Clark

Keel is now roughly tapered. The first tapering seemed to be easier to me with no frames in the keel. Fine tuning will follow when frames are glued and sanded. Keel was mounted into a slipway made of wood blocks and right angle metal winkles for later adjusting the frames in the correct position. Frame and keel slots were slightly sanded in that the deck lines of the frames touched the outer lines of the triple frame with no difference in height. It came out that the frames delivered by corel are quite correct. Only minor sanding was necessary. After gluing the frames, deck lines of the frames were again corrected/sanded. Deck line was controlled by attaching strips. Hull side of the frames were roughly sanded after attaching strips and looking to their slope. In two frames, strips 0,5x5mm had to be glued on one side since they did not get in contact with the strip attached. These frames were sanded again. All in all it was a permanent interplay between controlling, measuring and sanding, everybody knows. Filler blocks and wood filler are now added to the first two bow gaps and the last two gaps at the stern. Sanding and controlling the hull line at the bow and the stern again and again. I got the feeling that this sanding and filling procedure is easier without the deck and deck planking attached. There is a good description of producing filler blocks in the forum (http://modelshipworldforum.com/ship-model-framing-and-planking-articles.php…). In contrast to the descriptions mentioned I dry measured size and shape of the filler blocks directly in the ship without making templates. I trust on eyeballing. Ship is now put backwards due to Christmas. Some of children and grandchildren are coming and we are also visiting those living a bit far away.

Hi Frank, fun is garanteed. I look forward to follow your progress. It is really an impressive ship, isnt i? Clark

Hi Frank, I am not as experienced as Hubac s Historian. But just on logical grounds: I would draw the ropes for the middle carriage the other way around the wheels: outside in. At present the ropes get in close contact with the carriage wich would damage them (when the ship would really be in fight). Clark

Found it, perfect! Clark

Al, Thanks for visiting.

Thanks Gimo, where is your Reale now? Clark

Hi Frank and Hubac's Historian, thanks a lot for helping me. The painting is really helpful in building the ship but unfortunately it is probably not the one described by Vitz. It can be read that the starboard side is shown and not the portside. Moreover it is probably a drawing and not a painting. Meanwhile I figured out the the text copied is part of a thesis written at the Universtity of Duesseldorf (near the river Rhine, near France??). I will try to get in contact with the University to figure out the sources. Can you send me the link, where the painting of the Paris Museum can be looked at? There is no accdess via the website of the museum at least the way I tried. Thanks a lot Clark

I am going to join the club of modelers constructing or having constructed the ship. Frankly speaking, their construction and kit reports (gimo, Bender, fmodair, schiffebastler) urged me to order the kit. Mainly the very sophisticated report of Frank (fmodair) increased my wish to build the ship. I do not have the skills of the others mentioned. Thus this blog is mainly to those who rely on the material provided by Corel. Content of the kit is well described in construction reports of the club members. Most of the material seems to be of good quality but I am already wondering how to amend the plywood pieces. As mentioned I will probably manly rely on the material provided by Corel. However I like to see the wood structure of the models implying that I will use color paint very rarely. We will see. It seems to me that although Corel put some efforts in the written instruction manual, there is still enough space for improving. False keel is a triple one and made of six pieces which have to be glued overlapping to produce a keel three layers thick. To keep the keel straight I fixed and clipped the parts of the keel flatly on a shell with a metal rail below the keel pieces. Since the lower line of the keel is deflecting, small wood wedges were put under the bow and stern side of the keel to get the distance from the metal rail (arrow). The get the three overlaying pieces in the correct position, small wood stripes 4x4 mm were put into the spaces for the frames/bulkheads. After gluing the keel, frames were dry (!) fitted by filing the slots of the keel and filing the slots of the frames. Bottom side and deck side of the keel was treated with wood filler and sanded. Frames, false deck, the pieces of the true keel and other supports were dry fitted. Some minor sanding had to be done for this. Next step will be tapering the keel and adusting the frames.

Hi Frank, I have inserted part of text I found above. Vitz refers to Belin and Goussier as the artists behind the painting/drawing. Any idea? Clark

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Frank, via Google I found an article of "Florian Vitz" describing a picture/painting of La Reale (in German) with a lot of details but not the cannons. Do you know what/where the picture/painting can be found? It might help with the cannon question. Clark

Frank, it looks perfect. But I am still wondering if the carriages have to be secured differently (as in other ships) depending on the status of the ship: in fight or on trip. (Do not know if thats the correct english expression, hope you know what I mean.) Thus you may have to decide how you want to present your ship later on. Clark

There is still the question where the cannon balls and the gun powder were stored when loaded from the front deck. I am also wondering how the carriages and canons were handled when they were such tight to each other. Clark

I am not sure but just for logic: Is there also a rig needed to pull the canon back? Enjoying your report. Clark

Within all the discussions about CAD and precision modelling, I felt a bit old fashioned when trusting the eyes. Clark

Thanks a lot for the excellent and detailed description. Also thanks for ensuring that eyeballing is a proper method. Clark

I bought a similar one (model craft) and did some tests on 1.5 - 2mm planks. It works, but you have to soak the planks intensively before. Clark

Thanks for all the replies. Regarding the voltage problem, we have 230 V in Germany. The one shown is 33 Euro. I ordered it. However, I am already facing the problem that the planks I am working with have to be bended in two directions. I will problably start with a longer test perid when the bender has been arrived. Thanks again

Thanks all for the hints and the tips. You convinced me to buy a plank bender. The one of Aeropicola is not available at least in Germany. Does anybody has ever tested the one shown in the picture? Clark

Dear Kriss, thanks for the tip. Maybe it may also depend on the wood type. Clark

Dear all, does anybody have experience with soaking the strips for some minutes in hot water (~80°C) and bending them directly therafter by fixing on right plyce of the hull? I read it somewhere in the forum. One simple problem for me: One end (stern) maybe easily soaked, but whats about soaking and heating the other end (bow) when the strip is fixed on the hull. It may be a silly question but I did not got a solution so far. Clark

Thanks for the many replies and comments. Just to add my experience with the saw since I bought it several weeks ago: I did a lot of cuts with various types of wood. I mainly used it for making wood filler between frames and for constructing supports in a slipway. Thus no work with the need to be very precise. There were no problems to do straight cuts with a precision of about 0.5 mm in wood pieces up to 20 mm thickness. The only problem I had was doing angular cuts with small wood pieces. I glued the pieces on longer sticks and fixed the miter gauge accordingly. It worked. I would strongly agree that a saw is dangerous. The protection system of the NovelLife is not the best one. Moreover, it sometimes interferes with handling because you cannot hold the wood sufficiently when the protection system is mounted. The speed of the saw can be varied by adjusting the power supply which is comfortable when handling different types of wood. But it probably makes no ´difference when cutting your finger with 12V or with 24V. I did not try it. I would not use the saw for cutting strips for deck planking or hull planking. Clark

Hi Wefalck, thanks for the tip. I will try the Zaponlack next time.

Would totally agree that CA is mostly a no go in rigging. However, I used it once on knots when giving a final fixation with 0.25 mm black rigging lines. The knots were then covered with black ink. Applying the CA was a bit tricky. I made the experience that watered PVA also leads to changes in the colour of rigging lines (depending on the type of lines). Clark

Bob Cleek, you are expressing what I feel. Adjusting height and correcing postion can often better be done by eye than by caliper. As a control I sometimes asked my my wife to have a sharp look on the ship. But her willingness is declining. Thanks all for joining the discussion Clark