#all models are from the collection of the NMM

[ltwilliammowett]

The rapid development of the stern in the years of establishment of the sixth rate

The introduction of the frigates into the Navy was a wild one and one that was characterized by constant restructuring. It was not until 1748, when the so-called true frigate was introduced, not much changed in their design. As with the ship-of-the-lines, which at first attached great importance to decoration and design, it is the same with the frigates. The decorative part is also very high, especially at the stern, although not as extreme as with the ships-of-the-line, but they were rather prestige objects. The frigates were quite fast and they are decorated but they were more designed for their tasks at sea.

Model of a sixth rate, 20-guns, 1719

What is particularly noticeable in the early models from 1719 is that they are still very much based on a ship-of-the-line. The heavily decorated ornamental transom with the attached side windows. Whereby it can be assumed that the real ship was not quite as ornamentally overloaded as this model. Model builders liked to show what they could do and the carving often looks more opulent than the actual ship later. But what's different from a ship-of-the- line is the rather flat transome above the rudder.

Model of a sixth rate, 22-guns, 1725

The attached windows don't survive for long and turn into a curved gallery. It's good to see how the flat transome makes its way through. In theory, the round stern provided a calmer flow of water to the rudder, which made the ships more visible at the helm, and this was a recognised feature of ships from the 1600s, but in small ships, with very fine lines aft, it probably made only a minimal difference. Therefore the flat one was preferred at first because it saves labour and wood.

From 1733 onwards, however, it is again standard and is found on all frigates. It is also standard and is found moderately in all frigates, but not all of them have two gunports to the left and right of the rudder, but it is questionable whether these were actually used and to what extent they interfered with the rudder.

Model of HMS Tartar, sixth rate, 20-guns, 1734

In the mid 1740's the ships with 24 guns had an armed and barricaded quarterdeck with 3pdr guns and shafts for mounting swivel joints. The model here shows more than is actually on the ship. Again one of the things that model builders loved and liked to exaggerate.

Model of a sixth rate, 24-guns, 1745

The frigates 1745 were the highlight of the design. the stern railing is extravagant with a railing and the windows are separated with columns. But that something about the actual width of the stern remains until 1812 when the next design changes were made.

Model of a sixth rate, 24-guns, 1745

The semicircular rear end with hardly noticeable decoration established itself from the 1780s  and remained in this form mostly with slight modifications until 1815. 

[robobrainmurdermysterytheatre]

Fallout 4 Mod List!

I promised a very nice Anon a mod list! These are all the mods I have!

I’m going to sort these by the Categories Nexus Mod Manager has set up just to make it easier for my brain and hopefully someone else’s. I left out anything that was a compatibility patch (I have several of those). Every mod should be linked back to its page on The Nexus! 

Modders are amazing! They’re out here doing the lord’s work for FREE infinitely and continually improving this game. 

Ammo

Commonwealth Vendors Stock Nuka World Ammo

Animation

Idle Hands - Male Idle Flavor and Dialogue Customization - lets you change your character’s idle animations!

Armour

Armorsmith Extended

Captain America Power Armor

Commonwealth Survivalist Gear

CROSS Pre-War Cybernetics

CROSS Chosen of Atom

CROSS Courser Strigidae

CROSS Mojave Manhunter

Dark Drifter Outfits

Eli’s Armouor Collection Remade

Eli’s Armour Compendium

Graphic T-Shirts with Leg Armor

Leg Armor for CC T-Shirts Fix - don’t use the above mod without this!

Kellogg’s Metal Armor Arm Piece

Mac Pack - this has some different styles of Maccready’s outfit its neat

Piper’s Armored Trench Coat

Audio - Music

Main Theme Remix Replacer - Dubstep Remix (If you want to just listen to it on YouTube because it’s lit, click here)

Bug Fixes

Keep Commonwealth Radiant Quests Within the Commonwealth

Buildings

Spectacle Island Bridge

Cheats and God Items

Get All the Starcores because fuck looking for those things every time

Clothing

Alternate Hancock Outfit Standalone (Colonial Duster Retexture)

Boston Jacket Fatigues

Crimsomrider’s Accessories

CROSS Brotherhood Recon

Danse’s Wearable Holotags

Femshepping’s Wasteland Drifter Outfits

FO4 Piercings

MASH very cool mix n match of vanilla outfits and some cool hats

Minutemen Beret

Nuka Cola Collector Armored - makes armor wearable over the CC Nuka Cola outfits

Minutemen Reskin and Standalone - Minutemen uniforms!

Simple Clothing - MC Cloth

The Wandering Scavver Clothing

TheKite’s Handmaiden

Wasteland Fashion - Bandanas and Blindfolds

Companions

Amazing Follower Tweaks

Danse Dialogue Overhaul to make him stfu about the Brotherhood post blind betrayal also my sole calls him ‘hon’ when talking to him and it’s the cutest thing 10/10

Danse Idle Comments Fix same as the other one! ty for fixing him, modders!

Crafting - Home

Build All the Beds

Children Chairs

Choo Choo Ch’Boogie - trains, planes and BOATS!

CREAtive Clutter

Do it Yourshelf - Clutter for shelves and bookcases

OCDecorator - Static loot - any droppable object can become static

Old World’s Containers and Decoration

Ponds - With Placeable Water

Gameplay Effects and Changes

Crafting Highlight Fix

Sofa Surfer - Sleeping on Couches

Useable Cigarettes

Hair, Face and Body

KS Hairdos

KS Hairdos Vanilla Match Retexture - if you get the one above get this so they don’t look like wigs lmao

LooksMenu Body Tattoos

Lots More Facial Hair

Lots More Male Hairstyles

Makeup for Men

NWM Warrior Crest Hairstyles

Ponytail Hairstyles by Azar

WX Hair Colors

Immersion

Mors Sit Anywhere (and Wait)

Player Head Tracking

Models and Textures

Alternative Human Eyes

Automatron Decals and Prints

Automatron Robot Faction Paint Jobs

Cathymeow’s Fun Eyes (Standalone)

Ghastly - Ghoul Eyes Texture - Hancock Eye Glow

MMP4APA - Minuteman Paint for ALL Power Armors

NPC

Kid in a Fridge - Peabody Family Settlers - so Billly and fam can come live on your settlements!

NPCs Travel - this mod is LIT it adds patrolling NPCs both friendly and hostile - you can customize which ones and how many to your liking, it DOESN’T mess up the random encounter spawns from what I’ve experienced. Very cool.

Overhauls

RSE Elements Vol. 2 - Advanced Needs (Survival Mode Replacer) - word of warning in default mode of this mod you have to push a button to pee/poop and oh my god that was awful but you CAN turn it off lmao. I use it mostly to eat/drink up all the food I hoard and for the need to sleep for immersion. There’s also a slider for damage modifiers you can use to simulate the damage modifier of Suvival Mode or when you get to the point where you one-shot everything if that isn’t fun anymore just turn your damage modifier down. Second word of caution is whoever made this mod has some really, really NSFW other mods that uhhhh have some upsetting elements so don’t go chasing their other mods for ‘immersion’ like I did unless you’re prepared for some stuff that sounds, I’ll be honest, r*pey. Like I hesitated to include this one because I didn’t want anyone to accidentally do what I did, but I thought I would with a big ol’ fuckin warning because it’s really good at what it does, and what this one mod does is benign.

Looks Menu Customization Compendium

Player Homes

Nuka-World Fizztop Grille Workshop

Bobbi’s Place Player Home

Player Settlement

Place Everywhere

Signs of the Times - Posters

Snappy HouseKit

Better Settlers

Gruffydd’s Signs and Posters

User Interface

Mod Configuration Menu

LooksMenu

Visuals and Graphics

CROSS Crit Gore-verhaul - instead of ash piles you get cool vaporized skeletons and some other things which is neat but not for the faint of heart

Weather

Fallout 4 Seasons - is under a diff completely unrelated category in my NMM but it should go here probably

NAC - Natural and Atmospheric Commonwealth - I’m glad this is the last one because I just need to talk about his mod for a second. It’s fucking amazing. The weathers are real. It’s lightweight. You can change SO MUCH visually in the game for personal preference or screenshots - it’s like an Instagram filter for Fallout with extras lol. There are some cool visual effects for chems, radiation, underwater, when you get hit etc. You don’t have to fuck around to customize it - there’s a holotape menu and you just click and change it and if you don’t like it go back and change it. Make your shit beautiful with NAC! That’s my plug for this mod, it’s one of my faves.

[thomasmarleyblog]

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[flowing-paint]

Hobby List 3 - Paints

Here we are with the last post in the Hobby List series: all about paints! If you followed the previous installments, at this point you should have all your hobby tools ready for your painting station, brushes and palette are ready to go and the miniatures you are going to paint are already divided into properly sized chunks (to paint in subassemblies) thanks to the January tutorial. You only miss the appropriate paints. Today I will try to list up all the essentials and the “secrets” behind some smart painting that you usually grab only after years of practice. This is a really long post: read on only if you need to get started with paints and the likes!

First of all, I am not sure I will be able to properly write an easy to understand post: this topic is quite intricated with thousands of different paints, technical paints, thinners, varnishes you can go on for hours. Let’s say that I will try to focus on the paints I use and maybe make some brief incursion into the realms of Citadel colors (mainly for technicals) and P3. Let’s see what kind of mess I will come out with!

Primers

Rattle can primers, brush-on primers or airbrush primers, all you need to know is here. That and the fact that you need to buy at least one. Look what works best for you but please, just don’t skip the priming phase.

Paints

I will spend a lot of space here for obvious reasons. Which paints should I use? If you’re a beginner this is probably your first big problem. There are so many paint manufacturers that specialize in miniature acrylic or enamel paints that, if I write them down, the list will not be exhaustive or complete. There are also some fine arts paints that can be used for miniatures, only adding to the confusion. Luckily, the quick answer to the above question is: you’re going to use all of them sooner or later. Some paints are good base colors others are good because they finish mat other are good to highlight so you can easily understand that the perfect paint station includes many different paints from different manufacturers. What I can tell you based on my present experience is that:

Citadel colors: very good for beginners thanks to the high coverage and the dark to light color gradations. They are insanely expensive and come in stupid difficult-to-use pots that dry on you super fast.

Vallejo colors: very good from beginners to advanced painters thanks to the wide variety of colors and formulations. They have normal and airbrush paints in dropper bottles so they are easy to use and store. Some colors like reds and yellows have a wonderful ultra-vibrant look after you paint them... but they are so transparent that it may take you one day to layer them down. Colors are so many that you may need to combine different series.

P3: My experience is very limited but what I see on youtube tells me they are quite thick, so high coverage, and provide you a vast array of interactive colors so you can create your gradations easily by using P3 colors only. Think of them as the high quality / low price version of Citadel colors.

Reaper: I am planning on expanding my collection of Reaper colors as they provide you with some fancy color that is (almost) never translated to any other paint manufacturer. They have their niche and it looks like they fit perfectly in there.

- Colors choice

So, let’s say you decided to stick to Vallejo colors because of their flexibility or availability or whatever. The next step is going to your favorite (web)shop, stare at the color ranges for a while and start buying the paints you really need. Problem is that staring down the barrel of 300+ colors the selection process becomes daunting. I will tell you the secret: do your homework before starting buying stuff. Think about what you’re going to paint, look for a nice color scheme you want to try your hand at and write down a list of colors that are 100% necessary. Only after you have a detailed list of the colors (not their brand name) you can pull the trigger. Remember my friend that wanted to start painting? Well, we did this step together with his Smurfs: he found a tutorial on Youtube where citadel colors were used then we discussed any additional accessory color that may be needed and only then he bought all the stuff. Granted. he can only paint smurfs now... but he was able to start batch painting cause he had all the colors he needed thanks to accurate preparation. Once you start you will always have colors to add to your palette but that’s a long process that goes on for years. I may have around 200+ paints now but I started with 20 or so.

Now, once you have the list of all the colors you may need I urge you to think about that color scheme as a three-dimensional thing: even if you are painting a purple miniature the miniature has three dimensions with dark colors in the recesses and light colors on the top of the ridges. For this reason, for each color you think you will need, you will probably have to buy three or four.To have an idea of what I’m telling you, have a look at this page: Warmonger Miniatures original paint set. I have never tried these colors but the image offers a clear visualization of what I mean: for each color they give you exactly three shades (it looks like that’s their system) so you can build up more realistic colors. It looks like the focus of this paint set is more on historical and fantasy figures but the principle applies everywhere. It’s the color theory baby... As we were saying, you decided to buy Vallejo so let’s see some examples using real colors. I will give you a couple of the combinations I’m using on my Death Guard models.

Purple

To give purple that pop it deserves, you can select these colors:

Base: Game Color Royal purple (72016)

Middle: Model Color Violet (70960)

Highlight: Model Color Blue Violet (70811)

Hyper highlight: mix highlight with your favorite white in (really) small amounts

Green

My Death Guard green must be toxic, not rotting so I want to go with a super highlighted glow-in-the-dark kind of color transition. Here is how I do it:

Base: Model Color Green Grey (70886) the closest I found to the GW one

Middle: Game Air Goblin Green (72730) works even if not “air”

Highlight: Model Color Golden Olive (70857)

Hyperhighlight: Game Air Light Livery Green (72733)

You can have a look at these color schemes in action by looking for my Death Guard related posts here.

I also have progressions for blues, reds etc but I will skip them as you probably got the point. You have to decide the final colors the figure will have and look for the proper colors to produce them. It’s that easy, especially when you have so many colors spread across many manufacturers. When deciding and taking inspiration from other people’s work you may need a paint conversion chart. I usually have a look here but keep in mind the correspondence is not always possible and you will have to mix your colors to achieve a good match.

- Must have colors

This is a really personal point for each painter but if you’re starting and you just want a fast failsafe setup I think you will appreciate this list. I worked it out throughout the years. The list does not include the above triads/quartets of colors, that’s up to you but if you have a goal in mind and the three or more colors to obtain it then, adding the following paints to your rack will set you up for good. Below, I will also tackle the other auxiliary products you need to be all set up.

Whites: I never use white but almost always all sorts of off-white. If you have the first three you are all set.

Model Color Ivory (70918). My to go choice when painting white.

Model Color Silvergrey (70883). Don’t let the name fool you. It’s a silverish white

Model Air Aged White (71132). This is white with a yellowish tint. You can paint skulls with it pretty easily.

Amsterdam Acrylics Titanium white: I never use pure white but I have it of course. Sometimes I highlight the Ivory or Deck Tan so I use this.  Look for the white that best fits your needs. They are all pretty chalky so spread your horizons across different brands and good luck!

Blacks: You need black even if you don’t really use black when painting. I use it mainly for base borders. But what about those parts of the miniatures that should look black? I use german grey.

Game color Black (72051): Solid black to paint directly on.

Model Air Black (71057): Pre-diluted black to use sparingly when mixing colors.

German Grey (70995): This is how black should look on miniatures. No more dull minis for you. You’re welcome.

Yellow: Grab Citadel Flash Gitz Yellow. It is pretty thick so it has proper coverage and it also goes well over greens as a subtle highlight. You cannot go wrong with this.

Metallics: if you only have access to Vallejo then you’re pretty lucky ‘couse Vallejo have some of the usebest metallics you will ever find.

Model Color Oily Steel (70865): I used to stick to Chainmail Silver (72753) but this one yields a better result in the metallic middle/dark tones. If you wash it properly it also gets a sort of dark reflection that really looks like real stainless steel. As it is quite reflective so you can also tint it to meet your needs. Two words: get this.

Model Color Air Chrome (71064): This is another magic metallic from Vallejo. It goes on super well even in its diluted state and has an astounding coverage.

Bronze (70998): I don’t use a lot of golds. When I do I generally go NMM. I emulate gold with this color and some underpainting. This one also works great by itself. It is just one of the best metallics around.

Citadel Leadbelcher (the old Boltgun Metal): don't use this directly on your miniature because it’s thick like, say, concrete. This is a very good drybrushing metal though.

Washes: washing is a technique more than a color but this is how they call them so let me use this term. Many people say that Army Painter washes are the best on the market but I don’t have easy access to them thus I cannot help you in that regard. The last point: I use Vallejo washes because that’s what I have but I don’t really like how murky they are. Avoid them if you can.

Citadel Agrax Earthshade: the very first wash you must buy when basing the miniatures it is really nice and flexible. It darkens the look of the miniature quite a bit so it should not be abused.

Vallejo Mecha Petrol Spills (69817): This is technically not a wash but a weathering paint. I simply don’t care and use it as a black wash for my metallics. The results when using this paint are amazing! The wash is basically pre-diluted to the proper concentration so you only have to slab it on. In addition, it does not leave that haze normal washes leave behind as this is not even pigmented at all. It is so diluted you may need to apply it two times but this doesn’t bother me as it means it is hard to overdo it. Again: get this.

I think we are more or less done with the paints. If you use the bits of advice above you have everything you really need to start painting immediately. If you want to bring the game to a different level you can keep reading for some additional stuff you may (or may not) want to add to the initial investment.

Thinning agents

The first advice you usually get when you start painting is “thin your paints”. You have many ways to do it so let me tell you what you need. You can choose to use a drop of plain water when the paint is already thin but that’s less than ideal in most situations and really wrong in all the others so plan in investing a small amount of money in the following products.

- Thinner medium

This is the same acrylic medium you have in the paint but without the pigments in it. You don’t really need to go after a fancy medium: the generic ones you find in the art & crafts stores will perfectly work. Use this to thin your paint when you need more than a single drop but bear in mind that using the thinner medium will speed up the drying time and sometimes this is not desirable.

- Floor wax

I know it sounds crazy but floor waxes are acrylic resins diluted with water (?) and that makes this another type of thinner medium. As strange as it sounds this is really usable in miniature painting. Paint thinned this way does tend to dry a little bit glossy but you are going to coat the miniature with a mat varnish anyway so it’s not a problem.

- Airbrush Flow Improver

This sounds like an Airbrush-only thinner but, believe me, this is probably the most important tool in your paint rack. Paint diluted with this medium will dry slower (it acts as a retarder) and will gain a sort of viscosity that greatly changes the flow properties of the original paints. This is a magical power that should not be underestimated. Let me give you a concrete example. When I first bought the Vallejo Grey primer I was trying to brush it on my miniatures exactly the same way I do with the German Grey one without success. The primer was too runny and was not sticking to the plastic. I was forced to paint at least 4 layers per miniature wasting a lot of time on the priming step only. I thought that was because the primer was too thin but one day I decided to try a different approach so I actually diluted this particular primer with Vallejo Flow Improver. Despite being diluted 1:1 the primer covered the mini in one pass because of the new “stickiness” the flow improver added to it. You can also have the same effect with those airbrush paints that are too thin to be painted directly on: you add a drop of VFI and you’re good to go.

Another interesting use is for mixing washes or glazes. Washes are really really sensitive to water but sometimes need to be diluted: in those cases, VFI is the way to go. Again, glazes need to be super diluted but “sticky” and that’s exactly why this additive is so good: it has so many uses! Just do yourself a favor are buy a dropper bottle to try it out. I will probably need a full tutorial to explain how I use it so stay tuned.

Varnishes

You need a varnish to finish your paintwork. It is so damn important that you coat your miniature when you are done that you should read very carefully. You are probably going to play with these miniatures so they will get transported around, they will get touched thousands of times, dropped scratched and so on. The varnish is a thick and rigid final coat you put on the miniature to avoid damage so plan on buying one eventually.

- Mat varnish

This is what I suggest you use as a sealing coat. It makes the model look less like a toy and more like a miniature living being. I don’t have any specific suggestions for products but many people say “Testors Dullcote” is the best one. You can also use Vallejo Matt Varnish... I think it will work just fine. Personally, I use a brush-on varnish I found here in Japan. I don’t even know the name of the manufacturer but it’s so good if I will ever leave this country I will need to bring with me a big stock of it!

- Gloss Varnish

You can also substitute this with your floor wax if you do so desire and save yourself a bottle and some money. Even though you can use this as a protecting layer (many board gamers do so) I do not advise you to do it: if too shiny, the final result ends up looking cheap and toy-like. I use this as an intermediate protecting layer while painting delicate multi-layer color schemes or as a preparation before washes.

I think I will end this post here even if there are so many other paints and accessories to showcase! The aim of this series was, however, to help beginners with the bare minimum requirements to start the hobby so we may say I went a little too far. Please feel free to ask me everything you want regarding this matter and thank you for reading through all this!

I will be traveling back to my home country for the next two weekends but I will try my best to keep the content coming. Rest assured that if I have an internet connection I will post on the blog. In the meantime...

.... game on!

[ltwilliammowett]

Frigates with Oars

As mentioned before, the type of frigate was a very early one, although not the kind of frigate used in the 18th, 19th century. In the 17th century, frigates were small light ships that, under certain circumstances, had much more advantages with oars. A lot of privateers were equipped with oars to pull their prizes into the next harbour. In the late 17th century the Royal Navy had three galley frigates. These were used to fight against the barbarian pirates and because of the oars they should become more agile and should be able to stop them. However, the crew number was very high and unfortunately they did not prove to be very manoeuvrable with many ships around them. And so they were only useful when damaged ships had to be towed away.

Detail of an unknown model of a fith rate frigate, 1690 - under the gunports are the oar ports, or scuttles

However, the possible advantages of some additional oars simply couldn't be ignored and so the idea of rowing the ships over the guports was born. As a result, from 1704 onwards all fifth and sixth rate frigates, bombvessels and fire ships were allowed to have oars. The wars of both William III and Queen Anne included many operations inshore, where the ability to manoeuvre in confied but sheltered waters underlined the value of rowing power. The rudder catches were large and cumbersome, and in times of peace there was a strong incentive to leave them behind; in fact, dockyards developed out of the habit of cutting scuttles for them.

A model of a 20-gun, sixth-rate sloop, 1719. It is a rare example of a model fitted with or oars or sweeps

Before 1745 all six rates had 18 oar scuttles on one side of the lower deck. However, even if the frigates had them, they were hardly ever used, they proved to be too cumbersome. In 1759 a general order was issued that all frigates and sloops with oar ports should be provided with oars; and those without oar ports should have as many ports as could reasonably be cut between their gun ports.

A model of a 24-gun, sixth-rate frigate, 1745. The scuttles are directly left and right of the gunports 

After the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, the old peacetime reluctance to ship oars seems to have reasserted itself, so in December 1775 it became necessary to provide all frigates and sloops heading for North America with their specified number of oars - the war against the rebellious colonies was obviously to be fought in coastal waters and restaurants where an ability to manoeuvre independently of the wind would be useful. This proved to be useful this time and freed some frigates from an unpleasant situation.

A model of the 28-guns, sixth-rate sloop Guadeloupe, 1763. She's a so-called true Frigate. This means it corresponds to the classic frigate style of the 18th century. The scuttles now have more space and are no longer distributed over the whole length

Therefore, in 1781 it was still considered necessary to equip the frigates with oar ports. So they were still a part of the frigates but their number was visibly reduced. Since the guns needed more space to manoeuvre and the oars were only used in an emergency.

A model of the 38-guns, fifth rate frigate Minerva, 1780. Here it can be seen how the scuttles are becoming fewer and fewer. Even though it was built before the new rules took effect. Unfortunately the scuttles are rarely shown in later models 

This was clearly noticed in 1813 when the oar ports almost disappeared completely. Only two were installed near the stern and the head to turn the ship in case of emergency. After 1815 the demand for any form or rudder power was silently put aside. They had simply outlived their usefulness. The next time the Royal Navy was involved in a major war against Russia in 1853 - auxiliary power was now steam.

Here is a true rarity to be seen. The HMS Trincomalee was launched in 1817 with 38-guns. She has a row of scuttles far below her gun ports. However, this is due to its class. It is the last of the Leda class of 1805, after HMS Unicorn, where scuttles were still present, although in very small numbers. When she was built, the usefulness of these scuttles was actually discussed, but since her class intended it, she was built with them. Even though she had never used them.

[ltwilliammowett]

Ship's decorations : the broadside of a ship- of- the- line

In two centuries a lot has changed in ship design and decoration. And the fastest and most radical change was in the broadside, as opposed of the bow and the stern. Until 1703 all ships were floating works of art. And that in the true sense of the word. But that changed with a decision in 1703, which said that all decorations should be drastically reduced. It was simply too expensive and somehow also useless. Of course this did not happen as fast as the admiralty would have liked and so the decoration was reduced only slowly. Until 1796 everything had to be removed. Warships should be floating weapons and not a work of art. Although in their own way they always were, with or without a lot of decoration. Here are some examples based on models :

Model of a 90- gun two decker, 1675

The whole region of the reeling is provided with carved and gilded wreath ports. The entrance for the senior officers is also strongly constructed and looks like an arch portal with animal shapes or grotesque masks. Also the cabin windows are carved like the wreath ports.

Model of a 100- gun two decker of 1715-19

The wood carving is mostly still preserved but already reduced, what is no longer there is the gilding. But now they tried to create highlights with colours and to convince with painted ornaments in the direction of the star.

Model of the Queen Charlotte, 1789

The carvings have now almost disappeared. Only simple columns and mouldings can still be seen at the entrance. Conspicuous are now two narrow painted stripes below the railing, mostly separated by colour but in plain colours. What you can't see here is that a striped pattern in earth tones is now appearing. Especially popular was Nelson's ochre-black pattern (Nelson chequer), as we know it from the Victory.

Model of the Queen, 1839

Solid barricades became the norm during the Napoleonic Wars and these were often cut off square at either end of the waist gangways. In the 19th century barricades were added in the waist with the only concession to elegance being the gently radiused hances of the poop.  In addition there is the carving of the entrance are only simply worked out leaf ornaments on the upper sides. The earthy tones are now giving way to the simple black and white striped pattern. The decision to do this was a simple one, because the production of the colours and the quantity simply became too expensive.

As you can see here in a fast and very slimmed down form, the floating baroque became a simple functional vessel. Which no longer needed any elaborate decoration and with the introduction of the Ironclads proved to be superfluous and not necessary. From this time on, more emphasis was placed on functionality than on great artistic design.

[ltwilliammowett]

Filling the Waist

A frigate was as inconsistent in its design as the other higher-ranking ships. Especially noticeable is here that these ships had no closed upper deck and also no gundeck. Interestingly a frigate describes only a fast and usually small warship which already appeared in the 16th century. It may sound strange that the HMS Naseby, an 80 gun, ship-of-the-line from 1655 was called a frigate. What we know today as a frigate only appeared in the 1740s.

The models are above the descriptive text that belongs to this picture

Model of a 24-gun, 6th-rate, ca 1745

This ship had two decks, but no ports and layed deep in the water. Because on ships the gundecks are the only thing that counts, these ships were only a one-decker. The early specimens, did not have a continuous deck either. A longer quarterdeck and a larger fore ship were introduced, also adding a board capping strip over the waist gunwales. This may have been wide enough for an agile sailor to use as a shortcut from one deck to another, but it was far from any kind of gangway.

Model of HMS Amazon, 5th-rate, 32- guns, 1773 - a so called true frigate

The so-called true frigate is based on the studies made on carved French frigates. The new French frigates between 1740- 48, already had a gundeck and a kind of upper deck on which lighter cannons and swivel guns were placed. This was of course copied and refined a little bit more ( they started to place guns on the quaterdeck) which became the standard for frigates at sea. With these true frigate came a broading of this capping strip into a gangway. Although this was still very narrow, it allowed men and swivel gun mountings to be to be disposed along the waist, which was important in close action when boarding was a potential threat. From about 1757 quaterdecks were biuld with short extentions forward at each side, called on draughts 'the fixed part of the gangways' usually forming landings for the steps down into the waist. They were fixed in the sense that they were structural whereas the gangway boards were just a light platform. At this stage there was still a step down on to the gangway.

Model of HMS Mermaid,5th rate, 32-guns, 1784

In 1782 there was a general order to raise the waist of frigates and to make the gangways flush with the decks fore and aft. They remained fairly narrow and were not integrated- the run of planking was not carried from forecastle and quaterdeck into the gangways.

Model of a 32- gun, 5th rate, 1780

This coincided with the fitting of moveable skid beams across the waist to carry the spare spars and an increasing outfit of boats. The gangways now needed greater support to hold the hole constellation.

Model of HMS Diana, 5th rate, 38-guns, 1793

This was a short live expedient and by the 1790′s frigates had fixed skid beams fitted under the gangways.

Model of HMS Lacedaemonian, 5th- rate, 38-guns, 1812

An order of 1805 integrated the gangways fore and aft so the upperworks, in effect, now formed one continous deck. Structurally this was achieved by making the skids standard deck beams and supporting the gangways with the same beam-and carling system that underpinned the forecastle and quaterdeck. This was recognised in 1809 when the breastworks that had marked the limits of quaterdeck and forecastle wre abolished. From 1810 some frigates began to fill the remaining open space in the waist with light gratings, to produce a makeshift spar deck.

Model of HMS Vernon, 5th- rate, 50-guns, 1832

After 1815 there was a short lived flirtation with double banked frigates, mounting a complete battery on what was called the spar deck, but the waist guns interfered with sail handling so badly that the ship could not be fought and monoevred at the same time- a crucial consideration in a single ship action. Thereafter, evne though there was effectively a continuous upper deck, there might be a break in the bulwarks amidships and openings over the waist- regarded as useful in the battle to help disperse gun smoke from the gundeck.