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

[EJFoeth]

(faster than one soldered chain-link, E-J! )!

I heard that

But these gunports look great; not only leveled out in height but all vertical surfaces inside of the hull nicely equal!

[marijn van gils]

Thanks EJ!

Meanwhile, I glued plastic strips inside the hull halves to support the decks:



Next, the (lower) gun deck was cut from v-groove Evergreen sheet, and glued into to hull while joining the two hull halves.
After that, the beakhead deck and bulkhead were added. Square plastic rod was glued to the gun deck to support the upper gun deck.



Then, the other decks were made, but like on Victory left unglued.
The upper gun deck was made in two parts so it can be inserted into the tumblehome hull. The quarterdeck/forecastle/gangway deck is one piece.





Cheers,

Marijn

[Dan K]

Great work, Marijn.

[Devin]

Ditto what Dan said: great work.

Question: how are you cutting the decks so that they match the inner curve of the hull? Trial-and-error sand-and-fit? Contour gauge? I know how I'd do it with CAD and a laser, but the best way to go about it in this manner eludes me.

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks Dan and Devin!

Trial-and-error sand-and-fit?

That's basically it Devin. A contour gauge would help, but would be awkward to handle once the hull halves are joined (and I don't have one... )
But instead I use a piece of paper, cut it approximately, fit, adjust etc. until it is pretty close. Then I transfer that to plastic sheet, cut out but making sure it is rather too wide than too narrow, and then sand-fit-sand-fit-etc. It takes a bit of time, but a good fit will save me a lot of filling after painting.

The hardest part is to keep the plank lines parallel to the centerline while adjusting the decks to fit. If you sand on one quarter, they start to shift a couple of degrees, so you always need to compensate by sanding on the other quarter.
This really makes it necessary to start with paper (or contour gauge), so the plastic part doesn't need too much adjustment.

[Devin]

Makes sense, thanks. I'm currently doing a scratch build where I'm sheeting an ABS printed solid core with .020" (about .5mm) sheet styrene. It's a little easier than what you're doing, though, as I am cutting to match a solid surface, so I can use masking tape to make patterns.

[Dan K]

The hardest part is to keep the plank lines parallel to the centerline while adjusting the decks to fit. If you sand on one quarter, they start to shift a couple of degrees, so you always need to compensate by sanding on the other quarter.

Just like with custom-built flight decks

[GewoonWouter]

Looking good there, steady as she goes!

[Silenoz]

looking good... how will you do the planking of the hull?

[marijn van gils]

Thanks guys!

Just like with custom-built flight decks

Exactly!

how will you do the planking of the hull?

I will only add the whales. I will not glue individual planks to the hull, or scribe planking into the hull. I will paint the effect on, just like I would with plating on a metal hull. I think I can get a finer and more realistic looking effect that way.

[Martocticvs]

At this scale, I think that's definitely the right choice. Even close up to the real thing, the hull planks on Victory aren't that well defined - all the caulking and numerous layers of paint have served to smooth it all over.

[marijn van gils]

That was exactly my idea Martovics!
The Victory kit by Rod Langton has planking scribed into the hull, but I went to some trouble to fill most of it as I feel it is overscale.

Meanwhile, I received the castings of the guns.
My friend did a fantastic job: the castings are flawless! No air bubbles or other defects of any kind. No mean feat on such delicate items�
I cleaned up one of each type, and drilled the barrels.

The british guns:



And the French:



The largest (French 36 pounder) and smallest (French 8 pounder) guns together:


Still a couple to go!

[EJFoeth]

With friends like these, who needs 3D printers?

(I assume a divine bottle of wine was exchanged)

[JIM BAUMANN]

ah- box loads of repetitive work....

--thats as much fun as making repeats of davits on Normandie........ ( head in sand)


JB

[GewoonWouter]

castings look toasty indeed. Have fun cleaning up and drilling

[marijn van gils]

Thanks guys!

Yes, I better have some relaxing music playing when cleaning up all the rest...

[Martocticvs]

Fantastic results though! You're building each carriage up in kit form, I take it?

[ModelMonkey]

Brilliant!

[MartinJQuinn]

Wow. Those guns look great. With so many to build, it's sort of the 18th century equivalent of making 20mm guns for a WW2 USN battleship...

[marijn van gils]

Thanks guys!

That's a nice way of looking at it Martin!
Only, I had to make my own kit here to start with...

You're building each carriage up in kit form, I take it?

The carriages are only a single piece, so I only need to cut them from the 'sprue' and clean them up. They are only 5 to 8mm long...
I will only add stool beds (small strip of plastic sheet) and wedges to the more visible guns on the weather decks.