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I suggest continuing the game for imagination and fantasy. This time I will give some hints. 1. A ship gets a name when it is built. This name is its battle cry. It is its calling card. Something he himself is proud of. Try to think about what kind of symbol, what kind of figure a ship called Fulminant might have. What exactly is it that this ship is proud of? P.S. I will support the main idea of this post with a little story. There is one writer in Russian literature. His name was Andrei Nekrasov. He wrote many different books, and many of his stories were children's stories. One of these children's books was called "The Adventures of Captain Vrungel". It is a cheerful adventure of an elderly and experienced captain, who together with a young named Lom took part in a round-the-world racing regatta on a yacht. In the course of the story, the characters of the book got into different funny situations, from which they got out with the help of wit and unconventional thinking. I will not go into a retelling. I mentioned this book for one reason. The yacht on which the main characters sailed was called "VICTORY". In Russian this word is spelled like this: "ПОБЕДА". However, by coincidence, during the launching, the first two letters "ПО" in the name broke off. And now there was the inscription "БЕДА". Which means "TROUBLE". It was a game of words, a game of concepts. So the yacht, which was supposed to declare itself as a winner, on the contrary said the exact opposite. And like a prophecy, it was plagued by various troubles and adventures. Which, however, ended well, because this is a funny children's book. Such a lyrical digression. When I was a child, I loved the cartoon, which was based on this book. What else does a boy need? Adventures, chases from gangsters and behind them, spies, storms and a good friendly team that will find a way out of any situation. So I suggest we ponder how the name Fulminant might give a clue to what might be on the breakwater of this ship.

The discussion stalled. Therefore, I will allow myself to respond to the versions that have already accumulated. And we have two votes for the figure of the lion as the main symbol of the ship on the breakwater. Alas, this is a mistake. A lion cannot stand on this ship. Let me explain why. First of all, strangely enough, French ships had far fewer lions than the fleets of other countries. I emphasize: it does not mean that there were no lions at all, but fewer. This information was very surprising to me. At the moment, in parallel with this project, I am busy with the idea of making a collection of lion figures from different countries. So, the search for French lions turned out to be not so easy. If there are those who are interested in this lion theme, you can see how this project is progressing here: I post almost all of my carving work there, including now the lion theme. But I've gotten sidetracked. Back again. I stopped to mention the first reason why the lion couldn't appear on the Fulminant breakwater. There is another reason as well. The ship in question was among the ships of the first rank. It is a large, and powerful ship. Under certain circumstances, it could take the place of a flagship in a squadron of smaller ships. Which means it would have to be suitably ornate. By the end of the 17th century, the craving for luxurious decoration of ships reached its peak. Ships flaunted an abundance of sculptures and bas-reliefs in front of each other. Even if all this significantly reduced the seaworthiness of the ship. It still had to take time for kings to realize that first of all the real greatness and glory of a warship is its victories, not its decor. That moment had not yet come. The Fulminant (like other big ships) was born with the idea of showing its own specialty. What do lions have to do with it? The point is that you can't surprise anyone with lions anymore. Even private yachts have lions on the breakwaters. And if you put such a one, it is rather a reason for ridicule from the neighbors. Therefore, if you pay attention, you will notice that lions on the breakwaters, if they continue to appear, it happens on frigates or other ordinary "workers". Elite ships should have something unique. Special! So the lion versions fall away.

Getting started. So far this is just a preparatory part. There is nothing to write about the process of work, everything is clear.

Talking about languages is a very big topic that could be talked about at length. And not even half of what you want to express can be said.

Unfortunately, I can't brag about it. My wife and children speak good German. I can hardly speak German. Because I can't work and am practically at home all the time, I have no practice in speaking. When I am in hospitals, I gradually get used to it and can even communicate on simple topics, but it is not enough, and it is quickly forgotten when I return home.

Yes, it is true that working with logs should be done with care. Once, when I was very young, I worked in a carpenter's shop and saw several examples of how important it is to observe safety. And one of the cases happened to me. I was sawing a board that had a screw, it got jammed during the movement and the saw threw the board in my face. I didn't have time to do anything, it was so fast. Good thing I got off easy, it was just a small bruise. My teeth, eyes, and the rest of my face were intact. After that, you realize very quickly how important it is to take everything possible into account, then it's too late. I'm sure I haven't invented something new with a log mount like that. Most likely those who often encounter such operations know ten more ways how it can be done quickly, qualitatively and safely. But for myself I decided to keep it. It has happened more than once that after a long break it is necessary to repeat a rare procedure. I remember exactly that once already found a solution how to do it, but now I do not remember. I'm glad if it was useful. That's what we learn from each other for.

Thank you. I'm glad you're interested. They say that if you tie an Italian's hands, he can't talk. Roughly the same thing would happen to me if I limited the number of words I could use to communicate my thoughts. I know for a fact that I am not a Spartan, and there I would have been executed long ago for being verbose. It's my curse 😌. And about English language skills, your praise should be forwarded urgently to the people who are trying to improve translators. It's a full credit to them. I, unfortunately, know English no further than "I love you", "to be or not to be" or "I'll be back". Just don't let anyone in on this secret. Please. 🙂

And now I'll finally explain how all this relates to my Gustav. Before I started carving, I decided to do some preparatory work. To make a rough figure to see how best the shape should look. It was a bit scary to take on wood right away. And that's when I remembered about that eye from the soap. And I thought, why not try to do the same thing? Only a standard bar of soap is not as big as I would like it to be. You don't have to make the whole figure, just the head and the chest and the paws. That'll be enough. But from one piece of soap will still turn out too small. How to make it bigger? And why not go the following way: grate a few pieces of soap, melt them and pour them into a mold of the desired size? That's what I did. I will not describe the whole process, there is no point. According to my calculations, the soap should have hardened again within a day or two. And it would be safe to work with. But the next day the soap was still soft. You couldn't scrape or cut it. I sighed and put my experiment aside. But on the second day and on the third day, the soap was still not in a form that I could work with. It was getting harder, and the hardening process was underway. However, as soon as the hard surface was just a little touched, a viscous and soft body reappeared deeper down. I waited a few days and eventually abandoned the idea and took up wood. Only after a long time, when I started to plan the first posts about carving I suddenly remembered that somewhere there is a soap monster. And I wanted to see what became of it. These pictures were taken at that moment. The soap is now solid. Whether it has dried up to its full depth or whether the soap magma is still beating somewhere inside, I don't know. I didn't cut or pick, what would be the point? Also, I still can't share how long it takes for the soap to become solid again. Maybe it happened the next second after I abandoned the experiment, or maybe it took a month to harden? I can't say for sure. So is it okay to use soap for prep work? Or is this method not worth considering at all? It's hard to say. Maybe different grades of soap behave differently. I know there are kits for making your own soap. And it seems that such kits produce regular hard bars of soap. So maybe if you use something like that, the result will be better. Alternatively, you could just try heating the two edges of the bars of soap and while they are hot join them together. Then you will get a large sized blank. Or maybe not. I didn't bother to check. One thing I can say for sure is that if there is no special need for a large size and the size of one bar of soap is suitable, it is not a bad option. If you have uncertainty and need to try to make a practice figure, then this method may be useful. What to look out for? For me, the most important factor turned out to be the smell. While my son was working with his soap eye he had a strong soap smell in his room. And it can't seem to be called a stink, but over time it became a nuisance. So if you are allergic to some strong odors, try to make sure even in the store that your preparation is not one of those that give you a headache or something else. Why didn't I use plasticine (clay)? I will answer this logical question right away. It's simple. I really wanted to quickly start something to do, soap took from my wife, and for plasticine had to go to the store or order online. And I didn't want to wait. In addition, I have a strange attitude to plasticine, I have already tried to do preparatory work in the form of molding. But I was deduced that it is very hard and while you knead it, your fingers start to hurt. And when it is soft, then from a light touch can lose shape, crumple, flatten. I spent half an hour to mold a face, and in one second all the work is mangled, and I am like a furious monkey jumping in anger on the walls. So I wanted not to build up layers in the preparatory work, but to cut them off like in carving. That's why I decided to try soap. Are there any other ways that can help with practice work? Yes, of course. People have been sculpting for thousands of years and have come up with many different ways. There are also methods that have only recently emerged. So this topic can be a very long time coming. But I'll stop there. So, this is a very big digression.

No, no, no. This is not ground meat. So you can relax, I'm not going to tell you about making a minced meat figurine. Then what is this suspicious stuff and how can it be linked to Vasa? It's my experiment. Not a good one. But that's what experiments are for, to find bad solutions. The impetus for this experiment was my son. The thing is, he had an interesting drawing class at school. When I saw his sketchbook for the first time, I was very interested in how their teacher conducted lessons and what tasks he gave. There was a lot of interesting stuff in there, but I'll mention just one example. One day I saw a drawing in this sketchbook where my son was drawing an eye. It was the eye of a lizard or a snake. I can't remember exactly. It turned out that the students drew different eyes, some drew a bird's eye, some drew a fish or a cat. My son got a snake. I think it's a very interesting task. You can try to achieve several tasks at once. How to show a spherical object. How to make it feel transparent and shiny. At the same time you can convey how one color in the iris of the eye flows into another. I liked this task so much that I sat down next to my son and started drawing too. It had been ages since I had picked up a pencil. And I haven't used colored pencils in over a thousand years. When my son had his next class the next week, I went into his room and asked him how the assignment was completed. To which my son showed me this. It's soap. Regular soap. Their teacher decided to continue the eye theme, but now all the students were making little sculptures of their eyes like this. That's brilliant. It doesn't require any complicated or dangerous tools. The soap is easy to work with, just some chopstick from a Chinese restaurant, for example. Or a spoon.

The next lion was a very famous Swede with Dutch roots. Of course, I am referring to Vasa's ship and his lion. It is simply impossible to set out to make a collection of Mufas and Simbs and bypass this lion. I've been thinking for a long time about what exactly my.... it's not very interesting to write the word "lion" in every sentence. I'll name this lion.... Gustav. I think it's an appropriate name for a Swedish royal lion. Now, where was I? I've given it a lot of thought. Uh-huh, I remember. I thought long and hard about what Gustav's final appearance should look like and thought, why don't I try to replicate exactly the kind of lion we're all used to. The one in the Stockholm museum. Let it look more like a lion that has been underwater for a long time. Why not? It's decided, let this lion be a drowned man. 🙄I think it's an interesting experience to try to replicate the museum original. Now we can begin. However, I'm going to start the story of the next lion from the side. An unexpected side. Maybe it will be interesting and useful for someone. I will purposely end this post halfway through, and I will post the photo in the next one. There are some people who are too impressionable. Then it's better not to look below. I warned you!

Thanks

and how do you do that?

I suddenly have a question. Am I in the right section for this topic. Maybe it should have been placed in another place of the forum, for example, where they describe the construction of ships? There will definitely be not just one element, but the whole stern. What should I have done?

Okay. I'll write it down: There's a leader in the race! The lion now has two whole votes. And Schwarzenegger is down one. It's getting harder and harder for this character to win. 😄

That's a good question. Unfortunately, I can't give an exact answer as to what scale this lion is. Of course, I can take a ruler and measure it and find out, no problem. But the scale will most likely turn out to be not standard, not with that step, which is usually adhered to in modeling. It could very well be 1: 14,7 or 1: 27,75. It's just that in this project I didn't try to stick to any clear figures. As I have already written, it will be a whole set of different lions. And from the very beginning I realized that they will be from different ships. One lion in real size was 2 meters, the other almost 6 meters. And if they are all in the same rigid scale, there will be too much difference. So I made the decision that they were like sculptures on a hand, they should be about the same size so that you could see the details of each one equally well. And you don't need to take a magnifying glass to do that. And just looking at the final dimensions of the figures so they would be about the same. And therefore the scales will not be beautiful.

Thank you. I love him a lot too. The previous ones have gone to new owners. And I really wanted to keep him. Now I do. And he's going to live with a whole pride of other lions.

Thanks for the first version. The score is open, 1 vote for the lion. If someone else also has an opinion that someone else has already voiced, you can and should still post it. And in time we'll see which versions will be more popular. P.S. I perfectly understand that for many people my nickname is seen as if I fell face down on the keyboard and managed to sleep a little in that position. But actually there is a sense in these strange set of letters. Those who are familiar with the Russian language will easily read everything. And for the rest of you, I will explain, this nickname means Partner, someone who helps you in your work. In Russian it is spelled like this: "Напарник". So in order not to torture yourself with typing, you can write: Partner. It'll be easier. Or by the name Alexander. Thank you for participating in this survey.

And right off the bat, I'm going to ask the first question. It's creative. It's true! And then in the voice of some TV quiz show host: We see the stern. What do you think would crown the bow of the ship? What or whom would you put there? Unfortunately, I can't give more information for thinking, everything that can be used in any way has already been said and shown. Further, Mr. Masters, you have a conditional minute, after which you must give an answer. Actually, I have my own version. I can substantiate it and prove it. But the question is still important. We happen to have a difference of opinion. So I'd like to hear some other people's versions. And for the sake of keeping them unbiased, I'll give you my opinion later. And at the same time I will check myself, compare my thoughts with others. There don't seem to be any conditions, you can just say what you would put there yourself, but it's better if it's accompanied by a short "because". And here's another thing: the stage of working with the main figure is still very far away and you can express versions even when the narrative runs away. So if you happen to read this when the conversation has already moved on to other topics, feel free to offer your ideas at any point. This social poll is very important to me. The more people who offer their side of the story, the better.

A few words about the ship itself. Very little is known about it. Not really. Almost nothing is known about it. Attempts to google the name FULMINANT led to a bunch of medical articles with terrible photos. Only after I put "Ship" in front of the name could I look at what I found without sedative drops, but even then it was impossible to call it a successful search. Google led to several photos of a battleship of the 19th century. There is nothing sailing at all. This is the only image: A few words about the ship itself. Very little is known about it. Not really. Almost nothing is known about it. Attempts to google the name FULMINANT led to a bunch of medical articles with terrible photos. Only after I put "Ship" in front of the name could I look at what I found without sedative drops, but even then it was impossible to call it a successful search. Google led to several photos of a battleship of the 19th century. There is nothing sailing at all. This is the only image: One single sketch. The customer found it. I couldn't even search the picture to find anything. So in the descriptive part of the ship and its history, I can only quote what I heard from the customer. Kind of like the FULMI was a twin to the widely known L'AMBITIEUX. И... и... and that's it, that's the whole story. The model itself is L'AMBITIEUX. It was built from this monograph, from the same drawings. If I understand correctly, it was kind of like the L'AMBITIEUX up to a certain point, in the sense that it was the one being built. But suddenly this very same sketch was found and there was a fateful reversal. AMBI was aborted in utero and FULMI was put in his place. Tough analogy... Yes, I know, I'm a scary person. Nothing sacred! I know. I'm scary. It's one thing to build a beautiful but worn-out AMBI, how many of them are there in the world? And it's quite another thing to be the first to build something that no one has ever built before! It's a completely different sound. There we go. And now it's my job to make the decor so that no one will ever guess who's under the makeup. And since there is no more precise data, it means that this work is as creative as possible. Think for yourself, think for yourself, cards in hand, wind beneath your wings, power beneath your tail... Oh, no, that's not quite the same meaning. But in essence it's true, because the flight of fancy is not only good, but also bad. In the sense that it is necessary not only to think up how these curls will look like, but also to be not ashamed of the design. And there is no way to do it without it. And although the customer separately, in capital letters, with underlines, flashing garlands and other things said that he would not be picky about correctness and accuracy, it is still important to me that there were no serious lapses. Actually, this was one of the reasons for the appearance of this topic on the forum. I already have a pile of questions that I would like to discuss before it appears in the material. Such things.

Unexpectedly, I agreed to participate in a project. I never thought I would take on something like this. And I didn't agree for a long time. But there are people who are very good at advertising and persuasion. And I don't mean some Sony, Coca-Cola other brand. They've never dreamed of something like this. I wouldn't believe it myself if someone told me that this project took me seven years to complete. And so I gave in and agreed. And that's what this project is. This is the model. It's big, though! And interesting. The size alone is worth it. I will never be able to afford to build one for myself (if I decide to build a full model at all). So the opportunity to feel and work on such a king-size was one of the reasons why I decided to take it. I will mention the rest as the story develops. Let me say at once: I have nothing to do with the model itself. It was built by other people. As far as I know, they are not one, and not two. But I won't mention the masters. For several reasons. Firstly, I do not know if the masters themselves wish to be mentioned? I didn't see any mention of this model on the forums, maybe it was for a reason (though maybe I just missed it and didn't notice it). Secondly, I'm not that much of a stickler for inquiries, I could be wrong. Write something wrong or not mention someone at all. Therefore, I will omit the paths the model took before me. If suddenly the participants of the project want, they will write themselves. As you can see from the photos, a lot of work has been done. In addition to the hull itself, there is a battalion of individual items. But at the same time and before the completion of still work and work. My participation in this project is strictly related to carving. In particular while in plans aft decor. And then it will be seen.

Thank you very much for the warm welcome. It is a pleasure to be back again. 🙂

Final photos of the British predator. to be continued

There won't be much in the way of pictures. I photographed the first couple carefully. It was interesting for me, and the customer needed to be shown how the process was going. And now it doesn't matter so much. It turned out like with children: the firstborn appears and with him a sea of photos and video, with the second already less. That's how it is with me. By the third is already a very small amount. There is nothing new for myself, everything has been worked out for a long time, so the photos for memory are not particularly important, and I did not know then whether I would show on the forums at all. That's why I didn't take pictures. The only thing I photographed was the very beginning. Just because I suddenly thought, how to dissolve a solid log? It is dangerous to stick such a round log into the circular saw, the slightest misalignment and the log will spit right in your face, for the glory of the laws of physics, and in the name of safety. It is possible, of course, somehow by hand: with a saw or an axe. But it was too long and inconvenient, you can't clamp it in a vise or in your hands. The problem was defeated in half an hour. I don't think I invented any particularly clever device. But just in case, I decided to take a picture, so that it will remain as a memory for the future. In case I need it again. Here's the device: I do not remember exactly how exactly made a groove under the kniavdiged, but most likely just a hacksaw and chisel. True, this stage completely melted in my memory, and therefore there is a chance that I fell asleep, and when I woke up the magic elves had already managed to saw through everything and hollow out. The chance of that being the case is slim, I agree. But let's face facts - it's too early to reject this version, we still know very little about this topic. What if the stories aren't stories at all. Well, as I warned, the intermediate types of carvings are quite scarce. It may even seem that the frames duplicate each other. But in fact, the inquisitive eye will see how the Lion's appearance gradually changes.

The first in the series is the British Lion. You could say that this character has become like a family member to me over the last few years. A few years ago, I had one made to order. A couple of them. The first one was taken away halfway through, not finished. By the will of circumstances it turned out to bring this figure to the customer, just to show how the work is going, how the lion looks like. There is little chance that there will be changes or something else. And to my great surprise, I liked the lion in the very rough form, when the features are just beginning to be drawn. And the figure never went back to the workshop. And I was ordered another one, so that the second one would be in the final execution. Which was done in the end. So now I was already carving the third brother. That's the story. And it really felt like meeting an old acquaintance again. Maybe.... No, it's not. One hundred percent, it was that same couple that set the tone for this project. It was decided to make in the same enlarged size, and not in the standard, small, in which more often worked in the "shooting" on the landing on the model. So that it would be possible to work out small details to the maximum. And that later it would be possible to consider without a magnifying glass in hands, since the main thread, so it will be "tastier".

After a long break, I'm slowly getting back to modeling. At least in some form. I came up with the idea to occupy myself with one small project. And it will be connected with lions (who would have thought). Namely, to make a series of lions. Of course, marine, in stripes, everything as it should be. Pluses a lot (bending fingers). First, the work is not so long, not to compare full-fledged with the model of the ship, should not drag on for many years. Secondly, in my present circumstances, I am left with a minimum of technical base. Machines and tools have to be built up again from the very first level. And the fact that I have precious sets of cutters I take no less as a tremendous luck. The rest will slowly appear. And for this project table, chisels and a couple of simple tools are more than enough. So there are already two pluses. And thirdly, I am interested in it. Total: I see no reason for the noble don not to start an interesting pastime for himself. I'm going to carve some figures. They'll all be lions. But different ones. British lion, Dutch, Russian, French and so on. That's the end of this introductory post. Slowly I will post what has already been done. Ask questions and advice too. So I invite you to participate in the discussion. I hope to have an interesting topic in the end.