Beef Wellington

Lovely work, Jason, and very nice details you added.

First work on the masting has now been done with the making and mounting of the bowsprit and jibboom. Both the bowsprit and jibboom were made from dowels, shaped appropriately,  stained golden oak, and then painted black where called for. The cap was cut from boxwood sheet, beveled, holes drilled and filed, and painted black. Various boxwood cleats were added for the gammoning, rigging collars and a jibboom stop.
 
After assembling the bowsprit, jibboom and cap, I added the lashing for the jibboom and then the collars for the bobstay, shrouds and forestay. A jackstaff was made and mounted to the cap. I then mounted the assembled unit and added the gammoning.
 
The Hahn drawing provides limited detail as to the masting and rigging, so I am using Lees to provide information on sizing of masting and rigging components.
 
Bob

Alan: here are a couple of photos that may help you with the 'seat of ease' issue.  My small, rather unhappy sailor needs a bit more work, but that will have to wait a little.  He does, however look better in the flesh (as it were) than the photos suggest. This week is rather busy and his final paint job will have to wait for the new year.  I hope it gives you the idea though - and what a great idea. 
 
For every one who has looked at this log, or may in the future, a happy Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.
 
In the new year I will start a Granado log for those who may be interested.
 

 

 
 
 
 
 

HMS Sussex launches her Walrus.
Jim

Life'sa Beach!
'Puffer' unloading coal on a Western Isles beach.
jim

Yesterday I managed to cut out all of the wales parts. To refine the curved edges, I cut a sanding template to the radius of the wales in sheer in the center, and I am using this with my shooting board. The shooting board has a sloped ramp for the sanding template, which means a wider surface of sanding paper is presented to the piece as it slides back and forth, using the sandpaper more efficiently and avoiding grooves in the piece.
 
Mark

Looks great Mark, nice to see some progress again.  Looks to be lots of interesting (i.e. challenging) angles at the bow there.

Looks great Mark, nice to see some progress again.  Looks to be lots of interesting (i.e. challenging) angles at the bow there.

Looks great Mark, nice to see some progress again.  Looks to be lots of interesting (i.e. challenging) angles at the bow there.

Looks great Mark, nice to see some progress again.  Looks to be lots of interesting (i.e. challenging) angles at the bow there.

Looks great Mark, nice to see some progress again.  Looks to be lots of interesting (i.e. challenging) angles at the bow there.

Looks great Mark, nice to see some progress again.  Looks to be lots of interesting (i.e. challenging) angles at the bow there.

Thanks for the comments and well-wishes.  Things are getting better but this time of year, they also get more hectic.
 
Well, I've been spending time in the shipyard.  A bit slow but made some progress.  The inside of the gundeck is planked halfway up and then I stopped to do the beakhead (? as I'm spacing some of the terminology at times).  
 
First thing I did was fit the two beams to support the planks and also added a couple of small blocks to helps support the planks a bit.
 

 
Planked it with boxwood....
 

 
Checked the fit with my dummy bowspit....

 
Sanded like crazy and then added two small pieces of ebony around the planks and sanded everything some more.  It still needs some more sanding but that's for later this week when (or if) I get boarded finishing the inner planking.  I need to do some filling so I'll collect the sanding dust and fill it then.  Once the real bowspit is in, I'll do the leather piece to seal the gap.

 
Back to planking....  

Hello everybody -- It's been a long, long time since I updated this log.  Work, work, and more work has put serious limits on my time (and energy), but I have gotten in the boatyard for at least a brief spell almost every evening.
 
One other reason for my tardiness is that I have taken on the Head.  I spent a good bit of time going through other logs' accounts of this intricate and demanding structure; and I've spent plenty of time thinking of how best to fabricate and fit the pieces that work in complex ways.
 
Another reason is my, ahem, lack of ability (except in the destruction of wood  ).  Numerous attempts at the cheeks resulted in filling up the reject pile:
 

These are only the ones that didn't fit against the hull & stem properly.  Many others looked good and then broke because I tried extending one of the arms too far against the grain.  I tried Bob Fine's strategy of laminating, but then ran into difficulties scraping the molding into 2 different grain patterns.
 
But perseverance and full use of the Sailor's Profanasaurus got me to a rough version:
 

Last night I sanded this a bit, and filed down the uneven joints, so it does look better.  My dastardly camera wouldn't turn on, so this is the latest.
 
I also drilled the hawse holes on each side.  According to the kit's plans, these should be 3/8" in diameter.  But those on the NMM plans, and on a lovely model of Fly I drooled over at the NRG conference a few years back are much larger, even accounting for scale.  Advice on this would be welcome.
 
Cheers,
 
Martin

Hi

Well, here we are in December and I'd like to say I'm caught up to where I was but it ain't so.
I practised a bit with bevelling my chock joints in the cant frames and found a method that seems to work for me.
 
First I sand the chock bevel with the table disc sander, table angled to get it set proper.
 
Then my I mark off the depth on the futtocks.
(I tried using my scroll saw with the table tilted but it only works on one side and not the other)
I cut an angled relief to the line and then using a sanding stick file it down... bevelled, to near the line.
Check the angle with the chock, all placed on the marble slab I stole from the kitchen to keep it flat.
Then I finish with a file and sharpen the corner with a chisel.
 
The figure (sailor) is my Grandfather.
 
I have two frames together and made pieces for eight more.
 
I hope to get caught up over the Christmas holiday.
 
Looking ahead.... I've also been researching the original figurehead, for which there seems to be only a description but know sketches.
Bellerophon on Pegasus with his spear.  I've signed up for a bird carving course at Lee Valley Tools in Niagara Falls, Ontario, in February, to help me try to carve my figurehead in the years to come.  I also purchased Bill Short's rotary carve techniques PDF Booklet "The New Carving Ornamentation for Ship Models" found on the forum home page bottom right hand side.  Seems I have reading to do also.  Might attempt rotary carving the other figures. But again that is years from now so I have time to become an expert... or possibly just good enough.
 

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!
 

Thank you guys for compliments.
Before installing the masts on the model, they must be fitted with different blocks. I started with installing the blocks under the tops.

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!
 

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!
 

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!
 

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!
 

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!
 

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!
 

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!