• Win a Free Custom Engraved Brass Coin!!!
    As a way to introduce our brass coins to the community, we will raffle off a free coin during the month of August. Follow link ABOVE for instructions for entering.
  • SUBSCRIBE TO SHIPS IN SCALE TODAY!

    The beloved Ships in Scale Magazine is back and charting a new course for 2026!
    Discover new skills, new techniques, and new inspirations in every issue.

    NOTE THAT OUR NEXT ISSUE WILL BE MARCH/APRIL 2026

La Venus

Are you going to mount the main wale?
Do you care if water between the bends cannot move from port to stb. and back? That is - Does it matter to you if the deadwood is continuous along the whole hull?
This is a work in progress. At the moment I am thinking of planking both port and starboard sides down to the main wale which will be in black hornbeam. As far as inserting chocks are concerned, I intend to place one at each frame above the limber passage together with floor timber chocks which would allow the flow of water from port and starboard down to the limber passage. Hope this answers your questions.
 
I am suggesting a way to make the frame assembly a bit easier:

To see if we are on the same page as far as dimensions: When I lofted Venus, I have each frame in a bend as sided 10" and the space 6" The station interval as 105". Four bends and their spaces per station to station interval. I do not use a jig and I place the keel after the hull is assembled - so I can afford to round my stock thickness more than you can.

But anyway: you could do what was done in the yard to assist with hull framing: liberal use of chocks along the way. In a pair of bends a space thickness chock at the deadwood - Pear here. Place another chock behind the wale on either side - this can be any species of wood - it being hidden. Mike it after a pair of bends is joined to be sure. Error creep is real. Two pair of bonded bends can be so bonded into a unit of four bends either using the jig or or your mike if it jaws open that wide. It makes for a rigid hull as you go.

Now for the stern problem: you can always go to an original plan - Leda print from RMG ZAZ4909 - You can't make the same mistake that I did because RMG no longer sells reduced size prints. The plan is all beat up. The Leda class was large and they seemed to have used it to make a copy for every ship in this huge class. It even includes the replacement of a flat stern with an elliptical and enclosing the forecastle.

If you wish to convert the hull over to an RN version - there is a contract with the exact scantlings used. The framing that you have is much more attractive than anything derived from actual RN framing (cough! wall of timber cough!) - so you are already miles ahead there.

Venus being one of six French frigates in the Hebe class:
There is also ZAZ2585 Hebe as captured. The negative here is that, as with most as captured taken off plans, the station positions are arbitrary - have no association with the actual framing and the minimum number of stations were drawn.
 
Back
Top