La Reale de France by Ferrus Manus - Heller - 1/75 - the Sun King's finest ship

[Ferrus Manus]

Sorry for the delay in posting a reply. This is the current progress on the foresail, over the past week: 

I got the sheet belayed, the two pairs of martnets and buntlines in and belayed, and the reef tackle done. Up next is the clew line (and the main top toggles as a whole), the parrel lines/tackles, and a bunch of rope coils. 

Edited September 24 by Ferrus Manus

[Ferrus Manus]

Another issue: the painting I have largely based my decisions off of does not depict the ship with swivel guns, and neither do the diagrams in the Landstrom book. For this reason, I will instead be covering the railings with waistcloth. This should in theory make the railings less offensive to look at. The waistcloth will be a simple strip of red-painted silkspan, nothing fancy. 

[Ferrus Manus]

Hello boys, I'M BAAAAACKK!!!

 

I apologize for taking almost 2 months off of this project. I decided to work on two off-forum small projects during that time, a small tugboat and a tiny oyster lugger. Anyways, yesterday I managed to get the mainsail penciled in, cut out and riddled with the holes it will need for rigging, and bent to the main yard. I glued the yard to the mast and temporarily rigged part of the main lift. 

I temporarily put the ship's smaller boat onto the boat gallows so I could see how the boat and the sail interact. The boat ever so slightly fouls the sail, but I wanted the main yard to sit lower on the mast because otherwise it looked too high up off the deck. 

I probably won't rig the halyard until the reef points, blocks, and some other stuff is put in. 

[Ferrus Manus]

I also found a display spot right above the work area on a shelf. That means the ship will be looked at from the bottom up, which will expose some of the exquisite detail work to the eye, and hide some of the uglier deck details and the railings assuming I put waistcloth on. This also means I might be able to put an awning on the back of the ship without obscuring the gold supports and frame timbers. 

Edited November 12 by Ferrus Manus

[Ferrus Manus]

Another issue I would like to address right now instead of later is the oars. Multicolored oars are relatively rare in Reale models (and galley models in general). I could either paint them blue, white, red or any kind of wood color in their entirety. I will likely end up going with what's shown in the painting, which is dark blue oars in their entirety. 

[Ferrus Manus]

The fore parrels and associated tackles: 

How I set up the fore and main halyards and associated gear: 

many modelers forget to add a realistic amount of line in their rope coils. In reality, these ships would have been a mess of rigging on deck. 

 

 

Edited November 14 by Ferrus Manus

[Louie da fly]

Nice work, mate. Looking good.

 

Steven

[Ferrus Manus]

My last bits of progress on this model were the main tack lines and the main parrels. 

[Louie da fly]

So many ropes!

 

Steven

[Ferrus Manus]

The final display spot for the Reale, when it is eventually finished, will be right above my work area. 

I finished both sets of crows feet for the mainsail. 

I also figured out that if you align paper in a printer just right, and put the images in the center of a Google doc, you can print two-sided flags on one sheet of paper. This only works for flags that are bilaterally symmetrical on the left-right axis. I also tried printing flags on multiple types of silkspan, and this worked better. 

The first flag is the royal standard of the King of France, and the other three are the Royal Galley Corps standard. 

Other than that, digital galley-specific flags are ridiculously hard to find. I couldn't find a pennant version of the galley standard, nor could I find the actual flag of the Reale herself. I think the Heller-supplied flags are pretty much worthless and would detract from an otherwise not terrible model. 

[Ferrus Manus]

Yesterday and today, I made the main yard's braces and vangs, and finished the ship's rope coils. Thus ends the rigging phase of the Reale's construction. 

Both lee vangs are slack, which can't be seen in the photos. 

The next thing to do is make and mount the "decorative fabrics" of the Reale (the waistcloth, awning, flags, etc) probably starting with the awning. 

[Louie da fly]

Getting close to completion. Rigging is always a hassle (though at least it's a little less complex on a lateener). You've done a nice job.

 

Steven

[Ferrus Manus]

Albeit, there are over a hundred blocks and more that forty lines on this model. One of the most complex lateeners there is.

[Isaiah]

I haven’t been on MSW that much and had no idea you were building this. All the best with the rest of the build, I’ll be following along.

 

Have you made any progress on your Devin Collins?

 

 

[Ferrus Manus]

Kind of. I am rethinking what I will do for the hull, I am thinking glass reinforced plastic. I'll pick the build log back up at some point to explain.