tkay11

That's really nice of you, George, especially as you are one of those on whom I relied as a guide in the Sherbourne build. You were incredibly helpful. So I'm glad I am doing the right kind of thing! Your Ballahoo is turning into an even more informative and interesting build, especially as you make so much reference to original plans. At the moment I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with the Allège d'Arles, using the Ancre plans, at 1:100. However it is more of an exercise in learning some techniques (the hull is in card, the rest wood) for modelling at a smaller scale, for using only plans for a guide as the monograph provides no real assistance (unlike other Ancre monographs), and for painting. So as the finish is rather rough I might just post a review of the monograph a little later using the build as a set of examples of problems I've encountered and how I've tried to overcome them as well as the several oopsies that I've made. The only other builds I know of are Javier Baron's wonderful 1:200 miniature and the two builds of a rather different Arles allège using the card kit from WAK, so a review of the monograph together with such a discussion might be more interesting than a blow by blow log. Once I've achieved that, I might be ready for a proper build! Tony

French vessels of the period show a gradual thickening, but of course that could be entirely irrelevant! Great to see you back in the 'thick' of it! Tony

One thing I forgot. I find that I now use a hand-held coping saw far more than the electrical scroll saw. It needs no set up (other than a good home-made bench pin), and is very accurate, especially for the tiny pieces we often have to handle. It's also quite cheap! Of course, you can do very well indeed without any of the electrical equipment (and many modellers do), but some of it, especially the table saw and drill with a stand, makes the work a lot faster and easier. Tony

I wouldn't throw out the Proxxon FET table saw, especially as you are based in the UK. I own one, and though I often lusted after a Byrnes, the easy availability and lower overall cost of the Proxxon made my choice. I don't regret it. It has its quirks, but once I got to grips with the workings of its adjustments after a lot of experimentation, I am easily able to cut accurately to a tolerance of 0.1mm. You can buy an adapter if you need to buy blades of different widths but Proxxon do a good range of their own. You can cut wood up to 19mm thick, but if you turn it over and re-cut from the other side you can go up to 38mm. Sure, the Byrnes is a lot better, but is it really worth that much more after shipping and customs are taken into account? I'd buy it like a shot if I were in America, but I'm not. I did buy the Byrnes draw plate and would strongly recommend that, though. There's nothing else to beat it. The main things to look out for when using the Proxxon saw are: * Making sure the fence is really at right angles to the table when in position and clamped. * Recognising there are three controls for the fence. The order for adjustment being: clamping the slider very firmly in roughly the right position, and finally clamping the fence to the slider. * Using feeler gauges to get to that last 0.1 mm These Proxxon saws are used throughout Europe by the leading ship modellers, as well as the Proxxon MF70 mill which I also have. Axminster is a great source for refurbished items of the mill which they occasionally advertise on eBay. I got mine for £110. When buying tools, it's probably best not to buy everything at once. I didn't. Over several years, after I had worked out that ship modelling was definitely for me, and at each stage when I discovered that an additional tool would indeed serve me well, I bought it. Wherever possible I researched eBay and looked for refurbished items. That way I could be assured of their use over time, and spread the cost over the years. I reckon that way I've spent on overall average roughly £150 per year on tools, and another £150 on books per year during that time. I fully agree that getting or making for yourself a good set of chisels is one of the best things you could invest in, and learn how to sharpen. Another thing you might look out for is an Axminster refurbished Proxxon DSH scroll saw. These regularly sell around the £90 mark. Lots of blades available for that. I use a lot of other Proxxon tools as well: their micromot 50 drill, the smaller sander, the pen sander, footswitch and various vices (including the excellent Proxxon PM40 precision steel vice and their PMZ precision table clamping vice). I would avoid the standard Proxxon drill stand (the cheapest one) as it is inaccurate and needs careful alteration to make it perfectly vertical: although I made sufficient adjustments to make it into a reasonable milling device, in the end I went for the MF 70 mill. Many modellers use their bench drills with much satisfaction. Finally, if you want real icing on the cake, there is the Proxxon DH40 Planer Thicknesser -- but only if you are going to be cutting a lot of wood to very accurate thickness! Chronos are often cheaper than Axminster for tools, and include the cost of shipping in their prices. Both are firms with excellent support and service. Finally, although it's important to have the right tools, and even though you can pick up a huge amount of advice by using ship modelling fora and the internet, I have found books to be at least as important. I hope this helps, Tony

You may be amused to note that in French the channels are called the ‘canal des angouillers’ or the eels’ channel. Slippery customers! Very appropriate! Tony

Have a look at the drawing on Page 21 of the French book. You'll see the little notches at the base of the frame floor. You'll also see them on pages 23 and 24 of the French book where they are discussed in detail. I don't have access to the printed version of the English translation, so I don't know the page numbers of that version. If you need more help, let me know. It's worth reading through the whole book and study all the plans first so that you can think about each step. Even better would be to buy Ancre's guide to the Rochefort build. You can purchase directly from Ancre. It's only €46 and well worth it. Tony

The rigging looks great. Well, I hope that is a New Year's wish that is not to be held to. Happy New Year! Happy modelling! Stay safe from COVID! (We have a friend aged 60 who was begged by her daughter to come over for Christmas as she'd cooked so much food. The daughter on the day said her food tasted weird, so didn't eat much. The daughter then had a raging temperature and it turns out she had COVID. Our friend rang this morning to say she herself had just been tested positive. I am pretty sure that there will be stories from all over the UK that will be similar). Tony

Very nice too. Thanks for the info and link! Now for the builds! Tony

Great to hear you're back, Daniel. What's your music career - playing, singing, orchestral, band, sessions, or all of the previous? Is the album on Spotify? With a tab like Siegfried, you haven't sung that role, have you? Though that would be hard to get on an EP, I admit. Tony

Nice mod, Ainars! Glad you found the idea useful and worked on it a bit. Tony

Just to get back to the yards for a moment, BE, I tried the Jacobean stain on some wood a few years ago and didn't achieve the same results as you have. I note the masts are made from oak, but what wood is used for the yards, and do you have any tricks up your sleeve for the staining? Thanks Tony

I gave up with the card rudder and made it and the sternpost from wood. That way the fixing (using brass strips) is at least sound! Tony

Interesting that you reinforced the stem. I should have thought of the risk in advance. I bent mine completely on the card/wood model I'm experimenting with (card frames and hull, everything else in wood). I ended up having to cut the stem near to the hull and make a new one from wood, then nail it to the card remnant along with some epoxy glue. Luckily it will all be painted so you shouldn't be able to tell it's a composite structure when finished. Tony

That must have been fun! Just what modelling is all about. Tony

Wonderful work! Thanks! Tony

Beautiful work. Congratulations. Tony

The most important parts of the blurb on the Ancre site are: " This work of 480 pages hopes to reunite the history and construction of naval vessels while studying the important naval strategies and tactics. The second part is a maritime biography of the vessels and frigates which took part in this conflict while also publishing the original documents as far as possible. "20 frigates and 35 vessels have particular attention paid to them, thus allowing a refreshing look at traditional maritime history. "First part: Ch 1: French naviy at the end of the reign of Louis XV Ch 2: Sartine and the reorganisation of the navy Ch 3: Naval material Ch 4: The dockyards Ch 5: Some major construction engineers Ch 6: Sartine and the planning of the war: the ships Ch 7: Sartine and the planning of the war: the personnel Ch 8: How the war unfolded: 1775-1778 Ch 9: French Naval strategy Ch 20: The naval battles "Second Part: 110-gun, 80-gun, 74-gun ships as well as those with 70, 64 and 50 guns 12-gun and 8-gun frigates "Box of plans sold separately or as optional extra: @ 1:72 in a cloth bound box (€94, or €175 with first part) 3 ships and 1 frigate with sail plans @ 1:144 2 110-gun ships, 3 80-gun ships and 11 74-gun ships 1 70-gun ship, 10 64-gun ships, 2 50-gun ships 10 12-gun frigates and 5 8-gun frigates." Also in the newsletter are details of are sets of plans sold separately for La Renomeé 1:36, La Salamandre 1:36, L'Ambitieux 1:36, L'Amarante at 1:24 I hope this helps Tony

Thanks for the replies. I agree about the frames and internal structures. These I have covered with nitrocellulose and the slight roughness after sanding doesn't matter. The problem is the external sides of the hull planking, which I also varnished. Perhaps I'm not using enough varnish/nitrocellulose. I've been wary of covering the external hull with CA as I wondered about the impact on the acrylic paint I use when I then apply it. However, I'll practice on some scrap -- something I should have done in the first place! Tony

I continue to be amazed at the accuracy of your work. As for me, I still struggle with the sanding of card: it just comes out as a rough mess no matter what grade of carborundum paper I use, so my planking looks a real mess although the fitting is fine. Do you have any advice about better sanding? Tony

In the uk layout paper can be anything from 40gsm upwards. Tony

I don't suppose you're having any difficulty, but just in case you are not aware, there are lots of excellent resources on the web for French nautical terms, especially those made during the 19th century. Best to search through search engines based in France. I have built my own French-English dictionary (a work in progress as you can imagine) as a Word table which can be searched both ways (I also do a fair amount of translation). Let me know by PM if you want links or a copy of the table. A very good printed version from Ancre is David Roberts' VOCABULAIRE DE MARINE bilingue anglais français which is €38, Even though this states it to be for the 18th Century, a good many terms carried on being used. There are in addition some very udeful French dictionaries and encyclopaedias, but these are in French only. Some examples of bilingual dictionaries: A Naval and Military Technical Dictionary (French terms) 1842 Dictionnaire de la Marine Anglaise ROMME 1804 Vocabulaire des termes de marine anglais et francais, en deux parties 1797 Dictionnaire de marine [Chroniques de la Marine du Roi] Glossaire marin ecomaris 2014 Falconer's French-English Dictionary 1780 Glossaire Maritime Wikipedia I apologise if you are already fully aware of all this, but the info might be useful to others as well. Tony

Gluing wood to metal: the best I've found is an epoxy glue such as Araldite. Others use CA (cyanoacrylate). It depends slightly on the fitting, whether it's being placed in a hole in the wood (e.g. eyebolts), being wrapped round a rod (e.g. mast fittings), or laid surface to surface (e.g. rudder hinges). Tony

This is a lovely boat. Well done so far! Tony

It's available in two parts from Gallica in pdf format. As it's in the public domain it's quite legal and free. See http://www.plaisance-pratique.com/spip.php?page=imprimir_articulo&id_article=2863&lang=fr Excellent resource for anyone approaching lateen boats. Thanks, wefalck! Tony

I agree that it's not relevant for your particular model, B.E. It's just that your approach would have been easier for me to use for the particular model I am experimenting on (a card/wood model of the Allège d'Arles at 1:100, and being experimental unlikely to have a build log). You gave me the idea of how to approach a problem with my build of a boat with a different waterline. Your waterline comes very close to the wale, and would require good masking technique to paint it as a straight line if done after the wale was added. In my model, the wale dips below the waterline, making the angles as it crosses the waterline very acute. I am approaching this by painting the wales in white together with the hull below and hoping to mask it by cutting the masking tape with the acute angle, then painting the hull below the waterline black: This requires two separate strips of the tape, both at the acute angle. This should work, but for me it would have been a far simpler and more elegant solution to paint the waterline before placing the wales. That way, painting the wales afterwards would have made it a cinch. Thanks again for your continuing wealth of ideas! Tony