HMS Victory and Le Redoutable at Trafalgar (1/300)

[IONmodel]

I was very happy I could help
Looking forward to see more crowd on the diorama!

[marijn van gils]

Well, at the moment I am working on (a first series of) the figures, but nothing finished yet...

I�m on holiday abroad now and I took them with me. Therefore, I could not really start working on them before the holiday, so I had a couple of weeks to do something else. I chose to paint the hammock netting.

Those were scratchbuilt quite a while ago: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=167367&start=520#p937808

And with a light grey basecoat, they look like this:


When painting cloth, I like to use basic figurepainting approach/technique of painting highlights and shadows according to zenithal lighting.
This serves to emphasize the threedimensionality and detail, and to add contrast and therefore �life�. The zenithal lighting (with the light coming from above) helps to keep it looking natural.

I like to start with the highlights. The top is basecoat only, bottom with highlights added:


I used three tones for the highlights, gradually working to pure white.

On the model, this looks pretty nice already. But too clean and not really integrated with the tonality of the rest of the ship:


The solution: shading with the same dirty dark brown as I used on the rest of the ship, rather than shading with darker greys.
Top: only highlights, bottom: with shadows:


I used the same oil paints for this I used on the rest of the ship: Raw Umber with a bit of Black. (the basecoat and highlights were done in acrylics)
The paint was thinned very much and applied as a transparent glaze for the light shadows, while the paint was thinned much less for the deeper shadows.

Much better I think!


Now, only the netting and stanchions needed to be picked out where the canvas covers are damaged:


The overall effect:




And some more details.






They are still removeable. After the decks are permanently installed, they will be glued in place and any gaps filled and retouched. 96

[Silenoz]

Excellent work... always jawdropping at the level of detail you manage to achieve...

[dafi]

As always ...

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... speachless .-)

XXXDAn

[wefalck]

Indeed, looking very convincing ... I am sorry for those sailors that lost their hammocks ...

[hypno7]

very very nice Marijn!

I try and try and try, and I think I will never be able to sculpt and paint like that.

Have a nice holiday! Here is a bit too warm to sit at the desk and work on a model...

[SG1]

Wow!

[MartinJQuinn]

Excellent work... always jawdropping at the level of detail you manage to achieve...

Yeah, that about sums it up. Fantastic work.

[Timmy C]

Nevermind filming on the actual Victory - the new Ridley Scott Napoleon movie should've been filmed using this!

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much for your kind words everyone! They are very much appreciated

I am sorry for those sailors that lost their hammocks ...

Imagine going through such a battle, then keeping your ship afloat for during a week long storm, and then trying to grab your hammock to finally get a good nights sleep...

I try and try and try, and I think I will never be able to sculpt and paint like that.

I used to think the same Erick. But I found that with dedication and a lot of practice, you can be surprised of what you are capable of.

Have a nice holiday! Here is a bit too warm to sit at the desk and work on a model...

Thanks! Here it is too hot too (close to 40 C), but luckily I can sit outside in the shadow (and with a fan when the light breeze stops), and have a swim from time to time...

Nevermind filming on the actual Victory - the new Ridley Scott Napoleon movie should've been filmed using this!

[Sszabi]

I think you may not remember this when you sketched the idea for this diorama a couple of years ago at one of the Mosonshows (although I was very happy that we met in person), then I guessed that there would be some crazy details on it - because then I was fascinated by the Lexington diorama, and when you were telling me this, you were just showing me the Amagi under construction - but this is amazing and inspiring...

[Iceman 29]

Nice work, Marijn !

[Dan K]

Beautiful work, Marijn.

[mister me]

pretty nice !

[pascalemod]

I can already see this as finished, in few years time pinned on Pinterest, reprinted in magazines, and someone doing on YT top 10 most amazing models smth smth and this features right up there at the top. Amazing work! I go back to the hull weathering, plate painting, it is fantastic that you are able to push yourself through what surely must at times feel tedious and requires so much focus and not drop the quality down. I bet it is at times tempting to cut a corner or two, to get to the finish a little faster and yet I see you show good deal of discipline. For that this is very impressive.

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks guys!

I think you may not remember this when you sketched the idea for this diorama a couple of years ago at one of the Mosonshows (although I was very happy that we met in person), then I guessed that there would be some crazy details on it - because then I was fascinated by the Lexington diorama, and when you were telling me this, you were just showing me the Amagi under construction - but this is amazing and inspiring...

Thank you very much Sszabi! Yes, I do remember! If I remember correctly we had lunch together too with the other judges that year. Good memories indeed!
I haven't been able to attend the Moson show since 2019, but I'm very happy that it finally is again firmly booked in my agenda for 2024! So I'm sure we'll meet again there

I can already see this as finished, in few years time pinned on Pinterest, reprinted in magazines, and someone doing on YT top 10 most amazing models smth smth and this features right up there at the top. Amazing work!

I don't know about all that Pavel, but thank you very much for the nice words! I'm just modelling what I enjoy modelling, and in the way I enjoy it. But if other people like it too, that is of course always nice.
But this diorama is of course designed to be quite an epic piece indeed, because the story is quite epic. And it does take a rather epic amount of work too...

I go back to the hull weathering, plate painting, it is fantastic that you are able to push yourself through what surely must at times feel tedious and requires so much focus and not drop the quality down. I bet it is at times tempting to cut a corner or two, to get to the finish a little faster and yet I see you show good deal of discipline. For that this is very impressive.

Haha! In fact, I only have the opposite problem: I have to stop myself from putting too much time in items that will be barely visible on the finished piece. I really do enjoy working in tiny detail and getting every little thing as good as I can get it, but this project takes so much work that I often have to remind myself that many things will not be very visble under all the other details/effects/stuff that will follow, or that they are just a tiny part of a bigger whole and I shouldn't waiste too much time on them. Keeping an eye on efficiency is harder for me than not dropping the quality...

There is a lot of repetitious work indeed, but I find it often quite therapeutic. I just put some good music on or listen to podcasts.
So far I haven't gotten bored with this project yet, not even close. Besides the repetitive stuff, there is a lot of variation: many different techniques, both in construction and painting, and many of those are new to me too or at least the application is new.
But then again, I'm sure the next project will of course be something a little smaller/shorter.

[Rui Matos]

Hi Marijn

Well... you continue to amaze us, even with such an easy thing as hammock netting!
Enjoy your break time

Rui

[Neptune]

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks Rui and Neptune!

[marijn van gils]

So, next up were the figures. At least a first part of them.

During my holiday, I wanted to do the figures I would need to crew all the gun decks, but not the forecastle, quarterdeck, poop or rigging. That way, I could start with the figures that are less visible, and that I need to install the decks up to the forecastle/quarterdeck, and leave the rest for later.

I glued the guns of the lower decks in place, and checked the visibility of figures through the gun ports. It turns out that they are only visible when directly in front of the ports.

So I don�t need many figures to crew the gun decks.
Except for the upper decks at the waist of course, where they are directly visible from above, and the gun crews would be in full action.

I calculated I would need about 110 figures for the two ships, and got started on them during my holiday.
But I quickly found out that 1/300 figures are much more time consuming than 1/700 figures. That is only normal: they are larger, so you can include more detail, and that takes time. But they take me much more than double the time of 1/700 figures. I think for every 1/300 figure, I could easily finish five or six 1/700 figures.

So I couldn�t get them finished during my holiday. No problem though, because I�m really enjoying them.

Back home, I focused on quickly finishing 11 figures I would need for the lower and middle decks, so I can install those. They are mostly sailors worming, ramming home shot, or sponging the gun barrels (so: guys putting sticks in the barrels), and a couple of marines shooting their muskets through the gun ports or getting ready to do so.

The marines:




The shooting figures are converted from �kneeling and pointing� figures. I replaced their upper lower arms, and added a musket from a piece of stretched sprue, building up the stock with tiny drops of Gesso. The hat of the French (blue) one was also �sculpted� from Gesso.
The walking marine is a stock Ion Model figure, upscaled from their 1/700 set.

Four sailors:



These are stock figures, except for the one black hat (Gesso), and the rammer/sponge/worm handles (stretched sprue).

And another four sailors:




The figures are about 6mm tall, so of course they look a lot tinier in the flesh.
These photos are still enlarged (note the match head), but this is what they look like to me through an optivisor:


Probably they are way too detailed for their visibility on the final diorama, but it was a good practice round for me to see what I can do with these.

I used standard (large scale) figure painting techniques, with highlighting and shading. I couldn�t take step-by-step photo�s this time, and also not for the 100 remaining figures that are now close to being finished, but I�ll do that for another batch in the future.

Many thanks again to Ion Model for making these beautiful figures available to me in 1/300 scale!