Kurtis

I feel like I'm pretty much finished with the superstructure of the quarter galleries. They're pretty much ready for the decorating now which I'll possibly tackle down the line. I've decided to try and push with the top-side hardware; the oven chimney, the pins, the access stairways, and other little things. Aye, I've done this. I decided to go with the version where they cut through the rails about mid-way as it feels like the right version.

Yeah, they're all of the same ship. I've noticed other slight indescrepencies betweem them like the positioning and placement of the fencelines. I put it down to the era represenation as well as I figure the sillouhette of the ship will have changed a lot with the Bellona cos she had quite a long service. I wondered about the ports specifically though cos I figured they'd be permanent. With the original "model kit" blueprint I was looking at, as well as the museum piece, they cut through the rail about half-way. On the Belona - Anatomy of the Ships, page 55, the gun-port is cut all the way through the rail. I might have got the idea of the mid-way port from the "Historic Ship Models" book or some side research. I kind of am doing a generic 74, but I'd also like to get/keep it reasonably close to the Bellona class.

I've done some more work on the stern, mostly the decorative elements. The gun stern-chasers feel so weird to me, cos the placement of them seems to differ everywhere. On one set of prints, they're in the middle. In the museum that Mark iirc posted has them cut through the base rail,and another print again has them somewhere else completely. I just find that a bit odd 😅 I still need to work on the "drop" piece and finish the bulkhead (sp?) for the captains cabin, basically enclosing it from the elements.

I've had another good go at the quarter galleries. Most of the framing seems to be in there, I've managed to get the rims in place and most of the windows. I still need to work on the balcony and pretty much the rest of the captains cabin, but the superstructure seems to be coming along. The shape seems mildly off in places but like the bow, things seem to be slotting together like a jigsaw puzzle on the whole.

I've had a go at rebuilding the bow section pretty much from scratch. I've moved the forecaste/bow wall forward and readjusted the placement of some of the fixings. Things feel a bit better now, with the only real exception to the vertical rails underneath the bow gratings. When I finished with the railings, they turned into more of an S shape than the C shape that's typical of most builds I've noticed. Getting them to match the prints and references were extremely difficult. Everything else seems to slot in place.

No images yet, but I've managed to source a copy of the Anatomy of the Ship Bellona!! 😁😁😁 I have the Historic Ship Models coming too, so will review those before undertaking any more major work on the ship and take it from there.

Like I say, I'll try and get the Anatomy of the Ship Bellona as soon as I can to try and help. I'm just on a super tight budget at the minute which is another barrier with this project. I have to work with what I have. I know there are inaccuracies with the model but I don't think it's come out too bad so far this time around (I say this now, my first post still makes me wince 😲)

Drawings would be a great help, certainly! Any help with those rails would be much appreciated. I can't spend any more money on physical books right now but I do think I have a copy of the Anatomy of the Ships loitering around somewhere. I'll give it another look over. I'll put the Anatomy of the Ship Bellona on a priority wish-list so I can get a copy of it as soon as I can because I feel like you're right; it would be a significant help with this project. May be a few weeks! I've also placed your other suggestions onto a list. I'll buy them as and when I can going into the next month or so. I'll take it steady and work on other areas that are less thought-intensive in the meantime. I'm trying to develop the quarter galleries at the minute which are giving me a different set of headaches so I might just work on the small stuff on the decks like the bellfry, stairs, chimney, even the cannon.

hi Gary; Those prints are indeed fantastic! Do you know where I would go to get them in full for myself (whether it's digital or physical?) References like those would save many a head-ache and guesses! The ones I've relied on tend to be model ship prints that you find with kits or models already built so the detail isn't there so much. I'll have a closer look at the bow and will likely rebuild the rails with these references you've given me because they do make a little more sense. I'm still trying to work out where exactly you've put all the measurements but I may put the question to you in the future. @mtaylor Cheers for the heads up. I've found a copy with the ISBN 978-0806957333. I've got one on order so will likely receive it next week.

hi Gary, No stubbed toes here! I've put some steel-toe caps on 😆 Thank you very much for taking the time to post your feedback. I love receiving it and do wish to try and implement as much as I can. I do feel that there's a bit of a language barrier here; I'm not a ship-builder/modeller by trade so much of the jargon and technicalities does go over my head which is frustrating. This is the first full ship project I've ever tried to undertake (third attempt) so I'm still learning the jargon and speel as well as the actual ship-building process itself. Please forgive my layman speech; from what I can understand about your message, are you refering specifically to the center piece that runs through the entire ship to the rudder? One of the posts earlier in the thread made a point that it should taper down and I've done that with this but the camera angle would make it less noticable? From what I understand, you're basically saying it's too thick (so I've adjusted accordingly.) The width of this piece I tried to follow blueprints with but the print would not show any tapering from the top view so had to be added after advice. Of course you mention the figurehead, so I figure you may mean it tapers going forward too? Would the "knee head" be referring to the bow "balcony" where the crew did their business? The placement of the (mid) rails were certainlty a cause for some confusion. I couldn't qutie work out how they were supposed to intersect with the rails going the opposite way, so I plan to take another look at them but I want to find some more good close references / plans / descriptions for them. The "gripe" is a completely new term to me. I can't find any reference to it in a dictionary. Looking at the above adjustments, I feel like it makes more sense with taking into account what you've said and how I've understood it. If it helps, I might be able to post an image with some numbers at key positions on the ship so that we can at least point to the same thing with future posts?

I have tried to spend more time on the bow and getting the final railings in there plus the anchor line holes. Seems I've buggered up the corner of the circular pillars there a bit. Not much I can do about it really except destroy everything at the front and start that bit again (the prints really were confusing me there) but I feel it's a fairly minor area to keep mindful of if/when I tackle another build. It's easily hidden by the railings anyway. The above said, I'm generally very happy with current progress. I feel it's pretty much time to have another go with the stern. May I ask? The fencelines along the length of the ship including the forecastle. Most references seem to have them in black/dark blue which leads me to think they were metallic. Given the nature that early forecastles were built for, it would make a bit of sense to have them this way. Would I be right in thinking that logically, having metal fences would just add a ton of weight to the ship and that they were just simply painted in a dark colour?

Alright, I've had a go at developing the bow section again (been dreading this a little so I figured I'd try it.) Doesn't seem to be coming out too bad at the moment. I've added the cat-ears, the start of the bow rails, some gratings, and will finish up the remainder soon. I've had another look at these and the references and made more adjustments to what's already there (mostly sizes and positions of things), so will probably post them on a next update. Wanted to say thanks to @harlequin with their thread of the same ship. Some of the photographs especially have helped me solve some problems that the references and prints I currently have haven't helped much with. "Wood panels" look a bit washed out on the bottom pictures cos I haven't textured them yet. I've also switched off the smoothing for performance reasons so some of them look a bit jagged.

Thank you. I did do a Google search and have come across some good references but it can be difficult to distinguish between era and rank. I was thinking more along the lines of books or the like that you or someone else might know about? I will heed your advice and ask in the dedicated forum when I'm closer to that task. Aye, I would definitely say Blender is art over architecture. I love the software but it's definitely not meant for technical CAD drawings! 😆I'm happy to hear you find it impressive, it helps give me the inspiration to continue working on it. Some more minor work; I've just completed the fencing on the forecastle, poop deck and quarterdeck. I didn't realise there was a step onto the midway planking (sp?) between the said forecastle and quarterdeck. Threw my progress in that area into a bit of a loop but I seem to have overcome the problem.

Yeah, you're right. It just puts some of the earlier posts, especially Mark's, in a new perspective. I may have come across a bit boastful at the time that's why I was apologising. I let pride get in the way of some good criticisms. Still, live and learn! I do have a question actually; do you know where I can find information about the uniform the officers (and even seamen) wore around this time? The reason I ask is because I want to start modelling humans very soon and it would be nice to get some characters on the decks. Paintings help to an extent but I'd like a breakdown of the differences between the captain, his leiutenants, and the midshipmen if possible and I'm looking to make them reasonably accurate. Pictures (with descriptions) broken down into individual garments would be a massive help!

Lately I've been quite busy sorting out personal problems and projects, but I've managed to give this a little attention. Due to record a vlog for it fairly soon. I gotta say, looking at the original post and this one, I'm a bit embarrased. The more I pick up, the more painful the original project is to look at! I'm sorry. 😨

Some general progress. Mostly working on the main exterior features at the minute (wale and lines, wall panels, etc.)

Alright, here's attempt three! I've spent the last of week or so putting this together and trying to get the shape of the hull as correct as possible. much happier with the back (sp rear tansom?) than I have been with previous models. Happier with gun-ports, decking and walls. I've started a video based build log if anyone is interested (admittedly, I'm not too sure how often I'll update it.) You can find it here.

hi Tommy; Thanks for the interest! The project is still on hold at the moment whilst I sort other things in my life out. Your messsage has come at a convenient time in a way cos I was hoping to resume in the next week or so. I understand the problem with a lack of tutorials For me, the issue is more about the individual parts, how they're supposed to look and function. On ships like these, there are tons of them! I'm hoping when I get underway again that I can post here and ask questions (hopefully not to the extent that the community gets annoyed 🥴) I'd be interested in seeing your work if you're willing to post them. We can share tips that way as well if you're so inclined!

Do you mean the figureheads behind the main shield at the front? I would say that Fusion is probably not the best package for creating these simply because (I believe) it's more for mechanical objects/architecture/CAD. Creating statues or characters like this would be much better done in Blender. If you're interested in trying to sculpt them, many say Zbrush is actually better. You can use Blender then to retopologise and lower the poly-count. Looking at the Quarter Galleries of HMS Victory, I would say it's a simpleish model to recreate. The hardest part would perhaps be the hair with the detail (I would do it as a seperate object most likely,) but you should be able to just trace the torso and limbs, and then push the vertices out to create a 3D shape you can attach to whatever project you're doing. The key thing to ask yourself with this is how much detail you actually want; if you want tons of detail, you'll need more vertices and that can lead to more frustration unless you're extremely confident and competent. If you get stuck with something particular though, give me a shout and I'll see if I can help!

hi Kevin; Yeah, I'm doing it all in Blender. It's my favorite program these days! It's difficult to point you towards beginner tutorials cos it depends largely on what you want to do with Blender. There's a lot of of bad-practices being taught with some of the more popular Blender teachers as well. The BlenderGuru is a good example; he's very good at bringing in new people (his donut tutorials for example are prolific) and he regularly posts free tutorials, but I wouldn't take everything he says as gospel. I was thinking of creating a course on Udemy showing how to recreate a ship like the one I'm building now. I wonder how well received it would be because it's not a beginner-friendly topic persé, but it would teach you many, many different aspects of Blender. As far as being dimensionally accurate goes, Blender is not really a tool for creating super-accurate blueprint-like recreations; it's certainly possible (and I'm trying with this ship this time around) but the tools for measuring and precision are not as refined as you would expect in some other packages dedicated to that purpose, like Fusion. Blender is built more for creating models for still (artistic) images and animations which is pretty much my own end-goal. That all said, what kind of model figures are you thinking of creating?

I have decided to try and give my ship a second go around this time by starting again afresh. I've only just started it but I feel like I've made some good progress on it already. I wasn't sure whether to post it in this thread or start a new one.

Thank you! This project is on hold at the moment as I have other higher priority projects but I do admit I've learned tons about both 3D modelling and ship-building so I'm wondering whether it's worth trying to finish what I was doing with this or let it draw to a conclusion and start again afresh (with many new ideas, tricks, tips and thoughts for a better workflow, plus some of the feedback on this very thread.) Either way, I can't do much more work on it because my computer can't keep up. Hoping to try and get new equipment soon. I am thinking of adding the sails to this model though at least cos I have the masts and yardams in place and it would help with the next model understanding how it all comes together. I have the reading material to assist with that available to me.

Cheers MTaylor; Yeah, the blueprint is still the Bellona, British I believe. Are the beams behind the pin rack support structure? From what I can make out it seems that it is, but there's a lot of parts there and the information sheet is very vague , I asked specifiically about the pin rack cos it looked detached from the walls and roof. As for the ship itself, a couple of new renders: I've switched out the color from the bright yellows to a more overall mute white (similar to Victory here). Seems to look a bit better in this case but I'm gonna also try for some better yellow for the quarter galleries and the lining at the front. I've also simplified the quarter galleries, I think it looks better as well rather than having all those painted pillars on it. There's a lot of behind the scenes rigging with this, would anyone here be interested in knowing more about that? The gun-ports can all be controlled, and the cannons (when enabled) can be adjusted to a run-out or 'ready' position. Each port also has a little peeper window, though I don't think I've ever seen then before! I only realised they existed when I looked at real ships very close. When I've finished this plus a handful of other projects and have some finances coming in, I'm gonna try again on a second ship I think. I'm not sure if it'll be another 74 (this has been good practice by all accounts!), but I might have a go at something. I've learned a lot about ships and ship-building just from this project alone so the next one should look a lot more correct to your guys eyes - at least it should have less of the shaping and other minor problems. It'd have to be a side project though, something to work on as and when, but it would mean I can try and follow 'realistic' stuff a lot more. I'm also thinking of visiting HMS Victory post Covid and taking photos and drawings (if they'll let me!)

I know interest has dwained a little on this forum, but I have a question. Can someone explain to me what the part below circled is? I can't work out if it's supposed to be part of the ships rigging, or if it's just a support for the roof (as a model)? I'm fairly certain all the other beams are just support cos you're not supposed to see them (being part "107" is supposed to sit on top)

I've spent a bit more time on the quarter galleries; arched out the end windows as they seemed quite common, tweaked out the shape a bit, and started added some decorative elements to it.