Hi Nigel,
Bill is a real gem, I have been in contact with him and he sent me his copy of Millward's plan which I copied and returned. All information is welcome.
Bill is not colouring his model wishing to keep the natural beauty of the wood and carving all the gingerbread in boxwood and has been at it for over ten years.
I am attempting to copy the artworks of Payne and de Velde and as we don't yet know how close the kits gingerbread is we will have to wait and see. I will be making plugs in any material that will lend it's self ( wood, plastic, wax, bogroll,ect) and then casting in modelling metal before being electroplated with Kgold.
We do know from the Italian site that the hancing pieces Aeolus, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune are missing and I thought that the easiest way to make these is to use plastic nudes, remodel them into the pose, dress and adorn then cast.
Thanks for for the kind offer Nigel, CraftSuplies still do the nuts.
Och that is a bit heavy although the nice soft mellow hues are inticing
Sandy

Hi Sandy,singing on the same hymn sheet with this one.I think I may have sussed this one but need part 39 to be certain.In order for me to get this to look authentic,I think the poop deck hasn't enough slope and doesn't follow the shear,neither do the galleries.What is involved is raising the poop ten mm at the rear and 3mm at the front.Then the next deck 3mm at the rear to match the front of the poop.Rather than try an explain it I will do a drawing and post it.I altered the line of the wales because the main ones were cut through completely by gunports which is wrong in my opinion.I know the engraving shows this at the last port but I can't believe the builders would have done this,it compromises structural integrity too much.They also have no shear on them which looks wrong.
Will post sketch of my proposed alterations.
Kind regards Nigel

Hi Sandy
Yes spotted the stern windows.My idea in simplyfied form is to raise the stern back panel 10mm leaving the front of the balconies at the same height.This matches the shear on my wales and will match the proposed poop.It should also allow the small arch gunport in the balcony to be fitted.I experimented with a high res image of the stern painting,printing out at various enlargements and unfortunately bears little resemblance to the shape of our stern.So I think compromises have to be made otherwise we might as well have started from scratch.Have you spotted that the foredeck needs raising at its rear?I believe the Septon's book is correct as regard to a grated deck over the midship gun deck.Without this the inboard carronades in the transverse bulkheads to repel boarding attempts useless.To this end the foredeck needs to follow the shear to enable the fitting of railings to support this deck (one aspect of the 'Culver' model that I believe is correct).If you look at the Italian instructions now the railings are fitted the faults in deck levels are very apparent.The railing height tapers and allows no provision for the central panel present on all research material.
Kind Regards Nigel

Hope this helps Sandy
Kind Regards Nigel

Just been looking at your drawing Nigel, looks like a twin of mine did you also raise up the counter brackets to start between the lower and middle gun decks.
Sandy

Hi Nigel,
You will probely have Anderson's " The Rigging of Ships in the days of the Spritsail Topmast, 1600-1720 " it is great and as a bonus the SOTS is mentioned a lot.
As far as enlargements of the artwork is concerned I can hole hartly recommend Busmann's " The Sovereign of the Seas" I was put on to this by Bill Short. It's in German but his descriptions more or less are the same as Sephton's but the pictures are of indevidual panels or areas and are bigger and clearer he also goes into explaining the meaning and sorce of carvings. It is also expensive.
Sandy

Hi Sandy
My luck is in,just found a secondhand copy of Busmanns book on Amazon in the USA.You are right,it certainly wasn't cheap,even secondhand.Just got to wait for it to arrive now.
Kind regards Nigel

Here is a grating for the lower deck it sill has to have the lifting rings fitted. To cut down on cost I used half grating kit and half base wood supplied cut into thin strips

Hi Sandy
Very nice work.Are they the caldercraft 1mm gratings?I was thinking of doing the same because its easier to make up a longer section as they only come 33mm square.Not only that the cost is certainly a factor when it comes to the anti-boarding decks.Also the fact that its historically correct.
I am looking forward to the book arriving,had an email to say I should receive it around 11 june. I think it would be a good idea for me to hold off with the stern until it arrives.
Kind Regards Nigel

My german .Non existent Sandy.They do say a picture is worth a thousand words though.
Kind regards Nigel