Age of Sail 2 - 3d ship models for PC wargame

[Martes]

Captain of the Etna wrote:

 

In the three months that I sailed her, I found that she steered
perfectly well, that she carried the sail sufficiently and waved
in the wind. Its most advantageous course is the closest
with a fresh wind, she rarely fails to tack, with the wind ahead,
and loses very little when tacking, the movements are very
gentle and the mast only tires by its extreme height.

 

At least that's what Google translate gives me

 

I think a similar description for the Salamandre may be present on page 63 of the book, but the text is in handwriting and it's very difficult to make out with my very rudimentary knowledge of French terminology.

Edited February 19 by Martes

[Martes]

3 hours ago, Lieste said:

The earlier Salamandre really pre-dates widespread iron carronades in French service.

Oh, I know, but I just consider some scenarios if similar ship has survived or was built in 1800s. Quite like the model from Musee de la Marine.

Edited February 19 by Martes

[Martes]

While I am procrastinating with the Salamandre, I did a couple of fixes for Liffey and Schpitzbergen, correcting the run of the deck aft on both, and replacing the boats with a slightly better placeholder models.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 17 by Martes

[Martes]

Concerning the Salamandre, I asked a friend who knows French much better than myself to translate the handwritten report that is present in the book.

 

And I was very surprised with the result. I half expected it to be very similar to the one for Etna I posted above, but...

 

Quote

 

...made a transcription of La Salamandre's devis from page 63. However, not much about sailing qualities of the ship. Essentially, this account is of an inventory nature.

 

Devis de la Galiotte du Roy La Salamandre

 

Cette Galiotte avec quarante cinq Tonneaux de lest et quatre mois de vivres pour soixantes hommes mise a la difference de vingt huit pouces gouverne bien, capeye bien, et va de meme a toutes les allures, mais sus le largue particulierement; mais comme elle derive beaucoup, une contrequille luy est absolument necessaire, avec un estrin[?] a l’etambot pour que le gouvernail ne soit pas expose a s’engager lors quil est question de se toüer ou de traverser d’un des amarres.

 

 

Which he translated as:

 

Quote

[...] steers well, behaves in storms well, and sails well (or better indeed: the same) in all wind directions, especially at quarter winds. But as it drifts a lot, a false keel (underneath the actual keel) is absolutely necessary to fit, and a heel at the sternpost's bottom, so that the rudder is not entangled by the ropes when hauling (towing) or at the moorings.

 

The question (primarily for @G. Delacroix ) is therefore, how to add a correct false keel and gripe per French practice. The ship has relatively pronounced inclination aft, so adding a full false keel that is parallel to the original would increase the draft, which I am not sure would have been welcome.

 

Tentatively, I looked at several contemporary ships after British refits (Embuscade, Unicorn series, which were copies of the privateer Tygre, the corvette Cygnet, ex-Guirlande), which usually did not extend the keel, but added a very dinstinctive gripe, and did the same:

 

 

Another way I thought of was adding a triangular false keel that wouldn't increase the draught aft, but increase to certain degree the draught forward.

 

 

And then there is always a possibility to add a full false keel similar to the Psyche, but at a cost of increasing overall draught:

 

What would be the most correct here?

Edited April 17 by Martes

[G. Delacroix]

Hello

 

The false keel is used to preserve the keel and to prevent a little the leeway (the drift). On French ships, it is generally only 4 to 5 inches (French) thick, or approximately 11/14 cm. This value does not affect the draft value significantly. On the other hand, its protective role is very important.
However, you should know that not all ships have a false keel.
In the report published at the end of the monograph, there is no mention of gripe, it does not exist in the French navy. The text cites an iron stirrup intended to prevent the rudder from being engaged by an anchor cable. We can also observe this stirrup on the plans of the monograph.

 

GD

Edited April 18 by G. Delacroix

[Martes]

Thanks, Gerard!

So do I understand correctly:

 

- when such a report was submitted, with a captain's request of adding a false keel because the ship is leewardly, the (Toulon) dockyard would most probably simply add ~15 cm parallel to the existing keel, and be done with it?

 

- if the design was, for any reason, repeated a decade or two later, this additional false keel would be included, but the underwater shape of the cutwater forward would essentially remain the same?

Edited April 19 by Martes

[G. Delacroix]

Hello,

 

The recommendations of captains upon returning from campaigns were normally followed if they did not entail excessive expenses. For a false keel 11 cm thick (the ship is small), it is within the realm of possibility. Real anti-drift keels did not appear until the end of the 18th century.
The experience acquired on one construction must logically appear on subsequent constructions but, at the time, ships were built by several different builders and each applied their own experience. The false keel is a minor part which often appears as natural in the construction of the hull even if it is not mentioned in the specifications.

 

GD

[Martes]

Thank you very much, Gerard!

[Martes]

 

La Salamandre with added false keel (thanks to invaluable advice by @G. Delacroix ) and rudder protector.

 

 

[Martes]

 

Lots of things are not finalized, textures, decorations, etc, but the she is already so lovely.

Edited May 27 by Martes

[Martes]

To illustrate one of the small design decisions I had to make in the process of working on La Salamandre - remember, I said from the beginning I am going to modernize her to fit the style of ~1810:

 

After a series of versions I settled on a single hawsehole on each cheek forward instead of the usual double set. This configuration is common to late/post-napoleonic head designs for small ships and keeping in mind that on the original the cables were worked through the forecastle railing, this leaves enough place for pleasantly and proportionally looking chase ports.

 

And yes, this implies the internal arrangement is also somewhat different from the original, with flush deck and non-isolated forecastle, different arrangement of the capstans, etc.

 

So now I have to finalize the decorations and make the mortar with it's well for the bombardment state.

 

What remains here is settling the framing around the royal arms (I like the current version, but on decoration design plan it is different and I am not completely sure which I like better) making background panels on the counter, and then join and polish all the different parts from which the decoration set is assembled.

[Martes]

Something I haven't noticed for a long time, and a somewhat painful stylistic decision.

The guns, generally, were painted black and should not appear as bright metallic muzzles.

Stylistic, because there are many paintings that have it either way.

And painful, because it looks I will have to go over all the ships and darken them, just like I darkened the gun emplacement texture.

 

But after a thorough consideration, it does look better.

 

 

Edited June 19 by Martes

[Martes]

And if I am going to go over all the models and blacken the guns, I could, as well, fix a couple of other issues.

 

The gunports on the open decks of the large ships were, unlike the frigates, painted bright red, and retrospectively that was a bad idea. So now I made them darker except the ones that should have lids because they are located inside a roundhouse:

 

Edited June 20 by Martes

[Martes]

View comparison of a 74 (Colossus) with a frigate (Liffey):

 

Edited June 20 by Martes

[Martes]

A quick in-game test of the new style. Additionally to darkening the guns, I corrected the gunport sizes and extended the artificial shadow to front forecastle ports.

 

 

 

 

 

[Martes]

Another shot from the sailing test, a very dynamic one:

 

Edited June 22 by Martes

[Martes]

The 74-razee frigate with correctly sized gunports and darkened guns:

 

 

 

Edited June 23 by Martes

[Martes]

The "long" razee frigate with the same corrections applied:

 

 

[Martes]

The Elephant-style razee. In addition to blackening the guns, I completely removed the solid bulwark from the forecastle, replacing it with netting structure. Now she looks a bit more like an oversized frigate. A little bit.

 

 

 

Edited June 30 by Martes

[Martes]

Liffey, again

 

[Martes]

Cambridge, darker guns and corrected gunports:

 

 

[Martes]

Some more assorted shots.
Warspite, Cambridge, other ships in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 2 by Martes

[Martes]

Frigates and a bomb vessel:

 

[Martes]

A couple of new shots of La Salamandre after a long pause.

 

 

 

Still a lot of polishing and colour correction remains for the stern, and I am seriously thinking about increasing the resolution of the side texture to make the quarter badges sharper.

 

 

 

Edited October 24 by Martes

[Martes]

On 10/24/2024 at 12:29 PM, Martes said:

seriously thinking about increasing the resolution of the side texture to make the quarter badges sharper.

 

Which will look more or less like this. It's still not easy to fully appreciate Ancien Regime style French carving design in what can amount to pixel-art, but the stern ensemble looks (almost) continuous now.

 

 

 

Edited October 26 by Martes