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

[EricWiberg]

Interesting drawing.. and great advice on sealing the edges of the template with CA... that really helps!

Edited January 17 by EricWiberg

[EricWiberg]

The starboard forward bulwark extension (cheek?) is almost done... ready for a bit of needle file work then planking on the inside. I am surpised at hoiw subtle it is, but it has to be this way to follow the edge of the top head rail. The first step, of course, was settling on a head design, and then I was able to create a head rail design (note that the middle and bottom head rails will NOT join the top head rail in a rosette at the forwqrd bulwark/cathead area... they will be feyed into the hull).

 

Then it was a relatively simple matter of wasting away with the Dremel....

 

 

 

 

Now it is just a clean up and making sure the plank lines are clean, etc. Again, I envisaged the cheeks as being much larger in appearance, but given the immutable lines of the hull and the head rail curve that they must follow, the actual cheek is small (to me eyes). However, this matches up with what I see on the St. Phillipe monograph and some drawings.

 

 

Marc LaGuardia had suggested having vertical framing pieces glued to the inside of the hull to attach the outer planks to... and then waste them away and plank over them on the inside. This was my only concern going in, but it turns out the cheek extension is actually very sturdy, even without the vertical framing pieces.

 

 

Edited January 18 by EricWiberg

[Hubac's Historian]

For fairing, in this instance, sandpaper around a dowel is your best friend, IMO.

[EricWiberg]

The starboard cheek is almost done. I tapered/planed the top wale thickness down as they wrap the cheek as I see on the St Phillipe monograph (I assume they tapered in thickness to easier bend around the round bow?).

 

 

I finished off the top of the cheek with a plank and scribed the planls inside/out.

 

 

Next step is to continue wasting away the port cheek so that I scribe the planks and apply a plank on top (cap).

 

 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Nicely done!

[EricWiberg]

The forward bulwark cheeks are essentially done. I will study other models/drawings to see if there is any trim or anything else to finish off the cheeks, but the plank scribing is done inside/out.

 

 

The bowsprit deck has been trimmed to fit the new cheeks, and I laid the beakhead bulwark on for a sense of what it will look like; of course, I am going to fabricate a completely new beakhead bulwark that fits inside the forward bulwarks (as opposed to overlapping the front edges of the beakhead bulwarks). I have to figure out how they would have the downward sweep of the cheeks meet the bowsprit deck.

 

 

Big picture, I think I will construct the head and head rails now as far as I can go, just to ensure precise fit after the hulls are painted and glued. A year ago, I got a replacement wooden deck kit for SR... I really do like the detail and figured it would save me plenty of time that would be spent painting the original deck. But first... I have to figure out exactly where the bowsprit would go through the bowsprit deck in order to maintain my 37 degree bowsprit steeve that I need for the overall head design.

 

In fact, I am now thinking that I may also construct the new beakhead bulkhead in advance, as well as the overall head and head rails. It's funny, as every decision like this seems like "one step forward, two steps back" in regards to painting the hull. However, as Marc LaGuardia has observed, "a large project is just a lot of smaller projects!..".

 

So it seems logical to me the more of these subassemblies that I get done now - and I can verify precise fit and appearance - the easier my life will be down the road in a few months.

 

 

 

Edited January 23 by EricWiberg

[Hubac's Historian]

Not to toot my own horn, Eric, but I could not have done it better myself.

 

I see your problem with the beakhead deck, which is two-fold:  the cheeks terminate below the deck, and with a shortened stem - the sprit-mast entry into this deck is now a little awkward.

 

Since you are going to construct a new beakhead bulkhead, anyway, my personal approach would be the following:

 

I would cut a rebate for the forward edge of the beakhead deck (between the port and starboard terminations of the cheeks) into the black plastic of the kit pressing.  It looks to me as though you can do this without also cutting into the white styrene of your replacement wales, so that this “cheat” will effectively remain hidden.  You’ll have to create new glue ledges for the after-portion of the beakhead deck, but that is an easy enough matter with some styrene strip.

[EricWiberg]

Ahh, that makes a lot of sense.... the rebate will allow the bowsprit deck to drop 1-2mm and be hidden by the edge of the wale... which is just what I am seeing on some models!

[EricWiberg]

As per Marc's suggestion, I cut two rebates in the ledge that supports the forward edge of the bowsprit deck. FYI... you may notice one of the three additional white locking pins that I added to the stem, as I felt that with all of my add-on work, the stem connection needed to be more robust.

 

And the bowsprit deck now snuggles in (the fit is actually very tight - in this picture, the deck is just sitting there with no downward pressure).

 

i have a friend making a wooden bowsprit mast for me on a lathe; he actually made a precise jig that will allow him to taper the mast to my target diameters (based on the St Phillipe monograph). If this works, all of my masts will eventually be made of wood.

 

In the meantime,  on to creating the beakhead bulkhead and the overall head structure.

 

[Hubac's Historian]

Yup, perfect!

 

I was re-reading through your log yesterday, just marveling at the three re-starts of this project.  I was thinking about how relatively easily you managed to disassemble your teenage efforts, without much damage.

 

That may be, in part, because you didn’t flatten the mating surfaces of the keel and stem.  Lucky for your re-build, but less good for your current project.

 

I always sand these surfaces flat so that I get a good mating, welded bond.  The coarsened surface from the paper grit melts readily.

 

If you double-stick some 150 grit to a hard, flat block (I use my steel ruler), with a few glancing swipes you might be surprised at how un-flat these joints really are.

Edited January 24 by Hubac's Historian

[EricWiberg]

That is a good reminder! I have NOT sanded those surfaces yet, but I will do that.

[EricWiberg]

The beakhead bulkhead. I made a number of measurements, and have cut several cardboard templates this morning. 

 

I am in no rush these next few days. It makes sense to simply look at the cardboard templates off and on for several days and and think "what could go wrong here..."?

 

I am leaning towards using 1mm thick sheet for the bulkhead... 2mm seems way to thick and harder too work with. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 27 by EricWiberg

[EricWiberg]

A big exhale, as it appears that the concept I have for the beakhead bulkhead might actually work.

 

First, I went through several iterations of a card template to find a design that fit in with the bulwark "cheeks" (extensions).

 

 

The next step was create an S-curve side profile for the beakhead bulkhead. I basically used the kit bulkhead S-curve;  as Marc LaGuardia has observed though, Dutch ships often had a slight bulge (baby bump?) forward at the bottom of the bulkhead, upwards to about halfway up the height of the door before it started curving aft again.. note the dotted line. The look is subtle, and I tried to keep it minimal. We shall see.

 

 

The next step was to use that paper contour to develop three 2mm thick ribs that that styrene bulkhead would be glued to and thus the bulkhead would assume that S-curve profile. Again, the ribs basically match the kit S-profile, except for the very small bulge at the base of each rib.

 

I used 0.25mm thick styrene sheet for the bulkead, as I figured that paper thin styrene would follow the contours of the ribs much easier than thicker styrene sheet. I can easily bulk up the bulkhead with additional strips on the inside where no one will see.

 

 

All three ribs are glued on to the bulkhead... of course, much of the rib structure will be wasted away by my  Dremel.

 

 

Finally, the bulkhead simply laying in place..

 

 

Now the real fun starts. I will NOT create two gun ports at the bowsprit deck level... with my bulwark cheek extensions wrapping around, they would be useless. I may put two gun ports on the next deck up, the upper gun deck. Finally, I am also leaning towards four forward facing circular gun ports on the quarter deck, though I don't see a need to arm them. Oh - since my catheads will  not be laying on the quarter deck, there will also be no interference there (the catheads will be attached to the bottom of the quarter deck beams).

 

Finally, I will plank the bulkhead. Pretty sure that I will use clinker planking (where the planks overlap), as Marc has noted that this seems to be another characteristic of the Dutch... a possible reason for this mught be that clinker planking would be more waterproof than carvel planking in a location like the beakhead bulkhead.

Edited February 2 by EricWiberg

[Hubac's Historian]

I really like what you’ve laid out here, Eric.

[Hubac's Historian]

So, on Beckmann’s Tre Kronor log, I encountered the following title:

I decided to make an INVESTMENT in the hope that a clearer image of my “Gilded Ghost” portrait might show up in these pages.

 

I was not so naive to think this was likely, though, and bought the book primarily on Beckmann’s recommendation of it.

 

Unlike most books that focus on the 17th Century French navy - it’s organization, material resources and administration - this book focuses on the ships, themselves.  More specifically, it focuses on the ornamental programs of specific ships and draws parallels between the architecture of the ships and their land-based counterparts.  This is really an in-depth continuation of Pieper’s Floating Baroque.

 

So, despite my mild disappointment at not finding my elusive ship portraits, the book has proved to be well-worth the price of admission!

 

There are so many stern/quarter/bow portraits, all reproduced in crystal-clarity.  Pieper’s insights into the allegorical composition of each vessel’s ornamental program are invaluable - particularly for someone like me who has designs on reconstructing a monumental allegory for Soleil Royal 1670.  The whole thing has to hang together in a coherent fashion.

 

The real gem of the book is a plan-set created by Pieper, himself.  He grew up a huge fan of the TinTin series, and he has drafted a coherent and highly detailed plan of the fictional La Licorne - a French 3rd rate from the time of Colbert’s first building program - that more rigorously adheres to what is known and understood about vessels from this time period.  It is all beautifully drawn, and from these plans, one could produce a highly plausible model of this time period.

 

I may have purchased the last available copy, for the moment, but it is well-worth looking for, if these things interest you.  The title only comes in German, however, I had such great success reading Versailles de Mer through Google Translate, that I decided to take the plunge.  I was rewarded for my bet, as the book translates with nuance and perfect clarity, using GT’s photo capture function on my phone.

 

Anyway, I thought this would be of general interest to all.

Edited February 5 by Hubac's Historian

[EricWiberg]

Marc, that does look like a fascinating book... and you are right - I can't find a single copy for sale!

[EricWiberg]

Since I have to wait for some glue to dry.. a quick update. My "proof of concept" beakhead bulkhead is in the garbage; it served its purpose, but there were some things that I wanted to correct.

 

 

The first lesson was for me to make the bulkhead in two parts, and then attach them together as one piece. Also, the S-curve side profile wasn't quite what I wanted, so I started again with the lower half of the bulkhead. This strikes me as much better. The planking you see is not the finished planking, but what I would call "strength" planking to thicken the bulkhead and keep it from flexing.

 

 

I also started drilling the bowsprit hole in the bowsprit deck. I still have a ways to go in gently shaving the hole into an oval shape, but I realized I better fasten some styrene pieces on the underside of the deck to strengthen the deck before I started to make the ellipse any larger. If I have calculated correctly, the bowsport will just kiss the very bottom of the beakhead bulkhead; maybe, maybe not!

 

Now on to starting the top half of bulkhead - and I can also start framing the doors. My doors will be closed, so I don't care about the framework and support brackets on the inside of the hull showing up.

Edited February 4 by EricWiberg

[Hubac's Historian]

Agreed that that’s a much better shape to the lower half of the bulkhead.

[Hubac's Historian]

La Licorne in 1:36

 

Apart from the wale sheer being far too flat, I don’t see much to disagree with, here.

[EricWiberg]

Good day for a snowstorm!

 

A lot of fiddle work now... not sitting at the model for hours, maybe 10 minutes at a time making adjustments and letting glue dry.

 

Applied the lower rail, and it matches up with the upper wale of the two top wales. This will eventually have an egg and dart molding on it, but I have plenty of time to study what Marc LaGuardia did on his build log.

 

I am slowly building the doors and the frames, then I will clinker plank the lower half. I still have to cut openings for the catheads, four circular gun ports on the f'ocsle, and two gun ports on the upper gun deck. Slowly but surely...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hubac's Historian]

It’s coming together nicely, Eric!  One observation: at the beakhead deck level, your door framing is barely proud of the base planking.  This means that the clinker planking would protrude from the door framing.   It may be beneficial to pad the leading edges of those door frames with 1/32” styrene strip.

[Hubac's Historian]

If you are searching for some form of ornament to place over your door headers, a la La Reyne:

You could extract the monogram cartouche from LeBrun’s frieze sketches:

These would tie-in nicely with the central arms of France that you made a resin casting of, earlier.

 

I would likely carve this in styrene, but it could also be fashioned from modeling clay.  I think one approach, there, could be to do a scale drawing to the exact size and outline that you want.  Paste that drawing to anything (scrap wood, even a ceramic plate).  Cover the drawing with a piece of packing tape that the clay won’t stick too aggressively to.  And then, work a daub of clay until it confirms to the underlying outline.  Model details from there.

[EricWiberg]

Marc, thank you for the observations! I was actually studying the La Reyne drawing when your second reply popped up, as I couldn't figure out what was above the doors.... the Coat of Arms in the center is easy via resin casting, but I couldn't figure out if I was seeing animal heads or what above the doors.

 

Also, there is something - for lack of a better term! - "squiggly" on the door frames that I was thinking of duplicating. I think I will clinker plank first to see exactly what I have to add to the door frames, and then apply the "squiggly" on top of that. Perhaps they are just some acanthus leaves twined together?

 

I will also look at somew other drawings and models to see...

[Hubac's Historian]

Foliage is always a safe bet, when in doubt.

[EricWiberg]

The clinker planking on the beakhead bulkhead is done. Now just the finishing touches and carefully trimming the plank edges for the best fit, and finishing the other woodwork before progressing to the upper bulkhead.

 

So far, so good, though I am pretty sure the French carpenters would have finished their clinker planking before my miniature planking was half done!

 

 

[Marcus.K.]

On 2/4/2025 at 4:58 PM, EricWiberg said:

Marc, that does look like a fascinating book... and you are right - I can't find a single copy for sale!

You may purchase it via the publisher:

 

https://www.geymueller.de/de/978-3-943164-45-9

 

... and it´s really a beautiful reference for ships that age! 

 

By the way: I am a silent follower of this thread - and since I added here something let my add how much I admire your work here!! 

Beautiful and amazing !! 

[EricWiberg]

Marcus, thank you for the compliment, but especially the link to this book!

[Chapman]

On 2/4/2025 at 4:58 PM, EricWiberg said:

Marc, that does look like a fascinating book... and you are right - I can't find a single copy for sale!

Hi Marc & Marcus

thanks for mentioning this book which I didn't know about.
I was able to order it from Geymüller Verlag on account.

 

Edit: The book arrived today. I think the book will help to better understand what you can see in terms of decoration in the v.d.Velde drawings of the early ships of Louis XIV. And even better, as they are better documented, are the Berain drawings of the decoration. They are reproduced in the book really clearly and true to scale in 1:75.

 

Joerg

Edited February 12 by Chapman

[EricWiberg]

1) Marc and Marcus.. I also ordered the book. I will actually hold off on decoration details until I can get the book

2) got a bowsprit made from wood! Using the St Phillipe monograph as a guide, a woodworking friend designed a jig for his lathe to reproduce all of the SR masts/yards sometime in the future. 

 

Now that I have a bowsprit, I can finished the bulkhead and pivot to the head. I really beefed up the support structures for the bowsprit deck... the bowsprit now will go into the middle gun deck some 20mm ahead of where it anchors in the kit; a simple "foot" that attaches to the middle gun deck should accomplish that.

 

Oh.. starting to put in the two gun ports on the upper gun deck facing forward.  It makes sense to me to have them open by swinging sideways as I have seen in some models/drawings, as the cathead beams will be slung above them. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 12 by EricWiberg

[Hubac's Historian]

Good morning, Eric!

 

Your bowsprit mast looks very good - a definite improvement over the kit.  Assuming you will eventually paint it, you may find that “parchment paper” cut into appropriate width strips, makes excellent stock for the woolding moulds that bracket each woolding.  I put parchment in air quotes because what I am referring to is actually a fairly heavily weighted paper that you can find in STAPLES.  I used this paper to cut the letters for my Nec Pluribus Impar banner on my lower transom.  Great stuff!

 

It is great that you have ordered the book.  You will not be disappointed.  Mr. Pieper provides so much insight into the development of sailing ships, architecturally, what the actual process of construction was that is illustrated in the Album de Colbert, and of course, the specific ornamental programs - their composition and allegorical significance.

 

Consider Le Argonaute of 1711, rendered toward the end of Jean Berain’s career and life:

Apart from my reflected overhead light, the clarity of the rendering is absolutely crystal clear.   All of the conventions of Berain’s ornamental style, with his paneling and compartmentalization of the classic symbols of the crown are in their best and most fully developed style.

 

Even in 1711, there remain some elements of the early style with symbols of heraldry and the implements of war bracketing the quarter pieces and taffrail.

 

Contrast Berain’s relative restraint with Puget’s exuberance in the mid-to-late 1670’s:

A sculptor in marble, first and foremost, the application of Puget’s talents to ship sterns was largely influenced by the architectural style of the land buildings he witnessed while carving many of his most famous marble sculptures, in Genoa.

 

Upon his arrival in Toulon, he must have been overjoyed to be tasked with filling the monumental stern facades of the largest ships, like the Monarque, with relatively huge statuary:

As has often been discussed, these large sculptures were a hindrance to the ship’s navigation.  After several years of continual castigation, on the part of Colbert and the intendants at Toulon, Puget was persuaded to reign it in, a bit.

 

The Royal Louis is probably the best example of what the ornamental style for these two great capital ships looked like.

 

A rough drawing of the scheme for the RL, probably by LeBrun:

And the finished drawing, likely by Girardon:

In contrast with the more compartmentalized and architectural style of Berain, there is a stronger reliance on foliate forms to organize the allegory and give it shape:

You see this very prominently in Le Souverain of 1678:

 

All of these elements coalesce, by degree, into Berain’s re-working of Puget’s initial design for Soleil Royal.  Structurally, the stern and quarters would have been somewhat taller and more narrow, perhaps, but the allegory would have been largely the same.

 

John Ott’s glorious infographic:

So, obviously, that’s quite a lot to wrap your head around!  The book will be a great help, though, as you familiarize yourself with the particularities of French style.

Edited February 12 by Hubac's Historian