Beef Wellington

Its scary to note that my last update was 9 months ago, much has dragged me away from keeping current with other's builds on this wonderful site, and making progress myself.  While not much, this brings me up to date.
 
Head Grating:
This caused much pondering!  Like everything, this had to be scratch built. and wasn't quite sure whether I could pull of the gracefully curved gratings that grace many period models.  In the end, this turned out to be a highly enjoyable little project.  The main framing elements were built following the layout and dimensions of previously assembled components.  The outside angled edge follows the curve of the main headrail, and the inside a foreshortened version.  No real secret other than use of lots of templates and continual trial fitting.  The larger framing elements were joined with a simple box joint for strength, the battens were individually shaped and glued end on.  Once completed, the front of the seats of ease were attached to simplify final installation.

Catheads, fo'c'sl plansheer and breasthook:
With the gratings finalised, it was possible to install the catheads with some confidence.  The breasthook was cut following dimension estimates from contemporary models (as much as possible) Prior to that however, the fo'c'sl plansheer was finalised, which required the underside where the catheads are located to be slightly angled to allow for the upward slope of the cathead given the overlap of the plansheer, and to ensure it sits flat.

Timberheads:
It was necessary t get my head around how I was going shape the timberheads, and figure out what was possible, so that I could both get some practice in shaping these and maximise the chance that these could be kept consistent and of an acceptable appearance.  I did not want to have to redo the head rails as these had taken many hours to make.  After some experimentation, the following approach seemed to provide the most consistent results for me.  2x5mm pear was used.
 
From left to right:
Preventer cuts were carefully made using a jig and #12 Exacto blade The edges were cut back gently to roughly preform the shape.  I found the wood surface had a tendency to break off even with care so there were losses.  Wipe on poly was applied at the cuts at this stage to both prove better visibility for further shaping, and also to harden the edges that had been formed The sloped  faces were further refined, again carefully using a #12 Exacto blade, sanding sticks and microfiles.  The top is deliberately made a little overlong as it makes shaping easier The top is reduced to final dimension... The overall height is reduced to final dimensions (in this case 10mm) Finalisation and installation of the main rail and grating:
The main rail could now be finally dimension and shaped.  As identified in TFFM, it did prove necessary to shape for rear outside profile to ensure it fits nicely to the cathead.  I couldn't find much in the way of detail here, but the AOTS Diana book shows a slight wedge of wood sitting between the hull and the head rail.  I decided to add two small wedges to ensure the headrail is fully secured to the hull.  The plansheer also had to be nicked to allow it to sit properly.

And with everything finally installed...I am greatly relieved and pleased with the way this has turned out as this proved to be a most challenging, but ultimately satisfying, adventure.  The fore seats of ease have been made up and will ultimate slot into the grating, but these will not be installed until the placement of the boomkins is determined as everything is very tight in this small area.

Its scary to note that my last update was 9 months ago, much has dragged me away from keeping current with other's builds on this wonderful site, and making progress myself.  While not much, this brings me up to date.
 
Head Grating:
This caused much pondering!  Like everything, this had to be scratch built. and wasn't quite sure whether I could pull of the gracefully curved gratings that grace many period models.  In the end, this turned out to be a highly enjoyable little project.  The main framing elements were built following the layout and dimensions of previously assembled components.  The outside angled edge follows the curve of the main headrail, and the inside a foreshortened version.  No real secret other than use of lots of templates and continual trial fitting.  The larger framing elements were joined with a simple box joint for strength, the battens were individually shaped and glued end on.  Once completed, the front of the seats of ease were attached to simplify final installation.

Catheads, fo'c'sl plansheer and breasthook:
With the gratings finalised, it was possible to install the catheads with some confidence.  The breasthook was cut following dimension estimates from contemporary models (as much as possible) Prior to that however, the fo'c'sl plansheer was finalised, which required the underside where the catheads are located to be slightly angled to allow for the upward slope of the cathead given the overlap of the plansheer, and to ensure it sits flat.

Timberheads:
It was necessary t get my head around how I was going shape the timberheads, and figure out what was possible, so that I could both get some practice in shaping these and maximise the chance that these could be kept consistent and of an acceptable appearance.  I did not want to have to redo the head rails as these had taken many hours to make.  After some experimentation, the following approach seemed to provide the most consistent results for me.  2x5mm pear was used.
 
From left to right:
Preventer cuts were carefully made using a jig and #12 Exacto blade The edges were cut back gently to roughly preform the shape.  I found the wood surface had a tendency to break off even with care so there were losses.  Wipe on poly was applied at the cuts at this stage to both prove better visibility for further shaping, and also to harden the edges that had been formed The sloped  faces were further refined, again carefully using a #12 Exacto blade, sanding sticks and microfiles.  The top is deliberately made a little overlong as it makes shaping easier The top is reduced to final dimension... The overall height is reduced to final dimensions (in this case 10mm) Finalisation and installation of the main rail and grating:
The main rail could now be finally dimension and shaped.  As identified in TFFM, it did prove necessary to shape for rear outside profile to ensure it fits nicely to the cathead.  I couldn't find much in the way of detail here, but the AOTS Diana book shows a slight wedge of wood sitting between the hull and the head rail.  I decided to add two small wedges to ensure the headrail is fully secured to the hull.  The plansheer also had to be nicked to allow it to sit properly.

And with everything finally installed...I am greatly relieved and pleased with the way this has turned out as this proved to be a most challenging, but ultimately satisfying, adventure.  The fore seats of ease have been made up and will ultimate slot into the grating, but these will not be installed until the placement of the boomkins is determined as everything is very tight in this small area.

Thank you Allan for your input and confirming what was also in David Whites AOTS Diana. In his drawing he also has two eye bolts either side of the gun port and has these horizontal as I have fitted them. I am unsure if this is accurate but thought it would be better this way for accomidating the gun tackle hooks and does not have rings like the eyebolt below for the breeching rope  which is verticle ( not yet fitted on the below photograph for ease of fitting) I have looked at many different photographs and there seems to be many different ways to fit these eyebolts bolts

Just in awe of what you have accomplished here with the 3D printing capabilities and out of the box thinking - your execution wonderful as well and the printed small parts so enhance the finished result.  Very nicely done indeed!

Just in awe of what you have accomplished here with the 3D printing capabilities and out of the box thinking - your execution wonderful as well and the printed small parts so enhance the finished result.  Very nicely done indeed!

Just in awe of what you have accomplished here with the 3D printing capabilities and out of the box thinking - your execution wonderful as well and the printed small parts so enhance the finished result.  Very nicely done indeed!

Good to see you back at it David. It is always difficult to resume work after a break from a model. It is almost a year since I worked on my Endeavour and sometimes regret not finishing her before starting on my HMS Diana.
               Beautiful looking boats David especially those frames. Not too far to go now so keep at it. I am looking forward to seeing another beautiful  finished Diana. Good luck David and thanks for your help.

Looking very good moonbug, coming together very nicely.  Where did you find info on the 'swifter'?

Post One Hundred and Sixty-six
My version of Indy is effectively completed now and with some serious moving about of models within my workroom/office, I have found room to house Indy in the prominent position she deserves, and without encroaching on other areas of the house.
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She has displaced Norske Love which now has a new position vacated by Alert which also has a new location.

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Had I completed the masting on Indy it would be in the order of that of Norske Love which is of a slightly smaller scale of 1:70.

e2012a
Norske Love has received a well overdue clean, having endured all the dust created during the construction of ‘Indy’.

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Not quite ready for the glass cover to be on yet, but at least the issue of ‘where are you going to put that’ is now resolved.
As a bonus the lower profile of Indy compared to Norske love will allow me to re-arrange the wall Pictures and perhaps get one of Indy.
 
I have decided to have a further dabble with the boats, and have started assembly of the 26’ Launch, pity not to make them up as they are provided with the kit.
 
B.E.
06/04/2024
 

Received the required rope from Ropes of scale and it does look rather good to start on the gun tackle. .The sizes for the 18lb Cannon Breeching ropes work out to be 0.7mm and 0.25mm for the gun tackle. I have made a small jig for drilling the inside of the bulwarks to take eyebolts and rings for securing the cannon. There is also an additional 2 holes for the outer eybolts for swinging the cannon fore and aft. The idea of the jig is to stop me drilling too deep and coming out the other side. Hopefully once I have drilled all the holes I am hoping to use the jig for ensuring I get the correct lengths of Breeching ropes.I

Good suggestion, did a bit of googling on the Congreve rockets and it does show several pictures of their use on boats and ships on the Wikipedia page.  Interesting how it looks like they were basically inserted into the hull of the ship like a bottle rocket.  I think this really helps, I was just trying to visualize how a ship would be designed for a rocket.  In my mind I was picturing a large emplacement in the deck sort of like a Bomb Vessel,  but now I see some pictures I can better understand they probably used a simple rail system off the side of the ship.
 

Looking very good moonbug, coming together very nicely.  Where did you find info on the 'swifter'?

Looking very good moonbug, coming together very nicely.  Where did you find info on the 'swifter'?

It took a few days to wrap up the foremast shrouds.  Same process as the others of course with a 7" circular line which is .88 mm at scale (.85 mm line for me).  Like the main, the foremost shroud is served its entire length. The biggest difference between the fore shrouds and others is that there are 7 shrouds representing an uneven number. As a result, there are three pairs of shrouds and a single shroud with an eye splice called the swifter. According to Lees, the swifter is the aft-most line and the last one looped over the masthead. 
 

 
 
 

 
 

Glad I've found your log sizzolo, you have made an outstanding start with some great details.  Quick comment on the coppering, believe that the method was somewhat nation specific.  US practice as you show was to have a parallel band at the waterline, RN practice was to copper from the keel upward.  None of that takes away from the wonderful work you've done and would not be noticeable at this scale.

Post One Hundred and Sixty-four.
 
Countdown to completion – still counting
I am still fretting about the inclusion of fittings for an Ensign staff.
 
The kit doesn’t include the fittings and few contemporary models show them.
I don’t have any specific evidence for the type used on ‘Indy’, but she would certainly have had them.
I lean towards a more substantial set-up than a simple block and cap-square fixed to the tafferal, given her origin as a Sixty-four.

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This is the set-up on Victory and the double knee fixing between the flag lockers would transfer well to the Indy.
A block sits atop the standards, recessed for the staff and is fitted with a cap-square.
A corresponding fitting (the step) to take the heel of the staff sits between the standards on the deck.
 
Nothing to be lost by having a play around and using bits of Boxwood, I cobbled together an Ensign support for ‘Indy’.

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Fairly straightforward, two standards and a top cut out on the scroll saw, the trickiest part cutting the mortises to fit over the standard tops.

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A simple jig aids the assembly.

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The completed item, the Cap-square made from a piece of brass fret will be blackened before fitting.

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Steel conveniently gives the sizes of Ensign staffs by rate.
For a Sixty-four = 38’ x 6¼” ø @ scale 181mm x 2.5mm ø
         50 gun     = 36’ x 6” ø    @ scale 171.5mm x 2.4mm ø
         44 gun     = 35’ x 5⅝” ø  @ scale 166.7mm x 2.2mm ø

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There is very little difference at scale, I used 3mm dowel for the staff and will adjust the length to suit my eye.
The staff will require a degree of taper and the fitting of a truck.
 
A satisfying days’ work - I’m inclined to keep it. ☺️
 
B.E.
02/04/2024

Starboard plating complete. I removed the false keel so that I can plate under it before applying an ebony one (larboard needs plating first though). I added the dovetail plate and horseshoe plate shapes using plumbing tape under the copper so that you can see the impression show through. These were apparently inlaid and plated over. 

Learnings - the copper tape shows every imperfection in the planking so it’s even more important to make sure your planking is perfect with no gaps. 

Day 384-50
good afternoon everyone, thank you for likes
 
a lot of tidying up has been done on the foremast, and a lot of lines have now been added  to the main, hence the clips just taking the weight
few extra lines are

 
 


and a few photos of how she looks this afternoon

Few! Almost completed adding the brass fitting to the cannon but cannot make up the rigging for the cannon as I am still waiting for the breeching rope from 'Ropes of scale'  I had some difficulty fitting the capsquare bolt to the 18lb gun carriages as these were tiny, so ended up drilling out the capsquare on  my Proxxon milling m/c and using blackened brass wire. 
I also ended up removing one of the eye bolts on each side as I realised that it was easier to attach the 3mm brass rings to the eye bolt before attaching to the carriage.
Whilst waiting for the breeching ropes I have a few small jobs which need attending to mainly adding the Cavel blocks and securing the brass lings to the or ports. I can also drill the holes for the breeching rope gun tackle eye bolts . This should be enough to be getting on with but will be taking a little break during the Easter period.
Another mistake . I should not of glued the Quoins into position until I checked the hieght of the gun barrels in the ports but hopefully they are fairly central . The  of the gun barrels look to be all a similar height so fingers crossed they look ok

I also forgot to mention that I ended up fitting the Bloomfield cannon , although I am still uncerain if these were actually fitted to the Diana. I quite like the look of them, although I did not attempt to fit the very tiny gun lock or the chain for the cap ssquare key.

Next up are the main and preventer stays as they're obviously much easier to add at this stage prior to the foremast shrouds.  As the largest line on the ship, the mainstay runs at 10" circular translating to 1.26mm at 1/64, or in my case 1.25 - which I had to take the time to spin since I didn't have that size immediately available.  For those of you using the magical Syren rope rocket, I achieved 1.25 mm by spinning four lines of Gutermann Mara 15 thread. 
    After doing a little search and noodling, I found some evidence of the preventer stay being below the main, while most had it above. I went slightly above for a selfish reason - I was able to lash the preventer stay collar right up against the bottom of the cheeks rather than adding a couple of cleats to keep it in place. The closed heart on the preventer stay collar is a 5.5 mm heart from Syren - a smidge larger than it should be, but they're so easy to assemble, sand, file, and deal with it's well worth it. 
 
 
 
The mouse is put together the same as the Mizzen both for the main and preventer. Both should be three times the diameter of the stay and both of mine came out larger than they should be, but about as small as I could get them and still be able to work with them. The heart on the mainstay is a twin to the one I made in an earlier post on the bowsprit collar - 5.95mm (6 really) boxwood and the whole thing is lashed with .45mm diameter (3.5" circular per Steel) tan rope at the lanyard.
 
 
 
The preventer stay mirrors the main with smaller dimensions - the stay itself is 7" (.88mm diameter) mirroring the main shrouds. I measured the mouse as best I could but ended up just 'eyeballing' it to get it a bit smaller than the main mouse and still look right. The twin closed 5.5 mm heart is lashed with .30 mm rope. After some measuring, remeasuring, and adjusting the heart placement a couple of times, I still ended up with a bit longer lanyard than I'd like, but acceptable to me. 
 
 
 
An overall look at the rigging thus far before moving on to the foremast shrouds.
 
 

some steps forward:
everything is still only provisionally resting, I haven't fixed anything yet
 







 
 

Post One Hundred and Sixty-three.
 
Countdown to completion - the final stages. 
This is the stage where I attend to all those little outstanding things, look through all the laser sheets and ask myself what the hell is that for, should I have fitted it?
 
It is surprising how long it takes to rig the stanchion and Hammock crane lines.

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I use Syren 0.45mm ø natural line. I seem to recall from somewhere that tarred line was dispensed with as it tended to mark the hammocks.

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I decided to fit the Fo’csle with stanchions; I think they may well have been fitted, and it balances well with the rest of the model. 
I used additional eyebolts to secure the ends of the lines.
 
I had modified the gunport lanyards for the lower ports to a double arrangement on the Port side, but the starboard side remained to be done.

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Even tho’ it is a bit of a pain to do, I couldn’t leave odd sides.
 
Boomkins.
These less than attractive booms used to spread the Fore tack invariably cause me trouble. In my build they didn’t easily meet the angle of the cap square that secures them as they cross the Main Rail of the head, and the line was also inhibited by the position of the seats of ease which required a little adjustment.

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I also added the capsquares, represented by black card strips.
 
B.E.
01/04/2024

Post One Hundred and Sixty-two.
 
Woolding the masts
The kit indicates use of 0.5mmø line throughout.
According to Steel the wooldings for the Fore and Mainmasts are of 3” circ line, and that for the Mizen 2½” circ. 
This equates to 0.37mm and 0.31mm scale diameters.
 
I used 0.3mm and 0.4mm cotton line from Modellbau Takelgarn in Germany.
 
Wooldings are generally 12” deep which scales to 4.76mm.
The method of applying as shown on the kit plans is the recognised approach to take, and will be familiar to readers of R.C. Anderson’s wordy but excellent book The Rigging of Ships in the days of the Spritsail Topmast 1600-1720
 
I wouldn’t be without it.

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The line was dyed using Colron Jacobean Dark Oak wood dye which gives a less black effect than commercial black rigging line.
 
The final touch is adding the wooden hoops that contain the woolding.

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These are simply made using very thin strips cut from a Manilla folder.

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Nearly there! and with great timing the  the display case arrived yesterday.
 
B.E.
 
28/03/2024.
 

Thank you Jason,  enjoy your Pinnace, it's a great little kit.
 
Post One Hundred and Sixty-one.
 
Building the 32’ Pinnace (Part four)
At this point I couldn’t resist the urge to see how the Pinnace would look onboard ‘Indy’.

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Temporarily placed in the suggested position on the skid beams.

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The kit provides a set of oars in laser cut Pear.
These benefit from a little fettlin’ beyond char removal.
The blades should be thinned down toward the outer end, and the shank rounded a little at the bottom third leaving the upper two thirds square to represent the loom.

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I think a spot of woolding is up next.
 
B.E.
26/03/2024