rybakov

with all the "nautical" postings here I hope no one will mind one of a different kind that I could not resists... 1819

Good morning and thank you all,
More photos.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Un saluto.

Good morning and thank you all,
progress work more photos.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Un saluto.

Thanks, druxey, I like the serpentine curve as well. It is a little unusual, as best I have seen in other ships of this period. I am very tempted to make solid balcony railings. I think it is likely beyond my skills to pierce those railings at 3/16" scale.
 
There is still much more to do, but here is a status report.
I finally figured out how to make that serpentine curved balcony, using 3 sweeps (compare to the hard break version of the balcony below the center line). I also discovered that the quarter galleries are arcs of circles; I found the point of the compass for the curve in my admiralty drawing. This is always exciting, to discover the hand of the original draftsman and how he made the drawing. I also discovered that the planking on the outboard of the frame, at the location of the quarter gallery, is quite thin, about 1 1/2" to 2". I saw this in the admiralty drawing, but did not understand it before. if the normal planking at this level came through to the stern, the interior of the quarter gallery would be very narrow indeed.
 

And here is the stern drawing so far. I blew up photos of the models, and constructed scales based on a known size (width of the frame at the sill of the windows). I could then scale various parts. Since I used two different photos and two different scales, I was able to adjust for perspective while also comparing it to the admiralty sheer and section drawings. I think I am getting pretty close to the shape and location of stern details.
 

 

Few notes about the tools.
First, using a small knife with a small handle is harder  to control. So I sanded  a bigger one, much more comfortable.
Second photo. It is a set of jaw which can be installed on the top of the other vice. Do you know why one side has 2 pin to secure it, and the other side has only one?
Third photo, the answer; to hold a tapered part. If the part is parallel, it also works because the pin is in the center.
Photo 4, many parts of the present assembly are tapered, so it was useful.
Parts are done, ready to glue.
 

Post are shaped in angle. It is a lot of fitting to align everything.
I planked the front balcony, 1 of the reasons, because it can be very tricky to go to get a small tool that felted in the bottom of the hold.

The Corona has left us with some good spare time so I progressed well with the fortuining (klinker in english I believe).
I succeeded keeping the numeber of planks the same everywhere but has to slope them some to come to the final result.
I installed the last 3 gunports using pre-fabricated rabbits. So I took out a good part and inserted the pre-fabricated rabbit.
 
Now I am busy sanding the rest of the gunports. Next step will be the beams of the verdek and fixing the details on the gundeck and closing that.
I will probably leave the gunports of the gundeck closed or slightly open, but I will not install any canons.
I also set out the internal lines for the remaining decks.
 

 
 
 

 

 






 
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Checking that the internal deck lines run horizontally paralel.

Thanks for the likes, people.
 
Latest progress - stuck at home, so apart from the work needed around the house and garden I'm free to work on the model.
 
Now I've got all the tholes glued in place:
  It certainly adds to the "look" of the model, but now I'm going to need to be more careful picking it up so I don't break anything.
 
And now I've been able (finally) to get the relationship sorted out between the ship, the upper oars and the oarsmen, I've discovered that the first few oarsmen are the wrong shape - they have their legs extended too far, which means they can't fit properly between the oarbenches without their bottoms overhanging at the back:

So I made another guy with his knees bent more (the one on the right - you can see the difference between him and the guy on the left):

And he fits nicely:

So I now have half a dozen oarsmen with the wrong legs:

My first impulse was to toss them out and start again - but that would have wasted all the effort I put into modelling their heads, faces and torsos, which are totally ok. It's only from the waist down that they're wrong. So I'm going to cut each of them in two and make new "below-the-waist" bits for them. I can glue them together with a rod between them and everything should be hunky-dory.
 
Next steps:
1. sort out how the oarsmen's arms are going to work - I'll use plasticiene (modelling clay) to get the shapes roughly correct, and then make some in wood and try them out.
2. Put in the oar-racks (vertical posts at each bench, between the side of the ship and the oarsman).
3. Make the pavesade (the support structure for the shields at the side of the ship).
 
Not necessarily in the above order.
 
4. Once all that's done, I can get onto putting the upper oars in place.
 
Each of these will take some practical experimentation, and quite a bit of work, so I won't be getting bored.
 
Steven
 
 
 
 

I've been busy.
 
Here are the first steps in mass producing my oarsmen.

This lot makes up just under half the number needed for the ship. Now I just have to carve them all . . .
 
The book "Early Ships and Seafaring" by Sean McGrail contains a lot of interesting information, including the maximum and minimum distance for oared vessels (from archaeological finds) between the thole and the front of the oarbench.

I tried one thole at the minimum distance (5.6 mm at 1:50 scale) and one at the maximum (8 mm ) to see how it all worked

 
I've added the footrests at the back of each oarbench, for the oarsmen to push their feet against as they row. I cut strips from offcuts from deck planking etc. 
 
then cut them to length, trimmed the outboard end to follow the angle of the waterway

and started gluing them in place.


Here's one side complete (a bit hard to see - in the picture they're on the right hand side)

I've put the first upper oar in (temporarily) to test which thole distance to use (turned out the minimum distance was best).
 
Also to determine whether I've got the oarsmen right, and the correct configuration for their arms.
 
Getting the upper oar at the same angle (from above) as the lower oars, (I used a block of wood as a spacer to get the oarblade at the right height) -  

as well as in a straight line between the oarsman's hands, the thole and the surface of the water.
  
Looks like I still have some adjusting to do on the oarsmen's sitting position so their arms will be correct (compared to the photos I have of upper oarsmen on the trireme reconstruction Olympias).

And here are the benches with all the footrests in place.

Slow but steady progress.
 
Steven

It seems as though the smallest of details have been taking the longest time to get in order.  The only benefit of the Pandemic has been time, and I have been using a lot of that time to create rudder hinges.
 
I thought I had done a better job of photographing this whole process, but I did not.  So, somewhat out of sequence, I will try to illustrate what I did.
 
The layout for the hinges is determined by the reasonable available spaces on the lower transom.  The best contemporary portraits and models I can find, show 3-4 hinges above the waterline.  Here is a picture that shows the layout I arrived at, albeit a little further along in the process:
 

What I failed to take pictures of was the marking out and making of pin impressions into the back of 3/64” wide styrene strip that make up the strap stock for the hinges.  The strips are first scored, but not cut through; because they remain attached to the bigger styrene sheet, it is much easier to make your pin impressions, while using a steel ruler as your guide for spacing.  Once you are satisfied with the outside appearance of nail heads, you can cut through the strip.  It’s a good idea to true the styrene sheet edge with a file, before making the next strip, as the pin impression process sometimes deforms the edge.
 
On the lower transom, these straps had to be applied in two segments to either side of the stern post; I couldn’t make a 90 degree bend without snapping the thin strap stock.  So short strap ends were first glued to the transom surface, taking care to round the ends into a pleasing shape.
 
The segment that joins the first and wraps around the stern post, toward the stern post centerline was eased around the corner after first filing a V-notch into the back of the strapping material.  Here’s a shot of that same process to the rudder head:


I then filed semi-circular accommodations, at the very center of the stern post for the gudgeons.  These were cut from 1/16” brass tubing that BLICK art supply sells as a bag of random odds and ends of mostly brass, but some aluminum.
 
While my execution of the following didn’t turn out absolutely perfectly, I thought the easiest way to make such small hinge knuckles would be the following.
 
Because it is what I had at hand, I ripped some red oak into a 1/16” veneer and a backing block.
 
I then drilled 1/16” holes in a straight line, through to the backing block.  Oak is not ideal for this because the open grain has a tendency to pull the bit off-track.  So, I drilled plenty of holes, until I had 6 that were satisfactory.  Maple or birch would be ideal.


I then inserted my brass tubing into a hole and used a DREMEL grinding wheel to cut just above the wood surface.
 
I then used a file to make them flush with the wood surface (hardwood a plus here), and uniform.  If I were to do it over again, I would ensure that I had definitely seated the brass rod against the wooden backer block before trimming; as it happens, what I used for the middle hinge knuckle was a shy 1/64” thinner than the others because the rod hung up in the hole, while filing.  I ended up using it, anyway, because I wasn’t going to insert a pintle into the middle knuckle.  Doing so would have made aligning the whole assembly unnecessarily complicated.  From the angle this detail could possibly be viewed, the small gap is invisible.
 
Making of the pintles should have been relatively straight-forward.  The basic plan was to cyano appropriate brass rod into two of the remaining three knuckle segments.  I could have made my life easier, if I had fitted the completed pintle assembly to the rudder head before applying the straps.  The reason I did not do that was because I wanted to be absolutely certain of where to mark and cut into the rudder for the pintle reliefs.  With the straps in place, though, I was compelled to bore-out circular openings for the pintles that would he housed by the straps.  Access for doing so is limited by the shape of the pintle reliefs.  I hope that makes sense.
 
Here are some pictures:



the rudder is actually somewhat functional; it’s port-to-starboard arc is restricted, somewhat, by the jaumier opening.  This is a static display model, however, so I am happy enough that everything lines up.
 
In other news, I’ve been experimenting with Liquitex Extra Heavy gel medium to brush in the tassel reliefs for the lambrequin carving:

Liquitex is definitely the right medium for this sort of very low relief, however, my current stable of brushes is not fine enough, or up to the task.  I will continue my experiments with other brushes.
 
Work on the gratings continues, and eventually Henry’s extras will complete the complement.
 
I also started to prepare the fore and main-mast, lower sections with reinforcing dowels that are drill-tapered to fit snuggly along their length:

Before tapering, above.  And after tapering, below:

I definitely want to use styrene adhesive to join the mast halves, but am currently unsure about whether to bed the dowels in the masts with some combination of epoxy and cyano, or one versus the other.  Any insight, here, would be greatly appreciated.
 
Once the lower masts are assembled, I can cut the lower main mast down a bit, to accommodate the diorama set-up, while also accounting for my desire to raise the main top by about 3/8” to 1/2”. Ultimately, this will make better sense of the stock kit topmast dimensions (which will be scratch-made from wood, anyway), and the extra height there, will be cut from the t’gallent masts which are too tall.  The main flagstaff, though, will be lengthened.
 
So, that’s where things stand for now.  I hope all are well and taking good care of themselves and family.  We will all get through this difficult time.  Thank God for the art and craft of ship modeling!
 
 

Ciao e grazie a tutti, ho dovuto rifare questa parte perché presentava un problema, grazie al Signor Delacroix che me lo ha fatto notare.
 
Hi and thank you all, I had to do this part again because it had a problem, thanks to Mr. Delacroix who pointed it out to me.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto.

Second deck beams are needed to install few parts of the first deck. The rails which support the deck beams are installed parallel. Also, they follow the line of the gun deck openings. The front parts of these beams are not curved. At this thickness, it would need to be steamed  or laminated. The fastest  way is to cut the shape  from a whole plank. It takes a lot of wood but it is easy to sand at the good thickness. This way, no stress in the plank. Then, you installed the deck beams of the second deck.

So, as I try to close this chapter of the build, I got busy tying up a few if the loose ends.
 
In preparation for securing the window plate, I thought it would be helpful to do a few things, in advance.
 
Rather than attempt to paint the inner lip of the window frames with the glass in place, I pre-painted this inner reveal.
 
I have come to realize that the artists’ acrylics I used for the deadworks are exceedingly fragile, and so - going forward, I will use purpose-made model acrylics wherever possible.
 
To that end, I mixed a Tamiya primary yellow with a medium brown Tamiya shade until I was satisfied with my resulting yellow ocher color.  I mixed brown, drop by drop, into the yellow bottle, so that I will have enough ocher to paint everything on the model, without having to re-mix and try and match shades.
 
Following Druxey’s advice, acetate sheet was scribed with a sharp knife and medium-grey acrylic was wiped into the lines.  This was all reasonably straight-forward, and produced excellent results.
 
My initial plan was to glue-in L-angle styrene strip, to the vertical bulkheads, and a ledge strip to the inner bottom edge of the window plate, so that the individual panes would be housed and well supported, but floating.
 
I quickly realized, though, that the positioning of the mullions, relative to the window opening will not always be ideal, if the loose pane shifts from side to side.
 
With that in mind, I took a spare test pane (one of the QG side lights that I botched during the engraving process), and test-tacked it to styrene strip, with medium viscosity CA.  It did not result in the dreaded cyano blush.
 
With the success of that experiment, I decided to apply CA along the inner crease of the bottom ledge and one small tack dot of CA in the top center of each pane (behind what is the ornamental cartouche, on the exterior).  This all worked out neatly enough:



In hindsight, because the vertical bulkheads are relatively deep, it would have been beneficial if I had painted their sides flat black before fitting them to the model.  Unfortunately, I did not do so, and the perfectionist in me refuses to make a gloppy mess of black paint work, after the bulkheads were fixed in place; access, here, is severely limited.
 
In compromise, I decided to blacken the visible surfaces of the L-Angle, since there would not be any glue applied there.  In the following picture, I have blacked-in half of the supports:

On the other hand, I refused to compromise on simulating with paint, the impression of hull depth for the stern chase ports.  Access, here, is limited, but a little better.
 
After brush priming this area, as well as the port linings with ModelMaster flat white - which laid-down beautifully, BTW, and allayed my concerns about brush-priming the stern - I blacked-in the inner bulkhead surfaces, but not completely.  I left most of what I wanted to show as red-ocher, in primer white.  The blacking was merely approximate and done by eye.

Knowing that I would be doing this, I had saved the bulkhead pattern and now used it to cut four sets of opposed masks that created a parallel line with the profile of the transom.
 
This was very fiddly and could only be accomplished with tweezers and a palate knife to finesse  the tape into position.  Once satisfied and the tape edges burnished, I applied some clear dull-coat to the seam, in order to prevent any annoying bleed into the black.
 
In hindsight, I could have made these reveals a little thinner, but the impression is still good, and at least the depth is consistent from one port to the next:


I scraped away any ugly black paint over-brushing, just to quiet the voices in my head.
 
And, finally, I glued in the window plate, the top transom moulding and the side pilasters:



I discovered, after doing so, that I had made a mistake in trimming the pilaster tops flush with the window plate; the mistake is that I had failed to accommodate the raking angle of the stern, so I will eventually have to fill a gap between each of the pilaster tops and the wrapping stern balcony above them.  This, of course, is the beauty of plastic - I can make this edit fairly easily by splicing-in plastic shims.
 
One last shot of the transom interior, showing all of the interior structure:

I gave the model a good dusting, as I will bring it to our club meeting tonight; I was astonished at how much plastic dust had accumulated, so far.  I’ll have to be more mindful of that, now, as these windows will soon be completely inaccessible.
 
As ever, thank you for looking in, your likes and your comments.  It is all very much appreciated.

Buongiorno e grazie a tutti, è un tour de force, ma piacevole.
Altre foto.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto.

I've always had trouble with this myself, until I had the epiphany that I could go to google translate, type in the word in the English section, and the French translation would supply the accents. Then copy and paste into the text of my MSW post (i.e papier maché) . It even works with the Greek alphabet! (I haven't tried it with Chinese).
 
Steven

Hello,
I'm still unclear on how to secure the lanyards.
In the meantime I have dealt with another detail.
It concerns the travelers for the jib boom and the flying jib boom.
Here are the results:

Good morning and thank you all, more photos.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Un Saluto.

When considering something as complicated as Soleil Royal’s stern; that is, while trying to figure out how, exactly, to get from here (sheet plastic) to there, I have found it useful to consider the ensemble as a series of layers.  There is a base layer of detail, a middle layer of detail, and a final fine layer of detail. And, in certain instances, there may even be a few additional, even finer layers.
 
In order to illustrate this build-up of layers, here is a more or less sequential montage of the process as it relates to the stern counter:

After each layer is set, be it planking or paneling, the surface is sanded fair and smooth, in order to eliminate any surface irregularities.  Here and there a touch of squadron white was necessary to level surfaces - particularly, on the side sections where any unevenness in the ground would be glaring, as seen through the panel reveals.  The edges of all the panel reveals are micro-beveled, in order to give them a more finished appearance.


I mentioned before that I would wait to define the concave bevel around the crown of the rudder head ornament.  I was waiting until after this bottom moulding of the central panel was installed.
 
Making this moulding, as well as the blank for the lambrequin carving, was accomplished by pressing blue tape across the span and into the joints of the central pedestals so that I could highlight these parameters with graphite.
 
This process doesn’t always produce absolutely perfect patterns - it is sometimes difficult to tell whether the tape is absolutely all the way into the crease - but they are close enough, so that you can fine-tune the fit of parts, after leaving yourself a little margin around your pencil lines - say the additional thickness of a pencil line.
 
In the end, I am very satisfied with the impression that the crown is recessed into the counter.  When I started this whole process, I really wasn’t sure how it was going to come out. This gives me renewed hope that the surgery I will attempt on the Four Seasons figures will work.  Despite the challenges these plastic surgeries present, they are still an enormous time-savings, over making the carvings from scratch.



Hopefully, these pictures provide a sense of the many layers involved in constructing this stern counter area.  There is a lot going on, here, in a very limited space. In recognition of that fact, one must consider just how nitty into the gritty they are willing, or is even sensible for them to delve.  At some point, there is an intersection of will and reason, and that is the place you are aiming for.
 
Take, for instance, the lambrequin carving, as it was drawn by Berain.  He shows 15 full “petals” with half-petals at the ends. Each petal is adorned with a fleur-de-lis, and three pendant tassels hanging from their bottom edge.
 
Thinking back to my experience of carving mould-masters for the frieze fleurs, I estimate that it would be damn-near impossible to carve lambrequin fleurs in this scale.  Theoretically, I could use something like Liquitex gel medium to paint on the fleurs, thus producing a light relief. I am not yet confident, though, that I could do this with any semblance of consistency.  I will try to incorporate this technique a little later, when I represent the tasseling.
 
There is, on the other hand, at least one ready-made source of fleurs that would be perfect for this application; the stock fleurs that are moulded into the kit upper bulwarks!  With these ornaments in mind, the lambrequin petals were scaled, accordingly, and I ended up with 10 full petals, bookended by half-petals.
 
Here is a brief montage showing the steps for creating the lambrequin carving:



Using two-part latex mould medium, I made moulds directly from my spare upper bulwark pieces, and then cast the blanks in white resin.  As opposed to the larger ornaments, for which you must laboriously grind away the excess backing material, these fleurs are so shallow that I could simply shave them off with a honed single edge razor.  With just a little extra cleanup, using a #11 blade, they were ready for mounting.

Once tacked in place with liquid cyano, I brushed the whole lambrequin carving with liquid cyano to ensure total adhesion and to smooth over any surface irregularities of the carving.  The back of the lambrequin carving had to be coved with a rubber profile sanding block so that it would cup neatly to the counter.  I think the scale and overall aspect of the carving harmonizes nicely with the rest of the counter.


Now that I know the full projection of all of these layers, I could begin to make the bottom and top mouldings that frame-in the counter.
 
I had great success with constructing a stacked moulding for the transom moulding, so I decided to take the same approach for the bottom counter moulding.
 
First, I pared away enough of the pedestals, at their base, so that I could pass the first layer of the moulding behind them.  This layer has a tiny coved reveal, and it’s primary purpose is to conceal the inletting of the acanthus bases of the jaumier ornament:

The overhang, at the ship’s sides is exaggerated, for now, but it will soon be backed with a thicker piece of styrene sheet (for a better sense of depth), and then trimmed to the pencil line.  This way, the outboard profile of the counter won’t interfere with the paneling of the quarter gallery, but will instead, help to define it.

The next layer of moulding is a heavier piece with a more pronounced cove moulding.  This is fitted between the pedestals:

The trick, with the above layer of moulding was to fair back it’s bottom edge, in order to create an even reveal for the final component of this triple-stack moulding.  I was hoping to preserve the tiny cove reveal at the bottom of this assembly; as you will see, the results aren’t absolutely perfect, but it still looks good, IMO.
 
So, finally, pre-shaped ¼-round Evergreen moulding runs straight across all of the pedestal base bottoms, leaving just enough space for the scrolled foot appliques that are shaped from half-round Evergreen moulding:

Now that the pedestals are located and the bottom counter moulding is in place, I could finally place the caryatid carvings, which I had previously separated from their base:

Next, I will lay out and fabricate the top counter moulding.  You can see that the projection of the counter/false gallery is quite significant.  This is actually a good thing, as it creates a deep enough shelf for the four seasons figures to sit upon:


Lastly, early in my conversations with various scholars of the epoch, almost all of them commented on the apparent exaggerated projection of the pedestal that supports the figure of Autumn:

Now, granted, as it’s drawn the pedestal only appears to be supporting Autumn, without any indication that you might also be seeing a portion of the inner pedestal that supports Summer.
 
Nevertheless, an interesting thing happened, once all pedestals were in place, at their full projection:

While I’m more or less eyeballing all of this, in terms of how thick the layers should be and how that might impact the final depth of the counter, I do think it is reasonable to say that the central projection of the counter would likely produce a similar side view, in full-scale practice.  I’m not positive whether this is architecturally right or wrong, but it is interesting, nonetheless.
 
In closing, just a few perspective shots showing all of the work on the stern, to date:


This is not a perfect, or exact recreation.  The execution is not flawless. Overall, though, the impression and resemblance is quite good.  That is what all of these successive layers of detail make possible, and there remain a few small details (rudder hinges, lambrequin tassels, etc), before this section of the model is complete.
 
More to come…. Thank you for your likes, your comments and for looking in!

Good morning.

Believe it or not, aside from heat-bending the bow extension pieces, the aspect of this whole project that has given me the most trepidation is the planking of the stern counter/false balcony.  The reason being that this feature of stern architecture took me the longest time to even understand.
 
Initially, I thought this reverse curve was a seamless transition into the lower tier of lights.  The St. Philippe monograph, on the other hand, illustrated that, no, there needs to be a slight projection away from the plane of lights; a sort of shelf, if you will, that ultimately supports a fairly substantial transitional moulding.  
 
This transitional moulding/shelf supports the four seasons figures that support the walkable balcony above.  Not only that, but the run of the counter must smoothly accommodate the compound curves of camber and round-up, around one particularly tight bulkhead radius.
 
Taking a look back, before paint, and in relation to Mr. Lemineur’s drawing of the stern, you can see that my extension piece is absent of this ledge:

Once I realized this mistake, I grafted a ledge extension into the existing plank rebate of my first extension, and then recut that planking rebate into the shelf extension; all very fiddly business, and in the absence of a comprehensive plan to work from, the shape I patterned for this shelf was something of an aesthetic approximation.  As the build has progressed through the fairing of these bulkheads, these extensions have been pared down to their final shape.

As a side note, it is kind of hilarious to me that I took such pains to cut this plank rebate into the ends of the lower hull and upper bulwarks - both to provide a glue ledge for the plank ends, and also to bring the side plank butt ends down to scale - only to realize that in the end, they will mostly be covered.  Except for the area between the waterline and the transom moulding, everything above gets covered; first by the wrap-around of the quarter gallery lower finishing, and then, by pilaster mouldings, all above. At least the beakhead bulkhead will still show this detail 😕
 
Digressions aside - one must finally add to this equation the fact that I want to seamlessly incorporate Louis’ angelic little head into the run of the counter, and all of that becomes quite challenging to make look right.
 
While laying the lowest, first course of counter planking, I realized that I would be better served by simply butting the planks flush with the edges of the head ornament, and not adding that slight bevel to the plank edges around the head.  The reason for this is that the border that the head creates is kind of irregular and a little jagged.
 
Following all of that closely with a bevel - no matter how carefully done - would look jagged and horrible.  Because there will be at least another two planking layers around the head, I can create a smooth radius around the head, with those layers, and then bevel them, inward toward the head, in order to give it a sense of concavity.
 
With that all settled, the first two courses went down smoothly.  The run, along the bulkheads, there, is fairly flat. I was very careful to let-in as closely as I could around the crown.  For the third, and top-most course, around the tight radius of the bulkhead frames, I discovered that I needed a plank just a little bit wider than the 5/32” that I used for the two coarses above.
 
I was hoping to avoid laying two very narrow planks, so instead I ripped one plank to 3/16”+, and then engraved a line down it’s center, on the plank backside.  This effectively created a bending crease that eased the transition around this tight radius, while eliminating any possibility of plank gaps. So, the rough, before fairing, was looking pretty promising:

After fairing, things were looking a lot better.  I sanded the top edge of the counter planking so that I would have an even 1/16” space, beneath the window frames, for the transitional moulding.  This enabled me to fit and glue-in the pilasters between windows. I will be trimming the tops of these pilasters flush with the window plate, before glueing, and the outer pilasters will be glued in after the plate is installed, because they overlay the ship’s side planking:


I can now go ahead and spray-prime the window plate, so that I can paint-in the inner edges of the window frames with yellow ocher, before installing the glass panes.
 
So, now that we have a good and fair foundation to work from, I can begin playing with the artistic layout of the counter.  Here is what Berain drew:

The layout revolves around this central panel, spanning the middle four windows, which projects further outboard than the paneled sides.  Interspersed along the counter, are the four pedestal bases that visually support the Four Seasons figures. These pedestals will stand proud of their respective backing surfaces, and the central two must project far enough that they are just proud of the lambrequin carving that bridges between them.
 
If I get the proportions of all of this right, and the shape and raking angles of the pedestal bases aesthetically right, then the entire ensemble will convey a similar sense of elegant proportion, even though the profile of my stern is more vertically oriented, and less sloping than what Berain drew.  This is an artistic process that begins, simply by sketching a few primary parameters directly onto the model; in this case, the outside edges of the central panel, as well as the circular framework of the paneled sides:

It is the pilasters between the 1st and 2nd/5th and 6th windows that mark the location for the figures of Spring and Summer, and thus delineate the outside breadth of the central panel.
 
In the Tanneron version, there is no circular paneling to the sides of the  central panel.  He seems, instead, to have created these circular medallions:

To include this detail on my model, I will have to strike a delicate balance between the diameter of those circles, so that there is enough space left over for the paneled sections to either side of the circles.  This may mean reducing the outer breadth of the central section, and simplifying the design to only include the raised cyma projection of the pedestals, themselves.
 
In my rough sketching, above, I’ve drawn two dotted lines.  The outer line represents the raised ground to which the pedestal is mounted, as Berain designed it.  If I eliminate that line, I’ll have a little extra room for the side panels. Tonight, I’ll make better sketches and see where I end up.
 
Once I like the spacing of all the various elements, I’ll make an oak tag tracing pattern for the center pedestals, and a pattern for the outer pedestals, which are raked at a different angle.  I can then use the middle pedestal pattern to draw the outer breadth of the center section, so that I can begin planking that section.
 
The oak tag patterns, together, can then be used to frame-in the side panel shapes onto slightly thinner styrene sheet.  All will become clearer, as I go.
 
As ever, thank you for your likes, comments and looking in.
 
-HH

Finally, I glued the deck beams of the first deck.

Thanks for all the comments and likes.
 
Mark, thanks for your comment, but I am very aware this model isn't "museum quality". With an undetermined number of years of extra experience I might one day aspire to that kind of level - if I ever do - but it's certainly not now.
 
Having glued in the lower bank of oars, I've now been free to complete the deck.
     
Those little clothespegs are very useful, but of course towards the edges there's no longer any room for them, so I had to weigh the last few planks down with whatever came to hand. It seems to have worked. Now to sand down the deck to make all smooth.
 
Then I have to face a problem I've been avoiding up till now. The original galley wrecks found at Yenikapi in Istanbul were single-banked and didn't have a deck. Accordingly they didn't have an inner planking - the inner sides of the frames were left open. There wasn't any need for an inner planking or a waterway to keep water from seeping down between the outer edge of the (non-existent) deck and belowdecks.
 
Unfortunately this is not the case with the dromon, and I've been debating with myself whether to install inner planking at least above deck level, so there isn't a gap in the decking between the frames and the side of the ship.  But if I do, the "wall" of the hull will be thicker than the gunwale is wide.
 
So - do I add another stringer at the inner edge of the gunwale, so the planking doesn't overlap (or is that underlap) the gunwale? I think I have to. Decisions, decisions . . .
 
Steven
 

Hello,
I'm glad you're still interested in my report.
Thank you very much for that.
The last guide blocks were attached to the inside of the bulwark in the waterway.  
In total I have now made 43 blocks (single, double and triple blocks).
In addition a picture of the front area of the battery deck:

Now in the next step I can attach the ratelines as soon as I have a decision to secure the lanyards.

I stumbled on the following letter printed in 1799 that I thought was quite interesting.  It relates to the nicknames of ships...

Sometimes it is difficult to make a part. This one, I did it 3 times.
The first, I did not see the front view, so I mist an important detail.
The second time, I did not use the scroll saw but the table saw, to achieve greater precision but more difficult to position the part. I took the measures between the blade and the fence but it did not work  well.
Third try, still on table saw, but this time, measures were taken the other side of the blade. It was easier to achieve better precision this way, probably because a better vision of the part to cut. Sometime, it is difficult to make a part and sometime it is difficult to find a good way to do it