74-gun ship by Gaetan Bordeleau - 1:24

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

1 hour ago, druxey said:

Continuing impressiveness....

 

The reason, little ''Go Pro'' style, picture and video camera: YI 4K.

I had previously tried in previous builds other mini cameras but they were only HD.

This one with 4K and a wide angle lens does a much better job and sharpness is much better.

As a comparison, here is 1 taken with in HD, same place for the last completed 74.

[md1400cs]

Gaëtan,

 

Beyond stunning - 

PS: Your work studio is also, obviously, a  superb space 

 

Regards,

[mtaylor]

This is a feast for eyes, Gaetan.  Both the work and photography are stunning.

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Final step for the lowest level of this model ship: adding the aging look with tung oil

[Sailor1234567890]

I wonder how those ladder rungs would have been in the shot locker. One would think they simply tossed the balls in but I suspect they were placed for the first while at least. Eventually, they'd be throwing them in I suspect. Especially if they were in a hurry. They'd have to be careful not to break the ladder rungs with an ill placed ball..... Beautiful work. I love watching this build progress. 

[RichardG]

Gaetan,

 

I'm still not 100% convinced that this isn't actually a full-sized ship and you just have some really big clamps.

 

Wonderful work! 

 

And thank you also for taking the time to provide excellent photographs so we can really see your model.

 

I always look forward to seeing your posts.

 

All the best,

Richard

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

10 hours ago, Sailor1234567890 said:

I wonder how those ladder rungs would have been in the shot locker.

Sailor It is a good question. But let me ask you another one: how would they get out the cannon balls in a 20 feet deep narrow hole, knowing that the only entrance is on the top?

I guess it is a strange place to store cannon balls, but I think that this way it dod not interfere with ballasts, the weight being concentrated in the middle.

 

Richard, photography is a fascinating world with often results not expected; sometimes you are lucky, sometimes it is ordinary and sometimes the photo is good for the garbage and I still put photos in this spot and sometimes some are enough interesting to share.

Edited September 26, 2019 by Gaetan Bordeleau

[Sailor1234567890]

I agree, there needs to be a way to get them out. I'm just wondering if the rungs were not perhaps more beefy than what a typical ladder might be? Or perhaps they are recessed into the side? The plans don't seem to show that, they show rungs as you have them but I suspect they would be subject to damage from falling shot as it were if they were not beefy enough. And maybe they are beefy enough. Would 32 lb balls dropped from that height break off the rungs? I think it might but maybe it wouldn't.

On this note, were different caliber of balls stored in different shot lockers or were they divided to accept balls of a variety of sizes? The lower deck guns were normally larger than the middle and upper deck guns so it makes sense that in a line of battle ship, there would be several shot lockers, at least one for each size of shot. A two decker might have two different sized guns on her upper and lower gun decks but then there are carronades, chasers, upper deck guns (long nines perhaps) and each of those might be a different caliber again. How many shot lockers are there in a ship this size? There's a lot of weight of shot. A single broadside from a 74 given 28 guns on the lower gun deck of 24 lbs and 28 on the upper gun deck of 18 lbs would weigh 1176 lbs.  A conservative estimate of 4 shot (likely more) next to each gun as ready use in the shot garlands amounts to 4 704 lbs of shot spread about the ship. And that's just the broadside guns. Doesn't count the carronades, chasers, AX/FX guns, chasers etc.  Having shot for a number of engagements means literally tons of shot in the garlands plus much more in the lockers. It's a lot of weight to contend with. It's a lot of calibers to contend with. I recall studying battle ship evolution and the history of the dreadnoughts (I'm a naval officer so it's professional curiosity of course) and a big problem they had at first was with spotting fall of shot. Smaller guns can be worked faster so the spotter had to be careful about what shot he was spotting. There tended to be significant confusion about what guns were being spotted and that brought in the era of the "all big gun" ships so they didn't have smaller guns and larger guns shot falling in the same places and confusing the spotters.

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

[Landrotten Highlander]

I do not know anything about the number of shot lockers, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that the ships mates (young lads - kids, really) were used to haul shot manually from the locker and delivering them to the required batteries: i.e.  Jimmy lad would go down into the shot locker, Wullie lad would lower a bag for Jimmy lad to fill, then Wullie lad would bring the bag to the appropriate gun and run back to get more shot from Jimmy lad.

I am assuming that something similar was done while loading the shot into the locker: rather than dumping them from height (particulalry for the first layer) they would be lowered for one lad to place them properly inside the locker.  Dropping them from a height would always result in damage to the floor, and since this is so close to the keel it would be very difficult (and hence expensive) to repair.

 

I would also think that shot for smaller guns and carronades would be stored into the hold, as such ammunition would be needed whenever they landed somewhere so it needs to be really accessible.

 

Looking forward to hear other thoughts on this.

[cog]

I know of powder boys, youngsters running to and fro from powder magasin to gun, never read anything about youngsters and shot, interesting

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Boudriot  vol 2 p 172; except 10 cannonballs  in each triangular park, the others are stored in the cannonball well, in 3 separate compartments 1 for each size. The bottom of the well are filled with old ropes, cannonballs are dropped on these  and are carried in nets.

 

[Sailor1234567890]

Mystery  solved. Nets. Makes sense. Thanks.

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Beginning the next step, the false deck. A scratch built model may look like a long project but it is also can be seen as a series of smaller steps going all in the same direction . In this small step, there will be a lot of walls, meaning a  lot of planks. So the first step is to remake the inventory. I used 6  2'' by 6'' by 6 feet: cut each one in 2 feet sections and  then cut each section in 3 inches wide; giving 18 (2'' X3'' X 2 feet). then passing every thing under planers to get everything square. 50% was selected for the nicest grain. Then slices to the desired thickness and to finish with the small saw bench to the desired width. Estimation is that 60% of the wood is lost during the procedure, the smaller we cut, the larger we lose wood.

 

Each wall will be the same way, with a preset of white cardboard to set dimensions, it is faster this way and also, it can save a lot of wood.

[Sailor1234567890]

Another question of shot and shot lockers has come to mind as I read Patrick O'brian's Ionian Mission. As Worcester 74 glides into a bay to deal with a french force, Captain Aubrey orders bar and chain shot. I'm quite familiar with what it is and what it does but what arrangements were made in the ship to store bar and chain shot? I can't imagine they would mix it all in together in one locker. Or did they?

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Same book, same page;

 

these projectiles are kept in crates in wells above the cannonballs.

As you can read, there was also some other kinds.

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Nobody would be crazy enough to build 4 times the same model ship but 1 advantage of building it, at least twice, is that you can see the end, even before beginning. As an example, here is what the false deck could look like in a few months:

[Sailor1234567890]

10  shot per gun sounds like a small number of rounds but I suppose one would normally use solid shot and not bar chain grape etc. My french is good but not perfect so a few of the more technical comments probably went over my head. I'll have look at my copy of Boudriot's 74 gun ship. I have all 4 at my other house and will look it up in english when I next go check on it.

Your progress is stupendous Gaetan.My apologies for so much thread drift but I am genuinely curious about these little details that come to light. 

Cheers,

Daniel.

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Daniel, thank you, we can  learned much faster with 2 brains rather than with only one.

[Moab]

Wow! Model and photos are fantastic!!...Moab

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

Thank you Moab.

 

Kurt bought a YI-4K camera and he will try a macro lens especially made by Pixaero to fit on it, and they say that there are no distortion. As an example, to compare the quality, here are some photos taken from inside the model ship.

2 things are clearly visible: less distortion and increased sharpness. It could be interesting to see the results with this macro lens later, sometimes it can be very surprising but we must also that there are no miracles and that a good a lens has a price. We must be carefull when comparing lens. It is the same idea when it comes to compare magnifying glasses. If I buy a $2 pair and try it, I could say that this is a good pair. But to see how good it really is, it is preferable to compare with another pair of different quality.

 

These photos would have come later this week, but there is an occasion to show it now, especially the third one. As for the last photo, I showed the setup, each flash has in front of it, a kind of translucide satin fabric. The effect is to soften details globally, some way to balance the lighting.

[Mike Y]

Really like the first photo, interesting angle and reflexes on the wood!

[michael mott]

Gaetan, the speed at which you accomplish your work without skimping on details is amazing! And the photography is super.

 

Michael

[Jeronimo]

Hello Gaetan,

very good work.

Karl

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

thank you

and a few more

[mtaylor]

One can almost smell the water, the wood, and hear the noises in the shipyard.  

[Sailor1234567890]

It's like you're in the actual ship. Amazing. 

[Gaetan Bordeleau]

photos 1 and 2 are from photoshop 2019

photo 3 photoshop 2015; much better. I am not sure I could still do this way, it in 2019

before last photo: a space was left near the inside wall to facilitate wall inspection

 

[SJSoane]

Gaetan, it is looking beautiful!

 

Mark

[druxey]

You are having much too much fun with PhotoShop effects!