'Le France' Liner 1:200

[markus]

this will be the place for a building report of a very special french kit....

[Mark]

Waits with baited breath

[GrantJ]

Looking forward to seeing an update of your French Lady

[markus]

will transfer the old thread into this one...must admit the build is still paused

[mike]

Welcome to the forum Markus
Looking forwards to LE FRANCE docking here.



mike

[COENIE]

Can't wait to see photos.

[markus]

ok, this is where it all started - a boxed kit from 'new maquettes' offered for 497 euro, normal price about 600 euro...

lots of wooden and plastic parts. no brass parts, therefore a badly copied french instruction 'booklet'

[markus]

a very detailed 1:200 plan was included. this one is essential as the instructions aren't particularized at all..

had to cut out some drawings in the meantime as they are needed to create different templates

[markus]

the next step was creating a jig with 20mm thickness - not enough as i noticed later on...

the timber quality is not as good as from hachette - many frames were bent or even broken

the bow and stern parts are made of hardwood - almost unsandable...

[markus]

speaking of the stern part - this f*****g part is way too big, also the poor quality rudder lever cannot be mounted without mayor modification

needless to say that the timber is harder than aluminium

[markus]

all frames glued in place... lots of frames are out of shape

[markus]

endless hours of planking, thank god it's only single-planked...




the jig had to be reinforced as my way of planking (apart from instructions of course ) caused the jig to bend..




working out how to mount the propshaft - no pre-fabricated holes in the frames like hachette did on the bismrack




planks are 10x3x800mm in really good quality - just enough to finish planking

[markus]

this is the template for the stern which i cut out of the plan...

[Mark]

Thanks for posting this here Markus. It makes me appreciate Partworks - and it amazes me how some models are actually sold !

[GrantJ]

Absolutely Mark!

It makes my old Bounty partworks (which is a bit rough and ready compared to the Victory) look like a Lego kit

[markus]

there's no instruction on how to fit the servo so i had to build it myself with some 10x10mm of timber

[markus]

the bilge keels were made of plastic, but i decided to build more stable ones of timber...

[markus]

seems they haven't spent a single thought on how to affix the motors so i had to add some timber strips to get the speed500 motors in...

[markus]

not much space, but those speed500 eco fit into the model quite well...

[markus]

applying resin onto the inside - this 2-component stuff smells horrible...

[markus]

doing the outside too....

[markus]

drilling a few portholes...

[markus]

the first coat of grey primer showed a lot of imperfections...

[markus]

the a-frames are made of 5 brass parts soldered together - this job was harder than expected...

[markus]

fitting the a-frames - not that easy to find the correct position