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

[clearway]

havn't read about Charcot but have read Lansings book about Shackleton - them guys were made of something else! I would be seriosly tempted just to varnish the entire hull with no plating is it looks sooooooooo nice!

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

I'm considering that as well. It might look as nice or nicer that way. If it is plated below the water line, then there will be just a narrow band of natural wood between the plating and white painted topsides. I may need to consult the Magic 8 Ball for a final decision on this topic!

 

Keith, sorry about the delay in response here - I have spent the better part of the last two weeks dealing with a bout of COVID. Testing negative now, but still feeling some residual effects.

 

Just a small bit of progress on the vessel over the past couple of days. I opened the space for the screw and constructed the nacelles that precede the screw.

[clearway]

No problem about delay in answering Greg- on week two of a bout of Covid myself along with rest of family Can't beat  pestilence at Xmas!

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

I hope you, and your family, recover quickly and well.

 

Greg

[clearway]

We are thanks Greg and same to you guys.

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

I decided (and the Magic 8-Ball affirmed) that the lower portion of the hull would be left in a varnished state. After 2 coats of matte varnish, this is what she is looking like:

 

Soon I should be able to mask off and paint the upper section of the hull.

[Greg Davis]

Today Le Pourquoi-Pas? received its billet and trailboards. I mixed up some paint and started painting the upper-works. Three coats on so far; a good start, but not sure how many more it will take before I will be ready to move on from this task

[Greg Davis]

Several more coats of paint applied (6 in total) and the masking tape removed leaving a pretty nice color transition.

 

After the port holes and hawse holes are added the whole hull will get another coat or two of varnish for protection. 

[clearway]

that looks great - glad you left plating off the lower hull.

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

The port holes have been added

 

As has the hawse holes. Also, some of the paint on the trailboards has been sanded/scraped off to highlight the scrollwork. 

 

The kit instructions claim that the top rail can be bent from a 1.5 x 4mm strip of wood. I have doubts that this can be done as it would require a good deal of edge bending. However, I did give it a good go - but this is as far as I can get after a couple of days:

 

I calling this a top rail fail and will work out the rail in an alternative manner. I haven't decided on what method that I will try next but have a couple in mind, including using shorter pieces jointed together and laminating thinner more bendable pieces [three 1.5mm (1/16") square strips would easily do the job here].

 

Soon the multitude of deck furniture can be started! 

 

[Greg Davis]

I decided to try laminating three strips of basswood together to form the rail. After attaching the plans to my drafting table (with some waxed paper atop) I used some pins to keep the inner strip to the correct contour. The three strips were glued together thru most of the major curved section near the bow and then a second row of pins secured then in place.

 

Once the initial part of the lamination was dry the rest was glued and pinned in place.

 

The rail will need to be stained, but it looks like this may work well - and there could be an added benefit of using the laminations to center the rail on the ship.

 

[catopower]

Hi Greg, I love how this model is coming along. I too think Constructo kits can finish into very fine models with some love and care!

 

As far as I can tell, the kit is still in production, though. I don't know about other sellers, but Ages of Sail still has them in quantity.

[Greg Davis]

Thank you!

 

[Greg Davis]

Well, the staining of the rails made in basswood did not go well at all, as I ended up with a motley mess!

 

Fortunately, another kit was willing to donate some wood that matched Le Pouquioi - pas? kit's top rail. I trimmed it down, and am laminating it together. A little smoothing will follow, and I am fairly certain that an acceptable set of rails will be had. The difference in quality is easy to see:

 

 

[Greg Davis]

The laminated rails are being classified as a success and have been installed. I am starting to work on the deck structures as a break from the main hull structure (which needs some more rails, ...). The first structure is where the kitchen was situated.

Going back to the rails for a moment - I am glad I went with the laminations, especially for the rail over the stern. Even here the bend is severe enough that I needed to soak each of the three pieces in water to achieve the necessary bend. So that piece took a couple of days to make. Again, I don't see how anyone could be expected to edge bend these rails successfully. I was telling my wife today that if I had tried to build this kit when I first got it (about 10 years ago), that there would have been a very high chance that it would have become kindling long before I had gotten this far! 

 

[Greg Davis]

More progress is being made on the deck structures and it can be seen that they take up a lot of the deck space. The three largest now have their basic form. The front one (kitchen cabin) needs a few doors, smoke stacks, and a ventilator; the middle one (observation structure) needs doors, ladders, windows, and bell; the last one (above the engine) needs doors, ventilator, and smoke stack.

The ventilators and stacks are assembled. The paint is starting to be applied.

 

The vents and smoke stack are being painted an off-white / beige - the same color as the hull upperworks. The color is 8 parts titanium white to 1 part yellow oxide. I like this softer color much more than the bright white shown on the kit's box top. The acrylic paint that I am using builds up slowly, thus a large number of coats are needed - especially on the metal casting. The three stacks on the left will be black when done, as will the upper part of the smokestack.

[clearway]

Nice to see the deck fittings/ houses taking shape Greg- i always find priming with either white or blaacck acrylic primer from a rattle can (humbrol for me) really helps with the top finish.

Keith

[Greg Davis]

I've never used Humbrol paints. I have read a lot of good things about them, but there are no local places for me to obtain the product. I could order them online. Do you think they are far superior to other paints or are they just the go-to in the UK?

[clearway]

14 hours ago, Greg Davis said:

Do you think they are far superior to other paints or are they just the go-to in the UK

Just more readily available -where i live the closest model shops sell mainly Humbrol products- the main thing is the primer really helps the acrylic adhere evenly- really any acrylic based primer would do.

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

Finally done painting the vents and stacks. Also have painted the screw. In all cases I chose colors that are muted than shown on the kit.

 

I should get to attaching some of these to the deck and deck structures soon.

 

Last week I got to visit my son in Seattle; while I was there we had a chance to see the actual boat that will be one of my upcoming builds - Slo Mo Shun IV:

 

I have the Billings RC kit of this boat and plan to build it for my grandsons (unless I find it is too much fun and can't give it up!).

 

I had done some research on Slo-mo-shun IV, but didn't read what I had found closely enough. I thought the boat was at the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum in Kent, Washington so we took a drive down there to find I had been mistaken. However, it was a great visit where we got to look at some spectacular racing boats including Sol-mo-shun V. The Museum historian, Skip Young, spent a lot of time with us and told us a lot of wonderful stories. It turns out that the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum is where Slo-mu-shun IV had been restored in the 90's. He also knew where Slo-mo-shun IV was - less than a mile from where my son lives - in the Museum of History and Industry. So we drove backup to Seattle and got a look at the boat. Unlike most of the boats in the Hydroplane Museum, in MOHAI the boat has been hung so it was not possible to get a nice picture of the whole boat. However, I did get enough to help me out when I get to building the model. 

[Greg Davis]

Starting to make progress on the deck buildings now. The building housing the kitchen is done:

 

Just behind the kitchen is the bridge. This is the structure that I am currently working on. It just needs a few more details - something to do tomorrow! Further back the start of the deckhouse over the engine room can be seen. Eventually the smoke stack will extend from it.

 

Here is the bridge from behind

[Greg Davis]

Today I finished the deckhouse over the engine room. Before that I had added a windscreen to the bridge. Here are the three largest deck structures sitting in their appropriate locations:

I thought that it might be good to note that the kit instructions just say glue vents / stacks / etc to the buildings (and later the deck). For the most part, I believe that all of these details would soon fall off if attached in this manner. I inserted pins in the base of the smaller details and a dowel in the base of the smokestack. Because the structures have roof just < 1.5mm, I also placed blocks of basswood under the fixtures so the pins and dowel would have a further distance to be embedded.

 

I guess I should do the last touches - drill holes for the masts and display supports, add the rudder and screw, ... so that I can attach the deck structure permanently!

 

[Ship dude]

Coming along quite nicely. Your hull is very well done.  

[clearway]

interesting seeing the constructo deckhouses compared to the one in my heller log- i have just managed to get hold of the billings kit (still sealed in original packaging never opened) and that is following the constructo kits arrangement- methinks Pourquois had a few alterations in her life. Have seen pics of the forward wheelhouse without the bridge wings and pics with shelters on the ends of the bridge wings.

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

Given that the ship was in service for nearly 3 decades, as both an expedition ship and a school ship, it does not seem unlikely that there would be a number of changes to the deck arrangement. I have noted other differences between photographs of the ship and the kit layout. The kit shows covers that can go over the port holes along the sides of the hull, but there are photographs that do not support that (and I've decided to leave these covers off my model). Another difference is the way the chain-links come down along the sides of the ship. Construco has them bending back to the hull as they go over the fender / guard rails; a photograph shows them coming into contact with the hull above the top fender and below the lower fender (this is the way that I will be placing the chain-links). 

There are other differences as well - here you can see an additional window in the engine room deck house facing aft, the nameplate is of a slightly different shape, the paint scheme is not the same, ... . Without having full documentation of the ship on one specific day of its existence, it seems likely that the best one can hope for is a strong likeness of the vessel. 

 

However, when the model is done, I still believe that it will have enough 'likeness' to still be called Le Pourquoi-Pas? !

 

 

 

[clearway]

Nice photo with lots of good detail - interestingly looks as you say like there are no shutters over the portholes- the deckhouse with the funnel resembles the heller kit though with what looks like the engine room vent going down to the deck on the starboard side.

 

As you say though whatever we end up with it will definitely look like Pourquoi pas- and why not indeed😉

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

Keith nice observation - I hadn't notices that the vents are reversed from how the Constructo kits presents them. Your Heller kit has a different shaped (symmetrical) deckhouse holding the funnel so I see you have two vents coming from deck level, where as my kit / presentation has one vent on the deckhouse (starboard) and I will have another (port) coming from the deck level. It's been really interesting to see the differences in our two builds! 

By the way, I like your cat. We can't have cats anymore (had 5 at one point) due to allergies. The closest we get now is one of our dogs, Bailey who is my shadow and thinks she is a cat.

 

Greg

 

[Greg Davis]

I have done a small amount of work on Le Pourquoi-Pas? over the past couple of weeks. She now has a rudder and the screw has been attached. I did drill the mast holes and have embedded metal tubes in the keel for future mounting of the model. It's also getting to the point where I wanted to keep the hull level and secure as the masting process is really not that long into the future, so I put together a cradle for it to sit in.

 

It's probably going to be slow going for the next couple of months on Le Pourquoi-Pas? as I have been spending more time on a scratch-built dredger model that I hope to finish by early May. If the May deadline becomes inaccessible, then I will go back to splitting my time more evenly between the two models. 

[clearway]

1 hour ago, Greg Davis said:

By the way, I like your cat. We can't have cats anymore (had 5 at one point) due to allergies. The closest we get now is one of our dogs, Bailey who is my shadow and thinks she is a cat

looks like your canine is as if not more furry than our feline- all that hair sure causes some fun huh! Regards Pourquoi Pas - the billing boats kit i obtained has the same set up for the engine room deckhouse/ galley and bridge as the constructo kit (not sure whether to modify the billings to make it more like the Heller kit- though the difference may prove interesting). Your model is progressing nicely and is looking great with the varnished hull/ painted upperworks.

 

Keith

[Greg Davis]

Yes, we spend a good deal of time grooming our dogs - we actually have 3 Pomeranians, one has a coat that is so challenging that we keep getting him really short haircuts! They're great dogs, but still not the same as having a cat.

 

I was just looking at some pictures of the Billing's kit and see that it has a similar presentation to the Constructo kit. One nice feature is Billing's showing all six of the ship's boats. The Constructo kit only came with 2 of the 6 needed. I'm not sure what I will do about the other 4. At this point I am considering scratch building the missing boats. If I do that, then I will likely make all six as the 2 that came with the kit are not that nice metal castings.

 

So when does the Billing's build start - before or after the Heller kit is finished?