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Hubac's Historian

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  1. Hubac's Historian
    The carving continues; starboard side done, and port not far behind: Ready for central casting! The sides still mate nicely. I’ll be interested to see whether the casting resin holds the fine detail as well as I hope. I had to do a lot of re-work on the arched port enhancements, even though the carving masters looked eye-clean.
  2. Hubac's Historian
    Just a few work-in-process shots to show the process of shaping and layering in detail: These dolphins, across, are roughly the diameter of a quarter. The tail detail does not perfectly mirror one side to the other, but it doesn’t need to. I’ve saved the trickiest bit - the heads - for last. The difficulty is that, at most, each dolphin half is only a heavy 1/32”, but you have to sink about half of that to delineate the beak/mouth. The eye detail will merely be a suggestion, at best, with a hard line delineating the brow. The hair is the “easy” part When the head is defined, I’ll go back to the body and add in the arced creases, just to give the surface some visual interest. Then, it’s off to casting!
  3. Hubac's Historian
    Hi Doris, Will you be making up the gun barrels from scratch with rolled card, as you have in the past, or will you use turned brass guns like the sample one on your quarter deck? P.S. I hope you get your mojo back soon.
  4. Hubac's Historian
    Fine sable brush; good light; controlled breathing; quality acrylics; the willingness to take as much time as is necessary. Those are the ingredients of my technique. I used to be a pro at cutting right up to the ground without bleeding over. I want, for example, to paint not just the outward face of the wales black, but the top edges as well, for a better three-dimensional effect. The space between wales can’t really be masked with tape, so it has to be done by hand. It has been a while, since I did this, but as with most things in life - patience should carry the day. And, of course, there’s always a certain amount of retouching. I am curious to see how well Herbert Tomesan’s patinated wood effect translates to the raised, moulded grain of the Heller kit. Herbert’s models, while scratch-built plastic, are textured with coarse sand paper, and the darker wash coat gets into the scratches. It’s all an experiment, but it should be interesting. And I have plenty of spare plastic, in Henry’s donated hull and my own cut away hull bottom, with which to work up finish samples.
  5. Hubac's Historian
    The reconcilliation of the two halves worked out neatly enough, and now they are twins. I’ve begun the rounding and relief work, and hope to make moulds and begin casting by the end of the week. In the meantime, I am adding a detail that I often see on the French arsenal-style models to the timberhead faces of the sheer rails. While I like this frame and panel effect for its own sake, I am hoping to accomplish a bit of visual trickery, in an effort to minimize one of the design defects of the kit. It is my opinion that the height of and spacing between the timberheads is exagerated, on the stock kit. The side members of the added frame detail will help close the space between timberheads by almost a 1/16”. And the paintwork will help to focus the eye on the smaller framed panel; I will paint the frame yellow ocher and I will use the darker ultra-marine blue for the sunken panel. The moulding on the outside of the caprails, themselves, will be done in gold, as will the caprail dolphins.
  6. Hubac's Historian
    Every time I turn around on this site, someone is building my newest, most favorite model. It had been a while since you posted Giorgo, and I had forgotten that Amalio had a peer in the fine art of arsenal modeling. Your Fleuron is a spectacular accomplishment in every way. I am glad to see that you are active again
  7. Hubac's Historian
    The thought that just occurred to me is that the computer technology available to us today makes it easier than ever to master a build, and thus create a commercial kit, and furthermore (oh, yes, I raised it to that level of furthermore) to interest young people, kids, in the hobby. The primary obstacles to creating good, off the shelf and interesting scale models seem to be lifted now. I am all for modelers creating projects from scratch, however, we can only approach that ambition through our introduction to the hobby, via kits. As a parent, I realize this is a nurture vs. nature issue. At the same time, though, the whole concept of the “hobby shop” seems like a relic of bygone times. Not to soap-box too much, and if anything - to express my admiration for your drive to create your own model. Just thinking out loud. Just waxing on the shifting tides of generations.
  8. Hubac's Historian
    I love all of it - outstanding!! The sense of scale is awe-inspiring!
  9. Hubac's Historian
    There is the frame of thought that supposes that, if five people all build the same model to the same plans - then you are very likely to see five very different models. While I believe that to be true, Sigi, I think your discernment brings you closest to the truth; a fantastic build in subject, form, material and execution. For me, it’s all about the lines, and your lines look true to me.
  10. Hubac's Historian
    Makes perfect sense - thanks, Drazen
  11. Hubac's Historian
    I think that using a mixture of lighter and darker pear staves will provide some differentiation, in the short term. Over time, though, the wood will oxidise and those differences will become much more muted. Just my two cents worth.
  12. Hubac's Historian
    I like the lines of this ship and will follow along. It seems that there is much to be gleaned from your methods in computer work, here, and I look forward to seeing the 3D translation.
  13. Hubac's Historian
    Hello Drazen, Fantastic small work on the doors. By the “door grip,” do you mean the strop hinges? Are the doors intended to open inward or outward?
  14. Hubac's Historian
    This is, of course, sensible from a strictly realistic perspective. On the other hand, how else is one to see that the modeler has taken pains to represent tapered barrel staves? I would keep them as they are.
  15. Hubac's Historian
    Congrats, Martyn, on the satisfying conclusion of an excellent build! It has been a pleasure to follow along
  16. Hubac's Historian
    Impressive job on the restoration! This model bears a reasonable resemblance to the Wavertree, at South Street Seaport, in NYC, which has, itself, just recently undergone a fairly significant restoration of her interior bulkheads, exterior plating and masts and spars. Work, there, is on-going.
  17. Hubac's Historian
    So, now I have left and right kissing cousins that are not yet identical. I will paste together both profiles, temporarily, and true them up with needle files and a blade before rough contouring. Then, I’ll mount them to my small masonite backer and carve in some detail. I’m not sure this first attempt is going to work out as well as I planned, but maybe it will still be good after the reconciliation. We’ll see.
  18. Hubac's Historian
    As with the rest of your build, your patience and committment to the process is exemplary! The results show in the extremely high quality of your work!
  19. Hubac's Historian
    Wow, Doris!! The difference is night and day. You really nailed it this time!
  20. Hubac's Historian
    To me it seems that the greatest difficulty with this sort of reconstruction is the fact that the subtleties of shape and detail rarely translate well in these original portraits. If anyone is up to the challenge, though, it is you Doris. Thank you for taking my opinion in stride.
  21. Hubac's Historian
    Hello Doris, You have made remarkable progress on your beautiful ship. One question occurs to me, at this stage of your build: will you be detailing/furnishing/populating the great cabin as you have done on previous models? Are the decks fixed in place, yet? An observation: it is interesting to me how simply adding the arched framework to the aft window of the quarter gallery softens the architecture and unifies the whole composition. And now I will levy a small critique, which I offer to you despite, or perhaps because of my great admiration for your artistry in sculpture. So far, all of the tiny figures that fill the spaces between the caryatids are magnificently and delicately rendered. They are exquisite. In my opinion, though, the face of Katherine lacks that finesse and definition of feature that are hallmarks of your work. The figure is good, but it is not your best, and I wouldn’t dare mention it, if I didn’t think you were capable of improving it. And, also, she occupies the most prime real estate on the ship. Please take this with the proverbial grain of salt, and the knowledge that I could do no better myself. This is a special model, Doris, and I want for this to be your best model yet - which despite the magnificent Caroline, it is. As always, I am truly humbled by your special talent.
  22. Hubac's Historian
    Caprail thicknessing complete. Next, I will carve left and right masters for the hancing-piece dolphins. I’ll need 8 pairs for each step in the sheer, including the forecastle. The styrene is 3/64”, so the assembled ornament will be a little thinner than the now thickened cap rails. Same process as before - carving, making moulds and castings, etc.
  23. Hubac's Historian
    The stoves really turned out well, Mark. All of the metalwork is superb!
  24. Hubac's Historian
    The truth, or whatever remains of it, is buried under a parking lot at Cherbourg. In all liklihood, though, nothing remains of Soleil Royal, above the waterline, after her burning. I appreciate your thoughts EJ. I believe these capital ships were vividly painted for their day, but those colors would mostly seem muted by today’s standards. That said, my primary blue - while much lighter than the ultra-marine (used more sparingly) - will still be a pretty vivid color, in itself. It will contrast nicely with the yellow ochre and the gold ornaments.
  25. Hubac's Historian
    Thank you, so much Mark! This is a weird “build” for anyone following along, I realize, because I haven’t put anything together yet. On the other hand, I have completely transformed the kit in such a way that it will seem like a totally different model. Recognizeable, but different. E.J. asked me not too long ago whether I would start painting before or after the assembly begins. At first, I thought I would get the basic hull together on it’s flat base and begin framing the new stern up to the counter before I started painting. I have been thinking, lately, that the model is just too large and awkward to manipulate for painting. My hands aren’t what they used to be and this cubital tunnel syndrome is wreaking havock with my damn elbows. So, I will paint the lower and upper hull sections before assembly - as I would customarily do in my younger days, anyway - and just mask or scrape paint away for assembly. All of that means more delay in assembly, but the results will be worth it. The paint scheme I have been ruminating over for months now, will also be quite a bit different from the way that people are accustomed to thinking of this kit, and of Soleil Royal, in general. It will all be grounded in historically feasible colors, but I am making specific use of ultramarine blue and red ochre to accentuate the ornamental topsides; I’ll be going to a hell of a lot of trouble to create this ornamental frieze, so I really want it to pop! My hope is that even those who are not so enamored with the Heller kit will appreciate where I’m taking it, once they can really see it come together. I apologise to any of you who are frustrated by the pace of this project, but I will reward you if you stick around. I promise you that. As always, Mark, and to everyone else - thank you for checking in, reading along, and for your insights, likes and encouragement! It is all very much appreciated.

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