Beef Wellington

Great to see you back at it Andy, your Confederacy is looking very nice, the blue will make for a nice change.

Great to see you back at it Andy, your Confederacy is looking very nice, the blue will make for a nice change.

Just a short update and  how I solved a minor but irritating issue.  
 
The instructions have us install the channels and then knees.  The issue I had was getting the channels installed at the proper angle and all of them having the same angle from the hull as the instructions have you install the channels first.   I finally removed them, cleaned up the mess and decided to do it backwards.   Installed the knees first and aligned them with to the proper placement.  Then installed the channels and am very happy with the result.    Onwards!!!!!!!!!!

 
 

I can't quite remember when exactly I bought this Confederacy kit, probably sometime around 2012 or 2013. It sat for a long time in the closet, virtually untouched, except for the manual. I think I may have the most well read manual out there, (With tongue firmly planted in cheek; I think MS could do a little better job on the binding, it wasn't really designed to stand up to the rigours of repeated readings 🤪).
 
I finally started started picking away at this build some four or five years ago, between other projects. Progress has been largely sporadic, with more than a few backwards steps being taken. On many occasions the self-critic took over and the kit was shelved for months (or most recently for almost two years). For many reasons (of which, the above is just one), I've avoided a build log until now. I'm at a point where I'm satisfied with my progress so far, and I hope that the worst of the back stepping is now over.
 
I have completed the planking from the wales upwards and I'm now in the process of adding the first beaded moulding strips. 
 

 

 
The starboard side mouldings have been added, and the port side is in progress.
 
If things look a little wonky with the stern light window frames (cills and lintels), it was due to an unfortunate incident involving the large nose of a curious young german shepherd, that decided to investigate the stern, while work was being done on the other end of the ship. The interloping nose went undetected until the work required a shift in position... I'll leave the rest up to your imaginations.. but suffice it to say, it wasn't pretty. Pieces where quickly gathered up, and splintered wood glued back together. Before the time comes to attach the transom, everything will be revisited and correctly re-aligned.
 

 
I've used Minwax Golden Oak stain for the planking above the wale, with some Polyscale acrylics that I had kicking around, for the black wale and the red gun ports.  
 
Andy
 
 

Thanks everyone for the likes and comments! 
 
 
I've had a browse through your log. Your build is looking pretty good too. Best of luck with the planking!
 
 
That's about all anyone can do, really. I guess I got lucky, she didn't try to eat any of the pieces (unlike poor BE with his Sphynx...)
 
A small update to share. I've decided to deviate a little with the colour scheme. This goes against what I've read about the prototype's possible colour scheme (hopefully I don't get sent to boat-jail for blasphemy🤞). 
 
I've gone with a dark blue for the area of the hull between the mouldings:
 
 
 
The official name of the colour is Polyscale "C&O Enchantment Blue". I think it compliments well with both the Golden Oak stain as well as the red from the gun ports; Polyscale "NYC Pacemaker Red" (I know, I'm using "railway" colours, but they're what I have on hand).
 

 
I had thought to return to black for the QD bulwarks, but I've since decided against that, and I think I will leave them as is. I think the black would have muted the dark blue too much. On to paint the port side.
 
Andy
 

Still having some issues uploading photos, (same error message keeps popping up... frustrating), but I've managed to get two pics uploaded today. Before Christmas, I wanted to post an update as I had completed the first belt of planking on the port side. After a little debate with myself whether or not to start the first belt on the starboard side (and a pause for Christmas), I'm still not sure what I want to do with the reveal on the starboard side, so in the spirit of giving myself more time to think about it (aka procrastination), I have now completed the second belt on the port side. As it is now, I'm going to finish off the port side planking before returning to the starboard side.
 

 

 
I'm managing between two and three strakes a day (provided I've made enough pre-spiled ones for the bow). Slow but steady work. 
 
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year, and a safe and prosperous 2022.
 
Andy

Happy New Year, everyone. Thank you for your attention and your compliments. I was going to take a few days off to continue, but I’m used to being in the studio every day, and I’m not comfortable not doing anything. Think of this ship needs to process a lot of columns, slender workpiece on the lathe clamping not only trouble, and the processing of the Camber Chamfer seems to be incorrect, manual file repair efficiency is too low to achieve uniform specifications. So I spent two days to design and make a fixture that can be easily repaired by hand with a file or used as a clamping tool on a milling machine. The upper and lower two sides of the clamp seat are respectively provided with V slots of different sizes to fit the square wooden strips with 1.5-14mm side length. The chucks can be used up and down interchangeably, and the other two chucks are designed with a limit to prevent uneven force from crushing the corners. This allows for Chamfering, octahedral and taper machining of slender strips. If you have a better suggestion, please give it to me, I can improve it. It also provides better reference for other players.
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wow, wow and more wow!
 
cheers
 
Pat

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas.   Quiet here with a layer of ice and snow.
 
After fighting with PE.... and winning, I'm at this point.   Horseshoes, fishplates, and rudder gudgeons all mounted.   
 

Happy Christmas!
 
Over the past few weeks, I have, amongst many other things, been working on trying to make small boat hull shells. I know that some have trouble making these with the small planks, and I thought they may make a nice alternative to the wood hull versions. Only the small boats, though.
 
What I have done is produce hulls for a 14, 16 and 18 foot cutter (66, 75 & 84mm long), with 2 versions for the 16 foot, a standard and a slightly slimmer version for small decks (27.5 and 23.5mm widths).
 
These are 3-d printed in SLA resin, so no mould separation lines and every hull is printed from the same master file, so they are always the exact same. I have tooled them so the supports are all on the flat stern board, and any slight support stumps are easily sanded off by simply rubbing the stern on a flat piece of sand paper.
 
For now, only the slim 16 foot boat (not shown) has laser cut pear seats and oars, with the others being just the hull - but I figured it is the hull most would have problems with planking, the rest is easy. The planks are clinker and scale thickness, too.
 
These will be available very soon, with the 14 and 16 foot versions being perfect for the fishing boats, and the 18 footer being for almost everything else.
 
ETA - the three hulls shown are not the final versions.

Thank you, guys!
 
I had the final part of my new laser purchase finally arrive this week, a monolith of an extractor for my new machine. I can now use both machines, as they both have their own extractor and air assist. (I think I was engraving two lots of Sphinx decks on the new laser, in the pics)
 
A little more news:
 
1 - I can get hold of pearwood dowel. Is this something you would like in kits, or have an option for, as it is more expensive?
 
2 - Alert - I have started a 'Version 3' of this, and will be the final version, after bringing it up to my latest standards. This will be available once all V2 stock is gone - BUT, it will be £20 more expensive (All kit prices need to increase, in fact, as materials are getting more expensive, but will hold all prices for as long as I can). Alert 3 will need to cost more because the laser cut gratings are included, and the cannon carriages have been re-worked to have the cap squares integrated with the part, as per the Sphinx carriages. Laser engraved decks will be standard with this kit and the white metal anchor set replaced with a black resin 3-d printed version, eliminating the last trace of white metal from my kits. I will have to have the Alert manual updated when next printed.
 
Staying with Alert - I am having a full sail set made for this kit, so a pre made set will be available early next year. The company that is doing these is the same that do the sets for Amati, Occre etc, and are not the same very high quality I get from the (much more) expensive current sail sets, and this will be reflected in the lower price, compared to my existing sets. I love the sail sets I have now, but they do take an age just to do 20 sets, and I am forever running out of stock. An alternative was sorely needed. I have ordered 100 sets each for Alert and other kits (Not Speedy, Flirt, Duchess or Sphinx)
 
And finally, as I am writing this, something just arrived that I gave up all hope of seeing this side of Christmas - a 50kg pallet chock full of fresh photo etched brass and copper from Italy, that I was running short of! All I am waiting for now is my damned Nisha and Erycina sail sets.....
 
Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year!
 
Chris

As I am staining the leaves for the Library display I cannot afford to stir up any sawdust from my shop so I decided to go back to my computer and work on my made fore and mizzen masts.... but before I start that I modelled my 1/2 pound (1-1/2" bore) swivel gun for my fore and main tops (platform).  Originally I saw these as 16 inches long but that was from one reference, a Battlefield 18th century swivel gun manual printed in 2016.  Lewis and Clark had a 1-3/4" bore 22" long barrel swivel gun in 1804.  It's just that everyone I talk to suggests naval guns we scaled down in size so my 1/2 pdr would be 27 to 30 inches long following that train of thought.
 
 At 1:64 scale that makes it just under a 1/2" long!
Now to see if they can be resin printed as my other cannons were done.

I spent the last 3 days working on and refining the parts that make up the qdeck rail.  It was quite a journey.   The parts were tweaked to allow a bit of wiggle room when assembling.   This is a very intricate rail but is another major element of the model.  So I took my time and completed the port side without taking many pictures.  I wanted to power through it to establish a good method for building it.  When I repeat the process on the starboard side I will take many more pictures and describe how I did it.   I found the best approach for me was to build the rail in sections or groups which I will explain.  Hopefully I will start the other side by the end f the week.  
 
But here are some final pictures of the completed rail on the port side.  It really does give the ship its elegant shape so typical of these 5th rates in the Royal Navy.   I cant wait to finish the other side to see how it will look.  The rail starts to lean in toward the deck more and more as you approach the stern to match the angle of that last stern frame.  The uprights which become the sides of the ports and the timberheads are extensions of the frames.   You will need to lean these inboard as you work from mid-ship towards the stern....finally adding the top rail which is in two sections.  BUT at the same time these uprights are straight and vertical when viewing the ship from the side profile.   A tricky but rewarding experience.
 
Note the fixed block at the stern against the transom.  The middle rail sits on this.
 




 
 


Thanks for all of the likes 👍
 
"Dogs legs" - Wow these are tricky things to make.  I've been following Adrian Sorolla's excellent guide and have tried his suggestion on how to form them. He uses a slightly wider piece of wood than the actual counter timbers and basically shapes it slightly diagonally to obtain the dogs legs.
 
Now I've tried this approach and discovered that although it seems quite simple it has two issues that I think can change the shape of the stern slightly.  It makes it very difficult to come off of the wing transom vertically as two angles in different planes are required even if coming off straight.  More worrying is the way it changes the shape underneath the counter timbers which I believe is called the stern vault.
 
I've made two pieces this way and have found them to be completely unacceptable so I have decided to try a different approach.  I have looked at this part square on which requires three timbers being glued together to make a very wide piece to work with.
 
I then transposed the drawings as best I could to get the correct shape which I then cut.  The result is actually quite close to what I want.  I am now coming off of the transom vertically and the stern vault is keeping its square shape.
 
I have attached a few pictures of my experiment below but I would like to know what others think?  Is this a good way of making this part or am I way off base here?  The part that is in the pictures is very rough just to try and help me see a way forward with these parts and it is not going on the ship.
 
Any comments or advice would be very welcome and I hope you all have a great Xmas.

Thanks druxey and thats a great idea about the T piece.  I'll get one on tomorrow as those little extensions are so vulnerable. I only wear T shirts now when I'm working on it too!!!
 
Another photo from the other side too.  For some reason this wouldn't upload earlier.

Hi All
 
I've now made the taffrail filler pieces and also the window surround timbers which has made the counter timbers strong enough to remove them from the jig 👍
 
The counter timbers are now fixed onto the wing transom and are supported to keep the correct angle and hopefully protect them a bit too.  I pinned them using some 0.5mm brass as I didn't want them to move whilst the glue dried.  I set the angle by taking a measurement from the stem all the way back to the furthest point on the taffrail filler.  The only thing that went wrong was the screw head on the support decided to shear off - so I'll have to cut the support away at some point and try and remove the screw from behind.
 
Its on and square so I'm a very happy builder 😃  Now for my next challenge - the dogs legs!  Happy Xmas everyone 🎄

I've had a little more time in the shop today and I've now made the counter timber extensions that run up to the taffrail.  
 
They have nice little tenons on the top and were quite easy to make.  It was just a case of making sure that I followed all of the existing angles to the counter timbers and beam so that they sat correctly.
 
I give them a 50/50 chance of surviving until the end of the build as they will be pretty vulnerable as the build progresses.  So if I have to make them again it's not a problem.  I now need to make the parts in-between and the window frames which hopefully I will find some time this week.  Thanks for all of the comments and likes too 🙂
 
Mark
 
 
 
 
 

Hi All
 
I've now made the quarter deck beam which I think has gone ok.  The drawings do not give a separate drawing for this piece so the template's must be made from 3 different views of the same piece number 13.
 
A few pictures below of the result
 
Cheers Mark
 
 

Hi All
 
I've made a start on the counter timbers and I'm back to following Adrian Sorolla's excellent book.  He suggests making a jig which involves making another although less intricate wing transom and an angle plate to set the timbers.  Once the assembly is complete it is then transferred to the ship. 
 
So I set out to make this jig which is actually a bit more tricky than he lets on.  Not only do you have to obviously set the exact angle there is a curvature in the stern too.  I think the pictures explain this far better than my words but the jig took many hours to make compared to the hour it took to make the counter timbers.
 
So having made the jig I next made the four counter timbers which were by now quite easy for me to make.  The results are below and I just hope that they are right.  Next up is to make the quarterdeck beam to begin to tie the counter timbers together.
 
Cheers and thanks for the continued encouragement - Mark
 
 
 
 

Thanks for all of the comments, likes and advice 👍
 
I cut the hole out for the bowsprit this morning which like most things required a solution.  The hole required needs to be 14.70mm in diameter or there about's 🤣.  I'm sure that many of you have looked at this hole like me and thought I really need to keep the correct angle or it will just look bad.
 
So what I did was made a hole saw out of a piece of 13mm brass and used the bowsprit saddle as a guide. I popped the hole saw into a power drill and ran it through nice and slowly so as not to split the wood.   To get to the final size I just kept on gluing sand paper to the brass until the correct diameter was achieved.
 
So that's the bow now closed in so its onto the counter timbers at the stern for me next.  This will have to wait to next weekend now and I'm looking forward to the next challenge.
 
Mark
 

Hi All
 
Well at last I've now completed the other side of the hawse timbers 😃
 
I must be honest and admit that I have found these few timbers to be the hardest on the build so far.  The drawings are complicated and yet very precise and complete but the translation to the wood was difficult for me.  I think that this was partly due to the way each piece is stacked onto the next piece.  Assembly without glue is hard and yet the dry assembly is critical.
 
I can now see the shape of the bow and its another milestone for me.  I have not yet cut the top timbers to their finished height as this will wait until the outside of the hull is faired.
 
I have made the hawse holes and also made the small triangular filler piece that fits between hawse timber 1 and the top of frame 1.  I need to finish the hole for the bowsprit and I'll try and get that finished tomorrow; if I do I'll get some more pictures up for you.
 
Phew I'm so glad that this is done even if they are not the best joints I've ever made.
 
Thanks to you all for the encouragement - Mark 🙂
 
 

I wanted to use slow setting epoxy for fixing the guns to give me time to adjust them. While I was waiting for it to arrive, I decided to have a bash at the wash cants. They are formed from a number of complex curves and I wasn’t sure how to go about it. I decided to take it a step at a time by building them up from layers of 6x2mm pear strip. I built up the first a strip at a time measuring it against the curve of the hull and of the lower cheek. In the end they were three strips deep by two thick. The section along the stem was made up separately to a rough finish and then fixed to the hull section with epoxy to provide enough strength for filling and finishing.
 
Having completed the first, I was able to go a little quicker with the other side and glued and roughly shaped the back three strips as one piece. The front three strips were also roughly shaped before glueing to the other half for final shaping.
 

It took three afternoons of cutting filing, and sanding to complete both pieces.
 

 

 
Not easy to photograph an all black subject but here the wash cants are fitted to the hull.
 
While waiting for epoxy and filler to set at various stages, I was able to start fixing the guns.
I had already mentioned that I had fixed 1mm brass posts into the carriages and drilled corresponding holes in the upper deck. I also slightly flattened the trucks to give better contact with the deck. The guns were then fitted by applying the slow setting epoxy to the holes in the deck and aliphatic glue to the trucks.
The port side fixed and the starboard side in place ready to be glued down
 
The
 

 
The port side breeching is  fixed but the ropes need tidying and setting in position.
 
And that’s all I’ll have time for as my work room has to be dismantled – my table is needed for Christmas lunch.
 
A Merry Christmas to all
 
David

Thank you for your attention and support over the past year! And a merry Christmas to you all in advance!