Beef Wellington

Hi Folks,  have been away from the shipyard and this site for quite some time, and I've missed the friendly interaction.  Looking forward to catching up with everyone's builds soon!
 
@Martin - welcome to the neighborhood!  We got lucky and didn't lose power in the storms, hope you stayed safe.  We definitely need to connect at some point so I can pick your brains 🙂
@ Sjors - Good to hear from you old friend, its been a while!  Will check out your new model soon.
@ Stergios - the yards were rigged from bottom to top.  Not sure if that is the recommended way, but it made sense to me to do that way because the lower masts require quite a few items of rigging to be in place near the mast and it seemed that this would be harder if the lines from the top masts were getting in the way.  Maybe personal preference?
 
The cutter has finally been finished and the details of the final stages of construction are posted in my 'Jason' build log.  Figuring out where to place the cutter onboard Snake was a little bit of a challenge.  It seems inconceivable that a ship (sloop) like Snake would not have at least one boat, but there is simply no space to place one.  I could find no examples of solutions to this in practice (recognizing that other ships may well have had raised davits), and it seems somewhat logical to mount the supports on the coamings which would also be supported by the deck beams underneath.  Finally in position, its clear that even a modest 24' cutter has little room to spare.
 
With that done, now rigging can continue, hopefully some progress possible soon...
 

Finally the changes to the stern of my Syren are finished. The gun ports are closed (img 1), the long guns are back in place and rigged (imgs 2 and 3), and the jolly boat is in its final position (imgs 4 – 8).
 
Thomas
 

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Thanks for looking in Moab and for your kind comment, and ditto Grant and John, much appreciated.


 
Thank you Jason and Bob.
I’m no expert on Silver soldering but using the paste in a syringe is a great help.

Basic silver soldering is quite easy, things like making strops and joining rings are quickly picked up.

The main things to consider are:

 Having the metals clean.

 Working out how you are going to secure the parts during the process.

Ensuring a close connection, Silver solder has no gap filling qualities.

As soon as the silver flashes, the job is done, remove part and dip.

If you want to join more than one part to another, you will need different melt point pastes, so that the first isn’t melted when the second is attached.

The piece I was most pleased with was adding two small rings at right angles to a stanchion for the guard rails on my Pegasus build.

Cheers,
 
B.E.

Fascinating research and excellent execution, the usual perfect combination.  I to very much like weathered/grimy look on the funnels, and the colour tones blend very nicely and look very authentic.  Very impressed with your silver soldering results, dipping my toes into that a little myself...safe to say still at the bottom of learning curve.

Fascinating research and excellent execution, the usual perfect combination.  I to very much like weathered/grimy look on the funnels, and the colour tones blend very nicely and look very authentic.  Very impressed with your silver soldering results, dipping my toes into that a little myself...safe to say still at the bottom of learning curve.

Post 29
Steam Capstan
 
The primary fitting on the Poop is the steam capstan, an eye catching feature which also is supplied with the Fifie kit.
 
Assembly is quite straightforward, built on a central spindle which represents the steam pipe running up the centre of the capstan.
 
For the colour scheme I have used Humbrol enamel (120 Light Green.)
I did chemically blacken the brass etch which provides a good  primer for the paint.
 
The steam capstan was introduced in 1884 by a company called Elliott and Garrood, a development that the crews of fishing boats must have been eternally grateful for when it came to raising that huge fore lug sail.
 

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There is however a difference to the gearbox detail on the Underhill plans, compared to the kit, confirmed by photo’s of Muirneag.
 
Nothing to be lost by having a go to replicate the detail, if all else fails I can revert to the kit part.
 
Working at 1:64 scale presents more of a challenge and the most difficult task is fabricating the gear wheel guard.
 
 
Here once again 0.20mm brass fret came into use.
The pattern was cut out and a piece of narrow strip was silver soldered around the edge.
 

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The Blu tack holds the parts in position for soldering.


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This turned out far better than I thought it might and resulted in a strong bond.


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The gearbox casing is chemically blackened.



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The large gear wheel was made from the brass etched end of a depth charge.

 

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This completes the Poop deck fittings for the present.


 
B.E.

26/10/20

 

Post 24
 
 
Fitting out the Poop
 
I am now into my favourite part of a build, fiddling with the fittings.
The Poop deck has a wealth of detail, the positions of which I now need to fix.
The kit contains all the right features but not necessarily in the right layout for Muirneag.(apologies to Morecambe and Wise)
The Mizen mast is square at the partners which were scratched to suit, and the other fittings positions were tweaked to reflect the layout on the Underhill plans.
The kit warp hatch rollers seem to be rather stylised and are represented by etched housings sitting above the level of the coamings covering most of the hatch space.
I was able to utilise the provided coaming which is about right for scale, but I had to enlarge the hatchway slightly to accommodate carlings below the coamings to allow for the rollers to be set lower within the hatchway.

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False carlings were glued beneath the hatch coamings which were drilled to take short lengths of 0.5mm brass wire passed thro’ 1mm brass tubing from side to side to secure the rollers.

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Completed Warp Hatch in place.
 

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Also in this photo the makings for slightly beefed up mast partners, the now defunct kit part can be seen on the Poop deck aft of the mast.
 

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The mast partners were remade using spare 3mm Pearwood from the kit fret.
 

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All the spare wood around the laser cut parts comes in handy for scratching alternative parts.
With the Warp hatch and partners glued into place, the position of the crutch can be determined.
 

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The crutch which supported the lowered Fore mast is nicely pre-made in Pearwood and on Muirneag sits immediately to the starboard side of the Mizen, rather than just aft of the partners as indicated on the kit.
The Underhill plan indicates a height of 8’ 2” = to 38.9mm at scale. The kit part is pretty much spot on for this.

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I used a section of square brass tubing to provide a socket to take the Crutch.

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These Swann- Morton micro chisels prove invaluable in cutting small holes.
The Boiler flue is provided in the form of Aluminium tubing and a circular etched brass base plate.

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I have modified this to accord with the Underhill plans where the flue base is a concrete square set in a wooden frame.
The smaller stove flue was modified to fit a cowl over the top.
 
Blackening Aluminium doesn’t seem to work as well as on brass, and I do have a jar of Aluminium specific blackener.

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May need to re-visit the finish on the flues, but a part of me quite likes the weather beaten look.
 
 

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The partly completed capstan in place, I have been looking at photo’s of the capstan on Muirneag, and I feel the urge to have a tweak with the gearbox……
 
 
B.E.
25/10/20
 

Post 23
Detailing the internal stern area.


 
On the real boat a 1” thick iron strip ran from the stem along the keel and up the stern post where it was riveted to the head of the sternpost.

 
This was fitted as protection when grounding.

 
The kit provides a nicely etched Bow plate which replicates the stem iron but is not carried around the keel or sternpost.

 
The flange on top of the stern post would be visible so I replicated one.
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I used the 0.20mm brass fret from around the decoration etch of my Pegasus kit to make the plate. This was then chemically blackened.


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The stern area nearing completion.

A coat of wip has been applied to the stern woodwork.

The iron stern plate has been pinned into position

Along the Starboard doubler at the stern are three iron plates which take sockets for items I’ve yet to understand the purpose of.

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The kit provided Coal bunker hatch is inset into the deck.
A nice little item this, once blackened it looks the part.


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The smaller and plainer pump deck plate can be seen forward on the starboard side just aft of the mast partners.

 

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At the bow there are two knees to be fixed.


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Usually I seal the deck with a flat water-based varnish but I have decided to leave it unsealed.
The Boxwood planking will darken with age which is my intention.


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Yet another fill, sand, and repaint job needed to improve the rail finish but hull completion is not far away.


 
B.E.

22/10/20

I attached the woolding by just seizing the line around the mast, leaving it loose to slide into position, tighten, trim ends and wash with dilute PVA. Job done. 

Okay - 6 weeks have passed from since my last update; I guess the fact that I just grab and hour here or an hour there is not conducive to regular detailed blog entries.  To be honest, I sit in the shadows watching the slickness of Rob's (ETHALION) and Jason's (JASON) efforts, complemented with stunning photos, that  I'm not sure I have that much to add!  
 
Anyway, I have finished the bulk of the hull - lots of tiddling up to do - so I have moved onto the masts...the boats can wait!  I haven't made masts of this stature before so it was a journey of discovery trying to work out how to make square ends, octagonal sections and to taper masts to the correct diameter size.  
 
I started with square ends at the mast head.  To cut? to plane? to sand?   I did the latter.  I found the centre of the dowel and then marked (using my little lathe) the parallel lines that formed the square., cutting the four shallow arcs with my razor saw to help guide the process    I then sanded carefully, constantly checking the line was not being overstepped and that the shape was correct.  Patience was rewarded and they came out okay.   

Thanks Jason, and to everyone who's spurred this project on with likes and encouragement!
 
The boats have taken a bit of a pause, but I do have a little progress to report.
 
The mainmast ratlines are complete *he pauses to celebrate!* - given how much my arms were aching, I may need to move the model down a little (or get a taller chair!) before I get too much stuck into the topmast ratlines!


  I've also spent a fair bit of time putting all the fittings and detail onto the the yards, along with the rigging blocks. I'm about half way through, but the most detailed yards - the main and fore mainyards are complete. I used black card on the studding sail booms, as this seemed more to scale than the chunky white metal rings. They were fiddly little blighters to get fixed in place, but I'm pleased with the end result. 
 

 

 
The stirrups are made out of jewellery wire. I've used it before, and it seems to do a nice job, and needs no painting afterwards, which prevents me making a goof-up.
 
Here's a final shot of how she stands as of yesterday evening... the captain wouldn't be pleased - the yards are just pinned, and are all ahoo (made worse with the wide angle) - but once the lifts get added, that'll improve a lot, I'm sure :)
 

 
Happy building, all!
 
Rob

Your rigging follows the whole nature of your build - clean, precise and extremely well done! It is a pleasure to follow your progress!
 
Thomas

Obviously progress has been very slow - largely self-inflicted.  The main yard has been a nightmare.  A few things that I did some time ago have come back to bite.  First, replacing the poor quality 1.5mm ply bibbs with 2mm strip.  This of course meant that the mast is 1mm wider than specified.  Second, the main stay is specified as 1.3mm thread.  The Syren thread comes as either 1.14or 1.37mm.  I originally chose the 1.14mm stuff.  It was suggested (rightly) that the thicker thread would look more authentic.  I then replaced the 1.14mm thread with the 1.37mm (which looked far better). However I eventually measured the 1.37 thread to be closer to 1.5mm.  I then served the eye and the mouse which made the stay thicker still.  All of this looked just fine.

Now come the problems.  The jeer  blocks had been installed earlier according to specification.  However with the extra thickness of the mast and the eye, the upper (double) block was fouled by the eye.  The top blocks therefore had to be lowered.  This meant that the blocks had to cut off, then replaced with longer drops - which turned out to be far, far easier said ....
 
Moreover the thread for the falls specified as 1mm (I used 0.88mm) did not seat properly (it's quite stiff) and had contributed to the fouling.  I replaced it with 0.63 thread which further improved things.  Fortunately the change is not noticeable.  In all, the overall result is reasonably adequate though I guess that's for others to judge.
 

 
I see I have just duplicated the photo.  I have no idea how.  In no particular order associated bits and pieces.
 
Below in the photo of the parrel, there is a small length of Tamiya tape attached to the thread which goes through the lower part of the parrel.  This both prevents the whole assembly coming off in the process of installation and identifies that is the lower thread. (It's easy to mix them up.)  With the crowded rigging around it, the installation is quite difficult.
 

 
 
The yard rings are really quite poorly designed.  To put top and bottom together reasonably securely and accurately, I ended up drilling holes in both, then inserting and gluing a piece of wire into the holes.  For the end ring, again a hole was drilled, wire inserted and bent to the appropriate shape.
 

 
Here is how they came out.  Incidentally, for the foot ropes, rather using wire for the drops, I used thread, consistent with anatomy of a ship.  Despite the photos the ropes now hang quite nicely.
 

 
 

 

 
 

Good evening everyone
Day 40 correction of transom, main deck and lower deck support beams
 
well i sorted the wrong bits out, and now everything is the same height (lol it may all be wrong, but the same wrong all over)

 
 
the main deck support is now right, i fully removed it to enable removal of cant 57, this allowed me to redo the lower deck support 

 
the 1/4 deck still needs to be adjusted but its ideal for keeping the after frames lined up
 
at present i am playing about with the 1/2 decks, but at the same time sorting the (limber boards) either side of the keel inside the hold

Bob, for what its worth, I'd vote for the thicker thread - purely because it may provides a little contrast to the other stays which will obviously thinner as they go up the mast.  Something that I find visually more satisfying for some reason.  Looking great BTW, don't beat yourself up over the serving!

Beautiful rigging Bob, looking very nice indeed.

Rigging the mizzen topmast yard is now close to complete with the yard sheets and the cluelines done.  While it has come out acceptably, getting the rigging correct while making sure the crossjack yard and the topmast yard both parallel and horizontal was not something I would like to do again.
 

 
Moreover, belaying the lines to the centre pinrail ran up against the same belaying problem that I found with the jeer bits; not enough room.  The holes  for the pins are either too close together or the pins are themselves too large.  Eventually I was successful, but it was rather frustrating.  I'm not sure how I will later put on rope coils.  The belaying shown below has been tied off, but the lines have not yet been glued or cut off.  (You never known when a further adjustment may be needed.)
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

I have not had a problem with drooping lines. I don't glue pins. I cinch the lines around the pins a couple times as you would securing a regular size vessel then glue with thinned white glue. I then coil a separate line,  place over the pin and glue again with thinned carpenters glue. 

Improving of head rails and cathead support
 
Before finishing rest of external hull details, I tried remaking of head rails and cathead support. When I firstly finished these areas, I was satisfied with the result.
 
https://modelshipworld.com/topic/2926-hms-bellerophon-1786-by-fake-johnbull-amativictory-models-172-vanguard-kit/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-81205
 
But later it became apparent that the curve of cathead support and ekeing rail is too acute than it should be by comparing my model with plan of Elephant. Elephant plas is shown in green line. Also mould on main head rail is simpler comparing with many beautiful models of past days.
 

 

 
These parts are one of most difficult items to form, so I have been reluctant to rework them. But I finally determined to do them before proceeding further steps. BTW, I don’t know exact place where cathead support and ekeing jointing together, but for convenience, I divide them at top edge of channel wale. I would call part running between top edge of channel wale and cathead “cathead support”, and curved rail connecting cathead support and head rail “ekeing”. My apology if my usage of term is incorrect.
 
I firstly prepared NMM Elephant plan and expanded its bow section horizontally so that distance between forepeak of middle head rail and cathead support matches to actual length. Then cut it at bottom edge of middle head rail to use it as template.
 

 
Next I remove old cathead support and ekeing. Old ekeing part are modified to gentler curve than before, and fitted to channel wale with help of template.
 

 
Cathead support is completely new one. I prepared pattern cut from Bristol board and test fit it to hull with help of Elephant plan template. Once satisfied with the shape of pattern, I transferred outline to 0.5 mm maple sheet and cut them. They form forward and rearward faces of cathead support and need two parts per one cathead.
 

 

 

 
2 mm walnut strip is cut to fill horizontal arm of cathead support between forward and rearward faces. It is cut slightly smaller than maple part to represent mould of cathead support. BTW cathead is projectiling diagonally forward. As a result each length of forward and rearward faces of cathead is different. When I made cathead support previously, I prepared patterns for each of forward and rearward faces because forward one is little smaller than the other to correspond this difference of length . But this time I prepared only one pattern and cut rearward one slightly larger and shaped both of forward and rearward ones at once with small electric router after fitted to hull.
 

 

 
Rest of void between forward and rearward faces are filled with 0.5 mm maple sheet cut into arc.
 

 
Yellow area is finished with yellow dye and Watco oil of natural colour. Blue area is painted with Humbrol No. 25.
 
Also more moulds are added to main rail.
 

 

 

 
Reworked cathead support and ekeing is still slightly out of Elephant plan, but I’m satisfied as a whole. It looks much preferable than before.
 

Wow... summer is... well.... over...
 
I have been picking away at my build over the last few months. Progress has been slow, too much nice outdoor weather to be stuck inside, but on the odd rainy day there has been some advancement. The interior is now largely finished, or at least done to a point where I no longer feel the need to dive any deeper down this particular rabbit hole! The remainder of the seats went together smoothly, but painting has been a tedious process. I ended up painting the seats a neutral light green, I felt contrasted nicely with the brown "wooden" interior. I painted the armrests black to provide a bit of contrasting detail. Most of this will be hard to see when the roof is on, so I'm not overly concerned how accurate the colour scheme is, just that someone looking in can see something.
 

 
Here's the completed interior. There are some sections still showing grey primer, these areas definitely will not be seen.
 

 
The women's lavatory.
 

 
The men's lavatory and smoking room.  The washbasin was located in the passageway (to the right of the smoking room in the above photo). If you look back at one of my early posts, you'll see it marked "toilet" on the plans. The sofas in the the smoking room were made by combining two seats together. The facilities for the lavatory were culled from a Walthers heavyweight car that I had kicking around (I've beat up a few, here and there, for various kit bashing projects in the past).
All that really remains is some small touchups and s coating of Dulcote to seal everything.
 

 
Finally an overhead view of the interior in place in the coach. Next on the agenda is the window glazing, and then final assembly. The end is drawing near!
 
Andy

Canons are painted and ready for de breach rope.
Also make the little furniture for the deck.
Gratings...stove and more of that funny stuff.
 
Sjors
 
 

Thanks Joe - a rather late thank you.
 Well the main mast and bowsprit rigging is finished.  Ship building has not been a high priority lately.  Here is the bowsprit.  After a few silly mistakes it has come out quite well.  I have used small alligator clips as weights extensively.  They keep lines taught while the rigging process goes on.  This also shows one of my mistakes (now corrected) - using black, or in my case, dark brown instead of natural for the lanyards.
 

 

 
 

 
Obviously the rigging is very crowded indeed.  For much of the rigging, 0.25mm thread is specified.  The Syren thread comes as either 0.2 or 0.3mm.  I chose 0.3mm.  This, I found, caused a problem with  the 3mm Syren blocks that I used.  When using CA to aid threading through the blocks, the thread did not want to go through.  My solution was to drill out the holes with a 0.6mm bit.  Doing it before a block was mounted was easy - doing it in situ was sometimes rather hair-raising.  Another problem is the lack of space between the belaying pins.  Once the various lines are belayed, rope coils have to be fitted.  This was far easier said ....  An extensive vocabulary helped.  The result is acceptable, though I now see that a bit of adjustment is needed.
 

 

 
I have included the following photo to illustrate  just how crowded and complicated the rigging is.
 

 
This is how things look - with the mizzen rigging still to be finished.
 

 
 
 
 

Here is progress, such as it is.  Since my last post we've had storm damage to our house on the coast south of Sydney which has disrupted all sorts of things. What with the fires, our floods, the pandemic and the recent storms, we're now waiting for the locusts.  The following photos are all a bit random.
 
Instead of wire to support the foot ropes, I have used thread which more nearly approximates the real thing.  To make them appear taught, dilute PVA has been applied and wire threaded though the holes for the ropes.  Alligator clips have then been hung off the wire while the glue dried.
 

 
Belaying ropes the appropriate points is often quite difficult.  Here are the' tools' I used for the main yard lifts which are belayed to kevels  - simply a piece of wire bent to be able to hook the thread and a bamboo stick with a notch cut in the end to push it.  Manipulating them across the deck works a treat with weights on the end of the thread to keep it taught.
 

 
 

 
This is the overall look at the moment.  Unfortunately the light for photography was not all that good and doesn't show much detail - will try harder next time.
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 

Thank you Bob, I'm sure you will enjoy building Fifie🙂
 
Post 31

 
The completed model


 
So after around three months Fifie is completed.

 
Starting with some close-up shots.

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Thoughts on the Fifie kit


 
I have thoroughly enjoyed building this kit, perfect for a novice build, but offering plenty of scope to enhance and add extra detail.


 
As with all of Chris’s kit offering it makes up into a very attractive model, and one that will be fairly easy to keep dust free without the need to cover.


 
On my model very little is glued down and it could be stripped back down to deck level in a short time, pretty much as on the real thing.


 
Being of fore/aft rigging the model takes up only a modest space and makes for a nice decorative feature in a domestic setting.


 
For the new builder, I would say go for it, a great introduction to ship modelling.


 
For the more experienced builder, it provides a short time interval build, a relaxing change from perhaps more involved projects.


 
 
B.E.


07/08/20


 

Post 29


 
A Basket for Fifie.


 
Still waiting for stuff to arrive to complete Fifie, so looking around for something to work on.


 
One of the additions that caught my eye when researching the subject is the large woven baskets used to lift the Herring catch out of the hold.


Landing the catch
There are called crans and have a specific and approved measure for holding a given quantity of herring.

Their size was regulated and standardized by government decree as a legal measure.

The 1832 Act set the cran at 30 inches high, the diameter at its widest 21.9 inches and at the base 18.9 inches –


 
I scoured the internet for something suitable to no avail, so I started to think about how I could reproduce these for display purposes at 1:64 scale.

 
The answer came in the form of an unlikely source – the centres out of the mast hoops supplied by Chuck for the Cheerful build.


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The centres form the base with a series of holes drilled around the circumference, 0.5mm ø brass wire is used for the frames.

 

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0.1mm line is used for the weave.

 

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The brass rods are metal primed.

 

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The finished basket.

The completed item measures 12mm high x 10mm diameter at the top. This equates to a size of 30” x 25”.

 

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I’m not sure that my crans would pass muster by the Scottish Fishing Authorities, but they are pretty close for scale.


 
 
B.E

 
29/07/20