Beef Wellington

Just incredible what you are achieving Mike, hats off to you dealing with that insane PE at that scale, looks great though.  How do you fold the PE at this scale?

Just incredible what you are achieving Mike, hats off to you dealing with that insane PE at that scale, looks great though.  How do you fold the PE at this scale?

Just incredible what you are achieving Mike, hats off to you dealing with that insane PE at that scale, looks great though.  How do you fold the PE at this scale?

Just incredible what you are achieving Mike, hats off to you dealing with that insane PE at that scale, looks great though.  How do you fold the PE at this scale?

Thanks Beef Wellington, I will be sure to add to those other Diana blogs.
As for head scratching moments, I’ve already had a few and in fact I’m having one of those now. I’m contemplating removing both prow and sternpost and replacing them with boxwood, which seems to be very difficult to get hold of here in the UK. I’m waiting for a delivery from Original Marquetry, who only have 7mm thick sheet, before I take the irreversible step of cutting things out. In the meantime, I have followed your line on the bowsprit and modified the keel and bulkhead 2 to allow it to come through to a step.
 

 
I've also cut away the parts of the keel that can be seen through the false deck.
While I'm waiting for the boxwood, I think I'll make a start planking the part of the false deck that can be seen through the hatches of the gun deck.
 
David
 

Good decision, if its any consolation, one learns more from correcting and redoing mistakes than doing it right the first time...at least in my experience. 

I started my first ship, HM Cutter Hunter about 25 years ago and left it on a shelf. A couple of years ago, when I finally retired, I decide to finish it. I really enjoyed doing that so I looked around for something else and settled on HMS Fly but first as a refresher, I built the Brig Scotland by Corel. When I began the build, I discovered that unlike when I started Hunter, there was now lots of help and ideas on forums like this one and I must pay tribute to all the Swan builders on this forum who gave me the inspiration to add a few more features my build of Fly. I will post some photos when I have finished some final tweaks to her.
I looked at various options as a follow on from Fly but finally settled on HMS Diana. This will be my first build log, so please bear with if I make any silly errors.
The ply keel and bulkheads, though not quite as easy to work as the mdf in the Amati kit, I haven't found it too difficult to work. The keel and bulkhead slots needed quite bit of cleaning up to get them to fit together, as did the false deck but I think all is looking good now.
I am using AOTS Diana as a reference plus all the good information from previous builders on this site to help me.
I started by drawing the waterlines on the keel and bulkheads to help with chamfer angles and planking. I marked out on the keel where it will be visible through the hatch openings on the gun deck and although they may not be clearly visible, I'm thinking of cutting these away because I don’t think that it will compromise the structure.


I have also marked up the angle of the bowsprit. As noted by Beef Wellington if placed as per the kit, it will interfere with the figurehead. Strangely it seems that the angle in the top drawing of sheet 1 is correct while the drawing below has it at a shallower angle. In the end I may replace the stem with a piece of boxwood so that the edges of the ply don’t show.

I have marked out and cut the rabbet and am have started to shape the bulkheads at fore and aft but have left #17 because I’m not sure if it needs any shaping.

OK, Jim (Hatch) has put together the three mini coat kits that will be standard for the Sphinx kit, a 22' yawl (£24), 24' launch (£25.50) and 28' pinnace (£28.50). And he has done a marvellous job, I think.
 
I am hoping to have a few of each in stock next week, to buy individually, as Jim is doing a little online (PDF) build manual for each.
 
The 18'cutter is also getting a small revamp, in keeping with the new releases. The boat kits will have extensive laser cut parts, in pearwood (0.6 and 1mm), including laser cut pear oars, thwarts/stern sheets and gunwales if applicable,  and MDF bulkheads and building base. The keel for all new boats is 1mm pear, to keep the scale look, plus a PE sheet for the finer detail (floor/gratings and 'iron work)
 
A little later, I will have a 36 and 34' launch, 32' barge and 32' pinnace, and finally a 36' admirals barge, which will be suited for a larger model with the single boat on/in the waist
 

Hi Mike, think this picture from earlier in log explains it best (Post #323 on page 11).  Definitely a good idea to do this before installing the cat heads on the model as I think you'll get better results.
 
HMS Snake by Beef Wellington - Caldercraft - Scale 1: 64 - First wooden ship build - Page 11 - - Kit build logs for subjects built from 1751 - 1800 - Model Ship World™
 

Thanks whitejames, Eamonn, Joe, Martin, Stergios, mugje, Mike and all the 'likes' for the continued interest and encouragement.  Happy New year to everyone!
 
Anchors:
Adding some appropriate features here at the bow will do much to enhance the overall look of the model, the kit itself leaves the bow area a little sparse, especially the rigging which has already been commented on.  The kit provides 4 full sized 'bower' anchors.  However, Steele indicates that a ship of Snakes size and class would only carry 3, in addition to a smaller kedge and stream anchor : “Ships of 110 to, 100, 98, and 90 guns, have seven anchors; from 80 to 20 guns inclusive, 6 anchors; ships of 300 tons, and sloops, have 5; and brigs and cutters 3 anchors.” - This would include the large (best, small, and spare) bower anchors, stream and kedge anchors.
 
As for positioning, per Steele:  "The spare anchor is stowed on the starboard side, and is seldom used, but when one of the others is lost......The stream anchor is stowed on the spare anchor; and, when used, it is sent in the long-boat or launch, with its cable bent, and let go at any particular spot, either for steadying the ship, when riding by only one bower, or to assist a ship when in shore, or to warp her, &c. ......the kedge is stowed on the stream and spare anchors, and is frequently used to stop a ship for a tide in little winds…”
 
A number of years ago (!) I had purchased a smaller Caldercraft anchor for the kedge anchor, and luckily was able to find it.  Not much to cover in the making up of these anchors, which had previously started some time ago.  The ends of the stocks were rounded of and tapered.  One mistake I did make that I am now aware of is that there should be gap between the two halves, speculating to retard rot.  I found the 'puddening' particular challenging to complete as the pieces are hard to hold securely but finally got there - once again the 'springiness' of the kit supplied rope seems very capable of undoing work at the most inconvenient moment.
 
The next question was how to install on the model.  Info on anchor handling practices seems to be a little sparse, with diagrams and descriptions appearing in 'Lever' being replicated in other reference books.  Other logs, especially BE's fantastic Pegasus build, helped fill in areas of confusion.  Again Steele sheds a bit more light:  “The best bower is then placed forward near the bows on the starboard side; the small bower near the bows on the larboard side, a little abaft their respective catheads; and are secured by their stoppers, from the catheads and shank-painters. The stopper has one end clinched round the cathead; the other end passes through the ring of the anchor, returns upwards, and leads over a large thumb cleat bolted to the cathead, and is made fast with several turns, and the end hitched round the head-rail and timber-head, on the fore side of the cathead.”

Anchor hawse clinch:
The approach to attaching the hawse to the anchors using a clinch is shown pretty clearly in 'Lever'.  A bight is made by lashings ("no larger than the anchor ring") and the hawse fed through the anchor ring and the bight.  Nothing too complicated, but this was rather tricky to execute because it needed to be done in situ, a tin was used to rest the anchor while this was performed.  Before the last bight lashings were put on, the intended end of the hawse was seized to prevent it unravelling once cut.  This approach seemed to work well, and the extra untrimmed length of the hawse was helpful in keeping things positioned to allow the last lashing to be put in place.
 

Anchor stopper:
Per Steele:  "The stopper has one end clinched round the cathead; the other end passes through the ring of the anchor, returns upwards, and leads over a large thumb cleat bolted to the cathead, and is made fast with several turns, and the end hitched round the head-rail and timber-head, on the fore side of the cathead." 
 
The rope would likely need to be reasonably substantial, and given a diagram in Lever which corroborated, 0.75mm rope was used.  Although the size looked appropriate, the poor quality of the kit rope led me to look for options, and a solution became clear after looking at some photo's of Victory.  It seems the stopper was served (presumably for protection), so this was replicated and it went a long way to improving the visual appeal.
 

Cat block:
The cat blocks seem to be a nice feature to add for visual interest.  The blocks were made up from a couple of kit 7mm double blocks and shaped.  Card was used for the iron band and brass ringbolts used for the hook and the simulated axle.  A small PE eye bolt was installed on the rear of the cathead and 0.5mm line attached and fed through the block before securing to a cleat at the base.
 

 
Shank painter:
Per Steele:  "The shank-painter hangs the shank and fluke of the anchor to the ship's side outboard; and when stowed, the shank-painter is passed under the inner fluke round the shank of the anchor, and made fast with two or three turns, and the end stopt round timber-heads on the forecastle."  Lever also has a well replicated diagram showing how this would be used.
 
Luckily I had some spare chain left over from the rudder, and this was used for the shank painter together with some 0.5mm line.  At first, I felt this was a little oversized, but looking at photos again of Victory it doesn't seem too out of line.  Against the black background of the hull it sits OK with my eye.  I suspect that the end of the chain ended in a hook, but this detail was omitted for convenience, as it would not be very visible.
 

Undecided as of now whether to leave the port anchor suspended from the catblock or replicate that used on the starboard side.

 

Thanks, I decided to do the gunports before doing the whole hull. Easier to work on when it was fixed in the rig and things to grab when you need some support for the carving. And also, much easier to clean up the dust instead of having it inside the hull. 

Next step will be to pland the gunports but I might work on my other projects abit more before going there. At least I have a nice hull to look at on the shelf and not that skeleton.  

I used one of these too. They certainly make life easier, and if marks are put regularly enough, you can make pretty good curves. I have a violin rib bender that I'm going to try this time round, which I'm hoping will be even quicker, and will leave no marks on the back (especially useful where you want to make concave curves, where the inside of the curve will be visible when fixed.
 
Looks like you're making quick progress, and the 1.5mm lime will give plenty of room for sanding back any rough edges.
 
[EDIT] scrolling back up I see that you've made lots more progress than that - those gunports are tricky, and you've done a lovely job. The first planking looks like a good smooth platform for the next one too. Nice job!

Its quite a big ship.... first planking done!
 

 

Good decision, if its any consolation, one learns more from correcting and redoing mistakes than doing it right the first time...at least in my experience. 

When it comes to first planking I have given up on the soaking of wood and now i use these three tools. First planking dont need to be that pretty, its just about shape and support for the next level.

 
1) matt cutter is not that precise but its much more comfy than an exacto knife and it can cut 1.5mm lime very effective. Sometimes i use it together with a ruler if its a long cut.
2) dry planks are instantly shaped with this plank bender. Not pretty, but its easy and effective.
3) this tool can effectively press down some nails once u get a hang of it. It needs to be straight otherwise u can bend the nails.
 
Plenty of PVA is used and then i remove the nails after it has dryed.  
 
For the 2nd planking i will do the Chuckmethod witho prebending and CA. I also sand the side of the planks for a perfect fit. It takes time but thats what make a difference in how it all looks. Builds without proper sanding looks quite horrible in my opinion. But the first layer dont matter that much.
 

Good decision, if its any consolation, one learns more from correcting and redoing mistakes than doing it right the first time...at least in my experience. 

I finished the studding boom brackets and made the studding booms. The studding sail booms are just temporarily dry fit for now as I need to move them out of the way when I do the chainplates. At this point I'm declaring all the hull details as complete. Everything left to do (besides boats) is masting and rigging. I've never rigged a ship model though, and I'm not sure that I want this one to be the first so we'll see. I may do a couple of smaller ships first.
 

Both sides glued in. Now I just need to figure out what to do about the star at the top. Not perfect but I'm happy.
 

 

I've decided not to use the kit part. I tried painting it and just didn't like the result. So, instead I'm cutting out the trail board design.
 
I have one of these and I'm using #3/0 jewelers blades.

I also have this image that I got somewhere (don't remember where). I printed the image onto avery full sized label paper.  I cut it down to size.


I debated on what material to use and settled on .040 thick Evergreen sheet. I tried initially to use a 1/16" basswood sheet but the wood was just to soft and kept breaking.

After muffing it up a couple times I ended up with this. A bit of a tedious task but not too bad and just needs to be cleaned up a bit.

And dry fitted to the model.
 

 

Thank you SIrs!
 
Happy new year!
And what better way to celebrate than with a proper demolition, something I had already planned for some time. In September 2010, I was quite happy for one more rare occasion again, to be able to glue a part coming straight from the casting branch, just as the god of molds created it, directly to the model without pimping or without any further fuss.
 
See here it is, the little crown ...
 

 
... by now I'm pretty sure that was not placed there around 1805. Probably an invention of 1920, when restoring to the Trafalgar state, for lack of better knowledge at that time. As the beam is called cathead, there usually was a cat's or lion's head on it in the initial phase. At the time of the Victory's construction, however, a kind of compass rose was common, sometimes also an anchor. Since the 1765 model of the Vic shows this compass rose and also the 1805 model, which was wrongly called "Victory", had such a rose, I felt quite confident to skip my sweet little crown with a light heart.
 
I made a compass rose out of modeling clay, and since the dimensions were tiny and tight, I printed the outlines on baking paper and was thus able to easily form to the true dimensions and to detach the fragile structure.
 

 
Once fit test on a replacement cathead with a specimen that proved too thick ...
 

 
... and I bravely swung the blade.
 

 
The new part was quickly glued in place ...
 

 
... and still a little paint was put on it. 
 

 
And as a gif it gives a little impression of the depth effect. Enjoy 🙂
 

 
I know I've had other demolition orgies before, I just got out of practice 😉
 
All the best, Daniel

Good decision, if its any consolation, one learns more from correcting and redoing mistakes than doing it right the first time...at least in my experience. 

Good decision, if its any consolation, one learns more from correcting and redoing mistakes than doing it right the first time...at least in my experience. 

Good decision, if its any consolation, one learns more from correcting and redoing mistakes than doing it right the first time...at least in my experience. 

Good decision, if its any consolation, one learns more from correcting and redoing mistakes than doing it right the first time...at least in my experience. 

Started to slowly remove the planks , taking my time .