yvesvidal

Very true!!! In my case, it was $100 of stanchions versus $60 of filament. Yves

You could use micro-bolts or micro-nails in brass. Micro-Mark sells some of these. You could also go to Tichy Train who manufactures plastic bolts in 1/48 and 1/32nd scale for trains and cars. It will be a very tedious and long job, but you are obviously shooting for a very nice and detailed model and it may be worth the investment in time and labor. Yves

Very nice model. You really added a lot of details and it is now a very faithful copy of the real ship. Yves

Final touch on the rudder. The part was missing from the kit, so I used a strip of brass and two brass eye pins that I drilled and soldered. The part is then soaked into the Black Brass chemical and pinned to the rudder, with four micro nails. The chain is provided in the CAF Model kit and cut in half. It may seem a tad too long and I will adjust the length when the model is completed. That is all for now, regarding the poop. Rudder and chains can be removed easily and we can now move to another part of the hull, before going back to the "official" Session #3 instructions. Yves

This is a superb model. Now, you need an engine in the scale of 1/32nd to pull it. If you can afford a very expensive SNCF Pacific 2-3-1 from LEMACO, FULGUREX or MARKLIN at 1/32nd scale, that would be perfect. Otherwise, OCRE proposes a Pacific steam engine for a few hundreds euros, that you may be able to turn into a little jewel, with your skills. Yves

A small but noticeable progress on the poop: The rear gunport lids. Once again, you can admire the lack of instructions....very spartan, to say the least. The rope is not provided in the kit. The brass eye pins are from Model Shipways, as I find the pins provided with the kit way too large for a gunport lid. The other parts are from the kit PE sheet. All parts and CAD drawings are from the Session #5 box. Yves

Mike, yes the decals are water transfer, like regular decals. They are simply a lot thicker than what you find in plastic model kits. By the same token, they are also more robust. To apply: I use Future Floor Pledge as a base coat, to make the paint and the wood more receptive to the flat surface of the decal underside, I place the decal, let it dry and coat is with another light application of Future Floor pledge, by brush. Yves

We are now entering Session #2.5 (somewhere between 2 and 3). It actually uses a lot of the parts located in Session #5. The goal of this intermediate session, is to build all the details of the hull and gun deck before moving to the main deck with Session #3. Honestly, I think it would be foolish to wait and assemble all the details about the hull in Session #5. There are a lot of things that have to take place before you can close the lid on the main deck and because of the sheer size (and weight ) of the hull. With that in mind, we chose randomly the rudder, fully described and provided in Session #5. The part above is missing from the kit. I will have to build it since it will take a long time to come from China. And from the book Anatomy of the Ship: My goal is to make the rudder movable and ultimately (if I manage to do it), controlled by the wheel. There are 7 pivots/hinges that are supporting the heavy rudder of Bellona. The kit provides a sandwich of three layers of cherry wood: The end result is way too thick and will prevent the rudder from rotating, unless you open the "grand canyon" on the transom. Instead of using the middle part, I am using a 2 mm strip of wood to create the triangular shape of the rudder. This allows me to keep the laser engraving of the external sides and saves me a ton of sanding. Aligning six or seven pivots can be made but it presents a serious challenge and most likely, the end result will be very stiff and hard to rotate. Instead, I only use the top and bottom support for the articulation and all the other supports are playing a fake role. You can see (above) the finished rudder, with the copper tiles and some of the decals provided in the kit. Above, notice the top and bottom supports. All the other ones are fake and not mechanically active. You can also see the strip of wood inserted at the heart of the sandwich. Rest assured, nothing is visible and in retrospect, I wish I had a 2mm strip of cherry to match the sides of the rudder. The completed rudder, installed on the stern of the ship: The rudder rotates freely and I have some hopes to make is steerable using the wheel. It will not be easy as I have to cross through multiple levels of deck. The decals are quite thick, not the kind that you find in plastic model kits. I use Future Floor Pledge as a sub-layer to glue them and another coat of Pledge on top, to seal the decals. It seems to work rather well which is good news, as decals are usually very fragile. Yves

Impressive. You are getting there. It will be interesting to see that beast in your test tank in your backyard. Yves

I have used all the fittings provided by Billing Boats. The hull requires a significant amount of lead/weight to be in its flotation lines. My boat has sailed on the Mediterranean sea (inside a harbor) and never capsized. You should be perfectly fine with the brass barrels. Yves

That is a massive build Kevin. You and I like large models.... 🙂 How stiff is it? Will you have to present it on wood blocks on a flat board? Yves

Before moving to Session #2.5, I adjusted the floor pieces for the main deck. A total of 10 thin plywood plates, delicately cut. They do require some adjustments mostly against the inner side of the hull and sometimes to accommodate the thickness of the frames. Some final sanding will be required to make them fit without stress or tension, but most of them are perfectly flat and in place. A final view with all the masts and capstan axles: Yves

This little vessel is coming along nicely. I love the colors Yves

Mike, you are correct. The guns can be installed very easily with no conflicts. The hull is large and relatively easy to access internally. Guns rigging? Only if you are masochistic and need some pain. Yves

I am installing the main deck beams, within the context of Session #3. The beam #2 is cut to let the bowsprit pass through: I would highly recommend doing the reinforcement as I pictured it. That beam (#2) is essential to the right positioning of the front mast. The plate holding the front mast is glued to Beams #4 and #3 (notice the wrong markings on the plate - It should be 2 and 4). The piece underneath is angled at exactly 30 degrees. It takes a lot of fine tuning to get that part right, but once done, it fits perfectly and can be glued in confidence. To make it really solid (if one day I decide to build the bowsprit) I placed two pieces of wood on the deck to make the bowsprit holder very rigid and well anchored: The remaining beams are glued very easily. I am amazed by the precision of the parts and how well they fit. Even though some beams are longer than 270 mm, they do fit perfectly with no cutting or sanding. Once again, the careful assembly of the frames is paying off. Let's hope the same will be true for the upper decks. All the beams have been installed: And a few goofy sailor's perspectives: Oh, I forgot to talk about Beam #12: it is passing very close to the axle of the capstan and I decided to cut it for a better and free rotation of the axle: This way, when the main deck capstan is rotated, the lower one will rotate in concert. So far, Session #3 is moving along nicely and I think it is time to go back to the outside of the hull and do all the preliminary work (Session #2.5). The main guns will be installed at the very last minute and not a second early. Yves

So beautiful, it almost hurts. Fantastic job worth of a Museum. Yves

The front beams are a little bit more delicate to install and precise adjustments are required to make the mast vertical in all directions. Beam 2A and 2B will have to be cut to allow the passage for the bowsprit. That is really a bummer as this beam is very sturdy and provides a nice anchor for the plate holding the front mast. I decided to install two pieces of wood to hold that #2 beam, which will be cut later on. Hopefully, that will reinforce it and prevent the front mast from losing its (perfect) alignment. Yves

The instructions in Session #3 are urging you to install and secure the large guns, on the gun deck. In my humble opinion, one should wait the very last moment to do that, as all these 28 guns protruding from the hull are presenting a little disaster in themselves. Plus, installing the main deck beams will automatically create some sawdust and the guns will be in the middle. Therefore, I will install (and build...) the large guns at the very last minute, before closing the coffin on the gun deck. The first few pictures were about drilling the hawses on the bow of the ship, to pass the anchor ropes. I will do that later. First, I want to see how these beams are fitting in the hull: Beams 16A and 16B have been installed. The fit is perfect and just tight: impressive, when you know that the entire hull was built without any templates. I am trying to make sure they are horizontal as much as possible. Then installation of beams 15A/B and 14A/B to hold the mast of artimon: Finally, a sailor perspective: Yves

SESSION #3 Folks, I am starting a little bit Session #3. I have decided to leave Session #2.5 (my own...) for a later date, as I want to move forward and see how the main deck is going to fit. From now on, I will read.. (actually browse ) at the instructions and decide if I may take a different route. I think that in a lot of cases, it will be safer and clever to not follow exactly what CAF is suggesting. However, as promised, here is the review of Session #3 with all its parts: You can see that I started cutting the rear deck E, on one side. and all the wooden parts required to assemble the mid-size guns on the main deck. The larger guns parts were delivered in Session #2, without the brass barrels. Same here, no brass guns. As you can see in the pictures above, it is all about the main deck. Yves

- SESSION #2 is now completed - Session #2 is now completed. This was by far the largest, longest and most difficult session with 90% of the hull being built. The original (read early...) CAF Session #2 kits included all the material and parts required to build the 28 large cannons (wood and brass). However, when I received my kit, the contents of Session #2 had been modified and the gun barrels in brass were no longer provided in the kit. They are now part of Session #5. I suspect it is a ploy to make you purchase all the sessions at once.... Thus, even though I have all the parts to build the guns, I will not include them in Session #2 and move them to Session #3, which is the building of the main deck. These large guns will have to be built before you can close the gun deck and cover it with the main deck. First, a few images of the gun deck. It is simplified in a way, as 95% of it will not be visible in any ways: I have added some wood gutters to direct the dirty water pumped out from the base of the main mast (bilge). These are not provided in the kit. I did not build the crankshaft and handles required to operate the pumps as nothing will be visible. There is plenty of "visible" work to be done and I did not have the patience and energy to build this kind of details. A few pictures taken from the gun deck: The plan is to make the capstans rotate, when the main deck capstan are turned by hand. They will be coupled. At this stage, the model weights close to 5 Kgs or 10 pounds and 11 ounces. It is heavy, large and will present a challenge to manipulate when the main guns are in place. The Future Floor provides a nice protection for the copper tiles and so far, I did not have any mishaps. A few pictures showing the overall lines of the hull and where we stand at the end of Session #2: Let's talk briefly about the quality of the kit: The white wood to plank the hull is okay. I think it is Lime wood and is overall of decent quality. The 3 x 8 mm planks are hard to bend and will require some pre-bending on a jig after soaking them in isopropyl alcohol. Some of the planks are irregular in size (10 mm instead of 8 mm) and sometimes the thickness varies. Overall, CAF is rather generous and there is plenty wood left over to correct mishaps or to select the planks. For the copper tiles, I believe I should have convinced our readership to not go with the CAF tiles (expensive and too small) and use the 3M copper tape instead. The gun deck parts will require a significant amount of adjustments to make them fit in the hull. The planking of the gun deck could have been done inside the hull, with the risks of breaking all the knees used to hold the other decks. It is a lot easier to plank these outside of the hull. A better job than mine could have been done, but you have to choose your battles and realize that nothing will be visible beside the muzzle of the guns or the closed lids. The wales could have been laser cut instead of being simply made of strips. it is unfortunate that on such big kits, CAF does not provide you with pre-cut wales like Vanguard does on some of their models. The respect of the dimensions and exact assembly of the frames in Session #1 is paramount to the success of Session #2 and following sessions. What irritates me the most is the complete lack of instructions and guidance. The manual is just a collection of 3D computer based renderings and does not provide much help. Fortunately, I am learning a lot from the various people building these gorgeous and very well designed Vanguard kits. The kit does not call for any tree nailing and I like that approach. I have looked at a few pictures of restored period ships and cannot see any nails in the hull. I respect the desire by some modelers, to drill thousands of oversized holes in their models and fill them with small extruded bamboo nails, but it is simply not something for me. I will definitely do it for the main deck and upper decks but it does not make sense to do it on the hull, in my humble (and lazy) opinion. A few final pictures, showing the beast next to other 1/48th scale models: I will not start Session #3 immediately. There is plenty to be done on this hull, none of it being covered by the absence of instructions. I call it my Session #2.5 ☺️ Drill the scupperways on the wales. I will use the COREL plans to get an idea of their locations. Drill all the small holes for the gun lid lifting ropes. Brush an nth coat of red on the gun ports. Decide which ports will be closed and which one(s) will be open. Build the 28 large pounds guns and fix them permanently on the gun deck. Only after doing that, will I be in a position to start session #3. I also suspect that with Session 2.5 and 3, I may not be able to follow exactly the (lack of...) instructions and will have to introduce many parts normally assembled (and only available...) in Session #5. We will have to be creative and careful. Yves

Great work. Some people have used inflated balloons to get the proper shape of the sails. Another idea to toy with.... Yves

Well, you are not building a yacht. This is a fishing vessel and as such, it does not have to be perfect in appearance. Perhaps, some of the imperfections can be fixed with caulking or putty and a new paint coat sprayed on top of the other one. Do not forget to sand in between paint coats. Yves

Marvelous!!! It brings back a lot of fun memories when I was sailing this boat on the Riviera..... Lots of cap-sizing and excitement. Yves

This will be a large model It is superb. Yves

In order to assemble and install the stern, I need to start putting together the rear sections of the submarine. Therefore, the installation of the Section #6 top hull is done, after gluing the coupler part designed for the rudder and diving planes section. The top parts of Section #6 are small and only required 19 hours and 15 hours of printing time, respectively: You can start seeing some of the nice details engraved on the top of the hull. For this section, the extrusion was giving me some headaches and is not as sharp as the other top sections as you will see later on. The two white parts on the very end are the couplers used to attach the stern and propeller (see picture below): A view from mid center: Top and bottom sections are glued and bolted for alignment and extra strength. I use 10-32 x 1 inch long bolts. As you can see, a lot of sanding and filling will have to take place. I suspect I may spend 3 to 4 cans of primer, on that large hull. Yves