La Couronne Corel/scratch 1:100 First build [COMPLETED BUILD]

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Finished planking the forepeak in mahogany


Completed the wales on the starboard side with walnut planking between them.




Completed the wales and walnut planking on the port side.






Cut seams in the wales with a razor knife. Wales are straighter if you install them as one long piece and make the seams this way.


More walnut planking on the upper hull and forecastle.


Maple planking was added to the hull on both gun decks.




I was watching Rush Limbaugh while I worked. God rest his soul.

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Planked the keel with mahogany strips.


Started planking beginning with the garboard strake.




The red tape is the place where the planking progressed toward both rom the top and the bottom of the hull.


Planking continues.


Planking was finished and sanded smooth.


The hull was coated with Krylon Satin Finish. At first it appeared too glossy as seen below. If you had any flat spots or hard bends in the curvature of the hull, this the point where you would notice it the most.


Rubbing the hull very lightly with a green Scotchbrite abrasive pad. The finish is now a beautiful natural tone.


Hull planking is complete!

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Walnut trim was added to the gunwales.






Installing guns on the forecastle deck. The nearby frames were covered with mahogany strips.






Making more gun tackles.


Gun in position.


Starboard side carriage rigging completed.


Rigging the port side guns on the forecastle deck.


Added decorative wreaths to the gun portals.






Looks good overall. All the rigged guns are complete.

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Trim made from bending birch wood was added to the foredeck. Wreath decorations were added to the upper fore chase gun ports.


Gun port lids were made for the lower fore chase gun ports


Hinges were prepared. Fine Amati 7mm pins were used with the hinges. The knuckles of the hinges were curled using the Leatherman pocket tool .


Gun port lids with haulback lanyards were installed. The line was glued in the holes in the bulkhead, passed through the lid, then curled into the top of the gun port where it is glued to the inside surface of the beakhead bulkhead.




The forecastle top deck is installed and a grating with trim is glued to the deck.


Trim was added to the aft edge of the deck and more figure decorations were bought from Corel and added to the columns.


The top forecastle deck was planked and walnut trim glued along the outer edges of the forecastle.


Forecastle is complete.


Along the gunwale of the waste, a line of musket ports topped with walnut trim was made.


Progress so far.

 

[shota70]

Trim made from bending birch wood was added to the foredeck. Wreath decorations were added to the upper fore chase gun ports.
View attachment 267455

Gun port lids were made for the lower fore chase gun ports
View attachment 267456

Hinges were prepared. Fine Amati 7mm pins were used with the hinges. The knuckles of the hinges were curled using the Leatherman pocket tool .
View attachment 267457

Gun port lids with haulback lanyards were installed. The line was glued in the holes in the bulkhead, passed through the lid, then curled into the top of the gun port where it is glued to the inside surface of the beakhead bulkhead.
View attachment 267458

View attachment 267459

The forecastle top deck is installed and a grating with trim is glued to the deck.
View attachment 267460

Trim was added to the aft edge of the deck and more figure decorations were bought from Corel and added to the columns.
View attachment 267461

The top forecastle deck was planked and walnut trim glued along the outer edges of the forecastle.
View attachment 267462

Forecastle is complete.
View attachment 267463

Along the gunwale of the waste, a line of musket ports topped with walnut trim was made.
View attachment 267464

Progress so far.
View attachment 267465

View attachment 267475

Dear friend
you are achieving great progress, she looks wonderful

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Ladders were made from kit supplied parts. Mahogany was used as trim on the ladder rails to hide the ugly seams from the steps.


A ladder was installed in the forecastle.


Other ladders were installed on the decks. The poop deck was test fit. Corel did not cut the aft notches in the sides of the poop deck piece. A second set of notches were cut.


Solid blocks of wood were provided for the lower side galleries. Lines are drawn to help guide the shaping of these parts in according with the drawings. Parts were shaped roughly using a belt sander, then sanded to final shape with a sanding block.




The lower gallery parts are planked with mahogany strips.




The edges of the flat plywood parts were stained.


The final piece is glued on and the starboard lower gallery was coated with Krylon Satin Finish. Work on port side assembly was begun.


Brass decorative strip was bought separately and used to add detail.


More mahogany was used to cover the inboard surfaces of the lower galleries.

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

The beakhead supports were fabricated from bending beech wood and attached to the forepeak.


The figurehead provided by Corel is historically incorrect and belongs on the smaller French man of war Royal Louis. Luckily, I found the Mantua figurehead for sale separately on eBay, and it is the correct one. It depicts Heracles wrestling a dragon in the garden of Hesperides where he was trying to obtain apples for his 11th labor. I suspect that the strange copyright laws in Italy would not allow Corel to use identical features as their rival model company, Mantua, and that certain elements had to be changed to allow both companies to sell even the same ship model. This has a negative impact on historical accuracy of model kits.


The beakhead deck grating was made using the instruction drawings.




Beakhead deck supports were custom made from walnut. Getting the end at the correct angles to attach to the deck and lower forepeak supports was a complicated affair and lost of test fits had to be made.






Decorations to the stern were begun.




The lower galleries were decorated with brass wire decoration bought separately on the Etsy website. A dome shape leftover from the stern lantern parts was also used to cover the place where the wires come together.


The starboard lower gallery is glued to the hull and held with a rubber band until dry.


The port lower gallery is also attached.

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

La Couronne so far is about 50% done, with the additions of: properly scaled 18 pound, 9 pound, and 6 pound bronze cannons, use of Falkonet small 2mm blocks instead of the monster blocks supplied with the kit, cannon carriages of walnut instead of dummy barrels, internal circuit board with flickering candle effect LED lights for upper gun deck, stern and side galleries and turrets, and of course, stern lanterns. Below is a link to 264 photos (and growing) of the progress of the build, every step of the way, all numbered to allow one to see the progress in order.

I would treasure your comments and suggestions on how to steer this build in the direction of perfection, or questions as how features of this model were chosen and performed. All of you who have posted your own builds have unwittingly educated me in this build every step of the way.

Best wishes!

Kurt Suleski
DARIVS ARCHITECTVS (Latin for Darius the Engineer)

La Couronne Build Photos

 

[donfarr]

Wonderful work for first time, you are no novice. Don

 

[zoly99sask]

Looks like a seasoned builder,maybe you should continue this thread as a build log,looking good.

 

[Bryian]

I built that kit many years ago. Its far more decorative than the picture on the box suggests.

 

[Jimsky]

I am echoing Zoly (@zoly99sask), If you don't mind you can continue this thread as you build log. This would be great!

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

I certainly will, gentlemen! I managed to upload all pictures of the build into three albums on this site.
Question: Where to put the ships bell. I think it should be at the center of the rail above the bridge deck, but Mantua's model has it at the center of the rail at the rear of the foc'sle. Opinions?

 

[Maarten]

Hi Darius,

As far as I have seen on English ships the bell is placed on the aft end of the fore castle deck.
On French ships its mostly on the aft side of the half deck. As la couronne being a french vessel I wpuld put it there.

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Hi Darius,

As far as I have seen on English ships the bell is placed on the aft end of the fore castle deck.
On French ships its mostly on the aft side of the half deck. As la couronne being a french vessel I wpuld put it there.

Thanks Maarten!

Gentlemen, here is today's progress:
Install gun port lids on all stern guns and started fitting the rear towers on the stern gallery. Of course I had to test the internal lights again because they are cool.

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Progress 8 April 2019. Install glass in windows of stern gallery forward towers. Glass is made from clear plastic taken from purchased tool packaging and scribed with a razor knife and straight edge. Scribe lines are darkened with black acrylic paint, with excess removed with moistened toilet paper. Windows are set in place with small application of CA glue at the corners. Added 0.5mm thick x2mm wide sapelle wood strips as trim for the bow turrets. Penciled in outlines of the windows to prepare cutting them our with a bullet shaped coarse diamond bit in a Dremel tool, just like the previous towers. Wood towers are made from 1mm thick mohagany sheet. Yellow LED's will illuminate the towers and turrets

 

[DonRobinson]

Great work so far, will be happy to follow

 

[Uwek]

I am very happy, that you decided to show us your built here in a building log - Very good work until now - many thanks for sharing with us

 

[Submarinerblue]

What was the function of the stern towers on the real ship?

 

[Jimsky]

Very nice, and most important, simple the idea for imitating grids on the windows glass! This is great technique.