rybakov

Good morning and thanks to all, some photos of the rudder....
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto.
 

As Wayne said, each page can be saved from the link above and a book put together.    If one wants it in printed form rather than reading on the computer, it is cheaper to buy the  book for about $25 for hardcover and a tad less for paperback rather than burning up ink and paper at home.  Not to confuse Echo with Ecco, but the print size in the Ecco (Eighteenth Century Collections Online)  copy that  I have is sufficiently large for my old eyes but there may be versions out there that are not so good as Wayne kindly points out.   The plates are indeed on the smaller side as they are not fold outs.  
Allan

Finding a good copy of Sutherland has always been difficult. The ECHO – Cultural Heritage Online website has his 1711 and 1717 editions in images (tedious, but if someone really was bored each image can be downloaded and assembled into the final book). I don't recall if the plates were present in these versions.
 
I have found the 1748 edition on Google Books, however it suffers the same issues as most of the digitized volumes with fold out plates distorted or not scanned in full.
 
Sutherland, William. 1748. Marine Architecture: Or, the Ship-Builder’s Assistant: Containing Directions for Carrying on a Ship, from the First Laying of the Keel, to Her Actual Going to Sea, Etc. [With a Folding Plate.]. W. & J. Mount & T. Page. https://books.google.com/books?id=57BWAAAAcAAJ.  
There have been a few reprints made during the 1980"s and 90's and a few "print on demand" versions which are difficult to use (printed to smal size rather than original size, and plates also greatly reduced).
 
Bruzelius (see topic on his site) has some extracts from Sutherland which may be useful, and there was an interesting article some years back in The Northern Mariner looking at developing the drawings for a ship based on Sutherland (
Kenchington, Trevor John. 1993. “The Structures of English Wooden Ships: William Sutherland’s Ship, circa 1710.” The Northern Mariner 3 (1): 1–43.   Lastly, for those interested, the Mariner's Mirror had an article about Sutherland which may be of interest.   Mallagh, Cris. 2014. “Some Aspects of the Life and Career of William Sutherland.” The Mariner’s Mirror 100 (1): 17–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2014.866372.

Title = ' The ship-builders assistant : or, some essays towards compleating the art of marine architecture Sutherland, William, (1711)'
This document is incomplete but does include a chapter entitled 'Of Beauty'. I was hooked immediately. There are guides to acceptable styles of imagery used on stairs, rails and figureheads. I did not realise there were industry standards for decorating newels on stairs!
It is not a downloadable PDF but can be viewed page-by-page up to the point where (apparantly) the record is corrupted. The link below should take you to the opening of the 'Of Beauty' chapter but don't ignore the earlier pages.
 
https://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/ECHOdocuView?url=/permanent/library/AE4UUGBR/pageimg&viewMode=image&pn=93&mode=imagepath

Hello, and many thanks for your likes and comments
 
If you think you are ready, then it comes. I forgot the elm-tree pump 😳
So I activated the carpenters, and they build the extra carlings and ledges for them. 
 

 

The easy way to make stairs:
 
1- ex for 7 steps we need to divide in 8 spaces
2-  cut 1 kerf for each steps
3- measure the angle of the stair by measuring the height and the width that the stair will occupy
4- cut the sides, 1 for each side
5- the thickness of the steps must be few thousands less the width of the saw blade, for easy assembly

Assuming that the bulwarks were painted a pure red, not an earth red, I believe there was only one choice in the eighteenth century--vermilion, a toxic pigment of mercuric sulfide ground from the mineral cinnabar. This would have been an exceptionally expensive option and I'm certainly not qualified to say if this was the actual practice. But everyone seems to be doing it, so I thought it would be good to show what vermilion looks like. It varies a lot, but is usually to the warm end of the spectrum, but can also be cool. It's a very opaque pigment. I think it has the highest refractive index of any known pigment, so it was opaque as paint could be. But if you need opacity you can always use more coats. The closest modern equivalent is cadmium red light or medium.

I spent a good part of the prior week making these waste-pipe rosettes:

I really wanted to represent these, as shown, with acanthus leaves folded-in, around the pipe.  At this scale, though, that proved impossible for me to make something that looked good and right.
 
I began, one day, with a scrap of 1/4” x 1/4” stock, left-over from the rudder head ornament.  I didn’t have my drill or Dremel, that day, so I attempted to facet to round and then shape entirely by hand.  What I ended up with was approximately the right diameter, but too long and reminiscent of a saggy boob.  It was informative, though, in so far as what proportions I needed to arrive at.  So, I made up some more 1/4” stock and made a proper turning in my drill, the next day:

Middle and right are the neat little vasi-forms I was after.  From the top to the bottom of the “cup” is 5/16”, and the turning sprue gets cut into the waste-pipe end, adding another 1/16”, overall.
 
The trouble with Soleil Royal is that nearly every square inch begs for some form of embellishment.  I could simply have painted these red ocher and called it a day, but it seemed to me that they would look too pedestrian right next to the gilded acanthus carvings of the QG lower finishing.
 
I decided that I could subdivide the cup into quarters and eighths, easily enough, and scribe a reeded pattern into their surface.
 
On its own, this new embellishment, highlighted in yellow ocher, would probably be enough.  I decided, though, to take it a step further and try to create some nice recessed paneling, as on the lower finishing:


This was just as time consuming as it seems it would be.  In colors, though, the results proved worth the effort:



I even gave the waste-pipe a light ver-de-gris wash for the added realism.
 
Next, I was finally ready to begin installing the largest QG segments with their top and bottom transitional mouldings.  Here is the area, scraped and prepared for gluing:

The trickiest bit was the juncture of this bottom moulding with it’s counterpart on the stern; the trouble was that I didn’t have space, in my QG design, for the full thickness of the stern moulding which is, itself, a very close copy of what Berain drew for the stern.
 
So, I had to simplify the QG moulding and cope it around the stern moulding.  What’s happening, here, is more evident if you zoom in:

The top moulding, while also coped, does at least match the profile of its stern counterpart.  A few perspective shots:



The wooden substrate is CA’d to the plastic hull and mouldings, and the inside edges of the mouldings are styrene-cemented to the hull.  As always, I seek to ensure maximum connection and bond.  Tonight, I’ll install the port side, and I can then begin final fitting of the section below.
 
In the meantime, I’ve been shaping the very bottom section of the lower finishing, and making up the corresponding transitional mouldings:


I have an idea about how to represent the grape carving, of this lowest bit, which I think will work out much better than actually attempting to carve that detail - oh, for the love of paint!
 
Thank you for your interest and for stopping by.  More to follow...

Good morning and thank you all for your posts, I was very pleased with some pictures of the helm.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un saluto.

Hello, and many thanks for all the likes
 
the painter has all the beams, carlings and ledges painted and the carpenters have reinstalled them. I think, that is here the last action for the next years 😲 Before I set them permanent in, I have to finish the outside of the ship. 
 
From the forge came the rail for the stairs. 
 

 

 

 
 

Lastly, since I’m on a roll of conjecture and potential discovery, I noticed the following while reviewing this portrait, yet again:

The attribution for this portrait is always Soleil Royal.  If so, this would be her early appearance, sometime between 1670 and 1685.
 
Two things about this are interesting to me.  First - they may be approximately representing the pale blue/green upper bulwarks that I tend to think may be correct for this period.
 
Looking closer at the upper bulwarks, though, I think I may finally have made sense of these ornaments:

They appear to be two dolphins, crossed at the tails, with perhaps a shell nestled between.
 
This could have been the early precursor of the frieze that is re-worked in 1688/89.  If so, that would be consistent with a tradition of re-working/updating previous ornamental schemes to reflect current tastes and styling.
 
My operating theory is that Berain’s stern is merely an updating of Puget’s first design, which was an elaboration of LeBrun’s original allegoric concept for the ship.
 
In any case, at some point, I will do a detail drawing of this form because it is easy for me to imagine this as a repeating relief, perhaps with fleurs in-between, for my conjectural SR of 1670.
 
Alternating strakes of this crossed dolphin motif might have harps between the dolphins, or suns, or some combination of the above.

Admittedly, the following is a feeble basis from which to draw any serious conclusions, however the following contemporary reference to the battle line formation for the battle of Velez and Malaga, 1704, shows SR2 in the following colors:

This is in distinct contrast to the Foudroyant:

Interestingly, these two ships, in particular, began on the construction slipway as the other, but the official designation was changed, mid-construction; Etienne Hubac was, initially, constructing the Foudroyant.
 
Adding insult to confusion is this other contemporary portrait of La Reale from 1694:

The 2nd-rate warship, in the background, appears to be all blue.  Also, interestingly, all of La Reale’s hull appears to be painted ultra-marine, which would have been extremely costly at this later date.
 
So, I’m not really sure what to make of all of that.

The big and the small capstan:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quarter galleys are built. Next up will be the structure for e decorative arch on the stern, and then I can begin adding the decorative carvings. 
 
 

Hello,
 
the carpenters have there work done. That is the region where you later will see through the deck down to the gun deck. The next days I think, has the painter a lot of work 🙁
 

 

 

Good morning and thanks to all, more photos....
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un saluto.

Good morning and thank you all for the likes, more photos....

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un saluto.

The plastic bellows of the scroll saw needed to be replace. It would have cost about $100 to replace it. I did not like that price, so I replaced it with an aquarium air pump.

I have been experimenting a with rivet construction today.
 
I think I have a method that will work OK for 2000 rivets, and can be made to look good scale wise as well.
 
First I drill holes for the rivets. I got a new drill holder for this, an "archemedean" screw type. I already have a pin vise and a Proxxon electrical tool. However I think my fingers will tire if using the former, and the risk of the drill jumping and leaving marks on the hull when using the second is to high.

A few holes:

The rivets are made from a dish brush bristle. They get a head by melting the end in a candle.

The rivets are then pushed through and the plate on the other side is added. These are made from painted cardboard and is given a small drop of glue beneath to stay in place. Scale wise the plates are too large, maybe I need some better cardboard.

The pins are then cut and the ends are flattened using a soldering iron.

The outside

The rivets should be about half the distance apart, but otherwise I'm quite happy with the result.
 
A picture from the reconstruction

 

Update.
 
Karl
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

Indeed, very beautiful paintwork. I'm loving the direction you are taking the paint scheme. Most S.R. builds end up somewhere closer to the scheme I used on mine, simple ultra marine blue and gold. What you are doing here puts my mind towards the elaborate paint scheme found on the Vasa. I think this is going to be a truly insightful model worthy of scholarly discussion and providing a rare look at what could quite plausibly have been what she looked like during these years. I'm looking forward to seeing these pieces come together with the hull. I think they will enhance each other brilliantly.  

Hello,
the carpenters say many thanks for your likes. I should tell you that 😉
 
Today we finished the carlings and the carpenters started to cut the slots for the ledges. That will take some time, even when we install only there ledges where you could see them later.
 

 

Forth strake fitted, soaked and bent to shape on the mold. The third and fourth consists of two planks that are joined with a bit of overlap as on the real ship. This gives me some wiggle room in adjusting the length of the planks to fit in the rabbets. On the picture below I have not thinned down the end of the longer uppermost plank. I will do that when I have glued the first planks and know exactly what length the plank need to be.

 
 

The planks did shrink after they dried. One was still to long, so I had to shorten it slightly to fit in the rabbet without bulging on the middle.

Before I install the next strake I will bevel the edge of the already installed planks to the correct angle. To do that I have made a special sanding block with the same width as the planks that I can run along the planke edge and ride on the frame molds. (I learned this method from @druxey in his excellent build log for the Greenwhich Hospital Barge.)

Each plank will also get a decorative groove along its length. In the original find, and on the reconstruction, there are three parallel groves.

I have made a small tool from a blade that I have filed down all but 1 mm of, and glued between to pieces of wood. I run i to run along the edges of the planks to create similar grooves. My tool creates more like a band, than three distinct grooves. But considering the scale and that the grooves are almost invisible in full scale, I'm OK with that.

Before I started to cut the planks I cut a template from some card stock.

 
This helped me discover that the fairing of the frames closest to the bow and stern was not adequate. When fairing I had not taken into account that the rabbets makes the hull even narrower close to the ends. So I had to remove a bit of the material on the first and last mold frame. I also discovered that the rabbet needed to be a bit lower in the stem to let the plank run correctly.
 
After I had fixed these issues, I cut the first planks. There are very little shaping of the garboard plank. Its 8,5 mm wide along all its length, except for a slight tapering in the ends where it goes into the rabbets. Even so it took some work to get the the planks to the correct length to fit into the rabbets on both ends. When that was done I could soak the planks in hot water and bend it to shape in place.

One thing I think I saw, and need to check more, is that the plank seemed to be longer after I had soaked it. I would expect it to swell sideways, but not as much length wise. Maybe I cannot use soaking on walnut? Especially not for such long strips as these (over 50 cm).