Le Courbet French battle cruiser from Modelik

MikeBer

Active Member
I am beginning to enjoy the build now. The hull was my baptism by fire. I made many mistakes but I also learnt a helluva lot! Compared to the hull, the superstructure looks as though it will be plain sailing (excuse the pun!).

So far, I have found a few errors in the part sizes but was able to rectify them without it showing. A few of the sub-assemblies have to be figured out as the instructions are not very explicit and the occasional part is not shown on the line drawings.

I have learnt to curb a tendency of mine to overglue! Paper just needs the slightest coating of glue to form an effective bond.

Here is the superstructure taking shape.

Superstructure.jpg
 

MikeBer

Active Member
Here are the masts completed except for the rigging which will be done in the final stages.

Masts.jpg


I have designed the stand to fit onto the internal hull ribs. I will show details when I start to build them.
 

Beachead

New Member
Lookin real good. I second the motion that you used your vegatibles well. I wouldn't want to be in the forward deckhouse when those mid ships main gun mounts shot forward.
 

MikeBer

Active Member
Here is a picture of the searchlights and cranes.
The crane jibs were reinforced with some pieces of balsa inserted into the ends and superglue dripped onto the ends to make them rigid. when dry, the ends were sanded to shape.
Searchlightcranes.jpg
 

exzealot

Member
For a newbie in card modeling, your work is very very good. I can't imagine what your future projects will look like!

Nice work - thanks for the pictures.

Ken
 

MikeBer

Active Member
Hi Sebret,
The stay wires were from copper electrical cable and the main crane cable was from some wire seals that I had lying around. You can duplicate the cable by using several strands of thin wire from multi-strand cable and twisting them to form a "rope" profile.
 

MikeBer

Active Member
I thought that the turrets would be easy because of their size: think again.
First, the barrels. After trial and error, I came up with a satisfactory way of forming the barrels.

Barrelstage1.jpg


1 shows the barrel as cut from the card. Then, the barrel was rolled loosely around a 2mm skewer or dowel (2 & 3). It was then rolled by hand like a cigarette until the grey overlapped the glue edge and then opened slightly until you can see the glue edge (4). The first stage of the barrel was glued by tacking the end with a drop of PVA (see below). The rest of this portion of barrel was glued (5).

Barrelstage2.jpg


The next section of barrel was glued in the same way, tacking it where shown in red.

Barrelstage3.jpg


The rest of this portion of barrel was glued, as shown in red.

Barrelstage4.jpg


Finally, the last stage of the barrel was glued as shown.

Barrelstage5.jpg


The barrel was rolled and the excess glue squeezed out and caught on the index finger.

Excessglue.jpg


Barrel mounts.
The barrel mount was reinforced with some balsa as shown, to provide a more rigid mounting for the barrel locating pin which goes through it.

Barrelmounts.jpg


The barrels were reinforced with toothpicks. PVA was squeezed in each end of the barrel and a toothpick “screwed” in from the rear. Some toilet paper was twisted up and used to caulk the base.
This was coated with PVA and, when dry, a 2mm hole was drilled in the barrel mounting block and the barrel glued in and the excess toothpick cut off at the rear of the block.

Barrelinserts.jpg
 

MikeBer

Active Member
THE STAND

I had to make the stand now as the hull had to be inverted and supported on the bow and stern parts of the deck and this had to be done before I could carry on mounting the rest of the deck structures. Here is a diagragm of the proposed mountings.

Standoutline.jpg


The rib mountings were made first. After the glue was dry, the mountings were sanded and the card portions were soaked with thin CA to stop them delaminating. The ends of the mountings were chamfered like pegs to enable them to fit over the card ribs easily.

Stage1.jpg


The basic stands were then roughly built up using balsa between the mountings and on each end. When dry, the balsa was sanded down flush with the thickness of the “pegs”. Strips of edging veneer were then glued vertically on both sides of this “sandwich”.

Stage2.jpg


These were then sanded and then the stand trimmed to shape. A second layer of veneer was then glued horizontally along both sides. This was effectively a 1mm plywood coating on both sides. The ends were then covered with a single layer of veneer.

Stage3.jpg


When dry, the assemblies were sanded and then 5mm holes were drilled for the dowels which would fix the stand to the baseboard.

Stage4.jpg


After gluing in the dowels, the stands were given a couple of coats of sanding sealer and then mounted on the hull. This was done by squeezing PVA through the holes in the hull on both sides of the rib and then the rib mountings were pushed over the rib until flush with the hull.

Stage5.jpg


I am actually very pleased with the finished stands. They are small yet functional.
 

MikeBer

Active Member
Now for the railings.

These are the thinnest railings that I have made so far.
I measured from the railing template drawing supplied and the stanchions came out at 0.6mm and the rails 0.2mm, all copper electrical wire. There will be twelve sets of deck edge railings, six on each side of the boat covering the two deck levels.
There will be four small sets of superstructure railings, one each side of funnel No. 3 and one each side of the 47mm gun deck.

Here is the first set of railings.

Railing1.jpg


They will be sprayed grey. The mounting holes will be marked and pierced with a pin. Thin CA will then be applied to these holes to seal the card and left to dry. These holes will then be drilled out 0.8mm and the railings fitted. Thin CA will then be applied to the stanchion bases to fix them in place.

Railing2.jpg
 

latias_ca

New Member
railing construction?

Very nice work on the railings. How did you attach the rails to the stanchions? Was it CA? Or solder? If CA, how did you keep the rails from sticking to the template?

Also, how did you hold the rails and stanchions in the right position while you were attaching them to each other? When I try freehand construction of wire railings, the bits always come adrift before the CA sets up.

Myself, I've been tending toward using CA-stiffened and painted thread on a jig to make railings (the Paper Shipwright site has a sample jig I've adapted). One note about thread railings, though... if you use mercerized cotton, you get a lot of unsightly, fuzzy nap. I've been trying nylon upholstery thread instead, which has very little nap and may make reasonably clean-looking railings (I hope).

Anyway, I'd greatly appreciate hearing more about your technique for making those lovely copper-wire railings. Better yet, a mini-tutorial!
 

MikeBer

Active Member
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