DARIVS ARCHITECTVS

The pendants for the lift lines were made. They were attached with eyebolts to the crosstrees on the main and mizzen masts. The pendants are served like the ones made previously for the foremast. The lift pendants for the topmasts are next.

After a long delay and much thought, it's time to get working on the ship model again. The block pendants and the eyebolts that attach them to the tops for various lines were made for the foremast top. First, the blocks had to be prepared. The blocks from the kit come with sharp edges and needed to be reshaped into more rounded and realistic shapes by rounding the sharp edges off with the Block Buster from ModelExpo, which is basically a plastic cup with lid that has 100 grit sandpaper on the inside surfaces. You put the blocks in, attach the shaft for the internal flapper of the Block Buster to a portable drill, and spin the flapper inside the cup, which you hold with your other hand. It's like a rock polishing tumbler for blocks. After spinning the flapper at slow to moderate speed for about 30 seconds, you open the cup and dump out your nicely reshaped blocks and a bit of sawdust. The blocks were then stained with a red-brown stain to give them a rich color. The pendants were made by taking a length of 0.045" dark brown line and gluing it around the block on one end and feeding the other through a blackened laser etched eyebolt. PVA glue was used to hold the loop of line together at the center, and a cheap Chinese serving jig was used to wrap the pendant with 0.008" diameter dark brown line. The serving was tied at the block end with an overhand knot secured with a touch of PVA glue, then more PVA was applied to the line of the pendant. The jig was then used to slowly rotate the pendant which keeping tension on the serving line with your other hand. When the serving approached the eye of the eyebolt, it was secured with a simple reverse turn of the line, then the end was trimmed off. The glue holds the line assembly together. A total of five pendants were made. The two in front included an eyebolts attached to the ends of 4mm blocks, and are for the foremast's course sail yardarm lift lines. Two at the rear of the top are 5mm blocks for the hoist tackle lines used for general lifting and hoisting the pinnace off it's cradle. The fifth is for the block that the main topmast stay passes through and is attached to the rear of the top. The shafts of the eyebolts were CA glued into hand drilled holes. For the eyebolts attached to the crosstrees, the shafts of the eyebolts were bent in outboard direction like a turn nail for extra strength. The tip of a razor knife was used to cut a tint slot into the top of the crosstrees to accept each bent over portion of the eyebolt, so they would not protrude above the surface of the wood. The top itself will glued to the trestle tree after all blocks and pendants for rigging in the area of the of have been installed. This will take some thought, since the Corel model was not meant to include sails, and more eyebolts and blocks may have to installed than the instructions call for, especially if some more lines and details are added to the model. A couple errors had to be corrected for the fore and main fiferails. The holes to simulate the sheaves in the fore fiferail needed improvement. A square needle file was used to open and shape the hole, and a small flat piece of wood was glued into the holes to divide them into two holes, simulating two sheaves in each side. The tops of the vertical members for both fore and main fiferails were cut too short to tie lines to easily so more wood was added to form the bitts on top. The holes in the fore knight are a bit sloppy, but at this scale, they won't be that noticeable once the lined for the tackles for the yard ties are installed. The next ship will be easier since it's larger.

I have not seen an Italian translation of the Corel lists. My kit had English instructions for the instruction steps, though. What is the nature of the parts list problem? The parts are shown on the drawings and schematics. Use the numbers and identify the types of wood in Italian and make a list of them in English. I mentioned previously that ANY translation would not match the terminology we use in English. In order to learn the names of the parts of the ship, you need a book like the one I linked above. Without it, you will find it extremely difficult to understand instructions, even in English. I don't think I could have built this kit WITHOUT the reading the book once through, then constantly referencing it to check if the Corel instructions are correct for a 1630's ship. The book combined with the schematics ARE the instructions. The parts list only tells you what size and type of wood to use. Also, there are ALWAYS errors in the instructions. Example: Look at the belaying pins located on the rails on either side of the bridge deck. Notice that the locations of the pins in the top view to NOT match the precise locations in the side view? And if you think the Corel instructions are poor, there are kits out there that are a LOT worse. The model companies ASSUME that you have experience building wooden ship models and know some things about rigging. It's tough to start fresh with one of these. I know. La Couronne is my FIRST wooden model ship. Bottom line (no pun intended): you NEED to know the names and functions of the rigging and structural features of a ship like this in order to build it. THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS TO READING AND RESEARCH. It's actually a MAJOR part of the experience of building the model. 80% of building this ship is planning, reading and learning the features. Only 20% is actually cutting, shaping, fitting and painting. That's why these things take years to complete properly.

Hi Mike, Like you, I have to learn the names of all the basic lines on a galleon for both standing rigging and running rigging. For help in understanding, you will need a copy of The Rigging of Ships: in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast, 1600-1720 by R.C. Anderson. You will have to pick out the bits of information that apply to "foreign" (non-English) vessels from the early 17th century and apply them to La Couronne. Gaps in the information you will have to fill in from other sources, but if you see options, choose Dutch style features since La Couronne was primarily Dutch in design. 1) Catharpins are a web of lines and blocks between the shrouds, locate under the tops on the mainmast and foremast. They prevent the shrouds from being pulled in an outboard direction by the futtuckshrouds. La Couronne probably did not have these lines. 2) Jeers are sets of blocks and tackles that hoist the yardarms and hold them up. The lines that support the yardarms are called ties. In old ships, the blocks and tackles that pull the ties and hoise the yard arms up are located near the deck. In later ships, they are located up high, just under the tops, and these are called jeers. The arrangement of the ties for the yardarms are of the older style, so La Couronne does not have jeers. 3) the bowlines are lines attached to the our edges (leech) of a sqaure sail. They extend toward the bow and are used to pull the edge of the sail forward to assist turning the sail when changing the angle of the yardarms, when tacking for example. These will be on La Couronne. Typically they start at the leech of the sail and extend down and forward, passing through a hole in the bulwark for the main course sail. 4) On the mizzenmast, the second section of the mast up from the deck is called the mizzen topmast. Stays are classified as standing rigging. That is, they are lines that support the masts as opposed to runing rigging, which are lines that are used to operate the yards and sails. A mizzen topmast stay run from the top of the mizzen topmast in the forward direction, and ends in a variety of places depending on the ship. On La Couronne, this line has a block at the end, and the line that goes through this block is tied off in two locations, one at a block and tackle near the deck right in front of the mizzenmast, and the other ends in a complex crows foot of expanding line segments and blocks tied to the rearmost shroud for the main mast. It's easier to draw picture than to explain. Refer to photos of EJ-L's La Couronne model. 5) Topmast stays are stays that support the top end of any topmast section in the forward direction, whether it be on the fore, main, or mizzen masts. 6) A Backstay is a stay that extends from a mast and travels in the rear directions, offering support to the mast from the rear. At the end of the bowsprit on La Couronne is a small mast called the sprit topmast. This mast holds the sprit topsail which is used for assitsing in turning the ship. The backstay for that mast goes from the top of that mast down and rearward, offering support from the rear. Refer to rigging pictures for what it is tied to. Hope that helps. Learn your basic rigging terms for each part of the ship before assembling it and you will be talking like a sailor in no time. Buy this: The Rigging of Ships: in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast

Hi Mike, I am just over halfway through building Corel's La Couronne, and had to learn the Italian terms by simple repetition. It's most important to translate the names of the types of wood so you use the right piece of wood by dimension and the right color. The names of the parts are less important since you have drawings that show you where they are by number and what they look like. Google Translate works pretty well, although the names you get in English will not match up to the names we usually associate with the items in English. Often the names are descriptive and can provide a clue as to what item they are referring to. If you have any specific questions, drop me a note. For my build, lots of changes will be made to the constructions features of the hull and the rigging which are different than the instructons, or add more details to the build. EJ_L has a wonderful build of this ship already on this forum. My build log is at: La Couronne.

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.