GrandpaPhil

It’s time to start Magenta. I am now ready to build my Solferino kit (as an accessory to this build) for reference regarding deck furniture and visible weaponry. I will combine that with the photos of the model in Paris to fill in the gaps in the builders plans. The first part of this process (after building the hull of Solferino) is going to involve relocating my shop to have a work space with a table big enough to lay out the plans. I promised my Admiral that she could have my old work space for a reading room that I would set up for her. Out of curiosity, does anyone else take vacation (read holiday for the British) time to work on their models?

I’m getting frustrated with this build again. I am going to step away for a bit and work on my Magenta for a while. But, I’ll be back shortly. I’ve spent too much time and money to ever abandon Victory. I just need a break.

This is an accessory build to my Magenta in the scratch build section. Solferino was a Magenta-Class Ironclad Broadside Battleship. I am using this model primarily for research purposes, regarding locations and dimensions of deck fittings. I have the builders plans for the Magenta (Solferino) already printed out in 1/72 scale, but those have very little in the way of deck furniture and nothing regarding weaponry. I am going to use this model, combined with the excellent photos that a forum member very generously sent me of the model in the Paris Maritime Museum, to fill in those gaps. Secondarily, this will make a nice desktop model for my office. The kit is an Orel Card Kit: It will eventually look like this: I have never built a card ship kit, but I have built two card ships from scratch following Ab Hoving’s most excellent Tutorial on building in card from scratch. If you haven’t read that tutorial, I strongly recommend it. It is what started me down the road to scratch building. This build will be interesting. I am looking forward to starting this model.

The Orel kit of the Solferino looks very nice, and very detailed, especially considering the scale. I got mine off Amazon, and it got slightly roughed up in transit, but nothing major. It came in a bound magazine style booklet. There is a laser-cut set, a sail set and a dowel set that you can buy as an option. The construction appears to be a modified version of plank on bulkhead: The hull covering is similar to the method used by Ab Hoving in his tutorial, with vertical planking pieces, attaching directly to the frame. There is a nice description of the ship in the beginning of the booklet, but it is in Russian (at least I think it is Russian), which I do not know. The instructions are pretty good. They come in Russian (I think), English and German. The diagrams are very useful and detailed, but scattered throughout the booklet. The parts are printed on good quality paper. Most are printed on normal paper, with the intent to layer them on card, some are printed on cardstock and ready for use. On the whole, I am impressed with the quality of the kit. Orel makes a large line of steamers, including the Great Western and multiple Pre-Dreadnoughts. One of the things that I like about their kits is that they can be built full-hull (I do not particularly like waterline models). One thing I do not like is the scale of this particular kit. However, even considering the scale, I am impressed with the level of detail in this kit. Also, for the larger warships in this series, 1/200 is perfect.

I agree! They are coming along nicely! Well done!

Very nice!

Excellent point. I’m not sure. I will try it on another set and we will see. The first side is ready for netting, unfortunately it isn’t the side, I cut it for, lol. Otherwise, making progress slowly but surely.

Thank you all very much for the likes and just for stopping by! I’ve been rigging the hammock cranes. I’m running the lower two lines first, along the inside of the hammock cranes, and then I’ll put the netting over it, on the inside. I’ll be securing the top line to the netting and securing the netting to the ends of the hammock cranes. It’s really slow going. I keep breaking the hammock cranes from the top of the bulwarks. It’s drying again. I’m going to make hammocks when I get all of the hammock cranes in place and rigged. The last time I tried doing hammock cranes was on a Revell 1/96 Constitution, 25 years ago. It didn’t end well back then. This is probably what made me dread these so badly.

Amazing work!

Yes, the Magentas had a dedicated ram in the bow. That actually created one of the challenges with building this particular model, deciding where to start the ram piece since it is integrated with the hull. My intent is to end the center keel plate at the front bulkhead and carve the bow, integrating the ram into that piece, after planking. This also brings me to my other decision regarding this model, it will be mostly wood, in plank on bulkhead. I have never scratch built a wood ship model before and the Magenta would be a good one to try with, because there is nothing overly difficult about the galleries or structure of the ship. Also, the keel is almost exactly 1/4” thick, which begs for the use of 1/4” plywood, which only costs $44 for a 4’ by 8’ sheet of the high grade birch at Lowes. I accidentally printed a second copy of the plan with the lines, in tile format (the above picture was taken from that), so that will be used as a cut apart plan for the keel plate.

I have everything I need to start on my next build, the French Ironclad Magenta, and also the French Ironclad Solferino. However, I want to finish Victory before I begin construction on Magenta. To that effect, I have my first piece of test netting ready to install.

It’s been a busy day for Magenta. I got my Solferino kit. I need to put the hull together to use as a reference for the deck furniture and fittings. I learned how to use The Gimp today. I imported my plans into it and resized them to 1/72 scale and exported them as pdf’s in the size I need. I printed my plans at Staples for a very reasonable price and they came out perfectly! I now realize how big of a model this is going to be. This will be AWESOME! The next step is to reconcile the builders plans with the pictures @wefalck sent me of the model in Paris, and turn them into model plans. I learned drafting in college a long time ago. It is time to put that to use. During this time I also need to decide what I’m making Magenta out of, card or wood. I still haven’t decided.

Thank you all very much for the comments and the likes! It is very interesting. It definitely started a lot of trends. A lot of the major powers in Europe seemed to duplicate what the others had. If you look at the Italian ironclads from Lissa, the bows were remarkably similar to the Magenta. Yes, I agree about the US not having to spend the money on the transition ironclads. The US did save a lot of money that way. They missed losing several entire fleets the way the European powers did.

Personally, I would get the Vanguard Alert kit out of that list. A cutter is a great first build. Also, @chris watton, the gentleman who designed the kit and manufactures it, is on this forum, and can answer questions. His stuff is top notch.

Nicely done!

Congratulations! Well done!

Congratulations! Well done!

Sorry for your loss. My condolences. For the thread, I bought a block of beeswax at a hardware store. I run all of my rigging thread through it. It works wonders. It prevents fraying and makes it much easier to handle.

Looking forward to seeing this build!

Very nice!

Congratulations! Well done!

Very nice!

Thank you all very much for the comments, the likes and just for stopping by! I got my copy of European Ironclads today!

Thank you very much for the information and the photos! I’m planning on going for a well-used, realistic look. Yes, Haze Gray’s Charles Martel is incredible. One of these days I want to learn how to use a 3D printer. Truth be told, my weakness is my lack of knowledge of 3D sculpting on a computer. I definitely agree about Jules Verne. I have learned a lot in the past couple weeks about the transition era warships. They are very neat. I’ll see how this one goes, but I’ll probably build at least one more model from this time period. The French Navy’s Historical Office has the plans for a bunch of different ships posted.

Thank you very much! I went to the craft store and hardware store today and bought myself paint, sealant, beige tulle and more wire. Time to make some hammock netting!