Le Soleil Royal by popeye2sea - Heller - PLASTIC - 1:100

[davidk]

Thank You! 

Not sure if I'll catch up...I plan on taking it slowly, and by all accounts this model is one that requires a long-term commitment.

Dave

[foxy]

Hi Henry.

 

Just read through your build so far.

 

Having my hands full at the moment with another and another, but on the same lines as you(1/100), I was told there were numerous problems with this ship.

 

I to have one in the stash and your build is most inspiring to say the least.

So this will help me if ever I start this ship in the future.

 

Your painting is fantastic, even with what you think is a problem on the lack of shine, does not deteriorate from the work.

 

Frank

[popeye2sea]

It's been so long since I posted on my build log that it drifted down to page three under my content.  Still working on the cannons.  I have to say I have hated making all the tiny carriage bolts for all the upper deck guns.  I made the decision to install eight carriage bolts on each gun carriage.  So for the 28 visible guns that I am rigging that amounts to 224 carriage bolts.  And I made them all the old fashioned way; ball peen hammer and an anvil.  These things are tiny 2/32nds to 3/32nds inch long made from 24 guage steel wire.

 

 

I could only stand to make about 20 at a sitting.  Here is the pile of iron fittings for the cannons.  This includes hooks, rings for ringbolts, eyebolts, and carriage bolts.

 

 

And here is what they look like after blackening.

 

 

In between doing all the iron work I started fashioning some of the specialty blocks for the rigging.  Here is a rams head block.  It will be used for the main and fore halyards.  The tye goes through the hole in the narrow portion at the top of the block while the halyard reeves through the triple sheaves with the knight on deck.

 

 

Next up is the topsail sheet and lift block.  These look like fiddle blocks but the upper sheave runs perpendicular to the lower and the strop goes through the center of the block between the two sheaves.  The lower (larger) sheave is for the topsail sheet and the upper sheave is for the main lifts.

 

 

To go along with the lower lift blocks there are upper lift blocks.  These have an elongated shape with additional holes on either side of the sheave.  The standing part of the main lift is spliced in through one hole and the other is for the pendant that connects this block to an eyebolt in the mast cap.

 

 

Also to be done will be euphroes, clew garnet blocks, and spritsail sheet blocks

All of the specialty blocks are being made out of cherry strip stock (because that is what I could find at my local woodworkers shop).

 

In addition to the blocks I started on the main yard.  It is molded in two halves with raised rings that I think are supposed to tell you where to put all the furnishings.  I sanded all that off.  After doing a test run of rigging the tye and halyard to see how long the lines need to be in order to hoist the yard from the deck I realized that there is just not enough weight to the yard to put enough tension on the rigging.  It ended up looking too slack.  I knew that I was going to stiffen the yard with something inside of it so I went with solid brass rod.  I also added cleats at the center and at the yard arms.  In addition I filled all of the holes for the foot ropes and stuns'l booms.  Astonishingly, I found that foot ropes were not commonly in use by the French on their lower yards during this time period.  They came into general use for the topsails first. I started making boom irons to add later.  I'll show them in a later post. Here is a comparison with the as yet untouched fore yard.

 

 

That's all for now.

[foxy]

I to added brass rod to my yards that were plastic, the rest made of wood with plastic outer extras.

 

Makes it much stronger come the rigging/ blocks etc.

 

Nice work there by the way on the blocks.

 

 

foxy

[lambsbk]

Well done Henry. Beautiful hardware.

[popeye2sea]

OK, so I want your opinions.  I am rigging the cannons in one of two ways, depending on which side of the ship.  The starboard side will be run in and standing by while the port side will be run out and ready to fire.  Below is a picture of one of the starboard battery guns.  The question is this, do you think this is a reasonable depiction?  Should I change the way the tackles are coiled and stowed?

 

 

 

I also added to my collection of specialty blocks with the clew garnet.  The clew garnet is the clew line block that is lashed into the clew (lower corner) of the fore and main sails.  This block was made by cutting one of Chuck Passaro's 3mm blocks in half and gluing those halfs onto each side of a 3mm block.  This forms the cheek at the upper end of the block.  Some filing and sanding and drilling of a hole through the cheek to take the strop completes the block.

 

 

[popeye2sea]

Here are the flaked coils that will go on the port battery cannons.  Since it is much easier to make coils off the ship, I am making these first.  The long tails will be rove through the blocks, adjusted for length and then bent to the becket on one of the blocks.  The whole assembly can then easily be hooked to the eyes on the gun carriage and gunwale.

 

[popeye the sailor]

good to see your making progress again Henry.   on the cannons,  I think you have an interesting idea.  perhaps not a good idea in an actual battle situation......but as a model,  it would be real neat to show how the cannon look in both positions.   I've been toying with an idea as well.  would it be practical to show the cannons in  'batteries'?   the side of the ship divided into three batteries....the bow,  the mid ship,  and the stern.  in a small skirmish,  have the bow and stern batteries in the closed position,  and have the mid ship battery open and ready to fire.  would this be a practical practice for a ship's gun crew?

 

glad to see your back at the table......and I like how you modeled the cannon.  there is some great detail it it 

[Ship Shape]

I am watching with baited breath. Looking forward to more of your build. I am again working on the hull of the Royal Sun.

Rick

[GLakie]

Just ran across your Le Soleil Royal and she looks wonderful!

   I think the way you have the starboard side rigged seems very realistic and highly detailed Henry. As far as the historical accuracy goes, you would be in a better position than me, to answer that question. But I agree with Dennis as far as showing the run in and run out variation. 

 

Cheers 

[popeye2sea]

Slow going in the shipyard....but progress is still being made.

 

Here is my attempt at making inner studding sail boom irons.

These are made from 24 gauge steel wire.  I start with a z-shaped bend in the wire (90 degree bends).  The section in the middle is the measurement of the distance required between the yard and the boom.  Then I flattened both ends from the bend outwards on an anvil.  The length of each flattened end is determined by the circumference of the yard and the boom.  Then bend the flattened ends to make a hoop for the yard and boom.  A final adjustment to make everything straight and the iron is done.  The piece still needs to be soldered closed and blackened.  I will solder the hoops slightly smaller so that they are a jam fit at the proper place on the yard and boom.  The last photo shows the boom temporarily in place. The outer boom iron will be replaced with my own also.  That one will be a smaller version of the inner.  R.C. Anderson suggests that the style of outer boom iron shown in this photo did not come into use until the eighteenth century by the English.  

 

Hope you enjoy

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2015 by popeye2sea

[Force9]

That is very fine and precise craftsmanship!

 

Were such booms used sparingly in that era?

 

Evan

[dafi]

Very nice work :-)

 

For the gun tackles: There are plenty of ways to store them your version I saw on the Costitution :-) But if nobody is holding the free end, I would advise to secure them somehow. Either like I did behind the pulley with a kind of half hitch that can be opened like a lacet, or Boudriot shows something secured around the breech, in your case a nice tie around the faun´s head.

 

Cheers, Daniel

Edited June 1, 2015 by dafi

[popeye2sea]

That is very fine and precise craftsmanship!

 

Were such booms used sparingly in that era?

 

Evan

 

According to R.C. Anderson in his Rigging of Ships in the age of the Spritsail Topmast,  studdingsail booms are mentioned in the Treatise on Rigging, 1625 for either side of the main and fore sails.  He also feels that they were rare before 1660.  The Establishment of 1686 gives English ships main and main topsail stunsails.  He feels that they were added to the fore mast slightly later by the English (1690) and slightly earlier by the French and Dutch (1670).  Interestingly, the Dutch carried their stunsail booms abaft the yards, all others carried them forward.

[popeye2sea]

OK, so some of you may ask, why is he bouncing ahead to working on the yards before the masts are even stepped.  Well, there is a method to my madness.  Or perhaps it's just madness. I don't know.

 

I just finished the final rigging of the guns in the waist.  And now I need to put some of the rigging in that belays in the waist because once the decks, masts, and shrouds are shipped this area will be particularly hard to reach.  These lines include the sheets and braces for the fore and main course, the main yard halliard, and the spritsail sheet.

 

In order to get the lengths of these lines correct I have to temporarily put the yards in place in their proper braced in orientation.  Not only that but since the course will be clewed up I have to place the clew line blocks in their proper locations to see where the sheets will be.

 

So, then I figured if I am going to do that I should just start working on the other furniture to go on the yard.  Which leads me to be making things like cleats, boom irons and the roband bending strips shown below.

 

During the period of this ship, sails were bent directly to the yards and hung underneath the yard.  Jack stays had not been invented yet.  The robands go around the yard.  In the center of the yard, where the cleat is, this does not work so a strip with holes to take the robands was added beneath the yard.  The holes are spaced a scale 12" apart because there were two robands per sail cloth, which was about 24 inches wide.

 

Here is my take on bending strips:

 

And looking at these pictures I realize that I will probably have to strip the bending strip off and make a new one.  The holes should be shifted 1/16 inch to the right so that they will line up with the center cloth of the sail.

 

Perhaps it really is madness after all.

 

Regards,

 

[GLakie]

Doesn't sound like madness to me Henry. You're just trying to make things as easy on yourself as you can. Makes perfect sense. 

[popeye2sea]

I suppose there is another way to fix this.  I could make sure that I make the sail with a seam centered instead of a cloth.  Then it would work out fine.

 

In the meantime...here is a stropped clew block with a long and short eye to go around the yard

 

And here it is rose lashed to the yard.

 

Regards,

Edited June 4, 2015 by popeye2sea

[popeye2sea]

Ok folks, next question.  In moving forward with setting up the lines in the waist area.  I am working on the main yard tye and halliard.  The question is this. Once you figure out the lengths of the tye and halliard needed to hoist the yard from the rail to the raised position, what did they do with all of the remaining halliard that ends up on deck?  Was it coiled and left on the deck? Was it hung from the knight, as I have shown below?  It is a lot of line. Don't mind the sloppy coil, it's very temporary.

 

 

Help!!!

 

Regards,

[keelhauled]

Henry,

She's a beautiful build!  Very clean and detailed.

 

Typically, you wouldn't leave lines coiled on the deck.  You're just asking for someone to trip or be trapped by it on a real ship.

 

I'm not sure on your ship, but I've often seen the line coiled and belayed on the closest rail and pins, if it can't be belayed to the knight itself. Are you sure that the scale of the halliard line is correct.  Seems like it might be a little large compared to the breach lines on the guns.  Remember that the sailors would have to grip it in their hands.  It might also explain why it looks like you have such a large coil of line.  

 

Just a thought.

 

Keep up the great work!!

Marc

[texxn5]

Hello Henry, just catching up with your log. Looking good my friend.....what are you doing since Conny is in drydock? Sorry I missed you this year in Boston, we kept on going down to Connecticut and didn't stop in Mass. Hope all is well...

John & Diane

[popeye2sea]

Still doing musket drills and demonstrations in the Navy yard.  The ships upper deck is open to the public.  I have the added benefit of  getting into the dry dock every once in a while to check whats going on with the refit.

 

Not much going on with my build at the moment. That pesky employment thing keeps getting in the way.

 

Regards,

[foxy]

Great work Henry.

 

Wonderful work going on here.

 

Been toying with the Idea of getting this ship.

 

But with Victory and Connie later, I can't get me head around another ship.

So seeing your build makes up the difference.(so I tell my self)

 

Frank 

[dafi]

Very enjoyable build!

 

One question: Is the lanyard of the block not a bit too thick? If I recall well, it should be about a third of the main rope with a two roll block, so possibly even thinner with the tree roll block. This would also make storage easier. I think, that the barrels that Heller supplies are meant to be for that - even if they are way too small ...

 

XXXDAn

 

 

PS: Are there some pictures of your musket drill? Sounds very interesting!

Edited November 2, 2015 by dafi

[popeye2sea]

The information that I have shows that the main yard tye should be the same thickness as the shrouds and the halyard 3/4 of the tye, so it is a pretty big rope.  Everyone is saying the line looks too thick, perhaps I have miscalculated the size?  

 

Main stay circumference = 1/2 the diameter of the main mast;  mast diameter 0.43" / 2 = 0.215   0.215/3.14 = 0.068" dia.

Main shrouds = 1/2 main stay ;  .068/2 = .03"

Main yard tye = 0.03" (0.76mm)

Halyard = 0.02" (0.5mm)

 

Scaled up that gives a 2" diameter rope.  Still workable by hand.

 

Please correct me now before I start rigging this whole thing incorrectly.

 

Regards,

[popeye2sea]

 

I think, that the barrels that Heller supplies are meant to be for that - even if they are way too small ...

 

 

I agree. The halyard tubs that are supplied with the kit are useless for the lengths of halyard involved here.  I am going to have to come up with a way to lash the halyard up in a coil against the mast

 

Regards,

[popeye2sea]

https://youtu.be/n0Q-6TCY8qk

 

1812 Marines musket drill

 

It's kind of a sloppy drill.  We were loading musket balls and they were supplied to us separate from the cartridge so some of us had to pull the musket ball out from pockets or where ever we could stash them while firing.  Normally the ball is enclosed with the powder in a paper cartridge and the drill is much smoother with everyone in unison.

Edited November 3, 2015 by popeye2sea

[popeye2sea]

The madness continues...

 

Working on getting the lower sail rigging set properly before the fo'c'sle is set into place.  The lines involved are the main sheet, main tack, fore sheet, and sprit sail sheet.  The basic idea I am following is to get the proper working length of line coiled on to the kevels so that the sail can be set or furled and the yards braced around as needed.  So looking at the rigging plan uncovers some problems.

 

The standing part of the main brace is made fast at the flag staff and the working end leads through a block on and eyebolt well aft then inboard over the rail to a belaying pin.  Meanwhile an unused kevel is on the round house deck just forward of the poop deck (kevels are designed to carry heavier lines like braces).

This lead is completely wrong.  No brace would ever be fixed to the flag staff.

My fix:  The standing part of the brace will be seized to the eyebolt that formerly held its leading block.  A new fairlead hole will be drilled through the side close by the un-used kevel on the round house deck and the main brace will belay on the kevel.

 

The plan has the main tack and the sprit sail sheet leading through the same fairlead hole and belaying on the same kevel.  There is not enough space in the fairlead or on the kevel for both lines.

 

My fix:  drill a new fairlead hole for the sprit sail sheet directly below the fairlead for the fore sheet.  The sprit sail sheet will belay either on the same kevel as the fore sheet or on the kevel just forward of that.  The only problem is (and this is probably the reason Heller did it that way) the forward kevel is well under the fo'c'sle deck and nearly inaccessible after the deck is placed.  So I have to make the decision where to belay this line now.

 

Not shown on the photo above:  The fore tacks both lead through a single hole on the stem below the figurehead.  I will drill an additional hole so that each tack has its own fairlead hole.

 

 

While we are on the subject of the tack lines.  For this ship the tacks run single and the end of the line was terminated in a tack knot which was put through the strops of the sheet and clew garnet blocks at the clew of the sail.  The knot was actually a double wall and crown knot.  Below is my attempt at the tack knots for the main sail.  The knot is tied and set up so that the ends lead down through the knot then they are tapered, marled down, and served over.  The line is 1.0 mm morope.

 

 

Until next time...

Laissez le bon temps rouler!

 

[GLakie]

Sounds like a lot of research going on Henry. Question - What does the term "marled down" mean? 

 

Roll On 

[popeye2sea]

To marl something is to make a series of half hitches over it.  

The purpose in this case is to hold the ends of the tapered strands down before serving over.

Edited January 7, 2016 by popeye2sea

[GLakie]

Thanks Henry. Never heard that term used before.  You're a wealth of knowledge sir!  Thanks again!