Heller Soleil Royal (WIP)

Yes, Please!  lol

I'll PM my email address to you.  Thanks, Bill!

BTW, I'm almost done with the Mizzen Topmast Standing Rigging....got one more shroud to go, and then ratlines, and then stays.  At that point, I'll take some pics and go into a little detail about some of my approached thus far.  It's exciting to see the model getting bigger and taller!  I actually had to devise a way to support it at different heights now for working on the upper masts....on previous ships, I was always able to more or less reach what I needed while sitting at my desk...now I almost need to stand at the desk to reach some of the higher rigging!

Dave

Dave,

Several years ago, one of the members of our Forums from Poland emailed me a copy of most pages of a French reference on the Ships-of the Line during Louis XIV's reign.  I would be happy to email a copy to you (and to anyone else in this discussion!).  Please let me have your email address and I will send it out.

Bill

Superb work mate, loving it.

David,

I am in awe of your stunning work!  You are truly building a serious model out of a beef bone!

Bill

Glad you did..I was wondering..

Rob

Yikes, has it been over a month since I posted any progress??

I actually have had some time to get further work done recently, but nothing worth noting in particular.  I've just gotten the main topast shrouds installed, and the tedium of those ratlines will follow.  I think once I've gotten those and the mizzen topmast shrouds, ratlines, and stays all in place then I'l have reached a good point to take some pics and share them here....but for the most part, this stage of work doesn't really offer anything that hasn't been seen on previous updates regarding standing rigging on the lower masts...

BUT, I did want to check in and bump the thread, just for kicks.

Hope all is well with my fellow modelers; I've seen some astounding work among the forum lately!

Dave

Kirill, you're quite right!  I did not choose to include any blocks to secure my euproes to the stays.  :)

Steve, thanks!  I've been very anxious to make progress lately, but spare time has been eluding me!  We have a large vegatable garden that demands a lot of attention this time of year, and also a major home improvement project that is a pain...fortunately, most of the work is contracted out, but I still have a lot of errands to run to keep things moving...hopefully it'll be finished in a couple weeks, and my house (and my hobby-time allowance) will return to normal!

Anyway, I'm still working ratlines for the fore topmast.

How's the ol' Catalan treating you?

Dave

Dave,

Stunning work bro! The rigging is really top notch. 

Steve

Good day,

Dear Dave,

may be I'm wrong, but seems to me there is tackle missed ,need to be attached at the end of crowsfeet euphroe...which used to tight bridles/crowsfeet...?

I mean smthn. like on this model of Le Louis Quinz 1715...

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pls advise,

Thank you, Gentleman.  I appreciate it!

Dave

Yes, absolutely agree!!!

very good job!!! awsome!

Went through the whole post, truly awsome work.

Thanks, Roberto...

The Topgallant masts feel about as sturdy as I'd expect.  It would be nice if they were stiffer, but I think they'll work out fine as-is.  With some attention to balancing the tension of the lifts and braces, I don't expect any wonky bending *knock on wood*....

Of course, if I run into trouble of that sort, I may well resort to substituting them for wood...let's see what happens!

Dave

Nice work Dave,

Are you going to replace the topgallant masts with wood? How do the plastic ones feel in this kit?

Cheers

I'm posting a couple photos of my recent work on the tgallant crosstrees, with respect to my approach for the deadeyes and futtock shroud leads:

First, here's a shot of the underside...It may not be perfectly easy to see, but I drilled an extra hole adjacent to where the deadeye strop leads through the crosstree, for the purpose of keeping the deadeye fixed firmly to the Xtree, and the Futtock Shroud lead also firmly fixed (I wish to not have tension from my topgallant shrouds create any chaos with the topmast shrouds)....After stropping the deadeye with annealed wire and running it through the outermost hole, I bent the wire over and trimmed it close.  I then tied a stopper knot at one end of a short length of .018 Dark Brown Syren line, and fed it down through the second (adjacent) hole.

As you can see, the futtock shroud lead is close enough the deadeye to make no matter to my eye, but now they are both firmly attached to the crosstree.  A slight adjustment of the wire leads to a more convenient position, and a couple dabs of CA and everything sits well.

Finally, here's a picture of the crosstree temporarily held in place by hand to show the basic effect.

For anyone else who may be building this model, keep in mind that I'm performing a simplified rig, and therefore not including certain lines of the running rigging...in this case, the crosstree already had one hole adjacent to the foremost deadeye which was intended for the rigging block of the topgallant sheet (a line I'm not using)...if anyone is considering to use my method, or something similar, they would need to relocate their block for the sheet...just slightly to the side.  Since I'm not installing sheets, I just used that hole for my futtock shroud leads, and made additional holes near the other deadeyes.

Rob, Dan, and Kpnuts....thanks, gentlemen!  Your compliments mean a lot, coming from some well-respected modelers such as yourselves!

Nice and clean rigging, love it!

XXXDan

Splendid work Dave........

Rob

cheer's dave

Thanks, Steve-

I think you're asking about the bowsprit topmast backstay...It is seized around the masthead, above the top but below the cap.  My picture may be confusing because I have it temporarily fixed there with several inches of extra line hanging down.  That's just so I can make adjustments to it after more of the rigging is done...that particular tackle is going to require a very delicate touch to keep everything in place, so I'm waiting to see if anything else puts it out of whack so I can permanently set it later.

Hope that helps?

Dave

really lovely work dave ,I sometimes wish I had started 6 months later so I could follow you ,I might not have been so rough on some of the build, but cest le vive , one last thing , when you do your upper shrouds ,  I found it better to do the ratlines before the backstays

a quick question please dave , the rigging that goes from the forestay to the bowsprit mast where do you tie it off , is it on the mast top , or does it go down to the hull thank's

steve5

Yikes.

I guess it HAS been awhile since I posted any progress here!

I've pretty much got the standing rigging of the lower masts done, including two firsts for me:  Futtock Shrouds and Masttop Crowsfeet.  Like anything, they were intimidating until I dove in and gave it a try...I still think there's room for improvement, but all in all...I like it!

Without further ado, here's a few pictures I took today:

Here's a full side view...you can see the deflection of the stays is pretty minimal.  It took a steady hand, and a patient state of mind to achieve it!

Foremast Shrouds and top...all the ratlines are in place, and the futtock Shrouds were kind of a hassle due to A: the Deadeyes weren't kit parts, and so a compounding effort to overcome the kit design ensued; and B: it was my first time!

View of the stay and the crowsfeet rigging.  I made the euphroe from 1.5mm square Evergreen rod, shaped drilled and painted.  not sure if the shape of the euphroe is consistent with an actual euphroe, but for me it was more practically designed to follow function.  I like it. The kit plans just say to tie 12 individual lines from the holes in the tops directly to the stay....I really thought that would look super busy, so I went for this approach instead, especially liking Steve5's work in a similar way.

Here's the stay and top of the Mainmast.

Finally, another full view port side.

Demands on my time for activities OTHER than modeling have prevailed these few months, and with Summer looming, I don't see a change to that trend.  But, I'll content myself with small amounts of progress during my free time, and hope to delight you all with more updates as events warrant

Good stuff.

Thanks, Guys!

Bottom up.

I'm the same as above

I do it about the same way GM does. And if a rat line looks too slack, I slide it down one step.

I have no idea why anybody would suggest working from the top down. The key to success is to mark the locations of all the rat lines on the card you've put behind the shrouds, making sure the spacing comes out right relative to the dead eyes and the futtock stave. (The spell checker in my I-phone tried to render that "tutti onstage." Sheesh.) Then make yourself follow the guidelines.

I don't know which would be better, but I go bottom to top, every fourth and then fill in between.

Here's a question:

When tying ratlines...who starts at the top and *rattles down*, and who starts at the bottom and works their way up?  I read somewhere that they should be done from the top down, but I've always worked my way up....

Any thoughts?  I'm about to rattle the mizzen shrouds, and now I wonder if I should try the *other* way?

Dave

Hi,

I just stumbled across an article in Mariner's mirror in 1942 written by R.C. Anderson,

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00253359.1942.10658809?journalCode=rmir20

and he says the model used for his book on 17th century rigging was the "Royal Louis"in the Louvre.  He took the word of Admiral Paris that it was of Royal Louis of 1692.  It turned out that the model was then dated between 1715-1730 and was used in the instruction of Louis XV and I think must be the same model as the Louis XV model I posted earlier, which is now in the Musee de la Marine. 

So, R.C. Anderson's "Royal Louis" = Admiral Paris' "Royal Louis" = "Louis XV" and it is the only model that dates from the reign of Louis XIV.  The only other contemporary source I know is the Album de Colbert, which probably gives an incomplete description of the rigging.

I do have plans of le Phoenix from AAMM and it seems to be based on te ship in the Album de Colbert.  They show the bowsprit rigging "saddle" that is provided in the kit, bit some of the plans I have from AAMM contain errors, so it's best to be cautious with them.  I'll post images from them if they would be useful?  I guess you pays your money and takes your choice in this case..

There is also a discussion of the bowsprit for Soleil Royal here if you scroll down to Sunday 3rd November 2013 13:00, where you can also see an image of the bowsprit from the Album de Colbert :-

http://www.wettringer-modellbauforum.de/forum/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=43676&pageNo=29

Anderson said that there is a sail plan of Royal Louis 1690 in the Danish museum, but I don't have a copy, ot know how detaile dthey would be concerning the rigging.