Beef Wellington

The plain vanilla kit does not present two of the main features of HMCS Snowberry: the raft supports. The kit offers "Raft support" but they do not match the way Snowberry was rigged. I have had to "hand made" these, which comes as a welcome contrast after printing pretty much all the parts needed.
 
In the picture below, you can see the first Raft support located right behind the end of the forecastle and the support protected by some shielding:
 

 
The shield is the part from the kit (protecting the front gun), reduced in length, with 40% reduction. Everything else is built with styrene strips and a lot of adjustments: 
 

 
Once in place, it provides the ship with a nice look: 
 

 

 

 
The rafts are not yet ready and will be added later. Below is where we stand at that moment:
 

 

 

 

 
Yves
 
 
 

Jason,
 
I've been trying to find the reference that I used but somewhere I read that the circumference of the cable is 0.6 x main mast diameter. and at 27.75" this equates to a scale 2.1mm diameter for the anchor cable.
 
David 

Quarter Deck Hatches
The local post is very erratic so I’m still waiting for my delivery from Ropes of Scale even though they shipped my order within 24 hours. In the meantime I’ve started on the quarter deck coamings, which like the upper deck, are made from 6x2mm boxwood, and the gratings.
 
According to AotS Diana the openings for the hatches and ladderway are larger and slightly differ in their positions compared with the ply deck supplied.
 

 
I have marked up the new openings and made the coamings and gratings accordingly. The main quarter deck hatch, being tapered, took a few attempts to get even close but I am reasonably happy with the final result – I don’t think I could improve upon it anyway. I have rounded the corners and added strips for the gratings to sit on. The other hatch coamings and gratings are made up too but all require shaping.
 

 

 
I didn’t have enough pieces to make gratings for the forecastle, probably because I made the aft hatch on the upper deck which isn’t part of the kit, so I am now also waiting for some grating kits from Jotika. If things don’t arrive soon, work on Diana will have to slow down and the shipyard will be going on short time.
 
David
 
UPDATE:
The gratings have just arrived so work continues..
 

I think the 2.1mm is much closer to the actual dimension than the kit supplied stuff which is much more in line with a first rate.  I remember BE had put the formula(s) somewhere in his excellent Pegasus log.  I used similar size rope from Syren as Ropes of Scale wasn't around when I ordered.

Happy New Year everyone!  Know I have been absent for what seems an eternity, my usually slow pace was additionally impacted by the many hurricanes and storms that hit the US earlier this year, our basement had some water damage that put an end to ship modelling activities until it was sorted....which it just has been.  Luckily, no damage was sustained to any models, but, I did lose a number of kit pieces and wood strip supplies that were stored in cardboard boxes.  Luckily nothing terminal.  Decent maple strip now needs to be even more carefully husbanded but hoping I will have enough to ensure consistent material on the remaining planking.
 
The holidays provided an opportunity to get back into it and finally was able to complete the quarterdeck planking.  Very slow and intensive, but I am happy with the result and the fact this is task at least is done.  The pictures below show the deck without any tidying up and show the slight differences in plank thicknesses and pencil lead smudging, so next step will be to clean all of this up.  The forecastle planking will require a slightly different approach and planning, but there are some additional things to finalise first which can wait for a future post.
 
Cheers

The Shipyard opened a couple of weeks ago, and since then has been rigging yards.  Slow going, indeed very slow going, at first, but as is so often the case it gets easier with experience.  The Caldercraft instructions are hysterically bad.  They don't quite say: "now rig the ship", but they might as well.  The drawings are quite good, though not meticulously accurate.  What really annoys me is that quite a bit of work would be much easier to do before the masts were made up - as I will show.
 
I have only completed the formast yards, and started by gluing on cleats and drilling holes for the various fittings.  The following rather poor images show the topsail yard from above with 1 mm holes to mount the stunsail booms, from below with 0.7 mm holes for the stirrups and then with the stunsail fittings attached.  I chose to have the 1 mm rod penetrate both yard and boom via the two mountings.  This way positioning of the booms was much more reliable than just sticking them in the mountings.  It took me quite some time to realise that the booms don't sit directly above the yards, but rather at 45º projecting up and forward.  Accurately machined octagonal section on the yards are a great help in setting all this out, since it is simple to clamp the yard at incrments rotated by 45º.



 
Blocks fitted and yards painted.  The booms were stained brown and varnished as will be seen later. I've shown the lashings (is that the word?) before and after they were trimmed to get across something of the scale of work


 
In order to secure the jeer blocks and the sling some cleats are needed (and excluded from the instructions).

Those on the square section of the lower mast, to support the jeer blocks, are fairly standard, that on the cap "reflects" what can be seen in a number of books - and certainly allowing the slings to rest on the topmast would have made removal of that mast impossible without removing the slings.
 
Here the jeer blocks can be seen in place - and oh how I wish I had known to rig them before the mast was assembled

 

 
The yard is pinned to the lower mast, but is meant to look as though it is held up by slings and jeers and attached to the mast by a rather elegant truss, shown here prior to rigging on the mast:

 
And here we go, foryard crossed:

 
You can see the stunsail booms - which I think look much more pleasing to the eye with some stain, rather than the naked timber often shown.  Also visible are the horses and stirrups, which annoyingly I forgot to add before fixing the yard - my fault this time not that of the instructions  (Details visible here but to be shown in a moment are the slings, truss and its pendants and the jeer lines - how these differ from falls or ties/tyes, I do not know.)
 
Here is a close up of the slings - and is a reproduction of the arrangement shown in Petersson - which came off quite well, I think.
 

 
I thought it best to complete the associated running rigging before the standing rigging gets in the way
 

 

 

 

 
So here is the fully-rigged foreyard

 
The other fore yards soon followed, and differ only in that the two upper yards have parrals not trusses, shown here on the topsail yard
 
And finally, here is the full set of foremast yards

 
Happy days!  Now on with the other two masts armed with some experience.
 
 
 
 
 
 

All shrouds and catharpins rigged, and masts stepped. Ratlines next.
 

 

 

I meant to reply yesterday, but forgot!
 
Please, you have nothing to be sorry for, I didn't mind your question and was happy to explain the processes I need to go through before things are ready.
 
OK, today, I had my Indy stove designs finished for 3-d printing. Here are some pics of the very first sample set. These have quite literally just been done and given a quick clean up after emerging from the resin tank. These were done with each at a different orientation, to see how much I can get away with the least amount of supports as possible.
 
It comes in four parts, main body (most detail cannot be seen from my pics though), chimney, complete with brackets for baffles and holes for a handle either side (There are brackets to take the spit bar, too), a condenser and drip tray. The kit (Indy) unit will be complemented by PE parts (baffles, handles, chains etc).
 
Always wanted to do this, as the stove mini kits require so many parts normally

Well it has taken me quite awhile but I have finally arrived to this milestone.
The last two frames went in early this morning... and everything looks much better.
Now to finish marking off the gun port locations, install chocks, etc., etc....
 

Thank you Druxey, Pat and Kevin.... and others for the "likes".  It is encouraging to see people are interested even though I move quite slowly.
 
As I've just completed my third day of recovery following another needle in the eye I am now allowed back in the shop to make dust.
 
Before I do that, my plan is to pencil mark all the remaining gunports (triple checking deck heights) so I can install chocks (spacers between the frames) above and below them.  When this is done the whole works should be quite stiff but I will also install a a couple cross braces athwartships on a couple top timbers for additional support.  That is when I will begin sanding inside and out... unless I decide to cut out the gunports first and install the upper and lower sills.  This might be the smart move as the locations will already have been marked in pencil and not sanded off only to need to be marked again.  I've got time to chew on this a bit.

Fascinating to see the development of these new kits, thanks for shring.

good afternoon everyone
 
my latest update will be the last one for a while, so she has been put to bed with the rest of my builds
as much as i know I need to complete her, the desire to get back on with the Enterprise, is stronger



 









 

Beautiful model you have going here Bug.  Your approach to the various enhancement definitely adds to the period authenticity and well worth the extra time and effort.  Your observation is spot on about always needing to think ahead is rule #1, rule #2 being (for me at least), don't permanently attach something unless you absolutely need to...which help mitigate #1 above

Allan makes a good point. There are many models that do not show this double taper (from aft to forward as well as from below upward) of the knee of the head. The knee is not simply slab-sided. It makes the fore end of a model look heavy and clumsy. An example of this taper is shown here:
 
 

JJ,
 
The area to be cut out in the photos does not look right at all.  It looks like they show a gap to be cut out that is much too wide.   There is a taper from the stem as you move forward to the knee of the head where the figurehead rests.  I don't have access to my books for a couple days, but if I recall correctly, I believe it tapers to about half the width of the stem.   The top view rough sketch below is not to scale but pretty close.  This means the cutout in the figure head needs to taper as well for a proper fit on the knee of the head.   
 
Allan

Years ago I built my French 74 gun ship upside down, mounted in H. Hahn's building base, following his method (sort of). I remember, I had to add (draw) the remaining frames, since J. Boudriot only has shown in his books the so called, station frames. The hull turned out OK, not perfect though, but - for the first scratch built, Admiralty type model, - acceptable.
Right now I am starting to install the running rigging on it.
Thomas

here is a sketch from AOTS Royal Caroline that illustrates it rather well.

How to make lanterns and rollers for the messenger line ??
I made something like that. However, I think that for the 1:72 scale it is a bad idea.

Beautiful model you have going here Bug.  Your approach to the various enhancement definitely adds to the period authenticity and well worth the extra time and effort.  Your observation is spot on about always needing to think ahead is rule #1, rule #2 being (for me at least), don't permanently attach something unless you absolutely need to...which help mitigate #1 above

Beautiful model you have going here Bug.  Your approach to the various enhancement definitely adds to the period authenticity and well worth the extra time and effort.  Your observation is spot on about always needing to think ahead is rule #1, rule #2 being (for me at least), don't permanently attach something unless you absolutely need to...which help mitigate #1 above

More scratch mast making details in this update...these photos focus on shaping the foremast. The processes here will apply across all three lower mast sections (the bowsprit will have some of these steps too).

 
Shaping the crosstree bolsters on all three masts is an important step. These two, symmetrical rounded-off pieces are fitted to the tops and will support the shroud lines that wrap around the square mast post above the top landing. I have found it considerably easier to file these small square sections down AFTER they have been glued to the crosstrees below them. Take your time doing this to give both bolsters a smooth, evenly rounded profile. Also, insure the inside edges are perfectly flush with the crosstrees before gluing. There will be a little "tweak sanding" before the lower mast section can be "press-fit" inserted between the tree opening in a later step. I've used a thin, tapered nail sanding file (with a higher grit of 4 or 500) since the sanding angle is alternately steep and shallow. Larger files are difficult to properly form these bolster pieces and you don't want to remove too much material.
 

 
Here the foremast top has been mounted to the built-up, completed lower mast. The mast cap has been fitted to the rounded section carved at the very top of the square section (that didn't get the octagonal planing and subsequent rounding-off). Note the position of the bolsters mentioned in the previous photo. I also recommend mounting all the eyebolts to the tops BEFORE mounting them to the lower mast assemblies. On the foremast there are ten (10) eyebolts for various blocks;. I'll rig the blocks after the top is firmly mounted. Pay attention to the profile angle of these tops; they should be parallel with the waterline since the masts have aft-leaning rakes. Don't forget to subtly "break" all the edges on the tops, above and below. Same goes for the square section edges up to the capping piece.
 

 
An 8mm square pear wood "stick" has been cut to length and here you see how planing will shape the majority of its length into an octagonal shape. 
 

 
A closeup to show how the first passes of the finger plane removes very small, even curls of material. The plane is held level to the upward-facing square corner and when one pass is made the required length, the piece is rotated  and each presenting corner is planed until all four have been reduced; this step is repeated until a perfect octagon is formed from the previous four sides. The plane's blade has been honed to razor sharpness, which is quite critical even with high-quality hardwoods like pear and boxwood. I've learned how to control the finger plane shown here (Ibex 7/8" wide blade), but some builders who use this mast making technique use a chisel, bevel side down. The plane works in a normal bevel up position and each successive pass removes more material until quite wide strips peel off the stock as long as the blade remains razor sharp.
 

 
Here is the resultant octagonal section from the previous planing steps and how turning the octagon shape on a lathe will round it perfectly; this process works for the lower mast as well as for the topmasts (lower post section that inserts into the crosstrees and is supported by a "fid."). Note the transition from octagonal to round shape. The "lands" are even and when shaping the stock you'll need to double-check measurements quite often while planing to insure uniformity of all eight sides.
 

 
I use a Proxxon bench top lathe (DB250) to turn the octagonal shaped pear into a perfectly round, smooth mast. I use a couple different grits of normal sandpaper to gradually work down the octagonal section. The sanding nail file is great to get into transition areas between square to octagon and/or round shapes. I run the lathe at its lowest speed setting. This particular lathe will chuck up to about 10mm of material and the length of material  - from chuck to maximum extension on the moveable tailpiece - is more than adequate for all mast and yard turning, up to about 15".
 

 
Here is a completed 8mm octagonally planed pear lower mast section; all eight sides are even the entire length. My calipers show the measurement of the planed lands to be 8mm across all sides. By making these lands consistent along the entire length, very little material will need to be removed when reducing the octagon shape to a round one. From this stage, the pear piece is put into my lathe for rounding-off. Note the various sizes of pear shavings, tiny-to-large "curls" of material.
 
Next update I'll show closeups of the built-up lower mast showing the three fish pieces (fore & main masts) as well as the iron banding and wooldings. Also, I'll add the battens and align the capping to ready the lower mast assembly for the topmast which is considerably more involved to make correctly.
 
Ron
 
 
 

Though I've clearly been negligent with posting, I've been working on a few things simultaneously over the holiday break.  I'll have more updates soon on the rudder and transom.  But I've also been catching up on some of the miscellany of bitts and rails and other items. As always, everything ties together - so using a thicker deck and increasing the bulwarks affected the roll of top rail that sweeps into the waist.  Instead of trying to match it to the plans, or even match it identically to the FFM or other sources, I instead took what the build gave me and worked with that.  
    I used a solid piece of cedar scrap to draw out what the rail would look like, then carved/sanded the pieces to fit. Admittedly, I'm not much of a wood carver, so my little bit of saving grace is that it'll all be painted black so my inevitable flaws will hopefully be covered. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
  For the strips along the side I sanded down some make-shift scrapers. The strips themselves are boxwood, split and sanded to match.  I sanded them thinner then painted them before they were mounted.
 
 
 
 
 
  After all the bitts are added along the top rail, I filled in all the little gaps before painting. 
 
 
 
  During this process I've been keeping the decorative etchings in the back of my head, as I know I'll have to work with those.  I realize I painted myself (no pun intended) into a corner by using a full size main wale as per the FFM, etc - which gives me much less space for decorations and other elements.  So - I'll likely finish up as much of the sides including the swivel mounts, side ladders and other ornaments (and maybe even the channels) before attempting to decorate the sides. 

Here are the results of my bulwark boosting.  Added inner and outer planking, then sanded it down to provide the proper height both fore and aft.  Then I sanded everything flush, and then repainted. For the bow I used one continuous plank bent all the way around rather than butting it at the bowsprit hole. Once again, this is primarily the result of using deck planking that is much thicker than supplied by the kit. 
 
  
 
 
 
  Also - an update to the aft hatchway / stair situation.  Turned out to be a successful fix.  You'll notice my scuttle lids are flush planking as opposed to grates.  I got this idea from @Blue Ensign's build and prefer it.  Partly because it's probably more likely how the scuttle lids were - but also because as I noticed with the smaller stove vent grates on the foc'sle - I can't get the grating thin enough to look the way I want.  It just looks a little thick and chunky when the grates are smaller.  This is all still pretty rough also, and will look much smoother once I finish sanding and give it a coat of tung oil.
 
 
 
 

Proceeding with the aft deck planking now that the 'fix is in'.  Nothing earth-shattering here - your typical staggered planking with a margin plank.
 
 
 

 
  Then I am bending and mounting a couple of strips to heighten the bulwarks.
 
 
 

So... remember I said that I tend to do things a little unconventionally in terms of timing, etc?  Well - here's the downside: I totally screwed up the spacing of deck elements because I didn't think far enough ahead - an error I discovered when I placed the upper deck in the aft of the ship.  As I'm sure most of you know, there can be a pretty big downside when it comes to half following the kit plans and half following the FFM and other builds.  My particular problem occurred with the pumps.
 
    My big mistake - was following the kit template / false deck with it came to the locations of all the hatches - but then following Dan's more accurate build/locations when it came to putting in the pumps.  I wish I took more 'before' pictures - but I was too irritated and just started fixing. But basically, when I test fit the upper deck in place then looked down through all the holes/hatches -  the larger grate just aft of the pumps is about two times too large - so the the pump handles extending over it go RIGHT underneath the upper hatch that's supposed to be fitted with a ladder.   Doh.   So - even if I were able to fit a ladder in there - folks would be descending right into the pump handles.  Many "potty words" were uttered as I tore up deck planks and fittings.
 

 
    I reduced the size of the hatch by half, patched the deck to fill in the gap, shortened the aft pump handles and remounted them into the posts. The good news is - the view of all of this will be severely obstructed by the pumps, subsequent ladder once it's installed, and various rigging and accouterments. I may even throw in a pump dale or two to further obscure my screw up.
 

 
  Once again - the reminder here (that we all already know) is - when you're doing a mish-mash of a kit bash that combines the ease and efficiency of a pre-fab kit with other added elements - you can NEVER, ever, think too far ahead.