rybakov

After the leechline and bowline blocks had worked out so well, we continued with the tricing lines of the yard tackles pendants.

The block on the yard tackle pendant was hauled to the yard with the outer tricing line and the lower block with hooks was hauled with the inner tricing lines to the shrouds to be hooked/fastened there. Unlike other load rigs, the yard tackles were not struck off when not in use, but were also used as to support the braces in strong winds or for other purposes.

And so that the whole thing doesn't get too boring, this time the blocks are 7" and 8", i.e. 2 mm in my scale. But it doesn't matter, it works just like the other 🙂

First on the filed needle, then stropped in as usual ...



... and succeding the function test.



Fits. Then, as usual, tied the eyes with the pointed clamping tweezers and quickly put them all on the leash, such a stopped block is too quickly inhaled.



And to show that you can get these blocks to the yard even with sausage fingers like mine ...



... you just have to make sure that you …



… get not tangled. And already finished.



You can clearly see the noticeable difference between the 2 mm block of the tricing line and the 2.5 mm blocks of the leechline.

The tricing line is one of the thinnest in the entire rigging, here hanging loosely with the yard tackle in use ...



... and with the yard tackle pulled up.



For the sake of completeness, the inner tricing line next to the 4 mm clue line block.



XXXDAn

Hello,
the wheels are mostly ready. The paint would't dry, so it took a lot longer then normal. I don't know why 🤔

and that is what you will see when the mast is installed. When there also the binnacle stand in front of the mast, you will see nearly nothing of the wheels 

So, here they are in there full beauty 

But there is also a last problem. The rope to the tiller. In the drawing for the 1745 establishment they draw there something what I interpret as coamings with a lid. Most models have there nothing, or just two wholes in the deck, where the rope disappeared. 
I would at least build it so, but not so large and with two slits for the rope. But not with these sliding foots. I think, that they where a later innovation. But may be, someone of you know there more. 
  
 

steps.....
 






 

The wale sheer and deck sheer are not directly linked, but neither are they wholly independent of each other.
 
For practical purposes of safely and effectively operating the guns, the deck sheer necessarily remains relatively flat.  There is always a need to shed excess water through scuppers at the waist, so deck sheer is not perfectly flat.
 
The wale sheer necessarily rises aft, with the superstructure of the stern, as a means of counteracting the downward strain on the ship’s hull of all that excess structure.  The pair of lower main wales generally follows the line of greatest breadth, which coincides with the doubling of the first and second futtocks - through which the wales are bolted, lending great horizontal support to the framing.  You can see this on Marc Yeu’s model as he drew in the framing to guide his tree-nailing:

Likewise, the middle band of wales corresponds with the doubling of the second futtocks with the top timbers.  Now, Marc’s model represents the refit SR of 1689, so the wale sheer and overall top-hamper of the ship would have been reduced from the ship’s original extremes.  For reference, the Monarque of 1668:


Here is a reliable drawing of the Dauphin Royal that shows this extreme sheer pretty clearly:
 
In the bow and waist, the wale sheer more closely follows the deck sheer, however in the 1670s the aft wale sheer rises so sharply that the wales are frequently cut through completely by the aft-most ports, which kind of negates the upward-intended support of these re-enforcing members.
 
For additional reference, here is a broadside view of La Reyne from 1672:

Well... that went pretty well.... need to do a little bit of trimming and use some Tamiya putty, but the middle wales sweep up 2mm more now where they meet the QG leading edge.
 
It took 45 minutes to grind and scrape away the middle wales aft of the nearest scarf joints.
 
 

 
Then it was a simple matter to attach the new middle wales and sweep them up a bit. I will NOT do a darn thing with the upper wales. The QG hides most of where the "missing" upward sweep would be, and I am thinking the height of the bulwarks above them will also camouflage the "missing" 3mm of upward sweep the the lower and middle wales now have at the very aft end of the ship... and that the upper wales will not have.
 

Arggg, Marc... I continue to debate about changing the middle wale sheer! I finally was able to settle on a pleasing curve (to my eye) for the bottom wales. Note the ruler below.. the gap between middle and bottom wales is a very consistent 15mm. The longest bottom wale that I carved is 130mm in length, and it gradually curves upward to 3mm closer to the middle wales at the very aft of the ship - but I cut away those ends as they were hidden by the QG! (so the gap decreased from 15mm to 12mm over 130mm in length).
 

 
I told myself that moving the middle wales was just too much, so I went ahead and got the QG gun ports and decorations ready (the decorations are not glued on and need some finishing)... and told myself "no one will notice or care"... but I do!
 

 
The QG hides the bulk of the wales anyway, BUT... the picture below shows the visual effect of raising the middle wale by 1mm where it intersects the QG... it is a scrap piece so it doesn't have a pleasing curve. What I am leaning towards is to make "new" middle wales that are actually short in length and stop when they hit the leading edge of the QG... and raise them by 1mm where they hit the QG. Having that upward curve in the middle wales I am hoping would fool the eye that the upward sweep continues through the QG and they would seem to parallel the bottom wales.... but I wouldn't have to rework the middle wales that are mostly hidden in the QG. The QG will hide that transition. And then I am not sure that I would do anything with the upper wales. There - I think I have convinced myself to go that route and it won't require major surgery!
 

Wow! Almost two months since my last post. I was away the month of March, but was also waiting for my final supplies of rivets (the company was bought out and there was a transition with no parts available!). However, as I cooled my heels, I was able to do a lot of reading and review a lot of build logs. Since I am committed to building an SR 1671, I have been particularily focused on what GuyM has written, as well as Hubac's Historian. The wale rivets are essentially done... the St. Phillipe monograph seems to show that the bottom two wales are more robustly fastened to the hull... so I used "0.042 rivets in the bottom wales, and much finer "0.032 rivets in the upper wales (they also transitioned from a dark grey color to a white color for the rivets... won't matter when it is cleaned and painted). 
 
The last few days have been dedicated  to the port QG. I opened up the galleries on both levels, and fiddled with opening up the scroll work. Then I cleaned the "carvings" from the panels up for later attachment to the hull inside the QG... it has been quite helpful to see what GuyM has been doing (some final fine cleaning with a needle file is required).

 
I also ground out the the two bottom wales and carved new wales to start from the scarf joints and finish aft. It was fairly straightforward, but I have wasted a lot of time fiddling to achieve a "perfect sweep" up... the new wales are about 2mm higher as they rise. I have officially given up on trying to make a perfect sweep... the QG will cover a part of the wales, and the white of the wales contrasts starkly with the hull and makes any imperfection seem the size of Mt Everest. Oh... also carved out the extra gunport on the middle deck that will be in the QG!
 
Next is to finish the QG decorations and such... after that I can drill the gun port lanyard holes, and... I am actually ready to prime and see what I have!
 

Marc/Henry... I got them at Eugene Toy and Hobby... I searched and searched all over the 'net and found them. If you type in "rivets" in the search box, their various sizes and types come up. I have ordered 5 packs from them and they have been very prompt, but I need 20+ packs now, so I emailed them and they have contacted the supplier for an extra large order... they have been great to work with.
 
https://www.eugenetoyandhobby.com/pages/have-questions-get-in-touch
 
I finished the port side ladders today. I have settled on having TWO ropes, one on each side, so I will install some eyes in the hull after painting.
 

 
 

Both hulls now have all of the holes drilled for the wale bolts (plastic rivets). I noticed that a few of the rivets that I had applied yesterday had fallen out. I had been putting the end of each 0.03" rivet shaft into a blob of Revell contact cement, and then inserting into the hole. I switched to Loctite Super Glue Gel; the Gel is viscous enough that a small blob is apparent on the end of the rivet, and sort of spreads out under the rivet head as the rivet is inserted (whereas the Revell cement was thinnly spread out on the shaft).
 
Now I am wrestling with scuppers, of all things. I have seen wonderful models and period pictures with scupper boxes that just protrude out over a wale. Then there are other period models/drawings with a simple hole in the side of the hull! I may just go with small box scuppers to add a bit of visual interest so someone thinks "what is that thing?". Also waiting in the bullpen are the revised ladder steps for the hull.

Since I have to wait several weeks for 4,025 0.03" round head rivets to arrive, I might as well drill all of the holes for bolting the wales.
 
I had no desire to drill the holes freehand, so I experimented making several different types of hole patterns/spacing in Word (after examining what Hubac's Historian and Michael Saunier did on their creations). I settled on a pattern that I liked and cut a narrow paper template out, and affixed it to the wale by a little Elmer's glue (I tested the pattern first on the old hull). After 30 minutes of drying, I simply drilled a smalll hole at every black dot. Then I washed the paper template/Elmer's glue away and went back to every hole to drill it through the plastic hull. It's fast and very easy for me.... I should be done in  a few days with a long wait for rivets.
 

 
 

Marc, this video is very helpful (I also looked at some of his other videos... jaw dropping!). My main takeaway is that I was on the right track by using blackened brass tubes in the lanyard hole. His lanyard holes pierce the wales as needed....
 
Another main takeaway is that as much as I am enamored of the leather waterproof shield/tube system that I created ala HMS Victory... I don't see them on Fleuron (50 years after Soleil Royal), nor on any VDV drawings. Sooo... I think it is accurate to just have the blackened tubes in the lanyard holes. There are many other takeaways as well!
 
Also, I finished bolting all of the scarf joints on the port side. The hard part is simply drilling the holes (it's not hard... just going to be a lot of holes!). Inserting the rivets is very easy. I am 75% of the way through my initial order of 350 rivets... as soon as I saw that they worked, I ordered 23 more packets (4,025 rivets), so I think I will be set.

Very good start to the day... affixing the fenders to the hull, and starting to bolt up the scarf joints. I found some 0.03" round head plastic "rivets" online. I make a dot with a marker, then drill a hole at each dot. Pick up a rivet and dab the end in glue, then just push the rivet in. It does work best to drill each rivet hole all of the way through the hull; I tried cutting the rivet stem to 1-2mm, but there simply isn't enough room when I grab the rivet head with tweezers. Leaving the stem at 4mm makes it so much easier. The only bad news is that 10-20% of my rivets pop out of the tweezers and fly off into the universe. 

On to drilling gun port lid "anchor" holes and making fenders. So I needed to drill two holes above every gun port (that was to have an open lid) with a 0.016" bit... these holes would accept two lengths of 28 gauge wire anchored into the gun port lids. The first go-around with the old hull I used a pin vise. This time I purchased a Yakamoz variable speed drill... and was absolutely amazed at how much easier and faster it was to precisely drill holes. All without wobbling the prior pin vise just enough to snap a bit!

 
My first attempt at fenders had been made with 2mm wide x 2.5mm proud Evergreen sticks. Way too thick. This time I simply laminated two 2mm wide x 0.75mm thick pieces together, then simply cut 2mm wide pieces as needed to fit in between the wales. Sometimes the wales were very proud and I used 1mm thick pieces.. some wales were barely proud and needed only 0.5mm thick pieces. I also beveled the ends of the pieces so that they matched the bevel of the wale on either end. Then one piece at a time, I put on a tiny drop of glue and pressed the fender down onto the hull, and it would pick up the piece that was between the wales. A bit of Tamiya Extra Thin was then added and it effectively welded the two pieces together. It takes me about 15 minutes per fender. After drying I will need to do a minor amount of sanding to smooth away any gaps (a few light passes with 60 grit sandpaper adds wood grain mark and wipes away any gaps between pieces). I almost went out to buy a caliper, but this seems to work very well for me.

 
Finally, you can see how much thinner the fenders will be compared to my first attempt (the "new" fender in the foreground obviously is not pressed into the old hull, so it isn't seated flush)
 

OK... much happier with the anchor linings now than on my first attempt on the old hull (just have to finish scribing the plank lines and give it a wash).
 

 
At first, I hung an anchor up and just penciled in the swing lines on the hull. Wasn't satisfied with how that looked, so I put the port side on a scanner and scanned the bow; I drew in some lines and got a a sweep that I was satisfied with. I printed that out and then cut out a paper anchor lining, which I then put on 1mm thick sheet styrene and traced two identical anchor linings and cut them out with scissors. My first attempt I added individual planks to make up the anchor linings; doing it this way and scribing in the plank lines was much easier and faster. I also sanded the plank edges if needed to make them flush with the wales.

Johnny and Henry - thank you for the comments, as I find any and all to be helpful.
 
I reread Dafi's post, and I wonder if I missed what he was asking... ? Dafi's first picture shows the Vasa chase gunport pointing almost straight ahead. In other words, if the ship were on a compass and pointed straight north, the Vasa chase gun port is also pointing straight north (I think this is due to the rather bluff bow?). Note the spacing between top and bottom gun ports appears very consistent all the way up to the chase gun port.
 
Now, if you look at the chase gun port that I put in on the Soleil Royal, the spacing between top and bottom gun ports is also very consistent... and yet the SR chase gun port is basically facing much more to the east. Now, I wonder if Dafi is asking if the SR chase gun port should be pushed over to the centerline as far as possible, so the chase gun port would be facing much more to the north, i.e. to a potential target ahead of the Soleil Royal. I might be misinterpreting his question though. but if I really wanted to have the SR chase port facing north as much as possible, I would have to fill in the hawse holes, locate the gun port there, and locate the hawse holes further aft a bit?

The question I am having is: Did in Soleil´s days those ports were pointing foreward or aft as seen in Vasa?













... and the 2 last ports each deck are pointing aft.









Nicely to be seen in the small reconstruction of the upper gundeck. Those guns can hardly be pointed the conventional way with 90° to the ship´s center line





Also on "head chasers" on the upper deck are pointing forewards.



... thus avoiding the cathead-knee 🙂



Something that went wrong on the 1:10 model, where these guns have to be placed over the cathead-knees 😉



By the way, the lower deck guns have the same errata.

XXXDAn

I installed the starboard hunting port today and it went better than I thought. My first intent was to scribe it like Marc (Hubac's Historian) did. But even with a jig, I realized that I was going to butcher it if I scribed it. I have several spare gun port lids. I took one and carefully sanded the back down from 1.0mm thick to 0.25mm. Then using a needle file and Dremel, I gradually cut a recess that the lid popped right into and is essentially flush to the surface. it needs a little cleanup, of course, but I am quite happy that I could figure out an installation method that matched my skill set! I won't bother installing the hunting port lids until the rest of the gun port lids go on.
 

What you are seeing on Marc’s model is a scupper for the manger.  Because the timber is flush with the wales, in this area, it is not necessary to have a projecting scupper.  On the interior, the Manger is like a big slop-sink that helps to shed water from the cables as they are hauled, inboard.  The interior surfaces of the manger are lined with, I believe, lead sheet.
 
On my model, I think what you are referring to are timber fills between the middle pair of wales.


These are specifically to support the preventer plate links and eye rings.  See, again, frolich’s model:

Frolich didn’t blacken these timber fills, and their edges are a little hard to see, but they only extend the width of the chanels.

Eric, I like your scarf jig - those scribes look very clean.
 
Since you are starting fresh, I will encourage you to pay close attention to the sweeping lines of the anchor lining.  With permission I will use two pictures from Marc Yeu’s photo archive to illustrate the point.
 
First is Frolich’s L’Ambiteaux:

Next, is Marc’s magnificent scratch-build of Soleil Royal:

What I’d like to draw your attention to, specifically, are the places where timber is filled flush with the neighboring wales; only between the pair of lower main wales does the surface run flush all the way up to the stem.
 
As for the hunting port, I personally tend to find the VdVelde drawings to be credible guides for the placement of ports, as so many original drawings show the ghosts of prior port placement, which were erased and re-drawn.  In other words, this was an important detail that they were trying to get right.  So, yes, I think many French ships carried this hunting port as far forward as possible, so that the in-haul tackles were likely affixed right next to the cable manger, and so that gun recoil was less likely to foul the cable bitts.
 
Once again, you’re off to a great start!

After my last post on Jan 17... I stuggled for a week. Did I still want to push quickly through this 45 year old model by experimenting with a lot of things to hasten my skill development for the next model (and keep using a lot of Tamiya putty as I experimented), or... did I want to to see how beautiful this kit could be. I spent a week looking doing a deep dive into the countless SR build logs of various sizes and kits and materials. Marc at Hubac's Historian has been very helpful - thank you!
 
I did nothing for a week... until an EBay add popped up on my phone... an SR hull for $29 (gee, it was almost like they were tracking what I was looking at for a week). When I hit the "purchase" button, my path forward was set!
 
So the new hull arrived four days ago on Thursday. I have 1) sanded the hull, 2) thickened the gun ports, 3) installed the hawse hull pieces flush, 4) cut off the hull ladders, and 5) am almost done with the the scarf joints. 
 
I need to drill gun port lid lanyard holes, make the fenders, add my ladder steps, and... I am now confident enough to try and create hunting ports. Regarding hunting ports, In some of the VDV drawings it appears that the hunting port might be pushed forward a bit further, in other words with not exactly the same spacing as the other gun ports? Or is that a perception/parallax issue?
 
So in another week, I think I will be right back where I was on Jan 17... but with a much better hull ready to paint and a completely different goal for this kit.

Hello,
it is done. At least the wheels are ready build. Next to build are the two supporters for the wheels.

Post One Hundred and Seventy-two
Sphinx and ‘Indy’
I thought members may be interested to see the comparison between Chris’s two premier kits, Sphinx and Indefatigable.
They sort of represent the alpha to omega of British frigates.
Sphinx, the bijou 9 pounder vessel, and ‘Indy’, the pocket battleship of her day, carrying 24 pounders supplemented with 42 pounder carronades.
I recall that when I built Sphinx I thought she was quite large, when ‘Indy’ arrived I thought I’m going to need a bigger bench!

04505

04506

04507

04508

04512

05413

05414

04517
If a large statement model is required ‘Indy’ is a good choice, but if masted and fully rigged she will take up a lot of room.
Built Navy Board style she is still a heavy model and a glass case even with reduced height and width adds considerably to the weight.
Sphinx is certainly of a size more amenable to a domestic setting; a pretty little frigate that appeals to my deeper affection for the more decorative vessels of the 18thc. before austerity took over as the expensive Napoleonic wars ground on.
 
Indefatigable sort of spans this period, all black and yellow, no decorative topsides, but the stern gallery still looks good to my eye. She is modelled with an open Fo’csle before her bulwarks were built up, and she does have a magnificent Figure at her head.
 
I am more than happy to have both in my collection.
 
 
Thank you, Chris, for providing me with an engrossing thirteen months of work. It is a tribute to your designs, to be able to build a model of this quality and detail in such a short time.
 
Thanks are also due to James, for producing the prototype ‘Indy’ build which provided a very useful reference guide.
 
B.E.
02/05/2024

Hello,
the wheels. They kept me busy this week, and other things like my garden. But now they are in the raw ready. I think I must not explain the pictures

 
 
 
 and then that  So, go back to start, and try again
 
This time I made the beads before I cut the rim loose. The shipwright is pleased.
In the foreground you see some of the spokes. They are from mammoth ivory. So, if you hear nothing from me the next weeks, I'm busy or I had thrown it all away. I hope not.

 

more....

The swivel gun mounts: