Beef Wellington

fantastic work Jim,
 
the sea, its foam crowns and the wake of the corvette is super realistic....
Question : how do you get the white foam on the sea where it has already been painted blue before ?
Well done !
 
Nils

Here is a 'how I paint my pictures' the painting is titled "Make less smoke" Corvette admonishes elderly vessel in convoy.
hope they come out in the correct order . Time taken, one afternoon approx 4 hrs. 16" X 10" 
jim
 

Here's an unusual one, Marine painting with Hippos and Efelumps.
Up river from the last one Konigsberg in her Lair.
watercolour 16" x 12"   HM ships Severn and Mersey maneuver into position in the Rufiji River in East Africa during the action against the German Light Cruiser Konigsberg in WW1

How life takes ... rips away time ... last update nearly three weeks ago
Yesterday more garden chores ... but today it's raining - or as Mark (MTaylor) says, time for the workshop - and I pulled out the airbrush again. Nothing fancy, just trying my hand on shading, but my finger was somewhat trigger happy from time to time
 
The single and tripple AA have a black primer, they'll get first a coat of medium grey, and some light  highlights - see how that will work out.

 

 
 
And a bit of a model on the side ... (started a log here)

Hello,
 
finaly glued last planks on quarter deck and began sanding:
 

 

 

 
Alex

Many thanks for warm words!
 
 
Oh yes Greg, treenailing! I'm not sure how to process with. The Quarter deck and Forecastle have less dimensioned beams and the distance between is less that on the Gundeck. If I use the usualy treenail schema with two nails on each beam then, I suppose, it will be too much. I will play with photoshop to see how this will looks:

 
Alex

All parts of the case are finished, so starting the glue-up, side panes first.
 
First thing to do is to find a flat surface to glue on, since the sides are too flexible (both wood and plexiglas) to be rigid. 
My workbench is not flat enough (beech wood it is made of swells a lot with humidity, leading to warpage), but luckily the case base is dead flat and stable, since it is a torsion box. Checked with the straight edge:

 
Then I need to mask every part with blue tape, to reduce the mess after epoxy. For that I did a number of trials with different types of masking tape available locally, to find the one that leaks the less (epoxy can leak under some tapes). Scalpel is used to cut it just enough to let epoxy get out and avoid trapping it in the joint:

 
The rest is a time race:
1) Apply a bit of epoxy to all future joints (8 surfaces). They are all endgrain-to-endgrain (well, diagonal grain), so needs to pre-absorb some epoxy, otherwise the glue joint would be weak when real epoxy would be sucked into the grain.
2) Plexiglas is attached to the wood with a silicone glue, so every groove need to get a continuous line of it. (4 grooves)
3) Carefully insert the glass without moving it too much to avoid messy silicone glue squeeze-out.
4) Connect joints together, applying thick epoxy to it as you go.
5) Align everything, check squareness
6) Clamp and re-check again.
 

 
It was not so easy to keep track of all that, especially with a 10-15min working time for both glues.
Epoxy gets out to the masking tape, but all the mess stays on it:

 
So the first side ended up so-so, with some joints having gaps. But this side would be less visible than the other, so should be ok.

 
Full view:

 
After a full assembly, I will scrape and sand all jonts to make sure they are nice and flush. 
Second side window was much smoother, all joints look tight with no gaps. I have big hopes for that second side

 
The moment of truth is coming - joining these sides together with a top glass and front frame. Really hope that I will not need to scrap the entire thing and start over...

Looking very nice BE, the run of the planks looks great.  Now you are able to compare, do you think the pinnace is just fundamentally more challenging because of its shape, or was it simply your recent experience that allowed you to complete this more satisfactorily?

Nice start, hope the planking continues easily!

Nice neat waterline and great choice, can only agree with the colour of the Admiralty "light ivory" being a much better scale look.  Luckily I have some to be able to put some perspective on the photos as screens never quite seem to do colours justice.

Looking great.  How did you make the very nicely defined square holes in the windlass?

Love what you've achieved with the masts, cleats and tops, should all look stunning all in place.  The deadeye plates do look convincing, nicely done.

Jim, you have some real talent, I'm not an art critic either to explain why, but your colour balance, cloud and water effects which are notoriously difficult to do well are to my taste, and work especially well in watercolour medium - oh, and the ships look good too!.  Would love to see more.

Not ships today, but certainly 'Naval'
Fleet Air Arm Phantom about to refuel from a Buccaneer 
a 'poster' type cartoon I did for the Centenary of British Naval Aviation.
jim  

Love what you've achieved with the masts, cleats and tops, should all look stunning all in place.  The deadeye plates do look convincing, nicely done.

I added the timber heads and corrected the steering mechanism.
 
The timber heads were made out of walnut as it is easier for me to form clean edges on a piece of hardwood than on basswood. When mounting the timber heads I lined them up with the existing trenail pattern and cut the appropriate angles to have them sit vertically on the cap rail (images 1 -3).
My initial realization of the steering mechanism would not have been quite functional. The tackle ropes should have met the drum of the steering wheel at right angles, which was not the case in my first attempt (img 4). Luckily some of my fellow modelers made me aware of this. As I had to redo the arrangement anyway I used the opportunity to make the tiller a little bit longer and thus generate more operating room for the long guns in the chase position. I also made the angles between the tiller and the tackle ropes a bit more pronounced (img 4). The final arrangement can be seen in images 5 – 7.
 
Thomas
 

Image 1
 

Image 2
 

Image 3
 

Image 4
 

Image 5
 

Image 6
 

Image 7
 
 

Well, it's been a while since I've been here.... 
 
Things have been rather "interesting" the last few months, and not so much in a good way....  I'm no longer working on board any ships, as I my medical fitness certificate was revoked on account of my eyesight, more specifically, my uncorrected visual acuity (how well I see without my glasses). I did investigate treatment options, but the only one available to me is more drastic than I am willing to undergo at this point in time (no, not laser surgery, I almost had my head wrapped around that procedure....). I'm sure there are some of you who know what it feels like to have a career pulled out from under your feet rather unexpectedly, especially after having dedicated nearly 20 years of time and effort. Trying to figure out what to do now, and where in the world I am supposed to fit, is proving to be difficult. In August, I relocated out of my apartment to a piece of family property north of the City. So there was another bit of an upheaval to contend with, but the move was one I was considering for some time before the rug got pulled. 
 
Anyway, I'm trying to stay positive, and busy (80 forested acres does help with the latter). After getting settled, I decided that a change of pace was in order and I've been picking away at this build again for a couple of weeks now.
 
I've painted and assembled the large components of the forward house, as well as assembled, painted and installed some of the bridge equipment. The wooden deck is simply scribed basswood sheet cut to fit. Using individual planks did not seem like a good way to maintain my sanity. There are a couple more things I may add including the window glazing, as well as some further detail to the chart table. Good thing I built it so the interior can be accessed.
 
I've also started working on some of the other resin bits and pieces that came with the kit, such as the mooring winches and windlass, the auxiliary wheel and so on. The reels on the winches are just blank, but I've wrapped some light fishing line to simulate the runs of cable. And yes, those are scale pallets (there's no real secret to making them, they're from Osborn Model Kits).
 
I've also been picking away at more of the unloading boom structure.... lots of bits of angle bar needed to be added. on the whole, it has become quite a solid structure (after you take in to account the natural flexibility of the styrene!). I've also added the drive motor platform, and scratch built a couple of reasonable facsimiles of the electric motors. I had ordered some cast detail parts, but it seems that the company who made them had long gone out of that particular business, drat. Still not sure what purpose the small A-frame structure served, I have some suspicions, but seeing is it is something that has completely disappeared from self unloaders built barely a decade after my prototype, it is just not seen today.
 
I did manage to get some high resolution images of the ship from a friend of mine, that revealed a whole wealth of detail, and unfortunately revealed a few areas in which I have erred. But rather than tear the whole thing down and start over, I've decided to forge on with what I have. I'm not after making a 100%, down-to-the-last-rivet accurate model of the ship, I'm looking to build something that embraces the character of the vessel, and is recognizable for what it is. I other words, I'm keeping things as I have built them, and nuts to the rest! 
 
So... thats about it for now. 

First planking complete
 
After the first 3 planks I gave up on shaping and spilling.  There is another layer of planking so none of this going to be seen on the finished model.  I'm going to put lots of effort into the second planking at least until the water line as the coppering will cover bellow that point.  One thing to point out is that if I didn't put shims on bulkhead No9 and 12 it would have turned out really lumpy
 


 
the last picture is with a bit of sanding done. There is quite a lot more sanding to be done and I don't think I'll need very much filler.  I have to say working with 1.5 mm lime wood was a bit difficult but it makes for a strong hull.

Windlass.
I think this is better made and fitted before the thwarts are permanently fixed, more room to work with.

NMM model of Medway Longboat 1742.
 
Rather than just stick a pin in the end of the Windlass and engage it in a hole in the Risings I followed the arrangement of a reinforced slotted  block  as shown on the NMM versions. (see above)

1807
Windlass blocks being formed on the Mill.

1820
I firstly had to get the overall length of the Windlass as it would fit into the blocks before I went to the trouble of shaping the real thing.
This was very much a trial and error exercise.
In practice my Windlass worked out at 42mm o/a length as compared to the plan indicated length of 47mm.
The difference is accounted for by the thickness of the risings/reinforced mounting blocks and the inward curve of the hull.

1815
Using some 4mm square stock I firstly made a windlass of Beechwood  to practice my technique and fix the proper dimensions before I moved onto my precious Boxwood stock.
Beech is easy to carve, and is far better than Limewood at holding definition.
 

1816
So far so good, onto the proper version.
 
B.E.

Some more Square Riggers. Both paintings are on A3 16" X 10" paper
jim

I agree with the comments above, as an overseas customer I would prefer to have the complete set rather than have to order them separately at a later date.
 
Regards,
 
B.E.
 

Chuck, maybe you could offer them as a separate fitting or an optional part. I know for myself I would like to try carving them but being able to order the casting's if I got frustrated would be nice.

I will definitely try the carvings but would also like to have the option of a backup plan.

Everyone has been suggesting that I include all resin castings and offer the boxwood carving blanks as the add-on.   I just might do that but it will increase the price and take a couple of weeks more.  I am curious as to what most of you think about that.  If most of you would prefer to have the resin castings set complete as part of the standard kit let me know. Its no big deal but that just means 7 more castings per kit to make.   The resin castings are shown below as opposed to carving your own.  But I do hope that many of you will at least give it a try.
 

 
While I am in Florida at the conference I did manage to update my site with a page for the kit....including part one of the two part instructions for download.   Part two will be added in about two weeks just in time for the first production kits to become available.
 
https://www.syrenshipmodelcompany.com/royal-barge-kit.php

Jim,
 
When I read you first post, it sounded like you just took up painting as a hobby for retirement, then I saw your work and thought man, you didn't retire, your on a career.  You have all the chemistry for good nautical illustration than so many professional illustrators seem to struggle with.  Most important, you have mastered perspective, depth of field, and scale.  That is very hard for a lot of illustrators to do, for out of scale features stick out and throw the scene off balance.  
 
I really like your work.
Scott