Le Soleil Royal by Bill97 - FINISHED - Heller - 1/100

[Hubac's Historian]

Right now, it’s 46 degrees in New York.  By midnight, it will drop to 11.

[Knocklouder]

The wife knows,  they always know lol,nice ship looking good and today in MB Canada it's-37 wind is going to pick up and more snow today . So good advice  shipyard day lol 

[Veszett Roka]

Here in Budapest 13 Celsius, 55 Fahrenheit was the peak. In morning it was 5 C 41 F. Pretty warm though, the usual should be around -2/28.

Wish you guys Merry Christmas!

[Bill97]

Starboard side wale bolts almost complete. Still need top wale. Of course still need painting. Then around to the port side. 

Edited December 27, 2022 by Bill97

[Bill97]

Henry and Marc I hope you guys consider it a compliment when I tell you that your builds of the SR are now my primary go to references. I love both of your builds and garner so much information and great new ideas from both. In the end (years from now) the overall physical shape of my SR will more resemble your’s Henry since I am obviously not doing the complete hull modifications that you did Marc. But I am taking so many great ideas from both as you can witness as I move along. I got the idea to fill the area between the knees with a solid piece and then to garnish it with molded ornaments from Henry. Now I am wanting to use that mold process to make the ornamentation that will go above and below the gun hatches as Marc did. And of course Marc your mind numbing wale bolts and anchor protection area (forget what it is called). Henry your rigging pieces are impressive and make me anxious to experiment with making them, like the brass tube thimbles I asked you about yesterday. 
I often teased with Ian that I was going to add his name to my HMS Victory name plate as a co-builder!  I will for sure include the both of you as co-builders of my SR! 😊

[Hubac's Historian]

It is a compliment well received, Bill.  I am very glad that you are able to pull value from my build-log.

[aurelien wolff]

Nice! I think I'll add the bolt in mine too

[popeye2sea]

Thank you, Bill.  Glad I can continue to be of assistance.

 

I remain, sir, your most obedient and humble servant,

Warm regards,

Henry

Edited December 28, 2022 by popeye2sea

[Bill97]

Marc I have pages 16 and 17 of your blog hermetically sealed in my brain. That is the section of your blog where you get deep into the carving, molding, and attaching the dolphins and whatever the nautical name is for the pieces above and below the gun hatches. I am fascinated by this and very much want to try to replicate it. It appears to me the most intense part of this task will be the actual carving of the pieces out of styrene. Attaching the carving to a block, making the mold, casting the piece, and then finalizing it for attaching it to the ship all starts with a good carving. Again another task/project for the future of my build. I already have my products for molding and casting. Curious if you remember the thickness of the styrene you used and any other advice you could share. 
It appears to me that once I get the bolts in the wales and any other refinements on the hull, I am going to be setting the hull on a shelf out of the way and concentrating a lot of time making beautiful upper wales. Which I am really looking forward to. 

[Hubac's Historian]

Hi Bill!

 

The upper and lower port enhancements were carved from 1/16” styrene sheet.  Each half of the dolphin drift rail end caps was also carved from 1/16” sheet.  It wasn’t strictly necessary to glue an inner half for these ornaments, for the inner bulwarks, but you will have to carve left and right side masters for both port and starboard, anyway, so the little bit of extra work is worth it, IMO.

 

My #1 piece of broad advice is: take your time!

 

Obviously, I took the upper bulwarks to an extreme, but I had developed a very clear idea of what I wanted it all to look like, and I didn’t really care how long it took because I knew these modifications would completely transform the kit.  Start to finish, I probably spent a little more than a year modifying these 4 upper bulwark pieces and that is only up to and including the frieze.  The upper quarter galleries probably took another 6 months to make and assemble.

 

Take your time, and #2 piece of advice: don’t be afraid to erase your drawings and throw away unsatisfactory attempts for the masters; if you’re not that excited about your port enhancement master carvings, you really won’t be happy when they are repeated 28 times along the main deck guns.

 

#3:  Relative scale and proportion are everything; maybe your carving/detailing skills are not yet advanced, but as long as the element is proportional and the overall outline or shape is good, then the parts will look good.

 

This is where a willingness to draw and re-draw will serve you well.  My advice:  obtain some drafting vellum.  You can draw and erase on vellum almost indefinitely and it won’t disintegrate.  Make a photocopy of one of the forward upper bulwarks.  You may have to adjust the contrast a bit, so that you can clearly see the size and shape of the main deck ports.  There will be some distortion in the copy, but it is negligible and won’t hinder the process.

 

Then, blue-tape a patch of vellum over a port opening, for example, and you will be able to read the exact size and shape of the port opening through the vellum.  You’ll also be able to see the relative distance between the top of the ports and the drift rail above.

 

This is critical because you want your port enhancements to fit comfortably in-between.  It is important to use the forward bulwark for this because the available space tapers more narrowly from aft to forward.  I based my master on the aft bulwark, where the space is wider, and I had to let the very tops of my forward enhancements into the drift rails.  This isn’t terribly noticeable, but it is one thing I would do differently.

 

Another thing to be aware of is that despite using thin CA (just common Crazy Glue brand, at the time) to mount the masters to the plywood, there is going to be a lip of CA all around the carving, once the glue dries, and this extra glue/squeeze out, will affect the sharpness of your moulds all around the perimeter.  I learned pretty quickly that it was a good idea to gently scrape level this glue-lip with the corner of a very sharp chisel and-or EXACTO knife.

 

A main reason why my ornaments look good is because I spent an enormous amount of time completely eliminating the background, but also scraping each moulded piece so that all the surfaces and creases were more clearly defined.  Right out of the mould, the parts will look pretty good, but the extra working of surfaces - kind of like the way a metal smith chases brass castings of furniture hardware - really makes them stand out.

 

Lastly, before I mount my carving masters, I first painted the mounting surface with thin CA and sanded that after dry.  It seals the surface of the plywood and smooths over any grain structure or imperfections in the surface veneer.

Edited December 29, 2022 by Hubac's Historian

[Bill97]

Thanks so much Marc. This is all so helpful. Time is the biggest commodity I have to work with, and that is something I need to convince my self of. Honestly Marc I often remind myself there is no hurry, and when I do it is like taking a deep relaxing breath.  In retrospect I think when I was building my HMS Victory I sometimes caught myself feeling I needed to get something accomplished so I could post an update here on MSW.  In reading your’s and Henry’s builds I see where you sometimes would go a month or more between posts. I guess my thoughts may have been if I go very long without a post other MSW members might think I gave up on the build and no longer follow. Thereby me losing my great sources of advice. 

[Hubac's Historian]

Nope - we’ll still be here.  My log fluctuates between 44 and 49.  Some people come and go, and some come back again.  I think the old saying applies; you can make some people happy some of the time.

[Bill97]

Happy New Year my friend. Will you be hanging out in Times Square?  If so, I will pick you out in the crowd on TV. 😀

Glad you do not live in Buffalo? Wow that is a lot of snow!

[Hubac's Historian]

I have never been to Times Square for New Years Eve and I can not imagine why anyone would want to subject themselves to that.  I don’t even like Times Square on a regular weekday.

 

Nope - I’ll be at home all weekend doing absolutely nothing that I don’t want to do.  This should translate to plenty of model time!

 

Agreed - Buffalo got it bad.

 

Happy New Year, Bill!

[Bill97]

My same thoughts Marc about Time Square when I watched it on TV. 
 

I will be spending the weekend safely in as well. 

[Bill97]

Marc a lot of people are getting wet in Time Square!😬

[Hubac's Historian]

I prefer to save my sea legs for real action.

[Bill97]

Got the bolts in the wales on port and starboard sides, and a coat of surface primer. I took the hull off the base I made until I am completely done with the hull including touch up painting. Did not want to risk messing up my mahogany base. Marc what pattern did you use for the top wale that connects with the upper bulwarks?  I noticed there are some molded holes (half way through) about 1/2” apart along the wale. 

[Hubac's Historian]

Hi Bill - those holes in the upper main wale are for the plastic kit eyebolts that the “chains” attach to.  I lowered my chanels down to this upper main wale because that would have been the correct location in the late 1680’s.  Where Heller has placed the Channels is correct for 1669.

 

So I filled those holes and my bolt pattern remained the same, except for where the channels are located.

[Bill97]

Thanks Marc. So I have one more wale to do. 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Bill97

[Ian_Grant]

Very nice so far, Bill!

 

Happy New Year!

[Bill97]

Thanks Ian. Happy New Year too you as well!

[Bill97]

OK after several days of working on the bolts in the wales I have them finished and all the paint touch up done as well. I think I am pleased!

[Ian_Grant]

3 hours ago, Bill97 said:

<snip..snip> I think I am pleased!

Bill; you should be! Nicely done!

[Hubac's Historian]

The paint work looks very clean, Bill, and the wale bolting shows very well at scale.

 

One thought on the gold leafed figurehead: I can’t tell whether it is just the light and photograph, but the surface of the gold looks a little textured.  Have you tried lightly burnishing the surface with a Q-tip wrapped in T-shirt scraps?

Edited January 7, 2023 by Hubac's Historian

[Bill97]

No Marc I have not. It does have a textured surface. Will the t-shirt idea smooth it out?  Will try it. 
 

On another note, I think I asked this before but can’t find it in my blog. I am starting to work with the upper bulwarks. Do you recommend gluing the two halves together and finishing the seam (putty and sanding) before painting and working on the ornamentation?

Edited January 8, 2023 by Bill97

[Hubac's Historian]

Burnishing should help, but a light touch is recommended, so as not to burn through the leaf.

 

Glueing the upper bulwarks together before installation is probably easier, as far as concealing the seam, but only if you have first created good joints between the individual bulwark pieces and the upper main wale, first.

 

If you haven’t really tested those fits yet, you may want to do that before glueing anything together.  I think the instructions call for installing the beakhead bulkhead first.  This provides a useful and necessary reference for the required tumblehome of the upper bulwarks.

 

On my current go-around with this kit I have spent an incredible amount of time and effort fitting these parts to get as good a lap-joint as possible.  Even then, I have thought it a good idea to re-enforce the joints on the inner bulwarks wherever they can’t be seen.  Trust me when I tell you this is time well spent.  You can only really appreciate how poor the general fit of these parts is, once you really try and dry-fit the required hull curves, relative to the actual beakhead bulkhead.  The bulwark parts have to flex quite a bit to seat properly in the lap-joint.

Edited January 8, 2023 by Hubac's Historian

[Bill97]

Thanks again Marc. My general plan was to work on painting and detailing the 6 pieces that make up the upper part (beakhead bulkhead, upper bulwarks, and stern plate before gluing them onto the hull. Do I understand you correctly that you recommend painting and detailing the beakhead bulkhead and gluing it in place first, as the instructions say, before doing anything with the upper bulwarks?

 

I am anxious to get back to the “ship yard” to tinker with the gold leaf in the figure head. 

[Hubac's Historian]

Hi Bill - yes, that is precisely my recommendation.  Without the beakhead bulkhead in-place, one can only guess at the actually correct tumblehome of the forward bulwarks - so, you may create what you think is a pleasing fit only to discover gaps opening later, once the bulkhead is in-place.

 

The whole objective, as you seem very aware of, is to minimize handling of these painted parts.

[Bill97]

Stop the presses Marc!  I am dry fitting the parts Marc and as usual I check your’s and Henry’s builds for comparison. I immediately noticed that in a photo from your build you have the beakhead bulkhead mounted inside the hull halves. Henry has his mounted to the face of the hull halves which is exactly how mine fits. Is yours this way because you increased the width of the hull. No way mine will squeeze inside the hull.