Le Martegaou by Ben87 - Billing Boats - 1:80 - My first wooden model ship

[Ben87]

Hi Everyone,

 

as this is my very first build, please have patience with me if I do something wrong, and point it out such that I will not make that mistake again! As for the era of the ship, I bought this model because I liked the style of the ship, I loved sailing on a flat bottom ship before, so I have a preference. But the model kit does not tell me anything about the era in which it belongs. I did some research but could not find any information on it besided the model page written up by Billing Boats. The description tell me that these ships whre decomissioned when rail transport was introducted in france, therefor I chose this era to put the buildlog into.

 

After opening the box and reading the instructions (which isn't all that much or elaborate), I really wanted to get started.

 

 

Examaning the box content:

 

Everything seems to be present, looking at all the parts it looks doable for a beginner, so far I'm happy with my choice. The only thing that is annoying me a bit is the fact that you by a wooden scale model kit which has a lifeboat on its deck, but they provide you with a plastic injection mold replicate of that lifeboat... That one may have to go and might get replace with a home made version out of wood.

 

I wanted to make the build easy on myself so before I started putting anything together with glue I had to improvise a way to make sure the Keel and Bottomplate would be put together straight on a small scale (for normal woodworking I have special clamps for this). But some childhood goodies helped me out here. Lego is one of the few small things I have lying around that I am sure of that the angles on it are as close to 90 degrees and you can get.

 

The Keel requires (you cannot see this on the image) a small strip of wood at the bottom to make it complete. Clamping it all together firmly to allow the glue to set properly.

 

Lets let that set properly and continue onwards tomorrow!

 

If you have any tips and or tricks, let me know!

 

Kinds regards,

Ben

[clearway]

Interesting prototype- billings do make a decent kit which lend themselves to adding extra detail easier than some makers kits. 

Enjoy the build.

 

Keith

[Ben87]

Hi All,

 

today i ran into my first tiny problem. Which i can easily solve i guess.

 

I continued my build and I installed all the ribs and some support beams like this:

 

Af this was all installed and assumed to have been installed straight i continued onwards with installing the fake decks that will be hidden with deck planking. Which resulted in a state like this:

 

 

as you might see the small upper deck at the stern it is no completely straight. Apperantly the rib installed shifted a bit after installation. So I had to modify the false deck a little bit to make it fit. Now there is a small gap under the upper deck that looks wrong but I will need to fix this in a later state, I think this should be fixable (i can hide it) with the deckplanking that needs to be done, or am I wrong?

 

Soon i will need to do my first bigger bends in the wood to make the hull, I will try to use my hot air reflow machine for that.

 

Kinds regards,
Ben

[clearway]

you can always add packing pieces to fill/ alter any gaps- i always add the deck pieces after gluing the frames to make sure they stay lined up- it's a learning curve.

[bolin]

This looks like a nice kit and a good introduction to the joys of model ship building. Gaps and problems can always (well almost at least 😀) be hidden or fixed. Good start!

[Nirvana]

Ben, 

Warm welcome to MSW.... very nice start and recovery of the issue you ran into.

When it comes to Billings and their kits, the instructions may not be the best  - sometimes I think IKEAs' instructions are better....😁 

[mtdoramike]

I'm interested to see this boat finished. It's an interesting design. You picked a great design for a starter kit.

[RDDP]

How did the build go? Did you continue ? I'm a beginner about to embark on the same kit.  I'd like to know you weren't discouraged.

[HakeZou]

Hi Ben, I've just started building this kit, too. Now that I'm getting going, I can envision a lot of places that might be frustrating for a first-time builder. I hope that the very limited instructions didn't derail you too much and that you're either finished or still working! I'd love to see wherever you're at with it.

 

Best,

 

Hake