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

[EricWiberg]

Marc, I am very interested in burying myself in this book! I am just about to cut in the cathead openings under the f'ocsle deck... and there is so much room for ornamentation/decoration on the beakhead bulkhead alone. 

 

I believe that Dassie had a comment to the effect that SR 1671 "was suddued, but very tasteful.."... ? And that concept changed with SR 1689, as you are showing. To be more precise, I will be curious if with SR 1671, they took advantage of every possible area, like simple door jambs, etc. to decorate.. and the allegories that the decorations were meant to convey.

 

The pictures that you have shown look like you can really see the details.

 

P.S. and I need to look back at what you did with parchment paper!

 

 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

I think that Dassie’s comments are wide-open to interpretation.  My take is that he was referring to the scale of the fully rendered sculptural work: the Four Seasons and Continental figures.

 

I think that by the time Puget is conceptualizing the ornament for SR (I read that she wasn’t fully decorated until 1675, or something like that), he had been chastened enough to reduce the scale of his sculpture work.  My operating assumption, here, is that Guy is correct in his research, which asserts that Colbert contracted Puget to complete the finished drawings for SR’s ornamental program.  By this time, Puget had soured on his experience with the State’s shipyards, but agreed to do the SR design work in exchange for a prime slab of marble and a commission at Versailles for what would become one of his most famous sculpture works - Milo of Croton:

 

https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/great-characters/pierre-puget#:~:text=For a long time%2C Puget,Andromeda (1675-1684).

 

Now, apart from the “vault,” aka the lower transom, which was remarked to be fairly plain in comparison to the RL’s winged-horse brackets and swaged garlands, I think SR was probably pretty well covered with ornament. 

[Hubac's Historian]

One thing that I think about, with regard to the “vault,” or the concave archway that the tiller enters through, is that this area may have had a painted frieze, as opposed to carved ornament.  Take a close look at the DR of 1680:

It isn’t exactly clear what’s happening just above the lower transom moulding, but it looks like it could be a painted frieze.  This was a known practice among Dutch ships of the 1660s.

 

IMO, this could be an example of more “subdued” ornament.  I like to imagine a frieze that captures the spirit of this LuBrun painting:

[Hubac's Historian]

Also notable in that stern portrait of the DR, is the way in which the lower “false balcony,” or stern counter (at the center of which the ship’s name is inscribed), nearly mimics the shape of this same area on Dutch ships of the same time period; up-turned ends, dipping in a gentle curve and then rising to a central arch.  This is the so-called Dutch “slingergist”.

 

I know I am mis-spelling this word, but phonetically it sounds like that.

Edited February 12 by Hubac's Historian

[EricWiberg]

Ahhh, thank you, Marc... even more things to think about for the future! My SR already seems more white than the original black (i.e. polystyrene revisions). what is some more white?!

[EricWiberg]

And the main structure of the beakhead bulkhead is complete. Finishing the timberheads and cap rail will be easy. I tacked the red gun port lids in place just for a visual aid. I was simply going to scribe them in, but an even simpler method is just to cut the openings in and drop the gun port lids in, and they will be closed anyways. I may make a little frame on the inside bottom of the f'ocsle deck that I can simply slide the catheads into when that time comes (2026?!).

 

That leaves the "decoration"... the monogram La Reyne cartouche over each door, a resin casting of the Central Arms of France positioned in the center between the two rails, the continuation of the broadside listons d'or onto the bulkhead drift rail. And of course, learning how to make an egg and dart moulding for the wide rail that mates with the top upper wale. And.... waiting for the Jan Pieper book to glean any further ideas! 

 

One note that might seem to border on heresy... I will NOT be adding any steps/ladders as the kit beakhead bulkhead has. First, it strikes me as nigh impossible to clamber up those steps up and steep and high bulkhead, especially in any kind of weather action... I would just use the doors! Second, I looked at drawings of Royal Duc and Royal Louis in the 1660's/70's time frame, and I do not see any steps. And I will have a large, flat and uninterrupted area for a field of fluer de lis....

 

After the cap rail/timberheads are in, I can fiddle with the ornamental items, but now I can turn most of my attention to finishing the head itself. Oh... and also finishing the bowsprit.

 

 

 

Oh - and thank you for zip ties! I had been using my 45 year old kit decks in the hull as I was checking for fit of the beakhead bulkhead and other items. I decided I better put the new decks that I will be using in place to check for fit, and zip ties helped tighten and hold everything in place.

 

[Hubac's Historian]

That’s a good bit of work to get where you are now, Eric, but the results are uniformly excellent!

[EricWiberg]

I needed to complete one final item before I could start refining the head... a solid base for my wooden bowsprit mast.

 

I sawed a fine slot in the base of the mast and inserted a piece of styrene to duplicate the tab on the kit mast. This tab snaps into a square of styrene attached to the front edge of the middle gun deck.... the kit slot for the bowsprit mast is faintly visible to the left of the white tab, showing that the mast base moved forward about 1 inch.

 

 

 

 

Then I used a laser level to make sure the base of the mast was locked onto the middle gun deck in the right position before I cemented the base in (I may even beef this up further with some ApoxieScuplt).

 

 

Finally... a rough template for the head is held in place... I have some adjusting to do! My goal... develop and fit as much of the head in advance as I possibly can.

 

 

 

Edited February 16 by EricWiberg

[Auger]

Good idea using the laser.

[Hubac's Historian]

That looks like a solid connection for the sprit-mast.  You can use appropriately sized 1/4-round styrene strip to make an entry coaming for the sprit-mast.  This will take up the gap around the sprit-mast base.  You can see this moulding on Michel’s model:

 

[EricWiberg]

Thank you, Marc.. and I believe that the other masts will - eventually - have such a coming around them as well?

 

Also, regarding the space between the upper and lower knees... was this always 1) completely open and filled with a carving, or 2) or was the gap not.open, but filled with a thinner board that carvings/frieze was then applied to?

 

I think the St Phillipe monograph suggests a thinner board in the gap that carvings are then affixed to?

[EricWiberg]

Here is that Plate from St Phillipe... at the bottom center (below the "A") is a straight on view of the head/cutwater. The plank labeled "c" is between the upper/lower knees and seems to indicate a thinner width board/plank... as opposed to there being nothing at all between the knees. 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Yes, these are the so-called mast coats.  I’ve fitted my main mast coat, so far, because I have established deck level there.

 

At this stage of the 17th Century, the trailboard is still a pierced fretwork. There are supporting connections between the upper and lower knees of the head in the form of through-bolts that run through the trailboard.

 

When I was making my trailboard, I struggled because I was trying to make a carving blank that fit perfectly in the space, which I then fretted out.

 

The simpler thing to do would have been to make a thin card template that fit the space, precisely, and use that as a tracing pattern on sheet stock.  Then, I could have fretted out the part while it was still supported in the sheet.  This is much easier and makes the possibility of breaking the trailboard - which I did - far less likely.

 

Of course, you could always simplify your life by leaving a solid backdrop, painted flat black in what would be the fretted out areas, and apply an ornamental trailboard to either side.

 

Depending upon how elaborate your design ends up being (framed all around, or not), you’re still likely making a fretted part X2.  Maybe easier, in the end run, to make one fretted piece just once.

[Hubac's Historian]

That is what the monograph is suggesting, but not what the model makers ended up doing.  At least not what I’ve seen of the Jose Tusset model of the SP, which is the fully masted version.

[EricWiberg]

Haven't been able to get any ship time for ten days!

 

After numerous tweaks, I finally settled on a cardboard template design for the cutwater. I need the cutwater to be 6.5mm at its thickest, so I used eight templates of various Evegreen sheet thickness to start laminating together.

 

 

Finally, I ended up with three main pieces... two outer pieces in the bottom of the photo are identical to the piece that I am holding, except that this piece has an extension tab added to it to allow me to insert the tab into the hull for greater strength (just like the kit design).

 

 

Finally, with the figurehead taped in place and the cutwater inserted into the hull through the stem extension piece......  I have a cutwater. Certainly there is a lot of faring and fine-tuning to do, but the basic structure is set. Having this in place will make designing the upper knee and head rails mucvh, much easier.

 

 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

She is a ship-in-motion!  Looks great, Eric!  I was wondering where you were 🤔

[Hubac's Historian]

Has the book arrived?

[EricWiberg]

The book has not! 

[Hubac's Historian]

Well, I am making progress in my reading.  A couple of general revelations:

 

The 24 drawing sets (stern, quarter and bow drawings) are fully reproduced copies of the same that are catalogued in a special volume of Jean Berain’s work from the mid-1680’s to the 1710’s.  On that basis alone - the book is worth the price of admission.  It is very nearly the same as seeing the original drawings themselves.

 

The second revelation is that the particular allegory of any given ship is only drawn for the stern, the quarter galleries and bow.  This means, in my interpretation, that all ornament in-between, is of a more general nature.  We’ve discussed this before, but this really sunk-in, lately.

Edited Thursday at 02:23 AM by Hubac's Historian

[EricWiberg]

Well, I am close to a hard stop on the cutwater/head templates.

 

The cutwater shape should be good to go. It doesn't make sense to fine tune it until the hull is glued together, as I have an aditional insert to thicken the stem. Those really need to be glued together tight and inserted into the hull before I can make any final modifications.

 

 

I think that I have a final shape for the top knee. The convex curve on the underside of the top knee matches the concave curve on the cutwater.

 

 

Finally, I made some spacer tabs that I temporarily glued to the cutwater/upper knee. These tabs maintain the precise spacing of 5.5mm that I have between the pair of bottom wales. I will have to do some precise carving to ensure a tight fit with the figurehead, but again... it doesn't make sense to do that until the hull and decks are actually glued together.

 

You make note the inlet that I cut into the top knee where it will fit into the back of the figurehead. I have hemmed and hawed on this, but it seems to be the only way to have the top knee have a tight fit to the back of the figurehead AND also follow the general sweep upward of the cutwater to where it terminates at the figurehead. 

[EricWiberg]

And that is it for the cutwater/head pieces for now. I cleaned up the upper knee; you will note that I left an extra long extension above the figurehead until the final assembly - better to be too long than too short!

 

The first photo shows both pieces inserted into the stem "thickener" that my left thumb is on. Based on the St Phillipe monograph, the Heller kit stem is too thin. So to get approximately the same thickness as the SP monograph, I needed to add 1mm thickness at the keel, tapering up to 4mm extra in the upper knee area.... the figurehead is not in its final position, of course.

 

 

The positioning in the photo below is not perfect, but I overlaid the Heller kit pieces on modifications to show that I was trying to get the head longer and lower... as Marc LaGuardia would say... that "Dutchy" look 

 

In my minds eye, this is the look that I was chasing after. Time will tell on how closely I was able to mimic that "Dutchy" look. One of the "Dutchy" characteristics seems to be that the rise of the cutwater is almost straight, at least until the gentle sweep up into the figurehead. I tried to add a bit of a curve on the cutwater, and also tried to bulk it up, anticipating that the extra mass up front would contribute to a longer and lower look. We will see when things start getting glued together!

 

Finally, a crude aprroximation of what the head will look like... sans tie wraps!

 

 

Edited Sunday at 12:25 AM by EricWiberg

[Hubac's Historian]

This all looks preliminarily very good, Eric.  Depending upon how you choose to make the transverse supporting knees that connect with the inside of the headrails (I made mine as one piece that saddled over the upper knee of the head), you may want to reduce the taper along the upper knee of the head.

 

There are hair bracket mouldings that frame the trailboard and continue to the buttressing knees below the hawsers.  You could choose to make the transverse headrail knees as port and starboard pieces that connect to your presently tapered upper knee.

 

What you’re trying to ensure, here is a reasonable run of the three headrails, converging at the forward scroll, whilr still maintaining enough space below the lowest headrail for the under-support of the headrail knees.

 

That’s a jumble of ideas, I know, but hopefully that makes sense.  It might be worth temporarily tacking your stem spacer and upper/lower knees in-place with Elmer’s glue (easily dissolvable in water), so that you can make a card pattern of the headrail trio - just to see how it will all resolve into the hull and at the forward end.  

[EricWiberg]

That makes a lot of sense, Marc... I will give it a try!