The Ship Model Forum

My favorite place is always the stern. There are a lot of small details to draw, 1/200 is better to make the ship credible.

A lot of work at home right now before winter, so less time to draw.

I drew the fresh air ventilation ducts at the foot of the C turret, not easy to draw, they follow the curve of the barbette, as well as the 340 mm shell supply hatches on the port side and the powder chutes on the starboard side.

The watertight door on the starboard side that leads into the Admiral's study. No door on the port side. Note that the Bretagne has fewer portholes on these bulkheads compared to other ships of the class.

The booms of the small cargo masts are stored on the bulkhead of this room on the port and starboard side.

I still have 2 hawser reels to draw and two fire hoses, which are fixed on the bulkhead, one can be seen near the barbette on the last picture.

There are steel plates along this bulkhead as well in the photos, maybe plates to close more efficiently the exhaust air ducts near the aft windlass, in combat or in heavy seas.

Mouthpiece of the battleship Provence ( Bretagne class ):

"Semper paratus is a Latin locution meaning "always ready". It is the motto of various military corps, most often."





The coat of arms of the Battleship Bretagne:



The published images don't change much, yet it still has a few hours of drawings on the accessories and details of the stern and I am far from the account.

I will have these 2 aft service boats to draw. No precise plan. The davits are already in place.

Drawings of the Bullivant torpedo-protecting net outriggers, as well as the pass-through which allows the net to be placed and stowed along the ship's side and for the sailors to grasp it so that it is not carried away by the sea.

The notches in the pass allow the outriggers to stick to the wall of the ship.

The nets will be removed permanently after the first refit, the pass at the second.







Interesting photo from Provence, you can see the sailors deploying the net. They are walking on the pass, you can see the devil's claws along the hull to secure the net once it is at its sea station. This net must have been very heavy, a delicate operation.







Here we see the passes pictured with their reinforcement leg.



Here materialized in the drawing:

Adding a lot of time-consuming little details, fire hoses, cargo masts, spars, skylights in the officer's mess room, correct placement of portholes on the port bow, front doors for torpedo loading etc...

Indeed:

The maximum thickness is 250 mm for the reinforced belt, it decreases in the lower part.

There is wood between the hull and the belt. You can see the wooden battens when the ship was launched in Brest and on a picture of the Lorraine in the yard in St Nazaire.

Part of the armor was removed during the second refit in 1924-25 in order to lighten the ship, which had a shallower draft after this period.
Part of her forward armor was removed to lighten the bow and increase her forward freeboard, while a group of coal-fired boilers was replaced by oil-fired boilers and the plane catapult installed on the central main batterie was removed.





Weight summary.

Belt cuirass
2131, 951 tonnes

Total amount of protection
7066, 670 tonnes

Pascal:

Most interesting information! I have just begun reading the AOS book on HMS Dreadnought, a very slightly earlier evolution of ship building, but most fascinating to look at the great transitions and advancements which took place over a short time in naval architecture and technology. Th wooden backing of the main armor belt is interesting and I have seen reference to such construction before. I presume that very long rivets or bolts were used to attach this to the underlying ships plating.

There are some rather unique shapes for you to draw with regards to the vents and especially the chocks near the stern, on the external deck of the secondary battery.

Best regards: Tom

I have some canoes to draw..

A friend provided me with a lot of original plans of the French Navy canoes. Thanks ! �:D

For the others, I will improvise.

I found a very similar whaleboat plan on a website.

The whaleboat is shorter on the plan, so I raised the freeboard to be able to extend it only in the direction of the length of 20%, at the end of the drawing. I added a rudder.

This picture of Bretagne in Brest is very useful in this case. It allows me to measure the boat.

I will be able to move some portholes that are not in the right place also on the side.

Nice pulling boat! What will be interesting to see is how this complex vessel gets divided up for printing.

Best regards: Tom

Wooden backing for the armour-plates was used for quite a long time. All navies conducted extensive experiments by firing armour-piercing and explosive shells at ship-wall/armour mock-ups in different configurations. It seems that the wooden backing, being elastic distributed the impact stresses over a larger area. This had two effects, it dissipated the energy of the impacting projectile over a larger area, therefore making it less likely to punch a hole into the plating and it protected in this way also the structural integrity of the hull by distributing the energy over several frames etc.

Tks for the very interesting information.


Not too advanced... I have work to do at home.

I have finished the whaleboat, it is 10 meters long.

I will start the other service boats.

Fantastic work! Love all the details.

Thanks Martin.

Beginning of a sketch of the front superstructure (1915).

The plans are not always easy to read and do not always correspond to the photos of the time (1915). Especially at the level of the front ventilation duct of the boiler room... To see all that. �:)

As I am myself in the process of building ship's boats: did you draw yours with the scale thickness of the planking or do you make already allowances for the eventual printing constraints?

When designing parts for laser-cutting I often find that one needs to increase their thickness and sometimes their proportions, as the effect of the laser path is somewhat unpredictable. With time one gets some experience how much one needs to add (for outside contours) or reduce (say for holes) in order to arrive at the scale dimensions of the parts. I gather something similar happens in additive manufacturing.

Yes, I always take into account the printing constraints. As a result, sometimes the design is not as close to the original.

There are compromises to be made, at 1/100 less, etc...

For your information, the scuttles with grills are the crew's toilets on this deck, it's a pretty big space.

The name given at the time is "Corneaux de l'�quipage", a name I did not know. I had to search a little.

http://saintgeorgesdedidonnehier.blogs. ... 609394.pdf

Corneaux ( There is a spelling mistake in the dictionary):

Crew's toilet consisting of sloping troughs that flow into the pipes leading to the sea.

I guess this is what is represented by many small rectangles, I was wondering what it was. . Hence a very good ventilation of the "places of ease".

WOW !!!

what an incredible amount of work, analysis and excellent photo interpretation
It is complete educational journey on features that I not ever really taken into
my even peripheral vision !!
and had not really worried too deeply about their functions....
-- the propeller shaft brackets....!....and the cable clamping devices
( even the manner in which these operate ! )
have the benefit of sooo many of your hours dedicated to every aspect

absolutely stunning to read and behold.

Pascal,

I find the blueprints to be very distracting from the modelling process itself. I can spend hours looking at internal structures and reading the instructions telling how to make the parts. But it is fun to learn how they made these things!

Phil

Tks Jim!

@DrPR, yes, the butcher's shop is just under the bunker bridge..

Today's progress on the design of the front superstructures and the second central deck, the bridge bunker.

Pascal,

Quite the project!!! Excellent work! Your design experience is really quite extraordinary.

Hank

Just marvelous! The detail is unprecedented.

Thanks Hank, I appreciate !