Beef Wellington

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

Welcome back, and happy NY Jason.  glad to hear the damage was not too bad, but must have been a bit of a 'scare'.
 
Very nice clean work (up to your usual high standard) on the planking.
 
cheers
 
Pat

I love your deck planking - very clean and precise. Well done!
 
Thomas

Beautiful work Jason and good to see you back.
I only hope that I can achieve a result half as good when I reach that stage

You've done a beautiful job with that deck planking Jason. Really glad to hear none of your models suffered with the water ingress. 

Started with the Tire black, here’s where we find out if the colours work, fingers crossed.

Finally removing the masking to see if it looks okay, just some minor bits needing touched up also got the forward and aft decks fixed down, so no going back now. Feel at last I have turned a corner. The forward bridge structure got some minor corrections in the port hole positions, the ones on the front didn’t match the side port holes in height, so filled and repositioned them using actual ship as reference. 

All could be correct as it would have come down to which division the Admiral belonged to, or on independent command under Admiralty orders, the red ensign.  Remember though to use the correct union flag in the canton, without cross of St Patrick before 1801, and with after.   So pick your date and takes your choice 🙂

Using foil is a really neat idea.  I did remember seeing this in Dan Vadas' excellent Vulture build....that solution seem to provide more flexibility, utility and ability to easily maintain.
 
 

Hi Jason 
 
I have yet to decide what to do with the boats - much will depend on the quality of the final assembly but I will put at least one in the waist. 
 
The line is soaked in dilute PVA and then I use a drop (tiny applied by a needle) of CA to affix the rope hank. Fiddly and has resulted in the need to rerun a couple of downhaul lines.
 
P 

Remember that 'period' is also a factor here as paint options changed significantly over time and all we can refer to are really 'trends', certainly in the Royal Navy, and to Mark's comment above would be somewhat driven by the cost and availability of paint.  There was no 'standard' to know how a specific ship was painted, looking at models in the NMM online archive will show quite a bit of variety between models of the same period.  Red and yellow ochres were cheap(er) options in mid to late 18th century so would likely have been more commonplace being mixed by the painters whether onboard or in dockyards.  In the Royal Navy, green and white became more common going into the 19th century as materials advanced, fashions changed, and the cost of paint became economically viable.  I'm sure Vanguard probably went through many repaints and would have looked different at each.  The hulls of ships were definitely unique, and helped in identification, until the nelson chequer became ubiquitous.

Using foil is a really neat idea.  I did remember seeing this in Dan Vadas' excellent Vulture build....that solution seem to provide more flexibility, utility and ability to easily maintain.
 
 

Thank you Theo and Ron. 👍
 
Post Fifty-nine
 
Planking begins.
The centre line coamings are at last glued into place and the gratings are temporarily replaced by the fret cut-outs to prevent stuff falling down the hatches.

2028

2029
Always worth keeping these pieces which also make good templates.
 
One final check, the Quarter deck sub deck is  tried in place to  confirm that the Capstan link between the two decks aligns, along with the Mizzen Mast, I don’t want any nasty surprises down the line.

2019

2023
The hatched areas are part of the reduction in planking area, but until the deck beams are in place this can’t be progressed.
 
As we all know there is no need for butt shifts between the hatches etc; the shorter plank lengths preclude such requirements.
My primary planking strips will be of 3.4mm and 4.5mm.
I trialled different approaches to the initial planking layout; a plank along the middle line of the deck, or planks each side of the middle line.
I  settled on planks either side of the middle line.

2066

2064
The kit plan butt joints and shifts are marked on the false deck, but in practice there will almost certainly be variations as planking progresses.

2067
These are a combination of 3.4mm and 4.5mm wide planks to give the best result between the hatches.
The binding strakes will have tabs to meet the coamings and avoid the otherwise narrow planking strips.

2053

2048

2052(2)
Work will now continue on the planking.
 
B.E.
04/01/22
 

 

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

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

HMS Camilla gets her nameplate!  Also, in this update, a few fixes and some additional stern detail before moving onto masting. Uploading weirdness continues; four files wouldn't upload. However, I found that re-saving images in .png format (rather than standard .jpg) allowed uploading the same photos. Oh well....curious glitch.
 

 
I fixed the rudder chain mounting by adding an additional mounting iron (mid lower transom point, both sides). I looked this detail up in Lees Rigging "Bible" for confirmation. It definitely looks better and is historically accurate now. I added additional chain to get the extra length required for the rudder pendent usage. Thanks to B.E. here for the tip on where the rudder chains would be tied-off (in the mizzen channels). If the ship lost normal steering control for whatever reason, these rudder pendents would have tackle mounted to them and then be subsequently fed into an open port - and presumably, lashed to the internal steering system as an emergency, jury-rigged steering fix.
 

 
A small piece of aluminum foil to be shaped and cut into a rudder boot. After mounting it gets some acrylic paint so that it appears to be leather. I went to our kitchen cabinet for this item...it's good to have a supportive Admiral.
 

 
I forgot to show a photo in an earlier post that I added a genuine pulley to the snatchblock assemblies on the foc'sle. Anchor lines will feed through the pulleys. Genuine, three-strand rope looks good. It's .30mm dia. from Falkonet. I should mention here that I use rope from three different vendor sources: Ropes of Scale (new), Falkonet (CraftySailor) and SyrenShipModel : Thank You All. I would be highly bummed-out if I had to make rope for my ships.
 
 

 
Ta-Da! HMS Camille gets her identity. I've carefully coated the lettering with satin polyurethane using a detailing swab to seal them. This photo clearly shows the "leather" rudder boot. The boot helped to keep water from rushing up into the rudder trunk. My intention is to show Camilla in choppy water with a following sea behind her stern, her cutwater crashing into the next large roller. Thanks again to B.E. who pointed out the necessity of this addition. The Captain's cabin would likely have been swamped without it! As far as I can figure-out and after researching this detail, I think the large leather boot was simply nailed to the transom and also onto the rudder at the same time. Anyone with additional details, pipe up! (please)...
 

 
This view clearly shows the improved "Tafferal" atop the upper stern decorations, before I added the rudder boot. I'll also coat the flat black strip I used to improve this area of my build with satin poly. The .4mm thin pear wood strip didn't work well, despite soaking and heating. I went forward with a solution I've used in the past  - and also suggested by B.E. - a thin section of white styrene. This did a decent job by conforming to all the topside undulations and continuing on over the rather sharp bends required to wrap all the way to the bottom of the galleries; all accomplished with a single piece of the substituted plastic (Evergreen Plastics) from port to starboard.
 

 
Another view of the styrene capping I used to cover the not-so-nice looking stern layers. This "scratched" addition has dramatically improved the presentation of this part of the model. Other builders of this kit may want to seriously consider adding this easily scratched additional piece not included in the kit. Adding it in advance of how I've done it here will be much easier task to accomplish. My model will now appear more like most legacy models of the era. This added Tafferal will get a coat of satin poly after the black paint has dried.
 

 
The Swiss pear square stock that I will use to create Camilla's three (technically, four) masts. Shown here are the three main sizes: 4, 6 & 8 mm. The pear stock rests in my planing jig. These 18" long pieces are dead-straight!
 

 
The tools arrayed on the planing jig I use to shape the square stock for the masts. I use the small Ibex finger plane mainly, but on smaller square sections I use smaller chisels (bevel side down). I also use a sharpening stone before shaping work to keep the blades very sharp; minimal tool pressure is required to remove thin, even slices of wood. A square can become an octagon quite easily. An octagon can become a round easily as well...
 
As I progress with the creation of my masts (including the bowsprit), I'll show how the various sections (round, square and octagonal) are fashioned. In reality, masts were very complicated carpentry wonders comprised of multiple sections with complex joinery. I've read that these specific dockyard workers were the highest paid.
 

 
The kit's tops are being glued in this photo; I have purposefully indicated that you'll need several small clamps to get these properly glued together. After I rubbed white glue onto the top pattern piece with a fingertip, the piece wanted to curl and pop-up immediately from the base pattern. If clamps were not used there would be a lot of fiddly and messy aftermath of re-gluing of the thin support strips.
 
These detailed pear pattern tops are laser-etched with loads of nice detail which you can't see here (later). When completed, these will be painted black but the laser etch detail lines will still show up, similar to the ship's wale patterns. The crosstrees for the tops have been assembled and the small square pieces alongside are the crosstree bolsters; once dry, I'll remove the "char" from all... 🤣
 
That's all for now, MSWer's.
 
Ron

Very nice Mort, some really interesting modifications.  Looking very shipshape.

Quick update. I’ve completed and mounted the channels, their dead eyes,  gunport lids  and just finished installing the cannons with tampons. I made my own lids as I wanted the hull planking to be visible along with the lids interior planking. I used #28 wire for the second ring on the lids and as PaulB did I used 2 eye bolts and a piece of wire to mimic the latch on the lids inner side. 
 
Stay safe and well,
Mort