Hachette L’Hermione

[booth]

Thank you both again, it does make me feel better and encourages me to keep up to date with the ship when i receive the installments

alan

[booth]

Now its time to start the build of the ships launch.

The beginning starts in a conventional way





Then disaster happens. I was sanding too hard and snapped three of the frames. I glued them back into place and left for 24 hours.



The difference then becomes apparent as only the bottom has wooden strips glued to the frame. The uprights will be removed later and so they can only be fixed front and back and to each other.

To avoid gluing to the frame I used Sellotape between the frame and the strips





Then meant a lot of use of masking tape to hold in place and wait 24 hours between each fixing.

I had stained some strips as I didn’t know if they would be left as wood of painted.



And after a few had been secured I started to use clamps and pegs

At the end I found then I needed to use filler inside to cover up the marks left by the plank bender. The uprights were removed

[booth]

The brass decking and internal wall supports came in one piece



I decided to paint the inside red as the real reconstruction ship had done.



The hull was painted, and side planks glued







My way of holding the top strips in place while using superglue



Oars, hooks and anchors all done



And in place

[royjess]

Lovely work as usual

[booth]

Back again!

Thank you very much royjess

Its been a few months, but here is the update. I don’t know why but issues have been a bit spasmodic and I have often had to wait a couple or even three weeks between publications. However, we are nearing the end and I am now almost up to number 127. I think there is 140 in total.

The iron clamps that hold the rigging to the hull came in an elongated loop with a gap. I didn’t like this as under stress they just opened up. I tried black threads and various other alternatives but the only one that seemed to be ok was fitting second one in reverse position, doubling up and fixing together with super glue. I don’t know it will hold once I start the rigging. If it starts coming apart, I will replace be black thread. The first dead eye doesn’t look to happy about things!









The transom seemed easy, but I had to redo it after painting. The first weeks was painting one side all blue and the next was going over the blue with the hemp yellow. After about 6 coats the blue still showed so I ordered a replacement and redid it with the benefit of knowing the final paint scheme. I used food packaging for the windows after having the Transom as a tempate







Thee we had some more rigging stays for the deck and decorations



In place




The Mast platforms came in the following two issues. I painted them before separating the parts to smooth them over after the paint raised the surface. The final coats will come later when I fit them to the masts.



Bow decorations and anchor supports taking shape

[number1]

Glad to see this back! enjoying your endeavours

[royjess]

Coming along nicely, looks like it's going to be a stunning model when finished

[Mark]

The red makes for a very striking model, and she is looking lovely.

[steve131]

The red makes for a very striking model, and she is looking lovely.

Agreed.

[booth]

Thank you very much. I have a few more pictures to show but not a lot seems to have happened. I an up to number 135 and working on 136/7 (Masts) and there still seems a lot of work to do with only 3 issues left.

I contacted Hachette about the slowdown in releases and it seems that there is a problem with ‘printing’ and they are having to be re-done. At the moment it seems that issues are appearing every 2/3 instead of weekly. Still, as long as I don’t miss any!

Rudder now done.

I took this photo of the rear and realised that the lower yellow decoration didn’t line up



So off it went taking bits off with it. I have ordered a replacement and will redo it when received.





The Anchors so far. I think at some stage we will be asked to fill the wrap around gaps with rope perhaps?



The bow and figurehead now done.

[booth]

Time to do the railings around the centre of the deck. I used masking tape to mark the holes to be drilled and still manage to make mistakes!



They are loose at the moment as I will fix in position once I have the rails fitted.





The chimneys are also loose at this stage as I know I will only knock them once I start doing the rigging.



The masts are a bit of a challenge. They are square at one end and slope in and then out at the top before becoming thin again. This piece will be partly black



I will wait for all the issues now before I continue.

The instructions for the steps called for them to be painted brown and without rails. I looked online as saw that the real life replica has them painted red sides and with railings. I will go down that route.



Number 137 only had instructions for assembling part two of this thing for marking the sails.



I9 guess that this may be like the Black Pearl and have a bumper number 140.

[booth]

A view of the beginning of the masts

[booth]

I have now finally received number 140, the last one. This time it was almost 5 weeks after issue of 139.

However, I am glad that I waited as I now have a picture of what’s needed to be done and this last delivery shows that the railings, rope rails and gun carriages are fitted. How this can be done after all the rigging leaves me puzzled as I needed to use a drill to rope the carriages and fit the stairs.

My one moan is that it seems that the publishers lost interest in this kit at the end as there some things and instructions missing. For example, the beam holding the lifting ropes for the anchor should really have a pully system as per this picture from my Ambitious build. Instead there is just rope tied around the beam. I have ordered some triple pulleys from a well known shop in Cornwall.





Oh, and a second moan – I have to make my own sails.

Masts.

I am still making these as they are proving to be a challenge to me as I have only been used to sanding a gentle taper in the past and these change shape, square at one end, gentle taper, reverse taper widening it out, taper again and small diameter at the end. I used masking tape to help me mark the changes.









Just putting the carriages in place





Now the railings





The launch is till loose and although there are no instructions to tie it down I think it must have been?