Beef Wellington

thank you Alan its is indeed an optical illusion 

18 foot cutter

One special feature - and probable inaccuracy - which was disturbing me with the launch made even more problems with this small cutter: The false floor is too high above the keel. With the 1mm thick floorboards the launch's floor is quite high up.

With the cutter that problem is severely aggravated. To gain some space below the thwarts they were placed as high up as possible. I also used 0,5 mm thick deck planks, cut to a width of 2mm to plank the floor which gained me another half mm (I was really desperately looking for some space). Even so the cutter looks somehow flattened. By filling much of it with equipment I hope to mask the missing depth.

For the wales and the cappings of the sides I took only 1x1mm strips instead of 2x1. That way the proportions seemed more harmonious for such a small boat.

The cutter was placed in the launch and both boats equipped with the kit's oars, boathooks and grapnels. Additionally both got a rudder with a tiller and also the removed thwarts and a water barrel were placed within the launch.


 
While working on the boat  also finished the poop and quarterdeck barricades with hammock nettings and the sand buckets.


 



 



the small cutter with its rudder


 



the skipper checks the completeness of the equipment


 



the launch with equipment


 



poop deck barricade


 



quarter deck barricade (I see that the top of the hammock nettings need some reworking.)


 



the launch on the beams


 



an overview of the work done in this chapter

Main Mast
 
It was built similar to the mizzen with the same small changes to topmast- and topgallant mast-feet.
 
I've got the impression that the width of one mast top and the foot of the next upper mast should be the same, in order to fit both cleanly between the trestletrees. So again I had to double up the mast feet.
 
The upper crosstrees are rather delicate parts and I successfully broke a couple of ends off before strengthening them with some epoxy glue. Perhaps it would be better to provide them as photo etched metal parts.
 
Also installing the rack with the boarding pikes was some fiddling work. Finally I had to drill out the holes of the metal rings to fit the pikes properly.
 
 

Details of the main top without platform yet. The topmast even has a correct octagonal (instead of round) lower end. Of course nobody will ever notice it on the finished model.
 
 

the nearly finished main top...
 
 

...is quite impressively high above the deck.
 
 

topmast top
 
 

foot with boarding pikes
 
 


the masts are only provisionally stepped

I decided to dig out my files and do a few edits  - hope you like.
 
OC.

Ghost of the Pearl  - 
 
OC.

Okay - I had the opportunity to make some real progress yesterday, so by midnight the yards were turned, and I'm beginning to pin them into position. I really love this part as the ship really begins to take her final form... The yards are just pinned in place, so are removable. I'll try and put as much of the rigging on before I fix them finally in place.
 

 
I'm toying with the idea of putting on royals as well - they turn up in the AOTS book, and I have the longer topgallant masts up, so I might just take the plunge. Could be fun!
 
I've also been messing about with the boats. I had another crack at the pinnace that comes in the kit. It's by no means finished, but it's on the way. The following picture shows the pinnace with a just started vanguard kit of the 18ft cutter beside it.
 

 
As a bit of fun, I bought a 1:64 model of a mini cooper (the Italian job model) and put it on the foredeck as a comparison...  Not quite historical, but it gives you some idea of just how big these ships were.
 

 
Happy building!
 
Rob

Not much to show, but I am still here. Thanks to everyone for the likes. As always, an encouragement - especially when tying knots one after the other.
 
Mainmast ratlines are complete.
 

 

 
I plan to get some more yards done on the lathe now as a break from tying clove hitches!
 
Happy building
 
Rob

Hi all,
 
It's a few weeks since I last posted, and lots has happened in the shipyard. 
 
Fighting tops
 
I wanted to finish off the fighting tops, so I could get shrouds in place, and start the (significant) job of the ratlines. That meant constructing the barrier at the back of the fighting tops. I was concerned that wood would be a little vulnerable in that position as I rigged the ship. Also, I suspected that the ship itself had metal posts, and not wooden uprights, so I ordered the smallest square brass cross-section I could fine, and set about soldering them with a little jig made using balsa and pins.
 

 

 

 
Burton pendants
 
These are added to the mast before the shrouds - made of 1.25mm thread, tied with .25mm thread and secured with watered down Aliphatic glue (carpenters PVA).  My understanding is that they're attachments to which temporary rigging can be fixed when necessary.
 
Starboard first, Larboard second  for the main and fore, one hanging down on either side on the mizzen mast. That was achieved by unravelling the rope in the centre by twisting it - passing it round the mast, and then letting it spring back.
 

 

 
Shrouds
 
Again, a starboard pair, then a larboard pair - starting at the front and working back. I used 1.25mm black rope for these. (The recommended 1mm looked a bit weedy to me!)
 

 

 
It's worth noting at this point that if the shrouds don't sit on top of each other, but sit side by side (i.e. the higher loops are bigger and sit down around the lower) - you may run out of space between main and top masts, and it will force the base of the topmast forward, thereby stopping the two from being parallel. Thankfully, when I checked this hadn't proven an issue, but it almost caught me out, so hopefully others will avoid the dilemma.
 
Bent steel wire was used for spacers on the deadeyes whilst rigging the shrouds... I found the recommended brass wire both too large in diameter for the deadeyes, and suspected the wire I had might be too soft. 
 

 
As you can see below, I rigged the lanyards on one side of each shroud pair first, before I secured the other end of the shroud so that I could be confident of the length. As it was, I think I still left the shrouds a little loose, but I didn't want to pull the chainwale off the side of the hull causing all sorts of inglorious muttering and holding of head in hands.
 

 

 
As running rigging, the lanyards were 0.5mm light rope, and I'm quite pleased with the contrast... 
 
Rattling down the ratlines
 
I wanted to learn serving, and rope-making, but those are going to have to wait for the next model
 
DISCLAIMER: Now comes the controversial bit. Bear with me here. I've used both light and dark rope in the past for ratlines. I like the light. It's a personal choice. I know it's showy. And this is a showy frigate... just look at the paintwork - the captain would rightly have been proud of this crack frigate... so I've gone with untarred manila! I know it's probably not the right colour, but hey... it's my model  And I really like the effect it made on my Pickle schooner... Sherborne and Royal Yacht Caroline both look great with black ratlines, but I also found the 0.1mm thread much easier to get neat scale tidy ratlines with... So. That's the decision. I'm 1200 knots in, so the decision is well and truly made... and I'm not about to go anywhere near this model with india ink (as the instructions suggest) - I'm simply not brave / foolish enough to attempt it over neat maple decks.
 
With that said, I printed off a bunch of CAD sheets with lines 5.8mm apart, and used these as the guides. Here are the pictures of progress so far.
 
It always takes me a bit of head-scratching to remind myself what a clove hitch looks like... (at least the way I do them  - am I wrong again?) 
 

 

 
And an inspection of the work so far... I find by applying watered down PVA to each row as I finish it, the whole thing stiffens up quite well, and as I go it gets quicker... This way I can pull out the tension as it shrinks, too and avoid the whole thing bowing in and becoming curved along its length. (to some extent at least...)
 

Major milestone tonight. Finished the rat lines on all the lower shrouds. I said I would count them but I couldn’t help myself... 1,392 clove hitches. 
I used the “draw the actual shroud position on paper” technique to keep the lines properly spaced and the shrouds straight. 

 

 

 
Here is the finished product.  Maybe not  a “10” but looks pretty good to me.  I used  50 wt thread to keep the scale and keep the knots from being too bulky. 
 
Not sure what I will work on next. Definitely something without clove hitches. The yards seem to be calling. Those are pretty much the last wooden pieces that need to be made. 
 
Tom

 

 

Hi all
reached another milestone today. After 2,852 clove hitches,  all the main, top and futtock shroud ratlines are complete. 

 
Now I will start to work on the forestays and backstays for the top masts. Then on to the top gallant masts and rigging and finally the royal masts. Working my way through the standing rigging. At least that is the plan for now. Also still have a decent amount of work to do on the bow sprit. 
 
Really starting to enjoy the results with some of the rigging in place. Brings the model to life a bit. 👍😁
 
Tom

Here's the 3 t'gallant yards in process.

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...
 

The Mizzen has arisen:
 
I can see why build logs tend to neglect rigging relegating it to a bit of a dark art - its so hard to reach a point where one can step back and say 'done' because nothing quite seems to get finished before its necessary to do something else before its too late.  Anyway, the mizzen rigging is now essentially complete.  This area proved to one of the more challenging so far 'learning the ropes', but also just because of the increased fiddliness factor and decreased access.  The plans also proved more challenging in this area due to their either lack of clarity or incompleteness.
 
Before starting, this was my last chance to address some things that have been annoying me.  The kit supplied ladders going to the stern platform just seemed too bulky, so these were ripped off and replaced with custom made items that just felt a little more to scale, and less visually obtrusive.  These proved challenging to make in walnut due to the splinter factor, but necessary to avoid introducing a new wood.  The ships wheel was also given some coats of a wash to try and make it a bit attractive from the flat brown colour I had used way back when I started (Pre-fix situation below):
 

 

 
Rigging could then proceed, planning ahead proved key due to the many elements that need to be fitted in a very tight space, especially below the tops (tye, parrels throat halliard etc).   Petersson's Rigging Period Ship Models and Lever's Young Officers Sheet Anchor provide invaluable to bridge contradictions and lack of clarity in the plans.  Items of note as follows:
Boom Sheets - went with single vs a double arrangement as illustrated on the plans as I couldn't find another example like this Gaff throat halliard - the positioning of the gaff is slightly different on each plan, I had to lower my original placement to allow for the two double 5mm blocks, luckily the pin hole was obscured Single boom horse - Common practice seems to have a knotted horses on either side of the boom.  I just couldn't get this to look right and the image of a young schoolboy with rather large and unruly ears kept coming to mind....so in the end I just went with a single and it seems to do the trick other than to purists. Blocks for main topsail brace - One of the first blocks I had installed has to be removed, a double block on the mizzen for the main topsail braces as indicated on the plans.  It was clear that this just wouldn't work with the crossjack and gaff in place as it needs to sit above the gaff.  I elected to remove and replace with 2 single 5mm blocks with a longer clearance from the mast to avoid interfering with the various rigging elements in this space as illustrated in Petersson.  These are held temporarily in place with sewing thread. Close up pictures of where things ended up that hopefully can assist others (errors are of course mine):
 

 
Finally, some overall shots...

 
 

So, the upper finishing of the amortisement has been straight-forward but surprisingly labor intensive.
 
This particular photo of Tanneron’s damaged model of L’Agreable is so instructive because it provides so much information about the fabric of his construction, as well as the shaping cues for the upper finishing of the amortisement:

My ambition, always, is to attempt to capture some sense of the magic that makes Tanneron’s models so impressive.  Toward that end, it’s a process of layering details with all of the care of execution that one can muster.
 
As has been my method, the upper finishing is made up of a series of laminations: a base layer of 1/32”, a middle 1/16” layer, and a top layer of 1/32”.
 
I toyed with the idea of using Bondo fills to fair panel recesses at a continuous depth.   I did not think the Bondo would adhere well enough to the plastic to withstand the slight flex of fixing the part in place.  Conventional model putty would be too brittle.  In the end, I decided that the 1/16” layer was deep enough to create a sense of shape without having to go through undue effort for minimal gain.  I think it worked out pretty well.
 
A montage:

Given my struggles to carve good faces, I decided to extract Louis’s radiant head from the same place on the kit’s stock quarter galleries.
 
I wasn’t sure, early on, just how much space I would have left-over, after the bellflower garlands were in place, so I left the heads oversized for the time-being.


You can see the subtle shaping of the 1/16” layer, above, as well as the slight rounding of the final window framing.

The garland and cornice were a separate 1/16” layer.  Just as they are, above, they would be fine, if I decided to stop there.  Attention to detail is everything, though, so I took the shaping a little further:

The garland diminishes, in depth, as it rises to the cornice, and the cornice, itself, is now tapered in a gentle arc from its center to its ends; this small detail helps to accentuate the convex shape of the windowed center, below.
 
I coved the inner surface of the cornice, modeled the bellflower garlands, and then I gave Louis a haircut.  I was able to incorporate just enough of the fanning rays of light, beneath his head, to satisfy the original design:


The first layer creates the recess I need to capture the acetate window:

I made up the acetate panes, yesterday, but botched the engraving on one, and will have to remake that.
 
So, now that I have all of the elements of the amortisement, it was time to see how this was all going to map out on the upper bulwarks.
 
The whole layout hinges on exact placement of the canopy section.  Although the uneven underlying ornament makes it difficult to place these pieces, and the parts have yet to be faired to each other - this placement should enable me to salvage my aft octagonal port:

I will have to drop a wing from the forward pixie, but I am now confident that I will be able to make this work.
 
With my kids back in school, and the uptick in their activities, I have found that I am not sufficiently alert, in the evenings, to do good paint work.  All of the putty fills at the bow are nicely faired and I brush-primed all of the raw plastic, but I just haven’t felt like I could give it the focus it requires.  Opportunity will present itself in the coming days, though.
 
As ever, thank you for the likes and for looking in!

These upper knee extensions have been a real challenge to fit, so far.
 
A big part of the challenge is that I raised the upper knee a solid 1/32”, in order to buy a little extra space for the trailboard.  That modification, though, did result in the need to add and shim with new plastic.
 
One upgrade that I wanted to attempt was to raise the cheeks, surrounding the hawse holes, which I think I reasonably succeeded at.  In this reverse-engineering environment, it isn’t perfect, but I think it is passably better than stock.



Be well, and thank you for looking in!
 

Painted and glued-in:

So the desk is now empty awaiting the next build 

Small update... a first layer of hull white added!

 

 

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...
 

Lots of ringbolts to add everywhere and you really need to be carefull not to drill to deep.

The bow is abit fiddly to get in place but slowly getting there.

14 small guns ready to be rigged!
 
So should i do this the hard or the easy way???

 
Just need some minor touch up of paint...

 

 

Wow, catching up from the very start, so glad you are creating a build log, you look to be making pretty speedy progress.  This looks like an awesome kit and you're doing such a wonderful job.  Looking forward to more....I want this one day 🙂  

welcome Jason
This is for me the ultimate build, possibly the last big scale i will ever be able to afford  do, so i am not going to worry so much about it, and just do it,
intentions are for internal decks, masting and sails, in a 3 to 4 year time scale, its a great kit, and fun at the same time, as its all the elements i have dealt with in the past and now i get to understand how and why they are made like that

Wow, catching up from the very start, so glad you are creating a build log, you look to be making pretty speedy progress.  This looks like an awesome kit and you're doing such a wonderful job.  Looking forward to more....I want this one day 🙂