Beef Wellington

I'm a little confused by the plans for the stem:
 

I get that the front-on view (the diagram to the far right) shows a slow taper transition from 7mm at the top to 4mm at the bottom.  What I can't seem to figure out though is the diagram at the bottom.  I'm assuming that this shows the taper from the underside of the stem (if you are looking up at the stem from underneath it).  What I'm confused about is that step transition midway through does that seem correct?  It's almost like the stem is full width until the stem post (Part 4), but then there is a dramatic change in diameter with the main piece (7) and figure piece (6).  The stem needs some tapering to get the figurehead to sit properly, but not as much as suggested by the lower diagram.
 
Unless I'm reading it wrong?  Anyone have any ideas?

Happy New Year to all!
 
Not too much to show for a little bit of extra time in the shipyard, but have put a bookend on the work at the stern and quarter galleries for now.  Basically, all I've done is glue the quarter gallery sections in place together with the various rails (Upper stool, rim and lower stool rails).  This took much longer than expected as  I had so many pieces of rework, either because if breakage when shaping, fitting or by trimming a little too much (despite reciting 'don't take off too much' continually under my breath) and needing to restart.  It was also challenging as the quarter gallery rails needed to match as well as possible to the upper and lower counter rails.  Anyway, don't think the pictures need much additional explanation - other than that some are taken without any touchup, but the extra time afforded by the site outage allowed me to get a little more done.
 
Suffice to say, I'm very pleased with the way the quarter galleries turned out, definitely challenging, but worth the extra time.  The PE lights still require some work and these will not be put in place yet, but I wanted to get a sense for the overall look and the lines.  Of course final judgement is left to others 
 

 
The kit supplied console brackets  proved to be a little oversized, to keep the same feel as the plans I wanted these to fit snuggly between the upper stool and the rim rails.  For comparison, you can see the adjusted starboard side bracket to the not yet adjusted port side on the left.
 

 
Taking a step back to compare to the plans and assessing varied angles I think I've done as much as can be done to bash any provided parts into something a little more consistent.  As always, the human eye is a little more forgiving in person.  The plan profile is enlarged from the AOTS book.  The quarter gallery sculptures now have a definite 'ledge' to visually support them and I'm glad I invested the extra time here.
 

 
 

Been a while since posting and felt like I needed to get up to date, and thanks all for the continued interest - and yes Carl, Mobbsie, simply making slightly wider transoms is the solution.  Rather tedious which is why my fingers have been distracted as you'll see.
 
I feel like I should start with a "forgive me father its been 700 days since I've looked at the instructions or used a kit part"    Haven't been completely idle but have got a decent start on couple of visually small but meaningful tasks that should allow of this to come together relatively quickly when the time comes.  Main goal is to get items in place to allow me to give the sides a coat of wipe on poly for protection after gluing items in place but prior to touchup which will definitely be needed.  I've decided that my next model will only have one side 
 
Chesstree and fenders:  These were made up to allow the sheer rail to be positioned and were cut from 3mm and 2mm sheet respectively.  The Chesstree has a notable thinning in width as it goes down the hull which I tried to reflect. Felt these looked rather boring when shaped so decided to try and put a profile in these as is so apparent when looking at those on Trincomalee and Victory.  These seem to ne features often missing on contemporary models...think I now appreciate why   A scraper profile was made for each, the fenders proved much easier to do despite being smaller because of the constant width, the chesstrees much more challenging due to the steady reduction in width.  Things are a little messy at the bottom but to the naked eye the defects are much less noticeable and these will not be redone.  Chesstree sheaves will be simulated.
 
Photos below also show a slight miscalculation from way back nearly coming back to bite me.  The sheaves for the sheets and tacks were placed a little too high and these nearly interfered with positioning the sheer rail.
 

 
Fore and Main Channels:  The channels need to be placed at the same height as the sheer rail, so even though its not necessary to attach these until much later, its necessary know where these will be positioned before the sheer rail can be applied.  I've decided to go with natural castello channel rather than painted black finish - the latter would at least have given me the option to use the kit part.  Making my own allowed me to follow TFFM styling a little bit which is a bit more curvaceous and pleasing to the eye, it also allowed me to position the slots for the chains to reflect the positions of the gun ports - you can see small but noticeable differences in the comparison below.  (Interestingly the kit fore-channel has 6 slots at the rear, where-as the AOTS plans show only 5).  Holes to allow the pinning of the channels have been drilled so these just need final attachment.
 

 
Waist:  As previously mentioned, I've been leaving the final position of the upper hull to be tweaked later.  To be comfortable that the sheer rail was correctly positioned I needed to trim the waist height back to anticipate the position of the top deck, and allowing for a layer of planking.  This was also necessary to finalise the height of the fenders and chesstrees.

 
Quarterpieces:  These have been beveled to allow the placement of the figures, and also the quarterpieces were built up slightly to allow me more easily place and but up the top finishing molding for the taffarel when I get there.  The figures with bent arms sit quite pleasingly now and there is a definite sense of depth rather than just plain bas-relief.  Obviously lots of fine finishing and touch up still needed....curse you macro gods!
 

The last one was The Searchers, this is The Rescuers. Breaches Bouy rescue, imaginary, not an actual rescue.
Jim 

Thanks Ken. Here's one 'hot of the easel' finished abot 20 minutes ago,
Did this today. The Searchers  FAA Wessex HU5 of 771 Squadron RNAS Culdrose searches along the Cornish coast line. 
Might do abit more on the cliffs.
W/C 14" X 10" 
Jim

Beautiful work Nils as always.  Best of the season's wishes to you and yours. 

Hello all,
Worked on the rudder and hinges this weekend.  Made the hinges from scratch from 1/64" x 1/4/" brass strip.  Cut the strip into .080" wide strips, marked and drilled 96 holes with my pin vise using a #70 drill.  What a great way to develop carpel tunnel issues!!!  I still need to blacken the brass hinges, pins & nails but will wait until I am ready to install them.

 
Tom

After several attempts I finally have a stern balcony... at least the center section.  The ends and side spindles just attached on the side windows should be much easier, at least that is what I keep telling myself.  Just need to mount the balcony to the stern, sure, that should be easy.

Tom,
 
Hope everyone has an enjoyable holiday season!

Beautiful work Nils as always.  Best of the season's wishes to you and yours. 

Bob, BE, Pat, Michael, Carl and the likes, thanks for sticking in there, and the kind words.
 
Joe - Not my idea at all on the channels, its laid out like that in the FFM which I've been referring to.  More work but seems a more elegant solution but grounded in reality than the kit solutions of just attaching to the outside face which doesn't quite look right when you have the curves at the ends.  One thing I realized I didn't do was to angle the slots according to the expected angle of the chains but hopefully that's not going to be too big a deal. May still have some wiggle room to something there but no need to worry about that yet.

To day is the aniversary of the Battle of the North Cape and the sinking of Scharnhorst . Spare a thought for all who gave their all.
Cruiser Belfast
Last Torpedo
Scharnhorst
Norwegian Destroyer Stord
 

Beautiful work Nils as always.  Best of the season's wishes to you and yours. 

Beautiful work Nils as always.  Best of the season's wishes to you and yours. 

Yesterdays update work...
 
permanently fitting in the complete planked poop deck....
 
I wish all fellow builders and all MSW administration team happy and relaxing Christmas days
 
Nils

RCN Destroyer HMS Buxton passes astern of the troop ship Mauritania in Convoy WW2
W/C 14 X 10 inches
Jim

Been a while since posting and felt like I needed to get up to date, and thanks all for the continued interest - and yes Carl, Mobbsie, simply making slightly wider transoms is the solution.  Rather tedious which is why my fingers have been distracted as you'll see.
 
I feel like I should start with a "forgive me father its been 700 days since I've looked at the instructions or used a kit part"    Haven't been completely idle but have got a decent start on couple of visually small but meaningful tasks that should allow of this to come together relatively quickly when the time comes.  Main goal is to get items in place to allow me to give the sides a coat of wipe on poly for protection after gluing items in place but prior to touchup which will definitely be needed.  I've decided that my next model will only have one side 
 
Chesstree and fenders:  These were made up to allow the sheer rail to be positioned and were cut from 3mm and 2mm sheet respectively.  The Chesstree has a notable thinning in width as it goes down the hull which I tried to reflect. Felt these looked rather boring when shaped so decided to try and put a profile in these as is so apparent when looking at those on Trincomalee and Victory.  These seem to ne features often missing on contemporary models...think I now appreciate why   A scraper profile was made for each, the fenders proved much easier to do despite being smaller because of the constant width, the chesstrees much more challenging due to the steady reduction in width.  Things are a little messy at the bottom but to the naked eye the defects are much less noticeable and these will not be redone.  Chesstree sheaves will be simulated.
 
Photos below also show a slight miscalculation from way back nearly coming back to bite me.  The sheaves for the sheets and tacks were placed a little too high and these nearly interfered with positioning the sheer rail.
 

 
Fore and Main Channels:  The channels need to be placed at the same height as the sheer rail, so even though its not necessary to attach these until much later, its necessary know where these will be positioned before the sheer rail can be applied.  I've decided to go with natural castello channel rather than painted black finish - the latter would at least have given me the option to use the kit part.  Making my own allowed me to follow TFFM styling a little bit which is a bit more curvaceous and pleasing to the eye, it also allowed me to position the slots for the chains to reflect the positions of the gun ports - you can see small but noticeable differences in the comparison below.  (Interestingly the kit fore-channel has 6 slots at the rear, where-as the AOTS plans show only 5).  Holes to allow the pinning of the channels have been drilled so these just need final attachment.
 

 
Waist:  As previously mentioned, I've been leaving the final position of the upper hull to be tweaked later.  To be comfortable that the sheer rail was correctly positioned I needed to trim the waist height back to anticipate the position of the top deck, and allowing for a layer of planking.  This was also necessary to finalise the height of the fenders and chesstrees.

 
Quarterpieces:  These have been beveled to allow the placement of the figures, and also the quarterpieces were built up slightly to allow me more easily place and but up the top finishing molding for the taffarel when I get there.  The figures with bent arms sit quite pleasingly now and there is a definite sense of depth rather than just plain bas-relief.  Obviously lots of fine finishing and touch up still needed....curse you macro gods!
 

Good to see Jim, must be a bit of a weight off your mind.  Must ask, what was the structure pre-demolition?

Post 4
Attending to the stem
 I am grateful to Chuck for the laser cut parts that make up the stem and keel, saves a lot of time faffing around with the scroll saw; nice Boxwood and need for very little fettlin', the most time consuming part is removing the quite heavy char on the pieces.
I did this mostly by scraping with a sharp blade.
I followed Chuck's  example of filling the treenail holes rather than use dowel pegs.

3772(2)

3609
They are very small, he suggests a #76 drill equivalent to 0.508mm Ø I used a 0.6mm Ø drill.

3603
Once I was satisfied with the fit the two stem pieces were  glued together.

3608
and then to the Rabbet strip on the false keel.

3772
All went together very nicely.

3774
The two keel pieces were then added.

3779
Impressed by the fit of the stern post and rudder, although these will be put aside for much later in the build.

3776
There seems to be a slight kink in the forward section of the keel, I hope this doesn't prove to be troublesome, the false keel looks true sighting along from stem to stern.
 
To complete this part of the build, a light sanding and sealing with wipe-on-poly.

3786

3783
Note:
Chuck makes reference to the use of Minwax wipe-on Poly to seal the Boxwood finish of the stem pieces once they have been fitted.
For those in the UK Minwax products are horrendously expensive (£36) for what is essentially a thinned down oil based Polyurethane Varnish.
Normal oil based Poly is readily available in the UK. Thin it down 50/50 with White spirit to make your own wipe-on.
I used Blackfriars satin poly - 250ml cost me £8 effectively 500ml once diluted.
There is loads of stuff on making your own w-o-p on the internet.

3771
Finally as with Pegasus I obtained the Admiralty plan for Cheerful and Surly which now sits above my workbench as additional inspiration.
 
Next up fiddlin' with my Bulkheads.
 
B.E.
 
 
 

Good to see Jim, must be a bit of a weight off your mind.  Must ask, what was the structure pre-demolition?

Got to say, well done to Amati!
 
Package arrived today with the photoetch spruce I needed. 
 
So by hook or by crook I have finally managed to collect everything required to finish the build. 
 
Phew!

Hi
 
Thanks for the likes everyone. 
 
Just waiting for my parts to arrive from Amati. Not really the right time of year to be waiting for international post to arrive but never mind. 
 
In the mean time, it is back to touching up the hull and trying to sand out any imperfections. The underside, whilst not visible, needs a bit of work as it is very uneven. Might break out my disc sander and give it a quick blast. I can collect the sanding dust and mix with PVA to help fill any dips and gaps. 
 
Hi Eamonn! Got to love diy. Bit of minor work in the garden....:
 
Halfway demolished pond:

Almost gone but lots of work clearing debris and shoring up the back of the garden. 

Getting there and nearly ready to lay hardcore down. 

 

Hi to everyone, next step the stirrups...
That's my personal poin of view regarding the "wired" stirrups.
My main concern is to find a way to keep those 2-3 loops around the yard closely and firmly tied each-other.
Thanks

Our Swan rendering guru Denis is already up to Chapter 9 in The Fully Framed Model. Those who have built a Swan class model will appreciate how detailed and perfect (unlike our models) his work is. Note the sandwiched leather between saucers  in the second photo emerging from the pump within the cistern. Enjoy and Happy Holidays from Admiralty Models!
 

Looking really nice Rob, waterline looks just right.  I'm not sure there's much in it size wise between Diana and the Agamemnon so she should feel a sense of accomplishment.  The blue colour looks really nice, what colour is it?

Thank you very much John,
 
for your nice words, much appreciated.  Yes, it was because of the lines of a Chebec that I was adoring and just had to start building one......
Am now moving on to the next parts like deck supports / timbers for masts tackeling. The card template for the upper deck is in dry fit position...
Still need to fit the chimney tube for the stove exhaust over deck
Enjoy coming Christmas holiday and have a nice time..
 
Nils