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La Renommee 1744 1:48. (CAF) by Salty

Grant, what, no French ships. Merde!

Here are the bits that make up the gun room partition

IMG_4765.jpeg

There are two end pieces, two doors and a middle section which straddles a the capstan step. The doors were finished the same way as for the officers’ cabins:

IMG_4769.jpeg

Here is everything in place

1787637304559.png

IMG_4777.jpeg

That brings this part of the kit to an end. I’m pretty happy with my effort to date. It’s not perfect, but there’s nothing that I think is awful. There have been a few redos - e.g. I took up a few planks on the lower deck and relaid them - but not many because there’s only so much spare timber in a kit.

I just had a look at part 5 of the kit which covers the outer planking of the hull and fitting out the main deck. Looks a bit daunting if I’m honest, but everything seems to have fitted as intended to date so I should be fine if I just concentrate on the task at hand.

Kind regards

Salty
 
Paul, Brad and Grant, thanks for your encouraging words. I am enjoying your respective efforts immensely. I don’t think you would pay me by the hour as I feel am a slow, if persistent, worker.

The first task in Part 5 is to fit some filler blocks between the frames where the gun ports sit. The instructions refer you to the plans for their location.

The blocks fit flush at the top of the frames, but I then realised that I hadn’t trimmed the top of the frames to match the heights in the plans. There’s nothing in the instructions about needing to do this, or when to do it. I think I must have just assumed the frames were the right height. I’m not sure it could have been done sooner because the jig had to be partially dismantled. Thankfully, the fix was easy. I temporarily clamped battens at the required heights and used them as a guide to cut off the excess with a small Japanese hand saw.

This is what La Renommee now looks like with the frames at their proper heights:

IMG_4784.jpeg

1788249784477.png

1788249886318.png

1788249977512.png

Kind regards

Salty
 
Salty said:
Paul, Brad and Grant, thanks for your encouraging words. I am enjoying your respective efforts immensely. I don’t think you would pay me by the hour as I feel am a slow, if persistent, worker.

The first task in Part 5 is to fit some filler blocks between the frames where the gun ports sit. The instructions refer you to the plans for their location.

The blocks fit flush at the top of the frames, but I then realised that I hadn’t trimmed the top of the frames to match the heights in the plans. There’s nothing in the instructions about needing to do this, or when to do it. I think I must have just assumed the frames were the right height. I’m not sure it could have been done sooner because the jig had to be partially dismantled. Thankfully, the fix was easy. I temporarily clamped battens at the required heights and used them as a guide to cut off the excess with a small Japanese hand saw.

This is what La Renommee now looks like with the frames at their proper heights:

View attachment 631245

View attachment 631246

View attachment 631247

View attachment 631248

Kind regards

Salty
Click to expand...
Beautiful!!
 
Brad, I loved your reports on La Salamandre while on the road. I’m not sure I can fit my tools in our VW Golf when we go away.

Paul, it is a kataba saw:

55322991_1_32d4b306-481e-4f2f-824d-75a9371093b6.png

The blade is 100 mm x 0.3 mm and its teeth aren’t set, so you can use it to flush cut. I bought it from

https://www.dictum.com/en/kataba-restauro-100/712309

but there are similar saws available elsewhere. The musical instrument making section at Dictum has a few tools that come in handy for modelling. Some are a little expensive, but they’ll probably outlast most of us.

Here are the first of the filler blocks glued in place and sanded flush:

1788487429348.png

1788487531847.png

I was having difficulty sanding the fillers with my usual sanding pens, but things improved after switching to using a short length of 15 mm diameter dowel. The cherry is quite light after sanding, but will soon darken again with time.

I’ve also started looking for angle brackets to hold La Renommee when the rest of the jig is removed. I’ll keep her on the current base as it has slots for tabs on the keel.

Kind regards

Salty
 
Salty said:
Brad, I loved your reports on La Salamandre while on the road. I’m not sure I can fit my tools in our VW Golf when we go away.

Paul, it is a kataba saw:

View attachment 631880

The blade is 100 mm x 0.3 mm and its teeth aren’t set, so you can use it to flush cut. I bought it from

https://www.dictum.com/en/kataba-restauro-100/712309

but there are similar saws available elsewhere. The musical instrument making section at Dictum has a few tools that come in handy for modelling. Some are a little expensive, but they’ll probably outlast most of us.

Here are the first of the filler blocks glued in place and sanded flush:

View attachment 631881

View attachment 631882

I was having difficulty sanding the fillers with my usual sanding pens, but things improved after switching to using a short length of 15 mm diameter dowel. The cherry is quite light after sanding, but will soon darken again with time.

I’ve also started looking for angle brackets to hold La Renommee when the rest of the jig is removed. I’ll keep her on the current base as it has slots for tabs on the keel.

Kind regards

Salty
Click to expand...
Thankyou!!
 
Here are the rest of the filler blocks:

IMG_4799.jpeg

1788756667364.png

1788756766988.png

Although the fillers seemed like a simple job, it’s actually taken ages. I would start sanding and two hours would rush by. On the starboard side, a lot of the gun port framing will be visible, so it needs to be finished well as you can see from this picture on the CAF website:

164.png

Kind regards

Salty
 
Paul, I think you have done a wonderful job on La Renommee to date. I’ve made plenty of mistakes myself that I’ve only realised after reading your log and had to redo things more times than I can count. Could I suggest you not remove the fillers, but measure first to see if they provide the necessary support to the frames to accommodate gun ports and the like? In some places, I didn’t have to cut much off the frames to match the plans, so your fillers might be more or less in the right place.

The next task is to make fit the beams for the main deck. Each beam has two pieces scarfed together.

IMG_4803.jpeg

As was the case with the lower deck, the joint isn’t flush in some beams and I have decided to fix that by deepening the scarf rather than reducing the nib thickness.

IMG_4808.jpeg

On other beams, the joint was too deep, so I had to build up it with some veneer.

I’m also squaring up the corners of the motrices as they are a bit rounded because of the CNC machining. There are two lots of mortises - small ones for the carlings and larger ones which take notches in the deck planks.

IMG_4805.jpeg

Anyway, after all that, here is the first batch finished:

IMG_4809.jpeg

Kind regards

Salty
 
Salty said:
Paul, I think you have done a wonderful job on La Renommee to date. I’ve made plenty of mistakes myself that I’ve only realised after reading your log and had to redo things more times than I can count. Could I suggest you not remove the fillers, but measure first to see if they provide the necessary support to the frames to accommodate gun ports and the like? In some places, I didn’t have to cut much off the frames to match the plans, so your fillers might be more or less in the right place.

The next task is to make fit the beams for the main deck. Each beam has two pieces scarfed together.

View attachment 634295

As was the case with the lower deck, the joint isn’t flush in some beams and I have decided to fix that by deepening the scarf rather than reducing the nib thickness.

View attachment 634296

On other beams, the joint was too deep, so I had to build up it with some veneer.

I’m also squaring up the corners of the motrices as they are a bit rounded because of the CNC machining. There are two lots of mortises - small ones for the carlings and larger ones which take notches in the deck planks.

View attachment 634297

Anyway, after all that, here is the first batch finished:

View attachment 634298

Kind regards

Salty
Click to expand...
Salty, thanks for the feedback. I removed the Starboard side fillers using the C/A dissolver. They came out fairly easy, I ran a line where the frames will actually end and replaced the fillers(look much better), now for the Port Side.
 
Paul, I’m glad to hear the filler blocks came out OK and the frames are at the right height. I think this made a huge difference to the appearance of the hull.

Unfortunately, my progress fitting the beams has been slow:

IMG_4820.jpeg

IMG_4821.jpeg

If I had had my wits about me, I should have installed the cabin partitions and beams at the same time. It’s compounded by a very tight fit to get the beams sitting on the deck clamp with the overhanging frames.

After trying one beam, I decided to remove the partitions. It turned out I had to do this anyway as I had to adjust a notch in one hatch partition. In addition, all the partitions which run at 90 degrees to the hatches were all a little high and had to be reduced so the carlings will fit over the top of them. I guess it’s easier to take off now rather than later.

All the partitions and beams are just sitting in place, because I still have to fit the riding bitts on the fifth beam back from the bow and, to do that, I have to make two holes in the lower deck.

The upshot is no damage done, except perhaps I’m feeling a little deflated at present.

Kind regards

Salty
 
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