Beef Wellington

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

First (port) half of the coppering is done. Me, I'm looking forward to a nice diversified work, like knotting ratlines. The copper will be polished after both sides are done. The amount of copper plates was just sufficient. By  careful use of trimmed leftovers I managed to keep enough full plates to cover rudder and keel.
 









the scale figure of the captain shows just how much expensive copper was put on such a ship of the line

Thanks for the comments and likes.
 
A little progress.  Mizzen stay made off to the main mast and a start on the main shrouds >>>

The 2 black 'ropes' hanging loosely behind the main mast are shrouds number 6 for each side  of the main still waiting to be attached.
 

The line hanging over the mizzen topmast top is the mizzen topgallant halliard. At it's fixed end it is attached to a block which is attached to the topside of the mizzen top platform. When I looked at Petersson's rigging plan it seemed to me that block would have been extremely difficult to fit into the very tight space available on that platform, so I fitted it to the platform while the platform was still off the mast.
I had already fitted the first 2 pairs of shrouds to the main when I realised that I hadn't made and fitted the Burton pendants. I made the two pairs (Burton pendants) and managed to get them squeezed down through the shrouds and secured in position over the masthead and bolsters.
The upper jeer blocks have been attached to the masthead for some time.

I had a lengthy respiratory infection and was staying away from making any sawdust for a while. That's why there have only been the main and mizzen lower and topmasts making an appearance on and off the ship for some time. I've been back at my makeshift lathe and the fore lower mast is now in position.

 
 

Rigged the main topmast stay and preventer >
 
Although the above pic shows the fore topmast shrouds rigged, the main topmast stay and preventer were rigged first.
The other end of the stay and preventer >
Since the fore topmast shrouds were now in place it seemed right to rig the stay and preventer >
Somewhere in the middle of doing these stays I decided to create and fit the fairlead for the bowsprit.  The first one was done freehand and didn't turn out too well so I turned to my milling machine to do it 'properly'.
Not considering that a solid piece of wood could be strong enough at that small size, I made a piece of 3 ply from thin slices of Makore.  In the piece left over from my first attempt I drilled a 1mm hole near the centre and used that hole on which to pivot the wood while on a wooden jig attached to the travelling table on my milling machine.  The workpiece was spun around its axis while the fairlead holes were drilled. The table was then moved enough to be able to partially cut the inner curve by spinning the piece, then moved again to another position to cut the outer curve.
The following pics should explain what I did >    
and on the bowsprit >  
AND ~  ALL lower mast ratlines are finished! >
Once the topmast ratlines are done I won't be looking to be doing ratlines for a while!

This is the second post I have had to edit to say that at least one photo is out of sequence -- and I don't know why . . . AND I can't fix it !!!!!
The last photo immediately above here SHOULD be the 3rd photo in the post.

Finished the fore shrouds' ratlines  >>>

Spent a couple of nights preparing 8 futtock plates and mounting the deadeyes in them for the foremast, then did the  futtock shrouds and hooks (not sure if these hooks have a more 'nautical name'?) >>>


Then fitted them pesky little ratlines . . . the lowest one was the trickiest owing to the tight space to work in >>>

Beginning to find my way a bit with the ratlines and they don't seem just so tedious as they were with the main mast.
Got just over half way up the mizzen mast right now.  They're still 'adjustable' at present and can be slid up or down the shrouds. I'll wait until they're at the top before equalising them, trimming the tails and putting a drop of CA on each knot to finally seize them in position >>>

 
Edited in an attempt to remove the bottom picture which is a duplicate of the 3rd picture in this post - - but failed !!!
 
I have no idea how that photo got in here twice ??? - - - and can't get rid of the unwanted one !

Returned to the fore mast and did a few more ratlines . . . now there are 16 on each side, so I guess that must be close to halfway to the futtock  stave >>>

Since I had fitted the main mast futtock shrouds I wanted to rig the topmast shrouds, but the crosstrees and bolsters would have to be in place first.
Being only about 2.5mm thick, I couldn't see how I would be able to make the crosstrees from a single piece of wood. So I attempted to make my own 'plywood'.  With the bandsaw I was able to slice thin strips of only 0.63mm from a piece of Makore >>>

Four of these strips glued at right angles to the others produced plywood of around 2.5mm. As I'm not very artistic, and not trusting my ability to draw these crosstrees to be identical to each other, I copied and scaled a drawing from a book and glued that onto the plywood >>>
The milling machine ensured that the 6 holes were perpendicular as well as being in the exact spots >>>

The bandsaw released each of the strips >>>
The blanks >>>

 . . . and fitted >>>

and with the shrouds >>>

Two Burton pendants also hang from the topmast platform. I only just spotted them in Petersson's rigging book before I rigged the shrouds.
 
I don't know about anyone else, but I get a bit weary of all those brutal close-ups, so here's how Leopard looks right now >>>
B.T.W. ~  that's just a 'working cradle' that Leopard is sitting in for now!

I started work on the hammock nettings. I changed the boarding panels so that the wooden rail could be attached to the back of the panels and not to the side. I also added a little ornamentation to the panels (img 1). I used the hammock cranes from the kit, thinned them down and mounted the whole arrangement as described by Chuck in the kit instructions (imgs 2 and 3). The netting itself was framed with a rope on 2 sides to give it a clear delineation against the wooden rail and the boarding panel side (img 4). Framing only 2 sides allows for easy fine adjustment of the final width and length of the netting when mounting it on the hammock cranes. The ‘unframed’ sides are then attached via black 100wt silk thread and CA glue to the rope which spans from the boarding panel to the last hammock crane. The last hammock crane is also used to attach the ‘unframed’ end of the netting. Images 5 – 10 show different states of the process.
 
Thomas
 

Image 1
 

Image 2
 

Image 3
 

Image 4
 

Image 5
 

Image 6
 

Image 7
 

Image 8
 

Image 9
 
 

Image 10

Before continuing with the remaining hammock nettings I wanted to make sure I had a good handle on the hammocks themselves. Building an acceptable representation of a hammock at the Syren scale of 1:64 turned out to be a real challenge. One of the major problems was that all the fabrics I could think of did not scale well at 1:64. The fabric texture was always far too coarse. So after some experimentation I settled for the process documented in images 1 – 4.
First I cut a ‘kernel’ of 19mm length for the hammock from a 0.063” Syren rope. Both ends of the kernel were hardened with CA glue. The kernel serves two purposes: It helps to reproducibly determine the length of the hammock, and it prevents the hammock from ‘collapsing’ and flattening out when it is folded back to its final U-shape. The kernel was glued to the top end of a 30mm x 30mm eggshell colored Polyester fabric piece. I chose Polyester because of its super fine texture (which unfortunately was still too coarse to be used for the hammocks) and its high flexibility. This piece of fabric was roughly cut to the width of the kernel, wrapped around the kernel, the roll secured with CA glue, and both ends of the roll cut back precisely to the CA hardened kernel ends (img 1). To diminish the fabric texture I glued this roll to the top of a 30mm x 40mm (width x length) piece of very thin silkspan, wrapped the silkspan around the fabric roll, and secured both ends with 2 metal clips (img 2). These metal clips were then mounted in 2 vices and the hammock roll thoroughly soaked with water. Contrary to regular paper silkspan can be nicely processed when wet and it turns pretty translucent, which again allows to see the fabric roll and with that to have a reproducible measure for the length of the final hammock (img 3). The hammock was then formed by tying 7 double overhand knots (2 at the ends and five at equidistant intervals) using an eggshell colored 100wt silk thread, securing the ends of the roll with CA, cutting them to their final shape, folding the finished hammock in the middle to it its U-shape, and gluing both halves together with CA (img 4). Img 5 shows all the material needed to build enough hammocks to fill the first rack. Once all hammocks for one rack were made they needed to be arranged in the rack for the best overall impression. At that point the silkspan surface still showed a lot of individual fibers, which gave an undesirable ‘hairy’ impression. To change this into a smooth surface and to fix the whole arrangement in place all hammocks received a final treatment with a thin solution of white glue. The result is shown in images 6 – 10. 
  
Thomas
 

Image 1
 

Image 2
 

Image 3
 

Image 4
 

Image 5
 

Image 6
 

Image 7
 

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Image 9
 

Image 10
 
 

Hi everyone,   more work today on the 4in mounts - I painted the two that were constructed consisting of light grey inside and fittings, black breech and barrels, and mid grey outer,   then when dry I fitted them down onto the deck,  next was to construct the other two.
 
Here are a few pics showing them and the two unpainted ones just dry fitted.
 
OC.

Thanks to everyone... Minor update, work on the futtock stave..

Thanks Kevin.  I wish the rigging for the chaser ports guns had gone as easily.  I made more mistakes doing these than any single job I can remember.  At least I learnt a few things: don't put in the eyelets first - tie the lines to them off the model; adjust the length of the breeching rope off the model; and make sure the distance between the two blocks on each side of the guns provides enough room for the gun tackle fall (ie, the rope between them) to look realistic.  Having not done any of the three the first time meant I had to re-rig at least once, and in one case, twice. While I am obviously a slow learner, my vocabulary has expanded if not improved.
 
The first photo shows a simple way of adjusting the length of the breeching rope - off the model.

The following photos show the rigging of one gun almost complete. The eyebolts and tackle are yet to be done.  The blocks are standard off the shelf jobs and I think for the remaining rigging I will buy some of the Syren blocks.  These two guns will be covered by the fore deck and will be almost impossible to see so I will leave them as is.  I will be going away soon for a month and will wait until I return before ordering them - so no rigging for a while which will be a relief.



 
 
 
 
 

Hi 

Hi Andy, looking forward to some shots of your updates.  BTW....you're not the only one to stall regularly, I needed to step away myself from the shipyard and am just getting the bug to go back and continue.

Hi Mark,
 
If this can help ...
 
Patrick

as promised



(got it from a polish site in 2016, can't find it anymore though)

Shipyard Update:
Lifts, Braces & Reef Tackle to the Upper Yards 
Main and Fore TopGallant & Topsail Yards
Mizzen Topsail & Crossjack
 
So the boys in the shipyard have been busy adding the Lifts & Braces to the above, along with some Reef Tackle pendant & falls(to the Topsail Yards)
Some blocks were already on the mats(e.g. for the Main Topsail braces on the Mizzen)
Many have been added by making single or double sets in 3mm, 4mm or 5mm blocks. The Topgallant in 3mm Topsail in 4mm and the Main Yards will have the 5mm blocks.
Below  are 4mm and 5mm sets

 
Below are various shots of the recent additions:

Fore Topsail Yard with Lifts, Reef Tackle & Braces back to the Main Mast, Main Stay

Main TopGallant braces back to the Mizzen
Main Topsail Yard with Lifts, Reef Tackle & Braces
Mizzen Topsail yard Lifts in the background.
Mizzen Topsail Yard with Lifts & Braces back to the end of the Gaff.
Gaff with Lift. 

Main Mast Cross Trees: 3mm single blocks added for the Fore Topgallant braces which run down the Stay to 2 more blocks(below shot)

2 x 3mm single blocks added to the Main Topmast Stay, where the Fore Topgallant braces run down to cleat - on side of Bell Belfry. 

Fore Topsail Braces back to the Main Mast, Main Stay

Main Mast, Main Stay blocks(in RED) 4mm for the Fore Topsail braces.
Additionally have already added(in Blue) a 5mm for the Fore Yard braces.

Mizzen Mast: over the Crossjack are the pendent for the Main Topsail braces(in RED). Crossjack pendent blocks(in BLUE) for the braces(in GREEN) which run froward to the Main Mast rear Shroud
Mizzen Topmast, 2 x 3mm blocks added to forward shroud for the Main TopGallant braces to run down.
Fore Mast TopGallant Yard braces back to the Main Mast, Stay blocks.
 

Port Main Shroud Cleats:  Braces are tied off to the cleats on the shrouds. Bit messy, a lot of cleanup to do down the track.
I added another set of cleats on the rear(6th) shroud for the Crossjack Yard brace.  
 

Starboard Fore Mast shrouds:  Cleats for braces. I added another set of cleats on the rear(6th) shroud. you  can see the different lashing used. 

Bottom of the Mizzen Mast, cleats filling up.
 
Next will probably add the 2 Main yards.
 

Shipyard Update:
After some time fiddling about, I came up with Anchors, Bumpkin and Fish Davit on the Starboard Bow - below.
All just sitting there, not glued in place yet, as not sure or happy with the layout.
And I'm confident I can postpone the final arrangement, continue rigging and fit this lot later on towards the end.

 

So all coming off and going into storage.
 
Move onto the Main and Fore TopGallant >> Yards.
 

Shipyard Update:
The shipyard has been on a go slow.
   Too many distractions for the owner(me).
 
Managed to get the Top Gallant Shrouds and Backstays on Fore and Main Masts.
Pre-rigged the above onto the Top Gallant mast sections. Then fitted onto the respective Top Masts.
 
Below: 1 set of two(2) Top Gallants for Main and Fore Masts.

Below: Pictures of shrouds tied to Top Mast stays.

 

 
Below: Mast Backstay Tackle
Also have now rigged all 4 of the Top Mast Tackles to the channels.
Each Picture has location on it.




 
Next to finish the Fore Top Gallant Shrouds. So much fun tying these in mid air, keeping the mast vertical and shroud tensions the same.
 

Hello,
 
just that you see that I'm still working, now and then 😉
 I finished the inner planking of the gun deck with deck clamps for the upper gun deck and started to build the gun port lids.
 

 

Hello,
 
today I finished the small dragons, who keep Leo's feet warm 
 

 
I glued them to a piece of scrap wood, with a piece of paper between, so that I could hold them better
 

 

 
At the last pictures they are not already dry, so that I will tomorrow make the rest ready. 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hello and thank you all for your comments and likes,
 
I was not very busy the last week, but I made the hawse hols with the linings and bolsters.
 

 
 
The next things are the trail boards between the cheeks. I have a trail board, all in ocker but only the little dragon in green, in my mind. I saw it somewhere, but I did't find that picture again. If anyone has that picture, or know where I could find it, tell it. 

So finally, after about 3750 hours, I got to the finish.
Thanks to everyone for watching my log and I would like to invite you to watch my next building log - Le Gros Ventre POF.

Just for grins and giggles...
Here are the photo etch and turned brass parts for assembling 2 ea, 3" guns. This is before filing, folding, gluing, and mutilating. And then some paint.

Each one of these storage lockers are made from multiple pieces of photo etch. Made some more lockers and painted, then glued everything to the deck. That's about all that will get done on Mikasa today. More tomorrow.