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

[Gahm]

That looks really good, Jason! I also find your 3D printing experiment highly interesting. I have been intrigued by Shapeways for quite a while wondering what the final quality might be and whether it is good enough so that 3D printed parts could be used on a ship model.

 

Thomas

[drtrap]

Absolutely fantastic work Jason!!

[Beef Wellington]

First off, thanks everyone for the likes and comments, my apologies for not responding sooner.  I haven't been able to keep up with everyone else's builds as much as I would have liked.

 

Been tinkering with a number of items that I want to get a head start on hopefully avoid pitfalls later.  I'm leaning toward getting as much work on the hull planned out or complete before the cannons get installed and the upper deck can go on - although that will still be a while because I needed a break from gun carriages.

 

Trimming the bow height:

Way back I'd mentioned that I took the approach to build the bows up higher than I would likely need to allow for the unforeseen.  I have now shaped these to be much closer to where I think they will end up, less a little finishing.  The bulwarks at the bow appear to be parallel to the whale, just like the rails, which was used as a guide.  This was an exercise in reconciliation as of course various small (or not so small) errors have crept in along the way.  This proved not too difficult, the only hiccup was found when dry fitting the deck, to ensure that the height of the bulwark is symmetrical on both sides, some shims were added to the top of some of the forward bulkheads.  The error is unlikely to be in the kit cut bulkheads, but more likely a combination of small discrepancies in my positioning of the position of the whales, waterline etc.  You can see in shots below the discrepancy in the height of the foremost gunport, this was a result of positioning the ports to be of equal height off the deck, which was clearly not fitted as well as it should have been.  These add about .5-0.75 of height on the starboard side, but the very small 'twist that this will introduce will not be noticeable.  The sheer rail at the bow has also been added.

 

 

Headworks:

Have been doing a lot of thinking about how to approach the headworks, clearly a rather challenging area.  Frankly, the kit supplied parts are a little disappointing being rather grainy and splintery, with some questionable dimensions.  The main rail seemed to be the place to start, and after a lot of experimentation decided to build this and the false rail together rather than in separate pieces - mainly because it seems sturdier, and less challenging as the false rail is rather lengthy and thin at this scale.  The main rails were cut from 2mm castello, and a profile introduced using a scraper to simulate the various features of the genuine article.  Curved, tapering shapes have to be the hardest to get right, especially with fine details and there were many time consuming rejects which painfully got me up the learning curve until I was happy.  The AOTS side elevations were scanned and manipulated digitally to correct for the angle to get the appropriate shape.  Caution!  I think the placement of the slot for the boomkin is not shown correctly on the AOTS side profile, I adjusted this looking at contemporary models - the revised position matches closely with the kit part which does provide some comfort.

 

The false rail was cut from 0.6mm pear sheet and 2 were laminated together.  The panel section of the false rail was cut out carefully to be shaped later by beveling the edges before replacing back in place.  First photo below shows a little how these were built up, with the first successful but discarded prototype, and a main rail that failed scraping.  Second photo below shows the kit supplied part next to the one of the scratched final articles.  Ignoring the quality of the wood (and to be fair, I made no effort to clean up the supplied parts), the AOTS plans suggest a subtly different profile curve, and a thicker main rail which looks too thin on the kit part.  The head of the main rail was deliberately cut a little longer to allow final shaping once these are finally installed.

 

 

These were then positioned with the head of the main rail vertical in both head on and side elevations.  It was found that these were quite easy to keep in place using mini modeling clothes pins  (scale replicas of the actual clothes pins used in actual ship construction  ).  Posting a lot of photos because I would really appreciate comments and suggestions from those more experienced with this to help me avoid fatal errors!

 

 

Finally, to confirm the layout of the boomkin slot, a copy was copied and scaled from the AOTS diagram.  This shows the tight proximity of the boomkin and seat of ease.  The triangular gap at the rear of the grating behind the false rail screen is where I believe there should be another seat of ease.

 

Again - I'm fumbling my way through this following the excellent TFFM book, so please do not be shy to point out errors and mistakes!

 

 

Edited June 17, 2018 by Beef Wellington

[ChadB]

Beautiful work, Jason!

[Old Collingwood]

So  nice  like watching a piece of art develop.

 

OC.

[BANYAN]

A very methodical and practical approach that will serve you well Jason; looks very good.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Kevin]

lovely work, i have found shapeways quite strange in their pricing, but ideal for something that is better than a kit product, i was after their Seaslug launcher, but managed to obtain from a another source here in the UK,

 

PS the build looks fantastic 

[Ferit]

Fantastic work as always, Jason...

[BenD]

Yeah, Those gun's... they basically look real.  Prodigious fine work all of it.

Edited August 16, 2018 by Duncbe

[Blue Ensign]

Always admire the finish you have achieved  Jason, and your figure looks spot on.

Love the graceful curve of the rails; that head on shot is particularly impressive.

Very nice work indeed. 🙂

 

B.E.

[albert]

Great work Jason, very very nice.

[Richmond]

Top drawer

[Tim Curtis]

Really superb work. Thanks for sharing.

 

Question. How do you get such a neat, smooth finish on your painted areas? Are you using an airbrush?

 

Thanks,

 

Tim

[Beef Wellington]

Hi all for the interest and the kind words and likes!  Have been on a bit of a hiatus, other distractions and a need for a little break.  Think I'm now back in the groove with the passion back again....looking forward to catching up on everyone else's progress on their builds.

 

Tim - the photos are maybe being overly kind, no airbrush, just regular brushes.  I generally don't dilute the Admiralty paints, but do tend to use a damp brush.  The blue on the hull is an exception where layers of dilute blue have been built up to avoid brush marks where possible, the Tamiya paints don't really lend themselves to this as much, but it seems to work.

 

 

[Tim Curtis]

Thanks Jason.

Thats helpful. 

Tim

[Beef Wellington]

Gun Carriages:

 

Nothing revolutionary, prototype gun carriage has been completed after putting on some more coats of paint to the carriages.  Learning experience here is to use as little paint on metal items as possible, all ring bolts and ring bolts have been chemically blackened.  Cannon barrels and ring bolts have been finished with Testors clear matt lacquer to eliminate the shine still inherent to the blackened surface.  The carriage bolts are model railway/railroad track pins which have a shallow domed head, these come painted black, so the head was painted with 'dark iron' before attaching.  I had experimented with countersinking these on a spare, but this seemed a little over fussy, and also just using wire cut off wire but felt these looked too dainty.

 

Event though many of these will be obscured by the deck, I will probably build all of these as per the prototype in case glimpses can be seen through various openings.  The guns that are highly visible will likely get a little more detailing but I'll decide to what extent when all of these are done.

 

 

Its a little disconcerting when I sat back a figured out what will be needed, and this is just the upper deck.  Everything is at least now ready for assembly....

• ringbolts - 336 blackened (7 per carriage, 4 per bulwark, 1 deck bolt)
• Domed pins - 168 (6 per carriage)
• 3mm rings - 112 (2 per carriage for breaching rope, 2 per gunport for breaching rope)
• 2mm rings - 28 (1 per gunport deckring)

 

So far 3 carriages have been built up, as the best method for construction becomes clearer, these do seem to be going together more quickly, but still not quickly 🙂  

 

[cog]

A bunch of Lawrence's little guys would be nice to have as support on these. they do look marvelous.

I would have expected e satin like finish on the barrels, from what I've seen from images and "land locked" guns

[Beef Wellington]

1 hour ago, cog said:

A bunch of Lawrence's little guys would be nice to have as support on these. they do look marvelous.

I would have expected e satin like finish on the barrels, from what I've seen from images and "land locked" guns

 

Hi Carl, this is one of those things that is very hard to capture in a photo (at least on my iPhone 'camera').  The finish does have a pleasant sheen, certainly not 'matte', it also brings a more consistent colour finish to all barrels as each one does tend to have a slightly different sheen and/or colour hue - definitely still at the 'artistic' stage rather than 'repeatable scientific process'.  🤐

[cog]

Artistic will do quite well, in the end you are creating a piece of art ... you are rather good at it, if I may say so

[Tim Curtis]

Great work.

Well done in being patient. They look superb.

And remember you only have 150 or so tiny blocks to strop and seize for the breaching ropes etc.

#gottalovetheguns

Tim

[BANYAN]

Nice work Jason; a real production line you have going there.  Those canon ook great!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Gahm]

These are great looking guns! It took me forever to do the 18 guns on my Syren . . . I am in awe of the work load you are facing 😉

 

Thomas

[Beef Wellington]

Interim update:

 

Anchor chain is on finally, been putting this off but really had to get it done so I could permanently 'right-side' the model...its amazing how many configurations there are on models and there really doesn't seem to be a standard way.

 

Next up, as a break from the repetitious chore of the gun carriages, was to finish the pumps.  I'd been overthinking how to cover the curved surface of the pump covers.  In the end, 1x2mm strip was used, with one side angled - wasn't as bad as I thought.  Once attached, the thickness was sanded down to try to get a more scale look.  Winch bearingsfor the pumps were shaped from strip and painted 'dark iron'.  Brown paint was used to simulate the leather washer for the cistern plugs.  These will be a little obscured eventually, but I think these details will be visible.

 

 

Once the pumps were completed, the next logical step is to figure out how to support these at the main hatch.  The kits indicates using wooden strip for this, but contemporary models show an iron bracket and this is what I' like to try to replicate as it seems more appropriate.  The main part of the bracket was made using an RB models stanchion, bent to shape and with the hole enlarged with a 0.8mm drill bit to accept the winches that will eventually be installed.  The height of these needs to be the same as the winch bearings so that the winch will be parallel to the deck, and they need to be parallel to the deck and over the coamings so the main hatch is not obscured - so this essentially determines the lateral placement of the pumps.  I will add an additional bracket which would have been necessary for strength, and you can see a trial made up from some scrap PE to illustrate which I think will do the trick.

 

I found thinking this through all rather intriguing as there seem to be some obvious problems.  For anyone coming from the lower deck, the ladder feads directly over the main hatch grating, and the winch brackets definitely seem to get in the way a bit here here, in addition to having to navigating the pump winches.  I can't figure out for the life of me why the ladders don't lead up forward rather than aft as this would seem to be much more practical, but this orientation is clearly shown on the original plans, AOTS Diana, as well as contemporary models...if anyone knows why, please say so!

 

Now that the positioning of the pump winches is known, the placement of the pillars for the main topsail sheet and main jeer bitts can be determined...which will probably be the next diversion.

 

Edited September 17, 2018 by Beef Wellington

[Old Collingwood]

Very nicely done.

 

OC.

[Shipyard sid]

Hello Jason

                  Truly stunning work, everything is so crisp and clean, and the quality of your work is outstanding.  Regards. DAVID

 

 

[Gahm]

Beautifully done! It is a pleasure to follow your build log!

 

Thomas

[egkb]

Very Clean and Crisp Mate .. Niiiiice 

 

Eamonn

[John Cheevers]

What a great build!

 

John

[BANYAN]

Superb work Jason, that looks really well detailed with clean crip joinery and metalwork.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Kevin]

ABSOLUTELY stunning build