rybakov

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134391155611?hash=item1f4a564b9b:g:2f8AAOSw-DRjd9vo
 
 
compass and lamp combined 

Continuation: Clarification of the yardarms
As already announced, I have now also drawn a variant with vertical cleats. However,  with this variant I see a big problem with the guidance of the topgallant sheets. 
 
In addition, I find on the contemporary ship models actually predominantly horizontally arranged cleats. 
The pictures of the La Créole, which were kindly given to me by the Musée national de Marine Paris, do not show the decisive details of these filigree parts in spite of a higher resolution. But in connection with the already shown yardarm of the Le Suffren I will most likely realize the previously drawn variant. The yardarm of the Le Friedland 1810 also goes in this same direction.

 
During all the research I also found out that the yardarms of the lower yards so far are not quite correct, so I simply made these yards (shown in the picture above) again, as shown below: 
To be continued ...

Hello,
just to schow you that we are not lazy, here a picture of our current work

Hello,
it is done, the last rail at the head is ready and fast! At least I have to reinstall the two port lids and then the gratings are the next goal.




 

Hello,
the painter is a little out of training! But at least we got it. That's the second try now. The rail ist not fast, first the paint must dry.

Hello and thank you for your nice comments and likes,
 
today the carpenters finished the rails, so next the painter should do his best.

Hello,
Mark and Håkan, so let inspire you. I will see then if it has worked.
 
Here the first rail is mostly in shape and the second one is on the way to it.

 

Hello and thank you all for your comments and likes, I'm overwhelmed 
today only a little update, even when it took nearly the same time, as to build the knees. This piece is only to fill the gab to the wales. 

📣   Hello, I'm back!
The two knees, who support the cat head, are ready in raw. The final form come when all is assembled. 

 
 

I already mentioned the problem of the bulkheads to the officers' mess and the captain's cabin. Because I still have to press the hull shells together at the top, I don't have a clean connection to the ship's side.

So I marked the beginning of the bulkhead ...



... and made a small slot in the hull. Then the bulkhead can slip in when pressed together and everything is clean http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif



Then up to the next adventure. Window bars were cut out of the rear windows.



And the first two print tests went right off the bat. I'm slowly getting the hang of it.



And then the full width, even with the minimum curve upwards in the center.



On the inside the frames between the windows also were applied, but I still need to adjust the length properly.



Next were the side galleries. The starboard side even fitted on the second try.



Port side took me two more tries, I had measured stupidly once when trying it on the first time. Probably I held the part upside down. Meanwhile I have a mark on it, so that something like that can't happen.

The paneling of the aft cabin is also a bit more accentuated, below the first try, above new.



The bench seat under the stern windows has been panelled, once it looks better and also hides the base of the planks.



Here then the ensemble, the bulkhead between officers mess and captains cabin is missing. It is only indicated by the small tail. This time I left a slot in time, one can learn. Sometimes at least http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif







Cheers, XXXDAn

Hi Ian - for the ships of the 1670s and 80s, where the beakhead is more elongated, elevated and Dutch-like, the gammoning tends to be a little more removed from the waterline:
 





Towards the end of the century, though, the head configuration changes, and the beakhead sweeps down closer to the water:
 

And then it was time for the doll's house in the rear. First of all, the width was determined.



Then the reminder that there is still a lot to squeeze together in the back. So the width must somehow remain flexible, more about that later.



The cabins in the back are represented in the kit, but not the front bulkhead to the wardroom.



The passages into the side pocket is also a bit sporty in size.



So a quick replica in the right thickness.





And in place. The door was hinged on the outside of the hull and aft like Boudriot.



After that came some paneling.





And since that was still a bit too rough for me, a printing test.





Even if the bottom fit is not yet matched it is already a bit finer in texture http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

XXXDAn

I have painted and distressed the corbels and the upper window tier.

I found myself swearing early and often, as I repeatedly broke off the doors from the window tier.  There isn’t much plastic connecting them, and until they’re glued into the model, they are exceptionally fragile.

I appreciate the tip, T_C, but presumably my bitumen is making its long journey across the Atlantic like the swarthy pilgrim it is.  As I wait, I continue to construct the stern.  I made up and fitted the next transom header, so that I can glue-in the window tier:

Although the winding out of square continues, it does so marginally and the eye really doesn’t see it:

With the header in-place, I could begin to focus on the design of the most challenging aspect of the decor:  as the French call it - the Couronnement.  It is somewhat hilarious to me that after all of this effort to make the hull wider, the tafferal ends up being only fractionally wider than the stock stern plate:

This development is the result of fashioning the internal gussets that support the aft bulwarks, at an angle that promoted a more realistic tumblehome for the after castle;  the stock kit is a little more vertically slab-sided in its approach to this detail.  Here, you can see the comparison between the tafferal width I thought I’d have (at the start of the project) and where I ended up:
 Despite this not un-satisfactory development, Tanneron and Heller (following suit) chose to represent the backboard (tafferal) as improbably tall for the refit of 1689.  So, in other words, I was going to have to re-fashion this area anyway.
 
Towards that end, much earlier in my modification of the upper bulwarks, I cut away the poop royal sheer-step (5/16”+), only to replace it by 1/2 that height of a more realistic, low, sheer rail that is more reflective of the times:

However, the more significant  shortening of the tafferal comes from lowering the side support for the outer lanterns, so that they are aligned with the sheer rail, as opposed to above it.
 
The first step was to re-draw the goose-neck cornice because I never liked Heller’s interpretation of this detail:

Next, I had to define the field for Apollo and his quadriga, which meant defining the height for the bar of astrological symbols along the top.  On the stock kit, these are a continuation of the side lantern supports which I will re-cycle for this build.  However, to follow the height of those boxes does not leave me with a large enough field for the main carving, below; see the dotted line proposed in the upper right.  So, I decided to cheat that line upward about a 1/16”.  It will necessitate hand-painting these astrologic symbols into these tiny paneled recesses, but that is okay.
 
The really good news is that I will be able to re-shape the swagging vestments of Europe and Asia to fit the new cornice shape:

This is really great because, as it is, I have to re-carve The Americas and Africa because the stock figures are too tall and Africa has the wrong posture.
 
The next task was to see whether my original drawing of Apollo could be reduced enough to reasonably fit my field.  Here is the full-size drawing:

I did a series of reductions, at 50, 60, and 70%.  Seventy percent was close:

As compared to the kit carving:

But, I felt it encroached too much on the upper and lower boundaries of the field.  I settled on 67%:

As compared with Berain’s drawing:

I’m not totally satisfied with the scrolled vollute.  It’s too big. I’ll have to re-work the clouds to conform more neatly with the lower moulding, but I am happy with the scale of Apollo and his horses.
 
It is not as wide as Berain drew it, but this will allow me to better create my gradient sky from light cerulean blue to dark azurite, up top. radiating outward in all directions, from behind Apollo will be fine needles of sun-light  in gold and silver gilt.  Apollo and his horses will be all gold and the clouds will be temperamentally white and grey.  Once I am satisfied with the scroll, I can photocopy the drawing and make a reverse copy, so that the port side can be matched to its mirror for a perfectly symmetrical pattern.
 
My motivation is to have the stern fully framed and perhaps even painted by the time of Joint Clubs on April 30th.  I think this would be a satisfying resolution to everything that came below:

In other news and notes, I have made satisfying in-roads into Dassie’s Architecture Navale.  I now have a pretty solid understanding of the proportional derivation of the principal elements of a ship, although there is still much translating to do.  This essentially amounts to re-typing all relevant passages into Google Translate because the photo capture feature never results in nearly as intelligible a translation as the more tedious path.  My French is improving though, as a result, and full transcriptions are becoming less necessary as I develop a vocabulary of French ship nomenclature.
 
I am simultaneously doing the same translation work on the 1685 Le Have du Grace dimensional survey of what is presumed to be the pre-refit Soleil Royal.  It is extremely helpful that this document (which I downloaded from Gallica) has a numbered drawing that details all of the principal parts of a ship and it’s framing.
 
What is fascinating is that the neither Le Havre du Grace nor Dassie’s prescriptive formulas correspond with what was supposed to be SR’s original length of keel:
 
As built: 142’
Le Havre du Grace: 140”
Dassie:  136’
 
I have been applying Dassie’s formulas to SR’s particulars, as I go, and ultimately I will have a more complete comparison with the Le Havre de Grace document.  This is all ground previously tread by Michel Saunier, and in-fact, I still have a copy of his exhaustive tabulation of all the dimensions of every aspect of the ship.  He emailed this to me years ago.  I still think this is a worthwhile exercise, though, to better understand how he arrived at where he did with his model.
 
Anyway, it keeps me occupied.  Thank you for your interest, your likes and your comments.  More to follow!

Thank you all for the nice words!
 
After the stressful pre-Christmas period, I actually managed to leave the computer on the side for almost 3 weeks. At least I just managed to finish the programming of the 1803 figurehead of the Victory

Now here is the addendum from Käpt dafi, who was really looking forward to the painting. Attached are the parts as they came out of the printer.

 


The motto "Honi soit ..." is already imprinted, but with the etched parts it comes a bit more concise, so scratch out one letter at a time, with a thin wooden stick ...
 


... set some not immediately setting superglue to the respective place ...
 


... using another stick to move the letter to the right place ...
 


... ... and with a thicker chopstick pressed the letter to the curve by tilting it in and out.
 

 


Here's one with the letters imprinted ...
 


... and once with etched parts glued on.
 


The back also finally has volume and sits neatly on the head.
 


And for the sake of completeness here the comparison to Heller's original part, the painted one finally slightly inked to get the necessary depth.
 


Dear greetings and a happy new year to you all, Daniel

Used the nice weather to sand outside. Good for the tinkering cave, the nose and the soul.
 

 

 


Just enjoy.

XXXDAn

Actually I only wanted to cut a new upper deck. To do this, I put the large 2mm polysterol sheet on the table, pushed the model to the edge and ...
 

 
... must have been one of the active gale-force winds, I can't explain it any other way.
 
First look, everything went well. Second look, no, 2 windows are missing, stupid but no problem, I have already produced enough replacements.
 
But then ...
 

 
... I had glued the struts for the elevation of the bow on a section of the upper battery deck shortly before. This, of course, was also loose. And when I tried to reattach it I noticed, ****, the hull is suddenly 2 mm wider than before !?!!
 

 
The two upper decks were only put in without being glued in order to be able to take them out again for the installation of the window panes. But the gap on the side is clearly visible.
 
So I did what was only thought of much later, cut the "carriages" off the windows ...
 

 
... and the upper 2 decks were succesively taken out and the culprit was discovered: the lower gun deck.
 

 
This was the only one glued in and was it broken and tilted and so could not flex back.
 
So I drilled some holes and used hooks to lever the deck back up ...
 

 
... and re-glued it well.
 
In the meantime I found 6 more loose windows, but they could all be kept in situ, only one at the very front I had to glue in a replacement part.
 

 
The other decks are now also back inside and I could continue.
 
XXXDAn

And we continued with sanding and filling ...
 

 
... there is still a long way to go ...
 

 
... until its smooth as a baby's bum 😉
 
XXXDAn

Since I have once again scored some stupid mistakes, I recant all and everything and claim the opposite 😉
 
First for orientation the side view with port numbering, the original photo is mirrored, as the following interior views also show the port side.
 

 
First the fat mistake: when I was sitting in front of the hull and wanted to sand it, I suddenly thought, oh my dear, since when are the signal guns not in the
upper deck but in the middle deck?
 

 
Its because I had mistakenly assigned the following picture to the upper deck because of the gun mounts :-0
 

 
But it is clearly the middle deck, also recognisable by the top of the forward capstan. What confused me were the guns behind the signal guns.
So I looked at the photos again and rediscovered a detail I had already had forgotten a long time ago:  
 

 
Windows 4,5,6 with the yellow circle are the signal guns of the middle deck, followed by an obscured window and then in 8 and 9 guns!
The interior view shows 3 guns at this place. Further beyond a gun can be seen at the very back, which has the breechline lying on it like in this picture:
 

 
You can also see that there doesn't seem to be a booth at the entrance port, only a small indistinct structure can be seen.
 

 
I have also numbered the picture of the upper deck according to the outside view for better understanding.
 

 
The pipe inside is between ports 7 and 8. The pipe outside can be seen just before port 9 and is probably hidden behind by the hanging knee.
As described before, I suspect a booth around of window 10 due to the shadow on the deck and the 2 guns - also guessable in the deck shadow - in 11 and 12 and behind the bulkhead gun 13.
 
It remains exciting, DAniel

In the meantime, the bow is paneled. After the "take photo without card lock" of the camera was turned off, I am missing the pictures of the open subconstruction ...

First as usual the frame imitations inserted, then the whole thing was paneled.



Since the anchor cable hatches are also misaligned, those were closed up right away as well.



XXXDAn

In order to get a little more structure into the few possible views into the lower deck, I have printed the characteristic triple knees of today's Constitution. Whether these were already in place in earlier eras of the ship or if they were only installed during later conversions is beyond my knowledge. I would have instinctively guessed the classic use of 3 separate knees for the early phase of the ship. I would be happy to take any hints on this.



Due to the kit, I can't work with deck beams because the ship has to be pressed into shape by the upper deck. Therefore, I have to skip the upper part of the knees too.









Placement check with guns.



And in the end it's all about such a view anyway http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif



XXXDAn

After all the battens were mounted, the cleaning up really started. Rough overhang was minimized with the scalpel, then the top and bottom were filed with the sandpaper battens as already described.



I also made a small tool for the inner surfaces.



For the bow area there was something more shorter and rounded.



After everything was smooth enough we went to the spirketing. A 1 mm thick polysterol strip at the bottom, 0.5 mm Polsterol between the ports, and another 1 mm above that.





And the fit sample.



Fits http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

To fit the lower strip, press it well inside ...



... on the outside, score the lower edge of the port with a scalpel ...



... make the scribe visible with paint, i.e. color it and wipe away the paint on the outside so that only the depth of the scribe remains colored ...



... and cut off the overhang based on these marks and glue this adap´ted stripe in. Between the ports, orient the 0.5mm strip to the height of the ports. If you have worked evenly when filing the ports should be always the same height.



And the one side is ready.







Now the other side and then the head area and the side galleries areas.

XXXDAn

I'll come back to the Battle Station later to still add some life. But it was time to do some stretching.

First off, built a sturdy stand.



Then came bondage. The hull is unfortunately so warped, that here rougher force in the form of tight lacing had been necessary.



The lacing allowed me to spread the load better. Still, later the hull partially burst open again, so the rougher tools came into play. Result was that it finally lasted ...



... but as collateral damage the hull had become quite wavy. Later on, the insertion of the upper deck will be a even-ing challenge http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif (Mark the bun!)




The next step was to double up the ship's side. This makes the difference between the appearance as a classic plastic kit and upscale modeling appearance. Built up a small stop to do the doubling.



Then glued inside 4 mm battens against the stop.





Then inserted the sills at the top and bottom, making sure that there is enough overhang in each case. The space between these port frames was also filled with battens.



If there is too much protrusion of the sills, this is first minimized them with a sharp tool.



Then cut a flat batten to sand down the remaining overhang at the top/bottom, with minimal undersize in the sanding area and slightly more on the opposite side port. Taped 240 grit sandpaper to it with double sided tape, that fits well with my rather soft battens.



The strip is passed through the port on the opposite side, this gives an even horizontal angle.



Then sanded the sill on top ...



... turned the batten over and sanded the bottom sill.



Prepared another sanding strip for the sides ...



... especially in the bow area at the idle ports, some rework is needed because of the strong bend.



And this you get as comparison: original version Revell ...



... and the revised version http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif



XXXDAn  

In addition to the figurehead of the Victory, I also made some progress with the battle station of the Constitution. First attached the eyebolts for the carronade's gun rig.





To determine the length of the tackles I again documented the different positions.













In the last two pictures, it can be seen that the hooks for the tackles are too close to each other to work effectively because the angle is too tight. That's why two more eyebolts are needed further out.



While this position is technically possible, I think it is a special case that can be well achieved with handspikes if needed.

To tie the breechline, I built a small rigging aid. Hammered in two nails spaced at width of the eyebolts and fixed the carronade in maximum aft position. Then tied the two rope eyes, nice and tight around the nails.



After tying the eye, just pulled them out over the top of the nail, bent the rings up from the eyebolts on the bulwark, removed them, slid them through the eye of the rope, bent them closed again a bit, and reattached them to the bulwark in the eyebolt.



Looks like this then http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif







XXXDAn

And seen from deck´s height it would look like this ...



... scnr 😉


XXXDAn