shipmodel

Hello to all in this strange time –   
And thank you if you have followed me here from my last build log of the USS/SS Leviathan
 
I apologize for the long delay between the end of the Leviathan build log and this, and also that It will also not be as detailed as my last write-ups.  I will point out some building techniques that are a bit different from former ones, but for the most part it is more of a tour of the completed model than a blow-by-blow description of the construction.
 
This is the second of seven models for the US Merchant Marine Academy museum.  The subject is the whaleback steamer James B. Colgate, built in 1892.  Designed by Capt. Alexander McDougall, these boats were a major departure from accepted ship design.  Rather than sitting high on the water these boats rode, when loaded, with little of the ship above the waves.  The idea was that, like a floating log, it would let rough seas pass over it rather fighting them.
 

 
As an aside, the postcard above, titled “Blockade of Boats at Sault Ste. Marie,” commemorates a significant moment in the history of shipping on the Great Lakes.  On September 5, 1899 the 500 foot long bulk cargo steamer SS Douglass Houghton was towing a barge named the John Fritz.  Both were owned by John D. Rockefeller and together were loaded down with 15,000 tons of ore.  The Houghton lost control and came to rest completely across the navigation channel leading to the Soo Locks, the bottleneck between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.  Unfortunately the size of the ship made it nearly impossible to free her and the entire volume of shipping traffic through the locks, greater than at any other point in the world at the time, came to a standstill.  It was not until five days later that divers and engineers were able to free her by dynamiting the banks of channel.  By then more than 200 ships, many of them the largest in the world, were sitting idle.  There were so many that when the blockade was finally cleared the line of ships moving single file through the gap was more than 40 miles long.  The event triggered hearings in Congress and ultimately led to changes in the administration and maintenance of the inland waterways of the United States.
 
The whaleback design proved surprisingly successful and 43 barges and steamers were built between 1888 and 1898.  Although there may have been little of the hull above the waterline, like an iceberg there was a lot more below that the eye could not see. 
 

 
McDougall designed them around the new triple expansion steam engine that used 40 percent less coal, yet could still drive them along at 14 knots, very speedy for bulk carriers at the time.  Twelve large hatches opened into a large cargo hold which could be loaded quickly from automatic conveyor belts.  The design was finally supplanted in the early 1900s by much larger ships which could weather the large winter storms (the example of the Edmund Fitzgerald notwithstanding).
 
Despite their commercial success, the whalebacks were not popular.  The design was too radical, and was resisted by the old guard.  They were also not very attractive.  The upturned bow with its round stubby front plate may have helped the boats to skim over the water, but earned them the nickname “pigboats.”
 

 
The Colgate was a typical whaleback steamer, 308 feet LOA with a beam of 38 feet.  She carried up to 3,500 tons of cargo in her hold, usually iron ore or coal.  A small round deck house at the bow handled the anchor machinery and helped with navigation.  On the roof of the deckhouse were several bollards and fairleads for the mooring lines.  The midships hatches, as designed, had flush covers that had to be bolted down individually.  A later modification had raised coamings which were easier to operate.
 

 
At the stern was a much larger two-story deckhouse which contained the bridge and some small cabins on the upper deck.  These were supported by three round structures similar to the bow deckhouse, designed to allow large waves to flow around and between them with as little resistance as possible.  Despite these design innovations the Colgate was lost, with four other ships, in the large ‘Black Friday’ storm on Lake Erie on October 20, 1916.  25 of her crew of 26 were lost, with only the captain surviving.  
 
 
 
So, after a full 24 year career of productive and profitable service, the Colgate is remembered as an example of radical marine design that was successful for a few decades, and as an icon of Great Lakes memorabilia.
 

 
Next time, research and construction begin.
 
Thanks for looking in, and stay safe and well.
 
Dan
 

Hi again to all my friends here and, as always, mucho thanks for the likes and comments.
 
Yes, Keith, this will be a quick build log for several reasons.  Mostly this is because it is a retrospective of the construction rather than a day by day series of small progress reports.  I have detailed many of my techniques in earlier build logs, so there was little need to go over them again.  At least that was what I told myself as Covid malaise set in and I found myself not willing to stop to memorialize small personal gains amid larger world problems.  It just seemed a bit trivial.  Thankfully I certainly did not suffer any of the serious health issues or losses that so many have, like Doris in Czechoslovakia. 
 
Fortunately, I have climbed out of my depressive hole, and am working steadily again.  I have to credit my family and friends with most of the recovery, but model building made a significant contribution as well.  There is just something satisfying about looking at a well-crafted object at the end of the day and knowing that it only exists because of my hands, my head and my heart.  Long may it be so.
 
So, without further maudlin ramblings, here is the completion and launching of the SS James B. Colgate in its plaster sea. 
 
When the last installment ended the sea was mostly finished, although I looked at it every day and kept toning down the size and location of the whitecaps which I thought were still too bold and glaring.
 

 
Meanwhile I turned to finishing the ship.  After the hull was shaped the hatches were permanently installed.  Along the sides of the hull several reinforcing stringers were added according to the plans and photos.  These were made of half-round strip set over flat strips with rounded ends.  Fittings that would ultimately be painted, such as bollards and the bases for the railing stanchions, were attached to the hull.  Then the deck houses were removed and the hull was sprayed the deep red used by the Pittsburgh Steamship Company at the time.   Some, like bollard uprights and the anchor guides, were subsequently painted grey for contrast.  Then the deck houses, like this one at the bow, were built up and detailed before being secured to the hull
 

 
Most of the details are pretty simple and common.  Bollards, fairleads, winch heads and the capstan are Bluejacket castings.  The railing and ladder are photoetched brass from Gold Medal Models.  The nameboard is printed on my computer.  I’ll go over some of the others where they appear in later photos.  The one unusual fitting is the anchor.  McDougall, the designer of the whalebacks, also designed it as a better alternative for use on the boats.  It consisted of a heavy triangular frame with a shackle at the peak and a pivoting tongue in the middle of the base that would dig into the seabed of the Lakes. 
 

 
As can be seen on the model it lies much flatter on the hull than a conventional anchor and could be easily secured to the stanchion bases.  I made it out of two strips of thick brass bent to shape and soldered at the peak and at the base where a separate brass tongue was fitted.  I did not make any effort to have it pivot since this is a static model.  After blackening it was fitted with a ring and fine chain.
 

 
At the stern the deck house is much more complex.  The lower level has the two larger oval support structures with a smaller round support at the stern.  The forward two were made by sheathing oval wood plugs with styrene sheet.  Portholes were drilled and filled with small brass grommets from dollhouse electronics systems.  After painting handrails of iron wire were laid on with tiny supports inserted just underneath and clipped off close.  The upper works began as a solid wood block, as usual, but this was sheathed in wood veneer rather than plastic.  The window and door areas were left uncovered with the windows simply painted black and the doorways filled with printed 4-panel door appliques.  Upper railings and life rings are photoetched brass.  The angled stairway is a photoetched ladder with added side pieces cut from railing sections, secured with cyano and painted black.
 

 
At the forward end of the upper deck is the bridge which rises another half deck height.  It was built hollow with clear plastic windows on the front and back faces of the top.  Through these you can see the ship’s wheel that was installed and which no one, except in these photographs, will ever see.  The cowl ventilators are modified castings that sit on the top of cylinders that act as both structural supports for the decks and as ventilation ducts leading to the interior of the hull.  I took a bit of artistic license and simply drew on the paneling in pencil, relying on trompe l’oeil and the tiny scale to fool the eye.
 

 
The roof of the deck house is dominated by the large silver and black funnel.  It is built up over a plastic sheathed dowel, leaving a 1/8” rim at the top.  Reinforcing rings and a half-round lip at the top are made from plastic strip.  All of the plastic products are from Evergreen Scale Models, an invaluable resource when building steel hull modern ships.  The funnel is detailed with a steam whistle and pipe on the front face, and a steam release pipe on the aft face.  It is guyed by four wires running from small eyebolts on the upper reinforcing ring to brass tube turnbuckles on deck.  The Charley Noble galley stack has a cone shaped rain guard and a kink near the deck.  This last is either to get the stack around the funnel guy wire or as a trap for condensation, of maybe both.  It appears in the photos so it appears on the model.  A pair of liquid tanks, one for water one for fuel perhaps, bracket the funnel.  A pair of lifeboats with their davits and lifting tackles are tied down on cradles.  Eight small cast cowl vents and a pair of cylindrical exhausts run along the edges of the busy space.  At the aft end is a vertical pole, not for a flag, but for a lantern which would be fitted into the triangular shelf shown near the railing which could be hoisted to the top of the pole when visibility was limited.
 

 
At the stern the rear name plate was printed to match the one seen in contemporary photographs.  It shows up as a slightly different shade in this photo, but that is an artifact of the flash, and under normal light it is much less noticeable.  The railing on the hull could not be photoetched since the lines had to come to a point at the bow and stern.  I made the stanchion bases from 1/16” plastic rod and the uprights from 0.02” brass rod.  These dimensions are about twice what they should be, but when I made them to scale they almost disappeared, so I fudged the figures a bit.  The horizontal wires are 0.05” polished line.  Again, slightly too large, but they match the photoetched railings and do not draw the eye when the model is viewed without magnification.  The lines are tied under light tension to small eyebolts at bow and stern, then attached to the uprights with thin PVA glue painted on with a small brush.
 

 
Until now the ship has been simply placed in the opening left for it in the plaster sea.  Now it was secured with a pair of screws through the base plate and plaster carefully fed into the gap between it and the sea and shaped to a dynamic wake.
 

 
At the bow the wave was built up in several layers to match the wide froth thrown up by the blunt pignose bow.  The final layer is stippled with a stiff coarse brush.  Little wisps of white paint were dry brushed along the hull in the direction of travel.  This was all blended into the sea with more layers of tinted gloss medium.
 

 
Along the flanks of the ship wave crests rose up the side to the level of the railing and left subdued whitecaps on and under the water.  Here you can also see the minimal weathering applied to the model.  A thin wash of dark brown left spots and streaks on the hatch covers.  A similar wash discolors streaks that drip from the railing bases.  Wet patches of clear gloss finish glint on the hull.
 

 
At the stern the wake from the two propellers moving slowly was stippled onto and into the surface of the sea.  The sunlight reflects yellow on the water.  Looking carefully you can see where I have, at random locations, bent the metal railings to show a bit of hard usage over time.
 

 
The final detail was the burgee of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company.  An image was located on line, dropped into PhotoShop, sized to the model and had the color saturation slightly reduced to mimic the effects of distance and haze.  The image was skewed down a bit to take into account the way gravity affects wind-driven cloth.  The image was printed onto acid-free tissue paper which had been sealed with clear finish before printing.  This prevents bleeding into the paper fibers and gives a clean edge to the colored areas.  After fixing the colors with more clear finish the flag was cut free, attached to a halyard and tied to the flagpole.  A few curls with the back of a small paintbrush handle and it was done.
 

 
The model is now complete and chugs realistically, I think, though a choppy but fairly calm sea.
 

 
As part of the commission I built a display case from 2” x ¾” cherry, mitered at the corners and fitted around a ¾” plywood baseplate.  A UV-resistant plastic case was sourced from a local plastic shop.  It fits into a slot between the case and the base and is secured from accidental lifting with two small brass screws on the short ends.  A bit of air movement is provided by small holes drilled up through the bottom of the baseplate and into the gap under the plastic case.
 

 
The model now resides in the MMA museum in the Great Lakes area.  Once we are all vaccinated and this pandemic is behind us, I hope you can find the time to visit this small but interesting maritime museum.
 
Next, for something completely different, I will detail a repair and restoration of an antique bone and ivory POW model from the late 1700s that I am working on now.  This will be more of a blow-by-blow exposition since the techniques and materials require some inventiveness to match the unusual nature of the model.
 
Until then,
 
Stay safe and well, and get those shots.
 
Dan
 

Thanks, as always, for the likes and comments.  I hope you are enjoying the write-up.
 
After the hull was shaped and sealed it was plated.  The midships plans show only a few wide strakes of 1” steel plates that run the length of the hull.  They were marked out and cut from 0.05” black styrene sheet, then applied to the hull and secured with contact cement.
 

 
At the bow they were tapered and curved to meet the round bow plate.  This was done in a similar fashion at the stern.
 

 
After plating the hull was given several coats of grey primer, sanding between coats.  At the bow the deck house was built from the section of PVA pipe ground oval to match the plans.  The roof of the deck house was cut from a piece of 1/8” hardwood.  The rear corners are sharper than shown on the plans, but match photos of the Colgate.
 

 
At the stern the three supporting structures were made up from solid wood sheathed in plastic and secured with cyano.  The forward two are oval, while the aft one is round.  The upper deck of the aft house was also cut from 1/8” hardwood sheet, following the plans which were tacked in place to guide the cut.  It is only placed on the supports for now until they can be detailed.  The twelve hatches were built up from wood pieces bent to a curve to match the hull, then topped with styrene sheet.
 

 
The contract calls for the model to be displayed on a molded seascape, as with all of the models in this commission.  The process was similar to that done for the Leviathan.  This was actually done before that of the Leviathan, so I was experimenting a bit as I went on.  I did it early in the building process so if it failed I could scrap it without too much time lost.  It started with a baseboard cut from a commercial ¾” MDF shelf which was the desired 12” width, but too long.  It was cut to length, then the cut end was sealed to prevent moisture entry that might have warped the base.  The hull was wrapped in kitchen plastic and secured to the base with two screws from the underside.  A ¼” lip was secured all around the perimeter and dollops of prepared spackle were plopped onto the base.
 

 
The first layer of spackle was spread in an even layer up to the hull.  It was roughly shaped with a spatula to form parallel grooves at a slight angle to the hull.  Since she was lost in a storm I wanted to show a choppy sea, so the grooves were fairly deep.  This first layer shrank as it dried, giving me room for the second layer, which was good, but the plaster cracked, which was not.
 

 
After the first layer had dried for several days the top layer was laid on.  I thinned it a bit and laid it on with a stiff paintbrush.  This filled and hid the cracks in the first layer.  While the plaster was still wet I dabbed it all over with a damp coarse sponge.  The sponge lifted up the plaster into many small peaks, imitating the surface of a vibrant sea.  Where the plaster was still too wet it slumped down, and those areas were dabbed again until it held the little peaks.
 

 
After another two days of drying I started coloring the sea.  Artist’s acrylic paints were used throughout.  The deepest hollows were painted flat black, as were the edges of the base.
 

 
The black was followed by dark green overall, with some sea blue applied to random areas.  I did not worry about complete coverage since the small spots that did not take the paint would show up as random variations, just like the real sea.
 

 
Painting continued with multiple coats of clear gloss finish tinted with blue or green which built up a convincing feeling of depth.  Flat white was dabbed onto the crests of the wave forms and pulled aft as would happen with the direction of the wind.  Similarly, the wake was stippled onto the sea aft of the hull.  At this stage the model was removed to finish construction.  Once completed, additional plaster will be formed to the hull and even more layers of transparent glaze will be applied to tone down the waves even a bit more.
 

 
Final construction and presentation next time.
 
Until then, stay safe and well.
 
Dan

Hi to all -
 
And thanks for stopping by and for all the likes and comments.
Roger and Lou -  yet another nice bit of maritime history about the Everett.  She would make an interesting subject to build (if someone will pay me to do it - - LOL) 
 
Research and construction began, as for all of my models, with an exhaustive search of the available images on the Internet. In addition, two books were of particular assistance:  “McDougall’s Great Lakes Whalebacks” by Neel R. Zoss and “Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company” by our fellow MSW member C. Roger Pellett.  Thanks go to him for his excellent book and for graciously answering questions when I was stumped.  From these I obtained a good idea of the shape and arrangements of whalebacks in general and the Colgate In particular
 

 
Of course, a decent set of plans is a necessity.  After a canvas of the available sources a set was obtained from the National Museum of the Great Lakes for not much money, and I thank their librarian for her help.  Although the plans are for steamers 119-121 which are slightly longer than Colgate, the beam and depth are the same.  Accordingly, I shortened the plans in Photoshop to the correct length and cleaned up the foxing that obscured some of the details.
 

 
The lines plan of the whaleboats clearly shows how unique the design was.  To my mind it almost looks as though the hull of a “normal” ship had been turned upside down.  What do you think?
 

 
From another source I located a plan of the stern deck house that laid out the two oval and one round supporting structures along with some of the details of the bridge, cabins, and stern bollard and winch.
 

 
The midships engineering drawing from the museum was of great help in locating hatches, railings, and longitudinal half-round stiffeners along the side of the hull.  It also indicated that the hull was plated in wide, in and out strakes.  This was confirmed by several of the photos of various whalebacks.
 

 
Using this midships plan, I cut it along the centerline, mirrored it, then overlaid red lines for possible lifts. 
 

 
Since the model was requested to be a waterline display, only 9 feet of freeboard would be needed.  This meant that the hull blank would be 9/16” high/thick.  I added an additional 1/16” so the final blank was a half inch lift over a 1/8” lift.  These were glued together with black PVA glue that indelibly indicated the waterline location.  The wood was then shaped with a plane and power sander to close final shape and dimensions.
 

 
The bow tapered to a round flat stump – the pigboat look.  The stern tapered to an oval stump where the name and home port legend will appear, as seen in the first photo in this segment.
 

 
After close shaping the hull was given several coats of primer before final sanding and shaping.  After a coat of white primer the hull was marked with a centerline and several station line locations to match the plans.  Four slices of 1” plumbing pipe were temporarily placed on top to visualize the bow deck house and the supports for the stern house.
 

 
Construction continues with hull plating in the next segment.
 
Until then, stay safe and well.
 
Dan

Hi to all who followed this build log.  I hope you enjoyed the journey, and I thank you for all the likes and comments.
I have just posted the first piece of a new log of building the Great Lakes whaleback steamer SS James B. Colgate (1892)
If you want to follow along just click on the ship's name in the 'current build' line of my signature below.  Everyone is welcome.
 
Stay safe and well, and a Happy Thanksgiving to all.
 
Dan
 
 
 

Hi Mark = 
 
Your model is coming along very nicely.
Welcome now to the wonderful world of carving.  It really is wonderful, despite a pretty steep learning curve.
As others have said, the more you do, the better you will get at it.
Having worked my way up the curve, I have some thoughts and a tip that works for me.
 
First, there are two basic methods for miniature carving - chip, or knife carving and rotary carving.
In the first, the unwanted material is removed with a blade or chisel.  In the other, by burrs and bitts in a Dremel or similar.
To see an excellent use of the first method, check out Hubac's Historian's build of the Soleil Royale. 
Although he is carving styrene, the principles are the same.
To see what rotary carving is about, look at my build of the Queen Anne's Revenge [just click on it below in my profile]
The carving of the figurehead starts on page 2
I do 95% of my carving with rotary tools and only the last little bits with a knife to get a crisp edge where I need it.
It is just a process of removing everything that does not look like the piece that you want.
 
As for the tip -
When you begin carving the flags and lances, mount the carving blank to a larger disc of scrap wood.
Use cyano or rubber cement, or another solvent based adhesive.
The round shape will let you easily turn it so you can attack the work from all angles.
The backing will support the thin shafts of the lances and other delicate details.
When you are done soak the entire piece in acetone or denatured alcohol until the carving comes free without force.
 
I hope that this helps a bit.
Keep up the excellent work.
 
Dan
 

The plankshear was installed next.  These planks are 2.5" thick, are flush with the inner planking and extend 3" beyond the outer hull planking.  Each plank is approximately 15 feet long and ends in a scarf joint.  A simple double-beaded edge was made with a scraper.  I made them from pear, the same wood the lower hull planking is from, for a slight contrast in color.  The knees at the stern have also been installed.  The capping rail was shaped by wetting it and clamping it in place overnight.  The edges were then shaped, putting the same edge treatment on the stern side.  The  fashion pieces were cut down to their final height and the corners rounded over.


The bollard timbers help secure the bowsprit.  A dowel wrapped in sandpaper (the bowsprit) was temporarily installed and the bollard timbers were sanded against the dowel to get the correct shape.  

I had been trying to decide on how much decoration to show on the model.  The model in the RMG has a lot of fancy work, including gold leaf.  Considering the type of ship, I thought a little bit of painting was appropriate but just at the stern.  I wanted a pop of color and so decided on black edging with a field of red.  The double bead motif was extended onto the aft end of the fashion piece.  The mottled appearance of the red is the wood grain.  I made this from pear.  

The black extends over the capping rail.  The same paint pattern was put on the fashion pieces.  Just for fun, I added red to the depths of the double-beading.




 

To say that my self-imposed deadline has lit a fire under me would be an understatement!  It has been a week, now, and I’ve been painting in the day AND in the evenings.
 
At this stage, all of the primary colors are down and I am ready to spray the ink wash before the gilding of the ornaments.  It is all extremely vivid, right now, but these pics will give a sense of how the frieze will come to life on the aft bulwark pieces:
 

 
Yellow ocher, I think, is a good unifier of these three colors as they all seem to play nicely with the yellow.
 
Figuring out exactly how I wanted to highlight the timberheads took a minute, and execution of the painting took many more minutes!
 

 
I wanted to draw attention to the fore and sprit sheet block entry, so I painted it black.  It seemed unlikely that the sheaves, at this time, would be cast bronze, so I painted them a dark wood brown.
 
Merely by padding the thickness of the sheer railing by 1/32”, I have created a much more realistic sense of scale for this detail:
 

 

 
So, I will finish up the wash and ornamental paint for this piece at home.  Incidentally, the dolphin hances will get the same aqua treatment as the figurehead, and this will be a consistent theme that runs through the ship, all the way to the dolphin on the rudderhead.
 
Tonight, I’ll airbrush the red base-coat for the port side bulwark piece, and the whole process will begin again!  Despite my urgency, this is the standard that I will doggedly maintain.
 
Thank you for the likes, comments and for looking in.

Thank you guys so much for your kind compliments!
 
And, so, the elephant eating contest goes into full swing.  Fortunately, because I was such a good little brother, when we were kids, and I let my (now) superstar makeup artist sister use me as a hair and face model, my sister has agreed to let me borrow her airbrush and mini compressor that she sometimes uses to apply makeup.  One hand washes the other!
 
Buried, somewhere in the boxes from our move to Brooklyn, is my own Badger airbrush, but for the life of me - I can’t find it.  Anyway, it has been such a wonderful rediscovery of the magic of airbrushing.  There is simply no better way to paint broad, highly detailed surfaces.
 
Early returns on the forward bulwark pieces are looking very good, so far.  I was careful to mask off the monogram escutcheons - the crossed “L”s - because an undercoat of red would make the cobalt look dark and purplish - definitely not what I’m after.   I am also very pleased that I took the time, during the modification stage, to engrave plank lines between the main deck guns.
 

 
Without a doubt, it will always be the yellow ocher that is the most time consuming stage, but I have determined that a 2:1 ratio of paint to tap water is the perfect viscosity for even application with good coverage.  It still takes 2-3 applications, over a color like red, but that is far better than the 6-7 I was averaging before.
 

 
The most fiddly painting is the timberhead trim that I applied to box-in the timberheads.  It is exactly as tedious as painting a picket fence:
 

 
Eventually, the walnut ink wash will work its magic to lower the volume on these colors, while adding depth and dimension to the surface.
 
Whereas, in the past I cringed at the thought of traveling with these fragile, bigger parts that I already have invested a huge amount of time in - I have now acquiesced to the reality that that is the only way I will be able to jam-in the number of hours it will take to cross the finish line (of this build stage), by October.
 
Wish me luck!

Hi Rob - 
 
Very nice work on the breaching ring irons and the deadeye chains. 
They will show up beautifully as details that will give you a knowing smile when you see them on the completed model.
 
PS - Woolsey was not the only one supervising.  Ensign James Fennimore Cooper was also there and working on the ship.
 
Looking forward to future progress.
 
Dan 

Hi all –
 
Here is the finish of this restoration build log.  I begin with the cannon.  Two of the guns were detached when received, with one having a carriage made out of a completely different material than the others.  A third cannon was on a similar carriage of unknown material.  I removed it so I could work on it.
 

 
I cleaned up the old glue from all of the guns, then fashioned two new carriages from ivory.  The barrels were set on the new carriages and secured with cyano.
 

 
The new carriages were aged with coffee grounds.  Actually, they took up the color a bit too well, so the brown was sanded back a bit after the photo was taken.
 

 
When I was happy with the color they were installed on deck with PVA glue.  The originals were pinned through the rear of the carriages and into the deck, but there was no room for such reinforcement, so they will have to rely on the strength of the glue itself.  Judging from other models that I have worked on, I am confident that it will be at least 50+ years before anyone will have to worry about glue failure.
 

 
Finally, I mounted the two British flags.  The large ensign at the stern was set on an ivory staff, although it was shown detached in the client’s original photos.  He failed to bring it with him when he delivered the model, so he dropped it, and a few other detached pieces, into a plain envelope and mailed it to me.  When it came the delivery process in the Postal Service had broken the staff into four pieces.
 

 
I cut a 1/8” square piece of ivory about 2 ½” long and made it octagonal with sanding drums.  Further sanding rounded it to an approximate cylinder.  Finally one end was chucked into a Dremel with a bit of paper towel to protect the ivory from the jaws of the chuck.  On low speed the shaft was held against a large flat sanding block and turned to a cylinder.  The original halyard block and line were used to mount the flag to the new staff, which was slid into two metal fittings on the inside of the taffrail.  I also took a moment to hang the boat from the davits at the stern.
 

 
At the bow the small flag was remounted in its hole in the jib boom.
 

 
With a quick cleaning and oil rubbing of the base the repair was finished.    
 

 

 
To replace the heavy glass cover a new acrylic cover was ordered and set on the base.  Two small brass nails on the short sides were installed by drilling through the plastic and into the wood of the base.  These will prevent the cover from coming loose if anyone picks it up by the cover rather than from underneath.
 

 
The client mounted the model on a pair of heavy brackets in a prominent place in his home.
 

 
He has told me that he and his family are very happy with the restoration, as am I.  I hope you all have enjoyed the journey as well.  I can only hope that the model will last another 200 years and represent a glimpse into a long-gone world of naval history and art.
 

 
Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts.
 
I will be back again with some more of the models that I am building for the Merchant Marine Academy museum.  Until then . . .
 
Stay safe
 
Dan

Hello again to all –
 
Thanks for the likes and compliments, and especially from you, Michael, whose own restoration work is so exceptional.
 
Eric – passing along some of the tips and techniques that I have learned over the years is one of my greatest pleasures in this activity.  There are lots more in my earlier build logs if you go through them.
 
As for the model, it was now time to finish off the rigging repairs.  With the mizzen topmast shrouds done I reattached the topmast stay.  It is a smaller diameter than it should be, but the main t’gallant yard braces are tied to it, so I used it in place.  Then the topmast backstays were created from new line and secured to the final deadeyes on the mizzen channels.  You can see the head of the backstays here and the deadeyes in a later photo.  I strung the t’gallant shrouds through the topmast crosstrees and tied them to the shrouds, then ran the t’gallant stay from the tip of the mizzen mast to the topmast doubling of the main mast.
 

 
I ran the t’gallant backstays from the tip of the mast to eyebolts on the mizzen channels.  Although the eyebolts were new, I found holes in the correct locations on the channels which had originally held eyebolts, confirming that my rigging layout was correct. 
 

 
The mizzen t’gallant yard was lifted and clipped to the mast.  This let me easily string and tension the yard lifts, which was done just after the photo was taken.  The lifts for the mizzen lower yard were also later tensioned by taking the slack through the blocks and down to the belaying pins at the deck.
 

 
Now the rigging to the driver gaff and boom were restrung, including the topmast yard braces, the topping lift, the vangs, and the rest of the lines that had been detached so I could work on the mast.
 

 
After final balancing and tensioning of any slack lines the rigging was done.   At the aft end of the mizzen channel you can see the deadeyes for the mizzen topmast backstay and the eyebolt for the t'gallant backstay.
 

 
From dead ahead this photo reveals that while I was able to reset the masts and yards to a great extent, there is still a bit of unwelcome variation in the angles of the yards relative to each other.  The largest issue is the main topmast yard which was unfortunately glued in place by an earlier restorer and which I could not adjust.  Nonetheless, I think the overall look is acceptable.
 

 
So here are two photos of the fully rigged model, taken from the stern quarter and bow quarter.  I believe the client will be pleased.
 

 

 
The final tasks will be to replace the unsatisfactory rudder, the cannon carriages, and the flags.  I will post that soon.
 
PS – I have been having some issues, as you can tell, with getting the lighting right for taking the photographs.  The bright white of the ivory does not show up well unless the color saturation is turned down so far that the blue background turns grey.  I just bought some additional lights and I am playing around with the flash settings on the camera, so I hope that the balance of the photos will come out better.
 
Stay safe
 
Dan

Hi Rob - 
 
Very nice work on the breaching ring irons and the deadeye chains. 
They will show up beautifully as details that will give you a knowing smile when you see them on the completed model.
 
PS - Woolsey was not the only one supervising.  Ensign James Fennimore Cooper was also there and working on the ship.
 
Looking forward to future progress.
 
Dan 

Michael - 
 
You can add my sincere wishes to all the others for a speedy and complete recovery.\
Hang in there , my friend.
 
Dan

Hi Rob - 
 
Very nice work on the breaching ring irons and the deadeye chains. 
They will show up beautifully as details that will give you a knowing smile when you see them on the completed model.
 
PS - Woolsey was not the only one supervising.  Ensign James Fennimore Cooper was also there and working on the ship.
 
Looking forward to future progress.
 
Dan 

Hi Rob - 
 
Very nice work on the breaching ring irons and the deadeye chains. 
They will show up beautifully as details that will give you a knowing smile when you see them on the completed model.
 
PS - Woolsey was not the only one supervising.  Ensign James Fennimore Cooper was also there and working on the ship.
 
Looking forward to future progress.
 
Dan 

Lieutenant Woolsey continues to supervise the building of Oneida.
 
The missing breech bolt ends have been blackened, and installed with the rest--
 

 
 
The brass wire pieces for the backstay chains have been  cut, bent, assembled, soldered, bent some more, and blackened (in that order!).  Then the deadeyes were bent into their loops, and some general remedial bending done to some links that were still too far out of whack--
 

 
 
These will be installed next.
 
Ron 

Thank you, Bill!  I am more than happy to elaborate.
 
Over the course of this project, I have come to the conclusion that Tanneron was attempting to show Soleil Royal at both ends of the spectrum of her development; 1669 and the newly-build SR2 of 1693.  His model’s stern embodies specific characteristics of these two very different eras in French naval architecture.
 
Specific to 1669/1670, you have an extremely tall sheer, with an expansive tafferal space in which to display Apollo’s horse-drawn chariot.  Tanneron also chose to show three tiers of open, walkable stern balconies that wrap to open, walkable quarter galleries.  This detail is mostly consistent with the Vienna portraits of what I still believe to be the Monarque.

 It is my observation of Puget’s portrait of the Dauphin Royal, however, that this lowest stern balcony was most likely only a centralized Juliet balcony that did not allow direct passage to the quarters:

 
The primary difference between Tanneron’s representation of the quarters, and what appears to have been actual practice in 1669, is their shape.  Above, on the Monarque, you have three balustraded tiers, supported by split-tail tritons between the first and second tiers, and by corbels for the third tier.
 
Yet, Tanneron chose an overall shape and structure that is more consistent with the late development of the “bottle” style of quarter gallery, in which, the quarters are completely closed.  This is what I believe to be the re-worked quarter drawing for SR2, in 1693:

 
And so, likely owing to the multiplicity of conflicting and fragmentary primary sources, it is my opinion that Tanneron tried to have his cake and eat it too.
 
While I have yet to find an authenticated confirmation, I do believe that Puget was initially contracted to refine LeBrun’s original draft for the stern allegory.  With a few exceptions - notably, that the figures of Africa and the Americas were male, and that a docile tiger sat at the foot of Asia - the composition was only lightly altered to fit within the more restrained and compartmentalized style of Berain.
 
The model I am making reflects a particular transitional moment in the evolution of the French quarter gallery - a middle stage between completely open and fully closed.  The lowest tier is fully closed, as that was the functional toilet.  There is one open walk on the main deck level that communicates directly between the stern and quarters. The upper stern balcony does not extend beyond the quarter pieces that support the side lanterns.
 
The tromp l'oeil structure of the upper amortisement is a weight and cost saving measure that came into voque as so many of the early First Marine ships had their sheer reduced (1672), and their ornament pared-down, in an effort to improve their handling characteristics.
 
My belief that this is what is intended by the Berain/Vary quarter portrait is perfectly supported by the 1677 refit portrait of the Royal Louis:

 
The only notable difference, here, is that the third level of the amortisement, that corresponds with the rail of the upper stern balcony, projects away from the hull and is supported from below by female figures.  The windows, above that, are a more flattened tromp l'oeil structure.
 
And so, that is essentially why I am doing what I am doing.
 

Progress has been a bit slow, lately.  I have continued to be amazed by the amount of prep that is necessary before painting the forward bulwark pieces.
 
I was having trouble making good eyebolts out of 28 gauge annealed wire.  The scale wasn’t quite right, and the eyes were more ovoid than round, before the stems would break from twisting.  So, I switched to 32 gauge galvanized steel wire, and consulted Marsalv’s amazing log for Le Gros Ventre:
 
Somewhere, in there, he shares his particular technique for making these eyes, and it involves twisting the shank through a hole drilled into a clothes pin; doing so ensures a straight shank and a neatly centered eye:

 
I did not happen to have any wooden clothes pins, on hand, so I took a poplar scrap and was able to achieve the same results:


 
I found that I had some difficulty while drilling into the bulwarks for these eyes.  I repeatedly drilled all the way through the bulwarks.  On a wood model, this would be a disaster!  On this model, I could simply plug and fair the holes, on the outside, with .030 styrene rod.
 
I had been debating whether to glue-in the gangway supporting knees, before paint and assembly.  Ultimately, I decided that it would be much easier to locate these accurately before assembly.  As with all of the stock kit parts, I spend a significant amount of time and effort cleaning these parts up and breaking all sharp edges.

 
Lastly, I drilled through the cap rails for the baying pins that I will add later:

 
After masking any surface that I didn’t want to scrape away paint from, later, the parts were ready for a coat of spray primer:

 
The beauty of the primer coat is that it always reveals whatever might need a little additional attention.  I can see that there are a few places where I let the upper port enhancements into the drift rail, above, but was a little overzealous.  A small bit of filler will clean that up.
 
Thank you all for looking in.  More to follow!
 

Michael - 
 
You can add my sincere wishes to all the others for a speedy and complete recovery.\
Hang in there , my friend.
 
Dan

Michael - 
 
You can add my sincere wishes to all the others for a speedy and complete recovery.\
Hang in there , my friend.
 
Dan

Michael - 
 
You can add my sincere wishes to all the others for a speedy and complete recovery.\
Hang in there , my friend.
 
Dan

Michael - 
 
You can add my sincere wishes to all the others for a speedy and complete recovery.\
Hang in there , my friend.
 
Dan

All the best for a quick and speedy FULL recovery Michael.  I think we all need to take that break every so often, but not with such extenuating circumstances.
 
cheers
 
Pat

Here is the work to make up my lost breech bolt ends.
 
A strip of cut brass sheet, a bit of wire--drill holes in the sheet and insert the wire--
 

 
 
Solder the wire in place, then trim them and cut apart.   I made the mistake of placing the wires too close to each other.  I ended up only getting half of these, fortunately I didn't need all of them.  I think I might even have one or two extra now--
 

 
 
I wasn't as far along as I remembered on the backstay deadeyes and chains.  I just have the deadeye loops.  So I need to make up a bunch more loops and string up 12 'units'--
 

 
 
Good news is that the shroud dead-eyes and chains are all attached!
 

 
 
Ron