Hermione by MESSIS - FINISHED - Artesania Latina - 1/89

[MESSIS]

Great! Caribean is wonderfull. Wish you pleasant stay there. I myself on weekend am going to France and ofcourse am going to visit Hermione in Rochefort. If you need any specific pictures of the ship say so and I ll get them for you.

[MESSIS]

Planking is comming soon to an end. I am not very happy with the result but am statisfied. Two correction planks are going to be needed in each side... I hoped less. And in some points I went a little under the half plank width... point something, I wanted to be sharper, but never the less am ok with the result.

 

So am already preparing for some sanding and painting now and then coppering starts. Coppering is not in the kit instructions but according to history the ship was coppered a year after the ship was launched and commissioned.  And of course by the time that it carryied the french flag (after the french revolution) and not the flag of the Monarchie of Ludwig, the ship was allready coppered. So thats what I inted to do. To picture the ship after the first trip of Lafayette  to America and even after the revolution.

 

Its going to be my first coppering and am anxious to start it. To prepare for that  I got a lot of help in the mean time from my friends "aew" Arthur and "Mirabel61" Nils, who I both  thank a lot.

[Tallshiptragic]

She is looking great Messis, and don't be too worried about the copper plates. They run in a similar fashion to the hull planks and being individually laid, while time consuming it's easy to accomplish. Are you going to purchase ready made plates or produce your own? 

[MESSIS]

Yes I allready did purchased that of amati 5x17mm... it suits what the french navy used then and scale though amati give 1/72  the size 17x5 suits my 1/89 scale accuratly. Do you put a colourless varnish over your platting or do leave it as it is to darken naturally?

[Tallshiptragic]

On my Diana, I just left them to naturally oxidize and they darkened with a rather nice patina. I prefer things not to be too shiny if that makes sense. 

[MESSIS]

I dont know which theory is correct: weathering a modell ok.... but you cann I achieve exactly what realy elements (sea, wind, sun, woorms, man.... etc etc) of nature really did to it.

 

Second theory says the ship got just now out of the shipyard.... brand new wood, sails, paint .... untouched from nature, shiny and ideal... ready for its virgin trip to...

 

Dont know, both are reasonable theorys

[Tallshiptragic]

Thats true, there are two ideals. Just that naturally patina copper takes on after time is just so lovely in my opinion  

 

 

[MESSIS]

Guys need some help here.

 

I have spend some time reading about coppering.... but I got confused  about the overlapping of the plates.

 

In more than one paper is said that:

 

"The first row will be applied at the keel ,working your way from the stern towards the bow. Each plate should overlap the preciding plate. Also each row should overlap the preciding row."  (First pic beneath)

 

On the other hand Mark Staniforth in his paper "The introduction of copper sheating-A History" says:

 

"The Royal and the French Navy used the other way round system"  Yes each plate did overlap the preciding plate going from stern towards bow... but the plate rows going from keel upwards to the waterline were overlaped by the preciding row..... !  ( Second pic.)

 

 

Who is right and who is wrong?

[MESSIS]

Just arrived by post  today. The Amati copper plates, 259 left and 259 right and the plate dimension is 17x5mm. Great dimension because is within the sizes that the french navy used those days.

 

Very nice copper plates with their bolts showing very realistc, but now I realise that they wont be enough. My calculations showed that I ll be needing about 350 for each side.  I have to buy a.second packet... shipment to Cyprus etc will cost me another 35 euros. But... I need them.

[Tallshiptragic]

Nice looking plates. For your previous question, I didn't overlap my plates due to the scale the overlapping would have been less than a millimeter even at 1/64.

[MESSIS]

You r right. Am thinking not to overlap. Its not going to be noticed..... we are talking for less than a mm. And overlaping makes things not easyier The pins arrangement on the plates designate that 

[MESSIS]

She is floating! Just finished planking. Am happy about the next stage: Draw waterline, paint black from WL and upwards, paint yellow the section of the cannon deck and then c o p p e r i n g! Wuao a lot of work. I miss the time I was visiting Hermione. Building her its nice but visiting her is the real thing!

[Dilbert55]

Looking very nice, both the large and small versions!

[MESSIS]

Thank you "young man".

[Dilbert55]

Eager to see your progress on coppering the hull. Had not thought of trying it myself mainly because I know nothing about it, but now its on my future to do list.

[MESSIS]

I did some reading and some asking around in the blog. Its nothing difitcult. 

 

The thing is that I decided doing it because Hermione was coppered a year after she was at sea. And if am going to use the french flag which is in the kit... and its a very nice material also, then it means am picturing Hermione after the revolution. Note that the flag used in america with Lafayette was an all white flag. Or before and after america during Ludvigs time she curryied the flag of the monarchie (same with the emblem on the back of our model..... the three golden lilys etc).

 

Anyway, I also dont fancy the white hull. Its too plain.😊 And last but not least,  coppeting adds work and time to my psyhotherapie..... because this is what I do in my effort to adapt myself in my pensions life😀

[MESSIS]

So after two light primer coatings I did an acrylic mat white paint (two coats also). I could go more but I stoped because I wanted to let the planks to be seen, but only as fading out lines

 

Ofcourse now a pale  yellow is going on the top of this white in the area of the gunports and a blue in the upper area. Below the gundeck planks a black will be painted to the point of the waterline. And after that downwards the copper plates will be installed.

So maybe after the next one or two coats the plank lines will disappear. I hope not. I would  like the modell observer to be aware that the hull was planked. So the fading out lines of the planks are disireable.

[MESSIS]

And here goes the painting. A pale yellow for the gunports area. The white coat underneath, gave to the yellow some more light and thats good.

[MESSIS]

I think is not far away from  the actual yellow of  the ship in Rochefort. Considering that my model is fresh painted and the ship - in my picture of this May (2017)'- has a one year old paint, which is sitting the whole year permanently in the weather of  the Rochefort dock.

 

[MESSIS]

Here she goes again... the black stripe to the waterline is painted. Now the coppering is ready to start.

[MESSIS]

So coppering has begun. Am thrilled.... its the first time I do this. I think it comes out better than I thought.  I use plastic gloves but still have some minimal glue stain problems which am dealing with aceton. And if at the ende is needed may be Ill go for a "lemonade drink". 

 

I figuread out that it will take about 450+ plates (17x5mm) each side. I got two pktes amati plates 256 plates for each side, so it seems am ok . 

 

So slowly I feel the ship coming into life!"Its a great feeling looking her taking shape and colour.

[MESSIS]

Its a very slow progress but I have to be carefull... over the straight lining, the glue prints, the fingertips.... etc. Though I try hard there are some mistakes undergone which I ll try at the end with aceton and lemon juice.... and I hope that will do. I did some and it worked.

 

 

[PiperMat]

Hello Messis,

 

Are you using superglue? Because I think some strong PVA glue like Gator's Grip would also work and this can be cleaned with water and dries slower. I use it for photo etch parts on plastic models. I am also building L'Hermione (just started planking), and am considering adding copper tiles as well.

[MESSIS]

Hi pipermat,

 

Am using contact cement.... I tryed a few ... its the best I think. To clean glue I tryed aceton and it works, it cleans ok.

 

Superglue CA its very bad to inhale .... it brings my asthma out, so I did not wanted to try it. I use it very rare when I need a superfast strong gluing.

 

Christos

 

 

[Paul Jarman]

Hi Messis,

Great job on the coppering. Are you going to patina it?. The hull looks very good.

Paul

[MESSIS]

Paul thank you very much. I dont think so. I am thinking when finished to clean it well from fingertips and glue and then let it take its patina by itself with time.

 

Though if I have problems with cleaning, then may be I ll use little brassblack to give it a darker colour. 

 

Christos

[Dilbert55]

Noticed this online yesterday... "SUPER-GOLD™ eliminates the irritating fumes from the evaporating monomer that make repeated use of CA unpleasant at times." Haven't seen it in my local hobby store yet.

[MESSIS]

Thats a good thing! Ill check if I can get it here in Cyprus. Is it a european product?

[Dilbert55]

Looks like it's globally available and there are numerous places to purchase online, here's the web-site link.  http://www.bsi-inc.com/

 

A quick check using the dealers search feature had this place on the first page. You can't search specifically if you are not in the USA but have to scroll thru the entire list.

 

Name:	S. Koutsos Model Hobby
Address:	R-C Model Prod. Import & Dist.
City:	GREECE
State:	00
Phone:	011 30 210 6834783

[MESSIS]

Thank you very much for your infos... but I am allready ok, after you told me about the super gold, I did found it by amazon uk for £14/oz. Its ok and convinient. 

 

Conc. the address you gave me, its in Greece, but I am in Cyprus.

 

Thx again

Christos