Beef Wellington

Actually its even worse, the volume increases by factor of 8 (2 to power of 3)...  

What follows here is just an experiment.
 
Although the process of rigging a ship model becomes more and more a problem for me as a result of my fading eye-sight and shaky hands, my urge to keep on building models has not in the least disappeared. So I went looking for 17th century ship types where no or almost no rigging was involved. After several try-outs with one-masted vessels with comparatively simple riggings my eye fell on the glorious models with which the English shipbuilders tried to seduce the king to commission them to build the full-size ship, the so-called Admiralty or Navy Board dockyard models. These models were usually not rigged at all, but they were lavishly decorated and showed much of their interior and construction. As a result they belong to the most beautiful and intriguing models man has ever made.
 
In my bookcase Gilbert McArdle's book: Building a Navy Board Model of HMS Sussex 1693, (published by SeawatchBooks in 2010) holds a prominent place. 

The book was written during and after McArdle built a flawless copy of the third rate Sussex model in the collection of the US Naval Academy Museum in Anapolis, Maryland. The book contains, apart from the heavily illustrated building report, also a pile of excellent drawings of the original model, containing not only the body plan, elevation plan, top views with decks, sections and various bulkheads, but also every one of the 70 frames in the model has been drawn, both in 1/48 and in 1/96 scale.
 
Building a paper model of a Navy Board model that still shows some of the beauty of its original example surely is a first grade challenge. Not only the method of building, but also the choice of card is crucial. As a coincidence a colleague at the Rijksmuseum, who knew I am always on the look-out for suitable sorts of card for my shipbuilding activities, collected a pile of beautiful left-over cardboard sheets, used for making pass-partouts for drawings, prints, photographs and whatever belongs to the RM Prentencabinet's collection. I think it is called ivory card. It is made out of textile fibers, has a soft-white color and comes in various thicknesses. My collegue was kind enough to provide me with a lot of 0.5, 1.1, 1.8 and 2.4 mm thick material.
 
As we all know card has, like every material, apart from a large number of advantages, also some limitations, one of which is that it usually can not be sanded. It will become fluffy and all the sharp edges will disappear. But sanding is precisely what you need when building a dockyard model if you want to show all the open frames in a convincing way. So I made a test piece, consisting of 24 layers (12 midschip frames) of 1.8 mm card and exactly as expected, sanding appeared to be a necessity, even if the cutting was done as precise as possible. I sanded and filed the blok and it appeared that sanding the sides of the card was no problem as long as all layers were as closely pressed to each other as possible, thus avoiding the chance to mess up. 
 

 
Scanning my card stock I calculated that if I chose the 1.8 mm thickness ivory card for the frames, I would end up with a 30 cm long model, which was about the maximum size I wanted. The scale would then be about 1/200, for me a most unusual number, because all my paper models so far were on a 1/77 scale. As every frame consisted of two layers of card, no less than 140 frames had to be cut to shape the hull.
 
Now it was time to design a strategy. The block I made as a test clearly showed that at this scale making a hull out of complete card frames, like in full model size, was not possible because the tops of the frames would end up too narrow to supply any strength and rigidity to survive the rest of the build, leave alone the expectation of a reasonable life span. So I divided the hull into two horizontal parts, separated by the lower deck, which was, like the frames, cut from 1.8 mm card. Below the deck I vertically divided the hull into two parts, a left and a right one. In separate temporary mountings quarters of frames were to be fitted until both halves were filled with frames, only partly glued together. Indeed it appeared to be possible to sand and file these blocks into shape, almost as if they were made out of wood. 
 

 
The part above the lower deck was easy to cut. Both the ship's sides were made out of 0,5 mm card, copied from the side view on McArdles draught. I cut the port holes, shaped the sides by hand into an S-shaped curve as much as possible, provided them with wales, channels and stairs, laid the basic provisions for the decorations, planked them with latex strips and painted them. 
 

 
Though the lower deck was draughted in the book, the upper deck could not precisely be copied from the drawings. I'm afraid I made it too wide, which had a clear effect on the width of the ship between the bulwarks. The model is too wide on top.
It belongs to this style of modeling to show open decks like can be seen in the original model, but the lower deck of my model will be closed, because I need the strength of the 2.4 thick lower deck for the overall rigidity of the model. Besides, practically nothing of it will be visible in the end result.
The deck clamps on the inside of the ship's sides were glued in to fit both the decks on the correct height. The masts could provide sufficient orientation and enough stability to get everything temporarily in place. 

 
Then keel, stem and stern were cut from 1.8 mm card and the whole upper works could carefully be glued together.
 

 
In the mean time the frames-block below deck were completed, and sanded into shape. After precisely marking the locations of the interruptions between the frame parts, all frames were separated to cut the inside to shape, taking care that the horizontal top sides were maintained to be glued to the underside of the lower deck in order to get everything back in place. 
 
Even the sanded block had to be sanded again after all frames were glued in place, but no real problems showed up. It went better than I expected. The next problem to be solved was the lining of the openings between the frames. However precise I tried to be, small deviations from the markings showed up and had to be filed to keep the lines fair. Therefore I modified an old lock file in a way that the thickness was diminished to 1.5 mm and the narrow sides still held their filing profile. A drop of AC glue brought the necessary sharpness back to the joints.
 

 
A real problem is painting the model. I like to build models of ships that are, lets say, halfway or at the end of their career, so wear and tear show up. Therefore I use plastic strips with wood imprint (c-d-fix) for planking and treat it with Humbrol 63 and Van Dijks brown, which produces a nice 'used' look. But a dockyard model does not represent an old ship. On the contrary, the model should look like an ornament, a thing of beauty, adorned with as much golden carvings as possible. I had to invent another way of painting.
 
On top of that I was stupid enough to forget to spray the plastic planking with primer before I hastily painted it, which caused the paint to wear off as soon as it is touched. I had to remove the paint as much as possible and invent another color to meet the demands.
 
Special attention had to be given to the stand of the model. Normally I make a very simple card stand, because it serves no other function than to keep the model up right. In this case the model was presented to the king as a thing of beauty and the stand had to meet the same purpose. So I kneaded some dolphins supporting the lower hull with their tails on both sides and gilded them. Inside was a brass tube and a fitting piece of brass wire made the connection. The first couple I made appeared to be too big, so I made a second pair, with a slightly better result. 
 

 
We'll see where this ends. I'll keep you posted.

Here are the upper frame locator pieces, two mdf parts on each side that get clipped into the former at the bow and then into grooves on each bulkhead, I used a few rubber bands and some clamps to keep them securely in place while the glue dried.
Now that these have been installed I need to start masking off the keel and other parts so I can paint the former and all bulkheads flat matt black below the level of the gundeck so nothing can be seen behind the framing, or at least make it as invisible as possible.
 

I started installing the aft jig, this one is much more complex than the other two as it is the one that will align all of the stern framing.


 

Hi All,
 
About to start a new build of the beautiful 50gun 4th rate HMS Portland of 1770, This kit has been developed by the Portland Scale Ship company based in Oregon USA.
 

Post 3
Stern timber frames
These are the long and vulnerable mdf stern timbers that set alarm bell ringing in my ears.
Great care is required not to stress or knock in the early build stages; repairs could prove tricky.

5572a
I found that careful sanding of the slots, and trial fitting was required to achieve a firm but not overtight fit which may have created difficulty if subsequent removal was necessary.

5573a
Fitting support pieces between the timbers is advisable. I use styrene foam pieces which are ideal.
Once the bulwarks are fitted this area becomes less at risk.

5567a

5569a
This is now the time to fit the ply sub-deck which will secure the bulkheads from lateral flex during fairing. Another testy little exercise.

5580a
The deck is taped square on the cutting mat to mark and remove the section above the cabin, a margin is allowed for some final trimming.

5582a
The bulkhead slots are tested for ease of fitment and having fully inserted the deck into the port side slots I work along the starboard side from fore to aft individually flexing and pressing the deck into place at each slot.

5584a
There is always fear of breaking something with this exercise, but firm and steady pressure get the job done.
I was pleased to see that the deck sits tight against the bulkheads and stern timbers, no pressure necessary to hold the deck down.
The hull is now rock steady for the fairing process to begin.
 
B.E.
01/09/2025

Nice start, looking forward to seeing another fun project come together BE

Thankyou Trevor, makes a lot of sense.👍
 
Post 2
Stern cabin area
My idea is to fit out the cabin, certainly with the iron stove which will connect to the flue pipe emerging thro’ the deck, and  maybe with other fittings as space allows.
A section of deck will be left unplanked above the cabin.
 
Modifying the cabin area is tricky, partly because work on Bulkhead 12 is more extensive, and because it proved too difficult to remove for shaping without risking damage and therefore had to be modified insitu.
The filler pieces between the bulkheads prevented removal.
 
Bulkhead 11 is closed off as this forms the partition between the cabin and the Boiler room.
Bulkhead 12 bears the brunt of modification with large sections removed to create frames and beams. Tricky to get at to shape and sand.

5552a
In this area the longitudinal bracing patterns are removed and replaced with Pear carlings.

5553a
Bulkhead 11 is boarded using Boxwood strip and Whitewashed.  A doorway leads to the Boiler room and the door is created from Boxwood strip and decorated with Syren hinges and Handle.

5554a

5557a
The cabin deck area is planked with Boxwood strip.

5559a
Similarly, the Fish hold is decked out using Boxwood strip.

5565a
A paper deck print is used to determine the viewable area.
Still work in progress, but you get the idea.
 
B.E.
31/08/2025

Post One
Early stages
The early stages of construction are just as we have come to expect from Vanguard.

5534a
Rapid early progress with glueless assembly of perfectly fitting parts.
That is unless you decide to open up the lower deck areas of the Fish hold and the cabin space.

5537a
This involves some modification to the Bulkheads  8 and 9 ( in the case of the fish hold, and Bulkheads 12 and 13 in the case of the cabin area.

5539a

5540a
Bulkheads 8 and 9 modified to give a clear space below the Main Hatch to the Fish hold.

5547a
Faux deck beams are added but won’t be seen.

5548a
I was quite surprised by the small main hatch on Erycina, Barely 3’ 6”(L) X 3’.0 (W). Seems hardly practical on a fishing boat, and miniscule compared to the cavernous hatchways on the Fifie and Zulu boats.
She is however, quite a bit smaller than either Fifie or Zulu.
 
 
I do like to have some open hatchways, gives depth to a model and at least an impression of more there than there is.
 
The next stage is modifying the Cabin area.
 
B.E.
30/08/2024

Man...a revised Agamemnon...that's going to be an epic kit 🤩

We shouldnt judge a 20 year old project too harsh. During the 90s, Caldercraft pushed the bounderies much and was one of the few companies that actually developed new kits. However, its a pity that most old classic manufactureers of shipmodels live on very old kits and have completely stopped making new kits. That is why we all also appreciate and follow Chris and Vanguard models. 20 new kits in just a few years and constantly new designs and solutions. Many was quite disappointed when the Surprise was never released. But now we can look forward to a kit that will soon be out on the market and way better than a kit what was designed 20 years ago.     

The Jotika/Caldercraft Surprise sadly looks very clunky compared with the finely scaled details of  present day Vanguard kits. Chris has done to the established ranges of many long established kit manufacturers, what HMS Warrior did to the Wooden sailing navy.
 
B.E.
 

OK, I have now completed what I need to for the designs. The 'mule' is finished, no need to garner any more info from it - and here she is. No varnish, paint and much abused, Jim's model will have much more finesse (and colour).
I knew I was close to the finishing line (designs) for this, so I was up most of the night, and then all of today to complete it - now I can relax a little before starting the CAD drawings for plans..
 

I spent a bit of time yesterday belying the rigging that had been run in, some of which can be seen in the first three first photos below.

With the jibboom and flying jibboom added their respective shroud rigging were next to be added. I opted to use hooks to secure these blocks to the bow for ease of installation, as can be seen in the two photo below, noting the plan sheet shows these blocks should be seized directly to the eyebolts. The free ends of the inter-block rigging will be belayed to pins located on the bow inner bulwark belay pin racks.

The shrouds are also feed through eyelets located on the spritsail yard before being secured to the ends of the jibboom and flying jibboom.
 
 

Completed fore and aft riding bitts. Pinned the back beam as well as glued using PVA and very fine pins.Thinking of using  ply wood for the stove floor tiles. Unsure of the thickness which will depend upon the height of the chimney in relation to the deck above. I am thinking of framing this piece of wood and might score the wood to look like tiles. Unsure of the thickness of wood required for this as I have used the Brodie stove supplied by Vanguard which is an upgrade on the Caldercraft supplied parts and may need to adjust this hieght to get the right height above the upper deck. Any ideas on the correct thickness of this flooring would be greatly appreciated. I have primed the stove with white primer as I have no black primer at hand and will air brush this when  I have attched the various brass parts I have replaced the grating for the origonal light colour which is what i have hoped for and sealed them using Liberon sand & sealer which worked better than shellac or varnish as these  just seemed to darken them more than I would have liked.
                   According the Caldercraft instructions next up is assembing the 18Lb gun carrages and associated fittings  but I might deviate from this somewhat and inbetween and finish off some more gun deck fittings such as capstan, bilge pumps and binicle and manger etc cl
 

A 5 mm lime dowel was used for the seats of ease and drilled with a 3.5 mm drill. I did not use the supplied parts for the grating as the slots were very fine but used the origonal section for the out size dimensions and used 2.7 square boxwood sanded down to 2mm square for the frame and 1mm square boxwood for the ledges and the same for the actual grating pieces. Although the finished piece is different than the actual Caldercraft plans but apart from the paint work which could have been better I am fairly happy with my first attempt manufacturing my own parts out of boxwood and scratch building this part of the build. Lining up port & stbd  recesses for Boomkins were slightly out so will need to correct this at some later stage.
I am really glad to have completed this part of the build as this is the first time I have attempted to make my own head rails and other parts out of boxwood. I have made a number of mistakes and I have had to compromise with a the grating and seats of ease etc but on the whole I think it has been an improvement on the supplied kit parts and looks reasonable from a normal viewing distance. Hopefully as I continue with the build I will find the next bit easier going.

Continuing with the head rails and  stem . You can see there is something not quite working out with the gammonning knee. I can see from Dunnocks Diana blog that this needs to be thinner and a different shape altogether so proceeded to make a new one from boxwood.

Another problem I have noticed when placing the gammoning knee in position that the bowsprit hole is too low and this is confirmed when try to fit  the figure head in position and a 10mm dowel in the bowsprit hole. I could have swore that I had allowed for ths figure head when drilling the hole earlier in the build. Here is a reminder.
I have spent some time removing the rails from the bow in orde to sort out this problem with the bowsprit hole and I decided to blug the hole with a 10mm dowel and filler. Eventually after securing the ship as level as possible using a frame, I managed to drill a hole using a long 10mm drill bought for this purpose at an angle of 20 degrees( copied from the AOTS drawing) and this time it looks to be inline with the stem post and at the correct height. Here is the drilling in action.


The above work has held me up somewhat but needed doing. I now need to clean up the paint work and replace the rails  on the bow. I have managed to make some progress with the head rails but have found this very frustrating but have kept at it . The main problem I was having was trying different methods to get the correct decorative relief on the rails but after several attempts I don,t think I could come up with anything better than just using this tool.  

Here I tried to make one with a shaper which looked ok ( before painting) but did not turn out too well and did not look similar to other models .I also tried using modellers masking tape which was not great so ended up going free hand which is the best I can do
 
 
 
 

I am almost at the point of 9 months since starting this project and as the winter is almost upon us ( or it seems like it anyway) here in the uk, it is time I stopped working on the Diana in my garage,which is draughty and cold and return to finishing off the rigging on my Endeavour build. However before I do switch projects I would like to continue a little longer on the Diana and finish off the head rails. As I understand this is probably the most difficult part of the build so would like to complete this so that I won,t be jumping into the deep end on my return in possibly 6 months time.
        I have  Re fitted the stem post which after breaking off at the gammonning hole at some time in the past( Planking) and I left it off until I had filed out the hole for the Bowsprit which according to Lees book  'The Masting and rigging of English ships of war' and my calculations is 11mm dia at the widest part.( This was worked out from 1794 and not upto 1794 and this works out the same as the AOTS Diana., I  will not be using the Ramin dowels supplied by Caldercraft as it is my intention of making the masts from square boxwood stock.
Head rails
         After removing several parts from the walnut and plywood sheets ( see photo below) It is clear that some of these parts are at least on the flimsy side and at worst the incorrect size or shape. Perhaps my hull is not the exact shape so I have therefore decided to make as many of these as possible from boxwood. 
First I found that the upper and lower cheeks weren't long enough so fashioned 4 of these and shaped them to fit the hull and stem post and then roughly cut out the upper and lower rails as these will need to be modified in an attempt to make them similar to the rails fitted to the hull

I also need to paint the Figure head which is suggested in the following photo.

 
 
 
 

Thank you Allan and to everyone for their kind likes and replies. I am trying, but do find a lot of the upgrades difficult and don,t turn out as well as I hoped but hopefully some improvment on each previous build I have done.
          Fasioned a spectacle plate out of copper plate and then lightly blackened.

Small progress due to another leave of absence ( holliday). Cut out the sections for the scuttles and oars so that the doors would lie flush with the hull and also the 4" scuppers . I only fitted the 3 forward ones as I thought I would ensure the main mast chainplates were fitted to try and miss these if possible. Regards the hinges for the doors, the ones supplied are far to flimsy but managed to find some extra ones left over from my Endeavour kit which is the same 1:64 scale so a bit of improvement I think. I am also in the process of gluing the upper focastle drift rail but still need to make the decorative scroll out of boxwood as per the quarter deck drift rail. Some cleaning and touching up of paintwork is required. 

Slow process due to health issues and unable to work on my Diana other than short periods . After laying the deck planking and checking the height of the gun port sill against the 32lb Carronades it was obvious the sill were too high. It  was therefore necessary to remove the 1mm thick sill to remove some of the material or then replace the 1 mm thick sill. In order to do this the sides of the gun ports, also 1 mm thick also required removing. Although this was time consuming I eventually managed  to complete this. Below is a photo of a 32lb carronade in position and it can be seen not parallel with the deck due to the gun port being too high


Once the sills were lowerd then it was possible to fit the 1mm walnut planking on the inside of the bulwarks and cut out the shapes of the gun ports.I then moved onto the hatch coamings and various size gratings. Fitting of the stove chimney.
At this point I would like to Thank DavidEN for giving me the idea of upgrading the ships Wheel to 24mm Caldercraft Deluxe wheel as the one supplied by the kit looked to be on the thin side. Next up will be the 32 lb carronade and 9lb Cannon the latter of which I will once again upgrade to that supplied by Vanguard models.I think I can get away with the Caldercraft brass cannon but feel Vanguatd carriages are a definite upgrade. There are still a number of fitting which need to be completed before finally getting to the ships boats. Hoping my health improves so I can get stuck in during these winter days.
 


 
 

Completed planking the upper deck, mainly using 1 x 4 mm Tanganyka strips which came with the kit together with some extra wider strips used for joggling. I also used quite a lot of 1mm Tanganyka sheet which was quite difficult to cut and split along the grain. In the end I temporarily glued a 1.5 mm sheet of ply to the Tanganyka sheet to strengthen the Tanganyka whilst cutting and shaping the waterway . I used the same planking pattern as the lower decks(4) with the length of each plank 180mm and staggered 45mm. Unfortunately there was quite a big difference between the colours of the Tanganyka sheet and the strips but hopefully this will not be too noticeable once the decks are covered with the numerous fittings. I also used the drawings off the AOTS Diana book as to which deck openings had either coamings or scuttles  and ended up with a lot of wasted Tanganyika pieces due to attempting to cut this wood along the grain but hopefully I have made a reasonable job of this.
                I would like to thank Andrew Johnson for giving me the idea of using one of the many Liberon products on offer for trating the deck This time I have tried their superior clear oil which I think shows the Tanganyka wood off quite nicely.
           Next up will be the hatch coamings, gratings and the numerous upper deck fittings. Still  a long way to go as am well past the 18 month mark now and no end in site yet but she is beginning to look a bit like a late 18th century frigate..

Further preparation made for fitting of the forcstle and quarter decks and fitting of additional beams. For some reason several of the deck beams had to b  moved so that they did not appear in the middle of the hatch openings and scuttles I also fitted a number of the carlings in-between the deck beams. so as to line up with the edges of the hatch openings. This also would give additional strength to the deck. I also made a  frame work for ladders supports and made up a couple of ladders either side of the gangways.
I then marked off the forcsle and quarter decks to take the 1 to 4  deck plank pattern which is the same configeration as the lower gun deck planks. I also cut the deck into 4 pieces as I thought it would be easier to handle in smaller section when gluing to the deck.  Before fitting the deck I made a final check to everything on the lower decks as they should be and finally fitted the elm tree pumps.

              I am now going to take a bit of a break and will be off on holiday so it might be sometime  for the next update

I have a kind of addiction, and it is buying these plans, at times for no other reason than to stare and admire the lines of them for hours on end. I find them fascinating. 

This is one of my latest, it is a particularly beautiful 48th scale plan of the San Josef of 112 guns (reputed to once belong to Emma Hamilton) – and damn do those headrails look nice and simple to transfer into a kit version!
 
In the same tube, I also had an even bigger plan of Caledonia (120 – but rounded upper bow, so probably never do that one), and 2 for the old Roebuck Class 44 gun 2-deckers. Not sure if I shall ever use them, but I would like display all of them one day, if I can ever sell my house and move to somewhere that has the room in my workshop…
 

Small update:
 
Not a big update, but it does feel like a big step/relief to have this finished.😆
 
I've had some stressful weeks, and fiddling with small brass pins and such felt almost impossible, haha. I took many breaks from working on the model, but now I've finally finished the rudder with all the straps, horseshoe plates, and fish plates. The pics below are self-explanatory. I also extended the straps on the hull to the back of the sternpost with a piece of black paper. So that it looks like the straps go around the sternpost again.
 
I chose to keep the horseshoe and fish plates black instead of the recommended copper color in the manual. I think the copper looks great on a white hull, but I thought black would look better on a natural hull.