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

[Rui Matos]

Marijn...

I usually don't get speechless... but I am now!
AMAZING!!!!

NOTE: I was a little bit concerned, that after all the master work you have done with the models so far, the "tricky part" would be to make the sails look convincing... Well, I was worrying for nothing, you managed to make them super-realistic!
Congratulations!

Cheers,
Rui

[marijn van gils]

Thank you very much Rui!
For sure this was one of the biggest technical challenges of the project indeed, since I hadn’t done anything like this before… And of course, battle damage adds another dimension to it!



I will post the step-by-step on the sails in several separate posts, to spread the computer work a bit for myself…


First step: research!

Sails and rigging of period ships were rather daunting to me, as I was a complete novice.
But as with anything, the right literature and a fair amount of time to study the topic help to make everything make sense, enabling a methodical execution on the model.

These are the main books I used:


James Lees is the standard work on English warship rigging, and generally considered to be very accurate. It is however a rather academic book and requires some basic knowledge on rigging (for example: the terminology and the function of each line are not explained).

L. Petersson is much more accessible for the novice. It shows the run of each individual line in separate drawings, making everything very easy to understand. It is however based on only one period ship model, and is therefore not to be relied on for every ship of every period. Luckily, the period depicted in the book is very close to Trafalgar, but the ship is a smaller type.

The AOTS book by John McKay solves this partly, as it focuses on Victory. It is an excellent book, but the rigging drawings require previous knowledge too. Too much lines are shown together in too few drawings, making them hard to understand for the novice. Also, it is based on the restored ship and can therefore not be trusted completely. But it includes a comprehensive table with the dimensions of the lines and blocks, which is super handy.

Longridges’ book is nice too, but a bit dated and I didn’t use it very much. But it includes some beautiful drawings of the lower and topmast tops, which help a lot to understand these complex areas.

So, I ended up using the books this way:
- Petersson to wrap my head around the rigging and each line in it;
- McKay to translate certain items to Victory;
- Lees to check each line for accuracy, and adjust if needed;
- The table in McKay for line and block dimensions.

In McKay, the lines are measured in circumference, and in inches, like period practice. But of course, for modelling purposes, I want diameters in millimetres! Luckily, this was easily calculated in excel:


All of this enabled me to draw a set of rigging plans:


I traced the ships contours from Longridges’ plans, and scanned and printed it to 1/300 scale a number of times.
Next, I drew only one or two types of lines on each plan. This keeps things clear and easy to find.
I noted the diameter of each line and size of each block on the plans, so I don’t have to go back to the books/tables while building. I also noted or drew belaying points and some details for the same reason.

The finished plans are not only super convenient tools while building, but drawing them also helped me tremendously in understanding the rig.


Drawing a set of rigging plans like this was a tip I got from these books from Philip Reed, and it proved immensely helpful!


These are wonderful books BTW! (his ‘Building a Miniature Navy Board Model’ book is great too)
Besides inspiration, they were instrumental in getting my head wrapped around rigging a small scale model. I used a lot of the techniques explained in these books (especially the newer one: ‘period ship modelmaking’).

Also, besides knowing what goes where, rigging requires a well thought-out order of operations to maintain access. In general, you work from the centreline of the ship outwards, and from low to high.
But a square rig is complex, and the Philip Reed books also helped me figuring this out.

But in the end, I also find myself making this kind of lists, to work out the order of installation for each line:


These are only a couple; I have made many more along the way!
This is just a working tool for myself: I often change the sequence while working when I think another way may be easier after all.


And finally, back to the sails!

Paper templates were drawn, cut and test-fitted. The shapes were based on Lees, and the dimensions made to fit the spars and masts of the model.
On the front and rear of each template, the location of the reinforcing cloths and cringles are drawn (all based on Lees).

[wefalck]

You have done now already a lot (most?) of the work on HMS VICTORY, but almost a must is also

LEVER, D. (1819): The Young Sea Officer’s Sheet Anchor.- 124 p., London (reprint 1963 by E.W. Sweetman & Co., New York).

There should be this second or the first edition as digital copy on the net. It was meant as textbook for midshipmen, i.e. boys of 16+ years of age, who became trainee naval officers with often little previous (practical) exposure to maritme matters. It is important, because it not only tells how things should look like, when at their place, but also how to get them, where they should be. For me this is very important for modelling - I have to understand how something works, before I can model it.

It would be interesting to undertake one day a sort of 'criminal' investigation on who copied/stole their illustrations from whom, as the pictures all look familiar. Perhaps Steele (a compilator and publisher, rather than author) was the origine or they may even go back to the 'Enciclopdie' of Diderot & d'Alembert ... I think Lees also drew on Lever.

[marijn van gils]

Thank you Eberhart!

You are right, I should get Lever too!
I would prefer to get a paper copy though if possible.

Lees gives an overview of his sources in the introduction. Besides contemporary literature, he also used contemporary models, manuscipts, paintings and drafts of the National Maritime Museum (he worked as restorer/caretaker on their model collection). But regarding literature on the late 18th century, he states Steele as his primary literary source indeed. And he does use a number of drawings of Lever, but this is always indicated in the captions. The great majority of drawings seem to be his own (they have a different style than Lever or Steele). Of course, the content of them is likely based on Steele and Lever (and other sources for other periods), but he may have also referred to contempary models etc.

[wefalck]

Yes, I had the book by Lees since it was first published and read it. Contemporary models can be problematic, as they were often (re)rigged or restored at later times, using the practises and knowledge of the time. It is quite difficult to determine the actual age of rigging matieral and when the work was carried out.

[marijn van gils]

That’s very true Eberhart!

Of course, every historic source has its issues. For example, contemporary literature can for example sometimes only describe ‘best practices’, while omitting possible variations and/or improvisation that may have existed. And sometimes, even the best authors make mistakes too…
In the end, it is usually best to combine the information from all sources after critically assessing them.

But I certainly wouldn’t want to claim my humble model to be historically (as) correct (as possible)!
I did try my best, but I did make a couple of mistakes that I chose not to correct (I did correct some others, but I’m not Dafi ). The small scale also demanded some shortcuts. And I’m very sure there are plenty of mistakes that I didn’t notice myself…

Also, the rig is not complete: I omitted the rigging for the fore and aft sails (besides bowsprit and spanker of course) and for the stunsails (but I will add the boom irons and a couple of broken booms at the end; these would be too fragile now).
It simply gets very complex and difficult to add these too in this scale. I'm sure it can be done, but it wouldn’t add much to the feel of the model anymore in my opinion.
And that’s what is in the end most important to me for a diorama: the feel.

[marijn van gils]

Sails, part 2: making the sailcloth.


I used silkspan:



Why? Because silkspan can be wetted with water, without desintegrating like most papers do.
I need to be able to shape the sails, sometimes to a pretty extreme extent. Wetting the paper helps tremendously with the shaping (and holding the shape after drying).
And a second reason: silkspan is very thin translucent (but of course there are more papers with these qualities).

But! If I didn’t have to shape the sails so much, I would probably have used Jim Bauman’s technique with printed paper, as I think it is much easier and faster.

Because silkspan is rather too translucent and porous straight from the package:


So it needs some preparation work: painting.
I paint it with a mixture of off-white acrylic paint (the colour can be adjusted to your taste of course, and the brand too (I used Lifecolour and AK 3rd gen)) and acrylic matt medium, heavily thinned with water.

I applied 3 coats on both sides, letting the paint dry thoroughly in between each coat. This was enough to fill all the pores and reduces the translucency enough but not too much. The amount of coats and dilution of the paint determine the translucency you end up with, so you may have to play around with these a little.

To conveniently paint both sides, I taped the silkspan over a painting canvas frame like this (my wife has plenty of them lying around! ):


I did this the way watercolour painters stretch their papers:
- Wet the silkspan completely
- Drape it over the frame as evenly as possible
- Tape it down with gummed paper tape
When it dries, it contracts and becomes tight like a drumskin.

I tried airbrushing the paint, but couldn’t make it work. So, I applied the thinned paint with a wide soft brush. With every coat, the silkspan sags a bit, and contracts again when drying.

This is the type of tape I’m using:



Yes, I should have taken a photo of the paint application with the silkspan on the frame!
But I didn’t…
I’ll do it when preparing the silkspan for Redoutable!

Second step in preparing the ‘sailcloth’:
Silkspan has a very slight texture to it (due to its fibres). This is not bad and even adds to the sailcloth feeling, but I found it just a little too much for 1/300.
So, I knocked it down a little by sanding both sides lightly with some fine sandpaper.

Step 3: seemlines.
In 1/300, the seems are about 2mm apart. Rather too close for glueing separate strips of sailcloth together…
So, I simulate them with pencil lines:


The procedure is simple enough:
- Tape the silkspan to a hard and smooth surface. A piece of glass will do, but my wife also happens to own one of those thin electronic lightboxes for artists , so I used that. This is very handy for drawing the lines on the reverse side!
- Tape a steel ruler next to it.
- Set a triangular ruler against the steel ruler, and draw each line, sliding down the steel ruler 2mm for each ‘seem’.

It is of course a matter of taste, but I’m not a fan of very obvious seemlines. I prefer them to be only visible when the model is seen close-up. Keeping them subtle is easy: just use a very hard pencil. I used a 9H.



And that’s it! The ‘sailcloth is now ready to make a set of sails!

Cutting the sails to the correct shape is easy: trace the paper templates you made earlier, and cut out with a ruler and sharp knife. For curves at the foot of the sails, these rulers were quite handy:


Next, the reinforcing bands are added.
First, the paper template is taped to a scrap piece of plastic sheet, and the contours of the sail and the location of the reinforcing bands are marked with pencil:


Next, the sail is taped in the contours:


Now, strips of ‘sailcloth’ are glued on the sail (yes, that's another sail... Systematically taking photos is still a work in progress ):


I use white wood glue. Important: the water resistant type! (because we need to wet the sail later on for shaping)
I dilute it a bit with water for workability, but not too much. If the strips get too wet, they stretch and cause the sail to crease when drying.
I start from one side of the sail, gluing the strip down to the plastic sheet in between the location markings, and then work my way slowly to the other side, applying glue with a fine brush along the way.

When dry, the sail is cut loose and the process is repeated for the other side.

The result: a sail that’s ready for further detailing and painting!



Stay tuned for the next episode…

[wefalck]

Thanks

I used a very similar process, but actually put a print-out of the sail on a piece of thick cardboard , covered it in tightly stretched cling-film and taped down the sail on it. The cardboard allows me to pin-down bolt-ropes and the likes later.

[marijn van gils]

That's a great idea Eberhart!

I usually use Blue-tac to keep stuff in place, so the plastic sheet works fine for me, but I can see how pins can be very handy too.

I certainly didn't invent this technique! Like you state it has been used for a long time. I took it from Philip Reed's book.

[wefalck]

This is an article that I published in 1980 in a German ship-modelling magazine, where I describe my beginnings with the silkspan method: https://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/m ... M-5-80.pdf. No Internet and the only ship-modelling book I was aware of was that by Orazio Curti.

I bought one of those LED-illuminated boards a while ago. Not as good as the illuminated tracing tables the drafting offices had in the institutions I worked for, but useful at times - and it cost only a few Euros.