French Ironclad Neptune 1:250 Scale - Page 18

**Michael Mash** · #**171** 05-06-2022, 04:13 AM

Thank You Don, V-King, JP, Ab, SmashedGlass, and FRD.
Thanks Carl. We have a lot of fun with the plans vs the photos.
I really appreciate the interest in this project.

These photos document the assembly of the forward and aft armored battle masts.
Not all of the battleships and cruisers had them, but this type of mast is characteristic of the French ships from this era. The French architects designed a number of variations. Those you see here on Neptune seem to be unique to this ship. The lower parts housed four guns each. I think they were 47mm. The upper sections I assume served as scouting platforms. Later a searchlight will be mounted on the roof.

I tried to capture some of the details that can be seen in the vintage photo.

Kind Regards,
Mike

**chris190** · #**172** 05-06-2022, 05:22 AM

Always look forward to your posts on this strange vessel Mike - going very well I see! The research necessary must be very considerable for such a relatively obscure prototype, keep up the good work!

Best wishes

Chris

**Vermin_King** · #**173** 05-06-2022, 07:44 AM

Beautifully done, sir. Thank you for letting us follow along

**aansorge** · #**174** 05-06-2022, 08:17 AM

What a delight. I never thought of the evolution (nautical architecture rule number one: small design improvement steps are best) between sailing and steam, canon and rifles in the way so clear in this model.

**rmks2000** · #**175** 05-06-2022, 11:13 AM

Amazing work on such a distinctive ship.

**Dion Dunn** · #**176** 05-07-2022, 08:27 AM

Fantastic work. As a recovering large scale RC modeler who also likes to scratch build, this new end of the hobby has me hooked. Build threads like this set the hook even deeper. Thanks for sharing it with us.

**Michael Mash** · #**177** 07-22-2022, 04:34 AM

Thank You Chris, Aansorge, RMKS2000 and Dion.

I have a few more photos of work to share with you.
Neptune has a pair of ventilators on the bow, three at the stern and at least two on the top deck. The first two photos show the parts coming together. The bowls are made of wood (image 176), while the columns and feet are made of paper. I shaped the bowls with a dremel. I tried this technique during my previous project. The results were good, so I used the same technique here.

Next I created the parts needed for the steamer. The boat parts are all hand cut, except for the tiny propeller, seen in the grip of the tweezers (Image 180). It was laser cut, then painted. The steamer will be hung from the davits. That will come later.

The first vintage image (182) of the steamer being launched with the davits may answer a question from Abhovi on November 13th, Page 14 of this thread, about how the boats were launched when they seem to be on the wrong side of the davits while stowed aboard. This picture seems to show the davits were maneuvered independently of one another. It seems to show the far davit swinging the end of the boat out, then the davit closer in the image could swing the other end out.

The second vintage image (183) is perhaps the best quality image of a steamer I could find. It shows one aboard the battleship Iena.

Kind Regards,
Mike