Beef Wellington

Thank You...
 
With the framing almost completed I was able to finalize all of the master carvings.  I did the final prep work for casting.   They will be sent off to be cast in a light tan like the Winnie carvings.   I hope they can get some sets to me soon.
 
Here is a look at the quarter badges.  They are quite small actually.  I will let my casting guys alter these because there are some areas that wont cast well.  For example under arms of those tiny reclining figures.   Those open areas will need to filled in order to cast these.   
 

 
 

Continued with shaping balsa wood blocks and amazed at how much material I had to remove using a dremel. I could make an awful lot of filler out of the that lot haha.
An attempt at drilling out a hole for the spritsail mast and tried to make a template using the old plywood stem. I made this as close to the angle copied from AOTS drawing and checked I cleared the figure head. I still need to file the hole bigger to take the 11.5 mm mast ( according to james Lees book ) ) could only drill up to 8mm diameter before running into problems with the drill catching the top of the cutwater/ stem.


 
I have also made up the stern post out of boxwood but not glued this  into position, until perhaps the planking is complete. 
                   I have also fashiond a method of holding the workpiece upside down for ease of planking in an adjustble vice so that the ship can be moved at any angle required. I am not sure if this would work though. It would require leaving the decks off until the hull planking is complete and I am unsure if the decks are better being in place for strength reasons prior to planking the hull. If planking the inboard ( top of the bulkheads,inboard) gives enough strength then perhaps I could get away with this but at the moment I am unsure and will need to give this some more thought. 

Post Thirteen- completing the fairing
Having applied the test planks at all levels along the hull, paying specific attention to the bow and stern areas I have reached the point where enough is enough.
Or perhaps not quite.
The next stage is to apply the patterns (248/251) around the  bow. They are formed around the extension pieces of bulkheads 1 -5, which have a subtle convex shape to them that the pattern should follow.

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To this end I did find it necessary to soak the patterns to achieve a good conformity.

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I did do a little more fairing in this area to further fay the longitudinal gunport strips into the extension shapes.

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These bulkhead extensions are eventually removed, but the subtle shape remains.

0603
The patterns are now re-clamped into position.

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A milestone of sorts is now reached with the fixing of the first plank.
The lower plank runs beneath the bow pattern and level with the lower gunport frame.
The lime bends well and with the plank clamped into place, it gets the heat treatment to produce the bow curve.

0607
The aft section of this strake has a slight lateral upward curve  from bulkhead  12 to the stern, which again was induced using heat after pinning to the hull.

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These photos also show the second plank fitted which runs level with the upper gunport frame.

0609
The section between the two planks are now filled, but I found that an additional 6mm strip doesn’t quite fill the space leaving a gap of around 2mm.
I suppose the intention is to fill this with off-cut slivers but I think I have some wider stuff lying around so I’ll dig it out and spile it to fit the space.
 
 
B.E.
27/03/23
 
 
 
 

Deck repainted the correct tan colour.  Custom skid beams installed to hold the boats.  I’m now touching up the paint before applying clear coat so I can add the diluted black wash to the deck.  

Some good advice I received on using kid’s white glue as filler, add some talcum powder to thicken it, and add a couple of drops of the colour you’re going to paint over the glue.  Lastly, make sure you clear coat to seal the glue, as it will dry and crack over the years otherwise.

Thank you Jaager for.this response, I shall take my time to read through this and digest it. Can I take it that Franklin is a book I should be looking at?
 
Mine too, Jason, but Freecad is just that... open source and free of cost to the end user.
 
Thank you for your kind words. It is very absorbing, and a nice change from sewing bolt ropes onto sails

Fascinating project Rob, Would love to try my hand at this, suspect its rather addicting and very educational, but the cost of the 3D software is a little beyond my limit...one day!

Fascinating project Rob, Would love to try my hand at this, suspect its rather addicting and very educational, but the cost of the 3D software is a little beyond my limit...one day!

I've spent a little time working on the stern of Bristol to see how it all shapes up... here's my progress. The stern structure was drawn out from the plans, taking care to note how the balcony and accompanying cabin walls fitted, and then the transom was stretched vertically by a factor of 1/Cos(14.2) to make it fit when it was at an angle.
 
Here's the stretched outline... 
 

 
And the part cut out in two parts and glued back to back - the recessed cornice over the cutout was removed on the outer layer, creating a 3d effect - this will be bevelled as well on the final 1:64 model, but as a proof of concept it works.  It's also confirmed that the upper deck (third down in the photo below) comes too far back, and will interfere with the stern upper counter as it is.

 
Happy building to you all
 
Rob
 
 

Progress on the 1:128 mockup from my CAD drawings. I've finished cutting out the stations and added the quarterdeck, fo'csle and poop. It's been a helpful exercise in seeing the lines of the vessel, any conflicts in terms of masts / deck cutouts / etc... Now, it's helping me think through how the stern will be constructed. I'm pleased to say that none of the frames look particularly out, except for one (frame 5) where I suspect I probably cut over the line a little... But now I can go back and take a look at this before I move onto the 1:64 scale version!
 





 

So those numbers above have been refined again by cross referencing back and forwards from the half breadth and station plans... I got to the stage where I wanted to see how things fitted together, and particularly the deck levels and openings on the decks, and where the masts land compared to the stations, etc... 
 
So here is a 1:192 styrene half hull in construction. It's only got half its stations in so far, but it's starting to give an idea of how the whole might look.
 

 

 

I couldn't resist seeing the model so far jump off the drawing board into real life, so I've started to make a basic paper half-hull mockup at 1:96 scale to get a sense of the lines. At the moment there's no lateral support for the frames, so they're all over the place, but an interesting exercise nonetheless, and adding the poop / quarterdeck / upper gun deck will help matters no end. The deck locations are marked with solid lines and waterlines are marked with dashed lines. This half-hull should help me work out how to go about realising the internal structure.
 
Progress so far... 
 

Hi all,
 
I've often been very taken by the Joseph Marshall paintings, and in particular by the paintings of the admiralty model of Portland from the bow and stern quarters. (Here in low-res courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
 

 
That led me to explore the National Maritime Museum archives, and I came across the plans for HMS Bristol, her sister ship. That accompanied, with my stumbling upon RIf Winfield's book The 5o Gun Ship, which includes plans for another Portland class ship, Leopard meant I was well and truly smitten. 
 
A good number of plans survive for Bristol on the National Maritime Museum, and so, I figured (probably foolishly) that it would be wonderful to try and create as closely as possible the admiralty model shown in Joseph Marshall's paintings of Portland, but as her sister-ship Bristol. Having completed a model of HMS Diana, the Artois class frigate (as her sister ship Ethalion), and having made my way through a fair bit of Barque Stefano, both of which I have modified a fair bit as I've gone, I'm reasonably confident I'm up to the task of doing this as POB, but the big question is, how to recreate the frames... I don't think I'm up to fully framed yet - that will probably be the model after, so some POB / Joseph Marshall-painting-style-POF mash-up is the aim, with frames showing below the wales, and planked bulkheads above... As I'm designing it, I'm reasonably confident I can make this work, but there'll be plenty of planning before I make any sawdust.
 
So. Right now, I have the following plan as a high res printout - this low-res version is from wikicommons (I couldn't stretch to the £100 license to buy a digital copy) and lots of low-res images. I'll add to the collection as I go. This is enough to begin planning internal structure.
 

The full size plan is in 1:48, and it's stunning! From that tiny snapshot of history where the Admiralty had plans drawn up on completion of a ship, as well as at the beginning of construction - hence the decorations are all drawn out.
 
So. This post is as much as anything a pin in the map - a starting point, and a statement of intent. If you'd like to join me for the journey you're extremely welcome. It'll be slow going, I'm sure, but it should be fun, and if it turns out anything like the picture in my head, it'll be really wonderful in the end  

I made my quarter deck counter beam (twice) and installed it (once).
Working on my short clamps to install the aft portion of the upper deck clamps so I can then make and install that deck counter beam.
Meanwhile I have been slowly adding frame timbers to my small boat....

and I modelled, 3D printed and painted a nameplate for the model.
It is in 3 parts. The main piece with image, a bevelled stand for it, and a ribbon.

After cleaning the pieces up (scraping away stringers and sanding) I shaped the figure by chiselling away the corners, sanding again, cutting in the mane and tail hair, and I added raised details with well placed drops of Weldbond on the wings to give more definition.
 
Then I added the javelin and it's head. They are made of bamboo and lift away from the base plate to give more interest. The head is glued to the shaft. These parts were too small for my filament printer. I used a PLA/Wood mix filament.

I chose the transom painting scheme for the main part with the lettering in gold. The ribbon in cherry red with white lettering.
Bellerophon himself is the only part unpainted but his helmet is gold with a white plume and his cloak red.
Now if I decide to take the model to either of the two local events to show this summer I have a nameplate.

Good news today. After deciding that I would use maple strips for the decking. I eventually sourced some from no other than Caldercraft and received it this morning. I would like to try and fit a water way and try and scarf the peices together and also fit them by joggling or jiggling what ever it is called. I see from Jason and Davids log they have made a fantastic job and would be pleased if I could do a job as half as good as theirs. For the record this will be my first attempt at this so will need lots of help here guys. Any links to information /step by step would be even better or tips you may have would be fantastic.
             I have completed gluing some of the parts at the stern counter which wasn,t to clear on the first drawing or drawing number 2 either so thanks to Jason who was kind enough to post a few photos on his log of the stern area emabled me to figure it out. As these sections were only 3mm wide I strengthened them using some small pieces of 5mm box wood I had left over after cutting out the stem. I think Jason mentions this too. I still need to cut out the stern post from boxwood too.
         I have started filling in the lower sections for and aft with plywood to help with getting nice curves. here are some photos of the work so far. Alot of work to do here and expect a lot of dust here with the balsa wood but hopefully it will be worthwhile.



I

Nobody is getting rich selling this stuff unfortunately...but its a living!!!
 
Beats sitting behind a desk though....I prefer sitting in front of a workbench,  LOL.
 
So the quarter pieces are not that easy Greg!!!  Ok yes they are...
 
Basically there are two really not so hard things you must do to this piece before you glue it on the model.
 
First....sand a bevel onto the inboard side.   Not the outboard side with the laser etched reference lines.....the inboard side.   If you bevel the outboard side side the piece will be ruined.
 

Then step 2.....on the outboard side you have to bevel a few parts.   The two tabs that sit against the last aft cant frame.   And then the aft side of the piece.   As shown below.
 

 
Also note the reference marks for your fixed block and where the other aft cant frames will fall along the bottom edge.
 
Then glue it on...thats it.   The two tabs are flush with the outboard face of the cant frames.  This means you will need to fair the outboard side of the hull before you add these.  It wont work if you dont.  At least not as well.
 
Here are photos of both quarter pieces on the model.  They have been faired on the outboard side as well although not completely.   I will wait for those last few aft cant frames.
 

 

 
And I couldnt resist just test fitting the transom piece.  We wont need this for a while but if my design skills and concept didnt work for the hull framing and this didnt fit....then it would be firewood.   But lucky me it fit just perfectly.   The hull has ended up the perfect width and shape.
 
I can finish up the framing with confidence.  
 

And if you would indulge me...I forgot that I should test the fit of the transom carvings as well.   There were so many angles to hopefully get correct when developing them.   Doing the transom as one piece was the only way to do it for Speedwell as the carvings are so intertwined.   I was really nervous how everything would fit as it was very expensive to develop these.  But I am relieved to say that the master fits perfectly.  That is such a relief.  I was so stressed about that.  The curved transom as developed sits perfectly in place.  No bending needed.  The shape above the windows and their position also match really well.   
 


 

Post Twelve.
 
Hull fairing - Day 0ne
Considering this is one of my least favourite aspects of ship modelling, the day went well.
The support board held the hull securely, and the ‘Mouse’ sander performed well.

0580
I started with the hull upright and sanded the topsides down to gundeck level.
I started with vertical strokes  on the  gunport side timbers, and followed on using a long sanding stick along the hull.

0577

0578
The hull was then inverted and the ‘mouse’ brought into play. I used P80 sanding sheets.
I am grateful to Jim and Chris for the heads up on this little tool.

0584

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This is the state after around three hours work.
 
Time now to test the plank lay.

0587
The 1mm thick lime strips bend easily around the bow without any need for pre-bending, but I will pre-bend when I start planking to take the resistance out of the wood.
 
I am particularly interested in the run of the planks up to the lower transom.

0588
To this end a test plank is pre-bent using hot water and heat.

0590

0591

0592

0593

0594

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Looking ok so far, I hate to see any hint of a sharp angle in the plank runs in this area, they should have a smooth and even curve.
 
That’s enough for one day, I’ll look at it again tomorrow with a fresh eye.
 
B.E.
24/03/23

Some great detail there David, lovely work and the proportions look spot on.  The iron bands and woolding are almost a model in of themselves which you've executed so well.  Great stuff.

Thanks for the likes and comments: always much appreciated.
 
The bulkheads came away quite easily – a bit too easily in places as a couple came out in their entirety and I had to cut back and glue in the floor supports.

Because I mostly just used glue between the planking, clean up was much easier this time around.
 
The ribs were placed as previously using Tamiya tape to give even 6mm spacing and the transom supports were fitted using a scap piece of 4mm strip wood as a guide. I followed the AotS Diana’s plans for the cutter which shows it to be single banked and shows only three knees per side – a blessing as they are so small and fiddly to sand and fit. I copied the half deck plan from the book to give me a guide for the placement of the transoms an correct positioning of the main mast step and eyebolts.


 
Two pieces are provided for the breast hook (CFT26) where only one is shown on the plans but it looked a neater finish with both pieces in place which I then sanded back to look more like one piece.
 
Rather than cut into the hull sides for the rowlocks as the instructions show, I added the wash strakes using some left over planking strips. There’s not much for these to stick to but they are surprisingly firm once the glue has gone off. I thought that this change might make the boat higher sided than it should be but compared to the AotS cross section, the finished boat is less then 0.5mm higher which I think is fine.
 
I painted the hull in Valejo off white based on other contributors recommendations. Comparing the cutter to the pinnace and launch that I made before, I have to agree with them so at some point I will be repainting the other two boats to match.



 
Because I have made the cutter single banked, the provided oars are too short. Steele gives a table of oar measurements for beam widths of between 4 and 7ft but also says that oars can be between 2 and 3.5 times the beam. I will think about what length might be in proportion and make a set but that’s for another day.
 
Thanks for looking in
David

Looking great David!

An amazing model, thanks for sharing your progress.  I can understand why this has taken so long!

good evening everyone, the boi is very tired today, but is happy eating and woofing
 
day 23
thank you for the comments and likes
 
busy day in the mancave
quarter galleries made up, not being fixed to the hull at this stage, but as an alignment aid
 

the stern builds up but only to fit one piece for now

and here it is the two above pices are for now soley to align this up, once happy a pencil line is drawn under it and the wood from the tuck is removed
 

once dry, outside in the sunshine for sanding

gunports squared off and first of many red coats going on, 
 
god im loving this build, and only another years worth of her left

 
 
 

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 great David!

Some great detail there David, lovely work and the proportions look spot on.  The iron bands and woolding are almost a model in of themselves which you've executed so well.  Great stuff.