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Hubac's Historian

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  1. Hubac's Historian
    Eric, you have essentially placed your forward chase port in exactly the same place where I scribed mine. Looking back on it, I probably could have gotten away with scribing that port about an 1/8” closer toward the stem. If I had done so, though, the forward edge of that port would just about touch up to the knees of the head: The difference would not have made any definitive statement about the trajectory of the chase guns. It is useful to keep in mind, here, that the shape of the Heller hull, along the lower main deck, is not really reflective of the reality of French hull design at this time. Consider the following drawing from 1679, likely from the hand of Laurent’s son Etienne Hubac, representing his idealized lines for a first-rate ship: Note the significantly more bluff bow, the more forward-facing chase ports, and how straight and slab-sided the hull is for most of it’s line of greatest breadth. The drawing is likely not 100% representative of its time, but it is markedly different than the gentle and continuous curve of the Heller hull. In other words, even if you widen your hull at the stem, as I did, you still aren’t going to achieve the kind of chase port position that you see, here, on La Reyne: In my opinion, the effort at representation is 9/10ths the battle, because the kit architecture precludes absolutely correct placement of the detail.
  2. Hubac's Historian
    Absolutely masterful, Ondras! Your ship’s boat is a fine-scale model unto itself!
  3. Hubac's Historian
    Hi Ian, On these mid-to-late 17th C. French ships, the so-called “hunting port” is as closely aligned with the ship’s longitudinal axis, as possible, so as to provide additional forward firepower, when a ship is giving chase. The stern structures were the most vulnerable to raking and chasing fire, so it would only take a few 36lb cannon shot to come ripping through the stern facade and bouncing down the length of the gun-deck, inflicting significant injury to the ship and her company of men. These ports were only ever situationally armed, though, by shifting the next gun aft, forward into the hunting port. Despite artist depictions, and even the VdVeldes are guilty of this, these ports were only seldom used for this purpose. They may also have been of some assistance with anchor handling, as Eric suggests, but I suspect not as they fell out of favor by the 1690’s. The weakening of the bow structure wasn’t justified, given their scant practical usage.
  4. Hubac's Historian
    As far as I can see, Heller based their guns on the famous Croisic gun. Heller did a fairly remarkable job of copying all of the decorative emblems and motifs, and proportionally they look pretty close to me. The Croisic gun is a middle battery 24-pounder from SR’s original 1670 middle battery armament. It was recovered from Cherbourg and eventually became part of the second battery armament of SR4, 1748, which was ultimately scuttled. The gun was subsequently recovered from that wreck, mid 20th C. My main deck guns are actually the kit’s middle battery guns - the 24 pounders. I bumped all of the gun calibers up a deck, in order to give a more appropriate sense of visual weight to the artillery. For more reading on the Croisic gun and detailed images of its decoration, see here: https://fortifications-neuf-brisach.blogspot.com/2021/01/lexceptionnel-canon-de-24-du-soleil.html?m=1
  5. Hubac's Historian
    I have considered Daniel’s chains, T_C. Unfortunately, I don’t think their length will cover the span that I need to reach the middle band of wales. It’s okay, though, making my own is a worthwhile learning experience. So far, I’ve made the 5MM, fore and main deadeye strops. I just completed the 3.5MM backstay deadeye strops. Below are the rough strops before filing away excess solder. Above are the cleaned-up strops. I have adopted a method described by R.C. Anderson, where the join overlaps and is concealed beneath the channels. I’m reasonably satisfied with these. Now that I have a new pair of nippers, I will get busy making the other links, although I still need to make 4MM deadeye strops for the mizzen chains. I wanted to do something more familiar and fun, so I’ve started re-locating the trunnions for the main deck battery. To the left is the stock trunnion location, and you can see that the cascabel overhangs the carriage end to an excessive degree. To the right, I’ve shifted the barrel forward to where it should be: This process begins by shaving away the existing trunnions, and making a simple marking gauge to locate the new trunnion position: I use an awl to make a starting depression for the drill, otherwise the bit will just skate across the rounded surface. First, I chuck the bit in a pin vise to get a better bite on both locations. Then, I can chuck the bit in the Dremmel and drill though one side at a time: A short length of .035 styrene rod is fed through the barrel, and a spot of liquid plastic cement, on the underside of each join, secures it. On my marking gauge, I inscribed a line indicating the projection of the trunnions from the barrel side. A pencil mark on the overlong trunnions gives me a reference to nip to. I clean the ends with a file, and voila: Corrected trunnions! Ultimately, I will add either paper or foil cap squares to the visible, detailed guns. Thanks for stopping by and looking in at This Old Project!
  6. Hubac's Historian
    Bill, you really have done an incredible job, here, with your Soleil Royal. As noted, your pace is astounding and enviable. I think you have made excellent choices in what you have chosen to modify and upgrade. That can be a slippery slope, there, as my new friend Eric Wiberg is in the process of discovering. This has been an enjoyable journey to ride along on, my BlueGrass buddy! I, too, have learned a great deal from all contributors to this log.
  7. Hubac's Historian
    Wow! Creative solution to that particular problem. It looks perfect!
  8. Hubac's Historian
    What you are seeing on Marc’s model is a scupper for the manger. Because the timber is flush with the wales, in this area, it is not necessary to have a projecting scupper. On the interior, the Manger is like a big slop-sink that helps to shed water from the cables as they are hauled, inboard. The interior surfaces of the manger are lined with, I believe, lead sheet. On my model, I think what you are referring to are timber fills between the middle pair of wales. These are specifically to support the preventer plate links and eye rings. See, again, frolich’s model: Frolich didn’t blacken these timber fills, and their edges are a little hard to see, but they only extend the width of the chanels.
  9. Hubac's Historian
    I am also quite impressed with how neatly you inlet the hawser piece. I found this a very fiddly thing to do well.
  10. Hubac's Historian
    Eric, I like your scarf jig - those scribes look very clean. Since you are starting fresh, I will encourage you to pay close attention to the sweeping lines of the anchor lining. With permission I will use two pictures from Marc Yeu’s photo archive to illustrate the point. First is Frolich’s L’Ambiteaux: Next, is Marc’s magnificent scratch-build of Soleil Royal: What I’d like to draw your attention to, specifically, are the places where timber is filled flush with the neighboring wales; only between the pair of lower main wales does the surface run flush all the way up to the stem. As for the hunting port, I personally tend to find the VdVelde drawings to be credible guides for the placement of ports, as so many original drawings show the ghosts of prior port placement, which were erased and re-drawn. In other words, this was an important detail that they were trying to get right. So, yes, I think many French ships carried this hunting port as far forward as possible, so that the in-haul tackles were likely affixed right next to the cable manger, and so that gun recoil was less likely to foul the cable bitts. Once again, you’re off to a great start!
  11. Hubac's Historian
    I like your barrel hoist, by the way.
  12. Hubac's Historian
    Yeah, I’d say that is quite reasonable.
  13. Hubac's Historian
    Actually, Bill, I would say that is quite reasonable. How do they look on deck? They’re cast metal?
  14. Hubac's Historian
    Prieser makes figures in 1:100 scale, but they have to be heavily modified to look like 17th C. sailors. I thought the old Revell Spanish/English galleon kits came with figures in 1:96. Might be worth seeing if you can locate those on the market somewhere.
  15. Hubac's Historian
    For ease of consideration, Bill, consider the scale of SR to be 1:96, 1/8” to the foot. If the Hermione figures are 7/8”, or taller, they will not seem credible at all.
  16. Hubac's Historian
    Yeah, I have to agree with Ian, here. Straight out of the box, the Heller Victory is a significant undertaking. I have a pressing from the mid-90’s. Plastic quality is high, and the hull does not seem to suffer from the same warping issues as with the Soleil Royal. There are a TON of parts to deal with, though. As others have said, the sky is the limit when it comes to modifying and adding to the kit. Doing a creditable job on this kit definitely requires some advanced skill and even more patience.
  17. Hubac's Historian
    Just catching up, here - awesome work, as always. The stove looks really great! One question: after the flour/mortar application, is it even necessary to spray a final top-coat fixative, or will ambient humidity basically cement the flour in-place?
  18. Hubac's Historian
    Excellent work all-around! That eagle carving is very nicely done and very small!
  19. Hubac's Historian
    I agree you could go either way with this. Simpler may be better, though.
  20. Hubac's Historian
    With your most recent comments in mind, Haiiaphnk, I do not think the French ever designed the ornamental programs of a pair or even a series of ships to follow a single conceptual idea. The ships were named individually, and their names reflected the multiple virtues of Louis XIV, while the capital ships like the Royal Louis and Soleil Royal were given ornamental programs that reflected the hegemony of Louis XIV’s reign. The common threads are virtue and dominance above all other nations. The ornamental programs of each vessel explored numerous stories from antiquity to express those ideas. As I have been reading more recently in Ms Pin’s dissertation, La Symbolique Sur le Vaisseau de Guerre Francaise, individual ornamental programs were not literal representations of the actual influence and might of the monarch, but rather projections of his own grandiose self-conception. Propaganda, in other words, with the intent of cowing the opposition.
  21. Hubac's Historian
    Thank you Michael and Dan! I will continue to tinker with the chainplates. Eventually, I will arrive at something acceptable.
  22. Hubac's Historian
    The one example of very close sister ships that comes to mind are La Superb, and L’Orgieullieux. The following is often captioned as La Superb, but it must actually be L’Orgieulliex because La Superb was not present in English waters in 1672 for the Van de Velde’s to draw her. It is said that these two ships were built to the same specs and that they were virtually identical, although the ornamental programs must have differed.
  23. Hubac's Historian
    I’ve become somewhat stymied in my chain-making experiments, lately, as one of the tips of my Xuron PE snips snapped off, while cutting soft annealed wire (28 gauge). Maybe I’m using the wrong tool here, but should the tip really snap off after such relatively light use? Is there a better tool in the Xuron range for 1:96 chain making? Anyhow, that’s all on hold until I buy better/more appropriate tools. In the meantime, I just wanted to make some progress doing anything, so I finished detail painting the main deck gun carriages. I appreciate all reasonable advice to correct the implausible/impossible carriage trunnion mounts. After much hemming and hawing, during my phase of no progress, I have decided to let this one go in the interest of keeping things moving onward and upward. I am satisfied enough that I spread the trucks, and I will re-position the barrel trunnions themselves, so that the cascabels don’t overhang the back of the carriage to an unreasonable degree. Good enough for this go-around the May-Pole. I have blacked-out the truck axles and the glue blocks underneath all visible carriages. One other incorrect detail of my model that I would like to better understand the “why for,” is the rake of the channels. I have chosen to back-sweep the forward and aft edges of my channels: This just feels intuitively correct to me. To the contrary, though, all credible monographs show a slight forward-sweep to the fore and aft edges of the channels. What is the logic behind the design?
  24. Hubac's Historian
    You certainly have a loyal audience, but I feel like the broader MSW community is really missing out by not seeing the magical things that you do. You don’t strike me as one for self promotion, Michael, but MSW should have a featured builds page. I’m as guilty of it as anyone because I tend to stay within the late 16th into the 17th Century category, but I am frequently amazed at what I find when I do check-in on the 18th Century. Anyway, I love what you are doing here!
  25. Hubac's Historian
    I will also mention that when I did my lower battery guns in a dark bronze with a ver-de-gris wash, those decorations pop very visibly: Looking through my file pics to find the guns, I saw John Ott’s brilliant Photoshop (or some similar program) adaptation of SR’s sister ship La Reyne into Soleil Royal. This makes me happy every time I see it.

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