BLACK VIKING

Sorry for the late response as I've had one heck of a year as I lost my mum last year and we have moved back to Kent to be near No1 son .
I have attached some pictures for you to look at to show what I have been up to. 
Thanks again for the comments and likes .
Martyn 

Work has fallen behind schedule. My 3d printer which I would use to print some upgraded parts is broken. The screen died already and had to order a new one. Meanwhile and while waiting for the part I did some wood work with a help of a friend so I made a frame for my picture in 70X100 cm

 

Personally, I like the lighter blue better, similar to what the artist Romain Hugault used for his superb Bandes Dessinees: 
 

 
Yves

With lots of my projects, I try to emphasize the possible difficult to solve problems, before I'm at the actual stage of the build. Having the how-to's in my head, helps to keep a clear sight.

I considered masking the polished aluminum covers, after spraying them with chrome or polished aluminum following a gloss lack primer. Then I remembered, I once bought a sheet of Bare Metal foil and tried it onto one engine cover. It's not perfect in the pic, but I hope, I can do better after the blue color has been sprayed on. For now it's peeled off again.
 

 
Speaking of blue, I almost decided to use the left one, Tamiya LP-6 gloss Pure Blue, but will try the darker LP-78 Flat Blue also on a piece of scrap.
 

 
Lastly, I detailed the cockpit with some tiny PE parts and added the futurized canopy, to see , which insights could be expected. The canopy holds only through friction and I think, I will leave it off for painting, because I had some slight fogging issues with polystyrol canopies and lacquer paints, lately. 
 

 
Cheers Rob
 
 

I doubt the two young one's projects deserves threads of their own. Yes indeed, two of them. My 6 year old also wa ted in on the  action. So I'll just sneak a few pics in along this one. 
 
Hull halves in, i now have them aligned. Ready for an adhesive, but I think I'll be getting some slower set epoxy this time
 
 
The eldest has her SIB based on this Lego rescue boat, some kind of yacth
 

Balsa is easy for them on a block of sanding paper. They also like playing with the sawdust
 
 
My 6 year old has an idea of a biblical era fishing boat, and of course it was pink and turquoise 
 
We'll have some small fishes made of playdough in a hair net suspended in the ocean beneath it...

The Model T Ford Camo in progress 

Getting there 

I just finished a "skeleton" model of a Sopwith Camel, you know the one that Snoopy flies. It is a 1/16 scale kit made by Spanish company Artesania Latina. The instruction manual is a pdf file 267 pages long with no text, only photos, so I had to keep my laptop on for 4 months while I built the model. The wood parts are perfectly laser cut. The kit has lots of cast metal parts. The casting is excellent but the parts often don't quite fit together, making it a frustrating build. And it makes me crazy to have cast metal tires, cowling, and wood panels around the cockpit. There are also lots of photo-etched parts like all the turnbuckles that have to be folded in complicated mirror-image shapes. You only get one chance because the parts break if you have to unfold them. The kit came with black monofilament line for the rigging that simply couldn't be tied through the tiny PE parts, and some other fuzzy cotton thread for an unknown use. Luckily I have plenty of spare rigging line.   Many years ago I built a similar model of a Fokker triplane "Curse you Red Baron!" but by Model Airways. The models are the same scale and look great together.

Hi all,
I resumed my build of my Mayflower after one and half year. I managed to build the extension of the upper deck and to bend it as necessary. It was built of a 3-layers 1.5 mm plywood and I chose the layer orientation that offered the least resistance. I bent it soaking it in water and heating it on a curved steel cooking pot. 

Once glued in place, the junction was smoothed and this is the way it looked:

meanwhile, I furnished the poop cabin bulkhead and finished the bulwark of the mid deck. Some pictures after gluing the deck planks:


That's all for now,
kind regards,
Dan

Instruction sheet B completed. 
 
If every step looks at least this good, I might have a nice finished boat. I’m getting ahead of myself lol. 
 

 

 

Video 1, instruction page A complete. 
 
I used the decking as guides and glued the formers in place per section. It seemed really important to keep it all lined up. No better way than to use the parts that will be fitted later to keep it square. This was something I could clearly see as helpful. I hope I can recognize other things like this before it’s to late haha. Using the decking as guides, not yet glued in place of course, worked really well.
 
The glue I used a white PVA type so far seems like a good choice. It drys clear and it’s thick and easy to work with. It runs a little bit when I get to much on a part but it’s easy to use. It tacks quickly and holds quick like standard yellow wood glue.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, John-O!  You have truly blown my mind here with a masterful job of photo-editing; somehow you have taken a barely more than 2-dimensional Berain stern drawing, in plan view, and made a fully 3-D perspective drawing.  And you are pretty close to my own thinking on this subject.  I hope you don’t mind that I have screen-shotted your drawing for the sake of an over/under comparison:


One can see on the LR drawing that just to either side of the tafferal carving - the Arms of France - are two small arched port windows that correspond with two of the same ports at the quarters.  You are quite correct, in my view, to shorten LR’s tafferal from the bottom, so that you can introduce the upper tier of 6 stern lights for SR.
 
One gentle critique I’ll offer is that in manipulating the Berain drawing, the height of this upper balcony tier is a little too far reduced to make it practical; for a man of the times standing on this balcony, the cap rail might only reach mid-thigh.  See what I mean, comparatively, in plan view:

The height of the upper balcony bulwark is slightly reduced from that of the middle balcony, but not by half.
 
If you were to nudge that upper balcony rail upwards by an additional scale thickness of caprail - a highly imprecise measure, if there ever was one - you would arrive at a scale impression that at least looks more right to the eye.  This incremental increase should also be transferred to the top of that upper window tier so that it is just a little more closely aligned with the quarter port openings.  Right now, my eye reads that upper tier of lights as being just a bit lower than they should be.
 
”But Marc,” you might be saying to yourself right now, “that reduces the tafferal height for the big carving of Apollo and his quadriga.  WTF, man, don’t mess me up like that!”  You probably aren’t saying that exactly, John, but I like to amuse myself 😏
 
Okay, so, here are my thoughts on LR’s tafferal height.  By the time the VdVs are sketching the French fleet in 1673, it is reasonably likely that LR’s original sheer height of stern had been reduced, somewhat, to comply with the new Reglements of 1671.  Alterations to the height of stern and previously top-heavy ornamental figures were undertaken for the ships that were to be part of the allied French/English fleet.
 
The French did not wish to embarrass themselves in the eyes of the English, whom they were studying closely, in order to improve their own construction measures and proportions.  It is the particular observations of Tourville, Etienne Hubac and Seignelay while boarding and taking principal measurements of The Royal Charles in late 1672 that ultimately results in the comparative study between the RC and SR, presented to the construction councils in December of 1672.  As flagship, I think it likely that LR’s height and ornamental program would have been reduced to comply.
 
However, La Reyne was a commissioned warship, while Soleil Royal remained a symbolic beacon, at anchor, on the Penfeld.  There may not have been any immediate urgency for razee’ing her deadworks to comply with the Reglement of 1671, and it is known that her ornamental program, at the very least, took into account the failures and excesses of the Royal Louis of 1668; while SR still has large rounded figure carvings, they have been hollowed-out to reduce weight.
 
In consideration of your drawing, I think it is reasonable to raise the reverse-curve coronation a few scale feet (perhaps by the same height of the band of astrological symbols), in order to represent this higher sheer height of the earliest constructions (1667-1670), and to give more room to Apollo’s quadriga.  I suspect the overall impression of sheer height would have been quite similar or the same as that of the Monarque:

I also think that the shape and projection of the lower and middle balconies would have followed more closely what you see on the Monarque, or the refit Dauphin Royal (below in blue) but that the lower balcony was probably already a mere vestigial “shelf” for the Four Seasons figures.
 
Now, with regard to the number of stern lights that may have been present on the earliest ships, there does seem to be enough corroborating evidence among the Monarque, the RL and the Dauphin Royal to suggest seven windows between quarters.
 
The RL of 1668, as perhaps roughly sketched by LeBrun or Girardon:
 

A more finished version of the same:

And the DR:

That is conjecture, on my part, but there is some concrete reference to this possibility, in the form of the survey drawing of the original grand council chamber ceiling in May of 1688:

There are what appear to be five full window openings, bracketed by two half-lights at the extremities for a total of seven.
 
One exercise in drawing and proportion that I have not yet gotten to is to map out the stern widths at each level, which are also known and recorded from this same 1688 survey.  That might provide a reasonable guide of the ship’s degree of tumblehome at the stern, and ultimately may suggest whether it was possible or even likely to continue two additional upper tiers of seven stern lights.
 
It may be the case, though, that there is a reduction from seven on the lowest tier, with five full and two blank-panel reliefs on the middle tier, and five full on the top tier that are book-ended by ornamental pilasters.
 
If it is possible to cary seven at each level, I like very much what Tony Devroude arrived at for the framing of his DR of 1668:
(NRJ Vol. 55, No. 3, Fall 2010)
 
As for the particular ornamental differences between the original SR allegory, suggested by LeBrun and perfected by Puget, I am fascinated by the following excerpt from:
 
Sur la vie et les oeuvres de P. Puget , par D.-M.-J. Henry,...
Author : Henry, Dominique-Marie-Joseph (1778-1850). Auteur du texte
Publisher : impr. de E. Aurel (Toulon)
Publication date : 1853
 
…The stern of the Royal Sun, whose decoration is also due to the pencil of Puget, seems to testify to the account held by this artist of the need to restrict the extent of decoration. In the design of this new vessel the upper gallery, that is to say, the one which in the other vessel culminates in the coronation, is suppressed, and the figures are less gigantic. The vault
it is a duty and a real pleasure to express to this laborious writer all my gratitude for the obliging competition which he has kindly lent me by searching, in the archives of the Ministry of the Navy, the documents which could not be furnished to me by the archives of the port of Toulon, and sending me textually a copy of the various pieces of Colbert's official correspondence which I use in this work.
38 ON LIFE AND WORKS
other ornament than simple moldings and a mascaron to cover the opening of the jaumière. To this seems to be reduced the apparent modification made in the profusion of ornamental riches, the composition of the painting always retaining a great and noble character. It may be, however, that the absence of ornaments in the vault was less akin to the modification demanded by the minister, than to the quality of the vessel, which being of second rank did not admit so much luxury of decoration. The area that bears the name of the vessel, covered with beautiful arabesques, is, at the Sun Royal, supported by four baths indicating the seasons that the star of the day shares in its annual race, because it must be noted, everything is allegorical in the decoration of this building whose name itself alluded to the young monarch. The succession of seasons begins with the left, where winter is represented under the appearance of an old man wrapped in a drapery covering his head and body; the other three seasons are graceful figures of women carrying on their heads a basket full of flowers or fruits that characterize them. The gallery extends from one end of the stern to the other, and its two extremities serve as the seat of two beautiful figures representing warriors of lesser proportions than those of the first vessel. These warriors, whose defensive armor differs as well as attitude, still refer to the two great regions that the sun illuminates. The east, on the starboard side, had its helmet adorned with floating ostrich feathers, while the crest of the port warrior, composed of feathers of other birds, formed a broad plume framing with great taste all the top of the head . With the hands of the two hands, which were near the ship, on the cornice of the gallery, which served as their seat, both of them held up the arm on the opposite side, so that the hand served as support.
P. PUGET. 39
next to the top of the board. These sides are formed of an inverted console whose notch accommodated at the reentrant part of the flanks of the building, at the height of the second battery. A bust of a woman carrying on the head a basket of flowers for one, fruit for the other, comes out of the small winding of these consoles. The great bas-relief, left blank in the project of decoration of the first vessel, but drawn in this one which had already received its name, represents the young king under the figure of Phoebus, driving his chariot harnessed of the four mythological horses launched at a gallop, and in the ancient style, that is to say, thrown two on the right and two on the left. The coronation of this beautiful stern, of better taste than that of the other vessel, is formed by two figures of women seated with their legs extended along the very slightly arched border of this coronation, and turned on their hips so to present face all the upper body. Their costume still indicates in them the symbol of the East and the West. Nobly draped one by one, the figure of the west holds in his right hand a long scepter leaning on his shoulder, while in front of her, at her feet, a horse with a bristling, floating mane, with her head held high, her mouth open, and her nostrils wide, looks at her, neighing. To starboard, the symbol of the east carelessly holds in its hands, in front of it, a vase from which rises a plant apparently indicating that of perfumes. At the foot of this figure and symmetrically with that of the opposite side, is lying a tiger that a necklace passed around his neck seems to show as tame and submissive animal. This remarkable composition is, as we see, only an ingenious flattery by which Puget celebrated in his own way the glory of the young monarch, who at the same time dominates the East and the West, the East by the establishment created or
40 ON LIFE AND WORKS
encouraged, (1) the West by the power of its weapons, and making its domination accept with love. An immense royal crown placed between the two symbolic figures, in the middle of the arch of the coronation, serves as a support for the only stern lantern. As in the other vessel, the whole surface of the painting is still noticeable by the profusion of details of the accessory ornamentation: L-stamped cartridges, crisscrossed, faces of radiant sun, fleur-de-lis medallions, strips of lambrequins between all the carvings of which is showing a fleur de lys, and this.
The design of the Sun-Royal still bears, as we see, several great figures; that was splendor, brilliancy, magnificence, it flattered the vanity of the king, who was as dazzled by sumptuousness as by victory, and Colbert, whatever his conviction, was not a man to be opposed to. his master on this article: the large figures, a little modified as to size, were still tolerated despite the formal disapproval of sailors, despite their incessant claims. However, Puget, in order to remove the inconvenience of too great a weight, had decided to hollow out as much as possible these masses of wood, as we see by those of those figures which still remain. Ten years had elapsed in this sort of struggle since the great minister had engaged the great artist to diminish the proportions of these ornaments, when the Sun-Royal received the decoration which I have just described. As this sculpture work was executed in Brest and that this port lacked or (1)…
———
 
Among the notable differences are that the “vault,” or area above the stern chase ports and below the stern counter is relatively plain.  The Four Seasons figures are all female, with the exception of Winter.  There is the suggestion that the “warrior” figures of Africa and The Americas are male, and that they are seated upon the extremities of the middle balcony rail; this detail differs from Berain’s re-working of the design in 1689, in that Berain has these two figures perched above pass-through archways on the upper balcony tier.  I think the warrior figures seated on the middle balcony rail is actually what is being vaguely suggested in the Gilded Ghost portrait:

And more concretely confirmed by the RL and Monarque drawings, above.
 
One notable similarity is what appears to be the quarter pieces that support the side lanterns in Berain’s drawing.  Contradictorily, though, the author describes only a large central lantern for this early version of SR, which he suggests is of a lesser rank.  Frankly, this seems just wrong because as the principal ship of the Ponant (Atlantic) fleet, SR would always have been a first-rank ship with three stern lanterns.
 
The other truly fascinating difference is the “docile” tiger at the feet of the East, as opposed to Berain’s Camel.  I can only project that, if this was indeed Puget’s original design, perhaps Berain did not like the A-symmetry of the West’s proud horse with head raised high, opposite the East’s docile tiger with his head lowered upon his fore-paws.  Perhaps the solution, there, was to substitute a camel who also has his head raised high.  I don’t know.  I can only guess.
 
Returning to your drawing John, I like your extension of the tasseled lambrequin to the quarter galleries, below the window tier.  This seems a harmonious and fitting extension of the stern decor.  I think that early SR, though, would have had a cul-de-feu, or lower finishing of the quarter gallery that may have been comprised of some form of the following elements, drawn by LeBrun:
 

And I think early SR may still have had a vestigial balcony tier at the quarter deck level of the quarters, that was framed by a trompe l’oeil amortisement of foliate ornament - much as you see with the refit DR of 1680:

While I have some more or less specific ideas about how to assemble all of that into a coherent narrative that supports the stern allegory, I have yet to begin sketching any of that, myself.
 
It is fairly certain in my mind that early SR would have had a more elaborated upper bulwark frieze than the simple field of fleurs seen on La Reyne, though.
 
And one last thought, after my 12 days in Paris and Normandy, I have come to think that it is not unreasonable that the majority of ornament on the first version of SR likely was leafed in gold.  Despite the massive expense of the times associated with this extravagance in the 1660s, the Royal Palace at Versailles is covered in gold leaf and the richest paintings and tableaus imaginable.  Incroyable!
 
So, this is already a book unto itself.  I will conclude here, for now.  John, I really look forward to the continued development of your project - this is really great stuff, so far!
 

Definitely a show stopper!!! 
 
A very nice kit and your execution of the subject is superb.... Monochromatic paint schemes are very, very difficult to model correctly, Impressive
 
You sir are a master modeler...
 
Something I aspire to be some day...
 
Well done...

Great job !  Nice photos too. 

Blackburn Buccaneer S.2D No. 809 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Ark Royal, August 1978
Time for me to put a bow on it and call this one done, finished.
Airfix has produced a very nice kit of a subject covered once before in 1:48 scale by Airfix but not nearly as nicely done in this new release. Light years better than the old mold. It's been a lot of fun and I am looking forward to a RAF Desert Storm edition as it appears they intend to release one later on from what I see on the sprues of this kit.
Looking forward also to Andrew's build. Thanks for following along and for all the comments, likes, and helpful information that was shared.

Check out that pointy data link pod. Very unusually shaped pod I have not seen on other aircraft. Pointed in the front and bulbous in the rear. I'll show better photos of it tomorrow or when I'm finished.

Starboard decals are down. Inching closer to the finish line.

I wanted to forget a memory that I lost some parts of the Papegojan 1627. 😱 The AL San Francisco Cross Section may heal my wounded heart.  
 

Because of the kit's unreality, its assembly ability is extremely good. I would say that children are able to build this kit without much difficulty.
 
I added some temporary planks (yellow arrows) to harden the frame's shape.
 

The 1st planking is done.
 

At this point, I decided to change the second plank from stock sapelle to my Asian pearwood.

After some trial and error, I made straight strips using a laser cutter.

 

As I said, the kit has many fatal errors. It just combined every detail that people might like.
 
- The ladders (Red) are too slow, and the width is narrower than shoulder width. 
- The grating frames are on the beams (Blue). 
- The cross sectional diagram is not realistic (Green).
 
 

I referred to the cross sectional diagram from the contemporary wreckage ship.
( Source : https://albaola.org/proceso-de-construccion/ 
, https://www.patrimoniocultural.gov.pt/media/uploads/trabalhosdearqueologia/18/22.pdf )



But, I stopped in the middle of modification. I didn't want to pay more than a month for this kit, so I left the cross sectional diagram incomplete.

Also, I I cut the beam to expand the space for grating frames. The thicker beam was part of the modification for realistic structure. 
 
By the way, I decided to skip the ladder. I thought it made more sense.
 
 

This is an internal painting. I applied a cherry-colored gel stain. 
 

The outside and cross section are Asian pearwood. I love the pink wood.  
 
The next step will be gunports.

I am in for moral support…and I want to build one too
🍿

Mocking up the fit, I’ve wondered about this part for a long time, they are built flat but curve when mounted. So much of the pictures and other stuff make it look like it’s flat in 3 parts, it’s not. I’m excited to get this moving on! 
 

Headworks (Part 1):
 
The shipyard has not been very active recently, partly due to lack of time, but also trepidation of the fact that I can no longer delay work on the headworks - something that has caused some anxiety if I'm honest given that this is another aspect of the model that is so important to the overall look of the ship (...and especially considering that the TFFM devotes 17 pages to this!).  I had completed the main rail back in 2018 (Yikes!) which are detailed here (Post #513) for reference. 
I tried to follow the guidance and approach described in the TFFM as this will all need to be scratch to replicate the original plans as closely as possible, but did probably simplify some steps.  With the final profile of the bow having been finalized, the position of these can be determined.  This was done by eye in the absence of any definitive measurement, ensuring that the head of the mainrail is perpendicular to the keel and vertical when viewed from the bow.  These were drilled and pinned to hold in position for now.   Together with the standard, the 4 head timbers were rough cut and sized to their respective position, the outer face being cut to the angle formed by the head rail.  The curvature of the head timbers was estimated from the AOTS diagrams, but left a little oversized at this stage (the interior profile has also been ignored for the present and will be cut to final shape later).  The main consideration was to ensure that the position of the bottom of the main rail was determined, and this was done by multiple fine tunings and a sanding stick.

The position and fitting of the lower rail proved to be the more challenging aspect.  The TFFM indicates that it should be straight when viewed from above, and the plan profiles suggest that it should be position midway between the main rail and the upper cheek..  On top of that, it needs to clear the interior hawse hole, and will also need to taper in profile at the bow.  The seats of ease on the Artois class are outboard, and will also clear the lower rail.  I do not know the thickness of this piece, but estimated it should be 2mm thick which seems consistent with the proportions shown and described in TFFM for the Swan class.
 
I started by drawing my own simple scale mini-plan using the measurements of the hawse hole, position of head timbers and length of the lower rail.  This allowed the depth of the slots to be determined on each head timber, at the point mid way between the bottom of the main rail and top of the upper cheek (This will also determine the required final curvature of the head timbers to ensure that the lower rail sits neatly behind the covering boards which will need to be added in the future,

Once these had been roughly determined and cut into the head timbers, the theory and application was proved using some of the kit supplied white metal decorative strips which are very easily bent.  (The kit indicates that these should actually be used for the lower rail which seems to be a very reasonable compromise, but think Jason deserves to appropriately proportioned and profiled wood rail).  The curvature of this metal rail can then be used to determine the curvature of the top of the lower rail that will be cut from wood.  (Note:  The forward head timber has been ignored for now, I will need to recut this piece so it extends higher over the standard, as it is, its not think enough to accommodate the lower rail).  The white metal strip is also very useful because it allows the length of the lower rail to be determined.

A cut first approximation of the lower rail was then cut from some boxwood sheet and temporarily placed in position to again prove the approach.  This proved to be successful, and I was happy with the general profile that resulted.  This looks overly bulky to my eye even though the dimension are appropriate, but I suspect that this will be corrected once it has been profiled.  The next step will be to cut and profile the actual pieces.  This also shows that I will likely need to adjust the hawse bolster to allow the lower rail, and the yet to be fitted eking rail (see last picture, the lower rail does not clear the top of the bolster. Even though there is still much to do in this area, I'm feeling more optimistic with this complex area.

 
 

I had been going back and forth between how I wanted to display the martnets, taught or slacked off a bit, I chose the latter as I just liked the look better and I think they turned okay, I used 100wt thread led thru a 1.5mm double block at the mast head, once I finish the portside marnet I'll tune up the sail by softening the creases created from handling.
 
Michael D

 

Used the ropes of scale and some wire and roped off some staircases
 



 

Hi all sorry I haven't posted for a while but life and stuff has got in the way.  I have been slowly working away on the FD . I have finished the hull and have now put some details on the stern galleries and the sides.  As I'm no good at carving I have used modelling clay to make the scary faces and strange fishy things and to make her look old and battered I have put some barnacles and clamy things on the sides. I need to find away of putting some smaller barnacles on the lower hull. 
Thanks for looking. 
Martyn 

They do offer a darker brown in this material but I selected this medium color for the test.
 
I think I am going to have to replace all the deadeyes on my Winnie now.
 
The dyed deadeyes on the main channel look so muddy and non-descript by comparison.  Or maybe I should test the darker brown as well.  Anyway...
 
The details are so much more evident on these new deadeyes.  I will certainly go ahead and make a full compliment of these and blocks also for my Speedwell.   I will only start mass producing though if there is enough interest.  I hope so as I think these look so much better than the old ones.