Beef Wellington

A big thank you to DaveEN for a great solution to hiding the Beams across the loower gun deck hatch opening.Although probably not obvious under the hatch covers but thought I would go down this route also. Might even stain these a bit to darken them. I also had to shift  No 10 A beam to the other side of the bulhead so again not to go directly across the hatch opening. I thought I would do these now in case I forget them, as these beams are not mentioned in the instruction.

Hi Vane,
 
I can't quite tell from your photos the alignment of the gunports.  The foremost gunport should be pierced perpendicular to the line of the hull (i.e. at an angle), all the others I believe should b eperpendicular to the centerline (the framing would dictate this).  I had angled the inner face more to try and keep the hull thickness constant in section, but did not agonize over this.   I don't think you should see much of a difference with the other ports.  You can build in some flexibility into this simply by setting the cannons so there is a gap between the from of the carriage and the interior bulwark (as would have been seen in practice).
 
Anyway the post below shows my tribulations in this area and mistakes made if its any help...
 
Cheers
 
 

Glad to catch up on more progress on your Diana.  Good decision to do the gun ports correctly, you'll be much happier I think.   That last shot really shows off the great work on your deck - one of my struggles is finding more decent maple to do the upper decks.

Siggi - the comments made above by others are all appropriate.  The state of readiness of a ship could change in a very short time period, either bringing up cannons and makign up carriages stored in the hold, or moving a cannon lashed to the side to bring to bear in the gunport.  The same for breaking down bulkheads.  The "state of readiness" would be consistent with the threat situation....which is still true for warships today.  There are many examples of models not necessarily reflecting a snapshot in time of contemporary practice, so none of that should get in your way.

Looking very nice Vane!

Siggi - the comments made above by others are all appropriate.  The state of readiness of a ship could change in a very short time period, either bringing up cannons and makign up carriages stored in the hold, or moving a cannon lashed to the side to bring to bear in the gunport.  The same for breaking down bulkheads.  The "state of readiness" would be consistent with the threat situation....which is still true for warships today.  There are many examples of models not necessarily reflecting a snapshot in time of contemporary practice, so none of that should get in your way.

Looking very nice Vane!

When still in commission but not at war, depending on the size of the ship, a substantial compliment of ordinance was frequently disassembled and stored in the hold. Thereby helping stability and providing less cramped accommodation.
When not at war a full crew wasn't required; stores were less, so it makes sense to 'open the deck'.
Once hostilities began it became a mad scramble to put the ship in a state to actually fight.
Notoriously, captains struggled to adequately man the ship.
 
No idea where I read that, but did.
 

On some, it is claimed that they were hinged at the top and just had the lower end roped up to keep it out of the way. 

When a ship was not in use it was called being 'in ordinary', where all fixtures and fittings, including masts and rigging were removed and stored at a shore establishment to avoid deterioration.
 
I was referring to a ship being in use but in peace time.

I was supposed to work on my carronades on my Snake... but ended up here planking instead 😛

Yes it looks like that will happen.   But keep in mind this is all new to me.  So how viable it will be will be determined after I am assured I can do it.  I will start a new build log for the mini speedwell once I get started.  I have to start over and take pictures...I will also need to do some redrafting to incorporate what I learned from from experiments up to this point.  I will also also admit that I dont own any of his books or any books on making miniature models.   So I will just wing it and see how it turns out.   I could start reading up on how everyone else does these extreme miniature models but I have decided to stay pure to my own unpolluted experiments.   We shall see how it turns out.
 
Getting back to the full sized 3/8" scale version....another first for me as I have never built a POF model before....
 
Work continues on the framing.
 
The last two cant frames number 28 and 29 were added.  These looked very challenging after reading Greg's account of building them.   But once the proper shapes were drafted after about 5 attempts at tweaking them,  they were surprising easily to bevel and add.
 
Here is a look at the two aft cant frames after shaping.  
 

They are laser cut of course.  With etched reference lines for the bevels required.   The first ...number 28...was easy enough.  Just a bevel along the top.  This illustration should explain it better than I can describe in writing.
 

Then it was glued into place using the last remaining slot in the deadwood.
 
Aft cant frame 29 or as Greg and David describe it...a filler frame,  was done just the same.  But there are more bevels that were sanded into them with a sanding stick.   I disc sander would do the trick in about 30 seconds.  But as I mentioned, I am building this entirely by hand without power tools as I know many folks dont have those.
 

Its beveled to sit against the wing transom.  But it is also beveled to sit against the deadwood.   There is no slot created by those wedges for this one.   The heel must be beveled in the traditional way.   Laser etched lines show you exactly were to start the bevels. It doesnt take very long to do.
 
Lastly a bottom of the heel was sanded on a curve to match the bearding line.   Then it was tested in position.   Tweak it if you need to but mine fit rather well on the first go.  I got lucky.   Glue them in and fair the hull frames for one final last time.  Here is a picture of those last two aft cant frames which you can see.  This was taken after fairing.   I also added the treenails for all of the frames to finish it up.
 

 
This completed all of the hull framing except for the upper port sills.  So that was next.
 
These are also laser cut and rather simple to glue into position.   I also laser cut a spacer that is the correct height.   You can make your own that stretches all the way from port to starboard but this small length worked just as well.   The spacer is laser cut in two layers.  Just glue the layers together so you have a nice wide spacer.   Rest it on the lower sill and position the upper.   Its really very easy.   
 

 
Do this for the six upper sills on each side.  They were laser cut slightly longer than needed.  Just sand it to fit nice and tight and glue them in.   Then fair it into the hull.
 
This actually finishes up all the hull frames.  All done and it took 5 1/2 months from design to completion at this point.
 
I only have the stern framing left to finish up chapter two.   Then its on to planking.   Here are some pictures.  I am actually quite pleased since I had never built a POF model before.   It was like diving right in the deep end.  But surprisingly it all worked out according to plan.   Withought any major challenges or redesigns.
 
I have posted an image of the framing plan right beneath the last photo so you can see how it all followed the plan as developed quite well.  Who would have thought!!
 
 


 


 
And one last drawing......showing the difference in scales between the 3/8" and 3/32" scale Speedwell models.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I am back on the Granado build. I received new parts for 5K and 5L but installing them was a real headache. They are in but need a lot of work to get them right. Frames 53 sort of fit so some work to do there. I decided to make some frames to learn how to get the frames in the jig and how the various types of frames are assembled. I started with a mid-ships frame and found the following problem. The frame is 13mm wide and the plan shows they should be 13mm wide. The notch in the keel is 12.5mm. Do I narrow the frame or widen the notch. Widening the notch seems to be the best solution. Also, trying to put the frame in the jig, it just does not clear and it is going to take too much force to get the frame in place. This will make it difficult to remove after all the dry fitting. How have you building this model dealt with these issues.

The shipyard is very busy last days…

Your maquette looks fantastic, very well done.

Hello and many thanks for the likes,
but I have a serious problem. The 12 pdr 9 ft cannons are too long! If they are secured inside, nobody could pass without being an artist. And this is a very often used way to the head.

The Armstrong design has 3 lengths for 12 pdr's, 7,5, 8,5 and 9 feet. In the next picture I used a 7,5 ft cannon

and here the 8,5 ft cannon. From the aspect of space I would prefer the 7,5 ft cannon

Also for the cabins, the 9 ft cannon would be an obstacle. 

So my question: did anywhere know if they had these cannons at that time? At least the 7.5 ft 12 pdr? Many thanks in advance.

Sometimes cannon were lashed parallel to and against the side when not in use. Perhaps this was the case here?

Not just you BE!  Looking good.

Not just you BE!  Looking good.

Looking good Vane.

Not just you BE!  Looking good.

Headworks (Part 1):
 
The shipyard has not been very active recently, partly due to lack of time, but also trepidation of the fact that I can no longer delay work on the headworks - something that has caused some anxiety if I'm honest given that this is another aspect of the model that is so important to the overall look of the ship (...and especially considering that the TFFM devotes 17 pages to this!).  I had completed the main rail back in 2018 (Yikes!) which are detailed here (Post #513) for reference. 
I tried to follow the guidance and approach described in the TFFM as this will all need to be scratch to replicate the original plans as closely as possible, but did probably simplify some steps.  With the final profile of the bow having been finalized, the position of these can be determined.  This was done by eye in the absence of any definitive measurement, ensuring that the head of the mainrail is perpendicular to the keel and vertical when viewed from the bow.  These were drilled and pinned to hold in position for now.   Together with the standard, the 4 head timbers were rough cut and sized to their respective position, the outer face being cut to the angle formed by the head rail.  The curvature of the head timbers was estimated from the AOTS diagrams, but left a little oversized at this stage (the interior profile has also been ignored for the present and will be cut to final shape later).  The main consideration was to ensure that the position of the bottom of the main rail was determined, and this was done by multiple fine tunings and a sanding stick.

The position and fitting of the lower rail proved to be the more challenging aspect.  The TFFM indicates that it should be straight when viewed from above, and the plan profiles suggest that it should be position midway between the main rail and the upper cheek..  On top of that, it needs to clear the interior hawse hole, and will also need to taper in profile at the bow.  The seats of ease on the Artois class are outboard, and will also clear the lower rail.  I do not know the thickness of this piece, but estimated it should be 2mm thick which seems consistent with the proportions shown and described in TFFM for the Swan class.
 
I started by drawing my own simple scale mini-plan using the measurements of the hawse hole, position of head timbers and length of the lower rail.  This allowed the depth of the slots to be determined on each head timber, at the point mid way between the bottom of the main rail and top of the upper cheek (This will also determine the required final curvature of the head timbers to ensure that the lower rail sits neatly behind the covering boards which will need to be added in the future,

Once these had been roughly determined and cut into the head timbers, the theory and application was proved using some of the kit supplied white metal decorative strips which are very easily bent.  (The kit indicates that these should actually be used for the lower rail which seems to be a very reasonable compromise, but think Jason deserves to appropriately proportioned and profiled wood rail).  The curvature of this metal rail can then be used to determine the curvature of the top of the lower rail that will be cut from wood.  (Note:  The forward head timber has been ignored for now, I will need to recut this piece so it extends higher over the standard, as it is, its not think enough to accommodate the lower rail).  The white metal strip is also very useful because it allows the length of the lower rail to be determined.

A cut first approximation of the lower rail was then cut from some boxwood sheet and temporarily placed in position to again prove the approach.  This proved to be successful, and I was happy with the general profile that resulted.  This looks overly bulky to my eye even though the dimension are appropriate, but I suspect that this will be corrected once it has been profiled.  The next step will be to cut and profile the actual pieces.  This also shows that I will likely need to adjust the hawse bolster to allow the lower rail, and the yet to be fitted eking rail (see last picture, the lower rail does not clear the top of the bolster. Even though there is still much to do in this area, I'm feeling more optimistic with this complex area.

 
 

Looking good Vane.

Greg must have a sixth sense.  I started building a mini Speedwell just for fun alongside the big one.  How could I not after seeing Phillip Reed’s 1/16” scale Speedwell.  
 
its not 1/16” scale.  Mine will be 3/32” scale.  I had no intention of selling it as a kit but as I just mentioned in my log…I will if there is enough interest.  
 
Here are some pics of the stem and figurehead.  I havent started the framing yet because I am waiting to finish the framing on the full size version.  
 



 
The hull will be 7 7/8” long and 1.75” wide unrigged.  All the parts on that are laser cut including the figurehead.
 
If there is enough interest I will start another log and detail my journey with it.  Working this tiny certainly has its challenges.  Its not easy.  
 
But it is fun.
 

Chuck - where do you get your brass strip from, or do you cut it yourself from sheets? If so, how do you do that?  Many thanks.