Beef Wellington

Wow..Christian, Doug, Pat, Harvey, Carl, Tom, Wayne, VACorsair, Eamonn, and the likes, thanks guys for interest and the overly kind words.  Narrative below will explain more, but think I've irrevocably stepped off the 'being happy with kit parts' ledge...this can only mean even slower progress...but perhaps more fun
 
I know I'm bouncing around a bit so apologies for that, but continuing foundational aspects which seem easier with the ship careened over on a towel.
 
Challenging Cheeks:
 
The kit supplied cheeks are hair rail are not that great.  The cheeks themselves come nowhere near to fitting the hull, and I'm pretty sure the hull form is correct.  The only option was to scratch my own cheeks.  Aside from the fit, they are also seem rather undersized.

The next consideration was the hair rail and lower cheek, and decided to go whole hog and redo these as well.  Given that there needs to be two of everything, I cheated and sparingly glued with PVA glue some 3mm sheet together and then cut to shape.  The pieces were then separated using rubbing alcohol, and voila, 2 matching parts with the work of 1!  These parts are still very slighty oversized to allow them to be fine tuned once other parts are made - necessary given I don't have any true plans to work from and that these pieces form quite a complex shape. 
 
Photos below show hair rail prior to separation.  The difference in dimensions is quite evident to that appearing in AOTS which I used as a guide for the scratch piece.

As a side note, the quality of the walnut parts are just not good, the main/false rail would need a lot a work to get presentable so suspect these will also be remade at some point.

The cheeks themselves took a long time (days) to get right due to the angled concave curve and lack of plans.  Pretty happy with the results, though the parts still need some fine tuning as the rails are a little thick still I think.  I'm hoping to use a scraper to give a profile to the edges, and a quick test shows that this should work OK even for a quick test.  This also commits me to what will probably be my first simple carvings on the scrolls, but that's for another day.
 

Side by side comparison of scratch vs kit supplied pieces..

Dear friends,
thank you very much for your kind words, I am pleased and appreciate your posts a lot. That is a great honour for me.
 
 
 
Dear Danny and Mark,
in this room there are about 30 ship models and more than 60 cars (mainly plastic models in a scale 1/24). The oldest ships I built about 20 years ago.
Many of these older models were quite easy, so there was not a problem to build several ships during every year. Now I prefer to create mainly large sailing ships (scratch build), so it takes me thousands of hours (for example Sovereign of the seas about 6000 hours and Royal Caroline almost 7000). Now I have only one problem - there is no spare space for more....
And the collection of bottles with alcohol - this is my husband's hobby ( but he does not drink it, only collects).....
 
 
 
 
Dear Vivian, thank you for your support and kind words. I am sure, I will continue with other projects and show it also here. Now I need to relax a little, so I spend some time to assemble plastic models.
For example La Reale by Heller:

http://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=177&t=95541&start=30
Unfortunately this is a poor-quality kit ( I purchase the older one), so there are many troubles with fragile or damaged parts and in addition, the model parts are very inaccurate.
 
Next time I will rather choose Tamiya kits....
 
Best regards
Doris

The crossjack is now on.  Just to make life interesting, the plans show both a thimble for a sling (plan 6) and a block (plan 9). I had already provided for the sling (as does Petersson) so I went with that.  Adding further interest is the question of where to fix the lines for the truss pendant (I never was able to find where the tackle from the block is supposed to go) and the yard tie. Again, following Petersson I will use the eyelet for the yard tie for the truss pendant - the upper eyelet marked in green - and the tie will go on the lower eyelet. As far as I can see, the latter is not used elsewhere.
 

 
Here are Petersson's illustrations.
 

 

How it looks - there are a few stray bits of thread to trim .....
 

 

 
 

Looking Great - but dont try floating that thing.

Hi Christian, that looks great.  I'm still stumbling through a solution to the upper and lower cheek/head rails and would love your opinions on those when I get comfortable posting.  You really did an amazing job with the kit parts to get them looking as good as you did.  I've been tearing my hair out with placement and I was interested to see you placed the lower cheek at the top of the wale, that's were I believe it should be to get it looks proportionally correct to my eye - but it seems that on the models and AOTS the placement seems to sit slightly below the top of the wale.  I think you've given me the courage to go with that so I appreciate the photos of the completed headworks.  Really beautiful work!

Hi Christian, that looks great.  I'm still stumbling through a solution to the upper and lower cheek/head rails and would love your opinions on those when I get comfortable posting.  You really did an amazing job with the kit parts to get them looking as good as you did.  I've been tearing my hair out with placement and I was interested to see you placed the lower cheek at the top of the wale, that's were I believe it should be to get it looks proportionally correct to my eye - but it seems that on the models and AOTS the placement seems to sit slightly below the top of the wale.  I think you've given me the courage to go with that so I appreciate the photos of the completed headworks.  Really beautiful work!

@Eric,
Thx Eric for your kind words
 
And finally an update;
I FINISHED MY AGGY!!!!!
She is not on her place yet. I ordered a mahogany shelf and 4 bronze dolphins to put her on. Those things have to come from Italy, so it will take a while. But when she is in het final place, I will take more pictures.
 
Hennie
 

Hi,
It took a little bit longer but here's my best shot related to the seats of ease.
Just behind them there's indeed an intriguing void, so I wouldn't felt that comfortable on these seats of ease....
Other pics are related to the preparations of the yards. Some bending was required. For the footsteps or whatever they were called I used 0,5 mm brass

I replaced all the Tamiya binoculars with after market and added some voice tubes.

Now, all the fire control turrets are added and I have done a wash to bring out the details, as well as adding the radar. I am yet to weather it. 
 
All that is left is the search lights. I will not add the guns until I have done up the plethora of ammo boxes. I cannot even join the towers or tower until I screw the base of the tower to the deck, which I can't do until the deck arrives. 
 
Imagine my surprise when I discovered this afternoon that Tamiya has decided to use a dual combination of 1941/45 and leave6 search lights not 4!!!
 
Anyway, the last photo shows how it will look with the sponsons attached. I'm happy with the results to date.

Thanks for the comments folks. I have now added the 150cm spotlights and the gantry which runs in front of the funnel. I have also commenced on the rigging whist I still have access to the funnel without the fore and aft towers. I've done as much weathering as I can for the moment. 

I simply build a roller gig and embossed copper tape then applied and painted with a brown metallic paint and then dull coated.
To mimic the old plates on the Cutty Sark.
Images show the effect I was looking for.

 

Wow..Christian, Doug, Pat, Harvey, Carl, Tom, Wayne, VACorsair, Eamonn, and the likes, thanks guys for interest and the overly kind words.  Narrative below will explain more, but think I've irrevocably stepped off the 'being happy with kit parts' ledge...this can only mean even slower progress...but perhaps more fun
 
I know I'm bouncing around a bit so apologies for that, but continuing foundational aspects which seem easier with the ship careened over on a towel.
 
Challenging Cheeks:
 
The kit supplied cheeks are hair rail are not that great.  The cheeks themselves come nowhere near to fitting the hull, and I'm pretty sure the hull form is correct.  The only option was to scratch my own cheeks.  Aside from the fit, they are also seem rather undersized.

The next consideration was the hair rail and lower cheek, and decided to go whole hog and redo these as well.  Given that there needs to be two of everything, I cheated and sparingly glued with PVA glue some 3mm sheet together and then cut to shape.  The pieces were then separated using rubbing alcohol, and voila, 2 matching parts with the work of 1!  These parts are still very slighty oversized to allow them to be fine tuned once other parts are made - necessary given I don't have any true plans to work from and that these pieces form quite a complex shape. 
 
Photos below show hair rail prior to separation.  The difference in dimensions is quite evident to that appearing in AOTS which I used as a guide for the scratch piece.

As a side note, the quality of the walnut parts are just not good, the main/false rail would need a lot a work to get presentable so suspect these will also be remade at some point.

The cheeks themselves took a long time (days) to get right due to the angled concave curve and lack of plans.  Pretty happy with the results, though the parts still need some fine tuning as the rails are a little thick still I think.  I'm hoping to use a scraper to give a profile to the edges, and a quick test shows that this should work OK even for a quick test.  This also commits me to what will probably be my first simple carvings on the scrolls, but that's for another day.
 

Side by side comparison of scratch vs kit supplied pieces..

BE, Pat, Joe, Michael, Nils, Wayne, JPAM  and the likes - thanks so much.
 
Ron - I'm hoping to make it, would love to see your fantastic Diana in person, my challenge is always football/soccer as I coach my sons team and that takes a big bite out of weekends at this time of year.  If I could just arrange a game in New London then I'd be set!
 
Small update, I've been missing making posts but I have a little to share and hope pictures make up for it.  Continuing to work on the more foundational aspects as I can.  Paint has been applied to the upper hull - I used Tamiya matt XF-18 medium blue.  I applied many layers of watered down paint and corrected larger imperfections, but left the slight imperfections from planking visible.  I'm no painter and have limited experience with modern acrylics!  Watering down the paint gives a nice smooth finish, but at the expense of surface uniformity - this should disappear completely once a clear sealer is applied so not concerned.  I found that using a brush the undiluted paint dries so quickly that brush mark are inevitable.  Lots of touchup to do which should be pretty easy, but I want to get a protective coat of poly onto the boxwood to reduce the risk of mishaps.
 
The waist rail has been applied on one side and the side steps added.  I left gaps for the fenders, after having already cut these roughly to shape - using boxwood of course adds the number of pieces that need to be fabricated to keep consistent.  I wont attach these until later.  Steps were made using 2x2mm boxwood strip and a different profile scraper to the side molding and then cut length and shaping the ends.  These hopefully give more of an impression of the fine molding as keeping that to scale was just too much for me.  The upper and lower 2 steps are not glued yet.  I think they pass the scale test with the assistance of Able Seaman Lewis.


I've also made up the anchor lining bolsters, not identified in the kit plans but approximated from AOTS and TFFM.


And the usual 'all over' shot of where things stand..

 
 
 

Time to get started on the frames. I've settled on the following procedure for doing them: 
1) Remove the 9 parts for a frame from the laser sheet
2) Remove the laser char from the joints between futtocks
3) Using double sided clear tape, attach one layer of parts to the plan sheet for that frame, with the joints glued
4) Glue the second layer of futtocks on top of the first
5) Sand the faces of the frame until there is a fit to both the keel and the jig
6) Fill any joints, as necessary, with filler made of sanding sawdust and glue
7) Use strip wood to make any adjustment necessary to the keel notch on the frame
8) do some preliminary fairing to both the outside and inside edges of the frame
9) Treenail the futtock joints using the "drill and fill" method
10) Apply Wipe-on poly to the faces of the frame
11) Glue the frame into the appropriate jig notch using clamps to hold it in place and a straight edge to keep it square
12) Use the keel to insure proper fit and spacing after each pair is set at opposite ends
 
I've completed two pairs of frames now and so far, so good. The good news has been that using the laser cut pieces is a whole lot easier than cutting them all out by hand. The parts also fit the drawings fairly well. The not so good news is the amount of work necessary to get a snug fit  to the keel. Also, as I feared, the frame drawings and parts don't match up to the jig exactly, causing some need for further tweaks. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with how it's going to this point.
 
Bob
 
 

A little update to what must be the worlds slowest moving build log.  Coppering on the hull is pretty much done, the only piece still to do is the aft side of the sternpost which will need some work done on pintles/gudgeons finished before I can do...more to come on that in a follow up post.  Just for a cathartic moment for me, pictures of where I'm at.  Like others, I wanted to give the copper more of an aged patina, all personal taste. Rather than following the bodily fluid method used by others (I must confess to being worried my model would smell like a car park for evermore!) I experimented with a chemical from JAX called - BROWN Brass, Bronze, Copper darkener (they also make a 'BLACK' version which seems to work well).  I diluted this to around 25%-33% by experimentation which seemed to give the best results.  It takes a number of applications, and I simply 'painted' it on with a modeling nylon brush.  Found that rubbing and agitating the surface while doing this gives best results.  Initially, the surface is very hydrophobic, but once the oxidation starts, its becomes much easier to keep a consistent surface covering and beading is not desired as it leads to dark spots.  The more dilute solution tends to green more upon drying, but this can be easily wiped off with water and/or rubbing alchohol.  Personally, I didn't want a green monster, and was happy to have a little patina in the crevices/nail holes which is almost  a negative effect for how the plates are supplied.  I'm not planning to seal the copper (yet if at all) as this should then continue to age naturally, I very consciously forced myself to stop despite there being some patchy spots but these all blend in and to my eye have a natural look anyway.
 
Bunch of photos which hopefully show the copper plate pattern in various areas, hope its not overkill, these are the kinds of pictures that I find useful from others.
 
More to come soon on the rudder..
 

Out of breath reading the last installment, so much to consider, the only think missing from this rip roaring tale are a couple of gypsies thrown in for spice.  I was devastated to see the issues with the log (seems to be every time that there is an upgrade) and want to say again how appreciative of your time and effort I, and I'm sure everyone, is to keep this jewel of a log alive and kicking.  So much great information, tips and tricks...I love the shot of the great cabin deck, I'm assuming its not accessible at this point though?

Thank you guys,
the galley stove is ready, it remains only to finish a few details and make the blackening.

Wow..Christian, Doug, Pat, Harvey, Carl, Tom, Wayne, VACorsair, Eamonn, and the likes, thanks guys for interest and the overly kind words.  Narrative below will explain more, but think I've irrevocably stepped off the 'being happy with kit parts' ledge...this can only mean even slower progress...but perhaps more fun
 
I know I'm bouncing around a bit so apologies for that, but continuing foundational aspects which seem easier with the ship careened over on a towel.
 
Challenging Cheeks:
 
The kit supplied cheeks are hair rail are not that great.  The cheeks themselves come nowhere near to fitting the hull, and I'm pretty sure the hull form is correct.  The only option was to scratch my own cheeks.  Aside from the fit, they are also seem rather undersized.

The next consideration was the hair rail and lower cheek, and decided to go whole hog and redo these as well.  Given that there needs to be two of everything, I cheated and sparingly glued with PVA glue some 3mm sheet together and then cut to shape.  The pieces were then separated using rubbing alcohol, and voila, 2 matching parts with the work of 1!  These parts are still very slighty oversized to allow them to be fine tuned once other parts are made - necessary given I don't have any true plans to work from and that these pieces form quite a complex shape. 
 
Photos below show hair rail prior to separation.  The difference in dimensions is quite evident to that appearing in AOTS which I used as a guide for the scratch piece.

As a side note, the quality of the walnut parts are just not good, the main/false rail would need a lot a work to get presentable so suspect these will also be remade at some point.

The cheeks themselves took a long time (days) to get right due to the angled concave curve and lack of plans.  Pretty happy with the results, though the parts still need some fine tuning as the rails are a little thick still I think.  I'm hoping to use a scraper to give a profile to the edges, and a quick test shows that this should work OK even for a quick test.  This also commits me to what will probably be my first simple carvings on the scrolls, but that's for another day.
 

Side by side comparison of scratch vs kit supplied pieces..

Thanks Jose.  I decided while considering the dreaded parrals, to mount the spritsail yard (I think this is known as avoidance).  The yard provide quite a bit of difficulty.  Gravity is always working against you. With a few more payments to the swear jar, the wretched thing is finally on and has turned out acceptably.  While all of that was going on, the blocks for the two upper forestays came away from the jib boom. I did not rejoice, particularly as it was caused by some rather inferior knot-tying earlier in my knot-tying career. It took four attempts to obtain an acceptable result. In the process I discovered a mistake in my rigging which at least I was able to correct - so at least something good came out it.
 
Here is some of the detail. I may have gone a bit overboard with the photos, but the thing is rather complicated and very crowded. These pictures may help some other poor souls who are yet to get to this stage.
 


 
 


 
How it looks - with lots of things still to be tied off.

 
 

The foreyard has finally been hoisted.  It was a rather fraught process.  The jeers, sling, truss pendants and nave line are all done, though nothing has been finally tied off yet.  At least I learned a lesson when some of the stays became slack in the hot weather.
 
 
 Here are the jeers in prgress.  I found it best to gradually raise the yard by about 10mm then tighten the lines to the blocks then repeat the process until the yard was at the correct height. It took quite some time.
 
Here is the start ....

 
...and about halfway up.

 
Rigging the sling was a bit fiddly.  I lifted the sling to give easier access, tied the thread to the upper thimble, then  down to the lower thimble,  then repeated the process (make sure the thread is long).

 
(I changed the 'tarred' thread for natural)

 
Finished, though not tied off.

 

 
Here is the nave line. I'm not sure the result was worth all  the trouble, though I am glad now that it's there. All the rigging surrounding it made the whole thing a rather fraught process.
 

 

 
This what the yard now looks like -since taking these photos I have made the footropes to hang properly.
 

 

 

Best photos I could get with the ipad Sorry.
As you can see, it was a nightmare getting all of them in there.
Also As you can see I was very happy with the top quality of Chuck's blocks, smooth, two holes, properly rounded and grooved for the rope and ties.

I have finally tied off most of the lines to the fore bitts.  They came out reasonably well (though not nearly as well as Jose's).
 
This is how they came out.
 
Now I'm not sure of the next step - do all of the yards on the foremast? or the lower yards on each mast?  Advice is very welcome.
 

 
The following photo isn't as clear as it could be, and I have made a minor adjustment to the lines since it was taken.

The main yard is now on, the truss pendants and the jeers are belayed, though not finally tied off.  In the diagram in my previous post, the nave line was omitted - that makes seventeen lines to be tied off somehow. I had more than enough fun  belaying the five lines so far done. At this stage I don't know whether to finally tie off these lines now  and make up their respective rope coils.  With another dozen lines to fit it, won't be possible to coil them all.
 
Here is how things stand at the moment.
The photo of the nave line is quite poor I'm afraid.

The fore and main yards are reasonably lined up. Adjustments can be made if necessary.

At the moment there seem to be lines going all over the place.

 

Thanks for the encouragement Jose. I have been doing my best to forget about belaying lines for the time being. Unfortunately I chose to put up the fore top yard which requires a parral to attach to the mast. I looked to Petersson for the method of mounting the parral  as well as a few build logs. Alas, I am no wiser.  In particular the illustrations in Petersson are essentially useless - at least to me.  Here they are.
 

So far, so good ....

I used a dummy mast and yard to see how the thing may work.
 

And here is how it is supposed to end up, though how is a mystery to me.  Help would be gratefully received.