Beckmann

That looks superb, lovely framework. Matthias

That will be a nice feature with the coppering plates. I don't know wich one is left and wich one is right. The coppering of Fregatten Jylland is symmetric. Matthias

Dear fellow modellers, After quite some time, I now have some progress to report on my part. Since I am building a transom model, it will later face the viewer with its stern facing forward. I was a little bothered by the fact that when looking into the model through the stern cabins, you are looking into empty space, so to speak. To remedy this, I added a rear wall to form the missing bulkheads to the ship's interior. Below are a few pictures of the first stages of construction with the bench in front of the upper gallery windows, the deck beams and the rear wall: In order to get a good view of the interior later on, it was necessary to provide lighting. There are numerous options for model making here, which are more or less complicated, time-consuming and expensive. In the end, I chose the most primitive option imaginable and purchased a string of lights from Roßmann for €2.95. The small LED lights have a diameter of approx. 3 mm, very thin cables and are spaced 8 cm apart. I made a drawing of the lanterns and petroleum lamps that I had in mind as fittings and asked Igor Capinos to draw and print them in 3D, which I think he did very nicely. Installing the lighting in the upper part of the model went quite well, as I still had access from above, but in the lower cabin it was a compromise, as I had to run the cables under the ceiling beams, which of course is not so nice. Here are some pictures of the installed lighting on both levels: I still need to work on the fit of the rear wall here. This was followed by the completion of the aft deck with the offset above the arched canopy. My design here is speculative, as the original model does not show the built state here. I inserted a bulkhead in the front area and added a deck to the upper platform. Later, ladder ascents and brackets for the hackboard will be added there. Finally, a few pictures of the overall model as it looks now. The LED-light seems to be extremely bright, that is an effect of the camera of my mobile-phone. In reality it is more warm-white. Best regards, Matthias

Yes of course. The Wikipedia picture is propably the most authentic. It is said to be contemporary.

By the way, do you know this painting of Lüder Arenholt? Elben is the Schoner on the left side. This picture from Wikipedia you might know as well: and there must be this model somewhere in Denmark. These pictures by Julius Prömmel are interesting as well. Elben in the center of the painting. Matthias

That looks really good! Well done Matthias

Hi Ben, you are making a great Job on this model!!! I have a question. Is it necessary to glue the keel onto the model so early? Maybe it is easier to fair and paint the frames without the keel and stem on it. Matthias

Hi Frank, I didn't look in here for a while, great progress!! Building the great cabin is so much fun! I enjoied that part a lot, when I built my Winchelsea. Matthias

Really nice design! Well done. You should offer this as a kit, once the prototype is finished. Matthias

Thank you for your nice comments and likes. Thorbjørn (TJM), the photos you made for me from the original model at the museum in Copenhagen made it possible to understand the construction much better then by just looking on the plans and the two photos, wich are public available. So thank you again for your help. I will visit Copenhagen this summer and am looking forward to have a look at the original model myself and all the other wonderful models of the Danish Navy. Matthias

Dear fellow modellers, thank you all for your comments and likes. Over the last few days I have been working on the canopy above the stern gallery. It is an imposing vault, interrupted by four supporting ribs, which swings upwards from the window front of the main cabin almost like a domed vault in a church and then descends again on the inside of the transom arch to end there. All in all, a beautiful but, in my opinion, somewhat unusual construction that raises several questions. First question: How was the vault constructed? Second question: As it protrudes very far above the aft deck, how was the poop designed here? Third question: What might the ship's carpenters have been thinking when they were asked to build it? They probably rebelled at first. I'll start with a few photos of the original model to illustrate the problem: You can see here that in the model the vault shell has obviously been carved out of a block and fitted into place. You can also see in the last picture how far the vault protrudes above the poop deck. There are some historical models and drawings that show vaulted canopies over the stern gallery, but not to these dimensions. Here are two pictures of the stern model of a Swedish ship of the line from the first half of the 18th century: and the drawing of a French ship of the line, also from the first half of the 18th century: Both show the end of the poop deck above the window front and a construction of knees supporting the canopy and reaching up to the transom. This is exactly what this English ship of the line from 1735 looks like. Here you can already see a solution for a raised deck level above the canopy; I will end up with something similar. I decided not to make the canopy out of knees, support ribs and planks because of the complex shapes, but instead, as the construction will no longer be visible from above, I also chose to carve the vaults out of solid wood and insert them as a block. Let's start again with my paper templates to find the shape: then the wooden blocks were cut to size, the vaults worked out and fitted: Here you can see the centre vault: The inside is puttyled and sanded before painting so that the surface can be smoothed out nicely and the unavoidable dentswich appear, when carving out the curvatures can be levelled out. ...and finally everything is fitted to the model. ...then the transom could finally be fitted. Finally, here are some pictures of the result: Best regards, Matthias

Hello everyone, Let's continue with the construction of the upper side galleries. For this, 1 mm thick plywood was used as the starting material in order to achieve this rather curved shape. In hindsight, however, a thick veneer would have been better. Plywood is bulky, as the name suggests, and bending it, even when steamed, is not so easy because the glued plywood layer in the centre does not cooperate. I built a bending jig and glued the fronts together in two layers so that I can create the offset for the sliding windows. The upper cornice of the side gallery is made from a solid piece of wood. Then everything just had to be fitted into place. A kind of façade structure consisting of vertical and horizontal elements was then added to the gallery fronts to create a pilaster structure, as with the rear prospectus. The cornice was a challenge. This had to be steamed again in the cooking pot and bent over a mould, as the drawn boxwood profile strips do not easily accommodate a radius of 25 mm. The area above the centre window is again made of wood paste with the profile blade, as shown in the previous post about the transom front. Unfortunately, I made a cardinal error in the whole process, which I still have to correct: The window-bar-division of the arched window is wrong ... There should be a vertical-double-bar. So I'll have to go back to it, somehow get the bar-cross out cleanly and replace it. All in all, I also suspect that not all the windows were real, as you can see from the French baroque ships that a lot of them were just design, and that the actual glazed windows were only the smallest part of the window fronts. But since I don't know that for sure, I just left it glazed. This matter is not shown on the original model, as the model core there is solid wood overall. So far for now, happy building everyone and see you next time. Matthias

Hi Thorbjørn, nice Progress. I remember me planking my first frigate, the Winchelsea. Each plank took an eternity. But it gets better by the time. The trick is not to use force, but to prebend every plank with water and iron or hairdryer. than its a joy to see the hull coming together. Matthias

Thank you Chuck! To round off this article, I have now completed the medallion. The surrounding frieze with the double chain was printed on transparent paper and glued onto the medallion. The initials and the oval frame, as well as the foliage, were laser-cut from 1 mm thick plywood. The ends of the initials C are 0.4 mm thick. This is the thinnest that this technology can produce. At 0.3 mm, the part consists only of laser carbon and disintegrates. The parts for the medallion were then gold-plated and the foliage stained green and carefully glued into position. The transom is now ready for assembly, but will remain in the box for the time being until the quarter galleries are finished. Best regards Matthias

Dear fellow modellers, today I would like to continue the topic of the transom and its elements here. Here you can see a comparison of the drawing and the finished wax model. The dimensions are fairly accurate, although the design of the medallion in the centre of the transom is slightly different. The formation of the edges and the exact depiction of the medaillon content are more precise in the drawing than in the model. A closer look reveals the following: In the centre of the medallion are the mirrored initials of the Danish King Christian VI. A double chain runs around this monogram, representing the bearer chains of the Order of the Eledanten (outside) and the Order of the Dannebro (inside). The arrangement of the chains can be clearly seen on this epitaph: Incidentally, the Danish kings still wear these very chains today when making public appearances. And here is an example of the mirrored initalia of King Christian VI of Denmark and Norway (1699-1746). Incidentally, several Christians chose this exact arrangement, from Christian IV to IX. I have drawn this arrangement and brought it into the correct proportions for the model: The next step is to carve the medallion from boxwood: The coat of arms medallion will now first be integrated into the rear prospect and the adjacent baroque ornamental panelling added on. Due to the scale, I will print out the chains on transparent paper and glue them on, the surrounding frame ovals and the initials will be added later. The model now looks like this: However, I won't finally fit the component until the quartergalleries have been completed, te keep the accessibility for these works. Best regards, Matthias