HMS ROYAL KATHERINE 1664 by Doris - 1/55 - CARD

[DORIS]

Hello dear friends,
thank you very much for your support and likes.

13 hours ago, druxey said:

Glad you have the courage to revise this, Doris. Dobri!

It is sometimes quite adventurous, but as we say: There is no victory without a battle.

 

10 hours ago, Hubac'sHistorian said:

I think that when you get to constructing the upper finishing of the quarter gallery - with its domed top and coved central recess for the statuary - that the complex shapes would make an excellent topic for an instructional video.  That is, if you intend to build them up in the same way as the rest of the QG.  Perhaps not, if you are going to carve the upper finishing from a solid block, instead.

 

I also admire your courage in cutting down the sheer, although I agree that it is right to do so.

 

Oh yes, I am gonna construct the upper part of the QG in the same way, but the shape is much more complicated. I can ask my husband to help me with an instructional video. I believe it can be very interesting and useful. I would like to do it as soon as possible, but I fell ill a few days ago and my condition is getting worse with every day. So please be patient.

 

Many parts of the model will be modificated to achieve better a more realistic appearance. I do not have exact plans of Royal Katherine, so I must "play it by ear".

 

Here are some newest pics - the hull after complete cutting down and some colour modifications in the central area of the model created according the museum models from this period - for example Saint Michael 1669.

 

 

Best regards

Edited March 10, 2018 by DORIS

[druxey]

Get well soon!

[Hubac's Historian]

Sorry you are not feeling well, Doris.  Take your time and feel better.  I’ll be here when you get back.

[mtaylor]

i'm sorry to hear of the health issues, Doris.  I hope you get well soon and make a full recovery.

[Sailor1234567890]

The carriages under the museum model guns are terrible. Why are they so basic in construction when the rest of the model is so nice?

[Hubac's Historian]

They really are basic, aren’t they?  Everything else is so magnificent that they are easy to overlook, but then there they are.  Ha!

[Dan Vadas]

10 hours ago, Sailor1234567890 said:

The carriages under the museum model guns are terrible. Why are they so basic in construction when the rest of the model is so nice?

I was going to comment on the exact same thing. It looks like one of them at least is way too high and has no room for elevation, and all of them look like left-overs from some cheap kit .

 

  Danny

[Piet]

Get well Doris. Your tackling the mods is admirable and a lesson to all of us - try to stick with authenticity. Sometimes we can fudge but with those major design flaws it's better to redu things.

 

Cheers,

[DORIS]

Hello dear friends, 
thank you all for your kindly words and comments. I feel very weak so far but hope I will get well soon. I am continuing to work only very limited now. I modified other parts on the model, that were not entirely based on appearance of the real ship in Vale´s painting. I reduced other upper parts of the hull and added the black strip between wales. More information is also here:

http://modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=177&p=2093870#p2093609

My main priority is the maximal historical plausibility as I have already said, so if I detect an inconsistency, or if someone alerts me, I'm trying to fix it. Of course, I cannot fix everything, but if it is at least possible, then I do it.

 

For example now I have to find out whether the decoration between the gunports was sculpturesque/plastic and gilded or was only painted? 

 

Some examples of similar ships from that period with painted decoration:

 

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66333.html

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/65967.html

 

 

Here I am not quite sure but I think it's more like a painting:

According to the original pictures from that period and museum models, it seems to me rather painted. I have to admit, that the gilded plastic/sculptural decoration along the whole length of the hull would appeal to me more.

But I am gonna decide on what is historically more accurate.

 

Please, if you have more accurate information, it would help me a lot if you share them here. I will be very grateful.

 

 

BTW: The model is very heavy, even if it is made of card.

 

 

Best regards and enjoy the pics.

Edited March 12, 2018 by DORIS

[albert]

Great beautiful work Doris.

[Amalio]

There are so many things that I do not understand ...... you have all my admiration Doris

[BETAQDAVE]

On 3/12/2018 at 4:51 AM, DORIS said:

BTW: The model is very heavy, even if it is made of card.

     That's not too surprising when you stop and think about it.  Basically they're taking out all of the voids in the wood cells, adding a binder and putting it under tremendous pressure when it's rolled out, making it much denser.  While one sheet of paper seems to weigh nothing by itself,  just try lifting a ream of 500 sheets!  

      Your ship is very well detailed for being a card model.  The wood graining varies enough to make it look like individual wood planks.  That's one reason that I like to build solid or built up hulls with individual planks applied to them. 

       Hopefully your two feathered assistants don't get too interested in your ship and try to add their own touches to it.  Our Parrotlet would like nothing more than to gnaw that paper up a bit.  Hope you're feeling better soon.

[BETAQDAVE]

Did I hear someone mention paper?

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

hope you have a speedy recovery Doris....your making great progress in spite of it all      your modifications look great!

[DORIS]

Hello dear friends,
thank you very much for your kind words and comments. I do appreciate them a lot.
I'm finally healthy so I can do my full job at Royal Katherine and enjoy it.

 

To BETAQDAVE: What a lovely parrot you have. My feathered assistants are not very interested in the ship, though one of them loves destroying wooden clothes pegs and cockatiel usually has a rest under the huge ship hull till finally falls asleep.

 

To montañes: Thank you for your praise, Amalio. In actual fact nothing is so difficult as it seems to be. I usually search the the easiest way, how to make various things..... For example here is a video ( I promised some time ago to record a short video, where I am shaping card using steam to achieve better results and perfect final performance):

To popeye the sailor: I suppose there will be a lot of other modifications during the work. I love sailing ships and after finishing Sovereign of the Seas I have finally found another gorgeous ship - Royal Katherine, which I consider to be equally beautiful. I would like to achieve best result and maximally realistic model appearance, as possible and depends also on my abilities of course.  Last week I have started with sculpting and decoration, that is my favourite part of work. 

 

[DORIS]

I finished roofs on Quarter Galleries and added a bay window (oriel window) on the stern. I use high quality card finished with black foils. The columns and upper parts of the hull (under railing)are wooden.

 

[DORIS]

And here are the roofs of QG that were relatively complicated to create:

 

[DORIS]

And here they are finished:

 

[DORIS]

Other pics:

 

[DORIS]

I have also placed and glued plexiglass (I use a clear CDs) into the windows and created a diagonal grid with the scalpel as you can also see in plenty of historical paintings by artists - mariners and museum models from that period.

 

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/65964.html

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-T-1885-A-555

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-T-00-408

 

 

Edited March 29, 2018 by DORIS

[DORIS]

And here starts the most favourite part of my work....
Sculpting of course..... 

 

Apart from the Vale's painting, I get inspiration from period models, paintings + drawings and archaeological finds. I would like to create not only beautiful and detailed sculptures but also more realistic.

 

Some inspiration I find also here:

http://modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=177&t=110763&start=210#p2086152

or

http://modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=177&t=110763&start=225#p2087773

 

So how the sculpting started......

 

[DORIS]

There are increasing other sculptures - karyatides. I like this work very much.....

 

[DORIS]

And others.....

 

Please enjoy the pics, soon I will add new ones.

 

Best regards, 

Doris

[Mirabell61]

Hi Doris,

wow, windows, sculpturing and forming of the QG is marvelous, you`re doing an amazing job there !

 

Nils

[Amalio]

Extraordinario.........thank you very much Doris.

[druxey]

That roof section is a marvel of card engineering! And the sculpted pieces are first class as well. Glad also that you are now better, Doris.

[Vivian Galad]

Joining the fellows in the applause. Great detailing as always, Doris. A masterful skill to astound us all.

[Hubac's Historian]

Hello Doris,

 

First if all, thank you very much for taking the time to make that video.  This was incredibly instructive and interesting in that you only need the small steam from a cup of tea to do this shaping of the card.  I was envisioning a boiling kettle, or something like that.  And the results are so perfect!

 

I am reading, now, Richard Endsor’s excellent book “The Warship Anne”.

 

In the book, Mr. Endsor makes mention of canvas purchased for the covering of the quarter galleries, during the construction of the ship.  This detail of the text made me wonder whether it was this flexible medium (canvas), that could more easily be stretched over the light framework of the QGs, thus creating these complicated, faceted shapes - maybe, at least, for the top upper finishing.  The canvas could then be sealed with paint, or some form of “black stuff” for water proofing.  I had always assumed that the “skin” of the QGs was made entirely of wood.  Anyway, not sure what to make of that, but an interesting possibility.  Perhaps you understand this more completely.

 

The other detail that is of particular interest to me, Doris, is your round-up of the stern - from the counter timber, up through the tafferal.  Let me preface the following observation by saying that this is not a criticism, but merely my desire to more fully understand what I am seeing as it relates to known period practice.

 

My observation is that the arc of round-up, in the hotizontal plane, is most pronounced at the stern counter, just above the stern post.  As your eye travels up, toward the tafferal, this arc APPEARS to flatten out a bit, yet it is still there.  I can see the upper arc of the stern, as it is reflected in the aft deckline of the poop.

 

What I can’t figure out is whether this arc actually diminishes, as the stern rises, or whether this is just an optical illusion created by the rising tumblehome of the ship sides cutting the arc on a continuous taper towards the centerline of the ship; in other words, as the ship’s sides rise, the segment of arc at any given point gets smaller and smaller, thus, perhaps, appearing flatter when, in reality, they are all arcs of the same curve.  How’s that for a run-on-and-on sentence?!

 

With all of the ornaments in place, I think that this apparent difference is not noticeable at all, really, but the bare architecture makes it more visible.  What you are doing, Doris, looks right to me, but I’m just trying to understand why so that I can re-create it on my model.

Edited March 29, 2018 by Hubac'sHistorian

[druxey]

Your comment on canvas is interesting, HH. It was often painted, sometimes to resemble green patinated copper. Usually the canvas was laid down over wood boards. A real life example is seen on the roof of Prince Frederick's barge in the Royal Museums Greenwich.

[Hubac's Historian]

Is it fair to say that canvas would only be used on the roof, or upper/lower finishing, while the sides would still be light board or paneling?