Beckmann

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

Hi Keith, there are some examples of sliding windows, like Victory and Trincomalee. See the pictures below. Also a drawing from Blaise Olivier. It was obviously not unusual to install these windows on ships. Matthias

Dear fellow modellers, Work continues with the window front of the great cabin. The curved profile was finished with wood filler and profiled. Here you can see the moulded cornice, I finally went over it again with some paint filler to make the surface fine enough. And here is the result. After the two halves of the window front had been joined together, I installed the part on the model. One thing that still concerns me is the opening of the windows. The lower sashes were apparently always openable. The original model in the Krigsmuseet indicates this by a slight offset of the lower sashes, which can also be seen in the plans. Now the big question: Folding or sliding? The only references I found were a picture of the French liner le Soleil Royal, where details of the superstructure are shown, here the windows are hinged, and a photo from 1944 of the HMS Implacable, which is originally French, here you can also see the hooks on the ceiling, where the hinged windows were hooked on. However, the two situations are not entirely comparable, as the windows of the TRE KRONER are organised differently and each consist of an upper fixed glazing and a lower opening sash. This is the classic sliding window division. Does anyone here know any more details? Best regards, Matthias

Dear fellow modellers, First of all, I would like to wish you a healthy new year and lots of exciting projects. I would like to start my contribution with a book recommendation. The history of shipbuilding is usually told from the perspective of the technical development of sailing ships, with artistic aspects playing a more marginal role. In my opinion, the book ‘Das barocke Schiffsheck als Architekturprospekt’ by Jan Piper from 2017 has provided a nice addition here. It deals with the causes and developments of ship decorations in the French Baroque of the 17th and 18th centuries, which became style-defining in Europe, just as French art, building culture and language were formative throughout Europe during this period. The book digs quite deep here and is richly illustrated. It is interesting for my project in that the ship of the line TRE KRONER was built by a Frenchman - Laurent Barbé as shipbuilder and the sculptor - Just Wiedewelt had previously spent 10 years in Paris learning at the court of the French kings. I was a little worried at times that my interior was exaggerated, but what is shown here goes far beyond that. The following photos show models for interior decorations of French ships of the line from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. So I continue as I started. Progress over the Christmas holidays was limited, as there was a lot going on, but I can still show a little here. The side panelling of the captain's cabin is finished and the stern is currently being worked on. There is also a nice drawing for the stern front in the book mentioned above, which I am using as a guide: The component is made up of two halves. I have already shown the inner part above, the outer part is painted red and presents the challenge of flat, curved profiles. I wasn't able to bend them flat in the required radii, so I resorted to drawing them in a stucco style. The outer radius is still made in wood and serves as a gauge, the curved profile is then applied in several passes of wood putty. I still have to make 2-3 more passes, then it should be precise enough. I suspect that the artists of the time worked in a very similar way. The decorations were made from modelling wax, so they must have done it in a similar way. Best regards, Matthias

Hi Igor,. great work on these decorations!! Incredible design of J. Berain. So much fine art in a warship. These decorations must have been more expensive than the whole rest of the ship. Matthias

Hello everyone, Thank you for your encouragement, the work is continuing with the interior work on the upper deck, where the paneling of the “Store Kajüt” (great cabin) described above is now in progress. This also involved some initial carving work. I have now decided to build more or less on the original 18th century interior of the Amphion in Stockholm. I started with the carved garland below the deck beams: I laser-cut the rather filigree part with supports and screwed it to the table, then the tools can be used freely with both hands. Then the flat columns as a structuring element, here of course the capitals as the first major hurdle. and here they are put together You could also leave the result in wood, which might have been more discreet and more appropriate for a warship, but I went for a pot of gold paint... Best regards, Matthias

Thank you Ken, Colonial Williamsburg ist really a nice reference, I didn't know about this place before. Matthias

Hi TJM, Very interesting research, indeed. I have to keep that in mind, in case I build cannons for my TRE KRONER model. Will you dress Ltn. Hornblower in a danish uniform? Matthias

...and here another drawing from Thomas Phillips from the RMG-Homepage. The captains cabin looks very well equipped. Matthias

Yesterday I found this contemporary drawing from Thomas Phillips, dating 1701. All the cabins show elaborate interior. Even my petrol colour can be found in the lower cabin and some pictures of maritime subjects. Matthias

Hello everyone, There is some minor progress to report on the model and some planning considerations on how to proceed, where perhaps this or that person has an additional idea? The deck above the already completed lower cabin of the battery deck has been laid and some thoughts on the further planning of the side galleries have been sketched. It's slowly getting cozy down there... I looked for references for the further development of the captain's cabin and unfortunately didn't find much. There is a contemporary painting of an English captain on board the HMS Nottingham (60 guns) from 1742, the year the TRE KRONER was built, painted by William Hogarth: Here you can see that the wall paneling is quite elaborately decorated. Fluted flat columns and gilded carved capitals can be seen in the background. Between the stern windows, you can see the surrounding molded panels that also divide the rows of windows on the outside of the TRE KRONER. In my opinion, the cabin was relatively elaborate and of high quality, whereas later examples are rather simpler. The cost of ship decorations was continually reduced throughout the 18th century, this applies to the exterior decoration and presumably also to the interior. There is a detailed section through the Danish ship of the line Sophie-Magdalena from 1727, where a similar decoration is shown: In Stockholm there is also the original paneling of the Amphion from 1778, a little too young and perhaps already influenced by classicism, but the elements are similar. I made a drawing and put the Danish King Christian VI on the wall, what do you think? Best regards, Matthias

Hello everyone, There is some progress to report. Over the past few days, I've been working on the large arch, which is crucial for the design of the TRE KRONER's transom. As the component is a triple-curved arch with a curvature that should follow the stern and is also inclined, it was a little difficult to achieve the exact fit here. I cut out the arch from a pear wood plank with an allowance according to the drawing and then worked on it until the shape was right, at least to the eye. The final assembly will take some time, but it was important for me to have an idea of how the stern design will develop towards the top. The rear arch will later be accentuated with fancy moldings in different colours before I finally attach it to the model. Until then, I continued with the completion of the lower quarter galleries. The framework has been in place for some time, but I still had to fit the windows and moldings. As always, I worked with paper templates to find the right shapes in the three-dimensional space, as these are not immediately recognisable from the drawing. These were then laser-cut out of boxwood. The perforated mouldings are the bases for the balcony railings, where the balustrades will later be placed. The windows are placed on stop mouldings from the outside, the glazing is cut from Ferrero Rocher tins. To ensure that the shape of the windows follows the curve of the side gallery better, they were heated and bent by hand. This works quite well if you make sure that the grain is on edge. Then the upper mouldings had to be fitted and the window joints covered. Here are a few more pictures of the current status of the work: Once the other side gallery has been completed, the deck panelling above the main deck will be installed. Best regards, Matthias

Hi TJM, thank you very much for your explanations. I did not know, that there exists a list of ship names. I used to spend hours, looking througt the online-archive in search of special plans. This list is of great value if you are looking for something, it contains also ships of similar construction. Thanks a lot for that. Matthias

Hi TJM, I just came across your build log of the Frigate Christiania and this topic about the CAD-plans on the basis of the riksarchiv. I am myself very interested in the danish navy and have a build log myself about building the stern-section of the orlogskib TRE KRONER from 1742. Maybe we can get in contact about how to use the riksarchiv best, I have the problem of not understanding danish language very well, but my method of working with the plans is similar to your method. Matthias

Hi Igor, Can you make CNC carvings yourself? And did you try it with the ornaments of L’Ambitieux or Dauphin Royale? Matthias

Good morning Igor, that looks fantastic!! How can you transform these drawings now into a real model? Can you use them for Cnc carving? Matthias

Dear colleagues, thanks for the likes and comments, As a short addendum to my previous post, here are three more pictures of the now completed ‘underste Kajyt’, best regards, Matthias

Hi Tartane, Thank you for your message, I hope to begin with the carvings in 3-4 months. Matthias

Hello everyone, After the summer break, I have returned to the TRE KRONER. The model continues to develop from bottom to top, so the interior of the ‘Underste Kajyt’ is currently being worked on, as well as the continuation of the transom from the outside. Here we start with the cantilevered balcony, which was glued into shape from two layers of pear wood and butt-jointed to the model: The cornices that form the end here are again partially curved. I experimented a little and steamed the rather stiff boxwood mouldings (7/10 mm) in the cooking pot and shaped them. This works quite well for continuous curves, from which the segments for the side pockets are cut, the attempt for the balcony railing went wrong, I then discarded that and chose another way: In principle, this consists of building a jig in which the moulding is fixed and the profile is profiled to its final shape. The advantage is that there is no need for hot forming or the use of force if it doesn't quite fit and the profile follows the mould neatly. The disadvantage, of course, is that the curved ends always run slightly against the fibre, which makes the profiling process somewhat laborious. Here are the first cornices fitted to the model, the accuracy of fit is quite good: Finally, I continued working on the interior. I've had some feedback that my choice of colours is not authentic and that the colour scheme is definitely too strong. However, I have somehow fallen in love with this petrol shade and find it quite suitable. The bold interior colours are also not completely untypical for the Baroque period; you can find something similar in residential buildings. The colour restraint only really became predominant again in Classicism with the imitation of the ideal material marble. Anyway, I stuck with my colour and painted the stern bench, rudder head box and panels the same colour. Best regards, Matthias

Thanks Chuck, One day I would like to add the medway longboat to this collection. Will there be the chance of getting a kit of the longboat in future? Matthias

Hello everybody, in the summer, unfortunately, nothing is really going on in the workshop, but a little bit has happened with the displaycase. I've changed the arrangement of the models a bit and today they were given a trial run. Matthias

Very impressive and perfectly executed. Congratulation. Are you going to make a display case for the model? It will be huge. Matthias

Hello everyone, and thank you for your interest and comments. Not much has happened since my last post, but I have decided on a color to be used for the paneling of the “underste Kajyt”. Siggi had suggested a turquoise color, which is common for the rococo-style. In addition to all sorts of other suggestions such as grey, natural or red, I somehow stuck with it. Not because it was historically vouched for my model, but because it is something different from the usual red and white, and spreads a Northern European-Scandinavian cool atmosphere, which I like for my model, it is not English, so red would have been a good choice. It may still be a little intense, but I'll leave it that way for now: In the Danish National Archives, under the archive number A 1175d, there is a layout of the stern cabins of the Orlog ship ELEPHANTEN (same size, same designer and same year of construction as the TRE KRONER) and under the archive number A 975 an elaborately drawn longitudinal section of a Danish ship oft he line, which also shows the paneling of the “underste Kajyt” and the “Storre Kajyt” (great cabin). The “Storre Kajyt” has fluted flat columns with Corinthian capitals. I am basing my model on both drawings, i.e. there will be no partitions in the areas of my stern section and the paneling in the upper cabin will be correspondingly more elaborate. Further clues are provided by a contemporary cutaway model from the Krigsmuseet, where the rudder trunk, the stern bench and a bookshelf are beautifully depicted, and the preserved interior of the Swedish royal yacht AMPHION in the Sjohistoriska Museet in Stockholm. It doesn't have to be quite so magnificent, but the columns and the paneling are comparable to the sectional drawing A 975 (see above) I visited and photographed the Amphion myself, it is extremely impressive. Best regards, Matthias