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

[EJFoeth]

Contrary of some of the more adventurous scratchbuilders here (I�m looking at you EJ and Eberhart! ), I decided to build the hulls smooth and suggest the overlapping planks with paint only.

I heard that

Has been a while since a last touched a brush, don't trust myself enough to paint those lines in... and adding strips is fairly easy, only takes a couple of days

Great work though as always! would do one more highlight pass on the frames on the boat inside to make them pop out a bit more (especially the English 32ft barge)?

[SG1]

Speechless!

[JIM BAUMANN]

A1 ++ for small scale boatbuilding...!

the clinker simulation in particular ............

( whilst everything else is merely superb...!!)

==> is very very outstanding!

Bravo

JB

[wefalck]

Really excellent paint-job on this micro-fleet of ship's boats

I liked in particular the washes/shading with oils of the interior details that otherwise could look quite flat at this small scale.

I hardly dare to say a word of criticism: the rowing benches of boats were never varnished, but kept blank and perhaps were holy-stoned from time to time. Varnish would have made the benches too smooth, but the rowers needed the friction in order to stay on their benches. Particularly, when you move forward with the oars lifted out of the water, you tend to also slip forward and off the bench (I know this, from experience, because in our family we had a wooden rowing boat where the benches were painted with oil paint ...). In a sea, this is even worse. During the actual working stroke you have your feet resting agains the foot-rests with legs stretched.

[Devin]

Impeccable work, as always. Your boats and launches are better detailed than my 1/700 scale monitors and destroyers!

[Joe Simon]

Outstanding work as usual my friend!

[Dan K]

Exquisite boats. Your comments about having started them earlier led me back to the start of this thread.

June, 2018!!! Almost 6 years now. Wow.

Have you worked on any side projects during this time, Marijn?

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much everybody!

would do one more highlight pass on the frames on the boat inside to make them pop out a bit more (especially the English 32ft barge)?

Thank you Evert-Jan, that's a good idea!

the rowing benches of boats were never varnished, but kept blank and perhaps were holy-stoned from time to time. Varnish would have made the benches too smooth, but the rowers needed the friction in order to stay on their benches. Particularly, when you move forward with the oars lifted out of the water, you tend to also slip forward and off the bench (I know this, from experience, because in our family we had a wooden rowing boat where the benches were painted with oil paint ...). In a sea, this is even worse. During the actual working stroke you have your feet resting agains the foot-rests with legs stretched.

Thank you very much Eberhart! That makes a lot of sense. I'm in fact not really sure where I got the idea that they would have been varnished?
I wish I would have known earlier of of course, because now it would be very hard to change this (especially the floor-boards)... So I will have to live with it. But it is certainly good to know for any future project!

Your comments about having started them earlier led me back to the start of this thread.

June, 2018!!! Almost 6 years now. Wow.

Have you worked on any side projects during this time, Marijn?

No, only on this project! And I don't feel I have been lazy or slow either...
This subject just takes so much work... Especially when scratchbuilding a lot of it, and building and painting at this level of detail. (And having a full-time job and three kids ).
But I had anticipated that it would take lots of time and I don't mind. There is plenty of variation in techniques etc. to keep it interesting and challenging. And it is still peanuts compared to building a ship of the line in wood in a larger scale.

I have to admit though that sometimes my mind wonders what I will build after this project... And it will certainly be something much less time-consuming!
But I will only start another project after this one is done! That's my n�1 'secret' to getting ambitious projects actually finished...

[wefalck]

"But I will only start another project after this one is done! That's my n�1 'secret' to getting ambitious projects actually finished... "

... exactly

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

[ModelMonkey]

ditto.

[EJFoeth]

"But I will only start another project after this one is done! That's my n�1 'secret' to getting ambitious projects actually finished... "

... exactly

Well, I have four projects planned but nowhere near finishing my model

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks guys!

Well, I have four projects planned but nowhere near finishing my model

Well, putting in a fair number of hours every week is my other 'secret'...


Meanwhile, I installed the two boats on Victory.

What would a stowed boat look like after being hit by roundshot?
I�m not sure, because it is difficult to find any visual sources for this, but this is my interpretation:











And so much for that nice clinker effect:




There will be more rubble on the gangways, but I will do that later together with the forecastle and quarterdeck. Now i only added the 'boat-specific' rubble (pieces of twarts and oars).

[wefalck]

I just love those boats. Looking at the images, one doesn't imagine how small they are in reality.

It's a question of overall painting style, but I think I could/should have added a bit more of such shading to my boats ...

I am not familiar with how the boats were secured in their cradles at that time, but thought that 'gripes' were used, i.e. sort of iron hooks that went over their rails and then were tied to the cradles with lashings. This would not give the boats a chance to rock in their cradles. Of course, this arrangement would be quite a challenge to reproduce at this scale ...

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

I'm looking forward already to the MKM show in Geel in June... seeing all this progress with my own eyes. Il will bring a magnifying glass along!

[MartinJQuinn]

I just love those boats. Looking at the images, one doesn't imagine how small they are in reality.

Agreed. The detail and the paint is sublime.

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks guys!


Looking forward to seeing you there Maarten!

It's a question of overall painting style, but I think I could/should have added a bit more of such shading to my boats ...

It's indeed a question of style, so of course nothing HAS to be done.
The advantage of that shading is that it really brings out the details and makes everything look sharper and more alive. The disadvantage is that it takes time... But I find it quite enjoyable to do, because it makes me enjoy every detail I constructed one more time.

I am not familiar with how the boats were secured in their cradles at that time, but thought that 'gripes' were used, i.e. sort of iron hooks that went over their rails and then were tied to the cradles with lashings. This would not give the boats a chance to rock in their cradles. Of course, this arrangement would be quite a challenge to reproduce at this scale ...

I'm also no expert, and primary sources are few, so I just copied what Philip Reed does on his late 18th century and Napoleonic era models.
For French boats around 1780, Boudriot describes a U-shaped wooden batten that is placed across the rails of the boat, in which a rope is placed and fastened to iron rings on the deck on both sides. But also for Redoutable I decided to keep it simple on my model and only use rope.

[Joelle]

Ahoi Marijn.
Wow, just wow.
I have rarely seen such excellent work and that too on this micro scale. You are a true artist.
Thank you for sharing.

[Rui Matos]

Impecable, Marijn!

Those minute details of the boat debris makes (again and again) the difference in telling the story: Convincing.
I will have to see this in the flesh! And this is a promise!

Cheers,
Rui

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much J�lle and Rui!

I will be at the 30th Fuengirola show at June 21-22: https://www.afminiaturas.es/. That's not too far from Portugal?

Of course, I will also be at our own show KMK Scaleworld: https://kmk-scaleworld.be/scaleworld/
and in oktober at Scale Model Challenge.
Next year I will certainly go to the World Expo in Versailles.

Hope to meet you at one of these?