Beef Wellington

Finding a little time to update some (small) progress, thanks everyone for the interest, comments and likes. @Eamonn, @Mike - One comment off the bat, certainly would not want to be claiming this approach as my own. I think we all stand on the shoulders of others, and it was Rob's Ethalion build that inspired me to try this approach...how's it going? Read on.... Before pressing forward with the deck, I had to decide how the companionway cover would sit. While not being quite sure how much would be visible through the tiny windows, the decision was made to once again install some false beams and carlings for the companion cover to sit on. This sits quite nicely in place, and is once again put aside for final detailing. Jumping into planking proper, it quickly became clear that initial steps required a bit of fine tuning. Once the various coaming are glued into position, quite a bit of care is needed to ensure alignment to the centerline, and also address any potential symmetry issues. It was necessary to re-attach the rear hatch coaming as it was clear that this was slightly off-center and the misalignment would have been emphasized by the run of the planks. The only other slight complication was the need to cut custom planks to flank the hatchway, capstan step and rear grate coamings. Not difficult, just time consuming to ensure a fit and keep the necessary curvature for the run of the planks. Overall, pretty happy with how this is turning out. The only other thing to comment on is that the decision was made to plank the top-tackle and pump scuttles which seems more consistent with the original plans, rather than the raised gratings suggested by the kit. Note - The planking lines drawn onto the subdeck are not 100% accurate, and they're there just to help plan the butt-shift and get a better sense for the how the alignment will eventually run into the waterway. There's also a little bit of pencil lead smudging from the caulking which always seems unavoidable and hasn't been cleaned up yet...

Here you are! Great start Sjors, as to be expected. And you also have Snake still in progress?...I just don't know how you do so much so quickly 🙂

The Constellation storage arrangement does not seem to make sense. With spars stored as they are, this would severely impact the ability to mount any armament in these areas so just doesn't seem to pass the practicality test. I'd also be very interested in seeing primary source suggesting how spars could be mounted on the channels, intuitively this seems rather cumbersome approach for anything but the smallest. I have nothing specific to point to, but would a more practical solution be to store larger yards amidships in the waist area amongst and of the ships boats?

I'm sure you'll do Chris' kit proud BE...and I also suspect that there will be a number of further enhancements so I'll strap in for the ride.

Those are very impressive, clearly a different size at pretty much the same scale. I had the same experience with the CC plates on my 'Snake' build, I cleaned/polished the surface hoping for a patina which seems to be very slow developing, I wonder ifs the metal composition that causes that, the Amati plates seem to be much more copper rich.

Looks great Rob. I'd love to see the plates before they go on, that sounds like incredible attention to detail that they supply multiple different kinds of plates for the different locations.

My suggestion would be to find a subject that you are passionate about. Mistakes? You'll make them, and I think we all have and continue to do. The most important thing to remember is that there are very few mistakes that can't be solved. Don't underestimate the time required, and think about you feel about doing repeated items. Zulu looks like a great kit, and there are some great buildlogs here to help you along.

Yves, fascinating project....I've got nothing to add here but would like to watch and learn. Great results so far.

Congratulations on completing another amazing build, once again a gold standard in build logs and execution. I love how you the figures came together, they really add to the aura of the model. The technique of using fixative on the flags is definitely something to store away in the memory banks.

Hi Mitsuaki, your deck is beautiful and very well executed. I think you made a good choice! I'm currently planking the upper deck of the Diana kit and will be taking exactly the same approach you did to the gangway planking (the plans are not very clear in this area for this ship either).

Hi Sziggy, not sure which paint you'll be using, but assuming it will be some sort of acrylic. You seem to have masked off the deck pretty well, worst case scenario is you get a couple of areas bleeding through, but this can be easily scraped off gently using the sharp end of a scalpel blade once dry and no-one will be any the wiser (at least that has been my experience with the Admiralty acrylics). Applying multiple, thin layers will help lower the risk of bleed as well as give you a better finish. Something to consider for next time is to simply paint the lower plank prior to installation and then you don't have to deal with it, above a small amount of touch up where you don't need to worry too much about perfect masking.

I'm sure another masterpiece in the making. I suspect that this would be a very disappointing kit without the PE given the extensive lattice structures.

You have a beautiful model coming together there Richard, nice attention to detail and great execution.

Beautiful work Matiz, your woodworking is just amazing.

Try not to overthink it Stergios, I know you'll be just fine. If you don't permanently secure any if the ropes with glue, you can always detach and refix it. Until you have the ropes on the model, its very hard to get a sense in 3D for how they all lay out, so don't think you've made a mistake if you need to redo something, think that is just a natural part of the process.

Alan, that is some pretty amazing detail at 1:64, and its nice to see detail normally omitted or obscured by paint. Very nicely done indeed.

Beautiful work that many can only aspire to, would love to follow your progress.

The other consideration outside of the wood itself, is where the wood is sourced from, and in what form. I don't have any tools to mill my own sheets and strips, and as a result I'm dependent on suppliers of strips. My experience with finding consistent maple (for example) has not been a good one, and have found many cases where I've been supplied a wood clearly not what it should be. I've also seen huge variation in Tanganika, some looks very similar to maple, some has very conspicuous orange-brown stripes in it which is far less satisfactory. Walnut seems to be a similar challenge, it seems be of an acceptable quality in some kits, but in others it splinters and snaps just looking at it...

Hi Stergios, not sure I can impart much advice given this seems to come down a lot to personal preference. I can't tell exactly where you are, but I think I put the lifts on the yards first, mainly to get these secured squarely. The sheets and cluelines came next and then the braces and tacks. Check my log to see if you can tell from photos there, but in general I seem to recall working top downwards, and then mizzen to foremast. The primary concern was just leaving the deck open enough to have access to secure lines (the upper yards tend to follow the line of the masts for belaying. For example, the forsheet clue, sheet and tack lines pretty much limits any access to the deck once in place, so this was done last. I think I took a different approach to you on the bowsprit as I didn't even install the jib-boom until most, if not all the other rigging was in place...,mainly to try and avoid a disastrous break. I did find using a little swiveling turntableto be very helpful at times (think its call a 'lazy susan')...but all personal preference I suspect. Good luck!

Very nice update Kevin, there seems to be a lot of soldering required for the various fittings, that alone would scare me away but you've done a great job. Seems that the more modern sailing ships and non-military have no armament to worry about, but looks like the work needed on the more complicated metal fittings seem to more than make up for that.

I keep looking at this model and forcing myself to forget what I've seen...CAF look to be providing a whole range of a type of hybrid kit and I strongly suspect one will be in my future. Love what you're doing to expand on the kit, seems this would be hard to discern from a true scratch build frame model. Glad you managed to overcome the early challenges, even the best kits of this complexity it seems have their own foibles to work through. Know you're working on you Amerigo Vespucci, but can't wait to see more progress here.

Looks great Rob. Did you end up pinning the rails? As you say, these look pretty long so are maybe less prone to damage, and with the trip piece above also helping push back against any strain from the rigging you are probably in good shape. Must be nice not to have to worry about any armament 🙂

@ Mike - no not officially an engineer, but my brain does work that way....am a physicist by education, and have played a little with battlefield engineering. Up to this point, its been possible to get by just by look and feel, and the philosophy of thinking ahead and not sweating the small stuff 🙂. This task just required more planned precision. BTW - you can never have enough serving on a model if you have the patience for it. Hopefully this photo makes the jig operation clearer (I left the tape off the outside guide templates for clarity). The fine sandpaper shown is around 0.2mm thickness which would pretty much be offset by the electrical tape thickness. (0.2mm plank width variance would add up to a 4mm problem per side, so it adds up quickly)

Thanks Rob, you did such an excellent job on Ethalion that its a hard act to follow, but gave me no reason to hold back 🙂 I'm hoping the planned widths are sufficient to at least get started with a reasonable degree of confidence. Once planking starts to approach the planned waterway then I suspect it will then be possible (and necessary) to tailor more manually. Will also leave off installing any waterway planks until necessary as that should also allow some fine tuning.

Thanks everyone for not forgetting me! @BE - Yes, I will glaze the lights. One of my other vacillations is what with, especially as the stern lights still need to be installed. There is the kit supplied perspex, crystal clear, and I also have some thin mica sheets which are less than perfect but maybe a little bit more 'period'. Still pondering that one, luckily don't need to decide now. @Eammon - need to see you getting back into things now the Ballier is complete! @Mike - very much enjoying watching your Snake come together Planning for quarterdeck planking: Planking the forecastle and quarterdeck has had me in a state of indecision for quite some time. Of course one option would be to simply plank with standard 4mm strip. While there is next to no chance of a mess-up, I knew that I would be forever kicking myself as this would not be consistent with contemporary practice. At this time, it seems that deck planking was still done by hand and involved planks being tapered, but without being joggled into the waterway. I'm going to follow the suggested pattern in the AOTS Diana book which show a consistent taper over the full length (with consistent run fore to aft), rather than the other contemporary practice of having a wider section at the rear of some planks to allow the adjacent plank to butt into it. This approach will definitely be a big challenge, but I'm hoping that taking this slowly will at least give a chance of success. Firstly, the quarterdeck was marked out with 1cm station markers, the centerline defined and an estimate for the waterway placement. I'm planning on the waterway being about 5mm wide, so the edge was marked 6mm from the interior bulwark face to allow for an additional layer of planking. For ease, this exercise was then then repeated on a paper template, and seperate templates were created for both starboard and port sides. The width of the deck was then measured at each 1cm station. To aid this exercise, I used a newly acquired digital caliper which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone, I don't know how I got by with without one to this point - no more eyeballing to the nearest 0.5mm! To minimize error, each measurement was taken 3 times and then averaged on each side. This highlighted something that is not too surprising, that is that the the hull is not symmetrical, and varies in width from the centerline by up to 1mm, and needs to be accounted for. All of these measurements were entered into a spreadsheet to estimate the required taper for each plank, and which allowed certain constraints to be resolved (for example, a whole number of planks are needed (!), and that the width of the plank at the aftmost end shouldn't be less than 50% of the widest part of the plank.). The small discrepancies between the starboard and port side were resolved by simply averaging the two, mainly to avoid the need for different tapering approaches, and hopefully these discrepancies can be resolved without being apparent to a typical observer. The spreadsheet allowed the overall planking plan to be determined at each station, so that this can continually be checked as planking progresses. To give everyone a sense for where this landed, the desired plank is 3.85mm at its widest, tapering to 2.16mm at its narrowest over a length of 35cm. Now the plank widths were known, 2 templates could be made out of some spare pear stock. (These were fine tuned after temporarily glueing together) I was very happy with how this turned out, and it proved possible to get to a high level of accuracy with time and care. These templates were then glued onto a board, and jig to hold planks placed in between. Each plank was rough shaped to remove 75% of the needed material, but then finished with ever finer sandpaper. The sandpaper was placed in the center of a block that slides on the templates to provide the final shape. Electrical tape was placed on the templates to help protect them, and also offset the thickness of the sandpaper. The bottom photo shows the first 10 planks having been finished. I was very pleased with the level of accuracy that this gave, there being very little difference between the planned and actual. Next step will be to start getting some of these installed, and continue shaping the remainder that will be needed.