Beef Wellington

No Glenn, i hope it will be better

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.

 
 

Finally, after too much time spent on "life things" and some experimentation, I'm making progress.   Ship's wheel, binnacle are finished and dummy masts in place (not clued) but still need some paint.
 
I painted the wheel to look like wood mostly.   I didn't like the color scheme in the instructions.  I then wasted a lot of time trying figure out how to glaze the binnacle.  Tried numerous ways but even though the glazing looked good to my eye, it prevented the panels sitting flush with each other and "shelving".
 
My next step is to back up and get the catheads installed.   I had to wait on some new blades as I wanted something a bit sharper and longer lasting than the X-acto blades I was using.   So... on-wards....
 

Have you tried looking at second hand book marketplaces?  While not ideal, Abebooks  for one does have one available as part of the set.  You could always sell your duplicate volume 1.
 
Naiad by Tosti: Books - AbeBooks

Have you tried looking at second hand book marketplaces?  While not ideal, Abebooks  for one does have one available as part of the set.  You could always sell your duplicate volume 1.
 
Naiad by Tosti: Books - AbeBooks

Post Sixteen
 
A workshop enhancement
I have been feeling cramped of late as I try to manoeuvre the ‘Indy’ beast around, with only 600mm of depth available.
My latest acquisition is this work stand.

Bott work stand.
 
It is in the same range as my work bench and equal in terms of depth and (adj) height but being portable I can re-position it to give me either more length or depth to suit.

0647
In a straight line I now have seven foot+ length to play with.

0649
This ‘L’ shaped configuration is likely to prove even more useful. It allows me to walk around the model and provides more space for turning.

0651
I am hoping it will remove the frustration of working in a space a tad too small to freely manoeuvre the hull without risking bashing it on the wall.
 
A small price to pay for the added convenience.
 
 
B.E
01/04/2023
 

Thanks for the likes and comments.
 
Thanks Dave but the separate oars that Chris sells are too short. For single banked boats they should be 2.5 times the beam so at least 12mm for my boat.
 
After the interlude of making the 24’ cutter, I’m off my crutches and mobile again so it’s back to the main ship and adding the topsail yards.
The yards were made a while ago with the blocks, stirrups and horses completed.
 
I began with the mizzen topsail yard and the parrals (or is it parrels, I’ve seen both spellings?) The kit supplies some black beads for the trucks but they are quite round rather than more barrel shaped. I searched all the bead sites looking for seed beads that are a better shape but have found nothing. I ordered some bugle beads but they are too cylindrical. In the end I had some wooden beads in my box of bits that I decided to use, although they are still not as they should be. The ribs are blackened brass ones left over from HMS Fly.

 
The parral rope is threaded over the yard and the ribs and trucks threaded on taking care to keep the ribs the right way round. The yard is pinned to the mast and glued with CA simplifying the job of fitting the parral. The ropes pass around the mast, over and under the yard and then back over the groove in the ribs. This is repeated two or three times and then tied off around the yard in a simple knot.
 
The tie is next, which on the mizzen threads through a single block up through blocks suspended each side of the mast head and ends in long tackle blocks to come below the lower mast top. The lower block of the halyards is hooked to an eyebolt on the stool. The rope is tied to the long block runs down to the lower block through the long block back up to the long block and is tied off at the cavil block.
The lifts a long strap with an eye in each end is clove hitched around the cap. The lift is hooked into the eyelet runs down to the sheet block and back up to the sister block then down to the pin rail where it is tied off.

The parrals of the main and fore topmast yards are rigged in the same way as on the mizzen topmast. I chose to follow Petersson in rigging the tie. A double block is tied on each side of the topmast head on a long strop. I think that these two blocks should be on the same strop which is then tied around the mast head. I couldn’t do it like this because the topgallant is already in place so separate strops it had to be. The tie has an eye spliced in one end and passes around the topmast head, through the eye and down to the double block on the yard. The port tie passes through the forward sheave and the starboard the aft. The halyards are tied off to eyebolts on the main mast stool just forward of the aft-most topmast backstay.
The lifts on both fore and main topmast yards are set up in a similar fashion to the mizzen mast. The main lifts coming down to the barricade and the fore lifts to the cleat on the third shroud.




David

I did something about 30 years ago at 1/192 scale.

Glad to see you progressing again!

Alright - this is turning into page 6...66!! I haven't done this much scrolling on a web page since 1997! Making me nostalgic for Ask Jeeves, AOL and Netscape Navigator!
 
In any case, though I mentioned taking a break I did manage to squeeze in a bit of time at the bench over the last couple of days to work on the cabin - specifically the roof. I had already cut a base for the roof out of a basswood sheet. I then added some 1/32" x 1/8" strips around the edge as a border (finished grey), before planking the interior surface with the same material, finished white. The cabin is already installed on deck, so once I installed the trim, I just added the roof and planked it in situ (learned a lot of Latin in the 90s, too, because I was thinking of my future, obviously!). I think it turned out pretty ok. Here are the photos. I'm going to actively try to stay away from the bench now for a bit! No promises, though....
 
Enjoy
hamilton

Finally... back in the shipyard and making progress.  Been a bit of long haul to get here.  Foredeck furniture is "mostly" done.  Still need to do the catheads, but currently doing eyebolts on the quarterdeck.  I will admit that 1:64 is currently pushing the limits on my eyeballs so the next one is going to be 1:48 unless the eye doc has a solution.  Seems I don't meet Medicare requirements for new lens in the eyeballs.   <sigh>  But we'll see where that goes in due time.
 

 
 

Thank you Gus, Glenn, and  Alistair, your interest is much appreciated, as is those who have 'liked' the posts.
 
Post Fifteen
Fresh supplies from the timberyard.
My supply of Boxwood has arrived from Hobbymill, Estonia.
 

0627

0628
The strips relate to decking and hull planking down to the wale.

0629

0630
The quality looks very good with the strip wood accurately cut to size – thank you Vahur.
 
I do note that Chris is now offering an ‘Indy’ Boxwood deck planking version for an extra £150 over the basic, which makes it a competitive option, altho’ some wider sheet stuff would be necessary to cut margin planks, unless that is also included.

0634
I did ask Vahur to send me a few samples of his coloured Hornbeam. I was curious to see if it could be used to represent the ochre stripe in the area of the gunports.

0635
The colour doesn’t suit my eye, too yellow, and the wrong shade, so I won’t pursue that option.

0636
The lower strip of black Hornbeam has more potential for use as wale timbers, altho' I have not tested it for cut in top and butt planking.
 
B.E.
31/03/2023
 
 

Wonderful workmanship Alexendru, simply no words to express it! Love this build. What are you using to colour the wood, or is it a natural wood that is that colour red?

Aah - thank you, my better half has ordered this for my birthday, so I'm looking forward to having a good look through and getting some inspiration. To return to your earlier comments, I've pondered them, and I think I'm looking to get past plank on bulkhead, but with simplified frames... so probably using the stations rather than re-lofting each frame, and with a simplified structure without cant frames at the bow and stern. 
 
I've had another crack at the transom using an angled frame (16 degrees from perpendicular) aft of station 25 - this goes out to the wale. I've re-drafted the transoms and hopefully now it is something more workable... Some pictures... It's not quite perfect yet (and I haven't drafted the inside flow of the transom pieces), but I feel like I'm making progress. It's certainly helpful to be able to make multiple designs and try them all out.

 

 

Thanks again for all your help
 
Rob

Cheers, Guys.
 
Post Fourteen
Before I fitted the central strake of three I used a micro saw to remove the gunport sections of the upper strake.

0613
I used a length of 8mm x 1.5mm limewood strip to fill in the central gap, a little tapering towards the bow and stern and the fit is good.

0614

0617
I glued the plank to the frames and along the edges of the adjacent planks.

0623
The gunports were the fully opened-up before re-fitting and gluing the pear patterns into place.

0626
The blurb indicates areas where glue should not be applied, relating to the extensions to the bulkheads which will later be removed.
I added double sided tape to these areas to temporarily secure the patterns in the upper areas.

0637
Speed gluing and clamping is the name of the game.

0638
In this shot she looks more 64 than 44, what a lovely chunky beast.

0639

0644

0643
Fitting the patterns concludes this section of the build.
 
B.E.
30/03/23

Hello and many thanks for your nice comments and likes,
the carpenters build today the columns and installed them to the middle part of the bulwark


later the painter painted them. I hope that when the paint is dry, it looked a little better, sharper. There are 4 columns left for tomorrow 🤭

Hello,
the carpenters started building the bulkhead. This was a permanent bulkhead. As you may see, there was not much headroom under the beams. 

So your panels are not built up, correct? Just lines penciled in and carved to shape. Extraordinary work Siggi.

Hello and thank you Keith,
the bulwark is ready and fast    The workers got a free afternoon, I think they are now in on of the pubs around here.



And that is what you will see later from it. The next things to do are the cabins.

 

Hello,
we where all busy over the weekend and the shipwright is pleased. Some small spots he found, where the painter must rework his painting. But at least most of the parts are ready. Even the windows for the cabins. Tomorrow the blacksmith should come to installed the door handles. 

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.

 
 

Hi, Lee.
 
I think some additional information would be useful:
 
What kit is this?
Can you provide pictures of the area in question? (I suspect you may be referring to filler blocks.)
Where are you located?
 
If this is the Model Shipways kit, and you simply misreported the scale, you might have a two-fold problem. The first is that Model Shipways kit instructions often assume a certain amount of prior experience on the part of the builder, i.e. they will say "do this" but not tell you how to do it. The second potential problem is one you've already hinted at, namely that wooden models are not like plastic models. It's quite possible that you have simply bitten off more model than you can chew, in which case taking a break to build a less demanding model might be a wise option.
 
Cheers!

Your maquette looks fantastic, very well done.

Head to toe size comparison with the Winnie…
 
Greg you are a madman to build her at 1/4” scale.  You have my utmost respect at that size.  I couldnt even imagine it.
 

Yes it will be sold just like the Winnie in Chapter sets.   There are far too many parts to make a complete kit all at once.   The framing that you see below (once its completed)  will comprise the first two chapters.   Although its a lot of parts still and I may break that into three chapter sets.   
 
Then others will follow.  Keep in mind that because of its size and complexity this will not be a cheap project.   Its almost the exact same size as the Vanguard Indy kit.  She is a big girl.   But this has so many more parts so you can get an idea of where this project may end up cost-wise.  Figure in the range of "2 large".  I wont know how much until its all done so its impossible for me to put a number on it....but just figure what it costs for the Indy and add a little bit more.  I say this because I dont want anyone to start this project and be surprised by the cost as it continues.   
 
I am quite the terrible salesperson...but I am just being up front with you guys.  This isnt being made in China so its going to be expensive to manufacture.  Its not a project that can be rushed.   So buying chapter sets over time is the best way to go.