any higher than the sheer rail with trim to allow any compromises with the line of the wale and deck to get figured out....and also whatever is going to happen with the headworks. Tell your son he did a really nice job on his Red Arrow. I'm finding my son doesn't quite have the same passion for plastic modeling and hes been chipping away at a model of the Tirpitz for quite some time. I've promised him I'll post a picture of it when he finishes!

Hi Pat, catching up and glad to see everything coming together so well, nicely done. Very interested to see how the capstan works out. Beautiful model.

Love it Siggi, so glad to find your new model. Love the figurehead and the lines of Tiger are very pretty indeed. Can't wait to see more.

Really nice progress Mark, love the work on the cannons, should look really sharp when all finally assembled. Oh, and Licorne is looking pretty good too.

Thanks everyone for interest and kind words Frolick - thanks for posting the history of that action, always very interesting to read. Final comments on the stern, brief notes, and pictures thrown in just for spice: The roof of the quarter galleries was really the last major hurdle to getting the 'look' of the stern as I wanted it. This did pose a conundrum, as options abounded. Other frigates of the period typically seemed to have the more classical fluted columns between lights and shingled 'roof' to the quarter galleries, and the contemporary models of Diana have a highly decorative roof and columns which Christian (Barbossa) has replicated so beautifully on his Diana. In the end, just decided to follow the AOTS book and its distinctly Georgian look which I like and use some of the kit supplied mouldings. The roof itself was made from some spare stock and shaped to dimensions less that that suggested by the instructions using the plans. The kit provides some soft metal decorations, although how they are supposed to be applied is a mystery as the roof has a quite fine, but pronounced convex-concave shape. I very carefully attacked this with a dremel and removed the thickness of the metal backing to leave the decorative elements which felt a little more in keeping with the scale. This was less challenging that at first thought, though care is certainly required and fine tuning with a sanding stick. The only problem was that the these did have a tendency to break, although these can be reassembled without too much difficulty in situ. With the roof in place the stern seems to have acquired its (almost) final form, some decorations between the lights need to be applied still as appear on the stern, and a molding will ultimately the placed on top. Overall, I am very happy with the way this turned out, and proved to be more challenging than I had initially thought. I've talked at length at some faults with the dimensions and shapes of the provided PE parts but I think these can be used to provide reasonable results with some planning. These do look much better to the human eye, the camera seems to highlight the slightest misalignment The sheer rail could now be placed, and fortuitously this landed almost exactly where it should lining up with the top of the quarter gallery roof. Gaps have been left for the channels which will be positioned later. Steps, fenders and chesstrees have also been attached after reducing slightly to the expected level of the deck. Not much else to say so I'll leave with some pictures...