MESSIS

Dutch Colombous.. hip hip hura! She is a beauty! She is magnificent! Great work, fine model. You are at last almost ready to sail off to the new world. Am anxiously staying tuned to see the final stage and your photographic skills. I assume the last update will be the moment we light up the fire works.... Christos Ps. I saw the amati model, not yours of AL and the sails had red crosses on them. What about this model, it doesnt have any?

Nicely done! Am anxious to see those sails on the masts. Christos

Gunwale almost done with 14 planks in total. Though today the shipyard, as I already mentioned, has closed for two weeks.... the shipyard master will be busy by the visit of his grandson -a three months old petit officer, not of the Cyprus Navy, he is a British subject. Limassol its now spring over 18° C. and the colours of the sea are beautiful! (picture: Limassol Port, harbor tugboat is piloting Natural Gas Drill platform)

Love it Peter! It became a very beautiful model. Did you weathered the sails? The colour fits great.

@cog thank you. About the actress 😁 you mean the lady walking on the ship?😎😄

@RichmondThank you Richmond, nice of you to drop by.

This is a video I did, as a log of the build, using the pictures I took while building. And ofcourse some other items, that I tought they could help my film production, in challenging may be even an Oscar for next year 😂

@cog dear friend, thats very nice of you to say so. Thank you very much. Always good to see you too in the shipyard.

@chris watton Chris I was above just mentioning to @Dutchman your build of La Belle Poule. I was talking about the quality in design, which your design undoubtedly not only has, but even more that is of a higher standard. Saying that, I thought that its a pity that such a model was abandoned. Still, Is there any kit of yours, of similar design quality, out there in the market, which I could purchase? Christos

@Dutchman how wonderful to know we have the same love! The new version Its really a great kit. Has a good quality of materials and its not bad designed. The frame and the planking could still have been a little better designed (you can see that on the pictures above of @chris wattondesign - thats a design!)And ofcourse the luck of drawings its a minus. Now, I cant tell about the old version. But from pictures am looking to, its not bad either, though the AL people say that its not to be compared with the new one which "is definitely one of their best models ... by far"! Wish you lots of fan with this wonderful kits. Enjoy our great hobby Dutchman... after all this is another way of sailing.... in the naval history! Christos Ps. The original colours of the ship are those of the new kit.The old version was wrong in this.

Slow.... but fine work and excellent results! Christos

Planking the gunwale. Planks 2x5x300. Well soaked and then just bending on a cylinder similar to the radius of the ship's bow. So far 14 planks. But shipyard closes for next week and the finishing of the gunwale will be delayed for a week.

@Louie da flyThank you very much Steven for commenting on this new "correction" project of mine.I hope that there is realy a difference waiting for me to be made, by this 2nd attempt . I also hope you are not going to be disappointed and its going to worth following it.

@chris watton Yes you are right to be surprised, its amazing to see even small details to be identical. But thats not the only case. J.M. Ballu in his book "Lafayette's ship of 1780" refers further to Hermione's "two very similar half sisters". That is Charmante and the Jiunon, also launched in 1777. Again as Concord class, 32-gun 12lb frigates. So it seems it was a time when France was building intensively... or better "was mass producing" war ships! La Belle Poule was launched at Basse Indre later in 1801. She belonged to the Virginie class. Was a frigate class, this time, of ten 40-gun 18lb. frigates designed in 1793 by Jacques-Noël Sané.

@chris watton though to be exact, L'Hermione was disgned by Henri Chevillard. With the same drawings were builted in Rochefort four frigates in total (12 lb. Frigates-class Concord). The frigates La Concorde,Le Fee, La Couragese and ofcourse L'Hermione. The replica of Hermione was builted using among other documents, mainly according to the drawings of La Concord. These drawings are preserved in Greenwich Museum since 1783, when the British Royal Navy captured La Concord and established new drawings of the ship.. .

@chris watton thank you so much Chris for this fabulous pictures. Great work and surely its a help for my project.

@Katsumoto no dutch friend I bought the figures separately, though they are produced specifically for this model. No paints included, but in the kit there is a table included with the ships authentic paints. A gentleman from A/L was kind to send me the valejo paints that correspond to this table. Thank you for dropping by and keeping in touch Christos.

Reinforcing the frame and preparing the planking. Planks 2x5x300 are first soaked in warm water followed by bending with some heat or even in cold condition via clamps.

You are flying again dutchman! Great work! I love those sails! Have you done any thoughts about how you are going to put wind in those fantastic sails? Christos

My dear old friend.... I am happy that you dropped by again....! Dont look for the old version. Its not available any more and its not the quality of the new version ( new version its of very good quality). If some materials and items are not of best quality.... then replace them. This is what am doing now. And just concentrated your self on what you already have and work on it. I believe the replica kit can be successfully modified to the original ship. It needs some study though. I did some and am going to try this in my new Hermione project. So just go on and try... I did it, though unsuccessfully the first time. This time I am confident its going to be successful. Why dont you try it as well? Christos

Started today by laying down the keel and building the frame. Easy start only just taking care that the sections are fitted to the keel in 90° angle.

Rebuilding the same model again it may sound -at least- boring or surely not exciting. But for me this time its not the case The first time I started Hermione was in 2017. I finished her in late 2018. It took me about 18 months and 600 hrs. So why do it again? In all this time, studying before, during and after building the model and ofcourse my visit to the replica Hermione in Rochefort in 2017, gave to me a whole different perspective of the project. Although A/L made and offers a good kit, still the kit of A/L represents the replica of L' Hermione and not the original ship. Ofcourse, though already during the first building of the model, I tried to take distances from the replica and build the original ship.... my historical knowledges did not allowed me to do so. Now I am more confident. Now I am aware, with more accuracy, of the distance, between the original ship and the replica. Its not only the coppering or the flag, or some detail on the deck.... its more to it. Among others, -for example- the modern health and safety regulations that the replica designer had to be in line with, have produced a lot of deviations, by adding to the original design or by leaving behind, elements and materials that were originally part of the ship's design. So here I am to make an effort correcting my build. Hopefully I will succeed to that.... but I also have in mind to avoid all the bad craftmanship and build errors of my first build, hopping that the gained experience and my better skills of today will able me to build a decisive improved model. Christos

@Katsumoto thank you my dutch friend for your very nice comments.- very much appreciated from you. @donrobinson @jwvolzthank you very much guys, very nice of you indeed. @Tigersteve thank you.... a much appreciated comment based on what I was aiming: to build it as sharp as I could.... on the next one I hope I reach the target. @cog dear cog you always know what to say! Thank you sir. @Tom E dear friend thank you.Am going to rebuild my last model Hermione but this time I wll try and build her historically correct and ofcourse correct and improove the building mistakes of the first build. @Bertu thank you Robert. Yes , seeing your BluenoseII (fine work), it was the build I originaly wanted to build, that took me to Malcolm Miller, there isnt any kit available and then a friend suggested SWC. @Louie da fly Steven thank you for your nice words.... appreciated that coming from the Byzantinische Shipyards ! @ETNZ thank you. Two facts that you may be already know: SWC now is under Greek flag and MM under Cypriot flag here in.my home City port of Limassol. I couldnt build MM -which I actually preferred- because I could not find a kit. Concerning the differences of the two sisters you are right that: Sir Winston Churchill differed from Malcolm Miller in having round topped cabin doors as opposed to square topped doors. A further difference is that the Sir Winston Churchill was trimmed slightly lower at the stern - because the concrete ballast had run aft slightly when it was poured during her construction. May be is that, what you mentioned about the banana shape. @all the likes gentlemen/guys/friends thank you very much. Christos

@ccoyle Thank you Chris nice of you. To be sincere I did made some corrections to the flag after I took this picture, I cuted the mast a little.... it was too high and gave the flag a stronger direction towards starboard

FINISHED 300 work hours Oct. 2018-March 2019