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

[Bill97]

All open on the battle side?  Not some open and some closed?  Only on side (port) of my ship will be fully visible in its display case. Was thinking of having some closed on the visible side but I am guessing that would not be authentic?

[Ferrus Manus]

Probably not. If you could somehow display it in the middle of the room (if your wife will let you) it would be possible for it to be seen from both sides. 

[popeye2sea]

Envision a scenario whereby the ship is underway and exercising the great guns.  Picture this - The 1st Lieutenant orders the guns to be exercised by division.  The second LT, who is in charge of the second deck battery, orders the first division, in this case it could be the first four guns on the port side, to prime, load, and fire.  He will compare their best time with the other divisions for a bit of competition.

 

Bottom line. Display them however you choose.  Anything can be justified with a good narrative.

 

Regards,

Henry

[Bill97]

Henry I like your narrative. I think I remember that narrative in Master and Commander.

[Ian_Grant]

On 10/16/2023 at 8:49 PM, Bill97 said:

Henry I like your narrative. I think I remember that narrative in Master and Commander.

Off topic but this reminded me .......

 

Remember the Aubrey book where Jack buys some gunpowder from a firecracker company going out of business, to use for great gun practice because the Admiralty doe not allot enough extra powder for training? He has Bonden and his gun crew demonstrate how fast a cannon can be reloaded and fired, but the gun crew is stopped in their tracks when the gun fires a great cloud of brightly coloured smoke with an unusual bang? Then they go down the side firing by turns, in green, blue, red, etc, with the onlooking crew in stitches?  One of the great scenes O'Brien made up. One of my other favourites is the time at Sunday Divisions when Jack is pacing before the ranks of the crew for inspection, with the bosun's cat pacing in front of him.

Edited October 18, 2023 by Ian_Grant

[Bill97]

My friends I just happened to scroll back to the beginning of my build log and I see that this past weekend was one year since starting my Soleil Royal. What a fantastic adventure it has been with all of your help. Can’t imagine how many hours I have invested so far, with many more to go. On a previous build I thought I should keep a log of my hours just to eventually see how many.  But then I thought who cares? The pleasure is in the adventure! 

[Bill97]

Picture this - The 1st Lieutenant orders the guns to be exercised by division.  The second LT, who is in charge of the second deck battery, orders the first division, in this case it could be the first four guns on the port side, to prime, load, and fire.  He will compare their best time with the other divisions for a bit of competition.
 

Henry I liked your scenario. In my display the 2LT ordered the 2nd Division to prime, load, and fire. 1st and 3rd Divisions are at rest with hatches closed. 1st Division has already fired, pulled cannons back, and closed the hatches. 3rd Division is waiting anxiously for their orders. The exercise includes the opening and closing of the hatches in the drill for best time. Last time 3rd Division won by more than 85 seconds!  This lead to a couple reassignments of members of the 1st and 2nd Divisions to permanent deck scrubbing until further notice. Needless to say 1st Division was much better this time and we are waiting to see how 2nd Division performs.  The 2nd Division does deploy 2 more cannons than the 1st and 3D, but they are the most highly trained. 😊

 

I also closed the hatch on the side gallery. 

Edited October 21, 2023 by Bill97

[popeye2sea]

Bill,

 

Nice story. I'm pleased that you ran with it. The ship is looking great.  And the gun crews will be the envy of the fleet!

 

Regards,

 

Henry

[Bill97]

I started to go 5, 5, 4 but the ship profile looked more balanced and symmetrical with a 4, 6, 4 layout. 
 

On a side note, have any of you seen the newly released today limited addition OcCre wooden HMS Victory?  If not, check it out. Absolutely incredible but way outside my budget. 

[Hubac's Historian]

I’ll look that up.  Thanks for the tip!

[Hubac's Historian]

I see the appeal in a simplified dockyard style, but I find the sheer of the model to be a little stiff, and the transition from quarters to stern to be a little rough.  Some may say I’m being unfair, but full lines plans exist for the ship.  I don’t understand, in the computer age, why that is so difficult an ask for kit manufacturers.  We know what the ship is supposed to look like!  And, as often is the case - the masting and spar plan are a complete afterthought.  $1,700?  Not for me.

[Hubac's Historian]

The CalderCraft Victory is still tops among the wooden kits, IMO.

[Bill97]

I am very happy with my Heller Victory I finished last year. I do have an OcCre kit in my stash that I will start after I complete my SR. It will be my first attempt at a wooden ship that I am looking forward to. I will watch for anyone that builds this ship though. 

[Bill97]

Finished the cannon hatch covers all around. Repeated the 4-6-4 layout on the starboard side as I did on the port side. Opened the four hatches on the stern. Making all the little metal eyebolts for all the hatches, and lashing the pair of lanyards for each cover (opened and closed), was right up there with tying ratlines. 😊.  Also added the fleur-de-leis to each of the open hatch covers. 
 

Doing a little kit inventory. I know I still have the lanterns to add later. I would surly break them off if I added them now. From what I can tell I think I am primarily going to be working on the yards, sails, and rigging from now on. 

Edited October 28, 2023 by Bill97

[Hubac's Historian]

She is looking awesome, Bill!

[Bill97]

Thanks Marc. Appreciate your compliment. 

[popeye2sea]

That's a beautiful model.  Keep up the great work.

[Bill97]

Thanks Henry. 

[Bill97]

STUDSAIL/STAYSAIL/STUNSAIL
 

Making a command decision here but will be wait to have my mind changed.

Reading through Anderson’s Chapter 11, he is not a big fan of these spars on a model ship. According to him history shows they were just coming into use about the time the SR was built. Page 253 he states that he is not at all sure early stunsails dad yards. French drawings show the lower stunsails hoisted by the two corners. 

I plan to add sails to my model (probably furled) but not stunsails. With that in mind, reading through Anderson’s chapter, and realizing the difficulty of making and attaching the new spars vs the kit plastic, I have decided to leave these spars off of my yards. 
 

Your thoughts and/or opinion?

[Hubac's Historian]

I do not think representing the stun’sail booms is a necessity.

[Bill97]

Thanks Marc. If anyone would know it would be you. 😊

[Bill97]

Spending my time now making and adding the rigging to the yards (foot ropes, blocks, etc). Of course while working on these my mind is on the future parrals we have previously discussed. I know I am going to need to make them and hopefully rig them with some bit of realism. I have read through the section in Anderson’s book and studied krill4’s diagram above. I also went back to my reference book for the HMS Victory (Longridge’s book). Interesting in the building of the Victory parrals were not used on the fore and main yards. Just the topsail yards and the topgallant yards.  

[popeye2sea]

For ships of HMS Victory vintage, there is no expectation of lowering the course yards on a regular basis, hence no need for parrals.  There remains a need to truss the yard in towards the mast so truss tackles ( or tackle truss?) are employed.

 

Regards,

 

Henry

[Bill97]

Thanks Henry. Just getting educated. But that is different for the Soleli Royal?

 

By the way, I am using your photos to practice making the selvagees.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Bill97

[popeye2sea]

Yes, the older method of increasing or decreasing sail was to add or subtract from the bottom of the sail. The exact opposite of reefing which is essentially reducing the sail at the top of the sail.  With the old method the lower yard had to be movable on a regular basis. The parral provides rollers to assist in lowering the yard while maintaining control.

 

When reefing became more of the norm, lowering the course yards was no longer necessary. Le Soleil Royale was right at that transitional phase when reefing started to come into use.  BTW, reefing causes footropes to start being used also.  Before that the sailor used to walk out along the top of the yard.

 

Regards,

 

Henry

[Bill97]

Ok every thing except the kitchen sink tied to the fore yard including the selvages I learned to make from Henry’s post. Dry fitted on foremast using a pin in back of yard into mast. Now to finally make the parral. 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Bill97

[Ferrus Manus]

I'm pretty sure the footrope hadn't been invented by that point. Can someone else verify this?

[Hubac's Historian]

From what I can gather, from at least the mid-1680’s onward, the French were single-reefing main courses and double reefing topsails.

 

Here, evident on RL 1692:

The men loosing the fore course appear to be standing on foot-ropes, but the same are not discernible on the topsail yards.

 

Jean Boudriot shows reef points and foot ropes for his L’Ambiteaux of 1680.  Lemineur shows reef points, foot-ropes and lower course bonnets for his St. Philippe of 1693:

Lastly, the Malaga Scroll (1704) representing SR 1693 shows reef points:

 

 

[Bill97]

I just pretty much followed the Heller instructions for that feature. The instructions showed adding the foot ropes on fore and main yards. However did not show parrals. Go figure?

[Bill97]

I went back again to my SR “bible”, R.C.Anderson’s book pages 152-154, to review the section on foot ropes. He does state that the history of foot ropes is obscure, at best. Horses were seen as early as 1642. Over the years the use of them varied as to which yards they were on.  Some on the lower yards and some not. Some on top sail yards and some not. The French Royal Louis of 1692 had them everywhere except the crojack yard. With the SR being built about 20 years or so earlier, and the grandeur of it’s architecture, I am going to believe it proceeded the Royal Louis in having foot ropes everywhere except the crojack.  It also adds a little extra visual interest to my model.