Beef Wellington

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.
 
 

Great work Jason. I'm sure you'll be really pleased you tapered the planks. My approach was a little less precise but still it makes a nice contrast to the straight planking runs on the gun deck. As a thought you may want to put some of the planks down then reassess the widths to make fine adjustments in case laying the planks introduced some drift? But your planking is so precise I'm sure you'll be fine.
 
My digital calipers are the tool I never put away on my build desk. Especially useful when you need to work put which drill bit you need (and what order they go back in the box when you accidentally drop them!).
 
Looking forward to seeing this deck come together.
 
Rob

That's kind of you.  By coincidence I have just spent an hour reading through pages 12-15 of your Snake log to see how you dealt with masts and bowsprit - particularly in connection with shaping.  Very enlightening.  Think I'm about to explore the wold of serving
 
On the design of your planking jig, two things occurred to me: are you an engineer by any chance? (I am, and am in awe)  The spreadsheets and jig-making say yes.  But delaying to now to get a digital calliper says no (I expect I'll buy another as I need one in the shipyard (spare bedroom) and the spar factory (garage - think UK, 8 ft wide, no possibility of a car in there).
 
And then the second point, how does the jig work for guiding the sanding? Asking our of interest because I cannot imagine having the craft skills for this (and besides I could spend more money and attach CNC control to my Proxxon mill)

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.
 
 

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.
 
 

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.
 
 

Happy New Year to all!
 
Not too much to show for a little bit of extra time in the shipyard, but have put a bookend on the work at the stern and quarter galleries for now.  Basically, all I've done is glue the quarter gallery sections in place together with the various rails (Upper stool, rim and lower stool rails).  This took much longer than expected as  I had so many pieces of rework, either because if breakage when shaping, fitting or by trimming a little too much (despite reciting 'don't take off too much' continually under my breath) and needing to restart.  It was also challenging as the quarter gallery rails needed to match as well as possible to the upper and lower counter rails.  Anyway, don't think the pictures need much additional explanation - other than that some are taken without any touchup, but the extra time afforded by the site outage allowed me to get a little more done.
 
Suffice to say, I'm very pleased with the way the quarter galleries turned out, definitely challenging, but worth the extra time.  The PE lights still require some work and these will not be put in place yet, but I wanted to get a sense for the overall look and the lines.  Of course final judgement is left to others 
 

 
The kit supplied console brackets  proved to be a little oversized, to keep the same feel as the plans I wanted these to fit snuggly between the upper stool and the rim rails.  For comparison, you can see the adjusted starboard side bracket to the not yet adjusted port side on the left.
 

 
Taking a step back to compare to the plans and assessing varied angles I think I've done as much as can be done to bash any provided parts into something a little more consistent.  As always, the human eye is a little more forgiving in person.  The plan profile is enlarged from the AOTS book.  The quarter gallery sculptures now have a definite 'ledge' to visually support them and I'm glad I invested the extra time here.
 

 
 

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.
 
 

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.
 
 

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.
 
 

Crisp as ever, and celebrating each little gain.  Together these make an object lesson.  Only just remembered to follow this, so now look forward to more canapé-sized bites of (near) perfection.

Great to see Jason back on the build board .. As Rob said, 'Crisp Work' going on here Mate..
 
Roll on your next update
 
Eamonn

A great little companionway top you have made there Jason, are you going to glaze the lights?.
I too passed on the hatchway taper, I felt that at the scale involved it may have looked like an error rather than an intention.
 
B.E.

HMS Enterprize (1774)
 
CAF Models
 
Review by Dr. Kerry Jang
 
HMS Enterprize was the lead ship of the Enterpize class of 1770.  The class was designed by Sir John Williams with a gross dimensions and tons of 120’6” (gun deck), 99’6” (keel),  33’6” (beam),  11’ (depth of hold) and to carry 200,men.  Armament was 24 x 9 pound guns on the upper deck, 4 x 3 pound guns on the quarter deck, and 12 swivel guns.   She was ordered in January 1771, Keel laid on September 9, 1771 at Deptford, launched  August 24, 1774; hulked in 1791.  Twenty-seven ships composed this class.
 
A pair of paintings of the ship by Joseph Marshall in 1775 is held by the Science Museum in Kensington and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
 

 
Enterprise served as a cruiser and convoy escort.  Her most notable action occurred on June 7, 1780 whilst at Gibraltar when her crew spotted six Spanish fire ships drifting into the harbour toward the fleet at anchor.  A warning salvo was fired to alert the fleet and the Enterprize’s cables cut to allow the ship to drift away from the hulks and opened fire on the hulks in an attempt to sink them.  The Spanish fleet lay outside the harbour for any British ships trying to escape so the British seamen boarded the small the fire ships to attach lines to away from the fleet and burn themselves out.
 
On April 27, 1782 near the Leeward Islands she captured the 22-gun American privateer Mohawk which was later taken into Royal Navy service.  Mohawk was sold in1783.
Enterprize was decommissioned in May 1784 and from 1790 she served as a receiving ship and hulked in 1791.  In 1806 she was taken to Deptford and broken up in 1807.
Lines, profile and decoration drawings of Surprize as built can be purchased from the Royal Museums Greenwich (National Maritime Museum).
 
The Kit
 
CAF MODELS of Shanghai, China has created a stunning 1/48 scale Admiralty model of HMS Enterprize.   Before reviewing the kit a few words about wooden sailing ship kits from Chinese producers is warranted because they are not all created equal.  In 2001 China was allowed to formally join the World Trade Organization (WTO) which meant the country had to abide by international trade agreements and practices such as copyright protection.  Prior to 2001, China was the largest source of counterfeit goods that focused on covered luxury goods, cosmetics, sportswear, and appliances.  As a result of joining the WTO, far fewer counterfeit goods are no longer produced or available in China, but remains a problem because copying has become a way of life and normal practice for many manufacturers.  This problem is endemic among many wooden model kit producers in China who readily use copyrighted drawings to produce their kits without acknowledgement or licence, and these kits are readily available on shopping websites.  They will continue to do this as long as it is profitable so do not buy these unlicensed and counterfeit kits.    
 
A concerted effort by Model Ship World and the Nautical Research Guild to highlight these practices and alert model makers to the counterfeit products is having success and has gone further to lend an open and willing hand to any Chinese producers who wish to abide by the WTO and international agreements.  One of these companies is CAF MODELS located in Shanghai, China.  CAF MODELS first came to attention for producing unlicenced kits of French vessels from the ANCRE collection of drawings and monographs.  With the help of members of the Model Ship World community, proper agreements between ANCRE and CAF MODELS are being negotiated and to CAF MODELS’ credit, has stopped selling any models based on ANCRE material until an agreement is signed.  These kits will return once the agreement is finalized and signed.  
 
In the meantime, CAF MODELS has a number of original kits for sale such as HMS Enterprize, with several more under development.  CAF MODELS kits are designed and manufactured by Mr. CAO Feng, or in English -- Tom Cao.  Tom is an engineer by profession and used CAD to design kits from Admiralty drawings and other references.  His CAD designs have become very precise and is able to detect and correct draughting errors in commercially available plans and well-known sources.  I had the pleasure of meeting him and his lovely family in Shanghai in 2018 where he kindly took me to his home to show me how he designed model kits and his extensive reference library. 
 
On a funny note, I am a third generation Canadian Chinese and speak Cantonese Chinese.  Tom speaks Shanghaiese Chinese and our dialects are mutually unintelligible.  The two of us had to use an English translator on his phone to converse!  Tom is a talented and keen modeller and with his engineering training tries to design kits that are faithful to the actual construction practices of the actual ship or model with an eye to ease of construction for the modeller.  The kits are continually upgraded to take into account improvements in design and materials or to correct errors.  All kits are manufactured in house and Tom builds the lasers to cut them out.  For his latest designs he is building a series of CNC cutting machines to avoid laser cutting char marks.  Carvings for figureheads and relief carvings are done using CNC routers guided by 3D renderings.  The wood used for the kits are cherry, boxwood, pear, and maple imported from North America and Europe.  He experiments with other traditional materials such as ox bone for window frames to replicate materials used by traditional craftsmen of the 18th Century.     
 
 

 
Tom is in the white shirt and myself in the black t shirt.  Note that the phone with a translator is open so we could chat and that the kit is the French bomb ketch SALAMANDRE based on the Boudriot plans.  This kit is off the market until the licence agreement with ANCRE is finalized.
 
 
 The kit provides the parts to build a fully framed Admiralty style model of the ship that measures 33” in length with a beam of 8.2”.  The kit arrives in a shipping carton containing 6 large boxes chock a block full with wooden parts and fittings, and a bundle of wooden strip stock. The boxes in total weigh in around 20 kgs!  The parts in each box are well protected in foam and sealed in bags or cello wrapped to prevent damage and loss.
 
 

 
The CAF kit is packed in six large boxes and a bundle of strip wood stock.
 
Each box is numbered and along with the parts are numbered sheets that lay out the assembly steps and identifies all of the parts contained in a box.  By way of example, the contents of box #1 contains several laser cut sheets of ship’s frames, instruction booklet, and 1:1 scale exploded view of how each frames is to be constructed.  A closer look at the wooden parts show that each piece is neatly cut by laser with no excess burning and the bevel lines are etched into the wood.  The wood on this kit is cherry, and it has a nice warm brownish tone and is very fine grained.  The char marks left by the laser cutting on the edge is relatively light and most of it is sanded away during the fairing of the hull.  All lasers cut parts on a slight angle (has to do with beam deflection as it burns through the wood) so some mating faces are not 90° degrees and must be gently sanded square using a disk sander.    
 
 

 
Typical contents of a box.
 
 
 

 
Laser cut frame parts. The plans in each box contains 1:1 scale drawings to identify each part. 
 
 

 
A close up of the laser cutting.  Parts are attached to the sheet using small tabs that are easily cut away with a sharp hobby knife. The kit contains thousands of laser cut parts.
 
 

 
Deck beams, knees, dowels for stub masts, building jig parts, drawings and the first box of fittings made from a multitude of different materials.
 
 

 
Some of the stem and keel parts and building jig pieces to construct the cant frames.
 
The kit also contains some interesting some CNC cut parts that are cut in three dimensions to capture their unique double curvature shapes that cannot be cut using a laser.  In other kits, such parts are provided as a metal or resin piece that must be painted to look like wood but in this kit it is wood. 
 
 

 
CNC cut wooden parts in three dimensions.
 

 
 

 
Strip wood is labelled, clean and straight and cut by a saw.
 
The Building Jig
 
 
The model is built in an elaborate plywood jig that holds the keel, stem, stern and frames in the exact locations and square to one another.  The building jig is also designed to hold the cant frames in the correct orientation so they can be built up and faired in place.  The jig itself is made up of several parts and is a major project in itself.
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
A selection of the framing jig parts.   The jig parts are provided in good quality birch ply and slot together neatly with little or no sloppiness to the joints.  Despite the care taken by CAF MODELS, the jig should be assembled carefully and one must ensure all joints are correct.  Any misalignment will be transferred to the hull as it is constructed.
 
 
 

 
An illustration as to how the cant frame bow jig is used. 
 
 
Fittings
 
 
With box after box full of laser and CNC cut parts, there are also smaller boxes of fittings in wood, metal, glass, and bone.  Of particular note are that the carvings and sculptures that adorn large ships of the line have always been difficult to reproduce for modellers who are not experienced at carving.  Often kits provide a heavy metal or resin figurehead or carvings that must either be gilded or painted.  Model makers have often wished that the carvings were provided in wood, just as seen on Admiralty models.  CAF Models have done this by providing the carvings in wood.  This is not pressed fiberboard but an actual 3D CNC cut set of sculptures as shown in the photos.
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
Ships guns are in cast brass and are fully detailed with the royal cyphers.  Anchors and other metal parts also provided as brass castings.  All other of the required fittings are provided in brass, glass, wood and good quality cordage.  Each is neatly labelled and packaged.
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
Note that the spokes for the ship's helm are individual parts.  Glass cover slips for microscope slides is provided to glaze the windows. 
 
 

 
The ship's stove is a miniature photetched brass kit,
 
 
 
Instructions
 
The instructions are contained in a series of booklets and plans.  The instructions are pictorial in nature so that modeller does not have to rely on a working knowledge of Chinese at all.  There are some English instructions which in some cases makes little sense because something got lost in translation - but with the picture the meaning becomes clear.  Running the Chinese text through Google Translate provides a good sense of the Chinese instructions.  The drawings and plans are crisp and the parts match the drawings precisely.  Drawings are colour coded to keep things straight and are neatly and cleanly printed.  Future kits will have better English instructions included. 
 
 
 

 
All parts are labelled and construction fully illustrated so no need to know how to read Chinese to build the model.
 
 

 
 
 

 
 

 
Each booklet has several illustrated steps to construction.
 
 

 
 
 

 
Full size profile and lines are provided.
 
 

 
Frame plans to help align all of the separate futtocks.
 
 
The kit also provides a full sheet of waterslide decals to reproduce the painted friezes adorning the ship’s side and stern.  The modeller can paint these friezes if desired, but the decals provide a neat option.  My advice for applying the decals is that the designs are cut close to the printed colours as possible, and applied to a glossy surface by sealing the wooden hull sides with a gloss varnish.  The designs are later sealed with a coat of matt or satin varnish as desired.
 

 
 
Conclusions
 
If you want to build an Admiralty style model and don’t have the tools, access to wood stock, skills or inclination then CAF Model's Enterprize is an excellent way to build one.  All that is required is included in the boxes that saves you from having to source materials and tools.  All of the materials are top notch and having seen the prototype model at Tom's home, is well designed and goes together well.  It is rare to find a kit this well produced and the innovation and constant upgrading CAF MODELS does on its kits ensures improves ease of construction, and quality of materials and design continually improves.  The sheer complexity of the kit will keep the modeller busy for a long time and especial care and fitting of the many parts is the order of the day -- this is no different that scratch building so your skills will be challenged and honed over time. The kit is excellent value for the money. 
 
CAF MODEL's next kit is Le Coureur based on drawings from the National Maritime Museum, and a set of figures is being designed to crew the ship.  
 
The review kit was purchased directly from CAF MODELS courtesy of my wallet.  Payment was by PayPal and China Post delivered it to Canada Post in excellent shape and in good time.  Tom Cao stands by all his products and should you find a faulty part or broke something, he will help you with replacements.  If you have an earlier kit and want the latest upgrades to it, you can contact him and he can supply it at a nominal cost.  Tom is responsive to e-mail within a day or two in my experience. 
 
With scratch building, masting and rigging can be added to really make the model stand out even moreso.  That is what I plan to do in due course.
 
Happy Modelling!
 
Kerry Jang
Vancouver, Canada
 

Good morning,
As I hope to start work on my first model and report progress on these forums (?fora??) I hope this introduction will set the scene...  Thw word 'newbie' shouldn't be taken too literally!  At 75 years old, I've been involved in a lot of modelling - mainly fine-scale model railways in 2- 4 and 7mm ,and some historical architectural modelling - for some time I was an active modeller/member of The 'Pendon Museum', creating a huge diorama of the 1925-30's Oxfordshire countryside.
 
However I've always had an interest in all things nautical, stemming from a fascination in SCUBA diving.  I was lucky enough in the early 70's to be involved in the 'Mary Rose Project' - however, working as a police officer cramped my activites in that respect!  However, I maintained my interest later joining the Nautical Archaeology Society, where after being involved in multiple projects I became a NAS Tutor.  Which stood me in good stead when, on retirement from the police I applied to study archaeology at Southampton University. By very good fortune my supervising tutor was Jon Adams who runs the Centre for Maritime Archaeology. This led to a fascinating final interrview ongraduation...  Having kept my involvement with the 'Mary Rose' 'quiet', at the interview Jon (who'd learned about it from another source) pointed out that I actually predated him with my involvement....  Theres a moral there, somewhere - he went on to run the CMA, gained world renown as amaritime archaeologist, whilst I became a 'plod'!
 
However, I was happy in life (which is the main thing) with my model-making activites supporting my archaeolgical involvement  -we dont do it for the money(!) - until in my early 70's I developed 'shaking hand' syndrome - which makes handling scalpels and hot soldering irons something of trying and occasionally painful experience...  I also found it took a LOT longer to create models - something which I thought unfair to pass along to clients.  So I gave it up...  A subsequent heart attack put paid to diving (just the insurance costs alone were massive), so here I am with LOTS of freee time on my hands, and bored out of my mind to boot!
 
Then a saw a 'YouTube' article on Philip Reed, a  UK model ship maker, and it whetted my interest again!  So here I am - 21 years(!) old and ready to go!  In maritime terms, my interest lies in the 'Restoration Navy' of the Stuarts, and 'Georgian Navy' of Nelson and his 'Band of Brothers'.  However with age comes a tempering of experience - so nothing 'large' to start with.  I've just ordered 'CalderCraft's 'HMS Sherbourne' - their POF model of 'Mary Rose' will have to wait!
So thanks for reading (Putting up with me) and I hope to be more proactive soon
 
Regards
 
Ian

Time to clear away the cobwebs and dust from this buildlog and play a little catch-up.  Have been grabbing a few moments here and there to on some items that aren't really that interesting, and especially mulling over the approach to take on a few things.  The quarterdeck and forecastle decks are in place, this is a very large piece so these were cut into more manageable sections which works better for me, otherwise I find that the PVA glue has set too much by the time all surfaces have been glued up.  Cutting sections at points where there is support from the beam underneath makes this a much more manageable exercise and allows the sheer of the deck to be maintained.  Once installed, glue was forced into the gap at the edges of the deck to prevent any future flexing, and then filled and faired to get as smooth a run as possible.  The stern fascia has also been finished with some interior planking and a preliminary coat of paint, a margin deck plank installed and the rear gun ports finished.  The strips on the stern fascia were shaped by steaming longitudinally first, otherwise the two compound curves would make this very challenging.

One feature that I've been obsessing over is the quarterdeck skylight.  The kit provides a structure that reminds me a lot of a small greenhouse enclosure, and this is a feature that I found hard to find many suitable examples of on contemporary frigate models.  The various Artois models show both an exaggerated grating or the 'greenhouse'.  Somehow I mislaid some of the pieces so scratching something myself was always going to be a requirement.
 
Like many features, this seems to be a transitionary period, moving from the skylight being an addition to a existing companionway (e.g. clerestory style top that is wider than long - the example BE put on his Pegasus being excellent example), to more modern structures that are longer than wide and form the more typical shape.  Interestingly, some slightly later plans (e.g. the very slightly later Leda class) show this feature on the plans suggesting it being a more permanent or standardized feature, but none of the Artois plans show anything beyond a small coaming.  In the end, I decided to take some inspiration from HMS Trincomalee, and build a structure that has side lights similar to the cleristory top, but with solid wood roof.  In the main, the was driven by the fact that glass at this time period was still realistically only available in smaller panes, and that a solid top just seems a little more utilitarian and cost effective.  Once that decision was made, I needed to figure out how to execute...
 
Firstly, a very simple jig was made up with blocks the size of the needed glass panes, this would allow the narrow strip to be secured while being glued to what will be the lower part of the structure. The method of assembly required that at each end, a wider 2mm piece is needed to simulate what will be the corner structure.  Once dried, the supports can be cut back to th e necessary height before removing from the jig.

The upper structure can then be attached out of the jig either a strip for the side wall or a shaped 'end'.  The end of the left and rigt supports are approx 1mm wide so that when joined with the sides the corner support will be of consistent dimension.

When fully glued, the structure is stronger than I expected, but still clearly very delicate.  The end pieces were cut back as close as possible flush to the last support with a knife, but the last effort had to be with a sanding stick.  Clamping the structure between some ply offcuts allowed the ends to be carefully sanded relatively safely.  The structure could then be assembled, lego blocks were used to keep everything as square as possible.

Once fully cured, a rectangular section was inserted to introduce some additional strength (forgot to take a photo) before the side were carefully sanded back flush.  A profile was introduced into some 1x1mm strip for the upper molding which was attached prior to installing the sloping roof pieces.  Not finished yet, but this is sufficient to allow for some planning of the deck planking.

And finally, the various coamings and capstan partners have been made up to give a sense for the layout.  These items will be attached to the subdeck so deck planking will butt up against them as was actual practice which I suspect will prove to be a little challenging, but more to come on that hopefully.  One compromise that I saw as being unavoidable is that the 3 hatchways directly aft of the capstan should taper slightly.  In practice I believe that the battens in the gratings themselves would taper as well, but that is just not an option. Given that it would look very odd to my eye to taper the coamings but not the gratings, the decision was made to not taper.  Don't think this will be noticeable, and a compromise I can happily accept.

Hello to all, My name is Pete and i am from Anglesey North Wales UK. I am 63 years young and have a very keen interest in all types of modelling. For many years i have built miniatures in mostly 1/12 scale and in recent years 1/24 scale, Mostly for my Garden Railway. Recently i was given a plastic kit of The Black Pearl by Revell in 1/150 scale, I really enjoyed the build and am now looking forward to building more Plastic Ship Kits. No doubt i will be seeking help and asking questions on builds, I hope this will be OK. That is all from me for now apart from saying Thank You for making me a member of this wonderful Forum.
 
Kindest Regards, Pete 

Thank you Chuck and Glenn, there is a small number of excellent   builds that I have gratefully made full use of as reference works. Having followed your Cheerful build Glenn I can envisage what a great job you will make of the Barge.
 
Post Forty-four
 
 Tholes and oars
 
The thole pins are two part pre-cut tiny pieces where the laser char is fiddly to remove, but something that is necessary if a natural finish is required rather than a painted one.
I haven’t decided on this yet so more attention has to be paid to char removal.

2751
I used the shaft of a partly made oar to set the distance between the pins.
The paint on the capping rail was carefully removed where the tholes sat to provide a better bond for the pva.

2809(2)
A days work to fit the Thole Pins, I may yet paint them Red.
 
The Oars or Sweeps
The square section of the oar (the Loom) has slots each end; a long slot to take the short handle, and a short slot to take the long shank.
 I started rounding the shank by paring the corners to create an octagon and then rounding by turning it between my fingers using sand paper.
Once I was almost there I glued the shank into the loom for final finishing.
 
I was curious to see how the oar scale measurements  compared with those given by Steel for a boat with the same breadth.
Seven feet is the given breadth of the Barge, and for this size a Twenty-foot sweep is given.
 
Chuck has indicated that the shaft is left a little long to give purchase whist rounding. This equates to 6mm excess and once removed results in an overall 19’ length of oar.
 
I decided to leave the shaft length as provided which results in a scale length of 248mm equating to a 19.5’ oar length.
I taped the square end over during the rounding process, which left a good tight fit into the blade, the final finish being applied once blade and shaft are glued together.
 
I rounded the handle to a scale diameter of 1.9mm. which equates to a 1¾” diameter.
The trickiest part is forming the blade which must be tapered and also have a slight curve to it.

2758(2)
To get a consistent taper I made a simple jig from the oar blade fret.

2786
The tapered blade; down to 0.9mm at the outer end.
 
A slight curve is then formed by wetting, followed by the hairdryer treatment to the blade held around a shallow curve.
The inner end still need a little fairing into the shaft.

2782(2)

2804(2)
The final test is how does the oar fit with the boat in its working position.
 
For this I borrow my oarsman from the Pinnace.

2798(2)

2803

2797(3)

2796(2)

2791
 
I will now continue with the time-consuming business of completing the oars.
 
B.E.
04/07/21
 
 
 
 

Post Forty-three
 
Looking at the rudder
 
I start by making the Tiller.

2649
A strip of Cherry square stock is secured in my Minicraft tool.

2653(2)
Needle files and sandpapers are used to form the Tiller shape.

2661
Having cut a neat little mortise in the rudder head, the tiny tenon on the Tiller broke off so was replaced with a less satisfying brass pin.
I may well re-visit the Tiller, they are quick and easy to make.
 
The rudder comes pre cut with its distinctive hance but does require tapering towards the aft end of the blade.

2673(2)
I have restricted the taper to the blade of the rudder, just applying a slight round above the hance.
The taper is applied both top to bottom and fore to aft
 
Dressing the rudder.
I usually make working rudders for my models but after some consideration I decided to go with Chuck’s simulated version which gives a realistic impression of a properly hung rudder.

2684
The long lower pintle properly attached to the stern post is made an integral part of the rudder, slotting into a tab which represents the gudgeon on the rudder.

2689
When rudder and sternpost are brought together the effect is completed.

2711
I added ‘bolts’ to the rudder straps in the form of wire.

2708(2)

2707(2)
With all decorative pieces at last released from their backings, it was a simple job to fix them in position using a few tiny spots of ca.
I gave them a coat of wop before putting them into place.
 
 
In the final stretch now with thole pins, oars, masts, and flags, left to do.
 
 
 
B.E.
30/06/21

 

Just small update.
 
Have to say that stripwood quality for planking is bad. Is hairy and dimensions vary a lot. But have  to just manage somehow.
 
 

It's looking ship shape.  I think you've past my build stage and I've had a 4 year head start 😆

So coming along.
 

Slowly progressing with the 2nd planking. I dont like working with walnut but I add that under the copper. 
 

 

 
 

Flag lockers are a great addition Mort, all looking very nice indeed.