HMS Guadeloupe (ex french Le Nisus), Brick de 24 by Jack.Aubrey - 1:48 scale

[jack.aubrey]

I'd like to insert here some comment I got from other modelers about the copper plating idea I'm trying to pursuit . . .

This is superb, especially as presented on that beautiful table book.

I agree with you !
It is a very interesting book dedicated to RN 1st rate ships. There is lot of pictures in it and covers the matter from the first ship, the Prince Royal, to the last sailing vessels and the first steam vessels. I have a private library of about 30 of these books: they are quite expensive and are maily written in english language. Italian literature about these topics is poor and difficult to find on the market. In addition I have found on the interet a big number of books in PDF format that increase the written material available. Obviously the paper media is my preferred but the difference in space needed to keep it is a little bigger . .

Hello Jack!
Regarding the issue about the photo etching plates. Why don´t you give a try yourself? As Mark has said on Amazon you have most of the equipment you´ll need. The most important for me is the isolation film or sprays to put on the metal plate.
Try to find some art shop or a "registrato". I´m sure they´ll tell you where to get the copper (in role or plates) and the acids to actually etch the metal.
There´s a tutorial here on MSW an a lot more on inet...
Good luck Jack!

Thanks for your suggestion about DIY.
I remain convinced that, considering the dangerous materials to manage, it may not probably be the proper matter for my skills.
Anyway, I'm following your idea to research on the internet to find written material to manage this option. And, as you wrote, there is plenty of sites describing the photo-etching process, also videos. May be that a better knowledge will help me, although I will keep, for the previous considerations, this idea as my theoretical "Plan Z". Obviously a success in such enterprise should be very exciting . .

I think you are overdoing it with the photo etching. Using copper tape and an appropriate stamp should do the trick (as described in the Art of Ship Modelling) at a reasonable price and without any detriment to either realism or aesthetics. If you don't have the book i can send you the page where Frölich's approach is described. It's in german but the pictures alone should be sufficient.

First I want to thank you for your message, I like too much to interact with other people about the many paths one can follow to obtain a given result. And for this goal, a forum is a fantastic media to exchange experiences, ideas and so on. Regarding to what you wrote . .

"I think you are overdoing it with the photo etching."
You are most probably right, but, if viable, this is the best solution in terms of carefulness and precision. As I wrote this is my first experience with copper sheating and, by habit, I tend to evaluate all the possibilities starting from what I think is the better choice (for me) passing then at the second and so on. Don't forget I am in a situation where I can wait and lose some time in searh of this. Obviously the choice will be a kind of compromise between several factors (cost, feasibility, etc) and I will not accept to spend for this task five time the money I spent until now for the whole project . .

"Using copper tape and an appropriate stamp should do the trick (as described in the Art of Ship Modelling) at a reasonable price and without any detriment to either realism or aesthetics."
I am aware of this method . . I am a little concerned about the usage, or better the building, of the stamp. It may seem a simple tool but I'm not sure it is really simple. In addition, if you read the book you cited from Frolich you should consider that he made the copper sheating twice because the first attempt wasn't satisfactory . . And, encore, I would like to build a model that can live for at least a century, and I'm not sure the self adhesive tape will last so much . . I'm just now arrived to half century with the superglue on a model !!

"If you don't have the book i can send you the page where Frölich's approach is described. It's in german but the pictures alone should be sufficient."
I thank you for your offer but I have this book, in italian language, and I read it some time ago. So I don't need it. In general I agree with Frolich on many things but for other matters its methods are not for me: I have the impression he wrote his book to show his method, not all the methods to perform a given task. For this reason I find more innovative some easteuropean ship modellers such as Alex Baranov or Mikhail Bezverkhniy.

Anyway, thanks again for your participation. Sincerely, Jack.

 

[jack.aubrey]

A summer holidays special edition . .

Sunday August 9th, 2015

Finally today I was able to leave my homecity and get my long awaited holidays: being myself retired from active work, I plan to stay away not 15 days but approx. 2/2.5 months . .
I'll stay very few kilometers from Pisa, in Calci. Calci is a small town but hosts a wonderful national Museum, the "Certosa di Pisa" or better the "Certosa di Calci" built in 13° century.

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In the past it was a big abbey, now it's an Anthropological Museum, where you can find Dinosaur skeletons . .

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And a lot of whales skeletons . .

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I have taken with me the three launches shown in some previous images and a limited set of materials and tools: I hope to be able to produce something useful during my holidays but I don't consider it as absolutely mandatory. I'll keep you informed of the models work progress.

Here below a short(?) intro to Pisa . . Regards, Jack.Aubrey.

About Pisa

Pisa is world famous for its Leaning Tower and Cathedral (inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List) and its many other medieval and Renaissance monuments. It is located in Tuscany, in the central part of the Italian peninsula, on a plain near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea close to the mouth of the river Arno. Its multicultural population totals about 100,000 people, in addition to the many thousands of students who enliven the city. The university buildings are located in the city itself, some in monumental historical buildings and others in new modern constructions. Together the University and the city form a single complex, a “campus in a city”, just as they have for many centuries.

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In addition to the University the city hosts two prestigious Superior Schools: the Scuola Normale Superiore and the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento. The latter are centres for advanced studies and research in various disciplines: on the basis of a yearly national competition, they admit the best graduates of the Italian Upper Schools, who study at the University, and have special seminars and activities in the Schools. Pisa is an ideal place for students to live and meet in the city centre’s streets and piazzas, with their bars and pubs, as well as in the classroom.

Both the beaches and the mountains are close and easily accessible, as are other famous Tuscan cities, such as Lucca, Florence, Volterra and Siena.

The climate in Pisa is generally mild. The city enjoys cool summers and mild winters. There is some rain in autumn and winter although it rarely snows; the summers are dry and make for pleasant excursions to the sea.

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Miracles' Square

With extraordinary effectiveness, the phrase «Piazza dei Miracoli» (the Miracle Square), coined by Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863-1938), epitomises the amazement and admiration that for centuries have seized those who, upon passing through the gateway of the circle of walls or emerging sideways from Via S. Maria, embrace in one single glance the pure whiteness of the monuments rising over the lush green of the turf.

One is also amazed by the unique isolation of this group of monuments: the large area where the sacred buildings rise is actually on the edges of town, in the north-western corner, looking almost proud and distant from the daily bustle of the town. But a careful historical interpretation and the contribution of some recent archaeological findings give back to the Cathedral all its centrality, based on the original choice of the site and preserved through the centuries as the heart of the religious and civil life of Pisa. In order to fully understand it, one must place oneself in the maritime dimension that since Etruscan times has made the town great, located as it was in a favourable geographical site that placed it at the centre of a network of maritime, river and road routes, with a hinterland that offered a wide range of produce as well as wood and stone for its buildings, thus boosting the settlement of some important manufacturing facilities.

The Auser River that no longer exists - used to flow close to the Square, first along the northern edge, then bending south into the Arno River. The Auser, a few hundred metres from here, near today's railway station of Pisa-San Rossore, hosted a river port which worked for one thousand years, from the Etruscan to the late Roman age, and which has come back to light after an extremely long period of oblivion, by the late XX century. It is just by rediscovering this older structure that the location of the Cathedral loses its seeming marginality to take on a new, fuller meaning: in the light of the process of Christianisation of Pisa that according to some recent studies seemed to come from the sea, the site takes an unusual centrality, which is no longer perceivable, if related to the nearby river port facility that kept working through to the V century AD.

So, this was the place chosen for the Church of Pisa since its origins, which are unanimously considered to date from before Constantine's peace pact of 313. But the oldest sacred buildings were pulled down with time and the monuments we can admire today date back to the mid-centuries of the Middle Ages, when at the peak of its glory after its triumphs at sea Pisa asserted its supremacy over the region and all over the world, going so far as to claim for itself the role of a 'new Rome'. Such boundless pride and awareness gave birth to the plan to rebuild, near an earlier cathedral that has been rediscovered during recent archaeological excavations, the new church of Saint Mary founded in 1064, the year of the triumph of Pisa against the Saracens in Palermo, whose spoils were partly invested in building the church. The «temple of snow-white marble» this is how it was called by the author of the funereal inscription for its architect, Buschetto represented the whole civil and religious community; and it had to reflect its fame and power to the eyes of the world: epigraphs were placed on the façade to celebrate the main maritime victories; reused pieces of Roman monuments were fitted on the sides to highlight the greatness of Pisa as the 'other Rome'; the façade was richly decorated with ornamental features, such as the outstanding Arab-inspired polychrome lozenges; finally, the rooftop was adorned with the magnificent Islam-made bronze griffon which is now on display at the Museo dell'Opera (the original one has been replaced by a copy), coming perhaps from Spain and most likely arrived in Pisa with the spoils of some military expedition.

The Baptistery, founded in 1152 on a design by Diotisalvi, was built in front of the Cathedral, lined up with its façade: a building that according to the latest studies is deeply imbued with the memories of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a fact that goes back to the issue of the influences and relations between the architecture of Pisa and the East. The whole town was involved in the construction of the building which had been designed to host the font where the people of Pisa were consecrated Christians: the contemporary chronicler Bernardo Maragone narrates that one of the eight pillars coming from the Isle of Elba and from Sardinia, placed inside the Baptistery in 1163, was lifted and set in its place by the inhabitants of Porta Aurea.

The round plan of the Baptistery was taken up again in 1173 by the anonymous designer of the Bell Tower (Bonanno Pisano? or still yet once again magister Diotisalvi? ). A unique work in its roundness which recalls the curves of the nearby apses of the Cathedral, sharing with the other monuments of the Square the recurring motif of the pillars and small arches. Just after its completion the most famous monument in town was affected by that 'mysterious disease', which has made it famous all over the world and at the same time gave it the serious static problems that have been solved after over eight hundred years of trepidation by the strengthening work carried out in the 1990s.

With the Bell Tower, the group of monuments of the Cathedral seemed to be complete; but in the thirteenth century, while the works went on and the buildings were enriched with wonderful works of art, two new buildings were added to the site of the Square as it looks today, both born on the decision of the great archbishop of Pisa, Federico Visconti. The New Hospital, was built south, imposed on the township in 1257 by Pope Alexander IV as a token of the reconciliation with the Apostolic See after over fifteen years of a crisis, designed to help pilgrims, the poor and the sick: it is the big building that today hosts the Museo delle Sinopie, where we are now. In front of this building, in 1277, a new cemetery began to be built for grouping the tombs which until then had been left scattered all around the Cathedral. This plan led to the building of the Cemetery, an extraordinary four-sided cloister which with its marble façade closes, on the north side, the «Piazza dei Miracoli» (Miracle Square) which had been conceived for the burial of the dead and instruction of the living, who were asked to ponder on life on earth and the eternal one through the magnificent series of frescos whose preparatory sketches the so called “sinopie” are now kept in this Museum.

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[jack.aubrey]

Friday, August 21st, 2015

Until now nothing new about ship modeling . .
I'm now deeply involved with the painting of the terrace railings of my daughter's house . . after suffering some days ago a water flood due to a broken tube while we were outside, luckyly for less than an hour. Result: 2cm. water in all the house rooms in less then half an hour.
For the railings I decided for a step by step approach instead of one shot, so every morning I wake up early, at 6:00 and I paint +/- 3 meters of railings, next I prepare other 3 meters for the day after. At 9:00 I've finished and the day starts with a big breakfast and so on !!
I hope to finish in a week unless starts to rain . .
Stay tuned, Jack.

Monday, September 14, 2015

We are now in the middle of September and I stand still so handsome in Tuscany. . shipmodeling is out of my mind, because I had other to think, like you may expect from people on vacation.
But not everything went exactly in this way: first I got an interesting opportunity and I rented a garage right in front of my balcony in Tuscany, just across the square.
Outside the gate there is a private parking, so I will use the garage not for the car but as a store of what has no place in the house and as "future modeling workshop", if the idea of spending two months in Cinisello Balsamo (Milan) and two months in Tuscany should become a habit.
This solution would provide a very convenient environment, with power and water, in order to work on my ship models. There is no heating and sunlight but are things that can be solved. The matter is not as simple as I describe it but it is a first step, even at a relatively low cost: 80 € as monthly rent, all inclusive.
Obviously this resulted in more "jobs" involving me and they gave me the opportunity for other actions until today. Now I no longer know what to invent again and then it could be that I finally resume the three ship boats for my Brick and start working on them. . we'll see.
If there will be news I'll be back . . friendliness, Jack.Aubrey

Thursday, October 29, 2011

It's from early August that I don't add anything new in this log. We left while I was leaving to spend some time in Tuscany and I brought with me some material to build the three boats planned for this Brick.
But my good intentions didn't produce practical results and, while I was away from home, I did nothing.
Now I am back to my house since October 10th and I had first to spend some days to fix my "business" tasks so I can't resume the shipyard immediately.
But . . last Sunday, October 25th, I finally started to do something. So I picked up the long boat and I began applying the first planking (veneer with thickness of 0.4mm). I remember you that for these task I use veneer which has one of the two sides with a thin layer of non-woven fabric. This fabric is particularly useful since the material doesn't either splinter or flake off and can be confortably cut with a cutter without causing burrs, especially in presence of plank tapering.

The technique I use for planking these small boats is well experienced: in the past I built four boats for my Soleil Royal in the same manner with full satisfaction. Honestly this method is probably more time consuming compared with other approaches, but I prefer it because has several embedded advantages that lead to a satisfactory and very strong final result.

1) First I start applying the first planking with the woodden side of the veneer (the one where there isn't non-woven fabric) facing inward. I use cyanoacrylate glue applied with the supplied brush. After I apply a few coats of diluted PVA interspersed with light sanding to strenghten the whole.
2) Subsequently I repeat the planking with a second layer of the same material, this time with the veneer facing to the right side and at the end the same tasks with glue and sanding.
3) Finally, the third planking as the final step.

In this way I have three times the chance to learn the best method to apply the planks and the third time also my empty brain understands the most effective way to operate. The total thickness of the planking slightly exceeds one millimeter, but it is very, very strong.
At this point I detach the hull from the building slip to work inside. But here we should be far away in the future from now, probably in mid-November at best.

Below I propose some pictures of the long boat, as it appears after the first step of planking.
The first day I started badly, the second a little better and the third better than the second. At the end the result is neither bad nor good.

Rather I had to recognize that my projects of the three boats, made with my computer, lack of optimal precision, probably inherited from the ANCRE plans. More than a flaw on the plans it's likely due to the small size of the drawing, where a minimal imprecision of few tenths in practice means a nice hump or recess on the hull . . in my case, if they were drawn on a larger scale, using my approach via AutoCAD I would achieve a better drawing.
However, I still have two additional planking steps to address the humps and bumps visible in the photos.

The original ANCRE drawings:
Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/barca_zps285f10a5.jpg

Some pictures of the long boat after the first planking:
01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20151028_164402_zpsjal8yjx9.jpg

02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20151028_164413_zps0c9t6vxw.jpg

03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20151028_164419_zpsoxdifirc.jpg

04 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20151028_164520_zps9l9fdfmz.jpg

05 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20151028_164601_zpsrmyojnfc.jpg

06 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20151028_164618_zps6jp1brji.jpg

See you soon.
Greetings, Jack.Aubrey

 

[jack.aubrey]

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Exactly one week after the completion of the first planking of the longboat I finished the laying of the second. I remember that a third one is planned. Here I used strips I made from chestnut veneer instead of tanganyka, because the tanganyka veneer is becoming scarce and enough only for the third layer on this boat, while I have plenty of chestnut. So I have to replenish the tanganyka stock when I'll be back in Tuscany.

Below are some pictures of the boat with 2nd planking almost complete, it's still missing to trim the stern but it's a matter of minutes. The situation seems much better than October 29th and also the various bumps, and so on, seem to be softened. I believe they almost disappear after the third layer.

With this second planking I almost found the best way to proceed: strips of 3 mm more or less tapered at prow and stern.

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100360_zpsbfnsxc13.jpg

02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100359r_zps4lccpaiy.jpg

03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100358r_zpseakvzoym.jpg

04 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100362_zps3pyxmubr.jpg

05 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100365_zpsrlx98qer.jpg

Kind regards, Jack.Aubrey.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Friday, November 6, 2015

Preparatory tasks in view of the last layer of planking. .
The transom: here I used tanganyika veneer, I will use the same wood for planking.

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100367r_zps8h6zctbh.jpg

an adjustment on the bow with a filler made with sawdust and PVA glue to properly settle the intersection between the keel and the planks in this area, where just one-tenth may be noticeable . . Here the goal is to implement the best background possible.

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I think then to remove (almost) totally certain hollows due to inaccuracies in the bulkheads.

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Now I'll take another week, obviously not dedicated, considering my slow productivity, before finishing with the third layer.
Regards, Jack.

PS: At the end with these pictures and posts I think to write a booklet on how to build small boats with this method, that will be added to the other 1000 mathods to make the same thing.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Thursday, November 12th, 2015

Yesterday I finished to apply the third and final layer of planking of the longboat.

The work was done during four sessions of about an hour and a half, without urgency, applying roughly four strakes per side every time and later consolidating the activity done.
As glue I used cyanoacrylate in the packaging with the brush, very practical for this kind of work; to consolidate, after a smoothing of the courses applied, I used a couple of coats of PVA diluted in water to approximately 50%.

A trick to hide the grooves between a strip and the other was to sand with fine grain sandpaper, making sure that the wood powder fills the grooves. At this point, instead of removing the wood powder produced, I immediately past a coat of PVA which in practice pasted the dust remained into the cracks. By repeating the process a few times you get a more than satisfactory result. To dry more quickly the diluted glue applied, I used a normal "hair-dryer"; so I hadn't dead time between one step and the next.

Here are some pictures of the longboat . . Now I have to decide whether to keep the current keel, which I think became rather low after three layers of strips or apply it again after having sanded and reduced the current one. Once this will be done, then it will be possible to detach the hull and work inside it.

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100372_zpsko2cbgmj.jpg

02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100373_zps94afbo6z.jpg

03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100374_zpsrwmflras.jpg

04 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100371_zpsq065vtzp.jpg

05 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100370_zpsndxsnriz.jpg

Cheers, Jack.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Thursday, November 19, 2015

This time I don't have anything better to show that these three (awful) photos of the second shipboat, where I just finished to apply the first layer of planking.

At the last minute I decided to stop working on the first shipboat and drive the same experience of the three plank layers also for the second one. This because I feel very "hot" to continue carrying out this type of work and I realized that I'm getting pretty good. So, although more tedious, I prefer to finish the outside of all the three boats before removing them from their building slip and continue with the interior.

On this second boat I already started to apply the second planking: but this time, instead of using veneer I wanted to try using birch plywood 0.4mm. The same thickness of the veneer, but theoretically more robust and flexible. We'll see. .

Salutoni, Jack.Aubrey

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20151119_165553_zpslcc3gesq.jpg

02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20151119_165529_zpsj6cfd9ki.jpg

03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20151119_165519_zpsxagugbyi.jpg

Sunday November 22nd, 2015

Second planking in progress . .

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20151122_181609_zpsi5izzfdy.jpg

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

The second round of planking is over (the smallest boat in the two photos).
Now it remains the third and last one that will be done using Tanganyika veneer. At the end the wood color will be like the larger longboat visible in the same two pictures.

This second boat, apart from the quite different hull form, seems becoming better. Here the project I prepared with a CAD software was better, apart from the last bulkhead (the sternpost) totally wrong and that I corrected during the application of the two layers of planking.

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100385_zpsdksmcykx.jpg

02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100386_zpspwnnkitc.jpg

Cheers, Jack.Aubrey.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

I would say that, given this strange viewpoint, the object seems more like a World War II Japanese aircraft carrier than a lifeboat of a XIX century brick . . I thought to install on the flydeck some Mitsubishi A6M3 Zeke fighters and Aichi D3A Val divebombers but then I capsized the whole and my lifeboat reappeared. So I abandoned the project.

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100389_zpskieiyhwf.jpg

Aircraft carriers apart, the second Brick lifeboat received its final third planks layer. I must admit that this time everything went right and I think it couldn't be otherwise, after six times I redo the same task.
This last task took me a while to finish, but the reason was the lack of time that I could assign to the model over the last 7-8 days. Too much noise to the quiet life of the modeller. In practice I needed just three sessions of two hours to complete the third planking as it appears in these images.

02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100391_zpsm402fjzn.jpg

At the end I decided to redo the keel. This was due to little mistake I made in the design phase: after three layers of planks, the keel became a bit too low to be credible. Then I totally smooth the protruding part of the old keel, including the sternpost and the stem, and I glued a strip of fine wood 1.5 x 2mm.
It looks much better now than before, because the two pieces are totally new. Now I only need to apply the stem, to be drawn from a tablet of the same timber.

03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100390_zpszajvd15m.jpg

Next time with new activities, cheers Jack.Aubrey.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Today I found a couple of free hours and I resumed the ship boats . .
First, I rebuilt the keel of the main boat, using the same method described in my previous message; see image below.

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100392_zpsi0akohqx.jpg

Then I didn't resist at the temptation to see how could show the inside of the hull and so I proceeded to remove the longboat from its building base. The two images here below show the inside, just after the detachment tasks was over.

Looking at the plans, here there is still a lot of work to be done, first a general cleaning and then adding new details. Now I have to study thoroughly the design of this boat to understand clearly hiw it is like and then decide what to do.

However, given the short time remaining before my return to Tuscany, I think I'll delay this task and I'll proceed to the building of the third and last lifeboat hull. I have less than two weeks of available time but I think to be able to reach the same achievement of the other two boats.

02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100393_zps7wuwc84s.jpg

03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100394_zpsdckpu6uc.jpg

Cheers, Jack.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Friday, January 8th, 2016

In these days of rain I spent a bit of time to review this project and, at a certain point, following a suggestion of my friend FAM, the other modeller who is building this model, we decided it was finally time to "name" our Bricks.

Both had in mind a couple of possible names. For both the favorite seemed to be "Le Colibri", with another alternative name, which in my case was "Le Nisus".

After a review of my original research I found out that "Le Nisus" was captured by the Royal Navy when the ship had not yet been completed by the French: the ship was incomplete and not yet equipped with ordnance. This made me very intrigued because, since the beginning I had the idea to build a model that, even though basically to follow the French project from Pestel, was then probably finished and armed by the Royal Navy, giving me the possibility to build a model say "probably unique".

So what better of a sailing ship caught "incomplete" and "without ordnance"? I can make masts differently from the French rules, adhering to British standards, and above all I can adopt different guns.

Hence a sudden change of mind and the decision to build "Le Nisus", which in Italian means "Kite," a medium-sized bird of prey which would become the figurehead of the model I'm going to build.

One last piece of information: in the Royal Navy this Brick was renamed "HMS Guadeloupe", so from now on I will call it so. Therefore I proceeded to modify appropriately the title of this building log.
Shortly will follow an upgrade of its operational history.

Salutoni, Jack.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Wednesday, January 27th, 2016

After the decision to name my brick as HMS Guadaloupe (or Guadeloupe) in an afternoon when I was free of other tasks I started to search on the internet something about this ship.
Surprisingly I found a lot of news and also three original plans at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich: of these plans, one is potentially very interesting because can help to determine the real appearance of the figurehead. And also the poop decorations. I'll buy it from the NMM at original scale because the image below shown is too small to understand what it is.

In the meantime I have written the history of this ship, where I found also some interesting contemporaty articles of the London Gazette. The main source is Wikipedia, supplemented with additional web sites.

Suggested reading. Regards, Jack.

Guadeloupe/HMS%20Guadeloupe-1_zps6tmil0ib.jpg

Guadeloupe/HMS%20Guadeloupe-2_zpsetal5ald.jpg

Guadeloupe/HMS%20Guadeloupe-3_zps2ocszcdk.jpg

Guadeloupe/HMS%20Guadeloupe-4_zpstc48e9ns.jpg

Guadeloupe/HMS%20Guadeloupe-5_zpsrtfa7kre.jpg

Guadeloupe/HMS%20Guadeloupe-6_zps7f9vagru.jpg

HMS Guadeloupe.pdf

 

[jack.aubrey]

Thursday, March 17, 2016

A few weeks ago I purchased from the Royal Museums in Greenwich the sheer and body plan of HMS Guadelupe, to finally understand what represents the figurehead and some other details at prow and poop.

Today the plan is finally in my hands and as soon as possible I'll post an explanatory message on the subject.

Salutoni, Jack.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

It is now +/- three weeks since I went back from Tuscany and it's just few days I began to think back to shipmodeling. Two days ago I reopened the Gokstad Viking shipyard, which, if everything runs well without glitchs, could be completed in a relatively reasonable time, that is, before I'll return to Tuscany in September.

On the other side, regarding the HMS Guadeloupe, everything is still in wait state. First I need to collect my thoughts because more than six months of inactivity made me forget many things. In Tuscany, I concentrated more on the history of this ship and, having discovered the existence of an original contemporary plan available at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, I intrigued to buy it.

Definitely a good purchase, which clarifies many aspects regarding the appearance of this ship, which also differs in rather important points from the French project: figurehead, breakwater, main piece of the knee of the head, quarter badges, shape of the taffarel, positioning of the shrouds. It's my intention to take pictures of these details, to illustrate in deep the differences, in future posts.

Meanwhile, thanks to the collaboration with another modeler who is building this same model (he decided to name it "Le Colibrì") it was started the realization of the ship carronades. A master of these parts was made. More in deep two of them: a) one for my friend who uses the original "Le Colibri" carronades, reproduced in detail in the ANCRE plans,

while for my model, which was armed after his capture by the Royal Navy, the master was made using a English-barrel pattern, almost similar but not equal to the french one. Thanks to researches on the internet I found the design that I needed.

Finally, my friend found and contacted a company in Gazzada Schianno (VA) which set up the fusion process of the pieces needed starting from the masters. All this is the result of my friend work, I limited myself, due to my absence, to simply pick up the pieces and to pay the due amount, amount which will then be divided between us.

Below are some pictures of the guns barrels, both for my Guadeloupe than for Le Colibrì.

HMS Guadeloupe:

01 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/20160607_161723_zpsfa9cor8w.jpg

02 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/20160607_161634_zpsug8m4rsm.jpg

Le Colibrì:

03 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/20160607_161816_zpsbi4lpneq.jpg

04 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/20160607_161821_zpsujf95oug.jpg

barrels in the same image, left the English ones . .

05 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/20160607_161925_zpsupznxpux.jpg

Cheers, Jack.

PS: The color of the metal, which in the pics seems almost golden, is strongly distorted by artificial light, in reality it's very similar to silver (the material used for casting is a pewter alloy, I don't remember the right name).
Obviously, the pieces have to be treated to give them the classic "gun metal" color . .

 

[jack.aubrey]

Sunday, June 12, 2016

I finally took a few pictures of the HMS Guadelupe plans I purchased at the Greenwich NMM.

The five images below proposed highlight the five areas that I have (so far) identified as main differences between this plan and the one provided by the ANCRE monograph of "Le Cygne".

But . . I forgot to take the same images of the ANCRE plans, so we'll have to wait I get pictures of them too. Now we can only visually introduce the five differences shown here below.

So please . . have some patience for a while.

1st difference at prow where no one knew until now how it was done: the figurehead. In addition, the bow shape is different, slimmer and slender.

01 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/20160611_114237_zpsigmpluxt.jpg

2nd Difference: the side quarter badges are totally missed.

02 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/20160611_114302_zpskjwrajos.jpg

3rd difference: the profile of the transom/taffarel is different from "Le Cygne", narrower and with square gunports.

03 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/20160611_114415_zpsqajhnadd.jpg

4th and 5th difference: the shrouds positioning of foremast and mainmast are different than "Le Cygne"".

04 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/20160611_114246_zpspkhdqmrq.jpg

05 Brick%20de%2024%20Plans/20160611_114252_zpsg8j2xzwa.jpg

But there are also other minor but still important differences.
As soon as I can spot pictures of the ANCRE plans you will probably understand better.
That's all till now.
Regards, Jack.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Are the English plans after modification or 'as captured'?

I can submit a first, fast answer about your question.

Le Nisus was captured by the RN becoming HMS Guadelupe on December 12, 1809. HMS Gaudaloupe sailed to Deptford (UK) where she underwent fitting-out from August 23, 1810 to January 23, 1811.

Now give a look to the comments after the full plan image here below: the date of the plan is June 6th, 1811. This date is after the fitting-out in the british shipyard, so this "should" mean that the plan represents the ship after its modification . . . but the sentence "prior to fitting as a 16-gun brig sloop" probably means the opposite.

But the question for me still remains 'cause the "prior to fitting as a 16-gun brig sloop" sentence is not contemporary of the plan but added in recent times by a NMM curator . . and probably may not be considered 100% true.




Description
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Guadeloupe (captured 1809), a captured French brig, as taken off at Deptford Dockyard prior to fitting as a 16-gun brig sloop. Signed by Robert John Nelson [Master Shipwright, Deptford Dockyard, 1806-1813].

Date made
6 June 1811

Place made
England: London Deptford Dockyard

Credit
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

Materials
black ink; green ink; red ink; paper

Measurements Sheet: 479 mm x 1103 mm

 

[jack.aubrey]

Tuesday, August 30th, 2016

Having recently finished another model (the Gokstad Viking Ship) I have resumed the shipyard of HMS Guadeloupe . . my long term project.
I needed some time to reorganize my mind about the tasks to be accomplished and I decided to complete the elements that I was working on before temporary closing the shipyard: the ship boats, launchs and lifeboats.
Now I'm workin' on the longboat, the larger of the three. Before closing the yard this was the situation:

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100393_zps7wuwc84s.jpg

So, I started to double the hull frames, as shown in the following picture . .

02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160827_105221_zpstw7zhvhn.jpg

03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160827_105229_zpswznoyasa.jpg

and then began to set up the internal fittings . .

04 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160830_085054_zpslv6l2nvw.jpg

05 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160830_085045_zpshibifvqk.jpg

06 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160830_085103_zpsqxjwbq6x.jpg

After this step, I applied my usual wood oil on the internal sides, to hughlight the wood colour, last three images are shot after this task.
Regards, Jack.Aubrey.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Sunday, September 4th, 2016

I've been three days in the hospital for an invasive medical examination. So my modelling tasks had a stop for a while, but yesterday I resumed the ship boat and added some new elements . . . Here below some of them. Rgds, Jack.

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160903_190438_zpsg1c4e7pk.jpg

02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160903_190355_zpslwju1qq1.jpg

 

[jack.aubrey]

Monday, September 5th, 2016

Another small step forward on the ship launch . .

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160906_090708_zps4w8xzlnm.jpg

02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160906_090756_zpsumfeyeyw.jpg

03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160906_090714_zpstp7vxila.jpg

04 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160906_090744_zps08topydh.jpg

05 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160906_090657_zpsageocajs.jpg

Regards, Jack.Aubrey

PS: regarding my hospital stay, everything went well and, matter much more important, there was nothing wrong. Thanks to everybody.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Monday, September 12th, 2016

A new step in adding details to the longboat . . it is a very interesting, amusing and relaxing task, provided your have a lot of patience . .

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160912_122945_zpsqxbrqec1.jpg

02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160912_123156_zpswnwq1wru.jpg

03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160912_123209_zpsdnxjpyvp.jpg

04 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160912_123124_zpspl7igkly.jpg

 

[jack.aubrey]

Added the rudder and some other small details . . . now a coat of clear matt paint and then it's time to proceed with the second boat . .

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160916_205406_zpslqmygcaw.jpg

02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160916_205713_zpsrj5hzvd6.jpg

03 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/20160916_205348_zps4g1zac0d.jpg

 

[jack.aubrey]

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

I've been in Tuscany for about twenty days now.
In this period I started thinking about my next model, which will begin here and, most likely, will be finished when I'll return to Cinisello (Milan).
I don't want to anticipate anything about the new project right now, just think that I have already purchased the materials and I'm waiting for its arrival.
In the meantime, I arranged to complete the remaining two Guadeloupe's boats. I started with the intermediate size boat.
In the first image we can see the boat still fastened to its building slip. It has been in this state for almost a couple of years. .

01 P1100390_zpszajvd15m.JPG

The first activity I did was to unplug the boat in order to work inside. Thanks to the use of the mini drill with a cutting tool, this happened without any problems. Then I arranged to "fix" the outer wood color with a coat of oil for wood. This operation avoids that some drops of glue not properly removed, at a finishing stage may alter the wood color. The application of the oil, however, doesn't absolutely inhibit the use of vinyl glue. The picture below shows the color difference of the timber after having applied the oil.

02 20171001_215300.jpg

Then the work inside the hull began: the first activity was to double the number of hull ribs; task long enough considering their number and size but it's quite well done.
Subsequently the installation of the bottomwoods. . and the longitudinal seat supports.

03 20171001_215313.jpg

Then, the central seats, including reinforcements where provided, bow and stern, and finally the gunwales. Now the bigger tasks are over, although there is still enough work to be done, including the final finishing of what has been done so far.

04 20171011_102921.jpg

05 20171011_102928.jpg

06 20171011_102949.jpg

But this will be matter of the next posts . .
Cordiality, Jack.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Saturday 18 May 2019

I returned from Tuscany to Cinisello a few days ago and I'am now involved in many matters raised during my absence from Cinisello. I believe as soon as possible to finally resume some real kind of ship modeling.
I am publishing the latest news about this model which, due to the various location changes, has been a little forgotten, preferring other models that luckily, were completed in a quicker time.

I honestly don't know when I will resume full-time work on this model, but before I can do it, I would rather finish the Ragusian Carrack model.

See you soon, Jack.Aubrey

The third launch of Guadeloupe. . . there is still a lot to do.
01 IMG_20190517_114519.jpg

02 IMG_20190517_114525.jpg

The other two boats are now finished, except for some small details (oars, etc.) to be made later
03 IMG_20190517_114512.jpg

04 IMG_20190517_114504.jpg

05 IMG_20190517_114452.jpg

 

[jack.aubrey]

Thursday, August 25th, 2022

During the month of May I moved to my new house on Como Lake and I was able to setup my shipmodeling workshop in a garage under the house, garage purchased specifically for this purpose.
Once the setting up was completed, setup which was not a simple task given the quantity of material to be arranged, I resumed the modeling activities.

First of all I dedicated all myself in completing the model of the Ragusian Carrack; see also my build log at https://forum.deagostini.co.uk/defa...md=(none)&__utmv=-&__utmk=42583270#post348003.

Now I have finally finished the carrack (only the plexiglass cover is missing, a job that will however be carried out by a specialist craftsman) and, finally, I can resume this model that has stood still for several years, I think since 2017 or maybe earlier.

At the moment the situation of this model is exemplified in the following two images: the hull is almost ready to cover with cooper the hull. I wrote "almost" because there are still several preliminary tasks to do; we'll see them later.

Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100276_zpsg9mlx6or.jpg

Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/P1100270_zpsyq8orfvd.jpg

Unfortunately, the two lifeboats that I built with some difficulties for the brick are disappeared, used to complete the Ragusian Carrack display stand (I explain the reasons on my post dated Saturday July 2nd, 2022 on the same thread above) and then I'll have to redo them.

By lucky chance I found on the internet a kit to build a lifeboat that has exactly the same size as one of the two I have to redo. The kit is very simple: it reproduces all the pieces on plywood of adequate thickness and on thin pear tree boards; all are laser cut.
This saves me a lot of work for cutting the pieces. Instead, the assembly seems to me more complex than the ones I had built, but it is certainly not an insurmountable problem.
So one of the two boats will be built using this kit.

For the second boat I decided to proceed by scanning the laser pre-cut tablets and using them to reproduce the project with AUTOCAD. Once I have the project on the PC, I resize everything for the second lifeboat, print, cut, assemble and so on. Maybe, just to avoid making the same of the other, I will modify some details . . .

But let's get to the first one: as I said, the assembly presents simple steps but to be carried out precisely. To ensure a precise assembly of the ribs in this very first phase, I had to prepare a simple keel clamper and a tool to glue the ribs that guaranteed me perpendicularity and horizontality.
You can see the keel clamper in the following image: a very simple plywood board and a couple of wood strips.

01 Brick de 24/25082022/IMG20220824182050_BURST000_COVER.jpg

The sliding element for gluing the ribs is illustrated in the next two photos: with this tool their assembly has been resolved in a routinary and patience task, without unexpected problems.

02 Brick de 24/25082022/IMG20220824182227.jpg

03 Brick de 24/25082022/IMG20220824182252.jpg

Once the frames were glued, I then proceeded to install the elements of the bottom. this task also "strengthened" the whole.

04 Brick de 24/25082022/IMG20220825102558.jpg

see you soon,
Jack Aubrey