1/700 French 40-gun Frigate Diane

 

As I promised here is the second ship I was asked to build from Henry Turner's new Age of Admirals: Blood on the Nile Kickstarter. I was a bit late getting it done before the Kickstarter ended but he was still happy with it. So this is the French frigate Diane.

Diane was started in Toulon shipyard in September 1794 and launched 2 October, 1796. She was designed by Pierre-Joseph Penetreau. She was one of four frigates present at Aboukir, or the Battle of the Nile, on August 1-3, 1798 and escaped with the 74-gun ship Guillaume Tell on 2 August. Two years later on 27 August 1800, she was sailing from La Valette, Malto in company with Justice when she was chased and captured by three British warships: HMS Genereux (74), HMS Northumberland (74), and HMS Success (32). She was taken into Royal service as Fifth Rate 38-gun frigate Niobe. At the time of her capture Diane only had 114 men on board, having left the remainder in Malta to help in its defense.

Dimensions: 

• Length of gundeck         155'10"
• Breadth                            40'8.5"
• Depth in Hold                  12'7"
• Burthen                        1142 Tons BM

This 3D print is a beautiful sculpt. As with the Bucentaure, the detail on the guns and carriages at this scale is just amazing! The anchors and ship's boat are printed as well. All of the rest is scratch built. While the Bucentaure's sails are cloth, due to time constraints I made paper sails for Diane.

The FDM version file print

'Beauty' shots of the painted hull that went into the Kickstarter add:

Some build shots. Not many because I was in such a hurry to finish.

The finished model:

A shot with both Diane and Le Bucentaure