Beef Wellington

Final pics, lot 2
 
 

Project completed !
 
The 26 month duration journey has come to an end, and I would like to thank my international fellow builder freinds for following this build, for their suggestions and helpful comments along the way. 
All the appreciative and kind compliments have given me very much drive to get the project complete, in a way that I am myself satisfied with the result.
I´ll choose a representive bunch of pics for exponating into my gallery in a couple of days.
 
Here come the final photos of the ship as built and in a large set of four lots, and without comments as all pics are self explaining.....
I made a few more detail shots for all those that like details. The only thing missing are the rudder blades and the tillers for the the open lifeboats (paint was`nt dry yet), but I`ll get them on before the KWdG goes into her glass case
 
Nils
 
Final pics, lot 1
 
 
 

I love seeing models that really give a feel for what it would be like to be on the real article, really nice progress.  I hadn't really thought about the access to the rear cabin area, will there be a companionway from the upper deck to help access or is access only from the hold?

Looks wonderful Bob, really nice joinery, there must be quite a few complicated angles to deal with.

There are a number of pretty well documented Snake builds on this site so you should have plenty of reference material.  This was my first build (and still not quite finished), but its a great kit and you should have lots of fun.  There are definitely some challenges with the kit and options for improvement.  Good luck.

All ready back from thr holliday's 😁🙃😝?
 
Nice stern btw...
Enjoy the free time.
 
Sjors

So will be off on the family holiday for a few weeks this weekend so needing to step away.  Here's where things stand, not wanting to jump into anything else as I know I'll be rushing, so "down tools" it is.  The quarter gallery berthings are both now glued and the edge with the upper counter tidied up, everything else is dry fitted.  The lower finishing proved to be quite the interesting pieces to make.  The profile is very clear from the stern and side elevation, so combining that with the curve of the quarter gallery berthing and the straddle over the wale edge meant plenty of shaping, and checking to see things looked OK from all angles which was more of a challenge than I would have expected.  Decided to dispense with the kit supplied metal molding for the drop as this didn't seem to match, and anyway seemed easier to take my own approach than fight with that.  Drops still to be made.
 
The provides a PE "X" for each side, which I think is an approximation for some decoration looking at some of the Diana models.   I'm leaning toward painting my own decorations here but will think a bit.
 
Hopefully pictures speak for themselves from the various angles...the macro gods are surely against me as the finish looks more acceptable in person 
 

Great work Jason; your build is coming together very nicely indeed.  Enjoy your holiday.
 
cheers
 
Pat

Great work on the stern Jason. Have a great holiday. I'll be waiting ... upon your return

Awesome work Jesse, everything has already been said!

Awesome work Jesse, everything has already been said!

There are a number of pretty well documented Snake builds on this site so you should have plenty of reference material.  This was my first build (and still not quite finished), but its a great kit and you should have lots of fun.  There are definitely some challenges with the kit and options for improvement.  Good luck.

Awesome work Jesse, everything has already been said!

Harrier has been launched. Despite mid-winter weather I've made it to a couple of local lakes for some testing.
The masts broke down to allow the vessel to fit in the back of the car easier than expected. I don't even have to drop the seats which means I can even take kids.

 
It's been extremes of weather each time with the first outing having not enough wind to give enough control to go about comfortably while the second was a bit too much for the amount of sail up.
Harrier has been tethered each time with a line tied to a stern gunport to allow it to be retrieved when things either got nervous or the I was caught on a lee shore and pushed into the weeds.
Some strong gusts in the second outing put a decent heel on and caused some worry that she might not right, but up she came. She took water through the gunports but the hatches only shipped a small amount of water. I'll work on water tightness. 
There's a bit more ballast testing to be done yet. I've had the ballast pipe keel set about 20cm below the keel and it'll be a matter of trial o see how far up I can raise it while maintaining stability. I've also been experimenting with a temporary centreboard to see what effect it has. The jury is still very much out on all this.
Theres a lot to get to grips with here, but as one lakeside spectator said 'practice makes perfect'.
 
 
 

Work on the aft interior hull planking and framing for that portion of the upper deck is now complete. I also added the main deck clamp, the first main deck beam, and further interior hull planking in the hold.
 
The planking all follows the same methods and materials previously used. The deck framing again uses laser cut beams and also a laser cut partner for the main mast and the pumps. I added the first main deck beam at this point because the forward most beam for the aft portion of the upper decks rests upon it. I also drilled a hole in the keelson for mounting the main mast, after test fitting a dummy main mast through the partner.
 
Work will now shift to the bow before finishing the main deck.
 
Bob

More progress on the longboat. Added cap rail and molding. Painted hull. Added bowsprit step, iron strap for bowsprit and oarlocks. Still need to do the splash panel, gudgeons and oars.
 
Jesse
 

HMS Snake
 
As requested by a user on this forum I will show all the contents of this kit, The other snake builds do not have this it seems.
 
I ordered the kit with some extras (cannon balls, Snake paint set) and a few other things. I will start work on it in a few weeks, Just need to finish up the running rigging on the Sherbourne and make her a display case.  
 

 
All of the fittings are good quality and even the blocks seem to be of highers quality that what came with the Sherbourne. The Caronades are rough looking but the cast is aligned they just need a some work. The bag of copper plates is surprisingly heavy!
 

 
The wood strips are so much better than what I had on my Sherbourne, they are all well milled and don't look like a dog chewed them. The dowels are mostly strait. The Tanganyika strips are a bit weird as in one side is darker that the other on most of the strips so I will have to keep that in mind while laying the deck.
 

 
The plans are just huge and there are 7 sheets! The instruction manual is just a few pages though as it is one of Caldercrafts older kits, it's not to bad because it makes you reference the full size plans.
 

 
The cutouts are one of the highlights I feel. The CNC cuts are good they just have a bit of fuzz in them but I think it beats laser cut char any day.
 

 
The keel has just a slight bend which will be easily adjusted. Everything else is solid.
 

 
And finally the paint set plus some extras I bought. I thought they would have been smaller given the price so I'm pleased.
 
-c

Lanyards
 
I've followed the instructions for this and It's not really shown how they should be tied off. I just guessed when tying the lanyard for the main stay. I think I'll have to look at some other builds to get my bearings.
 

 
Here she is in the natural light on top of my kitchen table that's in the middle of getting some new stain. I should take more outdoor photos because the difference is amazing!
 

So will be off on the family holiday for a few weeks this weekend so needing to step away.  Here's where things stand, not wanting to jump into anything else as I know I'll be rushing, so "down tools" it is.  The quarter gallery berthings are both now glued and the edge with the upper counter tidied up, everything else is dry fitted.  The lower finishing proved to be quite the interesting pieces to make.  The profile is very clear from the stern and side elevation, so combining that with the curve of the quarter gallery berthing and the straddle over the wale edge meant plenty of shaping, and checking to see things looked OK from all angles which was more of a challenge than I would have expected.  Decided to dispense with the kit supplied metal molding for the drop as this didn't seem to match, and anyway seemed easier to take my own approach than fight with that.  Drops still to be made.
 
The provides a PE "X" for each side, which I think is an approximation for some decoration looking at some of the Diana models.   I'm leaning toward painting my own decorations here but will think a bit.
 
Hopefully pictures speak for themselves from the various angles...the macro gods are surely against me as the finish looks more acceptable in person 
 

So will be off on the family holiday for a few weeks this weekend so needing to step away.  Here's where things stand, not wanting to jump into anything else as I know I'll be rushing, so "down tools" it is.  The quarter gallery berthings are both now glued and the edge with the upper counter tidied up, everything else is dry fitted.  The lower finishing proved to be quite the interesting pieces to make.  The profile is very clear from the stern and side elevation, so combining that with the curve of the quarter gallery berthing and the straddle over the wale edge meant plenty of shaping, and checking to see things looked OK from all angles which was more of a challenge than I would have expected.  Decided to dispense with the kit supplied metal molding for the drop as this didn't seem to match, and anyway seemed easier to take my own approach than fight with that.  Drops still to be made.
 
The provides a PE "X" for each side, which I think is an approximation for some decoration looking at some of the Diana models.   I'm leaning toward painting my own decorations here but will think a bit.
 
Hopefully pictures speak for themselves from the various angles...the macro gods are surely against me as the finish looks more acceptable in person 
 

So will be off on the family holiday for a few weeks this weekend so needing to step away.  Here's where things stand, not wanting to jump into anything else as I know I'll be rushing, so "down tools" it is.  The quarter gallery berthings are both now glued and the edge with the upper counter tidied up, everything else is dry fitted.  The lower finishing proved to be quite the interesting pieces to make.  The profile is very clear from the stern and side elevation, so combining that with the curve of the quarter gallery berthing and the straddle over the wale edge meant plenty of shaping, and checking to see things looked OK from all angles which was more of a challenge than I would have expected.  Decided to dispense with the kit supplied metal molding for the drop as this didn't seem to match, and anyway seemed easier to take my own approach than fight with that.  Drops still to be made.
 
The provides a PE "X" for each side, which I think is an approximation for some decoration looking at some of the Diana models.   I'm leaning toward painting my own decorations here but will think a bit.
 
Hopefully pictures speak for themselves from the various angles...the macro gods are surely against me as the finish looks more acceptable in person 
 

So will be off on the family holiday for a few weeks this weekend so needing to step away.  Here's where things stand, not wanting to jump into anything else as I know I'll be rushing, so "down tools" it is.  The quarter gallery berthings are both now glued and the edge with the upper counter tidied up, everything else is dry fitted.  The lower finishing proved to be quite the interesting pieces to make.  The profile is very clear from the stern and side elevation, so combining that with the curve of the quarter gallery berthing and the straddle over the wale edge meant plenty of shaping, and checking to see things looked OK from all angles which was more of a challenge than I would have expected.  Decided to dispense with the kit supplied metal molding for the drop as this didn't seem to match, and anyway seemed easier to take my own approach than fight with that.  Drops still to be made.
 
The provides a PE "X" for each side, which I think is an approximation for some decoration looking at some of the Diana models.   I'm leaning toward painting my own decorations here but will think a bit.
 
Hopefully pictures speak for themselves from the various angles...the macro gods are surely against me as the finish looks more acceptable in person 
 

So will be off on the family holiday for a few weeks this weekend so needing to step away.  Here's where things stand, not wanting to jump into anything else as I know I'll be rushing, so "down tools" it is.  The quarter gallery berthings are both now glued and the edge with the upper counter tidied up, everything else is dry fitted.  The lower finishing proved to be quite the interesting pieces to make.  The profile is very clear from the stern and side elevation, so combining that with the curve of the quarter gallery berthing and the straddle over the wale edge meant plenty of shaping, and checking to see things looked OK from all angles which was more of a challenge than I would have expected.  Decided to dispense with the kit supplied metal molding for the drop as this didn't seem to match, and anyway seemed easier to take my own approach than fight with that.  Drops still to be made.
 
The provides a PE "X" for each side, which I think is an approximation for some decoration looking at some of the Diana models.   I'm leaning toward painting my own decorations here but will think a bit.
 
Hopefully pictures speak for themselves from the various angles...the macro gods are surely against me as the finish looks more acceptable in person 
 

Thanks for the comments and likes everyone.
 
I did step away from the paintbrush.  Lot of work and a little progress.  The upper counter has been glued in place and trim added to the bottom of the lower counter.  These were once again pre-shaped and as it was can be a handful.  They highlight a few errors in the hull shape but shouldn't be noticeable to most (I hope).  Now the work on the side galleries can continues in earnest.  The main pieces had already been made up and just required a little fettling for now.  The lights are all in temporarily as I find they do alter the perception of the surfaces.
 

 
Following a similar approach to that laid out in the instructions, the lower counters were made up from laminating some spare 3mm pear, there's nothing wrong with the kit supplied mahogany parts its just that I messed up the first time and there wasn't enough spare, something for others to consider.  None of these items are glued in position yet.
 
The lower gallery piece was made up first, these were given a slight concave curve to avoid them appearing to sag, may need to do a little more here but I'm leaving alone for now.  The drop is proving the most challenging because its so fiddly and needs to follow the lines of the lower counter - this is still work in progress and have a few mistakes already behind me.  The upper finishing was cut from a 5mm pear which matched the ATOS profile dimensions best (the kit calls for 2x3mm laminated pieces) - this piece was a practice to get a sense for the suggested shape and will need more work.
 
Overall, everything seems to be fitting together as planned - although looking at the close up photos the camera is definitely not being my friend.  The bottom of the gallery should be parallel to the wale, also match the angle of the stern fascia...which needs to match the angle of the rearmost false light.

So now things are now being positioned, the first non-fixable alignment issue becomes apparent!  Looking at the AOTS profile, the bottom of the lower gallery should meet the top of the wale.  The bottom of the trim will sit at the top of the lower gallery - so this is out by 3mm.  Not much, it just means that the top of the drop will straddle the wale, and I'm not overly concerned as it seems looking at many other profiles that this positioning can be above or below the wale.  As for the reason for those also building the kit, there are probably many contributing factors - and I'm sure its a cumulative effect from positioning of the stern fascia where I estimated it needed to go, the wale could also be slightly out of position, the kit sheer of the deck could be different and the bottom of the counter way back when framing could also have been out.  Interestingly, had I used the 3mm strip above the wale for the black strake, and had this been painted black, this would have met exactly - but that I suspect would have been a lucky coincidence.
 
Bottom line, could be a lot worse, and I'm happy for now   Onwards!

So here's where I landed with the lettering.  First the letters were painted in a darker brown and then overpainted with yellow ochre and few highlights.  The goal here was not perfection as I new that was not going to remotely close, hopefully "impressionistic" describes it.  Was very happy with the outcome, may touchup a little more but I'm forcing myself to stay away for now.  The placement may look a little odd, but I had to estimate where the decorative rails will be so it should be correctly aligned when those are in place...something to potentially still go awry.  I'm following the guidance that the letters should fill the upper counter leaving a little space between the rails.  The photos are a little unkind and to my eye looks better in person.
 
First picture is the obvious comparison to the kit supplied PE letters, and you can see the perspective narrowing of the font.  I placed the lights in the stern while fine tuning the angle as it seemed that these need be complimentary somehow, although the angle varies from every viewing angle.