Soleil Royal by Heller - an Extensive Modification and Partial Scratch-Build by Hubac’s Historian

Wonderful work once again Marc,

To my mind I think that small inconsistency's are more authentic than a precision computer generated 3d part, I would also add that in my opinion the real thing would have had differences as everything was hand made. Just my thoughts.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
I appreciate the thought, Stephen, and I agree that small inconsistencies add to the hand-made charm of anything.

I truly am amazed by the quality of the computer carving services presented, here, on this site. The quality is first-rate, and the availability of such fine work makes these highly ornate baroque ships more reasonable subjects for a build.

If one could make a criticism of computer carving, it might be that the results are too consistently perfect.

Realistically, though, how many ships like SR does a person have within them to carve by hand? I have two; this model and the next representation of SR.

That’s why the magic of what Doris does with clay is probably worth spending a year or two learning how to perfect it on smaller projects.

Her Sovereign and her Caroline were truly amazing, but her Katherine is just one of the most amazing models I have ever seen. I am gently suggesting to her, here and there, that her next ship should be French. Maybe she would do the Royal Louis of 1668, or maybe La Royal Therese, of which there are several clear Van de Velde drawings.

She is so gifted, I know she would really capture the feeling of the thing!
 
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Hi Marc,
I wasn't meaning to be overly critical of CNC produced carvings especially considering that I would probably go down that rout if I were to build an ornate ship model.
Would you be able to post a link to Doris's work it sounds amazing.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
I didn’t think that you were, Stephen. I only mentioned it because computer carving has been a hot topic on the forum, lately. I think it serves a valuable need, very admirably.

Here is a link to Doris’s Royal Katherine:


She frequently posts video tutorials of herself making the sculptures, and as far as I can tell, she only uses the most rudimentary sizing guidelines by which to scale each carving. Yet, the entire bulwarks are a perfect knit-work of ornamental sculptures without anything oversize, or out of place. The Katherine’s ornamental program is literally a jigsaw puzzle, yet she manages to scale it all by eye, perfectly. If she weren’t so talented in so many other areas of life, you might call her a savant. I think she’s some kind of genius.
 
I didn’t think that you were, Stephen. I only mentioned it because computer carving has been a hot topic on the forum, lately. I think it serves a valuable need, very admirably.

Here is a link to Doris’s Royal Katherine:


She frequently posts video tutorials of herself making the sculptures, and as far as I can tell, she only uses the most rudimentary sizing guidelines by which to scale each carving. Yet, the entire bulwarks are a perfect knit-work of ornamental sculptures without anything oversize, or out of place. The Katherine’s ornamental program is literally a jigsaw puzzle, yet she manages to scale it all by eye, perfectly. If she weren’t so talented in so many other areas of life, you might call her a savant. I think she’s some kind of genius.
Thanks Marc,
I wasn't aware that carving had been a hot topic. :)
I'll have a look.
Cheers,
Stephen.
 
Hi Marc,
I wasn't meaning to be overly critical of CNC produced carvings especially considering that I would probably go down that rout if I were to build an ornate ship model.
Would you be able to post a link to Doris's work it sounds amazing.

Cheers,
Stephen.
you can take also a look at the gallery of "home"-forum in czech republic where Doris is at home
f.e. the Sovereign stern - She is in a special class in card board modeling

or her videos on youtube - very informative
 
The lower-finishing pieces are now ready for prime and paint:
0C6B370F-E853-4EFD-A2C8-5BBC84A7A9D1.jpeg
I have yet to make the waste pipe rosettes that mount to the aft overhang of these pieces, but I will tackle that shortly.

Today was a very productive day spent trimming out the next level up - the functional seats of ease.

The first order of business was to clear away the wales and let the forward edge of this section into the wales, as neatly as possible. My goal was not to disrupt any of the paint that will remain visible, as the touch-ups were such a pain:
EE79E3C0-4101-411F-AE0E-47AA7D61340A.jpeg
The pre-shaping on the scrap hull created a good mating joint:
BE8BE3FD-9A26-4689-B231-4B21B4C5A355.jpeg
I am quite satisfied with the subtle outward, billowing shape of the piece.

One thing that dawned on me, here, is that the aft end of this section should follow the round-up of the stern.

The picture, above, reflects this, however - before, the back ends were square to the mating surface, which created a weird back-angled appearance, considering that the ship sides taper inwards, at the stern, like a wedge. This is one of many small details that are not immediately apparent, if one hasn’t first made a full set of drawings.

One benefit of altering this profile into the roundup is that it enabled me to bring the side profile of the sterncounter into more of a vertical plane. The difference is slight, but an improvement, nonetheless.

A montage of the paneling process:
1D33BF1A-D5F6-4A19-A048-55369615B80F.jpeg
218F7F9B-658E-4B78-9AF9-73A75589A824.jpeg
0DD3C5BB-6044-4043-BFC5-53C72BF0FD44.jpeg
There is no substitute for the gradual process of arriving at a line; draw,erase, repeat!
FA532F1A-0773-4546-87D6-0A74CF0D667E.jpeg
8C9C7AED-BB97-4C8C-9338-534475C43194.jpeg
78B71B97-469C-460C-B0AC-C7CB43CDCC4A.jpegA9D51493-AD97-4E8B-A121-BA2AAD1F5EAF.jpeg
E7A6500E-1207-4924-81E7-A46BE5987112.jpeg
BD8CA69C-AEA3-425B-B979-4CDC286B9056.jpegCC69FFF7-A053-4872-960B-84333E4EEE9C.jpeg
6B001F86-4462-4A7E-8FAE-A6FCFEDDA173.jpeg

I still need to add the rail pieces, between the pilasters, which will create the sunken panel effect. I also have to cast a series of fleurs for these panels, but this has been a very satisfying step in the project.

Thank you for the likes, your comments, and for looking in!
 
As always, absolutely impressive!
Have you ever thought about making casts of your wonderful carvings? I really don't want to encourage you to manufacture a conversion kit for the SL and bring it onto the market. But I've had the experience that you can make very precise casts from silicone molds. This has the advantage that you have practice material. If necessary, parts that have already been completed can also be modified in this way without having to build them from scratch. Not to mention the serial production of identical parts.
Schmidt
 
Hello, Schmidt - yes, as a matter of fact, all of the repetitive elements of the frieze (fleurs, shells, scrolls and quatrefoils) are resin castings from a master carving. If I need more of them, I just cast more pieces. Most of the rest of the work is one-off stuff that won’t really be applicable to other projects, so I haven’t bothered with making casting masters.
 
The first transitional moulding I needed to master runs just beneath the false windows of the quarter gallery.
0F218072-1CD3-4C59-96C7-31C0269B9B2F.jpeg
I was unsure, at first, whether I would be able to successfully recreate the turreted appearance of the moulding, above each pilaster.

The difficulty has to do with the fact that moulding scrapers do not get into inside corners very well. Ultimately, I found that I could clean to those inside corners with my 1/8” straight chisel and my #11 EXACTO.

The moulding is actually made up from two layers, laminated together. The thin, under-layer has a tiny cove cut into it’s edge, and it is stepped-in, slightly, from the upper layer. The piece, below, marked “template” is a card pattern I made for the under-layer:
A8C48F94-10B3-42D2-B989-1A590C31464A.jpeg

The trick to all of this was to try and cope this side moulding into the overhanging ends of the stern shelf-moulding that the Four Seasons will sit upon. It took a good deal of patient fitting, but eventually I got there:
2C80CFB5-51C1-4BFC-A670-3ED1BA76CF18.jpeg
FB41F7BB-FFE7-44EB-A6E8-9C9896BDDB81.jpeg
721C4880-8FFE-4A48-856C-E04807D862FB.jpeg
AB5761F0-244E-40F7-96D7-7D7F461BC680.jpeg
Once I had fit the upper layer, I could cope-in the lower layer and then laminate the two:
1F5DE323-201D-4428-98D0-092963D9D297.jpeg
A few pics to give a sense of this section:
B2EACF60-7F2D-4E67-AC2C-E57E9F2014CB.jpeg
E36C1019-6D4D-45C3-882A-C21360F5AABE.jpeg
97EB1E16-9EDB-451B-9F0A-6050F1D7963E.jpeg
56518F9B-E8D4-4146-A730-7D638E54A66A.jpeg
After I make and fit all of this for the port side, I will make up the transitional moulding for the underside of the seats of ease. The connection with its counterpart, at the stern, is a little funky, but the answers will become clearer as I work my way through it.

Thank you for the likes, your comments and for stopping by.
 
The first transitional moulding I needed to master runs just beneath the false windows of the quarter gallery.
View attachment 196103
I was unsure, at first, whether I would be able to successfully recreate the turreted appearance of the moulding, above each pilaster.

The difficulty has to do with the fact that moulding scrapers do not get into inside corners very well. Ultimately, I found that I could clean to those inside corners with my 1/8” straight chisel and my #11 EXACTO.

The moulding is actually made up from two layers, laminated together. The thin, under-layer has a tiny cove cut into it’s edge, and it is stepped-in, slightly, from the upper layer. The piece, below, marked “template” is a card pattern I made for the under-layer:
View attachment 196102

The trick to all of this was to try and cope this side moulding into the overhanging ends of the stern shelf-moulding that the Four Seasons will sit upon. It took a good deal of patient fitting, but eventually I got there:
View attachment 196101
View attachment 196100
View attachment 196098
View attachment 196099
Once I had fit the upper layer, I could cope-in the lower layer and then laminate the two:
View attachment 196097
A few pics to give a sense of this section:
View attachment 196096
View attachment 196094
View attachment 196095
View attachment 196093
After I make and fit all of this for the port side, I will make up the transitional moulding for the underside of the seats of ease. The connection with its counterpart, at the stern, is a little funky, but the answers will become clearer as I work my way through it.

Thank you for the likes, your comments and for stopping by.
Once again fantastic work Marc,

That is something you would not be able to rush, like you said.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
It’s been a good weekend for painting.

The primer coat is always a pretty solid indicator of how uniform your surface prep was:
3E7E1681-7180-45ED-A15C-F4C705A010AA.jpeg
I love the primer coat because it homogenizes all of the different materials.

A few pics of the process:
A1771C6A-B18C-4EE2-8E25-A123B4518B4C.jpeg
My initial thought was to take the cerulean blue (Utrecht artist acrylic, heavy body), and add yellow ocher to arrive at a more greenish blue; a light blue with a greenish cast would be a more period-correct, common blue that would have been derived from copper salts. What I arrived at was teal, and while I like the Charlotte Hornets uniforms, this is not quite the look for Soleil Royal!

So, I went back to my cerulean base. After all, the following Corvette model was largely my inspiration for my color scheme. I really liked the way this light blue relates to the yellow ocher, even if it is a more stylized choice for my period:
76A5D62A-A00B-417E-AF3E-CA72C046EE43.jpeg

My cerulean base-coat looks like this:
BB3263F6-28DF-4A2D-B260-E61922E6B514.jpeg
Here’s the rest of the process:
CE0B3D73-37CD-47E0-8945-2E89ECE18C1A.jpeg
FCE81357-1D46-489C-AA77-F4C93710FE4C.jpeg
644A1A48-C697-4EDB-8272-8174D6F7A384.jpeg
Et, finalement:
91421835-1680-4C65-8FEE-B4BCE00A2372.jpeg
I spent quite a lot of time dialing-back the walnut ink distressing so that it wouldn’t be too much. I think the walnut ink does tone-down the blue enough to be plausible for 1689.

I also switched from my self-mixed Tamiya yellow ocher to Vallejo’s Mars Yellow, which is pretty exactly the shade I want right out of the bottle. While I still have to go over the work 2-3 times for the color saturation I want, the next coat doesn’t lift the previous coat, as with Tamiya. This characteristic of the Tamiya paint makes it extremely frustrating to work with. Considering the sheer volume of ocher paint that is going onto this model, a change to something more user-friendly was imperative.

This is probably the best window into what the general paint scheme of the stern will be. Ultra marine will make very selective appearances. I thought about painting an oval of ultra-marine around the shells, but I didn’t like the only partial framing of moulding.

It’s obvious, I suppose, but worth re-iterating how much easier it is to paint these ultra-detailed surfaces, off the model; you can find whatever angle you need. As I consider it now, I’m really starting to dread the paintwork I have waiting for me on the lower stern. At the time, though, I couldn’t see any other way forward than to construct the stern in-place.

Today, I will start the waste-pipe rosettes.

On a side note: I continue to watch the Tally-Ho reconstruction, on YouTube with rapt fascination. With the exception of the transom and the possibility of eventually salvaging a few if the teak deck housings - she’s an entirely new vessel.

One can’t help but be struck by the incredible effort required to resurrect this relatively small wooden vessel. I suppose Leo could have saved considerable time, if he had just started, all new, from the ground-up, rather than extracting the old keel from beneath the framework, and replacing each frame, individually. The point of doing all of that, however, was to remain as faithful to the original shape and construction, as possible.

I mention all of this in contrast to the Jean Bart project at Dunkirk:


Next to the stalled Provincien project, this is the largest wooden warship project, currently under construction (as far as I know). As I was with the Provincien, I am amazed that they continue to frame the Jean Bart in the open elements. It is one thing to allow a ship to stand in-frame for the better part of a year, in order to season the timber. A 10-20 year span, in the open elements, is an entirely different matter. Leo and his crew of volunteers that he individually trains, will spend another couple of years completing Tally-Ho under a shed-roof. Hermione was constructed under shelter. Jean Bart may be rotting before she even hits the water. This seems inevitable, but avoidable.

Anyway, all of this got me to thinking about the value of these wooden ship re-constructions as trade-training vehicles and eventual tourist attractions; they’re great while the money pipeline keeps the project afloat, but if the funds dry up and you have a major catastrophe (like the BataviaWerf fire), then the project never comes to completion and thousands of trees died in-vain.

I was, dreaming about the possibility of eventually drafting a full set of digitized plans for my conjectural reconstruction of SR, 1670. This morning, it dawned on me that those plans could be fed into CNC machinery, in order to produce fully shaped/beveled parts at 1:1 scale. Well, that would speed up construction!

Every piece would still need to be fit and faired into place, but the time savings would be enormous. I suppose, in a symbolic gesture that respects the soul of the ship - her keel, stem and sternpost should at least be fully cut and fit by hand by a seasoned shipwright. But, as for all the many floors and futtocks and knees and etc - why not use technology?

Now, I don’t know whether CNC programs can be run to optimize within only the heartwood, or to pattern along an optimal run of grain for all curved parts, but it is an interesting question, nonetheless.

Despite the absence of a convincing model to represent the project, the Jean Bart’s framing, so far, looks very good. It will be a real shame if the project never reaches the finish line. Anyway, just something I am thinking about.

As ever, thank you for the likes, comments, and for stopping by!
 
It’s been a good weekend for painting.

The primer coat is always a pretty solid indicator of how uniform your surface prep was:
View attachment 197491
I love the primer coat because it homogenizes all of the different materials.

A few pics of the process:
View attachment 197490
My initial thought was to take the cerulean blue (Utrecht artist acrylic, heavy body), and add yellow ocher to arrive at a more greenish blue; a light blue with a greenish cast would be a more period-correct, common blue that would have been derived from copper salts. What I arrived at was teal, and while I like the Charlotte Hornets uniforms, this is not quite the look for Soleil Royal!

So, I went back to my cerulean base. After all, the following Corvette model was largely my inspiration for my color scheme. I really liked the way this light blue relates to the yellow ocher, even if it is a more stylized choice for my period:
View attachment 197494

My cerulean base-coat looks like this:
View attachment 197489
Here’s the rest of the process:
View attachment 197488
View attachment 197487
View attachment 197486
Et, finalement:
View attachment 197485
I spent quite a lot of time dialing-back the walnut ink distressing so that it wouldn’t be too much. I think the walnut ink does tone-down the blue enough to be plausible for 1689.

I also switched from my self-mixed Tamiya yellow ocher to Vallejo’s Mars Yellow, which is pretty exactly the shade I want right out of the bottle. While I still have to go over the work 2-3 times for the color saturation I want, the next coat doesn’t lift the previous coat, as with Tamiya. This characteristic of the Tamiya paint makes it extremely frustrating to work with. Considering the sheer volume of ocher paint that is going onto this model, a change to something more user-friendly was imperative.

This is probably the best window into what the general paint scheme of the stern will be. Ultra marine will make very selective appearances. I thought about painting an oval of ultra-marine around the shells, but I didn’t like the only partial framing of moulding.

It’s obvious, I suppose, but worth re-iterating how much easier it is to paint these ultra-detailed surfaces, off the model; you can find whatever angle you need. As I consider it now, I’m really starting to dread the paintwork I have waiting for me on the lower stern. At the time, though, I couldn’t see any other way forward than to construct the stern in-place.

Today, I will start the waste-pipe rosettes.

On a side note: I continue to watch the Tally-Ho reconstruction, on YouTube with rapt fascination. With the exception of the transom and the possibility of eventually salvaging a few if the teak deck housings - she’s an entirely new vessel.

One can’t help but be struck by the incredible effort required to resurrect this relatively small wooden vessel. I suppose Leo could have saved considerable time, if he had just started, all new, from the ground-up, rather than extracting the old keel from beneath the framework, and replacing each frame, individually. The point of doing all of that, however, was to remain as faithful to the original shape and construction, as possible.

I mention all of this in contrast to the Jean Bart project at Dunkirk:


Next to the stalled Provincien project, this is the largest wooden warship project, currently under construction (as far as I know). As I was with the Provincien, I am amazed that they continue to frame the Jean Bart in the open elements. It is one thing to allow a ship to stand in-frame for the better part of a year, in order to season the timber. A 10-20 year span, in the open elements, is an entirely different matter. Leo and his crew of volunteers that he individually trains, will spend another couple of years completing Tally-Ho under a shed-roof. Hermione was constructed under shelter. Jean Bart may be rotting before she even hits the water. This seems inevitable, but avoidable.

Anyway, all of this got me to thinking about the value of these wooden ship re-constructions as trade-training vehicles and eventual tourist attractions; they’re great while the money pipeline keeps the project afloat, but if the funds dry up and you have a major catastrophe (like the BataviaWerf fire), then the project never comes to completion and thousands of trees died in-vain.

I was, dreaming about the possibility of eventually drafting a full set of digitized plans for my conjectural reconstruction of SR, 1670. This morning, it dawned on me that those plans could be fed into CNC machinery, in order to produce fully shaped/beveled parts at 1:1 scale. Well, that would speed up construction!

Every piece would still need to be fit and faired into place, but the time savings would be enormous. I suppose, in a symbolic gesture that respects the soul of the ship - her keel, stem and sternpost should at least be fully cut and fit by hand by a seasoned shipwright. But, as for all the many floors and futtocks and knees and etc - why not use technology?

Now, I don’t know whether CNC programs can be run to optimize within only the heartwood, or to pattern along an optimal run of grain for all curved parts, but it is an interesting question, nonetheless.

Despite the absence of a convincing model to represent the project, the Jean Bart’s framing, so far, looks very good. It will be a real shame if the project never reaches the finish line. Anyway, just something I am thinking about.

As ever, thank you for the likes, comments, and for stopping by!
As ever it is great to see your beautiful work Marc,

Also your introduction of the Jean Bart, real pity they don't have a roof over the hull.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
Thank you, Stephen!

The Jean Bart inspired me to look up the Album de Colbert, upon which it is based. That led me down a rabbit hole that eventually brought me to this:
69F23E4E-75EE-49C1-B786-10C88DF76C18.jpeg
Here’s a link to that discussion:

In 2003, when I met Herbert Thomesan at his Artitec studio, he told me about a gentleman named Max Lienarts, who was busily developing lines for a French first-rate. He even showed me a version of the plans, at the time, which were certainly impressive.

It seems probable that the Max from this linked discussion is the same Max Lienarts that Herbert told me about. The shell technique of building up a styrene prototype is the same that Herbert uses, and that he taught to both Max and myself.

When I contacted Herbert a few years ago for a reminder on paint protocol, I asked him about Max and whether he had continued on with his project. He told me that, unfortunately, Max had passed away.

I never had any contact with Max, but his passing is a shame. Clearly, he was a real talent!

His lines for the so-called “Phoenix” are highly credible. Had this model ever come to market, as a kit, it would certainly have been a commercial success.
 
I spent a good part of the prior week making these waste-pipe rosettes:
A370C599-315C-4EB3-AE7A-D858EB4475B0.jpeg
I really wanted to represent these, as shown, with acanthus leaves folded-in, around the pipe. At this scale, though, that proved impossible for me to make something that looked good and right.

I began, one day, with a scrap of 1/4” x 1/4” stock, left-over from the rudder head ornament. I didn’t have my drill or Dremel, that day, so I attempted to facet to round and then shape entirely by hand. What I ended up with was approximately the right diameter, but too long and reminiscent of a saggy boob. It was informative, though, in so far as what proportions I needed to arrive at. So, I made up some more 1/4” stock and made a proper turning in my drill, the next day:
C58CB90E-6855-41DD-8A7E-C6F0E7015080.jpeg
Middle and right are the neat little vasi-forms I was after. From the top to the bottom of the “cup” is 5/16”, and the turning sprue gets cut into the waste-pipe end, adding another 1/16”, overall.

The trouble with Soleil Royal is that nearly every square inch begs for some form of embellishment. I could simply have painted these red ocher and called it a day, but it seemed to me that they would look too pedestrian right next to the gilded acanthus carvings of the QG lower finishing.

I decided that I could subdivide the cup into quarters and eighths, easily enough, and scribe a reeded pattern into their surface.

On its own, this new embellishment, highlighted in yellow ocher, would probably be enough. I decided, though, to take it a step further and try to create some nice recessed paneling, as on the lower finishing:
10F66397-5D66-43D7-8218-AD74393E7F7D.jpeg
056E9B97-9556-456D-91EA-BAA10B1E795A.jpeg
This was just as time consuming as it seems it would be. In colors, though, the results proved worth the effort:
80FD73D3-0848-4D4B-A6A0-98CB119F86FB.jpeg
8534163C-4BC8-41A9-B99C-BB21A5158286.jpeg
8433169F-E19E-4369-9D4F-CA23C4428714.jpeg
I even gave the waste-pipe a light ver-de-gris wash for the added realism.

Next, I was finally ready to begin installing the largest QG segments with their top and bottom transitional mouldings. Here is the area, scraped and prepared for gluing:
A763BA32-4BEC-4B03-A61C-778291AAB9B6.jpeg
The trickiest bit was the juncture of this bottom moulding with it’s counterpart on the stern; the trouble was that I didn’t have space, in my QG design, for the full thickness of the stern moulding which is, itself, a very close copy of what Berain drew for the stern.

So, I had to simplify the QG moulding and cope it around the stern moulding. What’s happening, here, is more evident if you zoom in:
72DF9690-295F-448F-82A4-0EAC4C314AF3.jpeg
The top moulding, while also coped, does at least match the profile of its stern counterpart. A few perspective shots:
DFB4DE70-919D-4534-A37F-C3A529FEBBDD.jpeg
185B1993-0921-4B1F-817D-A32B25A36B63.jpeg
1D73F3D4-D8E9-4C70-913C-66DABCFAC10D.jpeg
The wooden substrate is CA’d to the plastic hull and mouldings, and the inside edges of the mouldings are styrene-cemented to the hull. As always, I seek to ensure maximum connection and bond. Tonight, I’ll install the port side, and I can then begin final fitting of the sections below.

In the meantime, I’ve been shaping the very bottom section of the lower finishing, and making up the corresponding transitional mouldings:
BF103241-C3F1-422B-BE45-9661BA7FC8E4.jpeg
6450F254-C28A-4A9E-9FDC-7CFDD2571DDD.jpeg
I have an idea about how to represent the grape carving, of this lowest bit, which I think will work out much better than actually attempting to carve that detail - oh, for the love of paint!

Thank you for your interest and for stopping by. More to follow...
 
Hello again!

I was surprised to discover that my initial fairing to the shape of the hull, for these lower finishing pieces, was only approximate.

I was sanding them along the curving arc of the lower main wales, but not accounting for their actual rake in the horizontal plane. It was also only possible, initially, to guess at what the connecting angle would be with the transitional moulding above.

When I first offered these up to the hull, after securing the section above, I found that there was significant daylight in the middle of the piece, and the top angle was all wrong.

It took a fair amount of careful contour sanding and re-checking, but eventually I got the pieces flush up to the hull, fore and aft, and a closed joint at top.

Here you can see the changing tumblehome as reflected upon these inner surfaces:
152ED69E-080C-4FB1-8CD7-817901A8AC34.jpeg
One mistake I made was painting these before final fitting. All of that handling burnished through much of the gold. I also found that, while ordinarily sure-handed, I kept dropping these delicate pointed things on the floor. Lots of swearing! My kids wrote a song in my honor for dad’s hobby-time: “Oh EFF!!, I dropped my model... Oh EFF!!, the paint is scuffed!”

Anyway, after fitting and retouching, I was finally able to secure them in place:
98D19004-1515-47FE-8155-A25F38973A64.jpeg
E1375E3C-4833-4D26-94FE-E3E03D3277E7.jpeg
D0074E8A-15C6-4107-91D1-EA7584B511C5.jpeg
C002B14D-9095-4141-BD8C-04AE182A6A72.jpegC002B14D-9095-4141-BD8C-04AE182A6A72.jpeg
B3AD874D-4305-4A61-9F6B-3C023322E275.jpeg
Now, while I could not be happier with how this is progressing, I do sometimes think it is important to talk about some of the things this model IS NOT, even though it aspires to be them.

While I’m pretty sure that I have an accurate read on the shaping of the active seats of ease, I am less certain about the lower finishing.

In this port quarter drawing of La Royal Therese, one can see the seats of ease section pretty clearly:
7D71C313-75F5-45AA-BB6A-14780DB0DBE2.jpeg
There isn’t really a lower finishing beneath, so it fairs back pretty closely to the hull. Nevertheless, I think I’ve captured the shape and weight of this section pretty well.

Here is another example in Le Terrible:
12BAC589-79D8-443A-8C9D-0A6608D5EB33.jpeg

I do wonder, though, whether I’ve left the aft end of the lower finishing as too full. While I think I have the general contours correct, a part of me thinks that the aft end should probably round back more closely to the hull. I am not going to change it, but it is something to keep in mind for anyone else attempting to model these early QGs from pictures, alone.

The other issue to note is the exaggerated overhang of my stern counter:
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As I’ve discussed before, this is a byproduct of my approach for including the round-up of the transom; in a tapering arc, I pared back the transom edge of the hull, towards the waterline, so that my stern post would not be positioned too far aft into the stern counter. This is a difficult thing to explain, and my whole line of reasoning may have been flawed, there, but it was an educated guess, at the time.

The result was a very rakish stern counter, which I find aesthetically pleasing, but it is not strictly accurate for the period.

One look at Tanneron’s models of Le Brillant and L’Agreable confirm a flatter, more vertical counter:
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Lemineur’s monograph for the SP re-enforces this notion. It is notable, also, how Le Brillant’s lower finishing is relatively less bombastic than mine, and fairs much more closely with the hull.

Anyway, making this model in the manner in which I am is sometimes a guessing game. One particular benefit of this QG is that it extends beyond the line of the transom, and obscures the exaggeration. I will have to make a pair of wrapping corbels that finish this detail of the model. Here are the pattern tracings I have made for this purpose:
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Anyway, EFFIT! as this moderately old man is wont to say. Taken in its entirety, these small architectural variances should not be too glaring:
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So, I’m just finishing up the low finial of the lower finishing. I will wait to paint these until after final fitting:
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Once those are in place, I can concentrate on making the window section above.

Now that I know the North East Joint Clubs meeting is slated for October, I will try to get a certain amount of work done. I would like to get the upper bulwarks up and painted, the structure of the upper stern framed and planked, the quarter deck installed, and perhaps make a start on the galley stove.

Given my pace, so far, this is ambitious, but not altogether impossible. When I last showed the thing, two years ago, it was merely a collection of un-assembled parts. However far I get, it will be a vast improvement.

As ever, thank you for stopping by, and for your likes and comments. Happy Holidays!
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