The Ship Model Forum

Originally published in [b]French[/b]...

[attachment=0]Boudriot Frigate French.jpg[/attachment]

Terry ([b][color=#BF0000]Caravellarella[/color][/b])

Dear [b][color=#BF0000]Boys[/color][/b] & [b][color=#BF0000]Girls[/color][/b], it seems this is the best published reference source for any potential conversions of the Heller kit!

[attachment=0]Boudriot Frigate English.jpg[/attachment]

Terry ([color=#BF0000]Caravellarella[/color])

[quote="JIM BAUMANN"]23 metres....!!!!

that is an astonishing feat for back then ! :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:

JB[/quote]
Yes... but apparently not very succesfull... I don't think they had any idea back then about the Froude number. When you deviate that much in the length of the hull you must really know what you are doing.

23 metres....!!!!

that is an astonishing feat for back then ! :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:

JB

Hi Wefalck,

I must agree, the quality of this 'Belle Poule' kit is ehm... questionable. I agree that building it into an acceptable model will be a challenge.

So if I go and invest a lot of work into it, I might also take it several steps further and turn it into a completely different ship. But then again, it must be worth the effort of using the kit parts instead of going all the way from scratch. So investigation of the possibilities should be worthwhile.

Terry mentioned conversion into a steam frigate and that's exactly one of things I had in mind with a 44 gun Pallas class frigate: 'La Vestale' was built in Rotterdam and completed after the end of the French occupation as 'Zr.Ms. Rhijn' for the Dutch Navy. In 1825 she was 'Jumboised' with an extension of 23 metres(!) into a steam frigate:[attachment=0]fregat-Rhijn-Speeleveldt-Vlissingen.jpg[/attachment]

The conversion wasn't a success and in 1830 she was converted BACK into a sailing frigate again! At this time 16.7 metres were removed, so the end result was still 6,6 metres longer than the original, and the armament was then 54 guns. She had a happy life after that until finally in 1875 she was scrapped. Quite a story isn't it? This particular frigate is portrayed several times in paintings and drawings.
[url]https://www.zeeuwsarchief.nl/blog/fregat-den-rhijn-in-beeld-als-zeil-en-als-stoomschip/[/url]

The Heller kit is presumably based, as so many of their kits, on the model plans published by the Association des Amis du Musée de la Marine (AAMM) in Paris: [url]https://boutique.aamm.fr/monographies/plan-belle-poule[/url].

The plans in turn are presumably based on the model preserved in the museum. Some years ago I undertook an extensive pictorial survey of the model: [url]https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/maritime/models/bellepoule/bellepoule.html[/url]. Not an easy task due to the rather dimmed light conditions in the gallery at the time. Currently all models are in storage due to the refurbishment and restructuring the museum is undergoing.

The model probably was constructed in the context of the operation in which the remains of Napoleon I were brought back to France. It is shown in the black-all-over paint scheme that was adopted for this sombre occassion. This was probably also the reason, why such a high-quality model was built for such a relatively minor ship.

I also obtained the kit some years ago second-hand, but upon closer inspection decided to not proceed with it. Although I had envisage to used her for a hull model only, I found that the kit is not up to 21st century standard anymore and would have required extensive reworking. I remember the rather obtrusive wood-graining overall, the incomplete copper-plating that is wrong anyway, and various other details in comparison with the museum model and the AAMM plans that I do not remember now. One thinks to save time and effort by starting with a kit, but in fact it would be easier to start from scratch ...

Whether the kit could be used for other ships of her class, I would not know. This presumably would require some research in the French archives, the museum and the Service Historique de la Défense (SHD), and in the literature, e.g. Atlas du Génie Maritime.

[quote="Maarten Schönfeld"]Hi Terry,

Interesting question you're asking! I got myself this spring also this Heller kit, on Ebay was it sold as 1:150 scale, at least the box top said so: After arrival I was disappointed to learn that it was still 1:200... Again fooled by a deceiving box top...

I have also Revell's Dom Fernando II e Gloría, 1:200. I can assure you it's not the same kit! These two frigates are of roughly the same period but definitely different. It seems this kit was also issued by Zvezda as the fictitional ship Acheron, but I'm not able to confirm this.
[/quote]

Thank you [b][color=#BF0000]Maarten[/color][/b], in my case I knew the Heller kit was to 1/200 despite the box top, but I was surprised by how small the hull seemed compared to the vast box.

The Zvezda [b]Acheron[/b] is indeed a re-issue of the [b]Dom Fernando II e Gloría[/b] but I think this kit doesn't originate with Revell; it may be a Portuguese-origin kit linked to the preservation of the original ship.

Terry ([b][color=#BF0000]Caravellarella[/color][/b])

Hi Terry,

Interesting question you're asking! I got myself this spring also this Heller kit, on Ebay was it sold as 1:150 scale, at least the box top said so: [attachment=0]s-l1600.jpg[/attachment] After arrival I was disappointed to learn that it was still 1:200... Again fooled by a deceiving box top...

I have also Revell's Dom Fernando II e Gloría, 1:200. I can assure you it's not the same kit! These two frigates are of roughly the same period but definitely different. It seems this kit was also issued by Zvezda as the fictitional ship Acheron, but I'm not able to confirm this.

As for the conversion possibilities I didn't have studied those yet, but that certainly is of my liking too. There are some websites providing drawings of French frigates of the mid XIXth century: [url]http://www.shipmodell.com/index_files/0PLAN_ATLAS1.html[/url] and:
[url]https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/3624-la-fregate-la-zenobie-4th-rate-52-gun/[/url]
If you make discoveries please chime in again. I'm interested! In fact I was looking for a source to built a 40 gun Pallas class frigate of Napoleonic times in 1:150, but this kit will not be the answer for that. These were (like the Pluton class ships of the line) built extensively in the Netherlands and Italy. Any suggestion for that project would be welcome of course. Ref: [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallas-class_frigate_(1808)[/url]

Dear [b][color=#BF0000]Boys[/color][/b] & [b][color=#BF0000]Girls[/color][/b], having just obtained a vintage Heller 1/200 scale kit of the 19th Century French sailing frigate [b]La Belle Poule[/b] on "e-vil-Bay"; I'm interested to know what conversion opportunities there are to model her sisterships of the [b]Surveillante[/b] class such as [b]Melpomène[/b] & [b]Andromaque[/b]. I am similarly interest to know what conversion possibilities there are model later frigates such as the [b]Dryade[/b] class or any that were completed as screw frigates. The hull of the Heller kit is surprisingly small at 1/200 scale and I wondered if this is the same kit as the Zvezda 1/200 [b]Acheron[/b] and/or the Revell 1/200 [b]Dom Fernando II e Glória[/b].

Terry ([b][color=#BF0000]Caravellarella[/color][/b])