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

[JIM BAUMANN]

well done--progress is ongoing ! I bet when you started this a short 7 years ago in 2018 you did not think you
would still be at it with an umpainted sea.....

Max Kudos for staying power, perseverance and tenacity in seeing it through ....
Jim Baumann

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much for your kind words everyone!

I trust this will be on display at SMC in October?

Maybe not those loose figures, but I will certainly bring both ships in progress (plenty of figures on those! ). Looking forward to seeing you there again!

There's something very disturbing about all those crewmen being staked.
Marijn the Impaler?

Hahaha!
Especially those sitting crewmen (rowers for the launch)...

Are you planning to add any shark fin sailing the surface of the sea or a shark's shadow glimpsing under the surface? (sporadic and distant from the castaways if you do, it could work -oceanic whitetips usually don't take long to show up at the scene of a shipwreck - https://ioa.factsanddetails.com/article/entry-190.html -)

You're not the first one to suggest this , so I'm sure it's a good idea. But no, I don't think I will. The condition of the crew is already bad enough.
I did think of including Jeanette though! But so far I haven't...
https://bidefordbuzz.org.uk/history/trafalgar-women/

I bet when you started this a short 7 years ago in 2018 you did not think you
would still be at it with an umpainted sea.....

No! I estimated I could finish it in 5 years or so...
But luckily there is still enough variation and plenty of technical challenges to keep it interesting. I don't feel bored yet with the project at all!

[wefalck]

I love those little 'genre' scenes around the poor sailors in the water !

Re. Versailles: no, in the end I didn't go. There was too much travelling for me and you may recall that it rained heavily that Sunday, so I preferred to stay quietly at home and do some practical modelling. Strangely enough, no one here on this forum reported on it.

[marijn van gils]

Thank you Eberhard!

you may recall that it rained heavily that Sunday

Yes! I now own an umbrella with an Eiffel tower print...

Strangely enough, no one here on this forum reported on it.

The World Model Expo originated from the figure side of the hobby, with Sheperd Paine one of the main people to start it. Over the years, plastic modelling has joined in more and more. But the the show was certainly not ship-heavy. But there were some beautiful ship models on display and in the competition! A fantastic late-war USS Enterprise (that was in the running for Best of Show!) and three man-of-war dioramas (two with the Spanish ship Il Glorioso and one with HMS Victory) come to mind. Chloe Platner was there and had a beautiful display too.
But overall still a small minority amongst the 4761 figures and models in competition (by 1107 separate participants). But luckily I like all kinds of models!
There were 90 retailers, and the show attracted more than 8,000 visitors. So, as big as a modelling show gets!

[Christian Bruer]

An absolutely impressive project. I so look forward to meeting you in Veldhoven in October and chatting about model building together.

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much Christian! I am very much looking forward to that too! Only a little over a month away...



Meanwhile, rigging continues with the fore and main masts.

First job: the parrels for the main topmast and fore topgallant (the main topgallant and for topmast yards will be missing or heavily damaged).

I used solder balls for the parrel beads, glued directly on the mast.
Next, I simulated the ribs by bending and gluing 0,1mm copper wire between/over them:


And painted:


I only simulated the ribs on the topmast parrels.
The topgallant parrels got a little too small (the solder balls are 0,45 mm) for that, at least for me�


If you don�t believe it is small, take a matchstick (a regular one, not a large one!) in your hand and hold it to these photos:


The lower tops needed a detail I had forgotten on Victory: the toggles that hold the blocks that will be hanging under them.
I made these with short pieces of stretched sprue, glued in place with matt varnish and painted. The �rope� looping around their centre is just a little black paint.



Next, a lot of repetitive preparation work followed: twisting and painting lengths of copper wire to different diameters, and preparing a bunch of blocks.

I had scratchbuilt masters for the blocks a couple of years ago (viewtopic.php?f=59&t=167367&start=660#p966067), and a friend had cast these in resin.

Now, I drilled holes and inserted wires of the appropriate diameter into them.
In the picture below, one of each size and type is show of the blocks that I will need for the masts and yards of Victory. But of course, I made a lot more, enough for the masts and yards of Victory.


The three smallest blocks on the right are not resin castings.
The smallest resin blocks are about 0,9 � 1 mm long, but I also need three smaller sizes: 0,8mm, 0,7mm and 0,6mm.
I made these by punching round discs from plastic sheet with a punch-and-die set, and slicing a bit of material from two opposing sides with a scalpel to obtain a more oval shape. They were a bit small to drill holes into, so I simply butt-glued the wire to them.

Base-coated with Humbrol matt 110:


The strops painted with black Humbrol, and the sheave openings shaded with the same colour:


Finally, the thicker strops and ropes received a brown drybrush to bring out the texture:



Some blocks and strops were now glued to the top- and topgallant masts (mostly for lifts ands for stays of the mast behind).
I also added the lashing for the jeers at this point.
And more visible, I also added the railings at the rear of the lower tops, using 0,2mm brass wire, plastic sheet and PE netting:


And painted:




Next up: topmast shrouds and ratlines!

[Dan K]

To work that small that well is simply outstanding, Marijn.

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much Dan!

[wefalck]

Well, you are setting the bar high ...

[Joelle]

This looks so incredibly good, and on such a tiny scale.
My utmost respect.

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much Eberhard and J�rg!

[JariL]

This is a bit of a let down, Marijn. They are not working and do not see any rope weaved out of spider thread -not to speak of sails. After all these years I thought you had come up with a way to make the whole rigging work as the real thing. But I guess there is a limit for us all.

You have again bested your previous best efforts! The parts look as if they could be from a quite a bit larger scale model.

Regards,

Jari

[Iceman 29]

The art of making damaged equipment, just like in the movies. Except that here, you have to be very precise and credible.

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much Jari and Pascal!

Yes, the battle damage does add challenges indeed. And also another level of fun!

[marijn van gils]

And now, as promised: the topmast shrouds and ratlines.
These make for a nice step-by-step.

In a smaller scale (or smaller vessels), I would certainly have opted for PE. But in 1/300, shrouds do get quite thick (especially the lower shrouds), so I wanted a bit more 3D-effect. I wanted to show the twisted �rope�-effect on them, as well as the contrast in thickness with the thin ratlines.

So, scratchbuilding from wire seemed the best option. I used a personal adaption of a technique described by Philip Reed in his book �Period Ship Modelmaking�.

For the deadeyes, I punched discs from plastic sheet with a punch-and-die set. They are 1mm across and 0,5mm thick.
I then drilled a little hole in their side, in which I glued a piece of wire. The lower deadeyes received a single piece of 0,15mm copper wire, for attaching them to the lower top. The upper deadeyes received a �shroud� of 0,18mm twisted wire.
Next to the latter, I glued a small piece of the same twisted wire to simulate the turned-in end of the shroud:


A series of these are then attached with tape to a sturdy piece of plastic sheet. The tape is attached to the plastic sheet with double-sided tape underneath, so the sticky side is facing upwards:


Close-up.
The deadeyes are placed the required distance apart, while being gently held in place by the low-tack tape:


Now, I glued three pieces of 0,8mm twisted copper wire to the deadeyes to simulate the lanyards:


Next, the assemblies are carefully turned around:


And another three pieces of �lanyard� are glued to the other side:


The result: shrouds with very small deadeyes and lanyards!


Now, the position of the shrouds on the masts is determined. I cut a paper triangle to fit between the lower top and topmast head. On this, I drew the position of the shrouds, according to the holes I had drilled in the edge of the lower top:


This template was then glued to a simple home-made jig.
The jig is made by roughly gluing some pieces of plastic sheet together.
At the top and bottom, and at both sides, I stuck strips of double-sided tape. These will assist in keeping the shrouds and ratlines in place.
On the computer, I drew a page with only black lines, spaced 1,5mm apart (the distance between ratlines in 1/300). I cut strips from this, which I glued on both sides of the template.


Now, the ratlines were attached to the jig, following the lines on the paper template.
The double-sided tape helps to position them, but they do need to be fixed firmly with superglue at both ends.


Now, the end of some 0,05mm copper wire was superglued to the back of the jig. Then, I wound it around the jig, using the printed lines to keep an even spacing.


Every crossing point of each ratline with each shroud is then glued. I like to use a 0,1mm copper wire as a superglue applicator, frequently cutting the tip when glue starts to build up.


Now, a needle is used to introduce a little bit of subtle �sag� into the ratlines.
This step will show you which contact points didn�t get glued properly too!
But no problem; just get out the glue again�


Now, the whole assembly can be cut loose from the jig, starting with the ratlines:


The result: one complete shroud-and-ratline assembly!
The jig can be cleaned up by removing the glue remains and the paper template, and re-used for the other side. And then again for the next mast.


Now, the assembly is test-fitted on the mast.
Note how I cut the wires under the lower deadeyes at different lengths. This helps a lot for getting all of them into the little holes in the lower top!


The upper end had been kept overly long:


This is now cut short to fit the wire that was already in place to mimic the parts of the shrouds that wrap around the masthead.
It was also cut with a forward slant, to simulate each of the individual shrouds wrapping around the masthead at different heights:


Now, the shrouds were painted.
(Note: this was the first assembly, when I hadn�t figures out yet the trick with the lower wires. This one was a lot harder to fit to the lower top!)


And finally, I could glue them in place on both the fore and main masts of Victory!
(after which, I added some tie and buntlines blocks at the topmast top too)







Obviously, they still need battle damage, but this will follow at a later stage.

[dafi]

As always: MARVELOUS!

XXXDAn

[SG1]

Wow! incredible, Marijn. Excellently designed jig. Amazing result and properly damaged mast too. Question about the ratlines painting: (??brushed or ???sprayed) enamels, lacquers or permanent markers? Supersupercool

[wefalck]

The bar moves higher and higher ...

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much gentlemen!

Question about the ratlines painting: (??brushed or ???sprayed) enamels, lacquers or permanent markers?

All brush-painted with enamels:
- basecoated with two layers of black (the airbrush would be better, but I was lazy to get it out...)
- the shrouds drybrushed with a dark reddish brown (humbrol leather 62 + black) to lighten them end bring out the texture.
- the ratlines lightly drybrushed one by one with humbroll 72, to differentiate a little from the shrouds but still keep them rather dark.
- the lanyards painted/drybrushed with humbrol 72, and then again highlighted with 72 + white.
- the deadeyes were kept black, but needed some retouching after the previous steps.

[Joe Simon]

I don't know what else can be said. This is beyond amazing.