Beef Wellington

Thanks to Beef Wellington,  BenD and Rob for the likes and also to Rob for your very kind comments. 
I have read about the treatments available (both chemical and biological!) for toning down the copper but have decided to let nature take its course.
 
Rob,  your points on setting up the stern and making sure that stern and quarter gallery lights are aligned are well noted.
 
Having read both your's and Jason's accounts, I am trying to construct  something more representative of the plans in AotS.
To that  end, I have got my daughter to copy the stern gallery from the book and modify it to account for the angle (she's much better with image manipulation programmes) which I will use to make a template and with drawings of the quarter galleries to check alignments. I have also taken the liberty of downloading your drawings for the quarter galleries  which I will make up in cardboard to see how it all fits together.
 
David 
 
 

As a note, do be careful with these, as they're very easy to put on too high or too low. Photocopying the plans and sticking them to the side of the hull will help you here. Also, if in doubt, make card templates of the ply parts and try it out as a mockup (they're easier to bend and manipulate before you bend the parts!). It took me a good while to be satisfied it would all fit together, and I ended up pinning parts so I knew when I glued them they'd go where I'd intended them to go.
 
The line where the top of the stern lights finishes will determine the intersection between the bulwark rail and the capping rail over the transom. And it will also determine how the lights look as they transition between the quarter galleries and the stern... which for me is a line that the eye picks up on (one of those "you'll never notice it if it's right" things?) and makes a big difference. Anyway - I wish you all the best as you set out into perhaps the most challenging, but also the most rewarding section of the build!

What a great start. She's going to look fantastic!

Post Forty-five
 
Working the Oars continued.
 
Ten oars are required, and it is simply a case of getting down to this repetitive, but rather satisfying task.
I used both scalpel blades and sanding sticks to achieve the required results.
 
There is no real way of speeding up the process, but a jig as previously described does help with the tapering of the blades.
For each set of five I prepared all the shafts first, glued them into the Looms and added the handles, I then set them aside for the glue to cure.
The blades were then made.
 
Final sanding of the shafts and the rounding of the handles was then done before adding the blades.
 
Annoyingly one of the shafts developed a slight curve.

2831(2)
I tried clamping in a vice and applying heat, to no avail, then I used the Quad hands with a central weight to straighten the shaft, again applying heat.
This seemed to work after a couple of repeat treatments.

2843(2)
The first five completed, but still requiring a final cleaning up.
 
At this point I cleaned up the rather neat little oar racks designed by Chuck and glued them to base boards of 100mm x 25mm cut from the bulkhead frets.

2825(2)
I think fixing to separate boards more convenient than attaching to what will be the base yet to be made.

2827(2)
Pitch Pine stain was used to enrich the Cherry Wood.

2839(2)
A trial fit in the racks.
 
Work will now continue to complete the oars, but in the meantime the wilds of North Yorkshire are calling.
 
 
B.E.
07/07/21
 
 

Thank you Glenn, Bob, and Hubac, and to those following along with this build.👍
 
Post Forty-two
 
Resin decorations
 
While I wait for the acanthus scrolls to release from the backing I attended to the remaining resin decorations.
Firstly, the hull decoration at the break of the sternsheets.

2563
Fairly straightforward, small sections of the rails need to be removed to accommodate the fit.

2561(2)
 
The final fittings are the Mermaid figures that adorn the stern.
Somewhat trickier to fit, requiring removal of sections of the rails and capping of the Flying Transom.

2570(2)
The figures also need a gentle tweaking using hairdryer heat  to take the stress out of the fish tail end where it follows the round of the hull.
I found it tricky to attach the figures without marring the finish, and they will inevitably need touching up once in place.

2602(2)

2598(2)

2587(2)

2585(2)

2583(2)
I’m not entirely satisfied with the colour reproduction of the resin castings, they are not a bad match to the bare Boxwood, but I rather feel a little more richness is called for.
 
With the resin decorations in place, I was happy to find that the first of the Acanthus leaf Boxwood decoration finally released.

2646
Relieved to find it fitted between the rails.
 
They won’t be fitted into place until the whole set is available.
I wonder if I should apply a coat of wop before fitting.
 
 
In the meantime, I can attend to the rudder.
 
 
B.E.
27/06/21
 

good evening everyone
 
the foremast continues, everytime i look at the donar build, i see something new to add, looks like rope ladders next
seams like a lifetime away from getting close to this

 

Looking good Stergios!  Getting close now to the finish line.

@ Mike - no not officially an engineer, but my brain does work that way....am a physicist by education, and have played a little with battlefield engineering.  Up to this point, its been possible to get by just by look and feel, and the philosophy of thinking ahead and not sweating the small stuff 🙂.  This task just required more planned precision.  BTW - you can never have enough serving on a model if you have the patience for it.
 
Hopefully this photo makes the jig operation clearer (I left the tape off the outside guide templates for clarity).  The fine sandpaper shown is around 0.2mm thickness which would pretty much be offset by the electrical tape thickness.  (0.2mm plank width variance would add up to a 4mm problem per side, so it adds up quickly)

 

To say that my self-imposed deadline has lit a fire under me would be an understatement!  It has been a week, now, and I’ve been painting in the day AND in the evenings.
 
At this stage, all of the primary colors are down and I am ready to spray the ink wash before the gilding of the ornaments.  It is all extremely vivid, right now, but these pics will give a sense of how the frieze will come to life on the aft bulwark pieces:
 

 
Yellow ocher, I think, is a good unifier of these three colors as they all seem to play nicely with the yellow.
 
Figuring out exactly how I wanted to highlight the timberheads took a minute, and execution of the painting took many more minutes!
 

 
I wanted to draw attention to the fore and sprit sheet block entry, so I painted it black.  It seemed unlikely that the sheaves, at this time, would be cast bronze, so I painted them a dark wood brown.
 
Merely by padding the thickness of the sheer railing by 1/32”, I have created a much more realistic sense of scale for this detail:
 

 

 
So, I will finish up the wash and ornamental paint for this piece at home.  Incidentally, the dolphin hances will get the same aqua treatment as the figurehead, and this will be a consistent theme that runs through the ship, all the way to the dolphin on the rudderhead.
 
Tonight, I’ll airbrush the red base-coat for the port side bulwark piece, and the whole process will begin again!  Despite my urgency, this is the standard that I will doggedly maintain.
 
Thank you for the likes, comments and for looking in.

@ Mike - no not officially an engineer, but my brain does work that way....am a physicist by education, and have played a little with battlefield engineering.  Up to this point, its been possible to get by just by look and feel, and the philosophy of thinking ahead and not sweating the small stuff 🙂.  This task just required more planned precision.  BTW - you can never have enough serving on a model if you have the patience for it.
 
Hopefully this photo makes the jig operation clearer (I left the tape off the outside guide templates for clarity).  The fine sandpaper shown is around 0.2mm thickness which would pretty much be offset by the electrical tape thickness.  (0.2mm plank width variance would add up to a 4mm problem per side, so it adds up quickly)

 

@ Mike - no not officially an engineer, but my brain does work that way....am a physicist by education, and have played a little with battlefield engineering.  Up to this point, its been possible to get by just by look and feel, and the philosophy of thinking ahead and not sweating the small stuff 🙂.  This task just required more planned precision.  BTW - you can never have enough serving on a model if you have the patience for it.
 
Hopefully this photo makes the jig operation clearer (I left the tape off the outside guide templates for clarity).  The fine sandpaper shown is around 0.2mm thickness which would pretty much be offset by the electrical tape thickness.  (0.2mm plank width variance would add up to a 4mm problem per side, so it adds up quickly)

 

@ Mike - no not officially an engineer, but my brain does work that way....am a physicist by education, and have played a little with battlefield engineering.  Up to this point, its been possible to get by just by look and feel, and the philosophy of thinking ahead and not sweating the small stuff 🙂.  This task just required more planned precision.  BTW - you can never have enough serving on a model if you have the patience for it.
 
Hopefully this photo makes the jig operation clearer (I left the tape off the outside guide templates for clarity).  The fine sandpaper shown is around 0.2mm thickness which would pretty much be offset by the electrical tape thickness.  (0.2mm plank width variance would add up to a 4mm problem per side, so it adds up quickly)

 

Aaaand finished. 
Compared to a WW1 German torpedo boat 
 
and beside a big brother from
ww2 
 
and parked in the digital graveyard 

Port side coppering is completed. Although this task is pretty repetitive, I found that once I got going, I wanted to see it completed.
Learning from the starboard side, I decided to plate the gore line progressively as it occurred in the run of tiling.
Again I ran three straight runs of tile and then marked the position of the gore line with white tape.
 

 
Instead of then placing all the tiles along the line, I continued to add plates normally from the stern row by row and cutting tiles to the line of the tape as it needed. This resulted in a much smoother transition than I achieved on the starboard side
 

 

 
After that, it all went quite smoothly but I am glad to have completed this part of the build. 
 

 

 

 
I am going to leave plating the rudder for a while because I the kit supplied part will need replacement so I’ve started to think about the stern and quarter galleries.
 
David

@ Mike - no not officially an engineer, but my brain does work that way....am a physicist by education, and have played a little with battlefield engineering.  Up to this point, its been possible to get by just by look and feel, and the philosophy of thinking ahead and not sweating the small stuff 🙂.  This task just required more planned precision.  BTW - you can never have enough serving on a model if you have the patience for it.
 
Hopefully this photo makes the jig operation clearer (I left the tape off the outside guide templates for clarity).  The fine sandpaper shown is around 0.2mm thickness which would pretty much be offset by the electrical tape thickness.  (0.2mm plank width variance would add up to a 4mm problem per side, so it adds up quickly)

 

Thanks everyone for not forgetting me!
 
@BE - Yes, I will glaze the lights.  One of my other vacillations is what with, especially as the stern lights still need to be installed.  There is the kit supplied perspex, crystal clear, and I also have some thin mica sheets which are less than perfect but maybe a little bit more 'period'.  Still pondering that one, luckily don't need to decide now.
@Eammon - need to see you getting back into things now the Ballier is complete!
@Mike - very much enjoying watching your Snake come together
 
Planning for quarterdeck planking:
Planking the forecastle and quarterdeck has had me in a state of indecision for quite some time.  Of course one option would be to simply plank with standard 4mm strip.  While there is next to no chance of a mess-up, I knew that I would be forever kicking myself as this would not be consistent with contemporary practice.  At this time, it seems that deck planking was still done by hand and involved planks being tapered, but without being joggled into the waterway.  I'm going to follow the suggested pattern in the AOTS Diana book which show a consistent taper over the full length (with consistent run fore to aft), rather than the other contemporary practice of having a wider section at the rear of some planks to allow the adjacent plank to butt into it.  This approach will definitely be a big challenge, but I'm hoping that taking this slowly will at least give a chance of success.
 
Firstly, the quarterdeck was marked out with 1cm station markers, the centerline defined and an estimate for the waterway placement.  I'm planning on the waterway being about 5mm wide, so the edge was marked 6mm from the interior bulwark face to allow for an additional layer of planking.  For ease, this exercise was then then repeated on a paper template, and seperate templates were created for both starboard and port sides.

The width of the deck was then measured at each 1cm station.  To aid this exercise, I used a newly acquired digital caliper which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone, I don't know how I got by with without one to this point - no more eyeballing to the nearest 0.5mm!  To minimize error, each measurement was taken 3 times and then averaged on each side.  This highlighted something that is not too surprising, that is that the the hull is not symmetrical, and varies in width from the centerline by up to 1mm, and needs to be accounted for.

All of these measurements were entered into a spreadsheet to estimate the required taper for each plank, and which allowed certain constraints to be resolved (for example, a whole number of planks are needed (!), and that the width of the plank at the aftmost end shouldn't be less than 50% of the widest part of the plank.).  The small discrepancies between the starboard and port side were resolved by simply averaging the two, mainly to avoid the need for different tapering approaches, and hopefully these discrepancies can be resolved without being apparent to a typical observer.  The spreadsheet allowed the overall planking plan to be determined at each station, so that this can continually be checked as planking progresses.  To give everyone a sense for where this landed, the desired plank is 3.85mm at its widest, tapering to 2.16mm at its narrowest over a length of 35cm.

Now the plank widths were known, 2 templates could be made out of some spare pear stock. (These were fine tuned after temporarily glueing together)  I was very happy with how this turned out, and it proved possible to get to a high level of accuracy with time and care.  These templates were then glued onto a board, and jig to hold planks placed in between.  Each plank was rough shaped to remove 75% of the needed material, but then finished with ever finer sandpaper.  The sandpaper was placed in the center of a block that slides on the templates to provide the final shape.  Electrical tape was placed on the templates to help protect them, and also offset the thickness of the sandpaper.  The bottom photo shows the first 10 planks having been finished.  I was very pleased with the level of accuracy that this gave, there being very little difference between the planned and actual.

Next step will be to start getting some of these installed, and continue shaping the remainder that will be needed.
 
 

Looks great Rob.  Did you end up pinning the rails?  As you say, these look pretty long so are maybe less prone to damage, and with the trip piece above also helping push back against any strain from the rigging you are probably in good shape.  Must be nice not to have to worry about any armament 🙂

@ Mike - no not officially an engineer, but my brain does work that way....am a physicist by education, and have played a little with battlefield engineering.  Up to this point, its been possible to get by just by look and feel, and the philosophy of thinking ahead and not sweating the small stuff 🙂.  This task just required more planned precision.  BTW - you can never have enough serving on a model if you have the patience for it.
 
Hopefully this photo makes the jig operation clearer (I left the tape off the outside guide templates for clarity).  The fine sandpaper shown is around 0.2mm thickness which would pretty much be offset by the electrical tape thickness.  (0.2mm plank width variance would add up to a 4mm problem per side, so it adds up quickly)

 

Thanks everyone for not forgetting me!
 
@BE - Yes, I will glaze the lights.  One of my other vacillations is what with, especially as the stern lights still need to be installed.  There is the kit supplied perspex, crystal clear, and I also have some thin mica sheets which are less than perfect but maybe a little bit more 'period'.  Still pondering that one, luckily don't need to decide now.
@Eammon - need to see you getting back into things now the Ballier is complete!
@Mike - very much enjoying watching your Snake come together
 
Planning for quarterdeck planking:
Planking the forecastle and quarterdeck has had me in a state of indecision for quite some time.  Of course one option would be to simply plank with standard 4mm strip.  While there is next to no chance of a mess-up, I knew that I would be forever kicking myself as this would not be consistent with contemporary practice.  At this time, it seems that deck planking was still done by hand and involved planks being tapered, but without being joggled into the waterway.  I'm going to follow the suggested pattern in the AOTS Diana book which show a consistent taper over the full length (with consistent run fore to aft), rather than the other contemporary practice of having a wider section at the rear of some planks to allow the adjacent plank to butt into it.  This approach will definitely be a big challenge, but I'm hoping that taking this slowly will at least give a chance of success.
 
Firstly, the quarterdeck was marked out with 1cm station markers, the centerline defined and an estimate for the waterway placement.  I'm planning on the waterway being about 5mm wide, so the edge was marked 6mm from the interior bulwark face to allow for an additional layer of planking.  For ease, this exercise was then then repeated on a paper template, and seperate templates were created for both starboard and port sides.

The width of the deck was then measured at each 1cm station.  To aid this exercise, I used a newly acquired digital caliper which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone, I don't know how I got by with without one to this point - no more eyeballing to the nearest 0.5mm!  To minimize error, each measurement was taken 3 times and then averaged on each side.  This highlighted something that is not too surprising, that is that the the hull is not symmetrical, and varies in width from the centerline by up to 1mm, and needs to be accounted for.

All of these measurements were entered into a spreadsheet to estimate the required taper for each plank, and which allowed certain constraints to be resolved (for example, a whole number of planks are needed (!), and that the width of the plank at the aftmost end shouldn't be less than 50% of the widest part of the plank.).  The small discrepancies between the starboard and port side were resolved by simply averaging the two, mainly to avoid the need for different tapering approaches, and hopefully these discrepancies can be resolved without being apparent to a typical observer.  The spreadsheet allowed the overall planking plan to be determined at each station, so that this can continually be checked as planking progresses.  To give everyone a sense for where this landed, the desired plank is 3.85mm at its widest, tapering to 2.16mm at its narrowest over a length of 35cm.

Now the plank widths were known, 2 templates could be made out of some spare pear stock. (These were fine tuned after temporarily glueing together)  I was very happy with how this turned out, and it proved possible to get to a high level of accuracy with time and care.  These templates were then glued onto a board, and jig to hold planks placed in between.  Each plank was rough shaped to remove 75% of the needed material, but then finished with ever finer sandpaper.  The sandpaper was placed in the center of a block that slides on the templates to provide the final shape.  Electrical tape was placed on the templates to help protect them, and also offset the thickness of the sandpaper.  The bottom photo shows the first 10 planks having been finished.  I was very pleased with the level of accuracy that this gave, there being very little difference between the planned and actual.

Next step will be to start getting some of these installed, and continue shaping the remainder that will be needed.
 
 

@ Mike - no not officially an engineer, but my brain does work that way....am a physicist by education, and have played a little with battlefield engineering.  Up to this point, its been possible to get by just by look and feel, and the philosophy of thinking ahead and not sweating the small stuff 🙂.  This task just required more planned precision.  BTW - you can never have enough serving on a model if you have the patience for it.
 
Hopefully this photo makes the jig operation clearer (I left the tape off the outside guide templates for clarity).  The fine sandpaper shown is around 0.2mm thickness which would pretty much be offset by the electrical tape thickness.  (0.2mm plank width variance would add up to a 4mm problem per side, so it adds up quickly)

 

Thanks Rob, you did such an excellent job on Ethalion that its a hard act to follow, but gave me no reason to hold back 🙂  I'm hoping the planned widths are sufficient to at least get started with a reasonable degree of confidence.  Once planking starts to approach the planned waterway then I suspect it will then be possible (and necessary) to tailor more manually.  Will also leave off installing any waterway planks until necessary as that should also allow some fine tuning.

@ Mike - no not officially an engineer, but my brain does work that way....am a physicist by education, and have played a little with battlefield engineering.  Up to this point, its been possible to get by just by look and feel, and the philosophy of thinking ahead and not sweating the small stuff 🙂.  This task just required more planned precision.  BTW - you can never have enough serving on a model if you have the patience for it.
 
Hopefully this photo makes the jig operation clearer (I left the tape off the outside guide templates for clarity).  The fine sandpaper shown is around 0.2mm thickness which would pretty much be offset by the electrical tape thickness.  (0.2mm plank width variance would add up to a 4mm problem per side, so it adds up quickly)

 

Prow now done, soon face the onerous task of assembling all the gun carriages.
 

Thanks everyone for not forgetting me!
 
@BE - Yes, I will glaze the lights.  One of my other vacillations is what with, especially as the stern lights still need to be installed.  There is the kit supplied perspex, crystal clear, and I also have some thin mica sheets which are less than perfect but maybe a little bit more 'period'.  Still pondering that one, luckily don't need to decide now.
@Eammon - need to see you getting back into things now the Ballier is complete!
@Mike - very much enjoying watching your Snake come together
 
Planning for quarterdeck planking:
Planking the forecastle and quarterdeck has had me in a state of indecision for quite some time.  Of course one option would be to simply plank with standard 4mm strip.  While there is next to no chance of a mess-up, I knew that I would be forever kicking myself as this would not be consistent with contemporary practice.  At this time, it seems that deck planking was still done by hand and involved planks being tapered, but without being joggled into the waterway.  I'm going to follow the suggested pattern in the AOTS Diana book which show a consistent taper over the full length (with consistent run fore to aft), rather than the other contemporary practice of having a wider section at the rear of some planks to allow the adjacent plank to butt into it.  This approach will definitely be a big challenge, but I'm hoping that taking this slowly will at least give a chance of success.
 
Firstly, the quarterdeck was marked out with 1cm station markers, the centerline defined and an estimate for the waterway placement.  I'm planning on the waterway being about 5mm wide, so the edge was marked 6mm from the interior bulwark face to allow for an additional layer of planking.  For ease, this exercise was then then repeated on a paper template, and seperate templates were created for both starboard and port sides.

The width of the deck was then measured at each 1cm station.  To aid this exercise, I used a newly acquired digital caliper which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone, I don't know how I got by with without one to this point - no more eyeballing to the nearest 0.5mm!  To minimize error, each measurement was taken 3 times and then averaged on each side.  This highlighted something that is not too surprising, that is that the the hull is not symmetrical, and varies in width from the centerline by up to 1mm, and needs to be accounted for.

All of these measurements were entered into a spreadsheet to estimate the required taper for each plank, and which allowed certain constraints to be resolved (for example, a whole number of planks are needed (!), and that the width of the plank at the aftmost end shouldn't be less than 50% of the widest part of the plank.).  The small discrepancies between the starboard and port side were resolved by simply averaging the two, mainly to avoid the need for different tapering approaches, and hopefully these discrepancies can be resolved without being apparent to a typical observer.  The spreadsheet allowed the overall planking plan to be determined at each station, so that this can continually be checked as planking progresses.  To give everyone a sense for where this landed, the desired plank is 3.85mm at its widest, tapering to 2.16mm at its narrowest over a length of 35cm.

Now the plank widths were known, 2 templates could be made out of some spare pear stock. (These were fine tuned after temporarily glueing together)  I was very happy with how this turned out, and it proved possible to get to a high level of accuracy with time and care.  These templates were then glued onto a board, and jig to hold planks placed in between.  Each plank was rough shaped to remove 75% of the needed material, but then finished with ever finer sandpaper.  The sandpaper was placed in the center of a block that slides on the templates to provide the final shape.  Electrical tape was placed on the templates to help protect them, and also offset the thickness of the sandpaper.  The bottom photo shows the first 10 planks having been finished.  I was very pleased with the level of accuracy that this gave, there being very little difference between the planned and actual.

Next step will be to start getting some of these installed, and continue shaping the remainder that will be needed.
 
 

@ Mike - no not officially an engineer, but my brain does work that way....am a physicist by education, and have played a little with battlefield engineering.  Up to this point, its been possible to get by just by look and feel, and the philosophy of thinking ahead and not sweating the small stuff 🙂.  This task just required more planned precision.  BTW - you can never have enough serving on a model if you have the patience for it.
 
Hopefully this photo makes the jig operation clearer (I left the tape off the outside guide templates for clarity).  The fine sandpaper shown is around 0.2mm thickness which would pretty much be offset by the electrical tape thickness.  (0.2mm plank width variance would add up to a 4mm problem per side, so it adds up quickly)