Heller 1/200 Royal Louis/conversion to steam battleship?

Hi,

I don't think the Royal Louis would be suitable to convert to an Ocean class ship of the line because the sides of the kit have a large tumblehome, whereas the sides of the Ocean class had much less.  I'm not sure if the number of gun ports would ,match either.  Maybe you could use the lower hull, but it would be a lot of work and the underwater hull shapes are different.  It would probably be easier and much more accurate to scratch-build.

Good references available for free would be "Atlas du Genie", found on the French archives online.

www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/.../rec.php

Montebello is here

www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/.../GM01PL0005.tif

http://www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/medias/planbato/GM02PL0086.tif

http://www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/medias/planbato/GM02PL0087.tif

A great reference is Jean Boudriot's book "LES VAISSEAUX de 74 à 120 CANONS"

www.ancre.fr/vaisso01.htm

Hope that helps,

John.

Also, large ships of the 19th Century had a lot less sheer.  That would be hard to correct.

At least as far as comparing the lines of the plans of the Montebello (thanks for the link, BTW!) with the kit hull by eye, the amount of tumblehome in both seems pretty close. What is needed is for me to cut some cardboard templates and check it all old-school.

The kit does not seem to have that much sheer, compared to a typical 18C ship-of-the-line. The sheer line look very close to the plans, at least as far as I can see at first glance.

I wonder if Heller did not base their hull on the Océan class plans. I'll need to print the plans at 1/200 to dispose of the question.

No, I think the Heller kit is most probably based on the 1758 hull lines.  These show a large tumblehome similar to the kit, the later Royal Louis does not show such a pronounced tumblehome.  The lines at the bow are the same as the 1758 plans and very different from Sane's design for the Ocean class.  

The sheer of the strakes is much more pronounced on 18th C ships than mid 19th C ships.   On the plans of Montebello, you can see the strakes (thicker planks running along the hull) run parallel to the gun ports, on the 1758 plans they rise up towards the stem and stern to the point the gun ports cut into them.  This is even more pronounced on the kit.

Here is a link where someone has done something similar to what you want to do, but turning Gladiateur (same hull as Royal Louis) into a 2 decker..

modelshipworld.com/.../viewtopic.php

And another where someone is converting a Superbe (another Sane design) into a 2 decker.

www.wettringer-modellbauforum.de/.../index.php

Interesting reading!!

Dear  cerberusjf,

You are right about the wales, and the lines forward.

If look at this figure, from wikipedia.org

en.wikipedia.org/.../Oc%C3%A9an_class_ship_of_the_line

specifically

upload.wikimedia.org/.../Ocean_class_ship_of_the_line.jpg

You can see that this first Océan class ship, Commerce de Marseille, might have had more strake sheer than the Montebello, (the strakes don't intersect the gun ports, but they seem rather closer to them at the ends) But the sheer is still much less than the Heller kit's.

Still, I have almost finished reducing the Sane plans to 1/200 (not hard with photoshop) and then putting them into a two-page .pdf (that way, they can be printed on 8 1/2 by 11 paper easily, just one taping required.) I have not repaired the fold in the plans, though. I would be happy to share. I would like to check the tumblehome with some templates, in any event. I'll try to send some photos of this to the forum.

I have read the two articles you mentioned – they are what got me thinking about it all. Thanks for the links – I had forgotten where they were.

Perhaps all is not lost. The wales can be moved--just some cutting and sanding. They are also doubled in the kit, which would not do for a ship finished in the 1850s. I suspect that I can fill in *some* tumblehome with styrene strips, too. The devil is all in the details, now. If the kit and plans match up well enough despite these differences, it might be a viable project nonetheless.

Thanks!

Tom