Beef Wellington

Once again, thanks for the likes. It's always nice to know folks are dropping in. 
I forgot to mention before that I pinned some 1X 4mm strips to see how the planking will look. I was quite happy with this trial run and it seems I am going in the right direction.
I have made some good, all be it slow, progress since my last post. I have made the lower stern counter from balsa and roughly shaped it on both sides. However, this has highlighted just how much of the stern shape I have lost. To try rectifying this I used a 1 X 10mm strip pinned to the side of the hull and a strip of balsa held to the stern. I then built up the space in between with filler and allowed it to set, after 3 goes at this I had the shape I required. It's cosiderably different to the shape I had and a huge improvement. This area still needs to be sanded a little more. But, before shaping it any further, I decided I need to work out the waterline position followed by the lower edge of the wale. I thought the "helping hands" device would work but one or other croc clips would move. I resorted to the"paper cup method" only with a platic bottle. The hull was propped up with long balsa strips and the bow raised by 6mm , when the hull was level I used a couple of heavy monkey wrenches to hold everything in place, and then drew the waterline. I next measured the lower edge if the wale from below various gunports and marked the edge. On my laptop screen I zoomed in to 365% which practicaly takes the hull profile to 1/64 scale and took measurements from this which pretty much agrred with my measurements. I have pinned  strips of 1X3mm wood to mark the upper and lower edges of the wale. when I took a few photos these were hard to see so I highlighted them with a black marker pen so I can check the look of their postitioning. The lower edge of the wale sits pretty much exactly where I need (and hoped) it should be, which, should allow me to slightly round off the hull without having to bend the 2nd planking into severe bends and, instead, curve smoothly. That's the idea anyway. 
My next task will be to finnish smoothing off the hull below the wale and hopefully achieve a perfectly symetrical finnish. The waterline has shown up a slight discrepency between port and starboard. My one concern at present is attaching the planking to so much filler. I am thinking of adding a 2mm wide strip under the lower stern counter to glue the planks onto and just use the filler as a shaping support.
Here are a few photos to help explain things better.
I will add more soon I hope.
David.   

Thanks, Jason.
 
Progress is slow but encouraging. Hopefully I'll get back to a place where I can continue this model, but it's well beyond me at the moment until then, I walk past it every day and marvel that not so long ago, I did that! 😆
 
Great to see you making headway on your stunning Artois class.
 
Rob

Of course all these photos are not the finals but I'm very close to the end
Some final touch up and trimming is needed 
 

And a couple od additional pics,,,
 




 

....  and now, please let me to present you some steps of my previous stages, "talking" more with those pics and less with words, as I usually do

This is definitely going to give the Caldercraft Snake/Cruiser model line a run for its money!  Maybe this will show whether CC have completely lost interest in new static kit development when some of their established legacy models comes under direct competition.

This is definitely going to give the Caldercraft Snake/Cruiser model line a run for its money!  Maybe this will show whether CC have completely lost interest in new static kit development when some of their established legacy models comes under direct competition.

That is just beautiful planking!

Looks like the perfect balance to my eye...1 too few, 3 too many 🙂  The different paint tones really catch the eye and enhance the whole, very much to my taste as well.  Wonderful model you have there, very well done indeed!

Your planking looks spot on, very nicely done.  I'm pleased to see that you appear to have filled in the stern a little to allow the planking to sit nicely against the sternpost, think you will be much happier with that result.  The shaping of the plank ends in this area can be challenging further up the hull, definitely not something to rush.  Looking at what you have done so far, sure you will encounter no major problems.  You have a wonderful model coming together here.

Awesome progress!  Question on the galleries, do you think you will be using the resin/plastic galleries in the final version?  It feels a little our of keeping with the other wonderful wood of the model.

That is just beautiful planking!

Thanks, @BobG, @gak1965, @AJohnson, you're very kind. I feel surrounded by masters, here... but I'm pleased with how my bodging is coming along!
 
I managed to add the reef points to the fore upper-topsail, which is the last sail to need reefing points, so that was a nice milestone to reach.  Next is to add the eyelets and blocks to the fore upper-topsail yard ... am I the only one who finds drilling holes all over the yards a fiddly and frustrating job?
 
I think I've probably described the process of the reefing points before, but just in case, it's #100 DMC Cordonnet crochet thread, with a knot in it (one knot is plenty), then threaded through the sail with a needle. Once through, it's cut off with a couple of inches to spare. When all done, I place a metal ruler beneath it, and use watered down aliphatic glue (Carpenter's glue / yellow glue) to stiffen the thread, and line it up vertically. Once fairly dry, it's cut to length (the width of my wider 15cm steel rule) and another dab of watered down PVA fixes the end in the right position on the sail. The sail is then turned over, and the process repeated.
 

The finished article...

I am glad to have these done.
 
Thanks for all the support and encouragement
 
Rob

Hi everyone,
 
Three weeks later, and I've had another good day to work on Stefano. I finally made and died some more .5mm rope for the standing rigging, which allowed me to complete the backstays. I've also got some more work done on the yards, adding eyelets, blocks, and bending the forecourse to the main yard on the foremast. Again, this has caused the model to take up significantly more space on my desk, but it feels like we're on the home straight now as we move towards running rigging. I counted, and I think I have 8 sails left to bend to yards / stunsail yards. There's a lot of tidying up to do with rope ends fixed with watered down PVA (a big advantage of making your own rope with DMC cordonnet thread, as it's natural, not synthetic), and trimmed to make them neat.
 
Thank you so much to all of you who've hung in there through what has proved to be a lengthy build
 
Here are a few shots of how she stands right now.  




Happy building
 
Rob

Update:
 
Divided the first band in the appropriate amount of planks (5 planks) and started planking away!   feels like a jigsaw puzzle where you make your own pieces. Kinda fun!
 
 

I have, when time allows, been tinkering away at the VM 26' Launch. It is a relentlessly tricky little kit and I'll be glad to get back to the main subject - HMS Fly - next.
 
My launch is pretty well a straight out of the box kit. The main floor didn't fit so I removed the outer planks. I added an anchor rope. I shaped the oar handles and blades but inserted them into a micro brass tube for the shafts and added a leather? thickening where they base through the oarlock slots. I painted the upper works red as that suited my ship's Captain. Even though I didn't need to, I painted below the waterline in a creamy white. My hull planking allowed it to be left natural but I thought that would look odd on a ship with a copper bottom.
 
Some photos (which show touch-ups required). I have yet to stow the oars which promises to be as fiddly as everything else was.

 
 

Hi ☺️
 
 last photos before putting the glass on the model

That is just beautiful planking!

Installation of the skid beams and steps to climb aboard: 
 

 

 
The skid beams are used to protect the hull when loading and unloading the various boats. The two close beams can serve to guide barrels and other large bags, being loaded on the ship.
 

 
Installation of these beams was a little bit nerve wracking as I did not want to damage the rails and the freezes. 
 
After the beams, come the steps: 
 

 
These are made with 2 x 3 mm strips, carved in the correct shape of steps. Steps are 14 mm long and separated by about 1.5 mm.
The kit instructions calls for strips of 3 x 3 mm. I found that it would be too thick and not provide enough gaps between the steps. I think that the 2 (thickness)  x 3 (width) mm steps look more realistic.
 

 
It is very steep and some hand ropes seem necessary, to hold while climbing: 
 

 

 
Below is pretty much the view that you would have, disembarking from the ship. It is like going down a slippery ladder.... 
 

 
Now, I just have to redo the same on the other side....
 

 
Yves

I've spent the last few days marking out the strakes which is pretty time consuming.  I wanted to stay as close to the plans as possible and try and achieve a nice even look too.
 
I like to use automotive lining tape as it's nice and flexible - the only issue with this sort of tape is that it doesn't stick very well to the wood.  So after using tick tape and a planking fan to mark out the master frame I started the job.  My planks work out to be 9.9mm wide on this frame so I'll cut them to 10mm as my measurements are probably out a bit.
 
Lining the stern



Then the Bow

I have one stealer in the stern straight off of the garboard plank and one drop plank towards the bow.  So it's just as the plans suggest.
 
I had better start cutting some planks now and get on with the job
 
Mark

Valeriy,
 
Not only is this simply a stunning model, but the circumstances under which it has been created make it doubly impressive.
 
Cheers, friend, and I hope that 2023 will bring better things!

2

Thank you Keith!
   Thanks to the Lord God, everything is fine with me and I am completing my project. It remains for me to install the steam boats on the model and raise the flags.

The channels:

Rather then continue work on my standard knees, grating, decking or the last of the three stairways to the hold, I decided it was time to tackle the thing I've been avoiding... the hawse holes.  The contract states they are 15" diameter, 15/64" at scale.  I first double checked my heights then drilled my pilot holes at 5/64".

Next, with a new sharp bit,  I drilled one inboard hawse hole very carefully and slowly with a backing board held on the inside.
Success!  That was easy.
Drilled the outboard hole and it happened. She split and flew off.
That was unexpected.

I setup the other side with clamps to help hold her together.
The outboard face of each of those holes have tear out chips in them!

So, I did the only thing left to do.
Glued the broken piece back on, clamped it up and left the room.

I won't be back working on her until Monday afternoon.
Good night world.
😉