Soleil Royal- Re-engineering Artesania Latina's New Kit by NMBROOK

Wonderful work,but I did not understand why do you use a kit to build this model. In the moment you use only a few of the bulkheads for your model. Why do you build the model not only following the drawings?
 
Wonderful work,but I did not understand why do you use a kit to build this model. In the moment you use only a few of the bulkheads for your model. Why do you build the model not only following the drawings?

Hi Christian

If you go back to the beginning of my log, I explain that in fact, I will be using all of the best parts of the kit, the cast ornamentation and photo etch.In essence, what I will be discarding is some sheets of precut plywood, the rigging thread and the armament which only portrayed stub cannons for the majority of the build.

Kind Regards

Nigel
 
Hall Nigel,

I remember. I did not know the casts but if I see your possibilities to carf, I could not believe that they are so good, that you need them.
I know what such a kit costs and that you also pay for all the things you will not use...

But it is your decision and I am happy that I have a very interesting build log to read.
 
I have to say, from my point of view, the castings are surprisingly good. The effort to construct this stern and these quarters, not to mention the head, from scratch would be truly monumental, so I can see the appeal in building a better structure around these fittings. The biggest surprise was how good the bulkhead forms actually are. They were just prototyped onto a keel that is far too short. Clearly, I am inclined towards these sort of modification projects, but this is one of the best and most fascinating builds out there of any subject, IMO.
 
Hall Nigel,

I remember. I did not know the casts but if I see your possibilities to carf, I could not believe that they are so good, that you need them.
I know what such a kit costs and that you also pay for all the things you will not use...

But it is your decision and I am happy that I have a very interesting build log to read.

Hi Christian

It was obvious to me before I even bought the kit that Artesania's manufacturing budget was blown on producing the castings and that is predominantly the reason why I bought the kit.The quality of them is way beyond anything recent from the likes of the Mantua group and Euromodel Como.

Not only that,I saw the marketing video and knew I had to buy the kit and modify it.Artesania came sooo close to actually getting it right,I feel I have to build this kit into "what it could of been".I have had a long love of this vessel from childhood, so it is less about the money and more about the fun I am having:D

Kind Regards

Nigel
 
I had reservations and also headaches around getting a result that I would find acceptable for the blue areas of the hull.

Last weekend I had one of those lightbulb moments so checked out what coloured Veneer I could find to cut the upper hull planking from.A couple of days ago my dark blue Tulipwood veneer landed.As you can see with no finish it is more or less Denim colour but the last picture shows the colour with varnish applied which is pretty darn close to what I am after.

Kind Regards

Nigel

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I had reservations and also headaches around getting a result that I would find acceptable for the blue areas of the hull.

Last weekend I had one of those lightbulb moments so checked out what coloured Veneer I could find to cut the upper hull planking from.A couple of days ago my dark blue Tulipwood veneer landed.As you can see with no finish it is more or less Denim colour but the last picture shows the colour with varnish applied which is pretty darn close to what I am after.

Kind Regards

Nigel

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Very interesting Nigel. I think I learn something from every single one of your posts...tinted(?) veneers...
 
Paul I think the important thing with these is whatever system they use for dying is that the colour runs all the way through which should give crisp colour delineation against the boxwood colour gunport linings.I had been rattling my brain how to achieve this if I painted the planking and feel it would not be as crisp.

Kind Regards

Nigel
 
This looks great! Taking the painting with wood idea a little further, what about holly veneer for the whitestuff, and ebonized pear for the boot topping? And then, as I think you are intending, natural boxwood for the middle and upper main wales.
 
One consideration with the blue veneer is that there is a range of color variation within any sheet, but I think careful plank selection can make this a design feature that highlights the plank shift. Probably, a sample board would be a good idea.
 
Thanks Guys I think this is a positive step and there will be some colour variation plus I can micro bevel the edges to give distinction to the individual planks.

Marc,I held off replying and slept on what you said.I think that is a good idea and the other thing is that this veneer is available in a multitude of colours including white and black! Mmmm I think this is the way to go, if I have visible planking on the top, I really need it on the bottom.This will mean splicing veneer at the waterline and some serious spilling looking at Marc Yeu's build.

Kind Regards

Nigel
 
Granted, it will be a lot of extra work on the bottom, but it will look so cool and unlike any other SR out there. Marc did an excellent job of plank layout and spiling on his underhull.
 
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I have gone as far as I can go with the Maple deck planking and am now doing the slow job of Scarphing boxwood strip to form the last two binding strakes.

Whilst waiting for glue to dry on the joints I have started on my intermediate deck beams.Rather than cut holes in the hull with these as the other beams will give me the strength, these fit between the hull sides.Because of the tumblehome, I have found that cutting a pocket inside the hull on one side allows me the clearance so these can be popped in without deflecting the hull.These pockets were cut out with my angle head Proxxon and a burr.

Pieces of boxwood are glued in-between to complete the dummy deck clamp arrangement.The tops of these will all be faired in to the top of the deck beams.

Kind Regards

Nigel

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Just taking a look at the stock kit imagery, it occurs to me that AL did something interesting with the arrangement of the wales; apart from the lower main wales (2 wales), the middle and upper main wales are represented as single wales. I had not noticed that before.
 
Just taking a look at the stock kit imagery, it occurs to me that AL did something interesting with the arrangement of the wales; apart from the lower main wales (2 wales), the middle and upper main wales are represented as single wales. I had not noticed that before.

Yes I spotted this early on, as to why, we can only speculate. Possibly it was because with two Wales, the stubbiness of their hull was emphasised.
 
Thanks Guys I think this is a positive step and there will be some colour variation plus I can micro bevel the edges to give distinction to the individual planks.

Marc,I held off replying and slept on what you said.I think that is a good idea and the other thing is that this veneer is available in a multitude of colours including white and black! Mmmm I think this is the way to go, if I have visible planking on the top, I really need it on the bottom.This will mean splicing veneer at the waterline and some serious spilling looking at Marc Yeu's build.

Kind Regards

Nigel
Hi Nigel,

Do you know if the colouring used for the veneer is UV resistant?
I know with a lot of dyes UV resistance is a problem if they are not pigmented.

Schmincke has a series of pigmented ink called aero colour which are UV resistant.

 
This is an interesting consideration. I did one furniture project with aniline dye because I wanted to maintain grain clarity. Cherry, though, darkens with age. I think that pear naturally darkens a little bit. Maybe that off-sets any stain-lightening.
 
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