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

[Hubac's Historian]

Main deck engraving is complete.  With the way the plank lines faired out, the extra port plank really won’t be noticeable at all because the narrowed ends will be covered over by the quarter and f’ocsle decks:

What I really enjoyed about this particular scratch-built portion of the project is that arriving at a deck layout requires you to think like a shipwright.  Although I may not be laying planks individually, my shift pattern still has to make sense.

 

As will increasingly become the case, I took my cues from Lemineur’s St. Philippe, and I arranged for two belts of five planks each; five between the coamings and the binding strakes, and five from the binding strakes to the bulwarks.

 

The coamings and binding strakes consist of scarfed planks of 30’ scale feet, and the regular plank is scaled to lengths of 24’.  Please note that the coamings are not yet in place because they will be applied a few steps from now.  My objective was to stagger the scarf joints, among the coamings and binding strakes, so that no two scarfs landed on the same beam.

 

I then chose to go with a three-plank shift of butts for the regular planking.  That worked out neatly because the pattern repeats on the fifth plank.  The deck is still messy with graphite, and the engraved butts may not be so easily apparent, but they are indicated by hash marks:

My objective with the regular planking was to not have a plank butt land right next to a scarf butt.   I began with the port side and this was not an issue.

 

Then, I laid out the starboard side. I checked and re-checked the shift pattern to make sure it was correct.  To note:  the second belt of five planks was layed-out so that the first plank was the continuation from the fifth plank of the first belt.

 

All seemed well, until I started engraving butts, from fore to aft.  That’s when I noticed this problem (circled):

While this layout error did not occur on the port side, it seemed to me that I couldn’t leave this mistake.  I decided to shift that one butt - that lands in the same place at every binding strake scarf - one beam forward.  I’ll fill this first one with putty, but you can see that I already engraved the corrected butt, to the right.

 

While this disrupts my shift pattern, ever so slightly, only the most astute rivet-counter would ever notice.  On the other hand, a plank butt directly adjacent to a scarf butt would jump out at anyone looking with moderate intensity.  Perhaps the wiser layout would have been to mirror one whole side to the other, but what’s done is done.  It’s a correction that I can live with.

 

Next, I’ll sand the deck with 50 grit paper.  I think that my earlier deck samples could have been improved if the texturing of the deck had been more aggressive; the deeper scratches will catch more of the Van Dyke Brown, and grey distress wash.

 

Following the sanding, I will build up the coamings, gratings and main mast plate.  Lastly, I will drill the deck for trunnel impressions, and then mount the knight heads before painting.

 

Happy Fathers’ Day to all!

[mtaylor]

If you haven't found a planking fan, here's one.  I hope it helps.plankingfan.pdf

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you, Mark!  This is a simple to use, but wonderful tool 😀

[Hubac's Historian]

Work on the main deck continues:

The gratings required a little extra attention to get them to lay in an even plane.

 

The main mast plate finally secured the mast, perpendicular to the keel, but the extra thickness of the plate and coamings necessitated a little inletting of the deck furniture:

Next, I will drill all of the nailing impressions, and then I will paint the deck.

 

Work on the forward MerAngels is proceeding nicely:

 

Thank you to everyone for your likes, your comments and for looking in. 

[Bill Morrison]

Marc,

 

I am impressed by your carvings, but I am more so with your main deck.  You handled the gratings extremely well!

 

Bill

[yancovitch]

super!!

[popeye2sea]

Coamings look great!

 

Regards,

[druxey]

Great gratings - or is that grate greatings? Either way, they are really nice, as is the deck.

[Hubac's Historian]

Either way, your compliments do not grate on me 🙃🙂

[Hubac's Historian]

Steady progress:

One of the things that anatomy forces you to learn are ways in which to introduce the soft hollows of a body, with whatever tool can get into tight spaces.  In the area of the belly and hips, I don’t have a gouge that’s small enough to get in, close to the side of the body, without the arm getting in the way.

 

What I use is the hooked knife to scrape hollows on a bias, according to the same principle of cutting a cove moulding on a table saw, by running a fence at an angle to the blade.  The scraping motion, at an angle, gently introduces a hollow that, in this case, defines a fleshy love handle. Each scrape removes just a little material at a time, and eventually you arrive at where you want to be.

 

One other thing I’d like to mention is the undercutting of the upper thigh.  I could simply define the lap line, where one thigh rests against the other.  This would look okay.  However, the pose of the figure suggests that the outer thigh overhangs the other leg.

 

What I like to do here, to suggest this, is that after I have first defined that meeting line - the line that delineates the shape and proportion of each thigh - I come back with sharply angled scrapes that undercut the outer thigh.  I use the sharply beveled tip of the EXACTO to do this.  The accentuated shadow line creates a false sense of depth in what is a very shallow carving.

 

While I wait for my #80 drill bits to arrive, I have made and fit the fore and aft sections of the main deck. Unlike the middle deck, where I had to make mast plates to fix the plumb and rake of each mast - I now had a reliable reference to measure the exact centerline of the fore and mizzen masts; I could measure directly from the fore and aft edges of the main deck center section to the center of each mast.  The masts are all in alignment, now, and the slight bow of the mizzen will eventually be corrected by the stays and shrouds.

 

I have also decided to re-enforce the main deck hatch openings with carlings that are scribed to the longitudinal curvature of the deck.  The styrene I’m using for the decks is a bit thinner than what the stock kit provides, and is not as rigid.  It is my pathology to overbuild the whole thing, so, here you go:

I enjoy the exercise of scribing and fitting these curved parts because it is good practice for when I eventually transition to wooden builds.

 

Thank you for looking in.  More to follow...

[md1400cs]

Just catching up - really getting there - Nice

[shipman]

Such a pleasure to follow work of this quality. The figure carvings: are they styrene? If they are. I'm amazed. I'm amazed, period!

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you very much, Shipman!  The figures are carved from styrene, but don’t be too amazed; carving styrene is analogous to carving soap, for beginners.  Carving these figures in wood would be a whole ‘nother story!  Alternating grain makes carving wood much more finicky.

[yancovitch]

and i guess, boxwood would have a very fine grain, but very hard......lots of sharpening...

[Bill Morrison]

Marc,

 

I am simply blown away every time I see your progress!

 

Bill

[druxey]

Love the love handle!

[Louie da fly]

2 hours ago, Hubac's Historian said:

The figures are carved from styrene, but don’t be too amazed; carving styrene is analogous to carving soap, for beginners.  Carving these figures in wood would be a whole ‘nother story!  Alternating grain makes carving wood much more finicky.

Damn! Why didn't I think of styrene?

 

Very nice carvings, mate. I like your technique. I always start with the face for the reasons described on the previous page, but if this works for you (and it obviously does) go for it! And I've found as one gets more experience, the faces get better and better. 

[shipmodel]

Hi Marc -

 

Your carvings are getting better and better.  Sweet!

 

I saw that you are puzzling over the way the mermaid's thighs fit against each other.

Do mermaids have thighs or do the legs fuse at the hip level?

 

Dan

[Hubac's Historian]

Thank you very much, guys, for your kind compliments.

 

It isn’t so much that Mermaids have legs above the knee, but that Berain was maybe suggesting musculature.  Here is what Berain drew, originally:

Now, if you compare that with this Nat Geo photo of Daryl Hannah in the wild, I think we can agree that Berain was on to something:

[shipmodel]

Can't go wrong with Daryl - - -

If I say she has a beautiful body, will she hold it against me?

 

Dan

[Hubac's Historian]

If she does, Dan, I’ll vouch for your character.

 

Wouldn’t it be kind of hilarious, if Daryl Hannah were doing a Google search of her name, and landed on this page?

 

Daryl, if you’re out there reading this - we still love you!

[Hubac's Historian]

Just a quick update:

 

In all likelihood, I will cut away the smaller, inside wings because they interfere with my aft octagonal ports.  However, until the amortisement is made and I can see the actual relationships of all these parts, I wanted to keep all options open.

 

Tomorrow I will start the heads, but my own head is growing weary and my neck is getting sore, after sitting hunched over these gals all day.  I tend to start making mistakes when I push through.

 

A few of those mistakes, I’ll be filling-in with BONDO, this evening, as I prepare the main deck for painting and priming; some of my nail impressions were poorly placed, and/or ill-conceived.

 

I’m excited to get back to a little painting, though.  In addition to the Windsor and Newton Van Dyke Brown, I will experiment with a lightish grey Windsor and Newton oil shade, that will be applied and wiped streakily before a blanket application of the brown.

 

The deck is coarsely sanded, so it should pick up these colors nicely.

[yancovitch]

gorgeous!!

[ClipperFan]

Hubac's Historian

In the interest of your excellent pursuit of historical accuracy, I'm sharing this alternate observation of your "MerAngels". I respectfully submit that it appears they are actually "Fairies" with an Butterfly Wings and peacock eyes at their tips. They have full human legs, with knees. Her lower leg tucks neatly behind what appears to be a very sizable fish with an open mouth and two eyes drawn in a three dimensional fashion. I've included a rough sketch to illustrate this difference between the lady and fish. The diamond shape at the lower leg is the open mouth of the fish, there do not appear to be fins, it looks more like oak leaves at the base of the fish. Her right arm appears to be reaching up to hold the Crown but the image is too blurry to make out more than that. 

[druxey]

It's frustrating when the image is unclear and could be interpreted any number of ways. At least, no-one can say that you are wrong!

[ClipperFan]

druxey so true. I just am in such awe of  talent and in depth research being done by Hubac's Historian. It never occured to me to notice that the 5 window width of the Heller model is in complete disagreement with the wider 6 windows of Berain's gorgeous illustration.

[ClipperFan]

Here's a more clear image of the same Quarter Gallery illustration. The Fairy on the left side is coming out from behind the roof, her left hand supports the Crown. It's anatomically impossible for the lower fish to be her. It's actually another fish, possibly a dolphin, you can see two eyes but the mouth is hidden by what appears to be sea leaves. Now it's more clear that the lady on the right is a full human form with butterfly wings, her right arm, foreshortened also supports the Crown.

[Hubac's Historian]

It is very easy to become myopic on a project like this, and so it is refreshing to see something new through another person’s eyes.

 

ClipperFan, your interpretation of the Pixie/Mermaid figures is really interesting to me for a number of reasons.  Mermaids challenge one to wonder why they’d be included in the ornamental program, in the first place.  My best and honest guess was that they were sort of visual companions to the lonely, conscripted crew, whom would be obligated to spend long periods of time away from the actual women in their lives.  In the folklore of the sea, though, Syrens always seem to lead hapless sailors to their untimely end.

 

On the other hand, Pixies offer an alternative rationale as figurative guardians of the ship.  It is interesting to note that Berain’s drawing of the head includes a third Pixie-like figure, just aft of the headrails.  She has fully formed human legs:

Another Pixie rides the hippocampus figurehead.  And so, from stem to stern, their magic spell would shield the ship and her crew from undue harm.

 

With specific regard to the stern figures, though, I just really like the playfulness of your idea, where dolphins have swallowed the Pixie’s lower legs, thus adapting them to their aquatic task.  With this interpretation, there is also a nice interplay with the four dolphin figures on the main deck level of the amortisement.

 

Your idea speaks to the duality of these ships that I have always found so fascinating, and that is that these truly terrifying machines of war were ornamented so impressively, and with the greatest artistic sensitivity to their times.

 

I am also really impressed, ClipperFan, with the apparent ease and naturalness of your own quick sketch.  Drawing anything is something that I really have to labor over, in order to capture the essence of the thing.  You appear to have a real talent for it!

 

Perhaps, down the road, I could hire you to help me visualize, in 3D, the ornamental program of SR 1670 - my so-called Gilded Ghost.

 

While even now, I can see pretty clearly in my mind’s eye, what the basic shape and parameters of that project need to be - to capture a sense of the ornamental style of the early 1670s is a tall order!  The project essentially amounts to combining the substance of LeBrun’s conception of the allegory, in the artistic style of Puget, and supported by appropriate ornamental embellishments of the time.

 

I am also wondering whether you are an L.A. Clippers fan, in addition to being a fan of clipper ships.

[Hubac's Historian]

As a side note, one of the vexing incongruities of the bow and quarter drawings is that the bellflower garland does not run continuously from stem to stern, all on one level.

 

In the quarter drawing, the Pixies are holding the garland, but it terminates, at the quarter deck level, into the roof of the amortisment.

 

The bow Pixie has a garland in each hand, and the drawing suggests that swags of bellflower garland will run continuously, the whole length of the ship, between the round main deck ports.  From the bow Pixie’s forward hand, the garland even runs through the middle headrail to the hippocampus Pixie.  Yet, the garland is  conspicuously absent in-between the round ports of the quarter drawing.

 

As I have noted elsewhere, though, Berain’s drawings often have strange incongruities from one view to the next.  Much as I imagine the original sculptors had to do, modeling this ship is an exercise in interpretation.

[druxey]

Certainly a strange tail fin that looks more like an acanthus leaf on the aft supporting figure to the crown!