jack.aubrey
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Everything posted by jack.aubrey
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Wednesday September 23rd, 2009 Now that the guns of this deck are all definitely positioned, I go further to new tasks. And now there are to install the beams and other elements, including the upper gun deck where the 18pdr guns (or 12pdr, I don't remember exactly) will be positioned. Until now I have definitely installed the orange pillars and the deck beams, the new thing in the next message. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050930.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050931.jpg 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050932.jpg 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050933.jpg See you next time, Jack.Aubrey. -
Five additional images of the Soleil Royal first planking. Finally it is now the long awaited moment to completely see and appreciate the hull lines and the huge size of this model . . Today a new great achievement in building this model is over and I'm ready and preparing for the future tasks . . Today, April 26th, one year is past since I started building this model . . Kind regards by Jack.Aubrey. 01 P1070559.jpg 02 P1070560.jpg 03 P1070561.jpg 04 P1070562.jpg 05 P1070563.jpg
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April 26th, 2011 - first planking finished Yesterday I finished to apply the first planking of my Soleil Royal: it was a long lasting task, made of several relatively short sessions because of the strips supplied. The wood was good but the problem came fron the maximum length of them. As I wrote some messages ago, their length was 24 cm. and to complete a full plank I had to use four strips. And obviously the time consuming matter were the joints. So I took more than 15 days to finish. But now this work is over and today I spent half hour to remove some brass nails I had to hammer completely somewhere. Where possible I used to hammer them partially, in a way it was easy to remove them but this wasn't possible everywhere. To remove the nails I used a modified mini-screwdriver I prepared some months ago, while working on another model. Here below five images taken today. I did nothing regarding sanding and levelling the hull below the waterline, this will be another step but I think that the proposed images can show better where are the points that will need to be leveled and refined. See the high resolution images for better viewing these points. After sanding they will become invisible and for this reason it's important to show them now. 01 P1070554.jpg 02 P1070555.jpg 03 P1070556.jpg 04 P1070557.jpg 05 P1070558.jpg See you soon, Jack.Aubrey
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With this new message I want to show some details of the poop area and how the planks are installed there. The strips supplied and used are very good for this task: they are of softwood and can be soaked for a few minutes and become very flexible, so you can manage them easily, without problems to follow the hull lines and risks of breakage. In spite of their size (5x2mm) I was able to install the first seven planks at the poop area without the need of fillers. The thickness of the keel, near the stern post, was previously reduced in order to maintain the original thickness after having installed the planks. This can be seen easily in images 04 and 05. I wrote before about the absence of fillers, but now I will probably use some of them for the next planks near the stern post. At the prow there are much less problems, here, in contrast with the stern, there is the need for a couple of stealers at the right place. See you next time, Jack.Aubrey 01 P1070519.jpg 02 P1070520.jpg 03 P1070521.jpg 04 P1070525.jpg 05 P1070526.jpg
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Saturday April 9th, 2011 - Shipyard reopened I restarted the shipyard and I decided to install planks from the keel upwards. Now there are eight planks on each side, while in the bow area there are a piece of the nineth. I will continue until the end of this process although I don't know how much time I'll need. To finish may be necessary at least ten planks per side. I've taken some images outside. I hope they should be better quality than inside, in particular way the high resolution copies. Here five images, three outside with the hull capsized and two in my laboratory, the hull kept by a keel clamper and the images taken using the flash. 01 P1070512.jpg 02 P1070515.jpg 03 P1070523.jpg 04 P1070528.jpg 05 P1070529.jpg I had to taper considerably in the bow area but the result sounds good. Regards, Jack.Aubrey
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Saturday February 26th, 2011 - latest news It is more or less one month that I don't work on my Soleil Royal (remember to take care of the date inside the messages, not the date the message was added). The shipyard at the moment is still closed and the reason is that I had the need to finish another model, in time for an exibition here in Italy. This model is the "Armed Launch 1803" and I have posted several images of it in the ModelShipWorld Gallery at http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/gallery/album/210-armed-launch-1803/ . To complete the launch model I had to install a gun and two swivels, and also some other things. The gun and the swivels, made of brass worked at lathe, had to be blackened with a particular liquid that oxidates the surface of these pieces. I don't have an english translation of the italin word "brunitore". If you go to look at the gallery there are many images of these guns and probably you will better understand what I mean. Having to perform this kind of task, I took the occasion to make some test also on the guns for the Soleil Royal. It may be too early but I had the liquid available so I did it. These guns are not made with brass, they are not lathed and are probably die cast. First I had to remove with small files the flaws from the casting and, after having refined each gun and cleaned and degreased all of them, I blackened these pieces. Cleaning and degreasing is very important for the final result. There are two types of guns, in the first two images the first type is shown, after and before the treatment with the liquid. Barrells are only positioned on the truck, not yet coloured. 01 P1070239R.jpg 02 P1070240R.jpg Images 03 and 04 show the barrells of the other gun type. These guns have in my opinion an exagerrated and out of scale decoration, but this is the material supplied and I cannot find something more realistic on the market as alternative. 03 P1070236.jpg 04 P1070238R.jpg After the successful test, I will blacken all of them soon. Kind regards. Jack.Aubrey
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Monday September 21st, 2009 Closed for now the break with the copper plates, I'm back to show new achievements on the Santisima Trinidad's cross section. And all the latest news are coming from the installation of the guns. I finally took the will to proceed with them and, after a week of hard work and lot of patience I finished today also this step. I made very few changes to the method used for my previous experience, but this allowed me to work in a more productive way. I also used a different kind of thread that seems to me more realistic. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050925.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050926.jpg The guns are glued to the deck with the cyan-acrilate, gel version. But I am afraid this glue may not be the best glue for this kind of joint. It is the same I used for the lower deck but I have in mind a change for this task that I will use for the incoming upper gun deck. 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050927.jpg I'm thinking to a change that consists of boring the truck and the deck in order to insert a metal nail inside. This nail, while not visible, will fix better the truck to the deck, avoiding that an accidental blow will detach the truck. Another alternative may probably be the use of epoxy glue instead of cyan-acrilate. I think it has to be said: the power of experience . . . 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050928.jpg Another intersting task was the building of the rolls of rope . . it's a long way to explain but the result satisfies me. 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050929.jpg I have also painted the ringbolts with gun metal enamel, much more realistic that leaving them brass coloured. I'm happy of the overall result, but it is possible to do better. Probably in the next deck . . See you next time, Jack.
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Monday September 14th, 2009 I spent the weekend to work as a tiler ! Here below the quickwork with the all the copper plates applied. I wrote "all" also if honestly the plates around the keel are missing. But I cannot install them now. The price to pay is a new basement, I imagine you can easily understand why, and I don't want to build another basement now. I prefer to wait until the right moment, so I have stored the remaining plates to finish later to cover the keel. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050917.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050918.jpg 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050919.jpg 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050920.jpg 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050921.jpg And now I cannot walk around my destiny, now I have to take care of the four guns. I have also decided to leave the copper as it is, without trying any ageing technique for now, just to see what happens with a natural oxidation, I can wait and see without problems for a couple of months or more. Cheers. Jack.Aubrey.
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Wednesday September 9th, 2009 I have now finished the upper gun deck, with planks above and beams below and now I cannot pospone the installation of the four 24pdr guns before any other task. But I am not much eager to start this task . . so I decided to try a customization not planned within the kit: the copper plating of the quickwork. I made some test on a piece of unusable wood (it was a mistake while planking a deck) I used for this test the cyan-acrilate glue both in the liquid version and in the gel version. The gel demonstrated better usable, but it is more expensive. I will retain the material from this test to experiment a couple of ageing tecniques suggested me by some people. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050912.jpg Then, having decided to proceed with copper plating, I bought the coppers plates (+/- 360) required in a modelling shop and started to work on the model. I found plates that have a dimension that should reasonably match the scale of this cross section (1:90). Here below some images of the plates applied on the hull. The work is relatively easy and relaxing. The exceeding part of the plates can be detached the day after with scissors and refined with a sanding block. It is important to apply the right quantity of glue, the exceeding one must be removed as soon as possible and as well as possible otherwise may interfere with the ageing procedure. The whole task is very repetitive but relaxing, with the help of some good music in the background . . this at least for a cross section, copper plating an entire hull should be surely another thing. 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050913.jpg 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050914.jpg 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050915.jpg 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050916.jpg See you soon, Jack.Aubrey
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Thursday September 4th, 2009 Here are five new images of my cross section model. I continued my work around the remaining guns for this deck and I began to plank the two elements that will become the upper gun deck. They are not immediately usable now, but only after I will have installed the 24pdr guns and finished the intermediate deck. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050872.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050873.jpg 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050867.jpg 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050869.jpg 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050874.jpg Cheers. Jack.Aubrey
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Thurday September 3rd, 2009 The weather is finally less warm and it is now possible to restart working around the cross section. Here below the main achievements: a) stairway to connect the lower deck to the intermediate deck. Nothing particularly difficult but I installed it in a reversed order, so the steps are not well right aligned . . 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050866.jpg Beams and pillars of the upper gun deck ready to be installed. In the image these elements are only positioned just to take photos but they are not fixed. Before doing so I have to install the four guns of the intermediate deck. 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050868.jpg Long 24 pdr guns: I have prepared two of them . . here I have planned two tackles instead of one to pull back the gun. I have used barrells and trucks as supplied with the kit. I painted the barrels and the trucks and i bored the truck to install the four blocks for the tackles. 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad%20640/P1050871.jpg 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad%20640/P1050870.jpg See you next time, Jack.Aubrey.
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Inside this message I inserted four other images that show more in detail what I've done in these days. Images n° 01 and 02 show how all the new strips, added downwards, were tapered. The strips are 25 cm. long and, before starting the planking task I prepared a scale with Excel to calculate exactly how to taper these strips. For the prow area, the bulkheads involved are n° 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 plus the stem. Tapering was made starting between third and fourth bulkhead, towards the bow, +/- 18 cm. long. Tapering has reduced the height of the strip at its smaller side to 2,5mm. For tapering I used an iron ruler and a cutter with a new blade. Strips are quite soft and it is possible to cut them without problems. After cutting, with a sanding block I finished the tapering in the right shape. With a calibre I check and eventually modify the shape according with the calculated measures, as the picture here below shows. image no more available due to the closure of DeAgostiniPassion forum. The strips so prepared were soaked in warm water for 20/30 minutes and this was, for this kind of wood, always enough to permit curving the strips wihout problems. Glue used was the vinyl and somewere some brass nails, some of them hammered totally, some of them only partially and often removed when the glue was dry. Strips are glued together with the strips of the previous plank: this is important but I think it is not certainly a news. 01 P1070176.jpg In this second image you can see how i made the joint on the same plank: first it was done in a staggered way, for a certain plank it was done between the third and the fourth, in the next between the fourth and the fifth. I have also done the joint not over the bulkhead but in the area between two of them. I used same masking tape to keep the strips together until glue exsiccation and I also used a small clamp to force the same curve of the previous plank. 02 P1070177.jpg Here it is possible to see the poop area. Also in this area tapering is required but the amount of it is smaller than for the bow. Here, over the last bulkhead, its height is +/- 4 mm. Here the strips are not soaked because there are no big curves to follow. In the middle of the hull there is no need for tapering. 03 P1070178.jpg Here below an image with the hull capsized and where it is possible to view how the planks have a natural bending and shape. Somewhere I had to change a bulkhead by adding some thin wood spacers. By looking at the high resolution image n° 4 it is possible to see at least one of them. 04 P1070179.jpg To conclude this long message, my work is well proceeding, without big problems; . . the only setback is the time needed to perform this tasks and, as you can see in the last image, the remaining area still to be planked is wide . . Cheers, Jack.
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Saturday January 29th, 2011 - Planking the quickwork This week I began the task of planking the hull, from waterline downwards. As usually happens, during the installation of the first planks, it is necessary to become comfortable with this work and this takes time. And this regularly happened: I succeded to install only seven planks on each side of the ship spending a lot of time and efforts. There are some problems originated by the length of the strips I'm using, but I will try to expand this matter later. Here are four images . . 01 P1070172.jpg 02 P1070173.jpg 03 P1070174.jpg 04 P1070175.jpg At the beginning I was able to apply a couple of planks by spending about two hours and half each time. After I became a little bit faster and now I'm able to apply three planks every three hours. This low speed is mainly due to the strips for planking supplied in the kit: they are too short, only 25 cm, and I need to use four of them to complete an entire plank, making joints with a lot of care to maintain the right shape and bending. I evaluated the idea to use long strips by buying them on the market but I took the decision to save money and be more useful to other shipmodelers that are building the same model and are using the same materials. Anyway I can say I made some nice experiences, I will try to introduce them in the future. That's all for today, Jak.Aubrey
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- soleil royal
- le soleil royal
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Friday August 21st, 2009 Here follow four new images of the model. Since last Monday I didn't work on the model because the weather is really impossible. I don't have at home an air-conditioner (my women, wife and daughters, didn't want to install it in 2004, to avoid to pollute) so I found relief going to supermarkets and shopping centers . . where the air conditioning is free, you can eat at low cost, you can make shopping and see people, nice or ugly, . . that probably had my same idea to stay fresh . . Here below her majesty Reàl Armada Navio "Nuestra Senora De La Santìsima Trinidad": 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050852.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050853.jpg 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050855.jpg 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050858.jpg See you soon. Jack.Aubrey
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Hi John, unfortunately i'm not yet knighted, probably next year . . anyway many thanks for your comment. Monday August 17th, 2009 I was back from holidays in the first days of August, but there was a very hot weather and it was very difficult to find the will to work. Only in these last three/four days the weather cooled down, in particular during the early hours of the morning, before breakfast, when I decided to restart the shipyard. So i repeated the similar tasks I made on the lower deck also for this intermediate deck, starting with the structure of the gun ports, painting the guns and the trucks, installing other simple elements and planking the outside bulwarks. After I worked inside the hull, preparing the structure for the internal planking . . and after the necessary refinements I completed one half of the internal bulwarks, applying red coloured strips 5x2 I'm still in the process to finish the internal sides, copleted only on the right . . here a whole viewpoint image . . Additional images will follow, cheers, Jack.Aubrey
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Friday July 10th, 2009 Now that the guns are over, I could restart with the next deck. Here below the two elements of this deck ready to be installed. The image shows the upper and the lower side together, in particular, for the lower side i repeated the "admiralty style" trick. These elements are soaked with oil for wood. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050737.jpg The next image shows what should become the final base for this model. Onestly I don't like it at all and, at the right time, I will have the problem to "invent" a display case for this model in order to keep it far from dust and other dangers. 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050738.jpg Before installing the new deck I need to complete something on the lower deck, such as installing the pillars and a stairs . . 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050739.jpg 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050740.jpg This is the last opportunity to look at the guns of the lower deck. When I will install the intermediate deck, it will be more difficult to see them as now . . someone can at this point ask to himself: why this huge work if you can see only a few part of it ? But the importanti thing for a ship modeler's mind is not to see it but to know that it is there . . 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050741B.jpg Now I think it is time for summer holidays and I will forget ship modelling for at least two/three weeks. The shipyard will reopen in August (keep in mind that I'm describing something happened 4 years ago, so take care of the date at the bebinning of the message). Cheers, Jack.
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- deagostini
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Wednesday July 8th, 2009 I finished the installation of the four guns, this afternoon I want to continue with some other minor pieces to install on this deck, such as stairs and pillars, and to place the beams of the intermediate gun deck. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050731B.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050732B.jpg 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050733B.jpg 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050735B.jpg 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050736B.jpg See you as soon as I will have new thing to show. Jack.Aubrey
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Saturday July 4th, 2009 Today I started the installation of the four guns on the lower gun deck. At the end of the session I was able to install, partially, only two of them, The following three images show the work done. It's a task thar requires a lot of patience and time. They are close to be finished, the only element still missing is the recoil rope. It is not a big job but I need some time to relax myself before next session . . Cheers, Jack.Aubrey 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050728C.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050729C.jpg 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050730C.jpg
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Hello. This model was infact distributed as weekly issue starting early in 2010. It consisted of more then 100 issues and today the entire collection is terminated. After this model De Agostini launched Victory, Sovereign of the seas and this year Twelve Apostles. I heard that recently De Agostini is also on the US market, see the following link: http://www.deagostiniusa.com/ecm/web/dea-us/online/home It seems you can get some models, surely Victory and Sovereign, try to look in deep the site, may be you can get more infos. Cheers, Jack.
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I close with this message the long story of the gun ports . . I have removed the masking I applied before painting the interior of the gun ports and finally I can write: end of a long chapter I'm happy of the result achieved, good deep and empty lookup. This is not easy to show with photos but the real things sound good. It must also be considered that, with the half barrells and the gun port linds in place this area will be enough crowded to become plausible. Here below five photos of the model at this important milestone . . (at least for me) 01 P1070167.jpg 02 P1070168.jpg 03 P1070169.jpg 04 P1070170.jpg 05 P1070171.jpg And now another game is being started . . continue planking, until the end, from the waterline downwards. I will start soon, although the instructions at this point of time suggest some minimal tasks (mounting anchors, stairs and casks) that in my mind can wait. Now my first objective is to complete the first planking, all the rest can be posponed to the right moment. Kind regards, Jack.Aubrey.
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Thursday January 20th, 2011 - again . . gun ports Today I spent a couple of hours to mask all the gun ports with masking tape and to paint all of then with black enamel. Here below two images of the method I used. 01 P1070165.jpg 02 P1070166.jpg Next infos in my future message, the paint is now drying . .
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Tuesday January 18th, 2011 - Again . . gun ports I found some time to complete closing the remaining gun ports, with the exclusion of the 5-6 of them that must still be opened on the upper gun deck, in the middle of the hull were there are the strips of walnut. I plan to open them as soon as the completion of the first planking for the whole hull. In these tasks I'm following the kit instructions, but from now I will start to follow less them and more my instinct to continue planking. I have also in mind a completely different way to finish the model . . this is still an embryonic cloud in my mind and it is too early to explain or to take a decision, but I'm thinking about its feasibility . . I made a test of painting the internal of some gun ports with a matt, black enamel to confirm my assumption: I choose the black colour instead of, for example, the red because I want to obtain an effect of deep or empty . . and to get this I had the confirmation that matt black is the best solution. To paint these ports I had to mask the sides of each port with masking tape . . something to do staying comfortable while listening and watching the television . . so I will complete this task at home, not in my workshop, during the evening and I will complete all of them in the same way. 01 P1070150.jpg I have closed the missing plank at prow . . I didn't forget it. 02 P1070151.jpg 03 P1070152.jpg 04 P1070154.jpg 05 P1070155.jpg
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Additional images with more details 01 P1070146.jpg 02 P1070147.jpg 03 P1070148.jpg 04 P1070149.jpg
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Saturday January 15th, 2011 Until now I finished the complete levelling of the planks and, after, i decided to close the gun ports still open with a square piece of ply (supplied with the kit). Task quite easy to achieve, with only one main aspect to take care: these "closures" will be drilled in future with a small bore to receive the half barrells of the guns. It is very much important to fix them very well, with a very strong glueing, because if they will detach when the hull is complete, it will be nearly impossible to substitute them. For this reason, when these pieces were fixed and the glue was dry, I started on each gun port something similar to a stress test to be sure they do not detach at all. Here below some images, the task is still in progress. 01 P1070137.jpg 02 P1070140.jpg 03 P1070141.jpg 04 P1070142.jpg
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Saturday January 8th, 2011 - Dust, Dust and Dust This morning, after a strong breakfast, at 10:27 AM I started the "Sawdust Mission": levelling all the planks installed until now. I began with sandpaper no. 80, then 120 and finally 180. I thought I finished, so I paused and checked the result, but early I realized there is additional "sandpapering" to do. I restarted with new energies and I come to the end at 12:14 AM. That's all for today and, at least for this time, no photos. Cheers, Jack.
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