ClipperFan

Michael, as usual Rob will take all credit for the incredibly accurately detailed work that's done. Don't believe him. I have it on good authority that he's secretly contracted with teeny, tiny Elves who do all the hard labor for him! (in reality if you go back far enough he describes how he carved her from some form of dental material) he's even given Lloyd McCafferey a run for his money.

Rob, again I echo Vladimir's sentiments. Just beautiful, clean work.

Rob, thanks, I have to do shroud mounts, two rear skylights, fore nameboard (man are they tiny) ship's boats, tackling and some Stern quarter carvings. Then Mike wants to see it. I'm going to see if there's any way to scan it & send it to him. Before I do, I'll share the finished product here.

Vladimir it's due to these astute, in depth observations that I keep submitting my efforts for your keen insights.

Since it's so damnably hard to get decent, focused pics of the entire sketch, here are 2 segments roughly 17" each. To get the entire sketch, I have to stand on the bed to capture the entire 30+" image which ends up being less in focus than optimal.

Rob, Vladimir, guys I think I finally have made enough progress on my 1:96 scale "GLORY of the SEAS" line drawing that I can share it here. It's not 100% but before I continue filling in more specifics, I wanted to get your reactions. How does this look to you?

Rob, she's really starting to come together now. Of course, you're right about an almost 20 year newer capstan. I'll see if there's any Bow photos that may shed more light on this item.

Vladimir I'm having a challenging time just trying to draw these cleanly, let alone recreate them in 3D. Excellent artisan craftsmanship!

Rob, it's a nice little piece but isn't the capstan more wooden with some inlaid brass components?

Vladimir, my response to Rob's error in thanking me for your compliment was intended to be totally a joke. It was deliberately wordy to poke fun at the silliness of it all. I doubt anybody took it seriously. By the way, I'm so glad you read and write such fluent english. I know some German but none of the Slavic languages at all.

Rob, as my slow efforts, did I mention slow? to finally capture the true lines of "GLORY of the SEAS" in painstakingly accurate to all specific measurements we have double verified (actually I think I'm erasing more than sketching, I've redrawn her sheerline three times now) it now looks to me like the line of the Poop Deck Rail aligns equally with that of the Rear Carriage House. That house is 8' tall. Knock off 3 1/2" for being set below deck and that leaves 7' 8 1/2" to project above the Poop Deck. It is set at the height of the main bulkhead. I don't have enough time to calculate specifics but the idea is we should be able to get very close to the actual rail height.

Vladimi are you sure you're not slipping in some work being done on an actual ship just to fill in your progress on this model? 😉 Wow the detail work is amazing. It will look even more so when you finally add the t'gallant Rail which we all now know is solid.

Rob, there's a noble history of highly appreciated art trickery "T'Rompe L'Oyle" literally meaning "trick the eye". I actually enjoy well employed 3D fakery, such as you see in nature dioramas where it's challenging to determine where the material foreground ends and a cleverly mimicking painting begins.

Rob, your gratitude while welcome is misdirected. You left poor Vladimir out in the cold, like a forlorn wet puppy in the rain, while sending appropriate acknowledgement of his rightly correct observations to me, who was probably slumbering at the time he replied and certainly don't deserve to steal his thunder...even as lightly as it may have clapped ;-) Having said that, Vlad of course is right, you consistently do beautiful work. Oh in the future, you might want to look for the letter "V" which is how Vlad usually finishes his sentences.

Rob, I'm beginning to strongly suspect that at the scales you and Vlad are working at, to get some of these diminutive details you're venturing into Lloyd McCaffery territory!

Vladimir, thanks for the kind compliment. Actually I'd love to help with the details for the Rear Carriage House, Wheel House, etc. Michael Mjelde's books contain some decent references as a starting point and then we have some nice photos to go on too. As for how to reproduce the complex Fancy Rail moldings, since they'd be so tiny, I wouldn't worry about it. I think keeping details to scale is more critical. Outsized moldings to try and capture those multiple features would mar your vessel more than help it.

Rob, no lie, no hyperbole and most especially no exaggeration. I believe your model will one day win accolades and awards. It's that good and that faithful to her subject matter herself. I am in awe....

Vladimir, as I told Rob, after I posted the other Artist's impression I recognized that the iron bar handle was shaped wrong. This illustration has the right configuration and I reworked the turned stanchion. Rob pointed out that the pinrail doesn't continue to the Poop deck but didn't specify when it ends. Either he knows exactly or we have to dig a little further.

Rob, oh my God, your Grecian Goddess 'Athene' Figurehead looks simply gorgeous! When I told my wife that she's just under an inch tall she said "oh, wow!' It's also thrilling to see the graceful McKay reverse "S" curve that we discussed now realized in three dimensions. I love too the little highlights of gold which subtly emphasize the graceful folds of her gown. Now this is a worthy representative of "GLORY of the SEAS!"

Rob thanks. I took a little ill advised "artistic license" to throw in the poop deck rail. I also caught another mistake too. The iron bar doesn't just sit on the top of the t'gallant Rail, it actually bends down and goes straight in, mirroring the way it enters the poop deck Rail. When I have time I'll revise it to reflect how it is on the actual vessel.

Vladimir as promised, here is my, ahem revised Artist's impression of Glory's somewhat troublesome and confusing "T'gallant...Monkey...Fancy... Rail" as I can interpret it through somewhat limited images we have of this area of the ship. I have also added the curved Iron Rail which can be seen at the start of her Poop Deck turned Stanchion Railing. Indented line of the rail itself is visible in the picture as well as the inclined angle which is also accurate. It appears the Stanchions follow the curve of the Hull below. They begin slightly chanted inwards, straighten up as they run alongside the Rear Carriage House then cant just slightly outward as they go around the curvature of the Poop itself. Another tricky detail I missed before until Rob pointed it out: the last molding is actually the Pinrail mounted just below the upper Main Rail Molding. It doesn't project much at all, apparently just enough to allow belaying pins to fit inside. Of course, how much, if any of this fancy work you actually want to replicate is entirely up to you. I'm just trying to provide the most accurate information to assist you in your goals to model Glory in all her wonderful details.

Rob, I hope you don't mind but I recently discovered a blast from the past. This sketch was taped to a light board my wife bought for me 12 years ago, when I first embarked on my long journey to uncover the genuine appearance of "GLORY of the SEAS." This was when I hadn't yet discovered that, as originally launched, her Mizzen Skysail just barely went above the Main's Royal Yard. It's also years before even a blurry image of San Pedro became available. Still overall, it reveals the mostly accurate direction I was being led to interpret her appearance based on other photos in Mike's first book.

Vladimir beautiful work. I particularly like the bow straight on. She really reveals her imposing Clipper entrance in that one!

Rob, based on the 3 images you shared, I owe Vlad an apology for slightly misleading him on the monkey/fancy/t'gallant rail (do you think they had enough names for the same rail? Sheesh!) Anyhow, Vlad I hate to be wrong because it means I misdirected someone, which I never want to do. In my own "shallow" defense, I put too much emphasis on this scene with the ship's boy. Enhanced, there definitely appear to be ribs intersecting the t'gallant rail. However, they do not appear in any other scene which means these must be cast shadows. Most of what else I sketched appears to be correct, with the exception of the (1) top bead which doesn't show up in the clear image of the t'gallant Rail top molding, so that bead must run alongside the lower edge of that upper molding. When I get a chance, I'll submit a revised illustration.

Vladimir as promised, a quick sketch of my Artist's impression from the tiny enlarged pics of Glory's bulwarks. Keep in mind, this is entirely of the monkeyrail section (or fancyrail as it's also called). I did a perspective, trying to show how these moldings appear. As usual I'm not too thrilled with the result, so I threw in a rough cross section on the left corner. How I see it is that there are definitely 5 molded sections each, totalling 10 all together. Figuring the molding around the Waterways to be similar would add another 5 for 15 in total. Top of the monkeyrail: (1) thin line looks to be like a bead molding at center top (2) larger molding almost a full circle (3) half sized of larger molding almost looks like the big one above indents to create this one (4) shelf molding is definitely further in, as it's noticeable by cast shadow from above it. (5) a second shelf molding, just slightly shallower than first but otherwise same depth Top of Main Rail Molding at lower end of monkeyrail bulwark: (5) mirror image of shallower shelf molding from above (4) mirror image of thicker shelf molding from above (3) slightly larger but similar round molding to #2 above (2) thicker but otherwise similar round molding to #3 above (1) slightly thicker round molding to #3 above Of course immediately below this would be the pinrail mounted just underneath. While my most recent sketch just showed a featureless pinrail end, it's quite likely like the tables of this era, it too probably had 2 or 3 moldings to it. Nobody's saying you have to model all of these but this is what I can see. Also from the scene with the Ship's Boy, it's vague but you can see stanchions which appear to be 2' apart. So I illustrated them in the perspective sketch.