ChrisLBren

Thanks for the tip Mike - your frames look great ! I know many use monofilament successfully. I really want to simulate the square bolts that were used on French ships of the period - so square wire either copper or brass is my preference.

Thanks for your comments ! Tobias - I haven't received Vahur's delivery of Black Hornbeam - it should arrive any day. I won't be using it for another month or so as I want to finish all the frames before beginning the keels parts where it will be needed. Update - the first 29 frames of 58 total are assembled and roughly finished. I will be installing bolts once they are faired and ready for final install into the jig. I have seen either copper square wire or brass square wire as the material to simulate them, copper has the advantage of blackening it in situation without bleed into the surrounding wood. I am curious if using brass do most simply just install the brass square wire and let nature burnish it over time or blacken it. My understanding is you will need to seal the wood first before attempting to blacken brass in situation to avoid the bleed.

Thanks everyone for your comments. This week was negative progress... I was up to 20 frames and decided to test fit all of the notches with scrap wood - 4.5mm for the inner slot and 7mm for the outer. I should have done this during construction. Some of the first frames were off by almost .5mm which is a big gap in this sort of construction. So 10 frames ended up in the trash can and 10 remain. Moving forward not only am I using an optivisor while milling, I am doing my best to cut halfway into the lines. The good news is I have plenty of Pear wood and I am in no hurry to complete this one. I really want to take my time to get this right rather than use any flawed part and pay for it later in construction. Huge tip I figured out - always use a backing piece of plywood while milling parts. Im getting perfect cuts with no tear out.

Thanks Pavel ! The modelers on the French site swear by 1/36th scale Greg as Im sure you're aware ! This frigate in 1/48 will still be over 36 inches in length unrigged so by no means "small"

Greetings Group, Back in 2017 shortly after finishing Confederacy, I attempted my first Ancre scratch build, La Renommee. I have always been in love with this Frigate and her unique lines. I, however did not possess the skills yet to do her justice, nor a mastery of my recently purchased tools (chisels, Byrnes Machines, Sanders, and my first mill). Raising small children and establishing a new business also provided problematic to achieving my goal of building this ship. I worked on a few other projects including Le Gros Ventre in 1/36 scale which did increase my skills with the scroll saw, sharpening and working with chisels and scrapers, the Proxxon MF70, reading plans, building a build site and milling wood. However after a 2 year break and revisiting my progress I noticed, being new to creating frames, they were too large and would require a heck of a lot of sanding to get to spec. Also the Proxxon MF70 while not a bad tool, is not nearly as accurate as my recently acquired TAIG mill. I really wanted to give all the keel parts another go with this tool. The question became do I re do Le Gros Ventre, or work on one of the other Mongraphs I own in both 1/36 and 1/48 scale (Egyptienne, Renommee Amarante, Requin to name a few) A friend has shared the frame drawings of La Renommee 1/48 fully laid out (in the Monograph Boudriot only drafts half frames) and easy to print on my home computer. These are a god send vs running to the local UPS store to make copies over and over again (my experience with Le Gros Ventres frames). After running some tests I found I do like the smaller scale of 1/48 (at least so far) as it gives me the option to rig later. So Ive sharpened all the tools, cleaned up the workshop and La Renommee was started again two weeks ago. So far I have completed 14 frames that are very accurate with only about .5mm of fat. As you can see the notches on the frames are a bit complicated. I can not image this build without having a good mill. I have some black hornbeam on the way from Hobbymill in Europe to use instead of ebony for the black parts and plenty of Pear I've collected over the years. I will need to learn metal work in the not too distant future and carving in the really distant future, however I am confident with some good coaching I'll get there.

Looks great ! I love the shellac finish - did you mix it yourself with flakes ? If so what ratio did you use - I may be applying the finish on my build. Chris

Wow - congrats !!!!

Great tutorial - Im still stuck on these on my LGV build - which has spacers between the extensions as you know makes it more complex. Nice work !!!!

Nice work - personally I would go with a shellac - my favorite finish - either a blonde or garnet if you want darker. Its so easy to apply and you can make you own mixture using flakes and alcohol.

Still struggling with this decision. I personally believe the Taig Mill is better than the Sherline - our late friend Jim B steered me that direction. Im not sure about the lathe though. The Taig Lathe is half of the price of the Sherline however the Sherline gets better reviews online and has DRO. Hard call - I did sell my Proxxon MF70, Preac Saw, and Unimat to help pay for this purchase. The other route I could go is buy a wood lathe and the Taig for metal work which could be less than the price of the Sherline.

I will probably buy the Taig with the Power feed and long bed to compliment the Taig Mill. I While Sherline has more accessories, Taigs tools are just more robust and solid in my opinion and can be customized with after market parts.

I may end up keeping this one - I love my Taig but for smaller parts it may make sense to hold on to it.

This one looks to be sold as well !

Looks like its sold to another member on the forum ! If anything changes I will let you know

Hi Group, As I use my Taig Mill exclusively, this is another tool that needs a home. Works great, however for larger scales - 1/36 and above its a bit small for my needs. Any offers are appreciated via PM