gieb8688

I present here the latest photos of my Royal Sun. It is not finished and if it interests you I would put you following as work progresses.
Excuse me but not speaking English I use the Google translator

Update...
 
the first open port side boat has been set in place and rigged with the forward pulley. I think I`ll have the two first boats of each side in the open mode, as well as the third boats (also open), but they are a bit smaller, like on the actual ship. The blocks (3mm double sheave ) are out of Chuck`s production, I saved them up at the time he still was producing pear blocks in that size for this application.
All paint touch ups will be done after all the boats are rigged
 
Nils
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Just a sideon view as she is now. I think the red is a nice contrast with all the black and gold so far. Also figured I'll paint it red first as I can always paint over it black if I wasn't happy, so critiques are most welcome  
 
Also planning on making the spar decks above the waist and half deck... now it's described from the early 17th century as either gratings over beams or light fir planks. The few models I've seen with these have a mixture of either idea but I'd like to go with what was most probable. From the Payne's engraving it shows a full deck of what appears to be grating over the entire waist. On Van der Velde's there is a deck... but it's not detailed as to whether it's planks or gratings. Opinions please
 
So the pics below;
detail from a painting of the Prince Royal which actually looks to be netting?!? Or very large gratings... 
 
the next is a detail from Paynes engraving of the Sovereign showing a similar deck which is most likely gratings also..
 
A model of the Prince Royal from the Tower of London showing beams and light spars over the f'cstle, waist and half deck. This is neither gratings or planks but more like frames for a covered awning?!? Though could still have enough strength for crew to walk over. 
 
Finally my Sovereign now with the red uppermost panels.

Not quite the same angle, but an idea. I think I haven't done too badly so far

The girdling is probably unknown technology in ship modeling, but the relevant records prove that it was necessary to perform on some ships, whose hull had excessive draft and lower gunports were just above water. The girdling helped to improve the displacement. Of course, it was an unnatural interference into the original construction.
My target is to make the model as accurate as possible based on historical accuracy, and according to records Royal Katherine was girdled soon after launching.

Wooden-look planking on underwater part of the hull.

Dear friends, thank you very much for your comments.  It is a pleasure and honour for me, that you like my work.
Here is the hull oversprayed with acrylic paints and body spray + primer used for cars. After grinding I will start to change it into a wooden look using strips of various  types od foils. I have already written many details about this technology, so if you are interest in that, please refer at my building log Royal Caroline.

It takes me sometimes more than 2-3 years, than the model is finished. There is no problem with these card models, I use high quality and efficient impregnation, so the models are similarly durable as wooden. At home i have more than 20 years old card models and they still look like new.
 
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Here you can see the finished second layer of planking, made of cardboard as well.I use various thickness of this material - from 0,5mm to 2mm.

The deck in the central part of the ship is covered by tapes from plastic foils, that I use on all my card models to imitate wooden look..
 
The inner parts of the model are already covered with a second layer of carton and bases for the upper decks.
 
I have also a handsome helper who makes me a companion during model-builing.
 

And here I have started with lower deck and center part reinforcement. The hull  -
 although it is made of cardboard - is very solid and heavy - it weights more than 3 kg.

Dear friends,
I appreciate your kind words a lot and advice. Thank you very much. That is a great honour for me. I have to say I was thinking about HMS Royal Katherine for a long  time. Finally I have found the courage to start this large project and would like to share it with you...
Here you can see the complete stern of the model, some gunports and other details on the hull were changed to be more accurate and corresponding to the position in the painting of the real ship. 

Hull construction and gunports placement:
 

Hull planking - first layer - all is made of cardboard:
 
 

Redesigning some bulkheads on the bow:
 

It's time for me to put a bow on this one and call it finished. Tonight it will go into my display case for the grandsons and other visitors to eyeball behind glass, safe from curious hands.
Of course, I reserve my right to float it in the bath tub with me from time to time when necessary to run "sea trials". 
 
 

Another week and this one should be finished. I can see light at the end of the tunnel now.
My aftermarket set has replacement railings for the model, in the form of photo etch stanchions and either very small diameter wire or thread. After looking it over carefully and dry fitting some of it, I thought the 2 dimensional photo etch stanchions looked out of place at this scale. They seem to look great on 1:350 scale models, but at 1:72 scale the 2 dimensional look leaves something to be desired in my judgment. So I used the kit supplied railings which are not perfect by any means but a better alternative in this case I think.
 
 

And after it got oiled...pretty cool grain

Well I have been working on lots of honey-do things all day...but I stole away about an hour and I went to the wood shop and cut some parts for the new stand for the Great Republic.  I'm using wood from a Maple I cut down last year....a unique piece was used to build the model support.  The grain is amazing...like knotty walnut.  It will be tongue oiled when completed.
 
I set the almost finished coppered model in place to show the effect of the suspended design of the stand.
 
Thanks for looking in.
 
Rob

As usual..I got in about an hour today to lay some more plates.   Cutting and laying the keel plates took the longest..since each one is 3/8" wide and not the same size as the regular plates.  
 
Coming along.
 
Rob

And thanks for all the likes.....coming from the master model shipwrights on these pages....I am honored.  I consider myself a lazy..git-er done fast kinda ship modeler...skip through the tedium and lay down some paint.....
 
Gee...I'm sounding like I don't care.......
 
Thanks everyone!
 
Rob(I built my 1/96 Cutty Sark diorama in under 3 months)

Hello friends, 
 
I want to show you a new update and what I have done in the last few weeks.
 
As I told you, I decided to finish the planking of the hull. Again I have the situation, that I don´ t want to use the parts of the kit. There are several moldings to put on the planks that have to be made of wood. I study the Victory of Alexandru very carefully, because he does it in such an outstanding way. I try to copy his work. But - surprise - it´s not as easy as it looks :-)
 
I had so many problems with it, I could not tell you. I decided to do it in my way, concerning to my skills. But even than I get some problems. First I had to find out, that my molding was invisible, because I used the same walnut-wood I used for the planking. The strips were a little bit thicker (1,5 mm instead of 1,00mm) but that was´t enough to have a visible contrast. The solution was to prepare them with my black wood filler and make them darker. Wood filler become a panacea for all my problems....
 
The next problem was the second and smaller molding. I simply don´t know how to do it and where to fix it. I have to admit that I was not able to build everything in the way that it fits perfectly and everything is exactly in the right position as it is written in the plans or on better models. So again I have to say: my model is inspired by the original, but it´s not a perfect copy. 
 
After finishing that part I returned to the upper deck and the walls (you can see in my pictures what I mean). Comparable to the stern I don´t wanted to use the sheet windows from the kit. I made new ones with my yellow wood.  Also I had the idea to fill the vertical slits with that wood, to have a contrast and a little "eye-catcher".  What do you think about it? 
 
Of course these parts are not fixed on the deck. I only placed them for the photo.
 
Best wishes 
 
-Heinz-

Hello my friends!
 
It´s time for a new update!
 
Last time, I asked myself, whether I should start to plank the deck or finish to plank the hull. I decided to first plank the hull. Unfortunately I had some problems to get new wood stripes. This is why I changed my mind and start to plank the deck. 
 
I knew that it would not be easy to do, because this time I first built the gratings on the deck. In fact, it took my much longer to plank the deck. But I think I managed it quite well and I am glad to say, that I am happy with the result.
 
As you can see in my pictures, I used my "old" technic. That means I first lay the wood stripes with a little slit between them. Then I fill the stripes with my black wood filler. After scraping and sanding the planks I seal them with varnish. 
 
Now I start to finish the hull planking!
 
Greetings and best wishes to all of you!
 
- Heinz -
 

Hello friends, 
 
another little update.
 
I took the next step and fixed the deck. Of the 30 guns that I made, suddenly only 10 are visible :-((( 
 
I have put in the masts temporarily, because I was afraid that they would not fit later. And I decided to change something in the way I build the deck, compared to the deck below. As I build the deck below, I first do the planking and then put the gratings with frames on top. I had some problems because the deck is slightly curved. You could not see the slits where it does not fit perfectly, because of the cannonballs beside them. 
 
Now I want to first build the gratings and then do the planking around. 
 
Or should I start with the ship´s side. That would give me the chance to finish the second planking of the hull. 
 
Maybe someone can give me advice at this point...
 
Best wishes to all of you !
 
- Heinz -
 

Well that is just what I did all day today.
 

 
The tool is made from stock wooden dowel 
1 x 3/4 x 3 1/2 long
2 x 3/4 x 2 1/2 long
1 x 1/2 x 8 long
2 x 1/2 x 2 1/2 long
2 x 3/8 x 2 long
6 off 8 x 32 x 3/4 long round head machine screws
1 off 8 x 32 x 1 long round head machine screws
7 off 8 x 32 brass thumb nuts
1 piece wood for base, mine is 8 x 4 1/2 x 3/4  oak
 
The top clamp arms do not have the second rotation but for most tasks this would not be an issue there is still lots of control, and on my one I ran out of brass thumb nuts so I had to use different nut on the base post, and the 8 x 32 round head screws are reversed on one side to show that it can be done without the brass thumb nuts.
 
basically the screws are threaded in from the bottom with the clearance hole on the top so that the brass thumb screw presses the top half of the dowel down.  without the thumb nuts the machine screw pulls down the wood.
 

 

 

 
wood third hand tool.pdf
 
So I hope that this information is useful to those who want to make one for themselves The only machine tool I used was a drill press to drill all the holes, this could have been accomplished with a good hand drill
hand tools included a small back saw
a hack saw
a thin file
an 8 x 32 second tap
 
Michael