Sovereign of the Seas by 72Nova - Airfix - PLASTIC

[Ian_Grant]

"Wow" just doesn't cut it. Tackle hooks at 1/168 scale????!!!!!!    In-cre-di-ble!!!!!!

[Hubac's Historian]

Indeed - a very clever representation!

[72Nova]

Ian,

I try to push myself to see how much detail I can actually add and get away with it without looking too bulky. Thank you for the compliment!

Thank you, Marc, short cuts obviously have to made at this scale to look somewhat convincing, which can be a blessing, I guess, I may have to start the 1:96 Cutty Sark after this to hone my skills on the larger scale...hehe.

 

Michael D.

 

Edited March 8 by 72Nova

[Hubac's Historian]

Oh, that would be a treat!  Like Kevin, you would work wonders with that kit.

[shipman]

43 minutes ago, Hubac's Historian said:

Oh, that would be a treat!  Like Kevin, you would work wonders with that kit.

Shame you're so far away.....I have 3 in my stash.

[72Nova]

Kevin's build along with less than a handful are the benchmarks for sure. Hi Shipman, I bought mine about 20 years ago and she's been begging me to build her, when I do, I'll build it bare stick, ironically the Revell Cutty Sark was my very first ship model back in 1969 at age 10, completed it in like 10 days, I did not paint it but did rig it completely. 

I finally have the gun tackles and ring bolts completed on the forecastle and main decks, quite the exercise, 14 left to do.

 

Michael D.

 

 

 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

This is an amazing build Michael, I will need to read the whole log as at first I thought this was a scratch build, wood POF at something like 1:78! Your Victory is beautiful too, and as for the Vasa - gosh, you really do rise to the challenge, don't you! 

[72Nova]

Thank you Kevin, always nice to know one's work is appreciated! likewise I love your work on your current builds👍Looking forward to showcasing your blocks!

 

Michael D.

[72Nova]

The cannons on the Qtr deck are completed along with adding the hatch, ladder, cavals and kevels, I still need to come up a railing arraignment though, thanks for looking.

 

Michael D.

 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Are cavals the single sheave post belay points?  Curious because the Heller SR is littered with them, and I have not yet determined whether they were a real thing.  Do you know more about these?

[shipman]

I've been pondering upon your bulwarks for a while, thinking there's something odd about the horizontal timbers on the inboard side.

 

Surely there should be vertical ships timbers regularly spaced instead.

 

I have no direct evidence, but there would be no structural reason to line over these, as you depict?

[72Nova]

Marc,

Yes, they are, while similar to knightheads, cavals are usually affixed to bulwarks, the break at the forecastle and Qtr decks etc, whereas Knightheads are free standing, I believe the ones you are referring to on the SR Marc are knightheads though and I could be wrong, when I built mine, I just used the Heller the plans, maybe some of your better well known sources show them as cavals on their deck plans?

 

Shipman,

I closely studied the models of Wolfgang, the Henry Culver model, Don Dressel's, National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and others before I committed to scribing them in horizontally, this seems to be the usual construction method on English ships from what I've found on my limited resources. All the best gentlemen.

 

Michael D.

[72Nova]

With the railing completed, I'll finish up the port side staircase along with completing the 4 remaining cannons on the upper Qtr deck, after that I need to add the timberheads to the railings at the waist.

 

Michael D.

 

 

[72Nova]

The major construction of the staircase is completed, minus the newel caps, this is a relief as this was very fiddly to construct.

 

Michael D.

 

[72Nova]

The staircase's leading to the forecastle deck are finally glued into place along with the railings on the forecastle deck, I still need to add one more step though, the figure stands at approximately 5"-10", scale wise looks okay to my eye.

 

Michael D.

 

[72Nova]

Work is continuing on the upper Qtr deck, added more cavals, the mizen bits, the knighthead for the tie, mocking up the run of the tie and Hilliard and trial fitting the cannons, still much more work left to do in this area.

 

Michael D.

 

 

 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Just brilliant beyond compare.  The detailing is off the charts!

[72Nova]

The fitting out of the upper Qtr deck is just about complete minus the ladders leading to the poop deck, next I need to finish up the poop deck then fabricating the main bitts etc, thanks for looking.

 

Michael D.

 

 

 

 

[72Nova]

I have completed the timberheads on the starboard main deck railing along with the main bitts, knighthead for the tie and the 3mm single blocks stropped to the base of the mast for the jeers, these are slightly under scale, but look good, this would date the rigging around 1640, but it's conceivable SOTS already employed the use of the jeers at the time of launch, these blocks at scale would be around 30."

Thanks for looking.

 

Michael D.

 

 

 

 

 

[Baker]

so small
so much detail

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

On 4/5/2025 at 11:24 AM, 72Nova said:

I have completed the timberheads on the starboard main deck railing along with the main bitts, knighthead for the tie and the 3mm single blocks stropped to the base of the mast for the jeers, these are slightly under scale, but look good, this would date the rigging around 1640, but it's conceivable SOTS already employed the use of the jeers at the time of launch, these blocks at scale would be around 30."

Thanks for looking.

 

Michael D.

 

 

 

 

 

SotS had old style rigging.  Don Dressel stated that SotS had both jeers AND ties and halliards, which is unusual.  It is not stated whether jeers and ties/halliards were both used on the same yardarm, which seems redundant to me, but a single yard would have jeers OR ties/halliards.  James Sephton also believes both jeers and ties/halliards were probably used on SotS.  The fact that other aspects of the rigging were old lends weight to the conclusion that ties and halliards were used for at least some yard rigging of the yards on SotS, instead of heers for all yards.  Perhaps jeers were only used on the lighter yards.  I do not know, but this seems logical.  Payne's engraving shows ties and lanniards being used for the fore and main course sails.

 

Sometimes a ship's features can only be determined by context clues.  Some older style rigging arrangements used on SotS are shown below.  Which lines were belayed to where is lost to history fort this ship, however there are clues in Payne's engraving, which shows the typical rigging for a large ship at the time, but does not depict the actual rigging used on SotS because it was engraved before the actual ship was rigged.  It's all the info we have.   Some belaying points may be deduced from the engraving.  Payne's engraving has several shortcomings, including the fact that it does not show parrels for the heaviest yards and lateen yard on the mizzenmast.  We have to take our clues were we find them and let them guide our guesses.

 

Shroud cleats

Hitched to railings at the timberheads

Fore course yard tie is looped from yard to block to yard, with halliard rove through the block

This sketch from Robert C. Anderson suggests that jeers using single sheave blocks would have been used on lighter yards higher up than the course yards, and evidenced by his drawing of the crosstrees.  So, perhaps ties and halliards were reserved for the heaviest yards, pehaps including the topsail yards.

 

SotS may not have employed belaying pins, but lines were belayed to deck rings, railings, and kevels.

 

Rigging_Techniques HMS SotS.pdf

Edited 6 hours ago by DARIVS ARCHITECTVS

[72Nova]

The link on rigging techniques by Mr. Dressel and his beautiful model I've had for a while and refer to it often, my rigging will be based on a combination of James Lee's, RC Anderson and John McKay mainly for the construction of the masts and more detailed illustrations of the rigging, like everything else they all have their varying differences and can be quite vague at times, and one needs to interpret that in a logical way.

A few examples: bow sprit shrouds, Don mentions they weren't in use until around 1702, but Paynes engraving clearly shows them, yet Lee's and Anderson never mentions them, also in Paynes engraving all the running rigging runs down the bowsprit terminating in the beakhead area instead of running thru gammoning blocks and up to the fore castle/beakhead rails, what would they be belaying to? It's a fact that the Vasa had belaying pins in this area and seems quite logical to me that SOTS had them, again based on Paynes engraving.

Regarding the jeers, I've read of no instances of them being rigged on the upper yards, course yards on early bigger ships perhaps used two jeers with 3 single blocks, this the route I'll be taking. The picture you posted from Andersons showing the early English jeers can be confused for a trestle tree, but I interpret it as the floor of the lower top.

This is all good stuff and appreciate you taking the time to look and comment and I love the work you're doing on your SOTS. 

 

Michael D.

 

 

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

I'm confused why Don states that bowsprit shrouds and bobstays were not used on SotS.  Bowsprit shrouds are not to be confused with the shrouds for the bowsprit topmast.  Bowsprit shrouds on modern yachts run from the bowsprit to the hull on either side of the vessel, and prevent the bowsprit from bending to port or starboard.  Typically the aft end of the shroud is attached to the hull using a thimble and shackle to an eye bolt which goes through a chain plate that is bolted to the hull.  Take a look at my model of the Halcon of 1840.  There are two bowsprit supports on each side of the bowsprit.  One "guy" line starts at the tip of the bowsprit and runs to the dolphin striker where it splits into two guys which have tackles attached in turn to the hull (large arrow).  The other is a bowsprit shroud that runs from a collar at the base of the dolphin striker and runs to a tackle on either side of the hull, near the guy tackle (small arrow).  So, yes, SotS did not have bowsprit stays.

 

As to where the bowsprit running rigging was belayed, that is unknown.  Doris Obručová's model has a belaying pin rack located on either side of the beakhead (below).  Perhaps there were cleats on the deck or railings or kevels on the inboard sides of the beak.  We don't know.  Vasa had a pinrail on the beakhead deck.  Don Dressel rove running rigging lines through blocks fastened to the gammoning, and then up to the forward railing on the forecastle on his model, or directly from the blocks attached to the bowsprit, located foward of the spritsail yard but behind the bowsprit top, rearward to the forecastle railing.

Edited 5 hours ago by DARIVS ARCHITECTVS