USRC Harriet Lane Model Shipways 1:96 scale circa 1863

Sorry, BMT, didn't mean to give you a headache. Your guns look fine as is. Not worth worrying about.
Your build overall looks gorgeous!
This issue just comes up all the time. "The problem, Horatio, is not in the scale of our ship, but in the scale of our guns".
I am just trying to head Chuck off from doing major surgery on his ship!

What a rant! :rolleyes:
 
Good morning! BMT, I agree with Pete as to your build - your Harriet Lane is lovely! As to what I finally end up doing, well . . .

I will spend the time it takes to make the drawings and give my self a picture of what will happen. I'm not excited about the idea of adding height to the bulwarks, but I don't think is will be major surgery - surgery for sure. There are no mountains only mole-hills. I will also take Pete's suggestion and make the carriages and continue to work on reshaping the guns as well as waiting for the CIM guns to arrive. I think I will also build the deck house so that I can see what looks right relative to the major structures on the deck. Although I'd like to keep things moving forward, I certainly don't want "progress" at the expense of diminishing what I have - I think I might literally cry if I injured my copper plating ;)

So, Pete, rest assured that I won't do anything rash. I will, however, rely on my artists eye, what skills I've developed and the spirit of audacity I've started to cultivate inspired by you and the other members of this fellowship we call Ships of Scale.

Stay tuned . . .

Blessings. Peace. Gratitude.
Chuck
 
Phew, the thought of putting your lovely work to date under the knife felt daunting. You certainly do have the "artist's eye"!
Your thinking is sound, as is your caution.
 
Last edited:
thanks guys for your kind words on my build…. this conversation is is really good for me to understand scale…. I thought I was going to get to some rigging today, but today I had a nuke and pave my laptop thats another story…
 
BMT said:
thanks guys for your kind words on my build…. this conversation is is really good for me to understand scale…. I thought I was going to get to some rigging today, but today I had a nuke and pave my laptop thats another story…
Click to expand...
:eek: Hate it when reality intervenes in my reality.
 
Working on it. The truck carriage portion is the big problem. That photo posted a couple of times earlier is the only image of that style of carriage I have been able to find, and there's a lot of details I can't see. I thought maybe it was either a 4-truck carriage or a Marsilly carriage modified, but it's neither of those. I can't find any reference to it in ordnance manuals, patents, and the image doesn't say what ship it's on.
My model has some conjecture, beyond what I can see, or think I see, in the aforementioned image, resulting in this, so far. I'm sure the trucks on the carriage are too large, and the slabs under the slide chassis haven't been shaped yet. I did model the seam in the carriage sides as it was rather pronounced in the photo.
The tube has a full bore, but I didn't model the touch-hole. I will add an impression of the firing mechanism, since I think it's absence could be seen even at 1:96 scale. The two fellas in the pic aren't my models but STLs I bought to make my Constellation's crew.
ix_dahlgren20240215a.png
Actually the carriage looks a little like the Marsilly. The slight slope if the side's forward face, the side seam. It looks like they eliminated one step coming down the ski-slope behind the cap-square, and the sides look straight fore-and-aft on the pivot rather than angled like the Marsilly.
marsilly_carriage.png
 
JerryTodd said:
Working on it. The truck carriage portion is the big problem. That photo posted a couple of times earlier is the only image of that style of carriage I have been able to find, and there's a lot of details I can't see. I thought maybe it was either a 4-truck carriage or a Marsilly carriage modified, but it's neither of those. I can't find any reference to it in ordnance manuals, patents, and the image doesn't say what ship it's on.
My model has some conjecture, beyond what I can see, or think I see, in the aforementioned image, resulting in this, so far. I'm sure the trucks on the carriage are too large, and the slabs under the slide chassis haven't been shaped yet. I did model the seam in the carriage sides as it was rather pronounced in the photo.
The tube has a full bore, but I didn't model the touch-hole. I will add an impression of the firing mechanism, since I think it's absence could be seen even at 1:96 scale. The two fellas in the pic aren't my models but STLs I bought to make my Constellation's crew.
View attachment 428224
Actually the carriage looks a little like the Marsilly. The slight slope if the side's forward face, the side seam. It looks like they eliminated one step coming down the ski-slope behind the cap-square, and the sides look straight fore-and-aft on the pivot rather than angled like the Marsilly.
View attachment 428225
Click to expand...
Jerry, thank you! It's looking really good! I really appreciate you going to all of this trouble. Just looked at it again. Super cool!
 
Last edited:
Gun port news! If you've been following this log, you'll have seen the exchange with Pete about the gun port for the forward Dahlgren. The port is big for the arc of fire. We were batting around ideas for how the port was opened and what happened to the rail so the Dahlgren could be fired without smashing the rail. Pete used his imagination and thought up a solution for his Harriet Lane that made sense. Turns out that other people who sailed military vessels in the era copied Pete!!!

I was on a Zoom meeting and since no one could see what I was doing with my camera off, I decided to look at MSB Journal. Click. Scroll. Scroll. Random selection. The July 2023 issue at page 11 has an article "HMCSS Victoria Pivot Guns and Gunports." https://www.shipsofscale.com/sosforums/msb-journal/msbj_2023-07.pdf Page 14 describes a variety of solutions to the extra wide gunport including removable multipiece, upward, downward, gates swinging inboard or outboard. Pete decided on downward with removable rail. Well done sir!
 
The Gavel said:
Gun port news! If you've been following this log, you'll have seen the exchange with Pete about the gun port for the forward Dahlgren. The port is big for the arc of fire. We were batting around ideas for how the port was opened and what happened to the rail so the Dahlgren could be fired without smashing the rail. Pete used his imagination and thought up a solution for his Harriet Lane that made sense. Turns out that other people who sailed military vessels in the era copied Pete!!!

I was on a Zoom meeting and since no one could see what I was doing with my camera off, I decided to look at MSB Journal. Click. Scroll. Scroll. Random selection. The July 2023 issue at page 11 has an article "HMCSS Victoria Pivot Guns and Gunports." https://www.shipsofscale.com/sosforums/msb-journal/msbj_2023-07.pdf Page 14 describes a variety of solutions to the extra wide gunport including removable multipiece, upward, downward, gates swinging inboard or outboard. Pete decided on downward with removable rail. Well done sir!
Click to expand...
Thanks. Looking back I found the basis for my conjecture online doing research on the topic for my Harriet Lane model and saw a contemporary example where the entire portion of bulwark, rail and all was hinged at the bottom of the bulwark and dropped down outboard, looking a bit cumbersome and awkward. I believe I read somewhere about the removable top rail portion.
Some captains were given to sawing away and disposing of the offending bit of railing that impeded the elevation of their guns.
Captain Thos. Boyle did this to the taffrail above the transom gunports aboard the "Chasseur" to gain the necessary room to elevate a pair of long guns unimpeded and achieve the range necessary to deter a pursuing adversary, apparently with the desired effect.

Wow! What a treasure trove of pertinent info this issue of MSB is!
 
Last edited:
Peter Gutterman said:
Thanks. Looking back I found the basis for my conjecture online doing research on the topic for my Harriet Lane model and saw a contemporary example where the entire portion of bulwark, rail and all was hinged at the bottom of the bulwark and dropped down outboard, looking a bit cumbersome and awkward. I believe I read somewhere about the removable top rail portion.
Some captains were given to sawing away and disposing of the offending bit of railing that impeded the elevation of their guns.
Captain Thos. Boyle did this to the taffrail above the transom gunports aboard the "Chasseur" to gain the necessary room to elevate a pair of long guns unimpeded and achieve the range necessary to deter a pursuing adversary, apparently with the desired effect.

Wow! What a treasure trove of pertinent info this issue of MSB is!
Click to expand...
Treasure trove indeed! Including diagrams and pictures!
 
There was an index that couldn't make the transition to the new site. I understand, happily, the work to build a new index is ongoing. In the meantime, I will scan the back issues for the gold nuggets. Thank you MSB Journal!
 
The Marsilly mounted gun was much easier, with much more information available online. The coloring, by-the-way, has nothing at all to do with printing, I just add it to make pretty progress pictures.
4 of them in 1:96 scale are on the printer and in a about an hour, we'll see how I did.
ix_marsilly20240216b.png
 
JerryTodd said:
The Marsilly mounted gun was much easier, with much more information available online. The coloring, by-the-way, has nothing at all to do with printing, I just add it to make pretty progress pictures.
4 of them in 1:96 scale are on the printer and in a about an hour, we'll see how I did.
View attachment 428378
Click to expand...
They've been looking pretty darn good thus far, Jerry! Okay
 
  • Like
Reactions: BMT
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top