The Ship Model Forum

Hi all.
After a long time devoted to researching plans, drawings and pictures of the various ironclads of the Regia Marina Italiana (Royal Italian Navy) i decided to start a long-term project.
My goal is to build the ironclads of Regia Marina in 1/700 scale;
The ships are:

Formidabile Class screw corvettes
-R.N. Formidabile (1861-1904)


-R.N. Terribile (1861-1903)


Re d'Italia Class screw armoured frigate
-R.N. Re d'Italia (1863-sunk in 1866)
-R.N. Re di Portogallo (1863-1875)

Regina Maria Pia Class, screw armoured frigate
-Regina Maria Pia (1862-1904)
-San Martino (1862-1903)
-Castelfidardo (1862-1910)
-Ancona (1862-1903)

Principe di Carignano Class, screw armoured frigate
-Principe di Carignano (1863-1875)
-Messina (1864-1880)

-Conte Verde, screw armoured frigate (1867-1898)

-Affondatore, armoured ram (1865-1907)

-Roma, screw armoured frigate (1865-1895)

-Venezia, screw armoured frigate (1869-1895)

Principe Amedeo Class, screw armoured frigate
-Principe Amedeo (1872-1895)
-Palestro (3rd) (1871-1900)

I have already built a model of Regina Maria Pia in her 1879 fit, but i'm still unsatisfied from the result, so she'll be built again with, i hope, better results.
Some of these ships had extremely long careers, and a lot of overhauls and upgrades which changed their appearence a lot. So some of them will be built in 2 or more versions, following their evolution.

The first to be built will be the Formidabile Class: Regia Nave Formidabile will be in her 1862 fit, while the Terribile will be in her Artilley Training ship fit, 1898.
R.N. Formidabile and R.N. Terribile were built in France, from the "Societè Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranee" (Toulon), laid down on 1860 and launched on 1861.
The plans are drawn by Admiral Franco Gay on "Le navi di Linea Italiane - Volume 1 - 1861-1875", published by the Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare.
The model of the Terribile will be full-hull, as the plans are quite complete.
Work on the actual model will start very soon! stay tuned!

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On the bench: evolution of Royal Italian Navy Ironclads-1/700

-Regia Nave Formidabile

very nice subjects , will follow this with interest .
Where do you look for you plans ? i bet you visit a lot the museum in the Arsenale of La Spezia

Hi Daniele, your bet is an easy win
the naval museum is as a second home for me, every single time i have the chance i pay a visit. it's a jewel - even if in sorry shape in the last years (but maybe things are changing - finally the roof is being redone after almost 5 years!!!!)

there is actually a serious shortage of plans for ship of that period - everything existing is, as far as i know, published in the book i mentioned, "Le navi di linea italiane"; the book contains pictures of the real ships (almost all of the known ones) and almost every drawing existing. some rumors of some more drawings hidden in the naval museum archives surfaces from time to time...

cheers!

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On the bench: evolution of Royal Italian Navy Ironclads-1/700

-Regia Nave Formidabile

thanks , i just made a little search and i find it for sale on amazon , i think i will add it to my library .
I asked about that museum because its one of my regret , i served almost 2 years in the Arsenale and i never visited it ...such a shame on me , in my defense there is only that i was young and didnt even think at that age to spend time in any museum .

better late than never....

i finally resumed the project.

As stated before, the first ship will be the Formidabile Class.

First hull to be laid down is Terribile:

first attempt: scanned the plans and printed them on thick card, then soaked with CA glue and assembled, spaces filled with insulation panel foam and a first layer of putty applied: epic fail.



Putty reacted with foam, and i had a very noticeable deformation both in longitudinal and trasversal direction.
Hull's graveyard has one more guest.

second attempt: i tried with a plasticard structure, and filled the center part with milliput to prevent future warping.
The rest of the hull is filled with another brand of foam (this time i tested the behaviour of putty on various foams, and this one worked like a charm )







The result is quite good, now i have to apply putty in thin layers, then sand, then apply putty until a smooth finish is obtained!

The two version of the ship i aim to build have a noticeable difference in gunport number and position; in order to use the hull as a master for resin casting i left a groove at the correct height. once casted i'll fill this groove with plasticard to create the correct disposition of gunports.

cheers!

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On the bench: evolution of Royal Italian Navy Ironclads-1/700

-Regia Nave Formidabile

Very interesting project, and a great start Stefano!

But to make things easier for yourself, why don't you fill the entire plasticcard hull structure with milliput and lose the foam? If you apply the milliput with some care and make it slightly oversized (apply also a thin layer over the ribs), you can directly sand the milliput instead of first having to build up layers of putty. Much faster and simpler I would think...

I did it once before like that (but on a much smaller hull) and was really happy with the way it worked. I used Magic Sculp though, which I greatly prefer over Milliput, both for wet sculpting (it is smoother) and for sanding/carving (it doesn't crumble like Milliput can).

But we of course all have our own way of doing things which works best for ourselves, so of course feel free to ignore!

Cheers,

Marijn

Hi Marijn! thanks for your interest and your advice.

actually i don't like too much working with milliput (i used it very few times, maybe i'm not that confident with the material), that's why i tend to reduce the use of it where i need actual structural strenght.
for the rest of the hull i used insulation foam, shaped with fine sandpaper and covered with normal plastic putty (tamiya basic). using fine grit sandpaper to smoothen the hull reduces (heavy handed dude here) the risk of damage for plasticard ribs.

however i'll give a go to the all milliput method for the next one in the line, as the hull will be very thin and i'm afraid that the plastic putty will melt/deform the hull.

cheers!

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On the bench: evolution of Royal Italian Navy Ironclads-1/700

-Regia Nave Formidabile

Dear Mr. Stefano Sallesi,

Kind regards from Odessa, Ukraine!

My friend Eugene, also a modeler, dreams to scratchbuild the 1:700 model of R.N. Re d'Italia (1863). But he is having problems about finding the info for hull lines and other drawings, details, and painting of the ship for 1866.
All he could find is this scheme from the Italian book:

http://filmatidimare.altervista.org/wp- ... 03/961.jpg

, and also the original drawings (on the auction) that alas was cost-prohibitive to purchase:

http://www.ebay.com.sg/itm/ROYAL-ITALIA ... 0826519854

So please can you provide any informational help for Eugene, particularly
he needs the scheme of how the ship was painted in her final battle?

He is also interested about her "opponent" - the Austrian Erzherzog Ferdinand Max... so if you have any info about this ship, it will be also
most appreciated. His email is eushakow@yahoo.com

Best wishes - Alex

Alex,

unfortunately i have the very same material about the Re d'italia and Re di Portogallo, with the addiction of a big scale plan and profile from Admiral Gay, took from the book "le navi di linea italiane"
However i'll' send an e-mail to mr. Eugene with what i collected for those ships.

Cheers.

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On the bench: evolution of Royal Italian Navy Ironclads-1/700

-Regia Nave Formidabile

Thank you very much, it will be appreciated! Cheers - Alex

I'm following your project with great interest Stefano!

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"On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." H. L. Mencken

Very interesting project!

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Nice work! Will be watching with interest.




Bob Pink.

looking for more....

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...in my shipyard...

HI all.

finally i got the resin i needed to clone the hull of Formidabile in order to build her twin Terribile in her Artillery Training Ship.

i used Reschimica SIL15 silicon rubber and Reschimica Fil Classic Grey resin, both excellent products; first time using these products, the silicon mold went smooth and with no problem, but i messed up a little bit the resin casting.

first two attempts went bad, the first one had a lot of air bubbles on the deck surface, and a couple of other big voids.

the second one came out quite perfect...but the hull has the consistency of a staedler white eraser

third go went ok, both for air bubbles and consistency. the problem with the first two casts are to blame totally on me, not on the resin.



cheers!

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On the bench: evolution of Royal Italian Navy Ironclads-1/700

-Regia Nave Formidabile

This is very nice.

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Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit.
- Consul Marcus Tullius Cicero

The final copy of the hull is really nicely done!

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Nice work!!




Bob Pink

thanks all

having copyed the hull allowed me to work on the first version, the Formidabile in her original fitting, with 15 gunports per side and 2 bow chasing guns.

the gunports are made cutting a strip of .75mm plasticard that goes directly in the slot i left on the master, so it sits flush with the armour belt.



next step is to build the bulwark, with hammock stoarges and other fittings. Meanwhile the sylicon mold for some windpipes and other "common fittings" for this looong term project is curing!

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On the bench: evolution of Royal Italian Navy Ironclads-1/700

-Regia Nave Formidabile

O man, I am R E A L L Y looking forward how this is going to turn out! And yet, there is so much more cool stuff to come...