Hubac's Historian

Hello Everyone! Life has continued to keep me busy, so there hasn't been much build progress (expected, by now, I know ), but I did manage to finish the port framing. While it isn't as clear in these pictures as it is in person, there is some nice graduation in frame thickness from the lower to middle deck. As far as added detail goes, this is just the tip of the iceberg for what I'm going to do. I've been spending quite a lot of time at my father's house, lately, and I dug up a souvenir from my time at the Batavia Werf shipyard, back in 2003. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Mr. Herbert Tomesan had a profound influence on my perspective of plastic, scratch-build modeling. Below is a defective cast-off that Mr. Tomesan sent me home with. I forget which Dutch ship this represents; I'm not even sure whether it is a model of a specific vessel, or more generally, a type he was using to fill-out the scenery of his Texel Roads diorama. All of the detail that eventually becomes a resin-casting like this, starts out as various strip and extrusion styrene that he applies to a vacuum-formed hull shell, in order to produce a mould master. These are some of the missing details that I will be applying, in the same fashion, to SR. It's really easy to do, and as I think you can see, the execution - although rendered to excellent effect, here - doesn't have to be flawless to be really really convincing, even in the absence of paint and weathering: I'll be adding this protective sweep of timbers that nestles between and around the wales, in order to protect them from raising anchor. While examining this model, I was reminded of the clever tricks Mr. Tomesan had devised for simulating certain details. The tree-nailing in these protective timbers is actually the impression of a hypodermic syringe needle. Most of the simulated tree-nailing, on the rest of the model, is a simple pin prick. I'll need to add chesstrees, scuppers (which, here, are simply very light gauge styrene strip that he's cut into rectangles and then Exacto'd out the centers), the washer and through-bolting to the sides of the gunports for the carriage tackles, and the bolted fasteners at the wale scarfs. I will, incidentally, be filling in the Heller butt-joints on the wales and scribing in scarfs at appropriate intervals. His grain detail is simply course sand paper scratches that follow the run of the planking. While this type of grain simulation won't perfectly match the moulded grain detail in the Heller kit, I suspect that experimenting with various grits and adding just the slightest bit of variation in the run of scratches should blend in well enough to not be glaring. On the research end, I am happy to say that I now have what I feel is an arguable, or reasonably debatable context for the model that I am building. While a number of my prior assumptions about the Heller kit, and the Tanneron model upon which it is based, have been demonstrated to me to be false, I have at least come to understand what the specific errors in kit architecture are, and how those errors create a false impression of a ship from the First Marine of Louis XIV. Some of these errors will be corrected, or at least mitigated with my build (i.e., the beam, draft and sheer), others relating to the number and arrangement of guns (particularly, the spacing between gunports), and the specific architecture of the post-1673 stern are not possible to kit-bash away on a pre-moulded hull. I am, however, at peace with this reality as I view the entire project as an effort to create a reasonable impression of what Soleil Royal may have looked like, on the whole, following her refit in 1689. My correspondence with Mr. Lemineur (Les Vaisseaux Du Roi Soleil), and Andrew Peters (Ship Decoration 1630-1780) has been in-valuable in coming to understand the origin and context of much of the imagery I have been posting here. I have asked each of them permission to share with the forum what they have so graciously endeavored to explain to me, and I will wait to hear from them before doing so. I feel for the sake of Mr. Lemineur, in particular, who has spent so much of his life researching the archives in an effort to discern truth from fiction, that I must be very clear about what I am doing, so as not to mislead anyone into believing that this project is in any way a definitive representation of the ship's known appearance. It is largely a work of conjecture, on my part, but one that at least draws reasonable inferences from better understood, contemporary sources. I respect Mr. Lemineur's dislike for the Heller kit's in-accurate architecture and will take some time, in my next post, to discuss what those issues are. If, after a reasonable time, I do not hear from either of these men, I will at least post my opinion of why Berain's stern drawing reasonably corresponds with the color drafts of SR's quarter gallery and bow. These three views, it seems to me, may very likely have represented her post-refit appearance.

The rigging is coming along really nicely, EJ! Congrats on the new house!

Excellent work, Matt! Your metal skills are truly outstanding!

One other observation about the article about SR from the troisponts.net site: The article opens with a brief discussion about the Reglement of 1670, which specified that only two ships - SR and the Royal Louis, both of 1668 - would be fitted out with a distinct forecastle, thus marking their special place as prestige ships. All well and good. But then, this Van De Velde portrait of La Reyne is dated at 1673, five years after her construction, and clearly shows her as having a distinct forecastle: I only raise the issue to point out the difficulty in weighing too heavily on one source of information over another; in this case, as seems to be the case with many of the Reglements leading up to the Second Marine, what was mandated was not necessarily what was followed. Otherwise, La Reyne would have been cut down to conform, no?

I am now in the process of composing a letter to Mr. Lemineur, in which I debate the possibility that Berain's stern drawing (known to be from 1689), corresponds directly with the color drafts of SR's bow and stern. There are some inconsistencies between the drawings, to be sure, but a wealth of correlation. Although I have not absolutely convinced myself, just yet, I strongly suspect that these images, combined, provide a fairly solid representation of the ship, post re-fit, in 1689. I will include my analysis, sometime in the near future, after sending this letter off and giving Mr. Lemineur some time to respond. It only matters in so far as I hope to place this build within some context, i.e., here is an arguable representation of the ship from 1689. One of the more interesting and debatable aspects of SR's popularized appearance, for example, is whether the ship's topsides were as thoroughly cloaked in blue as is almost always depicted. Mr. Lemineur maintains that the expense of producing the rich, ultra-marine blue (which would, at the time, have been costly to extract from the stone, lapis) would be prohibitive, and that instead, much of the ship was probably painted red; exceptions being made around the tafferal frieze of Apollo. That is all fascinating to consider, especially so when one considers that popular conceptions of the Vasa painted Royal Blue were completely turned on their ear, when the microscopic analysis of the ship's timbers revealed that she was mostly painted red above the main deck and that her sculptures were a riot of many colors. Is it conceivable, given the excesses of Louis XIV's reign, that the upper bulwarks were painted in true ultra-marine? I would say that it seems plausible and worth investigating further. That does seem to be the opinion of the historian François Bluche, who is a specialist on the reign of Louis XIV, and is cited in the article above. What might be a better avenue to explore is whether anyone at this time in the late 17th century was creating deep blues from the copper oxides of Azurite. Those are all questions I am exploring and welcome any insight any of you might have to period colors for French ships of the line. In build news, I have almost completed "framing" out the gunports and am satisfied with the effect. The lower gun deck walls seem sufficiently thick to put up a fight against incoming 36 lb shot, and the middle deck ports show a noticeable and reasonable graduation in thickness, as they would be slightly thinner in full practice. I will post a few pics, once this is complete. My Adobe Illustrator software has arrived and I will soon turn my focus to learning how to use it, so that I can complete my drawing of the ship. This drawing will enable me to layout the fretwork frieze of the upper bulwarks, re-locate the channels and reconcile any conflict of the shrouds, relative to the guns.

Dig and ye shall find! The following is an article that can be found on the following website, which is devoted to recording the history and development of the French Navy. Here is the web address where the article can be found: https://troisponts.net/2013/10/18/les-soleil-royal-de-la-marine-de-lancien-regime/#more-5495 This article is the work of Nicolas Mioque and draws upon the research of the following three men: – Demerliac, Alain. Nomenclature des navires français. – Lemineur, Jean-Claude. Les vaisseaux du Roi Soleil. – Roche, Jean-Michel. Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Much of what is explained, here, has been laid out for me by Mr. Lemineur, with whom I am having a separate conversation about the decoration of the first Soleil Royal. As I think this concise article provides a useful understanding of the history of the four ships (but really three, as the article explains) to bear the Soleil Royal name, I recommend that anyone interested visit the web address above. I would copy and paste it here, both in French and translated (adequately enough) by Google Translate, however, I am uncertain of the possibility of copyright infringement, without express permission to reproduce the article in a separate forum. I want to be clear, though, that none of this research is my own.

Hi Mike - I was blog surfing and stumbled upon your build. This looks like a very gratifying subject for a model and I look forward to following along. In these Swedish models that you have posted pictures of, it looks as though you have a few striking examples from which to draw upon. I wish you luck and look forward to future installments. All the best, Marc

Off to a great start EJ!

Hello Mr. Delacroix, Thank you for relating Mr. Lemineur's thoughts, which are particularly helpful, as they answer a number of the questions I posed to the Musee. One question for Mr. Lemineur that is of particular interest to me concerns the dust jacket artwork for his book, Les Vaisseaux Du Roi Soleil. My operating assumption, so far, has been that this artwork represents the original decor for the SR of 1668, and that it corresponds, directly, with the black and white stern schematic that is attributed to Berain. Is that, indeed, so? Also, I wonder who is responsible for creating these color draughts of the bow and stern. Were they simply proposals for the decor, created by Puget, perhaps, and refined by Berain? Or do they represent an actual contemporary portrait of the ship, after she was built? Is the artist known? I'm aware, from my meager efforts at translating his book, that there are wide discrepancies in the arrangement of the guns between the first and second SR. As I mention, earlier in this thread though, this problem of the number and arrangement of guns is not one that I intend to tackle with this build. I am also mindful of the problem of draught with this Heller kit, which is why I have decided to dispense with the lower hull, altogether, and make it a waterline model. What I'm after is an impression of period correctness. Will my model be an academically rigorous and faithful recreation? Unfortunately, that is not possible at this time. As a side note, I should mention that I chose the screen name "Hubac's Historian" because I was an English major and am fond of alliteration. It just sounds good, doesn't it? I am not so proud to think, though, that I can unlock the mysteries of early French naval architecture. Nevertheless, I can appreciate Mr. Lemineur's frustration with the Heller kit. I just want to see whether I can turn it into something that resembles his dust jacket artwork, because whatever version of the ship that represents - it is a remarkable work of art, in itself. It is grand, and completely over the top and awe inspiring! I only hope to understand what it is that I'm looking at. For me, the fun is in attempting to reconcile everything that isn't shown between those two bow and stern drawings. In an effort to relieve you, Mr. Delacroix, of your role as intermediary, you can forward my email address to Mr. Lemineur: benchmarc_woodworking@yahoo.com I appreciate, very much, the time you have taken to explain these things. As always, I'm very appreciative of everyone who visits this thread, weighs in, or takes any interest in this project, whatsoever.

Although I haven't been busy on here, I have been busy. On the software front, I was initially dismayed to realize that older versions of Corel Draw are not compatible with MACs, and I didn't feel like spending big bucks for the most current CAD version of Corel, which is compatible. However, on Amazon I found a NIB edition of Adobe Illustrator 7, complete with discs! Non-software person that I am, it was a revelation to me that you generally no longer get discs with your latest and greatest software upgrades. So, that's on its way, and should be here in a week, or so. In the meantime, I've been watching YouTube videos to figure out how, exactly, to use the AutoTrace tool bar. All good. I found out, through sources in direct contact with J.C. Lemineur that the photos of the 90-gun first rate ship that I posted earlier, from NAVEXPO 2012, are indeed the subject of a new monographie that should be released some time toward the end of 2017. The ship is Le Saint Philippe, of 1693. While her construction corresponds more directly with the second construction of Soleil Royal (following the loss of the first at La Hogue), I believe there is much to be gained, architecturally, from a close study of Le Saint Philippe. I look forward to adding that to my collection, once it is available. I've poked the Musee to see whether they had made any headway on my questions, but so far, I have not heard back from them. Perhaps they feel that I am wasting my (and their) time even bothering to ask about the first SR. However, as they say, it never hurts to ask. I will continue to prod, gently, until I hear something. Having fulfilled my Brother-in-Law's Secret Santa wish for the cordless micro Dremel, I was delighted to discover that this - as opposed to the flexi-shaft - is light in the hand and small enough at the finger grip to allow your full range of fine motor skills. So, I'll have to place an order for that sometime in the coming weeks. Yet, I still have time on my hands, so I decided it was time to jump in and get started with the hull detailing! One of the things that always bothers me about plastic ship kits is that when you look through the gun port openings, the hull looks exactly like what it is: a boat-shaped shell that lacks the sort of wall thickness that can stand up to a 36-pound shot. In pursuit of realism, in this build, one of the first things I wanted to tackle was adding the appearance of frame thickness to the gun port openings. On the first gun deck, I'm using .125 x .125 styrene strip to frame the sills and stiles of each opening, flush with the inner lip of the gun port opening. On the middle deck ports, I'll use .100 x .100 strip to simulate what would be a slight narrowing of the framing on this higher deck. I also feel that the upper bulwark rail thicknesses are too thin, but I'm not sure whether I will go so far as to plank, and thus thicken, the inner walls of these bulwarks. The first step was to level the inside faces of each opening with a 100-grit rubber block (an eraser with sanding paper double stuck to it, actually) because the hull pressing left a crown around each opening that would make it more tedious than necessary to close the joints between my sill and stiles. One of the nice things about this build is that, for quite a while, there will be a nice contrast between the black pressings of the kit and the white styrene add-ons, as much of my modification will happen before I get anywhere near the first spray of paint. Here are the early returns: Whether or not the dimensions of the added stock exactly scale out to the real thickness of the full-size hull at corresponding locations, is not of so much importance to me. The graduation in thickness and the appearance of depth more than make up for whatever scale discrepancies may exist in my approach. Once they're painted that deep matte red that we associate with port openings, this small addition will seem well worth the effort. At least - that's what I'm telling myself. Finally, I found a close-up of SR's stern, from the 20th Century painting that I posted earlier: This image, more than anything, re-affirms my idea about the arrangement of SR1's stern balconies. Yes, the artist is modern, but as I stated earlier, I believe the clues to SR's stern are to be interpreted from the subtle shadow clues in the Berain drawing. It has also, lately, been helpful to me in deciding how I will portray the quarter galleries. The enlarged photo, above, illustrates one possible reconciliation from the stern to the quarter galleries, which interestingly, is supported by Tanneron's damaged model of the smaller rated L'Agreable and also, in other small ways, by Le Brilliant. I will devote a separate post to this when I get closer to drawing it in Adobe

Alright, so I spent the evening initiating myself into the world of bitmap conversions into vector drawings, via line tracing function of various software packages, as demonstrated in a number of tutorial videos on Youtube. Most software packages I looked at are Windows based, however, Adobe Illustrator is Mac compatible and disc software for Illustrator 9 is still available on Amazon for about $70, used, plus shipping. My layman's understanding of this is that I could use something like Adobe Illustrator (largely ignoring 90%, or likely more, of the software's capability), to import my JPEG, or my PDF file format, into a new document. From there, I can apply specific formats within the Image Trace tool bar, perhaps "line art," to automatically trace my ship image into a vector based, and grouped image. From there, I can ungroup the image, and select specific groups for copy and paste, such as my various gun port sizes/styles, and then place them where I want them. I can then import artwork for the quarter galleries, and various elements of the stern, and repeat the image tracing procedure. Also, by unlocking the image, I can manipulate lines within a grouping to better suit my purposes and design intent. So, assuming that's the basic gist of what I need to do, here, is Adobe a workable platform for the complete novice, or would I be better served finding something more basic? I am still very uncertain, for example, how importing what is a relatively large drawing will appear in the Adobe active screen. In all of the tutorials of various imported imagery and artwork, the graphic artist is shown corner dragging the image after import, generally, to increase it's size. However, for something large, would I first have to reduce it's scale to, say, 50% just so that I could work on large continuous details, like the wales, without having to break the image into a series of tiles that are then stitched back together later? Does anyone use Adobe for their ship modeling design purposes? I'm also curious as to how detailed the auto line-tracing functions are, with consideration to the many intricate filigree details of a baroque warship like SR. If it is going to be necessary for me to go in and hand trace the stern gallery railings, for example, with a pen feature - with all of the attendant curves and reverse curves and mouldings, and etc - then it seems like hand-drawing and scaling would actually be faster, if equally frustrating. Or, perhaps it's easy to do that, once you get the hang of it. Is the trick to increase the scale and select, say a stern railing, from within the larger scan of Berain's stern schematic, for example, so that the railing is large enough for the auto-trace feature to pick out the intricacies of the design? No experience = no clue. Any input into these matters is greatly appreciated. All the best, Marc

Hello All, I am having a different problem. For my current build - an extensive modification of Heller's Soleil Royal - I have been hand-drawing a scale field, or outline that matches the moulded profile of the kit's lower hull and upper bulwarks, which I will be using to save the time of a full scratch-build. I sketched in one, each, of various repeating elements and a few specific ornamental details that were easier to draw by hand, in order to match the kit parameters. On the advice of several members, here, I intended to digitize the pencil drawing and import it into Corel Draw, where I could trace over what was there, and add in all of the other missing details. Ultimately, the objective is just to see what all of my additions and subtractions will look like in relation to each other, and to make it easier to layout the complicated frieze of the upper bulwarks, which would be a nightmare to do by hand. Today, I digitized the paper drawing onto a flash drive in JPEG, PDF and PNG file formats. Here is my hand-drawn plan in PDF format. For whatever reason, the site would not allow me to upload the JPEG drawing, here, and I don't even know what a PNG file is, but I was able to upload the PDF: 20170102130746616.pdf Everything was going perfectly well until I came home tonight, ready to download Corel 7, only to realize that most early versions of Corel are not compatible with Mac computers. Corel makes a very current CAD software that is Mac compatibile, but I'm not sure I need CAD software for what I'm doing. I'm not lofting frames, or in any way trying to create a three-dimensional hull shape. I just need a compatible 2D drawing software that will allow me to import, re-trace and manipulate the various ornamental elements that make up the ship's decoration. I'll also be dropping the main and fore channels down to the upper, or main deck and will need to draw in the mast locations and layout the shrouds, so as not to interfere with the guns. This drafting exercise is really just about laying things out so that I can be sure that everything lines up nicely before I start cutting things away. Not long ago, I updated my OS to 10.11.6, El Capitan. I'm a complete novice to computer drafting of any kind and am looking for something that is relatively easy to learn and use. I'm frankly overwhelmed by the volume of drafting software, which seems more sophisticated than what I need. All suggestions are welcome. Thanks, Marc

Tonight, I drew in the Angel and horse of the head rails. I've only traced in the top outline of the head rail to show how the horse wraps around the topmost medallion of the head rails. In order to add this detail, I would only need to shave off, two leafy horns from the sides of the head rail medallions, as well as a short length of garland on the aft head rail, which doesn't connect or relate to anything else in the kit decor, anyway. I would also lose the forward most antler escutcheon carving because the angel is now in that position, but this is a reasonable trade-off, in my opinion. The angel's arm positioning isn't exactly as drawn by Berain, but I had to adjust her stance in order to reconcile the kit gun port positioning, and my new square port accents. She's also more 20th C. Victoria's Secret angel, than 17th C. chaste angel, but I reserve license in these matters. I think the detail is worth including because it will balance the angel figures to either side of upper quarter gallery window, and the horse head is a nice echo of the figurehead. I think, at this point, it's time to download Corel and learn how to digitize what I have so that I can make it into a complete drawing. There probably won't be much coming out of this post for a while. I'm tempted, of course, to start prepping and detailing the lower hull halves, but that would only be time taken from the plans drawing in Corel. Hopefully, I'll hear back from the Musee sometime soon. I will share whatever I learn from them, as soon as they do.

Hello All, I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday and is looking forward to the New Year. Tonight, I had a chance to draw in the decorative filigree between the knees of the head. The forward end will join the tail of the figurehead. This addition, as well as the head rail support stanchions are an absolute must for this re-build. I am thinking about adding the horse head and angel to the aft end of the head rail, without modifying the head rail itself. I'll have to play around with it a little to see whether it will work.

So, after re-working the banner, this is what I have now: A quick visit to Wikipedia shed some additional insight into the meaning of this inscription: While the motto relates to the allegory of the "Sun King",[2][3] its precise meaning is obscure.[4][5] Philip F. Riley calls it "almost untranslatable".[3] Historian Henri Martin called it "very pompous and, above all, obscure and perplexing".[6]Louvois, Louis' War Secretary, interpreted it as seul contre tous — "alone against all";[4] lexicographer Pierre Larousse suggested au-dessus de tous (comme le soleil) — "above all (like the sun)".[4] John Martin says "[Louis'] matchless splendour was expressed by the motto Nec Pluribus Impar - not unequal to many suns.".[7]Yves-Marie Bercé gives Suffisant (seul) a tant de choses ("Sufficient (alone) for so many things") or Tout lui est possible ("Everything is possible for him"), i.e., "not unequal to many [tasks]".[8] Louis himself wrote:[5] Those who saw me managing the cares of royalty with such ease and with such confidence induced me to add [to the image of the sun] the sphere of the earth, and as its motto NEC PLURIBUS IMPAR, by which they meant to flatter the ambitions of a young king, in that with all my capacities, I would be just as capable of ruling still other empires as would the sun of illuminating still other worlds with its rays. I known that some obscurity has been found in these words, and I have no doubt that the same symbol might have suggested some happier ones. Others have been presented to me since, but this one having already been used in my buildings and in an infinite number of other things, I have not deemed appropriate to change it. — Louis XIV, 1662. An image search of the phrase reveals the ubiquity of its expression during his reign. I think that this fact, alone, argues strongly for its inclusion somewhere on the model. It may not be practical to place it beneath the chase ports, but it does fit nicely there. I have also been thinking about what I will do with paint, to the tafferal frieze of Apollo. My color scheme for the ship will include a darker royal, or French blue for most of the upper bulwarks, however, the main deck guns of the upper bulwarks will be done in a much lighter, grey/blue. This lighter, grey/blue color will be used as an accent color for the sky backdrop of Apollo, on the tafferal. The clouds will be airbrushed to appear greyish-white and stormy, and I've been considering a stylized halo of sunburst rays, emanating from behind Apollo's chariot, in fine lines of orange and gold. All of the paint work will be lightly aged with a, or a series of, washcoats, and the hull will be darkened in the manner of Herbert Tomesan's ships from the Texel Roads diorama. Here is his model of Hollandia, from the Texel Roads diorama: So much of what I hope to accomplish with SR, in the way of added detail comes from my experience of meeting Mr. Tomesan, back in 2003, when I went to work at the Batavia Werf Shipyard for three months. He showed me his process for prototyping these large (and small) Dutch warships, and work boats, and I was absolutely floored by his ability to render carved detail in plastic, while also taking great pains to incorporate so much of the construction fabric of an authentic seventeenth century vessel. I remember him telling me, at the time, that what disappointed him with commercial kit architecture was that these models don't really look like ships, in the way that a Van de Velde portrait paints such a vivid picture of what these vessels really looked like on the water. It was Mr. Tomesan, in fact, who planted the early seeds for this build in my head, because he told me that he once built the Heller kit, but that he cut the ship down a bit to lower it's top hamper, and thus he made it appear more ship-like, in his opinion. All these years later, having studied the known architecture of the period, I have come to agree with him. Anyway, his diorama is absolutely enormous and mind-boggling in it's completeness and consistent attention to detail. What he excels at, in particular, is his paint process for creating realistic "in the water" patination of a wooden hull. I held these models right up to my face and felt like a giant holding the real thing. Here is an example of the shade of grey/blue that I was thinking of for the main deck bulwarks: The color complements the gold leaf very nicely and the contrast in blues adds further dimension to the model, while setting off the delicate lattice work of the upper frieze, in the darker French blue. The large antler/cartouche carvings, between the main deck guns, have a small oval panel that will be picked out with the darker, french blue, with the delicate raised scroll ornament picked out in gold. On a side note, here's a better picture of the stern window that I decided to jazz up a little bit:

Wheel and deck housing look great Matt! Thanks for the lead on the files.

Hello, Bill, and welcome! I am so glad that you will be following this build, and I look forward to trading tips and insight into whatever it is that we learn along the way. My intention, once I have a full schematic of the modified and added to hull, is to post that plan to the site for anyone to do whatever it is that they'd like to; post it on a wall and throw darts at it, or use it as a jumping off point for their own theory of the ship. Overall, my hope is to simply show what's possible with this kit. I'm doing the best research I can, but in the end, there can only be a reasonable basis in fact for the decisions I make in representing SR. No absolute rights or wrongs. So, welcome aboard, Bill, and if you start a build log, I will gladly follow you.

Wow Dan - another great find! Your parsing sounds much more appropriate than Google Translate, which offers the following: "or an odd number". The layout of the inscription on the cannon is even a nice suggestion for the design of the scroll, although, that particular design would place the ornament even closer to the waterline. I hear what you are saying about the following sea. Perhaps, if I do include this detail, whichever way I choose to simulate the tree-nailing, well, I could really emphasize the fastening of the banner to the hull. There is a small flat, along the bottom edge of the lower gallery where this inscription could go, sans scroll. That space works out to just shy of an 1/8". Not impossible, but a daunting challenge. My inspiration for the banner below the chase ports comes from a fuzzy detail in Ludolf Bakhuizen's battle of Barfleur, where you can just make out a rolling something below the chase ports. Could simply be a representation of the rudder chains, but it got me thinking. The only other example I can think of, with a banner inscription anywhere near where I am proposing is the Provincien. She has her name inscribed upon a similar banner, just above the chase ports, but below the lowest gallery. Another possibility, since I will eventually be designing new deck railings for the f'ocsle, quarter and poop decks, would be to incorporate this inscription into the forward face of the poop deck railing. For the time being, I will layout the new inscription and worry about where it goes later. In Corel, it will be easier to reduce the width of the banner because, as I mentioned, the whole affair is a little too heavy looking, but the shape and intent of it seem right to me. I am continually impressed, Dan, by the breadth of your knowledge. Thank you, once again!

Hey Matt - can you make a good recommendation on files? I have an old set of X-acto needle files, but I'm looking to replace them with something better. The X-actos were good for a while, but the more useful profiles lost their tooth pretty quickly.

EJ, she looks great! I'm curious to know what, if anything, the plans say about raking the masts. La Couronne is from a time period when mast raking tended to be more pronounced. I ask, though, because I will need to establish mast position and rake very early for the SR build, and I won't be able to rely on the kit's standard positioning of the masts because I'm cutting out the bottom and building up the decks form scratch. Most of what I see of mid-century rake for French ships - particularly the main mast - seems negligible, at best. In fact, one could say that the main mast appears almost perpendicular to the waterline.

I picked this one up a few years ago - one of my BONUS finds at the STRAND, here in New York. I still go into the store, on the regular, because I know that one in twenty visits will unearth a real gem! This is really a great book for the quality of the illustrations, the story of each model's provenance, and what it is to have the luxury to collect these truly fine works of art.

Far from perfect. The lettering is too big. But this would be the idea:

One of the artistic license details that I'm thinking of adding is a furling banner scroll beneath the stern chase ports, in light blue, bordered in gold. It would be a kind of king's motto plate, like the "Dieu de Mon Droit" of the English royal coat of arms. It might read something like this: "Je suis le soleil du monde" "I am the sun of the world" I think it appropriately captures the egotism of Louis XIV, and for that matter, all kings of the period. I could even make a small baby face carving of Louis XIV, with the gilded rays of the sun shining around him, and mounted to the rudder, in line with the banner. It's a thought. Maybe good, maybe not, but I think I'll try and draw it.

I was thinking it might be fun to model the ship, preparing for action, since it will be a waterline diorama model. It would be interesting to show the crew lowering the fore t'gallant mast. I'd have to do some research to find out what, exactly, that process was for dismantling the upper rig because you would want to show the mast actually being lowered through the top. Anyway, just a thought. EJ, do you have any reading recommendations on the subject?

Happy Holidays to you and everyone here!