Le Saint Philippe 1693 after Jean-Claude Lemineur (Ancre) in scale 1:48

[WojtasS]

Nice work Paul. I'm happy your not giving up and thanks for appreciation

 

[serikoff]

I understand you so well, my friend. The stern is the most difficult part of a ship to build, and all the drawings are usually flawed because they're just drawings. The only thing that's reliable is high-quality 3D modeling. Find that by all means. But the difficulty lies in reading these files, and then you need a technician to translate them from 3D into reality. I sometimes spend hours solving problems much simpler than your situation, and I can imagine how you feel. Unfortunately, I can't help you specifically, but I'm with you morally.

 

[Richie]

Sitting here waiting for church to start and I just realized I failed to post this update...

...from 12 hours ago...

Well, I got myself into quite a funk this past week! It is my policy to not build anything until I understand everything. While I often fail in this regard (most recently evidenced by the error uncovered by our colleague Wojtas), the exercise of figuring out every detail on the complicated stern of the Saint Philippe sent me into a tailspin.

Rather than setting this model aside I have decided to just carry on and stop being such a baby. I will certainly make more mistakes now, but so be it. This is only my third ship model and first scratch attempt, so I need to stop taking myself and this build so seriously. I think I forgot this is a hobby...

I've fabricated lights (windows) before so I thought I might be able to do that while I sorted out the quarter galleries and stern balconies. The lower level of lights are round/oval and it was my thought to build the windows as squares and then place a panel in front of them simulating their round/oval shape. The first attempt ended in the bin - a day long struggle with window frames and muntins (these divide panes of glass within a window) that left me in a lower place than I was at the start of the effort.

Renewed by a restful night I changed directions and decided to build the face panel first.

Here we go with a photo essay that should provide some sense of my workflow...

This is where we begin - these openings need to appear round/oval:

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A template:

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The resultant rough-cut panel (still needs to be curved into place):

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Each circle/oval needs to be framed. I decided to do that with a molding. I traced each circle onto a bit of fake boxwood and roughly cut out the inside with a hand saw (ooh, look at me rack up points with the we used to do everything without power tools crowd):

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These rough-cut moldings were then glued to the panel (no small challenge getting them centered):

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Next, the excess was removed from the inside of the molding using a spindle sander (thus forfeiting all my accumulated points):

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That looked good but not great - which led to spending a really unthinkable amount of time making these moldings look more delicate:

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Next up - back to the workbench to create light divides (muntins) and get them into these openings...

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Thanks for visiting.

Onward!

Yes Paul stop being a sook , your workmanship and attention to detail is exemplary.

 

[dockattner]

As my mother would say, “in order for flowers to bloom, some rain must fall.”
Excellent recovery from your “funk” Paul. Bravo! Wonderful looking lights!

Thanks, Oliver. I rarely fall into a dark pit - but this time I made it public . Anyway, doing some basic woodworking restored my soul.

 

[dockattner]

That was a fun post to read Good Job!

Thank you, my friend.

 

[dockattner]

Bravo for your perseverance and the outcome of these 6 window frames, Paul. Then building from scratch can suddenly be satisfying again.
Regards, Peter

Indeed. I needed to succeed at something in order to bring the ship upright.

 

[dockattner]

Nice work Paul - how big are those openings for the oval windows ? I may need to pick up with of the hand saw you own there - looks great for delicate fret work - I have some coming up on my build and there's no way even at a slow speed with fine blades my power scroll saw will work.

The openings are pretty large: roughly 19 x 15 mm.

And I agree with you. A scroll saw cut can be pretty rough on thinner materials - and unloading the blade and reinstalling it is a hassle... The Knew Concepts jewelers saw is the real deal (quite a nice upgrade from the one I took from my dad's basement 40 years ago). I'm no saw expert but I know a quality product when I'm holding it in my hand. Again, no expert, but Pike Jeweler's Saw Blades are very satisfying to use and readily available (even Amazon). The tooth count you select depends on the thickness of the material you are cutting through - though a fine blade fits the bill for me for delicate work.

 

[dockattner]

Paul, those window frames turned out beautiful !

Much appreciated, Jeff. Lots of sandpaper work!

 

[dockattner]

"Delicatizing" the window frames is the kind of attention to detail that makes your work so special.

Those hours are well worth it!

Thanks for sharing your work, effort and methods!

Thanks, Brad. It's unclear to me from the plans whether the molding should be rounded - but it surely didn't look 'french' when it was flat...

 

[dockattner]

I understand you so well, my friend. The stern is the most difficult part of a ship to build, and all the drawings are usually flawed because they're just drawings. The only thing that's reliable is high-quality 3D modeling. Find that by all means. But the difficulty lies in reading these files, and then you need a technician to translate them from 3D into reality. I sometimes spend hours solving problems much simpler than your situation, and I can imagine how you feel. Unfortunately, I can't help you specifically, but I'm with you morally.

Thanks for feeling my pain, Sergey.

 

[dockattner]

Yes Paul stop being a sook , your workmanship and attention to detail is exemplary.

Had to look that one up, Richie .

 

[dockattner]

Nice work Paul. I'm happy your not giving up and thanks for appreciation

I've had to temporarily put all my plans away for a bit so I'm looking forward to pulling them out in a few weeks to figure out what I need to do to recover from my mistake. My wife is very tolerant, but she has claimed the dining room table for a few events we are hosting in the coming weeks, so I lost my research center.

(I don't have a dedicated model building space. I have some power tools in my garage, and I build my models on a small table in my office. Sort of sad, really .)