HMS Jason by Beef Wellington - Caldercraft - 1:64 - Artois-class frigate modified from HMS Diana 1794

[hamilton]

Great work Jason - the planking is coming together very nicely

hamilton

[Beef Wellington]

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

 

Edited October 20, 2015 by Beef Wellington

[Blue Ensign]

It looks good to my eye Jason, very nice work on the hull

 

B.E.

[mtaylor]

Nicely done on the wale, Jason. 

[NMBROOK]

Excellent work Jason The angle of your last pic is the one that tells all.To me,the run of the wale and gunports can make or break a model.You have certainly achieved a fair run with both

 

Kind Regards

 

Nigel

[egkb]

Looks a treat Jason.. 

 

All The Best Mate.

 

Eamonn

[hamilton]

Such nice lines on this ship! Well done

hamilton

[Sjors]

Wow Jason,

 

You make a lot of good progress !!!!!!

I think I've bin away to long !

But i'm back ( only reading, not building yet )

 

Sjors

[ASAT]

She is looking great Jason, I need to go back and read the a few pages to catch up but just wanted to add my atta boy before I do. That hull is just sexy curvy!! Well done!!

[Landlubber Mike]

Great work Jason, coming along very nicely.  

[Beef Wellington]

Thanks all for the continued interest and kind words!

 

The counter planking was put on before the wale could be finished, the ports on the counter took a little time to get right.

 

 

I got bogged down completing the wale, the tuck around the counter left me struggling for a bit to figure out how to handle it.  The second layer on the wales went on easily enough, except for the challenging lower plank.  In the end, to ensure that the regular planking will have an edge to bed against, I ended up cutting a profile in the plank above and champfering it, and then twisting the plank below through 90deg.  After shaping this, the outer plank can be installed and shaped.  Not very elegant, but was the closest I could get to simulating the real wale.

 

 

At the bow, the first walnut planking was thinned before installing the second layer so that the wale would sit in line with the regular planking at the stem.  After some finishing, tried the Admiralty ebony stain to see how it does, pretty impressed with the coverage, even with only one application.  Some more finishing will be needed but will leave as is for now.  As I'll be using paint elsewhere, I'll probably paint over this but can delay that decision for a bit.  Beginning to look a little more like a ship now.

 

Edited November 8, 2015 by Beef Wellington

[hamilton]

Great precision on the planking and the stern ports, Jason

hamilton

[NMBROOK]

Great work and a nice solution Jason If it comes as some conciliation,despite doing this for many years now,I will always find the little curl on the end of the wale a PITA

 

Kind Regards

 

Nigel

[Beef Wellington]

Little bit of experimentation with colours and finishes.  I've used water based poly up to now on the decks, but I have noticed that brush marks are harder to avoid, and also that it doesn't enhance the colour of boxwood as much as I'd like. Tried both wipe-on poly and tung oil which seemed to give similar results visually (interstingly the tung oil seems to be a little yellower in the photo even though I can't differentiate to the wipe on poly on the sample).  I've heard that tung oil will continue to gradually yellow over time, but does anyone have any practical experience with that.  It also seems that some people use wipe on poly and other tung oil, are there really any other factors to consider as I must confess I wouldn't really have noticed a difference if it wasn't labelled on the tin 

 

Its impossible to get a photo to show accurate colours on a PC screen, if anything the castello boxwood is a little yellower that it appears and blends very nicely with the Admiralty yellow ochre.  The Tamiya medium blue is a little greyer than it appears, happy I found a blue that with a period feel directly from a tin, mixing is not something I want to have to worry about when touch ups are needed).

 

Going to ignore the recommendation from Admiralty paints and use the matt (metal) black on the wales rather than the 'dull' black which is recommended and what I used on Snake.  Impossible to get on a photo,but the dull black has more of a shine and has tendency to catch the light and amplify any miniscule surface imperfections and grain even in tight grained boxwood.  The ebony stain looked OK with poly applied, but in my opinion would look best on a model with natural wood finishes only.

 

I suppose I need to get moving and get some planking done....

 

 

[NMBROOK]

I will complicate things even further for you Jason Did you know you can apply polyurethane over Tung oil?Only recommendation according to my research is to allow a few days for the oil to finish 'gassing out'.Surprisingly my research says that Tung oil is one of the finishes far less likely to 'yellow'.This is a lesser amount than poly.Sorry for confusing you further.This is only down to surfing the net and not my own experience.

The blue does look good and probably one of the best unmixed shades I have seen

Anyway,I will let you get back to your planking

 

Kind Regards

 

Nigel

[Beef Wellington]

Bit more work to show.  Wales have had a fair bit of work done on them to significant imperfections.  Couple of coats of paint were put on undiluted, followed by 3 coats of 50% diluted with surface finishing in between.  I need to see the finish in daylight to confirm whether I'm done or not...

 

Once again, I'm taking a different approach to the blackstrake from the instructions indicate a 0.5x3mm wide strip on top of the wale.  Estimating from the AOTS it looks more like 4mm which I think will sit better with the other 4mm planking.  Given I only have 1x4mm boxwood strips, I installed a 0.5x4mm walnut strip directly above the wale onto which I'll lay the boxwood strip.

 

 

This did (of course) introduce another wrinkle to deal with.  6 airing ports are needed, but these will encroach onto the blackstrake.  Not sure how exactly I'll handle these yet (they are small, ~2x4mm) but think I do want to try to install these rather than just simulating by scoring the planking which I know I'll not be happy with.  Interestingly, NMM models omit these ports and I am considering that as well - maybe less is more here.  Opinions anyone?

 

Edited November 13, 2015 by Beef Wellington

[BANYAN]

Just found your build BE - impressive.  Nice clean work.  I'll pull up a chair if you don't mind.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[NMBROOK]

That is going to look supercrisp Jason One suggestion which you may or may not have though of.I personally would plank about the walnut and sand smooth before fitting the box blackstrake.This would maintain the crisp edge to the strake added afterwards and is much easier to sand to a fair surface

 

Kind Regards

 

Nigel

[mobbsie]

Hi Jason,

 

She's looking crisp and sharp mate, well done.

 

As far as the Airing Ports are concerned I think it depends on how accurate you want to be, would they really be missed, certainly not by persons who don't any better, the one person you have to please is you, if you leave them out will you constantly regret it, if you put them in how much are they going to enhance the look.

 

Good luck with your decision mate, whatever you decide I'm sure it will be right for you.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[Beef Wellington]

Thanks to all for the 'likes'

 

Pat - welcome aboard!

 

Nigel - great point Nigel, I think this will come down to balancing two evils, eliminating the risk of damage during sanding or the risk of introducing a gap.  The dimensions of the walnut strip are not very precise, and I was orginally hoping to use the much tighter dimension of the boxwood as a guide.  Either way, I'm going to try to finish the planking near the wales as much as possible before installing to reduce potential damage to wale.  Will ponder this further...

 

Mobbsie - welcome back, jedi master!  I'm going to do what any self respecting ditherer will do, avoid making the decision until I absolutely need to, think I've got plenty to do in the meantime 

 

Big step for me today, managed to spile my first plank.  Used masking tape to get an approximate first cut at the needed shape, and then made up a cardboard template to fine tune.  Because the cardboard bends I made a 'master' template shown for final marking of the profile.  Hopefully the kids won't notice, I had to raid the cereal cabinet for cardboard supplies...Initially I made the plank 4mm wide full length to match the strip to be used elsewhere, but changed this to reduce to 3mm at the front end to look a bit more in keeping with contemporary models.  It should probably be less than that, but any thinner would likely be too hard to work with.

 

The outside edge was cut and fine tuned first as its convex and easily done with extra to hold on to.  The inside edge was gradually nibbed away (very carefully) using a dremel sander.  Think I'll leave the fine tuning until its glued on.  Plank was bent using a steam iron to approximate shape to make glueing easier.

 

 

In position....not glued yet.

 

Edited November 14, 2015 by Beef Wellington

[mobbsie]

That's the part I can never get head round, I generally spill when things start getting tight.

The kids won't mind mate just as long as you don't nick the toy as well.

Keep it up mate, she's looking good.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[mtaylor]

Better buy more cereal boxes, Jason.     I'm ending up spiling just about every plank on my build.

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks great Jason!  Spiling is fun, huh?  Lots of time and effort, but can't beat the results.  

 

Looks like we'll be going down this road together.  I'll be sure to pass along any tips and caution flags as I get more planks under my belt.  Maybe I should have tried masking tape instead of wide scotch tape (which, I think was actually "book tape", whatever that is, and which didn't take pencil very well).  I found using the compass to be pretty easy and accurate, but maybe it was beginner's luck.  

 

The tape method to me seems to require getting the tape marked correctly, then transferred and cut out correctly.  The compass technique just requires one to get the plank marked correctly, so maybe less room for error which for me, is always a good thing.  

[Ray]

Jason nice to see very good progress, I am a believer that sometimes you can over think things, and it just works out when to come to do it, practically all of the hull under the wale is covered by copper so although we aim for the best finish possible it will not be seen. I have just finished Diana, taking the final photos (after 3 weeks holiday) and it is a suprize just how much detail is covered up, you can hardly see the gun deck with the boats in place, but we know what`s there.

Best regards Ray

[Beef Wellington]

Mike - I know I'm looking enviously at your work, yup, we're in step (at least until you shoot past  )

 

Ray - you're so right.  What I actually really like about this kit is that it allows you to try things that maybe aren't necessary, but is a good proving ground for the future.  One thing I know, I won't be spiling a full hull until I'm retired!  The planking udner what will be copper will 'utilitarian' - i.e. something best covered by copper - which of course is as much work, if not more, than another layer of planking.

 

Here's how I dealt with the planking at the tricky plank at the counter.  I'm planning to use strip for most of the planking where I can but the first one required a spiled one.  Shaping planks with a steam iron is definitely something that helps.

 

Spiled planking at the bow pretty much done, walnut will be used below here.  Without wishing to waste any boxwood, I'm going about 8-10mm below where the waterline will be just to be on safe side.  This has had a quick surface sand to convince myself it will look OK in the end...

 

 

The tricky transition at the counter and the wale.  Spiled plank next to a 4x1mm strip for comparison.

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Tricky plank Jason, looks very nice, great job!

[hamilton]

Very nice work with the spilled planking Jason. It took me ages to wrap my head around the process and I still don't have it dialled - mostly I think because I may not be fairing to very exact lines.....but you can really tell the difference in your last photo - the amount of edge bending that would accumulate into the planking would make for a very messy job if left alone.....anyway, the hull is shaping up very nicely and that boxwood looks great!

hamilton

[Sjors]

Very, very nice Jason !!!!!

 

Sjors

[Beef Wellington]

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 :-)

Edited January 23, 2016 by Beef Wellington

[captgino]

Very nice build! Your 'patient' is looking great.