Beef Wellington

There has been some progress but I have not been doing any updates... the Rudder is in place and I been working the stern.  Came up with my own colours since I didnt like the instructions. As I understand they dont know how it was painted anyway.
 
After being used to Vanguards models i had to struggle to get everything in place. Alot of precut parts but nothing fits so you had to do alot of adjustments. 
 


 

 

 

 

While i'm waiting for the plates i have done a little bit more.
Painted the stern fascia, windows and ornaments.
Also the trophy of arms.
You really need a steady hand but i'm happy with the result.
 
Sjors

Hi B.E.
I've just been catching up on your prolific outputs since I last wandered around MSW eight years ago. Extraordinary and all to the very highest quality. The Indefatigable looks like a fantastic kit and - no surprise - you are already proceeding at pace but with your usual accuracy. I will follow along as I will also troll through your other logs as they are always very informative. You are indefatigable! The UK must have more hours in a day than we have downunder - I'll have to check that as I'm surely wrong...
 
Cheers,
A

Thankyou David, I'm already thinking  Where am I going to put this!
 
Chapter Two
First Stages
In this stage most of the heavy weight mdf items are assembled.
The initial assembly slots together cleanly, and I must commend Chris on the sharpness and fit of the laser work.
I did run a sanding stick in the Bulkhead slots to smooth the char and where necessary a light tap with a pein hammer (not directly) seated the parts fully down.
I found I needed to ease the slots for the securing pegs which run thro’ the keel assembly. Even so they are a snug fit and I don’t really think they need glue.

0384
The keel is still quite floppy at this stage due to its length, so I utilised the Amati keel clamp whilst I fettled and inserted the pegs.

0383
With this beast the keel clamp is at the limit of its capacity, and I’m toying with the idea of buying a second to double the length, and provide a more stable support.
A deeper bench would be ideal but not really feasible. I will have to be careful when turning the hull that those delicate frame tops don’t collide with the wall.

0387
Note: There is a minor error in the manual at Stages 21/22. Bulkhead 17 is not removeable as indicated, as it is held by part 40. Chris has issued a pdf amendment addressing this.

0389
A small area of the Orlop deck is represented beneath the Fore hatchways, which I ‘dressed’ using spare engraved maple decking.

0390
The Lower deck slips seamlessly into place and there is a plywood planking engraved section that presumably covers the area that may be observed thro’ the Upper deck openings.
The Orlop and Lower deck decking section are the only parts glued at this stage.

0401
I considered whether to over-plank the Lower deck section, as will be done to the upper deck, but very little will be seen and I think the marked plank lines and butts will be sufficient for the purpose.

0401
Very nicely cut grating sets which I will install ‘as is’ for the lower deck.

0397
The assembly of ladders always give me trouble but a simple jig helps a little.
The final action in this Chapter is to add the Longitudinal bracing pieces (No.30) and parts5b/11b described as a gundeck beam.

0405
Note: Parts 30 are to be found on the 4mm mdf sheet not 3mmm as indicated. May save you a little time in sifting thro’ the sheets.
 
I did have a slight mishap with one of the part 30 pieces, which broke about one-third along at the weak point of the slot top.
Take care if easing these slots the part is very whippy and care needs to be taken.

0408
This completes this section, more of an assembly than a build at this stage.
 
 I can only marvel at the ingenuity of Chris to design a beast like this held securely together with barely any glue.
 
B.E.
10/03/2023
 

I know its not my pocket making the decision, but good call on the boxwood!  Love the carronade, is it an antique or replica (asking jealously)?

I know its not my pocket making the decision, but good call on the boxwood!  Love the carronade, is it an antique or replica (asking jealously)?

The whole 9 Yards…
Thanks for looking in and for the likes and comments.
 
I  made the yards according to the measurements in the AotS, although they mostly correspond closely with the Caldercraft plans. The central octagonal section was pshaped first using files and 400 grade sandpaper to finish. The round taper sections were completed in my Proxxon lathe starting with coarse 80 grit if a lot of wood needed removing, then 120 and finishing with 400.
The sizes and patterns of cleats were taken from Lees rather than the plans. Lees describes stop cleats on the fore topsail yard rather than the sling cleats shown on the plans.
I have followed Steele’s tables as closely as possible for the sizes of blocks. I would have liked to have used the correct pattern for the sheet blocks but I couldn’t find any commercially available. Perhaps next time I'll have a go at making them myself.

Slings are made from served rope made into a loop with a false splice. A thimble is secured in the middle with a seizing before looping round the yard.

I have adopted the kit pieces for the boom irons on the lower yards. The soft metal yard-end pieces are big and bulky. They were cut and filed down until they looked more in proportion. For the outer rings I used some brass pieces left over from HMS Fly which looked more in proportion. When it came to the irons for the topsail yards, I found that using the kit pieces was unworkable, they just looked too big and ugly, so I scratched them from brass rod and styrene tube painted iron grey with Tamiya XF-18.


All horses and stirrups were made from 0.5mm rope stained with wood dye as described in an earlier post. The horses are looped around the yards using a false splice The stirrups are fixed at the correct length with a false splice and the the tail wrapped around the yard three times and fixed with dilute pva.
 

The footropes will need some work once the yards are fitted and rigged to get them to lie correctly.
 
David

 

 

Thanks Ross and Andrew for your kind comments
 
It's quite simple using a needle to thread the line back and forth through itself two or three times.
The following photos should make it clear. To make it easier to see and photograph, I have used 1mm thread and a curved needle but it works with any size of thread and straight needle.

 

It's best here to tighten up the loop around the yard or whatever else you are making the eye-splice for.


A third pass through is ideal but not mandatory!
 

The finished splice

Secure it off with a dab of dilute pva.
 
Have fun
David

good evening everyone
 
thank you for comments and likes
 
day 10 lower deck planking complete
 
let the sanding begin 
 
 
 
 

I’ve custom made thwarts for the larger boat.  I used 2.5 mm styrene c-channel strips for the thwarts (seats) and fabricated the bow piece from a number plate off the sprew.  I used the spacing on the small boats seats to space my custom ones.  Then I prime coated, wood-tone painted, clear coated and then distressed each piece with a diluted black wash. 
 
Next step is the create the spars across the waist that the boats sit upon.   Unlike the French who spent their days in port prettying ship, the British were at sea in all weathers on blockade, so the boats had to be easily on hand.  I’ve got 3mm square profile styrene strips primed and ready for painting to create the cross beams and columns.

Fabricating and installing breech rope from thread pulled through beeswax and affixed to the pommel on each quarterdeck 12 pounder cannon with instant glue.  Rope will be cut to meet inner hull side when cannon is permanently installed.

id perfer to be the Lewis, but im not in a race lol, however this does go together so very well, it will of course slow down soon, with planking

good evening everyone
thank you for comments and likes, very much appreciated
 
the inner bulkhead liners are now fitted, there are another two, to fill a blank space, if i get the chance i will put them on tonight, otherwise they will remain off until completion of sanding the outer hull
 
8 temporary beams are inserted to ensure the everything stays in place whilst sand in the hull, i think they are discarded at a later date


 
today was also spent putting on 4 profiles that accurately space the upper deck beams, another clever idea, apart from skimming the tops of the inner bulkhead liners to stop any fouling, this never caused any concerns at all

 
prior to gluing the profiles in place i removed the beams to check the alignment once this has dried the beams will be removed to safe place and put on again later on after deck planking

 
 
 

good evening everyone
thank you for comments and likes
day 5 and 6
the main deck went down without any issues 
next is the 8 in number inner bulkhead pieces, the frames needed a bit of sanding to allow them to sit flush against the max amount of wood, again there was no issues with this and i did not need to soak them, an overnight under clamps and they are sitting quite nice, i dont believe much of these will be seen later on, hope to finish them tomorrow,  
 
lots of test fitting

Will be following this one closely, you are a lucky man!

Thanks again for all the likes and comments.
 
I made the jib a little while ago with all the lower yards, stuns’l booms, mizzen gaffs and some of the spare masts. I will cover these as we go on.

The jib was made to the specification in the AotS as were all other yards and masts. The bowsprit cap was made from scratch because the kit part did not allow for the holes to be changed to the correct angle. It was also too narrow to fit a jack staff.

I used the kit dolphin striker which was glued and pinned to the cap. Before fixing the jib, I added the 'lead' saddle for the spritsail yard which unfortunately doesn't show up well in the photo. This was simply made from a piece of paper (200gsm I think) painted iron grey. The heel lashing is 7 wraps of 0.5mm rope. I wasn’t sure of the order of rigging for the jibboom so followed the order given in Lees, starting with the guy pendants (0.4mm) followed by the horses and the martingale. The horses (0.75mm rope) are knotted with figure-of-eights every 10mm. The horses and pendants are left hanging for the moment. The martingale stay and back stay (0.4mm) are one piece and lead back, via a fall, to the port side of the bowsprit.

 
 
The mizzen topgallant stay is made from 0.4mm rope and leads through a thimble in the main topmast head and finishes with thimbles and lanyard at the main top. According to Lees the royal stay wasn’t introduced until after 1810 so I have left it off. The back stays lead to the stool abaft the mizzen channel, the topgallant to a 2.5mm deadeye and the royal to an eyebolt. I realise that there is some inconsistency here in that there is a royal backstay but no stay. Maybe I should have left both off and I may go back to it later but I quite like it as it is.


The main mast topgallant stay (0.5mm) leads through a 3mm block on the fore topmast head down to the forestay where it is tied off at the collar of the topmast stay lead block. I should have made the strop so that it stood more proud of the mast to improve the run of the topgallant stay but too late now. The royal stay leads through a 3mm block at the fore topmast head and ends in a thimble which is connected by a lanyard to another thimble fixed with a span to the fore topmast cross trees. I realised, too late, that the span should be tied into the inside of the cross trees before fitting the masts, so I have had to tie them to the outside. Back stays run down to the stool abaft the main channel.

The foreamast topgallant stay leads through a 3mm block on the jibboom and runs back to the forestay collar where it is tied of with three seizings,

The royal stay leads to the end of the jibboom where it is tied off. Backstays are set up in a similar manner and lead down to deadeyes on the foreward channel.
 
 
I have looked again at the main and fore topmast shifting backstays and decided to re-rig them in a way more in line with the description in Lees. I’m puzzled when Lees says that the pendants were half as long again as the burton pendants. I interpreted this to mean that they would end high up off the deck which didn’t seem right and wasn’t in line with the drawing in AotS. I have rigged the pendants to come to within 90mm of the deck. The falls are set up as in Lees with a long tackle block hooked to the pendant and a single 3mm block hooked to an eyebolt in the channels.

The main topmast shifting backstay falls are tied off to a belay pin but the foreward shifting backstay, according to the Caldercraft plan, is tied off to a shroud cleat and would lie across the shrouds. This seemed wrong to my eye so I have fitted a deck cleat, not shown on the plans, to tie it off which I think works better.

 
The standing rigging is now complete and means another milestone in the build is reached just over two years from when it began.
 

Thanks for looking in
David

 

Thanks to all for the likes.
Fitting of standing rigging continues and is complete to the level of the topmasts except for final trimming of the ends of stays.
The shifting backstays on fore and main masts are described in Lees as being set up from a pendant half as long again as the burton pendant. A long tackle block is hooked into the pendant and single blocked hooked into the channel. My interpretation of the AotS drawing is that they are set up in a similar fashion to the other back stays at the upper end but with a long tackle block seized in the lower end. The falls are a singe block hooked into the channel.
I can see the logic of the Lees version but I decided to go with the AotS which I thought looked better.
 

The fore topmast stays are made from 0.8 and 0.7mm rope and both are served as before. A minor disaster struck as I was partway through serving the first rope when the winding handle of my serving machine broke in half. I repaired it by super-glueing the two halves together and then it was reinforced with a bit of brass sprue which I fixed with epoxy.

The stays are threaded through the bees: the preventer stay to the aft port and stay through the forward starboard ‘sheave’. The stays end in a thimble  connected by a lanyard to a thimble secured to eyebolts at the bow either side of the bowsprit.



The topgallant stays are next which will require me to fit the jibboom
 
David

 

I have begun to add the topmast and top gallant stays. Beginning with the mizzen mast, I remembered why I was going to rig stays to each level of masting before adding the next. Luckily I had decided not to glue masts and mast caps in place so although more awkward than it ought to have been, looping the backstays over the mast head was not difficult.
 
I used 0.6mm rope from Ropes of Scale on the mizzen backstays and 0.7mm for the stay. The stay was served to 30mm below the level of the mouse (I don’t propose to serve any ropes finer than this) and finishes in a thimble which is attached by a lanyard to another thimble tied to an eyebolt on the main top. Both stay and backstays are set up but not finally tensioned until all the masts are completely rigged.
 


 
I started to rig the main topmast. The breast backstay and the first of the standing backstays are rigged using 0.7mm rope, again not finally tensioned, but I have run out of 5mm deadeyes so can’t continue until supplies arrive from CMB. Shifting backstays on the main mast are shown in both the AotS Diana and the Caldercraft rigging plans but Lees says that they would not generally be seen as they were only used when sailing. However, I am minded to fit them as I think that they do add something to the model.

The topmast stay and preventer stay are fitted: the stay from 0.8mm and the preventer stay from 0.7mmrope. Both are served to 30mm below the mouse. The stays lead down through 5mm blocks fitted to the foremast and end in a long-tackle block. The falls are set up with a single 5mm block hooked to eye bolts in the deck each side of the foremast, the stay to the port and preventer to starboard.


While waiting for more fittings, I have made a start on the fore topmast. The breast backstays are fitted first using 0.7mm rope with a 5mm block seized in the end. The tackles are rigged with 0.25mm thread tied to an eyebolt in the forward channel passed through the block of backstay and ending in a 3mm block. The fall is spliced to a second 3mm block hooked to another eyebolt abaft the first and is threaded through the upper 3mm block. The fall is tied off to a timberhead.

It was at this stage that I noticed that I had rigged a shroud where there should be a backstay.

I wondered about carrying on rigging with one backstay less but decided in the end to do the right thing as far as I could. It would have been impossible at this stage to remove the last two pairs of shrouds and replace them correctly so I did the next best thing and carefully cut out the 9th shroud all the way to the mast head where I don’t think (hope) that this fix will be noticed.

Cutting out all of the ratlines and retying them was a step too far so the new ratlines were tied in to the existing ones.

the offending shroud removed  and ratlines restored but looks like a good clean up is required now.
 
Thanks for the likes and for looking in
David
 

After a long time I think I've fisished all the masts clues and cluelines.
I'm about to upload some pics.
Thank you

Last weeks are spent trying to understand strategy and the correct way to fix the braces….
Starting from top to bottom, from front to back, some tips important that I should know in advance…??
A real headache again

I ve left a lot of spare fittings and rope-threads to improve later as a final touch up procedure.
Now I really feel that i'm close to the finish. I plan to create a custom made base and to support/stabilize the keel with those two 2mm metal rods.
I hope the model to be stable and safe

Dave, first off - wonderful work, continue to be amazed at the detail you're pursuing which are projects in of themselves.  Not sure if you have seen it, but the well known Bellona model made for George III shows the same launching system in a very nice display along the same lines.  There are some other contemporary examples illustrated in Brian Lavery's "The ship of the line" book to peruse for ideas.  Looking forward to see where you land.

Dave, first off - wonderful work, continue to be amazed at the detail you're pursuing which are projects in of themselves.  Not sure if you have seen it, but the well known Bellona model made for George III shows the same launching system in a very nice display along the same lines.  There are some other contemporary examples illustrated in Brian Lavery's "The ship of the line" book to peruse for ideas.  Looking forward to see where you land.

Dave, first off - wonderful work, continue to be amazed at the detail you're pursuing which are projects in of themselves.  Not sure if you have seen it, but the well known Bellona model made for George III shows the same launching system in a very nice display along the same lines.  There are some other contemporary examples illustrated in Brian Lavery's "The ship of the line" book to peruse for ideas.  Looking forward to see where you land.

Hi Dave, glad to see another Diana build get started, I must confess that I have been less than active recently (both online and in the shipyard!), so I'm sure you'll finish well before me.  One general comment that I'm sure you're considering but worth repeating is that the dimensions of kit parts and plans, NMM plans and AOTS diagrams are not completely consistent, so compromise and estimation is needed.  Thinking well ahead will save a lot of pain.
 
Couple of specific comments on the topics raised above:
Keel - David (DAvidEN) is spot on with his comment on the profile of the keel.  This is easily addressed once the hull has been planked which is really only when you can see what is needed.  Without building up the depth of the keel, the profile is much too shallow and will not look correct. Stern post - will be easier early on to adapt the sternpost to more prototypical dimensions if thats a path you want to go down (wider at the top, tapering to the keel) rather than the consistent 5mm thickness dictated by the keel former. Gunport alignment - the ports follow the alignment of the frames, which means the mid-ships ports will be perpendicular to the keel, and those toward the stem and stern will be perpendicular to the hull so AOTS can help with this.  As for placement, adjusting the foremost frame as described above is pretty straightforward if you decide to go down that route.  From memory, I seem to recall looking to directionally follow the plans with equidistant ports (except for where the steps are). All the best.
 
Jason