Royal Louis 1780 by Ulises Victoria - FINISHED - Mamoli - Scale 1/90 - French 126-gun ship

[Landlubber Mike]

Great choice of a next model, I am looking forward to following your build.  Your Vasa came out great, so I have high expectations for this build (no pressure!)  

[dgbot]

Another thing you can test is the length of your planking.

[Karleop]

Hola Ulises, this can be named as "The strange case of the missing plank"      

 

Seeing your picture I think I found the mystery, there was in the plank I mark red:

 

 

I do not know how advanced are you in the planking, but probably you can take off part of it and repeated again.

 

Saludos

 

[BANYAN]

Hi Ulises, nice build!  WRT the planking, I once experienced a similar butt-shift pattern issue and in my case it was due to me using a central King plank.  I proceeded to build the pattern down one side of the hatch opening then worked across the bottom and forgot about the central (king plank).  I can't quite make out whether you are using this planking technique of a central king plank and then starting the shift from either side of this or not?  May not be the cause of your issue but just in case

 

cheers and good luck in resolving this.

 

Pat

[Ulises Victoria]

Hey Karl. I am attaching here a clean photo of the area. You will see is not that simple. By modifying that plank I will destroy a proper 4 step joint just where the black spot is. This is like a Rubik cube: You put one piece in place and two others move out of place. 

 

 

Clare (post above) had a keen eye and pointed out something I had missing. In these photos you will see there are 8 planks

in the fore side of the center opening of the false deck, and 7 and just a very small fraction of the adjacent planks in the aft. So that is a difference of 4mm, however, the difference in the measurements of the opening ends is just 1.5mm...       

 

 

Anyway, I decided I'm not wasting any more time with this and  will continue with this as is. This is an area that will be barely visible, and with the masts and rigging, you won't be able to peek inside directly from above. So be it. I'm glad this is my "learning" deck.

 

@Pat. Yes I started with a central plank starting at the bow, and kept working a bit on every side of it and advancing towards the central opening. I was very careful that my pattern was not disturbed at any point.

 

Oh, and to the starter of this post 

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/2113-are-measurements-really-that-critical-moved-by-moderator/

 a big YES THEY ARE!

Edited April 24, 2014 by Ulises Victoria

[DenPink]

Hi Ulises

 

Doing a very fine build, this is a build I would like to do.

 

 

Denis.

[CaptainSteve]

UV,

I may be wrong - it may just be the camera playing tricks with my eyes after a hard day at work - but, it looks as though the planking has progressed inwards from the bulkheads the further astern they go.

 

Here's what I mean: 

 

 

The green arrows indicate planks that meet the bulkheads, but a bit further down the same strakes, the planks appear to be a bit closer to the centre of the deck.

However, this could be because the deck grows wider between the two sets of arrows, thus the bulkheads would be wider.

 

Of course, I probably never would have noticed - and certainly never would have counted your planks - if you hadn't pointed out the problem.

 

Anyway, as you said, it is not going to be noticeable seeing as how this is a lower deck. If it were me, I would've just taken a slightly fuzzy photo and tried to pretend it was all perfect.

   

Edited April 24, 2014 by CaptainSteve

[Ulises Victoria]

Thanks Denis.

CaptainSteve : Yes the shape of the hull is curved. I wouldn't rule out completely the fact that my planks may have deviated from the Parallel line, or whatever. But if all the planks are exactly 4mm wide, then they shouldn't... or not?

As I said before, I will not waste more time trying to figure out what happened and just move on.

 

However, on my upper decks, I am going to have to be extra careful and draw lines all over to ensure eveness.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Ulises Victoria

[CaptainSteve]

Good idea .... and try taking slightly fuzzy photos next time you notice a problem with this beautiful ship !!

   

[NAZGÛL]

Nice to see your new subject, a beautiful ship indeed.

 

 

/Matti

[demonborger]

What are you trying to say?

 

1: of course the deck is widest where the red arrow is

2: The tops of the bulkheads (i think 7-11, i.e the ones in the middle) are thinner than the other bulkead tops because they will be cut off after your have planked the hull, so you can then plank the inside of them. The other bulkead tops are where the upper decks will go.

 

Between a slightly wider deck and the slightly thinner bulkheads you end up with a gap of a couple of mm.

 

Or if you are worried about the planks bending to one side then measure the gap between them as they go on the two smaller false decks aside of the hole where the gratings will go. 


The gaps on the outside are ok. The problem is to ensure the width right down the middle remains exactly the same as the planking branches off each side of the where the gratings will go.

[Bindy]

Every ship should have her own mysteries!

 

So please do not call it a mistake (it looks too good), and just call it a a cunning plan to give your Royal Louis her own special touch!

[Dimitris71]

Good morning. A Very beautiful ship you got there.And a very nice work i must say.

[demonborger]

Same thing happened for me. When the gratings are one, and the ships boats, and the staircases, and the cannons, and the rigging and other deck furniture then it becomes an irrelevant quirk.

 

It's because the rectangle hole in the false deck is actually a trapezium. 

[Ulises Victoria]

Thank you Dimitris.

 

Thank you demonborger... so it wasn't me...

 

Bindy: I won't call it a mistake... it's just a glitch.   Thanks for your comment. 

 

I'm including a couple of photos of how far I am with the planking. I know I don't have to plank the whole deck, but I just want to do it.

I am skipping for now the planking of the edges of the deck between frames 6 and 12. Since I will have to break the tip of those frames after the first hull planking is done, to help form the bulwarks, I will plank that area after that operation to cover the broken parts.

Also I want to show you this notebook I had made by a friend here. This will be my written log of the Royal Louis. I will write here every step I do and when. Also to more accurately keep track of the time invested.

 

Cheers to all!!!

 

[Philc40]

She looks just swell, I must congratulate you on such an undertaking!

[Ulises Victoria]

She looks just swell, I must congratulate you on such an undertaking!

I hope I didn't bite more than I can chew! 

[Ulises Victoria]

demonborger: You seem to know a lot about this build.

Instructions say, or that's what I understand, that after placing the lowermost false decks to plank from frame 2 to frame 6 and then from frame 12 to the end, leaving the area between frame 6 to 12 unplanked.

The way I see it it is exactly the opposite, as it's the area between frame 6 and 12 what is left uncovered by the upper decks, so this is the area that should be planked.

What are your thoughts?

 

Thank you very much in advance.

demonborger. I finally understood what they mean. They say do not plank the area between frames 6 to 12, but they fail to specify that this area will be planked later once you plank the hull and use the tips of those frames to build the bulwarks. Those tips will be cut then and then you proceed with the planking of this area, covering the broken frames. This however seems like it will be harder later to do an even planking job. You need to match two opposing ends. What I am doing is planking the whole false deck, and leave to later just the area near the edges of the frames that will be cut. I feel this will make a better and easier planking job.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2014 by Ulises Victoria

[jeff shreve]

Ulises, Great work on this one so far !  Way beyond my capabilities yet to tackle that one.

 

I also picked one up from ME for 440.00 back in Nov.  I've had no problems with Mamoli instructions, not perfect being a little vague in parts but so are most. Only issue I've had with Mamoli is just barely enough or just shy on the quantity of wood.

 

Michael :  As for the "coastal"  Florida hobby shop - I have a Mantua Le Superbe that was ordered and paid for in Sept 2013 and no sign of it yet and no response from them. Expensive learning experience of who not to buy from.

Edited May 2, 2014 by jeff shreve

[demonborger]

Mamoli usually gives enough for the lime wood, but the walnut and "boxwood" amount is generally just on the mark or short of it...

 

It's a shame because I actually like the "boxwood" they supply for the second planking around the gunports, it is more orange and less yellow after oiled.

[Javier Sanchez]

A lot of work. Looks great.

 

Muchas felicidades

 

Javier

[Ulises Victoria]

A few more photos.

 

I must say and confess that I am not 100% happy with my results so far. I just realized I am rushing things and I'm making some mistakes. So starting today I will slow down and do things more carefully.

 

First mistake: I placed those horizontal beams before sanding the deck. Huuuuge mistake. Nothing really bad happened, only more a more difficult and time consuming job.

 

 

Fitting of a piece of wood to form the curvature of the beams that later will make the deck curve.

 

 

Once the columns are glued, the piece of wood is removed and the curve remains.

 

 

 

 

Fitting of false deck slots against bulkheads is awful.

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2014 by Ulises Victoria

[Ulises Victoria]

Arthur! How nice to see you my friend.

Thank you for your kind words. Yes, size will be an issue once the bowsprit is fitted, but I will find a way around.

About the planking... the main problem was that because of the large central opening in the deck, I was not able to lay a continuous central plank line all the way from end to end. I thought that wouldn't matter, but in the end it did. No big deal here as most of those decks will be covered later.

 

I just saw your Vanguard build, and it's truly impressive!

 

Cheers! 

[Jean-Pierre]

What a great choice of a model, a pleasant change from the Victory, and probably an eve, more beautiful ship.  Congratulations.

 

Mamoli may not be the best provider of woods, but I had excellent (and easy) results by just running a felt tip black marker along one of the sides of each plank, but NOT on the butt ends or the ink would bleed into the wood.  For these I use a black pencil on both ends of the plank.  Also note that for a clean result, the plank sides should be slightly sanded to get a nice, flat edge.

 

A mix of different plank colours looks beautiful on a model, but it was not like that on the real thing I'm afraid.  I must admit I did just the same as you on my last model, but afterwards I found the contrast too sharp.  So after sanding, I painted the whole deck with a very light grey wash which preserved all the detail and also toned down the exagerated colour differences.

 

Thanks for the excellent build log and I'm looking forward to your pics.

 

Happy modelling

 

JP

 

As a general problem, I wonder if decks in those days were planked with nicely parallel planks.  On the full size reconstruction of Hermione (a frigate that was more or less contemporary to the Royal Louis, the planks are taperes gradually to end up parallel to the ship sides.  The same layout has been used by Chris Watton for his kit of the Russian Mercury (Victory/Amati Models). I felt free to use this pattern on my last model (Dutch Whaler), and it turned out easier than I had thought...  Just a thought, because your planking looks great.

[Ulises Victoria]

Thank you JP. (I guess you did mean Vasa, not Victory?)

 

In fact, I wonder if back then, using only hand tools, planks were even cut perfectly straight or masts perfectly round. My guess is that a bit of imperfection would render a model of ships of those years more realistic?

 

Cheers

Edited May 22, 2014 by Ulises Victoria

[Ulises Victoria]

Ah... I see your point and what JP meant.

Thank you my friend.

[Ulises Victoria]

Small update. May 23 2014.

 

Transom work in progress.

It took me a long time to finally decide how to do this area.

The plans show the 4 per side wood curved supports to be equally separated, but there was no way you could fit the metallic gunport frames and have the same distance between each 4 at each side.

So I glued the supports after measuring that the metallic gunports were even. I then carved them down flush with the supports and lastly proceeded to plank.

 

This is not finished yet, just lightly sanded.

 

View of deck

 

First steps in transom. .

 

Rudder and rear gunport frames glued and shaped.You will see a bit of wood had to be added to make the height of the columns equal

 

 

Planking

 

Remember this is not finished yet

 

This is where I tested different finishes and treatments to help me decide what I'm going to do with the decks.

 

Thanks for watching

Edited May 23, 2014 by Ulises Victoria

[Bindy]

Hi Ulises Victoria,

Thank you for the photos and update.  The perspective really let's me see what you mean, and the details too but I love the way you have tested the different finishes and treatments and that is a great lesson for me!  The bit about slowing down and not rushing things might be a good lesson for me too haha. Nah, who am I kidding? haha

[Ulises Victoria]

Thank you for visiting, my dear!

[fnick]

Hi Ulises

 

Nice little palette of finishes! Do you know which one you're going to go for? Oh and good progress too

 

Nick