La Belle - Caf Model 1:48 by Thomas Marocke [COMPLETED BUILD]

Thomas Marocke said:
Today I received a delivery from China with FedEx. 99,9% of the readers will smile. But it is my first delivery through this company. Do you have to get that old first? I know this from "Cast Away" with Tom Hanks. This delivery reached me without crash from Tom from CAF.

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I saw the gun barrels in Gennaro's report of the La Belle and Tom sent me some on request. Thank you very much.

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I have started to remove the casting burrs and smooth and straighten the cannon barrels a bit. They have the royal crest and the crest of the Comte de Vermandois, Louis de Bourbon.

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Old and new gun barrel compared. Whether the cannon barrels will be patinated again a bit, I don't know yet. The originals were made of bronze and the models will get darker again on their own.

Best regards
Thomas
Click to expand...
The classical way to patina bronze, like Michelangelo, Rodin, etc. . . is urine. They would dig pits to fill with horse pee over their work. It gives a nice dark brown/green depending upon the urine properties and possibly some of the pit soil. I know this works as in the last year I worked with a Master Stone Carver who also works in brass and bronze for a granite broken column with a sprig of Acacia cast and finished in this manner. The odor may remind you of where you did the work. Rich (PT-2)
 
Hi Gennaro!

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40 years old boxwood hedge in the garden. The boxwood is becoming increasingly rare and grow very slowly, reaching maximum height of 6 meters as a tree. Ivan Trtanj once told me during a visit to his excellent ship model exhibition on Lake Constance that he is literally on the hunt for suitable boxwood from his surroundings.

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Comparison of european boxwood with the CAF boxwood. For reasons of cost and difficulty of procurement, a boxwood substitute is usually chosen, e.g. Castello boxwood. . .

Tom just sent me the carved components without asking.

Hi PT-2, Rich!

My daughter rides horses. So there is the possibility to try the proposal once. It is only possible with horse urine? But maybe the pharmacy will help with some extracts?

Best regards
Thomas
 
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Thomas Marocke said:
Hi Gennaro!

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40 years old boxwood hedge in the garden. The boxwood is becoming increasingly rare and grow very slowly, reaching maximum height of 6 meters as a tree. Ivan Trtanj once told me during a visit to his excellent ship model exhibition on Lake Constance that he is literally on the hunt for suitable boxwood from his surroundings.

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Comparison of european boxwood with the CAF boxwood. For reasons of cost and difficulty of procurement, a boxwood substitute is usually chosen, e.g. Castello boxwood. . .

Tom just sent me the carved components without asking.

Hi PT-2, Rich!

My daughter rides horses. So there is the possibility to try the proposal once. It is only possible with horse urine? But maybe the pharmacy will help with some extracts?

Best regards
Thomas
Click to expand...
Thomas,
I never expected "real" boxwood (buxus sempevirens), but what I got is not Castello, expect for the figurehead. It's yellowish like Castello, but very light in weight.
I'll see what to do with it. Thanks.
 
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Finding the shape for another knee.

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After careful sanding finally finished.

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Behind the knee is still space for the missing planks.

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Drilled holes for the anchor cables. First with 1 mm drill. Then filed out to the final size.

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And the still missing parts.

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The fully equipped starboard side.

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The port side remains as if still under construction.

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The hook was not mounted too high and the anchor cables run nicely over it.

Best regards
Thomas
 
Hi Gennaro!

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Tools for beautiful rings. Small pliers for the curves and a clean working side cutter are important.

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0,5 mm brass wire bend. Now apply some flux with a brush to the open areas. First fill the round ring with some solder at the open spot, then hang the triangular ring, bend it closed and fill it with solder only at the open spot.

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If necessary, file a little more and then burnish. And you have original 2,4 cm thick iron-like rings. A few tries and then it works quite fast.

Good luck
Thomas
 
Thomas Marocke said:
Hi Gennaro!

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Tools for beautiful rings. Small pliers for the curves and a clean working side cutter are important.

View attachment 221551
0,5 mm brass wire bend. Now apply some flux with a brush to the open areas. First fill the round ring with some solder at the open spot, then hang the triangular ring, bend it closed and fill it with solder only at the open spot.

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If necessary, file a little more and then burnish. And you have original 2,4 cm thick iron-like rings. A few tries and then it works quite fast.

Good luck
Thomas
Click to expand...
Thanks for the explanation Thomas. I suppose if one wanted to manufacture number of the of the same size, equilateral triangular mandrel could be used.
 
Gennaro said:
Thanks for the explanation Thomas. I suppose if one wanted to manufacture number of the of the same size, equilateral triangular mandrel could be used.
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I was about to say that, making the mandrel of required size, will produce a number of those rings, and guess what? They will be the same shape and size. BTW, I use the same method when making all rings with round shapes. Due to various size requirements, drill bits can be used.
 
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Main rail and lower rail from the kit in one piece.

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The rails are too short due to the wrong perspective and thus unfortunately unusable.

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The upper rails from CAF, below the attempt after the "La Volage" and the two lowest after construction plan of "La Belle" during its production.

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The rails provisionally glued on.

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Fitting the head timbers.

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Unfortunately, the wood glue did not achieve the requiered stability and I glued with 2 components epoxy resin.

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The resin is liquid for two hours and was fixed during the drying time by means of auxiliaries.

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Thus, the glue holds well. I decided to build only total four head timbers, because the first two head timbers according to the construction plan block the hawseholes and the anchor cable would not be free to move. Only two head timbers are mounted.

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The figurehead "Marie Angélique" was milled out to accomodate the rails. There is only one attempt. Damage makes the figure unusable.

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It all went well without damage. Now make the remaining components for this construction and install.

Best regards
Thomas
 
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Hi Paul!

First saw out the outer contour as in the third picture and smooth the edges with the file. Then drill a hole and saw the inner cutouts free with the fretsaw and clean them up with a very small file. Finally, open the inner cutout with the fretsaw and clean up the edges again.

The prerequisite for such rails is a stable wood. Wood that is too soft will break at some point. And patience - per piece almost two hours sawing and filing.

Best regards
Thomas
 
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