Lе Rochefort 1787 by moreplovac - scale 1/36 - port yacht

[moreplovac]

Well, it is that time again, this time I decided to step into a new zone, for me not that familiar but to see how things will go... For the first time I will be working on La Rochefort, a port yacht from 1787. Here is brief description/history of the ship (from the internet):

 

Created by Colbert in 1666, the city of Rochefort is unusually located since its harbor-arsenal, built on the Charente river, is about twelve miles away from the sea following the river. Although this exceptional distance from the sea protected the harbor from enemy fleets for centuries it caused problems, however, that were unsuspected at the time of its creation. Indeed, in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, the depth of the Charente river made it impossible for large vessels to sail up and down the river without first unloading their equipment, arms and ammunition. The Navy thus created a flotilla to assist and equip the vessels that had to remain anchored in the Aix roadstead while waiting to be fitted out or laid up.

This flotilla consisted of several kinds of small vessels: lighters, yachts, transport-ships or brigs from the harbor. As an illustration of these types of ship we chose the yacht, inherited from from Dutch workers who came to drain the swamps of the Charente during the 17th century.

This small elegant craft is of a simple construction with basic rigging, since only fitted with one mast and three sails.

I will be following Ancre plan and an introduction to model ship building "Dockyard style" by Adrian Sorolla, hopefully making some interesting model. Ancre book includes a booklet and a set of 16 plates of drawings. In the booklet, a chapter describes the creation of Rochefort and the reasons that led to the constitution of the flotilla. The construction and laying out of the Le Rochefort are detailed in instructions abundantly illustrated with 3D figures, followed by a commentary on the plates including a precise description of the rigging.

 

The plans were copied multiple times as I am planning to do a bit of a testing before cutting the real wood. For frame and keel parts I will go with pear wood that arrived from Germany. For other parts I will not purchase any wood at this time and will work on once I reach that point. I do have some other boards I am planning to use for testing, etc..

 

This time I marked all frames on the plan, and cut them into individual pieces. Then all pieces for one frame are put in a bag, where I will be keeping cut parts for the same frame. Or I can just use rubber bands...

 

Then I put all keel/keelsen parts on one piece of wood, this time I am testing alder wood. These will not be on the model, for model I do have purchased pear for keel as well. Testing will allow me to see how things are done in real life, what glue to use for glueing on the board, making sure I check cut pieces for level once they are on the board, position of templates on the board to utilize the most of the board, what cutting tool to use, etc... pretty much the whole process. Maybe a bit overkill but being my first build of such type... next scratch build model will be a breeze...

I might reposition some keel parts a bit better to utilize wood gran flow.. good advice from fellow modeller..

 

Happy modelling..

 

 

 

[druxey]

Yes, do try to avoid cross-grain wherever you can. G1, for instance, has one arm completely cross-grain. Rotate it until the grain runs at about 45 degrees to each arm.  You can minimise waste by placing parts on a 'V A V' principle.

[moreplovac]

Thank you druxey, suggestion taken, keep them coming... much appreciated..

 

 

[moreplovac]

Did you guys find it extremely hard working in a shop while the weather is nice and sunny? I don't have an option to open shop doors so have to make a choice...

A bit of a progress... corrected position of few keel parts to follow the wood grans as best as possible.. still don't like G1 position...will make another copy of that part and glue it differently, then will cut both parts and see how they work..

 

 

Few frames were glued to the board.... first adding glue to the paper frame part and put them on the board, second picture is adding a small amount of glue to the board first, then arranging frames...

 

Since I am testing, no harm to see what ending up results will be ..

 

 

 

Happy modelling..

 

[druxey]

Looking much better. And I agree: G1 needs to be rotated more.

[JeffT]

Hello moreplovac. I'm moving this to the scratch build logs section.

[moreplovac]

My test cuts are done and now it is time to sand them all correctly; some parts are already sanded to the lines. 

Since the wood is ticker that needed and once all parts are sanded (or before, will need to decide), wood need to be run thru the table saw or band saw to reduce the thickness to correct dimension.  

These steps might looks too much but need to test the process and tools required and "repetitio est mater studiorum".

 

Happy modelling..

Edited May 14 by moreplovac

[moreplovac]

All frame parts were cut and rough sanding will be the next step. 

Few pieces will need replacement.. some glued to close to each other, for some cuts were damaging the part...

Here is my test keel; I was testing the process and tools I might be using and this is end result. I was more concerned about those parts connecting to each outer, making sure the lines matching correctly... still need to do a bit sanding on the top of these two pieces but I will be ready to cut the "real" keel parts next.

Question for you guys: I noted when using oscillating sander for inner parts of the frame, it leaves a bit of a paper burr at edges, most likely due to the sander motion (up, down).. How you guys are dealing with this? I can certainly remove burr afterwards but piling up paper during sanding prevents from clearly see the line.. Outside edges of a frame are OK since I am using disk sander rotating counterclockwise and pushing the paper down on its rotation cycle..

Happy modelling..

 

 

[Mike Y]

Your build looks beautiful and with clear quality standard!

Used a disk sander to shape frames, so it was never an issue since the disk always pushes the part down.

The concave parts are sanded on the edge of the disk, slow and careful.

When you got close to a line - then I guess you can smoothen it on a spindle sander. You don’t need to get too close, better leave some ”meat” for the fairing once the frames are in place. 

[moreplovac]

Thanks Mike Y,

 

yeah, I was experimenting with few other sanding ways/options but appears that slow and careful way is always a winning combo..

 

Appreciated your comment. 

 

Cheers

 

[moreplovac]

Some inner sanding was done for few frames using oscillating sander and paper burr was removed with a small piece of sander paper. Result is very nice and acceptable. This is rough sanding, still leaving some meat close to the line for final sanding..

 

Happy modelling..

[moreplovac]

1/3 of all frames rough sanded and ready for assembly... there are few that needs to be made again, just to much pressure on the sander caused more removed wood that needed... 
 

Happy modelling..