Beef Wellington

Hello all so Iv been working on snake today I have glued the deck on as well as pinned the gunport bulwarks into position and glued the walnut keel on the stern facia and stern counter have both been applied to the model. 
I am all set now to start the first planking one of my favourite parts of the build. 

Sorry about the gap in reporting.  I have attached all the shrouds and begun the laborious task of tying all the ratlines...there are a lot. I used 0.25mm natural line which I stained in India Ink.  Each individual line was run through a beeswax block to add a little wax and eliminate line kinks, the wax also helped the knots (clove hitches) slide together by reducing friction.  I set each line at 6mm and used two methods to get the spacing correct.  One option was to use a couple of pieces of 6mm plank held onto the shrouds by pegs. This method did allow all the knots even in size and the line straight as I could rest the knots on the wood which gave a little substance to the operation but was slow(ish) - if not correctly tightened the pieces of wood force the knot down the shroud - I did  three lines and then washed them with dilute PVA, allow it to dry before starting the next group.  By alternating between the three sets of shrouds, I was able to keep tying as the glue dried.  I became reasonably efficient.    For the main mast shrouds I used a printed sheet cut to shape with a matrix of lines against which I could place my knots: reasonably efficient although you do have to be careful not to knock/misalign the paper. 
 
Do avoid my school boy error.  I set up a table in a word document with 6mm squares or so I thought. In fact my printed sheet came out 5mm by 6mm which I didn't notice until I was half way up the shroud...I had placed 30 odd lines at 5mm apart.  I left them as is and copied the spacing on the opposite side.  You cant notice the difference although it did mean a lot more knots.   
 
Nearly finished.     

Okay - so just looking back at what I did yesterday, I'm still getting confused myself... Here's what I did, using the mizzen mast as the example (the main mast is the same)
 
1. Mizzentopmast stay.
Goes to the block just below the mainmast top, then passes down to the deck where it is secured as shown.
 

 
2. Mizzentopmast preventer stay.
The same, but goes to the block above the mainmast top.
 

 
3. Mizzentopgallantmast stay.
Goes from the hounds of the topgallant to the block on the maintopmast just above the crosstrees, then passes down to the top where it is seized to an eyelet.
 

 
4. Mizzentop royal stay.
Goes from the tip of the topgallant to the block seized round the hounds of the maintopgallant mast, then down to be tied off on the mainmast main shroud behind the mast.
 

 

 
Then rinse and repeat for the main mast, tying off to the fore mast in the respective positions.
 
As always, hope this helps
 
Next post will be on the (somewhat confusing) array of backstays that can be fitted...
 
Happy building
 
Rob

About time I caught up with myself...
 
@Ben - I'm going to have to stand guilty as charged!  Appreciate your post, this was something that I have been wrestling with for some time and fully recognize that the approach taken is a compromise.  My thinking has been as follows, and I suspect that every model builder will arrive at a different place.  Your coils are certainly excellently executed!  
Quality of rope used:  Having used the Syren line on 'Jason', there is just no comparison between good quality custom rope and the 'stuff' supplied in kits.  My skill levels are just not up to achieving consistent coils following a seamanlike practice (that look anywhere near acceptable). Scale:  This seems to be a variable from modeler to modeler, but to my eye many of the coils using this technique just do not look right at scale, especially when many pins are used on a rail adjacent to each other. Much of the rope used per kit instructions are much thinner than your prototype - mostly kit supplied 0.25mm line which is not very substantial and subject to gravity making floating 'ovals' distracting Quantity of rope (on the actual ships):  Looking at many older photographs of ships, the one thing that stands out to me is that the quantity of belayed rope used on contemporary working vessels just looks far more voluminous for whatever reason than that seen on modern 'museum' ships, maybe because of longer working lengths, necessity to be worked by many hands etc etc. The bottom line though is that there is enough on this build that continues to bother me (both mistakes and things that I have since learned) to push me to continue  with an eye to completion.  I'll apply for parole at the duly appointed time...
 
Rigging (almost) complete:
After nearly 7 years, with all the main rigging elements in place, I can start to smell the scent of completion.  The only outstanding rigging feature (in addition to some remaining decorative coils) are the spritsail sail sheets which will be added when I'm confident that the anchor placement won't cause problems.
 
Braces:
One of the bigger challenges were the braces, mainly because many of these are bent onto various stays.  At this scale the rope doesn't behave well, and preventing the stays being pulled into all sorts of unnatural alignments by the much thinner braces, and keeping the braces taught, meant taking this very slowly, ensuring line had time settle into place and in many cases using dilute PVA while attempting to keep the stays in position.  This proved to be especially challenging for the fore and fore topsail braces which bend to the main stay in one rather tight spot.

Sheets, tacks and cluelines:
Petersson was a big help here to illustrate how these worked in practice as the instructions are simplified.  Given that both the main and fore require these, with 3 belaying points for each, some planning is needed to ensure sufficient working room as once in position access is even more severely limited.  The tack is the most substantial of the running rigging used and 0.75mm rope was used as per instructions.  At this thickness, it proved necessary to coil rope on the deck after belaying to pinrails.
 
I took the same approach to BE on his Pegasus build in having the sheets and tacks go outboard of any standing rigging, although the sheets are yet to be finally secured.


And finally, some overall shots..

 
 
 
 
 
 

Will follow along Liam, always good to see a new Snake build.

The lower foremast yard going to the final position (foremast dock) 

Season's greetings Stergios!  Can't say definitively whether this is definitively right or wrong, but it is at least consistent with the plans and various references I could find.  It gets pretty crowded in there 🙂  Hope this helps.

https://cafmodel.com/products/hms-granado

Happy Christmas to my friends
  

That is a genius idea on the clear plexiglass.  

Perhaps one especially for our Australian members.
 
This is one of the bower anchors from Matthew Flinders' 'Investigator'.  It's on display at the South Australian Maritime Museum.
 
On his circumnavigation of Australia in 1803, Flinders anchored off Middle Island, to the east of Esperance, to gather wood and seal oil and to hunt geese.  When the wind blew up as he was preparing to leave, he was forced to cut his anchor cables and sail out to avoid the risk of being driven ashore.  The anchors were recovered in 1973.
 
John
 

I have now moved on to painting the outer bulwarks (blue and red), main rail patterns, wales and cappings.
 
I started with the outer bulwarks patterns and applied the blue paint (Humbrol Matt Blue No.25) as shown in the picture below.
 
Bulwark taped and painted blue

 
After that I applied the red paint to the outer bulwarks patterns (Vallejo Model Color 17 ml Acrylic Paint - Scarlet). There was a little bit of bleeding, but as can be seen on the third photo when the main rail was dry fitted the bleed is hidden.
Stern area

 
Bow area, where a bit of bleed can be seen.

 
Main rails dry fitted, bleeding is hidden.

 
I then moved on to the main rail and applied the black paint to the rear window frame patterns and to the front curve. I also applied black paint to the bulwark capping and to the wales.
 
Rear Main Rails

 
Bow end of main rails

 
Cappings

 
Wales are drying in a vertical position, using clamps.

You're very welcome Jason. As I said, it might be a few weeks before I really get going on this build, as I must finish Ethalion

In the meantime, here's some pictures of what you get in the kit:
 

 
In the shot below, the laser cut sheets are all stacked up - there are LOADS of them, all of which look beautifully cut. I figured I wouldn't give anyone looking to knock off this kit a head start, but they look good! A nice uniform colour to the walnut, too, which will help as we move ahead. Note as well, bottom right are the pre-sewn sails - again the sewing is very fine, but I haven't had the material out of the pack yet... I want to keep it clean. I've only done sails out of tissue before, but I was pleased with that effect. When the time comes, I shall offer them up against each other and see which I feel will give the better outcome. Nice to have the option, though, and this model WILL be fully rigged with sails unfurled. 
 

 
You can see the black marking on the copper plates - this marking is on each of the numerous sheets. I'm not too worried about this. I figure when the time comes I can get it clean with some acetone. We'll see.
 

 
And finally the plans... and plans... and plans... all beautifully detailed. Again, I don't want to give anyone wanting to copy the kit a headstart, so I haven't shown the contents here. Doubtless snippets will appear as the build progresses. I've never seen such detailed plans on a kit. They really are lovely, so I suspect this aspect of the build will be an absolute pleasure. I'm a sucker for a nice plan!
 

 
Finally, a picture of the book by Gustave Rathe, grandson of one of the people onboard the Barque when she sank. I'm looking forward to reading this in preparation for the build.
 

 
That's it for now until I finish Ethalion
 
Happy building!
 
Rob
 
p.s. my ten-year-old son has just demonstrated he can climb inside the box this kit was delivered in and the lid pretty much closes.... Are my builds getting over-ambitious?!?!

Guess I got the first choice of seat, not familiar with the manufacturer or the ship so will likely be learning a lot.  Looking forward to seeing some action.

I had to pause and think for a bit here... I tend not to follow the instructions very closely. I'll read them through, then look at the other build logs, think about how I've done it before in other similar builds (i.e. Royal Yacht Caroline in this case) and then gingerly pick my way through. So, it was onto the standing rigging.
 
I proceeded in the following order:
Add shroud cleats to every fore shroud and the rear two mizzen shrouds, 12mm above the deadeyes. Add shroud cleats to the front two main and front two mizzen shrouds, directly above the deadeyes. Mizzen mast stay Main mast preventer stay Main mast stay Fore mast preventer stay Main mast stay Bobstays. And that's as far as I've got so far. Now, it wasn't clear on the plans, but I feel I may have got the hearts muddled up... I've used the two larger on the main mast, and the two smaller on the fore, but I suspect it should actually be larger for the main stays and smaller for the preventer stays? I don't know for sure, but it's done now, and I'm going to live with it.
 
The mouse on each stay was made by tying .25mm thread round the rope, and then wrapping it around to effectively seize the rope back and fore, then carefully tying a couple of reef knots to secure. I used pva to help as I went.
 
Here are some photos of the work done.
 
Shroud cleats:
I found that tying a knot round the shroud cleat in the upper notch first, then tying this round the shroud, and then tying another knot round the lower notch provided a reasonable amount of stability. This worked better on the main and fore shrouds where the shroud is thicker. PVA helped to secure.
 

 
Attaching the mizzen stay to the main mast:
The deadeye was attached to the mast by first attaching the deadeye to a length of 1.25mm rope, then looping that round the mast and seizing it in the same fashion... Careful handling meant it turned out reasonable. I made the mistake of simply knotting this to the mast on Royal Yacht Caroline, and I'm much happer with this result.
 

 
Attaching the stays to the tops... 
A loop has to be made, by putting the rope through a loop at it's own end... the mouse stops the loop from tightening right up to the mast... Here are the loop (a simply seized loop on the end of the rope) and the mouse close-up.

 

 
And here are a few photos of the stay in situ...
 

 

 

 

 
And an overall shot of progress (just before I tightened up the fore shroud. I hadn't fitted the bobstay at this point.)
 

 
Hopefully this may be some help to others who find themselves rigging a frigate
 
Rob

Believe it or not, HMS Dragon, a Daring class destroyer...

Just found you before you got to page 4, interesting subject matter.  These looked so futuristic when launched but I think they have some of the most beautiful lines - and now I find myself recognizing how quickly time flies... definitely in from here on...

Gary, Keith, thank you! I hope to extend the enjoyment of viewing the pictures a little.   

Thanks everyone for your feedback and likes!   
The final appearance of the capstan after plating with nickel in an electroplating bath.

Thanks Phil!   My work is progressing.

Small update:
1. Shrouds done
2. ratlines done
3. ships wheel rigged
4. bowsprit blocks done and bowsprit fitted to place
 
Small bits and pices missing from different areas.
 
Rigging causes a lot of questions. Thunder did his own rigging so i cant follow that. Drawings raise more questions than answers  . I pit on drawing on a wall so from time to time i just watch them and at some point you get some answers-there must be logic in that. Books about rigging dont help much also as it seems to be rigged little different-probably simplified.
 
Decided to stick to Jotika plans on rigging and to get it done.

Sry for bad photos.
 
Off to stays now.
 
 

Bit more fading and grunge on the deck, I think that’ll be enough until I start working on the focsle with some rust later. 

Most ships, especially warships, use a self polishing paint on the hull bottom these days.  If there is algae at the waterline it is more than likely she did not move around much recently (like sitting alongside during, or waiting for refit).  This type of paint goes on one colour and is 'polished' off as the years go by - when it gets to the last colour it is time to have the bottom cleaned.
 
cheers
 
Pat