Missing era?

I'm glad to have been of help!

Bill

At  hope it don't snow I saw a nice Combrig ship (though not of era I am interested in).  It was a WW1 US battleship.  Anyway, had a long talk with the builder- he was high on the Combrig line.  When I got home I checked out their line, and found several British kits of the missing era that I am interested in, and intend to choose one and order it soon.  Glad I learned about their line.

Don, if ever there was a ship that fit the transition you are inquiring about, it is the French passenger ship LA BOURGOGNE that transported my emigrant maternal grandmother, Christina Nicoletti to America in 1896 at the age of 23. Built in 1885 at la Sayne on the Mediterranean by Society des Farges, this steamship still carried sails when she tranported emigrants and other passengers from La Havre, France to New York. On July 4, 1898 this vessel collided with the British sailing ship CROMARTYSHIRE off Sable Island, Nova Scotia on a foggy morning with the tragic loss of 560 lives. What was so scandalous at the time, the crew members of LA BOURGOGNE pushed aside the passengers and took to the life boats to saved themselves. Carring a cargo of the lumber, CROMARTYSHIRE stayed afloat to rescue the few surviving passengers even though the ship's bow was stoved in. As a tribute to my late grandmother, I have always wanted to construct a model of the LA BOURGOGNE, but never could find a complete set of plans.

Happy modeling       Crackers   

Don,

I found several turret ship kits from that transition era by Combrig.  They are listed under the different South American navies.  They do seem to be what you are looking for.

Bill

Combrig doesn't manufacture the HMS Captyain, but they do have a selection of the very early pre-dreadnoughts with equally unusual features.

Bill

crackers

In a painful transition of from sail to steam and from wood hull to iron is the bastardised version a warship, the HMS CAPTAIN. This ship tried to corporate in all of the above with disastrous results. Designed by Cowper Coles, this vessel was launched On March 27, 1869 by the Laird Brothers of Berkenhead, with the innovation of two turret loading cannons. The propulsion was by steam on an iron hull with a full rigged sail as an auxiliuary arrangement. Knowlegeable naval officers warned against this design, but those in the higher Admiralty proceded because of the innovated design. On the night of Septermber 6, 1870, the CAPTAIN encountered strong winds off Finisterre on the English Channel. Because of her low freeboard, the CAPTAIN took on water causing the ship to scapsize with the loss of 480 officers and crew. This ship will never become a kit, but it will serve as an interesting transition of ship design.

Source, Wikipedia  Happy modeling      Crackers  

 

Thanks, Crackers.  Yeah, that is the sort of ship I find so fascinating, for the reason you mentioned.

In a painful transition of from sail to steam and from wood hull to iron is the bastardised version a warship, the HMS CAPTAIN. This ship tried to corporate in all of the above with disastrous results. Designed by Cowper Coles, this vessel was launched On March 27, 1869 by the Laird Brothers of Berkenhead, with the innovation of two turret loading cannons. The propulsion was by steam on an iron hull with a full rigged sail as an auxiliuary arrangement. Knowlegeable naval officers warned against this design, but those in the higher Admiralty proceded because of the innovated design. On the night of Septermber 6, 1870, the CAPTAIN encountered strong winds off Finisterre on the English Channel. Because of her low freeboard, the CAPTAIN took on water causing the ship to scapsize with the loss of 480 officers and crew. This ship will never become a kit, but it will serve as an interesting transition of ship design.

Source, Wikipedia  Happy modeling      Crackers  

Don,

Have you checked Combrig kits yet?  They specialize in the era that you are looking for.  If you go to their website, you can scroll through their gallery.  You should check them out.

Bill

Don,

My favorites are:

www.papermodelstore.com

www.papel3D.com

www.HMV.com

However, there are many others as well.  The people over on the www.papermodelers.com website are quite friendly, and they can steer you to them, including free sites.

Bill

warshipguy

Don,

I strongly recommend that you check out the website www.papermodelers.com. You would be amazed at what could be accomplished using this medium.  There are many outstanding models there, including ships of the period you want.

Bill

 

Bill, can you recommend a particular mfgr or vendor that offers ships of that era?

Don,

I strongly recommend that you check out the website www.papermodelers.com. You would be amazed at what could be accomplished using this medium.  There are many outstanding models there, including ships of the period you want.

Bill

cerberusjf

Hi,

although it's mostly sailing ships, there are a couple of plans from the missing era in this link.. not sure how useful they'd be though

http://www.finemodelships.com/ship-plans/plans-Atlas-du-Genie-Maritime.htm

 

If Russain ships are of any interest, there are some free plans of Tsesarevich and Navarin available to download from a russian site

http://www.navarin.ru/page_info.php/pages_id/1

and there are paper models that could be used, such as

http://www.gremirmodels.com/ships.htm

For those interested in Tsushima, I'd recommend "Witnesses of Tsushima" by Westwood as it gives an account of the battle from several eyewitnesses' perspectives.  It's one of those books that seems to have shot up in price for some reason, a pity..

 

 

Thanks, that looks like a great resource.  I have built several Superbes, and the Heller Soleil Royal sits on my incomplete project shelf, so I am certainly not adverse to building French ships. It was the Gloire that got the British going on the thrust I had been reading about.

Hi,

although it's mostly sailing ships, there are a couple of plans from the missing era in this link.. not sure how useful they'd be though

http://www.finemodelships.com/ship-plans/plans-Atlas-du-Genie-Maritime.htm

If Russain ships are of any interest, there are some free plans of Tsesarevich and Navarin available to download from a russian site

http://www.navarin.ru/page_info.php/pages_id/1

and there are paper models that could be used, such as

http://www.gremirmodels.com/ships.htm

For those interested in Tsushima, I'd recommend "Witnesses of Tsushima" by Westwood as it gives an account of the battle from several eyewitnesses' perspectives.  It's one of those books that seems to have shot up in price for some reason, a pity..

Anyone who would like to read a fictional story of the British navy during this period would do well to read Richard Hough's two novels, Buller's Guns, and Buller's Dreadnought.  Famous events depicted in the novels include the sinking of the HMS Victoria, and the Battle of Tsushima.  The last book ends with Jutland.

Yes  http://www.sname.org/pubs/journals1 

alross2

Don, have you checked out Brian King's books?  He has some marvelous stuff on Victorian warships.  The Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME), in one of its first few volumes, is filled with plans for many of the pre-1900 USN vessels.  Vol 1 is 1898 and  think the one with the plans is around 1902 or so.  Most large libraries would have these.

David Lyon has also done some nice work on RN ships of this era, THE FIRST DESTROYERS being one.

Al Ross

 

 

Is the actual name of the book Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, volume 1 ?  None of the libraries in this area seem to have it.

In the meantime I am starting a WW1 German torpedo boat.  Got a Profile Publication for that project.

Don, have you checked out Brian King's books?  He has some marvelous stuff on Victorian warships.  The Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME), in one of its first few volumes, is filled with plans for many of the pre-1900 USN vessels.  Vol 1 is 1898 and  think the one with the plans is around 1902 or so.  Most large libraries would have these.

David Lyon has also done some nice work on RN ships of this era, THE FIRST DESTROYERS being one.

Al Ross

I was looking for drawings, with the idea of scratching something, and did an extensive search via Google.  Not nearly as many plans available as I remember from past years.  Seems to me the Taubman list is a lot smaller than it used to be.  I guess Dromedary is gone.  Neat addition is that there are several sites for free drawings, but they feature only the standards that are so popular that there are lots of kits of those subjects too.

I have a Profile Publication of a WW1 German torpedo boat (actually a destroyer, but the Germans were late in using the term) that I have decided on as next scratch project.  Would have liked something older, but it is getting hard to find plans, even, for that "missing era."

Don,

I get them through Free Time Hobbies.  Combrig also has a link in the www.modelwarships.com  and www.steelnavy.com sites.  Their prices are very reasonable.

Bill

Here are their list of suppliers:-

http://combrig-models.com/index.php/dealers

Freetime hobbies may be a good start for USA?

http://freetimehobbies.com/ship-store?sort=newest#

cerberusjf

They make resin kits, and can be found here:-

http://combrig-models.com/

They do mostly 1/700 waterline, here are their RN offerings

http://combrig-models.com/index.php/products/1700/royal-navy-1860-1918

but do have some 1/350 RN predreadnoughts, waterline and full hull,

http://combrig-models.com/index.php/products/1350/royal-navy-350

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes! those are the ships I was talking about.  I could not find a page with a price list on it.  How do I figure prices?

Don,

Combrig is available from most online hobby stores and are quite affordable, at least their 1/700 kits are so.  I love those kits, except for the fact that they are waterline only.

Bill

I'd argue that the situation is the best it's ever been - by far. There actually are quite a few Russian pre-Dreadnought kits, courtesy of Trumpeter and Svezda. Hasegawa makes a fine 1/350 Mikasa - and has announced one on 1/700. And Hobby Boss just released a 1/350 French pre-Dreadnought, the Danton. Ten years ago could anybody have imagined that such kits would be available?

Another one nobody's mentioned yet: the good old Pyro/Lindberg/Round 2 Harriet Lane.

I do hope the mainstream companies get around to the British pre-Dreadnoughts. My first choice would be HMS Victoria. Two stacks side-by-side and a single enormous turret forward. She came to a remarkable end when, in broad daylight A a calm sea, HMS Camperdown accidentally rammed her and sent her to the bottom with heavy loss of life. But any British warship from that period will be fine with me.

This is a great time to be a warship modeler. 

As a guess, that trasnistional period was just a bit too short in history--as in not quite long enough to have a major war with the ironclad broadsiders. 

Add to that, they are less glamorous than a "pure" sailing vessel, or than the all steall steam warships (an important consideration back in the "box scale" days).

But, unlike 30 years ago, things are improving.  We can't quite replicate Dewey's fleet at Manilla, but we can build the original Iowa, Texas, and even the Maine.

Oh, and as a barometer of whether or not we are in a "golden age" would be when we could decide to replicate  both the Japanese & Russian fleets in 1905 or both sides at Manilla Bay.

They make resin kits, and can be found here:-

http://combrig-models.com/

They do mostly 1/700 waterline, here are their RN offerings

http://combrig-models.com/index.php/products/1700/royal-navy-1860-1918

but do have some 1/350 RN predreadnoughts, waterline and full hull,

http://combrig-models.com/index.php/products/1350/royal-navy-350

warshipguy

Don,

Have you checked Combrig's offerings of pre-Dreadnought ships?

Bill

 

No, never heard of them.  Combrigs.com?

Don,

Have you checked Combrig's offerings of pre-Dreadnought ships?

Bill

Unfortunately, three decades passed between the Monitor and the Oregon.  The US did little to innovate ship design during those decades, though it did work on gun development like other countries did.  The reason I want British ships from those in-between years is those guys at least tried to bring the naval future into being.

Most of the British ships of that era were not very beautiful (maybe that is why no one wants to build them), but they sure were innovative (innovation by itself though does not bring success).