74 gun ship by Gaetan Bordeleau - 1:24

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Hi Allen,

 

Each scale has different challenges of construction and tools.

Building at 1/200 is different than 1/24 and is also different than 1/1.

 

Details disappears with smaller scales and they appear with larger scales.

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

The work will now be aft outside. In preparation the windows. The process of building is exactly as a real home wall framing, openings, covering the walls, moldings. Many windows are fake, meaning no glass, and a black back. I revisited the notes from the first forum about it. In 2009,  with Jack Nastyface and Wacko Wolf we had an interesting discussion about these fake windows. The fake windows are mostly on the sides, For 6 windows, 1 1/2 is true, on each side. I am actually working on the framing that I began few years ago. Unfortunately, I have a big dilemma about the number of windows on the first deck which is 10. With the fake windows, they wanted to give the illusion that the ship was much important than it really was. I began the work by covering the beams. Working this way, it means that there would be 8 windows. But in this megalomania, on the plans, unfortunately, for me, there are 10 windows. Maybe, I should have done the same 74 as Mark, the Bellona which has 8 windows at the first level. So, now the question is will I be cheating or undoing some works?

 

Fortunately, model ship building is not the only pleasure. I like to make adaptors, sometimes called jig and sometimes called tool. I always try to apply the same principles. It must fill a need, it must be as simple as possible, it must be made as fast as possible, when metal is not required, plastic or wood is used.

 

I bought a brush made with v dents to clean the polishing wheels. Very efficient to clean.

 

 

Edited November 18, 2021 by Gaetan Bordeleau

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Unfortunately, I am not building the Bellona but a French 74, so 8 windows are not enough and I restart the job again for 10.

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

For the last few months, I tried to get a new spot for lighting. Made of 2 parts, the first one was already available but the second part just came out on the market and I finally got one. The difference with the other LED lights is the power, much more. The light is in 2 parts, a spot and a zoom also the shape of the light can be adjusted in many shapes like circle, square rectangle and so on. With only 1 light now, I can take photos inside the model.

 

On a parallel path, I tried some new knives: japan kitchen knives and I am still pushing the art of sharpening which consist in raising and removing the burr. I can sharp a knife which will have no resistance passing through a tomato but I cannot do it on a regular basis. I watched many videos on you tube and everybody has his own way to do it. Sharpening a knife can be a very satisfying experience when you see what is a sharp knife. I am still learning the process and I learned new words in sharpening: Edge leading sharpening vs edge trailing.

 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2021 by Gaetan Bordeleau

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

It is time to clean the spider webs and continue the work. The goal for the moment will be the windows but before  we need some  moldings.

The longest one are cut from a 3/4 by 3/4 inch  plank.

[popash42]

Dear Gaetan Bordeleau

In recent days I have been privileged to read and be deeply impressed by your blog. I do not intend to repeat all the compliments you have rightfully received from the other colleagues on the site. It is very important for me to tell you that these days about watching the amazing pictures and the things you wrote and described gave me great pleasure and I learned a lot from you !!

 well done, I will continue to follow your work with great anticipation

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Thank you popash42

 

This forum is a great place to learn model ship building. Many excellent model ship makers participate.

 

I like to take photos of the construction progress in different styles of photography and I  also try to take photos during construction process to show how to get to build a part. This way, there is more to learn than just looking at the part completed. By example, I took a photo during the construction of the pillars to show How I slide the part to make parallel grooves.

 

I like to try new tools and I also like to try new photography equipment. The main camera I use is a Canon.For general photos, the main lens the 40-70mm 2,8. I also like to experience new lens. I remember the first time I used telephotos lens which at first glance seems insane but many good photos can be successful. During the last 10 years, I learned a lot about photography and I also experienced a lot. There is a common goal between the construction of a model ship and photography. There is an aspect which is essential for both: LIGHTING. If lighting is unsufficient during the construction, there are many details which are going to be missed, simply because, you will not see it. The same applies for the photography. During the years, especially the recent years, lighting took a giant step with LED. With LED lights, you can take photos without any expensive flash. It is not only the lens which will provide the details but also the lighting.

 

This forum has been on line for more than 10 years now but It is only this year that the administrators agreed to add a section for the photography. I strongly believe that a camera is an important tool as much as a saw can be for the model ship builder. There are many types of saws, there are many types of camera and it is worth to learn how to use it.

 

The construction of the windows continues. For this particular 74 gun ship, do you know how much false windows there are?

The number is quite high: fourteen, 5 each side, 4 in the back. If they had pushed, they could have even go up to sixteen false windows! On the previous build of the 74, black paint was applied behind the false windows to fool the eye. This time to understand the construction process, I will not apply paint.

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

In the last 2 photos, inclination of the wall can be noted... the doors, not yet installed had to be opened towards the inside, impossible to open towards outside.

[rshousha]

Hi Gaetan, would it not be possible to open the doors to the outside if you put a high sill? 

 

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Hi Rick,

 

Yes, it would be possible as they do on the second deck for the toilet room door but I do not think that they would do it because it is the great room where the highest rank officers meet and we would not want to risk to stumble because of a sill. You can see on the first photo taken by the Gopro camera what the height would need to be.

 

 

Edited December 20, 2021 by Gaetan Bordeleau

[rshousha]

Gaetan, your balustrade is absolutely wonderful.  Thanks for sharing. 

 

[mbp521]

Gaetan,

 

Absolutely stunning work. Your details are simply amazing. 
 

-Brian

[Gahm]

Superb work! And your photography is amazing . . . on some of those images it is really difficult to tell whether you are looking at the real ship or a model 🙂

 

Thomas

[Jorge Diaz O]

Absolutely wonderfull.

 

- Jorge.

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Thank you for your comments.

 

 You need to take many photos to get one good one that you will like. Sometimes it is very difficult, sometimes it is much easier. Practice, again, is the key word. 

I like to experience different "tools" for photography. As we know Lighting is the base to get good results. Expensive equipment is not mandatory. I had some surprisingly good results with a flashlight and a $10  LED lamp from IKEA.

 

This week, I started the railings:

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Stair railing during construction on the forecastle.

 

What is the worst way to build the stairways? Glue the parts as they are done. Parts will be glued faster on the model but it will be harder to build other parts on the model itself. At the opposite, it is easier to build as much as possible without gluing. This way, a part can be remove as needed to be shape.

 

Often, it will be easier to shape a part on the vise, simply because the vise will easily hold the part, something that the fingers cannot do very well, and the hands will be free to hold the tool to shape the part: 

 

at the good working angle and at the good height. Not in all the situations, but often a part of the fabrication is much easier done if the tool meets the part at the good angle and also at the good height where it is easier to perform a movement.

 

2 things are needed to achieve this: an electric height adjusting table. This is 1 of 2 important tools that everybody should have when possible. The other one is a vise. Choosing a vise looks like to be very easy to do.. This subject comes back occasionally in the tool section. The newcomer will usually buy a vise at a very low price.

As in the learning of the model ship building, understanding what is a good tool often needs experimentation. When I was a beginner, I bought a hobby vise. With the wearing, the vise became harder and harder to squeeze tight the jaws. Also the angle adjustment had more and more trouble to hold the working position. It was not long that this tool became unusable.

 

The second category of vise would be in the metal machining category.  There is a company who made a good little one and this is Unimat. The problem with the milling vise, is that it is difficult to find a quality vise in the small sizes

 

 

Finally, a third category of vise comes from the jewelry tool industry. The range is quite large. Unfortunately, there is a bad side, the price. In this category, the price can be as low as$20 for something simple and close to $1000 for an elaborate one.

 

One of the main problem of the vise is to hold a part parallel to the table. The part has a tendency to be pushed out vertically, out of the vise. This is why a machinist will give the part a light hammer blow to seat well the part on the vise. This is also why the jaws need to have a way to stay well seated on the vise base.

 

There are a lot of vises on the market but very few can really be called a good vise!

 

 

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

I glued the parts and there are still a few parts to be done.

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by Gaetan Bordeleau

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Here is an example why it can be interesting to build at a larger scale:

 

When the anchor is lift on the ship there is a cable  which is part of the cathead, the name is bosse de bout. This cable probably slip on an arched wood part named skate of the bosse de bout. It is also probably turned around the railing ounce or two and may be by having this skid, it slides easier? To know a clear answer, more research is needed or may be someone knows how. 

 

Edited December 27, 2021 by Gaetan Bordeleau

[druxey]

Really lovely work, Gaetan!

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

This morning, I wanted to test shooting from the top .

The next working area will be the second deck, to add a few details and close that deck.

 

Recently, Lightroom did a major step in his program. You can now  select any part of the photos and work only on a part  at the time modifying what you want. By example, if one part of the photo, from any size, is too dark, you can increase the light.

 

It is now possible to do steps that were only possible in photoshop before. By example, you can change a background color in one easy step. I wonder what kinds of mathematical formulas are involved to achieve this. The only drawback, to use it you need to pay annual fee. It is not worth if you only take few photos every year, but it is acceptable if you take a lot of photos. It is a great tool to retouch the photos and also to organize the classification.

[mbp521]

Gaetan,

 

This is a beautiful masterpiece no matter what angle the photos are taken from. I am just in awe at your work. 
 

-Brian

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

21 hours ago, mbp521 said:

This is a beautiful masterpiece no matter what angle the photos are taken from.

 

Thank you Brian

 

but there are also angles which look bad. Photography can be a great liar. The lens sees completely different things than what the human eye sees but fortunately for us, sometime it looks good and often it is just a matter of luck.

[albert]

Great work very nice. 

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Thank you Albert,

 

Beginning the nicest room on the ship.

 

Building walls is fun, making tools also. One of the reasons I did tools, especially for the lathe and milling is simply, because I could not afford all these tools at the time. I like to watch video on You tube, and often about tools. Recently, I saw one where to hold the part which was too large for a live center in the tailstock, the guy did adapt a 4 jaw chuck as a live center. I like the idea, because it is unusual to see a 4 jaw chuck at the opposite end of the lathe, soI tried it.

 

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Working on the channels and the next chapter of sharpening not a knife this time but a flat surface.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 18, 2022 by Gaetan Bordeleau

[Tonphil1960]

Absolutely an incredible project. I too have a big interest in tools and tooling.  Your tooling and jigs are fantastic. 

 

Tony

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Thank you Tony, to build metal parts, is one of the many aspects of the model ship builder.  To be a model ship builder, you need to understand many kinds of works and it is extremely difficult to master all of these. Model ship building can take an infinite variety of roads. We often modelers who are very good in few departments and this is why many modelers are recognizable by their work and their style. In my case, I just like to build a part of the ship and especially inside and take some photos.

 

Let's come back on the channels. There is one interesting part on the mizzen channel. I think it is a very example to show how Boudriot worked. There is an iron hand just over the mizzen mast. There are 3 drawings showing it. In the index, it refers to vol. 2 fig.123 p.34. We could say that we have a   general idea of the part to begin and when we are ready to fabricate it, we go to the "construction drawing". I do not know how many years it took to write the 4 books for the 74 guns but it was surely more than one. I often saw  a part represented many times through the books and often at different stage of construction and sometimes there is only 1 drawing showing the final or the correct  way it was done. To say  that all the other are wrong is not necessary true.

 

On the figure 123, I have some difficulties to understand why they built it this way, floating just over the mizzen channel, instead of being fix on or under it, and this even though, there is a support bracket to hold it.

[Gahm]

This is such an impressive model and build log! Thank you for sharing!

 

Thomas

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

1 more photo

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Carving is made mainly with a Micromotor, it is a lot easier than knives. no need to use strength, you let the burs work for you. the first part is always the most difficult. Then  you gain trust and it gets easier. An image is applied with rubber glue and each part is shaped at different thickness . This way every element are located. Then you uniform the shapes and clean. 

 

We now have a very good idea of what the use of cherry wood looks like. By carefully select the wood , especially for for planking, I would say that it is perfectly suitable to use for model ship building. I have been using this wood for a few years and to simply classify it , I would say simply do not use the wood when the grain lines run perpendicular. 1 coat of tung oil darkens the wood beautifully.

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by Gaetan Bordeleau