dvm27

One thing I found very helpful was to carve up a little guy of the appropriate size.   I used the art from a ANCRE plan and as I recall, he took me less than hour to make. His "staff" is 6 scale feet tall.  Not a great photo but it's the best I could find at this moment.
 
 

Thank you everyone.  I will locate the guns at chest height.  The top of the mounts is at 3 feet above deck.  Unfortunately, that will entail some serious surgery to the already-built mounts.

All rope is from Syren Ship Model Company. I have made rope but theirs is the best around in my opinion.

A small Speedwell update. The lower ratlines have been installed as well as the euphroe tackle and crowsfeet. On many models I see they appear oversize. At 1/4" scale though we should be able to approximate the 1" ratline and 3/4" crowsfeet diameters. For the ratlines I use Guterman polyester Mara 120 thread (dark brown). For the crowsfeet I used 6/0 Uni-Thread, dark brown. I tried 6-0 silk for this but it just kept fraying (such is the nature of silk). I must admit that making the euphroes with their numerous no. 78 drilled holes (there are nine in the main euphroe), setting up the euphroe tackle and rigging the crowsfeet was an exercise in patience (and frustration). I was so pleased with my first attempt until I realized that I had reverse rigged one hole and had to redo the whole thing.  Onward and upward (literally)!
 

The belaying pins are now installed in their shroud deflectors. That's a term I had never read before but that's what they're called according to Markquardt. Perhaps they're called pin rails only when affixed to the inner bulwarks. The deflectors have grooves filed on the outboard edge for the shrouds and lashings inboard and are surprisingly strong once attached.  At any rate, I was able to hone my lathe technique to turn out consistent pins. Next it's on to ratlines. Perhaps Archjofo would fly in from Germany to show me how he successfully duplicated actual practice when securing them to the outer shrouds. Personally. I believe he used Photoshop as this is not humanly possible to do.
 

Pulled over.

In order to look beautiful, no welding or adhesive method, spend more time on accurate processing, slightly larger than the aperture 0.03 mm extrusion connection molding.
 

 
 

 
 
 

Hello to you, often present on this forum, my participation remains modest due to an insufficient command of English. I set up this topic on the construction of the Belle Poule in the 48th, according to the plans of Jean Boudriot to share the progress of my work with whoever would be interested in this French frigate. The subject has not been followed much, I have not posted for a long time. The construction of this model is progressing, however, slowly but surely. So I come to give some news by the few following photos.
 
Bonjours à vous, souvent présent sur ce forum, ma participation reste modeste en raison d’une maitrise de l’anglais, insuffisante. J’ai  mis en place ce sujet sur la construction de la Belle Poule au 48ème, selon les plans de Jean Boudriot pour partager les avancées de mon travail à qui s’intéresserait à cette frégate française. Le sujet n’ayant pas été beaucoup suivi, je n’ai pas posté depuis longtemps. La construction de ce modèle avance pourtant, lentement mais sûrement. Je viens donc en donner quelques nouvelles par les quelques photos suivante.

Greetings all,
 
Some progress to report. I installed the starboard wale using Castello. Now that I’ve completed the hull planking I’ve discovered how bendable and easy to work with Holly is. I should have used that as David’s instructions suggested. 

 

Hull planking was straightforward except I ended up with two drop planks at the bow under the wale. Even though I had lined off the entire hill I let the bow planks use up too much room. I think it looks ok.

The challenge with the fashion piece is to achieve a flush continuum with the hull planking. Don’t ask me how I know that. 😳

I covered the area between the fashion piece, stem and wale with scotch tape then traced the boundaries with a pencil. I removed the tape and laid 6.3 mm planks on the sticky side then sandwiched the whole thing in a layer of tape. That formed a very stable structure that allowed my to cut and sand the assembly to the outline then disable and install each plank one at a time. This required very little fitting.
 
I moulded the tuck rail using 5mm Castello and a micro shaper I had lying around.


Til next time.
Ian
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

After looking at other models for ships this size, I decided to secure the lower shank with the shank painter.  As druxey suggested, one end is attached to a ringbolt inside the bulwark and the free end terminates in a hook which is secured in a second ringbolt. The upper part of the shaft and the ring were tied off to timberheads.  I have added a block of wood on the rail under the anchor to protect the rail from damage.

Progress has been really slow lately. I did manage to get the so called newel posts and fancy rails completed. I re-installed the QD rail, but this time I pinned all six posts. All that's left to do in chapter eleven are the swivel gun supports. Hopefully, I will get an adrenaline rush and finish those up soon.

Mike

That's the general idea, Toni. There would also be sacrificial blocks of wood on the rail to protect it. However, there is one drawback: it would be tricky to get the anchor past the fore channel, deadeyes and laniards. I think that the chain would be secured to an eyebolt inside the bulwark with a hook on the 'free' end that engages a second eyebolt inside. Call in the Time Machine to be really sure!

This is how it looks with the upper mold removed and then out of the mold.

In the middle is the master anchor, to the right is the cast anchor after polishing and to the left is the anchor after taking a bath in Blue Jacket's Pewter Black.

I applied the seizing and puddening to the anchor ring and then installed them on the anchors.

The anchor stock was made next.  You can see the holes drilled for the bolts and treenails. 

The stock was then applied to the anchor and the "iron" rings were applied.   These are actually made from paper.  Overall, I am pleased with the result.

As I mentioned previously, I want to show the starboard anchor lashed to the hull.  As the ship's base will be a launching ways, the hawser cable would not be attached.  These pictures show the only location for the anchor that does not block any of the ports.  I have been looking in all the books I have, as well as looking at models on the RMG site, and cannot figure out how it should be secured.  I presume the shaft would be lashed to the aft timberhead but there must be some other rope securing it.  Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

I too enjoyed working with square stock although of brass, which needed to be annealed before working. I assume the copper is soft enough not to require annealing?

Thanks for looking in, Dan.  As for rigging, the only other rigging I plan on doing is for the anchor!  Speaking of which, I will be showing the ship with two bower anchors; the starboard one will be secured to the ship and the port will be lowered onto the base.  Since I had good luck casting the armament, I decided to cast these from pewter as well.  This is the material I use for the casting.  It is a high temperature silicone rubber that can be used for low-melting-point metals like pewter.  The second picture shows the rest of the equipment necessary for the casting, including a pewter rod.  As you can see, there is nothing exotic about the process.  It is, however, very sensitive to the relative weights of the components, so they need to be weighed down to the gram.


The first step was to make a master anchor from wood.  It would have been a lot less work if I had simply made two anchors from wood but I like the look of the metal.  I made a box from scrap basswood ply, embedded it in clay and did my first pour.  After removing the clay, you can see the result.  There are two dowels going through the mold for alignment.  The pouring spout is on top and there are relief openings at the end of the flukes.  These were too large, preventing the flukes from filling completely, and were reduced after a few unsuccessful pours.  The next photos shows the mold after the second layer of rubber was poured before and after the master was removed.

 
The two mold halves were clamped together, being careful not to distort them with the clamps.  I used pieces of the box to distribute the pressure.

 
 

How are the metal hooks, in real practice, stropped onto a block? Is an open grommet run through the eye of the hook and then closed with a short splice or can the eye be open and then wrought closed? Can you braid a hook into a grommet using a single piece of line?
 
Here's a rendering of my hooks (have to CAD something these days, right). They are very close to the real thing except the way the ring closes.

Any tips on getting hooks onto grommets? Actual traditional methods would be very enlightening here.
 
Glenn
 
 

Looks like success is just around the corner...
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

I relocated the lights on the work bench. They were too far back and did not light up the front of the model. The bench is now perfectly lit.

internal planks and nailing:



 
scuppers:

Not at all! After the workshop Chuck will be having a fire sale due to decreased rope sales.

A small Speedwell update. The lower ratlines have been installed as well as the euphroe tackle and crowsfeet. On many models I see they appear oversize. At 1/4" scale though we should be able to approximate the 1" ratline and 3/4" crowsfeet diameters. For the ratlines I use Guterman polyester Mara 120 thread (dark brown). For the crowsfeet I used 6/0 Uni-Thread, dark brown. I tried 6-0 silk for this but it just kept fraying (such is the nature of silk). I must admit that making the euphroes with their numerous no. 78 drilled holes (there are nine in the main euphroe), setting up the euphroe tackle and rigging the crowsfeet was an exercise in patience (and frustration). I was so pleased with my first attempt until I realized that I had reverse rigged one hole and had to redo the whole thing.  Onward and upward (literally)!
 

QGalleries Continued
 
It’s a process. To close up the galleries there are friezes and moulding to make. However those are a continuation of friezes and moldings with the stern, and there is moulding to make, did I say that already.

I made one moulding for Cheerful, a simple basic one, and when I say made it that means cutting a profile into a piece of brass and scraping it into a strip of wood. All the Winchelsea builders of course know this of course, but for others its worth noting this isn’t necessarily easy. There is both art and math to make a scraper, I’m not sure I’m all that great at either one of those. Scraping is the easy part, it’s that thing to scrape with, there’s where the fun is.
 
For Winchelsea there are 7 different profiles required, on multiple sizes of strip boxwood. One of the 7 is provided as laser etched, the rest have to be scraped.  I started by mapping out what and where I needed them. The galleries need three different mouldings, two of which are continued around the stern.  As you can see from my map, I am confirming my lack of talent for art.

I decided if I was going to make one moulding I might as well make all that I needed and so I had Moulding Day(s). I’m sure there are many better ways, I chose to use a porcelain tile as my firm, flat base and my double sided tape to keep the strip held in place while I scraped away...I went through a lot of double sided tape. I used the two metal rulers to get the long thin strips straight and then pressed it into the tape.
 
Ok, so I cheated a little. I acquired the silver Amati scrapers for Cheerful, they were no help. Here with Winchelesa the smallest sizes were a good start. The scrapers are in millimeter and the strips imperial, so the first modification was adjusting to fit with my mini-files. I also, again displaying my math art skills, I modified the shapes, width, depth, and design also with the mini-files. This worked for the larger sized strips, but like with Cheerful, they were no help for the small strips, the two rows that run the length of the hull. For that I was on my own with my brass scraper, I used my mill to precisely size and start the shapes I wanted and went back to the mini-files to finish them.
 
Way more than you wanted to know about moulding - but in the end I’d matched the monograph, plans, my map, and my scraper set to complete all the moulding I’ll need for the model, at least for Chapter 3 anyway. My run at moulding scraping turned out ok I think.

But wait, there are the caps for the laser etched columns between the windows. Credit to @Trussben for showing us how to make use of extra (at least I hope it turns out to be extra for me) of the laser etched moulding to cut the caps from. Nice, uniform, and a perfect match to the columns, just a matter of cutting 16 (near) identical ones at the right width and angle. Did I mention my math skills. Knowing I could never free hand 16 (near) identical anything, I cut templates for my chopper and sliced away. I’ll do this again for the stern windows (ok, stern lights for the mariner minded) later.

And with that I had all I needed made to complete the galleries, sorta.

Winchelsea is a big model, bigger than I anticipated when I designed my workshop. My neck was getting tired of the strain of bending sideways, so with a block and and shop towel to keep the stem from crashing into the wall and more blocks to raise up the back I now have this precarious way to work at the stern and on the galleries more closely from the side. This photo is about as far as I move away from the model, it goes back on the table before I leave the room. I don’t want to hear a crash. The balance point is pretty dicey, but it works.

Anyway. Finally here’s a photo of the actual model. Two mouldings, window frames, and a frieze are added to the base described in my last post along with the drops. I admit I was skeptical of applying the friezes. If you haven’t done it (and there is so much on this model I have never done before) sticking paper printed off my printer with a glue stick that’s basically what my grandkids use (I did get the extra strength craft version) just seems like it wouldn’t work.
 
It really does. I printed with the best possible media format my printer will do on ordinary copy paper, sprayed it with Winsor & Newton Fixative, talked my wife into cutting it out, ran the glue stick over the back and on it went.  A slight diversion here The world does not favor left-handed people like me, starting with scissors. You right handed people wouldn’t get it but the way the blades on scissors are set up a left handed cutter can’t see the line being cut. Consequently I can’t get close to cutting out the friezes with the precision required. Fortunately my wife is good at it, as long as we used my Singer scissors to cut paper and not one of the 17 pair she has for her hobbies, ok maybe not 17.
 
I like the moulding designs, applying them is a process.  Like planking, there are multiple curves at work so out came the bending station. Being a little tepid about it at the start, I ended up enjoying the moulding making process and am now ready to scrape away in the future.

Everything I do, I do right the first time….not.  As I’m prone to do if I decide I don’t like something I rip it off and do it again. In this case I didn’t like the upper moulding run and how the upper counter frieze looked so off they both came. It took a while to clean off the tightly glued frieze but it did all come off. I didn’t want to use a lot of solvents to avoid damaging other areas but a little carefully applied denatured alcohol took care of the paper removal and a little acetone even more carefully applied removed the moulding. In for a penny……

Eventually I got there. Since the both the moulding on the galleries continue on around the stern, seemed like a good time to get everything below the stern windows done. Plus it’s so pretty, all that glue stick work in action. All the moulding was applied with CA.

The first of those beautiful carvings is now added in the form of the drops - these and the ones to follow really, really make this a special design and a special model. They make this ship so much more than the usual kits. Very cool all by themselves, I’m excited to see them installed on my model.

Assembly time, I added the window along with upper sills cut to fit. The paint is scraped off the top of the frames to accommodate another moulding size and differentdesign. I made what I liked, not sure if it’s accurate or not, but they are accurately made.
 
I’ve said this before, so once again for those who follow. Chuck’s design works perfectly, there are tolerances and room to adjust to some degree. However as I assembled these galleries I was reminded just how important it was to get the ship’s stern frames and gallery framing right way back when it didn’t seem all that important so many months ago. It really pays off to take your time. It’s not like Chuck doesn’t say that a lot, it really does pay off, the take your time thing.


With that I added the top moulding, the columns with their caps (may still need a little adjustment there) and test fitted and adjusted the roof I’d shaped and sanded  and will soon shingle in preparation along the way. I’ve been doing both sides by stages so I only have this last step to finish the port side. As you’ll notice another carved figure is test fitted into its eventual space. The moulding was adjusted a little to accommodate his shoulder. Don’t tell anyone, I sanded off a bit of his butt to get a tighter fit. He’s held there loosely by, you can guess by now, double sided tape. His female companion on the other side is an easier fit than this big dude. (I see in this macro photo I already need to call in a window cleaner).

So with that mini-me (or my imitation as someone said) stops by to take a look and invites his neighbor, clad in my Winchelsea color scheme seemingly by chance, to join him (by wife wanted me to paint him, so here he is).
 
Next up the hull sides and stern above the upper counter.  As always thank you for stopping by with your likes and your comments, they are very appreciated.

Update with Gregs dry method shown.
 

Not at all! After the workshop Chuck will be having a fire sale due to decreased rope sales.

A small Speedwell update. The lower ratlines have been installed as well as the euphroe tackle and crowsfeet. On many models I see they appear oversize. At 1/4" scale though we should be able to approximate the 1" ratline and 3/4" crowsfeet diameters. For the ratlines I use Guterman polyester Mara 120 thread (dark brown). For the crowsfeet I used 6/0 Uni-Thread, dark brown. I tried 6-0 silk for this but it just kept fraying (such is the nature of silk). I must admit that making the euphroes with their numerous no. 78 drilled holes (there are nine in the main euphroe), setting up the euphroe tackle and rigging the crowsfeet was an exercise in patience (and frustration). I was so pleased with my first attempt until I realized that I had reverse rigged one hole and had to redo the whole thing.  Onward and upward (literally)!