jack.aubrey
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Wednesday January 5th, 2011 This morning I finished also the left side and now I'm planning for future and looking with new eyes my model. The last strips on top of the bulwarks are of hardwood (walnut) and I left wood in excess with respect of their shape. 01 P1070131.jpg Why hardwood ? Next step will be the planking of the hull, from waterline downwards. To do so I need to work with the hull capsized and I also need to put it on something such as a table. Having used hardwood and having wood in excess means that I probably will not take any risk to ruin the work done until now. Later I will refine this important area, when the hull will return in its normal position. 02 P1070133.jpg 03 P1070134.jpg Anyway, the near future predicts for me an interesting session with sandpaper. Some fitness is healthy . . Kind regards. Jack.Aubrey -
December 27th, 2010 - January 2nd, 2011 - Finally got the edge !! I finished planking the right side of the ship, until the edge. Due to the ship dimensions there are a lot of planks: in the higher zone there are 36 of them !! Not difficult to install but anyway this is an important achievement for me. Now I need to finish also the left side and after I will start sanding and levelling. I foresee a lot of sawdust while sanding all the planks, and there are also the last gun ports to refine. Here below you can see the finished side and also my technical assistant and global consultant . . 01 P1070128R.jpg Here two other images without the assistant. 02 P1070129R.jpg 03 P1070130.jpg That's all for now, Jack.Aubrey
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December 20-26th, 2010 - A problem, a solution and new planks Before planking the headrails of the upper gun deck I discovered a small problem caused by the fact I decided to plank the internal side of them, task described by me some messages ago. The problem is that after this task was done I found the curve of these headrails presented itself with a wrong shape: instead of being slightly curved outside, it was the opposite. So I built two spacers to insert above the deck and between the two opposite headrails to force a little the wood externally and, keeping them in place, apply the external planking. This solved the problem. Here below I show the two spacers I used to achieve this result. 01 P1070083.jpg Next three images show the area where I applied the new planks, after the glue was dry and after having removed the spacers I show in the previous image. To provide the maximum in terms of strength I used some strips of walnut in place of ramin. The gun ports here are not yet opened and also the exceeding wood is not removed. I prefer to pospone as much as possible this work to be sure my solution works well. 02 P1070079.jpg 03 P1070080.jpg 04 P1070081.jpg See you next time, regards. Jack.Aubrey 05 P1070082.jpg
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Saturday June 27th Ten days are now past since my previous message showing the progresses made on this cross section. Now De Agostini's instructions suggest to continue with the installation of the middle gun deck, and so on. But in this way it becomes evident that it will be very difficult to install later the guns. More specifically this approch makes totally impossible to install fully rigged guns as it is in my mind !!! For this reason I decided to start a new task, not difficult to achieve but time consuming and boring: the installation of the 36 pounders guns in number of four. The simplest task was to paint che gun barrells with a gun metal enamel. In fact these guns, on the real ship, were iron cast, not brass. Then I painted the trucks in red with the wheels in brown. I modified the trucks to install the ringbolts for the blocks. The boring task was to prepare the single pieces to rig the whole. I use the smallest block available on the market (2mm, one way) joint to a ringbolt that will be fixed on the truck or on the deck and the internal sides of the hull. To correctly mount four guns you need 24 of these objects: each gun uses six of them, 3 on the truck and 3 on the deck and the bulwark. Here below you can see the four 36pdr guns, ready to be fixed in place on the lower gun deck. Unfortunately the trucks are metal cast and I don't like them too much. I thought to change them with the same but made with wood but I decided to postpone this idea to the guns that will be fully visible, and this will happen only on the last deck. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050715B.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050716B.jpg 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050717.jpg Here below a test to see the guns positioned in place, just to see the visual effect. The work is still continuing, not too fast anyway. 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050718.jpg 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050720.jpg Cheers. Jack.Aubrey
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December 13-19th, 2010 - Planking - Additional considerations A personal evaluation of the strips of wood used for this first planking, strips o a soft wood that De Agostini calls "ramin". As first planking they are absolutely perfect: the wood is soft and it is ideal to use for this task. This because when you need to level the planked area with file or blocks their softness makes leveling easier to achieve . . I cannot imagine the efforts when using an hardwood. Again, also the task of opening the gun ports and refining them is greatly simpler and comfortable. The only negative point is that all these strips are delivered within different weekly issues and, while they should be all equal, with 5x2 size, this doen't happen due to small differences in size. The only way to minimize this problem is to select the best and leave the worst, helped also by the fact that De Agostini delivers more strips than really needed. I take the opportunity to insert new images, from different viewpoints. Kind regards, Jack. 01 P1070066.jpg 02 P1070067.jpg 03 P1070071.jpg 04 P1070074.jpg 05 P1070073.jpg
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Additional details of the gun ports, belonging to the same time of the images of my previous message. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050711.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050712.jpg 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050714.jpg 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050708.jpg 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050709.jpg That's all for now, I spent a couple of days at the computer to work on some plans for another model I think to start as soon as this cross section will be finished. Cheers. Jack.Aubrey
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Yves, many thanks for your appreciations. Vern, I'm honoured to become your reference for this model; I have done a lot of "customisations" that I will show in the future. I have also a lot of material to publish and if you will start your build soon I believe this material will becoome useful to you in time. Wednesday June 17th, 2009 During the five days past from my last message I was able to finish the external and the internal planking at the level just above the lower gun deck. Is is not a great step from a quantitative point of view but it was for me an interesting and very practical experience as I was able to understand that this method should be the right way to proceed for the gunports opening and, later, also for the gunport lids. Again I used lime wood strips, coloured with red stain before installing them. I like the result. It is a work that requires a lot of patience, working with small pieces of wood that must be prepared in the right shape and dimension before installing them. Here a close-up view of the zone described before, from the outside . . . 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050702.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050704.jpg Here, instead, it is possible to evaluate the internal side . . . 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050703.jpg And here below, a couple of overall views . . . 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050705.jpg 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050707.jpg Kind regards from Jack.Aubrey
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December 13-19th, 2010 - Planking This week wasn't too much productive; Christmas is coming soon and other important things must be done. I continued to install planks upwards and to open, or better refine, gunports. Now both sides are simmetrical, with the same number of planks, but I'm finishing the strips and I'm waiting for additional material, other I cannot continue. Kind regards, Jack. 01 P1070060.jpg 02 P1070062.jpg 03 P1070064.jpg 04 P1070065.jpg 05 P1070068.jpg
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December 6-12th, 2010 - gun ports This sunday I had some time to dedicate and I worked to exercise myself to serially open the gun ports. The leveling block I prepared are demonstrating their value, although they can be used only were there is nothing that closes the port. In the latter case I must use a cutter and the work is heavier. I will have to learn a lot from this exercise because they are about one hundred ports, but my experience with the Santìsima Trinidad, where the ports were 140, vaccinated me forever. Anyway it is important to cut a few ports together to avoid to get tired. So my suggestion for this kind of task is to dilute it in short sessions. The next planks upwards can be installed faster because there is not the problem to curve the wood strips. Anyway there is again the problem of the gun ports. I also decided to progress the work in the same way on both sides. 01 P1070057.jpg 02 P1070058.jpg 03 P1070059.jpg That's all for now, Cheers. Jack.
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December 6-12, 2010 - Start planking I finally finished the planned customisations and enhancements and now it is time to start planking the hull. This activity can be considered made of two main steps: first the planking from approx the waterline upwards and, second, from the waterline downwards. Before I had to do a preliminary session for fairing and beveling the bulkheads. This is a mandatory activity and the best this work is done the best the result of planking will be. It is something very important that cannot be underestimated. The instructions contained in issues 39, 40 and 41 describe with great detail how to proceed but I don't take much care of them because I know very well this process, having used it when I built the Santìsima Trinidad. Then, I started and I spent three half days of work. I was able to install only nine planks of 5x2 on both sides, 18 in total. I know that I am not Speedy Gonzales, but one reason comes from the need to work around the gun ports, and this takes time. In addition I prefer to level the planks as soon as a small number of them are installed and dry. I do this to maintain better control over the work and to avoid, at the end, a long, tedious and weakening leveling session. Here below some images of the work done during these days. 01 P1070049.jpg 02 P1070050.jpg Just two words about the wood strips: they are made of softwood, erroneously for me called "ramin". They are about 30cm. long and it is necessary to install three or four of then to install a full plank. A little bit as in the real ships . . The problem is that they are not calibrated and I must keep great attention to find and use three or four of them equal before proceeding with a full plank. 03 P1070051.jpg 04 P1070052.jpg Here below, in spite of the controls, an example of non perfect strip that was installed . . 05 P1070053.jpg That's all for this week. To the next one. Jack.Aubrey
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December 6-12, 2010 - Leveling blocks In my previous message I introduced the term "leveling block". Here follow two images of these blocks I specifically built to fair the hull. The raw material I used is 1) wood blocks of different shapes (rectangular, semi circular, circular), found in wood stores and 2) sheets of sandpaper of different grain but of very high quality. High quality is mandatory if you want to be able to use the block for long time. Sandpaper is glued on the block in a way that you can remove it and eventually change it with another piece with higher or lower grain. If you use these blocks for wood only, they are long living, but they can also be used succesfully on metals, such as copper or brass, obviously with a shorter life. 01 P1070054.jpg 02 P1070055.jpg Here below a collection of some blocks made just for the gun ports of the Soleil Royal. 03 P1070056.jpg Cheers. Jack.Aubrey.
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Friday December 3rd, 2010 - Hull enhancements before planking Let's now show another small enhancement I planned and realized. The idea is to fill the bow area with some softwood blocks in order to make easier the installation of planks in this traditionally difficult area. I used several layers of 1.5cm wood to fill the area and then I shaped it correctly with some levelling blocks. I made a lot of sawdust. In the same task I shaped the bevel of the first 3-4 bulkheads. This is particularly well visible in image n° 3. I have also doubled the thickness of the keel reinforcement, visible in the first image with a lightning shaped mark. 01 P1070040.jpg 02 P1070041.jpg 03 P1070048.jpg Cheers, Jack.Aubrey
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Friday June 12th, 2009 After my last message I completed the planking of the external sides upwards, with red stained lime wood. Now the entire area is planked and it is now rigid and strong. I removed the preshaped upper deck and in its place I put two strips of 6x6 fixed with the cyan glue, that is easier to remove if necessary. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050685.jpg Now the first wale is complete: it is made with a total of three square walnut strips of 4x4 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050688.jpg 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050689.jpg I finally experienced that the red colour is not the right colour to take perfect photos. If there is not the right light and exposure all the shadows and many of the details disappear. 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050690.jpg Here below the "loft" definitely fixed in place. 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050691.jpg Last two images of this sequence . . . 06 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050687-1.jpg 07 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050686-1.jpg See you next time, Jack.Aubrey
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Thursday June 11th, 2009 With this message I want to go more in deep on explaining some pictures shown in the previous message. First of all another image of the basement that shows the model inside it with all the relevant points of support well visible and highlighted. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050680.jpg And now let's show the solution selected for the gun ports. There is an internal, not visible template, of the ports made with strips of 7 x 6mm. the frames are here 7 mm. so this template fills exactly inside them. 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050682.jpg Outside I have installed the planks (5x2), taking care to cut the gun ports in the right place in a way to leave only a small part of wood to remove with a file. This refinement is not yet done here. 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050681.jpg Last I need to explain that all these pieces of wood will not be visible once the gun ports will be complete because ther is another layer of planks to install inside and outside. I coloured them in red just to make a test. My intention is to paint the Nelson's chequer (I think it is named so) in red, as it seems they were during the Trafalgar campaign. I decided to use not a red paint but a red stain over fair strips. The visible result is under your eyes: I like it very much and, although now it may seem too light, with the oil it becomes more listless. I made some test and this seems to happen every time. It is also important to use properly the glue, without leaving any of it exceeding . . 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050683.jpg 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050684.jpg See you next time, Jack.Aubrey
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Here are some detailed images about the internal planking of the headrails. The gun ports are not yet refined and the rounded ones on the higher decks are for now closed to avoid possible crashes. At the right time they will be reopened and refined. The visible part of the waterways is now smaller. 01 P1070042.jpg 02 P1070043.jpg 03 P1070044.jpg 04 P1070046.jpg 05 P1070047.jpg Cheers, Jack.Aubrey
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Saturday November 27th, 2010 - Waterways As I wrote, before starting the external hull planking I decided to make some customisations: one of these customisations is the installation of the waterways and the planking of the internal sides of the headrails. In the following four images you can see the waterway installed onto all the decks of the ship. With this operation it also becomes evident that a consequent benefit of doing so is to totally fill some gaps in the joints between the decks and the headrails. In effect without this "trick" the deck presented some small openings that the waterway simply hided. 01 P1070034.jpg 02 P1070035.jpg 03 P1070036.jpg 04 P1070037.jpg The waterways dimensions are 2,5mm. wide and 0,8 mm. thick. Its installation was quite simple: the main problem was to remove as well as possible the exceeding glue. Now let me spend some time writing about the shape of this element and how I obtained it. The section of the waterway is visible in the left side of the next image. Having in mind the strip dimensions, I did not though to obtain it by starting from a simple small strip and rounding a part of it. So I tried an alternate way. 05 Trincarino.jpg The right side of the image shows the section of a beechwood tablet found in a wood store. It is 1cm thick and 8cm wide. I rounded the external angles as shown in the picture. With my circular saw I cut the highlighted (Yellow) parts obtaining two strips of 10x0,8mm with a rounded side. At this point, with a cutter and an iron ruler I obtained my strips of 2.5x0.8. That's all. See you next time. Jack.Aubrey
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Thank you Tom, I have greatly appreciated your positive comment. Wednesday June 10th, 2009 I spent some time to organize my next tasks about this model. I had to think about two main points: - the new basement; I need to develop one type that will be usable until the end, stable and possibly to be held to a table when useful; - the way to build the gun ports; I defined some solutions in the meantime, finally deciding for the choice I will describe soon, particularly different to the solution from building instructions provided by De Agostini. Now lets discuss about the basement. - First I planked the external side until the first plank of the lower wale. This strip is of walnut of 4x4mm size. - Like its predecessor I used the same plywood, 8mm thickness and 10 cm wide. - I have calculated the right position of the lower wale on the real model and with these measures in mind I have done the vertical supports, applied at the proper position. - The section now enters perfectly in the base and the wale holds it. - Then, on the horizontal side of the base I have installed two strips to hold inside the keel, plus two locks to avoid the keel to move forward and backward. - Once inserted in this kind of cradle, the model doesn't move in any direction and, to extract, it is only necessary to lift it up. Two views of the base from two different viewpoints, I apologize for the comments in italian language: 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050677.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050678.jpg Next two images show the model in the "cradle" and highlight how it rests inside it just below the wale. 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050679.jpg 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050679b.jpg Kind regards, Jack..
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Friday June 5th, 2009 In a couple of short sessions I have prepared and painted the pillars that support the beams of the hold and the lower gun deck. The first image here below completes the last one of the previous message, showing the "loft" in a capsized position. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050676.jpg Next four images show the gun deck installed in place and some views of the whole, painted pillars included. 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050668.jpg 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050669.jpg To highlight the "admiralty" simulation of the beams visible below the decks. 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050670.jpg Here below the pillars are not yet installed because I need first to install the "loft". Anyway they are ready. 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050671.jpg That's all, see you next time, Jack.
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Friday November 26th, 2010 Here are the last two ply preshaped panels . . They completely close the upper part of the Soleil Royal hull. Left side: 01 P1070027.jpg Right side: 02 P1070029.jpg A view from the decks: 03 P1070028.jpg 04 P1070030.jpg And a view aback: 05 P1070033.jpg I'm now in sync with issue 38th. Next steps are to start planking all this ply covered area with strips of softwood 5x2mm. But, at this point I need to implement some of my planned customisations to enhance this model: I will show these tasks in the next messages. That's all for today, cheers, Jack.Aubrey
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Wednesday June 3rd, 2009 - Lower gun deck Today I started to work to build the lower gun deck. First I had to plank the preshaped ply with the supplied stripes of fair wood 3x1mm. And here rised the same problem: the different colour of these strips. This time I decided to concentrate the darker ones at the extremities of the deck in a symmetrical way. The following images show the result. This problem is recurring with this kind of kits. The fact that pieces of the same wood are sent in different issues, instead of all together, exposes to the risk of great dissimilarities in colour and something else. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050663.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050664.jpg Again the "customization" of the lower side of the deck, same concept used for the hold. At the end of the planned work, about 6 hours divided in 3/4 sessions, I applied a coat of oil and let him to dry before continue. 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050665.jpg 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050666.jpg Next I built this kind of hanged loft, described in the building instructions. I don't know the nautical term. The image shows the piece much greater than reality. 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050675.jpg In the next message I will describe with texture and images the new work done. Regards, Jack.Aubrey.
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Wednesday May 13th, 2009 Now that I have reached the level of the lower gun deck beams, in the internal side, I can proceed also on the external side by installing there the same 5x2mm mahogany stripes on each side. But, instead of speaking about this work, very easy to do, this message is aimed to highlight to important points: Again, the nice appearance of the wood after the application of the oil. in addition I have discovered another important added value by using it: in general, if you do not remove well the glue, the paint and also the oil finds difficult to locate its right way between the pores and you can easily see that the colour is different comparing to that of a clean area. But, and these are the good news, I discovered that after some days, this oil finds another way to soak the wood, below the surface of the glue, and the result is that the colour becomes equal everywhere. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050556.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050557.jpg 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050558.jpg 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050559.jpg The second point is that my basement must be rebuilt in a different way, If you look at the following image you will understand why. As result of applying the external planking, it is now too narrow and the hull cannot enter entirely in it . . I need to rebuild it with a different method, and I'm confident that my first experience will greatly help to achieve a good result. 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050560.jpg See you next time. Kind regards, Jack.Aubrey
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Continuation . . Here below some other images belonging to November 24th. With this work done I am aligned to the work that should be completed with the material and instruction provided with the 36th issue, with some small exceptions that are not important for now. In the background of the first image a german heavy cruiser I made +/- 40 years ago. 01 P1070020.jpg 02 P1070021.jpg 03 P1070022.jpg 04 P1070025.jpg See you next time. Cheers, Jack.Aubrey PS: I have received a new shipment from De Agostini, package n° 10 containing the issues n° 38, 39, 40 and 41. There is some new interesting work to start . . although I have some new ideas for a more realistic and practical result.
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Wednesday November 24th, 2010 - Upper hull sides and gunports - continuation Thanks to new materials just arrived i can continue to install the preshaped ply on the hull sides . . Now it's the right time for the upper gun deck. In terms of experiences, nothing new with respect of previous similar work but I had to close the background of some gunports otherwise I will not reach them after the installation. This is clearly visible in the images. As usual, here below the poop zone on the right: 01 P1070016.jpg And here the bow zone on the right: 02 P1070017.jpg Here below the bow area on the left side: 03 P1070018.jpg and the poop zone, same side: 04 P1070019.jpg I have coloured with mahogany stain the internal side of the ply that simulates the handrails, but I don't like this kind of finishing, it is not realistic. I will plank this internal side with walnut stripes of 1mm. thickness. In addition, before starting this planking I will install a shaped stripe to simulate the waterway. But these are for now only plans or ideas, before this become true I must finish the hull sides, where two pieces are still missing . . See you next time, Jack.Aubrey
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Tuesday May 12th, 2009 As anticipated I started to work for the second deck . . more precisely the lower gun deck, where the thirty 36 pdr guns were located. At Traflagar these guns were thirty-four. Here below the visual documentation of the work done: the planking of the internal side above the hold and the first two beams of the lower deck. Is is also possible to notice that I have temporarily applied some reinforcements to the frames . . they are very weak and i am afraid to break them. I used the cyan acrilate glue that is easier to detach than other glues. 01 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050551.jpg 02 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050552.jpg 03 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050553.jpg Again two new attempts of macros . . I decided to learn how to use the manual focusing, looking at the results . . 04 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050554.jpg 05 Cross%20Section%20Santisima%20Trinidad/P1050555.jpg See you next time. Kind regards by Jack.Aubrey
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I cooperate with De Agostini in managing its forum in Italy. . . for this reason I receive this model (booklets and materials) totally free of charge. November 14th, 2010 - Continuation Here below four other images. In the first two images you can see the entire model. It is very big and to focus it with my digital camera I need to stay quite far from it !! It has not the size of Dolphyn, that you can se in the background on the left. 01 P1070012.jpg In these other images it's possible to see also all the doors and the windows in place . . elements not totally implemented when I published the images of them. 02 P1070013.jpg 03 P1070015.jpg 04 P1070014.jpg See you next time, Cheers, Jack.
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