Spanish pirate galleon "Neptune" 1:100 (scratch build)

[Papercut]

Outstanding History lesson and I for one will watch this one take shape.
Looking forward to this,
Rick

[Gil]

Radék noticed that the rain outside had turned into a downpour of frozen grauple.

"Crikey", he thought, "Helsinki can be a hell hole for any sane person in winter".

Glancing out the window at what should have been the horizon, Radék's eyes began to fade into the glory of Radék de la Sol de la Santa Cruz de Brazíl.

Stepping into his alter ego had its compensations. Vitamin D3 for one. The sun shown beautifully down on the beach at Olinda. Where his loyal crew had gathered on the beach before him.

"Enough of this daydream", he said raising both his head and voice at the same time. "Men! We have a glorious destiny to fulfill. We have the seven seas to ply our trade against the villainous Dutch! - let us not waste time, make haste my hearties, we must build our ship the Neptune. Three cheers for the Neptune, Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!"

Radék failed to notice the graupel downpour outside had now mercifully turned to snowflakes while the temperature plunged into the -20s. He and his men had work to do...,

+Gil

[RdK]

Thanks Capt'n Jack!

Thanks Gil for the encouraging words! Unfortunately it is the other way around...While I am watching at my "beach mural" and daydream, the temperatures outside raised to +3 centigrade and the merciful downward dancing flakes of all shape ad form turned into a merciless downpour of water almost like during a deluge!! The innocent white powder turned into a muddy, grey hell hole in Helsinki indeed...

Thats why, as you say, "Enough of this daydream! We have a glorious destiny to fulfill !"

"...Enero anno domini 1669...
...Radék de la Sol de la Santa Cruz de Brazíl took another careful look at his plans. "Changes have to be made to the hull if we want to outmaneuver the abhorrent French and restore Spain to its old Glory in trade and wealth against the villainous Dutch!" While the French already started to construct their "Le Soleil Royal", Radék de la Sol was watching the Caribbean Sea outside his house on the island of St. Lucía, planning his trip to Olinda, Brazíl and working diligently on his plans to create the most glorious symbol of the old Spanish naval power that ever sailed on the seven seas..."

More on the build following soon...

Rgds,
Radek

[RdK]

Hi @ all!

I managed to finish the design on the frames so far. I proceeded as follows:
Step1: draw the side view of the vessel and an initial buttock line diagram
Step2: checking the curvature optically on my "3-D model" and trim the frames
Step3: redraw buttock lines with new frames
Step4: compare height of Waterline (WL), decks, and other horizontal imaginary lines (W1 to W4) with the corrected buttock lines
Step5: adjust on this so created plan view the curvature and redraw the buttock lines once again

The first pic shows an "old school" way to copy buttock lines on card using the example of making frame Nr.7 and Nr. 17 new (I needed to make them larger). This is from the time when there was no printer or copying machine available, only pen and paper and scissors...
But I admit using a copying machine after the last correction of my lines to cut the final frames individually as template for the build.

The second pic shows my final plans...

Now I just need more card!!!

"...Enero anno domini 1669...
...Skirmishes broke out on the island of St.Lucía as the French tried again to gain control over it from the British.
Radék de la Sol de la Santa Cruz de Brazíl knew he had to leave before his plan would fall into the enemy's hands! He also knew that building the ship would bring him unimaginable riches with which he would be able to return and rebuild his home when things settled down again.
The Portuguese Restoration War just ended almost a year ago and the Portuguese Americas was kind enough to provide for the Spanish crown the means to defeat the common enemy...of course for an appropriate amount of gold and silver.
So the brave shipwright entered the Portuguese galleon "Flor de la Mayo" under neutral flag and headed south-south-east toward his new adventure where riches and glory would await him...."

Rgds,
RdK

[firdajan2]

Hi Radek,

Another galleon in your collection. Good choice, it vill be a beautiful model. I´m watching carefuly

Jan

[RdK]

Hi!

I got blessed with plenty of card!! My department at the university happened to clean up its storage room. There were this old file folders from the 60's and 70's. "Good quality stuff!" I brought home as much as I could carry in my IKEA bags for three days long... Now I have a stock for the next ten years at least! (Much to the dislike of my better half sayin:"And where do you wanna store it?")

The progress on the Neptune continues... I've managed to make a lenghtwise Frame out of five pieces of 4mm thick Balsa wood (Pic 1&2) and strengthen it from one side with two pieces of a 1mm thick card (Pic 3). Unfortunately I did not had any piece that would be long and big enough (balsa or card). Then I transferred the horizontal lines (Waterline ant the other W1 to W4 lines), and the vertical lines at the frame positions (Pic 4) from the plans onto the frame.

The frames itself were glued with a sort of white glue to a c.a. 2mm thick card of an old file folder (Pic 5). The good thing about this folders is that they are pure card, no foil lamination like in the modern ones.
So after drying I started to cut them out with my scalpel one by one and fit to the lengthwise frame (Pic 6&7). Haven't finished all of them and broke already four of my scalpel blades . Quite heavy stuff, this old card....But therefore the frames are as hard as wood!

Rgds,
RdK

"...Enero anno domini 1669...
On the "Flor de la Mayo" Radék de la Sol de la Santa Cruz de Brazíl heared from the Captain that the Ship was an old English Galleon given to the Portuguese by English King Charles during the "War of Portuguese Independence" to support their revolt against the Spanish crown, which ended in 1667. The Galleon had a strange mixture on her underwater hull that was not white, preventing the wood from getting rotten in the hot Caribbean waters...So Radék de la Sol decided to use the same mixture on his Ship.

During the Trip to Olinda the Galleon met an English 25-gun Fifth Rate gunship named Oxford raising the Jolly Roger!!
On board of the "Flor de la Mayo" came a noble looking man displaying honor and discipline (much to the contrary of his sailors) presenting himself as a certain Captain Henry Morgan (see Pic 8). He intended no harm to the crew but was just kindly asking for all of the provision that was on board. He took everything, including Radék del Sol's 20 barrels of self brewed Rum which was so strong that it was almost self igniting in the heat of the Caribbean Sun and had to be handled with extraordinary care. Radék del Sol de la Santa Cruz de Brazíl cursed the Pirates and their Ship the HMS Oxford!!

Little did he know that after the buccaneers returned to their home base nearby Islá Vaca off the coast of Haiti, they got so drunken on board the HMS Oxford that they set accidentally fire to Radék's Rum and exploded the whole ship! (Pic 9)
The ship’s surgeon, Richard Browne, later wrote: “I was eating my dinner with the rest, when the mainmasts blew out and fell upon Captains Aylett, Bigford and others, and knocked them on the head.” (Marley, David F. “Morgan, Sir Henry” in Pirates of the Americas. ABC-CLIO, 2010, 1:251-264.) Out of two hundred on board, only six men and four boys survived the blast – including, somehow, Captain Morgan...

[Michael Mash]

You are making this a lot of fun Radek.
Bravo!
Mike

[RdK]

Hi!

I managed to cut out all frames. After a dry fit to the lengthwise part I start to see the hull form and can take some last corrections(Pic 1 & 2). Frame No.18 for instance had to be made anew as indicated with the red line in Pic 2. The gun decks will be made out of c.a. 1mm card and will keep the structure more stable and straight, as the lengthwise balsa/card frame got curved from the white glue...

Also I ordered two books about the Spanish galleons and wait with my further build until their arrival. The front part of the hull is not yet fully to my satisfaction. I would like to see what historians have to say about that part of the hull, thus the order of the books. I will present them here with a couple of pictures as soon as I got them.

So much for now...

Rgds,
RdK

...Enero anno domini 1669...
Radék de la Sol de la Santa Cruz de Brazíl got richly blessed with workers, as many of the Spaniards began to flee from the English buccaneer's raids on their villages alongside the braided rivers of the tropical Main and were looking for work. With such mighty workforce the construction should speed up, so God will!! And the plans now established and put into practice by the workers cutting the Brazilian timber and bringing it down to the new established shipyard so diligently like there would be a strong cold winter coming near!!....
The ruthless pirates like Captain Henry Morgan or Captain Thomas Bartholomew Red continued raiding French vessels and burning down Spanish settlements, of which the latter one proved to be even more vicious and brutal towards his prisoners and captured wealthy aristocrats hold for a ransom, letting them fight a duel against each other while riding pickapack on the backs of other prisoners simply for the entertaining pleasure of the other pirates while drinking Radék's leftover of his very strong rum....
Meanwhile on the European continent there was a treacherous peace between the great nations, carrying out their disputes and practicing all kind of devious acts against each others in the oh beautiful Caribbean....

[silveroxide]

When I started on the San Salvador, I added wood strips at intervals following the keel center portion. By doing this, I avoided the center from curving banana on me. The same was done to the rib sections to help keep them on line and not throw the hull off. As for the hull, Many kits have the planking straight from aft to the prow while others have the planking straight all the way to the waterline and then it curves upward. Good luck on your build and hope to see some skinning soon. Enjoy and see you around the forum.

[yuthdaw]

Wow.... this is awesome!
i am definitely following this