Saturday, October 18th, 2014

In these days since my previous post where I showed the state of my model, I finished to install the upper planks in the bow area. Here, with respect to the stern, there was an additional difficulty due to the need to properly fold the strips.
My method, now standard for me, uses a metal can, fixed on a stable base, with a small candle inside that warms the upper surface of the can. I place the wood strip, previously put to soak in water for some time, and I model it to the desired shape. For me now it's child's play and the curves come very natural.

As always, I emphasize the fact that the strips (6 x 2 mm), in addition to being glued to the bulkheads, are also glued together so that they constitute a very solid and robust surface. As always I uses vinyl glue and, where necessary, clamps to hold or brass nails (not completely hammered, so that I can easily remove them when the glue is dry).

At this point, the external bulwarks size is pretty much over, missing only a final "on top" strip of 4 x 2 mm which I will apply later.

Finally today I focused my work on the bulwarks from the inside. In the following photos you can look at the work done inside, where I fixed generic pieces of strips vertically. The thickness of these strips is 2 mm.
The combination of the horizontal outer planking and the vertical internal planking has now a depth of 4 mm and the whole has a extraordinary rigidity and robustness.

But let the pictures speak . .

Three-quarters of the bow on the right side . .

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Again three-quarters of the bow of the left side . .

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Other views from different viewpoints . .

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In the next message I will deepen the internal construction of the bulwarks to see where I'm going. .

Friendliness. . Jack.Aubrey.

Comulative answer to your very positive comments: many thanks to all of you. Your appreciations are strong incentives to me to continue posting my work. Regards, Jack.Aubrey.

W O W !!!
Thanks, Jack.

Hi Foz,
the planks until now installed are the simplest to lay and it's easy to be clean and neat-looking.
The problems will come when I'll go down towards the keel, both at prow but also at the stern. In the past I made a hull quite similar to this brick and I made some experience that I hope will be useful at the right time.
I sold this unfinished model to another ship modeler that, due to space problems at home, likes to get a partially finished hull and, starting from that point, complete it.

As you can see from the image here below it is quite similar to the brick in terms of hull lines and shape . .

As promised I try to explain more in detail the process of building the bulwarks.

Before continuing with the application of the planking downwards, I decided to finish all the area that now is already planked. This part of the hull, being a brick a single decked ship, is the area where the gun-ports will be opened, and inside, the deck will contain all the superstructures of the model.
The thickness of the bulwarks, according to ANCRE plans, is reported to be 6.5-7 mm, and then I found myself faced with two possible assembling solutions.
Given that a second planking is planned, made with veneer of a wood not yet decided, with thickness of 0.5mm I proceed to describe the two options:

1) sand and level the available toptimbers, already part of the bulkheads, to a thickness let's say of 3 mm, and then apply the internal planking based on strips of 1.5 mm thick; the result will be 2 (external planking) + 3 (toptimbers) + 1.5 (internal planking) + 0.5 (second planking of veneer), with a total thickness of 7 mm. During the opening of the gun-ports I should expect that there will be a vacuum inside, to hide properly;

or

2) a: fill with strips with thickness of 2 mm the internal spaces between the toptimbers; these strips, to strengthen the structure, should be placed vertically; b: then repeat with other strips of the same thickness but placed in a horizontal manner; in this way we have reached a total thickness of 6 mm of a virtually all solid wood, a real "sandwich"; c: at this point level the toptimbers properly and d: by applying the veneer (second planking), both externally and internally, reach the desired thickness of 7 mm. The opening of the gun-ports will always find solid wood.

Personally, I chose the second solution for two reasons:

1) even if it may appear more complex it is much easier to achieve in practice, you just need a bit of patience due to the fact you are managing many small pieces of wood;
2) the structure thus obtained is extremely sturdy, virtually indestructible . . and for a fanatic like me this robustness is crucial.

And the images that follow, which have more details of those I proposed yesterday, show what I'm doing.
The first two figures show the first inner layer of strips placed vertically, fore and aft. The wood used was got from my stock of strips and I think they are larch, wood good and hard enough but that is not usable for finishing because the grain is too exaggerated. The arrows show the small areas still to be finished that need to be filled with custom pieces of wood, task I'll perform at the first opportunity. It's also important to fill these small gaps to ensure robustness and to avoid finding these gaps when you open the gun-ports.

As to complete the outer planking of the bulwarks still lacks a last plank of 4 x 2 on top, these vertical slats are high enough to apply this last missing strip, with a small surplus which will be leveled at the end. The installation of this last plank will be much simplified as will rest in every point on the rear structure.

01 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/a9b9edb4-da6d-430c-ae5f-5622c2d56ab7_zps9bc6ae7d.jpg


02 Brick%20by%20JackAubrey/73ce6050-5f8e-4152-aa22-fffd8f9ec264_zps909041a1.jpg


In the image below I propose an anticipation of the next step, shown here by a green circle: the same strips are now installed as an additional layer in a horizontal manner. And it is at this point that I can reach the planned 6 mm thick solid wood . .

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I hope to have given you an idea of the kind of work is waiting me in the next few days and what you will read accordingly in the next few posts related to this model. The opening of the gun-ports will be done later, after I'll finish to plank the hull and the deck.

To meet next time, Jack.Aubrey.

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Sunday October 26th, 2014

I spent some afternoon sessions in this past week to continue the task of building the interior of the bulwarks. Friday I finished and now I'm here to plan the bulwarks refinements. They will be the task for the coming week.
At the moment I have no images to show but I will add something asap.

I spent Saturday afternoon speaking in my workshop with another italian ship modeler that decided to build the same brick, with a different name but belonging to the same "Pestel" class, using my CAD enhancements of the ANCRE plans.

Very interesting and pleasant afternoon . .

where I also had the possibility to watch closely an almost finished model of a "Knorr", the merchant ship equivalent of the Viking Drakkar. Outstanding model with a delicious klinker planking very difficult to achieve . . .

See you soon, jack.

French Brick Le Faune (1804)
 
"Le Faune" was a French naval Le Cygne-class brig launched in 1804 to a design by François Pestel in 1803. She participated in the capture of HMS Blanche in July 1805. The Royal Navy captured Le Faune in August 1805. She was taken into service as HMS Fawn, but the last record of her dates to 1806. In 1807 the Royal Navy launched a new HMS Fawn.
Career:
On 19 July 1805 Le Faune was part of a squadron of four vessels that captured HMS Blanche off Puerto Rico, three days after they had left Martinique. The other three were the 40-gun French frigate "Topaze", the 22-gun corvette "Department des Landes", and the 18-gun "Torche". Le Faune was under the command of Lieutenant Charles Brunet.
About one month later, Le Faune, still under the command of "enseigne de vaisseau" Brunet, was carrying dispatches from Fort-de-France to Saint-Nazaire via Saint-Martin-de-Ré. When she was southwest of Ouessant, on 15 August, she had the misfortune to encounter HMS Camilla.
 
Camilla chased Le Faune for nine hours before capturing her at Lat. 45 Deg. 18 Min. N. Long. 7 Deg. 36 Min.
 
The 74-gun, third rate HMS Goliath was in the Channel Fleet when she saw a sail to eastward and three sail to westward. Goliath sailed east and joined the chase, helping Camilla to capture Le Faune. Faune was armed with 16 guns and had on board 98 men. She also had on board as prisoners 22 men from HMS Blanche.
After Goliath helped Camilla capture Faune, she set off after the other three French vessels. Raisonnable joined Goliath and they were able to capture Torche, which the Royal Navy took into service as HMS Torch, but Topaze and Department-des-Landes escaped.
Captain Robert Barton of Goliath sent Le Faune into Portsmouth with Camilla. Barton reported that Le Faune was a new ship, on her first voyage, from Martinique, extremely fast, and would make a good addition to the Royal Navy.
The Royal Navy took Le Faune into service as HMS Fawn.
 
However, after 1806 there are no records of her.
 
Here below three articles fron the London Gazette describing some events where Le Faune was involved . . 
 

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Last monday I did nothing but today I started with good will to finish the inside of the bulwarks, removing , as scheduled, the excess of plywood toptimbers.

Initially I started using a method that produced few dust and which consisted of a blade of a small hacksaw for iron. I only used the blade, without the bow, and to use it I covered the ends with tape. Then, holding the blade folded properly, I started to cut the plywood in excess.

The method worked adeguately but then I had to sand and trim the corners with the deck that was impossible to achieve well in any way except by using abrasive blocks and wood cutters.

Then I wanted to try to use the belt sander BSL 220/E presented in one previous message and I immediately noticed a positive difference . . no effort and pace.
Of course, the bad side was the dust, in fact produced in great quantity, so much that I finally decided to leave and to complete the last remaining toptimbers tomorrow.

I spent the time I had left to suck the laboratory with a vacuum cleaner.

Below two pictures of the front of the hull, showing the inner sides of both right and left bulwarks nearly finished . .

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Instead at the poop there are still five toprtimbers per side I have left for tomorrow, which, however, give an idea of the work that had to be put on the track to get rid of the excess wood.

Finally, having already done much dust, I sanded adeguately the top of the bulwarks leveling the three layers of planks: this was a job that came with the belt sander incredibly ease: it is a tool that I highly recommend, of course for those who can afford it. .

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All for now, until next time, Jack.Aubrey.

Hi Robin, may be a correct explanation, in fact the two file not directly displayed are significantly bigger that the others . . I'll try to reduce their size in term of bytes to see what happens.
In order to be independent to the many forum softwares I usually upload the images on a file/picture server and I embed them into the message with the proper BBCode Tags, but some times I follow another way and this is the reason why I discovered this "problem" only now . .
Anyway many thanks for your answer and also for your appreciaton of my work.
Jack.

Two other overall viewpoints, that do not add anything new to the work done the past Tuesday. .
Wednesday I finished the leveling of the aft toptimbers that I wasn't able to finish Tuesday. I used the "belt sander method" that definitely proved to be incredibly better than the other one I have described.
Regarding the wood dust . . patience, I finally sucked the workshop and the session ended there.
Regards, Jack.

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