rybakov

The ever curious modeler's eye certainly did not miss it in the last picture: Next step were then the crews at the capstan.

In my stock of pre-Frankensteiners I still had a pack of cheap copies of Preiser figures that I had once received as a gift.



For single figures too sloppy reproduced, in the bunch I thought still quite useful. So once again I broke bones and mixed everything up. Since I quickly noticed that I would have been lost with single figures, I had built a sample capstan bar for the assembly. And it came what had to come: Bones were broken, joints were twisted, heads were chopped off and put on again.







Especially that with correct posture the arms were stretched under the bar and that the pressure was transferred with the chest, was a little tricky in the assembly. This posture prevented kinetic energy from building up when the bars struck backwards, the bars could not hit the guys in the chest area with force. So they were simply pushed backwards with less risk of injury.

Since the space on the capstan bars is quite tight, the guys were glued together right away in six-packs, because I wouldn't have been able to fit them together inside of the ship.

Then the sixpacks were sent to dress. Thereby I remembered again a small detail, which is shown on a contemporary document. The inner 5 men are red dressed Marins, the outer man at the bar is a blue dressed sailor. There is also a bluecoat at the swifter, the circulating rope that stabilizes the bars. This had the advantage as the marines could not do anything else except shoot, turn and pull were stuck in the middle, while the highly qualified sailors could quickly get out and away for maneuvers if necessary.

So the inner five guys conjured up short coattails, painted and also provided for the white belts. A few had allowed themselves suit relief, the jackets and belts hang afterwards over the guns shoved to the side.



Fit trials outside then looked like this.







First test fittings looks still quite fluffy. But you can already see one thing, the expected fiddler sitting on the capstan drum does not fit there because of the next deck.















One coan see, it works with the guns, tight fit, but it works.

But it gets more claustrophobic once the deck beams are added.







But it still gets much tighter, the knees are still missing. http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif





Once the knees were added, it was a squeeze fit, no more air to press out, but it fits.













No more surplus air in there ...

XXXDAn

A long time ago, I had once packed the night house and the steering wheel on a small vignette to protect them, but this small deck then broke in the middle. Fortunately without further damage to the important parts. So the thought was to glue the parts back together, put two deck beams into the hull, the vignette on top and all is tidied up and safe. So I reinforced the bottom of the vignette because of the crack and placed it on the deck beams, fixed tiller rope underneath and rejoiced.





Then I noticed that the rudder was then no longer moving, especially the tiller was nice to look at so far.

So what follows: Demolition of the just built. The plan was to run the tiller rope in a loop under the night house to keep the movability. But the rope was already short trimmed ...



So I threaded the old rope back, threading an auxiliary thread through it to thread the new one in. Was tricky, but worked. Then the new rope was in quickly and the loop was laid quickly too.

But what a mess. The friction in the system was too high, rudder and tiller could not be moved. FUHUCK!



Sewing machine oil didn't help either. Why? The friction just allowed to move the rudder when pulling on one side of the rope, but with the added other side, it was now just too much for the system. So the new rope with auxiliary thread were threaded out again and the old threaded back in ...

But it still was a good decision, as the guys in the gunroom can no longer bang their heads against the tiller. Due to the thick skulls down there, the tiller sweep was already limited for a long time anyway. Ok, mobility is missing, but so there are at least no blokes that would have literally been knocked off the their stools.

But in the meantime the small piece of deck looked a bit piddly to me, so it followed what had to follow - demolition: dafi is back in the modeler's life.

To warm up and get into the groove, I finally gave the Brodie Stove its colors.

Since more than 2 years it stands a bit naked on the middle deck ...



... so I sprayed it a little black and put a touch of graphite on it ...





... and up to the place with it http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif










XXXDAn

Continuation: Equipment of the fore yard -Truss pendants / Drosse d'une basse vergue 
As announced, I made the truss pendants for the fore yard. The truss pendants consists of two partly served ropes, at each end of which a thimble was spliced in. In the following picture you can see how one side of the truss pendants is attached to the yard by means of lashing. Later it will be moved to the right position.

The next picture shows the finished truss pendants. Admittedly, it looks a bit wild, but I think you can see it so far.

              
In this context, I show an illustration that once again clarifies the functional principle of the truss pendants. Unlike the British, where the ropes went to the deck for mooring, the French led the rope ends upward over sheave gates in the trestle trees to the top. There they were lashed down with tackles.


As with the main yard, the position of the two quarter blocks is secured with a strop so as not to be pulled toward the ends of the yards by the sheets.

 
Not to be forgotten is the jackstay of the fore yard, which I will do next.
To be continued ...
 

Equipment of the fore yard - Blocks for the sheets and clewline - Poulies d'ecoute et Poulies de cargue de point
At the moment I am busy with the equipment of the fore yared. Basically it is the same work as for the main yard, but everything a bit smaller. In order to avoid repetitions of the previous reports, I will try to go into one or the other manufacturing detail in more detail in this section of the work.
I tried to determine the length of the strops for the yard blocks with a thin brass wire, as shown below in the example for the sheet blocks.

 
When making the strops, the areas of the eye splices are served first, and then the entire length is served between them.
The round seizings, as shown in the following illustration, I try to lay the turns as neatly as possible next to each other, and then use two strokes across to form the finish, as was probably done in the original.
 


Analogous to the Großrah, the blockstrops were then attached to the fore yard at the appropriate positions using rose lashing.
 
In the next step I will prepare the truss pendants with ø 34 mm (in model scale ø 0.70 mm) for the fore yard.
To be continued ...
 

Building the lights:
 









 

"I understand why historians aren’t in love with the idea of these sorts of projects, ..."
 
I gather there are couple of reasons: academic 'historians' these days seem to be more interested in the sociological aspects of history and are not really interested in the material culture as such, only in the sociology of their production. If I was nasty, I could say that in some respect this is a fall back in epistemology into those dark pre-enlightenment times, when all science and research had the main objective to validate a 'god-given' societal order. The historians these days seem to be desperate to prove how bad those old times were for most of the people.
 
Academic historian may also have a valid point in treating 'our' work with some scepticism, as many amateur historians don't keep carefully track of their sources and the conclusions they draw from them. Such building logs are valuable in that sense, because they document the sources and how/why the builder has arrived at a certain interpretation.
 
Another problem is that very few academic historians (which includes today unfortunately often also professional museum staff) have a background or training in maritime matters. There is a gap between understanding the socio-economic context of maritime artefacts and understanding how they were produced and used as objects as such. Because historian typically don't understand the latter, they are not interested in the objects. In the last 40+ years they were simply not taught anymore about material culture.

Hello,
Slowly I get this deck finished. I turned the sheaves for the railing and made the chimney and ventilation for the stove. Even the mast foot is ready. So the next things are the bell and railing.

Completion: Equipment of the main yard
With the fixing of the studding sail booms to the main yard, another small milestone was reached: The main yard is finished with all equipment elements and prepared for mounting on the model, which will be done later.

 

In the next step I will equip the fore yard with the takele elements. I will certainly make faster progress with this, since I have already prepared some equipment parts and many clarifications of execution details have also already been made.

To be continued ...
 

@jdbondy
Thank you for your interest and positive response.
 
Continuation: Equipment of the main yard - Tacks and sheets
First of all, I would like to thank G. Delacroix for his interesting contribution.
In addition to his information, I was able to read the following in a French standard work on the rigging of sailing ships in the 19th century "Manuel de gréement par F.-A. Costé, Paris1829":


 
Thus, in the time of the La Créole, the tacks and sheets of the lower sails were definitely also made of Grelins (cable-laid ropes). 
In addition, these also served for the standing parts.
In any case, a very interesting information, which I will try to implement adequately on my model.
Here are the first attempts to make a "Grelin":


See you soon ....

 

mounting the rudder:

update
 
made the bilge keels, the raw standplates,and the pedestals
 
Nils
 

the raw standplate prior to staining and the two pedestals. Am again using brass parts of a candle holder and made a 5 mm center boring
 

the bilge keels are from aluminium flat 2 x 15 mm. Here in the pic the alum. strips are appr. 12mm wide, but that was too narrow, so they wii be rejected
 

am experimenting a little how to get the prop / rudder area. The upper aft area (poop sides) will be vertically planked
 
Nils

Hello,
thank you Ian and all others for your likes.
Now the deck is ready and oiled.

This has been a satisfying week spent detailing the tafferal plate.  First task was to complete the architectural moulding and to shape the top mouldings and scrolls:

I have taken a somewhat different tack with my adaptation than what Tanneron/Heller show.  I have decided to run this large architectural moulding all the way out to the ship sides.  The reason for this is that I chose to use the between window pilasters to bracket the outermost windows on all three levels.  These window pilasters are notably more narrow than the long rectangular panels on the outside edges of the tafferal plate, so this architectural moulding caps the lower window pilasters and provides a visual transition to what is happening above.  The rectangular panels need to be wider in order to accommodate the long bellflower ornaments.
 
The next step was to skeletonize the extra stock stern plates I have for these decorative elements that would otherwise be extremely difficult to carve or sculpt from scratch, in this scale:

I use the Dremel grinding disc to excise the relevant sections and then sanding drums to waste away material from the backside.  Once I can begin to see light through the plastic, I manually sand the parts with finger pressure against a coarse sanding stick.  I frequently check to see that the light is coming through evenly as a gauge of how evenly I’m removing the ground material.  It doesn’t take long before the desired elements only need the very tip of a sharp EXACTO to separate them from the ground.
 
I was able to extract the Zodiac symbols in this same manner:

But, the shortened height of these recessed panels is such that they no longer will fit in those spaces:

That’s okay - I will simply paint them-in with a very fine brush a little later in the process.  Above, you get a clear sense of how dramatically I’ve reduced the height of the backboard and the shape of the cornice.
 
The lower cornice moulding had to be pieced-in segment by segment.  I think the result is good:

The national coat of arms is still not perfectly centered, but I am happy enough with it’s placement.  To this point, here’s how the plate looks on the model:

Next, was the challenge of adapting the figures of Europe and Asia.  I first had to re-shape the backing to sit snugly on top of the new cornice profile:

The tricky bit is the bevel that must be incised along this mating surface so that it matches the return bevel of the cornice top.  Hopefully, this picture will make what I am trying to say clear:

Next, I had to in-fill the back of these figures where the stock kit would have an interior planking plate above the poop royal deck.  Out of the box, this plate really serves as the glue surface for these figures.

On my version, I want the reverse curves of the cornice moulding to be visible, inboard, so my figures will glue directly to the cornice cap rail.  Here, Asia has been faired and filed smooth:

As I was going through all of this I began to be concerned that the apparent height of the figures was no longer in-scale with my shortened back board.  However, I began to feel better about this after trimming back the lower swag of the figures’ robes, so that the cornice moulding would be visible.  Here is trimmed Asia to compare against un-trimmed Europe:

And, after trimming and final fitting both:

Berain’s drawing does show a little swag dipping below the upper cornice moulding, and I think this is a reasonable facsimile.
 
On the model:

I may yet decapitate and then re-capitate the horse and camel heads in an effort to shorten their necks a little bit.  I have some time to decide on that.
 
In the meantime, I can modify the big carving drawing a bit, so that I can begin making that.  I can also begin painting the backboard. which is obviously much easier to do off the model - particularly those Zodiac symbols.
 
Thank you all for your interest, your comments and for checking-in.  Enjoy the holiday weekend!

@jfhealey
Thanks for the nice comment.
 
Continuation: Equipment of the main yard - arrangement of the blocks for the clewlines, sheets and tacks - Bouquet de manouvres de grand voile
Since I intend to equip the yards with all the necessary rigging elements, I will also prepare the arrangements for the blocks of clewlines, sheets and tacks and pull in the necessary ropes. These elements are not present on the original model in Paris.
In the meantime I have made the corresponding single blocks for the main yard including the toggles (no stopper knots).


In doing so, I start from double tacks, as they are also provided for in the monograph and became more or less common at the beginning of the 19th century. In this respect, the question of the rejuvenated tacks should have been settled, right?
The question remains as to what type of ropes were used.
To attach the Clewlines ø 17 mm (ø 0.35 mm on a scale of 1:48) to the yards, so-called timber hitch were most likely used, as shown below.
 

Source: Manuel Du Gabier, 1875

Source: Handbook of Seamanship, Franz Ulffers, 1872
 
Of course, when rigging a model, everyone inevitably comes to the point where the question arises as to how the block strops of the running rigging should be executed in terms of colour. Either hemp-colored, or brown to black as tarred cordage. I read somewhere that anything that moves doesn't get tarred, and anything that doesn't move gets tarred. This can also be seen on the rigging of the L'Hermione replica, so I use it as a guide for my model.


This is how the finished arrangement for the blocks for the clewlines, sheets and tacks looks like:

In a hurry, I accidentally made the attachment inside. Of course, this has to be done on the outside towards the yardarm and is still being changed.

Sequel follows …

Hello,
slowly, but steady the carpenters get the deck ready. First I thought to leave it so, but I think I should build the bows also in front of the open deck. 

Good morning everyone, these are the last photos I am putting up of the Requin, I have finished this beautiful model that has occupied me for almost 6 years. I wanted to thank all of you who have intervened in my construction site over time, thank you very much and see you for the start of a new model.

some progress:

[The following is in response to an observation by John Ott, on the other forum.  John pointed out that my problem with centering the French coat of arms has more to do with the fact that the leaves are asymmetrical from the port side to starboard.  This was a key insight for me, and one that I hadn’t picked up on.]
_____

You are right on-time with that observation, John! Nice to see you here, BTW.

Last night, I was measuring once again, and the center pilaster is only a 1/64” to port, which is visually insignificant, so your observation is right-on. I will do as you suggest, and pare down the laurel leaves on the port side.

I’ve been making the moulding that defines the lower boundary of the big carving. On Berain’s drawing the shadows indicate an architectural moulding of some significant weight:

I experimented with making a coved profile scraper from a hacksaw blade, however, the arched center section of the moulding would be difficult to scrape if the scraper tracked along both outside edges of the moulding stock; there’d be a lot of chatter in the profile. Instead, I tried to make a scraper that would only track along the bottom edge of the moulding, cutting the low shoulder and coved profile only. This wasn’t working well, either, on my straight stock.

I decided the best course was to carve the moulding by hand with a gouge:

I first blacked the main face and small shoulder side with a Sharpie. I then scribed two razor reference lines, so that I’d know what the boundaries of the coved profile should be.

I started with the straight stock:

After carving the cove, I used a round file to smooth out any irregularities in the surface. Lastly, I used a sanding stick to round over the top profile.

Feeling confident now, I applied the same procedure to the coved section of moulding:

I cut a test miter just to see how the two profiles mated. It’ll require a little finessing of the profiles, at the final fitting, but this is not a big deal.

I spent a little time this morning perfecting the fit of the tafferal plate. This enabled me to position the arched moulding which, as it turns out, had to shift a solid 1/32” to port so that it centered perfectly over the 3rd and 5th pilaster. This helped my coat of arms situation a little bit:

Now, with John’s insight in-mind, I can file down the port side a little bit and then add a little material to the starboard leaves. These adjustments should bring me pretty darn near to center. Once that is corrected, I can inlet the coat of arms into the arched moulding.

Thank you, John Ott!

@bdgiantman2
Hello Brian,
the ropes are made of silk. The two ends were glued with superglue at the point marked in yellow. In order to create the largest possible contact surface for the glue, I cut off the two ends at an angle with a scalpel.
Thank you for the interest.

small advances:
 

Start preparing the rudder:
 










 

After what has been a very busy time with many competing interests, I’ve been trying to restore some momentum for the project.
 
I’ve been working steadily, albeit at a snail’s pace, on the bow and stern.  This pile of crooked pick-up sticks will eventually become my cambered head grating:

Each slat section is hand-fit and placed by eye.  It will not be possible to neatly align these next three tiers of fore and aft slats with the splayed set immediately aft.  This is an imperfect compromise that I can live with. In the end, after the grating surface has been sanded smooth and re-painted flat black, these small discrepancies will hardly matter.  It looks like it is going to work out just fine:

There’s a significant amount of paint re-touching that has to happen - which I have not been in the mood for - but the upper balcony rail is in-place now; again, imperfect in multiple ways, but I am happy with it:


When I really have the focus and determination to, I will re-visit the paint.
 
What has excited me, lately, is that I have finally reached the stage that the entire ornamental program has been inching towards for years - the coronation of the stern!
 
These past couple of days, I’ve been making up and fitting the two primary layers that make up the tafferal:

It will take a combination of subtraction and addition, but I am feeling pretty confident that the stock sculptures for Europe and Asia can be re-worked to fit my new cornice shape:

Unlike the stock kit, which has an interior backing plate that extends above the reverse-cyma curves of the tafferal, I will make it so that the tafferal shape is continuous to the poop deck.
 
I took some care to scribe-in plank lines for the tafferal backing boards:

I am happy that I increased the camber of the middle and upper window tiers because it lends an appropriate sense of lift for the big carving.  The extremities of the clouds will be slightly modified so that they sit lower against the frame.
 
The national coat of arms now fits within the dome:

While these arms are centered on the central window pilaster, they won’t be perfectly centered within that dome shape.  I checked the dimensions of the tafferal framing, and that dome shape is perfectly centered.  This discrepancy has likely to do with cumulative error stemming from some aspect of the layout for my lowest or maybe the middle window tier.
 
At this stage, there’s no fixing it, and like all of these discrepancies they will kind of fade to the peripheries of consciousness when the completed stern is considered in its entirety.  For the most part, the important details look more right than they do wrong.  Most especially, I think I have nailed the correct shape for the big carving panel and the shape of the cornice:

There is very much work and layering of detail to come, but I am pleased with where it is all going.
 
Thank you all for your interest!
 

Good morning and thank you all for the likes, more photos
 
They were very fast because of the way the hull was made