Napoleonic naval diorama - Capture of La Franchise

[Thantsants]

I mentioned on my Japanese diorama thread that I was putting together a naval diorama for my Dad's Birthday - he's currently researching a book on our ancestor, Captain Mansfield, who commanded the Minotaur at Trafalgar.

Not quite up to recreating the British battle line at said engagement so I'm going for a smaller skirmish the Minotaur was involved in along with Thunderer and Albion - the capture of the French frigate, La Franchise, along with the French General who was on board at the time - just a few days after Britain declared war on France in 1803!

Anyway - spent most of the evening sweating over the first of the lovely little 1/1200 ships I got from Rod Langton minis - this'll be the Minotaur -







The green chap on the left is more what I'm used to painting so I hope I have a few shreds of sanity left when its all over...



And a pic of the base - with very rough waves - thought I'd have a practise with the coving adhesive I found and thought would be good for filling the recess, before sculpting proper wave effects in line with the rim.



Jimbibbly suggested a great site for some tips on making waves - http://www.jbadiorama.com/tsushima_ii.php

Any other hints and tips for techniques and materials would be gratefully received too. 

[KevR1025]

Sorry I have no advice to offer but I am certainly looking forward to seeing your progress.

[OSHIROmodels]

Those Langton ships are fantastic aren't they   

Everytime I see them I want them all 

Looking forward to seeing this one progress 

cheers

James

[dampfpanzerwagon]

Sculpting waves?

Try using a spoon, in this scale the smallest teaspoon you can find, press the cupped part of the spoon into whatever material you are modelling the sea from and repeat.  the cupped indentations look like waves and crests.  the technique is widely used by model boat constructors and details can be found in a number of ship modelling books.

Tony
http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/

[Aaron]

My only advice would be not to sweat it. I was also worried when I saw my first Langton castings, but they really do paint up remarkably easily. Rigging them is the real pain, but if you have hit guidebook he shares some valuable tips and shortcuts that make it bearable. I've still only rigged about three of my many painted ships though.

[Thantsants]

Thanks all - great advice Dampf - might just give that a go!

Thinking about painting the sea - I've got some large tubes of Reeves acrylics, although reading an old White Dwarf article on making river sections they reccomended water colours. As I used to dabble a bit with them (on paper) I'm tempted to try that out as they do give a nice translucent effect. Maybe a white acrylic undercoat with watercolour washes on top and acylic highlights for wave crest - or will I experience problems laying down water colour on top of acylic? The whole thing wil get a gloss varnish finish so I'm not worried about wear and tear once its done.

I did manage to pick up the guidebook, which was worth the money if only for the detailed colour scheme for the Minotaur!

I'll see how I go with the rigging - if all else fails Hetz mentioned a mate who is a dabhand, although time is slowly slipping by to get that organised. I did take the liberty of purchasing brass ratlines so at least don't have the added fiddle of mucking about with netting soaked in ink! 

Now I think I've got the hang of the brass sails I'll see how far I get tonight with the other ships...

[Thantsants]

Bit of a progress update - all ships have masts and sails (not permanently attached yet for painting purposes)



Still messing about with where to position them - anyone know anything about naval pursuit tactics in the Napoleonic era?! I figure Minotaur would have come up alongside La Franchise to threaten her with a broadside - its Albion and Thunderer I'm humming and hahing about - trailing behind or maneuvering to cut the Frogs off at the pass - so to speak... I'll have to read round more on the subject.

Did a little tester on painting the water too -





Ignore the section painted at the top of the picture - I experimented with sealing the coving adhesive with watered down pva before painting it but it didn't get as nice an effect as paint straight onto the surface did.

The coving adhesive on its own leaves lots of nice fine detail for the foam on top of the swells - the water colour wash settles nicely in the recesses and soaks into the coving stuff - leaving the wave tops whitish which can be emphasised with a little drybrush with a white acrylic. I also put a coat of gloss varnish to see how effective that looked - better in the flesh than the photo...

Just a shame the greens I blended in don't show up too well in the pics and that I'll be sculpting over it to bring the water level up to the lip of the base! 

[The Dozing Dragon]

Looking forward to seeing this develop - I always fancied doing a port diorama in this scale.

[carlos marighela]

The paintings not the hard bit, it's the rigging that drives you nuts, particularly keeping it taught whilst glueing it in place. Good luck, nice work so far,

[Damas]

Because I am a nerd I have to reply! 

Your ships have been set up with sails 'in irons' or luffing as they are all facing forwards.  No square rigger in full flight or full pursuit would do this as the sails aft will be blocking the sails fore, reducing speed and any sail master would be beaten for such a maneuver!

You look to have set your jibs and spanker on all the ships on a port tack (wind from port (that's the left, looking forward!))  Each of your fore, main and mizzen masts should therefore be rotated clockwise by about 30 to 40 degrees to show the maximum sail to the port stern wind.

Maneuvering.

Minotaur would be coming along stern to port to cut off the wind of La Franchise (slow her down) at a sharp angle so only a small turn would then bring her alongside.  I'd then suggest Albion be stern and starboard of Minotaur so as to not block Minotaur's wind but be able to present her bowchasers to Le Franchise's stern.  Thunderer would be back and starboard of the whole chase so to stop Le Franchise from making an anchor turn tack to starboard to escape as Thunderer would then be in a position to rake her stern and rudder with a full broadside.

*Nerd moment over*


Other than that I do love the models, I just wouldn't have the patience for the rigging at that scale  So good luck, or bon chance, depending on who you are rooting for!

[Thantsants]

Thanks all - got to say I'm not exactly looking forward to the rigging - but I am armed with Rod Langton's book so fingers crossed (and not stuck together with superglue!)

Damas - you sir are a genius- thanks for the nerd out!! 

I did enquire as to what sail set might have been used in pursuit when I bought them and easy sail with courses furled (to protect them from the rigours of battle) was suggested, which I presume is ok - didn't think to ask as to which way the sails would be facing and wind direction, etc!

Would turning the masts 30 odd degrees clockwise fully remedy this or should I redo the sails entirely? I only ask as my Dad has done a load of research on Mansfield and Minotaur and, like you will easily spot my landlubberly gaffs a mile off!

My only hands-on experience of sailing was a few near disastrous outings in a little dinghy and sailboarding in the Lake District but now that you mention how the sails aft would cut the wind off it seems obvious... 

Thanks for the in depth tips on the maneuvring - brilliant stuff.

Let me see if I've got this right...

Minotaur is on the left, just behind La Franchise with Thunderer and Albion following up off to starboard







Or is this what you meant?







Right best get priming before the thought of rigging makes me drink one beer too many...

[Damas]

Hi Thant,

You've nearly got it with the first set up.

Minotaur just needs turning a touch more parallel with La Franchise.

Albion should be an inch or so closer to Minotaur, pointing at the bow of La Franchise.

Thunderer just needs to go an inch left.

Job done!

At the moment you have main and top sails open and the masts bare, I assume from your previous post you were then going to fit furled topgallants and royals.

This would be fine for battle as the marine sharpshooters on the upper platforms would have clearway to the other ships and would also be fine for normal sailing.  However, when in full flight or pursuit, you would muster all the efficient sail square yardage you could!

Finally, before I bore you too much, for the purposes of modelling, once you have set the position of your hulls, you just need to make sure all the sails align in the same direction (except for La Franchise which would have her sails slightly warped and luffed due to Minotaur stealing her wind.) and then rig them!  The sails would stay mostly square shaped even with wind at an angle so at this scale, you don't need to change anything.

BUT!!!  Please don't take what I say as gospel, there are as many interpretations as there are people to interpret them!  If you see or hear something better then go for it!

[Aaron]

If you need more detailed info about the action William James' very comprehensive history of the naval war is online here: http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval_History/Index.html . A bit daunting to try to read in one go, but indispensible for researching individual actions and just plain fascinating reading at times.

[Thantsants]

Great link Aaron - thanks!

Found this on the capture of La Franchise -

On the 28th of May the French 36-gun frigate Franchise, still commanded by Captain Jurien, but with 10 of her guns in the hold, and a reduced complement of 187 men, was captured by the 74-gun ship Minotaur, Captain John Charles Moore Mansfield, and two other 74s, which had chased from the Channel fleet. The prize was 35 days from Port-au-Prince, bound to Brest. Being a tolerably fine frigate of 898 tons, the Franchise was added to the British navy, by the same name, as a 12-pounder 36.

Thanks again for the tips Damas - don't worry about boring me - best advice on the sailing side of things I've had yet... 

The sails I got didn't have any royals, furled or otherwise -  I was under the impression the smaller topmost sails I have were the topgallants but I may be mistaken? Looks like I went for a fighting sail set rather than one designed for maximising speed - Could always explain it by the crew having furled the topmost sails as they caught up and prepared for a broadside?!
 
I may model some furled sails for the mast tops but in all probability I can see my time being taken up with fiddling with bits of thread once the painting is done - oh and the ratlines to affix! I am keen to balance the need for historical and nautical accuracy with the time I have left to complete this, along with the preservation of my sanity!

New positions have been noted and I'm happy that they use the space on the base pretty well - should be a composition that is pleasing to the eye - unless you're Captain Jurien!

I was itching to get something done with the ships last night so went and primed them but I think I may have a fiddle with Franchise's sails to luff them up...

[OSHIROmodels]

I liking what I seeing so far and the info you're getting is great 

One thing though, are you going to model 'wake' behind all the ships or will it be a paint job?

cheers

James