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

[Rui Matos]

Hope to meet you at one of these?

Hi Marijn,

Well... one thing is certain, it will not happen this year
(since we are in the process of moving to a new home!)

Cheers,
Rui

[marijn van gils]

No worries Rui, there is always next year. Success with the move!


Meanwhile, I have finally tackled the first part of the rigging!
That is, the part that is attached to the hull: all the coils of rope attached to pins, cleats and kevels.

During the actual rigging, it will be hard to reach these areas, so it is much better to attach the coils now. Later, I will simply butt-glue the end of the ropes coming from spars and sails to them.

The first task was research: figuring out where all the lines were belayed, calculate the scale diameter of each rope, and making belaying plans for both ships. That took some time in itself of course!

I used (tinned) copper wire for all �ropes�. The thickness varies from 0,05 to 0,20 mm. The 0,05 mm wire is just a single strand, everything larger is twisted together from smaller diameters for a �rope� effect.

I pre-painted all wires with very dark brown Humbrol enamels before shaping and gluing.
Most shaping was done off the hulls, coiling wire around needles etc.
I glued them in pace with superglue and/or matt varnish:



Then, I touched up the dark brown (part of it of course gets damaged during shaping and installation), and I highlighted with grey-beige colours in two steps (first Humbrol 72, then 72 + white):


It looks pretty crude in these very very enlarged photos, but remember that the thickest rope here is only 0,2mm thick. The hole for the mainmast in the last photo is only 3 mm wide.

Some views of the rope coils installed on Redoutable:







And on Victory:






As for the scale: I forgot the lucifer. But to give an idea: the diameter of that broken mizzen mast in the last photo is 2 mm.


I could have certainly added more, especially coils of rope lying flat on the decks.
But there is still a lot of figures, equipment and rubble to come, so I want to see how that all looks together. I can still add some extra coils at that stage if there is a need�

[SG1]

Awesome work Marijn! The rope coils look so natural!

[MartinJQuinn]

I continued to be amazed and inspired by your work. Incredible.

[pascalemod]

This hopefully will be made into a book that I hope you will sell. Ill pay money to buy it with all these tips you just share in this thread freely. If you get around, do it. This is too good to just leave it as is.

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

This hopefully will be made into a book that I hope you will sell. Ill pay money to buy it with all these tips you just share in this thread freely. If you get around, do it. This is too good to just leave it as is.

I fully support the idea of Pascale!

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much for kind words guys!


I always like writing, so I certainly wouldn't mind doing a book on this model. And there is plenty of material to fill a book with: plenty of techniques etc. to write about!
But it seems the last year or so, sales of modelling books have been dwindling. And books on a single model are harder to sell anyway. So it will really depend whether a publisher will be interested or not at the time that I finish this diorama...

[wefalck]

Books on demand for download against a fee?

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Thank you very much for kind words guys!

I always like writing, so I certainly wouldn't mind doing a book on this model. And there is plenty of material to fill a book with: plenty of techniques etc. to write about!
But it seems the last year or so, sales of modelling books have been dwindling. And books on a single model are harder to sell anyway. So it will really depend whether a publisher will be interested or not at the time that I finish this diorama...

Marijn, you're right about modelling books, sales are not too good. But why focus only on the modelling fraternity? (Ladies are very rare here...)

Maybe it's therefore better to frame it as a book about the most dramatic moment of the Battle of Trafalgar, telling that story in words, and illustrating the story with pictures from your diorama -- and with the paintings too! -- of the elements on which you based the diorama.

You best put the modelling technique parts then in sub frames (kaderteksten) 'how you did it' so that someone not interested can easily skip those (or get enticed by these to try something themselves, you never know!)

So better widen the trawl to a much larger audience, that has an interest in history, shipping, warfare, paintings andsoforth. Or a combination. Modelling is just the technique you used for story telling, right?

[marijn van gils]

That is actually a great idea Maarten!

I'm usually not a fan of books that combine reference and modelling, because they tend to end up a bit light on both (like many of the Shipcraft series). But here it could really be about the history and telling the story of it in modelling, which is a different approach. Interesting!

[wefalck]

Marijn, you are right about mixing historical research and modelling. On the hand, it is the publisher that imposes maximum page numbers, so that both parts have to be cut back. When you self-publish an ebook, you don't have these restrictions.

It also all about structuring the book properly, so that parts are clearly distinguishable and easy to find. In an ebook you can work a lot with hyperlinks to annexes that e.g. provide more modelling details.

Otherwise, I think Maarten's idea is very good.

And oh yes, these rope-coils look very convincing

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much Eberhart!


You are very right about the advantages of self-publishing e-books.

But there are disadvantages too:
Firstly, I find myself rarely reading ebooks; I just seem to enjoy the old-fashioned paper things more. But that's just personal preference.

More importantly, if a book is not interesting enough for a publisher to publish (because they don't think it will get enough readers (=sales)), I'm not sure if it is really worth all my time and effort. Writing a book does take a lot of time, and what's the point if few people are actually interested?

Also, a publisher can do the layout much more professionally than me (and again that takes time and effort). I would add editing and proofreading, but unfortunately those are almost nonexistent (or at least of pretty low quality IMO) in the current modelling press.

And most importantly, the distribution network of a good professional publisher is not to be underestimated. The internet has made it much easier to sell stuff direct, but a professional distribution and advertising network still reaches much more people. And what's the point of all the work if 75% of the people who may be interested never learn of your book?

So, I'm afraid that if no publisher is interested, this thread will be my e-book!

[wefalck]

Spending a lot of my time editing and proof-reading (including for ten years our quarterly, Das LOGBUCH), I know very well what you are talking about ...

[IONmodel]

Wow! I still can't believe what you have achieved with the figures
Of course I admire the entire build, you went with all the details to impossible level. I hope to see the final piece live one day!

[Pieter]

There are also companies who help you self publish on paper. I worked with Brave New Books for a non-maritime book and I was happy with the results.
The main problem is that there is no way you can recoup the hours you spent in writing, editing and layout.
It is a bit like the old saying about owning a wooden boat or a polyester boat.
If your hobby is sailing get a polyester boat. If you hobby is woodworking....
So unless you want to have a new hobby, maritime self-publishing, I suggest you keep working on this project and maybe put everything in a blog (blogs still exist) so it will be available outside of this forum in the future.

Thank you very much Eberhart!


You are very right about the advantages of self-publishing e-books.

But there are disadvantages too:
Firstly, I find myself rarely reading ebooks; I just seem to enjoy the old-fashioned paper things more. But that's just personal preference.



And most importantly, the distribution network of a good professional publisher is not to be underestimated. The internet has made it much easier to sell stuff direct, but a professional distribution and advertising network still reaches much more people. And what's the point of all the work if 75% of the people who may be interested never learn of your book?

So, I'm afraid that if no publisher is interested, this thread will be my e-book!

[wefalck]

Pieter is absolutely right.

I have done the proof-reading for the German quarterly DAS LOGBUCH for some ten years, but had to give up due to time-constraints (due to fee-paying work) and because I wanted more time in the workshop.

While I am still writing (short) articles from time to time, I have a bigger book-project on hold (probably until I decide to retire), because the research alone would be full-time job.

Before posting on the fora, I write down the posts in a continuous MS Word document, which is a bit like a blog. In this way, I can retrieve the thoughts and information at least for myself, or could republish it. So it is not lost. I am now on page 170 for my current project ...

I know, there are blog-hosting sites, but I have arranged the information in a sort of blog on my own Web-site (not sure how many people are actually reading it, as my statistics are not very reliable.

[marijn van gils]

Hello everyone,

It has been a long time since the last update, but there is progress!
This summer I have been working on time-consuming stuff: converting and painting about 115 figures for the upper decks of Victory, painting all of the small equipment (salt boxes, barrels, buckets, tubs, rammers, sponges, �) for both ships, and installing these on Victory�s forecastle and quarterdeck.



Here, Redoutable�s crew will be trying to board Victory, so we see here Vics crew trying to repel them:





The guy with pistol on the bulwark will of course be holding on to the rigging. He�s only Blue-tacked in place for now.






And the quarterdeck, with Nelson:








I will still add rubble, and a bit of blood.

But first I want to install the figures I painted for the poop deck. But before I can do that, I first have to finish the fallen mizzen mast, with it�s rigging�. That will be a good first test for sails and rigging!
When that�s complete, I will add rubble to the rest of the ship too.

[johndon]

Ill go with astonishing as I can't think of any other way to describe this...

[Pieter]

Nice to see all those stories beeing played out on the deck. More like a choreography than a model. Did you storyboard these scenes before glueing them in place?

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Wow Marijn,

It's really starting to become a busy scene! And I must keep reminding myself it's at a tiny 1/300: the figures are only about 6 mm tall each! These pictures are VERY deceptive...

What a scene this will be! And yes, the mast, sails and rigging will be an utter challenge as well. In good order it's quite complicated already, but you will build it up the in the greatest possible disarray, and it must be looking convincing too! Torn, broken, damaged, burned, and what more can you think of.