No Idea

Happy new year mate!!! Awesome work on the ship too 😀

Vahur - Thanks for the information as I was looking for some black wood too for my build. I'll place an order with you at some point over the next few months. Thank goodness for model suppliers!

Wow the accuracy of your work is astounding.

Sorry I should have said that this is a 90 degree router bit for your Proxxon. They are not cheap but its what I use https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/power-tool-accessories/router-bits/111107-1-8-inch-shank-carbide-tipped-v-groove-router-bit?item=86J0423 Mark

Hi Dave - I get all of my Castello from Timberline and have found them to be fantastic. If you give them a call and explain that you are making a model ship, I have found that they will send you the best wood that they can. They have also custom cut lengths for me at 8mm which they do charge for and I also had to wait. However it really was worth it. Having said that I haven't used anyone else in the UK.

druxey I think that you are probably right but I've never tried it before so I thought - why not give it a go! I have to say that the wood literally bent with light finger pressure. I probably won't use this method again as ammonia is a horrible product that you certainly do not want inside your home. Having said that I'm glad that I've tried it at least once.

Hi everyone Work on Le Rochforte has slowed to a glacial pace as installing the deck clamp is a bit harder than I thought. After hours of looking at the plans I was certain that the deck clamp at the bow had to run underneath the third breast hook. So to be sure I dropped Gerard Delacroix a message and he confirmed that this was correct. He also pointed out that the decking is nailed directly to the third breast hook so the relationship between all of these parts is critical. So I have spent a lot of time marking the positions of these parts out inside the hull and I'm pretty sure I've got it about right now. I also have a much better understanding of the construction. Anyway back to the pre-bending of the deck clamp at the bow. I made up a pair of formers to the correct bend out of some scrap chip board. As the timber is 9mm x 3.4mm I didn't think that heat would be the way to go. So as a first experiment I soaked the wood for 24 hours in a diluted ammonia solution. The pieces bent around the former very easily and so far have not cracked in any way. The only issue is that the wood has changed colour, but this may be ok once the wood has dried. If not I'll try another method nest weekend; I'll let you know Mark

Hi Bill - If I were cutting the 1/8 thick board I would be using a .30" or .40" slitting blade as both of these would be ok. It all depends on how much kerf you are prepared to loose. The .40" will generally in my experience hold a straighter line over many cuts than the .30" blade. This is simply down to the users experience and knowledge of their tool. For the 3/4' cut I would use a carbide tipped blade. You will loose far more through the kerf of the blade but the cut will be very easy to do with this blade. Many others will have different opinions but thats the beauty of what we do. We do what works for us.

I'm a few (many) years late to your build - but wow what dedication and determination. This is simply amazing and I'll be following your work from now on!!!

Marking out the deck clamp - I took the measurements for both the height of the clamp and the clamp dimensions from the cross sectional drawings. I then had to think of a way of marking it accurately inside the hull. I did think about drilling small 0.5mm holes from the outside to get my marks but decided against this. In the end I modified my height gauge which worked really nicely and was actually very simple to do. Next I joined up my marks by using a strip of wood which I temporally clamped in place. I now have a nice solid line to put the actual clamp up too, and its nice and even all of the way around the inside which must be a good sign. Now is going to be the hard part - The clamp at this scale of 1/24 is a piece of timber 3.4mm thick by 9mm wide and I have cut these in readiness. The problem is definitely going to be the bow as the curve due to the dutch style construction of the hawse timbers is quite severe. The timbers themselves are far too fragile to get any sort of heavy clamping going on so I need to preform the clamp curve at this point. I'm going to make a jig to try and bend the clamp into shape - It may work; it may not due to the thickness of the timber and the harsh curve but I'm going to give it a try. My other option is to spile this piece but I don't think that this will be any easier. There is no way I can spile it spot on to the curve and camber so to would probably need a bit of clamping to pull it tight. The problem for me then would be that the grain would be all wrong and I think that it would snap. The other issue for me is that the clamp is made up of 4 individual pieces which are joined with a hooked scarph joint. This will be another first for me but I do like a challenge. I may not get any posts up next week as I have a lot to solve but that surely is the fun in what we do! Mark (Sorry for some reason my photo's have all appeared back to front )

Thanks Greg and that was great advice too. I made a piece of rudder as you suggested and found that I needed to remove more material right at the stern post to get clearance.

Who dares wins 🤣 I just couldn't see a way of removing so much material with it on the ship without loads of damage. I could have done with a longer end mill though as I was using its entire cutting surface which is never a good thing.

Hi WalrusGuy - I think that you are spot on about the finished shape 👍 I've left it slightly small as I can't really see the final shape on the plans. It's nothing to do with the plans as all of the information is there I just can't see it for some reason. So I thought that I would wait until I've made the rudder and then hopefully all will become clearer to me.

bitao, Greg and druxey thanks for the support and encouragement 👍 I honestly don't mind putting mistakes and problems that I have into this build as hopefully it will help another builder in the future. So onto the helm port - I really enjoyed making this part! I cut out the three parts required and discovered that one of my counter timbers is not quite vertical. So the first thing I did was to mill a slight taper onto the port leg so that it fitted correctly. Next I glued and pinned the parts together as I needed to get as much strength into this assembly as possible. The reason being was the cutting of the port hole. In Adrian Sorolla's book he glues these parts to the ship and then cuts the hole at a later date. This seemed like a very difficult thing to do considering its position, shape and angle. So I free handed a hole out on the mill which went ok and then finished it off with a file. I think I've saved myself one hell of a job later in the build. So my next job is to check the fairing inside the hull to make sure that I'm happy with it. I then need to strip down my jig to give me better access to the hull and I then want to mark out and make the deck clamp. Should be fun! Mark

This worked for me so I can recommend your medicine 👍 It took me 10 days to get over it so I hope you get better soon!

Thanks druxey I've learnt a lot getting this far and there is a lot that I would do differently on my next build. I relied on the jig that I built far too much when raising the frames due to inexperience. It was only after I fired a centre line down the frames I discovered that some tilt between 2.5mm and 3mm to starboard. On this scale I can get away with discrepancies like this and I'm great at hiding things 👍 So many lessons learnt and no doubt hundreds ahead of me too. I now understand why builders like Albert and bitao make such fantastic building stations - I will too next time. Cheers WalrusGuy - I reckon you need to start scratch building based on your current fantastic build. You know you want too!!

Hi All Some more done and this time it's the port side which just about completes the frame. It went ok as I gained experience on the other side and I'm very pleased the way its very symmetrical. These small frames are not hard to install; they just take a long time making sure that the angles are spot on. I also tied into the quarterdeck beam again and have faired the inside. So its now out of the jig and for the first time I can actually see the shape of the frame - what a moment that was 👍 I can't do any fairing on the outside yet as it still needs some strengthening first but its not that far away. The next job is to make and instal the helm port which will give much more strength to the counter timbers. Its not perfect by any stretch of the imagination - but I'm very happy with the results so far and thanks for all of the comments and likes 🙂 Mark

What an incredible project you have created. Amazing work and I'll be following along!

Hi All So far so good regarding the fitting of the small pieces that run up the dogs legs to complete the stern framing. I've now made and installed the starboard side and these are the rough photo's just after gluing. Lots of fairing will be required as I've left these as square posts which I hope that I don't regret later. I've also milled a small recess in the very last filler piece so that I could pick up and support the quarter deck beam. On to the port side now Mark

I don't know anything about how ships were historically painted but I do think that the colours that you have chosen look very nice. I'm a great believer in the fact that its your ship and you should build it the way that you want. If you like it - keep it Mark

Thanks druxey 👍 Its not a nice thing to catch but I'm well over the worst of it now. As for the chock - cheers for saying that as I realised that I just wasn't going to make a decent part in one piece. I know its not going to be seen when finished but I could say that about 90% of everything thats been made so far. I did what was best for me in the end and I don't think that the frames up the dogs legs are going to be any easier either. I'll just take my time and get them as square and true as possible.

Things have been a bit slow for the past week as I've been laid up with Covid - Not the best experience I've ever had but I should be OK again next week. I have though managed to sort out my problem. Why is it that there is always a few places in a build that give the builder a real headache 😂 These 3 pieces on each side have really given me grief to get right and in the end I did have to cheat a bit. The chock/filler piece between the half frame from the fashion piece and the fashion piece extension is supposed to be a solid piece of wood. Having tried about 5/6 ways of making it so that it fitted tightly and failing I decided to make it out of 2 pieces instead. A small give up on my part and the result does look like a patchwork - but its dimensionally correct as far as I have measured and that'll do for me. I just need to sand the starboard side down now to get these parts finished. Thank goodness for that 👍 - Mark

Thanks Albert 🙂 As with all builds I've had a bit of a set back today through my own inexperience. I had made the first two half frames which come off of the wing transom and also the angled chocks that secure this assembly even further. It was only when I made the extension top timbers for the fashion pieces did I realise that I had set the first set too far apart from each other. So in essence the stern was too wide at that point. There was no saving it the pieces needed to be removed which I have now done. Its not nice taking a saw to your model but it was wrong so so be it. What I need to do is run something from stem to stern to use as a datum to check that all is well. Lesson learnt and luckily I've got away with it. I'll have another go next weekend 👍

Wow and congratulations Adrian - I'll be buying this one in the near future

I emailed permagrit and asked them to make me some blocks with fine grit on both sides - They did and it was not a problem and I was really happy with what they sent me. Great service!