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

[Bill97]

Henry that is exactly everything I did on my HMS Victory.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Bill97

[Bill97]

Bunch of work at the fore mast since last post.  Rigged the mast top, installed it, and the top mast. On the mast top I made I made and blacked wire strops for the lower deadeyes. Also attached the crowfeet to the top and to the forestay using Anderson’s guidance to make a euphroe. Added a futtock stave to both sets of lower shrouds. Added catherpins to the shrouds and am working on the futtock shrouds and eventual ratlines. 

[Bill97]

And now with the futtock shroud ratlines completed except for trimming when touch of glue dries. 

[Ferrus Manus]

That's one sexy looking set of crowsfeet! Shame they weren't developed for that use until after my galleon sailed. 

[Bill97]

What in the world is the creature I saw on my work table 😳.  Oh wait now I recognize it. It is the fully rigged main mast top!  What an adventure. I went with tying the futtock shrouds to the deadeye strops instead of a hook. Same on the fore mast top. Crows feet ready as well to be lashed to the mainstay and adjusted. 

[Bill97]

All three mast tops rigged and installed to include shrouds, ratlines, crows feet, blocks, etc. Now on to somewhere I am not sure yet. 
 

Henry back in post 984 where I was discussing where to go next to recommended “You could consider crossing the main yard.”  Could you please explain more what you meant?

Edited August 29, 2023 by Bill97

[popeye2sea]

Crossing the yards is nautical speak for hoisting the yards aloft into their positions lying "across" the masts. In other words, suspended by their halyards, jeers, slings and lifts.

 

Regards,

 

Henry

[Bill97]

Thanks guys. Henry before I cross the yards I want to be prepared. Looking at the Heller instructions I am considering (no appropriate nautical terms here 😊) turning all the yards on the masts as they would have been downwind wing aft port.  Anything additional I need to be aware of?  Am I just asking for trouble? 

[popeye2sea]

No, not asking for trouble. In fact, having the yards braced in on a port tack is how I will be setting mine. Maybe not quite close hauled, but perhaps a point or so off the wind.

 

(Nautical terms liberally placed) translation: Braced-in - having hauled in on the yard braces to swing the yards oblique to the mast.

                                                                       Port tack - sailing so that the wind is on the port side forward, resulting in the port side tack line being hauled down taut.

                                                                       Close-hauled  - sailing with the yards fully braced in, as close to the wind as possible.

                                                                       One point free or one point off  - Sailing with the wind one point, 11.25 degrees, off of close hauled.  The compass rose has 360 degrees and is divided into 32 points, North, N by NE,                                                                                                                                NNE, etc.  A square rigged ship can only sail as close as 45 deg. up wind.  Sailing a point free allows the leeway to come up a bit closer to the wind                                                                                                                                  if the need arise, as in an emergency or a battle.

                                           So endeth the lesson

 

 

 

Setting the sails braced round in this manner will only mean that you have to pay attention to how tight you make some lines like the lee bow lines on the sails.  Otherwise, have at it.  I think it will look great.

 

Regards,

Henry

[Bill97]

Thanks Henry. I guess when parrels are used I will just use them to rotate (brace) the yard. And where the ropes go up over the piece at the top of the mast (in picture) and tie to the yard there is no need to for adjustments there?  Ropes will just go up and over and lash to the yard with a small twist to SB side?

[popeye2sea]

There are parrels fitted to all the yards.  They hold the yards in against the mast. So if you are going to fit the yards as you proceed up the masts, then yes you will need to fit the parrels.  I would suggest that you put all of the fittings and rigging on the yards before you put the yards on the ship.  You don't necessarily need to belay all the rigging right away but you should at least attach everything to the spars. I would even go so far as to attach braces and other rigging to each stay before they are fitted to each mast. I would wait to brace all the yards around until all the yards are on the ship so that they can be aligned properly.  Brace round first, then belay.  You will run into problems if you belay all the other rigging for the sails and THEN brace the yards. Some of the other lines will be pulled too taut.

 

The curved piece at the top of the mast is called the cap and the large holes in it will take the tye, which is the rope that hauls up and holds up the lower yards. It is one long piece of rope whose ends pass over the cap, down through those holes, and are hitched to the yard just inside the quarter cleats. The center of the tye passes through the upper hole of a ramshead block, which is a large triple sheave block that hangs aft of the mast and the halyard is rove through this and communicates with the knight on the deck. Once this is set up it should need no further adjustment.

 

Regards,

Henry

 

[Bill97]

Thanks Henry my friend. I am gathering that the spars on this model are in fact held in place on the mast just as they would have been on the actual ship. No molded connectors as one might get on a lesser model. Similarly as on my HMS Victory I was able to drill through the spar and into the mast where I could insert an invisible pin to help hold in place. 

Edited August 30, 2023 by Bill97

[popeye2sea]

You may not need that.  Add a piece of metal rod into the lower yards when assembled to add some weight and the halyard and lifts will hold them just fine.  Replace the upper yards with wood to give them some extra heft as well. If your setting sails then the sheets and clews will hold the upper yards against the upward pull of the halyards. You may have to resort to pins if you are not rigging sails.

 

Regards,

 

Henry

[Bill97]

Thanks Henry my friend. I am planning to make most, if not all, my spars by turning wood dials instead of the plastic that comes in the kit. 

[Bill97]

Doing some work on the fore and main mast topmast shrouds. The shrouds for the foremast are hung and rigged.  I am about to start the ratlines. The topmast shrouds for the mainmast are hung and numbered but still need to be rigged to the deadeyes. 

[Bill97]

Took a much needed break from tying ratlines to make my anchors today. I wanted the rings to hang naturally so I drilled out the holes and made new steel rings that go all the way through and hang naturally. 

Edited September 4, 2023 by Bill97

[Ian_Grant]

Geez those are long topmasts!!

[Bill97]

Yes they are Ian and as a result it makes the shrouds seem narrow. Would not be surprised if Marc, or someone else, informs me for accuracy they should have been cut shorter. I hope not because it is to late now to change them. 

[Veszett Roka]

Very good looking anchors Bill. What colors did you use for the wood?

[Bill97]

Thanks Veszett. I use Vallejo acrylic paints. First I roughed the “wood” with course sand paper to get a more weathered look. Then I gave them a base coat of Vellajo Israeli Sand surface primer 76.614.  After the surface primer thoroughly dried I sprayed them with Vallejo 71.131 concrete color. After that dried I dry brushed with Vallejo IDF Sand Grey 71.141 to pick up the grain. I then went over them with a thinned black wash and followed up with some random light streaks of the IDF Sand Grey again. 

[Veszett Roka]

Thank you Bill. I never user Vallejo acryllics, but will give them a try. Usually i paint with Humbrol enamels and Tamiya acrylics. I like washing with natural thinners, mostly artistic refined turpentine.

[Hubac's Historian]

On 9/4/2023 at 10:10 PM, Bill97 said:

Yes they are Ian and as a result it makes the shrouds seem narrow. Would not be surprised if Marc, or someone else, informs me for accuracy they should have been cut shorter. I hope not because it is to late now to change them. 

To compensate for the long topmasts, I raised my lower main mast by 3/8”, if I remember correctly, and the fore and mizzen lower masts were raised, accordingly.  In order to improve the spread of the topmast shrouds, I made wider tops from scratch.  The mast sections which are really overlong are the t’gallants.  Those I will make from scratch and shorten.

[Bill97]

Thanks Marc. Now that you mention it I do remember you discussing making new mast tops. Since I am this far along I will certainly give special look at the top gallant masts. 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Bill97

[Bill97]

WANTED:  Apprentice shipyard worker to tie ratlines the remainder of your life for minimum wage! 😀

 

All the topmast shrouds hung and rigged to the deadeyes. Ratlines done on the port side of the foremast. All the rest still to be done. Plan to alternate between tying ratlines and doing other tasks on the ship so as to avoid losing my mind. 

[Ian_Grant]

Bill, she's looking a picture! Nice work!

[Bill97]

Thanks Ian. 

[Hubac's Historian]

Bill, your lower deadeyes are 5 MM, correct?  And 3 MM for the fore and main tops?

[Bill97]

Marc the lower on the fore and main are 5mm, 4mm on the lower mizzen. Then 3.5mm on the fore and main tops and 2.5mm on the mizzenmast top and the spritsail topmast. I am thinking of using 4mm for the fore and main backstays. 

Edited September 8, 2023 by Bill97

[Hubac's Historian]

Where did you source 3.5 MM from?  I’ve been referencing the St. Philippe monograph because, included among the plates is a sail and rig plan in 1:96.

 

According to that schematic, 5MM (3/16”) is appropriate for the lower main and fore deadeyes.  The trick is finding a good balance of scale graduation for everything else.

 

On the monograph plans, the spritsail and mizzen top deadeyes are impossibly small - as you noted earlier in your log.  2.5 MM is the smallest size I can find.  Forget about the t’gallant crosstree deadeyes, which look practically non-existant!  I was thinking about 2.5 for the sprit, fore and main t’gallants, and the mizzen top.

 

I could probably get away with 3 MM on the fore and main tops, as well as the backstays.  Then maybe 3.5 on the mizzen shrouds.

 

My annoyance is that the Amati deadeyes are not nearly as nice as the Dockyard Models version, but Dockyard doesn’t offer half sizes.  Maybe I can do a little dressing of the Amatti product to make them look more like Dockyard.

[Bill97]

Marc I got them through ModelExpo. I buy most of my rigging stuff from them. You can sometimes find them on Amazon from ModelExpo. Here is the stock photo.