Beef Wellington

lovely job, can't rush this stuff.

Just amazing - I think it would have been amusing to not reveal that this was actually a CGI build and see the comments of incredulity on the 'build'.  

lovely job, can't rush this stuff.

A little update to what must be the worlds slowest moving build log.  Coppering on the hull is pretty much done, the only piece still to do is the aft side of the sternpost which will need some work done on pintles/gudgeons finished before I can do...more to come on that in a follow up post.  Just for a cathartic moment for me, pictures of where I'm at.  Like others, I wanted to give the copper more of an aged patina, all personal taste. Rather than following the bodily fluid method used by others (I must confess to being worried my model would smell like a car park for evermore!) I experimented with a chemical from JAX called - BROWN Brass, Bronze, Copper darkener (they also make a 'BLACK' version which seems to work well).  I diluted this to around 25%-33% by experimentation which seemed to give the best results.  It takes a number of applications, and I simply 'painted' it on with a modeling nylon brush.  Found that rubbing and agitating the surface while doing this gives best results.  Initially, the surface is very hydrophobic, but once the oxidation starts, its becomes much easier to keep a consistent surface covering and beading is not desired as it leads to dark spots.  The more dilute solution tends to green more upon drying, but this can be easily wiped off with water and/or rubbing alchohol.  Personally, I didn't want a green monster, and was happy to have a little patina in the crevices/nail holes which is almost  a negative effect for how the plates are supplied.  I'm not planning to seal the copper (yet if at all) as this should then continue to age naturally, I very consciously forced myself to stop despite there being some patchy spots but these all blend in and to my eye have a natural look anyway.
 
Bunch of photos which hopefully show the copper plate pattern in various areas, hope its not overkill, these are the kinds of pictures that I find useful from others.
 
More to come soon on the rudder..
 

Think I've got a bit of catching up to do.  Firstly, heres the Captain Cook Monument in Waimea, no undercooked beef wellington shots in this one   .  Found the beach he landed at, nothing special but couldn't locate the plaque that allegedly marks the spot according to guide books.
 

 
I have managed at least an interim milestone, the completion of the starboard copper...this task just goes on and on
 
Couple of items I've found to be helpful:
Super Solvent - I've found this product to be highly effective at getting rid of any CA glue residue (at least the Admiralty Pro thick stuff).  Wiping over the surface of any potential smearing is usually enough Some plates plates require very acute angles to be cut and when using scissors (which I find by far the easiest), the ends tend to curl and distort horribly.  I found that cutting these as part of a larger section this problem is eliminated, although care is needed still to separate them.
 
And the results.  Some of the photos are before I cleaned to plates with copper cleaner, which I did to ensure that there was no CA residue anywhere.  These will need to be done again once all the plates are on as I can guarantee more finger prints.  Managed to do the copper plate pattern at the bow that seems to be prevalent on so many models and AOTS drafts, slight discrepancies in the plates will only become less noticeable as the copper ages and darkens.  Overall I'm very happy with the Amati plates, and slight plate misalignments that just seem to be inevitable when using CA glue are tolerable.  Not sure I could do it any better if I were to do it again, so I think that's the yardstick to meaure to.
 
At the bow, I plated the cutwater first and tried to shape the plates on the planking to match the required curve.  Its far from perfect but will do.  I think these areas are inherently limited given the thickness of the plates, I suspect using copper tape would allow a more scale appearance.
 
I drilled some small holes in the waterline batten to simulate nails and highlighted with pencil, these are not to scale but felt it gives it a little bit more functional relevance.
 

 
Et voila!  The pinkish hue of freshly cleaned copper reminded me on the AOTS Diana picture, I was very pleased with the lines that appear once the waterline is apparent. Obviously next step is to continue with the other side.... 
 

First off, thanks everyone for the likes and comments, my apologies for not responding sooner.  I haven't been able to keep up with everyone else's builds as much as I would have liked.
 
Been tinkering with a number of items that I want to get a head start on hopefully avoid pitfalls later.  I'm leaning toward getting as much work on the hull planned out or complete before the cannons get installed and the upper deck can go on - although that will still be a while because I needed a break from gun carriages.
 
Trimming the bow height:
Way back I'd mentioned that I took the approach to build the bows up higher than I would likely need to allow for the unforeseen.  I have now shaped these to be much closer to where I think they will end up, less a little finishing.  The bulwarks at the bow appear to be parallel to the whale, just like the rails, which was used as a guide.  This was an exercise in reconciliation as of course various small (or not so small) errors have crept in along the way.  This proved not too difficult, the only hiccup was found when dry fitting the deck, to ensure that the height of the bulwark is symmetrical on both sides, some shims were added to the top of some of the forward bulkheads.  The error is unlikely to be in the kit cut bulkheads, but more likely a combination of small discrepancies in my positioning of the position of the whales, waterline etc.  You can see in shots below the discrepancy in the height of the foremost gunport, this was a result of positioning the ports to be of equal height off the deck, which was clearly not fitted as well as it should have been.  These add about .5-0.75 of height on the starboard side, but the very small 'twist that this will introduce will not be noticeable.  The sheer rail at the bow has also been added.
 

 
Headworks:
Have been doing a lot of thinking about how to approach the headworks, clearly a rather challenging area.  Frankly, the kit supplied parts are a little disappointing being rather grainy and splintery, with some questionable dimensions.  The main rail seemed to be the place to start, and after a lot of experimentation decided to build this and the false rail together rather than in separate pieces - mainly because it seems sturdier, and less challenging as the false rail is rather lengthy and thin at this scale.  The main rails were cut from 2mm castello, and a profile introduced using a scraper to simulate the various features of the genuine article.  Curved, tapering shapes have to be the hardest to get right, especially with fine details and there were many time consuming rejects which painfully got me up the learning curve until I was happy.  The AOTS side elevations were scanned and manipulated digitally to correct for the angle to get the appropriate shape.  Caution!  I think the placement of the slot for the boomkin is not shown correctly on the AOTS side profile, I adjusted this looking at contemporary models - the revised position matches closely with the kit part which does provide some comfort.
 
The false rail was cut from 0.6mm pear sheet and 2 were laminated together.  The panel section of the false rail was cut out carefully to be shaped later by beveling the edges before replacing back in place.  First photo below shows a little how these were built up, with the first successful but discarded prototype, and a main rail that failed scraping.  Second photo below shows the kit supplied part next to the one of the scratched final articles.  Ignoring the quality of the wood (and to be fair, I made no effort to clean up the supplied parts), the AOTS plans suggest a subtly different profile curve, and a thicker main rail which looks too thin on the kit part.  The head of the main rail was deliberately cut a little longer to allow final shaping once these are finally installed.
 

 
These were then positioned with the head of the main rail vertical in both head on and side elevations.  It was found that these were quite easy to keep in place using mini modeling clothes pins  (scale replicas of the actual clothes pins used in actual ship construction  ).  Posting a lot of photos because I would really appreciate comments and suggestions from those more experienced with this to help me avoid fatal errors!
 

 
Finally, to confirm the layout of the boomkin slot, a copy was copied and scaled from the AOTS diagram.  This shows the tight proximity of the boomkin and seat of ease.  The triangular gap at the rear of the grating behind the false rail screen is where I believe there should be another seat of ease.
 
Again - I'm fumbling my way through this following the excellent TFFM book, so please do not be shy to point out errors and mistakes!
 

 

Maybe I can disrupt you log a bit further ...
 

 
I can get you larger pictures, PM me if you want to. Size has it's limitations, or is it disruptiveness ...

Shapeways make them but these things are tiny. So, I started stretching some sprue, thinking I could stack some up, but couldn’t get it thick enough, then I found some 1mm brass wire, cut it to 8mm lengths and did stacks of 10 then wrapped them in .1mm brass wire after a drop of very thin CA to bind them. They look OK. 
 
I have to use the flush cutters to get to get rid of the silly blob used by Tamiya to represent them, then add a few gussets. 

Thanks P, 
 
dryfit it comes up OK. 

Congratulations Nils on completing such a fine model, wonderful sailwork.  You have a true artists eye to have everything come together in such a way, well done indeed.  Looking forward to next project!

So I’ve staryed on the main superstructure and bridge. Pontos has added some nice stuff like booms and a few doors but there is an enormous amount of superdetailing to go. I’ve added doors and portholes where the Kagero plans say, cut out some plastic that holds no relevance to the ship (mounds in front of plastic in front of where doors are), cable reels, more portholes etc. 
 
this is going to have to be built on on such a way I can paint it in 3 or 4 sections as there is a lot of details to add on the decks, 20mms, signal lamps, search lights, binoculars, gun directors, cabling, life rafts and floats and on and on. 

Love these destroyers...nice choice!

Congratulations Nils on completing such a fine model, wonderful sailwork.  You have a true artists eye to have everything come together in such a way, well done indeed.  Looking forward to next project!

2 games of rugby watched this morning, then some time on the tools. 
 
This rear section will have 12 carley floats, some able drums and 2 stored boom davits. The kit carley floats just don’t cut it so I’ve replaced them. 
 
The camoflague runs throught this area so I’ll paint them off kit as to whichever section they fall into. 
 
Multiple stair sets folded and readly for paint. I’m now working on a rear gun director platform that is going to need a fair bit of bashing. 

Lovely planking BE, can only look even better when sanded down.  Nice work on the garboard planks, look tricky to shape, and I can see the advantage of the having the upper planking in place to help provide perspective.

Today's progress ladders to focsle and: Kit bashing both "poles" for the ensign, copied from a picture ... remains to paint them
 

As stated, paravanes stuck on a.o. the deck, racks in place (next to the funnel) need to do some touching up on the top of these latter ones, dinghies ready to tie down ... every time I think about the zillion things I still have to do before this thing ends ...
 
some more eye sore ...

Hi Folks -- I've been laboring somewhat steadily on the head structure, even though I haven't posted anything.  This has been the most challenging part of the entire build -- or I should say it has consistently posed the most challenges, because every part posed new problems.  And I found that decisions I'd made long ago (and often without even realizing I had made any decision) created even more problems.  I can't say that I've built the best or most historically accurate head, but I've learned a lot more than I had expected.
 
Following are most of the steps I've taken since March (I actually started the head in October).
 
I refashioned another set of Main Rails, trying my best to keep them up high enough for the lower structures.  This took an embarrassing number of tries.  Once I got a pair that fit in a way that looked even, and sat at a good height, I pinned them in place to begin fitting in the other pieces.  I only have a photo of my scrap box filled with failed tries, so I'm glossing over that.
 
The Timbers posed a new set of challenges, in part due to my own lack of understanding of their design.  Finally I looked through a few of the scratch builds of Swan ships -- in particular Toni Levine's & Dan Vadas's -- to get a clear sense of how to shape them and where to notch them for the Main Rail and the lower rail. 
 
Here's what I worked out: 
 

Basically, the bottoms of the 3rd and 2nd timbers are cut out entirely, to allow the lower rail to slide in, and then sit on top of the 1st rail.  I'll cover these over later on.  But this is where I came to one of the biggest problems.  Because I situated the Hawse Holes both too far in and too high, I couldn't sit the Lower Rail out far enough.  I suppose I might have butted it up to the bolster between the Hawse Holes, but that seemed no better than the solution I ended up with, which was to place them too far in. 
 

This is what I'm really least happy with, and have lain awake at night growling over.  But I made my choice, and am moving on.
 
Here are the head beam and cross piece:

I used the blue tape to hold the 2 pieces in place so I could try to get a tight fit.  I've notched the Head Beam to fit in the Carlings, which in turn I notched to lie over the rounded Cross-piece.
 

Next, I notched the Carlings to make way for the gratings that go outward to the Main Rail:
 
 
Once I got the Carlings and the Head Beam & Knees notched, I could line up the gratings with the Main Rail and the battens along the hull.  This part actually went quite quickly:

It looks rough here, but after a little sanding, the gratings all looked more regular.
 
From here it was a simple step of creating the Seats o' Ease, beginning with the False Rail.  For these I shaped the bottom pieces by tracing the rails onto stock that I then cut and filed to make a tight fit.  I glued these onto a piece 1/32 cherry, shaped roughly.  Then I made the top strips by drawing a curve with a scroll, gluing them in place, and filing them gently.

They're not exact replicas of one another, but I think they look nice on the Rails.
 

 
I had to glue the False Rails in place before starting the actual SoEs, because they framed the space.  Here you can see that I first shaped the vertical front of the starboard Seat:
 
 

And then I used a piece of card to gauge the fit of the actual Seat, which I then drilled the all important hole into:
 

For the forward Seats, I cut pieces of thin boxwood (castello) stock in a parallelogram shape to match the alignment of the gratings.  I cut holes in these, and glued them to thin dowels that extend below the gratings.
 
 

Because the dowels aren't hollow, I blackened the holes with some paint.
 
After pinning the rails countless times, I'd filled both them and the planking with holes.  Some of these I patched up with wood filler (made from wood dust, a bit of glue and some water), but others I concealed behind the covering board:
 
Before
 

And after:

This is where I got a week ago, before Mrs W (of the Prairie) and I left for holiday in the magnificent Pacific Northwest.  Here are just two views of that beautiful place:
 
 

 

 
From my computer, I'm headed straight for the boatyard, where I aim to set in the catheads (which I made at least a year ago), and then start working on the Supporters, and the Eking Rail.
 
Cheers,
 
Martin

Post 29
Progressing the second band.
My initial job was to add the first strake of the lower band meeting up with the Square Tuck.
 
I then re-lined the hull  using full 3/16" plank widths for the centre five bulkheads, and tick strips and the fan to mark the others.
 
The lower band of planking is designed to take ten 3/16th strakes at mid-ships including the Garboard Strake.
 
Allowing for the rabbet into which the Garboard strake fits, I calculated that a 9/32" strip would give me a little wriggle room to form the Garboard altho' at a push I think I could have got away with a 7/32" as used by Chuck.
 
Suspecting that some wider stuff would be required over the kit package, I ordered additional width strips from Jason. These comprised 9/32" and 3/8" wide strips which should allow for the Garboard and any spiling requirements.

0305
To make the Garboard I cut the plank to length to butt against the Stern post and reach forward to the edge of Bulkhead J.
 

0310
I then ticked off forward to produce the taper which ends in a point at the forward end.
 

0306
Aft of the centre section the width was left at 7/32"
I found it necessary to bevel the Garboard plank edge where it fits into the rabbet from the centre bulkhead ⊕ forward to allow for the plank to lie flat on the bulkhead.
From the 5th bulkhead from the stern the plank lies flat against the false keel and butts up against the keel rabbet, and some heat applied twist is required for this section.
 
For the adjoining plank I used 3/16" heat bent and shaped to fit.

0316
This is always a tricky plank to fit requiring quite a severe curve where it rounds the garboard plank to fit into the keel rabbet just before it curves up the stem.

0319
Achieving the curve required starting the process from a much longer strip than required.

0331
Having fitted the two lowest strakes I return to planking from the top.

0332
There is a reasonable match to the strakes each side of the stem.

0336
 I finish this section with five strakes to go.
I hope that four 3/16th planks plus a spiled strake made from a wider plank will complete the job.
 
I'm now off to North Yorkshire for a week and will hopefully complete the hull planking on my return.
 
 
B.E.
 
29/06/2018
 

First off, thanks everyone for the likes and comments, my apologies for not responding sooner.  I haven't been able to keep up with everyone else's builds as much as I would have liked.
 
Been tinkering with a number of items that I want to get a head start on hopefully avoid pitfalls later.  I'm leaning toward getting as much work on the hull planned out or complete before the cannons get installed and the upper deck can go on - although that will still be a while because I needed a break from gun carriages.
 
Trimming the bow height:
Way back I'd mentioned that I took the approach to build the bows up higher than I would likely need to allow for the unforeseen.  I have now shaped these to be much closer to where I think they will end up, less a little finishing.  The bulwarks at the bow appear to be parallel to the whale, just like the rails, which was used as a guide.  This was an exercise in reconciliation as of course various small (or not so small) errors have crept in along the way.  This proved not too difficult, the only hiccup was found when dry fitting the deck, to ensure that the height of the bulwark is symmetrical on both sides, some shims were added to the top of some of the forward bulkheads.  The error is unlikely to be in the kit cut bulkheads, but more likely a combination of small discrepancies in my positioning of the position of the whales, waterline etc.  You can see in shots below the discrepancy in the height of the foremost gunport, this was a result of positioning the ports to be of equal height off the deck, which was clearly not fitted as well as it should have been.  These add about .5-0.75 of height on the starboard side, but the very small 'twist that this will introduce will not be noticeable.  The sheer rail at the bow has also been added.
 

 
Headworks:
Have been doing a lot of thinking about how to approach the headworks, clearly a rather challenging area.  Frankly, the kit supplied parts are a little disappointing being rather grainy and splintery, with some questionable dimensions.  The main rail seemed to be the place to start, and after a lot of experimentation decided to build this and the false rail together rather than in separate pieces - mainly because it seems sturdier, and less challenging as the false rail is rather lengthy and thin at this scale.  The main rails were cut from 2mm castello, and a profile introduced using a scraper to simulate the various features of the genuine article.  Curved, tapering shapes have to be the hardest to get right, especially with fine details and there were many time consuming rejects which painfully got me up the learning curve until I was happy.  The AOTS side elevations were scanned and manipulated digitally to correct for the angle to get the appropriate shape.  Caution!  I think the placement of the slot for the boomkin is not shown correctly on the AOTS side profile, I adjusted this looking at contemporary models - the revised position matches closely with the kit part which does provide some comfort.
 
The false rail was cut from 0.6mm pear sheet and 2 were laminated together.  The panel section of the false rail was cut out carefully to be shaped later by beveling the edges before replacing back in place.  First photo below shows a little how these were built up, with the first successful but discarded prototype, and a main rail that failed scraping.  Second photo below shows the kit supplied part next to the one of the scratched final articles.  Ignoring the quality of the wood (and to be fair, I made no effort to clean up the supplied parts), the AOTS plans suggest a subtly different profile curve, and a thicker main rail which looks too thin on the kit part.  The head of the main rail was deliberately cut a little longer to allow final shaping once these are finally installed.
 

 
These were then positioned with the head of the main rail vertical in both head on and side elevations.  It was found that these were quite easy to keep in place using mini modeling clothes pins  (scale replicas of the actual clothes pins used in actual ship construction  ).  Posting a lot of photos because I would really appreciate comments and suggestions from those more experienced with this to help me avoid fatal errors!
 

 
Finally, to confirm the layout of the boomkin slot, a copy was copied and scaled from the AOTS diagram.  This shows the tight proximity of the boomkin and seat of ease.  The triangular gap at the rear of the grating behind the false rail screen is where I believe there should be another seat of ease.
 
Again - I'm fumbling my way through this following the excellent TFFM book, so please do not be shy to point out errors and mistakes!
 

 

Congratulations Nils on completing such a fine model, wonderful sailwork.  You have a true artists eye to have everything come together in such a way, well done indeed.  Looking forward to next project!

Congratulations Nils on completing such a fine model, wonderful sailwork.  You have a true artists eye to have everything come together in such a way, well done indeed.  Looking forward to next project!

lovely job, can't rush this stuff.

Congratulations Nils on completing such a fine model, wonderful sailwork.  You have a true artists eye to have everything come together in such a way, well done indeed.  Looking forward to next project!

Dear fellow builders....
 
my Chebec "Eagle of Algier" has been finished totay, for the final photo session in our garden, and with a good daylight illumination.
Many thanks to all that followed the build, for looking in along the 9 months yourney and for your kind comments and compliments. Very much appreciated. Also many thanks to all the "Likes".....
 
The final pics-set of the "Eagle of Algier" can be seen in the scratch build gallery now...
 
Nils