Gaetan Bordeleau

Mark you are right about it. There is a nice video on you-tube about a guitar maker using a lot of jigs... and he is producing one of the best guitars on the market. A jig facilitate repetition and it is faster to use. I do not think that it is possible to produce a perfect model, in my situation, I am sure that I cant, there are too many thousand operation to do with perfection . I try to do my best and I also try to make it look good. My goal is not to do a perfect model ship, it is only to have fun in the construction process. I guess we could that every model ship builder has his own speciality. As an example, I would name Alex for the best sail representation. Yours would be something like: "Research and Building parts with the best possible method" and you succeed well with this result : very clean parts.

According to the company, this is good to cut... balsa, paper...

The false deck construction continues. After the aft part and the front part, comes now the front middle part. The last part will be int he next post, the middle part.

front false deck, just below the first deck

To pick only one, the mill will be more versatile. There is also another reason why a bigger machine is more precise: Dial size. In this example about 1 inch versus 6 inches.

photos 1 and 2 are from photoshop 2019 photo 3 photoshop 2015; much better. I am not sure I could still do this way, it in 2019 before last photo: a space was left near the inside wall to facilitate wall inspection

thank you and a few more

To build a super crate is not so much important. The idea is to have a solid base for the model and to fix on the back seat with no way to jump when there are bumps or curves on the road.

Usual way is with photocopy. This one is for occasional use and it is not intended for extremely detailed drawings. Trying to make one is easy, correctly placing the markings is a long process

Thank you Moab. Kurt bought a YI-4K camera and he will try a macro lens especially made by Pixaero to fit on it, and they say that there are no distortion. As an example, to compare the quality, here are some photos taken from inside the model ship. 2 things are clearly visible: less distortion and increased sharpness. It could be interesting to see the results with this macro lens later, sometimes it can be very surprising but we must also that there are no miracles and that a good a lens has a price. We must be carefull when comparing lens. It is the same idea when it comes to compare magnifying glasses. If I buy a $2 pair and try it, I could say that this is a good pair. But to see how good it really is, it is preferable to compare with another pair of different quality. These photos would have come later this week, but there is an occasion to show it now, especially the third one. As for the last photo, I showed the setup, each flash has in front of it, a kind of translucide satin fabric. The effect is to soften details globally, some way to balance the lighting.

Daniel, thank you, we can learned much faster with 2 brains rather than with only one.

Nobody would be crazy enough to build 4 times the same model ship but 1 advantage of building it, at least twice, is that you can see the end, even before beginning. As an example, here is what the false deck could look like in a few months:

Same book, same page; these projectiles are kept in crates in wells above the cannonballs. As you can read, there was also some other kinds.

Beginning the next step, the false deck. A scratch built model may look like a long project but it is also can be seen as a series of smaller steps going all in the same direction . In this small step, there will be a lot of walls, meaning a lot of planks. So the first step is to remake the inventory. I used 6 2'' by 6'' by 6 feet: cut each one in 2 feet sections and then cut each section in 3 inches wide; giving 18 (2'' X3'' X 2 feet). then passing every thing under planers to get everything square. 50% was selected for the nicest grain. Then slices to the desired thickness and to finish with the small saw bench to the desired width. Estimation is that 60% of the wood is lost during the procedure, the smaller we cut, the larger we lose wood. Each wall will be the same way, with a preset of white cardboard to set dimensions, it is faster this way and also, it can save a lot of wood.

Boudriot vol 2 p 172; except 10 cannonballs in each triangular park, the others are stored in the cannonball well, in 3 separate compartments 1 for each size. The bottom of the well are filled with old ropes, cannonballs are dropped on these and are carried in nets.

Sailor It is a good question. But let me ask you another one: how would they get out the cannon balls in a 20 feet deep narrow hole, knowing that the only entrance is on the top? I guess it is a strange place to store cannon balls, but I think that this way it dod not interfere with ballasts, the weight being concentrated in the middle. Richard, photography is a fascinating world with often results not expected; sometimes you are lucky, sometimes it is ordinary and sometimes the photo is good for the garbage and I still put photos in this spot and sometimes some are enough interesting to share.

Final step for the lowest level of this model ship: adding the aging look with tung oil

Thank you guys for your inputs. Yellow cedar, may be I could get from British Columbia, it would be expensive to ship in Quebec but the look of the grain is interesting Maple, very easy to get here in Quebec. I think I would need to get lucky to get a nice batch. The problem is the large spacing between each year which I think is larger than cherry. In comparison sanding maple and cherry are 2 different world. We have 3 different opinions and cherry is in everyone list. I remember very well in 2013, I did participate in a kind of contest for model ship builders. Here is what a judge wrote about cherry: ''The biggest issue with this model was the choice of wood used. In many cases, the grain appeared out of scale. Reading the rest of his comments, it was very clear that it was impossible to satisfy this gentleman; but he was not completely wrong. If I had 1 question for him; it would have been: if cherry was wrong, then which wood would have been right? Exactly as Chuck and Jaager previously wrote, we must carefully select the boards we are going to use. Here is an example of cherry wood enhanced with tung oil. Although I am probably more selective today, and I could even get a step higher in the quality control to select ''the perfect look wood'', all along the cutting procedure from a 2 by 12 inches up to few millimeters thick.

I began model ship building many years ago, and I still do not know if the perfect wood specie exist for model ship. In Europe , the favorite wood is pear wood and boxwood, 2 fruit woods with no grain pattern. These 2 species grow well in few countries in Europe. Pear wood has an excellent workability and it is easy to sand. Boxwood is probably the perfect wood for carving. In North America, what choice do we have, if we want to use native woods. I do not know if we have in Museums scale model ship before 1800. If so, what would have been the wood they would have used. In Canada, around 1750 in Quebec city, René Nicolas Levasseur built around 10 full size ship in oak. I did not see in the archives if he did small scale model ship. What choice do we have in Canada, more specifically in Ontario and Quebec? The best woods have to be the fruit woods. Apple wood could be probably the best choice, but there are 2 problems availability and I read that few furniture was made from this wood but likes to crack. If I want to build a large size model like by example 1/24, supply would be extremely difficult. I do not know of any fruit wood specie that I could buy in large quantity, so I have to turn to the hardwoods. Some people use maple but the grain is very large and sanding is very difficult. Birch, may be, could be good, but availability is a problem. The last one cherry wood, is it really a fruit wood or is it some kind between the size of maple tree and apple tree. I do not know what the wood of cherry tree like in France look like? To build a model ship at this scale I would need about 10 X 2'' by 10'' by 12 feet, the cost may be $500. The reason why it is preferable to use domestic wood is the price. The same quantity of exotic wood would be more like $5000. Workability and sanding are very excellent, nice edge retention, but at least 0 to 5% has perpendicular grain in a plank. These trees grows relatively fast and the grain if not carefully chosen can be out of scale. So is there a perfect fruit tree with oak grain in miniature for the grain pattern? The best I know are fruitwood without grain pattern. If I do not find the right wood, does that mean that I cannot build a model? If I really want to build at least one, I have to make a choice. What would be your choice and why???

The reason, little ''Go Pro'' style, picture and video camera: YI 4K. I had previously tried in previous builds other mini cameras but they were only HD. This one with 4K and a wide angle lens does a much better job and sharpness is much better. As a comparison, here is 1 taken with in HD, same place for the last completed 74.

Continuation of the construction of the floating warehouse. Next level will begin. The larger open place, in the middle, will be the amphitheater, a place to care for the sick and wounded.. One of the goals, in this small project... is to limit at the minimum the decks planking to maximize the interior view.

https://www.rarewoodsusa.com/product/boxwood-14/ they are selling buxus macowanii

As usual, Karl is showing us a very high quality work. The series of Book on the 74 guns written by Jean Boudriot will always be the best reference to learn and understand the construction of ship. I surely would like to see more of that 74!