Reale de France by Clark – FINISHED - Corel - Scale 1:64

[Clark]

I am going to join the club of modelers constructing or having constructed the ship. Frankly speaking, their construction and kit reports (gimo, Bender, fmodair, schiffebastler) urged me to order the kit. Mainly the very sophisticated report of Frank (fmodair) increased my wish to build the ship.

 I do not have the skills of the others mentioned. Thus this blog is mainly to those who rely on the material provided by Corel. Content of the kit is well described in construction reports of the club members.

Most of the material seems to be of good quality but I am already wondering how to amend the plywood pieces. As mentioned I will probably manly rely on the material provided by Corel. However I like to see the wood structure of the models implying that I will use color paint very rarely. We will see.

 It seems to me that although Corel put some efforts in the written instruction manual, there is still enough space for improving.

False keel is a triple one and made of six pieces which have to be glued overlapping to produce a keel three layers thick.

 

 

To keep the keel straight I fixed and clipped the parts of the keel flatly on a shell with a metal rail below the keel pieces. Since the lower line of the keel is deflecting, small wood wedges were put under the bow and stern side of the keel to get the distance from the metal rail (arrow).

 

 

 

 

 

The get the three overlaying pieces in the correct position, small wood stripes 4x4 mm were put into the spaces for the frames/bulkheads. After gluing the keel, frames were dry (!) fitted by filing the slots of the keel and filing the slots of the frames. Bottom side and deck side of the keel was treated with wood filler and sanded.

Frames, false deck, the pieces of the true keel and other supports were dry fitted. Some minor sanding had to be done for this.

 

 

Next step will be tapering the keel and adusting the frames.

[Gimo]

Looking forward to your progress.

Gimo

[Clark]

Thanks Gimo, where is your Reale now?

Clark

[Gimo]

La Reale is at my daughter's house now, the same exact of my last post.

Cheers
Gimo

[Bender]

Clark, it is good to see another Reale in the build logs. I look forward to your progress. That is a good idea how you used the wedge to keep the keel straight. 

[Clark]

Al, Thanks for visiting.

[fmodajr]

Clark,

Just found your log. 

I too look forward to following your build.

You're off to a great start!

good luck and more importantly, have fun!

Frank

[Clark]

Hi Frank,

fun is garanteed. I look forward to follow your progress. It is really an impressive ship, isnt i?

Clark

[Clark]

Keel is now roughly tapered. The first tapering seemed to be easier to me with no frames in the keel. Fine tuning will follow when frames are glued and sanded. 

Keel was mounted into a slipway made of wood blocks and right angle metal winkles for later adjusting the frames in the correct position. Frame and keel slots were slightly sanded in that the deck lines of the frames touched the outer lines of the triple frame with no difference in height. It came out that the frames delivered by corel are quite correct. Only minor sanding was necessary.

After gluing the frames, deck lines of the frames were again corrected/sanded. Deck line was controlled by attaching strips.  Hull side of the frames were roughly sanded after attaching strips and looking to their slope. In two frames, strips 0,5x5mm had to be glued on one side since they did not get in contact with the strip attached. These frames were sanded again. All in all it was a permanent interplay between controlling, measuring and sanding, everybody knows.

 

Filler blocks and wood filler are now added to the first two bow gaps and the last two gaps at the stern. Sanding and controlling the hull line at the bow and the stern again and again. I got the feeling that this sanding and filling procedure is easier without the deck and deck planking attached.

There is a good description of producing filler blocks in the forum (http://modelshipworldforum.com/ship-model-framing-and-planking-articles.php…). In contrast to the descriptions mentioned I dry measured size and shape of the filler blocks directly in the ship without making templates. I trust on eyeballing.

Ship is now put backwards due to Christmas. Some of children and grandchildren are coming and we are also visiting those living a bit far away.

[fmodajr]

Hi Clark,

 

I like the "slipway" stand you made! 

Happy Holidays to you!

Frank

 

[Clark]

8 hours ago, fmodajr said:

Hi Clark,

 

I like the "slipway" stand you made! 

Happy Holidays to you!

Frank

 

Thanks Frank,

I got the feeling that adjusting the keel in the vertical axis might be a bit difficult since it is not very high and thus may not have sufficient length to attach right angels. I noticed that you have constructed a very sophisticated apparatus ("overkill") probably due to the same thoughts. Hope you can enjoy the following days despite the tough year you had.

Clark

 

[Clark]

Deck is dry now fitted and glued. Filler blocks and frames were tapered again to follow the deck line.

Deck was planked using the tanganjika strips provided by Corel. Unfortunately, I did not remember the difficulties, I had before with that type of taganjika strips. They are very thin (0.45 mm) and sanding has to be done with great care. Caulking is simulated by black paper (0.25 mm thickness) strips glued between the wood strips (Ratio width caulking/ width plank~1:20). After cutting the paper strips, sanding was first done in the direction from bow to stern to avoid darkening of the wood by dust of the black paper. Next the slots in the decks were cut.

 

To cut the deck slots in regular intervals, a simple metal template with exactly 8.00 mm depth (=distance between the 1.5 mm slots, double arrow in the picture) was made. The metal was tightly clamped on the deck planking to avoid splintering of the wood when cutting the slots. As already said, the thin tanganjika wood is tricky.  Rectangular fit and congruency between starboard and port side was controlled by a rectangular metal.

 

Meanwhile I got a hint to a picture of the old Reale. The ship is described in the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert, an ancient voluminous Wikipedia. There is so called “planche” showing La Reale.

Link: https://www.e-rara.ch/zuz/content/pageview/7088914 .

Although this  might not really help in building the model it gives an impression how the ship was handled and flagged. I am still wondering how the war prisoners (oarsmen) were treated. Did they have to stay at the oars day and night?

[Clark]

I have started with the first hull planking. First strip of the first hull planking was tapered and glued. To fix the plank tightly to the deck line it was fixed using standard painter tape. I use painter tape very often to fix strips etc. since there are no residuals of glue when removing the tape. For keeping the strips tightly to each other, tape was used further on. For fixing the strips on the frames or on the filler, I made some small screw clamps out of 2 mm walnut wood. The screw clamps also helped to keep the bending at the stern.

 

[Clark]

First planking is ready. I have started with the second planking.

The walnut strips for the second planking provided by Corel are of very different color. Finally I decided to put them in an almost regular color pattern which does surely not reflect the original appearance.  

First strip of second planking was attached like the first strip of the first planking.

For calculating strip width of the second planking, I attached a help strip, distance from upper strip in the middle of the hull (frame 16 and 18) = width of 6 strips ~24 mm. Towards the bow the help strip was gently attached on the hull and fixed thereafter with painter tape and wood clamps. Distances between first strip and help strip were measured at the different frames by attaching and cutting small tanganjika wood strips. Measured distances were divided by 6 to get the correct width of one single strip.  For calculating the width I made a width calculator with ppt according to “Planking Fan for - Lining Off a Hull” by Chuck Passaro (see http://modelshipworldforum.com/ship-model-framing-and-planking-articles.php). There are excellent hints on the same link for cutting and applying planking strips.

 After gluing the first 6 strips on each side, the measuring was repeated again by attaching a help strip.

 

Bending of the walnut strips at the stern and the bow was done by soaking the strips in water for ~10 min and using a modelcraft electric plank bender thereafter.

 

 

 

The strips were dry fitted, tapered again and  glued. They were fixed by using painter tape and the screw clamps. I mainly used watered PVA (~10% H2O). PVA was filled into a syringe and applied via a cannula. This method left enough time to get the tape and clamps fixed with one strip tightly attached to another. CA was only applied at the bow and stern end of the strips.

[fmodajr]

Well done Clark!

I think all the effort you are putting in to the planking will be well worth it!

 

Frank

[Clark]

On 2/12/2020 at 2:25 PM, fmodajr said:

Well done Clark!

I think all the effort you are putting in to the planking will be well worth it!

 

Frank

Thanks Frank, I will not paint the hull since I a a fan of wood structure to be visible. Regarding your blog, I can imagine that lot of patience is needed.

Clark

[Clark]

Corona gave me some time to be spent with the ship. I proceeded in planking and reading some more literature about galleys.

Regarding the ship, before attaching the last strips, size, bending and position of a “garboard” strip was tested. (I do not know if a garboard was ever used in this type of ships). Finally I decided to use a walnut strip 10 min wide as “garboard”. This because the keel is deflecting ~5mm from the middle to the bow and also to the stern which means that about 5 mm of width get lost when keeping the garboard in a straight line. After slightly attaching the garboard strip with the screw clamps, the remaining gap between the last regular strip and the garboard strip was measured according to the method described above. Garbord strip was then completely watered for about 30 min and again fixed in place to get the bending at the stern and the bow. It dried overnight and kept the bending.

[Clark]

Second planking is now ready. Hull was roughly sanded. After first sanding I noticed a gap between the garboard strake and the regular planks. I probably forgot beveling of the garboard strake. Gap was filed with PVA and sanded over (the greater gap in the photo is the slot for the keel, was  widened, see below).

 

 

 

 

 

I proceeded in sanding and adapted the slots for the keel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Clark]

Not much progress in the meantime. But the kit and plans urges one to think not only about the next two steps.

Shortened nails were put into the keel for the (much) later fixation of the ship in the final supports.

Final supports were already dry fitted since this will probably much more difficult with all the stuff on the deck. Final supports provided by Corel were covered with walnut strips on all sides to hide the plywood character. However, I am not sure if I will really use the Corel supports at the end.

 

 

 

 

 

Final supports were also adjusted with the ship on them. For levelling in the longitudinal axis, the difference in height between the two support points was extrapolated from the Corel plan. Same points measured on the ship when put on the supports had only a small greater difference (~0.5 mm) than in the plan.  I did not correct it. Levelling in the vertical axis (starboard / portside) was a bit more tricky and done with the help of spirit levels and caliper.

 

 

 

Wood/foam supports were adapted for following mounting and fixation in the slipway.

 

 

[Clark]

Hull was covered with diluted mat clear varnish (Nelson). I have tested the varnish on several pieces of wood before. I was a bit shocked after the drying of the varnish. The hull is much too glossy. Have to think about.

 

[GrandpaPhil]

Are you planning on painting the hull?

[Clark]

2 hours ago, GrandpaPhil said:

Are you planning on painting the hull?

I like the wood structure to be visible. Thus I only want to seal the wood with varnish.

Im will probably sand the old varnish down.

Clark

[GrandpaPhil]

The blue and white with the gold fleur de lis was difficult to paint when I built the Heller version.  I am still going to try it when I build my replacement for it in a couple of years.

[Clark]

19 hours ago, GrandpaPhil said:

The blue and white with the gold fleur de lis was difficult to paint when I built the Heller version.  I am still going to try it when I build my replacement for it in a couple of years.

When starting the Reale, I shortly hesitated to paint it to get nearer to the orignal one. It is probably a never ending discussion if wood ships should be painted or not.  I am a fan of the wood structure, thus I will probalby stain only the plywood pieces.

[Clark]

Meanwhile I have tested other varnishes and oils on walnut pieces. Finally, I found one on acrylic basis and tried it on part of the hull sanded. In the photo below, the glossy varnish (Nelson) can be seen on one side and on the other side the acrylic one (water diluted/surrounded by painter tape) on the other side . I will put the ship aside and have another glance on it.

[Clark]

I decided to reseal the hull. I sanded it (grade 120, 180, 320) which took me about one week. It is really not the job I like.

 

After sanding, I sealed it with the water based diluted (~20% H2O) acrylic varnish.

 

 

Corel material of the supports for the middle gangway and thwarts is made of plywood.  The best way may be to replace them by normal wood. I relied on the ones provided by Corel. I stained them mahogany to cover the plywood character a bit.

 

 

Next step is building the hatch coamings.

[fmodajr]

Hi Clark,

 

You are making some nice progress.

Model looks terrific so far!

 

Frank

[Clark]

On 5/1/2020 at 1:30 PM, fmodajr said:

Hi Clark,

 

You are making some nice progress.

Model looks terrific so far!

 

Frank

Thanks a lot, Frank. Did you have the chance to get back to the bench? I am eager to read news of your progress. Your report is more than inspiring.

Clark

[fmodajr]

Thanks Clark!

 

Yes, I'm back at it with the model, finally!

I should be posting some photos in a week or so.

Thanks for asking.

 

Frank

[Clark]

When building the hatch coamings, I put the lids at a higher position than recommended in the Corel plans. Regarding the coamings for the anchor line, it should probably only protect the hole in the deck from water flooding in. Nevertheless, the rope would be damaged if pulled along the edges.  Thus I added a protection. The hatch coamings had to be tapered due to the sloping deck line in the line from the middle to the hull. It is necessary to keep the upper line of the hatch coamings horizontal since the footplates of the oarsmen will be attached later.

To put the coamings in place, ship had to fixed. Hull was protected with painter tape. Ship was put in the slipway, levelled again and fixed by balsa/foam supports. Since I was afraid that the long stem post might get broken (it is really a long and small hull), it was covered by balsa pieces.