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Hubac's Historian

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  1. Hubac's Historian
    In order to cut in the forward half of the new port, I first layed out both the inner lip and the cut-back edge of the "planking" with a sharp pencil. Once I liked the looks of that, and could see that it was a level continuation of the port, I then scribed in those lines with the Exacto. Next, I took my new Dremmel Micro with a narrow, diamond crusted shaft, and wasted away everything within the inner lip lines. With needle files, I was then able to define the inner corners and fair to the scribe lines. Next, I fitted the micro with a straight-sided cutting bit that has no tooth on the bottom surface. I used this bit to cut the planking back from the lip until I was approximately close to my line and as far as the bit would allow into the corners. I now had a very roughly thicknessed lip in the black plastic of the kit. To clean up and define these edges, I used an 1/8" woodworking chisel for the corners and to scrape back the lip to a matching thickness, as well as a 1/4" chisel to trim the planking to my lines, making light passes and using a gentle wriggling motion. Despite my care in doing these things, there were two small mishaps. First, while using the straight cutting bit to rough back the planking, I dug too deep, the bit then grabbed and jumped out of the cut. In the process, I nicked a decent chunk out of my new, aft port stile. No problem: a touch of Squadron and the emmory board, and it was good as new. I have noticed this tendency of Dremmel bits to grab and jump, in wood, if the speed and depth of cut are off, but I wasn't expecting that in plastic. Lesson learned. Then with the 1/4" chisel, I pushed too hard, at one point, and sheered off the top lip of one port frame. No problem: I cut a small strip of sheet styrene, of the appropriate thickness and glued it in place. Once it is painted, one will never know the difference. The ease of repairs is what I like about plastic. Those same mistakes, in wood, would be much more labor intensive to repair because you can't hide the repair under putty and paint. To a large degree, in small scales, wood really determines your choice of tools and methods, so that you run the least risk of these mistakes. To finish off the interior framing, it was necessary to extend the sill, with a simple angled scarf joint, and then fit and glue in a new forward stile.
  2. Hubac's Historian
    So, as I mentioned in the prior post, my drawing process has stalled, and I don't have any good answers as to why, right now, so I've decided to go ahead and begin detailing the lower hull halves. I will shift my focus back to the drawing, at some point, because I really need a good scale drawing for all of the ornamental work of the stern. For now, though, the change of pace is welcome. The first thing I wanted to do was to fill in all the butt joints on the wales and the eyelet holes for the chain plates because butt joints would never have sufficed for that application and I'm lowering the channels to the wale strake where these holes currently exist. I'm using Squadron white putty. Shrinkage seems minimal, it sets and hardens fairly quickly and it works easily with sandpaper, emmory board, or a knife. For this particular application, though, I have found that maroon abrasive pads do an excellent job of levelling the putty, without completely erasing the moulded, raised grain effect that the putty inevitably covers, upon application. The grain softens a bit, compared with un-abraded surfaces, but it should still show through the paint without the difference seeming jarring. If I think it all appears too patchy, under primer, then I'll soften the rest of the grain later. Here, you can see a few examples of the filled and leveled butt joints, as well as the simple, reversable jig I made to mark out scribe lines for my new scarf joints. To cut them, I lightly drag the tip of an Exacto blade (#11 works) backwards, and against the pattern a few times. Once a faint line is apparent, I use increasing pressure on the backward stroke to engrave the plastic to the width of the blade. I found it helpfull to establish the vertical stop cuts, first, and then to drag the knife from the stopcut, towards center of the scarf, in each direction. Once I had a rhythm going, it moved fairly quickly; I averaged one half of a hull half in a session. The next challenge was a little daunting, at first. I wanted to move the aft-most gun port of the lower battery forward by 3/16", in order to allow a clear space for the full lower finishing of the quarter gallery. To begin, I inserted a new framing member (1/8x1/8" styrene, mostly obscured by the steel ruler) on the inside face, and 3/16" forward of the aft port stile. Note: this is an after the process photo, which also shows the re-located forward port stile; in reality, though, this second new stile doesn't come until later. So, with a new ledge, onto which I can now glue small fitted pieces of sheet styrene, I began to fill-in the aft 3/16", on the outside face of the port. The first layer of sheet styrene was the same thickness as the interior lip of the stock gun port. This, I glued flush with the edge of the new aft framing member. The second layer of sheet styrene was very nearly the thickness of the kit "planking." The difference was less than a 1/64", which was easily filled with Squadron white, and leveled with a coarse emmory board (which provides some grain texturing) and a knife. Also at this time, and before applying putty, I built out the missing bit of aft wale section with strip styrene. I then scribed back-in the missing plank lines: On break, I'll continue this post to describe the cutting in and framing of the forward half of the new port, as well as the through-bolting of the wales and the transom knees.
  3. Hubac's Historian
    Hi Doris, Yesterday, I was surfing through Pinterest, as I often do, when I found this image of a VDV ship portrait. It was not specifically identified as the RK, but it certainly seems to be her. If you haven't seen this, I thought you might appreciate the wealth of detail that is apparent, here:
  4. Hubac's Historian
    A separate artistic choice I am considering is painting the exposed limbs, faces and hair of the Asia, Europe, America and Africa figures semi-gloss or matte black and their costumes in gilt. Again, the black helps to break up the gilt and give definition to their individual costumes and head dresses. Just a thought.
  5. Hubac's Historian
    I was surprised at how little I was able to find out about period paint color and it's usage. In the end, there seems to be enough credible period portraiture of the ship to suggest that full ultra-marine was a plausible possibility. I'm thinking, in particular, of the lludolf Bakhuizen portrait of her at the Battle of Barfleur. In the end though, a ship like SR1, because of its uncertainties, leaves open a certain amount of lattitude for making artistic choices. Yellow ochre was certainly in use among the Dutch and English, during this time period, so it is reasonable to suppose that the French adopted the same practice. Personally, I think that gilding loses its visual impact when everyhing is covered in gilt. I think that ochre and gold can work to accentuate each other, and the ochre will also show the weather washes nicely, in the creases and crevices. The other thing I like about that corvette model I posted are the white window frames. They pop really nicely on that model.
  6. Hubac's Historian
    I haven't made my mind up about this completely yet, but at first I was liking this muted grayish blue from Versailles, as the primary blue, with ultramarine accents on select areas of the stern quarters and tafferal: I think the gilt work shows up really nicely against this color. But, then, I saw this model and it got me to thinking about the way this brighter, light blue plays against the yellow ochre: I really like this as a primary combination, where most of the panel framing would be in this yellow ochre, while reserving the gilt work for the large and important figurative carvings and certain essential accent carvings, i.e. anything that directly references the sun, or the Sun King, himself. In this scheme, I would still use Ultramarine blue as a secondary, accent color. This second approach may or may not be accurately reflective of what was being done at the time, but artistically, I just like it.
  7. Hubac's Historian
    The question of what shade of blue would be appropriate is a difficult one to answer. The deep, ultramarine blue which was made from pulverized lapis, would have been exhorbitantly expensive to make, and so in my opinion - I believe it would have been present on SR, but used selectively, as an accent color. Most of the upper bulwarks, I believe would he a lighter shade of blue. Given SR's special status within the fleet, however, it is possible that they spared no expense and did her whole upper works in ultra-marine blue. In the absence of more in-depth research, I don't think there is a completely right or wrong answer. For guidance, though, one can look to the restored interiors of Versailles, which presumably, would be painted in shades that mimic period colours. The most I could determine, so far, was that other shades of blue could be more cheaply produced from oxides of copper. Later, when I get home, I'll post a pic of a colour scheme that I personally like and plan to use.
  8. Hubac's Historian
    So, here are another two interesting little bits of ephemera that I found on the same site that Michel Saunier primarily posts his build-log for SR: I have no idea, what this top image actually represents: whom the artist was that created it, whether this badly degraded print is some kind of postcard of a larger, original work, or of course, what ship is actually represented here. It does appear to be a French ship. It is pierced for sixteen ports on the first battery. It does not seem to correspond with La Reyne, as there do seem to be three tiers of stern windows. Interestingly, this is one of only a very few images of early French ships that show any substantial raking of the main mast. Could this be Soleil Royal, numero uno, at some point before her demise in 1692? Can anyone shed light on what this image is in reference to? The second image is a line of battle schematic of the French ships involved in the Battle of Malaga, in 1704. The SR pictured, as I understand it, is the ex Foudroyant of 1693. This is not terribly useful, for my purposes, although it is interesting to note the blue upper bulwarks and the stern galleries on the main and quarter deck levels, only - perhaps in emulation of the post-refit SR of 1689? Admittedly, that is all a stretch of plausibility! --- In actual build work, the project is moving along nicely. Wale scarfs are scribed, scarf bolting is under way, as is re-location of the aft most port of the first battery, which I am moving forward 3/16" in order to make a little extra room for the lower finishing. So far, I've successfully closed in the aft portion of each port with sheet and strip styrene, and now I need to carve in the new forward half of the port into the kit styrene. It has been interesting to me how the old plastic sands and scrapes; although it still seems plenty flexible, it is quite hard and sort of thready when you sand or scrape it. I don't remember that being the case with the first SR I built, but that was a later pressing from the 80's, under the IMAI brand. I'll post a few pictures in the near future, perhaps after I've gotten those two ports moved and fully reconstructed, and after I've re-shaped the lower transom profile, in order to accommodate the new round-up of the stern.
  9. Hubac's Historian
    I am 100% in agreement; we have to find which methods work for us, that give us good results wihout too much headache. If it isn't fun, then why bother, right?
  10. Hubac's Historian
    Hello hjx, Thank you for taking the time to visit my build log. Your kind words are greatly appreciated. To my mind, and spanning roughly 100 years from the 1660s, onward, the French were responsible for creating the most artistically interesting ships, and then as ship design moved into the next epoch, and ships became flatter, the French were responsible for creating some of the most widely emulated naval architecture of any of the great sea-faring nations. As you can attest with your own projects, hjx, the French are an almost limitless source of compelling subjects. Now that I have returned to the hobby after a pretty long hiatus, it is really fascinating to me how modelers have adapted technology to make better models. You, for example hjx, are using Zbrush (full disclosure: I'ma have to look that up) to create 3D models that can be refined within the software and then fed to a CNC machine. The roughed blank is, artisitically, a much better starting point than most of us would be able to achieve if we had to do all of that wasting by hand. But what was really interesting about your figurehead, hjx, was that your manipulation of the 3D model seemed to make her appear like a more youthfull version of herself; if only plastic surgery could have this do-it-yourself-at-home user friendliness! Anyway, I will continue to watch what you are doing with great interest, as there is much for me to learn there.
  11. Hubac's Historian
    Hi! I am completely fascinated by what you are doing here, and will be following along with great interest. In my opinion, the face of your figurehead - even in its rough, un-pollished state - is an improvement over the original.
  12. Hubac's Historian
    Well, Mark, I wonder the same thing, and despite my experiment in deleting path objects (and even saving the revised copy of the document after deleting, which didn't seem to help) I suspect that this very issue is the crux of the problem. By the time I finished with the frieze and started the quarter galleries, I had already noticed a bit of a delay in processing, but it was not at all severe. But then, very abruptly, functionality just seemed to shut down completely. I like your idea for a work-around, Mark. If that solves the problem, I will make it work. Ideally, I would like to publish a complete drawing for the project, but really for the purposes of this build, I really only needed an accurate layout for the frieze (which I have) the QG (30% complete) the stern and bow angels (got them - made them less haggard looking, BTW). I will keep at it, though, and see if I can correct my mistakes. Thank you for weighing-in, Mark!
  13. Hubac's Historian
    Increasing the work space didn't help either. It dawns on me, just now though, that maybe I need to decrease the workspace so that my scanned JPEG pops up more closely to 1:1 scale. As I recall, when I first created this document, one of the first things GIMP wants you to do is establish the size parameters of your workspace. Not knowing any better, I picked a rather arbitrary size that, on the ruler scale, was bigger than the paper my original drawing was on, and then I imported the scanned image as a JPEG into it's own layer. Maybe I just made the workspace too big, in the first place, and that is now compressing my image into too small an area. I'll do another experiment to see if that helps any. Of course, I am open to all suggestions from the more computer saavy contingent, out there. Although, I'm sure I have done several things wrong to Eff this thing up, I believe (hope) what I've done so far is salvagable. I really don't want to start the whole drawing over again in a different software package. I've seen modelers like NekO use GIMP to draft their plans successfully, so I know it is possible. In the meantime, though, I have begun detailing the lower hull halves so that the project is at least moving forward. At the moment, I'm scribing scarf joints, at appropriate intervals, into the wales and am pleased with my engraving, so far. I'll putty-in the original moulded butt-joints. Then, I'll proceed with the myriad other detail additions: carriage tackle through-bolts, the anchor sweep timbers at the bow, simulated treenails, skids, scuppers, etc. I'll post some pics when there's some substantial progress to see.
  14. Hubac's Historian
    I tried a number of experiments to see whether I could identify the problem. First, I closed my working document and opened a new, blank workspace in GIMP. My thought was to see whether it was a problem within the document I created, or a computing problem with my relatively old MAC from 2007. Although I'm running the current operating system, and I've maximized the machine's RAM, I thought that perhaps the computer was struggling, now, to complete this exercise of connect the dots. In the new document, however, I was able to easily create nodes with extracted handles, and I was able to move them and manipulate their curves instantly. Stroking paths was also instantaneous. So, it would seem, the computer isn't the issue. Next, I made a separate copy of my master document, and I went in and deleted all un-necessary paths that weren't directly connected to, or adjacent to the quarter gallery path object; so, the upper bulwark frieze, the gunports, the sheer railing, the acanthus escutcheons, the filligree between the knees of the head - all of these path objects, I'm calling them, containing many thousands (at this point) of nodes were deleted. The thought, here, was that perhaps the program becomes sluggish when you add too many nodes, as this use of the program (line drawing using the Bezier path tool) is not the primary intended use of the software. Photo manipulation is what GIMP was primarily designed to do. I was sure that deleting all extraneous paths - even if it meant creating multiple isolated documents, representing various areas of the design (quarter gallery, stern, bukwark frieze, etc), would restore the utility of the Bezier path tool. It did not. Still 4-5 second lag times. Finally, I thought that increasing the size of my workspace and the layer images might provide a bigger, more manageable area for these many thousands of nodes to reside in. As it stands, when I open my drawing, what appears is a very small (about 1/4 the intended scale) image of my drawing, which I then zoom-in on to work at. I have found that a 78.5% zoom provides the exact 1:1 scale that I need for my drawing. When I post images of my drawing, this is what you are looking at - a 78.5% zoom. .. Break over - will post this and more to follow.
  15. Hubac's Historian
    Hey Dan, Your illustration of the paralax issue is made quite well, with these examples from the Sussex build, and the point you are making is well received. With regard to the black and white Berain drawing that I am using as the basis for my quarters and the bulwark frieze, it is difficult to say how literally one should take the drawing because there are a number of similar perspective issues that seem a little screwy; was this drawing a proposal for the ornamentation, or a portrait of the actual ship? No one seems to have an answer to that. Personally, I suspect that it is a proposal drawing and that the ship, as actually fitted out, probably differed according to the practicalities of applying ornament to the necessary architecture of the ship. We'll never know, unfortunately. As a general rule of thumb, though, I agree that the model builder should err on the side of designing a plan with complete port frames, as an example. Progress on my drawing has stalled, for the time being. I was making great progress with the quarter gallery drawing, but as I got to the two pair of dolphins that flank the two main deck windows, my ability to add nodes, to move them around and manipulate curves with the bezier handles slowed down dramatically. Suddenly, I could no longer create a node with handles already extruded, by simply click/hold/dragging the cursor, as before. Now, new nodes were just simple nodes without handles. The only way I could extract handles was to pull on the line between nodes, and even then nothing happened without click/drag/holding the cursor for four to five seconds. If I want to move a node - same thing: 4-5 seconds. Obviously, that makes the process of drawing anything incredibly cumbersome. ... I'll finish this post on my break, but I'll post this much now so I don't lose it.
  16. Hubac's Historian
    As expected, with Jan being the English equivalent of John. 'Never hurts to ask, though. Cheers! - Marc
  17. Hubac's Historian
    Jan Devries.
  18. Hubac's Historian
    There was also another volunteer named Jan, who was a specialist with computers.
  19. Hubac's Historian
    Yes, it is sad about the Provincien Project. I had hoped to bring my family to the Werf for the launching of the ship. Had it not been for the determination of Willem Voss, neither the Batavia nor the Provincien would ever have seen the light of day. In my mind, Mr. Voss is a sort of courageous figure like Anders Franzen was for Sweden. To Jan: might you have been someone I was acquainted with, back in '03? As I recall, the Director of the Werf at that time was a very tall man named Jan, and Willem's son was also named Jan.
  20. Hubac's Historian
    Hello Drazen, As I read through your build log, I was tempted to hit the "like" button on every post, but thought it might be better to express my admiration in a single post. So much of what you are doing here: filling between the bulkheads, the use of false wales as placeholders, your layout and spiling of the planking - it all seems fresh and innovative to me. And then, to top it off, the quality and standard that you are working to is truly very high. All of your lines appear fair to my eye, and you have achieved a beautiful hull form. I will be following along with great interest. The Provincien holds a special place in my mind and heart. It was 2000, when I first realised that the people at Batavia Werf, under the direction of Willem Voss, were building a highly authentic replica of the ship. I spent the next three years working a second job to save money so that I might go there and "have a hand" in the building of the ship, as a volunteer. By the time I got there in the summer of 2003, the project was stalled as the directors debated a significant re-design of the "spiegel," or mirror shape of the stern. Initially, the framing did not indicate the tumblehome of a warship of that period. The decision to scrap and re-build the transom was a significant one, and was not to be resolved in the three months I spent there. I did, however, spend those three months fully engaged with what were for me, at that time, extremely challenging maintenance projects on the Batavia. In short, those were three of the most fullfilling months of my life as I did exactly what My dream job would be. I met so many great people at the Werf, who did so much for me and took me under their wings, despite my admitted social awkwardness, at that time in my life. I left Holland feeling that the Dutch people were as warm and genuine as those that I had met on trips to Ireland. One of the people I sought out, while I was there, was Herbert Thomesan. I went to see him at his shop and he showed me quite a lot about the construction of his Texel Roads diorama - which as anyone who has seen it can attest, is absolutely mind-blowing in its scope and attention to detail. I found Mr. Thomesan to be an enormously talented person who was very generous with his knowledge and insight. I owe much of what I'm doing (or, at least in the planning stages of doing) today to him. So, Drazen, I look forward very much to seeing your Provincien rise from the stocks! With luck, the replica project will find the funding they need and work will soon resume, if it hasn't already.
  21. Hubac's Historian
    Hey Dan, Great progress and an interesting post! This area on the Lido deck, with the stairwell enclosure: I'm afraid I don't have any solutions, but more questions. The symbol they are using to indicate the swing of the doors on three sides of the srairwell enclosure also appears on the inside face of the outer bulwark. If it's a door, in one instance, what does it represent in the other? Also, from one stairwell enclosure to the other, the inner pair of double doors is shown to have opposing-handed doors on the port side, while on the starboard side, both doors swing into the enclosure: why wouldn't the arrangement be symetrical? As for the dashed versus the dotted line, perhaps the dashed line indicates the run of an interior bulwark on the Lido deck, which is covered over by the Promenade deck? Did the shipyard that constructed her, build a sister or near-sister in the same time period? Perhaps pictures exist of the stern of a similar ship that might shed light on these issues.
  22. Hubac's Historian
    She's truly magnificent, EJ! A satisfying endgame to a job well done.
  23. Hubac's Historian
    Great start to the transom, EJ. You were right to shorten the height of the chase ports; it will make a big difference in the finished model.
  24. Hubac's Historian
    Last night, I went to visit Dan Pariser who very graciously invited me over to discuss my project. After offering a number of helpful tips and suggestions, Dan brought out his recently acquired, two-volume boxed set of the collected paintings of the Van de Veldes, by M.S. Robinson. Upon looking up SR in the index, I discovered the above thumbnail of a large (4'x8') painting of The Battle of Barfleur. I had never seen this painting before, and was immediately intrigued because it features SR, from her port quarter, facing off against Britannia. Here is a close-up of her stern detail: Upon publication of these twin volumes, it was noted by Robinson that the painting was housed in a private collection at Euston Hall, in Sussex. The painting is not directly attributed to either the Elder or Younger VDV, but is believed to at least be a product of their studio. Later, last night I sent an inquiry to Euston Hall, and the curator responded, promptly, this morning. She told me that, in her time there, the painting had not been in residence and that she was not familiar with it. My next move will be to contact the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich to see whether they have it in their collection, or know its whereabouts. I am hopefull that they, or some private owner, can ultimately provide me with a high-res close-up of SR. Given the rather large size of the painting, this small thumbnail suggests that there is quite a bit of detail painted into the portrait, which may be insightful under magnification. My internet image searches have turned up exactly zero results connected to this painting, so I suspect that it has not changed hands often, and as a result, there are few photographs of the work in the public realm. That the work is attributed to the VDV studio lends the image of SR a degree of credible authenticity that is more or less suspect at the hands of other contemporary marine painters. I am sending this out to the MSW community in the hope that some of you may be familiar with the painting, know where it is housed, or even possess some better imagery of the painting that they can share. As always, any help along these lines is greatly appreciated, as are any visitors to my page, for taking an interest in this project. And special thanks to you Dan, for availing me once again, of your hospitality, insight and resources. Thank you, Marc
  25. Hubac's Historian
    The re-work really adds up, EJ, but it is well worth the effort. You will always rest easy knowing you did what was necessary. Can't wait to see the finish planking begin!

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