Dutchman

Work continues by building deck items, companionways, etc.....
 

 
Once sides are installed, the whole structure has to be sanded on an angle so the roof can fit properly. 
 

 
There is a gap between deck and sides i will be covering with a small waterways...
 

 
The roof has been installed...
 

 
Work on board pin rails is next. Removed from the frames, they have to be cleaned from laser cut burns...
 

 
Installed on the ship. They fit very precise with a small adjustments here and there..
 

 

 
I have not installed all of them, not sure why... but started to work on gratings. The instruction shows how many gratings are required (8x5, 8x10, etc). 
 
Gently installing them, no hard pushing... There is no problem if you snap one or two, few extras are included in the package.
 

 

 
Cut to the size, and glue them from all ends. 
 

 
 

 
They are ready for final sanding and assembly..
 
Happy modelling.
 
 

The first layer of golden oak was applied to the whole ship... light sanding and a layer of protection varnish is next...
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Happy modelling.
 

Work continues by installing jumbs around gun ports.. There are three wood pieces in the kit for this purpose but i would use a different one that is a bit more wider so it allow more precise sanding and fitting...
 
Lets start then...
 

 
Measuring, cutting with a guillotine, glue, sand...
 

 
A bit of a sanding after all...
 

 
Happy modelling...

A little bit of a filling is required to make sure all edge lines are as smooth as possible. Here is a need that gap between veneer and wood is filled with a putty and sanded..
 

 
Completed. I use wood putty, Elmer's brand but any will do the trick.
 

 
A bit of the same corrective surgery is needed around windows as well..
 

 
The wale veneer has a bit of a light black shade and it is different than the shade of the rest of black veneer so i decided to paint them in flat black.. Still researching for a decent airbrush-compressor combo (would appreciate feedback from you guys about suggested and good airbrush combo), the painting is done by hand..
There are few spots to correct after but overall satisfied with result. The cap rails were also painted in the same colour.
 

 
Happy modelling.
 

Continue with work on the hull
 

 
Blackening of the window decoration is next. Cut, sanded, and a quick bath in blackening solution..
 

 

 

 
The blackened parts were sanded lightly..
 

 
Mounted around windows.
 

 
Then more decorating...
 

 
I am protecting window and frames with a piece of bounty and a transparent tape. Then i thought about it and replaced scotch tape with painter's yellow tape for delicate surfaces. It looks that scotch tape can pull up veneer parts..
 
At this moment not quite happy with veneer in layers, mixed feelings....
 

 
Managed to get it done, the cap rails are completed.
 

 
 
If this work from home due to Covid continues i am going to finish this build fairly quickly.
 
Happy modelling...
 
 

I bit of a keel work.... covering with veneer, sand, glue....
 

 

 

 

 
Happy modelling.

Continuing with planking and work on the deck installing waterways.. All fits perfectly.
 

 

 
Then i decided to cover stanchions in veneer that is left from other pieces. 
 

 

 
For me the end result looks interesting..
 
Happy modelling.
 

Hi all, and welcome,
 
Today it was time to assemble the guns when the Admiral asked me if the guns could be coated with a layer of varnish for a soft sheen. Instead I used the Dremel (felt disc and a brush) to remove the dull layer.
Although I liked the dull layer I have to admit that the result was great. There are many more details visible making the guns seem more authentic.

 
During the assembly of the first group of guns i had allot of problems glueing on the plates that locking the guns onto the gun carriage. The locking plates released again and again with a chip of  the paint because the glue (CA) had no contact surface with the wood. By drilling 4 small holes (0.3 mm) the glue could be applied with a needle and flow into the holes after which the closing plate could be applied with tweezers. Because of this I need to remove less excess glue afterwards and I'm got rid of the shiny spots.
 




 
What took me a lot of time and effort was now done in a short while and fun to do.
 
Thanks for the views and thumbs up!
 
Regards Peter
 

Hi all,
 
Time for a little update:
 
As I mentioned before in my previous post, the ladder trees are completely unusable.

 
Placed the columns under the first deck.
 

 
Painted the pin rails
 

 
Don't know the name of the triangular pieces on either side of the gun ports at the bow.
 

 
I started to build the second group of guns.
 



 
The blackening liquid work amazingly fast.
 

 
No problems with the angle of the masts. the spar of the bowsprit is slightly bent.
 


 
Thanks for the views and likes
 
Peter

Moulded the baseboards for the first deck with a scarf joint. After applying a layer of Sapele wood stain, the scarf joints were hardly visible. (Pretty annoying and a waste of time)
Call it the learning curve of ship modelling 😁


The cap-rails (for the bow) that came with the kit  didn't fit, so I made them out of scrap.



 
Also moulded and trimmed the cover boards for side of the first deck.
 


After painting the ladder booms I found out that de ladder booms are not identical sawn.  (distance between the steps)   There's No way to fit them properly together.  I will build them out of Scrap wood.
 
Peter

Hi Sjors, thanks for the compliment.
 
I'm still here, but due to the heat wave of the past few weeks I lost my motivation to continue building on the Hermione Lafayette. You could say that I have had a close relationship with the fan during these days. 🥵
 
I recently got an air conditioner that makes the heat a lot more bearable.🥶
 

 
Peter

I can call of the search party at the Kralingsebos??
You are back 😃and with a great result!
Painted by hand......i have to learn how to get it that way.
 
Sjors
 

Hi All,
 
It's time for an update.
 
As I said before, I would have the deck follow the contour of the hull. But after two attempts, I got to the point where I had to decide to continue or lay the deck straight out as instructed by AL. The aft deck didn't have the right curve and wasn't what I had in mind.
 

 
To prevent my stock from running out of wood, I carefully removed the curved deck, repaired the falls deck and laid the deck straight.
 


 
I trimmed the deck at the stem and had to raise the planks at the bow to fit the rail-cap.
 

 
Regards Peter
 

I'm thinking I should let you get ahead of me for a while then I can check with you for instruction errors/omissions. 😉
I'm just starting on the masts already I've one error, but at least it isn't hard to fix.  Main mast requires the top to be painted black for 62 mm, the only trouble is that the cheeks fitted under the "crows nest" are 26 mm long which added to the 52 mm tip of mast to "crows nest" isn't the 62 mm indicated on the instructions!! So it needs 80 mm of black to work properly.

 
The next bit is just personal preference.
I can't see that the shrouds on the top mast would be tied directly to the mast without anything preventing them slipping down as they expand/contract with the weather, so I've provided a shoulder to loop them over, a little delicate rough carving it but I got there. I'll fully dress the masts before fixing them in place and I'll probably just use the various stays to hold the main mast in place rather than glue it as I find this just as effective with no fear of it moving whilst the glue sets.
 
 

 
Rick 

Hello to all.
 
Been away sailing for a while, gotta play a little with the big boats too!
Have been back at it for a couple of days and here's a little update.
 
Rick01, I like your beefed up davits, they look great! Definetly something I'll copy when I get there if you don't mind.
Your version of the forward pinrail looks great too! Something to think about.
 
I've been thinking about the anchorcable, and maybe it would work to make a horisontal capstan on the bollards/bitts that holds the bowsprit?
Might be tight between that and the forward companionway though.
 
Rick01, you mention the bowsprit, here's how I did that.
In between different coats of paint I have made the bowsprit. The kit supplies a 8mm round dowel that is supposed to be formed into a 8x8mm octagon...
There's an interesting task for you! 🤣😂
I ended up sanding it square and glueing on pieces of 0,5x3mm mahogany from the Bluenose deck I'm not using. Then sanding "between" the square to get the octagonal shape. This turned out good enough.
 

After sanding..
 

And painting..
 

For shaping the rest of the bowsprit I used a small planer first, and then put the whole thing in a battery drill and sanded it smooth.
Finished it of with linseed oil.
 
Also made a new fitting for the tip.
 

I've soaked and shaped the rubrails, and started painting them
 

I've masked and painted the black stripes, and cleaned up and painted the insides of the gunports.
 


 

 
Still need a little "cleanup" here and there, but all in all I'm happy with the result.
 
Gaffrig.
 
 
 
 
 

After the 1st planking I made a start on the deck planking. For this i followed the plan instructions. 50mm long 3mm wide 0.5 thick, for the calking i used a 4b graphite stick.
This went well
 

As you can see from the above picture i have no sides to the ship above the sheerstrake, which i removed to make the planking of the deck easier for me. little did I know this would be a challenge to put back as i already cut the tops off the bulkheads. Now the deck is planked a bit of a mess at the transom end of the deck, but I have 1mm x 1mm walnut to cover any mistakes.
Now its just a case of making the edges nice ready for the sides to go back on

Well it's time to get this build log underway. Thanks to mtaylor who put the idear into my head. I bought The Lexington American Brig by C.Mamoli kit back in 2013, I started it then ran into some real life problems.  I started on the Lexington, and soon ran into my 1st problem as the instructions in my mind are awfull. I have made a lot of plastic models, ships, tanks etc. but never a wooden ship.  So as per instructions i start with adding the bulkheads to the keel,
 

 

once that was done i started on the mahogany deck sheet.
 

Then added the transom where my 1st problems started. So i fixed that with a bit of cutting and sanding but never thought of measuring so it ended up slightly off as you can see from the pic.
 


After the Transom I started on the 1st layer of planking where my real life problems started. This is the point of the build where i was stuck and mothballed the kit until i sorted the real life stuff and researched alot about planking and looked for all i could find on the Lexington, which puzzled me a bit because I found that there were a few versions of the ship. Some had 4 windows above the 2 gunports in the transom, some had 2. Mine has just 2 gunports.I also found 3 build logs here and 2 of them are different to mine I know The Lexington was renamed from Wild Duck to Lexington and was re-fitted to be a war ship in the continental navy.




So the years passed and i forgot about the ship, Then came covid 19. So took her back out and with the research and some help from you guys I started again.
So i finaly finnished the ist layer of planking. Which i can say was a chore but an enjoyable one. I found i did'nt need much filler as the planking came out quite good.
 

Hello Sjors and Dutchman,
 
Neighbour sounds good to me🙃 and thanks for the compliments.
 
There'll be a lot of updates before I finish Hermione. And that day will come, that's for sure.. While following my progression, feel free to ask or give comments.
 
@ Sjors, The hull is hand painted. Paintbrush is something on my wish list.
 
BTW, the build slows down during Formula 1 week-ends 😁
 
Kind regards
 
Peter

With all these covid thingy my actual work has been affected and was forced to look for other engagements; fortunately was able to quickly secure another position and now i can go back to ship building... will start working on it shortly...  

Whilst I'm re-writing the instructions I've made an executive decision and gone down a different route for the fore fife rail. 
This is an illustration of belaying pin spacing on a working replica ship of the same period.

 
This is the fife rail with pins fitted as per kit instructions. Very close together, I am using slightly larger pins but even with the metal ones supplied it was still to tight.

 
So off came the original rail, a quick look around the internet and I've come up with an acceptable solution based on other contemporary models. You'll also notice two hawse holes where I intend bringing the anchor cable onto the deck rather than through the hull into what would probably be crew quarters. In the replica they must have had an electric winch below decks, whereas originally the anchor would have been been hoist by either windlass or block and tackle as a best guess. 

 
The next interesting build will be the octagonal section on the bowsprit - as it stands I can't see that their instructions will work.
 
Rick

... and my revised boat davits and boat.
 

 

 
The davits and cross bar were doubled in thickness 5mm removed from the davits length and the holes for the block and tackle were set back 5 mm from the end. This is all based on a couple of photos I found on line for the replica and make more sense than the kit version. The boat is also built as a clinker design.
 
 
Rick 

Hi al,
 
I made the ammo boxes and painted them red.
 


 
For the chemical blackening of the cannonballs I used a tea filter too blacken all the bullets at the same time and not have to fish every bullet one by one out of the chemical liquid. (which would be a time consuming process) The advantage of this is that the liquid becomes less polluted by the corroded metal and the corrosion remains in the tea bag.
 


 
Time to align the false main deck and glue it in place.
 

 
The next step will be the curved deck planking.
 
Regards
 
Peter
 
 

Hello all!
 
Getting settled on my new workbench, the work continues on Le Renard.
I have cleaned up the gun ports using a square file, and I have finished painting above and below the waterline. I have used acrylic paint for this.
The skylights/deckhouses are getting close to finished also.
 

I have also shaped the rudder and drilled the hole to fit through.
I want to finish the rudder, caprail and rubrails before glueing on the transom.
This is a different order of things than the instructions call for, but I think it will be easier.
 

That's todays update. More to come..
Must say I really enjoy having more space to work on.
 
Gaffrig

... and how long before all the surfaces are covered again! 😉 I never seem able to keep my work area tidy for more than five minutes.
 
 
Rick

Hello to all.
 
Rick01, thanks for the links, lots of good information there.
Great modifications to the catheads's. The illustration you have shows how they should look. Regarding the binnacle, I agree with you regarding the glass, but it could be that the replica has removable lids to hide modern navigation electronics. They probably have a magnetic compass too somewhere though.
About the caprails, I did a dryfit, and they barely cover the thickness of the bulwarks, so I think I'll glue on a strip on either side to make it a little wider and to hide the plywood edge. This will hopefully give the little ledge needed to fit the forward pinrail. Thanks for all the tips! My 3mm blocks for the gun rigging arrived yesterday, so that's something to start soon!
Your model looks great, keep up the good work! 👍
 
As to my build, it has not been done as much lately as I had hoped. I decided it was time to take some action regarding my shipyard status...
I have been home alone this past week, and me and the cats agreed that a new building table was in order. 😎
 
My previous shipyard, a total mess floating out on the floor due to lack of tablespace..
Some drastic measures are needed!
 

So I took a trip to the local lumberyard and got some woodfibre board (don't know the correct english word for this) and some wood for framing and legs and got to work.
 

Decided to make some shelves..
 

And a couple of coats of paint.. Used regular floorpaint for this.
 

Added some decent lighting and all the "stuff"
 

Must say I'm very pleased with the result. Made a dedicated space for hanging drawings. Still need to make a few more shelves and a better support for the big shelf over the windows, but I ran out of materials.
 

Some work has been done on Le Renard too, I've painted the bottom and started painting the topsides, but no pictures of this as this has been done in between building the new "shipyard"!
 
All the best,
Thanks for all the comments and likes!
 
Gaffrig.