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

[fmodajr]

Looks good Clark!

Glad the flexible wood worked out for you! Wish me luck! Lol!

Frank

[Clark]

14 minutes ago, fmodajr said:

Looks good Clark!

Glad the flexible wood worked out for you! Wish me luck! Lol!

Frank

It really took some efforts to get the bending. Your way may be better. Luck and patience.

Clark

[Clark]

The brass pieces provided for the rudder hinges did not resist bending and blackening at least the way I did. Thus I replaced them by card strips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stern part is now ready and I will proceed with the bow area.

[fmodajr]

13 hours ago, Clark said:

The brass pieces provided for the rudder hinges did not resist bending and blackening at least the way I did. Thus I replaced them by card strips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stern part is now ready and I will proceed with the bow area.

Hi Clark,

Yes, the sheet metal is real flimsy!

Do you have any photos of the upper part of the rudder assembly?

I will have to start working on that soon.

thanks,

Frank

[Clark]

6 hours ago, fmodajr said:

Hi Clark,

Yes, the sheet metal is real flimsy!

Do you have any photos of the upper part of the rudder assembly?

I will have to start working on that soon.

thanks,

Frank

Thanks, Frank, for accompanying me. Maybe I made the mistake that I left the brass pieces too long in the blackening solution. They broke immediately when I tried to adapt them finally to the rudder. They were preadapted before putting them in the blackening solution.

Although the upper hinge seemed to resist the blackening solution, I replaced it also by card strips to get a uniform appearance (photo below).

It may be better to paint the hinges with email paint and not to use blackening solution.

 

[fmodajr]

Thanks for the photo Clark!

Looks nice.

Strange that the rudder tiller seems to go into the Royal seating area. 

Did the king steer the boat?  Lol! Joking!

 

I'll try to be more careful with the sheet metal. thanks for bringing  the issue up .

Frank

[Clark]

21 hours ago, fmodajr said:

Thanks for the photo Clark!

Looks nice.

Strange that the rudder tiller seems to go into the Royal seating area. 

Did the king steer the boat?  Lol! Joking!

 

I'll try to be more careful with the sheet metal. thanks for bringing  the issue up .

Frank

I was also wondering about the handling of the rudder tiller. Not only because it stretches into the kings area but also because it is very short. I would assume that there is a huge horizontal energy with the waves wich would it make very difficult to handle such a short tiller. Maybe there were additional blocks and ropes used to enhance the leverage. Is there anything outlined in the plans of Fleur de Lis about the rudder?

Clark

[fmodajr]

Hi Clark,

Here is a photo of the Fleur De Lis rudder. It looks to be the same or similar as the Corel plan.

 

Frank

[Clark]

22 hours ago, fmodajr said:

Hi Clark,

Here is a photo of the Fleur De Lis rudder. It looks to be the same or similar as the Corel plan.

 

Frank

Thanks a lot. Maybe such a long narrow ship is easier to steer than a short one. Like an eight-man sculls.

Clark

[Clark]

Planking of the bow area follows a certain pattern. After tracing the plank outline onto wood strips,   planks were cut and glued onto paper. To simulate caulking, I used small strips of paper glued between the planks. Paper strips were cut when planks were glued.

 

 

Planks were then sanded and glued on deck as a whole block. Knees, edges and rails were glued after sanding and smoothing the contour.

 

Cathead material provided by Corel was slovenly prepared. Size differs (I noticed that after cutting the slots for the achor rope). At this point I was wondering if Corel really put enough effort to provide the wood material, since it is not the first time I noticed such an inaccuracy. Catheads were made new form walnut boards.

 

 

 

 

 

Cathead and metal enforcement were added. Unicorn ram at the head was “stabilized” by a conical support.

 

 

 

[fmodajr]

Clark,

Nice job on the difficult bow deck planking.

Yes, I agree. the Corel kit supplied catheads are horrible.

I made mine from scratch also!

Frank

 

[Clark]

Lily ornaments were glued on the hull. When finished, there were only 3 lilies left. Thus, the further ornaments must be made in another way. I am quite sure that I did not drop any of the ornaments. But I had to sort out about 10 of them since they were not fully casted.  

[fmodajr]

Hi Clark,

 

Thinking ahead a little, since you are ahead of me.

Do you think the real ship had all these ornaments on the hull? I am undecided as to whether adding them is overkill or not.

Let me know your thoughts.

Also, what glue did you use to attach them to the hull?

 

Thanks for the help,

Frank

 

[G. Delacroix]

Hello,

 

These "fleurs-de-lis" were painted directly on the hull, itself painted.

 

GD

[Clark]

9 hours ago, fmodajr said:

Hi Clark,

 

Thinking ahead a little, since you are ahead of me.

Do you think the real ship had all these ornaments on the hull? I am undecided as to whether adding them is overkill or not.

Let me know your thoughts.

Also, what glue did you use to attach them to the hull?

 

Thanks for the help,

Frank

 

 

Hi Frank,

it might be overkill but follows the picture below. Morever, I thought it would be a very nice contrast to the dark wood structure of the hull. I have shortly thought of blackening the ornaments but I finally painted them gold just to get the contrast. Gimo is surely right that they were painted directly on the hull but this is far beyond my skills.

I fixed them with a gel-type CA glue. Some of the ornaments were carfully sanded on the backside to get an even surfeace to attach the glue. There is not a lot of time to correct the position. I have used several wood strips, horizontal and vertical, to mark the position. Woodstrips were cut using the ship waterline shown in the corelplan.

 

 

[Clark]

6 hours ago, G. Delacroix said:

Hello,

 

These "fleurs-de-lis" were painted directly on the hull, itself painted.

 

GD

Gimo, thanks for the comments, but I am not talented enough to do that.

Clark

[Clark]

Next step was to arrange the thole pin of the oars. I hesitated if the pins had to be arranged on the bow or on the stern side of the oars, i.e. if the boat was pulled or pushed via the pins. They had to be arranged on the stern side of the oars meaning that the boat was pulled via the pins and  oarloops.  Gimo, thanks for providing the picture. To arrange the pins vertically, used the holder I had prepared for fixing the supports.

Railing stanchions were prepared out of two 2x2 mm wood strips according to Corel suggestions. To get the correct and uniform placement of the small piece on the longer one, I used a simple walnut strip with an opening cut.

 

 

To fix the stanchions on the deck, small pins were inserted. For arranging the stanchions vertically and horizontally I used the holder again.

 

Stanchions and pins of the port side are now placed and glued.

 

 

[fmodajr]

Hi Clark,

Nice job on the Thole Pins.

A couple of questions if you don't mind:

 

1. What height did you set the thole pins to?

 

2. As you know, the horizontal beam that the thole pin drills into has a long curve to it from the stern to the center. Did you place the thole Pins perpendicular to this beam or perpendicular to the water line?

Thanks for the assistance,

Frank

 

[Clark]

2 hours ago, fmodajr said:

Hi Clark,

Nice job on the Thole Pins.

A couple of questions if you don't mind:

 

1. What height did you set the thole pins to?

 

2. As you know, the horizontal beam that the thole pin drills into has a long curve to it from the stern to the center. Did you place the thole Pins perpendicular to this beam or perpendicular to the water line?

Thanks for the assistance,

Frank

 

Hi Frank,

height of the pins was adjusted to 5mm. Oars including protective boards at the that point are 5mm x 3 mm (width x height).  Oar supports were cut to 7 mm. This there is 2 mm space left in both direktions. Hope it works when oars will be fixed.

I placed the pins perpendicular to the waterline. To adjust the ship at the waterline, I took the distances from the corel plan showing that the stern yoke is 14 mm higher that the bow yoke. 14 mm is the number I reminder. I am not quite sure. To adjust the  pins perpendicularly I used the holder shown above (#77).

Since we will probably not be allowed to visit our children, living a bit far away, during Xmas due to Lockdown, I will probably spend more time with Reale.

Clark

 

 

[fmodajr]

thanks for the information Clark!

I will be working on the pins soon. Still working on the rudder assembly. (A real pain with the brittle parts)

Frank

[Clark]

On 12/15/2020 at 2:25 PM, fmodajr said:

thanks for the information Clark!

I will be working on the pins soon. Still working on the rudder assembly. (A real pain with the brittle parts)

Frank

Hi Frank,

meanwhile I removed the rudder assembly from the ship. I am afraid that it will be damaged while handling and turning the ship.

Clark

[Clark]

Swivel gun support were prepared and added.

[Clark]

According to the Corel plans, there should be a decoration plate at the stern similar to the one at the bow showing lily ornaments. Since I run out of the ornaments, I replaced the decoration plate by pillar rows.

 

 

[Clark]

Forecastle handrails were prepared and added. I put balls usually used for ball bearings on the top. Might be kitschy, but I thought there should be an end at the top.

Clark

[fmodajr]

Nice touch with the use of different woods.

You’re moving quickly!!

 

Frank

 

[Clark]

7 minutes ago, fmodajr said:

Nice touch with the use of different woods.

You’re moving quickly!!

 

Frank

 

Thanks Frank,

you are right. I spent a lot of time working on the ship during the last weeks. It relaxes me really. I am happy that  my 5 year old granddaughter stayed in your house  for some days and  even "helped" me in sanding, cutting and gluing. Im not so good in playing with dolls.

Hope to find some news from your ship soon.

Clark

[Clark]

Cooking box is now ready. I added some ash and wood remnants from our fireplace. Since I was also wondering how the soup may be distributed, I put a bucket rack aside. Furthermore, I could not imagine how soup and fire could be handled. Therfore,   I glued a walking plank on one side of the cooking box. A further question still bothers me: Are two pots with a diameter of ~60 cm really enough for ~500 hungry man working hard.

 

 

While the glued ash of the cooking box was drying, I started to think about the swivel guns and I have noticed that the supports I have already mounted were much to high for an adequate handling. Thus I started to dismount them and to shorten them. Fortunately, wood is very patient. Picture shows a support already shortened.

 

[Clark]

After mounting the swivel guns, I adapted the spars later necessary to support the stern drape (I still hesitate whether to put on the drape or not, it will cover a lot). The cross bar was made out of a tapered 3mm spar. I used my old   “lathe” made out of a drill machine on one side and a ball bearing on the other side. Opening of the ball bearing was minimized by a small spar.  It is not very sophisticated but I have used it very often before to taper masts and yards. It worked.  Tapered bar was glued on a carved support put on the arch construction.

 

[Clark]

I have installed the midway planks. Just behind the main mast, the lines of the haleyard of the main yard run through the planks. To place the holes in the midway planks correctly, I mounted a preliminary main mast and attached the lines of the haleyard to it. I also installed most of the lines later needed for handling the yards (tackles etc.). I thought it would be difficult to attach them when masts and shrouds are added. The lines were pulled through bee wax (to get a slight stiffness) and carefully flamed (to remove the “hairs”). Next step will be preparing the masts.

 

[Clark]

I have started preparing the foremast. As always this takes sone time. Progress is not immediately visible.

Upper end of the mast is quadratic. I used the table saw to get it in shape. After making it quadratic I bevelled the mast using the “lathe” described above. Lower end of the mast has to be shaped octogonal and bevelled. I glued a wooden trim on a base with 3° deviation to form a guide bar and adjusted it to a disc sander. To get the mast rotated by 45° and in agreement with the quadratic end, I fixed the quadratic end of the mast in a small vice.

 

Before adjusting the masts, I prepared all the lines of shrouds and back stays. I found it difficult to fix the toggles. Thus, I drilled holes with smaller diameter than the middle of the toggles to put ~1/3 of the toggles in it. Upper end of the toggles end was fixed by a trim. It made handling of the toggles much easier. All lines were pulled through bee wax. Racks were also added before gluing the masts in place at this stage.