Hubac's Historian

Bill and Gary - thank you very much! Bill, I have occasionally had this problem, but not lately. I don’t know why. Gary - I like your descriptor: the “nautilus” carving! And, you are right about the natural light - the while thing appears a lit less garish in-person, and in the day.

Thank you, John, and you are welcome. My hope with the log is to demonstrate what is possible with plastic, and I would love it if this project inspires people to take the Heller kit in different directions. There is a La Reine, in-process, on this site. Maybe someday, some intrepid soul will really launch into a Royal Louis, 1668, which I think is eminently possible to make a representative, if not wholly authentic model of from the Heller kit. Plastic is fun. I hope to encourage people to play with it.

B.E., here's another gem that I've been missing out on! Beautiful work, as always. I am particularly drawn to your shade-painting of the frieze elements; the effect is really outstanding.

Gary, this model is such a gem, and I'm sorry I missed its construction. You are just too agile a builder for me. I won't miss-out in the future, though. I really loved the alignment tools that you made for the ribs. Just beautiful!

Ah, okay - I get you now.

Or is it that the counter planking runs into that rabbet and it isn’t a fair transition from the curvature of the counter into the rabbet. I can see, maybe, how the round tuck planking fays up beneath the wing transom?

Hi Mark, I see the rabbet in the wing transom, but I am having trouble understanding exactly where you went wrong, here. Should the rabbet be more shallow, so that thicker tuck planking can fair into thinner counter planking?

Thank you, Druxey! I based the horseheads, somewhat, on the Ford Mustang emblem, but who says I can’t tackle a little rhinoplasty?

Thank you, Mark! There is no need to give up the hobby; angles are everything in photography, and that angle lies a little bit.

Vic - you are a bonafide ship-modeling legend and a true artist. You are among the very few to have sailed their historic creations on open water, and the pure magic of all of that is an inspiration to everyone that sees them. I’ve seen the bare bones of what you have planned - it’s going to be amazing, no matter what way you get there, and particularly because you think outside the ol’ sea chest.

As always Victor, I appreciate your continued interest in my log! I would especially like to highlight a new project that Vic has begun, because I think it presents a really interesting approach to the ever-vexing problem of what Soleil Royal may have been:

In consideration of Thomas’s request, I’ve been photographing the headrails as I carve the horse ornament. The starting place was to carve the fanned relief in the inner scroll: From there, carving the horse is mostly about establishing levels within the carving. Here, I’ve determined that where the mane meets the horse’s back will be the lowest-depth cut of the carving, my baseline: After undercutting the mane a bit, which helps give dimension, later during the modeling of the mane, I decided to proceed from the tail to snout, as this Roman skirt was an easy thing to understand and model: It all proceeds smoothly enough, until the head, which presents some challenges. For the record, I have not done any involved study of horse anatomy. I am merely attempting to hint at the major muscle groups that animate the animal’s jaw and face. I wanted to experiment with my idea to add the bordering of the headrails. It was easy enough to induce a curl into this square styrene strip (.020) with my finger nail. I anchor the starting point with thin CA, and then I work my way around the scroll, 1/4” by 1/4”, with liquid styrene cement. It turned out about as well as I could have hoped. Today, I finished up with the modeling of the head and mane. I still need to add a few applied “buttons” to the two bands that wrap around the horse’s body, but this is a simple thing. It is not an anatomically perfect study, but there is shape and movement that will catch the light and create shadows when painted. In other news, I have installed the pass-through archways. Because boxwood carvings will sit upon these, I wanted to ensure that they were very securely affixed. After much fitting and strategic scraping of paint, I fit two pins (from a paper clip) into each bracket: The plan was to glue these in using CA in the sections where the pins are, and liquid styrene cement in-between and at the foot. I got the correct rake and alignment for the port side, on the first try. There were, however, a pair of gaps that needed filling for a secure welded bond: I added styrene pads to the foot and below the lower pin and then faired these to fit seamlessly. With these brackets in place, my conception of the way Berain’s stern relates to these quarter galleries can be clearly understood: As a side note: it was really challenging to get the foot of each bracket to align with the pilaster of the gallery bulwark beneath it. The starboard side is acceptable, but the port side (showing the merely acceptable side) came out perfectly: I also wanted the brackets to follow the round-up of the stern, so their in-board surfaces had to be beveled, accordingly: In natural light, this is a very accurate reflection of my colors. Presently, I continue to do all of the necessary touchups, distress washing (not applied to brackets yet, in these pictures), and blackening of the upper main wales and channels, on the starboard side. My least favorite aspect of this build is attempting to cut super-clean lines directly onto the model. The plywood base is a tremendous asset for these circumstances, but it is always awkward and difficult. Here, my line began to waver, after I had been at it for a few hours: The back and forth process of revision is on-going. The Heller kit has many flaws, but I do think it is fair to say that they get the aft sheer, pretty close to the mark: More to follow!

Ditto to that, Kevin. Setbacks like these really sting, in the moment. You seem to be handling it all with admirable equanimity. If it were me - and it almost has been several times - my swearing would resurrect the ghost of George Carlin.

Your work is looking very good and clean! I think it is good to do as you are, which is to take whatever small mistakes there may be in-stride. Your next models will be better and better still. This one is shaping up beautifully.

Yeah, sorry about that, Bill.

Man, I hope so!

I am 13 1/2 interminable years away from retirement. My personal life is just ripping by, but work feels like time has just stopped.

You know you have my full support, Vic, and it will be fascinating to see what the Heller model looks like with a correct hull volume. You’ll have some interesting work ahead of you at the head, but I know your artistic talents are up to the task!

Beautiful progress, EJ!

Mark, I am enjoying your sense of milestone achievement because I know that feeing when you finally get past what you initially estimated to be a huge hurdle, and you stick the landing without any lean or falter. Congratulations, Man! This truly is an inspirational log and certainly one I will be referring to, down the road.

As always, Frank, beautiful and patient execution. Personally, I’d be inclined toward simple circle coils, but I’d make them off-model in a form, so that I could induce a drooping shape with dilute PVA.

I am not permitted to specifically reference the builder or forum, however, one builder has undertaken a "re-engineering" of the "Artesania Latina Soleil Royal" that shows exactly what is possible with this kit. And let me tell you - it is surprising! Out of the box, on the other hand, there are nuuuuuuuumerous problems with this kit. It's chief benefit is the fact that the bulkheads, as drawn, are actually pretty faithful to a first-rate of the period. The ornamentation, particularly of the stern, is very good - far better than anything yet produced (apart from Heller, which copies Tanneron directly). Overall, the kit more closely resembles Michel Saunier's model of SR. I am a proponent - and since I know they are paying attention to this forum, at least - of AL doing a re-design of their own release. IT COULD BE SO MUCH BETTER. It should be so much better. Do it better, AL! People pay a lot of money for these kits.

Kevin - I feel your pain. Take your sweet, sweet time. You will never regret it.

I don’t mean to be a thorn on your vacation, Bill. I just think you might have second thoughts, once all the yards were up on the model, if you were to proceed with these particular wooden blocks.

I think it is a matter of relative and proportional size. Attached to the mastheads, the blocks seem less girthy. The yards are relatively narrow, though. I think, if you reduced these blocks to the next size down they would look right. Or, maybe try the printed blocks. If they are the ones that Kevin made, they will be proportional, overall.