algeciras1801

Right, as promised here is an update of work carried out on this conversion. First up is the work carried out around the bows of the ship. The cheeks were shortened by around 1cm and painted up. I added some scrap bits of photo-etch to the crown of the figurehead to give it a bit more definition and i also shortened the tail. The head rails were painted in three colours, yellow ochre, black and blue, I also trimmed them a bit to make them look less ornate. Here are some photos (the last one is just a test fit of the pieces, still some work to be done), Hope you like. Finally, apropos of nothing, here is my collection of ever expanding naval literature.

Thanks for all the likes, have been kinda busy lately with university stuff (should get my results next week). Hope to get the build up and running again soon though.

Upper gun deck with scratch built Brodie Stove, jeer capstan and main bitts. I have added some deck levels to the quarter galleries at the stern as some of the lights will be covered, some glazed The twelve guns visible through the waist of the ship have been rigged using 0.25mm thread passing through 3mm eyelets. Only the breeching tackle has been represented to simplify matters.

Here are all the lower deck guns in position I have added gunport lifts... ...and 3mm eyelets to each gunport lid. I have also uprated the knees on the poop deck Finally, here is the Brodie Stove, sitting on its bed of tiles inbetween the boatswain and carpenters cabins, made from the unused parts for the original galley. That's about it for now. Thanks to all that have liked my posts

The Royal Navy employed merchant ships to begin with but they were deemed too slow to keep up with the ships of the line and fire-ships eventually developed into quite complex vessels which made converting existing ships harder so the Tisiphone class (to which Comet belongs) was introduced.Of the nine vessels in this class of ship only Comet and Conflagration were actually used in their intended role

The flags of all French and Spanish ships captured at Trafalgar were displayed at the funeral as a reminder and celebration of Nelson's achievements. His funeral car also bore the names of the ships San Josef, L'Orient, Trinidad and Bucentaure

I believe they were for rigging lines that were too thick to fit round the normal belaying pins

Belleisle's Brodie stove was constructed from plasticard using the plans found in The 74 Gun Ship Bellona, by Brian Lavery as a guide (scaled down from 1/96 to 1/150) The roundhouses on the beakhead bulkhead were also made from plastic tubing, covered in styrene strip to achieve the correct diameter. Again the dimensions for these were taken from Lavery's 74 Gun Bellona. The two parts forming the hull are made from tough plastic so they went together without any problems with warpage. Here is the hull assembled and painted, still needs some copper paint though. Tony

Hi Dafi, My thinking is that masts and yards would not have been replaced as the wood for these was always in short supply but that the rigging would have been altered to conform to British specifications, so i will be keeping the masts, tops and yards but giving Belleisle an English rig (or as close to an English rig as my skills allow.) Thanks Brenticus, I have seen Blue Ensign's stunning La Praetorian build and, like you, find it very inspiring. You are making excellent progress with your own builds by the way. I too wish there were more models of 74's out there as they were the mainstays of both the French and English Navies and i think they are an attractive looking class of ship.

Wow! What an enjoyable time i have had reading your modelling masterclass. Half my time was spent staring in awe as the build progressed the rest was spent giggling with delight. You are such an incredibly talented craftswoman Doris. I bow to you. Tony

Hi Steve. In answer to your question regarding the plastic masts and yards, I will be keeping them but as they are quite soft and flexible i have re-inforced the lower masts with wood in the form of cocktail sticks. The foremast and mainmast were quite easy to do as they are made from two hollow sections but the mizzenmast is made from two solid sections so they needed hollowing out before i could insert the cocktail sticks. All three lower masts are a lot less bendy now. Tony

Right, about time I hoisted the yards on this build diary and got her under a full spread of sail. As I mentioned in my previous post French and British 74's had different deck layouts, perhaps the most obvious difference was the position of the ship's boats. On a French 74 they sat on the upper gundeck between the foremast and the mainmast wheras on a British 74 they sat one deck higher -exposed on the skid beams on the weather deck. To create these skid beams i used 1.5mm x 3.2mm strips of styrene. These were carefully spaced to ensure the different sized ship's boats would each have beams to sit on. Moving the boats freed up some space on the upper gundeck which i needed to fill with a jeer capstan. The capstan provided with the kit is rather sorry and very un-British looking so this was adapted using some plastic tube and styrene strips. I was not at all impressed with the gratings moulded onto the different decks and so these were replaced with wooden affairs sourced from the Model Dockyard and finished with coamings made from styrene strip In these next shots you can see that i have inserted a section of deck into the forecastle to give a bit of space for the ship's belfry and i have also removed the box over the companionway on the quarterdeck. I also glued the ship's binnacle in place -wrongly as the ship's wheel should now be in front of the mizzenmast not behind it (the binnacle that will replace it is a much improved affair to boot) I have also removed the triangles moulded into the edge of the weather deck (visible in the first image of this post) as British 74's stored their round shot elsewhere That's about it for now. Thanks for viewing

31 July 1653 The Battle of Scheveningen. This battle, the final one of the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-54), was fought in order to break a blockade of the Dutch coast by the Commonwealth fleet under General at-Sea George Monk and resulted in a crushing defeat for the Dutch who lost fifteen ships and their great commander, Admiral Maarten Tromp, killed by a sharpshooter at the start of the battle. The battle resulted in a peace conference at which the English were able to dictate their own terms.

22 July 1805 Finisterre (Calder's Action) Vice-Admiral Calder's squadron of fifteen ships of the line, stationed off Ferrol in northern Spain, intercepts the squadron of Admiral Villeneuve as it returns to European waters from the Caribbean. Heavy fog and light winds delay the action until the evening and the confused, indecisive, encounter ends with Calder badly disabling four ships of the French fleet and capturing another two. The weather improves the following day but Calder, an experienced officer who had been Sir John Jervis’s flag-captain at the Battle of St Vincent, seems more intent on protecting his prizes and chooses not to re-engage. The result of this decision is an eventual court martial which ends his career.

Not a member of that forum. Thankfully B.E. Is only the click of a mouse away if i need to 'grill him' for information!