Beef Wellington

Happy New year to everyone!  First off my apologies for not being on the site as much as usual and checking in on everyone's progress, something I hope to rectify soon. 
 
My progress has been limited, some small steps have been taken, and problems encountered that stopped me in my tracks for a while.
 
Channel Brackets:
The kit supplies PE channel support brackets, unfortunately I found this unworkable as is as the profile impinged on the decorative molding, they're also a little wider than indicated on the plan.  The PE parts are scored pretty heavily at the bending points so trying to tweak these was not really an option.  The problem also identified by others is that there are not enough provided in the kit (per the AOTS there are 3 shown on the mizzen, 6 for main and 4 for the fore channel) and only 11 provided, so the kit is 2 short.  Further analysis suggests its likely 3 short as there are 2 brackets used between ports, and it appears that one is simply hidden behind the stock of the anchor on page 69.  I'm going to reflect 5 brackets on the fore channel.  Another slight complication is that the mizzen brackets need to be smaller to account for the lower position of the channel in the open rail configuration I'm following.  Basically I needed to make my own, and without any really good photos to follow went with my gut.
 

 
Not having any other suitable materials handy, my eye turned to one of the spare sets of PE from other CC kits I had purchased a while back.  Not sure which kit, but a little filing and cutting to length allowed the chains to be workable.  These also appear to be almost exactly the same narrower width as shown in the AOTS profiles.  The center portion of the Diana PE part was re-purposed to attach to the channel.  Exactly the same approach was taken for the mizzen, except that the top of the Diana PE part was used and different dimensions for the bracket supporter.  This was all rather fiddly and took rather longer than I'd care to admit... 🙂
 

 

 
Cannons....finally:
Once the channel supporters were in place I could then proceed with installation of the cannons.  These are now glued in place (using CA), I didn't pin these in place as this would have been a little problematic at this stage, and they seem quite secure as is.  Breeching ropes were attached off the ship prior to installation.  Another self imposed delay was decision to go with 'light brown' Syren line rather than the 'tan' used previously - this seems to have a tone that blends better with the colour palette.  The Syren line is very nice to work with and the usual trick of using dilute PVA was used to fine tune the final profile.  For these more obscured cannons, I used a simple eyebolt to secure the breach rope, for the more visible ones in the waist, I want to explore using ringbolt as per practice, but even using a simple eyebolt gives a satisfactory result to my eye at this scale.
 

 
And finally, the exterior shot...in retrospect I'm happy with the decision to install the channels and brackets first as I'm pretty sure there would have been collateral damage to cannons during installation.  5 down, 23 to go.

Happy New year to everyone!  First off my apologies for not being on the site as much as usual and checking in on everyone's progress, something I hope to rectify soon. 
 
My progress has been limited, some small steps have been taken, and problems encountered that stopped me in my tracks for a while.
 
Channel Brackets:
The kit supplies PE channel support brackets, unfortunately I found this unworkable as is as the profile impinged on the decorative molding, they're also a little wider than indicated on the plan.  The PE parts are scored pretty heavily at the bending points so trying to tweak these was not really an option.  The problem also identified by others is that there are not enough provided in the kit (per the AOTS there are 3 shown on the mizzen, 6 for main and 4 for the fore channel) and only 11 provided, so the kit is 2 short.  Further analysis suggests its likely 3 short as there are 2 brackets used between ports, and it appears that one is simply hidden behind the stock of the anchor on page 69.  I'm going to reflect 5 brackets on the fore channel.  Another slight complication is that the mizzen brackets need to be smaller to account for the lower position of the channel in the open rail configuration I'm following.  Basically I needed to make my own, and without any really good photos to follow went with my gut.
 

 
Not having any other suitable materials handy, my eye turned to one of the spare sets of PE from other CC kits I had purchased a while back.  Not sure which kit, but a little filing and cutting to length allowed the chains to be workable.  These also appear to be almost exactly the same narrower width as shown in the AOTS profiles.  The center portion of the Diana PE part was re-purposed to attach to the channel.  Exactly the same approach was taken for the mizzen, except that the top of the Diana PE part was used and different dimensions for the bracket supporter.  This was all rather fiddly and took rather longer than I'd care to admit... 🙂
 

 

 
Cannons....finally:
Once the channel supporters were in place I could then proceed with installation of the cannons.  These are now glued in place (using CA), I didn't pin these in place as this would have been a little problematic at this stage, and they seem quite secure as is.  Breeching ropes were attached off the ship prior to installation.  Another self imposed delay was decision to go with 'light brown' Syren line rather than the 'tan' used previously - this seems to have a tone that blends better with the colour palette.  The Syren line is very nice to work with and the usual trick of using dilute PVA was used to fine tune the final profile.  For these more obscured cannons, I used a simple eyebolt to secure the breach rope, for the more visible ones in the waist, I want to explore using ringbolt as per practice, but even using a simple eyebolt gives a satisfactory result to my eye at this scale.
 

 
And finally, the exterior shot...in retrospect I'm happy with the decision to install the channels and brackets first as I'm pretty sure there would have been collateral damage to cannons during installation.  5 down, 23 to go.

Thank you for the great discussion, quite sure we will follow this still for quite a while, it might stay intriguing 🙂
 
So to not loose the fine nuances for colors as a contrast some black and white thinking.
 
To spread some light into why the port holes were planked over 🙂

Next thing first planking trials.

Still quite topsy-turvy but one can see the direction 🙂

XXXDAn

Hi Dafi,
 
Good colour match, if you want to go all the way you can have the colours mixed, in the thread ‘HMS Victory 2017 refit new-colours’ on this forum ‘michaelpsutton2’ quoted the Pantone colour references. I ordered the new black/grey and ochre for a test and the colour swatches are below. These are in an enamel low gloss.
 
What you find is that the ochre is very susceptible to light and shading conditions, going from the dark ochre/buff to the pink. The third picture has a coat of satin gloss.
 
Gary
 
 
 
 
 
 

Despite all this  X-Mess-stress I found a small space for some advent tinkering 🙂
 
Started as usual in the smaller scale ...
 

 
... and then scratched the fitting Brodi-Stove for it by some scrap materials.
 

 
Then some trials ...
 

 
...for the BBQ-skewer holder and some brass nibbling ...
 

 
... bent ...
 

 
... and the skewer itself by filing a round brass into a pointed square section.
 

 
Some trials in soldering but finally it fitted :-).
 

 
The exhaust air propelled skewer drive was easy ...
 

 
... but fitting a 1 mm hole for the external axle bearing into a 1 mm brass profile needed the magical trick of flattening the material before drilling :-).
 

 
Then some handles and the handrail around and soon some paint could be applied.
 
I think I will go for a nice eloquent black 😉
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Always remember: no food - no fight 🙂
 
XXXDAn

Superb looking canons.
 
OC.

She's looking REALLY good Kevin, glad you are back working on her.

@Pat - I tried using a very fine sanding stick after coat of primer had been sprayed on.  This worked in some cases, but less so in others, and not at all in all those hard to reach corners.  I've never seen many samples of 3D printing to compare to so I may be being a little unfair, and of course it comes down to the materials supplied.  I ordered the "Smoothest Fine Detail' option which was the 'best' finish of those available.  Its odd as one side is almost perfect, the other much rougher...https://www.shapeways.com/product/9VPR7D8CW/1-64-lower-capstan-18th-and-19th-century?optionId=64749325.  I suspect other materials offered by other suppliers could give better results.
 
Taking stock:
 
Not too much time in the shipyard this weekend, trying to get the garden ready for winter.  The shipyard did however get a bit of a spring cleaning as I was getting a little bit tired of working in a 2"x2" square on my cutting mat despite working on a pretty large table.  A few overall shots of where things stand as its been a while.  Now the channels are glued, the chainplate locations could be drilled as well as the emergency rigging eyebolt positions.  The scuppers have also been completed.  The positioning of all of these things requires quite a bit of planning and luckily I didn't encounter any problems with the airing ports.  (I seem to recall leaving off the foremost one because it is very tightly positioned between preventer links and would have been impossible to locate correctly and likely resulted in a necessary compromise with the chain alignments. 
 
Nearly all the parts for the upper gun deck have been completed an I'm still following the mantra of not gluing something into place until it absolutely needs to progress.
 

 
Syren rope will be used, and I would welcome peoples' opinions on which size to use for the breech rope.  Picked two sizes that seemed most appropriate, left is 0.025"/0.63mm, the right is 0.35"/0.88mm.  Even though I'm sure it exists, I can't find info on what regulation would be - and even if I did, the carriages and barrels are best efforts at matching scale and undoubtedly not spot on, so the right "look" is probably more important.  Upon consideration, I think I'm leaning toward the smaller size, but again would appreciate input...
 

 

Cheers Gents, appreciate the support, comments and likes...
 
Welcome aboard Ian 🙂
 
A rather dreary rainy day precluded any other activities so as able get a decent amount of time in.  Spent most of the day completing the cannon carriages, these really are incredibly time consuming and seemingly never ending, but can now report are complete.  I did decide to cheat a little on those carriages that will be mostly obscured away from the waist.  Rather than continuing to use the  pins to simulate bolts which are incredibly fiddly, the carriage bolts were simulated using a fine tip black pen and then touch of dark iron paint to tone it down.  Pins have been used on all the carriages that will mount in or immediately about the waist.  The macro photo below shows the 'real' bolts in the foreground and the 'cheat' in the rear.  At real life viewing distance these are difficult to tell apart if you didn't know - the difference really being the lack of about 8hrs of cursing.
 
Experimentation with the cap squares and royal cyphers next...
 

Really nice finish, you also managed to sneak in the tricky planking at the stern.  🙂

Very nice progress Sjors with the planking, and very brave to not do double planking!  So no stripes?  At the stern I wonder if you will need to do a little spiling or thinning to get the planks to sit properly around the sharp angle at the stern.  Otherwise the planks may become harder and harder to bend until its impossible, but of course it is difficult to judge with only seeing pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of those in the US!  Unfortunately the  shipyard has had to suddenly close due to a minor, but messy, health and safety violation involving a clumsy thumb and Xacto knife - nothing serious but plasters/band-aids preventing fine work.
 
Good opportunity to sit back and ponder gun rigging as I'll need to order additional materials from Syren.  Think I'm done with additional detailing on the cannons in the interests of sanity;
Monograms are from Syren, given a quick dash of 'dark iron' Cpaint and glued into place with CA Cap-square eyebolt made with wire and the cap square joint bolt is one of the smaller PE ring bolts.  
 
First mock up of potential rigging, as previously discussed, the breech rope is 0.88mm Syren line.  This line does make the half hitch a little more cumbersome, but think it can still work, even though they will be somewhat hidden even for most visible guns in the waist.  Going to live without the wheel lynch pin and cap square pin/chain.
 
Cannon rigging:
Breeching rope does require some dilute PVA to hold into position on the button.  Wanted to give the hauling tackle a feeling of 'weight', and have been experimenting assembling these off the model using a serving machine to get consistent spacing and also do the frapping.  Procedure still to be finalised…
 
Details as follows:
Block are 1/8" (3.18mm) single/double blocks from Syren Blocks are stropped with 0.012"(0.3mm) line Port tackle line is 0.008" (0.2mm) line Hooks are 4mm from Syren (these are black plastic which I ordered some time ago and don't think Chuck still offers them which is a shame as they seem easy to work with)

Soldered brass profile semicircle.

Deck  aft housing mostly assembled.

Installation of sponsons on the hull.

Three casemates took their places.

I insert a casemate in his place.  The arrow indicates the lower contour of the casemate for soldering.

I cut the vertical joints on the hull of the boat with a sharp knife blade along the ruler.

Here is the US take from FOX NEWS, I'm sure many will find the inaccuracy of the picture of HMS Serapis somewhat amusing 🙂  (spoiler alert...they pictured the 1866 troopship rather than 1779 5th rate)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/science/remains-of-us-revolutionary-war-frigate-discovered/vi-BBQOCzj?ocid=spartanntp

 

Here is the US take from FOX NEWS, I'm sure many will find the inaccuracy of the picture of HMS Serapis somewhat amusing 🙂  (spoiler alert...they pictured the 1866 troopship rather than 1779 5th rate)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/science/remains-of-us-revolutionary-war-frigate-discovered/vi-BBQOCzj?ocid=spartanntp

 

Here is the US take from FOX NEWS, I'm sure many will find the inaccuracy of the picture of HMS Serapis somewhat amusing 🙂  (spoiler alert...they pictured the 1866 troopship rather than 1779 5th rate)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/science/remains-of-us-revolutionary-war-frigate-discovered/vi-BBQOCzj?ocid=spartanntp

 

Looking very nice Mark, I can't help but feel this would make a nice kit.  Have you considered going there?

Hurrah - back in action.
 

 

Going well - top deck in.
 
 

..then disaster
 

snapped my working light...arghh!
 
All stop until replacement arrives......
 
 

Finally the 18 pounders are finished; took me a lot longer than planned.  Mainly due to having to widen the gun tackle anchor points as the blocks kept meeting before fully tensioned.  You can see the original anchor points, now painted over. Perhaps smaller hooks and blocks next time.

The rope coil factory at work...
 

 
And top deck glued in place and setting with a few improvised weights.  I've tied off some sheets and tacks early to avoid the tricky attachment to the gun deck cleats through the boat deck.   Getting there....