Beef Wellington

Too kind Sjors 
 
Quick update...I'd mentioned earlier that I had been trying to decide on whether to install the venting ports.  Well, I could delay no longer and had to make a decision....and decided to go for it.  Hopefully pictures below are self explanatory, but the reason I was wary was because these ports need to integrate into the thickstuff of the wale.  Positioning proved to be a challenge as these should follow the line of the deck, not the wale.  Of course once the lids are installed these will blend into the hull, but, as always...figuring it all out was a nice way to pass an evening.  The position on planks were marked on the ship as the planking is curved but cut off the ship with LOTS of fine tuning.  The black colouring was marker pen on the first planking simply to allow me to see the outline more clearly.  Now to continue planking, and do the port side, progress is a little more pleasant now as every step is now visibly moving her forward.
 

 

Cheers Captgino, Pat, Mike and the 'likes'....
 
Have started planking above the wales.  I'm going to use primarily wood strip where I can, so will not be following the planking scheme laid out in the AOTS book religiously.   Question below that I would appreciate insight into....
 
Relatively straightforward, initial challenge was to ensure the smooth run of planks around the curve of the wales which was a bit trickier than I expected but will likely turn out fine with a little sanding down the road.  The first gun port presented the first real challenge as this needed to be recessed as it has a lid, and also would have had a very thin sliver of wood at the base.  I got round this by simply gluing a small section of strip to the side of a longer length and then cutting back to size - saved a lot of time cutting from scratch.
 

 
The second gun port does not have a lid so I took the planks to the lip of the port.  Once dried, my heart then suddenly leapt into my mouth.  The approach I took seemed intuitive as the second port does not have a lid, but I was overcome with doubt so I perused a load of photos to confirm or deny whether this was correct, or whether the ports without a lid should also be recessed with a lip.  After looking at many pictures, I'm none the wiser...
 
My questions:
Have I messed up???  ​Gun port 1 has a lid and logically has a lip that the lid would sit in.  Gun port 2 (and most others) do not have a lid, so should the planking extend fully to the edge of the port as I have done? Less critically, should the ends of these planks be painted red?  Chuck and others seem to leave the planking natural, but I'm pretty sure that on real ships the inside face is also painted red.  Hmmm...  

Thanks everyone for the kind posts, it seems its been forever since my last update!
 
Have been working on getting the second planking complete, which is now is below the wale.  Frankenstein's monster may be the best analogy right now.  Didn't really want to obsess over the area beneath the waterline, planked with walnut as this will be covered.  This is most definitely not exhibit A in a 'how to plank' lesson.  I found planking the round stern challenging, especially as I'm not going to use paint so wanted to get all the planks as tight as possible, and fit into the sternpost rabbet. 
 
I knew I still had work to do finalizing the hull shape to elimate some small 'waviness' and ensure smooth curvature.  In some cases I had already sanded the first planking almost to zero, so I had to get the second layer on to continue to refine.  In one spot I did actually make a very small hole....This of course suggest I needed to have done a better job shaping/tapering/shimming the bulkheads in the first place, but I really don't think I cut a corner there and certainly did my best to get it right.  Think this boils down to the challenges of a larger hull.
 
Honestly, I did not enjoy planking with the walnut.  Despite buying a replacement wood which was better than that provided in the kit, it was still of poor quality; splintery edges, inconsistent dimensions and colour.  Don't really care too much about the latter, but only because it will not be visible.  Thankfully, its done.
 
I've drawn level lines to help confirm symmetry and flow of lines compared to AOTS plans.  Pretty happy, but some final fettling needed in some places...pretty easy.

 
As mentioned before, the keel is nowhere near thick enough and needs to be built up.  This is especially true at the bow and I added yet more maple strip to build this up.  This will ultimastely also receive a false keel, hence the step.

 
And the overall shot in all its horror.  The patient's looks can only improve from here :-)

Wales:
 
Thanks for support and interest chaps.  Started building up the wales, rather than putting these on over the 2nd planking as the instructions say, I want to build these up first and then have the lines of the 2nd planking follow the wales.  I know that this will definitely require some spiling at the bow, but would like to give it a go.
 
Looking at many pictures of the Artois models, the position of the wale seems very important.  I decided to use the waterline as the basis for positioning this for a couple of reasons:
Eliminate any potential issues creeping in because of differences in gunport positions between the model and plans, and also with AOTS.  After countless measurements, I'm convince that the upward curve of the upper deck is slight less than indicated in the plans, however, this really shouldn't cause any issues. Establish a point of consistent point of reference to ensure both sides are as symmetric as possible.  Gunport ply patterns definitely have their challenges, but they do provide a little more consistency as an upside. First attempt resulted in failure and stripping off of the wale, all because I had let the hull tilt over when marking the waterline which resulted in a 3mm difference, not noticeable until I tried to position the second side......  ​.  This is where I was thankful I was using PVA glue as the offending strips could be removed without too much damage with rubbing alcohol and a little filler.  One item I noticed by accident was that the load line requires the stern to be slightly lower than the bow, I estimated approx. 6mm.  The wale position was determined by placing some short lengths of wood strip 2mm above waterline at low point and  plank upwards to establish the topmost edge at this point and then estimate position while ensuring a smooth curve.
 
Last tricky point was the shape of the wale at the bow.  Although the AOTS Diana book does not illustrate this, I have to assume that the wale would flatten slight at the stem from looking at contemporary models.  This was trickier to do than simply allowing the strip to follow the line of the hull, but possible with 1x3mm strip and patience.
 
Next step will be to build up the thickness of the wale before continuing with second planking.
 

Congratulations Stergios, she's looking fantastic.

Beautiful work there Ronald on the head 'foundations', also really highlight your fantastic clean planking.  Great stuff.

Beautiful work there Ronald on the head 'foundations', also really highlight your fantastic clean planking.  Great stuff.

Beautiful work there Ronald on the head 'foundations', also really highlight your fantastic clean planking.  Great stuff.

Update:
 
I've been quite ill for the past two weeks, flu, fever, etc., but I'm feeling a bit better now. I haven't had much motivation to work on the Sphinx, but I've already done some small things. So, just a quick update. I actually wanted to update when the whole bow thing was finished, but that's taking too long.  
So I just do small pieces and update them.
 
First, let's move on to the "bow cheeks." After I had cleared them of char, I wanted to paint a nice blue stripe on them, like those seen in other build logs from members like Blue Ensign and Brunnels.
Just painting a straight line wasn't going to work for me; I can't paint that neatly, so I wanted to create a groove in them, just like the laser-etched "bow hair brackets." This would ensure a reasonably clean line.
Now, I do have some nice "scribe plates" from Artesania Latina. I'm not sure if that's the correct name, but I had to make some adjustments. The cheeks are made of 2mm thick material, and when I look at the pattern for the 2mm thick scribing plate, I found the groove in the center looked too narrow (compared to the line in the hair brackets).
 

 
But the 3mm pattern one seemed to have the perfect width. But that one is obviously too wide.
 

 
So I made a very basic jig to put the cheeks in (this one only lasted 2 tries and then I had to replace the wood because I didn't have any good quality wood available)
 


 
But otherwise, it worked fine, and I was happy with the final result. The grooves weren't as clean as the laser-etched ones from the kit, of course, but they were much better than I could paint. I approached the painting the same way as the bow hair brackets, which I showed in the previous update.
 

 
Before gluing the cheeks, I first glued a test piece of wood to a thick piece of painted wood. This was to test whether I could glue PVA to painted wood without sanding the paint away for adhesion. I was very satisfied with the adhesive strength, so I glued the cheeks without sanding.
 

 
After they were glued, the blue line didn't quite match up with the "bow hair brackets" so they still had to be connected
 


 
I still had to drill the "hawse holes" from 2mm to 4mm. I did this by first drilling 2.5mm, then 3mm, then 3.5mm, etc.
 

 
Next up were the "hawse bolsters." The order of work was... first, adjust the height to the hawse holes, then glue them to two pieces of scrap wood for a better grip, then file the rough shape with a file, and finally, smooth it out with sandpaper. Finally, sand in the curve at the rear to make it flat against the hull.
The photos below show this order.
 





 
 
The last thing I worked on were the two wash cants. I saw in some build logs that other forum members had omitted them. Perhaps for aesthetic reasons? I thought it would be a shame not to use them, so I started working on them. Initially, I thought they had to be black so they wouldn't distract too much from the lines of the bow cheeks. But once I had sanded them into shape, I was quite impressed with their beautiful rounded shape and thought it would be a shame to hide them in black. So I decided to leave them natural, and I think they really add something to the bow. Their rounded shape and color make them work well with the hawse bolsters.
 
First, I filed/sanded the correct curves in them to make them sit flat against the wales
 

 
Then I sanded in the nice round shape and finished it with 2 layers of WOP (also covered the hawse bolsters and holes at the same time)
I removed the hair  

 
This is what everything looks like now:
 

 
 
 
The next and final step is the "lower bow rails" that will go between the hawse holes and the gammoning knee...that seems like a really fiddly job and I'll have to see how I can manage that...to get it looking a bit nice.
 
 
 

The former (Anchor Clinch) is undoubtable the period correct solution, it is also referenced in James Lee's Masting and Rigging English Ships of War.

The former (Anchor Clinch) is undoubtable the period correct solution, it is also referenced in James Lee's Masting and Rigging English Ships of War.

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.