Hubac's Historian

Ultimately, I decided to make cap-squares for all of the main deck guns. With black construction paper and CA applied with a sharpened tooth pick, the process was relatively straight-forward, if a little time-consuming. I used my new bent-nose tweezers to massage the paper into the glue, and to snug into the trunnions. The glue wicks into the paper and polymerizes it. Truly, paper is an underrated modeling material. The added benefit is that the black construction paper has some tooth to it that approximates the scale appearance of wrought iron. In other words - it’s not a very fine surfaced paper. I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t bother me at all that I did not really address the raised trunnion mounting blocks on the carriage cheeks. Naturally, with this much scraping of glue and general handling, there is going to be a round or two of paint touch-ups. At first, I was going to re-touch the red around these silly trunnion blocks. I had a eureka moment, though, and realized that I could paint those blocks black and they would blend into the cap-squares. I experimented on the less visible guns, and liked what I saw (guns, right): This may be a slight exaggeration of the scale of the cap-square irons, but at best - the carriages are mostly viewed from above. What you will see is a straight red line delineating the top of the carriage cheeks. I decided not to paint the paper cap-squares, themselves, because I did not want to lose that wonderful texture: All-in-all, I think this turned out to be a fairly elegant work-around to a lot of extra work that I wasn’t interested in doing. Next step: mount and rig the guns. As ever - thank you for your continued interest.

All of the extra tabbing along the interior joint will serve you well. I like your idea to thin the ApoxieSculpt and massage it into the joints. Just thinking ahead, you may have the opportunity to raise your waterline up to maybe mid-way of the lowest wale. The waterline should be 4.5 - 5’ scale feet below the lowest gun port, which works out to 9/16” - 5/8” in 1:96. This will be an easy enough thing to pencil onto the hull after the hull-halves have been glued together.

Kevin - would not most of Victory’s guns have been iron?

Today, my son is home, sick, and so I stayed home with him. This will afford me a few hours to assemble guns, while otherwise enjoying a lazy afternoon. Painting of the barrels came out well. The Citadel ver-de-gris wash is a little tricky to use. Unless you are depicting the centuries-old guns currently on display at the Palais des Invalides, then you are going to want to dilute the wash-coat. I like to use a medicine dropper to do this because it is easier to keep track of ratios that are repeatable. I think I ended up at a 50/50 mix, cut with common tap water. Despite thinning, the wash coat does dry almost immediately, and it is almost impossible to avoid lap lines with a brush. I do think a bristle brush is the best applicator - as opposed to an airbrush - because you can draw color into and out of crevasses, thus modulating the effect. After everything has dried, I use a Q-tip, covered with a t-shirt scrap to burnish each barrel, and minimize the lap-lines. Particularly stubborn laps can be further softened with a well-worn SOFT toothbrush. In the light of day, this degree of oxidation looks about right to my eye: As for assembling, I have a small, round needle file that I use to clear paint from the trunnion blocks. I scrape paint away from the undersurface of the trunnions, as well as the quoin and the cascabel rim, where these two surfaces meet. I will add cap-squares, at least to the fully visible carriages. If the process is not too tedious, I will do so for the rest of the main deck guns; it’s just a little extra bond-insurance to safeguard against guns breaking free of their carriages. So, little by little. Catch as catch can. We are getting there! Thank you for stopping by.

In addition to the audaciousness of the build-concept, what I love about watching this all unfold is your personal journey of discovery into scratch-work. Any heavily scratched project, considered in its whole, seems absolutely daunting. In reality, though, it’s just a long series of mini-builds that aggregate into the finished thing. All it takes are patience, time, and commitment to an ideal of the finished project. You have all of those qualities in spades, Eric.

Huge help, Dan! The problem with rigging is precisely that there aren’t any substantive modeling technique books out there, so one finds themselves in a vast grey area of looking through better build logs along with their own experimentation. In his books, Philip Reed details some of his rigging technique, but owing to small scales, that is often accomplished with wire. As you said the other night - most of what a really good model requires isn’t complicated, but it is helpful to understand the best simplifications for the sake of whatever scale you are working in. You have my vote, Dan; by all means, please write that book!

For this model, I will buy my rope. The prospect of making all the rope this project will require, in all the many sizes does not interest me.

In response to reading through my travails of researching and learning basic rigging techniques, Dan Pariser offered to give me a first-hand tech session of the various tools, materials and techniques that he employs in his own professional work. As is always the case, this was time well-spent. Immediate takeaways: - The helping hands vise with a retro-fitted hardware store spring for tension is an absolute game changer. Intuitively, this is common-sense, but actually using the device makes it crystal-clear how medieval my previous efforts really were. Welcome to the enlightenment! - Speaking of which, a simple magnifying visor really helps to ease eye-strain - particularly for fools like me who are still stubbornly resisting the very real need for transition lenses. - Buying a box of small CA gel tubes is a wise investment. - Along those lines - small disposable paper cups, like the ones you would use to stock a water cooler, are the perfect elevated platform for you to place a dollop of your gel CA. I had been using small squares of tin foil, but it’s easy to lose sight of the glue spot and/or stick the foil to your hand when you aren’t paying strict attention. - One really should accustom themselves to using bent-nose tweezers for their rigging processes. Self-evident, I know, but I have a tendency to make due with whatever I have laying about. I am usually working way too hard. - Common, round tooth picks are the perfect CA applicators. So, Dan showed me a variety of approaches to stropping a block, either with or without hooks. What was especially fascinating was the interplay between polished line (free of whiskers) and either embroidery thread or fly-tying line for seizings. Embroidery thread, because it has a lay, will grab onto the polished line, while fly-tying line is more prone to slipping. This can make it difficult to advance the seizing. To counteract this, when using fly-tying line, one might begin the seizing with a Lark’s Head knot, and then reversing both leads in the counter-direction, in order to cinch the knot tight: https://howdidyoumakethis.com/larks-head-knot/ Another important take-away was to begin the seizing at the distance away from the block that you wish the seizing’s length to be. With each successive wrap, the seizing grows tighter as it nears the block. Lastly, a perfectly serviceable and long-lived serving machine can be made for a mere hardware store pittance: As soon as I got home, I now found it incredibly easy to make hook strops for my 2mm double blocks: Right now, I’m in the process of painting all of the main deck guns. Their bores have been blacked-out. I have learned from my earlier experience with the lower main deck guns to always keep the gun barrels separate from each other during the painting process. This is especially true for the next step, which is the Citadel ver-de-gris wash. I’ll have a bit of a tedious touch-up process for those lower deck guns, much later in the build. The cascabels are still white, here, because I am using that end to hold the barrel while I brush on the Citadel dark bronze. I haven’t tried to airbrush this paint, but I suspect that the metallic flake would make it a poor candidate for air-brushing. Once painted, I’ll join the barrels to their carriages. I’ll add cap-squares with CA and strips of black construction paper. Then, I’ll glue the guns down and attach the breaching ropes and tackles. Dan showed me quite a bit more about knotting techniques and other rigging tips, but I will discuss those things as the build necessitates them. Thank you so much, Dan! And thank you all for looking-in!

I don’t think I have ever seen anything quite like this. It’s like a fine rasp, but with an adhered abrasive?

I’m a little confused: carbide abrasive coated paper, or carbide abrasive coated metal? Forgive me if that is a foolish question.

Yes, because this early period in the development of the French navy - before the widespread use of plans - interests me so much, I am constantly searching for contemporary portraits that give an overall sense of line, proportion and decor.

Alex, your log is wholly unique to the site and a pleasure to read, with marvelous works that both inspire and amaze. It is really fascinating to see the progression of your carving skills, through your earlier vessels like L’Ambiteaux, Le Francoise, etc. The detail has always been there, but there is now a lightness and animated quality to the work that is really extraordinary. It’s such a vague and indeterminant quality to describe or quantify, but you have certainly achieved it. Here would be a fun, never before modeled winged project; Puget’s exuberantly ornamented Le Paris of 1668 (later renamed and redecorated as La Royal Therese): And as the Royal Therese:

Very cool tip, Siggi!

Mark - beautiful progress, as always. I like your approach to constructing the quarters. You are so good at getting the complex geometry right. As you work your way up the quarters, you might find some useful ideas in Siggi’s Tiger build, beginning with post #1003, page 34. Like you, Siggi is brilliant with the smallest details:

Thank you all for your likes and kind comments. As was the case with the chains, I’ve been experimenting and taking my first baby steps with rigging techniques. Specifically, I’ve been learning to strop 2mm single blocks for my main deck haul-out tackles. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I will not use scale rope for these, as the line gauge is fine enough to get away with much cheaper thread, of which I have an abundant supply. Abundance is what I have needed, here, because I have tried a number of different approaches to both minimize any space between the hook and block, while also stropping the block in a neat and tidy fashion. I was really struggling on that front. And, that’s when I decided to consult with two of my favorite plastics builders: Michael D and Daniel Fischer. Both are outstanding at creating very correct looking rig, using ingenious technique in relatively small scales. I need 24 of these single block tackles for the visible guns that will be rigged. I had made 9 that were variously unsatisfactory. Dan’s Victory log is particularly illustrative of small things I could do to achieve better results. Initially, I was using two overhand knots (alternating from one side to the other), with the finest linen thread I posses, in order to strop the hooks. With a spot of CA, and the help of a simple pin jig to hold the block, I’d center the hook on the block and smooth the line into the groove until the CA set. Then, I’d use the same linen thread and an alternating overhand knot technique to seize below the block. A spot of CA seals the seizing and I nip the excess clean. This was my best result using this technique: It’s okay, but I wasn’t really happy with it. From Daniel, I realized I could secure the hook with one overhand knot and then secure at the top of the block, as before. Now, while Dan often employs the alternating knot technique for simple seizings, he often uses fly-tying thread which, I am given to understand, flattens out as you wrap it. Dan’s simple seizings look great, and I think the flattening aspect of this type of line is the key. So with those tips in mind, I tried again. Using a binder clip to keep the strop ends taught, I found that I could do a single overhand knot close to the block, followed by six conventional wraps to get a seizing that looked proportional: Now, I will be buying a set of alligator hands, as Dan Pariser previously suggested. I will also pick up some fly-tying line to experiment with. For the time being, though, this is both manageable and repeatable. Here is a side by side comparison: Now that I have an approach that I like, I dipped all of the previous tackles in acetone, so that I could salvage my blocks and hooks: Any remaining glue residue brushes away with an old tooth brush. Well, it isn’t much, but it is progress of a sort and I feel good about it. Thank you all for looking in!

As good and better, in fact, than full-size practice.

Daniel posted this link in his Victory log of the Texel Roads diorama. Many wonderfully detailed photos of ships being worked. What is very evident to me are the design parallels between these early Dutch ships of the 1660’s and their French counterparts, often designed by naval architects with Dutch training backgrounds, like Laurent Hubac: https://www.modellmarine.de/index.php/fotogalerien/178-/1624-die-reede-von-texel-teil-2 The head structure, the pronounced tumblehome, steep sheer, broad sterns - it is all there. The draft and underwater lines would of course be different, in order to navigate the more shallow Dutch coastal waterways.

Hi Bill - what Shipaholic has shown, here, is essentially what I was talking about, it’s just set-up above the foredeck. I would go with that

What you have done to raise the steve and create the appearance of piercing the fore deck looks more plausible than a butt-ended bowsprit nestled between the fore bitts. The end of a bowsprit, in actual practice for sea-going ships, usually had a square tenon that keys into a heavy balk of timber (itself, secured between the lower legs of the fore bitts), before the foremast. With your present arrangement, I can at least believe something like that is happening below deck.

The pictures Ian posted appear to be of a second steel-hull replica. Various aspects of this design appear to be simplified. The wooden replica, I believe, is more authentically constructed from the original plans. I am having trouble finding good pics of this replica’s fore deck, but maybe you can find some answers here:

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