Sovereign of the Seas Mantua 1:78 Greatly Enhanced - Vince P. [COMPLETED BUILD]

When placing the 2 lower gun port templates, you will find that they are curved in the horizontal plain to accommodate the curved line of the lower decks from aft to bow. Mine were not exactly curved correctly and tended to not rise enough as you got closer to the stern. I had to cut them somewhere to the rear of gunport 5 or 6 and splice them to make the curve more accurate to the decks. The seam was nearly invisible when sanded. Also, before starting the first layer of planking, there were little wood blocks that had to be glued to the decks at the marked locations on the plans. These were for drilling and mounting the gun barrels of the below deck guns. After placing the gun port templates and cutting out the port holes, check carefully to make sure all of the little blocks on the decks align with the centers of the gun port holes. Mine had several on each side that were considerably off and mounting the gun barrels would have been impossible. Now is the time to fix this by gluing additional wood pieces to these blocks so the gun barrels will be centered in the ports.

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Completion of the second layer of planking of the upper hull and painting the necessary areas.

Note: There is controversy as to what color the background of the hull behind the decorations should be. According to research, the color was actually black on the original ship. I chose to use the light blue only because it looks better to me. The black is also nice, but mine will be blue. :p

Vince P. Ship-1

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Placing the main deck gunport frames and painting them red. There are two parts to each frame. One on the outside of the hull and one on the inside.

I also installed the decorative side doorways. The wales have to be cut to place the doorways.

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Constructing the side galleries and placing on the hull. It took quite a bit of adjusting, especially where the inside edges have to conform to the curvature of the hull.

I also constructed and installed the railings above the main deck bulwarks.

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Placing the bow curved partitions.

The curved bow partitions are actually 2 pieces of plywood glued on top of each other. The instructions called for gluing the 2 pieces together first and then placing them on the bow. This is a mistake to do this because the pieces have to be bent and twisted to fit the curves and slope of the prow. If they are glued together first, they will not twist and bend as 2 plies. Placing the bottom layer first and then the top layer after it dries makes it easy to make the bends and slopes.

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Completing the first layer of hull planking. Afterwards, sanding or filling in any low spots is important before laying the top (finish) layer in order for the hull to flow smoothly and have a symmetrical shape.

Pretty straight forward. When laying planks that are curved at both ends, I cut them into 2 parts. It is easier to just bend one end than trying to get the curves placed correctly at both ends together. I adjust the seams by staggering them like on a real ship. I am not concerned with glue stains because this layer will be covered up completely.

Vince P. Ship-1

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Yes, it is much easier to plank the hull if you do it with plakns cut in two (or more) parts. I discovered that myself...

Great job.

There are two attachment missing, by the way.

Regards

JL
 
Dicas said:
Yes, it is much easier to plank the hull if you do it with plakns cut in two (or more) parts. I discovered that myself...

Great job.

There are two attachment missing, by the way.

Regards

JL
Click to expand...
Yes, for some reason it suddenly won't let me upload photos. I am trying to find out what is happening.
Thanks
 
Starting the second (finish) layer of walnut planking. This needs to be precise since this layer will be the visible one on the completed ship. The seams have to be clean and even and there can't be any glue stains since the entire hull below the gunports will be finished in a natural wood finish. I won't be able to hide any imperfections under paint. :oops:

The joints are arranged in a 4 plank shift pattern as was practice in English ships of the period.

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OK, I had a glitch show up where I could not upload any more photos. I fiddled around and then logged out and back in. Now it seems to be fixed. :confused:

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Completing the second layer of planking and applying the finish. I used 3 coats of sanding sealer with sanding with a 4800 grit fine paper between each. Then applying 2 coats of a golden oak wood finish (Minwax). If it comes out too shiny, which it did, I ran the 4800 grit paper over it lightly and it dulled it up just a little.

The method I used for shaping and sizing each plank is described in my build log for the Royal William. There are several good ways to do the planking, but this method has always worked for me. Not my invention, got it out of a magazine article many years ago.

Vince P. Ship-1

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Adding the main lower wales to the hull. The plans call for ending the wales at the sides of the transom, but they should wrap around the transom to the sternpost. I looked at illustrations of other completed models of the SOS and also of drawings of the real ship and they show them wrapped, so I did mine that way.

Vince P. Ship-1

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Working on the lavish stern ornamentation.

NOTE: The plans show a different arrangement for the decorations on the lower transom, than from the instructions. Before gluing anything on, make sure everything goes in the right place. The decorations will not fit if the pattern is wrong. I laid everything out on a piece of paper first. Once I was satisfied, I then started placing them on the ship. I used some references from text books on the SOS, and photos of other models in museums and on forums.

Cutting all of the little pieces of gold trim to make squares on the transom was very tedious.

Vince P. Ship-1

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One of the murdering guns that mounted on the upper decks. If you look at the ship, there are many guns on the upper decks that face into the ships decks and not outboard as you would think. These guns had a nasty purpose. They were loaded with anti-personnel shrapnel and fired across the ship's own decks to kill and mame boarding party personnel. I would imagine they got a few of their own sailors as well. Nasty business. Sick

Vince P. Ship-1

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