La Couronne by EJ_L - FINISHED - Corel - 1:100 - 1637 Version

[cobra1951]

That is one delicate bit of construction, must be scary touching it to work on it

[EJ_L]

Yes it is. I've had a couple of scares already with my tweezers getting caught on a shroud. I love my OptiVisor but it is easy to lose track of the back end of your tools when looking at the business end and what you are doing. I've manged to snip off the wrong bit or rope when trimming up the lines and have had to run a new piece. That is not fun either in the confined space. Still, the end result is worth the work required.

[cobra1951]

I know the problem with magnification. It gets very disorientating when you work under a magnifying glass

[donrobinson]

Looks pretty cool E.J., I sure would have hated being the guy that had to go out there. Those sailors must have been part monkey back then  

[EJ_L]

That has always been my thought. Some of the places they would have to shimmy out on and the heights of those masts. When you think that gallants and royals could put you easily 40-50 feet or even more above the deck which could be 20-30 feet above the water on a first rate and then factor in the pitch and rolling of the ship plus rain and wind, that make those sailors either extremely brave or equally crazy! Maybe they are one in the same.

[Robin Lous]

Looks good and looks scary! 

 

Isn't it difficult to get something like that straight?

Those small pointy things sticking out. I can see myself knock them off faster than I can build them. 

 

Robin

[EJ_L]

Go slow, check, double check and check again to make sure everything fits. Have all the tools needed ready, glue at hand and hope that your knee or the dog doesn't hit the table!  It really is just a lot of being patient and trying not to rush. I do knock things down or break those little parts but I think I shoot more pieces across the room out of my tweezers than anything. A few weeks ago I was packing up the old ship yard for the move and I picked up dozens of eyebolts and blocks from past builds that I thought were lost forever to the carpet jungle. lol 

[cobra1951]

Can you imagine trying to get a modellers carpet through an airport check

[EJ_L]

It would certainly take a few tries but then maybe they could find all my missing pieces and parts....

 

A few years back I had flown back out to California to visit a buddy from the Navy. We were going to do some serious work on his model railroad and so I packed up a tool box with all the model tools I thought I would need. A few days before my trip the admiral asks if I thought I could actually get all those sharp objects to pass security. I stopped and looked at the dozens of knives, carving tools, spare blades, sharpeners, wire cutters, pliers etc. and thought nope. That box went overnight on Fedex as I figured I would end up spending some time in a white interrogation room with all that hardware.

[EJ_L]

Bowsprit and bowsprit topmast is installed. La Couronne has now reached her total length of 32". There is still a lot of rigging to be done on here but until I get the foremast built the rest has to wait. So that brings me to the foremast which as you can see in some of the pictures, I have started to shape. It is nice to be building upward now as well as a different type of construction. I do think though with rigging I spend probably more time trying to identify what goes where and what do I need to make sure I have attached to make it happen. Just tracing and translating the rigging from the plans to the model is a task in and of itself and then researching exactly how those lines run through blocks, sheaves or tie off at their start and end points is a huge undertaking. Just in the couple of hours I have worked tonight I have spent maybe thirty minutes actually building and the rest was reading. I'm not complaining at all and in fact I love it! To me the research and learning is a large chunk of the fun of this hobby.

 

Ok, that is enough talk for tonight. I will let you get to what you actually came here to see, the pictures!

[Robin Lous]

Neat! I'll pay good attention to what you do with the masts and rigging, because I need to learn about that sooner or later. Specially with my future Duyfken build in mind.

 

Btw....I really like that shade of blue you used.

 

Robin

[donrobinson]

Looking good E.J., I see you are leaving the rest of the bowsprit rigging until later( chocks, blocks etc.). I'm really interested to see how the bowsprit mast is rigged to everything else.

[EJ_L]

The bowsprit rigging is an interesting rigging system. I'm still learning my way through it all in trying to decipher how the lines are attached to each other and where they g plus how they get there. I think I have most of them figured out now but there are still a few unknowns. I was wanting to put more of the blocks on the bowsprit but soon realized that a lot of them need to wait on the forestays to be rigged. Looking at the print there are maybe three more that I could go ahead and place and I will probably do that in the next build session or two.

 

One of the most confusing parts is trying to figure out if some of the rigging is on both sides or just one. There are a few lines that appear to only be on one side of the bowsprit but I cannot find where it's counterpart is on the other side. Fortunately for me the rigging on the Vasa is very similar to Couronne's and as there are many fine builds of that vessel and some excellent pictures taken of their rigging I can combine that with what I'm reading in different books to get my answers. Just a slow process but it is worth it.

[cobra1951]

Very nice EJ . After all that fine delicate work do not knock it off

[EJ_L]

Hard at work building the foremast and I thought I would post a quick update. Trestle trees, and platform have been successfully mounted. Working on the parts for the railings now. I'm trying to remind myself to take a lot of progress pictures and post them with the hope that I will start to make it more of a habit. 

 

 

 

 

 

[donrobinson]

Nice work E.J., what are you using to simulate the nails? 

[EJ_L]

For the tree nails I'm cheating by just drilling a hole and then darkening it in with pencil lead. I've seen this method used on a few builds now and it seems to work fairly well especially at these smaller scales.

[Landlubber Mike]

Looking beautiful EJ.  I'd be so nervous having that spiritsail topmast up - I can't tell you how many times my elbows, etc. knocked the bowsprit of my Badger and messed up all the bow rigging.  

[EJ_L]

Thanks Mike and yes it is scary having it jutting out there just waiting for something to hit it. I suppose I could have held off till after the foremast was built and I was ready to connect the rigging to the bowsprit but it is just the order I have always built the masts. I am looking forward to having my big model table back since it allows me to keep the ship and those more delicate pieces further away from accidents than this card table does. Hopefully only a few more weeks!

[EJ_L]

I know it's been a little while since my last update but I've been around just not in the shipyard as much this past week. We are under three weeks till we start moving so I'm having to spend more time packing and getting things ready to go. Of course to add to the fun work has picked up as we just started four jobs and picked up two more this past week. I'm hopeful that I will get some ship building time in the near future, maybe tonight if I'm lucky!

 

The foremast is coming along nicely. I've finished the top platform and the lower rail is in place. I have to make the supports for the upper rail and then the rail itself. It will be some time before I can step the foremast as it does have a lot of blocks that will need to be installed first. I made the mistake long ago of trying to install the blocks to the mast after the shrouds were on and swore I'd never make that mistake again.

 

If I can get some more done I will try to update with some new pictures in the next couple days.

[Robin Lous]

First things first and we wait patiently until you settle down again....or at least...we try

[EJ_L]

Thanks Robin! I don't know if anyone is more anxious to see me return to building than I am but on the plus side, when I do sit down I will have the itch big time and good things tend to happen then.

 

Plus, the move means that I get the new ship yard which means I will finally have the room to start Le Soleil Royal which has been sitting across the room tormenting me since July.

[yancovitch]

oh goodie....now i can easily see how to build mine

[EJ_L]

Got in a little time tonight to continue my work on the fore top. Building the supports for the upper rail now. I did notice that I had not posted my other work that I had done with the lower rail so I figured I could do a quick update. Although time will still be limited over the next few weeks, I am hopeful that I can get an hour in here and there.

[yancovitch]

strange....there was another photo of the top before i said oh goodie, which disappeared.....haha...maybe i was seeing things....should i worry?

[EJ_L]

No, you were not seeing things. The pucture was posted sideways and since I was trying to post from my phone I couldn't edit it to rotate it correctly. I switched over to my computer and fixed it but I accidently deleted the entire post in my hurry so the same post ended up under yours.

 

Or maybe you are seeing things.... we may never know...

[cobra1951]

That's a good reason not to rush a build

An hour here and there has it's upsides

Your fore top is very neat indeed

Edited November 3, 2016 by Cobr@

[EJ_L]

With a little actual blood, sweat and tears, (after stabbing myself in the finger with a hobby knife last night), I managed to get in several hours to work on the foremast. Got all the blocks installed, deadeyes for the foretopmast set and the mast has been stepped into position and is now ready for shrouds. I think I am going to get some free time Sunday to do more work so I am hoping to get a good start on the shrouds. I need to do a little more research though and make sure I have all the blocks and eyebolts on the deck under them before they get in the way. I think I may be missing a couple at the base of the mast. I can always install them later if I do miss something but it is nice right now with no rigging in the way.

Edited November 5, 2016 by EJ_L

[cobra1951]

Nice :)

[EJ_L]

Logged in a few more hours in the ship yard today and the shrouds have started. As this is going to be a long process with each pair taking me about an hour to do, I figured I would give some smaller updates along the way instead of waiting till I was done.

 

So without any further ado, here is the picture!