Beef Wellington

Thank you for all the feedback. I was made aware that the Most Honourable Order of Garter not only was used for the cathead, but also for other decoration, her the stern of a small frigate. 36 Gun Frigate
Scale 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate (circa 1801). SLR0643   https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-66604   XXXDAn

Following a recent visit to the NMM Greenwich I can also confirm that Turner’s The Battle of Trafalgar shows the Garter Star to the Cathead. It is a huge painting and you can get within a few feet - closer if you lean in 🙄
 
Turner is the only artist that captured Victory after her return from Trafalgar, there is an extraordinary treasure trove of detailed sketches at the Tate.
 
Interestingly he also shows 4 rows of glass panes to each of the windows of the quarter gallery, a feature he also captures in relation to the stern windows in his watercolour From Quarterdeck to Poop.
 
Gary 

Glad you shared this 'ancient' build BE, you really managed an excellent result and the modifications seem spot on.  The approach and the detail shown on the modified headworks is very helpful and insightful, I can only imaging how long this took to achieve but the results are fantastic.

Hi, and tanks to all  😊
 
 

Tanks to all 💗
 
 
 
 

There are scant details on MSW of builds of this iconic Billing Boat kit, and periodically questions arise, often concerning inherited or partially built models requiring completion or restoration in the absence of plans or instructions, which in the case of Billing Boats were somewhat thin.
 
So, in the spirit of giving some images that may help, I post here my Norske Løve story.
 
I must have posted it somewhere before but can’t for the life of me remember where or when, but I do have my original log and photos.
A cautionary note, this is a model I made over forty years ago, so the standard of fittings, and the ravages of dust have taken its toll on the condition.
 
If I knew then what I know now I could certainly have made a better job of her but she remains a model for which I still have great affection, and I have resisted the temptation to upgrade her.
 
Those not familiar with the finer points of our art tend to be seriously impressed by the sight of her.
 
( Norske)  Løve Story
 
More years ago, than I care to remember, before my office was a den of computer stuff, and before the digital age, I had a yen to build a large scale wooden 18th century warship.
 
In those days it was either Billing Boats or Billing Boats, and as I browsed through their catalogue my eyes alighted on Norske Løve.
It was the image of the modeller putting the final touches to the model that grabbed my attention, I wanted to be that guy.

BB Cat cover
Yes, I still have that original catalogue, in those days I actually went to a model shop, can you believe it!
 
Pity I didn’t have the internet resource back then, but I did have the Longridge book and perhaps more importantly the Masting and rigging book by James Lees.
 
Given that the Norske Løve was launched in 1765 it immediately struck me that the round tops provided in the kit, were oddly out of period, more 17th century than 18th

The masts and tops were therefore scratch built to proportions given in the Lees book for ships of the correct period.
The other main area that gave me concern was the head. In common with many wooden kit models this is a weak area with a less than realistic rails set up.

Catalogue shot of the bows
 
These were therefore also scratch built.
 
I made other ‘modifications’ not necessarily in accordance with the plans, such as a skylight on the Poop and removeable skids to house boats which were not provided with the kit.
 
Billing at the time (and probably still are) were in the habit of providing some plastic fittings for their kits such as blocks and Deadeyes, decorations etc.
 
I seem to recall that the fittings kit was a separate purchase to the main build kit.

This is Billings catalogue shot of the completed model.
 
The build took me a couple of years, and my office resembled more of a joiners shop than an office. Drill stand and vice screwed to the desk top, wood turning model lathe and dremel permanently plugged in where now the printer and computer stuff reside.
 
Everything was covered in a fine film of dust, but boy how I enjoyed that build.
 
When completed the model sat in a lighted cabinet that filled one wall of the office and that’s how it stayed for some years.
With the arrival of computers and the need to use my office for its proper purpose, everything was changed. Away went the cabinet and all the modelling stuff.

1153
 Norske Løve then proudly sat uncovered on a long chest of drawers, where it resides to this day.
 
Strangely things have come full circle and in retirement my office once again resembles more of a workshop, but I don’t think the resident equipment would appreciate a return to the heavy sawdust days.
 
So here is the photo collection of my interpretation of Norske Løve,

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1127

1134

1138

1139
The head rails were scratch built using yellow pine, but there were several breakages before I got a satisfactory set. The Lower and Middle rails are mortised thro’ the head timbers, and the Main rail rebated into the head timbers.

04 02
I recall the exercise being long, slow, and frustrating.

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I particularly like the stern and Quarter galleries with their glazed lights, one of my pet dislikes with wooden kits are false windows or even worse stuck on windows, such as with the Mantua Le Superbe that lies forlornly in the loft.
 
This is one area where Billing have done a good job, there was very little tweaking to this area of the build.

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The modified tops, scratch built to proportions given by James Lees. The plastic rigging blocks supplied by Billings were replaced by boxwood versions.

004(2)
 

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The main difficulty with single planked hulls such as this is that there is little scope for cocking it up if you don’t want to hide it with paint.
I also have an aversion to stub guns so the lower ports are closed.

008(2)

010
The Poop was modified by the addition of a skylight, and the Ensign hand painted on cotton. The simplicity of the Danish flag lends itself to this method.
 

007(2)
I think the anchors were aftermarket purchases.
 
The Boats

002

005
Boats were not supplied so I had to create my own.

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The deck fittings are mostly removeable to assist cleaning which is evidently overdue when this photo was taken.

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Dust build up is clearly apparent here.

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I really prefer models out of cases, they have so much more impact, and 1:75 scale allows for reasonable cleaning access which in this case takes about three hours every few months or so.
 
I hope those who cross paths with this kit get some benefit from this vintage build.
 
Regards,
 
B.E.
22/03/21
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thats just beautiful Mike, deck is looking fantastic (envious!).  Nice to see the contrast with the maple and pear as I'll be taking the same approach.  Very nice work.

Hi Dafi - definitely interested if you could share more detail on the Garter Star research/hypothosis, images etc.  Catheads looks stunning!  Cheers

I keep looking at this model and forcing myself to forget what I've seen...CAF look to be providing a whole range of a type of hybrid kit and I strongly suspect one will be in my future.  Love what you're doing to expand on the kit, seems this would be hard to discern from a true scratch build frame model.  Glad you managed to overcome the early challenges, even the best kits of this complexity it seems have their own foibles to work through.  Know you're working on you Amerigo Vespucci, but can't wait to see more progress here.

Just to throw a bit of snark in: given what Ive seen of Victory as a model kit, I would say the best one is the one you think you can complete.   

Although it was indeed not common due to less things eating the hulls, it did occur. Mostly though, wooden sheathing was employed, essentially an underwater sacrifical layer of thin planking. Even Swedish East Indiamen were sheathed in that manner. However, the major units of the Swedish navy were copper sheathed in the major overhaul around 1790, but none of those sank outside Riga as far as I know even though they did patrol the Baltic together with the British in 1809.
 
If it’s indeed a large ship and indeed 200 years old (how did they conclude that, I saw no dendro?) the answer should be available in the archives.  Probably in the Russian - they built their larger vessels with oak and copper sheathing too, at least a bit further into the 19th century. Wonder why they disregarded the most obvious answer? Otherwise, if ”oak” and ”copper” is all they’ve got, I can mention that plenty of later and lesser vessels were built of oak with copper sheathing - here’s one example:
 
 
https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tre_Kronor_af_Stockholm
 
edit: looking at the pictures with people in it, the size if the hull and planking makes me think this is a smaller vessel.

Good morning.

Yards now done and have started the shrouds
 

A few weeks since I posted but I will update progress on making some of the gun deck fittings. I’ve also been in Iceland for a week on a holiday that was postponed three times due to Covid restrictions. What an amazing country. We plan to go back in the spring when there should be good numbers of breeding waders and other birds around.
 
I started with the ship’s stove which I made from 1mm and 0.5mm styrene card using patterns from AotS Diana. I used the condenser provided in the kit because when painted with Tamiya copper, I thought it looked the part but I made the chimney using 8 and 6mm dowel shaped and drilled out. The body of the stove is painted in Tamiya iron. I was quite pleased with the result…
 

 
… until I realised that the chimney was over the boiler instead of the fire! Luckily I was able to remove the chimney and top plate and glue it back the correct way around
 

 
The hearth is made from 1mm maple sheet and the tiles from boxwood strip and all edged in some 2mm walnut strip.
 
The forward riding bits in the kit didn’t look right so I made these from pieces of 6x2mm boxwood stringing in the manner of RobDurant. There are no riding bits at the foremast provided in the kit but I wanted to make them for the sake of completeness. Again they were made from 6x2 boxwood and sized according to AotS. Neither are glued, just pinned together.
 

 
I wasn’t very keen on the parts provided for the ladders and there is no provision for the double ladderway or at the rear hatch. Since these ladders will not easily be seen, I decided to use the kit parts but I will work out something that will hopefully look better for the q’deck and f’csle.
 
 
I have started making the partitions that form the captain’s quarters. Once again I am indebted to RobDurant for providing a downloadable pattern making the task much simpler. I glued the paper pattern onto 1mm maple sheet and cut out the doors. With hindsight I should have left them until I had completed framing of the lights because they were prone to breaking up but I have managed to make them presentable. The panels are carved out using a #6 blade then finished of with a file and 600 wet & dry. And the edging strips are in boxwood strip.
 
 
 

 
I also wanted to make the partition for the Great Cabin. Again I used Rob’s pattern. Cutting out the centre section made it the correct width. I again used 1mm maple sheet and will carve out the panels. This time though, I will leave the doors in place until the lights are completed. Since it will be difficult to see, I may not cut the doors out but just score the outline.
 

 
I will also make the partition dividing the coach and the bed place but plan to leave it fairly plain. I’m surprised that there is no door between the two shown in the plans. I also wonder whether to paint the internal walls of the partitions white.
 
Finally two shots of the deck. Nothing glued in place yet
 

 

 
The mast partners are cut from 1mm maple sheet and simply scored to imitate the planking.
 
 

Amazing work Mike, those PE modifications are a great idea and perfectly executed.  Those small enhancements add yet more depth to the model.

Amazing work Mike, those PE modifications are a great idea and perfectly executed.  Those small enhancements add yet more depth to the model.

Amazing work Mike, those PE modifications are a great idea and perfectly executed.  Those small enhancements add yet more depth to the model.

Amazing work Mike, those PE modifications are a great idea and perfectly executed.  Those small enhancements add yet more depth to the model.

Amazing work Mike, those PE modifications are a great idea and perfectly executed.  Those small enhancements add yet more depth to the model.

Amazing work Mike, those PE modifications are a great idea and perfectly executed.  Those small enhancements add yet more depth to the model.

Not much to report as have had "other" things going on.   I am working still on the skins.  The top ones are in and the lower ones are works in progress.  But then I took a pic today while glue was drying....   title it "you can't have too many clamps".  I don't have enough and the hardware store I visited was out.   

Starboard side is done.   Did the finger test* on both sides and I'm pretty happy.  I also trimmed up the stern area, fitted the counter to test and it's now soaking to be bent and secured into place.   I'll pull the blue tape off tomorrow.
 
*Finger test:  close eyes, run finger tips over hull.
 
 

I managed to finish what I think should be all the sub-assemblies i wanted to build off the model.  Lots of details with the Infini upgrade set.  The Hasegawa kit is actually really well done, but Infini really kicks it up a couple of levels with their detail set.  I primed them all in black using Mr. Finisher 1500 from the airbrush (thanks @CDW for the recommendation!), and should be able to paint and start assembling later this week.  Should come together fairly quickly after these are painted.  
 
Here are some pics:
 
Masts (using blue-tack).  I find blue-tack on a small item like a plastic shot glass help keep the part stable while adding PE to it):
 

 
Single AA guns and some kind of tower:
 

 
Davits and random plastic pieces that will be added to the model.  Infini did a really nice job on the davits, giving turned brass pedestals that the PE tops pop right into for the smaller davits:
 

 
Double and triple AA guns, along with 29 ammo boxes (using painters tape because these items had flat bottoms and the painter's tape has just enough adhesion to keep these parts secure while airbrushing):
 

 
The big guns - here you can see how I use toothpicks to serve as little stands for the guns for ease of painting.  For the guns, I drilled a small hole in the bottom and stuck a toothpick into it.  This helps to reach the entire gun in one painting session, and the hole the bottom won't be seen.  For the other piece in the pictures, which is the back part of the main funnel, I just used CA to glue a toothpick into the bottom (again, that won't be seen).  
 

 
 
Just thought I'd pass along some techniques that I've found to be helpful.  Thanks for looking in!

Slow and steady progress on this.  I finally have all the guns completed.  Here is the sole twin AA gun, along with the four triple AA guns.  These AA guns probably had close to a dozen PE pieces each.  These pictures are under extreme magnification, but the detail is pretty amazing.  The barrels especially have little ridges and and inset where the barrel opening is.
 

 

 
 
Also finished the 14 single AA guns.  Only 8 pieces on these, but they took quite some time:
 

 

 
I'm trying to replicate oil canning effects on the hull sides, which so far isn't looking too bad, just need to clean up a few areas.  Once that's in good shape, I will add the linoleum decks and structures to the hull, and then these various details.  Famous last words, but it should come together fairly quickly now that a lot of these details are finished.  One could probably finish this kit in a week or two if building straight from the box.  With the Infini detail set, the time is multiplied probably by at least a factor of ten I would conservatively estimate.