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HMS Sovereign of the Seas - Bashing DeAgostini Beyond Believable Boundaries

I;ve been working on the edge decorations where the stern meets the aft edge of the sides of the hull, blending two styles of decoration between the Payne engraving and the Lely Painting. The styles of decoration are quite different and they meet at these vertical edges of the sterncastle. This blending has taken a considerable amount of though, with preference being for the Payne style for my model. Payne has simple motifs whereas Lely has elaborately detailed carvings with more organic curves.

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wesome work , but what is that sign on the Computer screen ? ROTF
History lesson - the Butt Trumpet: That's a real medieval symbol on a tavern sign in the computer game "Kingdom Come Deliverance II". The symbol is real. It's an icon that was occasionally used by book copyists on the borders of a page when the copyist is criticizing the author of the text being copied. The meaning is thereby obvious. Illuminators making margin artwork on manuscripts and books used such criticisms disguised as artwork. A politically critical cartoon could even lampoon the King in the margins without drawing the ire of the King, because its meaning is subtle and often unnoticed.
 
History lesson - the Butt Trumpet: That's a real medieval symbol on a tavern sign in the computer game "Kingdom Come Deliverance II". The symbol is real. It's an icon that was occasionally used by book copyists on the borders of a page when the copyist is criticizing the author of the text being copied. The meaning is thereby obvious. Illuminators making margin artwork on manuscripts and books used such criticisms disguised as artwork. A politically critical cartoon could even lampoon the King in the margins without drawing the ire of the King, because its meaning is subtle and often unnoticed.
Interesting, that's even in the Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno, Canto XXI, line 139), the demon leader Malacoda uses his rear end as a trumpet, "ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta," to signal his troop of devils. This vulgar gesture subverts military authority into grotesque medieval humor.
 
Continuing work on the stern brackets and rails surrounding the stern decorations. Some thought had to be given to the curvature of the transom, which appears to be a subtle outward curve. This curve was approximated and reflected in the shape of the parts. The parts are shown in perfect symmetry below, revealing areas of assymetry in the background painting.
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The basis of this shape was taken from a later painting of the Sovereign and its pinnace below. Also, several lines in the Lely painting, although the view is directly toward the stern, shown curves which imply at the curvature of the transom. Other vessels depicted in Willem Van de Velde the elder's famous drawings show a similar feature in other ships.
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The vines above the winged Victory on the stern were modeled. Next is the border moulding around the vine and the plumes above Victory. The plumes are not flat decorations but arc under base of the stern lantern, so getting their shape right in 3-D will be guesswork.
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I've come up with a few designs, if you're interested.
 
I've come up with a few designs, if you're interested.
Yeah. I was just looking at them 30 minutes ago. Haven't forgotten you. Your models have a lot more detail. Are they done with help from AI or hand crafted with you pushing the mouse around? I was thinking of eventually buying a set of Sovereign models from you just to have them.
 
Yeah. I was just looking at them 30 minutes ago. Haven't forgotten you. Your models have a lot more detail. Are they done with help from AI or hand crafted with you pushing the mouse around? I was thinking of eventually buying a set of Sovereign models from you just to have them.
Created by hand using a 13-inch Huion graphics tablet and Blender; however, I do use AI to generate the final rendered images.
 
The vines above the winged Victory on the stern were modeled. Next is the border moulding around the vine and the plumes above Victory. The plumes are not flat decorations but arc under base of the stern lantern, so getting their shape right in 3-D will be guesswork.
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Hi Kurt
In my personal opinion, those elements are identical because that creates a balanced visual geometry. I think you might be doing more work than necessary, I’m not saying this to criticize, but just to save you some trouble: if you create a model on the right, you only need to mirror it and place it on the left. That’s just my opinion, though; ultimately, it’s up to you how you create them. Or maybe I'm just wrong! Who knows?. Either way, you're putting in a lot of effort and doing a great job and you know that goes without saying.
Regards and cheers my friend!!!!
 
Hi Kurt
In my personal opinion, those elements are identical because that creates a balanced visual geometry. I think you might be doing more work than necessary, I’m not saying this to criticize, but just to save you some trouble: if you create a model on the right, you only need to mirror it and place it on the left. That’s just my opinion, though; ultimately, it’s up to you how you create them. Or maybe I'm just wrong! Who knows?. Either way, you're putting in a lot of effort and doing a great job and you know that goes without saying.
Regards and cheers my friend!!!!
That's very true; Blender has a mirror modifier option where you simply create the left or right side and then reflect it onto the opposite side—this applies to models that are identical on both sides.
 
Hi Kurt
In my personal opinion, those elements are identical because that creates a balanced visual geometry. I think you might be doing more work than necessary, I’m not saying this to criticize, but just to save you some trouble: if you create a model on the right, you only need to mirror it and place it on the left. That’s just my opinion, though; ultimately, it’s up to you how you create them. Or maybe I'm just wrong! Who knows?. Either way, you're putting in a lot of effort and doing a great job and you know that goes without saying.
Regards and cheers my friend!!!!
Hi @Jacapa412 ! Your input and criticism is always welcome. I wish more members would make comments like this, because our conversation will serve other builders. For the vines and other features, mirroring them is of course the easiest, however I chose to make the vines asymmetrical on purpose to match them to the Lely painting a bit better. The pianting has symmetry size issues, but the individual carvings of vines and other similar items are not perfectly symmetrical in shape and detail as well as size. This may be due to the actual appearance of the carvings port and starboard, or it may be due to the asymmetry made by the painter. I had to make a choice, and since it seemed likely that the vine carvings would be different from port to starboard, I modeled them as they are in the Lely painting. The sizing asymmetry is a known factor. The vines, for example, should fill a space which has the same overall shape and size, port to starboard.

The truth is, we can never fully trust even the most detailed historical images like the Payne Engraving or the Lely Painting completely. We are still forced to make educated guesses as to how to detail our models. Assumptions have to made when departing from the shape proportions of a source. My modeling skills cannot create the details that SeaModels 3-D models have, but the small size of the final printed decorations makes many of the smnallest details irrelevant to the viewer.
 
Hi @Jacapa412 ! Your input and criticism is always welcome. I wish more members would make comments like this, because our conversation will serve other builders. For the vines and other features, mirroring them is of course the easiest, however I chose to make the vines asymmetrical on purpose to match them to the Lely painting a bit better. The pianting has symmetry size issues, but the individual carvings of vines and other similar items are not perfectly symmetrical in shape and detail as well as size. This may be due to the actual appearance of the carvings port and starboard, or it may be due to the asymmetry made by the painter. I had to make a choice, and since it seemed likely that the vine carvings would be different from port to starboard, I modeled them as they are in the Lely painting. The sizing asymmetry is a known factor. The vines, for example, should fill a space which has the same overall shape and size, port to starboard.

The truth is, we can never fully trust even the most detailed historical images like the Payne Engraving or the Lely Painting completely. We are still forced to make educated guesses as to how to detail our models. Assumptions have to made when departing from the shape proportions of a source. My modeling skills cannot create the details that SeaModels 3-D models have, but the small size of the final printed decorations makes many of the smnallest details irrelevant to the viewer.
Hi Kurt
I completely agree with you regarding the level of detail on the figures and ornaments; at the scale we’re working in, it would be impossible to replicate the minute details Gustav is creating on his website, though his work is excellent, of course. If a modeler decided to scratch-build a model at a larger scale, then those highly detailed figures of his would certainly be worth using. Besides, he is replicating larger figures, whereas the work you’re doing is much more complex and painstaking because it involves capturing all those details. I’ll be here waiting to see the final result!! I hope you don’t give up! Hahahaha.
Cheers amigo
 
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