Beef Wellington

Made a better scraper and the results seem much cleaner.  
 

Thanks all for the continued interest and kind words,  unfortunately progress has been halted due to running out of certain line.  I have an order into CMB for some more but with the current situation may take a while, work will resume as soon as the supply chain catches up...hopefully I can get some Queen Anne Barge time in in the interim.

Great to see you back in business. I have so many projects going and nothing gets finished. I also hope to returen to my Snake someday. At least i finished the deck some month ago. When Working on several builds its probably better to aim for Good enough and actually finish something rather than perfection in everything and not finishing anything. HMS Jason is your masterpiece where no compromise should be accepted. But this one is already far beyond Good enough so just wrap things up. 

Jason,
 
I can empathize with the challenge of picking up the reins after a long break and having to hone old skills. We are in about the same boat (pun intended). We stopped at about the same time and about at the same stage of our first builds. Your model is outstanding.
 
Let's encourage each other to finally cross the finish line. I am trying to convert my State's order to "shelter in place" to "park my butt in the shipyard."
 
By the way, rigging from forward to aft and lower to higher is definitely the approach. It will keep your standing rigging taught as you continually pull the masts back to the stern and gives yourself as much room as possible for your hands and tools.  Good luck.

Almost completed:

 

Yes, exactly. For a 4mm plank width at the maximum beam, the tapering might be a bit tedious, but given the hull shapes of large vessels, as opposed to small craft, the tapering would be slight and generally at the ends of the vessel, particularly the bows. Remember when modeling that there is a scale to the length of planking as well as to its width. Plank stock isn't ever much more than 24 feet long in real life, given the limitations of tree size and handling. Given a scale plank width of 4mm at the maximum beam, there would be a lot of full length unspiled 4mm planks amidships, so that makes an easier job of it for the planker. (There are also standards for the spacing of plank butts which must be followed for an accurate scale planking job.) Keep in mind also that if the average plank width admidships is 4mm, when planking properly, there will be planks which may need to be wider than the average 4mm plank width to make everything come together without the need for "stealers." Kit manufacturers provide a bunch of pre-cut, square, finished on all four sides, strips for "planking." That stock isn't going to be suitable for all the planking at the size provided because planks aren't square.
 
You can find instructions for laying out plank in the "articles" section of the forum, so I won't repeat them here. However, if you lay out your planking at stem, stern, and each station (or perhaps every other, or even every three, frames or stations, depending upon hull shape and frame spacing,) You'll see that there's not much plank shaping to be done in the "wide open spaces" amidships.
 
If you divide the plank end widths equally at the bows, you should get a fair run on your plank seams and not end up trying to bend a "hook" in your plank seams. And sometimes plank width divisions vary, depending upon hull shape. A band of narrower planks at the turn of the bilge and wider planks (called "broads") in runs over "flat" areas is not uncommon. (In the drawing of the period planked hull below, note the "broads" below the turn of the bilge and running up to the stern post.) Planks in real life are gotten out of wider stock than the average plank width at the maximum beam. Plank stock in full size construction is often "flitch cut," meaning that it is cut as a rough slab sawn from the log, leaving the bark attached. These "flitches" are often slightly curved, as the log grew, which permits sawing out the curved plank shape to make best use of the run of the grain and lumber available. Planks are never bent across their width in full size construction, which is pretty much impossible anyway. Sometimes, a plank will be a bit "shy" and the plankers will "edge set" it by wedging it into place against its mate to get a tight seam, but edge-setting is a sign of poor fitting (which introduces strains on fasteners which can then let go) and not considered "best practices." Specifications sometimes go so far as to state, "no plank shall be edge set." When modelling with small stock of a species which will tolerate such bending, considerable stock can be saved by bending scale planks across their width to simulate what would have been a "dear" (costly) plank that in real life would have had to be cut from a very wide flitch, leaving a lot of wasted wood. That's the genius in Chuck Passaro's edge bending technique described in his great videos on the subject. Even with Chuck's method, though, some planks are going to require their own unique shape.
 
The smaller the boat, the more the plank shape differences are exaggerated. The below illustration shows the plank shapes needed to plank the hull illustrated. Note that the sheer plank shape colored white is actually wider at its ends than at its middle. In your planking job, the lack of the same sort of greater width at the stem rabet created a cumulative deficit in plank width which eventually created the upwards "hook" that became greater than you could bend your strip wood to accommodate. Trying to continue to hang 4mm wide planks in that rabet would only increase the deficit. (See the drawing of the period wooden hull planking below to see how the old-time plankers solved the problem you've got now.)
 

 
On a large wooden ship, the planking curves are not as radical, but do require curves to accommodate the shape of the hull just the same. In large construction, owing to the natural limitations of available plank stock width, "hooked," "doubler," or "stealer" planks are used to plank wider spaces than the available stock permits being gotten out of a single flitch. If a model is to show the plank seams, it must be planked as was its prototype. (Of course, if the plank seams are to be filled and the hull sanded fair and painted, it doesn't matter what the planking run looks like.) Look carefully at the plank seams in the bow and stern quarter of the below illustration to see the use of "hooked," "doubler," or "stealer" planks. (There's a larger picture and good planking instructions in the attached link.)
 

 
 
 
https://www.modelerscentral.com/blog/planking-tips-for-building-a-model-ship/
 
Don't let this discourage you. Kit manufacturers have been frustrating modelers with strip wood "planking" since kits were invented.  
 
 

Great update as always Rob, wheel definitely looks better and know that will be on my list when I get there, I already have some of Chuck's Syren wheel kits to see how they turn out.  Good call on the coaming height, believe these would have had a much lower profile on quarter and foc'sl and been of lighter build and less of an obstruction.   The upper deck would be much more susceptible to water ingress, and a method of helping preventing water entering lower areas in heavy seas or rain.
 
BTW, hope you don't mind me posting but probably more relevant to you in the near term, but while browsing in the NMM I found the following print of Diana's main yard.  Lot more complexity to it than is commonly portrayed, and think the iron hoop and wooldings to be a feature I don't really recall seeing on other models.
 

 
https://prints.rmg.co.uk/products/ship-plan-of-hms-diana-1794-main-yard-j5526?_pos=20&_sid=0141b51f9&_ss=r

Great update as always Rob, wheel definitely looks better and know that will be on my list when I get there, I already have some of Chuck's Syren wheel kits to see how they turn out.  Good call on the coaming height, believe these would have had a much lower profile on quarter and foc'sl and been of lighter build and less of an obstruction.   The upper deck would be much more susceptible to water ingress, and a method of helping preventing water entering lower areas in heavy seas or rain.
 
BTW, hope you don't mind me posting but probably more relevant to you in the near term, but while browsing in the NMM I found the following print of Diana's main yard.  Lot more complexity to it than is commonly portrayed, and think the iron hoop and wooldings to be a feature I don't really recall seeing on other models.
 

 
https://prints.rmg.co.uk/products/ship-plan-of-hms-diana-1794-main-yard-j5526?_pos=20&_sid=0141b51f9&_ss=r

Wow. A lot has happened since I last posted. And some of it in the shipyard.
 
I paused work on the tops, and have worked on the following:
Rigging quarterdeck guns and carronades (complete) (There's some weirdness going on with the wide-angle lens on the photo below - the carronades aren't sloping down like that in reality)

  Finish off bow rails (the rails that lead from the cat heads are particularly tricky - I wanted to make my own parts, but it's added a few grey hairs along the way.) These are now fitted and complete.

  Rigging fore-deck guns and carronades (in progress) Shape topmasts (foretopmast and maintopmast done) and dry-fit with fids, and start looking at the cross trees


Shape driver boom for mizzen and jib boom to assess out full length of model when complete. (complete)

  Make up belfry, barricades for fore-deck, and mount along with galley-chimney, quarterdeck capstan and hatches (complete on fore-deck). This involved sanding down the height of the hatches significantly as originally I made them the same height as the gun deck hatches, which looks odd. I've decided to live with the width of the coamings being too wide... It's too tricky to sand these down evenly without power tools (which I don't have)

  Replace kit supplied ship's wheels with the after-market Caldercraft 24mm ship's wheel. I've always felt the kit supplied wheel was somewhat insubstantial as a single layer of brass etch... This substitution was WELL worth it. I have a picture of the difference below. (Kit on right, after-market on left) All in all, I think I'm getting close to topping out the hull, and the focus will be much more on the masts, spars and rigging pretty soon.
 
Very happy building to you all. 
 
Rob
 

Coming back to the original question on the use of the Ensign staff, I think current Royal Navy (and probably other Commonwealth, likely all other) provides the answer.  By tradition, an ensign is flown from the ensign staff only while not underway either in harbor or at anchor together with the union jack at the for jack staff during daylight hours.  Modern ensign staffs similarly pivot per Druxey's description to avoid any entanglement with the variety of modern operations that occur in the stern area.  While underway, the ensign is flown from a different location wherever the primary mast structure is, which is both most visible and least encumbering.  Taking this practice back to the days of sail, it would seem logical to infer from this the same practice (although I suspect the ensign staff would be removed entirely while underway) and with the sea going location being flown from the gaff peak and the ensign staff lowered or stowed.

Thank you all for your feedback and likes.  
I continue to work on the ventilation pipes. 
I make a mechanism for turning the trumpet.

Alan, that bowsprit is a thing of beauty in of itself!

Small update, definitely getting a bit more comfortable working with some of the what I'm sure are basic skills to most!  Started to tackle the tiller.
 
1 - found that the tiller arm is too long, and the plans seem to contradict each other from side to top elevation in determining the length.  In the end I sort of averaged it, dry placed the wheel and adjusted for what I thought looked about right length.  Side note, the more I work with the plans the more I keep reminding myself that they are more "guidelines" in a number of respects.  After finding the right length, I shaped the end to the angel of the rudder and drilled a 1mm hole in the tiller arm and the rudder to accept some wire - this seemed a little more reliable (how you are supposed to work with the pre-cut square 'pin' I don't know).
 
SPOILER ALERT - You'll see there are two holes in the rudder, the top is a mistake which I'll explain
 
2 - Dry fitted tiller arm.  I'l probably round this off a bit before final fitting.
 
3 - Dryfitted the aft platform and found that the tiller arm was too high as the arm did not clear the support beam (again, despite using the plans as guidance) - simple to fix, but another example of where I'm learning its important to be 3 steps ahead.  It would have been a real pain to correct this after it was all rigged
 
4 - Threw some of the other in progress deck fittings together, looks like its going to be rather crowded back there even without the aft platform, and ladders still need to go in.  Need to assemble these and plan for where these will go prior to fitting the tiller rope otherwise it could cause problems later.
 

I think I'm rapidly approaching an 'ask lots of questions' phase, so please bear with me,  first of many I suspect to come.
 
I'm had thought about adding a false keel instead of coppering the keel bottom.  Based on what I've read and seen in AOTS series, the false keel was installed to protect the keel from inevitable damage, was easily replaceable, and would have been attached on top of the coppered keel bottom.  Pictures below show what I think this would have been like based on my research (I faked the scarf joints as they will not be very visible).  Is this a reasonable representation?
 

Well, the straps took a bit longer than I had hoped, but I'm having bit of a whisky and cigar moment...
 
Broke 2 small drill bits in the process but pretty happy with the way they turned out.  I found getting the placement right to be a bit of a challenge on the hull as the the shine on the copper, the curve of the hull and the lines of the copper plates all seem to conspire to make you a little cross eyed - and even when they are perpendicular to the sternpost, they don't look to be.  I found the painting to be a chore yet again.  The Admiralty metal primer acrylic I'm using gives good coverage, but the copper paint like all metals required many many thin coats to get a solid look. 
 
QUESTION - any advice on whether the rudder should be secured to the hull in some way, or is it OK just to leave it gravity like real life?
 
 

Started to tackle what is really the last task to be done before I can safely keep the old girl permanently on her keel and start getting the deck fitted out...installing the straps.
 
The instructions are very light in this area and it took me quite a while to figure out a system.  I only have one side of the rudder complete at this point, but started on the rudder as I thought it would be easier to handle and build skills before tackling the hull straps.  I was concerned with the pins protruding too far as I assume that these would probably have been flush, but I'm not sure its possible to achieve that with the supplied materials.  I was pretty pleased with the result, the pins don't seem to be any more noticeable than the nail heads on the plates.
 
Heres how I tackled it...hopefully I haven't made any newbie gaffs:
 
Prepainted the straps with metal primer and copper paint Marked the center point of the rear of the strap and pre-bent on a piece of 3mm dowel Spot glued the strap to the pintle only Once I'd ensured the strap was perpendicular to the forward edge of the rudder, drilled a small (0.6mm) hole in both of the end holes (found the smaller bits drilled through the copper more easily).  This seemed to secure the strap sufficiently to be able to work on the rest Enlarged the hole to 0.8mm (If positioned correctly, the hole from opposite sides will meet) Enlarged the strap hole further to 1.0mm to allow the pin head to be countersunk to some degree Using the brass pins supplied (couldn't find any others I should use), I cut these down approximately half the thickness of the rudder, put thick CA glue on the bottom of the pin and inserted into the hole  
Repeated this step for all the other holes and painted.  Of course, my small diameter bit broke so will need to find a replacement. 
 

Once work on the mounting hardware was done, moved onto the coppering (of course) and other finishings aspects.  I did not bother to copper the sternpost or the front side of the rudder as these cannot really be seen, and simply painted these copper.  Coppering the rudder was definitely a challenge due to the rudder mounting recesses. 
 
Overall pretty happy, and just the mounting straps to go before being able to move back to the deck with conviction.

After completing the hull coppering, moved onto the rudder.  This felt a bit like the last 385 yards at the end of the 26 mile marathon!  Had to file down the rudder openings and the pintles so they were fully square, square needle file a flat needle file did this easily enough with a bit of patience.  Care is needed to make sure the gudgeons are installed in the right spot, I decide to first get the rudder positioned correctly and install the top gudgeon first and use this as a basis for the others to ensure all are supporting the rudder.  Simple matter with thick CA glue.
 
Small holes are needed to be drilled in the sternpost to accomodate the cast 'nail' on the gudgeons, care is definitely needed with these, the last one broke off while dryfitting.   Hopefully I won't regret this, but I simply glued this to the sternpost as the others should bear a lot of the strain.

Installed the small ledges need to support the fore and aft platforms.  Also added in the catheads as these need to go in ahead of the platforms, even though they are not mentioned in the instructions.
 
I am deviating from the order described in the instructions, and am somewhat glad that I am as I'm finding it a little easier.  I do forsee some questions coming up on the bow area, as I think it may be necessary to shape the bowsprit and ensure this can be fitted properly before the fore platform and fore-bits/bowsprit brakcet are installed.  I would like to install the false deck ply first and then plank in situ rather than doing in advance.
 
You can see that I needed to file back the elbow of the cathead so it is flush with the platform ledges and doesn't interfere with the fore platform fitting.  Also will need to do some paint touch up in this area, even though I don't think it will be very visible.

Finally...pretty much completed the coppering on the hull.  Only have the leading edge of the bow to go and I want to think about how to approach that, no urgency and should be relatively easy to do.  I followed the coppering pattern as shown in the  HMS Pandora AOTS book as there seems to be so little information around on how this was done.  Result came out pretty close.
 
Only other coppering to be done is the rudder, but this should be straight forward now, but I need to deal with the gudgeons and pintles first.  I'm also running worryingly low on copper plates, my numerous "re-dos" have caught up with me but still glad I did.  I've ordered some more just in case to avoid any work stoppage.

Coppering update - boy, this seems to go on and on! Wanted to post a couple of progress pictures which show how I handled what proved to be the more challenging areas. The good news is that I feel much more proficient after much fumbling a rework. Overall, I'm pretty happy, but still have not completed one side yet.
 
Key lessons I've learned:
- The plates are definitely most easily cut with good scissors
- If you make a mistake, plates are pretty easy to pop-off even when well glued pretty well
- Some very slight overlap is necessary along the edges to avoid gaps, even witht the small scale, rectangles just don't fit perfectly on a curved surface!
- I'm using the thick Pro CA glue for Caldercraft, and it seems to work well with 3 SMALL drops of glue evenly spread
- Where 'steelers' are needed in the tricky bow and stern areas, I decided to overlap the plate above as I think it gives a a better look. I found that using a sharp metal edge to flatten the nail heads makes this much easier and makes the overlap hard to see.
The coppering will continue....

A big step forward, have started on the coppering. This has caused concerns because mistakes will be much harder to correct. However, it seems to be easier than I expected. I found the first row along the keel to be a challenging start because I had to bend the copper plates to follow the hull.
 
I'm using thick CA glue and no obvious problems so far. It seems to be difficult to know whether there is enough glue but the plates seem firmly attached. Don't think I've had any 'CA seepage' issues like others have described. Once placed I've been rubbing the plates with a soft cloth for 10-20 secs until its set to try and get the appropriate curvature, it also seems to polish each plate - I will leave to tarnish naturally, the polished finish shows the most microscopic misalignments.
 
In general, I've found the coppering to easier than I expected, really where the plates require simple glueing to the hull. That being said, the areas of detail have been killing me. Particularly challenging has been the lower bow area. Trying to get the copper plates to bend smoothly to conform with the hull has been pretty challenging. Add to that the need to trim the plates to shape has resulted in a lot of thought and reflection. I wanted to reflect the coppering as depicted on the majority of referennce materials, basically the plates on the hull follow the lines of the hull, but the plates on the stem continue parallel to the keel. This causes a gradually increasing seperation in the horizontal joint lines, but this is how it should be. The lines of the Snake make this very difficult to do (for me anyway!) and bring back the struggles of this area when doing the second planking. The approach I finally took was to trim the hull plates to shape at the stem, leaving a little overlap, and then curring another plate to shape to butt up against the line of the stem. Hopefully this will speed up as I get more proficient, but I'm OK with how things are looking - whichever way you tackle it, these copper plates are a challenge and I can see why the copper tape is a popular alternative.
 

Here is the method I used to get what I feel to be a consistent top camber on the gratings, despite extensive searching I just couldn't find anything on this site to help. In the end, I took the following approach:
 
1) Built a small frame and place a thin sheet of bass wood into the frame at what I thought would be an appropriate curvature, I simply glued a thin line along the center to secure it (I know this is really forms a parabola, but it is certainly close enough to circular in the center to pass muster)
 
2) After putting a fine grain sandpaper on the curve, I then used a couple of spare strips of lime wood to act as 'guides'. Its then just a simple matter of moving the grating back and forth carefully until the curve has taken. The guides ensure that the camber remains centered for consistent result.

I plan to use a modified deck layout as per HMS Gannet NMM plans as this should allow me to install a ships boat. Even though Gannet was two masted, the layout should require little modification to account for Snake's 3 masts. I've added the NMM plans below.
 
This required the addition of a galley chimney, I ordered one of suitable size from Caldercraft. One thing that intially bothered me was that the chimney was 'solid', but after some research it appears that the galley chimney's were fitted with a cover that when closed looks exactly like the white metal casting.
 
Took me quite a bit of time to round the coaming corners and put some camber on the gratings, the aft gratings/companionway are still in very early stages. I will probably reduce the size of the companionway to size it more to the opeing indicated on the plans. The companionway size has always bothered me for some reason, it just seems too large in every dimension for the ship.

Managed to get the stern fascia knees installed, I found these needed a bit of reshaping to get the angle right and the usual compound angles of the deck and stern fascia and stern fascia curve. Its not perfect but should be mostly hidden by the aft platform when installed.