That's a great solution SG!
Evert-Jan, with your Proxxon mill, you could also make one from plexi and steel for more durability.
Maarten Sch�nfeld wrote:Iceman 29 wrote:" On this day of 1805, the Royal Navy defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar. Fighting for Nelson were many foreign born sailors including over 360 Americans, 23 of whom served on HMS Victory.
Many had volunteered but some had been pressed. "
Too true, Pascale! But so were all navies (and armies) in that period. The French Navy also counted numerous foreign sailors and soldiers (marines). Even officers! From Germany (parts of), Denmark (after 1807!), the Netherlands, Italy, Spain andsoforth.
Why I stated Denmark after 1807: in that year the Royal Navy bombarded Copenhagen and captured the entire Danish fleet (except for two ships), and as a result Denmark sided with Napoleon. Britain hadn't relied on Denmark's neutrality, and the result was they got one more enemy...
The Netherlands and Italy (parts of) were in 1805 already occupied vasal states under French control, having no choice for themselves.
Furthermore, it was hard to know how many really volunteered for the British, as pressed men were usually given the option to 'volunteer', which entitled them to sign-up money and some other benefits. Needles to say, many took this option when there was no way out anyway...
Back to the model...
As promised, and now that I have some experience with it, I made step-by-step photographs of the rigging of the guns. Part 1: the breeching ropes.
The breeching ropes are in reality quite thick. I made them from tinned copper wire, twisting two strands of 0,1 mm together. I basecoated this by brush with Humbrol enamel matt 72.
After drying, I cut short lengths and superglued them in the holes in the sides of the carriages (n�1 in the photo below). The French guns are much simpler than the British ones in this respect; the British ones need to be folded over the cascabel of the gun instead.
I then cut them to the correct length and folded the ends back into flattened loops (n� 2). I found it easier to do this with the wire folded forward.
On the quarterdeck and forecastle guns, I plan to place a small ring in that loop, but visibility of the bulwarks in the waist is so bad that I didn�t bother here.
Then, the ropes were carefully bent as close as possible to their final shape (n� 3). I did this before attaching the guns into the ship, so I could manipulate the ropes easier. I constantly checked on a flat surface and test-fitted in the ship. This takes some care and quite a lot of time; probably in between 5 and 10 minutes per gun. But when done well, they need little further work once the gun is glued in the ship.
For all of this, I used pointed tweezers while gently holding the gun with two fingers.
Next, the guns were glued in their final positions with gel type superglue.
Note how the breeching ropes are very close to their final position, but are often �floating� over the deck just a little:
The ropes were now glued down to the decks and to the sides of the ship with liquid superglue:
Shiny glue spots were eliminated with a little matt varnish:
To bring out the ropes and their texture, I added a dark pinwash (raw umber + black oil paint):
And highlighted with Humbrol enamels (in this case basically drybrushed with the tip of a n�000 brush). One pass with the base-colour (matt 72), the second one with matt 72 + white:
Next up: the side and training tackles!
Right, back to timbering the whaler...
