 LAV driver wrote: |
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I also have some questions about the Wappen von Hamburg
for some of the experts out there. Are the crew figures in this kit
actually to scale? At either end of the bridge between the forecastle
and the quarterdeck are those vaulted galleries. It seems like my
figures would have to stoop and squeeze to make it through these
openings. I am trying to imagine how crowded the ship must have been if
they really are! I was also noticing how close to the breech of the
cannon the ship's boat is on the main deck. Wouldn't the cannon need
room to recoil? It looks like it might have struck the side of the
boat. How would the crew have hoisted the boat out of the way? It seems
the bridge section is very close to the top of the boat. Would the
bridge have moved out of the way? I spent a lot of time on the inside
of the boat before I realized this bridge would cover it! At least I
will know how nicely it is painted. |
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Devin,
this brings up two interesting questions. First of all one probably
has to admit that, though the Wappen von Hamburg is immensely popular
in my corner of the world, apart from a few vague paintings and some
information about the WvH's successor of the same name virtually
nothing is known. There are a few sets of plans out there which are
pretty good, but these are simply reconstructions based on what is
known about the WvH's sistership, Leopoldus Primus, the WvH 2 and
contemporary Dutch building practice. As far as I know, what is
currently available as plans goes back to a reconstruction by W.
Quinger which was published in about 1980; they are based on older work
by Hoeckel from the late 1930s - the kit is probably based on the
latter.
When comparing these plans (which are in 1/75) with the kit it's
important to keep in mind that the plans are in many cases really only
a suggestion how WvH might have looked like - we simply don't know
enough. I haven't as yet compared the kit's masts and spares to the
plan (which I'll probably only do when I eventually start building it,
in the next millenium or so...), but I did so with the hull, which
comes out as quite close to the plans.
What is highly interesting is that the 'flying bridge' above the
boat on the main hatch is shown in the plan (the railing differs
slightly from the way it's done in the kit), and it is shown without
any indication on how it was removed. Neither is there any arrangement
evident from the rigging plan suggesting a way to get the boat removed
from under this bridge. Strange. What's more, in the book accompanying
his plans, Quinger shows pictures of his own model which he built
according to his plans. While he doesn't say anything about the boat,
in one picture it is perfectly clear that in his model he put the boat
atop such a 'flying bridge', slightly offset to port. This contradicts
with the plans (which doesn't have to mean a lot) and - to me at least
- looks slightly odd (which in this case would be much more important
to me)
In the absence of any plausible way to remove it, my suggestion
would be to leave this 'flying bridge' off entirely. I certainly will do so when getting
to the point of having to make this decision.
On the other hand I would use the figures, as I think they are quite suitable for the following reasons:
As for the galleries, here it is fairly simple - at least again
according to the plans. These were not galleries in the proper sense of
the word, but just protrusions for the windows occuying perhaps
two-thirds at most of the available deck height. Think of it as some
kind of recessed windows.
The guns are another problem - personally I believe the deck guns are a
little too long, their rear end protruding too much beyond the
carriage; I will probably shorten them a bit or replace them with
pieces from the spares box. Even though, there seems to have been
little space between the guns and the boat in the first place, judging
again from the plan. One has to take into account that in combat the
boat would probably not have been there, though.
I hope that helped in some way.
Jorit