Beef Wellington

Some progress with planking.
 
I have messed it up by not tappering at stern and also coming to far with planks. Should have started moving to the middle from keel also.
Now the curve it the middle is too big.
I guess only way to fix it is to start coming from keel and last filler plank is what it is?
 
Really hoped that this would come out right-guess not this time.
 
Positive part is that now i understand the reason why to mark out plank positions and then you can see where to tapper etc.

The ca stains that you see can be sanded off. Did some test and planking looks good after sanding.
 
About deck planking-what would be correct plank legth and formula for this model?

Thanks, Jason, that makes sense.
 
I just didn't think the sword was prominent enough, so I followed Siggi's good advice about a removable metal shaft and went back to the lance or spear that we see in the first image in posting #1721 above. Here is what it looks like. I could make the spear out of blackened copper, and drill a hole in her hand to hold it. Or, would it be shiny metal in real life?
 
Now I really, really, am getting back to planking today!
 
Mark
 

I'm really enjoying this build because this little ship has a very similar barque rig to HMS Terror, which is what I am building. Your work is excellent and I'm sure to benefit from your research. Well done for mounting the yards in the correct position. I see a great many ships, built without sails, that depict the upper yards in the position they would be in if the sails were flying, rather than down where they ought to be. A small detail, but once you notice it, it's hard to un-notice!  I admire uour work and I'm looking forward to shamelessly copying your rigging!
 

This is looking real good. Starting to look shipshape ✔️
 
I'm still struggling with coppering the hull... 

Beautiful rigging. 
 
Robert

Very impressive.
 
Yves

Looks good, some loose ends to tie up, but it does have a tight fit I might add. No sloppy lines hanging around

Great progress. Good decision on the ladders

Hey Jason, yup those Ladders look the business, Snake's rigging is beginning to look serious now too, half expect to see dock yard workers out on those yards  
 
All The Best Mate
 
Eamonn

You look to be off to a really nice clean start Stone, good choice of first build.  As you and others have found, the instructions are somewhat dated, so definitely don't feel constrained by them.  The gunport pattern is a common cause of concern, but is surprisingly strong.  Definitely put some PVA glue on the lower edge to get a good join with the top plank of the first planking as a safety measure.  Look forward to following along, and feel free to ask questions.  I'm intrigued to see how a 32lb'er fits, I know I played with an 18lb'er from Jason next to 9lb'er chase guns I used and it looked HUGE!

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...

 
 

Ok, could be wrong here so please don't send me to detention...I think war is from the root 'bellum',  whereas beauty is from the root 'bellus', so of course in natural latin fashion these conjugate similarly depending on the sex and context.

Ok, could be wrong here so please don't send me to detention...I think war is from the root 'bellum',  whereas beauty is from the root 'bellus', so of course in natural latin fashion these conjugate similarly depending on the sex and context.

Ok, could be wrong here so please don't send me to detention...I think war is from the root 'bellum',  whereas beauty is from the root 'bellus', so of course in natural latin fashion these conjugate similarly depending on the sex and context.

Ok, could be wrong here so please don't send me to detention...I think war is from the root 'bellum',  whereas beauty is from the root 'bellus', so of course in natural latin fashion these conjugate similarly depending on the sex and context.

Rob you're really motoring, love those deck shots highlighting your very fine work.  Didn't know Vanguard offered those minikits - I'm now very intrigued.  I see that you've also started the ships boats, if you'd be willing I'd love to see how you're approaching those as these seem to be quite the challenge (although Ray managed very nicely in his build).  I hope Chris starts to make some 1:64 boats available as minikits as they would certainly be ahead of the dated kit provided items.  I've started building the 24' cutter but to hopefully place on my Snake build, and look to be at a very similar place to you, hopefully I can post some pictures later.

You look to be off to a really nice clean start Stone, good choice of first build.  As you and others have found, the instructions are somewhat dated, so definitely don't feel constrained by them.  The gunport pattern is a common cause of concern, but is surprisingly strong.  Definitely put some PVA glue on the lower edge to get a good join with the top plank of the first planking as a safety measure.  Look forward to following along, and feel free to ask questions.  I'm intrigued to see how a 32lb'er fits, I know I played with an 18lb'er from Jason next to 9lb'er chase guns I used and it looked HUGE!

Thanks, Mark, Jason and Mark. Fascinating to learn more about Roman armor and tactics.
 
I played with the spear idea, since Bellona is sometimes depicted with one. But I began to worry about a very thin piece of wood jutting out from the model, and thought that mine would meet the same fate as that carried on the second Bellona model--it would be broken off eventually.
 
So, I tried the sword idea, at first the shorter Gladius and then the longer Spatha. I am showing the Spatha in this drawing, just because it looks a little more scary in Bellona's right hand....
 
The shield cannot be made as large as those shown in the images in my previous post, because it would cover most of the figurehead. So I have scaled one down to what looks like a shield in the second Bellona model, with her resting her left hand upon it.
 
I confess I was tempted to place the sword in her left hand, since I am left handed. But then decided I should stick with greater authenticity. But who is to say that Bellona was not left-handed? It would have made her more "sinistra"😙
 
Mark

Rob you're really motoring, love those deck shots highlighting your very fine work.  Didn't know Vanguard offered those minikits - I'm now very intrigued.  I see that you've also started the ships boats, if you'd be willing I'd love to see how you're approaching those as these seem to be quite the challenge (although Ray managed very nicely in his build).  I hope Chris starts to make some 1:64 boats available as minikits as they would certainly be ahead of the dated kit provided items.  I've started building the 24' cutter but to hopefully place on my Snake build, and look to be at a very similar place to you, hopefully I can post some pictures later.

Finally, a first picture of the Build. Thank you !
 
Yves

The BInnacle (courtesy of Vanguard Model's excellent mini-kit!)
 
Here's the space it's going into...
 

The kit is a single sheet of laser cut pear, well packed in solid mdf.

There are no instructions,but it's a pretty simple shape with plenty of support, so it isn't too fiddly.
 
(13th August 2020: UPDATE - My apologies to Chris. There are instructions, but they're on the website on the page where you can buy these binnacle kits... just click on the image thumbnail, and you'll see very clear instructions on how to assemble this brilliant mini-kit)
 

I decided against putting the compass and lantern inside as it's virtaully impossible to see, but I'm sure others will choose to
 
The next step was to put on a chimney, as per the Victory binnacle below (my photo):
 

The first attempt was with a paper cone at the top... 
 

The paper cone was far too fragile, and (for me at least) was just a mess.
 
The second attempt was with plasticard mounted in my mini drill and files...
 

A little ring of styrene tube was added at the bottom.
 

I left off the back side so I could glaze the windows (having painted as much as possible - inside, white, outside, red).
 

And then it was time for final assembly, some light sanding, a final coat of paint and fitting to the model so that the guys at the wheel can steer true!
 
The chimney was painted with black then copper to give the copper a darker toned down sheen.
 

 
Thanks Chris for an excellent addition - I've been surprised by how much it adds to the quarterdeck when put alongside the upgraded ship's wheel. It really looks the part.
 
Happy building
 
Rob
 

Thanks so much for the likes... I have some more progress to report.
 
Driver boom - the jaw was completed (with considerable re-shaping - the kit part seems somewhat oversized to me), the boom painted, and the pin inserted to place it on the mast. The height of the boom above the deck was calculated based based on the gap between the taffrail and the boom when the boom was parallel to the waterline. (I calculated a reasonable gap to be 8mm). It was a bit fiddly, but I'm pleased with the results. (Apologies for the quality of the first photo) Hammock cranes - I don't know whether others have had this problem, or whether I was simply not gentle enough when handling the photo-etch, but a good number of the rings on the tops of the hammock cranes had been completely destroyed (or were entirely missing) on my photo-etch sheet. Rather than try and botch a work around, I decided to manufacture my own (with some trepidation). A helpful topic on this site (which I'm afraid I've since lost track of) mentioned some 1mm brass tubing that could be used. Having order some, it turned out to be 0.9mm. Coupled with the small caldercraft eyelets (as supplied with their Pickle kit) to make the rings, and some 1:48 stanchion ends for the uprights (I got these from John Haynes for Cottesmore, and they've come in handy again), I had all the components to solder up some cranes.

Having worked out the dimensions in CAD, I decided that hammock cranes on the open-bulwarks would be somewhat vulnerable, and instead, I would just build the main ones for the waist of the ship. This also meant I had enough materials to get the job done!

A jig was made to ensure all the cranes ended up similar in size using walnut glued to ply (so I could solder without melting things), then work began.


The eyelets were crimped into the top of the cranes (this avoided superglue which didn't seem to hold very well, and could stop the brass-blackening working well. Below and to the right, the caldercraft part is below the home-brew part.
 
Once done, the cranes were blackened, and fitted to the hull
Lines rigged through the cranes, and the netting cut to size (slightly over). The netting is the modelling fishing net. I bought black and white, but white seemed to me to look better.
It's not done yet, but I'm pleased with it so far. Thanks again for all the encouragement.
 
Rob

@Edwardkenway, I hope so either but I thinks that will work out just fine 😀
@ccoyle, thank you!
 
In this stage the progress is on detail level, mainly sanding and glueing.



As of now, I'm ready to start with planking. Hopefully, I can start somewhere next week, but first I'm going to look at some examples on this forum to help me out a bit.
 
So to be continued...

Hi everybody,
 
Thank you for your interest in my shipbuilding journey!
 
This is going to be my first ever ship build. This has been on my wish list for a long time (to be fair, since I read Tin Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn as a boy). This interest got fueled again while reading the Bolitho novels from Alexander Kent. So last month I decided to start looking for a model and as many others, I got inspired by the HMS Victory, HMS Surprise, HMS Diana builds. However, after reading the topic "For Beginners - A cautionary tale" I decided to be smarter than myself. So because of @Beef Wellington and @Vane (which I wanna thank in advance for their detailed description on their build, as I read through your logs with much pleasure) I decided to start with the HMS Snake from Caldercraft. 
 
 
If anyone has suggestions, opinions or wants to help me in any way, feel free to post a comment. As I said, I'm in new territory so my methods could be "wrong", "rookie" or even barbaric!
 
 
Some additional notes before I start my building log.
First, this is going to be a natural/industrial build. Which in my case means, I won't be painting the ship (probably only to highlight some specific structures), as when I'm finished, I want to see the building process, modifications and "scars" of my work. 
 
Second, this won't be a historically accurate and/or Caldercrafts intended build. My "source of inspiration" is the Sloop of War HMS Sparrow from the Bolitho novels. This means I will change the armament to two 32-pounders as bow chasers and sixteen 12-pounders and probably some other things.
 
Third, let's go!

(Above) To be honest, I got a bit overwhelmed when I open the box and read the instructions. The provided wooden planking strip are pretty neat compared to what I've seen from other build, they only need some light sanding I guess.


(Above) Dry fitted the keel, bulkheads and deck...they fitted pretty easily. Plus build the two 32-pounder bow chasers, very happy with those.
 

 
(Above) Attached the Walnut keel and the front of the keel.
 

(Above) pinned two planks on the middel bulkhead to see the bulkheads curvature I needed to sand off. 
 

(Above) To prevent being overwhelmed again with things to do, I decided to check off the things I'd already completed. 
 

(Above) First gunport bulwark added. I used the "water-method" and decided to do a wet-dry fit (first picture). After taking the bulwark out of the water I fitted it on the bulkheads and let I dry so the wood dried in the proper shape. After which, I glued the bulwark pretty easily in position by using the cannons as reference (second picture). Now I will have to wait for the glue to dry to start on the other side. My main concern is the strength of the gunport bulwark as it does not have a lot of contact surfaces.
 

HMS Belfast about to transfer the Admiral to HMS Ocean during the Korean War.
Detail from bigger pic.
jim