"Scratch-built 1:1200 L'Hermione" Topic

ok so hopefully my link works, if not we'll have to work on it!

I started this quite a while ago and for various reasons didn't get to do much miniature work, but I want to first say thanks to Volunteer for his help and advice, and for his ideas. most of the materials and techniques were lifted right from his scratch builds, so any credit for cool or otherwise good ideas must go to him. any mistakes or inaccuracies are my own!

the rigging isn't totally accurate, i tried to model the standing rigging from pictures of the actual ship, the running is sort of just a generic i've used on my other ships. i realize its not perfectly accurate and i also realized after the fact that i missed a couple on the main yard arm haha!

other than that, pick it apart and suggestions are welcome.

i pretty much copied volunteer's scratch build, the only differences being that my hull is one shaped piece of basswood, not layered decks, and a different paper for the sails, which i don't like and won't be using on my next build. the scale just doesn't look right.

this is my first scratch build where i attempted any real level of detail, my others being pretty much plain blank hulls with sails and rigging.

m.imgur.com/a/tdMJJ

Super job Rockatanski! You even managed room for a flag pole on the stern, something I haven't been able to do, my spankers are always too big. I will make the same comment I believe James made about my first, the Leopard. Try using a bit darker yellow wash on your sripe or a different shade on the gunports to highlight and bring them out better. It was good advice. Excellent first and I am axiously waiting for your next one. And thank you for the credit.

Regards,
Vol

yeah i noticed the colors seem a little too vivid on such a small scale, and honestly it's not my favorite color scheme to begin with haha. the french were a bit more showy with their colors than the english evidently!

the flagpole was an afterthought actually, i drilled it but didnt glue so that different flags can be put it depending on the side using the ship

hms lively is next! i'm more a fan of frigates than the big beasts ha!

Very nice model. I wouldn't worry about the nit-pickers as the overall look of the ship is great. Thanks for sharing.

Dave
wargamingminiatures.com

PS: Volunteer do you have any pics of your models you could share? And, would either of you consider doing some ACW hulls?

i'm sure someone on the boards here somewhere does them, but that's totally out of my area i'm afraid. i don't know enough about the era and the scaling for that, although maybe with time haha. i'm still refining the napoleonic ones right now.

if you have a look at volunteer's blog, he has a little of everything on his shelves, even a nifty little lord of the rings tavern ha!

You even managed room for a flag pole on the stern, something I haven't been able to do, my spankers are always too big.

This was also a problem on the real warships.

Ensigns were flow at the peak of the gaff when the warships were under way. They were flown on an ensign staff at the stern when anchored.

I'm going to throw in my two cents worth on keithbarker's' post. He is absolutely right for the Napoleonic period--ensigns were flown from the staff at the stern only in port, and that tradition continues to this day. However, as long as lateen sails, which had no boom, were carried on the mizzen mast, the ensign was flown from a staff even at sea. It was only after the introduction of gaff-rigged mizzen sails (roughly mid-18th century) that it became a problem to fly the ensign from a staff.

i did notice most miniatures have a boom on the spanker or driver or whatever you want to call it, and i wasn't actually sure what determined whether or not it got a boom. all i know is i was on the ship myself and i know it had no boom, nor does it have one in any picture i could find. i double and triple checked. so i left it off. although i did forget the rigging for it on the bottom haha

Very nice! I like it, even the color scheme. How did you get the sails to maintain their shape?

i just cut them a little taller than the space between the yards and super glue them in place, top first then the bottom corners. the paper is from the scrap booking section at the craft store, but like i said i don't really like how the pattern looks at such a small scale. for a little bigger scale model the texture would have a nice canvas look. i think i'll be going with smoother paper on my next one.

the sails volunteer makes look great, have a look at his blog. he brushes them with glue and pre shapes them on a round marker to get them to hold a shape.

speaking of the next one, i've gotten to what i forgot is the worst part of the model, cutting out the tiny gunport covers haha

That's some beautiful work, extremely neat and crisp in every regard!

thanks! coming from one who does awesome work himself. i have some of your posts bookmarked because you do such clean work, and your rigging looks great. i think back when i built my first miniature and started doing rigging i copied an indiaman you had posted pics of.

i'm always trying to improve. i know some guys strive to be as accurate as possible when it comes to colors or rigging, but my biggest hangup is things looking right to scale. if theres a detail i want but i don't think i can make it look right i would rather eliminate it. that's why it's missing some things like a wheel and gun carriages. i tried vol's idea of card under the cannons, and no matter what i did they looked too chunky and stood out, so i canned them haha

My comment about flying the ensign at the peak of the gaff was meant to illustrate that ship designers historically had the same problem with the ensign staff that Volunteer had when modelling these ships. Having changed the rigging from lanteen-rigged mizzen to gaff-rigged mizzen, the spanker became too big for the ensign staff to be used when under way and the problem was solved by moving it to the peak of the gaff.

I want to emphasize that my comment was in no way meant as a criticism of Rockatansky excellent model of L'Hermione with the Tricolore on the ensign staff and where her historical counterpart would have flown the white ensign.

oh it's all good i definitely didn't take it as criticism. honestly i felt a bit conflicted between the original ship and the new one, because i don't know for sure what they may have changed. they supposedly built the ship from plans to her sister ship in the british archives, but other than some 200+ year old plans, all we really have to go by for the original are some artists' paintings. i'm sure even with the replica there was some license taken with details. there could be parts i put on that are correct to the original and others correct to the replica.

StoneMtnMinis (Dave)
You are welcome to anything you want. Go to volsminiatures.blogspot.com
Any photos you would like you can just comment as such on the specific post and I will email them to you. And I have a few ACW ironclad plan sets, I just haven't done any yet. So many Napy ships left to do;-) So what did you have in mind Dave?
volsminiatures@gmail.com

StoneMtnMinis
I just looked at your Houston's Ships 1/1200 ACW line. They look pretty good. Yes I would be happy to do a few ACW hulls. Send me an email.
Regards, vol