The model
I began building my scale model (1:36) of L'Amarante in July 2012 and finished in December 2016. Measures of the model: 110 cm long, 48 cm in wide and 92 cm tall (including bowsprit and yards).
The model is built from scratch and all parts are home made, i.e. wood cut and planed in the appropriate dimensions, laying ropes in the dozens of required different diameters, guns turned, producing blocks and fittings and carved decorations and sculptures.
For the structure is mainly used pear wood, for example the keel, frames, deck beams, cladding, etc. Since no paint is applied on the model I have used different types of wood whose color is close to the originally coloured parts of the ship, i.e. boxwood for decorations and sculptures, maple for the scrubbed deck planks and ebony for the black-painted and dark parts (including blocks), parts of the masts, and some of the cladding. The guns are turned in brass, which is also used for anchors, nails, and various fittings and other parts originally made of iron. To achieve the "iron effect" the brass is treated with a chemical product.
The model is an "open model" as opposed to a fully closed model (fully planked). It also means that part of the frames (52 in total) are visible. Most of the frames are made up of 12 different overlapping pieces of wood. In order to visualize the structure and the accommodation below decks, an opening is made on the port side by cutting out a portion of the frames.
Contrary to my scale model of the frigate Le Fleuron, I have set sails on the model of L'Amarante. The sails hide some of the rigging details, but on the other hand a full sail-carrying model have more running rigging.
As earlier mentioned, I have used Gerard Delacroix's monograph on L'Amarante as the basis for building the model, "L'AMARANTE, Corvette the 12 canons du constructeur Joseph-Louis Ollivier, 1747, Éditions Gérard Delacroix." For a general understanding of ships from that period I have benefited greatly from Jean Boudriot's four-volume "Le Vaisseau the 74 canons, Collection Archeologie Navale Française" I have also picked up many valuable hints, tips and information on the Internet, especially from Marine et Modelisme d'Arsenal, which is a French discussion forum for scale ship model makers. In addition, Bernard Frölich's book "L'ART DU MODELISME" (Editions ANCRE) has greatly helped me with various construction details..