Month: January 2026

Charles Martel Leading the French Line of Battle

Pre-Dreadnought Charles Martel Leads the French Ironclad Fleet in the Line of Battle

Original Post: Jan. 13, 2026

Anyone paying attention just had to know this post was coming, no way I’d leave my Charles Martel out of the French Fleet Fun with Digital Dioramas!

As crazy as it may seem I do think this scene was actually plausible, Admiral Duperre, Devastation and Redoutable were all still active at the time of Charles Martel’s commissioning in 1897.

I was going to make the Reboutable led battle-line picture the new website splash-page graphic, but this pic ended up stealing the show.

French Ironclad Redoutable Recruitment Poster

Having fun with Blender Renders

Original Post: Jan. 11, 2026

I’d obviously rather spend two hours creating a fictitious French naval recruitment poster circa 1887 prominently featuring my new, mostly complete, Redoutable Ironclad Blender model, than spend those same 2 hours working on the tiny details that remain, won’t show in renders but still need to be completed before printing…

Think I may make this my new splash page graphic. I love the way creating digital dioramas in Blender lets you “play” with your new digital toy models! 🙂

PS: The keen observer may have noticed I used my Admiral Duperre model for the second ship in line.

PSS: I just added a Digital Diorama forum post for Redoutable with a couple new pictures related to the one above.

French Ironclad Redoutable, Blender Work Near Complete

Blender renders of the French ironclad warship Redoutable

Original Post: Jan. 8, 2026

While researching my Admiral Duperre project, I would repeatedly come across pictures of the first steal hulled battleship, Redoutable and I really liked her lines. Her tumble-home hull was even more pronounces than Duperre’s and though Redoubtable is Duperre’s predecessor, aspects of her appear more modern, at least to my eyes. In the pictures above her Blender work is easily over 90% complete but I’ve still got a bit of work before she’s done. Even so, it’s only taken me a little over a month to get this far. So I’m definitely getting faster! (Or at least able to reuse more). I kind of like Redoutable more than Duperre right now but then again, I always like the shiny new thing I just finished best.

Come spring I’m going to have some difficult choices to make as to what gets printed and assembled first. Heck, I’m already looking at Courbet for my next Blender build. I do love me some French ironclads…