Beckmann

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

Hello everybody, At the moment I am planning how to colour the interior of the lower deck cabin. I've looked through all my picture books and picked out a selection of interior shots. There are all sorts of things: Left natural: Or bright blue: Or the panelling and rear gallery inside in black: But also red: The more detailed pictures are from the Princess Royal, red bulkheads, inside of the stern gallery red, sides natural with red beams and black below the ports, red deck beams and knees: Is there any more information on this anywhere in the literature? I actually wanted to paint the lower cabin red, with a stern bench, rudder trunk and one or two rows of supports in red under the red deck beams. Then white in the upper cabin. Nothing has happened yet, here is the status of my work, I would be pleased to receive suggestions for the correct colour scheme. Best regards Matthias

Hello and thank you for your encouragement, In the meantime, I have made some progress on the lower section of the stern-gallery and added the cornices and surrounds for the parapet panels. The gallery windows have also been partially installed, but still without glazing. The basic structure is already quite recognisable. There is nothing new to report on the craftsmanship at the moment; it is essential to create the correct bending radii in advance so that each moulding finds its correct place in the arrangement. The foliage carvings will later be inserted into the black fields below the window gallery and the arcanthus fronds below the side gallery, but there is still some way to go until then, although my fingers are itching to get started. But first I'll continue with the interior of the model, the panelling of the lower cabin is laser-cut from 2 mm pear wood, the posts and transoms are placed along the markings. I originally wanted to leave it natural, but now I'm leaning towards painting everything brown-red, like the windows of the rear gallery. Best regards, Matthias Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Hello everybody, I'm slowly making progress with the building of the quarter galleries. First Im made myself a certain supply of mouldings. These mouldings have to be prebent. On a scale of 1:32, boxwood mouldings are quite stubborn. Cold bending and clamping them in place is not an option, nor is it any fun, as the slightest slippage disturbs the whole arrangement considerably. Heating with an iron doesn't work with mouldings either. After some try and error, I got stuck with the hot air gun. However, you have to work carefully with it, so that the moulding can be bent and remains in its curved shape, it has to be heated quite strongly, but the surface should not get brown. A moment too long will result in a charred surface. The model in the Nationalmuseet at Copenhagen has painted mouldings, but I prefer to leave them natural. Here you can see my somewhat primitive bending device. The bent moulding is then filed at the ends so that the ends match the profile. In the corner areas, however, the curves become so tight that bending no longer works. I used the scraper to round off the middle moulding, which was very tedious. In the protruding corner area of the lower gallery end, I cut a round disc with the circular hole saw, clamped it in the upright drill and inserted the scraper there while the machine was running. The long wood areas turned out well, the cross wood areas can be thrown away. But it only needs a 50-60° cut-out, so it worked. The lower "drop" of the side gallery was sanded freehand from a piece of pear wood. Now a few more photos from the state of construction The windows do not fit very well, I will make new ones, now, that the exact shape is fix. Best regards, Matthias

Hello everyone, Just a small note today, perhaps the information will be helpful for some of you. The fancy moldings of the TRE KRONER are an important element, so I have been looking around to see if it is possible to get an ornamental scraper wich is more precise than I can achieve by hand with a file and saw. After several inquiries, I ended up at the company MetallEhrnsberger in Teublitz/Germany, which also accepts such small private orders. I had to send them a CAD drawing of the desired profiles and of course select a material for the scraper, that was all I needed. I chosed 1 mm thick steel, the costs were €40 altogehter. I am very happy with the result. I couldn't have made the scraper that nice. The material thickness of 1 mm also makes it possible to sharpen the burr several times if it gets a bit round. I used boxwood as the material for the strips. I had sawn up a supply of it some time ago and left it to dry. Matthias

Hello Everybody, just a small update on the construction of the Quarter-Gallery. I started with the horizontal frames of the construction and added the lower front-panel. Having glued everything to the model, always checking the plans, I added the vertical parts and the seat of ease. The corner, where the Quarter-Gallery touches the stern gallery is not correct yet. I think now it must be round and not flat. I will overwork that next. It is hard to see this on the plans or on the contemporary model, because it is almost completely covered with the sculpture of the two-tailed merman. Matthias

Hi Chuck, that is good news, that produktion of Speedwell chapters will not be limited. I will take my time to finish my own 3/8" scale project and start with Speedwell later. Matthias

Hi Siggi, the original model is even shorter then mine. I made it a bit longer and added one gunport each deck to get a feeling for the size of the ship. This photo was taken in the museum, you can see how short it is. Matthias

Hello everyone, The planking work on the hull segment is now almost complete. All the visible planks have also been nailed and the black surfaces such as the whales and bulwarks have been painted. The template shows the position of the quartergallery and will later be used to precisely position the horizontal sections of the QG. The sets of drawings from the Danish National Archives are very accurately drawn. There are hardly any contradictions between the actual construction plans and the ornamental drawings. This is very helpful. Here are the prepared parts for the next construction stages The prospectus for the lower gallery windows follows next. It is moulded in advance with moisture and heat. The first structural elements of the quartergalleries now follow. The curved frame elements form the horizontal structure. On top there will be the fancy moldings. These are curved and also jump back and forth in several positions. That will be fun. The surfaces up to the windows are closed in line with the shape and are later subdivided into individual fields, which are filled with ornamental carvings. The overall composition is very much the French Baroque style and differs a lot from englisch ships of comparable size and age. Matthias

Thank you, yes I will try different ways to approach the carvings. At the moment I am cutting the blocks for the figures, my boxwood is a bit fresh, because I cut it only 4 weeks ago, I want to get it dry in time. Matthias

Hello Everybody, the last weeks I was busy, planking the model. Bending and twisting of planks with dimenson of 2/13 and 2/11 mm was more challenging than I thought ist would be. The curves in the lower areas of the model are very narrow. Here you can see some pictures of the progress. After this was done, I faired everything. The colours will be like other contemporary models from the Krigsmuseet in Copenhagen. Model of CHRSITIAN DEN SIETTE Model of FYEN I decided to nail the bright parts of the hull. After finishing this, I will paint the black areas of the hull an start building the stern and quartergalleries. I already made the drawings of most of the parts and tested them on the model and prepared the wood to be laser-cut. It ist all pear-wood I cut in a garden close to the place to our village. Matthias

Hello Greg, I know, that the carvings will be the real challenge in this. The rest of the model is just the stage for them. If the carvings don't come out compelling, the whole model won't be. Ther are two types of carvings, the flat ornament and the figures. I plan to work from bottom to top. So the first carvings will be the flat ornaments of the quartergallery and the transom. I will draw them digitally and get them laser cut in 3 mm boxwood. Then I carve them in detail by hand. Luckily, the plans and photos are detailled and in scale, so that will help a lot. After that, I plan to approach the 6 Watermen who carry the balcony. My CAD skills are more in 2D-construction. I don't have the software and the time to make digital 3D-figures. I will propably try different ways. The original model has them carved in wax. One could consider that. Carving wax is still in use for industrial design purpose. But these figures would be very fragile. Sculptors use 2K-modelling-clay, this is intersting, because you can form them easily, and carve this afterwards and add missing or broken areas. The third method is of couse carving them in wood. I made more simple wood carvings in the past. I carved animals and other figures for the toy farm of the kids, but this is much more challenging. I will propably try all methods and see, what happens. Matthias

Thank you , The framing is now finished and I sanded all the fillers and gunport-frames. After that the transom was planked and the opening for the rudder-head was made. The next steps involve planking the outside of the side walls. Before I start with this, the planking layout has to be precisely defined. In principle, I had already done this in the area of the front bulkhead, but I'll have to check again whether it still works in the stern area. Matthias

Hello everybody, the last week, I continued assemblying the bulkheads an gluing solid fillers into the lower-gundeck part. There will be a tiny "black box" behind the gunport. The fillers werd sanded in shape, so the planking should have a nice run. The more complicated parts will be of course the construction of the quarter-galleries and the stern gallery. I make the CAD-drawings and test them with paper-templates. So far, everything seems to be okay. But before getting parts to be laser-cut, I need to complete the framing and get the hull planked. Here you see the procedure of constructing the quarter-galleries. Matthias