Le Soleil Royal by EJ_L - FINISHED - Sergal - Scale 1:77 - 1669 Version

[Hubac's Historian]

That ultra-marine looks right on to me, EJ!  Fantastic progress.  Bolting the wales will be well worth the effort, so I encourage you to go for it.  Mr. John Jameson has been my reliable right-hand-man, lately, so go ahead and partner-up!

[yancovitch]

and i still love the color of the wood

[Baker]

Might have a drink or two before those bolts though...

 

Well done and enjoy your drinks 

[md1400cs]

On 11/11/2017 at 8:10 AM, EJ_L said:

Michael, I do plan on attempting sails on this one. You build has inspired me to just go for it. I've never done cloth sails before so it will be a huge learning experience but, I need to start sometime! I will be referring back to your build a lot I'm sure and not only for the sails.

E.J. Glad to hear you will go for the sails - frustrations will certainly increase so stay within viewing distance of that bottle with a pirate on the label (or much better - of course)  

That said - its a super personal learning accomplishment once done (for first timers). And as some builders have noted - for them - a necessary part of any build.

 

Mid-way through I regretted having started the sails - then I took some deep breaths and decided to really challenge the task - then it became a great part of the project.

PS: I had huge help with the stitching !!! That might have been a deal breaker for me had I not been able to farm out that so important bit to a professional. So I'm only really responsible for measuring, un-bleaching, cutting and rigging.

 

I'm touched that you will find some helpful bits for the sails in my log - as I had from other builder's who also added sails to their ships.

Look forward to your progress.

 

Cheers,

 

[testazyk]

Looking really good!  You've convinced me to go with a darker blue on my build too--definitely more "Royale!"

 

[EJ_L]

A few more updates. Finished up the planking on the starboard side and have started planking the interior. I am delaying some on the wale thru bolts as I have a couple of ideas for materials but I need to make a trip to the hobby store and have not had the time to go this weekend. I'm gonna try to get down there this weekend as I would like to have them ready for my 4 day holiday weekend coming up. I have also started to build the canon carriages as those will need to install before to much longer so the decks can continue upward.

 

I have also started the process of figuring out how to close in the stern. I'm hoping to still be able to use the laser cut window frames though I know that I will still have to make some from scratch as the kit only provided enough for the 5 window layout and I am switching to a 6. Havn't done much on this yet, mostly just looking at example pictures and taking measurements but it is in the works.

 

As always, thanks for looking in!

[ca.shipwright]

E J,

Beautiful hull. You must have an extraordinary steady hand.

 

Regards

[EJ_L]

Building gun carriages. I decided to make new carriages out of a bunch of scrap walnut pieces I had lying around over the kits laser cut ones. I will still use the laser ones in areas that won’t be seen but for the exposed guns I wanted something that looks better. Unfortunately I now have to cut out each side individually but I think it will be worth the effort. 

[donrobinson]

You could glue two or more pieces together, cut them to shape and then soak them in the appropriate liquid for your glue to separate them. Should speed things up a little. 

[popeye the sailor]

looks great E.J.   very nice color and tone   

[EJ_L]

Thank you Don and Denis and to all the likes!

 

Don, I was thinking about something similar but instead of glue, I was thinking of double sided tape. My vise keeps the pieces from separating but the tape would maintain the alignment better. In all reality it is not that slow of a process now that I have done a few and gotten a rhythm going. Still, never hurts to find way to speed up mass production!

[yancovitch]

haha....i'm the epitome of laziness...............i just get a long block of wood, cut the shape by running it across a little table saw, lightly sand, then slice off the pieces with a fine tooth band saw....end up having to sand the sides a bit, but that's easy.......

[EJ_L]

That is still a possibility. I had started to use the strips that I had in the room with me. This morning while at work I began to think that I do have a bunch of larger blocks of wood out in the shop that could simplify the process by doing exactly that. We shall see what happens.

[yancovitch]

just have to decide  on  the grain of the wood

[Sjors]

Wow, that looks great!

You should be proud what you have done so far!

At least, i will 😁

 

Sjors

[Old Collingwood]

Same comments as Sjors   - great work.

 

OC.

[EJ_L]

First group of cannons have been built. I won’t be installing them for a while yet but it is good to have them built and ready to go. I do still have to make 18 more for this deck but those are the mock up ones so they will go much faster. 

 

Now Im going to start working on the thru bolts for the wales. Pictures of that to follow. 

[EJ_L]

The thru bolting has started!! I’m using HO scale track nails to simulate the bolts. Predrill the holes and hammer in the nails and it seems to be working well so far. 

[EJ_L]

More bolts..... 

[yancovitch]

looks impressive......

[EJ_L]

First 500 bolts in place. About a third of the way done now. I’m going to have to go get more soon. I still have another pack of 500 so good to go for a little while yet. Have to wait for the hobby store to get more in stock. 

[Elijah]

The bolts look very nice E.J! Can't wait for more photos! 

[Hubac's Historian]

I’m glad to see you went this route, with the through bolts and carriage bolts, EJ.  They are nice details that add so much to the finished model.

[popeye the sailor]

really nice progress EJ.....I can agree that they are added detail.  be careful though in places that can be seen,   along the bulwarks for any poking through.   you wouldn't want to be known as EJ the impaler.  

[EJ_L]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments and likes! This sure is a tedious process but I think it is worth it looking at the end result.

 

As for impaling my sailors, so far so good! I did not have to worry too much about it on the lower hull as it is all dummy space anyway with nothing inside to see. As I climb upward though I will have to trim down the nails so they don't come through. The seas were hazardous enough without a sadistic ship builder adding to the dangers.

 

When I go back to the store to get more nails I am going to have to buy more drill bits also. I've snapped two of them already and am on my last one before I get too big for the nail to still have any wood to hold onto. I could go smaller but I have to be careful that way that it does not get too tight to split the wood. Fortunately they are cheap enough to buy but I wish the store sold them individually so I did not have to buy a whole index. 

[popeye the sailor]

I got a pleasant surprise last week........I visited a Harbor Freight tool store.   not that I needed any tools,  but I hadn't checked it out since it opened.   I ended up buying a torx bit set.....and a mini drill index that goes from 3 mm all the way down to 0.5 mm.   it has five each of the 0.5,  0.6, and 0.8 mm.......3 of the 1.0 mm...

.....and 2 of the 1.2,  1.5,  1.8, 2.0,  2.35,  and 3.0 mm.   if you have a store like this near you,  might be worth checking it out   

[Ulises Victoria]

Popeye, it doesn't matter if you don't "need" any tool. Once you enter one of such stores, you automatically start "needing" things. 

[EJ_L]

I do have a Harbor Freight in town. May have to go check it out and see what I can find. I just realized how scary that statement will sound to the Admiral. May have to phrase that differently if I want to take the good ship Visa with me....

[popeye the sailor]

don't I know it Ulises....I'm a mechanic by trade....errr..technician {I say that with my pinky raised}.   oh.......if I only had a REAL garage!.....all I got is this dinky little one.  I bought a 1/2 impact w/2" elongated anvil       .....impact sockets...

 

they have clamps too.......saw a few other tools as well.   spent about $400.00 in there the other day for Christmas   none of it for me!   

[Slowhand]

Looks interesting the first time I’ve seen thru bolts displayed on the wales, were they common place on 17th century ships? cause they might solve a problem I have on my build of the San Martin.