LE COUREUR - french Lugger 1776 - POF kit from CAF in 1:48 by Uwe

[Uwek]

Many Thanks for all your comments, kind words and all the likes received - highly appreciated

The deck planking works are going on

like on the other deck I prepared some sheets of planks glued together, once more with the "painted" caulking in the joints
On this photo you can see already two sheets, on the middle one with 9 planks, I marked already the center lines of the beams as preparations for the treenailing and the appr. areas of the deck openings for the hatches and and mast partners


the sheets are already adjusted to fit in between the waterways


the openings are already precut. Such works are much easier to make, before the planks are glued and fixed on top of the beams - important is only not to forget any of them (so do not forget the mast-partners, the bitts, the chimney of the oven and the pumps)


ongoing treenailing with the same technique like on the other deck described some days before
the first 50% of nails


and the rest of the nails - with this sequence of installing my fingers have enough space to hold the toothpicks during "nailing"


one sheet the treenailing is done (without sanding and scraping) - the other sheets is still waiting for the nails


Many Thanks for your all interest .... to be continued - the next post will show the first guns on the deck

 

[Uwek]

Today I can show you the first time some guns on the deck - OK, not the build guns but "paper"-guns





I made this to check the more or less final location of the wheels of the guns, but also the boat, spill etc.
So I know more in detail, whcih deck planking will be necessary and which planks could be eventually "deleted" to keep the visbility down into the hold
Such paper tests are helping me often to make decisions

 

[Olivers Historic Shipyard]

What i have learned from my project is that´s very helpful to check some geometrys with a man or a canon in the scale. Better doublcheck before than remove the parts because they are wrong.

 

[Uwek]

What i have learned from my project is that´s very helpful to check some geometrys with a man or a canon in the scale. Better doublcheck before than remove the parts because they are wrong.

I have a small supervisor in scale 1:48 checking often my work on the different models
Easy done - a copy of a Boudriot drawing





such a dummy gun is very helpful to get a feeling for the correct gunport size and height


For the Le Coureur I have to make new gun dummies, due to the fact, that the armament was much much smaller - she had only 3pdr. guns

 

[Uwek]

Progress on the nailing was ongoing and for the moment finished

The last "sheet" with planks is located on the beams only for drying and is not fixed yet


in the meantime you can get a feeling, how and where I will install the deck planking


The mast partner of main mast is already installed (here I have to make the wedges)


you will recognize, that the deck is still only dry fitted - There are several openings to prepare (for bitts, mast partners, pumps etc.) which I want to make before the planking are fixed


Many Thanks for interest ..... to be continued ....

Just a short remark:
The paper dummies I use are from the Boudriot planset, maybe you realized already, that the windlass is different compared to the kit design - so stay tuned, in some days I will show the difference and what I will make

 

[Peter Voogt]

Progress on the nailing was ongoing and for the moment finished

The last "sheet" with planks is located on the beams only for drying and is not fixed yet
View attachment 239521

in the meantime you can get a feeling, how and where I will install the deck planking
View attachment 239520

The mast partner of main mast is already installed (here I have to make the wedges)
View attachment 239522

you will recognize, that the deck is still only dry fitted - There are several openings to prepare (for bitts, mast partners, pumps etc.) which I want to make before the planking are fixed
View attachment 239523

Many Thanks for interest ..... to be continued ....

Just a short remark:
The paper dummies I use are from the Boudriot planset, maybe you realized already, that the windlass is different compared to the kit design - so stay tuned, in some days I will show the difference and what I will make

Looks very nice.
But ....... are you changing to the "SOS Build Logs from Paper / Cardstock" ?
Regards, Peter

 

[kidsgalore]

Looking very nice Uwe

 

[Jimsky]

Your progress is steady and shows how much passion you have for this model. I cannot wait to see actual cannons on top of this nicely made deck. I do love the appearance of the treenails, but oil, for sure, will add a new look.

 

[Uwek]

More openings to do in the deck planking ..... The Le Coureur is a small ship, but seems like she has the same number of slots like a 74 gunner

Main mast partners


foremast partners




Than we have the bitts for fixing the bowsprit


they are visible also under deck via the ladder hatch (sorry for the bad quality photo)


The bitts near the main mast


These bitts are sitting half on the beam






Missing are still the slots for the anchor spill and the pumps (hope I did not forget one....)

 

[Jimsky]

Greetings, Mon Amie. While looking at the nice bits provided in the kit, I came across the question. I see, that the cut is slightly angled inside on both bits. Is this by design or simply optical illusion on the photo?



Thank you,

 

[Uwek]

Greetings, Mon Amie. While looking at the nice bits provided in the kit, I came across the question. I see, that the cut is slightly angled inside on both bits. Is this by design or simply optical illusion on the photo?

View attachment 240072

Thank you,

Hallo Jim,
it is not a optical illusion - the laser cut of this parts are in fact not so accurate, but it is here aboslutely no problem, due to the fact, that you have to sand the head of the bitts into a 3 dimensional formed head .....
The parts are very small, the vertical timber is 2mm wide, so we are talking about a difference of maybe 0,3mm .....

 

[Uwek]

The next main small project inside the ship project will be the anchor spill or windlass.

General:

Due to the fact, that the Le Coureur was a small ship, there was no space or technical possibilities of a vertical capstan, so such ships has an horizontal spill or windlass.
Capstans had the big advantage, that a continous rotation was possible, because the seaman could walk around the capstan.
The big disadvantage of the horizontal spills was the fact, that it could turned only for a small angle, than they had to fix the spill drum, and afterwards the seamen were able to put the crank into another hole of the spill, with once more turning only for a small angle........ so lifting an anchor took much more time with such a spill........

On the model:

These are the parts provided within the kit - the drum and four cnc cut elements which will bethe base of the windlass drum.




Please be aware:
the drum has all together six rows of notches -> on the left and the right each time two rows of square notches for the windlass handles / cranks (lower cross section )
and
in in the center two rows of rectangle notches for the "brakes" (upper cross section)
-> and now IMPORTANT: these notches are asymetric cut, in such a way, that the brake-timbers are fitting well and hinder the turning of the drum.



So if you install the drum of the windlass please check twice the correct alignment of the drum !!!!


Here you can see the four elements of the windlass provided in the kit on top of the CAF drawing


and here we compare the "kit-windlass" with the drawing of the Jean Boudriot planset. Boudriot interpreted it in a different way and showed the drum based on two bases, each between the first and second row for the handles - with this arrangement the total length of the drum (and width on the deck) is shorter!


Before I made a final decision, I made some samples for the "Boudriot-bases" in scratch - good enough to go further in this direction


It worked well with the bases so i sanded down the drum, so that the notch was just wide enough that the base elements are fitting



Here you can see the (by in moment 50%) adjusted windlass on the correct place on the deck


both sides prepared - still with the original extension of the axis for the bases


and now with closed bases and shortened drum - now the windlass is 99% the Boudriot version


and now back of the windlass on top of the planking at the correct pace - missing here are the four vertical pillars on which the windlass is fixed towards the deck beams


My change on the windlass is not a "must" or a "should be done" - it is purely a different way compared to the kit design - here I followed the Boudriot drawings

Many Thanks for your interest ..... to be continued .....

 

[Pathfinder65]

Wow, fascinating to follow your work.

Jan

 

[pianoforte]

This is a great solution to stick with Boudriot's drawing. Works much better than CAF variant. Simply great job. Did you use pear wood for the bearings?

 

[Uwek]

Many Thanks for your kind words and the likes received - highly appreciated

This is a great solution to stick with Boudriot's drawing. Works much better than CAF variant. Simply great job. Did you use pear wood for the bearings?

Hallo Adi,
It is not pear, but Elsbeere (german name), Sorbus torminalis, with common names wild service tree, chequers, and checker tree, which has a similar grain but often some more touch into red. I like this timber the most for scratch building

Torminalis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Some more photos working on the windlass

Here you can see, where the bearings of the windlass have to be installed
crossed with some pencil lines are the two deck beams, so the vertical pillars are bolted horizontal through both beams


So approximately here would be the correct place






Due to the fact, that the fixing construction of the windlass bearings will be completely hidden by the planking, I decided, that I will not make them

Using the paper template and a scriber I "copied" the location of the four vertical pillars into the planking (you can see each time 5 holes in the paper)


and cut out the slots

Many Thanks for your interest .... to be continued ....

 

[Uwek]

Today I will show some more works on the windlass - not really big progress, but I took some time to cut out these slots as accurate as for me possible.
Very helpful for this work is the fact, that the deck planking is still not fixed on the beams, so all these works can be done directly on the working table

pillars fixed with glue and with some oversize in the cross section - I made also some bolts (0,5mm)


Now the pillars of the bearings are sitting in slots on top of (better next to) the beams






here you can see the windlass compared with the Boudriot drawing


Step by step I am coming closer to the status, when I am able to fix the deck planking on top of the beams ......

to be continued ..... many thanks for your interest

 

[Uwek]

Just something else

It is not a masterpiece and still needs some finetuning (some color, blood, chickenhead etc.)

 

[jeep]

yup...... i think you should sacrifice some blood.

 

[Uwek]

With several days watching the european football (socker) championship on TV I was yesterday evening the first time back in my workshop.
Germany lost against England (Sch... ) - so afterwards (I am German) I can fully concentrate on my modeling - Many Thanks to the English

I started with the preparation of the wedges of the mast partners. This detail is not part in the kit, here the mast is sitting directly against the partners, so I will make them from scratch.

First of all a short comparison of the drawings





I forgot to make a photo of the longitudinal cross section, but this I will add in short time

I am using some pear strip, cut into 1,5cm long segments and sanded them accordingly


The photo before is showing the wedges stick to a adhesive band , now with some glue between the segments and fixed them around the mast-"dummy"




The second also wedges also prepared, and the first already was brought to the correct form - still a lot of sanding and adjustment necessary