Hubac's Historian

Firdajan - as need be, your process is highly organized and methodical. The artistic quality of your carved works is outstanding, and you have pulled-off the hardest trick of all with a build of the SOTS - the black, "negative" space behind the gilt work, balances the whole. 'Really great work!

That is very kind of you to say, Mark - much appreciated!

Makes sense - the deadeye lashings enable you to tighten the shrouds, as needed.

Have you given thought to leaving shields off of one side of the model, so that those sniper cutouts are visible?

That is really interesting how they are rigged with deadeyes on one side - well done!

It wasn’t always clear to me, at all, how you were going to round this all into form, Patrick, but man-oh-man have you gotten there! Your process has been unconventional, yet instructive. Fantastic work!

Nice save, there, Bill!

I do have both of those books in my library, Bill, although Marquardt is on-loan from a friend. Excellent references, both.

HAHA - so true Bill!

I think it was a good idea to pad up your sheer steps. I also think planking the inner bulwarks is a good idea, as your sanding away of detail appears to have made your bulwarks quite thin. The inner planking would provide an easy way to create the port lid rebates for those main and quarter deck square ports that are housed.

I have been absent for a good long time, but work does continue - albeit, at a snail’s pace. I have 99%, with the exception of the mizzen backstay stool that I have yet to make, completed the port side chains: With all the black touched up, and the thread links painted over with black acrylic, I am quite satisfied with the result: If you know to look for them, the knots on these long links can be found behind the deadeye strops, however, the theater convention of painting anything you don’t wish to draw attention to, flat-black, serves me well here. I could, perhaps, have extended the aft most backstay chain on the fore and main channels to the mid-way point of the adjacent gun port, but I am not going to change that now. The open port lid obscures these chains, anyway. A big thanks goes out to Eric Wiberg, who first sourced these plastic model-railroading round-headed bolts. They really worked perfectly in this application! Mizzen chains: I’ve begun the process of equipping the visible main deck carriages with their breaching ropes. I am using .6MM polyester line for these breaching ropes and .007 linen line for the seizings. I am aware that CA discolors polyester line, so I have secured the seizings with dilute Elmer’s white glue. I am taking a calculated risk that I can work around an earlier mistake without wasting all of the line and effort of making these seizings. Unfortunately, when I was detailing the inner bulwarks, I did not realize it was a mistake to glue-in the lower breaching rope eye-bolt. It is far easier to connect this eye bolt to your breaching rope split ring, off of the model, and then to glue the bolt to its bulwark location after the gun has been secured: So, the risk is that I can close these rings around the eye-bolts, often in tight spaces, without breaking anything or crushing the rings into an oval shape. This seemed to me a preferable approach to trying to break out the eye-bolts, which I recall being a snug fit: I will have to make a bunch of hooks and single/double block seizings for the haul-in tackles. I won’t, however, rig the haul-out tackles as I think they tend to make the decks look cluttered, and for the purposes of this diorama - SR making sail from Brest for Barfleur - I doubt these tackles would be rigged until just before engagement, as they present an encumbrance to sailors as they work the decks. I will soon paint the cannon barrels. Here, I’ve blacked-out the bores: I learned from the lower main deck guns not to paint the bronze and ver-de-gris wash until you are ready to mount in the carriages. The wash has an awful tendency to stick to itself. As always, thank you for your likes, comments and continued interest in this project. Little by little, we are getting there!

Pure model-making magic, Gary! Brilliant stuff.

Anytime!

So, the best explanation I can offer as to why only some of the main and quarter deck ports have lids is that, during this early time period, the French used ports on guns that were fully housed by a deck above. So, the main deck guns beneath the f’ocsle and quarter decks would have lids. The guns in the waist were fully open to the elements, and watershed would happen through the scuppers. Likewise, the aft two QD guns are housed beneath the poop deck. What you are seeing along the top sheer rails is not a solid wooden frieze carving, but instead a series of “fighting cloths.” The poop, QD and f’ocsle rails, in preparation for battle, were blanketed in these cloths which helped give at least some cover to the seamen on deck, from the fusillade fire of opposing marines. On this Monamy painting of SR, you can see these cloths in royal blue. They are adorned with painted-on Fleur de Lis: Beneath these cloths are the conventional timber head railings you typically see. I have considered modeling these cloths on one side of my model, but I’m not sure I could do so convincingly well. Those four openings above the lowest tier of the quarter gallery would be the windows one typically finds in the upper tiers of the quarter gallery. In the absence of an elaborately architectural amortisement, it appears that La Reyne simply had these windows, framed in ornamental ginger-bread, set amidst a frieze of fleurs that decorated all of the upper bulwarks, above the main deck guns.

I am here for all of this!

The minute scale of it all makes it super impressive.

I know Victor has “retired” from model-making, but I’ve a funny feeling he’ll find inspiration somewhere.

This is all master-class level work, Marsalv. I will try and remember to pick my jaw up from off the floor.

My thoughts, exactly.

I love your willingness to revisit and revise an earlier model, Schmidt. This is moving in a great new direction!

Really nice progress, Bill! I’ve had a lot to catch-up on. You were correct to paint the rubbing strakes black. This anchor lining would see plenty of hard use and was likely routinely re-painted. It is hard to tell from pictures, because the apparent sheen varies from one picture to the next, but I think a final coat of spray matte varnish would bring the sheen down in a pleasing way. That capstan makes little practical sense, where it is currently situated. What did they do on the replica?

Thank you, Marc. It is a reciprocal affair, as I never miss an opportunity to sing your praises. Your kindness, advice, and generosity of spirit have had so very much to do with this project pushing forward in the way that it has. Happy Fathers' Day to all!

This all looks exquisite and super tidy, Marc. I don't think paint can be done better, and the light shading of the ornamental works really brings out their details. I know you have done quite a lot to upgrade the kit, but the lines and overall basis of the Altaya design are really very good. She would be the envy of anyone's home fleet!

As for the carvings surrounding the top grenade, I see them as a continuation of the flames at the top of the grenade, with the addition of the lightning bolts. The impression these two elements give me is one of the kinetic potentiality of the grenades, and by extension - the ship herself. The laurel branches are a consistent element of French decor, of this period, symbolizing peace in the wake of Victory. The available space in the crowning of the amortisement essentially dictates the layout for these branches. I think that your interpretation of the structure of Berain’s quarter gallery drawing does a nice job of balancing the volumes of the QG around a central axis. With all of that established, I believe your version of the laurel branches can’t fail to find harmony with the rest of your work. The shell carving is really excellent!

I think you can shave down this sphere from its backside, incrementally, until it gives you that sense of high relief. Not quite to the mid-way point, but almost. As it is now, it is just a little to protuberant. It would be well, though, to maintain some small trace of the undercut, or “rounding” shadows.