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Showing results for tags 'sciabecco francese'.
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Finally saved up enough to order my fourth kit! After three reasonably successful builds of beginner kits by Artesania Latina, I'm stepping up to an advanced beginner kit from Sergal (a brand made by Mantua Models). The kit seems to be sold under both its Italian and English titles, respectively, Sciabecco francese and French Xebec. While xebecs were used by other countries' navies earlier, the French didn't adopt them until relatively late in the reign of Louis XV, in the 1750s and 1760s. The French navy continued to use them through the Napoleonic wars, though they were mostly phased out at that point. (Apparently some worked coast guard duty into the 1840s.) Here's the traditional unboxing photo. Four bundles of 500mm planks and dowels, three sheets of laser-cut parts, a sheet of pennants, lots of hardware, the assembly instructions booklet, and some rather generously sized schematics. Although the assembly instructions are pretty limited, they also include a section on planking the hull that is very detailed and well illustrated. I don't have much perspective, but the wood doesn't seem to be of the same quality as the Artesania Latina kits that I did. That might be just the perception of an amateur talking, or maybe it's just that the wood was less well sanded at the factory. The 5mm plywood is definitely sturdy though! The biggest concern for me so far is that the keel, false deck, and decks have curves to them. Right now, I have the keel and false deck resting under damp paper towels and some heavy weights. Hopefully they'll be straighter tomorrow. Today I began dry fitting the keel and bulwarks. I've learned a lot from my prior kits and so am doing better this time. The bulwarks fit well to the keel, straight out of the box. I sanded the laser char off one of them, but then it fit so loosely that it rocked back and forth in its slot on the keel. Now I'm only sanding off the char as needed to improve how the false deck and decks fit. Although the bulwarks fit well, the slots weren't deep enough. The photo shows bulwarks #5–10. You'll note that #9 and 10 (the two furthest away) are sticking up above the keel by about 2 or 3mm, which is about how high they all sat. When I took the photo, I noticed that #6 and 7 were still up a bit too high, too, so I gave them a bit more love. At this point, the bulwarks that support the false deck (#3–10) are fitted. The false deck slides into its space well, except that its slight curve prevents it from resting flat. Next step is to dry fit the main deck (which needs some filing in order to fit onto the bulwarks) and then to work on the foredeck and the bulwarks (#1–3) that support it.
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