La Belle - Hachette Partwork - 1/30 scale

[jack.aubrey]

Tuesday 11 July 2023

A few years ago I collected all the issues of "La Belle", published by Hachette. At that time it was not my intention to build the model both because I had nowhere to build it and also because I wasn't interested in building an admiralty style model.
At the beginning of the year my wife and me moved to a new house, located in Colico, on Lake Como and in the new house I was able to create a new modeler workshop where to play my hobby.
At this point, having in the meantime finished the model of the Ragusian Carrack, I found myself in the situation of starting the construction of a new model.

I had three possibilities:

1) Finish the partially built model of the Brig HMS Guadeloupe, started and never completed years ago,
2) start the model of HMS Revenge (a kit by Amati),
3) the partwork of "La Belle" by Hachette.

The choice fell on the issues of La Belle.

The booklet number one, as usual, starts with having you build the house from the roof: in fact, it makes you assemble a gun, but from the second booklet you start assembling the mounting slip. Everything passes through a dozen issues but in the end the slip is ready.

Below are a few photos to give an idea of its appearance, which we will drag on for quite some time. All in MDF and I had absolutely no problem during its assembly.

01 La Belle Photos/IMG20230224180434.jpg

02 La Belle Photos/IMG20230224180442.jpg

03 La Belle Photos/IMG20230224180449.jpg

04 La Belle Photos/IMG20230224180457.jpg

05 La Belle Photos/IMG20230224180510.jpg

06 La Belle Photos/IMG20230225202114.jpg

07 La Belle Photos/IMG20230225202126.jpg

See you soon, in the next message we will see the assembly of the gun carriage.
Jack Aubrey

 

[jack.aubrey]

Thursday, July 13th, 2023


Starting from the roof: the gun carriage assembled . . .

To become familiar with the materials provided, I decided to mount the gun carriage.
In this case we have very small pieces and I had to separate the various pieces and prepare them very carefully to avoid damages.
However, I didn't have any particular problems assembling them and the operation ended quite well. The only aspect to underline is the need to remove burns on the wood due to laser cutting . . .
I foresee that it will be a problem for the rest of the project: it requires a lot of attention and precision, the use of different tools according to the shape of the piece and . . even a lot of time.

Below are a series of images of the carriage of the first cannon.

01 La Belle Photos/IMG20230226160126.jpg

02 La Belle Photos/.jpg

03 La Belle Photos/IMG20230226160212.jpg

04 La Belle Photos/IMG20230226160337.jpg

05 La Belle Photos/IMG20230226160351.jpg

See you soon, in the next message we will see the assembly of the keel.
Jack Aubrey

 

[jack.aubrey]

Saturday, July 15th, 2023

Having set aside the completion of the gun, which will be needed in months, I started to assemble the keel.
All the pieces are in laser pre-cut pear wood and are very precise.

Here the problem of burns, due to laser cutting, that must be removed is emerging with a certain seriousness. This removal is necessary to be able to safely glue the various elements and also for a purely aesthetic factor. The main problem in removing burnt wood consists in removing only the black without removing further wood, otherwise the shape of the piece could be changed and this, in some cases, is not really good.

Removing the scorch for all the keel pieces took a significant amount of time . . time certainly not dedicated to activities of great modeling value: just a lot of patience and attention. With the pieces cleaned up, the work was really simple and you can see the result in the following images.

When all the glue was dry, I smoothed it to even out the slightest differences in thickness between the many pieces and then the entire keel was parked in the mounting slip, to avoid the risk of breakage.

01 La Belle Photos/IMG20230310115024.jpg

02 La Belle Photos/IMG20230310115031.jpg

03 La Belle Photos/IMG20230310115036.jpg

See you soon, in the next message we will see the assembly of the first frames.
Jack Aubrey

 

[Magic Mike]

Jack, I look forward to your build. I love "La Belle" Magic Mike

 

[Uwek]

The quality of the material / wood is looking very good
Do you have already all issues of the La Belle, or do you have to wait until receiving the next one?
and
Do you have the monograph by Jean Boudriot, which can help here and there?

Planset review - LA BELLE - 1684" - 20 plates in scale 1:24 / 36 / 48 - by Jean Boudriot

Planset Review: "LA BELLE - 1684" - 20 plates in scale 1:24 / 36 / 48 by Jean Boudriot translated by François Fougerat left the hardcover book, on the right side the softcover planset the book with planset is available from ancre at a price of 105,- Euro...

shipsofscale.com

 

[Hubac’s Historian]

Is this an installment kit with pre-cut parts, or are you using the plan-set to laser-cut your own parts?

 

[shota70]

Dear jack.aubrey
good luck with your new project, i will keep following with great curiosity

 

[jack.aubrey]

The quality of the material / wood is looking very good
Do you have already all issues of the La Belle, or do you have to wait until receiving the next one?
and
Do you have the monograph by Jean Boudriot, which can help here and there?

Planset review - LA BELLE - 1684" - 20 plates in scale 1:24 / 36 / 48 - by Jean Boudriot

Planset Review: "LA BELLE - 1684" - 20 plates in scale 1:24 / 36 / 48 by Jean Boudriot translated by François Fougerat left the hardcover book, on the right side the softcover planset the book with planset is available from ancre at a price of 105,- Euro...

shipsofscale.com

I have all the 140 issues of this model: I collected them when Hachette started this partwork in Italy in 2016.
I also have the Boudriot monograph but until now I did'nt need to use it too much because the building instructions are clear and quite accurate. Remember that the Hachette model is 1/30 scale while the monograph is 1/24 scale.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Is this an installment kit with pre-cut parts, or are you using the plan-set to laser-cut your own parts?

All the pear wood pieces are laser cut so I do not need to cut them by my own.
I have a special thought about ship model kits or partworks like this: normally the pre cut pieces are made with plywood and the number of this pieces is quite limited (keel, bulkheads, few other).
The usefulness is then related to the fact that all you need is in a box.
You do not save to much time in cutting pieces like +/- 15 bulkheads and +/- 3 parts of the keel. Let's say 1 o 2 days maximum .
This partwork, instead, is in admiralty style and each frame is made up with 9 precut pieces and there are +/- 40 frames, and so on.
And this is the great value of this kit !!!! You save a lot of time

 

[Pathfinder65]

Eagerly following along. Looks like a great project.

Jan

 

[GrantTyler]

All the pear wood pieces are laser cut so I do not need to cut them by my own.
I have a special thought about ship model kits or partworks like this: normally the pre cut pieces are made with plywood and the number of this pieces is quite limited (keel, bulkheads, few other).
The usefulness is then related to the fact that all you need is in a box.
You do not save to much time in cutting pieces like +/- 15 bulkheads and +/- 3 parts of the keel. Let's say 1 o 2 days maximum .
This partwork, instead, is in admiralty style and each frame is made up with 9 precut pieces and there are +/- 40 frames, and so on.
And this is the great value of this kit !!!! You save a lot of time

Good morning Jack. What a pleasure. To have all parts precut and in pear wood. That is a win for sure. Cheers Grant

 

[Uwek]

I have all the 140 issues of this model: I collected them when Hachette started this partwork in Italy in 2016.
I also have the Boudriot monograph but until now I did'nt need to use it too much because the building instructions are clear and quite accurate. Remember that the Hachette model is 1/30 scale while the monograph is 1/24 scale.

Yes - the drawings in 1:24 can help a lot in order to understand the structure and also maybe for some kit bashing

 

[jack.aubrey]

Monday, July 17th, 2023

The assembly of the frames now begins, a construction which, in theory, should reproduce in scale exactly the pieces used in the construction of the real sailing ship. Apart from some missing details such as the treenails and other smaller elements that are certainly described in many old naval architecture treatises.

In our case, each frame consists of nine individual pieces to be assembled together.

All the pieces are pre-cut with the laser and here the problem of removing the burns caused by the laser presents itself in an overwhelming way. At the end I have refined a relatively efficient process for removing burnt wood but it is still very "time consuming".

At the beginning I set myself the goal of preparing one frame per day (there are +/- forty frames to build), then I even managed to do two frames a day. So I spent more or less a month building all them (with the exception of the bevel which I decided to do in a later time).

Below are some images of some frames, its assembly is not complex but the instructions, in my opinion, were not such as to allow rigorous and precise assembly, so I proceeded to invent one of my own which I will illustrate better in the next post.

01 La Belle Photos/IMG20230310115129.jpg

02 La Belle Photos/IMG20230310115138.jpg

03 La Belle Photos/IMG20230310115145.jpg

04 La Belle Photos/IMG20230310115150.jpg

See you soon, in the next message we will see the procedure I adopted for assembling the frames.
Jack Aubrey

 

[jack.aubrey]

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

As promised, I'll go on to show the "method" I used to assemble the frames, which I want to remind you, are made up of nine pieces.

First I had to face the problem of removing the burn due to laser cutting. I immediately realized that using nail files and sandpaper didn't work: too much time and bad results.
So I mounted the mini-drill on the specific PROXXON bench vise and fixed it in a suitable position. On the spindle I applied the rubber drum with its supplied abrasive cylinder and I began to clean the nine pieces one by one with this tool.
Only in certain more problematic cases I had to provide a precision hand finishing. It is still a rather tedious job, but much better than the manual method.

Then I started thinking about assembly: I immediately understood that the main problem was to assemble the frame while maintaining perfect symmetry on both sides. The supplied MDF spacer is useful but by itself it does not solve the problem.

So I set up a base containing a clearly visible grid and reference points on which to place the pieces. First you have to join the five pieces of the first layer and to do this I used transparent double-sided tape (very thin) to hold them in place. In this case, the edges were glued using CA glue so that it gripped immediately.

After a few minutes I moved on to gluing the remaining four pieces on top of the first layer. Here I used Titebond aliphatic glue and fixed everything with clamps until completely dry.

In anticipation of mounting more frames at the same time, I fixed three grids to an old glass shelf. This also allowed me to mount the pieces on a perfectly flat surface. I am satisfied with the result as for me it guarantees the symmetry of the two halves of the frame with a good rate of precision.

Once the glue dried I was then able to refine the piece and set it aside for the next activity (bevel angle).

Below are some photos that should (I hope) explain the process.


01 La Belle Photos/IMG20230310150742.jpg

02 La Belle Photos/IMG20230310150737.jpg

03 La Belle Photos/IMG20230317114551.jpg

04 La Belle Photos/IMG20230317114556.jpg

05 La Belle Photos/IMG20230317114600.jpg

06 La Belle Photos/IMG20230317114606.jpg

See you soon, in the next message other frames mounted and set aside . .
Jack Aubrey

 

[dockattner]

Hi Jack, I know this laser char issue is a big one - so much so that I actively avoided choosing a kit with hundreds (thousands?) of laser-cut parts that would all need to be cleaned. Like you, I have seen it done well but that always seems to involve using files and sandpaper and hours and hours of messy work. One time I read that you can leave a piece to be cleaned in white vinegar (not sure how long) and then the char (mostly) can be removed with a soft brush (like a toothbrush). Might be worth an experiment on a scrap but I suspect this is too good to be true or everyone would already be doing it. But if it works, I hereby grant you naming rights to the new technique .

 

[jack.aubrey]

Friday, July 21st, 2023

The number of assembled frames is growing day by day . .

01 La Belle Photos/IMG20230317171227.jpg

02 La Belle Photos/IMG20230403105402.jpg

03 La Belle Photos/IMG20230403105405.jpg

04 La Belle Photos/IMG20230403105410.jpg

05 La Belle Photos/IMG20230403105419.jpg

See you soon, in the next message some new pieces under construction for the square stern and so on . .
Jack Aubrey

 

[jack.aubrey]

Monday,July 24th, 2023

All the frames are ready.
Trying to imagine the final shape of the hull.
Now I need to start to create the bevel angle for most of the frames . . . a lot of work again.

01 La Belle Photos/IMG20230621150945.jpg

02 La Belle Photos/IMG20230621151014.jpg

03 La Belle Photos/IMG20230621151022.jpg

04 La Belle Photos/IMG20230621151032.jpg

05 La Belle Photos/IMG20230621150904.jpg

See you soon,
Jack Aubrey

 

[Magic Mike]

I love your dedication to detail! Nicely done, Magic Mike

 

[Heinrich]

Dear jack. It is great that you have started a new build. I am particularly pleased that you have chosen La Belle - to me, she is one of the prettiest ships around. I will most certainly follow your build with much interest!

 

[jack.aubrey]

Tuesday,July 26th, 2023

Once the assembly of the frames was finished, it was then time to work on a good part of them to prepare the famous "bevel angle".
This angle is particularly noticeable on the first fore and aft frames to then decreases more and more, but gradually, the closer the frame is to the center of the hull.
Below I propose a couple of images of frame number 17 located aft to show the work done both outside and inside the frame.
But I imagine that you are wondering how it was possible to do this . .


01 La Belle Photos/IMG20230525114734.jpg

02 La Belle Photos/IMG20230525114742.jpg

The following image shows a card, supplied with the files, which is used to prepare the bevel for our frame number 17.
The image contains blue and red shapes which serve to determine the shape of the frame on the outside (blue shapes) and on the inside (red shapes).

Once the shapes have been precisely cut out with scissors, they must be glued in the correct position on the two sides of the frame with paper glue (so that it can then be easily removed). The part not covered by the card must then be removed at an angle, being careful not to remove material from the opposite side.

To facilitate understanding the process, I've attached the assembly instructions relating to the frame presented here. The instructions are in Italian but I think the images are self-explanatory and enough to understand the process.

The only but important variation to what was suggested in the instructions was the tools used: no files, nail files and sandpaper but the Proxxon mini-drill and the BS/E belt sander, also by Proxxon. However, the wood dust was absolutely not lacking.


03 La Belle Photos/Istruzioni di montaggio - sagome fascicoli 17, Dragante, Arcaccia.jpg

Finally, the next two images show a first important element of the stern under preparation. For the moment it is only a first step but the whole poop wasn't a very simple step. In the coming days we will see how the work on the transom ended.

04 La Belle Photos/IMG20230518120751.jpg

05 La Belle Photos/IMG20230518120756.jpg

See you soon,
Jack Aubrey