HMS Dreadnought
Decision made. 1875 battleship Dreadnought to 1/96. Hoping for NMM drawings. Have two photos so far off Wikipedia. Wish me luck.
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Progress 12th January
Bridge structure nearing completion. Railings need some straightening and windows glazed. I assume the decks would be planked. This is one difficult unit to build! Anyone confirm that?
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- Hi
I was just reading your build blog and realised that I had seen a picture of HMS Dreadnought somewhere - it was taken about 1888 in harbour at Malta and shows her with decks cleared for action. I don’t imagine it will help a lot with your build but might be of interest. (My original scan is the right way up but it looks as if it has been turned upside down when I attached it.) All the best
SmiffyLiked by Colin H
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Frustration
Maybe I'm getting old, but I have never had so many 'don't like it make it again"! Part problem is the drawings I have don't always agree with photos. But there is progress.
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- Thanks mate. The foredeck shot will be a great help.Liked by RNinMunich
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Focsle
Progress at last, but have no info for focsle arrangement, winches etc. Assume would be similar to Nelson's, even though twenty years previous?
From what I can see, her guardrails were mounted on the deck planking rather than outside on the steel
From what I can see, her guardrails were mounted on the deck planking rather than outside on the steel
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Progress
At least she looks like a warship at last. I wonder if her anchor winches would be different to those twenty years later. She had multiple booms for torpedo nets. I assume they were mounted to the hull a few feet above waterline and swung out from there. Were they wood or steel does anyone know? Must have been quite an operation setting them out!
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Winches
Doug, Have you any info on Dreadnought's anchor winches? She now has all,I think!, of her portholes, well over a hundred. Anchors next, then guard rails around the focsle.
Liked by Donnieboy
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- Really great, thanks. The view to the bridge is odd. Did she undergo a major refit. The entire bridge looks different.
- Sorry Norm, Got a bit carried away 🤔That's HMS Hood, but I strongly suspect that the capstan / anchor chain arrangement would have been very very similar. After all Hood was only 10 years or so later and much from the Dreadnought was used again and/or improved.
Suspect that, as you said, foredeck arrangements were virtually identical on the Nelson class. Cheers, Doug 😎Liked by marky
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Catheads
Hi Doug,
Your shot of the foredeck is great, but I cannot find any pics of the clump catheads. They must have had some sort of winch, so I assume they were just a heavy protrusion with the winch mounted behind it?
Your shot of the foredeck is great, but I cannot find any pics of the clump catheads. They must have had some sort of winch, so I assume they were just a heavy protrusion with the winch mounted behind it?
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- Hi Norm,
Why a winch?
I believe the catheads are only there to hold the chain away from the side and stop the anchor bashing the hull until it is fully weighed. Hang over from wooden ship days.
Or "Small projection from ship’s side just abaft hawser pipe. Used for suspending an anchor when cable is disconnected and used for mooring to a buoy." See pic of 1/192 version from John R Haynes,
Cheers Doug 😎
http://johnrhaynes.com/catalog/fitting-list/product/JRH18/? - Clump or Clamp! 😲
This is basically what they looked like I think, see J6 in attached pic. 😎
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Ctheads etc
Hi Doug, What ship's foredeck was that? Hood maybe? Looking at the bow shot you put up I cannot see any catheads. From the drawings I have, which are not Admiralty, she had three capstains feeding the chains into only two lockers. Odd. There is also a very large capstan about twenty feet aft of them.
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Foredeck
Hi Doug,
How does this look to you? Still working on the guard rails.
How does this look to you? Still working on the guard rails.
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- Hi Norm, not bad 👍
Coupla points:
1 Weren't the two capstans on the stb side mounted on the same base plate? See attached GA drawing.
2 And there seems to be a slightly larger general purpose capstan on the centre line slightly forward of the anchor winches, and a few other 'doodads' dotted about the foredeck.
3 The hawser pipes should be more elongated and angled towards the hull side.
Neat work nevertheless😉 Cheers Doug 😎
PS: the bollards on the port side seem to be just forward of the anchor winch. - Thanks. Had not forgotten the big capstan, and there may have been four 14lb guns but difficult to tell from photos. I can alter the base plates for the anchor winches easily enough.
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guardrails
I have always painted guardrails to whatever grey the vessel is in 1e home fleet, mediterranean etc. But in one photo of Dreadnought they look darker, maybe black. Anyone have an opinion?
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- Odd query.
Canvas dodgers. Grey or tan? Tan looks better on a model - gives some contrast to the eternal grey, but better to be correct.Liked by Rookysailor - Hi Norm,
I believe they (splinter padding) were grey, but I have also seen tan on other ships. Mostly WW2 though, like the Flower class corvettes.
Maybe tan in peacetime grey at war!?
Cheers, Doug 😎
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Thwarts
Would the thwarts on a cutter in the early 1900s have been teak or a white wood?
Current state of build attached. She will have two steam pinnaces, probably four cutters and two or three whalers and a dinghy.
Current state of build attached. She will have two steam pinnaces, probably four cutters and two or three whalers and a dinghy.
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- I really appreciate your skills!
Cheers, EdLiked by rcmodelboats - Hi Norm, sorry for late response, been under the weather lately🤔
Can't find now where I saw it but I believe the oars were bundled and lashed to the gunnels in some kind of bracket arrangement.
Cheers, Doug
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Davits and falls
Dreadnought had two boats on Davits,slung each side of the funnel, and actually directly above the midship main armament gun barrels. I would assume the davits were able to tilt outwards to allow the boats to be lowered directly outboard. Would anyone know what sort of winches the falls would have been paid out with, or were they simp[y lowered by hand? As far as I can make out the rest of here boats were accessed by the crane on the mainmast.
2 comments
- Evenin' Norm, Welcome back👍
How's it going? Have missed your Build Blog! 😭
Don't think this will answer your question but I thought you might find it interesting and useful for other details.
A 'know your ship' video 😉
Cheers, Doug 😎 - Hi Doug,
Happy New Year.
Boats all done and lashed down.
Dreadnought had multiple aerials slung between the masts. As far as I can make out they were connected onwards to a fitting just about at deck level right at the stern and also I think below the forward jack stay. I would have expected there to be connections down to the bridge or the housing forward of the after funnel. None of the photos I have are clear enough to show all the rigging, so some extent I am going to have to guess. She must have had signal halyards from presumably the main yard, but again where did they come down to. The bridge does not have much open space around the main house, so they must have come down to the upper bridge to presumably a rack? Any ideas?
I have fitted canvas dodgers around the bridge, but am not too happy with them. At this scale very difficult.
We have good shipbuilding weather, -12c at midday today. They are ice fishing on our lake.
Take care.
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Finally
She has now left the builders yard. What next?
Liked by figtree7nts and MouldBuilder and
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