Beef Wellington

Looks like the perfect balance to my eye...1 too few, 3 too many 🙂  The different paint tones really catch the eye and enhance the whole, very much to my taste as well.  Wonderful model you have there, very well done indeed!

Your planking looks spot on, very nicely done.  I'm pleased to see that you appear to have filled in the stern a little to allow the planking to sit nicely against the sternpost, think you will be much happier with that result.  The shaping of the plank ends in this area can be challenging further up the hull, definitely not something to rush.  Looking at what you have done so far, sure you will encounter no major problems.  You have a wonderful model coming together here.

Awesome progress!  Question on the galleries, do you think you will be using the resin/plastic galleries in the final version?  It feels a little our of keeping with the other wonderful wood of the model.

That is just beautiful planking!

Thanks, @BobG, @gak1965, @AJohnson, you're very kind. I feel surrounded by masters, here... but I'm pleased with how my bodging is coming along!
 
I managed to add the reef points to the fore upper-topsail, which is the last sail to need reefing points, so that was a nice milestone to reach.  Next is to add the eyelets and blocks to the fore upper-topsail yard ... am I the only one who finds drilling holes all over the yards a fiddly and frustrating job?
 
I think I've probably described the process of the reefing points before, but just in case, it's #100 DMC Cordonnet crochet thread, with a knot in it (one knot is plenty), then threaded through the sail with a needle. Once through, it's cut off with a couple of inches to spare. When all done, I place a metal ruler beneath it, and use watered down aliphatic glue (Carpenter's glue / yellow glue) to stiffen the thread, and line it up vertically. Once fairly dry, it's cut to length (the width of my wider 15cm steel rule) and another dab of watered down PVA fixes the end in the right position on the sail. The sail is then turned over, and the process repeated.
 

The finished article...

I am glad to have these done.
 
Thanks for all the support and encouragement
 
Rob

Hi everyone,
 
Three weeks later, and I've had another good day to work on Stefano. I finally made and died some more .5mm rope for the standing rigging, which allowed me to complete the backstays. I've also got some more work done on the yards, adding eyelets, blocks, and bending the forecourse to the main yard on the foremast. Again, this has caused the model to take up significantly more space on my desk, but it feels like we're on the home straight now as we move towards running rigging. I counted, and I think I have 8 sails left to bend to yards / stunsail yards. There's a lot of tidying up to do with rope ends fixed with watered down PVA (a big advantage of making your own rope with DMC cordonnet thread, as it's natural, not synthetic), and trimmed to make them neat.
 
Thank you so much to all of you who've hung in there through what has proved to be a lengthy build
 
Here are a few shots of how she stands right now.  




Happy building
 
Rob

Update:
 
Divided the first band in the appropriate amount of planks (5 planks) and started planking away!   feels like a jigsaw puzzle where you make your own pieces. Kinda fun!
 
 

I have, when time allows, been tinkering away at the VM 26' Launch. It is a relentlessly tricky little kit and I'll be glad to get back to the main subject - HMS Fly - next.
 
My launch is pretty well a straight out of the box kit. The main floor didn't fit so I removed the outer planks. I added an anchor rope. I shaped the oar handles and blades but inserted them into a micro brass tube for the shafts and added a leather? thickening where they base through the oarlock slots. I painted the upper works red as that suited my ship's Captain. Even though I didn't need to, I painted below the waterline in a creamy white. My hull planking allowed it to be left natural but I thought that would look odd on a ship with a copper bottom.
 
Some photos (which show touch-ups required). I have yet to stow the oars which promises to be as fiddly as everything else was.

 
 

Hi ☺️
 
 last photos before putting the glass on the model

That is just beautiful planking!

Installation of the skid beams and steps to climb aboard: 
 

 

 
The skid beams are used to protect the hull when loading and unloading the various boats. The two close beams can serve to guide barrels and other large bags, being loaded on the ship.
 

 
Installation of these beams was a little bit nerve wracking as I did not want to damage the rails and the freezes. 
 
After the beams, come the steps: 
 

 
These are made with 2 x 3 mm strips, carved in the correct shape of steps. Steps are 14 mm long and separated by about 1.5 mm.
The kit instructions calls for strips of 3 x 3 mm. I found that it would be too thick and not provide enough gaps between the steps. I think that the 2 (thickness)  x 3 (width) mm steps look more realistic.
 

 
It is very steep and some hand ropes seem necessary, to hold while climbing: 
 

 

 
Below is pretty much the view that you would have, disembarking from the ship. It is like going down a slippery ladder.... 
 

 
Now, I just have to redo the same on the other side....
 

 
Yves

I've spent the last few days marking out the strakes which is pretty time consuming.  I wanted to stay as close to the plans as possible and try and achieve a nice even look too.
 
I like to use automotive lining tape as it's nice and flexible - the only issue with this sort of tape is that it doesn't stick very well to the wood.  So after using tick tape and a planking fan to mark out the master frame I started the job.  My planks work out to be 9.9mm wide on this frame so I'll cut them to 10mm as my measurements are probably out a bit.
 
Lining the stern



Then the Bow

I have one stealer in the stern straight off of the garboard plank and one drop plank towards the bow.  So it's just as the plans suggest.
 
I had better start cutting some planks now and get on with the job
 
Mark

Valeriy,
 
Not only is this simply a stunning model, but the circumstances under which it has been created make it doubly impressive.
 
Cheers, friend, and I hope that 2023 will bring better things!

2

Thank you Keith!
   Thanks to the Lord God, everything is fine with me and I am completing my project. It remains for me to install the steam boats on the model and raise the flags.

The channels:

Rather then continue work on my standard knees, grating, decking or the last of the three stairways to the hold, I decided it was time to tackle the thing I've been avoiding... the hawse holes.  The contract states they are 15" diameter, 15/64" at scale.  I first double checked my heights then drilled my pilot holes at 5/64".

Next, with a new sharp bit,  I drilled one inboard hawse hole very carefully and slowly with a backing board held on the inside.
Success!  That was easy.
Drilled the outboard hole and it happened. She split and flew off.
That was unexpected.

I setup the other side with clamps to help hold her together.
The outboard face of each of those holes have tear out chips in them!

So, I did the only thing left to do.
Glued the broken piece back on, clamped it up and left the room.

I won't be back working on her until Monday afternoon.
Good night world.
😉

Looks like the perfect balance to my eye...1 too few, 3 too many 🙂  The different paint tones really catch the eye and enhance the whole, very much to my taste as well.  Wonderful model you have there, very well done indeed!

Thanks - That's the next task after I finish these waterlines... The first attempt without the interpolation looked fine, but I've moved things since then, so I'll go over it again.
 
Here's a snapshot of progress to date... I'm looking forward to the bit where I can say I'm happy with these lines, and I think I'm edging closer.
 

Finished the waterlines, and here are the buttock lines. Only very minor changes, and they look pretty smooth, so I think I'm happy to start sketching out the square frames...
 

Thank you for saying...
 
I am trying to set aside time regularly to make a little progress.
 
Continuing with the center line fittings below deck, the WELL was next up.   This is a relatively simple structure.  The four sides are laser cut and etched.  You need to do just a few things before you glue up the four sides.  
 
First...make sure the fore and aft sides sit nicely on the keel.  Once you adjust them as needed,  you can cut the four upright columns to length.   How do you determine the length of these.  The two aft columns are shorter.  These are simply cut to fit under the next deck beam.  No  big deal.   The two columns on the fore side of the well are different and taller.   These two columns are cut so the tops are flush with the TOP of the gun deck beams or carlings.
You will have an opportunity to sand these shorter so dont over sand them initially.

Assembling the well is straight forward after you glue the columns to the port starboard sides of the well ahead of time as shown above.   You can also use some scrap tiny strips of wood to make the toggle handles for the access door.  Then just glue them on.   They are clearly shown on the plans.
 

With the four sides glued up and square...test it on your model.   After any minor tweaks you can glue it position permanently.
 

 
Then the next few gun deck beams, carlings and ledges were taken care of.   Eventually you will get to the beams where the capstan step needs to be built along the center line.  So you will need to stop and assemble the capstan step.   I glued those appropriate deck beams in position so I had a reference point to test fit the step periodically.  The step is also laser cut for you and has a recessed circle in the center.   This will accept the heel of the capstan drum...eventually.
 
The step is bolted to two columns that are set on top of  keel.   These two columns are 1/8" x 1/8" strips just like the other support columns under the beams.   Hopefully you havent forgotten to add any up until now.   They are all shown on the plans.  
 
You must cut the two columns to fit under their respective gun deck beams.   Now you have to determine where along those beams the capstan step will be placed.   You can use the plans of course but it is doubtful it will match your model perfectly.  Mine didnt.   So just understand that the capstan step is slightly higher the lower aft platform and it is level.   Because you know this you can mark the columns for the height of the capstan step with the columns "snug" fit temporarily in position.
 
When I was comfortable that I had the proper height worked out, I was ready to glue it in position.  But first I had to add the simulated bolts on the capstan step.   I used 25 lb black fishing line to simulate these.  And yes the photo shows the step upside down so you can see the hole for the drum.   But rest assured it will be glued in position right-side up!!
 

The capstan step in position...and the carlings added afterwards.
 

And some other views...of the gun deck up to this point with the ledges completed.
 

 


Almost to the other side of the gun deck.  But next up are all of the cabins on the aft lower platform.   Onward and upward as they say!!
 
 
 

Hi Jason, thanks for looking in. I’m going to build my prototype with the printed ones, my goal is to make them indistinguishable from wooden constructed ones. I will paint the inside either a pale white or that olive green color we see on occasion. They will also have wooden floors inside them. The outsides will be covered with scraped boxwood moldings, columns, windows and carved wooden sculptures. The friezes will cover the lower QG followed by a carved boxwood drop and printed friezes as well as the lower roof. So everything will covered up quite well. Will be hard to tell they are even printed at that point.
 
JJ

This is definitely going to give the Caldercraft Snake/Cruiser model line a run for its money!  Maybe this will show whether CC have completely lost interest in new static kit development when some of their established legacy models comes under direct competition.

I have returned from holiday and started back to working on the ship. I was going to start on the inner lining of the gun deck but, decided to again tackle the stern first, as this will be more difficult. While looking at the stern section as it is, I thought I would form the rear face of the stern post from 1mm by 10 mm strip, taper it from 9mm at the top to 4 mm at the bottom and pin it to the end of the false keel. Next I roughly sanded the deadwood area. I then added 2mm thick walnut strip to each side of the rudder along with a 3mm X 5mm block at the bottom and removed the strip from the stern and pinned it to the inner face of the rudder as a guide and sanded the rudder to the approximate shape. This was then tapered both from top to bottom and also from fore to aft which was much easier than I expected. At this point I realised that I had done myself a favour as, I had forgotten that the stern post needs to be 1mm wider on each side of the false keel for the 2nd planking to butt upto ( I need to keep reminding myself that I am finnishing this as the first planking).
At present I have 1mm either side at the base and 1.5mm at the top of the stern post so I can hopefully taper the rudder to fit properly. My next task was to finnish shaping the hull from frame 17 to try to achieve the curve required. To be able to do this I removed the parts 26 (stern counter frames) as these were preventing me from getting the required angle to shape lower edge of frame 17. With a little sanding at a time I have been able to achieve the shape I want but still needs a little fine sanding to obtain the correct run of the planking. It is very close to being correct though. 
Having decided to remove the stern counter frames I decided to also remove the outer ends of the hull. The idea being that I shall build up the upper and lower stern counters with balsa sheet/blocks and then plank over them. It seems the easiest way to obtain the correct shape and can also be roughly done off ship and added later. The upper counter has now been done and I will start on the lower tomorrow night.
I hope that this all makes sense and here are the latest photos of the progress.
Thanks again for the likes and comments so far.
David.

Your planking looks spot on, very nicely done.  I'm pleased to see that you appear to have filled in the stern a little to allow the planking to sit nicely against the sternpost, think you will be much happier with that result.  The shaping of the plank ends in this area can be challenging further up the hull, definitely not something to rush.  Looking at what you have done so far, sure you will encounter no major problems.  You have a wonderful model coming together here.