Beef Wellington

Hi Mike, really nice progress on the bulwarks, you've captured the shape very nicely.  Looking forward to seeing the rest of the yellowheart and ebony go on.

Nice progress Mike,really nice work.  Interested how framing up the the bulwarks goes for you.  I'm sure it takes extra time to get right but help but feel that the planking will be a little more satisfying for some strange reason.  The waterway sure is hefty on the Morgan, guessing its the super heavy industrial design to cope with all the whale gore.

Mike - you really are a prolific builder, obviously I'm pulling up a seat!

Hi John, your Pickle is looking very nice.  My suggestion would be to redo the mast, and instead of using a joining a separate section, just file down the dowel to the appropriate size.  Aside from visually wanting the mast and topmast to be parallel, I suspect that this would be a potential area of weakness that may prove to be a problem when you come to rig the backstays.

I secured the end of my serving with the simple expedient of a needle pulling the thread through the rope where I wanted the serving to start, and then tying a simple knot.  Diluted white glue was used as well over it.
 
 

The Captain is not happy with the progress and decided to come and inspect the build. I promised that we will double our efforts....

 

 

 

John
As Tom R. (TomShipModel) mentioned, I have been using Elmer’s white glue diluted with water (1:1) for securing knots. This is the first time I used this Liquitex medium. As Tom R. Said, it can leave a milky residue on dark rope where the diluted PVA does not.
 
that makes a great lead in to my next picture. After sleeping on it I decided I did not really like the dark bolt rope. Just a little to much contrast to the sail... almost distracting. So I took some of the rope I make for running rigging and dipped it into some Special Walnut stain and what came out is much more to my liking. The new rope is obviously the sail on the top. It’s a little more work but I am much happier with it. The lower one is Coats and Clark thread for buttons and craft.  The color is Chona  Brown which is almost identical to my standing rigging.  


Okay, I have beaten my bolt ropes to death. Time to run with my decision and go forward!  I am going to replace the dark with the lighter rope. Luckily it is only on 2 small sails. The ones in the picture are royals. Doing a lot of one step forward and 2 steps back lately. 🤔
 
Thanks to everyone for their input. 
 
Tom

I changed the pace a bit and started construction on the sails. There are 27 including all the staysails. I intend on furling the main and fore course sails so as not to obstruct the deck too much. Possibly the fore stay, lower main and mizzenmast staysails as well. Not sure about those yet. 
 
i borrowed a technique from fellow CT club and MSW member Ron Neilson aka Hollowneck on this forum.  He gave a demonstration at the Northeast Joint show in New London back in 2019... someone at the show filmed it and posted it on YouTube. 
 
So far I have the base construction for all the sails completed. Now I need to add the linings, bolt ropes and crinkles. Then I can bend them to the yards and start assembling the yards to the masts. Sounds simple but that is a ton of work and will take quite a bit of time. 
 
Below are some pics of a few steps of the sail construction. I did take pics of each step and may put together and post (when I find the time) a more in depth tutorial of what I did. 

Here is the paper cutout with seam lines done with colored pencil.
 

A piece of painted silk span was then attached to the paper on both sides with spray adhesive. On one side the silk span was cut to the exact size of the paper base. The other side was cut oversized to be folded over the edge to hold the forming wire and act as tabling. 
 

Inserting the annealed wired along the edges. This will allow me to form the sail to get a billowed effect. This was done by folding the silk span edge over the edge of the sail while capturing the wire underneath. 
 

Here is the finished fore top gallant sail awaiting linings, bolt ropes and cringles. 
 
time for more research and learning as I go. Good thing this is a hobby without a deadline as this project is taking forever. Half the time actually building and half the time figuring out how things worked and what to do next. I guess that is the “scary” part of doing your first scratch build. 😜👍
 
Tom

Crowsfeet contd.
 
Finished rigging the crowsfeet this morning. I think they've turned out reasonably well, and without pulling the stays out of line too much - to my eye at least.


After they passed down through the last starboard hole in the tops, the crowsfoot lines were tied off to their adjacent loops under the rims. In the photo the spare ends of the lines are awaiting trimming. The crowsfoot tackle was tied off with a couple of half hitches below the block on the stay, and the free end seized to the stay with fly tying thread:
 

I tried to keep the crowsfoot line in reasonable tension as I wove it through the holes in the top and the euphroe block, but that wasn't easy as the line was coated in beeswax and tended to slip back through the holes. One trick I found helpful was to pinch the line between my fingers each time I passed it through the euphroe. This imparted a sharp 'V' shape to the line which tended to hold (presumably because of the beeswax) and prevented the line slipping back through:
 

The beeswax caused one minor problem, part of which can be seen round some of the rim holes in the previous photo. It tended to scrape off, leaving a deposit on the top and also on some of the line itself. This was easily fixed using a hot air gun on its lowest setting (a hot air gun designed for craft projects, not paint stripping!) which melted the loose beeswax back into the line and rendered it invisible.
 
One final point worth sharing, partly to plug my favourite extra-hands tool but also to emphasise how careful you need to be when threading the line. On the foremast crowsfeet I managed to damage the line by catching it on a tool I'd carelessly left lying nearby. Needless to say you need to avoid catching the line on the ship as well - I found it very easy to snag guns, channels and other protrusions when I let my concentration slip. Anyway, I had to attach a new line to the euphroe block, and thanks to good old quadhands I was able to do this without removing the block and its tackle from the stay:

And yes, I know my rigging looks a mess but that's because I don't like to finally tension up lanyards until all the relevant elements are in place and I can make sure all the forces and counterforces in the rigging are balanced, hence the spare lines all over the place. It'll all come good in the end, I hope😬
 
Topmast shrouds next, I think.
 
Derek

Love the "look" of her Joe, those shots really highlight not only your focus on the detail but also the way you've tied everything in together and achieved a very realistic scale look.  Definitely something to aspire to.

Mort - so glad you've decided to start a build log, will be very interested to follow your progress.  Can't wait for the pictures!

Hi John, your Pickle is looking very nice.  My suggestion would be to redo the mast, and instead of using a joining a separate section, just file down the dowel to the appropriate size.  Aside from visually wanting the mast and topmast to be parallel, I suspect that this would be a potential area of weakness that may prove to be a problem when you come to rig the backstays.

Thanks to everyone who clicked "like"  -- it's comforting to know I haven't been entirely forgotten.
 
Great to hear from you, BE.  I'm with you entirely on having as many electrical outlets as possible:  I like to have them no more than 4 ft apart.  My plan is to get two circuits wired at 120v (I'm still in the States) with 20 amps apiece to cover all the basic power tools, and two other circuits at 220/240 v dedicated to the saw and dust collector.  Right now, though, I'm just trying to get my hand back into the build.  Last night I was rooting around in my wood supply and found 2 masts I'd made in Oklahoma.  I have no recollection of working on them.
 
One disappointment came a few months ago when I was using my milling machine to cut a small mortise.  As I began lowering it for the cut, the turning knob fell off.  Then I noticed that the 3 knobs for the X-Y table were also badly bent.  Who knows what happened, but I haven't been able to get it working at all.  As long as I've had it, it's mostly been the cause of bad language on my part, but it did help with some delicate cuts.  I've started looking at the Proxxon mill.
 
Here is my young apprentice, Winkie:
 

 
I'm off to cut cheeks.
 
Martin

The Decking
                    
So, using the Three Butt Shift System, I completed the decking, leaving a small space between each plank.
I then finished off my “imitation” fittings by drilling the appropriate holes.
 
Finally to the finish. Based upon a recommendation by a Forum member, I made up a batch of plaster filler and coloured it with black acrylic paint
.
I had tried this method on the lower deck – and perhaps because of the confines of the space hadn’t been too happy with the amount of colouring left behind. So, I lost my nerve and only coloured to a mid-grey !!
 
Using various tools, I applied the mix and ensured that all the gaps were filled both between the planks and my imitation fitting holes.
 
Quickly moving on, I cleaned and scraped the deck and finally sanded the whole lot down with fine sand-paper and finished off with 600 grade. Once all was smooth, a quick wipe-off and then a couple of coats of protective non-gloss varnish.
 
Normally in the past, when I have used varnish before, the varnish has really brought out the colours of the wood.
 
However, this varnish didn’t do that and so therefore the contrast between my caulking lines and “fittings” are somewhat lost. Still, not too bad for a first attempt!!
    
You can see the decking in the following picture and will also note that the transom is already fitted – I’ve described the transom fitting below.
 

Deck Planking complete looking from above the Bow
 
The Inner Bulwark planking
 
The Inner Bulwark planking was then laid followed by a lot of trimming and sanding around the gunports. Finally the tops were planed and sanded back to the appropriate height.
 
The Transom
 
If you have read my log before, you will have noticed that I was not too happy with the way the transom was taking shape – and I was correct!!
 
Having cleaned the ends of both the decking and the 1st,  2nd planking and inner Bulwark planking, I tried to fit the transom piece. I found that it didn’t fit, in fact there was a least a 1 cm gap. So using a waste piece, I spent ages shaping a filler piece. Once fitted then quite a lot of sanding and filing to make things look ship-shape (excuse the pun!!).
 
In the picture you will see the darker piece of wood at the bottom of the transom which is my filler..
 

The Transom is finally complete
 
 
 
 
 
Finishing off
 
With the transom finally fitter, I then had to plank the inside of the transom. With that done it was time to paint the inner bulwarks. I must admit that I did for once make life easy for myself here as I painted the planks before fitting them. Now, it was just a case of touching up here and there and also painting the gun-port sills.
 

The Inner bulwarks are completed
 
 
 
Painting and finishing the Hull
 
So, with the carpenters gone for the moment it was time to get in the painters.
 
Whilst the painters were busy, I used masking tape and copper paint to try and “straighten up” the water-line at the edge of the copper-plating. Not too bad I think, this is now actually starting to look like a real ship!!!
 

Hull painting complete - looking from above
 

Hull painting complete - looking from Starboard Bow
 
 
The ship is named
 
And so it came about that on this day after a lot of painting and layout work, the good ship Pickle had her name put in place – and the ship builders left in good spirits for a cup of tea !!!
 

Hull painting complete - the Stern view and name

Copper Plating Starts
 
Before starting the plating, I had to draw the waterline. I used the instructions and the jig provided with the kit to raise the bow slightly and I now had the waterline.
This shot also shows the completed Stern-Counter as described above and you can also see the small area that I had to use filler for. 
 

The Waterline
 
I was not looking forward to the next part – i.e. the copper plating, as it seemed like a big slow job. Actually, once I had worked out what to do, it was easy. I used thick standard super-glue and had one side done within 2 hours (excluding the shaping of any filler tiles that I needed near the bow or the water-line).
As you will see, I added small cut-offs shaped with a fine metal file to complete the curve around the stern.
If you look to the centre of the ship, you will see that the plates run straight. The actual waterline curve runs about 2mm above these plates and I am wondering if I should spend hours and hours filing tiny slivers of copper to make the curve. The instructions state that I can also use copper paint to complete this, but I’m wondering if I should just leave things as they are……
 

Plating completed - looking from the Bow
 
I now completed the bow plating and got so carried away with the process that I didn’t notice that I had gone way over the waterline. It wasn’t until a plate didn’t lie correctly as it was now half over the black strake that I realised what I had done !!! Thank goodness for the Black Strake is all I can say. The way I was going I would have ended plating halfway up the mast before I had noticed !!
 
So, I removed the excess tiles quickly before the glue really set. If you look closely, you can still see the glue marks where I had to remove the plates. Duuuhh !! So, hopefully those marks will be removed by a little sanding prior to painting.
 

Plating completed - looking from the Stern
 
 
 
 
Warnings about using Super-Glues
 
In finishing, I would mention one warning to any new modellers out there.
 
You will come across warnings to use masks when using the super-glues. The warnings will tell you that the super-glues can affect your breathing/lungs etc. You may think – yes, right health and safety gone mad again - and ignore the warnings.
 
Please don’t ignore the warnings and get a mask!!
 
After the first 20 or so tiles I finished for the evening and I ended up with a really tight chest and really bad cough the next morning. So, I found my mask, and used it all the next day and even so, my chest wasn’t too good and I was really quite breathless and coughing again the next morning. So the mask that I used was actually a dust protector one, such as to be worn when doing a lot of sanding etc. etc. and I thought that this would have been good enough. WRONG AGAIN.
 
So now I have to find a shop that sells the correct masks – any ideas of masks out there?? Has anyone else had these problems? Funny thing is, I did use standard super-glue when fixing the 2nd planking and didn’t have any reaction what so ever. It must be this thick super-glue that’s the problem, and of course you can’t small anything so don’t realise what you are actually breathing in….          
 
Next Steps
 
Once I get my mask, I will finish the tiling of course and then I make a start on the upper-deck. This means a lot of cutting away of the original tops of the bulkheads which should be real fun!!
 
 
Copper Plating Completed
 
The Copper Plating is finally completed. As you will see, the finishing line is not good, but a little fine-tuning with a file and once the hull painting is complete it should be OK.
 
The finish is quite difficult, especially as you end up having to glue tiny pieces of copper to fill any gaps and it doesn’t look too clever – oh well!!
 

Plating complete looking from the Port Bow
 

Plating complete looking from the Port Stern

Main Mast
 
Still avoiding the deadeye strops, I made a start on the masts.
 
I started with the main mast. This is supposedly cut from the provided 6mm dowel. Trouble is, the dowel varies from 6.2 to 6.8 mm. I guess I have no option other than to sand for hours by hand to get the mast down to the correct diameter.
 
I then noticed that my planking had been too generous around the mast step so out came my file and I carefully sanded away until I could get the mast to fit. I was shocked at first when I saw the resulting mast angled the way it was but after checking with the plans, I blew a huge sigh of relief as I realised that this was how it was supposed to be!!
 
The fun and games continued when I found I had to drill a hole down the centre of the dowel and again with the 4x4 mm walnut. An easy job for those of you with bench drill rigs but by hand?? I had a practice run but the holes weren’t dead straight. After a lot of rummaging in the garage, I dug out an old table vice and a rusty set square. Setting the vice on the table (sorry, it’s a work bench!) and clamping the dowel, I then stood the set square as a guide and slowly re-drilled the hole. I think. I finished by drilling the hole in the walnut upper mast section, too small to be worth clamping so I did this by hand as best I could.
 
Moment of truth time, I tried to fit the two pieces together and found they really didn’t align as the top section veered off at an alarming angle. I took a closed look at the two sections and found that my cutting wasn’t 100% true and had left a slight angle which wasn’t really noticeable before. Out with a fine file and attempted to level things off and then I glued everything together holding the upper section as straight as I could. After trial-fitting fitting the mast, I thought everything looked OK from the bow: 
 

 
 
However, looking at the mast from the starboard side, I saw that I had produced a fine mast rake, perfect in a racing yacht but I have a feeling it's not appropriate for Pickle. However, I don’t really think I can change this so that’s the way it’s going to have to stay unless anyone has some bright ideas??
 
Hopefully, when I add the upper mast and cross trees it won't look too bad. The difficult bit is going to be to get the fore-mast looking exactly the same!! 

 
 

They are still used today as a command flag for officers of flag rank and for Commodores.  As shown above, the flag for a Vice Admiral is reversed as the red spot (or 'ball') should be on the same side as the hoist.  A Rear Admiral would have an additional ball in the quadrant below below, and an Admiral would have none (!).  A Commodore would have a broad pennant (meaning 2 points) of the same design as above with a single ball.

They are still used today as a command flag for officers of flag rank and for Commodores.  As shown above, the flag for a Vice Admiral is reversed as the red spot (or 'ball') should be on the same side as the hoist.  A Rear Admiral would have an additional ball in the quadrant below below, and an Admiral would have none (!).  A Commodore would have a broad pennant (meaning 2 points) of the same design as above with a single ball.

After a few weeks of planking and a little bit more sanding the hull is smooth!
A smooth substrate  for the second planking.
That will start in a few days....
For now pictures.
I don't make any stealers or drop planks because you don't see a thing about it!
Just the easy way 🙂
 
Sjors
 
 

And here I am 8 months later.  There was an unbelievable amount of work involved simply in getting the new house organized, and the pandemic hasn't helped.  After I got to a point where I could begin to think about modelling again, I had to set up a shop/boatyard somewhere.  This house has a large basement and a very large garage, but neither has adequate power.  The garage is heated and insulated, it has better light, and in the warm weather I can open the door and let my dog (a rescue who is still afraid of just about everyone) hang out.  That became my choice:
 

 
The workbench I made in the autumn, it's just construction grade lumber but will do the trick for a while at least.  I hope that over the next several months you'll see the overall area improve as I paint the walls and figure out something to lay over that hard tool-damaging cement floor.
 
One setback came when I unpacked the Fly.  Both it and the Rattlesnake made the trip just fine, but the Fly stayed in its shipping container until just about a month ago.  I kept it in the basement thinking that it would be safe from all the jostling and re-arranging we'd been doing.  My guess is that the crew who installed the central air system might have bumped into the crate, and the result was that when I carried the crate upstairs I heard a sickening rattling inside.  Here's what I saw when I took the top board off:
 

 
That's a serious list.  Luckily, none of the delicate details were damaged -- it was only the keel that snapped off, and I can easily glue that back on, though I doubt I'll be able to use the mounting posts again to display it.
 

 
Now to work:
 
A few pieces of deck furniture remain to be constructed, but I think it's time to start on the masting and rigging.  I have a bag of birch dowels, but they are all too short to serve as masts.  So I got some birch from the Lumberyard which I can cut down to narrow square stock for the masts and spars.  I've got the foremast shaped, and am now working on the mainmast.  Here I'm cutting the area for the cheeks:
 

 
I'd like to use my Proxxon lathe for these, but I don't have the extension bed, and the main mast anyway is too long for the regular bed.  Once I finish the basic shaping of this mast, I'll move on the the mizzen, and then upward.
 
Cheers to all,
 
Martin

Ratline Action Continues ☺️  Photo this time as I've something to actually show !  Distance between them is equal to 14'' scaled and Stretchers will be added when they are finished to avoid knocking it as I tie my Clove Hitches..
 
E
 
As Ever Thanks For Stopping By Folks
 
 

The last superstructure, the hangar 

So some weathering and leads added using denier lines 

Updates!! The base and sea has progressed a lot, and the model as well. Photos are not good, the sea gloss is not very visible here. I'll try to take new photos in the morning.