De Crone yacht by Janos

Joined
Jul 2, 2013
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Location
Sydney
Finally, I came to the point that I can start on something different than Sovereign of the Seas and Le Soleil Royal. This is a project which I have been thinking of for a long time. I was making lots of inquiries regarding her plans but all turned out to be dead-end streets. A model (actually two) of her had been done by a Russian model builder Narim Majgeldinov (one of them is said to be sitting in the office of the Russian Premier). I tried to contact him a number of times but I did not receive any answer at all. There are a few pictures of one of the models at www.shipmodels.com.ua. This shows a narrow cabin, there are also some pictures of another one with a full-width cabin. This model is an Admiralty type which is I think a contradiction in itself because the original ship has been built in the Low Countries where the English shipbuilding methods were not necessarily followed. On the Russian site (thanks, Jim!) there were serious discussions about the origin as well as about the name of the original ship so it is not 100% sure that this is the model of De Crone (other names for this ship were Golden Transport and The Gold Yacht). I also found another model of De Crone, built by the well known Italian modeller Giuseppe Trombolesi. He seems to have built the model using photographs (most likely of Narim's model). I wrote to him a number of times too, inquiring about possible plans but he did not respond either. He must have promised Narim not to forward the photos to anyone else.
However, I managed to contact the late Alexander Dobrenko who was close to Narim and he sent me a few pictures of the model as well as about the plans Narim was working on at the time. So this is the only information I have about the model - as well as a few photos which can be found on the Internet at different locations.
This is the end of the whining session... I will try to reconstruct the plans based on the information I have. So I have to start drawing. I was swearing during the Soleil Royal stern-model project that I am not going to do this - but there seems to be no more information so I have to do this. I just like De Crone too much. It will definitely NOT be an Admiralty model, but plank-on-bulkhead and at a scale of about 1:50 which I like the most. Not sure yet whether there will be masts, yards and rigging, but one thing is sure, there will be no sails. There will be no inside shown either. The carvings will be done by hand (not sure about the material of the 18 gunport wreaths though) and most likely will be gold plated. Again this is something which I promised not to do again but I will have to cover the gunport wreaths if they will be done by putty. And as a preparation for this project, I bought some European Boxwood which turned out to be full of grey rot so the carvings have to be covered too. So most likely the gold leaf will be the solution unless I manage to find some good golden paint.
The attached picture is that of Narim's model.
Janos

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This is a very interesting project - I am crossing all the fingers, that you get with the time more detailed information
 
I am very happy to see, that you are back on this model
- please post more often, much more often some of your progress
 
Some progress again after a long while... The forecastle is in preparation, as is the inside of the rear section (won't be seen on the ready model), and some progress with the accessories too. In the end, I decided to paint the decorations (will be a lot) using Valejo's golden paint. I already did some golden leafing before and on the basis of my experience then I chose painting (in which I am terrible) due to the number of cavities and very small items on the carvings. The carvings are done again in European Boxwood.
JanosDSC_1265.JPGDSC_1266.JPGDSC_1267.JPGDSC_1268.JPGDSC_1269.JPGDSC_1270.JPGDSC_1271.JPG
 
Well, I just realized that I had an earlier set of photos on the camera (see previous post) so I split them into two and this is now the current state of the model. Some advance with the head timbers and also with the forecastle and in general with the guns under the desks. Now I am ready for the planking of the main deck and for the placement of the galleries. Also, the rudder had been installed (I mean the pintles and gudgeons) and I made some progress with further accessories. And the honest dust can be seen all around...DSC_1272.JPGDSC_1273.JPGDSC_1274.JPGDSC_1275.JPGDSC_1276.JPGDSC_1277.JPG
Janos
 
Great work - Would like to see much more often some of your progress......
 
Well, the situation is still pretty much the same. I am about to finish Batavia these days so I will come back to De Crone very soon. In the mean time - as I am volunteering in the Sydney Maritime Museum - I made some carvings for it but they are not installed yet so there is no point to publish a picture about the model at the moment. Figure head (or heads because they are two) are nearly finished, gunport wreaths are done as are some of the side decos. Some pictures will follow soon.
János
 
This is great news, Janos. Please do not forget to show us what the finished Batavia looks like.
 
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