Belle Poule 1834 by Kevin - OcCre - 1/90 - French frigate - started June 2024

[Kevin]

From wikki

 

Belle-Poule was a Surveillante-class 60-gun first rank frigate of the French Navy. She achieved fame for bringing the remains of Napoleon from Saint Helena back to France, in what became known as the Retour des cendres.

 

Construction and early career[edit]

 

Although construction was started in 1828, Belle-Poule was launched only in 1834. She was one of the first ships to be built in a covered shipyard, which allowed the builders to delay construction while the political and financial circumstances were not favourable. Her design was inspired by USS Constitution.[1] She was commissioned in July 1835, and displayed very good sailing properties.

On 1 August 1839, under command of the Prince of Joinville, third son of King Louis-Philippe, she left Cherbourg to join the Eastern fleet of Admiral Lalande. In October, she ran aground on the Taches Blanches, in the Dardanelles and was damaged. She was refloated and taken into Constantinople, Ottoman Empire for temporary repairs before sailing to Toulon for permanent repairs.

 

Retour des cendres

 

On 27 July 1840, she set sail with special equipment for Saint Helena to bring back the remains of Napoleon. She had been painted black for the occasion. On 30 September, she arrived back in Cherbourg, where, on 8 December, the Emperor's remains were transferred to the steamship Normandie. Normandie transported the remains to Le Havre and up the Seine to Rouen, for further transport to Paris.

The transfer of the remains from Belle-Poule to Normandie in the road of Cherbourg was executed in much ceremony, and became a subject of choice for marine and romantic painters.

 

Canada and Morocco

 

In 1841, Belle-Poule cruised along the Canadian coast, landing in Halifax, Nova Scotia and visited New York City, where the Prince of Joinville visited the President of the United States. Belle-Poule was back in Toulon on 14 July 1842.

In 1844, Joinville, then vice-admiral, was sent to Morocco to support the action of General Thomas Robert Bugeaud in Algeria, with Suffren, Jemmapes, Triton, and the frigate Belle-Poule. Tanger came under attack on 6 August, and Mogador was taken on 15 August.

Afterwards, Belle-Poule cruised the Indian Ocean, where a cyclone left her with serious damage. She was repaired in Sainte-Marie de Madagascar, and returned to Brest.

Crimean War and late career

She took part in the Crimean War, mostly as a transport; she stayed in the East until August 1856, and sailed back to Toulon on 1 September.

In 1859, she was used to transport ammunition, and was decommissioned on 19 March 1861. She was still used to store gunpowder until 1888.

Model of Belle-Poule, on display at Toulon naval museum.
History
France
Namesake	Paule de Viguier, baronne de Fonterville
Laid down	1828
Launched	26 March 1834
Commissioned	July 1835
Decommissioned	19 March 1861
Fate	Scrapped 1888
General characteristics
Class and type	Surveillante-class frigate
Displacement	2500 tonnes
Length	54 metres (177 ft)
Beam	14.10 metres (46.3 ft)
Draught	3.80 metres (12.5 ft)
Propulsion	sail
Complement	301
Armament	60 guns 32 × 30-pounder long guns 4 × 80-pounder Paixhans guns 24 × 30-pounder carronades
Armour	Timber

 

[Kevin]

good evening everyone,

Indy is on the build table but since finishing the tug last week i smashed my glasses, and the spares are too out of date to make any difference, i was doing the bowlines, and was struggling doing them after a couple of hours, eye have now been re-tested and my goggles on the way, but for a few days im going to start the Occre Belle Poule, i did a kit review of her a few days ago 

 

For those interested the new boi  Apollo is fine, and a new baby has been ordered, born on Friday 24th May this is going to be Odin Minimoo (Odin as in Greek god and i served 8 years on HMS Odin, Minimoo is in tribute to Dobbie who we lost about 8 weeks ago

 

Belle Poule - Occre - 1/90 - review by kevin - REVIEWS: Model kits - Model Ship World™

Hercules by Kevin - FINISHED - OcCre - 1/50 - Tugboat - - Kit build logs for subjects built from 1901 - Present Day - Model Ship World™

 

Apollo and the wife, love them to bits

Odin Minimoo

Edited June 5 by Kevin

[Kevin]

build log day 1

 

 

the two pieces of the centre line are sandwiched between two plates

 

17 frames test fitted, no adjustments were needed

 

BUT

there is no camber

ummm

test fitting, everything lines up, all bulkheads and decks are ply, the centreline is MDF

three deck section, planked and test fitted

all frames glued in and allowed to dry with top deck in place

Camber

i decided to raise the centre line by 1.6mm as i want to restrict any long term disadvantages this might cause, but i spread the revised height over 3 planks, 1.6 *15.5mm

 

glued and pinned

it perhaps could have been increased to 2mm, but is noticeable and im happy

Edited June 5 by Kevin

[Knocklouder]

Wow Kevin has Appolo ever gotten large,beautiful marking on him. And all puppies look good. Odin Minimoo will be a great addition to the home. All the best my friend. 

Bob M.

[Ronald-V]

Wish you all the best with this new project! Will be a interesting one  

[wefalck]

Some years ago, I considered making a model of her based on the Heller plastic kit, which is based on the plans published by the Association des Amis du Musèe de la Marine (as presumably the OCCRE-kit is). The project was abandoned due to the extensive changes that would have needed to be made to the plastic kit. However, in this context I took a number of photographs of the model in the museum in Paris (which, together with other sources preserved in the museum's archives, formed the basis of the plans of the AAMM). The model is in the 1839 livery, when she was painted black on the occasion of bringing back the remains of Napoleon I from St. Helena.

You can have a look at the pictures here: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/models/bellepoule/bellepoule.html. The model is not on display currently, after the refurbishment of the museum

 

BTW, Odin is a Germanic god, not a Greek one 🫣

[Kevin]

23 minutes ago, wefalck said:

Some years ago, I considered making a model of her based on the Heller plastic kit, which is based on the plans published by the Association des Amis du Musèe de la Marine (as presumably the OCCRE-kit is). The project was abandoned due to the extensive changes that would have needed to be made to the plastic kit. However, in this context I took a number of photographs of the model in the museum in Paris (which, together with other sources preserved in the museum's archives, formed the basis of the plans of the AAMM). The model is in the 1839 livery, when she was painted black on the occasion of bringing back the remains of Napoleon I from St. Helena.

You can have a look at the pictures here: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/models/bellepoule/bellepoule.html. The model is not on display currently, after the refurbishment of the museum

 

BTW, Odin is a Germanic god, not a Greek one 🫣

Thank you so very much for the link, and stand corrected on the name

[Kevin]

day 2 

full deck fitted and the camber dried ok, but today i realised i had gone to far fwd and aft, and to leave it would have thrown all the templates out, so a couple of frames both ends have gone back to the deck sitting directly on to the frames 

 

deck cut to remove section, remove camber and replace deck

sitting flat

why oh why, what a pain

instructions say lay the deck, then fit upper gun port pattern before planking, well i think thats a pants idea, as it will get knocked about, so i marked where it fits and fitted the lower template, the rear sect was fine, but front end requires soaking and the grain of the wood is vertical so breaks so very easily

this the better looking side

 

im not even going to ask why all the forward gun port are in front of the frames 

planking tomorrow

Edited June 5 by Kevin

[wefalck]

That's kind of strange, that the the bulkheads are behind the gun-ports. Normally, such laser-cut kits are well-engineered ... I gather you will have to show the lids closed in this case, at least the ones in front of bulkheads.

[Kevin]

2 minutes ago, wefalck said:

That's kind of strange, that the the bulkheads are behind the gun-ports. Normally, such laser-cut kits are well-engineered ... I gather you will have to show the lids closed in this case, at least the ones in front of bulkheads.

just checking that i had not messed up

these are the templets as they come off the billet. the middle sections are removed, fit the template, a blank is then fitted at the back, then the removed section is put back in to allow fitting of the dummy barrel, hope that makes sense, but seam long winded way of doing things

[Old Collingwood]

Looks like a  Great new project  Kevin   -  looking forward  to  what you  will  do  to her.

 

OC.

[Kevin]

7 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Looks like a  Great new project  Kevin   -  looking forward  to  what you  will  do  to her.

 

OC.

Morning OC

lol some will say, oh another kit he wont finish

 

[clearway]

welcome to the crazy world of occre upgrading Kevin 😁

 

Keith

[Kevin]

thank you for comments and likes

 

day 3

all the lower gun ports now have backing plates

port side first planked

another quirk on this kit the transom and bow are made up on completion of first planking

[Kevin]

morning, everyone

day 4

finished the hull planking, absolutely nothing special, but having learnt to fair the frames better the hull is solid, bow filler blocks setting overnight, i will def be putting tiles on her, so ordered some 4mm copper tape, 

[Blue Ensign]

It will be interesting to see if the separate bow sections allow for easier fairing given that you have the run from the already planked hull.🤔

 

B.E.

[Kevin]

8 minutes ago, Blue Ensign said:

It will be interesting to see if the separate bow sections allow for easier fairing given that you have the run from the already planked hull.🤔

 

B.E.

i would sooner have more frames as a guide line to getting the shape right

[Blue Ensign]

You've been spoiled by Vanguard kits, but at least there are plenty of bulkheads in that bow section.

 

B.E.

[Ronald-V]

Interesting method indeed...your doing a great job, pretty fast also  

[Kevin]

day 5 bow and stern blanks

 

the bow and stern blanks were put on and allowed to dry

But your on yr own from there on, a couple of photos in the instruction only show which way to fair from, no guides no templates, its totally up to your self how you wanrt to mess it up

so another request would be to provide a simple template in wood or card for bow and stern to be used as a guide

day 6 main deck planking

at this scale i decided against simulating deck joints and nails, and went for straight runs, the .6*5mm sycamore is ok to use and went down ok, i stained it with a medium oak spirit based stain

day 8 bulwarks

the gun port lids are removed , and kept to one side, i was very short of Yellow occre paint from the indy build, and tried several colours, the yellow desert at time of fitting don't seam right

moan time, the forward laser cut bulkheads  need soaking, but why do they make  them so the grain is vertical, yep i snapped one and then became a pain to sort out, the other side went on ok with 5 mins in hot water

also when fitting the after template they line up with the deck tabs, where as the forward ones do not and also to long by about 5mm which means the bowsprit opening is overlapped,, easy to sort though

 

 

 

[Kevin]

Stern gallery, balcony, gun port lids

a bit of trimming and the stern gallery template went on without any issues, a test fit of the bacony, and some trimming is required to get it all to line up where it meets the the the wrap around to the 1/4 gallery balcony, these side pieces have been fixed and the long gallery removed for now

 

keel fitted and the hull was the planked to the waterline, i am fitting copper tape to this build and not the cost reducing wood veneer including in the kit, an

Gunports 

rightly or wrongly, i decided to go with all the lids shut, like in the photo and not the instructions

not my photo, came from this link (Thank you @wefalckLA BELLE POULE (1834) (maritima-et-mechanika.org)

but as with all these decisions i make it was not followed through very well, as the lids are removed from the lasered frets in the first place they are now undersized

 

 

 

Edited June 22 by Kevin

[wefalck]

BTW, if you repost pictures from other peoples' Web-sites, it would be polite to provide a reference to the source ...

[Kevin]

1 hour ago, wefalck said:

BTW, if you repost pictures from other peoples' Web-sites, it would be polite to provide a reference to the source ...

agreed, and i will correct , thanks for reminding me

[Kevin]

good evening everyone

 

Been over two months since my last post, but had lots going on, but here is one of the reasons

this is Odin Minimoo (minimoo in tribute to Dobbie whom we lost earlier this year), we have now had him for 5 weeks so 13 weeks old now, and is such a sweet puppy, again he is a English Cocker Spaniel (show type) and gets along lovely with out 1 year old Apollo

 

Edited August 23 by Kevin

[Kevin]

as for the build, it has been a slow progression, of trying to do some everyday, in my last post i was attempting to fit the gun port in the closed position

the stern galleries took a bit of fine tuning to get them symmetrical

i wanted to get as much deck fittings and chain plates done before coppering

 

 

[Kevin]

coppering was done with 4mm tape into 12mm strips, one side is completed as off today

on the recommendation of @James H i bought the RP Toolz Mitre cutter, brilliant tool

 

 

 

Edited August 23 by Kevin

[Ronald-V]

That mitre cutter looks way better than the fiddly plastic Amati one I have! And your tilling looks great, that's a lot of tiles 😮 

[Kevin]

7 minutes ago, Ronald-V said:

That mitre cutter looks way better than the fiddly plastic Amati one I have! And your tilling looks great, that's a lot of tiles 😮 

I was unable to find the right size, so i looked at what was used on the Indy @1/64 and scaled from there

the cutter is very good, here is the review @James H did

Cutter/Mitre Tool - RP Toolz - REVIEWS: Model Shipwrighting Tools, Parts and fittings - Model Ship World™

 

Edited August 24 by Kevin

[Swordfish073]

Thank you for sharing your progress with this ship.  Beautiful work and such a pleasure to see a skilled builder at work.  I was really pleased to learn that Occre had released it.  I’m working on my first wooden ship kit build, Terror,  at the moment but will watch with interest as this kit is certainly on my wish list as my confidence grows.  Again, many thanks.  

[clearway]

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

 

Keith