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Hubac's Historian

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  1. Hubac's Historian
    I must be making progress, Vossie, because I mostly understand what you just said! Again - many thanks for taking the time to explain this stuff. It really is a foreign language to me.
  2. Hubac's Historian
    Tonight, I did manage to work out those path-closing/adding issues, and they speed up the process immensely. Thank you, Vossie, for so succinctly explaining boolean operations. I can see the tools that enable me to do those things. I just need to fiddle around with them a little.
  3. Hubac's Historian
    Yes, Vossie, GIMP does allow layer grouping, and luckily I realized early on that I would need to name my image layers and my path layers in a way that I will understand because I am starting to realize that there will be hundreds of path layers, and probably 15 - 20 image layers. As for adding one path to another, for example, every Youtube tutorial makes it seem so easy to create a geometric and/or bezier curve closed-path. For some reason, though, when I try and close my path back onto the first node, it won't connect and I end up faking it (for now). Or, if I'm drawing something with a lot of convolutions and I break my path, when I resume noding the shape, I can't seem to just pick up where I left off, and resume a continuous path. I'm going to experiment with these basic operations, tonight, and hopefully I'll figure them out. I'm not sure what you mean, though, about "leave only the intersection between two paths." Do you mean, bringing one path to the foreground and another to the background, where they intersect?
  4. Hubac's Historian
    Well, digitization is underway, and going well. Ultimately, I chose to go with Gimp's latest version of their free, open software. It has some ideosyncracies that make it a little tricky to learn, but I've familiarized myself with working in layers and organizing the drawing, accordingly; The first layer is an outline/sheer plan from the waterline to the caprail, there will be a layer for the main wales, as well as individual layers for the chanels, assorted other structural details, lower deck guns, upper deck guns (etc), quarter gallery, figure ornaments, frieze, headrails, figurehead, stern, etc. One of the biggest discoveries was figuring out how to copy a path and paste it into a new path layer so that I can repeat an element over and over. Now that I know how to do this, much of the drawing should move along fairly quickly (I'm measuring in weeks and months, here - that's quick, according to my available time), but the ornament will take time. Right now, I'm tracing over the end-rail cap ornaments and having great success, but it is time consuming to adjust the many nodes that make up this one small ornamental detail. One thing that I haven't figured out, yet, is how to group multiple paths that make up something like the end-rail cap, into one path so that I can copy and paste the whole assembly into a new path layer. Any shortcuts, or just process notes here are welcome. The other thing I think I am learning is that it doesn't make sense to stroke your paths until you have the whole drawing set, really. I can't seem to erase one stroke line without erasing them all. I'm sure there's a way with selection tools, I just haven't learned how to do it yet. I'm also enjoying Chuck's tutorials on small parts casting, which I will need to do later, as well as the carving tutorials that various members are engaged in, using Chuck's ornament for the ceremonial barge. All great stuff!
  5. Hubac's Historian
    I have no experience with boxwood, but I carved a cane handle out of American pear, once. The wood was amazingly dense and difficult to carve, but I hadn't much experience in relief carving, at that point, so my lack of knowledge was a factor. As for planking material, as long as it bends well, I think the tight grain and color would make for a very nice finished surface. I know the model is expensive, but a little extra for premium wood will be well worth it, IMO. You won't regret the added expense, but there is a strong likelihood that you would regret using sub-standard wood, in the hope that sanding and finish will bring it up to par. What was nice about that cane handle was how it oxidized over time. Will you be filling in between bulkheads, with balsa, for a smoother first run of planks?
  6. Hubac's Historian
    Jorgen, thanks for the link. I will reach out to him. So, I had some time to look into this D'Agostini kit, this weekend, and am just now coming to the realization of just how different this kit is from Billings or anything else. The finished model, what little I can find of it, is REALLY impressive; it looks to be truly museum quality. Although, I was also reading through Pucko's log and it seems as though quality was great until the first planking underlayment. This made me wonder what, if anything, you intend on replacing and/or making from scratch. the installment nature of the build makes it a little more difficult to make a fair assessment of what you would be better served by replacing. Wondering what your thoughts are at this stage of the build. Regards, Marc
  7. Hubac's Historian
    I just visited that link to the digital museum of the 1:10 Vasa model, and it's interesting; it appears that the carvings are all carved from some form of plastic or polymerized clay. When I saw this model, in person, back in 1998 (circa), the carvings had not yet been painted. I had always assumed that they had been carved from wood. I would love to know what the museum modelers used for their carving substrate, as I am debating carving ornament for my current build out of styrene, or polymerized clay, or both - depending upon the application.
  8. Hubac's Historian
    I've recommended this to a builder on a separate thread, but have you picked up the book Vasa by Fred Hocker? This is an invaluable resource for anyone modeling the ship. She is beautifully photographed and her entire origin story, loss, recovery, restoration, structure and iconography is described with amazing clarity.
  9. Hubac's Historian
    Passer, I can see with your willingness to re-work your frames until they are right, and the care and attention with which you are doing your paint work that this is going to be a really good model. I'm really excited to see this one through!
  10. Hubac's Historian
    That's the greatest feeling - to see this thing you've been working on really take shape. Congrats, Dude, she looks incredible!
  11. Hubac's Historian
    Well, that's the weird thing; I work on a Mac and the operating system is current. When I open the files directly from my email, it isn't a problem. They show up. However, when I try to click the link from within the MSW site (just to make sure it was a working link), I get that message. Weird. As long as everyone else can access the information, then I am happy.
  12. Hubac's Historian
    I appreciate the fatigue factor, but you are getting really good at them. Ratlines look amazing, dude!
  13. Hubac's Historian
    I will definitely pass along everyone's thanks and appreciation to Mr. Saunier. I would totally understand if someone had spent years of their life trying to track down information on a subject - I would totally get it, if they didn't feel like just handing over that information to whomever. It only reflects brilliantly upon the generosity of Mr. Saunier's spirit and his desire for the subject to be treated with respect. Vossie, I appreciate what you are saying, although I don't fully understand what you are saying yet. I'll have to consult my old pal YouTube, and then I'll probably private message you wih some specific questions. Computer-ese is not my first language, unfortunately. But, thank you for weighing in.
  14. Hubac's Historian
    P.S. I was just trying to open the above links, and was told I couldn't because they were from an "unknown web developer". Not sure whether that is just a problem for me. Although, I was able to open them on my computer, directly from the email that Michel sent me. Let me know whether you have trouble opening the links.
  15. Hubac's Historian
    Michel Saunier has very graciously agreed to share some of the specific information he has compiled about Soleil Royal, over the years. In his working life, Mr. Saunier was an engineer, and the following spreadsheet is a sort of mathematical portrait of the ship. There is more than enough information, here, to make a really sound reconstruction of Soleil Royal, just as Mr. Saunier is doing. For his part, he combined this dimensional information with the work of Jean Boudriot, who drafted plans for L'Ambiteaux, in order to arrive at his hull form. Below is the Google Translated version of the letter he sent me, accompanied by the spreadsheet, which is staggering in its completeness. As he implores me to do at the end of this letter, I hope we will all make good use of this tremendous gift of scholarship. For so many of us who are lacking the means to go visit the archives for the many weeks it would take to sift through and assemble this information, this truly is a tremendous gift of intellectual effort and demonstrates his absolute commitment to the project of resurrecting Soleil Royal. Perhaps this information exists, somewhere, on-line. But, go find it. I've been searching on-line for years and have only come away with the basic dimensions of the ship. I will not attempt to translate the XCEL spreadsheet, for fear that I may in-advertently make a mistake that is mis-leading. Frankly, I have yet to sift through the document in any detailed way, but I can see just how complete it is. Everything you'll see is in the antiquated French foot, so just multiply by the Battle of Hastings (1.066) to arrive at the modern English foot. Thank you Michel Saunier! From M. Saunier via Google Translate: good morning MarcI recovered in its time a document of the "Havre de Grace" which indicates a survey of the dimensions of a ship in Brest on the shipyards. This vessel is marked "drilled at 16", that is to say with 16 ports on the first battery. At that time only the Royal Sun was pierced at 16 and moreover all the dimensions correspond. It is therefore a document of a survey of the SR in 1688.On the other hand I have found another document which gives the dimensions of the elements of the mature of the Royal Sun.I have other documents found elsewhere that supplement this data.I have gathered this data in an EXCEL file. I join him to this message.All that is missing are the water lines, but I have reconstituted them to the best for my project.Make good use of this gift.Michel SR Dimensions.webarchive Keel, Stem, Sternpost.webarchive
  16. Hubac's Historian
    That is really fascinating how the gloss undercoat impacts the gold topcoat. Great tip. I wonder, though, whether gloss white would result in an even brighter gold, or does the black somehow create greater depth in the creases.
  17. Hubac's Historian
    You are also welcome, EJ. What we can know for sure is really limited, but I think we can draw reasonable inferences. I will ask Michel Saunier whether I can share the list (a much more complete list than I would ever have expected, or have ever found on my own) of the ship's known dimensions and armament. One might ask - if it is known, then why must I ask him to share? I think, because he has spent a great deal of time and effort tracking down the answers that it is a matter of respect. That information is not known by many and he has gone through many archived examples of correspondence between Colbert and many others involved in shaping Louis XIV's navy, to extract those dimensions and many other insightful tidbits of information. His commitment to the project (his project of re-constructing Soleil Royal) is really astounding; I've made forensics analogies, here before, and Mr. Saunier is really living that. One could, with that information, construct a reasonable framework for a ship of SR's time period, just as he has done. So I will ask.
  18. Hubac's Historian
    I know you guys are 110% right about this. When I was experimenting with my week-long trial of Illustrstor CC, it took a few nights, but I started getting the hang of fairing a curved line. It's just that there are so many tiny curved lines that have to be traced over😱! Anyway, at this point, the build won't progress until I digitize. I just needed to see that the whole thing was actually feasible. Thanks for the support guys - it is very much appreciated!
  19. Hubac's Historian
    Alright, so I couldn't stop myself and I sketched in the dolphins to either side of the main deck windows. Again, it seemed that these were elements that I couldn't simply scan in artwork, trace and scale to fit. Maybe it really is as easy as that, but I wanted to sketch them to scale. I also filled in the panel stiles of the middle deck level and settled on a new transitional line from the stern counter, just below the middle deck windows of the stern, and the upper stern; this would be the middle line, which I think strikes a nice balance and makes for a reasonably elegant transition. But the paper really is starting to disintegrate on the crease. So, this time I mean it; digitize or bust!
  20. Hubac's Historian
    Thanks, Mark! I'm eager to get started, as well, but I feel this is time well spent, as this ship is all about the ornamentation. I'll get there eventually, and I really appreciate your interest in and support of the project.
  21. Hubac's Historian
    Given the crowded and complicated nature of the ornament surounding the quarter galleries, I wanted to sketch in the various elements (the mermaids, the figure if Africa sitting on her caryatid archway, the quarter piece supporting the side lantern, and the crown and flames), in order to get a sense for their relative proportions and whether I could make it all work in the space available to me. What I found was that the 1/4" extension I was adding to the stern was not going to be sufficient, however, if I added an extra 1/8" (the dotted, parallel line that previously represented the round-up of the upper stern) - then I had enough room to make it work. once all of those elements were sketched in place, and relatively close to their ideal shape and size, I was able to complete the freize layout around them. I think that when I digitize this image, I'll be able to shorten Africa a bit, and lengthen the quarter piece just enough to seem right. Anyway, now that I can see where the frieze falls, in the midst of it all, I am now fully confident that I can pull this project off and produce something good. I can't really continue to fill in detail on this sheet of regular bond paper because the surface integrity of the paper is failing with all of the erasures and re-working of the design. As tends to happen with this approach - the surface is also becoming too muddy with loose graphite. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to commit all of this time to learning software, only to discover that there are layout problems that I couldn't overcome. An astute eye will notice discrepancies between what I am drawing and what is shown in either the black and white stern drawing or the Compardel interpretation of the same, however, there are a few small choices that were necessary for me to either include certain important detail, or omit less critical detail that overly clutters the design. Again, the proportions of all of this are not yet ideal, but workable now, with the software. here is how the frieze layout translates to the f'ocsle:
  22. Hubac's Historian
    After frittering away a few weeks trying to find Adobe disc software that is compatible with my operating system, and failing miserably, I have conceded that I will have to subscribe to the creative cloud on a monthly basis, which should provide ample incentive to get the drawing done. In the meantime, though, I was playing around with layouts for the upper bulwark frieze and have settled for spacing that I think works really well, with the existing architecture. Bear in mind, of course, that I haven't yet drawn in the other quarter deck ports, the railings, or the ribbon strakes in their entirety. This is just a line drawing to see how a pattern repeating every 3/4" spaced out. I haven't extended the pattern further aft, just yet, because much of this space is filled with mermaids, the figure of Africa and the quarter piece supporting the side lantern. I think this arrangement gives me reasonable space for all of the alternating shells, fleur-de-lis, scrolls and diamonds that accent the frieze to co-exist without seeming too cluttered. I had hoped that I wouldn't have to entirely scrape away the ribbon strakes that delineate each level, but with the exception of where they frame a railing - I will have to scrape away the rest and use their ghost footprint as my guide for laying down the new pattern. The frieze will be made up from fairly thin sheet styrene that I can cut easily with an Exacto blade, and build up a little bit with fine styrene rod, or half-round running the center line of each lattice segment. One thing that is apparent to me now, is that I will have to simplify my quarter deck window embelishments; excising the side details, but perhaps leaving the coved arch and the fid beneath the sill. At the aft end of each railing, I am experimenting with a small scallop cut-out into the planking which does not match the placement of the detail, beneath the sea serpent rail cap, but nonetheless echos the detail and might add something of value to the design. Maybe not, though. That's the thing about this sort of interpretation; out of necessity, I will not be able to copy exactly what is pictured in the Compardel portrait, but I should come pretty close and create a pretty strong impression of the original idea.
  23. Hubac's Historian
    In my on-going conversations with Mr. Saunier, it was brought to my attention how unlikely it would be that a short open walkway would exist on the main deck level of the quarter gallery without there being any connection to an open walk on the stern. Having taken a closer look, I can now see that the figure of Autumn is visibly supporting a projecting gallery on the main deck level. Given Autumn's position at the far, starboard edge of the stern, he must be supporting a gallery that extends to the edge, and in all likelihood wraps beneath the arch supporting the figure of Africa, and connects with the short open walk of the quarter gallery. Access to the walk would, then, naturally be from the stern. I am amending my theory to include this wrapping walk, on the main deck level. For the time being, I am not sure whether I am going to change my opinion of the quarter deck stern walk above it, which I currently believe to be a very abbreviated walk that only spans the central two windows of the stern. Perhaps, it too, extends at least to the quarter figures, but I am inclined to read the shadows of Berain's black and white image of the stern as flat. I have no doubt, though, that the lowest tier of lights is not a projecting gallery at all. Given this new realization, my new conception of SR's stern now more closely matches the arrangement of La Reyne's stern, on the middle and main deck levels. For the record, while Mr. Saunier has been extremely helpful to me, and generous in sharing his research, he does not share my theory of the ship. Like Mr. Lemineur, he sees too many inconsistencies between my choice of quarter gallery and Berain's stern. He, too, is bothered by the use of the Heller kit for the basis of a more serious exploration of what the ship may have been. I respect his scholarship and his opinion. I have also said, previously, that I did not think the officers' waste pipe was present in Berain's stern drawing. After really examining this black and white image, however, it now seems that the waste pipe is the primary element of the lower finishing that can be seen here. One thing that I cannot reconcile, between the stern and quarter views, is why the stern doesn't also show the rest of the lower finishing which should appear to drop down to the level of the lower main wale. It is not there, though. In it's place there only appears to be a fuzzy detail of indeterminable form. For my part, though, I maintain that these portraits were produced for a reason. They must correspond with a specific period in the ship's history, and I believe that there is much evidence of Berain's hand in the design of these quarter galleries. Therefore, it seems reasonable to me that this appearance of the ship would originate around the time of her re-fit. The other thing that occurred to me is that the particular triple-tiered arrangement of the headrails, in the Compardel portrait of the bow is significantly different from the headrail arrangement of La Reyne in the VDV portrait of her port bow. The figurehead is the same, but the headrails are different. To my thinking it seems reasonable that two first rank ships built by the same man, in the same yard, within a year of each other would - upon launching - quite reasonably share the same headrail arrangement. Yet, the Compardel headrails are distinctly different. While this is not signed and dated hard proof, this does, for me, signify the strong possibility that the Compardel headrails are also the work of Berain - thus this seems to re-enforce the notion that these bow, quarter and stern views are one continuous tableau. This is my reasoned opinion. It may, in fact, be historically inaccurate. However, I have yet to find any signed and dated proof to absolutely say that it is not, at least, plausible. I welcome anyone in possession of that kind of evidence to come forward and change my mind.
  24. Hubac's Historian
    Hi Dan! Thanks for that. No, I haven't yet drawn a top plan view, but I was thinking about doing that because I will need to layout some form of ladder between the quarter and poop decks, and certainly, that view would help resolve the depth of the galleries at the main and middle deck levels. I think what you are referring to is the hash line that runs vertically and parallel with the hard line of the stern. This is intended to represent the round-up of the stern, above the stern counter. It may be a little bit exaggerated, but the detail seems consistent with all the good models of French ships that I've seen, from the period. Over the weekend, I've been fiddling with my sketch-in of the quarter galleries. I went ahead and filled in the aft-edge of the lower finishing, as well as an outline for the officers' waste pipe. In the drawing from the post above, I had been trying to cheat the lower finishing a little further aft, so that I could clear the last gun port on the lower deck. I realized, when I sketched in the lower finishing, that the sense of balance of the lower finishing was totally distorted because the carved detail of the lower finishing must be centered on the axis that runs the length of the quarter gallery. So, in this next revision, I centered the LF on this axis and redrew the forward edge of the LF, which will necessitate filling and moving this gun port 1/4" forward. I wasn't too enthusiastic about this, at first, but then I measured the distance of the middle deck port, just forward and above it, to the next port on that middle deck level. The distance between those ports is 25/32". If I move the lower deck port forward that 1/4", the new distance to the next port will be... 25/32" This is an alteration, that isn't a perfect solution, but one that I can live with. I think when this whole thing is layed out in the digital realm, the layout will not be jarring. Moving the port, however, very much improves the sense of balance to the quarter gallery, and that - in my opinion - is the larger issue. I've also settled upon the size of the five lower gallery windows and the extra ornamental details to fill in the extra space above and below. The top detail, is taken directly from the upper bulwark frieze, where the frieze becomes most narrow, on the quarter deck level. Again, I expect purists to take issue with all of this, but that is the nature of this build; additions, subtractions - filling in the gaps.
  25. Hubac's Historian
    Yeah - I think your hull work on Couronne is nicely faired. Having never done a plank-on-bulkhead kit myself, I csn only imagine the challenges it presents. I appreciate what you are saying about laying out all your plank butts - even on the first layer - for the practice.

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