Le Corsair

[Martian]

As promised, I have chosen the follow up build to La Fauvette and have plumped for Heller's 1/150 scale kit of Le Corsair. The vessel is of a type known as a tartane which was a small fishing/trading vessel that was in use up to the end of the 19th century and which could be armed in times of conflict. I did look up the translation for tartane and rather unhelpfully, the translation came back as tartane. So if anyone can come up with a better word in English for it, I shall be delighted to hear from them.

 

I nearly decided not to pick this kit as the hull halves were very badly warped but decided to have a go anyway as the kit is the one I really wanted to build next. No sprue shots I am afraid as I wanted to be sure I could sort out the hull first rather that start a thread that would fail straightaway were I unable to do so and let everybody down.

 

On line references to this type of vessel are extremely thin on the ground and I will be relying on  pictures of a very detailed wooden model. In addition the box top art seems to be more accurate than the kit instructions.

 

On the plus side, the larger scale should help me with the rigging in that I should be able to use more of the products one can buy from the large scale wooden model ship world.

 

I have begun by forcing the hull halves together and adding the decks. This has resulted in a lot of filling and making good towards the aft end of the vessel. I think I have  one more session of this before I can start detailing.

 

Any help on the reference front would be massively appreciated.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Martian 👽

 

 

 

 

 

[Courageous]

Obviously you've got your sea legs and on a great start, another Martian build to follow.

Not wanting to jump the gun but is sh going to be 'sailed-up' as per boxart?

 

Stuart

[beefy66]

Another very interesting build about to start. 

 

Martian what is the length of this model going to be when completed it looks small in comparison to your keyboard. 

 

beefy 

[mdesaxe]

The Association des Amies de la Musée national de la Marine has a monograph with plans (1:50 scale) for a tartane. Heller most probably relied quite heavily on this monograph, just as they did on other AAMM monographs for their model of La Réale de France and some others.

 

https://boutique.aamm.fr/monographies/voile-anciens/plan-tartane

 

There’s also a fair amount of information in Amiral François-Edmond Paris’s Souvenirs de la marine conservé including good drawings (I think it’s in volume 2). You might want to look to libraries for this because the work is fetching rather high (sometimes close to astronomical) prices.

 

Also, there is some information in Björn Landström’s well-known The Ship.

 

If you really want to dig deep, there is a lot of material on these craft in French 19th-century works on Mediterranean vessels but I'm not too sanguine that you will find much of this in England.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Maurice

[longshanks]

Looking forward to seeing this develop 

 

Kev

[Ripaman]

Nice to see all the different types of ships being built will look forward to your updates.

 

Regards

Richard

[Martian]

8 hours ago, Courageous said:

Obviously you've got your sea legs and on a great start, another Martian build to follow.

Not wanting to jump the gun but is sh going to be 'sailed-up' as per boxart?

 

Stuart

Thanks Stuart, I prefer full hull models to be under bare poles.

8 hours ago, beefy66 said:

Another very interesting build about to start. 

 

Martian what is the length of this model going to be when completed it looks small in comparison to your keyboard. 

 

beefy 

Cheers Beefy, I reckon it will be about  seven to sight inches long.

6 hours ago, mdesaxe said:

The Association des Amies de la Musée national de la Marine has a monograph with plans (1:50 scale) for a tartane. Heller most probably relied quite heavily on this monograph, just as they did on other AAMM monographs for their model of La Réale de France and some others.

 

https://boutique.aamm.fr/monographies/voile-anciens/plan-tartane

 

There’s also a fair amount of information in Amiral François-Edmond Paris’s Souvenirs de la marine conservé including good drawings (I think it’s in volume 2). You might want to look to libraries for this because the work is fetching rather high (sometimes close to astronomical) prices.

 

Also, there is some information in Björn Landström’s well-known The Ship.

 

If you really want to dig deep, there is a lot of material on these craft in French 19th-century works on Mediterranean vessels but I'm not too sanguine that you will find much of this in England.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Maurice

Thanks Maurice, I shall be checking these leads our.

 

5 hours ago, longshanks said:

Looking forward to seeing this develop 

 

Kev

Thanks Kev.

2 hours ago, Ripaman said:

Nice to see all the different types of ships being built will look forward to your updates.

 

Regards

Richard

I hope I can deliver for you.

 

Martian 👽

[Martian]

Your Earth heatwave has been a bit to much for an alien more used to a cooler climate as has somewhat cramped my style when it comes to modelling. In cooler moments however I have got in a couple of short sessions at the bench.

 

One of the knees? that reinforce the beak was missing from the kit and rather than try and make a new one to match the remaining kit part exactly, I found it easier to use the kit part as a template to scratch build a new pair. I have also begun to add some structure to the bulwarks. I will need to be very precise with this as, particularly near the bow, there is structure that spans the width of the vessel which in turn requires the port and starboard ribs to line up exactly.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Martian 👽

 

 

 

[Courageous]

The bulwark supports look very effective.

 

Stuart

[Martian]

10 hours ago, Courageous said:

The bulwark supports look very effective.

 

Stuart

Thanks Stuart.

 

Martian 👽

[Ripaman]

Great start Martian   small details will stand out perfectly 

 

Regards

Richard

[Martian]

51 minutes ago, Ripaman said:

Great start Martian   small details will stand out perfectly 

 

Regards

Richard

Thanks Richard. 

 

Martian 👽

[Murdo]

Nice one! 

[Martian]

13 hours ago, Murdo said:

Nice one! 

Thanks Murdo,  having got over the shock of the most badly warped parts I have ever come across and having convinced myself that the hull halves are not going to suddenly ping apart, I am beginning to enjoy the build.

 

Martian 👽 

[Martian]

It must be the weather or has someone watered my beer down while I wasn't looking? I don't seem to be able to concentrate for long today. I had hoped to have the structure on the bulwarks finished today but after about an hour at the bench, I was dropping stuff right, left and centre and cutting parts to the wrong length. The carpet monster was having a field day. This is clearly the fault of @Moa who captured one the other day and singularly failed to exterminate it on the spot. I bet he took pity on it, let it go and it is now at liberty again, busy breeding the next generation of monsters to torment us poor modellers.

 

Anyhow, I decided to call it a day before I messed things up and then for an encore. went of to be equally inept at taking some pictures of today's progress. Hopefully I can get the remaining structure finished on Monday. No modelling tomorrow as is the Memsahib's Birthday. Her Birthday is actually on Monday but as she has to work, we are celebrating it tomorrow. For the historically minded, she never seems tires of telling me that she shares the same Birthday as Benito Mussolini. This could explain a lot!

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Martian 👽

 

 

 

[Modelholic]

Same birthday as Mussolini? don't ever remind her the of year dear old Benny was born!

 

[Martian]

44 minutes ago, Modelholic said:

Same birthday as Mussolini? don't ever remind her the of year dear old Benny was born!

 

I'll leave that very special pleasure to you!

 

Chicken of Mars 🐔

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

4 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

The carpet monster was having a field day. This is clearly the fault of @Moa who captured one the other day and singularly failed to exterminate it on the spot. I bet he took pity on it, let it go and it is now at liberty again, busy breeding the next generation of monsters to torment us poor modellers.

Oh, Martian, what have I done!!!!

I have created a Monster!

Oh, wait, it was already a Monster.

Today I had to rescue a model from the jaws of the over-fed Carpet Monster! The in-progress Junkers got bored and went for a stroll, and it was almost caught! that'll teach it to go wandering out of its box!:

[Martian]

4 hours ago, Moa said:

Oh, Martian, what have I done!!!!

I have created a Monster!

 

Created an inter-stellar incident, that's what you've done! If that thing breeds, we are all doomed, doomed I say, doomed.

 

Optimistic of Mars 👽

[ArnoldAmbrose]

On 7/26/2019 at 10:01 AM, Martian Hale said:

I found it easier to use the kit part as a template to scratch build a new pair.

Gidday Martian I think that was a good idea. Better to have two the same I think than one a little different, which could stand out.

8 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Anyhow, I decided to call it a day before I messed things up

Sometimes I've done that as well, I don't model if I'm pis annoyed with something.

     As for the box art on your opening post the vessel looks to me somewhat like a topsail schooner with the main (second) mast cut down. But I stress that this is my impression only, I am certainly no expert on that era of ship. It certainly looks a good craft to be used as a Privateer.

Regards, Jeff.

[Martian]

23 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday Martian I think that was a good idea. Better to have two the same I think than one a little different, which could stand out.

Sometimes I've done that as well, I don't model if I'm pis annoyed with something.

     As for the box art on your opening post the vessel looks to me somewhat like a topsail schooner with the main (second) mast cut down. But I stress that this is my impression only, I am certainly no expert on that era of ship. It certainly looks a good craft to be used as a Privateer.

Regards, Jeff.

Thanks Jeff. A topsail schooner with a lateen sail is how I would have described her. Any advance on that Guys?

 

Martian 👽

[Martian]

Construction continued yesterday with the frames for the port side bulwarks being fitted . The various cleats in the kit were fitted to the model, These were given a thin coat of super goo once they were in place in order to prevent them coming adrift later in the build. The cleats are prime fodder for the carpet monster and it was decided to fit them to t he model and then clean them up in situ.

 

One more session should see the structure of the bulwarks completed.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Martian 👽

 

 

 

[roginoz]

Complete bulwarks.........!!!       :o}

[Courageous]

You're on a roll there Martian, great progress.

 

Stuart

[JohnWS]

Great detailing Martian.

 

John