Beef Wellington

Gun Carriages:
 
Nothing revolutionary, prototype gun carriage has been completed after putting on some more coats of paint to the carriages.  Learning experience here is to use as little paint on metal items as possible, all ring bolts and ring bolts have been chemically blackened.  Cannon barrels and ring bolts have been finished with Testors clear matt lacquer to eliminate the shine still inherent to the blackened surface.  The carriage bolts are model railway/railroad track pins which have a shallow domed head, these come painted black, so the head was painted with 'dark iron' before attaching.  I had experimented with countersinking these on a spare, but this seemed a little over fussy, and also just using wire cut off wire but felt these looked too dainty.
 
Event though many of these will be obscured by the deck, I will probably build all of these as per the prototype in case glimpses can be seen through various openings.  The guns that are highly visible will likely get a little more detailing but I'll decide to what extent when all of these are done.
 

 
Its a little disconcerting when I sat back a figured out what will be needed, and this is just the upper deck.  Everything is at least now ready for assembly....
ringbolts - 336 blackened (7 per carriage, 4 per bulwark, 1 deck bolt) Domed pins - 168 (6 per carriage) 3mm rings - 112 (2 per carriage for breaching rope, 2 per gunport for breaching rope) 2mm rings - 28 (1 per gunport deckring)
 
So far 3 carriages have been built up, as the best method for construction becomes clearer, these do seem to be going together more quickly, but still not quickly 🙂  
 

Gun Carriages:
 
Nothing revolutionary, prototype gun carriage has been completed after putting on some more coats of paint to the carriages.  Learning experience here is to use as little paint on metal items as possible, all ring bolts and ring bolts have been chemically blackened.  Cannon barrels and ring bolts have been finished with Testors clear matt lacquer to eliminate the shine still inherent to the blackened surface.  The carriage bolts are model railway/railroad track pins which have a shallow domed head, these come painted black, so the head was painted with 'dark iron' before attaching.  I had experimented with countersinking these on a spare, but this seemed a little over fussy, and also just using wire cut off wire but felt these looked too dainty.
 
Event though many of these will be obscured by the deck, I will probably build all of these as per the prototype in case glimpses can be seen through various openings.  The guns that are highly visible will likely get a little more detailing but I'll decide to what extent when all of these are done.
 

 
Its a little disconcerting when I sat back a figured out what will be needed, and this is just the upper deck.  Everything is at least now ready for assembly....
ringbolts - 336 blackened (7 per carriage, 4 per bulwark, 1 deck bolt) Domed pins - 168 (6 per carriage) 3mm rings - 112 (2 per carriage for breaching rope, 2 per gunport for breaching rope) 2mm rings - 28 (1 per gunport deckring)
 
So far 3 carriages have been built up, as the best method for construction becomes clearer, these do seem to be going together more quickly, but still not quickly 🙂  
 

Gun Carriages:
 
Nothing revolutionary, prototype gun carriage has been completed after putting on some more coats of paint to the carriages.  Learning experience here is to use as little paint on metal items as possible, all ring bolts and ring bolts have been chemically blackened.  Cannon barrels and ring bolts have been finished with Testors clear matt lacquer to eliminate the shine still inherent to the blackened surface.  The carriage bolts are model railway/railroad track pins which have a shallow domed head, these come painted black, so the head was painted with 'dark iron' before attaching.  I had experimented with countersinking these on a spare, but this seemed a little over fussy, and also just using wire cut off wire but felt these looked too dainty.
 
Event though many of these will be obscured by the deck, I will probably build all of these as per the prototype in case glimpses can be seen through various openings.  The guns that are highly visible will likely get a little more detailing but I'll decide to what extent when all of these are done.
 

 
Its a little disconcerting when I sat back a figured out what will be needed, and this is just the upper deck.  Everything is at least now ready for assembly....
ringbolts - 336 blackened (7 per carriage, 4 per bulwark, 1 deck bolt) Domed pins - 168 (6 per carriage) 3mm rings - 112 (2 per carriage for breaching rope, 2 per gunport for breaching rope) 2mm rings - 28 (1 per gunport deckring)
 
So far 3 carriages have been built up, as the best method for construction becomes clearer, these do seem to be going together more quickly, but still not quickly 🙂  
 

Gun Carriages:
 
Nothing revolutionary, prototype gun carriage has been completed after putting on some more coats of paint to the carriages.  Learning experience here is to use as little paint on metal items as possible, all ring bolts and ring bolts have been chemically blackened.  Cannon barrels and ring bolts have been finished with Testors clear matt lacquer to eliminate the shine still inherent to the blackened surface.  The carriage bolts are model railway/railroad track pins which have a shallow domed head, these come painted black, so the head was painted with 'dark iron' before attaching.  I had experimented with countersinking these on a spare, but this seemed a little over fussy, and also just using wire cut off wire but felt these looked too dainty.
 
Event though many of these will be obscured by the deck, I will probably build all of these as per the prototype in case glimpses can be seen through various openings.  The guns that are highly visible will likely get a little more detailing but I'll decide to what extent when all of these are done.
 

 
Its a little disconcerting when I sat back a figured out what will be needed, and this is just the upper deck.  Everything is at least now ready for assembly....
ringbolts - 336 blackened (7 per carriage, 4 per bulwark, 1 deck bolt) Domed pins - 168 (6 per carriage) 3mm rings - 112 (2 per carriage for breaching rope, 2 per gunport for breaching rope) 2mm rings - 28 (1 per gunport deckring)
 
So far 3 carriages have been built up, as the best method for construction becomes clearer, these do seem to be going together more quickly, but still not quickly 🙂  
 

Gun Carriages:
 
Nothing revolutionary, prototype gun carriage has been completed after putting on some more coats of paint to the carriages.  Learning experience here is to use as little paint on metal items as possible, all ring bolts and ring bolts have been chemically blackened.  Cannon barrels and ring bolts have been finished with Testors clear matt lacquer to eliminate the shine still inherent to the blackened surface.  The carriage bolts are model railway/railroad track pins which have a shallow domed head, these come painted black, so the head was painted with 'dark iron' before attaching.  I had experimented with countersinking these on a spare, but this seemed a little over fussy, and also just using wire cut off wire but felt these looked too dainty.
 
Event though many of these will be obscured by the deck, I will probably build all of these as per the prototype in case glimpses can be seen through various openings.  The guns that are highly visible will likely get a little more detailing but I'll decide to what extent when all of these are done.
 

 
Its a little disconcerting when I sat back a figured out what will be needed, and this is just the upper deck.  Everything is at least now ready for assembly....
ringbolts - 336 blackened (7 per carriage, 4 per bulwark, 1 deck bolt) Domed pins - 168 (6 per carriage) 3mm rings - 112 (2 per carriage for breaching rope, 2 per gunport for breaching rope) 2mm rings - 28 (1 per gunport deckring)
 
So far 3 carriages have been built up, as the best method for construction becomes clearer, these do seem to be going together more quickly, but still not quickly 🙂  
 

The fore deck is now on, and the planks are applied awaiting a coat or two of polyurethane before treenailing.
 
The following photos show the process so far.  I decided to place a piece of timber strip behind the the plywood deck to hide both the ply and the ends of the planking that would be glued to it.  I fixed the deck support about a mm or so back from the rear edge of the ply.  Also shown is a piece of 6x6mm timber in place of the galley flue.  This helped to position the deck.
 

Gluing the covering piece of strip.  The tape is there to cushion the jaws of the alligator clips.
 

Strip in place;
Planking glued:

Having seen Joe's log, I was aware that he had made up a galley flue replacing the kits metal casting.  Once I took a look at the metal casting in my kit I now know why.  I therefore decided to have a go too.  I had the correctly sized timber, but had nothing to make the small disk for the diffuser (?).  My wife suggested a piece of X-ray film and it worked a treat.  The film was first roughly shaped,and  a nail driven in to the centre.  The nail was glued to the film, then placed in the chuck of my faux Dremel.  The rotating assembly was very gently lowed onto an abrasive stick until it was a nice clean circle.
 

 
Here is the result, dry fitted.  At least it's better than the casting.
 


 
 
 
 

Gun Carriages:
 
Nothing revolutionary, prototype gun carriage has been completed after putting on some more coats of paint to the carriages.  Learning experience here is to use as little paint on metal items as possible, all ring bolts and ring bolts have been chemically blackened.  Cannon barrels and ring bolts have been finished with Testors clear matt lacquer to eliminate the shine still inherent to the blackened surface.  The carriage bolts are model railway/railroad track pins which have a shallow domed head, these come painted black, so the head was painted with 'dark iron' before attaching.  I had experimented with countersinking these on a spare, but this seemed a little over fussy, and also just using wire cut off wire but felt these looked too dainty.
 
Event though many of these will be obscured by the deck, I will probably build all of these as per the prototype in case glimpses can be seen through various openings.  The guns that are highly visible will likely get a little more detailing but I'll decide to what extent when all of these are done.
 

 
Its a little disconcerting when I sat back a figured out what will be needed, and this is just the upper deck.  Everything is at least now ready for assembly....
ringbolts - 336 blackened (7 per carriage, 4 per bulwark, 1 deck bolt) Domed pins - 168 (6 per carriage) 3mm rings - 112 (2 per carriage for breaching rope, 2 per gunport for breaching rope) 2mm rings - 28 (1 per gunport deckring)
 
So far 3 carriages have been built up, as the best method for construction becomes clearer, these do seem to be going together more quickly, but still not quickly 🙂  
 

Evening all,   more progress with front lower section, I added the middle gun tubs and filled and sanded the area,  then a few areas of painting was completed, finishing off with the two sides being fitted.
 
Just the two pics showing the state of play with the assembly dry fitted on the deck.
 
OC.

Thank you for kind words and likes...
 
Just a small essay...
( I think that the result is satisfying )
(Diagonal cut of the two edges of the rope after a small drop of CA is important)

Two Brigs and a Chebec off the North African Coast.
w/c 14" X 10"
jim

The next lot in the paint cue, davits, focsle equipment, etc etc. I even ordered more carley floats. With soo many tiny pieces I have to alternate as I’d just go mad. 

Catching up a bit, love the treenails and nicely done on the molding strip.  My feeling is that impression of the detail, rather than absolute accuracy, is 90% what the eye sees, and my eye likes what it sees 😊

To give everyone an idea of how Alaskan Cedar ages, the below pic is of a ship I started in 2001. I then put it away in 2003 in a box.  No sunlight on it, but it does have a light coat of Tung oil.  You can see it has aged to a soft golden yellow.  Very pleasing.
 
The rest of the wood is ebony and holly.
 
 
 
Let’s just say the ship has “weathered in frame” as they used to do.  It’s about time it made it back to the lumberyard and onto the shipways to get finished. 😊

Very nice clean work Bob, I love the fine details that you achieve.

Very nice clean work Bob, I love the fine details that you achieve.

MASTERS MADE
 
I was speaking with Dan, yesterday, who gave me some really helpful tips for mounting objects this small, with thin-set cyano.  The basic idea was to hold the part in place on the mount with, in this case, the tip of a pen knife, while applying a small drop of cyano to one side of the part; capillary action will wick the cyano beneath the part.  A quick touch with the edge of a paper towel wicks away any excess, thus reducing the corona of excess glue to nearly nothing.
 
In practice, I found these scrolls even too tiny to reliably hold down with the pen knife.  It didn’t help, of course, that the other side of the mount had a dolphin master mounted to it, and so it was wobbly on the table.  I haven’t had access to a table saw, lately, so I haven’t been able to cut up more mounting stock.
 
My solution was to hold each scroll by the tail, with a fine tweezer, while applying a drop of cyano to the back.  I then touch the scroll down to a paper towel to wick away the excess, and then mount to the block.  This left only a very little bit of squeeze out, that was then wiped away.
 
Here are the masters in high-definition, highlighting the remaining discrepancies and imperfections in their shaping.  I will touch the tail of the upper left scroll with the tools again, but I am otherwise satisfied with their symmetry.  They were too small to attempt tracing a pattern, so instead I just nipped away at uniform blanks (1/16” x 3/16”) with the tools until I liked the shape.  Also, I found it necessary to simplify the scroll a little - eliminating a teensy spur from one side of the tail - because it was just too small to cut into the plastic.
 

What is difficult to see are the small domed accents that I added to the scroll heads.  This will only show, on the finished model, as the smallest glint of reflected light, but it helps give the scrolls just a little bit if shape and dimension.  Applying these domes was much easier than trying to carve them into the blank.
 
Next, I’ll make a trial mould and casting, and we’ll see how they turn out.

Post 36
Fixing the decorative mouldings.
These went on without too much trouble, but at the bow end an extension of the moulding onto the stem, referred to as 'ears', is required to be scratched.
I couldn't find a drawing of these items on the plans to use as a working template so it was a case of trial and error.
The ear extends to the fore end of the stem and is shaped to run into the fancy moulding running back to the fore side of the bow port.
The hawse plate governs the length of the ear onto the hull; I firstly drew the ear shape onto card freehand using the hawse plate length and stem width as reference points.

4402
 Once happy with the shape and fit, it was transferred onto 1/16th" Boxwood  sheet,(I made several copies) cut out on the jig saw, and given the final shape using scalpel and sandpaper.

4424
The latter stages need soft hands as the stems are quite delicate where they extend back to meet the other moulding, and I did snap one just as I neared completion.

4433
The last job was to scrape the profile into the outer edge.
The macro image is not very flattering.

2201
Positioning the ears is a little tricky, they have a slightly upwards angle as they run across the stem, it took me three goes to get them to look right to my eye.
They came off ok with water but with the high risk of snapping the tail off the 'ear'

2220(2)
With the ears glued into place the lower moulding strip can be completed.

2222(2)

2222

2211

2213

2199
I've yet to decide whether to paint the counter or not, I quite like the natural look, and it is a large expanse of red.

2195
I will leave the outer hull now for a while to concentrate on the inner works, but I will return to do a final fettlin' on the outer works before I install the false deck.
 
B.E
28/08/2108
 

Evening all,  so carrying on from building my 15in mk1s,  next step was to add the different bits of pe - including  steps, escape hatch and access platforms under the rangefinders,   after these had fixed it was time to paint the x turret,  this was going to be AP507B mid grey - after several thin coats I decided to do a little bit of highlighting by dry brushing some white,  it came out quite good I think.
 
Just a few pics.
 
OC.

Well, I've been up north for the past couple of weeks having a medical procedure, but now it's back to work on PdN. I've done the head work , which is somewhat simpler than on others that I've done. That's not to say that it is ever easy to fit the cheeks and rails, but at least there was no middle rail or eking rail to fit. Once again, the plans and instructions are very vague on details, so I just fumbled along. All of the parts were made from boxwood sheet and strip.
 
Bob

Very very nice result with those copper plates Peter, well done indeed.  Keep going!

AS previously stated, Pontos based this kit on Tamiya’s Prince Of Wales not the KGV. As such the central catapult area is a retrofit and there is no protrusions at the end of the Cats on the side of the ship provided and have to be scratch built. The 42-43 version did have the armoured splinter shields instead of railings and I have yet to add 8 single 20mm guns. Yes, I also have to fix up the paintwork and add some large scuppers. 

Catching up on a lot of progress, some really beautiful results, well done OC!

Very very nice result with those copper plates Peter, well done indeed.  Keep going!

Cleats with pin

Thanks Jim for taking the time to comment and thanks for all the likes (or whatever they are called now).  They really encourage.
 
Jason You're right.  Originally I tried for hooks but none of the material I had  proved to be suitable for making them.  Your post encouraged me to look again.  Fortunately I found some etched brass fittings left over from the Vanguard that, with some work, could be made into adequate hooks.  Here are the results.  I hope all the mistakes are confined to these two guns (and I can now see the quoins need a touch up too) because they will be almost hidden.