Ondras71

Thanks for the like.
 
Catheads done..
 

 

 

 
Not everything went well, I had to create a new face ..
 

 
Almost half of the ornaments placed on the ship ..
 

 

 

 

 

 
I wonder if I will shade the faces. Features would stand out ..

Greetings and thank you!!!
 
The production of ornaments began ... My plan was to first try to sculpt the wood and, if that didn't work, to create the sculptures out of clay.
I started with wood and ....... it works.
 
Catheads foreheads first created. Here's the face.
 

 
And when it worked, I continued with the already prepared Chesstree posts..
 

 

 

 

Thank you. I already know that a ship from this period will not have many credible sources and images. But I enjoy the building!
 
So far, I've just waxed the balcony..
 

 

 

 

 
I prepared beams for catheads. I will be the first to make the most demanding. Faces on foreheads.. The first is rough. He starts to smile..
 

I know Waldemar, I too think it's an iconic model and I would not dare to deny anyone's right to duplicate it. I simply wanted to point out that if you want to draw conclusions or solve mysterious issues coming with it, it might be a better idea to work from a model with more authentic dimensions. No more. I recognize the joy of creating a model with an obvious character, keeping in mind the limits of its technical value. I wish you a lot of joy building. No better way to spend your available hours (and more).

Thanks, Ab for the clarification and the correct assessment of the matter. At this point, everything I do I'll do it serenely. I think I'll put a big block on the halfdeck for the main yard tie, instead of the knighthead, finding it more realistic: a knighthead is perhaps too much refined for the era and this kind of cargo; and a small capstan too, on the halfdeck: I've some dubts left, but it has sense, is choreographic and its realisation is a challenge in the challenge. In the end, I'll put even a windlass - beneath the halfdeck: having eliminated the pole of the knighthead I'have space enough.
 
Hello, Popeye! Nice to see you here! I prefer the scratch building, but I had only a little time so I bought a kit. Despite the quality of the manufacturer, I'm not satisfied (I'm a free spirit  and try to understand things before do them, whereas a kit can keep a modeller in chains, really) so I've been changing a lot ... till the point that ... if I had built the ship since the beginning using only the drawings , now I'd be much ahead wit my works.
 
Waldemar, this of ours is ... a sort of research! Not destined to become famous, nor referred to a important vessel but it can help us or others to satisfy their need of knowledge and make a better model!
 
Cheers, friends
Alex

Not that I want to discourage any of you, in your queeste for the truth, but seeing the Mataro model again I could not help remembering the study that was done in 2004 by the late professor Gerritsma, a famous shipbuilding scolar I had the honor to know. HIs aim was (amongst other purposes) to see how the Mataro model must have sailed and his conclusion was, that it could not sail at all. If the model had been a true depiction of a ship of its days this must have been the difference between it and the nearest possible shape that could sail:

 
I don't say this because I want to look like someone who thinks he knows things better than others, but the calculations of the professor seemed sound to me and once again I was confronted with the way we should look at ship models, especially old ones. The Mataro model seems to be a charicature of ships of the period. Having said that, you can ask yourself: if the real ships was as deformed as it is in the model, what truth can there be in its details? How can we try to give belaying points and deck furniture a place in the ship if all its dimensions are deformed.
That is the only answer I can give to all the questions Waldemar asked. The age of the Mataro model is one big question mark to me. It took me half a life-time  to understand a slice of 17th century Dutch shipbuilding and still I think I only scratched the surface.
A real good project would be to build the Mataro ship with the dimensions professor Gerritsma suggested and have a new look at all the items that are so hard to locate in a replica of the deformed model.
But who am I?

Thank you, John!
 
Short update; two fitted and two to go:

This has been a little bit of a guessing game.  I had to add significantly more new plastic to the bases of the two middle figures (Spring and Summer) because of the more pronounced arching back posture that the extra overhang of the balcony necessitated; I literally had to stretch these figures to their max.
 
Some careful filing of the base angles aligned the figures with the inboard pitch of the window pilasters.  After establishing the base angle/joint, it was necessary to add back some plastic to the top mounting surfaces, in order to make a good plastic to plastic bond.  I promise that painting of these figures will be interesting, and I will be taking cues from this portrait:

As is intrinsic to this kind of reverse-engineering kit-bash, it is impossible to truly capture the original; the figures obscure more of the windows than I would like, but this is an acceptable compromise.

 
I always appreciate your support, your likes, kind compliments, and even your criticisms.  Enjoy the weekend!

Painting continues.  Although the following pics don’t reflect it, all the yellow ocher is done and the walnut ink distress wash has been applied.  I’ve begun the gilt work, and am making my way around the gallery.
 
The purpose of these photos is to illustrate the middle balcony tier, supporting corbels. The middle three are stock kit parts.  The outer two were scratch-made because even the secondary kit corbels that are more shallow, in depth, still extended beyond my balcony edge; I had made a conscious decision to reduce the depth of my middle balcony because I knew there were limits to how far I could stretch the Four Seasons figures - more on them, in a moment.
 


Among the myriad tiny considerations is the fact that the corbels must align with the tilting angle towards the centerline, as delineated by the pilasters, but they must also account for the secondary angle introduced by the round-up.  These were very fiddly to fit.
 
As is my practice, I had masked-off strips on the underside of the balcony to ensure a welded styrene bond.  Naturally, this necessitated a certain amount of re-touching to the yellow.  The Vallejo paint I’m using is not model-specific, but from their artist’s line, instead.  It thins beautifully, but requires numerous passes to achieve good color saturation with a brush.  The paint also remains rather soft for a number of weeks after application.  For my tastes, these are worthwhile trade-offs for the ease of application and a smooth painted surface.
 
The middle gallery side bulwarks are rounding into form.  I made and fit the pilaster pieces, and carved the port side lattice:

Not surprisingly these pieces became significantly more stiff when I CA-glued the resin name badges.  I will have to heat-form these, before painting and installation, with a hairdryer so that they take the curve of the gallery without introducing stress.
 
As I did for the upper bulwark frieze, I cut hard shoulders and shallow reliefs to suggest an intertwining of the frieze banding:

This may seem hard, but it really is not and can be accomplished with nothing more than a #11 blade to cut the shoulders, and a narrow, curved blade to sneak in and cut the reliefs.
 
I was going to add resin scrolls around the name plate, but the flexibility issue, together with the fact that I’d have to relieve these resin scrolls too far into the nameplates, changed my course; I decided, instead, to simply model and define the scroll shapes surrounding the nameplates.  I still have yet to add the diamond flower ornaments to the Xs on either side of the nameplates.
 
By far, the most enjoyable phases of this project are those times when I discover an opportunity to re-incorporate stock parts of the kit to my new architecture.  Adding the bow extension pieces was the first formidable challenge of this kind.  The Four Seasons figures present a similarly challenging attempt at plastic surgery.
 
Tanneron most likely drew inspiration from this later drawing of what I believe is SR1693:

As such, there is a projecting lower stern balcony, and the Four Seasons figures have a more upright posture, in supporting the balcony above.  The Heller kit reflects this same architecture.
 
In closing-in this lower stern balcony, I have also brought it in, closer to the stern.  Consequently, if I want to use the stock figures, I realized I would have to alter their posture and lengthen them.  Starting with the outer two male figures of Winter and Autumn, where the overhang is less extreme, this is what I have done:

The magic entry for cutting these figures is through the back, just above the elbow, and stopping the cut before breaking through just above the hand.  This weird gold plastic is more brittle than the black stuff, and I snapped the first figure, Winter, just above the hand.  This was not a problem, though.
 
I then took a piece of 1/16” styrene strip, double-stuck it to the edge of a piece of scrapwood, and then filed a taper ranging from the thickness of the kerf (about a 1/32”) to the full 1/16”, at back.
 
I am always emboldened, in these surgeries, when I have a fall-back set of parts.  The difference in posture is slight, but it is just enough to help these side figures conform:

I then added a piece of 1/16” styrene to the bottom, so that I can simultaneously increase the height of the figures, as necessary, to meet the underside of the balcony, while simultaneously adjusting the outboard angle.  Here is how these two outboard figures took shape:


It may seem difficult, but modeling the new plastic to appear like a seamless continuation of the clothed figures really isn’t that hard:

The road map of where you need to cut in and continue lines is already there for you.  Also, draping clothing is fairly forgiving:

Autumn (right) really made out well, in the deal, with some additional bicep definition!  It makes me wonder how well my own living body might respond to a little styrene enhancement.  I haven’t been to the gym much, lately.
 
That is all well and good for the outer figures.  I will still need to add another 1/32” at bottom, and fettle the top joint to the balcony, but I should be able to fit these without much trouble.
 
The middle figures required a little more extreme hunching of their posture, because the balcony above steps out, away from the stern, by about an additional 1/16”.  It seemed reasonable to laminate two different thicknesses of styrene strip (1/16”&1/32”), for my torso wedge.  Here is how that is taking shape:

As can be seen next to the Autumn figure, now the arching of the female backs is notably more pronounced.  I will probably need to add some extra plastic to the top edge of the bouquet and model it so that it appears to cope neatly around the bottom moulded edge of the balcony above.  All of this may seem like a lot of fiddling about with these figures, but I can assure you that the investment in time is far less than making them from scratch.  Besides, Heller did too nice a job of modeling them to believe I could do any better on my own.
 
So, that’s where things stand as of today.  In the coming weeks, I will likely have to take a break from Soleil Royal, as my wife and I have made the difficult decision to move, yet again.  We barely got to know Brooklyn, and certainly the Pandemic robbed our neighborhood of much of its charm.  Nevertheless, an “affordable” 3-bedroom apartment is a unicorn worth chasing.  I will periodically still post updates as small work progresses.
 
As always, stay well, and thank you for stopping by.  

Impressive! Really well done and good research.
Hat off.
Ab

Thank you all for your kind compliments and for continuing to support the project.  I know I spend a lot of time on the minutia, but that is where I find the greatest satisfaction and continued investment in the project.  It is gratifying that such a good number of you enjoy that level of detail.  I may only be guessing a lot of the time, EJ, but I try and do things that make practical sense.
 
One such example is interior support for the quarter gallery rail.  Although, I do not see specific reference to this in Lemineur’s monograph for the SP - or anywhere else, for that matter - it only seems sensible that such a light construction would have additional support.  So, that is what I have endeavored to do:
 




 
A wooden ship is full of knees, buttressing and distributing loads.  The channels have knees.  The deck railings have knees.  The stern and quarter galleries are particularly vulnerable to rough and battering seas, so I think this makes sense.
 
There is the added advantage, of course, of having additional glue surface for the railing upright, and these supports will help the part conform to the gentle contour of the gallery.
 
I received my BSI de-bonder.  The bottle says that the product mars most plastics; perhaps not acetate, though.  I will experiment.  I will also soon be painting again, so that I can install all of these walk parts.
 
All the best,
 
Marc

Nice to hear from you Vic!  I’m glad you are still here 😀
 
I’ve been slowly working through the problems of this one, small, critical piece.  I’ve reached the transition from the lower hull to the upper bulwarks.  The railing of the open walk is that transition line, and the forward terminus of that railing has some tricky navigation to plot, in order to avoid interference with the aft-most main deck gun.  Here is the problematic rendering by Berain:
 

 
What I drew, in my revision drawing, doesn’t exactly match the reality of my build, and so, it became necessary to design on the fly.  This turned out to be one of the more complicated parts to work out its shape; it has to extend far enough aft to clear the gunport, but still fay forward into the hull with something of a sweeping arc, so that the cap rail doesn’t return to the hull at an awkward right angle, while also not encroaching on the port opening.
 
Here is the basic shape that I arrived at, complete with compound angles:
 

 
The material for this part is the off-cut of the return just below. This was handy because the compound angle was already approximately sawn, and it only took a little sanding to fair the surfaces:
 

 
It occurred to me that I would be better served to not try and let this part into the wales.  Instead, I faired a styrene filler that keys-in between the wales.
 
The awkward bit is the weird triangular flat that you see just aft of the forward rounding.  I was highly skeptical about how this would resolve, on the model, but I knew that there had to be a smooth continuous surface, on which to mount the carving.
 
In the end, the carving draws your eye, and the remainder of the lower port enhancement partially overshadows this weird triangle:
 

 
Ultimately, I will probably blacken the interspace between the hull and the carving, in a little bit of theater carpentry, aka Trompe Loiel.  A brief montage that shows how all the parts fit together:
 



 
The gap between the block and the upper bulwarks will be filled by the caprail.  Next, I will complete the starboard side block, and then I can begin designing the railing upright, itself.  After I make the starboard block, though, It may make more sense to focus on editing the Four Seasons figures, so that I can mask their mounting places and bring the paint fully up to the gallery level.  I am reminded of SJSoane, right now, and the order of operations problems that he is currently dealing with on his magnificent Bellona.  I will say that I am really happy that I resisted the temptation to mount the beakhead bulkhead, way back when.  If I had done so, I would have had tremendous difficulty painting as I go.
 
Thanks for the likes, your comments and for stopping by!
 
 
 
 
 

Nice to hear from you, Michael - thank you very much!
 
I present for you now, The Four Seasons:

 
I attempted to modulate their complexion to reflect their time of year.  I also wanted to incorporate silver gilt.  Winter is a natural fit for this treatment.  He has the same grey enamel wash coat that I used for the figurehead, and I then picked out the creases in his robe and his beard with silver.
 
I wanted, though, to experiment with silver gilt as a base-coat for red and green translucent washes.  I did a little experimenting:

I thought the middle selections were pleasing colors that allowed the silver to peak through.  The effect is similar to what you sometimes see with glass Christmas ornaments that are glazed with a metallic base color.  I like this well enough that I will incorporate this treatment selectively into the amortisement, as well as between the main deck guns where there are acanthus branches flanking each royal monogram escutcheon.
 
I am also painting the open-walk bulwark pieces, but these are particularly slow to cut-in, right down to the ground.
 
As always, thank you for stopping by.

Greetings and thank you!!!
 
The production of ornaments began ... My plan was to first try to sculpt the wood and, if that didn't work, to create the sculptures out of clay.
I started with wood and ....... it works.
 
Catheads foreheads first created. Here's the face.
 

 
And when it worked, I continued with the already prepared Chesstree posts..
 

 

 

 

Hello,
I'm not very busy these days, but I painted the hull with clear satin finish lacquer. The yellow is now a little deeper and brighter. The lacquer is't totally dry at the moment, and a little thicker as when fully dry, but you can see that I did't lost any detail. But now you see every fault in the planking, you have not seen before I painted the hull 🤔, but that is ok. 
 

 
And I'm doing my homework for painting the friezes. These friezes are 8 mm high, it is even with a pencil a challenge to draw. 😰 
 

Greetings and thank you!!!
 
The production of ornaments began ... My plan was to first try to sculpt the wood and, if that didn't work, to create the sculptures out of clay.
I started with wood and ....... it works.
 
Catheads foreheads first created. Here's the face.
 

 
And when it worked, I continued with the already prepared Chesstree posts..
 

 

 

 

Thank you. I already know that a ship from this period will not have many credible sources and images. But I enjoy the building!
 
So far, I've just waxed the balcony..
 

 

 

 

 
I prepared beams for catheads. I will be the first to make the most demanding. Faces on foreheads.. The first is rough. He starts to smile..
 

Greetings and thank you!!!
 
The production of ornaments began ... My plan was to first try to sculpt the wood and, if that didn't work, to create the sculptures out of clay.
I started with wood and ....... it works.
 
Catheads foreheads first created. Here's the face.
 

 
And when it worked, I continued with the already prepared Chesstree posts..
 

 

 

 

Good morning and thank you all, with these photos I finish with the decorations, personally it was a nice challenge, also because it was the first time I faced the decorations.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un saluto.

Hello and thank you all, I use a dentist's handpiece with very small burs.
More photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Unsaluto.

Good morning and thank you all, I continue with more photos of the decorations.
The wood used for all the sculptures is boxwood.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un saluto.

Hello and many thanks for your likes,
Noel, the crew is working in the hold and orlop deck. Thats why you did't saw them the last time 😉
 
But I was also busy today, because it rained outside. The last two fenders are build in. The painter has a lot of work the next days, painting the hull, before I could start painting the frieze.
 

 

Hello,
today I painted the hull. There are only some small things to repair the next days, where the paint run under the masking tape. But first the paint must entirely dry. 
 

 
 

Happy...

@Jorge Diaz O
Thank you very much for your positive comment. Also many thanks to all for the many LIKES.
 
In the meantime I have also finished the fore topmast shrouds (ø 0.67 mm). The diameter of the dead eyes is ø 3.1 mm. 

 

 

Here's a quick update: