garym

Now I went forward to the first of three rather ornate and complicated carvings that adorn the top of the port side gallery area. It is a crest like carving with the initials "CR" in it. CR is Carolus Rex or Charles King. In the next photo, the carving has been roughed out to eliminate wood not required.
 

 
Showing the carving partially completed on the gallery area.
 

 
The completed carving ready to mount.
 

 
 
More to follow.....................
 
Bill

The next are I addressed was the port side stern gallery. The Payne engraving and the Van de Velde sketch of the port side show that the gallery was deeper than is depicted on the Mantua model. There was an additional section at the bottom of the gallery which I determined I should add to my model.
 

 
After adding this section, the whole gallery needed to be framed in boxwood strips to create areas for the many carvings needed. Windoes were added as was done on the stern which involved carving individual arches for each window and of course, the leaded glass window itself.
 

 
In between the windows, caryatids were required in duplicate. In order to create these on mass, I used a straight edge razor blade with the profile cut into it and scraped a section of boxwood with the blade to create a strip of about 4" in length with the profile in it.
 

 
It remained to cut the individual caryatids on my Preac.
 

 
In this shot I added the rails covers at the end of the gallery.
 

 
More to follow.................
 
Bill

On either side of the stern lantern there were decorative panels engraved with " Soli Deo Gloriam"  in Latin. It means 'to the sole glory of God' as the ship was dedicated to God. I carved these shapes and engraved them as the following photos show.
 

 

 

 
Just above Victory's head were a crown of feathers.  I carved these in Boxwood that had been heated and bent in a curve as the following photo shows.
 

 
The ball for the top of the lantern being made on my Unimat lathe.
 

 
The stern with the feathers in place and the stern lantern mounted and completed.
 

 
More to follow.................
 
Bill

The next stage in the build was to create a representation of the stern lantern. I wanted to use the Lely Portrait as my guide and decided to build it using a 'plug' form to form the superstructure.
 

 
The plug in place on the stern for alignment purposes.
 

 
The next shot shows the framework of the lantern in progress.
 

 
As the lantern progressed, I needed to create a large domw carving and the next shot shows the rough piece of boxwood in place on the lantern.
 

 
Another fitting on the stern to chech for alignment etc. You will note that the carving has started on the dome.
 

 
The next shot shows the partial completion of the windows. I used the same technique as on the stern windows with plastic window screen to create the diamond leaded glass.
 

 
More to folllow..................
 
Bill
 

Next in line was a carving of a little fellow squatting and holding a wreath of angels above his head. This was mounted on the previously carved pedestal. A round gun port surround was added as well.
 

 
Wreath of angels in progress.
 

 
The same carvings were completed and added to the port side along with three more gun port surrounds. Next was the addition of curved side trims on both the upper and lower counter as shown in this picture. These were most difficult to carve and fit to the curved surface.
 

 
Curved end trim for counter in progress.
 

 
More to follow...........................
 
Bill

Now the upper counter is completed with a few other carvings of mythical creatures and I am beginning the work on the lower counter. On the right can be seen a pedestal ready to accept a wreath of angels, the next carving to follow.
 

 
The following photo shows one of the pedestals in the process of being carved.
 

 
The port side pedestal is finished and mounted on the lower counter.
 

 
More to follow..................
 
Bill
 
 
 

On either side of the Feathers are gun ports. I carved the gun port surrounds as shown in the next photo.
 

 
The surrounds mounted on the stern counter.
 

 
By now, I had abandoned the Proxon engraver tool in favour of a belt driven Emesco Dental Drill to do my carving. The beauty of this drill is that there is no torque on your hand as you find in other rotary tools. The belt is smooth and assures that your hand will not ache from fighting the side torque.
 
The Emesco Dental Drill
 

 
More to follow..................
 
Bill

Next comes the Prince of Wales Feathers.
 
As stated on the web site: http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/the-prince-of-wales/titles-and-heraldry/prince-of-waless-feathers
 
"The badge of The Prince of Wales comprises three silver (or white) feathers rising through a gold coronet of alternate crosses and fleur-de-lys. The motto "Ich Dien" (I serve) is on a dark blue ribbon beneath the coronet. Its use in royal heraldry goes back to the time of Edward Prince of Wales (the Black Prince) in the 14th Century."
 
This was my first in the round carving and posed some difficulties as the feathers curl at the top and some more engraving is needed.
 


 
The feathers as depicted in an encyclopedia.
 

 
The carving in progress.
 

 
The finished carving.
 

 
The carving mounted on the stern with a couple of caryatids at each side.

The next issue was to carve the ribbons. These ribbons connect the faces in the clouds above Victory's head to her arms. The faces are blowing air which turns into ribbons and they wind down to encircle her arms.  Sounds easy, right? After some due consideration, I decided that they had to be carved from the solid.  I started with a piece of boxwood about 1.4" thick and cut out the shape of the ribbon on a jig saw. Then I had to create the different levels of the ribbon from front to back.
 

 
The ribbon in the rough.
 

 
The finished ribbon on the left side of the stern.  Notice the engraving of the word "NAVA" about which Thomas Heywood said "may Victory point to Jason, being figured with his Oare in his hand as being the prime Argonaut, and say Nava, or more plainly, Operam nava;". The corresponding ribbon on the starboard side is engraved "CLAVA" about which Haywood says "Shee pointeth to Hercules on the sinister side, with his club in hand, with his Motto, Clava; as if she should say. O Hercules, be thou as valiant with thy club upon the land, as Jason is industrious with his Oare upon the water."
 
The next photo shows both ribbons in place.
 

 
More to follow....................
 
Bill
 
 

The next carving was a small cherub that was to stand in between the cupolas. A carving in the round that involved a pair of wings as well.
 
The Cherub in progress..........
 

 
The cherub in place between the cupolas.....
 

 
It might be interesting to add that at the time MSW1 crashed, the poll numbers reversed to 60% against changing the starboard side to 40% in favour. By then I had taken the leap and there was no turning back.
 
More to follow.................
 
Bill

The discovery of the starboard view of the Sovereign stopped me in my tracks. It was an opportunity to either continue to duplicate the port side sculptures on the starboard side or to scrap the starboard carvings and start afresh with a view to representing the starboard side "as presented to Charles I by Peter Pett". On the old MSW site, I started a poll of the members to see what they thought and after a couple of weeks the verdict was 60% to build it "as presented" and 40% for "as built". This rather confirmed what I was strongly leaning towards and I decided to scrap the carvings and start over on the port side.
 
The first area I tackled were the cupolas.  I thought there might be a chance of modifying them to suit and so I started the process.
 
A reminder of what the cupolas were hopefully going to look like.
 

 
The first small cupola under revision....
 

 
The same cupola further along in the process..
 

 
The middle cupola under way.......
 

 
Two of the three modified.....
 

 
Two of them in place on the gallery.......
 

 
More to folow...............
 
 
 
 

Not to neglect the starboard side, I was also carving reverse image carvings of the CR and HM carvings for that area.
 
The two reverse image carvings side by side.
 

 
The first CR carving in place on the starboard gallery.
 

 
The starboard side HM carving in progress.
 

 
It was right about then that Greg Herbert contacted me and made me aware of a booklet that he had come across called Ship Models which was essentially a guide to the ship model exhibition in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. In that booklet was a photo of a painting of the Soveraigne, England 1737, painting on vellum by Peter Pett; ca, 1637 signed by Sir Phineas Pett, and built by his son, Peter, at Woolich in 1637.
 
The sculptures shown on this depiction of The Sovereign were entirely different than the Payne engraving and the Van de Velde sketch. A dilemma indeed. After consulting with Lars Bruzelius at the University of Upsala, he noted that there was a reference in States Papers where indeed, Peter Pett had presented a painting to King Charles I for approval and Charles had asked for changes to the ornamentation on the gallery area, those changes which are reflected in the Payne and Van de Velde drawings.
 
*************************************************************
 
States Papers Domestic Vol. 350, No 70 [PRO]
 
"Alsoe the three figures in the upper strakes to be altered into a badge of Carved worke answerable to the other strake that runneth faire with it, and to be guilt answerable to the rest."
 
*************************************************************
 
It can then perhaps be said that this representation of the Starboard side was "as presented" to Charles I for approval by Peter Pett, and the Payne engraving and the Van de Velde sketch were "as built".
 
Now I had a big decision to make as I was tempted to change the starboard side and follow the painting on vellum attributed to Peter Pett.
 
The Peter Pett painting at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
 

 
The gallery section up close showing remarkably different Cupolas.
 

 
More to folllow...................................
 
Bill

Next I took a break from carving and constructed the poop deck rail on the port side out of Boxwood and Swiss Pear.
 

 
Another shot showing the railing and the Coat of Arms carving finished and in place on the model.
 

 
More to follow..................
 
Bill

The next carving was a Coat of Arms that is situated on the gallery amongst mythical creatures. A delicate little carving indeed.
 
The Coat of arms in progress and temporarily mounted on the gallery.
 

 
The finished Coat of Arms.
 

 
More to follow.......................
 
Bill

I will now return to the final stages of the stern lantern showing the progress of carving the cupola.
 
The cupola in progress...
 

 
Tiny balls carved from the solid in rows with the beginnings of the arched window frames..
 

 
The 'in progress' carving mounted on top of the lantern.
 

 
The finished state of the stern at this point in the build with the lantern finally in place.
 

 
The lantern as seen on the Payne engraving.
 

 
The Lantern on the Lely portrait.
 

 
More to follow....................
 
Bill
 
 

The middle carving on the port side was just as ornate and contained the initials HM for Henrietta Maria, the Queen of Spain who was Charles I wife. The HM are on top of each other .
 
Carving in progress in the next three photos.
 

 

 

 
And mounted on the ship with the other two.
 

 
The ornamentation on the port gallery as seen on the Payne engraving.
 

 
More to follow....................
 
Bill

The end carving above the cupolas was similar to the first carving with CR on it with the addition of a window frame. The next photo shows the blank piece of boxwood with the drawing on it ready to carve.
 

 
The carving in progress....
 

 
And the finished carving.
 

 
More to follow........................
 
Bill
 
 

Next was the building of the cupolas over the stern galleries. After some due consideration, I decided to cut out the general shape of the cupolas from boxwood and carve the details on these pieces.
 
The piece of boxwood with the shapes ready for the jig saw.
 

 
 
The following photo shows the middle cupola with the pattern drawn on it and the initial carving started. The shapes were tear drop in form similar to the grating on the stern..
 

 
Four of the cupolas carved and ready to mount.
 

 
Cupolas mounted on the port side.
 

 
The Van de Velde sketch cupolas......
 

 
The Payne engraving cupolas.............
 

 
At some time in the future lanterns will be mounted on the end cupolas and a sculpture on the top of the middle one.
 
More to follow......................
 
Bill

The staircases shown on the Van de Velde sketch were next and I used boxwood for the construction.
 
The following picture shows a portion of the Van de Velde sketch with the staircases between the upper gun deck and the poop deck.
 

 
The starboard staircase in construction beside the tip of my mechanical pencil.
 

 
The port staircase showing handrail with tiny balls installed.
 

 
The staircases installed on the deck.
 

 
 

I now began to fill in the bulkhead between the Poop and upper gundecks. After planking it in Swiss Pear and capping the rail with boxwood, the ornamentation was to follow.
 
Caryatids for the bulkhead.
 

 
Assembling and gluing boxwood trim pieces.
 

 
Carving large caryatids on a strip of boxwood
 

 
The caryatids separated from the strip.
 

 
Caryatids mounted on the bulkhead.
 

 
More to follow........
 
Bill
 
 

The starboard mirror image of the imbedded hance carving was next. The next photo shows the carving underway.
 

 
With the port carving and to show the scale of the carvings.......
 

 
More progress.........
 

 
The finished carving installed on the railing between the decks.
 

 
More to follow.............
 
Bill

The hance of the waste at the next deck level required a carving that not only transitioned the two decks, but was imbedded in the rail. The following is a section of the Payne engraving showing this carving.
 

 
The next series of photos show the carving in progress and finally mounted.
 

 

 

 

 
This was a tricky fit and now I had to carve the mirror image for the starboard side. Note the dolphin at the top of the carving.
 
More to follow..........................
 
Bill

The transition between the rear decks, the hance, has a small sculpture on it which I chose to carve next.
 
The two hance pieces for the transition to the poop deck. One under way with the handle still attached and the other completed.
 

 
The hance transition complete and mounted on the port side.
 

 
More to follow.......................
 
Bill

The next carving was of a lion with a shield that sits on the edge of the rail on the port side of the stern.
 
This photo shows the rough outline of this carving in the round shown against the Lely portrait version.
 

 
The start of the carving........
 

 
A more refined carving is taking shape........
 

 
The finished carving mounted on the stern rail.
 

 
In order to carve the tiny detail of the less than 1 mm thick tail, I used a pair of dental loupes shown in the next photo.  They are at 2.5X magnification and allow me to work at about 13" from the work.
 

 
More to follow........
 
Regards,
Bill
 
 

The first carving above the cupolas is a lady in a robe with a shield at her feet.
 
The carving in the rough....
 

 
Further progress on the robed lady....
 

 
The shield area nearing completion.....
 

 
Tools used to carve the lady included the dental drill and several ball end burs, small chisels and carving tools, a #10 xacto blade and a green Scotch-brite pad.
 

 
More to folow....................