dvm27

Its done. Whiskey plank installed.

some special, non-quality photos....

Okay, so, here are my thoughts.
 
One point I was hoping to illustrate with the above exercise is that, sometimes, two portraits of the same subject (the Vienna portraits) don’t always perfectly agree with each other in all details.  Given that Puget was such a scrupulous draftsman, it is interesting that the fleurs are missing from the lower stern counter on the port Vienna portrait.  Perhaps, with the vantage point of the light being what it was, he chose to simplify this area in shadow.
 
More to the point, though, Hyatt’s monograph is a highly scrupulous first-hand account and quite a lot of what he describes corresponds with Van Beecq and not Vienna, or visa-versa.
 
Which brings me to my next point: I have no way of determining, as of now, the date of this VB portrait, so it probably falls somewhere within the first 9 years of the RL’s existence.  I make this assertion on the basis of my belief that this represents the post 1677 appearance of the RL:
 

While I don’t know this for fact, my inference is that while this later version of the RL still displays a profusion of figures, even on the QGs, the sheer is appropriately lower and the QGs, themselves, represent the beginnings of the evolution from terraced galleries to fully closed bottles.  The head structure also represents an evolution in style.
 
Lastly, and related to this broad 9-year time-frame, ornament is the most ephemeral aspect of the entire construction.  While it certainly would seem a monumental effort for any of us to carve even one figure, in our modern times, the artists of this time churned these works out with surprising efficiency.  What Van Beecq may have been looking at, at any one time, could be vastly different from the way the ship actually appeared in 1668 or 1677.
 
Also, I might add that the LeBrun drawing probably represents more of a proposal than an as-built and decorated representation.
 
In the end - for me - it comes down to the guns, and the allegory, and the specific domed shape of the taffrail (which, it seems to me, is also a characteristic of the Monarque):  there is just no way the Monarque carried that many guns, let alone guns on the poop.  Unfortunately, VB’s forecastle is too damaged to interpret.
 
My other curiosity with this portrait is the flag carried on the Mizzen; the “L” with a crown.  I do not know whether this flag only alludes to Louis, or whether it specifically represents the Levant, or Mediterranean fleet, that the RL was the primary representative of. 
 
Very lastly - I really wonder whether it is VB’s portrait that Bakhuizen referenced for his depiction of Soleil Royal:
 

I have previously discussed the many anomalies of this portrait in earlier posts, but there is no mistaking that this is the RL’s tafferal allegory and domed cornice.  Even the figures reclining on the tafferal are very similar.  Also, there appears to be an allusion to the swagged garland, beneath the stern chase ports.
 
And, so, that is what I have to say about that. What say you, friends?

The only thing more tedious than setting up the deadeyes and chains is ratting down but perhaps you're not rigging her.

Building ships makes me happy
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
 

Just a small update.  Start with the small dinghy
 

 

 
 

The deck is almost done, now working on the hull.

My, but I lived a sheltered childhood. My chemistry experiments were merely growing crystals in super-saturated solutions. OK, there was that time we kids made potassium iodide, saturated small pieces of paper with it and let them dry on the dormitory floor (this was at a boarding school). Late that night when the dorm monitor, a senior student, cam to bed, he always took off his shoes so as not to wake us. He trod on the pieces of paper and, potassium iodide being unstable, created a series of tiny explosions and an involuntary dance.

As kids we blew up more nonsense with black powder, empty Old Spice deodorant stick tubes, and a car battery. When I did my stint at Camp Lejeune AIT I loved the explosive training class and playing with C-4. One man's terrorist is another man's Marine. 

The illustration (pp.14 and 15) in Volume II is correct on this point.

So here’s a few shots in very dim light. I need to start using a real camera, this iPhone just doesn’t capture what it really looks like, they are much warmer and not nearly as bright as the camera shows. Very happy with the LED’s that I went with, this will display very well and lifelike when complete.

This morning, the idea occurred to me to do a reverse-image search for any number of images that I was hoping to find better resolution for.
 
I tried a few different image checkers, but the one that loaded results for the greatest number of search engines was DupliChecker:
 
https://www.duplichecker.com/reverse-image-search.php
 
In particular, the Yandex search engine seemed to pull the broadest range of related images.  Now, while I didn’t hit upon my “Gilded Ghost” portrait nor my Battle of Barfleur VDV portrait, I did have one fascinating hit.  Here is the original fuzzy image I found years ago on some corner of the internet:

And then, via Duplichecker/Yandex:

A fuzzy enlargement of the ship:

A sharper resolution enlargement:

Okay, now that is really interesting!  I still can’t tell whether this is the Royal Louis or Soleil Royal (both pierced for 16, initially, and poop guns are visible, here), but I can at least get a clearer sense for the ornamental tableaux and the structure of the quarter galleries.  I can say this, though, the deadworks are not painted white, as was the case for the RL, according to Hyatt in 1677.
 
What is of particular interest to me are a series of figures that appear to be seated on the main deck-level, gallery and balcony rails.  The foremost figure on the quarter gallery has no corollary on the Vienna portraits of the Monarque.


The aft seated figures, at the turn to the stern balcony, do not resemble the Neptune and Thetis figures that are associated with both the RL and the Monarque.  In fact, the starboard figure appears to have an up-stretched arm that is reminiscent of the “seeking” posture of the Africa figure of Soleil Royal.
 
While that is nothing to draw any firm conclusions from, it must also be noted that the overall structure of the stern and arrangement of statuary has much in common with that of the RL, including what seems to be a swagged-garland ornament beneath the stern chase ports:
 



My hunch, more-so than before, is that these two portraits are directly related:


On a separate note, I churned a pair of low-res VDV drawings from 1672 through the DPI enhancement app.  Although it is very hard to see much appreciable difference, the DPI supposedly increased from 92 to 5000.
 
Before:

After:

Before:
 

After:

The second, clearer VdV sketch is nearly identical in identifiable details to the much less clear portrait, above.  Perhaps the second is simply a more finished portrait of the same subject.
 
‘Nothing earth-shattering, here; just playing with tools at my disposal.
 
Work on the model continues at a moderate pace.  Progress update to follow in the not too distant future.
 
All the best,
 
Marc
 

Take an extra sip on my behalf when you finish installing the whiskey plank!

Try Model Motorcars website. They purchased Scale Hardware and have a wide variety of small bolts and rivets.
https://model-motorcars.myshopify.com/collections/small-parts-hardware/bolts

I am with you Greg.   Some of the best entertainment I remember was after fishing and docking our boat we would stroll to the public launch ramp and would  just sit with a beer a watching folks back their boat trailers to the ramp.    One guy had cards marked 1 to 10 and rated each attempt and held them up so we would then cheer or jeer as appropriate.
 

Just for fun I tried to turn a smaller belaying pin from the box wood and was able to turn the pin portion down to 0.010" but when I  turned the handle portion at 0.015" the pin portion whipped and separated off. perhaps you could make them in two sections as Druxey does.

The belaying pins are now installed in their shroud deflectors. That's a term I had never read before but that's what they're called according to Markquardt. Perhaps they're called pin rails only when affixed to the inner bulwarks. The deflectors have grooves filed on the outboard edge for the shrouds and lashings inboard and are surprisingly strong once attached.  At any rate, I was able to hone my lathe technique to turn out consistent pins. Next it's on to ratlines. Perhaps Archjofo would fly in from Germany to show me how he successfully duplicated actual practice when securing them to the outer shrouds. Personally. I believe he used Photoshop as this is not humanly possible to do.
 

Not too much progress to note on Speedwell but the standing rigging has commenced. A photo of her in her current state is shown below. She needs twenty belaying pins. For the most part I find commercial belaying pins clunky and like to make them myself. I have seen several different techniques but they did not work particularly well in my hands so, if you have a lathe, maybe try this technique.
 
I discovered early in my machining, self-taught trials that in order to turn a very small diameter like the 0.020" leg of the belaying pin you have to turn against a much thicker stock or deflection occurs. In the first photo the 0.020" diameter is turned from 0.25" boxwood. The speed is high and the feed is very slow and consistent to avoid warping and deflection.


The cutting tool backed off 0.020" to form the diameter of the head of the pin.

The next step was impossible to photograph but a very fine Swiss file was used to reduce the area just above the transition.
 

The rest of the head was shaped with a fine Swiss file. The finished belaying pin was parted with the knife edge of the file while shaping it's curved profile. Many extras were made to insure consistency. You can see the delicate elongated shape of the pins against the illustration by David Antscherl in our Speedwell book.
 

The key takeaway for new home machinists is that you can turn very small diameters even in wood if you turn against a thicker stock. I can't say for sure exactly how thick but I should think at least four times the desired finished diameter.
 

Been awhile since I made this frame but perhaps the photo will show better what I've done. I'm pretty sure I started with a wider toptimber and shaped it to fit the offset. It needs to be wide enough at the top to form the side of the port. Then shape downwards in a smooth arc to fay into the next futtock.

Take an extra sip on my behalf when you finish installing the whiskey plank!

I've had nightmares about backing up a rig like that!

Once upon a time, we had a 32' motor home.  But something like that rig would scare me to death to try to drive it, much less park it or back it up.  Hats off to you Brad. 

I've had nightmares about backing up a rig like that!