Belle Poule 1834 by Kevin - FINISHED - OcCre - 1/90 - French frigate - 6/24 to 2/25

[Kevin]

On 8/27/2024 at 8:03 PM, clearway said:

ahhh the memories of doing the same with my hms vicky ..... oh the joy!!!

 

Keith

I used plates on my Victory and tape on the Indefatigable, not sure i will go back to tiles again

[Kevin]

good evening everyone

 

im back, well i never really went away, just got lost in the mists of real life and bring two young dogs up, so apologies for those that follow me and i will be back with my regular updates and general bad model making and sillyness

the copper tiling on the hull was completed, i may have undersized to tiles, and seam to take ages to complete, sealed with a matt acrylic varnish

in tried to make her up as in the museum photo, with guns run out and lids shut, but the cannom muzzels are to thick to fit through the port, so i put each barrel in a drill and turn them on a file

after and before

they fitted ok, but were then not high enough (1.5mm) so i fitted some feet on, and a few brass rings to break up the amount of black this hull has

 

 

the last few photos were taken yesterday, with the lower main mast done, but that brings her UpToDate. 

 

the bois 

Odin on the left 5 months and Apollo 14 months

Edited October 16, 2024 by Kevin

[Kevin]

good evening everyone

 

thank you for the likes

 

the bowsprit, foremast and main are mainly complete now, with the exception of blocks mizzen is ready to be assembled

 

came across another hurdle to cross today, the whole kit and that of the Santa Felipe is only supported with one size of block, 4mm singles and doubles, and they are not very good ones at that BUT im not slating the kit, it just that its odd that if they want to encourage others into the hobby, do they want newbes to think one size fits all

anyway i have ordered some more cheap blocks from Cornwall Model boats 2mm singles, and 3mm singles and doubles, and then i quess i am going to have to think about rigging thread sizes

 

 

[Kevin]

Good morning everyone,

 

as we get towards the later part of the year, i am getting more productive in the man cave, mainly because the bois are getting older, and i am getting more sleep, in turn allowing myself to get into a routine again.

Apollo 15 months

Odin 5 Months

Belle Pouple continues to fight me, as much as I wanted to complete her OOB, I am having to change a lot of things on her, and as a result, she is looking quite tatty, and very messy, a lot of it is cosmetic and will clean up, but I feel i will have a "to be laughed at build" but will continue and try to complete her by the end of the year.

Having made up the foremast i then looked at some of the over scaled pin rails and shorted them by 1cm, also going to use much smaller belaying pins.

Belle Pou[le does not have deadeyes coming from the channels, but a series of stanchions which (to me look like turnbuckles, so I have tried to reproduce something like that, however  then found it is quite awkward to get a decent tension on the shrouds as they tend to pull in, and group the shrouds to close, 

Using .5mm copper wire looped at one end with a thimble.

the wire is threaded through the sheaving from a roll of wire, with a couple bits of plastic tubing to resemble the parts of a turnbuckle

then painted and i have this

personally i think it looks better than the kit 

and somewhere towards the museum photo (not my image)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 9, 2024 by Kevin

[wefalck]

In fact the 'Pretty Chicken' was quite a modern ship at the time and some advanced features were tried out on her. 

 

Instead of deadeyes or bottle-screws (which at that time did not really exist yet, due to the difficulty of producing consistent machine-screws before Maudsley invented the the lead-screw for lathes), some French ships used a sort of rack-and-lever system. If you have ever seen a device that was used in the old days to suspend a cauldron at adjustable heights over an open fire, that's the same system. I am still looking for a picture that illustrates this ... somewhere in my books I have a picture ...

 

I suppose you could fashion this system from piercing saws with a fine pitch ...

[Kevin]

26 minutes ago, wefalck said:

In fact the 'Pretty Chicken' was quite a modern ship at the time and some advanced features were tried out on her. 

 

thank you @wefalckNot heard of that before "pretty Chicken"

[wefalck]

Found a picture, from

 

BREART, E. (1885): Manuel du Gréement et de la Manœuvre des bâtiments à voile et à vapeur. Comprenant les matières exigées pour l’obtention du Brevet de Capitaine au long cours et de Maître au cabotage.- 459+13 p., 7 pl., Paris (Librairie Scientifique, industrielle et agricole, Eugène Lacroix).

 

It's from a later period, but the left most illustration shows the principle that I remember having seen on the model in the Musée de la Marine (unfortunately lighting was not very conducive to taking pictures):

The lever in Fig. 5, not fully drawn flips down parallel to the toothed rack and is tied against it.

 

Such 'high-tech' solutions were not widespread in the navies, probably because battle damage would be more difficult to repair than the traditional system with deadeyes and lanyards.

 

Before diving deeper into the rigging, you may want to get hold of some of the French literature on masting and rigging of the time, which can downloaded from the site of the French National Library: https://gallica.bnf.fr/, Unlike for the Google digitalisations, they unfold the tables in full!

 

COSTE. F.-A. (18292): Manuel de Gréement ou l’art d’équiper les vaisseaux et autres batimens de mer, de tout ce qui est nécessaire a leurs mouvements.-  282 p., tables, Paris (Dezauche).

 

Jaÿ, . (1860): Études sur le Greément d’après les réglement du 25 avril 1857, révisé en 1858.- Atlas du Génie Maritime, 2éme Serie, Annexe No. 1: 55 pl., Paris (Ministère de la Marine et des Colonies).

 

VERDIER, M. (1837): Nouveau manuel complet de la marine. Premiere Partie. Gréement.- 290 p., Paris (Librairie Enciclopédique de Roret).

 

Also, I would perouse @archjofo's building log here on LA CREOLE of 1827, which has wealth of information on French rigging in the second quarter of the 19th century.

 

[Kevin]

3 minutes ago, wefalck said:

Found a picture, from

 

BREART, E. (1885): Manuel du Gréement et de la Manœuvre des bâtiments à voile et à vapeur. Comprenant les matières exigées pour l’obtention du Brevet de Capitaine au long cours et de Maître au cabotage.- 459+13 p., 7 pl., Paris (Librairie Scientifique, industrielle et agricole, Eugène Lacroix).

 

It's from a later period, but the left most illustration shows the principle that I remember having seen on the model in the Musée de la Marine (unfortunately lighting was not very conducive to taking pictures):

 

The lever in Fig. 5, not fully drawn flips down parallel to the toothed rack and is tied against it.

 

Such 'high-tech' solutions were not widespread in the navies, probably because battle damage would be more difficult to repair than the traditional system with deadeyes and lanyards.

 

Before diving deeper into the rigging, you may want to get hold of some of the French literature on masting and rigging of the time, which can downloaded from the site of the French National Library: https://gallica.bnf.fr/, Unlike for the Google digitalisations, they unfold the tables in full!

 

 

COSTE. F.-A. (18292): Manuel de Gréement ou l’art d’équiper les vaisseaux et autres batimens de mer, de tout ce qui est nécessaire a leurs mouvements.-  282 p., tables, Paris (Dezauche).

 

Jaÿ, . (1860): Études sur le Greément d’après les réglement du 25 avril 1857, révisé en 1858.- Atlas du Génie Maritime, 2éme Serie, Annexe No. 1: 55 pl., Paris (Ministère de la Marine et des Colonies).

 

VERDIER, M. (1837): Nouveau manuel complet de la marine. Premiere Partie. Gréement.- 290 p., Paris (Librairie Enciclopédique de Roret).

 

Also, I would perouse @archjofo's building log here on LA CREOLE of 1827, which has wealth of information on French rigging in the second quarter of the 19th century.

 

thankyou @wefalck for that info, very much appreciated 

[wefalck]

While searching for something else in my picture archive, I came across a couple of pictures of mechanism used for tensioning the shrouds on BELLE POULE. I took them some ten years ago in the museum on request by someone:

Edited November 12, 2024 by wefalck

[Kevin]

16 hours ago, wefalck said:

While searching for something else in my picture archive, I came across a couple of pictures of mechanism used for tensioning the shrouds on BELLE POULE. I took them some ten years ago in the museum on request by someone:

 

 

 

thank you for them, 1 will have to see if i can adapt what i have put in place

[yvesvidal]

On 11/9/2024 at 6:06 AM, Kevin said:

thank you @wefalckNot heard of that before "pretty Chicken"

In fact, it should be the "Beautiful Hen" rather than the Pretty Chicken. Also, in French slang, a "Poule" is a girl !!!

 

Yves

[Kevin]

Good morning everyone

 

Not done an update for a while, no real reason, just one of those things, possibly the slow progress on the build, and being black in colour, non of the photos look great on my posts

anyway, i stayed with the decision not to replace the turnbuckles, i will let someone else improve on my design, this then led to another issue with them as when it came to the rigging of the shrouds i needed to stop them pulling in, 

the kit calls for .8 on the shrouds in brown (sorry that aint going to happen) i used .7 black and also down sized the rats as well

rigging

400+  4mm blocks  are provided in the kit, and most of them unfit for use, i will use what little brain power i have and down size these to 3mm and 2mm 

Bowsprit

without any issues, i will no doubt snap it off before completion and do a repair

deck fittings 

will complete these before the rest of the standing rigging goes in, including a chicken run under the ships boats, it maybe oversized (lol- it is oversized)

 

 

 

 

[Kevin]

Merry Christmas everyone from the bois and myself

[Knocklouder]

Wow have the Bois ever growin Kevin, Merry Christmas  my freind.    

Bob  M

& Crew.

Edited December 21, 2024 by Knocklouder
Guessing typos lol

[AJohnson]

Merry Christmas to you Kevin! 🎄

[Kevin]

good evening everyone

 

Slowly bringing  this non build log to a close, its the least posting on my behalf on any of my logs (some may say "its better that way"),

its certainly not the kit, just me, and the way i have felt through the year

anyway here is where i am upto, so much has changed from the kit as received

over the next few days hope to get the rudder sorted, and stern gallery, then back to the rigging

 

 

Edited January 2 by Kevin

[Kevin]

good evening everyone

slowly bringing this project to a close, this week i pretty well rerigged her, and toned down the white using a grey wash, it not quite so in yr face now

i think another week. and then revamp the man cave before the next project on the build table

im not 100% sure what it will be yet, but it will be back to my daily posting 

 

 

 

 

 

[chris watton]

You've done a fine job there. Kev!

[Kevin]

32 minutes ago, chris watton said:

You've done a fine job there. Kev!

That means a lot to me , Thank you

[wefalck]

I got a notification of a post from Kevin, but it seems to have disappeared. It was about something dangling from the counter. I haven't seen the picture in question, but I assume that these were the 'man-over-board-buoys', plates with knotted ropes attached to them.

 

[Kevin]

9 hours ago, wefalck said:

I got a notification of a post from Kevin, but it seems to have disappeared. It was about something dangling from the counter. I haven't seen the picture in question, but I assume that these were the 'man-over-board-buoys', plates with knotted ropes attached to them.

 

Yes i did remove a post on that very subject. i had already been told what they were, but i failed to read the message, BUT here are the photo's (which are not mine) 

[Kevin]

good evening everyone

this will my penultimate entry for this very short build log

I have added more rigging, not included in the kit, i have made so many changes to her i will try and list a few when i do the reveal in a few days

rope coils, and a lot of tidying up to do before then

 

[Kevin]

Good evening, everyone.

Well after 183 days that is the Belle Poule completed, there are several things I may do in the future, like add more ships boats, and some extra rope coils.

I started this build June 2024 having put the Indefatigable to one side due to personal reasons, but felt the need to do something, I set aside a six-month time slot and build just OOB.

Very quickly I concluded that as she is a large vessel, I needed to do some things to her to set her aside from other builds, so OOB went out of the window.

Copper tiling was added, I may have gone a bit small in tile size but the result was ok

Deadeyes were not used on this vessel but a type of turnbuckle, although not that realistic I made these up rather than bare brass wire

Gunports, I wanted them shut with muzzles poking through, with meant increasing the height of the carriages and filing the muzzle ends down the fit through

Hammocks I made individually, rather than the one piece folded

Belaying pins changed from being oversized to 1/64 scale brass ones

I discarded the OcCre rigging thread and used another company and down scaled everything

Blocks, the kit supplied 4mm single and double this was reduced to 3mm and various other sizes based on my limited skills.

I reduced a lot of the deck fittings in height, like pin rails, and added some things like the chicken run under the deck fitted ships boat

I quite happy with how she turned out

I would like to thank OcCre and James Hatch for passing the kit to me for review and build

Thank you to all that followed and with likes and comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kevin]

link to the gallery

https://modelshipworld.com/gallery/album/2979-belle-poule-1834-by-kevin-occre-190-french-frigate/

 

 

Edited February 6 by Kevin

[ccoyle]

Congratulations, Kevin, on finishing this striking model. I can't believe it only took you six months!! 😮

[GrandpaPhil]

Kevin,

  Incredible work!

[James H]

Brilliant to see it done, and so quickly too. Excellent work!

[Auger]

This calls for champagne! Felicitation!

[AJohnson]

Congratulations Kevin! 

[Craigie65]

Excellent Kevin! Have a beer or three!