[WIP] Heller 1/50 Thonier de Concarneau, picking up an old, discarded, maybe rare kit

[DrKoin]

Hey there !

Wooden models are OK here too, right?

In my teens, I dabbled in wooden ships - did one 1/50 Heller Bisquine de Cancale “Les Trois Frères” and loved doing it. There is something to working wood that feels truly unique and very satisfying ! So when it was complete, my grandparents bought me another 1/50 Heller wooden ship : a Thonier de Concarneau. I’m not sure when that was, probably around the late 90s. Not to be mixed up with the better known Artesania Latina Thonier de Concarneau “Marie Jeanne”, by the way !

Anyway, I was a brat back then, went too fast and too rough at it, messed it up, gave up, never touched it again. Had been collecting dust in a drawer at my parents’ ever since, maybe, 1995? However my recent return to the hobby made me realize I could get this project back on tracks and work on it whenever I was visiting.

Not a happy place to start at. I messed up the angles on the bulkhead frames, which aren’t even glued perpendicular to the keel frame, which is even distorted. The planking doesn’t reach all the way to the bow stem either. There are holes, the surface is bumpy… Phew, a mess !
So I had to cut, fill, sand, adjust, rebuild… And resume planking.

With no idea how to handle the stern exactly I went rogue and covered it with planks. Bad move. It’s better handled on the Artesania model, which provides one big single piece for the bulwark that extends from the hull to the ship’s rail. Heller sadly leaves you to bevel 1cm thick wood pieces and hope it will fit in the end. Ah well.

The stem ended up a mess too, and I had some terrible wood paste that wouldn’t mix to a proper “sculptable” material or stick to the surface. I hope I’ll get something better for my next session. Getting the rail in place worked decently enough, but the way Heller designed the kit makes the ribs extend over the deck ( much like the real deal apparently ) which also means it’s SUPER snapy and 7 of those little stanchions broke.
The deck itself was a pre-cut piece of flat balsa wood which had became pretty veiled. I carved planks and nails and did my best to straighten the thing.

At this point I had a better understanding of what had to be done with the stern and the rear bulwark so … I ground away ! Yay !

I will spare you all the errors and mistakes still waiting to be fixed ; this is where I ended up for this session. There are still a lot of unknowns. I have to find a good paste / putty that will go well on wood, if possible with a natural color close enough to blend in anywhere I’m supposed to leave it unpainted. Speaking of which, I wonder if there is some kind of wash that could be apply directly to the wood to make it look a bit older and stained and natural, instead of just applying Clear? The stanchions coming from the ribs have a “meh” texture, for example. For the actually painted parts, should I go with primer? Can I airbrush enamel, as the kit comes with 4 Humbrol paints? Funny times ahead !

Exhilarating, but I’m kinda bummed I probably won’t be able to pick this up until Christmas at best. Ah well.

[Frozin]

Great work on the salvage so far. Looks like it will shape up to be a nice display when done. I don’t have much experience working with wood, but I think I’ve used a brand called Durham’s wood putty (or something along those lines).

I believe it will take stain and paint, but unfortunately doesn’t look wood-like in its natural state. Which got me to thinking…..can you maybe blend some super fine sawdust, from sanding, into it to give the appearance of natural wood? I don’t know, but maybe a trial is warranted…

[DrKoin]

Thanks ! I sure hope it will be good enough. There’s a bit of guilt and shame involved in the process, as it wasn’t a cheap kit back then and my grandparents weren’t exactly rich. They always had enough to give to their grandchildren, though. It was ultra bratty and spoiled of me to ditch it because I wasn’t satisfied with my own work! The grandmother is still with us ( almost 100!) and I hope I will finish it before she leaves.
Unfortunately my grandfather isn’t here anymore, and he was a very passionate amateur woodworker ! He would have known his stuff I’m sure. Most of the tools I used came from him, actually.

I completely agree about the look of the wood. The hull itself is going to be entirely painted so covering it with filler/paste/putty isn’t a big issue - a bit bummed the botched start forced me to sand to a smooth finish instead of keeping a bit of the “planky” aspect - but the deck, masts, rails, and a lot of onboard accessories are supposed to be left unpainted. The oils based tricks for airplane propellers isn’t going to cut it on a 30+cm single piece ^^
I will explore the sawdust idea, there may be something here. Sigh, Artesania has the builder plank the whole deck, at least it prevents getting a uniformly textured deck and gives a more natural recessed look.

[PropDuster]

Photos make it look pretty good, so you must be doing somthing right. I’m sure somebody in this group will be able to advise you on your quetions.

[MR_TOM_SCHRY]

DrKoin, your progress on the Thonier looks amazing! A few years ago I built the Heller 1/125 Thonier Armor plastic kit. I believe that the Armor was a fishing boat and I loved the design and lines of the vessel which is similar to your Concarneau. Good luck with the rest of this build.

[DrKoin]

@PropDuster

Photos make it look pretty good, so you must be doing somthing right. I’m sure somebody in this group will be able to advise you on your quetions.

Thanks ! Won’t be an award winner but I sure hope it will look great. The rigging will be super fun, and probably super annoying at the same time

@MR_TOM_SCHRY

DrKoin, your progress on the Thonier looks amazing! A few years ago I built the Heller 1/125 Thonier Armor plastic kit. I believe that the Armor was a fishing boat and I loved the design and lines of the vessel which is similar to your Concarneau. Good luck with the rest of this build.

Aye aye! I was indeed surprised to only find the plastic 1/125 kit when I googled the wooden 1/50. The Bisquine de Cancale is more popular, I’ve requested pictures of my finished model under its glass display. I still remember putting the sails in old tea to tint them
Makes me wonder if I can complete the set with the third one, the Pilote de St Malo… Maybe on ebay… hm

[DrKoin]

An impromptu and much needed break from work for two weeks had me go back to my folks’ place and continue working on the tuna boat !

I carefully bought a LOT of stuff for the occasion, deciding to try and go with the Tamiya line of spray cans for the colors ( so I wouldn’t have to bring my compressor back with me ) and a coat of Mr surfacer 1200 beforehand, as well as a collection of inks to make some custom wood stains recipes to bring the “raw wood” closer to what I wanted.

But while I was expecting to simply pick up where I left off last time, which was basically painting the hull, I decided instead to try and build everything I still needed to build first, so I could theoretically match the stains and paints instead of doing multiple sessions of the same stuff.

I also wanted to fill gaps and rebuild some damaged bits with Aves Apoxy Sculpt, all the while aware that whatever I would do with this, I would have to paint as stains won’t take on it.

So, first, I built some more and filled a lot. The bulwark stanchions especially ( and I hope I’m naming things at least correctly ) were very damaged, as was the bow. There were also depressions in the hull and I wanted to add a bit more volume.

I attempted to grey out the wood, removing warmth to emulate weathering, using combinations of watercolor inks like Sepia, Fawn, and Payne’s grey. It’s not quite finished yet sadly, I will have to work a bit more on that.
Finally I masked the deck, and slammed the primer. Since I had to smooth out the hull more that I wanted to due to the model past mistreatment, I went and carved some new planks, expecting the surfacer to just let a few seams show through. Well, primer always show you the truth, ugly or beautiful. In many places I saw my carving was way too deep and large, and overall the grain drank up the primer and showed a surface that was way more rough than I expected. So… I sanded. In hindsight, I should have also filled the seams a little…

Then, I sprayed my whi… Oh. That white looks awfully like the Mr Surfacer Grey… I had hoped it would more, well, white. It was AS-20, insignia white. I first went to grab TS-7, racing white, but I thought it looked to yellow. I didn’t want pure white as I think it looks too toyish, but in the moment I didn’t think I could just weather it later. Ah well.

Since I’m definitely not satisfied with the white, I’ll either bring some pure white cans and do light mist passes to “perk up the whiteness”, or I’ll fill the seams, sand like a madman for smoothness, and attempt to reprime with 1000 and not 1200, and then repaint.

What’s clear is that I will need a lot of local touch-ups to fight against the wood grain showing up under the primer and the paint. Something that is a bit upsetting with the design is how they often have the end grain section show up, and it’s crumbly and drink whatever you try to coat it with, making it super hard to smooth out ( and look good ). I also had a few pieces literally crumble when trying to detach them from the plank, forcing me to remake them from scratch. Old, super dry, thick balsawood, oof.
Another bad surprise was … missing pieces. I didn’t lost them : they were never there. Sealed bags of plastic with like 4 pieces where 6 are needed. Intensive use of 2x2mm planks with JUST enough length ( but I’m drowning under 3x3 ). Illogical instructions with typos. Provided plans and box cover picture that DON’T match the instructions and components AT ALL. Oof, oof.

Despite the challenge, I’m learning. I’m happy I have other models from the same line, I can scavenge some pieces, but I shouldn’t have to ! Anyway, I hope I’ll fix my issues next time, and then finally paint the blue strip and the black part under the waterline. Christmas temperatures won’t be friendly, so here’s to hopping it will be dry at least. Peace and sorry for the long post !

[mrb865]

From where you started to where it is now is night and day! What a great salvage job. This is going to display wonderfully on your shelf!

[MR_TOM_SCHRY]

Excellent progress! That deck work looks amazing.

[gomeral]

Looking good, there, DrKoin! Regarding your question about a wash for the wood, I once used strong tea to stain some wood on a tiny project when I was a kid - that might serve your purposes, if applied non-uniformly, but it would also likely raise the grain and require more sanding…

[DrKoin]

@gomeral

but it would also likely raise the grain and require more sanding…

Yes, raised grain is the biggest issue ! Especially on old, dry balsa. I had to recarve my planks a fair bit as the seams kept disappearing as the grain was rising and I was sanding.

I used tea for the sails on a previous models, in my teens, but here I needed to go from the naturally reddish balsa to something looking like aged/sunfaded white pine. Basically : greyish with maybe hints of old light yellow. Using a white pencil rubbed and a not so heavily diluted mix of Sepia and Payne’s grey ( which looked surprisingly purple instead of blue ), I more or less achieved my goal ! I had even made variations using my white pencil, a sienna one, and charcoal, but I thought it was a bit too contrasted and cleaned it. I was just overdoing it at this point.

As of now, in daylight, I think the deck still look a bit reddish ( in person, rather than on a weirdly auto-color-corrected phone picture ), but I think sealing and dry-brushing white, buff, Payne’s grey ( actually blue, this one ) or even very thin green should help me fine tune the intended look.
I really love this whole process, and can’t wait to resume around Chrismas !

[DrKoin]

Well the Christmas session came and went pretty fast. Hard to work with 3yo twins running around and a top outside temperature of 12°C hostile to rattlecans.

Given that last time I wasn’t satisfied with either my surface finish or my choice of white, I basically… Scrapped everything and went back to Aves Apoxy Sculpt, sanding, priming ( brushed Tamiya grey primer, this time ), sanding, priming, sanding primingsandingprim… well, you get it, until I was rid of most of the thing that I didn’t like. Then a last coat of Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 Grey. I didn’t want modern yacht hull smoothness but I wanted to avoid the torn balsa wood defaults I had everywhere. It’s still very much amateur hour, but I feel decently satisfied this time.

Then I sprayed TS-7 racing white, which was definitely a better choice than either my previous AS-20 insignia white or TS-26 pure white.

At first I thought I could do only the hull, and keep my work on the stanchions and railings, but the two whites were clashing. So I smoothed out the interior a bit, remasked, resprayed. Ugh.
Then it was on to masking for the black below the waterline and the blue bands. Used vinyl 3M for the curves, filled with Tamiya masking tape.

A quick mist of TS-79 semi-gloss to seal the edges and then I had maybe 2 hours of daytime to spray my TS-15 blue and TS-29 black. I added a little “paper skirt” to prevent spillover from one color over the other. I started with the blue, but a funny thing happened : the sprayed color bounced on the table right back under the skirt ! Fortunately it was the first color, so I made a kind of “cushion” with kitchen paper with the boat in the middle, elevated the model so I would spray more horizontally, and sprayed the black. Went marvelously well.

Aaand then the very dreaded unmasking session came.

Though honestly, it went better than I feared it would. The super thin stripes I masked with vinyl had various issues because vinyl wasn’t probably the most clever material to use there. My facepalm moment was when I realized I forgot to mask the scuppers resulting in blue spilling on the deck. The waterline failed a bit at the bow, port side. I also sprayed my blue too thick and too hot, because spraying in the cold weather was definitely a terrible choice as you may know, and atomization was B.A.D despite a hot water bath and long minutes of vigorous shake. But oh well. Let’s hope I won’t paint the next boat in winter.

In the end, since I had brought along some LP-39, I brushed here and there to remove unwanted blue paint. I ran out of time to decant my blue to add it where it was missing : next session !

On the last evening, I painted as much of the little black elements I could, and assembled the anchor winch. Could have sworn I took a pic, but apparently I didn’t…

It should be noted that during the downtimes, I recruited my mother’s knowledge of sewing and tailoring. We struggled hard to find a way to do some nice sails, and it took us a loong time to find a workflow that compromises between details, shape retention, tint, sewing vs gluing the hem, installing reinforcements, reef lines, bolt-rope handling, … Phew !! I thought producing all 6 sails would take a few hours at most : I did 0. Yay me.

I’d like to try and do the next session sooner rather than later, but we’ll see what life throws at me.