Le Superbe by Blue Ensign - FINISHED - Heller - PLASTIC - Built as "Le Praetorian", after Boudriot

[Blue Ensign]

Good to hear from you Michael, I hope things are good with you.

 

Regards,

 

Maurice

[Blue Ensign]

Hi Admiral Beez,

 

I have had a look back thro’ my records, and I hope this info helps.

 

All those rings for the tackles and port lid lanyards, and almost every other instance where an eyebolt or ring was required are 0.3mm Brass etched eyelets obtained from Jotika.

Here’s the link

 

JoTiKa Ltd. ~ Fittings, 0.3mm Brass Etched Eyelets. (jotika-ltd.com)

 

As regards the port lids, this is what I wrote at the time.

 

The port lids provided by Heller are little projects on their own, each lid requiring nine separate operations before they are ready for fitting; at least there are only twenty-eight of ‘em.

 For some strange reason Heller have moulded the grain running the wrong way, vertical instead of horizontal.

The hinges are adequately formed but will require the addition of lanyard rings, these rings should be inside the hinge straps, but I have attached them to the straps as I think they look better.

Horizontal boards had to be scribed on the outer face, and vertical (lining) boards on the inner.

The usual sink holes on the inner sides of the lids had to be filled, before scribing, painting the usual red ochre, and marking with the diamond head nail patterns.

How to fit the ports is something of a puzzle; the lugs on the top of the lids are offset from the back so that the lid should fit flush to hull when closed. Unfortunately, they are too thick to allow the lid to sit flush without thinning down.

For open ports there is no recess on the hull to take the ‘hinges’ and the Heller instructions give no clue as to fitment. I notice that looking at other Heller 74 builds on the net that many completed models do not have the lower port lids fitted, I wonder why.

In any event each lid required individual tailoring to fit – chamfered edges and thinned down lugs. For the closed ports they were such tricky beggars to fit that all my fine painting of the lids and brackets came to naught as the paint mostly rubbed off whilst handling.

In fitting the lids a line was temporarily secured to the rings to guard against the lids being lost inside the hull during the fitting operation – easily done.

0.1mm line was used for the lanyards which were threaded thro’ the previously prepared holes at Stage One, fished thro’ knotted and pulled taut.

For the open ports a slightly different approach was required.

0.4mm holes were drilled in the top of the lid to take short lengths of telephone wire super-glued into place. The moulded lugs were removed.

Corresponding holes just above the port openings were drilled to take the lid wires which once fitted into place can be gently positioned for angle once the lanyards have been fitted.

Such was the good fit of wire into hull gluing was not necessary, but a lot of re-touching of the paint was required where the lids had been gripped by pliers and tweezers during the process.

Were I to do the job again this is the sequence I would adopt.

1) Fill sink holes and scribe planking.

2) Drill holes for lanyard eyelets.

These operations can be done whilst the lids are attached to the sprue.

3) Select and pare down lids to fit for closed ports.

4) Remove lugs from ports selected to be open.

5) Drill holes in top of open lids to take wire lengths to fit into hull.

6) Glue outside lanyard eyes into place on lids, (all lids)

7) Drill and fit inside lid eyelets on open port lids only.

😎 Paint the lids and straps.

Port lids detail

 

On the subject of Gun tackles

For the smaller Foc’sle and Qtr deck guns I used 0.1mm ø line for the Breeching ropes, and for the larger lower deck guns 0.2mm ø line.

I don't think I seized the breeching lines to the bulwarks , merely passed them thro' the rings where fitted,  pinched them, and sealed with a spot of ca.

These are very tiny  things and the knot would be too big.

 

Foc'sle gun detail

This is what I wrote:

Once installed the first job is to fasten the rings for the Upper deck waist cannon.  The holes were drilled before assembly of the hull halves – impossible once the hull is assembled. There is not an option to omit any cannon as all the ports are open on this deck. The 0.3mm brass etched eyelets are just perfect for this job.

For the six cannon beneath the Gang-boards in the waist I had fitted bulwark rings, and what passes for the breeching ropes on French cannon were attached to these. For the others Breeching ropes were attached and super-glued to the deck, as on the Gun-deck.

Waist gun detail

On the Lower deck I have represented the breeching ropes only, which are super-glued to the deck to provide additional security.

Lower deck gun detail.

 

Cheers,

B.E.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2021 by Blue Ensign

[shipman]

Problem.....using your link for jotika eyelets or going to their own site, when you click 'buy online'. one is redirected to 'ship writes shop'. Search as I may, these eyelets can't be found. Need some help please.

[Blue Ensign]

You could always ring them up (0)1905 776 073 and ask.

Personally I haven't used Jotika/Caldercraft for some years, just providing the link I have.

 

ps I have just checked with Jotika they do have them in stock, but for some reason they haven't appeared on their online store.

Cornwall Model Boats do have them, I've just checked.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Blue Ensign

[BETAQDAVE]

    This is a question regarding your simple man's guide to small scale sail making.  Do you remember what ratio of PVA to water you used for the Witches Brew sail wash?  You described it as being the consistency of milk, but would that be skim, 1%,2% or whole milk? 

     I'm making sails for my 1:96 scale Phantom pilot boat and when the material dried overnight, the mix apparently pooled in the low spots and drained from the high spots as shown below which made the finish very uneven.

    I'm not sure if it was my mix or the light weight drafting vellum paper that I used.  I don't know for sure, but maybe I should have used your hurry up method of using a hair drier to speed it up.  As light as the vellum paper was, maybe it was still a bit too stiff.

    I found some very light weight tracing paper that I will try next.

Edited September 18, 2023 by BETAQDAVE

[TomShipModel]

I use silk span for sails.  At this scale, I use three plies of silk span with each plie 90 degrees to each other.  My work surface is glass, and I use dilute white glue at approximately five to eight parts water to one part glue.  Too much water defeats the process, too little water the glue is too stiff to spread.

 

Hope that this helps.

[Blue Ensign]

Hi Dave,

I think I thinned it to the consistency of skimmed milk and applied it quickly using a broad chisel brush. I too use silkspan, or modelspan as it is now called as it has good strength qualities.

Use of a hairdryer once applied, eliminates any risk of puddling, but the beauty of Silk/modelspan is that it can be re-wetted multiple times, particularly useful for sail shaping on the model.

 

B.E.