TRE KRONER 1742 by Beckmann - 3"/8' scale - Transom-Model

[TJM]

Wow, this build is so next level. I am amazed and humbled every time you update this thread 😁

 

 

[Keith Black]

 Absolutely amazing!

[CiscoH]

the interior looks like a real, full-sized ship!

astounding attention to detail Matthias

[Beckmann]

Thank you all for your encouragement and the likes!

 

Today, I first need to address an issue, namely my incorrectly constructed window in the upper side gallery.
I had a window here that was actually intended to have double glazing bars, but I inadvertently constructed it with a single central glazing bar, which resulted in horizontal window panes that should otherwise all be vertical. The problem is that the window is glazed and curved under tension. So replacing the entire muntin bar was out of the question. I would never have been able to fit the new window cross neatly into the curve. The only option was to carefully cut out the centre muntin bar and insert new muntin bars. Here is the result:

 

 

 

 

Next, I turned my attention to the gallery railing, a task that I had been puzzling over for a while and which, at least on the starboard side, has not yet been satisfactorily resolved.
The gallery railing consists of a balustrade, similar to those often found in stone on elaborately designed Baroque balconies or staircases. The individual gallery balusters feature multiple coving, thickening and tapering. To make matters more difficult, they are tilted, in the case of the side gallery backwards and inwards. At the rear, they are later tilted backwards and outwards. One could make things easy and make them all the same and tilt them accordingly. This is sometimes done in architecture for staircases. Then, in the transition to the inclined contact surfaces, wedges are simply placed underneath and above. To illustrate this, here is a drawing from the 17th century:

 

 

However, since the TRE KRONER model has a tilt here, I have to try that too, of course.

 

 

I then drew and cut out the tilt towards the rear.

 

 

 

The profile was roughly pre-cut on the circular saw and then finished with a file.

 

 

The inward tilt was also worked on as best as possible at the front ends with a file and a carving knife.

The railing rail was drawn on a template.

 

 

A hole was drilled and fitted with a small wooden dowel to secure it to the contact surface. Finally, everything was inserted, aligned and glued to the upper railing rail.

 

 

 

 

Some of the inclines are not quite right. If you build the whole thing two or three times in a row, it will probably get better and better. But I'll leave it like this for now, as it's a lot of work.

Best regards,
Matthias

 

Edited July 30 by Beckmann

[druxey]

The window reworking was a really good 'save'! Well done. Compound curved balustrades are a real challenge that you met too.

[igorcap]

Matthias, this is magnificent, I have not seen anything better.

[Beckmann]

Dear fellow model builders, thank you for your kind words.

I have recently been studying 18th-century Danish artillery, as I would like to include it in my stern model and possibly another section model of the TRE KRONER. As is well known, the sources here are quite good, as is generally the case with the Danish navy. There are several instruction manuals for cadets and the shipyard, where you can find contemporary drawings of gun barrels and carriages. As always, you just have to keep an eye on the chronological development. Of course, it is possible that my approach contains errors, as the carriages used specifically for the TRE KRONER are not explicitly named in the plans.
First, here are a few illustrations from the mid-18th century.

 

 

One significant difference from the English gun carriages is the arrangement of the aiming wedges, another is the color scheme.
First, the gun carriage:
There are different drawings in the archives showing an older and a newer design.

 

 

I assume that the TRE KRONER already had the newer gun carriages and that the older ones belong more to the 17th century. I cannot prove this exactly, but the transition was probably a smooth one.
Examples of both types have been preserved, which I find very helpful.

 

 

The aiming wedge on the more modern gun carriages was apparently pushed under the end of the barrel from the side in the normal setting and rested on a kind of crossbar, as can be seen in the drawings and the illustration of the cannon. Apparently, the crossbar could also be removed for particularly high settings and the wedge could be placed directly underneath from behind. The first two images in this article illustrate this nicely. From the early 17th century until around the 1820s to 1830s, the colors were largely fixed: red iron oxide for the wood and yellow to light orange munium (a mixed lead oxide) to protect the wrought iron parts from rust.

The gun barrels are also depicted in several publications.
Here is a depiction of the 36-pounder gun barrel.

 

The TRE KRONER had 36-pounders on the lower battery deck, 18-pounders on the upper battery deck, and 8-pounders on the quarterdeck and certainly also on the forecastle.

A model-building colleague from Copenhagen (TJM), who has the necessary technology, kindly printed out the artillery for me and added the monogram of Christian VI. 

 

I drew the gun carriages accordingly and had them laser-cut from pear wood.

 

 

In addition to the installation in the stern model, I plan to build a section of the battery deck showing the arrangement of the artillery. There is a model at the NMM in Greenwich that serves as my model here.

 

Finally, here is a picture of the unpainted gun mounts with the gun barrels, still without fittings and wedges, which are next on the list.

 

 

I painted the gun barrels black and finished them with Tamiya aging powder (soot color).

Best regards,
Matthias

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 08:10 AM by Beckmann

[Hubac's Historian]

Brilliant stuff, Matthias

[TJM]

This is so great! I really look forward to seeing them fully painted and rigged! 

 

When I have the time, I will start a thread on the 3D printing sub-forum where I will post stl files for Danish canon, in case someone else might want to go down this particular rabbit hole at some point 😅.

 

I have a whole series from 3 to 36 pounders from the 1740's-1750's, but I am also looking into earlier designs from the 17th century and later ones from the end of the 18th century