EricWiberg

Henry, you are correct. Basically if I use the kit bowsprit fit as is, I can have longer/lower for the beakhead... OR a slightly higher angle of the bowsprit. There is one possibility though.... the Heller kit has the bowsprit going through the beakhead bulkhead. Cedric, in his La Reine build, stated that French ships before 1690 had the bowsprit go through the "first deck".... but I didn't know what he meant by that. I happened to look at Micheal Saunier's build, and his bowsprit is pushed forward and enters through the bowsprit deck - ah ha! the "first deck" - and NOT through the bulkhead. Marc (Hubacs Historian) agrees that this does seem a plausible design consideration for me.... so by pushing the bowsprit forward and have it enter the bowsprit deck, I does appear I can get the beakhead "longer/lower" AND maybe even tweak the bowsprit angle up (not sure how far yet). Playing with paper templates suggests this is possible. 🤞

Back from a week of vacation in a warmer place than Wisconsin, and had a lot of time to relax and review other build logs. And I came to the conclusion that if I am really trying to model "Soleil Royal 1671", then I couldn't stop at simply bashing the wales/bulwarks to have much more aft sheer. I also had to make the bow more "Dutchy looking" (I think I first saw that term reading Marc's Hubacs Historian blog!). I want to: 1) change the bowsprit angle, 2) lower the catheads, 3) wrap the forward bulwark around past the beakhead bulkhead (not sure what this is called), and 4) lower/lengthen the beakhead Below you can see my tracing of the Heller kit supplied parts. The Heller kit has 34 degrees angle (orange marker below). Mondfeld says in 1665 it was 40 degrees, then 35 degrees in 1675. The St Phillipe monograph is 40 degrees, and I found a Zeven Provincean plan which is also at 40 degrees. Sooooo, I am thinking I could do 39-40 degrees and be just fine; see the new black lines drawn in. With a known bowsprit angle, the other items like cathead placement and headrail positioning will fall in place (yup, I am thinking I will scratch build the head rails..). Where I am struggling now is is with the beakhead design... "lower and longer". By increasing the angle of the bowsprit from 34 degrees to 40 degrees, the figurehead APPEARS to be lower. Perhaps I just need to examine some prints like the VDV drawing below and take cues to "lengthen" the beakhead a bit from the Heller kit part?

Finishing the starboard skids. I had fabricated the skids to extend down to the "top" bottom wale... but if the "lower" bottom wale is dipping into the water amidships, then it made sense to me to lower the skid down to the "lower" bottom wale. I am also doubling/reinforcing the thickness of the skids at the bottom wales; I have seen that on a few drawings and models... not sure what that is called besides "reinforcement". The next step will be the skids/hand rails at the ladder steps on the hull. However, I am a bit puzzled as... were all of the ladder steps jutting out the same amount from the hull.. let's say 6 inches? But if we have steps on a wale, they will stick out farther than a step not on a wale, if this makes sense. I am thinking that the ladder steps stuck out to to a fixed point, whether they were on a wale or not, that followed the tumblehome of the hull. So let's say we pick 12 inches out from the hull... on a 6 inch thick wale, the step would be 6 inches wide. but the next step - NOT on a wale - would this have to be 12 inches wide?!? Hope this makes sense

College soccer is done and outdoor preparations for winter are complete... so finally a lot more time is available for me to work in the shipyard! The wales and drift rails are complete on the starboard side. The upper wales and bottom drift rail will be covered with a golden listons d' or "rope", but the upper drift rail will be plain, so I am using bolts on the upper drift rail as I did on the lower and middle wales. I used 0.5mm (.020") diameter bolt heads on the lower/middle wales, so I used 0.3mm (0.012") diameter bolt heads on the top drift rail. I also fabricated new fenders and am ready to glue them in place... fortunately I remembered to make them a bit more proud than the listons d' or rope will be. That leaves the outside ladder steps/rail to be completed. So after the port side is completed in several days, I am on the verge of being able to paint the hull halves.

Well, that wasn't too painful! After Marc's observation that, in actual practice, the sheer of the hull planking would have aligned with the sheer of the wales... I had to fix it. Perhaps hard to see, but it should be much easier to see after painting and a wash coat. Of course, I have some touching up to do... Now to affix the upper wales to the port side. It was actully very easy to do, as once I got the lower bottom wale on ages ago, that became my guide. I just cut little spacer blocks to maintain the desired seperation between the wales, just by sliding the block back and forth and then clamping the wale in place. And I finally got a sample listons d'or available to see how it fits. The listons d' or is two 16 gauge copper wires twisted together so the diameter is 0.090"; then the wire is laid in a channel created by wood strips 0.055" high. A couple of passes with a belt sander results in a flat side and a rope that is now almost half its orginal thickness. As per Marc (Hubac's Historian) and GuyM, when laid on a wale, the goal is to have it appear that the gilded rope was carved down right out of the wale strip.

Thanks, Ian! Not sure about the brave part, though... maybe... "not aware of what I got myself into"!

Well, Marc... I agree with you regarding the plank lines. The photo below from your Pinterest site clearly shows the plank lines match trhe sheer lines of the wales. I have come too far on this 1671 SR path to ignore an inaccuracy like this. So with a little bit of Tamiya putty... The good news is that there really is no issue at the bow or amidships. My "new" wales start to sheer up closer to the stern. Now, after light sanding and the rescribing, the hull truly will look like Frankenstein's Monster, but nothing that some primer and the eventual paint scheme won't cover up.

Regarding the underwater paint scheme for White Stuff.... I have imagined that to be a gooey mess that is smeared on. Would that have the effect of hiding the underwater plank lines?

Marc, as usual, I really appreciate any and all of your comments! Hmmm... you have given me something to think about with the planking... I have been dissatisfied with enough of my initial efforts that removing them and starting over - 2-3-4 times! - is commonplace. Thanks for the observation on gilding, as that is just one of the many things that are in my mind!

The front/rear bulwarks are glued on... Apoxie Sculpt makes a rock hard bond! Zip ties and clamps held the port side rear bulwark in place for 24 hours (the last bulwark to be attached). As the port side glue bonds dried, I affixed the upper wales on the starboard side, at 3.2mm wide, thinner than the middle and lower wales, and only 0.75mm thick to allow the listons d'or to be attached and seem to be carved out of the wale strip. The listons d' or for the upper wales are made from 16 gauge copper wire twisted together to imitate rope; the back side will be sanded on a belt sander almost 1/3 of the way through to make a flat surface for glueing. The starboard side is waiting for the Apoxie Sculpt to dry for light sanding of the bulwark/hull joints. The interior planking of the bulwarks are completed as well.. Finally, before she sits for the next 24 hours to dry, this is an attempt at a waterline photo to show the bulk of the ship above the waves.

Whew... the starboard bulwarks are glued in. .. thanks to zip ties and clamps. I knew that the the little rabbett available for glueing didn;t offer much structural support, so I made liberal use of Apoxie Sculpt to fill the inside gaps... I am also using small tabs affixed with CVA glue as well. After 48 hours of curing, the hull/bulwarks structure does seem much more rigid. I will have a lot of gentle sanding to do on the exterior. Note this large gap, into which I push a thread of Apoxie Sculpt. I then apply several drops of the Apoxie Sculpt solvent and gently rub, so the the Apoxie Sculpt becomes almost watery and it spreads out very well. The first half of the gap, from the waist to the bow, will be covered by one of the upper wales. However, the upper wales will sheer upward as it approaches the stern to match the lower and middle wales, so I have to fill/level the gap as best I can. This may take several iterations of Apoxie Sculpt before I am satisfied that the gap is levelled out. I won't touch the port side bulwarks until I learn from the starboard side; dry fitting shows that the port side bulwark fit is tighter, though, Glueing the bulwarks on at this stage initially seemed intimidating, but after a lot of thinking and reviewing the many other builds out there, I was able to lay out a sequential plan, andf then just execute the plan. I am sure that there will be plenty of "I didn't think of that!" down the road, but I will just deal with those as they arrive.

And.... we are ready to glue the upper bulwarks in! Cap rails, fighting holes, miscellaneous items are alll done. Some minor things can't be done until the bulwarks are in, such as finishing the interior planking, but the major focus will be on adding the upper wales with listons d' or. I have a several day wait for some spring clamps that I ordered online to arrive. I could not - even at the local box stores - find any clamps that had a minimum 4" long neck to fit over the bulwarks. They should be here on Monday... fingers crossed. In the mean time, I continue to puzzle over how to "finish" the top of the steps on the side of the hull. I will not have a gangway deck at the waist, so I may well have to somehow add a ladder on the interior. But, I have seen some drawings of Dutch ships that actually have a hinged door at the top of the bulwark at the waist, cap rails included on the door.

Marc.. I never thought of it that way... "In reality, though, it’s just a long series of mini-builds that aggregate into the finished thing"... but that sums it up in one sentence!

Finally... the port side is almost caught up with the starboard side (getting 3 hours of work every morning this week by waking at 5AM!). I had to finish the scarf joint through bolts and then the wale "bolts" on the port hull (tiny little round head nails that I found online). Then it was on the putting the timberheads on the sheer rails. Honestly, when I first saw how Marc (Hubac's Historian) did this several years ago and how he had to patiently account for the sheer step at every timberhead... I dreaded reaching that point in my build. However, I can honestly say it was so much easier to do than I thought. I would have absolutely no problem adding this detail again. Part of it may be the "Chopper"... it makes very nice, consistent cuts in the polystyrene. I made the initial timberheads 7mm in length before gradually cutting/sanding them down to 2.5mm in height; starting with 7mm made it very easy to use my laser level to ensure the timberheads were always plumb. Then I used 0.5mm thick stock to make the framing on each timberhead. So I simply have to finish the framing on the timberheads and drill out the fighting holes in the waist; so in 1-2 days, I will be finally in a position to glue in the bulwarks as GuyM has done. Of course, the hull is NOT glued together yet... the bulwarks need to be on to create the upper wales and also to see the area on the rear bulwqrk that I have available to festoon with fluer de lis.

Work has continued over the last month, albeit at a snails pace (coaching college soccer consumes some time in the Fall!). However, I have enough time this AM to complete the rabbets for the port side gun ports.... that leaves only the fighting holes at the waist... and then I get to install the timber heads and cap rails. It is interesting to me to look at the "before/after" appearance of the bulwarks. And soon enough, they will be glued in place...

When I get to needing many items like that, I will certainly make molds as you have. I am OK with the dolphins being "hand made" individually as when they are almost dry, I can add any subtle bends or twists etc to make them fit snugly at the various sheer steps.

OK.. that's about it for labor in the shipyard for this weekend... it's too nice outside! I did solve my dolphin issue at the sheer steps. I was unhappy that the dolphin body was all in the same plane. I needed the belly to rest on the carving and the head and tail to come out from the body 2-3mm so they could be on the side of the rail. So I finally figured out to have 2mm Evergreen "steps" for the head and tail to rest on. Now the belly is not in the same plane as the head and tail. However, I will be waiting for some time to glue in the dolphins, I think, as they might as well have a sign on their necks that says "fragile, please knock me off!" I am so close to glueing in the bulwarks so I can finish the upper wales and get to "listons d or". It is time to clean up and make sure all of the holes are drilled etc. And I also am giving lots of thought to the quarter gallery layout... due to the sheer of the wales, I cannot use the kit QG. The inner bulwark planking needs a light scribe to finish it, etc.

College soccer is back, so coaching will slow any work in the ship yard way down for the next few months. However, I did get the look that I wanted for the first sheer step, especially with the 1.5mm half-round (it took some experimenting with boiling water to bend the Evergreen piece into shape). The dolphin needs a little clean up now that the Apoxie Sculpt has cured and I think I will trim some of the hance piece (under the curved piece of half-round) so that only a little bit shows under the half-round to match the rest of the horizontal run. Otherwise I can move on to the next sheet step, as I already have the clay pieces made. I am wondering if in real-life, there was a curved base that the belly of the dolphin would nestle into for additional support?

Well, I have any number of dolphins now to choose from... and the smallest ones are down to 15-18mm in length, so I think - based on drawings and other models - that the size is scale appropriate. I am not sure of my terminology, but there are three parts to the "hance" at the sheer step (?)., and this is what I have so far. The first part is the curved stock plank that ties together the two different railings together (note the blue circle on the piece); I will refer to this as the "hance piece". Next, I want a simple curved ribbon (name? - also a "hance piece"?) nestled into the curve of the hance piece where the bulwark has been cut away, and this appears to be the primary support for the dolphin. However, it is obvious that the curls at the ends are too big. They need to be nice and small... so I made a jig and will figure out how to make those tiny curls at the ends. Compared to my learning curve for the dolphins, it should be a lot quicker to make the curled hance pieces. It's a bit more difficult as I want the ribbon to be 2.5mm wide to match the thickness of the bulwark. I am finding that the Apoxie Sculpt needs to be 2-3 hours old, almost at the point that it is unworkable, otherwise the ribbon wants to deform every so slightly from its own weight.

Ian - I hope this helps! The two on top are 30mm long (way too big, but they were practice). The bottom four are 20mm long, and I personally am liking the one in the middle of the second row, as the tail and body are a bit beefier. Maybe even the right-hand one in the second row with it, simply because they are similar, but clearly different. My story would be that they were carved by two different wood carvers!

Perhaps these picture may help. I start with a 25mm long piece, with "paddles" at each end (big paddle will be the head, small paddle the tail). The tail is looped and I press down slightly with a silcone tipped tool, so now I have my basic figure. Finally, I use different tools to try and add details. The result is the dolphin at the bottom. I have been trying to make subtle variations to see what I like best. I am no Doris, and I could keep working on this for weeks/months/years before I start to get truly happy with the results. However, I have had friends and family look at these creations from a foot or more away, and they think they are great. So, I am setting a time limit.. by the end of this week, I I will start applying the dolphins to the sheer steps! I made them in slightly different sizes, amd I am inclined to go with the smaller ones.

Krill, thank you for your observations! I have been trying different techniques. The working time is 1-3 hours, so there is plenty of time with the Apoxie Sculpt. I think if I were doing figures with appendages like arms/legs, breaking up the build into 2 or 3 steps would work well. But the dolphin is basically one "shape" with no appendages. I watched some additional YouTube videos and got a few more little tools that really help. In general, once I get the general shape rolled out, the little details can be added in 5-10 minutes. Using the right tool and wetting it very lightly with the solvent makes life much easier for me. Right now, I can make a dolphin in 20 minutes or so. I actually tried making the dolphin body first, then added the tail later; however, that joint wasn't as strong as if the dolphin had been rolled out of one piece. I did find that they are too fragile to make molds that I can cast into resin! The subtle fins and thin tail simply break off in the unmolding step, so I am content to make the individual dolphins that I need from Apoxie Sculpt, and not worry about casting them in resin (as was my original plan). I am intrigued enough by the Apoxie Sculpt that I think I will find additional uses for it on this build.

Thank you, Marc! I had thought those were dolphins.... but then I saw a drawing that looked like it had scales... i.e. fish! So I am back to calling them dolphins

In the last two days, I have created six fish carvings in the name of practice (for the edge of railings at the sheer steps) from Apoxie Sculpt clay... all in an effort to nudge my clay sculpting skills from "nonexistent" to... I am not sure where I will end up. Hopefully "passable"! The bottom fish is where I finally got a general shape and appearance that I like. Now to copy this and make a total of four fish. In terms of time, it takes me 30-45 minutes to create a fish. I bought some additional micro tools which should help me make better fine details. One thing I have learned is that the Apoxie Sculpt solvent is great at keeping the clay fresh and pliable. But you can see in the photo that, at this scale, a single drop covers the entire carving and sctually starts to smooth out, even dissolve, some of the finer details, like scales and fins. So I have to be very judicious in applying the solvent. I would love to see the clay sculpting tutorial videos on the MSW build by Doris of the Royal Caroline... but those videos are not viewable now?!

Basically finished with the cap rails on the starboard side... still need to do a bit of paneling/framing. However, I have reached the point where I had to finally deal with the hance pieces and decorative mouldings at each sheer step down. The poop/quarterdeck sheer step drops 5mm... at the waist, the step is 9mm (and I will not have gangway decking at the waist). You may note I plugged all of the "holes at the waist" that apparently allowed pikes to be thrust through in case of boarding actions... I have new holes started on the inside that will be between the timberheads of the cap rails, as opposed to going through the timbers on occasion. (I didn't think of that when I first bored them out). My intent is to try and emulate the Berian/Very drawing, but only at the 5mm steps at the poop and quarterdecks. The larger 9mm drop at the waist won't have the fish/dolphin, but will just be a wooden moulding, much in the general shape of an "L". Cutting/fitting the hance pieces was fairly straightforward (I went into Word and quickly cobbled together some pieces that I shrunk down and used as templates). The rounded mouldings that lead into the hance pieces ar 1.5mm half-round on 2mm wide strip. I am going to adhere 1mm half round on the hance pieces to continue the flow of the mouldings. I do plan to cut away the bulwark to the upper right of the hance piece to clear room for the decorative moulding and the dolphin. I have been thinking about how to make the decorative moulding and dolphin for weeks. I did try some styrene carving, but I thought the results were horrible (I am no Hubac's Historian!). So... I tried Apoxie Sculpt... and this was my first 5 minute attempt last night with no regards to scale. The moulding obviusly has to nestle into the curved portion of the hance piece, and then the dolphin will be on top. Hmmm... I might be able to get some plausible mouldings/dolphins made from Apoxie Sculpt. I made a jig after glueing a template into a board and using drill bits as my "wrap around" points for the mouldings. I also had a second attempt at a dolphin. I am thinking that I may be at this for days (weeks?!) as I try and develop some sculpting skills. The mouldings should be straightfoward with a jig - the only question is do I try and "carve" more details into them. And - I am hoping - every time I try and sculpt a dolphin, it will turn out a bit better every time! Again, I will only have dolphins at the poop/quarter deck sheer steps... and hopefully over the next several days/weeks, my sculptng skills will continue to improve!!!