Soleil Royal- Re-engineering Artesania Latina's New Kit by NMBROOK

Hi El Capi

Full instructions are downloadable on Artesania's website and yes the hull as designed is just plain wrong.

Kind Regards

Nigel
 
It is my understanding that the bow and stern chase ports were only armed with the adjacent broadside cannons, and only as needed. The matter is confused by the fact that even the best marine artists almost always show these ports armed.

At the time of the refit, I believe that the lower deck battery was reduced from 16 piercings to 15, with 14 ports armed. This allowed for better and more efficient operation of the guns, while opening the door to the experiment with the massive 42lb guns. After 1692, the vestigial “hunting port” disappears altogether, which is one characteristic of the 2nd Marine that is displayed on Tanneron’s model.

104 Guns should be correct for Barfleur. I question Lemineur’s assertion of 8 forecastle guns, though. I suppose there could be two forward-facing guns on the forecastle deck, itself, but I go back to the practical argument for needing working and recoil space between adjacent guns.

The ship does look lovely in the garden, though!
 
Well I have purchased another Blue to give it a try.Undecided as to whether my painted area may need few light coats of white before applying, given the.dark background.
Lengthy discussion with shop owner firstly regarding introducing a white undercoat before applying paint but then she informed me that her first job was working on the restoration of HMS Warrior.

Kind Regards

Nigel

IMG_0326.jpg
 
Hubac’s Historian said:
It is my understanding that the bow and stern chase ports were only armed with the adjacent broadside cannons, and only as needed. The matter is confused by the fact that even the best marine artists almost always show these ports armed.

At the time of the refit, I believe that the lower deck battery was reduced from 16 piercings to 15, with 14 ports armed. This allowed for better and more efficient operation of the guns, while opening the door to the experiment with the massive 42lb guns. After 1692, the vestigial “hunting port” disappears altogether, which is one characteristic of the 2nd Marine that is displayed on Tanneron’s model.

104 Guns should be correct for Barfleur. I question Lemineur’s assertion of 8 forecastle guns, though. I suppose there could be two forward-facing guns on the forecastle deck, itself, but I go back to the practical argument for needing working and recoil space between adjacent guns.

The ship does look lovely in the garden, though!
Click to expand...

I am beginning to wonder as to whether the two ports each side below the Poop actually existed.I know they are in the Vary work but my train of thought is that they were only in place on Royal Louis.I disagree with Lemineur's 8 guns on the forecastle.Given the fact that the Anchor Bitts straddle the deck, the Chase guns would be nearly central firing into the rigging.Only way around that would be Bitts that echo those on Saint Philippe and are cranked to follow the side rail.
Decisions,decisions ROTF

Kind Regards

Nigel
 
Truthfully, Nigel, there may not be any way to know for sure. Because Soleil Royal and the Royal Louis were built to be the flagships of their respective ports and carry virtually the same armament, I am inclined to extrapolate that SR also carried the 4 guns on the poop.

Marc Yeu may have some hard data to back this up, though.
 
Hubac’s Historian said:
Truthfully, Nigel, there may not be any way to know for sure. Because Soleil Royal and the Royal Louis were built to be the flagships of their respective ports and carry virtually the same armament, I am inclined to extrapolate that SR also carried the 4 guns on the poop.

Marc Yeu may have some hard data to back this up, though.
Click to expand...

I am sat on the fence to the extent I have created a list for Kris to look at that leaves me with options.It makes sense to have these made in one batch.I may end up with more cannons than I require but by the time I have I have paid out for shipping and taxes it makes sense rather than buying additional cannons
 
NMBROOK said:
Hi El Capi

Full instructions are downloadable on Artesania's website and yes the hull as designed is just plain wrong.

Kind Regards

Nigel
Click to expand...
Yes, I know it. I have about two PARTS downloaded -in german, which are perfect for me -, but as I am not building anymore I stopped. I agree with you, that there are many mistakes in this build and many failures.
In the ad, DeAgostini are saying it is of Museum quality, but THET cannot be father away
I AM A BID OF ENENY of DeAgostini. Alone or together with Altaya too. My last build was in fact the SOLEIL ROYAL -MANUFACTURED BY Occre. This new one is apparently from Artesania Latina-Spain too and sold as a complete packet
I have been asked by some in the management to publish the Occre model together with some of my experience of 55 years building from KIT. why only from KITS. the reason is that I am a PURE amateur, meaning that my tools are gown to a minimum. the only mechanical and electric tools I have are 4 Dremels. one fixed upside down, another vertical and then two batteries driven ones. on my mother's side they were all fishermen -6 uncles with one with there own Kutter in North Denmark. the port where they lived had even its own boat building factory, so from an early stage, I learned well to use steam. my father and little brother were carpenters with a nice tool room
Sorry for the long stoory- el capi
 
Last edited:
I chemically stripped the blue of then repainted in the new shade after applying two coats of white Acrylic first.There are eleven thin coats of Blue on this part and still have some tonal variation which I quite like.
I think there is scope to use a Shadow coat when I get to painting the full hull to add depth and interest to the blue on the hull.

The Beak deck has been trimmed back.The cutouts each side are for where the hull planking will wrap around.

Kind Regards

Nigel

IMG_0335.jpgIMG_0336.jpgIMG_0337.jpgIMG_0338.jpg
 
I can see, now, that this lighter blue will work better over such a broad expanse of the model. I really like the idea of a washcoat to add depth and shading. I also think it may be sharp looking to use the first, darker blue selectively as a backdrop to important ornament.

Have you decided what color you will paint the wales? Here is a screen capture of what one person did with the Heller kit. It is very striking:

D823E8EB-81E0-44AE-AE08-3CA421694575.png

My personal preference would be to black the wales up to the main deck level, and then do the drift rails, above, in gold.
 
This is an interesting portrait of Barfleur by, I believe, Peter Monamy in the Glasgow museum collection:

1652533722354.jpeg

SR is unloading her starboard broadside into Britannia. It is a fascinating portrait for a variety of reasons: it appears to affirm the hunting port on the lower main battery, the French topmasts are exceptionally long, and the height of the stern is notable.

I have contacted the museum collection for better quality prints of the portrait, but this apparently is not part of their digital collection, available to re-print.

If anyone has better quality images of this portrait, I would love to see it. Or, for that matter, this VdVelde portrait of Barfleur:

1652534433787.jpeg

I still have no idea where this portrait currently resides. It sold in London in the early 80’s, to someone residing in St. Malo, but it hasn’t been seen since then.
 
I have a cunning plan Marc regarding how I will vary the tone of the Blue;)

My intention with the Wales was natural boxwood varnished as per the beakhead bulkhead rather than painted.I think the lower Wales only in black and the uppers in a different colour and not hull colour( as you would with a natural wood hull) may look strange.I can mock up at that stage as there will be rebates for the Wales and the blue will be painted before fitting these.
 
Oh, interesting! So, you will be doing what Drazen did on his Provincien, where he used styrene spacers for the wales? This is an excellent method for delineating a super-crisp line.
 
I was hoping to update last weekend with some outdoor shots but the Heavens opened.Nothing major to show other than some more first layer planks being fitted anyways you haven't missed much

Three things to add;
Artillery has been ordered from Kris at SZKUTNIK.These will be 3D printed but will be a couple of months as his printer is currently flat-out.This is no concern as I have a heap of work to do before fitting out the lower gundeck.

Frustration with the variation in width and thickness off the AL birch planking I had in my stash as resulted in me ordering 100metres of 5 X 2 mm Lime planking for the next layer.This is 0.5mm thicker than intended deliberately as I will have lost material sanding the first layer down (some of the strips were nearer 1.5mm thick rather than the 2mm they were supposed to be:mad:I will also be happier with continuous planking runs over the 3mm thick bulkheads below the lower gun deck,rather than having joints

More boxwood sheets have been ordered for various applications on the model.I need to get these when available as stock at my supplier varies due to availability.Downside is, it ain't cheap

Kind Regards

Nigel
 
NMBROOK said:
Marc that is an excellent question and the answer to which I have not decided. I will see what the structure is like once together. If I do it will be with softwood as I find balsa a pain as it sands too easily and you can get dips or flat spots between bulkheads unless you use fine sandpaper. Not only that, but it doesn't hold pins so you loose the ability to pin anywhere you want as you do with softwood.

Kind Regards

Nigel
Click to expand...
I use 'hard' balsa which will take pins, for fill-in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top