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

[CDW]

Are the session boxes purchased separately or are they subdivided that way in the whole kit? Quite nice the way it's broken up into sessions, reminds me of the way you worked on the 1:48 Corvette in modules. It makes a large project like this seem much more manageable.

Beautiful ship, and huge!

[yvesvidal]

On 12/3/2021 at 11:29 PM, CDW said:

Are the session boxes purchased separately or are they subdivided that way in the whole kit? Quite nice the way it's broken up into sessions, reminds me of the way you worked on the 1:48 Corvette in modules. It makes a large project like this seem much more manageable.

Beautiful ship, and huge!

 

Craig,

Each session is purchased separately.

Yves

Edited December 7, 2021 by yvesvidal

[yvesvidal]

The third quadrant has been completed: 

 

 

I know that a lot of experts will see my construction as blasphemy and heresy to what should be done. It is okay and I understand their point of view.

I did the best I could, knowing that this hull will be copper tiled and that most of the planking will be hidden. The most important for me was to embrace the shapes and curves of the hull and to make progress in a relatively decent amount of time.

 

The original planks are 8 mm x 3 mm of poplar/limewood strips. To accommodate the sharp curve of the bow in two dimensions/directions, I decided to slice each plank into two 4 mm x 3 mm strakes. It is a lot easier to handle and I built the planking from the whales up to the mid hull, like a stair with enough steps overlap. Once sanded, the hull is very round and still offers a decent level of sturdiness and solidity. A tiny amount of wood paste is necessary in some places to fill up some of the steps, so created.

 

 

From the keel down, the planking is placed directly against the bulkeads, until the strakes meet as pictured below: 

 

 

The overall results is rather nice (at least in my humble opinion) and replicates quite accurately the external curves of the ship. It is a lot of work as close to 40 small strakes had to be glued one after the other to create the bow: 

 

 

This is where I stand at this moment: 

 

 

I think I will be finishing the port side of the hull, before moving to the other side: 

 

 

Yves

[mtaylor]

Plating and paint can hide a lot of "sins".   Your hull is looking great for sanding, paint?, and coppering.

[Kevin]

very nice, a lot of hard work for a very big hull

[yvesvidal]

9 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Plating and paint can hide a lot of "sins".   Your hull is looking great for sanding, paint?, and coppering.

Thank you Mike. Yes, coppering and a second planking in visible parts, are in order. After all, I am also entitled to a second planking.... 🙂 like so many other kits.

 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

One side done: 

 

 

 

 

Now, I have to brush the resin on the inside and do some sanding to make it silky smooth: 

 

 

Yves

[Kevin]

oh very nice, well done

[CDW]

Using a finishing resin on the inside? Excuse my lack of knowledge about this type of model ship building. My experience with it is very limited.

Everything you've done so far looks excellent. Huge task of planking that big hull, almost done. You've got to be happy about that.

[yvesvidal]

The acrylic resin has been brushed on the inside of the port side: 

 

 

This seals the wood from external agents (humidity mostly) and increases the bonding strength of the wood glue. The resin is permeating the wood fibers and contributing to their resiliency against aging, hygroscopic and temperature changes. It is suggested by CAF and has been used with success by many modelers before.

 

Yves

[rvchima]

On 12/12/2021 at 10:48 PM, mtaylor said:

Plating and paint can hide a lot of "sins".   Your hull is looking great for sanding, paint?, and coppering.

A little caulk and a little paint

Make a carpenter what he ain't.

[allanyed]

 

I am pretty sure the Bellona 1760 did not have a coppered bottom when she was launched as coppering was not standard until the late 1770s.  Of course she could very well have been coppered later in life.  It comes down to what era in her life that you want to represent including appropriate boats, cannon types (Armstrong/Frederick versus Blomefield) and so on.    Same goes for having her name on the stern which some models show.  This would be appropriate only from about 1770 to 1780.  For your second planking, Chuck Passaro's write up is well worth studying for tapering and edge bending so you won't have to have the same  problems as on the first layer.

Allan

 

[yvesvidal]

Thank you Allan.

 

Yes, Bellona was coppered later on during its active life on the oceans and I intend to do that on the model as well.

You are also correct about the armament that was modified later on and to be totally correct, the guns on the quarter decks would have to be replaced by carronades, which are not included in the kit.

 

There are risks that this model will never be exact, in one form or another. I think I can live with that :-)

 

Yves

[allanyed]

Yves

I THINK the most important thing about our own models is that we enjoy the entire process right up to and including end result which could include the research as well as the building for some.   The learning process is never ending as I have learned here at MSW.   Hardly  a day goes by that there is not something new in "how to" or history, or off topic fun here.

Allan

[CiscoH]

apologies if i missed it.  what brand of acrylic resin are you using?

[tomganc]

Great build so far. I understand difficulty of planking the hull this big. It was a massive job when I did mine but the end effect is best reward...

 

Regards

Tom

[yvesvidal]

A few progress, despite a lot of time off during the Holidays. The fourth quadrant has been completed:

 

 

Now, I just have to connect the quadrants and fill up the holes.

 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

Planking of the hull is now over. Phew !!! That was a major task !

 

 

An enormous amount of sanding needs to take place but that will be for later.

 

Let's take a look at the instructions from CAF Model: 

 

 

The above steps have all be completed, although in a different order:

- Step 5

- Step 6 verification.

- Step 4 (minus part 24 which will be glued much later on).

- Step 9 (wales)

- Step 3 (planking of the hull)

 

 Hull has been planked and coated internally, with epoxy resin. The stern has been built (it was actually built before the planking) and the Part #25 has been glued. On the other hand, I am not placing part #24 yet, as it includes eight windows and would be automatically broken at this stage (not sure why the instructions only shows 6 windows...go figure....).

 

 

To coat the inside of the hull and protect the wood in the long term, I use an epoxy resin: easy to mix, odorless and fluid enough to be brushed inside the hull: 

 

 

 

 

Planking the hull was done in a very conservative way and I would recommend this approach. The wood strips provided in the kit are not of great quality. Quite a few strips did split, providing me with two nice triangular shapes, that can come handy occasionally. Technically, the planking would require a set of 25 planks from keel to wales and three sets of planks per side (Bow, stern and side), or the equivalent of 75 planks. CAF model provides exactly 150 strips of 3x8 mm wood. Some of the planks (a small number fortunately) were 10 mm wide, some were made of a very soft wood, some made of very hard poplar or white wood. Basically a lot of disparities in the strips.

 

 

Because of that, I went with a very conservative route and tried to use as much as possible the left overs and cuts. I managed to plank the entire hull with exactly 103 strips and have 47 left of various qualities.

 

 

The next set of instructions calls for the following: 

 

 

Although I have glued the rear decks, I disagree with the approach of gluing all decks at this stage and prefer to wait until the hull is completely done. After a thorough sanding of the hull, the flotation line should be marked and coppering (tiling - A) as well as a light second planking (0.4 mm thick) in the visible wood sections, should be made.

 

Step #9 has been done in part, as the wales (B) were glued before the start of the planking. Upper hull and channels (C) will come later (see below): 

 

 

I am going to take a break on this hull, in order to try to finish the 3D printed Corvette that I have neglected for a few months. In the meantime a few pictures of where we stand: 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you are enjoying this massive build log.

 

Yves

 

 

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by yvesvidal

[James H]

Looking real nice, and those hull side curves really are something. 😎

[yvesvidal]

3 hours ago, James H said:

Looking real nice, and those hull side curves really are something. 😎

Ah James, you like them broad and curvy.... 

 

Yves

[BobG]

Wonderful work, Yves!

[Kevin]

that is so very nice, well done

 

[Kusawa2000]

On 12/6/2021 at 12:59 PM, yvesvidal said:

 

Craig,

Each session is purchased separately.

Yves

Craig: You can also buy the sessions all together (which a friend of mine just did) or in batches (session 1,2 session 3,4 and then session 5) or separately. The shipping is cheaper if you buy all of the sessions at once. 

 

[Kevin]

On 12/4/2021 at 4:29 AM, CDW said:

Are the session boxes purchased separately or are they subdivided that way in the whole kit? Quite nice the way it's broken up into sessions, reminds me of the way you worked on the 1:48 Corvette in modules. It makes a large project like this seem much more manageable.

Beautiful ship, and huge!

The link to CAF is on the home page

 

HMS Bellona,HMS Bellona (cafmodel.com)

[rvchima]

Yves,

I just watched the Wellington Trust video presentation on models in the collection of the Royal Maritime Museum by Curator Simon Stephens. He showed two photos of their magnificent model of the Bellona. They might serve as an inspiration, or might make you want to give up. They have been posting previous lectures here:

 

https://www.thewellingtontrust.org/whats-on/events-past-lectures-and-exhibitions/

 

Today's lecture was recorded and should be up soon.

[yvesvidal]

After finishing the 3D printed Corvette, it is now time to get back to the Bellona and breathe some wood dust, again.

 

The hull has been carefully sanded and wiped with Wipe-on-Poly, the preferred wood treatment around this forum: 

 

 

I have also brushed an nth coat of black acrylic paint (Model Shipways) on the wales. I am sure there will be more touch-ups to be done, by the time the hull is finished.

 

 

The hull is now ready for marking the waterline.

 

Yves 

[yvesvidal]

The delicate and crucial phase of marking the waterline is done, after careful measurements on the plan and according to pictures: 

 

 

I am using the little Model Shipways kit, which works relatively well, as long as you use a flat surface all around the ship.

 

The hull will be copper tiled under the flotation line and double-planked over it. Following some exquisite models found in Museums and Art galleries, I have decided to glue a tiny separation all over the flotation line. This is done with a 1 x 2 mm mahogany wood strip, carefully glued with CA glue. The strip is flexible enough to marry perfectly the curves of the hull. This approach is not described in the CAF kit nor are the mahogany wood strips provided.

 

 

 

With that nice separation in place, I can now move to the upper parts second planking, using the 0.4 mm x 8 mm maple strips, provided abundantly in the kit.

 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

Another steps that I am adding and which is not described in the CAF kit, is the building of the gun ports, on the stern.

 

 

You need to place these before attempting to double plank the stern. The planks will butt against the lower frame of the gun ports. The gun port lids are only provided in Session #5 and for those who do not have this Session yet, you should build gun ports of 18 x 18 mm for the lids to fit exactly.

 

It is also not possible to open these rear gun ports, as Bulkhead #18 is right behind them. They will be represented closed on the model.

 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

And thus, we are starting the delicate (for me) double planking task. I am doing one quadrant at a time and started by the easier (relatively speaking) bow. 

 

Before: 

 

 

And after: 

 

 

 

This is not perfect and will probably ruffle the feathers of the experts, but it does look good to me after a nice coat of Wipe-On-Poly on top.

 

Yves

[BobG]

Excellent work, Yves! I'm really enjoying following your build.