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

[pirozzi]

On Mon Dec 11 2017 at 1:59 PM, Hubac'sHistorian said:

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.

 

Thanks mate,

Since I am working on Royal William now and the Prince to follow, this book will be of great value and a nice addition to my library. 

 

Vince P. 

[Hubac's Historian]

You are welcome, Vince!  I have a number of really excellent books in my collection, but this one is my most treasured because of the variety and clarity of the VDV images, and also because the historical context of each ship is wonderfully explained.

 

I like that you are doing a progression of Prince and Royal William.  There is no shortage of really great examples of both, right here on MSW.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Hubac'sHistorian

[Hubac's Historian]

Here is the lower port enhancement carved to shape, with the un-carved upper enhancement for comparison:

 

Carving styrene is interesting.   I was a little apprehensive because the black styrene of the kit is comparitively hard and difficult to scrape and work.  This white stuff cuts easily.  There’s so little material to remove, and yet it takes just as long as it does to carve wood - I think because there is so little margin for error, so consequently, every cut is measured very deliberately.  But this one was comparitively small, so the upper carving should be easier.

 

The volutes of the scrolls aren’t carved so much as suggested.

[Kevin]

WOW, what an exciting project, i have taken over the front seat to watch, and will not be providing any popcorn LOL

Edited February 28, 2018 by Kevin

[Hubac's Historian]

Welcome aboard Kevin, and thank you for taking an interest in what I am doing - albeit verrrry slooowly.  Why bother with popcorn when scotch is more fortifying 

 

Will you be bringing some of that?

 

 

Edited February 28, 2018 by Hubac'sHistorian

[Nek0]

Excellent results on this carving !! Bravo !!

 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you very much, Marc!  How goes it with your Royal Balsa - have you had much shop time, lately?  I am eager to see an update.

[Hubac's Historian]

Big score on Pinterest, this morning!  I had never seen this before today, although I recognized the vessel right away:

This is the Foudroyant of 1723, as painted by the Austrian genre painter August Mayer in 1834, and which is definitively based on the original ornamental sketch by Antoine Francoise Vasse.  The overall sense of the composition is quite faithful to the original.  It is interesting to me that this painting was done at the same time as Admiral Paris's stewardship of the Musee de la Marine, and Tanneron's work, there, as a model maker.  This is just further evidence of a resurgence of interest in the ships of the Second Marine, and a sincere effort of these men to preserve what was known about them.

 

It is interesting to me that the QGs of this Foudroyant (above, left) are quite similar to those employed on what I believe to be SR2 (below, right), which was initially intended to be the Foudroyant of 1693, but was renamed and re-decorated as SR2

 

What I really love about this Mayer painting, though, are the colors.  Although this ship is 34 years after the re-fit of SR1, the ornamental style, by Vasse, captures the best characteristics of Berain and Puget's influence.  And it is this use of red on the stern counter, and Ultra Marine blue on the tafferal that I intend to use on my version of the ship.

 

Also interesting to note that what I had previously thought might be a scrolling banner, on the lower transom of SR, as depicted by Ludolf Bakhuizen in his Battle of Barfleur, must simply be the rudder chains that you see here, on Foudroyant.  That likelihood, notwithstanding, I probably will still do an ornamental banner, below the chase ports, with "Nec Pluribus Impar" inscribed; not unequal to the illumination of many (suns).

 

 

Edited March 2, 2018 by Hubac'sHistorian

[Hubac's Historian]

My prefered carving school of technique - Praying Mantis/Tingling Fingers - has slowed my progress in recent weeks.  I’ve been experimenting with an assortment of elbow and wrist braces, in the hopes of relieving the cubital and carpal tunnel symptoms I am experiencing lately.  Wearing the wrist brace while carving, tonight, made the work more challenging, but less uncomfortable.  So, that’s an occupational work in progress.

 

But, at least now I have a castable pair of port accents, and I have satisfied my curiosity as to whether carving styrene would produce results I like.  I think that if I were carving in boxwood or pear, the lines would be a little more crisp; I carve the styrene with shaving cuts, but much of the shaping is done by scraping micro bevels that the eye reads as a domed surface.  However, you can also scrape a hard crease.  The surface just isn’t as cleanly cut as it would be with wood.  For my purposes here, though, it is more than adequate.  With paint, it will show light and shadow, and that will give the carvings shape and dimension.

 

So, next I just need to buy some casting clay and resin, and we’ll see if my next experiment works.

Edited March 5, 2018 by Hubac'sHistorian

[shipmodel]

 

Sweet work.  Fingers crossed for the castings.

 

 

[Beef Wellington]

That's some really nice carving, well done!

[Hubac's Historian]

Last week, I had a very informative correspondence with Carol Wedlake of Alumilite customer service.  When I explained to her what I had in mind - to make multiple impressions of my master in earthen clay, and then cast with Alumilite resin - she explained that the moisture in clay may react poorly with the exothermic reaction of the resin, and that I may end up with a bubbly mess that bears no resemblance to my intended carving.

 

If I wanted to go that route, she explained, I would need to use a compatable silicone release agent, in the form of a spray, but even then, my best result would adopt the surface texture of the clay.  In short, she convinced me that - while it would be nice to make as many impressions as I wanted and cast the bulk of my requirement all at once - the best results would be obtained by using Alumilite’s 2-part mould putty.  I looked at a few vids on YouTube, and sure enough nothing could be simpler!

 

I was so very close to making my first castings.  I had everything ready to go.  I mounted my masters to a small plywood block with cyano, so it was permanent;  I was committed to making these carvings work.  Then I went to Michael’s craft store - a huge one on the Upper West Side.  They had everything, the mould putty and the Alumilite white resin.  I was completely psyched.  Until I got to the register.  They wouldn’t sell me the resin because, apparently, that lot of resin was recalled for whatever reason.  I went back to the shelves and pulled every box they had left; all recalls.  I was disappointed, but I figured I’d buy the mould putty and source the resin elsewhere.  Well, that was a bust as well.  Davinci’s Art Supply on the Lower East Side did not have it, although they had a similar white resin.  For $26, though, I wasn’t taking any chances.  Nothing at Jan’s hobby either.  Tomorrow, if I have time, I may go to Davinci’s Chelsea location where I know they will have it.

 

So, just as a refresher, the ornaments I am adapting here can be found surrounding the arched main deck ports in the following closeup of Berain’s drawing:

 

 

While waiting for my next opportunity to go shopping, I got busy making a series of moulds.  Including the bow chasers, there are 30 port openings on the main deck level.  I figured that, if I make five moulds, then I can cast my whole lot in six pours.  I won’t need all of the lower port enhancements because the position of the channels sometimes interferes.  I plan to bisect these smaller, extra scrolls and place one to each side of the stern chase ports.

 

 

Mixing the mould putty was as simple as the instructions say, however, you really only have about three minutes to form your mould before the putty begins to stiffen and cure.  It was interesting to me that, despite what I thought was a thorough effort to press the master into the putty, I was still left with small air pockets toward the ends of the lower port enhancement.  Evidence of this can be found in the lower left scroll of the lower port enhancement, which diminishes with each successive mould pressing, as I perfect my technique (moulds 1,2,3 L-R):

 

 

I suppose that over-manipulation of the putty, around the carvings, before pressing down on a flat surface may introduce small air pockets.  With such a shallow ornament, it seemed better to simply press the master down into the mould putty.  I will still use the other moulds; it will just necessitate a little extra cleanup with a sharp gouge.  The final two moulds continue to show a diminishing of this air pocket, until by the fifth mould, I have a perfect pressing (moulds 3,4,5):

 

 

The other things I have been occupying myself with, when there’s nothing else I am equiped to deal with, is to begin the hateful and laborious scraping away of the kit’s original upper bulwark frieze, along with most of the thin sheer strakes:

 

I begin with a Dremel drum sanding attachment to remove most of the waste.  Then it’s onto a medium spherical burr, which is followed with a bottom cutting cylindrical burr to level the work as closely as I dare.  Following that, I double stick 150 grit paper to the bevel of an 1/8” chisel and I sand away the raised detail until there is no shadow evidence of it left.

 

There’s still more to remove;  I must clean up around the round port openings, and cut neat end stops for where the sheer strakes will remain - sourrounding sheer railings.  I will scribe back in the plank lines where they were covered by ornament before, and I will center new plank lines on the location of where the sheer strakes had previously been.

 

I’m not too concerned about the sanded texture of the plastic not matching the moulded wood grain because the new ornamental frieze will be fairly dense and this background will be painted blue.  For good measure, though, I will probably hit all exposed areas with a fairly coarse paper, like 80 grit.

 

In preparation for the newly casted port accents, I also busied myself with cutting out and attaching these small ear drops, at the top of each domed port side.  I have installed them overlong, and will scribe the top port accent to fit:

 

Now I’m off to Davinci’s in Chelsea to buy me some casting resin.  Sometime later this week, I’ll have an update with at least a few ports complete!

 

Thank you to all who stop by - your comments and your likes are always welcome here.

Edited March 13, 2018 by Hubac'sHistorian

[EJ_L]

Looking forward to seeing those castings! Are you planning on installing them on the hull prior to painting? Curious as to your thoughts as you are in a unique position in that you have the choice of doing the detail painting off the hull and then installing where as normally that tedious task of detail painting has to be done with the parts molded onto the hull making the painting more difficult.

 

If you strike out at the next hobby store, you may be able to find the resin through Michael's online. I've had luck with going that route on recalled items as the online stores often get access to the replacement product faster than the local stores.

[Hubac's Historian]

Hi EJ - well, I called Davinci Westside, in advance, and they had the resin, but man am I happy I went to that place!  We used to have a tremendous artist supply store called Pearl Paint, downtown on Canal, but remarkably that place closed down.  Davinci isn’t quite as sprawling, but they have a remarkable inventory of supplies.

 

So, I picked up the resin, and afterward, I went to look at their acrylic paints.  I wasn’t seeing anything that approximated the two shades of blue that I was after, until I got to the Holbein line.  They have a lighter Cerulean blue and a richer Cobalt Blue that look exactly like what I need.  The Yellow Ocher looks period correct, as does the Red Ochre that I intend for the stern.  And they had a very rich looking gold that might be just right.  They even offer a semi opaque wash coat that might be interesting.  I definitelty want a lightly patinated appearance to the hull sides and upper bukwarks; because it’s a diorama, I don’t want everything to look overly pristine.  Does anyone have any familiarity with that Holbein brand?  Are they good for painting over white or grey primer?

 

So, to answer your question, I will mount as much detail and carvings to raw plastic as possible.  Trying to be as careful as possible, when applying cement, I still always manage to have some squeeze out.  If everything is already painted before mounting the carvings, then you will spoil the paint, in order to scrape off the squeeze out.  Also, having everything in place before priming allows the primer to fill the most minute joints and to give the whole thing a more seamless appearance.  I used to be really good with a brush.  I’m not sure if I still have the hands for it, but as ever, I will just take my time and work it until I’m satisfied.

 

Tonight I’ll make some castings and we’ll see how that turns out!

[Hubac's Historian]

Including last night, I’m four rounds of casting into this process, but I think the first round (top row) is a total discard:

 

It’s hard to see, but there were a lot of air pockets in the volutes of the scrolls, and also at the tails of the scrolls.  After this first round, I found it helpfull to first prime the mould with resin, and then press the resin into the mould with a gloved finger.  Then, I would top off with just enough resin to get a good cure.  Lastly, I lightly drag a tooth pick into the crevices of the mould to draw out any remaining air bubbles.  You have to work quickly because the resin really does cure rapidly.  You have three minutes from the time you start mixing.  A little low heat from a blow dryer ensures a thorough cure.

 

The other good reason for discarding the first castings (left line) is that, initially, I was mixing twice the amount of resin that I really need.  That produces blanks that require a lot of wasting, just to remove the ground.

 

I found that even with the Dremel, the wasting step is a bit time consuming.  Drum sander, first, to reduce the perimeter and then roughly reduce thickness from the back of the blank.  Next, I use a cylindrical burr to get a little closer to the margins of the ornaments.  Finally, I take each blank to a board that I’ve double stuck 100 grit paper to.

 

This whole process has been trial and error for me, but that’s what learning is, I suppose.  The resin sands briskly, which is great.  My plan, however, to sand until the ground just falls away, was not so good.  The unnevenness of a single finger concentrating pressure in the center of a smaller carving, reduces the center faster and thins the carving too much in an effort to free the ends:

 

The ornament in the lower left corner is notably thinner than the others because of this.  Its bottom port corrollary was too thin to even use, so I threw it away.  I found it better to sand from the center until I just broke through between ornaments.  Then, I’d apply a little sanding pressure on each end, for a few strokes, but not breaking through.  Finally, I freed the carvings from their ground with an Exacto.  What you see above looks pretty decent, but I still had to do a significant amount of cleanup and a little re-shaping with blade and gouge.  The necessity for this varied with each port location:

 

Here, to the left, you can see the thinner top ornament.  Even though the weight of the ornament is noticeably lighter than the others, it works here because the available space for the ornament is smallest in this location.  Fortunately, this is a location above the new location for the main channel, so losing the bottom ornament didn’t matter.

 

Similarly, the aft most port cuts significantly into the wale, leaving only a small ledge for the lower port enhancement to sit on.  This is why, to the right, this lower port enhancement has been noticeably reduced. For the aft-most three ports, I found it useful to hedge a little bit and to split any overhang of the ornament between the bottom edge of the wale and the lower edge of the port frame.  I don’t think this is too noticeable.

 

On the whole - despite small variations - I am pleased with the results.  I may, yet, swap out a few ornaments for better balance, and I might extend a few ears that look a little short.  It’s more work than I anticipated, but the results justify the effort for me.

 

 

Edited March 16, 2018 by Hubac'sHistorian

[Beef Wellington]

Very nice result, well done.  As for the photo, look for a very feint greyish 'x' in the bottom corner that allows you to delete photos that have been uploaded, but not inserted.

[yancovitch]

yea yea yea!

[shipmodel]

Hi Marc - 

 

They really are repaying the efforts you put in.  Once painted they should look superb.

 

If you are still doing casting, could you just fill the impressions or maybe scrape away the excess resin above the impressions before it hardens?  Then you might have a lot less waste to remove.  I don't know how it would affect the curing process.

 

Dan

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you, guys, for your likes and comments.  And thank you, BW, for that tip on the picture - it worked!  I don’t know what I’m doing to create that problem, in the first place, but it only seems to happen when I post from my phone.

 

That’s an interesting idea about scraping away excess resin, Dan.  I think, though, that because the stuff begins to cure so rapidly, that doing so might compromise the quality of the casting.  Last night, I got a perfect cure without even the assist from a blowdryer. And the first mould was already hazing over before I topped off the last mould.  That said, it might still be worth an experiment, and I appreciate the suggestion.

 

So, I probably won’t be posting much in the coming weeks, as I continue along with these main deck port enhancements.  Following that, I will just slog through the clearing and surface prep for the new frieze ornaments.  However, before tackling the frieze, itself, I will concentrate on my cap rail enhancements.

 

While I won’t be increasing the thickness or the appearance of thickness for the upper bulwarks, I will almost double the thickness of the sheer railings, from their backsides.  I will also be adding ornamental panelling to the frame extenshions that make up the sheer railing supports.  I will add back a little height to the top most “poop royal” level of the sheer, in the form of a low, open railing, per Berain’s drawing.  This is necessary because the shortenned poop royal deck will now sit virtually flush with the reduced sheer line - which was often a real feature of period practice.  Lastly, I will carve and cast masters for the ornamental sheer cap “dolphins.”

 

Following all of that, I will build up the new ornamental frieze because I should be pretty good at this casting business, by then.  AND FOLLOWING ALL OF THAT - I will begin assembling all of this into a ship, and I’ll begin the painting, and the making of a thing that resembles my interpretation of Soleil Royal.

 

Thank you to everyone who has stuck by me from the beginning, and to those newcomers who are now following along.  This is about to get much more interesting!

[Hubac's Historian]

Well, it has been slow-going and it may not seem that much has changed, but actually quite a lot has been accomplished.

 

All of the main deck port enhancements are now in place:

 

It is interesting to me that, despite being cast from the same single master, most of the enhancements are different enough to appear as though they were individually carved.  This owes to varying finger pressure while sanding away the backgrounds, as well as the gouge and knife cleanup around the scrolls.  And, ocassionaly, specific scrolls were deliberately shortened and/or flattened to better fit the space they were going into.

 

The effect is not unpleasing to my eye.  I, however, will strive for better uniformity for the cast pieces that make up the frieze ornaments; because these pieces are much smaller, any variations in their size and profile will be much more evident.

 

Here is a closeup of the area surrounding my new chesstree.  This illustrates how the chesstree and skids, which serve a functional purpose, take precedence over the purely ornamental port enhancements; in accomodation of these functional elements, the ornamental scrolls have been shortenned, where necessary.  I can only imagine that this must have been what was done, for all practical purposes, on the real ship.

 

 

In the following shots, you can see how the port stern quarter, upper bulwark has been scraped clean of the stock bulwark frieze.  All that remains are the necessary sheer strakes that frame the caprails and the basic, round ports of the quarter and poop decks.  I now have a clean canvas for building up the new frieze and adding in the round port enhancements.

 

One detail that I found necessary to include were plank lines in place of where the standard sheer strakes had been.  To do this, I took centers between the two existing plank lines and engraved a new plank line between them (work in process).  

 

I was able to use curves, for the aft-most 3”, or so, but the rest had to be cut by hand and eye.  As the existing plank lines are, themselves, a little wobbly and less than fair, my new lines reflect those irregularities.  I have tried, though, to minimize that as much as possible.  In the end, though, these imperfections will be mostly concealed under the lattice of the new frieze.  It will only matter that plank lines are represented.

 

Lastly, I’ve cleaned up the cap rails by removing the tree sprues and all traces of the pins, which will eventually be re-centered on the soon to be thicker caprails, with something better and stronger.

 

The inside faces of the bulwarks are also now scrubbed clean of any remaining evidence of the injection moulding process.  This is a step that is often ignored on this kit, but shouldn’t be.  In Maslow’s Lower-archy of tedium, this task is actually not as horrible as many others on this build - like, say, assembling all of those gun carriages.

 

As a side note, I discovered that the starboard upper bulwark assembly is a good 1/8” longer than port.  This is a bit of a mystery to me, as the lower hull was extended by the same 3/8”, and the upper bulwarks were indexed on the lower hull, according to the location of the mid-ships gangway ladder.  The pieces should have just lined up with the ports in their correct place, but in fact, they did not.  I had to shift the starboard stern bulwark forward by 1/16” just so that the ladder would align. this adjustment accounts, in part, for why the starboard upper bulwark extension appears longer than 3/8”.  When I put the lower hull halves up to each other, I could see that the starboard lower hull is 1/16” longer than port.  I suppose this is all reflective of the 1970s handwork involved in creating the kit, in the first place.  They weren’t using computers, back then, to design the model.  Anyway, these differences shouldn’t be apparent in the finished model.

 

So, I’ll just keep on keeping-on, and I’ll repeat that process for the other three upper bulwark pieces.  Fortunately, the forward pieces, that include the forecastle, do not have much surface area that needs to be scrubbed.

[shipmodel]

Very nice work, Marc - 

 

The port decorations came out even better than I thought they would.  With a coat of primer many of those differences will be minimized, and I am sure that an integral whole appearance will arise from the disparate colors and textures that you have now.  Looking forward to seeing her grow.

 

Dan

[yancovitch]

gads, you must have a super scrapping technique to make it look so even.....looks super...............

[Hubac's Historian]

Hi Dan and Vic!  Yes, thank you for the kind words.

 

Vic, the scraping is a process: Dremel round burr, Dremel bottom cutting straight bit, scraping with chisels and knives, and finally, smoothing with the coarse side of an emory board.  The most time consuming aspect is cutting away waste around the borders of what’s staying.  

 

This old plastic is, for lack of a better word, chewy and tough to work with knives.

 

As always, thanks for looking in!

Edited April 12, 2018 by Hubac'sHistorian

[EJ_L]

The port enhancements do look fantastic! I was always told that one of the best ways to know that something was handmade and not mass produced on a machine was imperfections. Maybe they just told me that to not hurt my feelings about shoddy work... In any event, as it has been stated, those tiny differences will soon fade into the background as more and more of the ship comes together.

 

As to the misalignment mystery, I wonder if something as simple as the the thicknesses of the removed materials caused a tiny misalignment? When we are working in such a small scale and we cut 1/32" & 1/64" or smaller still of material off and sand and file even the tiniest of fractions start to add up. Combine that to the various curves that are represented on a ship and that trimming an arc and keeping it aligned is far more difficult than trimming the same amount on a square item, it would not take much to throw off an alignment by the amount you are seeing. Or it could just be a bad molding from the factory 40 years ago...

 

In any event, she is looking good and your hard work is paying off with each installment!  

[Hubac's Historian]

I can’t complain too much or too loudly, since I’m the fool who chose to do this, but the upper bulwarks are finally all clear of the stock ornamental frieze, all sprues and flash have been scraped away, all unnatural depressions have been filled, and all continuations of plank lines have been scribed into the stern extensions:

 

It was incredibly tedious, but the effort will soon pay off.  Next, I decided to thicken the cap rail by a heavy 1/32”, in order to give the rails better scale.  As they are, they only scale up to about 6-7”, without including the rounded exterior moulding.  With my addition, they now scale up to around 10 or 11”, which is more appropriate for a ship this size.  Remember that the model will be 1/2” wider down its entire length, so the extra scale, here, helps:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a fair amount of detailing yet to do on the exterior faces of the exposed timberheads, and I still have to complete the rail thicknessing on the aft bulwarks.  Little by little, though, it is getting there.

 

[mtaylor]

Marc,

All this "extra" work is about to pay it's dividend when you start putting it together.  What's been done is just fantastic.

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you, so much Mark!  This is a weird “build” for anyone following along, I realize, because I haven’t put anything together yet.  On the other hand, I have completely transformed the kit in such a way that it will seem like a totally different model.  Recognizeable, but different.

 

E.J. asked me not too long ago whether I would start painting before or after the assembly begins.  At first, I thought I would get the basic hull together on it’s flat base and begin framing the new stern up to the counter before I started painting.

 

I have been thinking, lately, that the model is just too large and awkward to manipulate for painting.  My hands aren’t what they used to be and this cubital tunnel syndrome is wreaking havock with my damn elbows.  So, I will paint the lower and upper hull sections before assembly - as I would customarily do in my younger days, anyway - and just mask or scrape paint away for assembly.  All of that means more delay in assembly, but the results will be worth it.

 

The paint scheme I have been ruminating over for months now, will also be quite a bit different from the way that people are accustomed to thinking of this kit, and of Soleil Royal, in general.  It will all be grounded in historically feasible colors, but I am making specific use of ultramarine blue and red ochre to accentuate the ornamental topsides; I’ll be going to a hell of a lot of trouble to create this ornamental frieze, so I really want it to pop!

 

My hope is that even those who are not so enamored with the Heller kit will appreciate where I’m taking it, once they can really see it come together.  I apologise to any of you who are frustrated by the pace of this project, but I will reward you if you stick around.  I promise you that.

 

As always, Mark,  and to everyone else -  thank you for checking in, reading along, and for your insights, likes and encouragement!  It is all very much appreciated.

Edited April 29, 2018 by Hubac'sHistorian

[EJ_L]

Excellent work on those interior faces. That is one side of a model that often gets overlooked in the early prep stages and then tends to stand out later when those bad spots appear. That extra effort will be worth it especially on a model that you are trying to attract attention to the tiny details.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing how the paint comes out on her. I like the way you are approaching it and while I am not doing it on my own, I think your plans are realistically founded. With the learning of Victory's coloring being a far more muted color than the traditional "bumble bee" scheme that we are used to, I have begun to shift a lot of my thinking to a similar scheme on other vessels. It would make a lot of sense as paint was and is expensive especially in vibrant colors. Add to that the huge costs of maintaining that paint job during a ships service and I could easily see how the field and largest of areas would have been painted with cheaper colors reserving the expensive coloring for areas deemed most important. I hope one day we can learn the truth!

[Hubac's Historian]

The truth, or whatever remains of it, is buried under a parking lot at Cherbourg.  In all liklihood, though, nothing remains of Soleil Royal, above the waterline, after her burning.

 

I appreciate your thoughts EJ.  I believe these capital ships were vividly painted for their day, but those colors would mostly seem muted by today’s standards.  That said, my primary blue - while much lighter than the ultra-marine (used more sparingly) - will still be a pretty vivid color, in itself.  It will contrast nicely with the yellow ochre and the gold ornaments.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Hubac'sHistorian

[Hubac's Historian]

Caprail thicknessing complete.  Next, I will carve left and right masters for the hancing-piece dolphins.

 

I’ll need 8 pairs for each step in the sheer, including the forecastle.

 

The styrene is 3/64”, so the assembled ornament will be a little thinner than the now thickened cap rails.

 

Same process as before - carving, making moulds and castings, etc.

 

Edited May 26, 2018 by Hubac's Historian