Beef Wellington

I think 'raised wooden welcome mat' is probably the best answer, it is a nice detail. I wonder if its practical application would be to reduce tripping hazzard when entering/exiting as it is at the same level as the floor of the entryport and step. I just can't think of a sensible drainage explanation.

Deck shots in natural light look fantastic Dave, the level of detail you've achieved is very impressive. Well done indeed.

Mark - your work is outstanding and inspirational, such clean woodworking. One question if I may, how do you shape the underside of your beams? The concave profiles must me challenging than the convex upper side.

Those carronades are a nice touch, looking good.

This looks like a great kit coming together! Question maybe for Chris, I see the carronade beds that will be provided look to have a molded wheel arrangement vs the flat PE wheel arrangement that is currently available. Will these be available to buy separate from the kit? They look so much better.

Hi Alistair - yes, it is the Syren rope, and from memory it was the largest diameter Chuck produces which seemed to fit the bill nicely.

Headworks (Part 2): @DaveBaxt - the diamond cutting wheel is similar to this, easily cuts into the razor blades (545 Dremel | Tools | DigiKey ) with suitable eye protection! Sure there are many other similar items and prices from other retailers. The razor blades were bought in bulk...similar to these Multi Purpose Razor Blades (Pack of 100) (double-glazing-parts-spares.co.uk). Also, have provided a little more detail in update below...The wood used is either pear or castello box depending on what I have on hand, these woods are great for this. I would suggest you have nothing to lose, and much to gain by giving it a go....think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how simple it is with a little practice. Much fiddling, fettling and fine tuning has been going on with the headworks, but this should bring me up to date. Think the back of this challenging task has been broken as I will likely be needing to spend much of any available time on unrelated projects. Once the shape of the head timbers had been finalized, the covering boards could be added. These are identified as being 1" in TFFM, so these were cut from 0.5mm pear sheet to approximately the correct dimension. TFFM suggests shaping these and attaching once the lower rail is in place, but am going to try and simplify because I'm not sure how successfully I'd be able to do this. Photos below show work very much in progress. Once finalized, the time head timbers can be finished. A scraper was made specifically for the purpose to scribe the profile, with a long inner face than usual to act as a guide on both the fore and aft sides, and to account for the very different angle the face presents. A light coat of blue paint was applied to the outer face of the covering board to aid the eye in seeing the results of introducing the profile. Unfortunately, the only photo I had of this was of horrible quality, so apologies in advance but you get the idea. The scraper detail and a more final version is also shown below with paint applied. The lower rail was profiled by temporarily attaching to some spare sheet and again a custom scraper. Finding one that followed approximately the desired profile and looked acceptable took quite a few attempts. With all the key components really only requiring the some final finishing, it was time to cross fingers for another dry-fit - it gives confidence knowing that any additional tweaks can be easily addressed before glued to applied. The covering boards introduce a 'ledge' for the main rail to sit on, something that the simplified approach to shaping the head timbers did not include but seems prototypical. Some slight alignment issues apparent in the photos below should disappear when finally secured in place with glue. Next up is clearly some touch up after seeing these pictures on the PC!

Kevin, Hamilton, Mort - thanks for overly kind words and the likes. Hopefully have another progress update soon. Dave - all the moldings are made from wood strip of various dimensions. I had ordered a long time ago some of the brass strips you reference but never used them, the brass just seemed very hard to work with, so I made the decision to make my own because it was a technique I wanted to get to grips with given the large number of molded profiles that may be needed. There are more professional techniques involving heating and cooling to harden, soften and harden again which probably allow a little more control, but I unashamedly just use razor blades and a cutting disc on my dremel. For me its a bit more art than science, and many reworks are sometimes needed because until you see the profile cut onto the wood, you don't know if it looks right or not. Getting comfortable with the result on a spare or offcut first is recommended!

Looking very good as always. Nice feature to have the stem fascia create the rabbet. Are you going to taper the stem, or will that mess up the figurehead fitting? Looks like the main stem piece could be tapered before attaching the facings.

Thats amazing! These are the details that really enhance the final model.

Very well done Mort. she looks fantastic!

Love the overall shots, really beautiful!

Siggi - the comments made above by others are all appropriate. The state of readiness of a ship could change in a very short time period, either bringing up cannons and makign up carriages stored in the hold, or moving a cannon lashed to the side to bring to bear in the gunport. The same for breaking down bulkheads. The "state of readiness" would be consistent with the threat situation....which is still true for warships today. There are many examples of models not necessarily reflecting a snapshot in time of contemporary practice, so none of that should get in your way.

Looking very nice Vane!

Hi Dave, think it is true that it will be very hard to see the interior bulwark when the foc's'l is in place so its definitely an 'optional extra' to plank further forward....however be aware you will need to build up the forward gunports if you don't plank there. I seem to recall that Ray went down that route on his Diana build if you have found his log.

Not just you BE! Looking good.

Looking good Vane.

Have you tried looking at second hand book marketplaces? While not ideal, Abebooks for one does have one available as part of the set. You could always sell your duplicate volume 1. Naiad by Tosti: Books - AbeBooks

Glad to see you progressing again!

Your maquette looks fantastic, very well done.

Fascinating project Rob, Would love to try my hand at this, suspect its rather addicting and very educational, but the cost of the 3D software is a little beyond my limit...one day!

Thankyou for sharing your approach Alan, you've convinced me that this may be a possibility for me in the future....and congrats on your article in the Nautical Research Journal!

Some great detail there David, lovely work and the proportions look spot on. The iron bands and woolding are almost a model in of themselves which you've executed so well. Great stuff.

Looking great David!

Headworks (Part 1): The shipyard has not been very active recently, partly due to lack of time, but also trepidation of the fact that I can no longer delay work on the headworks - something that has caused some anxiety if I'm honest given that this is another aspect of the model that is so important to the overall look of the ship (...and especially considering that the TFFM devotes 17 pages to this!). I had completed the main rail back in 2018 (Yikes!) which are detailed here (Post #513) for reference. I tried to follow the guidance and approach described in the TFFM as this will all need to be scratch to replicate the original plans as closely as possible, but did probably simplify some steps. With the final profile of the bow having been finalized, the position of these can be determined. This was done by eye in the absence of any definitive measurement, ensuring that the head of the mainrail is perpendicular to the keel and vertical when viewed from the bow. These were drilled and pinned to hold in position for now. Together with the standard, the 4 head timbers were rough cut and sized to their respective position, the outer face being cut to the angle formed by the head rail. The curvature of the head timbers was estimated from the AOTS diagrams, but left a little oversized at this stage (the interior profile has also been ignored for the present and will be cut to final shape later). The main consideration was to ensure that the position of the bottom of the main rail was determined, and this was done by multiple fine tunings and a sanding stick. The position and fitting of the lower rail proved to be the more challenging aspect. The TFFM indicates that it should be straight when viewed from above, and the plan profiles suggest that it should be position midway between the main rail and the upper cheek.. On top of that, it needs to clear the interior hawse hole, and will also need to taper in profile at the bow. The seats of ease on the Artois class are outboard, and will also clear the lower rail. I do not know the thickness of this piece, but estimated it should be 2mm thick which seems consistent with the proportions shown and described in TFFM for the Swan class. I started by drawing my own simple scale mini-plan using the measurements of the hawse hole, position of head timbers and length of the lower rail. This allowed the depth of the slots to be determined on each head timber, at the point mid way between the bottom of the main rail and top of the upper cheek (This will also determine the required final curvature of the head timbers to ensure that the lower rail sits neatly behind the covering boards which will need to be added in the future, Once these had been roughly determined and cut into the head timbers, the theory and application was proved using some of the kit supplied white metal decorative strips which are very easily bent. (The kit indicates that these should actually be used for the lower rail which seems to be a very reasonable compromise, but think Jason deserves to appropriately proportioned and profiled wood rail). The curvature of this metal rail can then be used to determine the curvature of the top of the lower rail that will be cut from wood. (Note: The forward head timber has been ignored for now, I will need to recut this piece so it extends higher over the standard, as it is, its not think enough to accommodate the lower rail). The white metal strip is also very useful because it allows the length of the lower rail to be determined. A cut first approximation of the lower rail was then cut from some boxwood sheet and temporarily placed in position to again prove the approach. This proved to be successful, and I was happy with the general profile that resulted. This looks overly bulky to my eye even though the dimension are appropriate, but I suspect that this will be corrected once it has been profiled. The next step will be to cut and profile the actual pieces. This also shows that I will likely need to adjust the hawse bolster to allow the lower rail, and the yet to be fitted eking rail (see last picture, the lower rail does not clear the top of the bolster. Even though there is still much to do in this area, I'm feeling more optimistic with this complex area.