Vol. 64, No. 4 winter 2019 356


12 & 13. In British heraldry dragons and wyverns, their biped version, were used only by royalty. Naturally, therefore, they have alighted on Royal Oak to protect the King.


as the real thing, but in 1:48 scale.


As for color, it is clear from the Science Museum paintings by Marshall – two views of every class of ship in the Navy – that it was the wish of the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Earl of Sandwich, and of the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir John Williams, that the carved works should be gold-painted. There is little evidence of color from contemporary models, whose carved works are normally left unpainted to show off the skill of the carver. However, the National Maritime Museum’s coppered Bellona model (SLR 0338) has gold-painted sculptures. It was built in Chatham Dockyard at the same time as the ship itself, which was launched in 1760. As with the Science Museum paintings, the rails, balusters, and other details of the Bellona model were painted yellow ochre. The slightly odd juxtaposition of gold and yellow ochre could be seen in the fi gurehead and head rails of Nelson’s Victory in Portsmouth


Naval Dockyard. They are currently removed during restoration of the ship, but are to be seen in many photographs.


Having done little spray painting, and none in the last thirty years, I could clearly visualize myself fl ooding Dovydas’s beautiful three-dimensional prints with gold paint. Happily, my grandson James, a fourth- year bioengineering student at Imperial College London, suggested to my bioengineering scientist son Alan that I should have them gold sputtered. Alan passed on the idea to me. In fact, as a doctoral student Alan had gold-sputtered minute fi bers in order to photograph them using an electron scanning microscope. The technique covers objects with an extremely thin coat of pure gold, as thick as the amount your fi ngernails grow in fi fteen seconds.


Professor Neil Alford, Associate Provost for Academic Planning at Imperial College London,


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