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 Rank: Vice-Master     Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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Additional images of the whole ship hull. I have to recognize that it is huge and bulky , , I'm a little worried where I will find the space at my home to keep it, if I will succeed to finish it. I'm thinking to alternative finishing ways . . 01 P1060967.jpg  02 P1060968.jpg  03 P1060969.jpg  04 P1060972.jpg  05 P1060975.jpg  Kind regards, JackAubrey
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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Saturday October 23rd, 2010 - Gratings One task planned in the building instructions for issues 18-25 is the construct and the installation of some gratings, on the upper gun deck and on the quarterdeck. The only change I made was the wood used for the frames: instead of walnut I used boxwood. Here below are shown the gratings I build and I have then fixed in place . . Gratings installed on the upper gun deck: 01 P1060990.jpg  Gratins installed on the quarterdeck: 02 P1060992.jpg  An overall view: 03 P1060993.jpg  With this further work I have completed the material I have, but, in order to continue, I decided to build the doors and the windows that will be installed in the vertical walls between the decks. Having no ideas of the layout of these doors and windows I based my work on Mantua Models plans, just for reference. I'll show in the next messages. Cheers, Jack.Aubrey
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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Saturday October 30th, 2010 - Doors & Windows - Part 1 As I disclosed, while I was waiting to receive additional material to start working on the hull sides, I began to study an alternative solution to the doors and windows supplied with the kit. First I had to realize that there are several versions of these elements (i.e DeA, Mantua, Lusci and the famous model in Paris by Talleron) With the structure anyway setup in my Soleil I wasn't able to made them as in the Paris' model, it was too late, so I decided, in lack of precise documentation, to inspire to Mantua's plans, but not 100%. There is no historical evidence but . . In the first image in this message, taken with a scanner, I have inserted the outline that I choose for these elements on the various decks. Above the outline there is a semifinished piece from which I obtained some final elements, that are the doors and the windows. There are two kinds of doors and two kinds of windows. Windows are single and double. The semifinished here shown is for single windows. 01 PorteFinestre2R.jpg  Here below a zoomed view of the semifinished. It is made with lady ply of 0,4mm. thickness. The base is coloured before installing the frames, made with the same ply. External frames are 1,5x0,4mm. while the internal (not yet visible here) are 1x0,4mm. To obtain these strips I used a home made jig as spacer. 02 PorteFinestre1R.jpg  Here below the semifinished of the double windows. 03 P1070001R.jpg  to be continued . . .
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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Saturday October 30th, 2010 - Doors & Windows - Part 2 Once finished the single elements I cannot resist to see the result on the model . . . also because I spent an entire week to build them. So, as soon as they became available, I installed them. Here below how they appear once applied on the model. 04 P1060995R.jpg  05 P1060996R.jpg  06 P1060997.jpg  Something is still missing and I need to think to handles and joints, but It's a great achievement for me . . Here below some news in the bow area . . the beakhead bulkhead. 07 P1060998.jpg  Cheers. Jack.
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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Sunday November 14th, 2010 - hull sides and gun ports After having at last terminated the work on the ship decks (. . for now . .) and having finally available all the pieces needed I started to work on the hull sides. In practice at this point the hull structure is complete and the next activities will go towards the external plaking. Before the planks there is some other work to do, and this is the matter of this and the following messages. What I have now to do is to mount on the upper side of the hull some pieces made with ply of 1.5mm thickness where there are pre-cutted the gun ports. Before mounting them is necessary to finish their sides with sandpaper and small files. Given that these pieces can be weak, in order to be able to reproduce them in case of breakage, I made a photocopy of all of them . . As glue I used the aliphatic glue but I helped myself also with some brass nails. It is obvious that all this work was not done in a sigle day, I spent five days to reach this result. Here some images of the work done. Left side near bow . . 01 P1070008.jpg  Left side near poop . . 02 P1070009.jpg  Right side near bow . . 03 P1070010.jpg  Right side near poop . . 04 P1070011.jpg 
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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November 14th, 2010 - Continuation Here below four other images. In the first two images you can see the entire model. It is very big and to focus it with my digital camera I need to stay quite far from it !! It has not the size of Dolphyn, that you can se in the background on the left. 01 P1070012.jpg  In these other images it's possible to see also all the doors and the windows in place . . elements not totally implemented when I published the images of them. 02 P1070013.jpg  03 P1070015.jpg  04 P1070014.jpg  See you next time, Cheers, Jack.
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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Wednesday November 24th, 2010 - Upper hull sides and gunports - continuation Thanks to new materials just arrived i can continue to install the preshaped ply on the hull sides . . Now it's the right time for the upper gun deck. In terms of experiences, nothing new with respect of previous similar work but I had to close the background of some gunports otherwise I will not reach them after the installation. This is clearly visible in the images. As usual, here below the poop zone on the right: 01 P1070016.jpg  And here the bow zone on the right: 02 P1070017.jpg  Here below the bow area on the left side: 03 P1070018.jpg  and the poop zone, same side: 04 P1070019.jpg  I have coloured with mahogany stain the internal side of the ply that simulates the handrails, but I don't like this kind of finishing, it is not realistic. I will plank this internal side with walnut stripes of 1mm. thickness. In addition, before starting this planking I will install a shaped stripe to simulate the waterway. But these are for now only plans or ideas, before this become true I must finish the hull sides, where two pieces are still missing . . See you next time, Jack.Aubrey
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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Continuation . . Here below some other images belonging to November 24th. With this work done I am aligned to the work that should be completed with the material and instruction provided with the 36th issue, with some small exceptions that are not important for now. In the background of the first image a german heavy cruiser I made +/- 40 years ago. 01 P1070020.jpg  02 P1070021.jpg  03 P1070022.jpg  04 P1070025.jpg  See you next time. Cheers, Jack.Aubrey PS: I have received a new shipment from De Agostini, package n° 10 containing the issues n° 38, 39, 40 and 41. There is some new interesting work to start . . although I have some new ideas for a more realistic and practical result.
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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Friday November 26th, 2010 Here are the last two ply preshaped panels . . They completely close the upper part of the Soleil Royal hull. Left side: 01 P1070027.jpg  Right side: 02 P1070029.jpg  A view from the decks: 03 P1070028.jpg  04 P1070030.jpg  And a view aback: 05 P1070033.jpg  I'm now in sync with issue 38th. Next steps are to start planking all this ply covered area with strips of softwood 5x2mm. But, at this point I need to implement some of my planned customisations to enhance this model: I will show these tasks in the next messages. That's all for today, cheers, Jack.Aubrey
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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Saturday November 27th, 2010 - Waterways As I wrote, before starting the external hull planking I decided to make some customisations: one of these customisations is the installation of the waterways and the planking of the internal sides of the headrails. In the following four images you can see the waterway installed onto all the decks of the ship. With this operation it also becomes evident that a consequent benefit of doing so is to totally fill some gaps in the joints between the decks and the headrails. In effect without this "trick" the deck presented some small openings that the waterway simply hided. 01 P1070034.jpg  02 P1070035.jpg  03 P1070036.jpg  04 P1070037.jpg  The waterways dimensions are 2,5mm. wide and 0,8 mm. thick. Its installation was quite simple: the main problem was to remove as well as possible the exceeding glue. Now let me spend some time writing about the shape of this element and how I obtained it. The section of the waterway is visible in the left side of the next image. Having in mind the strip dimensions, I did not though to obtain it by starting from a simple small strip and rounding a part of it. So I tried an alternate way. 05 Trincarino.jpg  The right side of the image shows the section of a beechwood tablet found in a wood store. It is 1cm thick and 8cm wide. I rounded the external angles as shown in the picture. With my circular saw I cut the highlighted (Yellow) parts obtaining two strips of 10x0,8mm with a rounded side. At this point, with a cutter and an iron ruler I obtained my strips of 2.5x0.8. That's all. See you next time. Jack.Aubrey
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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Here are some detailed images about the internal planking of the headrails. The gun ports are not yet refined and the rounded ones on the higher decks are for now closed to avoid possible crashes. At the right time they will be reopened and refined. The visible part of the waterways is now smaller. 01 P1070042.jpg  02 P1070043.jpg  03 P1070044.jpg  04 P1070046.jpg  05 P1070047.jpg  Cheers, Jack.Aubrey
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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Friday December 3rd, 2010 - Hull enhancements before planking Let's now show another small enhancement I planned and realized. The idea is to fill the bow area with some softwood blocks in order to make easier the installation of planks in this traditionally difficult area. I used several layers of 1.5cm wood to fill the area and then I shaped it correctly with some levelling blocks. I made a lot of sawdust. In the same task I shaped the bevel of the first 3-4 bulkheads. This is particularly well visible in image n° 3. I have also doubled the thickness of the keel reinforcement, visible in the first image with a lightning shaped mark. 01 P1070040.jpg  02 P1070041.jpg  03 P1070048.jpg  Cheers, Jack.Aubrey
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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December 6-12, 2010 - Leveling blocks In my previous message I introduced the term "leveling block". Here follow two images of these blocks I specifically built to fair the hull. The raw material I used is 1) wood blocks of different shapes (rectangular, semi circular, circular), found in wood stores and 2) sheets of sandpaper of different grain but of very high quality. High quality is mandatory if you want to be able to use the block for long time. Sandpaper is glued on the block in a way that you can remove it and eventually change it with another piece with higher or lower grain. If you use these blocks for wood only, they are long living, but they can also be used succesfully on metals, such as copper or brass, obviously with a shorter life. 01 P1070054.jpg  02 P1070055.jpg  Here below a collection of some blocks made just for the gun ports of the Soleil Royal. 03 P1070056.jpg  Cheers. Jack.Aubrey.
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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December 6-12, 2010 - Start planking I finally finished the planned customisations and enhancements and now it is time to start planking the hull. This activity can be considered made of two main steps: first the planking from approx the waterline upwards and, second, from the waterline downwards. Before I had to do a preliminary session for fairing and beveling the bulkheads. This is a mandatory activity and the best this work is done the best the result of planking will be. It is something very important that cannot be underestimated. The instructions contained in issues 39, 40 and 41 describe with great detail how to proceed but I don't take much care of them because I know very well this process, having used it when I built the Santìsima Trinidad. Then, I started and I spent three half days of work. I was able to install only nine planks of 5x2 on both sides, 18 in total. I know that I am not Speedy Gonzales, but one reason comes from the need to work around the gun ports, and this takes time. In addition I prefer to level the planks as soon as a small number of them are installed and dry. I do this to maintain better control over the work and to avoid, at the end, a long, tedious and weakening leveling session. Here below some images of the work done during these days. 01 P1070049.jpg  02 P1070050.jpg  Just two words about the wood strips: they are made of softwood, erroneously for me called "ramin". They are about 30cm. long and it is necessary to install three or four of then to install a full plank. A little bit as in the real ships . . The problem is that they are not calibrated and I must keep great attention to find and use three or four of them equal before proceeding with a full plank. 03 P1070051.jpg  04 P1070052.jpg  Here below, in spite of the controls, an example of non perfect strip that was installed . . 05 P1070053.jpg  That's all for this week. To the next one. Jack.Aubrey
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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December 6-12th, 2010 - gun ports This sunday I had some time to dedicate and I worked to exercise myself to serially open the gun ports. The leveling block I prepared are demonstrating their value, although they can be used only were there is nothing that closes the port. In the latter case I must use a cutter and the work is heavier. I will have to learn a lot from this exercise because they are about one hundred ports, but my experience with the Santìsima Trinidad, where the ports were 140, vaccinated me forever. Anyway it is important to cut a few ports together to avoid to get tired. So my suggestion for this kind of task is to dilute it in short sessions. The next planks upwards can be installed faster because there is not the problem to curve the wood strips. Anyway there is again the problem of the gun ports. I also decided to progress the work in the same way on both sides. 01 P1070057.jpg  02 P1070058.jpg  03 P1070059.jpg  That's all for now, Cheers. Jack.
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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December 13-19th, 2010 - Planking This week wasn't too much productive; Christmas is coming soon and other important things must be done. I continued to install planks upwards and to open, or better refine, gunports. Now both sides are simmetrical, with the same number of planks, but I'm finishing the strips and I'm waiting for additional material, other I cannot continue. Kind regards, Jack. 01 P1070060.jpg  02 P1070062.jpg  03 P1070064.jpg  04 P1070065.jpg  05 P1070068.jpg 
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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December 13-19th, 2010 - Planking - Additional considerations A personal evaluation of the strips of wood used for this first planking, strips o a soft wood that De Agostini calls "ramin". As first planking they are absolutely perfect: the wood is soft and it is ideal to use for this task. This because when you need to level the planked area with file or blocks their softness makes leveling easier to achieve . . I cannot imagine the efforts when using an hardwood. Again, also the task of opening the gun ports and refining them is greatly simpler and comfortable. The only negative point is that all these strips are delivered within different weekly issues and, while they should be all equal, with 5x2 size, this doen't happen due to small differences in size. The only way to minimize this problem is to select the best and leave the worst, helped also by the fact that De Agostini delivers more strips than really needed. I take the opportunity to insert new images, from different viewpoints. Kind regards, Jack. 01 P1070066.jpg  02 P1070067.jpg  03 P1070071.jpg  04 P1070074.jpg  05 P1070073.jpg 
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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December 20-26th, 2010 - A problem, a solution and new planks Before planking the headrails of the upper gun deck I discovered a small problem caused by the fact I decided to plank the internal side of them, task described by me some messages ago. The problem is that after this task was done I found the curve of these headrails presented itself with a wrong shape: instead of being slightly curved outside, it was the opposite. So I built two spacers to insert above the deck and between the two opposite headrails to force a little the wood externally and, keeping them in place, apply the external planking. This solved the problem. Here below I show the two spacers I used to achieve this result. 01 P1070083.jpg  Next three images show the area where I applied the new planks, after the glue was dry and after having removed the spacers I show in the previous image. To provide the maximum in terms of strength I used some strips of walnut in place of ramin. The gun ports here are not yet opened and also the exceeding wood is not removed. I prefer to pospone as much as possible this work to be sure my solution works well. 02 P1070079.jpg  03 P1070080.jpg  04 P1070081.jpg  See you next time, regards. Jack.Aubrey 05 P1070082.jpg 
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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December 27th, 2010 - January 2nd, 2011 - Finally got the edge !! I finished planking the right side of the ship, until the edge. Due to the ship dimensions there are a lot of planks: in the higher zone there are 36 of them !! Not difficult to install but anyway this is an important achievement for me. Now I need to finish also the left side and after I will start sanding and levelling. I foresee a lot of sawdust while sanding all the planks, and there are also the last gun ports to refine. Here below you can see the finished side and also my technical assistant and global consultant . . 01 P1070128R.jpg  Here two other images without the assistant. 02 P1070129R.jpg  03 P1070130.jpg  That's all for now, Jack.Aubrey
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Rank: Vice-Master Groups: Registered
Joined: 28/05/2014 Posts: 938 Points: 2,823 Location: Milan (Italy)
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Wednesday January 5th, 2011 This morning I finished also the left side and now I'm planning for future and looking with new eyes my model. The last strips on top of the bulwarks are of hardwood (walnut) and I left wood in excess with respect of their shape. 01 P1070131.jpg  Why hardwood ? Next step will be the planking of the hull, from waterline downwards. To do so I need to work with the hull capsized and I also need to put it on something such as a table. Having used hardwood and having wood in excess means that I probably will not take any risk to ruin the work done until now. Later I will refine this important area, when the hull will return in its normal position. 02 P1070133.jpg  03 P1070134.jpg  Anyway, the near future predicts for me an interesting session with sandpaper. Some fitness is healthy . . Kind regards. Jack.Aubrey
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