A Question - About "Windows"

**taylormade** · #1 08-22-2008, 01:49 PM

I'm a newbie here, so please excuse my delving into the past. I'm building a model of the Italian battleship Massena and read with interest Carl's (Golden Bear) fantastic post on building his model. I have great plans and photos, but I'm puzzled by one thing - all those crazy "windows" on this ship. I can't find a detailed enough photograph to show what is going on. I have drawings from other French ships that show a door with a porthole in it that is hinged on top, but I see no evidence of this door or anything like it in the photos I have of the ship in harbor. All I see is white-outlined square openings in the side of the superstructure.

I find it hard to believe that the covering for these openings hinged inward! Not a good scenario for a watertight seal. There must have been some way to seal these openings. Does anyone have any information on how this unique French system worked – or did they just remain simple square “windows” in the hull and one hoped a shell didn’t happen to sail through during battle!

RT

**Golden Bear** · #2 08-23-2008, 03:28 PM

They hinged up and down. Also, it is a French battleship named after one of Napoleon's generals. Good luck with this. Sometime I plan on redoing it in 1:250 but that is a ways off.

Those curvey sides on the ships were unarmored. It didn't make much difference if they had ports in them or not because they were invisible to actual shellfire anyway.

Carl

**taylormade** · #3 08-24-2008, 02:14 AM

Thanks Carl, I found a few larger pictures since I posted and they do, indeed, hinge up and down. Funny how that detail is totally lost on the smaller pictures taked from a distance. Does anyone know what color the inside of french ships was painted? I just assume it was white or cream based on the photos with the light edging inside the windows, but for all I know it was light green!
RT

**Golden Bear** · #4 10-16-2008, 11:44 AM

I think that it was white or cream as you have surmised. I have an article somewhere by Luc Féron about French ship colors and I don't remember if he answers that there. He believes that the hull below the waterline should be green, BTW. I'll look for the article and see if that is where I read about it.

Here is a piece of a photo of Charles Martel that I zoomed in on. It shows the hatches pretty nicely along with the round window in the top flap.

How are things going with your work?

Carl

**taylormade** · #5 10-16-2008, 10:29 PM

A minor crisis has developed with my New York build. I've decided I don't like the deck - too flat in coloring, so I went back in and revised it with planks of slightly different colors and darker seams. I like the new look much better and I'll post photos this weekend when I have time to print the new deck out and laminate it to its base. The old deck will act as my test bed for further details. The hull sides are finished and I'm working on the stern and stern walk, trying to come up with a logical approach that will hide seams and recreate the correct curves.

Thanks for the photos. My French warship will be a more conventional model, not paper, but the information really helps.
RT