yvesvidal

Well, it is that time again, this time I decided to step into a new zone, for me not that familiar but to see how things will go... For the first time I will be working on La Rochefort, a port yacht from 1787. Here is brief description/history of the ship (from the internet):
 
Created by Colbert in 1666, the city of Rochefort is unusually located since its harbor-arsenal, built on the Charente river, is about twelve miles away from the sea following the river. Although this exceptional distance from the sea protected the harbor from enemy fleets for centuries it caused problems, however, that were unsuspected at the time of its creation. Indeed, in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, the depth of the Charente river made it impossible for large vessels to sail up and down the river without first unloading their equipment, arms and ammunition. The Navy thus created a flotilla to assist and equip the vessels that had to remain anchored in the Aix roadstead while waiting to be fitted out or laid up.
This flotilla consisted of several kinds of small vessels: lighters, yachts, transport-ships or brigs from the harbor. As an illustration of these types of ship we chose the yacht, inherited from from Dutch workers who came to drain the swamps of the Charente during the 17th century.
This small elegant craft is of a simple construction with basic rigging, since only fitted with one mast and three sails.
I will be following Ancre plan and an introduction to model ship building "Dockyard style" by Adrian Sorolla, hopefully making some interesting model. Ancre book includes a booklet and a set of 16 plates of drawings. In the booklet, a chapter describes the creation of Rochefort and the reasons that led to the constitution of the flotilla. The construction and laying out of the Le Rochefort are detailed in instructions abundantly illustrated with 3D figures, followed by a commentary on the plates including a precise description of the rigging.
 
The plans were copied multiple times as I am planning to do a bit of a testing before cutting the real wood. For frame and keel parts I will go with pear wood that arrived from Germany. For other parts I will not purchase any wood at this time and will work on once I reach that point. I do have some other boards I am planning to use for testing, etc..
 
This time I marked all frames on the plan, and cut them into individual pieces. Then all pieces for one frame are put in a bag, where I will be keeping cut parts for the same frame. Or I can just use rubber bands...


 
Then I put all keel/keelsen parts on one piece of wood, this time I am testing alder wood. These will not be on the model, for model I do have purchased pear for keel as well. Testing will allow me to see how things are done in real life, what glue to use for glueing on the board, making sure I check cut pieces for level once they are on the board, position of templates on the board to utilize the most of the board, what cutting tool to use, etc... pretty much the whole process. Maybe a bit overkill but being my first build of such type... next scratch build model will be a breeze...


I might reposition some keel parts a bit better to utilize wood gran flow.. good advice from fellow modeller..
 
Happy modelling..
 
 
 

Update
 
made the removeable deck-house together with hand rails and lightshafts with seatight hinged covers. After primering painting the deckhouse  portholes were inserted. Also the aft bulkhead was fitted out with two doors and portholes therein .... Slowly its getting shape
 
Nils
 

the making of the deckhouse

the handrails are from brass wire. There are 5 screws that position and hold down the deckhouse to the deck

 

Dechhouse with portholes

there are 10 lightshafts around the deckhouse, The doors will be next

 
 

I've continued to work on the keel. I pulled the parts from the billets and prepped them. Chuck has mentioned that the wood is so thick it's pushing the laser cutting to the extreme. You can see the wedges and how the laser cut tapers. It doesn't cause any issues though. The wedges were assembled, cut to match the plans and added to the lower apron. Next I will be adding the rising wood and working on the deadwood and wedges that go on the deadwood.
 
 

Here’s last night’s effort, the stem. It took a fair amount of time to get the parts to fit well, the angle cut of the laser is a bugger and careful sanding is required to get gap free joints. I mostly used a file and sanding sticks, I also used with excellent results my Byrnes 4” sander (RIP Jim, we miss you) for trimming down the joints that Chuck points out is his build. Overall it was a pleasant experience. Now to start the taper...
 
 Best Regards …. Rick

My first stem tapering with a figurehead. Thoughts? Also, how much of a radius should the stem have? I just knocked the corner off for now. 
 
 Best Regards …. Rick

Here’s the final version of the stem. Still looking a little porky, Chuck?
 
Best Regards …. Rick

This marks the start of my Syren POF Speedwell! I’ve been dealing with some medical issues and am now close to being 100%, so here we go! A POF has been a bucket list build for a long time as I’ve admired this style of model. Most of the offerings out there just didn’t appeal to me with the scaffold type of construction. Enter Chuck with his Speedwell, Bingo! I’m a huge fan of Chuck’s designs and all the help he (and the other MSW modelers) provides, it gives guys like me a lot of hope. I’ve built Chuck’s Medway (my first wood build) and it came out awesome. Thanks Chuck! I’ve started Cheerful but a POF build has extreme attraction for me. I’ll probably work on Cheerful when a break is needed. Last month at the New London Conference I got to meet Chuck (and Rusty, Ryland and Olha and several others! Awesome to meet you guys!). Had some great conversations and it was nice putting a face to the name. Also, I got to eyeball Chuck’s Speedwell, pictures in the build thread don’t do it justice. A real beauty! Anyway, here we go! When Chuck said there was a lot of wood in the 1st 2 chapters, he wasn’t kidding! The laser cutting is the best I’ve ever seen in a model. A lot of the parts had fallen out of the billets, so I took some time to place them in their proper place and used some blue painters tape to hold them in place. Because the thickness of the wood, I see a lot of billet sanding to remove surface char in my future. Here’s a picture of the wood. Stem will be started tonight.
 
Best Regards …. Rick

https://cafmodel.com/products/longboat-190mm

The Wood is ready 

I like the interior with the room for the crew in the rear, and the luggage/freight compartment in the front. You can tell that this was better designed than modern airliners which are solely equipped for greed and maximum profit.
 
Yves

Gradually the fuselage lengthens.
 

I've been having a play with mixing colours and trying some pre shading for the first time in the cockpit. I'm trying to get somewhere close to this..
 

 
First I built it up and then primed it with Vallejo Black

 

 
Then fairly heavily pre-shaded with white, all paints are Vallejo Air range by the way. 
 

 
Then I mixed a combination of olive green, BS dark green, black, white and yellow until I thought it was close and then thinned to about 50%. Then applied 3 coats gradually. 
 

 
I'll let that dry now and see how it looks. Then I'll hand paint the rest and do some light weathering. As it's going to be in a museum it shouldn't look too shabby I'm thinking. 
 
 
 
 

Fiddly bits, fiddly bits, and more fiddly bits!
X10

X10

X12

Only X4

X3

X10
 
See what I mean!
Cheers

RGL, would you mind elaborating on the techniques you used to finish the water, especially the wakes and foam?
 
This is by far, one of the most realistic piece of ocean I have ever seen. Congratulations.
 
Yves

RGL, would you mind elaborating on the techniques you used to finish the water, especially the wakes and foam?
 
This is by far, one of the most realistic piece of ocean I have ever seen. Congratulations.
 
Yves

Yes, I am not too sure about the quality of the wooden decks available on E-Bay: a few people have complained about the fitting.
I would do some research before investing in anything.
 
This French modeller, used a set by Vallejo to paint the deck:
https://www.laroyale-modelisme.net/t32163-cuirasse-ijn-yamato-trumpeter-1-200-de-diablon
 
Yves

... second part....

I used AK foam added with a brush, layered over 2 days to get thickness, and spackled on to make it look like spume (the lighter stuff) . Then when dry I used clear resin over the top to make it look wet 

RGL, would you mind elaborating on the techniques you used to finish the water, especially the wakes and foam?
 
This is by far, one of the most realistic piece of ocean I have ever seen. Congratulations.
 
Yves

Yes, I am not too sure about the quality of the wooden decks available on E-Bay: a few people have complained about the fitting.
I would do some research before investing in anything.
 
This French modeller, used a set by Vallejo to paint the deck:
https://www.laroyale-modelisme.net/t32163-cuirasse-ijn-yamato-trumpeter-1-200-de-diablon
 
Yves

RGL, would you mind elaborating on the techniques you used to finish the water, especially the wakes and foam?
 
This is by far, one of the most realistic piece of ocean I have ever seen. Congratulations.
 
Yves

RGL, would you mind elaborating on the techniques you used to finish the water, especially the wakes and foam?
 
This is by far, one of the most realistic piece of ocean I have ever seen. Congratulations.
 
Yves

Use a section of Flexi-file sandpaper to do the final cleanup of the openings. 

 

I found the best way to open the gills and the air scoops on the rocker panels was to first drill out the openings using a .25mm micro drill, then cleaning up the openings using a #11 surgical scalpel blade. An XActo blade is just too thick, the surgical one just right.

Here is a pristine body fresh out of the factory sealed plastic bag. There are two areas of interest I would like to point out. First notice there are three “gills” located directly behind the rear wheel well openings. The plastic body directly behind these gills should be thinned down by sanding and filing, then the gills be opened up so you can see through with some fine mesh wire attached to the back side. Next in the second photo, notice that mid-way in the rocker panel underneath the door is a small indention. This should also be opened up with fine screen mesh on the back side as these are air scoops to help cool brakes and turbochargers. 
I was not aware of this until after I painted my car body, so I may take this opportunity to correct this oversight now, then paint and use this fresh new body on my model.