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Hubac's Historian

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  1. Hubac's Historian
    Great work correcting the keel/sternpost issue, EJ! Planking looking really nice!!
  2. Hubac's Historian
    Me too. That'll be the real fun!
  3. Hubac's Historian
    Hi Cedric, Thank you very much for the kind words, and thank you to everyone else for their likes and comments and reading along. It is all very much appreciated. I think that, after I bolt the other half, I will turn my attention to fitting the hawser pieces. You are right, Cedric, that the initial fit is poor. One thing I and so many others who have built this model before are guilty of, is leaving a step in the ship's sides where the planking meets this separate hawser insert. This time around, I will take pains to cut a diminishing rebate into the top and bottom edges of the hawser piece, so that the aft edge meets flush with the ship planking. That should minimize the necessity for filler to hide the joint. I will wait until after I have made and installed the bow extension pieces, to fill in and re-locate the existing hawse-holes. Because the extensions will push the hawse holes further away from the stem - which would look distracting and strange (and just plain wrong) - one or both will need to be re-drilled back to their correct position. Until then, though, I have an army of tiny plastic slivers to flash and mount to the other side. In recent weeks, I have been the beneficiary of unusual amounts of bachelor time, as my wife and kids spent the past two weeks, out on Long Island. But we are all home now and the craziness of the school year is about to start up again, so progress will be necessarily slower.
  4. Hubac's Historian
    One side of wales continuously bolted: The spacing is not absolutely perfect and uniform, but it would not be so, in life. I worked the wales in consecutive pairs, four bolt heads per glue application, so that there would be a general sense of uniformity about the thing as a whole.
  5. Hubac's Historian
    Out of curiosity, Gerard, in which epoch of naval architecture did the limber hole/limber way become a regular feature of French naval architecture?
  6. Hubac's Historian
    Thank you for the clarification, Dan.
  7. Hubac's Historian
    Hi reklein. I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean that the bolts, themselves, should run vertically, and parallel to the centerline of the ship - as opposed to horizontally, and parallel to the waterline?
  8. Hubac's Historian
    These first two pics feature the scuppers. The lower tier of five were made from bevelled slivers of .125 square styrene rod; drilled, mounted and shaped in place. The upper tier was made from .100 square rod and similarly shaped. Both tiers extend just past the wales, but not beyond the skids. Ultimately, I'd like to attach the sort of backflow sleaves, or socks, that are apparent on the lower tier of so many VDV portraits, but I'm not sure what a suitable material may be for this; tissue, silkspan? I don't know. The next three pics focus on the continuous bolting of the wales that I described in a previous post. It took a little experimenting to determine how thin a sliver would flash nicely with a wand lighter, but eventually, I figured it out. This first pic shows two alternate spacings on adjacent wales. The lower wale has spacing that is too cramped, so I settled on the spacing of the upper wale. This last pic, I think, shows the relatively low relief of these "bolts," which I hope will show convincingly under paint. The through-bolts, at the wale scarfs, will stand proud by comparison, though. Finally, despite many attempts to delete this last, redundant picture - for some reason, the site refuses to delete it. So, here's another look at that...
  9. Hubac's Historian
    My vote, EJ, is for the ultra-marine. 'Will definitely pop more, and after staring at my first SR (French Blue) for the past 20+ years, I've grown tired of it.
  10. Hubac's Historian
    Well, you certainly have your work cut out for you, Cedric, but your plan seems a good one to me. I realised, after the fact, that I probably should have asked you this question on your build-log for La Reyne, as people following your build would benefit from hearing your answer. I will be more sensitive to that, in the future😉
  11. Hubac's Historian
    I've been thinking about this problem you are tackling, Cedric, concerning the forward sheer of the decks. If your intention is to lower the forward sheer so that the wales forward of midships run more nearly parallel with the waterline - then all the forward wales, right up to the main deck level will need to be similarly adjusted. The trouble comes with the juncture of the lower hull with the upper bulwarks; the forward, upper bulwark will no longer fit, if you change the shape of the top, main deck wale. So, this must necessitate building new upper bulwarks from scratch, right? Or, you could adjust the run of the lower and middle deck guns/wales and leave the top sheer of the main deck wales, as it is, but I'm not sure how that would look, relative to the mIn deck guns.
  12. Hubac's Historian
    Hey Cedric! Thank you for the kind compliments! Yes, while I haven't placed the so-called "hunting ports" yet, I will represent them as closed ports that are scribed in to the plastic. I'll make up hinges and ring bolts for them. The thing about the Heller kit that I have always found perplexing is why they make separate inserts for the hawsers. I have yet to glue these in place, but when I do, I can then scribe in the hunting ports. And you're absolutely right, vis-a-vis nothing ventured nothing gained! Making my castings and extensions are what this project is all about, so that is the freedom of plastic - if it doesn't work exactly as planned, I can heat and manipulate the extension pieces to fit. I will find a way, and am really excited to experiment with making castings. Will you be posting drawings sometime soon, Cedric?
  13. Hubac's Historian
    No, EJ, I was not previously aware of that app, but it sounds perfect for the scaling of the masts and spars, among many other things.
  14. Hubac's Historian
    Oh, I'm a sinner all the way, kpnuts, but then the devil's in the details, as they say. For me, a lot of the fun is in the layering-on of detail (that the stock kit omits), until quite a different picture of the ship begins to emerge. I promise that this will not very much resemble the Heller kit, when I am through. The question is whether I will have the stamina to see it through. I think so. I'm enjoying the process, so far. Yankovich, I'm curious as to what your plan was - back when you were building this kit - to modify the shape of the bow. Were you referring to the stem and cutwater only, or were you also considering a fundamental change to the shape of the hull? Do any pictures survive of this model?
  15. Hubac's Historian
    Hey EJ, thank you for the compliment! I understand what you are saying about the switch-back companionway. Interestingly, this seems to be a feature most often seen on English ships, even large first-rates, and often terminating in a middle-deck entry port. From what I've been able to ascertain about French practice, the companionway ladder was most often a straight-forward, straight up and down affair, much like their simple, un-adorned ladders from one deck level to the next. The scale of the Heller kit is 1:100, which makes the math a little easier for the sake of scaling the scratch-built elements of the build. So far, though, I have mostly gone by my eye, for scale. Just as you are debating whether to through-bolt the wales, I was debating whether to continuously bolt the wales between scarfs. Often, modelers seem to use some form of domed pin to represent the bolts. My thinking is that, unless the scale is sufficiently large, this rarely looks convincing. I had an idea, though, that I could cut very small slivers of the same styrene rod that I used for the through-bolting, and then flash them with a wand lighter, over a piece of tin-foil. When I tried this, the result was perfectly domed little "bolt-heads" that had perfectly flat glue surfaces and that would look good in-scale, on the model. Unfortunately, unlike Dan Pariser's excellent advice for simplifying and speeding up the through-bolting process, there will be no short-cuts for this particular detailing; toothpick, dot of glue, place domed bolt head in place with the tip of a knife. Helle-tedious, but the addition to the model will contribute greatly to the overall impression. I think, for your build EJ, the Arsenal modeling sites are an invaluable resource for the craft work that produces convincing results, no matter what the scale may be. In particular, there are the models of Michel Saunier whom you are familiar with, and Nek0 (also name Marc) whom you may be less familiar with. Both are friends and have collaborated to create two differing interpretations of the ship that are applied to the same essential architecture. In my opinion, these two are the best combined resources for contemporary research on SR. They are also the two best and most ambitious models of the ship that I have yet to find. Although, there is one really good model made by a Danish man that displays excellent craft and pleasing proportions. I'm excited for your model, EJ, because the fun work of the stern is not that far off in the future for you!
  16. Hubac's Historian
    Thank you, Yankovich! I also read that Victory build log. I'm not sure I will go that route, with sanding down the grain lines, which are pronounced; only, I suppose, if they are too patchy next to areas where I used a coarse abrasive pad to level filler. And, yes, there is certainly a lot of passion for the subject involved, here. I'm not sure whether the key modifications I have in mind are going to work - the ones where I broaden the hull by 1/2", and extend the stern by 3/8". If they don't, then I suppose this will be a glorious failure and I'll have to go All-In on a full scratch-build. I remain cautiously optimistic, though, that I can pull it off and present a reasonable facsimile of what I think this ship once was.
  17. Hubac's Historian
    Skids installed! Next up - I may return to the wales, which still need to be bolted along their length.
  18. Hubac's Historian
    Ken, I am always reading along, if not always commenting, because I find myself wanting to say the same thing over and over. Still, your work warrants mentioning one more time: Wow! What crisp and beautiful results you are getting through a variety of resourceful solutions to tricky construction problems. Great work, Ken!
  19. Hubac's Historian
    The pierced filligree between the knees of the head is also quite spectacular. Both you and NekO have done an amazing job of rendering this complex detail.
  20. Hubac's Historian
    Terrific shaping on those headrails, Michel. It would seem that the figurehead angel will be added to the seahorse as a separate ornament, and then the scrolls of the headrails will nestle behind the angel's wings. What is your plan for attaching all parts to each other: pins and epoxy, or just glue of some sort?
  21. Hubac's Historian
    Thank you, Cedric for your kind words and birthday wishes. 44, strong! And thank you, as always, to everyone who stops in, for following along with your likes and comments. It is tremendously motivating! Cedric, I can appreciate how you are feeling about La Reyne, right now. We are engaged in a marathon, as opposed to a sprint. I sincerely hope you won't lose your motivation to push through and keep going. Personally, I derive so much inspiration from what you are doing. The sheer ambition of your project, combined with the excellent early returns on your work really keep me chugging along - even if all I have to show for an evening is a part roughly shaped, or a few more lines on the computer screen. Keep going, my friend! What you are attempting will make my build seem like child's play but we will all be the richer for following along.😉
  22. Hubac's Historian
    The first set of skids I patterned were the ones that frame the waist ladder. I left the outboard profile oversize in order to make extra allowance for fitting close to the hull, but also because the parts, themselves, can be a little fiddly and difficult to handle if they are too thin. Here's a pic of a set installed, but before thinning to final shape: While the outboard profile follows the tumblehome nicely, the steps appear set back too far, and the overall impression is that the skid timbers are too heavy. Here's a shot after fairing the skid timbers closer to the hull: Now the treads are more visible, yet still protected by the skids. There are a few spots where a skid saddles a wale, where a spot of filler is needed, but the inletting was pretty close, overall. Here are a couple of side by side pics for the sake of comparison: Next, I'll pattern three more skids per side, following the same process and to the same proportions.
  23. Hubac's Historian
    I feel similarly daunted by creating the ornaments from scratch. What has given me some re-assurance, though, was watching a series of videos by Doris (the spectacularly talented card modeler) on her Royal Caroline build-log. I would never suggest it's easy, but these are definitely attainable skills for modeling polymerized clay. Because she takes you from start to finish on a relatively complex figure, one gets a strong sense for how she evolves the work from a roughly proportioned shape to one with shape and definition, using only about four simple tools.
  24. Hubac's Historian
    Okay, now that I'm viewing the site on my desktop, as opposed to my phone, I can see that there are likes visible on the most recent entries to my build log, however, they have mysteriously disappeared from prior posts. Not a big deal, either way, just a curious thing.
  25. Hubac's Historian
    Where, specifically, are you finding that, Yankovich?

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