popeye2sea

Here is the start on some of the brightwork. The unpainted area of the after bulwarks is where the quarter gallery will go. I opened the quarter galleries. Still working on fitting floors for the quarter galleries out of sheet styrene. The ornamentation that was cut out of the openings will be mounted on the bulwarks.

I've finally found the time to reconstruct my build log after the great crash of 2013 Some of the pictures are lost so the log does not start at the beginning. This is my first serious foray into ship modeling. I say first serious attempt because 30+ years ago I built a Revell USS Constitution. But I was still in High School and not very concerned with accuracy or craftsmanship. I just wanted to finish the kit and display it. This kit of Soleil Royal was given to me as a gift way back then and I am just getting around to continuing building it. I am very much looking forward to a build that I can be proud of. Even though I know that my skills are not up to par with some of you I am trying to incorporate as much research and accuracy as I can muster in a plastic kit. Here are some of the pictures of what has been done. I'll try to summarize what I've done so far to catch everyone up. I decided to display the ship with all gunports closed to starboard and opened on the port side. Eventually I plan on setting just the fighting sails (topsails, mizzen, and perhaps the spritsail topsail) with the courses clewed up. I did not like the look of the eyebolts supplied with the kit so I replaced them with brass. The holes for them were drilled and the eyebolts pass completely through the upper wale. The ends will be trimmed and bent over to lay alongside the inner bulkhead. The ends will lay inside the gap between the hull and the upper bulwarks, in an area that needs to be filled anyway. Doing the eyebolts this way should also prevent any pullout cause by strain from rigging. I am leaving the lower hull unpainted for now until a proper cradle/base is finished. I don't want to ruin the paint job. It will be painted a dirty white to represent white stuff. I also drilled a hole through the bottom of the keel, roughly amidships, and fastened a threaded nut inside the hull over it prior to fitting the decks. This will take a bolt from the base to fasten the model down to it. I don't know how other people secure their models to the display bases so I just improvised with what I had on hand. The head grating in the bow has been noted by others to be a problem with this kit. It has no supporting structure to it and seems to be just floating there. I do not know how this would have looked with respect to ornamentations and design, so I have not decided what to do with this area yet. [/size] The decks went in easily. The kit has a series of stanchions along the centerline of the first battery deck to support the 2nd battery deck. There are none for between the 2nd and 3rd battery. As a result there is a lot of flex in the 3rd battery deck. Since there will be quite a bit of rigging fastened here that will produce an upward strain on the deck I added some extra support. I trimmed some sprue to length to make stanchions for the centerline to hold the deck up. And I added a boot (coat?) to the base of the mainmast to hold the deck down. The mast coat was fashioned from sheet styrene and quarter round molding. The masts are dry fit at this point. I do not think I will cement them to the step. I'm going to let the rigging hold them in. I added some shims beneath the hatch gratings to raise the gratings above the deck level to give the appearance of a coaming. All of the eyebolts for the decks were replaced with brass. .

If it helps, you can think of it this way. The rope must pass around a sheave (a grooved disk turning on a pin in the center of the block. No matter which block you look at for the tackle the throat (the hole that the rope passes through) will be towards the outer end of the tackle. In other words nearest the point the block is seized to, whether that is a spar, a stay, or a hook. Henry

Pat, that is exactly how we used them in the US Navy. Henry

You could try a false splice. Pass the rope (strop) around the block, tuck it twice through the strands of the long end, pull the tucked end tight around the block, secure with a drop of glue and trim the excess. It will give the appearance of an eye splice. I agree with modeler12, your wooldings seem a bit too thick. They would have been about 3 inch rope. At 1:48 scale that works out to about 0.02 inch diameter. Thinner line will also help alleviate the lump under the woolding from pulling the ends under. Henry

Another useful work for 17th century ships is 'The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast' - RC Anderson Regards, Henry

Thanks, that answers the question.

Perhaps I need to clarify. The eye splice that is stopped by the mouse...is it also served over like the stay?

I understand that the stays are usually wormed, parceled, and served from a point below the mouse up to the eye turned in to its end. My question is this....is the eye itself served over or is it left uncovered?

Looks great Jay. Henry

Jay, the pennant I think you are referring to is called a commission pennant. It is flown on every commissioned vessel in the Navy. It is the distinguishing mark for the ship itself and is flown as long as the ship is in commission. It consists of a long narrow swallowtail pennant divided horizontally red and white, the first third of the pennant (near the hoist) is blue with a horizontal line of white stars. Sorry... I can't recall how many stars there are in it. In effect it looks like an elongated slice of the National Ensign. The only times the commission pennant is hauled down is when the it is superceded by an admirals flag or the ship is taken out of commission. Henry

Jay, not every ship has a jackstaff. So those that do not will fly the flag at the most forward, and lowest point. I actually do not recall if Constitution has one. I'm sure that the positioning of the command pennant or admirals flag has changed over the years. Currently the position may vary depending on who is aboard. For instance if SECNAV and an admiral are both aboard for an official visit the admirals flag will get shifted to the starboard main yardarm in deference to SECNAVs flag. I was just reviewing the regs, and you are right.. the admirals command flag is flown from the aftermost mast. Sorry.... it has been a while since I was active Navy. Henry

During the development of signaling systems in the 17th and 18th century various positions were employed to hoist flags to. i.e: trucks, tops, yardarms, gaffs. Often the same flag flown in different positions would indicate different signals. For example a flag flown at the fore top might mean "close the enemy and lay alongside" while the same flag flown at the main top might mean "general chase". Sometimes there were very few types of flags available for use and national ensigns and admirals distinguishing flags were used for signaling purposes. The fleet admiral was responsible for setting out the signal system he wanted to use in his standing orders to the fleet. As far as getting flags aloft without fouling the rigging, when I was a signalman in the Navy we sometimes sent flags aloft on the halyard rolled and tied with light twine. When the flag reached the block a quick tug on the halyard would break the twine allowing the flag to fly free. We often did this with the admirals flag and the break was timed to the bosuns pipe during side honors as the admiral came aboard. For your flags. The National Ensign should fly from the spanker gaff, the admirals flag from the main truck, the "don't tread on me" jack from the jack staff on the bowsprit, and the signal flags denoting the ships call sign will fly from the fore yard arm. If you are flying all these flags it would indicate that your ship is anchored or moored at pierside. The jack is only flown when moored or at anchor and the call sign is flown only while entering or leaving port or sometimes while moored. Henry

I agree with Druxey regarding 1 and 2 being mast pendants and tackles. Number 3 is probably Bowlines for the Fore Topsail.

If you click on the photo the file name includes the ship name.

Seems to me that there would also be variation in the diameter of the final rope depending on whether it is slack or hard laid. So, your finished diameter would depend on your technique as well as the number and size of the strands.

Of the lines you mentioned, buntlines come down before the sail.

I have good results with acrylic. But for some reason red does not cover well at all and I find that I have to use more than the usual two coats. I have experienced this with various brands.

Do you ever worm your lines to smooth out the undulations of the serving?

The Soleil Royal (1669) was rigged with a Fore Topmast Staysail as well as a Spritsail Topmast. The Topmast stay originates at the junction of the bowsprit and the spritsail topmast. The problem of backstays and bowlines reeved through blocks on the topmast stay fouling the stay sail was solved by having the staysail bent to a false stay seized below the stay.

On a slightly different vein, does anyone have any experience fitting sails so that they can be worked, i.e. being able to change the set of the sails from clewed up to fully set?