EricWiberg

Well, that wasn't too painful. The framing/paneling on the timberheads is done and the cap rail glued on... just some cleanup is left. Now onto the waist and the rear bulwarks..

Thank you, Marc. I am thinking about hances and the light rails that battle clothes were draped over. I think both can be done with the bulwarks glued onto the hull

Took a deep breath, and with some trepidation, decided to tackle some timber heads/cap rails. The Heller kit timber heads are 3.0mm x 1.5mm, and about 5,5mm high. I wanted short and fat, so I went with 3.2mm x 2.0mm, and only 2.5mm. The first step was to install timber heads that were well high at 6.0mm... the laser leveler and naked eye were very helpful in addressing the slight bit of rising sheer (wait until the afte section). I basically followed the spacing of the kit timber heads. Next, I gradually filed/sanded the timberheads down to 2.5mm in height. Finally, a quick test fit of the cap rail without glue. The cap rail was a 2mm x 2mm strip, with 2,5mm x 0.25mm strips glued on the side to make a "U shaped" cap rail that fits on top of the timber heads. Just below the horzontal cap rail is another rail, this one rounded... this consists of a 1.5mm half round glued onto a 2.0mm wide strip. a twin to this will be glued onto the outside face of the cap rail. The next step is to do the "frame and panel effect" that Hubac's Historian done to the outside face of the timber heads. If this continues to work well, I will then proceed to the waist cap rail....

The starboard "fighting port holes" (no idea of the proper nautical terminology) at the waist have been added. I don't know if it would be appropriate, as per the Zeven Provincien 1665 drawings that Chapman has in post #131, to have some kind of ring around the holes inside and out? I looked at additional Zeven Provincien drawings (and pictures of a model)... very interesting and informative. The Zeven Provincien had no gangway decks at the waist; is it possible that Soleil Royal #1 also lacked gangways, and simply had a wooden wall at the waist? That would be an interesting take, but unless there is compelling evidence... I am adding the kit gangways. Also... I would love to move the ladder aft one gun port, but it would just interfere with the wooden strip between the wales (name?) that will serve as the anchor point for the eye bolts at the bottom of the main mast shroud lines. Unless I cut off the decorative tab that I added (but I also have a scarf joint at the top middle wale at that spot). Guess I will just leave the ladder steps as is.

Chapman and Marc... thank you! I never would have caught this small detail. If I have this right, the small port holes will be accessed by people standing on the main gun deck, meaning the holes are just below the gangway decking. Another detail that Marc has pointed out... the light railings that the "battle cloth" is draped over (my anology is that this is like the padding that you see on the islands of Japanese aircraft carriers like Akagi... or HMS Victory hammocks). It appears that the battle cloth was not simply draped over the cap rail, but rather, there was an additional light railing over the that the battle cloth was draped on, such as you can see on Michael Saunier's build on the poop royal deck. Marc has a very detailed grisaille drawing of a Dutch ship that clearly shows a battle cloth railing on every deck (foredeck, quarter deck, poop, poop royal) EXCEPT at the waist. So I am still at a stage where I can incorporate both features... but I have to do some planning first! Unfurling the battle cloth..

Ahh, I do see what you are referring to. So the holes are only on the waist - the lowest part - of.the bulwarks, as presumably that would be the easiest area to board in a melee action?

Chapman, thank you for this knowledge! Since we obviously have no primary drawings/plans of Soleil Royal as she may have appeared in 1670ish, I am always looking for any puzzle pieces of information that when added together, render a picture of what she may really have looked like, especially given that building practices in 1670 changed dramatically in only 2 decades. The smaller port holes for thrusting hand-held weapons are very interesting, but can we say with certainty they appeared on French ships of that 1660-70 time period?

Well, I would say that I have reached the point of no return... but that happened back in April when I decided to grind off the wales! Again, I can't thank Marc (MSW "Soleil Royal by Hubac's Historian - Heller - An Extensive Modification and Partial Scratch-Build") and Guy (SOS "Soleil Royal 1671 modified Heller kit") enough for sharing their experience and advice with me as I go down the path of Soleil Royal 1671, and the primary resource being the VDV sketches of Royal Duc. Besides all of the other modifactions that had to be done to approximate the Royal Duc drawings, it became apparent that all of the exposed timberheads had to be removed (as in the waist) or walled up, in order to make "solid walls" that are a result of the very high bulwarks and that pronounced sheer, especially at the stern, at that period in time. One result is that in the VDV sketches, the guns on the fore deck/quarter deck/poop deck poke through solid walls, as opposed to poking through railings. So at all levels of the bulwarks (and the waist), the only exposed timber heads will be very short (I will target 2.5mm in actual height, about half of the Heller kit height) and be covered with a cap rail throughout. The rear/front bulwarks have been scraped free of any decorations/mouldings, and have been scribed with planks. The rear bulwark, especially, will afford me a lot of space to "redecorate"... which likely will just be a mass of fluer de lis (as seen on Royal Louis). The following two photos show the inner planking. Before I glue in the bulwarks, I have a checklist of all of the things that would be better to do now, than after the the bulwarks are installed (as per GuyM, I am going to affix the bulwarks much earlier in the process so I can finish the upper wales and adorn them with listons d' or). I think I see the starboard bulwarks being attached in 3 weeks!

In between working on the bulwarks, I have settled on what I will do for the gun carriage tackle bolts that pierce the hull. I am making (not blackened yet) washers from copper 28 gauge wire, and making the bolts from 0.020" (0.5mm) Evergreen rod. I actually had 0.015" metal wire, but I like the idea of having poly rod going into the hull and hopefully developing a welded plastic/plastic (better?) bond. I I found some ridiculously thin 0.005" plastic "wire".... if I could make a tiny hole at the end of the poly rod, I would insert the 0.005" wire to duplicate the wedge that was inserted... but I might be working on that for the next 5 years without success! ..

As mentioned previously, I have sanded off all strakes, decorations, whatever from the bulwarks (completely revising the bulwarks was a planned outcome of my decision to add new wales that would show much more sheer at the stern). That left me with the standard Heller gun ports, windows, and exposed timberheads. In pursuit of an SR 1671, heavily relying on Royal Duc drawings, some things had to happen: 1) the main deck gun ports had to lose the arch on top, 2) the four circular gun ports on the quarterdeck had to become five square gun ports, 3) create some new windows for the quarterdeck and poop deck, and 4) cover up the exposed timberheads to make a "solid" wall. All items done, and I decided I wanted a little more height on the sides of the bulwark as they descend from left to right. This also helped with the repositioning of the poop royal deck. The gun ports and windows aren't finished yet, but they are getting close, and my laser leveler is very helpful with maintaining plumb. One big item that I also had to resolve was the poop royal deck. In order to add a second gun to the poop deck, I shortened the poop royal deck by 11mm (after already removing the top sheer step at the poop royal deck as well). I didn't feel like redoing the poop royal deck entrance bulkhead, so I did several things with the royal poop deck and the poop deck that lowered the poop royal deck vertical height by several mm (thinning the deck supports in the hull by almost a mm each, etc.)... and yet kept the same stock bulkhead entrnce. Now it is just a matter of finishing the starboard rear bulwark (I have already started work on the port rear bulwark). I scribed planks on the exterior, but will glue styrene strips on the interior walls to see how that looks compared to scribed planks. Of course, I will add new shorter exposed timberheads on the rails with a caprail. Then on to the forward bulwarks. As GuyM has done, I will affix the bulwarks to the hull quite a bit earlier in the process than normal, but that will make attaching the top wales and the listons d'or much easier.

That information helps me immensely!

I can't go any further on the starboard side at this point (explanation further below) as I try to create an SR 1671... wales are bolted, scarf joints are bolted, all holes drilled. I am happy with the appearance of the brass nails that I found online, and the scarf joint bolt technique from Marc. Before I go on any further, I wouldn't be at this point without the immense advice/experience that I have received from Marc (Soleil Royal by Hubac's Historian - Heller - An Extensive Modification and Partial Scratch-Build on MSW) and GuyM (Soleil Royal 1671 modified Heller kit on SoS)... I can't thank these two gentleman enough! Now for the next phase... note that every strake and decoration have been scraped and sanded away from the bulwarks. All detail/modications on the bulwarks must be finished before I can mount the bulwarks (as GuyM has done) in order to complete the top wales as they will now sheer up onto the bulwarks.. The look that I am trying to duplicate is the VDV sketch of the Royal Duc... so there are four key areas that I must address on the Heller kit. Red Circle... the third tier of guns all have square gun ports (no arch at the top as with the Heller model). In addition, a number of the gun ports on this tier will have lids. I haven't decided how many as one sketch shows the aftmost five ports have lids, but another sketch shows every gun port on this tier with a lid. Also, I will be able to correct the gun ports so they are all vertically plumb/square Yellow Circle... the addition of 4 windows ( I assume they would never be used as gun ports). Also, with the above-mentioned gun ports and the windows, they do appear to be wrapped with decorative moldings. I am not sure if they are supposed to represent acanthus (i.e. fancy), or are just some simple wooden carvings. Blue Circle... five quarterdeck gun ports appear to be square, not circular as in the Heller mold, and the aftmost two ports have lids (!) This is also visible in another Royal Duc sketch. The SR had two poop deck guns that will have circular gun ports. Orange Rectangle... the top railing in several of these sketches seems not be a railing on top of posts, but I assume almost a solid wall of what appears to be... circles. I assume the circles are open... one sketch shows a slightly better detail where large circles and small circles are carved together in a repeating pattern. Now, this is not a deal breaker, but if Royal Duc had this decoration, I assume Hubac did the same on Soleil Royal launched less than one year later. Also, I will scribe plank lines on the exterior, but may use Evergreen planks (4mm x 0.25mm) on the interior. The final part is the "listons d'or", as GuyM notes. The photo below is a quick attempt using 14 gauge copper wire that I had from home electrical work. I have ordered some finer 16 gauge copper wire, which will allow a tighter wrap that will look more "rope like", as Marc and GuyM have stressed. After making the wrap, I will have a belt sander grind the back of the copper rope away so that it can be laid on the top wales and appear to have been carved directly into the top wales. There will also be another "listons d'or" above that on the bulwarks. Whew! That is likely it for a while, as I have some bulwark work to get to!

The bolting of the wales continues on the starboard side... use laser leveler to verify alignment of paper templates, Elmers glue a short template on the wale, drill holes, pull off paper and put in brass nails. But the through bolts on the scarf joints were making me wake up at night. I really wanted to duplicate the appearance of a square head with a round dome on those bolts (forgot where I saw that as a French standard process), but I couldn't drill a centered hole in the 0.039" (1mm) square styrene. Then I looked back through Hubac's Historian and remembered what Marc did to put his bolts on. I cut off and saved the 0.032" round plastic rivet bolt heads that I had pushed into a drilled hole. I then grabbed my Chopper and cut some squares of 0.010" (0.25mm) sheet styrene, affixed them to the hull with a drop of glue. I then dropped a tiny bit of g;ue on the square with a toothpick and dropped a round bolt head on. I then gave it a tap with the butt end of my X-acto knife and made any adjustments to center the bolt head. I was surprised at how easy it went, especially after I got through the first 30 or so attempts. I am not going to wake up tonight thinking about through bolts on scarf joints. Oh - you can also observe the holes I predrilled for the gun carriage tackle bolts (after making a jig for both the lower deck and the middle deck gun ports)... they are 0.016" so my 0.015" metal rods will fit into them. I know that there is the thinking, probably right, that those details won;t matter at 1/100 scale as the human eye really can't perceive them.. but a camera can and I know that they are there.

Henry/Marc.. that would be super easy to "remove" it!

Henry, you aren't being critical! The butt joint splicing on the model by Heller is 150mm.. I tried to maintain that but also knew I would be in No-Mans Land on that splice... with the way the wale curbed up, I was going to have an issue somewhere up.there!

OK... I am finally done with the wale placement, anchor linings, etc. I am pleased with the sheer at the stern, as I tried to mimic Royal Duc as closely as I could. The starboard steps are positioned (the kit steps had to be ground off with the wales), and the starboard fenders are ready and fitted, but I am going to tackle the bolting of the wales first. I have extended the fenders so the extra length will go up the bulwarks, and I will likely make a clean cut where the bulwarks meet the hull for later reinstall on the bulwarks. My biggest takeway from the far more experienced artists here is "scale".. I am really trying to adhere to scale. For the wale scarf joints, I am using my plastic rivets, but I downsized to the 0.032" diameter round heads, as opposed to the 0.042" diameter I used before. I am using 0.020" round head brass nails for the bolting of the wales... I simply make paper templates that I affix to the wales and drill the holes for the brass nails, and a tiny bit of super glue holds them firmly... the timber heads at the bulwarks are spaced 9mm apart, so I spaced the bolt heads on the paper template 9mm apart after also looking at the L'Ambiteaux monograph for hints. Finally, I hope I have a solution for my gun carriage tackle bolts. I found some 0.015" steel wire to duplic ate the iron rod that pokes out from the hull (at this scale, I will not attempt to imitate the wedge that hold the rod end in place!). As for the washer, this photo is a pitiful attempot at drilling out a 0.040" styrene rod and cutting a disc from it for a washer. I could never bore a hole in the exact center and got very frustrated. But, I found online, som e capillary tubes made from a hard plastic material called PEEK. These medical tubes are 0.040" OD and have a 0.015" ID hole, so they appear to be a perfect fit for me. The material slices easily and makes realistic looking washers (alas, I could never find a pre-made washer that small in plastic or metal, so I will have to slice 400+ of my own. This looks like it will work, but I need to finish the wales first!

Spring has taken over the last several weeks... planting, gardening, cleaning, staining, etc. Finally managed to (almost) finish the new wales. I studied the few Royal Duc drawings available (the premise being that it was a very slighter smaller sister ship that was launched before SR) and studied the sweep of the wales. And this is what I came up with after sanding off the old wales... the molded wales on the Heller model are all 4mm wide and mostly 1mm thick. The drawings (and Guy!) suggested that the bottom wales were wider/thicker than the middle wales, and they were wider/thicker than the top wales... and the spacings between the wales was different. The bottom wales are 4.2mm wide/1.5mm thick, the middle wales 4mm wide/1mm thick, and the top wales 3.2mm wide/0.75mm thick. It may seem sometimes that the spacing between the wales varies, but actully I maintained exact spacings alomg the length of the ship; I think the various curves and bends in the hull create a bit of an optical illusion. Oh - and the top two wales on the rear bulwark are paper! I can't attach the top wales on the bulwark until later in the process. You may notice that I removed the top sheer step on the rear bulwark and also sanded/scraped off all detail so that I can create my own. I spaced the scarf joints about every 150 mm per the butt joints on the Heller model (except where they might land on a gun port opening). I found it easiest to make the individual wale planks, and then glued them together in one long strip. A long strip made it much easier to get the curves that I needed; a drop of glue was applied and I just went gun port by gun port to make sure the spacings were correct. Now I can proceed to finish the anchor linings and the boat fenders. Also, I knew it was almost a certainty when I started down this path, but I am resolved to working on the quarter galleries so they follow the new sheer curves as the drawings show. I forgot where I got the circular gun port picture, but I found some brass rings that fit perfectly over the circular gun ports. And I will "bolt" the wales onto the hull using a pattern from the St. Phillpe monograph. The bottom wales will be bolted by the 0.03" diameter plastic rivet on the right, while the brass nail in the middle has a diameter of 0.02" and will bolt the middle wales. The top wales will be unbolted as they will be covered with "ses listons d'or" per Guy. Finally, I actually found a use for my laser leveler! I bet a French carpenter would have paid a years salary for it... I used it to make sure the gun ports that I cut in were plumb as oppsoed to following the curve of the deck as some people have mentioned (Hubac's Historian, for example). I am also using it to mark on the wales where the "timber heads" that arise vertically to support the bulwark rails; I assume they are the top, visible pieces of the futtocks (vocabulary ?) and the vertical laser line will show me where to add my bolts to the wales, ala the St. Phillipe monograph (I hope that makes sense!).

Time will tell, Ian! I have a question... the photo below is of the rear bulwark. I superimposed red lines on the various mouldings, and these lines are all identical to the sweep of the wales. So. I am thinking that my rails and mouldings need to follow this curve, and I can see a clear path forward on that What I am NOT sure is... does the pitch of the poop deck/quater deck have to change as well. I am thinking they do not have to change, which makes the job much easier. But I want to do what is accurate.

OK, I have taken a slight change of course in the last few weeks. I am committed to building an SR 1671 version, and I was frustrated that I couldn't achieve more upward sweep with the wales, especially at the stern. I have been communicating with GuyM, and he has been extremely helpful in suggesting what SR 1671likely looked like. His premise is that the Royal Duc and SR 1671 are likely very similar in appearance, as they were built in the same port by the same master carpenter less than a year apart. So I went all in. To achieve what I wanted to do, all of the wales had to be ground off and scraped away, and the plank lines scribed as needed. Next, add new wales, trying to mimic the Royal Duc lines. The standard wales molded into the Heller model are all 4mm wide, 4mm apart, and 1mm thick (in 1/100 scale, 4mm translates to 15.7"). GuyM has suggested that it seems the bottom wales were likely thicker and wider than the middle wales, the middles wales less so than the top wales, etc. So trying to emulate the placement of the Royal Duc wales as best I could on the Heller hull, the bottom wales are now 4.2 mm wide x 1.5mm thick. The middle wales are 4.0mm wide x 1.0mm thick, and the top wales will be 3.2mm wide x 0.75mm thick. The bottom and middle wales are held in place by small drops of glue so I can make some final tweaks. I actually cut the wales from Evergreen strip using the appropriate scarf joints and added them one by one in individual wale planks about 150mm long. The top wales won't need nice scarf joints as they will be covered with the "liston d'or" mouldings per GuyM. I am fabricating the top moldings now but won't add them yet as they will sweep up across the rear bulwark. Again, I tried to mimic the Royal Duc lines as exactly as I could... where the wales really curve up at the stern, I tried to match the curve of the top three moldings on the Heller rear bulwark. So this is what I have, Soo.. as GuyM has observed, I have "opened a can of worms"! Yup, that means I will have to kit bash the rear bulwarks, and reshape the mouldings and the rail lines to duplicate the more severe sweep seen in this Royal Duc drawing. Heck, probably even means some shaping of the QG's. Heck, we haven't even gotten into making the top gun ports square without a curved arch and also having a gun port lid! So I opened a can of worms... but I think by implenting these changes, I will get closer to what an SR 1671 likely appeared as.

Marc, regarding the rivet heads... GLP154 is 0.042" round head diameter... GLP153 is 0.032" round head diameter.

Well... that went pretty well.... need to do a little bit of trimming and use some Tamiya putty, but the middle wales sweep up 2mm more now where they meet the QG leading edge. It took 45 minutes to grind and scrape away the middle wales aft of the nearest scarf joints. Then it was a simple matter to attach the new middle wales and sweep them up a bit. I will NOT do a darn thing with the upper wales. The QG hides most of where the "missing" upward sweep would be, and I am thinking the height of the bulwarks above them will also camouflage the "missing" 3mm of upward sweep the the lower and middle wales now have at the very aft end of the ship... and that the upper wales will not have.

Arggg, Marc... I continue to debate about changing the middle wale sheer! I finally was able to settle on a pleasing curve (to my eye) for the bottom wales. Note the ruler below.. the gap between middle and bottom wales is a very consistent 15mm. The longest bottom wale that I carved is 130mm in length, and it gradually curves upward to 3mm closer to the middle wales at the very aft of the ship - but I cut away those ends as they were hidden by the QG! (so the gap decreased from 15mm to 12mm over 130mm in length). I told myself that moving the middle wales was just too much, so I went ahead and got the QG gun ports and decorations ready (the decorations are not glued on and need some finishing)... and told myself "no one will notice or care"... but I do! The QG hides the bulk of the wales anyway, BUT... the picture below shows the visual effect of raising the middle wale by 1mm where it intersects the QG... it is a scrap piece so it doesn't have a pleasing curve. What I am leaning towards is to make "new" middle wales that are actually short in length and stop when they hit the leading edge of the QG... and raise them by 1mm where they hit the QG. Having that upward curve in the middle wales I am hoping would fool the eye that the upward sweep continues through the QG and they would seem to parallel the bottom wales.... but I wouldn't have to rework the middle wales that are mostly hidden in the QG. The QG will hide that transition. And then I am not sure that I would do anything with the upper wales. There - I think I have convinced myself to go that route and it won't require major surgery!

Wow! Almost two months since my last post. I was away the month of March, but was also waiting for my final supplies of rivets (the company was bought out and there was a transition with no parts available!). However, as I cooled my heels, I was able to do a lot of reading and review a lot of build logs. Since I am committed to building an SR 1671, I have been particularily focused on what GuyM has written, as well as Hubac's Historian. The wale rivets are essentially done... the St. Phillipe monograph seems to show that the bottom two wales are more robustly fastened to the hull... so I used "0.042 rivets in the bottom wales, and much finer "0.032 rivets in the upper wales (they also transitioned from a dark grey color to a white color for the rivets... won't matter when it is cleaned and painted). The last few days have been dedicated to the port QG. I opened up the galleries on both levels, and fiddled with opening up the scroll work. Then I cleaned the "carvings" from the panels up for later attachment to the hull inside the QG... it has been quite helpful to see what GuyM has been doing (some final fine cleaning with a needle file is required). I also ground out the the two bottom wales and carved new wales to start from the scarf joints and finish aft. It was fairly straightforward, but I have wasted a lot of time fiddling to achieve a "perfect sweep" up... the new wales are about 2mm higher as they rise. I have officially given up on trying to make a perfect sweep... the QG will cover a part of the wales, and the white of the wales contrasts starkly with the hull and makes any imperfection seem the size of Mt Everest. Oh... also carved out the extra gunport on the middle deck that will be in the QG! Next is to finish the QG decorations and such... after that I can drill the gun port lanyard holes, and... I am actually ready to prime and see what I have!

Finally worked on the scuppers after much internal debate. After looking at lots of build logs and the finished models and any historical references to scuppers that I could find.... I placed three scuppers on the lower gun deck and then five on the next gun deck above. I will certainly add 5-6 scuppers on the weather deck as well. I decided to make "boxes", if only for visual interest, instead of just tubes for the scupper exits. I was using the St. Phillipe monograph for scupper dimensions and placement, but then it just seemed to make sense to only have several scuppers on the lower gun deck (as I have also seen on some builds). After painting, I will affix blackened/grayed metal rings on the scupper exits, as believe the scupper tubes were lined with lead. If you had asked me two months ago before I started this build... "would you ever spend 45 minutes using an X-acto knife to make a tiny slot in a tiny piece of plastic..?", I would have laughed at you.

Marc/Henry... I got them at Eugene Toy and Hobby... I searched and searched all over the 'net and found them. If you type in "rivets" in the search box, their various sizes and types come up. I have ordered 5 packs from them and they have been very prompt, but I need 20+ packs now, so I emailed them and they have contacted the supplier for an extra large order... they have been great to work with. https://www.eugenetoyandhobby.com/pages/have-questions-get-in-touch I finished the port side ladders today. I have settled on having TWO ropes, one on each side, so I will install some eyes in the hull after painting.