BLACK VIKING

You can use a tumbler like the Block Buster.
 
I have my own little version  that works better for me..
 


 

I have a pretty good stash of Chuck's blocks so I wouldn't go to the trouble of making the kit blocks work these days.
But there was a time when it was all the kit builder had.
Of course there are some kits like Vanguard, that come with pretty decent blocks. 

Crazy thing...I rarely shop for rigging blocks for obvious reasons.   But I was searching online for info on rigging blocks so I can start making CNC fiddle blocks and Hearts...
 

 
LOL...I came across the typical square blocks which are abominations that come in most commercial kits.   I couldnt believe the price.  They are selling these things for $5.50 per package of 30.
 
It just hit me that my bargain blocks are the same price....I think my bargain blocks are a steal for the price.  I cant believe how out of touch I am when it comes to how much money folks are charging for this stuff.  I thought they were maybe charging $3 for a package.   Crazy stuff.  Anyway....enjoy them while I can offer them.  I should have another size in stock tomorrow some time.
 

 
 
 
 

This  is  what I would call  a  Blue-Black.
 
OC.

Mast wedges under way for the fore and middle masts


And all three complete

As the halyards have to go through the floors of the tops, I've put temporary halyards in so I can locate the supports (equivalent to crosstrees and trestle trees). Note that I've started putting them in on the mizentop.

 
 
I've finally begun planking the hull.
 



Because I couldn't clamp the strakes I had to pin them in place with treenails.

 



Steven

Hi Chuck,
I will list some of inaccuracies or mistakes I found.
When you compare body plan with sheer and half-breadth plan and measure everything this what you get. This is in milimeters. I took that sheer and half-breadth plan are more accurate.
 

One ladder not two.
 


 
Had to add the this for main yard hoisting.
 

Cleats are on wrong places, found out later when started putting the shrouds
 
 
 

 
Absolutely no cleats for fastening all the ropes, also lack of better explanation of how forecastle is constructed.
 
Two different fore stay versions
 
Spritsail is too large, spritsail on the previous picture is better
 

This framing is not in an alignment with other plans, so much correction is need if you want to make admiralty model or just to match visible frames with other plans.
There are some other mistakes I can't remember now, for example anchor is too big for the scale so adjustments are needed. Much care is to be taken studying plans before starting the build. I don't have so much experience so i didn't see all of this in advance. 

I have begun to work on this kit.   As per my usual process, I have two kits going.    My primary kit will be the Vanguard Grecian, but while waiting for glues to set, and for a change of pace, I will work on this kit.   I will build this kit pretty much out of the box with few modifications.     Although I will opt to use other manufacturer's deadeyes, single blocks and belaying pins.     In this kit the deadeyes and single blocks are laser cut on the plywood sheets and would require drilling holes and painting.   The belaying pins would have to be fashioned from wood stock.  
 
As to contents of the kit I would refer people to the YouTube videos which give a very good description of what is inside the kit.     As you can see from the pictures I have placed by SurfacePro computer at my work station as all the instructions are on a disc.    The only paper in the kit are the porthole templates and a guide to the plywood sheets showing where each piece is.    As I have reviewed all the instructions I believe there might be some issues  with not having physical instructions or plans but we will see.
 
The bulkheads, for the most part, consist of 3 pieces.     So far the fit of these pieces has been excellent.      Quality of the wood has also been excellent. 
 
  

That design looks to be taken out of Landstom's book, very nice indeed. Since no lantern was ever recovered and the probability exists that it may never have been installed, we can only speculate what it actually looked like, so I figured I could use some artistic license, still some touch up left to do but I'm a lot more pleased with this rendition, I added some styrene to the vertical grids then created the sculptures from Sculpey clay , for the vents I used paper. Thanks for looking.
 
Michael D.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Spritsail yards and yards for the foremast turned to the lengths in the comment above. Electric drill, sand paper, and calipers does an  excellent job. A little touch of paint on each set helps me not get them mixed up. 

Hi Kirill,
I could very well continue work on the lantern and make it more ornate but still on the fence on whether I want to display it, maybe just the mount. Regarding the brace pendants you are correct about the blocks stropped with a loop but really tough to do with 1.5mm blocks, I needed to simulate them instead and I believe it looks convincing enough at this scale. 
 
Michael D.

Painted and closed up. This is going to need some putty 

Love your new work station Marc. I am sure your artistic genius will continue to grow as you set in that beautiful chair. (Speaking as a fine furniture woodworker). 

I’ve been off the forum, but not completely inactive.  My new work table has arrived and I love it!  Solid Birch.  Gateleg.  Six drawers of storage.

I have also taken exclusive proprietorship over my repro Lancaster County Fanback - a chair that I, alone, love.
 
Arrayed along the back are all of the rigging specific books I have acquired and borrowed.   Among the latter are Marquardt’s tome on 18th Century rigging, as well as a reader-friendly binder expansion of Anderson’s Rigging in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast, both of which were lent to me by Dan Pariser - thanks, again, Dan!
 
I like to use Anderson as my baseline, particularly the earlier edition, because he calls out Continental and particularly French differences.  Simultaneously, I keep pace through Lees, Marquardt and the binder version of Anderson, which is actually the later edition that focusses specifically on English practice.  Simultaneous to all of that, I am referencing my photo library of models to reference fair leads and really see what all of this is supposed to look like.
 
One model that has been particularly helpful as a reference is the following of L’Ambiteaux, in 1:96.  The photography expands in high definition and you can really see where it all leads to.  The full-site version has many more pictures than the mobile version:
 
https://www.modelships.de/Ambitieux/Photos_Ambitieux.htm
 
Because my knowledge of rigging is so limited, this has always felt to me like the most daunting aspect of the build.  Gradually, though, as I follow Anderson’s advice and read through the entire book before starting, I am developing a vocabulary and understanding of what all of the lines do.  Slowly, I am beginning to see how to map out my belay points.
 
Of course, I have been the benefactor of A LOT of extra help, here, with John Ott being completely open about his sources and his own belay plan and line-scale corollaries.  Michael D (72Nova) has been exceedingly gracious in sharing his rigging techniques in very small scale.  And Kirill has also been exceedingly generous in sharing photographic resources and his own knowledge.  Thank you to all and many others!  I think, as I get into it, I will come to enjoy the rigging process.  I am, nonetheless, determined to make a passably good job of it.
 
In the meantime, before I could strop deadeyes and fabricate chains and preventer plates, I needed to fill-in between the middle deck wales at the fore and main channel locations:

Work continues slowly on the Africa figure.  I am in the process of defining shapes and volumes.  All of my edge tools were pretty dull, though, so I took a little time to brighten their edges.
 
Little by little, we are getting there.  Thanks for looking in!
 
Best,
 
Marc
 

Center Keel
 
Time to lay the keel down… Obviously this is where the actual ship began construction, but I’m only now getting to this critical element on my build.
 
I laid the keel down in manageable sections using .030 x .080 Styrene strips.  Not sure this would be exact to scale, but it closely lines up to the width shown on my 1/200 scale print of the hull bottom.

The critical thing is to keep it straight all the way down the length of the underbody.  I taped a straight edge against the styrene and began cementing down the aligned strip in two-inch increments – moving the straight edge along as I worked my way from bow to stern.  I also had a small piece of scrap styrene that perfectly fit into the needed gap between the keel and the inner edge of the hull plating that I test fitted as I glued each strip.
 
The forward most keel section was tapered to meet the kit keel at the bow.  

The stern section was angled down toward the sternpost and filed to blend.


It really takes some effort to make sure that the keel stays straight and true all the way across the length of the hull.


Butt Straps
 
Generally, the hull plates were overlapped and riveted together across the length of the hull.  There was, however, a section of strakes lower down in the hull that had the butt ends set flush together without the overlap.  These plates were held together with “butt straps” – small plates riveted to the ends of the abutting hull plates.
 
See my orange highlights in Bob Read’s hull plan:

(Note that the port side butt straps are indicated with dotted outlines in Bob’s drawing and are offset port vs starboard.)
 
The Trumpeter kit seems to include faint outlines of these straps in the approximately correct location forward of the bilge keels. No indication, however, on the strakes aft of the bilge keels.  
 
Bob’s drawing shows five of these forward and four aft.  In a perfect world these butt straps would all line up against a single strake across the length of the kit underbody. This would include the tops of the butt straps that peek out above (and below) the bilge keels.  Unfortunately, the compromises made by Trumpeter in molding the hull have made it tough to add these butt straps with all the top edges aligned against one hull strake.
 
I’ll need to fudge things a bit to get these represented on my model. I’ll go ahead and use the kit outlined versions forward of the bilge keels for positioning my straps.  Aft of the keel I’ll align them against the existing kit hull strakes - marked first with a pencil.  

Thin .010 x .156 strips of styrene will be used for these butt straps:

These will all sit in line with the “in” strakes of the molded hull.  I inserted small snips of styrene to fill the gap to create a flush surface before overlaying the butt straps:

The corners of the styrene were first rounded and then cemented in place.

Once put in place, I came back along and sanded down the straps to reduce the dimension – didn’t want these to stand out too proud against the hull. Tape protected the hull while I used an Emory board.

Sample views:

 
 

I’ve decided to hold off on adding the bilge keels for now.  There is much abuse left to deliver on the hull and I think these keels will be fragile and vulnerable as I flip the hull on its side and upside down to make more modifications.  I can be patient and add these (along with more butt straps) at a later stage.
 
Miscellaneous Detail
 
I’ve also been tending to some of the smaller details along the hull.  
 
The historic photos show a small crease near the hull stern plates:

I grabbed the hobby knife and a micro chisel and went to work.

Thanks again for the interest everyone has shown (and the patience between updates).
 
Pondering next steps – probably the propeller wings.
 
Cheers,
Evan

This is the third and last APC, seats for the AMX-13/155 crew and 155mm ammo. 

And to finish off this wonderful conglomerate, the manropes were added, the railings so to speak.

A template helps with the knot, by opening and closing a pair of pointed tweezers, the knot can easily be moved sideways ...


 
... and the eyebolt was also placed to size.



Then the small net so that the jib sails don't get caught under the spars.

First clamped in a cardboard frame ...



... then primed with white and tinted with brown.



Then glued on a frame of twisted wire ...



...and cut it out.



Then fastened the manropes ...



...and sewed the netting onto them.





And immediately sent up a sailor to test it.













It's just a corner that was a lot of fun!



And here you can see my foolish luck: The hearts have the big distance to the bowsprite, because the jib boom has to be pushed through :-0

XXXDAn

Much thanks Kirill, I never really keep track at how fast nor how much time I put into each build, I just work at comfortable pace. I completed the furling of the Mizzen top sail and working on the main top sail braces now, the lead is hitched or simulated to look like one at this scale to the Mizzen stay collar, through the pendant block to a block on the Mizzen shroud and to the block on the aft main shroud and to the belaying point shown in the Vasa Museum plans I have, this run looks odd to me, Anderson does state that normally they went straight down to the deck and with the belay point where it is I think I should fore go the run to the main shroud and run the lead down the Mizzen shroud as Anderson states for Dutch Vesels.
 
Michael D.

 

I have lightened  the  pics  a bit  - 
 
OC.

Thanks for all the likes.
 
Cathead, that's a good question. It seems to vary somewhat. I went with what looked like it would work best. Perhaps it might have been better to have it a little further aft, but it seems to be ok to go either way. The helmsman himself is stationed in front of the aftercastle in most cases, and as you can see, there is quite a bit of variation in the configuration of the aftercastle itself. And these are all supposed to be the same ship!


 
Steven

Hello Fellow Ship Modelers!
 
I have completed the Oseberg model.  This was a very fun project and I am enjoying looking at it in the location that I had in mind for it when I started building it.  Some final photos below.
 
Peace!!
 
Jason
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was able to finally secure some nagging loose lines, that being the  Mizzen sheet and lift, I used 1.5mm single and a 1.5mm double for the sheet blocks. I rigged the crojack braces starting at an eye bolt in side, through the pendant block and secured to cleats on the rail. Up next will be the Ensign at the stern and the top mast flag and their appropriate  rigging along with finishing the furling of the top sail and bow lines and that should complete the rigging of the Mizzen mast, also I need to start thinking about the design and fabrication of the stern lantern.
Michael D.

I haven't posted lately, but I haven't been idle.
 
Staircase from the Captain's cabin down to the hold. I'd originally intended it to be going out through the fore end of the cabin, but discovered the break of the poop got in the way, so instead I found another place for it, where it still wouldn't intrude too much into the rest of the cabin space. Having this set of stairs means the captain doesn't have to go UP to the poop, DOWN to the maindeck and DOWN again to the hold, but can get there down a single set of stairs.

Ladders - the wider one goes down from the poop deck to the Captain's cabin, the narrower one down from the maindeck to the hold.

Making the tops. Tightly bent pine strips to make a "basket". Took a lot more work than I'd expected, but finally all complete to my satisfaction.

And attached to the masts

Maindeck planking.
  
The 'crossbeams' in the second picture are my impromptu clamps to push the planking down into contact with the deck beams till the glue dries.
 
And deck planking complete, with the aftercastle dry fitted. The stairs down from the maindeck to the hold will be in the oblong opening just in front of the fore hatch.

Unfortunately I realised too late that with the decking in place it's going to be difficult to clamp the hull planking to the frames. To misquote the famous Eccles  "I should have thought of that sooner, shouldn't I?" So I've given myself a bit of a problem. I won't be planking in this sequence next time. But I'm sure I'll come up with a solution.
 
And now I'm going out on a limb. I had originally decided that the pictures in the mosaics showing the side rudders coming through a hole in the hull were unworkable, unlikely and anathema.

But when I worked out where they were going, and the shape of the hull at that point, I decided to try it out and see if I could make it work. I first had to cut one of the frames short between the top wale and the gunwale to allow enough 'swing" for the rudders to be swung up out of the way. The hull would be a tiny bit weaker at that point (but nowhere near as much weakened as, say, cutting out gunports).
 


The rudders do stick out at an angle sideways somewhat rather than being vertical, and at least in this configuration with a wale in the way there's no way to change that. This might affect the steering to a certain degree, but perhaps not as much as might be thought. The rudders can still swivel in the vertical plane just as does a stern rudder, so the ship should be able to be steered that way. Had I placed the wales differently, the rudders might have been considerably closer to vertical, and that would have been better still. But I'm quite happy with them as it is, at least for a first iteration of the design. I won't be changing it - it's an experiment, and I think I've shown - at least to my own satisfaction - that rudders coming through a hole in the hull would have been workable.

There remains the issue of being able to remove the rudders when in port, in line with legal requirements (the authorities would hold onto the rudders while in port to discourage ships from doing a 'flit' without paying harbour dues). But that could be solved by having the tillers removable, so the rudder could be let down through the hole, to a boat (as in Woodrat's Venetian Round Ship).
 
Steven
 
 
 
 

Battle of Malaga, by Isaac Sailmaker (c.1633–1721)
 
So what was the Battle of Malaga the Soleil Royal II participated in, and what was the Malaga scroll all about?
 
I’ll save a blow-by-blow description of the battle for another time. (It’s long!) Here’s the condensed version—
 
The Battle of Velez-Malaga on Aug. 24, 1704 was a big, bloody sea engagement off the coast of southern Spain that unfortunately did little to alter the course of the War of Spanish Succession. The short summary is that the English seized Gibraltar from the Spanish and the French navy tried to take it back. Both fleets were big for the time. The French had 50 ships-of-the-line and the English and Dutch, 53. In twelve hours of fighting, 1,585 French, 2,325 English and 700 Dutchmen perished. Many ships were dismasted and heavily damaged, though depending on the sources, few to none were lost. Both fleets were too big and evenly matched to gain a decisive advantage in a single day. 
 
Having expended 100,000 cannon shot, both fleets were afraid of running low on ammunition and so avoided renewing the battle the next day. The British, having suffered the worst, retreated back to the Atlantic leaving only a small, suicidal rear-guard of twenty ships at Gibraltar, certain that the French would attack. The semi-victorious French fleet commander, however, was the Comte de Toulouse, the 26-year-old landlubber bastard son of Louis XIV who had never been in a sea battle before. Badly shaken by the carnage, he was all for calling it a day and taking the fleet back to port. The other French commanders accommodated him. They figured the Spanish could take Gibraltar back by land. We all know how that worked out.

I’ve seen the Malaga scroll described in print as the “Bayeaux tapestry of the French navy.” It’s proper title is the Order of battle held by the naval armies of France, England and Holland in the Mediterranean in the MDCCIV year, when Monsieur le Comte de Toulouse won a victory over the English and Dutch and forced them to abandon the Mediterranean and leave the Strait [of Gibraltar]. The scroll is made from sheets of paper glued to canvas, 5.87 meters by 0.70 meters (19-1/4 feet by 2-1/4 feet).
 

 
On it are painted, in watercolor and gouache, the 194 ships of the French, English, and Dutch fleets that fought at Vélez-Málaga. Each ship is shown in line of battle, sailing left to right, labeled with its name, commander, and number of guns and men. The very precise detailing of the ships—colors, rigging, sails, flags, number of ports, etc.—attest to the knowledge and memory of the painter, Jérôme Hélyot, who participated in the battle as a gunnery officer. Regularly spaced holes and cloth rings show that the piece was meant to be hung on display. This leads to the supposition that Hélyot used the scroll as a training tool for young gunnery officers.
 

 

 

 
Coming from a fairly well-established Parisian family, Jérôme Hélyot began his naval career in 1698 as an ensign on the Amphitrite, the first French frigate sent to China on a commercial voyage, before being recruited as a artillery officer in Toulon in 1701. He took part in all the major land and naval operations of the War of the Spanish Succession. In the battle of Vélez-Málaga, he was on the ship Toulouse, part of the rear-guard squadron under the command of the Marquis de Langeron on the Soleil Royal. 
 
In 1706, Jérôme Hélyot was promoted second lieutenant of artillery and continued a career that led him to the rank of captain and several commands, including the 64-gun 3rd-rank Saint Michel during the 1740–48 War of Austrian Succession. Knighted, he ended his career commanding the forts guarding Brest and died February 8, 1750. His scroll eventually passed into private hands and apparently remained mostly unknown and unstudied until the French Government acquired it in 2016.
 

 
The thing I can’t quite understand is why the Malaga scroll hasn’t gotten more attention from those who study this period of warship development. There doesn’t seem to be a good copy of the scroll anywhere on the internet—I’ve found just a few excerpts in European publications, like the Revue Historique des Armées. (If anyone knows otherwise, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.) The scroll contains the only eyewitness art of a Soleil Royal that I know of. There are color sketches of 50 French ships-of-the-line, plus 53 English and Dutch. I would think the scroll would be a primary source for anyone interested in modeling ships of this age. If it were better known, there might be better choices made for colors and paint.
 
As I discussed last time, I worked from the image on the Malaga scroll to make the color scheme for my Heller Soleil Royal. It was time to start painting some plastic.
 

 

 
I usually have a lot of paint around, so I tend to use what I already got. Most of it is acrylic or other water-based colors, since I’ve poisoned myself with solvent-based paints enough for one lifetime. Acrylic is forgiving, fast-drying, usually dries to a matt finish, and is easily removable—this is important since I strip off paint and redo my work on a regular basis. I’m also acrylic-agnostic, not preferring one brand of the liquid plastic over another. As long as it’s reasonably sturdy and can be thinned enough to spit though an airbrush, I’m happy. My local hobby shop has a big selection of Vallejo colors, so they were the majority of those who answered the casting call. Also featured is a bottle of Liquitex acrylic matt medium, which I brush on after all is dry to remove any shine and help protect the paint surface. G’wan, cast—take a bow.
 

 
The interior of the hull got brush-painted with cheap red craft acrylic—"Deep Burgundy." That included the inner edges of all the gunports. The rest of the ship was hit with Vallejo grey surface primer.
 
At one time in the distant past, my Paasche VL airbrush and I made a good team for painting models. Now, after many years, one-half of the team spits, leaks, and clogs, acts temperamental, and needs replacement parts. Fortunately, my airbrush still works perfectly. We managed to successfully apply primer to the outer hull. Since for some unfathomable reason I put the interior red acrylic on first, I had to plug all the gunports with illustration board to keep the primer out.
 

 
I had scraped and sanded off the kit’s molded-on waterline. The light grey primer was handy for drawing on a new waterline, which touched the lower main wale. I later raised the waterline. Twice. 
 

 
Below are the three colors used for the lower hull halves. The yellow ochre "Antique gold" is pretty generic. The main “doe’s belly” color is Vallejo 70.843 cork brown, and the “black” is a very dark Van Dyke brown—a much warmer hue than cold flat black, which I dislike using on models.
 

 
After the primer dried, the first coat on the hull was yellow ochre brushed on. The gunports were still plugged with illustration board. The waterline was masked just in case I wanted to use the airbrush. In the end, I didn't need it.
 

 
After the paint dried for a day, I sealed it with a coat of matt medium. The second color coat was Vallejo cork brown—“doe’s belly.”
 

 
I didn’t bother painting the main wales, which were going to be black, or the uppermost channel wale, which was going to be left white for now. This coat was left un-sealed. I wanted it removable. Again, after drying, I masked off everything except the wales to be painted black.
 

 
This time, I used the airbrush in a vain effort to avoid paint bleeding under the masking tape.
 

 

 
Ehhh. Not too much touchup needed. 
 
Here’s the fun part—the two shades (yellow ochre and cork brown) were intended to help bring out Heller’s wood texture in a semi-subtle way. After everything dried, the hull was distressed with a combination of scraping, hand sanding, and a dirty wire brush.
 

 
After a while, the high points of the wood texture began to show through with a slightly lighter hue than the “doe’s belly” color. It’s something a viewer has to get up close to see, but it’s just enough “weathering” to satisfy my eye.
 

 
It was about this time I grew unhappy with the waterline. I felt I could squeeze another foot or so for the draft. I clipped and rubber-banded the hull together to sit it on its cradle and made a “waterline indicator” out of foam-core board to serve as a guide, then hand-painted the waterline high enough to partially cover the lower main wale. There was plenty of historical artwork to back me up on this. Lots of ships had wet main wales.
 

 
After going through the exercise twice, my Soleil Royal ended up with a draft of nineteen feet. Not great, but three more feet than before.
 
Decks next—
 
The Heller kit has decks with even-width, parallel planking—not very realistic, according to many modelers who prefer planking tapered to fit the curves of the sides of the ship. I first thought to replace the decks with aftermarket ones, but they were wood, not plastic, and they lacked the nice grain detail Heller added. One thing I like in a model’s presentation is consistency, so the decision was made to go with Heller’s decks. I really doubted anyone would notice the taper of the planks anyway after getting past all the guns, deck furniture, and detail. As a compromise, I took some white putty and my scribing tool and made margin planks.
 
Here’s Peter Goodwin, in Construction and Fitting of the English Man of War 1650–1850: “The function of this [margin plank] was to prevent the normal straight deck planking from being tapered to a fine angle where it met the curvature of the ship’s side…. The margin plank was thus fashioned to receive the butts of those planks.”
 
So on to painting. No primer this trip. First coat was Van Dyke brown brushed on, then wiped away while still wet.
 

 
Second coat was cork brown, dry-brushed on. Began to use a little more, a little less here and there to differentiate some planks. I let it dry.
 

 
Instead of distressing the top coat like on the hull sides, this time I dry-brushed the planks with light grey. A tiny amount of paint was dabbed on the tip of a ragged, throwaway brush which was then used to scrub like hell until the tops of the raised wood grain stood out. This made the deck look bleached by salt and sun and worn by the knees of too many swabbies and their holystones. 
 

 
After sealing it with matt medium, I added the deck furniture according to the instructions—but the more I saw of other models and drawings, the more this began to bother me.
 

 
The decks in the Heller kit come with several double-and quadruple-bitts. Plus many free-standing large, medium, and small knightheads, cleats, and rings—few of which were to be seen in the drawings of the Royal Louis, the deck diagrams of J.C. Lemineur or Jean Boudriot, or were apparent on any of the historical models. Were all those quadruple bitts and free-standing knightheads necessary?
 

Royal Louis

L'Ambitieux—Boudroit
 

Le Francois—Lemineur
 
By now, I knew to question everything.  
 
For reference, I had R.C. Anderson’s The Rigging of Ships in the days of the Spritsail Topmast 1600–1720 and Karl Marquardt’s Eighteen-Century Rigs & Rigging. Both books spelled out each line used in standing and running rigging. Both books had good diagrams and explanations of each line’s function and notes on specific practices used by the French in the time period I’m modeling. In contrast, Heller’s instruction book never gives the names or functions of the lines it tells you to string, and it spreads out the directions over half the book so that you never get the big picture.
 
And then there is the matter of the Heller model having no pin rails. According to the kit, all lines are supposedly attached to pins set into the sheer railing. I know that some historical models do show it this way, but other models have pin rails. It’s hard to find definitive reference, but I think pin rails were in common use by the 1690s, when Soleil Royal II was built.
 

 
Using Anderson and Marquardt, I made an Excel spreadsheet of all the ropes necessary, mast by mast, yard by yard, sail by sail. There were over 300 lines. Something like 250 of them needed belaying points on or near deck, and Anderson and Marquardt were specific about which ones needed pins, cleats, rings, bitts, knightheads, kevels, or channels. Yah! I needed pin rails!
 
It dawned on me that I had to work out the Soleil Royal’s entire rigging plan and belaying points from scratch before settling on specific deck furniture. Oh joy.
 
Well—I had a ways to go before the hull halves were even glued together. I felt like I had plennnnnnty of time to come up with a rigging plan. Next job on the list was painting and decorating the upper gundeck, forecastle, quarterdeck, and poop. That'll be shown next week. And who knows—? I may finish writing my description of the Battle of Velez-Malaga, if anyone is interested. It's a perfectly Baroque tale of aristocratic vainglory, nepotism, valor, cowardice, prudence, mistakes, unnecessary bloodshed, and cold calculation. Plus, I think I found out why the Soleil Royal wasn't the fleet's main flagship.
 
Stay dry 'till then.
 

Congratulations on your first sea trial!
 
That sounds like a good idea. I'd agree: although the fulcrum for oars should be as close to the water as possible for maximum rowing efficiency, they do need to be able to be lifted far enough to avoid catching crabs on the return stroke.
 
The action looks good - quite similar to that of the Olympias, so you must be on the right track. Perhaps a little slower would be good, to look even more realistic? I know this works for model railways - people always seem to run their trains too fast to look quite real.
 
Yes - so is the Olympias. Apparently people have to be careful walking around on the upper deck because the vessel tilts alarmingly very easily.
 
Your turning using backwater on one side seems to work well (though again, perhaps it would look better if it was a little slower). I can understand your issues with the rudders for lesser turns. Unfortunately I can't make any suggestions - you're right; not enough movement through the water to get the rudders to 'bite' properly, and this may simply be a matter of scale - she's 1/32nd of the length of the full-sized ship, so volume is 1/32 x 1/32 x 1/32 = 1/32,768 according to my calculator - miniscule effects compared to the real thing - perhaps even in relation to the water molecules? Certainly in relation to surface tension.
 
Now that I see her in the water, she seems rather high in comparison with her length for a vessel propelled by muscle power. (extra height = extra weight) - at least at bow and stern. I just looked back at page 4 of your build log (posts #100 and #106) and your quadrireme does seem rather higher in relation to its length than the triere shown in post #100 (I realise they're not the same type of ship and that does make a difference). Might just be worth a thought. The weight difference surely doesn't make any difference to her performance, so long as she floats at the right level - and it would be totally pointless getting into a scaled power to weight ratio comparison between a fully loaded and crewed ship with the power provided by a crew, vs the weight of  the mechanism you've put into your model and the power it provides. 
 
The carrying handle idea seems worthwhile - it'll be interesting to see if it works ok.
 
Anyway, wonderful work so far. Looking forward to further progress.
 
Steven