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

[EJFoeth]

Great work Marijn! Dare I ask... these are only the lower deck figures? (As I see no officers...)

[SG1]

Wow! This is getting better and better!

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks everyone, also for the helpful suggestions!

Pinstriped trousers & shirts??
But no mustaches or beards?

Just an idea, Marijn, if you want to have some facial "details" (apart from what you have tried).

Thanks for the idea Rui! It would be great to include those, but contemporary paintings and drawings unfortunately don't show any facial hair, except sideburns (which I tried to include here and there)...

This is the dilemma we are all faced with: there are details one would not see at normal viewing distance, but when taking close-up photographs, one notices their absence ...

I found Canaletto's paintings very helpful in painting small figures. If you have a close look, they are just a few blobs of paint - but well placed. From a normal viewing distance his people look very animated. There is however, a small hitch, these are two-dimensional paintings, where viewing angle and lighting direction have been determined by the painter. On a model the viewing angle and the direction of light will change with the circumstances. Still Canaletto's almost minimalistic rendering of people gives ideas.

Thanks Eberhart!
That's exactly what I tried, but I think this is beyond what I can achieve in this scale. The faces are only about 0,5 x 0,5 mm, which makes the blobs of paint so small that they don't work together anymore to give the impression of facial features, but they just muddy the surface, even when seen through an optivisor. My solution: just have the face as a single blob of paint, as part of the impressionistic render of the figure as a whole...
It may be a matter of precise placement indeed, but I'm afraid it's just too small for me...

Dare I ask... these are only the lower deck figures? (As I see no officers...)/quote]
Yes, they are only the figures below the forecastle/quarterdeck levels. Only a couple of them are placed on the lower and middle gun decks. Most will be in a slightly more visible position in the waist at the upper gun decks of both ships.
So I will have to convert and paint A LOT more in the future...

There is only one officer, but he's not visible in my photographs indeed.

[TomRigg17]

Great work. Great subject.
I'm imagining a gymnasium floor with all 60 odd ships laid out as they would have been at that stage of the battle.
Tom

[Joe Simon]

Those figures are crazy! Your work is beyond mere words.

[Dan K]

Regarding the figures - allow me to pay you the highest possible compliment:

You are nuts!

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much Tom, Joe and Dan!

Regarding the figures - allow me to pay you the highest possible compliment:

You are nuts!

Compliment accepted!

[pascalemod]

Many thanks everyone!

What optimiser are you using? Something heavy duty dentists use (dental loupes?) or something a bit less complicated?

Not too complicated or expensive: the standard Donegan optivisor, with glass lense. I'm using a n�5 (2,5 times maginification).
https://doneganoptical.com/product/optivisor/

I compared it with cheaper opivisors with plastic lenses, and the glass lense does make a big difference: it doesn't distort the image like the plastic ones do.

I used to do this kind of stuff without magnification, but finally age is catching up with me and my eyes...

Just a thanks for this tip, I got the optivisor and holy smokes I dont know how I built anything without them before! Truly the glass vs plastic (what I used before) is the difference maker, plus they headset is very light (mine was heavy as had light inside and battery).

And yes, the crew is making a huge difference. The marine with a musket firing through the ports is such a nice touch. Ill call him James the Marine and will look out for him when the diorama is finished.

[marijn van gils]

Thanks Pavel!


Meanwhile, I continued work on the more visible area of the upper gun decks, in the waist.

This was the starting point (for Victory):


I installed rings on the decks. They are copper wire, annealed and blackened, and glued in place with mat varnish.
I also added canon balls, which are solder balls. These are quite handy for any kind of little ball you may need, and can be bought in all kinds of diameters.


The rings and cannon balls were painted. I also painted and installed the ladders/stairs.


Redoutable required more rings. The ladders are a bit different too, as is the stowage of the cannon balls.


Next, I installed the guns on Victory, this time with their rigging:








The ropes are all copper wire: two 0,1mm twisted together for the heavy breeching ropes, and 0,05mm single strands for the side and rear tackles. The blocks are blobs of glue or 0,3mm discs punched from 0,13mm plastic sheet with a punch �n die. Probably I should do a step-by-step on this when I do this for Redoutable�

Two figures poking a sponge or ramrod in the gun barrels needed to be installed together with their guns. The rest of the figures are next!

[EJFoeth]

You're going too fast Great work!

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

What a scene is coming to life! I really haven't seen a model of a sailing ship in gun action like this before... IN ANY SCALE!

Only one question Marijn: the gratings over the lower decks, apparently you made these in unpainted and unvarnished oak, like the decks. Are you sure that's right? I mean, for the decks this was necessary, for providing foot grip, as painted/varnished wood will be slippery when wet. The gratings are different, as there wil remain no water on them. But you may have good reason to make them this way?

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much Evert-Jan and Maarten!

Only one question Marijn: the gratings over the lower decks, apparently you made these in unpainted and unvarnished oak, like the decks. Are you sure that's right? I mean, for the decks this was necessary, for providing foot grip, as painted/varnished wood will be slippery when wet. The gratings are different, as there wil remain no water on them. But you may have good reason to make them this way?

I have to admit I didn't give it any more thought than to copy what I see on photos of the current museum ship (so not really sure...):





(Photo's by Iceman 29. Look here for the full set: viewtopic.php?f=70&t=23473&start=120#p1030153 )

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Aaah, yes, I see. Indeed a good reason.

I see that the gratings even have a pronounced 'camber'. That doesn't seem to serve a purpose as they will let any water through, don't they? However, when presennings are put over the grating then the camber will make the water flush away.

So the unpainted wood makes sense then, as crew will walk over the gratings when needed. The painted frame around the grating might follow a different logic then.

[Devin]

Looks amazing, Marijn! Looking forward to seeing this over the coming weekend (and thanks for reminding me that I need to pack reading glasses so I can see what I'm looking at!)

[SG1]

Marijn, i admire the way you bent the guns' ropes without causing any sharp bending of the wire. In this scale this is really an incredible feat. Is there a particular technique you can suggest to achieve that?

Truly excellent progress, this is getting more and more awesome!

[dafi]

The painted frame around the grating might follow a different logic then.

My guess is that the coaming is part of the ship and therefor more difficult to replace, so it was more taken care of. The grating is movable and easy to replace and also moved in plenty of occasions and is also abused for many other purposes.

[marijn van gils]

Thanks everyone!

Devin, it was a pleasure seeing you and your beautiful M33 last weekend!

Marijn, i admire the way you bent the guns' ropes without causing any sharp bending of the wire. In this scale this is really an incredible feat. Is there a particular technique you can suggest to achieve that?

Thanks! That was the hardest part indeed, by far... Mostly, I try to start from straight wire, and then take it slowly and carefully. It takes patience and some cursing...
I will try to do a step-by-step with photo's on the guns of Redoutable. That would explain the details better.


But first I had to finish the waist scene of Victory.
Installing the figures was quite simple now:



But I had also scratchbuilt some masters for equipment (barrels, tubs, buckets, �salt� boxes, �) in the past, and a friend cast them in resin for me:





So I mounted a selection of those on toothpicks, and made some sponges/rammers/worms from thin brass rod, and painted everything:




I think they add a pleasing extra level of clutter to the scene:



Some additional views:


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And very, very much enlarged:




I will probably still add some wood splinters/rubble, but I want to do that together with Redoutable.

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

To express my admiration in plain Dutch (not translatable):

"K�nonne!..."

[wefalck]

Indeed, a lot of hustle and bustle

I like those micro-worms and -rammers. How did you fix the figures on deck?

[JIM BAUMANN]

I think they add a pleasing extra level of clutter to the scene:

They do indeed!!

the wounded and the blood split on the deck add some authenticity

Its a fine line to tread-
- the reality and horror of casualties and blood and the completed dioramas casual observers sensitivities..!

In my view ---do not shy away from showing it as it was ...

Jim Baumann