Wednesday being Patreon Day, work on Edymion began this morning. I made fairly good progress, but the sternpiece proved rather difficult (just some Blender bugs!).
I went with a "generic" British-style stern, as the plans I had access to didn't actually include stern-facing details of the galleries, though I did have side images.
Anyway, after more than a month, it was good to return to a "proper" Age of Sail ship! I've been rather stressed lately, but there's something very methodical about making a ship. I suppose I've had enough practice that I can do it sort of semi-consciously, so I took the whole thing as a bit of a meditative exercise.
Work progressed as follows; sketch "lines" of the ship using the stern/bow image attached to the main profile, scaling the hull to 1/700, drawing the hull shape, closing off the bow and stern, sculpting the galleries and then making the bow details. Finally I added belaying pins and gunports. All together that was about six or seven hours' work!
For the curious, you can view my Patreon workflow here.
I think the stern is fine - in contemporary paintings I can't see any differences. Apparently Severn was ordered as the Leda class 38 Tagus (which you have already modelled) and the name was changed to Severn. She was actually built to Endymion's dimensions and armament rather than the smaller Leda..
Right! Sorry updates have been slow, but I only just go back to work on Endymion today. I can't really offer any step-by-step insight, as a lot of progress was made, so I'll just have to share some general thoughts. Firstly, and interestingly, the Forecastle's gunwhales differed between two sources I was drawing on. One being a standard profile plan that showed lower gunwhales with belaying pins, while the inboard profile showed high gunwhales. Googling for models, most showed her with the latter configuration. My best guess is that my first image is of Endymion perhaps as she was built, while the second is her in her form around the time of 1812, as that's the period she's more famous for.
Anyway, as I had already modelled the belaying pins version, I decided to add an "optional" folder to the Blender file allowing for the exporting of this model with either the low gunwhales or high ones:
While we're touching on the modularity options, as mentioned, I thought this time I'd offer a the ability to toggle between a "fine" deck and a chunky one. As you can see, so far I've only sculpted the fine one, but a chunky toggleable version will be added before release.
As things stand, the other toggleable options I intend to add are for chunky guns and open or closed gunlids. Here is how the toggle menu looks in the overlay currently:
Another issue, as discussed earlier in this thread with Lars, is that there are no stern images for Endymion. I went with the generic stern from the thread linked above, but as you can see it is, as a result, plain. It still looks appropriate, but I'll have to think about adding a nameplate or something:
Anyway, I suppose I should close things off by saying what still needs to be done (I think the ship needs at least another half-day's work):
-Addition of closed/open gunlids
-Fixing of the hull trim, where it overlaps gunports
-Addition of mast bases
-Completion of armament
-Addition of ladders/stairs
-Chunky guns
-FDM & 1/1200 versions
But yeah, she's pretty close! I am a little bit demoralised by how slow I'm working, but I suppose it's to be expected right after a holiday/when readjusting back to my old routine (was sleeping in a lot the past week x) ). I did complete the two Patreon figures today as well, though (minus their 6mm versions), so I can't say performance was outright poor.
One question I might have to ask, though, is whether there are any notable changes I should make the model the Severn-class? Of course I intend to read up on this once the "base" model is done, but general pointers woul certainly be appreciated!
Regarding the gallery: check here: https://forum.game-labs.net/topic/26724-historical-accuracy-of-endymion-appearance/