[Soldadets] Building a what-if naval power

[Lluis of Minairons]

Hi all, besides of building an XVIII cent. Ottoman army and restoring my ACW Confederate army, a third project I'm currently focused on is the build of a XVII-XVIII cent. Catalan navy using historical elements actually fielded by my ancestors at different moments of this period as well as other, entirely fictional, warships that I'd like to share here. Some models are PP, others aren't.

Let's start with oar powered ships. Historically the Generality of Catalonia always kept a small fleet of its own, normally consisting of about 3-4 galleys tasked with fighting Barbary corsairs. These large galleys were probably complemented with a larger number of galiots and even smaller ships, either owned by the Generality itself or by coastal municipalities.

At first I only knew of Skytrex producing 1/600 scale galleys, but I found these too bulky and large for my humble taste, so I decided to scratch build my first galley - a small galiot to be precise. I had already shown you my first steps at such process in a thread of Pieces of Eight subforum, but I hadn't shown you the final result yet. Here you have it:

It's admittedly a quite humble piece of work, but I promise it looks fantastic on a tabletop - especially having in mind how small it actually is 

Lluís

[Leslie BT]

Great stuff Lluis, and the photos are looking good as well.

Hope you are managing, are you under confinement?

[Colonel Kilgore]

Not at all humble, Lluis - very nice colourful!

Simon

[Lluis of Minairons]

Hope you are managing, are you under confinement?

Things are slowly reversing to a March status, no matter the measures taken. Here we aren't under a full confinement yet, but to weekend mobility constraints besides of an all-week curfew from 10PM to 6AM. However, we can already "smell confinement in the air", despite politicians are still reluctant to speak about it.

Patience.

[Lluis of Minairons]

Right after the galiot, which was undoubtedly scouting this forum's waters, here there come two larger galleys!

First to be built was this galley I made from scratch, following more or less the same schema and materials than for the galiot.
I gave to it mid. XVII cent. catalonian standard and banner, willing the model to stand for the real "Santa Anna" ship - a medium galley of the Generality's flotilla:

"Santa Anna" galley - full report here: http://soldadets.blogspot.com/2020/11/galera-santa-anna.html

Later I learnt about a small german company whose name is Imperial-modellbau, whose model ships were apparently compatible to those in my collection (between 1/450 and 1/600 scales), and decided to give a try to some of these. So this is how "Sant Maurici" galley was born - a second catalan galley of that same historical period. This model was built as it came, except for a few modifications - such as adding a canopy on stern, a long shielding along both sides and a lantern.

"Sant Maurici" galley - full report here: http://soldadets.blogspot.com/2020/11/galera-sant-maurici.html

Here you have them patrolling the Balearic Sea side by side!

Lluís

[Colonel Kilgore]

Very nice again Lluis - you do have a talent for these!

Simon

[Lluis of Minairons]

With my fleet's lantern galley still awaiting her turn on workbench, I've now finished a sail ship - one of a quite common kind in the Mediterranean but literally unknown in outer seas: a xebec-polacre, or even a xebec-frigate given her noticeable size and respectable armament. As you can see by the images below, this type of ship is basically a xebec with hybrid rigging:

more pictures in my own blog: http://soldadets.blogspot.com/2020/11/xabec-fragata.html

Again, this model comes from Imperial-modellbau german brand - albeit replacing their original main and mizzen masts by another ones from Minairons. The boat and crewmen aboard are from PP while the stern lamp is a Minairons add on, too. Flags are from my own.

As for total size, it's as massive as PP's warship but a little longer (thanks in part to her quite long bowsprit section).

[Stewart 46A]

They look great lluis

Stewart

[Colonel Kilgore]

Wonderful again,  Lluis!

Simon

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

These are looking great and the beauty of scratchbuilds is you can field some of the more unusual vessel types. I like the additions of the fighting shrouds and canopies which really add character. I find 15mm challenging so kudos to you for working on such a small scale to such good effect!

[Lluis of Minairons]

From some point of view, I might have labeled this post as a news piece in the 'General' subforum, as already done before every time I've launched a Minairons Miniatures product. For, in the end, the ship I'm going to show you now is a brand new one just released today: http://minairons-news.blogspot.com/2021/01/age-of-sail-early-frigate.html.

It is an Age of Sail early frigate - dating back to mid XVII century. If compared to PP ships, it's an intermediate size between their full rigged warship and their brig. Decently armed as it is, I can imagine it as serving either as an armed trader or a privateer. I have assembled and painted one of them with promotion purposes - but have for sure it will sail for a good fisticuff along with the rest of my toy fleet!

Hull is resin cast, while masts and sails are white metal. Ship has been built as it comes from box, except for the flagstaffs added - simple pieces of wire.

Bowsprit is intentionally long, so as to allow bending vertical if desired its far section, as I've myself done.

The standard set of flags included in kit are those of a 1640-1653 Catalonian secessionist warship, although I haven't glued them to flagstaffs intentionally - I've made them replaceable at will depending on battle settings.

In this image below you can see its highly hidrodynamic shape, heir to the 'fast galleons' of Elizabethian times.

That's not all - because I've also painted a couple of discarded prototypes of this beauty! It won't be today when I show these to you, though. It's getting late and I'm about to fall asleep

Lluís

[Colonel Kilgore]

Very nice, Lluis. Also helpful to know how they fit in with PP ships - I can guess that one or two of these wouldn't look out of place in a Pieces of Eight fleet!

Simon

[Lluis of Minairons]

Now I've got completed the catalonian XVII^th century galleys fleet, after having added to the collection its flagship, "St. George" galley.

Once again, it's a 1/600 scale model ship from Imperial-modellbau german brand - that I've customized just a bit with a few details: so I've replaced her main mast by a larger one from Skytrex, and I've added a set of lanterns and a canvas to her stern. Finally, I've reinforced her 3-gun bow battery with two supplementary guns.

That what all three galleys look like while patrolling the Balearic Sea:

Hope you like them!

[Colonel Kilgore]

They are stunning, Lluis - wonderful work!

Simon

[Lluis of Minairons]

I've taken advantage from a quite calm business week for pushing forward my Age of Sail collection with up to five new ships.
Two of them are to belong to my WSS austro-catalan navy, so they've been given permanent ensign and flags.
Otherwise, the other three ships are to be generic and therefore show bare flag poles, so that I can put on and take off flags at will.

Let me show you first the smallest one - a 14-gun xebec from my own Minairons brand, that I've assembled as it came from box - with the only addition of a few Peter Pig crewmen on stern.



Ship has been finished up as a Majorcan privateer, so being given appropriate flags and pennant. If wished, some pictures else can be watched on this entry of my hobby blog: http://soldadets.blogspot.com/2021/06/xabec-mallorqui.html.

Cheers,
Lluís