The Ship Model Forum

No picture attached.

Phil

Quick test using onedrive picture hosting.

Weapons in place, I have also been tinkering with the white washed areas.

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/s29.jpg[/img]

No one spotted the mistake there: Carronades move inboard on their slides, not the whole slide, oops.

My 4 Pdr, based on those jetisoned by HMS Endeavour off Australia when she ran aground, plenty of photos available of them.

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/4Pdr.jpg[/img]

Scaled and positioned, I have taken a liberty, according to "The Frigate Surprise" there were two on the focsul and four on the Quarterdeck, but this configuration seems neater to me.

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/s28.jpg[/img]

My 12 Pdr Carronade

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/Carronade.jpg[/img]

Waist 9 Pdrs scaled and positioned inboard on the Gundeck. As per her original proposed RN fit the Gundeck was 24 x 9 Pdrs and the weatherdeck was a mix of 4 Pdr Cannon and 12 Pdr Carronades; I still have those to model.

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/S27.jpg[/img]

"Boom... Boom... Boom" (poem by Private Baldrick)

My attempt at a 9 Pounder - un-rigged as yet, given the amont of ropes on a sail ship I am going to need some vector cheap method to construct them.

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/Canoon.jpg[/img]

And to date:

I could not live with the for-ad weather deck ports so have moved them, added a counter top to the weather deck bulkheads, a rudder, keel and one very phalic bow sprite base. Knocked out the main - well not sure what to call it, not a hatch as such but suppose it acted as one for storing ship, stowing and raising spare spars etc. Again guessing since every model pic I can find shows it left open, but suspect it would have been covered with canvas and chocked tight to prevent Goffers swamping the lower decks.

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/S26.jpg[/img]

Taking a break from the woodwork for a bit now to have a go at a cannon.

A revisit to the planking, I have overlaid the deck with a thin mesh striped to represent planks, then used chamfer to create the pitch gap between them. Material I decided on was White Oak from the Mental Ray system, I removed the bump map to give a smoother finish.

The Trenails I was about to make metal as per the model and numerous references in forums, but a bit of research shows that Trenails were actually wood, caused less wear and tear on the planks apparently. I am not happy with the result but will do for now, will probably revisit later.

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/S25.jpg[/img]

A tidy up of the main hull beneath the cabin, hard to figure out the exact shape there so guestimated most of it for now.

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/S22.jpg[/img]

Dunno, seem to remember one theory about the Marie Celeste was that the crew and passengers were forced to abandon ship when containers of bleach broached.

Anyway, onto the Great Cabin, a simple mesh tack on then knocked out some of the interior stuff so the view through the windows worked, keeping decoration to a min for the time being.

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/S19.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/S20.jpg[/img]

I suspect it was more an effect of the bleach used (if any) and not the type of wood. We used bleach in the 20th century to make the admiral's decks nice and white. But did they use bleach in the 19th century?

Phil

[quote="DrPR"]I served on two ships with wooden decks (teak) and both were holystoned using a bleach like oxalic acid. The result was a very, very, very light wood color, almost white. Something like newspaper paper, but not as white as typing paper.

I suspect the contemporary writers knew what they were talking about.

Phil[/quote]

Ah but ah but! As my Physics teacher would reply. Teak was not used in warships of that era (subject open to argument) Teak was experimented on due to the shortage of oak, but proved horribly toxic, any serious splinter wounds from teak were almost totally fatal. Teak was however later used as an insulator on metal warships which is why some of us recall it on British warships.

Ah but ah but, again, Surprise was French built, maybe they used Teak??

I suppose I will bow to convention and pale down the planks, but having been married for 30 years it intrigues me to start an argument I at least have a hope of having my side heard ;)

As for contemporary writers, lol, there is probably a clever anagram in there.

Thanks for the input!

I served on two ships with wooden decks (teak) and both were holystoned using a bleach like oxalic acid. The result was a very, very, very light wood color, almost white. Something like newspaper paper, but not as white as typing paper.

I suspect the contemporary writers knew what they were talking about.

Phil

My basic hull to date, I dont like the look of the forad gunports, but then neither did her real life commanders who complained the guns fouled each other, one reason why in her real career in the RN her weaponry was replaced with carronades, making Surprise one of the first (steady the flames, I said "one of" !) all carronade ships.

Fellow Alexandra Kent followers may be disappointed though, the Smasher did not fire an explosive shell as the Great Man wrote, he probably got that from the first shot Victory fired at Trafalgar, her carronade was topped off with a case of musket balls which caused the explosive effect noted. The true shell was still a few years away yet. The Carronade was effective as a short range weapon, doubling the weight of a normal cannon, and was a big leg up against the French whose foundries could not machine metal to the fine tolerances required by a Carronade.

There is considerable debate on the lower two ports facing almost forad, on a fully rigged model it is clear anything fired from them would blow off the bowsprit, I have my own theory there: I think they could be the Heads?

The wood of the decks needs a lot of work of course, most contemporary writers speak of the oak being "Holy Stonned to paper white", my own childhood experience of Holy Stones recalls they produced a peach colouration, but we used them on stone, not wood, some historians now think the lower decks were white washed, but that still leaves the weather deck, scrub and swab oak with salt water, itself an abrasive and do you really get white? I submit you get rough oak.

Either way, here we go to date.

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/S16.jpg[/img]

The result, still some artefacting going on in the form of creases, but they are minor and will be softened with a smooth filter later, the plain and simple fact is I found some just simply could not be made totally clean.

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/S15.jpg[/img]

Taking each gun port in turn my priority is to get rid of duplicate and spurious vertices, my preferred weapon of choice is Target Weld, some sneaky ones hide so it is worth selecting over each to see what the vertices count is, and temporary moving them if needed, worse case is I delete polygons and recreate them, target welding the vertices back to clean up the result.

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/S14a.jpg[/img]

The Gun Deck externals are a different matter, there is a lot to clean up, here is the raw view...

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/S12.jpg[/img]

Burying back down the stack I return to the base hull and spend some time tweaking vertices and applying a Turbo Smooth until I have a reasonable result...

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n20/middle_watch/S11.jpg[/img]