La Renommee 1744 by ChrisLBren - 1/48 - 2025

[ChrisLBren]

Greetings Group,

 

Back in 2017 shortly after finishing Confederacy, I attempted my first Ancre scratch build, La Renommee.  I have always been in love with this Frigate and her unique lines.  I, however did not possess the skills yet to do her justice, nor a mastery of my recently purchased tools (chisels, Byrnes Machines, Sanders, and my first mill).  Raising small children and establishing a new business also provided problematic to achieving my goal of building this ship.

 

I worked on a few other projects including Le Gros Ventre in 1/36 scale which did increase my skills with the scroll saw, sharpening and working with chisels and scrapers, the Proxxon MF70, reading plans, building a build site and milling wood.  However after a 2 year break and revisiting my progress I noticed, being new to creating frames, they were too large and would require a heck of a lot of sanding to get to spec.  Also the Proxxon MF70 while not a bad tool, is not nearly as accurate as my recently acquired TAIG mill.  I really wanted to give all the keel parts another go with this tool.  The question became do I re do Le Gros Ventre, or work on one of the other Mongraphs I own in both 1/36 and 1/48 scale (Egyptienne, Renommee Amarante, Requin to name a few)

 

A friend has shared the frame drawings of La Renommee 1/48 fully laid out (in the Monograph Boudriot only drafts half frames) and easy to print on my home computer.  These are a god send vs running to the local UPS store to make copies over and over again (my experience with Le Gros Ventres frames).  After running some tests I found I do like the smaller scale of 1/48 (at least so far) as it gives me the option to rig later. So Ive sharpened all the tools, cleaned up the workshop and La Renommee was started again two weeks ago.

 

So far I have completed 14 frames that are very accurate with only about .5mm of fat.  As you can see the notches on the frames are a bit complicated.  I can not image this build without having a good mill.  I have some black hornbeam on the way from Hobbymill in Europe to use instead of ebony for the black parts and plenty of Pear I've collected over the years.  I will need to learn metal work in the not too distant future and carving in the really distant future, however I am confident with some good coaching I'll get there.

 

 

 

[Paryzek]

Another topic to watch, I'm sitting in the front row. La Renomme is a beautiful ship. May you be successful.

[dvm27]

I look forward to your new build, Chris. Had to laugh at your "smaller scale of 1:48" comment. I'm currently rigging a French warship of that era and the masts and spars are massive! Boudriot's rigging plans are superb though.

[ChrisLBren]

Thanks Pavel !  

 

The modelers on the French site swear by 1/36th scale Greg as Im sure you're aware !  This frigate in 1/48 will still be over 36 inches in length unrigged so by no means "small" 

[druxey]

Off to a good start, Chris!

[scrubbyj427]

Lovely subject, looking forward to following your progress 

[Mike Y]

Glad to see your new build, subscribed with interest  

[ChrisLBren]

Thanks everyone for your comments.  This week was negative progress...

 

I was up to 20 frames and decided to test fit all of the notches with scrap wood -  4.5mm for the inner slot and 7mm for the outer.  I should have done this during construction.   Some of the first frames were off by almost .5mm which is a big gap in this sort of construction.  So 10 frames ended up in the trash can and 10 remain.

 

Moving forward not only am I using an optivisor while milling, I am doing my best to cut halfway into the lines.  The good news is I have plenty of Pear wood and I am in no hurry to complete this one.  I really want to take my time to get this right rather than use any flawed part and pay for it later in construction.

 

Huge tip I figured out - always use a backing piece of plywood while milling parts.  Im getting perfect cuts with no tear out.

Edited 7 hours ago by ChrisLBren