The Ship Model Forum

As I did my last order from Langton Miniatures, I decided to give a try and make a 1/1200 scale ship. After studying their catalog, I decided to take one of the famous 1 vs. 1 actions of the russian naval history, and according to rumors, one of my ancestors served on the Frigate Venus at the time. That action was taking of the swedish 62 gun battleship Rattvisan by russian frigate Venus under Captain Kroun.

Captain Kroun only recently got the frigate under his command - a few month before this duel, he was a commander of a 28-gun cutter Merkuriy. In may 1789, the swedish fleet was blocked by Christiansfjord. As there was a total calm, Kroun took the opportunity of using oars, first boarding a swedish brig, sending it out with a prize crew, and then approaching Venus, staying outside of her main battery sector. After 1.5 hours, Venus surrendered, and was towed out in the close proximity of nearly entire swedish fleet... Venus, which was built by Chapman, and one of the largest frigates afloat of any navy (26 24pdr guns, 18 6pdr guns) was repaired and taken in russian service, with Kroun being promoted and assigned to her as Captain.

Battleship Rattvisan was another of Chapman's creations, and a very stout 62 gun battleship, a member of the class of 4. As in 1790, a year later, the swedish navy ran a gauntlet through the entire russian fleet in the Vyborg battle, Rattvisan made it through, but her damage made her slow. Even if russian Commander in Chief failed to make effective chase, Venus and several other ships pursued. After a heavy battle, Rattvisan surrendered, both due to heavy losses and additional damage, and due to a russian 66 gun battleship approaching. 2 of her sisters were also taken during the battle. She later had a career in the russian navy, surviving several heavy battles in the mediterranean, during anglo-russian landings in Netherlands. As in 1807 Russia lost to France on land, and had to declare war on Britain, she was blockaded in Lisbon, and interned there. The crew repatriated, and the ship was transferred to Portsmouth and laid up. In 1813, she was sold to Britain, as she started to rot, and was scrapped. Venus was also interned in 1807, but in Italy, being transferred to the kingdom of Sicily for safekeeping (or sold). She was dismantled in 1814.

Rod Langton's 1/1200 kits of 40 gun frigate and 62 gun battleships match the drawings (colored Chapman from Wikipedia for Venus and NMM's drawing on Rattvisan) quite well. On Venus, the kit has one window less on the stern, but I decided to ignore it in this scale. 62 gunner kit is close to the plan, but has a poop deck as extra part, which at least the NMM plans dont show (and the model of her sister ship in swedish marine museum neither). It also has a significantly different stern, which is however easy to scratch build, as transom is a separate part in both ships.

Hull casting is nearly flawless, and only minor seam cleanup is needed. Detail is abundant despite the very small size (about 4 cm). Masts are a separate set, and are way too thick - probably so to make safe handling for wargamers. They can and will be replaced by Brass or Nickel silver rods. Etched sails are nice, even if a tad too thick, but will be used. Etched ratlines are quite thick, and the steps are very rare. I will see if I can get better ratlines, or use these. Maybe I would also just make my own ones.

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Model kit manufacturer and distributor: https://b2b.modellbaudienst.de
Distributor of Very Fire, Snowman, Milania Master Korabel, Falkonet, Microdisign in EU
1:350 HMS Diana 1794 - nearly released
Further kits in preparation.

So, assembled and painted the Venus's hull. Using both acrylics (Vallejo, Life, Revell, Humbrol) and paint markers. Now, the future coat is drying, for a light washing. I sanded off the closed gunports, and made new ones from black paper cut into 1mm wide strip.

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Model kit manufacturer and distributor: https://b2b.modellbaudienst.de
Distributor of Very Fire, Snowman, Milania Master Korabel, Falkonet, Microdisign in EU
1:350 HMS Diana 1794 - nearly released
Further kits in preparation.

They look great, but man, that is small scale. Impressive that you can work them.

As I wanted to start making masts, I realized my 1mm brass and 0.5mm nickel silver rod stock was gone. As I asked my daughter, she shown me a pair of bracelets which she did out of them (daddy, I borrowed some old wire from your room, look on these nice shiney bracelets! Arent they cute?). Well, I motivate her to go creative, and after explaining once more "ask permission for anything from my work room, be it old wire, dead mouse, or a spider from the corner", I had to wait until evening - luckily Hannants parcel with alot of Albion Alloys brass and nickel silver profiles inside came in the afternoon. As I had to use my time in the morning (I got a flu by now, so have to sit at home...), I started detailing the Rattvisan. As the decor was not fitting to the sketch from swedish archive or the plans from NMM, I sanded all off, and rebuilt it using plastic rod and profiles of different brands. I also removed the guides for the poop deck installation, no source for Rattvisan or her sisters shows a poop deck there. Now I would need to scratch build 4 nano-cannons, as the rearmost gunports were to be under the poop, and had no guns installed. I also sanded off gunport lids, they will be redone from paper as in Venus. Venus got a light washing to highlight details.

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Model kit manufacturer and distributor: https://b2b.modellbaudienst.de
Distributor of Very Fire, Snowman, Milania Master Korabel, Falkonet, Microdisign in EU
1:350 HMS Diana 1794 - nearly released
Further kits in preparation.

Very different Kit and you are doing a very nice job on her.....Cheers mark

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I had to make a few days break to care about releasing my new 3d printed kit, but yesterday finally managed to do more work. As the masts from the kit are WAY too thick and also too long, I used proportions from Mondfeld's book to calculate the new dimensions (took coefficients from "british 1800" column). I readied all 3 masts yesterday (not the bowsprit yet), but not yet detailed them - I need to add woolings, tops, salings, and other manageable details on that, then solder on the sails. I deemed Langton ratlines too thick, so ordered alot of Aerodrome Accessories ratlines, which are much thinner.

For masts, I used brass and nickel silver tubing and rods in 0.6, 0.5, 0.45, 0.33, and 0.2 diameters.

For stays and backstays I would probably attempt to use 0.1mm nickel silver rods with running rigging in a mix of elastic thread and stretched sprue...

_________________
Model kit manufacturer and distributor: https://b2b.modellbaudienst.de
Distributor of Very Fire, Snowman, Milania Master Korabel, Falkonet, Microdisign in EU
1:350 HMS Diana 1794 - nearly released
Further kits in preparation.

Man, that is small! An interesting project, I'll be watching it with interest.

That was not a good war for the Swedish navy Strictly speaking it should be "Rättvisan" of course, "Justice", but I suspect that a-umlaut is not easy to get to on your keyboard. The name lived on in Russian service in Russified form, there was a "Retvizan" battleship sunk at Port Arthur in 1904.

Yes, the name lived on, and the one sunk in Port Arthur was actually the 5th Retvizan in the Russian Navy. There were a 1818 74gun ship, 1839 74gun ship and a 1855 steam powered screw 84 gun ship in between.

1788-90 russo-swedish war was not good on the swedish navy, with the Battle of Reval being a total blunder, and a Vyborg battle which destroyed the bulk of swedish blue water navy. Only the sillyness of the russian commander of coastal forces caused the second Rochensalm which caused the mild peace treaty...

_________________
Model kit manufacturer and distributor: https://b2b.modellbaudienst.de
Distributor of Very Fire, Snowman, Milania Master Korabel, Falkonet, Microdisign in EU
1:350 HMS Diana 1794 - nearly released
Further kits in preparation.

I believe there are still some differences in the Swedish / Finnish and Russian views conserning the sea battles in the war started by Gustav III of Sweden. Both sides have often had inflated figures of the enemy losses and the importance/impacts of the events are sometimes seen in very different manner. For example the events at the Vyborg bay are seen as a more or less successful break through that saved the bulk of the open sea fleet in Swedish history. The fleet took losses and ships were damaged. But the main reason why the fleet had to be pulled back to Sweden after the battle was the war with Denmark. Sweden could not for long leave her coast undefended and open for the Danes. Gustav III used the Danish attack into Southern Sweden to his advantage and managed to restore the fighting spirit of the Swedish army. This also forced many of the officers of the Swedish army in Finland who had challenged Gustav’s decision to wage war against Russia and more or less halted the land war, to reconsider their position. As a consequence there was no more easy victory in sight for the Russian empress Catharine the Great. The officers had basically asked Cathrine to conquer Finland in the hope that Finland would gain some kind of independence. On the other hand Gustav could not afford to fight both Russia and Denmark simultaneously. The second battle of Svensksund (Ruotsinsalmi) played its role in convincing Catharine that peace with pre war status quo was the best option.

Hi,

I can of course understand this point, the way the history is painted is quite different per country, and being a russian, I have the russian books as sources of course. Vyborg bay - yes, many ships escaped, but the rate of losses were no ships lost, 117 killed 164 wounded on russian side compared to 7 ships of the line, 3 frigate, 6 galleys, 14 gunboats and about 30 transports lost on swedish side with 5000 and 12000 men killed, wounded and captured, depending on source... It was about 1/3 of the swedish navy, 2/3 broke through. If russian admiral Chichagov (the father of the one who later failed to cut off Napoleons retreat from Russia) would have being more timely with ordering a general chase, even more losses could have happened. Strategically seen it was a daring thing to save 2/3 of the fleet, but tactically, these losses were VERY heavy.

2nd Rochensalm was of course a good work from Swedes and a blunder by Russian Admiral Nassau-Siegen. He was so successful in the black sea operations against the turks when teamed up with John Paul Jones, and did good work in many other battles, but went too overconfident into this battle, which killed his reputation.

_________________
Model kit manufacturer and distributor: https://b2b.modellbaudienst.de
Distributor of Very Fire, Snowman, Milania Master Korabel, Falkonet, Microdisign in EU
1:350 HMS Diana 1794 - nearly released
Further kits in preparation.