Beef Wellington

Looking great. How did you make the very nicely defined square holes in the windlass?

Looking really good Dave, well done.

Yeah! I'm first to the next Mobbsie build and get the best seat.

Love what you've achieved with the masts, cleats and tops, should all look stunning all in place. The deadeye plates do look convincing, nicely done.

Hi Bob - very impressive indeed. On the ensign question, I'd be tempted to attach a couple of cleats to the inside of the stern fascia as Peter suggests to use as belaying points - of course I'm not how feasible that is with everything in place. The other consideration is that given you've shown her without sails and not underway, the ensign would not have been flown from a halliard, rather on a removeable staff mounted in hoops in the center of the stern fascia - you should see plenty of pics of this on HSM Victory to illustrate by googling.

Great pictures, especially like the close up view of the stern. I was going to use exactly the same approach for the chain so nice to see it work so well. Now I've "been there and nearly done that" I can appreciate your craftsmanship even more BTW, I think you are referring to the binnacle (?)

Jim, you have some real talent, I'm not an art critic either to explain why, but your colour balance, cloud and water effects which are notoriously difficult to do well are to my taste, and work especially well in watercolour medium - oh, and the ships look good too!. Would love to see more.

Catching up Jim, everything looks really good especially the rigging. Which manufacturer made the anchor kit from? - it looks well formed and very clean. Just noticed you're in Edinburgh, I used to live in a tiny flat on St Stephen St in Stockbridge many years ago.

Very nice lights Tom, do you have any photos you could share of the work in progress, would love to learn your technique.

Nice neat waterline and great choice, can only agree with the colour of the Admiralty "light ivory" being a much better scale look. Luckily I have some to be able to put some perspective on the photos as screens never quite seem to do colours justice.

Beautiful work Christian, I agree that these small details make a huge difference!

Greg - this is just amazing to see. Will the 'photos' be published in a book, or be viewable on a PC?

Really nice finish, you also managed to sneak in the tricky planking at the stern. 🙂

Thanks for all the 'likes', and Greg, Pat, Mike, Christian, Bob, Tom, Hamilton, Michael, Mobbsie - I really appreciate your thoughts and interest, the good news is that I don't need to decide right now. I got a little over-obsessive on Snake using the kit supplied materials which bogged things down a bit, I'm sure I'd enjoy rigging more with better quality line and be happier with the result. What I'm hoping is that I can leave my options open even after things get closed up when the quarterdeck and f'csle go on (e.g. mast stumps that could easily be replaced with full masts and yards at some point) BE - your Victory, despite just looking fantastic, presents yet another interesting alternative. I too like that look a lot. Coamings Moving on a little, have started on the coamings and gratings. I had ordered some of Chuck's gratings some time ago and these were relatively painless to make up. The coaming dimensions were taken from AOTS with a few small adjustments to ensure the edge of the coaming met the wider binding strakes as illustrated. I did go the whole hog and build these as per TFFM which was good practice, if not slow. Not really much else to say. Where the companionways are, I did do bit more fiddly work to try and simulate the beams and carlings that would be visible. I'm sure there must be a better way, but the approach I took was as follows: Build up the bottom of the companionway coaming by 1mm to account for the thickness of the deck (as coamings would sit on the beams/carlings, not the deck) 0.5mm sheet was applied to the side faces to simulate the recess on the interior face Boxwood sheets and strips attached to simulate the beams/carlings. This was not hard once the approach had been figured out as this all still needs to slide in through the holes in the deck (which had to be enlarged a bit). I did decide to paint these black, as is shown to good effect on the contemporary Winchelsea model. I was tempted to leave these natural, but as I had made these out of pear, I felt that another wood tone would be distracting. In any event, black appears to have been quite commonly used toward the end of the century to aid safety by making the companionways more visible against the deck. Bit of a Frankenstein's monster from underneath, but to my eye looks convincing enough when in place. All the coamings and gratings have been made up and just need some finishing. I was pleased that the coamings lined up with the butt pattern of the planks, because as irregular as they looks, they do correspond with the theoretical placement of the beams below. The third photo shows the difference in appearance with the added depth in the companionway, vs the coaming simply sitting on the deck for comparison. The last photo shows everything in place. One slight fudge I'm making here is to put a grating into the foremost of the two rearmost openings. This should really be a companionway down to the wardroom, but the keel former realistically presents this being represented, and given that this will barely be glimpsed, a grating went on top instead. The kit plans omit this feature entirely.

Beautiful work Dafi, one thing I've always been curious about was the purpose of the yellow 'pillar' at the front of the topmast between the top and the cap. doesn't really seem substantial enough to perform a significant purpose and I haven't seen similar examples on other ships. Only thing I can think of is to provide a little additional support to the front of the mast when the weight of the topmast is .being hoisted - maybe similar to the use of a triple block on large ships vs a double.

She's looking really good Christian and those overall shots are testament to your work! The reworked coils look to have much more of a scale weight to them which greatly enhances the effect.

Looking very nice BE, the run of the planks looks great. Now you are able to compare, do you think the pinnace is just fundamentally more challenging because of its shape, or was it simply your recent experience that allowed you to complete this more satisfactorily?

Those close up shots of the stern look great Bob, nice job on the lantern brackets.

Nice start, hope the planking continues easily!

Thanks all for the "likes" and looking in. Think a point has been reached where all of the known big challenges have been addressed, or at least an approach developed, so I can start to have a bit of fun tackling some of the other odd pieces on the deck. I am starting to seriously consider not rigging this model... the reason being that I certainly still have plenty ahead of me (and I still haven't even finished rigging 'Snake' yet) even without rigging, also the size of the hull is already quite large and adding the masts and spars will increase the needed space significantly. Curious on other's thoughts on this, hopefully it is not anathema. The other consideration is that I would like to move onto another build sooner than I realistically would if I were to fully rig. What this means is that I may spend a little extra time adding some details that I otherwise wouldn't, as I'm also wanting to leave my options open to possibly leave open some of the upper deck planking/scuttles. 4 additional standards have been added, 2 fore and 2 aft (still in process on larboard side) as these will be visible when the upper deck is in place. You can see the kit supplied riding bitts in place. The scale of these bitts is actually pretty accurate, but I didn't like the shape so decided to make up my own...and while I was at it also made up some fore riding bitts following guidance from TFFM as the AOTS book is a little sparse on detail. These were fun little projects. I believe the forward elm battens were nailed on for easy replacement but I haven't tried to simulate that, not sure how this would be done however, or whether this is a "less is more" situation. Previous mods allowed the bowsprit to be secured within the hull on a bowsprit step so this was also constructed. Going a little crazy some manger boards were also made up, these will not be readily (understatement) viewable but I think could add to the sense of depth when undergoing close inspection through a gun port , and help mask the obvious edge of the bulkhead against the deck. The dimensions of the bowsprit step are a little ambiguous, in retrospect I would have made it 2-3mm narrower, but given the likely visibility, this will not be redone. The placement of the bowsprit step is a little dependent on some of the foremost beam, to be obsessive this should be a little further forward, but think it will be just fine where it is. The foremost deck beams required modification to work around some of the other alterations made up to this point but this was simple enough. And with everything in place a couple of deck shots to get a feel for things...

Very interesting approach to building the hull and its already a beautiful result, can't wait to see how the rest of the planking goes together!

The rudder looks outstanding - not only the metal work, very impressed with how you've attached those copper plates...looks completely to scale.

Making this simple Mike, I think there are plenty of patination solutions available specifically aimed at a verdigris finish (rather than blackening) if that's the direction you want to go. Have never tried any, but the jewelry market seems big on this. Google search should give you plenty of options.

Will follow along with the usual fascination Nils, interesting subject and can't wait to see how she comes together.

The position of the figure and look of the oar look good to me BE. Ignorance is wonderful...can only guess that the functional reason for the loom is to provide some counter balance to the outboard weight of the oar and improve handling balance, but its interesting that your modern example (and any that I've seen) do not have this. I would also have thought that the square loom would be beneficial if it extended to the tholes to keep the blade angle constantly perpendicular making it easier to control if there is no need to feather the blade angle (?)