Hi everyone!
Thanks Ab! Do you mean the build or how I twist the history in this thread? ��
Thanks Mike for the extra story!
And thanks Tappi, glad you like it!
I am procrastinating the making of the guns, because they are quite repetitive and tedious work…
So meanwhile I was wondering how to make the keel for the Neptune and found inspiration from a book of a famous 17th century model of a Dutch two-decker ship, which Ab gave me once. Thank you again, Ab! By the way, this will be my next project. ��
I made the keel parts from three 2mm thick cards glued together with white glue, taped with the self-adhesive foil, and altered with burned umber oil paint.
And so I managed to get the keel, at least in parts, based on some pictures from the Nuestra Senora de la Conception y de las animas as well as the plans of the two-decker and a few templates (
see pic 1 to 4). For the lower part I will need to install two plugs for the cables, so I wait with taping it until the ordered parts arrive and describe more in a later post.
Meanwhile I tried to make some of the ornament ring decorations around the gun ports from baking clay. But first a short description of how I made the wales:
Using semi-transparent baking paper, I traced the lines (
pic 5), so I get the right curvature of the wales, then I made some templates first, tried them and corrected where necessary and drew new ones (
pic 6). The upper most ones have a relief, which I tried to mimic by gluing tiny strips of thinner card and cover them all in the self-adhesive foil, which I painted then black (
pic 7). It did not go according to plan, and next time for such wales with a relief I think I will leave out the foil. The wale at the back of the ship I made also from a pizza box card with self-adhesive foil. The many nails on it I imitated with burned umber oil paint (
pic 8).
Back to the baking clay (bake for half an hour at 150 degrees centigrade):
I could not make such nice ornaments (
pic 9 and 10) from sculpturing the clay, it is all somehow too small. So, I made a template from tiny wires twisted together (3 times 3 wires) and paper (
pics 11 to 13), hardened with superglue (CA) and made a negative form, which I then used to do all the 16 rings. Eight additional rings are a bit bigger. These I did by also first make a negative template with the metal-ring and some pointy tool. Then I painted them all with a gold marker and altered a bit with turpentine-diluted black oil paint (
see pics 14 to 18). Unfortunately, the turpentine also dissolves the gold paint, so it was all a bit tricky. I did alter it because I did not like the pure shiny golden color.
This was a good practice in clay sculpturing, but the real difficulty lies ahead with all the figurines and ornaments of the stern…
So much for now.
Rgds,
Radek
“...Sieptembre anno domini 1669…
- FIRE! …shouted the commander of the militia, and the cannons, which Miguél De Nevado Norte brought along to Olinda filled the air with white smoke and a rolling thunder!!
…Such was the custom to welcome an honored guest such as the legendary admiral Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (pic 19).
- What a wonderful thunder and sight! …said the admiral with a deep and formidable voice while inspecting the beautiful 36-pounders made with the special recipe from Miguel’s metallurgico Dominic De La Armas De Hierro. - We will take them all!
-But how did you get to know about these weapons, señor Admiraal? That they have been delivered to Olinda? Asked Miguel de Nevado Norte.
- We have our network of… intelligence investigators… and the story of the defeat of the pirate Henry Morgan at the Gulf of Venezuela reached our honorable regent Johan de Witt, so he ordered me straight away to get as many of these as my flotilla can carry, for war is approaching against our common foes, the English and the French! …said the admiral.
- Spies everywhere…murmured Radék de la Sol de Brasil.
Indeed, the great admiral did his trip to the Caribbean to get the cannons as a secret mission, so secret, it has never been discovered by historians, who later commonly described that Michiel de Ruyter was ordered to be under house arrest by the leader of the Dutch republic himself, Johan de Witt, after the second Anglo-Dutch War until the beginning of the third Anglo-Dutch war, for fear he might get injured or even loose his life! So important was the admiral for his countrymen, a true living legend due to his achievements in the previous wars…
- Well, considering that we fight the common foe, and señor Radék is willing to wait a bit longer for his shipment of cannons, I am willing to trade them to the republic…agreed the master shipwright Miguél De Nevado Norte… - And it was a wise decision of señor Johann de Witt to send you away from home after the failed attempt on your life by such a treacherous Tromp supporter, may he rot in hell for his deeds!
Yes, after a misfortunate decision in the St James Day battle, the Dutch fleet lost a considerable amount of ships, which loss Michiel de Ruyter attributed to Cornelis Tromp’ ignoring his commands. Tromp’ brother-in-law Johan Kievit published his version of the events, and the whole issue split the Netherlands so much that a fanatic Tromp supporter almost succeeded in an assassination attempt on the legendary admiral! Later it was discovered that Johan Kievid was plotting with the enemy King Charles II of England and he was sentenced to death, but due to a good network of spies, only in absentia for he managed to flee the country…Spies everywhere!
- How did you know?!…asked the admiral in surprise.
-We have our own share of ...intelligence operatives…said señor Miguel.
- Spies everywhere…murmured Radék de la Sol de Brasíl.
…After the departure of The Seven Provincien and the convoy she escorted back to Europe, a man covered in mud carrying a big empty goat-back on his back suddenly appeared on the shore…
- Did you get a good look at the ornaments and the underwater hull as well as the keel of the Dutch two-decker? ...asked Radék.
-Sí señor! And I took all the measurements that you wished for as well.
- But how…asked Miguél and as suddenly as he started the sentence, he stopped and murmured with a laughter… Spies everywhere! Ha ha!...
...”