Le Pourquoi-Pas? 1907 by Greg Davis - FINISHED - Constructo - 1:80 Scale - i.e., Why Not?

[Greg Davis]

Not too long ago, I was fortunate to be able to retire after serving 35 academic years in various roles from mathematics professor to vice-chancellor of academic affairs of the University. It now seems that what my colleagues are missing most is the model ship I kept in my office! I've also been alerted a few times as to where a ship could reside in one of the Dean's suites. So I took a look through my ship kit inventory and found a model of the French research ship Le Pourquoi-Pas? (French for Why Not?). The ship made multiple scientific based trips to the Artic and Antarctic portions of the world. It seems to be a good choice for the College of Science, Engineering, and Technology that I had been part of.

 

The kit was made by Constructo. I am not sure, but it seems that it may no longer be in production. Like essentially all Constructo kits the finished product has the potential to be a very nice looking display model if you don't get too close! I believe for the purpose of general display, but not for intimate inspection the result will be more than satisfactory for display and a talking piece in the College. 

 

I began work a week ago and the first steps have been completed:

The bulkheads and false keel structure are die-cut in 4mm plywood. The die cutting was great - all pieces had the correct shape and were easily pressed out of the sheet they where in. The bulkheads fit in the keel slots without adjustment. The bulkheads where squared up with the keel and attached with yellow carpenter glue. Small lengths of square wood where added to provide additional support at the joints. 

 

At this point six pieces of wood were added that will eventually have masts fitted into them.

 

Wood is supplied for the stem and stern areas. The wedges of wood for the stem region did not fill out to the full width of the first bulkhead so additional material was added here. 

 

The top of the bulkheads, mast blocks, and filler wood where contoured together before adding the false deck pieces.

 

The false deck is 2mm plywood. Here the die cutting was not as well done - the contour of the deck pieces were clearly cut; however, the cuts did not make it even half-way through the plywood. So simply pressing these pieces out was not possible.  I used a scroll saw to cut the pieces out in a short period of time. 

 

The instructions suggest gluing and nailing the deck pieces to the bulkheads. I didn't want the nails to interfere with the final deck instillation, nor did I feel like removing them and/or grinding off their heads later. Instead I went with glue and a lot of clamps and rubber bands to keep all in order during the setting up and drying process.

 

The last bit of work that I have now completed is the shaping of the stem and stern fillers.

 

 

Presently, I am deciding whether or not to add in additional filler pieces to help keep the correct hull shape during the planking process. 

 

[Greg Davis]

I've added a few more filler pieces than were supplied and am continuing to prep the bulkheads / filler pieces for planking. 

 

I have also been adding the deck planking. Currently 4 of the 5 deck segments have been planked, with the 5th in progress.

 

 

I've also done some of the preliminary smoothing of the deck.  

 

The deck planking material is very thin - 0.5 mm and my first choice of adhesive, a standard water based wood glue caused the strips to cup severely. I then changed to using medium CA and the results were fine. I also decided to use lengths of planking strips that match each of the deck lengths. I want to minimize the number of joints seen by a viewer's eyes as the planking material is quite wide at 5mm. At the 1:80 scale of the model would represent planks nearly 16 in wide on the actual ship - too wide for the time period!

 

 

[Greg Davis]

The deck planking is done and has been given a light coat of varnish.

 

Hull planking is up next.

[Greg Davis]

Topside planking is complete now. 

 

It went well with the exception that one of the strips provided for the process was not useable - it had been torn up in the milling process. Unfortunately, there were no extra strips of the type needed provided and I had none of the needed dimensions either. The planking is 2mm thick - I ended up laminating two pieces of 1.5mm material together and then reducing the thickness back to 2mm. It turned out fine, but it would have been nice not to have taken the detour.

 

Time to get out the rest of the hull planking material and really hoping there is enough to do the job!

[Greg Davis]

Approximately half of the port planking is completed.

The planks crossing the center plane of the ship will need to be cut in order to receive the corresponding starboard planks. Then the lower half followed with a lot of sanding - hopefully outside if the weather holds longer than it takes me to do the planking. The darker wood used for the hull planking is sapele and I've read that inhaling sapele dust, like mahogany dust, can have some ill effects. Earlier this year experienced how sanding mahogany without a mask / enough ventilation can lead to nose bleeds. I'm now trying my best to do hull sanding with these types of wood outdoors. I'm pretty sure I've still got 4 - 6 weeks where I can spend time sanding outdoors before it gets too cold here!

[clearway]

I managed to get hold of the Heller  Plastic 1/100 kit off a well known auction site, which should come this week hopefully- you are correct it looks like the constructo kit is now discontinued by look of things, along with the heller , billings 1/75 and zvezda (think this was just the heller one though). Plan on replacing the plastic masts and sails though on mine. 

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

Keith -

 

I hope that you share your work on the Heller kit, I for one would be interested in seeing what it looks like and how it goes together.

 

Greg

[Greg Davis]

Over the past couple of weeks, I have completed planking the top half of the starboard side to match what had been shown for the port side. I am now working the rest of the way down the port side before returning to the starboard side. 

 

 

The work is going well and you can see that I have chosen to plank over the opening for the screw / propeller at this time. The provided instruction suggest stopping the planks at the start of the opening and then adding short planks at the end. I hope that I can get a smoother hull contour by not having the planking break. So after all the hull smoothing is completed, then I will open the space again.

[clearway]

5 hours ago, Greg Davis said:

Keith -

 

I hope that you share your work on the Heller kit, I for one would be interested in seeing what it looks like and how it goes together.

 

Greg

coming along nicely Greg- i have started the Heller kit but will start a build log (oh lord already have several builds ongoing in various logs)!

Problem with the heller kit is the black plastic which doesn't help with aging eyesight🤪.

I have just receieved walnut dowelling for the masts and spars along with 2 and 3mm deadeyes and blocks- oh my they are small!

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

sounds good!

[Greg Davis]

Going back to an earlier comment about the availability of this model; I was looking at Ages of Sail website today and notices that they advertise that the this Constructo model of Le Pourqui-Pas? is available / in stock and are selling it for $279.99.

[Greg Davis]

I've finished planking the port side of the ship today. Now I will turn my attention to the last dozen or so strakes needed on the starboard side. Then the big sanding job commences! 

At this point I am planning to copper the ship under the water line. I will most likely paint the topsides and leave the intervening region with a natural finish.

[clearway]

that wood is going to look really awesome when varnished Greg- quick question as your plans/ instructions will be more concise- on the heller model there are no belaying pins on the bulwarks for the fore and mizzen mast, i know from photos that there were pin racks on the shrouds but not sure if on the bulwarks and did they fasten the braces to cleats?

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

Keith

 

The Constructo plans show that on each side there are 17 belaying pins along the rails midship between the fore and main masts, and 6 cleats near the mizzen mast (3 before and 3 after). The belaying plan indicates the use of of these for braces. I really have no idea how realistic the provided belaying plan is - most likely it is simplified / standardized for kit usage. Also, the provided plans do not show the shroud pin racks.

 

The way the hull wood finishes is one of the things that attracts me to Constructo (and some other European) models. While the models are a bit short on detail and some features are clearly out of scale, the overall presentation often looks nice to me. For example, here's a picture of America that I made from a Constructo kit:

 

All the best,

Greg

[clearway]

Thanks Greg- Yep the heller kit has the belaying pins on the midship railings but that is it, the idea of cleats for the braces makes sense so will go with that😁.. and nice yacht - and nice to see accurate looking kit provided sails.

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

The America kit provided plans and material for the sails (as it does for Le Pourquoi-Pas?) but I thought the fabric was too heavy, so I eventually got some sail cloth from Model Expo to make the sails. I also tried a number of different threads - weight and color - before all the sewing took place. It took me more than a few days to sew all the lines and reinforcements. Then more work for the reef points!

 

These are the first sails that I have made for a model. I was probably close on 10 years between when I made and rigged the model before I got up the nerve to make the sail set. In fact, it was suppose to be practice before I made a set of sails for my model of Britannia. Still not sure when I will attend to that project - it carries so much sail.

 

 

[clearway]

3 hours ago, Greg Davis said:

The America kit provided plans and material for the sails (as it does for Le Pourquoi-Pas?) but I thought the fabric was too heavy, so I eventually got some sail cloth from Model Expo to make the sails. I also tried a number of different threads - weight and color - before all the sewing took place. It took me more than a few days to sew all the lines and reinforcements. Then more work for the reef points!

 

These are the first sails that I have made for a model. I was probably close on 10 years between when I made and rigged the model before I got up the nerve to make the sail set. In fact, it was suppose to be practice before I made a set of sails for my model of Britannia. Still not sure when I will attend to that project - it carries so much sail.

 

 

all i can say is your experiment was a big success! I know the feeling though- sometimes it's the dread of the project that stalls you, and when you actually start it all falls into place.

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

Keith -

 

I agree, it turned out to be a better experience than I had expected. Time permitting, I will get back to some sail making for Britannia later this year. However, that is about 5th in the modeling cue right now. 

[Greg Davis]

Slowly but surely the planking continues. As of today, there are 4 more strakes that will be challenging to get in place. After that the final planks and stealers should go in quickly and hull smoothing will commence.

 

To learn more about the ship, I ordered a copy of: The Voyage of the 'Why Not?' in the Antarctic: The Journal of The Second French South Polar Expedition, 1908-1910 by Jean Charcot. The first paragraph of the introduction indicated that the exterior had armor-plates and thick galvanized iron sheeting. From what I can gather from the MSW forums, iron sheeting seems to be a challenge to reproduce and is often replaced with brass or copper. Thus, I feel safe to go with my original idea of coppering below the water line for this model to represent metal. This will cover the un-scale like planking below the waterline. 

[BobG]

This is very interesting model, Greg. Nice work so far!

[Greg Davis]

The good: all the planks are attached!

The bad: at the start of October I thought I would have 4 - 6 weeks to complete the planking and then spend some time outdoors sanding the hull; 6 weeks have gone by and it looks like I missed the outdoor sanding window! Today started out warm and sunny with temps into the low 70's; now the weather is turning - its raining and the temp is to be dropping all night and into the morning when it will be very close to freezing. The 10 day forecast doesn't make it into the 40's for the high and goes into the 20's (or teens) every night.

 

Looks like the basement beckons with dust mask and dust collector - not as much fun as I had hoped for. 

 

 

[Greg Davis]

Close to six hours later, the rough sanding is done and now I can move to finer grades of sandpaper. 

 

The lines of the vessel are looking nice to me already.

 

[clearway]

Looking good- where i live we were almost back to early summer regards warmth and sunny days over the weekend- back to rain and wind again now so no more outside "messy" at the moment!

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

We just got hit with a cold snap over the past few days - didn't even make it up to freezing for a couple of days. But how can you complain when parts of New York State have gotten up to 6 feet of snow!

[Greg Davis]

I've smoothed the hull as much as I am going to do. Spent a long time getting some nice lines by the deadwood. I also did some work on the stern. The supplied piece of plywood for the stern did not fit as nice as I would have liked, so I did a quick and dirty planking. I then filled the grain of the lighter wood with some artist modelling paste. There are a couple of rails that go along the sides that will be added after the stem is in place. I'll then prime and paint all of the lighter wood in an off-white.

 

Next up will be fitting the stem and keel. Once the keel is in place the hole for the propeller can be opened and preparation for finishing (staining and coppering) the lower part of the hull can be made.

[clearway]

I use self adhesive copper "dolls house tape" which comes in various widths...... oh crap whatever North America gets weather wise it tends to come our way on the jet stream a week or so later- mind you got a baltic north easterly wind at the moment brrrrrrrrr.

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

I have rolls of the self adhesive copper in the correct width, but I also have plenty of copper plates with 'nails'. 

Not sure what will be the best choice here. In some ways, the tape may be a better (more consistent) look as there are other detail simplifications going on in this model.

[clearway]

Also would the steel plates have been larger? On any images i have seen you don't see pronounced nails on the hull below waterline so maybe plain copper strip painted red oxide?

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

I am having no success on the size of the steel plates. I agree that in all of the pictures that I have seen, no nails are visible, so Keith, your solution seems viable. However, I was hoping to minimize the amount of paint so I am not too much in favor of painting that much of the hull - I was leaving my comfort zone by painting the upper portion of the hull white! Right now I am leaning toward copper plates without any indication of fasteners.

 

The last week or so, I have been immersed in reading Charcot's log of Le Pourquoi-Pas? in the Antarctic. The work and risks undertaken during this time period are amazing. It is also really interesting to compare their voyage and ship to that of Shackleton's famous trip on Endurance. 

[Greg Davis]

By the way, I have also done some (minimal) work on the model and it now has its stem and keel - I think that I will now get to cutting out the opening for the screw.