EJ_L

And look at that wonderful extreme French midships section!

Yes, Gaetan.  I have the English version... Beudroit?  I've been pouring over that one a lot the last few days.    Either there is something undocumented that only occured during certain rebuilds or..  the NMM drawing is just flat wrong even though it was made as "as captured".  
 
Hmm... yes.. similar but different.  The Licorne drawing shows that it doesn't go all the way back to the transom.  
 
Also, here's the drawing I found of La Bellone.... different gallery entirely.
 

 
 
 

Mark, do you know the book:
La frégate, Marine de France, 1650-1850
 
La Bellone 1756

As promised here are some better pictures of the work I have been doing. All the decks have been planked, bulkheads, hatches and ladders installed. All the railings are up and some of the decorations are also installed. Now I am just missing the forecastle and the ships structure will be complete. Before I can install that though I have more canons to build first. 14 more on the spar deck. 5 to either side and 4 bow chasers. This is what I will be spending a good portion of my weekend doing. Then I can build my forecastle deck and on to the bits, kevels and racks for belaying pins and all those other various pieces needed for the rigging.
 
I also have to build a capstan which I only have one vague drawing of. I've been looking around at different logs trying to determine how it should look for an early 17th century. If anyone has a good suggestion I would love to hear it. 
 
Thanks for stopping by!  

As promised here are some better pictures of the work I have been doing. All the decks have been planked, bulkheads, hatches and ladders installed. All the railings are up and some of the decorations are also installed. Now I am just missing the forecastle and the ships structure will be complete. Before I can install that though I have more canons to build first. 14 more on the spar deck. 5 to either side and 4 bow chasers. This is what I will be spending a good portion of my weekend doing. Then I can build my forecastle deck and on to the bits, kevels and racks for belaying pins and all those other various pieces needed for the rigging.
 
I also have to build a capstan which I only have one vague drawing of. I've been looking around at different logs trying to determine how it should look for an early 17th century. If anyone has a good suggestion I would love to hear it. 
 
Thanks for stopping by!  

As promised here are some better pictures of the work I have been doing. All the decks have been planked, bulkheads, hatches and ladders installed. All the railings are up and some of the decorations are also installed. Now I am just missing the forecastle and the ships structure will be complete. Before I can install that though I have more canons to build first. 14 more on the spar deck. 5 to either side and 4 bow chasers. This is what I will be spending a good portion of my weekend doing. Then I can build my forecastle deck and on to the bits, kevels and racks for belaying pins and all those other various pieces needed for the rigging.
 
I also have to build a capstan which I only have one vague drawing of. I've been looking around at different logs trying to determine how it should look for an early 17th century. If anyone has a good suggestion I would love to hear it. 
 
Thanks for stopping by!  

Thanks Antony
                       The sacks are one of the easier thing to make once you get your head around what the drawings are meant to be depicting
After looking at them for a while i didn't like the knots in the outer sacks so i removed and retied them, they look a lot better now

Thanks Paul
           Not having too much trouble with the tubs and bowls, mainly because i didn't use the Balsa as the main support pillar i changed to a more rigid wood made it a lot easier.
 
Thanks for the heads up on the hammock sizes. Don't want mine stiff i want them to hang naturally with a slight curve in them. Also i am going to fit them lower than recommended as the recommended place would have the poor sailor trying to sleep with the gun port lid rigging across his chest and a massive block smacking him in the head
And as this kit is only a representation and nowhere near accurate i have also altered the size and placement of the cannon ball racks, this allowed me to center the Bits with the gratings and fit regular sized planks not small filler ones as the instructions say

Hi Bob.
I like the sacks.
Very nice work. Nice details that sets the gundeck for realism.
Keep up the good work.
 
Regards Antony.

Better late than never. I just picked up this kit, but it might be a while before I dive in. Lead on Bob.

Just incredible, Anthony.   I can see why you'd want to go with removable spikes.  Will you be blackening the plates or leaving them copper?  

Happy Birthday Sjors!

Very nice work. I love the way you have sections open to view inside and the removable sections to open it up even more. With the detail work you have done it would be a shame to not be able to see it.
 
I agree with you that the black pins look better. You will have your work cut out for you on all of those! 
 
You said the dragon head was a resin cast, did it come painted too or was that you? Either way it looks really cool.

Very nice work. I love the way you have sections open to view inside and the removable sections to open it up even more. With the detail work you have done it would be a shame to not be able to see it.
 
I agree with you that the black pins look better. You will have your work cut out for you on all of those! 
 
You said the dragon head was a resin cast, did it come painted too or was that you? Either way it looks really cool.

Chapter 2
 
Fitting the bulkheads to the BF
 
I made sure the reference lines in the bulkhead and BF were aligned.
 

 
Then dry fitted all bulkheads
 

 
This suction vise secures the hull and positions it in any direction.  Most of the time it’s not necessary to use the suction base.
 

 
When fitting each bulkhead to the BF, I concentrated on their being perpendicular to the BF.  I used a drafting square with an edge that can lie flat against the BF.
 

 
I chose to glue the bulkheads to the filling blocks and NOT to their respective slots in the BF.  One side of the filling block is glued to the BF and the other to the bulkhead.  This keeps the bulkheads firmly in place.
 

 
After the first bulkhead is glued it looks like this.  Notice the filling block does not go all the way to the next bulkhead.  This is intentional.  The gaps will be filled later with wood fill.
 
I also decided to alternate the filling blocks to opposite sides of the BF as I went along.  This to have room for the clamps.  Again, my main concern at this point is to keep the bulkheads perpendicular to the BF.
 

 
Still concerned about the curvature of the BF, I secured the keel with two steel rods I found in the garage (who knows where they come from!).  I plan to keep the rods in place as long as posible.  This is in lieu of building a base for the keel as the manual suggests.
 

 
More fillers are in place.  Notice the hourglass;  it is a 45 minutes hourglass.  After gluing a filler block (or anything with PVA) it’s a simple visual indicator to know when to proceed.
 

 
Bulkhead P and the two laser cut bow fillers were assembled separately in order to facilitate beveling.  Once the bevel was done the assembly was glued to the BF.
 

 
Next, the platform between bulkhead 16 and 20 was completed.  The ‘simulated’ caulking between platform planks resulted from darker wood filler inserted into small separations between planks.  The planks are then scraped.  The problem is that it looks too neat, so I may not use this method for the deck.  I ignored the tree nails at this point.
 

 
Finally the overall beveling of the hull was done with plain old elbow grease.  Here is a photo of the completed filler blocks with gaps filled with wood filler.
 

 
This completes chapter 2.  Thanks for reading.
 
Total hours to this point:  about 18.
   
 

Ryland, EL_L, thanks for the welcome .../hervie

Hiya Sjors.
 
I see the bamboo-issue is rearing it's ugly head again with this one from Deag. Still, great that you have enough alternatives to plank with. But if you think it's bad now, wait till it comes to the cutting the gunports
 
Enjoy

Very nicely done lucky that Deag put a lot more planks in that you don't need I still have lots left over from my build.
 
By the way happy birthday
 
BV

Very nice work. I love the way you have sections open to view inside and the removable sections to open it up even more. With the detail work you have done it would be a shame to not be able to see it.
 
I agree with you that the black pins look better. You will have your work cut out for you on all of those! 
 
You said the dragon head was a resin cast, did it come painted too or was that you? Either way it looks really cool.

Very nice work. I love the way you have sections open to view inside and the removable sections to open it up even more. With the detail work you have done it would be a shame to not be able to see it.
 
I agree with you that the black pins look better. You will have your work cut out for you on all of those! 
 
You said the dragon head was a resin cast, did it come painted too or was that you? Either way it looks really cool.

Very nice work. I love the way you have sections open to view inside and the removable sections to open it up even more. With the detail work you have done it would be a shame to not be able to see it.
 
I agree with you that the black pins look better. You will have your work cut out for you on all of those! 
 
You said the dragon head was a resin cast, did it come painted too or was that you? Either way it looks really cool.

Hi.
A update as promised.
 
The dragons head is now in place.. No its not by my hand.. its a resin cast one.

 
Tiles covering the roof are now finished.

 

 
This is a test piece to check on the tile fixings. i will be using the black bottom pins as I think they look better. some 2400 in total...Wish me luck and retained sanity. With cocktail sticks in the centres.

 
Close up of the tiling.

 
And another.

 
Yet another...

 
Cannons in there carriages or boxes. Need to be finished and put into place on model when finished.

 
Close up of the carriages..Now you can see that they need finishing. 

 
Thanks for looking in.
 
Many thanks Antony.

Wow,
 
Thank you very much for the birthday wishes.........
 
You know, I went to sleep  as a young men and wake up as a oldtimer.....  
But again Thanks !!!!!!!!!!
 
@ Bob,
 
She will be on hold for a while so the Aggy will be finished before she is   
 
@ Hennie,
 
We will see you tomorrow .
Please with coffee and vlaai     
 
Then an update who is not totally an update but more a demolition.
Yep, again !!!!!
I was planking with the bamboo and that's was not fun to work with.
There are so many bad parts in each of the planks that I need a pound of filler to get that straight !
So ,it was demolition time.
I remove all of it and start all over again with planks that I had left from the first planking of the Aggy.
I'm happy that I save that !!!!!!!
The lower part of the hull are gonna be the planks from the Aggy and above that ( see the pictures ) I'll be using the bamboo planks.
I cut all the bad parts away and use the good parts that there was left.
And that works a lot better !
I know there must be a lot of sanding but that's no problem.....
On sunday or monday I will sand the parts that is done.
Then I can see what to do further.
Tomorrow ( saturday ) we are going to Hennie to see what he is doing with his Aggy.
Whe n I have another update I will report it.
 
Before I forget, there is also a launch at the SotS.
A few pictures of how it looks also.
 
Sjors
 

 

 

 

 
 

Happy Birthday Sjors!

Welcome to MSW Hervie.  I will be following your Syren build log.  I can tell from what you have already written, this is going to be an excellent build log.  I have this kit in my to do stash.  Looking forward to future updates.