Beef Wellington

Finally, I've had a good look through the fittings. And the majority are really really good. There was one item I felt let the side down a little, and that was the ship's wheel. 
 
Thankfully this is easily solved. A quick look on Cornwall model boats, and £2.98, and I had an 18mm ship's wheel in brass winging its way to me. I wasn't quite sure which size I'd need, so I ordered the 21mm one too, which as it turns out feels a little large... that was £3.10... 
 
And here are the results next to a 1:64 figure... (bearing in mind Stefano is 1:63, so for someone my height, the difference would be 3cm!)
 
As you can see, the kit wheel is both a little rough and ready (with an offset centre), but also grossly oversized for our poor captain's hands, being presumably designed for a much smaller scale model - perhaps 1:24... The RB models wheels are, to my eyes, far more fitting for the scale... In this shot, the RB models version are both front down as they have a rod extending from the back, which will make them really easy to mount when the time comes.
 

 
The RB Models wheels come as a kit, but it's simple enough to put together, with a clever bit in the middle to put the superglue, once all the parts are in place... then it's all capped off with a boss. (21mm assembled, 18mm in parts, below)
 

 
Finally, the wheels from the front.
 

 
 
 

Okay - a milestone to report 
 
I've finished planking the deck. I also took the opportunity to get a photo with one of my other models in shot as a comparison. HM Cutter Sherborne (a Caldercraft kit).
 

 

 

 
The paper cover is to stop the coal getting lots of dust on it from the build.
 
I believe the next step is to start making the holes in the side of the hull for the scuppers and fairleads, etc...
 
Happy building, and thanks to all who take an interest in the journey.
 
Rob

Thanks Eamonn. And thank you to everyone for your likes and encouragement. As always, they spur me on.
 
The plank chopper works well, but usage has shown that pine was the wrong wood to select for the base. It's got pretty mashed up now, and doesn't cut as cleanly as I'd like. I'm almost there, though. Plywood would work much better I think.
 
The model railway coal arrived, so I thought I'd have a go at filling the hatch insert. I used the smaller grade, and once it was packed into the holder, I poured watered down carpenter's glue into it. It made quite a mess, but I left it to dry overnight, sat on a plastic surface (so it didn't stick to it), and wiping the excess away, and it worked beautifully.
 
Some pictures...
 
The holder...
 

 
Filled with coal... 
 

 

 
And the finished result...
 

 
Once the coaming is in place, and a few of the covers left off, it should look really smart.
 
Finally, a picture of the planking so far... 
 

 
The waterways will cover the edges here, but I'm enjoying trying to get a nice neat edge anyway.
 
Happy building
 
Rob

Hi all,
 
Thank you for looking in and for the likes.
 
I've sanded back the bulwarks, and they're now pretty smooth, so it's time to get the deck planked. But before I did that I was thinking it would be nice to inject a little more interest into the model, and that means showing that she's a merchant vessel that carried cargo. That involved cutting out part of the hatch, and for good measure I also cut out a section where the companionway ladder would go. 
 
Once cut out card trays were made and painted to sit in these sections and give the appearance of depth. Some model railway coal in two different sizes is on order to go into the cargo hatch. I remember reading that colliers were dangerous vessels to travel on because the cargo was transported as was, and could easily shift in heavy seas, unbalancing the vessel. So... A glimpse of coal in the hatch is the idea. I'll just have a few of the slats off the loading hatch as otherwise a heavy surgery would have to be done to one of the bulkheads.
 

 

 
Now it really was time to plank the deck. I worked out from the plans that the planks are 66mm in length. I wanted to plank the decks with individual planks so that the wood tone changed from plank to plank. That meant something heading for 350 planks needed to be cut out, and I didn't want to have to measure each one by hand... so I created a very basic jig.
 

 
The stanley knife blade is put to the right hand end flush with the ends of the guides, and tapped with the hammer to cut the plank. As long as the plank is held against the left hand end as shown above, the plank will be the right size. After doing this, I added channels to cut planks to 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 lengths as well, and these were used for the first planks at the bow end to create the shift pattern as per the plans. 
 
The 7x1.5mm waterway was put on first. I've seen discussion about whether this is accurate or not. I've decided to include it as it's an interesting feature, and I'm planning to make the deck furniture from walnut, so it should tie everything together nicely. Time will tell! It was stuck in place in one piece, then the mast openings were cut out along with the hatch and companionway openings. I figured if it is for strength it would have as few cuts in it as possible, so it runs right through the deckhouses for my interpretation.
 
The planks were marked on one long edge and one short edge with a black sharpie to simulate tarred caulking. I don't bother with treenails as having been onboard Victory and Cutty Sark, to my mind you can barely see them in 1:1 scale, let alone 1:63! I discovered very early on that the sharpie ink was leaching into the cut ends of the planks, and wicking up the plank a little way, which was a bit ugly... This was solved by dipping the end of the plank that would be marked in the carpenter's glue before marking it. It takes seconds to dry when the excess is wiped away, and this prevented the wicking.
 
Planks were run right across the openings to maintain the distances neatly, and then the openings were cut out again once the glue had dried. I did this for each run as it made access for the saw easier.
 
As I've planked, I've been copying the false deck markings onto the deck, so I don't have to measure it all out again. I'm mirroring the shift pattern between port and starboard. Here's the progress so far with three and a bit strakes on each side.
 

 
So that's me up to date. 
 
Happy building
 
Rob

Thanks Eamonn
 
I hope I don't rocket past you  As a not inexpensive kit, I need to make this build last a while  Quite happy to be the tortoise. I do look forward to seeing more of your work on Ballahoo... she's a very fine model, and she demonstrates the benefits of taking your time. It looks like you're well onto the home straight with her. I particularly like the building slip stand you've made. Did you design it yourself? It certainly looks the part.
 
I've finished the second planking, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Minimal sanding was required to get a nice finish. I won't bother putting any photos of that up, as they're pretty much identical to the ones above.
 
The next step is removing the bulkhead tabs and I wish I'd had a flush-cut saw to do this, but an x-acto saw did the job okay.
 

 
Once removed, the balsa in the stern can be carved out using an x-acto knife down between the transom and the balsa, and then a mix of the x-acto saw, a chisel and some light sanding to get the balsa block down to the level that will support the deck. I was a bit nervous about this, but actually it wasn't too bad.
 

 
Now it was time for the first layer of deck. I was concerned that I'd end up with an uneven deck if I tried to plank it for the first covering, so I decided to break from the instructions and use some 1.5mm ply I had left over from another project.

Digital calipers were used to measure off the width at the front of each bulkhead and this was then marked out onto the ply, checking back and forth. Once the marks were made, I used a plan bent along the marks and had my son draw along the plank. This resulted in a nice smooth curve.
 

 

 
Sadly the ply wasn't long enough to go along the whole length of the hull, so the false deck ended up in three pieces, but it ended up a pretty near fit. A stanley knife worked well for cutting out the shape, and then a light sand along the edges to make sure it was a nice fit.
 

 

 
I was concerned that the curve of the deck would not be maintained where the deck parts joined, so I added some balsa supports between these bulkheads and sanded them down flush to the tops of the bulkheads.
 

 
Once it was done I took the opportunity to mark the following items onto the false deck. 
 
1. Mast positions
2. Deck furniture positions (cabins, hatches, companionway, etc...)
3. Mark the plank termination positions for the shift pattern ready for planking the deck.
 

 
I was pleased with how this went, but before I glued it in place, I wanted to make one more check (and I'm SO glad I did!). I drilled out the mast holes, to check the angles of the masts when stepped, and with the intention of using stub masts to help with locating the deck when I glued it in.
 
This test showed that the main mast hole was marked almost 10mm too far aft resulting in a crazy rake... far greater than on the plans. I'm not quite sure how this happened, but it did... (I made the false deck so it's definitely my bad and not the kit!) Anyway, I filed the hole forward until the mast was at the correct rake, then fitted a reinforcement piece underneath the false deck to complete a mast cutout in the correct position, filled the missing bit of wood in with wood filler (it's going to get covered up anyway, and the strength will eventually come from the reinforcement, planking, and mast collar), and tried it all in place again. This time, the rake is correct.
 
So, the deck has been glued in place with Aliphatic resin (carpenter's wood glue) and clips all round the bulkheads to maintain the curve of the deck both front to back and side to side... It's rock solid now, and will make a good solid base for the planking, with no chance of my stuffing it up
 

 
I've sanded the freeboard (bulwarks) to remove the superglue marks from the first planking, and filled them with wood filler ready to sand them really smooth. I didn't get the bulwarks as smooth as I ought to have in Ethalion and it came back to bite me, so I'm going to spend a bit more time on it this time. And as I type this the wood filler will hopefully be going nice and hard ready to be sanded back tomorrow.
 

 
So that's me up to date. 
 
Happy building, all
 
Rob

Hi all,
 
A little update to show progress. I've finished second-planking the port side, (and I'm a good way down the starboard side, too). There were a few moments of doubt along the way, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Here are a few pictures showing the really lovely lines that these working vessels had...
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I'm not bothered about the marking from the superglue, because it's all going to be covered up. But the superglue did make the whole job MUCH quicker. I went from 4 1/2 months on Ethalion, to under a month on Stefano from first plank, to this point.
 
Looking back I notice now that I hadn't sat the model on the stand properly, but thankfully nothing amiss happened. The stand is surprisingly sturdy, and a very useful part of the kit. Now... back to planking! I'm hoping to have the port side complete in the next couple of days.
 
Happy building
 
Rob

Thanks Bob
 
Not much progress to show but I have been working little by little on  the second planking. None of these planks are tapered but a single stealer was put in at the stern to help the run under the transom. I'm not a great fan of the beech(?) veneer. It's pretty splintery and not very forgiving but this hull will be painted so it's not really a big deal. Careful application with superglue seems to be working out okay.
 
I'm about half way down on the starboard side so far.
 

 

First planking
 
First I should probably say that I went back and added a rabbet at the bearding line, as on Ethalion, as I figured that would give the best chance of a neat termination for the planks at the stern post, once the second planking was in place.
 
The lime wood planks provided with this kit are lovely - really well cut and nice and easy to shape... even so, the stern transom of this ship is a challenge... 
 
Using an app called conecalc, I worked out the radius the plank would need to be bent to laterally to sit flat round the stern... it's pretty severe, and my first few efforts at bending the plank like that were dismal. I ended up using 3x1.5mm beech I already had in the end so that I could get the bend. And even with soaking, and using a rib-bending iron, it was still quite the task. 
 
The planks were added with superglue, and once the whole hull was first-planked, I painted watered down carpenter's glue (Aliphatic resin) over the hull to stick the planks together. This seemed to give a really nice solid base.
 

 
The rib-bending iron is great... in a matter of seconds, you can get something like the the result below (and the wood is dry from the heat before it goes onto the hull, so it isn't going to shrink, either...)
 

 
With carefully edge bending using the rib iron, and gently teasing the planks, I managed to plank half way down the hull, and also the garboard  strake and the two planks above without tapering any of them...  The rest was then filled by letting the planks lie as they wanted to.
 

 
Once the hull was closed up on both sides, a liberal coat of wood filler was added, and the hull sanded back to get a really smooth finish, ready for the second planking. The sternpost, and the strip that adds onto the bow? were also added now that the sanding was mainly done and they wouldn't get damaged.
 

 

 

 

 
After taking these photos, I went over the whole hull and sanded it down further, as I realised there was more filler left than I wanted, but it gives an idea of the result. It'll do for a first planking.
 
I've begun the second planking, but no photos to show yet. So that's me up to date.
 
Thanks for all the likes and for looking in.
 
Rob

The stern former
 
As with the bow, the stern is shaped using balsa formers. These are a little more tricky than at the bow, as it's one single piece that is entirely responsible for the eventual shape of the stern in all three dimensions.
 
It all begins with three identical balsa blocks of equal shape.
 
Again, I made a cad drawing of the plans given by MarisStella so I could take some measurements off it and put extra lines onto it. The extra lines showed where the balsa blocks should start and finish on the x, y and z axes. This enabled me to cut them down to rough shape in the vertical and horizontal planes before sticking them together.
 

 
I've tried to draw a picture of how I went about this... hopefully it gives some idea... basically the idea is to take away what you know WON'T be in the final shape one axis at a time, and then see what you're left with... when you've done that, you can start to take off the edges back to the curves you will eventually want.
 

 
As they say, the way to eat an elephant is slice by slice! When done this way the whole thing feels much more achievable.
 
The first wood I removed was the angle at the top - This forms the continuation of the line that runs along the tops of the bulkheads, and is not horizontal... it is higher at the stern than at the final bulkhead. (see 1 on the diagram.)
 
This was achieved by marking the difference in height from the plans, and then sawing off the majority and sanding flat with sandpaper laid on a flat surface. The slope can kind of be seen below:
 

 
Here are some more photos of progress... I marked the outline of the third balsa block - this is more than all that will be left of it once shaped, so why stick on the rest? It'll only need to be sanded or cut away... 
 

 
And here it is cut down and attached...
 

 
Then I marked the angle of the backside of the stern (the transom) - again, this is not vertical... the curve of the stern at the top of the block sticks out more than the curve at the bottom of the block... I started this shape by removing the excess straight across the stern.
 

 
Then, using a template made from the plans, I shaped the lower curve so that it was the right shape... (slowly and carefully, checking progress lots...) As I got closer I used a strip of paper pinned into the balsa to mark the line of the wale... 
 

 

 
And in this way, the shape gradually took form... Once it was close, I stuck it on to the bulkhead (using gravity to keep it in place as it stuck - which was either brave or possibly stupid, but I seemed to get away with it... ), hence the angle of this photo...
 

 
I noticed that the angle of the rear bulkhead could easily be wrong, so I used balsa blocks to wedge it up and make sure it stuck in at right angles to the false keel. (There are no dowels through this bulkhead to help you out! 
 
Final shaping was then done on the model.
 
Next up is first planking. But again, that will need a separate post.
 

Hi Guys,  My name is Tony Mobbs and my user name is mobbsie, I am currently a member of the forum but unfortunately fell by the wayside for various reasons, well for me its time to rejoin the fold and meet up with old friends again.  Previous builds are, Agamemnon, HMS Pickle, Bomb Vessel Granado, Viking longboat, Louise Steam Launch and a host of other ships. 
I don't have a build log at the moment but fully intend to if allowed, I say if allowed because I don't know if the regulators will accept me back into the forum, I hope they do.
My ambition is to build the HMS Surprise from Master and Commander fame, I'm awaiting the final development from Caldercraft, it's been several years in the development stage so should be near readiness, i'll have to contact John again.
Hopefully I'll be remembered by my friends and accepted back.  

Thanks everyone for your likes: always encouraging.
 
Over the three weeks since I last posted, I have been working on the planking below the wale.
 
I started by reading and re-reading the various articles on planking techniques in the hope that I might be able to make a better job than usual, even if most of the planks will be covered by copper plates.
 
I am using boxwood in the area above the waterline which creates a bit of a problem. The nearest boxwood strip to the kit walnut I could find in the UK is 4.5 x 0.7mm. The kit walnut that I will use below the waterline is a nominal 5 x 1.0mm but is actually 1.1 to 1.2mm thick. It will mean quite a bit of cutting in and sanding is required during finishing but I’m sure it will be OK.
 
The garboard strake was the first to go on, made from a strip of 8mm walnut shaping it fore and aft and finishing at 7.5mm in the centre.
 
After measuring the distance between garboard and wale at each bulkhead, I divided them into 5 bands using vinyl tape. The first band was divided into 6 strakes of 4.5mm boxwood and the other four into 5 strakes of 5mm walnut.
 

 
After a lot of re-adjustment, this was the nearest that I could get to fair lines.
 
The AotS shows the first six strakes below the wale are in top & butt but I decided that this was a complication too far for me and went with butt joints. It was slow work as every plank at the bow needed to be shaped.

 
A card template above and the first  spiled strip of boxwood for the bow below
 

Continuing with the boxwood
 
Boxwood nearly completed on the starboard side. A bit more to add at the stern.

 

 
Start of the walnut planking

 
The spiled walnut planks at the bow are cut from a 1mm sheet - and another thickness to add to the mix.
 

 

 
This is as far as I have got, with three bands of planking down from the wale nearly completed. As you can see a lot of sanding will be required to get the margins between walnut and boxwood level.
For the final two bands I will work upwards from the keel.
I find I can do 2 or 3 complete strakes per day so a couple of more weeks should see the planking complete, a milestone I am looking forward to. However that it means I will be moving on to coppering, something I have never done before but hope that it is easier than it looks.
 
David

Many thanks Rob for your feedback. Looking at your Diana, I take is a great compliment.
 
I have no affiliation with Original Marquetry, but I must say that their service and quality of wood is excellent. Ordered on Sunday arrived on Tuesday so no delay in planking above the wale.
 
 
Planking has proceeded slowly but after completing the first few strakes, I realised that I hadn’t allowed for setting back the edge of the planking around some of the sweep ports. Cutting half mm strips away from the edges was tricky but I think that they look ok. Cutting the ventilation scuttles at 4 x 2 mm was tricky too. These are also lidded but I haven’t lined them so I haven’t set back the planking from the edges. On reflection, this might be a mistake but if I change them, they will look too big.

 

 

 
Some spiling of planks around the bow was necessary to get them to sit anything like flush. I continued planking up to the level of the waist on both the port and starboard sides before pausing to consider the quarter deck gun ports.

 
The sheer strakes between the top of the gun ports and the gunwale at the waist are wider according to AotS and the one directly under the gunwale are joined with hooked scarf joints.
 
This is the unfinished planking above the wale which is looking a bit rough but I hope will clean up well before I move on to planking the rest of the hull.

 
Before then, I will be reading up on the many articles on planking techniques, particularly those by David Antscherl and an article called Simple Hull Planking Techniques for Beginners by Dirk De Bakker and Greg Brooker. The latter sums up my situation and needs pretty well.

The rudder straps are on! I was dreading doing this but It really wasn't that bad. I glued the straps on then carefully drilled for hours before putting some round head nails in place. No drill bits were harmed 👍

The rails on the other hand were not going on without a fight. I soaked and heat bent them several times but I still needed to nail it in place on the ship. I also cut them into two parts for ease of installation. 


Here is some of my home made 2mm anchor cable.  This is 6 meters long and took about a half hour.  You know it turned out right when the ends don't unravel.    

I'm back working on the Snake after a few months off from it, feels good to be back with fresh eye's.  I hope to finish this ship by summer so I have room for Chris Watton's HMS Sphinx, but that's just wishful thinking... 
 
I've added the shelves for the fore and aft platforms and am shaping them for installation. Of course there are a few things to be done before gluing them in. 


I've found some good colors for the rigging. This tan and brown thread I bought will work perfectly. I'm working on some cable-laid lines for the anchor and for the larger stays. They tend to take a while as you need to make 3-4 separate ropes first. 

Steering gear
 
Though steering wheel is itself fitting of quarterdeck, I made it at this moment because I want to confirm tension of tiller rope down from quarterdeck to upper deck and point of upper deck sliding foots.
 
Sliding foots are clearly can be seen on Victory today.
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-ships-wheel-on-hms-victory-at-the-portsmouth-historic-dockyard-28568636.html
 

 
https://andyandjudi.com/2017/07/10/hms-victory-portsmouth-historic-naval-dockyard/
 

 
AOTS Victory shows sliding foots are also fitted onto upper deck. Except heels of ladders down from fo’c’sle deck, quarterdeck and gangways, they will be last parts to be fitted onto upper deck in my building.
 
Base of sliding foot is 0.7 x 3 x 8.5 mm walnut and I rounded each edge. Sliding cover and rails of both sides are shaped as one part from 2 mm square walnut dowel and their lengths are 12 mm. These figures are referred to Goodwin’s “The Construction and Fitting”.
 
Those of upper deck are simplified shape, but for those of quarterdeck I add some details including rabbets of sliding cover to be hold into side rails、grooves between sliding cover and rails.
 

 

 
Wheels and their supports are upgraded. Decoration of forward support is made of 0.3 mm brass rod and Liquitex super heavy gel medium. Though it is apparently bigger than real one, I accept it considering my skill😅😅😅.
 

 

 
After constructions of these parts are finished, I dry fitted them into their places. I split quarterdeck baseboard into two parts at slightly starboard position of hatch opening. Tiller rope is spread with tweezers and passed through sliding foot on upper deck from starboard.
 

 

 

 
Depth of upper deck beam immediately aft of opening is thick because of rigidity, but I thinned it to show tiller rope more clearly.
 

 
After finishing dry fitting including rest of quarterdeck baseboard, poop deck baseboard and grating just before of ladderway opening,-I shed light there. Happily tiller rope and sliding foot are can be seen through opening. They may be able to seen well after fitting of ladder of this area.
 

 

 
Next, I want to start construction of fo’c’sle deck, quarterdeck and gangways.

Skid beams
 
Boat stowage method of wooden warships is one of major items which significantly changed through 18th century.
 
Model of 50 gun ship around 1714 shows boat stowed on spare spars hang on between fo'c'sle break and main bits.
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66357.html
 

 
Model of Victory in her original form around 1765 shows gangways are connecting between fo'c'sle and quarterdeck at slightly lower level than fo'c'sle and quarterdeck. Boat is stowed on skid beams on iron crutches projecting from inboard edge of gangways.
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66473.html
 

 
Although skid beams and boat are omitted, model of Queen Charlotte of 1789 shows almost same boat stowage method with Victory model, except gangways are raised to same height with fo'c'sle and quarterdeck.
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66516.html
 

 
Sectional model of 74 gun ship around 1795 shows significant change. Skid beams became permanent structural members of the ship and are placed below the gangways. Gangways themselves seem to be broader than ever.
https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?search=1&screenwidth=1280&pixperpage=50&searchtxtkeys=midship+sectional+model&lastsearchtxtkeys=Midship+Model&withinresults=&searchphotographer=&wwwflag=&lstformats=&lstorients=All+Orientations&captions=
 

 

 
Victory today in Portsmouth also has skid beams below the gangways, but details of them show not a few differences from 74 gun ship sectional models.
https://www.alamy.com/hms-victory-gun-deck-portsmouth-image212002530.html
 

 
While skid beams of sectional model have hanging knees, those of Victory today have no hanging knees. Instead many Victory reference books are showing skid beams are notched to slots of inner planks. Skid beam of former seem to be directly above of beams of upperdeck judging from skid beam pillars situating near the corner of coamings. OTOH many Victory reference books are showing there are no connection between upper deck beams and skid beams. Finally, pillars of sectional models are fitted to immediately outboard of coamings and those of Victory are fitted on coaming themselves.
 
I can't judge which method is most appropriate for Bellerophon. Considering her building time, her boat stowage method would be same as Queen Charlotte model. But there is also strong possibility that skid beams were altered to permanent structure during her long career. After some (or much?) thought, I finally decided to follow the method of 74 gun ship sectional model.
 
Skid beams themselves are laser cut parts of kit. Pillars are shaped from 2 mm walnut dowel. Total numbers of 12 pillars are required, 2 for each 5 skid beam, 2 for aftermost fo’c’sle deck beam. So I made simple jig from plastic.
 

 

 
I firstly tried making pillar from 3 mm dowel, but it seems to be slightly fat. Pillars shaped from 2 mm dowel seem to be slimmer than those of 74 gun ship sectional model. But those of Victory today also seem to be slim, so I decided to go on 2 mm dowel.
 

 
To placing skid beams directly above of pillars, I stack masking tape on upper deck, marked position of pillars, peel off it, stack it between rearmost fo'c'sle beam and foremost quarterdeck beam, then decided positions of skid beams with help of calliper to maintain equal intervals for both end of starboard and port.
 

 

 

 
Hanging knees are shaped from 2 mm walnut sheet.
 

 
Main course tacks and fore course sheets are tied to each cleat at this stage. Gasket coil like ones are separately made and CA glued there. Another end of each rope is passed through each sheave and hung on outboard, gasket coiled there until rigging stage.
 

 
Carlings are also added with 2 x 3 mm walnut. They are glued to just inboard of kit gangway baseboard so that I can broaden width of gangways later.
 
Hanging knees are also added to aftermost fo'c'sle deck beam and foremost quarterdeck beam. AOTS Bellona shows knee of former is thin and latter is thick. So I used 1.5 mm sheet for former and 3mm walnut for latter.
 

 

 

 

 
BTW, to my eyes afterend or break of fo'c'sle of kit design seems to be slightly rearward than it should be. I cut that area of fo'c'sle deck baseboard (approximately 1.5 mm width), aftermost fo’c'sle deck beam are glued to fit this position.
 
Although kit rigging plans show only ends of foretop yard braces are tied to main bit. But I added other rope coils to crossbars of main bits.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Ladders between upper deck and lower deck
 
Although kit contains ladder parts, they shows steeper slope than both of kit plan or Elephant plan. So I determined to scratch build them.
 

 
I don't have table saw, I made side carriages by laminating. I scanned kit plan and draw lines equal intervals with Adobe Illustrator again. They are printed and used as jig by gluing guide of 0.5 mm plastic strip.  I prepared jig only for one side, but I laminated horizontal strip with slightly longer length than required, another diagonal strip is glued onto another side of laminated components, then carefully divide them to 2 separated side carriage parts. Material of them are 0.5 x 3 mm maple strips. They are basically deck planking materials, but I used them because I have surplus numbers of them.
 

 

 

 
Treads are also 0.5 x 3 mm maple strips. Firstly length of uppermost and bottom tread determined by actual parts matching then glue them to side carriage.
 

 
Length of other treads are determined measurement between each side carriages with calliper.
 

 

 
Main ladderway is added with centre carriage by inserting other pieces of wood between each tread.
 

 
Completed ladders were stained and fitted between decks. Handrail stanchions are kit PE which is chemically blackened. It is difficult to fit them to lower deck. So I fitted them heel of side carriages with holding wood piece.
 
Handrail rope is prepared with excessive length. I placed one of lower pair of stanchions to its holder, rest 5 stanchions are reft free. I pass rope through holes of all 6 stanchions. One end of rope on fixed stanchion is knotted. 5 stanchions are fitted their places after ladder is located. Point to be knotted of another rope end is determined and this last stanchion is once removed, rope end are knotted, then finally this last stanchion are fitted to its holder.
 

 

 

 

Capstans
 
Capstans are basically made of kit parts. Firstly whelps should be glued with equal intervals around spindle. I divided length of circumference of spindle by numbers of whelp, namely six and prepared scale of this numerical value. They are drawn with Adobe Illustrator.
 

 
I rolled this scale to spindle then marked according to scale.
 

 
These marks are lengthened by using simple jig. Then whelps are glued carefully.
 

 

 
Aft capstan is almost straight built of kit parts but forward one is upgraded because they can be seen well through opening of waist. Chocks and drumhead top are added. Shape of chock is also drawn with Adobe Illustrator. 
They are cut from 1mm walnut strip. Then they are glued between whelps and shaped.
 

 



 
Disc slightly smaller than drumhead is cut from 1.5mm walnut and rounded to give slope then glued onto drumhead.
 

 
BTW, I removed round base plate of capstan because I already glued rectangle base plate onto deck.
 

 

 

18 Pounder Guns
 
As I posted previously, guns were specially 3D printed by one of my fellow modellers.
 
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/2926-hms-bellerophon-1786-by-fake-johnbull-amativictory-models-172-vanguard-kit/page/3/?tab=comments#comment-751146
 
Kit PE monograms are CA glued to guns, but I didn't use flintlock PEs because firing lanyards are lost from some of them. I sprayed primer, then sprayed Mr. Color semi gross black, and finally dry brushed with Humbrol silver.
 

 

 

 
Carriages are kit diecast parts. Although diecast carriage of Amati isn't best ones and much more superb carriage can be obtained through market or scratch built by oneself, they can be seen acceptable by applying paints and gun tackles.
 
It was hard task to open holes for eyebolts for gun tackles, but they were done by help of electric drill. Red paint is Humbrol enamel mixed with proportion suggested in kit instruction. Wheels are also painted with Humbrol mat black. Chemically blackened eyebolts are added after paints dried.
 

 

 
BTW, kit design is showing varying heights between deck level and gunport openings. Those of forward sections are higher, and those of lower sections are lower. As I posted previously heights of carriages are modified to protrude guns from centre of gunports.
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/2926-hms-bellerophon-1786-by-fake-johnbull-amativictory-models-172-vanguard-kit/?tab=comments#comment-81139
 
Gun tackle blocks are Amati parts, but their shapes are improved with PE saw and Urawa mini router.
 
Hooks are added to gun tackle blocks. They are represented by turning copper wire around strop rope, then twisted and finally bend to hook shape.
 

 

 

 

 
Eyebolt positions of inner planks of hull are determined by help of template.
 

 
Gun tackles are fully rigged for guns of midship sections because they can be seen well from opening of waist.
 

 

 
But those of each ends are simplified because they can't be seen well. Gun tackles are directly knotted and reeved between eyebolts of carriage and inner hull side, and finally small walnut pieces are CA glued to suggest blocks.
 

 

 

 
Gun tackle ends are separately coiled and glued to deck. They are omitted for aft section guns.
 

 

 

 
Along with 18 Pounders, cleats for main course tack and fore course sheet are also glued.
 

 
Sheave position of main course tack are altered according to suggestion of Alan.
 
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/16452-hms-bellerophon-by-flyer-victory-models-scale-172/page/4/?tab=comments#comment-627024
 

 

Anchor linings
 
Parts around anchor lining are ones of confusing terms in ship history. For example, Peter Goodwin depicts the part directly fitted to hull between main wale and chain wale as “anchor lining”, the part covering chain as “billboard”, and longitudinal part between them as “bolster”.
 
 
 
Other two images are I downloaded from the internet while ago, which I suppose scan from books of George F. Campbell and L. G. Carr Laughton. Former reverses usage of terms of Goodwin, and latter depicts whole parts as anchor linings.
 

 

 
For convenience, I will follow usage of term by Goodwin.
 
For determining their shapes, I referred Bellona coppered model.
 
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66299.html
 
Firstly, side elevating image of Bellona model are enlarged to fit 1/72 scale. Outline of anchor linings are taken from it.
 
Anchor linings are made of amarillo strips. They are straight forward building of amarillo strips, but bottom lining strip should be thinned to fit diminishing depth of "thick staff" above main wale. Once shaping done, it was dry fitted.
 

 
Rest of linings are roughly cut, dry fitted, determined outline referring enlarged Bellona side elevation image, and finally shaped.
 

 

 
In the case of Bellona model, anchor linings are also covering forward area of second gunport of lower deck. It was made of 1 mm walnut strip, but it also should be thinned partly to clear gunport hinge.
 

 
Bolsters are made of 3 mm walnut dowel. It also should be partly bored to clear preventer plates. Lengths of preventer plates are also shortened than other plates not to interfere with bolster.
 

 
Billboard of Bellona model are showing gentle S shaped curve viewing from fore and aft.
 

 
To represent it, I made billboard as lamination of 0.5mm maple sheet as baseboard and outer planks of amarillo and walnut. Firstly maple sheet is bent by steam and heat from kettle. Maple sheet can be bent to convex by applying steam and heat. S shaped curve can be formed by apply steam and heat to end of one side of the sheet, then reverse it and apply steam and heat to another end.
 

 
Outer planks are glued to be lined up with blackened wales and yellow plank between wales. Walnut strips are firstly glued then blackened by black dye and ebony colour Watco oil. Next glued amarillo strips.
 

 

 

 
One of problem of Bellona model is that upper edge and bottom edge of starboard billboard seems to be parallel...
 

 
but those of port one seems to be twisted to fit narrowing line toward bow of each level.
 

 
Image posted by Siggi52 are showing this twisting clearly.
 
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/196-hms-bellona-1760-by-sjsoane-scale-164-english-74-gun-as-designed/page/65/?tab=comments#comment-757479
 
I don't know which is correct, but twisted one seems to be more natural. To represent it, I twisted billboard lamination by putting pressure on my fingertips, but cracks occurred to maple baseboard. I repaired them with CA glue, but hindsight tells me that outer planks of walnut and amarillo should be also twisted before gluing onto baseboard.
 

 
Anyhow, I made up my mind to satisfy billboard repaired with CA glue. Fortunately repaired surface can't be seen from outboard.
 
 
 

 

 

 

Thank you for your comment.
 
Some more images seen from beakhead bulkhead opening.
 
 

Daniel,
Thank you for your comment and sorry for not updating my building log.
 
Although I don't have enough time to write English text at this moment, I have been posting latest status of my building to Twitter with Japanese text. So appreciated if you are enjoying them till I add new post to this topic.
 
https://twitter.com/fake_johnbull/status/1386226116659007489
 
I have almost finished upperdeck arming and fittings.
 

I've been busy!
 
Rigged the tackle for the tiller ropes

 
Then fitted the platforms and all the deck fitting except the guns.  Eagle-eyed will spot that I'm missing the pins from the bitts - there aren't enough in the kit to fill all the rails!  You can also see that I've followed my guru again and put copper 'sheet' on the bitts, and continued with the brass edging on  the rails.  I tried to take a panorama shot, but it was not good.  Instead, here is a set of pics scanning from forward, aft.
      
 
    
 
And one in all its glory
 

 
Of course, I know where the mistakes are, but I am delighted with how she looks.  Now to make 12 more sets of breeching ropes, assemble 14 more guns and then mount them all.  Might have to install the gunwale rails after that.
 

Working on the deck fittings.
 
The gratings were fiddly, but fun.   Sadly the supplied walnut strip for the framing was split, and the replacement I ordered was very pale, essentially the same colour as the deck.  So I stained it a kind of teak colour, that makes sanding to fit and end-grains difficult, so I mitred the corners.  I have also added a galley flue and rearranged the path of the cable.  The flue is solid, though, as has been remarked elsewhere, it usually sported a cap when not in use; I imagined my cap being of sheet copper



 
Next, the companionway, wheel, a possible binnacle (from Vanguard Models, badly stained, but a decent colour match) and the capstan.  Petrejus tells me that capstan heads were often covered in brass sheet - so mine is painted to look that way. I was not convinced by the PE wheels, or that Snake would have had a double wheel.  So I glued the two together, back to back, making something more substantial and also allowing me to paint it and keep a brass hub and rim showing



 
Here they are roughly in place
 


 
Finally, pinrails and belaying pins installed.  Again Petrejus reports that the rails were often edged in brass to protect from wear and add some decoration - so mine are.  I read in Steel that belaying pins were 16" long, or 1/4" at 1:64 ie 6mm, so the kit-supplied materials are not ridiculously small, though they are somewhat over diameter. I have seen pictures of pinrails bolted to the bulwarks, so I have borrowed from that by using round-headed black pins instead of hidden wire to give strength.
 


 

A little bit of blackening.
I'm moving onto the deck furniture now, and thought I  would start by installing the ringbolts (largely for the guns, but in other places too) while nothing else was in the way.  There are 200 of these provided, in nice shiny copper.  So that's 200 tiny pieces to be painted black.  And there are 4 eyebolts and then 5 little photo-etched (PE) brass pieces for each gun.  So the guns alone have 162 tiny pieces to be painted black.  I also need to decide what to do with the gun barrels.  So I thought I would try some chemical blackening of the kind described here.
 
To stop the small pieces drifting off on their own I tied them onto small loops of fishing line.  The supports for the guns need to fit in slots pre-machined in the gun carriages.  Joy-oh-joy every piece of brass is alittle over-size so needed to be filed down fore and aft
 
 
I set up in the laundry.  Across the back you can see: (a) pH minus ie sodium hydrogen carbonate, (b) sodium bicarbonate, (c) water and (d) John Wardle black antiquing solution.  Across the front: the columns for the display board, the small parts for the guns, the guns themselves, two sheets of PE, a pair of wooden tongs (most metals are a bad idea in one or more of acid/bas/blackening solution), and a measuring spoon (about 3 table spoons  - 45 ml - in 250 ml of water is about right for both acid and base.  Blackening is a 10-fold dilution)

 
And how did it go?  Great at first on the small gun parts:

 
But the guns, no so much:

 
You can just see in the middle one of the guns came out solid black, but most have only a few spots of black acne.  This matches the descriptions on the blackening page ,linked above, of lacquer coating on the brass.  So after soaking in iso-propanol (acetone is not readily available in the UK, it seems) I scrubbed them with steel wool and gave them some extended acid treatment.  After neutralising and washing, I then painted on neat blackener and then dumped them in the dilute solution.  For about 15 of the guns the results were good.  The others needed a repeat.

 
And here is everything that's fit to show:
 

 
The PE worked perfectly.  The brass columns not at all - including on the parts that had been extensively filed, so not a lacquer problem.  This being a selenium solution, that reacts with the  copper in the brass (see @bartley's post here) I wonder if this is a particularly low copper brass.  I did get a little bit of antiquing, which I think I quite like.
 
As also explained in the links I've given, the blackening is microscopic selenium metal particles that are not chemically bonded in place.  I messed around for quite a while exploring rigging options handling one of he guns extensively.  As the following shows, it doesn't look so black anymore:

 
I picked the least impressive of the 18, and perhaps bronze would be ok.  I will give this one another bath in the solutions.  Of the fittings, only the eyebolts in the bulwarks were blackened all the other parts were painted from an earlier mock-up.  They look fine to me.
 
The kit recommends 0.75 mm neutral thread, which looked too skimpy.  Lavery in "The ship of the line vol 2" quotes 7" circumference for breeching on a 32 lb (long) gun, which would be 0.88 mm diameter at 1:64.  I  didn't have any 1 mm neutral so tried black for size - I've ordered some 1 mm neutral.  Because the cascabel does not have a loop for the breeching (as was quite common with carronades) I'm going to imitate a (ahem) cut splice.