Beef Wellington

Thanks all for the continued interest and kind words!
 
The counter planking was put on before the wale could be finished, the ports on the counter took a little time to get right.
 

 
I got bogged down completing the wale, the tuck around the counter left me struggling for a bit to figure out how to handle it.  The second layer on the wales went on easily enough, except for the challenging lower plank.  In the end, to ensure that the regular planking will have an edge to bed against, I ended up cutting a profile in the plank above and champfering it, and then twisting the plank below through 90deg.  After shaping this, the outer plank can be installed and shaped.  Not very elegant, but was the closest I could get to simulating the real wale.
 


 
At the bow, the first walnut planking was thinned before installing the second layer so that the wale would sit in line with the regular planking at the stem.  After some finishing, tried the Admiralty ebony stain to see how it does, pretty impressed with the coverage, even with only one application.  Some more finishing will be needed but will leave as is for now.  As I'll be using paint elsewhere, I'll probably paint over this but can delay that decision for a bit.  Beginning to look a little more like a ship now.
 

Wales:
 
Thanks for support and interest chaps.  Started building up the wales, rather than putting these on over the 2nd planking as the instructions say, I want to build these up first and then have the lines of the 2nd planking follow the wales.  I know that this will definitely require some spiling at the bow, but would like to give it a go.
 
Looking at many pictures of the Artois models, the position of the wale seems very important.  I decided to use the waterline as the basis for positioning this for a couple of reasons:
Eliminate any potential issues creeping in because of differences in gunport positions between the model and plans, and also with AOTS.  After countless measurements, I'm convince that the upward curve of the upper deck is slight less than indicated in the plans, however, this really shouldn't cause any issues. Establish a point of consistent point of reference to ensure both sides are as symmetric as possible.  Gunport ply patterns definitely have their challenges, but they do provide a little more consistency as an upside. First attempt resulted in failure and stripping off of the wale, all because I had let the hull tilt over when marking the waterline which resulted in a 3mm difference, not noticeable until I tried to position the second side......  ​.  This is where I was thankful I was using PVA glue as the offending strips could be removed without too much damage with rubbing alcohol and a little filler.  One item I noticed by accident was that the load line requires the stern to be slightly lower than the bow, I estimated approx. 6mm.  The wale position was determined by placing some short lengths of wood strip 2mm above waterline at low point and  plank upwards to establish the topmost edge at this point and then estimate position while ensuring a smooth curve.
 
Last tricky point was the shape of the wale at the bow.  Although the AOTS Diana book does not illustrate this, I have to assume that the wale would flatten slight at the stem from looking at contemporary models.  This was trickier to do than simply allowing the strip to follow the line of the hull, but possible with 1x3mm strip and patience.
 
Next step will be to build up the thickness of the wale before continuing with second planking.
 

And some results....
 
Quick report back on the 'double rabbet' approach taken at the beginning of the build, seems to have worked just fine.

 
1.5mm boxwood sheet cut to the profile of the sternpost, laminated to both sides and then tapered following the rudder profile. Rabbet where planking terminated at the sternpost seems to have turned out OK and I think the extra work will make the second planking in this tricky area go more smoothly....fingers crossed.  I also cut away quite a bit of the keel former above the rudder to ensure I'll be able to attach rudder at late stage when pintles are in place.


 
Sternview with rudder in place,  lower counter template not yet glued.  Question:  Do the proportions look about right?  All is in line with diagrams in the AOTS, but things look different in actuality.  Its easy enough for me to adjust now so please let me know your thoughts

Second Planking phase 1:
 
Finished building up the stern post area with limewood strip to approximately where it needs to be.  Once I'm confident that the stern area will work, on will go the lower counter which will allow me to put the wales on.  I'm hoping to complete the wales first and then use this dictate the flow of the visible planking rather than install over the second planking.
 
The sternpost was marked off as best estimate of the end state thickness and used to guide planking.  I'm trying for a smooth run on the limewood, but then will be building up the second planking in 0.5mm increments to then sand this back as appropriate.
 
I'm using PVA glue for the second planking, its slower but I just don't like using CA glue.  There are also a couple of areas where the first planking is perilously thin so any additional strength will likely be beneficial.  Not going to invest any more time than necessity requires here - all of this will be covered by copper plates.
 
Limewood glued on but not sanded back.  This was a little demoralizing as essentially a lot of this was replacing a lot of the material removed from the keel former for the rabbet and bearding.  For anyone taking a similar approach keep this in mind right at the beginning of the build.

 
Limewood sanded to shape and second planking going on...

 
Additional 0.5mm thick strips added where needed for thickness...

 
Pre-finished 'step' look that will eventually be sanded smooth as required before the sternpost itself is shaped.

Thanks Carl, Mark, and the 'likes'..
 
Ray - great point.  I'm somewhat limited in my level of 'precision', basically, if I can measure it on my metal ruler then I'm good.  I've noticed that there are (not surprisingly) discrepancies in the AOTS book dimensions and without the plans its a bit of guesswork.  Bottom line, I'm using the measurements as a guide but not getting too hung up on it - if it looks right then I'm happy

The rudder:
 
One I'd made my mind up to try to reflect an appropriate taper on the sternpost, I realized I didn't really know how it would be shaped, so I decided to make up a new rudder as that is clearly illustrated in the AOTS book, thinking I could then use those dimensions to determine the taper on the sternpost.
 
Bottom line, this was slow going as I don't have a huge assortment of power tools, but I had a lot of fun doing it!  5mm sheets of box were cut into approx. 9mm wide sections to allow final shaping and laminated together.  I kept the front and back sections until the last moment so in the event of a catastrophic error I'd have less rework.    I completely forgot to take progress pictures, but hopefully its relatively obvious.  After studying many diagrams and plans, I tweaked the location of the pintle cut outs to match the AOTS dimensions, the biggest change was the uppermost one, which I raised a fair bit.
 
Overall, very happy with the result compared to supplied part, I'm sure some final fettling will be needed before finally fitting.
 
Should also add a public service announcement, did need to buy a small amount of wood from Jason at Crown Timberyard, - easy online ordering, lovely boxwood, and reached my house approx. 7 days from ordering - great service.
 

 
The difference in dimensions can be seem compared to kit supplied rudder

 
The rudder head now looks much more in scale within the counter rudder hole.  Shots from below show how much of a 'build-up' will be needed to match the rudder dimensions.

You guys know me better than I know myself...   I've been looking at more pictures of completed models and all seem to stick with the 5mm sternpost/rudder thickness....but, the worm is in my head now and I think I'm pretty resolved to try to get it right, just need to figure out my approach.  I found some 1.5mm thick wood strip that I had to get a sense for what this would look like. 
 

 
 

A Sternpost question...
 
Not so much an update as a "request for thoughts".  Looking to glue the lower counter template I made earlier in place, but something was not quite looking right comparing to the AOTS.  Then it struck me, the thickness of the sternpost should be considerably thicker (approx. 60% by my best approximation) near the top) than the thickness of the keel former (see red lines on picture below).  This seems common structural feature so am curious how others have approached this and thoughts on this topic.  Options seem obvious, but is the second option really worth the effort ?  Very interested in the thoughts and conclusions reached by others.  I'm leaning to option 1 as I think option 2 could just be too involved.
Status quo, stick with the 5mm width and taper toward the bottom.  By far the least effort, but not sure whether this will look too skinny.  A rudder coat could mask this as well. Bulk up the stern post accordingly.  This would require much additional adjustment to the first planking to ensure second layer sits correctly to new termination, and would also require the rudder to be similarly beefed up.  

Moving on to adding some spirketting.  I just love the look of the NMM Minerva model, something that is increasingly influencing where I think I want to go with this model.  One of the features is the contrasting red spirketting against yellow quickwork which I'm looking to replicate here.
 
The primary challenge is that the all the gunport sills should be exactly the same height from the deck - although most are very close, there is a variance of no more than 0.5mm across the range, its enough to present some problems as the contrasting colours emphasize errors.  'Top and butt' Planks were mass produced slightly larger than needed by gluing a number of planks together and sanding to shape and then separating with IPA.  These were then individually tweeked to ensure the top of the top plank meets the lower sill and the sweep ports.
 
Although sadly not much of this will be seen, its a good opportunity to build some confidence and safely practice a skill while still making progress.  Lots of touchup still needed.
 

Lou, Jessie, Brian - thanks for kind words, great to have such great modelers as you here for support!
 
This post is a little atonement, its amazing what errors suddenly becomes obvious just as you think a step is behind you...in the interests of full disclosure....
 
I had cut port #1 with the sides of the gunport running directly athwartships, this does not appear to be correct and I needed to rmove the lining and recut and line so they are more perpendicular to the hull lines.  It required a some filling on the interior lining, but result was pleasantly not obvious - at least to my eye.
 

 
You can see from photos below that I'm hoping to install the sweep ports as these would be visible from the inside.  These were made from some 5mm strip, assembled into a tube.
 
Next problem was much more painful to recognize.  Somehow, I managed to fit gunport #8 in the wrong position and also position a sweep port in wrong place.  This needs to be fixed to allow room for the side steps in the correct position.
 

 
Surgery has begun....
 

Have started the gunport linings, this will be slow.  Fine tuning the ports so they align appropriately is the order of the day.  The technique I'm using is to first install the lower cills, and to ensure that the cills are horizontal athwart-ship am using a strip of wood to ensure it sits flat on both sides.  Lots of double checking to ensure that position is correct.  Once lower cill is fixed, the upper is glued using an appropriately sized spacer to keep upper and lower cills parallel.  Side linings added last.  
 

 
And finally, happy Spring everyone!  I keep mentioning waiting for warmer weather to get some good sanding done on the hull.....well, this is the scene this morning, looks like I'm still waiting....
 

Cheers Guys for the comments and likes, its nice to share a journey with friends.
 
Sjors/Mobbsie - its not an exact replica of me, I had to scale down the pecs to fit 
 
Well, a major milestone arrived slowly. Finally the first planking is complete.  This time the bow presented me a few problems to solve, all self inflicted because I've deviated from the kit.  Because I had decided to customize the bow so I could fit the bowsprit through rather than sitting in a notch on the stem, it essentially took away any anchor points for the fo'c'sle bulwark.  The solution I used was to shape some balsa blocks to the appropriate shape and temporarily mount on top of the bow filler blocks, this allowed the planks to be given the appropriate curvature (after soaking) and then securely glued edge on the plank above and below (Hoepfully this will also provide some protection during upcoming phases).  To ensure that the top of the bulwark has the right shape for the plansheer, I needed to shape the uppermost strips lower edge to key onto the plank below.  Because this strip would be the most susceptible to damage, I used one pre-shaped strip curved completely around the bow.  The bow on this ship looks deceptively simple but has some tricky curves, but even in this rough state the lines seem to be showing through very pleasingly.  Note that the two shaper blocks are very slightly different height which gives the illusion that the top strip is not level, but it is....I must have checked it a million times.
 

 
A scaled copy from the AOTS Diana book to get the correct shape of the bow and many diagrams cross referenced
 

 
Finally a technique I found very helpful, but unfortunately not until I was nearly done.  To keep planks edge on during planking I built these little 'U' shaped pegs out of some extra lime strip (the length of the slot is slightly deeper than the width of a strip) which can be used in many places to help keep strips edge on in some the tricky curving areas at the bow.  The uppermost strip is only approximately shaped at this point, I want to wait until the deck is on the determine final dimensions.  In the waist, I once again deviated from the instructions and carried the planking 2mm above the top of the  bulkheads rather than stopping at the top as indicated in the instructions to allow for the thickness of the 1mm false deck and 1mm deck planking.  Any excess should be easy to remove if necessary.
 

Bit of a diversion while I continue to wait for some more Limewood from CMB.
 
I had planned to replace the plywood false keel stem with boxwood, originally I was going to simply cut out the replacement shape.  However, I though this would be a good opportunity to do a little 'scratch' building to give me a flavour for it.  I followed the diagrams in the AOTS book, although simplified them slightly (using enlarged scans as pseudo plans while reconciling key dimensions back to the kit to ensure things stay in line).  Took quite a  few days to do (a full framed ship would clearly be out of the question for me!), its certainly not up to Chuck's standard but overall I was really happy with the result for a first attempt.  I lightly used a pencil to highlight the seams to a small degree without wanting to overdo this.  Unfortunately, I suspect I will be painting over 75% of this, but it was great experience.  
 
I rounded of and tapered the knee of the head using approximate guidance from the FFM book 1.  I think this should be tapered more, but I stopped where I did because it resulted in a nice snug fit for the figurehead I plan to use, any more would have resulted in gaps.  I rounded the leading edge, and will wait to cut the gammoning slot until I'm confident of the placement of the head rail features.  You can see the comparison below between the supplied Diana figurehead which is clearly made to straddle a 5mm knee and result in gaps.  I purchased the figure head from Syren when I bought the kit.
 

 
Everything in place (dry fitted for now). Took some adjustment to ensure I the bowsprit would sit correctly and clear the figurehead.
 

 
Also have addressed the lower counter at the stern.  I got quite aggressive and cut back the transition between the lower counter and the planking to ensure this drops and sweeps forward as it appears to in the AOTS book.  I'm only going to use 1 set of the lower counter shapers
 

 
Premade a lower counter sheet which I though might work better than simple planking.  Looks like some adjustment will be needed as the keel former extends into the hole for the rudder.  I've got my approach laid out for the upper counter and stern fascia which will probably deviate from what the kit suggests...but thats a story for a future post 
 

Jimz66 - welcome!  I'm not too far from you, I'm in Simsbury.
 
Well, I promised no more updates until I was done, but just couldn't wait.  Nearly there, just a couple of planks to go on the starboard side, and a few more on the larboard.  Shaping the planks is really essential to get any sort of flat lie which, edge bending is just won't work on this hull.  You can see how I had initially misjudged the line of the planks at the bow, but was relatively easy to correct this one bulkhead back.  The sharp curve at the stern wasn't easy, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  You may also see a little protective case around the boxwood sternpost section!
 
Like most, I'll be glad when this step is done.  Once last planks are on it will be back over to Snake until the Spring weather allows some time outside so I can fill and sand.
 



 
 

Well heres a final post of the planking in process, will not bother to post anymore until first planking is complete as theres not likely much else to really share.  I'm deviating from the plans a little in the suggestion on planking, they indicate to start at the very top of the frames (I think), I've decided to lay a plank aligning with the main deck and then work up.  This is hopefully to ensure a consistent height of the gun ports to the deck, as the top of the bulkheads does not seem to rise slightly toward the stern.  The top edge of this plank was marked with a pen so hopefully will show up once all sanded, although it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out.
 
Anyway, here's wishing everyone the best of the season.  Merry Christmas everyone!
 

 
Continuing planking upwards, starting to take shape...
 

 
Cut out some sections in the balsa where the hawse holes will be, hopefully this will allow the holes to be open on the rear face rather going into balsa.  Not sure exactly how this will work but it can't really introduce any fresh problems.
 

 
Also wanted to call out a tool that I've quite taken to, although I think it did appear on the 'list of most useless tools' on MSW 1.0. I bought this when I started my 'Snake' and never really used it.  However, I've found that this can really help give a better curve on the planks, otherwise with simple soaking and even with bulkheads appropriately fared, the planks tend to flatten in between the bulkheads as they are so far apart on this kit.  Using this tool, which simply crimps the plank its possible to get a much better curve with a dry plank.  This is proving especially helpful to get a nicer curve at the bow (In some places I think I had been a bit zealous with shaping the balsa a removed a little too much and had some flatter surfaces than I would have liked.  
 

 
 
 

Cheers Joe, Mike, Sjors, Mobbsie and the 'likes'.
 
Planking is going slowly, but actually quite pleasantly.  On Snake, I used a combination of CA and PVA glue to secure planks, but wanted to just use PVA this time around.  The kit supplies 6mmx1.5mm linewood planks which are pretty easy to work with but you really have to find the right lie of the plank to avoid excessive edge bending, meaning quite a few stealers.
 
I have reached a bit of analysis paralysis at the stern so would appreciate any 'tips and tricks' anyone can share.  The round stern is presenting me some challenges trying to figure out the appropriate shape, although I've tried to use some filler to get a better idea of the shape and provide a good base for glue.  Main question:  does it look like I've shaped this enough yet?  I think I've got a good idea of the lay of the planks but the planking termination at the stern post and rearmost bulkhead is difficult to envisage - I've looked at multiple build logs for clues and photos all look great....'completed'.
 
In photos below you can also see the the boxwood section that I'll be using above the waterline (not glued yet) and also some balsa transom terminations to avoid having planks float in thin air.  I'm not comfortable fixing the transom shapers (parts 26 & 27) until I can get a better sense for positioning with a planked hull and the stern fascia. I can see why the stern of this ship causes so many challenges. (The uppermost plank looks very awkward in this picture for some reason...)
 
Lower photo shows a copy from the AOTS book enlarged to 1:64 scale that was used to get a sense for where the various bulkheads align with respect to the actual framing.  Mainly this was used to determine how the planking needs to terminate on the rearmost bulkhead, shape of the keel former in red pen and also shows section replaced with boxwood.
 

Planking has started, this will be a lengthy process....
 
I started at the keel to get going, will move up to the upper section and work down in due course.  Even though I had shaped the bulkheads, I'm trying to fine tune as I go as it isn't until a few planks start going on that emphasize deviations, and the hull lines becomes much clearer to me as the surface grows.   
 

Cheers Eamonn, Jim, BE, Stergios and the 'likes' for the interest and kind words.  I tried to superimpose 'Ballyhoo' on 'Jason' but couldn't figure out how to do it.
 
Sjors - don't worry, there will be guns on this deck (eventually).  But I believe the deck is more commonly referred to as the upper deck on a frigate (even though it has one above it...and also has guns!), although I do seem to recall seeing reference to a gun deck as well somewhere.  Maybe someone else can speak definitively on this.
 
Alistair - it did work out OK.  I split the false deck down the center line first (the grain introduces a little error here), and then taped them back together on the back side.  The 2 innermost planks were glued in place on each half and then separated so that I knew they would marry up properly during final assembly.  An unexpected issue was that the deck did tend to cup a little, probably a combination of humidity changes here as well as the glue under the planks shrinking a little.  It was easily manageable, but you can see a slightly larger gap at the extreme ends where there weren't any bulkheads under the deck to force the camber.  As for treenails, I don't feel any compulsion to do them, but, I will have plenty of time to change my mind.
 
Have managed to install the interior bulwarks this weekend, small 0.5mm slivers of scrap were used to build up some of the worst offending bulkheads to remove major waviness.  These haven't been sanded yet but overall pretty pleased, any remaining small waviness should be pretty easy to sand out.  The bow section seems to have come out OK with extending the planking past bulkhead 5.  Most miraculously, the bulwarks do seem to follow the line of the margin planks, so a big 'phew' there.  Although not entirely symetrical, this will not be seen once the foc'sle is on    Also cut slots for the skid beams as it seems to be a lot easier to do now, these aren't mentioned until page 9 of the instructions.
 
Now the interior bulwarks rare in place, the rest of the bulkheads can be faired as the extensions are much too thin and delicate to be able to shape without additional support.
 

Because Anja has an update yesterday I will also update mine......
 
I finished the running rigging.
Still one drawing to go .
Then the anchors and lights and of course the netting .
But it goes fast enough....
The ship is to big to get it in one shot so a few.....
 
Sjors
 

Cheers all.
 
Ray - I haven't got as far as looking at those, but if mine is the same as yours looks like I'll be making some wire ones again, thread just doesn't seem to pass muster.
 
Ron - I'm sure you're right.  Although CC do have some great products, they don't seem to have the same passion as the BJ folks who I visited while on vacation - to your point the Surprise and '74' that seems to have been 'imminent' since I started in this hobby 3yrs ago.  Talking with Nic (the ower) they will be releasing a large scale CW Morgan kit early next year in response to the NE Model poll on what people want - thats bringing something from 'thought' to reality in not much more than a year, and there will be more after that.  They clearly have a passion for these kits - I think I may also have identified my next build, but thats way down the road...
 
Anyway, a little progress at last.  The new keel arrived while I was on vacation, thankfully needed a signature so it wasn't left outside in the heat and humidity for 2 weeks!  New keel is just fine, the bottom is honestly as straight as could be expected, but does have a very slight curve at the top, that should be easily addressed with the false deck.  So onwards...
 
The kit comes with the keel in one piece, so a bit of thinking was in order.  I dryfitted the bulkheads to identify where the bottom should be (5mm from base of keel).  Marked a line on the keel and started cutting a rabbet to accomodate the first planking.  I didn't do this on my Snake as it was before I had found this site and of course there is no mention on the instructions.  This introduces a problem which I'll get to below.

 
To determine where planking will terminate I marked on the sternpost estimating dimensions as best I could from the AOTS book.

 
Keel with roughed out rabbet and tapering.  This is not final or perfect, but I wanted to get as much of the hard stuff before the bulkheads get installed.  The plans indicate where the first planking should terminate, the boundaries for the second planking is the sternpost and rabbet recessed below the first planking rabbet which could be estimated after determining where the first planking rabbet should go.   All of this results in a keel that will be around 2.5mm below the second planking, the plans and AOTS suggest this should be closer to 5mm, so I will plan to build this up to be consistent at some.  This will also require so thinking at the bow as the the keel shape will similarly need to be 'lowered'.

Last days midnight oil ...

little progress

Hello,
Jean Boudriot reversed some pieces in the installation of the couples on the drawing published by GB.
The correct configuration is as follows:

Tadheus, 
 
I am not saying my representation is good or wrong.
I tried only  to reproduce  Boudriot’s drawing.
1 reason it is difficult to understand is because the drawings  use a piece called talonnier which is in the same family as talon, heel in english.
There is  text explaining the talonnier but drawings show it partially.
 
If you can provide better drawings to explain, please do so.

Ahh, another Agamemnon build to give Sjors some competition.  Beautiful build Hennie.