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

[Hubac's Historian]

I agree, Jim, that a heat gun is a good option.  Unfortunately, I do not own one.  I may, however, be able to borrow one.

 

Tonight, I will experiment with open flame. I have four chances - utilizing the discarded bow section, immediately below the waterline - to see what flame does to an area with similar curvature.  I will need to cut away the stem on these extra pieces, but that's a small sacrifice of labor for science.

 

If I just can't control the heat of a flame, I will look into a heat gun.  Thank you, for weighing in.

[EJ_L]

I have a heat gun with an adjustable temperature dial that I use for those situations. I've had it for well over 10 years now and has been worth the money. I caution the flame approach as I used it myself for a long time before buying the heat gun. The problem comes in not being able to control the heat very well and also the flame can easily burn the plastic.  

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you, EJ!  Two for two on the heat gun.

[shipmodel]

Hi Marc -

 

My experience with plastic is that most of the stuff used by kit makers will resist softening until it is right on the edge of melting.  Once melted, there is no going back.  I would start out with the most gentle heat I could apply.  The quickest to try would be Joyce's hair dryer on the lowest setting, and just up the power if it doesn't work at first.  But I remember that when my eyeglasses are fitted they often dip the earpieces in hot sand.  That would be my next experiment.

 

You might also make kerf slots in the plastic of the interior side of the hull piece that you are trying to bend.  It will make the bending go a lot easier, whether you are trying to open up the curve or close it. 

  

Dan

[Hubac's Historian]

Interesting idea with the kerf slots, Dan.  I will take that idea to the laboratory.  I have a carving veiner that should make that easy to do.

Edited November 16, 2017 by Hubac'sHistorian

[yancovitch]

hmmmm...i tried heat to reshape a hull once.....failed.....warped very unevenly and had soft spots.....but i was a more impatient fellow then.....whatever you do....go sloooooooowly ...and my heart is with you...i'd love to see it work well .....

[Hubac's Historian]

Definitely slooooow is the order of the day.  Thanks for weighing in, Yankovich!

[Hubac's Historian]

My initial experiments with a tea light worked quite successfully.  On my scrap pieces, I found that I could gently waft the flame within an inch of the inside surface - just until the surface of the plastic looked like a freshly baked brownie, smoking ever so slightly - and then I could push the plastic gently and hold for 10 seconds until it set.  The results were reversable, and repeatable on the same sample piece.  The surface detail was not distorted.  I think the relatively thick plastic was my ally in this adventure.

 

So...  I put on my big-boy diapers and took a sip of Jamesons... and then, I held an open flame to the inside of my model 

 

The first adjustment got me about half the way.  The second heating brought me almost home, but seemed to soften and shift the glue joint.  The joint solidified, though, so I figured this was actually an exercise in strengthening.

 

The final adjustment nudged the flattened areas into a more rounded shape and the joint, itself, back into alignment.  All the while, I was checking against the starboard side for symmetry.

 

I re-sanded the bottom edge for the shims, sanded the inside faces of the extension joints for re-enforcing strips of styrene, and Bob's your Uncle - so to speak.

 

Pics to follow.  Diaper to be exchanged for clean skivvies. I'm now in the cabernet sauvignon segue of the night.  Watching a little basketball.  All is well.  

[yancovitch]

fantastic.....congrats!...........vc

[Hubac's Historian]

Thanks Vic.  This is a relief on many levels; relief that it wasn't a catastrophic failure; relief that it solved the problem, so that it doesn't appear there was a problem to begin with; relief that I can tidy up this end and move on with the project.

 

It always would have gnawed at me, if I were forced to gerry-rig some less than ideal "fix" because I should have been paying more attention, in the first place.  I always work later in the evening, after the kids go to bed, so I guess I got a little cocky and lazy.

Edited November 17, 2017 by Hubac'sHistorian

[EJ_L]

Congratulations on a successful operation! I was worried for you on that procedure. Looking forward to the pics!

[shipmodel]

Congratulation!  Glad it came out so well for you.  Looking forward to the photos.

 

Dan

[Hubac's Historian]

I just wanted to post a few pics with the bow now in alignment.

After plumbing the stem, it became apparent to me that the angle at which the stem pieces will rejoin the hull is too acute, causing the hull halves to pinch inboard, towards the centerline.

 

I could have re-glued the stem pieces, as is, and there probably would have been enough flex to spread the stern to the necessary width, but this inevitably would have created distortions in the hull, along it's length.

 

So, I corrected the angle at the stem, and now the bow closes neatly, while leaving the stern open at a workable width.  I thought I had taken a pic of this, but alas, I did not.

 

Lastly, here's a shot of the revised bow from straight away.  You can see that I shimmed up the port side.  I'll still need to do a little addition and subtraction of the wales to reconcile one side to the other.

 

There is a crack of daylight at the joint, which disappears when placed on the kitchen countertop.  A straightedge in two directions on both the countertop and table tell me that both surfaces are flat.   Nonetheless, this discrepancy appears on the table.  Go figure!  However, because it closes neatly with light finger pressure, I have decided to leave well-enough alone, and not chase "perfection."

 

I've re-enforced the back side of the joint.  It occurs to me that the sliver of hawse hole that came in with the extension pieces is a good and reasonable re-location for the missing hawse hole.  I'll simply fill in the outboard-most hole with styrene rod and putty.  The rest is just putty, re-scribing lines and detailing.

 

Edited November 19, 2017 by Hubac'sHistorian

[Jim Rogers]

Looks perfect to me.

[Beef Wellington]

Hi, know very little about the subject matter so have been following but not commenting.  Good to see things have worked out as well as they have, well done!  You were certainly brave to tackle the bow the way that you did.  Now that I've seen what you had been intending, I wonder gluing the grey hawse hole pieces into the 'extended bow' position initially would have made the alignment of the bow extension pieces to be a little easier? -  of course theses would need a filling piece at rear in that case.

[Hubac's Historian]

That is an excellent suggestion BW, and one that I considered.  Unfortunately, though, it wouldn't have worked because of the curvature of the hull;. The aft end of the hawser insert would have stepped inboard from the outer plane of the hull, if that makes sense.  But I liked the idea for exactly the reason you mentioned.

 

Thank you, BW, for following along and weighing in.

[yancovitch]

aha!!!!!!

[EJ_L]

Well done! Like you said, a few tweaks to the wales and you will be good to go. The tiny discrepancies won't be noticeable anyway once the stem and knees are in place not to mention the bowsprit rigging. Looks like your modifications are going to work out great!

[shipmodel]

Marc - 

 

Very nice solutions to the fitting issues.  As has been said, those few slight kinks in the run of plans and wales will never be noticed behind the headrails and rigging.

Well done!

 

Dan

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you Jim, Dan and EJ, and everyone for the likes and looking in.

 

Yes, EJ, it was a little touch and go for a while, there.  But this is just one of several challenges that my approach to the model will present for me.

 

One thing that will be interesting to see is whether widening the bow effectively shortens the head rails so that the scrolled volute - tucked just behind and above the wings of the figurehead angel - drop below the level of the sprit mast.  In the stock arrangement, the scrolls flank the sprit mast and spoil the fairlead of the bowsprit running rigging.

 

I may not be able to avoid re-making the headrails, though, because if they drop too far there will be no reasonable room for the knees that are supposed to support them.  Custom headrails would incorporate a somewhat flatter arc, which would be more flattering, anyway.  If I go this route, I could still recycle the ornamental aspects of the stock headrails, thus saving considerable time and effort.  I thought that Michel Saunier created a very good shape for his headrails, and I would likely attempt something along those lines.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Hubac'sHistorian

[popeye2sea]

I think that you may have to make custom ones any way.  By changing the width of the bow you have significantly increased the length of the span between the side of the beakhead bulkhead and the stem piece at the figurehead.

 

Regards,

[Hubac's Historian]

I think that you are correct, Henry, and I've already half convinced myself to remake the headrails anyway.  In part, because while Heller (and Tanneron) model the headrails as three rails in the same vertical plane, I believe that they should more correctly follow the downward arcing plane of the supporting knees.  I haven't done any hard research on this.  For now, it is just a hunch.

[Hubac's Historian]

My hunch has to do with the way that Peter Monamy has represented the headrails in this painting:

 

 

It's subtle, but I believe this shows a more arcing plane of the three headrails, as one is accustomed to seeing in English and Dutch practice.

 

There is another painting of the Destruction of SR, attributed to the VDV studio, that shows only the bow of the ship.  The composition is a cloud of smoke and turbulent flame, without much detail, but the headrails also appear sloped, in this work.

 

As with so many things - I could be completely wrong, but it's worth investigating further.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Hubac'sHistorian

[Hubac's Historian]

And here's the Van de Velde painting:

[shipmodel]

If you trust your skill in softening the pieces, could you try to stretch them a bit?  This would lengthen them and also flatten the arc.  Does that make sense for the kit?

 

Dan

[Hubac's Historian]

It may very well make sense to do that, Dan, and I have an extra set of headrails (courtesy of Henry) with which to experiment.  Splicing in short segments may also be a possibility.  As for whether it makes sense to do any of that, I suppose it all depends upon how much stretch, or how long a splice is needed.  Anyway, there is time yet to ponder that.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Hubac'sHistorian

[Hubac's Historian]

I’ve finished reconstructing the bow, with the stem pieces glued back in place.

I’ve added in the through-bolts, the nail impressions and any other bits that had been broken off, in the process.  The first batch of through-bolts I made was too small in diameter and noticeably didn’t match the others surrounding them.  So, I scraped those away and replaced them.

I found it was necessary to insert another shim under the port side, in order to bring the wales and plank lines up, and fully in alignment with the starboard side.  After I had cut away the lower hull, I was using a long sanding block to true up the water line.  I was not yet aware, however, how quickly un-even pressure can remove plastic in areas where you don’t want to;  consequently, I oversanded the port bow by a full 1/16”.   Nothing in life is perfect, but this added shim - together with judicious additions and subtractions to the wales - are a reasonable facsimile of symmetry.

 

With a nod to Marc Yeu, aka NekO, I also filled between the lower main wales, as a forward continuation of the anchor lining.  He was quite right to point this out, and I am happier now that I have included the detail.  I was uncertain as to whether I should simply nail or through-bolt the length of this thicker planking, to match the wales it is sandwiched between.  I decided upon nails, as I had the rest of the anchor lining - only through-bolting the edges of the lining.  I don’t know whether this is actually correct, but this is an approach I have seen on a number of really excellent models.  I like the way it looks, and couldn’t find any evidence (not just pictures, but written descriptions of known practice) in my “archives” to directly refute it, so I went with it.  The added benefit of adding this strip is that it crosses and helps strengthen the extension joint.

 

For the time being, I have not trued-up the mating faces of the stem.  I will wait to do so until I am actually ready to assemble the hull halves onto their base plate.  Not surprisingly, it was again necessary to apply direct heat from a tea light candle to the port stem piece, in order to bring it back in line with the modified run of the port hull extension pieces.  The interior surface got a little melty, but a few applications of heat brought the two pieces into agreement.

The outboard-most hawse hole was filled with styrene rod, faired and any remaining discrepancies were smoothed over with Squadron white.  Drilling the new in-board hawse hole was done in stages with three bits, graduated in size.  I was a little apprehensive about doing this because the 3/8”, on center, spacing lands the hawse hole directly on the bow extension joint.  Further complicating matters is the fact that the holes aren’t drilled perpendicular to the outer surface of the hull, but at an oblique angle.

 

My solution to this was to sloooowly start the hole - with a very light touch on the drill trigger - with a 1/16” bit.  Once the bit was about a 1/16” into the plastic, I adjusted the angle of the bit and finished drilling through the hull.  The rest was easy.  I followed with a 6/64” bit, and finished the hole at 1/8”.  Again, the symmetry from port to starboard isn’t absolutely perfect (port, inboard hole is a touch higher than starboard), but it is close enough that I can live with it.

 

Although I will eventually be adding cheeks/bolsters to the lower half of the hawse holes, I did want to add back the moulded lip of the hawse hole.  After scavenging around my apartment, I found some electronics wire-ties that were the perfect gauge for recreating this moulding.  After stripping the plastic from the wire, I straightened the wire and then made three tight wraps around a 5/16” drill bit shank.

 

I lucked out, in that the wire had surprisingly decent tensile strength for such light-gauge stuff, and it held a nice tight coil.  Next, I used a single-edge carpet razor, and a light peening hammer to strike through the three loops of the coil, simultaneously, and at a slight angle to the cut.  This resulted in at least two open rings that could be teased back, and closed into a nice circular shape.  Before gluing them in place, I flattened the backs on the fine side of an emmory board, and was again surprised that the rings held their shape, despite the rough back and forth action.  I am very pleased with the result, and only the top half of the rings will be visible above the bolsters, anyway.

 

Here are a couple of shots showing the run of the bow, from overhead, as well as all of the interior bracing:

And one final shot of the port side, showing the full aspect of all of these modifications to the lower hull:

At the moment, I am debating whether to thin the bulwarks and scribe in plank lines, where the beakhead bulkhead joins the ship sides.  The kit’s stock arrangement is to glue the bulkhead plate over the edges of the upper hull/bulwarks.  This is not, however, what would have been done, in reality.

 

This detail is more visible at the stern, which is why I did so there, but much less visible at the bow.  As I’m re-building all of the decks from scratch, including this detail won’t affect anything important.  I will probably go ahead and do this because it  doesn’t take long, and not doing so will forever-after annoy me.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Hubac'sHistorian

[yancovitch]

looking forward!!.............:)

[Hubac's Historian]

Here’s a little photo essay of my most recent addition to the library.  I was first made aware of this title, earlier in the year, when Dan Pariser showed it to me.  When I first looked on Amazon, used copies were ranging anywhere from $150 - $500.  I waited a while and found this copy for just less than $100.  Aside from some light wear on the dust jacket, it is in near perfect condition.

 

This book is teeming with high resolution prints of Van de Velde ship portraits that are so much clearer than most others I have seen.  The focus is on the development of the British navy after the Restoration of Charles II.  The book features many of the important, known first snd second rate ships, but also does a good job of illuminating the smaller third through fifth rate ships.  This was the heyday of English baroque ornamentation and the design underpinnings of much of what would follow in English naval architecture, over the next 150 years.  It is such a fantastic resource, which chronicles the modification history of a number of important ships.  I can’t recommend it highly enough for gleaning the small details that make a good model great.

 

Above, the Royal Prince of 1610, much altered after her mid-century re-fit

The Prince of 1670, shown with an elaborate (perhaps painted) frieze all along her upper bulwarks

The Sovereign of the Seas as she originally appeared in 1637, and then following a significant modernization.  I prefer her re-fit appearance and believe there is enough portraiture of her, in this phase of life, to create a very good model of her.

The old James,  marvelous detail of the starboard bow.

The Royal Charles, ex Nasbey

Incredible stern detail of the Royal James

The detail of the portraits above has an almost photographic realism to it.

And one last Great Ship, but I could keep providing examples - one more amazing than the next.

 

—

In build news, I will soon have an update for SR.  I’ve been busily extricating arched gun port frames from Henry’s spare upper bulwarks, so that I may plumb the aft run of these ports on my model.  It has been a tedious process, but well worth the effort. I will photograph my first SR, and the straightened ports for the sake of comparison.

 

[EJ_L]

And another book gets added to the wish list....