mtaylor

Welcome to the Curse Loudly and Toss Things Across the Room and Against the Wall Club, Sam. I'm a charter member. I do feel your pain... as Russ said, we've all been there. I still am if that's any comfort.

Very impressive work, Randy. Even more impressive since it's ebony. That stuff is a bear to work with.

Here's how I did the 1854 Constellation pivots but she had Parrotts fore and aft. The below deck guns were on a "standard" carriage (definition subject to argument). If the pivot guns were mounted midships, there are pics of those about.

I know how many mornings it fills, John... and how many pots of coffee I have to make.. Nice to have you along for this rollercoaster ride. 1770 would fit it into the period after Belle-Poule's launch. They were, in fact, together when Licorne was captured and Belle-Poule went on to greater glory. The whole even helped drag France into the American Revolution. Part of the problem with sorting this is that Hahn discovered that the masting/yards dimensions only fit with Le Venus. Yet, there's lots of discrepancies between the periods involved. Le Venus was much later and an 18-pdr. The rigging and a few other "details" was a stage beyond my timeframe. Rebuilds are nightmare for modelers. Have a look at the conversations of Victory or Constitution for example. Luckily the drawings for this ship are "as captured" so that gets me closer in the ballpark. The downside, they still need a lot of interpretation due to the "quality" of the drawings/copies. What I infer from all the reading and conversations is that the French did as much standardization as they could during rebuilds. So , I'm just trying to reconcile things more. As for the galleries... there is no doorway into the "garden". As for lining... I'm on the ropes for that. If (ok.. if.. when) I get the rail finished, I'll sort out the lining. Maybe flip a coin... I do have to wonder which would be more appropriate... canvas or lead? Or from my viewpoint.. silkspan and either white paint or gunmetal gray?

Thanks Druxey. I see that on Belle Poule but thought it was support beam... Two of them... one at each end of the roof/railing area. I'll see what I can do. Nothing like pushing one's self outside the comfort zone.

I believe that what we see is a mold and he's adding the frames to the outside of it. Here's the Google Translate for his post #3: "My name is Amalio, and I am a passionate Spanish modeller dedicated to ship modeling for many years. I want to show a different way to build Enrramada a helmet. In this case a ship of seventy-four Spanish cannons called Montanes. It is not an unknown system but little used. It is about building an inner mold on which to be placing all the pieces that make up the frames. I think these pictures are sufficiently explanatory. I hope you like it. Thank you very much"

Ok.. I'm picking up the gauntlet. One freestanding railing on each gallery roof. I think I've got it figured out..... I'm studying Belle-Poule and it appears the line for the sheer rail are visible behind the rail... Anyone know what the float that was kept there looked like?

John, That way is reasonable. About every 5 strake, I stopped and rechecked for tolerance build up and adjusted accordingly.

For elk, possibly try the local custom butcher shop who does game for the hunters.

I'm thinking you're both right, Druxey and Gaetan. Because of the drawing on Licorne, When I first read some time ago what Druxey reminded me of was that it only applied to 74's. Belle-Poule is the same way and Mr. Delacroix did tell me to reference Belle-Poule for many things. There is the inside height of the gallery which means the officer would be bent over the entire time they're in there... except for sitting. But that sort of fits in with the cramped quarters of the frigates. Merde, back to the drawing board to figure out how to do it. I've got a couple of options I think... either a rail only or the inside of the rail lined. Either way, the roof will need to stop just above the upper molding.

Nice little addition to the fleet, Jack.

John, The front ends (bow) actually taper on the garboard almost to a point. Here's mine.. I have a sharper bow than yours and mine also has some other differences... I also think you may have went a bit too far forward with the garboard. What was suggested to me is run the garboard from aft forward. When you get to the point where the plank it out over the stem, put a another plank next to it and keeping it in a straight line, trim the garboard into the stem... It looks like yours is bit too wide.. maybe too long... as it shouldn't curve up. What Doc said... don't lose any sleep over it.

I never heard of that either until Cabrapente's post. Then again, I don't have a bandsaw.

I use just a scrap of waxed paper for PVA and CA. And a toothpick.

From Google Translate: Hi Taylor. fantastic job. I like the invention. I use sandpaper on the band saw. It also works wonders

Those are three great pictures and really says it all.

I've got the MM... If I were buying again, it would be the Byrnes. The MM is fiddly to use, in my opinion and does require slow feeds.... very slow feeds or very light "cuts". It's not a production unit but a hobbyist unit so read into that as you may.

Silver maple also works well. Almost as white as holly.

No problem, Pat. I've gathered my thoughts together and took another look at my references. Somewhere around 1765, all the frigates ended up with this look for the quarter galleries. Prior to that, their galleries looked something like this: http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/4023-lamarante-by-giampieroricci-1749-french-corvette-scale-130/?p=408269(see the second photo down). While that is more of a quarterbadge being flat against the hull, the galleries were of similar design but rounded outward for the facilities. Both the English and French did seem to engage in forms of subterfuge to fool an enemy ship. For example, HMS Roebuck, a 44 two gundeck frigate has a second set of dummy stern windows and (if I recall correctly, a double set of windows in the quarter galleries)such that from a distance she would look like a 74. When the quarter galleries for the frigates changed, they all look similar. There's some differences other than size between a 8-pdr frigate and a 12-pdr frigate... but the appearance from a distance is the same. The stern windows on Licorne start at the quarter deck beams and come down. They sit high which makes the ship appear larger than she is. In Licorne's case, you'll see when I do the interior, the door to the galleries is only about 4-1/2 feet high. The roof of the gallery would have to be hollow to give the officer some room to stand up. The gallery itself is barely wide enough for an officer to sit. There was also a ruling that galleries should not be visible from astern but Licorne violates this rule. Belle Poule. Hermione, and Le Venus had the headroom but also had the decorative rail. I haven't studied all the ship's plans in depth on this but they appear to be like Druxey mentioned and what John showed. Maybe not a cistern but the area inside the rail appears to be open and some items kept there. The reasoning just seems to boil down to appearance. But I've run into a couple of things like this that make me say "Huh?" and so I follow the drawings, do a bit of research to see if this matches and sadly, I don't always rationalize it by connecting the dots like I just did. One other tidbit I found interesting is that due to the hull shape differences between French and English frigates, the French ships were crowded. The space between decks wasn't as great as the English ships as they moved the lower deck up for carrying capacity in the hold. What this caused was that the sailors basically slept where ever they could find space as hammocks wouldn't have worked. They would sleep on the lower deck forward of officer's country, on the hawse cable, in the hold on the barrels even between the guns on the gundeck. Literally where ever they could find the space. Footnote... basic differences between an 8-pdr frigate and 12-pdr... the quarterdeck extends in front of the main mast, the 8-pdr, it stops behind it. On the 12-pdr, the fireplace for cooking is on the centerline just aft of the main bitts. On the 8-pdr, it's divided into two fireplaces and they are outboard on the deck between the first and second gunport. Only 12-pdrs seem to have the bridle ports which are the only ports to have permanent lids.Hatchways/gratings are in different locations and numbers but that's due to what needed to be accessed below the deck. Hmm... I've rambled on enough for now. I admit, it's been a steep learning curve.

I'd think you would still want the glue, even bent under the plank.

Nils, I suspect that camera isn't able to fully use the 8Mb on the new card. I ran into that as mine uses a 4Mb card. The 8Mb card creates problems like what you're having.

Thanks for the likes and comments. Pure decoration, Pat. Although on at least one French ship, this area inside translated as "the garden" and actually has usage for what appeared to be some sort of man-overboard equipment. I'll have to find that reference again. I noted that also as the NMM plans don't show that line either. But on the NMM it's not very clear as are most of the "carvings" are just scribbles that need interpreting. I wasn't aware of the cistern, Druxey. I'll file that away for future reference. I'm changing the "design" as I go on this. There were some aspects of it I wasn't happy with after seeing it in wood. Nothing major, just some tweaking to get the model in sync with the perspectives of the drawing.

Spectacular, Nenad. The rework was worth it.

Looking super nice, Nils. And that's a great fix on the shroud. Regarding the camera, is is the problem the built in memory chip or the removable card? I've had my SIM card fail and just replaced it.

John, I can't tell from this angle, maybe a side photo would help? Here's what I see from here... If you follow this line, your planking is going to run up too high in the bow compare to the rest of the planks. The first two planks should look more like the black lines in the photo I attached. Usually, the bow planks get narrower the more forward you go and they get wider at the stern. I'm assuming this is double-planked? If it is, keep going the way you are and you'll see when done and then you can rework on the second layer. If you're like me, I'm very visual and usually need to see and do to sort things out.