My two Burgundian ironclad battleships

The first step that I usually take when constructing a 'cartoon' version of a ship design is to take a side view (and if it is available, a plan view as well) of the original design and change the ratio between the length and height by a ratio of 1:2, thus:

I find that this exaggerates the main features of the original design and allows me to get some idea what the end result will look like. This gave me that starting point for the design of my two Burgundian ironclad battleships.

At this point I remembered that Fred Jane had included illustrations of the Amiral Baudin and Formidable in the very first issue of his All The Worlds Fighting Ships. I dug out my reproduction copy and found the images and description of the two ships to be a very useful sources of information.

Amiral Baudin.

Formidable.

I finished building my 'cartoon' versions of the two ships yesterday, and although they are by no means '100% accurate models of the original ships', I think that they do have a passing resemblance.

(I totally accept that I am biased in this view, but they are wargame models designed to be used, and not to be on display in a cabinet.)

I did try fitting shorter funnels, but for some reason they did not look right. The original ships had pronounced tumblehome sides, and I have tried to suggest this by adding 'bulges' to the waterline of the models.

The next step will be to give the two models a couple of coats of PVA to seal the wood. Once that is dry, I will apply a couple of coats of undercoat/primer before painting them in Burgundian livery ... which is likely to be similar to that used by the French Navy at the turn of the century, namely yellow ochre upperworks and a black hull.