Beef Wellington

Post Fourteen
 
Gunwales
 
The Gunwales are laser cut Pearwood and what a delight they are.
 
Finely detailed and incorporating the thole pin sockets they were a good fit along the sheer line.
I had left the thwart brackets long to butt the gunwale against and they perfectly position the strips.
I use ca spots to secure them to the boat.
 
Atop the Gunwales are fitted the Splash boards at the bow and stern.
 
Altho’ these are a mere 1.5mm deep Chris has managed to include an engraved pattern on the face to reflect the mouldings that often featured on these parts.
 
The splash boards require a little bending to suit the run of the Gunwale particularly at the bow, and then they were pva’d into place.

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Painting these intricate areas is a time-consuming exercise; lay a coat down, photo it, recoil in horror at the macro, sand using thin sanding sticks and fine paper, repeat the exercise. 😉
 
 
Great value for money these bijou offerings from Chris, where else can you get endless hours of pleasure and pain for a mere Twenty-five quid. 🙂
 
 
Lovin’ this kit. 👍
 
 
B.E.
08/02/21
 

A little light relief:
 
Stern Facia Knees.  Quite the easiest installation to date.  Angles easy to sand, dab or two of CA, and it's done.

 
Side Steps and Fenders. Keeping the steps aligned was a challenge, but not really a great one.  The Fenders I made entirely from 4x2 walnut strip, rejecting the pair (not six?!) provided in 2 mm ply.  Took the radical decision that in my work-a-day ship the 1st Lieutenant would not be paying for yellow ochre paint on parts to be rubbed against quays, boats and other surfaces, or stamped upon by tarry feet.  So all are work-a-day black.  I'm pleased to have them visible.

 
Fitted the rudder.  A modest challenge since the white-metal castings varied from fair to poor, but most importantly varied.  The length of the pins on the pintles needed to be trimmed, the spikes on the gudgeons were elliptical, and the holes in the gudgeons needed drilling out.  Squared-up the cutouts on the ruder first, and then glued the pintles in, snug in the top corners of the cutouts.  Clamped the rudder in place and then marked a level on the sternpost giving the bottom of each pintle, so the top of each gudgeon.  Fixed the top gudgeon: drilled for the locating pin 1.5 mm lower than the marked level.  Glued the gudgeon.  Checked for alignment.  All good, repeated for 2nd, 3rd and 4th.  Naturally everything was fine until the last one - as I hurried to get done by lunch.  Hole too hight, cutut too short, locating pin snapped.  Had some lunch, then carefully remedied.

 
But now onto some serious stuff.  Here's a glint of copper:

Main mast added 

Finally I have decided my Hood is finished. I started a little more than year ago with good progress in the beginning but gradually I lost interest. I hate to say it but I have mixed feelings about this Trumpeter kit. Some of it is excellent but parts are not very good considering the age of the kit and the price. It is a "out of box build". Maybe with some extra details it would be better?  Never the less, here she is. I did a very simple diorama just for fun using toilet paper, white glue and mixes of acrylic paints in black, white green and umber. At least it gives life into the model. Does she not look sleek and mean?
 

 

 

 

 

 
Best regards
 
Henrik

Made some more progress.  Got the final 10 AA guns installed, along with some ammo crates and other assorted items.  This one in particular was fun:
 
 

 

 

 
I ended up spraying a coat of Future so I can start the wash and weathering process.  Here are some shots of what it looks like.  I always cringe when I post these, and have to remind myself that they are taken at high magnification:
 

 

 

 

 

 
On the final stretch.  Thanks for looking in!
 

Fair but if work required on the bridge section, I still need to work the arials a bit. 

Post Twelve
 
Making wood out of brass.
 
 
I did think about replacing the decking board etch with planks but decided to keep the etched version as it matched the bow and stern sheet gratings.
 
After a thorough cleaning with soapy water, scrubbing, and sanding, followed by an acid dip, I chemically blackened the parts which will give a better surface for painting.
 
Having given the etch a base coat of Humbrol 93 I applied a thin streaky coat of Humbrol 94, followed by a dry bushing of sand yellow weathering powder.

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Between the boards I ran diluted black/grey water-based paint, and gave the whole thing a wash of dark brown weathering powder immediately wiped off.

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I spent a fair bit of time fiddling with the gratings / boards to get a fit I was happy with.
The gratings should fit above the boards, and I added support timbers where the gratings meet the boards.
 

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I also used my Muirneag Skipper to check the relative heights of the stern sheets and grating.
 

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It is reassuring to note that the scale figure confirms the  correct  height of the internal fittings.
 
 
Well done Chris 👍
 

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These are just the temporary thwarts used to check the positioning.
 
As can be seen I have decided to part paint the Yawl as I quite liked the combination of colour contrasting with the Pear-wood natural finish.

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I used Light Ivory (Admiralty Paints) for the lower hull, and Flat Red (Vallejo) for the Gunwales and internal planking down to the stringer line.
 
The remainder will be the natural Pearwood finish enhanced with wipe-on-poly.
 
The kit suggests a more simplified approach of painting the bottom white up to the wale which is a perfectly acceptable scheme, particularly for later period boats, but I prefer to have the contrast of the natural wood.

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The waterline was gauged by eye and by reference to bow and stern points on a yawl plan.
 
 
 
Still a way to go with the internal fittings.
 
 
B.E.
06/02/21

1:48 HMS Granado ‘Cross Section’
CAF Model
Available from CAF Model for $325.00
 

 
The Granado, a bomb-vessel that was originally fitted out as a sloop (and ended her life as a sloop, also) was thought to have been designed by Thomas Slade. She is definitely a subject which has proven quite popular over the last 20yrs, with POB kits of this released by Amati etc. CAF Model’s intention to create a POF of this model was met with much interest, but before an eventual release of a full hull model, they have released a cross section kit in the same 1:48 scale. For only a section of a complete vessel, the box for this release is quite heavy and still of a reasonable size. Packed into a slimline corrugated box with a Granado label affixed to the lid, the kit reached me in the UK wrapped in a thick layer of extra card to protect it and reached me unscathed. 

Tom at CAF Model sent this kit minus two small sheets of parts which are now en-route to me, as he wanted MSW to be able to feature this as soon as possible. When those parts arrive, I’ll update this article with those extra photos. I quite like innovative features in model kits, and we’ve certainly got that here with the unique (at least I’m pretty sure!) building jig that accompanies Granado. Remember, that like all my reviews, this is an ‘in-box’ review and is designed to show you the contents of a kit as it comes, with any observations etc. How a model builds will be dependent on various other factors, but I will be featuring this as a build log on MSW in the coming days. 
 
CAF kits now have a break seal on them that needs to be cut through before opening, and when the lid is up, this quite heavy box can be seen to be totally chock-full of parts and other components. This kit has four heat-shrunk packs of timber in both laser and CNC cut types, a pack of strip wood, a box of detail components, a box containing the build jig, two sheets of rolled plans, and an instruction manual in a sleeve, also containing a small fret of photo-etch parts. 

I’m not too sure what timber this model is made from, but it has a nice pale-yellow hue and a very fine grain that’s certainly akin to some of the fruit timbers I’ve used over the years. As stated, all the parts sheets are sealed in shrink wrap. This is quite thick and needs a sharp knife to break through. Many of the parts sheets are just a few inches long, ranging from some quite thick sheets, to one which is just a veneer. Most are CNC cut and also pre-shaped on a multi-axis machine. 
 

Two similar packs to this are included in the parts total, and all contain exclusively CNC-cut/routed parts. The steel rule in the photo will give a good idea of the size of these sheets.
 

Here you can clearly see the CNC routing and the extra shaping on some parts. Also note the laser engraving too, for the bevelling lines. These lines are also engraved on the rear of some of these sheets. All sheets are clearly numbered with laser-engraved marks too, but the actual parts numbers will be checked against a part plan in the manual. This helps to save precious production time as engraving the sheet would doubtless add extra expense to the modeller. 
 


The fames for the model (18 in total), are constructed in the same manner as their real counterparts, and also include the ‘bends’ in them that were typically seen in vessels of this period. This is where the CNC routing comes into effect, producing those complex shapes for the modeller, saving not just time but also the complications that result from recreating such parts by hand. To be able to position these frames against each other accurately, a series of temporary resin inserts are also included. We’ll see those shortly.
 



Here you can see the breakdown of the frames into the various components including futtocks and chocks. A nice enhancement would be to use something that would represent fastenings in the complete frames…maybe black fishing line/filament which would look like nail heads.
 


Deck beams are pre-cut to shape, including rebates for deck support timbers etc.
 


More frame timbers with their engraved position/bevelling parts. Here you can also see the frame sections (top) which form the bottom of the frames that sit upon the keel.
 



These photos give an excellent idea of the CNC shaping of the most complicated timbers, allowing this to be a nice introduction into POF modelling, whilst removing what would be the most frustrating elements. 
 

Two longer packs include more CNC-machined/routed parts, but also a series of laser-cut sheets. 
 

Clearly seen in this photo are keel parts, knees and parts for the gun mount. 
 


And now some laser-cut wood! One thing you won’t need to worry about is shaping any planks, especially internally, where that is a little more complicated. Granado is planked internally and externally, on one side only, giving the viewer the ability to see a complete hull on one side, and skeletal on the other. You will also see cannon carriage parts here too.
 

This is the last pack of timber parts, again comprising both CNC and laser cut elements. 
 



More planking here, and also parts comprising the gun deck and hatch covers. Sheet 1A is a veneer. These appear to be facing parts for at least two frames. 
 

This is a highly prefabricated kit, making it perfect for that intro to POF, as can be seen from more pre-shaped planking etc. Whilst a gentle sanding of all laser parts is a good idea to remove any surface heat marks, you would need to see how the edges look when together as far as the char goes. Instead of using this for ‘caulk’, it could be a good idea to remove this char and simply use a pencil to represent caulk, as it’s less stark. 
 





The largest box inside this kit contains that unique feature I mentioned earlier. That is a clear acrylic building jig. Not only does this take over from the traditional ply jig we are used to seeing, but it’s also engraved so you can check alignment from every conceivable angle. This is assembled using short screws which also fasten into a series of specially cast resin blocks which keep everything square. The jig itself is a work of art. It’s a shame it’s disposable. However, more acrylic parts are included for a final display stand, engraved with the ship’s name. All acrylic parts are protected with a layer of peelable film.
 


The second and last box contains all the various fittings etc. 
 

These are the resin blocks which are used to construct the clear assembly jig.
 
 

I mentioned earlier about resin inserts which temporarily sit between twisted frames, to help with their positioning in relation to each other. These are those. When the frames are set, these are disposed of.
 
 

Screws for assembling the acrylic building jig.
 
 

These parts are very obvious. Here you see not only the main mortar with its beautiful detail including royal crest, but also the two cannon for the framed side of the hull. The other pack contains the capsquares for the mortar, and these are actually workable! Casting really is very nice and there’s minimal clean up. As these are brass, that aspect will be very simple with a nice set of files. 
 
 


More packs contain eyebolts, bombs, deadeyes, eyelets, swivel gun mount, rigging cord etc.
 
 


There isn’t too much strip timber in this kit, but there really doesn’t need to be. A small length of brass wire is also included.
 

A single fret of PE is included. Production is excellent, with small connecting tabs. You’ll find cannon and hull fittings here etc. 
 
 
Plans and instructions



 
Two sheets of plans are included. One of those covers all the frame assemblies, whilst the other also has various illustrations of the completed hull to help with overall assembly. These are quite long sheets and need double rolling to remove the curl in the sheets as they are quite tightly rolled. 
 




 
The instructions are line drawing format but also contain colour. These look pretty easy to follow and the writing is clearly understandable. 
 
Conclusion
As well as being an interesting subject of a popular vessel, this is going to be a perfect introduction to the world of POF. Being 1:48, this is also a nice size too without being too large for your shelf. I know some modellers would like to build in 1:48 but could find it restrictive when it comes to displays. This should alleviate that problem! Overall, this looks a very nicely designed and produced kit with some very nice and innovative features. Most importantly too, it looks to be real fun to build! Head over to CAF and snag yourself one.
 
My sincere thanks to CAF Model for the review sample seen here.
 









 
 
 
 

Shrouds are installed as well as all of the bowsprit rigging. All of the shrouds (masts and bowsprit) are served over their entire length. It seems to take forever and gets a bit tedious, but it does add a lot going to the effort to do it. The pin racks have also been installed between the deadeyes and seized. 

Filling and sanding is the order of the week though. It seems the pieces will turn out well in the end, but this is the first time that I attempt this. I am really glad with the choice of 1/700, as anything bigger would have certainly be a problem. 

Thanks for kind words Walrusguy, Joe, Chris, Jean-Paul, Robert and all the likes.  I hope this log is useful to others, just as I've benefited from so many others.
 
@Carl - know you've been there from the start, so congrats on hanging in there
@Ben - I have no doubt looking at your 'mockups' that you will end up with a fine model, seeing other models with upgraded rope made me green with envy (that is one of the things that I would have done differently)
@Eamonn - maybe I'm being unfair to myself, maybe closer to 7 1/2 years, you'll get there as well buddy, the Ballier is looking outstanding
@Mike_H - not going anywhere and will continue to follow your great work.  I will be getting back to 'Jason' at some point but there are some decisions I need to make now, I'll make updates in due course.  What my "vision" is probably the biggest
@Vane - I'll be keeping up with your many builds, and will certainly be interested to see more progress on Snake
@Martin - I have on the shelf a case I had ordered from BlueJacket, all I need is the glass I think and someone to put it together because I have no idea how to do that.  Definitely open to recommendations here as I haven't clue who to ask!
@Mike - There are some key decisions I need to make on 'Jason', most notably the decking and how to approach some of the detailing (e.g. scrolls etc).  I have been having a horrible time trying to get my hands on some decent material for the deck (unfortunately CMB have been less than consistent there...).  so I'll probably be moving forward with the Queen Anne Barge primarily

Not too happy with the maple strips that I received with large variability in strip width and thickness and in the quality of the surface.
I realised that I had not laid enough 3mm planks before starting the top & butt so I removed them and laid another two runs before starting the top and butt again. I cut out a template from plasticard to try to get consistent planks but in the end I found I could do much better by measuring and cutting each individually. I think the last rows probably follow no known pattern but I tried to fit them as best I could. The next time it might be better to work from the waterway into the centre. Anyway I have now completed planking the deck. It took quite a lot of scraping and sanding to get a reasonable surface but it's now done and a couple of coats of thinned matt varnish applied to give some protection. I placed temporary supports under the deck because it was very flexible especially around the hatch openings.
 

 

 
I'm now moving on to the inner walls.
Looking at the AotS, on page 108, the spirketting is in top & butt planking, Overall the bulwarks are scale 6mm in thickness, but the kit bulkheads are nearly 4mm, plus two layers of lime and a layer of walnut makes a total thickness of 8mm. I am reluctant to thin the bulkheads and using thinner planks might weaken the structure for cutting gunports. I have decided to lay the spirketting and string in 1.5 lime and then the quickwork in 1mm tanganyika. However I've just realised that the lime strip supplied by caldercaraft is 6mm not 5 as stated in the instructions which will throw out the line of the gunports with respect to the inner planking. I don't have any other suitable stripwood so it's another order to CMB.
 
While laying up the first run of spirketting, I realised that bulkhead 6 on the starboard side is misplace and will need thinning on the inside and adding to on the outside.
 

 

Jason and Thunder, interesting to see your comments on the mizzen mast position. It seems OK to take the easy road and leave it where it is.
I've started planking the gun deck using maple strip but I've come to a halt because for some inexplicable reason, I didn't order enough so I'm waiting for a delivery from CMB. I began from the centre line with 3mm as far as the outer edges of the hatch openings then a couple of runs of 5mm followed by more 3mm. I thought that I would have  go at top and butt planking and have completed the first two rows.

 

I am now puzzling over how to make a decent job of the final two rows up to the waterway while waiting for the rest of the wood to arrive. 

That is some mighty fine planking BE at this size, really highlighted after your cleanup and finish.

Absolutetly fabulous, Jason.
All the best

Post Ten
 
Released from the board
 
 
To fill any minor gaps I use diluted pva and Pearwood dust, it’s then just a case of sanding until a finish is obtained.
 
Snipped across the central bar the bulkheads came away without trouble with a simple twist with pliers.

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With the bulkheads released, the internal planking can be fully assessed.

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Only a little ca staining at the bow end which will hopefully be covered by the fore deck.

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Use of pva for the majority of the glue work bore fruit in that cleaning up of the internal boarding only required a wetted paintbrush and a micro chisel, the excess glue just came away.

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The hull is very delicate, and a light touch is still very much required, take care not to apply lateral pressure to the hull sides.
 

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The next stage is to add the internal frames; the blurb simply says glue short lengths, inside the hull around 5mm to 6mm spacing – as shown in photo 23.

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Once the ribs are in place the hull becomes much stronger.
 
 
 
As with the planking I seem to have come up short with the ribs(Y28) but I used one of the seat support strips (Y27) for the shorter ribs, which were sufficient at a pinch.
 
 
The kit has four internal seat support strips but only two are required, I think the kit would benefit from a couple of extra rib strips.
 
 
 
B.E.
03/02/21

Harpoon launchers done

She’s finished!
And i try to keep your words in my mind that i should be finished before you.
But you are quicker then me.
But no problem.
I can use your log😃
Oh, btw....Great job!!!! Congrats.
 
Sjors
 

Jason,
 
Concur with ALL all the superlatives posted above - and as a minor thought your flag also came out Fantastic!!
 
Sincerely,

Well done Jason, she looks great, and you should be well pleased. 👍
Thank you for your kind references to my Pegasus build.
 
Regards,
 
B.E.

Well done sailor, very well done.
 
Mort

This looks like a fascinating project, off to a great start!

This looks like a fascinating project, off to a great start!

This looks like a fascinating project, off to a great start!

This looks like a fascinating project, off to a great start!