Hubac's Historian

I agree, Mark - this carving is quite small, and you made a very good and representative job of it.

Although, one idea that occurs to me straight away concerns the lower finishing of the quarter gallery. L’Ambiteaux employs these twist-tail dolphins for the lower finishing: It seems to me that a stylized eagle with it’s outstretched wing, extending into the stern counter, could also carry a clutch of lightning bolts in its clenched talons, below.

There would be nothing simple about that at all, really. You have the ornamental sets for L’Ambiteaux to use as a general style-guide, but the monograph for that ship ignores the upper bulwarks completely, and the bow and quarters for your project still need to make specific reference to the underlying allegory. I’ll be happy to follow along, though. If I happen to have any imagery that is helpful, I will be sure to post it, here.

So, is it your task to essentially design the quarter ornamentation, the upper bulwark frieze, and the head ornamentation to harmonize with the stern drawing?

In the end, I think it is always an effort at interpretation, and perfection is not a reasonable end-goal - in fact, it is impossible. If you manage to capture the spirit of the thing, while imbuing it with some sense of your own spirit, then you have achieved art.

I had not noticed, Ian. I will say, though, that it is our quirks that endear us to each other.

Fabulous progress, Ian. It is nice to hear your voice in the videos.

Your carving skills are impressive. This has me excited for the Fulminant project!

I do not see the carving link either.

Zeus - the lightning God.

Eric - she’s really coming along and your deck work is excellent! I would say that aft is a reasonable choice for a few reasons: While it’s not generally clear to me, here, if these exhaust pipes are just aft of a mast, then a forward-facing exhaust would “cook” the mast rigging. Also, ships generally sail into the weather, so aft-facing exhaust would minimize water entry in heavy seas/rains.

I will look that up T_C. Thanks for the reference! Hi Jeff. What I do with my styrene, when I need to cut a straight edge, is that I make a series of shallow passes with a matte knife against a steel ruler. It is not necessary to cut all the way through. You can snap along the score line. I then true the snapped edge against a homemade sanding stick with 100 grit paper double stuck to it. Lastly, I always sand both broad surfaces to level the mushrooming that develops from the matte knife and to take away the plasticky appearance of the material; this is the key to a nice paintable surface. Oh, and another thing - I will “break” any super sharp edges, just as one would if they were making a piece of furniture. Those sharp corners don’t hold paint well, and they tend to look a little severe. A few scraping passes along an edge with a no. 11 blade does the trick. When it comes to joining two curved surfaces, such as the large figures to the tafferal, I make sure to backlight the joint so that I can see whether I actually have touched down along the joint. Mostly, it’s just a patient process that takes as long as it takes - I’ll spend a couple of hours trying to get one joint where I want it to be. Another thing I like to do, after those large figures have cured (the initial liquid plastic cement), is that I will come back with liquid, brushable CA - the Crazy Glue brand - and that will wick into and fill any remaining gaps in a joint, while ensuring a super strong bond. Much of the model is constructed in this way and it is way stronger than it really needs to be. This is my compulsiveness at play. Thank you, guys, for the likes and comments!

My understanding is that the helm on Vasa exists behind and below the bulkhead that supports the quarter deck. There is a three slat opening, at main deck level and between the bulkhead doors (if memory serves), that would serve as the communication port to the helmsman. This is also a feature of the Batavia reconstruction.

Perfect sense, thank you!

Thank you very much guys! Never say never, Vic, although I’m so glad to hear your Couronne is on display!

A further note on what you are doing, Mark - I can fudge and fill and fake it a little with plastic, but Arsenal builders aren't afforded the same luxury. You are doing it impressively on your first go. Hat's off, my man!

I am more than pleased with what's happening, here, and I had nothing to do with it. Awesome transition, there!

It is all spectacular, Oliver, beyond reason and understanding. Awesome work!

That is an interesting idea for low-relief detailing T_C. I will have to keep that in mind for the future. One question: what exactly is “Shep Paine and the Historex catalogue”? I really appreciate your continued interest and your compliments of the project!

That’s a happy dog you have there, Michael. Congrats on the addition to your family! I hate to ask redundant questions, but of your 17th C. rigging sources, which would you say are the most helpful/insightful toward rigging a model? I have Anderson and Lees; each have their individual merits, although I have not done any exhaustive study of either. Do you have other sources you are using? Your understanding of rigging function and nomenclature is outstanding.

It is very kind of you to say so, John, and I would certainly encourage you to do the same with your own transformative rendition of the ship. Speaking of which, how’s she coming?

Hi Dan, Superlatives are all spent, at this point, but the project remains of tremendous interest and I really appreciate your sharing of technique for the stropping and seizing of blocks. Your visuals go a long way toward de-mystifying this for me. Thank you!

Thanks Druxey! The top would definitely have been black. Conventionally, speaking, gold or a simulated gold would have been likely for the moulded edge, but I am sticking with the latter 17th C. mandate to reduce gold work. I will match the ocher on the outboard profile, and save gold strictly for ornaments. I have chosen this approach largely for the high-contrast impact that allows the ornaments to really stand-out.

It has been a minute, and I still haven’t gotten to all of my paint corrections, or the glamour shots, but I have been taking the necessary time to as nearly as I can, perfect the crowning of the stern. Once I had secured the backboard, and installed two pre-painted moulding strips to the outside edges of the backboard, I turned my attention to fitting the side-lantern box mounts. Time and again on this build, despite careful pre-fitting of sub-assemblies, I have been amazed to discover just how much additional tweaking of a part becomes necessary, when it must finally seat next to an adjoining assembly. For these lantern boxes, I had carefully set the quarter pieces (that support the boxes) so that the boxes met the sheer-line. Nevertheless, that was before the aft upper bulwark had been secured to the model - after which, it takes on a more bellied shape. Adding to that complication are the fact that my upper bulwark extensions flare out a bit, also, the aft rake of each upper bulwark piece is slightly different from one side to the other, AND, the transom camber introduces another angle to this compound-geometry soup. I spent quite a lot of time filing-in the required geometry and shimming beneath the starboard lantern box before I was satisfied with the way that these pieces married into the astrological band of carvings on the backboard. I only had to use a little bit of filler at the top of each box, but this was an acceptable outcome as this joint is mostly covered by the legs of horse and camel: Above, you can finally see the degree to which my transom winds out of square. This is really the only vantage point where it jumps out at you. All things considered, it is acceptable to me. The above picture already shows the thickening I added to the backboard, in order to make a reasonable seat for the Europe and Asia carvings. Initially, I was going to double-plank with 1/32” styrene strip to make up this thickness, but I ultimately decided it would be much easier to make a close-fitting card template and transfer that to two layers of styrene sheet: The trick to doing this in layers is recognizing that the top edge of this reverse-curve tafferal must bevel down to follow the sheer. So, first I fit the inner layer, traced the tafferal line and removed waste close to the line, so that it would be easier to gauge where the outer layer needed to end up. Ultimately, that’s how I determine the spacing of my scribed planking layout. I haven’t had to use too much putty on this model, but a little was necessary on the inboard corners of this piece: With that much established, I could do the final fitting of the Europe and Asia carvings. Again, these were initially fitted to the backboard when it was flat and significantly thinner. Despite all of the material I added to the inside face of the backboard, these carvings still extended past the inside surface. It is quite difficult, without resorting to transfer paper, to gauge a good fit when you can’t clearly see the joint line. Rather than add a third styrene shim, I decided to round down the bottom line of each carving: This rounding isn’t a bad thing, as it adds a little shape and dimension to the inner surface of the carving, while leaving a little bit of the ledge visible: The whole objective of all of this was to make the reverse-curve profile of the tafferal apparent on the inboard face of the model, as these carvings would have been scribed to this profile, in actual practice. It is very difficult, however, to make a tafferal cap-rail, at scale, that follows this complicated shape. My solution was to add an in-board half-round moulding that completes the illusion. I love using painter’s tape to transfer exact shapes: Above, I found it much easier to shape the top half of the half-round while the moulding was still part of the sheet. Obviously, the thing becomes very flimsy, when you cut out the bottom profile. I decided to leave a slight step, and I am toying with the idea of picking-out this moulding in yellow ocher, just to emphasize the detail. Opinions are certainly welcome on this small detail. In the end, though, I may just paint it flat black like the rest of the top-cap: Next, I secured Europe and Asia. For a little extra bond insurance, I decided to experiment with an idea. I used a #11 blade to scrape thin shavings of styrene: After a liberal application of liquid plastic cement to the bottom of the carving, I bedded a thin layer of shavings over the glue. Another application of cement turns those shavings into plastic goo. I got a little bit of squeeze-out, which won’t be difficult to clean, but I am satisfied that I have a strong bond, here: All of this fiddling and filing makes a mess of the paint-work, and the model is full of plastic dust, at the moment, but here are a few perspective shots: With those carvings in place, the model just barely still fits inside the folding halves of its build-box - less than a 1/16” to spare! I’ll make a small relief in the box leaves, as insurance against catching the nose of these carvings. The other thing I managed to establish is the stern perspective of the Africa carving: Between a pair of vertical parallel lines, I transferred elevations of key reference features from the sheer view. I used a steel ruler much the same way that you would on a full-size drafting table; I simply aligned the top and bottom hash marks for 1” with the left vertical margin, to ensure a square transfer of points. Undoubtedly, there is some margin of error, here, so my primary reference will be the stern view, as that is what determines how the figure seats and fits in relation to the quarter piece. Any discrepancies in the sheer view will be reconciled to the stern view. Later, I’ll get to sheer and stern elevations for the port side figure of the Americas. This will be trickier, as I have no original Berain sheer drawing to refer to. In that instance, I suppose I will start by drawing the stern view and transfer points for the sheer view. Well, that has all been quite a mouthful! Thank you all for looking in and sticking around. I’m gearing-up for another busy school year of coaching youth sports and ferrying kids all over creation. I hope to continue making reasonable progress on the ship, as we go. All the best, Marc

The case is appropriately austere, so that the model can really shine. It has been a real pleasure watching this beauty take shape. I’ve said so before, but one of my favorite features of this model is your particular treatment of the stylized cut-aways; it is unique to you, and really shows the interior to great advantage. Congratulations on the excellence of your achievement! What might you have in mind for your next project?