Hermoine La Fayette by PeterB010 - Artesania Latina - Scale 1:89

[PeterB010]

Hi all,

 

About a month ago I received the construction kit for my second ship by post. I finished my first ship, the President Scale 1:60 Sergal kit, for about two months now and couldn't wait to start a new ship. After some searching I finally chose the frigate "L 'Hermione La Fayette". Although I would normally not choose to fully paint the hull,  in this case I think it has something. Due to my enthusiasm while building, I  forget to open a ship build log, but, better late than never!

What's in the box!

Unfortunately no 1: 1 drawing for the exact measurements

T

Everything is neatly packed

Sails

After checking the parts, it appears that a strip of 6x6 mm is missing, luckily there was still one left from my previous ship.

 

Music in the background, on your marks, let the build begin!  😄

 

 

 

[ccoyle]

Nice unboxing! The quality of the parts looks good, as does the laser cutting.

 

BTW, some of my ancestors were Dutch, from Harderwijk, Gelderland. They emigrated to some place called "Nieuw Amsterdam' in about 1650. 😉

[PeterB010]

Since I have been building for 4 weeks I will give a short impression until today, then I will try to keep the build log more up to date.

 

Dry fitting of al the part, no problems appeared

 

started to glue all the bulkheads in place.

Didn't had a smaller clamp but it's working fine

The parts at the stern.

At the bow

The stiffeners in place                                                                                                                                                      Dry fit of the gun deck after adjustments

Gun deck is planked and main deck  adjusted.

Finally started to fit the first planking

Forgot to make some pictures during planking. First eight strakes from the wale up to the bulwark on both sides, also the gun ports cut out.

Rubber bands to keep the stern castle in place while the glue dries

I just finished planking and found out that I forgot to take pictures again. The stem, false keel and stern post are fitted and glued in place.

 

Made some adjustments on the hull for placement of the ornaments under the quarter gallery .

Ornaments held in place with double-folded masking tape

 

 

So far the update,

 

Stay safe and well

 

Peter

 

 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by PeterB010
removing pictures

[PeterB010]

1 hour ago, ccoyle said:

Nice unboxing! The quality of the parts looks good, as does the laser cutting.

 

BTW, some of my ancestors were Dutch, from Harderwijk, Gelderland. They emigrated to some place called "Nieuw Amsterdam' in about 1650. 😉

Thank you Chris, in general I have nothing to complain about the quality of the kit. unfortunately the planking wood is of less quality. During planking, some planks broke without any reason.

 

BTW, Harderwijk isn't that far from here.

 

Stay safe and well

 

Peter

[PeterB010]

Hi all,

 

A small update on the construction of the Hermione. While measuring the gun ports I found out that I've been a bit too enthusiastic about cutting out the gun ports. I had to repair 2 gun ports on the port side.

Fortunately, you won't see anything here once the hull is painted.

After some sanding, the hull looks a lot better

On pictures of Hermione I saw that the first deck is supported by hanging knees, which looks a lot more realistic.

Decided to remove the bulk heads and replace them for hanging knee pieces.

With a half-wood L joint I can cut out the hanging knees properly.

Now that I've finished the template for the hanging knee I can do all the knee pieces at once.

After applying a layer of black primer and the first layer of red paint.

In the meantime, I applied a layer of filler to the hull and sanded it.

More filler and sanding

The sanding dust has yet to be removed but the hull is ready to be painted.

That's all for now.

 

Stay safe and well,

 

Peter

 

 

 

[Dutchman]

Hi, fellow countryman! I will follow your build with much interest, for I have this one on my shelf. But it will be a while though before I will start it. I have the Polotsk to finish and the Avos is on its way, which I will start on first, I think. Nice planking! I hope I will succeed in doing it right, because it is single planking I believe. The Polotsk and Avos have double planking, so one can easily cover up the mistakes of the first layer. I also have visited the Hermione in Rochefort (twice even). A great and beautiful ship! Sail on!

 

[Tom E]

Peter, 

The hull and knees look great.

Your planking is top notch.

I so wanted this kit in my "to do" stash. I've heard Artesania Latina is out of business, the kits have become scarce and expensive.

 

Tom E 

 

[PeterB010]

@ Tom E, thanks for your compliment.

 

@Dutchman, also thanks for your compliment.

 

But to be honest, I must confess that the planking of the hull wasn't without a struggle. (indeed single planking) If you follow Artesania Latina's instruction, which I did, you'll soon get into trouble. To be able to follow the strokes that already glued on the hull you have to bend the wood on a certain point into an unnatural shape. The amount of planking (134 pcs. 2x5x300 mm) for the hull is minimal and leaves no room for error. It is almost impossible to plank the entire hull with 2 planks in one stroke. (600 mm) To plank the hull in an acceptable way I threw away the Artesania instructions and continued according to the tutorials I found here on MSW.

I would like to thank the authors of these tutorials for the work they have put into this. 😀

 

Through the use of drop planks, stealers and a lot of tapering I managed to finish the hull. The fillers, sanding and paint will cover the rest of the mistakes i made as beginner.

 

Guess that i still have to learn a lot.  🙂

 

Peter

[PeterB010]

Hi all,

A small update

At second deck, the inside of the hull is planked now. The hull is coated with one layer of white paint, another layer of white paint and then I can apply the other colours. While drying I had the time to make and paint the guns and hatches for the second deck.

The liquid for blackening the guns and copper parts on the hatches has been ordered but not yet delivered. Though patience is not my strongest point, for the time being I can still manage.

 

The 3 mm. plywood crumbles during the assembly of the wheels on the axels of the guns. After treatment of the plywood with a filling liquid the problem was solved.

That’s all for now!

Regards from a sunny Netherlands,

Peter

[PeterB010]

Hi all, Time for an update on my progress,

 

Spend a lot of time to paint the hull

 

 

Painting remains tricky but fun to do

 

Regards Peter

 

 

[PeterB010]

Hi all,

 

Made some progression with the second deck.

 

I made a jig for gluing all the hanging knees at the same height and glued them to the inner hull. After this the hull could be painted red. Also the skirting boards are now in place.

Tuesday I received the chemicals for the blackening the iron and brass parts by mail.  I removed the casting seams from the guns with a file, degreased and blackened the cannons and brass parts and fitted them finally together on the gun carriage. Also the deck hatches are fitted with blackened brass rings and temporary dry-fit on the second deck.

Despite some small mistakes, I am very satisfied with the result. Fortunately, the mistakes are easy to correct.

Regards,

 

Peter

 

[PeterB010]

Hi all, welcome back to my build log,

It’s been more than a week since the last update, but I made some progression.

I made a jig to drill holes for the eye bolts that will be used for rigging the guns at the cannon deck.

Although from above there won't be much to see how the guns are rigged, I think the rigging according to Artesania's instructions is just a bit too simple. On the internet I found a picture of how the guns of the Hermione are rigged. For me the choice was quickly made, now I had to find the right materials to make the rigging from waste.

To bend eyebolts and hooks I used the core of a signal cable (0.8 mm). After bending the eye bolts and the hooks, I checked whether the proportions corresponded to the size of the guns. to my horror, I saw that I could start bending again. with a smaller inner diameter the hooks and eye bolt's looked a little better but still not in proportion.   

Meanwhile I have been bending for about 1.5 days for nothing. So I ordered eye bolts of 0.5 mm thick and 3 mm rigging block via the internet. Which will be delivered next Thursday.

I glued wooden strips to the inner side of the gun ports and prepared the hull for the final layer of paint.

I glued the aft main deck in place.

Near the bow and mid-ship I raised the railing

Planked the bulwark and cut out the gun ports.

The blue strake just needs to be coated with a final layer.

The bulwark is painted red.

On the second deck the deck hatches are glued in place.

At main deck the inner sides of the gun ports are painted red.

Cheers,

 

Peter

[PeterB010]

Hi all.

 

Still waiting for the materials to be delivered but in the meanwhile i have a minor update.

 

The bending of the eye bolts and eye-bolts with rings wasn't entirely for nothing! I've drilled the holes to attach the hooks and eye-bolts on the inner hull and the planking on the second deck.

 

On the upcoming photo of the Hermione you can see that the number of deck planks is the same everywhere and follows the contours of the hull. (Sb/Ps)  This means that the planks from mid-ships are tapered towards the stem and the stern. Again, I will deviate from Artesania's instructions.

 

 

Correct my if I'm wrong, but, by dividing the deck into strips, I will use the planking fan to determine the degree of tapering. I'm now working on a 1:1 drawing of the deck.

 

 

Until the ordered materials are delivered I can't rig the guns and have to wait before I can plank the deck.

 

Luckily I can still go ahead with making guns, (main deck) longboats, capstan, cap rails etc.

 

BTW, Thanks for the likes and views!

 

Cheers from the sunny Netherlands,

 

Peter

 

[PeterB010]

Hi all, back again for an update!

 

Installed the ornamental mouldings and cap rails

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After i received the materials for rigging the guns, i started by trial and error attempts to get the rigging in proportion. Which was very quit frustrating.

 

 

 

 

By cutting the ring off the hook and gluing it into a pre-drilled hole in the block, I finally got it so small that I could continue to rig the guns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rigging will be continued!

 

Regards, Peter

[PeterB010]

Hi all,

 

After hours of puzzling and preparation I managed to rig the cannons. On the starboard side I had some trouble keeping the rigging in place and I used a little too much CA-glue. On the port side everything went a lot better and I managed to make the rope coils without too much glue. Which indeed look a lot better than the ones on the starboard side.

 

 

The first deck can almost be glued in place, but first I have to make the ammo boxes and then I can finally start with the deck planking.

 

Regards Peter

 

[PeterB010]

Hi al,

 

I made the ammo boxes and painted them red.

 

 

For the chemical blackening of the cannonballs I used a tea filter too blacken all the bullets at the same time and not have to fish every bullet one by one out of the chemical liquid. (which would be a time consuming process) The advantage of this is that the liquid becomes less polluted by the corroded metal and the corrosion remains in the tea bag.

 

 

Time to align the false main deck and glue it in place.

 

 

The next step will be the curved deck planking.

 

Regards

 

Peter

 

 

[Sjors]

Hello Peter,

 

Or i can call you neighbor. 
You are doing a great job.

And you’re speed looks like a little Max Verstappen.

Question, the paint on the hull is that hand painted or airbrush?

I will follow you close!

 

Sjors

[Dutchman]

Ahoy, fellow countrymen and near neighbours (as I live a bit north of IJmuiden). Keep up the good work! I'm fully enjoying it!

[PeterB010]

Hello Sjors and Dutchman,

 

Neighbour sounds good to me🙃 and thanks for the compliments.

 

There'll be a lot of updates before I finish Hermione. And that day will come, that's for sure.. While following my progression, feel free to ask or give comments.

 

@ Sjors, The hull is hand painted. Paintbrush is something on my wish list.

 

BTW, the build slows down during Formula 1 week-ends 😁

 

Kind regards

 

Peter

[PeterB010]

Hi All,

 

It's time for an update.

 

As I said before, I would have the deck follow the contour of the hull. But after two attempts, I got to the point where I had to decide to continue or lay the deck straight out as instructed by AL. The aft deck didn't have the right curve and wasn't what I had in mind.

 

 

To prevent my stock from running out of wood, I carefully removed the curved deck, repaired the falls deck and laid the deck straight.

 

 

I trimmed the deck at the stem and had to raise the planks at the bow to fit the rail-cap.

 

 

Regards Peter

 

[Sjors]

I can call of the search party at the Kralingsebos??

You are back 😃and with a great result!

Painted by hand......i have to learn how to get it that way.

 

Sjors

 

[PeterB010]

Hi Sjors, thanks for the compliment.

 

I'm still here, but due to the heat wave of the past few weeks I lost my motivation to continue building on the Hermione Lafayette. You could say that I have had a close relationship with the fan during these days. 🥵

 

I recently got an air conditioner that makes the heat a lot more bearable.🥶

 

 

Peter

[PeterB010]

Moulded the baseboards for the first deck with a scarf joint. After applying a layer of Sapele wood stain, the scarf joints were hardly visible. (Pretty annoying and a waste of time)

Call it the learning curve of ship modelling 😁

The cap-rails (for the bow) that came with the kit  didn't fit, so I made them out of scrap.

 

Also moulded and trimmed the cover boards for side of the first deck.

 

After painting the ladder booms I found out that de ladder booms are not identical sawn.  (distance between the steps)   There's No way to fit them properly together.  I will build them out of Scrap wood.

 

Peter

[PeterB010]

Hi all,

 

Time for a little update:

 

As I mentioned before in my previous post, the ladder trees are completely unusable.

 

Placed the columns under the first deck.

 

 

Painted the pin rails

 

 

Don't know the name of the triangular pieces on either side of the gun ports at the bow.

 

 

I started to build the second group of guns.

 

 

The blackening liquid work amazingly fast.

 

 

No problems with the angle of the masts. the spar of the bowsprit is slightly bent.

 

 

Thanks for the views and likes

 

Peter

[Matt D]

Peter, your model is looking great!  Are you going to make your own ladder stringers?  Also, are those the cannons that came with the kit?  They look really nice.

[PeterB010]

Hi Matt,

 

Thanks for the nice words. Yes, I'm going to make the ladder stringers out of scrap. Yes, the cannons came with the kid. After I removed the casting seams with a Dremel, I polished the cannons and then blackened them with Ballistol.

 

 

Great stuff and easy to use. Within 3 to 5 minutes the guns are deeply black. 

 

Kind regards

 

Peter

[Matt D]

I had no idea you could use blackening solution on the white metal in kits like this.  I thought it only worked on brass.  I'm glad to know this for next time.

[PeterB010]

Hi Matt,

This liquid is often used in shooting sports, where one applies the liquid with a cotton ball to the barrel of (for example) an air rifle. The liquid colours the metal deep black again. You can also use it for messing and silver.

 For blackening coper i use Ballistol Nerofor. Same principle and result.

 

Regards

 

Peter

[PeterB010]

Hi all, and welcome,

 

Today it was time to assemble the guns when the Admiral asked me if the guns could be coated with a layer of varnish for a soft sheen. Instead I used the Dremel (felt disc and a brush) to remove the dull layer.

Although I liked the dull layer I have to admit that the result was great. There are many more details visible making the guns seem more authentic.

 

During the assembly of the first group of guns i had allot of problems glueing on the plates that locking the guns onto the gun carriage. The locking plates released again and again with a chip of  the paint because the glue (CA) had no contact surface with the wood. By drilling 4 small holes (0.3 mm) the glue could be applied with a needle and flow into the holes after which the closing plate could be applied with tweezers. Because of this I need to remove less excess glue afterwards and I'm got rid of the shiny spots.

 

 

What took me a lot of time and effort was now done in a short while and fun to do.

 

Thanks for the views and thumbs up!

 

Regards Peter

 

[PeterB010]

Hi all,

 

A tiny update:

 

I started to install the pin rials onto the bulwark's. From the start of the build i decided to replace the by AL kit included belaying pins, (brass or coper wire) which is looking cheap and crappy. During the assembly of the pin rails and fitting the belaying pins it appeared that the pin holes were too narrow. Because of this I had to drill the pin holes as well as adjusting the thickness of belaying pins.

 

Drilling the first pin rail wasn't a problem but from the second pin rail it wend wrong, Again it happened that the fragile plywood split in two. (This had nothing to do with too much pressure during drilling) The laser cuts are fine and detailed but the quality of the plywood is real crappy. I started to make them out of scrap.

 

I understand the concessions AL did to keep the Kit cheap and affordable but I don't understand the choice for a poor quality of wood. In addition, in some cases the building instructions are unclear and confusing, which can be frustrating for a novice builder with the chance that the boat never will be finished.

 

 

The only problem is that i have no drill press, which makes it difficult to drill the holes perfectly in line.

 

 

Will be continued....

 

Cheers from a sunny Netherlands

 

Peter