"La Reale" (Heller), converted for a Galley Festival

Gradually, this project is nearing completion. Hard to believe!
The area to the right of the kitchen is now defined as a retreat and refreshment room. Why all these young ladies are here now, when preparations for the party are still in full swing, is beyond me. I beg to report attention to the new screens, which are again castings (of course), but whose shimmering gold trim is an addition made from leftover Christmas decorations! I remind you that the young Rokoko ladies are new styled Western ladies of unknown origin, which I could also reproduce at will, should I need such personnel again.

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Schmidt
 
I have not continued my building report here for a long time because the project took a surprising turn. Someone from my German forum had jokingly asked me to build a whole harbor for the Reale - and that's what I did. I will present the results here bit by bit, assuming I am not completely out of place here with the construction of old buildings as a background. A number of new vessels have also been built.
But first I want to finish the work on the galley here too.
Finally, I've filled in the previously undesigned area between the rowing slaves and the kitchen. Various craftsmen are now in the process of creating the actual party zone there, i.e. laying floorboards and putting up the screens.

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As I said before, fellow model builders from a German forum encouraged me to build an entire harbor for the galley. Fortunately, I am crazy enough to accept such requests. My model was, of course, the old port of Toulon, which was the home port for the French galley fleet in the 17th and 18th centuries. Of course, the galley festivals also took place there. I have visited Toulon about half a dozen times. The old harbor front, which may hardly have changed its appearance in centuries, was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1943 and rebuilt after the war in a sober modern style. However, there are plenty of photos and postcards from the pre-war period, which I used as a guide, as well as the houses in the old town of Toulon, directly behind the harbor line, which is officially called Kai Cronstadt and thus recalls the sailors' uprising in Russia.

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The old Povenza houses are all very similar and pose no great difficulties even for model builders inexperienced in building construction. They are narrow and tall, have narrow balconies, and only the roof terraces pose a certain challenge. I chose a facade (19th century) from the Artitec range (Amsterdam, NL), which is unfortunately no longer on the market, as the basic element. I sanded off all the stucco and ornaments, made a silicone mold and used the casts to make houses of different widths and heights. The typical roofs with their somewhat irregular, semi-circular tiles, the narrow balconies and the chimneys are my own creations. I placed particular emphasis on the shutters. As they are closed most of the time due to the Mediterranean temperatures, they characterize the appearance of the houses.

All the buildings and parts of the buildings are painted with acrylic paints, the pigments of which come from the famous Roussilion quarry, whose ochre colors have been used to paint houses in Provence for centuries.

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Schmidt, you are a master of small-scale figure work. Your party scene is absolutely amazing. Recently, I saw a fine drawing of a Galley Festival, at Toulon, with even the Royal Louis's stern visible on the Quay. It was a drawing that recently went up for sale. Maybe I saved a screen shot to my phone.
 
Thank you very much for the compliment.
I only know of two illustrations of the galley festival, a contemporary one, which actually bears the title “Feste de Galeres”, and a modern watercolor. I have reproduced both here at the beginning of this report. I am very interested in further illustrations!
Schmidt
 
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Other houses with figures and scenes that should fit into the early 18th centurye. The woman with the bloody head in her hand is not a husband killer, but a singer rehearsing the role of Judith in Vivaldi's oratorio of the same name from 1716.

Scmidt
 
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