Charlemagne

[Gregory Shoda]

As with Golden Bear, I haver a keen interest in French predreadnought battleships, which were unparalleled for their often odd appearance. Golden Bear has built a beautiful model of this ship already, but I wanted to build one for myself. My project was a much more modest and less detailed 1/550 scale model based upon French Archive drawings and drawings from Russian Internet sources. I also referred frequently to GB's model when in doubt about interpreting the drawings available to me.

I experimented using black construction paper for the hull and somewhat thick paper for the upper works. This was not a successful experiment as i was not able to achieve edges as sharp and crisp as I would have liked.

Not being keen on building ship's boats, I have so far not built any but may populate the boat deck at a later time as the model appears somewhat bare, especially from above.

I remember thinking that the Charlemagne class ships (including St. Louis and Gaulois) were ugly ships and that I would never want to build one. However, over the years I have changed my opinion and now think that they were attractive. They had active careers and all served during WW I, notably in the Gallipoli campaign. Gaulois was sunk by a U-boat.

They were small ships. My model is a bit over 8 inches long. For my next project, I have embarked on building the Russian old battleships Slava of the Borodino class as she appeared dureing WW I.

 

[Renaud]

The colour of the upper works, the one you choose is the Mediterranean livery, should be a far duller one, close to buff, the one you used looks more to how the Russian ships funnels were painted. That would not be difficult to fix that.
To match the Atlantic livery, you could use a light grey.

And from 1899 onwards, a white line was painted just above the thick armoured plate, the one that ends up a little above waterline. So this ship was always painted with, this until the all over grey livery was ordered, in 1908.

 

[Renaud]

And the decks were covered with linoleum, whose colour matches a red/brown shade.

 

[Gregory Shoda]

Renaud: I guess I goofed on the color of the upper works. I thought buff was a bright color. Reviewing photos I have of Charlemagne, the white line is prominent in most of them but there are a few photos that do not have the white line along the waterline (prior to the gray paint scheme). Although I had heard that the decks were covered with cortecene, somehow I could not conceive it. A couple of photos I've seen led me to believe the decks might be steel. Such were the reasons for my errors.

 

[Renaud]

It was launched in 1898, it seems to me, and the ships were ordered to be painted with a white line in 1899, in its early days, not sure she was completed by that time.
The grey tone for Atlantic service, concerning the upperworks, was at first darker, then, when adding a great deal of white, turned out to be a pale grey later on. This grey is not the one used from 1908 onwards, which was darker and mixed with blue.

The plate for the marking "Charlemagne" is blue, and adorned with gold letters.

All these paintings differ a few from a shipyard to another, only the camo painting, after 1908, was the same everywhere.

 

[Gregory Shoda]

Charlemagne nameplate

Regarding the nameplate. I did study this question before adding this feature as I did not have the capability of coloring the lettering. There are a number of photos that clearly show dark lettering on a white or light background. I don't think it is possible or correct to make definitive statements about French painting practices on specific ships as they seem to have been painted differently at different times by their captains contrary to general practices.

 

[Renaud]

nameplate

Wrong! Gold lettering on a blue background, such in the glorious days of the Soleil Royal, Tourville's flagship at Beveziers (battle of La Hougue, 1692)

Change it at quickly as possible...

 

[Gregory Shoda]

nameplate

Renaud:

I expect that you know much more about French ships than I ever can, but I haven't made anything up. Here are 3 photos that seem to indicate very dark lettering on a light background. These are not the only ones I've seen.

 

[Renaud]

Charlemagne nameplate

here is a close view

 

[barry]

Another little gem Greg

 

[Gregory Shoda]

Barry:

Thanks. The model is small. I often was prevented from attempting certain details as the parts would be too small to work with.

Also, although I get disappointed whenever I look at my photos as they reveal flaws that I was not aware of, they are not detailed enough to show some of those I am aware of (other than those mentioned by Rinaud).

I have added boats, a few other details, and done a bit of straightening out of parts. In addition, I thought of a way to add in the white stripe along the hull and to repaint the nameplate. I will take a few pictures & post them later.

 

[Gregory Shoda]

Another photo of the model after a few boats and other minor additions and adjustments were made.