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

[Beef Wellington]

Time to clear away the cobwebs and dust from this buildlog and play a little catch-up.  Have been grabbing a few moments here and there to on some items that aren't really that interesting, and especially mulling over the approach to take on a few things.  The quarterdeck and forecastle decks are in place, this is a very large piece so these were cut into more manageable sections which works better for me, otherwise I find that the PVA glue has set too much by the time all surfaces have been glued up.  Cutting sections at points where there is support from the beam underneath makes this a much more manageable exercise and allows the sheer of the deck to be maintained.  Once installed, glue was forced into the gap at the edges of the deck to prevent any future flexing, and then filled and faired to get as smooth a run as possible.  The stern fascia has also been finished with some interior planking and a preliminary coat of paint, a margin deck plank installed and the rear gun ports finished.  The strips on the stern fascia were shaped by steaming longitudinally first, otherwise the two compound curves would make this very challenging.

One feature that I've been obsessing over is the quarterdeck skylight.  The kit provides a structure that reminds me a lot of a small greenhouse enclosure, and this is a feature that I found hard to find many suitable examples of on contemporary frigate models.  The various Artois models show both an exaggerated grating or the 'greenhouse'.  Somehow I mislaid some of the pieces so scratching something myself was always going to be a requirement.

 

Like many features, this seems to be a transitionary period, moving from the skylight being an addition to a existing companionway (e.g. clerestory style top that is wider than long - the example BE put on his Pegasus being excellent example), to more modern structures that are longer than wide and form the more typical shape.  Interestingly, some slightly later plans (e.g. the very slightly later Leda class) show this feature on the plans suggesting it being a more permanent or standardized feature, but none of the Artois plans show anything beyond a small coaming.  In the end, I decided to take some inspiration from HMS Trincomalee, and build a structure that has side lights similar to the cleristory top, but with solid wood roof.  In the main, the was driven by the fact that glass at this time period was still realistically only available in smaller panes, and that a solid top just seems a little more utilitarian and cost effective.  Once that decision was made, I needed to figure out how to execute...

 

Firstly, a very simple jig was made up with blocks the size of the needed glass panes, this would allow the narrow strip to be secured while being glued to what will be the lower part of the structure. The method of assembly required that at each end, a wider 2mm piece is needed to simulate what will be the corner structure.  Once dried, the supports can be cut back to th e necessary height before removing from the jig.

The upper structure can then be attached out of the jig either a strip for the side wall or a shaped 'end'.  The end of the left and rigt supports are approx 1mm wide so that when joined with the sides the corner support will be of consistent dimension.

When fully glued, the structure is stronger than I expected, but still clearly very delicate.  The end pieces were cut back as close as possible flush to the last support with a knife, but the last effort had to be with a sanding stick.  Clamping the structure between some ply offcuts allowed the ends to be carefully sanded relatively safely.  The structure could then be assembled, lego blocks were used to keep everything as square as possible.

Once fully cured, a rectangular section was inserted to introduce some additional strength (forgot to take a photo) before the side were carefully sanded back flush.  A profile was introduced into some 1x1mm strip for the upper molding which was attached prior to installing the sloping roof pieces.  Not finished yet, but this is sufficient to allow for some planning of the deck planking.

And finally, the various coamings and capstan partners have been made up to give a sense for the layout.  These items will be attached to the subdeck so deck planking will butt up against them as was actual practice which I suspect will prove to be a little challenging, but more to come on that hopefully.  One compromise that I saw as being unavoidable is that the 3 hatchways directly aft of the capstan should taper slightly.  In practice I believe that the battens in the gratings themselves would taper as well, but that is just not an option. Given that it would look very odd to my eye to taper the coamings but not the gratings, the decision was made to not taper.  Don't think this will be noticeable, and a compromise I can happily accept.

Edited June 30, 2021 by Beef Wellington

[robdurant]

Very nice crisp work on that companionway. Good to see HMS Jason moving forward again. And a good idea to fit that deck in parts. I didn't and ended up with a slight wave along the quarterdeck on the starboard side which I'll always know is there even if no-one else notices.

[Blue Ensign]

A great little companionway top you have made there Jason, are you going to glaze the lights?.

I too passed on the hatchway taper, I felt that at the scale involved it may have looked like an error rather than an intention.

 

B.E.

[egkb]

Great to see Jason back on the build board .. As Rob said, 'Crisp Work' going on here Mate..

 

Roll on your next update

 

Eamonn

[Mike_H]

Crisp as ever, and celebrating each little gain.  Together these make an object lesson.  Only just remembered to follow this, so now look forward to more canapé-sized bites of (near) perfection.

[Beef Wellington]

Thanks everyone for not forgetting me!

 

@BE - Yes, I will glaze the lights.  One of my other vacillations is what with, especially as the stern lights still need to be installed.  There is the kit supplied perspex, crystal clear, and I also have some thin mica sheets which are less than perfect but maybe a little bit more 'period'.  Still pondering that one, luckily don't need to decide now.

@Eammon - need to see you getting back into things now the Ballier is complete!

@Mike - very much enjoying watching your Snake come together

 

Planning for quarterdeck planking:

Planking the forecastle and quarterdeck has had me in a state of indecision for quite some time.  Of course one option would be to simply plank with standard 4mm strip.  While there is next to no chance of a mess-up, I knew that I would be forever kicking myself as this would not be consistent with contemporary practice.  At this time, it seems that deck planking was still done by hand and involved planks being tapered, but without being joggled into the waterway.  I'm going to follow the suggested pattern in the AOTS Diana book which show a consistent taper over the full length (with consistent run fore to aft), rather than the other contemporary practice of having a wider section at the rear of some planks to allow the adjacent plank to butt into it.  This approach will definitely be a big challenge, but I'm hoping that taking this slowly will at least give a chance of success.

 

Firstly, the quarterdeck was marked out with 1cm station markers, the centerline defined and an estimate for the waterway placement.  I'm planning on the waterway being about 5mm wide, so the edge was marked 6mm from the interior bulwark face to allow for an additional layer of planking.  For ease, this exercise was then then repeated on a paper template, and seperate templates were created for both starboard and port sides.

The width of the deck was then measured at each 1cm station.  To aid this exercise, I used a newly acquired digital caliper which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone, I don't know how I got by with without one to this point - no more eyeballing to the nearest 0.5mm!  To minimize error, each measurement was taken 3 times and then averaged on each side.  This highlighted something that is not too surprising, that is that the the hull is not symmetrical, and varies in width from the centerline by up to 1mm, and needs to be accounted for.

All of these measurements were entered into a spreadsheet to estimate the required taper for each plank, and which allowed certain constraints to be resolved (for example, a whole number of planks are needed (!), and that the width of the plank at the aftmost end shouldn't be less than 50% of the widest part of the plank.).  The small discrepancies between the starboard and port side were resolved by simply averaging the two, mainly to avoid the need for different tapering approaches, and hopefully these discrepancies can be resolved without being apparent to a typical observer.  The spreadsheet allowed the overall planking plan to be determined at each station, so that this can continually be checked as planking progresses.  To give everyone a sense for where this landed, the desired plank is 3.85mm at its widest, tapering to 2.16mm at its narrowest over a length of 35cm.

Now the plank widths were known, 2 templates could be made out of some spare pear stock. (These were fine tuned after temporarily glueing together)  I was very happy with how this turned out, and it proved possible to get to a high level of accuracy with time and care.  These templates were then glued onto a board, and jig to hold planks placed in between.  Each plank was rough shaped to remove 75% of the needed material, but then finished with ever finer sandpaper.  The sandpaper was placed in the center of a block that slides on the templates to provide the final shape.  Electrical tape was placed on the templates to help protect them, and also offset the thickness of the sandpaper.  The bottom photo shows the first 10 planks having been finished.  I was very pleased with the level of accuracy that this gave, there being very little difference between the planned and actual.

Next step will be to start getting some of these installed, and continue shaping the remainder that will be needed.

 

 

[robdurant]

Great work Jason. I'm sure you'll be really pleased you tapered the planks. My approach was a little less precise but still it makes a nice contrast to the straight planking runs on the gun deck. As a thought you may want to put some of the planks down then reassess the widths to make fine adjustments in case laying the planks introduced some drift? But your planking is so precise I'm sure you'll be fine.

 

My digital calipers are the tool I never put away on my build desk. Especially useful when you need to work put which drill bit you need (and what order they go back in the box when you accidentally drop them!).

 

Looking forward to seeing this deck come together.

 

Rob

[Mike_H]

11 hours ago, Beef Wellington said:

@Mike - very much enjoying watching your Snake come together

That's kind of you.  By coincidence I have just spent an hour reading through pages 12-15 of your Snake log to see how you dealt with masts and bowsprit - particularly in connection with shaping.  Very enlightening.  Think I'm about to explore the wold of serving

 

On the design of your planking jig, two things occurred to me: are you an engineer by any chance? (I am, and am in awe)  The spreadsheets and jig-making say yes.  But delaying to now to get a digital calliper says no (I expect I'll buy another as I need one in the shipyard (spare bedroom) and the spar factory (garage - think UK, 8 ft wide, no possibility of a car in there).

 

And then the second point, how does the jig work for guiding the sanding? Asking our of interest because I cannot imagine having the craft skills for this (and besides I could spend more money and attach CNC control to my Proxxon mill)

[Beef Wellington]

Thanks Rob, you did such an excellent job on Ethalion that its a hard act to follow, but gave me no reason to hold back 🙂  I'm hoping the planned widths are sufficient to at least get started with a reasonable degree of confidence.  Once planking starts to approach the planned waterway then I suspect it will then be possible (and necessary) to tailor more manually.  Will also leave off installing any waterway planks until necessary as that should also allow some fine tuning.

[Beef Wellington]

@ Mike - no not officially an engineer, but my brain does work that way....am a physicist by education, and have played a little with battlefield engineering.  Up to this point, its been possible to get by just by look and feel, and the philosophy of thinking ahead and not sweating the small stuff 🙂.  This task just required more planned precision.  BTW - you can never have enough serving on a model if you have the patience for it.

 

Hopefully this photo makes the jig operation clearer (I left the tape off the outside guide templates for clarity).  The fine sandpaper shown is around 0.2mm thickness which would pretty much be offset by the electrical tape thickness.  (0.2mm plank width variance would add up to a 4mm problem per side, so it adds up quickly)

 

[egkb]

What a brilliant idea Jason .. I shall have to investigate this method when the time comes to deck 'Shery' !  (BTW Ballier isn't quiet finished just yet, just a teeny bit to do but I have been turfed out of my build room as it has become a temporary bedroom whilst a family member awaits their delayed move to Holland 🙄 😃)

 

Looking forward to your next installment.

 

Cheers Mate

 

Eamonn

[Mike_H]

21 hours ago, Beef Wellington said:

Hopefully this photo makes the jig operation clearer

Ah... it does.  Delightfully, it's the inverse of your jig for shaping your hatch-comings on Snake.

 

I'm currently sitting in a Zoom meeting, which gives me enough time to go full-engineer on planning out my next stage of my Snake, so if it goes to plan, I'll post calculations, sketches, workflow and final result.  Fingers crossed.  

 

I must say that your advice philosophy of "thinking ahead and not sweating the small stuff 🙂", is just what I strive for.  The paradox is that thinking ahead is all about sweating the apparently small stuff!

[Beef Wellington]

 

 

Finding a little time to update some (small) progress, thanks everyone for the interest, comments and likes.

 

@Eamonn, @Mike - One comment off the bat, certainly would not want to be claiming this approach as my own.  I think we all stand on the shoulders of others, and it was Rob's Ethalion build that inspired me to try this approach...how's it going?  Read on....

 

Before pressing forward with the deck, I had to decide how the companionway cover would sit.  While not being quite sure how much would be visible through the tiny windows, the decision was made to once again install some false beams and carlings for the companion cover to sit on.  This sits quite nicely in place, and is once again put aside for final detailing.

 

Jumping into planking proper, it quickly became clear that initial steps required a bit of fine tuning.  Once the various coaming are glued into position, quite a bit of  care is needed to ensure alignment to the centerline, and also address any potential symmetry issues.  It was necessary to re-attach the rear hatch coaming as it was clear that this was slightly off-center and the misalignment would have been emphasized by the run of the planks.  The only other slight complication was the need to cut custom planks to flank the hatchway, capstan step and rear grate coamings.  Not difficult, just time consuming to ensure a fit and keep the necessary curvature for the run of the planks.

 

Overall, pretty happy with how this is turning out.  The only other thing to comment on is that the decision was made to plank the top-tackle and pump scuttles which seems more consistent with the original plans, rather than the raised gratings suggested by the kit. 

 

Note - The planking lines drawn onto the subdeck are not 100% accurate, and they're there just to help plan the butt-shift and get a better sense for the how the alignment will eventually run into the waterway.  There's also a little bit of pencil lead smudging from the caulking which always seems unavoidable and hasn't been cleaned up yet...

 

Edited August 23, 2021 by Beef Wellington

[robdurant]

Jason,

 

What beautiful work you're doing on the quarterdeck. Any captain would be proud to wear those planks thin by pacing them on the weather-side!  

 

Rob

[Blue Ensign]

Great planking job you’re doing there Jason. 👍

 

B.E.

[Mike_H]

Lovely to see such refined patient progress.  Keep it up, Jason.

 

Mike

 

[Kevin]

Thats very nice indeed

[Timmo]

That’s great work and a string of very educational posts Jason. Glad to see her back underway. 
The spreadsheet idea seems so obvious and is something I’ll store away for future. 
Coincidentally I’ve been fitting decking to a 1:1 scale sailing dinghy and spent a day working out tapers and spacing for a measly five planks. 

[Beef Wellington]

Happy New Year everyone!  Know I have been absent for what seems an eternity, my usually slow pace was additionally impacted by the many hurricanes and storms that hit the US earlier this year, our basement had some water damage that put an end to ship modelling activities until it was sorted....which it just has been.  Luckily, no damage was sustained to any models, but, I did lose a number of kit pieces and wood strip supplies that were stored in cardboard boxes.  Luckily nothing terminal.  Decent maple strip now needs to be even more carefully husbanded but hoping I will have enough to ensure consistent material on the remaining planking.

 

The holidays provided an opportunity to get back into it and finally was able to complete the quarterdeck planking.  Very slow and intensive, but I am happy with the result and the fact this is task at least is done.  The pictures below show the deck without any tidying up and show the slight differences in plank thicknesses and pencil lead smudging, so next step will be to clean all of this up.  The forecastle planking will require a slightly different approach and planning, but there are some additional things to finalise first which can wait for a future post.

 

Cheers

[robdurant]

You've done a beautiful job with that deck planking Jason. Really glad to hear none of your models suffered with the water ingress. 

[dunnock]

Beautiful work Jason and good to see you back.

I only hope that I can achieve a result half as good when I reach that stage

[Gahm]

I love your deck planking - very clean and precise. Well done!

 

Thomas

[BANYAN]

Welcome back, and happy NY Jason.  glad to hear the damage was not too bad, but must have been a bit of a 'scare'.

 

Very nice clean work (up to your usual high standard) on the planking.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Wahka_est]

Amazing planking!

[Beef Wellington]

Thanks everyone for the continued interest and kind words.

 

Planking of the foc's'l has started and wanted to catch up before I get too far behind, wanted to record how I approached this for my own benefit as much as anything.  Breaking down into the main tasks:

 

Ensuring appropriate sheer of the foc's'l:

There was always going to be something to fettle here.  There were a number of items that needed to be fine tuned before planking could get underway on the deck.  There are a number of items that need to look right:

• Sheer of the foc's'l planking- this should be parallel to the wale
• Sheer of the deck - need to avoid any unnatural dips and bumps, probably caused by the false deck supports not being perfectly positioned
• These two elements need to also come together in a way that gives a gradual steady decrease in the bulwark height, and avoid situation where this does not transition smoothly

This did require some filling of the false deck and additional sanding to get this to where I was happy.  Marking the edge of the deck with a pencil line really helped with the visuals here as there are many curves competing with each other.

 

Determining the appropriate taper of the planks:

Really not much to go on here and went with a planned reduction of around 10-15% between the waist and the bow which seems consistent with many pictures and plans I could find.  The only consideration here was to not taper these too much so that a 'half moon' shape develops towards the edge of the deck.  Considering this, and estimating the number of planks needed, I used the same jig used for the quarterdeck to introduce the curve.

 

Bowsprit partner:

In David Antscherl's TFFM series, he notes that sometimes partners were used on the bowsprit.  I latched onto this as a way to tidy up the way that planks terminate against the bowsprit....especially because I think at this point I will not be adding one (more on that later).  Adding the partner here neatens up the planking in this area and also helps hide the PoF constuction a little more with the bowsprit not hiding this.  This wasn't too challenging to make, first a key was cut into the false deck and a plug made to match.  This was then glued to a larger boxwood sheet that would be visible, and which ensured that the partner would sit snuggly when in place.  The top was deliberately left oversize at this point as the final dimensions would be dictated by the width of the planking.  The concave curve of the underside was made with a suitably sized file approximating the bowsprit dimensions.

 

Planking:

With all the prelim work done, planking could commence!  First step was to install some scrap wood strip on one side of the center line using a ruler as a guide.  This proves to be very helpful in ensuring that the initial runs stay true as once the coamings are installed there is no simple way to do this other than relying on one's eyeball, and once the first central plank is in place can be easily removed.  The fore-grating could now be installed, and experience from the quarterdeck suggested that using the bare minimum of PVA glue is a good idea in case that it proves necessary to fine tune the position.  Luckily however this did not prove necessary.

 

The remaining wildcard is how the planks will butt up against the installed coamings.  As for the quarterdeck, fine adjustments were made to the strips to ensure that they would not result in inappropriately thin widths around the coaming.  This also allowed the bowsprit partner dimensions to be finalised so that they all align appropriately.  It's interesting to note that the partner is a slight wedge shape, reflecting the inward curve of the planking.

Once the first 4 planks were on, the margin planks needed to be installed as all planking from here will butt up against it.  For now, only the forward section has been installed, and the joint between then will (hopefully!) be hidden by the cathead.  Planking could then continue aft, with a similar approach being taken for the steam grating coaming as before and the top of the beam being installed.  The area directly to the rear of this was a bit of a pain as the planking strips are only about 5mm long and difficult to get nice clean tight joints.

 

It proved necessary to once again make custom planks from maple sheet athwart the steam grating coaming, and these proved surprisingly challenging, mainly because there are many edges that need close alignment.  The maple being used also does have a tendency to splinter at the edges.  The gap on the outmost plank is where the top tackle scuttle will be.  Hopefully things will speed up a little now the foundations are in place, at least until hooked planks are needed....

 

Edited January 22, 2022 by Beef Wellington

[tomganc]

Wow such a great job! Nice, crisp and attention to the details is insane. You should be proud of yourself. Keep us posted

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks really great Jason!

 

Are the planks tapering as they get to the bow?  If so, and you don't mind me asking, how are you cutting those planks?  On my Pegasus gun deck, I didn't bother tapering the planks at the ends of the deck as they wouldn't be seen, but I'm considering whether to taper them on the upper decks.  Haven't quite figured out how to go about doing so, aside from measuring and cutting a very slight taper on one side of the plank, and then squaring the ends.

Edited January 22, 2022 by Landlubber Mike

[Beef Wellington]

12 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Are the planks tapering as they get to the bow? 

Hi Mike - yes they do taper, and I took exactly the same approach used for the quarterdeck planking described in post #668, being about 3mm at the bow and 3.8mm at the waist, and re-used an appropriate section of the template used to shape the quarterdeck planks rather than creating a new one.  I've found that until you really get well into it, the curve is rather hard to discern, but the good news is that there isn't the same constraint as on the quarterdeck to terminate against the waterway.

 

[Beef Wellington]

13 hours ago, tomganc said:

Wow such a great job! Nice, crisp and attention to the details is insane. You should be proud of yourself. Keep us posted

Welcome aboard Tom, and thankyou for the kind words.  Your Victory is looking very nice, and your attention to detail on the rigging is definitely paying off.

[Chuck]

Absolutely beautiful progress.