HMS Queen

HMS Queen
Overview Page (brief) 29 July 2000

HMS Queen is intended to represent a British warship of the late 1890s or very early 1900s. These types of ships were the pinnacle of predreadnought design, and I have attempted to remain faithful to known design elements. However, the vessel has ended up looking somewhat American (the foremast) and even somewhat German (the funnel layout). Ack.

All links are links to images. Use your BACK button to navigate; I'm pretty unsophisticated.

Construction Phases: I and II (previously posted to .pirates and .boats--if you've seen these, please skip to Phase III)

These phases I documented sparsely, but at least there's something. Phase I, the first night of construction, included deciding upon the basic layout (32 stud width won out over a 48-wide pattern owing to space) and beginning to create a workable support structure. Earlier vessels I have built, while occasionally bigger than HMS Queen, had a honeycomb structure throughout the ship designed specifically to hold up the deck. Queen is different in having subdivisions meant to be useable as rooms, holds, barbettes, and (most importantly) boiler rooms. I did not go to the trouble of decortating yet, but that is certainly an option.

Phase I ended with my decking-over of the after barbette and fantail. Its relation to the construction of the rest of the ship is visible in a perspective shot, which shows the boiler section (the "ribbed" area amidships) that is more visible in a later photograph. The basic form of the bow was finalised, and I decided to go with a simple-geometry prow rather than trying something new and bizarre. Very honestly I wanted to spend my time on the good stuff!

Phase II ended with virtually the entire ship decked over. Originally the tan plates (representing wooden decks) were to cover all walkable surface areas of the ship, but in practise only the inboard areas of the fore and after decks (and small areas near the MCG barbettes) were completed as such. An aft perspective shot shows how the decking-over of this large box went; more detail of the aft section is visible in a closer shot.

But alas! All was not well yet, because the bow was not decked over, and the funnels were mounted precariously, as you can see here. The overall look of the ship was coming along nicely, although it just wasn't ornate enough yet. From overhead--with the tripod straddling the aft section--the ship's general lines are plainly visible. However, you can tell why I call the bow support structure a "honeycomb." It's all yellow! But I do like the funnels, they complement the midships section well. Another view, from closer to sea level, confirms my self-congratulatory stance. ;)

Phase III (new!)

With the end of Phase III today, Queen is all but complete. She needs some furniture, could probably use crew accoutrements in the below-decks areas, and in fact needs a crew altogether! The funnels have moved from Phase II, the deckhouses have been reconstructed to separate more easily, and railings have been added. Queen has been designed for transport, and as such separates into four sections. Built together, she is a tall and compact ship, representative of her type. A few photos:

Queen at 3/4 aft, aerial view (how anachronistic)
After deck detail--compare with Phase II photo!
Midships detail. Note the smaller MCG barbettes, and the anti-torpedo-boat weapons mounted in and upon the citadel between them.
Bow detail. Queen looks funky in this picture, because the perspective of the bridge and foremast make the ship look like it has no prow. Rest assured that it does! :)

HMS Queen's weapons were fun to put together, but maddening to engineer properly. I shall probably forever search for a decent casemate mount, but Queen is as close as I've come. The ship mounts four of these 6.2" naval rifles, designed to wipe out small boats that might make a torpedo run against this ship. For slightly larger foes, like light cruisers or (gasp!) destroyers (like they'd be dumb enough to tangle with a capital ship?), four twin 8.1" quick-firing-gun turrets stand ready to dispatch them with extreme relish. And what would Queen be without her main armament--four 14" HG in two twin turrets (historically, predreadnoughts in this period rarely exceeded 12" as a main calibre--but Queen's turrets are unusually large, so I'm taking this licence). The turrets make a nice backdrop for informal naval conferences.

I tried to get a sense of what the ship looks like from the waterline. The results are here from the aft and here and here for the fore-- decide for yourself! (I know the anchors are kind of large, but they really are threaded through the deck!) Finally, take a look at the bow overview, to get a look at the ship's front end in final format. Note the railings in this almost-complete configuration.

Anyways, thanks for looking! More to come...

-LFB