Royal Louis 1780 by Ulises Victoria - FINISHED - Mamoli - Scale 1/90 - French 126-gun ship

[Ulises Victoria]

Thanks a lot, Nick. Really appreciate it. 

[Sjors]

Missed a lot but not to much 

Nice living room and nice guitars !

And now back to the building please.

Holliday's are over !

 

Sjors

[Karleop]

Vaya, vaya:

I did not know you had changed so far, for Villa de Santiago or for Arteaga?
For now I have no trip to Monterrey, but when I go there I talk to you.

 

Saludos, Karl

[Ulises Victoria]

1 hour ago, Karleop said:

Vaya, vaya:

I did not know you had changed so far, for Villa de Santiago or for Arteaga?
For now I have no trip to Monterrey, but when I go there I talk to you.

 

Saludos, Karl

El Alamo

[Ulises Victoria]

Hallo mates.

Well I can say that today, thursday 26 of July 2018 I officially re-started the building of my neglected Royal Louis. No photos yet as there is not much to show , but soon they will come.

What I left in process was placing the gunport covers. About 2/3 of the starboard side were done, so I am finished those pending to do in this side, and will continuie with the port side. It is hard to re-take something that was left incomplete after so many months. Have to use the same thread, paint, materials etc. You loose the inertia.

Once the gunports are done, I can start right off with the rigging... my favorite part of the build. Looking forward to it!!!

 

Cheers all.

 

[BANYAN]

Look forward to the updates UV

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Ulises Victoria]

Thank you Pat.

Some of you will cringe when reading this. 😬 The worst nightmare that a ship modeler can have, just happen to me!

 

Yesterday I was very excited working on my ship, finishing placing all those gunport covers, with their little hinges and the ropes used for lifting/lowering them...

I stand up and turn the other way to grab some tool and hear a loud crash. My heart stopped. I turn around and my ship was not at the table. It was on the floor.🤯

I stood there open mouthed for about half minute, not believing what just happened. I finally was able to take the hull and place it on my table, and silently went to my bedroom. I cried. 😢

My first reaction was to bag the damn thing and start a new project already. What the heck.🤬

 

Later, when I mustered enough courage, I went back to my workshop and assesed the damage. To be honest, considering the height and the sound of the crash I heard, the damage was actually minimal. A few hull cannons (5) broke. There was a crack in one of the bulwarks and a hand rail was loose. I think the worst part, was the rigging in a couple of deck cannons... worst because they are going to be the hardest to fix.

Yes, I decided I am going to fix it. I think if this had happened with masts and rigging in place, the damage would had been disastrous!

 

Trying to take a positive thing out of a disaster, considering the height of the table and the hardeness of the floor, this tells me that my ship is actually very well built. 

 

So... here's my today story. I started fixing already. Will keep you posted.

 

Cheers.

 

 

 

[fnick]

Hi Ulises. Think we all feel your pain... You've definitely done the right think by taking time out before deciding. And I also think you're doing the right thing by fixing the damage. Quicker than starting from scratch plus more satisfying. 

 

Youll be laughing about this in years to come...😀

Well that's my two pennies worth! Good luck with the repairs.

 

Nick

[Vinnie]

That sounds like a nightmare Ulises! I’m glad the damage isn’t catastrophic and you’ve decided to fix it. Looking forward to seeing pictures...

It stinks going back over old work. But like fnick said it’ll be a good laugh when she’s finished 😁

 

Vin

[GrandpaPhil]

I am so sorry to hear about the fall.  I am happy to hear that you are going to keep going.

 

 I lost the Heller La Reale de la France a couple of years ago.  It fell in storage smashing the stern decorations and breaking the masts (which were plastic anyways).  I ended up declaring it a total loss.  It ended up in a dumpster.  Bad day.

Edited July 27, 2018 by GrandpaPhil

[Sjors]

Ulises,

 

We are thinking of you and feel the pain with you.

 

Sjors and the Admiral ......

[marktiedens]

😢

 

Mark

[BANYAN]

😓 Glad to hear it was not a bigger disaster; I hope the heart has stopped racing.  I did not hit the like button for obvious reasons.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[ronald305]

sorry to hear about your Royal Louses  accident Ulises but I know you can get  fixed 

                               Ronald 

[zappto]

Hope you will fix it to even better condition! This is really sad thing like this happen;( Good luck!

[welshipmodel]

Thanks for the continual updates Ulises. Yours is a very inspirational project. Regarding the mishap, when this has happened during one of my projects (more than a few times through the years), and after the shock, then anger, then self-pity, and the emotions have made way for reason, I plan the work ahead to fix the damage, plan the work that I was going to complete before the damage, and then start; it's a healing process. Obviously, working on our projects should bring us joy, so just being able to work on them is part of it. I have no doubt that the ship model will be better than before, and the damage will soon be a distant memory.

[Ulises Victoria]

Thanks to all for your words of encouragement.

Repairs are done!!!

I'm actually amazed at the amount of damage (minimal) the ship sustained after that crash against the hard floor.

5 hull cannons broke form their supports and that was easily fixed with 2 ton epoxy.

A crack in the upper rear bulwark. This was filled with putty but never really dissapeared even after painting. An unglued handrail and that was it. What really impressed me was that not a single one of the already placed gunport covers came off. 

Unfortunately, patches show, so this ship is not going to win any contest, not that I plan to take it to a contest anyhow after this event. So this ship's destiny is to serve as one more adornment in my living room, where most of the visitors know nothing of shipbuilding and their comments are most likely like: Oh what a nice ship. ....You built it, really? ....Wow you must have a lot of patience... ok now what do you have to drink?

 

So I am already working on the ship where I left. Almost done with starboard side gunport covers. 4 left to do as of this moment. Then 33 on the other side, and I'm done with hull work. RIGGING NEXT!!!

 

Sorry no photos yet. To top it off my camera's battery depleted and for the life of me, can't find the battery charger. Understandable after a house moving!

Cheers all. Promise photos as soon as new charger arrives.

[GrandpaPhil]

Very nice!

[BANYAN]

Great to hear UV.  You can always spin the yarn that she shows the effects of battle damage (and you won ) 

 

cheers

 

Pat

[RussR]

15 hours ago, Ulises Victoria said:

Unfortunately, patches show, so this ship is not going to win any contest, not that I plan to take it to a contest anyhow after this event. So this ship's destiny is to serve as one more adornment in my living room, where most of the visitors know nothing of shipbuilding and their comments are most likely like: Oh what a nice ship. ....You built it, really? ....Wow you must have a lot of patience... ok now what do you have to drink?

I think model builders obese over a lot of details that most people just glance over.

The only one we have to please is ourselves, even other model builders.

 

If someone is able to pick out all of your flaws in your work, maybe they have been there to long.

[Ulises Victoria]

Update and an example of how Murphy's law works

I posted before that I could not post photos because my camera's battery depleted and with the house moving and stuff I couldn't find the charger. Well, the very day I received my charger replacement, I found my old charger... hahaha this is soooo funny! 🤬

 

Ok, after the crash described before, I made some repairs, and started working on my ship again.

As of today Aug. 15-18 I finished placing all the gunport covers. I placed them randomly open, closed or semi-closed to break monotony. Not sure how that worked haha.

 

With this I finish with the hull work and as of today I start with the masting and rigging process. Can't wait to start this area which is the one I enjoy yhe most!!! FINALLY!!!

 

I am posting some photos of the ship's present state and of my workshop which finally starts looking a bit more organized.

Thank you all for watching and as usual, comments are welcome.

 

 

 

 

[welshipmodel]

What damage?!

 

Beautiful workshop.

Edited August 15, 2018 by welshipmodel

[BANYAN]

Looks good UV; both the model and the workshop.  Must be good to finally be able to work with everything 'to hand' again?

 

cheers

 

Pat

[fnick]

Hi Ulises

 

You're going to have to circle the areas where the damage was because I can't find them!! Your RL is going to be something special when it's finished!

 

Nick

[Ulises Victoria]

Small update and my ropewalk machine

 

Hello all. Here is a small update on my RL build. I will show you also the machine I use for making ropes, its pros and cons.

 

I'll start with the machine:

 

This is a wide view of  the machine. It was made by a friend of mine who owns a metal-mechanic workshop.

I purchased the Byrnes and the Domanoff's. I spent a fortune on those, and to me, they don't make better rope than this one.

Con: It makes a fixed length of rope, so every time you make a rope you need to start all the threading process again.

 

Pro: The winding process starts by itself when the twisting of the threads is strong enough. This makes for a very tight rope.

        Since you use a single piece of thread for the whole process, the tension in all the threads or strands is the same, which makes a very even rope.

Photos hopefully will clarify this.

 

This hook is free to turn. You start the threading here.

 

This is the planetary set of gears and hooks.. You start at the first (above photo) hook, bring the thread to one of these hooks, return to the first hook, back to the second planetary hook and so on. One single thread used.= even tension.

 

This is the motor and band assembly. The switch allows for forward or backward turning to make left or right handed rope.

 

Here I am starting a 4 x 3 rope. This means that there are 3 lines of thread of 4 strands each. (Am I making any sense? ) (And sorry fuzzy photos)

 

What you see here is four threads in each hook, which makes for the 4 x 3 rope.

 

Here the rope starts to be made by itself, due to the tension generated by the twisting of the hooks. Since this process starts by itself when the tension is enough, this makes for a very tight rope.

 

Here is the result. This rope is actually made by 12 strands of thread. And you can put 4, 6, 8, strands per hook, making rope of very different sizes.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2018 by Ulises Victoria

[Ulises Victoria]

Update on the build. Making of the crownests. Photos are self explanatory, I think

 

By using a copy from the plans, I placed a small dent on the platfor with an awl, which allowed me to place the thin pieces of wood at the correct distance.

 

 

Terrible wood here, by the way.

 

 

Using magnets to press the sides.

 

And a rubber band

 

It's been said: you can never have too many clamps

 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2018 by Ulises Victoria

[BANYAN]

Your rope walk makes up some nice rope UV and those tops will look great when complete.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Ulises Victoria]

 

Thank you Pat 

[Ulises Victoria]

Small update. I just got a Dremel router table and a mototool stand.

I used the stand to cut the square sections of my main mast, using my Dremel as a router. I had to re-do the whole mast because the first attempt at cutting those squares by hand was a total disaster. In fact I had to turn in my lathe a new dowel to make a whole new mast.

 

Also the mast tops are finished.

 

[Kevin]

lovely work, nice to catch up on your projects again, i have been very quiet for the last couple of years doing non wooden ships and found it very hard to keep up with builds that i was previously following