BLACK VIKING

Morning all,    just  been  surfing the  net  when  I  came across  a bit  of info  about  Napoleon  -  after his  defeat  at  Waterloo and  his surrender to Captain Frederick Maitland of HMS Bellerophon off Rochefort in 1815, he was taken to Plymouth Sound UK  where he remained on board, 26 July – 4 August, while his future was decided. This event caused a local and national sensation as thousands took to the water,  here  is   a  painting  showing  his  holding  before  his  departure.
 
I think  it  was  very  interesting   due  to  my build  and also  our  previous  past  living   in Plymouth  over looking the  Sound  Harbour.
 
Drawing off the  net  not  mine   (not  quite  that  old  lol)
 
OC.

Dry fit (again, for motivation). The chassis fits right down on top of a belly pan. The pan will be orange eventually.

 
I love those Offenhauser valve covers. WhennI was a teen, I bought an Offenhauser triple single barrel carb intake manifold for my ‘51 Chevy, and the matching Offy valve cover, too. I thought I was the cat’s pajamas with that setup back then. My dad throttled me back more than once. I guess a lot of us my age went through that stage back then.

1:84 Santisima Trinidad – Trafalgar 1805
Artesania Latina
Catalogue #22901
Available from Artesania Latina for €749.99
 

 
The Santisima Trinidad (full name: Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad), was a Spanish first-rate ship of the line with 112 guns. This was increased in 1795–96 to 130 guns by closing in the spar deck between the quarterdeck and forecastle, and to 136 guns around 1802 (plus 4 small guns on the poop), thus creating what was in effect a continuous fourth gundeck although the extra guns added were actually relatively small. She was the heaviest-armed ship in the world when rebuilt and bore the most guns of any ship of the line outfitted in the Age of Sail. She was built at Havana, Cuba, to a design by Irish naval architect Matthew Mullan (domiciled in Spain under the name Mateo Mullán), originally intended as a ship of 112 guns. He died on 25 November 1767, and the construction of the ship was continued by his son, Ignacio Mullán. and the ship was launched in March 1769 and completed in August 1769 as a 116-gun three-decker. She was considerably larger than her British contemporary Victory and somewhat bigger than the French Bretagne.
 
Commanded by Francisco Javier Uriarte and the flagship of Rear Admiral Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, she took part in the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, as part of the combined Franco-Spanish fleet. Due to her great bulk, her helm was unresponsive in the light winds on the day, contributing to her ineffective service in the combined fleet's cause. Her great size and position immediately ahead of the fleet flagship Bucentaure made her a target for the British fleet, and she came under concentrated attack by several ships. She lost her mast and eventually surrendered to the Neptune; a 98-gun second rate commanded by Captain Thomas Fremantle. She was taken in tow by the 98-gun second rate Prince but was eventually scuttled by her British captors northwest of Cádiz.
History abridged from Wikipedia.
 
The kit
 

 
Before I post my own information on this new release, I’ll give you the details of the kit, as per Artesania Latina’s own blurb.
 
“In addition, the naval modeling kit of the Spanish vessel comes with several paper templates to make the building process of the model easier. Among other functions, they are used to arrange the elements on the decks and to place the embrasures and other objects on the sides of the hull. Speaking of the hull, its structure can be assembled as if it were a 3D puzzle. With this faithful 1:84 scale replica, you can represent correctly the appearance and artillery of the Santísima Trinidad in the battle of Trafalgar since it brings the howitzers that the ship carried in great detail -144 cannons-. Likewise, modelers who wish to line the hull of the magnificent model of the Spanish ship are in luck because the kit includes copper tape to be able to do it below the waterline.
 
Once it is assembled, the model of Santísima Trinidad (22901), measures 46.88'' (1191 mm) length, 35.63'' (905 mm) height and 18.26'' (464 mm) width. Its design using a false keel and frames brings its assembly closer to the real ship. As a bonus, the kit of Santísima Trinidad comes with 5 die-cast figures.”
 
This new generation of large Artesania kits certainly pack a whole load of contents for your money, and of course, the boxes are very large…and heavy. Definitely another kit where you need to try hard to fit everything back under the lid if you intend to repack for a later date. 
 





 
This new release comes with FOURTEEN sheets of laser cut and engraved ply sheet in a varying number of sizes and thicknesses. The material, in my sample kit, is perfectly flat, without warp or defect, and all of the cutting and engraving is clean with no laser blow-back. All parts are also laser numbered too. Included with the timber sheets is a set of three A4 parts plans which you can use to quickly locate the part you want without fumbling through the actual sheets. All of the timber parts in this kit are cellophane wrapped and not too tightly as to cause deformation. 
 




 
As you look through these sheets, you’ll see the unusual manner in which the parts are supplied. You won’t find a single-piece hull, or even a two-part solution. The hull is built up from three parts, and the bulkheads are multi-part creations that use dovetail joints to hold the parts under glue. The hull itself is built up in sections and expanded as you progress from bow to stern. This is a lot like the system used in the monthly magazine partwork builds. The various elements of construction should mean that the build proceeds with minimal risk of the keel being twisted (although I would always ensure this is the case, as you build). 
 





 
You will find a number of parts on these sheets that relate to things which aren’t frames or bulkheads etc. such as the deck grates. I’m not absolutely sure I like this aspect, as these aren’t engraved. To fix this, you would need to varnish, then score along the grates to show the main batons running bow to stern, and then apply a dark ‘wash’ to make the grate look like it’s made from individual parts. You also won’t see any deck sections in the parts sheets. There aren’t any. All decking is single planked, directly onto the top of the various frames/bulkheads. You will need to ensure that your plank joints are very tight together, and I would also think along each edge too, or the deck wouldn’t be solid.
 

 
Another point that’s important to mention here is that the hull is single-planked. You will need to tread carefully here if you are used to double layer planking. You will need to ensure that your timber doesn’t sag anywhere as you won’t have the fallback of another layer. The good news is that the planking timber is superb quality and it’s 2mm x 5mm (300mm long). You also won’t see any bare timber in the finished build, so you have a little extra leeway too. The lower hull is coppered (5mm wide tape) and above the waterline, the colours are black, red, and white.
 
Multiple packs of high quality strip timber are supplied in cellophaned bundles, and clearly labelled for size. I very much do like the quality of the timber elements in this kit. They are a world away from my first build…ironically, an Artesania kit!
 


 
Another pack of timber is included. This time its dowel of various diameters. The material used is birch, with the small quantity of 2mm being bamboo. Thankfully, the latter does look fine, but I don’t go a bundle on bamboo for mast/yard material. 
 

 
There are FOUR fittings boxes with this kit. Here are the photographs to see for yourself. The rigging blocks are deadeyes are perfectly good as far as quality goes, with the metal parts being cast in a zinc alloy. This includes the cannon. Some seams are present on some of these parts, and you’ll need a rotary tool to remove these. Other zinc alloy metal parts include buckets, anchors, stern décor, ship’s wheels, lower quarter gallery sections, belaying pins, belfry roof, etc. The figurehead is also far nicer than many of those supplied in other contemporary releases, with this one being cast in multiple pieces to eliminate the problems with single-part casting techniques. There are some brass parts too, such as the lantern tops, bell, anchor rings etc. 
 












 
The fittings boxes also include brass wire, netting, eyelets, glass parral beads, brass nails, turned metal stanchion, capstan, brass chain, metal cannon balls etc. You will note that the lower decks have stub barrels and not whole guns. You won’t see them down there anyway, especially in 1:84.
 

 
Love them or loathe them, Artesania has supplied a full set of sails. The material is quite thin, and the stitching is good, apart from that which edges the material. This is way too much and not nicely done. If you want to use these sails, I suggest picking out that stitching and redoing in yourself. However, I would simply leave the sails OFF a model of this type. 
 

 
A number of other items are packed within another clear sleeve. These include some very nice silk screen printed flags, a roll of 5mm copper tape, acetate sheets for glazing, and various paper templates that you lay onto the planked hull, in order to position gun ports, fenders etc. 
 

 
If you like photo-etch, then this kit has in in abundance. All of the SIX sheets of this is produced in brass, using multi-layer etching processes, and cellophaned to a thick card backing to protect it. You will see that a lot of the parts, certainly the larger ones, concern the stern fascias. While these are very nice, I would use them in conjunction with timber to enliven them further and produce something which looks more 3D. The same applies to the quarter galleries, but if you install the supplied materials properly, then you will still have a very nice result.
 





 
Now…rigging cord. There is quite a lot of this, as you would imagine, and generally the quality is ‘ok’. There is a small degree of fuzz on the spools I looked at, although not as bad as that of a number of other manufacturers. I would consider either replacing the rig or using one of a number of techniques to reduce the fuzz. 
 

 
This kit supplies a few printed sheets, and what looks like a full-size colour side profile photo which will be very useful for reference. A full colour parts list and fittings sheet is also included. At this point, I have to tell you that there isn’t a printed manual. All of the instructions are available for download from the product page on Artesania’s website. There over FIFTEEN downloads too, so you’ll see why this isn’t included in print. Ideally, you could do with a laptop or tablet in the workshop and access the instructions from there. The instructions are graphically driven, and the sheer number of photos is astounding. Around 8000 photos are included, over 800 pages. I know Chris would kill me if I submitted that number for his kits! Everything looks extremely easy to understand with just about every angle of the build covered, multiple times. I’ve included a few photos from the various instruction downloads. If you head to Artesania’s YouTube page, you will also find a number of tutorial videos for this specific kit.
 


















 
Conclusion
While I’ve seen numerous unboxings of some of Artesania’s recent large kit releases, this is the first time I’ve seen one for myself. Construction is generally quite different to what you’d expect with regards to bulkheads and hull skeleton construction. I’m not at all averse to this methodology at all. In some respects, it seems almost modular, and highly unconventional. It does appear to work well for the builder, having researched a number of online builds. I still have to get my head around a single-planked hull. It’s something I need to try and align with as I do intend to build this in the future. The hull is fully painted/coppered, so there is a lot of flexibility with the underlying timber if you need to fill and cut back…albeit carefully. You most certainly will need to be more careful than you perhaps would normally be on your lime planking. I know I’ve certainly improved in that area over the years, and you’re best employing a good method of tapering, such as the one that many use here…Chuck’s method. 
 
Another unusual element here is that ‘missing’ manual I mentioned. There is a QR code that you can scan which will take you to the product page on the AL website. Here you can download the manual directly. If you like a printed manual, you’re going to need some serious ink to print this. I know this aspect can be difficult for those that like a manual supplied, as is traditional.
 
In all, this is a kit I actually quite like, and I know Artesania are proud of their products. I’ve been discussing their products with them over the years, and this is one they are excited about. As far as price point is concerned, I think this is pitched correctly, considering the size of the overall model and the quality of materials supplied. Another contemporary manufacturer has released a limited-edition kit which is twice this price, and around the same scale, and slightly smaller. In comparison to that, minus the other kit’s gimmicks, this kit still stands head and shoulders above that with regards to quality and value for money. I’ve often said that I have a fondness for AL kits as that is how I started in the hobby, but I wouldn’t steer you wrong. This is a very nice kit; with the caveats and things I’ve mentioned. If you have the skills to build an intermediate to advanced kit, this is definitely one to consider.
 
My sincere thanks to Artesania Latina for the kit you see reviewed here on Model Ship World. To buy directly, click the link at the top of the article. 







 
 
Related Products
Before I mention these, Artesania have also designed this model so that the grand cabin can be illuminated. Installation of the specific AL set is shown within the many photographs for this kit. The lighting set can be bought from AL for €24.99, here.
 
Ok, I have been sent two additional sets that are designed to be used with this kit. These are a figure set (to add to the small number included within the kit) and a paint set. 

 
The paint set, which is available here for €31.99, includes TWELVE 20ml bottles of acrylic paint. These paints can be applied with a brush or thinned for use in an airbrush. The website says they can be thinned with alcohol or thinner. From this, I presume you can use either isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, or possibly something like Tamiya X20A. For the latter, do a small test to make sure the paint doesn’t congeal. The paints in this set are:
 
·      Off White x 2
·      Off Black x 2
·      Bright Red x 1
·      Red x 2
·      Ice Yellow x 1
·      Buff x 1
·      Cocoa Brown x 1
·      Dark Red Leather x 1
·      Gold x 1
 

The Figure set I have for this release, can be bought here for €29.99. This set consists of SIXTEEN figures and accessories which are period-correct. The figures appear to be cast in zinc alloy and look quite nice for this scale. Included in this kit are:
 
·      Captain x 1
·      Officers x 4
·      Surgeon x 1
·      Marines x 2
·      Grenadiers x 2
·      Gun Crew x 5
·      Sailor x 1
 
Also included are accessories, such as sabres, gun crew tools, ammunition etc.


 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hi Ulises! Your Soleil is looking great, I like the aged patina, very unique!

Thank you, ASAT!!

Hello all. Glad to be back after a long hiatus.
I am starting this build log of my A.L. Soleil Royal after a few months of having started the  build. At this moment I have almost finished the decks planking, hull planking, gunports, and a few other minor things.
Don't ask me why, but I don't like painting my ships. And in this case I went one step ahead, and decided to make it looking "used and abused". Some may argue that Soleil Royal never looked like this, and thus this can't be "named" Soleil Royal. Well, sorry... it is my ship and I will do as I please.
 
So, here are a few photos.
 





At this point I still had not decided on the weathered finish



The porcupine. I used bamboo toothpicks glued to a previously drilled hole, to simulate the nailing 

Jig to cut the gunports frames.



This is how it finally looks



Making doors using toothpicks







 
That's it for today. Bye all!

Afternoon all,
 
Joined recently after an email conversation with the very talented Chuck. My name is Simon and I'm the prototypical middle aged chap in north east Scotland. I'm my wife's carer and I'm hoping model boats can be a relaxation when time is available. I have a mild brain injury so while I'm not too bad with the doing but I'm not great with the remembering of lots of names for new things, apologies in advance. I used to do a reasonable amount of woodwork with just hand tools but arthritis put a stop to that. Smaller tools seem, so far, to be kinder.
I'm nearly finished my first kit, the Occre Polaris starter kit, and I'll get some pics next time it's out. It's taken me about five weeks to get to standing rigging and I'm quite pleased with how I've got on. There are plenty of errors but most I've found my way round or been able to repair. Having taken a lot of time looking at the various manufacturers and folk's results here I now have two Vanguard kits in the stash to work on. It seemed they are expensive compared to most but the quality and level of detail as standard makes them great value for money in comparison. Hopefully I'm realistic though and will do one or more of the fishing boats before progressing to any of the fighting boats. Personally I'd rather not model the fighting ships but as Vanguard kits seem so good I'd rather attempt them than not.
 
Look forward to speaking with you all and hope to do a build log for the next kit.
 
Simon

Here she is:
 

 

Hi Johnny. Thanks for the input. I never know what to make of the rigging on historic models. They've either aged several centuries themselves or the ropes have been replaced in restoration. Either way, the lines probably aren't the original color.  And I don't know how close they were to reality in the first place.

For my model, maybe I should just stain the ratlines dark brown.
 

 

 

 

This is the painted and glued in forecastle deck:
One thing that really bothered me up to this point was that no one in their depictions of the Mayflower showed just how old and beat the ship was. So, i decided to weather the entire exterior of the hull, as well as the interior bulkheads. 

I admit it looks much better.

James A. Flood
 
By the mid-1600s, it was taken for granted that warships had to look awesome. Decorations were no longer being painted or tacked on, but were being incorporated into the ship’s architecture. Louis XIV and his ministers were obsessed with having French ships look bigger and richer than their British counterparts. They hired the best artists in France to design statues, friezes, and decorative woodwork. Louis’s chief minion, Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, engaged artist Charles Le Brun to design statuary for Versailles, and when Colbert was given the additional position of Minister of Marine in 1669, he made Le Brun responsible for the decoration of  the king’s newly-built fleet of ships-of-the-line as well. Le Brun set up sculpture academies in the shipbuilding centers of Brest, Toulon, and Rochefort to train the army of sculptors needed. The task of designing the architecture and decoration for the ships was assigned to the same artists who worked on the palace of Versailles, like Jean Bérain, and they churned out preparatory drawings to be given to the sculptors.
 

 
The Italian-trained artist Pierre Puget was appointed head sculptor at the shipyard in Toulon after notable success decorating France’s Mediterranean galley fleet. His fanciful statues and designs for the new warships were inspired by Italian theater sets. This was an age when popular stage productions were growing more elaborate. Opera had been newly invented. Music specifically for the stage was being composed. The palace of Versailles had its own theater and the king and his aristocrats took part in the productions. Puget’s theatrical shipboard tableaux were immediately popular and widely copied. They looked a lot like opera backdrops.
 

Two of Puget's ship designs. You kind of expect someone to come out on the balcony and start singing . . . . 
 
Puget’s sculptures were unquestionably awesome, but were also huge, heavy, and for the most part impractical. His boss, Le Brun, refused several of his designs with the note that they were “very handsome but not at all convenient for ships.” It was because of Puget’s extreme theatricality that Le Brun issued an order in 1673 indicating that sterns would not be allowed to carry figures so big that they affected the stability of the ship. Puget resigned in 1679, but one of the 1689 Bérain drawings of the Soleil Royal has the scribbled notation that it was made “apres Pierre Puget.” This caused at least one 19th-century French ship historian to attribute all of the Soleil Royal’s sculptures to Puget, in spite of evidence to the contrary. (Puget worked in Toulon; the Soleil Royal was built in Brest.)
 

 
Instead of Puget, it’s fairly easy to connect the carvings on the Soleil Royal to the work of Charles Le Brun. Most of the figures turn out to be adaptations of Le Brun’s sculptural work at Versailles, especially his statues designed for the Versailles gardens in the grand commande (great commission) of 1674. The statues on the ship were originally made with Puget’s grandiosity in mind, but were later “adjusted” in size—in some cases replaced, in others, hollowed out—to reduce the weight and improve the ship’s stability. In a further effort to improve the ship’s handling, several of the larger statues were unshipped by Admiral De Tourville and left behind when the flagship went to war. These carvings were available for reuse on the Soleil Royal II, built in 1693. The new ship’s builder, Étienne Hubac, had been responsible for rebuilding the Soleil Royal I in 1689 and still had all of les garabits (templates and patterns) for the revised statuary. And so (we suppose), the second ship was decorated much like the first.
 

 
There’s a weird thing about the symbolism and statuary on the Soleil Royal— well, weird for 1693— and that’s the ship’s total lack of Christian motifs and symbols. We’re used to thinking of the Baroque era as a religious age, one dominated by cardinals and cathedrals, sacred relics, bible-inspired art, witch-finders, and endless Catholic-Protestant wars. The hierarchy of the church was at the top of the social heap and kings wielded their power by divine right. The open-minded period of the Enlightenment was over half a century in the future.
 
But without being terribly anti-clerical about it, along came Louis XIV with his aristocrats, retainers, bureaucrats, and artisans, and overt Christianity suddenly took a back seat to a revived interest in pre-Christian classical paganism. Instead of Christ, angels, and saints, the denizens of Versailles were more fascinated by gods, demigods, and caesars. In paintings, Louis had himself and his family portrayed as characters out of classical mythology.
 

Louis and his over-extended family . . . . just another day of lounging around like Olympian gods.
 
I’m sure the whys and hows are the subject of numerous books I’ll never get around to reading. For the time being, though, we can contemplate how all this influenced the decorations on Louis’s warships.
 
What was in the art on the Soleil Royal? What did it represent? What did it all mean? Why was it there?
 
First point—the art was meant to be symbolism. It consisted of elements meant to be read for their symbolic value by a largely unlettered population. Everybody back then was used to reading symbolism. It was all over their churches. Even if they couldn’t read, the populace knew all the bible stories by looking at the statuary, paintings, icons, altarpieces, carvings, and stained-glass that decorated their houses of worship. Every saint has his/her symbols for identification. Every condition or attribute had its own visual elements for storytelling purposes. The carvings on the Soleil Royal didn’t use Christian iconography, but the same principles applied. Artists like Le Brun even had textbooks of common iconography they could consult, like Caesar Ripa’s Iconologia, which described in detail what visual attributes went with which allegorical or historic figures.
 

Caesar Ripa's Iconologia.
 
Next point—this was Louis’s ship. Louis XIV was an absolute monarch, and when he famously proclaimed “L’État, c’est moi,” he meant it. The ships as well as the state were his, and the most important (gilded) artistic elements on the ship proclaimed his ownership. First, there was his Bourbon coat-of-arms on the bow and the stern, Azure, three fleurs-de-lys or—three gold fleur d’lis on a blue field, topped by a crown to indicate royalty. The fleurs would be repeated many places on the ship. On my model, white, open-faced fleurs (lilies seen from the top) are used on the quarter deck/forecastle level. There was also the king’s monogram, two intertwined, mirrored “L”s, also topped with a crown and surrounded by acanthus stems and chains of bellflowers, on the length of the upper gundeck. On the quarter galleries, the monograms are surrounded with a classical-antiquity-inspired laurel crown. You couldn’t go ten feet in any direction on this ship without being reminded it was Louis’s. The name itself, “the Royal Sun,” was one of his self-aggrandizing unofficial titles.
 

Whose ship was it again?
 
Louis himself is represented several times. The beaming face of the Sun King surrounded by solar rays appears on the headrail medallions and on the dormers of the quarter galleries—looking out from the four quarters of the ship. These were all elements I chose to paint as if they were gilded on my model. The same devices are always gilded where they appear at Versailles.
 

Right, the face of the Sun King at Versailles, same as on the ship.
 
Louis also starred in the most distinctive piece of décor on the ship—the Apollo solar chariot frieze on the stern-plate. The zodiac frieze above the chariot and the clouds below it show that the tableau is supposed to be occurring in the heavens, far above lowly Earth. Louis, as Apollo, drives the solar chariot on its daily celestial path. He's not carrying the sun. He is the sun. The gold leaf would have blazed in daylight. The frieze was patterned after the Apollo fountain, a major sculptural group by Charles Le Brun in the gardens of Versailles. Louis was supposedly a devout Catholic who did a lot to enhance the power of the church, including expelling all French protestants. I don’t know how he managed to reconcile his devotion with presenting himself as an Olympian god. 
 

Charles Le Brun's Apollo fountain at Versailles.
 
Charles Le Brun was responsible for the other sculptural groups on the ship’s stern. He designed four statues for the gardens of Versailles to represent the four seasons. Variations of these serve as pillars between the ship's middle deck and upper deck balconies. Louis was being advertised as literally, a “king for all seasons.” 
 

Le Brun's original design drawings for the Four Seasons, Autumn, Spring, Summer, and Winter. The statues were executed by hired sculptors. I don't know where or if the statues survived. They no longer seem to be at Versailles.
 
At the bottoms of the quarter galleries are mermen, two split-tailed tritons from classical mythology. These were often used on French ship décor. Their function was to hail Louis as master of the seas. The ship’s figurehead is a classical winged sea nymph on the back of a sea horse (literally, a mer-horse with a fish tail)—a herald for the procession of royal emblems to follow. Another nautical-themed element was the bevy of scallop shells. The ribs on the scallops represented the sun’s rays, so they worked as one of Louis’s solar symbols as well as a symbol of the sea.
 

 
Surrounding the stern plate are allegorical figures representing the four continents (as they were known at the time), representing the wide overseas reach of French power. Reclining atop the zodiac frieze above the Apollo chariot are the figures of Europe, port, in classical garb with a horse, and Asia, starboard, in “eastern” dress, a turban, and a camel. On the lower port of the stern-plate is a female figure representing the Americas, in a straw skirt and feather crown. Starboard is the figure of Africa, with a distinct elephant-head headdress. These, too, are variants on Le Brun’s Versailles sculptures. The figures of the Americas and Africa on the Soleil Royal have exactly the same headdresses. This and the Apollo's chariot frieze are the strongest links between the ship's sculpture and Charles Le Brun. Pierre Puget—sorry, nope!
 

Charles Le Brun, the Four Continents. Still on display at Versailles.
 
In the Heller kit, I felt that the two figures on the lower stern-plate corners were too large and not very attractive to boot. I needed a smaller Africa and the Americas.
 

 
I went looking for other model figures to use. What size was okay? I thought 1/48 (O scale)—about 10–12 feet in 1/100— was about the largest that would be reasonable. After an internet search, I focused on some 3D-printed figures by a company named Printle on the Shapeways.com website. Some were copies of classical statues. Some were female nudes. They were cheap enough; I ordered a few.
 

The quality was good. The plastic was easy to cut, so I could make adjustments to the positions of arms and legs. I added clothing (not much, admittedly) and headdresses with scraps of styrene. The figures might not be identical to the ones in the Bérain drawings, but neither is the ship. I think these figures work fine.
 

 

 
Shapeways also supplied me with figures to make the two missing statues shown on the Cherbourg Library drawing of the quarter galleries. The starboard one (the only one shown in the Cherbourg drawing) was Kronos, “Father Time,” the Greek-mythology titan, first king of the Olympian gods, whose symbols were a scythe and an hourglass. The figure I got from Shapeways was a standing figure of Zeus. I cut and re-glued the figure at neck, waist, and knees to give him more of a sitting posture and replaced Zeus’s thunderbolt with Kronos’s scythe. Why was Kronos there? What did he represent? What did he have to do with the sun-god Apollo? I don’t know if I ever found a good answer. In mythology, Kronos reigned during the “golden age” (this is where we get the term) before he was slain and replaced by his son Zeus, who in turn was the father of Apollo. So Kronos was Apollo’s grandfather. And his “golden age” might be considered to have returned under the reign of his “grandson,” Apollo-Louis.
 

 
It didn’t make sense to repeat the same statue on the port side. Another accompanying figure was needed. What figure went along with Kronos, though? I decided it had to be Rhea, Kronos’s consort, first queen of the gods, Apollo’s grandmother, who served as midwife for the sun-god’s birth. Rhea’s main symbolic attributes were a mural crown (representing fortress walls) and a chariot drawn by lions. I opted to give my figure the crown and forget about the lions. Again, I used a nude Shapeways figure and dressed her somewhat with scrap styrene.
 

 
I think I’ve caught everyone up on my Heller model to the present. Posts from me are going to get less frequent from now on. I’m busy right now working—and re-working—the masts and rigging. I’m on my fourth try at installing foremast shrouds. Man, I thought building the hull was tough. It’s nothing compared to the complexity of the rigging. Slow process. I thought I’d be done with this model in a year. Now I’m giving it two.
 
My model has grown a beard. It’s all the lines running from the forecastle pin rails and deck cleats. I figured I’d better tie them in before the foremast shrouds go on and get in the way. I belayed the lines according to a rigging plan, so I know what each line is and where it is going to go once the masts and yardarms are up. Most of the lines are three feet or more in length.
 

 

 
As far as postings go, there’s still a discussion of deck furniture to do, which I’ll put off once more. And my rigging diagram is in a constant state of re-evolution as I absorb stuff from Jean Boudroit's monograph The Three-Decker of the Chevalier De Tourville. You’ll find out more about that next time, whenever that will be. With the holidays coming up, it’s hard to tell how much modeling time I'll have.
 
Happy Meleagris gallopavo day. The bird formerly known as turkey. Let’s all be respectful with our culinary nomenclature this Thanksgiving and eat some nice roast gallopavo with stuffing. And have fun building and rigging model ships over the holiday. 
 
Speaking of turkeys—
 

Yes, you are correct: they are a form of sweep port. Stowage of sweeps is an interesting question. They could be racked vertically around a mast, although with the rig in this case that would not work. Perhaps bundled along the bulwark tops inside the shrouds?
 
Sweep length as to such that the leverage is reasonable and the angle to enter the water is not too great. Therefore the inboard length cannot be too short  as you suggest. One wonders if sweeps were only used in extreme circumstances!

Thanks everyone who's joining in on this interesting little airplane. Actually, it's not that little:
 

 
The wingspan of the Skua looks something like 2/3 that of a Beaufighter, this was no small plane!
 
So far I've found the build of this Special Hobby kit to be not too bad. The instructions could be clearer, and they really could have done a better job with the locating nubs. Calling them "pins" really does other modellers a disservice, in that they really serve are general sort-of guidelines that maybe a part is supposed to go here or maybe not. I think a medium to slow curing CA is your friend here as trying to figure out how everything lines up takes time, and the odd reposition. I initially tried using regular plastic cement, but the SH kit plastic is a little soft, so it quickly turns into a gooey mess. I figured before I made a total bodge of everything that I should change glueing strategy. I will resume using styrene cement with items who's alignment is not called in to question.
 
There's quite a lot going on in the large cockpit, and lots of small details to be worked out. Following the advise from one of the Britmodeller builds, I elected to assemble the cockpit in one half of the fuselage, rather than having things flying around in mid air. Starting from the forward bulkhead and installing the floor and working my way aft.
 

 
There is an error in the kit (again, this was pointed out in one of the Britmodeller builds). The SH kit includes a bulkhead and seat back for the TAG (that's what they called the rear position), in reality this did not exist. The gunner had nothing but a slightly padded bench, and allegedly no seatbelts either. Easy enough to fix by just omitting the extraneous parts, but I felt bad leaving off the seatbelts. I find that a bit hard to believe given the rough carrier landings the Skua would have been required to perform, to say nothing of the acrobatics when being used as a fighter, or when dive-bombing! The poor TAG would have been tossed about like a rag doll, and probably barely conscious (or knocked senseless) after landing back on the carrier!
 
So a bit of an explanation to the acronym "TAG". Despite entering service in the late-is 1930s, Skuas still communicated with morse code, and only with ship/shore stations. There was little to no communication to other planes in the flight, other than by hand signals. So in Skuas the rear seat occupant was known as a Telegraphist/Air Gunner (TAG). Also, despite plenty of references, unlike other two seater airplanes of the Fleet Air Arm (such as the Fairey Fulmar), the TAG did not perform any navigational duties, beyond the attending to the radio.
 

 
Getting back to the model, as I noted earlier, there is plenty of detail in the cockpit, a large amount of which will not be seen once the plane is assembled, but I like to know it's all there. The instrument panel is in three pieces, the main centre section and two angled sections at the sides. For the most part the pieces are fairly well moulded, although the details some of the plastic parts a a little soft, the spare ammo drums on the fuselage side, for instance. The Skua had two internal fuel tanks in the cockpit, I have installed one, but will wait to install the second until after I've closed up the fuselage, so I can insure the filler neck isn't "disconnected". The large brass thing is apparently a fire extinguisher, the poor TAG really had it rough if things went bad.
 

 
So this is about as far as I've made it on this build. I should be glueing the two halves of the fuselage together soon. Repeated dry fitting hasn't revealed any problems in that respect, so things should continue to go relatively smoothly. This has been a bit of a learning experience, and AIrfix kit, this definitely isn't! However once the foundations are established, things do go together well, and I think having some experience with wooden ship kits is a great benefit, in so far as having some familiarity with vague instructions advising you to "put this part in this general area".
 
Andy
 
 
 
 
 
 

Gun Port Lid Installation
Following on from my last post I continued the work with installing the gun port lids by adding the linings to the bow gun port.

The linings needed to be painted red.

The bow gun port complete with lid

The stern gun port lids were test fitted. One gun port lid looks wonky in the first photo (blue arrow), not sure why.

The installation is now complete. I did touch up some of the black paint which was still wet when I took the following photos.

The top left hand gun port lid has not been glued in place as I will remove it whilst I add the small channel, strops and chain links which is located above it.

Hello,
today I worked on the window frames. First to fit them in and second to determine the position of the windows. I changed the arrangement after I had a look at the first pictures I took. But now I think it is ok.

Hello and many thanks for all the likes.
Today I set in the floors for the quarter galleries. Now all has a lot more stability. The next complicated task would be to build the frames for the windows here. 


My way to make sure that the quarter pieces are at the same angle

Hello,
the great moment has come, the window frames are glued on. Also the toilets for the officers are installed and I changed the aft part of the quarter deck. So I hope that the captain could pass here later to the galleries, without difficulty.

Hello,
after a short pause at the shipyard, we managed to fit in the quarter pieces. It's not all done till now, but we are on the way.

 

Good day all,    right  then  -  I think I have cracked it,  I mixed  a  larger  amoubt of my Lucky  ultra matt  with a  couple  of drops of satin  and  this  is the  result.
 
OC.

Evening all,   just been  playing around  with a  few of  my  existing  photos  and I decided  to  have anther  go  at them  -  I copped the  one  photo  and  the  painting  of the  inside  the  courtyard  of LHS  I  just   brought the  levels  up a  bit  to  make the scene pop  a bit.
 
OC.

Fantastic  to  see   you  back  on this   and  Brill   news  about  the  sucess  with   your  sight,  I do  understand  about  you  changing  what  you  felt   stood out  on your   build,   we   are  our own   punishers  and  critics  with  our own works  -  look at me  with my  re doing  of  the paintwork on my figures.
 
Looking forward  to seeing more  now  you are  back  in the  seat.
 
OC.

Aaaaand - I'm back. The recovery period took longer than planned but now I'm back wearing a contact lens in both eyes and able to see properly again. Its early days but I think I see a little improvement from the surgery already although its supposed to take about six months to get the full benefit.
Anyway I am back with Castillo Loarre and making progress again.
The last area that needs blocks is the octagon tower. A suitably fiddly thing to finish with. Windows and the triangle on the template suggest there is some sort of bastion on the other four faces. The guide is notably sketchy in this area so its been back to the drone video of the real thing. That seems to confirm the bastions although at a much shallower angle than the template suggests. I also started the first rows of roof tiles.


The area at the foot of the tower is also difficult to make out but I installed a row of blocks and will sand then back as a slope


Looking over work from before the surgery I found an annoying fox paw. Note the two windows in the outer wall

And on the inside .... Maybe I really did need the eye surgery!

I deliberated for a couple of days about anyone caring and reluctant to start tearing stuff down at the end of the build. Fear of a visit by the Guardians of Loarre Castle finally won out and down it came.

The shaping of the bastions on the outer side of the tower has been completed. The inner ones need to be sanded to shape.

This whole area is only vaguely referred to in the guide. Back to the video to try to assess how to finish the area around the half dome. The model departs from reality here and seems to have blocks covering the floor and overhanging the outer walls. That will wipe out half the height of the dome. The real thing has a parapet part way round the wall so I'm going to try that and use the tile pieces to cover the floor

So I have started the parapet. The tiles are going to be a nuisance


So this is where I am now. I ran out of blocks although if there had been less damaged blocks I would have made it. Just tile pieces to use now.
I'm looking forward a bit, it occurs to me that I need to completely finish this element of the castle before adding it to the base. I need to add the ground material and that also means adding the figures because I need to cover their bases with the ground stuff. So after some serious sanding and filling there is going to be a switch to the paint bench
The ground looks like it is gravel in the videos. I need to think what to use for that. The kit provides a very small amount of white granules that is not going to cover the area in question. I need to start researching railway scenery elements I think
Its great to be back. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all the spectacular work being done on this forum while I have been recovering.
Thanks for looking in
Alan.
 
 
 

Next update. What i wish they had done would be to mold the channels as separate pieces, for ease of painting. I have never had a model with channels molded onto the hull. It would probably be fine if it were anything other than an English galleon, due to the painting. 

All things considered, i think it's pretty good. The port side should go faster, because now i know what i want everything to look like. That should streamline the process some. I will do the interiors and weathering for both at the same time to preserve uniformity. 

Treenails... 
There have been many discussions here on the forum; Treenails, yes or no. 
For me: yes. It's a lot of work, but for me it adds value.
The idea is to add the treenails and then paint the hull with diluted Tamiya paints. This worked last time with toothpicks and ramin wood, but the cherry wood does not provide enough contrast. That is why I purchased walnut strips with a diameter of 1 mm, these provide sufficient contrast with the cherry wood to be able to paint over later.
 
There is not much information for the Mary Rose, only the diameter of the treenails. The frames also do not have an ordered structure to create a treenail diagram.
Therefore, back to the method on my previous model. This creates a schedule that has some structure. This will not match the real ship at all. but it looks good (to me).
 
The Mary Rose info, 
Further in the book it says :  We will investigate this further later...
My treenails are indeed 0.2mm too thick. But I couldn't find smaller strips in walnut and 1 mm drills are cheap here

The frame diagram 

Plan B


The strips : ordered on monday, delivered on teusday.

There should be approximately 5500 to 6000 holes between the keel and the first wale. This work requires new tools 

Drilling
Adding the treenails (and my very first hammer, still in service)

Work in progress

Sort of like military coffee then?   Came in semi-liquid and "chewy" n the various line shacks and mess halls as I recall.