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

[mtaylor]

Finally back in the shipyard.  Only part time at this point but waiting for the last of the "re-decorating" projects that the Admiral ordered to arrive.  

 

I'm planking the lower deck and adding waterways at this point.  No pics yet as I'm experimenting with the best way to meet the "French style" of deck planking.  Seems they used a combination of tapering, hook scarfs in places, and drop planks. Then there's the mix of plank widths to contend with....but that's different headache at this point.   Once I'm done planking (and re-do's) I'll post some pictures.  

[popeye the sailor]

glad to see your back in the shipyard........

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Mark

It appears that I've missed much since I was last on due to personal reasons. Glad that you are back in the ol'ship yard.

Looking so good on the beams, it's almost a pity to cover them up.

Happy Father's

Greg

[mtaylor]

Thanks for all the "likes" and comments.  After getting everything else around the house done and then getting the new mill set up, i'm busily planking the lower deck.

 

The first six strakes are finally in and I'm happy with them although there's some serious sanding in my future as they aren't all the same thickness...    But I've sorted out the planking scheme that I need to lay down.  This deck is all 1 foot wide and 4" thick planking.  It's actually thicker then the gundeck which is 3" thick but mostly not as wide.  I'll fight that battle when I get to the gundeck as there are some varying widths and thicknesses there.  

 

For the lower deck, as near as I can find, the planks are all run pretty much the same width from fore to aft with hook scarfs at the bow and some tapering at the stern.  I'm going full width but with the partitions fore and aft, I'm not planking much beyond them...  One reason is that the Admirals Plaque is behind the aft partition in the gunroom.

 

Here's a pic.  

 

 

[BANYAN]

Nice work Mark; sounds like you need a thicknesser

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks great Mark.  Nice that the planks are a constant width, makes things easier

[mtaylor]

Nice work Mark; sounds like you need a thicknesser

 

cheers

 

Pat

 

Ah but I do have one but the problem occured when ripping the planks off the stock and my thickness sander prefers the strips to be a bit longer.  I'll sand the deck smooth.  

[cog]

Ah but I do have one but the problem occured when ripping the planks off the stock and my thickness sander prefers the strips to be a bit longer.  I'll sand the deck smooth.  

Nothing beats manual labour

[mtaylor]

Nothing beats manual labour

 

A pencil sander does.      

[Richard Griffith]

Beautiful work Mark~!  Thanks for posting.  

 

BTW, I bought the Micro Mark heavy duty mill with several key tooling items and am very happy with it.  It has a brushless motor that has some real muscle and the collets hold the cutters snug and true.  The dividing head is very useful for making capstan barrels and the like.  At the moment I am milling a set of oar locks for a peapod, which will be a gift to one of my granddaughters.  

 

Duff

[Greg the peg leg sailor]

G'day Mark

Beautiful job on the deck planking so far. Don't cover up that plaque.......it would be a SIN.

Dumb question for you. Do the French ships use KING PLANKS (in the centre) which are thicker planks thank the rest, on the top deck like the English ships? If they do, what's the name of it?

Havagoodone memattieee

Greg

Edited September 5, 2016 by Greg the peg leg sailor

[mtaylor]

Beautiful work Mark~!  Thanks for posting.  

 

BTW, I bought the Micro Mark heavy duty mill with several key tooling items and am very happy with it.  It has a brushless motor that has some real muscle and the collets hold the cutters snug and true.  The dividing head is very useful for making capstan barrels and the like.  At the moment I am milling a set of oar locks for a peapod, which will be a gift to one of my granddaughters.  

 

Duff

 

The MM heavy duty mill is a totally different critter than the one I had.   This new one is probably closer to yours in function.  

 

G'day Mark

Beautiful job on the deck planking so far. Don't cover up that plaque.......it would be a SIN.

Dumb question for you. Do the French ships use KING PLANKS (in the centre) which are thicker planks thank the rest, on the top deck like the English ships? If they do, what's the name of it?

Havagoodone memattieee

Greg

 

The Admiral and I talked about it.  This one is the "Easter Egg"... hidden.  There will be another on the base and perhaps different wording.   The hidden one is there just in case the outer is lost.  Wishful thinking that someone might find my model interesting enough to look inside with an endoscope.  

 

I can't speak for "all" French ships... but on the lower decks, there are two strakes to the outside of the main hatch and run full length of the deck. These are thicker than "normal" planks and let into the beams.  On the gundeck, similar but with thicker planks between the two strakes.  All being let into the beams such that the deck is smooth.  There's also another row of strakes on the gundeck about midway between the hull and the centerline (on each side) that thicker and let into the beams.  

[src]

She is coming along nicely Mark.

Doesnt matter if anybody sees the "Easter Egg" in my opinion, you and the Admiral are the ones who matter.

Sam

[popeye the sailor]

great to see some planking going on.....I like the changes you made to the holds and the mast steps.   perhaps figuring out a way to sand a group of the strips to the same thickness,  before you cut them to plank length.........might lessen sanding in such close quarters.   that's going to be a task and a half!

 

she's looking good!  

[Piet]

Nice progress Mark and who cares about a little sanding, you get paid by the hour - - - - right?

 

Cheers,

[Sjors]

Mark,

 

I have a pencil sander and believe me....you want to do it by hand !!!!!!

Nice planking so far   

 

Sjors

[shipmodel]

Hi Mark -

 

Checking in again and love what I am seeing.  Those deck beams are very nicely done, and you should be justifiably proud of them.

 

As for decking, you have to be careful about the differences between British and French practice.  Since the French were strategically blockaded by the British for most of this period, their ship designs favored speed over carrying capacity.  With lighter hulls and scantlings they could make more knots, but the ships 'worked' much more than their British counterpart of similar size.  To counteract this they strengthened the decks with longitudinal stiffeners called binding strakes that were thicker and set into the deck beams, much the way the stringers stiffened the fuselage in those balsa wood planes we all built as kids.

 

Here are several contemporary cross sections of French ships.  Note that the outer binding strakes are set into the deck beams but do not rise above the deck surface. However, the ones toward the center rise above the rest of the deck level.  In fact, the entire center section of the deck is raised.  Frequently these binding strakes are shown on models as being contrasting color from the rest of the deck.  Whether this was true on actual ships, I do not know.

 

Further, as seen in the models, the gratings are set flush with this raised section of deck and do not have the coamings that are such a feature of British ships.

 

Didn't mean to make extra work for you, but hope it helps.

 

Be well

 

Dan

 

 

 

 

  

[mtaylor]

Dan,

 

That's part of where I'm buried in....       But life has got in the way but I am making progress.   There's also the issue of bending the deck planking to fit the curve of the hull with a bit of head scratching going on.  But I think I'm on the right track at this point.  Lower deck, not raised in the center section, gundeck it is raised.   Also I'm noting that the coaming for the hatches sit on top of the planks at least on the lower deck.  I did the first version gundeck with the raised center section and flush hatches.  

 

I'm also looking hard at the Belle Poule plans but they seem a bit different as the center planks weren't raised.  And then there's the matter of the Great Cabin decking...  which I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

 

I do believe that 3rd picture down is the cross-section for Licorne.      Now if we look at the that section... lower deck hatch coamings and gundeck coamings are on top of the planks, not flush.

 

I'm not pushing too hard on the lower deck..  I'm getting a feel for the work and the look and have had several starts, stops and restarts but that seems to go with the turf.  The gundeck will get the full monty or as much of it as I can bring about. 

 

The other thing I'm still running up against is some things were done the "old way" similar to Renommee as when built.  Other's done the "new" way more like Belle Poule.  I hope it'll get sorted the further I get.  

Edited September 29, 2016 by mtaylor

[cog]

Good to see you got a chance to pick up some of the tools of the trade! Looking forward to see more progress ...

 

Cheers

[Bill Hime]

Good morning Mark!

just spent 2 cups of coffee catching up on your build. Beautiful, clean work on the beams..and I love that jig! Something I say frequently to customers, "It's just wood. We can reshape it, replace it or omit it."  

 

 

Bill

[Landlocked123]

Hi Mark,

 

The build is looking great!!!! And though it's taken awhile, your patience and willingness to rework bits has paid off.

 

One thought is that it might help to think like the French. First about women, second about food and lastly about the business at hand.

 

Best,

John

[John Allen]

awesome!

[mtaylor]

Thanks for looking in and either "liking" or commenting.  

 

Just a bit of an update.  Forgive me if I get longwinded as I'm thinking outloud here... and open to suggestion.

 

We're still slogging away at planking the lower (orlop) deck.  Thankfully, I have a Proxxon Belt Sander which makes tapering the planks go quickly and accurately.  I do finish fitting using sanding sticks though as a few times, things have got away from me ended up chewed up and across the room.  Fumble fingers I am.

 

The deck will still need serious sanding but that's on hold until after it's planked and the ceiling has been put it.  My thinking is why clean up two messes when I can do the whole thing once and clean up once.   

 

The mizzen mast step is in for location only and not glued.

 

This whole process has me thinking   further ahead than normal.. like the next two decks worth.  I should install two beams/carlings at each hatchway first then fully plank and cut out the hatchways after planking. The center planks do need to be tapered also (the raised planking) The hatches need to sit on top of the deck planks.  <facepalm>  I've also discovered that not all the hatches on this deck and the gundeck have grates.  Many have planks over the hatchways instead of grates.  

 

I'm also fiddling with plans and seeing if I can copy the Belle Poule planking scheme onto them.  This will let (hopefully) me cut the deck planks from a sheet of wood using the Deathstar.  The Great Cabin is still being researched.  The Belle Poule had a lozenge type parquet deck there.  Some other 8 pdr and 12 pdr frigates, just had straight planks...  so  I may end up flipping a coin.  Nah... I'm leaning towards the parquet and again, running the pattern up in Corel and lasercutting it.   I find I'm getting lazy in my old age.

 

Then there's the partitions on this deck and the gundeck (only 1 there) plus the cabins and storerooms.  I'm working on drawings to make templates for these.   It appears that the partition on the gundeck for the Great Cabin wasn't removable.  I'm still looking for info on this.  As a sidenote, the Great Cabin was a wardroom and not the Captains cabin.  There was a removable canvas partition in the center area for his bedplace which was taken down every morning.  The cabin itself and the quarter galleries was used by all the officers as a common room for meetings, rest, and meals.  There was a lot of complaining about this by the officers and even more after the edict was passed that roundhouses for the officers on the aft castle were not allowed.  They were allowed (unofficially) for awhile but had to be temporary in nature.  At the time of her capture, Licorne had quite a few which probably affected her handling.  I'm not putting those on as to my eye, they detract from her lines and appearance. 

 

I don't have the problem on this deck, but on the next up, using the Deathstar will let me mark accurately where all the eyebolts go around the main mast.

 

Anyway, enough out me.  Any thoughts or insights are, as always, appreciated.

 

Edited October 2, 2016 by mtaylor

[BANYAN]

Keep smiling and you'll get there Mark -  the deck is coming on well.  And... yes why clean up twice.  Good luck with copying the deck planking plan; that wilol certainly save you a lot of time.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[WackoWolf]

WOW, you got a lot of thinking to do, and a heck of a lot of information to get and go through. Either way you go will be your choice. I feel that you doing a excellent job and have over come a lot with whatever life trows at you. Keep the post and pictures coming, I have been watching since the start and will be here when its done.

[Jack12477]

Looking good, Mark

[ggrieco]

Beautiful job Mark, can't wait to see how the cabins come together!

[FriedClams]

Hello Mark,

 

I've only been on MSW for a few months and it's taking some time to get around and see what folks are building.  I just wanted to say that the work you're doing on this build is simply top notch and the info you provide as you proceed is so helpful for a novice like me. Thanks.

 

Gary 

[mtaylor]

Thanks for the comments and the "likes".  

 

The best laid plans of mice and men... an Admiralty meeting.  We discussed progress and plans then "if I can't see it, why do it?  You'll save a couple of months, right?".   "Err.. yes.  But I want to do it because it's there.  I'll know it."  Well, so much for argument.  It's her ship and I'll do it.  

 

So,.. I scraped the planking, added the oven and mizzen mast step and applied a coat of Wipe on Poly.   And then moved to the gundeck.  

 

Beams are in and the furniture on deck was salvaged from Version 1.  It's all destined for the scrapbox except for the riding bitts.  I just decided I can do better.   There's a dummy bowspit in place.  Carlings need to be added at various hatchways.

 

So... 4" of deck planking (except the center area which is 8") and 4" for the coamings.  4" thick coamings for the hatches on top of the 8" center area.  What else... planking will follow the French style of following the hull lines.  And the ceiling.   

 

Sorry for thinking out loud...   There's a pantry around the mizzen mast and rudder lines, a "cabinet" around the rudder, a step/storage at the transom along with all the other furniture on the gundeck.  The partition for the wardroom/Great Room is on the table as far as possible.  It was removable as was the captain's and executive officer's bedplace.   I won't get into all the politics and issues with the wardroom not being the Captain's cabin, roundhouses (Captain's bedplace and dayroom), etc.  

 

I'm done babbling.... I have my work cut out for me so here's pics.....

 

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Some work going on there looks superb 

 

 

OC.