Hubac's Historian

Thanks, Don! I really appreciate that you have stuck with this slow-moving monster from the beginning. Your encouragement helps keep the lights on, down the long corridors of a project like this.

Thank you very much, Mike, for your kind words. I really appreciate your taking the time to read through my log. I am nothing, if not verbose! As a matter of fact, I am drafting an intro to something. Probably not a book, per se, but maybe a solid pre-amble to this entire build-log, which I will eventually edit more thoroughly. This pre-amble is tentatively titled The Gilded Lilly: A Meditative Reconstruction of Laurent Hubac’s Post-Refit Soleil Royal of 1689. Verbose . Owing largely to the flawed nature of the Heller kit, my attempts to modify it have drawn the attention of many of the best scholars of the epoch, and of the ship, herself; J.C. Lemineur, Gerard Delacroix, Andrew Peters (I wrote to him, really, but he was very helpful), Michel Saunier, Marc Yeu (AKA Neko), Cedric LieGeois, Dan Pariser and a host of other MSW contributors who have been instrumental in helping me to understand my own assumptions and misconceptions about the ship. Whether the model succeeds or fails, it has been so gratifying for me to see the ship debated, and to see the particularly excellent work of Michel Saunier, Marc Yeu and Cedric LieGeois find it’s way onto MSW. As for my model, I stake no claim to be a serious scholar, myself, or to have any definitive conclusions about her appearance. But I do spend quite a lot of time thinking, even in a meditative and subconscious sense, about how to reconcile all of this information - the Berain drawings, the VDV portraits of her contemporaries and the body of modern scholarship into one coherent picture of what might have been. It is, I hope, a plausible theory that will spark continued debate and more efforts to model the ship. In the end, though, what I am essentially attempting is to see how closely I can modify this flawed Heller kit into a plastic approximation of Marc Yeu’s excellent scratch-built model. Speaking of Marc, I decided, after all, to grind away and re-position the aft-most main deck port, on the port side: Here is the port re-positioned. Because I haven’t faired the inner, lower sill yet, you can just see the heavy 1/32” difference from where the port was, originally. I am pleased with the alteration, but I won’t bother to do the same on the starboard side because the discrepancy is so slight as to not warrant the change. Here, though, it was noticeable, and I thank Marc for speaking up. The second wave of detailing is well underway. In the following pictures, you can see that I have been busy adding the gun carriage through bolts and the top sections to the skids. The latter presented some challenges in getting the upper bulwark pieces to properly align with my main reference point - the waist ladder. One difficulty was leveling a clear path for the skid extension pieces, where they crossed the acanthus escutcheon ornaments. Patience, and careful sighting of the line, with the upper bulwark in position, showed me what to cut away. A little putty will be required at the joints (I was a little overzealous in fairing the second skid, in particular), but overall the fit and alignment are quite good. The other thing that I thought was worth attempting was to scribe plank lines into the smooth plastic between the main deck ports: For this, I simply made a styrene pattern of the lower edge of both the fore and aft upper bulwarks, and then working from the bottom edge up, I carefully scribed in plank seams from fore to aft. I did not attempt to scribe one whole course, at a time, because my pattern had to rest upon the raised port frames and it was impossible to maintain position for a fair run. Instead, I scribed a series of lines, between ports, from bottom to top, and then connected the dots from one port to the next, working aft. This seemed to work well. As I approached the top, though, the discrepancy that Heller moulded into the plastic became more apparent, and my plank scribes reflect this; what I’m referring to is the available space between the top wale of the lower hull and the next sheer strake of the upper bulwark. This space is slightly narrower at the extreme ends, and bellies in the waist. As this discrepancy was consistent with the lower gun decks, and the way that the scribed plank lines were sometimes interrupted by the sheer of the wales, I decided to just continue with the same scribe pattern. The area on the upper bulwarks, where this difference will be most apparent, will be mostly covered by the quarter galleries, anyway. To my way of thinking about it, adding the plank seams makes the model seem a little less “plastic,” which is always my goal with this build. Going forward, I will complete all the through-bolting on the starboard side, thin and detail the plank edge of the beakhead bulkhead, and add the stern extension of the upper bulwark. Following that, I’ll carve resin mould masters for my main deck port frame enhancements. That first foray into casting will provide me the necessary experience for tackling the ornamental frieze elements.

Great job on the planking, Don!

As always, Marc, your perception is spot-on! I have taken a closer look, and you are definitely right. I will sit on this for a “minute.” When I sight the run of the ports from aft, forward, or visa versa, this discrepancy is there, but not hugely apparent. I may fix it, or I may not. This is one of those things about the Heller kit; this particular port was incorporated into the stock quarter gallery, so that the port frame was a coved, moulded frame that overlaid the rough opening. I have the extra frames, so I will see how I feel about it tomorrow. I’m looking forward to seeing what progress you have made on your ship, Marc. Hopefully, your work situation will settle sooner than later. And a happy 2018 to you and your family!

Amalio, your work here rivals anything ever accomplished in full-size. This is just one of the most remarkable models I have ever seen. Really enjoying watching this one take shape.

Thanks, Henry, for the quick reply. You have corroborated what I have found in my own reading, regarding the main and fore sheets. On Dan Pariser’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, he incorporated sheaved fair leads into his bulwarks, but that ship is a little bit later - around 1710. I know what you are referring to on Michel’s SR. I’m not sure about whether that was a common practice for the time, on the beakhead bulkhead; no idea, really. From a mechanical advantage standpoint, it makes perfect sense. I have, however, seen a similar belaying station between knight heads, aft of the main and fore masts. Maybe also on Dan’s QAR. I can’t remember clearly, but a little later I’ll reference his log to see what I find.

Hi Henry, Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the issues of sheets and tacks as I begin detailing my upper bulwarks. I thought I would come visit your log again because I remember that you were grappling with the fair-leads on these, earlier in the log. I definitely agree with you about not attaching the main brace to the flagstaff. I really like your work-arounds for the spritsail sheet, Main sheet and fore brace. I was thinking, though, that I might incorporate a sheaved block for the main sheet, that then enters the main deck upper bulwark, just forward of the QG. Perhaps a similar scenario could be employed on the fore sheet? The thing I was trying to ascertain, though, was whether the practice of incorporating a sheet sheeve directly into the timbers of the upper bulwarks, was a practice observed by the French before 1692. Any advice there? I've also been thinking about belaying pins. No matter what, I will be shaving off the moulded belaying pins (because I've already broken off a number of them, anyway) and replacing them with brass. In your research, would you agree that the use of pin rails did not really come into widespread use, by the French, until later in the 18th Century? Would you say that this practice of tying off to the sheer rail is accurate and appropriate for the time period? At the moment, I'm working through Anderson, trying to figure out my mast and spar dimensions. That has been interesting, to say the least! I've said it before, but your rigging work is really awesome! I marvel at your ability to re-create full-scale practice in 1/100 scale.

This looks to be a truly fascinating and instructive build. You are making a very neat job of it, so far, and I will be following along with great interest. I loved your router table technique for cutting the rabbet into the stem!

I encourage you to carve the same ornament for the starboard side, before moving on to the next ornament. The reason being that your carving technique will improve as you go, and you want to have consistency from one side to the other. That way, your improvement will be more evenly dispersed throughout the whole composition of the stern.

The upper finishing came out really well, EJ, and your carving is a vast improvement over the kit fitting. Keep going, and you’ll be a carving pro before this model is even completed. Great work!

The fitting of the riders; the iron work securing them; the clean run of the ceiling planking; the beautiful, exposed diagonal bracing; the finish work of the head timbers; All I can say, Patrick, is WOW! Time well spent.

I’ll be following along more closely, Mark, as you approach the challenge of masting. Though you are working at a period a good deal later than mine (some 60 years), your log has had many fruitful discussions. As I did with the random length decking, I expect to learn much more about the makeup and particulars of mid-18th century French masting. Your ship is coming along beautifully Mark, and I appreciate your efforts at re-working various details to get it right. Here’s to a happy and healthful 2018 for you and your family!

Hey EJ - the stern is really coming along nicely. The windows look terrific and I agree that leaving out the glass is a wise move. The quarter galleries are a daunting task on this model. If I may make a suggestion, while it is still early in the construction phase: I think that if I were building this same model - rather than plank over these vertical framing ribs for the upper finishing of the QG - I would carve a solid piece of close-grained wood (maybe poplar, because it will be painted and poplar is easily worked). This affords the builder an opportunity to improve the outline of the upper finishing and the depth of it’s shape. The complicating factor, of course, is whether re-shaping the upper finishing will make it more difficult to use the kit supplied ornament. Either way, it will turn out well. To my mind, though, this is one area where an upgrade is worth considering.

HJX, the milling results are really pretty incredible! Even with just a small amount of handwork, you could finish this carving on a level that most would really labor to achieve by sculpting alone. This is really a fascinating process that you use to make models. I’m glad to see you are still plugging away at it, and I look forward to your progress. Happy Holidays to you and all on MSW!

One more just for fun: http://crysis.rajce.idnes.cz/LE_SAINT_LOUIS_-_Airfix_1_144/ Beautiful paint work on this model! And a fine pressing that would make a really nice waterline diorama model!

Bow: http://crysis.rajce.idnes.cz/LE_SAINT_LOUIS_-_Airfix_1_144/

Stern: http://crysis.rajce.idnes.cz/LE_SAINT_LOUIS_-_Airfix_1_144/

Here’s a really nice executionof Airfix/Heller’s Saint Louis: http://crysis.rajce.idnes.cz/LE_SAINT_LOUIS_-_Airfix_1_144/

A quick trip to the archives, and there we have it: The Hannibal as she was in 1659, and the Tre Lover as she was in 1667. Both of these ships have much earlier origins - closer to the time of La Couronne. And given the cross-pollination of Continental shipyards, there is little reason NOT to believe that the French did the same. Happy holidays!!

Yeah, that portrait is interesting. I remember seeing it once, in a bound edition of something pertaining to historic sailing ships, but never again until now. It appears to be a modern (20th C.) rendering, as it does not follow the conventions of 17th C. maritime artists. It seems to agree with many known details of La Couronne, though I share the same confusion about Le Saint Louis. So far as I understand it, that waist deck would be sufficiently supported to carry the launch, but I would have to go searching for examples to verify that that was, indeed, done. Right now, I am vaguely remembering that this may have been Danish practice around mid-Century.

Wow Don - great link!! These cannon look almost se good as the ones Neko and Michel had cast. I’ll have to look into whether using three of the smaller sizes will work for my 1:100 scale. Good looking out!! And happy holidays!!

Just leafing through this build, and I just wanted to say what beautiful, clean work you do!

I was thinking of you recently, when I found this pic on the net: https://pin.it/4w6fiegh3b7mtf You have done a masterful job here, Vic! This has breen one of the best and most resourceful builds that I have had the pleasure to follow, and I am really stoked to see her on the water. Will you keep this model, or do you have a buyer for her?

Ken, your build was a pleasure to watch, and many of your resourceful techniques will serve me well on my own projects. The ship really came out beautifully, and you should be justifiably proud of a job well done. I’m looking forward to whatever your next project may be.

Oh, just a teensy-weensy little update 😉. Dan, that’s more progress than I post in five updates on my log! All superbly well done, and I agree that the bright hand rails are a nice touch. Rest yourself for the nitty gritty.