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

[testazyk]

Hi EJ--Looking good!  I had a next steps question for you.  When you did the upper quarter gallery it looks like you planked over the vertical frames to create the raised surface for the carving.  I'm just getting to that step and I'm wondering, based on your experience, would you do it that way again, or would you carve a piece of wood to create the shape instead?  And what are you planning to do for the lower section which also requires a raised section?   Just wondering thanks!

 

Thanks!

 

Tom

 

 

[EJ_L]

A couple more details on the balcony railing. Yes, I need to touch up the paint.

Edited March 31, 2018 by EJ_L

[EJ_L]

Thank you all for the comments, likes and stopping by.

 

Michael, I am glad I decided to try carving also. It slows the build down a lot but, in the end it is worth it. I wish I would have maybe started on a smaller ship with a few less carvings but, with ship modeling, I have never been one to start off small. You should give it a go. The relief style carvings that I have been doing so far really are not too bad. I'm currently much more worried about doing the full figured carvings. Those are still intimidating to me. One thing I would highly recommend is to spend the money on good carving wood. Box wood or a fruit wood like apple or pear. Maple is good too if you can find some clean pieces with little to no grain. I've been using bass wood for a lot of mine, and while it is working good for what I have done and is great for learning, it is very soft, can split easy and doesn't take tiny details well. When I make my next wood purchase I want to invest in some pieces for better carvings. 

 

Popeye, I'm looking forward to having those columns in. Their building is fast approaching and I am hoping with their install they will shore up the upper balcony and keep the spacing between the two more consistently even.

 

Tom, I do not know if I have a simple answer for you. I like to try to plank where planking should be instead of using solid blocks. Partially for appearance, though that can be easily fixed with scribing the planks onto the solid wood but, mostly it is sheer stubbornness on my part to see if I can do it. This one quickly became a victim of not fully planning. Originally, I had planned on having the window opened into the cabin space. However, I forgot about it during early construction and by the time I was framing and getting ready to place the window, it dawned on me that I never located and cut the bulkheads to the interior. I debated over a glass of rum and decided that those would become dummy windows instead of real ones. I decided to still see if I could plank over the framing as that was still an unknown but would have been more important in I was building a working window. So that is what I did. Would I go that route again? If I was going to put in the actual window I would. It was not really that hard. Otherwise a solid block shaped to fit would be just fine and much easier. As for the lower piece, I'm still working it out. I think for it, I will probably use a solid filler piece and plank over that.

 

 

 

[testazyk]

Thanks EJ--Appreciate your thoughts.  

[md1400cs]

E.J,

 

Looking excellent, even though you are building your skills at this point. You are improving with each build - very apparent indeed. LRS is NOT an easy build.

Arguably along with the SOS and the Victory - may be the most complicated builds given the huge amount of needed details. I won't even mention the rigging or sails as you are intending to also explore....I salute you sir 

 

All of your comments regarding woods - noted - thanks for the future advice. Yes this part of the hobby I need experiment with - along with soldering -metal bits

now that would be a real reach for me haha. Very much enjoying following along your RS

 

Oh - it's 7:00 pm time for Dodger baseball so long (needed to add that haha....)

 

Cheers, 

[EJ_L]

10 more fleur-de-lis have been added around the balcony railing. Next up are the support columns between the balconies. 

 

[popeye the sailor]

looks great!.......very well done!   

[EJ_L]

Thank you all for he comments and likes! 

 

It it has been slow going this past week just due to the nature of the work. I’ve been carving the support columns between the balconies. This has been largely guess work as to appearance partly from fuzzy images and partly because of my skill set.   Regardless of both of those issues, I have turned out the first four columns! I’m still having a hard time with facial features though a lot of that is the fact that the face area on the two center posts are only 4mm x 4mm so there is not a lot of room to work. 

 

Lessons for the future continue to add up which is good. In addition to buying better quality wood for the carvings, I need to expirament with different paints. The acrylics I am currently using, especially the gold, tend to be too heavy and thick for the tiny detail work needed. Using thinner paint though tends to bleed through the porous woods that I have been using to carve. Going to have to play around with some different options to see what I like best. Especially for the day when I attempt the Vasa. (It’s on the list but still a couple of builds away ) 

 

I think if I decide to build her again in the future (likely) I will possibly try to only use natural wood colors and only have paint as accent colors and then only on a few things I really want highlighted. Won’t be color accurate but I am a big fan of how the natural wood looks and I have seen some very impressive models done that way. 

 

Okay, enough of that, here are a few pictures! 

[popeye the sailor]

they came out well......yepper....tough carving to be sure     the stern is looking better and better!   the two end ones look especially nice.......jee,  if you did all four like that,  it would have looked just as good {just an observation}.   it's not a crazy though either.......there are many models I've done in the past, that I wouldn't mind doing again.   I'm hoping to start one in the near future.

[EJ_L]

I was originally going to make all 4 posts the same but looking at the Berain drawing, (no my design does not completely follow his) he has the 2 balcony supports with busts carved on them. Wanting to more or less see what I could even accomplish I decided to make these 2 posts attempt to resemble what he shows. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about the end results. I am letting them sit in place for a while and see what the response is from both my fellow builders and my own reactions. The nice thing about these pieces unlike so many others is that I can easily pop them out and replace with something else later if I change my mind.

[Baker]

55 minutes ago, EJ_L said:

and see what the response is from both my fellow builders

Nice and beautiful carvings EJ

The faces seem to me rather frightening "scary" in the white color. 

May they be painted in the gold color. like the rest of the carvings.

(sorry for my google english)

 

[EJ_L]

Patrick, I understand you perfectly.   The faces are kinda scary I agree. I meant to paint them a more fleshy tan color but the paint I had intended to use was dried up. i think the scary factor should lessen once they look a little more alive!

[Hubac's Historian]

Your choice to add two additional pillars to the outermost corners is a good one, I think, because for all practical purposes, the ends of the stern balcony would need support.

 

I think that the reason you only see two pillars in Berain’s drawing is that the stern balcony on this quarter deck level was not intended to extend all the way out to the quarter pieces, at the ship’s sides;  as it’s drawn, this balcony only appears to span the central two of the six stern windows.

 

The kit representation of a wider balcony with only minimal support is a common divergence that is found in the Heller kit, as well.  Whether or not the quarter deck balcony extended out to the ships sides is certainly debatable, but providing extra support there is sensible.

 

I am still searching for a location for the following painting of SR st the battle of Barfleur.  Extrapolating from the known size of the painting (4’x8’), it seems that the portion of the painting occupied by SR is about 1’ fore and aft, by 2’ tall.  If I could just get a clear closeup of the ship, I think many of these questions about the arrangement of her stern could be reasonably put to rest:

 

 

Given the connection to the Van de Velde studio, this work has more credibility than most representations of the ship.  I recently put these images on my Pinterest Page, milk carton style, to see whether anyone out there in the interepace knows the whereabouts of the painting.  Maybe the internet will come to the rescue!

 

What interests me most about this painting is that the main deck (middle balcony) supports of “Winter” and “Fall” appear to be closer to the outer corners of the main deck stern balcony than drawn by Berain.  Again, for practical purposes of support, this makes sense , but it would be a significant divergence from the generally accepted design of the stern.  All debatable.  All interesting in my view.

[md1400cs]

E.J

 

Regarding the gold paint. Have of thought of instead using gold foil? This is available at Blick's Art supplies. 

 

[EJ_L]

Yes, I am having to add in some additional supports due to the extra balcony space not shown on the Berain drawings. The nice part of that is I get a little more creative freedom in the design.

 

To be honest, I am starting to have that bug in my mind that I am not going to be happy building the balconies and QGs open in the kit design that I have been following. The more I work on it and study the different drawings the more it is bothering me. Also there is the practical standpoint. This ship was built as a flagship with accommodations for the highest ranking admirals and the King himself. I have a feeling that in preparing a vessel for those people they would not have the privy hanging off the side of the ship for the King to be exposed to everyone. Even on ships decades earlier than S.R., they had enclosed QGs so why wouldn't this ship? Now, I think some of the confusion could be attributed to removable windows or even solid panels that could be opened like any of the other ports on the ship for extra ventilation. Seeing those opened up could have accounted for the appearance of open QGs. For the stern balconies, full width seems to be more common than the tiered balconies of Berain's drawing. However, again we must take into account the grand design this ship was intended for and along with the out of the ordinary cosmetic designs that would likely have been used to achieve a unique and grandiose appearance.

 

All of these thought have been piling up over the past year and a half I have been building her and now I am finding myself quickly approaching a fork in the road. On one path I can continue on as I have been and put out a model that is more true in spirit than fact or, I can start over and take the balconies and QGs back to the hull and build closer to the Berain configuration. This is a big debate. Time and money are not the biggest concerns here. Time I have, money not so much but, while saving to resupply the wood needed for a rebuild, I can continue to move forward with the rest of the ship. There is plenty to keep me busy on so that is not a huge issue.

 

I may pull off of the stern for a while and listen to other opinions and let em mind work itself to a conclusion. I have been wanting to start getting the canons built and maybe working on the main deck furniture and fittings will let me clear my mind. Probably just in to deep on the subject.

 

Michael, I have not forgot about answering you! I had thought about gold foil but not given it enough thought. I think I will look into it and try it out to see how it works at this scale and on the tiny details. That would probably look much better than the paint.

 

[EJ_L]

After a bit of a head clearing break, the ship yard is back in full work mode. Leaving the stern behind for a little while I’ve decided to work on some of the guns that will be fully rigged. Not all of them will get this level of rigging done, only about 12 on this deck as those will be the only ones fully visible. The rest will only have minimal rig or none at all. All the uppermost decks will be fully rigged later on. 

 

First off off though I had to create a lot of eyebolts and hooks. That alone took a couple hours but I now have enough to get through these first guns. Unfortunately, I do not have enough blocks so I will only be able to get 3 or 4 complete till I can get some more which looks like that won’t be till May. 

 

Here is the first one in place! 

[EJ_L]

And here is ow the eyebolts and hooks were made. 

[Old Collingwood]

Incredible tiny fiddly work,   and that cannon and truck  look superb, looks a perfect scale to the ship also.

 

OC.

[md1400cs]

E.J.

 

Nice detail work -

 

What is the name of that tool that you are using. I feel the need to get one as well 

[Altduck]

Yes, I think I need one too - if I could figure out what it does and how.

 

But I know I need one......

[EJ_L]

That tool is called a One Step Looper Tool by Beadsmith. Here is an Amazon link to it. They are rather common in craft store like Michael's and Hobby Lobby in the jewelry department which is where I picked mine up at. It works great for making eyebolts and hooks easily. Simply insert the end of the wire you want to use and squeeze. The pliers bend the wire around the post then trim off the length you want.

 

They make them in a couple of different sizes. I got the 1.5mm one which has been handling the size wire I'm using for my 1:77 scale build. There are larger ones but unless you are building in 1:48 or larger, I doubt you would need it. I have found that the jewelry departments have a lot of great stuff for model ship building.

 

Thanks, all for looking in and the likes! I should have a few more canons rigged up soon.

[md1400cs]

Thanks EJ.

 

We all learn from each other - don't we !

[EJ_L]

Indeed we do Michael! That is the greatest part of this forum, being able to learn and share that knowledge with each other. The knowledge I have gained since becoming a member here has allowed me to grow in leaps and bounds from where I was previously. Especially being out here in Kansas where most of the modelers I know are far more interested in planes, helicopters and cars than the are of ships, having this community is a huge boon!

[EJ_L]

First 4 rigged canons are in place. Till I can order more blocks I plan on installing the non rigged guns that will be covered by the upper decks. This will allow for construction to continue while I wait on additional blocks. 

 

While Im working under the decks, I need to look ahead on the rigging plans. I believe there are some knight heads and bits that sit under the quarter deck that I will need to build and attach any blocks to now rather than try to do that later. 

[popeye the sailor]

cannons look very nice EJ!  that is a neat tool........they have eye bolts already made in the bead dept though.  they are in there with all the little bobbles.....not sure what size they are though.   they have an elongated shaft,  in case you need it and can trim it off if you don't.   what you cut off can be used to make more eye bolts,  for which you'd need the tool.    what a never ending circle.......huh?!?!?!   

[EJ_L]

I've bought the eyebolts from the bead/jewelry department before and they do work great. They are actually on my shopping list for whenever I get back over there. Last trip they were out so I need to stock up. Scale is a common problem for a lot of what the stores regularly stock at least for the smaller scales. Larger ones would probably have it a bit easier. Admiral would probably kick me out though if I tried to build one of these first rates at a 1:48 scale or larger!

 

Build update, I have been working on her a lot these past couple of weeks. Not much to show in the way of pictures yet but the non-rigged "dummy" guns are all in place and I've started to rough fit the next decks to get the layout of what will be covered, what needs supports, where those will go and any other items that need to go down before they are covered up. Mostly a lot of holding pieces in place, making pencil marks for locates and then pulling it back apart. In addition to that work, I have also continued adding through bolts on the wales as I had not completed that earlier since I had run out of nails. 

 

I am hoping to get permission to take the good ship Visa out for a small expedition to acquire some more blocks and rope to complete the gun rigging and some better quality carving wood for the figure carvings on the stern. I think I have almost completed enough items on the "Honey Do" list to get that wish granted.  

[md1400cs]

Funny "ship Visa" - Actually my Admiral should walk the plank - her love of that ship makes me occasionally nervous

 

Nice continuing work on yourSR

 

Cheers

[popeye the sailor]

yea...I know what you mean about the scale issue.   I treat them as large eye bolts.   I have a brass variety that are medium sized......and I have a smaller size that are a copper color.   what I find neat about them,  is that they come in different finishes......antique, blackened, copper,  and a bare steel.  I've also seen them in a pearlish chrome.......but they just don't have that 'ship' quality.

 

me too.......I have to get permission from the budget director to take my ship for a spin too.   if I don't she'll fit me with a bridle and reins.......and I don't like the 'bit' that she uses   

[EJ_L]

Close to 2,500 nails have been placed to simulate through bolts and I am happy to say that I am almost done with them!! Still have a few here and there plus some when the quarter galleys are in place but, the bulk of them are now complete. 

 

I have also finished setting the dummy canons on the upper gun deck. These are just resting in carriages with no details. The first pair under the forecastle and quarter decks are rigged and in place and all the guns in the waist will be rigged but are still awaiting parts. 

 

With th that work done, I have now started to work on framing up the forecastle deck to close off that space. Due to changes in the ship deck layout, the original false bulkhead framing does not work here and so all new framing must be created. This will keep me busy for a while but it is more fun than pounding nails! 

[popeye the sailor]

looking very nice EJ.........the bolting really looks good too.   I use a face cloth over my stands,  so the hull doesn't get marred or anything.  hate to see that happen to yours.   cannon layout looks good as well  your moving right along.