HMS Bellona by yvesvidal - FINISHED - CAF Model - 1:48

[yvesvidal]

Installation of the skid beams and steps to climb aboard: 

 

 

 

The skid beams are used to protect the hull when loading and unloading the various boats. The two close beams can serve to guide barrels and other large bags, being loaded on the ship.

 

 

Installation of these beams was a little bit nerve wracking as I did not want to damage the rails and the freezes. 

 

After the beams, come the steps: 

 

 

These are made with 2 x 3 mm strips, carved in the correct shape of steps. Steps are 14 mm long and separated by about 1.5 mm.

The kit instructions calls for strips of 3 x 3 mm. I found that it would be too thick and not provide enough gaps between the steps. I think that the 2 (thickness)  x 3 (width) mm steps look more realistic.

 

 

It is very steep and some hand ropes seem necessary, to hold while climbing: 

 

 

 

Below is pretty much the view that you would have, disembarking from the ship. It is like going down a slippery ladder.... 

 

 

Now, I just have to redo the same on the other side....

 

 

Yves

Edited July 7, 2023 by yvesvidal

[Kevin]

im not sure what would be worse,, fixed steps with ropes, or full rope ladders, in a heave swell they would all have been treacherous to use

you have made a real nice job of fitting them

[yvesvidal]

A few more information to describe the way the skid beams are built: 

 

 

After placing carefully the beams, six holes are drilled in it. Then these holes are reported on the hull and drilled with 0.8 mm bit. Note the careful carving of the rails with a Dremel equipped with a disk.

 

 

The beam is finely sanded and its external surface is rounded. It is then "oiled" with Howard Feed and Wax, revealing the beautiful color of the sherry wood.

 

 

It is then glued (CA 7-10 seconds) and then pinned into place. The pins are cut and hammered down in the hull. At the end, a dab of Black Cannon acrylic paint achieves to give them the "old" look.

 

 

The steps are then installed: 

 

 

Et voila, both sides have been completed:

 

 

I need to find a way to keep these ropes straight and dangling....

 

Yves

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by yvesvidal

[AON]

Might I suggest...

If you dilute white PVA glue in water (50/50) and brush this on the rope it will dry in the shape you set it.

Don't use CA glue as eventually the rope would become brittle and fall apart.

Alan

Edited July 8, 2023 by AON

[yvesvidal]

Alan,

 

that worked perfectly. Thank you for the trick!

 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

I started the tedious phase of building and installing the gun port lids. One quarter of the vessel, at a time....

 

 

 

 

 

CAF Models provides enough PE parts to make them movable and fully hinged. On my model, I have simplified the articulations and glued the lids into the ports. Just a couple of dozens to go.....

Yves 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by yvesvidal

[yvesvidal]

Progress on the gun port lids: Second quarter of the vessel, completed !!! I am starting to develop a technique to go a little bit faster and install these in an easier way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This side is now completely finished, as far as gun port lids go.... Still plenty of things to do....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall view of the beast...

 

 

I will be travelling to Europe for an extended period of time and thus, it may be a while before the next update.

 

Yves

[AON]

Please, if you can, explain your developed technique to install the gunports quicker.

[DocRob]

Fantastic work Yves, I stumbled into your build log by accident and now I have to read 15 pages, thank you for that . Your work with the Bellona is absolutely perfect, one thing caught my eye immediately was the beautiful patinaed copper bottom. 

 

Cheers Rob

[yvesvidal]

1 hour ago, AON said:

Please, if you can, explain your developed technique to install the gunports quicker.

Allan, nothing revolutionary here... Just assembly lines, a la Henry Ford. I will give more details and pictures once I get to the other side.

 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

Back at working on the gun port lids. Here is my method to make it less annoying and time consuming: 

 

 

Paint the inside of all lids. Three coats of red are usually good to cover the wood. I then proceed with sub-assemblies, for instance all four lids used on the main deck. These are kept in the right order and I mark the lines of the planking, so that the lids when closed are following the hull planking. 

 

 

Planking of the lids takes place, followed by some sanding and verification that everything inserts correctly in the ports.

 

 

Then, painting of the outside is done: 

 

 

The edges are painted in red, carefully: 

 

 

All the hardware is prepared after a soaking in a chemical solution, cold water rinsing and drying: 

 

 

The hinges are then positioned, according to the holes in the hull. That is a delicate part that must be done carefully for a good alignment of the ropes.

 

 

 

The ropes used to lift the lids are then attached: 

 

 

And the lids glued to the hull, in their respective ports: 

 

 

 

14 more lids to go....

 

Yves

 

Edited August 28, 2023 by yvesvidal

[John Ruy]

18 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

14 more lids to go..

The detail just never ends. Incredible work Yves. 🍻

[yvesvidal]

2 hours ago, John Ruy said:

The detail just never ends. Incredible work Yves. 🍻

Thank you John.

 

Yves

[Kevin]

lovely work my friend

[yvesvidal]

5 hours ago, Kevin said:

lovely work my friend

Thank you Kevin. I hope that once you are finished with your Indefatigable, you will resume your CAF Enterprise build. It helps to work in larger scale....

 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

A very brief update: things are still progressing, albeit slower than expected, due to the Snowplow I am building in parallel.

 

Seven additional gunport lids have been placed: 

 

 

Seven more to go towards the bow of the ship and that tedious and repetitive task will be over.

 

I have a question for the experts: regarding the color of the three lamps attached to the stern, on a period ship. Were these lamps made of metal, wood or a mixture of both? What was the usual way of painting them on a large ship of the 18th Century and on the Bellona in particular?

 

Yves

[Blue Ensign]

Looking magnificent Yves, I do like the frieze work on the topsides👍

 

B.E.

[Kevin]

brilliant, whats this snowplough project?

[yvesvidal]

3 minutes ago, Kevin said:

brilliant, whats this snowplough project?

It is not much Kevin. Details are here: 

 

Yves

[ASAT]

Absolutely wonderful Yves! Such a huge undertaking and you are doing it such justice! What is the plan for displaying it? Do you have a special area for it and are you planning on a case for her? 

[yvesvidal]

Finally done with the gunport lids.... All lined up and ready.

 

 

And in place....

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a view from the galleries.....

 

 

Next are the anchors, lamps, chimney and a few details.

 

Yves

[hamilton]

Truly impressive!

hamilton

[Nearshore]

Amazing craftsmanship!!!

 

Nearshore

[yvesvidal]

A few progress, although very slow: the anchors.....

 

 

This set of anchors ia new set that was sent to me by Tom (from Caf Model). This set is slightly larger than the one provided with the original kit. Their size matches very closely what is offered in the Anatomy of the Ship book.

 

 

I am using small piece of left over PE, to build the iron bands (hoops) used to secure the two halves of the stock. The sherry wood stock is treated with my usual orange/olive oil and the hoops are chemically darkened and then painted. The anchor is also chemically blackened and later on painted using Model Shipways gun black acrylic paint.

 

 

One down, one to go....

 

 

 

These anchors are massive and will take some thinking to attach them to the bow.

 

Yves

 

 

[John Ruy]

Yves,

Wow! Excellent detail on the iron bands. The details just keep coming on this build. 
 

John

[yvesvidal]

Both anchors have been assembled:

 

 

Next, is the insertion on the model.

 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

I realized that I have not posted any updates for quite a while. Life got in the way, new responsibilities at work (less time to tinker with models), a new Pinball machine being restored and many other things.

 

I am still debating how to place these massive anchors on the bow and side of the hull. Therefore, I turned my interest to the stern and started building the lamps. CAF Models provides in the Session #5 of the kit, three pre-etched windows and some brass moldings of the top and bottom of the lamps:

 

 

These lamps are a little bit crude and do not have some details such as the glasses, door and the candlewick. So, I decided to also acquire the Syren lamp kit in 1/48th scale. This kit is a lot more complex, complete and is really a small project in itself (not really surprising from Chuck, is it?): 

 

 

When comparing both kits, one can see some major differences. The only drawback I have with the Syren kit is that the lamps are a little bit short in height, whereas the CAF Model lamps may be a little too tall and reminiscent of these romantic Spanish galleons we see in Pirates Movies: 

 

 

After a lot of deliberations and considerations, I have decided to build my lamps, using the Syren Kit for the main body and the CAF model parts for the top. It creates a good tradeoff between the short Syren lamp and the tall CAF lamp.

 

Below is one picture showing the differences between the two kits:

 

 

One Syren lamp partially assembled:

 

 

And in place on the stern:

 

 

Still a lot of work to make them look decent.

 

Yves

Edited January 26 by yvesvidal

[Javelin]

although I had seen your log before, I hadn't found the time to read al 15 pages of it. I did that now...

 

What a great journey you made. Fantastic result so far. I'll remember:  

- copper tape, fantastic

- CAF instructions (which ones?), not so fantastic

- it comes in 5 sessions (seems like people asked a 100 times) and quality-wise it's pretty good

- she's huge

- you made a fantastic model of it (but I said that before) 

 

[yvesvidal]

Thank you Javelin for your compliments and nice summary of my epic.

 

Central lamp installed:

 

 

You can barely distinguish inside, the wax and burnt candlewick.

 

 

Two more to go....

 

Yves

 

[Kevin]

Just catching up, just love this build log