Hubac's Historian

Touch-ups on this figure still need to happen, but she’s securely pinned and cemented in-place. Given that this figure represents The Americas, I thought her garb should be gold accented greens and earth tones. She’s wearing a palm frond skirt and crown. Weirdly, while the brown enamel wash that I use is still perfectly fine, the grey wash pigment seems to have cured in the jar, despite there being a generous amount of solvent present. I mixed this for a long time, and it looked good after wiping off the excess. However, long after it had dried, the surface film appears to be reactive with my finger oils, creating an ugly, dirty/crusty appearance. Fortunately, this wiped off pretty easily with a Q-tip. After touchups of the white, I’ll have to experiment with the Tamiya grey and solvent that I have in my stash. And with the arm in-place: On the whole, I’m very happy with how this all turned out. I consider this surgery a success! Thank you all for looking-in.

I’ve had a look around Greg, and I can’t seem to find that box of castings. They may have been a revision casualty of our last move two years ago.

Gentlemen, thank you all for the likes and the kind comments. Kevin, I will say that all of the yellow ocher applied to this model really improved my steadiness because I thinned the paint enough to ensure no brush strokes, so everything had to be gone over 4-5 times for color saturation. After a while, you get really good at it. Per your request: Dan, if only I could make money on my talents. I am far too slow to make that a reality, though. I will be picking up a set of the alligator hands, though. They seem indispensable for the hobby.

Thank you, Bill. It is all just time spent. There is almost always some glue squeeze out. I always carefully scrape it away. Recently, in fact, a little CA crept under my masking tape and spoiled a bit of my ventre-de-biche color along the lower two decks of artillery. This really sucks when this area becomes blemished because it is very difficult to match the color and tone of the repair to the surrounding area. It came out okay. As for wavy lines - I have a steady hand. However, there have been countless rounds of re-touching, as my eye picks out various things that could be improved upon. All of it is just time. I have found that I literally get out of it what I put into it, effort-wise. I appreciate the thought, though.

After quite a loooong time, I have finally completed the channel and backstay deadeye chains. I still have a little black touch-up to do, but most of that is looking pretty ship-shape. I’m quite relieved to be past that. My sweet spot on this build has been modifying and manipulating the posture of the large figure carvings. I wanted to get back to doing a little of the work that excites me, and the figures of The Americas and Africa are the final pieces of the ornamental program that I have yet to complete. I have no choice, but to carve Africa from scratch, as Berain’s drawn figure is in such a radically different posture than the kit’s pose. I’ve roughed-out a blank in cherry, which is quite hard, but will hold fine detail in a small scale. Depending upon the quality of the finished carving, and whether or not I find it necessary to graft the plastic head onto the wooden body, I may simply apply Danish Oil to the carving as a call-out to the modification work that was done to the model. On the port side, though, for quite a while I’ve been mulling over the potential for adapting The Americas figure. After all, the kit sculpture is far superior to whatever I could muster from scratch. The main problem is that the stock figure is far too tall to fit within my reduced stern height. As a refresher: at the start of the project, I cut the top sheer-step away (1/4”), but replaced it by half with a low, long sheer cap-railing (1/8” +), and I lowered the side lantern boxes (1/4”), so that their tops were flush with the sheer-railing. This nets out to about 3/8” overall height reduction of the stern. That was how I could ensure that the field backdrop for the tafferal carving of Apollo more closely mirrored that of the Berain drawing. This was my main priority. The consequence of that choice, if I wanted to recycle the figure carvings, was that I would have to modify them in a way that brought them closer to scale. When I made the quarter gallery drawing, I drew Africa without regard for the position of the quarter pieces (the bust carvings that support the side lantern boxes). As for those busts, I merely reduced their length from the bottom. I should, perhaps, have decapitated them to shorten their necks, but I hadn’t thought far enough ahead to see how the figure carvings would relate to them. Here is the fit before modification. She’s practically making out with the quarter piece: My plan was to make a series of narrow-kerf cuts across the outside leg, the lower torso, upper torso and neck. The neck cut followed the re-assembly after the first three cuts because I needed something more substantial to hold onto, while making the neck cut. This worked far better than expected. You can see what amounts to an overall reduction in height of 3/16”. This may not seem like much, but it makes all the difference. Post-cut fit: Although her crown comes up and slightly obscures the face of the quarter bust, at least her face is now below that of the bust. I didn’t like how the inboard foot is just dangling in the air. A quick check of Berain indicates that the in-board foot should be swept out-board so that the pierced lattice of the archway is visible. Considering how much time and effort went into making those archways, I would very much prefer that the lattice work remain visible. With that in mind, I decided to section off the inboard leg, through the groin. By positioning the leg the way I want it, I can get a sense of the angles at play, and the void that needs to be filled. With 1/16” styrene fillers glued to each mating surface, I could then begin the process of fettling the joint, until I get that foot to rest where I want it to. The resulting re-join is highly imperfect seeming, but all of that extra plastic will be carved away and detail added back to provide the visual continuity that is so lacking, at the moment. After fairing: Now, I can fair her seating position along her under-carriage. There are only three tenuous connection points: the outboard ankle, her seat, and the inboard shoulder with the quarter piece. I decided to add a few steel pins - one to the ankle and one to her seat. I also want to pin through the inboard shoulder, into the quarter piece. The pin locations drilled: The one for her seat was really tedious to drill because the quarter piece and lantern box prevented me from using a pin vise. I had to trap the top of the micro bit with the fore-fingernail of my off-hand, apply pressure, and turn the bit with my other thumb and fore-finger. This was a real test of patience, and I managed to not break away the archway. For the shoulder pin, I’m using .035 styrene rod: You can see how I had to flatten the fore face of the shoulder and bicep, so that the figure would nestle-into the quarter piece. And, so, the un-modified figure before (I have an extra): And After: This figure now is in proportion with Europe and Asia, above, and matches the height of my Africa figure (not pictured). I will paint the figure and glue her ankle, seat, and shoulder. The shoulder pin has to be inserted after the figure is in-place, which is why I chose styrene for that pin; I can easily trim it, fair it, fill with putty and re-paint after installation. Thankfully, I realized that the angle of the arm needs to be modified a little, in order to wrap around the quarter piece. I will position the arm after the carving is secured, to ensure exact placement. You can’t, after all, maneuver the two steel pins into place, with the arm on because you need a little wiggle room to get around and up against the quarter piece. The figure will be grey-washed white like Europe and Asia, and I will probably do Citadel green wash for her skirt, with highlights of bright gold. I will soon get back to the rigging of the main deck guns. Thank you all for your likes, comments and continued interest. Best regards, Marc

I love the pictures you have of her more or less sitting on her waterline because they are so evocative of the famous Van de Velde portrait and the Boston Museum portrait.

The voyage continues!

Agreed!

I will take a look around and see what I can find. I’m not optimistic about what you are describing, in particular. Most of what I remember was strictly ornamental: figurehead, fleur-de-lis, the big stern carving, the main lantern, and some other stuff that I don’t remember. Castings/pressings of what I have may be better than whatever iteration of the kit you have now. I’ll look and keep you posted. In any case - if I can find it - you are welcome to it.

What castings are you in need of? A modeling friend, along the way, had acquired a set of castings for what I believe is the Corel kit. I know it is definitely La Couronne. He passed them to me, as he knows I love the French ships. I’m pretty sure I still have them somewhere. They were fairly substantial bronze castings. They’re yours for the asking, if I can find them.

This all looks incredible, Patrick!

Aaah, coaching - extremely rewarding, but time-consuming! I can relate to the fact that it is definitely very difficult to find energy and time when the season is on. Dolphins look truly awesome - nicely done! As for there being more connection to the dolphin belly, they were drawn to suggest open space, but for practical strength purposes, it does not seem unreasonable that there might have been complete connection, with the inner scroll carved as a raised relief.

Aaaah, Kevin - you are here, at last! I've been patiently waiting. I understand your methodical approach, and I don't expect you to make any quick in-roads on this one, but I am guaranteed of one thing: whatever you end up doing, it will be interesting and innovative. One thought springs to mind, and that relates to your comment about tumblehome of the upper bulwarks. The kit's aft bulwarks end up relatively vertical, and more slab-sided, as determined by the stock stern-plate. I found, however, that because I made the lower hull wider, I could pitch the aft bulwarks at a much more pleasing angle/degree of tumblehome. If you are already considering the possibility of printing a new stern plate to incorporate the stern round-up, then you have the opportunity to incorporate a more pleasing slope of tumblehome. There would also be the opportunity to re-scale to a six-window stern, as opposed to the stock 5-window stern, vis-a-vis the Tanneron model. What surprised me, by the time I reached the upper tier of stern lights, was that the width of my stern at the very top, was almost exactly that of the stock stern plate +/- 1/16". I mention the possibility of six windows because the two lower tiers of lights are more vertically in-line, and lay waste to additional space below. Really take a hard look at the stock stern plate, and you'll see what I mean. Heller simply followed Tanner, on this detail, but there is room to re-scale - even without widening the lower hull. Anyway, I will be watching with tremendous fascination at what I know will be excellent. Bon Voyage!

Your build is very clean, and the planking is exceptional. Kurt makes an excellent point about the representation of stem construction, but I think what you have done is much less jarring than some of what I've seen out there. I look forward to your continued progress.

Excellent process and results. I agree to err on the side of smaller.

Excellent problem-solving and technique, John. The chains look excellent. At this scale, one has to do their best to find something that works for them. Now, I could very well be mis-remembering this, but I believe all of those extra rings, interspersed between the chains and along the length of the ship, are there to assist the carpenters as they scale the sides of the ship plugging battle damage. As always, John, it is a pleasure to catch-up on your log. You always seem to have an innovative approach to vexing problems.

Aleksandr, the Royal Standard you have pictured above is your best guide.

Your dolphins are definitely trending in the right direction, Eric. That last one is really very good. While I had some carving skills going into my project, I had no small-scale carving experience. Whatever your medium, it just takes a little while to figure out what you are doing. These, I think, are simply the growing pains of this sort of project. Your efforts are quickly bearing fruit!

Michael, you have navigated the English (style of) Channel(s) with adroit, scale precision. BRAVO

Awesome!

I love it, Eric - looks really clean!

It’s a lot of work. Just continue to take your time, and it will all come out beautifully. Looks awesome, so far!

Admittedly, it would be quite awkward and difficult to repaint these details on-hull. It is probably best left as it is, which is plenty good enough. I’m sorry that I wasn’t thinking of that reality when I made the original comment.

That's a good friend!

My sense, Ferrus, is that you are a young person. It is inspiring to the future of the hobby that people like yourself are taking an interest. I've been paying attention to your builds, and your skills are, indeed, quickly improving. I think you are off to a great start with this Reale. Given the stated objective of the project - to produce a work worthy of sale - I would offer the following advice: you are correct that the filigree detail of those bulkheads could be a little bit better. They're not bad by any stretch of reality, but they could be even a little bit better. Please keep in mind that I am aware that MOST people would absolutely struggle to even approach what you have done, here. It is only because you have EXPRESSED that nagging thought, that I am encouraging you to act on it. When a young person, myself, this was a pretty gradual realization of what I had to do to achieve the results I wanted. I have never regretted whatever extra investment of time, thought and effort that I have put into any given project, though. My advice would be to scotch-bright away (the grey pads are great for this) most of the paint on these bulkheads and try again. On this model. On the next attempt at painting the bulkheads, maybe consider your brush selection. Buy a fine-pointed sable brush, and practice your dry-brushing techniques for the raised gold-work. It just looks to me as though your brush is a little too saturated, and that it's bleeding down into the ground.