Sovereign of the Seas by andy - FINISHED - Mantua/Sergal

[andy]

Hi Gary,

 

I heard at the last Vallejo get together that you had just received your SOS kit. I missed seeing you, but look forward to hearing your experiences next time.

 

I agree with you about the quality of some of the castings, but I went ahead and used what was given. If you think that is bad, read the above to see about the pitfalls of following the kit's instructions.

[andy]

The bell is in the tower. The oars are in the lifeboat, and the rudder will not fall off. All is well in the world!

 

Except for the soldering. I started assembling and soldering the chain plate pieces. If I soldered small, neat joints when I attached the chain plate to the hull and put a small amount of stress on it to make it taut, the joints gave out. If I soldered larger, blobby joints, they held but looked awful. I finally gave up in frustration.

 

I had a number of chain plate parts which did not require soldering from a prior 17th century build. I decided to order more and save my sanity.

 

Anyone have any soldering advice for the future?

 

 

 

[pirozzi]

The bell is in the tower. The oars are in the lifeboat, and the rudder will not fall off. All is well in the world!

 

Except for the soldering. I started assembling and soldering the chain plate pieces. If I soldered small, neat joints when I attached the chain plate to the hull and put a small amount of stress on it to make it taut, the joints gave out. If I soldered larger, blobby joints, they held but looked awful. I finally gave up in frustration.

 

I had a number of chain plate parts which did not require soldering from a prior 17th century build. I decided to order more and save my sanity.

 

Anyone have any soldering advice for the future?

 

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Hi Andy,

Good fix on the rudder.

I had the same problem with the chain links on the SOS. They have the opening at the end, where the most stress would be. Anyone knows links of a chain are split in the middle of one long side. I just trashed all of them and made some new ones from shiny copper wire of 0.5mm diameter. It solders easily and will hold with the split on the long side. Then I just painted them flat black and they worked fine.

 

Vince P.

[DenPink]

Hi Andy

Re chain plates, the SOS ones are rubbish best put in the bin.

I also got new ones.

 

Denis

[andy]

Hi Vince and Denis,

 

I'm relieved to know that my two ship building mentors have also had problems with the chain plates for SOS. It's nice to know that I am not the only one who thinks they are junk.

 

Vince, I just visited your Royal William web site. It's looking terrific. I also came across your letter to M. E. I have had the same experience, but 2 months ago I got an email from them, and they had kits on sale at extreme discounts. One of the ships on my 17th century build list is the Wappen Von Hamburg. It is usually the most expensive kit available, but they had it for sale at over a 60% discount. Needless to say, I scooped it up, and it will be my next build.

 

Happy ship building to both of you and thanks for the comments.

 

Andy

[andy]

The hull is completed, and I have begun working on the masts and spars. I have been concerned about this because of the dowel sizes required for the masts - up to 12 mm. The diameters are too big to fit in my 3/8" drill chuck, and I wondered how I was going to taper them. The problem was solved when I came across a 3/8" to 1/2" conversion chuck on the internet for a very reasonable price. (For those of you not in the U.S., my original drill chuck will handle about 8mm.)

 

The picture below shows the chuck holding the dowel for the foremast, with the semi-completed bowsprit in the background.

 

[DenPink]

Hi Andy

 

How are you getting along with the build ??.

 

If you have got to the crows nest be careful before you glue to the masts some will have to have holes cut out of them.

 

Denis.

[andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

It has been awhile since my last posting. In the Spring one of my other hobbies, the care and growing of bonsai trees, takes up a lot of my time and I haven't been spending as many hours on the SOS as normal. I have over forty bonsai trees, and they all require attention this time of year. The picture below shows some of my trees with the Boatyard, aka: The Shed, in the background.

 

In spite of the diversion, I have completed and attached the bowsprit and am almost done with the foremast. I have tried to do as much work as possible off the ship so there are many loose lines in the picture of the foremast. These will all look better when tension is applied. I haven't encountered any real problems other than some of this work is tedious in the extreme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[andy]

Mounted the foremast to the hull and started some of the rigging between the bowsprit and the foremast. Having some trouble keeping everything taut.

 

[andy]

Hi Gary,

 

Mantua's drawings and pictures of the ship show foot ropes and I never thought to question their presence. After reading you comment, though, I started looking at other models and paintings, and you are correct. I can remove them easily and it will, indeed, save a lot of work. Thanks for the info.

 

I hope you can make it to the meeting in June. I look forward to seeing you there.

 

Andy

[pirozzi]

Hi Andy,

In regards to foot ropes on the SOS. She went through 2 major rebuilds during her long career, and both well after 1640. It is very possible that she did indeed have foot ropes added since they were used on English ships of the 1660s and up. One of her rebuilds was in the 1670s. I built mine with foot ropes on the lower courses and topmast yards as would have been proper for a ship in the later part of the 17th century.

Also, a little known fact is the original design of the SOS had 4 upright masts, not 3. She had 2 mizzens. One was removed shortly after her launch in 1637.

Vince P.

[andy]

Hi everyone,

 

Where else can you have a learned discussion on foot ropes in 1640? Isn't MSW great.

 

It is very early in the morning here on the Pacific Coast, and I am about to take a weekend trip to Yosemite. While contemplating the wonderful scenery, I am going to think about the fate of foot ropes on my SOS model. Although I think Gary is correct, I also think Vince has made a strong case.

 

It could go either way!

[Mirabell61]

Hi Andy,

 

a great build you are presenting, it Looks very well built and lots of Detail, the pride of a model builder

 

Nils

[andy]

Hi Nils,

 

I have been away for a couple of days hence the delay in responding, but thanks so much for the encouraging words.

 

Andy

[andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

Since my last post, I have narrowly escaped a ship-building disaster. The picture of my work shed on the first page of this build log shows 2 black lamps hanging over my work area. Here in Northern California at this time of year we can have wide swings from the nighttime to the daytime temperatures. My assumption is that this caused something to break, and one of the lamps came crashing down on the ship.

 

Although fully rigged the entire bowsprit snapped off as it emerges from the hull and the spritsail topmast also broke off. When I went out to the shed the morning after it happened I think I must have felt like the Captain of the sinking Vasa. After a couple of hours of despair though, I decided I would try to repair the damage or rebuild everything from scratch.

 

As it turned out repair was possible. I carefully drilled some holes into both sides of the broken bowsprit and inserted a metal dowel made from a nail. I was able to get it back together without disturbing too much of the rigging. Repairing the spritsail topmast was more difficult. I had a hard time figuring out how to clamp everything so that it would be upright and all the rigging would remain taut while the glue dried. 

 

In the end it all worked out, and unless you knew about the problem, you would never know it happened. I was too upset to take pictures during the midst of the problem but I am including two post repair pictures below. Meanwhile, I am making forward progress and have almost completed the main mast.

 

 

Edited June 1, 2014 by andy

[edmay]

Hello Andy, nice repair job,don't know if my heart could have survived that mishap ,well done,Edwin

[andy]

Hi Gary,

 

Its a great idea, but the cases are so darn expensive! Given the klutz I am, I probably would do more damage moving a ship the size of SOS into and out of the case every time I wanted to work on it. If the sky falls down on my ship again, I'm going to take it as a serious sign.

 

By the way, I found confirmation of your statement that there weren't any foot ropes until 1640 in the book VASA by Fred Hocker. In spite of that, I'm going to keep them on because I like the look of them and assume my model is the ship after a later retrofit.

[andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

I have moved on from the almost-disaster and have completed the anchors, all the ratlines and the remaining rigging of the foremast. I have primarily been working on the main-mast off the ship, doing all but the lower shrouds and ratlines and adding all the required blocks. Today I started tapering the spars.

 

 

 

 

[DenPink]

Hi Andy

 

Nice work mate.

 

Denis

[andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

Shipbuilding moves more slowly in the summertime because the high temperatures here in Northern California limit shipbuilding time in the shed to early morning, when it is cool.  In spite of that, I have completed, installed and rigged the main mast. Today, I started working on the mizzen mast. Everything has gone pretty well, although it is hard to keep all the lines taut. If you tighten one line, something else gets loose. I'm sure, though, that I am not the only one who has experienced this problem.

 

 

 

[edmay]

Hi Andy, A brilliant master piece,Edwin

[andy]

Hi Edwin,

 

Thanks Edwin, those are very kind words. I often think I have bitten off more than I can chew with this kit, but given my relative lack of building experience, I'm pretty pleased with the way it is coming along.

 

Andy

[DenPink]

Hi Andy

 

She is looking very nice my friend

 

Re rigging I know what you are talking about

 

Denis.

[andy]

Hi Gary and Denis,

 

Coming from you guys, that's high praise.

 

Thanks

[andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

It has been over a month since my last post because I have been pushing to get the Sovereign completed, and I'm happy to say if is finished. All in all it has been an enjoyable but difficult build. The kit has almost everything needed to build a beautiful model, but the instructions are practically worthless, and I thought the quality of a few of the materials was lacking.

 

Building the Sovereign is a bit of a humbling experience and has shown me how far I have come in this hobby, but also how far I have yet to go. When I see the level of workmanship of some of my fellow modelers, I shake my head in wonder. There were many times during construction when I knew I should be doing a better job, but just didn't know how. As they say about getting to Carnegie Hall: Practice, Practice, Practice.

 

Several months ago I received an email from one of our suppliers announcing a major sale on Corel's Wappen von Hamburg. It was less than half price so I bought it and stuck the huge box under my bed. After a brief break from shipbuilding, I will be digging it out and starting another major project.

 

When I first started building the Sovereign I came across the famous painting of the ship, and it's builder Peter Pett, by Peter Lely. I thought it might be fun to try and duplicate the painting with my own ship and me. Below is the result and some final photos of the model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[catopower]

Andy, beautiful work you've done and congratulations!

 

Hey, on those portraits, now which one is you and which is the original? 

 

Clare

[Vivian Galad]

Great work, Andy. Congratulations on finishing her.

[GuntherMT]

Spectacular ship you've built Andy.

[edmay]

Hello Andy,WOW,What a great picture of  the SoS and yourself,a masterpiece to be sure,with accolades from other brilliant modelers such as Garym ,Denis Pink and many others you can very very proud of yourself.I don't think my heart would have survived the mishap which you magnificently repaired,Bravo a job well done,now you can relax some and enjoy your beautiful garden,keep in touch.Edwin

[pirozzi]

Hi Andy,

Excellent job on your SOS. You started and stuck with a very difficult build and did a fabulous job.  You also look very distinguished next to your ship. You should be very proud of your accomplishment.

 

Vince P.