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Hubac's Historian

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  1. Hubac's Historian
    I am thoroughly convinced that this silkspan method is the way to go. As long as you go to the effort of proper scale and silhouette - which you certainly did! - then, they read so much more naturally, at this scale, than cloth. These sails are really going to accentuate all of the other upgrades and modifications you made, Jonathan.
  2. Hubac's Historian
    It looks as great as I had hoped it would!
  3. Hubac's Historian
    Beautiful work, Siggi!
  4. Hubac's Historian
    Interesting. Thank you!
  5. Hubac's Historian
    It seems to me that you have the ventre-de-biche color just right, Oliver. What specific pigment are you using?
  6. Hubac's Historian
    Definitely still interested! I am happy that you and your family have found your way through COVID. This past year has been a DOOZY! The sails are really looking fantastic - I love all the detailing. The sail silhouette, up and down the mast, looks just right to me 👍
  7. Hubac's Historian
    I think what you are doing with what you have is both incredible and fascinating. I love the resourcefulness of your approach. You are off to a great start!
  8. Hubac's Historian
    Incredible work, Don - really nicely done!
  9. Hubac's Historian
    A very impressive video presentation, Mr. Budzik!
  10. Hubac's Historian
    Actually, T_C, I had not thought of that, but it sure makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the tip! And thank you, Mark, for your continued interest and support - I appreciate it very much.
  11. Hubac's Historian
    Thanks, EJ! So, here are a few pics of the bow area with everything re-touched and distressed, the beakhead doors in-place, etc: I realized that I shouldn’t glue-in the beakhead bulkhead until I have painted the lower transom because I will need to remove the model from its working base and flip it over, in order to access the underside of the stern counter. Just for fun, here’s what the built-up amortisement looks like in place: I also realized that I can’t paint the lower transom until I’ve made the lower section of the quarter galleries. I’ve held off on doing this for a long time, while I tried to figure out what exactly my approach would be. The greatest difficulty is in trying to ascertain what the volume and shape of the sub-structures should be. Ultimately, I decided that I would carve these sub-structures from apple solids, and use the pieces above to inform the shape of those below. For additional reference, I looked back on Drazen Caric’s excellent tutorial for the making of his QGs on the Provincien: The logical starting point of this process seemed to me to be the widest section of the QG - the middle-deck section, which is the functional level of the officer’s toilet. I know that the projection from the ship sides should be about four scale feet, or a 1/2”. As the above amortisement hints at, I wanted there to be a slight rounding of this level, at the middle, before tapering in towards the hull, at the foremost end. The pictures below are a pretty clear evolution of this shaping process: One thing worth mentioning, here, is that the projection of the false stern balcony is a bit exaggerated. This owes to the fact that I did not, initially, realize that there needs to be a shelf of sufficient depth to support the four seasons figures. Consequently, I had to graft-on an extension piece: Ideally, the end-shape of the counter should match the moulded shape of the sides. That won’t be the case with this build, but it does not appear too distracting on the model. Lesson learned! Now that I had established this shape, I could trace its bottom onto the top of the piece below it: Please bear in mind that positioning on this scrap hull is only approximate, as the hull was cut down, in order to make my hull longer. At this stage, I can begin applying all of the styrene pilasters, mouldings and ornaments that decorate these sub-structures. Once, they are fully sheathed in their paneling, I can use them to determine the outside dimension and overhang of the transitional mouldings between sections. I am wondering whether I should sand and seal the wood with something before using CA glue to attach the surface ornament. Or, would I be better off sanding, applying surface ornament and then sealing with poly, or something else? I’m just concerned about CA adhesion, here. Also, considering that these wooden surfaces will be painted, how fine a grit do I need to sand to. Is 220 sufficient? The wood grain is very fine. As always, any advice is welcome. Thanks for taking the time to visit! More to come...
  12. Hubac's Historian
    The past few weeks have been mostly about tying up loose ends. The bow area is nearly done with the paint re-touches. I also realized, recently, that the beakhead bulkhead should be equipped with doors, in order to prevent heavy seaways from swamping the middle gun deck. I got myself busy making a pair of those: I also spent quite a lot of time building up the port side amortisement: I took extra care to beef-up the portion of the crown that rises above the sheer rail: One can get a very good sense, here, of just how shallow the amortisement really is. The next detail I wanted to affix before priming the upper bulwarks are the quarter pieces that support the side lanterns. One peculiarity of the Heller kit, vis-a-vis the Tanneron model, is that the side-lantern support boxing rises above the sheer rail. This contributes, greatly, to the exaggerated height of the tafferal. For reference, here is that detail on my first SR: Note, the extreme difference in style between the kit QG and the 1689 version. This transformation has been the primary motivator of the entire project. I suspect that Tanneron took his cue for the lantern boxing from this later QG drawing for SR2, in 1693: The earlier drawing, though, shows the boxing below the rail: As a constructor of things, and considering just how massive the side lanterns actually were, it makes much more practical sense for the lantern boxings to mount solidly to the ship’s sides. There also exists a solid foundation of Van de Velde drawings to support this detail. Using Dan Pariser’s Photoshop collage as a reference, it seems more likely that this, in fact, is the arrangement that was intended to correspond with the stern drawing: Thinking back to the start of this project, this lowering of the side lanterns was how I decided to shorten the tafferal tableau for Apollo’s horse-driven chariot. As I do when the opportunity presents itself, I more deeply defined the acanthus detail of the quarter pieces, while cutting away the unnecessary lower portion: My hope had been that I would be able to re-cycle the kit figure of the Americas, for the port side, but she is scaled for the much taller tafferal, and she now looks too far out of scale. As I was going to have to carve Africa, anyway, it is best that the Americas be proportional. I have also begun making the lower section of the QG. Henry’s hull continues to be invaluable. Without being too delicate about it, I could grind away the wales in the QG area, so that I could closely fay each section to its location: There will be 1/16” styrene spacers between these sections that define their shape, while providing the moulded transitions. More to come! As always, thank you for the likes and for looking in.
  13. Hubac's Historian
    I submit that Revell’s Batavia was a nice recent addition to the cannon of plastic ship modeling; what’s moulded into the kit is good, and the model provides a solid foundation for upgrades. On the other hand, Revell’s Vasa doesn’t come close, IMO, to bettering the Airfix version. In response to the earlier question of gravers, I use the back of a #11 blade to engrave plank lines, after first taking a few light, marking passes with the sharp side of the blade. As Dafi mentions, a steel rule is essential for straight lines, but I have found that the curving plank lines of a deck can be scribed and engraved without a template guide. The trick is to make a series of shallow passes until your groove is sufficiently deep enough to track easily - then, you can make more aggressive scraping passes. If I go too far, I just nock it down a little with the 50-grit paper that I use to represent wood grain/structure. This is in 1:100 scale. Nailing patterns, admittedly, are probably taking it too far in anything smaller than 1:96. Engraving your own deck, though, affords you the opportunity to upgrade to a realistic butt-shift pattern, and to build better hatch coamings and deck furniture. These details are apparent under even mild scrutiny. Most of these details are not difficult to scratch from sheet and strip styrene, and they greatly enhance the pleasure of the build, IMO.
  14. Hubac's Historian
    What I’m thinking about, EJ, are these transitional pieces that ornament each step in the sheer railing:
  15. Hubac's Historian
    I have a question that is not related to this discussion - more a point of curiosity. This beautiful, old dockyard model of Bellona - even in its interior - appears heavily aged and distressed; much much more-so than your typical dockyard model. Was the distressing deliberate, on the part of the model-maker,do you think, or is the model’s appearance the natural by-product of vigorous handling, over the years? Either way it is curiously different from most other original models I have seen. Apart from that, Mark, nobody could ever accuse you (and Gary) of not doing your due diligence. Fantastic work, as always, and an interesting engineering conversation.
  16. Hubac's Historian
    I appreciate the thought, T_C. When I first painted the ship sides, I worked in manageable sections (3-4 port openings), and I only left the oil on the surface for five minutes, before wiping off the excess. This go ‘round, I left the oil on for significantly longer - about 15 minutes - but the contrast was still high after cleaning away the oil, in the darker areas, with spirits. Fortunately, what I proposed seems to have worked pretty well. It will certainly be good enough in this area which is overshadowed by the headrails, anyway. A shot of the stippled effect before blending: Then after blending: Tonight, I’ll resume the yellow ocher. I’ve also been affixing the port side amortisement. I cut through for the octagonal ports and the one real window - the oval of the Admiral’s quarters. This would be moving faster, but I am too nervous about traveling with the upper bulwarks. There is too much time invested to risk damaging them in-transit. In the daytime, I’ve been doing more tedious tasks like cleaning up the kevels. I spent a good bit of time re-reading Henry’s log, today, as I consider how I will run all of my tacks and sheets.
  17. Hubac's Historian
    Hello, Kevin! Your approach to this kit, and your engineering work-arounds are fascinating. I appreciate your commitment and will follow the project with great interest. You are making a fabulous job of it, so far! All the best, Marc
  18. Hubac's Historian
    Take your time, Man - she’s coming along beautifully! I’m wondering whether the kit provides fittings for the transitional hance pieces that foot each step in the sheer. I’m not sure if I’m using the correct terminology, here.
  19. Hubac's Historian
    It has been a slow week of mixed results and some small progress. Painting-in of the head timbers was going well enough. Unfortunately, I over-estimated the blending capability of Van Dyke Brown oil paint to conceal the color-fills I made to the ventre-de-biche of the deadworks. I thought I was being careful to feather-in the new color, yet because of the contrast of the original weathering, I still ended up with a clear line of demarcation: This was after two applications of oil and wiping off the excess. Part of the problem is that the original weathering is sealed under a clear top-coat, so I can no longer lighten or manipulate it. I can only go selectively darker. Toward that end, last night I began applying heavily thinned wash-coats of the oil paint, and have succeeded in eliminating the strong contrast. I didn’t take additional pictures, but the appearance is much improved. At the moment, though, the color appears a bit mottled, as I was applying the color with light dappling touches, over and over again; a brushing motion only “washes” away the color you put down on the previous layer. I then charged the chip-brush I’ve been using with un-diluted oil paint, and left that to semi-cure overnight. My hope is that, this evening, the wash-coats I applied will be sufficiently durable that I can take light sweeping passes with the charged chip-brush to smooth the tone and blend back smoothly into the ship sides. We shall see. In preparation for building up the amortisement on the upper bulwarks, I coped together all of the individual parts, and this helped me feel better about the paint problem. Thank you for looking in, and enjoy your weekend!
  20. Hubac's Historian
    Thank you, Mark and Jan! Yes, T_C, the forward wing will be inset into the frieze - eliminating a shell - the afterwing, though, lands directly over the aft octagonal port. I will pare that wing away.
  21. Hubac's Historian
    So, the upper finishing of the amortisement has been straight-forward but surprisingly labor intensive. This particular photo of Tanneron’s damaged model of L’Agreable is so instructive because it provides so much information about the fabric of his construction, as well as the shaping cues for the upper finishing of the amortisement: My ambition, always, is to attempt to capture some sense of the magic that makes Tanneron’s models so impressive. Toward that end, it’s a process of layering details with all of the care of execution that one can muster. As has been my method, the upper finishing is made up of a series of laminations: a base layer of 1/32”, a middle 1/16” layer, and a top layer of 1/32”. I toyed with the idea of using Bondo fills to fair panel recesses at a continuous depth. I did not think the Bondo would adhere well enough to the plastic to withstand the slight flex of fixing the part in place. Conventional model putty would be too brittle. In the end, I decided that the 1/16” layer was deep enough to create a sense of shape without having to go through undue effort for minimal gain. I think it worked out pretty well. A montage: Given my struggles to carve good faces, I decided to extract Louis’s radiant head from the same place on the kit’s stock quarter galleries. I wasn’t sure, early on, just how much space I would have left-over, after the bellflower garlands were in place, so I left the heads oversized for the time-being. You can see the subtle shaping of the 1/16” layer, above, as well as the slight rounding of the final window framing. The garland and cornice were a separate 1/16” layer. Just as they are, above, they would be fine, if I decided to stop there. Attention to detail is everything, though, so I took the shaping a little further: The garland diminishes, in depth, as it rises to the cornice, and the cornice, itself, is now tapered in a gentle arc from its center to its ends; this small detail helps to accentuate the convex shape of the windowed center, below. I coved the inner surface of the cornice, modeled the bellflower garlands, and then I gave Louis a haircut. I was able to incorporate just enough of the fanning rays of light, beneath his head, to satisfy the original design: The first layer creates the recess I need to capture the acetate window: I made up the acetate panes, yesterday, but botched the engraving on one, and will have to remake that. So, now that I have all of the elements of the amortisement, it was time to see how this was all going to map out on the upper bulwarks. The whole layout hinges on exact placement of the canopy section. Although the uneven underlying ornament makes it difficult to place these pieces, and the parts have yet to be faired to each other - this placement should enable me to salvage my aft octagonal port: I will have to drop a wing from the forward pixie, but I am now confident that I will be able to make this work. With my kids back in school, and the uptick in their activities, I have found that I am not sufficiently alert, in the evenings, to do good paint work. All of the putty fills at the bow are nicely faired and I brush-primed all of the raw plastic, but I just haven’t felt like I could give it the focus it requires. Opportunity will present itself in the coming days, though. As ever, thank you for the likes and for looking in!
  22. Hubac's Historian
    Just beautiful, clean framing work, Gary!
  23. Hubac's Historian
    I love all that you are doing here, Gary! Your ship is incredible, and your insight, here, and on related logs is very interesting. Personally, I think you really exemplify what the NRG is really about. Awesome stuff!
  24. Hubac's Historian
    Alright, so I’m pretty psyched with how this all came together: Before glueing on the top and bottom moulding plates, I faired the canopy to the curvature of the upper bulwarks. Now I can simply sand the plates down to match. For this profile scraper, I decided that attempting to scrape the full reverse curve was likely to chatter and dig into the plastic - particularly, along the bottom return. So, I simply ground the top portion of the reverse curve, and then rounded the underside by hand. Now, I can move-on to the upper finishing of the amortisement. That should be a fun little bit of trompe-l’oeil, as I attempt to create a sense of depth in what is now a very shallow platform.
  25. Hubac's Historian
    Thank you very much, Victor and EJ! This next level of the amortisement is fun to make because, while it seems simple, it is actually a pretty complex form. Without having drawn a top plan view, I have to wing-it, a little, when it comes to establishing depth and taper. The first step was to make up a styrene billet. The canopy is 1/4” in height, between the top and bottom mouldings. I made my billet stock a little wider, in order to file in the top and bottom taper necessitated by the tumblehome of the ship’s sides (see pic below). Once I had billet stock, I could lay out all of the paneling and the outer parameters of the canopy: The tricky thing about this aspect of the project is that there does need to be some depth to the canopy - which will be further overhung by the top and bottom mouldings - because the upper-most section of the amortisement has at least some depth, at its center, which tapers out to the sides (where they abut the pixies). Considering that, the canopy must also diminish, slightly, in depth, from top to bottom. And, on top of all of that - there are a series of reverse curves that define the bombastic form of the canopy. In layout, and looking at it from the top view, that all looks like this (excepting for the reverse curves, at the ends, which I did not draw-in): With the layout pencilled-in, top and bottom, and on the outer face, I could then make a series of shoulder cuts, with a fine back saw. After hogging out the bulk of waste, at the ends, this is what that looks like: Once all of the shoulders were neatly defined, I could set-to shaping the subtly curves ends and middle: The end scallops are set-down about 1/32” lower than their adjacent short flats, so that when I apply the panel framing details, in the next step, there will remain a stepped demarcation between the ends and middle section. As I had hoped, the second Xs moulding came out much more cleanly than the first. These decorations are springy enough to accommodate the tapering surface, without appearing to become distorted. Once, I have the port-side canopy made and both canopies paneled, I can use them to pattern the exact top and bottom overhang of the mouldings. More to follow...

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