Belle Poule 1780 by Donnie

A very happy birthday to you, Donnie. I am sure I speak on behalf of all SOS members when I say THANK YOU very much for what you have done and are still doing for SOS. For all the newer members who may not know, Donnie is the founder member of SOS.
 
Thank you for the HBD wishes - I have been extremely busy with work these days with new tasks and responsibiliites. I have been working on the Belle and struggling through the Stern. Its one of those things that I am somewhat happy with the results, but not 100%.

I hate to say that I did not document my progress of the stern as it was just too much difficulty to stop and take pics and then get distracted. It required all of my attention. So, I decided to paint the trim and I probably should have left well enough alone. I will try and post a pic tonight.
 
Even though I appreciate all the compliments, I HIGHLY suggest not going this route, but just installing the parts as is on the model - meaning, just install the boxwood trim as is. In most ways, I regret doing this. It might look fairly decent - but upon closer inspection, there are problems.

The main obstacle I had to overcome was the bending of the Boxwood pieces. I was told that you have to sand those parts to make them "thinner" so they will bend better, but I found that not to be the case. I ultimately had to soak a fairly long time in very hot water to even come close and even with that, some of the window panes broke I had to reinstall windows panes that are less than 1mm in length and make it look like it never happened. I have spent way too much time on something that gave me poor results.

So, this makes like the 3rd model I have had trouble with the Stern. I guess kits are not going to be able to produce a stern that is just done right. The reason I think that is this:
CNC is a FLAT 2 Dimensional cut. Unless the designer took into consideration CURVES and BENDS, then you WILL wind up with problems with parts fitting. You can not have a CNC stern piece that is cut flat on CNC and expect it to have the same dimensional properties after it is bent into place. I rest my case now.
 
For those who might be interested. I finally got my heart results test back. Thank goodness, the Echocardiogram was normal. EKG was normal. The nuclear stress test with radioactive isotope was normal - with NO blockages. Thank you Lord !!!


The bow - (plastic parts painted)


bow03.jpg

bow04.jpg

bow02.jpg

bow01.jpg
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