Soleil Royal by Hubac's Historian - Heller - An Extensive Modification and Partial Scratch-Build

[Hubac's Historian]

If necessary, I will make resin castings of whichever gratings I am missing.  I am only reluctant to do so because the resin and styrene only form a mechanical bond.

 

As for the Tanneron model, I do not know for sure whether the deck gratings follow the chamber of the deck.  I suspect they do, though.  I’ve just not found any good pictures of that particular area.

[Heinrich der Seefahrer]

15 hours ago, Hubac's Historian said:

If necessary, I will make resin castings of whichever gratings I am missing.  I am only reluctant to do so because the resin and styrene only form a mechanical bond.

 

(...)

Perhaps Locktite Superglue, Pattex or a two-component-glue may work. I was very happy with my even very cheap superglue to connect the resine engines with the biplanes plastic fuselage sockets - okay... after sanding points of contct with an 800 - 1200 grain -  and so smoothing the connection areas surfaces on both sides. 

 

Hope this helps!

[EJ_L]

A possible solution to any missing gratings could be to place the battens in place closing them off. Those would be far easier to make than additional gratings and would be correct in use.

[Hubac's Historian]

Thanks for the suggestions on glues and gratings, guys!

[Chapman]

 

On 6/29/2019 at 5:15 PM, Heinrich der Seefahrer said:

 

 

The book also bears a plenty of information about the development of the Reaissaince into early Baroque to the French Highbaroque and the more floating and light Late/Southgerman Baroque and the Rokokko. (The exhibition is until October 2019 here in Berlin

https://sdtb.de/technikmuseum/ausstellungen/architectura-navalis/

Hi Marc and Heinrich!

 

This is the information, from the 2010 Plancatalog of the Service Historique, about the Le Soleil Royal plan of the stern facade, 1669 (from Floating Baroque as shown above).

 

226. Vaisseau le Soleil Royal. Non signé ni daté [vers 1669].

Ornements de la poupe. Encre noire. Dim. 0,38 x 0,60.

D1 67, f ° 1

cl. 7367

 

Nek0 used this plan for his Soleil Royal. But since no date is indicated on the plan, I think that the reference 1669 of the Service Historiqe means the ship 1669-92 not the appearance of an exact date.

[Hubac's Historian]

I am inclined to agree with you, Chapman - that the drawing represents the first SR.  It seems to be a close, if not exact copy of the Berain pen and wash drawing, which can be definitively dated to the time of her refit.

 

Both that and this drawing bear all the hallmarks of Berain’s compartmentalized organization of the ornamental tableaux.  It is my personal belief, though, that Berain was merely editing/updating the ship’s earlier appearance as conceived by LeBrun and refined by Puget.

 

Substitute a camel for a tiger, at the feet of Asia; suppress the upper stern balcony, so that it appears, merely, as a non-projecting band of ornament beneath this upper tier of gallery windows; substitute male warriors for the figures of the Americas and Africa; perhaps, also, that the figures of the four seasons may have been slightly different in that the starboard figure of Autumn may have originally been a female figure and not the male figure drawn by Berain.

 

Consider, once again, the following very detailed description of SR, excerpted from Sur La Vie Et Les Ouevres de P. Puget, by D.M.J. Henry, 1853:

 

The stern of the Royal Sun, whose decoration is also due to the pencil of Puget, seems to testify to the account held by this artist of the need to restrict the extent of decoration. In the design of this new vessel the upper gallery, that is to say, the one which in the other vessel culminates in the coronation, is suppressed, and the figures are less gigantic.

 

The vault
it is a duty and a real pleasure to express to this laborious writer all my gratitude for the obliging competition which he has kindly lent me by searching, in the archives of the Ministry of the Navy, the documents which could not be furnished to me by the archives of the port of Toulon, and sending me textually a copy of the various pieces of Colbert's official correspondence which I use in this work.

38 ON LIFE AND WORKS
other ornament than simple moldings and a mascaron to cover the opening of the jaumière. To this seems to be reduced the apparent modification made in the profusion of ornamental riches, the composition of the painting always retaining a great and noble character. It may be, however, that the absence of ornaments in the vault was less akin to the modification demanded by the minister, than to the quality of the vessel, which being of second rank did not admit so much luxury of decoration.

 

The area that bears the name of the vessel, covered with beautiful arabesques, is, at the Sun Royal, supported by four baths indicating the seasons that the star of the day shares in its annual race, because it must be noted, everything is allegorical in the decoration of this building whose name itself alluded to the young monarch. The succession of seasons begins with the left, where winter is represented under the appearance of an old man wrapped in a drapery covering his head and body; the other three seasons are graceful figures of women carrying on their heads a basket full of flowers or fruits that characterize them.

 

The gallery extends from one end of the stern to the other, and its two extremities serve as the seat of two beautiful figures representing warriors of lesser proportions than those of the first vessel. These warriors, whose defensive armor differs as well as attitude, still refer to the two great regions that the sun illuminates. The east, on the starboard side, had its helmet adorned with floating ostrich feathers, while the crest of the port warrior, composed of feathers of other birds, formed a broad plume framing with great taste all the top of the head . With the hands of the two hands, which were near the ship, on the cornice of the gallery, which served as their seat, both of them held up the arm on the opposite side, so that the hand served as support.
 

P. PUGET. 39
next to the top of the board. These sides are formed of an inverted console whose notch accommodated at the reentrant part of the flanks of the building, at the height of the second battery. A bust of a woman carrying on the head a basket of flowers for one, fruit for the other, comes out of the small winding of these consoles.

 

The great bas-relief, left blank in the project of decoration of the first vessel, but drawn in this one which had already received its name, represents the young king under the figure of Phoebus, driving his chariot harnessed of the four mythological horses launched at a gallop, and in the ancient style, that is to say, thrown two on the right and two on the left.

 

The coronation of this beautiful stern, of better taste than that of the other vessel, is formed by two figures of women seated with their legs extended along the very slightly arched border of this coronation, and turned on their hips so to present face all the upper body. Their costume still indicates in them the symbol of the East and the West. Nobly draped one by one, the figure of the west holds in his right hand a long scepter leaning on his shoulder, while in front of her, at her feet, a horse with a bristling, floating mane, with her head held high, her mouth open, and her nostrils wide, looks at her, neighing.

 

To starboard, the symbol of the east carelessly holds in its hands, in front of it, a vase from which rises a plant apparently indicating that of perfumes. At the foot of this figure and symmetrically with that of the opposite side, is lying a tiger that a necklace passed around his neck seems to show as tame and submissive animal. This remarkable composition is, as we see, only an ingenious flattery by which Puget celebrated in his own way the glory of the young monarch, who at the same time dominates the East and the West, the East by the establishment created or
40 ON LIFE AND WORKS
encouraged, (1) the West by the power of its weapons, and making its domination accept with love.

 

An immense royal crown placed between the two symbolic figures, in the middle of the arch of the coronation, serves as a support for the only stern lantern. As in the other vessel, the whole surface of the painting is still noticeable by the profusion of details of the accessory ornamentation: L-stamped cartridges, crisscrossed, faces of radiant sun, fleur-de-lis medallions, strips of lambrequins between all the carvings of which is showing a fleur de lys, and this.

The design of the Sun-Royal still bears, as we see, several great figures; that was splendor, brilliancy, magnificence, it flattered the vanity of the king, who was as dazzled by sumptuousness as by victory, and Colbert, whatever his conviction, was not a man to be opposed to. his master on this article: the large figures, a little modified as to size, were still tolerated despite the formal disapproval of sailors, despite their incessant claims. However, Puget, in order to remove the inconvenience of too great a weight, had decided to hollow out as much as possible these masses of wood, as we see by those of those figures which still remain.

 

Ten years had elapsed in this sort of struggle since the great minister had engaged the great artist to diminish the proportions of these ornaments, when the Sun-Royal received the decoration which I have just described.

 

_____

 

What is also interesting, Chapman, about this copied sketch of SR’s stern is that the windows that extend to the quarter galleries are drawn as glazed, whereas Berain’s drawing shows one discontinued horizontal line; perhaps the copied drawing is a slight editing to reflect the intent for fully closed-in quarter galleries on the replacement SR of 1693.

 

What makes all of this all the more confusing, though, is that the lower transom is still drawn with the wing transom, and thus the widest span of the lower transom, above the stern chase ports, as opposed to the later marine development of placing the wing transom beneath these ports.

Edited July 7, 2019 by Hubac's Historian

[Hubac's Historian]

Well, I am just now finishing Daniel Dessert’s La Royale, Vaisseaux et Marins du Roi-Soleil. While I will say that it is an excellent, and broad overview of Colbert’s development of the French navy - covering the political factors, the geographic challenges and limitations of marshaling resources, the difficulties of filling the ranks with capable seamen and officers, and the logistics of building ships and running shipyards - precious little was said specifically about Soleil Royal.

 

That’s okay, though, because my two latest additions to the library have just arrived:

Although written in German, Uber Den Wellen is already worth the low price of admission simply because it provides super clear prints of the Royal Louis/Monarque drawings by Puget; now, I can really see and understand what the lower stern balcony/quarter gallery structure and support really are!

 

But there is also this:

Apparently, the author found the same print of this portrait from the R.C. And Ramola Anderson book from 1926.  Perhaps, though, this image was taken from an original edition because the print quality is not quite as poor; generally, there’s better contrast than the images I have posted already.

 

The German author doesn’t have any firm ideas about where the painting currently is, or what it represents; he suggests, though, that it may be the Royal Louis.  And, it may very well be.

 

Is that a sitting Monarch with a shackled slave to his right?  Maybe.  Could be Apollo with charging horses, though.  Is the tafferal pediment domed or reverse-serpentine?  Still too difficult to say.

 

One thing that is ever so faintly more apparent, though, is that the band of heraldic ornaments appears to exist between the main deck guns, and not between the middle deck guns, as seen on the RL/Monarque portraits.

 

From my point of view, also, the entire stance and presence of this mystery ship seems a little lower in the water, and slightly broader of beam than the RL/Monarque portraits.  So, until better evidence comes to light, I am going to stick with my educated guess, here, that this ship is Soleil Royal before her refit.

 

Now, one supposition that I have held onto for quite a while, but must now relinquish is that the following gauche portraits were the work of Etienne Compardelle:

However, as the Musee and every expert on the subject of the First Marine will tell you, this is the work of Pierre Vary.  And that must evidently be so, because I can just make out his signature in the corner of my dust jacket:

What I can’t say, even after all this research and thinking about it, is that these are absolutely, definitely the refit quarter galleries.  I do feel strongly, though, that they are because there is much evidence of Berain’s oeuvre in the small ornamental details of their composition.

 

And that’s where my second book,  Floating Baroque, is really going to pay huge dividends; there are a number of stern/quarter gallery sets of drawings of first and second-rates, reprinted with absolute clarity, and originating definitively at the hand of Berain.

 

And, so, with this reference as an additional guide, I can begin to correct some of the problems inherent in this quarter gallery that I have chosen to re-create.

 

The past few days, I have established firm reference lines (the edge of the stern, and a quarter gallery center line, running parallel), so that I can establish the levels of the QG, location of windows, and the lateral parameters of the QG, at each level:

Because I moved my lowest aft gun forward by a quarter inch, there will be no interference with the lower finishing.  On the main deck level, the dolphin carvings will just kiss the last gunport in this tier (“GP”), but there won’t be any overlap, as seen in the original drawing.

So, after checking my parameters on my scale paper drawing, I transferred them to vellum, which can be erased over and over ,almost indefinitely, without disintegrating:

While it is a significant variance from the original drawing, I think the 1-2-3 window arrangement is much less cluttered seeming than a 1-2-5 arrangement, and more in-keeping with what was being done in the late 1680’s, as demonstrated over and again in Floating Baroque.

 

There is plenty of precedent for 5 windows on the lower level (La Reyne, Le Terrible - both Hubac ships), but this seems to be an artifact of the First Marine.

My new lower windows will have cross-hatched mullions and not the diamond-hatch that is shown in the original drawing, despite cross-hatch being employed in the levels above.  I have also corrected the weirdly inconsistent tapering of this lower tier of windows.

 

So, now, all that remains is to draw in all the details, starting with the windows themselves.  That’s what I will be working at, this next week or so, while painting continues in the evenings.

 

Be well, and thanks for looking in!

Edited July 16, 2019 by Hubac's Historian

[Hubac's Historian]

Well, it has been a good week on the drawing board.  Just a lot of drawing, erasing, re-drawing, cleaning of the page, etc.

 

A montage:

 

This was the second attempt at drawing the windows on this lower tier.  I had them drawn in, before I realized that I failed to include the bottom moulding, and the windows looked too tall.

One of the things that bothers me about the Berain/Vary drawing are these triple rectangular panels along the aft edge of the stern.  I decided to break them up by inserting this crossed-diamond relief, that Berain does incorporate into the end panel of the main deck stern balcony.

I’m not 100% happy with the lyre, here, but I re-drew it so many times, and it is a detail that can be perfected with the tools, so long as the basic proportions are right.

This is where I left off for today.  So far, I am very happy with what I perceive to be a better-balanced arrangement without unnecessary distortions.

Edited July 19, 2019 by Hubac's Historian

[Heinrich der Seefahrer]

Yes Marc, that do look great!!!

 

Thanks for sharing this steps of construction progress with us.

 

 

Isn't this deoration part surrounding this cartushe in the middle below the lyra (drawn with ink in this early stage of the work)

 

the very same decorational element part you already built a mould for for the upper decks decoration above the 18-pounder gunports

 

(here to be seen)? If they to fit - so there migth be a shortened way to the side galleries decoration?

Edited July 20, 2019 by Heinrich der Seefahrer
inserted picture

[Hubac's Historian]

Hi Heinrich! Yes, actually, I was hoping to re-cycle the ornament from the lower sill of the main deck ports, which isn’t quite as arched as the header ornament that (I think  ) you are referring to.

 

Any time savings will be a huge benefit.  Thank you for looking in, and as always, for your insight.  Floating Baroque is now one of my most treasured library resources!  Thank you for bringing it to my attention!

[yancovitch]

somebody here is a reincarnation of the designer or builder of the original ship.....trying to remember ...trying to remember 😀

[Heinrich der Seefahrer]

11 hours ago, Hubac's Historian said:

Hi Heinrich! Yes, actually, I was hoping to re-cycle the ornament from the lower sill of the main deck ports, which isn’t quite as arched as the header ornament that (I think  ) you are referring to.

 

Any time savings will be a huge benefit.  Thank you for looking in, and as always, for your insight.  Floating Baroque is now one of my most treasured library resources!  Thank you for bringing it to my attention!

Hy Marc,

 

no case for a thank you... ...we all our "pipeline kind of view" so we often let possibilities passing by if we aren't remembered. (A stroke froceturns your face directly into this direction.)

 

The question is - can't you "reform" it from some surplus parts and add the rest by using MagicSculp? (Some kind of partly recycling?) And what kind of decor parts doese appear more often so it is of interest to build a mould? For the 30 gunports a mould was clearly a matter of intrest - but if these pattern does only appear four times the mould desingn will be more timeconsuming than the short run serie. Ore are those also on the galion or transom? What do you know about the stateroom - may it be possible to reuse spome of this parts in there?

 

I think the best thing working with transparent paper is the possibilty to toun it over and use the inversed side for the port sidegallery - so the inner shift of the copied paper by mirrowing isn't a trouble to think about. (and to save the lead and ink on the transparentpaper you might try usual hairspray in thin layers (give the a resting time of 2 hours before spray the surface again - best is to test before. I'm complety shocked a bout the waves on my paper doing it wrong once.) 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

For these quarter galleries, almost all of the ornament will be one-off carvings.  The four mermaids flanking the quarter galleries, for example, are different fore and aft, and then they have to be mirrored from port to starboard.

 

I will not be fitting out the interior of the great cabin, however, I may do a separate model of the ceiling itself in a larger scale, like 1:48, or 1:24.  That would make an interesting side display, but it depends upon trying to ascertain what the painted portrait panels may have looked like.  In any case, I won’t spend any time  trying to figure that out until the model is complete.

 

The one thing I can recycle is this ornament (with a little editing) to frame the name badges:

Speaking of mirrored drawings, what I like to do is use the photocopier to give me a perfect mirrored image.

 

That’s a great tip - using hairspray as a fixative.  I think I will need to do something like that, soon, because the lower section of the drawing is getting pretty muddy with graphite.

Edited July 21, 2019 by Hubac's Historian

[Hubac's Historian]

I’ve worked my way up through the crown finial of the upper finishing, and down to the division between the lower gallery and the lower finishing.  I’ve realized and corrected a few mistakes, along the way.  At this point, though, I think it’s time to spray the drawing so that I can fix in place what I have, before moving on to the lower finishing.  I’ve already decided that I won’t include the stern balconies or the mermaids on this vellum; I’ll do those drawings separately, as overlays of photocopies of this drawing:

There are supposed to be these tiny faces at the top of these pilasters, between panels of the lower gallery; while I plan to model them, I decided not to muddle the drawing with them.

 

There remains this funky little area, on the lower gallery, as it extends aft into the false gallery that will support the Four Seasons.   I’m not sure how all of that will pan out, in three dimensions, but I think it will work.

[druxey]

The lyre will look correct if its 'horizontal' axis is parallel to the sheer. Hope this helps!

[Hubac's Historian]

Yes, I agree Druxey, but more specifically parallel with the sheer of the quarter galleries, as opposed to the top sheer, which is much more pronounced.

 

The drawing of the lyre is close, but whispers of a hair out of whack.  I am confident that I can correct these discrepancies with the tools.

[druxey]

Yes, I meant the sheer of the quarter gallery and my sketch is only approximate. I'm sure you can improve on it!

[Hubac's Historian]

Ah, okay!  Sorry Druxey - I was viewing your post on my phone; I thought you had merely high-lighted the lyre, as I had drawn it.  So, I thought - “that looks pretty okay.  I’m close.”

 

When I enlarged your drawing, I could then see your axis lines, as compared with what I had posted before.  So, yes, you are right on the Marc, there.  Name pun intended!

 

My apologies for not being more attentive.  The input is appreciated.

[druxey]

No problem. It's a small detail and hard to see on a small screen.

[Hubac's Historian]

Yes, totally missed it. Since we moved, I rarely look at MSW on my desktop because the computer is so old and slow.  I suppose I will have to upgrade that, at some point.

[Hubac's Historian]

Continuing on, with my development of the quarter gallery plan, I have arrived at the lower finishing.

 

This area is particularly problematic for two reasons.  First, to either side of the centerline, the lobes of the lower finishing are similarly shaped, but asymmetrical.  This poses the particular difficulty of striking the right balance, while still framing the drawing within certain boundaries of the pre-established kit architecture.

 

My initial reference point for the bottom end of these cyma-curved lobes was to be the bottom edge of the lower main wale.  FYI - the scribble sheet, over the main body of the drawing, was my experiment to see whether hairspray would distort the paper.

What you see above are the lines I eventually arrived at, with much trial and error.  Initially (though I didn’t snap a picture of it) my lines extended down to the short hard line beneath.

 

The problem, there, was two-fold; this longer profile exaggerated the a-symmetry in an unflattering way.  Also, I have to consider that the lower finishing overhangs the plane of the lower transom (the dotted line), and there will need to be a corresponding in-board ornament, that wraps the corner and rests against the lower transom.  My first lower finishing attempt created much too heavy a space to fill with this corresponding ornament.

 

As a general reference for sussing out the details and proportions, I made good use of this other more clear drawing for Formidable’s [Note: I keep calling this ship L’Invincible, but the portrait is inscribed with the ship’s name.  Some things just get stuck in our heads, I suppose] quarter galleries, also by Berain, and dating to 1691:

What I find fascinating about the Berain stern drawing is that it only shows the aft face of the acanthus carved waste pipe, and yet it makes absolutely no accounting of the lower finishing, which certainly extends beneath it:

Some may argue that the reason for this discrepancy is because my choice of quarter gallery does not correspond with the Berain stern.  I, on the other hand, do not agree.  Rather, it is my observation, that the lower finishing is often not addressed in the stern drawings of Jean Berain.

 

I am pretty certain that there are a few really clear examples of stern/quarter drawings that illustrate this omission, in Floating Baroque.  I will have to check when I get home.

 

Once I had settled on the shape, I had to fill in all of the corresponding ornament:

I was not satisfied with the line of moulding just forward of the aft acanthus carving because it needed to more closely follow the aft shape of the lower finishing - as it does on the Invincible drawing, above.  After correcting this discrepancy, the rest of the detail fell quickly into place:

Ultimately, I want the lower finial to rest just beneath the bottom edge of the lower main wale, so that is what I drew:

This represents two weeks of focused effort and much revision, but the effort was worthwhile.  These are QGs that I can build, and that will make sense on the model.  Port and starboard mirror images ready for patterning:

Now that I have this major detail sorted out, I will draw the mermaid figures and stern balconies as overleafs.

 

 

Edited August 5, 2019 by Hubac's Historian

[Hubac's Historian]

You can see what I mean in the following examples.  Even in low-relief, these lower finishings would read as visible projections from the stern view.

 

L’Ambitieux:

Le Brillant:

This dichotomy between stern and quarter views may explain why the Berain stern drawing makes no visual reference to the mermaid figures, nor the amortisement, which would surely project somewhat from the ship’s side.

 

L’Ambiteaux, which also would have had an amortisement, above the main deck level, is also a good illustration of this omission.

 

It is my opinion that Berain did not include these details in the stern view because they would only serve to clutter the stern drawing, when they could be better understood in the quarter view.

Edited July 27, 2019 by Hubac's Historian

[Hubac's Historian]

This concludes drawing for now.  When it actually comes time to model the figures, I’ll do stern perspective drawings of the Americas and Africa, so that I can get the proper shape for these figures in two planes.

 

I may, in fact, be able to re-use the kit figure for the Americas, since the pose is correct, but the scale may not be.  I will definitely have to carve Africa from scratch, though. There’s no way to kit-bash the kit figure to arrive at this cross-legged pose.

 

The good news is that I can re-cycle the side-lantern quarter pieces, as well as the Four Winds carvings that adorn the pedestal the the Americas and Africa sit upon.

[Hubac's Historian]

I was so excited to get home and cut out a template of one of the QGs and offer it up to the model to see how close I am.

 

Well, as a now-retired work friend often used to say: “it isn’t broke, but we can fix it!”

 

The lower half, from the main deck down is good.  I’ll need to do a little re-shaping of my stern counter/false lower balcony, but everything lines up with where it’s supposed to:

There’s some minor interference with the aft-most main deck port, but a little re-shaping of that scroll is all that is required, there.  I expected there to be an overlap, there, with the way that I drew that detail.

 

The upper bulwarks are where it gets interesting:

First of all, the entire layout seems to rise higher than I intended.  It isn’t necessarily a big deal that the crown finial crosses over into the sheer railing.  What confused me so much is why the aft octagonal port was almost completely covered by my siren.  After all - I measured my drawing again and again!

Any lapping over of the frieze elements, BTW, was anticipated.  My plan always was to cut the QGs into the frieze.  Where the Siren tail mostly covers a fleur-de-lis, for example, I would simply eliminate the fleur, altogether.

 

I expected there to be some distortion of reality, considering the manner in which I began drawing this project; I essentially made a scale outline by literally tracing the outline of the lower hull, and then measuring up from the upper main wale, to map out the upper bulwarks.  this drawing was then digitized and detailed in GIMP.

 

But why are elements now being covered, which were not supposed to be?

 

I opened the software and offered my cutout up to the screen:

Mmhmm, okay, everything seems to line up.  Although, I don’t have a picture of it, when I offer the upper bulwark to the screen, it also matches up very closely, +/- 1/32.

Oh, wait a minute!  I think I see it:

Aha!  In my digital drawing, I aligned the lower edge of the main deck QG windows with the bottom edge of the upper main wale.  Really, though, those windows should begin above the upper main wale, because the upper main wale coincides with the gallery rail, on this level.

 

But, why did I do that, in the first place?  Well, the answer is that I manipulated a scan of the QGs so that it seemed to fit well within the parameters of my available space. I remember thinking, at the time, that it didn’t matter if the windows dropped beneath the upper main wale.

But that’s not what I drew on vellum, and that’s why my drawing sits and finishes higher on the model.  The height discrepancy is pretty exactly the width of the wale.

 

So, what to do about all of this?  Re-drawing is not an option, and besides - the important parameters align nicely.  The stern balconies are where they are supposed to be.  There’s enough room for my quarter pieces, still.  The overall aspect and proportion of the drawing is good, IMO

 

I could simply eliminate the aft-most octagonal port.  Really, there are only supposed to be two gunports on the poop deck.  Heller provided one round port. I could leave my forward octagonal port as a vestigial reminder of what the Berain/Vary drawing intended.

 

But, dammit, if those octagonal ports didn’t come out well!  I’d really like to keep both.

 

Option B would be to clip the wings of my forward Siren, and maybe give her a new hair style that doesn’t interfere with the port framing.

 

Option C would be a combination of measures to reduce the overall height of the QG.  First, I could razee one line of glass panes from the main deck windows.  I had to re-draw the lyre for patterning, anyway, and it wouldn’t be a big deal to re-fair the lines of my dolphins, after this surgery.  That’ll buy me about 3/32”.

 

That, alone, may be enough to save the port.  I may be able to recover additional ground by reducing the upper finishing, from the QD window on up, on the photocopier, in increments of -2%.

 

The only thing complicating this approach is that the Sirens inhabit this tier, as well as the tier below.  There may not be enough tail width to withstand the un-shrinking border cutting into the Sirens’ tails.  Or, maybe 2-4% won’t impact this area that much.

 

Fortunately, these are easy, no-risk/high-reward experiments with paper cutouts that will help me clarify my thinking.

 

[yancovitch]

you are simply amazing...what else can i say........almost scary 😄

[Hubac's Historian]

I may be more singularly obsessed than amazing, but I will gratefully take the compliment, Victor.  Thank you!

 

And thank you to everyone else for tour likes and looking in.

[yancovitch]

 singularly obsessed...that's a good one .....must remember that 🙂

[EJ_L]

Your obsession is amazing! haha! Seriously, if you can pull off those QGs as you have drawn them, that will truly be an incredible work of art! I've been loving watching you pull it all together and am looking forward to seeing how the physical modeling happens.

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you very much EJ!  I have some ideas about how I’ll pull it all together, which are largely inspired by Drazen’s amazing build of De Zeven Provincien.  His work on the quarter galleries begin with post #440:

 

 

[Heinrich der Seefahrer]

Dear Marc! In our German periodica of the workinggroup historical shipbuilding LOGBUCH 1/2018 there was an article I about the

SOLEI ROYAL (and some lines about some ROYAL LOUIS) large scale model resting in the German Maritime Museums archiv and the search for a modelbuilder to restaurate this pre 1924 dated model.

Interestingly the figurehead is there (not the decisions of a not-to-be-built as in Paris) and it looks like a portrait of the sunking in a fighting position as a classical Roman officer or emporer - known from the Chapman drawings (as far as I do remember). So the ancientiational aspect is there on both ends of the ship in the couronnament he is shown as Apollo correspondingly.

One funny feature are the stairs do leading the officers to jump over the guns barrel fourth a time.

And a stairway leading the sunking towards a side entrance and not to an usual gunport - squeezing his  highborn and round baroqual body through the squarilateral. The model isn't obviously not to our today standards of modelbuilding as there are no boxes for canon balls, the guns rigging is a pitty. (To me personally it looks like a model started with a huge amount of money and time and then ended in a hurry without money.) But the CLW looks right halving the lowest wale.

 

But as you can see for a minimally 95 year old lady she is in some astonishing fit condition .

 

From her monumental scale and appearence I would date her into the German Empire before the First World War for her begin (but there are some doubts to her finishing).

 

 

Scale (ca.) 1/25

Length o.a. 2368mm

Length iof the hull 2158mm

Breadth o.a. 556mm

Height with stand 1225mm

Height if hull with lower masts 1144mm.

 

It is an impressive model (as ROYAL LOUIS has to be from the same hand) and the museums workshops were looking also for somebody skilled to be the restaurateur. (Half a year ago but the vacation may still be there. )

What I really do like is the lightness of the decoration and the wounderfull blue.

I hope you have some help from this model. As I have left the article at home I think Leo Reiffenstein (1856-1924) was the name and dates of the modelbuilder  - due to this the dating troubles. 

What I do miss is the decorational grit from the last wale upwards and the characteristic decorational elements between the 18pounder gunports tier. So due to the war conditions or later on the unforgiving pressure of reparation payings* the detailling work was abadoned and the model  ended in some simplified conditions? It doesn't look like harmed by the bombings to Northern Germany from 1942 onwards there are no shadows of differend fading of the varnish of the grit being teared off or holes of the nails to fix it - as far as I can see. So the model is not your detailing decorational standard but I hope it helps a bit.

 

Best wishes from.my way towards work in tube,

 

yours HdS

_______

*I am sceptical to a later time when we ate plug beet for months, handed over 144000 (onehundetandfoutyfour thousand) milk cows to the war winnes fullfilling the articles in the Versailles Treaty - getting the highest rate of death children in the hole world. This is even in Germany very unknown today and the German man that was picked out to sign the mortifying paper** did it with glooves, pulled them of and let them rest there together with his pen.

 

**This treaty was one of the the first important international treaties signed by the young republic - and some idiots still ask me in a discussion some days ago "Why democracy wasn't a success after 1919 here in Germany?" 

Edited August 9, 2019 by Heinrich der Seefahrer