Nek0

Hello Peter, thank you for your message. I don’t know who made the kit, the back of the first issue only said « in collaboration with Project MC » but I didn’t found anything on them on the internet. Unfortunately the kit doesn’t sell anymore, so I think the only way to get one would be finding one on eBay… Vic, thanks for your message, cheers !!

I asked on the Gérard Delacroix forum, maybe he or anyone else will have a good answer.

Maybe not an error, quite surprising -and I hadn't payed attention before- but if you look at the Berain drawing it may be a walkable balcony. (that's what Berain drawn, but it's strange for a 1691 ship). I was used to Boudriot Monograph and Frölich/Zakimor models that have closed balcony and never noticed the Berain drawing on this point.

I didn’t saw this question. It’s a good one and it’s an error from the kit, you’re absolutely right. Maybe I will try to correct it if it’s simple enough, but that’s not sure. I have not decided yet, I will see when I’m there. 🙂

Thanks Marc ! Yes it will have a final planking with walnut (not the sapelli provided by Altaya) and it will absolutely not be accurate at all under the waterline. Everything will be painted so I will go the easy way. (But the positioning of the wales and the planking between them will be correct) 🙂

And after the fastidious step of sanding, the hull is correct and shows nice volumes. I used the parts provided for the bow, the keel and the sternpost, they fitted perfectly.

For the planking of the hull I managed to do it very quickly (three or four days) so it's far from perfect but it's sufficient since it will not show at the end.

Concerning the guns, Altaya provided guns to prick and I really dislike this solution. So I had to enlarge the guns with brass cylinder, make them mini carriages, and modify the inner structure of the frame. I also had to drill the guns. It was made very quick but I'm happy with the result, it's not great but clean enough for what I want. The bronze guns were painted the same way I did for the Soleil Royal.

Then comes the planking of the decks, with sycomore wood. At first I draw on the deck frame and then glue the planking, with some pencil on the sides to simulate the caulking. Finally I plant the nails (brass wire) according to the monograph. The doors were painted red, and two pieces of wood were added to fit the curvature of the deck. Altaya didn't made any inner planking, but I did. The first lath of wood next to the deck is wider. I made some final tries of golden paint but I wasn't still happy with them so here is the color I chose for the decoration.

Thanks Marc ! Yes I'm 100% back in the game ind it feels great ! Nothing very special about the begining of the build. The frame assemble very well, the keel is straight. Then I made custom planking of the front with custom doors, I couldn't go with the kit ones. They were not ugly but a bit oversized. I also remade the duckboards, according to the scale (and the monograph). Altaya's effort was not that bad, they had the good number of elements and the good size, but the stitch was too large.

Here is what the finished model should look like, and the first parts. I'm really pleased by the castings and the guns. Compared to the monstruous guns they made for their Soleil Royal, it's night and day. The rear metal piece even has a curvature. The scale say 1/59 on the first booklet cover, and 1/74 inside the booklet. If you compare to the 1/72 scale plan of the monograph of Boudriot you can see that it's strictly the same. Other parts are also compliant to the monograph. I tried a golden painting for the decoration but was not very satisfied with it. Ultimately it will be Napoli yellow.

Hi everyone ! Parallel to my Soleil Royal, I'm working on a kit of L'Ambitieux, a ship of the line built in 1691. Altaya did some monstruous kits before this one but I had to admit when I discovered the first parts of their Ambitieux that they were of very high quality. I know this ship quite well because I used the monograph of Jean Boudriot of the same name to help myself draw the plans of my Soleil Royal. Though, Jean Boudriot did something strange for his monograph. He took a original drawing of a 3 deck ship of the line of 1680 by Blaise Pangalo (the plan doesn't show any decoration except for the figurehead that is a lion), and he added the decoration of the "real" Ambitieux (from which we have the drawing of the decorations but not the plans of the hull) except for the lion of Pangalo that he kept. He also named his monograph "L'Ambitieux" because he thought it was an ambitious project. Quite confusing. Altaya was well inspired and they kept the figurehead of the real Ambitieux, and provided some really good castings for the metal parts (guns, decoration). I never saw such good work on a kit, and if you add that I was immerged in the monograph of J.Boudriot since a few years at this time, that the real Ambitieux fought the battle of Barfleur/La Hougue next to the Soleil Royal in 1692 (Tourville even went on the Ambitieux after the Soleil Royal suffered too much damage to continue), and the kit is the same scale than my SR, it was enough to convince myself to have a try at this project. Of course this is a kit and in no way it will look like an arsenal model. It will remain a kit, and will be a recreative, simple, funny project when the SR is very demanding and very laborious. First, here are the drawing of the real Ambitieux by Jean Berain.

No, it's made from the Altaya/DeAgostini kit which is very good. I will open a thread to show what I'm doing with it.

Neko fits me well I'm currently working on L'Ambitieux, which is a recreative project, and I try to go fast. I see that my mindset has changed the last few years because now I manage to be quite quick on this one ! It's exactly what you said, being able to build at 180 on the metronome (in sixteenth notes) but ending up with a good looking result. It's my new goal ! (for the Soleil Royal I'm afraid I will continue to be as slow and obsessive than before but at least I can work agin regularly !)

Your work is very impressive Vic', and what a quick build !! I should learn from you ! 😄

Very interesting way to deal with the brackets ! I will study on this.

I see what you mean. I have the same history than you with this ship since the first time I saw the Heller kit when I was a kid, and I'm attracted to it ever since. And curiously I was born on the 23 may, when vice-admiral Tourville died... on 23 may. Just a coincidence of course, but I like this wink of the fate.

CRI removed his message (one of the things he's known for). So, to make it clear for everyone, he wrote "this is my last message about this topic", and I replied: Thanks ! 👍🏻

Hello Bill, of course I can have this discussion with you, I just don't want to have it again with someone with who we already debated multiple times with no mutual understanding. First, yes even at sea side, bronze guns become green. Let's see some pictures of the gun of the Croisic, (from the Soleil Royal). Some old ones show a strong vert-de-gris patina. Recently it has been cleaned and polished and covered with a sort of protective sealer and even though, you can see the green color begins to show. (personnal pictures). All the pictures of bronze guns outside that undergo the weather show more or less / dark or light green color. I just picked the ones I preferred for a reference, not too strong because they had not passed 300 years under the sea, but not bright new. It's a personnal choice. My personnal choice is also motivated by the fact that the guns with no patina were not homogeneous from one to another (some very dark, others rather bright), and very tawdry. I prefer the look of the green patina, I find it marry well with the color of the wood, and especially, it makes me give them a personnal touch, a personnal work to make them really mine. (I didn't cast them, so I felt I had to do something personnal with them) From a historic point of view, at this time it was a prestigious mark for a ship to have bronze guns, when lesser ships had iron guns. The iron guns had no decoration and indeed were painted black to protect them from corrosion. Contrary, bronze guns were not painted and were not rub because the green color was something wanted. The only reason to rub a deck is to make it stable and non slippering. Concerning the vert-de-gris on bronze, it has a protective effect (non corrosion) and was not removed. In a book "Tourville en son temps", by Jean de La Varende you can read: "douze hommes par tube de bronze aux affuts rouges, des pieces admirables, toutes de bronze vert avec les anses en forme de dauphin, les armoiries et la devise ULTIMA RATIO REGUM." And also: "il n'était pas dans les usages de les fourbir pour faire disparaître l'oxydation". Hope it helps !

We had this discussion a thousand times, I already explained why I think a vert-de-gris patina is indicated for me, as a personal choice, but also for a model in general. i don’t want to have this conversation again. 🙂

Hello ! Hello Vic, the guns are juste laid on the sill of the gunports, in place just for the picture, I have since removed them Concerning the guns, I thought it might interest some of you to know how I painted them. I was inspired by the guns in front of the Strasbourg mess, as well as those that can be seen in museums. I found their patina was very elegant, not too marked, and highlighting the decorations. The difficulty is mainly related to the scale; at 1/72 the painting, even well diluted, does not behave as at 1/48 or larger scales, especially on reliefs as small as the ones on the bronze guns. So I included a picture of the guns as received, already passed through the burnisher by Alexey. Pretty but a little flashy and not homogeneous from one to the other, going from very dark to quite light. After going through the burnisher to have a very dark working base, I apply a coat of green (house mix) with an airbrush to give the dark bronze color. The airbrush makes it possible to have a very fine layer of paint which does not thicken the reliefs of the decorations. We get a very matte result. I then apply a thin coat of protective oil for metals which will protect the base during subsequent operations. The verdigris patina is then done with Citadel's "nihilakh oxide" paint. It has the consistency of a wash, and after passing it sparingly I wipe it away, leaving it only in the hollows. The final step is to rub the barrels with the shine brush of a Dremel, which will smooth the paint a little and restore the metallic aspect to the tube. It's quite difficult to take a picture of this. I tried with different lights. the last picture is "burnt" but the color of green is the closest to what we see in real life. That's all !

Got it, I was sure it had something to do with the photographs. The matte sealer is a very good idea indeed.

Hello Marc, I love the way things are turning, and your work is very impressive considering how small the model is. (1/100) However, there is just one thing that bugs me a little. The color scheme is your choice and there is no way I want to discuss it but I find they are maybe a little too bright, or, I mean, saturated... You used the "real" 1/1 colors to paint your model, but when you look at an object from a distance, the colors are faded, due to the density of the air. So, when you look at a model, the colors should be faded. Usually it doesn't make a big difference because thre are only a few colors, and the models are often 1/48. But with so many colors and a small scale, there may be an interest to desaturate a little. It's hard to tell because certainly the colors of the pictures on our screens are not what you see with your own eyes.

Your interpretation is brilliant... !

The painting of the guns is finally finished. On the computer screen they appear very blue, they are a little greener in reality. Taking advantage of having all the guns painted, I did a little simulation... 110 guns is a lot of guns ! Of course they are balanced on the sill of the portholes so they are more prominent than they should be. (and the three on the forecastle are missing) I can now continue the construction of the hull.