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

[Ulises Victoria]

Update and a mini-practicum.

 

Hello all. A small update on working on the bow area of the ship.

 

Although I described it before in another thread, I will post again here my method of making doors. I hope someone will benefit from it.

 

Start of planking/closing this area.

 

 

Here is how I make doors.

 

Start by spreading glue on an old business card. (Go to your desk. I'm sure you will find dozens of business cards of people you don't even know who they are. Put them to good use. )

 

Now glue a line of ROUND toothpicks. Try to avoid the glue from squeezing through the sides of the toothpicks. The cleanliness of the area between them is critical. (NOTE: The photo here looks exactly the opposite to what I am trying to tell you to avoid. It is from a previous attempt. 

 

Clamp and let dry overnight. The wet card will try to bend like in the photo above. This will help to prevent that.

 

When dry, paint with flat black paint. Here I used on the left milk paint, and on the right spray paint. I did not notice any difference by using either. Important: make sure the paint goes all the way between the toothpicks.

 

When dry, sand down to about half of the toothpicks. The roundness of them will allow you to make the black line between them wider or thinner, depending on what you want.

 

Here I made an experiment: after sanding both elements to about the same depth, I re-painted the one in the right to see if there was some difference after sanding it again.

 

Here is the result. The one in the right is the re-painted one, which I like better. To me it has more "personality"

 

Now cut to size

 

Here I added frames and sanded down a bit to reduce thickness.

 

 

Here I am sanding down the "Zs" to reduce thickness.

 

Drill small holes on the wood. I put a drop of Boiled Linseed Oil on a piece of fine sandpaper. The dust will mix with the BLO and fill the holes. This will make the effect of plugs. Great for deck planking. 

 

Doors ready and in place.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting!!!

 

Best regards.

Ulises

Edited April 28, 2016 by Ulises Victoria

[mtaylor]

Well done on the doors, Ulises.  

[GLakie]

Very nice Ulises! 

[edmay]

great looking doors ,well done Edwin

[Elijah]

Like others have said, great looking doors! Nice technique!

[Kelp]

Hello Ulises,

 

I have started looking at your build of the Royal Louis.  Very nice work!   I'm just beginning to work on the Heller plastic Royal Louis and your build photos will be a great help.  

 

A general question.. What did you use to glue the metal gunport frames to the hull, superglue or some kind of epoxy?  

 

Thanks,

Don

[Ulises Victoria]

Hello Don.

Thank you and all who replied, for your kind words.

 

Heller's Royal Louis in 1/200 if I remember correctly, was a pleasure to build. I gave that one to a very dear friend.

 

To glue dissimilar materials I always use  epoxy. I try to avoid CA (superglue) as much as possible and use it only for emergencies or desperate situations.

 

Thanks for watching!

 

Ulises

[Ulises Victoria]

Hello again, mates!

 

More than an update this is a recount of something I had to do again.

 

After placing the doors in my last post, I tried to open the hole for the bowsprit to pass through.

 

This is what happened.

 

Ouch! It was a tough call, but it has to be re-done.  Fortunately, I managed to save the doors.

 

So I removed the old planking and start over.

 

I am going to shamelessly confess that this time I am cheating. I will use again the pre-scribed balsa wood that I have in hand for this job.

I am here gluing some business cards in the back for added strength.

 

Actually, it was more work trying to fit exactly this part on all four sides plus the bowsprit opening.

Here I am placing a mock bowsprit. Had to add a couple of wood pieces so the bp could make full contact with its support.

 

Fixing that fix so that it looks good.

 

Things start to look better.

 

 

 

With doors attached. Which looks better....?

 

This...

 

... or this?

 

 

 

 

Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement. Badly needed!!!

 

Best regards

 

Ulises

Edited May 2, 2016 by Ulises Victoria

[Keith_W]

To drill large holes precisely and without accident, start with a small hole. Then swap out drill bits for larger sizes until you reach the size you need. 

 

Alternatively, if your drill has a center locator, just drill the small hole, use the center locator, and move straight up to the larger size. 

[Ulises Victoria]

Thank you Keith!

 

The problem here was the wood. I opened a small hole with a file and then used a small sanding drum to widen it. The wood started to fly in splinters. Part of the problem was that it had no back support. As you can see in the photos, there were only a couple of columns behind it.

 

Cheers!

[dgbot]

Nice recovery.  I have almost always had bad luck with sanding drums in tight areas.  The main reason is that they are too coarse.  I would take a dowel and glue some wet and dry sandpaper to it and then enlarge the hole.

David B

[Ulises Victoria]

David... the second time I fitted the hole around the bowsprit before placing the wall in place. In fact, at the moment of the photos it is not definitely glued yet.

[Ulises Victoria]

Addendum to previous post.

Completed the bow area with the steps. (I took some liberties here also. There was no way they could be fitted as per the drawings)

 

 

 

Thanks again!!!

Edited May 3, 2016 by Ulises Victoria

[edmay]

Hello Ulises, good recovery,keep your chin up your getting there.It's not a hobby if you have to rush. hope you are well .Edwin

[Elijah]

Nice fix! The bow is looking great! I learn a lot from these builds!

[Ulises Victoria]

Hello there, mates!

 

Another step I wasn't too excited about, was opening the sides of the bulwarks at the bow, so those large pieces of wood that support the anchors (English name, please?) could be fitted. 

Here they are

 

These pieces taper a bit at the inner end.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting!

 

Ulises

 

 

[mtaylor]

Nice looking catheads, Ulises.  (Those are used in getting the anchor back on board the ship.)   Looks like you're getting into the fiddly things now.

[pollex]

Hello Ulises; I've taken a quick look through your build.  I'd suggest you carefully check the

"pitch" or the angle of the bowsprit.  Check the angle with the waterline, as it looks very steep,

almost 45 degrees! Is it really supposed to be this steep?  Kind regards, pollex  (Calgary)

[Ulises Victoria]

Thank you all for your comments!

 

Pollex... I specially appreciate your comment. So I went to check things and this is what I did and found:

 

I measured the angle in the plans and it is 34º

 

 

I don't know any method to actually measure the angle in the ship so this is what I came up with:

 

Placed a bubble thingy on the deck to check for correct level.

 

 

I then used the same 34º in my tool and checked by eye and hand how close the bowsprit angle was to 34º. against the waterline.

In my opinion, it is very close, but as I said, this may be a very crude method for checking that. Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated. (If the ship looks not aligned, its because the camera is tilted.

 

 

Thank you!

Edited May 5, 2016 by Ulises Victoria

[Ulises Victoria]

Now fit this here... yeah, right!

 

Coming along!

 

 

 

Part dry fitted in place.

 

 

Best regards!

[Elijah]

Stuffing the gratings in there looks difficult ! Good job!

[BANYAN]

You're not mucking around, your progress is impressive!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Ulises Victoria]

Thank you all for your likes and comments! 

I was expecting some comments on my crude method of measuring the angle of the bowsprit. Perhaps a suggestion on how to do it more properly, or if what I did can be taken as a close enough method.  

 

Thanks again for visiting!!!

[BANYAN]

Hi Ulises, the method for measuring mast and jib boom / bowsprit angles is also dependent on what tools (levels) you have.  I think what you have done verifies you are in the ballpark.

 

One method I use is very similar top your approach, in that I ensure the work surface and waterline are parallel.  I then use a digital angle level/protractor which I zero on the work surface and then place on the spar to be measured and read off the angle (adjusting the alignment chocks etc as I go to achieve the correct angle).

 

Another, more crude method I have used is to print off a paper protractor (series of lines at regularly spaced intervals).  I stick this to a temporary holder (scrap wood) then use a plumb-bob to align a true perpendicular and adjust the paper protractor to the required orientation and perpendicular alignment. Then read off the spar angle against the lines. Again you need to ensure the work surface and the waterline are parallel and preferably level.  I hope that makes sense.  I used this method until I purchased the digital angle level which are quite affordable - very often on special for a few dollars at our local hardware outlets such as Bunnings (in Australia).

 

This image of one is taken from an eBay advertisement; it differs from mine in that the bubble level on the top is an additional enhancement.  I have not ties etc with this provider with the image used only to illustrate the device.

  

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited May 7, 2016 by BANYAN

[Ulises Victoria]

Thank you so much for your detailed explanation, Pat. Just what I needed!!!

 

Best regards

 

Ulises

[Ulises Victoria]

Hello all.

Finally the dreaded part 112 is done!!!

 

I am happy with it although it has its flaws. As you can see there is some unevenness here and there. I'm gonna' have to live with that.

 

As you can see here, the instructions say to use several 2x2 woods to fill the space and then shape accordingly. I decided to use a piece of balsa instead.

 

Here I am making a shape with cardboard of the profile.

 

 

 

 

 

Planking starts. Due to the nature of the shape and the difficulty to properly clamp these planks, I decided to use contact cement

to do this job. Worked wonderfully. I also changed the size of the planks from .5 x 4 mm to .5 x 3mm.

 

 

 

Making sure both sides of that part will be at the same height.

 

 

 

Both parts are finished and painted. Here is starboard

 

 

When finished, I noticed some spots that were a bit bouncy, meaning they were not very well glued. And I was undecided about what color to use here. I decided to give a coat of CA to the entire area and then paint it black, to match the color of the wales. Unfortunately, the paint I used to paint the wales became unusable so I used a different paint, and it shows when looking closely.

 

General view of the ship at this moment

 

 

Thanks for watching, mates.

 

All the best.

 

PD We celebrate mother's day today. Best wishes to all moms here, either members or members' mom.

 

Ulises

Edited May 10, 2016 by Ulises Victoria

[marktiedens]

Good move with the balsa filler. I used those 2by2 strips on mine & it looked awful.

 

Mark

[Ulises Victoria]

Thank you all for the many likes. They really mean something to me.

 

Hey Heinz (Karleop), are you coming to Monterrey for your niece's wedding?

[Ulises Victoria]

Hello all. Update.

 

Worked the metallic parts in the bow.

 

I fixed these parts like this. With thew upper part level with the top part of the keel.

 

 

 

Then I realize they were too low. No room for the anchors holes.

 

 

Then I looked more closely and saw that they should be higher: The top part in line with the back of the neck of the figure.

 

I unglued them and fixed in their new position

 

 

 

 

They look better now.

 

I painted them black and then drybrushed the gold so that some of the black showed out. I like the "old" effect.

 

Thanks for watching!!!

 

Ulises

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BANYAN]

Very nice Ulises; that paint effect on the decorations looks very effective.

 

cheers

 

Pat