HMS Bellona by Frecap - Corel - 1:100

[Frecap]

Hi!

After holding the already painted body in my hands, it is not very pleasant to see it with peeled-off sides. I'm in a hurry to return the model to its former appearance, correcting mistakes along the way. Painted again, using masking tape as a separator. Since PVA glue does not adhere well to acrylic paint, I left unpainted strips for the rails to be glued.

[Frecap]

Hello everyone!

Finally, the model has taken the same appearance as it did before the upgrade! New rails have been installed. They are made of a pear-shaped slat  with a 1x1 mm cross-section, which has been pre-shaped. When I looked at numerous photos of museum models, I noticed that in many cases, the  waist  rail was wider than the others, so I decided to do the same. I didn't have a 1x1.5 mm rail, so I glued another 0.5 mm rail to the existing one, rounding its edge first. Since the  waist  rail runs along the main deck, interrupted by the gun ports, I glued it in short sections.

[Frecap]

Hi!

I've replaced all the rails that were part of the second layer of the model's sheathing, installed the planksheer on the beakhead, and the roof of the roundhouses.

I'm currently working on the rails and top timbers of the foredeck and beakhead.

Edited November 11 by Frecap

[Frecap]

Here are some photos from the process of making the fordeck's railing. I appreciated the benefits of the pear wood and purchased several different sizes of planks and use them whenever possible. The top timbers of the fordeck's bulwarks form the gun ports, and as a result, the fife rail consists of three parts. Since the bulwarks converge strongly towards the bow, the group of bow top timbers has a parallelogram cross-section. This is also shown in Corel's drawings. I didn't bother with the rest and made them rectangular. Many small details have to be made by hand. Of course, it is difficult to achieve their full identity. But all the photos are taken with magnification, in reality the difference is not so noticeable. Especially all this will be painted black.

[Ronald-V]

Beautiful stuff Frecap! Very well done 👏

[Frecap]

I mounted the gunwale on the bulwarks of the fordeck. I painted it, as well as the rails and toptimbers. I left an unpainted strip on the gunwale for better adhesion when gluing. But I won't glue the toptimbers yet, as there is still a lot of work to do with the case and I don't want to accidentally break the fragile structures. But I couldn't resist and took some photos).

[Captain Amateur]

That looks great. Wondering what brown did you paint the railing?

[Frecap]

8 hours ago, Captain Amateur said:

That looks great. Wondering what brown did you paint the railing?

Thank you!) The monitor screen may not have very accurate color reproduction. This is not brown, it is black.

[Nearshore]

Hi Frecap,

Your guwales look fantastic!! I am curious on what technique you used to get the end of the gunwales to curve up. I am going to be building mine in the near future and was hoping you could provide me some insight on how you achieved this. I am assuming that you used two pieces of wood glued together and shaped the final result. I am very impressed with your work and your Bellona is really coming out nice. The paint scheme you have chosen is beautiful.

[Frecap]

Hi, Nearshore!

Thank you for the rating, it's very nice!) I bent the rail by steaming it in hot water and then ironing the tip with an iron, gradually bending the rail. If the radius is slightly larger, it bends normally. However, in this case, the radius is only a few millimeters, and it caused problems. I think it's important to take your time and repeat the steaming and ironing process several times, as there's a chance of the rail breaking. The first bend turned out to be good, but on the second, where the rack rises up, it broke. And on both sides. And I glued the broken parts with PVA glue, for strength, I glued several small pieces of thin rack into the concave part and then, when the glue was dry, I processed it with a round file. So, in fact, you are right, this part is composite, in two parts. Probably, you  can not  suffer and make it composite at once. In the future, I will probably do it.

Yours sincerely, Frecap.

[Frecap]

Hi!

I'm continuing with the head. I need to make a lot of thin, openwork parts. I started with the chееks. The Corel set doesn't have any laser-cut, ready-made parts, but  the chееks need to have a distinct profile and the inside of the profile needs to be painted. While I can still give the rake a profile using a special tool, I won't be able to paint such a small part accurately. Therefore, I'm making the chееks out of three parts.

The central part is made of a 1 mm rail, and the side parts are made of a 0.5 mm rail. All the rails are made of pearwood. By the way, it is easier to bend thinner rails. Then I gave the front edges of all the rails a semi-circular profile, painted the front part of the central rail, and glued on the side rails. The long upper cheek should taper towards the end, so I sharpened all three rails. However, when I saw the result, I felt that the taper was not sufficient, so I tore off the glued parts, sharpened the rails again, and then reglued them.

The upper cheeks converge at the top and rest against the volute of the herbroket.  Corel's  volute is made in the form of a cast tin part, which I absolutely do not like, as well as most of the metal decor parts. I decided to make it myself. I did not have a pear rail of the appropriate cross-section, so I used a sushi stick. It is made of bamboo, which is quite hard and perfectly processed with a linography cutter. However, it is lighter than pear and speckled. But a little mordant has more or less evened out the colors, and since the piece is very small, I hope that the specks on the model won't be too noticeable.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ronald-V]

Very smart solutions! I like it a lot  

[Frecap]

Hi!

The assembly of cheeks from several parts did not take much time. Unexpectedly, a lot of it was spent on fitting and mounting them on the hull. And this is the result.

Probably not perfect, but, as I think, no worse than everything else. Here, of course, there will be something to finish. Since on the prototypes, cheeks have a smooth transition from the hull to the head knee, and I just have them docked, I want to make something like knees with an internal radius. There are also some gaps that need to be seal. In general, this process is endless. But the result is satisfying)

[Nearshore]

Very well done. Looks amazing !!