French longboat by bruce d - CAF - 1/48

[bruce d]

This is a build log for the CAFMODEL longboat. Although I will dwell in detail on the features and instructions of the kit, it is not an official kit review as this is my first ever attempt at building a laser cut kit and it would clearly be wrong for my comments and observations to carry the weight of an experienced reviewer/builder. Having said that, the kit instructions show where parts go, not how to do it, and I believe anyone building this model will come across the same issues I encountered. Hence the level of detail in my log.

After an exchange of emails with Tom at CAFMODEL I purchased this and two other kits. I found Tom very approachable and helpful.

 

 

 

The kit: The CAFMODEL longboat (SB130 – 168) is a 1/48 scale French longboat based on Ancre sources. The subject is ostensibly a Louis XV era longboat but could equally represent a later craft. It is of laser cut cherry wood and plywood plus photoetched parts. There is also a piece of .8mm brass wire for some detail work.

 

EDIT: it also has a small fret of photo-etched brass. The quality is good.

 

 

The box contents are neatly packed. Instructions are graphic-style with a few notes (in English) and scale drawings.

 

 

 

2mm cherry, 1mm ply and .4mm cherry veneer make up the boat parts. The building cradle is 2mm ply. The laser cutting was precise and I found no areas where anything was over- or under-cut.

 

 

 

The first thing was to understand the parts and what is required.

This took me three cups of tea. Eventually I had a plan and, at least up to the time of writing, it has proved to be a good one. The critical process is the handling of the ribs and that will be explained when we come to them.

 

To state the obvious, the building cradle is absolutely vital. Before assembly, I tested the fit of the different pieces of wood used for the stem and the ribs in their slots. To play safe I opened up the slots in the top piece for the ribs with a few strokes of 120 grit sandpaper wrapped around an old steel ruler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I decided to screw the assembled cradle down to a block. This is not in the instructions but I anticipate this will help later. There are slots in the bottom piece of the cradle to hold the keel in place. When it is time to remove the keel assembly you push upwards through these slots to remove the skeleton. These slots will be covered so I drilled access holes in the bigger block before screwing the cradle down.

 

 

 

 

Once screwed to block and checked, we’re off.

Edited December 20, 2020 by bruce d

[bruce d]

The keel is pretty straight forward.  EDIT: SEE POST #10

 

 

The stern piece comes with planks engraved on one side so I scribed them on the other (inside) face as well.

 

 

 

 

The sub assembly that forms the boat’s stern is then assembled. The alignment of the two pieces is important and perhaps a couple of laser etched marks at the centre for reference would have helped. As it is it must be centred by eye and I had a couple of false starts. Once I used the method in the pictures it was painless.

 

 

 

 

I also used bookbinders glue for this because of it’s super-quick grab. The large metal block was useful to give a good visual ref and keep things from moving.

The stern sub assembly is then glued to the keel, again by eye. To keep things at 90 degrees while the glue cured I cobbled this fixture.

 

 

The result

 

 

I could not see any way of using the cradle to achieve this with any certainty because the join would have been hidden inside the cradle with no clear line of sight. I could have drilled an access hole but this contraption was pretty easy to make.

 

Keel sub-assembly to this stage.

 

 

Once satisfied, I set the keel assembly in the cradle.

 

 

It is held by friction and, fingers crossed, won’t come out again until the ribs are all fixed in place.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 20, 2021 by bruce d

[bruce d]

The ribs are well made but fiddly. The material is 1mm cherry plywood of good quality.

 

 

 

There are etched lines on one face of the first two ribs as an aid to fairing.

 

 

 

Rib number three also needs a small amount of fairing but marks are not needed. I suggest anyone who is considering building this kit should read the next bit carefully; this is where the ‘three-cups-of-tea plan’ kicks in.

Since the successful fairing of the first three ribs would be the trickiest part of the build, and the possibility of breaking any of the other 22 delicate ribs was equally intimidating, I was happy to see a way to [A] reduce the risk of breaking ribs and [B] repair any damaged ribs easily.

The trick only works if you do one rib at a time, start to finish, no exceptions. Even though the first two are the ones needing the most fairing, I followed the same process for them all and it paid off as you will see.

This is what I settled on: Leave all ribs on the fret and, starting with the first rib at the front end, cut away only the redundant piece of wood that fills the inside of the rib. Set aside the piece you just removed. See photo and leave the rest of the fret untouched. It is important to keep all the pieces of the frets which would normally be considered waste and thrown in the bin. They are used to make jigs to retain the correct shape of any broken ribs while glue dries.

 

 

Carefully hold the entire fret with the chosen rib still in place. You now have access to the inside of the rib to remove char while it is still attached to, and supported by, the main piece of the fret.

 

 

Once that inside char is removed you cut the tabs that hold the rib. Set aside the fret without doing anything more to it. If anything breaks (like mine did), return the rib to the perfectly shaped space on the fret you took it from and you can make repairs there (see example later in post). The fairing of the first ribs makes repairs highly likely. I needed to make repairs to ribs using this ‘jig’ method a total of three times and it worked each time.

To do any fairing or further removal of char on the rib requires supporting the piece. I placed the rib on the flat face of the steel parallel as shown in the photo and used only downward strokes with a sanding stick.

 

 

 

It was the only safe way I found for this task. All of my breaks came from bad handling while fitting, not fairing.

The results can be satisfying; right side of photo is faired, the left still to do.

 

 

And then it broke while I was handling it.

Emergency protocol initiated: a touch of Titebond glue on the fracture; place the rib back into it’s space in the fret; when satisfied that I had recreated the original shape, I allowed it to cure overnight.

 

 

It worked. This is the repaired rib.

 

 

Photos below: after rib # 1 was faired and glued in place, I removed the now redundant section of fret that had held it in order to gain access to rib # 2. I kept the pieces that had been cut away in case of problems later on. I do not know if the designer intended builders to use this process, or for that matter if everyone else knows a better way, but this is what worked for me.

 

 

 

Things moved quickly (hooray!) as soon as I was past the third rib since no more fairing was required. Bookbinders glue was used for attaching all ribs to the keel. It has a very quick grab but gave enough time for levelling as long as long as I didn’t dither.

 

 

 

I continued with the same method of cleaning the inside of the rib before removing it from the fret. Then cleaning the outer edge was mostly done by supporting the rib on my finger and rubbing 120 grit sandpaper along the length of the rib, never across the rib.

All ribs sat nicely in their slots in the keel, it was easy to level them up and the building cradle proved to be true and effective.

The interior will be finished in red. The safest way to colour the ribs without getting paint on the narrow edges where the planking will be glued was … don’t use paint!

Tests showed that a red water-based ink marker (Tombow ABT number 847) looks right on both the planking veneer and the rib ply. I left the option open of using acrylic paint on the inside of the planking after assembly and found a good match. I will decide later.

 

 

A word of caution, however: the plywood turned a bit ‘wooly’ when the water-based ink was first applied. After it dried the effect disappeared and the ply seemed as strong as before. I coloured the ribs with the minimum needed to get a uniform finish and left them to sit for a day.

Progress:

 

 

 

Then the ‘ouch’ moment. Perhaps I became complacent after my earlier success. Somehow I snagged the last rib (number 25, at the stern) after it was firmly in place and it snapped. A touch of IPA released the rib and it was repaired in the ‘fret-jig’ (there’s a new word).

 

 

 

It was then returned to the keel with no damage evident. Apparently the ply did not suffer any ill effects from the water-based ink.

 

 

Planking is next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by bruce d

[JeffT]

The ribs do look terrifyingly fragile 

[gjdale]

I’m very interested to see how this one comes together Bruce so I’ll pull up a seat and follow along. You seem to be making great progress so far, despite some minor setbacks along the way. Some neat solutions and advice for others too.

[cafmodel]

WOW

How beautiful the red ribs are

[shipman]

Congratulations, Bruce. Your descriptions and photographs couldn't be clearer. The step by step walk-through and methodical approach is appreciated. Following this thread like a Bloodhound.

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I’m pulling up a chair also, to watch the festivities! Looks great so far!

[yvesvidal]

Great project. I was thinking about getting this model, so it be very interesting to follow your progress.

 

Yves

[bruce d]

UPDATE - I snapped off the stem.

It became clear that I had missed something that might have been blinking obvious to a more experienced builder. I had assumed that after bending the pre-shaped wales and planks I would be able to get a good butt-joint where the individual hull planks meet the stem. Well, that didn't turn out well. 

I should have cut a rabbet, even a shallow one, into the stem. Fiddling around trying to improvise a clamp to hold the wale in the correct position edge-on to the stem nearly worked. The first attempt looked good but while removing the clamp the stem snapped just below the scarf.

I will take the opportunity to put a rabbet on the stem, now that it is available to hold, and figure out how I will re-attach it.

I have called a time-out before tackling this as I was no longer feeling the childish glee of anticipation when seeing the model. I will return, as Custer said at the Alamo, but for the moment this build is on hold.

Edited January 20, 2021 by bruce d

[EricWilliamMarshall]

1 minute ago, bruce d said:

I snapped off the stem

Yikes! I'm glad you are undaunted!!

[bruce d]

Thanks, I will gladly accept that compliment with a straight face. I want the boat finished, in a case and on one of my shelves: just a bit later than I planned. 

[Blue Ensign]

That looks a fine little model Bruce and makes my recent subjects look positively chunky by comparison.

The fineness of those ribs is something to behold but will add authenticity that simply adding internal strips to represent them can’t truly replicate, but at 1:64 scale real ribs would be the ultimate nightmare.

I look forward to your return to this build once you have garnered the necessary resolve.

 

Regards,

 

B.E.