Beef Wellington

Everyone has already said it, but beautiful work Alexander.

Very nice ratlines Nils! Love the last shot with the figure, puts everything into scale.

Love the way this is looking, the pear looks very nice. Love the idea to build up the PE part, was looking for an idea to do this and you just gave it to me. Would you mind sharing how you get the CA glue into a dental syringe, and where do you get them? I'll be following you from here on out.

Looks great Mike, onwards!

Chris are the rear bulkheads aligned with the cross section you are comparing to? Even for the ones not aligning, they look consistent with the shape of the hull, just in a different place

Cheers Brian, and thanks for stopping by. Jim - not really issues. I has set myself the (perhaps unrealistic) goal of trying to get the planks to lie as they would following planking principles and getting as tight a fit as possible. I think the reality is that its really only possible with spiling, even tapering the limewood planks its hard to get the planks to lie flush with the hull shape and avoid both clinkering and pointy plank ends (as per my first attempt on Snake). My limewood pile is getting quite low so fingers crossed I have enough to finish (the downside of tapering the planks is you go through more material). Spiling is something for the next build The reality is that none of this matters as it will be covered up, but just spending time on this has been good experience.

Jimz66 - welcome! I'm not too far from you, I'm in Simsbury. Well, I promised no more updates until I was done, but just couldn't wait. Nearly there, just a couple of planks to go on the starboard side, and a few more on the larboard. Shaping the planks is really essential to get any sort of flat lie which, edge bending is just won't work on this hull. You can see how I had initially misjudged the line of the planks at the bow, but was relatively easy to correct this one bulkhead back. The sharp curve at the stern wasn't easy, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. You may also see a little protective case around the boxwood sternpost section! Like most, I'll be glad when this step is done. Once last planks are on it will be back over to Snake until the Spring weather allows some time outside so I can fill and sand.

See link here - you can trace the specific picture of the standard to the time period (assuming painting is accurate) http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/9443-english-flags-on-a-launching/#entry279066

jbshan - where did your get that information on the Royal Standard? I think you may be confusing some different things here and I'm not sure how accurate that is. The Royal Standard has never been used as a command flag in the Navy and certainly never as a signalling device, and has always been used to indicate the personal body of the Sovereign.

Excerpt below from those that know (i.e. The Queen's official website) The Royal Standard is flown when The Queen is in residence in one of the Royal Palaces, on The Queen's car on official journeys and on aircraft (when on the ground). It may also be flown on any building, official or private (but not ecclesiastical buildings), during a visit by The Queen, if the owner or proprietor so requests. The Royal Standard also used to be flown on board the Royal Yacht, when it was in service and The Queen was on board. The Royal Standard is only flown when the Sovereign is present. I doubt that the protocol around usage has changed - i.e. the Royal Standard would only be flown if the monarch were present.

Very neat work Brian, well done. Looks to be coming along very nicely. AVS looks like a very nice kit, will be following to see how you progress.

Chris - good to see another Diana build here, you look to have got off to a solid start...will be following closely as I'm not much ahead of you Nice approach to the bevelling, I found that on some of the frames they needed to be packed out a little with some strip to avoid low points (especially at the waist and stern), I wonder if this is just variability in the manufacturing or an issue for all of these kits.

The plans say 0.5mm so thats what I used :-)

Everything is coming together wonderfully, looking really really sharp! Catharpins look great and you got them to what looks like the perfect length, well done.

Look at this link - http://tmg110.tripod.com/royal_std.htm. Despite the number of different versions, they didn't change every monarch and changes tend to represent major event in the crowns history. The Georgian period did see an above average rate of change which probably represents the period most of interest to ship modelers, however that is unusual. Should also be noted that the monarch would fly a different standard in different parts of the realm (e.g. the monarch's standard in Scotland is different to that flown in England) Hopefully this allows you to pick the specific flag in effect at that time. What is much more complex is the inclusion of the royal standard iconography in various monarchs (and family's) coats of arms. Heraldry in the UK is incredibly complex, and that is a wholly separate topic!

Very impressive Jim, you should be very pleased. Love the look of the case, well worth the effort and the risk. Well done on your first completion, a milestone I have yet to reach...

Looking very nice Ray

Don't give up Sjors, for me at least, it just takes time to figure out what works (which is why I'm so slow ). Believe it was the inventor Edison who said that he didn't have 1000 failures, but he'd successfully figured out 1000 ways that didn't work. One thing I think I am finding out with my 'Jason' is that the larger more complex builds give you a little bit of practice time to figure this out as its easier to hide early attempts which is a nice luxury (even if its more work!). Link below is a simple method that worked well for me, not quick, but if I can do it I'm sure you can. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/509-hms-snake-by-beef-wellington-caldercraft-scale-1-64-first-wooden-ship-build/page-23#entry104015

Kevin - I used a simple exacto blade to do the rabbet which worked just fine and pretty easily into plywood. I found on my 'Jason' build that the plywood does not hold the shape anywhere near as well as using solid wood so that is probably a factor as well. I think unless you are doing a single planked admiralty model you'll do just fine doing something simple.

Take a look here Jim from Dafi's Victory build...shows it nice and clearly and I'm sure is spot on. http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/76-hms-victory-by-dafi-to-victory-and-beyond/page-52#entry233564

Nice looking yards Timmo, very neat work - will be getting back to mine on Snake soon hopefully with your inspiration. I see you used black thread for the stirrups rather than usual natural thread, seems to give a little more muted result which I quite like. Very jealous of the gorgeous beach location! BTW - I'm disappointed to see what I thought to be purely an American affliction rearing its head in New Zealand, namely referring to His/Her Majesty's Ships as the THE HMS 'Such-and-such'....I always think of the restaurant in the movie "Mickey Blue Eyes" called "The La Trattoria"

Fantastic as always Nigel, just wonderful. I'd never thought about LoS being used for this, but very interesting. Do you think that it could also be a solution to providing an aged patina to copper hull plates?

Mike - that really is some deck, very very impressive result, amazing how tightly you've fitted those awkward planks, really hope you're still going to be able to see most of the detail when everything else comes together.

Mike - I took the easy approach, I bought some balsa blocks in varying in a couple of thicknesses and sandwiched together to get fill the gap as much as possible, I didn't worry about it making in meet the adjacent bulkead. I found them useful for really just visualizing the hull shape in tricky areas at bow and stern to all the bulkheads to be fared. Carl - I hear you, I also use soaking and steaming, as I say, its just the areas that are highly convexly curved and where the bulkheads are quite far apart that this is useful for. The supplied limewood is 1.5mm thick and I've found even with extensive soaking it can splinter. Eamonn, Alistair and everyone else, Merry Christmas!

Well heres a final post of the planking in process, will not bother to post anymore until first planking is complete as theres not likely much else to really share. I'm deviating from the plans a little in the suggestion on planking, they indicate to start at the very top of the frames (I think), I've decided to lay a plank aligning with the main deck and then work up. This is hopefully to ensure a consistent height of the gun ports to the deck, as the top of the bulkheads does not seem to rise slightly toward the stern. The top edge of this plank was marked with a pen so hopefully will show up once all sanded, although it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out. Anyway, here's wishing everyone the best of the season. Merry Christmas everyone! Continuing planking upwards, starting to take shape... Cut out some sections in the balsa where the hawse holes will be, hopefully this will allow the holes to be open on the rear face rather going into balsa. Not sure exactly how this will work but it can't really introduce any fresh problems. Also wanted to call out a tool that I've quite taken to, although I think it did appear on the 'list of most useless tools' on MSW 1.0. I bought this when I started my 'Snake' and never really used it. However, I've found that this can really help give a better curve on the planks, otherwise with simple soaking and even with bulkheads appropriately fared, the planks tend to flatten in between the bulkheads as they are so far apart on this kit. Using this tool, which simply crimps the plank its possible to get a much better curve with a dry plank. This is proving especially helpful to get a nicer curve at the bow (In some places I think I had been a bit zealous with shaping the balsa a removed a little too much and had some flatter surfaces than I would have liked.