Le Coureur 1776 by captain_hook - CAF - Scale 1:48

[captain_hook]

I made a planking plan for the Le Coureur with Corel Draw. It is based on the same planking pattern I used for the area below the thick stuff (found in Mondfelds "Historic ship models). Just in case anyone is interested to plank the inner ship like I did in this extra time-consuming, complicated and expensive way .... then there is a PDF for download with my layout (V1.00) and a preview picture. I will use 4,5 mm x 1,2 mm cherry wood stripes for all planking above the thick stuff. To match the curves of bow and stern tapering and fishing is used. You will still have to measure up the distance from the thick stuff to the bottom of the deck clamps on every frame to determine the wide of each plank there. If you have questions feel free to ask. I will prove the layout and update the plan if necessary. 
 

 

 

I will start with planking the upper areas on weekend. Maybe I finish both areas first before I post more pictures so it might take some time until my next update. Stay tuned ..

 

Le Coureur Planking Plan.pdf

Edited October 13, 2022 by captain_hook

[Tobias]

Hello Anderas, great thing about the planking plan. Starting with the deck area, I built most of the parts based on the monograph and no longer used the parts included in the kit.

[captain_hook]

Thank you Tobias, that is a nice model you are building there. It seems like the kit is simplified in some ways to help even less experienced builders to get good results. I haven't previewed the next steps so I don't know if I have to substitute some parts or to modificative the design again. But I like the idea of building it more or less out of the box. If I was to build it from scratch I would have chosen very different kinds of wood ...

[captain_hook]

I made some progress but it takes a lot of time because every segment has to be tapered somehow to fit. And I changed the layout because the new one might prove easier to achieve. I will update the planking plan when I have finished this task. This cherry-strips are quite difficult to bring to shape and I use a head gun most of the time to edge-bend the planks where needed especially at the bow. BTW I have the impression that the cherry wood does not accept and stick to white wood-glue as well as other kind of wood. Here are some snapshots, I find it quite difficult to catch the planking on a photo ..

 

 

 

Stay tuned ..

 

 

[captain_hook]

Thank you for all the likes. I have finished the starboard side, used more or less the pattern shown on the plan in post #151 with only minor modifications. The port side will have a mirrored pattern layout but I have to wait until my fingers have recovered. It is a pity that most of the frame structure is now hidden behind the planking but you won‘t even see much of the planking later because it will be covered by the deck and cabin structures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Took some hours to get here but Pink Floyd did a fabulous job playing in the background the whole afternoon. The lunatic is in … well, stay tuned.

 

[yvesvidal]

17 hours ago, captain_hook said:

 It is a pity that most of the frame structure is now hidden behind the planking but you won‘t even see much of the planking later because it will be covered by the deck and cabin structures.

My sentiments exactly. Well, at least, you know it is there...... and that will be your satisfaction.

 

Yves

[captain_hook]

Yes, Yves - you‘re right. To help myself remember that there are actually frames hidden under the planking I‘ll leave a small area of the outer port planking off to show some frames and to enable a look inside the ship.

[Kevin]

another fantastic CAF build

 

[captain_hook]

Thank you Kevin. I‘ll try to keep it more CAF than.scratch .. 🙂

[yvesvidal]

6 minutes ago, captain_hook said:

Thank you Kevin. I‘ll try to keep it more CAF than.scratch .. 🙂

Overall, CAF kits are great and worth being more popular. You, Kevin and I, are pretty much the only active people building them, at this time.

 

Yves

[bruce d]

4 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

Overall, CAF kits are great and worth being more popular. You, Kevin and I, are pretty much the only active people building them, at this time.

 

Yves

That did it: I am resurrecting my CAF longboat build. It's small but it is CAF and I now realise how much I want to see it displayed on a shelf in a glass case.

[captain_hook]

15 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

Overall, CAF kits are great and worth being more popular. You, Kevin and I, are pretty much the only active people building them, at this time.

 

Yves

I can‘t speak for other CAF kits but find the Le Coureur rather difficult to build. Especially the instructions with a single picture and one-liner for large building steps made me have a hard time figuring out what to do next. I think at some point I got used to explicit manuals like ones from Model Shipways or Syren. Tom from CAF is surely a talented designer but he might spent more time writing clearer instructions and better manuals in the future. It is one thing to know how to do things but another to teach this to others .. Just my POV.

 

11 hours ago, bruce d said:

That did it: I am resurrecting my CAF longboat build. It's small but it is CAF and I now realise how much I want to see it displayed on a shelf in a glass case.

Yes, you should do this. For my own part, if I leave models undone on the shelf for a longer period I probably won‘t continue the build any more. Took me a lot of overcoming to continue the build after a one year break but now it is like I have never stopped the build. It might be the fading of knowledge, the „I can‘t remember how to do certain things any more“ that occurs after a longer break and prevents people from resuming their builds - but for me it took only a short time until I‘m into the build again. Good luck with your project.

Edited November 9, 2022 by captain_hook

[yvesvidal]

2 hours ago, captain_hook said:

I can‘t speak for other CAF kits but find the Le Coureur rather difficult to build. Especially the instructions with a single picture and one-liner for large building steps made me have a hard time figuring out what to do next. I think at some point I got used to explicit manuals like ones from Model Shipways or Syren. Tom from CAF is surely a talented designer but he might spent more time writing clearer instructions and better manuals in the future. It is one thing to know how to do things but another to teach this to others .. Just my POV.

 

I am going through the same challenges with my Bellona and have decided to no longer follow the suggested documentation. So far, so good.

 

Yves

[captain_hook]

Hm, I think I wouldn‘t be able to build a single step of that kit without instructions using only the plans. I hope I will get used to that colored-single-picture-oneliner-instructions while I continue the build. Anyway, here are two snapshots of my actual work in progess. The jig can be used to clamp the planking in place wile the glue cures. I hope to finish the inner planking step in the next two day - and lucky me next step will be more planking (the outside of the ship) ..

 

 

 

 

Music (background):  Pink Floyd - Atom Head Mother / Animals (don‘t know why I have spent hundreds of hours in a silent workshop before)

Stay tuned ..

 

 

Edited November 10, 2022 by captain_hook

[yvesvidal]

54 minutes ago, captain_hook said:

Music during work:  Pink Floyd - Animals (don‘t know why I have spent hundreds of hours in a silent workshop before)

Stay tuned ..

I work in silence, too. It is a form of meditation.

 

Yves

[captain_hook]

I have just finished the planking job. The port side has a mirrored starboard planking layout, turned out not bad - but after this build I won‘t use cherry wood again for ship-modeling. Here are some pictures ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still need more planking experience but every step I pass makes it a little easier. Just a little sanding where needed and then the Coureur is ready to be released from the jig to start the outside planking job. 
 

Stay tuned and a nice weekend ..

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by captain_hook

[captain_hook]

After completing the inner planking I can now move on to the next step which is removing the jig that has supported the ship during construction of the frames and the inner planking. Instead of the whole jig from now on the ship is supposed to sit on two plywood panels that are just put into pre-cut slots of the building board.

 

 

I initially fixed the side doors with wood-screws so they could easily be removed when necessary for example to check the fit of the frames during installation. Just some unscrewing needed ..

 

 

.. as well as on the other side.

 

 

The center section is glued together using one small plywood part on each side. Unfortunately it cannot be removed easily as it holds the construction tight inside the jig. So I had to lift the whole assembly up and cut twice into the plywood center section - and even then I had to use slight force to remove it completely. The last step was to put the new plywood support panels inside the building board and the ship onto it.

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by captain_hook

[captain_hook]

The next step will be planking the stern and then planking the outside. BTW when I started the hobby in 2015 I was more than glad I found MSW - such a tremendous source of information. I was a little scared of starting my own build-log because I had only learned a few German nautical terms as they were difficult for me to learn - and Google translation often doesn’t make sense if you look for special terms. But by reading buildlogs I meanwhile know more Englisch nautical terms than German ones (but if I use them in a wrong way please tell me). So hopefully I don’t have to say „I will next start planking this part and then start planking that part“ anymore. 
 

Anyway, this will be my first clinker-planked ship and I hope not to mess it up. The planking rows are divided into four segments each and all planks are precut.

 

 

Some precut-stripes have a weird shape (?) and the sheets differ in colour a little but overall they look fine at this point. Lots of laser-char removal ahead! The CAF instructions for this whole step are very .. short, just one picture.

 

 

And there is one of the plan-sheets showing the different parts numbers and planking joints.

 

But you have to look for each part in the manual first as the number is indicated only there ..  hours of playing look & find. Stay tuned ..

[captain_hook]

Before I continue the build (and might mess it up completely) I thought it would be a good thing to make some photos at this point as later only a few (partial) frames will be seen on the finished model. And I did the best I can to compensate the poor light-condition in my living room. Unfortunately I cannot skip the copyright mark anymore as I have seen photos of my completed AVS promoting Model Shipways kits on eBay and Amazon marketplace (these sellers simply use my pictures of a completely custom-build AVS for the standard model kit). Anyway I tried to catch the model from different angles ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will start with the next steps in the following week. Stay tuned ..

 

 

[Beckmann]

If I would be a seller on eBay, I would also take your photos!! 😏

The model looks perfekt. Well done!!

Matthias

[captain_hook]

Thank you Matthias, really appreciated!

[yvesvidal]

1 hour ago, captain_hook said:

 

You are spoiled !!! For the Bellona, there was no words, no explanations and barely a letter to indicate which wood to use. 

Because of the clinker planking, they gave you some additional information. 

CAF kits are great and the models very interesting. I wish they could have a James H. to do their documentation and instructions.

 

Yves

[captain_hook]

6 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

 

For the Bellona, there was no words, no explanations and barely a letter to indicate which wood to use. 

Because of the clinker planking, they gave you some additional information. 

Well, that sounds like a real challenge then. I promise to not complain about limited instructions again. 🙂 

[captain_hook]

I have just finished planking the stern. The kit supplies some lasercut-parts for that but these parts are about 6.5 mm wide (at 1/4 scale that would be over 31 cm) and they are therefore difficult to apply properly. And their length is just too small to allow any adjustments.

 

Instead of that I used the supplied 5mm cherry strips for planking as there are plenty of them available in the kit. I sanded the edges roughly to shape and will adjust the planking to final shape when I start doing the sides. Applied some WOP to protect the wood - at first I freezed for a second as the cherry wood has a very intense and shady colour. But the colour is already fading out as the WOP starts to dry - hopefully I will get used to that brown colour.
 

I understand that cherry trees are a cheap wood source often found in asian countries - and well suited for furniture and other stuff. But if CAF is ever collecting feedback for a V2.0 of the Coureur then my second loudest request (well the first is a better manual) would be using pear instead of cherry. It is just more suitable for POF, has great colour and surface, doesn‘t burn as much as cherry when lasered and sticks well to wood-glue. Vanguard Models as well as Master Korabel have shown great kits using pear as primary wood. But anyway ..

 

 

I will skip treenailing the cherry wood because bright treenails would look a little weird surrounded by dark wood (like an inverted photo). But maybe I will substitute the planking above the whale with boxwood stripes and show some treenailing there. I like the two colour-planking-setup (like seen on Alex’s HMS Sphinx). I haven‘t decided yet.

I will then have to check all the steps for the planking first and make some adjustments where necessary to enable a smooth planking run for each row. Then I will start the clinker-planking botton-up. Stay tuned ..

[captain_hook]

Ah, and I forgot to tell: It is far more easier to cut the hole for the rudder at this stage (before you plank the stern) than doing this as the manual suggests far more later. I did it using a drill and several needle files before planking the stern and reshaped the hole after I finished the planking. You can check the shape of the hole with a scrap wooden strip (4mm x 5,3mm) - if you can turn the strip inside the hole the shape is just right. 

[yvesvidal]

32 minutes ago, captain_hook said:

I understand that cherry trees are a cheap wood source often found in asian countries - and well suited for furniture and other stuff. But if CAF is ever collecting feedback for a V2.0 of the Coureur then my second loudest request (well the first is a better manual) would be using pear instead of cherry. It is just more suitable for POF, has great colour and surface, doesn‘t burn as much as cherry when lasered and sticks well to wood-glue. Vanguard Models as well as Master Korabel have shown great kits using pear as primary wood. But anyway ..

 

I would second your comments completely, as I have the same remarks with the Bellona kit. Fortunately, the hull is planked with limewood which is more suitable for this kind of purpose. I like the cherry tree for details, especially soaked with a liquid orange oil/olive oil/bees wax concoction that I find at Home Depot. 

 

Yves

[captain_hook]

I did some preparation prior to planking the sides, this will help me ensure that the precut-parts are not mixed up later. I first enlarged all the precut-planking parts list pages from the manual for better reading the numbers and orientation, then transferred all part numbers and a small arrow to indicate the directions to the bow onto the lasered parts with a pencil. 
 

 

 

Then I carefully released all the precut-planking parts out of the sheets and selected them by the corresponding planking row, usually 3 or 4 parts per row. - starting with an A at the bow to C or D at the stern. These parts will need some cleanup, removing of the laser char as well as some adjustment to fit the hull later. And I may substitute strips with  defects by parts made of scrap wood if necessary. As I have plenty of plastic bags laying around in my workshop I used them to group all parts of each row. 
 

 

I also scanned the plan showing the planking run on bow and stern with my computer, printed these areas on heavy paper, glued them temporarily onto the keel with some tape and transferred the planking run by pencil to indicate the width of each plank there.

 

 

After this preparation I‘m now ready to start planking with the first 2 rows No. 25 and 24 bottom-up on port side. I‘m a little scared ..
 

 

For me this will be the most difficult construction step as this will be my first clinker-planked ship, every part still needs to be brought to shape and there is little scrap wood for spare parts. I hope not to mess it up. Stay tuned .. 

[yvesvidal]

Tom from CAF Models, will send you replacement parts, if anything bad happens.

 

Yves

[captain_hook]

I have done some more small steps that have to be done before planking of the ship will start. I prepared all supplied planking strips and removed all the laser char with 120 grit sanding paper. I had to exchange four planking strips as well because of small defects in the cherry wood and used them as templates for new ones made of scrap wood. There are 25 planking rows on each side and the planking layout used on one side is mirrored on the other. That is a lot of work ahead and I hope to finish both sides before Christmas. 
 

And I closed the gaps between the inner and outer planking left and right of the frames that are still viewable with small pieces of scrap wood. On the real ship this may have been done to prevent things falling between the planking sheets. 
 

 

 

At last I sanded the stern planking to the final shape. 
 

 

I‘m still a little scared about the clinker-planking but will start with that major step the next days. Stay tuned ..

[Dfell]

Just come across your build - that’s some amazing work!!