O.K., the last half year I was again a little bit bored with my Mass�na so I did another side-project (god knows how many of these will be done until the Mass�na is finally finished). A member of another forum brought me to think about the Grenade and provided me with first information (then Renaud Aimard, the almighty guru of 19th century french navy, provided me with almost all there is about this ship - which unfortunally is not so much). The Grenade was the second ship of the Fus�e-Class of costal-defense-gunboats and looked - like almost all french ships of these days - very steampunk.
The master of the hull was built with balsa planks over plywood frames. It was made in two parts: The underwater-hull including the belt-armour and the upper hull, as the ship (like my Mass�na) should be opened to get to the RC-installment by just removing the upper hull). From these a silicone rubber form was taken and both halfes were laminated with epoxy/glassfibre. Last weekend was the maiden voyage (it is not at all but nearly finished: the lifeboats are still missing). It was slow, turned badly (although with rudder hard over the inside motor stops) and so behaved just like the original.
You painted this strange armour cover over the main gun in black. Are there any sources for this ? The models in the French museum with a similar turret seem to have it painted in yellow (or whatever you may call the colour), e.g. L'AMIRAL DUPERR�:
wefalck
Eberhard
Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)
buff would have been my first guess, too, but the model of the "sister"-ship Mitraille in the Mus�e de la Marine has a black cover. So I guess it's the best clue one can get (all pictures of the Grenade show the gun either with a fabric-cover or so much lowerd, that there can't be any colour seen).
What have you use for plans?. Know you the articles of Luc feron about these class of ships?.
You're building french ships, and me, french, i'm building US ships (Monitor, Missouri, BM7 Arkansas, LCM3) it's ..... "le monde � l'envers"!
indeed the plans are from the article in MBB by Luc Feron. Unfortunally I cannot speak french, so I'm not really able to read the whole article (although sometimes my leftovers of latin give a clue of what is meant). That's really a pity as France (although these people must have hated modellers - have I mentioned SQUARE bulleyes, that you can't just drill) in the second half of the 19th century built by far the aesthetically appealing warships of all times. Mostly useless indeed (well, is uselessness not another point, which makes a warship appealing) but absolutely beautiful.
I have just discovered this post and this AMAZING model. Well done. Full marks for a taking on the challenge of both an unusual vessel and getting it onto the water. Many modellers would have incarcerated the finished model in a glass case, like a caged animal!
That is some awesome work. I love the shape of your subjects!
The execution of the build is splendid as well! Great result. This result sort of makes me want to see that Mass�na finished as well!!! Time to continue on that one (of find yourself another equally interesting subject as this one )
Thanks for posting the finished pictures. What a realy interesing (and different) model. Nicely modelled. Well done.
Have you got a paint reference for the green ani-fouling colour you used below waterline please? Was it chosen because of your reserch, or did you choose it because it looked right (which it does by the way)? I hope to build a slightly later French vessel at some stage and a colour reference would be helpful.
Many thanks.
I really love your model Egberth! Wonderful to see such a gorgeous working model!
I've always liked that class since seeing photos of the model of the Mitraille in a French model boat magazine many years ago. What is the MBB article by Luc Feron referred to?
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." Seneca, 1st century AD
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