Licorne 1755 by mtaylor - 3/16" scale - French Frigate - from Hahn plans - Version 2.0 - TERMINATED

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

Model builders dread to redo anything, but when they've finished doing one they are most often glad they did it. ;-)

 

Tom

 

 

 

G'day Mark

I was told by a friend of mine years ago, when he was building his ultralight aircraft.  "90% of the job took 10% of the time, while 10% of the build took 90% of the time. Well if you are like me,10% of time was used to build the model, while 90% of the time is being spent on the rebuild!

I'm looking very seriously,  in at the idea of buying a small laser cutter my self. So there might be more rebuild on the way if I get one.

Havagooday mate and stay safe in the weather. 

Greg

[Moonbug]

  Looks well worth the effort of the re-do.  Nicely done.  Interested to see how it ends up with the planking, etc.

 

- Bug

[wyz]

Mark,

     I love the way you work at this model, embroiled in a never-ending battle with Licorne.  Few things come easy for you but in the end you always manage to pull it off.  Your perseverance is admirable and you have my respect.   Thomas Carlyle, a famous Scottish philosopher and essayist, once said "Permanence, perseverance, and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak."

 

'atta way Mark,  make the Licorne bend to your will.

Tom

Edited January 27, 2016 by wyzwyk

[markjay]

Wonderful improvement, class act!

Mark

[popeye the sailor]

looks great Mark......you'll have that stern looking sharp before you know it!

[JesseLee]

That's looking really good Mark. I'm in the middle of a re-construction myself. I was frustrated at first but I'm already glad I tore it off & did it over. It always ends up looking better & there's nothing like the peace of mind of the builder. Even if no one else would ever know or care we just have to satisfy ourselves!

 

Jesse

[mtaylor]

Thanks for the "likes" and comments.. 

 

An update..  the stern.    I'm going to paraphrase a line from a speech by John Kennedy about the Apollo program.  I think it fits with model ships...   "We do things not because they are easy but because they are hard".   I had the full quote sitting on my desk at work for many years.  I finally dug it out of the box and now have it again in place to remind me.

 

Anyway, so much for philosophy today but you'll understand it down this post a bit...      Here's the step by step...

 

I glued the previously cut light frames over the ebony filled opening for the 3 deadlights.   I made a scraper and scraped the lower molding strip to the profile on the plans.  The boxwood molding was mildly edge bent with heat and glued and secured into position with clamps.

 

I then turned to the next step, the glazed lights.  I checked locally for mica from gem/mineral shops locally.  All the locals were are the kind that sell "new age" crystals and cut stones for the chanting brigade.  So.. Google is my friend... I find bags of mica sheets but... no guarantee that any of the sheets in the bags would be clear.  Scratch that.  Back to Google..  started calling all the shops within a 200 mile radius.  No clear except one place... and it was a 10 pound chunk.  Yikes!!!

 

Time to fall back to Plan "B"... liquid glazing.  I used it and glazed the 4 lights following directions... and they warped badly.  Cut 4 more using the Deathstar (I guess scratchbuilding is called the "darkside" for a reason    ) and modified the method.  I applied the glazed, put it between two 1/4" plates of glass over night.  The next morning, I took off the top glass and let it sit until the glazing was clear and then the lights started to warp.  Put the glass plate back on and let it sit for 24 hours.  Success!!!!

 

I glued on the lights and added the ebony strips between them as there aren't faux columns between them, just plain wood.

 

 

The next steps will be to make and install the mold strip above the lights, and add the ebony planking for the rest of the transom. The lower mold strip needs to be trimmed back and the inside of the transom needs to be planked.  Then I can add the taffrail.  They do look better in real life than in macro.

 

To be continued.....

[albert]

Wonderful work.

[Cabbie]

Very detailed work Mark

It is going to be a top class piece of work when finished.

Can't wait until you finish the stern and turn it up and give us a good look.

Cheers Chris

[cog]

Mark,

 

That line of JFK ... you hit the proverbial nail on it's head ... it wouldn't be worth it's while if it weren't hard would it now ...

 

That liquid glass turned out rather nice ... I might say it may even be a better choice than your initial mica ... besides, you're not going to have an open fire in the cabin ... would you ...? Just one question: Why didn't you trim that lower mold before ...

 

Cheers,

[popeye the sailor]

looking great Mark......good to see thing going your way     gonna be a sweet looking transom when your done 

[pete48]

Very Sweet Mark, Looking good

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[CharlieZardoz]

The paint and windows look nice Mark! She lives!

[Beef Wellington]

Mark - looking really nice, planking is now really showing off.  How did you make the window frames (in lubber parlance) - looks like you cut from sheet?

[CaptainSteve]

Awesome effect with the liquid-glazed windows, Mark. They really have that old-time look to them !!

[Jack12477]

Mark, just catching up. The liquid glass in the windows came out nice. I like the effect, very old and wavy looking.

[GLakie]

She's looking better all the time Mark. In reference to things being hard - - my variation on another old saying is "All Good Things to Those With the Patience for It". 

[Sjors]

Beautiful work Mark !!

I love your windows glass...

It looks so real.

Is there now a lot of wind in your house ???????    

 

Sjors

[jose_b]

Great work! I'd like to know more about windows glass construction in detail. I have no idea.

Edited February 5, 2016 by jose_b

[Burroak]

Mark your ship is looking great!

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up, Mark.  She's coming on very nicely.

 

John

[ScottRC]

The stern is coming along really well.  How is to work inverted though?  I'd put something on backwards. 

[BANYAN]

Great work on the stern Mark, some defining detail there which will really dress your lady nicely.  How long until she is upright?

 

cheers

 

Pat

[mtaylor]

Thanks for the likes and the comments.

 

 

Mark,

 

Just one question: Why didn't you trim that lower mold before ...

 

Cheers,

 

Hi Carl.   Simply put, it's a question of does the moling go around the taffrail or just to it?   I've been staring at the drawings (both NMM and Hahn's) a lot lately trying to sort out what carvings are there on the rail.   I think I've got it sorted out and it's gonna' be tough.  Hahn has a rough outlines of two figures and then some sort of vine or rope up higher.  I think the NMM shows acanthus much like near the catheads.I think I got it sorted and have trimmed them.   

 

 

The paint and windows look nice Mark! She lives!

 

Thanks Charlie.  That's not paint, BTW.  The black on the framing is archival pen (like a Sharpie but not a Sharpie).  The lights are 1/32" thick and the framing and munnions are a tad under 1/32" wide.  Between each light is 1/32" thick ebony.  The ink is there in case there's any gaps between them.  More for peace of mind than anything else. 

 

The stern is coming along really well.  How is to work inverted though?  I'd put something on backwards. 

 

Thanks, Scott.  It's not that hard actually.  Just a bit of a mindset.  I do take a heck of a lot of photos during the build and usually rotate them 180 degrees to right side up to keep myself sane.

 

Great work on the stern Mark, some defining detail there which will really dress your lady nicely.  How long until she is upright?

 

cheers

 

Pat

 

Thanks, Pat.   Hmm.. good question.  Stern exterior, rudder, quarter galleries, a few details along the outside of the hull, and the cheeks and bow rails.  I do flip it regularly to examine from a different perspective.  I also want the interior and exterior mostly done before cutting her loose from the build board but that might change.

Edited February 6, 2016 by mtaylor

[mtaylor]

Great work! I'd like to know more about windows glass construction in detail. I have no idea.

 

Hi Jose,  thanks for the comments.

 

I used Coreldraw to create a drawing and cut the windows out using the laser cutter.   They're 1/32" thick (roughly 0.5mm) and the munnions and outside framing are the same.  

 

In the photo, the frames are on top and you can see the size by comparing them to the dime in the picture.

 

To glaze them, I used MicroMark's Micro-Glaze.  It's a white liquid that when dry is is clear and thin.   Because the wood is so thin, I had to change the way I did it from the instructions because the frames warped badly.

 

I put the window frame on a piece of polyethylene bag (the stuff sticks to everything else including glass) and filled the openings with the glazing.  I put another piece of bag on top and then a piece of thick, heavy plate glass on top.  I let it sit for 24 hours and remove the top glass and bag.  At this point, the glaze was "set" but not dry and still white.  I left off the bag and glass until it was almost clear.  At this point the wood would start to warp again and I'd put the glass back on for another 12 hours or so.  

 

I hope that helps.

Edited February 6, 2016 by mtaylor

[jose_b]

Thank you very much, Mark, for the explanation.

[mobbsie]

Hi Mark,

 

Don't you find that working upside down all the blood rushes to your head

 

I love what your doing here mate and thanks for the step by step, the clear glazing is really quite authentic in it's shape, they look really good.

 

Working through the failures isn't it satisfying when it all comes together and you achieve those results. Well done mate.

 

Be Good

 

mobbsie

[Siegfried]

Hello Mark,

 

A wonderful inspiration. Thank you for sharing your technique of glazing the windows. Something I will test later on too.

 

Daniel

[mtdoramike]

WOW, that is tiny for so much detail. Great job Mark.

 

 

 

mike

[rafine]

Really nice work on those windows, Mark.

 

Bob