Christiania 1774 by TJM – approx. 1:67-1:64 – Danish Light Frigate based on Vanguard Models HMS Sphinx

[brunnels]

This looks amazing, I love the color scheme. I'm not at your level, but I have been trying to accomplish the same sort of thing with the stern of my Pegasus kit in blender, you are definitely inspiring me to keep on trucking. 

[Ronald-V]

Very nice colours indeed! Love the whole overall look. The downside with a "one piece" stern is indeed the painting. You can't easy paint/airbrush the pieces seperately. But I think it will turn out fine, because this already looks really good 👌

[TJM]

Thanks for all the likes! 

 

And thank you @Ronald-V and @brunnels for your kind and encouraging words!

 

BR

TJM

[Beckmann]

To me this stern looks almost perfect. The painting job is superb. What did you do 25 years for miniature painting? Ship models as well?

Matthias 

[TJM]

12 minutes ago, Beckmann said:

To me this stern looks almost perfect. The painting job is superb. What did you do 25 years for miniature painting? Ship models as well?

Matthias 

 

 

Thank you Matthias, that is very kind of you to say, but I think there are some improvements needed 😃.

 

I have been painting Warhammer miniatures for a long time, but their 32 mm scale and fantasy/sci-fi style is much easier to paint compared to naturalistic 1:64 scale! 😅

[TJM]

Ok, so I tried the reverse strategy for the painting. It may seem a bit foolish but there was a reason to try this, that I will get to. 

 

Here's how it went:

 

The part was base coated, first with black, then with white. I use an airbrush for this.

 

 

 

Then I used an Army Painter brown Speedpaint to get a dark yellow base.

 

 

Speedpaints (like Citadel Contrast paints) are basically heavy pigment acrylic inks that will run into the recesses, but also leave a nice base colour on the raised parts. It is meant to be one coat and done. It looks super blotchy, as it is not so well suited for flat surfaces, but that is ok, it works where the yellow will be, particularly the friese.

 

Next, I went owe the yellow with the ochre, mostly drybrushing:

 

 

And then topped it off with a drybrush of beige for the highlights:

 

 

 

After this I sealed it with an acrylic varnish and let it dry completely (a full day).

 

So far, so good. Now comes the tricky part: tye recessed black parts. I did my best to mask off the yellow:

 

 

But even then, the black seeped onto the yellow 😭.

 

 

This was not really unexpected, but I had hoped masking it off would work better.

 

I stopped here, as even if I could go over and clean up the yellow, the black edges are not straight enough and the point of doing it this way disappears if I have to re-do the yellow. 

 

So, the reason for trying this way is that drybrushing is very messy, especially when you have large, flat areas of a very different colour around the areas being drybrushed - as I do. Drybrushing the yellow gave a really nice result, the best I have achieved so far, but I can't get the black good enough. It is almost impossible to paint recesses without messing up the higher parts.

 

Oh well. I will go back and do it the traditional way, building up the colours from lowest to highest. That just means I have to extremely precisely paint the yellow parts (of which there are many!) several times as I built up the colours... 😅. After white, yellow is the most difficult colour to get a good finish on.

 

Anyways, back to painting the second version....

 

BR

TJM

Edited November 15 by TJM

[Ronald-V]

I do like the overall yellow color with the depth in it. I'm with the Sphinx also at this point, painting the stern decoration and such (not started yet) so i'm learning a lot from this 

Edited November 16 by Ronald-V

[TJM]

Log entry 31 - a new figurehead

 

A while back, I made a figurehead for Christiania using Hero Forge. I was quite happy with it, as the pose and motif was faithful, though the details were somewhat different to the original.

 

But now, as can be seen in Chucks recent post in the 3D modelling sub-forum, Meshy AI has become really good at making a 3D model from just one image. So I had to try to re-do the figurehead with this new tool.

 

Here's the cleaned up image I fed to Meshy:

 

 

Here i have removed headworks and the other details on the keel. I have taken this photo myself at Krigsmuseet in Copenhagen where the model of the figurehead is displayed.

 

Meshy gives you 5 runs/tries when you submit a task. I submitted twice, and used 7-8 runs to get the version I went with. They were all very good, but I needed a version with space for the keel between the legs and with no weird stuff in the left hand. 

 

The Meshy models look great and can be printed as is, however I need a slot for the prow and it is really a pain to get a single solid with no topological issues. but after a few hours of trial and error, I managed. 

 

Here's a comparison of my Hero Forge figurehead and the new Meshy one:

 

 

 

 

Honestly, the Meshy one is much better, as the style is correct. It is very close to the original model at the museum. Btw, I did the callipers myself, the AI could not get that right from that angle.

 

Here's printed comparisons:

 

 

 

 

 

I know there is a bit of a size difference here as well, but you can clearly see that the pose is also much better and more natural in the Meshy version. 

 

Finally here's some shots of the figurehead on the model - the fit is great and I have just 0.5 mm of filing on the prow to make it perfect.

 

 

 

 

I am super happy about this upgrade to the figurehead!

 

BR

TJM

Edited November 16 by TJM

[Beckmann]

Hi Thorbjørn,

you a doing a great job on the stern decoration!! Very impressive.

I am very excited about your figurehead of Printz Friederich as well. This is such a beautiful sculptur. I saw it this summer at Copenhagen.

I wrote about it in our german ship-modeling magazine. 

It was made by Christian Jabsen Møllerup in 1762. It is ment to be the personification of Europa in her function as guardian of the Christian faith and the sciences. The figurehead thus has nothing to do with the name of the ship, but rather with the self-image of the Danish royal house.

The Maritime Museum in Helsingør possesses an extremely interesting colored drawing of the PRINTZ FRIDERICH in dry dock in 1762. It shows the moment when the figurehead is hoisted into place with tackles and attached to the ship's hull. Europa is depicted in yellowish tones, corresponding to the wax model and apparently representing the color scheme in use at the time.

Along the stern, the bow, and the cabin lining, the ship's side is painted gray with gilded bands. On the side gallery and the transom, the ornaments on the balustrade and on the window mullions of the upper cabin are gilded and highlighted in red.

The side gallery is not quite finished, as the gallery base is missing. The approved drawing shows that an ornamental net pattern is planned for this area

The Maritime Museum on the Danish island of Læsø houses a fantastic 1:50 scale model of the PRINTZ FRIDERICH, built by Karl Malchert from Hamburg.

 

Matthias

 

Edited November 16 by Beckmann

[TJM]

Hi Matthias,

 

Thank you so much for your kind words and the very interesting comment!

 

The figurehead is supposed to be that of Christiania, not the Printz Friderich and the model is identified as such in the museum. You will also find this on Wikipedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Galionsfigur_til_fregatten_Christiania_(model).JPG

 

But I agree that it does look much like the coloured drawing of the mounting of the figurehead - I wonder if the same motif was re-used? 

 

It is a bit of a conundrum as the original plans does not show this exact motif, but rather a lion or another lady figure not holding a building. 

 

It does however seem like this figurehead model was previously identified as the one for Printz Friderich - it is mentioned as such in the 1979 book Danske Orlogsskibe 1690-1860. 

 

Perhaps it has later been re-identified as Christianias figurehead? Or perhaps the museum has it wrong!

 

Unfortunately, my own photographs does not contain the annotation on the display case. There is another very similar figure just beside this one, could that be the Printz Friderich figurehead? 

 

 

 

What do you think?

 

BR

TJM

 

[TJM]

This is the section in 'Danske Orlogsskibe 1690-1860.

 

It agrees with your description, however, like I mentioned, I wonder why it is then labelled as Christianias figurehead at the museum!?

 

And whether some new information has appeared since the 70's that changed the identification of the model?

 

 

Edited November 16 by TJM

[Beckmann]

The drawing of the decorations of Prinz Friederich shows the figurehead quite clearly.

It shows the same attributes like the wax model. The churchbuilding and the caliper.

In my opinion, the wikipedia entry is wrong.

I think, I took a photo from the annotations of the display case. I have to look that up.

Matthias

Edited November 16 by Beckmann

[TJM]

I believe the wiki page just echoes the museum, but it will be very interesting to see if you have the display case text! 

 

Lex also calls it Christiania, referencing Orlogsbasen, Rigsarkivet: https://trap.lex.dk/Christiania_(1774)

 

You may well be right here, and I agree that the drawing and the model are a match, but it is strange that current sources reference it as Christiania then!

 

BR

TJM

Edited November 16 by TJM

[Beckmann]

The wreck of the Printz Friderich was discovered a few years ago near the island of Laesö.

https://www.visitlaesoe.dk/turist/oplevelser/printz-friderichs

It was lost on September 28, 1780. 

The Christiania was built in 1774. The ships must therefore have existed concurrently for several years. Probably not with a similar figurehead. Perhaps later? I don't know any more than that. I do know of a Swedish frigate, I believe it was the Minerva, that was lost and its figurehead was salvaged and reused on another ship. It's now in Karlskrona. 

http://undervandsgruppen.dk/printz-friderich/foto/

Here are photos of the model in Læsø. I don't know what happened to the figurehead. It used to be on the model.

Matthias

 

Edited November 16 by Beckmann

[TJM]

That is a fantastic model!

[TJM]

Log entry 32 - painting the stern decorations 

 

After some colour and technique tests earlier, I have now completed what I think will be the final version of the stern and side galleries. 

 

I will show the steps of the painting process, so sorry in advance for the large number of pictures in this post! 😅

 

After base coating the model black, I airbrushed the red window frames and the red panels. This was done with two shades of red over a couple of passes with the airbrush:

 

 

After this, I went in and painted all the black parts, taking care not to mess up the red parts - it is almost impossible to touch up on the airbrushed red without it showing!

 

 

 

Then the yellow parts were base coated with brown - this took forever as I had to move very, very slowly:

 

 

 

So far so good! Then comes tje most difficult job, which is to do the yellow. It takes even longer than the brown as it needs 2-3 coats. The friese and other 3D decorations are drybrushed on. 

 

 

 

The last step is highlights with beige, using drybrushing. 

 

 

 

 

Phew! Just missing the red flags. Here is a comparison with my colour test from a few weeks ago.

 

 

And finally som images with the part on the ship (just dry fitted as I need to figure out what to do with the window glass and finish the planking before it is attached permanently).

 

 

 

 

This is the best I can do painting wise I think, and I think it will look good in the end. The camera picks up all the harsh colour transitions, but it looks smoother in real life.

 

And just a fun shot here at the end of all the different iterations I have gone through...  🫣

 

 

I am happy to have this done - it was by far the most difficult kit-bashing for this project, so having completed it, the rest of the build should be much more straight sailing, following the manual!

 

BR

TJM

 

[brunnels]

I'm insanely impressed.  I love your color choices, and the aged copper roof on the Quarter galleries is very well done. 

[TJM]

Thank you so much @brunnels! The copper roof is actually super easy: any base copper paint and then Citadel Nihilakh Oxide, which is a matt pigment verdigris wash. That's it!

 

 

[Beckmann]

Hi Thorbjørn,

you did an increadible job, designing and painting this transom stern! The effort was really worth it. This will make a very nice model. I hope to see it in reality one day

Matthias

[Ronald-V]

Phenomenal job! Love the whole appearance, and very neat work!  

[TJM]

Thank you Matthias and Ronald 😃.

[Thukydides]

Great job both on the painting and modelling of the stern. You can definitely see the improvement over the various versions. Lots of nice contrast there.