DARIVS ARCHITECTVS

A tiny bit more work... The iron rings for the four anchors were served with thread, with the ends of the thread held with CA glue.

Regardings kits: Sometimes the parts in the kit are satisfactory. Some of the fittings and most of the wood was used in La Couronne. Where a kits typically falls short is detail. Replacing all the materials in a kit is hugely expensive, so a balance has to be truck to keep costs low. It also depends on your skill level, knowledge of wooden ship construction, how much you want to spend on tools, books, and materials, how much research you want to do to correct kit features that are known to be inauthentic, and how much patience you have. All of these contribute to the final appearance of the model, and they vary widely from person to person. If you put your best effort into the project, the results will always make you happy. 😁 Attached is an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet of all the material costs for the kit, tools, research books and extra materials used to build La Couronne. The total cost of the entire ship project is currently $2293.64. So far, the cost of DeAgostini's HMS Sovereign of the Seas is $1574.04, and I haven't even started construction yet! 😲 La Couronne Model Constructon Expenses.xlsx

Thanks EJ ! ! !

I'm still debating in my head where the lifts, halyards and sheets will be tied off.

The main and mizzen channels were copied in major dimensions from the kit parts in cherry wood, and attached to the hull with CA glued. Before coating them with spray varnish, a thin mechanical pencil was used to draw the lines separating the planks that make up each channel to simulate the seams. More details added = better model. Since the shroud locations were not altered from the original kit design, the notches for the mizzen channel kit parts were transferred to the new parts. The shrouds for the main and fore masts will be relocated to new positions based on the new cannon port layout to avoid interference.

FINALLY! All the cannons and their port lids are finished. Now as long as I can work on the rigging without snagging them... Next are the main mast and mizzen mast channels.

Three of the lower deck cannons and lids were completed on each side because they would be too difficult to install once the channels are in place. Seams for the timbers that make up the channels for the foremast were simply penciled in on both sides of each channel and varnished over to lock in the markings. The forward channels were glued to the hull atop the wale. The location of the shrouds for the foremast and their deadeyes and chain wales can now be determined, which will present a design challenge so as not to block any of the gun ports. Notches for the lower deadeyes will be cut, and other fittings like brackets on the channels will then be fitted.

Hi everyone, Alexey at Domanoff's Workshop sent me enough cable and ropes in various sizes for La Couronne and HMS Sovereign of the Seas. I ordered these a short while ago and they look really great and will provide an authentic detail for both models. But, before I can fit and attach the channels on La Couronne and begin working on the shrouds, I needed to finish the upper deck gun port lids and install the 9 pound gun barrels. For all gun on La Couronne, scratch built trucks and gun barrels of the proper sizes were installed on additional decks to replace all the fake half cannons on the model. Making full carriaged guns for all guns looks a lot better than fake half barrels stuck into a piece of wood. You can see the fronts of the carriages on the gun decks. Fake barrels look FAKE and are an ugly shortcut even at this scale. Each gun port lid and cannon was completed using the following steps. The Gun port lids were finished previously, and the hinges were glue to them. Now they have to be pinned to the hull. Brass pins are bent 90 degrees against a block of wood using small narrow needle nosed pliers. Then they are all blackened. Each door is sanded to fit precisely into each portal as you go, since there are minor variations in the portals made when I cut them by hand. I opted to have all the lids open in order to show off the guns. An Archimedes drill is used to drill three holes, two for the hinge pins and one for the span line (rope that pulls the lid open). A hole is drilled through the lid for the rope which will double as the span line, used to haul the lid open, and the lanyard used to pull the lid closed. Normally, each of the lines would be secure to the lid with an iron eyelet, but at 1:100 scale such eyelets would be too small to see anyhow. After inserting the pins in the hinges and gluing the end of the span line in the hole in the hull, the opposite end of the line is stiffened with CA glue and fed through the lid. A needle hose pliers is used to insert the each hinge pin half way into the holes above the portal. A small amount of CA glue is applied to the exposed area of each pin, then both pins are carefully and evenly pushed with the pliers the rest of the way into the hull. If you break a hinge off the lid, just glue it back on. It happens. Feed the span line through the lid and add a bit of CA glue to the line above the lid. Raise the lid up to final open position and draw the span line taut, pulling the glue through the hole in the lid to secure it from moving. Trim the remaining line, now the lanyard to length, and glue the bitter end to the inside of the top of the portal. Glue is applied to the inner surface of the port with a tool made from a piece of stiff wire bent 90 degrees at the tip. Poke the end of the line into glue and leave the lanyard with a small amount of slack in it. Glue the gun barrel onto the truck. Caps for the gun barrel trunnions are far to small to even bee seen at this scale, so don't bother with them. Caps are simulated with paint in guns visible from above on the bridge deck. After all the upper gun deck guns and lids were finished, the scratch built channels for the fore mast were contoured to the shape of the hull and test fit. Tread tied to the mast was used to check if any of the shrouds will interfere with the forecastle railings. The channels for the fore mast and main mast will be placed below gun ports of the upper gun deck and above the ports on the lower gun deck contrary to the Corel model design plans and in the fashion of many 17th century galleons. The lowest 18 pound guns and lids were also installed near the stern.

CRAP! Corel didn't provide cable laid rope for the standing rigging! So, I put and order in to Domanoff's Workshop for both La Couronne and the next model, HMS Sovereign of the Seas. Does anyone beside Domanoff provide cable laid rope? I could build a rope making jig, but for only two models it's just as well to order some. So much for starting work on the shrouds. Oh well. The masts and yards need blocks installed to prepare for running rigging...

Some details were worked on. The plywood channels are going to be replaced with scratch built ones made out of cherry wood. This is being done for two reasons. First, the channels for the foremast and mainmast are being relocated below the upper gun deck, just above the central wale, and just below the gun ports of the upper gun deck. For many early 17th century galleons, the tumble home was greater than ships built just before 1700, so the channels needed to be located lower on the hull in order for the shrouds not to contact the railings or gunwales. The tumble home on the Corel hull shape can allow the channels to be mounted higher, but I think it looks closer to the convention of the time with them in the lower position. It's a feature that distinguishes the vessel as early 17th century. Because moving the channels will require relocating all the shroud and deadeye locations to avoid blocking any guns, the slots for the chain plates will be cut into the channels after the channels are installed on the hull. The pinnace boat frame supports were detached from the main deck and sanded thinner because they looked overly thick and clunky. The rear support frame for the pinnace was re-positioned a bit farther forward and re-glued to the grating, then four blackened brass eyelets were installed on the frame surrounding the grates, adjacent to the pinnace frames. The eyelets are Caldercraft part number 83505, and are laser etched and very small. Model eyelets tend to be over sized, and these are much closer to scale. Laser etched eyelets are much smaller that any eyelets I make from wire, even with tiny tools. The boat was lashed to the support frames with 0.25mm tan cord supplied with the kit. To make this easier, the the cord was tied to the first eyelet, and then it was passed through the remaining three eyelets. Each eyelet, starting with the one the cord is tied to, installed into drilled holes with CA glue. The line is still loose enough to get the boat under it. The boat is glued to the supports, and the cord loops are passed over the front and rear ends of the boat. The slack in the cord is then removed, pulling it carefully through the eyelets, and the the loose end is secured at the first eyelet. A bit of PVA glue secures the knot. The remaining end of the rope can be glued to the deck, or if you prefer, coiled and glued to the deck. Instead of breaking off and replacing the over-sized kevels, I decided to simply add the horizontal supports for each kevel individually. Some thin boxwood scrap was cut with scissors, then notches were cut with a small razor saw, and a needle file and small sanding block were used to shape each tiny piece until they were custom fit around the staghorns of each kevel. You have to have steady hands and a delicate touch to make last minute changes like this in tight areas. The parts were positioned in place after a few test fits, and secured with CA glue. The last picture below shows the kevels before staining. To darken the white wood, some pine colored stain was applied with a small brush and the color now matches the staghorns perfectly. If you're going to fix a mistake or add a detail, it needs to blend in.

I wasn't quite happy with the size of the boarding portal deck, so I reworked it. It looks better now.

Time to have fun working on one of the small details. A lighted magnifier is necessary for all of this work. The boarding portal ladder and deck were fabricated and installed today. Small pieces of wood were snipped with small hobby scissors and sanded to length and shape with a small soft sanding block. The portal deck was made from thin mahogany. It is trimmed and supported with shapes pieces of walnut. The assembly went together quickly using CA glue. Left over railing binnacles made it look fancy. The roof was cut using the band saw, then filed to shape. The ladder rungs are cut to length after using a micro scraper to shape the wood. For additional detail, bordering on ridiculous for this scale, the rungs are hollowed out a using a diamond burr with the Dremel rotary tool. Each rung was glued to the side of the ship down to the waterline. A little varnish brushed on all the new parts darkened them up nicely.

Not much got done since last posting. The wooldings were placed on the masts using the new Syren line that arrived in the mail today. Tying them was easy. It's the same as tying a whipping knot when I was back on the ship. Diluted yellow PVA glue (Titebond III) was applied to secure the wooldings in place.

This is turning out to be one BEAUTIFUL ship! I can't wait to see how it turns out when finished.

Vielen Dank!