Queen Anne Style Royal Barge c1700 by Beef Wellington - Syren Ship Model Company - 1:24

[Beef Wellington]

I really have no excuse for buying, let alone starting this kit as I have plenty going on I my current builds.  However, everytime I wandered over to the Syren Ship Model website to buy sundery items, this kit stared back longingly at me, and sadly up to now was 'out of stock'.  Fortuitously on the last visit, there was one in stock and I just couldn't resist, after all, it couldn't hurt could it?  Well, the package has arrived and despite my best efforts to leave the box closed (about 5 minutes), the genie is out of the bottle.

 

This will most definitely be a side project, and it will finally be nice to be able to follow some very good instructions and build a very nice looking model out of the box.  Hopefully this will be a nice diversion to 'Jason' which seems to be anything but.

 

I hope that I'm up to this challenge, I can certainly appreciate the reasons why this is classified as a more advanced kit.  Progress will be slow.  I'm not planning on this being the most extensive build log, but will likely post progress pictures and ask questions as I go...

Edited August 21, 2019 by Beef Wellington

[Justin P.]

Looking forward to the build no matter how the log turns out...   I too wonder the Syren shop longingly... a real exercise in will power for sure.   

[MEDDO]

Excellent!!!  More QAB.  This is a really nice kit.

[Beef Wellington]

Keel Assembly:

 

Firstly I want to recognize Chuck for providing amazing customer service, I'll get into details below, but suffice to say I needed a replacement sheet sent, not because it was defective, but because I messed up.  There was no charge for the replacement, great support!

 

The keel pieces have had some preliminary shaping done to them and been assembled, this was pretty much a weekends work (for me).  The plans were used to establish the various joint angles  of the bow and stern post while the glue set as there is a little play in these.  This is my first time working with cherry, and so far it seems a pleasure being easy to shape with sanding sticks.  Small guide holes have also been drilled as indicated on the plans for future mounting.

 

 

MEA CULPA - Despite clear warnings in the instructions, I was worried that the scarf joints as supplied were not sufficiently 'tight', primarily due to the edges not being perfectly 90deg because of the laser cutting through the wood sheet.  To try and 'correct' this the various faces of the scarf joint were gently sanded until these seemed much tighter.  Big mistake!!!  The result was that some of the length of the joint was lost before I knew it, and as a result, the keel was  too short.  No option but to restart...

 

With the replacement parts in hand, the scarf joints received some VERY minor tweaking to fit and plenty of glue to ensure that any joint gaps would be filled.  Once dry and cleaned up, the results are very satisfactory, which is all down to the precision of the pre-cut parts.  Pencil was used to darken the face of the joint.

 

 

The keel requires to be tapered, narrowing by about 1/5 of the keel width at the bottom on each side, this profile also follows around the stem (but stops short of the top where the profile remains square).  This has been roughly shaped at this point and will need to be fine tuned once the other structural keel pieces are glued in place to make the whole assembly stronger. 

 

The stern post also requires some subtle shaping.  Narrowing slightly at top, dictated by transom, and also narrowing at the bottom to match the rest of the keel.

 

Apologies, these aren't the best photos...

Edited March 23, 2020 by Beef Wellington

[BobG]

I'll join the audience, Jason. This is a beautiful model.

[MEDDO]

Looking really nice there.  Pretty soon you’ll be catching up to me

[Beef Wellington]

Welcome aboard Bob, and thanks for the interest from all:

 

The upside of social distancing and resting in place is that there seem to be a few more hours in the evening with no commitments.  The remaining keel sections have been installed which is a little bit of a relief as it should provide a little more strength, especially at the sternpost.  The instructions indicate the thin center keel section is a little oversized and can be trimmed at the aft end.  I'm a little concerned that for some reason I needed to shorten this to the extent that the slot for the frame is noticeably narrower than others, which will surely require some attention before frames can be attached (center of 3rd picture below).  Open to suggestions on how this slot should be widened (centered, widen forward or aft).

 

 

Its very difficult to get a sense of size from isolated photos, and it must be said that this barge at 1:24 is far from small.  In fact, from stem to stern its nearly exactly the same length as His Majesties sloop of war Snake, but significantlymore susceptible to damage..

 

Edited March 25, 2020 by Beef Wellington

[JpR62]

Glad to see you are working on this barge. It is really a very high quality kit with an excellent design. In addition, the assembly manual is precise and very didactic.

I'm sure you are going to have a lot of fun working on this model 😉

Happy to be able to follow  your build log !

 

 

 

[Beef Wellington]

Glad to have you follow along Jean-Paul, I very much enjoyed reading through your QAB log, a model to aspire to.

 

Frame Installation:

 

Additional work done on the keel was some final shaping of the stern post, finishing of the keel taper, installation of the transom, and a coat of wipe on poly for protection.  One thing I have noticed with cherry is the grain can cause optical illusions.  In a couple of places I know the surface is as smooth as I can make it, but the grain makes it appear quite course still.

 

I had been working on making up the frames for some time, for many this simply requires to a frame foot to be glued to its corresponding futtock after cleaning off some areas of laser char.  Pretty simple as each has its own guideline which is well explained in the instructions.  The grooves on the assembly board needed to be filed out a little to allow the frames to be inserted, primarily due to the thickness of the wood and the slight angle introduced by the laser cutter.

 

I think this is good opportunity to share an observation about the kit.  It is definitely a well thought out design with very clear instructions, however, that does not mean that some experience is not required as I was soon to find out....I'm sharing my experience below because every other build log of this kit seems to go together without a hitch, so a little humbling that I found this so problematic.

 

First Attempt:

First off, the assembled frames were inserted and the keel glued according to the instructions making sure that frames aligned well beforehand and that the bottom of the frame floor were at the right height to sit in the keel, and best effort to keep this in a straight line as well as by eyeball trying to keep what will be the top of the frames smoothly aligned.  Everything seemed to work fine, and once the glue had had sufficient time to set, I started to fair the frames.  This is when a first inkling of problems started, I noticed that some of the frames were moving in their slots, and upon further investigation some the frames were not really secured solidly to the keel.  Although the planking will definitely add to the strength, I wasn't convinced the frames would be rigid enough to allow planks to be installed.   Given the construction method, its not possible to remove and re-glue a single frame, so the isopropyl alcohol was brought out to remove all the frames....

 

 

Second Attempt:

Upon analysis two things became clear.  I hadn't used enough glue in the joints, and that my judgement of what 'play' was needed for the frames in the build board was wrong (the instructions say that these shouldn't be too tight or too loose), but it was really only trying to go through the process of fairing that indicated what this should be.  Some tape was added as suggested in the instructions to more rigidly seat these, and the process to align and glue repeated (using more glue this time around).  Unfortunately, in the final stages of seating everything,  I somehow placed too much pressure on frame G and the result was that the frame foot broke in two places, and the small tabs on one side of the futtock popped prematurely (these are weak by design to allow easier removal at a later stage).  The isopropyl alcohol was brought out once more to remove all the frames........I don't have any photos of this, honestly I was too despondent to record it...

 

Third (and so far final attempt):

After examining the break, the cherry had broken with the grain and looked like it could be repaired.  These are delicate pieces, but I don't think will be subject to much stress once the planks are on.  The breaks were located on each side of the foot where there is a small dark element of grain, and can just be seen in photos below.  The small tabs on the futtock were also given a tiny spot of glue, and to hopefully provide a little more strength a splint was glued to the central section to absorb some of the shearing forces that will be unavoidable while fairing the frames (this is NOT glued to the actual futtock itself). 

 

So far, things seem to be back on track, and work has resumed on fairing the frames which is where things sit currently.

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Beef Wellington

[MEDDO]

great perseverance 

[Chuck]

That is looking good and as it should be.  Its good to see you got everything aligned and secure.  Any more progress.

[Beef Wellington]

Hi Chuck, appreciate you checking in and apologies for missing your post.  Progress will hopefully start again shortly.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Beef Wellington