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L'Orenoque Mamoli 1:100 scale

The Gavel said:
What ho, shipmates!

Just a quick and dirty picture show of the progress on the inboard sponson fascade. First pic: I had already made the columns based on the profile of the top of the sponson. I was puzzled for a moment how to deal with the fact that the doors needed to be flush with the side of the sponson when it dawned on me to plank the sides in 1/32" thick x 1/8" wide strips (DUH). You can see that in the second picture. I know the seams look very big and uneven in spots. That's cuz they are ROTF. After sanding and finishing with tung oil everything looks much better, I assure you. Pics 3 and 4: In place so that I coud see how it looked. You'll notice the temporary bridge. I like the width 3/4" or 6.5 scale feet (2 meters) wide. Not too wide? I think the bridge should catch the eye given the wide open deck.

View attachment 563398View attachment 563399View attachment 563400View attachment 563403



I'm working on the port inboard sponson fascade today. With a fair wind, I may be able to complete the sponson fascade project AND build the bridge by lights-out on Sunday. Other news, since the ship has 2 hawse holes per side, I decided to give her 2 anchors per side. Without measuring :rolleyes: I ordered 4 Amati French style 35mm wide (fluke to fluke) anchors from Ages of Sail. They looked a little small. :rolleyes: Then I went to the shipyard, pulled out the kit anchors and compared everything to my set of L'Aigle 1:100 scale plans. Turns out the kit anchors are nicely in scale for the best bower and small bower. I will use the Amati anchors to give the appearance of sheet anchors:cool: (Before anyone says anything about relative sizes of anchors - I re-read Jim's @Jimsky post about anchor sizes and types from his review of Dry Dock's anchor kits ROTF)

Happy modeling!

Blessings.
Chuck
Click to expand...
Chuck,

YIKES - I was so confused - NOW I understand much better -- ignorance can be fixed or so I've been told ROTF
 
What ho, shipmates!

Yup. Still working on L'Orenoque. Sometimes I think the work will never stop. I will never be done. Sysiphus, Tantalus, Ixion anyone?

I have been working on the sail-bearing spars. Here they are on top of the scale plans that came with the kit. I took the dimensions for my spars from the French plans for L'Orenoque's sister Magellan and the 650hp steam frigate Isly. I essentiall duplicated the spars on the foremast of Magellan for the barque rig I am giving my L'Orenoque. The Isly is barque rigged and I used her dimensons to get some idea of the difference between the fore and main mast yards - answer - very little, so I am comfortable with my choice not to make the mainmast yards 1 - 2.5 mm wider. Sue me. The spencer gaffs are another story - I stuck with the given length for the foremast gaff, but I shortened the mainmast gaff so that it wouldn't interfere with the mizzen. Again. Sue me. For the mizzen, I followed the Magellan dimensions BTW Google AI is really coming along on the translation of the French nauticle terminology.

As you can see below, the kit is off on the lengths and to some degree on the widths. The difference on the lower yards, the fore and main spencer gaffs and the mizzen gaff topsail is quite pronounced. You'll also notice that the plans call for booms on the fore and main :eek: :eek: :eek: which are not indicated on any of the sail and spar plans in any of the French plans I found. So, no booms on the fore and main on my version of L'Orenoque.

lo spars 1.jpg

lo spars 2.jpglo spars 3.jpg

In this shot the blue indicates the given lenght. The red indicates the lenght of the head of the sail. It made sense to me.

lo spars 4.jpg

Now, back to stropping blocks and waiting for my HUGE order of scale rope to walk to central Missouri from Toronto.

Blessings. Peace. Gratitude.
Chuck
 
I really must stop buying kits just because they are cheap... look, i finally found the Endeavors longboat to go with my Endeavor , really pleased ! But i had to pay 100€ for it , because it came with some old cast wheel Mamoli tramp paddle steamer. No idea what i will do with that ! In the stash !20260709_095006.jpg
 
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Martin By Eye said:
I really must stop buying kits just because they are cheap... look, i finally found the Endeavors longboat to go with my Endeavor , really pleased ! But i had to pay 100€ for it , because it came with some old cast wheel Mamoli tramp paddle steamer. No idea what i will do with that ! In the stash !View attachment 617662
Click to expand...
Martin! Love it! Please post some snaps of the contents of the tramp paddle steamer box! And, it would be a waste not to build it - pas vrai?

Blessings.
Chuck
 
The Gavel said:
Martin! Love it! Please post some snaps of the contents of the tramp paddle steamer box! And, it would be a waste not to build it - pas vrai?

Blessings.
Chuck
Click to expand...
I will build it one day ,of course, god willing,and when the pile goes down a bit, i just enjoy joking around ! Having previously said i would not shell out for this kit i should be a bit ashamed, but, when the price is right....Now there is only the question of HOW to build it .
Disco madness or a la Française ?
It seems some crazy man has already done all the research , so i will have to do some serious considering ! ROTF
I will take a few photo's over the weekend, it is complete i believe.
 
unboxing? This is the (much) older Mamoli boxed kit, as shown it is easily distinguishable from Chuck's Dusek kit.

I'll try to use the same order as your post on page three, Chuck, so that you can make a straight comparison:

20260710_141208.jpg20260710_134627.jpg
so as you can see most parts are pre cut out, stand is solid beech, windows and doors in some wild green plastic (we know where that is going)
strangely enough there are no ladders of any sort, allthough that is the only thing that seems to be missing ....bizzare

20260710_135114.jpg
rather nice cast wheel housing grids (they gave me...3 ?) , traditional turned wood capstans and wheel, cast chainplates and port hinges.

20260710_135357.jpg
traditional cut hatch grids, precuts and a set of boats which i am not sure is original, rear deco, cast again.

20260710_135651.jpg20260710_135758.jpg
Deadeyes and blocks ( probably enough for about 1 mast ! ) very similar, but belaying pins in cast which seems in better scale.

20260710_140015.jpg20260710_140200.jpg20260710_140306.jpg
same castings here, but everything is pre-blacked, which is handy. I think the railing stanchions may well end up on L'Aigle.

20260710_140405.jpg
guns are REAL BRASS on cast carriages, but equally ridiculous !

20260710_140539.jpg
cast paddle wheels, luckily they are pretty flat and complete.

20260710_140653.jpg
more of the same, dismal cordage, but, carved wooden ships boats

.20260710_140828.jpg20260710_141101.jpg
the basics. (No sailcloth) (but you do still get a big hole in the deck ROTF )

So, what can i say ? I think personally that in some ways the quality of the fittings is actually better (allthough thats not saying much !) apart from the windows and doors.
I like the precutting, there are no laser charred edges to clean up and the quality of the wood seems correct, allthough i find it lacking in colour due to being designed to be painted, which i try to avoid personally. Definitely not something i would like to pay full wack for, but we knew that already !

To anyone that finds one of this age at a good price, i would say that there is nothing that has degraded over time apart from the elastic bands around the wood.
 
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Dear Martin! You need to buy wooden strips to simulate the decking: Mamoli’s strips are too wide—as if the planks were made from a baobab tree. You need strips no wider than 3.5 mm.
 
The Gavel said:
Yup. Still working on L'Orenoque. Sometimes I think the work will never stop. I will never be done.
Click to expand...
Hi Chuck,

Many years ago I was talking with a master modeler about deciding when a model is finished. His comment, which I hold to be true, was "You are never finished working on a model. You just decide to move to a new adventure". The problem for me is that I have too many new adventures started. :)

Bill
 
Martin By Eye said:
unboxing? This is the (much) older Mamoli boxed kit, as shown it is easily distinguishable from Chuck's Dusek kit.

I'll try to use the same order as your post on page three, Chuck, so that you can make a straight comparison:
Click to expand...
Martin! Thank you for going to the trouble! The biggest difference seems to be the castings. The cast wheel frames versus the wooden ones I built. The castings look nice, but I'm not sure that they are more refined than the wooden wheels. The "false" deck with the olympic sized pool - looks like it has been finished already. Given what you paid for it, totally worth the price!

Blessings.
Chuck
 
Bill-R said:
Hi Chuck,

Many years ago I was talking with a master modeler about deciding when a model is finished. His comment, which I hold to be true, was "You are never finished working on a model. You just decide to move to a new adventure". The problem for me is that I have too many new adventures started. :)

Bill
Click to expand...
Bill! Thank you for sharing that wisdom, shipmate! I suppose I am impatient at this point to start one or two new adventures. I'm in the back half of my summer break from school and I'm having a Sunday night sensation of the impending Monday.

Blessings.
Chuck
 
As you know, there is an archive of French Naval Plans. It includes information on rigging practices. Way back, Martin @Martin By Eye , Jerry @JerryTodd and I had a discussion about French rigging practices and how they matched (or not) English or US practices. The conclusion was that the French did not adopt newer rigging practices as quicky as the RN or USN. As I went through the French archive, I found rigging diagrams all dated 1860 that show the use of chain and rigging screws in the lower stays for the mizzen and main masts which I share with you below. Here's the question: Since my L'Orenoque's lower stays are in the rail - any reason to deviate from the historical practice?

Blessings.
Chuck

French Stays Main Mizzen.jpeg
 
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