GrandpaPhil

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!

Very nice!

Indeed! I couldn’t pass this one up once I had seen it! I am a great fan of classic steampunk and that definitely played a major role in deciding to build Magenta.

I priced out the costs of getting the plans printed out, today. I am looking at getting them printed in 1/72 scale next weekend so I can start filling them in and plan out how I am going to build this.

Please and thank you very much! I am going to arm her as built. Which, I think also means I’m going to rig her as a barquentine. When built, she packed 16 x single 194mm (7.6 In.) smoothbore muzzle loading guns, 34 x single 164.7mm (6.5 In.) rifled muzzle loading (RML) guns and 2 x 225mm (8.9 In.) RML howitzers.

I have learned a lot and get a lot of inspiration from this forum. My last two builds came from here. Neither would have happened if I hadn’t been here. However this build turns out, it will be a lot of fun!

The plans that I am basing my build off of are from the French Ministry of Defense, and their equivalent of the Navy's Historical Office. They can be found from links from Wikipedia's Solferino page at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ironclad_Solférino They are builder's plans of the Solferino, which is nearly identical to the Magenta. The only difference I can find from looking at old photographs is the lack of the eagle on the bow of the Magenta. Firstly, we have the lines and the outboard profile: Please take note that the top body plan only goes to the outside of the frames. In order to draw out my bulkheads, I will need to make allowances for the thickness of the armor and the planking. When I calculated out the required thickness, the planking and armor came out to about 1/8" thick at 1/72 scale, so I'll have to make adjustments accordingly. This will be very dependent on what I finally decide to make the model out of. Next, we have the cross section, including armor thickness and the inboard profile: Next, we have the main deck, including platforms, and the upper gundeck: Please take note of the stern gallery walkway. Next up, we have the lower gundeck and the rest of the lower decks: Next up, we have the rigging and sail plan: This is a very basic drawing of a barque rig. Originally the Magenta-Classes had a barquentine rig. I still have not decided which rig I am going to use. Lastly, we have a detail of the armor plating: The armor band only covered the waterline and the gun decks around the gunports. According to the model in the Musee de la Marine, the bottom was coppered. According to the Wikipedia article (I know Wikipedia is not the most reliable reference, but it will work for this), the Magenta's carried 50 guns of various calibers initially. I would like to build the initial version of the ship for this model. I am looking forward to making the armaments for this model. The most I have made are 18 cannon at one time. I will carve the barrels from dowel rods like I have done in the past for my other models. But these are much newer guns than the last ones that I made, so I will figure out the detailing when I get there. I have the Osprey European Ironclads book coming (should be delivered next week) and I have Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905 saved. My end goal is to get a model that looks approximately like the one of the Solferino in the Musee de la Marine. This will be a more ambitious undertaking than the Prince de Neufchatel and the Hannah, but I believe it to be well within my abilities. These are actually better plans than I built the Prince de Neufchatel from, and I am very pleased with how that turned out. We will see how this turns out.