Beef Wellington

I some times use a straight edge and pencil if it is a long line. But mostly free hand, if you look close some lines are a bit 'wiggley'
Here is a timed 'how I do it ' series  Graf Spee in Montevideo. It shows the brushes I use and my pallet, with a clock showing how long it usually takes to do a A3 watercolour. 
Jim
Sorry they didn't come out in the right sequence, start at the second from the bottom, and work up, or go by the clock.
jim

Hi Dafi, I don't remember you saying how you were ultimately going to be 'finishing' the overall model.  Are you going to leave some part of the decks open, or will the live action scenes be lost to photographic record?  Looking awesome, but that goes without saying :-)

Something I always wanted to tell:
 
A small portion of the upper deck laid, and one sees much better how claustrophobic the situation was ...
 

 
Ashes to ashes, earth to earth and top to tops ...
 

 

 
... business as usual.
 
XXXDAn

Now, the aircraft, decals to add, then weather them. 

A whaling painting 
The Chase
jim

If you have been at sea, especially in the Royal Navy, some of these people may be familiar to you!. Or heaven forbid, recognise your self!
Jim
1. Deck and Engineroom 
2.  Sickbay and Galley 
3.  Lady Stoker! And me !
4.   Skipper. Jimmy the 1 or Chief Office, Exec. Or just an 'Osifer'.
 
 

 
 

An inboard fitting and fiddlin' session.
To finish off the rudder I added the decorative panels. I had been waiting to get some Clear Self Adhesive Inkjet Sticker Label Film to print these out.

2084

2085
At only 70 microns thick it shows no edge profile and gives a good  impression of a painted on design.

0429
The lifting ring bolts are put into place and the mast support 'iron work' fabricated.

0453
I have now made a set of six oars and the Windlass Bars, and this basically completes the boat as fitted for rowing.
Regarding the Windlass Bars there doesn't seem to be any reference to the scale length of these items either on the plan or in the instruction book.
Had difficulty finding any reference to  bar length but I guess around five feet to provide satisfactory leverage.
Finally the Thole pins were added; I deviated from the kit arrangement by setting the boat up for double banked rowing which I think was the norm for Long-boats.

0434

0456

0475

02231

02228

0439
This has only been a seven week build to date altho' it feels much longer.
I now move onto the masting and rigging of this fine, if not at times troublesome little kit.
 
B.E.
 

Thanks everyone for the very kind words and continued interest...not really much to report with only some ad-hoc shipyard activity, but a cautionary tale whilst its still fresh.  Started to make up the gun carriages, all 28 of them :-(  The axles took quite a bit of time to shape appropriately which I did with a file to rough shape and then turned in the lathe to fine tune.  Cautious going is the name of the game, and of course some turned out not at well as I'd hoped but these should be able to be "hidden at the back".
 
The issue I encountered was that I didn't think to check the thickness of the Syren sheets the parts come from and assumed these would all be consistent.  The prototype I had already built all seemed to go together nicely and to make life a little easier I built a simple jig to make alignment easier.  By chance, I then noticed that there are some reasonably significant differences in dimension.  If you look at the second picture where I stack those that look thicker against those that appear thinner the difference is apparent (both 11 in number).  What this means is that to build the carriages to the same dimensions will need some parts to be custom made from spare stock as the laser cut part is too small.  It appears by chance that the prototype was built using the 'thicker' variety.
 

 

Thanks for all the 'likes', and Greg, Pat, Mike, Christian, Bob, Tom, Hamilton, Michael, Mobbsie - I really appreciate your thoughts and interest, the good news is that I don't need to decide right now.  I got a little over-obsessive on Snake using the kit supplied materials which bogged things down a bit, I'm sure I'd enjoy rigging more with better quality line and be happier with the result.  What I'm hoping is that I can leave my options open even after things get closed up when the quarterdeck and f'csle go on (e.g. mast stumps that could easily be replaced with full masts and yards at some point)
 
BE - your Victory, despite just looking fantastic, presents yet another interesting alternative.  I too like that look a lot.
 
Coamings
Moving on a little, have started on the coamings and gratings.  I had ordered some of Chuck's gratings some time ago and these were relatively painless to make up.  The coaming dimensions were taken from AOTS with a few small adjustments to ensure the edge of the coaming met the wider binding strakes as illustrated.  I did go the whole hog and build these as per TFFM which was good practice, if not slow.  Not really much else to say.
 

 
Where the companionways are, I did do bit more fiddly work to try and simulate the beams and carlings that would be visible.  I'm sure there must be a better way, but the approach I took was as follows:
Build up the bottom of the companionway coaming by 1mm to account for the thickness of the deck (as coamings would sit on the beams/carlings, not the deck) 0.5mm sheet was applied to the side faces to simulate the recess on the interior face Boxwood sheets and strips attached to simulate the beams/carlings.  This was not hard once the approach had been figured out as this all still needs to slide in through the holes in the deck (which had to be enlarged a bit).  I did decide to paint these black, as is shown to good effect on the contemporary Winchelsea model.  I was tempted to leave these natural, but as I had made these out of pear, I felt that another wood tone would be distracting.  In any event, black appears to have been quite commonly used toward the end of the century to aid safety by making the companionways more visible against the deck. Bit of a Frankenstein's monster from underneath, but to my eye looks convincing enough when in place. 

 
All the coamings and gratings have been made up and just need some finishing.  I was pleased that the coamings lined up with the butt pattern of the planks, because as irregular as they looks, they do correspond with the theoretical placement of the beams below.
 
The third photo shows the difference in appearance with the added depth in the companionway, vs the coaming simply sitting on the deck for comparison.  The last photo shows everything in place.  One slight fudge I'm making here is to put a grating into the foremost of the two rearmost openings.  This should really be a companionway down to the wardroom, but the keel former realistically presents this being represented, and given that this will barely be glimpsed, a grating went on top instead.  The kit plans omit this feature entirely.
 

Well this was over before I even found it, but really nice looking pickle dipped in ketchup Carl!

Hi Pat, the issue doesn't impact the axles as they work just fine, it only impacts the width of the interior dimension between the carriage walls - the impact being the provided part for at the front of the carriage (no idea what its called) is then too small.  If you look at the 3rd photo you can see how it is too small.  No big issue to make my own when I get there.  I'm just glad I saw it, because if I had mixed up all of the carriage walls, I would probably have mixed the different thicknesses and I think it would not have been noticeable until all of them were glued up.  At least I can now ensure the sides match to minimize and discrepancies.

Pat and Wain, thanks for commenting, it makes a world of difference. Here are some more pics.
 
Mauritania in dazzle Camoflague 
 
USS O'Brien , USS Chickopee and HMS Shah
jim

Thanks everyone for the very kind words and continued interest...not really much to report with only some ad-hoc shipyard activity, but a cautionary tale whilst its still fresh.  Started to make up the gun carriages, all 28 of them :-(  The axles took quite a bit of time to shape appropriately which I did with a file to rough shape and then turned in the lathe to fine tune.  Cautious going is the name of the game, and of course some turned out not at well as I'd hoped but these should be able to be "hidden at the back".
 
The issue I encountered was that I didn't think to check the thickness of the Syren sheets the parts come from and assumed these would all be consistent.  The prototype I had already built all seemed to go together nicely and to make life a little easier I built a simple jig to make alignment easier.  By chance, I then noticed that there are some reasonably significant differences in dimension.  If you look at the second picture where I stack those that look thicker against those that appear thinner the difference is apparent (both 11 in number).  What this means is that to build the carriages to the same dimensions will need some parts to be custom made from spare stock as the laser cut part is too small.  It appears by chance that the prototype was built using the 'thicker' variety.
 

 

Building the Rudder
As with the Pinnace model I have deviated from the kit arrangement for hanging the rudder.

As can be seen on the NMM model of the Medway Longboat, there are no cut outs in the rudder to take the pintles.
Lavery (Arming and Fitting) comments on this different approach to hanging the rudder on ships boats:
 
The rudder was hung on the sternpost by only two gudgeons and pintles. Unlike the rudder on a ship it was likely to be hung and unhung every time the boat was used and it needed to be easily removeable. The lower pintle was fitted to the sternpost rather than the rudder. It was very long and extended almost up to the waterline. The upper one was shorter and fitted to the rudder.

1898
A Boxwood replacement was made.
The fiddly bit with rudders is adding the straps for the gudgeons and pintles.

1959
I used thin brass strip chemically blackened for the straps indents were drilled into the surface to give a slight impression of nail heads.
Tape was used to guide the angles of the straps.
The process of attaching the straps inevitably marks the paintwork as can be seen in this photo.

1964
 The completed rudder.
 Work yet to do on the tiller, needs fining down some.
 

1969

1973
Moving back inboard now.
 
B.E.
 
 

Thanks everyone for the very kind words and continued interest...not really much to report with only some ad-hoc shipyard activity, but a cautionary tale whilst its still fresh.  Started to make up the gun carriages, all 28 of them :-(  The axles took quite a bit of time to shape appropriately which I did with a file to rough shape and then turned in the lathe to fine tune.  Cautious going is the name of the game, and of course some turned out not at well as I'd hoped but these should be able to be "hidden at the back".
 
The issue I encountered was that I didn't think to check the thickness of the Syren sheets the parts come from and assumed these would all be consistent.  The prototype I had already built all seemed to go together nicely and to make life a little easier I built a simple jig to make alignment easier.  By chance, I then noticed that there are some reasonably significant differences in dimension.  If you look at the second picture where I stack those that look thicker against those that appear thinner the difference is apparent (both 11 in number).  What this means is that to build the carriages to the same dimensions will need some parts to be custom made from spare stock as the laser cut part is too small.  It appears by chance that the prototype was built using the 'thicker' variety.
 

 

Hi Pat, the issue doesn't impact the axles as they work just fine, it only impacts the width of the interior dimension between the carriage walls - the impact being the provided part for at the front of the carriage (no idea what its called) is then too small.  If you look at the 3rd photo you can see how it is too small.  No big issue to make my own when I get there.  I'm just glad I saw it, because if I had mixed up all of the carriage walls, I would probably have mixed the different thicknesses and I think it would not have been noticeable until all of them were glued up.  At least I can now ensure the sides match to minimize and discrepancies.

Thanks everyone for the very kind words and continued interest...not really much to report with only some ad-hoc shipyard activity, but a cautionary tale whilst its still fresh.  Started to make up the gun carriages, all 28 of them :-(  The axles took quite a bit of time to shape appropriately which I did with a file to rough shape and then turned in the lathe to fine tune.  Cautious going is the name of the game, and of course some turned out not at well as I'd hoped but these should be able to be "hidden at the back".
 
The issue I encountered was that I didn't think to check the thickness of the Syren sheets the parts come from and assumed these would all be consistent.  The prototype I had already built all seemed to go together nicely and to make life a little easier I built a simple jig to make alignment easier.  By chance, I then noticed that there are some reasonably significant differences in dimension.  If you look at the second picture where I stack those that look thicker against those that appear thinner the difference is apparent (both 11 in number).  What this means is that to build the carriages to the same dimensions will need some parts to be custom made from spare stock as the laser cut part is too small.  It appears by chance that the prototype was built using the 'thicker' variety.
 

 

Hi Pat, the issue doesn't impact the axles as they work just fine, it only impacts the width of the interior dimension between the carriage walls - the impact being the provided part for at the front of the carriage (no idea what its called) is then too small.  If you look at the 3rd photo you can see how it is too small.  No big issue to make my own when I get there.  I'm just glad I saw it, because if I had mixed up all of the carriage walls, I would probably have mixed the different thicknesses and I think it would not have been noticeable until all of them were glued up.  At least I can now ensure the sides match to minimize and discrepancies.

Well this was over before I even found it, but really nice looking pickle dipped in ketchup Carl!

Hi Jason, could it be that if they are equal stacks (same dimensions separated) that one axle set is for the front the other for the rear? Nice simple assembly jig you have set up.
 
cheers
 
Pat

Thanks everyone for the very kind words and continued interest...not really much to report with only some ad-hoc shipyard activity, but a cautionary tale whilst its still fresh.  Started to make up the gun carriages, all 28 of them :-(  The axles took quite a bit of time to shape appropriately which I did with a file to rough shape and then turned in the lathe to fine tune.  Cautious going is the name of the game, and of course some turned out not at well as I'd hoped but these should be able to be "hidden at the back".
 
The issue I encountered was that I didn't think to check the thickness of the Syren sheets the parts come from and assumed these would all be consistent.  The prototype I had already built all seemed to go together nicely and to make life a little easier I built a simple jig to make alignment easier.  By chance, I then noticed that there are some reasonably significant differences in dimension.  If you look at the second picture where I stack those that look thicker against those that appear thinner the difference is apparent (both 11 in number).  What this means is that to build the carriages to the same dimensions will need some parts to be custom made from spare stock as the laser cut part is too small.  It appears by chance that the prototype was built using the 'thicker' variety.
 

 

Well this was over before I even found it, but really nice looking pickle dipped in ketchup Carl!

Well this was over before I even found it, but really nice looking pickle dipped in ketchup Carl!

Well this was over before I even found it, but really nice looking pickle dipped in ketchup Carl!

Well this was over before I even found it, but really nice looking pickle dipped in ketchup Carl!