DARIVS ARCHITECTVS

It is not necessary to scratch build to make a beautiful model. No one said that. It IS necessary to scratch build to build a historically ACCURATE model of HMS Sovereign of the Seas.

Chris is right to point out that no kit results in a build of Sovereign of the Seas without gross simplifications (primarily in the decorations) or accuracy in many of this early great ship's original features. As a current builder of SotS, I can attest that the best way to build it accurately (from what little we know of the ship) is scratch building using LOTS of research and study or bashing (modifying) the framework of a kit as a starting point with every increasing replacements of parts with 100% scratch built rigging at the end. I searched high and low for a shortcut that would provide instructions to correctly represent this most decorated of man-of-war, but in the end had to come to grips with the reality that it doesn't exist. Practice on other models before you tackle the Sovereign, and be prepared to spend 90% of your time digging out research sources and reading them instead of building, and do not believe everything you read, but compare information sources. You will have to make hundreds of personal choices taken from the interpretations of others and choose what make most sense to you using your judgement when it comes to the ship's features, and most of them are unsupported as you how correct they are. So, build the ship as best as you can. John McKay's book is a prime example of one interpretation of the ship that contains horribly wrong features from bad guesswork and interpretational choices. The book looks pretty, but aside from the decorations, don't trust the hull structure. If you can survive the frustration and fear that goes with huge amounts of educated guesswork, you may be able to tackle the Sovereign once your crafting skills are at least at an intermediate level. Do your own homework, you'll make a better model, and accept the fact that no matter what, your model will not look precisely like other's models. Below is my 90% scratch build of the Sovereign, starting with the DeAgostini kit hull. Other kit like the Mantua kit can offer a fair starting point, but also require massive hull changes, particularly to the stern. Best source for details on the features are James Sephton's Sovereign of the Seas - The Seventeenth Century Warship, Peter Lely's painting "Portrait of Peter Pett", Sir John Payne's Print of HMS Sovereign of the Seas, Willem van de Velde's sketch of SotS (after the 1658-1661 rebuild), and Hendrik Busmann's Sovereign of the Seas - Die Skulpturen des britischen Königsschiffes von 1637 (rare and expensive out of print book in German on the decorations of the SotS).

Incredible restoration! Such a great model.

Example of a demi-culverin drake on my model of HMS Sovereign of the Seas. One of many. . . 😁 Half trucks used on these carriages were not all that popular on ships, but they were featured prominently on the upper gun deck of the Sovereign. All 102 of the guns on my model are rigged to this level of detail as a personal challenge.

Beautiful Build. Rattlesnake is also on my future build list.

Very nice ! 👍

That display is fantastic. Inspirational!

It's great to be following another one of your builds, EJ!

One of the most impressive restorations and improvements ever. You really did that old ship justice. Masterful work! 👍💯

The ship is great and the water is FANTASTIC! I wish I could make water like that!

Yup. Good models only get good slowly and steadily. 👍

Expertly clean build! I need to work on that aspect on my models. Glue fingerprints are my nemesis.

I went with a round tuck on the Sovereign.

Off to an excellent start...