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

Whilst I am working on the model every weekend, updates have slowed down as the armament for the main gun deck is slow going as every process is repeated 30 times.

I am pleased to say I can call half the cannons finished for this deck.The remaining half are not far behind. Work in the background on the carriages is also continuing, currently painting layers of basecoat on these so not worth posting.

Back to the cannons themselves.After sealing the bronze paint with Tamiya semigloss clear,I have added a pin wash to the detail using the citadel product shown.This represents the heavy Oxidisation in the recesses.

Kind Regards

Nigel

IMG_0956.jpgIMG_0957.jpgIMG_0958.jpgIMG_0959.jpg
 
This looks incredible! I love that Citadel wash. It does the job at any scale.

E3D9587B-3796-44CD-A23D-52F998C01EC0.jpeg
2D655E0A-0927-4534-A63A-9DBD4F1ABC92.jpeg

Don’t make the mistake I did, though. I painted these and then threw them in a plastic bag, thinking they were dry. Well, this wash coat likes to stick to itself, and I was amazed to see that my barrels had aggregated into a solid mass that had to be broken apart, pulling finish as I did.
 
Thankyou all for your kind comments.

Marc, just in time, was literally going to bag these up, think I will leave laid out on the kitchen table until tomorrow;)

Pter, I covered each step but not a tutorial as such. There was an element of guesswork involved here so didn't know that all the different steps would add up to what I want to achieve. Now that it has come together, I will post a tutorial as I have pictures of each step.

Kind Regards

Nigel
 
Last edited:
Pter, I covered each step but not a tutorial as such. There was an element of guesswork involved here so didn't know that all the different steps would add up to what I want to achieve. Now that it has come together, I will post a tutorial as I have pictures of each step.

Kind Regards

Nigel

Thank you Nigel, I'll appreciate it very much, looking forward to your tutorial!

Peter
 
As I said earlier, updates are slow coming as I am working my way through the main gun deck armament.

After priming the carriages with Tamiya Aerosol primer, the carriages have been painted with Titanium Buff artist acrylic using a brush. These were then sealed with a coat of Polyurethane varnish and left to thoroughly dry.

Next stage is the application of a wash using Artist's oil paint thinned with white spirit. The result looks very shiny and will take a couple of weeks to properly dry before sealing with clear matt varnish applied with the airbrush, then I can move on to detailing

Kind Regards

Nigel

IMG_0986.jpgIMG_0987.jpgIMG_0989.jpgIMG_0988.jpg
 
Thanks Marc and John. This is a first for me. I found applying the wash all over then very lightly working it with the brush to give the grain direction worked well, especially as I was "winging it" ROTF

Once the wheel wedges are painted, then ironmongery and cannon added, I hope these will have a passing resemblance to boxwood and not jar with the rest of the ship's interior.

I already have boxwood blocks and scale rope to detail these. I have been in touch with Daniel AKA Dafi and are waiting on the next batch of his etched hooks and eyebolts so I can order some of those.

I am quite enjoying treating these as a separate project in their own right. When these are done it is LED lantern mass production next. I want to get all these details ready so when I start back on the hull, work can continue in earnest and I can complete the main gun deck.

Kind Regards

Nigel
 
All exciting stuff. By the way, I’ve been working on the SR/Royal Charles comparison from 1672. At this point, and cross-referenced with the Le Havre du Grace survey, I can confidently say that SR’s length of keel was 142’ French feet, her sternpost raked aft by 4 1/2 feet and her stem projected forward by 18 feet, for a length overall of 164.5 French feet. Also, her wing transom is precisely 2/3 of the main beam, i side the planking.
 
All exciting stuff. By the way, I’ve been working on the SR/Royal Charles comparison from 1672. At this point, and cross-referenced with the Le Havre du Grace survey, I can confidently say that SR’s length of keel was 142’ French feet, her sternpost raked aft by 4 1/2 feet and her stem projected forward by 18 feet, for a length overall of 164.5 French feet. Also, her wing transom is precisely 2/3 of the main beam, i side the planking.

Now that is very interesting. Are we to take it that 164.5 feet will be also the length of the main gun deck. Your dimensions are the setting out dimensions used by the shipwright. The hard part if determining EXACTLY where they are measured.
Do you plan on using the 4:1 rule for length of main gun deck vs maximum moulded breadth ( which is always taken to the inside of the planking)?
We are also close to where the value of the French foot changed which makes things even more confusing.

I think you may find the 2/3 width of wing transom rule will create a hull more plausible than that of the Tanneron/ Heller model

I am tempted to calculate the 164.5 French foot into metric, divide by 65, and measure my model. From memory, I went slightly less than the quoted 168 French foot so it may be quite close. I can also compare the other measurements, just out of sheer curiosity:) It would be quite funny if it all worked out, just by my educated guesswork and Artesania's initial groundwork on the bulkheads
 
So, that FF measurement of 164.5 runs from the forward-most projection of the stem to the aft-most projection of the sternpost. Guy Maher makes, in my opinion, a highly plausible argument that while the official measure of the French foot may have increased by 1670, intransigent builders like Hubac the elder are unlikely to have adopted the new measure into their constructions. It won’t be until the next generation of shipwrights, like Etienne Hubac in the 1690’s, that the new measure takes root and ships become slightly larger.

The 4:1 length to breadth ratio leaves you about 3 and a quarter feet shy of the recorded maximum breadth of 44.5’. This dimension, within the planking, is another that the Le Havre du Grace survey seems to confirm, within a few inches; the survey records a max breadth of 44’9”. This max breadth dimension is located 6 pieds forward of the midpoint on the keel.

Another fascinating observation between the French (SR) and English (RC) constructions is that the maximum breadth of the French ships is always (in the 1660’s, anyway) 2-3 feet above the waterline, whereas the English ships have their max breadth at the waterline. This seems to be born out by Girardon’s drawing of the Dauphin Royal:

F3F3983B-B548-464E-915B-DD314E680872.jpeg

These two drawings happen to be quite precise in their intent and execution. One can even see faint lines indicating the deck locations on this quarter drawing:

2ABC4D46-2B7E-49C7-945C-582D803AAA00.jpeg
 
Last edited:
The maximum breadth moved to the waterline in the French second marine which is why my hull form is indicative of the 1693 Soleil Royal, not the first;)

You are almost to a point of having the basis for basic hull set out with these dimensions
 
Back
Top