EJ_L

Wishing you a speedy recovery.
 
Regards,

Please take care of yourself. I wish you an uncomplicated recovery. Love the progress you are making.

Excellent work - your attention to detail amazes me!  Glad your feeling better.   We don`t need to lose ship modelers - we are a special breed!!!
 
Mark

The model is looking good!  Sorry to hear that you are sick.  
 
Get well!

I thought that medicinal scotch was shielding me from the Corona virus.  Apparently, not even scotch is strong enough to keep it away.  So, I am at home full-time, now, for at least the next two weeks.  I am very lucky that the worst of it seems to have been fever and body aches although, interestingly, I did lose my sense of smell.
 
And, so, work on Soleil Royal continues, more or less full-time now.
 
Thanks to Henry, I was able to finish modifying my gratings.  Here’s a shot of the new cambered gratings as compared with the stock, flat gratings:

I will be making new combings for these when it comes time to install them.
 
I also wanted to finish detailing the fore and main masts.  One of the peculiarities of the Heller kit is this groove that they let into the masthead, for the shrouds to pass over.  It is unnecessary, though, and creates a weak-point in the mast.  Borrowing a page from Dafi’s Victory log, I decided to fill it in with a strip of thin styrene and medium viscosity cyano:



Next, I wanted to file-in a tapered profile to the hounds, which are parallel-sided on the kit:

This alteration is more evident on the foremast, as seen above left.
 
Then, I could define the bibs as distinct from the hounds:

I added in the nailing of the hounds, and I also filed a slight taper to their aft edge, to give them a little extra shape:

Satisfied with the lower masts, I also wanted to complete my main top, just to get a sense of that process, since I need to make three more of them.
 
After marking out my ribs, and separating them into rough blanks, I used a simple two-step jig to cut the long, bottom edge to it’s still oversize width, and then the short top edge to height:

As a note for the future, I would be wise to really hone my 1” chisel back to a razor-edge, before doing this again.  The slightly dull edge caused the plastic to cleave, rather than cut cleanly, and I was left with many ribs that had skewed bottom edges.
 
In the next step, that necessitated filing them square before gluing them in place:


Finally, with the ribband strake circling the top, here are a few comparison shots with the stock main top:



My version is significantly bigger, but it will now give a better spread to the topmast shrouds.  And, here’s the top on the masthead:

All-in-all, this was a significant amount of work, but the improved scale and detailing make the process well worth it.  I can tweak the rib process a little to speed it up, so the others shouldn’t be as time-consuming.
 
Next, I boxed-in a footing for the main mast:


And, then I got to re-scribing the gun platforms to the inner hull.  As a reminder, I had taken the stock lower decks and separated each deck half into an inner and outer component.  This way I could re-cycle AND accommodate the increased width of the hull.
 

It was surprising to me just how much scribing I had to do to get a good fit against the hull.  Evidently, cutting away the lower hull relaxed what was left above, into a somewhat flatter-sided ship.
 
It wasn’t strictly necessary to achieve a close scribe, here, but I want maximum connection for extra strength and rigidity.
 
That’s all for today.  Thank you all for your likes and interest.  Stay safe, everyone.
 
 

I looked at the picture before reading the text and the only thing I could think was... "Ow.. that's gotta' hurt".  The shields and crew are coming along nicely.

Thanks for the likes and comments. Yes, the shields are rather attractive, especially the colours. I've tried to duplicate these as closely as possible with my limited palette (keeping in mind that the people who did the original pictures also had a limited palette and might not have got the colours quite right). I think Byzantine shields are particularly beautiful and interesting - not at all like Western Europeans shield patterns, which wound up in a dead end once they started introducing rules - only a certain number of colours, only a certain number of shield motifs and arrangements. This was because they developed the subject of "heraldry", which allowed you to describe a coat of arms in words so anyone could reproduce it - in a book or whatever, and as a means of individual identification, but it also restricted the flexibility of design.This never happened in Byzantium, so you have all kinds of "coats of arms" - many of which simply couldn't be shoe-horned into the Western descriptive system. 
 
Though I've been concentrating on the Great Harry for the time being, I haven't completely dropped the dromon. Here are the next 5 shields, plus one part painted and another in the mould.

And I've been carving more oarsmen.  Two more so far - since I dropped the feeling of "I must get this done" the enjoyment has come back. It should be fun, not a chore.

One guy had his legs too far out from the body to fit him between the oarbenches (my bad). So after a bit of thought I developed a cunning plan -  I cut the legs off and glued them back on closer to the body, with dowel joints to keep them in place (you can see the dowels if you look carefully). Now he fits, but I'll be taking more care in future to try and avoid it happening again.
 
 
Steven

ditto, & I especially like the colours they used. 

Jean-Pierre, you are right. The ship history that came with the kit said she was a ship used by the Elector of Brandenburg. She was built in the Netherlands and then sold to him. That's why I called it Dutch. It looks like she served in the Baltic around Konigsberg. 

Zappto, Sorry for not responding sooner. Yes, the stern gets a covered during the second planking. I will do it first, and then the rest of the hull. This way, the ends of the stern planking will be covered by the ends of the hull plank, which should make it look better when viewed from the side.

I figure since I am moving forward, I'll post some pictures of the jig I used to determine the angle of curve for the bulwark. My wife saw me cutting out the stern piece and wanted to know why I was making a wax paper jack-o-lantern.

I also play the tin whistle and recorder and have been threatening to learn the bagpipes, but had the same fears about maintaining my marital status. This year for Christmas I got an electronic bagpipe chanter that allows you to play while wearing headphones. I think it was a subtle comment on my playing.

That is so true!!! I imagine tuba players have the same issue. I’m much better at my ‘quieter’ instruments. But only due to my desire to stay married...

The problem, I find, with being bad at banjo is that the things are so godawful loud. I can play my electric guitar with the headphones on and not bother anyone. I need to close the door when I pick up the mandolin, but it can also be played pretty softly. But the banjo? That sends folks running for the hills when I attempt it.

Beautiful project Mark, very nice work indeed. will check on her . Vlad

Latest update, I finished the braces for all yards. Only the fore and main course sheets left to go for sail rigging. I also dug the anchors out and will begin to assemble and install them. 
On a side note, I received a new bonsai tree for my birthday and spent a little time this weekend pruning and shaping it as well as replanting some of the clippings to try to propagate new plants. 

 
As always, thanks for following along and I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. 

Thank you all very much for the nice words and likes. As always, it means a lot that you are enjoying the build as much as I am.
 
I am moving along this week though I've had to slow down some as I ran out of belaying pins. The kit supplied ones were never going to be enough for all the additional rigging the sails added, but I had what I thought was a healthy supply of extras from other builds that I could use. It turned out that I was about a dozen short. To add insult to injury, I am also out of small diameter dowels which is what I typically make them from. I do however have plenty of toothpicks and so that is what the new pins are being made from. 
 
I did at least have the foresight to count up the number of blocks I still needed and managed to get those ordered a few weeks ago from Syren before Chuck was forced to close due to Corona19. For anyone who has not attempted sails before, be prepared to triple the required blocks for the rigging, and I am omitting several that would actually be used. The number of blocks and their various types that would be used in actual on these ships is incredible. I intend on trying to put together an inventory of parts that are on this model for the display case as I think that those numbers will be very impressive.
 
I should have some more pictures this weekend as I hope to have the braces complete then. I have the fore braces in place and am working the main mizzen fittings now. Running the rope is the easiest part once all the blocks and pins are in place. Mapping out that route though takes a while.
 

Tonight I finished the foresail running rigging except for the braces which will be installed after all the sails are rigged for easier access. I’ve learned a lot on this set of sails which I am hoping will allow for the main sails to go smoother and quicker as I will be basically reproducing what I just did. 

She is looking so nice EJ   full credit to you for  pushing on with making and fitting the sails.
 
OC.

hello Michael......Jct and I are having fun with our project.  I name mine differently though,  but since I'm not using the parts and wood for this ship,  I made another hull with the leftover stuff.  that project,  when I create the log for her,  will be my Agilis project.   so far so good for this one,  though not having a lot to go on.  it will be fine    welcome aboard.......
 
I seem to have developed a delaminating problem with the other frame....so far,  the problem is small and local.   I have taken steps to thwart it........more soon  

Above the water line, it's very bluff.   Further down, not very bluff at all.

Looking good Mark...she really has a bluff bow

Thanks for the likes.   
 
Update..  sanding is done though I will recheck everything before planking.  Next is to set it upright and work on the gundeck by adding some decking and framing in the bulwarks, gun ports, and stern.   Not necessarily in that order.  I happy to be done with the balsa... miserable sawdust it makes.  I'll clean up the shop in the morning.
 
Here's photos.

Ah the joys of finding further information; only too familiar with that problem in my build.   I also took the same approach; it was the best I had at the time but I have recorded it.
 
The shields are looking great and will add a real 'oomph' to the overall build when they are in place (sorry about the highly technical terminology).
 
cheers
 
Pat