Beef Wellington

Post One Hundred and Thirty-nine 
Channels
I made up the channels and trial fitted back in January (Post 127).

3194
Now that the inboard fittings have been done this is an opportune time to complete the job.

3543
Small weights are used to maintain the level until the glue sets.

3546
The  brackets are added before painting, the underside of the channels were painted before fitting.

3548

3552

3555

3556

3560
A final tidy-up of the Topsides can now be done.
 
 
B.E.
04/02/2024

Post One Hundred and Thirty-Seven
 
Qtr deck Fittings. (Part six.)
 
All that remains to do is the QD rail, and ladders to the Upper deck.
 The carronades can then be put into place.
 
Quarterdeck Breast rail.

3503
This classically shaped rail for ships of this era is fairly straightforward to fit until the top slotted rail is fitted over the stanchions.

3509
This is a 0.6mm delicate rail thro’ which the Hammock cranes are fitted into the base.
 
I found careful and gentle fettling of both rail and Crane was necessary to ensure that the cranes fitted thro’ without stress and risk of breaking the rail.
I took the precaution of drilling out the fitting holes for an easier fit. The cranes should fit flush with the top.

3507

3515
The Cranes were used to align the capping rail but will be  fitted later. They are notorious snag magnets.

3516

3519

3521

3522

3523
Movin’ aft to the Poop.
 
B.E.
31/01/2024
 

Post One Hundred and Thirty-five
 
Inboard fittings (Part four)
The kit provides two sizes of shot 2mm and 2.5mm ø in shiny black acrylic.
The 2.5mm relates to the 24pounder longs and 42pounder carronades.
The 2mm relates to the 12pounder longs.
 
I didn’t really like the look of the acrylic balls, too black and shiny for my taste.
I replaced them with blackened carbon steel balls of the same diameter.
These were given an acid bath, followed by immersion in Aluminium blackening fluid (I didn’t have any for steel) but it seemed to work.
3400
The more muted colour of the blackened balls tones better with my build.

3415
The simplicity of these assemblies belies the time taken to complete and fit them.
 
The Binnacle
The design follows that as may be seen on Victory or Trincomalee.
Laser cut from Pear; this little assembly is a delight. The mortises and tenons of the parts slot together beautifully.
The unit is complete with brass compass rose and a brass chimney for the lamp or candle.
 
Even so, I couldn’t resist making a couple of tweaks to the design.

3450

3451

3454
Glazing was added using a strip of thin acetate sheet, and the central section on the aft facing side was blanked out.
 
Steering wheel.
I liked the wheel provided on Sphinx and this one is of the same ilk only larger and double.

3429
A fully detailed brass etched wonder that gave me little incentive to consider a wooden replacement.
 
The kit colour scheme of Red painted wheels with white spokes appears regularly on contemporary models.
Deviations include All red, Black with white spokes, and all white schemes.
The latter my be a reflection that Ivory was popular for the creation of ships wheels during the 18th century.
 
I have decided to go with the ‘Red’ scheme with spokes ivory coloured.

3457
The brass etched wheels were assembled and primed with VMS  Metal Prep 4K before painting.

3440

3441
Still pondering whether to add the tiller lines.
 
In practice the centre of the tiller line was nailed to the centre of the barrel with 7 to 9 turns.
Forward end to Starboard and aft end to Port.
By reference to Steel the tiller line for a 64 is of 4” circ which scales close enough to 0.5mm ø line.

3442

3462

3461
Ladderways up next.
 
B.E.
28/01/2024

Post One Hundred and Thirty-three
 Inboard fittings (Part two)
 
The Belfry.
Another resin depiction in the style of that on Victory, nicely made and detailed.

3322
I decided to lead the roof, which was then patinated for effect.
I applied the same principle to the lead sheathing on the Gallery roofs.
The lead foil is only of 0.1mm thickness.

3334
This is a convenient point to fit the Foc’sle breast rails, a quick and easy operation. 
If you happen to lose one of the rail support pillars (106) a reasonable replacement can be made using a spare cavel block which requires only a little tweaking.
Always the way, a part for which there is no spare, pings off into the ether, but you never lose bits that have spares.
 
A pair of Twelve pounders are provided as bow chasers which complete the ordnance for the Fo’csle deck.

3331
These are of the style developed by Chris with integrated cap squares. They look the part when completed but do require the gun to be installed early in the assembly.

3333
I did remove the engraved monograms and replaced them with the Syren version.

1820a
I’m still of two minds whether I prefer the new system to the separate assembly of carriages, where they can be detailed without the gun being in the way.
 
I did purchase a couple of Blomefield 9’ long 12 pounders from Vanguard, which are old school and have detailed etched cap squares which involve more work.
This kit does not include the Quoin as shown below but they are quite easy to make.

1817a
Blackening and fitting the cap squares, particularly the tiny joint bolts and key bolts are testy, so both systems have their drawbacks. 
Both versions make up into nice guns, I am a confirmed fan of resin barrels now.

12 pounder guns
The Vanguard after-market gun kit is slightly smaller than the ‘Indy’ kit gun in terms of barrel length and diameter.
 
The trucks on the after- market gun are a better fit than those of the Indy kit, due to slightly oversize square axles which require rounding.
The ‘Indy’ gun (on the right) has rectangular axles leaving an awkward gap that is difficult to avoid. I think the axle shape need tweaking to a slightly larger square profile which can be rounded for a better fit.

3338

3340
The Foc’sle is now looking quite furnished, and not far from completion.
 
B.E.
 
23/01/2024
 
 
 

 

Post One hundred and Twenty-one
Completing the stern decoration
This comprises Acanthus leaf designs and a plaque with the Royal cipher.
3109
Before I fitted the pilasters between the lights, I added the decoration for the cove.
I found it best to do this before fitting the pilasters.

3108
The Pilasters did need a light sanding across the tops to fit the available space.

3111
I decided to add a capping rail to the transom to hide the laminations of the stern.
On 'Indy' I used Boxwood, but thin styrene strips are also suitable.
 
Roof shingles
Chris has provided pre-cut card versions that do very nicely.

3113
The lower two strakes were fitted as strips, the upper one individual tiles trimmed to suit.
 
The remaining stern decoration followed.

3135

1634A

3133

1639A

3121

3116
This Polybak decoration works very well, but great care must be taken particularly with the long delicate string attached to the cipher.
Break this and there may be difficulties in matching the smooth flow of the design.
 
My last post before Christmas, so seasons’ greetings to all my fellow builders, and many thanks for those who have liked and shown interest in my builds over the year.
 
B.E.
 
23/12/2023.
 
 
 
 

Post One Hundred and thirteen
 
Headworks (Part Three)
One of the trickiest parts to get right is the Cathead supporter and I did struggle to get the necessary curve to fay into the Ekeing rail even with Chris’s unique, as far as I know, jig which goes a long way towards resolving the problem of the complex curves involved.  
 
Ideally the top of the supporter should be square and centred beneath the Cathead, and curve down to follow exactly the curve of the Ekeing rail.
My initial attempts resulted in a mismatch between the two. The problem could be addressed to some extent by bevelling the top of the supporter but there was still an obvious  misalignment.
 
I scrapped my first attempts and I re-made the supports using a lamination of three pieces of 1mm stuff.
Even so it took a couple of re- shapings in the jig to get a result that just about passed muster.
 

2890
The Cathead supporter/ekeing rail arrangement on the kit is a simplification.
The Supporter in reality, was a separate piece to the ekeing rail and should be fastened close to the hull, with the ekeing fayed into its lower end.

2897
Once fitted, even tho’ superficially it may look ok, blind man on a galloping horse comes to mind, I was not happy with the result.
 
The main issue is that the supporter knee is glued to the Ekeing rather than the hull, resulting in a gap between hull and rail where the Ekeing passes over the upper wale and waist rails, which throw it away from the hull.
 
The manual only indicates removing a small section of rail directly beneath the cathead, and the result is that the supporter is then obviously attached to the rail rather than the hull and not attached to the hull at all at the lower extreme.
 
This made little sense and irritated my eye each time I looked at it.

2900
I needed a re-think, so all my work of the past few days was undone.

2902
Fortunately, the supporter and rail came away without breakage.
 
A contributing factor is that the Ekeing runs atop and almost parallel with the Waist rail rather than cutting it at a more acute angle to run below it as indicated on the plans (both kit and official)
 
My aim is to get the supporter to look as if it is fastened directly to the hull, and to achieve this it is necessary to fine down the waist rail to allow the supporter to sit flush with the hull. The aft side of the supporter is also built up to compensate for the gap between Upper rails and Waist rails.

1584a
This modification is still a bit of a fudge but I can now live with it.

2914

1588b

2918
There’s a lot of work left to do on the finish, and getting clean lines on the mouldings is also proving a challenge.
 
I need to wait for better light for detail painting, the light levels in the UK are very poor at present.
 
The Bow saga goes on…..
 
B.E.
07/12/2023
 
 

Post One Hundred and Ten
 
Headworks (Part One)
Along with the stern this is a critical area of a build, that can make or mar a model.
Chris has designed some of the best head work set-ups but great care is needed in assembly.
Assembly is covered over several separate sections in the blurb but I prefer to have all the parts to hand so I can check and dry fit before I commit to glue.
 
The business starts with attaching the Head timbers to the Gammoning knee which will ultimately fit atop the knee proper.

2808
The Head timbers are made of mdf and look as if they will snap in half should you give them so much as a harsh look; perhaps that is why two sets are provided in the kit.
An excellent idea; on my build the spaniel assistant had one part before it hit the ground, and another went floppy so I had to discard it.
 
To allow the Gammoning knee to sit down on the knee proper I found careful sanding and filing was necessary to the knee and base of the head timbers.
 

2807
I tested each of the four head timbers individually, and then as a set to confirm the fit is good.
The largest of the Head timbers (aft) gave me the most trouble as it was initially too close to the hull and decorative mouldings that round the bow. I had to indulge in a little light tweaking to resolve the issue.
 
The Hair bracket comes next, a delicate shaped rail that runs from the Upper cheek to the head.

2813
Below this is the Trail board that contains the Gammoning slot.

2812
To assist location, it is useful to insert a piece of board thro’ the slot when fitting the hair bracket.
 
Finally in this section the Upper and lower cheeks are applied to the bow.

2814
On my build they took a bit of shaping on the aft side to conform to the hull.

2818
Fitting these is a tedious business, I fit the lower pair before the upper.

2819
Once glue is applied there is a frantic check before the glue dries to ensure that they look right from every angle.
There’s always that nagging doubt. 🤔

2822

2823
At this point I have modified the building board to allow better access to the Bow area.

2829
I will review my efforts in the cold light of tomorrow morning to see if my eye is still satisfied.
 
 As with Sphinx I will not be fitting the wash cants.
Aesthetically these baulks of timber spoil the line of the cheeks and wale and they don’t seem to feature on Navy Board style models which is good enough for me.
They are in any case quite tricky things to shape without them looking lumpy, and I’m happy to have a ‘get out of Jail free’ card to play.
 
B.E.
22/11/2023
 
 

Post One  hundred and nine
 
And more fettlin’
This seemed an opportune time to assemble the Catheads and open up the apertures.
Only the basic assembly at this stage, finishing will be done later.

2766

2769
The completed Catheads are 6mm square so a fair bit of filing is required to open up the bulwark location.
Flat and triangular needle files were used for the purpose.
The  triple  sheaves  are patterned  on the  catheads and require drilling thro’ if they are to be rigged.

2788
The line of the sheave is offset to counter the stive of the Cathead, so that the tackle hangs vertically.
A slight round to the faux sheaves improves the look.
 
Back to the stern
The decorative mouldings are now fitted around the stern and Qtr galleries.
The trick here is to ensure that the upper counter mouldings match up with those of the Qtr galleries and have a neat finish at the corners.
Failure to achieve this will certainly catch the eye and detract from the overall look of the model.
In working this area position of the model is everything to get the right viewing angle to secure the mouldings.

2772
For me raising the hull at the stern gives me the best approach.

2780
I start with the upper counter rail, followed by the corresponding Qtr gallery rail.

2774

2778
I thought about applying a mitre joint to the corners but opted for a straight butt joint which worked out ok once carefully sanded.
Atop the rails  a strip is added to create  a simple  profile.

2791

2793

2802
Fairly satisfied with the run of the rails, but for the present I’m moving onto the Headworks.
 
B.E.
19/11/2023
 

Post One Hundred and five.
 
Bulwark Spirketting
This is now added to the Quarterdeck and Poop decks, pre-painted before gluing into place.

2661
Painting on the model is made more difficult due to the tumblehome of the Topsides along the Qtr deck.

2668

2669
Quite a change to the look of the model once this is done, but with gunport fettlin’ and other work, some restoration will be inevitable as the build progresses.

2673
The decorative facia panels at the break of the decks are also added at this time.
These remain unpainted and are treated with w-o-p.
 
Toprope scuttles
Back in Post 99 I said that I have some reservations about the Top rope scuttles being represented by gratings.

0050
They are generally shown as closed boards, without framing, and with lifting rings attached, as on Victory (Above)

2664

2667
This seemed a good point to knock up a couple of closed scuttles to see how they look.

2670
Altho’ more historically correct, I’m not sure I prefer them to the supplied gratings from a purely aesthetical viewpoint.

2675
 
B.E.
08/11/2023
 
 

Post One Hundred and two
 
Foc’sle stuff cont’d.
 A day spent fitting small sections of planking to suit the cut-away plan. Each one requires tapering to suit. Not difficult but time consuming.

2627
The tricky part is the eight or so strakes that will require  joggling into the margin planks
 
As an update from my previous post I have found a contemporary model of a large Frigate (Diana) 1794 which indeed does show a hook at the Foc’sle.

 
As the razeed Indy plan also details this feature albeit at a slightly higher level, I grasped the nettle and removed those two uprights either side of the bowsprit.
Necessary  to fit a hook.
 
The bulwark spirketting was clamped into place and given the heat treatment.
I didn’t find it necessary to wet the wood.

2615
One potential issue is that the spirketting sits some 3mm above the outer bulwarks towards the fore end, including the top hole for the ring bolts.
I can’t imagine how this has come about, all the other reference points seem to be correct.
I resolved the issue by carefully shaving the bottom edge of the spirketting to bring things into line.

2623
With the spirketting glued into place, small additional pieces were required to be added, cut from matching fret.

2617
There is an untidy area where the topside planking meets the stem at the bow that could use a little fettlin’.
It is mostly hidden once the Bowsprit is in place, but that’s no reason not to sort it.
 

2618
A simple job to tidy up the plank ends and slot in a filler piece.

2621
A bridging piece is now fitted over the top of the Bowsprit opening. The capping rails will eventually cover this.
Still a lot of cleaning up to do but getting there.

I can now work the hook and finish off around the bowsprit area.

2625
 
This is the second hook I am working on, tricky little beggar to get a good fit, and I may well end up with a third.
 
B.E.
02/11/2023
 
 
 
 
 

Post One Hundred
 
QD planking cont’d
I next fit the Margin planks using 6mm x 1mm Box. This covers the rough edges where the bulkhead tops still show.
Fortunately, the curve is soft enough to allow an edge bend even with timber this broad.
For the remaining planks I followed the etched design on the sub-deck as far as possible. This involves a degree of taper as the strakes run aft.
Three days works sees the completion, and I’m  fairly content with the result.

2575

2551

2554

2569

2580

2584

2585
Still work to do, deck scraping and tidying up before the inner bulwarks are fitted.
 
At this stage clearing dust and debris from the Upper deck is a constant issue.
At least with this amount of open space, I can get to remove it.
 
B.E.
28/10/2023

Post Ninety
 
Back in the furniture shop
I have re-visited the finish of the furniture.

2302
I was looking for a tone that better matched the varnished Pear of the sideboard and the stern bench.

2305
This time I played around with enamel paints. To get the effect I used Revell Wood brown satin (382) with added drops of Humbrol Matt Scarlet (60) to both darken and redden the tone a tad.
I think this more has the look of Mahogany about it, more typical of the 18th century.
 
Musings about cabin space.
I toyed with the idea of including a Captain’s cot in the bedspace but couldn’t quite figure out how it would be arranged. The cabin has a mere 9’9” depth and that 42 pounder carronade sits in the middle.
I have seen arrangements where the cot/hammocks are hung above guns, but there is only 1’6” space between gun and deck beam above.
The most obvious arrangement would be slung from the beams inboard of the gun and taken down each morning. It would otherwise inhibit access thro’ the double doors.
 
The Coach is less of a problem, where a table and chairs can be accommodated. Referred to as the Captain’s Dining room, I don’t see why anyone would want to dine in the confined space of the coach when the light and airy great cabin is available.
It would be more practically used as the secretary office / Captain’s larder/ storage.
Nelson’s expansive dining room as shown on Victory, this ain’t.
 
I have enjoyed myself today playing around with the furniture on my sea going dolls house.

2315

2316

2321

2322

2327

2323

2325

2326
Fairly happy with the outcome, moving onto deck beams.
 
B.E.
12/10/2023
 
 

Been a while since posting and felt like I needed to get up to date, and thanks all for the continued interest - and yes Carl, Mobbsie, simply making slightly wider transoms is the solution.  Rather tedious which is why my fingers have been distracted as you'll see.
 
I feel like I should start with a "forgive me father its been 700 days since I've looked at the instructions or used a kit part"    Haven't been completely idle but have got a decent start on couple of visually small but meaningful tasks that should allow of this to come together relatively quickly when the time comes.  Main goal is to get items in place to allow me to give the sides a coat of wipe on poly for protection after gluing items in place but prior to touchup which will definitely be needed.  I've decided that my next model will only have one side 
 
Chesstree and fenders:  These were made up to allow the sheer rail to be positioned and were cut from 3mm and 2mm sheet respectively.  The Chesstree has a notable thinning in width as it goes down the hull which I tried to reflect. Felt these looked rather boring when shaped so decided to try and put a profile in these as is so apparent when looking at those on Trincomalee and Victory.  These seem to ne features often missing on contemporary models...think I now appreciate why   A scraper profile was made for each, the fenders proved much easier to do despite being smaller because of the constant width, the chesstrees much more challenging due to the steady reduction in width.  Things are a little messy at the bottom but to the naked eye the defects are much less noticeable and these will not be redone.  Chesstree sheaves will be simulated.
 
Photos below also show a slight miscalculation from way back nearly coming back to bite me.  The sheaves for the sheets and tacks were placed a little too high and these nearly interfered with positioning the sheer rail.
 

 
Fore and Main Channels:  The channels need to be placed at the same height as the sheer rail, so even though its not necessary to attach these until much later, its necessary know where these will be positioned before the sheer rail can be applied.  I've decided to go with natural castello channel rather than painted black finish - the latter would at least have given me the option to use the kit part.  Making my own allowed me to follow TFFM styling a little bit which is a bit more curvaceous and pleasing to the eye, it also allowed me to position the slots for the chains to reflect the positions of the gun ports - you can see small but noticeable differences in the comparison below.  (Interestingly the kit fore-channel has 6 slots at the rear, where-as the AOTS plans show only 5).  Holes to allow the pinning of the channels have been drilled so these just need final attachment.
 

 
Waist:  As previously mentioned, I've been leaving the final position of the upper hull to be tweaked later.  To be comfortable that the sheer rail was correctly positioned I needed to trim the waist height back to anticipate the position of the top deck, and allowing for a layer of planking.  This was also necessary to finalise the height of the fenders and chesstrees.

 
Quarterpieces:  These have been beveled to allow the placement of the figures, and also the quarterpieces were built up slightly to allow me more easily place and but up the top finishing molding for the taffarel when I get there.  The figures with bent arms sit quite pleasingly now and there is a definite sense of depth rather than just plain bas-relief.  Obviously lots of fine finishing and touch up still needed....curse you macro gods!
 

Hi David, so pleased to see you have completed her, unfortunately I've not been 'around' for a bit so missed the last steps in real time.  Congratulations!  You have created a truly spectacular model, and I have greatly enjoyed following your build from the start and learning with you, one of the great fellowship of Diana builders 🙂 I look forward to catching up with your future builds!  All the best, Jason

Hi David, so pleased to see you have completed her, unfortunately I've not been 'around' for a bit so missed the last steps in real time.  Congratulations!  You have created a truly spectacular model, and I have greatly enjoyed following your build from the start and learning with you, one of the great fellowship of Diana builders 🙂 I look forward to catching up with your future builds!  All the best, Jason

I have finally got Diana settled in her new home.
I was planning to make a case out of acrylic sheet but I found a local supplier of aquariums who was prepared to make a case. The cost was about the same as I could have bought the acrylic sheet so there was nothing to think about really
Jungle Pets of Buxton, Derbyshire (junglepets.co.uk) made the case in 6mm glass and delivered it a while ago but I have been waiting for a piece of furniture on which to place it. This was delivered earlier in the week.
With me in the role of supervisor, my daughter and partner – much younger, fitter and stronger than me, manoeuvred the case into position over the ship and onto the baseboard without mishap. We breathed a sigh of relief.


I guess this is really the end of the Story of Diana for me.
Thanks again to all those who have followed, commented and given advice
 
David

First off, thanks everyone for the likes and comments, my apologies for not responding sooner.  I haven't been able to keep up with everyone else's builds as much as I would have liked.
 
Been tinkering with a number of items that I want to get a head start on hopefully avoid pitfalls later.  I'm leaning toward getting as much work on the hull planned out or complete before the cannons get installed and the upper deck can go on - although that will still be a while because I needed a break from gun carriages.
 
Trimming the bow height:
Way back I'd mentioned that I took the approach to build the bows up higher than I would likely need to allow for the unforeseen.  I have now shaped these to be much closer to where I think they will end up, less a little finishing.  The bulwarks at the bow appear to be parallel to the whale, just like the rails, which was used as a guide.  This was an exercise in reconciliation as of course various small (or not so small) errors have crept in along the way.  This proved not too difficult, the only hiccup was found when dry fitting the deck, to ensure that the height of the bulwark is symmetrical on both sides, some shims were added to the top of some of the forward bulkheads.  The error is unlikely to be in the kit cut bulkheads, but more likely a combination of small discrepancies in my positioning of the position of the whales, waterline etc.  You can see in shots below the discrepancy in the height of the foremost gunport, this was a result of positioning the ports to be of equal height off the deck, which was clearly not fitted as well as it should have been.  These add about .5-0.75 of height on the starboard side, but the very small 'twist that this will introduce will not be noticeable.  The sheer rail at the bow has also been added.
 

 
Headworks:
Have been doing a lot of thinking about how to approach the headworks, clearly a rather challenging area.  Frankly, the kit supplied parts are a little disappointing being rather grainy and splintery, with some questionable dimensions.  The main rail seemed to be the place to start, and after a lot of experimentation decided to build this and the false rail together rather than in separate pieces - mainly because it seems sturdier, and less challenging as the false rail is rather lengthy and thin at this scale.  The main rails were cut from 2mm castello, and a profile introduced using a scraper to simulate the various features of the genuine article.  Curved, tapering shapes have to be the hardest to get right, especially with fine details and there were many time consuming rejects which painfully got me up the learning curve until I was happy.  The AOTS side elevations were scanned and manipulated digitally to correct for the angle to get the appropriate shape.  Caution!  I think the placement of the slot for the boomkin is not shown correctly on the AOTS side profile, I adjusted this looking at contemporary models - the revised position matches closely with the kit part which does provide some comfort.
 
The false rail was cut from 0.6mm pear sheet and 2 were laminated together.  The panel section of the false rail was cut out carefully to be shaped later by beveling the edges before replacing back in place.  First photo below shows a little how these were built up, with the first successful but discarded prototype, and a main rail that failed scraping.  Second photo below shows the kit supplied part next to the one of the scratched final articles.  Ignoring the quality of the wood (and to be fair, I made no effort to clean up the supplied parts), the AOTS plans suggest a subtly different profile curve, and a thicker main rail which looks too thin on the kit part.  The head of the main rail was deliberately cut a little longer to allow final shaping once these are finally installed.
 

 
These were then positioned with the head of the main rail vertical in both head on and side elevations.  It was found that these were quite easy to keep in place using mini modeling clothes pins  (scale replicas of the actual clothes pins used in actual ship construction  ).  Posting a lot of photos because I would really appreciate comments and suggestions from those more experienced with this to help me avoid fatal errors!
 

 
Finally, to confirm the layout of the boomkin slot, a copy was copied and scaled from the AOTS diagram.  This shows the tight proximity of the boomkin and seat of ease.  The triangular gap at the rear of the grating behind the false rail screen is where I believe there should be another seat of ease.
 
Again - I'm fumbling my way through this following the excellent TFFM book, so please do not be shy to point out errors and mistakes!
 

 

Ensign...conclusion:
A tiny bit of steam was used to soften the ensign while various "rounded implements" with different radii (dowel, metal file shafts etc.) were used to try and introduce various folds.  I'd love to be able to describe a reproduceable scientific process, but thats not what happened.  It was really just a continual serious of tweaks, leaving to dry and most importantly trying not to introduce creases.  Steam worked fine to initially soften and allow the structural folds to be introduced, but isn't really a good ongoing solution as it tends to undo any previous work.  Real care is also needed to not 'over wet' the painted flag, not sure I was completely successful here.  Final tweaking was done by wetting very gently any tools used and trying to hold in position while it dried and the fold takes.

...and with that milestone, I'm declaring this build FINISHED!  
 
This was my first wooden ship build, and first model I've built for over 30 years.  Its taken probably 8 years to get this far off an on (probably 7 years more than it should), but I have to say I'm glad I was able to finish her.  I've come to realize that I enjoy the journey more than the destination, and I certainly experienced moments when I could easily have put her aside permanently, mainly due to me recognizing unfixable mistakes or compromises that that could so easily been enhanced had I known more at the time.  Given the length of time taken to complete, this progression in knowledge and execution is very apparent to me, but I hope is less apparent to others.  All in all, this was a most enjoyable project that exposed me to the necessary knowledge and techniques that I hope build on and leverage in the future.  I still need to make up a protective case, and will probably continue to see needed fixes and touchups before she (hopefully) is put in a place of rest.  I would like to thank this entire community for the ongoing help, support and encouragement - without which I would not have reached this point.
 
Few pictures to celebrate, apologies that these aren't exactly studio quality.

 

Fascinating project, very interested in seeing this come together.

Very well done Mort. she looks fantastic!

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

Mort - so glad you've decided to start a build log, will be very interested to follow your progress.  Can't wait for the pictures!

This looks fantastic Chuck, what is your trick for removing laser char so thoroughly?  Everything is so clean.

Looks great, definitely intriguing to see how this beauty develops!

It seems very odd that the jib-boom would be secured without a rope lashing, and I suspect it is an omission in the AOTS.