Le Soleil Royal, vaisseau de 104 - De Agostini - by Jack Aubrey

[jack.aubrey]

. . continuation. .

I continue here with the publication of additional images of the stern galleries from a closer viewpoint. In the first one you may notice that I have yet to find a way to close the bottom "bottle" (I've not yet found a proper english term) on the front side, "closing" that I intend to do as soon as possible.

01 P1080350.jpg

Here, however, you might notice a couple of caryatids that connects the lower to the middle gallery above. At the time of bonding two other caryatids are missing. They will be installed in place shortly. The two missing caryatids are visible in the picture number 04 at the top.

02 P1080351.jpg

03 P1080352.jpg

In the next two images are shown all the last decorations, that remained to be gilded, in their last stage of processing. Now they have to be separated from the double-sided tape, smooth on the back side to remove the residuals of the tape glue and other filth in order to prepare a good support for bonding. Then it will be the turn of the "bottles" decorations . .

04 P1080354.jpg

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It remains to "gild" three statues, rather large: the figurehead and two human figures that are to be applied in the stern area. Having regard to the size I want to think not only to a process of browning but also to apply some color. To this end, I will try to find some photos on the internet "enlightening" of these details. Until now without great success but . .

See you soon, Jack.

 

[jack.aubrey]

August 25, 2012. . continuation. .

Some new details added on the decks: the pinrails of the mainmast. In the rush to fix these pieces I forgot to drill the pinrails before installation. Now I'll have to do it "freehand" on the pieces already fixed and will be more difficult to achieve the same spacing and alignment I would achieve before . .

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02 P1080348.jpg

Here are shown the WCs installed at prow . .

03 P1080349.jpg

Finally an overview of the guns after I finally glued the barrels to the carriages, using epoxy glue. Initially these barrels were fixed with the cyan and had fallen off completely after few time. The seal of the epoxy is incredibly stronger than the cyan for this type of bonding.
To keep in mind for the future for when I will have to fix the remaining gun carriages to the decks. . with this glue it will no longer be necessary to use pins as reinforcements.

04 P1080353.jpg

See you soon, Jack.

 

[jack.aubrey]

A set of more focused photos of some details. . the first still on decorations

01 Senzatitolo-1-1.jpg

02 Senzatitolo-2-1.jpg

03 Senzatitolo-3-1.jpg

 

[jack.aubrey]

Monday, September 3, 2012

In the few hours that I devoted to the model in these last days I continued to apply some of the decorations that were ready for installation and, above all, I have finished the "missing wood pieces" of the lower "bottle". I also decided to change its color, applying the stained blue strips, as you can see from the first and second picture when compared to the previous already posted some time ago.

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The remaining images show the other decorations applied to the gunports of the upper deck and bow. Nothing to add apart I used the epoxy glue to fix them.

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04 P1080361.jpg

05 P1080360.jpg

Kind regards, Jack.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

The last evolution of the stern.

01 P1080367.jpg

02 P1080370.jpg

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04 P1080371.jpg

Then yesterday I took the hull and I fixed rigidly on the work table upside down to start thinking seriously about the decorations that are under the lower gallery and those to be placed on the two lower smaller bottles.

I must now say that the decorations of the lower bottles do not fit very well on their surface and, by a careful examination and after various positioning tests, this is a quite big problem . . I'm still far from a clear idea of how to proceed . . I'm considering to rebuild totally them with mouldings like FIMO or Milliput . .

Kind regards, Jack.Aubrey.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Tuesday, September 25, 2012 - Display Case

I temporarily abandoned the stern and his goddamn decorations and I got into the building of the display case basement. A kind of digression to the routine of the stern. .

In the picture 01 you can see the first part of the case, the pedestal, just finished, even if they miss the obvious finish (stain, velvet or cork on the surface of contact with the hull, etc.). This piece will be later mounted on the basis of the case, not yet ready.

01 P1080380R_zpsfb8ce24c.jpg

The next two images show this piece without the hull above, visible in all its details. If you look at the images in high resolution you will notice how the two supports, with a thickness of 1 cm. have been shaped with a camber to follow the lines of the hull in the area where it will rest. The material used is beechwood.

02 P1080377R_zps694ae4ec.jpg

03 P1080379R_zps5aa91f5e.jpg

To take the shape of the hull in the area where this would be resting on the pedestal I used a tool that is called "form tracer", illustrated below.

04 P1080373R_zps71fd0ceb.jpg

And before to work on the final beechwood table I made the prototype with an more ordinary poplar plywood 5 mm thick, much easier to work.

05 P1080374_zps4e0561c5.jpg

That's all for today, Jack.Aubrey

 

[jack.aubrey]

Monday, October 1, 2012 - Display Case

In these days since my last post I continued the work on the display case. For the base I bought at the nearest woodstore the three elements that characterize it, namely:

1) - a beech table (thickness 18mm) cut with dimensions of 99 x 27 cm; the customized cutting service was provided by the woodstore staff;

2) - strips of wood (unidentified), length 240 cm, 3 cm x 0.5; it will be used for the outer frame of the base;

3) - 5 knobs of lathed wood for the "legs" of the base.

The pictures 01 and 02 show the upper part of the base, with the outer frame applied. As can be observed the frame delimits the perimeter of the base and, being higher than 1.2 cm. will serve to hold the plexiglass of the transparent element of the case.

The wood was then treated with a coat of wood filler. Once the paint dried I sanded everything with very fine steel wool and then I applied a couple of coats of wood oil, the same I usually use for the model. Between one coat and the other I had to wait a couple of days to allow the oil to deeply penetrate and dry.

01 P1080388.jpg

02 P1080389.jpg

In the next two images (03 and 04) I show the bottom of the base, which is also treated with a coat of wood filler. Here are visible the five knobs that have the function of "legs". I decided it was necessary a fifth knob placed in the centre to avoid a possible failure in the central area of the base under the weight of the parts above. Unfortunately for this knob I had to use a different color because the light ones were finished, but it is well hidden under the base and should not be visible.

03 P1080383.jpg

04 P1080385.jpg

Finally, the last image, even if these details are also visible in the first two (but in high resolution) where you see the threaded cylinders where I will fix the pedestal shown in the previous message; anchor points are in number of four.

05 P1080390.jpg

That's all for now, even though I have more pictures to show, but in the next episode. .

Cheers, Jack.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - Display case . . continuation

The presentation of my work for the building of the display case base for my Soleil Royal continues here. In this new post I want to focus on a particular detail: the name of the model.

Usually a model is presented with somewhere a label that specifies the name and more. For my Soleil I used my computer and I tried a bit of presentations and I decided to adopt the label here below presented.

01 P1080382.jpg

Having made my choice I passed to the practical realization and I designed the oval on an ordinary tablet of plywood, with a jig saw I proceeded to cut them and finishing with sandpaper and three coats of white acrylic paint as a primer.

A little trick that I have thought to work faster with acrylics: to have the paint drying in a couple of minutes, in order to avoid waiting for the complete "natural" drying, I use to heat the painted piece with the hair dryer . In this way I was able to apply three coats in less than 15 minutes against at least 6-8 hours of the normal procedure. In the picture 02 the resulting pieces, suitably sanded and ready for final processing.

02 P1080381.jpg

I left the final processing to my wife who loves painting with acrylics with the so called "country" style. And here below the result of her work.

03 P1080393.jpg

04 P1080391.jpg

05 P1080392.jpg

The pedestal in the center of the base is only positioned because I have to finish the screws and washers that will be used to secure it to the base. But this is a trivial detail. Until next time, Jack.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Thursday, October 4, 2012

To complete the images of the above messages, here is the display case base with the model in place . .

Regarding possible display variants I decided to build a third boat, in place of the two proposed by the kit manufacturer, more precisely, I would like to build a longboat.

Then I decided to put only one of these three boats, perhaps the smallest, over the structure (this structure is a bit strange indeed, I've never seen a similar one on other models) that should host it amidships.

I'm going to show the other two boats not aboard but on the base of the case in a suitable position. This would allow a better overview of the details in place in the central area of the deck, certainly less crowded and to increase the visibility of these boats, presented separately. I spent a lot of time to build these boats and I would like to better appreciate them.

I did some simulations and the idea likes me very much . .

01 P1080394.jpg

02 P1080395.jpg

03 P1080396.jpg

Greetings, Jack.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Monday October 8, 2012

I've almost finished the building of the display case: now the only part missing is the plexiglass cover, but this can wait sometime. I have started and finished a couple of tasks that I left behind, such as the browning of all decorative elements.
In particular, I have devoted great attention to the figurehead and a couple of human figures that will be placed at the stern. In the photographs they seem worst as they appear in real life, but I'm not happy with the result: they seem to me a little vanishing, as if there were no reliefs enhancing the depth effect. Before installing them I'll wait to find some ideas to increase their realism.

01 P1080397.jpg

02 P1080398.jpg

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Then I started the preliminaries for a new task: the installation of metal small columns that will be the basis of the gunwales all around the decks. As a logical consequence of having all the metal decorations properly gilded I can't leave the columns as they were originally delivered. . there would be an inconsistency so I took the decision to treat them too, although this would force me to spend much more time than usual.

I guess now you all understand why the model progresses so slowly. . and the remarkable qualities of patience I developed in this adventure, qualities that I didn't absolutely have before . .

After the application of two coats of primer I had two options: gold paint or another color. At the end, I opted to color them in red (but after having also evaluated the blue color). Maybe this choice will appear a little crazy to most of you but I think there's already enough gold on this model . .

04 P1080402.jpg

Cheers, Jack.Aubrey.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Below a possible idea of how to position and present the ship boats, externally to the model, on the display case basement. If we exclude the black base which of course is not needed, this presentation system would have two advantages: allow to display the boat with more viewpoints visible and the possibility of fixing the boat base to the basement with a simple double-sided tape. .

01 pinfin4_863.jpg

Cheers, Jack.Aubrey.

Wednesday, October 11, 2012 - Third ship boat

As I wrote a few messages ago, I decided to build a third boat for my Soleil Royal. This boat that will be exposed on the basement of the case, as I decided for the larger of the two I built before, whose material was included in the kit.

I used a project already in my hands for some time and some work done in the past.

Yesterday afternoon and Monday I prepared the gun port lids that will be installed of the lower and intermediate decks. For the solution that I had in mind the pre-cut material supplied by DeAgostini was not suitable, not so much for the pieces themselves as the lack of an adequate system of fixing to the hull. So I've built the lids from scratch using other material. For the moment I am still in the process, even though I already painted the inside in red. In the coming days I could show you how I imagine the necessary finishes that I have in mind: hinges, rings and ropes for their opening and closing . .

Sincerely, Jack.

Saturday, October 13, 2012 - Gun port lids

As I have previously written, I changed all the necessary material for the gun-port lids because I wanted to implement a method of securing themselves to the hull that was very strong. In fact the pieces proposed in the kit, although correct from a formal point of view, do not provide any appropriate method to fix them on the hull.

So, as I wrote, I re-did from scratch everything. For the larger square, originally plywood with 2mm thickness, I did it again using plywood (1.5 mm) on which I glued strips of chestnut veneer (0.5 mm), the same wood used for the second planking of the hull. I have prepared in this way bars of 15 x 10 cm and then I cut with the table saw piece to piece.

Regarding the second piece, the smaller square, I re-did it in a different form: instead of square I made it rectangular, so that it protrudes from a side of about 3mm from the larger square element. If you look at the picture below you will easily understand what it came out.

Then glueing the two pieces together using a template to ensure all result the same and, finally red acrylic paint of the inside.

01 P1080403.jpg

Then it was the turn of the eyebolts. Those proposed by the kit are out of scale for me.

I opted for building from brass wire/thread. The ring has an inner diameter of 0.75 mm. Must be burnished prior to assembly.

02 P1080409.jpg

I developed a prototype that I brought up to the final assembly stage, to see if it satisfied me. It is visible in the three images that follow. The eyebolts used have an internal diameter of 1.5 mm as I have used material already available to accelerate the process. The final version will use the smaller ones. I also have in mind further improvements.

For gluing the lid to the hull, as well as the half-barrel, I used two-components epoxy glue. I've seen that this glue provides a very strong bonding. For the lid would be enough the vinyl glue, but since I had already prepared the epoxy I used the latter. But I think the epoxy is much more tenacious, then I'll probably use this one for the future.

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04 P1080411.jpg

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Once finished the prototype now I have to move to mass production for all the rest. The work to be done is a lot: about 200 eyebolts, three holes for door, assembly, ropes, etc.. For the moment, what I wanted was the prototype while for the rest there is time, since before there are more important things to do.

See you next time, Jack.Aubrey.

 

[El Capi]

Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - Display case . . continuation

The presentation of my work for the building of the display case base for my Soleil Royal continues here. In this new post I want to focus on a particular detail: the name of the model.

Usually a model is presented with somewhere a label that specifies the name and more. For my Soleil I used my computer and I tried a bit of presentations and I decided to adopt the label here below presented.

01 P1080382.jpg

Having made my choice I passed to the practical realization and I designed the oval on an ordinary tablet of plywood, with a jig saw I proceeded to cut them and finishing with sandpaper and three coats of white acrylic paint as a primer.

A little trick that I have thought to work faster with acrylics: to have the paint drying in a couple of minutes, in order to avoid waiting for the complete "natural" drying, I use to heat the painted piece with the hair dryer . In this way I was able to apply three coats in less than 15 minutes against at least 6-8 hours of the normal procedure. In the picture 02 the resulting pieces, suitably sanded and ready for final processing.

02 P1080381.jpg

I left the final processing to my wife who loves painting with acrylics with the so called "country" style. And here below the result of her work.

03 P1080393.jpg

04 P1080391.jpg

05 P1080392.jpg

The pedestal in the centre of the base is only positioned because I have to finish the screws and washers that will be used to secure it to the base. But this is a trivial detail. Until next time, Jack.

Hi, Is this Model the new Model de Agostini DE? If yes you may know, that you can download the build until packet 52 from the web. the build for the moment stop hear, when the ship in blanked -badly- and the second layer. the download is in PDF format. I have it, but as in PDF FORMART, THERE IS NO WAY TO MAKE COPY. I can print it out, but it is more than 100 pages, and then scan it. some of you may be more clever here than me There is a lot to be discussed with new KIT -quit different in many ways- some good and some bad, especially the first planking. happy building. p.s. as my model after 5 years went to the bin, I have recovered nearly all the metal pars-oxidised- and some more thing, so it there is a need, I have a lot

 

[Jimsky]

Hi, @El Capi I believe this model already built by Jack, as the date of the log, shows October 2. 2012. But this hint can be used of any of us who will decide to build this cross section. Many thanks (as always)!

 

[El Capi]

Hi, @El Capi I believe this model already built by Jack, as the date of the log, shows October 2. 2012. But this hint can be used of any of us who will decide to build this cross section. Many thanks (as always)!

 

[El Capi]

I think it is only available in Germani through deAgostine.DE. It looks like it is delivered by a packet of 5 building face every quarter. It takes about a Year before you have the hole false Keel and bulkheads. It is very much different build of a Kit, that I have seen, only that it takes 3-4 years before you have all the pieces with a TOP price. I have been able to print some of the processes out, so now I will have to Scan them before I can send some Samples. For myselves I will try to print out all and Scan them, but I am not sure it there is any copyrights here. heer solly may be of help

 

[jack.aubrey]

Saturday October 20th, 2012

This week I did not too much . . I have almost finished the remaining ship boats.
The bulk of the work were the oars. . .

01 P1080416.jpg

02 P1080415.jpg

03 P1080414.jpg

Cheers, Jack.

 

[El Capi]

Saturday October 20th, 2012

This week I did not too much . . I have almost finished the remaining ship boats.
The bulk of the work were the oars. . .

01 P1080416.jpg

02 P1080415.jpg

03 P1080414.jpg

Cheers, Jack.

 

[jack.aubrey]

Monday, November 12, 2012

I decided to work on the gunwales above the third deck battery (waist), an activity that involves the use of the metal columns that I had previously colored red.

Obviously I was prepared myself teorically to manage this step and I came to the conclusion that:

1. I would have used the bi-component epoxy glue to bond the metal columns to the deck, and that
   
2. I would have bent the rails 2 x 7 to follow the curve of the waist and the forecastle using the trick to prepare two strips 2 x 3,5 glued together, so as to form a 2 x 7, on a template obtained from the same contour of the deck.

For the second point it seems obvious to point out that once the whole composite was dried completely would have had the exact shape of one side of the waist and forecastle.

Due to the long drying time of the bi-component glue, I spent a day bonding all the columns on the waist while I spent the next day to apply the strip prepared in step 2, the columns are glued in turn to the top strip always with bi-component glue.

It was not a difficult job, the only real problem was caused by the same columns that, perhaps because of the molding process not very accurate, were not all exactly with the same height and then in some cases were too short and other too long.
With a lot of patience I leveled all the columns with the mini-drill, which was mounted on a grinding wheel suitable for metal.
Some adjustments to the bulwarks profile which lacked a few tenths in certain points and then I could proceed with the final bonding.

The third day was dedicated to finishing the job done and to complete some of the remaining two ship boats accessories (rudders, eye bolts, coils of rope, etc.), to install accessories today in order to have the boats "really" finished .

Below are some pictures of the work done.

01 P1080427.jpg

02 P1080428R.jpg

03 P1080429R.jpg

04 P1080432R.jpg

05 P1080433R.jpg

Cheers, Jack.Aubrey.

 

[El Capi]

Monday, November 12, 2012

I decided to work on the gunwales above the third deck battery (waist), an activity that involves the use of the metal columns that I had previously colored red.

Obviously I was prepared myself teorically to manage this step and I came to the conclusion that:

1. I would have used the bi-component epoxy glue to bond the metal columns to the deck, and that
   
   
2. I would have bent the rails 2 x 7 to follow the curve of the waist and the forecastle using the trick to prepare two strips 2 x 3,5 glued together, so as to form a 2 x 7, on a template obtained from the same contour of the deck.

For the second point it seems obvious to point out that once the whole composite was dried completely would have had the exact shape of one side of the waist and forecastle.

Due to the long drying time of the bi-component glue, I spent a day bonding all the columns on the waist while I spent the next day to apply the strip prepared in step 2, the columns are glued in turn to the top strip always with bi-component glue.

It was not a difficult job, the only real problem was caused by the same columns that, perhaps because of the molding process not very accurate, were not all exactly with the same height and then in some cases were too short and other too long.
With a lot of patience I leveled all the columns with the mini-drill, which was mounted on a grinding wheel suitable for metal.
Some adjustments to the bulwarks profile which lacked a few tenths in certain points and then I could proceed with the final bonding.

The third day was dedicated to finishing the job done and to complete some of the remaining two ship boats accessories (rudders, eye bolts, coils of rope, etc.), to install accessories today in order to have the boats "really" finished .

Below are some pictures of the work done.

01 P1080427.jpg

02 P1080428R.jpg

03 P1080429R.jpg

04 P1080432R.jpg

05 P1080433R.jpg

Cheers, Jack.Aubrey.

I¡¡

 

[jack.aubrey]

I take this opportunity to add more photos. .

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03 P1080436R.jpg

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