Wishing for a speedy recovery, my friend!
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Sovereign of the Seas - Sergal 1:78 (with hopefully many added details)
Good morning John. At least you had the courage to post your video. Mine are horrendous and stay well in my cloud never to be shared
. Looking forward to your Oseberg however that Japanese ship looks cool. Variety is the spice of life they say…..well mostly. Good luck with the wrist recovery. Cheers Grant
Grant,
re: video I did learn how to turn off the sound during filming. That was the first improvement step. Now I need to learn how to pan without the slight sloppy movements. My iPhone has a setting for that, but seems useless in my hands. Then how to continuously adjust close-up focusing during filming.
Now, your work is so excellent even a in your word "horrendous" videos - is questionable - the focus would be 1000% on how amazing your
superb details would look close up.
You have been a constant inspiration for me and certainly many others on how to improve their building skills.
Cheers my friend --
re: video I did learn how to turn off the sound during filming. That was the first improvement step. Now I need to learn how to pan without the slight sloppy movements. My iPhone has a setting for that, but seems useless in my hands. Then how to continuously adjust close-up focusing during filming.
Now, your work is so excellent even a in your word "horrendous" videos - is questionable - the focus would be 1000% on how amazing your
superb details would look close up.
You have been a constant inspiration for me and certainly many others on how to improve their building skills.Cheers my friend --
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Ordered the mast step upgrade as well as Pavel’s airbrush, for later, wood stains - so on hold -- I will start a new log in a bit. But these starting areas are all the same - we’ve all seen quite a few. I’ll start my log during the steps where I plan on adding, hopefully, lots of extra details beyond what this amazing kit already includes in the box.
This book will be THE guide. took months to finally land a copy - I have been in very excellent communications with Pavel Nikitin - The Oseberg rigging in his kits also used this book as their reference.
OK --- Cheers all Enjoy your end of the year festivities.
This book will be THE guide. took months to finally land a copy - I have been in very excellent communications with Pavel Nikitin - The Oseberg rigging in his kits also used this book as their reference.
OK --- Cheers all Enjoy your end of the year festivities.
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Hi Kurt,
I’m still here taking notes
keeping quiet and learning from the most experienced members of the forum, haha. For the past two days, I haven't been able to tear myself away from this John thread. BTW, John, I’m not commenting on the original thread because it’s a bit old and you might have already finished your SOTS!! And I wouldn't want to make it any longer than it already is, so I can finish analyzing it sooner hahaha, just kidding. I still have the second half of the thread to go, but honestly, your documentation of the build is more than spectacular (I have no words)!!! Since I’m here, I wanted to ask you Kurt if you happen to have any diagrams showing how to adjust all the bulkheads to build out all the gun decks. Remember, my kit is the Mantua version, as I mentioned to you at some point, I don't like the dummy models, so for me, that’s something that will 100% be changed in my SOTS. But I see that John didn't make the modifications to build the gun decks, which is why I'm asking you; maybe you've heard of someone, or perhaps someone will see my reply and help me out with this. I know the bulkheads are completely different from the DeAgostini ones, plus it's a smaller scale. That’s the look I want for my Mantua SOTS—along with adding LEDs, of course.As always, I thank you in advance for your prompt response.
The vertical position of the gun decks was determined by the position of the gun ports. Obviously, the gun port bottom sills have to be a certain distance above the deck in order for the guns barrels to be at the proper position vertically in order to be able to depress and elevate when aimed. Starting with the gun port locations, you work backwards and determine where the lower decks need to be using once of your completed cannon carriages. When you know how many millimeters the deck should be below each sill, then you figure out how thick the deck planks and false deck beneath those are. add that thickness to the sill height, and there you have distance from the sill down to the top surface of the beams that support the deck. After that, create a jig that inserts into a gun port, and has wood that extends down to the level of the top of the beam surface. That tool will ensure you set your deck beams at the correct height at the gunwales as you install them.Hi Kurt,
I’m still here taking notes
As always, I thank you in advance for your prompt response.
Now, before you do all this, make darn sure your gun ports are aligned in a gentle sweeping curve from fore to aft, and no gun ports are too far below or above that line, or else the deck will have waves, flat spots, or depressions trying to line up with those gun ports, and that will suck to build. If the gun ports do not form a smooth, curved line along the hull, CORRECT THEM NOW. It's much easier to fabricate a smooth deck than one that jumps up and down, plus it's CORRECT. On my model, in order to support the false deck plywood better at the edges so no dips in the surface would occur, I installed a stringer of wood strip on the inside of the hull, then the beams just inside that at the same level. As for the curvature of the beams, I estimated the arcs by eye and made sure that adjacent beams were pretty close to the same shape in curvature. Yeah, I could have measured and been more precise, but my work style has always been free-form and I have a good eye for lining things up precisely, so I saved some time. The historical amount of deck camber could have been calculated, but I didn't make that much of an effort. If the deck ends up being too high, you can always fake it by sanding a little off the bottoms of the carriage wheels of the affected cannons and lower their carriages up to .3mm. Any more is noticable. If the deck is too low, shim up the false deck piece in the affect area BEFORE you lay down the deck planks. Fake it 'til you make it. No one will ever notice. Just keep an eye on the deck height of the false deck and then the planking layer by continuous measurement checks and everything will turn out fine.
The bottom edge of the tool is the vertical position of the top of the beams. The dashed line is where the top surface of the deck will be.
Use the gun port jig to establish the stringer plank vertical position, then clamp it well.
Add beams that are in slight compression between the stringers so they stay in place as the glue dries.
Throw down some pieces of false deck plywood to see if the beams at the same height at the centerline of the hull, and adjust the length of their support pillars AFTER the glue dries at the endjoints of the beams.
The beams can flex up or down a little at the centerline such that they are all even, then you can either start laying down the false deck in pieces or go absolutely f'ing crazy like I did and add knees, hanging knees, lodging knees, dagger knees, carlings and ledges... just because.
I'm writing a book here, so I better cut it off and say, just read the rest in my build log.
Kurt
Hahahaaha "Aye, aye, Captain!"
I'll definitely do that, my friend! A thousand thanks, as always. I'm wrapping things up here now so I won't bother you anymore; I'll need to study your thread, though that’s going to take me a while because yours is a massive read, it spans nautical miles! compares to this one
"Aye, aye, Captain!"I'll definitely do that, my friend! A thousand thanks, as always. I'm wrapping things up here now so I won't bother you anymore; I'll need to study your thread, though that’s going to take me a while because yours is a massive read, it spans nautical miles! compares to this one
Hi,
Had forgotten about this log - Finished - Had meant to post some completed images and where she is now permanently displayed.
Will look and post a few more images and mark this log as completed.
Jacapa412 -- glad that you found some bits here interesting - thanks for your kind words
Regards,
Had forgotten about this log - Finished - Had meant to post some completed images and where she is now permanently displayed.
Will look and post a few more images and mark this log as completed.
Jacapa412 -- glad that you found some bits here interesting - thanks for your kind words
Regards,
Can’t wait!! 
Hi John,
Thanks for sharing your work—your SOTS turned out absolutely beautiful. And yes, I really am learning; right now I’m soaking everything up like a sponge to build my knowledge. It’s a lot to take in at once, so I’m a bit intimidated, hahaha, but first I want to finish my HMS Terror.
Thanks again for sharing.
Jack
John, you have one of the finest looking Sovereign of the Seas builds on the forum!
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Hi all,
Jacapa412 Wow so kind you to post such positive comments Thanks SO much. I understand your interest in trying as faithfully as possible to replicate a much more accurate example - The Sergal kit won’t help in that regard. But I hope that some of my bashing of this kit will offer you some ideas…
Daniel - again you are SO nice - touched by your estimation of how this example turned out. Big hugs my friend…
TexBilly - hi - probably too many images - thanks for your post…
Here are some (too many) images from the - finally - finished hull model for this log.
Please note that I had the luck of working from two new kit two examples - the vintage one from the 1980s that included some 600+ solid bronze decorative bits, as well the current kit picking through the improved bits from that kit but, NOT using any of the decorative very poor quality, by comparison, metal bits.
The current kit much to its detriment (IMO) has replaced all of the solid very well cast vintage solid bronze bits with a sort of much cheaper and by comparison poorly cast metal and added some - what appears to be electroplating. Scraping the back of a new bit removes the “gold” and results in white metal underneath.
Next final post will have images (just a few) where it’s being displayed..
Regards,
Jacapa412 Wow so kind you to post such positive comments Thanks SO much. I understand your interest in trying as faithfully as possible to replicate a much more accurate example - The Sergal kit won’t help in that regard. But I hope that some of my bashing of this kit will offer you some ideas…
Daniel - again you are SO nice - touched by your estimation of how this example turned out. Big hugs my friend…
TexBilly - hi - probably too many images - thanks for your post…
Here are some (too many) images from the - finally - finished hull model for this log.
Please note that I had the luck of working from two new kit two examples - the vintage one from the 1980s that included some 600+ solid bronze decorative bits, as well the current kit picking through the improved bits from that kit but, NOT using any of the decorative very poor quality, by comparison, metal bits.
The current kit much to its detriment (IMO) has replaced all of the solid very well cast vintage solid bronze bits with a sort of much cheaper and by comparison poorly cast metal and added some - what appears to be electroplating. Scraping the back of a new bit removes the “gold” and results in white metal underneath.
Next final post will have images (just a few) where it’s being displayed..
Regards,
Congratulations, John (M)! A magnificent outcome which deserves a prominent place to display her! I can't wait to see what you came up with...
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SOOOOOOooooo Pretty!
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Incredible! 
Congratulations and thank you for sharing!
Congratulations and thank you for sharing!
No, you've got it all wrong. You've made a continental fish davit, which was short. Until 1782, the length of an English fish davit was equal to the full width of the forecastle. Therefore, it was stored either on the forecastle bulwarks (drift), or with the spare yards and spare topmasts near the boats in the waist.
So good to see some more pics of this beauty John. Cheers Grant
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Until the second half of the 18th century, there were no handles, whether rope, iron, or any other kind, and there never would be. This is confirmed by numerous documents from that era. The photograph below shows what our object would have looked like before 1750.
