Soleil Royal by EricWiberg - Heller - 1/100 - PLASTIC - started 45 years ago

[EricWiberg]

Ahhh, this summer weather and outdoor activities - too many to count! - are minimizing the time that I spend in the basement working on SR. Winter will be here soon enough....

 

A brief post, as I am wrapping up work on Trophy Of War #11... one more TOW to go.

 

 

 

 

[EricWiberg]

And there is TOW #12.. designed to fit into this small space..

 

 

Here is a broadside view, with the TOW's in no particularorder. Toward the stern, where the wales sweep up, I will use a 0.5mm thick backing plate (that matches the wale thickness) to sit the TOWs directly on the wale...

 

[Hubac's Historian]

I can see the appeal of having the trophies stay in-line with the run of the ports, but I am thinking that these ornaments would not cross the wales on the aft two ports.

 

On the DR of 1680, as the wales are cut by the ports, albeit not to the same degree, the ornaments remain on the planking between wales:

 

[EricWiberg]

Marc, that picture is very helpful! 

[EricWiberg]

Work is very slow, as college soccer season is in full swing... and there aren't many boating days left, so you have to enjoy them while you can!

 

The last decorations I really have to make are the dolphin hance pieces. I have two drops in the railing at the aft of the ship, so I need four dolphins. I created two dolphin hance pieces over a year ago, but I created those free-form and I think that I can do a lot better.

 

One of the key things that I have learned, especially by watching what Marc LaGuardia does, is to have a template. Months ago, I finally drew a template when I was designing the new head for SR 1671, and it made the process much easier. So I have been using templates whenever possible since then.

 

I found a dolphin in a fountain at Versailles that I really liked, and I created a drawing (using the exact dimensions of the railing).

 

 

 

I cut out a very rough template to check the fit, and was satisfied.

 

 

Now the thing that I need most is patience, as I really have to let the ApoxieSculpt dry overnight, else all is ruined. You can see my original hance piece from last year (bottom of the picture), and the scale will be much better. The half-piece at top has been built up with two thin layers of ApoxieScuplt on the 0.5mm thick Evergreen template. I am trying to add some subtle details, like lines and fish scales... if they don't dry overnight - they are lost!

 

 

The tweezers is holding onto a tiny 1mm thick disc glued to the body stock. This will allow me to offset the tail from the main plane of the body, like the foundtain dolphin at Versailles. It will realistically take me another 3-4 days of work to finish this first one - 15 minutes of work, then 16 hours of drying! However, once I have the process down, I will just build the other three hance pieces together, step by step. 

 

 

Note below the original template, which is one piece. I quickly found that it worked much better if I seperated the body from the tail, then added the tail at the end.

 

 

Edited Thursday at 03:44 PM by EricWiberg

[Hubac's Historian]

That’s a nice creative solution to enhancing the 3-D appearance of the dolphins.

[EricWiberg]

I am pleased how the prototype dolphin hance piece is coming along... I was able to attach the offset tail. Of course, working on the hance piece is a lot like an NFL game; 5 minutes of action in 60 minutes of time.

 

 

 

At least I was able to start the assembly line process. Honestly, I am putting in 5-10 minutes of time on each hance piece, and then drying for at least 8 hours - depending on the thickness of the ApoxieSculpt coat.

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Wow - these are a tremendous improvement over earlier efforts, Eric!  I like how you did the scale detailing.