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Royal Louis - Mamoli

Hello again, great to have you along.

More catching up today but first I’ll tell you of my happier mood. Last year I had operations on my left hand and arm, a few weeks ago I had a further operation on my arm, one that was causing concern. About six inches of muscle was removed along with some lymph nodes, it wasn’t very pleasant. I’d now lost much of the feeling in my arm and along with my missing fingers I wasn’t overly optimistic about my ability to make things. A couple of days ago all the dressings were finally removed, I was surprised at how neat a job had been made, it was healing nicely and most importantly feeling and reasonable movement was returning, so a happy Ken.

My last post was the finishing of the first planking which I thought was quite successful, this post shows the next step. I covered the entire hull with my favourite filler, Osmo, a water based filler that comes in many shades, it goes on smoothly, is hard but sands easily. After sanding I got the hoped for finish with all the unevenness removed and was now able to concentrate on getting the ports done.

The 1:1 plans were invaluable and made getting their positions correct fairly easy. I used the upper ports as the datum points, I measured out and drilled a pilot hole at the centre of each port. I then made up a template with a rod through its centre, I placed the rod into the pilot hole and drew in the port. When they were all drawn and after checking several times I cut them out. I placed the template into the centre holes and used it as an accurate cutting guide I cut with a fresh surgical scalpel, I found that with a few light passes a clean opening was easily achieved, no problems, just a lot to do. Next will be lining them.


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Excellent Plans

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This shows my simple template in use

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Ken, I've often thought you could build better than the rest of us with one hand tied behind your back. It turns out that's actually true! Happy to hear of the successful procedure and the occupational therapy is doing wonders!
Thanks Paul. Building with one hand is the easy bit, I wish that I also had your patience and eye to detail.
 
Your fortitude despite the problem with your hand is inspirational, Ken. Doing what we love can help us overcome all sorts of obstacles, and it's most gratifying. The hull looks great. Clever work getting the gunports opened and the holes that accept the half-barrels aligned consistently.
 
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Your fortitude despite the problem with your hand is inspirational, Ken. Doing what we love can help us overcome all sorts of obstacles, and it's most gratifying. The hull looks great. Clever work getting the gunports opened and the holes that accept the half-barrels aligned consistently.
Hi Kurt. Thanks for your comment. The ports came out as well as I’d hoped and certainly better than the cast ones. It’s surprising what you can do if you put your mind to it. I concentrate on what I can do and just muddle my way through the small finely detailed bits, I do get a lot of satisfaction out of modelling. Ken
 
Wow Ken, you have certainly had a rough go of it. So glad to hear you're on the mend, your work is a testament to your recouperation. Great job on your gun port layout.
Hi Daniel, Thanks for that, I still won’t be able to play a piano though.
 
Hello again, great to have you along.

More catching up today but first I’ll tell you of my happier mood. Last year I had operations on my left hand and arm, a few weeks ago I had a further operation on my arm, one that was causing concern. About six inches of muscle was removed along with some lymph nodes, it wasn’t very pleasant. I’d now lost much of the feeling in my arm and along with my missing fingers I wasn’t overly optimistic about my ability to make things. A couple of days ago all the dressings were finally removed, I was surprised at how neat a job had been made, it was healing nicely and most importantly feeling and reasonable movement was returning, so a happy Ken.

My last post was the finishing of the first planking which I thought was quite successful, this post shows the next step. I covered the entire hull with my favourite filler, Osmo, a water based filler that comes in many shades, it goes on smoothly, is hard but sands easily. After sanding I got the hoped for finish with all the unevenness removed and was now able to concentrate on getting the ports done.

The 1:1 plans were invaluable and made getting their positions correct fairly easy. I used the upper ports as the datum points, I measured out and drilled a pilot hole at the centre of each port. I then made up a template with a rod through its centre, I placed the rod into the pilot hole and drew in the port. When they were all drawn and after checking several times I cut them out. I placed the template into the centre holes and used it as an accurate cutting guide I cut with a fresh surgical scalpel, I found that with a few light passes a clean opening was easily achieved, no problems, just a lot to do. Next will be lining them.


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Excellent Plans

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This shows my simple template in use

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Hi Ken,

slow down! You're building faster than I can read! Splendid job so far, you've built up an entire hull in the time it's taken me to paint a few "sticks".

Dom
 
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Hi Ken,

slow down! You're building faster than I can read! Splendid job so far, you've built up an entire hull in the time it's taken me to paint a few "sticks".

Dom
Hi Dom, Yes but yours are very nice sticks
 
Hi Kurt. You’ve arrived at the same conclusion that I came to. The first planking would terminated at the edge of each gun port, when completed you were supposed to file down the cast port to be level with the planking. There would be little support for that initial planking and an even flow of the planks would be difficult to achieve. As you suggested I ended up putting blocks where the half barrels would fit, planked normally, marked and cut out the ports as would be normal practice. I should have backed my feeling about this and saved quite a bit of time and effort, you will see all this in my catch up posts.
Hi, Ken! I’m stowing away to watch this build too. But don’t listen to Kurt @DARIVS ARCHITECTVS He will have you make fully rigged guns with carriages on each interior deck! At least, that’s what he did on his SoS.
 
Hello, Here I am again, still catching up. This post will tell you that after errors and false starts I have at last got my head around this build and given myself direction. I think that it was starting up again after my lay off that I didn’t fully concentrate on what was needed.

You will see that I started the first planking using the method indicated in the instructions. After much re-alignment of the cast ports I laid the initial planks above and below the ports, I then started to plank between the ports. I really disliked this method so quickly gave up on it deciding that I would do it my own way. I ripped the ports and planking out and started over. I decided to build in ply backing strips between the bulkheads to mount the half barrels, as there were no decks I couldn’t put the normal blocks in, also as I couldn’t determine the exact location of the barrels yet this method gave me plenty of leeway. The cast open ports for the upper deck were ok so I used them as intended. I was now going to fully plank the hull then using the excellent 1:1 plans I would mark up and cut out the ports lining them normally. This was a good time to fit the quarter deck, I fitted the cabin facia and ships wheel under this deck, I don’t think that these will be seen but they will be there. I started the second planking by fitting the open ports into the walls of the main deck, planking around them, getting an acceptable fit and finish before getting stuck into the main job of planking.

I felt much happier about the build as I was now doing it my way and not trying to adapt to what was intended to be a simpler method which I believe wouldn’t have satisfied me.


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Looking good!
 
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I still won’t be able to play a piano though.
Well, I don't know about that one Ken. Many years ago, my dad after recovering from open heart surgery asked the surgeon if he would be able to play the piano and the surgeon said certainly. My dad said that's great because I never could before. Hmm...
 
Hi, Ken! I’m stowing away to watch this build too. But don’t listen to Kurt @DARIVS ARCHITECTVS He will have you make fully rigged guns with carriages on each interior deck! At least, that’s what he did on his SoS.
Hi and welcome aboard, there’s ways room for stowaways. I know exactly how Kurt goes about modelling, I’ve followed his sos. For quite a while, very impressive, I’ll always listen what he has to says, he’s too good to ignore but I’ll only listen with one ear
 
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